Joshua Noel takes the reins as Game Master in this episode of Geeks on a Roll, where the crew dives headfirst into a wild tabletop RPG adventure featuring a mix of beloved characters from pop culture. Liz Clyde and Christian Ashley assemble a team that includes Hermione Granger, Captain America, Daredevil, Captain Jack Harkness, Bakugo, and Sun Wukong, all thrown together in a Bible Study of the Song of Songs. The main theme revolves around the question of love, vengeance, and freedom—serious stuff wrapped in a hilarious, chaotic package as they navigate a quirky bookstore setting. As they read the verses, things get real when they face the God Butcher, Gorr, and grapple with the concepts of sacrifice, intimacy, and community. With clever banter and unexpected twists, the gang discovers that even in the midst of chaos, they can find humor and camaraderie while learning a thing or two about love and its demands.

A wild ride through the cosmos of pop culture unfolds as the Geeks on a Roll team commandeers a Bible Study session with a twist! Joshua Noel, the Game Master, takes control, steering players Christian Ashley and Liz Clyde through an unexpected adventure where beloved characters from Harry Potter, Marvel, and more converge in a cozy bookstore. The characters—Hermione, Daredevil, Captain America, Captain Jack Harkness, Bakugo, and Sun Wukong—find themselves grappling with profound themes of love, sacrifice, and community amidst the whimsical chaos of their surroundings. As they engage in a study of the Song of Songs, they must navigate their unique personalities and histories, leading to humorous exchanges and unexpected revelations about their own beliefs. The dynamic between these iconic figures, each representing different facets of heroism and humanity, creates a narrative that's as insightful as it is entertaining. The episode cleverly intertwines theology with playful banter, showcasing how even the most serious subjects can be explored through the lens of gaming and friendship. By the end, the team emerges not only victorious in their challenges but also enriched by the discussions that unfold, highlighting the importance of understanding diverse perspectives in a shared journey.

Takeaways:

• In this episode, the hosts creatively blend theological discussions with pop culture, showcasing how beloved characters navigate complex themes of love and sacrifice.
• The choice of characters like Hermione and Captain Jack Harkness adds depth to the gameplay, allowing for humorous interactions and unexpected plot twists.
• Players engage in a Bible study of the Song of Songs, exploring intimacy and vulnerability through their characters' perspectives, creating a unique gaming experience.
• The dynamic between the characters reflects real-world themes of teamwork and individualism, highlighting how diverse personalities can clash or collaborate in high-stakes scenarios.
• This campaign cleverly utilizes humor and wit, allowing players and listeners alike to explore heavy topics without losing the light-hearted essence of tabletop gaming.
• The episode emphasizes the importance of community and connection, demonstrating that even in chaotic scenarios, relationships can flourish and bring meaning to the experience.

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Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

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How do we know when to prioritize love, vengeance or freedom? Well, today we're going to be answering that question a lot more in another campaign of our Geeks on a Roll series.

Just kind of like a light tabletop kind of game that we play where the GM comes up with a campaign and the players will pick some characters from across our favorite fandom to see how they might interact with with the story. I am your GM Day Joshua Noel here with two astound well known players. Christian Ashley, back again. The record setter, Christian Ashley, Mark Flower.

We are going to score the team and how you do in the game their record 48 points. We're going to see if Mark Flower is the determining factor or if Christian's teammate today, Liz Clyde, is going to hold him back.

Liz, are you prepared to hold Christian back?

I'm prepared to have luck on my side and for Christian to take it easy on me because I'm pregnant and I could cry.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, as mentioned before, I'm Joshua. I'm going to be your GM today.

Today's campaign is titled Heaven's Escape Room and I'm excited to see what they do with it today.

The characters they were told to pick from, so you guys kind of know, was a female lead, a boy scout character, a religious leader of some sort, a promiscuous character, anti hero and mythological character.

What they came up with was Hermione, Daredevil, Captain America, Captain Jack Harkness and some people whose name I can't pronounce off the top of my head. So Christian's gonna do that before we get into what we're geeking out on.

Yeah, Bakugo and Sun Wukong.

Sun Wukong is one of those where like I read he's never in any media.

So like, you know, like I don't know, something with my brain sometimes if I only read it, I only know it by the combination of letters visually and I just never hear the name in my head. Like I don't read that way.

We just watch different things.

Yeah, that too. So excited. It's going to be a fun one. But first we're going to shout out what we've been geeking out on really quickly.

I'll mention I did another episode recently that reminded me how much I like the Trine video game series. I can't wait to get Christian to play it with me. It's totally up his alley. It's just platforming and puzzles, his favorite things to do.

But I've been having a lot of Fun. The aesthetics are great. It's just a good nighttime thing to make my brain work a little bit and then pass out.

Christian, what have you been geeking out?

Star wars outlaws came on PlayStation plus recently and I'd always wanted to play it and had the money and since I already paid for that, brought it up and I'm just a couple levels in. I'm enjoying it so far. It's a little janky, but I'm getting used to it.

Nice, Nice.

Liz, what are you randomly the resident? So it's a medical show? Pretty much. House and Grey's Anatomy had a baby. I'm really into it right now.

Nice, nice. All right, well, some of the other, you know, regular work. We're going to shout out one of our financial supporters today.

I'm shouting out the one and only Russell Gentry. Russell, you're amazing. Also, Russell just opened a restaurant with his wife. If you're in the Matthew Monroe area, check out Moe's Barbecue.

They do, you know, good stuff. Especially that sweet potato casserole. If they have that, get it.

I want to remind our listeners too that you can get your own shout out by becoming an official member of Systematic Geekology on our website. Link is in the description. If you own a restaurant, I'll shout it out. Apparently. So maybe that's enticing. I don't know. You can also same link.

You can find some extra free content on our website. You can buy merch over there.

You leave a one time financial gift without becoming a member or you know, the whole membership is not your thing and you just want to help us. You can do that. Do have to shout out one of our T shirts. We're doing a Geeks on a Roll episode so I gotta shout out the Geeks on a Roll T shirt.

I'm wearing it now. I actually really enjoy it. Christian, you're not wearing it right now, are you? Yours is like a great color. So I couldn't tell.

I wore it last time.

Yeah, yeah. The GM is required to wear it. That's actually the. I do, I do really like it mostly because I love yellow and it's like a. Not like a bright yellow.

So I feel like I can wear it and pull it off. Bright yellows don't work on me as much as I love the color. But I do like this T shirt. Thinks it looks good in yellow. I like the design on the back.

If you're on YouTube, you can see it. If you're not on YouTube, go get on YouTube and see it. So enjoy that consider getting a T shirt.

And remember, if you want to see the rest of this playlist, the geeks on the roll stuff, see some of our other campaigns. We had a culinary mission once. We recently had one that involved Murder World. We have a lot of fun campaigns.

If you want to see see more of these, link in the show's description and you can find the rest of these episodes. Now onto the main event where first we're going to talk about, like, there's a phrase called that's on the T shirt. Theology is play.

I first heard it at theology Beer camp a couple of years ago and I just really like that. When we first started doing these, I was like, oh, this is what they meant because, like, my brain slow until I experience something.

Words are just words. And I'm like, okay, cool, sure.

But like, the thing is, like doing some stuff through play, taking it with a different kind of seriousness, not saying it's not serious, I think allows you to open your mind to different perspectives and challenge your own perspective. We're not going to talk about it too much today, but I think it is important that we do play.

We do theology as play in some of these games because it allows you to see what would these characters do in different situations. And some of that's going to be based off their beliefs. Um, today's gonna be very on the nose, so I don't wanna spend too much time explaining it.

But Christian, Liz, anything as far as like theology and how we do it with one another in group activities, that kind of stuff. Do you guys might want to mention anything else?

Well, I'm trying to think of something that I haven't said before since I've been on almost every single episode we've done here.

And other than what has been said before, but me and other people is this idea of reaching out where other people are at, seeing what characters they want to kind of play or how they think this character would react based on how they understand them versus you versus how they react in a way in the world. It'd be very fun. You get the right group of people around, there's definitely some wrong people out there.

I wouldn't consider any host here one of the wrong people, but I played with some wrong people in the past. And what that can also teach you too, is how not to do things. And a good lesson to learn is how not to do things well so that you do things well.

Yeah, well, it's something that. It's actually fun with how we've been doing these campaigns is we include something that is spiritual of some sort in each one.

This one's more on the face than a lot of the other ones.

But like, when you have a character that you're like, I don't believe that way at all, you're forced to think of like, well, why would they believe that? And it allows you to put yourself in a different perspective. I think that's really helpful.

So if you haven't seen the other episodes, they're not as much on the nose as this one's gonna be. Check it out. I'm gonna do a disclaimer for those on YouTube.

If you were on the regular main feed, you already heard Christian's voice giving you a disclaimer. I don't foresee there being any crude or profane or explicit language used in this episode, but some topics might not be great for younger children.

That will probably get brought up. I'm just saying that as gm, who knows what the campaign's about, you want to throw that out there real quick.

That's something very important to bring up in certain role playing scenarios as well, is that you're basically your session zero kind of idea of like what is acceptable, what is not to do with your players and to bring it up at the forefront as one of the best ideas possible because this way it doesn't take people by surprise. It's not. Not shock for the sake of shock factor. It's something that it actually you meant something. You're trying to tell something with this.

You're just not doing it for the sake of doing it.

Yeah. Yeah. And again, I know the people who are on this episode, none of us are particularly crude.

It's just, you know, some topics you might not feel comfortable having to discuss with some people. So that in mind, there's. There's one that I don't even understand here with your team. I want you guys to break down why you chose what you did.

And we're going to do a little bit of work with this too, because Mark Flower was originally going to be part of this episode. We'll have. We're going to have three players. I used AI to come up some options. Then you guys chose from that options.

Mark Flower wasn't able to make it. Hopefully he'll be on another campaign in the future. But for your female lead, you guys went with Hermione Granger.

You guys want to tell me why Hermione?

I went with the flow because as we all assumed, Liz didn't really care what we did. So I'm Just here. But I know who Hermione is.

Yeah. Like, in my mind, I'm like the three Liz would care the most about. Probably Hermione. Captain Jack Harkness. Because like.

Or maybe I don't know if you did, Doctor. I know Taylor does. And then the guy who starts with a B. I know some about him, but I don't know how to say his name. Yeah.

And I don't know much about him.

Yeah.

All right, so, Christian, why Hermione?

So.

So from the list that Mark had generated, like, you know, we were discussing between ourselves, like we work and like, Hermione made perfect sense to me. You know, very smart and adaptable. Also a little haw so that can get away sometimes. But like Haldi, because she knows she's great at what she does.

So I think that would really be fun to play into. Then for the religious character, you know, Matt Murdock made the most sense to me, you know, especially religious this way. Okay. Yeah.

The idea of being like when later writers came along made him a little deeper as a character showing his Catholic faith and the guilty he feels from failing to do certain things in the past and how does he handle things as a superhero in the present? Make perfect sense. Then for our next one we have Cap. I mean, can you have a better Boy Scout other than, you know, Superman?

Maybe like between the two of them, I mean, they're kind of like the archetype for the character. Not to say that they have no flaws whatsoever. They're boring, but like, that's who they are. They are the best of the best.

Our promiscuous character from the list that had been assembled there, like Jack Harkness made the most sense to me. Like the. The term omnisexual. Pansexual. Pansexual fails to describe Jack Harkness in many disturbing ways.

And so I figured he'd probably be the best of the best for that spot.

Then Antihero is a little more flexible with what was generated there because Bakugo isn't really like an anti hero, but he has anti heroic aspects in that he's a little brash and in your face and literally explosive to the people around him.

I want to say, when I gave it to, I said ink the hero or just a hero with anger issues.

So, you know, he most definitely has that.

Yeah.

And the last one was a mythological figure.

Yeah. Or character.

Right.

Something.

Yeah, or character.

Yeah.

And when that list was generated, I saw Sun Wukong's name on there and said, oh, that makes perfect sense. Because those who've read Journey to the west and anything that he's ever been in like that is kind of his shtick.

That's why he's in a position he is in Journey to the west is that he's fought against, raged against the heavens themselves because he thinks he's the greatest thing on earth, you know, and he learning humility as part of his path as he's in that story.

Yeah, yeah. And I want to say the only thing y' all knew was the name of the campaign. And I think Hermione and some Wukong are like just so perfect for this.

I'm truly excited to see what you guys do with them. Now we do have some rules and stuff we have to go over first.

I want to let you guys know some of the themes we're going to be looking at is free will, intimacy, respect for others, revenge, that kind of stuff. What we're looking to kind of discuss through play in this campaign, the rules.

I already have notes inside and stuff that aren't on the outline ready to go.

We're crafting a story together, so we're going to do our best to try and say yes and rather than no, you can't do that, which I've been bad at in the past. I'm trying to do better. There's only going to be seven rolls and two coin flips for the whole game, period. There could be less, but no more.

I'm allowed to choose when two of the rolls take place and the coin flips. You guys can have the other five rolls throughout the game. There's gonna be some kind of puzzle. It's gonna be, you know, kind of that kind of deal.

And at the end there are slides. Christian added something that I really liked of negative points.

So at the end they can lose or gain some bonus points as well as their normal grading criteria. We usually grade on mission status. How well did they complete the mission? Teamwork, how well the team works together, Sustainability.

Do we see this team sticking together afterwards, how strong the team is? Just career strength. And then how fun the team was so that we're going to be grading on as we get into this story. I'm excited for this.

Are you guys, you guys ready? We ready to go. Christian, you have that six sided dice, right?

Let's do it.

One of my two rolls is going to be that. Okay, so, okay. Your six characters awaken to the scent of old books, cedar and coffee lingering in the air.

Warm lamplight spills across a quirky American bookstore with crooked Shelves packed tightly with theology books, poetry and worn paperback. The place feels cozy but strangely timeless as though every book was placed with purpose. You're awakened at a table.

As your focus sharpens, you realize you're seated together at the back of this store alongside all the other characters here. I think most of you don't know each other except for Daredevil and Hatamirka, so you have some confusion.

But you have a weird feeling of just comfort and ease that you probably shouldn't have in this scenario. There's open bibles, notebooks in front of you.

Steaming mugs sit before you all arranged for a study according to the chakra chalkboard nearby of the Song of Songs. Written in neat script is tonight's question. What are we afraid love might demand of us? None of you remember arriving at all. Take it away.

Be afraid love might demand I think for everyone involved. Of course Matt and Steve will be thinking about past love interests and how they handled those both poorly and well.

Hermione definitely her mind will be on Ron I'm assuming at that stage in their relationship at the very least. So love to Mando. Okay, so I guess names are exchanged. Jack is thinking oh well, open buffet of love right in front of me. Very upset.

He's probably going to be, he and Wukong are probably going to be the loudest and probably they're going to step out of their chairs first. If that doesn't elicit a reaction they'll probably be like a.

More like angry at why they don't, why they're there, who plucked them out from where they're at.

Yeah, yeah I, I would, yeah I would agree. Steve's probably the most level headed I would think. Liz, any, any thoughts? What are your characters doing in the scenario?

They're just confused and they want to go home but they don't know how.

All of them.

This is the greatest thing that ever could have happened.

Okay,.

I agree with Reggie.

Hermione, she's like I have a, I have a spells test tomorrow. I get back.

Yeah, what, what age Hermione are we getting that? That's probably important.

I mean if we're doing love, we.

Have to do like.

Well it has to be at least six or seven the in books. Let's, let's do the seventh book for the heck of that.

I want her to be 18 just for.

She's in her, you know what, she's in her last year.

Okay. Then it'll be the year after that.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. Any ideas what they're doing? Are they just standing up and upset?

Steve will probably. Yeah, we'll probably take charge here. He's got that commanding voice. He's used to dealing with people of very different stripes.

So seeing, you know, someone like Bakugo kind of going off hinges. He's the Hulk. He can calm down anyone like the point. Okay, everyone learns who everyone is. Get a sensitive surroundings.

Is there anyone else there besides them that they can see?

No, they don't see anyone. Even outside of the windows. Just appears to be dark.

Okay, so investigating the room, would that require a role as far as any exits or anything like that?

Captain America is being annoyingly positive, and we all hate him. I just want that to be cleared as well.

That's a weird way someone's got to take charge. Weird way to pronounce love, but sorry, I love Steve. So I feel like you guys cheated a little bit by picking Steve.

And like, someone goes really kind of like Dallas. So it's like you guys really played to the. To the dungeon master. Okay, who's investigating and what are they investigating for?

I think out of all these, it'd probably be Jack and Matt working together. So regular D and D, they give help action that'd be with advantage if you just want to be a straight bull. Because this is not D and D. You do you.

What are they investigating for? What are they looking for an exit for?

They're investigating like they're looking specifically for. Because Matt, he knows what a song of songs is. Steve knows what that is. I don't think Hermione was raised Christian, so I don't think she'd know.

Jack would know what it means. But then more kind of like, can they find an exit? Is there anything like maybe cameras or something like that that are looking at them?

Can they get out of this room if they wanted to as well?

No, Roll. They don't see any evidence of how they got here. They won't see any. They'll see the windows and a door. Like it's just like a normal bookstore.

It appears to be. If they try to open the door, something's like almost pushing against them. Like they can see outside. It just like nighttime.

It's like a regular street. They just can't seem to actually be able to walk through the door.

I guess you would say, well, I suppose we might have to study the book then. Everyone, please open up to songs one,.

One, whatever you want to actually comply. That's what I want to know.

It's kind of like when they know there's no way out like the one who's going to cause the most problems outside of Bakugo is going to be Sun Wukong and it's going to be him. Like if you can't bash something down, like if Steve can't get him under control, that'd be an issue. But there's that initial kind of thing with him.

But like he has in the past, people who've been his minder, who've been like, hey, let's consider this action instead.

Okay, so we're going to assume after some, you know, some struggle, they eventually all sit down and he's taking lead, you're saying?

Yeah, it's like, yeah, I wasn't sure.

With it being book related, if Hermione would be like, oh, books, yeah.

I would think Hermione would at least like read it out loud. It's like, no, no, no, you're reading it wrong. This is how you do it, Slavio. Sa.

People read.

It's like, you know, I've only ever heard this preached once on a random Valentine's Day and it was super awkward because the pastor kept getting flustered, you know.

Yeah, that's Steve. Perfect. Perfect. So are they opening their Bibles to chapter one? What are, what are they doing?

Do they all have Bibles?

It's all in front of them.

Everyone had a book.

Chapter one, verse one.

Yeah, yeah. After like it's been explained. This is probably whoever's brought us here wants us to do. That's what they'll do. There's no way out right now. That's.

This might be our way out.

All right, I'll read the chapter one, verse one. They have. It is written in prose, kind of like an old Greek play.

So the ones that are familiar with the Bible might find it kind of strange how it's laid out in their Bible. But it starts with the beloved speaking in chapter one, verse one. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

For your love making is sweeter than wine. Delicate is the fragrance of your perfume. Your name is an oil poured out. And that is why girls love you. As they read the first verse.

Christian's gonna roll a six sided dice for me.

Three.

Three. Steve Rogers disappears. For the sake of the players, I will let you know he is not dead. He will not be eliminated from the game.

He's just not here right now.

Okay. We have lost the most calming presence in the room. I think Jack will probably open his mouth to try and make a joke about.

Yeah, that's how kind of I want for my people, my lovers but then when Steve is gone, as someone who. Yeah, he'll crack a joke every now and then, but he also understands the seriousness of the issue. Say. All right, everyone stay calm. What.

What does anyone understand? What could possibly have made him leave this room just from reading that?

Because he was a dang nerd. That's what Bakugo would say.

Well, dang nerd or not, something about reading this book makes us disappear.

I am going to do my second roll already for Hermione. Am I allowed to roll for one of your characters? I feel like that's fine. I'm rolling for Hermione.

I mean, if you explain yourself.

Okay. I want to see what she hears. And also, she's just the most comfortable in a library setting, I think. Four. That's really unfortunate.

But I want her to be a.

I imagine her as a very perceptive person. Yeah.

I feel like she's still got a lot.

I would imagine she's proficient.

She's not gonna hear a ton, and she's not gonna be able to quite make sense of why she's hearing this. But she does hear what sounds to her like two different people.

One's a little bit older than the other, talking to one another, and the one's a little bit older is Travis. I told you, we need to find the horror, not create one. And Travis is then going on like, okay, but it's the word of God. How could it possibly be bad?

And you hear some mumbling back and forth. You can't quite make all of it out. And then you hear that Travis refers to the older man as Professor Geller.

Eventually you hear him with, you know what? I want no part of this. You figure out what to do with them. You hear footsteps, slamming of doors, which is weird because you're in the bookstore.

There shouldn't be an outside room. But that's all she's able to quite make out at this time.

So, list of people who've seen Dexter. More than likely, I would throw Matt and Jack out. Do you disagree to either one?

As who would see it or who would not see it?

Who would have seen it?

Yeah, I don't know. I definitely think Jack. Probably. Definitely. Because he's had nothing to do in basically eternity at some point.

Yeah.

He's a man of the world.

I'm trying to remember that season as we speak. Okay. Why would we see them? And for the uninitiated, he will explain season six. I think of Dexter.

Yes, yes. The Doomsday Killer.

Okay. Yes. You know Travis's motivations. How he did kills with a biblical kind of theme.

How he was kind of manipulated by the professor in question, Dr. Geller. So all that in mind, we have.

I am also curious, without Steve, who is taking charge here?

Do we think Jack?

Okay, Liz, any pushback or you think probably Jack Harkness as well?

Yeah, he's gonna. What's it called? Flirt his way to the top.

Perfect. For this context, it's just perfect.

But, Jackson, would it be a history check for Jack to remember if anything regarding the book of the Song of Songs was in the sixth season of Dexter? Or would he know?

Let's do a history check. I'm just curious.

Okay, let's see. That is an 18 plus. Whatever.

Sweet. He remembers this season perfectly. For some reason, he doesn't recall there ever being a mention of song songs. Mostly because I don't recall.

So if there is, that's my fault. Not Jack's fault, not the role's fault.

He remembers there's some of his preferred Song of Solomon.

He does remember there isn't actually two. He knows that there is only one. So he's had some mental issues going on and there didn't really seem to be.

They were punishing people who already committed sin, not forcing people into situations like this. So it doesn't fit the MO at all. So he's very confused because it's definitely that voice.

It sounded like two voices when he knows it could only be one. And it's just not the MO of the Doomsday Killer in the show whatsoever.

It was more apocalyptic stuff, more revelation and the like. All right, okay. So anyone, Anything, anything similar to this going on in their lives at any one point in time?

Like, does anyone think we're being sent here to do something about this, to know context, to maybe even guide him? Are we as angels on the shoulder in this scenario?

I think Sun Wukong.

It's like floating out ideas to the rest of them.

I think Sun Wukong can tell this is a trap of heaven. This is something.

Hermione thinks this is destiny.

He thinks this might be a misdirect. The whole Geller, everything. He's like, I think this is the gods. I don't think it's them at all.

As in, there's a divine power here, but it's not.

Yeah, Sun Wukong isn't buying the whole Doomsday Killer bit. He thinks it's the gods messing with them.

Okay, should we continue reading? Do we risk losing someone else or go over what we read before Kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. Your love is more delightful than wine.

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. The name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. And that's as far as we got.

Liz, what do you think?

Would they think it could be a love potion?

To what end?

I don't know. Just thinking. What? What is this narcissistic man trying to get people to love him? Because I'm banking on. Hermione doesn't believe in God.

So she's thinking. She's not thinking anything about this.

I really know better. Home life is that her parents are dentists.

Right.

And usually doctors are most feared of the Almighty.

Most doctors are like more in science and stuff versus theology. I'm thinking she's like. She's a very like.

She does recognize the Bible verse at the graveyard.

Yep.

So she's at least familiar with seven. That is true.

Yeah.

And she loves studying. So at the very least she might have a curiosity as.

Can you repeat the opening question again? I don't have it written down in front of me.

Yeah, one second. What are we afraid love might demand of us?

Love might demand us. I think Matt will speak up. He'll say sacrifice.

So he's answering the question, talking about the verse.

He's kind of talking about the question in light of the verses they read. And like Cap was willing to lead us and he was the one who was sacrificed in this situation.

Maybe I'm misreading things, misinterpreting them, but that might have something to do with this.

Does thoughts? Does the group continue to discuss this verse or are they moving on?

Moving on? Moving on.

I just want to know what the rest of them you think they're going to do, not what you would do.

Oh, I think Hermione needs more context so she can understand it better. And Bakugo is bored.

I want to lean more into what you said about Hermione.

Okay.

What do you think Hermione wants as far as. Like you said, she wants more context. What is she looking for?

A lot of what Matt said. Would the sacrifice mean in the hopes of finding a way out? The person who reads might be the next one sacrificed.

Does that mean that person has to be willing to make the sacrifice at this point in time? Now that we know Bakugou would do.

It, he's not afraid of anything.

All right, so Bakugo is going to read.

We don't have enough context. Yeah, Bakugo reads next. Sacrifice him.

Sacrifice him.

He's going to sacrifice himself. Ron.

No, you can't which is very in character for him. He's willing to put himself on the line for other people.

Oh, actually, I think I read the first three verses. Your Bibles are laid out very weird because remember, it's in prose. So title of the first poem. It's still the beloved speaking.

Draw me in your footsteps. Let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms. You will be our joy and our gladness. We shall praise your love more than wine.

How right it is to love you. I feel like I should just leave this open.

So question that Matt would know the answer to. Which translation are you reading from? Because I was reading. I think Niv and I want to make sure we're doing this correctly.

I don't think Matt would recognize it.

Okay.

I'm not going to do a roll or anything. Hermione is intelligent. Liz mentioned she wants more context. So she looked at the front of the Bible. She's looked at other things.

There are other versions of the Bible around. There are a lot of commentaries that seem to be almost like. Look like they're jumping out of the bookshelves, like really specific books.

And at the front of the Bible, it does say the New Jerusalem Bible.

Okay. Had to do that one in college. At the notice that these books are like, seeming to want to jump out at them.

I'm sure multiple people will jump up or get up out of their seats and attempt to read them. I know my name. Matt would do it. Jack would. Once he recognized that Wukong. Out of curiosity, Bakugo's already got his Bible. He's not moving.

Okay, see if like, any of those. Go ahead.

All right, let's see. Hermione, when she's looking at the books that jump out, she put.

She pulls out a dictionary of biblical imagery, a couple lexicons, a book by Longman III called God Loves Sex. That's actually about a Bible study on the Song of Songs.

Matt grabs the Oxford Bible commentary in a commentary on the Song of songs written by St. Gregory of Nyssa. Who else is grabbing commentaries and stuff?

Wukong did.

Wukong grabbed the Targums. Everyone but Bakugo, of all things. Wukong grabbed the Targums, like just a whole set. And we'll see.

Jack Harkness, he grabbed another commentary by Longman iii, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux commentary and Matthew, Henry and John Calvin's commentaries on Song of Songs. So they have all of these laid out on the table. A lot of stuff out on the table, ready to go when boom, door busts open.

Gore the God Butcher John Constantine and Castiel break open the door. I don't know how any of your characters would know any of these people, but, you know, they bust through. They're like, ah, we found them.

And Castiel begins to speak. He's like, ah, you guys probably are wondering. You guys are probably wondering what you're doing here. We're not sure yet.

There are many other groups like yours. I want to bring you back to some friends so we can discuss how to truly get you free.

And then he's interrupted by Gorr, the God Butcher says, I'm tired of this. You guys keep saying they're gonna be here. They're not here. I'm tired of waiting for the gods to show I'm bringing the war to them.

If anyone wants to come with me, it's time to kill a God. I'll pause in case any of your characters might respond to Gorr.

See, that's. That's tempting for Wukong, but he named himself Gore the God Butcher.

Wukong was more like wanting to humiliate, not murder, the gods so he'll say no.

The only other one, I was curious. I don't think anyone else was Batsuka, like, pissed off enough that he's like, let's do this.

He hasn't really. His theology has never really been present in any series. More like, oh, great. Another, I was just about to read and then these idiots come in.

All right, so we don't think anyone's going to go with Gorr, the God Butcher. All right?

I would say no.

All right. He storms off. Black clouds, whatever. Then John Constantine interrupts. He's like, well, I was here for the break in.

I have some business in hell, if anyone wants to join me, your friend Steve is probably there. And he turns around to walk away. Is anyone going to go with John Constantine to hell to find Steve Rogers?

But that's the thing, though, is we don't. It's not a lot of time to make a decision because we don't know why we're here in the first place.

I agree.

Look, Castiel, is he going to explain why we're here first so that we can make an informed decision?

He just looks aggravated that no one seems to want to let him finish his sentence. John Constantine is walking out the door. So it's like a split second. You either go in with him or you're waiting to hear her. Cass.

It's like, I think, what do you think, Pang? Do you think Bakugo would go with him willingly to hell to rescue someone.

That he Just sounds perfect.

If it means he gets to fight someone to prove he's the best, he would. So does he.

Because he is a hero at heart. But he's also got to prove himself at the same time.

I think he would go.

I think I would go off with Constantine.

No one else. Just Bakugo.

He has to prove he's the bravest. I don't know the.

I think Matt knows better than to enter Hell. It was that really terrible Ahmed comic where he did for a bit. It was awful.

Yeah. The flirt would just look out for himself. So he's not going to put himself in danger.

I think Jack would want to know more why they're there. Versus okay. Something else I have to deal with. Hell is real. Let's. Let's move on to something else.

Hermione's gonna be too cautious.

Hermione. I'm gonna go to hell.

Right?

Yeah.

We'll put a pin.

Go to Hell.

Wakago is going with John Constantine to Hell to rescue Steve Rogers. And Cass is going to finish. Finally. I'm part of a team. We're the Freedom Fighters. I want you to meet them. They can explain to you what's going on.

Ish. As much as we know and get you out of this. So you do have the choice of just leaving. Castiel is also going to mention. You also could just go home.

But nothing will be the same. You're probably just going to return here. But that's up to you.

You could go home or you could have gotten involved.

You go with Caste to meet the Freedom Finders or just go home.

Wukong's been slighted. Someone plucked him away from where he wanted to be. He's going to find out who it is and punch him in the face or with his staff.

Hermione is very curious about what's going on. She want to join him. I think Matt Daredevil is like, I have no clue what's going on.

But in every Crisis crossover ever, I have to be part of the team. We'll figure it out together. And Jack is like, yeah, I'm not going to Hell. Let's. I'm not going back. That'd be too easy.

And I've never done things easy.

All right, so Bakugo goes with Constantine. Everyone else is going to go with Cass to meet the Freedom Finders.

Yes.

All right. You made a slide thing a little bit easier on me. Bakugou and John Constantine go to Hell. It's not really that difficult for Constantine.

He just can kind of come and go as he frees. Please. Constantine is going to catch Bakugo up on some stuff like, we've been doing this for a long time. There always has to be 5 for some reason.

There's more than 5. The excess ends up here every time. There's all kinds of Bible studies, prayer groups. I was supposed to be part of a prayer group.

And he's just going on and on, smoking a cigarette, whatever butts in, you find Steve incredibly easy. So now it's Constantine, Steve Rogers and Bakugo are together and Constantine hears something and he stops. He takes a detour in hell.

And you discover there are a group of demons betting on Bible studies and prayer groups and stuff that are happening all over the globe. They're placing bets. Constantine find yours, sits down and goes, hmm, I am gonna bet. Yep. Captain Jack Harkness.

He's gonna fall in love with everybody. Uh huh. Okay. Ooh, how many people? I think at least two of them are gonna die. Constantine just starts joining the bets.

He's like, oh, I can let you guys go home if you want, and opens a portal. You guys can go back and join Cass and them, or you can stay here with Constantine and make some bets and hang out.

Oh, it's not done. Just. Cap was saved. He's gonna get back and help the other one else. And Bakugo, his whole mission was to figure out what's going on and save Cap.

So yeah, he's gonna go back to him.

No chance. Bakugo so mad that people are betting on him that he wants to just kill them all.

Oh, he's gonna prove them wrong.

He wants to kill a better way to do it all the time. So he needs to go defeat the top dog. He wants to be the best.

So he doesn't care about the betting rink. He cares.

He's not gonna. He's. Those are. Yeah, those are too small fries. He needs to go straight to the top.

And at the end of the day, like, is he even capable of killing a demon? Like, I think everyone has enough of a theology to note you. Yeah.

All right, so they're both going back and we're going to find the freedom finders together.

Yes.

Okay, time for another. Another little reading here.

Here you appear alongside Castiel, and you're immediately met by the humid warmth of a family restaurant tucked deep in Louisiana bayou country. The place feels lived in.

There's wooden panels, walls lined with old jazz posters, faded family photograph, the smell of fresh gumbo in the air, fried catfish, strong coffee. Ceiling fans are turning lazily overhead while you hear some Blues old radio in the kitchen.

It gives the whole place kind of has this feel of like somewhere people just gather to belong rather than just to eat. Right. So it's more of a community than just a restaurant. At the center is a dining room. Sits a table that looks like they're just waiting for you.

Gathered around the table are Captain Benjamin Sisko, Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, Swamp Thing, Captain Jack Sparrow, and the 12th Doctor from Doctor who. They're in the middle of a conversation of some sort. They keep passing back and forth a Hail Mary for some reason.

And there's empty chairs waiting for all of you to arrive. And Castiello's, of course, gonna walk you up to the table. And of course, Benjamin, Captain Sisko is.

Before we get started, what would you like to order?

Everyone could just have food as that's happening. Daredevil would like to use the super sensus to make sure that everyone here that would have a heart, indeed has one.

He's going to check for two hearts for one specific person. And he's met Kamala, so he's going to make sure that she passes the Daredevil vibe. Check.

Yeah, everything's on the up and up.

Okay.

Yeah, no roll needed.

All right. I'm trying to think of food choices for everyone.

Well, Captain Benjamin, while you're thinking about your food, he's explaining, I don't know what reality this is, but in this reality, I can watch my son. He's in there with his grandfather. They're running the family restaurant. He's a writer here. He's just really kind of happy to be here.

The Doctor keeps rolling his eyes at random things and it's just randomly investigating things kind of thing. And Captain Jack, of course, is how. Bring me more rum. Where's the rum? Just constantly. And then they're passing the Hail Mary around.

Whenever Captain Jack wasn't touching the Hail Mary, you noticed him weirdly bowing. Dear Lord, bring me some more rum.

You stink. Well, no, I. I was trying to figure out, is there a drink called a Hail Mary?

No. No.

Like, is that what you're talking about?

I probably said it wrong. The beads, the prayer beads.

Oh, the rose.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Yeah.

The rosary.

Bloody Mary.

I was like, the rosary.

I thought you meant Bloody Mary.

The. Wait. Rosary.

Well, my bad.

Daredevil, as our Catholic, his Catholic census are going off here wondering his super Catholic why it seems to have. Yes. Seems to have such an effect on them, given that as far as he's aware, none of these people Especially Kamala being a Muslim.

Why it's having any effect on them at all.

Well, place your orders first. Everybody should get some food. The doctors, all is going to be explained a good time. Just go ahead and order. So he'll move on.

Matt will let everyone know that as far as his senses are, well, these are the actual people they say they are. I think we can sit down and order and I don't know everyone's orders.

Yeah, just assume they get good food. Gumbo, some fried shrimp, rice, whatever.

I would try Cisco's gumbo in a heartbeat.

Jambalaya. Yeah. Some po Boys. I don't know who on the family would. I feel like Captain Jack Hartness would want a poboy in my mind. I think that's a that.

Liz, any ideas on like what Hermione's food order might be?

She'll get a salad.

I just like, you know, details. Details are fun.

I think. I think Steve will ask for something his mother used to make.

Ah, that makes sense.

Yeah, I'll go vague like that.

And they probably have it. Is anybody sharing in rum with Captain Jack? You know, I feel like Captain Jack and Captain Jack might share rum.

He's found a kindred spirit minus the omnisexuality.

Perfect. Perfect. All right. So once you get your food, you start drinking, whatever. Mostly Benjamin Sisko is going to be explaining it.

I'm not good at voices, so I'm not going to do a lot of voice work here. You know, hang with me. I might do some cat and Jack because I do like doing Captain Jack.

They do explain where their group started and what has happened. The. It was originally nine of them. Eight of them. Sorry.

Originally eight of them appeared on the Black Pearl for a prayer group in the Indian Trading Company of all people were outside the door telling them, talking about why they need them to do prayers or whatever. And Captain Jack immediately realized, no, they don't care about that. This is not right.

And also they weren't able to be trapped because the Pearl means freedom. Savvy? There were no locks. They were just able to leave. But they still constantly have this urge that keeps growing that they have to pray.

But as long as they're touching the rosary, that urge seems to subside long enough for them to do something other than prayer when they're touching it. They don't have to pray. When they're not touching it, they're just constantly finding a need to pray.

Castiel kind of explains as they found other groups they've been able to set a lot of These groups free. You just kind of have to finish the study or the prayer or whatever. Unfortunately.

Well, first, fortunately, their group of the eight of them, the three that were sent to hell, was Swamp Thing, Constantine, and Castiel. So they were able to just kind of immediately come back up because Itel and Castiel and Constantine had no problem just coming back up.

But Constantine refuses to pray with the group, so they can't kind of get past this. But the other groups, they found as long as they finish the Bible study, prayer meeting, whatever, the urge seems to go away and they're fine.

We still don't know what's causing it behind everything.

We keep hearing that God shows up at these meetings occasionally, and that's why they've been able to kind of string gore along with them to hopefully show up when the God shows up so that he can kill them, because that's all he wants. Cass is kind of indifferent to killing the God because he wants freedom above all else.

Constantine just keeps freeing people from hell because it pisses off Satan and he thinks that's fun. But that's kind of what they. They've learned. These study groups keep appearing everywhere. A God of some sort apparently appears during them.

If you don't finish the study, the urge grows and grows and grows until you either have to touch something physical that represents the thing, like the rosemary or a Bible, or finish the study for the urge to go away.

So he said eight originally. Sorry to interrupt. Eight originally. These five, Castiel, John Constantine, and. Okay, yeah, I was just making sure I had my numbers right.

Gotcha. Yeah. So they present. This is how things go.

Castiel is going to urge you to just go back, finish the study so you can move past this, because that seems to be the easiest answer.

Evil step up. It makes the most sense. But the question is, who or what would have a reason for us to do this?

Obviously we saw the betting things in hell, but what reason would they have to do this? Are they hoping for people to screw up? Are we having a screw tape, letters kind of situation here? In certain regards. What do you know beyond that?

The doctors kind of perk up then. It's like that's what we're trying to figure out. I just don't know why it's happening.

And that's basically the only reason the doctor's still sticking around, because he truly has no idea why it's happening. And of course, Captain Jack could pull up with a. I thought we were here for the rum. Dear Lord, may I have some more rum?

And then the waiters of the restaurant bring him more rum because they can.

Assuming not, God would have the motivation to want people to continually pray in general because that's out of character for him.

Yeah, well, your group didn't have the urge to pray.

Yours is having an urge to read Song of Songs, which Captain Jack Harkness was like, this just feels like a normal urge to read something sexual to me. I don't know.

Yeah. So something about us that makes us. That's why we had to be there for that. Or does it not matter what it is?

Yours was Song of Songs. The Freedom Finders was prayer. There have been some that have done Genesis, some with Daniel, some Revelation. It just depends on the graphics group.

They will say that it does seem to all be Christian related. So, yeah.

Yes, something is motivated for everyone to continually read Scripture. Could it be someone who has a mistaken belief that if they just keep forcing it upon someone, that eventually they'll come to faith?

Castiel hears a lot of angel chatter about things, so he's pretty sure it is coming from either angels or demons. But he's heard nothing in this universe that actually seems to suggest there is a God. So he's confused because they keep saying God shows up, but.

But nothing on angel radio is actually mentioning a God.

If there's anything I trust is the theology of supernatural. What do we do? What is our choices? If we can just leave, which seems like the wrong choice could though. Yeah, that would get us our freedom.

But we're not sacrificing something. No greater loves. No greater love is there to give up one's life. Would that be something that might be brought up here?

Is there a reason some of us may have to actually sacrifice our lives to let others escape?

Well, no one's had to sacrifice. As far as they know. They just had to finish the study.

Yes, but. But part of the study meant that Cap left for a bit somehow.

Well, it happened to every group. It has to be 5. There's more than 5. The excess just goes to hell because there's only supposed to be five.

Wait, but he left and he went to hell.

Yeah, he was the extra, so he went to hell. He didn't die, though. Oh, it happened to every group.

You said five, but their group was eight.

Yes, and then three of them ended up in hell. Constantine, Castiel, and Swamp Thing. But they were able to leave pretty easily because Constantine and Castiel.

Okay, sorry, I'm getting lost in a week.

Every group has. It just has to be 5. And the exes just Keep ending up in hell. And Constantine just lets him out because he's onto what's happening Hang.

I love you, but I need someone I can bounce ideas off of.

Dude, I'm here. I'm right here. You can bounce and it might go straight back to you, but.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I love you. I wish someone else was.

We, I, I, I made it clear at the beginning I'm winging it because we all know what we all know what Penguin do. Peng says go home.

But what would these characters do? That's what we need to know.

Go home. Hermione.

They can.

She's not backing down from a challenge. Matt's not backing down. Steve's not backing down. Bakugo demons are betting on him. They probably bet that he would leave. He's going to blow him up.

All bets are on him killing somebody. A lot of the bets have him killing the rest of the team.

I mean Jack has lived through eternity. So what's another couple extra whatever years here as an immortal? Wukong, same thing. Immortal.

He's been challenged by someone who thinks knows more than him. Like there's no reason any of them. I see Lee. Yeah, but I think but like what do they do to help figure this out? That's where I'm stuck right now.

I'm in a circular loop.

Cass suddenly gets excited. He's like, well, why are you thinking about it? In case you do go back, I want to make you some bread. Every Bible study should have a bread.

And he's gonna go to the kitchen, goes, anybody want to come with me to bake bread? And he of course goes to the kitchen to bake bread. Cass just having one of his crazy moments. Oh no.

So they can't just like, they can't just leave this scenario and keep moving forward.

They can't. Not if they're going to be in character.

They can just leave. They'll just constantly the urge to read Tonga songs will grow more and more and more and more and more forever.

That's fine.

Hermione knows how to cook. Steve knows how to cook. Matt knows how to cook. Bakugo doesn't. Surely Jack knows how to cook.

Oh no. He was frozen for a long time. And back in that day, the women.

Cooked out of our assembled here. It's probably a very dangerous thing. Everyone but Bakugo and Sun Wukong are going to go help assist Castiel.

Yeah, I mean it's pretty easy. Cass is just baking bread. He's talking to you. Cass's concern is like People shouldn't be controlled. People should have freedom.

But I have a really hard time being angry still. Every single scenario, the groups, the people grow closer together. They form community. I have a hard time being angry about that.

But they shouldn't be forced to. And, you know, you just kind of casually talking while baking bread.

But that'll probably be, like, Steve and Matt's big deal, too, is that. Yeah, I mean, we work different teams at different points in time. Daredevil, less so than, you know, Captain America.

But it's always been people who wanted to work and stay together. This whole forcing you is like forcing you to act against who you are.

And it's like, sometimes some people, they're just not meant for stuff like this. So whatever entity is doing this, both of them are under the idea it's not God and it's not an angel in his right mind.

Probably a fallen angel who thinks he's an angel or a demon manipulating situations to screw things over. If we're just keeping to an angel demon paradigm there, but they're struggling, like, would it be a religion check to see who could be behind us?

If it's some other deity out there that is known for something like this that would want these disparate groups to join together for the singular purposes of Bible studies on a Christian viewpoint.

Do a check for Jack Harkness.

Okay. That is a 15 base.

Nice. Okay. He's just, you know, this all feels like tv. Like, there's so many, like, demons or tricks or angels or. I've watched Supernatural.

Why couldn't it be Loki, Gabriel? You know, why couldn't it be one of these? Like, it feels less evil and more mischievous.

And Cass kind of jumps on, is like, yeah, I want to stop it, but you're right. Like, the outcome is community. It's love. Like, it's not. It doesn't feel evil.

But I don't think anything bad has happened from people finishing the study. So at the very least, that's why I think you should do it.

Even if you stick with us as the freedom finders and help us find the root cause, I still think you should finish the study.

But wouldn't finishing the study mean they all leave?

It just means the urge would leave to constantly pick up the Book of Song songs.

All right, I think we're faced with a difficult decision here. Anyone who wants to remain so and finish the study will throw it out to the group.

And I think for the same reasons we said earlier, they're going to do it.

Finish the study, roll the dice.

All right, so they're all gonna go with. Cass is gonna bring you back. You now have bread. All of the commentaries are still there. Studying Song of Songs. Who's up first?

No, I'm more than happy to put myself at risk again. Cap will stand up.

You can put me at risk. I don't know what's going on.

You're all of the characters.

You're both all of the characters.

I'm just here winging it with Mom.

If anyone out there is like, Christian keeps talking over her. He's not letting her have a chance to say anything. You don't know who I'm. Deal.

I did warn. I did warn. I was like, man, it's been since high school, since I've done D and D, and this is like a different version of D and D.

One of us has to be the active agent. The other has to be the passive one to make fun of the decisions the active agent is making.

I can make fun.

You know what? That's why we work so well together.

I'm over here like, hey, I'm just proud because I keep on trying to think. It was like, nah. To disagree for fun. But I'm like, I'm not supposed to disagree for fun. So I am doing well.

You're at the table. You have the books out.

I have my books.

Hot coffee seems to be back. You have the bread that you baked with Cass.

Is it sourdough?

What happens now? I don't know. You guys didn't really specify, I'm assuming for some reason. Sure.

Cool. Well, it should be. Holla if it's gonna, you know, if.

It means you contributing. Sure.

Maybe he made both breads. There's plenty of you. You could have made more than one loaf.

We broke bread. Okay, let's finish the thing. I put myself at risk.

Who is yourself?

Myself is. I don't like the flirt.

So you want Jack?

Hold on.

Hold on.

Yeah, I said. I said Cap would take first lead again. Because if something happens, he's more than happy to be the one who goes in danger again.

That's this whole shtick.

I'm boy scout, jerk.

Okay, the next verse. I am black, but lovely daughters of Jerusalem, this is still the beloved, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salma.

Take no notice of my dark coloring. It is the sun that has burnt me. My mother's sons turned their anger on me. They made me look after the vineyard.

My own vineyard I had not yet looked after as it was being read, suddenly appeared an angel and a demon. You have Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens. And Aziraphale, of course, is starting with, I am so sorry for all that. I am so sorry. I. I really.

I wish he would stop doing this. And, of course, Crowley with. Oh, come on. They're getting something out of it. The community, you know, it's. It's good.

And Crowley, the demons are placing bets. This is not okay. And of course, Crowley just keep coming up with excuses. Yeah, of course. You know, bets. I get something out of it. But so do they.

And while they're bickering back and forth and Aziraphale is trying desperately to apologize to your group, of course, Gorr shows up.

He figured out what happened, who's behind it all, and he's ready to kill Aziraphale and Crowley and Constantine, because Constantine showed up in the corner eating popcorn, going, I just want to see how my bets play out. Gorr's mad at all three of them, ready to kill those three. Cass is confused on what side he's supposed to be on here.

This is what Sun Wukong has been waiting for this whole time. The moment he saw Gore, he knew it was going to have to go down. Not a question. No second thought. Boom. Fight between the two of them.

We are talking Gore the God Butcher. Sun Wukong under the Jade Emperor's, you know, practice here. Like, this is what he was made to do. Fight and brawl and have his way with having fun.

And I think right behind him is Bakugo.

Okay, so two of them are just. We're gonna fight Gore now? What are the rest of the new age?

We don't care about, like, the whole thing with, like. I should have known. It was good Odemans this whole time. I mean, that's on.

The finale just happened. I couldn't help it.

Yeah. The fact that they are behind this to an extent, you know, Crowley. They'd probably say Crowley in the show.

They do say Crowley. It's weird.

Oh, they do. Oh, good. No, Crowley's to protects. Correct pronunciation.

Go to Joe and Maya's episode announcer Crowley for Friday night frights if you want to do that. So, yeah, this makes perfect sense now. Trickster Entity Kappa, and I mean, not as much Daredevil have seen Loki do his thing multiple times over.

Hermione's dealt with trickster wizards before. Jack by himself is a trickster. It's like, okay, you brought us here, but there's no, like, anger directed towards them.

It's more like, we're gonna have a talk after this is over, so. All right, so they will defend the two.

Okay, do you guys want to describe the fight? I won't make a roll. Because, like, I think this six, with Sun Wukongo and Hermione being a wizard, I. I don't see them having a problem.

I think Castiel still, like, conflicted because he's like, these are both of my teammates. Control is bad. Like, he's just talking to himself. Like, control's bad. Killing's bad.

Since they're not human. Go ahead, spell.

Would she have it in herself to do that? Yeah, you have to believe in it with your whole heart.

Well, I think we'll do a roll for Hermione real quick.

It's a false God, though, just in General. Just a D20.

Yeah.

10.

Hermione's power. 8. 18. Pretty powerful wizard. I think that gives her favorite tool. She can tell.

The Necrosword seems to be the power of the source of Gore's power right now. So of course she knows a spell to disarm. Somebody. Anybody? Anybody wanna cast a spell? All right. He is now unarmed and just a normal alien.

How do the rest of them just. Did they. Are they killing them? Beating the crap. What did the rest of them do here?

Murder God of explosion. Explode him.

Yeah, his whole spiel here, Sun Wukong, is that he's brash, he knows his own strength, and he chooses to fight that strong anyways with his opponents. When he's, like, unfettered. The problem is, when he's unfettered, bad things tend to happen to other people.

So he was fighting a God, A legitimate God. Now the Necrosword is gone. One power pull to the head. Homebody ain't making a home. Like his head has been lopped off with one strike.

Because why would he pull back? He was just a God a second ago.

Perfect. Perfect. I love it.

And Bakugo wouldn't make the striking blow because they were betting that he would.

I. I get it. I feel you. All right. He is dead by the time the fight's over. You notice that Crowley and Aziraphale are gone. And Cass says, I'm.

I'm gonna go ahead and clean this mess up. And after, while he's cleaning, he goes, you know, there's no reason you have to, but. But you always could. Finish the study.

I've seen really good things happen from this. And he's cleaned and he disappears. You guys are now left no longer having an urge to read Song of Songs. Still in the bookstore.

Still have the commentaries and stuff out what does the team do? How are we wrapping this up?

I think Hermione's going to want to finish reading the study.

I'd agree with that holdout potentially might be Jack, but I think at the end of the day, they got what they got done. Wukong got to kill a God.

Bakugo got to prove to those devils and demons that, you know, he wouldn't do what they wanted him to do because he's better than them. You know what? Everyone's had a fun day. A stressful day, but a fun day. Why not unwind with some song of song, Song of Solomon.

All right, do you want to describe any how the. How the study goes or are we happy just saying they studied it.

I'm sure Jack learns nothing from the lesson because hedonism is his creed. They'll say, yep, that's kind of hot. You know, forgetting. Yeah. What the purpose of the book. I agree. Every now and then Cat might.

He's not gonna blush, but he's gonna, like, have that obvious, like, oh, I wasn't ready for that one. It's been a while since I've read this, Matt. Stoic. Sun Wukong's like, yeah, I wish they had gone more into descriptions.

Bakugo like, you know, this might have been a waste of my time. You guys are all right, but I forget Hermione. I might have had fun. She got to study all these dude bros and her.

Yeah, she, I feel like, definitely comes out superior. Like, she's definitely the most book knowledge of them. I feel like she knows how to do a study. All right, are we satisfied?

Anything else we want to say about our team wrapping this up or. They had a good Bible study.

Probably another one of those circumstances brought us together, but we're not the Avengers by any stretch of the imagination. See, at the next Crisis crossover event, at best.

All right, I don't know what the next slide is. I'm going to move back to here so I can see. Okay, next is bonus points.

So I do want to wait till we do our regular grading before we do the bonus points. Fun. I like how the mission played out. It was a lot of it was good times. Mission status. Yeah, 10 out of 10.

We finished the Bible study and art isn't being controlled by anybody. So, you know, I think that's. That's a solid, solid 10 out of 10 for me. I should write this down so I can actually keep up with my score.

All right, 10. Next would be teamwork.

Actually feel like they were a little reluctant, but everyone went along Having Cap really helped bring everybody together, I think, you know, and you pointed out, like, Cap still with the Hulk, he knows how to deal with anger issues. You know, Sun Wukong and Bakugo still gave up some resistance. So I don't think it's a perfect score, but I'm gonna give it a nine.

It's pretty close because I think that's fair sustainability. Just because Wakuk's there, he's not sticking around for anybody. I don't care what the team was. Just wasn't gonna happen.

Okay. Journey. Journey to the West. The only reason he sticks around his friends at the beginning is because he's kind of on a limiter.

Like, he can't do what he normally can do.

Yeah.

And so, like, yeah, Hermione has the. The Christian in me problem of being a little bit of an introvert. Like, I just want my books. I don't see her staying around long, and I don't.

I don't see Bakugo wanting to be friends with any of these people. So I think sustainability. I'm gonna score kind of lower. I'm gonna give that one a four. Strength. It was a strong team because Bakugo is like.

Bakugou and Sun Wukong are super strong, but, you know, we've had teams with Mothra on it. You could have had Superman on this team. You didn't need a particularly strong team.

But, like, when I'm thinking about it, like, this isn't the strongest team. By no means is it the weakest because you have a freaking wizard and a God on it. I'm gonna give it a seven. Seven for strength. Yeah.

Christian doing Mothra that one time really just messed everything up because I was like, no team's as strong as that team. Fun.

I.

This team was incredibly fun because Bakugo and Jack Harkness play it off, and then Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock playing it straight. Like, that's a fun time.

Look.

I think they all actually did enjoy themselves. Even some Wukong getting to kill Gore. I think he really had fun with that. And Hermione got to read. This might be the only time I give a 10 for fun.

Like, I feel like this team had as much fun as they could have had in a mission. So that puts us base score. 20. 30. I don't think I'm counting right. Give me a second. 10. 20. Nope. Okay. 33. 40. So base score is 40.

Did I win?

The record is 48. So let's check our bonus points. That is not the bonus points. Okay. Minus two if you joined the gambling rink in hell. You did not. Minus 4.

If you completely avoided the Bible study, you did not. And minus five, if you let a zero fail, die, you did not.

What was the plus point?

No negative points. Plus points.

Okay.

If you took the time to discuss the context of Song of Songs, you kept using the word context, but no one actually read anything about the context of the book.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm leaving.

That kind of did, but not like, that's not an absolute. I'd say no.

2, If you made dinner for everyone with Cass, so you got that. Two, if you saved your lost teammate someone, Bakugo went, so you get that.

If you brought someone else to Bible study, you were going to get three points. No one did that. If you won all the bets you made in hell, you have to bet to win, you would have got four points.

That would have been minus two plus four. So it would have been two. So you didn't get that. Five points. If you completed the mission without any use of violence. We didn't get that.

So that leaves us 44. I think that might be a second highest. Second high. It was close.

Yeah, Mark was here.

We're first loser. Yeah, if Mark was here, we would have done better.

You're not supposed to agree.

I was banking on just coasting more. Honestly.

No. It was good, though. But the.

Well, before we move on to our wrap up, Christian, Liz, do y' all want to comment anything about, like, some of the themes as far as, like, like, intimacy, revenge, teamwork, that stuff?

I don't like teamwork, so that was hard.

I see that. I couldn't tell Christian anything on your part.

No, I was flustered there near the end because I kept having ideas about what it could be. And I was getting frustrated too, because I kept. Like I said that circular logic kept going on.

It's like, no, I need someone else to tell me why I'm wrong and why it has to be something else.

I was just confused. There was so many outside forces.

That was part of the process too, like, but also that was fun in the frustration because it. You're recognizing your limitations.

It was big fun and frustration together.

But that's how you. Your perspective on the matter. Like, I could have just shut down and said, I don't get it. I give up.

Which is what I tend to do with puzzles and riddles.

That's why he's gonna play.

And platformers. I'll just do you a favor and I'll shoot you right now. Yeah, but no, that was fun getting through that. Go ahead.

I was gonna say two of the things for me that really came out was like, I didn't expect Steve Rogers to make that big of a difference, even after he got disappeared. Like the fact that, like, just having someone who can be the calm head, who.

Even though you have angry people and people who are straight up hedonist in the room, people who aren't religious at all, I was like, okay, listen, if we have to do this, we can do this. And seeing what a good leader kind of impact. And I believed it. I didn't actually question you on that.

I was like, yeah, actually, that's what a good leader does. So I was like, that, to me, made a bigger difference. Then you kept bringing up the sacrifice thing.

And I'm like, man, I wish I would have incorporated that, because that is an important part of love that I thought was actually really interesting.

You gave me the opening quote. I was like, oh, it's gotta mean something.

If it wasn't for them trickster gods, all the misdirections. I will say one thing we didn't do that was I thought was going to be interesting. The way to avoid violence altogether.

There wasn't, in my mind, there was going to be an option where you were going to be able to talk Gore down from what you learned about intimacy and how God actually desires that more than revenge and how there wasn't particularly a God involved. Yeah. But I could have seen that as a possible conversation that could have happened.

So with different characters, that would have worked.

Yeah. Yeah. But I thought it was fun. Any other takeaways from you guys before we wrap this up?

I had a lot of fun. Yeah, that was fun. It was good.

Great team for fun.

A lot of the chaos, it worked in the end. And now in hindsight, I can see things a little easier, which you should be able to do after a story, and that's good.

Well, thank you. And I can't wait for the next one that you're about to do, and maybe someone else will beat the record.

But for now, we are going to go ahead and start wrapping this one up. These episodes are always a little bit longer. It's just the nature of what it is. But we'll do an extra question.

What character might you have included if you knew what the campaign was going to be ahead of time? Christian did this last time. I think this is just the perfect bonus question for these episodes.

So we're going to do that again, but first, we're going to talk about some of our recommendations. I'M just going to go ahead and recommend. Read the Gun. Good things, good things. Read Good Omens.

There is an audio book on Kindle where David Tennant does the voice for Crowley. So I like the book a lot better than the show. Like, they're both good. But if you could read an audiobook and hear David Tennant's voice. Perfection.

Perfection. And if you do it through audible, you're not supporting Neil Gaiman, which I think is a plus, or not directly supporting him. Potato pod.

Christian, what about you? Any recommendation for anybody?

I will say I had it up earlier, before I had all that computer issues. But you can read Journey to the West. I read it in college. I don't remember which translation it was. Maybe it's there, maybe it's not.

You can go straight to the UNC Wilmington Library. And I don't remember the section. Whatever translation that is, that's the one I read. So read that one. Perfect.

And Liz, any recommendations?

I'll do this on my husband's behalf because I don't really have one, but he's really into Dungeon Carl. Crawler Carl.

I've heard so much about this.

He's been. He's almost like done with the series and he's been like chewing through it. So I'm gonna recommend that because I think it's about to get a TV show.

So I told him I would watch the TV show with him.

Nice.

So if you were thinking about reading the books, you might want to start before the TV show comes.

Nice, nice. I might actually, I just keep. I'm going back. There's just too many things people want me to read.

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