The team lays low while the heat dies down. Viv goes for a walk in Central Park.
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--
The Mentor Spirit says:
Don't I always?
You are not ready.
--
@funcityventures is the show on twitter
@funcityventures is the show on instagram
@bijanstephen is TK
@randwiches is Viv
@nicholasguercio is Luxe
and @shodell is Lash
@taylordotbiz is the bad boys and
@mikerugnetta is everything else
--
Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
Pixlriffs is the kind of guy who would delete the security footage
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - https://pileofsecrets.bandcamp.com
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kestrel and Kit
The voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton
EPISODE 20.4
[ 00:00:00 ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: This episode of Fun City contains conflict with an NYPD officer, but he’s a real doofus.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
> Mike / G.M.: You guys are alone in the mess hall of The Mrs. Egg, what do you want to do with your day?
[ Dramatic music fades out ]
> Jenn de la Vega / “Vivian Lakewood”: [ OOC ] Viv is going to download that app - Arcanix - and make a profile, and then she’s gonna walk around the city.
> Mike / G.M.: All right. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] So she’s getting up from the mess hall and walking out to the deck where she has her hammock, and she can see, through her AR glasses, her home screen. And, I don’t know if you know this, but she has a fairly nice comm-link - the FairLight Caliban - she picked it, it’s a device rating of seven -
> Mike / G.M.: Wow.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - it’s pretty high.
> Mike / G.M.: That is very nice.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] But she picked it because it was named Caliban, which is the son of Sycorax, the witch from The Tempest. So she found it familiar, [ Cast laughs ] among technology and this world now, she can take - she takes everything she can get. So, uh, she pulls up her keyboard, like, in the air - AR, and she chicken types how she thinks it’s spelled. Like, she’s pecking at the air with two pointed fingers -
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, like hunt-and-peck? Yeah, yeah -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah, like a - yeah. Arc-can-ix. And, y’know, she sees the home screen, it’s still like, she doesn’t know how to delete the widgets, and she sees, like, news ticker -
> Mike / G.M.: She still has that Nascar app -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes -
> Mike / G.M.: - that it came with, like it’s weird that Nascar is still around, but like -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - or maybe it’s a dead widget, and it just never got deleted. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Shannon Odell / “Lash Goodbog”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And, uh, does she see Lash on a cam or something? Like, at the game?
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, if - yeah, there’s a recent news item that a citizen who got randomly chosen [ Shannon laughs ] for audience participation at the Urban Brawl game that’s happening on Highland Island got very close to being the first ever to score a goal, but unfortunately, she didn’t make it.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And Viv just, like, whispers, [ IC ] I thought we were laying low.
[ Shannon laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: You see, in the story, at the header, there is a photo - there is a beautiful, like, potentially Pulitzer Prize winning photo of two Brawl Stars looking up as, very clearly, Lash Goodbog flips over them.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Yes!
> Mike / G.M.: She is upside down, holding a Urban Brawl Ball, she has a giant grin on her face.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Well, upon seeing that photo, Viv is proud. That’s our girl.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Call for fan-art of that photo.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes, please, please! Uh, so Viv is sitting in the hammock and creating a profile. [ Beeping sound effects of slow typing ] She doesn’t put her real name, she puts in the name “Tusk”, which is an old alias that she has, and for the photo she doesn’t have anything stored in her comm-link, [ Soft background sea sounds ] that’s not what she does, but she quickly takes a picture of her right hand, which has a tattoo of a lily of the valley. That’s her profile picture.
> Mike / G.M.: Cool, it looks great. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And, um -
> Mike / G.M.: Let’s - before we get too much further -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes?
> Mike / G.M.: Were you gonna say something?
> Taylor Moore / “The Bad Boys”: Uh - I was gonna - I’m sorry, did you say lily of the valley?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm-hmm.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: - flower? Okay, cool.
> Mike / G.M.: So, like, what - we’ve talked about this, but I just wanna be - I wanna insert a little explainer here, what is Arcanix?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Arcanix is a social media network for magicians who want to be seen and found. It tracks, like, astral signatures around the city. It’s kind of like Foursquare check-in, or, um -
> Mike / G.M.: Or like the Autobahn app? You’re like, “I saw a blue-footed booby in this location” -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah, like Spotter -
> Mike / G.M.: Right.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] So if you can asense, then you can report in, like, “I felt this aura here.”
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah this does sound like something that - yeah, portions of the magic community would be very upset about the existence of, because it’s essentially a - like, a tracking app for their location, but, like, so is Foursquare, and that exists.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I think she doesn’t mind it, because she has a lot of - like, uh - she has - what’s it called - she’s an astral chameleon -
> Mike / G.M.: Mmm-hmm.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] So, whatever location she has, she would have to report it, and she’s not very easily traceable. So anyone that’s asense-ing her has to have a test.
[ 00:05:12 ]
> Mike / G.M.: Mmm-hmm.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] An extra test of perception.
> Mike / G.M.: Got it, nice. Okay yeah, you - so, yeah, you have made a profile on Arcanix, what do you want to do?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She looks around the boat, like, just on the deck, she’s just circling, just turning around in a circle, does she see anything?
> Mike / G.M.: I mean - you’re kind of, like, out in the water, there’s not a lot around. No one has really, like, checked into this location. As far as you know there have been no Awakened visitors to The Mrs. Egg, so there’s no, like - no users nearby.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And she, y’know, decides to take a walk north, towards Central Park.
> Mike / G.M.: Cool, you head in the direction of Central Park, are you gonna go to Central Park?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: All right, I - I’m gonna ask the same question that I asked Bijan slash T.K., do we wanna use this as an excuse to talk about what has happened to Central Park?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Absolutely.
[ Soft expository music fades in ]
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, so, Central Park is largely unchanged, actually, from its pre-cataclysm layout. It’s in the same portion of Manhattan, it takes up roughly the same area. There was talk, when the city was being rebuilt, about closing that land and developing it and putting high rises on it, but a number of corporations decided, actually, that the park itself is responsible for enough tourism that it would be an unwise economic decision to exclude it in rebuilt New York’s design. Thanks to advances in forestry and microclimate science, Central Park now does also have a few more, like, areas than it did in the past. There is a clear geodesic dome in the northwest corner that encloses a small rainforest that is sponsored, in part, by Aztechnology who has branded its exterior shamelessly. Central Park Zoo has also grown and recently acquired its first few Critters as part of a Thaumolo- how do you say it? Thaumological? Taumological?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Thaumological.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, as part of a Thaumological study program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and - Thaumology? Taumology? Thoumology?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Well it would be, uh, arca - arcan -
> Bijan Stephen / “T.K.”: [ OOC ] You talking about, like, Thaumaturgy? That kind of stuff?
> Mike / G.M.: Thaumaturgy, that’s what it is.
> Bijan / “T.K”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Nick Guercio / “Luxe Scythe”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Oh yeah, Thaumaturgy, Thaumaturgical -
> Mike / G.M.: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy. M.I.T.T. is a thing that exists in, like, Shadowrun.
> Bijan / “T.K.”: [ OOC ] Oh another Mitt.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. Yeah! Interesting! Overall, also, the number of water features in Central Park has grown, this, thanks to - also - an M.I.T.T. study that happened, that determined that when you have more water features per square block, you can charge more for nearby apartments ‘cause it masks city noise.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Wow.
> Mike / G.M.: And so, all of the corporations went on a building spree for waterfalls and fountains, and other various water features. At the centre of the park in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, which maintains its name - that is what it is called today, they did the largest, sort of, feature waterfall in its north-eastern corner, and though swimming is not permitted in the reservoir, the edges of it have been converted to a heated 365 days a year beach. That is run courtesy of Charisma, the global PR company that is owned by the Horizon Megacorporation.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Which Viv is familiar with.
> Mike / G.M.: Mm-hmm. Yeah, which Viv has worked for. [ Jenn laughs ] So yeah, you are in Central Park, where do you wanna go?
[ Soft expository music fades out, nature sounds play ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She wants to go somewhere quiet to meditate, preferably around one of the bodies of water. So, the beach is probably not where she wants to go because there are a lot of people, so -
> Mike / G.M.: Today, especially, yeah. It is, like, even though you can’t swim and it’s a humid day, people would be out sunning themselves, like, listening to boomboxes and stuff.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah, so she heads towards, like, a small body of water, I think. Is there - I know the reservoir is, like, north-east?
[ 00:10:04 ]
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] I think maybe north-west there’s probably a smaller body of water somewhere else?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, sure, in the north-western corner, like not all the way up in the north-western corner, but just - what is that, around, like, 90th street?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: On the - on the west side there is a medium-large pool that has a statue of Venus in the centre and she is surrounded by various wildlife from the ocean, and it’s - there are some people around, but they’re just kinda lounging, reading, it’s pretty quiet, and there are a bunch of stone benches around the fountain.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] So Viv walks to the water’s edge, sits cross-legged, and wants to summon - quietly - [ Jenn laughs ] summon a selkie, quietly, from the pool.
> Mike / G.M.: And what is a selkie?
[ Soft music fades in ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] A selkie is a seal that can transform into a human shape when necessary.
> Mike / G.M.: That is wild.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] It’s cool, it’s really cool.
> Mike / G.M.: Uh, yeah, roll it up.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Okay, spellcasting is twelve, she got - oh - two hits. And she did seven hits on the Drain. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: And what force -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] This is a force of three.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. How many hits did you get?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Two.
> Mike / G.M.: You successfully summon that selkie. [ Seal sounds ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] You can hear it but you can’t see it ‘cause it hasn’t been materialized.
[ Shannon laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: A cool presence envelops a small portion around the fountain and, yeah, you successfully summon a selkie.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And she just says, [ IC ] blessings to you, oh Venus. Blessing to you children. [ OOC ] Y’know, the statues around the fountain, and -
> Mike / G.M.: The water, sort of like, waves and ripples slightly.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And, uh, she whispers to it, [ IC ] will you keep watch?
> Mike / G.M.: A distant and somehow yet pervasive voice says: [ IC with soft eerie vocal effect ] Don’t I always?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv exhales, she’s gonna do meditation right now.
> Mike / G.M.: Hell yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Um, if -
> Mike / G.M.: I think we can all use it.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] If you can insert the - remember when you did the last one with the “ding”?
> Mike / G.M.: Sure, yeah.
[ Soft music fades out ]
[ Single chime sound with water rushing in the background ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] I pray for healing blessings on the water. I pray for healing blessings on the sea.
[ Soft meditative music fades in ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] I pray for healing blessings on the rivers. I call to waters in the eastern realms, may the power of reason be gifted to the water. Fire of water, I call to the waters in the southern realms, may the power of compassion and love be gifted to the water. Water of water, I call to the waters in the western realms, may the power of hope and change be gifted to the water. Earth of water, we are calling to waters in the northern realms, may the power of strength and stability be gifted to the water. May the power of the sun above and earth’s inner light be combined to nurture and heal our water in all realms. The river is flowing, glowing, and growing back to the sea. Mother, carry me, the child I will always be. Mother, carry me back to the sea. [ OOC ] And you can feel this - the water in front of her pulsate outward.
[ Soft meditative music fades out ]
> Mike / G.M.: And as Viv is - is this saying this aloud? Is she just thinking it?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She’s whispering it.
> Mike / G.M.: Whispering it?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] To herself.
> Mike / G.M.: As Viv is whispering this, just over the section of the park that she’s in, [ Rain fall sounds ] the clouds are growing a little bit flatter, and they’re gathering, and they’re getting a little more gray. And as Viv ends her meditation there’s a small sprinkle of rain. It’s like that moment in very hot, humid days where, as it starts to rain, for just a few seconds, for a few minutes when it rains, it cools down and it’s much wetter now because it is raining but it’s no longer oppressively humid, it’s not gross and hot. And the people who are there around the fountain - it’s, like, not enough rain that they leave, they’re just - sort of, like “Oh.” Y’know? Some people put some of their electronics in their bag, but no one gets up to leave.
[ 00:15:14 ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And she just has her face - she has her eyes closed, her face is, like, enjoying the moisture, and she goes, [ IC ] thank you. [ Bijan laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Is there anything else that you wanna do?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She takes a look at her AR display -
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - and checks Arcanix in Central Park. [ Nature sounds return ] She just starts walking around toward the big boulder.
[ Fun City transition fades in as nature and rain sounds fade out ]
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Do you know where that is?
> Mike / G.M.: I do. Yeah.
[ Fun City transition music plays for a bit ]
> Mike / G.M.: So, as you’re walking around, you are, sort of, fumbling with your comm-link, trying to figure out how to use this interface. It seems like some of the features are secret, like, there are things that you can do where it’s not obvious, and the buttons aren’t all - they don’t all look like buttons so it’s, like, kinda strange and kind of - you’re like I don’t know how these young mages do this -
[ Fun City transition music fades out as nature and rain sounds fade back in ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] It’s gestural. [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: You’re just waving your comm-link around in the air trying to find something, and you actually find a fair number of check-ins in a specific location in the park with a lot of comments associated with them, and the comments are always like, “Not a leyline, but… ???” And another comment reads, “Wow! Strange energy?” And it’s all pictures of a giant mossy rock, and it is a rock that you would recognize. [ Shannon laughs ] It held, at one point, the residence - or the studio? The workshop?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Lodge.
> Mike / G.M.: The lodge of the person who trained you -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm-hmmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - whose name is, I believe, L'Mortimer?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah. Viv’s face goes slack because she forgot that he was here.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean, there’s no - if you were to asense right now, I’ll just give it to you.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mm-hmm.
> Mike / G.M.: Like, there’s no magical presence, like, as you approach it, it’s a big moss covered rock, it looks very unassuming, just looks like a big rock and there’s no astral signature, there’s no trail of any kind, but, just the - it’s kind of like the memories just come flooding back. You saw that one photo and you were like, [ Mike makes an exaggerated gasping sound ] “It was right here! It was this one!”
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah, and she’s scrolling through the comments, she’s using, like, a whole palm to, like, [ Shannon laughs ] scroll through these pages of comments about this one rock and she’s, like, [ IC ] oh, no. [ OOC ] And she walks forward and touches the rock and - so her hand, sort of, falls through it and she walks forward and steps on a Lego, [ Nature sounds stop ] and just goes [ Jenn makes a pained gasping sound then sighs ] and she looks around and there are toy trains, untouched and dusty, around what used to be a lodge.
> Mike / G.M.: You - tell me about L'Mortimer’s workshop. [ Nick chuckles ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] He was obsessed with toy trains.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: There’s a bunch of elves in there. [ Taylor imitates a musical elf singing ] [ Everyone laughs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] But - um - this person was of the earth. So, Viv is of the water, and this person answers to the mentor spirit, The Mountain. And she backs away slowly ‘cause she does not want to be caught here.
> Mike / G.M.: Hmm. Why don’t you - should I ask - should I not - you made a hand motion that makes me think, like, Viv doesn’t wanna talk about this.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She accidentally - [ Jenn laughs ] - okay, so Viv is quite old, and when magic reawakened in 2012, she was fifty-six years old. When it reawakened, she had latent powers, did not know what was happening, she thought she was senile.
> Mike / G.M.: Wait, so Viv, like, transformed into an elf.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Whoa.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah. So she doesn’t know what’s going on with her, and so she does research and goes to a doctorate program at the Université Occidentale de Bretagne -
> Mike / G.M.: Mmm-hmm.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - and enrols in Marine Sciences because she traced it back - her lineage is, like, French Lady of the Lake. And she, over the course of study, finds L'Mortimer who teaches her how to hone this magic, ‘cause he could feel it on her and she doesn’t know what it is.
> Mike / G.M.: [ Nature sounds return ] As Viv is backing out of L'Mortimer’s lodge and, sort of, like, walking away from some of the history and thinking about her training, she kinda starts to idly walk around Central Park and dips back into an old memory.
[ Single chime sounds and instrument is strummed ]
[ 00:19:58 ]
[ Soft music plays ]
> Mike / G.M.: We are in Central Park, many, many, many years ago. It is after the superstructure has been built, so the city is very different but still, in some senses, the same, and Viv is - how old is Viv now in 2101?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] A hundred and forty-five.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. So Viv is - would now be in her, maybe, eighties - ?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: - or so?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah. That makes sense.
> Mike / G.M.: And she is standing in a portion of Central Park with a, also old, maybe like, in his nineties, man with a white mop of hair that is very, very messy. He is wearing a tattered blazer that is, sort of, semi-ripped at the elbows, the ends of it are all kind of frayed. He’s wearing gray baggy sweatpants and, like, orthopedic sneakers, and he leans on a short stick and they’re in what looks like - they’re in a portion of the park that looks like a corralled-in, almost, bocce court. It’s got tall cinder block walls on three sides towards the end, it’s a long, skinny, dirt or clay pathway. And the old man is pointing at a sack of potatoes that’s at the other end.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm-hmm.
> Mike / G.M.: And he says - [ IC as L'Mortimer with a slightly hoarse voice ] Now Vivian, I want you to try this time. I want you to really put your mind - I need your heart in it. [ OOC ] Vivian, could you please roll your spellcasting, which is four dice.
[ Soft music fades out ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She makes a - she grunts, and gets one hit.
> Mike / G.M.: There’s a dull pop and a, like, small ball of energy from Vivian’s hand and curves to the left a little bit and hits the wall slightly off to the side of the sack of potatoes, and L'Mortimer, like, gives a little bit of a nod and he’s like, [ IC ] Eh, I mean you could do better, you - I think you just - you’re not feeling it. You gotta really - you gotta just - [ L'Mortimer sighs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] I’m parched here. [ Shannon laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] I mean, have you - when was the last time you talked to the sea? I mean, I know you said that you thought she was a little off [ Viv sighs ] but I know she can be mean, but, like, you have to talk.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] I feel like a teenager again. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Well I mean, she’s - I mean, in a way, she’s your mother so that makes sense.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] Yes, but, I don’t have to listen to my mother.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Unfortunately, in this specific instance you, in fact, do. [ OOC ] And he’s banging his cane and making a little hole in the sand.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] If I -
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Try again, just try - just try it again, and just picture the ocean. Just calm, blue [ Viv gives an exasperated sigh ] ocean -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She’s so flustered.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] - picture the ocean, and then -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She’s looking around for -
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] - fuck up the potatoes.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - looking around for a fountain and she got zero hits. [ Mike laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] You are picturing the ocean and you, sort of, try to put all of your calm into one place, to try to organize all of your feelings, and - you didn’t glitch, you just got zero hits?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, you try to organize all of your feelings and you start to feel like you got it, you’re in the right headspace, and you perform the motions that L'Mortimer has showed you hundreds of times, and literally nothing happens. [ Jenn and Shannon laugh ] It feels like you’ve just done a ballet move.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] Ugh. This is pointless.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] It’s not pointless, you just - [ L'Mortimer clears his throat ] - you - [ L'Mortimer sighs ] - listen, I know you’re used to being good at things, you gotta just - you gotta give some power over. You can’t be in charge of everything.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Uh, can she look around and is there, like, a fountain, like, a water fountain?
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Yeah, there’s, like - off in the distance, behind you, you can see the fountain that you were just in front of dozens of years later.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s like a tiny speck in the distance.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ IC ] I just - I’m just really thirsty. I just really need a little water.
> Mike / G.M.: A NYPD Incorporated officer rounds one of the walls nearby, comes out from behind a particularly large tree. He is holding a large water bottle, but, he looks at you and L'Mortimer, he flattens his brow; NYPD Incorporated police officer is seeing some people practicing magic, and he says:
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC as NYPD officer in Central Park ] Um, excuse me? Madam?
> Mike / G.M.: L'Mortimer immediately gets this, like, tired look on his face.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Madam and sir? Uh, we’re of course supposed to be patrolling this area and of course it is a major issue if we see two particular individuals practicing arcana in the park, madam and sir.
[ 00:25:04 ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC as L'Mortimer ] Sir, sir! [ OOC ] L'Mortimer puts his hand up and his eyes are completely closed like he’s gonna recite this from memory, [ IC ] I’m sure you are aware that no laws have been passed at this point prohibiting the practice of awakened arts in public. Should the courts rule in such a way, we will gladly abstain from our public display, but as of this moment we are law-abiding citizens simply playing a somewhat peculiar game of bocci.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Are you resisting arrest, sir?
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] We pose no danger.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] I’ll be the judge of - I’ll be the judge of that madams and sir.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] We pose no -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Right now, I see two particular individuals who are engaging in suspicious activity and that gives me due process to - uh, ask you to, uh, please stop your activity and submit to further monitoring.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv puts her hands up.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Have you bothered the young ladies who practice their wooden swords in the south? You know, the ones with the metal arms?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] Sir, I can only deal with the issue that is in front of me at this time, so, uh, I think you should behave more like - uh - your friend and please put your hands up in the air, sir.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is staring at the water bottle and she can feel something.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer walks over to the cop and, he’s like a tiny old man and - what does this guy look like?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] He’s just, sort of, a round guy [ Jenn and Shannon laugh ] with a bald head and a pack of hot dogs for neck-back.
> Bijan / “T.K.”: [ OOC ] Hell yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: He’s got nanoshades - [ Entire cast laughs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Oh no!
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: - like, propped up on his forehead, not even touching his eyes -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Funny!
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Even though it is daylight and he seems to be wearing these sunglasses, they’re still up on his head.
> Mike / G.M.: L'Mortimer approaches him and he’s, like maybe, half of this guy’s height, and he starts pointing his finger up at him, and he’s like, [ IC ] What about those kids with the wired reflexes in the basketball - y’know, they -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] I am trying to treat you with respect, sir, and you are putting your finger into my personal space, sir. I have no choice but to interpret that as an aggressive move, sir.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer is just continuing to lay into this guy, like, starting to quote statute and trying to tell this man that there’s no reason for him to intervene and that he’s not doing anything wrong.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] I have made an ocular assessment of the area, sir, [ Shannon laughs ] and I have determined that you are behaving in an aggressive manner and therefore it is reasonable for me to engage in, um, uh - oh shit, shit, shit - [ OOC ] he, kind of, thinks to himself for a second -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Is he getting parched yelling like this?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] What?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Is he getting - [ mimics dry throat sounds ] - from yelling? Is he -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Oh, yeah, absolutely, you can tell. Yeah, why not.
[ Dull atmospheric music fades in ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Viv is staring at the water bottle and she can feel it, she can feel the sea all the way over from where she’s standing, and just looking, she’s not even moving her hands, she still has them up, and the cap pops off, [ Cap popping off sound effect ] and the water starts, like, boiling in the bottle. [ Bubbling water sounds ] [ Shannon laughs ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The water is boiling?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Or it starts to, like, bubble in the bottle.
> Mike / G.M.: Like, oxygenating -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: - releasing oxygen.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yikes. He notices, and he looks down and he grabs the bottle, and he says, [ IC ] you must, please, stop and failure to reciprocate my commands will [ Cop’s voice gets higher in pitch as bubbling gets louder ] result in immediate, uh, escalation and this will become a kinetic situation, madam and sir, please stop this magic in my water -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She casts Control Actions at him to raise the water bottle into the air.
> Mike / G.M.: Please roll your spellcasting, which, in this moment, feeling a surge of energy from the sea, becomes six dice.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Okay, oh boy. Let’s see what happens. [ Dice rolling pause ] It’s one hit.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean, we’ll see how he does.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Wow.
> Mike / G.M.: What does he roll against that?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Wait, no one has spent any edge right?
> Mike / G.M.: No.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Not this whole time? Well, she will. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] History edge.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Do I get to roll mine, or should I wait until edge is rolled?
> Mike / G.M.: You can roll yours, yeah.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: One of my best rolls -
> Mike / G.M.: You got two.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You can reroll that six.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Oooh.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Aww.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Uh-oh.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Well, she got two hits.
> Mike / G.M.: He is, like, backing away from L'Mortimer, who’s starting to make, like, silly magicky hand motions, [ Shannon laughs ] but as you try to reach into his brain stem and control his body, it’s just, like, there’s something that’s blocking you, there’s a fog -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: He may be too dumb to control, like trying to control a stack of wood, or something like that.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Like, it’s not a library, it’s like a kiosk or a magazine rack -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: An empty magazine rack.
> Mike / G.M.: And actually your vision kind of, like, narrows a little bit, it’s like you have a vignette in your field of view, and you hear a pervasive, and yet somehow distant, voice, for the first time, and it says, [ IC as Viv’s otherworldly water goddess patron ] You are not ready.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And this incenses Viv so much. She’s already frustrated, she’s old, she could be at home watching a trid, like - [ Mike laughs ] she’s out here and it’s hot and L'Mortimer’s yelling at her, he’s been yelling at her all afternoon, and she just cannot take this anymore.
[ 00:30:00 ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: And the police officer takes out his stun baton and approaches Mortemer. He is going to stun him.
> Mike / G.M.: L'Mortimer starts shouting, he’s like, [ IC as L'Mortimer ] what are you gonna do with that? You gonna stun an old man? You gonna stun a defenceless old man?
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC as cop, his voice still high pitched ] Affirmative, sir! [ Nick and Shannon laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer is raising his walking stick in a way that you have only seen him do, Viv, when he’s about to cast a spell.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: Unless you stop him.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer!
> Nick / “Luxe”: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer! L'Mortimer!
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Melt! A Cop! L'Mortimer!
> Nick / “Luxe”: [ OOC ] Melt a cop.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] She’s gotta learn it from somewhere.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah. [ Shannon laughs ]
> Nick / “Luxe”: [ OOC ] This is the day she learns -
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Yeah!
> Nick / “Luxe”: [ OOC ] - powerbolt. [ Dice shaking noises in the background ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Oh no.
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] L'Mortimer. Wow. Best roll of the day. Oh my gosh. [ Taylor sighs ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Whooooa.
> Bijan / “T.K.”: [ OOC ] That boy’s melted. [ Nick laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: L'Mortimer -
> Nick / “Luxe”: [ OOC ] Knew that before you were gonna roll.
> Mike / G.M.: - L'Mortimer - [ Mike laughs ] I’m just gonna stop -
> Shannon / “Lash”: [ OOC ] Yeah. You’re at the limit I bet.
> Mike / G.M.: L'Mortimer rolled as well as he possibly could, and at this point he is an extremely talented magician.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm-hmm.
[ Eerie atmospheric music fades in ]
> Mike / G.M.: He raises - you can see his face is red, and, like, the bald spot on the back of his head is sweaty, and he’s been shouting for a couple minutes now, and it’s like - you know this about him, that he is sick of the way the police treat the awakened in New York City, and he’s sick of not being able to practice his arts in public, and he’s raising his knotted, like, big piece of wood, like, walking stick that he uses, and he’s raising it and he’s pointing it at the face of this guy who’s bothering you, and as he shouts and shouts, you can see his hand starts to glow a, like, dull red -
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Mmm-hmm.
> Mike / G.M.: - and it seeps it’s way into the walking stick, and the walking stick starts to glow and glow, as he yells and -
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ IC ] GET DOWN ON THE GROUND, SIR! YOU GET DOWN ON THE GROUND, RIGHT NOW!
> Mike / G.M.: - and L'Mortimer at this point stops yelling and he becomes - and he sort of, like, focuses himself, and he says, [ IC ] If you don’t leave now, you’re gonna regret it.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The cop tries to stun him with a baton.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - and Viv, in a panic, casts Catch Type, which is the Jedi pull -
> Mike / G.M.: Do it.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] - on the staff.
> Mike / G.M.: Which is a wooden object, so it is the lowest resistance. You need to beat one.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] She got four hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, how much do - how many did you roll?
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Uh -
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Cause it’s not your full dice pool.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Oh, it’s not my full dice pool, that’s right, sorry.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll six.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Oooh. I wanted sixteen in something today. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Bijan / “T.K.”: [ OOC ] Well, now you know how I feel.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] This is so sad. One, two, three.
> Mike / G.M.: That’s fine, you have more than enough.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Wow!
> Mike / G.M.: You wrestle, with your mind, in an instant it’s like everything sort of, like, goes away, your adrenaline is surging so much, and y’know, you don’t know what’s gonna happen next, but you know that this is one way to delay some very, very bad thing from happening. But, you reach your arm out and, it’s like you had half a thought before suddenly - [ Clap sound ] - there’s a wooden impact in your palm, and you’re holding a very warm, and surprisingly heavy walking stick.
[ Eerie atmospheric music stops and nature sounds resume ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And it’s aimed at both the cop and L'Mortimer.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean, you - it’s, like - you can tell that the magical charge is gone, but as soon as it leaves L'Mortimer’s hand, you hear a much louder pop than the one that you heard issue from your hand a few minutes ago, and an errant mana bolt just sort of, like, flies off into a tree somewhere and knocks down a branch [ Sound of something impacting a tree and rustling some leaves ] that falls to the ground flaming. L'Mortimer’s gonna roll reaction plus intuition to dodge a tazer. I mean, I don’t know how serious we want to get about combat, but he also did very well. He got five hits.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Damn. Wow.
> Mike / G.M.: He dodged it.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, he - as the walking stick is pulled out of his hand, it sort of, like, jerks him to the side and the tazer misses him by an inch.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And she is, first of all, shocked that she’s holding the stick, and, second, forgets herself and is like, [ IC ] Yeah! [ Jenn laughs ] [ OOC ] And then sees the cop, like, lunging at L'Mortimer and she’s like, [ IC ] Oh no! [ OOC ] And she starts to run forward at them.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, L'Mortimer is, like, now yelling at the top of his lungs about how, y’know, this guy’s gonna get it if he doesn’t back off and this is police harassment, he’s gonna call his lawyer, etc. etc. etc.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] Yeah, she runs forward and she’s like, [ IC ] Please, please, please, stop, stop, stop. We’ll go, we’ll go.
[ 00:35:02 ]
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: [ OOC ] The cop - even though the mana bolt misses, he is visibly shaken that it went so close to his head, and when Viv begins to run toward him, even though she is doing it in a pacifist, [ Taylor and Mike both laugh ] almost non-violent manner -
> Mike / G.M.: She’s still holding a magic stick.
> Taylor / “The Bad Boys”: Yes, he thinks she’s gonna shove that magic stick up his asshole, [ Nick laughs ] and so he says [ IC ] All right you people have a lovely day here! And be - and try to be good citizens! [ OOC ] And he runs. [ Taylor makes some running noises ] [ Crew laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: And L'Mortimer sort of, like, hunches over and puts his hands on his knees, is like, [ IC as L'Mortimer mumbling to himself ] Those fucking cops ruin this city. They think they own the place. And I guess, in some sense, they do.
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And Viv is sweating, like, she’s holding this, like - this stick, limply in her left hand, and just shaking her head, like, [ IC ] I did that. I did it.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] We dissolve back to present day Central Park, [ Rain sounds fade back in ] and Viv finds herself sort of, subconsciously, she has navigated to the old bocce court, and there she is. There is no sack of potatoes up against the far wall, but, you have brought yourself to your old stomping grounds.
[ Ambient music plays ]
> Jenn / “Viv”: [ OOC ] And she kicks at the dirt, and flexes her hand as if she was holding, like, the stick, and she just looks around, like over her shoulder, in case he’s there, but he isn’t.
[ Ambient music ends and Fun City Main Theme plays ]
> Mike / G.M.: You are now leaving Fun City for a little bit longer than you normally do. This concludes the current arc of Fun City material recorded before the pandemic temporarily closed Fortunate Horse. Stay tuned on this feed for a bonus mini-series arc, where the cast play all new characters in a game of Still Fleet, a scifi system set one hundred million years in the future. Episode one is scheduled to release July 17th. We’ll update our twitter and our Patreon first if that timing changes. Lash, Luxe, T.K., Viv, Yuri, Verne, and Gabe will return the moment it is safe for the six of us to sit in a tiny room together in Greenpoint, and believe me when I say, we don’t think that moment can come soon enough. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to support the show, get access to bonus one-off episodes, our bi-weekly post episode chat show Fun Chatty, and our Discord, head on over to patreon.com/FunCityVentures. And of course, thank you to all of our current patrons for help keeping this ship afloat. We’d also love it if you told your pals about the show, shared it on social media, drew us some fanart, gave us a rating on iTunes, or just came by to say hey on Twitter.
[ Main Theme fades out ]
[ Outro Theme begins ]
> Bijan: I am Bijan Stephen, and I am T.K. You can find me online @bijanstephen on Twitter, which is B-I-J-A-N S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Or on Instagram, and you should just google that.
> Jenn: I'm Jenn de la Vega! I am Viv. You can find me online @randwiches, that's the word sandwiches but just replace the S with an R.
> Nick: This is Nick Guercio; I play Luxe Scythe. You can find me on Twitter @nguersh and Instagram @nguercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
> Shannon: This is Shannon Odell, I play Lash Goodbog. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @shodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
> Taylor: This is Taylor Moore and I play all the Bad Boys. I'm @taylordotbiz.
> Mike: My name is Mike Rugnetta, I am your G.M. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram
@mikerugnetta. You can find the show on Twitter and Instagram @FunCityVentures. Fun City was recorded at Fortunate Horse in beautiful Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was produced, edited, and sound designed by me, Mike Rugnetta. Pixlriffs collected the most magic coins on Arcanix this week. Fun City’s music is by Sam Tyndall. Our art is by Tess Stone, our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit, and Kestrel, and the voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
[ 00:40:28 ] [ Outro Theme ends ]
[ Transcription by Juno Winter, @CapnMochi on Twitter ]