Today on SuperIdols! RPG, the Fort McNally Idol Club tries to figure out what kind of group they want to be. Little do they know that a few new wrenches are about to be thrown into that plan.
Today on SuperIdols! RPG, the Fort McNally Idol Club tries to figure out what kind of group they want to be. Little do they know that a few new wrenches are about to be thrown into that plan.
Episode 4 Transcript: https://superidolsrpg.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/episode-4-transcript/
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Cast:
- Dana Lexa (she/her, @AuthorX) as Valerie Pearce / Violence Violet
- Tea (they/them, @Nonbinaritea) as Evangeline "Angie" Blake / Bane Raven
- Maria (she/her, hir/hirs, @ThatAceGal) as Ann Davil / War Cry
- Drak (he/him, @Drakoniques) as Jaiden Lott / Elementum
- Luca (he/they) as Queen Bee
- ErynCerise (she/her, @eryncerise) as The GM
NPC Name Spellings:
- Karen
- Sofia
- Ms. Doyle
- Drew
Featured Patrons:
- Apple
- Tamiko N.
- Circus
- Nao
- Sensei 1477
Featured Podcast:
- Brits on Bikes: https://britsonbikes.com/
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Logo Art: Prissmbell (@Prissmbell)
Character Art: Onsta (@onstamonsta)
Opening Theme: "Le Chevalier Noir 'version_instrumentale'" by Cyborgjeff (used under license from Jamendo Music)
Ending Theme: "Born To Drive Me Crazy - Instrumental Version" by Lance Conrad (used under license from Storyblocks.com)
Vivi's Transformation: "Gothic Dark" by Peritune
This episode uses various other royalty-free music tracks licensed from Storyblocks.com and Freesound.org. For inquiries about specific tracks, please contact the GM on Twitter @eryncerise.
This campaign is played using Masks: A New Generation, written by Brendan Conway and published by Magpie Games, with custom moves by ErynCerise and Zak P.
SuperIdols! RPG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Eryn: Previously on SuperIdols RPG.
Angie: But maybe we don’t need a president. Maybe we’re just fine figuring out all the shots as a group.
Valerie: We’ve got some kind of puzzle, scavenger hunt?
Grace: Is this like a theme that they’re trying to pull with their group? Like a puzzle-themed idol group? Is that a thing?
Valerie: I don't know.
Karen: Well that’s what I do. I’m your cheerleader.
Synthia: What if we took one session and we just focused on our individual styles and we all see how we work within that style?
Valerie: Uh, yeah, alright.
Angie: Yeah, okay.
Karen: Okay, on three. Gooooo Group Name!
Valerie: Group... Group Name.
Angie: Group Name.
Valerie: You... you didn’t count to three...
[Opening Theme Song Plays (Adventurous Techno Music)]
Eryn: Hey there everyone, and welcome back to the SuperIdols RPG podcast, your number one stop shop for all your superpowered popstar needs. I’m joined by, as always, my lovely players Dana Lexa,
Dana: Hello.
Eryn: And Tea,
Tea: Hello.
Eryn: Unfortunately, Michelle cannot join us right now. There’s a bit of a scheduling issue going on at the moment. But we are going to go forward today with Dana and Tea at least. And we are going to pick up sort of the next day after we left off. It’s day four of the new term at Fort McNally High. It’s the third official meeting of the Idol Club, as we said last time, you’re not going to meet every day like this going forward but just during the first week you’re having meetings every day to make sure everything is all set up and ready to go for the rest of the term. Especially because, as we discussed last time, your aim right now is to try to find an identity for your new Idol Group, whatever it ends up being. So we’re going to arrive after school at Conference Room Three, the official meeting spot of the Fort McNally Idol Club. Is there anything that Valerie or Angie are going to do along the way or are they just heading straight there after class?
Tea: Um, Angie’s going to hang out with the clique for a few minutes to get that ego boost before she has to go hang out with Valerie to just, you know, an ego boost and that would probably be what she’d do for a few minutes before he heads to the club. Have her clique of friends tell her how awesome she is before she gets there.
Eryn: Sure. So you’re hanging out with Sofia who we met last time. She’s talking to you about all her favorite big idol groups. You’re not arriving at the club, because you’re trying to not show people where your club location is.
Tea: Yeah I split off from them and then I make my way there.
Eryn: So you wave goodbye to Sofia who’s yelling again about her top favorite group Physicians Unknown and how you totally have to come see them with her.
Tea: Yeah, and I mean, I need to check out the competition so I’m a little bit curious about it.
Eryn: So you make your way into the club room. So far it’s just Karen. Karen is always here. She’s already kind of lounging back on a chair, half leaned over, seeing if she can balance it.
Tea: And knowing her, it’s probably effortless and she’s totally pulling it off.
Eryn: Yeah she’s got her arms T-posing, totally comfortable.
Angie: Hi Karen.
Karen: 'Sup Angieeee. Have you tried this? It’s great...
Angie: Looks super fun. I’m just going to go get the clipboard, okay?
Karen: You rock that clipboard.
Eryn: She gives you a thumbs up.
Angie: I will.
Eryn: And Valerie, are you heading straight here as well?
Dana: I think Valerie takes some time to, like, find a quiet corner like outside the school and just sits and listens to metal on her headphones for a few minutes to kind of psyche herself up alone and then heads in.
Eryn: Sounds good. I will find some good royalty-free metal to play here.
[quiet metal music plays]
Eryn: You don’t think of it much, but on your way you do happen to see a blur of what looks like three figures pass you by on your way, you’re not sure where they’re headed, but they go by in a hurry. You don’t pay them too much mind though since they don’t seem to be headed in your direction.
Dana: Yeah I just ignore them and head in.
Eryn: Okay so you head into Conference Room Three as well. You find Angie and Karen.
Tea: And I definitely have the clipboard, so I look up and I’m like,
Angie: Hi,
Tea: And I wave with the clipboard. I’ve got one of those sparkle pens with a pompom at the end of it.
Eryn: I hope you realize as I’ve been editing I have added a sound clip for your pompom sparkly pen.
Tea: Really?
Eryn: Yeah it makes a little sparkle noise.
[sparkle tinkles]
Eryn: So this is an important part of your inventory, I hope you realize.
Tea: Good, good.
Eryn: Alright. As you all are getting set up here, you actually hear Ms. Doyle come in behind you. And she waves to you all and says,
Ms. Doyle: Hello, how are you all?
Angie: Uh, hi.
Valerie: Hey.
Ms. Doyle: I know, you sound very excited to see your teacher, I know. I’m a very exciting person, it’s okay. I’ll let the excitement settle.
Valerie: ...Yay.
Angie: I think it’s settled, so…
Eryn: Karen goes,
Karen: Oh my God is that Ms. Doyle? I love her.
Angie: Oh Karen’s excited.
Eryn: Ms. Doyle smiles at Karen and she says,
Ms. Doyle: Well I’m not going to be here too long today. I won’t draw too much attention to myself to myself I suppose. I just came to inform you that Synthia will not be at the club meeting today. She actually has been called away by family for some urgent family business. We’re not sure exactly when she’s returning, but we do hope that it will be soon.
Angie: Oh I hope everything’s okay.
Valerie: Yeah.
Ms. Doyle: Yes I do as well. Her family did not give many details. I assume it’s private so we will not pry. But again, we hope she is alright.
Angie: Oh.
Dana: Valarie shoots Angie a look because they both kind of know something’s going on.
Tea: Yeah, yeah, because we saw the meeting with the aunt before. So super suspicious.
Valerie: Well I hope everything’s okay, but thanks for letting us know.
Ms. Doyle: Mm-hm. Oh by the way I – you know what? Never mind, I think you’ll find out soon enough. Um, Angie, do you have those treasurer’s forms that you were supposed to turn into me at the end of the last meeting.
Angie: Um, yes, they’re here. I definitely filled them out.
Tea: Because I feel like Angie would have been really gung-ho about that, so she’s got them all.
Eryn: Oh yes.
Tea: And it’s in, like, pink ink of course.
Eryn: And Ms. Doyle smiles at that.
Tea: I’m all about the aesthetic.
Eryn: Of course. She will take the papers from you and give a little wave. She waves with the music note pen that she has.
[piano notes play]
Tea: Yeah, it’s not as nice as my pen though.
[sparkle tinkles]
Eryn: Oh not – exactly. I would never impose.
Tea: Yeah I definitely twirl my pen smugly or something because everything’s a competition to me apparently.
Eryn: And she gives you a playful, "Oh I’ll get you someday, pen master!" kind of look. And then she gives you all a wave and leaves you to your own devices.
Angie: Okay so just us today. Um, with our hype person, Karen.
Tea: And I do that finger wiggle that’s like half a wave.
Eryn: She waves with both hands to make sure she’s still balanced.
Angie: Yeah, so it’s just us for today. What kind of music should we do? I don't know where to start. It’s weird without Synthia here.
Valerie: Yeah, well, we were going to try each other’s styles and we can still do that and catch Synthia up when she’s back, hopefully.
Angie: Yeah, yeah, because Synthia played an instrument, right?
Karen: She can sing I think.
Eryn: Karen is scratching her head with both hands, trying to remember the first meeting.
Angie: Okay. She can sing we think.
Valerie: Well, that’s good. Uh, I sing too. As you saw, I have, um, you know, I can summon things and dance and I don’t really have an instrument but we can try that out. What do you do?
Angie: Um, I dance. I’m really good at breaking stuff. And, uh, making it all really sparkly. It looks really cool though.
Valerie: I’m sure we can make that work.
Dana: Valerie says, examining her fingernails.
Angie: I mean, obviously if you’ve watched anything like dance is super important in an Idol group, as you know. Anyway, maybe we can start with some warm ups and I guess we’ll see what each other can do. And we’ll go from there on how we can make this a group.
Valerie: Yeah, alright.
Eryn: And as the two of you are getting set up for some warm ups, you’re starting to limber up and do some stretches…
Tea: Do some stretches, yeah.
Eryn: In the middle of leaning forward to do some forward stretches, you hear a gaggle of footsteps rushing towards the door outside. At first you’re not sure if they’re coming for this door, because there’s a cluster of conference rooms in this wing of the school, but it soon becomes clear that they are right upon you and the door bursts open. And standing in the door frame are three exasperated figures... And I’m going to let them describe what they look like. So why don’t we first go to…
[rock guitar plays]
Maria: My name is Maria, she/her and hir/hirs pronouns. I’m playing Ann Davil, aka War Cry, who is a little bit different from the other kids at school. And by that I mean, she’s a 7-foot-tall stone golem built like a brick shit house. Her skin is made of granite. She has two bright green gemstones for eyes. She wears a long leather jacket with stones and spikes coming out of it every which way. So, yeah. Not exactly the delicate type. To be fair, even before she became what she is now, Ann cut an intimidating figure. She was what you would call a punk. She did the headbanging, had a mohawk of a different color every month, got in trouble at school all the time, and ran to the beat of her own drum. Whenever she changed into her stone form, tearing I up on her electrical guitar, she was the literal spirit of rock and roll in every way. And then that became a bit too true. Her powers gave her strength. The kind that got her out of the house when mom and dad were arguing too loudly. When this whole gender thing got to be too much. She could be stone. Unfeeling and powerful. Eventually she ignored the whole "don’t do it for a week straight or you'll get stuck" thing. Now? Suppose she’s got what she’s wanted, hasn’t she? Still, she didn’t run when she realized she was a girl. She didn’t run when she had to scrape and claw to get enough money for her first guitar. And she’s not running now that things are a bit more... rocky, so to speak. Most of her band mates abandoned her after the change. She went to her best friend Drew to support her. That helped a lot. Drew was sweet. Drew listens. He’s always got her back. That said, Ann does miss being part of a group. She wants to belong. Feel like part of a gang again. So she started thinking, maybe I should look for others like me. Others with power. Maybe they won’t run away from me. After a few days of thinking about it, Ann finally decided to check out the Idol Club. A little frilly and froufrou for her tastes, but worth a shot. She doesn’t plan to tell then why she’s really there. But as far as they’re concerned, she’s just there because she needs a new group. But inside, she’s hoping against all hope they won’t turn her away for having Transformed into... into this.
Eryn: Alright, and standing next to this stony, leather jacketed figure, we have…
[upbeat pop rock music plays]
Drak: My name is Drak, he/him pronouns, and I’ll be playing Jaiden Lott, a new grade 11 transfer student from the UK. He’s a sweet boy. About 5’10”, black with curly hair and a hi-top fade, and has the air of a giddy, excitable fanboy. He’s often seen sporting idol-themed shirts and accessories and will absolutely talk your ear off about his favorite groups if you let him. He grew up sharing music with his little sister. The two of them played being idols and sang their favorite songs together whenever they could. This was just the kind of escape from reality the two of them needed to get away from the way their family often struggled. While not exactly poor, the Lott family has always just barely gotten by, many thanks to the hard work of Jaiden’s mom and dad. When Jaiden was about 10 years old, he saw his dad pass out from being overworked. It was then that he decided, maybe if he became an idol, he could support his family and make sure they never have to work so hard again. Years later, at the age of 15, Jaiden’s powers finally manifested. He and his little sister were singing along to their favorite band, and something in that moment just felt... right. He felt the music so deeply in his soul that it seemed to literally burn within him. And... in fact, it did. Jaiden transformed into Elementum for the first time and let forth an uncontrolled burst of flames, accidentally burning his sister in the process. While she wasn’t badly hurt, Jaiden still feels guilty about that incident to this day. Still, now that he had powers, Jaiden decided he was ready to take the next step towards his idol dreams. He spent the next year and change saving up his allowance and money from odd jobs here and there, all so he could buy a ticket to Cadence, the heart of the superidol world. He has an Aunt in Cadence, a kindergarten teacher named Jen Corsair, who lives in the Fort McNally area. Now that he has the money, Jaiden has made the move, leaving his parents and little sister behind in the UK for the time being. He’s promised them that he will make them all proud someday. That soon, they’ll see his name up in lights, shining brighter than the brightest Nova.
Eryn: Alright, and last but not least, we have…
[Sharp electronic dance music plays]
Luca: My name is Luca, he/they pronouns, and I will be playing Queen Bee. No, she does not have any other identity. What nonsense are you talking about? She’s exactly what you see. A tall, confident young woman. Her hair is jet black and cut in a sharp, chin-length bob with a fade in the back. She’s white with slightly tanned skin and her eyes are gray with dark smokey makeup and a small beauty mole under her right eye. She wears a short black and gold jacket with a pattern that suggest stripes, along with a fitted black turtleneck, black leggings, high heeled black boots, and a few thin gold necklaces around her neck.
[music stops abruptly]
Luca: And that’s definitely all there is to Queen Bee. Again, why do you keep asking if there’s more? Queen Bee is Queen Bee. Sorry to kill your buzz, honey, but you just have to get used to the sting of disappointment.
Eryn: Yes, this is a bit of a surprise, we have three new player characters to introduce today. As I said earlier, Michelle has a bit of a scheduling issue. What we’re going to be doing going forward is we have introduced new player characters and we’re going to sort of rotate between the, in sort of arc fashion, going forward. Different arcs will feature different protagonists and we’ll have a grand ol’ time with everybody that way. And for now, we just have all of these people together in a room, not quite sure what to make of each other.
Drak: And I’m probably sweating like crazy because who goes on a scavenger hunt to find a room? They could have just told us. Who does that?
[laughter]
Eryn: Yes, I think Valerie and Angie, you kind of recognize the looks on their faces. It probably won’t take long for you to gather exactly what's happened here.
Tea: Okay, so, um, I feel like Angie’s doing that dancer stretch where they’re holding their foot up in a split over their head kind of thing while they’re standing so the just have that one foot that’s all the way up and she’s just looking really surprised. And she slowly slides her gaze over to Valerie with a WTF expression at first.
Dana: Valerie’s eyebrows are up wide. She’s doing the hands placed on your back leaned back stretch that would be used by anyone who’s never actually done stretches for physical exercise before. Her eyebrows are up like,
Valerie: Uh, he- hello?
Jaiden: Is this the place? Are we here? Why didn’t you just tell us where the room was?
Angie: Did you have to do a scavenger hunt?
Queen Bee: Yes, yes we did. Please don't tell me you have some clue to give us?
Ann: Ten hours.
Angie: No, no you’re in the right place. We had to do that too.
Tea: Angie puts her foot down.
Angie: Well, come in and welcome?
Eryn: Karen waves at you.
Karen: Hello new peoples, this is very exciting.
Jaiden: Do any of you have water? I really need water. I was not ready for this.
Tea: Yeah, Angie goes into her bag [bag unzips] and she pulls out, like, a pink reusable plastic water bottle and she just hands it over.
Jaiden: Thank you.
Eryn: And for convenience sake, since this is a conference room, I’m going to say it’s outfitted with a few things that you’d want during a long conference, including a watercooler.
Tea: Okay. In that case,
Angie: Water cooler is just over there.
Jaiden: Thank you. Thank you.
Drak: I just rush over. I just down half of the cup of water.
Angie: Yeah so the former president thought that a scavenger hunt would be a perfect team bonding exercise and a way to keep our practice area secret. Um, but nobody agreed that it was a fun team building exercise. So there’s that. My name’s Angie. I’m the co-president. And this is Valerie.
Valerie: I’m also the co-president.
Karen: And I’m Karen. I’m your cheerleader. I’m very excited for all of you.
Queen Bee: Charmed I’m sure.
Angie: Anyway, come in. Have some water.
Tea: She kind of shrugs at Valerie, but yeah.
Jaiden: Nice meeting you. I am Jaiden. Wait, did you say you’re both co-presidents? Is that a thing?
Angie: We had agreed that we’re both – we didn’t just want one president.
Valerie: Yes.
Karen: There was a bit of a thing that happened. It’s a long story.
Jaiden: Hm.
Angie: Yeah, Karen will tell you all about it later, won’t you Karen?
Karen: In as much detail as you want.
Jaiden: Sure.
Angie: Any detail that mentions how amazing I was through the whole thing and kept my cool the entire time basically, definitely didn’t overreact at all. And my hair was perfect. The usual stuff.
Karen: Angie lied about being the president at first, but she’s cool now.
Valerie: Oh no, she has a clipboard. She thinks that’s the same thing.
Tea: [laughs] Couldn't keep a straight face.
Angie: It’s a nice clipboard, okay?
Jaiden: It is a nice clipboard.
Queen Bee: I’ve seen better.
Valerie: And the pompom, it radiates authority. It really does.
Tea: That’s what I was going for with it when I picked it out. At the local dollar store.
Eryn: You absolutely don’t tell anybody about the local dollar store.
Tea: No. She definitely wouldn’t.
Angie: So tell us about yourselves.
Jaiden: I want to be an Idol, which I think is kind of obvious because I went through your entire scavenger hunt and found this place.
Angie: I take no responsibility for that scavenger hunt, by the way. I had no call on that. I know there’s pink on the paper but that was not me. I just want to make that clear that I hated it too.
Eryn: Karen reaches into her pocket and pulls out a handful of glitter and throws it into the air and says,
Karen: Congratulations, you did it.
Jaiden: Oh no, not glitter, that gets everywhere. Okay.
Angie: We’re still cleaning it up from last time.
Luca: I leap on the wall to avoid it.
[laughter]
Eryn: Oh so you’re showing off your powers right away. It’s not Unleash Your Powers because this is a very common use of it, but yeah.
Luca: I just grab a chair and then I sit on the wall. Like I’m holding the chair up but I’m trying to look very non-chalant as I do it.
Eryn: And Karen’s eyes light up at this. She’s like "Ooh" and she wanders over and starts poking at the chair and seeing how attached to the wall it is.
Angie: Oh that could be a cool effect for a stage show, don’t you think Valerie?
Valerie: Yes. Yes, we were actually just discussing what our group’s overall tone and sound should be. So I guess it’s a good thing you all got here when you did.
Jaiden: Have you guys decided on a sound? Are we still voting on that?
Angie: At this point we were just deciding – we were going to show each other some of the stuff we can do with our powers and our own abilities as performers. And then start to come up with ideas.
Jaiden: Okay.
Eryn: Karen pokes and prods at your chair again.
Karen: You’re very cool, what’s your name?
Queen Bee: I’m Queen Bee, honey.
Karen: Nice to meet you Queen Bee, I’m Karen.
Queen Bee: Pleasure.
Angie: And just to establish for no weird reason at all, but you all do go to this school, right?
[Eryn laughs]
Jaiden: Yes, yeah. I transferred today actually.
Angie: Oh! Congratulations and condolences.
Jaiden: Condolences? Is there… what do you mean?
Angie: Anyway, yeah, so okay, good. Everybody does go to this school and aren’t from another school with an Idol Club for any reason.
Queen Bee: No?
Ann: Been here since first year.
Angie: Oh! [pause]
Tea: She has no idea. She does that blank thing where she’s trying to remember where she saw you.
Eryn: And Karen does got a look of recognition.
Karen: Oh yes, I have seen you around. You are…
Eryn: She twirls her finger in the air.
Karen: You are…
Eryn: She doesn’t have a name on the tip of her tongue, but she knows she's seen you around.
Maria: Yeah Ann just looks at Karen and goes,
Ann: Ann.
Karen: Ah! Ann, of course. The legend.
Valerie: Oh, yeah, you were… always…
Tea: A legend?
Eryn: Mainly in the sense that she’s the only golem that goes to this school.
Tea: Okay, yeah, I guess she stands out.
Eryn: How long have you been a golem at this school? By the way. We should clarify.
Maria: Since the beginning of her current year.
Eryn: Oh. Okay. So Karen’s probably seen you in the hallway over the last few days.
Maria: Is that an issue?
Eryn: No, not at all.
Dana: Valerie kind of tilts her hand and says,
Valerie: Oh yeah, you weren’t always – I’m – I’m sorry, that’s… uh…
Ann: Finish what you were saying.
Valerie: You weren’t always the big stone... thing.
Ann: Yep.
Angie: The big stone on campus.
Karen: Exactly, the legend.
Maria: Ann looks at all of you with a glare and then proceeds with just kind of intentionally stomping which makes a lot of noise considering she's made of stone.
Eryn: It has only been a few days and Karen has in fact already decided that Ann is a legend.
Drak: Jaiden is looking at Ann like woah.
Jaiden: You’re a legend this whole time? Why did you say anything?
Maria: She just smiles and is like,
Ann: It’s what makes me a legend.
Jaiden: [awestruck] So cool.
Dana: Valerie looks over, mostly to change the subject, she looks over at Jaiden.
Valerie: And you are?
Jaiden: I’m Jaiden. When I’m transformed, I’m Elementum. But yeah I’m new. I’m from the UK so you probably haven’t heard of me.
Angie: Are you famous back in the UK?
Jaiden: No, not at all, no.
Angie: Oh, okay.
Jaiden: I’m hoping to eventually. But not right now.
Valerie: Well that’s what we all are hoping.
Karen: You’re all going to be superstars. I’m going to make sure of it.
Dana: Thank you.
Angie: Thanks Karen.
Jaiden: Wait I thought Karen, is she the manager? I thought she was just our cheerleader.
Angie: She is, yeah. She’s our cheerleader.
Eryn: She whips out a pair of light sticks from her other back pockets and clicks them on.
Angie: We haven’t decided on an official fan color for our group. So Karen has been trying out different ones the whole time and we’re seeing how we respond to them. I want it to be pink, but Valerie, of course, wants it to be dark purple. Which also is cool but not as cool as pink. So we’re still discussing.
Eryn: So she’s got one set to pink and one set to purple right now.
[All chuckle]
Jaiden: I’m fine with any color. I can mix and match pretty well. I’ll leave it up to you for that kind of stuff. You seem to know your aesthetics.
Angie: It’s more for what our light sticks would look like for our fans – because we’re all going to have fans come and see us. And in concert they need to have unified colors so we know they’re cheering for us.
Queen Bee: Then my vote is for pink.
Tea: I’m just nodding like "Ah, I like you."
Eryn: Karen clicks the purple light stick to pink very dutifully.
Jaiden: I mean, purple is kind of nice as well. But…
Eryn: Purple goes on again.
Valerie: Since we’re doing proper introductions, I am Valerie, as Angie said before.
Dana: And then I’m also going to transform.
[Gothic electric guitar music plays]
Eryn: Ooh. The move we are doing is Transformation Sequence. When you begin your transformation, say what it looks like and what drives you to enter your empowered form. You gain access to all of your powers and shift any two of your labels. You cannot transform if you have four or more conditions marked. I’m going to say, Valerie, your Afraid from a while back has cleared by now.
Dana: Alright.
Eryn: So what drives you to enter your empowered form right now?
Dana: I want to show off and impress the new members to the club.
Eryn: Very good. What label shift do you think would be most appropriate for that?
Dana: Shifting Superior up and Savior down.
Eryn: Do it.
Dana: Okay.
Eryn: Alright, what is everybody’s reaction to this?
Angie: I’ve seen it before, so I do think it’s really cool, but I’m trying to play it off like I’m not that impressed.
Luca: Yeah me too. Queen Bee is affecting being unimpressed but it was cool.
Drak: I’m just like, I’m staring, like woah.
Eryn: Queen Bee is unimpressed, Jaiden extremely impressed. Ann, how about you?
Maria: Ann is trying to keep her emotions at bay, but even she’s a bit impressed by this and it’s fairly obvious.
Eryn: Okay. You get a little bit of energy from the crowd, especially from Jaiden. I think you get a bit less of a response from the others than you would like.
Drak: Jaiden is definitely already a huge fan of you, even though you just met, just from that transformation.
ViVi: Now of course, as you all know, there’s protections for superidol identities, but in my case, I have a strict NDA that I’ll need you to observe and not tell anyone my identity, but as an idol I’m also known as Violence Violet.
Jaiden: Violence Violet. I like that.
ViVi: Or ViVi for short.
Jaiden: Is it okay if I call you ViVi?
ViVi: It is perfect.
Jaiden: I guess I want to transform now.
Eryn: Alrighty. So we will do the same thing here. Tell us what drives you to enter your empowered form?
Drak: Um, right now I’m just trying to be as cool as Valerie.
Eryn: Understandable. I think you probably will be. What label shift do you think is most appropriate for that?
Drak: I think it would be – I would do the same label shift as Valerie. Superior up and Savior down.
Eryn: That makes perfect sense. Superior up, Savior down. You also get to tell us what this transformation looks like.
[ethereal music plays]
Drak: Right now he looks very unassuming. Everything he’s wearing is very plan. Nothing odd about him, but he just, he’s very tall for a normal guy. It feels like a breeze at first, but then the breeze picks up faster and faster around him and it becomes a mini tornado. And it whips up any dust or dirt on the ground, it whips up everything.
[music shifts to rock]
Drak: And then it all suddenly catches fire, so he’s in the middle of a flaming tornado. And just as suddenly as the flames started, they’re extinguished by this sudden downpour of water. And it fills the world with steam. And when the steam disperses, he’s in his idol costume, which is a short sleeved tailcoat suit, very steampunk-esque. He’s got gold trimmings where the rest is black, and the tail of his coat changes color. It’s red, orangish-brown, blue, and white. And it keeps alternating between those colors. And then he stomps his foot down. He’s wearing thick combat boots and he stomps his foot down and a pillar of earth and rock come up from the ground. And he punches his first a bit, and when he puts his fist back again he’s holding a pair of onyx black drumsticks. And yeah, that’s his transformation.
Eryn: Ahh that’s so cool!
Tea: That’s awesome.
Maria: That is awesome.
Luca: Nice.
Eryn: I should say the earth that comes out during your transformation sequence is just the aesthetic as part of the transformation itself – it’s not the actual ground right?
Drak: No, it’s not the actual ground.
Tea: There’s just this hole in the ground now.
Eryn: This is part of the Sailor Moon-esque aesthetic thing that pops up.
Drak: Yeah.
Eryn: I think Karen is going to see this and think there’s going to be a bunch of gravel to sweep up, so she’s gone to grab a broom from the corner.
Elementum: Karen, it’s fine, it’s fine. The ground is fine.
Karen: Oh. You’re very fast at that.
Elementum: Thank you.
Drak: And then I look to Valerie just to see if I get the approval.
Dana: Yeah, she looks impressed.
ViVi: Oh that—very nice, very cool.
Eryn: Does anyone else have a specific reaction to it?
Tea: I’m like appraising. Just nodding approvingly.
Luca: I’m trying very hard not to not sell it, but kind of feeling it was pretty cool.
Eryn: Are you crossing your legs on your chair on the wall?
Luca: Yeah.
Eryn: And Ann?
Maria: When Jaiden punched the rock, Ann instinctively stepped back.
Drak: Oh no, I forgot about that.
Maria: You can tell she’s obviously impressed.
Eryn: The three of you that came in just now, do you think you developed and kind of vibe or a bond during the scavenger hunt before this? Are you friendly or still unsure about each other?
Drak: I think I’m overly friendly. I’m everyone’s biggest fan already. I don't know if everyone is okay with it.
Eryn: I love it.
Dana: Valerie is very okay with that.
Tea: I think we like being admired.
Eryn: And Ann and Queen Bee?
Luca: Queen Bee is still trying to look cool because everyone has more experience than her and she doesn’t want to look like a newbie so she might miss the boat on the friendship.
Eryn: Valerie, I feel you would recognize this look possibly.
Tea: Maybe.
Luca: How has Ann been reacting to Jaiden’s overly friendliness?
Maria: Put off might not be the right word but she’s kind of used to guarding herself since changing and not getting close to anyone besides the one friend she has. So she tends to answer most things with one-word answers and whatnot.
Eryn: Fair.
Maria: So she’s kind of closed off and probably is aware that it’s not the best way to be but is kind of unaware of how else to be.
Drak: Yeah, when I transform I’m like,
Elementum: In this form I’m Elementum. I guess I can summon elements. Fire, water, earth, and air.
Valerie: Cool.
Eryn: Karen is searching for more light sticks with different colors to represent this.
[All laugh]
Eryn: She’s rummaging around in a backpack nearby.
Elementum: Yeah. The tail of my tailcoat changes color depending on what the last element I used was.
Angie: Cool.
Eryn: Is anybody else going to transform? I know Queen Bee’s already transformed.
Tea: Yeah, Angie is going to transform.
[Electronic boom bap music plays]
Tea: Hers is a lot simpler than everyone else’s I think. She just kind of smirks and puts her hands into fists and punches them together in front of her. And these sparkly gloves show up. And she does a cool flip that ends in her on one of those – you know when you land on the ground and it’s cool pose.
Drak: The superhero landing.
Tea: Yeah. One of her feet is out. And she punches the ground. And then she’s transformed and there’s fireworks everywhere like pew pew. But it’s all a visual aesthetic.
Drak: Jaiden is eating it up. Jaiden loves it. He’s applauding like,
Jaiden: That was great, awesome. Awesome. You guys are so awesome.
Angie: Yeah, well.
Tea: And I flip my ponytail back.
Angie: It’s whatever.
Eryn: Unfortunately, Ann cannot transform because she is The Transformed. She's—That’s my secret, I’m always transformed.
[hard rock music plays]
Maria: Ann just kind of walks up and it looks like she’s making a big scene, like she’s about to transform, and looking like it, and just goes,
[music stops abruptly]
Ann: Nah, this is kind of my always, so no lightshow for me. War Cry is my name. I’m really strong, really tough, and really not someone you want to piss off.
Maria: And as she turns, one thing you wouldn’t have noticed when she first entered is she has writing on her back. In kind of a red fabric style on the back of her leather jacket it says, “The Devil Inside Me – The Devil Inside You – The Devil Inside Us All” written on the back.
Eryn: Karen gives a very respectful nod like,
Karen: Ah, I see you know him too.
[All laugh]
Maria: She takes like a really comedic step away from Karen.
[cartoon slide whistle sound]
Eryn: She’s still rummaging for light sticks. She’s got light sticks now.
Tea: I could definitely see her saying it offhand, flippantly, like, "Ah yes, the Devil, I know him well. Where are these other colors?"
Eryn: She’s got a pink one, a purple one, a blue one, an orange one, a white one, a green one.
Angie: Okay, new plan for the light stick. What if it’s just rainbow colors and it just changes in the audience?
Drak: That’s a good idea.
Tea: And then everybody can get their color if they want and we just have these really cool light sticks. We’re the rainbow light stick people.
Karen: Everyone can have their own color maybe.
ViVi: Think we could get all the light sticks to coordinate in the audience?
Karen: Absolutely.
Eryn: She puts three light sticks in each hand and holds them between her fingers like real Wota do.
Angie: That will do for now. But when we get really famous, we’ll be able to get those designed where they can connect to the concert and change colors in the concert.
Karen: Oh!
Elementum: Oh yeah.
Eryn: Karen is writing notes on her hand right now.
Tea: Out of Character, that’s what the BTS concerts do. Their light sticks actually coordinate with the concert lights.
Eryn: Oh.
Dana: Ooh.
Eryn: See I’m going mainly on like J-Pop idol concerts where everyone has their own light stick and they manually switch the colors themselves.
Tea: Yeah, yeah, yeah that’s where I got the inspiration. We could have the light sticks change color based on what we want when we’re rich and famous.
Eryn: Karen is basically noting “special order light stick control system.” She takes her job very seriously.
Angie: So, what’s our, uh, what’s our budget for that stuff Karen? Can we afford a special-order light stick color coordination system? We’re going to abbreviate that later.
Karen: No. But I think I can wrangle something up. Just let Karen take care of it.
Valerie: Okay, thanks Karen.
Karen: Sure.
Jaiden: Am I the only one that’s worried about the way she said that?
Angie: Uhhh. You get used to it.
Valerie: I try not to worry about it.
Eryn: She gives a lazy smile at everybody and raises up the light sticks in everybody’s colors.
Angie: Yeah we just kinda... Sometimes it’s just better not knowing, you know?
Jaiden: Okay.
Valerie: If we do end up needing something like that, I’m sure I could talk to my agent and try to acquire something like that.
Jaiden: Ooh, you’ve got an agent. How do you get an agent?
Valerie: Oh, uh,
Dana: Valerie breaks eye contact and is like,
Valerie: Oh, uh, there’s a lengthy contract. I’m not sure if I can really share. But I’ll see if I can get you that information.
Jaiden: Thank you. It sounds very official and I want to put the right foot forward for this kind of stuff.
Angie: Yeah, I’m self-managed right now so I don’t have an agent yet. But you know, I’ll probably get offers soon.
Queen Bee: Yeah, same.
Jaiden: Hasn’t Valerie offered to get you an agent?
Angie: No.
Tea: [giggling] So hard to keep a straight face with this tense.
Angie: I’m sure that’s just an oversight on her part.
Valerie: Oh I didn’t realize you needed one.
Angie: Anyway!
Tea: She looks at her clipboard.
Angie: Does anyone want to show off their powers a little bit? I’m pretty good at punching stuff and breaking stuff, but my primary skills are dance. So that’s what I can bring to the stage, dancing and singing.
Eryn: Oh, also, before you get into that, I’m going to retcon a little bit. I’m going to say some of the information that Ms. Doyle passed on to you about this room is actually, it does have a basic power protection system, shielding to make sure you don’t destroy the room every time you use your powers. This is standard stuff for superidol things in the world now. It’s fairly common to have this tech around where superidols are operating. The school system isn’t advanced because they don’t have the money for it so you probably don’t want to test your luck with it too much. But it can, like, protect the room from basic bursts of power and whatnot.
Tea: Mm-hm.
Angie: But yeah, you need me to punch something, I’m your girl. Otherwise I’m really good at dancing and working at my singing.
Jaiden: I’m pretty good at dancing, I think. My skills are more instrumental though. I can play the drums really well and I’m pretty okay at the keyboard and piano.
Angie: Oh wow.
Valerie: Oh good.
Angie: That’s awesome.
Queen Bee: A triple threat.
Karen: Super cool.
Angie: What about you Queen Bee?
Queen Bee: I’m a dancer by trade and would you mind opening a window?
Angie: Uh, yeah, Karen, can you open the window?
Eryn: Karen gives a little "aye aye" salute with her three light sticks in her fingers and moves over to the window and pushes it up.
Luca: Okay, Queen Bee tries to do a complicated dance step in three dimension and at the same time tries to call the bees for the final flourish. Do I have to roll?
Eryn: I’m going to say yes because you’re overcoming an obstacle, the obstacle is don’t look like a fool.
Luca: Perfect, okay.
Eryn: So I’m going to say that’s an Unleash Your Powers, so that’s plus Freak.
Luca: Okay so rolling two D6 plus zero.
Dana: Yes, that’s a nine.
Luca: Perfect, all good.
Eryn: Okay, so with a 7-9 with Unleash Your Powers, you either mark a condition or I will tell you how the effect is unstable or temporary.
Luca: I'll go with unstable or temporary.
[Electronic bass beat plays]
Luca: So the idea is that while I do a quick dance routine, a swarm of bees come streaming into the room from the window and dance around me until I stop on pose.
Eryn: So you definitely do that. So you do your routine, we’ll play some fittingly buzzy pop music in the background here. And you do that, you pull that off, it’s very impressive. The only thing that goes wrong is once you’re done and you’re posing at the end in a very cool fashion, when you try to dismiss the bees, they kind of just hang around for longer than you’d like and drift around closer to the other club members.
Queen Bee: Okay, so, don’t worry guys. They’re just – they’re very friendly. Just don’t startle them. You can just pretend they’re not there, okay?
Angie: Uh…
Queen Bee: Does anybody have allergies? I should have asked.
Jaiden: Yes, I have a bee allergy. Um. One’s on my face, can you... one’s on my face...
Angie: Uhhhhhh.
[Eryn giggles]
Tea: I’m standing very still while they’re buzzing around me. Just like don’t make any sudden moves.
Eryn: Queen Bee, I’m going to ask you to roll to Defend Someone.
Luca: Yeah.
Eryn: So you’re going to roll plus Savior on this.
Luca: Good thing I have a positive Savior.
Eryn: Perfect.
Tea: Ooh.
Eryn: So you got a 10 on that. So on a …
Luca: So I pluck every bee from their face.
Eryn: You keep them same and you choose one from the following list. You can either add a team to the pool, take Influence over the person you protect, or clear a condition. You don’t have any conditions so it would be one of the first two.
Luca: I think I’m going to take Influence.
Eryn: Alrighty. Yeah we haven’t done Influence for the rest of you. We’re probably going to do that at the end of session here. But for now we can say you’re taking Influence over Jaiden. So Jaiden, you want to mark down that Queen Bee has Influence over you.
Jaiden: Yeah.
Luca: As I pluck the bees from your face.
Eryn: How do you defend against this bee that is on Jaiden’s nose?
Luca: I just very sternly tell the bee to stay still, grab it with two fingers, and carry it to the window.
Eryn: Right. And at this time I think the other bees are getting the sense that, like "Oh, we're not needed anymore" finally.
Queen Bee: Yes, you did wonderfully. I’ll see you at the next rehearsal. Go, go, go.
Eryn: Do they make a special swarm formation on their way out?
Tea: "I’ll see you at the next rehearsal," that’s great.
Luca: They don’t really respond that much.
Eryn: Okay so they just fly out the window basically. Maybe a couple stragglers stick around for a minute or two, but they eventually leave.
Luca: Yes. Also I discreetly put out some water and sugar outside the window.
Eryn: I totally believe you have this on hand. This is something that happens a lot.
Luca: I have some sugar bags.
Angie: Could we put light sticks on the bees?
[Eryn laughs]
Jaiden: Genius. That is genius.
Angie: Like, what if we, you know—just little lights that wouldn’t be too troublesome for them…
Queen Bee: It’s possible.
Angie: … and they flew around the audience in all our colors.
Queen Bee: Or we can do something reflective. Something lighter.
Angie: Oh yeah.
Queen Bee: Dip them in glitter.
Eryn: Karen’s eyes light up.
Karen: Disco Bees
Queen Bee: Yes.
Angie: Disco Bees.
Maria: Ann doesn’t say it out loud but she’s also thinking "Disco Bees".
[all laugh]
Eryn: If this were a comic, there would be a thought bubble over Ann’s head thinking exactly that.
Tea: Yeah I feel it’s one of those moments where we’re all on the same page and we’re all nodding at each other.
Dana: Everybody nodding.
Eryn: A group thought bubble where the tails go to everybody’s head. And there’s a little image of a bee in bell bottom pants doing the John Travolta pose.
[all laugh]
Eryn: Okay.
Angie: Everyone, I think this is going to work.
Jaiden: Me too. No one has done disco bees before. I think that’s going to be a thing.
Angie: Wow, Queen Bee, you’re such a huge asset to this team.
Queen Bee: Thank you.
Tea: And I say that kind of reluctantly because I feel I was more Tea than Angie there.
Eryn: You’re trying to be a good co-president to the new members.
Tea: That’s true, that’s true. She has been very consistent with hyping up the team. Because she does need them to get rich again, so.
Eryn: Naturally.
Drak: I want to show off my stuff as well, actually.
Eryn: Yeah, go for it. We can probably do an Unleash for you as well then.
Drak: Yes. Um, this is a bit of a question, do I have to use my Burn?
Eryn: That’s a good question. Let me look at the Nova sheet specifically.
Dana: You don’t have to use your Burn unless you’re using one of those Flares.
Drak: Oh, I kind of want to, but it’s risky. I’m going to do it. I’m going to use my Burn.
Tea: Ooh.
[record scratches]
Eryn: Hey, slight sidebar from me in the editing bay. For those listening who are not familiar with Masks, what we are referring to here is a core mechanic of Jaiden’s character playbook The Nova. The Nova gets a move called Burn. How that works is you roll 2D6 and add the number of conditions your character currently has to whatever the result is. Depending on your total, you get Burn points. And those Burn points can be spent to use special abilities called Flares. Now Flares are cool because depending on the Flare, you can either do something awesome with your powers that automatically succeeds or you can roll with Freak instead of some other label which is good for a Nova because they usually have a pretty high Freak label. A Nova can roll up Burn points whenever they want to charge up their powers and they can keep those Burn points until the end of the current scene. When rolling up Burn on a 10+ you get 3 Burn points. On a 7-9 you still get 3 Burn points but also mark a condition. And on a 6-, you get 2 Burn points and have to mark 3 conditions. So Burn is a move that technically always pays out, even on a miss, but it’s still very risky because the Nova can rack up conditions very fast this way and, well, burn out. So yeah, that’s basically what we’re doing here, I’ll let you get back to the show now.
Drak: My luck isn’t great with the Masks system, I want to say that in advance... Oh.
Eryn: Ooh.
Tea: Oh.
Eryn: Um, and I don’t know if anybody can necessarily help you with this.
Drak: Yeah so on a miss I still hold two Burn.
Eryn: But you mark three conditions.
Drak: Three conditions, yeah.
Eryn: Which conditions do you think are the most appropriate for this situation?
Dana: I think Valerie might be able to help?
Eryn: Oh yes?
Dana: Yeah just because Elementum has actually been approving and excited and she actually likes this person.
Eryn: How is Valerie helping?
Dana: I think she’s being encouraging and saying,
Valerie: Oh can you show us what you can do? I expect it will be equally as impressive.
Eryn: I think that’s fair.
Valerie: Which, for Valerie, is very excitable high praise.
Eryn: I will say you only had one Team in the pool so that brings you down to zero Team.
Dana: Fair enough.
Drak: In that case I…
Eryn: So you get a hit. On 7-9 you mark one condition and you get your Burn.
Drak: One condition. I think it might be Guilty because of what he’s about to do.
Eryn: Oh good.
Drak: So I think what it looks like is, again, he stomps on the ground. But this time it’s not for show. He does kind of crack the ground and create a bit of a hole.
Eryn: Which Flare is this?
Drak: Worship.
Eryn: Ooo.
Drak: So he stomps on the ground and basically a set of drums made out of pure rock erupt out of the ground. And he basically does a quick, mini, drum solo.
[drum solo plays]
Drak: And he gets really into it. It gets louder and louder and louder. And he kind of loses himself in it. He forgets anyone’s there. He keeps going and going. And then remembers that there are people watching.
Eryn: I will say, it looks like Worship happens when you Unleash Your Powers, but I’m going to say rule of cool right here. I’m just going to let you do it, especially because we just rolled for Burn and went through that whole rigamarole.
Drak: Okay. He does a little cool drum solo for maybe a bit too long. And realizes what he’s done and that people are probably waiting to show off their powers and he suddenly stops.
Eryn: Yeah. But with Worship, you do awe your audience into silence, respect, and attention. Everybody very much respects what you just did.
Tea: I think we’re all silently stunned.
Drak: And the rock drum set descends back into the ground. And there’s probably a crackle.
Tea: But the ground’s still broken right?
Eryn: The tech in the room will rebuild it eventually, but again it’s not very good, so it will take a while.
Drak: Yeah I don’t think he knows that.
Eryn: It will be overnight. Overnight it will be back to normal.
Drak: He doesn’t know that, so he feels really bad about it.
Eryn: There’s a long silence after this and I think Karen is the first to break it. She raises up her light sticks and goes,
Karen: Woohoo. Go Jaiden.
Drak: He lets out a sigh of relief because he thought everyone went silent because it was terrible.
Eryn: Aww.
Dana: Aww.
Drak: So he’s like phew. Okay.
Jaiden: I was really nervous about that. But yeah, That’s some of what I can do.
Angie: And you can also play other instruments on top of that?
Jaiden: I can kind of play the keyboard but I’m a lot stronger with the drums.
Valerie: That’s very impressive.
Angie: Okay. Does anybody else play any instruments?
Maria: Ann raises a hand and in her other hand she brings up a very ornate guitar. Not ornate but you know those guitars that are shaped more like a triangle than round at the bottom?
Eryn: Yeah, yeah.
Tea: Yeah, yeah.
Dana: Mm.
Maria: Kind of like that. And she’s like,
Ann: Do I go now? Do I wait for a gun to go off, or...?
Angie: Just do it. Show us what you’ve got.
Maria: Is this Unleash My Powers? Do I describe it first?
Eryn: Is this your powers, or just your guitar skill?
Maria: I don’t think giving myself super strength will help much for a musical ability.
Eryn: So you’re controlling your powers. I don't know if that’s unleash necessarily. But I don’t think anything else works. We’ll call it unleash and say you’re controlling you're controlling your super strength in order to play the fingering necessary for the guitar so you don’t break the strings.
Maria: Ooh.
Tea: Ooh.
Eryn: Hey.
Tea: Nailing it.
Eryn: That is a 10. You absolutely shred but without literally shredding your strings.
Maria: I imagine before Ann starts playing, she comes off very guarded and slow and keeping track of everything she does. But when she starts playing she kind of loses herself completely. Moving and thrashing and stomping, going buckwild completely.
[rock guitar riff plays]
Eryn: Nice. And also I’m going to say right before you started, Karen’s rolled over an amp or a speaker or something, whatever an electric guitar needs to sound better. You assume there’s just sound equipment in this room because the school knows it’s for the Idol Club. So you are able to play at full, impressive capacity. And of course I am playing a sick royalty-free guitar lick in the background right now.
Drak: Jaiden’s applauding.
Tea: Angie’s applauding too.
Angie: Wow.
Tea: Shaking her head in impressed awe.
Dana: Valerie is nodding approvingly.
Queen Bee: Slow clap.
Maria: For the first you kind of see Ann genuinely smiling. Not a smart or a dry one, just a genuine one. Like, "I did good."
Angie: That was awesome.
Karen: Sick.
Ann: Yeah I’m good on guitar.
Jaiden: God we’re going to be famous.
Karen: I told you, you’re all going to be superstars. You doubt me?
Angie: Not that. I just think you’re biased Karen. That’s all.
Karen: I think I have good reason to be.
Angie: Oh stop! [laughs] ...I’m just kidding, keep going.
Karen: Go everybody. Everybody’s cool. You’re all going to be famous and it’s going to work out.
Jaiden: We might have to work on that cheer, but…
Angie: We’ll work on it, yeah. Work in progress.
Eryn: Karen just smiles.
Angie: I have some cheerleader friends. I’m sure we can come up with some great fan chants.
Karen: Sure.
Angie: So we have a really awesome drummer and a really awesome guitarist. Out of us, who has the most experienced singing ability?
Valerie: Well I’ve been, of course, working on lessons all summer with my agency and all that. So here, you and I were getting ready to demonstrate to each other so we should do that as well.
Angie: Yeah.
Dana: And ViVi goes to her school bag and takes out her phone and sets it to play some symphonic metal to do her own song and dance routine.
Eryn: Nice. Do you think your powers are involved in enhancing this performance in any way?
Dana: In this case, yes. Absolutely. This is going to involve coordinating with her – summoning more phantom swords and coordinating with that.
Eryn: Okay. I think as we work through this we’re probably going to, like, probably have to workshop some of the moves to work with the Idol setting a bit more. I think Unleash Your Powers works for most of it because idol powers are going to be involved most times. But if you’re just doing a basic singing or instrument performance without extra enhancement, we might need a custom move for that possibly.
Luca: Would it be Superior Based or…?
Eryn: That might work.
Luca: We’re trying to impress somebody, I don't know.
Eryn: I do have a custom move already for the Beacon to substitute for the transformation for them, so I could make something based off of that move.
Dana: Alright so I’m going to roll to Unleash My Powers.
Eryn: Alrighty.
Dana: That is a 9.
Tea: Ooh.
Eryn: Okay, and unfortunately there is no team left so you are stuck at a 9. So on a hit you do it and you can either mark a condition or it’s unstable or temporary.
Dana: I’m going to mark a condition.
Eryn: What are we marking?
Dana: Insecure because "Oh no all of these other people are here and they’re really talented too."
Eryn: I think that makes a lot of sense.
Dana: So I’m pushing myself to show off.
[metal music plays]
Dana: So Valerie starts her routine which is a very aggressive combat-like dancing with the sword that she’s had in her hand since she transformed and other swords sort of spinning around her as she does a lot of spins, thrusts, and sort of moving her whole body back and forth like—turn and point sword and arm to one side and then flip and thrust on the other side. This swarm of phantom swords all snap from one side to the other. And her singing is – I can’t really sing, but it’s a very aggressive, driven, yelling sort of singing. The opposite of the bored sarcasm that she usually speaks with. So she ends this very emotional sort of combat dance routine and then dismisses the swords and takes the one that’s in her hand and drives it into the floor.
Drak: Jaiden again is clapping furiously. He’s absolutely loving everything. He's, like, at his own mini-concert and it’s great.
Eryn: Karen is raving.
Tea: I’m just like resigned nodding, like I already knew she was really cool.
Eryn: Yeah I guess you’re cool and stuff.
Tea: Yeah. That begrudging acknowledgement kind of thing.
Dana: It's the Super Smash Brothers second place clap.
Luca: Oh yeah yeah!
Eryn: That’s exactly it yes.
Luca: Got to do that too.
Maria: Ann’s eyes are shot wide open in surprise and awe.
Valerie: So, uh, as you can see, I have my own routine but I need to, um, get some backing or other people involved and adjusted for a group and original music.
Drak: When you say backing Jaiden excitedly waves his hands as if to say he can back you up with this.
Valerie: Good, good, perfect.
Eryn: Awesome. I think probably at this point all eyes turn to Angie who is the only one who has not performed yet.
Angie: Yeah, yeah, so, um, uh, well, I don’t have an agency or a lot of money. So I’ve just been doing vocal training from, uh, videos on the internet.
Tea: Um I didn’t want to say YouTube because I don't know if there’s a copywrite thing.
Drak: From IdolTube.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: Oh IdolTube is a thing.
Drak: Is it really?
Angie: Yeah IdolTube. From famous idol vocalist Starry Night Sky’s videos, that everybody of course knows exists.
Eryn: Naturally.
Jaiden: I know them.
Eryn: They are like one of the biggest superstars in North America I’m going to say.
Angie: And so kind and interested in the indie idol scene and helping idols get better. Their videos have been really helpful on my breathing control and stuff. But you’ll have to bear with me. I’m going to do a primarily dance-heavy routine.
Dana: Valerie nods.
Valerie: Oh okay.
Dana: And behind her back is writing this name down.
Tea: Yeah and I’m sorry, Starry Night Sky would totally be an idol name.
Eryn: Yeah, I can see them now. I can see a big flowing starry cape and long multicolored hair and that kind of thing.
Tea: Yeah they probably invented like the different lightshow that’s become really popular at concerts.
Drak: Yeah.
Tea: And you’re starting to realize I got all my ideas from Starry Night Sky shows.
Drak: Wait, wait a second.
Tea: This sounds familiar… Yeah. So I’m not sure what I would roll, because I’m not really going to break anything because I’m the Bull by the way, so I punch stuff and I beat stuff up martial arts style.
Eryn: I think... Actually, give me a sec, I’m going to pull up that custom Beacon move and see if I can pull something together real quick here.
Tea: Yeah sure.
Eryn: So for now this is a placeholder move. I’ll make a more formal move for this later. But for now I’m reading off of the Beacon’s custom move: It’s Time for my Solo, which is, whatever you lack in magical might you make up for in sheer gusto and/or talent. Whenever you put your heart into a performance or impassioned speech with the intent to evoke a specific reaction in one or more people, roll plus Savior.
Tea: Okay. Uh, my Savior is -1.
Eryn: Okay. I feel like I should give you a different label but I’ve already read it out so I’m going to go with it.
Tea: When I transform, do any of my labels change?
Eryn: Oh yeah, did you do your label shift when you transformed?
Tea: I did not, no.
Eryn: You can do that now then. Sorry I forgot to ask you.
Tea: Yeah.
Eryn: You can take advantage of that and raise your Savior if you want to.
Tea: Yeah I’m going to put my Danger down to 2 and increase my Savior so at least I don’t have a -1.
Eryn:
Tea: Yeah. And I’m going to roll, I hope I don’t bomb.
Eryn: You got an 8 on that. For this move, on a 7-9 all non-opponents in your audience react the way you want within reason and you take +1 forward on your next roll.
Tea: Okay.
Eryn: None of the people in this room are opponents, even if they aren’t necessarily your biggest fans, I wouldn’t call them your opponents. That’s more like enemies or rivals.
Tea: Yeah when we meet our version of the Misfits.
Eryn: Yes. Oh I have some ideas. So you sufficiently impress the people in the room and take +1 forward on your next roll.
[Hip hop/classical instrumental hybrid music plays]
Tea: Basically her interest in hip hop these days even though her background is ballet primarily and jazz and the classical styles, hip hop is the kind of dance that has a lot of street cred if you will, so it’s easy to go and find places where you can go and learn how to do hip hop for free as opposed to the other styles. But you can kind of see the fluidity of classical dance in her moves mixed with the sharp moves with hip hop in its own unique fusion. And of course there are fireworks whenever she makes a cool move.
Drak: Jaiden is, again, definitely applauding. His hands are probably sore by now, but he doesn’t look like he’s letting up at all.
Tea: Yeah and I’m still standing in the ending pose panting, and then I stop and do a little bow.
Jaiden: That was freaking awesome.
Angie: Oh, um, thanks.
Tea: I flip my ponytail again.
Dana: Now it’s Valerie’s turn to do the second-place clap. Like, alright, yes, that was actually quite good.
Drak: I think I’m standing right next to Valerie so they’re doing second place clap and I’m just applauding like crazy for contrast.
Tea: It’s so adorable, I love your character.
Eryn: Alright, and as you’re all finishing up and applauding each other and feeling good about everything, actually the door bursts open one more time and you see a very excited looking Ms. Doyle in the doorframe and she’s smiling brightly at everybody and she announces,
Ms. Doyle: Guess what everybody? You have a gig!
Eryn: And that’s where we’re going to leave it.
Dana: Ooh.
Drak: Oh my god!
Tea: Oh my god.
Maria: Aw, that’s awesome.
[Ending Theme Song Plays (Upbeat Rock Music)]
Eryn: Thank you so much for listening to SuperIdols RPG. Our cast for today was Dana Lexa as Valerie Pearce, Theawinde as Evangeline Blake, Maria Fanning as Ann Davil, Drakoniques as Jaiden Lott, Luca as Queen Bee, and ErynCerise as the GM. Special thanks go to today’s featured VIP Patrons: Apple, Tamiko N, Circus, Nao, and Sensei1477. This campaign is played using Masks: A New Generation, written by Brendan Conway and published by Magpie Games, with custom moves by ErynCerise and Zak P. Our opening theme is "Le Chevalier Noir (Instrumental)" by Cyborgjeff and is used under license from Jamendo Music. Our ending theme is "Born to Drive Me Crazy (Instrumental)" by Lance Conrad. This song and all other music for this episode are royalty free tracks under license from Audioblocks.com, with the exception of "Gothic Dark", a Creative Comments track by Peritune. This episode also uses additional music and sound effects from freesound.org.
If you liked this episode, please consider liking and commenting on the YouTube upload, or leaving us a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stick around for a teaser from a podcast we highly recommend, Brits on Bikes. Thank you again for listening, stay well, and goodbye until next time.
[Begin podcast promo]
[trumpet fanfare]
Announcer: In other news, it appears that Marsh Haven is on the up after those good eggs over at MondoCorp have done it again by announcing a…
[static]
Mysterious Voice: Hello?
[static]
Announcer: …fifty new jobs once they open the doors to the Pheonix Plaza.
[static]
Mysterious Voice: Hello?
[static]
Announcer: Various boutiques at the plaza burst a new exhibition.
[static]
Mysterious Voice: Can you hear me?
[static]
Announcer: Famous Peet Mummy, and a much needed cash injection at the local secondary school, Anna Kingsford Com…
[static]
Mysterious Voice: Hello. Look, if you can hear this, then maybe all is not lost. Marsh Haven is not the place you think it is. It has secrets, and there doesn’t seem to be a sane adult within 100 miles of the place who wants to know. [incomprehensible whispering happens underneath] Look, just spread the word. The kids are doing the best they can, but the country needs to know. The world needs to know that…
[static]
Host: Brits on Bikes is an Actual Play Podcast powered by the Kids on Bikes RPG. Listen on your preferred Podcatcher and follow us on Twitter @Brits_Bikes. Keep on biking.
Transcription by Cassie Hauschildt: https://www.chtranscription.com/
Proofreading by ErynCerise
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