u/CardInternational753

Everyone ignore my last post. It's my first day on Reddit and as Travis' personal planted jerker but I wasn't meant to post that for realsies and I don't know how to delete Reddit posts.

I propose we only refer to it as 'Taztanic'

Okay, this is officially my first post on reddit because I believe that the following is very important after listening to the ‘final’ episode of The Adventure Zone: Royale.

So a few hours before the airing of Episode 30 we this article on radio times.

The important part is the last half of the article:

>‘“Must be something comforting about the number three,” says Rictus. “People always give up after three…” before revealing that he has hidden another device in the walking stick Lorovith brought into the room earlier.Knowing that they might not be able to get the increasingly busy Travis McElroy and Rachel the Editor back together to record more Royale for the foreseeable future, did show creators Griffin McElroy and Jesse Thorne take the opportunity to record an extra episode while they had the chance?If so, when would it air?’

Okay, nothing new there but then it comes:

>‘The schedules for Thursday 1st October show that TAZ has something called Crawler on at 9pm. But then if they wanted to keep the secret, the McElroy team would hardly advertise it in the listings would they? And anyway, perhaps they’re saving it as a surprise for later in the year. So is this a possibility? Could there really be a 31st episode of Royale, a farewell gift to fans? Well, no… not according to Griffin McElroy, who was unequivocal when the question was put to him.“It doesn’t reflect the fact that there’s gong to be a 31st episode – for heaven’s sake, what kind of secrets do you think we’re keeping?!“Let’s go home and check. Oh look Episode 31… the lost special…"‘Okay, nothing new there but then it comes

Let’s look at that sentence again: ‘The schedules for Thursday 1st October show that TAZ has something called Crawler on at 9pm.’

So the supposedly last episode of Royale just aired and there was no mention of an additional episode before less alone a possible date for it and now radio times publishes an article that links the McElroys to the yet to be aired TAZ mini series Crawler.

Note that is is the only source out there that makes a connection between Royale and Crawler.

So what do we get when we search for Crawler on the MaxFun’s website?

Just one episode is listed for 1 October at exactly 9 pm. Even though the mini series is supposed to have 4 episodes in total.

Does the number 4 ring a bell, anyone?

https://preview.redd.it/fqah1qwvtsih1.jpg?width=236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36924455e485070cbfde649dac0f30802e93bebe

And now have a look at the content description of Crawler’s first episode:

https://preview.redd.it/ysz5x712usih1.png?width=247&format=png&auto=webp&s=3990b4c894ec778c52847eec84c2a34f14a096da

I mean, come on, a doctor? An enigmatic stranger? More is at play (’It’s not a game anymore’)? This could be literally taken out of Royale.

And what are the names of the two leading actors in this book adaption? (That by the way is described on Amazon.com as ‘suspenseful, erotically charged, and masterfully paced (…) intelligent psychological thriller about desire and its consequences’)

The doctor is played by Jane Krakowski and the enigmatic stranger by Nathan Jones (who played Rictus Erectus in Mad Max: Fury Road).

It may seem far-fetched to assume that they would fake a trailer and pay actors to stay quiet about pretending to have played a mini series when nothing but the trailer actually happened in reality BUT.

But you never know with the producers of this show, do you?

My (very strong) guess is: In a few Thursdays we are going to see the ‘lost special’ that is going to make history.

I mean, let’s face it. Last week’s episode was not ‘podcast history’.

But hiding a 31st additional episode in ‘plain sight’ by disguising it as an episode of a mini series with a plot description that very well plays into the ‘insane wish fullfilment’ we have been promised? That’s genius.

>“I think you draw the eye with disguise,” (Justin) McElroy agreed. “It goes right back to the first episode – ‘the element of disguise is learning how to hide in plain sight’ is what Doober says, and that’s exactly what it’s all about.I could be totally wrong but then again I might not.

I could be totally wrong but then again I might not.

PLEASE SHARE!

Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy! Grif-fy!

Last time on Royale, Griffin's big twist was revealed - the Octave's been dead for hundreds of years and the Conclaves have been run for a majority of their existence by the AI the Octave set up to help solve the problems with the world without removing magic. The AI then promptly killed the Octave and has been culling the 'top wizards' ever since in order to fulfill its singular directive. Then the AI cast mass dominate person and declared the ensuing brawl the eighth trial. Skorpo died right at the end of the episode, inexplicably (in-universe at least) sacrificing himself to save Helgrammit from a Ray of Disintegration. That's where we pick things up.

Personal update first - Big week coming up for me. Four-day OF shoot out of state. Been in the works for a while but finally happening. Running the gauntlet of trying to find more collab partners who match my energy. Would really love to lock something down for my three-week trip to the East Coast next month but my pitch is kind of an intimidating one to a lot of potential people. In other news, commissioned the cover for my book - ow, says my bank account. Aiming for a self-published release around Halloween, but end of the year is the hard deadline. It's been a journey of like...2 years at this point. Wild to think about.

Nothing in the way of media recommendations. Lately, my partner and I have been watching a lot of Lifetime movies, which are always delightfully trash. If you like Lifetime movies, I would recommend Secrets of a Gold Digger Killer, which stars Julie Benz of Dexter fame.

Now onto some just trash. We know that the end of the season is coming because they have made the call for TTAZZ questions. Of course that means the TTAZZ could be coming in two weeks or six. But for now, seven aspirants remain and a prize has been promised to the last one standing.

• The episode is 90 minutes long, this might actually be the finale
• The 'previously on' is truly nonsensical
• "A shitty little lightning whip" - YOU CHOSE THIS AS YOUR SIGNATURE SPELL, JUSTIN.
• No one will be seated for the 'Helgrammit harvests pheromone glands' section
• Griffin says 'It's bug versus food, you try to Joey Chestnut it down' which is a wild mixed metaphor of pop culture references
• Helgrammit is stunned for not rolling good enough to eat the pheromone gland and god this is both boring and weirdly quiet, with large stretches of just complete silence in the background
• Justin finally does the thing we were all expecting and tries to turn on Doober out of self-preservation, which turns into the Justin McElroy Special - complaining about rolling a natural 1
• Oh God Justin does a weird Toad from Mario voice to do a flashback scene of young Lorovith and I nearly stop the episode
• Justin's Memory Mystery Tour allows him to reacquire all of his spells despite not having his bracer, so you just got have to wonder how whiny Justin was being off mic about not having any spells other than lightning lure to get Griffin to do that plot reversal
• We're nearly 30 minutes into this episode and we've done two fucking turns. God D&D combat is the worst thing huh?
• Rictus uses animate dead on some of the skeletons of the Octave. This apparently is a custom version of animate dead that returns some of the magic the long-dead skeletons once had to them. Very much rule of cool but also makes it feel like this spell should not be a third-level spell. Also speaking of that - Travis absolutely has no spell slots left at this point but of course, here we are. Here's the thing - I am not the most stringent about spell slots and the like, but what is the point of the narrative consequences of casting time stop if spell slot management doesn't matter? It's having your cake and eating it too - you don't get to LARP a narrative decision such as sacrificing your spell slots to cast your ace in the hole if your spells slot aren't being tracked
• "I'm looking at the 5th edition version" - That's great Travis, what you won't see there is anything that says that you can command these skeletons to cast spells, because that's just a thing that animate dead just doesn't do. I know the other sub really gets on us for nitpicking this but I think the best way I can describe it is that the McElroys' rule of cool usage is just so unsatisfying? The rule of cool, to me at least, translates as 'My player wants to do something that is just outside the bounds of the rulebook' or 'My player wants to attempt something that needs to be streamlined so that the mechanics of the game don't spoil their fun'. Meanwhile, the McElroys seem to interpet it as 'The rules are merely a suggestion of one way the game could be played. We don't like that so we're just going to invent our own game and play that instead'. And I think this ties into the previous point - there's nothing fun about Travis getting to cast spells well after his spell slots have been expended - he made a choice to sacrifice that resource, so it doesn't feel satisfying to hear him continue to just burn through his arsenal of spells. I think it's why I also don't find the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies especially satisfying - it's too much 'writing myself out of a corner' rather than finding a cool in-universe solution to the problem
• "The symbol you saw when you consulted Chris during the Conclave" - so like...5 times in 30 episodes?
• Chris is nerfed by Rictus' action and the dominate person spell ends
• OH GOD, IS MY 'YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO REFORM THE OCTAVE' PREDICTION ACTUALLY GOING TO COME TO FRUITION?
• So the original Octave weren't....good people. Chris told you that straight up. So resurrecting a member of that group shouldn't be a good idea. Of course that's expecting Griffin to do anything of stakes
• "Is this the finale? I don't know!" HEY GRIFFIN, YOU'RE THE DM
• A Besties live show sounds awful
• "We'll probably do TTAZZ next as we figure out what to do next" - instilling so much confidence in your brand. We are powering through ZOA: Rumble, by the way. The plan with that intricate shitpost is that we are trying to finish our Royale parody quickly enough that we can potentially 'get ahead' of the McElroys before their next season starts
• Oh god, Shmanners ad. Also it's really funny that their ad is very etiquette-centric given how increasingly not-equiette focused their episodes are
• The island is collapsing, Chris is mad, things are thinging
• I would love Griffin to explain how Akari the long-dead bug wife is talking to Helgrammit
• Hey Griffin, con save doesn't typically give you physiological insight into your own body. It's okay, it's the finale, Clint can die now
• Oh never mind, Helgrammit gets deus ex-machina'd again
• Clint is 'rolling to pupate' because what is even happening now
• God what is fucking happening
• Fuck it, moving to 4x speed
• It's so funny to me that this was pitched as a death game season. Just so so funny.
• So there are currently 7 survivors. I am trying to think of death games with such a high survival rate. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc comes close as I believe six students escape Hope's Peak (And those numbers drop with each subsequent game). Squid Games has survival rates of 1 per Game as far as we see. Battle Royale has 2... Yeah, I just personally would have never said the words death game and just gone with 'Wizard Tournament' because, I've said a few times on the other sub recently, the reason that people are mad with Royale is partially because we were advertised a death game and then just given a standard season of D&D. And this is why I really hate the other sub's 'This is just how the McElroys do things. If you don't like it, don't listen' and it's just such a weird argument. So I recently released a very blowjob-heavy scene on OF, and I market it as such. However, it would be fucking wild of me to advertise that scene as being an anal scene and then if someone was like 'But there's not any anal in it?" respond with 'Well that's just how I do my content. If you don't like it, you don't have to buy it.'
• Even at 4x speed, nothing is fucking happening holy shit. Griffin's 'final battle' always has to be a drawn out D&D combat encounter. It's all he knows.
• So the prize appears to be a single-use spell gem of Wish, which would have been perfectly fine if at any point, this had been mentioned as the endgame. Like holy shit Griffin what are you doing? Why wasn't this the whole season? 64 of the best wizards in the world come together to do fucking Bloodsport with magic in order to get a single cast of one of the most powerful spells in the entire game??????????????????????????????
• There are 24 minutes lefft. They begin debating who gets to use the wish stone
• Rictus volunteers to collectively cast the group's wish after Doober refuses. God give me fucking strength.
• Does this count as a 'reform not repeal' message? This feels like a reform not repeal message
• Helgrammit, who came into this campaign as selfish and evil, doesn't make a play for the wish because evolving has given him the power that he desired. But then in comes Bug Wife Akari with the late Lady Macbeth play to try and convince him to take the wish for himself? God I hate this
• Helgrammit rejects his wife for reasons. I guess the tyranny was inside him all along
• Doober basically resets the world with the wish spell. What a boring fucking conclusion.
• Anime fans - what ended worse? Royale or Chainsaw Man?
• Wooooooooooow, this is a rushed fucking ending huh? Griffin wanted this shit OVER
• Doober rejects Lorovith as a father figure
• GOD THERE ARE SIX MINUTES, THIS ISN'T GOING ANOTHER EPISODE, RIGHT?
• God they do not give a shit, huh? What a fucking ending.
• TTAZZ I guess next time? I'll save my closing thoughts until then

And they even brought them up in the prequel Travis wrote. WHY DID THEY LEAVE IT OUT!? I was really looking forward to that part and they just made it about Rainier. Which Rainier kicks ass, don't get me wrong. I just really loved that bit in the podcast where bingus saves the day from the bummer police.

UPSET

I never thought I’d be emotional over fucking Scorpo! But Big Johnny and Tony Two Chains said that if I didn't express my love for the season, Travis had given them instructions to break my kneecaps! Even when I told them it's my fave D&D podcast right now, they still left me with a ruptured kidney (They called it the 'Ditto Special').

I know Royale didn’t catch everyone right away but please give it another shot! They said if the next episode doesn't go number one on the Poob charts, they're coming back for my spine!

The 50th live show special Balance throwback featuring Erika Ishii that basically didn't get mentioned at the time and has basically not been mentioned since is available on the BoCo feed.

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• The closing image of Episode 28 was the sight of the crystalarium opening like a flower blossom, revealing the desiccated husk of a thri-keen matriarch. This was followed by the voice of Chris, the island's AI, congratulating the eight remaining aspirants on passing the Trial of Illusion.
• I am officially locking in my prediction for the end of the show here on July 15th (the day I am writing this specific point) - the aspirant rebellion is going to continue and be victorious, with the aspirants meeting 'Magic', the all-powerful entity/force the Octave alluded to as the higher power that compels them to host the Conclave, and Magic is going to offer to make the eight remaining aspirants the new Octave after they promise that the will reform the way magic is handled in The Fold.
• Today's episode is 59 minutes and 12 seconds long. It's the first time since episode 16 that the show hasn't reached a full hour (Episode 16 was only 54 minutes long). Also, in checking this, I noticed that several episodes just don't have a transcript on MaxFun, which I think is just a hilarious additional tidbit about the brothers' laziness.
• In terms of personal stuff - not much happening over here in Seattle. Writing my silly little articles for work, making my silly little pornos for other work. Editing my silly little novel for work three. Got a pretty big collab shoot coming up next month, which should be exciting. Unfortunately, the falls during an off-week so I won't get to do TAZ on the Road on my way to Idaho. I can probably talk more about this next time but I'm taking the bus for various reasons so I'm excited to go across the state by road for the first time.
• Been watching a lot of movies on Tubi lately. Many of them are terrible but one I really want to recommend is Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, which is a late 80s feminist satire about an anthropologist who is sent into the giant jungle that covers most of southern California to ensure that the matriarchal tribe of cannibals that lives there doesn't affect the United States' supply demands of avocados. The epitome of 'reporting on the unserious seriously', it's a deadpan satirical comedy that succeeds in every important category.
• Okay, I think I've stalled long enough. It's time to press play on TAZ Royale Episode 29.
• WAIT WHY DOES THE DESCRIPTION SAY THERE'S TWO TRIALS LEFT? NO NO NO NO NO NO. AREN'T WE ON THE FINAL TRIAL? There's eight trials right? 1. Signing the T&Cs, 2. Finding the Keys, 3. Mech Fight, 4. Staircase Fight, 5. 1v1 Duels, 6. CoD Zombies, 7. Fake out illusion trial. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME GRIFFIN, WHAT THE FUCK.
• Okay, bets on the table - did Griffin retcon the first trial not actually being a trial or did Griffin forget that he originally classified the T&Cs as being a trial?
• Recap and theme song take about 90 seconds, which is a lot of time when the episode isn't even 60 minutes long.
• Chris the AI, who is currently manifesting as a giant white eye a la Sauron, says that his is the first time he has revealed himself to aspiriants since he 'took over proceedings' and goddamit Griffin, the Octave has been dead for centuries huh? That's the twist we're going with? GRIFFIN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY ESTABLISH NARRATIVE TWISTS, RIGHT? LIKE IT'S ONLY A TWIST IF IT PRESENTS A SCENARIO THAT COUNTERS THE PREVIOUSLY-ESTABLISHED EVENTS.
• Like, and I guess I have to spoiler this but let's take a classic twist from gaming - Spec Ops: The Line. The major twist in that game is that >!the man you have been hunting for the entire game, and who has been talking to you the player throughout the entire game, has actually been dead the entire time. Turns out that all the heinous things you have attributed to him, and all the heinous things you yourself have done in the name of the mission, was actually all just you detaching from reality as you have gone rogue under the horrors of war. This includes gassing civilians with white phosophorus, which you did during the game 'by accident' while attacking the antagonist's forces, but turns out you actually just did as a war crime and that's sort of where the 'going crazy and being taunted by the antagonist' stuff actually started happening!<. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, THERE ARE SIGNS THROUGHOUT THE GAME THAT POINT TO THIS TWIST. It's not just suddenly dropped on you with no foreshadowing. SIMILARLY WITH THE BEVY OF TWISTS IN THE FINAL ACT OF BIOSHOCK - THE TOOLS ARE THERE FOR YOU TO REALIZE THAT >!YOU HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED BY ANDREW RYAN INTO COMING TO RAPTURE AND THAT YOUR FRIEND ATLAS IS IN FACT THE DUPLICITIOUS FRANK FONTAINE!<.
• Finally, Clint starts calling these motherfuckers out for calling all the bugs 'gross'. He uses the derotagory term 'skinbags', which I snorted at it.
• However, this fun moment is immediately ruined by Travis having to go to great lengths as Rictus to explain that actually he's not racist because he'd also react this way (revulsion) if the bracer was revealed to be a human baby and goddamit Travis, you yourself not are being called racist (unless the thri-keen are indigenous to this island then you probably would be the most racist toward them) but god. Honestly one of my biggest peeves in the roleplay community is the people who see their character as an extension of themselves and thus take personal offense to any negative comments aimed at their character.
• It's bit time! Bit tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime! Chris gotta do bits!
• So the game is just kind of...Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The original Octave couldn't understand the power they consumed from the most powerful wizards in the land (who, to be clear, were all apparently level 1 wizards with a single spell from cantrip or level 1) so they created Chris the AI to help them comprehend the arcane power, sort of like the hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings creating Deep Thought to provide the Ultimate Answer (and later the Ultimate Question). But also not like that because I love Hitchhiker's and I hate whatever Griffin is doing here.
• Chris the AI is just eating wizards for a long-dead directive and god I hate this. Oh also Clint's bug wife is also dead, she's the giant echo mite corpse that forms the crystalarium.
• Are you evil? asks Travis, clearly not having listened to the entire speech about how the AI is essentially just running the only logic loop it knows.
• There is no Octave, but the AI states there is still a prize?
• Ad time after 13 minutes of episode
• Fascinating ad read from Travis where he promotes the Story and Song live show that happened...last week. As in he explicitly says 'July 16th'. This is not the first time that an episode of Royale has advertised a live event that happened the week prior. NO ONE'S DOING IT LIKE THE MCELROYS.
• No sponsor reads for the second time in three episodes. I know people have tried to justify this but I'm gonna say it again - ROUGH TIMES AT MAXFUN
• The Trial of Enchantment involves the AI casting dominate person on the remaining wizards. Pranklin is suddenly wearing a knapsack full of spell stones.
• Lorovith is limited to his original spell due to removing his bug bracer. Let's see how long that lasts.
• So the Trial of Enchantment is just...D&D combat?
• God, combat pauses to answer questions from Travis about the crystalarium
• How...many spell slots does Travis have right now? Because we've not formally done a long rest since before the zombie trial, he notably burned at least nine slots to cast Time Stop during the rebellion before the Trial of Illusion. He also used thunderstep last episode during the Trial of Illusion. Now 6th level wizards in D&D 5e have 10 spell slots, meaning that Travis just cast Thunderstep with, at minimum, no spell slots remaining. God I love when the core limitation of the class is just ignored so that Travis isn't immeidately merked. It makes the narrative stakes so high and fun for me.
• Magnus is mentioned, fulfilling the 'promote Balance' quota the brothers clearly have
• It's D&D combat, there is so little to talk about here.
• Hasty Jane goes 'super saiyan' with no mention of what she using to do that
• 'I guess you have to take some damage' - Griffin saying the quiet part out loud
• Also the DC for this all-powerful magic machine's dominate person feels....low. Like I get people are rolling well but we're now 2-for-2 on breaking the domination and god there is just no narrative tension whatsoever.
• L FUCKING MAO. Clint asks Griffin he can use thri-keen telepathy to talk to Chris the AI. Griffin says no because Chris is not a thri-keen. Clint accepts this but kind of sulkily adds "I've used it to talk to Lorovith and Rictus before, but alright"
• Helgrammit sure did 'study thri-keen anatomy recently' (when Griffin put him in the Cantharidin Files)
• For the first time in a while, one of the spell stones comes with a memory flashback. We see the dwarf who originally had shatter. God I wish the memory flashbacks had been more of a thing in the campaign.
• D&D combat is D&D combatting
• DOES ACQUIRING NEW SPELL STONES GIVE YOU NEW SPELL SLOTS BECAUSE RICTUS IS CASTING SHATTER AT SPELL SLOTS -2
• Like Rictus has no fucking spell slots left and yet Lorovith can't just magically have his spells because he took off his bug bracer
• I like that last episode, Griffin showed he can do one episode trials but this trial is somehow going to be a multi-episode thing
• Also how the fuck is this a trial? IF THERE'S ONLY MEANT TO BE ON WINNER, FUCKING KILL SOME OF THE REMAINING WIZARDS
• Helgrammit's motive is now to restore the magic to the thri-keen, and apparently always has been, when the T&Cs trial very clearly showed that his future, if he won, was to ascend to a tyrannical position within his specific colony.
• Travis once again has to derail Clint's racism monologue to insist that Rictus is not racist because of course he does
• Also, he keeps saying his goal is to bring magic back to the thri-keen...despite the fact that here has been at least four thri-keen in this tournament? Literally 6.25% of the competition has been thri-keen with magic so uh....
• ...Has Skorpo been against the traditional thri-keen monarchist tradition? I thought he just didn't want Helgrammit to win
• Also Helgrammit's 'we are so small' moment of realization has now become some sort of inflection point for Helgrammit becoming a civil rights leader? Which is a weird direction to go given that originally, that revelation made him want to try and escape the Conclave.... God, someone stick to a motivation in this campaign.
• Helgrammit is going full I HAVE A DREAM here. It is, unfortunately, pretty fucking cringe
• No one will be seated for the royal thri-keen gland collection
• Skorpo insta-dies to Ray of Disintegration saving Helgrammit because NO PC IS ALLOWED TO FUCKING DIE IN THIS DEATH GAME
• Ooooooo, Griffin kinda snaps at Clint and says 'Can I finish my sentence' when Clint cuts the description of Skorpo's death short to ask about his bracer
• Griffin never actually finishes the sentence because Justin and Travis join in to dunk on Clint.
• End of episode, why god won't this podcast end.

The McElroys have put to rest the recent fan debate as to whether the pins sold at shows on their 2025 '20-Thunder Drive' Tour were AI-generated designs.

"We have not nor will we ever use AI in our merch iteration process. The pins shown were designed by Zach Sterling, an artist we work with often, and his design process was shared with our merch manager...Zach has been working in this style for years, before generative AI was popularized. We have sold previous merch items of the McElroys drawn in this style by Zach. It might be hard to find his artist credit for these pins because they were only sold on tour and never listed online. Our merch manager does not approve of generative AI and she does not hire artists she even suspects of using it in their workflow," a spokesperson for the McElroys told journalist Sven Cerritos via email.

Source - Interrobang Episode 18 (From Breastfeeding to Not Looking For A Relationship), Originally Aired May 26 2016

Tybee: Somebody asked us, Aaron asked us to talk about breastfeeding in public. Super respects breastfeeding. Thinks that normalizing seems super obvious. "Saw a post last week that said, breastfeeding is disgusting and have you noticed that the only women who want to breastfeed in public are so ugly?" And Aaron said there was something very wrong with this. And I agree.

Travis: Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I have lots of feelings on this.

Tybee: I think it's okay. First of all, I'd like to say, I'd like to offer this to you because I feel similarly. It's okay to have mixed feelings about this.

Travis: Yeah. Okay.

Tybee: I just want you to know that I'm a woman and I still think it's okay to have mixed feelings about it.

Travis: Here's the reality of it. I think that this is the shit of it that I think a lot and is very rarely brought up in the discussion. And that is that I don't think...That you could flip a switch. I don't think that if everybody came out today. And were like from now on. Breastfeeding in public is totally cool. And no one can judge anyone. I don't think that. That would negate there being a certain amount of interest in an exposed breast in a sexual way at first.

Tybee: Here's the thing. Here's how I feel about it. A lot of people who are in defense who are defending breastfeeding in public say like breasts are not inherently sexual. I disagree with you wholeheartedly. I think that they are. I think that they're also not. I...I think that our love for them, the reason that they are sexual, stems from them as a nurturing piece of our existence. Not everyone is breastfed, but I think there is an instinct there to be drawn to them from...from infancy.

Travis: Well, I've also always thought that the idea of like what is sexual and what is arousing is also has to do with like taboo. Yeah. Like if we lived in a society where everyone walked around taboo.

Tybee: Well, here, okay. So here's my, here's the way I compare it. I see a shirtless man running around, right? It's not like I don't think that's sexy. It's not like I don't look at him and think like, oh, that guy's got a nice body. It's not like I don't look and think that's sexy. Like, I'm not not attracted. It's not... The sexiness isn't totally lost. It's just I'm used to seeing it, so it doesn't... It's not a thing.

Trvias: It's not dirty and erotic.

Tybee: It's not that it's not inherently sexy. It's that I'm used to it, and it's not in a sexual context. I think we have to get better at, like, contextualizing...

Travis: It's not titillating.

Tybee:...our breasts.

Travis: That's the thing.

Tybee: Titillating!

Travis: Thank you. It can be attractive. Like, if I see a woman who, like...is just stunning. Like she's still attractive. If women were, had always been topless, I think I would still be attracted to breasts.

Tybee: Yeah!

Travis: I like breasts.

Tybee: Yeah!

Travis: But I don't know that there would be that like, oh my, oh, oh, I can see her, I can see her breasts.

Tybee: Right.

Travis: Like I don't think that would happen so much. And so I think that the, I don't know.

Tybee: What I'm saying is it's, we don't need to get rid of, we don't need to shift our view of breasts. We just need to see them more often. I think we need to, get better at being okay with our own sexuality. A lot of that comes from people being like, oh, I feel funny. And it's sort of, and I can't look away.

Travis: Can I ask you something? Yeah. And this is not based on own personal opinion, but more of a topic of conversation. How would you tie this into the idea of like public urination is also illegal and like,

Tybee: There's a chance for that to... Well...

Travis: You know what I mean? Because I'm not equating the need to pee with breastfeeding a child. Don't get me wrong.

Tybee: What are you trying to...

Travis: But both being physical, natural needs that you need to do and...I just think that there's a weird... I think that in general, especially here in America, I've never lived in another country for a long period of time, but especially here in America, I feel that there's a lot of taboos regarding the human body being visible in any way.

Tybee: One of those things has the potential to carry disease into the public sphere and one of those things is directly from mother to child so, and it's not women are like squeezing breast milk out everywhere true and even if they were like what but like i just i they're a little different in that aspect and for the next part if somebody's like but "but urine is sterile" yeah it is if you're not sick

Travis: Yeah

Tybee: I just don't... I don't think that those...

Travis: I'm not saying that everyone should be able to pee wherever they want to. Don't get me wrong.

Tybee: Okay, so then I don't understand why you're bringing it up.

Travis: I don't know. It just seems to me that you could make a counter-argument of it's a very... And once again, devil's advocate, that it's a very natural thing. Well, yeah, so is pooping. I don't want to see someone poop in public either.

Tybee: Yeah, but both of those could be dangerous to public health.

Travis: Yeah.

Tybee: Whereas breastfeeding is dangerous in zero ways except for maybe boner inducing for pervs

Travis: Yeah I think that the problem is is that the more we shame it

Tybee: I said pervs I hate that I said pervs you know what I meant I don't mean I think that it's not and I just said I don't think that it's that breasts breastfeeding can't be sexy also um it's not that I think that the idea of being mildly aroused at the side of a breast is weird or bad I just think we all need to get better at at thinking it and then letting it go immediately well

Travis: And it falls under the category of like why why why not repo- reprogram the societal understanding of it rather than saying like well this is the way it would be if this happened right now so why change it like... When someone says like, well, dress code for women is so that men in schools don't get distracted. It's like, well, how about we just teach them not to get distracted? Yeah. And then people can wear whatever the fuck they want.

Tybee: Well, and, you know, I had a conversation with somebody recently who was like, well, if a woman dresses provocatively, she wants to be looked at. And so many girls are like, it doesn't mean that she wants. It's like, okay, hold on. And I was speaking from my own experience. I don't mind if somebody looks at me. I mind if somebody, like, leers at me. I mind if somebody doesn't break eye contact. I mind if somebody... Like, they... Think about it. Animals, when they're trying to threaten each other, don't break eye contact.

Travis: Yeah.

Tybee: And if they look away, it means there's no beef there, right? So if you fucking maintain eye contact with me, I think that you're threatening me. It's a threat. If you want to gaze at me because you appreciate my figure, go right the fuck ahead. It's fine. But like, don't stare at me. And I think that that's, it's the same about, I have the same thing about breastfeeding. Like I saw this picture recently of this gorgeous mother breastfeeding her child. And she has like, huge breasts. And it's like, it's a beautiful picture because the baby's naked. She's naked, essentially. It's a lot of like soft, lovely flesh happening in the picture, which I get is like, this is, there's something attractive about this, but like, let's go a little bit deeper and think like, why is this attractive? This is nurturing. This is lovely. It's pretty. It's soft. It, it, it reminds me of things that I like from, from childhood as well as adulthood. Like it's all, We have to understand that our attraction doesn't just come from like, like what sex is for procreation. Like we, you have to respect kind of the hardwiring there on both ends, on both defenders of and people who are against it. I think like learning to understand where all of that comes from will help us sort of dissolve the weird feelings about it, the tension about it.

Travis: I also think a good rule of thumb, just in general, is people shouldn't have to do a thing that they're uncomfortable with.

Tybee: Right.

Travis: And they shouldn't have to not do a thing because you're uncomfortable with it.

Tybee: Right.

Travis: That, like, draw that line through most issues and you're like, oh, I see. I see the problem. So the idea of people not being able to breastfeed in public is not saying...you have to breastfeed in public whether you want to or not

Tybee: I had that moment with free the nipple i was like i don't want to run around topless and someone's like you don't have to and i was like oh right right right

Travis: Right right you're not saying i have to i just could if i wanted to if i wanted great great great great like gay marriage doesn't mean you have to marry a man whether you want to or not it just means that if someone actually wants to they can and like that's whenever someone's like I just don't think it's right like well you don't have to

Tybee: Don't do it

Travis: Yeah they're not making you do it

Tybee: Don't do it at all

Travis: Like, I prefer chocolate to vanilla. That doesn't mean I want to outlaw vanilla ice cream. Like, that's not how that works. And so when someone's like, it makes me uncomfortable when I see someone breastfeeding, like, well, learn not to be uncom... Or don't look.

Tybee: Don't look.

Travis: They're not making you look at it.

Tybee: And it's not... And I'm immune. The reason I keep bringing up my own experience is because, like, I get it. I get the idea that, like, but it's like boobs. And I'm like, yeah.

Travis: Yeah, dude.

Tybee: Yeah, I see them too. And it's sort of like... You can appreciate something without making that person feel uncomfortable. Yeah. That's it. No one's telling you that you don't get to think it's kind of sexy. Yeah. You actually can. And I don't think that that's unnatural. I just think that you have to fucking... behave yourself.

Travis: And to go back to your point about, like, a woman dressed like that gets attention, it's like... Behave yourself. Yeah, because the thing is, like, she can want attention and still not want the type of attention you're giving her.

Tybee: Right.

Travis: So it's not that, like, if you dress like that for attention, you have to accept whatever attention comes. She can actually then say, like, I'm okay if you look at me, you look at me, you look at me, I'm not okay if you look at me, because it's my fucking body. Like, that idea of, like, if you dress like that, everyone gets to treat you however, like, that's not... That doesn't make a lick of sense. That doesn't translate like that.

Tybee: Yeah.

Travis: Okay. This is from Drew Davenport. A little bit of a different discussion. The fear that comes with starting a project...

Pre-Bell House Travis sure had some opinions.

You might remember me from the Ballad of Dakota last week, thank you for the hilarious comments.

So here's the thing - I started the ERP killing game server in which Dakota featured entirely out of spite. Prior to starting that server, I was briefly in another ERP killing game server and in essence, the experience was so awful that I wanted to start my own because I knew I could do it better.

There are A LOT of BRPS-worthy moments from that server and maybe the whole experience could be the subject of its own Thotty Thursday post in the future, but I wanna focus on perhaps the wildest thing a server admin has ever said to me.

For context, I wear a lot of hats professionally and several of those hats relate to the adult industry. I also just love writing smut; it is probably my favorite thing to write. So a lot of the time, I see ERP as a way to keep my skills sharp and will post multi-paragraph replies when scening. You know, the complete opposite of Dakota's "Aurgh fuck, that feels so good". Now for the most part, people have no issue with how I write, and in fact most people I write with love it. However, early on this server, hints began to emerge that I was perhaps not the sort of person the mods were expecting...or wanted.

"Lol y'all are writing so much," one mod remarked about a three-person scene I was involved in during the pre-game sandbox. I laughed it off with a "yeah!"

The server officially launches and, as with most ERP servers, the fucking begins with wanton abandon. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I wasn't writing ERP scenes but I was, at the very least, trying to make them thematically appropriate. As it was a server where doubling was allowed, I had one character engaged in social manipulation (primarily through sex) and general exploration while my other character was engaged in social manipulation (albeit as the one being manipulated) and alliance building.

The server continues, the island upon which the killing game was taking place presumably sinking into the ocean with the amount of sexual fluids being released. I am amongst the minority group of writers who are taking their time, writing longer replies, etc. and, apparently, this is becoming a source of minor friction.

"Why are you writing so much? It's just a simple ERP lol," remarks the same mod as before and, despite the 'lol', it feels more frustrated than amused.

The server continues. Cracks are now starting to show. The mods are seemingly building the server in real time. Exploration of the island is rebuffed as, OOC, the mods haven't prepared the plot yet. I try to poke at the sandbox, but, in so many words, I am told to go back to the bedroom. The exploration I do get is scant and largely inconsequential. The head mod (the one who has been featuring throughout this post) seems annoyed when I ask questions about the setting.

Then comes the boiling point. A group scene featuring the majority of the cast takes place. There's conflict between my little manipulator and another PC. My character storms out of the scene after the host of the killing game announces that a group sex game will be taking place.

Mod: Is she really not taking part?

Me: No. Why would she?

Mod: Isn't she meant to be really horny, lol

Me: That's not a part of herself she wants to make wholly public yet. And just because she's a horny character, why would that override the fact that she hates [other character] and doesn't want to indulge the host who just embarassed her?

Mod: Ngl, I haven't been following your scenes. You write too much, dude. It's just a simple ERP, why are writing so much?

I am floored. The fact that the head mod, the person telling the story of the server, has no idea what several characters are doing because their writers write too much, is mind-boggling to me.

I last a couple more days, most of which are spent fighting with the mods on a range of issues, before bowing out. As I said up top, the experience left enough of a bitter taste in mouth that I went and ran my own server for about a month.

I guess if there is a lesson to be learned, it's find the place where your work is valued. No server is worth the people in charge not reading your work because you write too much.

Group roleplays where time is not tracked might be the bane of my existence. Far too many servers run in 'real time', where the mods abitrarily decide when time passes, and it just leads to the worst playing experience:

• Not tracking time just makes every scene feel like it's playing out in a vacuum. Combine with this with a high scene limit and it feels like some characters are in a million places at once.
• It inevitably leads to logistical problems where the story of the server makes no sense because people are now everywhere and nowhere
• As teased in the title - when the mods decide when time passes, it leads to friction. Oh? A week has passed and now there's a new plot point? Well, because I have a job and a social life, I have done one unfinished scene in the four IRL days since the last time progression so either my character has been trapped in that scene for a week or they've been floating in a void for six and a half days.

And the problem is spreading! I was running a goddamn spreadsheet to track the when, where, and who of my killing game server and yet players would still complain that being limited to X number of scenes per in-game day was stifling their roleplay because they were so used to being allowed to write unlimited scenes completely unconnected to any of temporal anchor.

Imagine joining a server with deep, established lore (that you are told is required reading) and then wasting the time and goodwill of the people who are helping you build a character by consistently submitting ideaa that run so contrary to the lore that they might as well exist in a completely different canon.

If the lore establishes a family-oriented matriarchy in a wider dystopian setting, you can't make a well-respected childless woman who actively risks her ability to have children by being an MMA fighter.

If the lore establishes that superpowers only occur naturally, you can't make someone who received theirs artificially by creating a 'superpower pill'.

If the lore establishes that this is the first ever killing/death game held in this reality, you can't make someone who has survived five killing/death games before this one.

You're not 'subverting expectations', you're not 'interpreting the lore from a different angle', you're not 'laying the groundwork for future expansion of the lore', you are asking to be treated as god's most special princess and be granted an exception to play a completely different game to everyone else.

If you don't like the lore, you don't have to be here.

Gee wilikers, my boy Hoops is voicemogging the shit out of his family this season. I can't help but feel a little jealous of Sydnee everytime I hear that boisterous vibrato.

Does anyone know if our beloved Root Beer Surge is doing anything like a spoken word album, or maybe an audiobook of The Call of the Wild?