Sandeep Parikh 0:04

I Bet you didn't expect to see us no. This is a special episode of the Tea Kettle. This is a sort of like the special event, you know, like the, the, the Star Wars Christmas episodes.

Omar Najam 0:21

Yeah, yeah, exactly, this is as we have with us Mm-hmm.

Sandeep Parikh 0:28

Yeah, this is it. This is it because we have with us Sephie, Persephone, Valentine, from so many things, but now but a guest. A guest on DesiQ uest. We're so happy to have you, Sephie, welcome. Hello.

Persephone Valentine 0:44

They let me put my ass all over the Tea Kettle.

Sandeep Parikh 0:48

What I didn't know, that the entire episode is just me twerking in the Tea Kettle, your ass is all over the tea kettle and that is gonna raise the value on auction, so much.

Persephone Valentine 0:58

Yeah, my ass does raise the real estate value by at least 12 percent.

Sandeep Parikh 1:05

I mean this is huge for us this you may have just funded season two.

Omar Najam 1:09

It is huge yeah your ass may have funded season two.

Persephone Valentine 1:13

My ass is entirely responsible for the funding of season two. Thank you, there's something about that's how this is gonna go.

Omar Najam 1:20

So, like about you not having your camera on Sephie? That makes it even more unpredictable, because, like we don't we, we don't we, we don't get that, we don't understand what's teed up until it hits us in the face.

Persephone Valentine 1:30

Yeah, no facial cues. I mean, things get better when you can't see my face lies untrue.

Sandeep Parikh 1:41

Yeah, well, listen, uh, we wanted to bring Sephie on because, uh, you know you, I'm just gonna admit a mistake here. Here we go this whole, this whole year has been a blur. I thought for some reason your episode was split over two episodes and so I thought I was gonna have the opportunity to bring you on the next episode, but then I forgot.

Why did you decide to be a Guest on DesiQuest?

Sandeep Parikh 2:02

Oh no, no, no, your character doesn't, doesn't die, but basically, Wraps up turns on everybody and then has this epic yeah, it's like thing in one episode and I was like, oh my gosh, I fucked up, so I wanted to bring you in so we can actually have this conversation, because your character takes, I mean, a Huge, incredible turn. Yes, but before we get to all that, I guess why don't we just start by asking hey, how did you get that like, how did you get the call to me on the show? I know your buds with Jasmine and and why did you say yes to us? What were you thinking?

Persephone Valentine 2:36

Do you want to know the real reason that I was?

Sandeep Parikh 2:38

yeah, yeah, are you? Are you like indebted, like you have like a life, a soul pact?

Persephone Valentine 2:45

If you rub my butt, you get three wishes.

Omar Najam 2:49

Wow.

Persephone Valentine 2:50

Didn't do that.

Sandeep Parikh 2:50

Jasmine, jasmine and I in the like - table has three wishes.

Persephone Valentine 2:54

In the TTRPG space like I Think I've worked with Jasmine the most out of anyone oh Okay, on various different projects for like the last two years, like we've worked together a lot, so much that when Aabria cancelled for her episode because she was sick, I got a call at nine in the morning to be at DesiQ uest for ten, and I was like sure.

Omar Najam 3:19

Wait, that's. That's what the turnaround was.

Persephone Valentine 3:21

That's yes, it was literally. I got a call nine and then I was at set at ten. I literally got the call and had to leave okay, everyone absorb.

Omar Najam 3:29

Absorb that for second. You saw the performance you. You watch the twists and turns. You watched how far our characters were pushed Emotionally in one of the best episodes of the season. That was in not even prep, in an hour to For like traffic to like get there.

Persephone Valentine 3:50

Yeah, I got the character notes while I was in the makeup chair.

Sandeep Parikh 3:56

Honestly, I forgot I did know this at one point because I am a executive producer on it and I did know like oh yeah, Aabria's not gonna be able to be on it, and but I did not know the turnaround I did not know was like, because I was like, oh, amazing Sephie's.

Omar Najam 4:09

gonna be great.

Sandeep Parikh 4:10

This is so. This is exciting, and I did not know was like that fast. That's fucking wild.

Persephone Valentine 4:15

Yeah, bronze, and you would have time to call me. Ash called me and was like, can you do this for us? I was like sure.

Omar Najam 4:20

What? Okay, that's when you know you get.

Sandeep Parikh 4:23

You got a Rolodex. You know when you can, when you can call in a heavy hitter.

Omar Najam 4:28

I think, yeah, I think, I mean honestly for us one card. I don't even think it's a Rolodex, it's just a. You flip the card over and it's this Sephie's name.

Sandeep Parikh 4:36

On both sides it's it's Sephie's and and Sephie's genie ass.

Persephone Valentine 4:43

Oh, I didn't even process how I said three wishes. Oh my god, that could be so offensive. So my ass is not a genie lamp, my god.

Omar Najam 4:54

I don't think that's even ours. I think that's. I think it's a Disney rule. I don't think that actually came. I doubt it's real, I think it's probably.

Persephone Valentine 5:01

Yes, but Aladdin's the least offensive thing in the world to anyone.

Sandeep Parikh 5:04

Yeah, yeah, you just can't wish for more genie asses.

Persephone Valentine 5:11

Three asses and I can have six cheeks.

Omar Najam 5:14

No, I know can't do it. It is a dream.

Persephone Valentine 5:17

Can you imagine, can you imagine making it clap if you had six ass cheeks?

Omar Najam 5:21

I can't actually.

Sandeep Parikh 5:24

Thunderous.

Omar Najam 5:26

These are the things these are the thoughts that keep Sandeep up at night.

Who came up with Iman's character?

Persephone Valentine 5:33

Aladdin's like supposed to be Arabic, but isn't it a Chinese story? It's a Chinese story. Yeah, it's a Chinese story.

Sandeep Parikh 5:39

Well, at least, at least the character of Aladdin is Chinese in the original story. That's what I think it is, but I think it is that may. It may still be an Arabic story, I don't know I read it sometime somewhere, and I don't remember things anymore. So yeah. But, okay, so you get the call the last second. You say yes, you show up, you get. You're getting notes at the makeup chair.

Sandeep Parikh 6:05

This is great, and like it was such a huge role, like, like, because it was this. It was like this. You were basically what would you call escorting Anjali's character Sitara, back from you know, the this other realm here. And then you're like connected to oh my gosh, I'm blanking out all the names now, but the tea kettle, goddess, Nuryn, like that's supposed to, and so I can see it. Now I can see how you were like on the fly, um keeping tabs on all this and trying to make it all work. What is going through your head when you, when you're creating this, like so did you come in with the character, or did she just say, like you're playing this character, like so I got handed the notes that were sent to Aabria for the character.

Persephone Valentine 6:55

Okay, I don't know if bronze came up with it. I don't know if I'm Aabria was the one to come up with it, but I got handed those notes and they're basically like creepy witch. Okay, and so you boil the kids yeah and even like even the heel turn wasn't planned.

Sandeep Parikh 7:16

Yes, I remember hearing about that after. I remember that yeah.

Persephone Valentine 7:20

So we took a break in like the middle of the episode, right when things were starting to get heated, and bronze was like, yeah, boost your stats of boss fight stats. And I was like, okay.

Omar Najam 7:28

We really oh.

Sandeep Parikh 7:31

Okay.

Whose idea was the Heel turn?

Persephone Valentine 7:32

Like I was always supposed to put you on edge, and that was like the like thing of it, but like I wasn't necessarily supposed to be, like you know, the big bad of the section I don't know if something else got cut out because of it, but bronze on the fly was just like yeah, change to boss stats.

Omar Najam 7:47

That's what you know. Jasmine loves you. Is Jasmine's like actually? Um, I want you to kill my players.

Sandeep Parikh 7:55

Yeah and bronze. So wait, did you? Did you know you were like? So wait, who? Whose idea was it to turn? Was it yours or Jasmine's?

Persephone Valentine 8:03

so a little bit of column A little bit lot of column B, if Honestly like.

Sandeep Parikh 8:08

I okay.

Persephone Valentine 8:09

I knew that we're gonna do like a creepy, like reveal type of deal with the character, like the whole, I'm a ghost, type of thing. Yeah, Um but like bronze was like, this is where it seems to be heading. Let's just do this, because I know the players are gonna want to throw down. So, Bronze was basically took what I put in role play before the break and was like make it a boss.

Setting up emotional stakes

Sandeep Parikh 8:32

Amazing, genuinely amazing, because it feel like, looking back on it, it's like what other way? It feels like it was like inevitable, like you know what I mean, like you like that. That. How could this have been done any other way?

Persephone Valentine 8:45

Yeah, so another influence for like why I did it was. I got kind of like a brief lowdown of how things went with Luis (Carazo), mm-hmm, and I was like. So how can we like set up some emotional stakes? Because I know that Luis like His episode was very emotional and I was like okay, let's make this physically taxing.

Persephone Valentine 9:06

Let's make this like an actual like stressor for the players right as far as like making Like some stuff happen because it was all the reason that it eventually got pushed so far was that, like bronze wanted a means for like everyone to come together and like fight against something early on, yeah, and that's sort of what I believe made her make this decision. It's like, okay, this is where it's going, we should do this.

Sandeep Parikh 9:31

Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but the rest of this episode is for our patreon subscribers only. So if you'd like to hear the rest of this juicy conversation, let me tell you it gets juicy. There's another 50 minutes 50 5 0 of this conversation over at patreoncom. Slash they sequest. Thank you so much for supporting the show.