Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book seven, This Inevitable Ruin chapters
Speaker 1: twenty seven, wop sorry thirty one through thirty four. Your
Speaker 1: girl don't mind her in this section. You know, these
Speaker 1: orcs just are out here continually fucking throwing a wrench
Speaker 1: into things and getting in their own way. And it's
Speaker 1: remarkable what meeting the patriarch is like, because it's like
Speaker 1: what if succession. Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: show everyone. I am Natasha. Thank you very much to
Speaker 1: Michael for commissioning this episode. William is in the chat
Speaker 1: and is asking miss the lie, but loved your thoughts
Speaker 1: on Carl, the ring and the Empress. How many times
Speaker 1: this donut had to save Carl from himself? Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: good question. And there's a little moment in this too
Speaker 1: that I thought was funny. We have William, Nehua and
Speaker 1: Michael and Saraphim in the chat. Delighted to see you all.
Speaker 1: So this is an interesting section because we've got now
Speaker 1: this major threat looming that isn't but only Carl knows
Speaker 1: that it isn't. And I've been looking for some way
Speaker 1: that Carl could have an advantage over all of the
Speaker 1: other players, you know, and not the other players, but
Speaker 1: his enemies specifically. And I was really just uncertain where
Speaker 1: it could come from and feel believable. And I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how much of an advantage this is because like
Speaker 1: what I would depend on if I were in his
Speaker 1: shoes would be Okay, So everybody is about to just
Speaker 1: like give up on fighting because it's going to be
Speaker 1: their last moments alive, and so they're going to spend
Speaker 1: their time fucking getting drunk, you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: are people going to pull back from the battle itself
Speaker 1: because it's all about to be over and they have
Speaker 1: better shit to do? Alternatively, it could be like I'm
Speaker 1: going to go even harder because now there's nothing remaining,
Speaker 1: so fuck it if I'm gonna die anyway. I don't know,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if like Carl knowing that this
Speaker 1: is not going to happen, is this something that could
Speaker 1: be detected by somebody that, like he doesn't seem as
Speaker 1: worried as everybody else is what does he know that
Speaker 1: we don't know? Would that even be that big a problem? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm genuinely asking, because I keep coming up
Speaker 1: against this, like folks can be very unpredictable in their
Speaker 1: reaction to stuff. I'll think that, you know, there's only
Speaker 1: one logical way to respond, and then somebody you'll do
Speaker 1: some shit and I have to be like, oh right,
Speaker 1: everybody's not me, first of all, and isn't drawing from
Speaker 1: the same experience I am. And second of all, everybody
Speaker 1: isn't logical either, not pretending that I always behave logically
Speaker 1: by the way, but just saying. And then of course
Speaker 1: we have the fact that like Bro winds up getting
Speaker 1: killed despite things, it's who. There's a lot of implications here,
Speaker 1: So let's start. Let's begin with chapter thirty one. And
Speaker 1: it's like, the thing about this section of the book
Speaker 1: I think that's just a little bit overwhelming to me
Speaker 1: is the fact that I thrive on the dialogue, and
Speaker 1: because it's so much battling, it's tons of descriptions, it's
Speaker 1: tons of explaining the positioning, what kinds of weapons somebody
Speaker 1: is using versus others. We're also introducing a lot of
Speaker 1: new characters this book, because it's people that we haven't
Speaker 1: actually met in person, and a lot of like Red
Speaker 1: shirts for lack of a better way of saying it.
Speaker 1: And so I think that this is beginning to sort
Speaker 1: of wash over me at this point, and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember. I feel like, Michael, was it you or
Speaker 1: somebody in the discord maybe that was asking like, how
Speaker 1: did you feel about this book in comparison to Battleground,
Speaker 1: which is the up till recently, like the most recent
Speaker 1: dressden Files book, we just had twelve months come out,
Speaker 1: and twelve months, in my opinion, is way better than
Speaker 1: Battleground was. Michael says, I think that was rob okay,
Speaker 1: and sorry Michael. He also says I'd be trying to
Speaker 1: hit the Desperado Club or Club Banquisher to grab some beers,
Speaker 1: eat carbyist sugariest crap they have, and maybe swing by
Speaker 1: the Bitch's room to try to check out Snail Trail
Speaker 1: in her Mom's act. Snail Trail is just so awful.
Speaker 1: I hate it so much. And I haven't read the
Speaker 1: new Butcher File, the new Dress and Files books yet.
Speaker 1: I lo Butcher Files. Loo. Yeah. So I will try
Speaker 1: not to give spoilers for Battleground, but I will say
Speaker 1: both Peace Talks and Battleground I found really lacking, and
Speaker 1: it definitely feels going back and reading them over again
Speaker 1: in the context of the greater series, like Butcher was
Speaker 1: off his game when he wrote them. Setting that aside,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of inconsistencies to me in character behavior,
Speaker 1: things that it seems like he just forgot about, you know.
Speaker 1: But setting all of those issues aside, the biggest difficulty
Speaker 1: for me and the block to getting into the book
Speaker 1: or remembering the book in much detail. For Battleground, Peace Talks,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more dialogue, and that's part of why
Speaker 1: it's more memorable to me in certain ways. Battleground is
Speaker 1: this like balls out fight from almost start to finish
Speaker 1: in a way that began to bleed together for me,
Speaker 1: pun intended, and it was very difficult to sustain. The
Speaker 1: kind of relentless is the word that I use a
Speaker 1: lot when I talk about that book. That relentless onslaught
Speaker 1: of enemies and death and near misses and descriptions of
Speaker 1: buildings falling and descriptions of people dying, and descriptions of
Speaker 1: you know, baby carriages turned over in the street with
Speaker 1: a bloodstain inside, and just like it's a lot of
Speaker 1: awful things packed together thrown at you in a way
Speaker 1: that feels like there are times where that kind of
Speaker 1: thing really can work, where, for example, Fury Road is
Speaker 1: a movie that as soon as you sit down, it
Speaker 1: feels like you have already hit forty miles an hour,
Speaker 1: and then you get to like one twenty within ten minutes,
Speaker 1: and the movie never drops below one twenty again, and
Speaker 1: then it's over and you're just exhausted at the end,
Speaker 1: but you're also like, that was incredible, what a ride.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, let's go again. You know. One of
Speaker 1: the best movies I've ever seen, period and an example
Speaker 1: of when relentlessness works, but you gotta be really careful
Speaker 1: with it. And I feel like I'm reaching a point
Speaker 1: in this book where the relentlessness is starting to overpower me,
Speaker 1: and I am finding myself having to rewind a lot.
Speaker 1: I am just completely glazing over missing sections and having
Speaker 1: to go back descriptions of things that I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: why is that happening? I must have missed something even
Speaker 1: though I was listening. But there is so much being
Speaker 1: told to me that it can't track it all, and
Speaker 1: I'm really struggling with like whether or not this is
Speaker 1: something that's like truly a narrative problem, or if it's
Speaker 1: just a me problem, it's certainly possible it's just a
Speaker 1: me problem. And for other people this works really well,
Speaker 1: and I think it's just a matter of like what
Speaker 1: you prioritize when you're reading and what you like, you know.
Speaker 1: For me, my favorite Dress and Files books are like
Speaker 1: twelve Months in Ghost Story, which are two of the
Speaker 1: ones that most people seem to not like because they
Speaker 1: have the least of Harry broiding out and beating the
Speaker 1: shit out of people, and the most of him being
Speaker 1: really introspective and not being able to use his magic
Speaker 1: the way he used to. And I am all about
Speaker 1: the introspection and the long overdue conversations between characters and
Speaker 1: the getting to see something that you wouldn't otherwise have
Speaker 1: seen because these circumstances are so specific and minded to
Speaker 1: make you be here now, you know. And so I
Speaker 1: am very much I really love the Dress and Files books,
Speaker 1: But I am very much in the minority in terms
Speaker 1: of overall audience regarding what I like about the series.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really not about Harry being a badass.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm there for, and that I know
Speaker 1: is like a minority opinion. So I think Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Speaker 1: I won't say it has the same demographic because like
Speaker 1: the Dress and Files fandom has been very male dominated
Speaker 1: from the spaces that I've seen, and Dungeon Crawler Carl
Speaker 1: has felt like, I have seen just as many women
Speaker 1: fangirling out as men in online spaces. Granted I haven't
Speaker 1: been in as many because I'm unspoiled, but I feel
Speaker 1: like maybe the appeal is the fighting for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and so perhaps me being like this is
Speaker 1: just too much of this is not an opinion that
Speaker 1: is going to be shared by many other people, and
Speaker 1: so I just want to like put that out there
Speaker 1: at the top that like the way that I feel
Speaker 1: about this so far, I understand I might this might
Speaker 1: not be a very popular opinion. It is an opinion.
Speaker 1: It's just preference. You know. This is not me saying
Speaker 1: that this book is less good, because this book is
Speaker 1: clearly very carefully thought out. It's not like it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel sloppy. There's nothing about this that is seeming like
Speaker 1: the authors sleep walking through it in some of the
Speaker 1: ways that some books that I just mentioned might feel.
Speaker 1: But it's just not really appealing to what I care
Speaker 1: about as much. So, William Jones says, there certainly is
Speaker 1: a ton going on. It works for me because as
Speaker 1: I reread these books almost religiously, I also wonder about
Speaker 1: that aspect is the way that I'm covering the books.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it can do a property big favors. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: just makes it more difficult for me to absorb everything,
Speaker 1: And it really can depend. There are times where a
Speaker 1: lot of action and me stopping to talk about it
Speaker 1: works though, where it's almost like I would have missed
Speaker 1: XYZ in the action if there hadn't been this moment
Speaker 1: where we actually like stopped and talked about it chapter
Speaker 1: by chapter. So you know, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: that tons of action doesn't work for coverage, because that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily true. It's totally dependent on circumstance and the
Speaker 1: story itself. But I can't help but wonder with this book,
Speaker 1: if maybe, like plowing through the front end of it
Speaker 1: in a way that I might while I was reading
Speaker 1: it for fun and by myself versus reading it for coverage,
Speaker 1: might it might hit different for me doing it that way,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's just like breaking it into these
Speaker 1: sections that makes it feel like it's all kind of
Speaker 1: slowed down some and a little bit of a slog.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it, just like there. It's weird because
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like it is entirety, but because
Speaker 1: there are these moments that there are wonderful things happening
Speaker 1: that are so exciting and new and people showing up
Speaker 1: that we are finally getting to meet, and insights and things,
Speaker 1: and you know, but it feels like those moments are
Speaker 1: peppered in amongst the rest being really really heavy. So
Speaker 1: it's like a fruitcake where you've got the real, real,
Speaker 1: like dense cake and every now and then you hit
Speaker 1: a bright piece of lovely fruit or nut, but you've
Speaker 1: got this really intense cake surrounding it and you get
Speaker 1: full quick. Jeff says in the chat, Hi, Jeff, I
Speaker 1: like it better than the last moment, mostly because I
Speaker 1: hate the card mechanics. That is fair, battles like this
Speaker 1: get overwhelming, but that's kind of how battles are in reality,
Speaker 1: so I understand why it's happening. That said, I would
Speaker 1: love more flashbacks or gentle meditations to break up the
Speaker 1: horror the card mechanics. I completely get why you feel
Speaker 1: that way, Jeff. And honestly, like I kind of thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna feel that way in the last book,
Speaker 1: but because the AI wound up like sidestepping so much
Speaker 1: of the card mechanics, I actually I felt like we
Speaker 1: escaped what I thought it was going to be, Like
Speaker 1: I thought it would be way worse. But uh, and yeah,
Speaker 1: this being how battles are in reality, Like, I won't
Speaker 1: argue with that. I just don't necessarily want to read
Speaker 1: about that. But it, you know, it's the sort of
Speaker 1: thing where it's like, definitely not arguing that it's not realistic.
Speaker 1: It's just more like I don't like it that's just
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So saying all this, I am not going
Speaker 1: to get into detail, as I have said many times
Speaker 1: already this book, about each of the moves that are
Speaker 1: being made, because I just don't think it's necessary or important.
Speaker 1: If it turns out part of it was necessary slash important,
Speaker 1: I'm certain that will be brought to my attention later
Speaker 1: and I can reference it when I have to if
Speaker 1: I have to. But at this part we get a
Speaker 1: little bit of information about the Reavers, which is the
Speaker 1: name of these dudes in uh, oh my god, you guys.
Speaker 1: You know, the one that everybody's so excited about is
Speaker 1: getting redone that I think is like overrated. And these guys.
Speaker 1: It's sort of interesting because, like in this, the reavers
Speaker 1: are like barely human beings anymore. I knew the reavers
Speaker 1: were all robot with just a little bit of biological
Speaker 1: brain left over hidden somewhere inside their robot shells, and
Speaker 1: they could shapeshift, sort of something about nanobot sized individual
Speaker 1: machines all coming together to make one. These mercenaries were
Speaker 1: somewhere between more robotic than those weird nebulars and certainly
Speaker 1: a lot scarier. And this is when we get the descriptor,
Speaker 1: which starts with the AI being like, Okay, look, these
Speaker 1: guys really shouldn't be here. They don't fit the aesthetic.
Speaker 1: I've already told them that we're not doing this next floor.
Speaker 1: They've proposed some updates that I've rejected. They already know
Speaker 1: about it. I also made sure they were only allowed
Speaker 1: to come in their light armor, because if they came
Speaker 1: here with everything, that would be y'all'll be fucking toast
Speaker 1: to understand why a perfectly normal person this cracked me up. Guys,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. Why a perfectly normal person would
Speaker 1: want to slowly turn himself into a robot whose sole
Speaker 1: purpose is to invade planetary colonies, shoot innocent civilians, and
Speaker 1: spend all day believing he's a fascist, fighting patriot of
Speaker 1: industrial capitalism. You have to first understand where these guys
Speaker 1: come from. Blah blah blah, tough childhood and the pollution show,
Speaker 1: shadow of the behemoth reaver moons, where most of the
Speaker 1: physical goods in the galaxy or manufactured blah blah, drug
Speaker 1: street gangs, eighty percent taxes, boohoom my mommy is a hooker,
Speaker 1: no way out, et cetera. You know the story, I
Speaker 1: am so sorry. But if that isn't just like absolutely
Speaker 1: it's it's so it's such an unkind way of saying everything,
Speaker 1: but it isn't even really leaving anything out. It just
Speaker 1: feels like, no, that's actual, pretty fucking good summation. But
Speaker 1: also the AI goes on to really be like these
Speaker 1: dudes specifically that are here, though I don't want you
Speaker 1: feeling like these guys are like the product of circumstance
Speaker 1: that you should, you know, be sorry for them, because
Speaker 1: these are dudes who have opted in repeatedly, and so
Speaker 1: if they're here, they've really decided to do this thing,
Speaker 1: and they are different. And let's see. Gunny here was
Speaker 1: once known as mister Jake Tordokai. His designation changes each
Speaker 1: time he's deployed. At this moment, seconds before his four
Speaker 1: hundred cycle journey to gain Reaver citizenship comes to a
Speaker 1: permanent and abrupt end at the draws of a pist off,
Speaker 1: confused child soldier, he is known as X two. He
Speaker 1: has twenty three enhancements to his body. We might as
Speaker 1: well add a bit of context. Gaining citizenship comes with
Speaker 1: profit sharing and additional financial benefit, but is a pain
Speaker 1: in the ass. You lose your biological form to get
Speaker 1: your foot in the door. The first upgrade is free.
Speaker 1: Anything else, There's only two ways to do it. You
Speaker 1: can pay for all of it yourself, which is pretty
Speaker 1: much a non starter. Or you can work for the
Speaker 1: reavers for free. They'll feed you, house you, and you
Speaker 1: get all the healthcare you want. That plus one more
Speaker 1: upgrade in exchange for a three cycle deployments worth of work.
Speaker 1: And the work ain't easy. All that to say, these
Speaker 1: guys have been fighting a lot longer than you have.
Speaker 1: This isn't their home turf, and they're not used to
Speaker 1: Option three enhancement zone fighting techniques, but they should not
Speaker 1: be underestimated. So yeah, what an odd thing to drop
Speaker 1: in here. I am really curious about exactly what the
Speaker 1: like process is front Denneman deciding what types of creatures
Speaker 1: he's going to include in the dungeon, because I could
Speaker 1: very much see it being sort of like whatever catches
Speaker 1: my fancy, I'm just throwing it in. I really like
Speaker 1: this thing that I just found out about going in,
Speaker 1: you know, And I don't know if there's more of
Speaker 1: a process to that, more of a method I would
Speaker 1: I'm not mad if there isn't. To be clear, if
Speaker 1: he's just throwing shitting because he thinks it's fun, completely
Speaker 1: valid and I'm enjoying the ride, so go ahead, But uh,
Speaker 1: I'm just curious about it. And let's see. At this point,
Speaker 1: more of the fan shaped shield started popping up in
Speaker 1: front of me. As I tried to see what the
Speaker 1: hell was going on. From the corner of my eye,
Speaker 1: I noticed Victory had appeared standing on the far corner
Speaker 1: of the building, quietly observing. A moment later, and she
Speaker 1: was joined by a second adjutant. I didn't RECOGNI eyes.
Speaker 1: This was a strange, antlered alien type I'd never seen before.
Speaker 1: All I could see was Tina's head popping up from
Speaker 1: the smoke and her shield going up and down, just
Speaker 1: like the wall protections of the castle behind us. For
Speaker 1: a moment three Tina's appeared someone having cast an illusion,
Speaker 1: but it was immediately dispelled. And the idea of like
Speaker 1: it going up and down and just being all over
Speaker 1: the place because people are just fighting at the base
Speaker 1: of the issue, you know what I'm saying, is very
Speaker 1: anxiety inducing to me. I was pleasantly surprised that by
Speaker 1: the end of this section Tina does not die, because
Speaker 1: I was sort of wondering, I'm still not certain she's
Speaker 1: making it to the end of this book, even but
Speaker 1: I was actually worried about her in a way that
Speaker 1: surprised me. So a bunch of people pull their cards
Speaker 1: and start summoning these creatures and what not, and then
Speaker 1: Donut yells that there's somebody behind Carl, and he turns
Speaker 1: around and beats the shit out of this guy to
Speaker 1: a degree that has one of the death Cult leader
Speaker 1: guy saying, holy gods, that's really nasty and I just, uh,
Speaker 1: you know what, We're gonna put a pin in that
Speaker 1: and come back to it, or just remember this moment. Also,
Speaker 1: I do want to mention the death cult leader guy
Speaker 1: Carl thinks is another iteration of Jesus. And as soon
Speaker 1: as he was like, oh it was a death cult
Speaker 1: leader guy, I just immediately pictured Jared Leto Jared Letto. Look, guys,
Speaker 1: you know I have mentioned many a time how being
Speaker 1: canceled that's not real. There are so many people out
Speaker 1: there accused of such horrible things and they are still
Speaker 1: getting work. And Jared Letto is a perfect example of
Speaker 1: one of these people that I don't understand how he
Speaker 1: is still being cast. He's not a great actor. He's fine,
Speaker 1: but he's not great. He hasn't been in a lot
Speaker 1: of hits recently, Like look at his filmography over the
Speaker 1: past few years, and it's been a lot of fucking stinkers,
Speaker 1: and he has been accused of a lot of really
Speaker 1: really gross behavior, including having like kind of a cults
Speaker 1: of his own. I firmly believe that Jared Leto is
Speaker 1: being cast in things because he's got dirt on somebody.
Speaker 1: I really believe that I'm not being cute. I think
Speaker 1: there has to be something like that going on, because
Speaker 1: otherwise I do not get it. And every time he
Speaker 1: turns up in something, it'll be something that I was
Speaker 1: otherwise interested in at the start of the trailer, and
Speaker 1: then his face appears and I immediately I am just like, oh,
Speaker 1: never mind, and I just completely clock out. I don't
Speaker 1: have any interest anymore so, and I know I'm not
Speaker 1: the only one with that response, So that's part of
Speaker 1: why I'm just like, how are they not seeing the
Speaker 1: results at the box office that people don't want to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, watch things he's in, and they're still putting
Speaker 1: him in stuff you can't talk about how it's about
Speaker 1: the bottom line because it doesn't work with him. I
Speaker 1: don't get it. NEA's got a bunch of laugh Ebojis
Speaker 1: Jeff says worst part of Blade Runner twenty forty nine
Speaker 1: A son that's seen it. It makes me wonder if former
Speaker 1: female colleagues like Claire Danes will work with him. I
Speaker 1: don't like, no idea what's going on there, man, but
Speaker 1: it's weird, and every now and then there'll be somebody
Speaker 1: like this who you just seem to not be able
Speaker 1: to get away from. And you're like, they have a
Speaker 1: really good agent or something because they are not talented enough.
Speaker 1: This is how I felt about Shilah Boof also, and
Speaker 1: he actually wound up sort of disappearing, but for a
Speaker 1: minute he was in everything, and I was like, why
Speaker 1: he's not a great actor. He's not particularly attractive, he's
Speaker 1: really ordinary looking. He doesn't really have a lot of
Speaker 1: screen presence. I was just sort of like, what that's
Speaker 1: the appeal? And eventually he just sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: dwindled and died. And I keep wanting that to happen
Speaker 1: to Jared Leto, and he's old enough now that I'm
Speaker 1: just like, if it hasn't happened yet, he's just gonna
Speaker 1: wind up getting too oled to cast for certain things
Speaker 1: and I just have to wait for the natural process
Speaker 1: of Hollywood. But I had hoped it would happen before
Speaker 1: that because of who he is as a person. So anyway,
Speaker 1: this is just a this is immediately who I pictured
Speaker 1: here in this moment, and this is when Jamal appears.
Speaker 1: This fucking dude. He disappeared into the chaos, only to
Speaker 1: appear a moment later, rising out of the smoke like
Speaker 1: he'd somehow managed to jump without legs, a squirming mercenary
Speaker 1: in his mouth before disappearing again. Get it, Jamal, good
Speaker 1: for you. And this is when he gets the hingle
Speaker 1: about some trap beginning to activate. Somebody was arming a
Speaker 1: ton of automatons, all with equipped satchel explosives explosives. I
Speaker 1: checked my map, making sure this wasn't one of our guys.
Speaker 1: It wasn't. That half of the battlefield was all purple dots,
Speaker 1: along with a few of the reanimated mages. I scoffed,
Speaker 1: you motherfuckers. Might be experienced, you might be battle hardened,
Speaker 1: but you're in my playground now. So Carl warns everybody
Speaker 1: to brace and he casts Tripper, which very much delighted
Speaker 1: me because this was an ability that when it appeared,
Speaker 1: I was sort of like, that is that could be
Speaker 1: really helpful, but it could also bite you in the
Speaker 1: ass so bad, and like, I just want to see
Speaker 1: it be used in a really exciting way, and this
Speaker 1: really fit the bill. The explosion when it came was
Speaker 1: bigger than I was expecting. One moment my map was
Speaker 1: a convoluted mess, and then we were all knocked off
Speaker 1: our feet, everyone but me and a few others with
Speaker 1: steady buffs. Still, it felt as if i'd been kicked
Speaker 1: in the chest by a horse. I took a blast
Speaker 1: of heat damage, but not much. Wrend blew across the
Speaker 1: roof like he'd been punted, disappearing back behind me and
Speaker 1: over the far edge, which he's fine, but I definitely
Speaker 1: had a moment of like, oh no. The smoke that
Speaker 1: covered the battlefield seemed to get sucked into the explosion,
Speaker 1: and in the moments after everything suddenly in view, it
Speaker 1: seemed the world was paused. And I want to mention
Speaker 1: my ear drums were blown out, and even though I
Speaker 1: didn't want to admit it to myself, I was getting
Speaker 1: used to the feeling. There was something comforting about that
Speaker 1: specific kind of pain. That's not good. Nope, nope, not good,
Speaker 1: not good. Oh boy. Anyway, all the cyborgs were on
Speaker 1: the ground, overwhelmed and struggling. The entire area where the
Speaker 1: automatons had been gathered was nothing but a crater, and
Speaker 1: all the cyborgs in that area were just gone. A sizzling,
Speaker 1: metallic torso landed heavily on the roof behind me. I
Speaker 1: couldn't hear it, but I could feel it. Most of
Speaker 1: The veterans were also on their backs, though miraculously, my
Speaker 1: feed said none had died in the blast. Tina was
Speaker 1: on her back, health in the red, all her shields gone.
Speaker 1: I could see she was crying out, but I couldn't hear.
Speaker 1: I imagined she was crying for her mother, which is awful.
Speaker 1: And he just doesn't have the emotional moment here with
Speaker 1: this that I wanted. It's just an observation and then
Speaker 1: he moves on to the next thing. I was just like, oh, bro,
Speaker 1: you are just so not okay. It's just not okay.
Speaker 1: The current crawlers were the first to get to their feet,
Speaker 1: and in a situation like this, he who recovers fastest wins.
Speaker 1: They moved to finish off the defenders. Our men and
Speaker 1: women crawled over the remaining cyborgs like an army of ants.
Speaker 1: In moments, it was done. And this is when Donut
Speaker 1: is like, everybody, watch out for the mages because they
Speaker 1: are gonna be worms coming out of them, so don't
Speaker 1: get got by these fucking worms. The death Cult leader
Speaker 1: is sitting next to him and he says something. Carl's
Speaker 1: like what, And he says, I said, I could really
Speaker 1: use a nice refreshing drink right about now want to
Speaker 1: join me, which I think is meant to be like
Speaker 1: a kool aid joke, I think, but uh yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: one of those. And then we get an alert from
Speaker 1: Donut that last mage is fleeing and it's Lonnie and
Speaker 1: Carl acted daughter's kiss jumps off the second story and
Speaker 1: lands on him and it kills him. So that's a
Speaker 1: wrap on that. So then we jump to Rosetta who's
Speaker 1: messaging with Karl and is like, the door disappeared, but
Speaker 1: they can use it again. We're going to have to
Speaker 1: pull the safe room away from the castle and have
Speaker 1: permanent guards on it, or else just kill the entrance completely,
Speaker 1: which might be better. And he is like, I just
Speaker 1: don't want to lose access to Mordecai in the safe room,
Speaker 1: so you know, And he says, since they can only
Speaker 1: bring a limited number of NPCs into their own safe room,
Speaker 1: they can't do a full scale invasion through that door,
Speaker 1: but we do need to isolate it. We need to
Speaker 1: get back on that now while we decide what to do.
Speaker 1: None of that is going to matter if we don't
Speaker 1: beat these assholes back. But for the next few minutes,
Speaker 1: focus on helping Louis open the roof. We were cleaning
Speaker 1: up after the attack, resetting our defenses and looting the
Speaker 1: bad guys before the main force would be on us
Speaker 1: in ten or fifteen minutes. They probably wouldn't march right
Speaker 1: into us now that their beachhead was closed off, but
Speaker 1: we had to be ready. We had more defenders appearing
Speaker 1: by the moment, including Boomers one hundred and six Bloody Leeches,
Speaker 1: along with the scattered one hundred fourth members of the
Speaker 1: Naughty Little Piggies who'd come running the moment we were attacked.
Speaker 1: Florin said he was pretty sure Prince Stallwar of the
Speaker 1: Skull Empire was with them leading the charge. In some ways,
Speaker 1: I wish we didn't have these pauses between fights. The
Speaker 1: ups and downs felt too jarring. I didn't like having
Speaker 1: to think about what was going to happen. I just
Speaker 1: wanted it to happen, which I really do understand that
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing he's thinking about, Like, we
Speaker 1: just need to get it over with. These breaks are
Speaker 1: absolutely crucial to be able to set up your traps
Speaker 1: and barriers and whatnot. Though, dude, like, thank God for them,
Speaker 1: you know. So this is when Samantha arrives, looks around
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh my god, did you have another
Speaker 1: party without telling me? Ah, Samantha, I really have been
Speaker 1: missing you. Where you been? Girl? I need you to
Speaker 1: get it up on this fighting a little bit more.
Speaker 1: So we start thirty two, Mordecai saying, you do need
Speaker 1: to destroy the bait shop and do it now. They
Speaker 1: can just drop a nuke through that door and be
Speaker 1: done with it, which was what I had actually been
Speaker 1: thinking way back when we first find out about the door,
Speaker 1: and I had a moment of like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: are they just gonna you know, because they put guards
Speaker 1: on it. I think it's Beaumo and Sledge. But all
Speaker 1: I could think was like, guards aren't going to do
Speaker 1: shit if they just decide to put an explosive in
Speaker 1: there and really like a big one, which they haven't done,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure why not if they just don't
Speaker 1: have access to something like that or what. So, Mortchai
Speaker 1: points out, like, we have lost almost all of our mages,
Speaker 1: so it's not like there's enough protections remaining that we
Speaker 1: can really protect ourselves in that way, and they could
Speaker 1: still try that if we don't get rid of this
Speaker 1: doggy door or yeah, the bait shop itself. So the
Speaker 1: Orc prints had come riding in some giant creature that
Speaker 1: looked like a cross between a hippopotamus and a yak.
Speaker 1: Decked out and glittering opalescent armor covered with feathers, The
Speaker 1: Orcs all wore flags on their backs like they were
Speaker 1: feudal Japanese warriors. The flags were black vertical rectangles with
Speaker 1: a shimmering silver Orc skull in the center. It made
Speaker 1: it easy to distinguish the Orc troopers from the others.
Speaker 1: The Bone Clan of the Skull Empire seemed to favor
Speaker 1: larger sized mercenaries. While the Orc team looked powerful, there
Speaker 1: weren't that many of them compared to the others. There
Speaker 1: were only one thousand or so. As far as we
Speaker 1: could see. It appeared all of the Operatics were also
Speaker 1: out there, along with the healthy mix of everyone else.
Speaker 1: It was no wonder Florin had been forced to fall back,
Speaker 1: and Tippett, who was looking at this with Carl, is
Speaker 1: just like, well, we are absolutely fucked, aren't we. And
Speaker 1: Carl's like, were you supposed to be bringing hope with
Speaker 1: you when you came? And He's just like, we just
Speaker 1: didn't want you to die, all along keeping you company.
Speaker 1: This is when Doughnut clocks that that's not Prince Stalwart,
Speaker 1: and it turns out it's their father who barren. His
Speaker 1: victory is his sister, and she's really startled because he
Speaker 1: isn't supposed to be in the mix anymore. He doesn't
Speaker 1: really do this sort of thing, so let's see, his
Speaker 1: appearance was probably a very last minute decision. It's news
Speaker 1: to me Russ hasn't participated in faction wars in quite
Speaker 1: a long time, since he was a pret himself. I
Speaker 1: wonder if he's sober, which is an interesting question. This
Speaker 1: is more or less likely if he's sober. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure which way the uh you know that influences things.
Speaker 1: So donat who's using the size up. She's looking at
Speaker 1: him and like he's seventy eight. His main weapon is
Speaker 1: a whip, and he has like dozens and dozens of spells.
Speaker 1: I don't even understand this. She calls him a copy
Speaker 1: dog instead of a copycat, which I did enjoy that
Speaker 1: little joke. I thought that was fun. And Tippin says
Speaker 1: he likely has a ring of divine suffering for the
Speaker 1: stats and the levels that come with charging the ring
Speaker 1: and a necklace of indelible woe for the spells uh.
Speaker 1: It trades out a random spell of your own for
Speaker 1: a spell of a targets. If you kill the target,
Speaker 1: it'll be one of their five highest level spells. Like
Speaker 1: the Divine Suffering Ring, it only works on crawlers and
Speaker 1: people like me. It's not all that useful unless you're
Speaker 1: a complete psychopath with a bunch of spells you can't
Speaker 1: afford to lose, or you can't afford to lose. Sorry.
Speaker 1: They agreed to stop using it because combatants were farming
Speaker 1: crawlers to power it up and it was a little messy.
Speaker 1: And Carl says, and the Divine Suffering Ring is any better,
Speaker 1: and he says, it's a long story, but trust me,
Speaker 1: the necklace is worse, much worse. And I'm really curious
Speaker 1: about exactly why that is, like what, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, very very curious. And also I'm worried that
Speaker 1: this is going to be something that Carl decides he wants, like,
Speaker 1: I don't need you getting any more divine horrible artifacts, sir,
Speaker 1: Please don't. I just really hope he doesn't. I know
Speaker 1: that he says like they agreed to stop using it,
Speaker 1: but apparently Rose, like you know, still here with the
Speaker 1: results of it. So maybe he's not wearing it and
Speaker 1: it's just that the results are permanent. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: So Donut sat on the counter with a Guildhall Bobka
Speaker 1: animatedly going back and forth about purchasable base upgrades. Rosetta
Speaker 1: was with her, but she had a look on her
Speaker 1: face that suggested she was about to throttle the cat.
Speaker 1: Tippitt had told her about King Rust's presence, but she
Speaker 1: hadn't shown any outward reaction at all. She'd called Donut
Speaker 1: over and insisted we spend the last of our pooled
Speaker 1: money to defend the base. And so, yeah, there had
Speaker 1: been this moment where tippd has a reaction to the
Speaker 1: fact that Rust is here and is like, oh God,
Speaker 1: I need to tell her, indicating they definitely have some
Speaker 1: sort of history between them. And then there's this thing
Speaker 1: with Donut that I think is interesting. Donut had that determined,
Speaker 1: smug look on her face that meant she was going
Speaker 1: to get her way, and if she didn't, she wouldn't
Speaker 1: shut up about it. So Donut, this is something like
Speaker 1: Carl later points out that when she's on the battlefield
Speaker 1: she manages to like get serious, you know, for donut,
Speaker 1: but one on one her stubbornness was growing, her snippiness
Speaker 1: was ratcheted even higher than usual. And I think that
Speaker 1: it's basically like a coping mechanism. Here's my theory. She
Speaker 1: is having to be so focused and perform so completely
Speaker 1: when she is on the battlefield as a leader that
Speaker 1: it's exhausting her. And so when she has her downtime,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like she doesn't need to keep putting
Speaker 1: on a show in that way anymore, and maybe is
Speaker 1: getting a little high on her own supply as well.
Speaker 1: Where you can start. If you know you have people
Speaker 1: who are following you and who are willing to do
Speaker 1: what you tell them in a battle, you can start
Speaker 1: to feel like you just deserve to be listened to
Speaker 1: at all times and obeyed. I don't know, but there's
Speaker 1: also a part of me that's like, is it simply
Speaker 1: that she can act like a little bit of a
Speaker 1: child here because the stakes aren't as high, it's like
Speaker 1: safe to do it, and so she can't sustain this
Speaker 1: like impressive leader persona all the time. And this is
Speaker 1: when she's allowed to just be kind of petulant and immature.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know, but anyway, there comes
Speaker 1: a point where she starts to like pull rank and
Speaker 1: is telling uh Rosetta like, you know, if I said
Speaker 1: that it's happening, I'm higher rank than you. If I
Speaker 1: say it's fine, it's final, and Carl has to be
Speaker 1: like Donna. They came here to help us, Please don't
Speaker 1: be a dick to them. There's also a mention of
Speaker 1: the Slugglos and Justice Light and that Imani went into
Speaker 1: the room that most of the Slugglos are like living
Speaker 1: in right now, and she doesn't want to talk about it,
Speaker 1: but she said that she would never go in there again.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on there. There's a mention
Speaker 1: here something especially horrific had happened to Justice Light during
Speaker 1: his indentureship, and it had changed him even further the
Speaker 1: incident when he lost his wing. I didn't know the story,
Speaker 1: but I did know it had turned the somewhat morose
Speaker 1: but proud skyfowl into a quiet, strange, obsessive, compulsive creature.
Speaker 1: He had a few strange ticks, always moving his head
Speaker 1: back and forth like he was hearing things. He muttered
Speaker 1: to himself a lot. So there's this like piece of
Speaker 1: artwork that he's working on where he's folding paper and
Speaker 1: sewing it to another piece of paper, and Tippets says,
Speaker 1: it's a like calming thing. That's just sort of nonsensical
Speaker 1: to be doing something with his hands. That's you know,
Speaker 1: it's sort of monotonous in a way that is kind
Speaker 1: of meditative, is how I am imagining it. But I
Speaker 1: am not so sure. There's something about this that feels
Speaker 1: like this dude's making something and it's just that we
Speaker 1: don't get it yet. That's my theory, is that this
Speaker 1: is something more. I don't know. So I'm trying to
Speaker 1: jump ahead a little here because I do have so
Speaker 1: much to cover, and I'm like, forty minutes in already,
Speaker 1: h oh, right here it is, donut. Are we sure
Speaker 1: we trust this guy? He's obviously on stand. Carl says,
Speaker 1: I trust him with my life, and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're trusting all of ours too, and he's like,
Speaker 1: hopefully it won't get to that point. And I kind
Speaker 1: of wanted to be like, it does feel like it's
Speaker 1: kind of already point Carl, but you know I called
Speaker 1: after Rosea. I get ready to close off the safe space,
Speaker 1: but send out a five minute warning to everybody so
Speaker 1: they can grab stuff if they need it and wait
Speaker 1: until we're out too. Donut buy the hanger upgrade. We're
Speaker 1: almost out of money, Carl. She then gasped with delight
Speaker 1: as the Bobka emerged from the back of his little area,
Speaker 1: dragging several rolled up banners. So yeah, she agrees, and
Speaker 1: she know she's a little bit of a brat about it,
Speaker 1: but she eventually winds up going along and Russ is
Speaker 1: coming at them wanting a parlay, so they go out
Speaker 1: to meet him. And the way that this works is
Speaker 1: that Doughnut wants the plan is to basically make this
Speaker 1: guy so angry that he does something stupid, and Carl
Speaker 1: has the nerve to say something like people who are
Speaker 1: angry make mistakes and Donut mutter something that he can't hear.
Speaker 1: But I like to think she's like, yeah, no, fucking shit, dude,
Speaker 1: look in the fucking mirror, Like Carl, I'm bro I
Speaker 1: don't know how to tell you this, dude, My god.
Speaker 1: He gets a message here from Florin, who is talking
Speaker 1: about uh, we stopped the armor in its tracks, and
Speaker 1: then warning Louis to seer clear of these weepers because
Speaker 1: they're more high tech than they had anticipated the bad news.
Speaker 1: The guys you're looking at most certainly know they lost
Speaker 1: the whole regiment and aren't going to wait to get
Speaker 1: sandwiched between you and the one oh first. So try
Speaker 1: to keep them talking as long as they as you can.
Speaker 1: I have caught you, Bautista, with what's left of the
Speaker 1: one oh fifth, and they're keeping the west end opened
Speaker 1: up at the very least they can keep an open
Speaker 1: corridor of retreat into shantytown if you get overrun. So
Speaker 1: as they approach the Orcus adjutant appears a grick syst
Speaker 1: named Juan Shing Jinks, not Quanching, a similar type of
Speaker 1: creature as Juanching Jinks, but taller and thinner, and they
Speaker 1: get all of these messages that Carl has to turn off.
Speaker 1: And as they're approaching, there's Colonel Tippett saying has anyone seen?
Speaker 1: And then the chat cuts off because of the way
Speaker 1: this parlay works, and I was just like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: has anybody seen who? What's going on? My first thought
Speaker 1: was Rosetta and then I kind of dismissed it, but
Speaker 1: as it turns out, I shouldn't have. He can't even
Speaker 1: DM Donut while they're in this parlay bubble by the way,
Speaker 1: So as I come forward, they notice that this orc
Speaker 1: is like crying, laughing, crying. There's a sense of despair
Speaker 1: and they're trying to figure out, like, what is going
Speaker 1: on with this dude. It's like he's also enraged. He
Speaker 1: wasn't just crying. He was angrily muttering to himself, saying
Speaker 1: things to his adjutant and then putting his hands against
Speaker 1: his own face in an odd woe is me gesture.
Speaker 1: As we watched, he looked up into the air and
Speaker 1: shook his giant fists. It was like a caricature of
Speaker 1: someone having some sort of psychotic episode, and He's like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck? And Victory's like, I do not know.
Speaker 1: I guess you're gonna have to find out. And Donut
Speaker 1: launch us into her little spiel that she's about to do,
Speaker 1: where it's like we're gonna poke and prod at him
Speaker 1: and make him annoyed. And the way that the audiobook
Speaker 1: narrator does her voice is this very like affected, irritating,
Speaker 1: slightly higher pitched, more nasal voice than she normally has,
Speaker 1: and unexpectedly Rust just kind of like gently stops her
Speaker 1: and is like, hey, stop, no, no, we're not We're
Speaker 1: not doing this such a like kind of dial down
Speaker 1: way that she actually does stop. And Carl has also
Speaker 1: taken so aback that he just like lets this guy
Speaker 1: keep talking in a way that I don't think Carl
Speaker 1: ordinarily would have done. It's just that he is so
Speaker 1: caught off guard at the attitude being not at all
Speaker 1: what he was anticipating, that he really just doesn't know
Speaker 1: how to respond and he's not even sure if it's
Speaker 1: like for real. So he's like, did they show it
Speaker 1: to you? And Carl's like, what, they haven't shown us anything,
Speaker 1: And he says, my daughter has taken control of one
Speaker 1: of my cruisers and the whole crew they thought they
Speaker 1: were following orders. They didn't realize that she was, like,
Speaker 1: you know, suborning them. Basically, she has just sent out
Speaker 1: a message that she is planning on taking the station
Speaker 1: with the failsafe and activating it, and a reaction will
Speaker 1: take place in the system Star and we will all die.
Speaker 1: And Carl just starts to laugh so hard, which as
Speaker 1: much as it feels very unhinged. I mean, I really
Speaker 1: can't blame him, can you, considering what he just went
Speaker 1: through deciding whether he wanted to flip the switch or not,
Speaker 1: and he knows that now this simply will not work.
Speaker 1: But nevertheless, to realize that maybe if he hadn't deleted it,
Speaker 1: like this could still if he weren't me to wear
Speaker 1: now and he maybe didn't have time to do it,
Speaker 1: like how all this could have gone, you know? But yeah,
Speaker 1: So this entire like situation is everyone believing that they
Speaker 1: are about to die within about five hours, I think
Speaker 1: is the amount of time it is going to take
Speaker 1: until she reaches the destination. And it's it's so I
Speaker 1: really really wonder what people are going to make of
Speaker 1: the fact that Carl is like aware it's not going
Speaker 1: to work the way everybody thinks. That's the part that
Speaker 1: I'm the most curious about, because I feel like I
Speaker 1: would I would be I don't know how many people
Speaker 1: are going to get this information when he goes back
Speaker 1: to his side. Is everyone they're going to have been updated?
Speaker 1: Are they all going to have found out about this
Speaker 1: or is it this sort of thing that like only
Speaker 1: they know and they could kind of keep to themselves
Speaker 1: until such point as they decide to reveal it. In
Speaker 1: that case, it would be only Doughnut that really knew that.
Speaker 1: He wasn't as worried about it as he maybe should
Speaker 1: have been, were it not for some other secret ingredient here.
Speaker 1: You know, I marched the Horde here to end this
Speaker 1: forest once and for all. There's glory in dying in battle.
Speaker 1: And you might not believe this, but I respect you, Karl.
Speaker 1: My sons do not see it, but you have bested
Speaker 1: them multiple times. You have a warrior's heart. In another time,
Speaker 1: there would have been honor to face you in battle
Speaker 1: and die. Instead of learning from their mistakes, you have
Speaker 1: succeeded in just making them more angry, and they act
Speaker 1: like petulant children. I came here to protect my family.
Speaker 1: If we are to suffer further humiliations, at least he
Speaker 1: who casts the shadow will be me and not my children,
Speaker 1: who have won long lives in front of them and
Speaker 1: Carl's like apparently not, since they're all here. He looked sad,
Speaker 1: utterly defeated. That moment my wife was killed, I should
Speaker 1: have he trailed off. And this is when Doughnut chimes in,
Speaker 1: and she's like, is this even real? This isn't like
Speaker 1: some elaborate trick, And he doesn't even answer her, and
Speaker 1: he says something about how his system will devolve into
Speaker 1: chaos because the galaxy will be impacted by this system
Speaker 1: going down. The reavers will be fine and will likely
Speaker 1: take advantage of the sudden power vacuum war will break out.
Speaker 1: It will be the single most devastating disaster in all
Speaker 1: of history, and this affects us. How was my immediate reaction?
Speaker 1: But I choked it back. I wanted to keep him talking,
Speaker 1: so instead I asked them why is she doing it?
Speaker 1: She feels she's protecting the galaxy from an even worse fate.
Speaker 1: She believes the current system aies insanity, is contagious and
Speaker 1: will spread to the Center system if it's not dealt with,
Speaker 1: And Carl's like, so will it, And he basically says,
Speaker 1: it's the sort of thing that's like, technically maybe possible
Speaker 1: if every single bit of circumstance were to line up
Speaker 1: exactly right, but so incredibly unlikely that I don't think
Speaker 1: it's a threat, And apparently neither does anybody else, because
Speaker 1: they had the chance to pull this veil safe and
Speaker 1: they didn't take it. Let's see. All the analysts say
Speaker 1: it's not even remotely possible, but she is convinced. Both
Speaker 1: the most stubborn and most superstitious, she's the most like
Speaker 1: her mother. So Dona is like, so are we still
Speaker 1: going to battle or not? Like what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: And He's like, well, honestly, it depends on you. If
Speaker 1: you want to go to battle, I will certainly do that.
Speaker 1: If I were younger, absolutely I would. We have you.
Speaker 1: Bet it will hurt, but we have you. And even
Speaker 1: if you managed to knock us back today to hold
Speaker 1: out until the next phase, you still wouldn't have won.
Speaker 1: Stalwart has done well building this army. Despite the obstacles
Speaker 1: this season, We've managed to accumulate the largest collection of
Speaker 1: war mages ever assembled. We can kill you now with
Speaker 1: the help of the other factions, or we could have
Speaker 1: waited until later and done it on our own. You
Speaker 1: would have been annihilated and it would not have been pretty.
Speaker 1: And if not us, that lunatic architect Houston has been
Speaker 1: using this season's rules to open up his full arsenal.
Speaker 1: He sighed almost wistfully, and he met my eyes. I
Speaker 1: can admit this. Now, he's the only living creature in
Speaker 1: this universe I fear, which I think is entirely valid.
Speaker 1: I think he's like a villain that I find particularly
Speaker 1: upsetting on a level that I haven't with almost anybody else,
Speaker 1: So that tracks completely for me. And then he says,
Speaker 1: I want you to send my daughter a message. I
Speaker 1: want you to ask her to stop on behalf of
Speaker 1: the people of Earth. I doubt she'll listen, but maybe.
Speaker 1: And Don'nut's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on,
Speaker 1: She's just gonna press a button. Carlon had more safeties
Speaker 1: on his bank account. How is this possible? The security
Speaker 1: on a satellite is impenetrable. The satellite itself has a
Speaker 1: fail safe that will cause it to explode should anyone
Speaker 1: unauthorized attempt to break into systems. Gull Empire manufactures the satellites.
Speaker 1: We build back doors into everything so they can't be
Speaker 1: used against us. This was a secret until my daughter
Speaker 1: announced it to the whole galaxy. I'm afraid that stock
Speaker 1: certificate you own carl is losing significant value by the moment,
Speaker 1: which is wild that she decided to show their hand
Speaker 1: on that. I guess why not your whole family's here.
Speaker 1: You think you're about to die? What do you care?
Speaker 1: But it is very, very funny. Why doesn't the AI
Speaker 1: stop her? Doesn't it have the system in quarantine? She's
Speaker 1: out of zone? The AI controls the tunnel gate because
Speaker 1: the controller must be in orbit of the game planet.
Speaker 1: The security system in orbit around the second planet is
Speaker 1: deliberately staged well out of the system's control. They should
Speaker 1: have kept the old style gates active. Anyway, the AI
Speaker 1: couldn't control those, the MUDs would never have gone bankrupt.
Speaker 1: So this confused me a little bit because, like, you know,
Speaker 1: we have that moment when Carl removes the thing I
Speaker 1: can't even remember what it was called, and he sees
Speaker 1: like this sort of stain spreading across the map, as
Speaker 1: if to indicate the influence of the AI is spreading. Evidently,
Speaker 1: if that is happening, no, like other people haven't detected
Speaker 1: it yet, I don't know why not. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. This whole thing is is. There's so much
Speaker 1: to this that I'm having trouble keeping track. So if
Speaker 1: anybody feels like explaining it to me, like I'm five,
Speaker 1: please feel free. Uh let me get this straight. You
Speaker 1: want me to talk to your daughter. You have millions
Speaker 1: upon millions of citizens, including children, on the surface. If
Speaker 1: she backs, I can't stop whatever happens next down there,
Speaker 1: but they will be safe. And this is when Carl
Speaker 1: says that he doesn't really speak for humanity, but the
Speaker 1: idea of sacrificing the rest of my people in exchange
Speaker 1: for the deaths of all of you plus causing war
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a bad trade off to me, which
Speaker 1: is fair. Does that also mean there won't be any
Speaker 1: more crawls? There will always be crawls. We might miss
Speaker 1: a season or two while the galaxy settles, but there
Speaker 1: will always be crawls. There is nothing anybody can do
Speaker 1: to stop that. And this is when Carl says, then
Speaker 1: what exactly do we get out of helping you? And
Speaker 1: then we have a smash cut to Rust walking away.
Speaker 1: So there's been some negotiation that happened that we don't
Speaker 1: actually get to see. So Seraphim says, my guess would
Speaker 1: be he turned off the system that would alert them
Speaker 1: that AI's sphere of influence was changing when he turned
Speaker 1: off all the safeties. Okay, Michael says, my guess, just
Speaker 1: because the AI can now influence doesn't mean it has
Speaker 1: to exert that power. It's keeping it under wraps. Plus
Speaker 1: Seraphem's thing, okay, fair so donuts. First question, of course,
Speaker 1: is like is he telling us the truth? Is? Are
Speaker 1: we all about to die? We have to go back
Speaker 1: Mongo's all alone and immediately messages Zev, who is like, yes,
Speaker 1: it is true, and Carl has to DM her and
Speaker 1: be like, don't react out loud to me saying this,
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna work. We have to behave as
Speaker 1: if we think it is gonna work and get him
Speaker 1: to withdraw. I'll make the plea to his daughter even
Speaker 1: though I think what I do, She'll definitely still push
Speaker 1: the button, and she's, of course like, how do you
Speaker 1: know it won't work? And he just says, call it
Speaker 1: a hunch, and she's like, uh, is that the right
Speaker 1: word for something that's fucking enormous when it's like the
Speaker 1: solar system. But the way that she is trusting Carl
Speaker 1: is wonderful. I really really appreciate that they have this
Speaker 1: level between them, and I returned my gaze to King Rust.
Speaker 1: The large orc continued his slow plod back to his side,
Speaker 1: now flanked by a pair of massive Orc guards. I
Speaker 1: was glad he'd come instead of his son. I still
Speaker 1: plan on killing the old Orc, but he seemed so
Speaker 1: much more reasonable than his child. This last minute reprieve
Speaker 1: was almost too good to be true. And that's when
Speaker 1: Rosetta appeared in a movement so fast she'd clearly been
Speaker 1: practicing it. She flipped in the air, landing on the
Speaker 1: back of the yak behind the king, tossed the whip
Speaker 1: around the neck of the king, and yanked the head
Speaker 1: flew from his body like a popped champagne cork. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so then all his people charge yikes, yikes. Now look,
Speaker 1: am I mad at Rosetta. No. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: he did something pretty fucking horrific for her to be
Speaker 1: this careful about getting at it. I don't know what
Speaker 1: she knows about any of the negotiations at all. I
Speaker 1: suspect nothing. I am really curious once she finds out,
Speaker 1: if she does, if she if she survives long enough
Speaker 1: for Carl to be like, here's what was going to happen,
Speaker 1: if she's gonna be like, oh shit, sorry, or if
Speaker 1: she'll be like I did what I did, I said
Speaker 1: what I said. I stand by no apologies. No regrets.
Speaker 1: I kind of feel like it's probably the second one,
Speaker 1: but uh, it's just such a special circumstance right now,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't tell. Also, like do kings rust
Speaker 1: do kings? Do king rusts? People know about the fail
Speaker 1: safe thing either, I don't know what anybody knows, so
Speaker 1: everything is very dependent on other things, you know. But uh,
Speaker 1: I can't lie. I really was impressed with her pulling
Speaker 1: this off. And he's not a warlord as well, so
Speaker 1: like I had a moment of thinking, oh, this could
Speaker 1: be a game changer, that he's already dead, and then
Speaker 1: I realized, like, not really, it's you know, he's not
Speaker 1: high level enough for this to be like a decisive thing,
Speaker 1: which is a shame. Oh well, with that, guys, I'm
Speaker 1: going to wrap up and be like within an hour
Speaker 1: for the first time and god knows how long. So
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I think I appreciate everybody coming and hanging
Speaker 1: out with me. Thank you Michael again for commissioning this,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you all are enjoying the coverage.
Speaker 1: Until next time to the motherfuckers. That was an Unspoiled
Speaker 1: Network podcast.