Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book five, The Butcher's Masquerade, chapters
Speaker 1: thirty through thirty four. In these chapters, Carl goes to
Speaker 1: a con and manages to utilize everybody there far better
Speaker 1: than I was even expecting, and nothing that I thought
Speaker 1: was going to happen a certain way did. But overall,
Speaker 1: I must say I'm very satisfied with how all of
Speaker 1: it went. Welcome to spoil Me, Welcome to the show everyone.
Speaker 1: I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Jackie for
Speaker 1: commissioning this episode. Jackie, if you're out there, appreciate you
Speaker 1: very very much. So this is, in my opinion, one
Speaker 1: of the best sections of the of the books so
Speaker 1: far in terms of sheer personal enjoyment due to the
Speaker 1: interaction that Karl gets to have with other people who
Speaker 1: are not directly involved in the krawl. This sort of
Speaker 1: world building shit is my entire jam. When it's like,
Speaker 1: when it's structured like this, world building, as we all know,
Speaker 1: is a very tricky thing. You can overdo it. You
Speaker 1: can from load way too much information and kind of
Speaker 1: overwhelm your audience, and you can make it so that
Speaker 1: we're sort of sitting there going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Get to the point, though, get to the point, you know,
Speaker 1: And I just really love that it's Carl alone. There's
Speaker 1: no Donut to act as the audience facing part of
Speaker 1: the duo, so he is forced to like engage in
Speaker 1: a way that often he can sort of like step
Speaker 1: back and just let her completely take the reins. And
Speaker 1: even later when he is drugged, I can't help but
Speaker 1: feel like that was the right call though, because I
Speaker 1: understand Carl's reticence in all things, you know, he keeps
Speaker 1: on being like I don't want to give them the satisfaction.
Speaker 1: I don't want to engage in such and such level
Speaker 1: because I know that's what they want, and I fucking
Speaker 1: get it, totally get it. However, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: there is something to be gained by engaging on that
Speaker 1: level for you as well. That's oftentimes how they get you.
Speaker 1: Is the thing that's good for ratings is good for
Speaker 1: you in a sense as well. So I will get
Speaker 1: like kind of twisted up myself about like whether or
Speaker 1: not you should have done things this way or that
Speaker 1: way because of the ethics of it, because of your
Speaker 1: personal your personal feelings on being used in this particular way.
Speaker 1: But this is one of those times where I think
Speaker 1: that like ensuring that he is off the leash, so
Speaker 1: to speak, was the best outcome, and there was simply
Speaker 1: no way they were going to get the type of
Speaker 1: display from Carl that they got without this. Had Donut
Speaker 1: been there, sure I could see it, But they wanted
Speaker 1: only Carl for reasons. I don't know. If there's like
Speaker 1: maybe it's expensive to pull him and so they only
Speaker 1: could pull him and not Donut. If like he is
Speaker 1: I think still number one, so it might just be,
Speaker 1: you know, we're just we just want the number one guy.
Speaker 1: If there was a tactic to it where we want
Speaker 1: them separated for some reason, I don't know what all
Speaker 1: the thinking was here, but I really think that it
Speaker 1: was for the best. And it's also funny to me
Speaker 1: the way that Carl is not picking up on what
Speaker 1: Zev is trying to put down because this there's this
Speaker 1: whole conversation later where she tries to be like, it's
Speaker 1: in your best interest to maybe hang out a little
Speaker 1: while after to get what I'm saying. And I like
Speaker 1: when he got the invite to the con that's Immediately
Speaker 1: my thought was like, oh, there's going to be somebody
Speaker 1: there to talk to him, like I bet that you know,
Speaker 1: and he's not getting it and there isn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: there there are people there for him to talk, but
Speaker 1: it's not like none of it went the way I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to go. So I think that
Speaker 1: there's some interesting Maybe there were some things that were
Speaker 1: supposed to happen with his visit that didn't or just
Speaker 1: maybe some stuff didn't go to a plan. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but uh I am I really really enjoyed this segment
Speaker 1: just to see how he is on his own, because
Speaker 1: like this is, I want to be clear, not a
Speaker 1: criticism of the writing. It's more like just acknowledging a
Speaker 1: reality about the way that writing this probably goes that
Speaker 1: there's a certain when you involved Dona to a certain degree,
Speaker 1: when you're doing this sort of social part of the story,
Speaker 1: it's an easy button. You know, she's funny, she's likable,
Speaker 1: she smooths things over, she knows what questions to ask
Speaker 1: and what to say, and it takes some of the
Speaker 1: tension out of things, not because you're sure everything is
Speaker 1: going to go well, because that's not necessarily true, but
Speaker 1: you know that whatever's going to happen is probably going
Speaker 1: to at least be amusing, whereas with Carl that's definitely
Speaker 1: not a guarantee. He isn't amusing like steadily. Sometimes he is,
Speaker 1: but it's not his intent, not the way that it
Speaker 1: is with Donut. So it feels also like this was
Speaker 1: probably maybe a little bit more of a challenge on
Speaker 1: a certain level. So oh, get into this, but on
Speaker 1: oh sorry, Michael says, I wanted to say Jackie's evil
Speaker 1: for stopping these episodes on these particular cliffhangers, and like
Speaker 1: agree because I want to read more. But also it
Speaker 1: was very well done. This is a perfect stopping point,
Speaker 1: So I have to acknowledge that Seraphim says the ticket
Speaker 1: here was from a fan box, though it being an option,
Speaker 1: was likely to do the producer's thinking him going would be
Speaker 1: a good idea. But I don't think there was much
Speaker 1: of a real plan here beyond send it top ranked
Speaker 1: crawler to the con for pr And like, maybe I
Speaker 1: don't think that the fan boxes are immune to being
Speaker 1: played the way somebody wants them to go. Probably there's
Speaker 1: all kinds of ways that you can fix that. But
Speaker 1: also the plan doesn't have to be from the from
Speaker 1: the get go that he got the ticket just so
Speaker 1: that we could do the thing. The plan could be
Speaker 1: we know he has this ticket, and so now we're
Speaker 1: going to do a thing because we know he's going
Speaker 1: to be there. You know, it could go, it could
Speaker 1: start in the other direction. But anyway, so chapter thirty,
Speaker 1: you know, he has been pulled into the security checkpoint
Speaker 1: and all he knows is that he has just been
Speaker 1: taken away from Donut, who is in the same place
Speaker 1: as Luciamar. And it's granted, I believe that she was
Speaker 1: in a safe room, but I don't really know if
Speaker 1: they were, like they weren't actually in it in it,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I believe that she was still
Speaker 1: very much at risk immediately speaking, and he gets to
Speaker 1: find out from Zev without too much time time elapsing
Speaker 1: that for now, Dona is okay, but as we find
Speaker 1: out later, like it's there, she's clearly in a tight position,
Speaker 1: and everything is being set up in such a way
Speaker 1: that Carl is going to be jumped almost instantly wherever
Speaker 1: he winds up being dropped off, which there's a very
Speaker 1: funny fake out, and I will talk about it because
Speaker 1: I actually did laugh. But so he is being handled
Speaker 1: by this null from security, and he tells Carl, my
Speaker 1: grandpop's name is Lis. I would consider it a personal
Speaker 1: favor if you look approvingly on her and her entry.
Speaker 1: I can't backscratch you directly, but I am in charge
Speaker 1: of security, and I know you steal from trailers, and
Speaker 1: I can just overlook that if you do this for me.
Speaker 1: And Carl says, what in the flying fuck are you
Speaker 1: talking about, which it's sort of a weird response to
Speaker 1: me because I think it's pretty clear what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: And also Carl seems to get it once he's in
Speaker 1: this situation. There's no moment of like, oh, here's Lex
Speaker 1: and she's the girl that he mentioned and that must
Speaker 1: be what he meant and blah blah blah. It's like,
Speaker 1: here's Lix, and I'm gonna give her the good grade
Speaker 1: to do this thing for this guy. So it's just
Speaker 1: an odd like he acts like he has no idea
Speaker 1: what could possibly be meant by this, and then later
Speaker 1: he's fully on board and in it and gets it.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so he gets dropped into this production trailer
Speaker 1: here and there's no porthole or anything. And there's a counter,
Speaker 1: a bathroom, a couch, but it's made of metal. Below
Speaker 1: my feet, I heard what sounded like a crackle of
Speaker 1: a spell being cast, followed by cheers and laughter. And
Speaker 1: then here is Zev and she says that was quite
Speaker 1: the fight, but Dona is okay, and he keeps wanting
Speaker 1: Zev to tell him what happened. And he's being really
Speaker 1: stupid here. He's just so incautious, and I get it,
Speaker 1: like he's worried about Dona, and so his better judgment
Speaker 1: is sort of flying out the window. But it's just
Speaker 1: tough because in this situation, I would urge you to
Speaker 1: be even more cautious than usual. If you're really genuinely
Speaker 1: worried about Dona, I need you to be like more
Speaker 1: aware than ever about the way you speak. And he's
Speaker 1: just really letting his like agitation get in the way
Speaker 1: of his good fucking sense. And he had like he
Speaker 1: starts to say something about, I want to go back
Speaker 1: there immediately. If Donut as trapped, I need to get
Speaker 1: there as soon as possible, And this is when she says,
Speaker 1: it might be in your best interest to linger if
Speaker 1: you don't get it trust me. You need your rest,
Speaker 1: That's all I can say. And he says, I thought
Speaker 1: you guys plugged up the communication. Stop talking. Zev said, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: what are you fucking thinking? Come on, man, like Jesus.
Speaker 1: So anyway, this is when he goes He's told try
Speaker 1: not to swear for this one. They're children, and I
Speaker 1: love that. The next sentence is the next chapter's opening line,
Speaker 1: and it's my dad says, you're the cat's bitch, which
Speaker 1: honestly isn't really like, not true of anybody who owns
Speaker 1: a cat. Let's all be very for real. If you
Speaker 1: own one, you're that caitch, and there's really no ifans
Speaker 1: or buts about it, and you have to accept it
Speaker 1: before you and get involved with said cat, or you
Speaker 1: think it won't be that way and are very quickly
Speaker 1: disillusioned by the time things actually begin to shake out
Speaker 1: the way they inevitably will. So I don't think that's
Speaker 1: an unfair assertion. I'm just saying. My mother always said
Speaker 1: that dogs are like, oh my god, these people feed
Speaker 1: me and keep me warm and safe. They must be gods.
Speaker 1: And cats say, oh my god, these people feed me
Speaker 1: and keep me warm and safe. I must be a god,
Speaker 1: and that has always felt very deeply true to me.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this kid draws him being attacked by a
Speaker 1: grindle grub, a brindle grub, and I love Carlo says,
Speaker 1: ask your dad why that other guy is always coming
Speaker 1: over when he's not home, which is honestly such a
Speaker 1: beautiful line because it's he doesn't even have to assert
Speaker 1: anything here, He's just like, why don't you ask your
Speaker 1: dad that question? And if the kid does, just out
Speaker 1: of a like he won't even really know what it means.
Speaker 1: It will just insert this weird uncertainty and it is
Speaker 1: truly diabolical, like anything that it just instills a drop
Speaker 1: of doubt enough to like poison stuff that's really difficult
Speaker 1: to fight against. Man, Like, that's a really good that's
Speaker 1: a good bit, Carl. I can't be mad at you
Speaker 1: for that one. Oh God. So apparently the Crawl Coom
Speaker 1: was happening in an actual physical location, and the adults
Speaker 1: were walking around and visiting booths, and they had a
Speaker 1: daycare where they could drop off their kids. For an
Speaker 1: extra fee, they could participate in an art contest. Each
Speaker 1: day of the three day con had a different panel
Speaker 1: of so called celebrity judges. The kids were given art
Speaker 1: supplies from digital tablets to nano self learning sculpting clay
Speaker 1: to the alien equivalent of paper and grands, and they
Speaker 1: get to judge on a level from one to thirty.
Speaker 1: And we wind up finding out from herk who is
Speaker 1: sitting next to him, that this particular event is considered
Speaker 1: either you are a beginner in the circle of like
Speaker 1: players in the celebrity sphere at this convention, and so
Speaker 1: this is like where they sort of introduce you, or
Speaker 1: you are the one that they are obligated to include
Speaker 1: to a certain degree. But you're on your way out.
Speaker 1: Nobody really probably like even knows who you are unless
Speaker 1: they see your name. They don't recognize your face, that's
Speaker 1: for certain. And even if they see your name. There's
Speaker 1: this one dude who's a one of the camel creatures,
Speaker 1: and he had to have a qualifier under his name
Speaker 1: explaining what it is that he wrote because he doesn't
Speaker 1: even really have name recognition anymore. So that guy is
Speaker 1: particularly salty on that point because he really like, it's
Speaker 1: just insulting, you know. So I thought that was very
Speaker 1: funny and also has a definite ring of truth to
Speaker 1: it in terms of the way that like a lot
Speaker 1: of cons seem to work. I don't go to many cons,
Speaker 1: I'll say that, but you know, I understand how they're
Speaker 1: structured and the way a lot of this goes. I
Speaker 1: often wonder how a lot of celebrities feel about doing cons,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure, to a degree it can be very
Speaker 1: like tedious and shitty, depending on like what your relationship
Speaker 1: is with the property that you're representing and the way
Speaker 1: that people's attitudes are. But also there might be days
Speaker 1: where it's super fun, really cool to do, you know,
Speaker 1: So I, like I said, I'm sure it varies and
Speaker 1: also probably just varies by day according to like your
Speaker 1: personal mood. But I can't help but like think about
Speaker 1: the reality behind a lot of this stuff, because it's
Speaker 1: so there is a certain amount of sadness as a
Speaker 1: fan of anything that comes along with the concept that
Speaker 1: when you meet a celebrity, they're not happy to meet
Speaker 1: you and don't really want to be here. That's always
Speaker 1: like a bomber, you know, and I part of me
Speaker 1: really wants to be like that. Maybe that's not always true, though,
Speaker 1: maybe it's sometimes just nice. And I realize that to
Speaker 1: a great extent. This is just me, you know, huffing copium,
Speaker 1: I guess, as the kids would say these days. So
Speaker 1: he talks with guy as they are as these kids
Speaker 1: are filing through, and there are some weird, little like
Speaker 1: moments here. There's one group of caprids that comes through
Speaker 1: that don't have any art and they just demand to
Speaker 1: be judged. Which there's like a very strong reaction from
Speaker 1: Herk regarding these guys, and he is like, these things
Speaker 1: are freaky. I don't like them. Do whatever you need
Speaker 1: to do to get them out of here. And they
Speaker 1: give there they're just yelling like judge us and Carl
Speaker 1: gives them a five, and they like walk away and
Speaker 1: just say I accept your judgment or something like that,
Speaker 1: but seem like a little sad about it. I think
Speaker 1: it's such an odd moment. And Herk himself is like,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of weird shit, and that particular
Speaker 1: group is the weird. They have a TV show where
Speaker 1: they just basically like yell, I don't get it. It's
Speaker 1: just they're they're they're fucking strange, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: them out of here. And eventually we get Licks showing
Speaker 1: up and she's drawn a three D stick drawing of
Speaker 1: a knoll with a truncheon beating on an orc and
Speaker 1: she says, it's my pup pop, but he's helping rid
Speaker 1: the universe of tax avoiding scum, and so they give
Speaker 1: her like a perfect score, which is likely going to
Speaker 1: ensure that she winds up winning, and she like later on,
Speaker 1: uh zev is like, I've been looking at this thing
Speaker 1: that you guys voted for number one, and I don't
Speaker 1: get it. Is this like a bit you're doing? Is
Speaker 1: this a joke or like what's going on? And Carl
Speaker 1: just completely side steps that because it's super nih, but
Speaker 1: he is grateful that they won't have to be there
Speaker 1: for the moment when she is declared winner, because there's
Speaker 1: no way that people aren't going to realize that there's
Speaker 1: some kind of fixed because her winning does not make
Speaker 1: any sense. But doesn't care. He's ultimately just like, got
Speaker 1: to do what I gotta do, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to get on the bad side of the man who
Speaker 1: is in charge of some shit that directly affects me,
Speaker 1: which I think is a good call overall. And let's see,
Speaker 1: uh oh right, there's a mention of this other kid
Speaker 1: who won yesterday, who is iber and he is? He like,
Speaker 1: apparently they win usually and when they don't, have a
Speaker 1: little bit of like a tantrum over it. And I
Speaker 1: remembered the portrait. It was a perfect likeness of Dona
Speaker 1: and she would have absolutely loved it. I'd given the
Speaker 1: kid some sort of slug thing a twenty six. So
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if this is going to wind up being
Speaker 1: something like an issue for him, But I have to
Speaker 1: imagine it's going to be something like or else. Why
Speaker 1: would it be mentioned, you know. So he is about
Speaker 1: to take off and Herk tells him to be careful
Speaker 1: and he's like, careful, come on, and Herk's like, yeah, okay, fair,
Speaker 1: I understand it's a stupid thing to say. But the
Speaker 1: line to attend your panel is like literally out the
Speaker 1: door and like going around the building. It's a big deal.
Speaker 1: And he says something about the nova display and Carl
Speaker 1: is like, what does that mean? And he's like, did
Speaker 1: they not tell you? The panel you're going to be
Speaker 1: on is moderated by the mother of one of the
Speaker 1: hunters you killed, and I love that. When he meets
Speaker 1: with Zev, she's like, it's probably best not to like
Speaker 1: mention her government or anything. She owns an amusement park,
Speaker 1: which what that is so odd? But okay, sure, why
Speaker 1: not Zindi VA's sister. It was her very first hunt.
Speaker 1: The Mantis people are overly dramatic about everything. The woman
Speaker 1: is a hive queen, which means she probably has ten
Speaker 1: thousand children. Try to avoid talking about her government and
Speaker 1: there won't be any problems. So that's very interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Is like, you can talk about killing her daughter and
Speaker 1: that's probably fine, just not her government specifically. I'm not
Speaker 1: mad at that, but I do think it's surprising, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Yeah, anyway, so this uh the
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just saw the chat, and Michael says,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it varies from day to day. William Shatner
Speaker 1: supposedly loved doing cons because of the love he got,
Speaker 1: but he still had a couple of infamous bad days
Speaker 1: where he snapped at fans who kept pushing him with
Speaker 1: nitpicky details from the show where there would be no
Speaker 1: way he would know anything about that's that would be
Speaker 1: something that would drive me insane. Anytime somebody is like,
Speaker 1: well but this doesn't make sense, Who fucking cares? Like
Speaker 1: I can. I can do this on my podcast and
Speaker 1: nitpick about shit. I'm not gonna like bring this up
Speaker 1: with the actors. I'm not fucking insane. They don't you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Like just a weird behavior, guys.
Speaker 1: Michael says, honestly, Lix makes me think of a wandering
Speaker 1: in character Mercia. Oh my god. Yes, always got to
Speaker 1: have a cute puppy kid and you have human animal
Speaker 1: hybrid races in your world. Sarah him says, we heard
Speaker 1: about the park before they run a hunting camp. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's part of that. Oh okay, gotcha. I guess uh
Speaker 1: what I think of as amusement park is what she
Speaker 1: meant by that. But when you think about it, amusement
Speaker 1: park is It's a very vague term in the most
Speaker 1: literal sense. So I guess that makes sense. Michael says,
Speaker 1: I do wonder how things like being a hive queen
Speaker 1: who has thousands of babies affects familial affection. Stuff like
Speaker 1: if we crack anti aging, I wonder how that would
Speaker 1: affect family love as well when you don't need a
Speaker 1: kid to carry on your genetic imprint. And Michael, I
Speaker 1: was actually thinking that same thing about like, well, she's
Speaker 1: got like, you know, thousands of children, and a part
Speaker 1: of me was kind of like, so does that mean
Speaker 1: that she just doesn't get to care about her kids?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like that attitude with us as humans,
Speaker 1: we definitely can very much be like there's tons of
Speaker 1: the things so it doesn't matter, which is very revealing
Speaker 1: about our attitude. But that is not necessarily how other
Speaker 1: species operate, you know. But I understood what Zev meant.
Speaker 1: I just sort of thought it was like kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting point that said something about her as a
Speaker 1: person more than anything. So let's see, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: find the bit here. Oh right. She says that there
Speaker 1: are other people that are at this con and like
Speaker 1: Carl is only doing three things, which is actually pretty brief,
Speaker 1: and that there are others who are doing a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff. I'm trying to find the bit. They've only
Speaker 1: let four active crawlers attend this one. Five crawlers actually,
Speaker 1: since the Popop Brothers are really two. You're lucky you're
Speaker 1: only doing three events because you got here from a fanbox.
Speaker 1: The Popops are doing something like ten and the others
Speaker 1: are a guy named chireg Ali and Surrendel gore, you
Speaker 1: won't see either of them, but you're scheduled to be
Speaker 1: sharing autograph tables with the brothers tomorrow. And I've don't
Speaker 1: remember chirag Ali al though he says that he remembers
Speaker 1: the name. And he mentions that Lucia not being here
Speaker 1: as surprising, and she's like, yeah, she's not really doing
Speaker 1: this stuff anymore because she's sort of unpredictable. And finally
Speaker 1: Carl says, are you doing okay, Zev, which, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: it's taken him a little too long to ask her this,
Speaker 1: but I also get that he like he you get
Speaker 1: that sort of fatigue at caring about people who are
Speaker 1: in more control than you are, to a degree of
Speaker 1: being like, I really resent even feeling like I have
Speaker 1: to worry about you. You know, I'm not mad at him.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I would probably have asked already. But
Speaker 1: she says, I'm doing as well as I can expect.
Speaker 1: My home system has gone entirely dark, and we don't
Speaker 1: know if we'll be able to go home after this
Speaker 1: or if we're going to get executed. Plus, you know,
Speaker 1: my entire family was slaughtered because I refused to wear
Speaker 1: a pin, which I'll say with no reservations, y'all, I
Speaker 1: would have just worn the pin. And this is not
Speaker 1: me at all. I want to be clear. This is
Speaker 1: not me calling Zev out. It is me asking the
Speaker 1: question of whether something is worth it or not, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, there are times where sticking
Speaker 1: to your principles, no matter what it feels like a
Speaker 1: fucking baller move, that is very principled, and you are
Speaker 1: putting your foot down and refusing to be bullied. And
Speaker 1: then there are times where I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what would have Obviously it's not as simple as wearing
Speaker 1: a pin. She is saying this for the dramatic effect
Speaker 1: of it. I know that. But what would have been
Speaker 1: asked of her if she had worn the pin? What
Speaker 1: else would she have been expected to do? That's my
Speaker 1: real question here, and that would make the difference for
Speaker 1: me on what all is worth it and not. So
Speaker 1: I might cave to save the lives of my family.
Speaker 1: I might just do that, and I'm not really ashamed
Speaker 1: of it, because that's, you know, everything, Like some things
Speaker 1: are to me very cut and dried, right and wrong,
Speaker 1: and then there are things where it's sort of like
Speaker 1: it depends what you prioritize, whether it's worth it. It's
Speaker 1: completely subjective, so I don't know. Michael says, she probably
Speaker 1: didn't actually expect literal torture and slaughter of her family.
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if she didn't. She seemed to
Speaker 1: be aware that was like on the table, but maybe
Speaker 1: I was misreading that. She probably thought the consequences would
Speaker 1: just be personal and only professional and didn't realize how
Speaker 1: batshit crazy things were. Maybe, like you, guys, this is
Speaker 1: something that I'm kind of dealing with personally right now,
Speaker 1: with just the state of our world and how in
Speaker 1: the United States we just don't really have a lot
Speaker 1: of experience in our current iteration with really dramatically horrific
Speaker 1: consequences for things that are happening to us. We will
Speaker 1: have consequences that happen to other people in a place
Speaker 1: that we can easily ignore, and so it's nothing. But
Speaker 1: I think that there's a huge disconnect in regards to
Speaker 1: the consequences of certain changes because we are so certain,
Speaker 1: for not really any good reason, that things can't turn
Speaker 1: bad to a certain level. Do you get what I'm
Speaker 1: saying that we are like that simply couldn't happen here.
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine reached out today texted me
Speaker 1: they were very upset because a photographer that they know
Speaker 1: who they had worked with before, he got evicted from
Speaker 1: his apartment in September and he was found dead on
Speaker 1: the street from exposure two days ago. Died on the
Speaker 1: street because he lives in Minnesota and the temperature dropped
Speaker 1: and he had nowhere to go. And she sent me
Speaker 1: a link to his Facebook and one of the most
Speaker 1: recent posts was about getting evicted and saying, if anybody
Speaker 1: has a place for me to stay, I'd appreciate it,
Speaker 1: but if not, I guess I'll see you under the
Speaker 1: bridge in Route seventy seven or something. And all I
Speaker 1: couldn't help noting this. And I'm not judging these people.
Speaker 1: I just want to make this clear, like I'm making
Speaker 1: a judgment about them, but I'm not trying to say
Speaker 1: that I would behave differently. I am simply seeing something
Speaker 1: in a way that I don't think I would otherwise
Speaker 1: now that this man is dead because he had nowhere
Speaker 1: to go. When you go look at the comments on
Speaker 1: him asking for a place to stay, everybody clearly means
Speaker 1: well and is trying to be supportive, but there's a
Speaker 1: complete and utter lack of urgency to any of their replies.
Speaker 1: There's a little sense of I'm sorry they're going through this,
Speaker 1: but it'll work out ultimately. I'm sure you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I know that this sucks right now. You'll get through it.
Speaker 1: You may not have options at the moment, you will
Speaker 1: find a way. You will figure it out. And I
Speaker 1: understand that attitude. I have that attitude all the time
Speaker 1: about so many things. And it was just really chilling
Speaker 1: to see to read between the lines of what everybody
Speaker 1: was responding to him and how certain they all were
Speaker 1: that it would be fine. And now he's fucking dead
Speaker 1: because he had nowhere and nobody there was like one
Speaker 1: person who offered him a place to stay. Everybody else
Speaker 1: was basically like, I wish I could help, but they
Speaker 1: didn't offer anything. And the one person that offered him
Speaker 1: a spot, he replied to that guy saying, I would
Speaker 1: definitely take you up on this, but I have no
Speaker 1: way to get there. And that guy didn't reply to him,
Speaker 1: and you know, I don't know, maybe he got in
Speaker 1: touch on DM or something. I don't know what happened,
Speaker 1: but it was just the sense of all of us
Speaker 1: really believing that there is a sort of safety net
Speaker 1: that will ultimately be triggered and save us. That isn't real,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. That is just I understand
Speaker 1: to a point why we feel this way, but if
Speaker 1: we are looking at the reality of a lot of situations,
Speaker 1: we are very misinformed on how that works. So all
Speaker 1: this to say, Michael, what you're saying about, how zeb
Speaker 1: probably just like had the wrong idea about what would
Speaker 1: happen to her. Perhaps that is it, you know, like
Speaker 1: I think that we just don't Whatever we actually see
Speaker 1: isn't the truth on how bad the situation is. And
Speaker 1: I mean that on a number of levels, whether it's
Speaker 1: somebody's post on social media or whether it's a story
Speaker 1: in the news. I have to assume these days that
Speaker 1: if we are hearing about it, the reality is way
Speaker 1: worse than what we're even hearing. And so there's this dread,
Speaker 1: you know. Anyway, So he gets left to these nole
Speaker 1: guards and they're getting he's getting like some perks in
Speaker 1: this little moment that are unexpected. A bed gets installed,
Speaker 1: and bed isn't quotes. It was nothing more than a
Speaker 1: blue glowing panel. I could walk over and it would
Speaker 1: fully refresh and buff me for thirty hours. This was
Speaker 1: a Tier three bed, something I wouldn't be able to purchase.
Speaker 1: Till the ninth floor, they brought a cruller's biscuit and
Speaker 1: dropped it on the table and added a door that
Speaker 1: led to something called Ultimate Training Room, and Fredo says,
Speaker 1: the captain sens his regards. That's a Tier four training room,
Speaker 1: so you best use it while you can. You won't
Speaker 1: be able to nick the room or the bed when
Speaker 1: you leave, but a smart guy like you can be creative,
Speaker 1: and we'll turn your inventory back back on right before
Speaker 1: you return to the dungeon, just so you know. And
Speaker 1: when he goes into he uses the bed, he won't
Speaker 1: eat the biscuit because he can't, like look at its properties.
Speaker 1: And I'm really curious what that biscuit's gonna do, because
Speaker 1: I feel like it's got to be something pretty good.
Speaker 1: And then he goes into the training room and it
Speaker 1: is a very involved upgrade. There are so many things
Speaker 1: so he can train to six hours a day in
Speaker 1: six different skills. He can actually see a sort of
Speaker 1: like metric on how far he is on training to
Speaker 1: level up and gets a bonus to training, and plus
Speaker 1: there are additional types of training listed than the other one.
Speaker 1: But also, and I thought this was so wild. He
Speaker 1: clicks the sappers table and the table appears, and instead
Speaker 1: of the multi arm trainer guy who usually appeared a
Speaker 1: badger creature with an eyepatch and a hook for a hand,
Speaker 1: faded into reality in front of me. I hear, you
Speaker 1: want to learn how to blow things up into arm
Speaker 1: traps and maybe brew poison or two using this table.
Speaker 1: You come to the right place. Let's see here, looks
Speaker 1: like you already know your stuff. You're practically ready to
Speaker 1: teach me a thing or two. What can I do
Speaker 1: for you? And so he's able to have a full
Speaker 1: conversation with Carl about like what it is Carl wants
Speaker 1: to accomplish and whether or not that's possible, and what's
Speaker 1: the next closest thing that this guy could teach him.
Speaker 1: That's sort of in the neighborhood of what Carl wants.
Speaker 1: And it's a full on, like customized experience, really different,
Speaker 1: and Carl just is blown away and immediately like, we
Speaker 1: have to get a version of this room. This is insane,
Speaker 1: you know. So he says, I've been working on sticky
Speaker 1: bombs for a while. The ones I've been making aren't
Speaker 1: very adhesive. I can't get into my inventory, but I
Speaker 1: was hoping you could help, And he says, I think
Speaker 1: I know what the problem is. Let's put this table
Speaker 1: away and pull up the advanced Bomber's studio workshop and
Speaker 1: then we'll have to move over to the alchemy table,
Speaker 1: which means we'll be talking to my associate for a bit,
Speaker 1: but the whole module will only take two hours. Is
Speaker 1: that acceptable? And I love that there's like a time,
Speaker 1: you know, like benefit as well. There's just a lot
Speaker 1: with this that I think is so there's a lot
Speaker 1: of potential here. And yeah, fully understand what why Karl
Speaker 1: is so excited by this. So he gets on into that,
Speaker 1: and I'm assuming that whatever he learns here is going
Speaker 1: to be something that he winds up being able to
Speaker 1: use against Lucimar later. Maybe. And with all my equipment buffs,
Speaker 1: plus the extra benefits of my primal race, the skill
Speaker 1: should have gone up to sixteen, but according to the display,
Speaker 1: it remained at fifteen. Mordecai had warned me that would
Speaker 1: probably happen. My primal race allowed me to train past
Speaker 1: fifteen in skills and spells, but armor and weapons based
Speaker 1: enhancement's lost effectiveness past fifteen, which meant certain benefits, such
Speaker 1: as the plus one to powerful strike were greatly diminish.
Speaker 1: This didn't mean enhancement stopped at fifteen. There was a
Speaker 1: complicated math involved I didn't understand, similar to how our
Speaker 1: personal space worked. The bottom line was plus one a
Speaker 1: powerful strike plus five for my toe ring would still
Speaker 1: enhance me fifteen, but I'd probably need to get to
Speaker 1: twelve or so on my own before it did, and
Speaker 1: each level beyond that came with diminishing returns if I
Speaker 1: wanted to hit twenty and have to train to seventeen
Speaker 1: or eighteen on my own, which likely wouldn't happen. So
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound great. And I know that there's been
Speaker 1: a mention when he chose the primary race that there
Speaker 1: are other advantages, but I don't remember what they are now,
Speaker 1: So I like I could go back and look at that,
Speaker 1: or you guys can tell me if it's not a spoiler.
Speaker 1: But I know that there were certain reasons that he
Speaker 1: picked this race, I just can't fully remember them at
Speaker 1: the moment. So he gets brought into the room where
Speaker 1: there's a panel, and he gets in. There's like a
Speaker 1: little dude in here, dwarf named doctor Ratchet, and he says,
Speaker 1: I'm visiting the planet and had to borrow this room
Speaker 1: from my upcoming panel. I need the Jews for my demonstration,
Speaker 1: so unfortunately, you'll have to go upstairs. So so evidently
Speaker 1: there's like different, it's a weird thing. But because so
Speaker 1: much is virtual, you know. So Carl goes in and
Speaker 1: is left by these two mercenaries, the Knowles, and the
Speaker 1: chapter had started like don't trust mercenaries the next chapter,
Speaker 1: which I like because it's like adding an element of
Speaker 1: dread into things, of course, but then we wind up
Speaker 1: finding out that like the way the mercenaries kind of
Speaker 1: messed with him isn't as terrible as I was worried
Speaker 1: it would be, because that's such a you know, so
Speaker 1: it adds attention, and even though it pays off, it's
Speaker 1: not as bad as it could have been. And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's fair in terms of like overall storytelling.
Speaker 1: So let's see, there's a moment where he feels like
Speaker 1: very heavy and sluggish and weaker, and one of the
Speaker 1: mentions that he's in a zero zone where there's no
Speaker 1: enhancements at all, which it just never really occurred to
Speaker 1: me what it would be like to leave the actual
Speaker 1: crawl once you're used to being leveled up on such
Speaker 1: a variety of levels, that it would be like an
Speaker 1: adjustment to just go going back to being a person,
Speaker 1: and how it would be very easy probably to forget
Speaker 1: that you're just a person and like punch something expecting
Speaker 1: to break through it and instead you break your hand,
Speaker 1: you know. So let's see, I'm Valtae Corporation porter by
Speaker 1: identification number six dot f F. I will be your assistant.
Speaker 1: You may call me Biff. And he is led to
Speaker 1: the spot where he will be sitting, and the uh
Speaker 1: what do you call it? Is she's going to be
Speaker 1: right next to him, and even though it's gonna look
Speaker 1: like they're right next to each other, they won't actually
Speaker 1: physically be in the same room. And let's see trying
Speaker 1: to find the spot. Okay, So next to me was
Speaker 1: a ridiculously thin, flat faced, orange chewed alien with wide
Speaker 1: set eyes. He looked like a human size stick of
Speaker 1: gum with eyes and arms. And I don't know about y'all,
Speaker 1: but instantly I pictured Clippy for Microsoft Word and I
Speaker 1: know he's not like a stick of gum, but like
Speaker 1: close enough. That was just instantly who was in my head?
Speaker 1: Uptown how is over him? The next was a female
Speaker 1: tentacle face Ciccathian Sidney Iglacia crawl historian. The third was
Speaker 1: an older, heavily scarred albino bald elf Drick. He was
Speaker 1: listening to the Saccathian woman talk animatedly about something I
Speaker 1: couldn't quite understand. The guys stared back at her blankly.
Speaker 1: It was clear they didn't know I was here. So
Speaker 1: we get a little what do you call it, like
Speaker 1: a little info on who these people are. Slate the
Speaker 1: slate is an ex game guide and he's on Uptown
Speaker 1: hal Talk's tactics. I don't know who the slime face
Speaker 1: bitch is. It says she's a historian. And Drick was
Speaker 1: a crawler a long time ago, tapped out at the
Speaker 1: end of the eleventh This was on a Valte season
Speaker 1: and he used a plasma saw as his main weapon.
Speaker 1: And Maxo says he's a psycho, but he's a funny psycho,
Speaker 1: so they use him a lot for panels. I think
Speaker 1: he's a wormhead now can't remember, so yeah, he is,
Speaker 1: as is confirmed. So we have like there's a back
Speaker 1: and forth here between a bunch of them regarding Carl
Speaker 1: because they don't know that Carl is actually here viewing
Speaker 1: things right now. And it's very funny because one of
Speaker 1: them is like, there's no way he's here, give me
Speaker 1: a break, like just completely hand waives that even as
Speaker 1: a possibility. I don't understand why they told them he'd
Speaker 1: be here. It seems like a betrayal. No, Drick is right,
Speaker 1: somebody in the Hunters was the best choice choice. After
Speaker 1: Lucy had cast those spells and set up camp, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had a chance against her one on one.
Speaker 1: This is still a desperate ploy. But unless they know
Speaker 1: the exact moment and Spotty will appear, he's better off
Speaker 1: against the Hunters than the la Jobless, especially with her
Speaker 1: so angry. I don't understand any of this, Sydney said.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Carl will up uptown. House said, I just wish
Speaker 1: we were allowed to tell this directly to him. We'll see.
Speaker 1: So this is when the moderator comes in and it's
Speaker 1: one of these mantis ladies, and Carl is like kind
Speaker 1: of startled because seeing one of them in the krawl
Speaker 1: is sort of there's a different reaction to seeing them
Speaker 1: in this sort of setting where you're just in what
Speaker 1: amounts to a conference room in a hotel, and how
Speaker 1: much more upsetting. She looks out of context of the krawl,
Speaker 1: which I really get, and she says to him, your
Speaker 1: luck is a dishonor on the hive, to which he replies,
Speaker 1: the hive can lick my sack. I can't be mad
Speaker 1: at that pretty solid reply, Like what do you say
Speaker 1: to that? You don't say anything. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: she slices her arm blade through the table, right through
Speaker 1: where like Carl would have really been sitting, had he
Speaker 1: really been there, And evidently the others can't see her,
Speaker 1: like fully, I guess, so let's see, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: find the spot. Maybe no, they can see her, I think, right,
Speaker 1: but they can't see Carl. But she can little confused
Speaker 1: about who sees what here. But evidently this is the
Speaker 1: start of the panel, and I really felt for the
Speaker 1: way that she tries to run this. Her name is Circe.
Speaker 1: By the way, she decides that she's going to basically
Speaker 1: like have this be a lecture and this woman Sidney,
Speaker 1: who is the one with the tentacles, she has written
Speaker 1: a book that she's trying to promote using this panel,
Speaker 1: but Circy won't let her say anything, won't let anybody
Speaker 1: say anything, and she just tries to take all of
Speaker 1: the drama out of the situation in a way that
Speaker 1: reminds me a little bit of Carl. You know. She's
Speaker 1: attempting to sort of monopolize it all and not allow
Speaker 1: anybody else to participate and make it boring and not
Speaker 1: have it be like the show that everyone's here for.
Speaker 1: And Carl is thinking how Donut would have fucked up
Speaker 1: her whole shit if she had still been here. But
Speaker 1: she goes on for almost ten straight minutes, and finally
Speaker 1: Carl decides that he is going to put down his
Speaker 1: head and bang it on the table like he just
Speaker 1: like felt, and then says, you killed me. I'm literally dead.
Speaker 1: You succeeded in boring me to death. And she says,
Speaker 1: I'll be forced to mute you if you're gonna insist
Speaker 1: on being an imbecile, and he says, mute, You're not
Speaker 1: letting anyone talk. Does anyone give a shit about this subject? No?
Speaker 1: Half the crowd said, I do, Sydney said, sounding crestfallen,
Speaker 1: and I loved this. Carl's like, okay, Sydney, let's hear it.
Speaker 1: What's your book? What's it about? And he like just
Speaker 1: gives her the floor and she asks if she can
Speaker 1: put his endorsement on the cover, and He's like sure
Speaker 1: and completely helps her out in a way that is
Speaker 1: just very fun to me, because knowing that Matt Dinneman
Speaker 1: is an author, it's like he couldn't let Carl be
Speaker 1: mean to the author. He was like, no, Carl was
Speaker 1: gonna understand our plate. He's gonna get it. Oh God,
Speaker 1: I just love that so much. So finally somebody says, oh,
Speaker 1: he says, I heard a lot of you waited a
Speaker 1: long time for this panel, and you waited in line,
Speaker 1: and I guess what you really want to hear is
Speaker 1: what this roach lady has to say about me killing
Speaker 1: her coward bitch of a child. And then you probably
Speaker 1: want to hear me respond by saying I'm going to
Speaker 1: kill her other kids too. Then she's gonna get all
Speaker 1: hissy and I'll say something else that her pisselr off further.
Speaker 1: Is that right? And Circe is losing her entire shit.
Speaker 1: She like the thing to do here. Were she really
Speaker 1: going to like play, it would be to deadpan further
Speaker 1: not react. She is not capable of that. Evidently she
Speaker 1: can't help but show how upset and irritated she is Uptown.
Speaker 1: Howell was starting to back away. Sidney just seemed happy
Speaker 1: she got a chance to mention her book. She pulled
Speaker 1: the book out and was holding it against her chest.
Speaker 1: Drake was watching me intently. He too, was tense, as
Speaker 1: if afraid I'd somehow sneak a bomb halfway across the galaxy,
Speaker 1: which I don't think is unreasonable. Carl. You're acting like, oh,
Speaker 1: what does he think I've done? And I'm like, you
Speaker 1: do insane shit all the time, Carl. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody is out of line to expect something bonkers from you.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. I was originally gonna say, you can
Speaker 1: all go fuck yourselves and storm out, but I have
Speaker 1: a problem and i'd like to enlist your help. You
Speaker 1: guys want to help me crowd source a solution, and
Speaker 1: circ yells cut him off, and a woman yells out don't,
Speaker 1: and Circe's like, I'm the moderator and is yelling at
Speaker 1: the person out in the audience who said don't Circe
Speaker 1: is insisting, like you think I'm the maestro and that
Speaker 1: you can fuck me up like you did with him.
Speaker 1: But I am not pitiful like him. This is going
Speaker 1: to be a real problem if you keep on pulling this,
Speaker 1: and can someone tell me who the lady in the
Speaker 1: robe is? Then I felt myself add she's kinda hot.
Speaker 1: It was then at that moment that I finally realized
Speaker 1: how stupid and reckless I was being. Honestly, y'all, as
Speaker 1: much as this is like a little out of character
Speaker 1: for Karl, it's not enough for me to be worried
Speaker 1: about it or think that there's something wrong. Him saying
Speaker 1: she's kind of hot. That did feel excessive, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't really excessive enough even that for me to be
Speaker 1: like something's going on, you know what I mean? It
Speaker 1: just didn't still didn't occur to me. And this is
Speaker 1: when he notices that that cigarette one of the guards
Speaker 1: lit is still sitting there on the ground smoking and
Speaker 1: that there's clearly something in it, and he's being drugged
Speaker 1: to lower his inhibitions overall, and so this woman stands
Speaker 1: and says that she isn't allowed to address him directly
Speaker 1: because she's a sponsor, so I have to leave. But
Speaker 1: I'm also a sponsor of Crawl con and I've given
Speaker 1: I've directed them to allow you to speak, and that's
Speaker 1: all I can say. So Sirce is like, fine, fuck
Speaker 1: this whole thing. I'm going to get the hell out
Speaker 1: of here, and she picks up the whole table and
Speaker 1: like throw And as she's heading out, Carl just yells,
Speaker 1: can someone tell me the best way to kill Vra?
Speaker 1: And everybody goes silent because he's just said it directly.
Speaker 1: Just set it. And that's what you talk about at
Speaker 1: these things, isn't it. That's why we're here. That's the
Speaker 1: whole convention to celebrate killing. And I just judged a
Speaker 1: contest where kids drew pictures of me and my friends
Speaker 1: dying because y'all don't even see us as if we're
Speaker 1: real people. And I don't get it, because y'all are smart,
Speaker 1: and you're letting them separate us out like we're completely separate,
Speaker 1: but you know deep down what you're doing. I don't
Speaker 1: get it, but I guess I just have to get
Speaker 1: over that. So if you like when people die, then
Speaker 1: let's fucking do this then, Which is I think a
Speaker 1: good approach to be, Like, I'm not even gonna try
Speaker 1: and get this crawl stopped. I'm not gonna pretend that
Speaker 1: I can make it so that you guys don't enjoy
Speaker 1: this thing. I'm just gonna point out it's fucked up.
Speaker 1: And y'all know it's fucked up. I don't have to
Speaker 1: tell you that. If you stop and think about it
Speaker 1: for even a moment, you already know. And also, well,
Speaker 1: I have to do it, so I'm gonna fucking go
Speaker 1: for it. Then I'm not wanting to cheat. I am
Speaker 1: just asking for the information that the people I'm going
Speaker 1: to be up against already have, which I think is
Speaker 1: only fair. And he gets so much information, how many mantises,
Speaker 1: how like where they are exactly the Nebulars are camping out,
Speaker 1: You're in their territory, Circy, You're free to come back up.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much time we have left, but
Speaker 1: I want to brainstorm with all of you. If you
Speaker 1: were in my position, tell me what you'd do. Uh.
Speaker 1: And he involves the others on the panel as well,
Speaker 1: And this is when Ciruce says, if anything happens to
Speaker 1: my other daughters, I'll hunt down and kill the person responsible,
Speaker 1: and Carl's like, okay, me, I will be responsible. And
Speaker 1: maybe you should have thought of that, because they're literally
Speaker 1: being put into a dungeon where the thing is to
Speaker 1: kill them. So if you're so worried about them, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't have very much sympathy. You should have been
Speaker 1: in there and yourself, but you're too fucking old and
Speaker 1: you're a coward, so of course you're not the one
Speaker 1: in there. And then she finally leaves an uptown house says,
Speaker 1: you know you're fucked, right, and Carl uptown says I'm
Speaker 1: fucked So how do I unfuck myself? And it becomes
Speaker 1: a whole conversation. It's honestly genius. I love this idea
Speaker 1: involving the whole crowd. This is going to be shared
Speaker 1: so much as well. Like the way that this is
Speaker 1: going to not only be advantageous to Carl on an
Speaker 1: inf meal level but also be a viral thing is
Speaker 1: really important. And whoever drugged him, they were not trying
Speaker 1: to screw him. I really don't think they were, or
Speaker 1: if they were, they misjudged how this would shake out.
Speaker 1: But I really feel like this was for the best.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he says, I'll be back tomorrow if your
Speaker 1: plan works, I'll be sure to bring the heads of
Speaker 1: Sirce's daughters to decorate my table. By the way, I
Speaker 1: called out, have you guys ever noticed how awesomely designed
Speaker 1: the Desperado Club is? I love this. He made a
Speaker 1: deal with one of the other judges to say that
Speaker 1: because he had designed the club, and Carl said, I'll
Speaker 1: prompt if you'll give this girl a really high score,
Speaker 1: I'll promote how great the design is on my panel.
Speaker 1: And then he almost forgets to even do it, just
Speaker 1: barely squeezes it in before things are wrapping up, And
Speaker 1: as he is getting up up, he asks uptown how
Speaker 1: who that woman was? And he's like a representative of
Speaker 1: the collective. They are not someone you want to attach yourself.
Speaker 1: And then the room blinks and they're all gone, And
Speaker 1: I couldn't help but wonder if that was like on
Speaker 1: purpose that he was not allowed to finish his sentence,
Speaker 1: or if it was just circumstantial. So Fredo, one of
Speaker 1: the guards, there are two types of transactions, personal and business.
Speaker 1: We have transacted both types today. The matter with the
Speaker 1: drug was business. The matter with the commander is personal.
Speaker 1: Two separate things. Do you understand? No, I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do. Stop it, Stop it, mister contrarian. So he
Speaker 1: enters the studio and his UI pops up with a
Speaker 1: message from Donut. Don't go toward the safe room. It's
Speaker 1: a trap. Lucia is in there and can hurt you
Speaker 1: even if you go in, which is I don't understand
Speaker 1: how that works. If she's cheating, if she's got a
Speaker 1: skill or ability that allows her to do this, I
Speaker 1: don't know. But I killed her stupid dog and she's
Speaker 1: really mad about it, which the fact that Doughnut killed
Speaker 1: one of her dogs is insane. I just want to
Speaker 1: note that taking out one of Lucia's dogs is something
Speaker 1: many people have tried and it has like never worked.
Speaker 1: So I am so curious how she fucking managed that,
Speaker 1: because that's a big deal. That's a big deal. The
Speaker 1: bud ladies are outside in the town, them and these
Speaker 1: other guys who look like bad star Trek Aliens with
Speaker 1: big hats. So then he sees the table in the
Speaker 1: middle of the studio, Automaton table level five, sitting on
Speaker 1: the table was a book, a paperback featuring a familiar,
Speaker 1: smiling dwarf riding on the back of a mechanical horse thing,
Speaker 1: Doctor Ratchet's Guide to Building Automatons for Fun and Profit.
Speaker 1: I picked it up and open to the first page.
Speaker 1: It was autographed. I took both the book and table
Speaker 1: into my inventory and cracked my neck. Once I entered
Speaker 1: the green room, I'd have about five minutes before I
Speaker 1: was to be transferred back to the dungeon. I love
Speaker 1: this because what he had been talking about, and we
Speaker 1: don't actually hear that much about what specifically Carl is
Speaker 1: trying to do, but what that badger Ai said to
Speaker 1: him was like, if you want to do that, you'll
Speaker 1: need like a hypnosis table or a necromancy table, or
Speaker 1: you're gonna need like minions that are willing to die
Speaker 1: for you somehow. So I'm assuming that this like automaton
Speaker 1: table is accomplishing that that he can build minions, mechanical
Speaker 1: minions for himself, you know, So I am really curious
Speaker 1: exactly what it is like specifically that he is planning.
Speaker 1: It's having like beings that can carry your bombs in
Speaker 1: and out of places, is all well, and good, but
Speaker 1: I feel like it's got to be more than that.
Speaker 1: So we get, like the chapter thirty four, what a
Speaker 1: lot of the audience is explaining to him about killing
Speaker 1: mantises and like it's fun because one person will bring
Speaker 1: up something and another person will be like, you know
Speaker 1: that they have abilities that'll keep that from working, or
Speaker 1: YadA YadA, and alarm traps because like they have really
Speaker 1: sensitive hearing. And he says they poach other hunters. Doesn't
Speaker 1: that piss everyone off? The crowd laughed. A few seasons back,
Speaker 1: Vron got into a fight and killed a fellow hunter
Speaker 1: or someone else called. They said it was legal since
Speaker 1: it was in the hunting ground. Since then, people just
Speaker 1: do what the Dark Hive says. Almost everyone is scared
Speaker 1: of them, which makes sense. I mean, you know, why
Speaker 1: would you mess with that? And the nebular guys, He's like,
Speaker 1: well then why they pushing back and they're like yeah,
Speaker 1: them and the mantids have always been at odds with
Speaker 1: each other, and they just do what they do uptown houses.
Speaker 1: I don't normally agree with the mantids, but in that case,
Speaker 1: the Nebulas got what they deserved. They were squatting in
Speaker 1: a hive system. I don't know anything about this, but
Speaker 1: you know whatever, people viewed the more as a nuisance
Speaker 1: than a genuine threat from what I gathered, and they
Speaker 1: had a healthy income stream, but I had no idea
Speaker 1: what it was as I understood it. The Nebula Sin
Speaker 1: Patrol was one of the few hunting groups who always
Speaker 1: attended a crawl, but the hunters were different every time
Speaker 1: they train, and the team consisted of young males studying
Speaker 1: to be priests. They believed people like me, born from
Speaker 1: a seated planet were an abomination, and they considered the
Speaker 1: act of hunting us as a sort of crusade. And
Speaker 1: they liked to focus their crawler exterminations on clerics and
Speaker 1: palette and based players, which makes sense if they feel
Speaker 1: like you're infringing on our territory in terms of righteousness
Speaker 1: and whatever. You know. Let's see. Drick says their pacifism
Speaker 1: is the one portion of their religion I respect, not
Speaker 1: that they follow it, but it sounds good their ballad
Speaker 1: of survival avoid conflict. It is their next principle, which
Speaker 1: I feel is much more important to the question. Quoted
Speaker 1: directly from one of their songs, violence breeds chaos from
Speaker 1: chaos we were born, and into chaos we will succumb.
Speaker 1: A sudden, uncomfortable silence filled the room. Did these panels
Speaker 1: always stray this far off the main subject? Sidney asked,
Speaker 1: just the good ones uptown, Howse said, and the audience laughed.
Speaker 1: So then we have Zev meeting with him again in
Speaker 1: the green room. I was going to give you fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes in the training room, but they came and took
Speaker 1: it away. What happened on that panel? The tunnel is
Speaker 1: going crazy. The Valte locked all the attempted live tunnels.
Speaker 1: But everyone's talking about it, and they say, you ad
Speaker 1: text Sirce that you pushed her off the podium, and
Speaker 1: I love that, And he says, like, it's good to
Speaker 1: know that people get shit as wrong as ever, that
Speaker 1: a game of telephone is still exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: So he sends a plan via text to the chat
Speaker 1: and is like, you guys need to read this and
Speaker 1: tell me when you're in place. Samantha is mad at
Speaker 1: Dona and not talking. And when Samantha chimes in, you
Speaker 1: abandoned me. This was worse than than nothing. It was
Speaker 1: worse than my mother humiliating me in front of the King.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can handle anymore in dignity.
Speaker 1: First the slabbering dog treating me as a chewt toy,
Speaker 1: and then you did nothing to help me, and now
Speaker 1: I'm attached to the back of this bug. I am
Speaker 1: surrounded by decapitated heads, and let me tell you they
Speaker 1: are poor company. Oh honey, you used to be a
Speaker 1: sex doll. I'm certain you can handle all matter of indignity.
Speaker 1: Don't slutshame me. I'm going to kill your mother. So
Speaker 1: this is Doughnut describing what's going on. Lucia and her
Speaker 1: daughter are in the safe room, and she's been punching
Speaker 1: herself in the place and trashed the whole room. This
Speaker 1: is like when Beatrice wrecked the kitchen when you told
Speaker 1: her she should stop trying to sell those awful leggings.
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, of course she did. Of course
Speaker 1: she did. Lucia is crazy. She's crazier than you think.
Speaker 1: She's waiting for me to come out. She's figured out
Speaker 1: a way to cheat the safety measures and has traps
Speaker 1: that kick people out of the room. I went out
Speaker 1: when I thought she was gone and hit a trap
Speaker 1: that teleported me into the middle of town. And when
Speaker 1: I tried to get back, I hit another and then
Speaker 1: she came out of the woods and chased me. I
Speaker 1: think they knew you were going to be here. Now.
Speaker 1: Lucia is in the safe room. I'm in the guildhall,
Speaker 1: and there are a bunch of hunters outside. There are
Speaker 1: six or seven big bug guys, and ten of these
Speaker 1: guys in robes with tubes off all over them. They
Speaker 1: have magnificent hats, though, and Carl is just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't need any of that. I just need to
Speaker 1: know if you read my plan. So let's see. They
Speaker 1: know Carl is coming, they don't know exactly when. They
Speaker 1: didn't know where either, Samantha, so they do know some
Speaker 1: of it. They tried torturing me to tell them where
Speaker 1: you would appear. I played along like they could actually
Speaker 1: torture me. I told them, but I told them the
Speaker 1: wrong spot. I had you appearing a whole five meters
Speaker 1: away from the real spot. You're welcome, you guys, she says.
Speaker 1: I told them the wrong spot, and I got my
Speaker 1: hopes all up, and then five meters away five meters
Speaker 1: fifteen feet, he could he could just be like in
Speaker 1: my bathroom from where I'm standing. It's fucking useless. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm transferring in a minute. Get ready at the door,
Speaker 1: wait for my signal, Zev. Is it gonna let me
Speaker 1: down and visibility potion before I teleport? I don't think so, Carl,
Speaker 1: and he tries and it doesn't work. Okay, this is it.
Speaker 1: This is where you belong, Carl, the river said, Jump
Speaker 1: into the rapids, embrace the chaos, Zev. If I die
Speaker 1: and Donut gets out of this, please watch over her.
Speaker 1: I'll do my best, Carl, Zev said, as I felt
Speaker 1: the first tingles teleportation, like hundreds of hands coming to
Speaker 1: drag me into the abyss. And that's the end of
Speaker 1: the chapter. So yeah, this was really really fun. Honestly, guys,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to meet Lucia Maar. I really like,
Speaker 1: I just want to know exactly what the fuck is
Speaker 1: going on with her, because something clearly, very specific is happening,
Speaker 1: and I just can't. I like, she's definitely an enemy.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to pretend that we should try to
Speaker 1: reason with her. Something with her is too busted and
Speaker 1: broken to reason with anymore. I don't feel like Lucia
Speaker 1: is home. I feel like the lights are on, but
Speaker 1: she's gone. However, I am very curious about what got
Speaker 1: her here because the fact that she has been able
Speaker 1: to take out how many like officials was she able
Speaker 1: to kill? I think they said like four something like that.
Speaker 1: Some of this, I expect is like a result of
Speaker 1: punishments that she's had to sustain from attempting to kill
Speaker 1: some of these people. Evidently she's just taken it so
Speaker 1: far that they don't even really want to protect her
Speaker 1: anymore the way they used to. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just very fascinated by her, and I think ultimately
Speaker 1: they have to kill her because she is just a
Speaker 1: risk to absolutely everybody. But I regret that that has
Speaker 1: to happen because I feel like probably some of what's
Speaker 1: going on with her isn't her fault, and I expect that,
Speaker 1: like we'll kill her and then we will find out
Speaker 1: things that will make it really retroactively even more awful
Speaker 1: that this is what had to happen. So yeah, anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, friends, I got to wrap up, But I
Speaker 1: appreciate you all very much. Thank you for hanging out
Speaker 1: with me, and uh, thank you Jackie for commissioning this episode.
Speaker 1: I want to give you all a heads up that
Speaker 1: I am going to be transitioning over the coming months
Speaker 1: to doing these lives on Patreon Live instead of on crowdcast.
Speaker 1: So if you are not following me as a free
Speaker 1: member on Patreon, you're going to want to do that
Speaker 1: so that you get the notifications when I'm about to
Speaker 1: go live there. It's a matter of just crowdcast pricing
Speaker 1: is going to be going through the roof for me
Speaker 1: and I can't afford it, so I have to make
Speaker 1: this shift. But I'm going to try and give you
Speaker 1: guys as much of a heads up as I can,
Speaker 1: and uh, just wanted to warn you about it. So
Speaker 1: all right, everybody, thank you again, and I will see
Speaker 1: you next week with a new episode. Until then, to
Speaker 1: the lou motherfuckers. That was an Unspoiled Network podcast.