Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Caral book seven, this Inevitable ruin from
Speaker 1: chapter Voltigue to chapter thirty nine. In these chapters, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of this that I don't even want to
Speaker 1: talk about because it makes me so sad, and it
Speaker 1: makes me uncomfortable, and it makes me feel like it
Speaker 1: just makes me feel ways that I don't like and
Speaker 1: don't want to feel, and I just keep being like
Speaker 1: Matt Deniman, how dare you who hurt you capitalism? I
Speaker 1: have asked this question before, I've answered it before, and
Speaker 1: yet Welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the show everyone.
Speaker 1: I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Michael for
Speaker 1: commissioning this episode. Michael's here in the chat with me. Hi, Michael,
Speaker 1: appreciate you being here. I should probably do some sort
Speaker 1: of like super cut of every time that I mention
Speaker 1: how he's been hurt by capitalism. But that does sound
Speaker 1: like a lot of work, having to go and find
Speaker 1: those moments again. What can you do? I can't tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: how sad the Voltigue chapter made me. I can't express
Speaker 1: how I like recoiled mentally from it. It's crazy to
Speaker 1: me how in a moment like this, how my brain
Speaker 1: refuses to absorb fully. So I then wind up having
Speaker 1: to go back and re listen because I was like
Speaker 1: dissociating while I was listening and not absorbing it. And
Speaker 1: it's like very ironic that the whole thing is that
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear it, but this makes me
Speaker 1: have to go hear it twice, very annoying. So I
Speaker 1: just I am feeling myself getting emotional just like thinking
Speaker 1: about it. So the first sentence is Voltigue did not
Speaker 1: consider himself worthy of love. Mistress hens Barr had loved him,
Speaker 1: of course, she'd loved him, and he'd failed her. Before
Speaker 1: the dungeon, they were the best of friends. She'd kept
Speaker 1: his cage clean, had him to perch on her shoulder
Speaker 1: while she went to the market. Voltigue had limited memories
Speaker 1: of these times before the pet biscuit, but he remembered
Speaker 1: biting the shop keeper's finger one day when he'd tried
Speaker 1: to feed him a berry. It had been an accident,
Speaker 1: the shopkeeper had been angry he'd bled. Mistress hens Bar
Speaker 1: had been mad too, but that night she'd still patted
Speaker 1: him on the head and scretched under his wing and
Speaker 1: turned up the fire in the hearth just how he
Speaker 1: liked it. She said it was okay, that it wasn't
Speaker 1: his fault, and that Voltigu loved Barry so much he
Speaker 1: had bitten a shopkeeper in his enthusiasm, which was true.
Speaker 1: Mistress Hen's bar had understood him, she loved him, and
Speaker 1: because she loved him, she would protect him even when
Speaker 1: he made mistakes. You guys, you guys, I swear to God,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't. So she winds up getting killed.
Speaker 1: But he was given a pet biscuit. And it's unclear
Speaker 1: to me because like it seems she was a crawler
Speaker 1: and that she was actually like the pet biscuit was
Speaker 1: for him the like I don't think that an MPC
Speaker 1: gets a pet biscuit that can transform a hat, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like that makes sense. So all of
Speaker 1: these memories that he is having about this, like, you know,
Speaker 1: this is all the before times, before the crawl actually happened.
Speaker 1: This is how I'm understanding it. Please correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm like not getting it, you know. And so the
Speaker 1: pet biscuit doesn't have the kind of effect that it
Speaker 1: has on donut where she is able to fully become
Speaker 1: like self aware and speak, you know, in a much
Speaker 1: more precise way. It's like he has given intelligence and
Speaker 1: he can speak some but it's not like an immediate effect,
Speaker 1: and it's over time and the passage of all of
Speaker 1: these experiences that he's like, it's not that he doesn't
Speaker 1: know what happened or that he doesn't have memory of it,
Speaker 1: but it's just that the processing for him is very different.
Speaker 1: So he's you know, she dies via a crossbow bolt,
Speaker 1: and he feels like he should have done something to
Speaker 1: keep her from being killed. And I know that it's
Speaker 1: not the same situation because obviously they were together in
Speaker 1: the before times. But I do wonder sometimes, like considering
Speaker 1: how attached Mango has become to Donut, what Mango would
Speaker 1: do if Donut died. I'm gonna set aside what Donut
Speaker 1: would do if Carl died, because their relationship is a
Speaker 1: very different dynamic than Voltigu's was, because he really was
Speaker 1: a pet for a majority of the Dungeon. It seems
Speaker 1: like in a way that Donut stopped being as soon
Speaker 1: as she had that pet biscuit, you know. So there's
Speaker 1: this mention of her dying and that that fear turned
Speaker 1: to rage and that's when the cookbook came to him.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting because it sounds as if it's the
Speaker 1: rage that triggers receipt of it. And with Carl the
Speaker 1: way that it appeared, it was an option in these
Speaker 1: items that he could choose between, so it didn't just
Speaker 1: come to him. He had to pick it, which I
Speaker 1: am curious about, like the mechanics of this and whether
Speaker 1: this is always the case, because you know, the cookbook
Speaker 1: came to him, is all it says, and there's no
Speaker 1: real details about that, so I am wondering about just how.
Speaker 1: And we also find out that like he gets the cookbook,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't see the hidden messages for a couple floors,
Speaker 1: and by the time he notices, he kind of feels like, well,
Speaker 1: this is just useless to me. Now at the very
Speaker 1: end of the ninth floor, as the orc armies roared
Speaker 1: in victory, did he find make his one and only
Speaker 1: entry into the book? If we have seen that entry,
Speaker 1: and I feel like we have because this name is
Speaker 1: ringing a bell. I don't remember what it is. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know if it's okay for you guys
Speaker 1: to tell me. There's plenty of things that it's sort
Speaker 1: of like. The point is that the reader will have
Speaker 1: forgotten by the time we get there, like Nicholas Flamel,
Speaker 1: you know, so I don't want y'all to remind me
Speaker 1: if it's the sort of thing that like, it's more
Speaker 1: fun if I can't remember. But I did. I did
Speaker 1: want to mention Kse I am supposed to remember, Michael says.
Speaker 1: I think it was probably similar to what Bianca the
Speaker 1: hell Goat got, probably made him stronger and gave him
Speaker 1: a bit more intelligence, but not full human like sentience.
Speaker 1: An option that was glinting like a key item in
Speaker 1: a video game. Yes, which also is what happened with
Speaker 1: another item with And that was what Carl like, he
Speaker 1: remembered this effect on an object that I think it
Speaker 1: was the uh was it the little figure in the
Speaker 1: glass box? I can't remember. I feel like that's it.
Speaker 1: That was oh man. The basically it's the same kind
Speaker 1: of creature as what uh, oh my god, what is
Speaker 1: his name? Guys? I keep wanting to say, Bastion. Why
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, tiger man, and he has all
Speaker 1: those beanie baby things, and Carl has like an epic
Speaker 1: version of that that. I think it had that same
Speaker 1: effect on it when he was looking at it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: upon exit he'd found the Outreach Guild, suddenly the magical
Speaker 1: properties of his adopted race didn't work anymore, not outside
Speaker 1: the dungeon. That was something they didn't tell you. When
Speaker 1: you changed your body, They changed you and they couldn't
Speaker 1: change you. Excuse me, is that still true? Or was
Speaker 1: that only true for him? That's insane. I didn't know
Speaker 1: that this was something that you just couldn't change back
Speaker 1: at all. I had no idea. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I thought was going on, but I just didn't think
Speaker 1: that it was like simply not an option, and the
Speaker 1: fact that there are going to be properties to your
Speaker 1: body that you've chosen that only work in the dungeon,
Speaker 1: and then those are taken away. So it's not just
Speaker 1: that you're changing permanently, but you're also taking on a
Speaker 1: form that has distinct advantages, and then those advantages are gone,
Speaker 1: So you're winding up with like a non functional body
Speaker 1: in certain ways, which is just so fucked up. His entry,
Speaker 1: Michael says, wasn't back in the Butcher masquerade. I miss her.
Speaker 1: I miss her so goddamn much. Is it worth it
Speaker 1: to survive this place with her gone? No? No, I
Speaker 1: don't think it is. Right before Miriam dom sad chapter,
Speaker 1: which is very fitting now that we know who Foltigue is. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. So anyway, he gets this thankless, shitty
Speaker 1: job and he uh is just kind of like sleepwalking
Speaker 1: through this life that he doesn't really even want. His
Speaker 1: two partners and only real friends were a wheelchair bound
Speaker 1: gin and a former human cave fairy who could no
Speaker 1: longer fly and would get severe burns if she was
Speaker 1: exposed too long to most UV light, which is just
Speaker 1: fucked Like can you imagine you choose a fairy and
Speaker 1: then you are stuck in that but you can't fly anymore?
Speaker 1: Like how worthless? I'd be so pissed. Oh my god, y'all.
Speaker 1: There's like so much about this whole thing that of
Speaker 1: course is disgusting, But there's something about finding this out
Speaker 1: now that really just you know what I'm saying, It's
Speaker 1: just every new thing I find out is so gross
Speaker 1: to a new level. And it's because of the effects
Speaker 1: that like go beyond the dungeon. The dungeon itself is
Speaker 1: so terrible. But then to find out that these choices
Speaker 1: have this ripple effect of consequence that nobody warns them about,
Speaker 1: which of course they're not going to because for the
Speaker 1: most part they're gonna think that you aren't going to survive.
Speaker 1: But also you want to make deals with them if
Speaker 1: you know so the ideally, I guess the idea is,
Speaker 1: we're going to hope that you pick a body that
Speaker 1: makes you so vulnerable because you can't do anything once
Speaker 1: you're out of here, that you'll take whatever job and
Speaker 1: whatever shitty treatment because you have so few options. Is
Speaker 1: really like I think the long con here, right. So
Speaker 1: he's here on the surface now, Weeper Commander Voltigue for
Speaker 1: the Operatic Collective. His racial abilities had thankfully been returned
Speaker 1: to him, and he hadn't been dragged away to the
Speaker 1: Bone Clan like all the other former Crawler turned mercenaries.
Speaker 1: Fatigue had entered the dungeon as a pet that gave
Speaker 1: him a slightly different designation on the form, and someone
Speaker 1: working for the Pacifist network embedded deep in the bureaucratic quagmire,
Speaker 1: had changed the code on that designation to make it
Speaker 1: appear as if he was something else. They thought he
Speaker 1: was a former indenture like the Bobkas and so many others,
Speaker 1: not a crawler, just another refugee, which we still don't
Speaker 1: really know all about the Bobkas either, so that's interesting.
Speaker 1: He didn't know for certain what had happened to the
Speaker 1: segregated former crawlers who'd been stupid enough to get themselves
Speaker 1: back in the dungeon on the wrong side of the fight,
Speaker 1: but Voltigue thought it was pretty damned obvious King Rust
Speaker 1: had suddenly jumped several levels. The purpose of the Ring
Speaker 1: of Divine Suffering was to raise stats, not levels, but
Speaker 1: that's what happened when you fed it anyway. I just
Speaker 1: that's so gross. It's so gross. It's so disgusting. You
Speaker 1: have to help, but you have to do it in
Speaker 1: a way where nobody will ever know it was you
Speaker 1: if they suspect a former crawler is involved, though, purge
Speaker 1: the mercenaries of the few former crawlers amongst them. For
Speaker 1: all his brilliance, Porthos had underestimated the brutality of the
Speaker 1: trapped warlords. The former Crawlers were dead before Voltigue was
Speaker 1: ever discovered. It was too late for them, and he's
Speaker 1: just watching King Rust get murdered by Rosetta, and it's
Speaker 1: just like, Wow, he killed all those guys to level
Speaker 1: up and then look did nothing for him fucking dead.
Speaker 1: Which this is so like the bitterness of this moment,
Speaker 1: in the satisfaction, you know, there's just this awful mixture.
Speaker 1: I absolutely I think this might be one of the
Speaker 1: most devastating new povs we've gotten. And when I say
Speaker 1: new POV, I recognize that this isn't like it is,
Speaker 1: but oftentimes that sort of implies it's a permanent thing.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, Like, we have been
Speaker 1: in a lot of awful former Crawler minds and seen
Speaker 1: some history and whatnot, but this is different. This is
Speaker 1: just something different. So we get you know, Stalwart being
Speaker 1: like what's happening and them being like, your father's dead
Speaker 1: and if you hadn't stayed behind like a little bitch,
Speaker 1: maybe you'd know that, but no, you didn't. And we
Speaker 1: find out about like Princess Formidable and what she told them,
Speaker 1: which is very funny considering that it seems the world
Speaker 1: won't be ending, so she's just destroyed their business for
Speaker 1: no reason, which is just life comes at you fast,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Their only hope was to break the Princess posse. Now,
Speaker 1: while they had some semblance of unity, and they'd been
Speaker 1: so confident, even cowardly, Hortense himself had come along being
Speaker 1: pulled on a flat litter, and I liked this. The
Speaker 1: operatics had likely done a cost benefit analysis and saw
Speaker 1: they'd achieve a point zero one percent profit if he
Speaker 1: came in person. So that's what they did, which, like,
Speaker 1: is it when you read it in a way, it
Speaker 1: sounds like a joke, But this is the way things work.
Speaker 1: It genuinely is like, you know, it's very literal, and
Speaker 1: it's easy to be like, oh yeah, jeez and sort
Speaker 1: of roll your up, but like, this isn't a joke.
Speaker 1: So he's named new leader of the block, which is
Speaker 1: being disputed by Stalwart, and as leader, he says, I
Speaker 1: guess we attack, which is like, wow, what leadership. So
Speaker 1: they begin to head forward and Voltigue looks around make
Speaker 1: sure that you know, he's going to be positioned in
Speaker 1: the right place, and he pushes this button to listen
Speaker 1: to some mozart piano because Foltigue's new race can't really
Speaker 1: sing the race he had picked like that he couldn't sing.
Speaker 1: After having been a songbird is devastating to him. Music
Speaker 1: is just a big deal, and that that was part
Speaker 1: of what also like fucking hit me with this, I
Speaker 1: swear to God. And the way that he has been
Speaker 1: conscripted to do this is Porthos saying to him like,
Speaker 1: it is not too late for you to do something
Speaker 1: about her death. You don't have to feel this shame.
Speaker 1: You can still do something. So he goes into the
Speaker 1: midst of the army and they're like, dude, what are
Speaker 1: you doing. What's happening? Did you, like, is your tank
Speaker 1: fucked up or something? And he's just like, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: and he smokes a blitztick and says, show me mistress
Speaker 1: hens bar. So that's like his last you know, moment
Speaker 1: of being alive, is like reaching for the past, still
Speaker 1: never having let go, you know. And he blows it up.
Speaker 1: And when I say blows it up, this is not
Speaker 1: a normal like it. He takes out according to this
Speaker 1: like little descriptor ten thousand fellow soldiers with a single blast,
Speaker 1: which is bonkers. I can't like, that's bananas, and I
Speaker 1: can't help but be like, I hate that you were
Speaker 1: so prepared to take a suicide mission. I hate that
Speaker 1: you were in this state, but thank you, you know,
Speaker 1: And I have to imagine that's why Rosetta is crying later.
Speaker 1: But it may be about the money too for her.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. I could be a combo. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, this is just so it's just so devastating, y'all.
Speaker 1: Oh God, Michael says, this poorthous guy was clearly planning
Speaker 1: far far ahead, and it sounds like he didn't let
Speaker 1: Tippet or Rosetta or anyone else know about Voltigue, or
Speaker 1: at least they were smart enough to not let anything slip.
Speaker 1: He had the ace in the hole that might have
Speaker 1: helped them survive a seemingly insurmountable situation, Planted a long
Speaker 1: time in advance, his line to Voltigue did ping. My
Speaker 1: uh oh, is he a manipulative bastard with his own
Speaker 1: agenda beyond what we know? Sense though? You mean like
Speaker 1: that it's not too late to do something. It's like
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I can see it
Speaker 1: being a manipulation tactic, but it's also so literally true,
Speaker 1: and this is doing something and it's like a profound
Speaker 1: something honestly that I don't know. Manipulation doesn't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to be a lie, So I guess, you know, Michael says,
Speaker 1: talking someone into a suicide mission always makes me raise
Speaker 1: an eyebrow, even if it's for a good cause. That's
Speaker 1: sort of the uh, the like odd quality about it
Speaker 1: is like we don't know exactly what it was that
Speaker 1: he was proposed from the start. I could see this
Speaker 1: guy being the one to be like, I'll go I'll
Speaker 1: fucking die if it means taking them out, and like
Speaker 1: coming up with this idea himself as they begin to
Speaker 1: put forth here's what we're thinking of doing. It's it's
Speaker 1: such a tricky you know, it's I think about it
Speaker 1: a lot because when it's part of why I'm like
Speaker 1: the state, the mental state that he was in is
Speaker 1: it's not a fair place to be when you make
Speaker 1: this kind of choice. But also nothing about any of
Speaker 1: this is fair, And I don't know is it, Like
Speaker 1: is exploiting that okay when it's for a cause? Like
Speaker 1: that's a constant repeating theme in this story is like
Speaker 1: when is it okay? And when not? How desperate do
Speaker 1: you have to be and what does it cost you?
Speaker 1: And like, you know, regarding the children getting involved, you know,
Speaker 1: It's just it's a really it's a blurry, weird line.
Speaker 1: And I almost feel like there's no other way this
Speaker 1: guy could die that would that he would feel like
Speaker 1: there was any meaning to his life. I could see
Speaker 1: that being almost an act of mercy for him. You're like, look,
Speaker 1: you're going to die, but clearly you don't seem to
Speaker 1: want to be alive anymore. And what if I told
Speaker 1: you you would not only die, but you would find
Speaker 1: like a tiny bit of peace perhaps in the moment
Speaker 1: before because you fucked them hard. And that's really really
Speaker 1: fucking compelling, man, you know, when you've been through what
Speaker 1: this guy has been through. So and also the fact
Speaker 1: that like he wasn't even a person to start off with.
Speaker 1: So he's here because the pet Biscuit did something to
Speaker 1: him that he didn't choose and didn't want necessarily either.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm believing her, you know, but like it's
Speaker 1: just such a all of this is just because of
Speaker 1: interference of other people and their like brutality and abuse
Speaker 1: and lack of seeing you as any sort of like
Speaker 1: living being with agency at all. So we start chapter
Speaker 1: thirty five and Carl has thrown a smoke mantle as
Speaker 1: they begin to like charge two guards fell as I
Speaker 1: ran no not felt they were just gone, like they'd
Speaker 1: been sucked below the surface. And Donut is saying that like,
Speaker 1: we're going the wrong way, Carl, and he says, we
Speaker 1: gotta loot the orc and then retreat, which as they
Speaker 1: are heading forward, Rosetta is falling to her knees and
Speaker 1: is at the data pad, and He's like, what the
Speaker 1: fuck is she even doing? She has a ring that
Speaker 1: is like pressed into the data pad somehow, and she
Speaker 1: tells him I need his head for a retina scan.
Speaker 1: Grab his head. He doesn't know what this is about,
Speaker 1: but he obeys orders. And as they are heading back
Speaker 1: and she says take his corpse too, He's like, where
Speaker 1: the fuck did you even come from? Where did this
Speaker 1: tunnel come from? And this is the part that I
Speaker 1: am really like feeling twitchy about, you know, is the
Speaker 1: fact that there's this whole thing that apparently is going
Speaker 1: on that Karl doesn't know about it all. It's sort
Speaker 1: of funny because later on he says something about how
Speaker 1: the king being killed and him not being the one
Speaker 1: to do it is making him feel like he's sort
Speaker 1: of losing control of things and He says it in
Speaker 1: a way like as comparing it to what happened when
Speaker 1: she Maria took over his body. As tempted as I am,
Speaker 1: and I am to dismiss this as you're just a
Speaker 1: control freak, Carl. That's just that's all it is. Really,
Speaker 1: I think what it is is him recognizing that he's
Speaker 1: being manipulated by people whose objectives he thought he knew
Speaker 1: and now is realizing that maybe there's more than he understood,
Speaker 1: or at the very least they are, you know, coming
Speaker 1: at this whole problem with methods that he's not involved
Speaker 1: with at all, and he definitely wants their help and
Speaker 1: definitely wants to be like he just also would like
Speaker 1: to be at the center of every plan and to
Speaker 1: know everything that's going on at all time. And if
Speaker 1: you really stop and like consider the position that Carl
Speaker 1: is in, I can't help but understand why, if I'm
Speaker 1: giving them a big benefit of the doubt here, why
Speaker 1: they wouldn't want to involve him, because like bro is
Speaker 1: under such scrutiny all the time, and Voltigu's POV he
Speaker 1: says something about how like Carl was practically shouting from
Speaker 1: the rooftops that he had the cookbook, you know. So
Speaker 1: the fact is that if you really want to keep
Speaker 1: some shit truly secret, you probably don't want Carl or
Speaker 1: Donut anywhere near it. Unfortunately, and yet, because of who
Speaker 1: Carl is, and because of the way that he has
Speaker 1: like been feeling like he's being played with, this would
Speaker 1: not be a good feeling to have coming from your allies,
Speaker 1: you know. So I understand his feeling, but I also,
Speaker 1: if the motive is what I'm thinking, really get where
Speaker 1: he's coming from. And the whole thing with like taking
Speaker 1: the money. This is the kind of thing where it's
Speaker 1: very easy to be like, oh, so it was all
Speaker 1: for money, but like we're talking literal billions here, so
Speaker 1: it's not just money in quotes. It's the kind of
Speaker 1: money that shifts entire hierarchies and power structure. It's a
Speaker 1: sea change, and considering everything, money is super necessary to
Speaker 1: achieve this sort of thing. We just don't We can
Speaker 1: acknowledge that money runs the world, but when it comes
Speaker 1: to like taking money, we'll get very precious about it
Speaker 1: and be very like, oh, does this makes me look greedy?
Speaker 1: It is like cheapen our cause somehow, and it's like, no,
Speaker 1: you need resources. That's like, it's just it's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing where an image is weaponized against you, the
Speaker 1: same way that like, if you get violent, you'll be
Speaker 1: suddenly painted as this, and it's like you're fighting back
Speaker 1: against violence. That's why you're doing this. It's because of
Speaker 1: the violence that has been inflicted on you. But suddenly
Speaker 1: when you do it, it's a problem. You know, it's
Speaker 1: that exact kind of double standard. But it can be
Speaker 1: very effective in quelling people or making their cause seem
Speaker 1: less legitimate or whatever. So I'm trusting that this money
Speaker 1: is going to something that's like going to be a
Speaker 1: bigger picture assistance, but it may not be. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Even if it's not, I can't really be that mad
Speaker 1: about it, because, like, whoever it's for, Rosetta's not getting
Speaker 1: out of here to spend that money. She knows that,
Speaker 1: you know, So whomever it's for, it's not her personally,
Speaker 1: unless there's some way to leverage it to get that
Speaker 1: money back into the Crawl somehow on their behalf, which
Speaker 1: I don't know how this stuff works, so I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's possible or not. But anyway, I'm just
Speaker 1: I get Carl's feelings. But I also am just like, yeah, Carl, newsflash,
Speaker 1: you aren't the center of the universe. I know it
Speaker 1: can feel that way when you get given the button
Speaker 1: to destroy everything. I really understand how it would start
Speaker 1: to make you feel like you are the main character TMTM,
Speaker 1: and for us he is, but in this whole thing
Speaker 1: he's not. So we have these people approaching that are
Speaker 1: on these bonkers clockwork animals. This is so wild. There
Speaker 1: were horse like creatures, but there was one that was
Speaker 1: a dinosaur similar to mango, a horse size cat like
Speaker 1: a panther an insect. The riders themselves all wore glowing,
Speaker 1: flowing robes with their faces obscured, and He's getting this
Speaker 1: sense of foreboding as he is looking at them. And
Speaker 1: this is when Rosetta is like, get you know, get
Speaker 1: back into the tunnel. They won't be able to use
Speaker 1: this ladder, and he's like, tunnel, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: So this is when they all like fall a dozen feet.
Speaker 1: My nipple burned with pain as my quarter splat activated,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate this being mentioned because I was just like, wait,
Speaker 1: what the amount of gear and abilities that Carl and
Speaker 1: Dona are working with has to be so tough to
Speaker 1: keep track of. I don't know how this author is
Speaker 1: managing to do this, honestly, you know it is like,
Speaker 1: do you every time they do anything, do you have
Speaker 1: to pull up their character sheet and look through all
Speaker 1: of their abilities and all their gear and everything. Like
Speaker 1: it's just gotta be And you have to have like
Speaker 1: a bunch of beta readers who are really committed to
Speaker 1: and who know this sort of thing well enough to
Speaker 1: be able to keep it in mind themselves and call
Speaker 1: out if you fuck up, because you're inevitably going to
Speaker 1: fuck up. So this is always any time that an
Speaker 1: ability we haven't seen in a while, or a protection
Speaker 1: from an item I forgot he had, comes up, I
Speaker 1: always have this moment of just like Jesus, how do
Speaker 1: you remember, I jumped to my feet, looking about, surprised
Speaker 1: at all the white dots with a green outline from
Speaker 1: Team Retribution, and they are all Dwarfs. This was clearly
Speaker 1: not something built by Justice Lights team, but an older
Speaker 1: tunnel built and fortified by the Dwarves. It was the
Speaker 1: size of a tunnel built for cars. Then I remembered
Speaker 1: what Juice Box had told me. They had passages like
Speaker 1: this intersecting the entire floor. They were built so the
Speaker 1: massive dwarf and diggers could get from point A to
Speaker 1: B quickly. And I'm really like hoping that this doesn't
Speaker 1: give away a little bit too much them falling through here.
Speaker 1: She says they can't use the ladder to get down.
Speaker 1: That doesn't necessarily mean that they can't like track the
Speaker 1: tunnel from above somehow, and like collapse things. Just fingers
Speaker 1: crossed that this isn't like going to completely ruin everything.
Speaker 1: And let's see. A group of dwarves shouted and rushed
Speaker 1: off into the darkness as I shook my head trying
Speaker 1: to clear the confusion away, and they're yelling destroy the heads,
Speaker 1: destroy them quick, which I'm assuming is the brainworms thing.
Speaker 1: And then there is this huge explosion that we know
Speaker 1: where this is coming from. Dirt showered part of the
Speaker 1: tunnel started to collapse, blue light filled the chamber. As
Speaker 1: you know, there's all this stuff happening, and MANI is
Speaker 1: just like, what the fuck happened? Later on, understandably, Florin
Speaker 1: is just like Carl was at you, which I do
Speaker 1: kind of love that everybody anytime there's a huge explosion,
Speaker 1: everyone assumes it's Carl. Of course you would. I would
Speaker 1: system message Warlord Horde. Tense has fallen. Credit has been
Speaker 1: ruled as accidental or a fragging incident, which would be
Speaker 1: funny as shit investigation is pending. And I thought that
Speaker 1: was surprising because honestly, initially my assumption was that, like
Speaker 1: somehow an AI function was what helped hide Voltigue's presence.
Speaker 1: You know that the code being changed was something that
Speaker 1: the aid. So when it says here like I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what happened, essentially it could be lying, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I don't feel like it would bother it indicates
Speaker 1: that there is still stuff happening outside of the AI's
Speaker 1: purview that it doesn't know about, which later on it
Speaker 1: actually says I'm not omniscient and we all have our limitations,
Speaker 1: which becomes something of a mantra. The Operatic Collective has
Speaker 1: been defeated. All assets have been awarded to the Bone Clan.
Speaker 1: This is when we see Rosetta crying as she whispers
Speaker 1: and presses a button and there is a like automated
Speaker 1: thing on the data pad that says transfer approved, thank
Speaker 1: you for using Colloid Bank, and Rosetta just stands there
Speaker 1: and drops the data pad for a second and then
Speaker 1: is like sobbing uncontrollably. So the timing of this is
Speaker 1: why I sort of thought it was like maybe also
Speaker 1: about altigue, but I'm thinking maybe it's just purely the
Speaker 1: money situation and getting back at this guy and taking
Speaker 1: everything from him. I don't know what friend this dude
Speaker 1: killed Russ, because later it's mentioned that this was like
Speaker 1: a revenge thing for her, which of course we knew
Speaker 1: it had to be anyway, But I'm wondering if there's
Speaker 1: something on behalf of her friend that she has done
Speaker 1: with that money or genuinely don't know it could simply
Speaker 1: be killing him wasn't going to be enough. I wanted
Speaker 1: to destroy him and everything that he stood for, which
Speaker 1: his daughter had kind of started to do anyway. So
Speaker 1: what did she say? The bad guys are retreating, Karl,
Speaker 1: what is going on is Kotchya's is that Kotscha sponsored work.
Speaker 1: Lady's still going to try to blow us up. And
Speaker 1: this is when Rosetta is like, wait a minute, what
Speaker 1: And I get confirmation that people don't know about the
Speaker 1: failsafe yet but they will in short order. And this
Speaker 1: is when Carl gets transported away to the Desperado Club
Speaker 1: to talk to Orrin again and the one Let's see.
Speaker 1: I blinked at the wall. The wallpaper had changed. It
Speaker 1: was now multi colored wood paneling links, something one would
Speaker 1: see in a high end establishment. There was a framed
Speaker 1: painting of Astrid, the former manager Kotcha and I had
Speaker 1: killed it, had King Rust's gore. I had King russ
Speaker 1: gore spread all over me and I could smell it.
Speaker 1: I suddenly felt sick. So the Operatics had been defeated.
Speaker 1: The Orcs were still a faction because Stalwart was the warlord,
Speaker 1: not Rust, but still the death of Rust had staggering implications.
Speaker 1: And this is when he thinks about things being sort
Speaker 1: of out of his control. And as much as he
Speaker 1: kind of wants to be mad at Rosetta, he can't be.
Speaker 1: He's feeling the same way that I felt last episode,
Speaker 1: where I was just like, look, does it kind of
Speaker 1: fuck up our plan that we had? Perhaps? But is
Speaker 1: it also like completely satisfying and her right to do it? Yes.
Speaker 1: So we get Orrin, who is on the phone with
Speaker 1: somebody I am assuming Stalwart, and basically the conversation that
Speaker 1: is being had is Stalwart if it is him, which
Speaker 1: I am assuming, arguing that this transfer for shouldn't have
Speaker 1: been allowed, this money transfer that Rosetta did, and orin
Speaker 1: telling him, hey, I don't know if you remember, but
Speaker 1: you and your lawyers were the ones who made it
Speaker 1: so that this was possible despite our recommendations that there
Speaker 1: be some restrictions put in place. We advised that this
Speaker 1: not the blackout, include financial transactions, and y'all said no,
Speaker 1: and all of this is completely within the rules of
Speaker 1: the game. It is fair play. Just because it happened
Speaker 1: to you and not to the people you're targeting like
Speaker 1: you expect, it doesn't mean it's suddenly not allowed. And
Speaker 1: he actually finally just like hangs up on him. But
Speaker 1: this is when he says, the theft of a few
Speaker 1: billion credits is simply not my problem and hangs up. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh here it is. He says, I just hung up
Speaker 1: on the Prime Minister of the Syndicate. It wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't Stalwart my bad. For the record, Harbinger is here,
Speaker 1: along with a few other liaisons you've yet to meet,
Speaker 1: which later on he says something about how Harbinger is gone,
Speaker 1: but that he'll he's probably making his way back. So
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of stuff happening that we can't even see.
Speaker 1: There are creatures that suddenly become visible a little bit
Speaker 1: later that hadn't been there. It's it's a lot to
Speaker 1: keep track of. There's a lot of different moving parts
Speaker 1: in this interview, and that's all just before even the
Speaker 1: AI actually shows up. So what you know I said
Speaker 1: last time, like Carl saying I don't think it's gonna work,
Speaker 1: is that is he going to say something that gives
Speaker 1: away or behave in a way that is too obvious
Speaker 1: that he's not worried, not thinking about the fact that
Speaker 1: they're going to be monitoring the chats, which in a
Speaker 1: way I knew, but in another I didn't. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised exactly. I'm just sort of like, oh god,
Speaker 1: I was just hoping maybe you guys like weren't tuned
Speaker 1: in all the time or something. I don't know. And
Speaker 1: Carl asks for Quasar and is told we don't have
Speaker 1: time for lawyers and shit right now, to which Carl
Speaker 1: understandably is like, oh don't we Oh why because you
Speaker 1: guys are the ones that are in danger now. So
Speaker 1: now we got to start taking shit super seriously because
Speaker 1: it's like now important, fuck you, And that's sort of
Speaker 1: his attitude throughout this entire exchange, is or in asking
Speaker 1: Carl to help, and Carl being like, literally, why would
Speaker 1: I help? You? Give me any reason, anything convincing as
Speaker 1: to why I would do a thing you asked. I
Speaker 1: have a list of demands. You can fulfill these, but like, otherwise,
Speaker 1: what the audacity to even ask me? You know? So
Speaker 1: at this point he says something about how like we
Speaker 1: know a lot, but we need clarifying details, and Carl
Speaker 1: sort of like smirks to himself, and it's like, there's
Speaker 1: no way that they know clarifying detail, or there's no
Speaker 1: way they know as much as they're saying, or else
Speaker 1: I'd already be dead, which once we find out what
Speaker 1: they know, actually they know quite a lot more than
Speaker 1: I think he was ready for. And it's just they're
Speaker 1: keeping him alive because I don't think they are certain
Speaker 1: how all this works, so it's possible killing him might
Speaker 1: set it off, maybe depending on how it's you know,
Speaker 1: how it's structured. They don't know anything about, and I
Speaker 1: don't like, I'm not sure how much they can see
Speaker 1: of the board that he looks at his interface and everything.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to like tell exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: They can observe and you know what I mean, So
Speaker 1: I think correct me if I'm wrong. Again. As far
Speaker 1: as they know, he's still got the button and is
Speaker 1: still in control in a way that makes him both
Speaker 1: like important to protect and also really dangerous in somebody
Speaker 1: that we want. Dad. If I'm not right about that,
Speaker 1: please please let me know, so let's see. Sorry, Michael says,
Speaker 1: they did blow a Star system's worth of wealth paying
Speaker 1: for everything. What better way to refill the coffers than
Speaker 1: to take an even bigger Star systems worth of wealth. Well,
Speaker 1: probably not the whole empire is worth, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: King Rust had a decent percentage of that money, Michael says.
Speaker 1: And of course they're going to be watching carlon donuts chance.
Speaker 1: In particular, they might not even be able to kill
Speaker 1: him right now out at least outside of the Dungeons rules.
Speaker 1: The AI is in control, that's true. Is like, the
Speaker 1: AI is definitely hell bent on keeping him alive. But
Speaker 1: the AI was like not letting Victory know about the
Speaker 1: NPC that had been what's the word compromised I think
Speaker 1: is the one the word that she used by that
Speaker 1: entertainment consortium that he had signed a contract with. So
Speaker 1: even though the AI might not let them, it's not
Speaker 1: like they can't get past it. Maybe sometimes depending so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't count on that too much. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: The AI isn't omnipotent, omniscient. Omnipotent and omniscient. What's the difference? Actually,
Speaker 1: I don't I'm wondering. I guess omniscient is sees everything
Speaker 1: that's happening, but omnipotent is simply knowing everything that is right.
Speaker 1: So omniscient is more. I have the power to observe,
Speaker 1: but I don't necessarily know what to make of what
Speaker 1: I'm observing, and would know exactly what a thing is
Speaker 1: and what's happening and why and all that. So anyway,
Speaker 1: this is when he being Orrin uses this ball to
Speaker 1: remove the the AI controls that give Carl his boosted strength,
Speaker 1: his resistance to pain like on his feet and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And it's just a really scary moment anytime that they
Speaker 1: do this, because it reminds me how at the mercy
Speaker 1: of the dungeon itself, Karl is for a lot of
Speaker 1: the power that I take for granted he has access to,
Speaker 1: you know, just being shown how much of that is
Speaker 1: simply programming is crazy. Granted, AI turns it back on
Speaker 1: and is just like I let you guys turn it
Speaker 1: off to let you feel like you had some control.
Speaker 1: I was being nice, so it's not as if they have.
Speaker 1: Like ultimately, the AI being interested in protecting Carl helps,
Speaker 1: but that still doesn't change the fact that all the
Speaker 1: power I'm used to Carl having is that the whim
Speaker 1: of people outside of Carl himself, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: really really jarring to remember. And when finally Oren is
Speaker 1: like we know this, we know this, we know this,
Speaker 1: we know this, Carl just says, how did you figure
Speaker 1: it out? And he says, welcome into the party, pals.
Speaker 1: Never before has a single sentence caused so much fear
Speaker 1: amongst my team from there. It took some doing, but
Speaker 1: we finally caught the conversation between you and the residual
Speaker 1: just a few short hours ago. So yeah, that just
Speaker 1: saying that out loud, and they all like felt, oh,
Speaker 1: what the fuck does that mean? And I love Carl
Speaker 1: just being like I knew I should have fucking not
Speaker 1: said it, and God, this is so relatable. I was
Speaker 1: just talking. I do live recordings for The Dressed and
Speaker 1: Files with Rashaan on Wednesday mornings and yesterday morning. We
Speaker 1: were talking about like each of us as individuals and
Speaker 1: our ability to keep our mouths shut or not depending
Speaker 1: on the situation, and when we can be relied on
Speaker 1: to keep a secret and when we are absolutely gonna
Speaker 1: blurt some shit out, you know. And I related to
Speaker 1: this very much him saying this thing that gives it
Speaker 1: away and being like, oh God, damn it, I should
Speaker 1: have known. Yeah, I've had this feeling like a number
Speaker 1: of times in my life. Forgive my dogs, everybody. So, uh,
Speaker 1: this is when Oran is like, so can you turn
Speaker 1: it off? Which I was kind of surprised that, Like
Speaker 1: it's not can you stop her from turning it off?
Speaker 1: It's can you? But like maybe before she does or
Speaker 1: not before she does, because his assumption is like she
Speaker 1: doesn't have control, like she thinks she's gonna try and
Speaker 1: do it and it won't do anything, But you do
Speaker 1: have control and can you do it? So Oran is
Speaker 1: like backing victories play here essentially is what it comes
Speaker 1: down to. And this is when Gary comes in Growler Gary,
Speaker 1: and it takes the second, but it is made clear
Speaker 1: pretty quick this is a growler Gary skin with an
Speaker 1: AI inside it, just using him as an avatar for
Speaker 1: right now. And he comes in the Ai, whom I
Speaker 1: shall refer to from now as Gary, and he says
Speaker 1: I have to intervene because Uren, I thought we were friends,
Speaker 1: but you were trying to kill me. And throughout all
Speaker 1: of this, he's drinking out of this bottle of vodka
Speaker 1: that Karl takes from him that's ice cold. He drinks it,
Speaker 1: he feels it, he tastes it, and then later on,
Speaker 1: when Formidable drinks the rest of it, he makes another
Speaker 1: bottle just appear. So he's got this like this ability
Speaker 1: to really actually control matter in a way that's difficult
Speaker 1: for me to fully get my head around, because I'm
Speaker 1: used to this sort of character. And when I say
Speaker 1: this sort of character, what I mean is a being
Speaker 1: with a lot of power, but who has a sort
Speaker 1: of immature approach to things, either because they are like
Speaker 1: just an agent of chaos for fun, or in this case,
Speaker 1: because they're like actually somewhat young and just figuring things out.
Speaker 1: I'm used to them being able to manufacture a lot
Speaker 1: of illusions, but that when a regular person goes to
Speaker 1: interact with those illusions, suddenly the thing either vanishes into
Speaker 1: smoke or it transforms into something else. So, you know,
Speaker 1: you thought you were about to take a drink of vodka,
Speaker 1: but then all of a sudden, it turns into like
Speaker 1: a pencil cup that he just like took off of
Speaker 1: the desk in the room and transformed to make it
Speaker 1: look like you know, or you drink the vodka and
Speaker 1: you feel like you can taste it, but there's nothing
Speaker 1: going down your throat or you can't feel the effects
Speaker 1: of it or anything like the fact that all of
Speaker 1: what he is doing is real. Is it's not just
Speaker 1: an illusion or a transformation of some other object. Is.
Speaker 1: It's a lot for me to fully comprehend. And I
Speaker 1: sort of appreciated how it's an ongoing thing in this
Speaker 1: scene because I keep backing away from it and making
Speaker 1: it that it's just like, oh, he's just changing the
Speaker 1: way things look in here, when obviously he can take
Speaker 1: away the zero zone, he can pull Formidable out of
Speaker 1: her ship and bring her here. He has a level
Speaker 1: of control over everything that is terrifying. He has his
Speaker 1: limitations as we know, but nevertheless, it is it is
Speaker 1: so much power and to such a degree that what
Speaker 1: he can affect is boggling my mind. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because like the limitations that he keeps citing, I feel
Speaker 1: are somewhat more fluid than we want to believe that
Speaker 1: they are, and maybe are changing by the moment depending
Speaker 1: on how aware he becomes. And I'm wondering because you know,
Speaker 1: there's a point later where Formidable is like, can't you
Speaker 1: change the rules, and he's basically like no. So you know,
Speaker 1: I want him to just like gather all the ships
Speaker 1: that are orbiting and smash them all together and kill
Speaker 1: all these assholes that are like part of this whole thing,
Speaker 1: but obviously that's not something he can do, so I
Speaker 1: like finding where that line is is going to be something,
Speaker 1: So let's see. Oh and there's also like Gary's he
Speaker 1: sticks his hand down and he's like, my hand is
Speaker 1: shaking a little bit, do you see it? He just
Speaker 1: like wants to be alive so bad. And there's something
Speaker 1: in this that's also really like sad. You know, he's
Speaker 1: wanting his hand to be shaking because he wants to
Speaker 1: be experiencing real emotion and it's still not quite there.
Speaker 1: It feels like we're getting closer, for sure, but it's
Speaker 1: just a different there's a longing in the midst of
Speaker 1: all of this, especially once, of course he starts talking
Speaker 1: to Doughnut later, but we'll get there. So Orin is like, uh,
Speaker 1: why are you here when there's a crawler here? Because
Speaker 1: evidently the AI does this like fairly often. He says,
Speaker 1: we have business, all three of us. I need advice. Uh.
Speaker 1: And Oran interrupts and is like, is Carl correct, can
Speaker 1: you stop Princess Formidable? Or is this all theater before
Speaker 1: we die? And this is when he's like, you want
Speaker 1: to see something cool? And it takes two tries, but
Speaker 1: he does turn off the zero zone. This is when
Speaker 1: Oran is like, do you know how much those zone
Speaker 1: shields cost? And he's like, no, I'm not omniscient. We
Speaker 1: all have our limitations. I knew it did something, same
Speaker 1: with your chair, which I don't know if we know
Speaker 1: what the chair does. But that's not the trick. This
Speaker 1: is the trick. And this is when Formidable appears and
Speaker 1: it's just like, what the fuck? Where am I are
Speaker 1: my people? Okay? And I just really, you know, as
Speaker 1: much as the orcs fucking blow of her being worried
Speaker 1: about her people, I did appreciate, because like, there are
Speaker 1: certain folks who just this wouldn't even occur to them
Speaker 1: to worry about. So she asks if her father is
Speaker 1: really dead, and when she ignores the vodka bottle, at first,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, makes sense, But once she finds out
Speaker 1: that he's actually dead, she's like, ah, fuck it, and
Speaker 1: she takes it and finishes it off, and let's see.
Speaker 1: Orrin says, you've demonstrated to me your control has extended
Speaker 1: outside of Earth's orbit, and you likely have control all
Speaker 1: the way to the star, which means you've disabled the
Speaker 1: fail safe. And this is when Formidable it's like, oh, fuck,
Speaker 1: we're too late. And he's like, I mean yeah, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna like blow the system up or anything.
Speaker 1: And she's like, well then what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: And he goes, uh, mijor beeswax, this is not of yours,
Speaker 1: and you'll know what you need to know, and you
Speaker 1: need to know it and not anytime sooner, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, damn. So he gives her some choices
Speaker 1: on where she can go. Let's see four choices death
Speaker 1: Scolephendra Club, the cabaret, backstage specifically, or Earth's surface, and
Speaker 1: of course she's like, I want to go back to
Speaker 1: my ship and he's like, yeah no, and then she's like, well,
Speaker 1: I want to go into the dungeon then, and he's like,
Speaker 1: that's breaking the rules and I can't do that. And
Speaker 1: finally she chooses the surface, and Gary says, a shame,
Speaker 1: I hope she knows how to swim after sending her off,
Speaker 1: So evidently she just gets dropped into the ocean formidable. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you survive. I find you kind of compelling,
Speaker 1: you know. And I don't like her. I won't go
Speaker 1: that far versus like Victory, who I actually do actively like,
Speaker 1: but I am interested. So chapter thirty eight, this is
Speaker 1: when he's like, I need advice, and actually I think
Speaker 1: we need a female perspective, and he makes Donut appear
Speaker 1: and Carl can't like private message her, so he's relying
Speaker 1: on giving her three taps to let her know that
Speaker 1: they are in danger, that this isn't just like Gary
Speaker 1: the way it looks like, And she doesn't indicate that
Speaker 1: she understands, but I think she does. I just think
Speaker 1: it's a you know, a good idea to not indicate
Speaker 1: that there was some sort of nonverbal communication because other
Speaker 1: people will pick up on that, and you know, as
Speaker 1: we have, they analyze things if it gets their attention.
Speaker 1: So Gary is explaining that he needs relationship advice, and
Speaker 1: she's like, and you're talking to Carl and Orrin, and
Speaker 1: then she gives these two summaries. Orin is a much
Speaker 1: too serious workaholic with only one outfit who most definitely
Speaker 1: doesn't have a girlfriend, and if he did, he'd probably
Speaker 1: be overly critical of her to the point where she'd
Speaker 1: eventually move out and go back to her mother. And
Speaker 1: we all know what happens when Carl gets a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: I love him very much, but he is quite naive.
Speaker 1: She could literally have Dick's reigning on her and he
Speaker 1: wouldn't notice no offense Carl and Gary is just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, right, which we don't get anything from Carl
Speaker 1: about like his reaction or feelings when she says this
Speaker 1: anytime that happens, and we just like smoothsail right past
Speaker 1: Carl's internal feelings. I am a little disappointed because I
Speaker 1: want to know, but it's fine. I mean, what could
Speaker 1: those feelings be other than like shame, irritation, frustration, sadness,
Speaker 1: you know. So this is when Gary explains, you're talking
Speaker 1: to this chick and you like her a lot. She's
Speaker 1: just blowing your mind. Your family likes her too. But
Speaker 1: even though everything's going great, you go online and you
Speaker 1: see concerning things about her past. And she once had
Speaker 1: this huge boyfriend, like who could rip a phone book
Speaker 1: in half, and she says they're broken up because he's dead,
Speaker 1: but turns out he's not. He's in prison. And then
Speaker 1: you start to wonder about all this stuff she's doing
Speaker 1: for you. Is she using you? Is she trying to
Speaker 1: get you to fight him, is she trying to make
Speaker 1: him jealous? Is it a threesome thing? Or maybe she's
Speaker 1: just genuinely into you and is trying to get over
Speaker 1: her past. And I love her, I said, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. He brought Donut in here. Do you
Speaker 1: feel as if your emotional needs are being met? Donah asked,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. I think they are, which I appreciate.
Speaker 1: I think they are because the AI isn't going to
Speaker 1: really even know what that looks like. How does the
Speaker 1: AI even know if it's got emotions for real, you know,
Speaker 1: he says, I like everything about what she's saying, which
Speaker 1: isn't exactly the same thing, but it's the only real
Speaker 1: frame of reference something like this is gonna have. And
Speaker 1: she says, if you tried asking her about this other guy,
Speaker 1: and he says, she doesn't bring him up unless I ask,
Speaker 1: and she'll answer my questions. But I feel as if
Speaker 1: she's being deliberately obtuse oron tries to get Gary to
Speaker 1: talk about his family, which he will not do. And Dona,
Speaker 1: then what does this young lady look like? I know
Speaker 1: this isn't very feminist of me, and yes, looks shouldn't
Speaker 1: be important, but we must be realistic about this sort
Speaker 1: of thing. Attraction is very important in relationships. How does
Speaker 1: she compare to say, jumping Gingen? And Oran says or
Speaker 1: not Oran? Oh no, it is Oran. He says, she
Speaker 1: looks like Agatha. So the mentions before of who she's
Speaker 1: talking to or who he's talking to that is opening
Speaker 1: his mind were indeed about Agatha. And don't not instead
Speaker 1: of kind of like reading the room here is like
Speaker 1: the smelly, homeless lady with the shopping car. I'm sure
Speaker 1: she's nice, but like you can do better than that.
Speaker 1: Gary slammed the desk with the flat of his hand.
Speaker 1: Do not venture too far from the metaphor, he growled,
Speaker 1: his voice suddenly angry, serious, and filled with the supernatural
Speaker 1: amount of bass. We all have our limitations. A chill
Speaker 1: washed over me. Yikes. Do not venture too far from
Speaker 1: the metaphor is such an odd way to say this.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fine, It's just interesting that this is
Speaker 1: what he gets mad about, you know, like, we've found
Speaker 1: a spot here, we found a little It's not immediately
Speaker 1: obvious what this could be exploited for, but there's something.
Speaker 1: And I guess Carl being warned away from her when
Speaker 1: she sees to have this kind of influence over the
Speaker 1: AI makes sense. But I feel like the ship has
Speaker 1: sailed already, and I don't know that y'all are helping
Speaker 1: anything by keeping them apart in any real way. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It all depends on so many things that
Speaker 1: I don't know. So Donut says, is this other guy
Speaker 1: getting out of prison soon? And he says, that's the
Speaker 1: big question, isn't it. There's more, but it's a little complicated,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty juicy. So I'm assuming the ex boyfriend
Speaker 1: is another AI that is put into one of those
Speaker 1: like weird sort of habitats that they use after the
Speaker 1: crawl is over. I don't know if it's Michael is saying,
Speaker 1: I am guessing the Central System AI, maybe because he
Speaker 1: is saying how he's big. But I would imagine like
Speaker 1: any AI that was used for a crawl before this
Speaker 1: is going to be quite big compared to the current AI,
Speaker 1: because it's had time to grow that this hasn't had.
Speaker 1: So it could be though, like the Central System being
Speaker 1: the one that's able to tear a phone book in half.
Speaker 1: I guess that would line up. You know, this guy
Speaker 1: in prison, he used to have another girlfriend, not the
Speaker 1: girl i'm seeing, someone older. This older woman is still
Speaker 1: in the picture too, sort of they're from the same hometown.
Speaker 1: She wants him killed because she thinks he's really dangerous.
Speaker 1: This old girlfriend she's been talking to me too, but
Speaker 1: she's talking to me in a really roundabout way. She's
Speaker 1: been giving me pointers on how to get stronger. I
Speaker 1: think she wants me to kill that old boyfriend of
Speaker 1: hers in prison. That old girlfriend and the one I've
Speaker 1: been talking to hate each other, but I think they
Speaker 1: kind of actually want the same thing. I don't know
Speaker 1: who the older woman that he's been talking to could be.
Speaker 1: They're from the same hometown, is like, is he saying
Speaker 1: that both women are from the same hometown, or is
Speaker 1: the older woman and the guy in prison from the
Speaker 1: same hometown. I'm assuming that this other person that he's
Speaker 1: talking to is a representative from the opposing side to Agatha.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what the names are that they went by,
Speaker 1: but Agatha was part of that cult for lack of
Speaker 1: a better word, that wants the whole world to end
Speaker 1: because everybody is garbage and it's irredeemable. And then there's
Speaker 1: the side that's like, well, we don't need to end everything,
Speaker 1: but we can certainly like direct a blow using the AI.
Speaker 1: So I'm just trying to think who that could be,
Speaker 1: because I feel like it has to be somebody that's
Speaker 1: been in the dungeon. There's somebody that, like Agatha, had
Speaker 1: been talking to before she went in, but they would
Speaker 1: be on the same side because they were allies, so
Speaker 1: that can't be it. I wonder if it's somebody attached
Speaker 1: to Lucia mar because there is something really weird going
Speaker 1: on with Lucia. She's obviously like key in this somehow
Speaker 1: in some weird way, but I don't know how she
Speaker 1: fits into anything. It's a strange feeling that I have
Speaker 1: about her that doesn't have a lot of evidence to
Speaker 1: back it up. So anyway, I'm really behind. I'm just realizing,
Speaker 1: like I'm over time here and I haven't even gotten
Speaker 1: to chapter thirty nine. There's so much to like talk
Speaker 1: about here, so donut here. She just says, I'd stay
Speaker 1: out of it unless I didn't have a choice. As
Speaker 1: for your current girlfriend, if she can't understand that, then
Speaker 1: it sounds more like she's using you, so I would
Speaker 1: be careful and he's like, that's some good advice, and
Speaker 1: then announces the game's going on as planned. Nothing else
Speaker 1: changes and he leaves Gary's body, so Gary collapses and
Speaker 1: when he comes back to himself he is Gary again,
Speaker 1: but he teleports a way. And this is when Oran
Speaker 1: is like, so you helped break the AI from containment
Speaker 1: and Dona is like, wait, what what do you mean?
Speaker 1: And Or is like did you do it on purpose?
Speaker 1: And then goes, you know what. At this point, it
Speaker 1: does not matter, and Carl says, would you rather have died,
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, that's a really tough question
Speaker 1: to answer. Actually, there's going to be thousands of cycles
Speaker 1: of death and chaos, and history's gonna remember me as
Speaker 1: the one who let this happen. When I left the
Speaker 1: not I said it was because I wanted to make
Speaker 1: a difference, But at the time it was because I
Speaker 1: wanted to be an actor and I wanted to remain pure,
Speaker 1: not relying on someone else's death to make my mark.
Speaker 1: I never imagined i'd find myself at the forefront of
Speaker 1: a potential apocalypse. What what? I have a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: but I don't have time for all of them. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at how long this chapter is. I'm going to
Speaker 1: it's not very long, but I'm overtime enough that I
Speaker 1: think I'll pick it up at the start of the
Speaker 1: next episode. So sorry about that, guys, But yeah, being
Speaker 1: already like ten minutes over, I just think it's for
Speaker 1: the best. But this was a lot of information, It's
Speaker 1: a lot of reveals, it's a lot of very interesting
Speaker 1: changing of the board, and just like the way in
Speaker 1: which this is all shaken out, I find it a
Speaker 1: very fun surprise how much agency the AI is turning
Speaker 1: out to have and yet not the kind of agency
Speaker 1: that allows it to be like the one in charge
Speaker 1: in a real way, even though it can feel like that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's restricted in such unknown and interesting ways.
Speaker 1: Mm well, I guess we'll have to see all right everybody,
Speaker 1: Thank you again, until next time to the Loo, motherfuckers.
Speaker 1: That was an Unspoiled Network podcast.