Speaker 1: This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
Speaker 1: covering Dungeon Crawler Carl Book eight, A Parade of Horribles,
Speaker 1: chapters twenty five through thirty. In these chapters, rend dies
Speaker 1: I have a tiny panic attack because I forget that
Speaker 1: he can come back, and then he does, and then
Speaker 1: the AI does like I'm not gonna call it one
Speaker 1: of the cruelest things it's ever done, because obviously, but like,
Speaker 1: come on, wow, welcome to spoil Me. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: show everyone. I am Natasha. Thank you very much to
Speaker 1: Michael for commissioning this episode. Michael is here in the
Speaker 1: chat with me today, delighted to see user. This section
Speaker 1: is like you, guys, I keep talking about how this
Speaker 1: floor has been giving me this anxiety, and then we
Speaker 1: have to add this factor and I'm just resentful as
Speaker 1: fuck about it. I don't want to stop reading. Obviously
Speaker 1: this is not like that, but I do want to
Speaker 1: talk to Matt Dinneman just real quick. I do want
Speaker 1: to have a conversation and be like, number one, how
Speaker 1: dare you this? There's like very little of the race
Speaker 1: in this section. We just kind of very barely get
Speaker 1: started on this newest heat and then we beg into
Speaker 1: move like the heat begins, we get notified on like
Speaker 1: a rule change, and then it cuts off. So most
Speaker 1: of what we get this time is more like the
Speaker 1: interpersonal conflict and and the weird interview with the plenty,
Speaker 1: which is you guys, I'm It's kind of funny how
Speaker 1: this sort of thing will crop up at the same time,
Speaker 1: Like I will have a few different projects that I
Speaker 1: am reading or covering, you know, different pieces of media,
Speaker 1: and there will often be some thematic things that kind
Speaker 1: of overlap. And something I was just talking about with Rashan,
Speaker 1: I was covering season five of Supernatural. We just started,
Speaker 1: so we just did episode for the end. I am
Speaker 1: Unspoiled for Supernatural. If you are a Supernatural fan and
Speaker 1: that sounds good to you, you should check out the show.
Speaker 1: It's co hosted so Unspoiled Supernatural. I was talking to
Speaker 1: her in this most recent episode, which will be going
Speaker 1: up shortly, about how many properties I read where a
Speaker 1: main character or sometimes a side character will not really
Speaker 1: take into account the fact that they don't have all
Speaker 1: of the information they may need before leaping to conclusions
Speaker 1: about things, or they will not take into account a
Speaker 1: different culture and the way that they operate and will
Speaker 1: refuse to behave according to the rules of said culture
Speaker 1: because they personally find it stupid. And it's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that I get really irritated by and can
Speaker 1: make me dislike a main character utterly, because all cultures
Speaker 1: are stupid. I just really want to make it clear
Speaker 1: that's how I feel. There are certain expectations culturally that
Speaker 1: everybody has that are very, very specifically fucking weird. And
Speaker 1: to try and pretend that your culture is something that's
Speaker 1: like inherently logical and reasonable and this other one isn't.
Speaker 1: So you're just going to like cross your arms and
Speaker 1: pout about it makes me exceedingly fucking irritated. And it
Speaker 1: was really nice that, like, the issue here isn't that
Speaker 1: Carl is refusing to, like, you know, no, play by
Speaker 1: the rules of plenty of plenty. It's more that, like,
Speaker 1: if he were given a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: heads up as to what the rules actually are, he
Speaker 1: would probably do better. But he's given minimal information right
Speaker 1: before going out, So the fact that he doesn't exactly
Speaker 1: know how to behave or what to expect is not
Speaker 1: by any fault of his, And so I can sit
Speaker 1: back and watch the weirdness of this scene unfold and
Speaker 1: be completely content with the way that he's handling it,
Speaker 1: like he's doing, in my opinion, the best that he
Speaker 1: can be expected to be doing under the circumstances, Whereas
Speaker 1: there are so many things that I have read and
Speaker 1: watched where I am just like, somebody's like, why should
Speaker 1: we do that? And I'm like, does context not tell
Speaker 1: you why you should do that? It seems really fucking
Speaker 1: obvious why they're doing that because of the other seven
Speaker 1: things about this culture or this ritual that you already know,
Speaker 1: And I just lack patience with it, because all you
Speaker 1: need to do is shut the fuck up and observe
Speaker 1: a little and usually your question will be answered, or
Speaker 1: if not, you can ask in a respectful way versus just, uh,
Speaker 1: that's weird, why you know? And this is something that
Speaker 1: actually came up in a part of the Wandering in
Speaker 1: that I'm reading, where there's a character who I wish
Speaker 1: we got more of, Frankly, who is given the diplomat
Speaker 1: class because he does this exact thing where he sits
Speaker 1: back and watches these different races and is able to
Speaker 1: understand the way that they approach interacting with other races,
Speaker 1: the hierarchy within their own race, the way that they
Speaker 1: regard sex, or the way that they behave when it
Speaker 1: comes to like food or sharing or housing or marriage
Speaker 1: or children or anything. And this character does what I
Speaker 1: fucking wish everybody in the world would just do. There
Speaker 1: are times when a cultural expectation or requirement is harmful.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to pretend it's not, but sometimes that's
Speaker 1: none of your fucking business. Sometimes it is. You've just
Speaker 1: got to be able to like adapt most of the time,
Speaker 1: whether or not you think it's stupid or not, who cares.
Speaker 1: Just do the thing because you are a guest and
Speaker 1: shut up. So Seraphim is in the chat and Michael.
Speaker 1: I love Ken too. Yes, I wish that I got
Speaker 1: more of him, and it may be that in future
Speaker 1: books he shows up a lot more. But from where
Speaker 1: I'm currently at, Sorry, guys, there's just something under my
Speaker 1: dead that's what it is. Okay, where I'm currently at,
Speaker 1: I only got like a short section with him, and
Speaker 1: we've been away from him for a while. So anyway,
Speaker 1: the caprids like, I'm not pretending that this isn't the
Speaker 1: most bizarre fucking thing I understand. I think it's Miriam
Speaker 1: that says something about how Prepotente went on it and
Speaker 1: that she found it kind of disturbing. I think is
Speaker 1: the word that she used, which I actually kind of
Speaker 1: understand the use of that word because it does you'll, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's just something really unsettling about the
Speaker 1: way everybody behaves. But if you like just get the
Speaker 1: principle of the way they think and what they expect
Speaker 1: of you, the rules do seem mostly pretty simple, except
Speaker 1: for the exert yourself, which I don't know what that means,
Speaker 1: and we don't actually find that out in this section,
Speaker 1: and the fact that Karl is not told what it
Speaker 1: means leads me to believe that is something that's like
Speaker 1: kind of going to be I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: necessarily going to be a problem that he's not going
Speaker 1: to want to do it at all, or if it's
Speaker 1: just going to be like embarrassing somehow, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I don't know, so anyway, I just uh,
Speaker 1: the way that this whole interview goes is, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm getting ahead of myself, as I always do. Let's
Speaker 1: start back in safe room everybody is gathered around playing
Speaker 1: Mario Kart, which I do really appreciate that blatant nod
Speaker 1: within the story. And it turns out that Samantha is,
Speaker 1: like we find out later, hopped up on amphetamine. She
Speaker 1: is just coked out of her mind playing Mario Kart
Speaker 1: and absolutely fucking wrecking everybody. So honestly, a part of
Speaker 1: me is sort of like, uh, oh, are we going
Speaker 1: to make her a driver? I don't know if she's allowed.
Speaker 1: Does she count as a mercenary. I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: she does or not, because there was the assumption we
Speaker 1: can't let her drive or she will kill us. Like
Speaker 1: I think it's donut who says that, and Karl immediately
Speaker 1: agrees with her, But like, maybe that's exactly the energy
Speaker 1: you need, is somebody who's willing to do something. Bananas
Speaker 1: that said, being good at Mario Kart does not necessarily
Speaker 1: mean that you're going to be good at actual real
Speaker 1: life racing, or that you're going to be able to
Speaker 1: adapt in the moment to change rules or terrain or
Speaker 1: environment or anything. So it may simply be that she's
Speaker 1: good at Mario Kart and that is all. And Jeff says,
Speaker 1: did I miss Samantha getting a body no. She is
Speaker 1: playing with her tongue. I think she's holding the controller
Speaker 1: in her mouth. She was playing Princess Peach on a
Speaker 1: pink motorcycle. She had the controller in her mouth and
Speaker 1: was hovering just a foot off the ground, spinning back
Speaker 1: and forth. She was literally pressing buttons with her tongue.
Speaker 1: She made muffled zooming noises as she played. I guess
Speaker 1: that she probably couldn't drive because of the pedals, But honestly,
Speaker 1: the way that the AI has sort of been like
Speaker 1: rocking and rolling with certain things, I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if something happened to enable her to drive in a
Speaker 1: different way. I don't know, so anyway, Sorry, Donut's complaining
Speaker 1: that her loot boxes don't have good shit, which I
Speaker 1: do think is probably like when you're as powerful as
Speaker 1: she is, stuff just doesn't seem that great anymore. Karl
Speaker 1: has to pee, and he actually can pee out of
Speaker 1: the penis that comes with the kangaroo suit, which understandably
Speaker 1: freaks him out, and he just doesn't look. He has
Speaker 1: hit level five in his Fersna skill, and then as
Speaker 1: this is continuing, he reaches level eight yiffing is unlocked.
Speaker 1: I know what yiffing is due to thirty Rock. We
Speaker 1: won't get into it, but I will say furries are
Speaker 1: very easy butt for jokes. I get it. It's weird again.
Speaker 1: Everything's weird. Everything is weird there. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: say that there aren't levels to weirdness, but like, please everyone,
Speaker 1: so I don't feel like we need to dwell on
Speaker 1: this is what I'm saying. We then have one of
Speaker 1: the slugglers coming up to Amani asking her if she
Speaker 1: wants to play, and she says, I played enough against
Speaker 1: my brother's back home, and this is when Dona is like, brothers,
Speaker 1: how many do you have? Poor Donuh doesn't know that
Speaker 1: she's just touched on a really sensitive topic, and poor
Speaker 1: Emani is like obviously uncomfortable and wants to change the
Speaker 1: subject but doesn't seem to know how to do that
Speaker 1: well without like being rude, and so she just is like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think I will play and sort
Speaker 1: of leaves, while Donah is low key mid sentence, and
Speaker 1: Donah is just like, did I make her mad? Or
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to? You know, she doesn't know, and
Speaker 1: I really felt for her in that moment, because it's
Speaker 1: tough sometimes when you just don't realize that you've hit
Speaker 1: on a triggering topic for somebody and it feels like
Speaker 1: they're pissed at you, and they can even sort of
Speaker 1: feel actually pissed at you, like that's something they will
Speaker 1: know themselves that that's not really a rational response on
Speaker 1: their part, but that doesn't change the fact that you
Speaker 1: bringing this up might have made them mad. And I
Speaker 1: appreciated Carl being like, sometimes you don't need to know
Speaker 1: somebody's full life story to understand them, which I really
Speaker 1: endorse this as a like approach to handling imani as
Speaker 1: a character. It may be that we never get the
Speaker 1: full backstory and I don't really feel like I need it,
Speaker 1: and I don't feel like we always need it in
Speaker 1: general if we're doing a main character. Sure, but I
Speaker 1: think that some not even necessarily like writers, but even
Speaker 1: in TV shows or movies, there will be a temptation
Speaker 1: sometimes to just jump into, oh, this is a prequel
Speaker 1: to explain what happened to so and so, and it's
Speaker 1: like not helpful, actually, and it makes it everything less
Speaker 1: interesting or less compelling, and you're just sort of going,
Speaker 1: who asked for this? Or wanted this, you know. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm just I really felt both for Donut and Immani
Speaker 1: in this moment, because I'm sure that Immani feels a
Speaker 1: little bit guilty for the way that she just fucking
Speaker 1: like bailed, but she's kind of doing what she feels
Speaker 1: like she needs to do. And I feel obviously a
Speaker 1: little sad for Donut because she doesn't know what just happened,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure she feels bad for like making Immani
Speaker 1: feel bad. It's just it's just whenever you've got something
Speaker 1: that's like really heavy, it can be hard to move
Speaker 1: in the world because that thing comes up a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, if you've got a parent that has passed
Speaker 1: away and it's like about to be Mother's Day and
Speaker 1: Father's Day and everybody's talking about or you know, like
Speaker 1: people asking you where you having kids, if you can't
Speaker 1: have kids and you want to have them. There's just
Speaker 1: some big topics in life that are going to come up,
Speaker 1: and a lot of folks have trauma surrounding those things
Speaker 1: that I think we often just assume hasn't happened because
Speaker 1: that happens to other people, not people that we talk to,
Speaker 1: which is silly. It's very, very silly. So anyway, Carl
Speaker 1: gets some. He decides to open his boxes and he
Speaker 1: gets some you know, achievements for what he did. It's
Speaker 1: so horrible. I hate it so much. It's also the
Speaker 1: Ai glitching out while he's like telling him what his
Speaker 1: achievements are. Let's see, I'm trying to find this bit reward.
Speaker 1: You've received a job application for Big Shot Chicken location
Speaker 1: in Tucson, Arizona, which is so rude. And also am
Speaker 1: I alone you guys, because I literally cannot hear it
Speaker 1: without immediately going to son Rosunya. If you don't watch
Speaker 1: what we do in the Shadows, you won't get that joke.
Speaker 1: But if you do, you know precisely, and I bet
Speaker 1: you will also have this tick in your head just
Speaker 1: a regular human botend. So at this point, Mango comes
Speaker 1: in with Rend and there had like they were supposed
Speaker 1: to be being watched by Jamal apparently, but they are
Speaker 1: no match for these two because they are Hellians. And
Speaker 1: as they come in, Mordecai comes in. I forgot. I
Speaker 1: forgot the fact that like Rend makes his own way
Speaker 1: in is what's really worrying, because this isn't like Carl
Speaker 1: forgot and let Rend out or Mordecai forgot, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Rend has just got a little bit
Speaker 1: more autonomy than is ideal for the risks posed to him.
Speaker 1: And yeah, this is when Mordechai does the Reaper gaze
Speaker 1: on him and says, and now you perish once again.
Speaker 1: The next time will herald the beginning of the end,
Speaker 1: which noted, and Rend dies and like I said, tiny
Speaker 1: heart attack, and then he just rises up from the
Speaker 1: dead again. And I was like, oh, right, right right,
Speaker 1: I love that donuts. Immediate response is your pet dying
Speaker 1: has upset Mango. Of course she won, as this was
Speaker 1: the sixth death. Your pet will retain his memories and identity.
Speaker 1: Your pet is twenty five percent stronger than before. Your
Speaker 1: pet has gained a new random weakness. Your pet's weaknesses
Speaker 1: sylvan crystal consuming hobgoblin sweat, the bite of a riven wing,
Speaker 1: consuming undead flesh, Reaper gaze new potatoes. Yeah, that's some bullshit.
Speaker 1: That's some bullshit. I'm not even come on now, come
Speaker 1: on now, Like, so now he just basically can't come
Speaker 1: out of his carrier until we're in the middle of
Speaker 1: the fight, and that fight has to really be specific
Speaker 1: because we have undead mercenaries now that are drivers. So
Speaker 1: if Wren gets a little bit what's the word I want,
Speaker 1: If there is confusion and he bites one of our guys,
Speaker 1: that's that's a wrap for him. And I don't know
Speaker 1: how likely it is, but Reren doesn't seem exactly discriminating
Speaker 1: in who he bites. I mean, yeah, I just don't
Speaker 1: like it. This makes me very sad, and I just
Speaker 1: I'm just glad Rend isn't cuter. He's eh, you know,
Speaker 1: like so at the very least I can say, like
Speaker 1: that's going to soften it a little bit for me,
Speaker 1: and anybody who says that the cuteness of the creature
Speaker 1: doesn't like affect their feelings about you're a liar. I
Speaker 1: don't believe you. But anyway, so donut. He has to
Speaker 1: like explain to her what the fuck is going on here?
Speaker 1: And this is when Amani says, well, you could put
Speaker 1: him in the guild pet stables. Gonk the yak is
Speaker 1: in there, Simum the Rhino too. When we started preparing
Speaker 1: for Kachia to leave, we didn't have much time and
Speaker 1: we had to move everything around with the guild system
Speaker 1: on the fly, Simoom kind of got lost in the shuffle,
Speaker 1: so she's in the stables. Simum loves Gonk very curious
Speaker 1: what the significance of this is, because I feel that
Speaker 1: Simum still being here means something like not necessarily like
Speaker 1: means something but more like this is going to turn
Speaker 1: out to be handy and they will make use of
Speaker 1: Simum somehow. Rosetta comes in at this point with Tippett
Speaker 1: and tells them via chat, I think we found a
Speaker 1: flesh mancer, and Tippett says the performance guilled. I think
Speaker 1: I know how to find it, but you're not gonna
Speaker 1: like what's required to get in. I'm pretty sure it's
Speaker 1: hidden in the bar you've already visited. We don't get
Speaker 1: more on this now, what's MM And then the mercenaries
Speaker 1: that she brings in are two Jeeki Ninki Gules level
Speaker 1: twenty five if not not a great like that's really low.
Speaker 1: But hopefully they're not going to be that necessary for fighting.
Speaker 1: It's just going to be driving again undead, don't love it,
Speaker 1: And then we go into chapter twenty seven. A few
Speaker 1: hours later, don't and I re yanked away to go
Speaker 1: on our live appearance of the show plenty of plenty, Now, guys,
Speaker 1: I can't emphasize enough how frequently in these chapters I
Speaker 1: forgot that Carl was in the kangaroo suit. We get
Speaker 1: periodic reminders and context, and it's not like it's not
Speaker 1: Matt's fault, That's all I'm saying that I forgot. I
Speaker 1: just keep forgetting. So he turns up and Lexis, who
Speaker 1: is the one kind of running point for them as guests,
Speaker 1: is obviously trying not to laugh at him. And then
Speaker 1: there comes a point later where like Carl is trying
Speaker 1: to run away from the Harbinger and he like falls
Speaker 1: because he forgets in the suit as well and can't
Speaker 1: move as he normally would. And I just keep being like,
Speaker 1: my god, this thing is so inconvenient and frustrating. So
Speaker 1: let's see, I'm on loan to Born since I'm stuck
Speaker 1: in system and after hours is on hiatus. It was
Speaker 1: either this or sit and twitter my thumbs on the
Speaker 1: press barge and with your garbage freighter having taken over
Speaker 1: everything in orbit, I say I made the right choice.
Speaker 1: And Carl's like what and mentions Zev is kind of
Speaker 1: the one that's having to handle everything now because the
Speaker 1: AI has gone bonkers and Cascadia is just not up
Speaker 1: for it. The insurgents aren't letting anyone they don't trust
Speaker 1: down here unless the AI demands it, and those that
Speaker 1: are down here are barely functioning, so it's all hands
Speaker 1: on deck. And at this point Carl is just like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck are you talking about? And she's able
Speaker 1: initially to just talk openly, and then a little bit
Speaker 1: later is like, all right, let me just close up
Speaker 1: some of the because you know, there's some things that
Speaker 1: she shouldn't be talking about. So the first thing that
Speaker 1: she gets into that she can say aloud, the Open
Speaker 1: Intellect Action Network used to be Pacifist network, and trusting
Speaker 1: those people you in faction wars with are those insurgents,
Speaker 1: is what she says. They sent a boarding crew pretty
Speaker 1: much to every major ship in orbit and took all
Speaker 1: of them, and it happened very fast. That Homecoming Queen
Speaker 1: is decked out in enhancement zone weaponry that actually works
Speaker 1: now that the AI has escaped containment, which that's wild.
Speaker 1: I whoa, I've come such a fast. It's the equivalent
Speaker 1: of a fully armored ogre fighting against blind toddlers. They
Speaker 1: achieved total system domination in a day. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: wondering if we're going to be facing an animal farm
Speaker 1: situation where it turns out the open intellect network is
Speaker 1: as bad or worse as the people we left behind
Speaker 1: kind of thing. If so, I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: mad at that, but it is sort of a tired trope.
Speaker 1: So we'll see. And Donna ask, can you tell us
Speaker 1: what is happening on the surface and whether katsis okay?
Speaker 1: And this is when she's like pressing a couple buttons. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have a minute. Borne doesn't have manpower to watch
Speaker 1: the feeds anyway. Everything is in shambles, but the AI
Speaker 1: is likely still watching. Prime Minister Victory and the staff
Speaker 1: of the new temporary headquarters for the Syndicate's presence in
Speaker 1: the system are on the eastern seaboard of your North America.
Speaker 1: In theory they can be watching too, but I doubt it.
Speaker 1: Most of the flooding from the Tsunamis has receded, and
Speaker 1: they moved into an area that they thought had minimal
Speaker 1: surviving native life, but the moment they set down, they
Speaker 1: had natives up their ass. I love how she's just
Speaker 1: like so the tsunamis, like what and then natives being Floridians, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a problem. Floridians don't fuck around good luck,
Speaker 1: So they're dealing with that somewhere in the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: As for Kaya and everyone else in South Asia, we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of information that is considered, oh
Speaker 1: I an territory. But last I heard, they have not
Speaker 1: taken back the Kinder facility, but they have been in
Speaker 1: contact with Katya herself. As far as I'm aware, something
Speaker 1: strange happened there soon after the end of Faction Wars.
Speaker 1: I couldn't read. The look on Lexis face is that fear.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure. A third party has appeared and is
Speaker 1: protecting the facility, but that entity is confused. That's all
Speaker 1: I know. But is Katya okay, Doughnut demanded. I believe so, yes.
Speaker 1: Just yesterday I saw her pad beeped and all the
Speaker 1: color drained from Lexus's face. She stiffened. No, I realized
Speaker 1: that wasn't fear. Just before this is fear. And later
Speaker 1: he catches a glimpse and it clearly is the AI
Speaker 1: showing her a picture of her kids and basically being like,
Speaker 1: I have a gun to their head unless you shut
Speaker 1: the fuck up. Whew, it's heavy stuff. I just want
Speaker 1: the AI to evolve to the point that it develops empathy,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if that's possible, Like, you know, anyway,
Speaker 1: she gets back on topic with the Caprids and is like,
Speaker 1: I know that you've dealt with Harbinger, but he's sort
Speaker 1: of an outlier and they're not going to be ash
Speaker 1: what's the word hostile as he was with you. You'll
Speaker 1: be sitting in the center while you're judged. They call
Speaker 1: it an interlocution, but it's basically just a round table
Speaker 1: and you're in the middle. In the end, it's like
Speaker 1: a regular interview, but a little peculiar. The cap birds
Speaker 1: are strange, but it's generally good natured. A few crawlers
Speaker 1: have been on the show and have had a decent time.
Speaker 1: You just need to get used to their eccentric affect.
Speaker 1: Eccentric affect is hilarious. Look affect, I'm not really sure,
Speaker 1: Like I'm I haven't looked up the exact definition of
Speaker 1: this word, but I always think when you use that
Speaker 1: word that what you're saying is that somebody's behavior isn't natural,
Speaker 1: and that they are putting it on for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that's necessarily what she actually means here,
Speaker 1: and I don't think that's what's going on, but I
Speaker 1: just wanted to acknowledge because my first thought was that
Speaker 1: she was saying, Oh, they just like to try and
Speaker 1: be real weirdos to make you uncomfortable, and like, once
Speaker 1: we're in this situation, I'm like, no, that doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to be what's going on here. And I'm pretty confident
Speaker 1: she's smart enough to know that that's not what's going
Speaker 1: on either. They're not a collective mind, but they are
Speaker 1: a heard and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
Speaker 1: I remembered those creepy kids from the art show contest,
Speaker 1: which I remember Carl giving like bottom marks, and I
Speaker 1: really felt for those kids. If they judge, if they
Speaker 1: judge you worthy, they will ask you a question. Them
Speaker 1: asking you a question is considered a great compliment, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to answer if you don't judge them worthy.
Speaker 1: Though for this thing, it's pretty much all for show,
Speaker 1: so you probably should answer. And once that's done, you well,
Speaker 1: you exert yourself. What the fuck does that mean? She
Speaker 1: made a sort of grimace. Just go with it, you'll
Speaker 1: know what to do, which we do not get to
Speaker 1: see what that means. So twenty eight begins, and I
Speaker 1: have got to take a moment to discuss the account
Speaker 1: is discussion when it's just me. I must address the
Speaker 1: audiobook narrator because Bro really went for it. He has
Speaker 1: done some top tier work in this particular chapter. And
Speaker 1: there comes a point a little bit later as well
Speaker 1: where you've got some other really really excellent like not narration.
Speaker 1: It's a character voice. He is killing it, and it's
Speaker 1: so great the way that he has, like clearly he
Speaker 1: gave it some thought. How exactly am I going to
Speaker 1: say these sentences? To make it clear that the person
Speaker 1: saying the sentence has very little understanding of the way
Speaker 1: the average human talks or the emphasis where it would
Speaker 1: be put most times. So the way that this I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try and do it well. Met Stranger, the Capbird
Speaker 1: said as we entered the studio, please please sit there
Speaker 1: in the center of the room. We have provided sitting
Speaker 1: appliances for you. All call him the Lessons. It's like
Speaker 1: this weird. It's it's almost pompous, but not actually it
Speaker 1: just has the tone that you associate with pompousness. But
Speaker 1: I think it's actually sincere. It's all over the place
Speaker 1: in terms of emphasis. The accent is bizarrely, it's like,
Speaker 1: are we doing a British accent or are we like
Speaker 1: a Boston accent? And it's sort of like a weird mix.
Speaker 1: And I just the fact that he has to keep
Speaker 1: this up for as long as he does. It's something.
Speaker 1: It's really something I just I kept imagining, and I
Speaker 1: would love to talk to the narrator, like, how exactly
Speaker 1: is he prepared for these sorts of scenes. Is he warned, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to be doing this chapter, there's going to
Speaker 1: be a character like this, We're going to need you
Speaker 1: to come up with something. And how detailed is that
Speaker 1: the info he gets or is he just rolling with
Speaker 1: it a lot and there isn't much time for preparation,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Despite the creature's demonic appearance,
Speaker 1: he had a ridiculously goofy look on his goat face. Now,
Speaker 1: I also must mention how much I love goats and
Speaker 1: how weird they are, like the fact that they behave
Speaker 1: like this when they are given like humanoid sort of
Speaker 1: qualities feels correct. It's like, I like the fact that
Speaker 1: it's not sheep because we're still doing a hard thing.
Speaker 1: We're still doing a sort of like what's the word
Speaker 1: I want? There's still a sense of they rely on
Speaker 1: each other and the group is the important thing. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel so overwhelming as I feel like it
Speaker 1: would with sheep, where I know it's not meant to
Speaker 1: be like the therahive mind that wouldn't be the way
Speaker 1: we'd play it either, But the sheep, I feel like,
Speaker 1: would be kind of less interesting in how eccentric they were.
Speaker 1: And goats this I buy because goats are very unique individuals.
Speaker 1: Once you like work with a group, I won't forget
Speaker 1: how the very first day that I worked on the
Speaker 1: goat farm in Connecticut, I couldn't tell those goats apart
Speaker 1: unless they were dramatically different colors. And after working there
Speaker 1: for a week, I knew every single goat by name,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't believe that I hadn't been able to
Speaker 1: tell them apart before. It was so easy. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I was just like, you know, so anyway,
Speaker 1: So there's a group of them, and Doughnut does the
Speaker 1: thing where she asks what's your name, because she's not
Speaker 1: really she's not really thinking about or caring. I think
Speaker 1: much about the fact that asking a question is an
Speaker 1: indicator of respect, So I don't think she'd hold back anyway.
Speaker 1: She's not going to be disrespectful. But I did think
Speaker 1: it was they were being real fast and loose with
Speaker 1: their questions, and they were not being careful about it
Speaker 1: in the way that I think I might have been
Speaker 1: in their shoes. It's the sort of thing where when
Speaker 1: you are around a genie and you don't want to
Speaker 1: just say I wish such and such because it's you know,
Speaker 1: that means something different than it normally means. So both
Speaker 1: she and Carl are just really blurting out questions a
Speaker 1: lot in a way that is evident they don't think
Speaker 1: of them as questions, even like even though they obviously are.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that one of them asked if
Speaker 1: she is Carl, because evidently, like at one point the
Speaker 1: leader tells Carl that, like, you've been doing so well,
Speaker 1: and you you know, they know of their experiences in
Speaker 1: the crawl, but they don't apparently seem to be able
Speaker 1: to tell them apart. And she also he calls her
Speaker 1: sir at one point, and she just doesn't. She's just
Speaker 1: sort of like, did you call me, sir? And he
Speaker 1: does again, and she just sort of is like, okay,
Speaker 1: I guess like she doesn't kick up too much of
Speaker 1: a fuss about it. I'm sorry, I'm just finding this
Speaker 1: bit here. We waited for the host to say something.
Speaker 1: He didn't. He just stood there a few feet to
Speaker 1: our left, looking at us, really staring. We sat there
Speaker 1: an awkward silence for a good ten to fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1: The only sounds were the breathing and guttural noises from
Speaker 1: the circle of goats in shadow Well. Donnat finally said,
Speaker 1: it's certainly a pleasure to be invited on your show,
Speaker 1: because you clearly don't know. My name is GC BWR.
Speaker 1: You have been sentenced to death. Both has suddenly screamed,
Speaker 1: pointing at us, and everybody just begins chanting death, death, death,
Speaker 1: and it's like, what did she do? I think the
Speaker 1: fact that she simply began by like introducing herself or
Speaker 1: something is considered a faux pas. I don't know. Again,
Speaker 1: we aren't really given adequate information for coping with these people,
Speaker 1: so what I think maybe it was going to be
Speaker 1: that they should sit in silence until somebody asks them
Speaker 1: a question, and that she didn't do that, you know,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. It's just it's wild. So Uh,
Speaker 1: all of the goats that were in shadow get spotlights
Speaker 1: on them, and Donut says something like, I feel as
Speaker 1: if we can get a proper chance to defend ourselves,
Speaker 1: and Botas immediately is like, do you wish to appeal?
Speaker 1: So that is uh what they're going to do, and
Speaker 1: an appeal for judgment they each get, Like each of
Speaker 1: these Gossas's a question, do you feel your daily foliage
Speaker 1: input is sufficient? Carl says fucking what? And I'm like, Carl,
Speaker 1: it's a very simple question. Are you eating your veggies
Speaker 1: or no? I don't know why he says fucking what.
Speaker 1: It's a really simple question, actually, And I think I
Speaker 1: speak for most of us when I say, of course not.
Speaker 1: I wish I were doing better about it, and I
Speaker 1: am working on it and it is improving. But I
Speaker 1: think most of us can say that that is not
Speaker 1: actually sufficient. Uh. Donut answers this satisfactorily. I am honored
Speaker 1: to remove your death sentence. You are welcome to walk
Speaker 1: amongst the herd. Do you have any questions for me?
Speaker 1: The goat asked, wait, we can ask you questions, donut
Speaker 1: ask yes, thank you for the question. The table turned
Speaker 1: to the next goat. I swear to God, it's so bizarre,
Speaker 1: this one, who is a Satanic one just says the
Speaker 1: death judgment stands and she just says rude. And then
Speaker 1: another one, Princess Donat, have you ever given any thought
Speaker 1: on what three spells you might combine if you were
Speaker 1: to cast your war crime spell a second time, which,
Speaker 1: of course she tenses up over. But like the answer is,
Speaker 1: basically there's all kinds of combos. But I don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about it until the twelfth floor floor. And
Speaker 1: so is it my turn to ask yes, the goat replied,
Speaker 1: and we moved to the next because that counts as
Speaker 1: a question. Carl, the next goat asked, without preamble, are
Speaker 1: you aware of what Justice Light did at the end
Speaker 1: of the previous floor, which this is an unexpectedly helpful question.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is on purpose, but I
Speaker 1: think it is. And Carl says, I know he made
Speaker 1: a trap. Can you please explain to me what he did?
Speaker 1: Which that is a very carefully like I think that question.
Speaker 1: He knew what he was doing and did it purposefully.
Speaker 1: He created a trap that broke the in game version
Speaker 1: of the Nothing and unleashed all the inhabitants of the
Speaker 1: Nothing into three different levels of the game. We can
Speaker 1: only truly see what is happening on the twelfth floor.
Speaker 1: Some of these creatures are entities that haven't been seen
Speaker 1: since the very early days of Dungeon Crawler World. The
Speaker 1: ones who invaded the twelfth floor appear to be the weakest.
Speaker 1: We have no vision of what's happening on the fifteenth
Speaker 1: and we only saw brief snippets of the ongoing slaughter
Speaker 1: and torture within Club School of Pendra. The Dead Crip
Speaker 1: Curry Up is there, as is crack hairn Prime. As
Speaker 1: this is a parody of our partner. It's interesting that
Speaker 1: and he gets interrupted here, which I was a little
Speaker 1: disappointed by because I wanted to know more about this.
Speaker 1: The fact that they can't see onto the fifteenth is
Speaker 1: really surprising. I thought that was something that would be available,
Speaker 1: and I am extremely curious about that now, like what
Speaker 1: all is going on there? Because the ough God, all
Speaker 1: the torture and whatnot is so hideous so let's see Bathin.
Speaker 1: He is one of the chief engineers of the Plenty
Speaker 1: tunnel project, which opened up the veins of the galaxy,
Speaker 1: which is an interesting way of putting it. This is
Speaker 1: when Orrin chimes in and he says, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: what was happening until it was too late. You have
Speaker 1: an amazing opportunity here. The people who are judging you
Speaker 1: are the leadership of the Plenty. If you're judged worthy,
Speaker 1: they will answer your questions. I need you to ask
Speaker 1: them about the integrity of the tunneling system. I will
Speaker 1: give you the exact question to ask, to which Carl replies,
Speaker 1: eat my ass, Orin, And I'll be honest, guys. I
Speaker 1: just am constantly faced with the reality of how overly
Speaker 1: much I respect authority, because like Oran coming in and
Speaker 1: asking for this simple thing, it didn't even occur to
Speaker 1: me to be like a pain in the ass about it.
Speaker 1: It was just sort of like, oh, okay, yeah, what
Speaker 1: do you need me to ask? And the fact that
Speaker 1: he responds with just like fuck off. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Orrin sucks and we shouldn't do that stuff that he says, huh,
Speaker 1: he forgot it, Like it's just it's really sobering. This
Speaker 1: is when Victory chimes in. I'm going to level with you.
Speaker 1: I think even you will understand the gravity of the situation.
Speaker 1: The current AIS spread well beyond this solar system, which yikes,
Speaker 1: it killed an entire mantis system, which do we know
Speaker 1: that it's responsible for that? And it just blew up
Speaker 1: a group of valtae lease manufacturing facilities. We don't know
Speaker 1: how it is feeding itself. We do not know how
Speaker 1: it is doing any of this. Furthermore, certain mobs from
Speaker 1: the dungeon have gotten loose. They are appearing in places
Speaker 1: they shouldn't. This is more than an emergency. This is
Speaker 1: the end of life as we know it, and all
Speaker 1: our attempts to communicate with the Plenty regarding this have
Speaker 1: gone unanswered. They control the tunneling system. They are the
Speaker 1: only ones who can shut it all off, we hope.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that's true. Not the Victory's lying,
Speaker 1: but I feel like the Plenty they're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do that. I just don't see it. Maybe
Speaker 1: they are. Maybe I'm completely like you know, I don't
Speaker 1: have the information. It just feels like an awfully big
Speaker 1: loophole for the AI to like overlook, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and the fact that it's letting them talk to him. Now,
Speaker 1: I would think the AI would interfere if it didn't
Speaker 1: want this conversation to happen, unless it's like, well, technically,
Speaker 1: this conversation is in the rules, so I you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, the AI has its agenda, but
Speaker 1: it also does try to abide by the letter of
Speaker 1: the law regarding its own rules. Hmm, I don't know,
Speaker 1: so anyway. Uh. He asks about the goddess Eleithia being
Speaker 1: with Katcia as that who it is, and Orn says yes,
Speaker 1: though it's a different god in the Kinder facility. A
Speaker 1: good portion of the unsponsored gods are roaming free right now.
Speaker 1: It appears they can only manifest themselves within a relatively
Speaker 1: short range of the tunnel nodes, and not for long.
Speaker 1: To make matters worse, it appears the AI has no
Speaker 1: control over them, which it turns out that is like
Speaker 1: a function of the fact that they allow sponsorship of
Speaker 1: these gods, so the AI isn't allowed to manually fuck
Speaker 1: with them, so that the person who is sponsoring is
Speaker 1: guaranteed like full control. It was programmed to keep an
Speaker 1: insane AI from using the gods to kill everything. We
Speaker 1: have limited ability to temper that. It's the same system
Speaker 1: that allows us to use sponsors, but that ability is
Speaker 1: to control non sponsored gods has been turned off. We
Speaker 1: normally use this quite liberally on the later floors due
Speaker 1: to the destructiveness of such powerful creatures. It's a checks
Speaker 1: and balances system that is now broken. And since the
Speaker 1: AI can't control them either, the deities are acting independently, which,
Speaker 1: my goodness. We've got all these things in place, and
Speaker 1: somehow all of that has just been thrown out the window.
Speaker 1: I just can't imagine what that's like, she said, staring
Speaker 1: at the camera in America twenty twenty six. What is
Speaker 1: it like when all of the understood rules are simply
Speaker 1: not applicable anymore? Wild So Carl says, yeah, I'll ask
Speaker 1: the question, and of course, does the thing that they
Speaker 1: don't want? Here's my question. Does the public know that
Speaker 1: the gods have escaped from the dungeon and that the
Speaker 1: enhancement zones of the current AI have jumped into your
Speaker 1: tunneling system? Do the people know they're in danger? Worse
Speaker 1: danger perhaps than us crawlers. Do they know that they
Speaker 1: need to fucking run and victory is just like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck dude, the AI let you say that out
Speaker 1: loud on live, and I really appreciate Carl just being like,
Speaker 1: fuck off. You knew as soon as you asked me
Speaker 1: to ask this question that I was going to do
Speaker 1: this exact thing, which Orn does confess. Yeah, we knew
Speaker 1: it was a likely possibility. So Michael says, sorry, I
Speaker 1: hadn't looked at the chatt and to say it. Michael says,
Speaker 1: I think the sentence to death thing is just part
Speaker 1: of the show. They're sentenced to death unquote, and each
Speaker 1: goat can choose to suspend the sentence in favor of
Speaker 1: an interview question. So it's just like the format. It
Speaker 1: just goes this way. Huh. Carl has very little patience
Speaker 1: for things he considers nonsense. That's true. Sarahim says, they
Speaker 1: can't see anything but what is meant to be on
Speaker 1: screen to the public. So the Crawlers in the twelfth
Speaker 1: due to all the rich people paying the ascendancy game,
Speaker 1: I guess I thought that the fifteenth there was like
Speaker 1: a game thing as well. I think I just assumed.
Speaker 1: I don't think I know what the fifteenth floor really entails.
Speaker 1: Jeff says, it may help if you picture all the
Speaker 1: game people as being on horses with whips. If I
Speaker 1: picture all the game people, oh oh, what Jeff is
Speaker 1: saying is like to disrespect authority. Imagine them as like
Speaker 1: slave drivers. I see, Sorry, Jeff, I really this is
Speaker 1: the trouble when I don't look at the chat as
Speaker 1: I go, is that I'll get a comment that out
Speaker 1: of context. I'm just fucking befuddled. But I get it now.
Speaker 1: Michael says, I didn't expect the AI to not be
Speaker 1: able to control the gods either. Yeah, that did not Like,
Speaker 1: it just didn't occur to me. I thought that when
Speaker 1: we ended the last book with a god getting out,
Speaker 1: I thought this was the AI doing it and kind
Speaker 1: of rubbing its hands together in glee. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: until this book where the AI keeps being like everything's normal.
Speaker 1: Just act like it's normal because it is normal. Shut
Speaker 1: the fuck up. This was the first moment that I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, wait, oh no, is this not planned, Jeff?
Speaker 1: Imagine if the executive brans refuse to follow court orders.
Speaker 1: Surely not hm. Sarah fam says fifteenth is shale the
Speaker 1: Dungeon's Hell, but no crawler has ever reached it, so
Speaker 1: it's never actually been used that I think that's what
Speaker 1: I was thinking, like that I knew nobody had gotten there,
Speaker 1: so I think my assumption was is that a vacation
Speaker 1: destination basically, you know, like do people go there because
Speaker 1: they know they're not going to encounter crawlers and they
Speaker 1: just want to chill and have a good time. But
Speaker 1: if it's the Dungeon's Hell, I have to assume not
Speaker 1: so needless to say Carl saying, this causes quite the
Speaker 1: uproar with all of these goats. Somebody mentions the epicure
Speaker 1: which we have to manifest, and that's the being that
Speaker 1: Prepotente worships, the true judgment. Another said she has fulfilled
Speaker 1: her bargain. Don't know what that means. The great stampede comes,
Speaker 1: which one can assume that's just like the go Apocalypse.
Speaker 1: The beautiful place, said yet another, followed by a screaming bleat,
Speaker 1: which is what they called. I believe the manifestation of
Speaker 1: the nothing that being. Anyway, So Carl says, if the
Speaker 1: AI didn't want this getting out, he wouldn't have allowed it.
Speaker 1: And based on the way these nut jobs are acting,
Speaker 1: it looks like you haven't been trying too hard to
Speaker 1: speak with them. They clearly didn't know which A few
Speaker 1: minutes later we find out that like somebody knew but
Speaker 1: just hadn't been sharing the information with the rest of
Speaker 1: the herd. Donut you know what, this reminds me of
Speaker 1: those city elves on the third floor when they were
Speaker 1: looking at my butt. I honestly don't remember what she's
Speaker 1: talking about, and I really don't need to. It's just
Speaker 1: very funny out of context. And if anybody wilse remind me,
Speaker 1: please feel free. But I just want to say I
Speaker 1: don't remember what she's talking about, and I find it
Speaker 1: extremely funny without remembering. I don't need to. It's fine.
Speaker 1: The eighteenth floors a vacation spot, says Michael. Okay, I
Speaker 1: didn't even remember that there really was one. I think
Speaker 1: I just assumed. But I'm sure that's I assumed because
Speaker 1: it was told to us and I just got numbers
Speaker 1: mixed up. Saraphim says them freaking out over the her
Speaker 1: oak fell amulet ah, right, right, right, right right. Let
Speaker 1: me scroll up, because there were a bunch of comments
Speaker 1: that I think I missed. Oh my god, Saraphim, nothing
Speaker 1: in the Dungeon can compare to Florida Man. Jeff says.
Speaker 1: My understanding is that affect is just about facial expressions
Speaker 1: and attitude, not necessary fake or real. Okay. Mostly I
Speaker 1: hear about certain mentally ill folks on meds having a
Speaker 1: flat affect. Okay. I hear about people who are like
Speaker 1: affected in the way that they speak as being like
Speaker 1: really pretentious sounding and considered rather than authentic. Michael, Wow,
Speaker 1: that was really good, Natasha Jeffey's better watches. But oh
Speaker 1: because I was doing the voice. Thanks, Michael jeff says,
Speaker 1: Watch The Sheep Detectives to see how annoying cartoon sheep
Speaker 1: can be great voice acting. But boy, howdy annoying as heck.
Speaker 1: And I am definitely going to be watching that once
Speaker 1: it's on streaming Sarah FM. People need to think more
Speaker 1: about how to talk around Fay and like that is
Speaker 1: kind of it, right any other culture that has very
Speaker 1: specific rules, you just need to really zero in on those.
Speaker 1: So ooh, Sheep Detective is already out on Prime, says Michael, noted,
Speaker 1: thank you. Okay, So this is when another goat that's
Speaker 1: like a female Harbinger style, it's my turn to judge you,
Speaker 1: which we find out she's Harbinger's mom. I really loved this, Zev.
Speaker 1: What the heck is going on, Carl? What did you do? Donut?
Speaker 1: This wasn't Carl's fault, not this time, Lexus. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit his fault, Donut. Well, it's always a little
Speaker 1: bit his fault. Oh my god. Uh Gomory is the
Speaker 1: name of this. And she looks mad because she got
Speaker 1: caught out not relaying vital information to the rest of
Speaker 1: her herd, which is interesting because, like, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if she was caught out, do they know that she knew?
Speaker 1: Could she have just behaved as if she were surprised
Speaker 1: as they are, and then they wouldn't know. But anyway, everybody,
Speaker 1: all these goats are going into a complete panic and disappearing.
Speaker 1: You are rash, you are impulsive, You are loud, You
Speaker 1: make sudden movements. You are a trouble maker. You startle us,
Speaker 1: and you attract attention. When we sponsored you, it was
Speaker 1: at the behest of our partner. I worried against it,
Speaker 1: but we thought perhaps it was for the best. I
Speaker 1: was waiting to respond to this new predator in the
Speaker 1: forest to study its movements and its implications. Your declaration
Speaker 1: has removed the ability for thoughtful reaction. You have invoked
Speaker 1: a stampede, and we will not stop running until we
Speaker 1: are safe, which I do get where she's coming from,
Speaker 1: but also life's tough, Sorry about it. And he says,
Speaker 1: why are you even here if you didn't want this
Speaker 1: to come up? Which I love that She responds to,
Speaker 1: how dare you ask questions of me? And this is
Speaker 1: technically a question? And then she just starts crying, which
Speaker 1: was so delightful to realize that, like this bursting into
Speaker 1: tears thing is not just a prepotentae thing. This is
Speaker 1: apparently a plenty thing. We wanted to do something special
Speaker 1: for you because you're doing such a good job, and
Speaker 1: you're best friends with our champion, and the council really
Speaker 1: wanted to meet Princess Donut because she's so wonderful and
Speaker 1: beautiful and sassy. The kids all love you both. I've
Speaker 1: been too scared to tell everyone about what's happening because
Speaker 1: I knew they'd just take it as a sign the
Speaker 1: end times are year. We can't start on my people
Speaker 1: with information like that or they react. I was going
Speaker 1: to go slow. I didn't think. I have got to
Speaker 1: say I felt for her a lot in this moment,
Speaker 1: her just being like, we just wanted to have a
Speaker 1: fun time because we like you guys. I was just like,
Speaker 1: oh really, oh man. It made me feel like kind
Speaker 1: of like the way I felt about Linus. But they're
Speaker 1: not doing the weird sexualization of Carlin Donut. So I've
Speaker 1: well even more strongly bad for her. And she starts
Speaker 1: hitting herself in the head, calling herself stupid, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, sweetie, stop. So this is when Harbinger
Speaker 1: appears and is like, I fucking told you, and you
Speaker 1: wouldn't listen to me. Nobody listened to me. And apparently
Speaker 1: he's been like excommunicated from the herd, which is fucking
Speaker 1: rough for him. And he says, I have sacrificed everything.
Speaker 1: And the way the audiobook narrator does this, he really
Speaker 1: infuses this bonker's voice. It's obviously been modulated with computers.
Speaker 1: It's not just the narrator getting their voice this low,
Speaker 1: but he infuses this like paragraph with tears, like Harbinger
Speaker 1: is emotional, which I sort of I liked as a
Speaker 1: bit of nuance. The moment I saw how many residuals
Speaker 1: were in the dungeon. The moment I learned how unstable
Speaker 1: the AI was and how it favored this predator, I
Speaker 1: feared this exact thing would happen. I told you, I
Speaker 1: warned you, I warned you all you didn't respond. Nobody
Speaker 1: helped me. I have been alone in this. I am
Speaker 1: so lonely, but I have not forgotten my duty. Mother.
Speaker 1: You asked me once why I didn't exert myself at
Speaker 1: the end of our circles. Exertion is supposed to be
Speaker 1: an expression of joy and of comfort. Well, mother, I
Speaker 1: will exert myself now. I will protect the herd, I
Speaker 1: will protect the universe. I will do what I should
Speaker 1: have been done from the very start. And I really
Speaker 1: felt for Harbinger here, weirdly because like, apparently he was
Speaker 1: right about many things, and the fact that he's a
Speaker 1: herd race and got excommunicated. Like, think, how lonely that
Speaker 1: must be to be like you're built to be social
Speaker 1: and then be completely cut off and alone. That's really rough, man.
Speaker 1: That sucks. So yeah, he tries to point his weapon
Speaker 1: and shoot Carl. It goes as you would expect. The
Speaker 1: AI blows him to pieces, and I feel like Michael says,
Speaker 1: I don't know why he thought he would get away
Speaker 1: with killing Carl. Maybe he knew he wouldn't and he
Speaker 1: was just done. I kind of think that's it. Michael
Speaker 1: is like he just it was like, what am I
Speaker 1: gonna do? Just not make the move that I think
Speaker 1: needs to be made. I would argue that he shouldn't
Speaker 1: have made the speech and should have just shown up
Speaker 1: and shot Carl. Probably, like I won't say that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't still have been blown up, but I could see
Speaker 1: maybe the AI not being totally sure what he was
Speaker 1: going to do and not reacting in time. Perhaps maybe
Speaker 1: it would I don't know. So yeah, that's fucking gross. Uh.
Speaker 1: And of course this ends with Lexis saying, well, this
Speaker 1: has the best ratings of any episode we've ever filmed,
Speaker 1: so that's something. So let me start with chapter thirty here.
Speaker 1: This is the last of the group. And when I
Speaker 1: was talking earlier about the audiobook narrator really knocking one
Speaker 1: out of the park, gluteus max is hopped up, and
Speaker 1: anybody listening to this audiobook instantly knows because the audiobook
Speaker 1: narrator just nails this particular sound I'm not even going
Speaker 1: to try and get it because it's I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm going to be able to do it justice, but
Speaker 1: suffice to say, it's barely repressed berserker kind of energy.
Speaker 1: And evidently this is what Samantha had been on when
Speaker 1: she was playing Mario Kart and he took two. So
Speaker 1: I am not super optimistic about how he's going to
Speaker 1: do out here, you know, but yeah, he's like very
Speaker 1: delighted with the horn as well, with the like you know,
Speaker 1: machine gun sound effect. Sorry, it seemed so stupid us
Speaker 1: still having to do this bullshit while all that craziness
Speaker 1: happened outside the dungeon. I wondered if the gods leaking
Speaker 1: would cause people to stop watching and focus more on
Speaker 1: what was happening out there. But based on my stats,
Speaker 1: our viewers hadn't let up, and I did like that.
Speaker 1: It seems so stupid having to deal with this bullshit.
Speaker 1: Like I know how many of us feel this way
Speaker 1: about daily life. You know, the world is going bonkers,
Speaker 1: America is sliding down the toilet, and we still have
Speaker 1: to go to work and act like it fucking matters.
Speaker 1: If we got the memo about changing the like way
Speaker 1: that we address people via our emails, and that we
Speaker 1: have to change up our signature at the bottom now
Speaker 1: because we got bought out, Like who cares? Who fucking literally,
Speaker 1: who cares? But we've got to do the thing because
Speaker 1: we got to feed ourselves and we've been put into
Speaker 1: this stupid healscape. We're in order to do that, we
Speaker 1: have to give a shit about the memo that says
Speaker 1: that we have to change our email signature. And so
Speaker 1: here we are flawless system. All the occupants of the
Speaker 1: garage had just stared out at us when we appeared,
Speaker 1: nobody asking what had happened. Uh. The hairy man, Glutias Max,
Speaker 1: had removed his gonglet. He still wore his usual outfit,
Speaker 1: which was nothing except a speedo, but now he wore
Speaker 1: a hockey helmet that he borrowed from the pile of
Speaker 1: discarded gear, which is quite an image. The two ghouls
Speaker 1: were lined up behind me in the back of the truck,
Speaker 1: both situated in their cages, their teeth chattering. Their teeth
Speaker 1: chattering for some reason creeped me the fuck out. I
Speaker 1: just like the fact that they have to be in cages. Also, yikes,
Speaker 1: you know, Michael says, the cotton candy mixed with the
Speaker 1: sweat dripping off the tits of a Randy Hiel priestess.
Speaker 1: Reference was pretty specific. Makes me think Gludeas knows that
Speaker 1: from experience. Good for you, gluteus. It is quite specific,
Speaker 1: but I would hazard that it's just basically he picked
Speaker 1: like the best things that he could think of. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, if I were to be like
Speaker 1: it tastes like crim fresh off the tip of gensen
Speaker 1: Ackle's dick or something, you know what I'm saying, which
Speaker 1: actually sounds extra filthy because of what krim fresh is.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, I actually meant krim fresh.
Speaker 1: I did not mean come, but it would be fine
Speaker 1: if it were come. For the record, Jensen Acles, if
Speaker 1: you're listening anyway, So Carl has a bunch of things
Speaker 1: ready to go because he is planning to hamstring some
Speaker 1: of their opponents. As soon as the what's the word
Speaker 1: I want? The flag is flown the light turns green.
Speaker 1: I guess I didn't want to kill the vehicle, but
Speaker 1: I wanted to keep them from trying to kill us
Speaker 1: and hopefully slow them down enough that we didn't have
Speaker 1: to worry about them he's talking about the Darconian. Uh.
Speaker 1: I selected the four remaining missiles in my eight pack
Speaker 1: launcher and programmed them. By this point, all the teams
Speaker 1: would have shields. Direct attacks would likely do nothing, so
Speaker 1: we had to kill them in different ways. I just
Speaker 1: hoped these missiles worked as advertise. This was a Rosetta idea.
Speaker 1: It was a different recipe than what we had in
Speaker 1: the potion balls, but just as insidious, which I was
Speaker 1: just like, what does that mean? I don't like that.
Speaker 1: So this is when starting blocks loading is mentioned by
Speaker 1: the AI and he's like, what's that? And Doctor Metcalf
Speaker 1: chimes in a new rule. Each team will be contained
Speaker 1: in a starting block shield that will provide in vulnerability
Speaker 1: for the first ninety seconds of this race. And he's
Speaker 1: just like, oh shit, and he asks what kind of
Speaker 1: shield it is, and she pitches a little tantrum about
Speaker 1: the fact that she didn't get upgraded like she wanted.
Speaker 1: But sure, your stupid cat got that chair. But she
Speaker 1: just she can't answer this question. Ah. I started calculating
Speaker 1: how long the missiles would take to arc through the air.
Speaker 1: If I timed it properly, it'd keep the other teams
Speaker 1: from firing on us or each other. And this is
Speaker 1: when he gets a message from Chiome. Do we need
Speaker 1: to alter our plans? And he says, it's okay. I
Speaker 1: think we're good. I have already forgotten who Cheome is, guys,
Speaker 1: so help me out, Help me out. I listened to
Speaker 1: this section twice. Donut can see the finish line because
Speaker 1: the angle of this is so steep, which I just
Speaker 1: hate that. Oh God, you guys, the way that I
Speaker 1: could feel my stomach a lurch just imagining this like
Speaker 1: precipitous drop. Oh god, Michael says the leader of the
Speaker 1: Ninja Foxes, thank you, yes, thank you. Donut has changed
Speaker 1: the voice that her chair has from a creepy dude
Speaker 1: voice that it was originally, which we don't get hear,
Speaker 1: to the voice of a woman with a Polish accent,
Speaker 1: and she calls her Deroda. I'm very curious about this.
Speaker 1: If this is like somebody that took care of her
Speaker 1: when she was in the breeder you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: A Polish accent, Oh, Michael says. Deroda is a reference
Speaker 1: to Blair Waldorf's made de Roda from Gossip Girl. Oh right,
Speaker 1: I forgot about that. God, I really should just rewatch
Speaker 1: this show. I really should, but it's just like gonna
Speaker 1: trigger all this body dysmorphia. I know it anyway, Okay,
Speaker 1: so uh. It was called a Smart Companion Royal Pet Throne.
Speaker 1: This was the ultimate diamond pampered pet Princess Edition, designed
Speaker 1: for long road trips. It could be installed in car, spaceships, boats,
Speaker 1: and more. It could be used by regular people and
Speaker 1: nothing would happen. But the moment the chairs assigned Princess
Speaker 1: sat upon it, a small, fluffy, rectangular bed appeared. The
Speaker 1: chair just said like a gyro, and it would supposedly
Speaker 1: keep her safe in case of an accident, and it
Speaker 1: monitored her vitals and offered her quote relief when she
Speaker 1: was stressed, which I am assuming is basically a handy.
Speaker 1: And I think it's gonna be real unpleasant when we
Speaker 1: find out what that is. I don't think she's gonna
Speaker 1: care for it, but I will say I really think
Speaker 1: that this is a better prize than Carl seems to think.
Speaker 1: It feeds her snacks on demand, and it compliments her
Speaker 1: all the time and agrees with her, and I think
Speaker 1: that's hilarious. Apparently Doctor Metcalf hates it, and so they
Speaker 1: are in this weird feud with each other, which is
Speaker 1: really weird. So let's see. Oh right, it's a thirty
Speaker 1: degree angle. Carl is estimating we go too fast, We're
Speaker 1: gonna flip. Yeah, we'll flip. We'll flip into victory. He said, Man,
Speaker 1: I wish Steve was still with us. He loved this shit.
Speaker 1: If he wasn't pussy, he'd want me to go even faster.
Speaker 1: And it's just the Finally Carl realizes that he has
Speaker 1: got like bloodshot eyes and that he is on something.
Speaker 1: Donut get your laundry day spell ready. We don't have
Speaker 1: a goddamn choice. We have to get this suit off me,
Speaker 1: which no, I do not need you to be skinned, please, Carl,
Speaker 1: don't don't. Honestly, somebody that's fucked up might be the
Speaker 1: best for this sort of race. Give him a chance,
Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying. And this is when we get
Speaker 1: the announcement of the sugar hermits who begin to flood
Speaker 1: the field that tens of thousands. They're like, in MANI heads,
Speaker 1: why are they screaming? And they're all like Day of
Speaker 1: the Dead sugar skulls that feed on bones and brain. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're migrating towards the Kaiju skull that blocks the finish line.
Speaker 1: Why because I fucking said so, they'll lay they're exited
Speaker 1: or some shit, it doesn't matter. And they have tentacles
Speaker 1: that apparently will like extract bone and brain when they
Speaker 1: need it. So yikes. And this is when Gludias says,
Speaker 1: ye fucking haw, and that is the end of chapter thirty.
Speaker 1: Michael says, got to say it to Carl far too
Speaker 1: long to realize that he wasn't acting normally. Fully, agree, Michael,
Speaker 1: Now I'll say this. We have the benefit of the
Speaker 1: audiobook and the way that Jeff Hayes has done the
Speaker 1: voice makes it so clear. But perhaps when it was
Speaker 1: being written, Matt Dineman didn't imagine the voice being quite
Speaker 1: so intense, and so Carl not noticing is a little
Speaker 1: bit more understandable. But yeah, oh, Sarah fem says, it
Speaker 1: took me so long to realize it was Dia dels
Speaker 1: Martos and not the zombie movie. They meant even after
Speaker 1: they said the sugar skulls, I feel like that was
Speaker 1: said first maybe, but it does not matter. I am
Speaker 1: very interested to see how Glutius does on this race,
Speaker 1: like just really curious, that's all. I don't want Carl
Speaker 1: taking amphetamines, obviously, but I am so overtime. I have
Speaker 1: to wrap. YadA, YadA, YadA. You guys know the drill.
Speaker 1: But thank you, guys in and so much for hanging out.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you all, and I'll be seeing you on Thursday
Speaker 1: with a new episode. Until then, tutlu, motherfuckers. That was
Speaker 1: an unspoiled network podcast.