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BBBC Reads Ward - Arc 13.8 - 13.z - Black
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This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers. Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. Complete list of potential triggers: here
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The Brockton Bay Book Club discusses J.C. McCrae's Ward live! The gang reads a portion of Ward and comes together to share our thoughts with each other and anyone who want's to participate.
This week we cover Arc 13.8 - 13.z - Black
Read along here
Play along with this week's BBBC BINGO while you listen!
Support us and connect with us @brocktonbaybc
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
And we're live. Welcome. a Good evening, Megacity. Latest breaking news, a data breach. What's in your wallet? like excuse me i know you were going to say that.
00:00:19
Speaker
do i like ri but double double check your password And click all those sketchy links. It's time for the Brockton Bay Book Club podcast. Oh, perfect. I am one of your hosts, Alan.
00:00:34
Speaker
ah Welcome again, if you're... you know, not their first time joining us, but it is your first time joining us. We are a bunch of friends just reading through ward by JC McRae and online superhero web serial.
00:00:47
Speaker
Um, and, uh, some at times people listen, um, and we, we thank them for that. Uh, if you want to join us live, we are trying to do this every other Monday, more consistently
Podcast Activities and Merchandise
00:01:00
Speaker
now. Um,
00:01:02
Speaker
And in between, we every other Monday, I said every other Monday. um And if you... on It's whats every other Monday. Okay, I wasn't sure because I thought it was every other Monday, which is what I'd said months ago. ah't it But everybody corrected me and then they were all wrong.
00:01:20
Speaker
So... Damn. Yeah, I will never let that go. It's the oracle of the podcast. Yes. Yeah, it's very upsetting. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:01:30
Speaker
Oh no, I've got to do one. No one is sometimes right. yeah and but yeah For those of you who don't know, I post like a saint because, ah and not the saint you're thinking of, we'll get to that, but a different saint, a more wholesome saint who predicts what time the podcast is supposed to be on. Speaking of predicting the podcast, if you wanted to join us live and play some podcast bingo, um you could write some predictions ahead of time and see if they pan out by being a Patreon member for as little as a dollar a month.
00:01:58
Speaker
And every time we do a podcast, I
Current Reading and Personal Introductions
00:02:00
Speaker
put together a little a bingo sheet, link isn't in the description and you can play along. um o Let's see. ah Oh, wearing some merch. We always got to rep the merch. Got a Brockton Bay's ah sweater on and I don't see anybody else wearing their merch. Interesting. Very interesting. But neith don't worry. merched No, it's okay. It's fine. Don't worry about it Don't worry about it.
00:02:27
Speaker
won't count that against you. Anyway, tonight we are reading the back half of ARC 13. Black. We were reading, i believe, 13.8 through About another words, i think.
00:02:44
Speaker
um and it's it's been feels like it's bad a little bit um but yeah Moving along. ah Oh, I forgot to introduce the hosts. How could I forget? Who even are we?
00:02:58
Speaker
Who even are we?
Story Arc and Character Analysis
00:03:00
Speaker
I, of course, like I said, Alan. Over here, we have Hannah. Hi! Jacob. Hello. ah Nick, mid-sip.
00:03:09
Speaker
Hello there. And, of course, ah the hard-eyes, glasses, Michael. Hello! Hello. Welcome. True. Oh, yeah. Get in there. He is zooming in in increments just so we can see more of his beautiful, beautiful ball pit. Look at that man. Michael, looking like a big fan of cyberpunk.
00:03:33
Speaker
I feel like a cape as Francis. He likes to abbreviate it as CP. Oh. You know? I was just going to say he's chipping in, but...
00:03:46
Speaker
ah Nice. On the bingo sheet. You know, it... nice it you know a lot on on the bingo sheet ah you know it It's close. I'll let you know that I
Interludes and Narrative Depth
00:04:00
Speaker
am drinking a a milk chai with ah one shot of honey salted honey butter, um one shot of amaretto, and a little just a teeny bit of lavender with ah some dash of cinnamon, and topped off with the Girl Scout cookie cold foam Samoas. Good lord. now
00:04:24
Speaker
Tell me, Alan, what kind of milk do you use in your chai? Whole milk, obviously. ah you Do you find that the fatty difference between whole milk and, say, commonly used 2% milk? Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry. Did I say whole milk? I just default to whole milk because I just assume that's the only milk. 2%. Why would you drink anything else than 2%? It doesn't make any sense. like i don't Whole milk or 2% is totally fine. thought you said only milk because it's the only milk that matters is 2%. Yeah.
00:04:53
Speaker
Also, whole milk is acceptable. 1% is sketchy. Skim is no. This is what I am dipping in my chai for tonight. Yes, this is a Christmas mug. No, they have not been put away into the attic yet.
00:05:04
Speaker
Listen, you don't need to shame me like that in front of me. Why would you ever? not you It's Christmas all year. When you're with the Brockton Bay Book Club.
00:05:15
Speaker
yup Also, for sharing drinks. Christmas is about giving. And all we do is give, give, give no matter what. I have a pickle. It's not pickle juice.
00:05:26
Speaker
It's a pickle mug with a little wavy straw. This is my newest mug. I'm very happy with it. and I'm drinking decaf latte. Half decaf latte.
00:05:37
Speaker
at Fruity Pebbles. Nice. Geez. yeah right's nice nice geez While Jacob, we're sharing drinks, I saw you had a Coke Zero, is that right? Did i catch that right? yeah We're not sponsored, Nick. This is an off-brand Zero Cherry Cola.
00:05:53
Speaker
Zero Cherry Cola, is this yeah what what store is it from, though? No, we're not sponsored.
Plot Speculations and Character Dynamics
00:06:01
Speaker
I'm trying to guess which one it is. Is which one it Sam's Club? Oh, here's Cedar.
00:06:05
Speaker
Oh, here's Cedar. I was trying to guess which a grocery store off-brand it was. You know, the best part of having a big old mustache is when you're drinking your chai. If you're, like, thirsty, you can just kind of, like, raise your bottom lip over your mustache and suck out the remains. Oh, God, I hate it. I hate it so much. I hate it that I'm shaving his face in his sleep tonight.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yes, ARC 13. Thank you. Thank you for keeping us on track. and trek ah Yeah, what initial thoughts? The back half ARC 13. Hannah? oh hannah um i Let's fucking go. but i really liked it. I really liked it. um I just, I, yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
I'm not going to get into details. I really liked it. Nice.
00:07:01
Speaker
ah Nick? Yeah. um Interludes were peak. I like seeing a little bit more Into the mind of Sveta and into her past. I really liked the Custodians interlude as well.
00:07:16
Speaker
um The rest of it was good. i think it was good. like i'm I'm just repeating what we always say, which is like it there were parts where it felt a bit dragged beyond what it should have been. But generally it was good, interesting, enjoyable, fascinating characters.
00:07:34
Speaker
um You know, we've got some interesting... hours at play here, some interesting parahuman history and relationships, and I'm i'm i'm kind of into that. Yeah.
00:07:47
Speaker
yeah Jacob? Yeah. I mean, we'll save the the talk of the interludes when we get there, but it it surprises me how often we can say that the interludes are getting better.
00:07:59
Speaker
every time because i feel like i've been saying that for two years and somehow it still holds true like it's just peak wild bow during the interludes and it's they're fantastic um Yeah, I actually really liked, I think, the the individual chapters here a good bit, but it is a bit slower. We're kind of on the back half of the arc, and you it kind of feels like we're we're clearly setting stuff up here. So not a lot of payoff, but um some really good good moments. it It feels like Wild Bow's in a bit of a rhythm these past few weeks that we've we've had. He's kind of settled into an arc here that's that he likes, I think, because it's coming across pretty well. So was good.
00:08:37
Speaker
Fun reading.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah. And as for my thoughts, I looking back at what we read, you know, in arc 13, cause we really didn't like art 12. And then 13 was like just this huge breath of fresh air really enjoyed the first half.
00:08:53
Speaker
Um, and that's, you know, them discovering the diary, going off and interrogating
Character Powers and Interactions
00:09:00
Speaker
rat catcher and big picture and all that. Um, really enjoy all that. And then, you know, we move outside of the heroes to talk to the villains and,
00:09:10
Speaker
In this one. And... You know, interludes. Very interesting. Seeing a lot. I feel like the build-up and the... We'll call it the cliffhanger at the end of this. Like what we led to.
00:09:24
Speaker
um you know, with Sveta, I really enjoyed that that's... but's that's a It's not a like It's high stakes. It's high stakes.
00:09:35
Speaker
Maybe low intensity. And um I really enjoy the note that it leaves off on. um And like you said, what it sets up. ah Not as good as the first half, but ah definitely, definitely enjoyable.
00:09:52
Speaker
um With that being said, Mick, you want to take us into 13.8? 13.8. this is coming right after the Ward and ward ah weld in Sveta breakup scene.
00:10:05
Speaker
So going right into after that 13.8. Tattletail, Antares, and Tress bicker as they make their way to the lodge. Tattletail meets with the big players of the New World, Semiramis and Little Midas.
00:10:19
Speaker
Confabulation is curtailed when Vic remembers her readings and and realizes a spy is amongst them.
00:10:30
Speaker
I will say broadly, i do really like any time Victoria gets to flex her parahuman knowledge, and that is something... As a protagonist, she has an advantage over Taylor, and which fits for a sequel, right? Where I like that Taylor you know is the classic, doesn't really know anything about the parahuman world. She's a novice. She you know was kind of a nerd about some of it, but wasn't like...
00:10:52
Speaker
super into it, but Vicky being this like knowledgeable researcher, grad level student type of person who's like, I recognize that guy.
00:11:03
Speaker
Why does she recognize him? Because she read his file a few times. And i wish that side of her got to be used more. I think that part of her is a lot of fun. Used in non-combat scenarios, right? We see it in combat more where she's like analyzing, oh, well, they're a breaker, so they're probably doing this, which is fine. But more non-combat stuff like this would be, is fun.
00:11:25
Speaker
It does feel like... if you've played D&D or some other RPG, you've dumped your stats into some specific build and one of your skills like Arcana and you just don't use it ever.
00:11:39
Speaker
And then finally, they're like, hey, can you make an Arcana check on recognizing this dude? And you roll a nat 20 and you're like, well, that's the bad guy, obviously.
00:11:50
Speaker
it is a bad guy. sheley yeah yeah it is bad guy
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Also, I love that we're back at the lodge
Teacher's Role and Parahuman Society
00:12:00
Speaker
again. Like, anytime we... I i enjoy revisiting characters that we've interacted with before. and like, we walk in and there's there's nursery. like And she's like, hi!
00:12:12
Speaker
And it's like, oh, the we we're choking on whatever spawn... Yeah, yeah, yeah....to get a throat abortion only Yeah. Only a few chapters ago, you know, only an arc and a half ago or or whatever. And it's like weird seeing them all again and, you know, being back at the lodge and seeing Prancer. And it's like, it's like very nostalgic, though. Like, I love, i love keeping that we keep bumping into these same characters over and over again. It makes me, it makes me happy.
00:12:43
Speaker
Also, more Tattletail and Ex-Glory Girl team up. is just i I'm glad it just keeps going. and We haven't stopped it yet. let We just keep going and keep going, and I love it. Okay, I would like to open the buddy cop discussion He teased shit. Yeah, teased in chat.
00:13:02
Speaker
I would like to open up the buddy cop discussion to the trio because I really enjoy... the dynamic between Sveta, Tattletail, and Vicky. yeah Because they they each have their own little, you know, they they just bounce off of each other really well.
00:13:26
Speaker
um And I was just thinking, if you could, you know, we recast Ward and it's the buddy cop scenario. Who is your magic three here?
00:13:42
Speaker
Other than these three? Yeah, other than the obvious three? You can switch one out if you want. um No. I mean, I would switch ah switch Victoria out for Weld and just carry the break up except Tattletail's there now. Oh, no. That's cruel. and Why would you why are you monster you do that to our girl? if you need a writing assistant.
00:14:11
Speaker
So here's here's my problem with ah I want to switch in Imp. because Because then you have ah switch in Imp and I would switch it probably Sveta out.
00:14:25
Speaker
Because Sveta and Glory Girl have this thing where they can gang up on a Tattletail. But Tattletail and Victoria or Tattletail and Sveta can't gang up on the other person.
00:14:39
Speaker
However, if you have m Imp and ah Victoria can both gang up on Tattletail, obviously, just to humble her. um Being just a couple of nerds, ah Victoria and Tattletail can gang up on Imp for being a goober.
00:14:57
Speaker
um And, of course, when it comes to doing bad guy shit, Imp and Tattletail can gang up on Victoria for being you know ah two of a goody two-shoes. So I think it's a really good dynamic to have the three of them ah you know work in tandem.
00:15:14
Speaker
um Yeah, it's it's not until later, but the conversation with Tattletail on the phone with Imp while Victoria and Sveter giving commentary is one of the best parts of the arc. Really fun. Also, I don't know. I i like the i like the three of them.
00:15:31
Speaker
like the whole... the whole buddy cop movie idea, but like the three of them as they are. And I, I feel like snag as his, like his little moments where he like quips in enough. Yeah. Not snack. Thank you. all right snonack Yeah. out to a real one where he, he like pitches it and he'll like say something and tell us like, you're supposed to be on my side. He's like, I'm staying out of it. It's just so good.
00:15:56
Speaker
I just love it. It makes it extra fun.
Speculative Ideas and Themes
00:16:01
Speaker
It's the, but like, listen, Tattletail, you pay me a lot, but you do not pay me enough to get him but in this conversation. yeah You don't pay me for my social skills.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah Gosh. Yeah, they're great. um Yeah, like nursery gives a little wave to not Tattletail, so it's got to be Vicky or Sveta. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:23
Speaker
I mean, you know, it's just polite to say hello to people you've put a baby inside of, I feel like. Right, exactly. Like, you've been a part of this abortion. The least you can do, yeah. We're like, no parents in a way, you know? Yeah.
00:16:38
Speaker
That's the problem, is I really like, I really want to like nursery. Like, nursery just seems like a Just a nice person with the worst ability in the world. Really unfortunate. Possible.
00:16:54
Speaker
but i want your baby hold open Every arc gets a cold open in the lodge of just like some random shenanigans. you know it's the It's the always sunny Tuesday 8.30 Yeah. exactly Couple of The lodge also reminds me of this like weird sort of end game video game liminal space for like all the bad guys you've beat are there just hanging out and you can talk to them and chat with them or like like the entry room in hades where like you know like nobody's fighting you but you can go argue with your dad or you know go you know talk with achilles it is just like ah yes here oh yep there's nursery you can go say hi to nursery if you want you know open that dialogue box yeah
00:17:40
Speaker
It's such a weird place. It's great. it is you There's so many side quests you could gather here. There's straight main quests in it, obviously. But like you can spot the side quests.
00:17:51
Speaker
oh yeah It's a lot of fun. i only regret is that Moose was not there. Right. Could have
Humor and Ethical Questions
00:18:00
Speaker
used a Moose in this situation. Listen, you can always have more Moose. Moose would have been great here.
00:18:06
Speaker
oh yeah. It would have been a lot of fun. I get the feeling that Moose and Prancer are not hanging out because Velvet is gone, which is a shame because I think Moose was the only thing keeping Prancer from being a pedophile again.
00:18:23
Speaker
i mean, yeah. And he's like, no, he's cooped with a 19-year-old. No.
00:18:31
Speaker
no No, not 19. It's all good. Yeah, we get it. It's not 19. He's like, no, guys, you don't understand. it as long as they're 18, legally, and nobody's there to hear it.
00:18:45
Speaker
um Yeah. yeah yeah else disgust It's possible. I mean, yeah, Moose moose was with Prancer post-Velvet being gone briefly, but it's possible they went separate ways. Yeah, I could see that.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um Let's see. Sorry. Semiramis. It's like when you're a little bit into the Spider-Man trilogy. Semiramis.
00:19:11
Speaker
ah semiraies like when you're a little bit into the you know myra all spman trilog jaist you're like i i right amy Semiramis.
00:19:23
Speaker
That's what I was thinking, Semiramis. I had to look this one up because I did not know, but Semiramis was ah the wife of a Syrian lord who, ah you know after he died, she was queen regent, waiting for her son to you know take the throne. And in her five years as regent, conquered most of Egypt and the Middle East.
00:19:46
Speaker
ah so Apparently, she is going with the qui sauce. um
00:19:55
Speaker
Let's see. Other than that, ah okay, so talking with her, I love her because she's... Her big thing now is entertainment industry. she's done with the She's done with the crime.
00:20:08
Speaker
She's in the entertainment industry. She still has all the connections with the criminals. And... It feels like such old school Hollywood where everything's being produced and like overseen by the mob in one way or another. Yeah. And that's just what this is.
00:20:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Basically. I've got all this gang money and what am I going to do with it? I'm going to produce movies. Well, of course. That's great. Why wouldn't you? Obviously, we have to have the first Case 53 sex scene on screen.
00:20:42
Speaker
Which I love so much. How progressive. Very proud of them. Of course. Classic Hollywood where it feels like they're taking advantage of them, you know, because they are exploiting them, but also at the same time, i was like, well, I guess this is exposure. i don't know.
00:21:03
Speaker
I can already see the ah the first appearance of a Case 53 in a Disney film in the background half blurred out. Yes. That's exactly what I was well what's funny What's funny too is like there's that, but then I also, the first thing that came to mind is like, what would be like the Case 53 version of the film, like the blind side or something?
00:21:25
Speaker
Oh!
00:21:28
Speaker
it's just It's just a retold story of Weld and his... Exactly. I was thinking like Armstrong and Weld. Oh, that's... Exactly. It's wait, and then after the fact, it's like, so you just took him in because you needed a weapon.
00:21:43
Speaker
Oh, my God. yeah Yeah, mixed feelings. J-Man, mixed fillings indeed. mixed Mixed feelings.
00:21:55
Speaker
Oh, no, no. no no I yeah get what the man's throwing down. Mixed feelings is what um Gregor the snail has inside of him. Yeah.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah
00:22:09
Speaker
Yep. um Let's see. What else? if he's lucky Oh, I love Little Midas's. I was hoping, wondering if you were going to say it. like Michael is scolding me. I messed up.
00:22:22
Speaker
I messed up.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's just the finger waggles. ah yeah Amazing. Michael's basically all our dads. You got to put a strike counter up for me, Michael, before I get kicked from the podcast. It's not a counter, it's a countdown.
00:22:43
Speaker
ah it's like it's it's not a counter it's a countdown
00:22:50
Speaker
Three strikes, you're out. yeah um i like Little Midas' table trick. I think that's really fun. the light Here, i have a seat. yeah And it's like, okay, now now don't lean on it, remember?
00:23:05
Speaker
and And because he could whisk it away at any moment. he just He just giggles every now and then because he just gets a kick out of something. I know, right? I love that.
00:23:16
Speaker
Are the things that he makes, because at one point he makes a statue and he's got the table here, are they all all out of gold or are they just thing? so I got the impression it was just like Like some stone-ish type material. I don't think it specifies. yeah I think maybe it's it's shimmery like gold, but it's not like he can make gold and and break economies. He makes a gold ah bust later.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah. He makes it in his hand and then he chokes. I guess it's questionable if it's really gold, though, or if it's just like a purest. It's fool's gold kind of thing. Yeah.
00:23:54
Speaker
Yeah. it's His power is so simple. I don't know if it's actual Onyx. Yeah. yeah like i had them I had the thought of, like have we not seen that before yet?
00:24:07
Speaker
like It seems like one of those powers you would have already seen. like Just being able to duplicate items. It feels so basic, and I love that we're still getting like what I would call simple powers this late in the story, and it still feels fresh.
00:24:21
Speaker
It's great. It's not even duplicating. You just make stuff. makes out Right, well, he can make stuff out of the air. but it But he describes it as... I'll be right back. He's za he's changing the air.
00:24:37
Speaker
Like, it's not like... It's technically not like just matter generation. He's yeah manipulating what's there. Because it's all portals. Right. It's portals. oh It's portals way. everything's portals.
00:24:51
Speaker
ah Which doesn't slow down in this arc at all. no is And then, ah yeah, that some of these, i didn't do all this reading over the weekend, so it all kind of blends together. um But Victoria getting the sense at the end of the arc that something was amiss. Yes. Because it's at the end or at the end of the chapter. Because it's right at the very end where she's like, is that where she's like, don't... ah Does she say that here is it the beginning of 3.9? It's the beginning of the next one.
00:25:27
Speaker
Don't drink anything? well it's yeah she's Well, she says because Tattletail gets her drink and she's like she just puts her hand over it. She's like, don't do that. You're right. you're right as she she read She clocks it after he's turned around and gone back to the bar after dropping off Tattletail's drink. And she kind of has this moment where she's like
00:25:51
Speaker
wait Don't drink that. no and And then we don't get the reveal until but come back after the interlude.
00:26:04
Speaker
Because we don't know what the deal is. We just know that something's up with the bartender. Yeah. i ah I did look up just to make a little clarity on his powers and He can make a copy, identical copy, except that it is the copy is black like Obsidian or Onyx.
00:26:27
Speaker
Oh, it is a copy. It appears that he can also... ah Yeah, he's also capable of turning air itself into an object. So, you know, it's kind of a interesting, but it's not gold. That's what I was wondering about. It's not gold.
00:26:44
Speaker
yeah I could
00:26:49
Speaker
have sworn he turned... The statue? Was the statue not gold? Maybe it wasn't. could have sworn he wears gold. I must have missed that. Yes, he does. Maybe that's what I... I just got that mixed up.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah. But I would too if I could just create copies of things. Yeah. but Really cool. Really handy. He's basically a walking 3D printer, which is pretty cool. it sick Pretty handy.
00:27:19
Speaker
And the ND minis are creamy. It'll be Onyx, too. You'd have to prime them first. Good problem. yes but ah um But yeah, do we want to talk about 12 for Case 12.
00:27:34
Speaker
for a second
00:27:37
Speaker
in case It'd be an hour 13.9. That
00:27:44
Speaker
yeah we down point nine that would be more than 13.9. Okay, we'll take over that. Okay, 13.x then. Unless we got anything else. 13x, we'll do the interlude.
00:27:54
Speaker
If there's nothing else in 8. I think I didn't have anything else. Yeah, let's do it. 13x, interlude, the custodian. The overseer goes about her job, talks with old friends and new, and briefly visits her old home.
00:28:09
Speaker
Teacher is positioned to take it all.
00:28:15
Speaker
So, just we never... Oh, sorry, go ahead, Jacob. No, I was just... ah My only real quick thought is, um as much as I love this interlude, nothing will make me respect Teacher as a villain. Just getting that out there. He the worst.
00:28:35
Speaker
And I hate him. Anyway, he's a bitch. yeah Yeah. He's a bitch. He ain't shit. He can... Go on. It's true. Thank you, Michael. um Yeah, no, I... I don't know. i It's, again, i can't get out of my head. The guy from...
00:29:00
Speaker
breaking The actor I always bring up from Breaking Bad, but looking like Dr. Robotnik is my visual and sound for teachers. i have to look this up every time you bring it up. I can't fucking mention it. know. I don't remember the actor's name either. Which character?
00:29:15
Speaker
No. Which character? ah He's the side scientist, the the chemist who helps Walter oh the first time he meets with Gus. um He's got this really nasally voice. um That's funny.
00:29:30
Speaker
I'll look it up. Yes, please. So I can then look it up. Gail. Gail from Breaking Bad. Yes. Okay. Okay. Gail from Breaking Bad played by... who is he playing? David Costabile. Oh my god.
00:29:49
Speaker
yeah Which really really what he reminds me of is not so much... the character of Gale, not so much. The character is much more like, uh, his character in suits.
00:29:59
Speaker
He's a villain in suits. Who's very conniving and very like, particular with his words and very annoying like a like not he's a good villain in the sense that he's very easy to hate in that show i do remember and that is exactly yeah yeah yeah that is exactly what i imagine teacher is like except now he looks like dr robotnik because they describe him as being bald and having glasses and like robes and stuff he wears and Dr. Robotnik is the villain from Sonic. so
00:30:31
Speaker
I'm looking at him right now. yeah the egg Is he not the Eggman? Dr. Eggman. Yeah, same person. Dr. Eggman. yeah bay Is his name Eggman or Robotnik? I believe it depends on the version of him, but the lore I've heard is that his real name is Robotnik, but Sonic called him Dr. Eggman so much yeah that everybody knows him as Dr. Eggman. It's the same guy. That's really depressing.
00:30:59
Speaker
That's pretty depressing. no Yeah. Their arch nemesis gave you a nickname and now everyone's calling you that. Exactly. exactly um But yeah, that aside, um yeah i I really like this arc because we get a peek into the Custodian. It's one of those mysterious capes we knew about from Wyrm that we get to see again, and I love that. Getting to see basically that her power is just the fact that her essence is basically diffused into multiple pieces.
00:31:29
Speaker
I thought was really cool. um ask that That brief explanation where she like comes together for a moment and then they're like, oh, I didn't think you'd be so young. And she's like, yep. And then just pieces out.
00:31:42
Speaker
Pieces and PIE. Pieces out. yeah um but Thank you, Jacob. I saw the look of acknowledgement. yeah Took a second.
00:31:54
Speaker
okay It wasn't that good. No, it wasn't that good. and i The inside, more inside we get in a cauldron is always interesting to me because like you get the sense and in Worm that they are you know that this this the super mystery of them, the learning little bits about them, and just understanding like they really just had like three or four capes that worked really, really well together for what they were doing.
00:32:25
Speaker
Like they have the custodian, they had door maker, they had the clear, um, uh, number man, what <unk>re number man know that and Contessa. And like, yeah, you can do anything with that group. And they even mentioned that, right? How, um, I don't know if it's the overseer in this one or somewhere else, but they mentioned maybe Tattletoe later, they mentioned how most of the cauldron base was kind of empty.
00:32:51
Speaker
I was like, yeah they had they once had a larger organization, but over time they realized, no, we don't need that many people. We can just cut down to bare bones, fewer risks of having fewer people. And yeah, like you said, it was basically the most elite squad of thinkers yeah running cauldron by the end. And Dr. Mother, I guess.
00:33:11
Speaker
for some Yeah. yeah was She was started it all. she She grew into her position. so she did She did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she was there with Contessa at the beginning. It makes sense. Yeah. but It is wild to think that Contessa was running that.
00:33:27
Speaker
And the difference between Teacher's Cauldron and the original Cauldron being like... The original one was focused on coming up with ways to prevent the end of the world.
00:33:46
Speaker
And teachers has always been about control. And it's very the person who runs it. What's their power? Contessa's is how do I save the world?
00:33:59
Speaker
And her golden path started from there when she was like nine. And teachers always been about, oh, yeah, no, no, I'm doing this greater thing, but I'm subtly taking it over.
00:34:12
Speaker
Like that's his power. And that's exactly like, oh no, i'm he probably is like, no, we've got to do this because that's how you save the world.
00:34:23
Speaker
and But like also, if I end up on top and in control of everybody, then like, ah oopsie daisy. And all of the powers he has aligned do that. like We see Mama Mathers is there, which like he busted her out somehow. ah you know yeah Which I'm guessing is...
00:34:44
Speaker
is that that I'm trying to remember if the the portals exploding is after the Fallen raid, right? it the Yeah, after the Fallen, the initial Fallen raid?
00:34:55
Speaker
yeah Yes. yeah Okay, so then you know she was in there, and that's probably how they got her out. They also got her son, nephew, Valafor. Valafor. Valafor's there.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah. um So you've got... yeah Then you've got Ingenue, Saint... I'm trying to remember who the other people were. Scapegoat. Yeah, Scapegoat.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah Just all these control abilities. like Yeah. And they they even have... it like um ah Just imagine if you were a television ad producer and you could somehow sneak Mama Mathers as an extra...
00:35:36
Speaker
into an ad that just everybody's seen. I mean, any Super Bowl ad. Any Super Bowl. yeah like Absolutely. The just deviousness of being able to do that or have her low-key be like a voice on radio that just like all she has to say is like one line, like, you've been listening to WRX10. And then you just spam that repeatedly, and she's got you hearing-wise and can also hear what you hear.
00:36:06
Speaker
like it's Yeah. it's It's interesting to me, too. It feels like the Cusodian even has taken on less of a guardian role and more of a...
00:36:17
Speaker
control role as well where she's like monitoring what people are doing how they're doing alerting the cell block leaders when somebody's having an issue helping people like she is much more involved at least and obviously we didn't see all the inner workings of cauldron but she feels much more involved in teachers operation than she ever felt with cauldron she was more of a a ghost in the hallways and if her cauldron Yeah, and keeping the prison. agree.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, and keeping the prison, yeah. um and and And it's interesting, too, where that change seems to have made her friendly to teacher, right? Hang on. Yeah. You know, i guess we never really saw... Yeah, maybe. Technical difficulties.
00:37:04
Speaker
Technical difficulties. dynamic difficulties Yeah. I mean, one of the things we also have here is that there um they have a name. It's not in the text, but it is in the, glos I guess, the glossary, like, you know, the appendix going down. These are referred to as the taught.
00:37:28
Speaker
The taught? The taught. Like, if you have been taught by teacher... Oh, I'm like taught as in the string is taught.
00:37:40
Speaker
Yeah, taught. Interesting name. the student You see, Hannah, he's a teacher, right? So he he teaches in past and the word to teach is taught. Oh, got it. got it got i got it He taught, yes. Okay, got it. That makes sense now. Thank you.
00:37:56
Speaker
That thought he taught. ah He did indeed. And ah we finally, you know, we were talking like, where's Contessa? Obviously, she's bumming it on the beach. right and the poor And you know what? That's exactly what she was trying to do. She was. She literally went to the beach and was like, I'm not i'm going to turn off my power. I'm going sip a Have a mai tai. As soon as she does.
00:38:30
Speaker
Bam, day two. Doesn't even doesn't even get a full weekend. Yeah. After she spent yeah her whole life saving in the world. And what does she get from teacher? Not a goddamn lick of respect. Not a good goddamn.
00:38:50
Speaker
Wow. My girl said, give me one day. and Yeah. you Give me one week. And they went, I'll give you two days.
00:39:00
Speaker
I feel so bad for her. Yeah. Yeah. I just, it makes me fucking hate teacher. Like, I do.
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah. He has somebody else in prison there too who's interesting. Who's the other one? um Smokey. Smokey. Is that what their name don't remember who that is. i just think the name's Smokey.
00:39:24
Speaker
I don't know if so that's right. who Are we talking about the dude who's talking to... Yeah, the the guy who talks to the custodian for a bit. Yeah. But don't remember what his name is. She mentions I don't remember either.
00:39:38
Speaker
Alas.
00:39:43
Speaker
We'll find out in a second. That's all. oh Oh, we also have an interesting reveal about the custodian, aka the overseer now. um Yeah. Overseer was probably a child sold to ah sold to Cauldron.
00:40:05
Speaker
You know, and much like what else And it was probably sold by Earth Kite. Cheat. Cheat. um I thought E.I. Chite.
00:40:18
Speaker
um But it was probably sold by them, which means that cauldron has had dealings with Earth Chite for a long time.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah. Like, you know, it, you know, pre-gold morning, which means that like teacher probably rolled in and was like, hey, i would like to pick up where the last administration left off. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
And they all went, sure, why don't you get on a stage with Mama Mathers? You know, that's that's their mistake. And thus they shall reap what do they have to own.
00:41:03
Speaker
That's right. And then we'll all badly benefit from it. Not benefit, what's the word? um The opposite of benefit. The opposite of benefit?
00:41:16
Speaker
Yeah. won't benefit from it. We'll suck from it. No. Suck from it! No, no, no, no. Someone is suck from it.
00:41:30
Speaker
They're out now! yeah Oh, suck it! No, no, no, no. Listen, okay, we you can we can keep going. ah How about that system they've got?
00:41:41
Speaker
They're listening on things. It has such severance vibes where just a bunch of people looking through stuff, you know, 12 hours a day just into them. you know they're just Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
Yeah. Weird bathrooms ass looking place. Yeah, yeah. I don't think I quite... suck what you sow. Thank you, Fran. That's exactly what I meant. You suck what you sow. That's the old saying, guys. Uh... Yeah, I don't think I quite understand... So they have all of these different cells that are monitoring people and monitoring situations and monitoring fucking everything.
00:42:28
Speaker
ah it is But there are these different cells. are Is each cell monitoring a different group? I believe there is a cell. Monitoring a different person.
00:42:40
Speaker
Oh, each cell is a different person. that makes sense. Tattletail even points out, I think that there's probably five people on every single hero mercenary cape.
00:42:52
Speaker
Love. Like... And here's the thing, yeah you couldn't pull that amount of people disappearing in one of the other worlds. One of the big-time thinkers with Watchdog or something would have picked up on that many people disappearing.
00:43:09
Speaker
Right. But with the whole gold morning and things shifting over, there are a lot of people that he probably picked up as soon as the portals open for gold morning.
00:43:20
Speaker
was like, hey, we can go into hiding. can give you jobs. This is all going to go to shit, you know, and just mass recruited like a percentage of the population feels like he went with him.
00:43:34
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Also, it looks like he's still recruiting. Like, he's still taking in new people. Yeah, still actively recruiting, building new new pods. Now, what I would like to complain about is he has so many people, they do not need to be working 12-hour shifts.
00:43:51
Speaker
This is another reason that he's just a piece of shit. Why are they working 12-hour shifts? They don't need to be. days week. Seven days a week. Why?
00:44:03
Speaker
Just don't. it worked It also would appear that they do not get up for breaks during their 12-hour shifts.
00:44:14
Speaker
Apparently not. they mention at one point they have catheters in when they're on their shift. I don't know if they said that for everybody. The one gal who's like... who's a zombie who's like way too good at her job and has like zoned in. They were like, she's like a machine. She doesn't even get up. She's been cathetered because she doesn't even fucking care.
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. Maybe it was just her that... um But yeah. atton You know, I have wondered, I have wondered, would, just as a side conversation, would I prefer four tens over five eights for like a 40-hour work week? You know what i mean?
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um and It depends the job. Yeah, it would depend on the job for sure. yeah This is like five twelves though, so you know it's or seven twelfths, I guess. real Seven twelfths. For a year. For a year.
00:45:12
Speaker
and if you survive, then you're set for the rest of your life, I guess. but Well, mercy what why did I get a feeling though. Three years worth of money in a year. Something not like that.
00:45:23
Speaker
Or more than three years worth of money and security for your family, basically, for the year is the way it was advertised. I get the feeling, though, Teacher isn't expecting this project to need to last a whole year, right? Like, this is yeah very clearly disposable. That's why he's recycling through so many people. um Yeah, he he's, in you know, as we find out, he's launching his attack now, so he's very clearly moving towards an endgame of some kind.
00:45:52
Speaker
Fuck. Hey, well...
00:46:01
Speaker
real More power to him. You know what? No. you know what You know what I say? more More power to him. Good job, teacher. Way to be a go-getter. You know, to you know yeah he's creating jobs, really. You've got this weak economy in the new megacity, and teacher is coming in He's this industry leader who's creating jobs and opportunities for people who who wouldn't normally have them. And I think, honestly, people should be grateful for teacher and be thankful that he's giving them this opportunity to be a part of this great organization. I mean, it's a legacy organization, too, inherited from some great people from the past. Don't question the things they did in the press, you know?
00:46:39
Speaker
I'm thinking of a superhero. I'm thinking of a superhero. ah Your name, your initials are LM. And I think their superpower, you know, they have the sha the three shards, depose, defend, destroy, or whatever it was. um you know They have three shards that they can, you know, fix the teacher problem with. you know boy i'm ah I'm a big sucker for the poetic justice trope.
00:47:08
Speaker
And I would love it if at the end of all of this, this entire time, since like pre-Taylor and Worm, Teacher has been being influenced by the Simurg the whole time. ah and just like taste of his own man. I'll take it. I'd be okay with that. Mommy can take charge anytime. Oh, Mommy.
00:47:29
Speaker
i excited I saw you need a moment where teacher just goes, Oh, simmer. What is my purpose to fucking die?
00:47:40
Speaker
in my God. We get introduced to teacher really via saints interlude in worm. Yeah. And his like realization where he's like, no, I beat him. Obviously. And he's in the, Yeah, clearly. He's in the... um Teacher's in the prison, too, with Marquis and Amy.
00:48:01
Speaker
We see him there as well. He is, yeah. that's Yeah, he's got Trickster on a leash. Yeah, he's got Trickster on a leash. That may be our first introduction to him. But yeah, know they the the depth of his power is revealed with Saint, where they're like, you're just Teacher's laptop. are He's like, no, I'm not.
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah. oh thats like i need that but I can quit any time I choose. can quit any time I want. Just a thousand yards, they're just... Yeah. yeah Yeah. Exactly.
00:48:29
Speaker
um Yeah. Speaking of creepy powers that infect you, should we get to 13.9? 13.9? Yeah. Let's go.
00:48:36
Speaker
um yeah at let's go 13.9. The spying old man is willing to turncoat. to To turn, turn, whatever. to Now they just, to turncoat.
00:48:49
Speaker
To turn turncoat? Anyways. No, no, no, no. Like a turncoat. But if you were yeah to turn to become one, you would turn your coat. and suppose I suppose. is that I'm going to Google that's a offensiveive verb in a second. Yeah, I'm curious.
00:49:03
Speaker
Now they just have to make sure he isn't butchered. This is hard to do, because little Midas wants his old head and is almost willing to fight Semiramis to get it. But next up are the Case 53s, and they need evidence.
00:49:15
Speaker
i I'm sorry. Say the name again. the the s name. Semiramis. Okay, so when when you say that, I hear the ah the Cracker Barrel pegboard game, that's like you're an ignoramus. Ignoramus.
00:49:31
Speaker
Ignoramus. It's all I hear when you say it. It would be a great cape name, by the way. True. Also, I just want to point out, turnrose yes turncoat is not a verb.
00:49:42
Speaker
um okay which is why it tripped me up you would turn turncoat is what you would do turncoat itself is not a verb turn turncoat anyway I refuse to believe that I also refuse to believe it well guess what I'm not agreeing with Alan but I also refuse to believe it coat your turns and don't side with Alan listen I'm not agreeing with him I just happen to also think what he thinks make sure you coat those turns.
00:50:14
Speaker
odo a mocoum i feel like we mentioned this before, but it just always pops up whenever we get a bunch of case fifty three s around. um
00:50:24
Speaker
Are Neuter and Gregor and that whole squad, like, they still around? Did we talk about that? I hope so. I like to imagine that they're awesome and great things. We've seen them once before, haven't we? We ran into them. um In Morgue?
00:50:38
Speaker
Are they, like, adjacent to the Undersiders? Did we not run into... they were with underside there were you lifeside or yeah aroundre there was the I Yeah, there were a bunch of Case fifty three s with crew. Yeah.
00:50:52
Speaker
There was the silk lace girl whose like skin was all like lacy and silky. Chantilly. yeahp okay yeah yeah So they're they're around. they're okay good Just need that re reassurance every now and yeah yeah yeah um Also, as Fran points out, Victoria's need to protect the old man is evidence of parahumans being able to live past 40. Parahumans feel like a different species when she talks about them.
00:51:18
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah she but She mentions that like the the fact that he's an old parahuman is like Really weird. Kind of crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, think about our crew. Like, so parahumans come about in what the they said, they like the late 70s. Late 80s.
00:51:37
Speaker
lady i want to say. Late 80s. Yeah. Yeah. and And as far as we know, you know, Contessa is probably also one of the first ones because she's there when...
00:51:51
Speaker
ah Eden crashes. ye So... Let's just say... Contessa's young. that half Oh, yeah, yeah. Contessa's really young. She's like nine when that happens.
00:52:04
Speaker
And so that's the late 80s. And like 30-ish years. Ward starts in what? 2017, we'll say? 2017. 2017. So, you know... She'd be like...
00:52:15
Speaker
um oh so you know she'd be like 30-ish years? 40. Maybe 30 or 40. Yeah. And he's... So the old man, they keep saying old man, he's only like 60-something. Yeah, he was like... sex years yeah She implies that he was like must have been like 30 when he triggered.
00:52:33
Speaker
Yeah, like 31, 32-ish. There's this range when people will trigger, so he was probably on the upper end of that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah and cool that That point of whoever, I think it was Alan or Hannah who said it, that she's almost referring to them, or Jacob, referring to them as a separate species is something that comes back up later.
00:52:56
Speaker
Oh, hang on. Yes, my dude. You're on. We can hear you, Nick. That's okay. That's another check in the box. Oh, dang it. ah ah Yeah, it was Fran who said it in chat that the parakemens feel like a different species when she talks about it. Yeah, it's it's really interesting. And Like, he's just kind of been, like, silently doing shit in the background, I guess. Mm-hmm. Because, like, he, what? So he was the uncle of somebody that they were, the PRT was investigating as potentially having a power. And then they realized, like, oh, it's not you that's messing with shit. It's your uncle. Yeah. Which comes from a, uh, the Wichita story.
00:53:44
Speaker
Kansas PRT. I used to play ice hockey in Wichita. Wichita. Wichita. And that's from a... ah I forget what they're called, but you know the role play aspect with the users in the space battles one. So another one of those little...
00:54:07
Speaker
Weaver Dice. There we go. there Another one of those Weaver Dice adventures that get played out um involves ah the Case 12.
00:54:17
Speaker
Nice. sayion um What were you saying, Nick, about the different species thing? Cyan was 1980. Sorry, the different species thing, which is what Fran was mentioning, is a a theme that comes back up as an idea later where Victoria's like,
00:54:32
Speaker
But would it be so bad if we just separated ourselves from humanity in a way? Which I think is a really interesting idea. And I'm like i'm kind of curious, like, why it hasn't come up more.
00:54:45
Speaker
i mean, obviously, parahumans exist in relationship to humans. They're all people who had families or friends or things. But just the idea of... Well, maybe it has come up and I'm misremembering. Is there anybody who has ever like, we just want to create a parahuman paradise? like No, nobody's done the Magneto route.
00:55:04
Speaker
Yeah, nobody's gone the Magneto. And not in the sense of like exterminate all humans, but just in the separation. Yeah, exactly. um Which I feel like maybe the Irregulars got close to as an idea. Like if they weren't so helping from Revenge, they could have just been like, what if we just made our own planet of weirdos?
00:55:24
Speaker
um I mean, that kind of goes back to the shards not allowing it, you know. Yeah. yeah That's the whole the whole thing. The humans group does the Magneto route where they just like, we're superior, we're going to retake over this planet. We're going to yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah, but more just the like, what if we just had separate societies? Like humans don't trust, regular humans don't trust us anyways.
00:55:46
Speaker
What if they just yeah let them run their own society and then we go off and do our own thing? hello B. Ferroni also pointed out an interesting thing. and I even looked up to confirm, but Contessa started Cauldron one or two years before Scion even showed up. Because Scion does show, like, arrives, observes, and then creates a body.
00:56:10
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting. interesting Okay.
00:56:14
Speaker
I don't know if I knew that. Meanwhile, you know, Eden distracted drives straight into the planet.
00:56:23
Speaker
Texting and driving. That's why all those hands-free laws. Yep. Keep your your shards, you know. a lot of hands. Hands-free shards. It's true.
00:56:35
Speaker
I would also allow Abaddon to swing by and just eat... A teacher would be okay, too. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Nom, nom, nom. Chomp, chomp, chomp.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, also, Fran also points out there's a bunch of memes about Victoria being a parahuman supremacist, which unfortunately are not as popular as the warlord baby killer that Taylor is.
00:56:57
Speaker
Oh, my God. Listen, i'm ah I'm a big fan of warlord baby killers. I've role-played this one in the beat campaign. and So...
00:57:10
Speaker
J-Man asks, are there enough parahumans to form a society? You know, it's a good question. ah Like, what's the thing? The minimum you probably need, like, we'll just say 6,000. I think 2,000 bare minimum.
00:57:27
Speaker
Yeah, i think i think I think there's probably that many. Like, ah after Golden Morning, where, like, they kind of got concentratedly wiped out Yeah, I don't know if they'd want to go to one place like that. 5,000 to 40,000 is the best number for long-term genetic viability and resilience is what Google says. Yeah, you said 5,000?
00:57:49
Speaker
Yeah, 5,000 to 40,000. But 5,000 to 10,000 is the minimum to avoid dangerous inbreeding and ensure long-term stable genetic health. Yeah.
00:58:00
Speaker
a So, I don't... yeah i guess only mean Imagine the hopsbergs of shards splitting over here. Jeez. Also, as Jamin says, you would need like all of them to buy in. And mean I can't imagine that would ever work anyways, because you'd have so many that are like, well, fuck no, no my family's here. And the heroes, there's the sense of obligation of like, well, i became a hero to protect people. And like if we all leave, and they're all left to their own devices, like how can we protect them anymore? Which does come with its own like problems of...
00:58:33
Speaker
i don't know, that superiority of, like, hero complex of, like, I have to save everything. That's my job. I'm a hero. But... yeah I mean, this this bodes a really interesting story, like, that, you know, there's a world where somebody becomes, whenever you accidentally trigger, all of a sudden the PRT shows up and throws your ass into the portal to the other world that's just a world full of superheroes.
00:59:00
Speaker
And the deal is all the superheroes watch over all the supervillains there to keep them in check. And if they ever, like, really need somebody to come over that can't be handled by the PRT, they send, like, a hero to go and, like, grab that person and, you know, drag them through the portal. Yeah, yeah.
00:59:19
Speaker
So, like... i know we See, I'm imagining this parahuman paradise is just, like, Valhalla, basically, where they just fight for all eternity. And they've just got, like, all the aiming types on the sidelines. It's like...
00:59:30
Speaker
Oh, you got your head blasted off again, huh? Alright. you know Here's your head. yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah, that's... One can dream.
00:59:43
Speaker
i'm I'm writing that down for a future story. Because that's that's a very interesting take on the like, yeah, and then one day all the heroes disappeared. See, the problem is when you when you described it that way, it's like the PRT just yoinking you to another planet.
00:59:59
Speaker
I immediately thought like, that just sounds like an Isekai anime. And I was trying to come up with a stupid long title for it, right? It's like, I was just walking down the school one day when suddenly I almost got hit by a bus and now I'm in a world full of superheroes.
01:00:14
Speaker
yeah Right. And you've got to add something. i tripped on my shoelaces and now I'm in a superhero world doing battle for all eternity? got bullied so hard I triggered...
01:00:28
Speaker
Too short, too short, Alan. You didn't let me finish, and now my stepsister elf is a superhero as well. No! You forgot that element. Please, no. You gotta have the cousin in love with you. That's gotta be the bingo card somewhere. Yes, that's true. It's essential. At least a cousin. Thank you, Michael. Michael's got the right idea.
01:00:53
Speaker
Michael's making the face that my brain is making. Michael's making the face that says, go on us No, that's not the face. Tell me more. Now you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention.
01:01:07
Speaker
ah That is what happened to the Travelers. yeah Kind of. They were in their little superheroes. The loser superhero world. That is kind of what happened. I was just playing a video game with my friends when all of a sudden my world turned literally upside down. And my girlfriend's a monster.
01:01:26
Speaker
Wow, they really... The Travelers... Completely had an anime arc. Like if they were the protagonist, that's an anime. Yeah, it's true. That's hilarious. Yeah.
01:01:38
Speaker
I've already established that if the League of Legends team got sent to, like, Isekai in another world, they would just, like, all rage kill each other um so quickly. Like, like yeah the Travelers did not even nearly get close to griefing each other as hard as they should have.
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Not nearly enough in fighting for a League professional team. Just would have imploded the second they touched down. Not even powers. Like...
01:02:08
Speaker
yeah and i I don't think I realized that League had such volatile teams. A goddess in a way, you're not wrong. Goddess also was not from that planet.
01:02:20
Speaker
and True. true That's true. let's we've got you know People have been doing the like My Villainess arcs. I think maybe we should get a goddess backstory.
01:02:33
Speaker
There you go. Alright. We haven't even talked about and We haven't even talked about this arc at all. half Yeah, let's talk about 12. talked about friend Old Man. We haven't talked about the big thing with Old Man. We haven't talked about his power yet at all. Is bald?
01:02:52
Speaker
no No. That's right. That is the biggest power. You're right. The best power. I can see the future. bald Was that Alan?
01:03:04
Speaker
What was it, Alan? No. no yeah what is what do we What do we think he does? Do we think he spits into drinks and food? Or is it, you know, bleeding all over had vials.
01:03:18
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds like... Now, here, if he had jars, I'd be more worried. No, no, no. Jars are filled with toenail clippings and hair and eyelashes. Not according to the internet.
01:03:33
Speaker
Vials are liquid. yeah juli Let me reassure you right now, if you say the word jars on the internet, it's going to be one of two things and neither of them are toenail clippings.
01:03:45
Speaker
that True. Chat knows what I'm talking about. My little pony, now you know what I'm talking about. What? What? Wait, no, I don't want to know. I've heard of such things. It's okay, you don't want to know. No, Nick. The internet knows.
01:04:02
Speaker
Listen, don't tell me. I'm not innocent. I've browsed Reddit before. Also, Bernard, they said cannibalism. it It doesn't have to be meat. So if you chew and eat your own nails, is that not self-cannibalism?
01:04:19
Speaker
I mean, yes, I do it every day, but... Yeah, no, I totally do own. Here's the easiest thing, right? Is you just get... You get one of those foot scrubbers, right? Except then you're just like a waiter at Olive Garden. You're just like a waiter at Olive Garden. You're like... Oh, my God! show your foot, Nick. That's Patreon content. How dare you show that to the... Oh, my God. Nick, you know how much money we're in a week off of that and you've ruined everything? rule of the internet. We were going to, that's what the special tier on Patreon is for. We've been working for months on that special content, Nick. You've been getting your feet just right for that. The right calluses.
01:05:00
Speaker
We've been dialing it in. You've ruined everything. my God. Oh my God. Michael, cut the stream. Those of you just listening. Cut the stream. It's already over. His whole foot on camera. I can't believe that. His entire foot on camera.
01:05:15
Speaker
I like to give people a visual aid. I'm a good teacher. I like to give a visual aid for my lessons. Teacher? Don't bring that up. Okay, Michael, you can bring us back to live. Just give me a second. I just can't even... Everyone, take a second. take I need my milk.
01:05:32
Speaker
It's just truly disgusting. yeah Also, so he's... what's What is it? Okay, and live. Okay.
01:05:44
Speaker
It seems like his power is... Yeah, he gives pieces of himself away, and then that connects him to them, and he maybe even enters a semi-dream state like what Rain does with the other people where they see memories or dreams.
01:05:58
Speaker
um yeah It seems like, though, if if I'm honest, it seems like Teacher... Well, we don't know if Teacher was directly connected to the old man, but were he, it seemed like Teacher were getting live updates and not just...
01:06:13
Speaker
um Live updates and not just like later updates. So the theory is either the old man's power is immediate and he kind of can like hear things from people he's put pieces of himself into.
01:06:27
Speaker
Or teacher has imitated it and has hired the old man just to spike everything with like nano cameras would be the other idea.
01:06:36
Speaker
Oh, interesting. those are the Those are the two things they float. Is that like we don't quite know how his power works. but we're pretty sure it's not immediate, so we think maybe teachers put an imitation of it, like a nanocamera-type technology.
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah. so Yeah. Because again, yeah, 13x, teacher seemed like he was getting live updates from the conversation that they were having in the live. For sure. Yeah. so So, yeah.
01:07:02
Speaker
You gotta imagine, like, what the heck does it take to do this basically omniscient, you know, way of observing things. Yeah. yeah um Also, I don't... Beefaroni, you might be right. I don't know if they ever explicitly said, but I think it was almost heavily implied that it was just the blood and maybe some meat and food.
01:07:28
Speaker
don't think it was anything more than that, but still... It feels like the easiest would just be spit. Just spit. They do joke about that. The whole like, oh yeah, he spits in your food, but like actually spits in your food, but also bad.
01:07:42
Speaker
Like i i feel like saliva would be the easiest because you're just like, here's your drink. As opposed to like other things.
01:07:55
Speaker
Yeah. Here's your Bloody Mary. I think it is interesting. Good one. What'd you say, Jacob? What did your meat rare? Here's your Bloody Mary. no um It just reminds me of an old story. My grandfather used to make ah red Alfredo sauce, and never liked Alfredo sauce.
01:08:17
Speaker
And yeah, we would tell that story. And he would just sit there, and like he'd be like cutting stuff to like put into the you know the sauce pot. And he would just straight up nick the side of his thumb as he was like cutting is he has something in his hand, and it would just spray like a you know droplets of blood in. And then he'd just take like a little bit of tomato sauce or something and just like dab it in there to let cover it up.
01:08:41
Speaker
If you ever wondered what the flying fuck was wrong with Alan, it's just... ah it's just that man that ruins me anytime i hear a story of like some restaurant you know across the world or it doesn't have to be local it's like yeah they know they found like you know human feces in the grinder in the meat grinder i just i like i can't eat food for like a week just like i see all i can think is like but it tastes good like
01:09:15
Speaker
I mean, I go to Taco Bell all the time, and let me tell you, when they were like, it's not even meat. It's like 75% sand or more, and you're like, it's but it was good tasting pink slot. I don't care. I always had the horse meat rumor. was the The joke was like, whoome is way was horse horse meat. yeah yeah yeah that' like I that's expensive. I think that's more expensive than cow, honestly. Yeah. Yeah, I all grew up in China and like it was really normal to eat dogs. You would raise dogs for meat.
01:09:48
Speaker
And it was like, yeah, it's normal to eat. yeah Tastes like, don't you dare. Don't you dare eat our little baby Beckford. He's too sweet. ah But yeah, I mean, like you, if if you eat really.
01:10:03
Speaker
but so God damn it. That gives me a bingo. day. Already with the bingo? Yeah, I got Prancer, Still a Creep, Milk, Cat on Screen, Buddy Cop.
01:10:19
Speaker
Oh, there you go. Nice, nice. I was hoping the bingo was me flustering Hannah somehow. I was hoping that was on there. Driving Hannah to insanity. Nick kennedyy is, ah you know, disgusting. Nick makes Hannah want to leave. Actually, you know what? I have one that just says gross. We can count that. Gross.
01:10:40
Speaker
I feel like we've been been in gross territory for the past 30 goddamn minutes. If foot Parmesan didn't take the gross category, I don't know. Also, i want Nick, I don't know if it's just... Is it our group that we just talk about the put foot Parmesan thing like way too much?
01:10:56
Speaker
Because we've definitely mentioned that like three or four times at this point time. Have we talked about foot Parmesan before? feel like we have. a Yeah, yeah. Because I talk about the pet egg and you know, foot parmesan.
01:11:09
Speaker
so Foot parmesan. that ah God, I'm sorry. truly despise anything to do with the feet. I can't. I hate the... That's the equivalent of like... wow Leave the greater.
01:11:25
Speaker
Leave the... Don't worry, I brought my own. yeah the olive garden.
01:11:35
Speaker
The soup salad unlimited pet eggs.
01:11:41
Speaker
lady right ah Michael's not even on screen anymore. We've drove it driven him away. He was like, screw you guys. re good by Goodbye.
01:11:56
Speaker
Oh my gosh. What we didn't know was the strike counter wasn't for me leaving the podcast. It was for Michael leaving the podcast. Oh no. He's thrown himself out of portal.
01:12:08
Speaker
and He strikes and I'm out. Don't you mean you're out? No. no It's a walk-off home run. Anyways, we've been in 13.9 for a minute.
01:12:19
Speaker
We've hardly talked about it at all yet. To to be fair. to be fair Not much to say. 310 and 11. Did you read the summary for 3.9? I did. i did. would you Will you read it again? can read it again. Please, please read it again. If you remember, we had a whole conversation about if turncoat is a verb or not at the beginning. yeah!
01:12:44
Speaker
yeah yeah So why they get out. So they, yeah, the spinal band's willing to betray his people. They just have to make sure he's not butchered. Little Midas isn't happy though. Beats him up a bit.
01:12:55
Speaker
Almost fights Semiramis. And then I will say Semiramis has a great badass moment where she's just like, I will literally drop this building on all of your heads if you don't just shut up right now.
01:13:07
Speaker
yeah yeah All right. I don't know what your power is, but all right. Everybody seems to believe you. Sure. Dropping buildings. Yeah. yeah um But yeah, they get them out is the important thing. What if you had an ability to convince your your your power, your superpower, is to convince people that you're an extremely powerful cape?
01:13:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's it's just... everybody's speaking up for you like, whoa, you don't want to test them. Like, why not? Because they're super badass. that' like Will you ever see them? I'm like, no, but I heard that whoever did didn't even survive. and Like, but you know, years beyond your imagining. There's a, there's a superpower like that um from another series where it's a guy, he's got like flight, super strength, laser eyes, kind of Superman style.
01:13:59
Speaker
He's gotten vulnerability, but the quirk to it is he's only invincible to you if you're afraid of him, is the idea. so it's like, so part of what he does is he regularly terrorizes people, so people are afraid of him and he remains invincible.
01:14:15
Speaker
um like that. theres a There was a D&D armor set that ah in our castle campaign that... Y'all kind of ran over the character, so it didn't even work. But essentially, you did a will save, and the stronger your will save against their armor was for observing it, um the better their armor was.
01:14:39
Speaker
Because like the more detailed you looked at their armor and noticed how, like wow, it's really well built, the stronger the AC. And if you just like glanced and it was like, this piece of shit, I'll just like not even pay attention to it like a barbarian. Yeah, yeah.
01:14:53
Speaker
Would have just like swung and the armor doesn't do anything. It crumples like paper. That's funny. Interesting. Interesting. That's fun.
01:15:03
Speaker
Yeah. You guys got unhinged without me, apparently. oh yeah I don't i don't know. we were just a and okay yeah ah we were We were saying that the strikes weren't to kick one of us out of the podcast. It was until you leave the podcast. oh Three strikes, I'm out. Three strikes, I'm out. Three strikes before have to get out of here. All right.
01:15:27
Speaker
Well, 13.10. Yeah. All right. 13.10. well thirteen ten yeah but he perhaps but the must give report right thirteen point ten Titi, Vic, and Sveta try to recruit three people, Engel, Egg, and Scraping, who might be the key to making sure the city survives.
01:15:47
Speaker
Regardless, Teacher launches his massive troll attack, and the populace just learned a lot of dirt about their heroes.
01:15:57
Speaker
Mmm.
Character Challenges and Metaphors
01:15:59
Speaker
Okay, you want to talk about Ace-53's gone wrong. I feel so bad for Egg. I don't even know if he has powers or not. Poor guy. that's and Just looks like a freaking cracked egg.
01:16:08
Speaker
He's literally humpy. Constantly cracking. Constantly cracking. Literally humpy. All over the place. yeah yeah And it said it sounded like it's a day by day thing too. Yes, Beckford?
01:16:20
Speaker
And he has to maintain his shell and like He has to like suck himself down if he breaks too much.
01:16:31
Speaker
Sorry. Go on. he has to what himself? Imagine just like just like getting out of himself. No, no, no. Michael, no. He has to suck himself down. like There's a scene where he clenches his fist too hard and he cracks open and he's like... he's like yeah Oh, wow. Make sure his egg doesn't come out.
01:16:49
Speaker
That's crazy. If you get out of bed wrong, you know, yeah and you kind of like hurt your back a little bit. It's like that, except his whole body just cracks. Oh, Nick, you would be you would be fucked because you're constantly like, crack, crack. Oh, yeah, I'm i'm very twitchy. I'm the twitchiest boy alive.
01:17:05
Speaker
but Yeah, that's rough. Yeah, rough. That's a rough bed. Not Sveta bad, but but pretty rough. Close to Sveta bad, like.
01:17:16
Speaker
Similar issues. i mean it's Probably been never able to sleep with anybody. if Well, I mean, but you just have to be very gentle. He's somebody's kink.
01:17:27
Speaker
No BDSM for you. yeah Bad. No impact play. or Or hear me out.
01:17:37
Speaker
no No, no, no, no, no. See, I knew, I knew, I knew. but See, imagine the satisfaction of like creme brulee-ing his back like he's on the back and he's
01:17:50
Speaker
just like... no
01:17:55
Speaker
That's a sentence I've never thought I would ever hear. I just can't anymore, okay? Like, oh my God. It's only been an hour and 20 minutes, guys. This is... Too early for this. What have we brought? I only got like four and a half hours of sleep last night, so I'm definitely wired. I'm just gonna live here now. This is where I am forever and ever. Creme brulee all over his back. Hell yeah. No! I'm gonna cram. No!
01:18:25
Speaker
Oh no. ah yeah okay ah oh no As pointed out, you know as a teen As a teen boy, how is he going to jack his yoke?
01:18:37
Speaker
No. no lot No. It's true. We've got to. You've got to hope that you know you wake up hard-boiled one morning. That's all I'm saying. Otherwise, yeah.
01:18:55
Speaker
over here trying to scramble, if you know what I'm saying. No. Is he egg-shaped, or does he just have this... is egg-shaped, too. His head is egg-shaped. The rest of the body is like... He has like a fluff of bright yellow hair.
01:19:12
Speaker
yeah See, I just imagined he was a giant egg. Honestly, like I couldn't imagine him any other way. And the bright like yellow little hair is like the egg yolk in strands. Sure, sure.
01:19:23
Speaker
Exactly. ah gosh i just think I hope things end up sunny side up for him. yeah what are What are his combat ah implications is what Bernard's asking. We have no idea.
01:19:38
Speaker
That's what they are. no idea Obviously he does something and we're not sure what. Extreme dont no he just just getting his as distraction. Yeah. Maybe he's got some synergy with Chicken Little. Alright, cool.
01:19:53
Speaker
there You can only hope. Yeah,
01:19:58
Speaker
yeah we'll we'll get back. let's We'll talk about this and then we'll get back to the thing we missed, Fran. um so that's i yeah I posted a picture in the Patreon text channel of how I imagined him. It's just an egg person. It's an egg person. don't know if i don't know if that's... yep That's an Eggman.
01:20:20
Speaker
That's unfortunate. <unk> i yeah they They show up to talk to them at this tea shop. and um The coolest tea shop. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the tea shops too. so So they show up and the front of the tea shop, face side,
01:20:38
Speaker
is um Barry Pastel's classic pink and white bakery. um Yeah. and With these cute little critter yeah animals.
01:20:52
Speaker
And the back room...
01:20:58
Speaker
you gets naughty. and right Oh, it's 100% like a sex dungeon. Like it's leather and all of the critters are now like bent over cheekily.
01:21:10
Speaker
Or dressed up in leather. So here's the follow-up to that.
01:21:17
Speaker
Perrion comes here a lot. Yeah. Well, yeah. Come here a lot? Yes! Okay. Probably. For sure. you know Listen.
01:21:31
Speaker
Didn't want to assume, i you know. I'm gonna assume she kinky. The girl wears a lot of lace. She kinky.
01:21:41
Speaker
possible.
01:21:45
Speaker
good All right. And do you and follow up, do you think foils just do you think Foil is just there to support her partner? Because it doesn't seem like Foil's cup of tea at all.
01:21:58
Speaker
Foil is like, I'm here for the pastries. Yeah, yeah. ah This is weird, but if this is what you want...
01:22:09
Speaker
That's a good supportive partner right there. I think more realistically, too, though, there appears to be some medical side to this as well. Some healing power. Like, in the sense yeah like they go there They go there in part for medical reasons.
01:22:25
Speaker
um Yes. So my question is, like, is it that or is it, like, this is someone Perrion found who could help her family on a less fun route? yeah.
01:22:39
Speaker
Not a terrible idea. Interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. There's a third fold to this place. Yeah. This odd little tea shop. Yeah, who knows? It's a fun tea shop. Engel has also got... Speaking of weird powers, I guess she's technically a Case 53. Yeah.
01:22:56
Speaker
um Yeah. Technically, even though she's very human looking. Yeah, yeah. But her power being basically just extreme synesthesia where you you look at her and you taste things, you hear things, you feel things, and it's just...
01:23:13
Speaker
It's got to be a weird experience where she's like, especially when she's like, yeah, people who've been traumatized tend to have it worse than normal people. Yeah. If you've been through it, it's like wildly.
01:23:27
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And boy, howdy is Antares going through it. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Has been for some time now. Yeah, really.
01:23:38
Speaker
so this is what I think this is where like it it just all is catching up with her. And Sveta
Teacher's Threats and Strategic Moves
01:23:45
Speaker
steps you know up and is like, look at the clock. you know She's just like, I can't look at the clock because that just keeps taking me back to then because that's all I did was look at the clock.
01:23:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah
01:23:58
Speaker
yes yeah Well, nevertheless, teacher releases all of the information. Victoria's like, so my diary's out there now, which sucks because my team might read it. But she's like, I get the feeling people are going to be more interested in the other stuff that's going out.
01:24:17
Speaker
um yeah Your diary does not fucking matter. First off, yeah Victoria, and yeah nobody cares. Yeah. yeah My diary. You went on TV that one time, but I'll be honest, nobody gives a shit who you are. yeah Yeah, also, like, if you were a random person and you were like, I want...
01:24:35
Speaker
oh, there may be a security leak and a security breach, and I could find shit out. um You're not going to look up Victoria Dallin. You're going to be, or, you know, Glory Girl or whatever. You're going to be looking up, like, the people that you actually are, like...
01:24:50
Speaker
interested in. Legend porn search history. I was going to say, can you imagine immediately the number of searches that were just insert superhero name here, nudes?
01:25:03
Speaker
Yes. yeah yeah like but Basically. And how many people are just looking up, you know, a narwhal and then just like, oh, it's just what she wears. Okay, never mind. It's just just her. She's okay. That's just always like that. All right, never mind.
01:25:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Kenzie already shared that shit on the group chat weeks ago. Exactly.
01:25:33
Speaker
exactly Oh, man. Yeah. Also, it's like crazy. Like, imagine if you will. There were a bunch of files that got dropped all at the same time.
01:25:46
Speaker
They were about crazy shit. of Right. You know? Can you imagine? but i can't I can't even imagine. Can you imagine?
01:25:58
Speaker
a so we um I know we're going to spend like an hour on the last interlude um interlude. Uh-huh. 13.11. Let's do it. 13.11? Sure.
01:26:11
Speaker
The team arrives wary and beaten at the bunker. They put TT in timeout and go to meetings. Yamada, Dragon, and Defiant apologize to Vic over the diary.
01:26:22
Speaker
Antares and TT get briefed on the sitch. Vic prepares to sell her soul for Sveta. I
01:26:33
Speaker
i always love a good Defiant Dragon conversation. Yeah. On that redemption path. And we also finally got the dragon reveal.
01:26:46
Speaker
Oh, right. Which I was funny because I was thinking about before the reveal, i was just like, man, that's right. Nobody knows the dragon's a robot. And then she reveals it at the end. But I was right. It was like, you kind of, you, we forget those things.
01:27:01
Speaker
Yeah. Nobody knows dragons. You know, nobody really knows how tattletales power works. Right. yeah Yeah. The undersiders and all those little things that we're clued into is kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah.
01:27:13
Speaker
I also had this thought, because earlier, on an offhand comment, Tattletail says something about how... to the Something to the extent of of Dragon's not a threat, or i'm para I'm paraphrasing, but says something to that effect earlier. Yeah. And I just had this sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind.
01:27:33
Speaker
That, like, what if the Machine Army is Dragon?
01:27:38
Speaker
Right? Right. I can't say I didn't... We've we mentioned that, though, right? As an idea? As one idea that the machine army is the old dragon?
01:27:51
Speaker
pando um is Pandora. laurara Right, one of the two, right? one of do have we Have we talked about that? Okay. The old dragon theory came up once. I think we talked about it last time. but Yeah, the idea that the machine army is the old dragon. yeah That would be so interesting.
01:28:08
Speaker
it I think it has to be at this point to keep it interesting because it's lost its relevance. Yeah. They keep name-dropping it, though. They're like, oh the machine army. i know like this Yeah. no Well, it makes me wonder if if the machine army... Because there's so... There's clearly, like, they have this whole system... Teacher has this whole system set up and with all these computers and logs and information and just just so much information on everybody, about everybody...
01:28:36
Speaker
You know, it makes me wonder, like, if the machine army isn't an offshoot of teachers' plans, like maybe a rogue part of teachers' plans. Like, maybe, like, we're tying this all back in together because what actually happened was that teacher's first computer b plan, virus, whatever the fuck, went rogue, and now it's...
01:28:59
Speaker
Taking apart Ikea's. I don't know. Like, I feel like it could work if they were connected somehow. Yeah. But I just don't... I don't know. I don't know, man. I i i kind of... When we were talking about the options for, like, okay, who do we think the bad guy is in this part of the story? Of that, like, who created the fake diary and, you know,
01:29:22
Speaker
is Causing all of this from behind the scenes. I really didn't want it to be teacher. Because it's like. He's like Like we've run into him once once already. And he didn't feel like a threat before.
01:29:38
Speaker
and it just felt like. We thwarted him very easily. And it was like well. Okay. And now it's like well. He seems incredibly prepared. Like the move at at cheat. Just that was a vow was a move. Holy moly.
01:29:54
Speaker
And I think I said this before, but I just haven't felt like... I didn't feel like Goddess was a real threat to the story, to our team, to our main characters. And Teacher didn't feel like a real threat either.
01:30:08
Speaker
i mean, like it was bad, but like it didn't feel you know like a grip of a threat. And now, it does feel dangerous because of all of this.
01:30:20
Speaker
Yeah. It's the beauty of Teacher. Oh, good.
01:30:28
Speaker
I was just going to say, I i don't. and i and just I feel like that's the beauty of Teacher. He's like supposed to be forgotten about. yeah he self for sure And so weak.
01:30:40
Speaker
But then he wins. Yeah. co sniper mile away Not wins, but he actually is in threat more a lot more than he feels. Yeah, he is a threat.
01:30:51
Speaker
yeah, yeah. Yeah, we do hate him for that. Don't like it, but it's true. I don't like it. He does have the... Like those old comic runs where it seemed like Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe or Squirrel Girl kills the Marvel... And it's like...
01:31:10
Speaker
They're always good comics, but always the hard stuff happens off page. And then Deadpool took down Thanos and then came back on screen. And you're like, wait minute, hold on. We skipped over that part. Teacher feels a lot like that. And then they grabbed Contessa. Wait, hold on a second. Wait minute. Yeah. Waiting for the chew to drop.
01:31:31
Speaker
yeah waiting for waiting for the shoot to drop Yeah. Can we talk ah for a second about ah throwing Tattletail in timeout? Because that was pretty great.
01:31:43
Speaker
oh that was so funny. you know, you'd think with your power you could have you may maybe figured that out. but they just, you know, they've got her like, I imagine that they're walking along and they just kind of do like when two parents have a kid swinging between them. Just like one, two, three. Woo! You can just toss her in it. Alley. Yeah, that was a good moment.
01:32:05
Speaker
Yeet her in there and then close the door and then keep walking. That was very funny. all right I just love that she's like, is that a security measure? Oh, that was pretty good. oh Oh, wow. That was your security? Wow. You guys need
Character Growth and Apologies
01:32:19
Speaker
to step up your car. Hey, what are you doing? well What's happening? zoom Like, ah, yeah perfect.
01:32:24
Speaker
Ah, silence. Yeah. Finally. Yeah. That was great.
01:32:36
Speaker
yeah anything else so chapter I mean, i I appreciate the apologies. I think it's, you know, obviously it's going to be a long journey back and we're not going to get the relationship between Victoria and Yamada we had.
01:32:49
Speaker
um so disappointing. Yeah, I think more, again, though, we just keep seeing how much Colin has grown defiant. Just in the sense of he's like, yeah, like just in his frankness. I remember, i don't remember exactly what he said.
01:33:06
Speaker
But his frankness in this arc with her of like, yeah, I should have done better with that. And, you know, and and I've been put in similar situations to you unjustly and justly. And, you know, I know I like just that.
01:33:20
Speaker
don't know. I just came away from a feeling like, oh, all right. Good job, Defiant. Like you're you're doing you're a good you're actually a good guy now. like You know, it grown so much in the days of Taylor.
01:33:32
Speaker
yeah Ashley, I feel like, had similar similar turns where they saw themselves as the most important person, went too far and things went bad, and then were immediately like, okay, wait a minute, hold on.
01:33:44
Speaker
Let me yeah mature a bit here. Yeah, yeah. Very different arcs, though, in that sense, where like Ashley's was definitely being told, you are not as important as you think you are, little girl. and Yeah. and like that Whereas Defiance was...
01:34:01
Speaker
ah a much bigger failure in some ways. You are very just as important as you think you are. It's just that nobody else can really know that. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
01:34:14
Speaker
So my favorite character. Love him. Way to go, D. And then Victoria talks with Orchard. A couple of Orchard people. The Orchard Capes. Bow and Drowsy.
01:34:27
Speaker
Bow and Drowsy. She does have her conversation with With Misiometer. Bowser and Drows. Bowser and Drowsy.
01:34:38
Speaker
Yeah, Pokemon. Just your average Pokemon. Yeah. a Bowser, Drowser. Yeah, I never... um Even in the interlude, i was I'm a little iffy on Bowser's exact power, other than he's just like... can change people. But it's not...
01:34:56
Speaker
It's not Amy. ah Was it the... was bow Bows the um the needle. yeah Yeah. He can create needles and he can essentially shoot stuff into people.
01:35:09
Speaker
Which... Yes, because he pulls the needles out of his skin. Yeah, yes. Weird, by the way. Weird. Broiled. Broiled. And those can like affect bodies in a way. Yes. Which he kind of chooses.
01:35:22
Speaker
um And then drowsy deals with the brain side of stuff, I think. That makes sense. um So that's the drowsy brainwashing part.
01:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, because um what's her name? The precog, or not the precog, the thinker. She can't get a read on him, and they're like, yeah, we're not going to use him. Effervescent.
01:35:45
Speaker
Yeah, effervescent, thank you. Effervescent's like, mm-mm, no. Yeah. um Yeah, yeah, that was interesting.
01:35:57
Speaker
Um... A couple things ah we we kind of glossed over. I said we'd go back to is I think this might have might have been all the way back in the cabin. But um Victoria being reminded that she may have put somebody into retirement.
01:36:17
Speaker
Oh, yes. Aetna. Yes. Aetna hit somebody hard enough. They decided to retire. Well, I didn't hit them. i just spun of his lot. Just yeeted them into a mountain. Yeeted them into a mountain.
01:36:31
Speaker
Into ah the side of a hill. i ti I knew how hard I was throwing them. I calculated. i was like, but you did think you killed them. it's like Yeah, I love that tattle's Tattletail like calls her on it. And in her head, she's like, I would like to eat you into the side of a hill.
01:36:49
Speaker
It's so great. and i Was is it Prancer that's like, ah, you know, 1080 no scope. Very nice. you Yeah. basically it' like It wasn't 1080.
01:37:02
Speaker
He's like, are you sure about that? I mean, but you did think you killed them. like That was a possibility. You didn't check up on that? Yeah. Yeah.
01:37:16
Speaker
Which, you know, fair. i If I'd gotten yeeted into a hill one too many times, I'd been like, think I'm good. think I'm just gonna go, and I'm gonna do something else.
01:37:28
Speaker
Yep. Open a bakery. Yep. Open a BDSM bakery. Hell yeah. Yep. Honestly, that's the life right there. bakery. BDSM bakery? Yeah. There you go.
01:37:41
Speaker
Bakery DSM. Yep. Oh, I like that. Bakery DSM. but if feelingt even hang out in I'm thinking bagels, donuts, sponges, and scos and theu office is better than sponges muffins.
01:37:58
Speaker
or And muffins! muffins or more gosh sure Bagels, donuts, scones, and more. or That's like how you have Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and that's where like the sex dungeon is.
01:38:09
Speaker
Yes! It's the Beyond. i've always wanted to go to the back rooms of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Oh, boy. Well, ah I can tell you all about it. but I used to work there. as i did they really show you to the beyond Were you that trusted of an employee you got to see the Beyond?
01:38:26
Speaker
I did see the Beyond, actually. did get to see the Beyond. Actually, fun fact, ah Bed Bath & Beyond as a store in general has a bunch of hidden tunnels and passageways that run through and between the shelves. Because the whole place, well, I mean, it's bankrupt now, but the whole place was laid out ah like, you know it's like a warehouse. you have, you know, the the circle, you know, with all these like little cubbies and sections, whatever. Well, there's a bunch of of pathways that run between all of the sections. And there's like doors and stuff and you can pop in and out of different areas and it's all extra merchandise and stuff. so Nice. well That's cool. Like stage doors.
01:39:08
Speaker
Actually, yes. Very much like random little backstage doors. Cool. Very nice. Fascinating. ah Yeah. Anyways. um ah What do we think about Victoria...
01:39:24
Speaker
making a deal with Bo.
01:39:30
Speaker
I mean, i would have done the exact same thing. You realize they have Orchard and you're like, yes, why wouldn't I? It's been a shit day. if I can do one good thing, I'm going to.
01:39:42
Speaker
I would have done it. yeah This is still breakup day, too. yeah Yeah, this is still, this has all been one day. I keep forgetting that because it's been a lot. I mean, Victoria is holding all the cards, has the has the option to really make Bao's life much better post-drop off.
01:40:02
Speaker
And it's a pretty decent motivator. So. He was like, give me some books and make sure I don't die, which is, i mean. Yeah, check up on me. Same.
01:40:13
Speaker
Say hey every now and then. Yeah, same. Yeah. I mean, all honesty, where do I sign up? I'd always said that last week, I think, but like few books, occasional update on world events.
01:40:29
Speaker
ah be Pretty good. Pretty happy. Yeah. Yeah. Smiling face every now and again. so i mean, the woods. Yeah. I think it's a, I think it makes a lot of sense.
01:40:40
Speaker
And Victoria wanting to repair a lot of that relationship with Sveta and all of that, I think, makes sense that she would that she would try something like this. And, of course, Sveta being willing to agree as well.
01:40:53
Speaker
But a big part of that. Girl's desperate for a body. yeah Well, I think just knowing is impossible right it's right? It's more to even whether or not she ends up making the deal.
01:41:04
Speaker
Because she would leave it up to Sveta with autonomy being a recurring theme we've talked about. um yeah she She is on the positive side of that would leave it up to Sveta, but it is the can you question, right? Because that would be the thing is like, maybe Amy could, but we're not going to ask her, so we'll never know. yeah There are other bio-tinkers like we know we know about Bonesaw, but again, do we trust someone like Bonesaw?
01:41:30
Speaker
And not that Mr. Bo is much better Bonesaw. Yeah. than bone saw But just knowing, can you? right Just that question, simple question, finally having somebody they don't have any history with just saying, can you actually do this?
01:41:48
Speaker
And if he if he had said, no, I can't, then I think she would have been not as satisfied, but like almost as satisfied, right? In the sense of like, i got I got an answer to a question that's been pressing on me.
01:42:01
Speaker
Yeah. so But he can. He says he can. Or thinks he can. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well... I mean, with the amount of oversight, I feel like it's, like, staring over his shoulder, like... Yeah.
01:42:14
Speaker
ah Yeah. If he fucks this up, like, they might just kill him. You know? Yeah, exactly. Well, as far as he's concerned, he's like, i don't yeah i don't know how this could go. Yeah, like, here's the...
01:42:28
Speaker
All I can think is like, I hate to say it, but they have a good track record of being able to pull that stuff off. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Now they, they know what they're doing.
01:42:40
Speaker
They know what they're getting into. Not to mention, they probably appeal a little to his ego there. Like, yeah you know, I've never done a case 53 before. Yeah. Which brings up the question, you know, they were villains, obviously, and really terrible, but like, I'm surprised more case 53s didn't kind of go to them and be like, hey, yeah look, I've just got, you know, i'm my name's Egg and I've got a terrible skin condition.
01:43:07
Speaker
Can fix that shit? I've got egg-cima. hey god All right, that's it, folks. It was right there the whole time. i can't believe
01:43:20
Speaker
That was good. I'm more proud of my life. That was good. That was really good. Thank you so much. Nailed it. I can retire now. I've been yeeted into a hill. I can retire. Yeet,
Sveta's Interlude and Personal Struggles
01:43:34
Speaker
this is my hill. I've been yeeted into. Somebody Well,
01:43:39
Speaker
well the time Should we get to Sveta? Yes! Oh my gosh! Interlude I've been waiting my whole life for. thirteen 13Z.
01:43:52
Speaker
Interlude. Sveta. Nyet asks to save her brother. Both are given away to Cauldron so they have a chance to live. Garrett is captured. Garot is captured in Russia.
01:44:05
Speaker
Sveta meets Victoria in the hospital. Tress and Yamada talk about life and Antares ensures her best friend's future.
01:44:20
Speaker
Oh, baby. It's happening. It's happening. This interlude was so good. Yeah. This was just peak Wildbow beginning to end. Yeah. It's it's almost, obviously, it wouldn't be because of spoilers and things that wouldn't make sense, but this is almost one of those interludes where I would be like, someone's like, hey, what's what's this Parahumans universe about? Would I like it? Be like, read this.
01:44:50
Speaker
If you like this, you'll like it. Like, it's it's that good. Fran, to answer your question, that doesn't come until later.
01:45:00
Speaker
Oh, spoilers. Well, not spoilers. It's something that's been mentioned before. um Just going on with... Continuing with the theme that we've mentioned that, like, it wasn't originally intended for Sveta to be a trans allegory.
01:45:17
Speaker
However, along the way, Wildbo said, you know, be lying if he said that didn't come to mind when writing Sveta. So... yeah um yeah Which makes sense. It makes sense. The whole wanting a body, being in a body that's not yours or doesn't feel right. yeah Right for you.
01:45:37
Speaker
Isn't you? Yeah. um yeah Yeah. Very very natural. i I can see the analogy. Yeah.
01:45:45
Speaker
Very cool. Yeah, I i mean, this is the whole thing is great. i was a little nervous at first because i think like all the Case 53s, I think not knowing their life before their trigger is really interesting. Kind of makes for a very interesting dynamic. That being said, the flashback stuff was very little and was really interesting. Really beautiful. Yeah. The like...
01:46:07
Speaker
images of a seeing what I'm assuming are our cauldron capes or something like that as yeah like as ah apparitions apparitions of death. are just um was like really oh It was just so good. um yeah yeah but Yeah. It's that whole thing, the image of like seeing something you don't understand and so you...
01:46:35
Speaker
potentially worship it or treat it in a higher being way just because it's like, well, we've never seen anything like this before. Like, like what else could this possibly be? Right. You know? Yeah, exactly. And...
01:46:53
Speaker
so interesting. like the the The culture and the world building that you get, even from this these little tiny slivers of the language, the rocks, the family, and just like all of them interacting together. like it just It's so vivid, and we only have like a couple you know bits of it, and yet it feels so alive.
01:47:21
Speaker
It's just fantastic. I love the rocks that they like they're like chalking up the rocks so that the sailors can see them. and yeah Yeah. That was really cool.
01:47:34
Speaker
I love... Because he... he ah they're They're from a different world, right? Like all the Case 53s were pulled from other worlds, right? So like... Yes. The way that the language doesn't quite match, the way the geography doesn't quite match, like there's there's things that are just off but feel very real. Like... Yeah. Just such a such a cool imagery. Because immediately you're like, this is not Earth, but it's close.
01:48:01
Speaker
It's really good. love I love it Mm-hmm.
01:48:09
Speaker
Who was um ah ah when Sveta's still Garret Garot in the asylum? Wild Maiden. weldwin Well, Wild Maiden saves her.
01:48:25
Speaker
Yes. But, um, no, when, like, who's her friend at the computer? Or when she's at the computer? or That's, uh, Victoria. Is that not Victoria? Is it Victoria? I'm pretty sure that's Victoria. Body parts lounged out across the whole room. Yeah, it's, it was, okay, I just, I think I was, I figured it was somebody reading it because wasn't reading it. No, it was, ah it was her, her meeting Victoria in the hospital the first time they meet. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Because, like, Victoria knew about Cape stuff and had met Weld before.
01:48:55
Speaker
And was using the computer to communicate. Gotcha. Yeah.
01:49:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I liked that little interaction of like her and Victoria when they're trying to communicate through the... through the computer and she's like, oh, I don't i don't want to talk over you. so like, should should you just, like, interrupt me or should I just interrupt you? and And it's just like, just look at the screen. She's like, oh, yeah, that works. That was good.
01:49:29
Speaker
ah That's funny. And then the conversation between and Yamada at the end.
01:49:44
Speaker
and was yeah
01:49:48
Speaker
hard. That was hard. but was good. I think her acknowledgement of the fact that she's manipulating...
01:50:01
Speaker
Jessica, to kind of, like, get the answer that maybe she's looking for, i thought was really interesting because I've... i mean, we we haven't had this... We haven't had an interlude for her yet. And this feeling of, like, Sveta has always just been, you know, very motherly and caring and would not be the type, in my mind, to be manipulative. But we do see it here of, like, her being, like...
01:50:28
Speaker
so what do you think I should do? Like, and kind of asking these loaded questions and putting these loaded questions out there to like, she's trying to steer the conversation with Jessica a little bit. She wants to get this answer while knowing like, if she can kind of push for this answer by asking these specific questions.
01:50:51
Speaker
first And I, I just, I find that interesting. Cause like, even in the end, Because I think if it was anybody else, Sveta would be the first person to say, like, no, like, you don't need to go to a villain it get the body that you want. Like, you've worked so hard. And, like, what Jessica is even saying, like, you've worked so hard to be happy and to grow to where you are now.
01:51:18
Speaker
It's... I don't know. It's interesting. I like seeing Sveta selfish in the sense of like, no, i I want a body. I want to. Sure. yeah of course. Maybe I'll i'll find a dude and I'll settle down. I'll have a house and I'll teach art and I'll bake and I'll adopt. And okay, great. But like, I want a body.
01:51:43
Speaker
That's what I want. And there's such like a sweetness in that.
01:51:53
Speaker
like selfishness for her. Because she is so caring of other people all the time. And she's been through everything. It's like, yeah, you fucking deserve this.
01:52:03
Speaker
Like, makes me so happy. And I'm like, kind of, I'm just, ah I'm a little scared. you know I need us to come back the next dark.
01:52:17
Speaker
It ended in a very un-Wildbo-esque way where it seems like it went well. We're just like... It
Relationships and Trauma Bonding
01:52:26
Speaker
seems so. and i was i was reading the comments on the end of 1311 and everybody's like,
01:52:35
Speaker
Oh, Civeta's gonna go through with it, but you know what? It's gonna fuck her up, because the heroes can't get anything in this world. right go first The first comments for... The top comments for ah for the her interlude were, well, we know she's not the ah teacher plant.
01:52:55
Speaker
Whew. Because apparently that was a concern. Oh, that's funny. i Wow. Interesting. Yeah, that never even occurred to me.
01:53:06
Speaker
Have we ever talked about teacher having a plant within the group? I don't think we've ever talked about that. No, i don't think we've ever discussed that as an option. Is that an option? Well, now that Alan said it, I'm like... And now I'm thinking about it. It's obviously Kenzie, and it's because he asked nicely.
01:53:23
Speaker
Exactly. Classic Kenzie. He literally reached out to her on a chat board and was like, yeah it would be real cool if you spied on everybody. You'd really be helping, actually. And she's like, me Help? Absolutely.
01:53:40
Speaker
was like, how can I improve on this? I can't. I can't. Where's the slapses? Staples button.
01:53:51
Speaker
Yeah. Um... Gosh, that would be crazy. I wonder if Teacher is close. Is closer to the group than we think he is.
01:54:05
Speaker
Turns out Teacher was Byron the whole and a whole time. But just Byron. No, how dare you. Only half the time. Yeah. He dons his ugly looking beard and pulls off like the hair cap to reveal that he's bald. me The wig.
01:54:22
Speaker
Okay, question though. That's not your face. How'd you do that? and then And Tristan's like, you're not my brother. dun, dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun.
01:54:36
Speaker
ah Okay, so that's the question though. And then switch. What was the question? here so now So now that Sveta potentially has a body, what about Tristan and Byron?
01:54:51
Speaker
Yeah, they come running back. All of a sudden, Mr. Bao is getting a lot of visitors on this planet. Whoa, I guess I can't leave. I got to set up shop and the warden said no. I'll give you a body for a stack of National Geographic. I will say, I feel like and feel like Tristan and Byron's issue is the far more complex than Sveta's. I believe so, yes.
01:55:18
Speaker
yeah Splitting of souls. a bit difficult. As something J-Man pointed out, when you think about it, Teacher's whole plan is just to get all of his employees to read Ward.
01:55:34
Speaker
Wait, is is Teacher the the author insert? And then just at the very... home you know what Oh, I can't. The last sentence is this Teacher being like, guys, I wrote this great new novel about everything we've done called Worm. And that's how he gets you.
01:55:50
Speaker
There you go. No, but wouldn't it that it wasn't? this is why it feels inconsistent sometimes, because it's the cell block falling apart. Each cell block's responsible for a different chapter per arc. And we're like, man, this one just didn't hit. And it's like, oh, that cell block had a rough day.
01:56:07
Speaker
Yeah. They just weren't. Yeah, that one girl flipped her page. Because we're always asking, like was l was asking how does Wildbo write so much? It's because he's got a basement full of people working 12 hours a day. yeah zombie well just yeah zombie and Zombified middle-aged women who've read too much Colleen Hoover and are just disturbed enough to write Worm for him.
01:56:33
Speaker
Oh, bless. Yeah, no, Colleen Hoover is a category in and of itself. um Before we... Also, just to bring it back to Ward really quick, something I was thinking about when reading the section about the flashback with...
01:56:49
Speaker
Sveta and Weld in the truck where she's basically like, no, you're great and wonderful and handsome and super cute and um any girl would be like really lucky to be with you. Also, okay, I'm gonna go bury myself in the woods. um It makes me So I've said this before, but the trauma bonding of their relationship I don't think is very healthy. And honestly, like while I do love them together, I don't think they're actually actively good together. like It's one of those things where have these two people.
01:57:21
Speaker
You care about both of them immensely. You want them to be happy. They seem to go really well together. But in the back of your mind, you're like... This is not the best case scenario for either of you.
01:57:33
Speaker
And yeah seeing that really does nail home that idea of literally just trauma bonding. Like, he feels isolated. He feels separated. He's trying to be a leader, but he doesn't feel like he is. he's He feels like he's never going to connect with somebody in that way. He feels...
01:57:53
Speaker
you know very lonely. She's looking up to him. She's seeing him as this amazing leader. She's changed so much because of him. He's changed her mind and her opinion of herself. She's giving him all of this adoration and support and friendship and and then also this you know attraction as well. like Why not?
01:58:20
Speaker
And so... Like, it makes sense that they started dating after an interaction like that. Because they go through all of that. And then the irregulars go to shit. And it's like, well, fuck, you know?
01:58:35
Speaker
Great. And now the world's ending. And then you go through all of that. Why wouldn't you date? Like, why wouldn't you move in together and be a long-term couple? And it just further cements the idea in my head that I really don't.
01:58:47
Speaker
I really don't think they're good for each other in that sense. like Even though she has a body now, great congratulations. like don yeah Don't go back to dating Weld, please.
01:59:02
Speaker
ah that's the that's this That's the sad turn that we're going to get here. It's like, oh, everything's happy. She's got her body and same mistakes. yeah Yeah, because in the end... Yeah.
01:59:14
Speaker
Sorry, ahead. And everyone's seen seen Speed with Keanu Reeves. Right? The bus can't stop. but i've Got a bomb on it. Just the epitome of just awful B action films. It's so good, it's so bad.
01:59:31
Speaker
The final line of the movie is ah ah it's so cheesy. It's the, the you know, Connor Reeves and the and the girl lead the opposite. I think it's no Sandra Bullock. Sandra Bullock? Is it Sandra Bullock? I couldn't remember. for think so. funny If it was two of them, yeah. um They're embracing and they kiss, obviously, in the cheesy movie. And he says something like, um ah you know what they say about, you know, relationships that begin over shared trauma rarely last. And she's like, well, we're just going to base it on the sex then. for ha Laugh, fade to black. That's the line. Oh, And I was thinking about that line with the, well, the Spat Tech, because I was like, and they didn't even have that. didn't even have that.
02:00:09
Speaker
It was no chance. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, that's rough. That's funny. Also, everyone should watch Speed. Amazing. Let's do it.
02:00:21
Speaker
Yeah. Invite me over. Movie night! Whose fault is that, that we have not watched Speed? I mean, really, I just feel like it's... Can't be my fault. Why haven't you invited us over for movie night yet? Listen, there we go.
02:00:36
Speaker
All right. I've said too much. like It's like, oh, no. Now people are going to expect things from me. I did like when... Be nice to one person, and where does it stop? and Next, you'll expect me to be nice to everybody.
02:00:55
Speaker
Come on, let's be realistic. when Sveta, after she kisses Weld and and Hamster Balls away, in my mind, she called out Hamster Ball, and she always does when she needs it.
02:01:06
Speaker
Like, out loud. Hamster Ball. like Hamster Ball! Jumping into it. yeah paul roles so no Yeah, exactly basically. ah Hamster Ball away!
02:01:20
Speaker
and then she rolls out the door. Honestly, i still wish you had the Hamster Ball. I love that. so yeah Pretty great. Yeah. Hmm.
02:01:33
Speaker
All right. Well, uh... Any favorite powers? i don't feel like there was there's a couple in there. the only The only one we really saw was Little Midas. um Little Midas. You didn't like Case 12s?
02:01:48
Speaker
Case twelves you know, the Foutre-Marméjane is classic. is I hate it. less with mar me jean It's favorite power, and I'm not sure any of them qualify. It's true. we got took on eggs i will say i will say the Of the powers we saw, I liked seeing the world from the Overseer's perspective and understanding how she functions. That's probably the only one that I'm like, that was interesting and cool. The rest of them all kind of suck. Or I'm like, that's like... Engel's power is cool, but I wouldn't want to be that. I really like Engel.
02:02:27
Speaker
I'd want to be able to turn it off. That's really unique. It is really unique. like that. Yeah. I just like that idea of like, like obviously Victoria hates it. She hates every second of it. But that's feeling of like you look at her and it's like sunshine and and it's just all, it's just aesthetics.
02:02:45
Speaker
It's just, Fresh grass and pie on the windowsill and a cat in a sunbeam and the little the little sparkly dust motes that glisten in the sun when it comes through the window. like that's her in a That's her. And it's like, i think that's so cool. You're literally a walking aesthetic.
02:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, walking aesthetics and synesthesia. um Yeah. Which i had ah I had a friend in high school with anesthesia, so it was is an interesting seeing it super powerized, so to speak.
02:03:19
Speaker
yeah yeah his thing was His thing was people's voices had color to it. It's neat. Yeah, which is interesting. But um it also reminded me of, ah just because this was very recent, there was a person on a reality show recently on The Traitors who people would say, like, he's just too hot. Like, you can't look at him for too long or you get flustered.
02:03:44
Speaker
like which i' I'm like, I don't see it, but whatever. ah Multiple people said is or it, so must be true. um mobile me Hold on. Rob R on The Traitors?
02:03:59
Speaker
Got it. or He was also on Love Island as well.
02:04:04
Speaker
The Traitors? Yeah, T-R-A-I-T-O-R-S. Not to take away from this moment, but how are we not talking about eczema? the bag all Rob Roush. Yeah, Rob Roush is his name.
02:04:20
Speaker
I don't... Well... pause There's one picture here that I think... even I'm sorry, not Steven. He's got a Stallone look to him.
02:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, he's got a very like classically attractive man look to him. He looks like a man. He's a white man. yeah I'll be honest. It's not doing it for me. He
Engel's Powers and Cultural References
02:04:42
Speaker
looks like away from a man. I would agree. I don't think he's that hot.
02:04:46
Speaker
But anyways. like yeah no He's attractive. yeah He looks like he belongs on the Brady Bunch. I will say part of what adds to his, this is there's a weird tangent we're on now, part of what I think adds to his attractiveness is he's got a very he's got a pretty decently deep voice, and he's got this super calm, chill.
02:05:05
Speaker
He's got a slight southern accent, and he's got this super calm demeanor where he's just like super relaxed and just very easy to be around. He also has really nice snake tattoos, and also looks really good in overalls.
02:05:20
Speaker
Yes, he wears overalls all the time. That was his thing. Anyways... It's not just your face sometimes. the Yep. But all that to say, though, the concept of having somebody be like too attractive to look at for too long is like Engel's thing. And I just imagine...
02:05:37
Speaker
That's got to get tired at a certain point. like You just walk up like, hey, my name's Engel, and people just start vomiting because they're looking at you for too long. oh Well, like the even they like she tries to maintain eye contact and can't. And she just can't. yeah like You don't have look at me.
02:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, look over look over there. yeah yeah yeah yeah so um Yeah. Yeah. Some interesting powers.
02:06:04
Speaker
Good insights, though, into some characters. I liked this one. Flip of the coin. is this surgery going to go well? i I hope one thing goes well for our heroes in the ward.
02:06:18
Speaker
I vote yes. Just one. Just one. Give me one wild bow, please. I do agree. I think if there's one thing, like too too much of of your thing backfires.
02:06:33
Speaker
you know like And Wild Bo's thing is is just pain. Stop saying thing, Jacob. Listen, that's your mind, Hannah. That's a normal word. Sorry, I'm too late. I'm too tired. Yeah. I know you're turning coat right now, The thing is... i i'll me Let me clarify.
02:06:56
Speaker
Wild Bo's huge schlong that he swings around... is Thank you....is pain and trauma. And after a while, you're just like, okay...
02:07:08
Speaker
give us something nice. So it would be nice if this was a nice thing. And he he gives you something nice so that he can take it away. that he can take it just Lucy with the football all over again, guys. That's right. yeah i just... i want it to go well. I want to go really well because what I want is We've had so much, the body autonomy. This is what she's wanted for so fucking long.
02:07:40
Speaker
I want to give it to her and it doesn't fix everything. That's what I want. I want her to be like, I thought that this would be this would change everything. And it didn't.
02:07:52
Speaker
And there's a little bit of like disappointment in that of like, I thought this would make it easier, but it doesn't like it. It comes back to that whole feeling of like, everyone feels a little uncomfortable in their own body at certain times of their lives. And like,
02:08:07
Speaker
You have to learn who you are as as an individual, as a human being, your style, your personality, how you interact with other people. And she's had to do that as garrotte and as a you know, mannequin girl with mannequin hands and tentacle girl and ball, you know, hamster ball girl. And she's had to figure out who she is amongst all of these things. And the idea that like, okay, well, she when she gets her body and it's going to work out great, ah that she still is like, I don't know who I, because we hear it a little bit when she's like,
02:08:45
Speaker
Being K-53 has been a part of my identity for so long. So like what happens when I don't have that anymore? yeah And it's like, you're not you don't lose that. That's still part of you because of your experiences, because of what you've gone through, because of the struggle that you've gone through. You don't lose that just because you have arms that look normal now, like and a face, and hair, and legs. like it's And i i'm I want that. like That's the struggle that I want to see for her. I want to see her get the body that she deserves while also struggle through the, who am I now? Because that's what we're all facing all the time as regular human beings. says Who the fuck am I? I don't know.
02:09:27
Speaker
And... That's what I want for her so badly. discover her new self with this new body and really step into what she can do and who she can be and get the best possible ending that she deserves.
02:09:41
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And I'm going to keep believing that. It'll proven otherwise. i One thing we kind of glossed over as well in the last interlude I just remembered was the fact that she has pieces of all these people who love her inside of her too.
02:09:55
Speaker
Like there's a very symbolic, there's a very symbolic part of that where she's like, all of these people have contributed to this to try to make me the body I wanted.
02:10:06
Speaker
And I... I just feel like it would be too cruel while yeah I'm talking to pass you, I guess. yeah Too cruel to take that beautiful moment away from our girls, Veta. Listen, you can you can kill her in like arc 16 if you need to. That's fine. Give her a a good tragic ending after an arc of enjoying her body.
02:10:25
Speaker
But you know what? She have more than one arc, please. Don't make the surgery. Just don't make the surgery itself go wrong, right? Don't make that a problem. make it it' something yes She gets the Barbossa ending from from Black Pearl. Exactly. He fights to finally feel again, and he becomes alive right as he gets shot. I feel... yeah Cold. Like, ah Arc 14 opens up with just coil sniper through the window, right into Sventa's heart.
02:10:53
Speaker
No. Don't put that out in the universe. I need Sventa to enjoy a few apples if the Barbossa... Sure. yeah yeah Okay. We got a new cat screen, by the way.
02:11:05
Speaker
What? Oh, or cat's the bird. Yeah. The bird in the corner. She's so cute. She's just been vibing in the corner there. he i got Bunty in the cereal bowl right here.
02:11:16
Speaker
um ah So, ah you know, obviously, Sveta gets her new body. Needs to take that for a test run. You know, a good plowing. yeah Who is Sveta's new ship?
02:11:33
Speaker
You know, one last ride before, you know... No, stop. your
02:11:42
Speaker
Where's Narwhal? Danny. Danny. Bless. Everyone wants Danny. He's so lonely.
02:11:53
Speaker
No, where's Narwhal? There you go. awesome That horn. I... one's got a bucker
02:12:05
Speaker
Who are our options? I was going to say there's not a lot of of team chemistry except like you know no that's i was going to tell you that didn't work.
02:12:17
Speaker
you know yeah Not even the team. you know not like I'll say she has an encounter with neuter perhaps. Is he over 18 now? Yeah, because he was like 17 in Worms. Yeah, she thinks he's over.
02:12:33
Speaker
oh He was like 15 when we met him, but it's been four years since, so he's at least 19. Yeah. Still a bit young. i'll say I'll say, I mean, Sveta's young too. She's like, what, 19, 20?
02:12:47
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, i'd I'd say Sveta and Neuter, you know. Guess so, geez. give her Give her all the sensations of having a body all at once.
02:12:59
Speaker
You know, dive into the deep end, ok next so to speak. Is it neuter's whole thing that his skin is toxic? It's intoxicating. to It's intoxicating. It makes you hallucinate.
02:13:10
Speaker
it's people That's what
Future Speculations and Podcast Wrap-Up
02:13:11
Speaker
I'm saying. People get high off the skin. Yeah. Okay. okay And listen, Svet has got a lot of surface area to touch with on his skin. Right.
02:13:23
Speaker
right um What's the guy who who's super cheeky who flirted with Vic? Oh, Lace. No, Lace.
02:13:34
Speaker
No, at least bright Sprite. Sprite. Here's the thing. You know what it could be? sorry I'm sorry, go ahead, Hannah. I have an idea. after I was just going to say, Weld is like stoic and he's Mr. Boston. Or Baston. Mr. Boston. like We need somebody who's fun. We need somebody who's fun. She's been mom for so long. She's had to be the mom role. Get her somebody who's fun and quippy and jokes and is just fun. The girl needs
02:14:13
Speaker
Okay, so so here's here's my idea for that, right? right We have a scene. i'm going to set the scene for you. Sprite, we know he borrows powers, right? So he gets near Sveta and he's like, oh, I'm so glad you're here. like I've been wanting to use your power again. It's so much fun. And she's like and he's like, but wait a second. Your body's different. And she's like, yeah, I got fixed.
02:14:30
Speaker
And he's like, oh, cool. Have you ever used it before? And she's like, I'm kind of nervous going out in my body the first time. And he's like, well... weirdly, I could teach you how to use your own power, and they have this, like, sort of, like, power training dynamic, but then, like, they get, like, tangled up with each other kind of thing, you know, moment, and they realize, oh. Cute moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm here for it. Not a snake's go at Listen, that's what we all want.
02:14:58
Speaker
yeah Nick, I just want, here's the thing. They wrap up together, and then they roll away into the ocean. Exactly. Nick knows what i'm talking about. g co pan now yeah yeah Oh, boy.
02:15:12
Speaker
oh man. Modely disturbing.
02:15:20
Speaker
b Oh, my God. I don't care who it is. And that's like, well, I mean, do we even know she's straight?
02:15:29
Speaker
I mean, she wants to bang weld. Let's put it that way. We don't know we don't know if that's indicative of strictly straightness. Does she want to bang weld because she wants to or because she feels like that's what a girlfriend should do?
02:15:43
Speaker
You know, that's fair. boys um That's that's the question. You know, Listen, Wild Bo can't not write slightly bisexual heroines, so I feel like her and Vicky could have some exploration time, so to speak.
02:16:01
Speaker
Head on down to the tea shop with Perian. It just doesn't feel right. It does not feel good. Yeah, I don't like... Yeah, I agree with that. I don't think it's quite the right with Vicky. No. But think she definitely should go to the tea shop.
02:16:15
Speaker
Perian should be like, ooh, girl's trip. She's like, I want to introduce you to some people. And then they go and they hang out of the tea shop. And they just have a lovely time. That's all I want for her.
02:16:26
Speaker
As Fran says, Sabrina Black.
02:16:30
Speaker
Bring back Greg. That's what he says. bring back Our first friend. Yeah. yeah Moose. Moose. Oh, Moose. Moose is for Victoria, though. though. See, that's the thing. I do love Moose. Victoria can have somebody else. moon Victoria can have Lace. Sveta gets Moose.
02:16:51
Speaker
oh Victoria sets them up. It's like the, oh, that could have been, but we can't. I think I love Moose Victoria. I love Moose for Victoria. i I do think that that would be really fun, though.
02:17:04
Speaker
merson Moose Moose and Sveta. That could be fun. I'm too hard on the Moose-Victoria ship train to... Okay, because... I have to agree. Because here's the thing. And you're right, you're right, J-Man. She is her own bondage.
02:17:18
Speaker
um i ah Like, no lie. I think her going to the back room at the tea shop and, like, literally doing some exploring, like, having somebody guide her through that,
02:17:29
Speaker
I think would be fantastic for her. Get into it especially with a new body. I think that's what she needs. Have fun, baby. i think we were talking about, like, we need somebody fun. But if she was going to go with somebody that's kind of like Weld because, you know, you have a type, Moose kind of feels like Weld, but without all the complications.
02:17:56
Speaker
Like, he just constantly has the weight of the world on his shoulder. and he's you know He's trying to go out there and do all these things. And Moose is just like, bro, I am just here. i am just vibing. I'm just trying to get through life.
02:18:08
Speaker
Like, it's not anything more than it needs to be. I just... I'm just a boy. Come on. I'm just a boy. I'm a big boy, but I'm a boy. I'm just a boy. I'm just a boy.
02:18:20
Speaker
ah judge a boy um yeah I mean, he's a man, but you know. Anyways. and a bit A big one at that. um Okay. All right. We'll find out next time.
02:18:33
Speaker
Next time. Next time. I'm very excited for next time. I almost got us to 1030, which would have marked off another one of our bingos. The ones we hit were Prancer, Still a Creep, Nick Goes Full Dad Mode, Milk, Teach a Theory Confirmed, Gross, Cat on Screen, Disappoint with Jessica, Someone Questions the Tea Shop, and Buddy Cop.
02:18:56
Speaker
What we met missed was Alan Speechmog's What the Fug is Going On, Goes Past 1030, to Eastern Standard Time. The Great Orchard Debate. Hannah Tiermaxes. Jacob's the Cinephile. And Michael Hester Reel the Men. Tiermaxes!
02:19:12
Speaker
yeah Fantastic. What's the ah speech mog? is Is that just you going off on something? Rants. Oh, ragt. Just to off more and over everybody else. Oh, yeah. Didn't get a lot of that, yeah.
02:19:29
Speaker
no and Honestly, pretty pretty chill. episode, all things considering. Yeah. I mean, you know we will throw only only one foot on screen. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was nuts.
02:19:42
Speaker
One entire whole foot. but and baford You're knocking over my book with your stupid head. any predict I'll do it against on how the team tackles you know teacher stuff.
02:19:56
Speaker
so We're so bad at predictions, I feel like. Have we predicted anything? our Yeah, somebody else's problem. I got one thing. Nick's gotten things right at least once.
02:20:07
Speaker
I mean, Hannah did get the... Yeah, I was going we kind of split the biggest problem because Hannah was on the Chris train for a while. know yeah um Dealing with teacher, I feel like, is going to be a long-term conflict.
02:20:22
Speaker
I feel like it's going to be... I feel this setting up the next couple of arcs, but not the finale, if that makes sense. Like, this is the this is the return of the Slaughterhouse-Nine prior to Gold Morning is kind of the vibe I'm getting from feature stuff.
02:20:40
Speaker
So i think what's going to happen, my prediction is Contessa, there's no way that she's just given up now that she's in a jail cell. Contessa is biding her time.
02:20:53
Speaker
She has a path to victory to defeat Teacher. yeah But then something crazy is going to happen. We've got these other existential threats. The moment they beat Teacher, ah Dauntless is going to explode and something's going to happen with that, you know?
02:21:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Can't forget about the giant Titan. They're just chilling with it the giant Dauntless Titan just hanging out between yeah worlds. Yeah. is great The world yeah with ah the Simmer singing on his shoulder.
02:21:24
Speaker
ye Yep. Yeah, that's not going happen. That doesn't mean well. I was going to say, I feel like the Simriff will be potentially the endgame, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I feel like it.
02:21:37
Speaker
i'm i There are some things that we have. Sleeper. Thank you. i was going to say, there are things that we have yet to have happen, and we know that are important, and Sleeper's one of them, so I guess we're waiting on that. And also, don't forget the Machine Army exists, although I kind of want the Machine Army to be like, show up, and they've like rusted out before they even arrive or something, and they're like, oh yeah, no, they're not a problem. We took care of them like 18 arcs ago, we we're all like, oh. Yeah.
02:22:10
Speaker
They got caught in a race. he got to Louisiana and just the humidity killed them all. Humidity killed them all. Just full Tin Man Wizard of Oz. Basically. no yeah That's funny. yeah Okay, cool.
02:22:25
Speaker
Just thought we should all right do some predictions real quick. Gotta be something. Yep. Absolutely. so Next time, we will be not next Monday, but the Monday after that. What date is that, Michael? It's the sixteenth The 16th of March.
02:22:41
Speaker
I look it up, but I have a boy in my arms. yeah What a boy. two weeks. to It'll be on a Monday. Monday, 16th. On a Monday. monday We're switching to Mondays.
02:22:55
Speaker
Excellent. a um Speaking of switching it up, Michael, do you have a song? i should be able to find one. let Give me one second.
02:23:08
Speaker
oh no I can't do anything because I have a boy in my arms. For those of you who don't know, I have my cat. He is belly up. I'm holding him like literally a baby in my arms. Like a baby.
02:23:22
Speaker
and Speaking a sleeper, he is going, going, gone.
02:23:33
Speaker
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02:23:45
Speaker
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02:24:01
Speaker
right Before we go, which chapters are we doing? ah forgot to ask. Oh my gosh. Hold on. 14. 14. 14. 1 8. 1 to 8. 1 to 8. 2.8. Okay. We'll see you guys two weeks on the 16th with Mark 14. 1 through 8.
02:24:13
Speaker
fourteen one to eight or team one eight point one one eight who find eight okay yep well see you guys in two weeks on the sixteenth with arc fourteen one through a
02:24:33
Speaker
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02:24:44
Speaker
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