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Arc 18: Queen
523 Plays11 months ago
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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Episode Description:
“I’m losing my powers. Slowly but surely. If this goes much further, mankind may lose this war.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Against the Brockton Bay Book Club, there are really only two individuals who can stop them, drive them away. Scion is one. I’m another. Each of us is worth a hundred other capes, if not more. I’m not boasting when I say this. But my powers are getting weaker every day, little by little. Whatever vast, improbably deep well parahumans tap into to use abilities, I suspect mine is running dry.”
Get in contact with us @brocktonbaybc
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Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:10) - Dissecting Begins
(33:46) - Zencastr
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Worm and Content Warnings
00:00:00
Speaker
Worm is a web serial by J.C. McCray, also known as Wildbo. You can read Worm in its original format by visiting parahumans.wordpress dot.com or donate to Wildbo's Patreon at patreon dot.com slash wildbo. 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. For a complete list, check the description for all of Worm's trigger warnings.
00:00:34
Speaker
I'm starting now.
Episode Start and Brockton Bay Introduction
00:00:35
Speaker
I got a little peanut pop or dust all in my fingers again.
00:01:12
Speaker
Good morning, Brockton Bay. Keep an eye on the sky and your foot on the ground. Cause there's a monster running around. Oh, nice. kindt ro yeah You know, it's just top of my head. Literally I come into these every time a blank slate. I know. I always ask if you've ready, if you've got one and you always say yes. And I assume you do, but no, I, I, I literally go Zen state. I, I, I am an empty vessel. Sorry. Did you say Zen state? Uh, we'd like to transition to our sponsor Zen caster who I'm just kidding. Michael, you're also an empty vessel. Beautiful. Welcome back everybody.
Arc 18 Overview and Noel's Rising Threat
00:01:57
Speaker
Thank you, Jacob.
00:01:58
Speaker
We're in Ark 18. How does it feel? It's pretty crazy. It feels like they're getting shorter. That are just like the rhythm of reading has gone up. Really? I can't say I feel the same. Yeah, i don't I don't know if I feel that it's getting shorter. I just got to say, Yasqueen, she ate that. um All right, and that's the podcast. Michael, play us out. Beautiful.
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh, man. Wouldn't be right if we didn't start with one of those. But let's move on. Yeah, let's. yeah Yeah, we should. We should. Thanks for listening, everybody. Let's jump in here to Arc 18. We'll try to jump in here. Long arc. Lots going on. We're coming hot off of the the travelers interlude arc, which is pretty fun. Now we're back with our main cast of characters. as they attempt to take down Noel and Kidna. Yeah. Let's go ahead. Did you just say in Kidna? I did. It was a mispronunciation. Thanks for pointing it out. Appreciate that. We are nothing if not pedantic. That's true. We are. Hannah, would you like to lead us off with some chapter summaries?
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Uh, so we do have eight chapters and five interludes, uh, in this arc, which is a lot of fun. We all know how much we love interludes. Um, but yeah, no, starting us off, uh, I'm going to probably do these one off chapter by chapter. And then once we get into the big fight, I will group them up a little bit more. Uh, so our very first chapter, uh, the group learns about Noel. has a trip to the fancy rich people doctor, and Dinah is detoxing. She and ah Taylor have a little bit of a conversation, get some math going. um Yeah, yeah. ah Actually, I'm also gonna group up this with chapter two, because why not? ah Chapter two, Dinah gets taken home, and the group begins to make a battle plan. Ballistic leaves in utter disgust, and we find out that Vista has been kidnapped.
00:04:18
Speaker
So it's a good, a good jumping off point. If listeners, if you don't remember listeners, readers, even myself have to be reminded, uh, if you don't remember before the travelers arc, uh, we, we, we, we murdered coil. um So happened we are now dealing with the aftermath of that particular choice. Um, and all the things that come with it.
00:04:43
Speaker
Is it, is it confirmed that Coyle kind of left Noel as a safeguard or was it just that I feel like he left her alone for so long that things went to shit? No, no, no. He had his phone out so that she could hear the conversation so that she would tear herself out. So she knows, she knows the undersiders are to pay for taking away a potential avenue for her to get home. Hmm. I do, I do just love the quiet, silent terror of the first arc where they realized and throughout this all to Taylor is still blind. Um, which is just another added layer to it as well. But the quiet terror of it, right? So rather than Leviathan coming in, and you know, it's going to be like a big natural disaster. Noel is like a ticking bomb, but you don't know how much longer you have on the timer. Right.
00:05:41
Speaker
And it's, it's a nice little undertone, like while all the nice stuff with Dinah is happening, it's a nice undertone to have as a constant reminder that, uh, I think wild bow does a good job with Taylor's narration of bringing us back to that moment of, okay, this is what's happening. Like this, we need to hurry up because at, at sunrise, you know, you have that timer kind of at sunrise, that's when things are going to go down. yeah So yeah, very, very interesting, very well-written, I think. very engaging chapter. The tension that gets built as Dinah is like talking about what's to come and and yeah the threat at sunrise, because
00:06:24
Speaker
in the back of your mind, you're like, I mean, okay, she's big, she's powerful, but I mean, we've got the triumvirate and some heavy hitters that go toe to toe with end bringers. So like, how bad can she be? We just dealt with the slaughterhouse nine, you know, but you, it's a kind of, it's like lingering there that there's, she's just beyond what you're expecting.
Evaluating Noel's Threat Level and Hero Limitations
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I reading this time, I definitely felt I was like not really impressed with the threat of Noel at first, but as, Characters kind of keep hammering home. Hey, don't send your big hitters here because she will take them and use them. Yeah. Um, and that, like, that by the end of the arc, I was convinced like, wow, Noel is definitely a terrifying threat. Um, you know, especially once you finally see her kind of in action, that's.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's definitely the seeing her in action that really solidifies just how scary she is. Yeah. Because before that, I mean, we, we know, we know loosely what she does from the travelers interlude, but it's never really explained how she makes the clones or where they came from. So now with ballistic giving some more details and describing it. Um, yeah, it's pretty, pretty terrifying sounding. I do love to ballistic's whole interaction with them. Him being like, so yeah, we just got a killer and everybody's like, whoa, wait, killer. You want a killer? And he's like, just him shaking his head, walking away, just going, yeah you just, you guys just don't get it. Do you? It's one of the most ominous little bits of this, of this. And I, I am here for it. I really am surprised that they didn't like, like I I'm with him.
00:08:20
Speaker
I don't understand why they didn't, you know? Yeah. yes Well, a like I mean, something that like tattletale is trying to push home as well as if she's trying to convince everyone that Noelle is an S level threat. Like she is on the same, you know, she's on the same shelf as the end bringers. Like she is as scary. She is going to be as difficult to fight. And the question of like, well, we don't even know if we can beat her potentially as like no one really is. It doesn't feel like anyone's really listening.
00:08:51
Speaker
And so ballistic kind of in this moment of being like, no, like we need a killer. You don't get it is it. It does fall into kind of that same category of like, no one's really listening. No one really understands how bad of a scenario we are in or we're approaching. and so like oh it it sends it gives you that um I never probably referenced this before, but like in the Chernobyl show, the idea of like this impending doom that no one believes in or no one thinks is happening. And yeah know we know as the as the audience that like bad shit is about to go down, but no one seems to understand the gravity of it. And that's like, oh, that's a great tone for this arc. Oh, Noel's free. Not great, not terrible. Yeah. Oh, okay. I guess we have to deal with that. like
00:09:39
Speaker
I do like ballistics line about where he's like, well, I'm not going to fight her. Like why? Well, cause if she gets me, you're all dead. yeah but yeah Right. and Not all of, well, maybe all of the slaughterhouse nine are considered S level threat singular as a unit. Um, but you know, I would imagine that like crawler is probably up there as like himself and S level threat. Or, you know, maybe Siberian, um, yeah like for those two specifically, what do you do? Um, yeah. And it's odd that like they get, uh, S level threats and Noel is kind of very similar in a vibe to crawler, you know, hence why have you tried to recruit her? So.
00:10:36
Speaker
Um, I don't understand. Like I got it first. I was like, okay. You know, obviously the end bringers are like your S level threats. Like you, that's the ceiling and you come down from there. But then I was like, wait, no. Also the slaughterhouse nine or S level. So why the hell wouldn't you consider Noel S level? Um, so at first I was on board, like, okay, I get a lot of the reasoning. I'm not that upset about it. But then the more I thought about it, I was like, no, no, there are other people. There are other, you know, paragons that are considered. Yes. They mentioned that there are six current S level threats that are active in the world. Right. Cause it's the.
00:11:17
Speaker
three and bringers plus the slaughterhouse nine no bog and sleep breath right um yeah so no bog we've met um obviously the slaughterhouse nine we've met sleeper the one being that we haven't met. um And so i think part of it is just. It's the reluctance to name that something truly is that bad right. like especially from an outside perspective, you're being told by untrustworthy individuals that something is really dangerous. Do you immediately jump to the nuclear option? you know right And I think that i while while it's frustrating, because we're in Taylor's perspective, and we do know how dangerous she is,
00:12:01
Speaker
I don't think it's unreasonable that the heroes are like, we'll start at A and go up from there. Right. yeah I was going to say, it we're we're kind of dancing around the conversation that Tattletail has with ah Miss Militia, right? Yeah. Right. yeah That doesn't really happen until later, though. We're kind of skipping ahead to that, I believe. Yeah. um Which is a smidge. Yeah. It's so dumb because you know once again, we are seeing things from Taylor's perspective. I get that, but consistently the undersiders have come to the heroes and gone, Hey, this is an issue. Um, maybe you should deal with that. Help us deal with that. And they're like, um, no, we're going to choose to be unhelpful. Actually. Um, in fact, we'll do the opposite of help sometimes. And you know what? The undersiders get proven time and time again. but really They are correct. So like.
00:12:55
Speaker
given the track record ah right of what they do, like how they approach you, when have the undersiders come to you and been wrong? Like there are times where they like, they screw with you, but that's like in open combat or like, you know, some sort of ruse like that. The rest of these times have been them meeting up. Like everybody's been like, yes, I am on board to meet up. They meet up, they say their thing. And then they're like, Nah, we're not gonna believe you. I was like, when have I been wrong? Name one time. Name one time. Name one time. Yeah. I mean, I think it just plays to the overall like kind of theme within the story of why Taylor is so distrusting of the protectorate and the government essentially. It's just they're in action to do things when things need to be done, you know?
00:13:52
Speaker
I mean, it is understandable, though. like you're You're dealing with a government-ly funded agency that has rules and has you know paperwork and like has higher-ups to answer to. and so like Yeah, like you like you said, Nick. that you You can't just come out of the box and be like, oh, the Undersider said that this is an S-level threat? Okay, cool. like Man the nukes. like we Obviously, like it it would be it would be incredibly problematic to just trust the villains. without question. So I mean, it makes sense. It's just like the bureaucracy of it is very obnoxious. Yeah, we are skipping ahead a bit though. We are. We are. Thank you. know You know, we were only at the first part where they all decide to go to the doctor. The the doctor who is a bit too nice, who Taylor worries at first might be the the same doctors that um yeah the Empire 88 used. I don't think it is. yeah I don't think so either.
00:14:54
Speaker
Hall, I think was the, uh, it's just so funny. The conversation at all she's like Taylor's like, I didn't kidnap her. I want you to know, like, I'm not the bad guy here. And she's like, don't worry. We would have treated you any differently. It's like, yeah but yeah so love the coming in there and the lady just be like, okay, what's wrong with you? Like not batting an eyelash at the villains. Well nurse, there's three gunshot wounds, ah burns, smoke inhalation. And she's just like writing it down just like, oh yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:27
Speaker
ah We didn't kidnap her her or drug her. I wasn't going to ask. you know It does make you think like, man, the hospital workers and healthcare professionals in Brockton Bay deserve some freaking medals of honor. Just can you imagine like the day to day That would be the place to work though. Like if you were gonna, if you were like a nurse and you like just graduated college and you're like, where am I going to work? Like go work at the villain hospital. Cause like, I'm sure you get paid really fucking well. You get to see a lot of things. And all you have to do is ignore some child trafficking. Exactly. Yeah, totally. It's
Taylor's Moral Dilemma and Dinah's Storyline
00:16:11
Speaker
fun. You know, close your eyes for a second and man, just money in the bank. Wow. Also, I would like to back up to just
00:16:20
Speaker
Taylor giving tattletale way too much shit at one point. Cause they're asking questions about, you know, details and tattletale goes, maybe I don't know. And Taylor just turns on her as like, what do you know then? And I was like, you know, Taylor, what do you know? You blind ass bitch, like don't get up on tattletale's business. Cause tattletale is trying the, her hardest over here. And you meanwhile are on like some rampant crusade. to to just ah be obstinate and stubborn right now. Like, don't give Tattletail this shit right now. Tattletail is your best friend. To be fair, um, to quote one of my favorite movies, uh, for Taylor, it's been a doozy of a day. but it has and i but She's been able to say that for like the past three months of her life. yeah yeah I haven't made it yet, but I want to make the Stan Marsh or no, Randy Marsh, you know,
00:17:18
Speaker
Taylor after every fight. I didn't hear no bell. Basically. Yeah. Just bleeding out everywhere. Half blind yeah on fire. There, there is a point. Uh, cause I think obviously for all of worm, there's kind of this idea of like, well, is Taylor the good guy or the bad guy? And that's something they like weave and touch on later in chapters. But in chapter one, where she's sitting with Dinah and Dinah's like eating her numbers really quick, you know, before the headache sets in. And she basically is like, there's only a 51% chance that I'm actually going to go home.
00:18:02
Speaker
It's just a 50, just a 50% chance that right Taylor keeps her there. Yeah. and And, and well, that's the thing though, is that Taylor's like thinking about it and she's like, huh, I wonder what that percentage is. And then she realized it's like, oh shit, it's me. Like I'm the deciding factor here. Like whether, whether Dinah is going home or not, it's if I, cause it would be so easy to just like keep her here. Hey, Diana, you can't go home. ah There's a dangerous monster on the loose. She knows about you and that you're probably her chance at like getting home. So it's for everyone's best interest that you stay right in your little cage yeah here. Do you want a piece of candy? Which I do appreciate. I do appreciate getting to know Diana just a little bit here. I know that she's not really a major character at this point.
00:18:52
Speaker
Although she's been Taylor's focus, we haven't seen much of her, but getting to see her characterized more, um, getting to see the way she talks and how Taylor picks up that she talks it way too formally for a 13 year old girl, which is probably a side effect of being around coil too much. Uh, and then just even just her little honesty, but the way that she gets what she wants of just being like, you know, there's only a 50% chance I go home. And that, that just, I don't know. The whole scene with Dinah kind of was, it's very heartbreaking. I don't know. There's just something about her man for sure because it. it feels like in a way it feels like a Pyrrhic victory. Like she won, she got Dinah home, but I don't know what cost to herself and to everyone around her.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, and then the in the next right in the next chapter where Dinah's basically, she can't even see the possibilities anymore because she's been detoxing. And the the the the panic of like, they won't want me. like She's convinced that her parents don't want her back. that she's you know she's fallen too far and therefore like they they won't want to see her, they won't want to take care of her. And just like that panic in the car as she's going is just like, God, that one hurts. That one hurts really badly. That combined with the fact that you know how sometimes people say like,
00:20:20
Speaker
The anticipation of vomiting is worse than vomiting itself. Yes, absolutely. And can you imagine being able to see into every future where you vomit and waiting for it to happen? What? You know. Nick. No, I mean, it's true though. That's what she's feeling. She's like, it's terrible. And she knows too. She's like, it'll take me about six days. Like it'll take me about one week to like calm down out of the detox. Like that is, That is a long time to just be in utter misery. Oh, and then her saying though, like, no, I can't have any drugs. I got to do it natural.
00:20:57
Speaker
Or else there's a 70% chance I relapsed or something, right? Yeah. oh she know like She knows the numbers. like she knows And that is a boon to her because otherwise, like like if if you're in that much you know agony while detoxing, like you just want the pain to stop. You just want whatever it is to end. But because she knows that like anyway to you know any other drugs might lead to her relapsing, like because she knows that and she's committed to trying to get off the quote unquote candy. like i I imagine that that's even better to know. The idea of if you're traveling in the car and you have no idea how long it takes to get to your din destination, looking at a map and that's a GPS that's spitting out, like you have nine hours and 32 minutes to go. like ok
00:21:46
Speaker
at least I have numbers that I can like mentally tick down and work through as opposed to who knows when will this ever end you know kind of yeah so like I imagine it can be somewhat of a of a boon to her for sure does seem helpful all right you want to yeah should we move along Yeah, let's move right along. Um, one last thing real quick. ah last I am just so glad that she is actually back with her family. I think Alan said it where you kind of get a little bit tired of this part of Taylor story. Yeah. And so having that, having that mission done yeah feels really satisfying. Um, and of course, you know, the scene where
00:22:30
Speaker
They come out, they hug her, they take her in. I'm like, okay, good, good. Yeah, yeah that felt really good. Yeah. I mean, taylor it's Taylor getting a win, which is like really, really rare. but And Deb not completely shitting on her for it. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I do want to say she's like, don't thanks i don't mention it. Which I do want to say though, um, just as an interesting kind of world building piece. So Dinah, Dinah's parents knew that she had powers before she got kidnapped. yeah But if we remember back the words talking about her, like Weld saying, she must have gotten powers, but we didn't know because it wasn't on the record. So her parents kept it a secret and Dinah even says, Oh, my parents, they pretended like I didn't have powers. And so it does show that at least in this world, there is some level of, you know, prejudice in a sense against people having powers. I don't know exactly. I wouldn't, you know,
00:23:27
Speaker
I wouldn't say it's the outright prejudice of like X-Men or anything, but there, there must be something there in the world of like, Oh, my kid is normal, right? She's not one of those weirdos who have powers. I think it's one of those things where like, you can't, you have powers. Everybody's always second guessing everything about you where like nothing you do can be, uh, you know, accepted. because there's always the like, Oh, well, that's cause you have powers. Yeah. Like you won a basketball game. Oh, it's cause you had powers. know Oh, why did you do so well on the s SAT? t Oh, it's cause you have powers. Even if that's not or a precog. That's why. Yeah. Even if it's and not in your power set, people are still going to find a way to be like, Oh, no, that's why. it's it I mean, it's a safety thing too. Like she gets kidnapped because of her powers. Like by not telling people that like, Hey, our kid triggered.
00:24:23
Speaker
Like you're, you're, you think maybe I'm somehow protecting her and also like she would potentially have to make a choice. Like, are you going to join the wards now? Like, is that going to be your life now? Or we're just going to like keep it, you know, below the radar and you're just going to, we're going to try and keep, you know, ah as normal of a life for you as we possibly can. Like, cause once, once it's out that you have powers, especially precog, like, your life is done so. like Your life is completely different now. like I think about that with Amy, Amy Dallin. You have healing powers? like How do you not use that? you know So it's like you're almost forced to make a decision to make a stand if you have powers because it's like, well, are you are you really on the good guys team if you're not helping the good guys? you know With great power comes great responsibility.
00:25:20
Speaker
It all comes back. Ben Parker. Doesn't it always? I was going to make a joke and attribute that quote to like Batman or something, and I just wanted to make people mad, but... yeah and it made me It really inspired me when Aslan in The Return of the King said, yeah may the odds ever be with you. Yep. Yep. And prosper. And prosper.
00:25:49
Speaker
Well, so I love how Taylor like shows up at these people's house and is like, Hey, don't be scared. And they try to then kicks the door. Yeah. It's like I remember this. I, I thought it was ah in the middle of the day for some reason, like in my head, that's how it went. And now that I read this, I'm like, no, it's the dark of night. Her silhouette is like, you know, the only thing they see by the street light, you know, ah knocks on the door. Hello? Like it's a villain.
00:26:22
Speaker
Open up. Why? Cause I said so kicks in door. I'm not trying to hurt you. Don't be scared. I just have your daughter and they're like, Oh God, she has her daughter. A biblically accurate angel moment for you. I was just thinking that. Holy shit. yeah's funny Yeah. Don't maybe, you know, Don't kick in the door. Be like, Hey, I brought her home. Just, yeah you know, she needs, she needs to be an apple juice. I took, all ah you know what? I did this because I'm here and I wanted her to be home. This isn't a, I don't want anything. I'm going to leave her on the doorstep and walk away.
00:27:11
Speaker
Can I put that on a t-shirt? I need therapy and apple juice. Yeah, please. All right, ah let's let's, if we're all good, ah let's head on to the first interlude of this arc.
Zion and Responsibility
00:27:26
Speaker
um The most powerful man in the world, Kevin Norton, explains to Lisette how and why he is the most powerful man in the world. ah And apparently, Sion listens to him. Crazy. ah And then he makes her the most powerful woman because he's he's he's not doing so hot. And we get a little bit about Zion's background and realize that Zion is actually Zion. We've just been misunderstanding for a while now.
00:28:06
Speaker
Absolutely wild interlude for wild boaters. Just drop right here in the middle of the most unrelated series of chapters. But hey, I'm here for it. Well, I think it was one of the, uh, it was one of the donation interludes. So it was like, thanks for the money. Here's the weirdest chapter you'll ever read so far. yeah yeah really An odd one. Oh, I love it. I love it. Oh, it's great. You're so confused at first going in. You're like, what is happening? Like what in the fuck? And then all of a sudden everything kind of clicks into place and you're just like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. The responsibility. Holy shit. Yeah, really a really interesting.
00:28:52
Speaker
descriptions of Zion, Zion, sorry. yeah um and like don't Don't dead name him. I'm kidding. um But no, um it is really interesting, right? The way that he, you know, Lisette says he looks sad and then he yeah responds, well, it's not that he looks sad. He doesn't look like anything. We feel that because he is sad. And it's this weird like logic of he looks sad to us because he is sad, not, we don't see that he's sad and so therefore think he's sad if that makes sense. Yeah. And it's very like topsy turvy how he explains it, but I really like that description. yeah It's just, yeah, it's such an interesting, weird interlude. I love it.
00:29:42
Speaker
yeah What's his dog's name? I love his dog, Duke. Yeah, Duke. Duke. Duke. Duke. I love Duke. We love a good a good ah good boy. A little good boy. Good dog. Here on this podcast, we love good boys and good girls. Nick, Nick, you can't say things like that. I have to be prepared. um um the i What I found was really interesting was that he he talks about, you know, telling Sion to like, okay, go help people. And then he realizes like, okay, I have to be more specific with that. So like, okay, don't just fight the endbringers, like kill the endbringers. And that kind of that like, that distinction of like,
00:30:22
Speaker
like Like, Zion just doesn't seem to like understand the command, really. And he has to like be weirdly specific about it for Zion to actually fight. fight And the priorities now, from like how we've seen him you know interact, or you know how he shows up so late to things, is that, in his mind, he's been told to help, so he's helping. But it's clearly like, there's There's no hierarchy. It's just like, okay, someone needs help. I'm going to help them. And even if on the other side of the world, there's a huge disaster happening, like I'm going to help this overturned, you know, old lady in her groceries. It's like the idea that like he doesn't understand the hierarchy and that Kevin is trying to like help him like understand it is like, Oh, that's really, the yeah. Mm hmm.
00:31:19
Speaker
Yeah, what a fascinating character. Also, that's so much, so much responsibility that now Lisette has of just like, well, you're in charge, I guess. Right. You're in charge of the most powerful being on the planet, you know, besides the Endbringers. Like, all right, cool. Great. Yep.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yep. Time for me to retire. I'm dying. Yeah. Somebody's got to do this. And then like, he like lives on the street too. Like he is literally the most powerful man in the world. And he's, he's dying in a gutter, basically. Like fuck. I am a little confused. why he doesn't just say, I mean, I think he doesn't want the responsibility anymore as part of it. yeah But I'm curious why he wouldn't just say, Zion or Zion, I'm passing off my responsibility to Lizzette, but before you go heal me, fix me, I'm broken. Maybe he doesn't want to risk whatever Zion's brain would interpret that as. yeah I don't know. It's just, it's curious to me that he doesn't even ask like,
00:32:35
Speaker
Hey, I'm dying. If before you go, could you, you fix me up a little, right?
00:32:41
Speaker
Or, or that's what I would do. Find me someone who can, you know? Yeah. There's a, there's a, a weird sort of, um, I don't, I don't know what to call it. ah Kevin what slot Kevin Norton, right? Yeah. Yeah. He's got this sort of ah perspective of the whole world. I think essentially that's sort of encased with with Scion. It's just very hopeless. It's very nihilistic. I guess where is he's just, yeah he he has, he's the most powerful man in the world. He has the ability to influence the most powerful being in the world.
00:33:22
Speaker
And yet the world is still shit. And so I think I get i got the sense rating it that there's this, he's just kind of done. He's done existing. Like what's the point that he's just kind of reached that, which is really sad. It's just kind of reached this moment where he doesn't really want to continue living. Yeah. He seems very like resigned to his fate. Yeah. We interrupt our scheduled program to bring you a word from our sponsor, Zencaster, a one-stop shop for all your podcasting needs. When we first started this podcast, we knew we needed a service that would let us record remotely. After doing some research, Zencaster was the obvious choice. We started using Zencaster and never looked back.
00:34:08
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00:34:57
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I want you to have the same easy experiences I do for all my podcasting and content needs. It's time to share your story. That's zencaster.com slash pricing and use our code rockton bay BC. And now back to our scheduled programming. I any other mean, this is what you get though, for being nice to people. You know, you end up in a situation you don't want to be in where you're suddenly the most powerful woman in the world. Yeah. how That's actually, great how would you guys, what would you guys do in this scenario? If all of a sudden this, this, this guy was like, Hey, um, you're in charge now. Best of luck. Like, what would you guys do with that? Cause like my first instinct is to like totally misuse the power and be like, Hey, I'd like to go for a ride.
00:35:40
Speaker
ah Around like over the ocean maybe and then we can come back and then we'll do good for the world And yeah and i and I think if if Zion felt more human Then I might be comfortable with that but i'm I'm getting the sense that simply being in the presence of Zion is like Yeah, I mean it would be like I mean, yeah, and we've referenced it already but biblically accurate angel you're like I You're not just going to walk up to that kind of creature and be like, Hey, ah hey can you give me an Uber? never you Be my Uber for a bit. The magic Zion ride.
00:36:22
Speaker
yeah kind I'm thinking of that meme where it's like the genie's face when I wish for a third genie blowjob. yeah Oh my God. But yeah, no, I i am curious. like How would you guys handle that? I i mean, that's one of those like, oh, how would you handle winning a $10 billion dollars lottery? like I don't know. You haven't thought about it? um on I have, but that's, that is more power than I could. I have no idea how I would wield that. I is i have a better idea of how I would wield the billion dollar lottery than I would this, this like sign thing who a scion would be, uh, Hey, do you speak? Like, can you, I command you to speak, talk to me, give me something. Where are you from? And if nothing, cool. You know what? Just to stop the, you know, kill the end bringers, keep doing what you're doing.
00:37:20
Speaker
You know, get there faster. Maybe like wouldn't, wouldn't change a whole lot prioritize and bring our attacks. Maybe. Yeah. It's like talking. It's like trying to do the genie wish thing, but the genie doesn't speak your language. and like Okay. Well then my wishes don't exactly, like you can't really wish for everything. So you're just trying to figure out the thing that you can get across. It's easy. And you know,
00:37:50
Speaker
is doable. I mean, yeah because it's to a greater degree. It's the same conflict that Amy has, which is just like you, you're just indebted to helping as much as you possibly can, yeah you know, yeah it's not being able to help everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Actually not want to do it personally. I'm just a tiny human. I'm imagining a world where that under stress Lissette is just passing the sign on to the next person and then he's passing it on. And it's just a chain of like, I i don't want the responsibility. You take them. Oh, this goes around. But of course then there's responsibility there, right? Cause you don't want the wrong person to have them. God, yeah kill everything. So it's like, okay, well I gotta hold on to them because at least I'm not going to tell them to blow up the planet. So,
00:38:49
Speaker
Well, you just find a nice look. You happen across a nice looking man who kind of reminds you of a Jack Sparrow type of figure and you think he looks like a good person to control Sion.
00:39:01
Speaker
ah yeah Yup. Start going down the list of like Nobel Peace Prize winners. Okay. Who, who gets them? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any, uh, any closing thoughts on, Kevin Norton, Zion. ah No, unless you want me to be controversial and say I found this one really boring, but maybe that's just this go round. I think it's but our like oddly placed. I think the interlude is oddly placed. It kind of breaks up some nice tension in this arc. I like the chapter, but I i do i do wish it came
00:39:42
Speaker
you know, maybe at the very end of the interlude or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. At the beginning of the next one or something. Zero notes for this interlude, if that tells you anything. Oh, that does actually. Sounds a lot. Well, let's move along. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to jump back into the fight now. And I'm going to combine the next two chapters
Hero Critiques and Misguided Priorities
00:40:01
Speaker
as well. So chapter three, the undersiders and company meet the wards, gives them the lowdown on Noel, we have the whole conversation in vehicle clock blocker blocker, giving Taylor kind of this third degree and she offers some a bit of explanation or defense of her actions. So there's a little bit of a conversation of like, you know, what good are you actually doing? um And then in chapter four,
00:40:26
Speaker
ah The PRT finally get moving. We're kind of, you know, mapping out who's going where. Eidolon and Tattletale have this kind of chat in a little bubble of doom. ah Clearly some stuff being hashed out there. And Noelle pops up on camera to offer an ultimatum. She wants the undersiders and she will have nothing else. Hmm.
00:40:52
Speaker
That's what she wants. Mm hmm. I got to say from the hero's perspective, not a bad trade. I mean, if Arm Monster was there, he would have made that in a second. He would have been like, no, we're not going to. And then as soon as you get on the battlefield, just like nets them all and just offers them up. All right. I mean, yeah, that's the, that's definitely really Noel. I should be paying you. Yeah.
00:41:25
Speaker
You know, the wrong thing for the right reasons, five. The wrong thing for the wrong reasons. Well, I mean, in his mind though, if if he had, if, or if, uh, you know, Eidolon had like the idea that like, well, I'm taking care of, of, of two separate problems with one very large rock. Like, okay, cool. I think I'll take it. And so what if the backlash hits me? like okay Because i mean he's not doing so hot himself anyways. you know so like If he takes one, yeah quote unquote, one for the team, takes out two threats with one boulder, like that that seems like a decent trade off.
00:42:02
Speaker
you know I also, I like to because ah gra i'm I'm trying to break this up and trying to differentiate my first read from this, now being my second read. But this is really the most we've seen of Eidolon. Okay, sorry, quick aside. Eidolon or Eidolon? What are we going with? I've always said Eidolon. It's definitely directly pronounced Eidolon. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. But apparently it's Eidolon.
00:42:32
Speaker
Well, the warm audio book switches quite a bit, so I was never sure. I just like the sound of Eidolon. The actual word is Eidolon, but it does not sound as good as Eidolon. That can't be right. If I look at the pronunciation, I mean, to be fair, I'm really bad at reading pronunciations. Stick it in the chat. Yeah. yeah ah One day we'll have an episode where we'll have Wild Bo on and all we'll talk about is the correct pronunciations. I refuse to acknowledge that it's I Dolan.
00:43:11
Speaker
that is yeah google Google and Merriam Webster both say I Dolan. Well, you know, who the hell is Mariam or Webster? well that Google's, uh, Google's a hack. So, yeah you know what? Dead men tell no tales. So idol on, that's right. Yup. i lot we'll go with without um Anyway, all that to say... ah If you're upset, comment below. Please, please do. ah We don't see a lot of Eidolon before this. you get We get a glimpse of them in some of the Cauldron flashbacks, um you know a little bit here and there.
00:43:54
Speaker
but the legend for lode yeah the lunch and dinner rate probably Yeah, probably probably the most screen time there. um And of course for coming up on a little bit more of him. But for now, we don't like he's still sort of this mystical you know, third member of the triumvirate that everyone just sort of worships and idolizes. And ah see getting to see him here is is really fun, getting a full conversation and sort of seeing his approach to everything. It's neat seeing another one of those sort of ah
00:44:28
Speaker
you know, top tier heroes make an appearance. They idolize him. i dole lie a lot Which is great because he gets in there and man, what a bitch.
00:44:46
Speaker
i Well, yeah, when I want to jump ahead, I really like his his conversation with the therapist in that interlude, so we'll wait for that, but um yeah. There's a little tantrum with Tattletale, though. like Yeah. yeah i ah i don't want to I don't want to jump past, though, the conversation that Clock Blocker and Taylor have. Yes, that is a good one. That is one of my favorite parts of this chapter, yeah because we're finally seeing Taylor having to reckon with her whole the ends justify the means philosophy right surmounted by as well I'm gonna do that the best I can and figure out why it was okay later kind of philosophy Yeah, and we're kind of seeing it's like, you know, hey actions have consequences Taylor and uh
00:45:33
Speaker
This is why people hate you. oh yeah Um, I was not a fan. The first go round like clock blocker was okay, but he was just like a whatever character until I hit this conversation. And I remember going, holy cow. Do I really like clock blocker? Like the fact that he's just like, willing to be, he's like, should they're like, you're going to go, you're going to be running extra duties. If you talk again. And he was like quiet for a second. They said, you know what? Fuck it. I got questions. get out yeah I got, I got a lot of questions. and I don't care. but Miss militia. I heard you. I don't give a fuck. Skitter questions. Number one. What the fuck? Number two. you Do you remember sticking them in my nose? Cause I do down my throat. No, it's, it's a great scene. Yeah.
00:46:28
Speaker
It's one of those moments we talk a lot about how a lot of characters feel like they could have been the main character of the story. Yeah, we get to this point and it's like clock blocker has a good case. You we kind of really made this whole story about him if you wanted to. He's been through. I feel like if they were in a room alone that she Taylor could have won her won him over to understanding if they'd gotten like 10 more minutes. I feel like the reason he was so upset at her was because she made a good case. Yeah. I don't know though. I think, I think part of it is that part of what she realizes is that she doesn't know the consequences of what she decides to do, right? Like the whole, the whole talk about shadow stalker. And he's like, yes, everybody on the team hated shadow stalker. Um,
00:47:24
Speaker
Even, you know, even though apparently she was incredibly hot. Um, that was all she had going for. Um, but everybody, everybody hated shadow soccer, but what happened to her, we don't believe is justified. And it's just Taylor going kind of gobsmacked. Like, you know, you're right. I had no idea that that happened. That is pretty terrible. And, and I think that's part of what clock blocker, why that really bothers Taylor and why she decides to quit the conversation. Not quit. I think they get interrupted, but cause she's like, I'm glad we could quit while we were ahead because what she's realizing is like, Oh, I told Regent to take over shadow soccer and I trusted him to let her go at the right time. I maybe shouldn't have done that. Right. You know, and it's, and that's kind of what clock blocker says. I can't remember the exact line, but he's like,
00:48:12
Speaker
You're saying that you don't know a lot of things that are consequences of what you do. and Interesting. It seems like you don't really care, huh? yeah Yeah, absolutely. and that kind of this idea that like she Also, the the amount of like misinformation that happens between the two, like he'll say something and she'll be like, whoa, whoa, that's not what happened. And then she'll say something, he'll be like, no, that's not what happened. And kind of this idea that like they they' they've kind of villainized each other or villa villa is it vilified. They vilified each other. And like because of that, there's there's pieces of the puzzle that they're both missing.
00:48:46
Speaker
And like i I love that this conversation happened because I wish i wish it happened more. like I hate the whole cliche of like if the two sides just sat down and talked about it, we could figure it out. like That's bullshit. But also, there's clearly a ton of misinformation bouncing around here and pieces that they did not know about the other side. And like being able to kind of connect some of those dots for Taylor and for Clock Blocker is i so good. it's it's It's such a good point to kind of like realize that there's there's more happening than either of them are aware of. And I really ah really like that. I'm a big fan. i wish I wish we had more kind of scenarios like that because we've run into the PRT quite a few times now where the undersiders have the opportunity to like talk and you know come to a potential understanding. And it it never happens. like There's always just everyone's mad, everyone's upset, everyone's no one's trusting each other. And like obviously, completely completely understandable.
00:49:46
Speaker
But I wish that they would talk more because I think they would all realize that there's more stuff going on than they know about. Yeah. hot I do think this is one of the few examples because I think almost every book and movie you know qualifies for an idiot plot. um and So, or not an idiot plot, but the equivalent of that being just if the two characters could sit down for 10 minutes, then the entire movie would have been resolved. right Just a 10 minute adult conversation. And this is one of those where this would have to be number one, a longer conversation and two might not come to a conclusion yeah ah that is satisfying. And ah three, there's enough
00:50:38
Speaker
incentive for the characters to actually stay apart and, you know, to prevent them from even having the sit down conversation. So like, I absolutely want them to have the conversation. I love them having this conversation. I wish it was longer and I don't think it would like, it might take a while. Like, and by a while, I mean like a full day of them talking. Um, but I think one of them could have convinced the other to, you know, essentially understand if not outright be like, I think clock blocker probably after a day of sitting down with Taylor could have probably convinced her like, Hey, why not join us? And Taylor on the other hand, probably could have sat down with clock blocker for the day and made a very good case for, Hey, this is why I've been trying to do this this whole time. And him being like, shoot, like I get it. Um, I just think and it would have taken a while.
00:51:36
Speaker
And I would have been all here for it. Right.
00:51:42
Speaker
Life's not that easy. No, never has. Yeah. We also, when we're at the PRT, we get to meet um a couple new ah wards from. Oh. ah Yeah, the Chicago Awards. Chicago Awards. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's kind of fun. i I will say I love i love anytime we have like big events where other capes fly in for things. That's very fun. I want to see out all the all the capes and their fun
New Faces and Character Insights
00:52:12
Speaker
names. The names always get me. there's They're just very fun. ah just But but like having new people come with new powers and like we get to see the dynamic of the undersiders paired up with new capes and like different things and how they can
00:52:24
Speaker
dynamically work together i i love that that's super super fun. Yeah. If I remember right it's grace tecton raimancer. There's one more. It's the storm guy. um Oh, what is something to do with like B? I remember him as Magnemite, but I know that's not. Yeah. It's like reckless or something like that. It's like air wolf or something. Wanton. Don't He's the air wolf. But yes, he does basically have air wolf powers. Oh my gosh. I do love, I do love that little bit of Regent just clowning on their names.
00:53:04
Speaker
And being like, Oh, Ray Mancer, what are they running out of ideas up there? yeah More like a man, sir. And everybody's like, come on, dude. Try harder. Come on. Yeah, I love it. He's like, try harder. They should have tried harder. I also liked, I like how, how much synergy they have and they look like they've worked well together for a while. It's a yeah nice bit of contrast to our Brockton Bay wards who, uh, yeah, it is a big out there, but there, I mean, they're a little, they're a little five seconds. They get to do anything. Yeah. Yeah. They don't get much still. Uh, man, I have so many more notes. We just kind of been glossing over everything. oh we can now let's let to talk about them Yeah. Uh, 18.4 finally get the use. I'm sure he said it before, but Copacetic.
00:53:58
Speaker
The most wild bow word that I've ever heard. I had never heard that word before in my life until I read worm, not me. And I was just like, what the heck? And I read it. And of course I do the thing as many of you may have done, uh, where you don't look things up and you just run with it in context. So, you know, it shows up a lot more because it's a wild bow word and he really likes it. Um, so I was just eventually, I was like, oh yeah, copacetic. I assume it just means like, Hey, everybody chill out. Like we're all cool here. Basically. Yeah. know yes Yeah. It's yeah. Everything's good. Basically is what it means. Also, um, if you've seen the recess movie.
00:54:43
Speaker
oh man They use that, but a whilelash it's so good. and That's why I first heard it. oh interesting ah yeah One principal prickly is a young, fresh teacher ah back in the seventies. They are constantly saying copacetic baby. That doesn't seem a 70s word. Maybe worm, watch the recess movie as inspiration. It was like copacetic is the word that we're going to live on here. How's it hanging? Oh, copacetic baby is the response. okay That's what they say. I'm going to start saying copacetic from now on. It's a for groovy or okay or cool or it's fine. Oh, fuck it ah yeah. Fuck yeah. In this it's always a a word for, hey, everybody put your guns down.
00:55:35
Speaker
god Tattletale uses it a lot uses it a lot like hey, we're all copacetic here Yeah we're all Use your big words don could it just right style Thank you it's funny i't see love the Love the imp bit where she's like they're all talking and and she's like chiming in and they're all like whoa, where'd you come from? uh every time but then also it's like we're gonna put you and your brother in a room and then put a note on the door that says do not open do not open at any point and she's like oh man oh you guys have notes for this uh let's see um clock blocker's bad at math taylor definitely won that argument i don't know what he was counting um
00:56:18
Speaker
So there's like, okay, we'll call that one a draw. Okay. You get that one. Okay. You get that one. I'll take this one. Okay. I'll give you a half point. You know what? We'll just call it even at the end. It's like what sort of youth pastor I got the last point in. So I win the game. Bullshit was that. So maybe he has dyscalculia too. um
00:56:41
Speaker
Yeah. And then all the way back, I have a nitpick was well long as we're being pedantic. Um, All the way in 18.2. Taylor, how the fuck do you know what color the creatures are? Oh, yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. What's the context for that? She's blind. She can't see. Well, she can't see blurry. Which creatures are we discussing? Yeah, I don't even know. I did like I don't have it it doesn bring all the details down. I just have five here. Like years flies can smell color. So yeah, I'm just going to I'm just going to start throwing out some BS effects and see if picks up on them. You're going to have five eyes.
00:57:29
Speaker
I'm an English teacher, Michael, and everybody knows that English teachers lie. Yeah, it's all fiction. That's what they call it. Uh, yeah, I will say think teachers fine the, the Taylor, Taylor is blind thing. I'm so over it. I'm so over it. No, I'm so here for it. i mean It's such a buildup to my favorite moment later on. I love this. The only things I don't like about it is her blind driving when she hasn't even real drove. Like that's the only thing I'm not about.
00:58:05
Speaker
um my god and Apparently, you know, seeing color, yeah with the you know, however she bullshitted that. um Also, just a small note all the way back in 18.2 again, uh, awkward moment given the bull, the last time ballistic and Perian were in a room, you know, not in a room together, but the last time they were near each other, he was trying to kill her. Like, and Oh, that's right. It's like, right. Yeah. He's just like, Oh, here's ballistic. Also, let's get Perian in here. And it's like, okay, cool. And everybody's just cool with it, including them too. And I was like, no, like, I wouldn't be cool with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. That's for ballistic. You could justify it by saying he knows that there's bigger stuff at stake than. Yeah. Yeah. Like, but if I were Perry and given the, I don't know, kind of nervousness she's had about everything else. Yeah. Um, yeah. Be like, uh, no.
00:59:03
Speaker
That, that guy right there, what is he, isn't he bad? Like, Oh, him now he's fine. He just likes to shoot people sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, let's see. Oh, Rachel gives Taylor a ride E. Uh, and, uh, we do love that. Oh, I know. I know. And, uh, just ah another, just general question. How the fuck did she get Vista? Yeah, so this is just walking home, like, like, why is she alone? She's on patrol or something. That's what they say later is that she was on her way back home, like, out of costume. Ridiculous. Yeah. But apparently- I mean, I guess- Apparently no one can smell powers. Yeah, she can smell. I mean, we talked about- She can smell powers and Taylor can lick colors, apparently. So. One of those does make more sense than the other.
00:59:57
Speaker
And her grabbing vista does does make quite a bit of a sense. this is This is not a spoiler, it's just vista's, ah her her, what's it called? Her or power scale or whatever, her rating, thank you. good yeah She's got a really high rating. And so it makes sense that that of all of the capes that, oh well, could have sniffed out, she would probably be drawn to someone like vista pretty easily. So it's ah it does it does sort of make sense that she would have grabbed her. yeah Although I don't know how she snuck up on her. That's a little tricky. I mean, you'd smell, I imagine you'd smell no well coming. Well, I think they said that, I mean, later getting into the fight, um Taylor says that she is surprisingly fast for her bulk, that she can move about, this she's she's like a truck barreling down the highway. so
01:00:55
Speaker
Move speed is like easily like 50, 60, 70 miles an hour, which is horrifying considering she's also the size of an elephant apparently. Yeah. Now I think the bigger question is how is Noel hiding without Vista? I think that's the yeah the harder thing to explain. Any parking garage, apparently. Yeah. It's always the parking garages, isn't it? Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's all the extra notes I had. That's good. For now. sharing Yeah, for now. I think that brings us to a ah another interlude. Am I right? Yes, it does. Second donation interlude.
01:01:39
Speaker
Yes, yes. So we have ah this, again, kind of a ah ah jump away from the story here. um We have an interlude with ah ah some of the pure. ah Breakfast with Night and Fog. That's just weird all the way around. Kate and Theo and Crusader head over to one of the local universities to do some research on triggers. And Theo gets utterly abandoned in order to try and get him to trigger.
01:02:13
Speaker
Oh, poor Theo. Poor Theo. I love Theo. Theo is a peach. I'm really upset. He is a little peach. I gotta say, though, the description of night and fog is just so good because it's so bad. It's like, ha! Yeah. It's like some kind of Truman Show stuff. Yeah. It's just like, what is happening? There's Wild Bo, you know, there's a couple times where Wild Bo does stuff that you know, he just clearly likes the vibe of that. So he does it over again. Um, and this is one of those where like people bad at being people is something that I, I feel as if he's written about a few times. Um, and I always find it interesting because that like, even that phrase is something that I've started observing, like in my life, I was like, yeah, there are a lot of people that really want to,
01:03:12
Speaker
go through the motions of, you know, being human beings and they're just bad at it. Like the way they go about their life is the way that somebody like an alien trying to pretend to be human would do it. And it just looks wrong.
01:03:36
Speaker
and There's some, I'm like thinking of, uh, what's, what's his name, uh, from, uh, from the first men in black movie with the bug suit. Yeah. You know, just trying to walk around or the human bug and human suit. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not even thinking that weird. I'm thinking just like weird as in like the uncanny valley where like, like you, you look at somebody and you're like, man, that is not somebody being human. That is somebody trying to be. Like a person and they just It's just not happening. It's just not happening there when people use the word NPC, you know Right, it's not exactly that but it definitely feels like that we're like am I having a conversation with the person here? You just pre scripted like what is going on?
01:04:25
Speaker
Cause I've, I've definitely hit conversation loops with people where I'm like, Oh, we've reset your dialogue tree. Oh, and you don't even know. We ran through the options. Yeah. So the question is breakfast with night and fog. Are they, are they like, it's just like waffle house at 2 AM breakfast. Or do you think they're like more like a Denny's crowd? Like where is, where is night and fog going for breakfast? They they don't do waffle house. No, no. They go to again for like, what's it first cracker barrel table or something. I don't, I don't see cracker barrels, but.
01:05:07
Speaker
i think I mean, she's making she's making breakfast, right? Which is part of what makes it weird. Because it's basically like she watched, they they watched a bunch of shows from the 80s of sitcoms with families. And they were like, oh, that's how married couples are supposed to behave. Okay. And so she makes the huge breakfast because that's what you see in all the movies. Nobody ever eats at all, but that's what you see. Right. Yeah. definitely makes It's scrambled eggs with the eggshells in there. Yeah. yeah It's the the leave it to beaver era of like black and white television. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's one of those moments. I'm like, Oh yeah. Oh, this is good. Like the the creep factor for night and fog. And there is, there is something to that too, right? Like they talk briefly about how night
01:05:59
Speaker
Okay. So there's another organization that sounds a lot like cauldron that they mentioned, except it's a German Nazi one, I guess. Yeah. there out yeah yeah The gazelle shaft. Yep. And it makes it sound like they, yes. yeah The shaft of Giselle. Yeah. I knew it was coming. But they they make it sound like, um yes, Michael, that is what it is. um But they make it sound like they've basically turned Night and Fog into automatons, kind of like Oni Lee was when he died. And so they're, again, I think they are, right? that But they they are actually maybe on loop. And until Crusader or Caden tell them to do something,
01:06:44
Speaker
ah huh They're just on loop. This is just what they do. That's a good observation. I think just guessing here, I think Gesellschaft is probably the you one of like the German extension of Cauldron. Like how we've seen Accord and Coyle are basically franchise members of Cauldron. Like they fall underneath it. And I imagine gazelle shaft is that, but for like, they get the, the vials I imagine. And then the once they've converted the people into having powers, like probably before and after there's probably extensive psychological conditioning that goes into it. Um, cause they talk about like, Oh, they produce monsters. Like, yeah, it's probably a lot of brainwashing plus.
01:07:44
Speaker
cauldron vials equals these powered individuals. yeah who Yeah. Could, could very well be, it does. That may have been a little bit of a spoiler, but, um, it does seem like cauldron does have their hands and everything. Yeah. I'd say because that we've already talked about that with, with a cord and coil they've mentioned, like the cauldron interlude had them talk about their interactions with coil. Um, yeah, I think and and maybe I misunderstood, misread that part, but I thought that was more implying that coil was just like, Hey, this is a good asset. We'll let him kind of do his thing for a bit and not interfere. I didn't get the sense that they were like coil was connected to cauldron. but I might have to say my vibe was that like, he's not a cauldron member, but like you said, an asset is a good word. Um, like, uh, yeah.
01:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, just the cauldrons, I mean, you get the sense that cauldron is pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes that yeah you're not kind of aware of, kind of falls into that category. ah Sort of like, I mean, they've got, you know, they've got assets that we already know about in, I mean, I take it back. We had the whole thing with ah Rebecca. ah
01:09:10
Speaker
What's her name? ah Costa Brown. Oh yeah. For all intents and purposes, the PRT is essentially an asset. Yeah. If not, I mean more, if not downright more cauldron, like then everybody else. Yeah. That is true. That is true. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, also in here, uh, just to the small note gazelle shaft, because gosh, do I love this concept? And also, you know, Germany.
01:09:44
Speaker
Um, it's just a utilitarian relationship. Like one of my biggest pet peeves is like people using friends for everything. And I'm very strict on how I defined friends and acquaintances and stuff. Um, most people in my life are acquaintances. If you're lucky, you get to be a friend. And I know a lot of people will say friend about anybody they meet on the street and Germans have a word is Elshaft, which is just a relationship. usually in like singular, but also as a unit ah of them, which is, you know, this is just strictly business basically. Hmm. It's not just like a, like a coworker. Correct. Um, but it could be, I mean, not just a coworker, like you might not work with somebody that might be like, Hey, uh, you know, you'd be like your drug dealer.
01:10:35
Speaker
We have a gazelle. We have a gazelle shaft. We're not friends. You don't get to come over and hang out. We are not friends. I give you money. You give me drugs. Some people are friends. right That's what I'm saying. And in this case, if you had gazelle shaft with your supplier, it is not friendship. The term of work relation. Strictly business. I like it. Good word. Classic German. Lend a couple of good words here. Yes. Copacetic, baby. I do love that. Um, I do love that the unit local university does have a whole para human division. Like you can, you can major in para human studies. And I also do really like, um, yeah, it's a damn, it's a damn shame that he's such a racist guy, but, um,
01:11:32
Speaker
Crusader is such an interesting character to have as the perspective here. Classic Nick. I know, I know. I keep picking the worst people, but here's ah ok here's what I think is really interesting about him. His trigger event sounds fascinating. What was in the trigger event again? So okay, so he he describes it right. They're talking about um basically the researchers saying it seems like you know people who are under a lot of physical strain, they end up with a lot more physical powers like purity. um People under a lot of emotional, psychological strain often end up with seemingly psychological powers, master classes, which is why they theorize that maybe there are more villains who are masters than heroes.
01:12:18
Speaker
And Crusader thinks back and he goes, well, my trigger event was a psychological strain, but I always thought of my power as more of a physical power. um And so he's kind of thinking back on it. And basically what I gathered, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, he had a disabled sister or a sister with disabilities. yeah who took a ton of resources from his parents, and he felt abandoned. And when she was in the hospital and sick and on life support, he decided to pull the plug. And then because people started running in, he panicked and ran, and that was his trigger event. Jeez, what a fuckin' trigger. Right? Like as a child, and I think he sounded young, I don't know how old he was, but he sounded very young when it happened. Teen or something. yeah
01:13:10
Speaker
Like again, just like, but it's one of those like, wow, wow, like I can't, wow, that's crazy. yeah You know, kind of trigger events. Um, and much like Taylor is a high amount of psychological strain. Um, actually so interesting. And then hearing him describe how his power works too, of course is, is really neat. I always loved that too. Also, I love the explanation for it. Um, this is, you know, wild though writing here, but a perfect explanation for why masters. to end up being like the traditional villain archetype. It's like they're usually lonely people who are like outliers, yada, yada, yada. And that's why they always end up like masters specifically tend to end up villains. I was like, oh, classic, you know, mega mind and, you know, all the other, just think evil, evil villain, evil villain, you know? Mm-hmm.
01:14:07
Speaker
Great explanation. Yep. I love it. And then Theo gets left. Bye Theo. Yeah. For the best. You know, good on Justin for realizing what needed to happen. Yeah. I mean, he did need to trigger, but like, I love Theo so much. He's such a good boy. And the fact that they're just like, okay, bye. like Yeah.
01:14:31
Speaker
um so tell Tell me he isn't better off. Well, I mean, Maybe he probably is, but it's, it's hard. I mean, he's going to get caught. He's going to go to the wards. It'll be fine. Well, he doesn't have powers. He's just going to get caught and they're going to be like, Oh, right. He's getting a ward of the state now. Like even better, right? Then he's yeah. He's a ha ward of the state. Um, but no, I mean, he doesn't have powers. So he's just gonna,
01:15:04
Speaker
Listen, he needed to get, he was in the definition of a toxic relationship. Yeah. Yeah. And a a toxic family. Yeah, it's probably. yoy like i think Yeah, he gets like what a year, year and a half in the orphanage and then they kick him out. So, you know, it's a little more time.
01:15:27
Speaker
kid Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he is the definition of getting handed the short end of the stick in life. ah He got beat with the short end of the stick. Yeah, basically. Which i I do also love that brief moment where Purity was like, I don't know, Max was always so confident. I can't see him having a psychological trigger. And Crusader's just like, his dad was all father. That's all you need to know. Like, even they know, like, they're like all part of the same group with the same whacked out racist views. But he's like, yeah yeah no, no, no, you, you gotta understand. Like all father was all father's racism. yeah And then there's all father. go That guy saw a mole on you. He was like, is that color? Absolutely not in my house.
01:16:20
Speaker
ah Okay. Well, broke Anna. Uh, 18.5. Yeah. Yeah. So, so moving, moving back into the story that we're, we're all here for, um, I guess, yeah, we're going to do the next two again. Uh, and then there's another interlude, but, um, 18.5, uh, everyone decides we're going to work together. The undersiders get threatened with a kill order. Uh, we have the attack of the vistas, which is ah good that we kind of at least know what's, what's happened to vista, but bad that we're now having to fight them. Um, 18.6, uh, the three visits has the three vistas are taken down, uh, with some disastrous radiation consequences. Um, and the group heads to stop Eidolon from making a very bad mistake for the outcome of this next fight.
01:17:17
Speaker
There's a lot more that, that happens in there, but because that's the, that's the, that's well, well, well. Now guess who's on board with the undersiders.
01:17:31
Speaker
How the turn tables have. Yeah. Yeah. It's strange how like, if you spend any amount of time with the undersiders, you, you like, they're, they're easily, they're easily likable. ah they they They're smart, they have good tactics. And, um you know, they might be a lot of things. Just maybe. I want to agree with you, but I don't think the undersiders are likable. Lisa, right? No, I think they're very likable. No, because hear me out, hear me out. So, bitch. Okay. um number two Point number two, region.
01:18:14
Speaker
Oh, no, I think Regent's like, I think Regent's fair. No, Regent, Regent, you know, he's a piece of shit. I don't know what to tell you. Like he's a piece of shit and he's going to be a piece of shit to other people regardless. Like that's just who he is. but but Like he can't help himself. When you think about like public school and like who the, the, the, the popular people are, a lot of them are jerks, but they're popular because they're so charismatic. Like region is super charismatic. Like, yeah, you might be an as you so like or sometimes sometimes you're just an ass. I do think we kind of have a friend colored goggles on for the undersiders. Yeah. I think I totally understand where like other characters are coming from. Lisa. says soft girl Lisa is best girl. No, no, no. If you were up against Lisa.
01:19:05
Speaker
in any way, shape, or form. Yeah. Insufferable. But they're not, though. They're not, though. We're all fighting together. We're not up against. i get Look, I get that. I understand that. I'm on your side. Lisa is best girl. Regent's still an ass. But. Yeah, that's not ah But think about this. You walk in. This is one of those things where like you think about characters in a story or anything like that. Um, I don't know if we discussed this before, but fire emblem, three houses, you get to pick three of the leaders. ah Yeah. I know so this resonates with some of you deep. Okay. You get to pick us one of the three. Okay. And you're like, gee, who am I going to pick now? Obviously the correct answer when you're making your run is black Eagles. Cause we love our empress. She's the best second run. You're like, gee, I really want to hang out with sad boy, puppy dog prints. So of course you go with him. Demetri love my baby boy.
01:20:01
Speaker
um And then your third run, you're like, I should go back to the black eagles again and do the white clouds run through. Excellent decision. Now on your fourth run through, I know you're thinking, maybe I should go back to Demetri again, but there is another less interesting character than the other two. leading to song i'm so Yes, with the golden deer. Hold on. Now the point being in all of this, you love playing with the other two, cause there's such interesting characters, but In truth, the third character is the one that I would actually want to hang out with. He's charming. He's funny. He's not bombastic pompous or, you know, really that much of an ass. Like he's just kind of a cool dude. Nothing super special about him. He's the one I would hang out with. And in this case, while I love Lisa, she would be in sufferable to get to know. Like you have to, like until you get to the friend stage and even then.
01:21:01
Speaker
Taylor, honestly, kind of probably too moody for most, most of my, she's just sitting there like, you're like, Hey, Taylor, what's going on? She's like, I'm thinking, you're like, okay, like you want to share? Like, no, like you got a bitch. And of course you're like, I don't want to get rabies. So you just move on from there. Regents, you know, just being a dick, you're like trying to be friendly and he's just a dick to you. And then later comes up, You're like, because you're an asshole. Brian, I love hot. Brian is hot. Brian is hot.
01:21:35
Speaker
Hot Brian is probably like talking to a potato sometimes. Like, his people skills are not good. And then Imp is, i you know, I can't deal with Gen Z now. Like, I can't tell what skivit-y Riz she is throwing out. So like, you know, Bet-rip-lit fam. She is that,
Noel's Power and Fight Dynamics
01:21:58
Speaker
but, you know, as a person, and I'm not about to deal with that and her power at the same time. ah So like who who on the undersiders is a good person to like oh yeah they're really friendly and I would really like to hang out with with them the answer is nobody they're not good like
01:22:19
Speaker
I don't think you're actually choking as you're talking about this. Just to go back to the three houses thing. Ironically, I did pick Claude on my first run because he was the only one who didn't come across as a pompous asshole. Um, but that is only a reference that like. 1% of our fans will get. yeah i think And I would like to think Vic is that 1%. Don't put that on Vic. Don't Vic doesn't need to succumb to your weird off-topic little tangent nonsense.
01:22:54
Speaker
Vic, this is a comment if you know. Also, Alan on YouTube chats, shout out to you, Alan. I know you know what I'm talking about. I'm calling them. That's all that I have said though. I'll start calling out names. WolfKamer9, you know? Give it to me. Is that, you got more? Yeah. Give me more. What you got? Lizard of Oz, lest I invoke him. No, don't, don't bring Lizard of Oz with it. Look, the point is Alan has long tangents that we sort of get. And so what you're saying is, to sum it up, is that the undersiders aren't great to look at. I didn't say that. They're probably really attractive. Okay, let me rephrase. The undersiders aren't great friend material. Oh. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.
01:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So now that we've summed that up. You know what it is? here one One thought I had in the midst of all of that very much shorter than Alan's rant. Lisa's a mean girl. Yeah. Yeah. That's, you know. I'm surprised that she and Taylor are friends. Actually, yes. To be honest. Well, Taylor had no friends and then Lisa was kind of nice to her. That's all it takes really. One semi nice person. and Sometimes they have really, you know, they we can't forget their little shopping stuff. I love those moments. Lisa was cool. A lot of these people, but brought I'll say Brian, you know, Lisa Taylor would probably be a lot better to get along with, but you'd have to break into that friend stage and that initial push, like they walk in the room and you're like, I have to be friends with them. Like, absolutely not. I can see that. like That's fair.
01:24:40
Speaker
But we also love them. Yes. We do like them a lot. We do. Love conquers all, right? Anyways, back to the fight. It doesn't conquer Noel. I'll tell you that right now. Yeah, it didn't work out too well for them here. Which section have we gotten to it yet? Which section is Tattletale absolutely taking apart, ya boy?
01:25:08
Speaker
i don' know idle on we pet we're past yeah yeah that that we we've passed that that yeah I forgot I just I forgot if I had written oh wait. Yeah 18.4. Fuck you idol on you weak ass bitch. Okay. Yeah, there it goes on there it is. he says's great Sorry yeah They try to take on a bunch of vistas they do try it doesn't go very well No, I love i love how Noel's power gives the clones like corrupted versions of the initial power. Oh, really cool. It is cool. Yeah. That, uh, I love just instantly. Instantly we have just off like two people, yeah the Chicago wards roll up and, and, and that's it.
01:26:00
Speaker
Just radioactivity to the face. Yeah. Who's the one to, I think it's, um, one of them, maybe Rayman. So he's just want, and he's just like, I'm going to die. Aren't I just immediately. Oh, no, that's Rayman sir. That's Rayman. Rayman sir gets the radiation to the face. Gosh, I had wantons like change back and they they're like, he can't cause as soon as he does the radioactivity is going to hit him. He brings it back into himself. Yeah. Jesus. Fuck. Yeah, it's it's such a, and just the way that the corrupt vistas are described again, I think there's going to be a little bit of a stretch of, um, what is it? The believability factor here with Taylor being blind, but just the way that they're described as being angular pulled ripped. It's like, it's like Vista, but stretched out and then compressed again, and then stretched out and compressed again.
01:26:57
Speaker
And then, yeah, like you said, just the fact that she gives these corrupted versions of their powers. I'm trying to remember all the different things that the VISTA can do. There's the one that can make Noelle two-dimensional, which is why. She just straight up linked to the past in her ass. Yeah, for real. And then there's the one, yeah, the radiation explosions where it's who it's like VISTA's power, right? It's expanding it, but it's doing it through radiation rather than whatever space magic this uses. Yeah. Yeah. I imagine it has something to do with like stretching distance between molecules or something so that like it's ripping them apart. So they're unstable. So instead of it stretching the whole of space, it's just stretching, like ripping like electrons out or some, you know, something like that, where all of a sudden all the things are unstable in the space that she affects. I mean, of all the people,
01:27:53
Speaker
that Noelle could have grabbed this does not a great option for you know for our side probably one of the worst ones she could have grabbed yeah which i mean i'm sure was why she did it but yeah yeah because Noelle Noelle said in the video in the FaceTime call with the everybody um she's like i could smell how powerful she was um yeah Which we didn't really talk that enough about maybe. That call with Noelle is so creepy where she's like, I think you're lying to me. I can smell them near you. It's okay if you have to lie though. I completely understand. it Just like so creepy. Oh, that's great. It's so good. It's weird that she's kind of been stuck in the basement for so long, like someone this powerful. And like, obviously we all know why.
01:28:44
Speaker
ah safety for everybody and also the plan was to go home so like she was willing to hang out in the basement, but Like the fact that we've had like like the fact that she's kind of been under the city of this entire time Like she's just been chillin eaten cows by the mouthful like she's just been Hanging out like this huge monstrous problem S tier threat Just hanging out beneath her feet. Like, ah but they make it past a, uh, make it past a couple of the vistas. Yes, they do. I forget what it is, what, uh, Taylor's or Skitter's interactions with the Chicago wards, but, uh, there's something that she says and I love that tech done just because.
01:29:43
Speaker
of the way, you know, powers and mindsets are written. Tecton basically as a rock dude respects solid conviction. So when Taylor's like, this is how it is, he's like, cool. I respect that. Yeah. I mean, you believe that strongly about it. Yeah. Hell yeah. I don't even remember what that was. I just remember. Yeah. Cause that was when, that was when they were saying like, look, people are coming to get Raymancer and Wanton. we could really use your help to fight. Turns out they really needed Tecton's help at least. yeah yeah And Tecton's like, you know what, either they're telling the truth or they're not. If they're not, we'll deal with it when we get there. And if they are telling the truth, then it's better for everybody. Which again, I'm so glad he does that because it would have been so frustrating if we'd had another Flechette-Perian moment where it's like, we're Amy, Amy moment as well.
01:30:37
Speaker
where they're like, I can't work with you, I'm a good guy, you're a bad guy, wah, wah, wah. And Grace kind of starts down that road and Tecton's like, nah, we just gotta do what we gotta do, Grace, you don't have to get on board if you don't want to, you can leave. Is Tecton the leader? I think he is, right? I think so. Yeah, I think he's the leader. That was my assumption at least. Yes. Tecton stands on business. Thank you, Jacob. I'm gonna keep saying it. ah and And technically, yeah and i i do like I do think it's at least my understanding is it's implied that Wanton might still live. He just has to be able to hold his form for like 15 minutes or so.
01:31:23
Speaker
But he's never held it that long. Yeah. Yeah. He has to hold it until the team can get there to potentially clear up the mess. ah But yeah, it's that he hasn't, he hasn't been able to like hold the form for that long before. Like he's tried, but we don't know. So like leaving him here is very much of like a, well, who knows? You know? Yeah. ah It's ah scary. yeah Imagine. Yeah, we better come back to him. Like, we we better come back to him in the next arc because I really want to know if he made it and I really hope he does. I really like these wards. They're they very cool. Yeah. All right. um Interlude.
01:32:06
Speaker
um Let's see here. We're on donation interlude three. Number three. so Okay, so for this next interlude, um we are seeing the story from the perspective Perspective of Jessica Yamada, who is a therapist. um Jessica meets with a bunch of different people in this in this interlude. She has meetings with Victoria, which we love seeing Victoria again. Make sure that she's doing somewhat okay.
01:32:39
Speaker
ah sveta Clock blocker, Weld, Flechette, Kidwin, Vista, and finally, Eidolon. There's a bunch of different stories that all kind of intersect here, but all told from Jessica's point of view. Okay. Can I say something real quick before anybody else says? No. I have a guess. I have a guess. Nope. Hannah, stop. There you go. My guess, Alan, this was your favorite part of this whole arc. um
01:33:09
Speaker
So technically the Taylor, the Taylor clock blocker conversation is my favorite. but But right behind it, I have, yeah Hell yeah, Miss Yamada. I could do this all day. You've talked so much about how you love the mundane in these like big universes. I'm like, Alan would just die for a whole novel from Jessica Yamada's perspective. Also, notoriously, Alan fucking loves Jessica Yamada. Like fucking loves her.
01:33:45
Speaker
Like I know this. Okay. This isn't okay. Number one, cause you know, just a healthy conversation, right? Number two, like she interacts in the most interesting ways with people. Like, cause you know, therapy, it's therapy. we We do stand a mentally well, queen. We do. We really do. You know, honestly, she needs it. She's getting overworked. She needs to take better care of herself. Like, I get it. There's a lot going on cause everybody needs her, but you know, she needs to take care of herself first before she can take care of others.
01:34:25
Speaker
I have to say, see that in this chapter.
Psychological Struggles and Mental Health Themes
01:34:27
Speaker
In my mind, I know these are all like teenagers and young adults, so it's probably a pretty normal looking room. But in my mind, Eidolon is sitting in like a much smaller chair and like, just walks into the room. It's like holding a teddy bear, you know? He just like sits down, his knees are too high. Yeah, exactly. We get to see Sveta. We get to see Sveta. Yeah. And we also learn As you know, I finally did later on and like my second read through of this, uh, that's Feta and Matryoshka are not the same person. Not the same person. Cause we see Matryoshka later on in this arc. Yeah. We, I think we talked about this last time we recorded. Is it this one? I thought it was the next one. The next interlude. Yeah. I was just like, Oh.
01:35:16
Speaker
ah oh They're very similar, one clearly much more volatile than the other, but they have incredibly similar powers. And both with, I'll just say very Russian names. so yeah um Well, also known as a, her code name being Garrett or Garrott. Yeah. Garrott wire is just wild as well. Yeah. But it makes sense because Jessica goes in in the suit and immediately gets strangled. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, I'm sorry about hurting you. She's like, no, it's fine. It's supposed to do that. Cause if I tell her she'll squeeze harder. Yeah. She'll freak the fuck out.
01:36:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I love Sveta. Man. Poor thing. Just, yeah, it's just such an interesting thing. So she is, Sveta is an interesting character, right? Just physically is one of those, again, really fascinating side characters. Basically just a face floating on top of a ton of like razor sharp black tentacles. Isn't it a mask? I don't think it looks like a mask. It looks like a mask, but I think she says she describes it as looking like a mask because I think that's what she is. Like she's one of the case 53s whose body got altered by cauldron. Um, and it's just her face and that's all that's left of her as a human basically, or as a ah human body, right? Yeah, she's all tentacally. Yeah, she's, she's essentially in my head. She's a black,
01:36:58
Speaker
you know, octopus goo like thing. And the tentacles are constantly like fluctuating and snapping out. And she just like requires tension. Uh, you know, you treat her almost is going to sound weird, but you treat her almost like a heavily autistic child when you're talking about like weighted blankets and textures and like pressure for things. Um, like, You know, she needs that literally to grab things and to have like extreme tension on it to feel comfortable. Um, yeah. And to constantly be snapping and things like that. ah And it seems like it takes her a lot of effort to relax. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Just to relax enough to like, you know, whipper snapper across the room to like her little cat tree.
01:37:55
Speaker
and hang out over there for a bit. But maybe her and Swan Lake Victoria can become friends. Yeah, I like that idea. Is she still Swan Lake? Well... Is that what we're calling her? I mean, the ugly duckling also works, but like... Well, it described her as having a swan-like neck, you know? So I was going to call her spam, but sure. No! No, that was when she was in her coffin cocoon form. Yeah. She's inside a meat brick. She's taken form swan-like. I like swan-like. Swan-like works. Very black swan vibes,
01:38:37
Speaker
I guess. She's still a pile, isn't she? Well, she's a formed ish pile, right? Well, yeah. Cause I said that Amy, Amy said like, she's like, I tried to put her back together, but then I kept making mistakes. And now she's like in a vaguely human shape, but with a neck that's too long and yeahed limbs the order of, uh, abomination we'll call it was, uh, she got acid. You know, so normal to acid. So she's very messed up like that. Then she gets stuck in the stasis crystal. Yeah. Where you still human, like she's still the burnt human on the inside and the cocoon thing is more to talk.
01:39:21
Speaker
protect her while she's getting on in there. Right. Finally, you have her getting worked on, which went horribly wrong and resulted in multiple arms, legs, one neck, the swan neck. And she is a pile. She has not changed from the pile yet. She is just goopy with limbs. She is big goop. She she looks like I imagine if y'all have seen made in abyss, she gives off strong. What is it? Mimi vibes. You know what I'm talking about. Uh, it's maybe it's something. that do do now oh yeah Oh, now that's some side. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about though. Uh-huh. Yeah. That creature.
01:40:07
Speaker
um What is this? How come if you want to participate, go to Google, look up Mitty from, what was it? Mitty, M-I-T-T-Y from Made in Abyss. it's It is an anime in which um people are traveling down into the earth and the further you go, the crazier shit gets. You can't really go back up at a certain point. If you go back up, you'll just die. So your body um basically deforms itself. There is a certain, ah and spoilers by the way for the show, ah there is a certain um set of of ah
01:40:43
Speaker
much like Case 53's experimentations that are happening to see what happens to a body when it is viciously thrust upwards, um you know, instead of going downwards. And there's ah there's someone who gets deformed pretty badly, and she's just kind of a mindless drooling blob. It's not great. It's very traumatic. ah The show's phenomenal, if anyone's interested in watching it. But yeah, no, Mitty is... Yeah. Lovely. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Great. Good job. Do we all look at the picture? Yeah. The picture's horrifying. Yeah. that That used to be, that used to be human. That used to be a person. Yeah. so You get the vibe and I imagine that, but multiple limbs. With this one neck. Disgusting. Or Victoria. Jesus. just No wonder she needs therapy.
01:41:34
Speaker
and Really? Yeah. Which Lord knows, you know, with the blinking, what, what is it? Uh, butterfly in the, what is that, that movie butterfly in the bell jar or something like that, you know, butterfly in the diving bell. Yeah. With her butterfly in the diving bell ass blinking to communicate man. Yeah. ah Having to, to go through and blink for the letters to spell out words like that is. God, poor Victoria. Like when we think back to when we first met her and, you know, her in an alley throwing people, villains, and cars around. Gosh, good old bank good time. So you could just kick dumpsters into white supremacists. And now we're left with this. Yeah, it's it' very upsetting. and Yeah, this one hurts. As it should be. Yeah.
01:42:21
Speaker
Really, it really makes, you know, when we're spilling it out like this, Eidolon's gotta to grow the fuck up. For like real. We're going through like the most traumatic experiences you can imagine. And then Eidolon's like, I'm just not as strong as I want to be.
01:42:46
Speaker
big potato my little girl said something and it really hurt my he wings ah yeah and feel like a big man and I feel like I don't know why I'm just thinking back to like Toy Story with but buzz. One minute error. Roman, what does he say? Roman the galaxy. And then you're sucking down Darjeeling and just like, he's just so out of it and just doesn't care anymore. This is a nice bit moment. This is a nice bit. Yeah. Thank you. That's what it is. I do actually really like his conversation, but, uh, yeah, compared to the rest, it's, yeah, it's kind of pathetic compared to what everyone else is dealing with. But I, they, I mean,
01:43:35
Speaker
Compare, and like obviously, we're seeing this from Jessica's, Jessica Yamada's perspective, but like like whose's problem who's got problems and who doesn't have problems? And Victoria and Sveta fall into that category of like they have lots of problems and they need lots of help. Block blocker, weld, fleshhead, kid win, vista. like they're all therere They all have like decent family situation, decent work situation. like They have people who care about them who are like actively You know in their lives they have limbs that work, you know um big one and then you know, yeah and and so but but at the same time like all of their problems like even if they you know in comparison to like Victoria seem minor like they're still
01:44:19
Speaker
important to Jessica. And I like that. I like that we're still seeing this from her perspective. is like As a therapist, like she's seen the whole range of it. And to her, it's still important regardless. who' like clock and Is it clock blocker or is it kid win? who's big when I think it's kid win. He basically kicks his feet up and he's like, I don't really need this. But her response is still like, I understand. That's totally fine. I'm here if you want to talk. like Because she's a good fucking therapist. like Even with Eidolon's big crybabiness, she's still a good therapist. she She'll listen and like offer excellent advice. you know yeah good It's a good perspective to to to tell kind of all of these stories from. Yeah, she nails it. Or perhaps Wildbo nails it.
01:45:09
Speaker
ah bark I didn't mean to be a bark. I'm tired. it
01:45:23
Speaker
ah let's let's yeah Let's go ahead and keep moving. we got yeah we got but we do have it we do have i don't I'll tell you right now, and this isn't a boring thing. this is just a I have no notes for the next two chapters. There, um ah does I mean, where're we're getting into the fighting here. So 18.7, Chapter 7, the group watches Eidolon face off against Noelle. She makes more clones. um Taylor has the realization that Noelle is spitting out killer bugs that she unfortunately cannot control, which is hugely problematic. um ah Chapter eight, Taylor tries to reason with some of the um like regular people clones that have been spit back out, and clearly that's just that's just not going well. oh man um So yeah. ah Some backup arrives for both sides of the conflict. Trickster ah pulls a Yui and betrays the undersiders. And Taylor gets eaten. No.
01:46:16
Speaker
Yeah. Not fun. A cliffhanger. Yeah. Oh yeah. Which we don't resolve. The next two chapters are interludes. So we don't find out what happens to Taylor until next arc. So two weeks from now, listeners.
01:46:31
Speaker
I really like the description of Eidolon and Noelle fighting. Me too. Me too. Yeah. It's a fun, it's a fun fight. The gravity powers. Yeah. I love the gravity powers. That's very fun.
01:46:47
Speaker
And, and yeah, it turns out the Tekton really wasn't needed because he's the one who helps create that antlion pit that they try to keep her down. yeah um And it's still not enough to stop her. Yeah, it's crazy how strong she is. Well, she starts spitting audience to like walk back on to get that was gross sliding down. Like, Oh, like, Oh, how did you get traction by vomiting up human you know, body clones like, oh, I like how I do. I do like how Lisa was trying to be encouraging a tailor after the killer bugs came out. Like, well, don don't blame yourself. She could make copies of bugs everywhere. And Taylor's like,
01:47:32
Speaker
I control all of the bugs. Well, you didn't give her like the deadly ones though, right? You mean the black widows and the hornets? You mean the useful ones? Of course. It was the only ones out there. I'm a bug girl. What did you expect from me to do? And I'm blind. I've got to be putting bugs on everything in order to see it. Jesus Taylor, this is why I'm so over over it because I'm like, I just I just need her to have her eyes back Please gosh, could she just stop being disabled for like a second? yeah clipping that yeah and it's not What I'm saying but opinion and posting it
01:48:18
Speaker
the
01:48:22
Speaker
Definitely. the That's going on. That's going out of the soundboard. could you not be disabled person yeah yeah I mean, ah it's such a gross fight, but I do love it. I do love, um, how Noel and Eidolon are having a conversation. And at first, Taylor's trying to get it and you think, oh, maybe this is a real conversation, right? Like, is Eidolon actually gonna be able to convince Noel to stop? But then, Taylor just realizes, oh no, they're both just setting up, right? Eidolon's waiting for his powers to charge up. And Noel is hoping that this, ah you know, the, the what' what is it, the evil elite can shoot him.
01:49:09
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Evil lead. It is warped his power so that it actually works. yeah An actual functional lead. An actual evil twin. and another good ra yeah Another great imp and groom moment, too. i know are they're like like You got to get imp out of there and everybody's like, what? Where is she? That's the last thing you need a bunch of evil clones running around. Oh my god. You'd just be like, why am I so sore? Brian's just over here. Why is my dick feel like it's been kicked multiple times?
01:49:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah. ah We've talked about it before a little bit with that kind of like, Gru is like the big brother that's trying to take care of the little sister and Imb is like, fuck you and disappears. I love that so much. That like older, older sibling, younger sibling dynamic is just the absolute best. Of course, like it doesn't work out very well here, but I, I still love it every time it happens where Gru's like, God damn it, like where is she? Yep, it's very fun. I do also love ah Taylor's ah attempted conversation with the clones. Yeah, which is making me laugh. Like it's very, it's very like old crocodile hunter where you're like, why you can't, it's an alligator. Why are you talking to it?
01:50:37
Speaker
but which she's a good like Hey, here's the thing, but did he win? You know, he caught all those crocodiles. That's true. It was to say the talking didn't help. Amen. It did. It did. That's true. Good point. Yeah. Taylor just takes a moment to be like, let's perform some experiments here. Why are you the way you are?
01:51:08
Speaker
why are you and I got sucked up into this lady's stomach, got turned around and now I'm just here and want to kill. I can't say much else. I love her response to it. He's like, I want to kill everything. And she's like, okay, so once you kill everything, then what? And he's like, I'm going to burn the school to the ground. She's like, cool. So after you do that, then what? I'm going to kill everybody in the school. Okay, solid. What about that? I'm going to kill my whole family and burn down the house and especially the cats. Okay, solid. So after you've done all of those things, what next? I will kill everybody in the city. like She's like, then what? Jesus.
01:51:45
Speaker
yeah like Do you not grasp but he is on a murdering spree and also he is not human like he is a weird clone thing like ah Also, Taylor, if you're so conflicted because she's like, she's got those kind of internal struggle. We're like, they're not human. They're not human. It's like, well, probably don't try to have a conversation with them. Probably going to help, you know, a little distance yourself from that. yeah Yeah. You're going to run into a clone that like gives you an answer that you don't feel comfortable with. And then you're not going to kill them because you're like, well, that one clone, like imagine the clone turns around and does this like, Oh man.
01:52:18
Speaker
Oh, I got to tell you, like, this is rough. Life's hard, hard man. Just she would have been like, five and out here we're gonna say and then he like tries to approach him, put the hand on the shoulder and the clones just like. I just can't kill him fast enough. It's so hard. yeah yeah
01:52:37
Speaker
oh yeah just yeah that That'd be Taylor's new irrational obsession. Like I, yeah I have to help this one clone. Our fixation has shifted to the clones now. ahsh What hostage situation trigger event did you have that makes you like ah just to help these lost souls? Yeah. I mean, I do, I get like, if Hannah was in, in Taylor's shoes, like Hannah would not, I would not, I i would be asking myself the same question. Like I would also have, it have a hard time like just cutting people down. She's young and she wants to be a good guy still.
01:53:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know, she's still, she's, she's wrestling. She's wrestling.
01:53:30
Speaker
That's fair. It isn't, you know, who would I love to get in a headlock? a Damn it. All five of you said one at a time, one at a time. One more time. I remember now. I was just going to say Alex shut the fuck up. Go it, Nick. Mine's very brief. And I was just going to say, it's a nice tie into the beginning with where ballistic says, you guys have no idea what you're talking about when they're like, maybe we shouldn't kill Noel. And he's like, no, no, no, you got to kill that bitch.
01:54:05
Speaker
That's true. ah Okay. Alan. Yeah, no, if you, uh, I would love to put trickster in a headlock and beat the shit out of him. Cause now I remember why I fucking hated trickster that like the entire first two read throughs and we're just like, what a piece of shit the whole time. Which is funny. Cause you know, like read through one, I just remember hating him like up to this. And this was just par for the course. And then in two, I was like, yeah, cause he's a piece of shit. And then three for this read through, I was just like, Oh, like actually, you know what? He's kind of cool. And then we hit this and I went, no, I fucking hate his ass. What? What? yeah What a piece of shit. I'm not convinced. I still like him. I still like trickster. Yeah. Straight, straight to jail. Straight to jail.
01:54:58
Speaker
yeah i mean I like him here because, so you know, again, we kind of mentioned it before, if Armors Master was here, he'd be like, all right, Undersiders, sorry, I'll line up. And that's kind of what Trickster's doing, is just giving Noelle what she wants. And I think if reads like there's part of it, like he still wants to save her. yeah But but he he doesn't know how, like nobody knows how. No one knows how. I think the first time I read through, and maybe this is something from later on, but in my head, like,
01:55:29
Speaker
When he did this, this moment, my original thought was he betrayed the undersiders because fuck them. I'm with Noel all the way, ride or die. And this time when I read it, I went, oh no, he's doing the negotiation, which was I give you the undersiders, I fuck off and die. like And I don't think I've realized that until this read through that he's not doing it because he's ride or die Noel. He's doing it because, uh, partly fuck the undersiders, but, you know, cause he's trying to get her to leave. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's that, but he also does give them, he, he gives Noel some of the tricks, some of the travelers too, right? does see Oh my God. think so gives He gives her, he gives her grew and then he gives her Taylor.
01:56:24
Speaker
and And somebody else? Regent. And Regent. And Regent. Oh, and Regent. Okay, yeah. So I guess not. Oh no, he's moving the travelers out of the way. That's what it was. Yeah, he's swapping the travelers. Yeah, because they all come in and they go like, you know, ballistic shoots her a couple of times. She's fine. um And Sundancer says, look, we all agreed. um We agreed. i I'm going to have to kill you now. I'm going to burn you up. And then that's when Trickster's like, you know what, maybe not, maybe we just give him the undersiders. But knowing that nobody else on his team is with that plan, as predicted once again by ballistic, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's right. God, if I were ballistic, I got my hands on him. I fucking launch him into the sun. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, like at this point- His ass would be gone.
01:57:17
Speaker
Yeah, ballistic shows ah a lot of restraint
Cauldron's Mysteries and Noelle's Inner Turmoil
01:57:21
Speaker
in this entire story for someone with his power set. juststein I feel like that might still be like, even though he's, he doesn't want to, like he's very, you know, pro murder Noel, like in the end, like these are still, these were still his friends. Yeah. were were our i mean there's this there There's got to be a some some lingering attachments that are still there. you know like yeah in his mind in like In all of their minds, like the understanding that like well Noel isn't Noel anymore. like Noel died that day in Madison. you know And like you can kind of tell yourself that, like okay, cool, fine. And trickster has always been a dick.
01:58:02
Speaker
but like he was my friend once. And so like, I imagine that those ties are still there even, you know, maybe cut a lot, but maybe not cut completely. So like the tough choice of being like, well, where, where am I supposed to stand in all of this? Like trying to convince yourself even that's like, well, you know, we'll take down Noelle because it's not really her. And then we'll, you know, we'll figure it out kind of thing. Yeah.
01:58:32
Speaker
I mean, they've stayed committed as a group this whole time. Like that says something. Yeah. I think it's been, I think it's been partially a matter of in a lot of their minds of necessity. Yeah, for sure. What with, what with of course the belief that if the PRT gets their hands on them, they'll isolate them because of the quarantine. Um, they're still looking for a way to get home, although they're not sure exactly what that would look like. were what they would do even when they get there. And I think it's just been a matter of, you know, necessity. These are the people I need around me to survive. I would not survive in this world without them. But like ballistic says, you know, he says something early on about like, he was our leader and he was doing what he thought was best. And he still is, but it's gotten to the point now where what he thinks are good decisions are not good decisions. Um,
01:59:24
Speaker
And, and I do think i I disagree a little bit, Alan, I know that. I think you said like, you know, he's trying to give Noel the undersiders as the deal get her to go away. I do. I do think there is still a bit of that commitment to Noel that like, I think so too. You know, I think that's part of what the, uh, the simmer or simmer, uh, put into his head is this ultra commitment to Noel at all costs. And, you know, like we find out later in the interlude, what the simmer put into Noel's head was all of her self insecurities. um For Trickster, I think it was this insane obsession with needing to fix or to make Noelle okay or to protect her, which he he kind of showed back when they were dating um with his being like, hey, I think we can get through this, even though she didn't really want to date him in a way. I don't know. It's it's very complex, of course, and it's very, as part of why I do like Trickster as a character, obviously not as a person.
02:00:23
Speaker
As a person, he is something else. Yeah. And all right. We got a one hell of a cliffhanger ending. You really do. Oh. And two more interludes. Yeah. So ah like I said, she ate. She ate. So the next interlude is another donation interlude, and it follows fault line and following crew. as they hunt for clues about cauldron. um We get a little bit of an insight into their group's dynamics a little bit and they go back to Madison looking for clues, ah meet up with some other people um and come back to the hotel. They get a call, Fault Line gets a call from Tattletale and as ah as a hire basically.
02:01:13
Speaker
come work for me, and as she goes back upstairs finds out that a a shadowy stranger um gives them a warning, a stranger in a fedora ah gives them a warning to stop looking into Cauldron. We've talked no powers, took them all out.
02:01:33
Speaker
In seconds. Well, we don't, we don't know that she has no powers. Well, that's what that, that's their, their words there. Yeah. Oh, did did they say that Russian? They did. She used powers like, no, she basically just hand to hand. That's all out super fucking got everybody to, you know, use their powers against each other and whatnot. Which i've I've talked before about how many things I don't remember from this book. I do remember her. as soon as As soon as she popped in, I was like, I was like, wait, no, I remember her. And I remember her whole backstory, too. Very fun. Which is shocking that i of all the things that I would remember. Right. But you choose to remember. Yeah, exactly. Right. My brain's like, we're going to file that one away forever. But math, you don't need that.
02:02:22
Speaker
Um, I do love though, you know, they go to Madison, right? So this is of all of the, of all of the interludes, this one feels the most directly connected. And ah and I think, yeah I guess Jessica Yamada is pretty connected as well. Um, but this one feels even more connected. And of course, part of that is like with tattletale calling and saying, Hey, I need your help with something. I think it's, you know, in the moment of when everything's happening. Um, And yeah, so it feels very connected because they go back to Madison. They meet matryoshka. They invite her to join their crew. Um, you know, break into this quarantine and the quarantine is a lot crazier. I mean, for the travelers sake, it's a good thing they got out, right? Cause it is wild in there. Yeah. Golly. They don't really talk about it much, but it seems like there's some really weird shit going on in there. Like some real monster shit.
02:03:20
Speaker
Well, yeah, because there are still monsters roaming around that, um, that, uh, the simmer brought in. right on top all right Yeah. and And on top of that, there's this basically they it's been turned into again, like a post-apocalyptic wasteland because the whole city has been walled off. Nobody's allowed to leave. Nobody's allowed in. No food or supplies are getting in. It's all just. It's Mad Max up in there. Yeah. Um, Gregor and Shamrock. Fucking cutest thing ever. It makes me so happy. Gregor deserves all of the fucking best. And I don't know Shamrock very well, but he seems very nice. Uh, Gregor deserves the best and I'm very happy for him.
02:04:12
Speaker
I do love how Fault Line's whole crew, despite the fact that they are gross visibly, for the most part, do seem to be the most well-adjusted of all of the groups we meet, oddly enough. Yeah. They've figured out how to... They've got systems for their everything. For their crazy, yeah. Yeah. Of all the teams I'd want to be a part of, they're the first pick. Easy. Yeah. Easy. They look out for each other. They're all on the same page. Like, yeah, just. Oh, yeah, for sure. They're good people. Except make less sweet on Kaiser's team. Yeah. so I don't want to be at Kaiser's team. Don't put that out there into the universe. but Okay, so Kaiser's dead now. Which side do you pick? Are you the cure? Or the chosen?
02:05:08
Speaker
Well, the chosen are screwed over and now. da Got it. Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no way to see my internet reputation. yeah think The words you were looking for was nine, nine, nine, nine.
02:05:32
Speaker
Uh, uh, Ironic from you of all people. Uh, wow. Alan's German, not a Nazi. I just want to clarify ah specify that one. It was those darned Austrians and you know it. god is god double down how many times have until You
02:05:58
Speaker
never deny you you you never, you never, you always deny, deny and redirect. Oh, what would Tom Brady do? What an absolute fucking mess. OK, well, anyway, I'm the victim here. I do love. I do. All
02:06:18
Speaker
it so I'm so tired. ah ah One my more. truellers wow we're so humble so yeah Should we have any other comments about this one before I i get into the final end? ask What is this? Don't ask. Can't I just move on? Okay. ok ah right. The last, the final interlude. ah Before we get there, I have one last thing.
02:06:47
Speaker
I tried. I tried so hard. I can't. Go ahead, Nick. Go ahead. See, my thing's at least you're small, Hannah. Oh, you actually did have one. Alan, and ah unlike me, Alan has many long, hard things to get through. Mine is just, you know, soft, squishy, easy. Okay. Your point? Anyways. I think he was just driving his point. tell us fault line
02:07:19
Speaker
um damn Just straight up. I know how labyrinths power works better than you. Oh yeah. I did. I did like that. I did. yeah I just liked that insufferable in fault lines. Just like, Oh, righty then. Uh, of course, I mean, and I hope I'm not importing future knowledge, but the whole thing that she's trying to do is she is trying to find a way to get the travelers back home is what it sounds like to me. And that's why she calls fault line, right? yeah okay i got that i got Yeah. She also mentioned something about Vista as well when talking about like, if we could like maybe she, you know, this, I can't remember if it's in here, but like, maybe she was thinking Noel could use, Noel got her hands on Vista. She could maybe use her spatial powers to somehow force a way back.
02:08:13
Speaker
And maybe that's why she went after Vista, not just because of the power level, but specifically because of the power. Um, and, uh, and I think, um, Tattletale realized that and is looking for space warpers. That makes sense. I honestly had not even thought about that. I think mentally, I just assumed that like she was, she had something in mind and was like, Yeah, let's get fault lines, people here. i I had not at all connected that, those two things together, but that's very cool. Yeah. I think it's all about, yeah, trying to get, trying to find a way to get the travelers back to where they belong. Um, yeah maybe a way to deal with Noel. Maybe a way to deal with Noel, but I think more, I get the sense that Tattletail is thinking further ahead in time yeah than then just dealing with Noel. Right.
02:09:13
Speaker
So anyways, just my thoughts. i mean once you know hannah Once you've dealt with the travel, no, no, I'm on this train now. Once you've dealt with the travelers, that's one less part of the pie to be dealt up of of Brockton Bay, you know? True. Like if you can get, you like if we were to take care of Noel, no Noel's dealt with, you still have the travelers like, what the fuck do we do with the travelers? Like, well, send them the fuck home. Earth, the left can deal with them. And we now have Brockton Bay to ourselves. Like why the fuck not? They would be gods back on earth. away they they really They'd be going through those comic book looking motherfuckers like tissue paper.
02:09:55
Speaker
Anyways. Yeah. Okay. The final interlude is the Echidna interlude. Um, we kind of have this back and forth between Noel and her, uh, memories that the Echidna, the monster side of her is kind of feeding her while it goes berserk. And so we, during this, this, uh, interlude, we kind of get the Noel side and we get the Echidna monster side. Uh, she organizing her team of gamers, Echidna orchestrating her battle against the capes.
02:10:32
Speaker
which is ah something just quickly on that. It got mentioned back in the Theo or the Justin interlude, um but one of the theories that they bring up is, and that they highlight is the theory of sentient powers, um that there's like some sort of sentience to them. And in this case, Noel has a very sentient echidna power, whether that's It's a split off of her that kind of manages the power in some way that she can't control. um You know, how that works with people who don't have, you know, very freakish powers like Noel does, um how that interacts. Is that like a left brain, right brain situation, you know, do do where one is like, you have a master slave system where the one just kind of is forced to do what the other tells it to.
02:11:30
Speaker
But if given free reign, you know, would essentially be doing what Noelle's doing. Um, you know, the whole, what what are those old brain split experiments where they like cut the corpus callosum and then people wake up in the night to find their like right hand trying to strangle them. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Those are super interesting. So I wonder if, you know, there's something to do with, uh, how, uh, powers have some sort of sentience like that. Um, whether that's, yeah, whether that's, uh, just, you know, it taking over a part of the brain and sectioning it off or something like that. Yeah. That, that does seem to be kind of the implication of this. Right. And, uh, Noel even says that she says like, she gets the sense that the power is almost angry.
02:12:18
Speaker
because it's like this power wasn't meant for you and you've stolen it, and sort of the feeling she gets. um And of course, then we get the realization, why did she only take half? Well, part of it was because... um Part of it was because of course she was being manipulated by the summer to focus on all of her insecurities all of her bodily issues which. We come to find out what's an eating disorder yeah and and just again how per verse and twisted.
02:12:51
Speaker
yeah Yeah Because the whole thing about her power is binging and purging Yeah, that's the whole thing like you swallow things and you spit them back out and that's how your power works Like that is so fucking twisted There's a mention. I want to say I think it's her remembering the breakup between her and um Trickster yeah, which we've seen before I'm sure you've seen before but this time perspective, um, the concept of like relationships and fairness. I always find very interesting because, you know, it's, uh, people, you know, relationships don't, you know, as long as it's kind of agreed upon relationships, don't have to be a fair trade. Like in my mind, you know, there sometimes if you're, you cannot give 100%. And in this case, like.
02:13:51
Speaker
Noelle can't like, there's a lot that she just can't do. Cause she's not comfortable with him, yada, yada. And she's like, I don't want, ah you know, I would rather break this off than have the not be able to give a hundred percent to this, um, for trickster. And I was just thinking, I was like, well, you know, the relationships are, you know, wide ranging, very varied. And, uh, the percentages of each side are not always equal. um in a variety of manners. like you're That's you know the negotiating process of every relationship ever. Yeah. And the idea that like relationships don't stay the same, like you have sides that fluctuate where you have one side that carries more of the burden at different times in the relationship. But like to her, the idea that like she doesn't think that it's worth, like she doesn't see herself as worth it. So the fact that
02:14:51
Speaker
Kraus is like, oh, i I think we're doing great. Like, I think we're good. In her mind, she's like, you're making all of these concessions for me and I am not worth it. And that is, that hurt. That one hurts. Ash. Hmm. Yeah. Also, there's a couple of weird things in this. Um, cause you know, you narrowed it down. We're pretty sure it at least involves if not directly is, um, an eating disorder of some kind, but she's got two things that she says. One is she mentions the disease at work and recovery. She talks about recovery a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Which, yeah, I was like, okay, that's, you know, that's interesting. I mean, I guess some people refer to, you know, eating disorders as disease. I mean, now they're not, I haven't heard it phrased like that when people talk about them usually.
02:15:50
Speaker
And then she said like, Oh, if only I could basically tell him what it is, if I could just say the five words. And I was like racking my head. Like, I have an eating disorder. I put, yeah, I put, I have an eating disorder. I feel like it's pretty straightforward. Yeah. Cause I was like, I was like, I assume that's what it is. I also like just racking my head through like every other problem somebody could have. The only other one I had was I am a drug addict,
02:16:24
Speaker
which I mean, yeah, good work. Good work. Yeah. No, I think i because there's like left signs, which I assume we assume is self harm. Um, and. some other, you know, other stuff. i I think it really does play into the whole eating disorder thing. Cause like she talks about like, she he should have seen how little I ate, but like when you're, you're aware of... Have Marissa pics on her. Right, right. Or start notices. Well, she notices and she also like encourages her to, to you know, encourages her within, in that space. But like the idea of the, well, she's she's and incredibly aware of her food consumption. But that's not necessarily anything that Krauss would have noticed because he's not thinking about you know food. like he he he might have like he I think he says something in the last ah arc where he's like, I guessed, basically. I guessed with the issue. He noticed it after a while. like He figured it out.
02:17:19
Speaker
um And I think doesn't Marissa... One of the things that Marissa says right after... Freakin' Noelle, sorry, forgot her name for a second. Noelle takes the potion, or maybe she comes back from the hospital in the last arc. I think Noelle says something like, I'm hungry, and Marissa gives her this look like, you are? Like... Yeah. and And at the time, that doesn't make sense because we're just like, I mean, okay, she just got out of surgery. like I guess that makes sense why she's not hungry. But like looking at it now with the idea that, like okay, well, she has an eating each disorder. but She has a really bad relationship with food in general. The fact that she you know she took took the elixir, as she calls it, ah and all of a sudden she's hungry, like that's a huge that's a huge change. Yeah.
02:18:14
Speaker
Also, Uh, sort of capped all this, there is a pretty big, uh, thing that has brought up, um, about our worlds. You know, we've talked about like, Oh, do they have this character here, that character there? You know, um, there's a lot of things that do pass back and forth. You know, obviously we're still running on like dollar bills and things like that, but you know, coins, they you know, they got rid of all the the coinage and they have like dollar coins in this one. So doing pretty solid there. ah Something they do mention here is there is a Noel in this universe. Mm hmm. Yeah. Oh, wait, what? So they mentioned that I might I may do the last chapter. So they're like, do not engage target echidna. And Noel. Is talking to Eidolon and goes echidna.
02:19:12
Speaker
And he goes, one of the PRT members called it. Uh, he has a, you know, has a daughter, three year old daughter named Noel, and he didn't want to associate her with something like you. She asks, what
Speculations and Future Developments
02:19:26
Speaker
was his last name? Now, Eidolon looks at her and says mine hard, which is Noel's last name.
02:19:34
Speaker
Shit. I'm not gonna lie, the last intro I was listening to and the audio book is a little, it gets a the ah the it gets a little, you know, not great. um So I miss that. I fucking miss that. God damn it. That's phenomenal. So while the ages don't match up, so it's not a perfect mirror, there are still alternate people in alternate worlds. to confirm that there is a Noelle Meinhard in this world, and both Elef and Bette, which makes you start to wonder about all the other possibilities. yeah I do just have to say, hot damn is it a small world.
02:20:21
Speaker
For real. The first other Noel she ever hears about is her doppelganger. Yeah, imagine if she ran into a fucking Alan. like Like... God for me, it would just be over at that point. Yeah. Yeah. Running into them left and right in this world. For real though, there are so many Allens. Yeah, a bit of a coincidence, but but still a pretty cool moment. um Yeah, that was pretty neat way to end. That kind of happens toward pretty much right at the end of the, not right at the end of the chapter, but towards the end there. it' the last It's the last bit of conversation that she has with Eidolon. Yeah. A couple of other notes real quick too about this little section that I really loved.
02:21:09
Speaker
I love that Regent retains enough of his conscience, just sassed it out well as he's getting something. Oh, God. It's so good. Can you give me some good facial hair when you pop out my clone? Can you give me some good... God damn it, Regent. I was like, dang it, Regent. Oh, my God, I love it. So sassy. More reasons to love Regent. She's about to spit your clone up and re-eat it so she can double the format shit.
02:21:39
Speaker
Yeah. This is going to look like a marshmallow in a microwave you've done motherfucker.
02:21:46
Speaker
I think we have ah wrapped this one up. and ver powers Yeah. Okay. i I do have a favorite name. Okay. Hit me. Young Buck. We totally forgot to talk about the Texas heroes. Yeah. Texas heroes. I love it. The name Young Buck. Down here in the south we get Young Buck. I fucking love it. Although I will say I had, I came up with a character that I,
02:22:23
Speaker
for for a story one time that involved powers and its you know main villain. And I thought it was so cool. And what they did is they basically fired themselves like an artillery shell. And then I was like, God damn it, young buck is that. That is what young buck is. That is young buck is. I love it so much. That's awesome. Thank you for reminding us of that, Nick. Cause I basically got biotic charge from mass effect is what he is. Yeah. I do love his power though. It is such a fun power. And just cause even Noel describes it like getting hit by him feels like getting shot by a cannon. And I'm like, that is, it's such a simple power, but it's really take a shot from a cannon. Yeah. Yeah.
02:23:19
Speaker
Just a little bit of like, oh, that stings. Ouchy. Hot, hot, hot. Oh my God. There's honestly a lot of, a lot of powers in this. Oh, we got a lot of new ones here. What was it? All the new wars. I know, I know chronicler was here. I don't remember who else. I gotta say I do like Tekton a lot. Yeah. called aseconsle
02:23:53
Speaker
yeah um Mine goes out to grace. Uh, yeah, it's pretty cool too. It's I, you know, pretty, pretty cool. Basically just a bad-ass monk type, you know, skill set. Got the super, super balance, super dexterity. can like charge up the punches. It was the one that you can like charge up the punches kind of almost. She can make her, she can make like parts of her temporarily invincible or something like that so that they hit harder. Yeah. Yeah. I did love seeing the synergy between her and Tekton. That was super fun. yeah Yeah. Again, just another example of like, ah, this is a team who knows how to work together. Right. That feeling yeah was really cool. Love that.
02:24:38
Speaker
I guess it's a little bit of a cop-out to say Eidolon, but I did really like his fight with Noelle early on. The gravity the gravity yeah abilities hitting against the like Vista clone powers was like was pretty cool. It's pretty cool to read. I mean, he's he's got different powers every time you see him, so he basically is a new character every time. Yeah, exactly. For this for this part, and yeah. Too bad he can't change his personality. oh
02:25:08
Speaker
oh shot fire what to do I also did like because they talk about Eidolon needing to, uh, can only hold like three big powers and he can't really hold a lot and does he get around that. And then, uh, Lisa kind of being like, well, you know, maybe he, he uses the gravity power. Maybe he doesn't have a separate flight power. Maybe he's sort of comboing these. And I was like, Oh man, that's super fun. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of cool ways that you can kind of think about how Eidolon gets around his limit on powers.
02:25:43
Speaker
Yeah. I'm going to say ah Sveta. I think Sveta is really cool. All the ribbony, all the ribbons and and ten tentacles, sort of, I guess. But she's just like she's got so much power, this explosive... Strength is like very cool, but like she's also dealing with how to like control it, and like learning how to breathe and deal with all of that. and
02:26:14
Speaker
I just, I think she's really cool. She's very fun. Also, she is one of the characters that I remember and I i know her future and I love it. Those are my pick. Nice.
02:26:28
Speaker
Any other thoughts? I think that's everybody. Suggestions? I like it. My only thing that I'm going to say about moving forward, because I don't remember this at all. is I'm worried about Theo. And I just want to know that he's okay. My welcome back to theo my boy. Theo No. So sad.
02:27:02
Speaker
And that's the episode, ladies and gentlemen. All right. Well with that, I think we have wrapped this up. That was arc 18. Thank you everybody for listening. yeah Uh, this was a long one, but we had a lot of fun. It was a lot to talk about. And I think we get a little, little shorter in the next arc. So, uh, you know, fingers crossed. We'll see. I forget along the next. try Yeah. Well, by shorter, i mean shorter to read, wo knowing us, we're going to go like an extra hour, but, uh, there are only chapters in arc 19.
02:27:41
Speaker
As opposed to the 13 that were in Ark 18. Okay. so Okay. A little bit, a little bit less. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. But stick around Ark 19 coming in a couple of weeks, but next week we'll be Ark 18's dissecting worm with myself and Alan. So stick around for that. It's going to be a lot of fun. And thank you to everyone here for joining in this lovely discussion that we've been having. And it's been a blast. Appreciate everybody for listening, all of our Patreon subscribers. We love you all. ah Thanks so much for...
02:28:19
Speaker
encouraging us and and joining us and and commenting and posting and critiquing and correcting and all that good stuff. We really do love reading it all. So we'll see you guys next time. Michael, would you play us out?
02:28:40
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. Read along with us at parahumans.wordpress dot.com. We'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you love? What did you hate? Anything you think we missed, etc. as long as it's kind. If you'd like to get in touch, you can find us on Twitter, threads, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit at Brockton Bay, B.C. or click the link in the description.