Transcript
Speaker: Who cares about my feelings?
Speaker: Certainly not facts.
Speaker: None.
Speaker: No facts have ever cared about your feelings.
Speaker: And you know what else is a fact?
Speaker: What's that?
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: Welcome to a brand new series.
Speaker: My name is Kevin.
Speaker: With me, as always, is Phil.
Speaker: Hello.
Speaker: And today, we're starting on Marvel's Midnight Suns Infernal Rising is the subtitle.
Speaker: So this is the prequel book.
Speaker: Do you have a physical book, Kevin?
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: You have a physical book?
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: You didn't put it on your Kindle.
Speaker: Sometimes I do this.
Speaker: It's wild.
Speaker: What's funny, though, is I have a physical book.
Speaker: Didn't read it.
Speaker: I listened to it.
Speaker: Um...
Speaker: You can see actually, you can see over my shoulder here.
Speaker: That's that's these are these are my this is my video game novelization shelf.
Speaker: Oh, that's your pixelate shelf.
Speaker: You see you go here.
Speaker: That's adorable.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: There's all kinds of good stuff in there.
Speaker: I have this copy now of Marvel Midnight Sunset.
Speaker: Look at that spine.
Speaker: Perfectly smooth.
Speaker: Pristine.
Speaker: This is a pristine... I can resell this when I'm done as like new.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: I actually do use the book on the second because I do like a speed read after I've listened to it to take my notes, but...
Speaker: I think that's a good idea.
Speaker: I try not to rely too much on the audiobook thing, no matter how convenient it is, because it is real easy to just kind of blank out and go, wait, what the fuck just happened?
Speaker: No, yeah, I've done that before, especially now that I'm listening to... I'm still working my way through the first Horace Heresy book, and sometimes...
Speaker: I will miss paragraphs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So because the names and the things just kind of run together and then be like, oh, oh, they're killing people now.
Speaker: OK, what just happened?
Speaker: How did that happen?
Speaker: Why are they where that was their blood and guts?
Speaker: I got news for you, man.
Speaker: That happens when you actually just read the books, too.
Speaker: They are dense.
Speaker: They are dense.
Speaker: Dan Abnett is a dense, dense writer.
Speaker: Very descriptive.
Speaker: Very descriptive writer.
Speaker: But we're not talking about Dan Abnett.
Speaker: No, not yet.
Speaker: We're talking.
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: Not yet.
Speaker: We're talking about probably the favorite of our show.
Speaker: Uh, S.D.
Speaker: Perry.
Speaker: Phil, do you have anything new to say about S.D.
Speaker: Perry?
Speaker: No!
Speaker: S.D.
Speaker: Perry, she's still writing!
Speaker: It's great!
Speaker: I think that was the most exciting thing about this.
Speaker: Like, S.D.
Speaker: Perry is another one of our work-for-hire workhorses.
Speaker: She's a badass.
Speaker: She's, uh, for those of you
Speaker: who are trying to place that name, I invite you to join us in our first ever episode with the first Resident Evil book and then join us in our first year anniversary episode where we read the second Resident Evil book.
Speaker: Who knows this year there might be another Resident Evil book.
Speaker: There might be another one.
Speaker: But she's definitely our most read author.
Speaker: Yeah, she's, and I have a feeling she's just going to be.
Speaker: Apparently she also wrote the Uncharted novelization.
Speaker: Oh, well there, oh shit, that's gotta be on the list.
Speaker: No, she's just a really solid, um,
Speaker: you know, consistent writer.
Speaker: I remember her very fondly from when I was younger and I would read a lot of the alien and alien versus predator novels and that sort of thing, which she and her dad were both heavily involved in.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, so she's, she's a fan favorite as far as I'm the fan.
Speaker: Uh, so she's, she does good work and, uh, and we're not spoiling anything here by saying so far, this is another, you know, great, uh,
Speaker: Great book by S.D.
Speaker: Perry so far.
Speaker: We're really enjoying it.
Speaker: Midnight Suns, if you are not aware, is a video game made by Firaxis and not just not just Firaxis, but Jake Solomon, who is the the daddy of the new XCOM series.
Speaker: It is a turn based strategy game, but it's not like XCOM.
Speaker: It is card based.
Speaker: You're not positioning dudes to do attacks on each turn.
Speaker: It's not tactical.
Speaker: So basically, you've got your heroes.
Speaker: You've got three heroes on your team.
Speaker: You get drawn seven cards to start.
Speaker: fighting some guys, and you use these cards to defeat them.
Speaker: And you got two levels.
Speaker: There's some enemies with health bars that need to be whittled down.
Speaker: And then there's other dudes that our friend of the show, Hot Sider, refers to as Jobbers.
Speaker: I keep thinking about that.
Speaker: I've started playing it, and I keep thinking about when you told me about that, and now I'm playing it.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, that's the perfect term.
Speaker: They're total Jobbers.
Speaker: Just knock them out.
Speaker: There's guys that you get knocked out and won no matter how much damage they take.
Speaker: They're down.
Speaker: And it's great.
Speaker: It's perfect for a game featuring superheroes because you need jobbers to really fill things out.
Speaker: You need to have be able to throw Captain America's shield and
Speaker: And knock out like seven dudes with that shield in one throw.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And what's it?
Speaker: I was in a chat with some friends the other day and one of them said that basically the.
Speaker: way they create these jobbers, that they have these jobbers in Midnight Suns, it's kind of like perfecting the, whatever those zombie guys were in XCOM 2.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, the, it's not the Fallen, is it?
Speaker: It's one of those guys, the,
Speaker: headshot and keep going.
Speaker: Yeah, the fallen, the fallen, the chosen were the, were the assassin people and the fallen were the, the zombie dudes.
Speaker: Um, it's kind of like a better version of that, uh, because there was still a little too much stuff that you had to do to the fallen.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So yeah, Midnight Suns, amazing card-based, turn-based battler with superheroes.
Speaker: It won a very exclusive and prestigious Pixelit Game of the Year award.
Speaker: It was one of the Pixelit Games of the Year.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: It was one of my games of the year of 2022.
Speaker: So I have a high...
Speaker: I hold it to high esteem.
Speaker: I literally just finished it a few days ago as of this recording in early January.
Speaker: And I'm really excited about where it goes from there in terms of like DLC, you know, the expansions because it's Firaxis and Firaxis.
Speaker: They don't know.
Speaker: Oh, we's had, they don't stop.
Speaker: They never stop stopping with expansions.
Speaker: So, uh, DLC possible sequels, all that fun stuff.
Speaker: So yes, that is Marvel midnight sons and the title midnight sons are first to the group, the midnight sons, which are specifically, uh, the group, the superhero group of blade magic, uh, who is, uh, Colossus's sister.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Ileana Rasputin, Nico Minoru, who people might better know from the comic book series called The Runaways, as well as Robbie Reyes, who is the current and most recent iteration of Ghost Rider, I believe.
Speaker: And he uses a badass car instead of motorcycle.
Speaker: Yeah, he's got a muscle car.
Speaker: He's got a muscle car with like the engine block out.
Speaker: It's, it's really bad-ass.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: He's got a cool design too, in and out of the, the ghost writer get up.
Speaker: He's got, he's, what do you call it?
Speaker: He has two different colored eyes.
Speaker: It's like dichromia or something like that.
Speaker: Just a very good look, you know, just a very cool cluster of heroes actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're all led by a woman named Sarah, a.k.a.
Speaker: The Caretaker.
Speaker: In the original run of Midnight Suns, Caretaker was like a Sam Elliott looking dude.
Speaker: But so I think changing it to more of a badass older woman, I think, was a nice touch.
Speaker: Very, very older Ellen Ripley vibes, I'd say.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Doesn't take no shit.
Speaker: Is what caretaker is.
Speaker: But yeah, that's that's kind of gets you up to speed on the on the Midnight Suns.
Speaker: And this book is going to take us through about six months before the game begins.
Speaker: So no spoilers for the game in this.
Speaker: So you're free to listen without having played the game.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So we're just going to get right into it.
Speaker: The book starts with a prologue.
Speaker: And we are with Satana Hellstrom, who is hosting a party in her little corner of hell.
Speaker: And she is super bored.
Speaker: She is so bored and hot.
Speaker: And horny.
Speaker: And horny.
Speaker: But mostly bored.
Speaker: But mostly bored.
Speaker: And pretty horny.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She is there like the way she basically constantly she's a succubus.
Speaker: So she's always thinking about it.
Speaker: But yeah, at one point, she just like sends someone to the pits of hell because they looked at her wrong.
Speaker: She literally pulls that old move, that old chestnut.
Speaker: She's bored out of her mind.
Speaker: So it's a lot of her thinking to herself about, what do I gotta do to break this boredom?
Speaker: I've demolished and renovated this corner of hell dozens of times over the past decades.
Speaker: knock down entire cities of obsidian and bone and all that stuff.
Speaker: And then there's like, she notices like this weak ass little portal spell like being cast in her party room.
Speaker: And she's like,
Speaker: that's not doing anything, but she freezes all the party goers just to like watch it happen.
Speaker: And it's not opening.
Speaker: And she's like, Oh, for fuck's sake.
Speaker: And she opens the portal herself.
Speaker: Cause that's how bored she is.
Speaker: You're trying to invade my house, but I'm so bored.
Speaker: I might as well help you out just because whatever, whoever you are, it's gotta be more interesting than everything that's going on in my life right now.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: I think we've all been there at some point.
Speaker: We've been there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So this guy, his name is Fen, bumbles into her throne room.
Speaker: And he's like, Lady Hellstrom, I need your help.
Speaker: I want to get an artifact called the Varketh Star, which is able to control demons.
Speaker: And she's like, oh, you would like my help?
Speaker: And he's like, well...
Speaker: I need your help to get a guy who's actually going to help me.
Speaker: And she's like, and it's a guy named Zarathos, who, if you are a ghost writer fan, I think Zarathos is like a old school ghost writer villain.
Speaker: Um, and,
Speaker: So Satana doesn't like Zarathust that much.
Speaker: She thinks he's an idiot.
Speaker: She basically thinks everyone else is super dumb.
Speaker: He's got serious like all-star quarterback kind of like vibes.
Speaker: It's a very high school, like we go to the hot...
Speaker: Popular chick for help getting the star quarterback.
Speaker: The star quarterback.
Speaker: Insulted.
Speaker: Yeah, this is some geek who has approached her, and she has decided not to impale him on her stilettos, which she is wearing.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: And whether or not that is a tragedy or happiness is entirely up to your relationship with Stilettos.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But basically, Fen wants to get Zarathos out so Zarathos can get the artifact and then they'll use the artifact to torture Mephisto because Mephisto killed Fen's mother.
Speaker: I mean, it's a real roundabout plan, but you know, you got to do what you got to do if you're trying to tell, take down Mephisto.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Satana decides that she's bored enough that she's going to do it.
Speaker: And it's literally all like, and by the way, this is, this is the plot.
Speaker: This is the plot.
Speaker: And it's all conducive upon the fact that Satana is basically like, ah, yeah, that sounds interesting.
Speaker: I don't really.
Speaker: Have you ever.
Speaker: Have you ever read a book where the villain's primary motivation is just, I'm so bored.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's a new one.
Speaker: I gotta say.
Speaker: But I like it.
Speaker: I mean, and it's really fitting with her character.
Speaker: And honestly, it fits in with the whole vibe of the Midnight Suns game as well.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Where, you know, as serious as shit gets with Midnight Suns, as over the top and, you know, you're dealing with the pits of hell and, you know, betrayal and all kinds of heavy, heavy things, you're still going to wake up in the morning and try to get Captain Marvel and Blade to hook up.
Speaker: You're still going to deal with the he said, she said shit of inter high school drama bullshit.
Speaker: And so you know what?
Speaker: This totally works.
Speaker: This completely and utterly works.
Speaker: It fits.
Speaker: It's right in there.
Speaker: It nestles right in there.
Speaker: Perfectly.
Speaker: Perfectly.
Speaker: So then we're in chapter one and we're introduced to the baddest, badass motherfucker that has ever existed.
Speaker: Blade.
Speaker: Hell yeah.
Speaker: Hell yeah.
Speaker: He is.
Speaker: Hell yeah to Blade.
Speaker: And he's just sitting there and he's saying some motherfuckers always trying to ice skate uphill.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's one of my favorite lines from the Blade movie.
Speaker: Oh my God, it's so good.
Speaker: He's on a surveillance mission scoping out some dude who claims to have a page from the Darkhold for sale.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Blade gets it, though, and it's not a page from the Darkhold.
Speaker: It just happens to be a curse on a... And the only person who would be affected by the curse is a medieval German farmer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So good.
Speaker: The level of detail is amazing.
Speaker: You're like, it's so good.
Speaker: It's like useless.
Speaker: The guy's definitely dead.
Speaker: Completely useless.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it's done.
Speaker: So the guy's name, the guy who he's interrogating is named Pendragon, which is, that's a lot of name for this dude.
Speaker: Yeah, for this guy.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a whole lot of name.
Speaker: This guy, this guy might not warrant all of that name.
Speaker: He might not warrant him.
Speaker: He was he was like a Bob.
Speaker: He should have just.
Speaker: Yes, I was just going to say he's like, I think he's a Frank like at best because he's talking about all of his other artifacts and all that stuff.
Speaker: When a SUV rolls up.
Speaker: And basically the scene from Back to the Future Part One happens with the Libyans shooting Doc.
Speaker: They just roll up and they shoot an RPG at Blade and Pendragon and Blade gets out of there, but Pendragon's toast.
Speaker: Not Pendragon.
Speaker: He was the best character ever.
Speaker: The quarterback is toast.
Speaker: So then they peel away and Blade's like, why would anyone try to kill this guy?
Speaker: He's just like...
Speaker: The whole thing, it was like the Midnight Suns getting onto the tale of the mystery is because some dudes rolled up in an SUV and killed a homeless guy who was just trying to sell some magical knickknacks.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: So he can get a fix or something like that.
Speaker: They just...
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Say goodbye to Frank.
Speaker: This is weird.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm going to go to tell the caretaker about it.
Speaker: So he gets back to the Abbey.
Speaker: Meanwhile, we're introduced to Nico Minoru and Robbie Reyes, who are waiting for Blaze back at the Abbey to teach them how to fight with blades.
Speaker: Pun intended.
Speaker: Didn't.
Speaker: Yeah, they're working on their knife work.
Speaker: And we're also introduced to Magic, the Russian mutant and former X-Men team member who controls the portals to Limbo.
Speaker: And those are the things that allow that's the conceit in the game that allows the team to kind of just get anywhere that they need to be is is Magic uses her Limbo portals to get them from spot to spot.
Speaker: And the Abbey is actually in a pocket dimension.
Speaker: It's not, it's nowhere, but it's in Massachusetts technically, but it's protected from people and prying eyes and things like that.
Speaker: So Nico is frustrated that Caretaker has not been forthcoming to everyone about the missions that she keeps sending Blade on.
Speaker: Basically doesn't tell, like Blade just keeps going out and coming back and talking to Caretaker and that's it.
Speaker: Um, because of the four of them, Blade is, you know, he's Blade.
Speaker: He's, he can fuck shit up on his own.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It does feel, it does feel at times like, and the caretaker is your very standard older parent figure kind of character who, who wants to teach you how to fly, but won't let you jump out of the nest, that whole thing.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: In Caretaker's defense, it does feel like we've got a level 20 character...
Speaker: a level seven character and a bunch of level ones.
Speaker: So it's, it's understandable.
Speaker: It does feel a little lopsided at times.
Speaker: Who's, who's, who's, who's, who is, is level.
Speaker: I mean, 20 is blade.
Speaker: I'd say Matt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'd say magic's level seven.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Because she has previous experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She was, she was one of the X-Men.
Speaker: She's got her own bad-ass stuff.
Speaker: She's the queen of limbo, you know, and that's just one of her dance moves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Also, a lot of her, she has some of the most fun plays in the game.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: She is super fun to play with.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it and then and then you've got, you know, the new Ghost Rider and and the one character I just have flat out never heard of in there.
Speaker: So it's it's it is it does feel a little lopsided.
Speaker: I will say that.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nico.
Speaker: Oh, Nico.
Speaker: I stopped using her.
Speaker: Makes sense.
Speaker: She is.
Speaker: You have in the game.
Speaker: We only got three characters.
Speaker: I don't need I don't need that much support.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Maybe we rounded out our team with four.
Speaker: Maybe I'd have a little room for Nico.
Speaker: I just do not have room for that shit.
Speaker: She is basically a secondary support character.
Speaker: And depending on how you're honestly, it depends on this kind of off topic.
Speaker: But it depends on how you're playing the hunter.
Speaker: If you're playing the hunter away from the hunter can kind of go in two directions with the powers they use.
Speaker: If you're playing the hunter more in the aggressive offensive way, then you might need a support character.
Speaker: But if you're playing the hunter with the light abilities,
Speaker: then you're not going to need another support character because the hunter has plenty of healing spells on their own.
Speaker: And I'm going fun time paladin with my fun time paladin.
Speaker: So I don't really need it.
Speaker: I don't really need it.
Speaker: We work hard.
Speaker: We work hard.
Speaker: We play hard, work hard, play hard.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, I totally get it.
Speaker: Jesse Cox's build in that game, by the way, the way he designed the hunter has like a mullet and wears aviators all the time, which is perfect.
Speaker: And a headband.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The moment I unlocked some horns, I was like, well, that's going to be a permanent part of my costume now.
Speaker: That's going on there now.
Speaker: Even though it's a totally light palette and I still want horns, man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Fuck yeah.
Speaker: So Blade and Caretaker are discussing the ramifications of the mission.
Speaker: Why use an RPG to kill the guy?
Speaker: Blade's like, why didn't they just like wait till I was gone and...
Speaker: like kill him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Caretaker is pretty sure that no one is collecting dark hold pages because that would have been picked up on by the mirror table.
Speaker: And they're like, well, we're going to keep an eye on it.
Speaker: And they leave the room and they catch Nico listening in basically on their conversation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter two, we're in chapter two now.
Speaker: Satana breaks into the cell.
Speaker: Zarathos is being hidden in and portals him out.
Speaker: Zarathos is like dreaming of killing Mephisto over and over and over again because Mephisto is the one holding him.
Speaker: And then that's that.
Speaker: Meanwhile, back over to the Abbey.
Speaker: Blade is musing about the architecture of the Abbey and all of its statues.
Speaker: And in this way, kind of gives backstory about the caretaker's sister, Lilith, who had sold her soul to C'thon, the dark god C'thon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When we also find out that the library has been sealed since Agatha Harkness's death.
Speaker: Agatha was the caretaker's, I guess, wife is kind of, they don't specify.
Speaker: Is it wife?
Speaker: I always went with sister on that one, but I'm not.
Speaker: No, Agatha and caretaker are, Lilith and caretaker are sisters.
Speaker: Agatha and caretaker are.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Agatha and Caretaker are lovers.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't pick up on that.
Speaker: Yeah, well, it gets more and more explicit as the game goes on.
Speaker: Not explicit that way, but I mean explicit as in.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ghost sex.
Speaker: You can tell I'm a heteronormative guy because I was like, they're roommates, you know?
Speaker: They're just friends.
Speaker: Oh, they're just really good friends.
Speaker: Just really good friends.
Speaker: God.
Speaker: We're also introduced Charlie, who is the best girl.
Speaker: Yes, Charlie is the best girl.
Speaker: That is a fact.
Speaker: Charlie is the dog.
Speaker: The dog.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: the dog.
Speaker: What's funny is the way Charlie is described is hilarious because Charlie is like in form is basically a patchwork of a bunch of different breeds.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like the body of a whippet and the, the, the face of a Doberman with the ear and it goes off.
Speaker: I'm like, but none of that matter, all that pales in comparison to the fact that it's hairless and has red flesh.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is, yeah, possibly.
Speaker: It's a demon dog.
Speaker: Possibly the first thing you'd notice.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Probably the first thing you'd notice above all the other things.
Speaker: Charlie, so they're eating pancakes for breakfast and Nico confronts Caretaker over the fact that the only person she's been sending out to do missions is Blade and that everyone needs to be kept in the loop.
Speaker: And Caretaker, in her normal stoic way, is like,
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: For those of you not watching on YouTube, I just sipped my water and that's basically all caretaker does.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's funny because they do, uh, they, in both the book and in the game, they do a pretty bang up job of that archetypical, uh, just like, because I said, so, uh, style leader character.
Speaker: It is a classic.
Speaker: Yeah, she is.
Speaker: She does a whole lot of because I said so's caretaker is a big.
Speaker: And that was that's kind of the thing is that Agatha was more of the motherly character and she is she has died.
Speaker: And caretaker is the, you know, you know, she's she's the stick.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And when it's all stick, then it might be a problem.
Speaker: It might be a problem.
Speaker: Blade hands out on another mission.
Speaker: They think they have found a location of the dudes from the previous night.
Speaker: They get there and Blade asks Magic, hey, can you just listen in and see what you pick up with your limbo powers?
Speaker: And then Magic's like, can I just come with you?
Speaker: And Blade's like...
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So basically they find that the guys are hanging out.
Speaker: These soulless guys are hanging out in an RV just chilling and Blade goes in and beats the shit out of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: Magic starts to... Oh, I skipped an intermediate scene.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: We'll back up.
Speaker: Meanwhile... Meanwhile, it was... Let's go back a little bit because all that stuff is happening...
Speaker: in the next chapter.
Speaker: I skipped over the rest of chapter two.
Speaker: I got so excited.
Speaker: We got so excited for the rest of chapter two.
Speaker: We're meanwhile, we're with Zarathos and he's asleep in Fenn's shitty apartment.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: It's a real shitty apartment.
Speaker: Satana is looking herself over in the mirror, checking in on the changes that she has made to her appearance to make her more approachable because the bombshell sex kitten thing was not going to work.
Speaker: So she's in on Earth.
Speaker: She has to
Speaker: Tone it down a little bit.
Speaker: She's a little.
Speaker: She's still hot, but not like not like, you know, kill yourself hot.
Speaker: You know, she goes too far.
Speaker: You'll have a bunch of nerds on the Internet saying that if it weren't for her, they'd be watching their streams on Twitch.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: That's just distracting.
Speaker: She doesn't need that drama.
Speaker: She doesn't need that drama.
Speaker: And after one evening on Earth, Satana has already gathered a dozen soulless servants.
Speaker: That's just how horny this country is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They like her.
Speaker: She likes them.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Well, they like her.
Speaker: She feeds on them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She likes them in a manner of speaking.
Speaker: In a manner of speaking.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's at one point the hot guy from the bar wanders in.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I recognized so many of these people.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: Like, oh, I know you.
Speaker: I know you.
Speaker: Xerathos is basically on the couch and he can feed and recharge on Earth just by sitting there and soaking up misery.
Speaker: And then Fen comes in and he makes his pitch to Xerathos and Xerathos is pretty into it.
Speaker: He's like, yeah.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: Zatanna thinks that both Fenn and Zarathos are super dumb.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And then Fenn tells her that there's a whole bunch of other artifacts in the tomb that they need Zarathos to break into.
Speaker: And Zatanna refers to it as a take over the universe DIY kit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker: Fair enough.
Speaker: And then she says she thinks something about like why somebody would keep all of these artifacts in one place.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: It's like leaving all of your your country's heads of state in the same easily broken into hotel room or something like that.
Speaker: You're like, oh, this isn't going to be good.
Speaker: This is not going to go go well.
Speaker: And Satana has been ordered by Zarathust that she needs to now kill her victims around 40 of them.
Speaker: or two score, as Zarathos says, to get him back up to full power.
Speaker: She doesn't like it.
Speaker: She actually doesn't really dig on killing people.
Speaker: She just likes taking their souls.
Speaker: So she's not down with the murder.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Now we're back to where we were.
Speaker: Blade and Magic are on the other side of the portal.
Speaker: Magic is like, hey, can I come?
Speaker: They get into the RV.
Speaker: Blade takes everybody down and then begins interrogating the guy he recognizes as the driver who was there when Pendragon was killed.
Speaker: Um.
Speaker: And Magic notices there's a small box.
Speaker: Basically, they were having trouble seeing or like understanding what's going on inside of the RV.
Speaker: There was like a haziness, like a fog of war thing going on in the RV.
Speaker: Magic notices this small box with a weird energy signature.
Speaker: And she notices that she realized it's gamma radiation based on her experiences with the Hulk.
Speaker: Um, so magic begins interrogating the driver using limbo magic because as a, as the queen of limbo, she has some control over the, over soulless beings.
Speaker: Um, and the guy starts talking about the triumvirate, uh, the star.
Speaker: Um, he just says the star, he doesn't really get into what the star is and how he can bench two 50.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Throws that little nugget in there because he's trying to impress our succubus friend, which fair enough.
Speaker: This gives you a hint as to the guys that the succubus is that, that Hellstrom Satana is, uh, is catching with her honey, with her honeypot is, um, is real dumb dudes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not Andrew Tates.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Just, uh,
Speaker: Oh, God, that would actually be an amazing way for him to go out.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Via succubus.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Via succubus?
Speaker: Poetic justice.
Speaker: Poetic justice, you know?
Speaker: So Blade is like, okay, I'm going to finish up.
Speaker: You go home.
Speaker: You take that box and go home.
Speaker: Magic picks up the box and wouldn't you know it's got a trap on it and begins to explode and Blade and Magic get out of there and that's no good.
Speaker: Meanwhile, back at the Abbey, Robbie and Nico are arguing about feeding Charlie pancakes because it gives her gas.
Speaker: This is what I mean.
Speaker: There were so many moments in this book, including this one, where I, for a split second, I was like, what?
Speaker: This is stupid.
Speaker: Why are they, what kind of teenage bullshit is this?
Speaker: And then I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker: I know it's been a while since I've read superhero comic books and stuff, but...
Speaker: That's how they were when I was a kid.
Speaker: Like, it's like, yeah, you had the big battles against Magneto and shit, but then you had Psylocke trying to pick up Cyclops underneath Jean Grey's eyes and all kinds of weird.
Speaker: We live in a mansion and we're horny and athletic bullshit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, so this is all in keeping with a long, proud Marvel tradition.
Speaker: A long, proud, proud.
Speaker: Basically, and what's funny is that early on, Nico had the hots for Robbie.
Speaker: It's mentioned earlier on that Nico had the hots for Robbie, but they had kind of settled into a brother-sister relationship.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To Nico's chagrin, I believe.
Speaker: And Nico continues, like randomly calls Robbie king.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because his last name, Reyes, is Spanish for king.
Speaker: Oh, sure.
Speaker: But I don't know the way, like her calling him king is just.
Speaker: It feels a little bit like when Blade refers to caretaker as mommy.
Speaker: I don't know if I buy the motivation for him.
Speaker: How old is Blade at this point, by the way?
Speaker: I forget.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: But I do love that Blade is possibly the earliest example of when we get our first actor who portrays him.
Speaker: That is his model from here on out.
Speaker: Blade has had a lot of models in the comic book.
Speaker: But after Wesley Snipes.
Speaker: It's like that's just Blades.
Speaker: That's just Blades.
Speaker: That's just even even what's his what's his face?
Speaker: Who's playing Blade now or will be playing Blade.
Speaker: Do you do do Mahershala Ali?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Mahershala Ali.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: How you say it?
Speaker: I'm not Mahershala.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Mahershala.
Speaker: That's a great name.
Speaker: Yeah, Mahershala Ali is the new Blade.
Speaker: And I believe he's basically... Oh, that guy!
Speaker: Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: He's a good actor.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And I have a feeling he's going to be a good Blade.
Speaker: Yeah, good choice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Um, what was I saying?
Speaker: Blade!
Speaker: Blade!
Speaker: Blade!
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Uh, Nico likes Robbie.
Speaker: Robbie doesn't necessarily like Nico, but she calls him king every once in a while to as playfully wink.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: Uh-huh.
Speaker: So Blade Blade calls a team meeting and he gets the team up to speed on everything that just happened.
Speaker: Caretaker does not like the fact that Blade called the team meeting without her approval, but he does it anyway.
Speaker: Blade wants the team to look into the star reference.
Speaker: And while he speaks, he goes and gives Bruce Banner a call.
Speaker: Caretaker is very huffy that Blade is taking initiative.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: How dare he do the thing that I keep hoping they'll all do.
Speaker: How dare he?
Speaker: He's like, Blade has been around for a while.
Speaker: Caretaker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He might not be quite as immortal as Caretaker is, but he's he's up there.
Speaker: He's up there.
Speaker: He's up there.
Speaker: Later in that day, the team does a communications exercise.
Speaker: And I thought this was actually kind of a neat example of things that they would actually need to do on a mission.
Speaker: So the idea is Blade takes a baseball and he is coming up with a scenario of what could happen on a mission.
Speaker: And he says something like, we're on a mission and part of a building collapses and turns into snakes or something like that.
Speaker: And he throws it and somebody has to call out the name of the person who can handle it.
Speaker: And he throws it and throw it to them and they have to say who's going to handle it.
Speaker: And then he calls out the next scenario and then he introduces like a second ball.
Speaker: So basically the idea is they're throwing the balls to each other and constantly calling to the other person who needs to handle the thing or state that they will handle it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a really interesting exercise.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's to teach them to just like always be talking, always be communicating and very clear because at one point the game kind of falls apart when Nico's like, oh, I could do this, then I could do that.
Speaker: And Blade's like, no, you need to just either say you're handling it or give it to somebody else to handle.
Speaker: You can't just like...
Speaker: philosophize about what, how do you fix the problem?
Speaker: Like going forward, you know, there's no time.
Speaker: We've got to think on our feet.
Speaker: You've got to, there's no charge or get out of the way.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, um, I thought that was pretty interesting.
Speaker: Caretaker comes in and interrupts the exercise and she's like,
Speaker: I have another mission for you, Blade.
Speaker: And, uh, and everybody's like, oh man.
Speaker: And Blade finally is like, all right, he goes into caretakers.
Speaker: Like I need all of them to come with me because they actually need mission experience.
Speaker: They need to, yeah.
Speaker: They need field experience.
Speaker: They're not going to learn anything more just by sitting here.
Speaker: And Caretaker's like, fine.
Speaker: So he he takes them.
Speaker: He takes the entire team and Caretaker is at the mirror table and she thinks she hears Agatha say something to her.
Speaker: And when Caretaker turns around, there's no one there.
Speaker: Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.
Speaker: Oh, chapter.
Speaker: What's you like Agatha?
Speaker: Which is interesting.
Speaker: I'm not sure what her normal presentation is in the comics.
Speaker: If she's a villain or like a hero, because I think she's played.
Speaker: She's one of those characters that can go.
Speaker: Go either way.
Speaker: Kind of goes either way.
Speaker: Kind of a Magneto sort of thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because in this, she's like the motherly.
Speaker: She's like a motherly hero type figure.
Speaker: But in in like WandaVision, for example, she's the villain that is the big bad.
Speaker: So that's it's interesting.
Speaker: I guess it can kind of go in a number of directions.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So chapter four, the team arrives at the warehouse and they realize that there's been some ward spells placed on it for protection and all that stuff.
Speaker: Blade cooks up a plan to get everyone involved because everyone needs to do their part.
Speaker: Teamwork.
Speaker: It's a learning exercise.
Speaker: It's a learning exercise.
Speaker: They capture two soulless who are just there like depositing bodies and begin to interrogate them.
Speaker: And it's like that one was like a surfer dude and the other was a bodybuilder or something like that.
Speaker: Just Los Angeles finest.
Speaker: You really start to understand like Satanist taste.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: I'm safe.
Speaker: I never have to worry about Zadana fucking with me.
Speaker: So they're like, they've just been getting rid of bodies for Elise, quote unquote, who is a goddess.
Speaker: It's Satana.
Speaker: Meanwhile, nearby, Satana is making out with a dude when she realized that her servants are being interrogated and she can't have that.
Speaker: So she snaps the guy's neck and begins projecting herself as a shadow into the room that the Midnight Suns are in.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: When she gets there, the only one she recognizes is magic because she's the mistress of limbo.
Speaker: Hates her accent, but loves her bangs.
Speaker: Loves her bangs.
Speaker: Just a great line.
Speaker: It's like they work so well with the shape of her face.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: And she notices that Blade is a vampire.
Speaker: So in order to end this whole interrogation thing, she targets Blade with a spell to basically make him hungry because that's her thing as a succubus is making men hungry.
Speaker: Except when she does it to a vampire, it's a it's a mess.
Speaker: For our vampire, the masquerade playing friends, she basically causes Blade to frenzy.
Speaker: Yes, Blade goes into a frenzy and like eats, like rips the throat out of one of the soulless dudes and just like drinks his blood.
Speaker: Immediately.
Speaker: Immediately.
Speaker: And they had made a point of saying things like, well, the soulless aren't people anymore.
Speaker: Not really, because they gave up their soul.
Speaker: So I don't know if that was meant to turn them into robot foot soldiers like in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something like that, so we don't feel bad when they die.
Speaker: But it was still pretty shocking, to be completely honest.
Speaker: Like, goddamn, Blade really ate them.
Speaker: He ate them.
Speaker: He ate them.
Speaker: There's no good around it.
Speaker: He ate the shit out of them.
Speaker: He's a vampire.
Speaker: Vampires are known to do that.
Speaker: From time to time.
Speaker: From time to time.
Speaker: So Blade gruesomely kills the soulless that they've been interrogating.
Speaker: He's full vamp now.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: And now he turns on the sons and they work together somewhat.
Speaker: They miss up on a few opportunities there.
Speaker: But Nico is able to cast a spell on him using the Staff of One.
Speaker: Now, the way the Staff of One works is that
Speaker: she can basically cast a specific spell using a specific word, but that word will never cast that spell ever again.
Speaker: So she basically says the word sated and as in he's satisfied and cast it on blade and that kind of snaps him out of full vamp mode and wakes him up from his frenzy.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And afterwards, Nico realizes the importance of the exercise Blade had put them through.
Speaker: Ah, all comes full circle.
Speaker: Full circle.
Speaker: Caretaker, they get back to the Abbey.
Speaker: Caretaker gives Nico and Robbie a good job.
Speaker: Which is more than either of them expected.
Speaker: Which, yeah.
Speaker: And they now know... Like the Robert Redford kind of nod.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They now know their villain is using pheromones, so they're adding that to the list of
Speaker: things to investigate it's like Carmen Sandiego now yeah it's like using pheromones they are looking for the star of something last scene in Montevideo just in case that's who we're dealing with
Speaker: No, yeah, it truly is that it's clue.
Speaker: It's clue.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, that's the end of chapter four.
Speaker: And that's the end of the section that we're talking about tonight.
Speaker: So, Phil, how are you feeling so far?
Speaker: I'm having so much fun with this.
Speaker: This is a blast.
Speaker: It's it's, you know, I think the best thing about S.D.
Speaker: Perry is she always knows her source material and she never she's not there to show off.
Speaker: And that's going to sound like a weirdly roundabout kind of compliment, because what I mean by it is that she's not there.
Speaker: She is there to service the franchise.
Speaker: She is there to service the story and not the other way around.
Speaker: She's not trying to show off her own skills or anything like that.
Speaker: So she does her very best to blend into the world.
Speaker: I remember.
Speaker: A mutual friend of ours, actually, in film school, she told me she was a sound designer.
Speaker: She told me once that, you know, a sound designer did a good job because you don't notice the sound.
Speaker: And that's that's what S.D.
Speaker: Perry is as a writer for hire.
Speaker: She.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: There's no, oh, that's such an S.D.
Speaker: Perry moment.
Speaker: No, the S.D.
Speaker: Perry moment is that it's a solid example of this franchise.
Speaker: And frankly, as a person, I'm about a third, maybe a quarter of the way through the game.
Speaker: And this does a really good job, actually, of explaining things that weren't
Speaker: very well explained in the game, they really do throw you into it.
Speaker: And if you don't have certain bits of background, you might be a little confused.
Speaker: And this actually answered a few questions that had been kind of that had been just kind of confusing to me.
Speaker: So if you haven't played Midnight Suns and you and you're you're interested in the story specifically, this might not be a bad thing to start with.
Speaker: Honestly, I think you'd get a lot out of it so far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker: I think her her skill and her talent is basically writing a book that fits neatly into the universe and doesn't stand out.
Speaker: two different, like it doesn't stand out from the rest of the media in that universe.
Speaker: It fits in seamlessly, which I think is good.
Speaker: I think it's a good talent.
Speaker: Sometimes you want to
Speaker: If it's not super important that it does that, then, you know, you can get somebody with a very specific style.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like an urban weight.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know.
Speaker: And I think that's fine.
Speaker: But I think S.D.
Speaker: Perry's strength is being able to.
Speaker: shapeshift, so to speak.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: She's the mystique.
Speaker: She totally is.
Speaker: To borrow a Marvel character, she's the mystique of video game novelists.
Speaker: And I really appreciate that.
Speaker: Yeah, same here.
Speaker: Really good so far.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we're going to continue with this next couple episodes.
Speaker: But I think the most important question I have is, what are you playing?
Speaker: Oh, I, well, I mean, surprising no one.
Speaker: I am finally playing Midnight Suns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm finally, I was having some trouble there.
Speaker: I got everything figured out how to make it work.
Speaker: It's still, it is still a bear of a game.
Speaker: Some of these loading screens are absurd, but that's how for access games tend to be.
Speaker: So it's no great surprise.
Speaker: And I still play the shit out of some for access games.
Speaker: I'm finding that I don't,
Speaker: I'm not as invested in the story.
Speaker: And I think because it's hitting a lot of my XCOM needs and XCOM, the story was the furthest thing from my interest when it came to that.
Speaker: So I think there's a sense memory part of me.
Speaker: that when we get to a lot of the story parts, I'll go, okay, all right, all right, all right.
Speaker: I don't really, you know, with the exception of some characters, if Spidey's talking, I'm listening.
Speaker: Sure, sure.
Speaker: You know, but I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, it would have been it's a it's going to get a retro retroactive game of the year award for me just because I'm enjoying it so much.
Speaker: But I also did get to dip my toe into another game, completely random game called Grime.
Speaker: Have you heard of this?
Speaker: I've heard of it.
Speaker: I know the name, but.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It is proof positive that I will only play Metroidvanias based on their aesthetic.
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Speaker: It was that way with Blasphemous.
Speaker: I pushed through the things about Blasphemous that normally don't interest me at all when it comes to Metroidvania, simply because I adored the world they created.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And if I'm going to keep playing this, which I'm not sure yet, but if I'm going to keep playing this, it will be because of the aesthetic.
Speaker: You play this animated rock character,
Speaker: There's kind of an Adam and Eve vibe to her.
Speaker: It's like, you know, born of the earth, et cetera.
Speaker: And you're going through this strange world filled with, right now it's stony kind of characters and that sort of thing.
Speaker: And it's about the soul and the life in the clay and that kind of thing.
Speaker: And it's got kind of grotesque, surreal elements.
Speaker: vibe to it.
Speaker: I highly recommend anyone who's a horror fan or just a fan of creature features and that sort of thing.
Speaker: At very least to look it up.
Speaker: It's Grime, all capital letters that right now you'll see it under Grime Colors of Rot because that's the DLC that I think came out for it.
Speaker: And it's it's it feels good to play.
Speaker: It looks really good.
Speaker: I'm kind of surprised I haven't heard more about it.
Speaker: Because it came out in 2021 and I hadn't heard the first thing about it.
Speaker: And I just happened to see it while I was going through some recommended games and that sort of thing.
Speaker: And I genuinely kind of surprised it that I hadn't heard anything about it from anyone else.
Speaker: It is, to be fair, gameplay wise, just a lot more of the same.
Speaker: There's really nothing in it that I haven't seen elsewhere.
Speaker: So that might be part of it.
Speaker: But the aesthetic is really bad.
Speaker: The art direction's amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: So what about you, Kevin?
Speaker: What are you playing?
Speaker: Well, I just finished Midnight Suns a couple of days ago, and that was pretty much the only thing I was playing.
Speaker: So just to talk a little bit more about it, I was looking up some of the voice actors for Midnight Suns.
Speaker: So Yuri Lowenthal is the voice of Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
Speaker: Yuri Lowenthal has been the voice of Spider-Man for a really long time now.
Speaker: He's also the voice of him for the PlayStation game, right?
Speaker: For the PlayStation game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he's great.
Speaker: He's great.
Speaker: Some of the other actors that you would recognize, Michael Jai White is the voice of Blade.
Speaker: Oh, that's funny.
Speaker: That makes sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And part of me thinks that Michael Jai White might have been in the running for Blade back in the day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He would have been a good choice.
Speaker: Yeah, it would have been a good choice.
Speaker: Michael Jai White, if you don't know, is the guy who played Spawn.
Speaker: He's motherfucking Spawn.
Speaker: He's Spawn.
Speaker: So he's a great voice.
Speaker: The hunter can be male or female.
Speaker: The male voice is Matthew Mercer, who everybody knows.
Speaker: Elizabeth Brulon is the female voice.
Speaker: I don't recognize her name, but she's great.
Speaker: Brian Bloom is Captain America.
Speaker: Brian Bloom is also B.J.
Speaker: Blazkowicz in the Machine Games Wolfenstein.
Speaker: Well, that makes so much.
Speaker: I mean, B.J.
Speaker: Blazkowicz.
Speaker: The face model and shape of Captain America in this game is basically B.J.
Speaker: Blazkowicz from the... That makes sense on so many different levels.
Speaker: That makes so much sense.
Speaker: And I was like, when I saw that, I was like, oh my God, I love it.
Speaker: Laura Bailey plays Magic.
Speaker: So we got a couple of the What's It, that D&D podcast.
Speaker: Critical Role.
Speaker: Critical Role people are in there.
Speaker: So, yeah, a lot of good.
Speaker: And Fred Tasticore is Hulk.
Speaker: And I think he's been Hulk before.
Speaker: Yeah, as like, you know, the gruff voice of the Hulk.
Speaker: But, yeah, you know, it's I like, you know, digging into the people in this game.
Speaker: It's kind of.
Speaker: It's a fun game.
Speaker: I really liked it.
Speaker: And I'm looking forward to the DLC.
Speaker: What's next on the horizon for me is The Case of the Golden Idol is the next on my list.
Speaker: And was it VZ who's a big fan of ours recommended it.
Speaker: And he's heard some good things about the wonderful video essayist.
Speaker: And he recommended it.
Speaker: Harry from video games are bad, played it and is probably making a video on it.
Speaker: So I think I'm going to play it.
Speaker: Fucking terrifying looking.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm in.
Speaker: I'm in.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You're in.
Speaker: It's going on the wish.
Speaker: I'm in.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think that's going to be my next, the next thing I do.
Speaker: Getting kind of, oh, is that why you guys were talking about the Oberdin?
Speaker: Yes, that's why we're talking about Oberdin.
Speaker: I was glazed over and I saw Oberdin popping up a lot.
Speaker: This has got some serious Oberdin vibes.
Speaker: Yeah, because Ali, Ali Miaoi, who also is a wonderful video essayist, has been looking for mystery games.
Speaker: So we were talking about Golden Idol and Obra Dinn a bit, and this definitely has some Obra Dinn-ish vibes, but it's also a point and click.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think that's going to be the next on the list for me.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: That's a good follow-up, I'd say.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That'll do it for tonight's episode.
Speaker: This is a fun book.
Speaker: Looking forward to reading more of it.
Speaker: We'll be back next week with part two.
Speaker: And otherwise, if you're feeling froggy, to borrow a term from Hess on Oops Old Monsters.
Speaker: He loves using that word, froggy.
Speaker: If you're feeling froggy, please go ahead and follow us on Twitter.
Speaker: at Pixlet Pod on Instagram at Pixlet Pod.
Speaker: Go to our website, PixletPod.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter and get episodes a couple days early.
Speaker: That's a newsletter perk is getting episodes a few days early.
Speaker: If you're needing that fix,
Speaker: You might get them two days early.
Speaker: If I if I've edited them two days early, then you're going to get them two days early.
Speaker: That's the big that's the big part of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Asterisk, you know, subject to change because I got things to do.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But I'm that's it's there.
Speaker: You know, that's that I'm I'm putting that out there saying subscribe to the newsletter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: earliest way to to get episodes and honestly honestly it's probably the uh most consistent way to hear a new episode has been uh has been pushed out is by is via the the newsletter because it's not beholden to any algorithms or anything like that it's right there it's fresh it's hot it's in your inbox ready to go straight to your hot little hand
Speaker: straight to your hot little hands and into your hot little ears.
Speaker: And your hot little hearts.
Speaker: And your hot little hearts.
Speaker: And then the eardrums, the cute little eardrums.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Anyway, good night.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: Good night.
