Transcript
Speaker: Hey there everybody, welcome back to Pixel Lit.
Speaker: My name is Kevin, with me as always is Phil.
Speaker: Hello.
Speaker: And today we are descending further into the doldrums of Dead Space Martyr.
Speaker: And yes, doldrums.
Speaker: Because it's boring.
Speaker: Doldrums.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: Oh, it's just, yeah, deeper into this book that exists for some reason.
Speaker: It is a cash grab of a book, I'll tell you that.
Speaker: It is absolutely that.
Speaker: It is absolutely that.
Speaker: You know when actors are just taking a paycheck and clearly just taking a paycheck in a movie?
Speaker: This is that for an author.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: This was, you know...
Speaker: his version of like, well, I guess I need a third island and therefore I'll be in the six pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Um, wow.
Speaker: I call it pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaker: I don't think I've ever done that before.
Speaker: It just popped out this time.
Speaker: That was a weird.
Speaker: I didn't expect that to change me.
Speaker: I'm changed.
Speaker: I'm different.
Speaker: You're changed deep inside, deep down, like a necromorph has gotten into your suit and is doing stuff.
Speaker: Well, that you see, that doesn't actually have anything to do with with what we're talking about today, because that sounds exciting and scary.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: God forbid we have necromorphs in the necromorph book.
Speaker: I know, right?
Speaker: Fucking wild.
Speaker: Necromorphs in the flesh as opposed to like in random ass dream sequences.
Speaker: Which is how part four starts is a random ass dream sequence where it's just like, let's throw one in here in the first couple of pages.
Speaker: And did you notice in the first page here on this, was there anything that jumped out at you in particular with the first page of this dream sequence?
Speaker: Um, well, I think it was the specific description of the, the saw blade gun.
Speaker: Nailed it.
Speaker: Nailed it.
Speaker: From the game.
Speaker: They, and you know what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They describe the saw blade gun, whatever the ripper or whatever it's called.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The ripper.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The ripper.
Speaker: They describe it.
Speaker: And I gotta tell you, Kevin, after all this time, you would think that from all of my complaining about, um,
Speaker: about how little this seems to have to do with the dead space franchise, that I would be thrilled to see that.
Speaker: It was quite the opposite.
Speaker: It was like, how dare you?
Speaker: How dare you?
Speaker: After all this time, actually come in and put this in, like, because it tells me you could have done this all along.
Speaker: You could have done this all along.
Speaker: You could have done this 175 pages ago.
Speaker: How dare you touch something so pure like the Dead Space game with your filthy, filthy Dead Space Martyr novelization?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's just it was infuriating.
Speaker: It was just I was like, no, no.
Speaker: How dare you?
Speaker: It was all.
Speaker: But yes, we get it.
Speaker: We get a dream sequence.
Speaker: of someone being chased around.
Speaker: And it goes further, by the way, into the game where it actually, you know, one of the things that sets Dead Space's gameplay apart is that they're zombie-like creatures, but instead of going for the head, you want to cut off their limbs.
Speaker: That's the whole thing.
Speaker: And it makes a point of saying that he's cutting its legs off and it keeps coming despite all that, cutting off its arms, all that, and...
Speaker: It's kind of like, I don't know.
Speaker: It felt almost like they were like throwing the dog a bone.
Speaker: Like, yeah, it's like we we we haven't forgotten you fans.
Speaker: We're still here.
Speaker: We're going to get to you guys next.
Speaker: But first, you have full 10 pages eventually.
Speaker: Who wants more bureaucracy?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But first, a 50 page chapter on how to get a grant.
Speaker: Like what the fuck am I reading?
Speaker: Oh, geez.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's basically, you know what they're having?
Speaker: This is the second dream sequence in the book that has been a dream about.
Speaker: It's basically somebody dreaming about playing Dead Space.
Speaker: They're not dreaming about being in the book anymore.
Speaker: They're dreaming about playing the video game themselves.
Speaker: Yeah, something that I would rather be doing as well.
Speaker: I got to the point.
Speaker: This is how bad it was.
Speaker: As I pointed out at the beginning of us reading this, Dead Space was one of those franchises that I never got into, but I always wanted to.
Speaker: And, you know, and projects like these are the glorious, perfect opportunities to pick up on those backlog games.
Speaker: And I have now we are.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: At this point.
Speaker: we are less than halfway through the book.
Speaker: I have completed the game.
Speaker: And not just because the game is more fun.
Speaker: There's something about this book that as we read it, it gives me just enough to think about with the game that I find myself like I'll finish up a chapter and go, oh,
Speaker: I should really get back to that game.
Speaker: See how research purposes would be really important for me to finish this game before I finish the book.
Speaker: And now we're less than halfway through it and I have no more Dead Space One to play.
Speaker: So I am installing Dead Space Two.
Speaker: I have purchased and I am stalling Dead Space Two.
Speaker: That is an actual fact.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, so we've got, we've got people dreaming about something they'd rather be doing, which kind of speaks for the reader, whether the author meant it to or not.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: After the dream, uh, basically, uh, Altman wakes up and there's, there's a guy, there's a guy, a couple of guys in his room and it's, uh,
Speaker: It's Craig Markoff, who I assume is the colonel from earlier, the guy who was just being called.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Did we, did we, we, we ultimately decided that that's who that is, right?
Speaker: We're just going with that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker: I think we're just saying so it is written.
Speaker: So it's done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's the return of Tim, Tom and Terry.
Speaker: Oh, we missed them, didn't we?
Speaker: We missed them.
Speaker: And my favorite thing that happens is is this line.
Speaker: The twins moved slowly forward because of how nonsensical it is.
Speaker: I love that every time you say, there was this part that totally fucked with me, and I'm about to read it, and you start reading it, and I go, I have also highlighted that part, yes.
Speaker: One of them put his hand on Altman's wrist and squeezed until he dropped the phone.
Speaker: The other punched him once, softly, almost lovingly in the side.
Speaker: He fell back on the bed gasping.
Speaker: What the fuck?
Speaker: I feel like this was the author just trying to see what he could get away with.
Speaker: It's like, is the editor actually reading my chapters?
Speaker: Are you?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like in the middle of one sentence, it says, is anyone paying attention?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: clearly know because this got through just what does i i've literally i have that highlighted and uh under notes i have all i've written is why did i did i add any notes to it i'm i'm checking my notes on the kindle no i didn't i didn't write anything but i think in my head the reason i highlighted was what yeah how can it be like you you he he
Speaker: He specifies that it is soft and lovingly, and yet he's gasping.
Speaker: Softly, almost lovingly.
Speaker: His lips caressed his earlobe.
Speaker: Like, just, what the fuck am I reading?
Speaker: His lips caressed his earlobe, and then his head exploded.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: He shot him with a BB, and his leg fell off.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: One of these things is not like the other, and I'm really going to have to insist that we choose a lane.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: So Markov talks to Altman about the fact that he filed a grant.
Speaker: Remember that happened?
Speaker: Yeah, that was a thing.
Speaker: They filed a grant, and Markov is like, he filed a grant, and then says, you're a clever boy, said Markov.
Speaker: Maybe too clever for your own good.
Speaker: The reason I'm here is to find out how much you know and evaluate whether you'd be a valuable member of our team.
Speaker: If you are, I'm prepared to allow you to join us.
Speaker: In a limited capacity, of course.
Speaker: If not, we'll have to figure out something else to do with you.
Speaker: And it's like this stupid bullshit villain talk.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm tired of, of just villains being maybe, maybe you'll join us.
Speaker: Maybe I'll kill you.
Speaker: Like not everybody is fucking gold finger.
Speaker: You know, it's a person's impression of gold finger.
Speaker: Like I was also thinking like, this is like,
Speaker: not even a, it's like a bad James Bond villain, but not one that has ever existed.
Speaker: Not even in the shitty Bond films.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, like, cause at least those guys would like demonstrate their power.
Speaker: Has this guy ever existed?
Speaker: ever like shown what he's capable of?
Speaker: Like, like even in a, even in a throwaway dramatic moment been like, well, if you don't like what you see, well, and then he like, I don't know, breaks a kitten's neck.
Speaker: Like does anything like that ever happen?
Speaker: Not that I'm aware of.
Speaker: He's just always like,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's always vague, vague, sometimes specific threats and never any follow up.
Speaker: It's not like it's yeah, it's not like Goldfinger because Goldfinger at one point is like, no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.
Speaker: He's actually trying to kill him.
Speaker: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but first you have to throw them.
Speaker: What the actual fuck?
Speaker: This guy is just so ineffectual.
Speaker: And it's we just we have had so it's almost a template at this point.
Speaker: It is a template at this point that there is a chapter.
Speaker: It's a Markov chapter.
Speaker: He's going to walk in.
Speaker: He's probably going to invade someone's space, maybe by kidnapping them and bringing them to him or invading that person's personal private space.
Speaker: He's going to threaten him with hyper hyperbolic kind of super villain words and then do nothing about it and still somehow get his way.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: That's his that's his that's his whole vibe.
Speaker: What follows is basically a recap of a recap of a recap.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Remember we told you guys last episode, they're going to be a lot of recaps.
Speaker: Here's another one.
Speaker: More recaps.
Speaker: I'm not even going to cover it because literally everything that we've already had.
Speaker: And then Markov says that welcome to the team.
Speaker: So it's like just Altman saying everything that he's already said that we have already read.
Speaker: And Tim, Tom and Terry saying, oh, we didn't kill that one guy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they cover they cover Hammond's suicide again.
Speaker: I think that's like the third time that characters in this book have word for word told you what happened with that guy.
Speaker: They cover the tale of the devil thing with a mythology that's changing somehow, whatever.
Speaker: So that's brought up again.
Speaker: And then they actually do start to kind of bring up something with with the relic.
Speaker: You know, with with with what do you call it?
Speaker: What do they call it?
Speaker: The marker.
Speaker: The mark.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that does kind of that's at least something new.
Speaker: But it comes at the tail end of just pages of them going, you know, last time on Dead Space.
Speaker: Last time.
Speaker: That's exactly what ends up happening.
Speaker: And and so.
Speaker: They start talking a little bit more about the object, you know, an object sending a pulse signal from the center of a mass crater, perhaps buried since the creation of the crater thousands or hundreds of thousands, even millions of years ago.
Speaker: What if it wasn't an asteroid that made the crater?
Speaker: But the object itself striking the earth, like that's, they're just, they're building up the crater again.
Speaker: Okay, the crater.
Speaker: Craters are, are main.
Speaker: Meanwhile, at the Hall of Friendship.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Speaker: Like it just and we and actually it's kind of funny because Altman does kind of I think he's kind of he's hearing what we're saying in a way because at a certain point Markov says to Altman he says ah Altman Altman what am I going to do with you and Altman says are you threatening me?
Speaker: And I was like, actually, no, for the first time so far, he's just being condescending.
Speaker: He's been threatening everyone else.
Speaker: He's just, yeah, threat that threats are just how he communicates.
Speaker: Pretty much.
Speaker: That's just how he talks.
Speaker: Threats are his love language.
Speaker: Mine too.
Speaker: Uh, and.
Speaker: And we get another we get a little bit of, you know, basically Markoff tells Altman after some more recap, by the way, they go over the the strange lung beast that they found on the beach that they burned down.
Speaker: They do all that shit.
Speaker: And Markoff kind of does threaten him at this point, saying, like, you know,
Speaker: what he says, says you've guessed enough that maybe I've got to decide whether or not to use you or to kill you.
Speaker: And then Markov pulls a gun on him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pulls a gun on the guy, says, goodbye, Mr. Altman.
Speaker: And Altman, it says, Altman closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
Speaker: He heard the snap of the hammer, but no bullet came.
Speaker: He opened his eyes.
Speaker: Markov was watching him, intensely focused.
Speaker: All in good fun, he said.
Speaker: The gun was empty.
Speaker: I never intended to shoot you.
Speaker: Welcome to the team.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Why does he like I don't understand why he's carrying around if he's like if he's like a military man.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Then why is he carrying around an empty gun?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And at this point, now, here's the thing.
Speaker: I know a lot of you are saying, didn't you, Phil, didn't you just complain that this guy has never done anything like as a show of power or anything like that?
Speaker: Doesn't this count?
Speaker: It doesn't.
Speaker: Because at this point, he's already made up his mind.
Speaker: Like, I'm already he's already.
Speaker: done all the rigmarole.
Speaker: Like he's he's brought the guy on.
Speaker: He's part of the team now.
Speaker: There's no question about it.
Speaker: The guy's like, yeah, sure, I'll work with you.
Speaker: So why do that now?
Speaker: It doesn't make sense.
Speaker: You know, it just it feels ass backwards.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's it's very ass backwards.
Speaker: And then in the next chapter, Terry and the twins are hurrying Altman along and they talk again about Hammond.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: There have been more conversations about Hammond dying than the number of pages that Hammond was actually on.
Speaker: Yeah, literally five or six pages ago, they explained we didn't kill the guy.
Speaker: He killed himself.
Speaker: And then six pages later, we're still talking about it.
Speaker: We just asked him.
Speaker: We're just trying to ask him a question.
Speaker: He flipped out.
Speaker: And here's the thing.
Speaker: If you just had a moment where it was like, hey, he killed himself.
Speaker: It was terrible.
Speaker: And then maybe you write he explains the gruesome incident to him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, something like that.
Speaker: But instead, we have an entire paragraph of dialogue where he goes into dial into great detail of what happened, which we already know.
Speaker: it's just, it's so padded.
Speaker: You, you mentioned before that this book feels padded.
Speaker: It's moments like these, that it's just really, really slapping it on and it doesn't need it.
Speaker: This book doesn't need it.
Speaker: If anything, it needs to be cut down a lot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This could have been a novella novella, whatever.
Speaker: So basically, yeah, they and then they leave.
Speaker: They he has his stuff.
Speaker: He leaves.
Speaker: And Altman is reunited with Ada and also the a few of his scientist friends that he was researching with, except for Ramirez, who they've decided they didn't want him to come.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: There's no answer.
Speaker: Of all the things that there's answers and repeated answers about, including Hammond, fucking Hammond.
Speaker: Over and over again.
Speaker: Over and over again.
Speaker: This guy Ramirez is basically the little sister in... What was that show?
Speaker: I have a reference.
Speaker: I have a reference.
Speaker: Ha ha!
Speaker: Damn it.
Speaker: It was going to be, it was, it was again, one of those instances where I thought it was just going to come to me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Where.
Speaker: And it did not.
Speaker: It did not.
Speaker: I crashed and burned.
Speaker: I am on IMDB now.
Speaker: I got to find it.
Speaker: I have to find it and finish the reference.
Speaker: Oh, there we go.
Speaker: Like the little sister on family matters, just going up the stairs and disappearing from the show.
Speaker: I think that was worth it.
Speaker: I think that was worth it, too.
Speaker: I think it was pretty good.
Speaker: That was good.
Speaker: Yeah, they just kind of don't bring it up.
Speaker: They just literally says, where's Ramirez?
Speaker: They didn't have him come.
Speaker: What did they do with him?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: I think the author realized he was like, I have written way too many two dimensional characters.
Speaker: I'm going to have to throw one of them off the plane.
Speaker: Let's just let's just let's say he couldn't come.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Too many.
Speaker: His mom wouldn't let him.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: His mom wouldn't let him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He couldn't go outside today.
Speaker: There's a great moment when he finds Ada.
Speaker: She's already aboard with everybody else.
Speaker: And it says, Ada was there, her face taut, drawn.
Speaker: He sat down next to her and she clung to him.
Speaker: She isn't usually like that, he thought.
Speaker: She must be terrified.
Speaker: And I just thought of the scene in Airplane where the guy...
Speaker: The stewardess asks the guy if he wants another cup of coffee.
Speaker: And his wife says, no, he doesn't.
Speaker: He doesn't want a cup of coffee.
Speaker: He goes, actually, I think we'll have a second cup of coffee.
Speaker: And the inner monologue of the wife goes, hmm.
Speaker: Dave never has second cup of coffee at home.
Speaker: It just becomes this weird inner monologue of like, hmm, she isn't like this storm.
Speaker: She doesn't normally cling to me.
Speaker: She must be terrified.
Speaker: Good job, Altman.
Speaker: You're, you're really just, just an empath over here.
Speaker: Way to read the situation.
Speaker: He's like, I don't mean to alarm you, but I can't help but notice that you are scared.
Speaker: Yeah, we're being taken away in a government fucking helicopter.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm a little scared.
Speaker: I'm a little on edge, Altman.
Speaker: Hope that's all right.
Speaker: We're breaking up.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: If we're broken up, can they drop me off and I don't have to deal with your bullshit anymore?
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: This is the worst boyfriend ever.
Speaker: Worst boyfriend ever.
Speaker: So they fly and, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I'm like, I'm looking back through this chapter because it's a lot of description of them just kind of like walking through this new compound that they are going to be kept on.
Speaker: Yeah, you're kind of given just like the rundown ever so briefly on the compound and, you know, where they are within it.
Speaker: It's kind of silly when you get down to it because...
Speaker: They, they, they get down.
Speaker: It's this enormous place.
Speaker: It's floating.
Speaker: It's this floating ship compound thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're, they're, they're all.
Speaker: And as you go, like they're getting to know it there, there, they get, uh, uh, um, sorry, what's the word quarters?
Speaker: Everyone gets the, you know, they, they kind of, the scientists all live in these bunks together.
Speaker: Uh, but Altman, since he's got his girlfriend there, they get like a storage cabinet that's been, you know, uh,
Speaker: you know refurbished for the two of them so they have a little bit of privacy honeymoon honeymoon sweet oh absolutely and he does they do paint it as a positive like that sounds like it sucks uh i bet i bet you anything his girlfriend hates it and he's like hey sweetie this is pretty cool i don't talk to me don't talk to me i don't we're done do not touch me
Speaker: Uh, and it's kind of silly because as the chapter goes on, you get, you get an impression of the people who are working with them and that kind of thing.
Speaker: And it gets really silly because you start to realize, Hey, weren't they really emphasizing, uh, the whole thing about how top secret this is.
Speaker: And they want as few people to know about it as possible.
Speaker: In fact, they're like threatening and intimidating people, um, who, who know about it.
Speaker: And you realize they're like, there's gotta be a thousand people who work here.
Speaker: There's like a million scientists.
Speaker: It's like they talk about all these different scientists, like different kinds of scientists.
Speaker: They even say some of them are like famous.
Speaker: Some of them had used to have, you know, some level of, of mainstream popularity out in the world.
Speaker: And now they're here.
Speaker: And then you take into account all the guards and there's cafeteria workers and some
Speaker: staff and it's like everyone knows I feel like I feel like this is how they got everybody on board like they are not good at keeping a secret did you know that there is a full production of Little Shop of Horror on board
Speaker: Just it's just that's just I feel like everybody, everybody who was involved.
Speaker: The only reason they got involved is because these people are terrible at keeping a secret.
Speaker: They found out about it.
Speaker: And so they had to intimidate them and go, well, I guess we'll give you a job on board of our of our floating vessel then instead.
Speaker: And it's like, what do you do?
Speaker: I'm a janitor.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: We need janitors.
Speaker: How do you find out about this?
Speaker: Oh, you don't exactly keep it a secret.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Shut up.
Speaker: Shut up.
Speaker: The entire town of Csikszentmihalyi is now on the thing because... Yeah, they're all on the paycheck now.
Speaker: They're all on the thing.
Speaker: And Markov did the empty gun thing with literally all of them.
Speaker: Every one of them he gets off.
Speaker: It's the only way he can get an erection anymore.
Speaker: He's like, oh, I fucking love that trick.
Speaker: The best.
Speaker: That's how they get the prostitutes on there.
Speaker: They're like, we found out about your like, it's just they're telling their friends now.
Speaker: It's like, hey, do you need a job?
Speaker: Just send an email to this Markov guy and tell him, you know, about his ship.
Speaker: Don't even be specific about it.
Speaker: He'll come.
Speaker: He'll threaten you.
Speaker: It'll be a little scary.
Speaker: But then, I mean, they do benefits like like I got dental, dude.
Speaker: Like they pay pretty good.
Speaker: So, yeah, just just like tell him, you know, about his just say fly, you know, floating ship thing.
Speaker: And you got a job, man.
Speaker: I guarantee.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It is so stupid.
Speaker: So one of the there's like a little bit of a like tension thing because field who is like the who Altman just thinks is a big piece of shit.
Speaker: The guy that he shared an office with field for some reason has access to the room where the marker will eventually be kept.
Speaker: Yeah, he's like he is.
Speaker: Everybody else has no access except for fields.
Speaker: And you can tell that gets under Altman's skin.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He doesn't like him.
Speaker: And honestly, I mean, did I miss something?
Speaker: Like, I...
Speaker: I picked up that like he just it was I what I picked up on him not liking field was more of a like, it's my coworker.
Speaker: We share a desk.
Speaker: He's obnoxious.
Speaker: He eats cabbage on Wednesdays and farts all afternoon.
Speaker: I took it as to be no more than that.
Speaker: And the way they described it there, it sounds like he like he's like, I he doesn't trust him like he's incompetent or something like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I miss something.
Speaker: No, it's his stated concerns with field where that field
Speaker: literally just does his job and leaves at like five o'clock right right that's like like that's a bad thing fuck you altman fuck you fucking capitalist swine boss gets dollar i get a dime you know and that's you know so i'm gonna work harder that's why i poop on company company time
Speaker: What in the fuck?
Speaker: So yeah, they make a big deal out of that.
Speaker: That he doesn't like Field, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I guess Field's guy.
Speaker: We gotta watch out for this guy.
Speaker: He's gonna end up being some sort of twisted monster in the end.
Speaker: Who knows?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Ada slaps him a few times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, it's great.
Speaker: Thank God for that.
Speaker: Finally.
Speaker: She might be the sanest person in this whole book.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: At the moment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, yeah, for now, for now, let's, I'm not going nuts here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, so the floating compound, uh, he meets, he meets a guy named Hendrix who is, um, he just becomes friends with Hendrix.
Speaker: And he kind of comes off as like just this, I don't know why it was just me.
Speaker: I, I,
Speaker: The way they described Hendrix, I just imagined him as this just lovely bro dozer of a man.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They describe is like he's got a big, bushy red beard and like crumbs are always gathering in it.
Speaker: And like, well, he's just he's just a sweet guy.
Speaker: And he's a he's a pilot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's a pilot.
Speaker: It's it's pretty much the only thing he can do is is pilot.
Speaker: And I love him.
Speaker: I just I don't know why.
Speaker: I think maybe something in my brain was desperate for a character.
Speaker: that actually had some characterization altman doesn't even have this they literally just say he's got a red beard and they describe him eating and every time he eats he gets food in his beard and he has to clean out his beard that is more characterization than they gave altman who is our theoretical protagonist so i think there was a part of it was like oh thank god someone i love this man he's so i love this character
Speaker: Hendrix, we love thee.
Speaker: We'll die for Hendrix.
Speaker: We will die for Hendrix.
Speaker: Love him.
Speaker: So, yeah, they talk about piloting and all that stuff.
Speaker: And basically, Hendrix starts teaching them how to run it.
Speaker: And then Altman gets Mary Sue Altman gets really good at piloting.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: He's a, he's a great pilot.
Speaker: He's, he's one of the best they've got.
Speaker: In fact, one of the best ever.
Speaker: He has an aptitude for piloting.
Speaker: Who knew that he could suddenly fucking run a bath escape or whatever it is.
Speaker: Three classes and he's a pro.
Speaker: Nailed it.
Speaker: He is a pro.
Speaker: Nailed it to the wall.
Speaker: Good for you, Altman.
Speaker: Proud of you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Good for him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway, that is that is it.
Speaker: And that is pure Mary Sue bullshit there.
Speaker: And I don't know.
Speaker: Did we do this?
Speaker: Did we explain?
Speaker: I don't know if it's a if it's a foregone conclusion to this point, but do we explain to our audience what a Mary Sue is for anyone who doesn't know?
Speaker: Yeah, Mary Sue or Gary Stu, or in this case, a Michael Altman is a self insert character often found in fan fiction that is extraordinarily talented for no real story reason.
Speaker: Like they are good at everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just, it never, there's no one in there as good or as competent as that person.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It's so strange.
Speaker: So, and that brings us to chapter 34, our next chapter.
Speaker: And and that kind of goes immediately into what happens here, because Hendricks, the his co-pilot, basically the guy he works with normally taking taking the what are they called?
Speaker: The submarines, basically.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The guy he works with is this guy Morrisby, who his big thing is that he's supposed to be the son of some great submarine.
Speaker: pilot, I guess.
Speaker: And he's just a drunk.
Speaker: He's just a drunk and he's unreliable.
Speaker: And and and finally, one one morning, he he they get up.
Speaker: They've got a mission that they've got to go down in the submarines.
Speaker: And Moresby has just
Speaker: He's so he got so absolutely blasted the night before that they cannot confidently have him helping Hendrix to pilot this thing.
Speaker: So guess what?
Speaker: Altman's got his shot.
Speaker: Altman's got his shot.
Speaker: Now, what exactly what exactly happens to Moresby that causes Altman to step in?
Speaker: Oh, are you talking about him dying?
Speaker: He fucking dies.
Speaker: He fucking dies.
Speaker: He got so drunk that he falls from one of the lifts and just picture wrap on Moresby.
Speaker: It's it.
Speaker: It's it.
Speaker: And I guess, and I can't help but feel that we're going to like, that this is going to be like, oh, he wasn't actually drunk.
Speaker: One of the necromorphs took him over.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But for now, this is barely mentioned character.
Speaker: It's just like, oh, yeah, you got hammered.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, it didn't get hammered.
Speaker: He died.
Speaker: Oh, OK, well, we better get down in the submarine.
Speaker: Just like that.
Speaker: It takes very little time for people to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just not.
Speaker: They get over it pretty quick.
Speaker: They get over it.
Speaker: Like, ah, that's a shame.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: And what was it?
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: There's something else.
Speaker: Um.
Speaker: That's right, because Altman goes to find Moresby for some reason.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, Hendricks tells Altman.
Speaker: Yeah, basically, he's like, so Hendricks didn't want Moresby to get in trouble.
Speaker: So Altman, like, gets Moresby and he drags him down and then to meet with Markov or, yeah, Markov.
Speaker: And then Moresby wanders off.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then takes a spill off the lift and fucking dies.
Speaker: And fucking dies.
Speaker: just almonds like it's my fault i should have watched him more carefully it's like yeah yeah i guess maybe i don't know man like just all right well get in the submarine dude so they get in the bathysphere and they head on down and and we're getting you know we're getting some serious uh uh uh
Speaker: A flashback vibes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And thank God, because it's a flashback is similar to a recap, but not the same.
Speaker: Not the same.
Speaker: That's good, at least.
Speaker: Now, here's my question to you.
Speaker: They get in the bath is beer.
Speaker: They're heading down to the crater again.
Speaker: Chapter 35 opens with a week later they arrived.
Speaker: A week passes.
Speaker: A week passes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It feels like a pretty big jump.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nothing happened.
Speaker: Nothing happened for a whole week.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: What decision went into that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So an arbitrary week just passes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now they're there.
Speaker: I believe they after this week now they are floating basically directly over top of the marker.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So they are they are getting there.
Speaker: They're they're getting their assignments and they are going to be setting themselves up and going down.
Speaker: And like I said, we've got we've got kind of a flashback on a flashback.
Speaker: Well, it's a bit of an allusion to the last time that a couple of dudes hopped into a bathysphere and went deep down towards that crater.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that doesn't disappoint.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So, yeah, basically in this chapter, Stevens is kind of like, yeah, or not Stevens, Hendrix is talking to Stevens.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like, yeah, I don't know if I feel good, but I think I'm fine.
Speaker: And then Altman's like,
Speaker: Yeah, Hendrix is fine.
Speaker: He is my friend and we should we should go down with him.
Speaker: He's my friend and damn it, he's fine.
Speaker: Oh, I don't know, man.
Speaker: And then chapter 36 starts with no reason to be nervous.
Speaker: Hendrix said it's just like any other day.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is exactly exactly what you hear right before everything goes swimmingly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Basically, they start going down and.
Speaker: At twenty seven hundred meters, Almond Almond looks at Hendrix and Hendrix is pale and stiff faced.
Speaker: Tears were drip.
Speaker: This is like the third paragraph of the of the of the chapter.
Speaker: Hendrix is already gone.
Speaker: So I'm an ask Hendricks.
Speaker: It's kind of a joke, really.
Speaker: It's like the first sentence in the chapter is no reason to be nervous.
Speaker: It's just like any other day.
Speaker: Two sentences later, he's crying.
Speaker: A few sentences later, he's sobbing hysterically and telling Altman, I don't want to die.
Speaker: I don't want to die.
Speaker: What the fuck, man?
Speaker: Like you were just with me.
Speaker: You're just fine.
Speaker: And then he's like, you're not going to die.
Speaker: Don't worry.
Speaker: And then this I highlighted this because I thought it was weird for for this guy, Hendrix, to be talking about it.
Speaker: Hennessy and Dantic.
Speaker: What happened to them?
Speaker: We're not meant to be down here.
Speaker: Altman, I can feel it.
Speaker: And I guess maybe the video was broadcast, but like apparently everyone on the fucking staff saw it.
Speaker: So apparently it's just I just found it weird that Hendrix was super familiar with like their names.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It was a little odd.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: That's kind of an odd decision.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was like, I personally would have been like, what about those other two guys that died or whatever?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Especially if you're having a panic attack, basically.
Speaker: You're not going to remember their names.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, they continue a lot.
Speaker: Like Hendrix is is like, all right, I'm good.
Speaker: I can I can I can do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they basically they kind of switch spots like like Altman basically is like, look, you do the readings, you know, and, you know, do do the readings.
Speaker: It felt to me like he was trying to give Hendrix like the easy job because he could see him kind of freaking out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's like, take readings, go over there and, and, and, and read the book.
Speaker: Look at the, look at the numbers.
Speaker: The numbers move up and down.
Speaker: Aren't the numbers pretty Hendrix?
Speaker: Look at the pretty colors Hendrix.
Speaker: And I'll be over here fixing the car.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: So they're, they're making their way down and it goes even further.
Speaker: Next page.
Speaker: It literally says, good Hendrix.
Speaker: These are excellent readings.
Speaker: You're doing very good, Hendrix.
Speaker: Pat.
Speaker: Pat's on the head.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So they start taking these readings and yeah.
Speaker: And Hendrix is just...
Speaker: He's circling the drain at this point.
Speaker: He is absolutely snapping.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And he starts saying his head hurts.
Speaker: And Altman's like, it's fine.
Speaker: It's the pressure.
Speaker: And then Hendrix says the thing that Altman didn't want to hear was...
Speaker: Hendrick says, I think my father's out there.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is a boy.
Speaker: Here we go.
Speaker: And then he says, hi, dad.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And this kind of like this made me think so much of that other chapter with the two guys that will chapters, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because.
Speaker: It's trying to be horrific, but it comes off as really funny.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That chapter was really funny, too.
Speaker: And there's something about the way this author writes these guys seeing ghosts of their relatives.
Speaker: That's hilarious.
Speaker: That's so funny.
Speaker: Hi, Dad.
Speaker: He waved.
Speaker: Hi, Dad.
Speaker: Like...
Speaker: Who is not going to laugh at that?
Speaker: That's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker: And Altman's reply is equally funny.
Speaker: He says, no, I'm sorry, Jason.
Speaker: It doesn't seem possible.
Speaker: It's like it's like the dialogue you would find in like 1960s or 1970s, like sci fi movie that MST three K is.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: And like the Altman character would be played by, you know, some face actor who never quite made it in Hollywood.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm sorry, Jason.
Speaker: It doesn't seem possible.
Speaker: Like he's very handsome, but also can't act for shit.
Speaker: Like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's like, it's a good thing you're pretty.
Speaker: Like that kind of person.
Speaker: And yeah, so Hendrix is just circling the drain.
Speaker: He claims that his dad's out there and Altman's like, you know, the pressure out there would kill him if he's out there.
Speaker: And he says, no, no, it's fine.
Speaker: He's he's already dead.
Speaker: So the pressure can't very well kill him twice.
Speaker: So he's fine.
Speaker: He's fine.
Speaker: So which which, you know, Altman's immediately looking for some kind of escape route here at this point, which, yeah, good for him.
Speaker: At some point, Hendricks just starts slamming himself into the porthole.
Speaker: Yeah, he's hitting his head against the glass.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and basically, Hendricks is trying to open something in the ship, and Altman is now desperately, desperately looking for a weapon.
Speaker: Yeah, and what does he find, Kevin?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What does- What's his weapon of choice?
Speaker: Is it his shoes?
Speaker: It's his shoe!
Speaker: The shoes were modified blookers with pebbled vibram sole, but a hard heel and back.
Speaker: The sole flexible and with a snap to it.
Speaker: Like, sensible but stylish.
Speaker: $50 it pay less.
Speaker: Like, what the-
Speaker: What kind of description is this?
Speaker: How about he took off his shoe?
Speaker: He took off his shoe and beat him on the face.
Speaker: Smacked him with it.
Speaker: You're the author.
Speaker: You can write anything.
Speaker: You can write anything.
Speaker: There could be a nearby wrench.
Speaker: You know, you weren't like you weren't tied to a shoe.
Speaker: And if you were to use a shoe, you didn't have to describe a modified blooker.
Speaker: a blooker hold on i'm gonna look that up that's that's like a boat shoe isn't it uh i don't know if that is if this is the shoe i think it is if this is some fucking yuppie hold on it absolutely is oh my god yeah okay yeah it's like it's like a derby shoe yeah it's like it's like like a
Speaker: Yeah, like a leather shoe.
Speaker: Okay, it's not as bad as I thought.
Speaker: But also a shoe that you wouldn't wear going down on a submarine.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like a pair of wingtips.
Speaker: Like, what the fuck is he doing?
Speaker: How is he dressed?
Speaker: Altman took off his tap shoes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like he hasn't done a lot of description work.
Speaker: And after when he does do description work, it's always bad and kind of rushed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I haven't missed it all that much.
Speaker: But this is a situation that I really would like the full outfit.
Speaker: If you don't mind, author, the full on some.
Speaker: Tell me what he's wearing.
Speaker: Now that I know I wasn't curious until I found out what kind of shoe this was.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now I need to know what the rest of the outfit looks like.
Speaker: Because if I was picturing into my head these two guys going down 2,700 feet into the depths of the deep blue sea, I don't know.
Speaker: I picture, you know, a canvas jumpsuit.
Speaker: You know, something like that with some work boots or something.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or sneakers.
Speaker: I don't know some non slip sneakers, but he's wearing fucking blukers with a pebbled vibram sole, but a half heel and back, the sole flexible with a snap to it.
Speaker: It's snappy, Kevin.
Speaker: It's snappy.
Speaker: It was snappy.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And it was it was perfect for his cameo in American Psycho.
Speaker: Right, exactly.
Speaker: It does feel very American Psycho.
Speaker: So he's like basically kind of sneaking up on Hendrix like slowly.
Speaker: Jesus Christ Altman, when did you get so tasteful?
Speaker: He's creeping up on him.
Speaker: And finally, and finally, and he's like trying to keep him calm.
Speaker: So he's like, yeah, your dad's out there.
Speaker: Well, hell, we ought to get him in here.
Speaker: And it says Hendrick stumbled toward the hatch, then stopped.
Speaker: Wait a minute.
Speaker: He said slowly, why are you holding your shoes?
Speaker: Oh,
Speaker: Oh shit, thought Altman, but tried to stay calm.
Speaker: They're my favorite shoes.
Speaker: I thought I'd give them to your father.
Speaker: Smooth.
Speaker: Like Altman, I gotta tell you.
Speaker: It's safe.
Speaker: Smooth.
Speaker: You know, just imagine him going, nailed that.
Speaker: I've got it under control.
Speaker: Nailed it.
Speaker: And then finally, the moment you've all been waiting for happens and he just beats the man with his shoes.
Speaker: This is the prequel to that story that the old roadie in Wayne's World 2 always told, where it always ended with, like, where you had to beat them to death with their own shoes.
Speaker: We can cut that.
Speaker: That was a reference nobody needed.
Speaker: Unless we got a bowl full of brown M&Ms, Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night.
Speaker: God, this is why we do a show together, Kevin.
Speaker: You get me.
Speaker: Then we get to the store and there's a fucking tiger in it.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: I gotta watch that movie again.
Speaker: So he takes out Hendrix and tears off his shirt and, like, tears it into strips and twists them into ropes.
Speaker: Now, this is kind of like...
Speaker: I mean, I read a lot and I couldn't help but think this is an action that you see in books all the time.
Speaker: But I don't think anyone would know shit about how to handle this if it was done in real life.
Speaker: The idea of taking someone's shirt, tearing it in the strips and using it as like improv stuff.
Speaker: ropes basically bullshit bullshit not one of you one no one would there's no one there is no one who would ever know to actually like tear it up like who the we have we have no reason to believe that Altman would know to tear this the shirt up at most you do like the hockey thing where he like pulls the shirt up over the guy's head so he doesn't know what to do
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I would buy that 100% more than this.
Speaker: It keeps coming up in different books and it's never done by somebody who like is a survivalist or anything like that.
Speaker: It's just some schmuck who's like, all right, we'll tear his shirt off.
Speaker: We'll we'll turn it into a rope.
Speaker: It's like, no, no one does that.
Speaker: No, no, stop.
Speaker: So he's he's back at the helm.
Speaker: He puts his shoes back on.
Speaker: Thank God.
Speaker: Well, it's a floor shine shoe.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Non-slip.
Speaker: Just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker: So is flexible.
Speaker: A snap to it.
Speaker: That's what this chapter should have been called.
Speaker: It's got a snap.
Speaker: Jesus Christ Altman.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So he's...
Speaker: So he finds himself kind of like looking out into the abyss.
Speaker: And they've got all kinds of things and all kinds of fish out there, including this really strange one that he doesn't recognize.
Speaker: It's kind of puzzling looking.
Speaker: And this is a weird description, so I thought it was worth it.
Speaker: reading here it says uh rather than a long slender body like a viper fish or a thick bulbous one like a lantern fish it looked like a long fish that had been folded in half and then glued together its head was surmounted by a wavy translucent curtain of flesh that resembled nothing so much as a tail in the place of fins it had what looked like little spurs of bone undulating from its sides i
Speaker: I've read that part several times.
Speaker: I can't picture what he's trying to describe here.
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: And it starts with the folding in half thing because I'm so... The semantics of it, I'm like, well, they fold it in half long-wise or width-wise?
Speaker: Which direction is that folded?
Speaker: Is that...
Speaker: Yeah, is that a... Right!
Speaker: Is it still a long fish that has just been folded in half lengthwise?
Speaker: Right!
Speaker: Or in... And then the glue really throws me for a loop.
Speaker: Because if it's folded in half, I didn't need an additional layer of glue to describe...
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That it's also stuck together.
Speaker: You can just say it's folded in half.
Speaker: You could have just left it at folded in half.
Speaker: But then also a little detail as to which half, which direction, which orientation are we talking here?
Speaker: It's so weird.
Speaker: So it doesn't it doesn't.
Speaker: But don't you know, if you're reading this at home, ladies and gentlemen, please don't.
Speaker: when you get to this part, please do your best not to give it all that much thought because outside of a moment later, it is forgotten just as quickly as it came.
Speaker: So he keeps watching and then but then he sees something else that's even stranger.
Speaker: He sees these patches of what look like flat, pale pink clouds.
Speaker: So like...
Speaker: Some sort of blob is jellyfish type thing, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's really weird.
Speaker: And so he basically let's see.
Speaker: At first, he thought it was a ray, but it wasn't differentiated in the way a ray was.
Speaker: It was just a floating billowing sheet of something.
Speaker: A strange jellyfish, maybe a fungus of some kind.
Speaker: He nudged the bathysphere in for a closer look.
Speaker: When the craft touched it, it draped over the hull, then split apart, slowly re-knitting after their passage.
Speaker: Some of it, though, adhered to the observation porthole and remained there, caught on the rivets.
Speaker: So he's got this weird-ass...
Speaker: uh chili fish monster thing yeah it's attached itself to the bathysphere and uh and and just in time he starts to hear hendrix behind him uh groaning and waking up so he's like okay we gotta get the fuck out we gotta keep moving
Speaker: We've got to go.
Speaker: And so they make their way back up.
Speaker: He starts making his way back.
Speaker: Make haste.
Speaker: So in chapter 37, basically, there's a couple there's there's like two things that happen in chapter 37.
Speaker: They get up to the surface and the docks.
Speaker: And he basically prods, um, he prods Hendrix to lose his mind again so that it seems like Hendrix is like attacking him or whatever when they open the, the sub and they like subdue him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, he keeps hitting him.
Speaker: So that, like, Hendrix is like, and while all the people are distracted, Altman hops out of the sub and he collects the sample of the footage of the weird folded fish.
Speaker: He collects the footage of the weird folded fish and the weird pink blobby thing.
Speaker: And just like, he's like,
Speaker: As he's running away saying, don't kill Hendrix.
Speaker: He doesn't know what he's doing.
Speaker: And then he's like, he's backing away.
Speaker: He's like, oh, hey, by the way, don't he's probably fine.
Speaker: If you could not kill him, that'd be cool.
Speaker: So, yeah, he's just he.
Speaker: Yeah, he he he three stages out of there.
Speaker: He hits him a bunch of times to keep him unconscious.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then and then when he yeah, they just like and the way he berates him into fighting him is basically telling him that his dad is dead at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker: We abandoned your dead dad.
Speaker: And he's even deader now.
Speaker: My dad could beat up your dad because your dad's dead.
Speaker: What the fuck, Altman?
Speaker: Jesus Christ.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's chapter 37.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's quick and gruesome.
Speaker: Quick and gruesome.
Speaker: And then 38 pops up, and we got basically we got Altman debriefing with Markov.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just like telling everything like what happened to Hendrix?
Speaker: We got I love the part when Altman's telling him and he says he thought he saw his father outside the bath escape.
Speaker: He wanted to let him in.
Speaker: He gave a wry smile.
Speaker: I quite understandably was opposed to this.
Speaker: Oh, Altman, you dashing rogue.
Speaker: I was quite understandably opposed to this.
Speaker: We were engaged in some witty repartee.
Speaker: What the fuck did that come from?
Speaker: When your character has no character, then all these other characteristics can just start to sleep in, you know?
Speaker: I guess so.
Speaker: Like, let's make a Merrill Flynn for a page.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: He is Zorro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it's just like, well, understandably, old boy, I saw that we would die if he would do that.
Speaker: And I quite understandably do not wish to die today.
Speaker: The game is a foot mark off.
Speaker: Yes, indeed.
Speaker: Indeed.
Speaker: Mark off.
Speaker: I was like, when the fuck did this guy?
Speaker: OK, he's lost it, too.
Speaker: He's lost.
Speaker: That would be an interesting twist.
Speaker: He comes back up and he's just completely snapped in that way.
Speaker: That would be way better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's basically some at some point on the surfacing, Altman became Inspector Poirot.
Speaker: Just a weird, weird moment there.
Speaker: So, yeah, they're doing all of they basically tells them about the signal, about the yeah, about Hendrix becoming more violent the deeper they got.
Speaker: Um, let's see.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, and almonds like basically while you're like, well, you're the one that's going to get, got to go down again.
Speaker: Um, and they, they talk about basically Hendrick, uh, uh, Markov, sorry.
Speaker: Markov is like, you're going to have to go down again.
Speaker: Um, and almonds like, and I'm going to give you some stuff like a tranquilizers or whatever.
Speaker: Yeah, he offers him a tranquilizer gun.
Speaker: It's like, oh, well, you know what?
Speaker: That would have been way better than beating him with my wingtips.
Speaker: With my fancy shoes.
Speaker: My fancy, there's a snap to them.
Speaker: My God.
Speaker: At some point, Altman takes his shoes out and puts them on the table and says, look at these fine shoes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You go the other direction.
Speaker: At some point, he takes off his shoes, puts them on the table and goes, I don't need a fucking tranquilizer gun.
Speaker: I got these babies, don't I?
Speaker: They keep me safe in Nam.
Speaker: They'll keep me safe at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker: There's a snap to them.
Speaker: There's... Ha ha ha ha!
Speaker: Oh, T-shirt number six.
Speaker: Oh, and the other thing, and I like this because this is completely impractical, but I guess, but Markov agrees to it without any question.
Speaker: He says, I want a tranquilizer gun and I want anyone who goes down on me, who goes down with me to be strapped to the chair.
Speaker: Like, just I need this guy to be tied up.
Speaker: And it's like, I don't know if that's a great eye.
Speaker: Markov's like, done.
Speaker: Done.
Speaker: Well, that's actually what else do you want?
Speaker: It's like a fire hazard.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, done.
Speaker: Let's let's murder people together.
Speaker: Yes, that's what it is.
Speaker: That's what it is.
Speaker: Markov saw him beat a man nearly to death with shoes.
Speaker: And he was like, I have a kindred spirit.
Speaker: Fancy shoes.
Speaker: Oh, finally.
Speaker: I never thought of using shoes before.
Speaker: This kid is working on a whole different level.
Speaker: That brings us to chapter 39.
Speaker: Speaking of murders.
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: Hendrix.
Speaker: Hendrix.
Speaker: He wakes up, loses his mind, and then just murders the shit out of a nurse.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, just completely, which I couldn't help but think of Altman's final words like, don't hurt him, he's probably fine.
Speaker: He's probably fine, poor nurse.
Speaker: And it just cuts to him tearing a nurse's throat out, like, it's pretty bad.
Speaker: Yeah, it is gross.
Speaker: It is a brutal scene.
Speaker: He rips her throat out with his teeth.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: She after his a few.
Speaker: And I don't like the way this is written.
Speaker: I don't like this.
Speaker: The implication or anything about this sentence.
Speaker: A few seconds later, after his body had done a few more things to her, he was certain she was dead.
Speaker: And I was like that needed.
Speaker: That was not the right way to write that.
Speaker: No, that needed clarification, my friend.
Speaker: Look, we can deal with a lot of things, but that kind of vagueness, you're really reaching here, pal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Buddy, BK, let me tell you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not a good sentence.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's like you never want to be vague where necrophilia or rape are on the table, my friend.
Speaker: You want to be very specific and let us know what you did and didn't mean.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: Anyway, so he talks to his pops a little bit more.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's another situation where the ghosts seem to be trying to scare them away from the marker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: I don't quite fully get it because this happened to what's his name?
Speaker: The guy who lost his mind in the bathsphere the first time.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It was like, don't touch the marker, just leave it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so like there it's kind of it's actually kind of clever.
Speaker: I don't know if it's meant to be or not, but it's kind of a clever reversal of things because normally.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, the ghost is like.
Speaker: Or in your way more violently or trying to get you to touch the thing so that you will release all kinds of Gribblies touch the thing and become one with the ghosts and the ghosts.
Speaker: But these ghosts are like, don't touch the thing and don't become one with us.
Speaker: You leave well enough alone.
Speaker: You're probably fine.
Speaker: Leave it alone.
Speaker: And, you know, that's not normally the case with these kind of storylines.
Speaker: So, yeah, I found that to be very interesting.
Speaker: It is very interesting.
Speaker: Well, it definitely wasn't the case with the first Dead Space game.
Speaker: No, the ghosts were like, ooh, come join us.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, that was the whole point.
Speaker: So it's an interesting kind of backwards phenomenon here.
Speaker: Reverse psychology.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Maybe that's what it is.
Speaker: It's like apparition ghosts of reverse psychology.
Speaker: That would be fascinating.
Speaker: Reverse parapsychology.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Good night, everyone.
Speaker: Good night.
Speaker: But I think that was, but I think that's kind of a significant thing because it's actually the first thing in the book that like, I'm actually really curious as to seeing how it plays out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The fact that the ghosts are kind of like trying to keep them away from the marker, whereas you would think it'd be the opposite.
Speaker: Like that, I'm interested in seeing how that plays out, how that, how that works.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And if it doesn't, I'm going to be frustrated.
Speaker: Well, you're already there.
Speaker: Well, that's a good point.
Speaker: That's a good point.
Speaker: I can't very well go further down, can I?
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So he's he's talking to his dad.
Speaker: His dad says, don't don't do this.
Speaker: And eventually his dad just kind of disappears.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: End of chapter.
Speaker: End of that chapter.
Speaker: And then we we have a really just a weird scene.
Speaker: Come on, Kendall.
Speaker: What are you doing to me?
Speaker: What are you doing to me, Kendall?
Speaker: Oh no!
Speaker: Oh no!
Speaker: Kindle!
Speaker: Who are you, Kindle?
Speaker: Who do you think you are?
Speaker: It just like sometimes randomly like quits back to the library and have to reopen the book.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: So chapter 40, it's the last chapter in this part.
Speaker: And we have like this mini scene.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: This is what I referenced earlier.
Speaker: It just happens where Altman's like showing an ichthyologist the video of the fish.
Speaker: He's like, you ever seen some crazy shit like this?
Speaker: And the ichthyologist is like, nah, it's fucking crazy.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's the scene.
Speaker: That's the scene.
Speaker: That's the whole scene.
Speaker: Yeah, that was fucking weird, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the ichthyologist says, you know, like, can I get a copy of that?
Speaker: It's kind of funny because it's like played up a little more than you would think it would be because...
Speaker: People who are into the science of fish and insects in particular, those kind of, you know, creatures that are either small or really good at hiding from us.
Speaker: They find new species of these things pretty frequently.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so I think I think I can't.
Speaker: Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker: If you're an ichthyologist or no one, you know, it's like maybe I'm wrong, but I can't help but think an ichthyologist like, hmm.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's probably a new species.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Can I have that?
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Can I have that?
Speaker: I'm going to take credit for this.
Speaker: I'm going to go and get another grant.
Speaker: Part six.
Speaker: The ichthyologist's grant defense.
Speaker: Oh no, Kevin, it's 125 pages long.
Speaker: What are we doing?
Speaker: Uh, and then the guy's the Gramp.
Speaker: That's the, that's the epilogue.
Speaker: And then it, and then it just cuts straight back to this moment in the book.
Speaker: You're like, Oh fuck.
Speaker: And rice.
Speaker: Isn't this purple?
Speaker: This is ridiculous.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So and finally, we get we get a lot more interaction with with a guy that I've been curious about simply based on his name.
Speaker: Scud, the disposable assassin.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: We get a little more time with him.
Speaker: And he's he's showing him the the pink, the pink tissue.
Speaker: The goo.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That he basically got Hendrix killed to not killed, but, you know, imprisoned.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To to to collect the sample for.
Speaker: And it's just.
Speaker: They mentioned later that this guy is German or Austrian or something, but it's still a weird bit of dialogue.
Speaker: He says he says.
Speaker: Scud says, I don't think this is so.
Speaker: I think it was alive not so long ago.
Speaker: It was alive when you found it.
Speaker: Maybe even alive until you bottled it.
Speaker: That can't be, said Altman.
Speaker: When I found it, it was just like this, but in big sheets.
Speaker: It couldn't have been alive.
Speaker: Yes, said Scud.
Speaker: It is a very simple organism.
Speaker: I do not know what it is.
Speaker: It has no brain and no limbs and was made of almost nothing at all, but it was technically alive.
Speaker: Altman shook his head.
Speaker: You are a doubter, I see, said Scott.
Speaker: And it's just, the man has no contractions.
Speaker: It's just, why does he talk like that?
Speaker: I can prove with simple experiment.
Speaker: You like, yes?
Speaker: It's not an important detail.
Speaker: Why do we have to work it into his fucking dialogue?
Speaker: Scott is played by Peter McNichol.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: doing the accent from Ghostbusters 2.
Speaker: The Janoschpoa accent.
Speaker: The child.
Speaker: The child.
Speaker: Why am I dripping with goo?
Speaker: With goo.
Speaker: I love you, Sue.
Speaker: God damn it, I'm gonna watch that.
Speaker: Oh man, well it's Halloween.
Speaker: That makes perfect sense.
Speaker: It's just, and they don't bring up his accent or anything like that in the moment, so it just reads as really stilted and kind of strange.
Speaker: But basically, long story short, he proves to him that the pink flesh sheet is indeed alive.
Speaker: Yeah, it is living.
Speaker: It is a living tissue, which living tissue.
Speaker: It feels like Altman is like, well, it's impossible.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, there's a lot of weird fucking shit in the sea.
Speaker: The archaeologist just told you that.
Speaker: Why are you so weird about this?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: All of this is like this is the hill you're really going to die on, buddy.
Speaker: Everything's weird, man.
Speaker: Everything's weird.
Speaker: Just just just take Scud at his word and let him just do his weird shit with the goo.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So he's so he's gone.
Speaker: He goes to his girlfriend and he's just telling her, you know.
Speaker: the stories and everything like that.
Speaker: And they talk, the two of them talk probably for the equivalent of like three or four or five minutes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they're talking.
Speaker: And then finally, uh, she mentions that, uh, they start talking about all these people who are dying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: on the ship.
Speaker: I heard that Wenbo went crazy, tried to strangle one of Markov's men.
Speaker: I heard the same thing, said Altman.
Speaker: Similar thing happened with Clarebout and Dawson, whoever they are, and Lumley stabbed Ewing and then painted a set of weird symbols on the walls.
Speaker: And little Tot, he shot his mom.
Speaker: Like, it's just like all these random people that we've never heard of before who are killing each other.
Speaker: It's like, why are we just now hearing about this?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really weird, like, sudden...
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, Frank Press, he had Frank Press, this character we've never met before.
Speaker: He attempted suicide.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: That's crazy.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wild.
Speaker: And so there's Frank Press.
Speaker: Not only did he attempt it, he succeeded.
Speaker: There must have been three or four more on the list.
Speaker: And and he says and he says, I mean, there are there are only two or three hundred on board that put the suicide rate up over two percent.
Speaker: That can't be normal, can it?
Speaker: Ada shook her head.
Speaker: It's not scientific said Altman waving his fingers around.
Speaker: I don't know what that means, but I still don't like what it's telling me.
Speaker: Now, here's the thing.
Speaker: And again, if you're a scientist and you're listening, tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker: I think that is scientific, right?
Speaker: There are patterns.
Speaker: There are patterns.
Speaker: You can study patterns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like you can gather data based on patterns that are happening in your environment.
Speaker: Isn't that science?
Speaker: It's a data set of people in a very specific environment.
Speaker: So I think you can kind of like start to understand like like all these scientists just suddenly killing themselves, trying to kill each other and writing shit, using shit to write on the walls.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Altman, you're a scientist.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Science some, please.
Speaker: Science?
Speaker: Just a little bit, Altman.
Speaker: Just a little bit.
Speaker: Altman's like, God damn it.
Speaker: I'm a scientist, not a scientist.
Speaker: I'm not.
Speaker: So, so yeah, that's not a huge thing, but it's like, I'm already, I'm already kind of.
Speaker: really in the weeds as to who the fuck Altman is, even after all this time.
Speaker: And then for him to like point out something like this, it's like, it's not science, it's science, but I can still probably learn something from it.
Speaker: Like what?
Speaker: I, I, I think it wouldn't bother me so much if there weren't so many other little details stacking up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So finally we get the beginning of,
Speaker: of his next expedition down right and and we get another moment oh i'm just gonna read it i'm just gonna read it go for it here go for it uh um mark off
Speaker: approaches him with a tranquilizer gun.
Speaker: He says, ever worked one of these?
Speaker: Ullman shook his head.
Speaker: He opened the cartridge.
Speaker: Darts go here, he said.
Speaker: Cartridge snaps in and out.
Speaker: There are CO2 cartridges in the grip, but you don't need to worry about changing those.
Speaker: We'll handle it.
Speaker: You pull this bolt back, he said, drawing back a lever on the gun's side, and set the safety like this.
Speaker: It's easy to thumb off.
Speaker: As long as the bolt's back, it'll shoot.
Speaker: Aim for flesh.
Speaker: Now,
Speaker: I admit I have never had any of my books published.
Speaker: I am not nearly as successful of a writer as a current author.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: But humbly, I suggest that maybe taking that paragraph and replacing it with, he showed him how to work the gun.
Speaker: I'm just saying, maybe we don't need his exact dimensions and weight.
Speaker: Maybe that's not important.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Maybe not.
Speaker: There's so much padding in this book.
Speaker: Just trim it.
Speaker: Just a little bit.
Speaker: Just a little bit.
Speaker: Just a little bit.
Speaker: A little too much... What is it?
Speaker: Spoils the broth?
Speaker: Salt.
Speaker: Salt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is salt.
Speaker: Salt.
Speaker: Yeah, this is salt.
Speaker: I've got too much of it.
Speaker: For God's sakes, man.
Speaker: I am dehydrated from all the salt here.
Speaker: All the salt.
Speaker: All the padding salt.
Speaker: I know it's cheap, but my God, man, at what cost?
Speaker: At what cost in the grand scheme of things?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So Ada comes down to he's leaving in 15 minutes.
Speaker: Ada comes down.
Speaker: She doesn't want him to go down, but he's never listened to her.
Speaker: Not once.
Speaker: She exists for no other reason than to be like his girlfriend who like doesn't want him to do things.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like that's all she doesn't offer anything.
Speaker: And when she does offer things, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker: Like the whole mythology is changing.
Speaker: Fuck you.
Speaker: Nonsense.
Speaker: And then, and then, and then the, the, the bitterest pill to swallow, uh,
Speaker: She she has she realizes he hasn't heard that Hendrix is dead.
Speaker: She says you haven't heard.
Speaker: Haven't heard what Hendrix is dead.
Speaker: He killed a nurse, tore her apart.
Speaker: They had to shoot him.
Speaker: So that's the note that Altman's about to go deep, deep down into the depths of the ocean with.
Speaker: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker: It's like she says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't go.
Speaker: And Altman is, I have to go.
Speaker: I have no choice.
Speaker: Turns away from her.
Speaker: Just walks away.
Speaker: Fucking Linkin Park starts playing in the background.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's just so strong.
Speaker: That's just, you know, that's what Dead Space is.
Speaker: It's the celebration of Altman's strength.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Just, my God, man.
Speaker: He's so powerful.
Speaker: So charming.
Speaker: So charming.
Speaker: And in the end... It doesn't even matter.
Speaker: It doesn't even matter.
Speaker: Can we afford that?
Speaker: Can we afford the rights to that song?
Speaker: Oh, God, we're not there yet.
Speaker: Just tag it with Lincoln Park and be done.
Speaker: That's the end of the episode.
Speaker: And that's the end of part four.
Speaker: Part four.
Speaker: We only got three more parts to go, but I got three more to go, baby.
Speaker: We're probably going to fly through a few of these just, uh, but yeah, only three more parts to go of dead space smarter.
Speaker: Oh my God.
Speaker: I, I, I hope you guys are enjoying it as much.
Speaker: You know, that's the thing.
Speaker: Reading it is difficult, but at least I get to sit around and bitch about it with you.
Speaker: So this, this works out in the end on that, on that side.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh my god.
Speaker: This is ridiculous.
Speaker: Well, that'll do it for today's episode.
Speaker: If you can, follow us on Twitter at PixelitPod and give us a five star review on Apple iTunes.
Speaker: It really does help us out.
Speaker: It pushes us up to the little Apple search algorithm thingy and uh...
Speaker: Share us with your friends, your family, your enemies.
Speaker: Butterfly, if a butterfly flaps by, just play the podcast at the butterfly.
Speaker: They appreciate that.
Speaker: And until next time, h ave a good night, everybody.
Speaker: It's going to snap.
Speaker: Snaps.
Speaker: So stupid.
