The Butcher's Masquerade, Chapters 30-34

I am Natasha. Thank you very much to Jackie for commissioning this episode. Jackie, if you're out there, appreciate you very very much. So this is, in my opinion, one of the best sections of the of the books so far in terms of sheer personal enjoyment due to the interaction that Karl gets to have with other people who are not directly involved in the krawl. This sort of world building shit is my entire jam. When it's like, when it's structured like this, world building, as we all know,

is a very tricky thing. You can overdo it. You can from load way too much information and kind of overwhelm your audience, and you can make it so that we're sort of sitting there going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get to the point, though, get to the point, you know, And I just really love that it's Carl alone. There's no Donut to act as the audience facing part of the duo, so he is forced to like engage in a way that often he can sort of like step

back and just let her completely take the reins. And even later when he is drugged, I can't help but feel like that was the right call though, because I understand Carl's reticence in all things, you know, he keeps on being like I don't want to give them the satisfaction. I don't want to engage in such and such level because I know that's what they want, and I fucking get it, totally get it. However, on the other hand, there is something to be gained by engaging on that

level for you as well. That's oftentimes how they get you. Is the thing that's good for ratings is good for you in a sense as well. So I will get like kind of twisted up myself about like whether or not you should have done things this way or that way because of the ethics of it, because of your personal your personal feelings on being used in this particular way.

But this is one of those times where I think that like ensuring that he is off the leash, so to speak, was the best outcome, and there was simply no way they were going to get the type of display from Carl that they got without this. Had Donut been there, sure I could see it, But they wanted only Carl for reasons. I don't know. If there's like maybe it's expensive to pull him and so they only

could pull him and not Donut. If like he is I think still number one, so it might just be, you know, we're just we just want the number one guy. If there was a tactic to it where we want them separated for some reason, I don't know what all the thinking was here, but I really think that it

was for the best. And it's also funny to me the way that Carl is not picking up on what Zev is trying to put down because this there's this whole conversation later where she tries to be like, it's in your best interest to maybe hang out a little while after to get what I'm saying. And I like when he got the invite to the con that's Immediately my thought was like, oh, there's going to be somebody there to talk to him, like I bet that you know,

and he's not getting it and there isn't. I mean, there there are people there for him to talk, but it's not like none of it went the way I thought it was going to go. So I think that there's some interesting Maybe there were some things that were supposed to happen with his visit that didn't or just maybe some stuff didn't go to a plan. I don't know, but uh I am I really really enjoyed this segment just to see how he is on his own, because like this is, I want to be clear, not a

criticism of the writing. It's more like just acknowledging a reality about the way that writing this probably goes that there's a certain when you involved Dona to a certain degree, when you're doing this sort of social part of the story,

it's an easy button. You know, she's funny, she's likable, she smooths things over, she knows what questions to ask and what to say, and it takes some of the tension out of things, not because you're sure everything is going to go well, because that's not necessarily true, but you know that whatever's going to happen is probably going to at least be amusing, whereas with Carl that's definitely

not a guarantee. He isn't amusing like steadily. Sometimes he is, but it's not his intent, not the way that it is with Donut. So it feels also like this was probably maybe a little bit more of a challenge on a certain level. So oh, get into this, but on oh sorry, Michael says, I wanted to say Jackie's evil for stopping these episodes on these particular cliffhangers, and like agree because I want to read more. But also it

was very well done. This is a perfect stopping point, So I have to acknowledge that Seraphim says the ticket here was from a fan box, though it being an option, was likely to do the producer's thinking him going would be a good idea. But I don't think there was much of a real plan here beyond send it top ranked crawler to the con for pr And like, maybe I don't think that the fan boxes are immune to being played the way somebody wants them to go. Probably there's

all kinds of ways that you can fix that. But also the plan doesn't have to be from the from the get go that he got the ticket just so that we could do the thing. The plan could be we know he has this ticket, and so now we're going to do a thing because we know he's going to be there. You know, it could go, it could

start in the other direction. But anyway, so chapter thirty, you know, he has been pulled into the security checkpoint and all he knows is that he has just been taken away from Donut, who is in the same place as Luciamar. And it's granted, I believe that she was in a safe room, but I don't really know if they were, like they weren't actually in it in it,

I don't think so. I believe that she was still very much at risk immediately speaking, and he gets to find out from Zev without too much time time elapsing that for now, Dona is okay, but as we find out later, like it's there, she's clearly in a tight position, and everything is being set up in such a way that Carl is going to be jumped almost instantly wherever he winds up being dropped off, which there's a very funny fake out, and I will talk about it because

I actually did laugh. But so he is being handled by this null from security, and he tells Carl, my grandpop's name is Lis. I would consider it a personal favor if you look approvingly on her and her entry. I can't backscratch you directly, but I am in charge of security, and I know you steal from trailers, and I can just overlook that if you do this for me.

And Carl says, what in the flying fuck are you talking about, which it's sort of a weird response to me because I think it's pretty clear what he's talking about. And also Carl seems to get it once he's in this situation. There's no moment of like, oh, here's Lex and she's the girl that he mentioned and that must be what he meant and blah blah blah. It's like, here's Lix, and I'm gonna give her the good grade

to do this thing for this guy. So it's just an odd like he acts like he has no idea what could possibly be meant by this, and then later he's fully on board and in it and gets it. But anyway, so he gets dropped into this production trailer here and there's no porthole or anything. And there's a counter, a bathroom, a couch, but it's made of metal. Below my feet, I heard what sounded like a crackle of

a spell being cast, followed by cheers and laughter. And then here is Zev and she says that was quite the fight, but Dona is okay, and he keeps wanting Zev to tell him what happened. And he's being really stupid here. He's just so incautious, and I get it, like he's worried about Dona, and so his better judgment is sort of flying out the window. But it's just tough because in this situation, I would urge you to

be even more cautious than usual. If you're really genuinely worried about Dona, I need you to be like more aware than ever about the way you speak. And he's just really letting his like agitation get in the way of his good fucking sense. And he had like he starts to say something about, I want to go back there immediately. If Donut as trapped, I need to get there as soon as possible, And this is when she says, it might be in your best interest to linger if

you don't get it trust me. You need your rest, That's all I can say. And he says, I thought you guys plugged up the communication. Stop talking. Zev said, yeah, dude, what are you fucking thinking? Come on, man, like Jesus. So anyway, this is when he goes He's told try not to swear for this one. They're children, and I love that. The next sentence is the next chapter's opening line, and it's my dad says, you're the cat's bitch, which honestly isn't really like, not true of anybody who owns

a cat. Let's all be very for real. If you own one, you're that caitch, and there's really no ifans or buts about it, and you have to accept it before you and get involved with said cat, or you think it won't be that way and are very quickly disillusioned by the time things actually begin to shake out the way they inevitably will. So I don't think that's an unfair assertion. I'm just saying. My mother always said that dogs are like, oh my god, these people feed

me and keep me warm and safe. They must be gods. And cats say, oh my god, these people feed me and keep me warm and safe. I must be a god, and that has always felt very deeply true to me.

But yeah, this kid draws him being attacked by a grindle grub, a brindle grub, and I love Carlo says, ask your dad why that other guy is always coming over when he's not home, which is honestly such a beautiful line because it's he doesn't even have to assert anything here, He's just like, why don't you ask your dad that question? And if the kid does, just out of a like he won't even really know what it means.

It will just insert this weird uncertainty and it is truly diabolical, like anything that it just instills a drop of doubt enough to like poison stuff that's really difficult to fight against. Man, Like, that's a really good that's a good bit, Carl. I can't be mad at you for that one. Oh God. So apparently the Crawl Coom was happening in an actual physical location, and the adults were walking around and visiting booths, and they had a daycare where they could drop off their kids. For an

extra fee, they could participate in an art contest. Each day of the three day con had a different panel of so called celebrity judges. The kids were given art supplies from digital tablets to nano self learning sculpting clay to the alien equivalent of paper and grands, and they get to judge on a level from one to thirty.

And we wind up finding out from herk who is sitting next to him, that this particular event is considered either you are a beginner in the circle of like players in the celebrity sphere at this convention, and so this is like where they sort of introduce you, or you are the one that they are obligated to include to a certain degree. But you're on your way out. Nobody really probably like even knows who you are unless they see your name. They don't recognize your face, that's

for certain. And even if they see your name. There's this one dude who's a one of the camel creatures, and he had to have a qualifier under his name explaining what it is that he wrote because he doesn't even really have name recognition anymore. So that guy is particularly salty on that point because he really like, it's just insulting, you know. So I thought that was very funny and also has a definite ring of truth to it in terms of the way that like a lot

of cons seem to work. I don't go to many cons, I'll say that, but you know, I understand how they're structured and the way a lot of this goes. I often wonder how a lot of celebrities feel about doing cons, because I'm sure, to a degree it can be very like tedious and shitty, depending on like what your relationship is with the property that you're representing and the way

that people's attitudes are. But also there might be days where it's super fun, really cool to do, you know, So I, like I said, I'm sure it varies and also probably just varies by day according to like your personal mood. But I can't help but like think about the reality behind a lot of this stuff, because it's so there is a certain amount of sadness as a fan of anything that comes along with the concept that when you meet a celebrity, they're not happy to meet

you and don't really want to be here. That's always like a bomber, you know, and I part of me really wants to be like that. Maybe that's not always true, though, maybe it's sometimes just nice. And I realize that to a great extent. This is just me, you know, huffing copium, I guess, as the kids would say these days. So he talks with guy as they are as these kids are filing through, and there are some weird, little like

moments here. There's one group of caprids that comes through that don't have any art and they just demand to be judged. Which there's like a very strong reaction from Herk regarding these guys, and he is like, these things are freaky. I don't like them. Do whatever you need to do to get them out of here. And they give there they're just yelling like judge us and Carl gives them a five, and they like walk away and just say I accept your judgment or something like that,

but seem like a little sad about it. I think it's such an odd moment. And Herk himself is like, I've seen a lot of weird shit, and that particular group is the weird. They have a TV show where they just basically like yell, I don't get it. It's just they're they're they're fucking strange, and I just wanted

them out of here. And eventually we get Licks showing up and she's drawn a three D stick drawing of a knoll with a truncheon beating on an orc and she says, it's my pup pop, but he's helping rid the universe of tax avoiding scum, and so they give her like a perfect score, which is likely going to ensure that she winds up winning, and she like later on, uh zev is like, I've been looking at this thing that you guys voted for number one, and I don't get it. Is this like a bit you're doing? Is

this a joke or like what's going on? And Carl just completely side steps that because it's super nih, but he is grateful that they won't have to be there for the moment when she is declared winner, because there's no way that people aren't going to realize that there's some kind of fixed because her winning does not make

any sense. But doesn't care. He's ultimately just like, got to do what I gotta do, and I don't want to get on the bad side of the man who is in charge of some shit that directly affects me, which I think is a good call overall. And let's see, uh oh right, there's a mention of this other kid who won yesterday, who is iber and he is? He like, apparently they win usually and when they don't, have a little bit of like a tantrum over it. And I

remembered the portrait. It was a perfect likeness of Dona and she would have absolutely loved it. I'd given the kid some sort of slug thing a twenty six. So I'm wondering if this is going to wind up being something like an issue for him, But I have to imagine it's going to be something like or else. Why would it be mentioned, you know. So he is about to take off and Herk tells him to be careful and he's like, careful, come on, and Herk's like, yeah, okay, fair,

I understand it's a stupid thing to say. But the line to attend your panel is like literally out the door and like going around the building. It's a big deal. And he says something about the nova display and Carl is like, what does that mean? And he's like, did they not tell you? The panel you're going to be on is moderated by the mother of one of the hunters you killed, and I love that. When he meets with Zev, she's like, it's probably best not to like

mention her government or anything. She owns an amusement park, which what that is so odd? But okay, sure, why not Zindi VA's sister. It was her very first hunt. The Mantis people are overly dramatic about everything. The woman is a hive queen, which means she probably has ten thousand children. Try to avoid talking about her government and there won't be any problems. So that's very interesting to me. Is like, you can talk about killing her daughter and

that's probably fine, just not her government specifically. I'm not mad at that, but I do think it's surprising, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, anyway, so this uh the I'm sorry, I just saw the chat, and Michael says,

I'm sure it varies from day to day. William Shatner supposedly loved doing cons because of the love he got, but he still had a couple of infamous bad days where he snapped at fans who kept pushing him with nitpicky details from the show where there would be no way he would know anything about that's that would be something that would drive me insane. Anytime somebody is like, well but this doesn't make sense, Who fucking cares? Like I can. I can do this on my podcast and

nitpick about shit. I'm not gonna like bring this up with the actors. I'm not fucking insane. They don't you know what I'm saying. Like just a weird behavior, guys. Michael says, honestly, Lix makes me think of a wandering in character Mercia. Oh my god. Yes, always got to have a cute puppy kid and you have human animal hybrid races in your world. Sarah him says, we heard about the park before they run a hunting camp. Oh,

it's part of that. Oh okay, gotcha. I guess uh what I think of as amusement park is what she meant by that. But when you think about it, amusement park is It's a very vague term in the most literal sense. So I guess that makes sense. Michael says, I do wonder how things like being a hive queen who has thousands of babies affects familial affection. Stuff like if we crack anti aging, I wonder how that would affect family love as well when you don't need a

kid to carry on your genetic imprint. And Michael, I was actually thinking that same thing about like, well, she's got like, you know, thousands of children, and a part of me was kind of like, so does that mean that she just doesn't get to care about her kids? Because I feel like that attitude with us as humans, we definitely can very much be like there's tons of the things so it doesn't matter, which is very revealing about our attitude. But that is not necessarily how other

species operate, you know. But I understood what Zev meant. I just sort of thought it was like kind of an interesting point that said something about her as a person more than anything. So let's see, I'm trying to find the bit here. Oh right. She says that there are other people that are at this con and like Carl is only doing three things, which is actually pretty brief, and that there are others who are doing a bunch of stuff. I'm trying to find the bit. They've only

let four active crawlers attend this one. Five crawlers actually, since the Popop Brothers are really two. You're lucky you're only doing three events because you got here from a fanbox. The Popops are doing something like ten and the others are a guy named chireg Ali and Surrendel gore, you won't see either of them, but you're scheduled to be sharing autograph tables with the brothers tomorrow. And I've don't remember chirag Ali al though he says that he remembers

the name. And he mentions that Lucia not being here as surprising, and she's like, yeah, she's not really doing this stuff anymore because she's sort of unpredictable. And finally Carl says, are you doing okay, Zev, which, in my opinion, it's taken him a little too long to ask her this, but I also get that he like he you get that sort of fatigue at caring about people who are in more control than you are, to a degree of being like, I really resent even feeling like I have

to worry about you. You know, I'm not mad at him. I'm just saying I would probably have asked already. But she says, I'm doing as well as I can expect. My home system has gone entirely dark, and we don't know if we'll be able to go home after this or if we're going to get executed. Plus, you know, my entire family was slaughtered because I refused to wear a pin, which I'll say with no reservations, y'all, I would have just worn the pin. And this is not me at all. I want to be clear. This is

not me calling Zev out. It is me asking the question of whether something is worth it or not, you know what I'm saying, Like, there are times where sticking to your principles, no matter what it feels like a fucking baller move, that is very principled, and you are putting your foot down and refusing to be bullied. And then there are times where I'm like, I don't know what would have Obviously it's not as simple as wearing a pin. She is saying this for the dramatic effect

of it. I know that. But what would have been asked of her if she had worn the pin? What else would she have been expected to do? That's my real question here, and that would make the difference for me on what all is worth it and not. So I might cave to save the lives of my family. I might just do that, and I'm not really ashamed of it, because that's, you know, everything, Like some things are to me very cut and dried, right and wrong, and then there are things where it's sort of like

it depends what you prioritize, whether it's worth it. It's completely subjective, so I don't know. Michael says, she probably didn't actually expect literal torture and slaughter of her family. I would be surprised if she didn't. She seemed to be aware that was like on the table, but maybe I was misreading that. She probably thought the consequences would just be personal and only professional and didn't realize how

batshit crazy things were. Maybe, like you, guys, this is something that I'm kind of dealing with personally right now, with just the state of our world and how in the United States we just don't really have a lot of experience in our current iteration with really dramatically horrific consequences for things that are happening to us. We will have consequences that happen to other people in a place

that we can easily ignore, and so it's nothing. But I think that there's a huge disconnect in regards to the consequences of certain changes because we are so certain, for not really any good reason, that things can't turn bad to a certain level. Do you get what I'm saying that we are like that simply couldn't happen here.

And a friend of mine reached out today texted me they were very upset because a photographer that they know who they had worked with before, he got evicted from his apartment in September and he was found dead on the street from exposure two days ago. Died on the street because he lives in Minnesota and the temperature dropped

and he had nowhere to go. And she sent me a link to his Facebook and one of the most recent posts was about getting evicted and saying, if anybody has a place for me to stay, I'd appreciate it, but if not, I guess I'll see you under the bridge in Route seventy seven or something. And all I couldn't help noting this. And I'm not judging these people. I just want to make this clear, like I'm making a judgment about them, but I'm not trying to say

that I would behave differently. I am simply seeing something in a way that I don't think I would otherwise now that this man is dead because he had nowhere to go. When you go look at the comments on him asking for a place to stay, everybody clearly means well and is trying to be supportive, but there's a complete and utter lack of urgency to any of their replies. There's a little sense of I'm sorry they're going through this, but it'll work out ultimately. I'm sure you'll be fine.

I know that this sucks right now. You'll get through it. You may not have options at the moment, you will find a way. You will figure it out. And I understand that attitude. I have that attitude all the time about so many things. And it was just really chilling to see to read between the lines of what everybody was responding to him and how certain they all were that it would be fine. And now he's fucking dead because he had nowhere and nobody there was like one

person who offered him a place to stay. Everybody else was basically like, I wish I could help, but they didn't offer anything. And the one person that offered him a spot, he replied to that guy saying, I would definitely take you up on this, but I have no way to get there. And that guy didn't reply to him, and you know, I don't know, maybe he got in touch on DM or something. I don't know what happened, but it was just the sense of all of us really believing that there is a sort of safety net

that will ultimately be triggered and save us. That isn't real, you know what I'm saying. That is just I understand to a point why we feel this way, but if we are looking at the reality of a lot of situations, we are very misinformed on how that works. So all this to say, Michael, what you're saying about, how zeb probably just like had the wrong idea about what would happen to her. Perhaps that is it, you know, like I think that we just don't Whatever we actually see

isn't the truth on how bad the situation is. And I mean that on a number of levels, whether it's somebody's post on social media or whether it's a story in the news. I have to assume these days that if we are hearing about it, the reality is way worse than what we're even hearing. And so there's this dread, you know. Anyway, So he gets left to these nole guards and they're getting he's getting like some perks in this little moment that are unexpected. A bed gets installed,

and bed isn't quotes. It was nothing more than a blue glowing panel. I could walk over and it would fully refresh and buff me for thirty hours. This was a Tier three bed, something I wouldn't be able to purchase. Till the ninth floor, they brought a cruller's biscuit and dropped it on the table and added a door that led to something called Ultimate Training Room, and Fredo says, the captain sens his regards. That's a Tier four training room,

so you best use it while you can. You won't be able to nick the room or the bed when you leave, but a smart guy like you can be creative, and we'll turn your inventory back back on right before you return to the dungeon, just so you know. And when he goes into he uses the bed, he won't eat the biscuit because he can't, like look at its properties. And I'm really curious what that biscuit's gonna do, because I feel like it's got to be something pretty good.

And then he goes into the training room and it is a very involved upgrade. There are so many things so he can train to six hours a day in six different skills. He can actually see a sort of like metric on how far he is on training to level up and gets a bonus to training, and plus there are additional types of training listed than the other one.

But also, and I thought this was so wild. He clicks the sappers table and the table appears, and instead of the multi arm trainer guy who usually appeared a badger creature with an eyepatch and a hook for a hand, faded into reality in front of me. I hear, you want to learn how to blow things up into arm traps and maybe brew poison or two using this table. You come to the right place. Let's see here, looks like you already know your stuff. You're practically ready to

teach me a thing or two. What can I do for you? And so he's able to have a full conversation with Carl about like what it is Carl wants to accomplish and whether or not that's possible, and what's the next closest thing that this guy could teach him. That's sort of in the neighborhood of what Carl wants. And it's a full on, like customized experience, really different, and Carl just is blown away and immediately like, we have to get a version of this room. This is insane,

you know. So he says, I've been working on sticky bombs for a while. The ones I've been making aren't very adhesive. I can't get into my inventory, but I was hoping you could help, And he says, I think I know what the problem is. Let's put this table away and pull up the advanced Bomber's studio workshop and then we'll have to move over to the alchemy table, which means we'll be talking to my associate for a bit, but the whole module will only take two hours. Is

that acceptable? And I love that there's like a time, you know, like benefit as well. There's just a lot with this that I think is so there's a lot of potential here. And yeah, fully understand what why Karl is so excited by this. So he gets on into that, and I'm assuming that whatever he learns here is going to be something that he winds up being able to

use against Lucimar later. Maybe. And with all my equipment buffs, plus the extra benefits of my primal race, the skill should have gone up to sixteen, but according to the display, it remained at fifteen. Mordecai had warned me that would probably happen. My primal race allowed me to train past fifteen in skills and spells, but armor and weapons based enhancement's lost effectiveness past fifteen, which meant certain benefits, such as the plus one to powerful strike were greatly diminish.

This didn't mean enhancement stopped at fifteen. There was a complicated math involved I didn't understand, similar to how our personal space worked. The bottom line was plus one a powerful strike plus five for my toe ring would still enhance me fifteen, but I'd probably need to get to twelve or so on my own before it did, and each level beyond that came with diminishing returns if I wanted to hit twenty and have to train to seventeen or eighteen on my own, which likely wouldn't happen. So

that doesn't sound great. And I know that there's been a mention when he chose the primary race that there are other advantages, but I don't remember what they are now, So I like I could go back and look at that, or you guys can tell me if it's not a spoiler. But I know that there were certain reasons that he picked this race, I just can't fully remember them at the moment. So he gets brought into the room where

there's a panel, and he gets in. There's like a little dude in here, dwarf named doctor Ratchet, and he says, I'm visiting the planet and had to borrow this room from my upcoming panel. I need the Jews for my demonstration, so unfortunately, you'll have to go upstairs. So so evidently there's like different, it's a weird thing. But because so

much is virtual, you know. So Carl goes in and is left by these two mercenaries, the Knowles, and the chapter had started like don't trust mercenaries the next chapter, which I like because it's like adding an element of dread into things, of course, but then we wind up finding out that like the way the mercenaries kind of messed with him isn't as terrible as I was worried it would be, because that's such a you know, so it adds attention, and even though it pays off, it's

not as bad as it could have been. And I feel like that's fair in terms of like overall storytelling.

So let's see, there's a moment where he feels like very heavy and sluggish and weaker, and one of the mentions that he's in a zero zone where there's no enhancements at all, which it just never really occurred to me what it would be like to leave the actual crawl once you're used to being leveled up on such a variety of levels, that it would be like an adjustment to just go going back to being a person, and how it would be very easy probably to forget

that you're just a person and like punch something expecting to break through it and instead you break your hand, you know. So let's see, I'm Valtae Corporation porter by identification number six dot f F. I will be your assistant. You may call me Biff. And he is led to the spot where he will be sitting, and the uh what do you call it? Is she's going to be right next to him, and even though it's gonna look like they're right next to each other, they won't actually

physically be in the same room. And let's see trying to find the spot. Okay, So next to me was a ridiculously thin, flat faced, orange chewed alien with wide set eyes. He looked like a human size stick of gum with eyes and arms. And I don't know about y'all, but instantly I pictured Clippy for Microsoft Word and I know he's not like a stick of gum, but like close enough. That was just instantly who was in my head? Uptown how is over him? The next was a female

tentacle face Ciccathian Sidney Iglacia crawl historian. The third was an older, heavily scarred albino bald elf Drick. He was listening to the Saccathian woman talk animatedly about something I couldn't quite understand. The guys stared back at her blankly. It was clear they didn't know I was here. So we get a little what do you call it, like a little info on who these people are. Slate the slate is an ex game guide and he's on Uptown hal Talk's tactics. I don't know who the slime face

bitch is. It says she's a historian. And Drick was a crawler a long time ago, tapped out at the end of the eleventh This was on a Valte season and he used a plasma saw as his main weapon. And Maxo says he's a psycho, but he's a funny psycho, so they use him a lot for panels. I think he's a wormhead now can't remember, so yeah, he is, as is confirmed. So we have like there's a back and forth here between a bunch of them regarding Carl because they don't know that Carl is actually here viewing

things right now. And it's very funny because one of them is like, there's no way he's here, give me a break, like just completely hand waives that even as a possibility. I don't understand why they told them he'd be here. It seems like a betrayal. No, Drick is right, somebody in the Hunters was the best choice choice. After Lucy had cast those spells and set up camp, he wouldn't have had a chance against her one on one.

This is still a desperate ploy. But unless they know the exact moment and Spotty will appear, he's better off against the Hunters than the la Jobless, especially with her so angry. I don't understand any of this, Sydney said. Hopefully Carl will up uptown. House said, I just wish we were allowed to tell this directly to him. We'll see.

So this is when the moderator comes in and it's one of these mantis ladies, and Carl is like kind of startled because seeing one of them in the krawl is sort of there's a different reaction to seeing them in this sort of setting where you're just in what amounts to a conference room in a hotel, and how much more upsetting. She looks out of context of the krawl, which I really get, and she says to him, your luck is a dishonor on the hive, to which he replies,

the hive can lick my sack. I can't be mad at that pretty solid reply, Like what do you say to that? You don't say anything. As it turns out, she slices her arm blade through the table, right through where like Carl would have really been sitting, had he really been there, And evidently the others can't see her, like fully, I guess, so let's see, I'm trying to find the spot. Maybe no, they can see her, I think, right, but they can't see Carl. But she can little confused

about who sees what here. But evidently this is the start of the panel, and I really felt for the way that she tries to run this. Her name is Circe.

By the way, she decides that she's going to basically like have this be a lecture and this woman Sidney, who is the one with the tentacles, she has written a book that she's trying to promote using this panel, but Circy won't let her say anything, won't let anybody say anything, and she just tries to take all of the drama out of the situation in a way that

reminds me a little bit of Carl. You know. She's attempting to sort of monopolize it all and not allow anybody else to participate and make it boring and not have it be like the show that everyone's here for. And Carl is thinking how Donut would have fucked up her whole shit if she had still been here. But she goes on for almost ten straight minutes, and finally Carl decides that he is going to put down his head and bang it on the table like he just

like felt, and then says, you killed me. I'm literally dead. You succeeded in boring me to death. And she says, I'll be forced to mute you if you're gonna insist on being an imbecile, and he says, mute, You're not letting anyone talk. Does anyone give a shit about this subject? No? Half the crowd said, I do, Sydney said, sounding crestfallen, and I loved this. Carl's like, okay, Sydney, let's hear it.

What's your book? What's it about? And he like just gives her the floor and she asks if she can put his endorsement on the cover, and He's like sure and completely helps her out in a way that is just very fun to me, because knowing that Matt Dinneman is an author, it's like he couldn't let Carl be mean to the author. He was like, no, Carl was gonna understand our plate. He's gonna get it. Oh God,

I just love that so much. So finally somebody says, oh, he says, I heard a lot of you waited a long time for this panel, and you waited in line, and I guess what you really want to hear is what this roach lady has to say about me killing her coward bitch of a child. And then you probably want to hear me respond by saying I'm going to kill her other kids too. Then she's gonna get all hissy and I'll say something else that her pisselr off further.

Is that right? And Circe is losing her entire shit. She like the thing to do here. Were she really going to like play, it would be to deadpan further not react. She is not capable of that. Evidently she can't help but show how upset and irritated she is Uptown. Howell was starting to back away. Sidney just seemed happy she got a chance to mention her book. She pulled the book out and was holding it against her chest.

Drake was watching me intently. He too, was tense, as if afraid I'd somehow sneak a bomb halfway across the galaxy, which I don't think is unreasonable. Carl. You're acting like, oh, what does he think I've done? And I'm like, you do insane shit all the time, Carl. I don't think anybody is out of line to expect something bonkers from you. Here's the thing. I was originally gonna say, you can all go fuck yourselves and storm out, but I have

a problem and i'd like to enlist your help. You guys want to help me crowd source a solution, and circ yells cut him off, and a woman yells out don't, and Circe's like, I'm the moderator and is yelling at the person out in the audience who said don't Circe is insisting, like you think I'm the maestro and that you can fuck me up like you did with him. But I am not pitiful like him. This is going to be a real problem if you keep on pulling this, and can someone tell me who the lady in the

robe is? Then I felt myself add she's kinda hot. It was then at that moment that I finally realized how stupid and reckless I was being. Honestly, y'all, as much as this is like a little out of character for Karl, it's not enough for me to be worried about it or think that there's something wrong. Him saying she's kind of hot. That did feel excessive, but it wasn't really excessive enough even that for me to be like something's going on, you know what I mean? It

just didn't still didn't occur to me. And this is when he notices that that cigarette one of the guards lit is still sitting there on the ground smoking and that there's clearly something in it, and he's being drugged to lower his inhibitions overall, and so this woman stands and says that she isn't allowed to address him directly because she's a sponsor, so I have to leave. But I'm also a sponsor of Crawl con and I've given I've directed them to allow you to speak, and that's

all I can say. So Sirce is like, fine, fuck this whole thing. I'm going to get the hell out of here, and she picks up the whole table and like throw And as she's heading out, Carl just yells, can someone tell me the best way to kill Vra? And everybody goes silent because he's just said it directly. Just set it. And that's what you talk about at these things, isn't it. That's why we're here. That's the

whole convention to celebrate killing. And I just judged a contest where kids drew pictures of me and my friends dying because y'all don't even see us as if we're real people. And I don't get it, because y'all are smart, and you're letting them separate us out like we're completely separate, but you know deep down what you're doing. I don't get it, but I guess I just have to get

over that. So if you like when people die, then let's fucking do this then, Which is I think a good approach to be, Like, I'm not even gonna try and get this crawl stopped. I'm not gonna pretend that I can make it so that you guys don't enjoy this thing. I'm just gonna point out it's fucked up. And y'all know it's fucked up. I don't have to tell you that. If you stop and think about it for even a moment, you already know. And also, well, I have to do it, so I'm gonna fucking go

for it. Then I'm not wanting to cheat. I am just asking for the information that the people I'm going to be up against already have, which I think is only fair. And he gets so much information, how many mantises, how like where they are exactly the Nebulars are camping out, You're in their territory, Circy, You're free to come back up. I don't know how much time we have left, but I want to brainstorm with all of you. If you

were in my position, tell me what you'd do. Uh. And he involves the others on the panel as well, And this is when Ciruce says, if anything happens to my other daughters, I'll hunt down and kill the person responsible, and Carl's like, okay, me, I will be responsible. And maybe you should have thought of that, because they're literally being put into a dungeon where the thing is to kill them. So if you're so worried about them, I'm sorry,

I don't have very much sympathy. You should have been in there and yourself, but you're too fucking old and you're a coward, so of course you're not the one in there. And then she finally leaves an uptown house says, you know you're fucked, right, and Carl uptown says I'm fucked So how do I unfuck myself? And it becomes a whole conversation. It's honestly genius. I love this idea involving the whole crowd. This is going to be shared

so much as well. Like the way that this is going to not only be advantageous to Carl on an inf meal level but also be a viral thing is really important. And whoever drugged him, they were not trying to screw him. I really don't think they were, or if they were, they misjudged how this would shake out. But I really feel like this was for the best. So yeah, he says, I'll be back tomorrow if your plan works, I'll be sure to bring the heads of

Sirce's daughters to decorate my table. By the way, I called out, have you guys ever noticed how awesomely designed the Desperado Club is? I love this. He made a deal with one of the other judges to say that because he had designed the club, and Carl said, I'll prompt if you'll give this girl a really high score, I'll promote how great the design is on my panel.

And then he almost forgets to even do it, just barely squeezes it in before things are wrapping up, And as he is getting up up, he asks uptown how who that woman was? And he's like a representative of the collective. They are not someone you want to attach yourself. And then the room blinks and they're all gone, And I couldn't help but wonder if that was like on purpose that he was not allowed to finish his sentence,

or if it was just circumstantial. So Fredo, one of the guards, there are two types of transactions, personal and business. We have transacted both types today. The matter with the drug was business. The matter with the commander is personal. Two separate things. Do you understand? No, I said, yeah, you do. Stop it, Stop it, mister contrarian. So he enters the studio and his UI pops up with a message from Donut. Don't go toward the safe room. It's

a trap. Lucia is in there and can hurt you even if you go in, which is I don't understand how that works. If she's cheating, if she's got a skill or ability that allows her to do this, I don't know. But I killed her stupid dog and she's really mad about it, which the fact that Doughnut killed one of her dogs is insane. I just want to note that taking out one of Lucia's dogs is something many people have tried and it has like never worked. So I am so curious how she fucking managed that,

because that's a big deal. That's a big deal. The bud ladies are outside in the town, them and these other guys who look like bad star Trek Aliens with big hats. So then he sees the table in the middle of the studio, Automaton table level five, sitting on the table was a book, a paperback featuring a familiar, smiling dwarf riding on the back of a mechanical horse thing, Doctor Ratchet's Guide to Building Automatons for Fun and Profit. I picked it up and open to the first page.

It was autographed. I took both the book and table into my inventory and cracked my neck. Once I entered the green room, I'd have about five minutes before I

was to be transferred back to the dungeon. I love this because what he had been talking about, and we don't actually hear that much about what specifically Carl is trying to do, but what that badger Ai said to him was like, if you want to do that, you'll need like a hypnosis table or a necromancy table, or you're gonna need like minions that are willing to die

for you somehow. So I'm assuming that this like automaton table is accomplishing that that he can build minions, mechanical minions for himself, you know, So I am really curious exactly what it is like specifically that he is planning. It's having like beings that can carry your bombs in and out of places, is all well, and good, but I feel like it's got to be more than that.

So we get, like the chapter thirty four, what a lot of the audience is explaining to him about killing mantises and like it's fun because one person will bring up something and another person will be like, you know that they have abilities that'll keep that from working, or YadA YadA, and alarm traps because like they have really sensitive hearing. And he says they poach other hunters. Doesn't

that piss everyone off? The crowd laughed. A few seasons back, Vron got into a fight and killed a fellow hunter or someone else called. They said it was legal since it was in the hunting ground. Since then, people just do what the Dark Hive says. Almost everyone is scared of them, which makes sense. I mean, you know, why

would you mess with that? And the nebular guys, He's like, well then why they pushing back and they're like yeah, them and the mantids have always been at odds with each other, and they just do what they do uptown houses. I don't normally agree with the mantids, but in that case, the Nebulas got what they deserved. They were squatting in

a hive system. I don't know anything about this, but you know whatever, people viewed the more as a nuisance than a genuine threat from what I gathered, and they had a healthy income stream, but I had no idea what it was as I understood it. The Nebula Sin Patrol was one of the few hunting groups who always attended a crawl, but the hunters were different every time they train, and the team consisted of young males studying

to be priests. They believed people like me, born from a seated planet were an abomination, and they considered the act of hunting us as a sort of crusade. And they liked to focus their crawler exterminations on clerics and palette and based players, which makes sense if they feel like you're infringing on our territory in terms of righteousness

and whatever. You know. Let's see. Drick says their pacifism is the one portion of their religion I respect, not that they follow it, but it sounds good their ballad of survival avoid conflict. It is their next principle, which I feel is much more important to the question. Quoted directly from one of their songs, violence breeds chaos from chaos we were born, and into chaos we will succumb. A sudden, uncomfortable silence filled the room. Did these panels

always stray this far off the main subject? Sidney asked, just the good ones uptown, Howse said, and the audience laughed. So then we have Zev meeting with him again in the green room. I was going to give you fifteen minutes in the training room, but they came and took it away. What happened on that panel? The tunnel is going crazy. The Valte locked all the attempted live tunnels.

But everyone's talking about it, and they say, you ad text Sirce that you pushed her off the podium, and I love that, And he says, like, it's good to know that people get shit as wrong as ever, that a game of telephone is still exactly what it is. So he sends a plan via text to the chat and is like, you guys need to read this and tell me when you're in place. Samantha is mad at Dona and not talking. And when Samantha chimes in, you

abandoned me. This was worse than than nothing. It was worse than my mother humiliating me in front of the King. I don't know if I can handle anymore in dignity. First the slabbering dog treating me as a chewt toy, and then you did nothing to help me, and now I'm attached to the back of this bug. I am surrounded by decapitated heads, and let me tell you they are poor company. Oh honey, you used to be a sex doll. I'm certain you can handle all matter of indignity.

Don't slutshame me. I'm going to kill your mother. So this is Doughnut describing what's going on. Lucia and her daughter are in the safe room, and she's been punching herself in the place and trashed the whole room. This is like when Beatrice wrecked the kitchen when you told her she should stop trying to sell those awful leggings. Of course, of course, of course she did. Of course she did. Lucia is crazy. She's crazier than you think.

She's waiting for me to come out. She's figured out a way to cheat the safety measures and has traps that kick people out of the room. I went out when I thought she was gone and hit a trap that teleported me into the middle of town. And when I tried to get back, I hit another and then she came out of the woods and chased me. I think they knew you were going to be here. Now. Lucia is in the safe room. I'm in the guildhall,

and there are a bunch of hunters outside. There are six or seven big bug guys, and ten of these guys in robes with tubes off all over them. They have magnificent hats, though, and Carl is just like, Okay, I don't need any of that. I just need to know if you read my plan. So let's see. They know Carl is coming, they don't know exactly when. They didn't know where either, Samantha, so they do know some of it. They tried torturing me to tell them where

you would appear. I played along like they could actually torture me. I told them, but I told them the wrong spot. I had you appearing a whole five meters away from the real spot. You're welcome, you guys, she says. I told them the wrong spot, and I got my hopes all up, and then five meters away five meters fifteen feet, he could he could just be like in my bathroom from where I'm standing. It's fucking useless. Okay, I'm transferring in a minute. Get ready at the door,

wait for my signal, Zev. Is it gonna let me down and visibility potion before I teleport? I don't think so, Carl, and he tries and it doesn't work. Okay, this is it. This is where you belong, Carl, the river said, Jump into the rapids, embrace the chaos, Zev. If I die and Donut gets out of this, please watch over her. I'll do my best, Carl, Zev said, as I felt the first tingles teleportation, like hundreds of hands coming to drag me into the abyss. And that's the end of

the chapter. So yeah, this was really really fun. Honestly, guys, I can't wait to meet Lucia Maar. I really like, I just want to know exactly what the fuck is going on with her, because something clearly, very specific is happening, and I just can't. I like, she's definitely an enemy. I'm not trying to pretend that we should try to reason with her. Something with her is too busted and broken to reason with anymore. I don't feel like Lucia is home. I feel like the lights are on, but

she's gone. However, I am very curious about what got her here because the fact that she has been able to take out how many like officials was she able to kill? I think they said like four something like that. Some of this, I expect is like a result of punishments that she's had to sustain from attempting to kill some of these people. Evidently she's just taken it so far that they don't even really want to protect her anymore the way they used to. So yeah, I don't know.

I'm just very fascinated by her, and I think ultimately they have to kill her because she is just a risk to absolutely everybody. But I regret that that has to happen because I feel like probably some of what's going on with her isn't her fault, and I expect that, like we'll kill her and then we will find out things that will make it really retroactively even more awful that this is what had to happen. So yeah, anyway, all right, friends, I got to wrap up, But I

appreciate you all very much. Thank you for hanging out with me, and uh, thank you Jackie for commissioning this episode. I want to give you all a heads up that I am going to be transitioning over the coming months to doing these lives on Patreon Live instead of on crowdcast. So if you are not following me as a free member on Patreon, you're going to want to do that so that you get the notifications when I'm about to

go live there. It's a matter of just crowdcast pricing is going to be going through the roof for me and I can't afford it, so I have to make this shift. But I'm going to try and give you guys as much of a heads up as I can, and uh, just wanted to warn you about it. So all right, everybody, thank you again, and I will see you next week with a new episode. Until then, to the lou motherfuckers. That was an Unspoiled Network podcast.