The Great and Secret Knowledge

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Possible Show Titles

Literally Shakin' in My Boots

The Warriors and the Peacemakers

A Ritual of Love

A Total Earthling on the Enterprise

A Fan's Fantasy

The Reel McCoy

The Best Boss I Ever Had

Recommendations

Lakewood Playhouse

Robert Reich

Inequality Media

Heather Cox-Richardson

King's Books in Tacoma

Bookshop.org

Libro.fm

Links

Roy Rogers

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Dave Barry

Asimov

James Blish

Brad Barry

Ursula K LeGuin

Lucy and Desi

Dick Van Dyke

the salt monster

the horta

Harlan Ellison

City on the Edge of Forever

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Gene Roddenberry

Wagon Train

Joseph Campbell

Yaysayers and Good Guides

Leon Uris

James Michener

The Waltons

Star Trek: Discovery

African serval

DeForest Kelley: Up Close and Personal

the one where the shuttle is underpowered

From Sawdust to Stardust

TOS: "The Empath"

TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever"

TOS: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"

TOS: "Bread and Circuses"

Apache Uprising

The Law and Jake Wade

Warlock

The Virginian: "Man of Violence"

Bonanza: "The Honor of Cochise"

"The Decision"

Star Trek: TNG "Encounter at Farpoint"

TOS: "The Mantrap"

John Hoyt

Midday Colorado (tv show?)

Paul Winfield

TV Guide

Gunfight at the OK Corral

Hollywood Walk of Fame

A.C. Lyles

Ron Hawk

Lorraine Day

Raintree County

Lee Marvin

Clark Gable

Elizabeth Taylor

2:00:00 - trans talk

Intersex

Womb Man

Gender Justice League

Rainbow Center in Tacoma

The Actor's Prayer

Leonard Nimoy

George Takei

Kelley Phone Tag

The Enduring Legacy of DeForest Kelley

Ted Trail's Apetalk and Whalespeak

Animal Protection Institute

Lakewood Playhouse

Robert Reich

Inequality Media

Heather Cox-Richardson

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Miracle

Fiddler on the Roof

Lower Decks, Season 1, Episode 3 "Temporal Edict" with the Duras Sisters Podcast

27 januari 2025 | 148 min

The Vor Game, Chapters 10 and 11 with Sofia B

26 januari 2025 | 115 min

The Vor Game, Chapters 8 and 9 with Sofia B

26 januari 2025 | 80 min

Interview with Legendary Author Lois McMaster Bujold, Part Two

15 januari 2025 | 96 min

An Interview with Legendary SF Author Lois McMaster Bujold, Part One

15 januari 2025 | 80 min

The Amulet of Samarkand, Chapters 11-14 with James Lark

6 januari 2025 | 124 min

In this episode, James Lark returns to discuss chapters 11 thru 14 of Jonathan Stroud's fantasy masterpiece, The Amulet of Samarkand. In these chapters, we discuss Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, being handcuffed to your enemy, the election of popes, and more!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016)

Recommendations

Conclave (2024)

Blue Velvet

Citadel Diana

Possible Show Titles

A Noble Entity From Another Place

Unwillingly Entwined

Suppress the Fanboy

Obscene and Fetid and Fug

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

James's podcast

Neurotic Literature

Here’s James website for all his activities:

"Resurrection of the Daleks" - Doctor Who

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

James Lark

@worksoflark on Instagram and @jameslark on Twitter

Links

Joe Ford, podcaster extraordinaire

genius loci from Dresden Files

Mills and Boone romance novels

American Psycho

the real Gladstone and Disraeli

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Nicholas Nickleby

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Hugo

The Avengers

Lois McMaster Bujold

Strictly Come Hamster

Gary Russell

election of a pope

Isabella Rossellini

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016)

Life, the Universe and Everything

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Doctor Who (TV movie)

"Web of Fear" - Doctor Who

Extended Notes

Chapter 11

B is impressed that N is framing his master

N denies it

B explains how unusual it is to target your own master, especially so early in your education

B explains how apprenticeship is meant to work

"Since the days of the Median Magi, students have always lived alone in their mentors’ house—one master to one pupil, conducting their lessons with secrecy and stealth. From ziggurat to pyramid, from sacred oak to skyscraper, thousands of years pass and things don’t change."

B likes that the kid is so ambitious, willing to get his master killed

B hadnt heard of Underwood so he figured he was a lowlevel nobody. This suggests that B has been summoned in the past few decades (unless wizards have extra long lifespans)

"he had all the time-honored attributes that other humans associate with great and powerful magic: a mane of unkempt hair the color of tobacco ash, a long whitish beard that jutted outward like the prow of a ship, and a pair of particularly bristly eyebrows."

Martha is fully dressed and B is relieved. He must not like female nudity - that or hes not into older women

Underwood complains about the spider (B) to Martha

B goes to study, sees a pentacle on the door

B puts on a shield

the amulet sucks up the fire from the trap

he slips in and sees the study

he remarks that the security is pretty weak

he goes into the cabinet and is underwhelmed by the objects inside

he slides the amulet behind a bird token

B goes up stairs but stops when he sees Mrs U leading N down

N knows hes screwed because B is supposed to quietly stick near to him until summoned

U is so rude to N and his wife

B hears Nathaniels name!

B studies the boys appearance and manner

B capers to attract Ns attention

Underwood complains about the PM hanging with Makepeace, who writes misonformation into his plays

he thinks the PM should help the interior dept instead of socializing

U says N has done well enough to perform his first summoning

U thinks the boy is scared of summoning but its actually cuz N is tripping about B hearing his real name

the plan is to summon a natterjack impling or a mouler. B is unimpressed

Ns contact lenses have arrived

N hears a noise at the door

U disregards it

he wants N to bring a book of names

N clearly can tell B got his name

The boots were on the other eight feet now

Chapter 12

He complains about U not teaching him enough

he says how hes read all these books

N says its peaceful and he likes the statue. Who is it?

Its Gladstone!

he was a powerful PM

fought duel with Disraeli over a woman

he gets shirty about it and starts ranting about how good the govt is

she explains that some countries dont need magicians

he says she doesnt know anything because shes a commoner

she says commoners can be smart

he asks if she wanted to be a wizard

she says no and shes happy to be an art teacher

N is surprised she has other pupils

it makes me feel queasy

Mrs U blows in frantic

Apparently U wants him to meet some guests

Miss L thinks this is good news

U is daunted by the thought of meeting all these magicians

they dont look like magicians

N is underwhelmed

U is schmoozing

when he sees N he waves him over

meets three wizards

old tomato face

clammy doughboy

slickback big teeth aka simon lovelace

doughboy has a question

big teeth is super rude

N contradicts one of them

U sends him away

BT observes that hes not afraid of his elders

perhaps you dont think we're your betters?

N doesnt answer cuz hes confused

BT demands a quiz from N

U isnt protecting him at all

N answers all the questions right

Simon asks him about six words of direction

U objects because he shouldnt know that yet

N does it

men are impressed

SL says some rude shit and N claps back

calls him a sore loser

SL has demons attack the boy

everyone is staring at N

he looks to U who is mad at him instead of SL?

he leaves and goes upstairs

he runs into Mrs U

he asks her who the bigteeth guy is

she says its Simon Lovelace

repetition of You're capable of nothing. You're helpless. You're too weak to fight back

does James ever use this technique?

he goes to the workroom and grabs the box of mites

the party is breaking up, with wizards at the door.

N says the words and smashes the box with a hammer

the six mites go for the magicians

Simon bats his away

dough face falls down outside and gets a couple attacking his skin

old man barely reacts, sending his into the carpet, where Simon smashes it with his foot

U is shocked. He goes to doughface and deactivates the mites

N rushes to the schoolroom

Ms Lutyens is there

she realizes N is upset and goes to comfort him

SL uses magic to lift N into the air, tips him up butt first, and spanks him repeatedly until he loses all sense

hes stuck in his room for a month, punished severely. he hd no lessons and could only sit in his room and look out the window

he finds a pen and starts sketching the outside. then he begins intricately plotting his revenge

did you plot anything at age 10? seems unusual

Mrs U is forbidden from talking to him

when school starts again he learns that Ms Lutyens has been fired

chapter 13

he spends a lot of time in the garden, plotting revenge or reading books

he looks to the statue of Gladstone for inspiration, to keep his determination up

he plans to emulate Gladstone by punishing his enemies

N decides to come at Lovelace with sneakiness and trickery, not head on

N pretends to be reformed, wearing a meek and pliant mask

he controls his face just like a master liar/sociopath

he doesnt see U as his master anymore

Underwood not defending him made N lose all respect. A master should treat an apprentice like their child

why didnt U protect him? because hes a coward afraid of Lovelace's power

did you ever have a situation like that?

sacking Ms Lutyens was among U's worst crimes

N could not forgive U for this

Mrs U was his only light, but he couldnt be totally honest with her

he doesnt have his own lenses yet so he used the masters to summon an imp

he makes a polished bronze disc

he waits until the Us leave for a trip

he makes a circle and uses a bowl of rowan wood and hazel

he steps into his circle and begins

he starts his incantation and wishes he had some water

once you start you cant safely stop

a naked baby with yellow eyes and red lips appears

N confines it into the disc

N can now spy all over the place. he keeps the disc hidden under the roof tiles

first he spies on his masters office, but gives up after seeing how boring it is

he spies on Ms Lutyens and her pupil

N orders imp to spy on Lovelace. it balks at this given how powerful S is

this job its not impossible, just difficult

he sees SL typing on a computer

imp is getting bored, N orders him to stay

he says a word that causes the imp pain

he cant get too near in case Lovelaces defenses twig

this brings us to the introduction of the scary huge beardo

L is startled by the mans appearance, suggesting that the guy bypassed all his security. how does he do that?

L whips out a bunch of cash

Imp warns him that a watcher is on its way

N tells him to stay until the last second

L reaches out for his prize

Big Beardo gives him a small parcel, which he frantically unwraps

imp dips out but before he does N sees the amulet

hes being annoying but N demands to know what he saw and heard

L was super eager

Big Beardo says "the Amulet of Samarkand is yours, Lovelace."

six months pass while he prepares his plan. the imp cant get that close again

U is still slowrolling him, thinking hes too dull to teach new things

chapter 14

Bartimaeus decides to manifest as a human next time hes summoned

he decides to look like Ptolemy, a fourteen year old Egyptian boy. he thought it would inspire the boys jealousy and rivalry

B is stoked cuz he has a handle on the kid now

N goes to his circle

B appears in London gear

N tries to order B

Bs like give over, kid

N is losing his cool

Nathaniel goes for the Systemic Vise

Bartimaeus intones Nathaniel's name, followed by a counter-spell

the kid cancels the spell before it can rebound on him

Bartimaeus keeps flippin shit

B says he'll go back to his bag of tricks

the kid busts out the Stimulating Compass

B launches this one back and nearly kills the kid a second time

Bartimaeus is like careful your master will come up to see what youre doing

N isnt worried

he realizes that B learned his name and thats how he could counterspell

(but didnt he already show that he was anxious about it in the scene with the master about getting his name?)

N gets mad when B talks like a teen

he starts to get into a fighting stance, B follows his lead

Ptolemy was very similar in look to Nathaniel, though much better looking (I'm wondering if Bartimaeus's love for him is sexual as well as filial)

N ponders how he can break Bartimaeus without being countered

B hopes that he can exhaust the boy by making him angry

B finds out that N isnt working for anyone else, he's doing it on his own

B tells him some girl tried to take the amulet

N is intrigued, but charges on

he tells B about big beardo

about how he was covered in blood

he thinks Lovelace is up to some bad business

N starts to give B new orders but B explains how he has no leverage

he tells N that he could spill Ns name to friends and enemies

N decides to pull that move where you send multiple copies of the blackmail info to your attorney to be mailed to the media in the event of your death

it works!

B gives in and agrees to continue working

The Vor Game, Chapters 6 and 7 with Sofia B

31 december 2024 | 79 min

In this episode, Sofia B returns to talk about chapters 6 and 7 of Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction masterpiece, The Vor Game, featuring our favorite young hero, Miles Vorkosigan!

The Vor Game, Chapters 6 and 7 with Sofia B

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Kaikeyei (Vaishanavi Patel)

Recommendations

Interference (an 8th Doctor novel)

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Links

the starship Enterprise

Spontaneous human combustion

The Warrior's Apprentice

Extended Notes

its autumn in Vorbarr Sultana

earth import trees

"Miles glimpsed one such tree. An Earth maple, with carnelian leaves and a silver-gray trunk, across the street. Then the door closed. Miles held that tree before his mind’s eye, trying to memorize it, just in case he never saw it again."

hes taken upstairs in impsec to see the boss, Simon Illyan

Overhult is unsure about leaving Miles alone with Simon

Simon is unconcerned

Miles looks like absolute shit

Simon looks him over

it gives Miles some deja vu

this is an easter egg for those whove read the warriors apprentice

People fear Illyan, but a lot of that is the office

hes been in the job20 years

screwed up during the soltoxin attack

illyan is only afraid of Miles's mom

apparently because of "vivid first impressions"

impressions plural?

Miles used to call him Uncle Simon. now its sir

Simon looks utterly exhausted

"them. The facts appear to be mutating every forty minutes, like bacteria. I don’t suppose you could have picked some more public way to self-destruct? Attempted to assassinate the Emperor with your pocketknife during the Birthday Review, say, or raped a sheep in the Great Square during rush hour?”"

he doesnt understand how Miles could have betrayed his father like this

Miles doesnt think he really did

Count V and aide walk in

Miles is jealous of how brilliant respected tall and handsome Jole is (Vs aide)

"Jole was even worse than Ivan, who while darkly handsome had never been accused of brilliance."

Simon turns off recording equipment

his father hugs him - its quite touching

Miles explains the incident

CV is fiddling with a light pen

Miles is annoyed by this

CV must notice his reaction because he puts it away

this shows he is cognizant of his actions and doesnt want to annoy his subordinates (or his son)

what a contrast with Metzov

CV is furious that Metzov dragooned trainees for the firing squad

"General Metzov, by your account,” said Admiral Vorkosigan, “dragged a platoon of eighteen-year-olds into what came within a hair of being a mass torture-murder.”

Miles nodded in memory. His body still twinged with assorted agonies.

“For that sin, there is no hole deep enough to hide him from my wrath. Metzov will be taken care of, all right.”"

Miles explains that half the techs were Greekies

Illyan is stunned to see that Metzov had no concern for the fallout

Miles says he thought itd be a problem, but he wasnt conscious of it until after the fact

but that doesnt stop him from spinning

"It . . . occurred to me, that if I died with them, at least it would be crystal clear that it hadn’t been some plot of your government or the Vor oligarchy. So that if I lived, I won, and if I died, I won too. Or at least served. Strategy, of sorts.”"

Miles asks if he'll be charged with treason

Illyan says no, but mentions its the second time...

he plans to hide M until it blows over

Miles asks for mercy for the mutineers, since they were in it together

CV explains that if he lets them off, Miles's career will be ruined

"Miles exhaled, a long breath. “In a weird sense, they were my men. Do it. Kill the charges.”

“Will you resign your commission, then?” demanded Illyan. He looked sick.

Miles felt sick, nauseous and cold. “I will.”"

Illyan asks how Miles knew about Metzovs actions during the Komarr revolt

M explains that he and Ivan did it

hes annoyed that Ivan didnt tell Illyan

Miles is trippin so he sits down cross legged

his dad thinks about helping but doesnt

he recommends they fast-penta Ahn

Miles explains how he and Ivan did the research

CV almost laughs

"Airtight security, you said,” murmured Count Vorkosigan, unsuccessfully suppressing a wheezing laugh. “The most expensive yet devised. Proof against the cleverest viruses, the most sophisticated eavesdropping equipment. And two ensigns waft right through it?”

Goaded, Illyan snapped, “I didn’t promise it was idiot-proof!”"

Illyan is so over Miles's bullshit

"This, on top of your earlier escapade with those damned mercenaries, on top of it all—house arrest isn’t enough. I won’t sleep through the night till I have you locked in a cell with your hands tied behind your back.”"

CV proposes that Illyan bring Miles into ImpSec

Illyan realizes no one will have Miles but himself

"None that I could, in honor, lean on to take him. Excepting yourself. I have always”— Count Vorkosigan flashed a peculiar grin—“leaned on you, Simon.”"

they plan to hide him - true exile but not disgrace

"Security can use his talents. Security more than any other department needs his talents.”

“To see the obvious?”

“And the less obvious. Many officers may be trusted with the Emperor’s life. Rather fewer with his honor.”"

CV suggests Miles go to infirmary

he asks about Kyril Island

"The climate was ferocious, the terrain was lethal, a third of the population including my immediate superior was dead drunk most of the time. The average IQ equaled the mean temperature in degrees cee, there wasn’t a woman for five hundred kilometers in any direction, and the base commander was a homicidal psychotic. Other than that, it was lovely.”"

Miles is surprised to learn CV once commanded the base

"How’d you like it?”

“I can’t remember much. I was drunk most of the time. Everybody finds their own way of dealing with Camp Permafrost. I might say, you did rather better than I."

Miles has one more question

"Miles looked up at his father. “Did I do the right thing, sir? Last night?”

“Yes,” said the Count simply. “A right thing. Perhaps not the best of all possible right things. Three days from now you may think of a cleverer tactic, but you were the man on the ground at the time. I try not to second-guess my field commanders.”

Miles’s heart rose in his aching chest for the first time since he’d left Kyril Island. He nodded, satisfied."

Miles goes downstairs to infirmary

the surgeon seems awed by CV

Miles knows the real CV, the one who came home for lunch every day to spend quality time with his son

"Only Miles knew the interior view of those hours, how the big man in the green uniform would bolt a sandwich in five minutes and then spend the next hour and a half down on the floor with his son who could not walk, playing, talking, reading aloud."

when Miles didnt want to do PT, CV would spur him forward

"'You are Vor. You must not frighten your liege people with this show of uncontrol, Lord Miles.”"

M realizes that with CV in his life, no wonder he wasnt awed by Metzov

He's treated for five days in the infirmary then released

"Why can't I go home?" Miles complained to his mother on her next visit. "Nobody's telling me anything. If I'm not under arrest, why can't I take home leave? If I am under arrest, why aren't the doors locked? I feel like I'm in limbo."

"Countess Cordelia Vorkosigan vented an unladylike snort. "You are in limbo, kiddo."

we get a great description of Lady Vorkosigan

he thinks about how she was a captain on an astronomical survey, an explorer, brave

she moves through Barrayaran society with aplomb

"It was the casual fearlessness, Miles decided, that made his mother so unsettling."

Miles complains about not being let out.

Lady V explains the fallout

annoying bit of unnecessary exposition: "Think of it as a funny reservist." She would know this already

Metzov is getting booted by with no court martial.

Miles is still in limbo tho

the plan is for the Barrayaran militaristss to settle down before letting him out

"It all seems so unreal." He hunched back into his pillow. "I only wanted to serve."

She suggests that he could up Vorness and see the galaxy

he counters with why don't you do that?

"Ah." She smiled bleakly at the touche. "Some people's needs are more compelling than guns."

turns out the Count cant come see him to make it look like he's angry

unnecessary exposition: the thing about Aral's high hopes in Miles around his congenital injuries. clearly they both have talked about this already

"Miles sighed glumly. "I want something to do. I want my clothes back."

Ivan doesnt want Miles's limbo stuck on him (like a button on the episode)

Chapter 7

Miles is led to his protected witnesses apartment

he thinks about being a political nonperson

"Was it possible life in limbo was having a chameleon effect, rendering him translucent?"

he has all his stuff from Kyril Island

he looks around. ordinary stuff

there must be bugs all over

Miles didn't have any neighbors

he wanders around but gets gently directed back to his area

he thinks about rappeling down the outside

Miles gets enough food tokens for a month and shudders

He cleans all his stuff and gets dressed

he pretends he's in a cabin on a starship

Someone comes to his door

its a guard, scanning for whatnot

in comes a man, the emperor gregor vor barra

Miles gestures him to sit

asks if Emperor has bugs running

he says he asked for none but who knows with Illyan

Emperor has wine, the private reserve "elegant anesthesia"

Gregor cant stay too long, but they have time to pound a couple bottles

he references Cordelia's religion - what is it?

Mom put Gregor up to it, even provided the wine

calls it ambrosia

made me wish i could still drink wine

Miles thinks about growing up with Gregor, tho he was five years older than Miles Ivan and Elena

Gregor gives sympathy about Miles's military career

he complains about his dull service

he talks about their forebears, how active they were militarily

Miles says they were flung into situations

Mad Yuri killed most of CVs family

Gregors melancholy, Miles wonders if he's thinking about how bad his father was, or if he even knew the truth about Serg's evil

"Nobody who'd known Serg talked about him, Count Vorkosigan least of all. Miles had met one of Serg's victims. Miles hoped Gregor never would."

Miles asks about Gregor's birthday

Gregor says folks are all trying to get him to marry

Miles is like go for it dude, have a son and settle all this schemery

Gregors like you could be one of the schemers

Miles is like have you seen me? bro i look wack. get married have kids

Gregor ponders running away

Miles does not like where this is going

Gregor asks about the chinese emperor who swept up somewhere

Miles is like no dude youre Vor, you cant wander off

Miles tries to distract by playing tacti-go even though he doesn't want to

Gregor tries to beat Miles. Miles goes easy on him, but not too obviously. Gregors having fun

they drink more

"I don't think I've beaten you at this since you were fourteen," sighed Gregor, concealing secret satisfaction at the low point spread of that last round. "You should be an officer, dammit"

Miles explains that the game isnt analogous to real battle. Miles likes it for not being so chaotic

Gregors like wtf why did they send you there, mentions the time Miles commanded a space fleet

Miles is like chill dude thats a secret

also he didnt prove he could obey, only command

Gregor says he doesnt know why Illyan didnt do more with them

he likes that Miles brought them secretly into Barrayar's service

Miles thinks Illyan took the deal to keep them from working for Barrayar's enemies

explains their size and function

Miles sort of tells the story of sneaking in and tricking them all into serving him

he thinks about how wild it was

hes not fond of heights? how has this not come up

Gregor ass ghow Kyril Island compared to battle with the Dendarii?

"Oh, there were certain parallels," Miles admitted. "Both were jobs I wasn't trained for, both were potentially lethal, I got out of both by my skin - lost some skin. The Dendarii episode was....worse."

Miles should have put on tunes, the silence is oppressive

Miles asks Gregor to get him out

Gregor admits that he feels compelled to do what Illyan and Vorkosigan suggest he do

Illyan wants him kept out of sight so thats that

"How much time? Dammit, if I don't get something to do soon, I'm going to be the first case of human spontaneous combustion recorded on vid."

they still havent proven that that is a thing, hilarious

Miles is way drunk now, says they're treating him like a mascot

Gregor knocks over a stack of chips

"Being a mascot isn't bad work, if you can get it." He promises to talk to Illyan about it

Miles gets a job! He's administrative assistant to the guard commander for the building

he's there a month and so over it

he wonders if he'll get out before Winterfair

another month

he starts to watch every training vid in the library

gets halfway before being called to Illyan's office

There he meets his superior, Captain Ungari

specialist in military evaluation

Illyan surprises Miles to report any news on the Dendarii Mercenaries

he only got a bday message from Elena

Simon puts up a holodisplay of wormholes, tells Miles to evaluate the scenario

Miles proves he's got the goods to analyze the data and complete an assessment

this also introduces us to the locations the story will be taking us, a bit of table setting

that ends in a reminder of whats up with Cetaganda

Simon explains their focus

"Wormhole strategy. The devil’s cat’s cradle,” Illyan muttered editorially. He squinted at his glowing schematic. “Four players, one game-board. It ought to be simple. . . ."

theres an arms race developing in the Hegen Hub, planetary governments hiring mercs and building armed jump stations and the like

the Dendarii have been contracted by Aslund to cover while they build a station

we learn that the Dendarii have changed their name back to the Osserin Fleet

Vervain hired someone called Randall's Rangers

Illyan moves on to Cetaganda

he suggests that Pol might react badly to learning Barrayar and the Dendarii have a link

they might turn to Cetaganda

Illyan wants information

"Illyan, generally, wanted information with the same passion that a strung-out juba freak craved a spike. He turned now to Ungari. “So what do you think, Captain? Will he do?”"

"He’s more physically conspicuous than I’d realized.”

“As camouflage, that’s not necessarily a disadvantage. In his company you ought to be nearly invisible. The stalking goat and the hunter.”"

turns out CV thinks they should send Miles out to ascertain info on the Dendarii and the situation in general

asks if Miles could be Naismith again

"To activate that suppressed persona again . . . It wasn’t just a part, Illyan. “I could play Naismith again, sure. It’s stopping playing Naismith that scares me.”"

Miles is freaking out inside but keeping cool

Illyan sends him out to be on hand if they need him to take control of the Dendarii

money to bribe them away from the Hub

Hell be Naismith, keeping it cool

"You will, of course, obey Captain Ungari’s orders. That goes without saying.” Illyan’s direct stare was chill as a Kyril Island midnight.

Miles smiled dutifully, to show he took the hint. I’ll be good, sir—let me off-planet! From ghost to goat—was this a promotion."

The Colour of Magic (2008) Part 2 with Dean Eaton

24 december 2024 | 118 min

Dean Eaton is back and ready to go! This second half was somewhat less hilarious only because the film itself was less so and we seemed to be sapped of energy because of it. But don't worry! We made it work! As always, we knuckled down and made ourselves presentable because damnit we're professionals and that's just how we do it. End of.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Dean's livestream

Omniversal Escapades

Jeff's podcasts/livestreams

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Possible show titles

Daft Cows

A Wizard Did It

Something Said at an Orgy

Tempting Fate

[Jeff: we didn't say this but it struck me funny so I put it here] A Concept of a Planet

Making a Movie is Hard

Recommendations

Interior China - Jimmy O Yang

Til Death Do Us Til Blart

Altered Carbon

Omniversal Escapades

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Dean Eaton

@geekusdean on the various socials\

Links

Tupac hologram

Tim Curry quits acting

The Simpsons

Lucy Lawless: "A wizard did it"

The MCU

Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings

Captain America: Civil War

Spiderman: Far From Home

Creed

Evil Dead

Bruce Campbell

Ronnie Chang

Chloe Bennett

Extended Notes

Atun the turtle knows why he's going near a star

no one else knows

the octavo is taking action, its pedestal is shaped like discworld and tilts to move the turtle

rincewind falls - and doesnt die!

shot of wizards tower why?

"did i just leave the world only to fall back on it again?"

2:30 "is that me, or is it getting bigger?"

protestors mobbing against wizards

"wizards out, wizards out!"

TC puts on big hat, getting inducted

"one small step for a wizard into the unseen, one giant leap for the unseen university"

TC is pretty chill about the unrest

"i propose that we perform the rite of Ashkente"

barbarian soldier types

theyre talking pillaging

one eyed guest whose name is legend explains his secret of longevity

"hot water, good dentistry, and soft lavatory paper"

big chest has toilet paper he uses to lure the one eyed guy

is he smoking weed?

he has a horse

back at the tower, Ashkente rite takes place

death shows up

"i was at a party, you know"

TC asks why the red star is getting bigger

its because the turtle is moving towards it

the octavo needs the eighth spell which is why it turned to grab rincewind

all spells must be said together at solstice or many worlds will die

where is rincewind?

"in the forest of skund, rimward of the ramtop mountains, feeling very sorry for himself"

death thinks the party will go downhill at midnight

trymon talks to the orangutan librarian

"whoever says all the spells when the disc is in danger will gain ultimate power...to save the world. Yes, and that."

Trymon tells Horace not to tell anyone else about this secret. He gives H a banana. He says rincewind must not die until they get him back and empty his head

Tourist shows up. RW doesnt want him to haunt him

turns out hes still alive and dangling from a tree

"the turtle must have caught us somewhere?" why? who knows

where are we? tourist sees a stonehenge

Trymon says get rw alive to save the world

old one eye sees the chest open show the gold and keep moving

2f and rw are seeing nature sscrifice thing

sex and violence usually at the same time

2f sees the cult coming, they hide

old one eye and chest arrive

about the chest:

"hes very loyal. if loyaltys what you need in a suitcase"

theyre going to sacrifice hottie

2f steps in to disrupt the party

old one eye moves in, grabs rw, demands info

"his name is 2f and hes not from these parts"

old one eye wants the chest

star is getting bigger

"you ever done this sort of thing before? rushed into a temple, killed the priest, got the gold, and saved the girl? not in too many words no. you do it like this."

one eye rushes in

rw encourages 2f to go, he rescues hottie instead. shes not that into it. she didnt eff for eight years so she could be with moon goddess and they messed it up

rw gets kncoed out, one eye stabs priest

rw is dreaming, weird visuals he hs a very important task

"its not even a flesh wound"

girl wont let then rescue her. one eye disagrees

"dont just lie there you daft cow, help me up"

the seven spells want him to come back and return the eighth. he mustnt let the wrong wizards get his spell

he must bring it back at the solstice. hes mad at them for ruining his life. he will be a real wizard again if he turns over the spell

2f wants to stay for the druid rite but rw tells him the solstice festival is best in Ankh Morpork

he wants to see the temple at bel shamharoth. where no one has returned alive

the river snarl runs right past it on our way to the celebrations at ankh morpork

they do their bro handshake

wizards attack, they hide in sacrifical altar

rince and tourist make it to a sacrificial pyre and the wizards are outside telling him theyve come for him

RW: "even by wizard standard, trymon is a nasty piece of work"

"if that star is an omen, were all going to die. how about the death star?"

they roll out action hero style, wizards stormtrooper shoot them until one goes right for rw. 2f takes the shot

back to the protest

trymon dumps some piss on the lead organizer

wizards havent been able to find rincewind

one eye kills a guy

rw drags knocked out 2f, props him up

who saved them? cohen the barbarian

hottie is way into it

its him but hes gotten super old

hottie: "Bards still sing songs about you. I never get anyroyalties."

80 years in the business and what do i have to show for it? 100 recipes for soup

hes bemoaning being too old to get respect

rw has a cough

2f isnt exactly dead, hes just gone

a necromancer

"whats neck romance?" "no necromancy is talking to the dead"

rw doesnt believe ittarot cards, 1st is the star

four of elephants

ace of turtles

death

"is he really dead?"

lady makes a sort of medicine. he needs to drink it

rw drinks

he freezes and leaves his body

where am i going?

weird black and white death zone, hourglasses of rw and 2f

rw arrives in driveway of big house

he looks for 2f

sees a big pendulum blade

2f is watching it

"where are we exactly?"

"were sort of informally dead"

rw drags him out

death says

"i so seldom have company"

"ive never been in deaths door before"

they run down the drive

death rides up with a scythe

hottie wakes up rw

2f hugs rincewind for saving his life

"the horse people are very suspicious"

picture guy paints whats really there, rw didnt like what he saw

back at the wizards, trymon burned a magical chair. he goes over the agenda

rw is item 1

star is item 2

trymon sent a hero to find rincewind

wizards find that ridiculous

a heroine named Herrena is coming to grab rincewind

cohen says horse people have decided to give the team mounts and horses to get to the river

rincewind decides to split with cohen

cohen doesnt know how to deal with sincerit

rincewind explains how 2f always focuses on the positive wherever they go

cohen likes his eyes

"they can see for 50 years"

cohen agrees to travel with 2f, hottie comes with

"in case Cohen needs anything rubbed"

star even bigger, 2f asks if theyll be burnt up, rw doesnt know

rw says hottie has taken a shine to cohen

cohen says hes 87

2f says "who could possibly attack us now?"

Herrena continues to follow

big vistas and generic music

near the troll bone mountains

2f tells cohen about dentures

Herrena knocks out the crew and brings them to a big rock cave

2f and rw argue because the ladies ruin rincewinds cunning lie

old troll mountain - really old trolls turn to stone

fire is going to upset him because theyre all standing on his tongue

troll waking up is a real nightmare

rw and 2f are still tied, runningish

troll moves in their direction

boys fall down

wait how does sun work if discworld is freely moving through space?

rw tells 2f what he really thinks

the goons are back and have the boys

cut to clamoring peasants outside university

destroy false wizards!

the trouble is the archchancellor just isnt a team player

lesser wizards plot to kill the AC

theyll do it all together

they do a trap with a banana component

looks like AC got covered by drywall yogurt

he escapes!

then has a growly freakout

they bang a gong to get the ferryman ove

its foggy

ferryman is hooded

"youre not the usual ferryman"

Herrena orders men to grab Cohen

he pops out and demolishes everyone

Rws fight is so dumb

he gets knocked out twice then bonked by the chest

2f is cheering on the fight

cohen hurts his back

Herrena preps to stab

hottie cracks her on the head with a stick

hottie and cohen are getting married

rw thinks its a bit odd

wonders how cohen will have the stamina

cohen agrees with the concern, but he thought rw was talking about her

octavo is itchy

AC growls some more

AC is pissed about hero not getting rw

so hes going to consult the octavo

"we have gone beyond wisdom"

aint that right

hottie is bethann

people are going bugfuck

rw asks why

guy says disc is going to hit the star

the spell speaks thru rw and says the star is life not death

cohen gets trolls teeth dentures

Bethan his betrothed

he wants a wedding dress and a steak

rw and 2f come across rubes burning magic books

people decide to slowly advance on rw

AC enters octavo room

orders wizards to unlock the chain

rw tries to do magic, but cant

2f hypes him up

guy says all the magics gone

rw does a wind spell that pokes a guy

then rw faints

"I have a wizard!"

luggage returns and breaks up the mob

wizards get the chain off

AC grabs the book and heads to the great hall, locking the other wizards inside the room

the star has other worlds around it

2f called them spots

rw says no, but doesnt have a name for them, knows theyre things floating around the star

he just jacked someones fur off their stand and they didnt even react

they get to the lower cellars

we hear wizards shouting

upstairs AC is climbing up

RW goes to the octavo room door and sees that its the other wizards

the masters of wizardry are in there

rincewind tries to open door but the guy says he doesnt have the magic for it

rw tries to prove him wrong

blue magic floats out and turns the lock

door opens

the wizards fill him in

people are screaming so the wizards go to check it out

are demons coming through? guy says no but worse

2f runs madly into the tower

he just jacked a guys sword no problem

rw has to follow

2f: "this is an adventure, isnt it?"

book comes down

octavo is done

2f picks it up

RW takes it and goes up top

he says im not crazy and then talks to himself

AC greets him and welcomes him to enter

his eyes are green flames briefly

"the 8th spell, give it to me"

AC tries to kill Rincewind but the big book blocks the shot

chimp librarian climbs tower

"these statues look like wizards. "they are the wizards! there are? they were."

2f is looking for sword

rw tries to crush AC with book

then falls down

ac falls on a banana peel and the spell hits him in the mouth, turns him to stone

rw is inside the book

rw is actually hanging off the stone

rw drops

cohen grabs him

death is annoyed again

rw returns the spells to the book

isnt all this magic exciting?

cohen isnt impressed, he likes stage magic

book floats up and vanishes

suddenly worlds move towards the disc

theyre all new turtles with discs!

theyre itty bitty

"thats 2flower, he just appreciates beautiy in his own way"

sleepy Atun looks kinda suss

theres a turtle flying up over the sunset

why only 8 and not hundreds like actual turtles

magical octavo drops and lands in the luggage

it wouldnt tell 2flower where it had put it

poor Trymon fell over and broke

2flower is going home

rw is upset

"you havent really been anywhere until you get back home"

Cohen and Bethan got hitched

he stole the dress for her

they go to do their homey shake

rw hugs him instead

it feels like the end of a summer love affair

the tourist knows he'll never come this way again

if he goes again he'll go somewhere else

i wish he wasnt so closed off a character

the patrician!

he peers out of his litter, confirms that 2f is leaving, and bows his head

the luggage arrives to assist rw

he doesnt want it but eventually caves

Cohen and Bethan wave as the ship floats along the pier

the real ship and dock would be all shouting, instead its all serene

the scientists from the start do a joke and thats it

its all a question of perspective?

The Amulet of Samarkand, Chapters 7-10 with James Lark

22 december 2024 | 159 min

James Lark is back and we're talking music teaching, conducting, the trials of poor Nathaniel, and the struggles of being a budding wizard with a cowardly master.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

James's podcast

Neurotic Literature

Music

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Coda: The Final Conflict (Big Finish Audio)

Possible show titles

An Untidy Sheaf

Spread That Wadge

Everyone Can Be an Alexander

Recommendations

Wolf Hall

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

James Lark

@James Lark on Twitter, @worksoflark on Instagram

Links

brown eyes vs blue eyes

blind waiters in dark restaurant

Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony

Stenhammer's 2nd Piano Concerto

Rimsky-Korsakov

Whiplash

Princess Mononoke

music before the age of mechanical reproduction

The Temptation of Jesus

is Milton speculative fiction?

Ministers Questions thing from UK Parliament

Oxford and Cambridge debating societies

Houses of Parliament

The Twilight Zone "To Serve Man"

a wadge

Oliver!

Homosexuality decriminalized in Isle of Man in 1992

The Docklands

Crystal Palace

Alexandra Palace

Man in the High Castle

George Frideric Handel

James and the Giant Peach

Thomas Cromwell

Just War (A Bernice Summerfield book)

Hitler and art school

Extended Notes

Chapter 7

9

B leaves the square looking for a good alley. he really wants to toss the amulet but he cant without putting himself more in Ns power

10

2 footnote - because a master forcing his djinn to attack another resulted in a massive explosion in Baghdad, now magicians choose not to pit djinn directly against each other

"Cities get me down, almost as if I am underground. London is particularly bad—cold, gray, heavy with odors and rain.

It makes me long for the south, for the deserts and the blank blue sky."

he finds a dry alcove and takes a seat

11

he ponders the situation

"At dawn I would hand over the Amulet and escape this sorry mess for good.

Except for my business with the boy. He’d pay for it, big time. You didn’t reduce Bartimaeus of Uruk to dossing in a West End back alley and expect to get away with it. First I’d find out his name, then—"

booted feet show up at the end of the alley. who is it? he wonders if the police sniffed him out or the orbs found him

12

the kids from t square

five boys, one commanding girl

black leather jacket and flared pants

13

one of the boys senses B

girl orders them to subdue him

three big boys go to town on him

B tries a mini-detonation but it doesnt hurt anyone

he tries another and it sets off a bunch of car alarms

"I repeated the effect with greater emphasis. Car alarms in the next street started ringing. This time, I confess, I expected to be left in the charcoally grip of three charred corpses."

boys keep holding on, unharmed

14

girl says she wants the amulet

B guesses she's thirteen, with a strong authoritative voice

she calls him a cretin and he doesnt clap back

"You don’t really know who I am, do you?” I made it sound damn casual, with a side helping of menace. “You’re not a magician.”

“Too right I’m not.”

He starts to flex his mighty voice

15

"Would a magician do so well against your wickedness?”

She had a point there."

magicians would stay away, and if they didnt theyd need imps and djinn to defeat him

he's too tired to do a full demo

he offers to assist her (Jesus tempted by the devil)

16

"To my disappointment, the girl clamped her hands over her ears. “Don’t give me your weasel words, demon!” she said. “I won’t be tempted.”

he explains that he could bring the night police down on them

"Don’t be naïve,” I said. “Think about it. You’re trying to rob me of a very powerful object. It belongs to a terrible magician. If you so much as touch it, he’ll find you and nail your skin to his door.""

he was getting to her, making her reconsider

17

she reaches for the chain

he turns into a Nile crocodile and scares off the boys, then wacks the boys with his tail

18

right as a boy throws a silver object, B turns into a fox and slips away. the sphere buries itself into the wall

B runs and jumps into a bin, narrowly avoiding the police

19

some commotion happens and the fox waits, listening

Chapter 8

1

We learn about Ns master Arthur Underwood and his wife

tall Georgian house in Highgate

Underwood didnt want an apprentice but apparently its mandatory

one day the ministry of employment assigns him one

2

this place has a real Brazil feel to it

Arthur comes to the clerks desk, finds out he'll be signing forns and meeting the boy

boy is 5, very bright

"a wodge of paper"?

3

turns out his parents bolted, barely said anything

his birth records will destroyed

our first glimpse of Nathaniel

"He passed down a series of silent corridors and through a heavy, paneled door to a brightly painted room that had been filled with toys for the entertainment of unhappy children. There, between a grimacing rocking horse and a plastic wizard doll wearing a comedy conical hat, he found a small pale-faced boy. It had been crying in the recent past, but had now fortunately desisted."

4

Underwood tells him who he is then takes him to his car

he tried to talk to N but no dice

we meet Mrs Martha Underwood. shes amazing, so sweet and kind

5

Martha puts her arm around N and convinces him to share the secret of his birth name

6

Martha expresses her concern for Nathaniel and disapproval of the system of apprenticeship

"think it’s disgraceful, ripping a child from his home so young.”

“That’s how it’s always been done, Martha. Apprentices have to come from somewhere.”

Underwood is very frank about the reasons for the rules

"His birth name must be forgotten, or else future enemies will use it to harm him. How can it be forgotten if his family keeps in contact? Besides, no one has forced his parents to part with their brat."

if apprentices make it they get to work for the government

7

Martha wishes they could have a child

something happened in Italy when they let magicians have kids

N's bedroom is in the attic

he can see London out the window

he can see the crystal palace radio mast on a good day

is the crystal palace radio mast a real thing?

8

M puts fresh flowers on his desk every week

she often uses Ns birth name, despite Arthurs disapproval

she refuses to be moved, despite the risk

"Who’s going to notice?” she protested. “No one. It gives the poor lad comfort.”"

other people call him Underwood and Arthur

calls him boy.

Nathaniel is devoted to her

she gave him a painting of boats

the woman is extraordinary

9

"You’re to be a magician, Nathaniel,” she said, “and that is the greatest privilege that any boy or girl could have. Your parents have made the ultimate sacrifice by giving you up for this noble destiny. No, don’t cry, dear. So in turn you must be strong, strive as hard as you can, and learn everything your tutors ask of you. By doing that you will honor both your parents and yourself."

10

most magicians work at Whitehall and she expects he will too.

he determines to make her proud and make it to the government

he eventually stopped thinking of his parents and accepted life with the Underwoods

11

the "mouth not toes" story

he keeps himself looking neat and tidy

pale face

Martha helps him with his homework

12

hes learning geography

she explains why its important

she tells him about the djinn

13

Walter Purcell, Ns non magical teacher

horrible ties

twitchy, honest, snippy

14

Purcell explains why we need a government

protection in a time of war

tho it sounds like theyre whipping czechs butt

if magicians werent in charge it would be commoners

"All that stands between us and anarchy is our leaders. This is what you should aspire to, boy. To be a part of the Government and rule honorably. Remember that.”"

15

"Honor is the most important quality for a magician,” Mr. Purcell went on. “He or she has great power, and must use it with discretion. In the past, rogue magicians have attempted to overthrow the State: they have always been defeated. Why? Because true magicians fight with virtue and justice on their side.”

16

he learns to swim

at eight hes avoided and left alone

he has a music teacher, Mr Sindra

Sindra gets super angry

apparently music is used in summoning

17

N is hopeless at music

his drawing teacher mrs lutyens is great tho

she asks for his name and he gives it

18

he wishes he could draw fun stuff instead

of symbols and diagrams

she explains that he needs to do this extremely well to be amagician

19

hes made mistakes

she explains that in magic he cant afford to make a single mistake

Nathaniel goes out to the garden

20

theres a cool statue of a guy in the garden

he asks Martha who it is

"Ask your master,” she said. “He knows everything.”

But Nathaniel had not dared ask."

N comes here to compose himself

Chapter 9

1

nathaniel would be summoned to the master office

he sits on a cushion

2

Underwood would quiz him on all he was learning

sometimes he would talk about magic

he explains that magicians can be bad or good, but what they must not be is incompetent. Loss of control is unacceptable.

"Providing the magician remains in control of the forces he has set to work, he remains—what does he remain?”

3

Safe, secret, strong

the great secret - that demons (or spirits) are very wicked and will hurt you if they can

he explains that you cant mispronounce anything

demons will exploit any failure

hes almost nine

4

magic lessons begin twice a week

he loved being telling about his day with Martha, then dreaming about going to the government

5

master takes N to his office

he shows him a case of books he must learn before his 12th birthday

he asks if then he'll be a magician

6

Master points at bookcase with hundreds of books

he wont be allowed to look at those till 13

next they go to a creepy workroom

6

M has him put on the spectacles

Master show him his contact lenses

7

when hes 12 he'll get a new name

8

M explains the need for secrecy

demons and also bed magicians can use him name to pull shenanigans

N gets to wear spectacles but not outside the workroom

explains that there are different layers to reality

9

Master pulls down a dead rat

tells N to look at it closely

puts on specs

sees an imp

a "Scarlet Vexation"

10

its a spreader of pestilence

he shows N a box full of tiny lil demon guys

simplest minded demons

orange stings beneath their tails

11

these mites will mess up your enemies

""We have dangerous tools that we must control. We shall now begin learning how to protect ourselves.”"

he learned all the skills necessary to do magic

12

not once does Underwood summon anything

he does as much extra work as he can

he wants those spectacles damnit

he tells Lutyens

"'Patience,” she told him. “Patience is the prime virtue. If you hurry, you will fail. And failure is painful. You must always relax and concentrate on the task in hand.'"

Underwood summons a creature but wont let N see it

13

the master and he stand in circles and the demon should be appearing in the other one

a wind knocks over candles, starting a fire

N goes to extinguish him but Master shouts him down

Master says seven words of dismissal

burning papers vanish, candles are back upright

14

Master admonishes him for falling for the demons trick

some demons adopt cute animal guises

some make nasty smells

one made a shower of apple blossom

some had nice perfume

some were scary sounds

15

he kept it together

a year later he was able to wear the specs and see the demons

he was kicking ass at all his studies

just before age 11, something terrible happens

Chapter 10

1

Bartimaeus complains about his terrible ordeal, camped out on the roof of Westminster Abbey waiting for the summons

amulet flashes in the sunlight

2

the spheres didnt find him because of the artifacts in the graves

the boy still hasnt woken up

he restates his belief that N is being exploited by a more powerful magician

3

clearly several magicians took part in the search, suggesting the amulet was necessary to some larger plan

Simon Lovelace is powerful

"The fact that he was able to employ (and restrain) both Faquarl and Jabor proved as much. I did not relish the urchin’s chances when the magician caught up with him."

its been several centuries since B has run into humans that are immune to magic

the kids dont seem to grasp the implications

B cant figure how the girl is related

the summons feels super painful

4

B is annoyed by N

"I order you, Bartimaeus, to reveal whether you have diligently and wholly carried out your charge—”

“Of course I have—what do you think this is, costume jewelry?”"

"The Amulet of Samarkand. It was Simon Lovelace’s. Now it is yours. Soon it will be Simon Lovelace’s again."

the kid has drawn Adelbrand's Pentacle

kids shouldnt be able to smirk

5

As P is trouble

B pretends that N has done the circle wrong trying to spook him

"The kid’s face went an interesting mix of white and red; his lower lip wobbled; his eyes bulged from their sockets. He looked very much like he wanted to run for it, but he didn’t, so my plan was foiled."

N calls him Recreant demon

B admits he lied

N says put the amulet in the bowl

6

instead N uses a stick

N has a smart way to transfer the amulet from one circle to another

this isnt like the dresden files where crossing the boundary of a circle breaks the spell

N doesnt like how it smells

B explains what he had to do to avoid capture

"You were pursued?” He sounded almost eager. Wrong emotion, kid—try fear.

“By half the demonic hordes of London.”"

B warns N that they are coming for him

He tries to trick N into releasing him again

N doesnt bite

"Do you take me for a fool?”

“The amulet in your hands answers that."

7

Nathan tries to banish B but B resists

"You cannot depart! I have other work for thee.” More than the renewed captivity, it was these occasional archaisms that annoyed me so much. Thee, recreant demon—I ask you! No one used language like that anymore, and hadn’t for two hundred years. Anyone would think he had learned his trade entirely out of some old book."

haha! dramatic irony

As P lets you hold on to a demon and continue their service

"It was a complex magical formula that required adult stamina and concentration, and this gave me ammunition for my next attack."

8

B asks where Ns master is

N seems stung by this

B says its a sort of prank

N laughs, then puts amulet back in the bowl

9

He sends amulet back to B

B says he'll give amulet to Simon Lovelace

the boys coat is three sizes too large

"It had evidently once belonged to a very careless magician, since, although heavily patched, it still displayed the unmistakable ravages of fire, blood, and talon. I wished the boy similar fortune."

the kid has a scrying glass

he starts to cast a spell

10

the boy uses the glass

B looks around the room

he wants a clue as to the boys official name

(which is funny because N doesnt have one yet)

a cracked glass vase with fresh flowers

somebody liked him

Kid orders B to hide the amulet in Underwoods office

"Very well. Where does this unfortunate magician reside?”

The boy smiled thinly. “Downstairs.”"

Lower Decks, Episode 1 "Second Contact" and Episode 2 "Envoys" with Dave H

22 december 2024 | 134 min

In this episode, Dave H returns to discuss the first two episodes of Lower Decks, "Second Contact" and "Envoys". Hilarity ensues.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Favorite References

Jeff: when she asks if he knows Kirk, Sulu, etc

Dave: the bucket of contraband

Plugs

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Music

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Possible show notes

Protect This Slime

Recommendations

Monk and Robot

Wayfarers

Ducktales (2017)

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Dave is on Discord: The USS Hood @cthulhucalamari

Links

TOS episode "Miri"

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock

Star Trek 4: The One With the Whales

The Greatest Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Saved!

Star Trek: The Animated Series

"The Naked Now"

the TNG episode where Riker is in a holocave with a kid who says he's his dad

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

General Order 5?

12 hours of warp core

The Monkees "I'm a Believer"

South Park zombies

the guy who did choreo for The Matrix (Yuen Woo-ping)

Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way

Spock clock

Maid Marian from Disney's Robin Hood

Noel Wells

"The Game" TNG

Starfleet dress uniform

Gene Roddenberry

Khan's "Moons of Nibia" speech

TNG episode where Jake takes a shuttle

Soundbite: Ransom shouts "did I eat flesh? how much did I eat?"

Mariner: "We're gonna get your butt in a captain's chair!" 1:04:38

1:21:25 Mariner: "Up and down with the blast shield!"

Show Pic: Boimler saying "Female outside feces feces"

1:36:25 Shapeshifter child: "I'm a little boy!"

Show Pic: "He likes jamaharon!"

18:24 Boimler: "I should just study bugs on a far off planet!"

Show Pic: Boimler with his pants down

Episode 1 "Second Contact"

space station and ships pan into view

a male voice gives a captains log

the Cerritos looks cool as hell

douglas station

cool layers, plenty of depth

great depth of field, fuzzy people in bg and fg

"our specialty is second contact"

black lady opens the door and clowns on purple haired guy for doing a captains log in a closet

shes drunk, busting on him for being a nerd

romulan whiskey is blue

phg says its against regulation, black lady doesnt care

she starts swinging a batleth, cant remember what its called

"i got it from an old guy with an eyepatch"

could it be Martok? surely shed recognize him since hes the chancellor

"worf worf worf i love honor! i demand honor!"

she hacks his thigh, they both scream

credits

beautiful scenery

rocks hit ship (shouldnt the deflector block those)

the ship sees borgs fighting roms and dips out

its got a space whale!

looks so good!

shuttle lands

theres a geordi visor!

an Orion officer

Ensign dvana tendi

shes jacked

blonde guy tells her to keep moving

phg, boimler, is only getting bananas

shes science, boims and mariner are command

"i love science. Uh, its so sciency" is boimler horny for Tendi?

Beckett Mariner

"i cant believe were gonna serve side by side, scientists and commanders, an elite team" shes clearly very into drama

tendi def wants to be CMO

Mariner does not want to be senior (odd then that shes in the command track)

she was promoted, then thought for herself so got demoted

Mariner doesnt like giving the tour but she does need help with contraband

Boims is not amused

Boimler points out places on the map

Mariner clearly has heard Boimlers jokes and is bored with it

Boims thinks bridge is cool

Mariner does not

Rutherford the engineer has a vulcan implant thats goofing up

Ruthy has a date with ensign barnes

M says shes crazy hot

ruthys implant keeps suppressing his emotions

Ruthy is naturally anxious, pukes when stressed?

Mariner pretends not to know what rooms are, Boims calls her out

M "And this is Boims's hidey closet where he pretends to be a captain like a big boy."

B "this is not a good tour!"

they sleep in a hallway

sleep near a shower

Tendi is loving being on a ship seeing the warp trails

its holodeck time!

(i am skeptical that an ensign wouldnt have used a holodeck before. im sure they use them to do the kobayashi maru)

Boims is crazy for warp core

M does not care

Tendi doesnt know about sand? nonsense

also surely Orions have holodecks at least to practice their piracy

Tendis impressed that B gets to go to the bridge

M downplays it

all nude olympic training facility

M should be reported to hr for this one

Galardonian shuttles are badass

Gs themselves are little purple seahorse pigs, some with horns

Ransom, buff white dude, gets bit by insect

R and mustache man are real bros

Boims tries to manage hair unsuccessfully

he enters the bridge in severe anxiety

Black woman captain gives Boims a special assignment

keep an eye on ensign mariner

"i like my crew working in lockstep"

Barnes and Ruthy's date

apparently Billups doesnt know how to talk to women (with future knowledge we have an idea why)

Rs implant makes him harshly vulcan for a sec

her dad was a cyborg

"Shaxs drop his latte again? Guy's got baby hands" would be funnier if wed gotten his name yet, clearly a second watch joke

B is clearly feeling bad and suss

he sees Mariner run off and get in a truck

he follows

Ransom goes nuts

zombie virus, spewing black goo and chewing on a guys neck

B and R still do date even during this madness

disease is either airborne or transferred by goo

cat doctor

T "i was supposed to be assisting Nurse Westlake" cat points at guy on bed snarling "that is nurse westlake!"

B is behind a bush, peeking

he sees Mariner offering starfleet tech to two Galardonians

the planet is so beautiful, yellow sky, reddish brown leaves, pea soup green dirt, fungus balls and tall grass

B jumps out and scares Mariner

he accuses her of selling weapons, she tries to shut him down

Gs try to leave, B shoots the ground

B reads the rulebook

she busts back with more knowledge

its farm equipment

hes surprised

Gs run through gate, leave it open

huge spider breaks out

giant spider is shooting butt webbing

M and B behind bush

M defends herself, saying the farmers were starving so she gave some help

he asks how she knew they exist

she was here last year on the quito before she got demoted to the cerritos

B didnt know her backstory

she was

trapped in a sentient cave

"thats a dark place that knows things"

head taken off by a singing crystal

klingon prison where she had to fight a yeti for her own shoes for no reason.

"he was just being a dick!"

hes only been to five planets including earth and vulcan

he only knows what in the manuals so he should follow her lead

they cant leave because the farmers need the spider

general order 5

"We'll just stun it." "No could spoil the milk."

B dismisses this, but as i thought about it i realized she saw only one get out which suggests the animal isnt for meat but for some other purpose, its a short leap to milk

"Five ships, yeti shoes, i am always right, take them off now!"

two puppets of them for spider to attack

its going to town on Bs uniform

M is stoked

shes ready to jump on its back

he wants it to destroy both uniforms first

why did she yell Mark before jumping?

she jumps, then B

he gets nabbed by spider which starts gooping and sucking him

he says phaser it

farmers begs her not to

M says we cant let it eat him

farmer says its just suckling for moisture

M yells to Boimler

"its just suckling you, youre fine"

Boimler has funny scream. M tries to encourage him

"go to your happy place! oo think about the warp core!"

B and M spacewalk to get to the rally point

it looks totally awesome

their suits are low on oxygen? they should be rated for 24 hours or more if show canon is to be believed. how long were Belanna and Tom out there?

she likes The Monkees, Ruthy is into it

"Lets just say I'm a Believer"

Great shot thru window of Shaxs wasting fools as they ascend

B and R are wicked at action stuff

weirdly a hatch wont open for them

i like how he thumbs up for her to move through maintenance hatch then jumps in after, good teamwork during retreat

they take off helmets and kiss

shes like hows it goin

and hes like these doors are messed up

she is not into boring details and walks off

Tendi in sickybay

"pump this, dont pass out. nobodys authorized to pass out"

M havin some wilk while B gets milked

she pulls him out of sleepy spider

"my bones..."

"but im naked"

they drive back thru idyllic landscape with lovely tune

"i think we make a pretty good team, Boimler"

he admits he was told to spy on her

she doesnt get why he worships them

he starts to defend captain but stops

hes going to report her

they get to rally point and beam to ship

everyone is in transporter room

DR taana swipes bs face and analyEs

spider milk

dr t says they should get B to sickbak

"what makes him so special? nothing. its the slime, Captain"

"everyone, protect. this. slime!"

Shaxs bursts through door, carrying B

crew makes it to sickbay

milk will neutralize rage effect

T says Cap doesnt have nuch time. M yells

"oo shouldve washed those hands, captain!"

Ransom is cured

"where am i? did i eat flesh?" "hardly any" "how much did i eat?!"

T sprays purple gas through ship

captain congratulates Dr t

she makes a bad joke, senior staff laugh

M tries to explain that B saved them

Tendi stoked cuz she got to

hold a heart

cap says in report that only dr t saved everyone

she asks B what mariner did

he says she was fine

"maybe that goo that saved the ship messed with my memory"

even now hes trying to correct the record

admiral so and so calls her

"ransom tried to eat a guy. we're

fine"

she wants to throw Mariner in the brig

she loves the brig

T asks R about his date

he praises her but hes not seeing her again

she had zero interest in why a red alert messed with the hatch lock

"who has time for romance when theres a level two diagnostic just sitting there waiting to be run?"

"mm mm dont have to tell me twice i am right there"

B praises M

"starfleet is better with you in it"

B didnt sell her out

she praises him

"were gonna get your butt in a captains chair. guess what mm im your new mentor. boom. surprise bitchh its done how does it feel?"

lower decks cheer

"youre gonna be my chadeetch from now on baby"

she mentions spocks rebirth in star trek 3

mentions khan and space whales

how bout sulu do yiu know kirk my man worf gary mitchell, do you know deanna troi her body be bangin, she went from a jumpsuit

episode 2

"Envoys"

cerritos floats above red planet

pale blue sphere enters the hull imto a storage room

M suggests drinkin and gettin a dude all worked up

Tendi doesnt get it

energy sphere appears

"supplicate yourselves!"

Mariner grabs it and tells Tendi to bring a canister

"we can use this thing for all sorts of cool stuff"

she starts to push it into a canister

he says he can grant wishes

Mariners listening

she demands a tricorder with a purple stripe

he loses a bunch of power

she wants a power pack

it gets even smaller

Captain Freeman rolls up and it just darts into her chest shouting "die, mortal!"

T and M are watching video of admiral falling

B comes in with news of his mission

hes talking about someone

they speculate who it might be

Castro, enterprise

Pjoq, what a snack

its Boimler!

piloting general Korin

decorated warrior

they all have an apostrophe

M thinks the cargo bay is exotic

R shows up

hes been in ducts for a week

"thats another three, four days in the tubes!"

R says he'll switch his career to change shifts

B comes into the shuttle bay

Mariners in the shuttle!

shes already there eating ramen and spilling

shes the pilot

he has a dress uniform

blast field down and up with songs

Rutherford tells Billups hes transferring

Billups is totally cool about it

they chant his name

on the shuttle M is passed out

"buried alive

marooned for eternity

moons of nibia"

Bs been studying Korin

deference and respect

M kicks his ass

"Starfleet has made you soft, Mariner!"

"i must update

you on my many sexual contests, Mariner!

What, both of them?"

Korin wants to be landed in Little Kronos

Bs like what?

"I got chewed out, but he got his ass chewed Uuuup"

why is console hot?

multispecies hang spot

unsecured district

theyre blood bonded he passed out on his sword

Korin jakes the shuttle

Mariner laughs "classic Korin"

"did you even read the mission brief?"

"im sorry i skimmed most of it, and read some of the captions"

Boimler is speed walking to conserve energy

"this is serious! i think were violating the Khitomer accords"

"he went north in search of stronger ales!"

so were federation dogs, huh?

"hey if it got us what we needed woof woof"

Ransom does command trainer 43 with Rutherford

captain were being drawn into a temporal rift?

"casualties 105 percent

wait how did i kill more than the whole crew?"

Ransom mentions the Janeway protocol

command trainer 4

should they hit the asteroid?

Janeway protocol?

"all the ships children have been ejected into space."

"all those kids..."

M and B talk philosophy of training

Boimler meets a lady in red

shes real sensual

Mariner washes it off of Brad

"i know you still want it! I can hear your nasty boy thoughts!"

it was an anobaj

weakminded? lol

"An andorian in the bathroom said the generals in a bar down the road"

hes relating engineering to bodies

taana is supportive

she orders him to chat with the guy and keep him distracted

instead R makes him freak out

"Those are dilithium burns? how are you still alive, man? you should be dead!"

"that robot said i was dying"

he joins security

bunch of borgs

program smorgasborg

he uses his implant to be a super kickpuncher

M cautions B to be chill

he gets all huffy

Boimler sees a man being menaced

he runs in

Mariner says no

old guy whines

other guy goes to kick him

B shoots

"Starfleet! I order you to step away from the elder! You idiot thats no elder!"

its a weird little monster - Vendorian shapeshifter

they start a barfight

theres a Morn!

Boimler objects

"this is a violation of the Tulganan neutrality pact"

Mariner jumps up "Kirk hands"

has phaser

she pays for five rounds

"sir i dont know you, thats starfleet property youre handling"

Boimler looks like shit. He feels inadequate because of Mariners awesomeness

"all that studying and where did it get me?"

"i should just turn in my uniform and go work on a research asteroid!"

Mariner is horrified

"do not even joke about that"

17:45 soundbite: Boimler does the shaky video log bit

Mariner says starfleet needs booksmart people like B

he flips his communicator and runs off

Rutherford is in security. Shaxs is giving a speech

"no greater honor than to die beside you in battle."

Rutherford decides to go back to engineering. he needs those tubes

"Got to be true to yourself. am i right bears? oo rah!" Rutherford "Aw, bears!"

ferengi bit

Mariner pretends hes a Bolean

"hey ferengi, get out of here, get get!"

they drag drunk Korin out of the shuttle

"Fetch me my drinking horn, i need ale"

Mariner pretends to have not known the ferengi thing

B promises not to tell anyone

smash cut to him telling everyone

"Muah muah hoo mon" he was doin the hand thing and everything"

Mariner pretends to be offended and jets

she smiles

Rutherford "i belong in the tubes"

she doesnt realize he did all that to be a bro

ferengi dude and Mariner chat

R looks at tube

"isnt it amazing?" she says looking at spce on her pad. R looks at tube. "its beautiful"

Holiday Special: Terry Pratchett's Hogfather with Jayme Antrim

15 december 2024 | 180 min

Dracula (1931) Part 2 with Jayme Antrim

12 december 2024 | 73 min

It's Part 2 of our gigantic Dracula discussion! Special thanks to Jayme for bringing all this knowledge and enthusiasm!

Join our Discord community! Here's the link:

https://discord.gg/RBSQmeFt

Plugs

Jeff Richardson

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Jayme Antrim

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Brandoff the Off-Brand Gandalf on Youtube

Recommendations

Ravenous

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Jayme Antrim

Possible show titles:

My Dude, This is Your Job

A Stake on a Steak

Mummies vs The Bronx

Dracula 2

The Stoker Necktie

Links

Hannibal

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Salem's Lot

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

The Bachelor

Kitchen Nightmares

Survivor

Vampires vs. The Bronx

John Carpenter's Vampires

Eyes Wide Shut

Helen Chandler

Bela Lugosi

what do you call an incel with a girlfriend?

Blade

Extended Notes

"for one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing."

Mr Mina was shocked

Harker said he looked like a wild animal

he looks outside, notices a wolf

VH explains that drac is a vamp and can turn into critters

"the strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him."

Mina goes out walkin

finds CD, he wraps her up

Harkers says vamps are only in ghost stories

VH says some vamp lore, doesnt even worry about explaining it

he must have brought boxes of grave dirt

Renfield is eavesdropping

Renfield explains that Mina has been attacked, he thinks Harker should take her away

big bat arrives

renfield tries to apologize, warns him to escape

VH tells renfield to help

he says he cant

maid screams and runs over

miss mina is out there dead

renfield laughs all creepy like

maid passes out

renfield crawls over to her

is he gonna bite off a chunk?

Mina's still alive

VH says shes under his influence

"we must cope with it"

child crying

woman walking in dark woods

comedy intern reads paper

children describes beautiful lady in white who enticed them with chocolates, drew them into woods, and offered them chocolate

Mina saw Lucy outside after her death

Mina tried to speak to her until she realized she was dead

Lucy looked like animal, then ran into the dark

Mina asks them to save her soul

Harker says she wont die

she says dont kiss me anymore

she tells VH to make it clear to Jon

"its all over Jon. Our love, our life together."

Drac wills her

VH tells her to come inside

Harker blames VH for driving her crazy

he wants to take Mina away

VH has prepared the place to protect against Drac

she wants dad to keep Jon from leaving

nurse is ordered to keep windows shut and wolfsbane near Mina.

drac is at his coffin

three boxes of earth were deliverd to carfax abbey

VH tells Harker he cant take her or it will kill her

VH explains his occult knowledge - the only way to save her is to stake dracula

"you forget doctor that madmen have great strength."

Martin the panto orderly is shocked to learn R escaped again

Drac released him

"a red mist spread over the lawn

coming on like a flame of fire

and then he parted it

and then i could see that there were thousands of rats, with their eyes blazing red

like his, only smaller."

rats rats rats thousands millions of them all red blood, alp these will i give you if you will obey me."

daddy asks what hes meant to do

"that which had already been done"

"Dracula is in the house"!

"Van Helsing. Now that you have learned what you have learned, it would be well for you to return to your own country."

I prefer to remain and protect those whom you would destroy."

dracs blood flows through Minas veins, she will be immortal

Van Helsing promises to destroy carfax abbey and stake dracula

drac tries to summon VH, he resists but then starts to stumble forward. He regains control.

VH reaches for crucifix, drac hisses and runs off

Mina doesnt want the wolfsbane, says it stinks. she refused to stay put and went onto the terrace

Harker comes in and sees Mina all fresh as a daisy

Briggs wants her to come back in, she and JH wave her off

Mina is enticed by JHs neck

she claims to not dislike the night. she now says she loves it

Jh is trying to chase off a big bat

shes talking to it

JH is flummoxed

Mina is trying to mind control JH

shes moving in again

VH rushes in with cross

Mina tells him that drac fed her blood

Martin tries to shoot the bat

VH tells him to leave off

Martin the wacky orderly

"theyre all crazy but me and you. And sometimes i have my doubts about you."

Drac summons nurse briggs to the window

she takes down the wolfsbane

then lets him come in

VH and J follow Ren into abbey

Drac lures Mina there as well

Renfield is all stoked

he wants to serve

JH finds a grate and yells Mina

Renfield is scared, tries to run

Drac tells him to wait. he stands still

Drac approaches. Renfield whines

R whines while Drac chokes him and drops him down the stairs

he runs to basement with Mina

closes and locks the door

the boys rush in and find no one

they hunt around a bit

for some reason drac is asleep

(we havent seen any indication of dawn)

VH opens the other coffin, doesnt let JH see

sends him off for a rock

rips up the lid to make stakes

Jh comes back

VH says Minas not there

JH goes looking

Minas in corner wailing

they meet up and hug

"the daylight stopped him."

Harker walks her up the stairs to the sound of bells

wtf

"arent you coming with us?

not yet not presently"

"come, john" last line

so she hasnt yet been turned?

this movie is skimpy on the rules

is Mina now a daywalker?

Dracula (1931) Part 1 with Jayme Antrim

11 december 2024 | 131 min

In this one, Jayme Antrim swings by to discuss Dracula (1931). We have a terrific time, so good in fact that we decided to do a big fat two parter!

Check out our Discord community! Here's the link:

https://discord.gg/RBSQmeFt

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Jeff

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Jayme Antrim

Brandoff the Offbrand Gandalf on Youtube

Possible show titles:

Shouting Dracula

A Year of Dracula

Be a Hunky Dracula

Why is There a Bug Coffin, Guys?

Bag Baby

Brooklyn Slumlord Dracula

Chicken Blood Soup for the No-souled

Take That, Great Britain!

Recommendations

Fright Night remake Tennant, Farrell

Elvira's Haunted Hills

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

Social Media

Links

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The Cask of Amantillado

The Shining (TV movie)

Gerald's Game

It

True Detective: Season 1

King Me

Vampire Anthology with Jayme's Dracula story

Never Say Never Again

The Hammer Brothers from Super Mario Bros

(pic of Jayme as Dracula?)

London After Midnight

Emperor from Star Wars

What We Do in the Shadows

The X-Files

Supernatural

American Werewolf in London

Quest for Glory 4

1931 telephones

Orientalism

Bram Stoker's Dracula

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Hammer Horror Dracula

Christopher Lee

Dungeons & Dragons

Karl Freund

Freund's 3 camera technique

I Love Lucy

pre-Nazi German film industry

Spanish-Language Dracula

PIC: Nosferatu doing standup?

Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers

Cats

British pronunciation

So I Murdered an Axe Murderer

Inglorious Basterds

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Ragtime by ER Doctorow (CORRECTION: nominated for Nebula but didn't win)

Hyperion

Extended Notes

pretty canyon painting

among the peaks bygone age

five passengers in coach

tourist lady reading from the book

local says tonight is bad news

nosferatu

to the virgin we pray

geese in the yard!

working people come out to see the coach

ladies hide behind windows

porter starts unloading all the luggage

this dude sounds American

he says not to take down his luggage

innkeeper wants him to wait

hes meeting another coach on Borgo pass at midnight

count draculus

count draculas name scares the hell out of these rubes

"no. you mustn't go there.

we people of the mountains believe that at the castle there are vampires, dracula and his wives, they take the form of wolves and bats. they leave their coffins at night and feed on the blood of the living."

fancy lad is unmoved, he is set on meeting the other coach

(this dude kind of reminds me of my brother - his bright-eyed desire to gain secret knowledge and meet interesting people)

innkeeper's wife gives him her crucifix

everyone is sad that hes going

foreboding clifftop castle

this crypt looks like state of decay

these shots are real arty, like a fellini joint

slow drac and his three spooky wives

we got us a real eye gore (is it Dracula? the implication in the book is that it was)

this dude has a real penetrating stare

spooky af

great fogslashdust effect as carriage rolls up the hill

wtf theres a bat over the horses and no driver

i dont think you could pay me to go through with this

this dude walks smoothly and silently

this dude has real elijah wood face

its mister renfield

every shot hes in makes him small and weak

its so 3D

real black lodge motherfucker right here

drac cant resist blood

but the crucifix freaks him out

renfield not looking too good

dracs fingers are so scary

renfields spooky smile after drac kills crew

renfield now at sewards sanitarium

drac lookin fly

cop whistles and pleather capes

drac mind controls lady at theater

introduces himself to rich moustacheman

his daugter Mina, miss lucy weston, and mina's husband Jonathan

drac compares his castle in transylvania to carfax abb

"to die, to be really dead. That must be glorious." mh: "oh but count dracula." dr: "there are far worse things awaiting man than death."

Lucy tells Mina shes hot for drac. Mina thinks she should chase someone normal

outside Westons place, drac hangs out like a creep

28:00 lucy in bed reading, bigass bat at the window. she doesnt notice it, drifts off. then bat enters and drac advanced with his scary claw fingies

he gets his face right up near lucys neck. so rapey

at seward sanitarium we see an auditorium where they examine Lucy's corpse.

"on the throat of each victim, the same two marks."

Martin the orderly chucks Renfields spider out the window. He is real weird about it

we see oldman doing experiences

gentlemen, we are dealing with the undead. yes nesferatu

professor tells mustache drac is def a vampire

renfield comes in, oldman tries to touch his hand. he recoils

"keep your filthy hands to yourself!"

someone thinks they heard a wolf

annnoying comedy orderly says

"ee thinks theyre owlin back at him! hes cryzy!"

Van Helsing shoves wolfsbane in Rs face, hes like

"you know too much to live Van Helsing"

Renfield doesnt want to do something to Mina but doesnt explain what it is

Drac enters Mina's room, makes the grimace and leans forward

Mina talks about her dream thing the next day

room full of mist

lamp "a tiny spark in the fog"

"And then i saw two red eyes starinf at me and a white livid face came down out of the mist"

Harker tells her it was a dream

"it seemed as if all the life had been drained out of me"

Harker gaslights her

Van Helsing taps in

Harker claims she's hiding something

"is there anything the matter with your throat"

van helsing checks her neck

consent means nothing in 1931 apparently

bite showed up the morning after

"what could have caused them, Doctor?" "Count Dracula." interesting mashup

Mina isnt afraid of Drac?

Drac recognizes Van Helsings name

Count claims to have told her vampire stories

Harkers seems jealous of dracs attention

Van Helsing realizes Drac has no reflection

Dad tells her to go to bed, she objects

Drac reiterates, she goes with no complaint

VH shows Harker the mirror. Hes stunned

Van Helsing asks drac to look at the mirror. Drac reacts with fury and knocks it away

are dracs afraid of seeing themselves? are they ashamed of having no reflection? does it remind them they have no soul?

The Vor Game, Chapters 3 thru 5 with Sofia B

7 december 2024 | 97 min

[Editor’s note: Jeff said some things about George W. Bush that haven’t necessarily been proven in court. We encourage you to read up on the issue to learn what has and hasn’t been corroborated publicly.]

In this one, Sofia B returns to discuss chapters 3 thru 5 of The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold. Miles gets in over his head and goes head to head with a dangerous superior.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

https://awesomepodnw.libsyn.com/episode-149-saving-the-wetlands-ft-sofia-buhrgard

Plugs

Check out Sofia’s interview on Jeff’s other show, Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ?:

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Recommendation

Pantheon (tv series) - Based on the short story collection by Ken Liu

Anti-Recommendation

The Culture series by I.M. Banks

Social Media

None for Sofia R unless you're looking for traffic planning - if so hit us up and we'll connect you!

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Possible Show Titles

I Gotta Get a Cloak

Sinister Assistant

A Well-Known Sneaky Guy

The Other Empire

Links

Natasha Winters from Spoil Me

Star Trek: Voyager

George W Bush and the Air National Guard

A Song of Ice and Fire

what makes a novella?

The Body

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

Different Seasons

Philip K Dick

the new S.A. Corey novella

Extended Notes

chapter 3

1

he survived the cold

hes recovering in the infirmary

he fantasizes about what impsec would do to the motor pool guys

they hadnt meant to murder him so he lets it go

2

M asks if they treat a lot of frostbite

corpsman has to send him packing

3

do many people lose scat cats?

not too many

the commandant has been ripshit about it

he goes home and realizes he doesnt have the correct uniform since he lost his boots and trousers in the mud

he couldnt borrow from anyone because they wouldnt fit his unusual anatomy

4

"He cursed under his breath and shucked on his dress greens, complete with mirror-polished boots to the knees. At least the boots obviated the need for leg braces."

Miles thinks about how he failed to avoid the problem. He always seems committed to improving his behavior. Very ambitious

"Today, the general was aggressively dressed in black fatigues. At Metzov’s altitude in the hierarchy, this stylistic choice usually indicated a deliberate identification with The Fighting Man. The only concession to his rank was their pressed neatness. His decorations were stripped down to a mere modest three, all high combat commendations. Pseudo-modest; pruned of the surrounding foliage, they leapt to the eye. Mentally, Miles applauded, even envied, the effect. Metzov looked his part, the combat commander, absolutely, unconsciously natural."

5

Miles realizes hes fulfilling an embarrassing stereotype

a Vor lordling in riding boots

He thinks to himself: "I didn’t design the damned boots. His father had once suggested that his staff officers must need them for riding hobbyhorses, high horses, and nightmares. Unable to think of a useful reply to the general’s sally, Miles stood in dignified silence, chin lifted, parade rest. “Sir.”"

6

Metzov goes in on poor Miles about his fanciness and failure

he finds out the permafrost zones were represented by blue on the maps which hed have known if hed read the regulations, which hed have done if his boss wasnt a total wreck

7

Metzov is being a real douche

"The authority lent Miles by his uniform barely balanced the deformities that made him a target of Barrayar’s historically grounded, intense genetic prejudices. A public humiliation that sapped that authority before men he must also command came very close to an act of sabotage. Deliberate, or unconscious?"

Miles references how he nearly wasnt born because of an attack during Vordarians Pretendership

8

Metzov thinks what they need is a fresh war every few years to toughen up the troops

Metzov says some sexist shit and Miles internally turns it around

Metzov lays out his punishment. He has to get with Lt Bonn and organize a work detail to lift the scatcat out

9

Metzov turns the screws, punishing Miles for damaging the station to save his life

Miles does not want to be insubordinate but also he has no respect for Metzov.

"'The damage I did to the weather station was not a stupid accident like the scat-cat, sir! It was necessary to my survival.”

General Metzov fixed him with a very cold eye. “Make that six hours a day, Ensign Vorkosigan.”

Miles spoke through his teeth, words jerked out as though by pliers. “Would you have preferred the interview you’d be having right now if I’d permitted myself to freeze, sir?”"

Metzov is shooting daggers

10

Miles leaves the office and starts to unravel

he got too used to being around bigwigs

he doesnt know how to shut up and serve

Miles wonders if Metzov is political

11

M realizes that there could be myriad reasons why Metzov is a bust

Milo tells himself hes just gonna have to avoid Metzov

foreshadowing about Ahn and Metzov!

Bonn and Miles are stomping around, trying to find the scatcat

12

Miles learns that the ice forms under the bog, making it solidish ground unless it gets warm enough then it melts

""Midwinter, you could park a freight shuttle on this bog. Come summer, it thins out. It can thaw from seeming-solid to liquid in a few hours, when the temperature is just right, and back again.”

“I . . . think I found that out.”"

13

Bonn finds the scatcat with a probe

he signals the hovercab

hovercab flies over and sucks the thing out of the ice

14

Miles explains how he almost died

goes to look for his boots

only finds one

"Bonn frowned down at the ruined boot dangling from Miles’s hand. “You could have been killed,” he said in a tone of realization."

15

Bonn finds it odd that Miles wont turn in Pattas from the motor pool

Miles explains the situation

16

he tells Bonn why he's here,

to earn his spot on the new ship

Miles jokes that Vor promises dont mean much

17

Bonn delivers Pattas and Olney to Miles in the morning

they get to work cleaning all the equipment that had been submerged

Miles heads off to work, musing how these two must be confused

18

next day he Olney and Pattas had culvert duty

he really got into it

19

Miles finds a plugged culvert with water pooling on one side

he realizes hes the only one narrow enough to get through the drain

20

he finds a corpse!

chapter 4

page 1

surgeon arrives

miles and crew close off one end of drain

surgeon determines he drowned, no signs of foul play

page 2

"Does this sort of thing happen often around here?” Miles inquired mildly.

The surgeon shot him a sour look. “I slab a few idiots every year. What d’you expect, when you put five thousand kids between the ages of eighteen and twenty together on an island and tell ’em to go play war? I admit, this one seems to have discovered a completely new method of slabbing himself. I guess you never see it all.”"

miles went in to search but found nothing but a handlight

original impressions suggest the guy was alone

Pattas is surprised Miles seems unimpressed by the mans body

page 3

Pattas asks if hes seen a body before

Miles thinks about it

"Miles hesitated. Events of three years ago flickered through his memory. The brief months he’d been caught in desperate combat far from home, having accidentally fallen in with a space mercenary force, was not a secret to be mentioned or even hinted at here. Regular Imperial troops despised mercenaries anyway, alive or dead. But the Tau Verde campaign had surely taught him the difference between practice and real, between war and war games, and that death had subtler vectors than direct touch. “Before,” said Miles dampingly. “Couple of times.”"

later he gets a call from someone in Vorbarr Sultana

handsome Ivan is on the other end

he wanted to show Miles his new apartment

page 4

Miles used to live in the capitol, he finds it strange to see again

Ivan has a webcam you can turn around 360, shows Miles the room

he gets a wave of homesickness

Ivan has a new girlfriend

Ivan noticed Miles is soaked, asks what he's been doing

forensic plumbing

"how’s life in the infantry?”

“Oh, great. Lazkowski Base is the real thing, y’know.” Miles did not define what real thing. “Not a . . . warehouse for excess Vor lordlings like Imperial Headquarters.”"

Ivan explains how fun his job is, getting to see info from all over the empire

page 5

"Voices from another universe. At that, Vorbarr Sultana was only a couple of hours away by sub-orbital flight. In theory. Miles was obscurely comforted to be reminded that the whole planet hadn’t shrunk to the lead-gray horizons of Kyril Island, even if his part of it seemed to have."

later he goes to the infirmary to talk to the surgeon

surgeon explains that the guy got stuck and died within thirty minutes. "death by misadventure"."

Miles asks why he doesnt want to know more

page 6

surgeon isnt interested. just death by stupidity, details irrelevant

Miles goes jogging

arrives at culverts

"The road was lonely, out by the empty practice fields. The sun crawled crabwise toward the horizon. Miles broke from a jog back to a walk, then to a slower walk. His leg-braces chafed, beneath his pants. One of these days very soon he would take the time to get the brittle long bones in his legs replaced with synthetics. At that, elective surgery might be a quasi-legitimate way to lever himself off Kyril Island, if things grew too desperate before his six months were up. It seemed like cheating, though."

he tries to figure out why the guy chose that particular culvert

he takes a slightly wider one and voila finds

7

a package taped to the roof

his mind races, thinking of the glory

"Pastries. A couple of dozen lisettes, a kind of miniature popover glazed and stuffed with candied fruit, made, traditionally, for the Midsummer Day celebration. Month-and-a-half-old stale pastries. What a cause to die for."

doc isnt impressed

"The surgeon’s only comment, when Miles caught up with him and explained his findings, was “Yep. Death from stupidity, all right.” Absently, the man bit into a lisette and sniffed."

8

he see Lt Ahn off

Ahn leaves him with a cryptic warning

"he can be a funny kind of dangerous. dont ever really threaten him, huh?"

Ahn tells him not to risk pissing him off

9

Miles decides to look into Metzovs record

clearly something happened during the Komarr revolt that got him sent to Kyril Island

he comes to a redacted section and decides to call a contact with security clearance

its Ivan!

10

"Yeah, the old man’s stuck in committee. Nice little flap—a Barrayaran-registered freighter got itself impounded in the Hegen Hub—at Vervain Station—for suspicion of espionage.”

surely this wont end up having something to do with the story later

Ivan gets stopped by an impsec warning, explains how he cant get any data out

Miles tells him how he can make the two computers talk to each other, bypassing all security

11

Miles finds out Metzov probably killed a dude who killed a guard trying to escape

And there the info ended

Miles tries to get Ivan on board

"You,” said Ivan severely, “are career-poison. Never darken my vidplate again. Except at home, of course.”

12

5000 grubs arrive!

some grubs strted a fire lighting farts

Miles suggested they solve the problem by taking red bean stew off the menu

"Three months down, three to go. It was getting darker."

chapter 5

1

not the wahwah warning?

silence was baffling

some sort of accident in a toxic stores bunker

2

they join a big gang of folks at the bunker, including fire marshall and surgeon

surgeon tells them to take off everything and then decon

the bunker is full of fetaine

a terrible poison

barrels corroded over 20 years

3

Miles suggests using heat to melt the fetaine

fetaine affects reproduction

Miles busts out a full on weatherman bit

Bonn and the fire marshall plan the operation

Miles thinks about following them there

he cant risk mutating his sperm

he couldnt sleep so he's up

Metzov is in his office with Bonn

Miles steps in

Metzov says some ignorant shit

he says he isnt mad

the doc says the gear isnt good enough

5

Metzov is talking about shooting people who dont follow orders

Miles doesnt like what hes seeing

were gonna have a good old fashioned discipline parade

6

Metzov has a bunch of guys lined up

"the really old-fashioned discipline parades had involved lead-lined rubber hoses. How far back in Barrayaran history was Metzov’s mind rooted?"

Metzov explains why it was good to have multiple military branches so they could shoot each other

mutiny?!

"'Principle, sir, what principle? It’s waste disposal,” Miles choked."

7

a bunch of grubs with nerve disruptors (which sound hella scary)

Miles thinks about how these kids arent trained enough for these weapons

Metzov orders the techs to strip

Miles thinks about how evil fetaine is and how screwy it is for barrayar to have made it

Bonn strips and joins the line

8

"No, no, no! Miles screamed inside his head. If you join them they’ll never back down. They’ll know they’re right. Bad mistake, bad . . . "

Metzov tells Miles to grab a gun or get gone.

someone gives Miles a disruptor

"He could leave. Could he leave?"

he realizes this is gonna be a massacre

he ponders the thorniness of the issue, how his dad taught about how to handle criminal orders

it was a powerful class

they called it Vorkosigan's Day

9

"For a lunatic moment Miles envisioned thumbing off the safety and shooting Metzov. And then what, shoot the grubs? He couldn’t possibly get them all before they got him.

I could be the only soldier here under thirty who’s ever killed an enemy before, in battle or out of it."

M realizes he has no choice. his career is toast, he knows hed be haunted by ghosts if he doesnt join the others

"He sat on the ground. Pulled off his gloves and boots. Let his parka fall, and his shirts. Trousers and thermal underwear atop the pile, and the nerve disruptor nested carefully on them. He stepped forward. His leg braces felt like icicles against his calves.

I hate passive resistance. I really, really hate it."

"What the hell do you think you’re doing, Ensign?” Metzov snarled as Miles limped past him.

“Breaking this up, sir,” Miles replied steadily"

Metzov calls him Vorkosigan, which could only stiffen his resolve. hes honorbound to do the right thing

10

Miles calls him Mad Metzov in his head

Miles explains the situation. If people learn what happened it would be bad for Metzov

"S-s-sorry, sir, but I see at least ten witnesses, behind those nerve disruptors.”

"You can’t silence me. Living or dead, through my mouth or yours—or theirs—I will testify.”"

11

Miles gives Metzov a win, explaining how it could benefit him

Metzov calls his dad a nasty name

Miles gets him to go for the deal

he sees the relief in Metzovs eyes

"It reminded him of that definition of his father’s. A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind. The mind was the first and final battleground; the stuff in between was just noise."

Bonn asks am i supposed to thank you for this?

"We got what we wanted, eh? He’s going to plasma the fetaine on-site before the wind shifts in the morning. Nobody dies. Nobody gets their nuts curdled. We win. I think.”"

12

Bonn and Miles are cellmates

Bonn just confirmed that the bunker was melted

guards take Miles to base security

Impsec is there as Miles arrives

Miles signs some travel orders

13

Miles is stoked to see the impsec courier thinking hes there to help

Metzov comes in all pleased

says if a vor commits mutiny its treason

Miles realizes now that the big guy is his new jailer

"Overholt, read the name on the man’s badge, which Miles mentally redubbed Overkill. He had only to lift his arm to dangle Miles like a kitten."

14

theyre taking him to imperial hq

"The Imperial Security sub-orbital courier shuttle sat on the icy concrete like a bird of prey accidentally placed in a pigeon cote. Slick and black and deadly, it seemed to break the sound barrier just resting there."

Miles can smell the weather - conflicting emotions

The Vor Game, Chapters 1 and 2 with Sofia B

1 december 2024 | 123 min

In this one, Sofia B drops by to discuss traffic planning, terminators, and Jeff's favorite science fiction novel, The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Sofia will return soon to discuss The Vor Game, Chapters 3 thru 5 soon. Get in on the fun by sending your thoughts to: [email protected]

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

https://awesomepodnw.libsyn.com/episode-149-saving-the-wetlands-ft-sofia-buhrgard

Check out Sofia’s interview on Jeff’s other show, Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ?:

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Recommendations

The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow

A Deadly Education and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Social Media

None for Sofia R unless you're looking for traffic planning - if so hit us up and we'll connect you!

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Links

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Extended Notes

chapter 1

page 1

plastic flimsie - apparently we're still using plastic centuries from now - hopefully its made of bamboo or hemp or something biodegradable

maybe their matter recyclers break them down so they dont sit in landfills

so we're in an empire

page 2

chief of impsec illyan who remembered everything

the emperor is young? if hes near military academy age thatd be 23 plus

Vorish types? whats that?

page 3

ship duty is the most sought after appointment

ive been interviewing my dad and he got ship duty, though he wasnt academy trained

"'So what have they done to you this time?” asked Plause, clearly prepared to offer congratulations or sympathy as indicated."

Ivans Miles's cousin? also Miles has physical handicaps. long description of what it was like being made taller

page 4

miles isnt built for infantry

Major Cecil has a sense of humor

page 5

miles insurbodination

"your most insidious chronic problem is in the area of . . . how shall I put this precisely . . . subordination. You argue too much.”

“No, I don’t,” Miles began indignantly, then shut his mouth."

page 6

Miles is a manipulator par excellence

if he keeps his nose clean and gets along with his officers and subordinates hell be recommended for ship duty on a shipnthat sounds a lot like the enterprise

page 7

"your saving grace. Mutant"

there are mutants in this story? and Miles is proving their worth?

"We’re not trying to make it impossible, Ensign.”

Merely very difficult. “I’m glad to know that too. Sir.” Miles’s parting salute was almost subordinate."

page 8

"A couple of the black-clad men, watching him as he hopped down from the ramp, made remarks to each other in Barrayaran Greek, a minority dialect of Earth origin, thoroughly debased in the centuries of the Time of Isolation."

so we have greeks on a different planet who still speak greek, this isnt earth and were after something called the time of isolation

Miles can speak Greek but he plays it cool

its a mutant! lets talk disability and how folks treated disabled folks in the 90s

its horrible that you could be beaten to death in this society for being too different. also a good sign of Miles's character that he acknowledges his privilege. That sort of thing was much less common in the 90s

the vorkosigans own district? is that where they live or do they rule it? is Miles a prince?

"Yes, rank, social or military, had its uses. Miles meant to acquire all he could before he was done."

page 9

he chooses to walk rather than inconvenience the jerks

his disabiity sounds severe, having to wear braces and having trouble walking very far

his pride makes him hide his trouble

base is free of infantry until summer

page 10

the air inside is 98.6! who works here?

the meteorology officer is a drunk in his underwear

page 11

this is Lieutenant Anh

hes been in this terrible assignment for fifteen years

you have to wonder what he could have done to deserve that

he runs into a jogging sergeant maybe in the lobby

page 12

"Miles stood with his legs slightly apart, threw back his head, and stared up with equal force. The man seemed totally oblivious to Miles’s collar tabs. Exasperated, Miles snapped, “Are all the keepers on vacation, or is anybody actually running this bloody zoo?'"

"With a cold flare of his carved nostril, the Base Commander glared down at Miles and growled, “I run it, Ensign."

Chapter 2

page 1

Anh is awake, hungover, and breathing poorly

"Ha?” Ahn looked up, and returned his salute automatically. “What the devil are you, ah . . . Ensign?”

this dude lost an entire day

Miles seizes the chance to trick this dude into teaching him something

Anh looks him over ever so briefly and moves on

he names all the computers womens names

page 2

he tapes the procedural discs under each piece of gear

he names his coffee pot Georgette

Anh turns in a slow 360 to meditate (or maybe predict the weather?)

just past the shortest night of the year

in summer

must be the north pole?

"Kyril Island was an egg-shaped lump about seventy kilometers wide and one-hundred-sixty kilometers long, and over five hundred kilometers from the next land of any description. Lumpy and brown described most of it, both base and island."

nobody bothered with agricultural terraforming

so this is a thing now, making worlds more like earth

talking about bleakness

"To the near south, the leaden sea heaved, muting the sun’s best efforts at sparkle. To the far north a gray line marked the border of the tundra at a chain of dead volcanic mountains."

hed been in snow before but here the sea air seeps into his bones at every old break (which is many)

page 3

Anh is shocked to learn that Miles's dad is Lord Vorkosigan

Admiral Count, conqueror of Komarr, hero of Escobar, Lord Regent to the emperor

"I have seen him laugh in pure delight, standing on the dock at Vorkosigan Surleau and yelling instructions over the water, the morning I first sailed, dumped, and righted the skimmer by myself. I have seen him weep till his nose ran, more dead drunk than you were yesterday, Ahn, the night we got the word Major Duvallier was executed for espionage. I have seen him rage, so brick-red we feared for his heart, when the reports came in fully detailing the stupidities that led to the last riots in Solstice. I have seen him wandering around Vorkosigan House at dawn in his underwear, yawning and prodding my sleepy mother into helping him find two matching socks. He’s not like anything, Ahn. He’s the original.

“He cares about Barrayar,” Miles said aloud at last, as the silence grew awkward. “He’s . . . a hard act to follow.”

Miles think Ahn would be more prejudiced if he wasnt so stoked about his coming retirement

page 4

What is Vor?

"I’m Vor,” said Miles impatiently. “I serve. Or at any rate, I try to. Wherever I’m put. That was the deal.”

what are wah-wahs?

Miles doesnt mind beatings but he hates

practical jokes - same

explains ropes between buildings and how to fall without breaking bones

"...you must never let yourself get caught without your cold gear, or more than fifteen minutes away from a bunker. There’s bunkers all around the grubs’ practice fields out there.” Ahn waved his arm in that direction. He seemed quite serious, even earnest. “You hear that siren, you run like hell for cover. The size you are, if you ever got picked up and blown into the sea, they’d never find you again.'"

spoiler alert - good foreshadowing about the dangers and the bunkers

he wonders how Anh gets his numbers

page 5

"'You’re not just making them up, are you?” said Miles in suspicion.

“No!” said Ahn. “I hadn’t thought about it, but . . . it’s the way the day smells, I guess.” He inhaled deeply, by way of demonstration."

theres no such thing as a smellometer

"When Ahn leaves, this island is going to experience an 11-to-21% drop in forecast accuracy. They’re going to notice."

page 6

Anh is trashed so Miles gets to work

more good foreshadowing

"Base personnel, Miles had been given to understand, had grown extremely tired of picking lost antigrav sleds out of the frigid sea. Not to mention their late drivers."

one of the ableist Greeks from earlier is at the motor pool when Miles gets there

page 7

Miles has to constantly preclvent himself from going off, but hes gotten good at it

"Concentrate on the task, not the bloody audience. You’ve always had an audience. Probably always will."

he realizes its gonna be a year or two before people respect him every time he goes to a new post

page 8

hes enjoying being alone for once

hes late so he decided to camp out for four hours til its light again

he parks where Pattas told him to park

on a video he saw a portapotty flying horizontally and decides he needs to weigh down his tent

page 9

to that end he attaches a chain from his tent to the scat cat

he reads, goes to sleep, then wakes up in darkness even though it should be bright out

hes experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning and is stuck in the muck, tent all squished up

"Miles shoved one finger against the thin cold plastic. It yielded slowly, like soft butter, and retained the dented impression. What the hell . . . ?"

hes underground, stuck in some sort of slow mud

page 10

he tells himself to relax

he thinks about the ice poking tube in the scat cat, then realizes the scat cat is pulling him down

he hs a terrible vision of people finding his gross body

he gets a rib from the tent and pokes it through a small gap in the zipper

"He’d feared the black mud would pour in, drowning him at once, but it only crept in extrusive blobs, to fall with oozing plops. The comparison was obvious and repulsive. God, and I thought I’d been in deep shit before."

he turns the heat tube off to put in his pocket and its pitch black

hes running out of time

page 11

he unzips his boots and undoes his belt buckle

he pulls in tons of mud to make room, then surges upward

"His legs slid out of his boots and pants, his hips sucked free, and he rolled away. He lay spread-eagled for maximum support on the treacherous surface, faceup to the gray swirling sky. His uniform jacket and long underwear were soaked with slime, and he’d lost one thermal sock, as well as both boots and his trousers.

It was sleeting."

later his colleagues find him freezing in the weather station, having busted a piece of equipment to use to signal Anh back in HQ. He's alive, but boy is he pissed

The Thing (1982) with Dave H

25 november 2024 | 153 min

In this one, Friend of DeSoto and entertainment lawyer Dave H swings by to discuss one of the scariest movies of all time, The Thing, directed by John Carpenter.

[Reminder: Lindsey had to step back from the show for personal reasons, so until Jeff finds a permanent cohost we'll be swapping between various properties with different guests. Check in if you’d like to participate, or if you know someone who’d be a good guest at: [email protected] ]

Dave H will return soon to discuss Star Trek: Lower Decks. Get in on the fun by sending your thoughts to: [email protected]

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Recommendations

Comedy Bang! Bang!

Natalie Haines, fiction and nonfiction

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

Unspoiled! Network

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Email us at: [email protected]

Links

The Greatest Generation

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

"Who Goes There" by John W Campbell, Jr

The Thing From Another World

Astounding Science Fiction

Ennio Morricone

"At the Mountains of Madness" by HP Lovecraft

*batteries not included

The Warriors

"Horror of Fang Rock" - Doctor Who

Nigerian scammer Emmanuel Nwude

"New Earth" - Doctor Who

The Thing End Credits Music by Carpenter

In the Line of Fire

Aliens

Godzilla

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Elf

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

"Schisms" - ST:DS9

"Identity Crisis" - ST:TNG

"All Those Who Wander" - ST:SNW

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Titmouse, Inc. - Vancouver, BC

Extended Notes

ennio morricone

it sounds carpentery but its not! interesting

flying saucer!

shaky dolly across a sweet snowy ridge

this husky looks so happy

were shootin dogs!

look at these cute

old dudes playing ping pong

"Poor baby youre startin to lose it, arent you?"

he poured whiskey into his computer! wtf

hell of an opener

boss looks like discount robert stack

theyve been cut off for two weeks? ominous

Nauls like to skate

"maybe were at war with Norway"

Macready has to fly them even though the weather sucks

this dogs biding his time

Nauls likes stevie, doesnt actually turn it down

dogs peekin

spooky norwegian place is torched

bloody axe in a door

icicles everywhere

corpse in a chair

cut his wrists but also his throat?

good depth of set here

cute doggy waiting for them

groovy steam comin off the multicorpse

guy sounds like Brimley but looks like Beatty

spooky dog freaks out the others

this monster dog is so nasty, launching tentacles and spider legs

its got a goo hose

"idont know what the hells in there but its weird and pissed off, whatever it is"

Childs torches it

long silent pause while they absorb the situation

autopsy on the creature

they find the spot they dug something up

and head out to investigate

big saucer

theyre awfully blase about ice climbing

why is the ice blue?

"i just cannot believe all this voodoo bullshit"

i love Keith David! he was in precinct 13, they live, fire king in adventure time

groovy computer program describing cells

this computer is extremely sophisticated if it can project something and describe it in simple terms like that

guy says we should burn them

"you cant burn the find of the century. thats gonna win somebody the Nobel prize"

oh dude its goopin

the boys talk out in the Thiokol - Blairs journal says the things are still alive

uh oh Bennings got absorbed

they torched him

theyre using so much fuel

odd that Garry isnt taking charge

everyone seems to defer to Mac

action packed bit where Blair is losing it. he killed the dogs, messed up the computers tractor and the choppers

locking Blair into the toolshed

"trusts a tough thing to come by these days. why dont you just trust in the lord."

Blair says to watch Clark closely

theyre gonna make a blood serum test

paranoid mess after the blood packs are found to be damaged

Windows tries to get a gun

they decide Mac should hold the weapons

whoa Mac decides theyre gonna drug Garry Clark and Copper with morphine

"Nobody trusts anybody now. We're all very tired."

everyone should prepare their own meals and eat out of cans in case a single particle could take someone over

Fuchs finds Macs ripped up coat

guys go out to find him

they check on Blair

"I hear funny things out here."

Fuchs bought it. did he burn himself?

"were going to my shack. What for? Cus when i left yesterday i turned the lights off." lights are on

"Childs, what if were wrong about him? then were wrong"

"anybody touches me and we go"

thing eats Coppers hands and then goes full nightmare

they cook it but the head escapes

spider head peeks out

Mcready decides to tie everyone up and test their blood

"you see when a man bleeds, its just tissue. the blood of one of you things wont obey when its attacked"

mac heats up a wire and plans to cook the different samples to see if they react

whoa they cooked Palmer and he did the fun stuntman fire walk, rushed through a wall then exploded

apparently they stop needing to use the fire extinguisher

"i know you gentleman have been through a lot, but when you find the time id rather not spend the rest of this winter tied to this fucking couch!"

Blair got out. someone mustve let him out

theres a secret lair underneath the shed?

hes made himself a spaceship?

now theyre hunting Blair

Childs leaves the camp and then the power goes out

the thing wants to freeze and wait for rescue

Mac blows up the little ship

they break in using a little tractor to use the fuel

theyre lighting everything up room by room

great lighting in the generator room

omg its so nasty when Blair invades Garrys face and drags him off

Mac is worried, hes got a stick of d and a lighter

damn that thing can roll underground, shit now its a sandworm dinosaur

"yeah, fuck you too"

so nasty

it blows big

Mac survives, hes outside, hes drinkin

"how will we make it?" "maybe we shouldnt"

"why dont we just wait here a little while? see what happens."

Childs takes a drink and the bumbums come in

howd the guy live being frozen

"because hes a space guy'"

The Amulet of Samarkand, Chapters 1-6 with James Lark

18 november 2024 | 142 min

In this one, James Lark phones in from jolly old London to discuss the first book in The Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.

[Reminder: Lindsey had to step back from the show for personal reasons, so until Jeff finds a permanent cohost we'll be swapping between various properties with different guests. Check in if you’d like to participate, or if you know someone who’d be a good guest at: [email protected] ]

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

James’s podcast

Neurotic Literature

Here’s James website for all his activities:

@works of Lark on Instagram

Recommendations

Neurotic Literature

Anora

The Good Doctor

The Library of Impossible Things

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

James Lark

@JamesLark on twitter

Links

Doctor Who

Torn Music: Rejected Film Scores, A Selected History

The Discontinuity Guide

The Avengers, “The Maneater of Surrey Green”

Doctor Who and the Daleks

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Notorious Scarlet and Brown

The Dresden Files

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

The Box of Delights

John Macefield

Patrick Troughton

Thor 2: The Dark World

The Hobbit

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Screwtape Letters

Libro.fm

Hoopla

Borrowbox

Hamster with a Blunt Penknife

Extended Notes

I ask you

chapter one

"The sulfur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.

"Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him."

kid makes sure its the correct demon.

"Are you that B-Bartimaeus who in olden times was summoned by the magicians to repair the walls of Prague?”

What a time waster this kid was. Who else would it be? I upped the volume a bit on this one…

‘I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N’gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus!’"

most young magicians are cautious. the kid is punching above his weight

B thinks the kid should be thinking about cars and girls and not summoning

"I charge you to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of Simon Lovelace and bring it to me when I summon you at dawn tomorrow.”

“You what?”

“I charge you to retrieve—”

“Yes, I heard what you said.”

I didn’t mean to sound petulant. It just slipped out, and my sepulchral tones slipped a bit too."

the wizard has to send them away thrice unless they choose to leave before that

B thinks someone is taking advantage of kid

we're in London, must be close to modern day if there are racing cars

kids room is decorated spartanly - B wonders why there are no posters of pop stars or football players

the amulet belongs to Simon Loveless. He is bad news and will get it back

the Systemic Vise is some nasty spell to hurt demons

chapter 2

B can turn into animals

it hurts to be corporeal

changing forms helps but it burns up his energy

he wonders about the kid and what will happen to his rep when other demons learn hes controlled by a child

he can see on seven planes - humans can only see one

magic protections equal wealth. do people pay mages to set it up or are only mages wealthy?

the house is well defended, including three weird looking sentries

he turns into a mole to go under the shield

chapter three

B is a being of fire and air so he hates earth

you dont notice it on the audiobook but he has little asides in the endnotes

he heard voices in the house and sees a vent. he becomes a fly

chapter 4

two people in a room, one woman fawning over a dude, Simon Lovelace

he thought he might turn into this lady next time he sees the kid. i cant picture that happening onscreen lol

endnote -

"For those who are wondering, I have no difficulty in becoming a woman. Nor for that matter a man. In some ways I suppose women are trickier, but I won’t go into that now. Woman, man, mole, maggot—they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability."

Lovelace has an imp on his shoulder so B cant enter til it leaves

B clearly hates ordinary human behavior.

"The magician was talking. He did little else. The woman gazed at him with spaniel eyes so wide and silly with adoration that I wanted to bite her."

shes named Amanda

so we have a prime minister and sycophants. is there a king or queen? a house of commons? how similar to earths is the government?

Carter arrives, one of SLs servants

he has a friend, a playwright named Makepeace. SL and Amanda will be going to the theater

he considers using magic.

"I debated sending out a discreet magical pulse to see if I could detect the whereabouts of the magician’s artifacts, but decided that it was far too risky. The sentry creatures outside might pick it up, for one thing, even if there was no further guard. I, the fly, would have to go hunting myself."

theres a frog alarm disguised as a smoke detector, so we're definitely in the electronic age

B does good spywork, following the mark, going to the most well defended door

he can turn into smoke! he goes under the door and then turns into a child.

he thinks about being the magic kid, but cant because he doesnt know his name.

instead he becomes a dark skinned boy from Bs past, someone he loved?

demons can love... kid was from the Nile, so perhaps pharaoh times?

the room is full of magical bits and bobs, which B scoffs at

theres a golems eye which is super powerful.

he figures SL doesnt know that.

he says some stuff about magical tourism.

"Magical tourism…I ask you.5 Well, with luck it might kill him some day."

according to the endnote, B doesnt care about cultural vandalism, he just finds it vulgar he sees the amulet in a glass case.

"The Amulet was small, dull, and made of beaten gold. It hung from a short gold chain. In its center was an oval piece of jade. The gold had been pressed with simple notched designs depicting running steeds. Horses were the prize possessions of the people from central Asia who had made the Amulet three thousand years before and had later buried it in the tomb of one of their princesses."

he breaks the glass and grabs it.

something on the seventh plane is coming. a portal is opening and something is coming through. he bolts for the door. his fist blows up the door

turns out the toad isnt just an alarm, it also spits acid.

B shrinks it with a compression spell. B can make force fields so he throws one up and keeps running. Something called a Detonation sends him flying into the wall.

"The impact was so great that I was sent flying headlong at an angle down the corridor and half into the wall. Green flames licked around me, leaving streaks on the decor like the fingers of a giant hand."

a red skinned demon shouts Bs name. B rolls down the stairs and looks at the front door.

The sentries are out there so he heads to the back of the house.

he comes to a kitchen with an attached greenhouse. he runs in and puts a Seal on the door to the hall.

near the fire is a cook with a meat cleaver.

"He was sitting far back in his chair with his shoes on the kitchen table, a fat, jovial-looking man with a red face and a meat cleaver in his hand. He was studiously paring his nails with the cleaver, flicking each fragment of nail expertly through the air to land in the fireplace beside him. As he did so he watched me continuously with his dark little eyes."

Its Faquarl! he and B have history, and he must be strong because B is on his best behavior

detonations hit the door but the seal holds

Jabor must be the red guy. apparently hes gotten more addicted to violence ove rthe years

"Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen,’ that’s your master’s watchword, is it? Still, he must be fairly potent to be able to have you and Jabor as his slaves.”

Faquarl does not like the S word. He says he and Jabor are playing the long game

Faquarl tells him to give back the amulet.

he cant do that. endnote 7

"Not strictly correct. I could have given over the Amulet and thus failed in my charge. But then, even if I had managed to escape from Faquarl, I would have had to return empty-handed to the pale-faced boy. My failure would have left me at his tender mercy, doubly in his power, and somehow I knew this was not a good idea."

B tries to edge toward the window. F tells him its silly and pointless. calls the sentries

triloids.

B goes to return the amulet, leaps to the side and drops the Seal.

The detonation shoots through the opening and hurls F into the fire. B bolts and gets into the garden.

The triloids come for him so he makes an Illumination, blinding them.

He tears ass through it and gets out of the yard, hitting the alarm field as he goes.

he hears hooves so turns into a peregrine falcon. he takes off across the city, F and J following

"Suffice it to say, however, that when Faquarl and Jabor landed in the Hampstead backstreet, creating an invisible obstruction that was immediately hit by a speeding moving van, I was nowhere to be seen."

i dont know what this means

chapter 5

Nathaniel

heres where we find out how awful the kids master is. hes got big white eyebrows

"Remember this,” he said in a soft voice. “Demons are very wicked. They will hurt you if they can. Do you understand this?”

master doesnt think the kid really gets it.

"Oh, yes, sir; yes, I do, sir. Demons are wicked and they are hurtful and they will hurt you if you let them, sir.”

hes only seen demons in books (are we back in time or is he lying?)

Master tells him to go to his office, get his spectacles, wear them, then return.

"Never having been beyond this point before, he had nothing but nursery stories to furnish his ideas of what might be waiting in his master’s study. Terrible images of stuffed crocodiles and bottled eyeballs sprang garishly into his mind. Furiously he drove them out again."

he enters the office. it seems ordinary. he sees the box on a table.

he heads toward it.

he tries to touch it but it keeps moving. its too hot.

the whole room seems to be alive with noises. pens start rolling in all directions.

something laughs in his ear. he lashes out.

he grabs the mastersglasses, runs for the door. it slams shut.

he hears all this motion. shouts begone. sounds stop but then start again.

he puts on the glasses.

"A hundred small demons filled every inch of the space in front of him. They were stacked one on top of the other all over the room, like seeds in a melon or nuts in a bag, with feet squishing faces and elbows jabbed into bellies. So tightly were they clustered that the very carpet was blocked out. Leering obscenely, they squatted on the desk, hung from the lights and bookcases, and hovered in midair. Some balanced on the protruding noses of others or were suspended from their limbs. A few had huge bodies with heads the size of oranges; several displayed the reverse. There were tails and wings and horns and warts and extra hands, mouths, feet, and eyes. There were too many scales and too much hair and other things in impossible places."

the demons jump him, not hurting him but menacing him terribly for twenty minutes. it was immensely traumatizing. his master never explained it or even discussed it.

it bred deep resentment in Nathaniel.

"This was one of Nathaniel’s earliest experiences. He did not speak of it to anyone, but the shadow of it never left his heart. He was six years old at the time."

chapter 6

Bartimaeus has the amulet but it sends out a powerful aura so anyone aware of magic can follow it to the source. Bartimaues still has hours to go before hes summoned again, so hes constantly moving from one hideout to the next.

small red spheres are moving all over the city, looking for it.

there were so many Lovelace had to have other magicians assisting him with the search.

finally hes too tired to keep switching and moving, so he goes to Trafalgar square to blend in with other magic items and people, as a way to obscure the amulets position.

B flies in and turns into the egyptian boy again, wearing jeans and a tshirt. tourists are looking at so called magical trinkets, snapping pictures and whatnot. some people were magicians, mostly from government. one had an imp but the majority were without demons. a few regular police and some hairy night police.

b goes to look at a stall but realizes a gang of kids are looking at him. He doesnt know why, but he tries to mill about and get rid of them. he wondered why they were following him. it couldnt have been to mug him, he was clearly broke.

he manages to lose them by going into the subway and popping back up on the other side of the road. He hunkers

down in another alley behind some bins. He smiles, thinking hes lost them.

“I was wrong.”

The Colour of Magic (2008), Part 1 with Dean Eaton

11 november 2024 | 159 min

In this one, Dean Eaton swings by to discuss Part 1 of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008). Lindsey had to step back from the show for personal reasons, so until Jeff finds a permanent cohost we'll be swapping between various properties with different guests.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Dean’s project

Omniversal Escapades

Jeff's projects

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

X-Men: The Animated Series

Recommendations

Omniversal Escapades

The Good Doctor

Discworld, Book 3: Equal Rites

The Dresden Files

The Witcher (book series)

The Fatal Wish

Social Media

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Dean Eaton

@geekusdean on the various socials

Links

Spider-Man (1994)

Batman: The Animated Series

Star Trek

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Wars

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Congo

The Blair Witch Project

The Twilight Zone

Outer Limits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete%27s_Dragon_(1977_film)

Journeyquest

Modiphius Discworld RPG

The Adventure Zone

Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse

William Shakespeare

Mortal Kombat

Extended Notes

purple sky

in a distant and second hand set of dimensions

through wavering star mists see the great A'tuin

big turtle, four giant elephants, discworld

astrozoologists

what is the sex of the turtle

ankh morpork - sean astin twoflower is the worlds first tourist

good looking city

pretty good cgi

eight heads of the order of wizardry

"when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in his dinner, hes tired of life. Im just speculating, obviously" - Tim Curry wizard

old rumlet died

Rincewind shows up late - David Jason?

its a real sausage fest here

rincewind isnt even level 1 so he gets bumped

who killed Narrowbolt?

interesting architecture

one weird lady making charms

rincewind leave Unseen University stirs magic?

bums steals food in market

why is Astin so modern and these clods are medieval or renaissance?

Is Rincewind possessed by purple juice?

being protected by magic

Rincewind sees gold and he wants it!

sapient pear wood trunk has legs

RWs robe is so janky

fun whip pans

tavern set has good depth

Rincewind can speak Trob

he says he can help tourist stay alive

Bes Pelargic

best port of Agatean Empire

"he says he's a tourist Huh? Whats that mean then? I think it means idiot."

scum finds out tourist has gold

Ymor the thief finds out

whore pits and slave markets? yikes

Jeremy Irons the Patrician chewing the scenery

hes got a fake widows peak and a speech impediment

Zlorf the assassin

these dwarves seem dangerous

Bruff of the guild of merchants and traders

the magic flash makes them fight each other?

what do you say to that? you say yes. i say yes!

Rincewind has to protect sean astin

and not run away

"if i were you id sue my face for slander"

sees barfight, tries to run

trunk wont let him escape

tourist is taking pictures and loving the fight

picture imp inside the camera

fun monochrome pictures of their adventures

Death played by christopher lee

tourist tells rw about insurance

its like a bet

inn blows up

its funny how unheroic these two are

terrible horse riding effect

purple chained book octovo

the spells in it are buggin

it missed RW

so now chancellor needs to get him back so it will settle down the book

Horace is chancos homey

tim curry mr tryman wacked narrowbolt

room at the top how to succeed at wizardy

he goes to open it and it has scary knives

is harace the head librarian?

trymon wants to take over as chancellor so he needs to ice Spoghold Grog

rw cant find 2f

pit of ultimate despair

dread tower of darkness

hospitable temple of belshab theroth

the wyrmburg and the palace of the dragon lord

hubward and rimward

rw is about to be eaten by wolves

poison snake on the branch!

purple light again

box scares off wolves and grabs him

dragons dont exist anymore

wicked gear door

trymon wants in

they really get their moneys worth with that fake bookcase

missing spell

spold doesnt know where it is

trymon peeps on spold, then slaps goo in his lock

timelapse clouds

music is pretty damn annoying

birds are cheesy as heck

have there been any women in this yet?

he sees a floating mountain - is it wyrmberg?

rincewind is on the luggage

invisible dragon grabs 2flower

more bad horse action

homeboy hits branch and falls down

a magic sword tells RW to pull it out of the stone

"could be worse. this could have been an anvil."

what?

horace and chanco come to see sklop

they see the keyhole was covered

sklop is dead

rw beats dragon lady using magic sword and says lets go to wyrmberg

dragon is see through

dragon looks video gamey but cool

music is pretty generic fantasy

our first lady

the set looks great, like stone carved to look like dragon sces

rw has hog boots now

trymon seems to have killed glorp, chats with chanco outside his office

AC shouts - did Trymon kill the AC?

tourist is in jail, so stoked to have seen dragons

tourist is a dragon lord? for some reason it likes him

dragon melts the bars - long silly effect

arch chancellors hat is on the ground...

but AC is still alive

he set a big axe spring trap

RW is upside down with his sword

chica is bangin, turns out her sword has a personality too

rw and her magic swords battle

"ive seen sharper butter knives"

his boots break and now hes hanging off her

he drops and 2f and dragon catches him

"its not the actual falling, its more the hitting that bothers me"

he dropped the sword

at the edge of the world, The Krullians are still hoping to learn the sex of the turtle

they have a cool ramp and a purple guy asking about chelonauts

12 hours until the launch

RE and 2flower are drifting close to the edge of discworld

"we're going to run out of world! well i definitely want to see that!"

RW wind might die, the octavo is not happy about it

horace comes to see arch chancellor weatherwax, trymon blocks him

chanco is sleeping, an anvil trap over his head

horace smells burning

chanco wakes up confused and worried

anvil drops

horace says that after rw touched the octavo, he never won any exams

such an obvious outcrop

2flower resuscitates RW

rw doesnt like hugs

2f convinces him to see the bright side and shakes hands

RW tells him about the octavo and the spell

"settled in my memory like a toad in a stone"

trymon and horace look at the octavo

Trymon learns that no one knows what the spell does

they marvel at the edge of the world

theres a circumfence

then a boat arrives

they crank it

and find a city at the edge of the world

"do you see the eighth color? thats the color of magic"

rw points out a new star

a boat rolls up

they get in

luggage is coming

trymon sees arch chancellor making a big arrow

ac has magic mirror and is gonna shoot Rincewind. he says the spell will come back on the ionized path and enter chanco

he and trymon banter about the eight spells

trymon has dagger

horace runs in

"its The octavo. iti going really ape"

the spells are restless

horace opens door to octavo

did chanco go in?

welcome to Krull

my name is Marchesa

black woman with spear plans to sacrifice them

somehow RW beats everyone up and the two get away

big chest is going into ocean to reach them

trapped on an island

Tourist pulls a thing and theyre in the ball room

looks like star systems

rincewind isnt as stoked

they beat up two dudes and wear the space costumes

cut to the arena: crowd is stoked

vehicle is ready

purple coat guy gives a speech

"highly skilled chelonauts"

the two are suited up

"i just think i need to boldly go"

"heroes not just of Krull but the galaxy" pc guy

oh no theyre going up to the ship

octavo is screechin

wizards are in front of it

silly purple effect shoots up to the ceiling

its going up out of the university into the sky

theres a chimp wizard - head librarian Horace

the guys arrive at the ship, the goons are pursuing them

2f is opening it

rincewind is not into it

but the enemy chelonauts are coming

2f gets stuck in hatch

countdown is going

the wizards see the Octavo looking like

discworld blowing up with mist - a warning?

"to the tower of art!"

wizards climbing stairs 8888 of them

it didnt blow up but it made a big mist

a countdown while 2f is tryingg to get inside hatch and the ship is about to go

a new star

"the whole damn sky is full of worlds"

ac says the only way to know whats happening is to perform the rite of ashkente

mist is a change spell created by the octavo

“the whole world is changing...for the better, I think."

arrow went through ACs hat

Trymon dumped him off the edge

we see whole discworld

ship is spinning so they can see the edge

tourist says the new star is so pretty, he should name it

trymon is now the arch chancellor

oops they went under the whole thing

they seem to be moving near the new star

"ill give it a name: goodbye, world"

theyre on a collision course!

The Wizard of Oz (1939) with Ben Mooney

17 oktober 2024 | 156 min

Ben Mooney of Back to the Futurama fame joins us to discuss Jeff's favorite film, The Wizard of Oz. We get deep into the weeds on this one, from class struggle to female scientists to the drawbacks of John Carpenter films. Toby Keith gets a shoutout and Glinda gets a critical reappraisal.

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Back to the Futurama Good Morning, Greendale Ring My Bell

Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Ben’s podcasts

The Vanishing (Dutch Version) Alan Wake 2 Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Social Media Lindsey Nelsen

Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter)

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Ben Mooney

Bluesky: ben.vampirefriday.org

Mastadon: [email protected]

Links

Return to Oz Supernatural "Skin" 1-6 The Thing Doctor Who The Hobbit Alice in Wonderland Avatar Citizen Kane William Randolph Hearst Rupert Murdoch Gone With the Wind Mr Rogers Rocky Horror Picture Show Legend Clue Muppet Treasure Island Labyrinth David Bowie The White Rose Society Jurassic Park Alien Gandhi Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The Princess Bride The Ring Twin Peaks: The Return Murder She Wrote Hannibal What We Do in the Shadows Dracula Speak No Evil James McAvoy

Extended Notes

BRING BACK THE INTERMISSION

A Movie-Ass Movie

movies stayed in theaters sometimes for years

live show during a movie

make every movie a rocky horror picture show

theyre not all winners

LIPSKIN

Oh we've had a beef for some time

some loudass birds

what is this statue for?

you can't blame a tornado on a dog

I'm not saying Toto is on a weight loss journey

Make every effect you can a practical effect

abandoned Oz theme park

youre gonna need another boat

she could be a chaotic good witch

a good post-murder party

you gotta have snacks

where's the Orange Brick Road go?

magic ethereal background singers!

you don't know the rules!

owls and vultures look like shit

far too many monkeys

the witch is so evil she cackles at US

a Prime Directive violation par excellence

Breakdown [Don't Watch It]

Buying a Costume: the coward's way out

Lindsey Nelsen: Certified Spooky Person™️

Ben's Haunted House

so many nieces and nephews

Backtothefuturama.com

Goodmorninggreendale.com

ringmybell.sexandlasers.com

love the wind sound during the overture

victor fleming production/directed as well

munchkins arent credited?

dedicated to the Young in Heart

like when time magazines person of the year was You

chicks chirping!

aunt em

is she playing younger than 16?

wavin that dang hammer at her

lovin the walk on the stall in a nice dress thing

shes gonna get ate by the pigs!

Zekes the cowardly lion!

Aunt Em cant put up with lollygaggers

well dont start posing for it now!

its no place for dorothy qround a pig sty

now go feed those hogs before they worry themselves into anemia!

some place where there isnt any trouble

we must discuss the classic anti Jewish stereotype witch/ Miss Gulch (not in the book?)

(Uncle Henry has a long beard in the book and both he and Em are gray and dour, no laughter)

toto whimpering! never heard it before

Elmyra Gulch

for 23 years ive been dying to tell you what i thought of you and now, well, being a christian woman i cant say it

Totos a sneaker

you came back!

good reason to run away

does this mean that Toto's to blame for this entire mess?

or Dorothy for letting him in the garden?

this part is kind of dull visually but the banter is good

no one would ever leave their tray of food down near where a loose dog could get it. sheer madness

i like how the branches are moving out the door

winds pickin up!!

a whopper! to speak in the language of the peasantry!

that model looks amazing

the twister always scares the shit out of me

you can tell Judy Garland is a stage actor dancer type and not a farmgirl, yankin on the cellar door limply

(in the book the cellar door is inside the house)

i just yelled get away from the window! even though ive seen this fifteen times

cart

tree

chickens

knitting lady shes dead

cow dead

two guys rowing dead

Miss Gulch!

oh shit shes a witc

this song is so scary

i forget how scary the music is when watching it with an album

oh! cute utterance amid total silence

toto in full color is even cuter

Munchkin village really could be a theme park area

(in book Munchkins are Dorothy's height, i think they aged Dorothy up for the film)

Toto, I have a feelling were not in Kansas anymore

oh this bitch

Glenda the good witch

(from the book - pic at bottom of notes)

(in book a Munchkin suggests she go to the wizard. doesnt explain why she cant go but plants a protective kiss on her)

i need you to wage war on this other witch

ONLY BAD WITCHES ARE UGLY

shes gone where the goblins go

its funny how they try

to make the kids look older with wildass makeup

Glinda is on valium for sure smiling through the death chat

dude is swinging his sword around in the middle of this melee

ok what

these people are tiny yet their doors still dont fit them

lullaby league has super squeaky song

wicked witch of the east seems so goofy

where are the slippers?

Glinda is such a shit stirrer

the witchs exit is so dramatic

what a smell of sulfur

she doesnt seem all that surprised to find out Oz also has trouble

Glinda you vile shit stirrer - dont take off those slippers!

Glinda's slippers must rule if she doesnt even try to take the ruby ones

it seems like the edits last long as Toto stays on task - i wonder how many takes he ruined

bet Garland was having to feed him treats anytime the camera came on

(theres a ton of eating in the books but not in the film)

why scary music for Scarecrow?

brown nose?

(in the book everyone in the East wears blue, even the scarecrow)

i could while away the hours

pickin wild flowers

individal!

shes really good at gassing up her homeys

how do you follow the ybr if it splits four ways?

uh oh witch be right here? wild. why doesnt she just kill her right here?

why its a man!

oil can!

rusting rain!

did this paint give him cancer?

who sang that lady part? fucking weird

WHEREFORE ART THOU ROMEO? wtf

i cant remember a time this has ever happened in cinema - possibly a Mel Brooks?

can he throw his voice? i need to know the extent of the tin mans powers

toto loves him

the toot toot spooked Toto

what are D and SC whisperin about?

oh takin him with them to the wizard

witch cacklin on the roof?

wanna play ball?!!! this woman just tried to ignite poor SC

oh yeah its lion time

lions and tigers and bears oh my

whats wrong with you teachin em?

Dorothy just slapped him on the face!

(in the book Lion asks what Toto is made of and Dorothy says hes a meat dog!)

afraid of sheep!

without the vim and voive!

if the wizard is a wizard who will serve

(id love it if the lion was a literal lion like in the book, though who will ever redo the Wizard of Oz?)

gorgeous matte painting at the end of wizard of oz song - i want it as a mural

witchypoo is doing something dastardly

(in the book the witch doesnt make the poppies appear!)

poppies will put them to sleep!

get high people

sc and tm dont breathe so theyre fine

(itb they leave Lion in the field! theres this whole section where the queen of mice and her subjects help rescue Lion)

(itb Lion talks like a dnd paladin)

i have this strange memory of wearing a Lion costume and playing TCL, but surely not cuz i dont remember anything else about it

snow neutralizes poppy poison?

but then rusts poor TM

"somebody always helps that girl"

well bust my buttons!

lookat these green motherfuckers

velvet tophat!

oh no its the king of the forest song

yeah i dont like this guys shtick

tm just broke a pot to do a bit? chaos

why the huh at the end?

dont cry dorothy!

door guy had an Aunt Em once? bizarre

the green cathedral hall is real spooky

Toto!

boveen fodder

damn wiz really is ordering them to their deaths

lion leaps through a window with no apparent injury

wrench net gas and gun

those owls are the worst thing in the movie

wait maybe the vultures are worse

that flying monkey should use the slippers, take control homey

too many monkeys

Toto!

i bet those monkeys stink

so many spears missed Toto!

holy shit she's

so evil she cackles AT US!

Toto goes to get the guys!

climbing with lions tail!

its slow goin

witchy is into brutalist architecture

olia jo um

owium

jo um

hooknosed green mongols with naginatas

they all managed

to get their asses kicked

oz is parked right next to the front door? what a doofus

a heart is not judged by how much you love

but by how you are loved by others

You are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe. I was

petrified

so the message is stay at home?

surely she just means for two years until graduation, yeah?

now i know ive got a heart, cuz its breaking

say goodbye toto

theres no place like home

she'll have to give up Toto anyway, unless Gulch ate it in the storm

The X-Files: "Beyond the Sea" and "Humbug"

1 oktober 2024 | 109 min

In this episode, Lindsey and Jeff break down two exception X-Files episodes, “Beyond the Sea” and “Humbug”, from season one and season two, respectively. Lon Suder and the Enigma feature prominently, and the Man From Another Place even makes an appearance!

Next time: The Wizard of Oz!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Cool Breeze over the Mountains

Lindsey's podcasts

The Kurt Locker

Historical Hotties

Jeff's podcasts

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Here’s James website for all his activities:

Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen

Recommendations

Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) with Jamie Loftus

Dickenson on Apple TV+

The Maid and the Crodocile by Jordan Ifueko

Social Media

Lindsey Nelsen

Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter)

Jeff Richardson

@eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show)

Links

"Whatever Lola Wants She Gets"

Star Trek: Voyager "Meld"

Brad Dourif

"War of the Cephalopods"

COPS chasin a werewolf episode

Rashomon vampires episode

Shaft

tasseographer

The Man From Another Place

Twin Peaks

Carnivàle

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Meow Wolf Arts Collective

Extended Notes

Beyond the Sea

season 1 ep 13

its christmas!

her dad likes to tease her

is she religious?

she rebels by punishing herself with pine needles lol

mom doesnt know why he wants to leave early?

or does she know something?

ohhh she wants dad to admit hes proud of Dana

motherfuckers will pay anything to look like they have hair

whats dad saying?

we lost your dad :(

hes a ghost!

our first look at the credits

groovy song

seems more like the credits of an unexplained mysteries

inappropriate, Dana

shes shocked to be called Dana by Mulder

Luther Lee Boggs - Brad Dourif

Boggs is a family annihilator

what do we know about FAs

LLB wants to meet Mulder

Dana works to deal with pain

Mulder is sweet with Dana

he wanted to be spread in the sea and not buried at Arlington

french beyond the sea

"he was your father"

what does that mean?!

what four letter words would you put on your fists?

LLB channeling, he really goes for it

have you ever seen someone channel for real?

Ramtha in Yelm

can convicts have earrings?

"i gotta go, i gotta go"

he sings the tune! but not in French? is that just for us or does it mean anything

this music is so creepy

haunting horns, feathery strings

Mulder is mad!

"I thought that youd be pleased that id opened myself up to extreme possibilities"

"I love this job" "You love your father"

spooky circle pan

so wet

dont go near the white cross

your blood spills on the white cross

oh dang Mulder got it in the leg

Danas trippin

was Lucas Henry Boggs's partner?

wow Scully says some angry nonsense

Dana sees Mulder? its always odd when cops are hallucinating yet stay at work

whoa now hes channeling Scully at 14!

"theres plenty o room in that cold dark place for liars, Scully"

is it proof that he hasnt reformed not giving up the boys

location? or is saving your own life enough to justify letting someone dies?

great prison model!

Cops lie! Bearing false witness is a commandment and your good catholic girl Scully crossed that one right off the list

its our ACAB moment of the day

circles, barrels, huge vats

condemned factory

old blue devil brewery

"dont follow Henry to the devil, leave that to me"

wow Scully just rolls into view, shes feelin reckless

lol she sent a goon on ahead

love that rat squeakage

oops Boggs got him

she didnt really need that warning considering it was all the way across the room

"I believe that if you had orchestrated this kidnapping, Lucas Henry would have been aware of the danger you warned me about"

hes got some wild eyebrows

i trim mine, did men not do that in the 90s?

ugh the death penalty sucks...im reminded of The Player and also Dead Man Walking

Mulder is like now you dont believe? weird

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid to believe."

"He was my father."

Mulders soft touch on her arm - what a chap

Humbug

season 2 ep 20

weird reddish face of guy in the woods

hand all funky

kids playing in pool

green eyes

something in the water

weird red gloopy mouth?

goes in water, scares gatorman

kills gatorman

48 attacks!!

same weird weapon

sounds like a hungry monster,

like flukeman

Scully is stunned by the idea of being ugly

the freak funeral is great

suspects!

"they rod and thy staff"

pastor has no arms so uses his feet

bearded lady is gatormans wife

subway ghost from Ghost!

Vincent Schiavelli

"i cant wait for the wake"

Jerry was an escape artist

Hepcat Helm, artist that drew fishman

Hepcat seems spooky

"Who are the rubes?"

"Its a tabernacle of terror." "Its a fun house"

Dead monkey sewn onto the tail of a fish

a genuine fake

"you never where the truth ends and the humbug begins"

is the Fiji Mermaid real?

"Do you recall what Barnum said about suckers?"

lil man works behind the bar - is this the Man From Another Place?

he reads Mulder!

"your unimaginative necktie design"

Larry loved the freak life

he would show off his dead conjoinedbrother Leonard

Mr Nutt, the kindhearted manager

now he carries the luggage

he says the bedbug thing lol

"dont let the Fiji Mermaid bite"

oof this song is terrible

"im in a frenzy, bwaaaaah"

Mermaid wastes the prop guy

its Xenomorphin Time

Mulder sees someone swimmin

he has a fish!

its the Enigma! the conundrum

he runs off

Scullys sleepin

folks are trampolinin

Larrys back

shows bro, peeps Scullys boob

new murder

Mulder TOUCHED THE BLOOD ON THE WINDOW

"theyd have to be a contortionist, or just plain crazy, or both"

escape guy not going very fast

under three minutes?

"Dr Blockhead does not perform tricks!"

he claims to be from Yemen?

theres blood on the nail!

Tieu Bu Shan

"did you know you can train your testacles to draw up into your abdomen?"

"oh Im doing that as we speak?”

the music sort of clangs off the goofs

conundrum eats all manner of stuff

Scully ate a live bug

Mulder wasnt into it

she was doing magic!

"everybodys uncles an amateur magician"

checkin out the freak museum

Chang and Eng

museum docent has a melty half face

this guy has real Garak vibes

hes in five xfiles eps

canadian actor

last role was in 2019 twilight zone, "The Blue Scorpion"

the exotic life of the Dog-faced boy

good mirror stuff with melty guy

charging a cop to investigate is shady

is he locking her in here?!

treasure chest

its empty

door to rear exit opens?

Mulder at trailer, snooping around

find guy under trailer

did Mulder just pretend to make a pass at him?

an orphan discovered in the wild forest of Albania in 1943

Sheriff Hamilton was dog faced boy

why did melty guy lead them to Sheriff?

Sheriff be diggin

doin somethin with a knife

is this a setup? does he know theyre watching? show got me thinkin paranoid thoughts

spooky bushes again

hyperthrosis does not include lycanthropy

theyre just calmly admitting to spying on Sheriff without a warrant

Conundrums in a loincloth chasin a dog

Trailer Manager is totes chill, takes a rent check from Conundrum in advance

oh snap creature

is trying to yank dude

out

little lady face mermaid screams at dude covered in blood

Larry rolls in, says "Hes dead"

Larry loved lil man

weird spike thing with blood

Sheriff settles Larry down

"If people knew the true price of spirituality thered be more atheists"

blockhead is a bit of a goofster

he does some escape artist shenanigans

knocks down Mulder

Sheriff catches Blockhead

someones stalking Lanny

uh oh somethings arrived, Larry is trippin

does he know what it is?

"I dont know why he hates me so. Ive taken care of him all our lives. perhaps that was the problem."

he thinks you cam be born bad

"how mobile could such a thing be?" "too mobile"

"What an act!" too bad hes a murderer, Blockhead

Mulder's somewhere spooky

reminds me of basement in dresden files Mavra's vampire lair

is this the tabernacle of terror?

yep

goblin laughing on string

critter still lurkin

Hall of Mirrors!

gross creature noise

she's just shooting at the creature? i know its killed but thats pretty rude

they go outside - did she injure it? dog is coming too

heres Conundrum

critter attacks!

did Conundrum eat him! Wtf

"Now you know howI feel"

Lanny died!

he was a mega drunk

"Nature abhors normality. Maybe some mysteries were never meant to be solved"

"probably somethin I ate"

That was it?

weird

The X-Files: Pilot

25 september 2024 | 123 min

In this episode, Lindsey and Jeff discuss the X-Files pilot episode. Also, if you're looking for a composer look no further than friend of the show James Lark! Find his website at Jameslark.co.uk - you'll be glad you did!

Next time: "Beyond the Sea" (season 1, episode 13) and "Humbug" (season 2, Episode 20)\

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Kumail Nanjiani's The X-Files Files

Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show) James Lark (composer, podcaster) wrote the theme song for the show Licensed for show use, copyright 2024 Here’s James website for all his activities: jameslark.co.uk Recommendations None this week! Check the Links section for ideas! Social Media Lindsey Nelsen Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter) Jeff Richardson @eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades (Jeff’s livestreaming RPG show) Links

LA Law

Perry Mason

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

X-Files "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"

DON'T START WITH HOME

ironic song choice

Doctor Who: "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"

Thomas Edison

Extended Notes

"the following story is inspired by actual documented accounts"

Collum national forest

lady running in the woods

red hair and white ish night dress

weirdo creep surrounded by wind spiral

the dude zaps into white light

leaves behind ladys body

two red bumps

Karen Swenson, dead woman

class of 89

2:11 "its happening again, isnt it?"

Agent Dana Scully!

she doesnt get out of a mans way and its boss

mean roger ebert is her boss

smoking creepo is there

Agent Fox Mulder

oxford educated psychologist, profiled Monty Propps in 1998

nickname of Spooky

she got a bit huffy about being assigned to debunk the x-files

Mulder's office is a trip

for a messy office is isnt that messy

he thought she was sent to spy

shes a medical doctor, teaches at the academy, undergrad in physics

Einsteins Twin Paradox

he says Oregon wrong

two distinct marks

can Dr Scully ID the marks?

synthetic protein seen in her death and two others, SD and TX

she doesnt think there are aliens

also she doesnt think this woman was

8:10 "Thats why they put the I in FBI"

theyre flying

they hit some heavy turbulence and Mulder is straight chillin

FBI got involved, didnt find anything, then shelved the case

they go through a weird zone where radio frizzes out, card ies

Mulder gets some spray paint and marks the area

11:20 "What the hell was that about? Oh you know. Probably nothing."

they meet the locals at the graveyard

Greatest American Hero drives up, his daughter doesnt want him to do this, he confronts Mulder

Dr Jay Nemmon

hes defensive and thinks Mulder is accusing him. daughter begs to leave

13:22 "Guy obviously needed a longer vacation."

Ray Soames, 3rd victim

accused of the murder

died of exposure

13:50 "How does a 20 year old die of exposure on a warm summer night in Oregon, Doctor Scully?"

strap breaks, body rolls, and Mulder opens it up. theres a chimp corpse inside

14:25 "Its probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the Varsity basketball team"

Autopsy of the chimp

Mulder takes photos

15:30 "If its not alien, what is it?"

Scully doesnt want to do more tests

Mulder orders it

Scully thinks it might be an orangutan but after her exam she isnt sure

16:25 "Who is it? Stephen Spielberg."

shes just in a big shirt!

Mulder asks her to walk with him

she says no

he wants to know about implant

she claims not to care, then we see her studying x ray

they go to mental hospital

meet the boss

Billy Myles is in a waking coma

Peggy and he were in an accident

Mulder is really sweet to her

Mulder says some shit to engineer her freaking out so he can look for her two bumps

Scully is disgusted

she wants to know why he expected to see the bumps

alien abduction?!

she is not into this

she thinks its something non alien

Scully: "how did she get there? wht were those kids doing in the forest?"

theyre in the woods that night

looking for clues

she finds a circle of weird ash

then hears a strange noise

she investigates

finds a white light behind a ridge

some dude walks up

22:17 Scully says she's FBI

shotgun man tells them to split

they dont like it

how did she get all the way back to the car without realizing?

weird for the guy to be out there

Scully shows Mulder the ash

what if theyre in a cult?

Mulder drives, sees compass being weird

light flashes, car died, they lost 9 minutes

24:25 "We just lost nine minutes!"

abductees report unexplained time loss

25:09 "Time cant disappear. Its a universal invariant!"

Scully is writing a repory, light goes out

runs a bath instead

robe, candle, basic 90s underwear

she sees something weird

she goes to Mulder, asks him to look at it

theyre just mosquito bites

she is so relieved she hugs him

she stays with him

he tells her how his sister disappeared out of the room

no one would talk about it

he explains how he found the X-Files

[San Francisco kid counseling service rule requiring truth about the event that damaged them]

28:44 "There's classified government information I've been trying to access, but someone has been blocking my attempts to get at it."

he says shes a part of it

she says she just wants to solve this

he says she needs to know

he explains doing hypnosis with a doctor Heitz Werber

someone calls and says Peggy O'Dell is dead

she ran in front of a truck

but she was in a wheelchair before

her watch stopped at 9 something

they get to the motel and its on fire

all their evidence destroyed

teresa nemmon comes up "You've got to protect me"

her dad is the medical examiner

he told her not to tell anyone about it

he claims he can protect her

she has the marks

she has a bloody nose!

dad comes in and is real pushy

shotgun guy is Billy Myles's father

Scully says they know who did the murders

Mulder doesnt get why they destroyed evidence

whats up with the other two graves?

theyre both freshly emptied

Mulder thinks he knows who killed everyone

Billy Myles?

she says vegetable *yeesh

He says Billy moved

something took control of Billy during those nine minutes

you think im crazy dont you

she tells him about the watch

they say this stuff

summoned by some alien impulse

she laughs

he does too

they split

Scully sees that Billy's feet are muddy

she gets a sample from his feet

same stuff from the forest

they decide to go back to the forest for a sample

Detective Myles is parked there

they hear a scream

theyre running through the trees

Scully gets brained by Myles

Mulder runs after scream

Myles cocks his weapon at him

Mulder tells him he knows its Billy

Billy is being tornadoed with someone

Dad starts to shoot

Mulder tackles him

Billy has the marks

light swirls

Scully sees light

when it goes away, Billy is there and whoever he was holding is alive

bumps are gone

Mulder runs, finds Scully

it was incredible

Billy is being interviewed about the light

Mulder is watching

he talks about the testing place?

talks about getting the implant

theyd give him orders

Scully is behind the glass

test didnt work

im afraid theyre coming back

smoking man whispers and mean Roger Ebert leaves with him

Ebert tells her its wack

no evidence

she shows him the implant

44:30 "the material could not be identified"

She leaves office and smoking man goes in

she cant sleep

nice blinds shadow on her face

Mulder calls

no casefile, paperwork is gone

Smoking man stashes implant in a case thay seems especially made for them

super long and tall aisle

he comes put and locks the door

its in the pentagon

music seems unorthodox

ambient plonk plonk with whiny grinding

opening theme was like that as well

did they not write a full theme because it was the pilot?

i jumped ahead and yes thats what happened

Piranesi, Part 7: Matthew Rose Sorensen (and Recap)

17 september 2024 | 149 min

Beverly Crusher challenges the universe

We wrap up the final chapter and then talk about the entire book. Then we look at One Star Goodreads reviews!

Next time on: X-Files! Watch the pilot and join us with your ears!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

https://www.jameslark.co.uk/

Below you'll find our plugs, links, recommendations, and links to stuff from this week's episode! Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades

Recommendations Dropout TV Game Changer Make Some Noise Bookburners (podcast) Oh Boy! A Time Travel Podcast James Lark (composer, podcaster) The Bartimaeus Trilogy

Social Media Lindsey Nelsen Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter) Jeff Richardson @eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Links

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A Song of Ice and Fire

Circe by Madeline Miller

Star Trek: The Next Generation “Remember Me”

Castaway

Doctor Who

What Remains of Edith Finch?

Myst

Amnesia: Dark Descent

Why Weeps the Brogan?

My Adorable Apotheosis

Ten Thousand Doors of January

Crossings

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

That Hideous Strength

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Dark academia

Chiwetel Edjiofor

Extended Notes

Part 7: Matthew Rose Sorensen

Ketterley missing

cops trying to find him

no one remembers him being a boat guy

Officer Askill thinks its related to the reappearance of Matthew Rose Sorenson

Askill thinks he held Sorenson to manufacture evidence of the other world

he killed himself out of shame or because they were onto him

"Undeterred, Askill has questioned me twice. He is a young man with a pleasant, good-natured face, little brown curls all over his head and an intelligent expression. He wears a dark blue suit and a grey shirt and speaks with a Yorkshire accent"

"And where were you?’ he asks. ‘While you were gone?’

‘I was in a house with many rooms. The sea sweeps through the house. Sometimes it swept over me, but always I was saved.’

Askill pauses and frowns."

Askill asks if he's getting treatment

he is seeing a therapist

but no meds

Askill wonders if Ketterley kept him anywhere, he says no, he was free to travel

P feels bad that he cant tell Askill more

Askill says Raphael is amazing. P agrees

Askill tells the story of Pinny Wheeler

"She sat down with Pinny Wheeller and she got him to stop throwing flaming newspaper everywhere and she got him to come down. Pretty brave, don’t you think?’

‘Braver than you think. She doesn’t like heights.’"

Piranesi meets his family, theyre all very happy to see him

they hold on to the idea that the house is a metaphor

"This love of clothes was something he shared with Piranesi. Piranesi frequently wrote about Dr Ketterley’s clothes in his journal and lamented the contrast with his own ragged garments"

Ps new personality doesnt care much about clothes

"Piranesi cannot bear to have so many possessions. I do not need this! is his constant refrain"

P uses the journals to help him learn who MRS was

"Piranesi has a strong dislike of money. Piranesi wants to say: But I need the thing you have, so why don’t you just give it to me? And then when I have something you need, I will just give it to you. This would be a simpler system and much better!"

he decides to write a book about Arne-Sayles

Raphael teaches him how to find the path to the labyrinth

he goes to Manchester, finds James Ritter, and offers to take him back to the house.

Ritter wants to stay but P wont let him. he doesnt know how to care for himself

he finds Ketterleys body and lys it at the feet of a man surrounded by snakes. here it will be picked clean by birds, then he'll move it next to the Biscuit-Box Man

he continues to look to statues for guidance and strength. He thinks of one in particular

"It is the statue of a man kneeling on his plinth; a sword lies at his side, its blade broken in five pieces. Roundabout lie other broken pieces, the remains of a sphere. The man has used his sword to shatter the sphere because he wanted to understand it, but now he finds that he has destroyed both sphere and sword. This puzzles him, but at the same time part of him refuses to accept that the sphere is broken and worthless. He has picked up some of the fragments and stares at them intently in the hope that they will eventually bring him new knowledge."

then he think of LAS

"This statue represents a heretical pope seated on a throne. He is fat and bloated. He lolls on his throne, a shapeless mass. The throne is magnificent, but the sheer bulk of the figure threatens to split it in two. He knows that he is repulsive, but you can see by his face that the idea pleases him. He revels in the thought that he is somehow shocking. In his face there is mingled laughter and triumph. Look at me, he seems to say. Look at me!"

he thinks of one for Raphael

"In my mind Raphael is better represented by a statue in an antechamber that lies between the forty-fifth and the sixty-second northern halls. This statue shows a figure walking forward, holding a lantern. It is hard to determine with any certainty the gender of the figure; it is androgynous in appearance. From the way she (or he) holds up the lantern and peers at whatever is ahead, one gets the sense of a huge darkness surrounding her; above all I get the sense that she is alone, perhaps by choice or perhaps because no one else was courageous enough to follow her into the darkness."

he loves Raphael more than anyone

the two of them return to the house often, sometimes together, sometimes apart

"Don’t disappear,’ I tell her sternly. ‘Do not disappear.’

She makes a rueful, amused face. ‘I won’t,’ she says.

‘We can’t keep rescuing each other,’ I say. ‘It’s ridiculous.’

She smiles. It is a smile with a little sadness in it.

But she still wears the perfume – the first thing I ever knew of her – and it still makes me think of Sunlight and Happiness."

when he's stressed he thinks about the house, remembering the exact shape and turns

he dreams of the gorilla statue leaving its plinth and coming toward him. P hugs him and says how happy he is to be home

"It began to snow. The low clouds made a grey ceiling for the city; the snow muffled the noise of the cars until it became almost rhythmical; a steady, shushing noise, like the sound of tides beating endlessly on marble walls."

he walks the park until he sees an old man. He recognizes him!

"He is shown as a king with a little model of a walled city in one hand while the other hand he raises in blessing. I wanted to seize hold of him and say to him: In another world you are a king, noble and good! I have seen it!"

last he sees a hotel

"Paper lanterns were hanging from the wires, spheres of vivid orange that blew and trembled in the snow and the thin wind; the sea-grey clouds raced across the sky and the orange lanterns shivered against them.

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite."

thats it!

Piranesi, Part 5: Ketterley and Part 6: Wave

15 september 2024 | 124 min

Thanks for listening to The Great and Secret Knowledge: A Speculative Fiction Podcast! In this episode, Lindsey and Jeff cover Part 5: Ketterley and Part 6: Wave.

Below you'll find our plugs, links, recommendations, and links to stuff from this week's episode!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

Erica Knapp on Everything is Awesome

Fancast as Raphael

Rashida Jones in Silo

Roxann Dawson in Voyager

Fancast as Ketterley

Roger Delgado in Doctor Who

Mads Mikkelsen

Fancast as Arne-Sayles

Chris Hemsworth in Bad Times at the El Royale

Jesus Christ Superstar guy

Anthony Hopkins

Mads Mikkelson

Links

Hector Berlioz

petrichor

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck

Harriet the Spy

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

The Natural Way to Draw

The Artist's Way

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Alistair Crowley

Be Gay, Do Crime

Doctor Who "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"

Minotaur and the labyrinth

https://www.jameslark.co.uk/

Abigail Adams's journals

Recommendations

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Never watch Knock Knock

Plugs

Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Omniversal Escapades

Extended Notes

Part 5: Ketterley

are you familiar with Berlioz? Hector Berlioz

"inside the house there was a smell of rain, clouds and air, a smell of limitless space. A smell of the sea"

berlioz is "the soundtrack of catastrophe"

Ketterly stopped academia 15 years earlier "Academia was never very welcoming to me. I had the wrong sort of ideas and the wrong sort of friends.’"

MRS thinks maybe AS wont talk to him cuz hes ashamed

"Ketterley gave a short, sharp, humourless laugh. ‘Hardly. Laurence has no shame. He’s just perverse. If someone says white, he’ll say black. If you say you want to see him, then he won’t want to see you. That’s just the way he is.’"

we learn about MRSs journals - hes a very good record keeper

we get MRSs opinion of AS

On not liking the word Conjuring:

"Of course I object to the fucking word,’ he said irritably. ‘You’re suggesting that Laurence was some sort of stage magician and we were all his wide-eyed dupes. It wasn’t like that at all. He liked you to argue with him. He liked you to put the rationalist point of view.’

interesting cult where its oky to challenge the leader

he would destroy you verbally tho which is textbook cult behavior

Sylvia Dagostino was devoted. AS told her to break ties with parents and she did

"There was absolutely no advantage to him in cutting her off from her family. It didn’t benefit him in the slightest. He did it because he could. He did it to cause anguish for her and her parents. He did it because he was cruel.’"

Interesting to see K talk about this, as if he isnt cruel. Is he judging AS? or just speaking facts

"I don’t like you very much,’ he said.

I laughed. ‘I can live with that,’ I said"

why did K think it was a labyrinth?

K explains - AS claimed not to need a ritual, but the others did

Also Sylvia could slip in and out

could K do it? he felt it and once he saw it

K asks the scariest question in media "Does anyone know youre here?"

the suspense!

a twelve minute ritual? not likely

hes also feeling suspense while writing it!

MRS just thinks K is lying, not that he's about to murder him

interesting to get MRS first impressions of the House

K says some wack stuff

"Forgive me for not saying anything before now,’ he smiled, ‘but I really am delighted to see you. A young, healthy man is just what I wanted.’"

this is his supervillain moment - this guy that isnt cruel

PART 6 - Wave

P vomits, realizes K is not his friend

He is my enemy

"I had forgotten, but the Other remembered. I could see now that he was apprehensive in case one day I remembered. He called me Piranesi so he would not need to use the name Matthew Rose Sorensen. He tested me by speaking words such as ‘Battersea’ to see if they sparked any memories. I had been incorrect when I said that Battersea was nonsense. It was not nonsense."

multiple revelations

this is how it hits when you realize your partner is cheating or stealing from you

how to make sure i dont forget?

for his own advantage!

K needs a slave to do his work for him

he's wishing he hadn't warned K about the flood

I could kidnap K and tie him up

killer monologue wink

"maybe i'll give him water, maybe i will not

Perhaps I will give him water to drink. Perhaps I will not. Perhaps I will say to him: ‘Soon you will have plenty of Water!’ And on Thursday he will watch the Tides pouring in through the Doors and he will scream and scream. And I will laugh and laugh. I will laugh as long and as loud as he laughed at Matthew Rose Sorensen when he brought him here …This is where I lost Myself."

P fantasizes about killing K

he gets food and thinks about what he read

MRS had this stuff happen to him and he resides within P

"I placed my hand on my chest. Hush now! I said, Do not be afraid. You are safe. Go back to sleep. I will take care of us both"

"MRS thought these things. 'As far as I can tell, Matthew Rose Sorensen was in his right mind when he wrote them. Neither he nor I had ever been mad.'"

the Other is the one trying to drive him mad, not 16

he considers 16s last message, realizes hes probably Ks only victim

"why had 16 come?

Because she was looking for Matthew Rose Sorensen. Because she wanted to rescue him from the slavery of the Other. I saw it clearly now. It is 16 that is my friend and not the Other"

"16 was patient, resolute and ingenious. 16 was still looking for me"

he discovers that someone wiped away Ps warning about the flood for 16 as well as her question to P

P decides that K did it

he thinks K is intentionally tricking 16 into dying in the flood

he moves the deads bones

he stashes his journals high up

he gathers up all his rain bowls

in the hall of horned giants he sees a bag full of gear:

"I took out all the contents. They were as follows:

• a Gun

• a quantity of folded material made of a dense, heavy plastic. This was by far the largest object in the bag; it

filled most of the bag and was coloured blue, black and grey.

• a small cylindrical container with a secure lid. This contained other small objects the purpose of which was unclear.

• a thing like a slice of a larger cylinder cut down at an angle, with a yellow hose coming out of it

• two black plastic rods extendable to a length of approximately 2 metres

• 4 black paddle-shapes"

he thinks maybe the house left the bag for him

he decides its the Others because theres a gun

day of the flood

he eats some soup

he tries to guess where K would send her

"I remembered the words of the Prophet:

The closer 16 gets, the more dangerous Ketterley will become.

My hope was that I could find 16 before she reached the Other"

he goes back and forth between boat area and the first vestibule

the Other appears!

Other is dressed casually and wearing a life jacket

P flllows him to the boat, still no sign of 16

tides are beginning to converge

Other pumps up the boat

waves start thudding

he realizes 16 is clever and may be watching

"I had a mental image of both 16 and Myself hiding in the First Western Hall, both waiting for the other one to appear. I could not afford to remain hidden any longer: I stepped down from the Niche and walked towards the Other"

the gun is out in the open

Other is angry

P starts quoting his journal at the other

"I visited him in mid-November,’ I said. ‘It was just after four, a cold blue twilight.’"

other isnt listening, starts giving orders

K says to bash Raphael (16) in the head

P keeps quoting

"The afternoon had been stormy,’ I said, ‘and the lights of the cars were pixelated by rain; the pavements collaged with wet black leaves.’"

"When I got to his house I heard music playing,’ I said. ‘A requiem. I waited for him to answer the door to an accompaniment of Berlioz.’"

K is getting spooked

"What are you talking about?’ he asked again in a voice made hoarse with fear.

‘Battersea,’ I said. ‘You asked me once if I remembered Battersea. And now I do.’"

K tries to distract P by calling him Matthew

"He laughed suddenly, an odd sound: hysteria masquerading as relief. ‘No, no!’ he said. ‘You don’t get me that easily. Those aren’t your words. They’re someone else’s. You don’t really remember. Raphael put you up to this. Really, Matthew, how stupid do you think I am?’"

he goes for the gun

P kicks away the gun

K asks what hes going to do

16 calls Ks name

she says shes looking for MRS

K grabs P and says here he is

P warns her about Ks gun

waves rush in

16 steps out

K tries to hit P

P gets loose, runs to 16

he takes her hand, they run to the wall

he climbs up the Father and son

she's too short to follow

he comes down and pushes her higher up

the make it 20odd feet up

cracking sounds

K is shooting at them!

P warns him to get in the boat

they have to move to avoid the shots

they hide behind statues back

P peeks out, sees K going to boat

hes wading, boat is swirling

boat is dancing around the hall

K is hopelessly swimming after it

boat comes at him then flies away

P shouts for him to climb

a big wave crashes and the spray goes way up

if they hadnt hidden from shots they would have been thrown

destiny?

"The Spray caught the Sun; it was as if someone had suddenly thrown a hundred barrelfuls of diamonds into the Hall"

K eats it

boat keeps whirling about

waves continue, time passes

they dont speak to each other cuz its too loud

waves settle down

"16 had large dark eyes and an elfin face. Her expression was solemn. She was a little older than me – about forty, I thought. Her hair was black with wet.

‘You are Six … You are Raphael,’"

she says hes MRS and that she doesnt know him

shes here because shes a police officer

P thinks theyre both freaked by Ks death

she tends to his wound

it Looks like he was hurt by shrapnel, not a bullet

she cant get down so he goes off to find something to help her

he collects some gear, returns to 16

he feeds her seaweed

he ties nets together and makes a web she can climb down

"Our clothes were plastered to our bodies with wet. My hair – which is dark and curly – was as full of droplets as a Cloud. I rained every time I moved"

he talks to birds

"It’ll be gone soon,’ I told them. ‘Don’t worry.’

‘What?’ asked Raphael, startled. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘I was talking to the birds,’ I said. ‘They’re alarmed by the great quantities of Water that are everywhere. I’m telling them that it’ll soon be gone.’"

she wonders why he talks to birds, he mentions that she did too

she asks why he scrubbed her writing

he says because K said she was evil and would make him go mad

she says we should go home, he can come to her place and then she can take him home

he says i am home

she doesnt respond

she tells him why he should leave

"There’s something I have to tell you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if you remember this, but you have a mum and a dad. And two sisters. And friends.’ She gazed at me intently. ‘Do you remember?’

I shook my head.

‘They’ve been looking for you,’ she said. ‘But they didn’t know the right place to look. They’ve been worried about you. They’ve been … ’ She looked away again to find the right words to express her thought. ‘They’ve felt pain because they didn’t know where you were,’"

"You don’t think of yourself as Matthew Rose Sorensen?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘But you have his face,’ she said.

‘Yes.’

‘And his hands.’

‘Yes.’

‘And his feet and his body.’"

Raphael is not contentious, P likes it

she asks if he would make a visit to MRSs family and he could come back

he explains that he takes care of the bones

shes surprised to hear there are other people

shed like to see the others to id them

hes like oh theyre dead

shes all what?

he thinks they were dead before he got there, but he cant be certain

he asks if she has dead

do they visit them and take them offerings

then he says he has to collect Ks body

she says theres plenty of time

she touches his shoulder

he starts crying

it must be MRS inside him crying

he asks if she'll come back

she will come back

she asks if he'll think about seeing MRSs family

he will

"My last thought before I fell asleep was: He is dead. My only friend. My only enemy"

he finds K

he explains how he'll treat the corpse

"I will put you in good order and you can rest in the Sunlight and the Starlight. The Statues will look down on you with Blessing"

P finds the boat

"I wish that you had saved him,’ I told it.

I did not feel that it responded in any way. It seemed drowsy, dozing, only half alive. Without the Rushing Waters to animate it, it was no longer the devil that had danced on the Waves, first mocking Dr Ketterley and then abandoning him"

Raphael asks what she should call him. he starts to say Piranesi but falters. K used to call him that but K was a dick

R tells him how she found him

an owl flies in. P has never seen a real live one

R interviews Sayles. He explains what happened to MRS

P talks about how things from the older world are represented by statues

she promises to come back whether he visits the other world or not

he gives R a tour of the halls

"She said, ‘It’s such an astonishing place. A perfect place. I saw some of it while I was looking for you, but I kept having to stop at the doors to write out the directions back to the minotaur room. It got very time-consuming and frustrating and of course I didn’t dare go too far in case I made a mistake.’"

he remembers that early on he had to use chalk to mark his path - more internal wrestling with truth

R asks if she can take photos. P says yes and thinks how nice it is tthat shes respectful of the house

P shows her the people of the alcove.

"Raphael regarded them gravely. She gently rested her hand on one of the bones – the tibia of one of the males. It was a gesture conveying comfort and reassurance. 'Don’t be afraid. You are safe. I am here.'"

she apologizes for his experience.

"I was astonished, even a little alarmed. No one has ever been as kind to me as Raphael; no one has ever done more for me. That she should apologise seemed to me inappropriate. ‘No … No … ’ I murmured and I put up my hands to fend off her words"

The two types of being sorry

he wants to avoid the thought that they were murdered.

"Mostly I wanted Raphael to come away from them so that I could stop thinking of them the way she thought of them – as murdered – and go back to thinking of them the way I always had before – as good, and noble, and peaceful."

he shows her the Coral Halls

"There are Figures horned with coral, or crucified on coral branches, or stuck through with coral arrows. There is a Lion enmeshed in a cage of coral and a Man holding a Little Box. The coral has grown so profusely over his Left Side that half of him appears to be engulfed in red- and rose-coloured flames, while the other half is not."

she expresses appreciation that there are no people in the house. he asks if she doesnt like the people in her own halls.

"Don’t you like the people in your own Halls?’ I asked, puzzled.

‘I like them,’ she said, with no very great enthusiasm. ‘Mostly I like them. Some of them. I don’t always get them. They don’t always get me.’"

he considers why one might not want to be around people.

"Perhaps even people you like and admire immensely can make you see the World in ways you would rather not. Perhaps that is what Raphael means."

he resolves to leave with Raphael.

"I have returned all of the Dead to their allotted places. Today I walked through the Halls as I have done a thousand times before. I visited all my most beloved Statues and as I gazed on each one, I thought: Perhaps this will be the last time I look on your Face. Goodbye! Goodbye!"

what must it be like to leave your entire life behind?

he puts all his ornament back in his hair. Raphael seems astonished.

"I took one last look at the Eternal House. I shivered. Raphael took my hand. Then, together, we walked into the corridor."

Recommendations

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First legit novel - horror

not erotica

he's autistic!

talk about horror?

X-Files

Making a Murderer

Piranesi, Part 4: 16

13 september 2024 | 102 min

Thanks for listening to The Great and Secret Knowledge: A Speculative Fiction Podcast! In this chapter, Piranesi learns more about the mysterious 16. He studies the scraps. We critique the character of Laurence Arne-Sayles. We hope you enjoy our coverage of Piranesi, Part 4: 16

Below you'll find our plugs, links, recommendations, and links to stuff from this week's episode!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

The Fall by Tarsim Singh Eddie Izzard Legend of the Condor Heroes fight flight freeze fawn Stockholm Syndrome Humans will pack bond with literally anything National Geographic article about peat bog bodies tree made of cake Dragonlance Stephen King's endings Alfred Hitchcock on suspense Cursing and the brain Doctor Who "Blink" Waiting for Godot

Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Our theme song was composed by James Lark Visit his website! https://www.jameslark.co.uk/

And listen to his wonderful short story podcast, Neurotic Literature: https://www.jameslark.co.uk/neuroticliterature

Recommendations

Game Changer Make Some Noise A Hero Born (Legend of the Condor Heroes) Daniel York Loh Everything is Awesome Doctor Who Decades Collection - "Imaginary Friends" Social Media Lindsey Nelsen Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter) Jeff Richardson @eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Links

Extended Notes

Part 5: Ketterley

P prepares to go collect the scraps of paper in the nests

some paper falls apart but others stay together

he makes a fire and uses warm water to dab away the droppings

79 scraps from 35 nests

"I rely on him to bring me food and water - which only underlines my status as a prisoner, a slave. He leaves the food in the room with the minotaur statues."

he feels bad for the writer, wishes he could teach him how to fish

"with only a little foresight he need never go hungry, how the House provides for and protects its Children."

"Had the concealed person tormented the Biscuit Box Man? Or the other way round?"

the writer thought a statue spoke to him. he's convinced he's losing his mind. He wants to kill someone "before I forget why I HATE HIM."

all caps - dude is losing it

he puts the scraps in different envelopes

he isnt sure whether to tell the Other about the people he's read about

"Supposing he said: Where did you hear of these people? Who told you? I would not know what to say. He must not know that I have spoken to the Prophet. He must not know about the entries in my Journal."

Ketterley says he's planning to do the ritual but it's been two months

"Something had just happened. What was it? What had just happened?"

he moves around until he finds the scent of lemons, geranium leaves, hyacinth, and narcissi. (I wish I could identify all those scents, it would help in my writing)

a beautiful perfume

the scent originates in the first vestibule and goes as far as the doorway to the corridor leading to the first southwestern hall.

he knows the smells of Ketterley and Arne Sayles.

16 was here!

"It was surprising to me that someone like 16, someone so wedded to destruction and madness, should wear a perfume so lovely, so redolent of Sunshine and Happiness."

"It is very likely that he will be pleasing to the eyes. His manners will be friendly and insinuating. This is how he intends to destroy you."

He tells K about the perfume. K is chill about.

He's relieved that they're coming to the halls because he thinks its best to kill him.

"I do not think I could kill someone however wicked they are," I said. "Even the wicked deserve Life. Or if they do not, then let the House take it from them. Not me." (is there a name for this? its not quite pacifism...not sure how to google it)

even K doesnt think he could kill someone up close.

he thinks he'll have to practice. (the idea of K practicing is kind of ridiculous)

K says a old man might come by, he describes him, its definitely the prophet.

"It was always amazing to me that no one killed him while he was in prison."

Piranesi realizes he's lying by omission by not mentioning talking to the prophet.

He's glad that the prophet said he'snot coming back

its raining bad.

he's real anxious about 16 out there plotting to make him go mad

he goes to a hall full of rooks (crows?) he feeds them.

one pecks at his ear and he laughs

he sees a mark made on a door with yellow chalk!

he used to do this, but he never had yellow chalk

16 wrote on the floor! P is worried about madness

he isn't sure if words would make him go mad or if its just listening to 16 speak

its only directions!

by where they put the chalkmarks P surmises that 16 is between 12 and 15 cm shorter than him)

Piranesi writes a wild note to 16 in all caps -

"The other has warned me of how you intend to make me mad. But in order to make me mad, you must first find me and how will you do that? the answer is you will not. I know every niche of these halls, every apse, every place to hide. Return to your own halls, 16, and reflect on your wickedness."

he wasn't sure how to sign it

its other day so Piranesi grills him about reading 16's words.

Other says we shouldnt read his words but also that it's okay.

He actually pats Piranesi on the shoulder! (i was surprised P didnt wax ecstatic about being touched)

K gets a gun, admits he's bad at shooting

P suggests maybe 16 will see his response and stop coming. K shakes his head.

"There's not a chance of it, Piranesi. I know this person. 16 is relentless. 16 will keep on coming."

its cold, he gets waken up but doesnt know why. all is calm

someone has a flashlight!

they're searching around, possibly for someone specific?

The Other is there, shouting "Raphael!"

He threatens to hunt down his enemy.

He drops his flashlight and curses.

He sees some weird shadows but dismisses them

he sees 16! also with a flashlight, he's really studying the statues.

16 looks at the note P had left for him.

16 writes a ton of stuff

he sees the message but tries not to read it

he sweeps up the chalk then looks at the results

he warns away 16

P gives the Other the business, doesnt like being lied to

16 is a woman! Could it be Sylvia Dagostino? Ahgavad Scott?

when he's caught, Ketterley comes clean.

He says that he didnt want P to get all swept up.

"The reason I didn't say anything is that I know you, Piranesi. You're a romantic...I knew it was going to be hard enough as it was to convince you of the threat that 16 poses. But I thought it would be even harder once you knew she was a woman."

he thought P might fall in love with her!

"16 is fundamentally untrustworthy"

P thanks him for looking out for him but tells him not to keep stuff from him.

O wonders how P heard her voice, he explains she was talking to the rooks

P decides to look up Arne-Sayles in the index!

now we're talking

"It is not the fact 16 is a woman that fascinates me and excites me - or at least, not entirely; it is the fact she is another human being. I want to learn everything I can about her - or as much as I can learn without going mad."

interesting that P doesnt want to be kept in the dark but hes still keeping secrets from K

16 mentions Ketterley

"Certainly groomed other potential victims and I ... is 16 boasting of her victims? Of the harm she has done and intends to do? Unclear."

"Been here for almost six years ,did you" unclear what this refers to."

P looks up Arne-Sayles

Discussion with self about feasability of writing a book about Arne Sayles.

Scott is helpful with book stuff.

Is she anti Arne Sayles or pro Piranesi?

she sounds great

pros and cons

Tali Hughes is emotionally unstable and possibly delusional?

i wonder if thats true or if she was speaking sense

talk to Ritter?

"Spending a long time writing about a deeply unpleasant man could be emotionally taxing. It's universallyagreed that AS is malicious, vindictive, manipulative, spiteful,arrogant, a complete and utter prick. Con"

we read Arne Sayles's ideas about how we used to see the world as interacting with them

"When they observed the world, the world observed them back."

at all related to the Observer effect in physics?

"The world was constantly speaking to Ancient man"

"Nature was willing to bend to men’s desires, to lend them its attributes. Seas could be parted, men could turn into birds and fly away, or into foxes and hide in dark woods, castles could be made out of clouds"

magic was real and then it wasnt.

but it didnt die, it went somewhere else

the Marepool bodies at Manchester museum

one is the head of a king and seer

and thus begins the quest for the great and secret knowledge

the museum wont let AS use the head. hes shocked by this?

organizes student protests "Free the Head"

during xmas break someone breaks into the museum and does a ritual with the head

AS has an alibi with a rich couple called the Brookers. Is this our first indication of a cult patron?

we get the correct spelling of Addedomarus, a Romano British seer

Tony Myers told the cops about the breakin later, putting AS, Ketterley, and Robin Bannerman there

Myers claimed the heads lips moved

AS leaves behind the quest for the lost beliefs and powers but rather seeks to find where theyd gone

AS lays out his Theory of Other Worlds

"Picture it, said Arne-Sayles, like rainwater lying on a field. The next day the field is dry. Where has the rainwater gone? Some has evaporated into the air. Some has been drunk by plants and animals. But some has seeped down into the earth. This happens over and over again. For decades, centuries, millennia, the water, seeping down, makes a crack in the rock under the earth; then it wears the crack into a hole; then it wears the hole into a cave entrance – a kind of door in fact."

"it was necessary to cleanse one’s vision in order to see the door. To do this one must return to the place, the geographical location where one last believed the world to be fluid, responsive to oneself. In short one must return to the last place in which one had stood before the iron hand of modern rationality gripped one’s mind."

"The then-owners (dull exemplars of the prevailing mediocrity)"

"surrounded by the roses my mother had planted (though now forced to share their beds with flowers of insufferable vulgarity)"

this guy tells on himself so much

"All around me doors into other worlds began appearing but I knew the one I wanted, the one into which everything forgotten flows. The edges of that door were frayed and worn by the passage of old ideas leaving this world."

he goes through the door between pink roses and finds the halls

"eight massive statues, each one different, each depicting a minotaur"

I Remain Calm - i love how the title answers our first question

"I feel certain that the Other learnt of Addedomarus from Laurence Arne-Sayles. (‘All his ideas are mine,’ the Prophet said)"

"One sentence puzzles me: The world was constantly speaking to Ancient Man. I do not understand why this sentence is in the past tense. The World still speaks to me every day."

P remains calm despite all the strange words and phrases

he thinks he mustve gone into a trance state to come up with this stuff

There Will Be a Great Flood

talk about foreshadowing.

King does this a lot, just whets your whistle so youre in a heightened state of awareness

P realizes he hasnt checked his tide book in two weeks and now a huge flood is coming. He loses it and shouts the f word over and over

"I spoke to Myself sternly, telling Myself that it was no good bewailing the Past; what was needed now was to plan for the Future"

he tells the other there will be a great flood

O says its fine cuz he wont be there on Thursday. P asks where he'll be and O blows him off

the Other asks him "Will you be ok?" wild change, is he softening?

P says he needs to warn 16. The Other doesnt understand why

Are you Matthew Rose Sorensen?

"As I walked I thought about the last message I had left her – the one begging her to leave these Halls. Perhaps in the intervening time she had replied. Perhaps the reply would be something like:

Dear Piranesi

You are right. Today I will return to my own Halls.

Sincerely

16"

he expands on this, hoping 16 will come clean and pledge her willingness to change her wicked ways

P warns her about the flood in his message

"SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF CAUGHT BY THE FLOOD, THEN CLIMB QUICKLY! THE STATUES ARE GRACIOUS AND WILL PROTECT YOU"

he goes to a hall witha slope made of pretty white translucent rocks

finds some rocks have been scooped up.

he wonders if its the rooks.

16 had laid them out to write a message!

He read it before he could think to look away!

are you matthew rose sorensen?

he has a vision of life in the city.

"Dark forms filled the streets; I thought at first that they were statues, but they moved and I saw they were people. Thousands upon thousands of people. More people than I had ever conceived of before. Too many people. The mind could not contain the thought of so many. And everything smelt of rain, and metal, and staleness. This vision had a name and its name was …"

16 was successful, leaving a message that wpuld drive P mad

he starts to accept that he is MRS, but then the old familiar feeling hits him with the words I Am the Beloved Child of the House

Other explains why he calls him Piranesi. Its a name associated with labyrinths

he resolves to look up MRS in the journals

MRS is British, Scottish, and Ghanaian

reading his own words about AS:

"I found it interesting that Matthew Rose Sorensen believed that Laurence Arne-Sayles had denied Science and Reason. In this he was not correct. The Prophet was a scientist and a lover of Reason. I spoke out loud to the Empty Air"

a reference to Doctor Who! timey wimey, 10th doctor, by steven moffatt

"time traveling architecture"

Pgets mad.

"I had learnt nothing. I felt a strong urge to shake my Journal, as if I could somehow shake more information out of it."

he decides to look up the Other and see if he ever mentions MRS

he looks at the entries for The Other

then he looks up Ketterley

son of a soldier and occultist

Ketterley turned on AS in 1992, called for AS to be fired

they waited until the Ritter incident to pull the trigger

Ketterley lives near Battersea Park!

he discovers the missing pages! all related to Ketterley

"Who could have done this? Could it have been the Prophet? I knew that he detested Ketterley. Perhaps his hatred would cause him to destroy writing about his enemy? Or could it have been 16? 16 hated Reason. Perhaps she also hated Writing, a medium by which Reason can pass from one Person to another. But that made no sense. 16 had employed Writing to leave me a long message. And in any case how could the Prophet or 16 find my Journals."

he accepts that only he could have torn out those pages

he puts the scraps together and discovers "The events of 15 November 2012."

Piranesi, Part 3: The Prophet

8 september 2024 | 95 min

In this chapter, Lindsey and Jeff talk about the man of the hour, Laurence Arne-Sayles.

Thanks for listening to The Great and Secret Knowledge: A Speculative Fiction Podcast! In this episode, Lindsey and Jeff cover Part 3: The Prophet.

Below you'll find our plugs, links, recommendations, and links to stuff from this week's episode!

Please join our Discord server and get to know the fam!

John Robbins’ Diet For a New America

Lindsey's podcasts The Kurt Locker Cool Breeze over the Mountains Historical Hotties Jeff's podcasts Shattered Worlds RPG Everything is Awesome with Jeff and ? Our theme song was composed by James Lark Visit his website! https://www.jameslark.co.uk/

And listen to his wonderful short story podcast, Neurotic Literature: https://www.jameslark.co.uk/neuroticliterature

Recommendations

Dropout TV

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Social Media Lindsey Nelsen Instagram - LindseyCameronNelsen Tiktok - Noctisfilia (Darkness's Daughter)

Jeff Richardson @eljefetacoma on Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastadon

Links

Prince of Wales check

The Hays Code

The Good Place

Doctor Who Flux

Extended Notes

Part 3 The Prophet

"He wore a suit in a Prince of Wales check" - another thing he just knows

unless hes lying the prophet had no idea there were dead people here? i guess he mustve gone to prison before folks he knew got stuck there? this skinny old dude taught the Other! The others name is Val Ketterley second fiddle complete charlatan, "all his ideas are second hand"

"For all the grand intellectual manner and the dark, penetrating stare, he hasn’t an original thought in his head. All his ideas are second-hand.’ not moral, but didnt want society to crumble sentimental streak - doesnt want to lose civilization

"My contemporaries did not understand this. They were all enamoured with the idea of progress and believed that whatever was new must be superior to what was old. As if merit was a function of chronology!" A Distributary World

he confirms that the knowledge is not here

Ketterley is an egotist. He always thinks in terms of utility. He cannot imagine why anything should exist if he cannot make use of it.’

Poor James Ritter could barely string a sentence together by the end and hed been here half as long

sylvia could pop in and out at will - wherever you come from you always arrive at the first vestibule?

'You might like to head off the danger by killing him or something.’

I took time to study his words carefully. There was a great deal I did not understand though this, I expect, is usual with prophets, their minds being very great and their thoughts following strange paths

perhaps the other was the 75th person! but thats fantasy [could the listener be called The 75th?]

could the prophet have sent some of the dead here? its been 25 years since he was in prison so how long has he been sending people?

why did other hide existence of prophet?

the prophet is definitely a violent person - The Hays Code, the sinister gay trope

perhaps i will write a letter to him in future? all bets are off when time travel is in play

Other warns him that P will become his enemy if he talks to 16 - being embarrassed is the worst fate

if i find that you are mad then i think its best if i kill you. for both our sakes

the Other is rather inflexible in his character. I would not go so far as to say it is a fault, but it is a definite tendency

P practices hiding from 16

P puts his hair ornaments into a box

he indexes his recent journal entries

Stanley Ovenden is already in there! I knew as I looked at it that there was something very strange here. But the strange thing was so strange, so entirely incomprehensible that I found it difficult to form coherent thoughts about it. I could see the strangeness with my eyes, but I could not think it with my mind why is there a journal 21? he only has 10!

his brain is compelling him not to investigate this mystery, to challenge his assumptions i feel a certain parallel to whats happening at the moment in Israel, what i imagine Russians are facing wrt to Ukraine - why is this happening, whos to blame, what does it mean, are the people i trust intentionally hiding the truth? if you keep yourself from learning something new so you wont have to change your life

The Good Place

New Names

Laurence Arne Sayles Orkney Ness of Brodgar Georgia OKeefe RD Laing JW Dunne Owen Barfield Rudolf Steiner Colin Wilson Srinavasa Ramanujan Nottingham, England Birmingham University of Manchester Maurizio Giussani

the disappearance of MG

More Names

Perugia Bannerman Hughes

Hughes first name is Tali this arne sayles guy is a real bastard

MGs girlfriend Elena Marietti "the other world"

Huxleyan psychedelic experience - discuss doors of perception MG disappears

what are Birmingham and Perugia? nonsense! "at the very point at which the Other has declared he will kill me if I become mad, I have discovered that I am mad already! Or, if not mad now, then certainly I have been mad in the past. I was mad when I wrote those entries"

the faun, the statue he loves above all others

faun comforts him

"The word ‘Birmingham’, for example, brings with it a blare of noise, a flash of movement and colour and the fleeting image of towers and spires against a heavy grey sky. I try to catch hold of these impressions, to examine them further, but instantly they fade."

he can almost remember university, but decides he extrapolated it from scholar

he now has evidence of his mental derangement

he decides he has to take better care of himself

twenty journals are missing!

reading the journals is a "triggering activity" so he decides to space it out - reminds me of emdr therapy, although my therapist believed it should be at least twice a month if not more "the House is the cause of my forgetting" thats a big shift for him

"It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted. And I am comforted" - a clear depiction of the mental process that keeps us stuck in bad information land

P waits week and a half before reading about Sylvia and John he sits by gorilla because he will lend Strength

more names Leith, Scotland Angharad Scott Death, Stars, and Mathematics is a fun title

she was the most devoted unpaid housekeeper and secretary house in Whalley Range Canal Street to pick up young men

cutting off parents as a test of loyalty - classic cult move Tom Titchwell, friend of her father, printed her poems

her first picture, Moon/Wood, in which a woman defies her hierophant, is beaten, then makes a deal for him to be imprisoned and eventually killed. Did she turn in Laurence?

she called the House the Castle and took footage there!

she tells her troubles to Robert Allstead LAS tells her to discard him, she refuses after that she is gone without trace

cleaner discovers John Ritter behind wall

Ritter is sectioned at Wakefield among others Ritter couldnt explain where hed been

Ritter explains that he was usually in the House

he mentions minotaurs

Journalist Lysander Weeks interviews Ritter he seemed chill

he describes the house and says working at town hall calms him because the decor was similar

university may be real but not in house, same with garden he says the House plants ideas in his head

"This is how the House places new ideas gently and naturally in the Minds of Men. This is how the House increases my understanding" his last thought is that there may be more people than dead in the House

John Robbins’ Diet For a New America

“Benevolent is a strong word” - Lindsey

Doctor Who Flux

Piranesi, Part 2: The Other (Second Half)

5 september 2024 | 84 min

Thanks for listening to The Great and Secret Knowledge: A Speculative Fiction Podcast! In this episode, Lindsey and Jeff cover the second half of Part 2: The Other.

Below you'll find our plugs, links, recommendations, and links to stuff from this week's episode!

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Cool Breeze over the Mountains

Lindsey's podcasts

The Kurt Locker

Historical Hotties

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