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Speaker 1: Following a production of my R rating of this episode

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Speaker 1: contains depictions of drug use and strong violence. A second

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Speaker 1: oil age. They were Veil's eyes. If they'd been gaping

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Speaker 1: sockets or coal red depths, perhaps I'd have reacted faster.

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Speaker 1: But it was her. It felt like her, despite the

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Speaker 1: brutality of her acts, despite the mist of blood still

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Speaker 1: wafting through the air. It stood by the shattered tank,

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Speaker 1: and for a moment I was frozen to the spot,

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Speaker 1: paralyzed by the impossibility playing out before me. Don't you

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Speaker 1: want to hear it it? She moved and I pierced

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Speaker 1: her right shoulder with my ready throwing knife. As the

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Speaker 1: weapon exited through her back, I lunged and spun round

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Speaker 1: with the other blade. With so much basilisk in my system,

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Speaker 1: there was no holding back. I'd seen what she was

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Speaker 1: capable of. The veil Thing leapt over my sweeping slice,

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Speaker 1: and I felt a sharp kick to the small of

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Speaker 1: my bath. I ducked and rolled with the impact across

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Speaker 1: the bloodied tiles. I popped up and plucked my knife

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Speaker 1: from the wall. The hilts was slick with amber liquid.

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Speaker 1: What are you? The veil Thing sprinted onto the room

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Speaker 1: small stage and ripped the curtain aside. I let fly

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Speaker 1: with another knife and watched it cut clear through her

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Speaker 1: lower back. Unfazed, she launched herself up at a sealed

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Speaker 1: maintenance conduit near the ceiling and tore it open with

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Speaker 1: one hand, then poured herself through. I dashed after her.

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Speaker 1: I heard shouting behind me in the mess hall, but

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Speaker 1: I didn't look back. I leapt up and grabbed the

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Speaker 1: edges of the conduit, heaving myself into the narrow shaft.

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Speaker 1: I scrambled after her, following the twisting coils of wires

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Speaker 1: and cables slithering through the trail of viscous amber that

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Speaker 1: she bled in her wake. I rounded a corner and

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Speaker 1: glimpsed her up ahead. I had one knife in hand,

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Speaker 1: but the space was too confined for a throw, so

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Speaker 1: I crawled as fast as I could, like some burrowing

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Speaker 1: animal in pursuit of its prey, until the bottom suddenly

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Speaker 1: gave out beneath me. I fell through an access hatch

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Speaker 1: and into a dive chamber. The basilisk gave me the edge.

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Speaker 1: I landed in a crouch, knife ready, and looked up

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Speaker 1: to see three you deck security guards with squid guns

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Speaker 1: leveled a fourth manipulated a communit. Jack's stood front and center,

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Speaker 1: the cranium recognition scanner on her weapon taped as always freeze,

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Speaker 1: drop the knife. You have to listen. What have you done.

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Speaker 1: There's a journalist, a thing that looks like a stowaway

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Speaker 1: from the Gladius. One of the airlock hatches open behind

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Speaker 1: them with a frothy wash of deep pressurized seawater. The

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Speaker 1: guard with the communit was the only one to notice

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Speaker 1: the form rising behind them. Its skin was matt but

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Speaker 1: slick with the sea scaled and tight with ropy musculature.

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Speaker 1: It rose to nearly seven feet, and the formations on

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Speaker 1: its skull gave its silhouette the appearance of a thorny crown.

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Speaker 1: It closed one great webbed hand over the top of

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Speaker 1: the nearest guard's head and twisted his skull around like

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Speaker 1: a bottle cap. Jack's fired on me. Without the drug,

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Speaker 1: that would have been it. I'd have choked to death

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Speaker 1: there on the floor while the guards attended to their attacker.

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Speaker 1: But my reflexes were just sharp enough. I shot my

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Speaker 1: left forearm up and shielded my face from the bulk

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Speaker 1: of the squid. The impact still sent me flailing backwards.

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Speaker 1: The metagel instantly bolowed around me at its four corners,

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Speaker 1: pinning me to the wall and my forearm against my face.

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Speaker 1: But at least I could breathe. All I could see

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Speaker 1: was their feet. I heard their cries. My first thought

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Speaker 1: was the knife still gripped in my pinned hand, and

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Speaker 1: whether I'd be able to saw through the squid in time.

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Speaker 1: Then I heard Jack's cry out in pain, and her

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Speaker 1: squid guns slid across the floor to my feet, just

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Speaker 1: within reach. I strained out, first one foot, then both,

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Speaker 1: attempting to scissor it up from the floor. My neck

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Speaker 1: strained from the weight of my suspended body, but of

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Speaker 1: course the gel held tight. I nudged off one of

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Speaker 1: my shoes, and I've never felt so vindicated in my

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Speaker 1: hatred of socks. I slipped my toes around the trigger

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Speaker 1: guard and reeled it in. I felt the presence of

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Speaker 1: the triton. I smelled a thick odor of salt water

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Speaker 1: and sulfur rolling off it biology of the lightless depths.

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Speaker 1: I gripped the squid gun between my ankles and pulled

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Speaker 1: it up to my chest. I grabbed it with my

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Speaker 1: free arm and touched the side of the barrel to

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Speaker 1: the meadow gell. It liquefied, and I fell to the floor,

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Speaker 1: right at the creature's webbed feet and the twin curling

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Speaker 1: tentacles that clung obediently to its lower legs. I had

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Speaker 1: never seen one before, only sketches by a logical profiles,

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Speaker 1: never in the flesh, never this close. It loomed over me.

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Speaker 1: Now it lifted a talented hand, so I obeyed my training.

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Speaker 1: I looked up at its shadowed face. I burned into

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Speaker 1: it with the twin elder marks on my scalp and brow.

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Speaker 1: When it recoiled, I stood up and ripped away the

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Speaker 1: scarp as well to reveal the one on my throat.

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Speaker 1: The triton stumbled backwards, raising its claws to block the

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Speaker 1: side of my marks. You Dex guards lay heaped behind it,

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Speaker 1: surrounding the two open airlock hatches, like slaughtered lambs before

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Speaker 1: an altar. I dropped the squid guns pointed the black

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Speaker 1: tip of my knife at the retreating creature. My name

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Speaker 1: is Snopon and I'm a licensed Udex agent. I invoke

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Speaker 1: ambassador status in the terms of the Oceanic's accord. That's

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Speaker 1: the second trite and grabbed me from behind. The world

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Speaker 1: went dark beneath the webbing of its great hand. Another

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Speaker 1: grabbed the wrist of my knife hand before I could counter.

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Speaker 1: Then the creatures twin tentacles guong suspected to aid and

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Speaker 1: propulsion alone, wrapped themselves around my legs. I thrashed in

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Speaker 1: its grip but could find no purchase. I screamed into

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Speaker 1: the muffling palm until voice and consciousness failed me. Does

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Speaker 1: the ocean cool to you? If so, consider a career

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Speaker 1: on the you Dex Deep Grid. Your hard work will

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Speaker 1: help maintain the crucial sea floor infrastructure necessary to fuel

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Speaker 1: our non combined and recombined people. Alike Phil Key roles

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Speaker 1: both inside pressurized habitats and at large in the breath

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Speaker 1: taking world of Earth's ocean depths. I wanted to see

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Speaker 1: the world and do my part to keep it running,

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Speaker 1: so I joined up as a systems manager. Thanks you Rex.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to fit in on the surface, but down

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Speaker 1: here my GMO status qualifies me for specialized, high paying

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Speaker 1: work in some of the world's most unique environments. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for you you Dex. Through the use of the d grid

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Speaker 1: system and patented proty as well and sulb see Templar

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Speaker 1: Technology GTT. We were able to safely harvest the Earth's

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Speaker 1: deepest petroleum riches without endangering ocean or inland environments. You're

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Speaker 1: the flame, we provide the fuel. You dex petroleum. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the second oil Age. Thanks again for such a

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Speaker 1: lovely evening, Greg, You're the one who made it lovely. Wendy,

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Speaker 1: I just haven't felt so at ease with anyone in

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Speaker 1: a long time. Do you want to come up for

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Speaker 1: a nightcap? WHOA stop right there? Don't you think you

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Speaker 1: should know what you're getting into? What do you mean?

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Speaker 1: Sex is God's holy method of reproduction, and reproduction is

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Speaker 1: all about genetic combination, So don't you think you should

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Speaker 1: know what sort of genes you're combined in with. We're

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Speaker 1: just getting to know each other. Plus neither of us

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Speaker 1: has an our CEO tattoo. There's only one way to

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Speaker 1: be certain, and that's with jen No Whit. The leading

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Speaker 1: on site real time genetic tester is fully compatible with

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Speaker 1: off calm units, and it provides discrete answers in the

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Speaker 1: streets all between the sheets. I'm sorry, Wendy, I had

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Speaker 1: a great time, but I'm not really feeling it. Maybe

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Speaker 1: I'll see you at church with jen no wit You'll

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Speaker 1: know when? Did you know it is not intended to

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Speaker 1: supersedi with question standard federal and international our SEPUL registration laws.

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Speaker 1: Do you know what there's a subsidient of spiritual technologies?

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Speaker 1: How else? Yeah, I don't know what happened next. The screaming,

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Speaker 1: the chaos, It all felt distant to me. Scaled arms

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Speaker 1: carried me through the halls of Atlas. A webbed hand

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Speaker 1: masked my markings from my abductors and blinded me to

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Speaker 1: the world. I breathed, and the world around me grew faint.

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Speaker 1: At some point I stopped struggling. I dreamt my old life,

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Speaker 1: strung out, thrown out of the service on a bad

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Speaker 1: conduct discharge, my only home some promised cell in a

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Speaker 1: Midwest religious compound where my mother claimed God was still speaking.

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Speaker 1: I stood in front of the featureless black cube that

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Speaker 1: was the Apathis building, all my belongings stuffed into a

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Speaker 1: patch covered duffle, and I begged it to swallow me.

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Speaker 1: The doors of Apathos opened wide, and inside the shadowed

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Speaker 1: saint beckoned me enter. Black smoke pouring from her mouth

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Speaker 1: like deep bent it self bide no pleasure will be

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Speaker 1: denied it. During the treatment paper exposia, they divined with

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Speaker 1: tilted destruction key eviable nets. I felt myself lowered into

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Speaker 1: the womblike embrace of a warm, viscous medium. Atlas Station

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Speaker 1: gave way to the warble of ocean waters just beyond

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Speaker 1: the skin of my containment. I dreamt myself swallowed by Leviathan, contained, preserved.

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Speaker 1: I wanted it to last forever, but outer clothing cut

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Speaker 1: from my body like an accident victim. My skin bared

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Speaker 1: to the cold airscations of the compandity to customize matrix.

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Speaker 1: It is no other way. I don't know how much

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Speaker 1: time passed, but I woke to feel byzantine spirals of

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Speaker 1: embossed stone beneath me. I moved my fingers over the

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Speaker 1: stone's surface and traced the endless coils. I opened my

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Speaker 1: eyes and beheld the pomegranate glow of bioluminescent orbs. They

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Speaker 1: seemed to float in the air above me, beneath a

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Speaker 1: high domed ceiling scarred with the same coral like spirals,

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Speaker 1: an illegible alien tongue inscribed in the bones of the earth.

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Speaker 1: I was no longer on Atlas I was somewhere below

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Speaker 1: breaking Great Great, Green, Break, Green Yeah. The second oil

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Speaker 1: age was produced by Robert Lamb, Alex William Slouren Vogelbaum,

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Speaker 1: and Josh Thain. This episode featured Angel Masters as Senov Pon,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum as Tabitha Vale, and Annie Reese as Jack's

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Speaker 1: supporting voice. Work by Tracy V. Wilson, Ramsay, Junt, Gina Rakiki,

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Speaker 1: Nicholas Dakowski, Matt Frederick and Ben Bolan intro altro and

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Speaker 1: supporting music created by the Weirding Module. Learn more at

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Speaker 1: Module five dot band camp dot com. Music for the

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Speaker 1: Genoit media segment, So Long solaris by Jacob Tutu, provided

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Speaker 1: by King de Luxe Records. Learn more at King de

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Speaker 1: Luz dot c. A from our podcasts from IRN Radio,

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