1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,280 Speaker 1: M follow the production of My Art Radio. This episode 2 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:08,960 Speaker 1: contains depictions of strong violence, drug use, and sexual coercion. 3 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:39,279 Speaker 1: The second oil mage, I'm a mild case. As long 4 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: as you don't get in my way, you're not my problem. 5 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: I'm sort. History is a weapon, your pay is a weapon. 6 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: Not suffer you to be tempted above that we are able, 7 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: but will with the temptation also make a way to 8 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:05,199 Speaker 1: a safe that he may be able to beast. Now 9 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: tell me, tell me erth I did. She pried me, 10 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: first with pleasure, then with pain, until the difference no 11 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: longer felt distinct. My left arm burned, and I feared 12 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: some other interrogation failsafe might have activated in my body. 13 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: But then the next wash of sensation crackled through me, 14 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: and all I could do was giving me oh. Toward 15 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 1: the end, she crouched by my side like a harpy, 16 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: her blood swollen eyes unflinching, her smile pure sadism as 17 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: she reached into my mind with her waves, at least 18 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: until I told her about Veil and about the shifting 19 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: thing that looked like her. Only then did she relent. 20 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: Without another word, she rose and backed away from my 21 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: crumpled body. I watched her through the crook of my 22 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: arm as she walked over to the Triton observer, its 23 00:02:18,360 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: silhouette like that of a horned king in the shadows. 24 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:28,040 Speaker 1: They touched foreheads for a moment, exchanging some communication. I 25 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 1: could only guess at it had to be something about 26 00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: veil or the thing that wore her face. It gave 27 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: me time, but for what. I ran fingers over the shackle, 28 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: up the sutured wound in my leg, to the throbbing 29 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: in my arm, just beneath my old fashioned skull tattoo. 30 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,919 Speaker 1: I felt something move beneath the skin at the touch 31 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: of my fingers, but she was already approaching me again. 32 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:06,520 Speaker 1: Someone told you, told me what whispers of the void walker, 33 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: the shapeshifter in your midst No one told me anything. 34 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,359 Speaker 1: You've held them better than expected. Imagine if you had 35 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: your black drug and your vile marks, you wouldn't need 36 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:23,920 Speaker 1: no much to craft a lie. I wounded it. The 37 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: blood was amber. If you're telling the truth, your crime 38 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: is even more repellent because it means you helped the thing. 39 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: How could I know what it really was? It was 40 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: pretending to be her. They don't pretend to be anything. 41 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: They take. They wear masks of pilfered consciousness, but there's 42 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: nothing underneath. It became her to finally reach us, and 43 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: you let her in. I thought she was harmless. No, 44 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,640 Speaker 1: that's not true. I thought she was right about what 45 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: the world My people tell a story of two tridents 46 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: on an ancient shore who glimpsed Man's first imperial towers 47 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: rise towards the sun. Let's end it now, the first 48 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: one said, raize waves against their walls and drown them 49 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: to the last poor child before they ascended too high. No, 50 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: let us watch, the second said, and see how they 51 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:33,919 Speaker 1: might grow. Will tutor them, cultivate their growth. So we 52 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,000 Speaker 1: let you spread across the earth, and we remain below. 53 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:42,960 Speaker 1: But never did we forget our choice and what we 54 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: could have wrought. As you laid waste to world and kin, 55 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: bloodied sea and sky and air, as you pursued the 56 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: voice and vision of your early mind through faith, tinged 57 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,600 Speaker 1: horrors viler than anything we've ever dared to dread. Till 58 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:06,280 Speaker 1: the last you are incapable of seeing beyond your horizon. 59 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: You abhor the law change near as much as them. 60 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,800 Speaker 1: She raised one hand and signed to the triton It 61 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:24,040 Speaker 1: retreated into the gloom. But your survival is ours too. 62 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: Now we are no longer suppert species, and if all 63 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: you say is true, there is even less time. I 64 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,799 Speaker 1: need to be sure I told you everything, not about 65 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: the ones who made you, the ones so adept at 66 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: countering our infiltration. We need to be sure there's no 67 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:54,280 Speaker 1: complicity between Apathus and the outer darkness. There's nothing left. 68 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: I need to go deeper. That's when I began to 69 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,679 Speaker 1: feel the numbing trickle of ice water across the cavern floor. 70 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: You can go to Canada, you can go to Australia 71 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: without all lonely gets you so far. See, it's a 72 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: global agenda people, that's beyond question at this point. Especially 73 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,960 Speaker 1: soup filled baked goods. The kids these days are drinking 74 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:38,280 Speaker 1: it with a straw. That's eating like a fish. Ask 75 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: any theologist, any ex theologists just inhaling it disgraceful. Plus, 76 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: real soup is thick, hearty, beefy, and chunky. A real 77 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: American choose is soup? You could choke on it? Next caller, Hi, 78 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: this is Chris from Oregon. Welcome to the show. Chris, 79 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: Thanks for calling in from the front lines. What's on 80 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: your mind. You've spoken before about the threat posed by undocumented, 81 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,720 Speaker 1: recombined people in our society, and I know a lot 82 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,520 Speaker 1: of people don't believe you. I didn't believe you, but 83 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: I just left. I just left a job at a 84 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: major technology corporation, and I definitely encountered unmarked our CEOs. 85 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: It's not that they even looked like us. They were beautiful. 86 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: They were breathtaking. They could just look at you and 87 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: make you antasize and do things. I had a family 88 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: and they they two of them joined the company in April, 89 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: and they've already manipulated their way into high level, influential positions. 90 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: I'm talking corporate partnership, decisions, international policy, you name it. 91 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:52,240 Speaker 1: And this was just one company. Just think what they're 92 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: accomplishing around the world at the highest levels of government. 93 00:07:55,840 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: I looked into their eyes and all I saw was Chris. 94 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: Chris from Oregon. Chris. I was really feeling that way. 95 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: Are you Chris? Come back to me? Chris? We lose him. 96 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 1: Tonight on Dress Wars, the epic showdown continues. Daphne Carlos 97 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 1: slip its with only two episodes remainings. One Dress shall 98 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: Rule them All, But who will be the master. I 99 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: didn't come here to make friends. I came here to 100 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,960 Speaker 1: make dressing. Just when you thought the sticks couldn't get 101 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: any higher, Trial by dress returns, plus there's even more drama, 102 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:39,199 Speaker 1: and the Dress Bunker as an infamous competitor from season twelve, 103 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: pops in for a visit. You've seen dress Some people 104 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: would not belief Dress War seventeen, bursting at the scenes, 105 00:08:47,679 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: tune in only the salt water trickled around my fingers 106 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:08,280 Speaker 1: and flooded the grooves in the stone. It was rising. 107 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: I looked up at my tormentor, clad in a skin 108 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: suit of Triton biotechne beautiful, like an animate corpse. Where 109 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 1: was she originally bound? I wonder service aboard Atlas, a 110 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:32,199 Speaker 1: chance to fraternize with landsfolk before ascending, manipulating her way 111 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:37,080 Speaker 1: into some key position. It was what they did. It 112 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,840 Speaker 1: was the whole reason for a pathos. But instead here 113 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: she stood unfinished, a creature suspended between worlds, the loneliness 114 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: of demigods. I rubbed my fingers over the pain in 115 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,960 Speaker 1: my arm, and I felt the sting of movement once more, 116 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: like graphink part calls stirring beneath the skin, only larger 117 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: our abilities work better through the medium of water. I'm 118 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: more useful to you alive. So far, you've only proven 119 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: useful to it. If it's really veil Veil's mind, then 120 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:19,719 Speaker 1: I can speak to her, Maybe I can reason to 121 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: what end? She's just a mask there. It was a 122 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: fleeting look of doubt in her expression. But you're not sure, 123 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: are you? You might be able to kill it. But 124 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: what if I could get her to talk? What if 125 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: the mass can feel the face beneath it? Clever? What's 126 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: more valuable than intelligence on your enemy? It's impossible. They 127 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 1: only walk. You can't know. I winced as the thing 128 00:10:55,840 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: in my arm ruptured through the skin, thankfully shielded from 129 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 1: Thetis's view. A narrow shaft, slick with blood, emerged from 130 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: the rapidly coagulating wound. A hilt. We will provide for 131 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: you a weapon. Perhaps I could have pressed her, talked 132 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,840 Speaker 1: my way out of it. The cracks were there, but 133 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: a pathos recruited me for my weakness, not my strength. 134 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:33,600 Speaker 1: I slid my fingers around the hilt as the water 135 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:40,719 Speaker 1: rose to my shoulders. We're wasting time. I felt the 136 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,120 Speaker 1: psionic waves even before her fingers found the base of 137 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: my neck. She shoved my head beneath the water. The 138 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: knife came free into my right fist. She pressed down 139 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:54,440 Speaker 1: on my back with all her weight, holding me beneath 140 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,360 Speaker 1: the waves. She wrapped her arms around my neck in 141 00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 1: a choke hold and pressed her forehead to the back 142 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:05,080 Speaker 1: of my skull. Waves exploded through my mind. I felt 143 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:10,120 Speaker 1: her inside me, prodding, leaking into the plundered corners of 144 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 1: my psyche, the boarded secrets. I barely recognized the black 145 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 1: halls of a pathos, the gutters of a Guang Jo 146 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:32,120 Speaker 1: fort show show. I stabbed the knife back into her thigh. 147 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:35,360 Speaker 1: I stabbed again, and her grip slipped. I drolled the 148 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,800 Speaker 1: back of my head into her face with enough force 149 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:43,440 Speaker 1: to crack bony. The waves dyed. I gasped for air 150 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:47,319 Speaker 1: and glimpsed the triton observer moving in with terrifying speed. 151 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,199 Speaker 1: I submerged once more. I jammed the blade into the 152 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:57,120 Speaker 1: chain link that connected the shackle and twisted. I resurfaced 153 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,560 Speaker 1: amid roaring, blood tinged waters. The triton surged across the 154 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: flooded room, the siphons of its twin tentacles propelling it 155 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: on jets of pressurized water. It reared back one of 156 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:11,920 Speaker 1: its great webbed hands to strike, but the knife had 157 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:16,480 Speaker 1: already flown from my fingertips. It cut clean through the 158 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: creature's brain an instant before its body barreled into me. 159 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:26,640 Speaker 1: I surfaced and gasped for breath, broken ribs exploding with pain. 160 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: The fallen triton floated to one side, shaking and its 161 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:39,200 Speaker 1: death throws. The scaled body fluctuated with golden bioluminescence. I 162 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:43,080 Speaker 1: scanned the room for Thetis, expecting to see her pale 163 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: face breaching the surface of the water. But I didn't 164 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,920 Speaker 1: see her, I didn't hear her, I didn't feel her 165 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: awful presence in my mind. I tried to swim, that 166 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:59,840 Speaker 1: the pain in my side was too much. I slashed 167 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:03,080 Speaker 1: and stumbled through the half flooded chamber, back towards the 168 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:07,360 Speaker 1: proteus hewn tunnel I've marked earlier. I followed it up 169 00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: out of the flood. I shivered along its twisting course, 170 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 1: bloodied and numb from frigid waters. The chatter of my 171 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: teeth echoed through the halls everywhere, the insane whorls of 172 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: mindless excavation. I followed it through stretches of complete darkness, 173 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: feeling my way, stumbling against the wall. The only lights 174 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 1: were those within my mind. The dark writhed with hallucinated images, 175 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 1: the shadowed saints, sulfurous breath, basilisk surging from the depths 176 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: of the earth, the rumble of the proteus in the 177 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: tunnels below. Mindless and unceasing, boring chasms in the dark. 178 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,320 Speaker 1: For what I could not guess, some megaproject of you, 179 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 1: Decks or Triton, some desperate hole in the world. I 180 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: pressed on, grunting through the pain, fleeing sounds real and imagined. Finally, 181 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 1: the light ahead told me I was near, not the 182 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:24,160 Speaker 1: purple glow of Triton Biotechni, but industrial led a metal 183 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: platform with an air lock set into the spiral embossed rock. 184 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: Twin plexiglass chambers, clearly intended to house pressure suits. One 185 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 1: of them stood empty, and Jack's waited beside it. You. 186 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: She raised the squid gun as I moved into the light, 187 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: but I was already sprinting. I jerked my head to 188 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,720 Speaker 1: one side and narrowly dodged the first squid. The second 189 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: flew wide, and I locked the forearm into her skull. 190 00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:57,800 Speaker 1: Jack stumbled back, blood leaking from the suture, jelled gash 191 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,720 Speaker 1: in her face, but she recovered her footing. She swung 192 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: the gun at me like a club. I ducked and 193 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: tackled her hard to the gritted steel beneath us. Her 194 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: hands found my throat and mine hers. She had every 195 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:14,840 Speaker 1: advantage over me, weapons, clothing, a mind and body that 196 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:19,680 Speaker 1: hadn't been ravaged by a goddamn nariad. But I was 197 00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: on top. I had butted her hard enough to break 198 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: the skin. Her fingernails gashed my throat, but I tightened 199 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:31,840 Speaker 1: my grip. I tightened it till I realized I was 200 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: the only one screaming. The second oil Age was produced 201 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: by Robert Lamb, alex william Slowing, Voberbaum, and Josh Stain. 202 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:00,160 Speaker 1: This episode featured en Jel masters a Sinold Pond, he Mean, 203 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:05,720 Speaker 1: Lloyd Esthetis, Annie Reese as Jack's, Noel Brown as tex America, 204 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:10,160 Speaker 1: and Christian Sager as Chris from Oregon. Additional voice work 205 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:15,440 Speaker 1: by Alexander Williams and Nicholas Takowski intro altro, and supporting 206 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: music created by the Weirding Module. Learn more at Module 207 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:40,200 Speaker 1: five dot band camp dot com. M from more podcasts 208 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 1: from iart Radio, visit the irt radio app. Bapple podcasts 209 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 1: or women We listen to your favorite shows.