WEBVTT - Submerged Mind of Empire 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:05.280 M follow the production of My Art Radio. This episode 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.960 contains depictions of strong violence, drug use, and sexual coercion. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:39.279 The second oil mage, I'm a mild case. As long 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.040 as you don't get in my way, you're not my problem. 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:51.240 I'm sort. History is a weapon, your pay is a weapon. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.360 Not suffer you to be tempted above that we are able, 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.680 but will with the temptation also make a way to 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:05.199 a safe that he may be able to beast. Now 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:15.720 tell me, tell me erth I did. She pried me, 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.399 first with pleasure, then with pain, until the difference no 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:25.720 longer felt distinct. My left arm burned, and I feared 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.240 some other interrogation failsafe might have activated in my body. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.560 But then the next wash of sensation crackled through me, 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:40.160 and all I could do was giving me oh. Toward 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.959 the end, she crouched by my side like a harpy, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:49.880 her blood swollen eyes unflinching, her smile pure sadism as 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.240 she reached into my mind with her waves, at least 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:59.360 until I told her about Veil and about the shifting 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:04.040 thing that looked like her. Only then did she relent. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.760 Without another word, she rose and backed away from my 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.600 crumpled body. I watched her through the crook of my 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.320 arm as she walked over to the Triton observer, its 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.680 silhouette like that of a horned king in the shadows. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:28.040 They touched foreheads for a moment, exchanging some communication. I 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:32.120 could only guess at it had to be something about 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:38.240 veil or the thing that wore her face. It gave 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:43.600 me time, but for what. I ran fingers over the shackle, 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:46.800 up the sutured wound in my leg, to the throbbing 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.600 in my arm, just beneath my old fashioned skull tattoo. 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.919 I felt something move beneath the skin at the touch 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:59.040 of my fingers, but she was already approaching me again. 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:06.520 Someone told you, told me what whispers of the void walker, 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.840 the shapeshifter in your midst No one told me anything. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.359 You've held them better than expected. Imagine if you had 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.160 your black drug and your vile marks, you wouldn't need 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.920 no much to craft a lie. I wounded it. The 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.880 blood was amber. If you're telling the truth, your crime 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.560 is even more repellent because it means you helped the thing. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.480 How could I know what it really was? It was 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.280 pretending to be her. They don't pretend to be anything. 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:43.000 They take. They wear masks of pilfered consciousness, but there's 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.720 nothing underneath. It became her to finally reach us, and 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.600 you let her in. I thought she was harmless. No, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.640 that's not true. I thought she was right about what 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:03.560 the world My people tell a story of two tridents 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:09.320 on an ancient shore who glimpsed Man's first imperial towers 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:13.480 rise towards the sun. Let's end it now, the first 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.320 one said, raize waves against their walls and drown them 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:23.760 to the last poor child before they ascended too high. No, 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.440 let us watch, the second said, and see how they 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:33.919 might grow. Will tutor them, cultivate their growth. So we 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:38.000 let you spread across the earth, and we remain below. 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.960 But never did we forget our choice and what we 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:47.400 could have wrought. As you laid waste to world and kin, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.080 bloodied sea and sky and air, as you pursued the 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.400 voice and vision of your early mind through faith, tinged 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.600 horrors viler than anything we've ever dared to dread. Till 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:06.280 the last you are incapable of seeing beyond your horizon. 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:13.520 You abhor the law change near as much as them. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.800 She raised one hand and signed to the triton It 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:24.040 retreated into the gloom. But your survival is ours too. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:30.440 Now we are no longer suppert species, and if all 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:37.200 you say is true, there is even less time. I 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:41.799 need to be sure I told you everything, not about 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.480 the ones who made you, the ones so adept at 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.840 countering our infiltration. We need to be sure there's no 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:54.280 complicity between Apathus and the outer darkness. There's nothing left. 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.880 I need to go deeper. That's when I began to 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.679 feel the numbing trickle of ice water across the cavern floor. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:23.080 You can go to Canada, you can go to Australia 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.240 without all lonely gets you so far. See, it's a 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.640 global agenda people, that's beyond question at this point. Especially 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.960 soup filled baked goods. The kids these days are drinking 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.280 it with a straw. That's eating like a fish. Ask 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:44.240 any theologist, any ex theologists just inhaling it disgraceful. Plus, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.080 real soup is thick, hearty, beefy, and chunky. A real 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.600 American choose is soup? You could choke on it? Next caller, Hi, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.800 this is Chris from Oregon. Welcome to the show. Chris, 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.599 Thanks for calling in from the front lines. What's on 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:04.480 your mind. You've spoken before about the threat posed by undocumented, 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.720 recombined people in our society, and I know a lot 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.520 of people don't believe you. I didn't believe you, but 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.840 I just left. I just left a job at a 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:19.320 major technology corporation, and I definitely encountered unmarked our CEOs. 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.840 It's not that they even looked like us. They were beautiful. 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.240 They were breathtaking. They could just look at you and 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:34.320 make you antasize and do things. I had a family 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:39.560 and they they two of them joined the company in April, 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.400 and they've already manipulated their way into high level, influential positions. 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.280 I'm talking corporate partnership, decisions, international policy, you name it. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.240 And this was just one company. Just think what they're 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:55.680 accomplishing around the world at the highest levels of government. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:08:02.200 I looked into their eyes and all I saw was Chris. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.440 Chris from Oregon. Chris. I was really feeling that way. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:12.520 Are you Chris? Come back to me? Chris? We lose him. 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.280 Tonight on Dress Wars, the epic showdown continues. Daphne Carlos 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.760 slip its with only two episodes remainings. One Dress shall 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.080 Rule them All, But who will be the master. I 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:27.560 didn't come here to make friends. I came here to 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.960 make dressing. Just when you thought the sticks couldn't get 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.640 any higher, Trial by dress returns, plus there's even more drama, 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.199 and the Dress Bunker as an infamous competitor from season twelve, 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.760 pops in for a visit. You've seen dress Some people 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:47.280 would not belief Dress War seventeen, bursting at the scenes, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:09:04.640 tune in only the salt water trickled around my fingers 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.280 and flooded the grooves in the stone. It was rising. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.120 I looked up at my tormentor, clad in a skin 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:20.520 suit of Triton biotechne beautiful, like an animate corpse. Where 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:26.960 was she originally bound? I wonder service aboard Atlas, a 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:32.199 chance to fraternize with landsfolk before ascending, manipulating her way 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:37.080 into some key position. It was what they did. It 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.840 was the whole reason for a pathos. But instead here 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:49.480 she stood unfinished, a creature suspended between worlds, the loneliness 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.440 of demigods. I rubbed my fingers over the pain in 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.960 my arm, and I felt the sting of movement once more, 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:03.800 like graphink part calls stirring beneath the skin, only larger 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.520 our abilities work better through the medium of water. I'm 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.920 more useful to you alive. So far, you've only proven 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.480 useful to it. If it's really veil Veil's mind, then 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.719 I can speak to her, Maybe I can reason to 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:25.760 what end? She's just a mask there. It was a 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:31.640 fleeting look of doubt in her expression. But you're not sure, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.000 are you? You might be able to kill it. But 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.560 what if I could get her to talk? What if 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:44.040 the mass can feel the face beneath it? Clever? What's 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:50.680 more valuable than intelligence on your enemy? It's impossible. They 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:55.760 only walk. You can't know. I winced as the thing 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:00.240 in my arm ruptured through the skin, thankfully shielded from 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:06.040 Thetis's view. A narrow shaft, slick with blood, emerged from 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:13.280 the rapidly coagulating wound. A hilt. We will provide for 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:20.240 you a weapon. Perhaps I could have pressed her, talked 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.840 my way out of it. The cracks were there, but 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.920 a pathos recruited me for my weakness, not my strength. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.600 I slid my fingers around the hilt as the water 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:40.719 rose to my shoulders. We're wasting time. I felt the 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.120 psionic waves even before her fingers found the base of 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:48.200 my neck. She shoved my head beneath the water. The 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.760 knife came free into my right fist. She pressed down 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.440 on my back with all her weight, holding me beneath 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.360 the waves. She wrapped her arms around my neck in 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.880 a choke hold and pressed her forehead to the back 0:11:59.920 --> 0:12:05.080 of my skull. Waves exploded through my mind. I felt 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:10.120 her inside me, prodding, leaking into the plundered corners of 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.600 my psyche, the boarded secrets. I barely recognized the black 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.280 halls of a pathos, the gutters of a Guang Jo 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:32.120 fort show show. I stabbed the knife back into her thigh. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.360 I stabbed again, and her grip slipped. I drolled the 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.800 back of my head into her face with enough force 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:43.440 to crack bony. The waves dyed. I gasped for air 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.319 and glimpsed the triton observer moving in with terrifying speed. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.199 I submerged once more. I jammed the blade into the 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:57.120 chain link that connected the shackle and twisted. I resurfaced 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.560 amid roaring, blood tinged waters. The triton surged across the 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.920 flooded room, the siphons of its twin tentacles propelling it 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.240 on jets of pressurized water. It reared back one of 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.920 its great webbed hands to strike, but the knife had 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.480 already flown from my fingertips. It cut clean through the 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.400 creature's brain an instant before its body barreled into me. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.640 I surfaced and gasped for breath, broken ribs exploding with pain. 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.320 The fallen triton floated to one side, shaking and its 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:39.200 death throws. The scaled body fluctuated with golden bioluminescence. I 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.080 scanned the room for Thetis, expecting to see her pale 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.920 face breaching the surface of the water. But I didn't 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:51.920 see her, I didn't hear her, I didn't feel her 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:56.360 awful presence in my mind. I tried to swim, that 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.840 the pain in my side was too much. I slashed 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:03.080 and stumbled through the half flooded chamber, back towards the 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.360 proteus hewn tunnel I've marked earlier. I followed it up 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:12.040 out of the flood. I shivered along its twisting course, 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.240 bloodied and numb from frigid waters. The chatter of my 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:21.760 teeth echoed through the halls everywhere, the insane whorls of 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:28.360 mindless excavation. I followed it through stretches of complete darkness, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.560 feeling my way, stumbling against the wall. The only lights 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:39.160 were those within my mind. The dark writhed with hallucinated images, 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:44.680 the shadowed saints, sulfurous breath, basilisk surging from the depths 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.680 of the earth, the rumble of the proteus in the 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:53.320 tunnels below. Mindless and unceasing, boring chasms in the dark. 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:58.320 For what I could not guess, some megaproject of you, 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:06.560 Decks or Triton, some desperate hole in the world. I 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:13.720 pressed on, grunting through the pain, fleeing sounds real and imagined. Finally, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.800 the light ahead told me I was near, not the 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:24.160 purple glow of Triton Biotechni, but industrial led a metal 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.200 platform with an air lock set into the spiral embossed rock. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:34.520 Twin plexiglass chambers, clearly intended to house pressure suits. One 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:40.280 of them stood empty, and Jack's waited beside it. You. 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.360 She raised the squid gun as I moved into the light, 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.160 but I was already sprinting. I jerked my head to 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.720 one side and narrowly dodged the first squid. The second 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:53.520 flew wide, and I locked the forearm into her skull. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.800 Jack stumbled back, blood leaking from the suture, jelled gash 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.720 in her face, but she recovered her footing. She swung 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.160 the gun at me like a club. I ducked and 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.840 tackled her hard to the gritted steel beneath us. Her 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.520 hands found my throat and mine hers. She had every 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.840 advantage over me, weapons, clothing, a mind and body that 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:19.680 hadn't been ravaged by a goddamn nariad. But I was 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.880 on top. I had butted her hard enough to break 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.520 the skin. Her fingernails gashed my throat, but I tightened 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.840 my grip. I tightened it till I realized I was 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:51.760 the only one screaming. The second oil Age was produced 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.720 by Robert Lamb, alex william Slowing, Voberbaum, and Josh Stain. 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.160 This episode featured en Jel masters a Sinold Pond, he Mean, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:05.720 Lloyd Esthetis, Annie Reese as Jack's, Noel Brown as tex America, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:10.160 and Christian Sager as Chris from Oregon. Additional voice work 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:15.440 by Alexander Williams and Nicholas Takowski intro altro, and supporting 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:20.080 music created by the Weirding Module. Learn more at Module 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:40.200 five dot band camp dot com. M from more podcasts 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.160 from iart Radio, visit the irt radio app. Bapple podcasts 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:46.399 or women We listen to your favorite shows.