Episode 170: Live From Twitch!

[00:00:00] Hello everyone, this is Chris with an episode. We are releasing the A Novel Console Live episode that we did on Twitch a few weeks ago. I apologize heavily for this. My mic was not picked up at all by Audacity, so I sound like shit or maybe Karradyne sounds like shit. One of us sounds like shit. Anyways, we were recording talking into the mics, which sounded perfect on Twitch.

[00:00:28] But it sounded like shit on Audacity. So this episode is going to have terrible audio quality, awful, awful background noise. Hopefully our hosting engine manages to magic master a lot of the shitty noises out and you guys can enjoy this episode.

[00:00:49] But yeah, we are planning to do more episodes live on Twitch because that was a lot of fun having a bunch of you guys there. Just making fun of us enjoying the time with us. It was great, great time. But for now, it this is the episode we I will have another episode out soon with solid boys episode one. That one's going to take a lot of tinkering and magic in to get all set up.

[00:01:15] But for now, enjoy this episode. Thank you everybody who's been waiting for an episode. I am sorry the audio sucks. You'll have a good day. Thank you.

[00:02:06] Do you say only two? Yes, I do say hello. I think you say three in my head. Oh! Yeah, it's in your head. I think I'm thinking about Johnny's house. Are you? I don't know. Oh, my mother's awake. Yep. There's another click of a can. That attic. Okay, uh, how, why does this look so low? That is so weird. Am I not talking loud enough? Is your mic on? Everything's on. Yes. It's on at the levels.

[00:02:32] It's on at the levels? Yeah. Weird. Okay, never mind. Let's keep going. Okay. Oh, my wife, my voice echoes forever in my wife's mic. Oh no! So, uh, yeah, pull, pull yours back as much as possible. And you be quieter. I'll be quieter. I'll be quieter. Talk more directly into yours. Yes. Cover my face if you feel so compelled. I don't want to cover your face. So this is going to be, hopefully it doesn't knock it off. Okay.

[00:03:02] Oh no, something happened. Nothing happened. We're good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Is that better now? Am I still echoing in her mic? You're just covering me, but it's fine. Nobody can see my Gollum and Smeagol t-shirt. Actually, let's do this. Oh, the magic of moving the camera. Oh, much better. Okay. Is the audio better now? Hopefully. Camera angles, baby.

[00:03:30] Okay. So, let's go ahead and get started. Do you want to say you're part of the intro or are we just skipping the whole intro? Oh, shit. If you want to join our Discord, tell Christian and he can give you the link to it. Yes. And if you're willing to review our Poor Pitiful Podcast anywhere it can be reviewed, we would appreciate it.

[00:03:59] Maybe don't give us a one star. If you do, I'm going to ask that Chris not tell me because it's going to give me a lot of anxiety. But if you don't like us, you need to be honest. I review books for a living, so I get having to give that great one star review sometimes. Sometimes. LOL, relatable. So, today we're doing this live, so that's why it's kind of a shit show right now. Yeah. We're streaming it on Twitch. It should also be running perfectly fine on Audacity right now.

[00:04:31] There's been all sorts of issues, which is not normal. Typical. Is it? Kind of. So, yeah. We haven't done this in a long time. We are very rusty, so let's go ahead and get into some topics. Thank you, everybody in the chat that's here. All of you. Danny, Thrak, Akira, whoever else is there that's not showing, it's just lurking. Thank you.

[00:05:01] I will be reading whatever they type and commenting it. So, other than that, we were going to talk about the snow trek this week. For some reason, we decided to go to Atlanta on Wednesday. For some reason. It was Tuesday. Tuesday. Would you like me to explain? Yes, please. So, one of my very favorite authors, Su Lin Tan, she wrote the Daughter of Moon Goddess duology.

[00:05:30] And she lives in Hong Kong, and I don't think she's ever done a book tour in the U.S. Did a book tour for her new book, Immortal, that came out like a week or two ago. You should totally read it. It's a standalone. It's amazing. So, when I saw she was coming to Atlanta, I was like, oh my god, we have to go. So, I immediately pre-ordered the book so that we could go. And then, you know, last week or a week before, they were like,

[00:05:59] South Georgia's going to get some snow for the first time in however long. And I'm sitting here like, it's not even going to stick to the ground. I've only seen snow like twice in my life. It's not going to be bad. It'll be fine. We're just going to have to be careful on the roads. Well, even when it started to snow here at like 11 o'clock in the morning,

[00:06:28] and it was coming down pretty steadily, I was still telling myself, it's fine. It's not going to be that bad. Let's still go. So, we're what? We're only like two and a half hours away from Atlanta. I think so. On a normal day. It only took us that long to get there. But then, like seriously, the minute we got there, the snow started pouring down. We're sitting there eating lunch.

[00:06:56] And a car that was completely visible when we sat down was completely covered in snow. And we didn't take that long to eat. I think we were in there for like a total of 20, 30 minutes. We went and got our little, our little cute bobas. And my heart sank watching that snow continue to fall. It was like, we're in deep shit. Deep shit.

[00:07:23] We've either got to get a hotel and stay up here and probably be stuck beyond today and tomorrow. Or we need to go pick up this book and leave right now. Because it was only like three o'clock. And the signing was not until seven. Yeah. And depending on how many people, like the last time we went to a signing at that bookstore, we were there till like 9.30 because the talk took so long. And then the signing line was long.

[00:07:51] So I knew if we let it pile up for several more hours, we couldn't get out. So after some tears were shed, I went in and picked up my book. And we drove back home. It took us five hours to get back home. It was really okay while we were on the major highways. But then we got back into Backwoods, South Georgia. And I thought we were going to die. It was bad. It was so bad.

[00:08:21] Yeah, like five hours to do like a two and a half hour drive. I think it took more than five hours. Didn't we get here like at 10? Yeah. And we left at like 3.30, 4. So Danny says the snow has been crazy this year. I was talking to your brother Danny the other day. And he was telling me about it. And oh my. No, I don't want that. Thrak said that they got. I can't live like this. Thrak said that he got eight to nine inches early in January. And it's still there. We got eight inches.

[00:08:51] Believe it or not. It's absolutely unheard of. Unheard of. And there are still little patches right now. It has been warming up to like 40, 50 during the day. So most of it is gone. But like driving to town yesterday, there's so many roofs still covered in snow. It's just wild. Especially to you. Yeah. Also, it's crazy. What was I going to say? I would not choose the snow life. I did want to live somewhere that got cold.

[00:09:21] So at one point. I don't want the snow life. No, no. At one point we got off to go get coffee at a gas station. We were going to go to Starbucks. But they literally turned off their lights as we turned into the parking lot. And when we tried to get back onto the main road, I hit the brakes and turned the wheel and the car just kept going straight. So we missed our exit. We had to go down like a mile and turn around. Yeah. That was great. That was fun.

[00:09:51] We saw lots of people spinning out on that exit. Lots of people in ditches. Walking. It was wild. It was wild. I'm really surprised that wasn't us at the very end of the drive. I think one of the reasons why I'm so exhausted and everything hurts is because of that drive. And you had to push the car after it. I did have to push the car. Because the car got stuck in our driveway when we did finally. At least we made it to the driveway before we got stuck. So it sat there until it thawed.

[00:10:20] They did shut everything down. Everything. Everything. Everything down. Yeah, they did. They did have to push the car. I forgot about that. And it only moved like two feet enough to get inside the driveway. I'm really bummed about having to go to work tomorrow because I spent the entire week remote. We had Monday the holiday and then everything else was remote. And I got to go back because the snow's gone. Shame. I know.

[00:10:51] I just said I didn't want the snow life, but the snow life saved me. Yeah. I mean, it's been cold as hell, but other than that, it's been quiet. Yeah, I'm honestly a little bit over it. I didn't think I would ever say this again, but I'm ready for spring and summer. I'm ready. My bones hurt. I want 60s. I'm happy with 60s. 70s. 60s. 70s. 60s. 70s. 7. We're about to get into 110s.

[00:11:21] That's going to be our life in July and August. Oh, God. Yeah. We're going to feel like we're on the surface of the sun. Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to stop complaining about the snow because I do want the cold. I don't want heat. So let's get into the books and games that made 2024 better. Yay. There's supposed to be a song here at this point. Yes. But I didn't cue it. Do do. That's not what the love song was like. That's not what the love song was like. No. All right. Tell me about Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto.

[00:11:48] So that's actually the last book signing I went to at that same store. Um, yeah, it's Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto. Julie Soto is one of those authors like. Fuck off woman. Oh, oh, there's a woman there. I just need to ask a question. Yes. Nathan's? Yes. Not chicken. Thank you. That was weird. I didn't even hear her. That was so weird.

[00:12:18] I didn't like that. Hi, Mom. Um. Also, Thrax says he prefers 40 to 50 degrees. Ugh. My bones hurt, Thrax. But you're more used to this than we are, so. What's your condition to it? What's your grief then? It was great. Oh, dear. You should have banned her. I wish Luna could do that. Um. Shit. What was I saying? Oh, Julie Soto. He's like Allie Hazelwood, and that's probably why they're besties.

[00:12:47] Julie Soto writes a lot of Reylo fan fiction. Not Another Love Song started as Reylo fan fiction. It is absolutely phenomenal. It's about a cellist and a violinist and the, like, Boston Pops and their rivals. It's wonderful. There's a really, really, really sexy cello scene that may or may not be on the cover of the book. Um. Not the super sexy part, but leading up to the super sexy part.

[00:13:17] And, uh. Yeah. That book, uh. Hit all of my romance needs notes for the year. Carried me through the whole year. I honestly want to reread it. It was, it was excellent. Superb. And it was really fun getting to meet her and just, like, gab about Reylo the whole time. That's the last one we went up there, too? Yeah. Okay. Where you were, like, dying in the audience. You were uncomfortable and you were extra uncomfortable when everybody was getting horny

[00:13:47] for Adam Driver. Oh, my God. It is. But it was also really cool for you to witness that it's not just me. Like, it's not just me. There's a whole group of women that's just like, ah! Adam Driver! It was so weird because we were sitting there, just everybody was having a normal conversation and then out of nowhere, what, like 50, 60 people inside that room just suddenly, like, flipped the switch into horny for Adam Driver? Yes. It was scary. Yes. It was like, oh, damn.

[00:14:17] Ah. It was very fun. So, what did I do? Did I stay there? Did I leave? You stayed there the whole time. I did? Yes. You and a bunch of romance girlies and probably not straight men. Eh. There was only one, like, male presenting person there. Other than the people working there. Yeah. I was sitting there feeling unsafe for Adam Driver. Like, that's not good for that guy. It was fine.

[00:14:47] Yeah. Okay. So, my first game. Dragon Age The Bale Guard. I gave this game a 10 out of 10 for, uh, I played it on PS5. Oh, I guess I should have said I gave Not Another Love Song five stars. All of my books that are on this list are five stars. Five stars. Mine are not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you have weird ratings that don't make sense sometimes. Um, because some of the games, I don't know how to explain it.

[00:15:12] It's like, I sometimes have more fun, excuse me, with a game that's maybe an 8 out of 10 or a 7 out of 10 than I do with a game that I would give a 10 out of 10 because the 10 out of 10 is not as fun or great to play, but it had other elements that made it better. Uh, uh, I don't know how to explain it. Thrak might be able to vouch for me. It makes sense in your head. That's all that matters. I mean, I sort of get what you're saying. Yeah. Hey, Dave's here.

[00:15:42] Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave. Um, but yeah, uh, Veil Guard, uh, it is, it was the culmination of the Dread Wolf saga, which started, I think, in Dragon Age Inquisition, which was the last one that I played and it was fantastic. It looks like, uh, when I look at my time log on it on the PlayStation, I have like 200 something hours on it. That's insane! Right? For one game. Holy shit. It was great. It was so good. And then this one gets announced. I don't pay attention to it.

[00:16:11] Um, people are going to play. People are just bashing on it because there's a bunch of queer representation and, uh, people of color are part of your party and apparently being of color is bad for fantasy, which is stupid. And I wanted to play it because it's Dragon Age and also Dave, who just came in, was like, it's awesome.

[00:16:35] I was like, I might as well because I have, the Dread Wolf needs to catch these hands so I'm just gonna buy it just to give him these hands. And then it turned out that the game was just so good. So amazing. You fight, uh, ancient elven gods and the Blight. And I just started fighting the Blight and I was like, oh man, I forgot how good fighting the Blight feels. I missed this.

[00:17:02] And I did pretty much every single side quest. Uh, got all of the companions to trust me and it was so, so good. But I really, really enjoyed the Veil Guard. The writing was great. It's also very funny in a very dry sort of way. And there's like a couple of scenes that people are complaining because they're taking them out of context.

[00:17:28] Like one of them is, there's a group of pirates and in the group of pirates, one, one of your characters is a member of the group of pirates and she is non-binary. They are non-binary and the group of pirates decided, Hey, whenever we do a slight against somebody by accident, like call they, she, we're just gonna, instead of just apologizing,

[00:17:52] you know, going like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, or whatever, we'll just do some sort of physical activity that's strenuous to atone for what. Our wrongs. Yeah, whatever. And all the characters work with it. And one of the punishments is just doing 10 pushups whenever you misgender somebody. And the internet took that and blew it out of proportions. They're like, Oh, this is the queer agenda. This is what they want to do.

[00:18:22] They're trying to snuff out us. That's all the white men. Fucking losers. These people don't belong in this hobby. Oh dear. And I am going to say. Why aren't they playing like NFL games and shit? Right? Like just stick your sports game. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you like them, but you know. And the thing is. Shame on me. I'm playing with stereotypes. And I am going to be honest.

[00:18:50] The first time that I met that character, I didn't like her. Them. I didn't like them. Go do your pushups. I need to do my pushups. Pushups. I didn't like them because she was very abrasive. They. They were very abrasive and standoffish. I apologize. I will do my pushups eventually. And because of that, I didn't like them. There we go. Them. Um. So. Eventually. They start opening up.

[00:19:19] You start learning about them. How their mother raised them. How they don't fit into their culture and their society. Maybe that's why they're very abrasive. That's why they were. That's exactly why they were. And by the end of their art, I was like, this is a fucking great character. That's very good writing. Yeah, it is. The whole game is written very, very well.

[00:19:40] And that whole scene with the pushups is done in a very dry way where it's so fucking funny because of all the characters involved being such different personalities. It's great. It's a really, really good game. So Dragon Age the Veil Guard was a 10 for me and I want to replay it. You're doing things that your theater teacher would yell at you about if you were in theater. You're not facing your audience.

[00:20:11] I like to look at my wife. We need to do blocking. I know, but it's not just us right now. And you've missed a lot right there and I can't read it because I need glasses. Okay. Let's see. Dave said what's up talking how sevens are more fun than tens. Oh. About me, my rating system. Saying that some sevens are more fun than tens. Yeah, I would say that. Oh, I don't know about. Oh, I didn't know beforehand, but was someone by Dragon Age chat.

[00:20:40] Yes, you did play Dragon Age. I did technically buy this game because you talked about it. Fight the Blight, Mage Slave Cultist, Canary Outcast Pirates. They all caught hands. They all did catch hands. The Queer want the Anti-Woke to get in shape. I mean, Woke is so stupid. Yeah. It's just people existing. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you? I can see Keriden's eyes rolls from here. I love it. On camera, it doesn't count.

[00:21:10] Also, Balara is just chattering. Don't worry about it. It's just me chattering. Oh, just Dave. That's cool. That's fine. Yeah, Balara was one of the characters there in that scene. And she is like this very awkward, dorky elf girl. And she has no context of societal norms. So she is like all over the place. And on top of that, she was drunk in that scene. Oh, boy.

[00:21:39] So much fun. It's a great game. Loved it. What's Luludin's? Luludin's. Luludin. Yes. Luludin's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller. This book is fucking phenomenal. If you have any context of the South, especially South Georgia, you will heavily relate to this book.

[00:22:04] If you are curious at all, if South Georgia or the South in general is as bad as we say it is, us non-conservative folks, read this book and you will understand that it is just as bad as we claim. I felt like I was in my hometown reading this book. It is so freaking good. So basically it starts out with this woman, Luludin,

[00:22:30] up on her high horse wanting to ban some books in the local library and like the schools. And she winds up making a little free library in front of her house where she puts all these stupid, I'm sorry if you're conservative, I just, anyway. These really stupid conservative agenda books.

[00:22:56] One of the tags here is LGBTQ plus welcome. So if you're conservative, what are you doing here? What do you want to tell us? Coming to troll. Please. Tell me what you want to say. Hopefully, maybe. Anyway. Now, some LGBTQ plus individuals identify as conservative. They're not an anomaly. I mean, they aren't. Whatever. I don't know. Listen. I'm not.

[00:23:23] We have Thrak with a band hammer and we also have Akira with a band hammer. So they come in and they start shit. What's a band hammer? They get banned. Oh. Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not cool. Anyway. Lula Dean puts this little free library in front of her house with crap like chicken soup for the soul. And you'd probably find a couple books by our current president and things like that. Okay? Like the Bible.

[00:23:56] So, this girl who's only like visiting home from school. Not that you need that context. Anyway, she is. I'm pretty sure she's gay. But she actually goes into the little library and takes all of the books out. She takes all of the dust jackets off and puts them on things like Barack Obama's. Is it a promised land? Is that? I don't remember. I don't know books.

[00:24:25] One of Barack Obama's books. Handmaid's Tale. A book about, you know, taking down the patriarchy. Things like that. So, all the banned books she's putting back into this little free library. But with the conservative agenda covers on them. And, like, slowly but surely, like, these very closed-minded people around town are picking up books from the library to help them.

[00:24:54] And, you know, they're getting something very different than what they thought. And it's, oh my gosh, it's, I'm going to cry. It's so much fun. It's so much fun seeing, like, the really awful mindsets of people changing. Because books are very powerful. Oh my God, I'm going to have to get up and leave the room. This is awful. I can't do this on camera. I can do this on the podcast. But I can't do this on camera. This is the first cry of 2025 on the show.

[00:25:24] Shit. It's a really good book and you should go read it. And, yeah, it's set in a fictional town in South Georgia. So, I just imagined the whole time that it was my hometown. Because, yeah, it's great. There's this super wacko man who lives out, like, on a compound with all of his guns. And he gets so mad at everybody changing their mindsets. He's, like, plotting to go kill people in town.

[00:25:49] He gets taken down by the really cool gay-loving vet in town. It's really good. It's very alarmingly accurate. And I loved it so much that I, the author was giving away signed UK copies. And I commented, like, as soon as she posted it, as soon as I finished reading it, I was like, oh my God, I just finished reading this book. It changed my life as somebody from South Georgia. Like, this is the most relatable thing I've ever read in my entire life.

[00:26:20] And she immediately messaged me and was like, what's your address? And she sent me a signed copy and said something like, we need more people like you. Danny says emotions are good, wife. Let it out. Thrax says I never knew Chicken Soup for the Soul had a Christian conservative leaning. Yes. I never read them, but I remember seeing them everywhere in the early 2000s. Yes.

[00:26:50] I thought it was a book about making chicken soup. And then I think there was some book about, like, being a debutante, something stupid. You're allowed to cry here, Keridan. We all love you. Love y'all too. And Dave says your emotions are very convincing. No. Go read the book. The name of the book is... Lula Deans. What am I, why am I typing it? I have it written. You can copy and paste it with the author. You do have Kirsten. Yes, it is Kirsten.

[00:27:20] Kirsten. Kirsten. Fucking fabulous book. Fabulous. Put the name of the book she's talking about. Learn something new every day. Yeah, Danny said it's dick time conservative. Dave says we need more people like you crying, Keridan. Thanks. So, that's nice. I remember you reading me, like, a line of it.

[00:27:47] And I was like, is this your family they're talking about? And you were like, pretty much. I know. I mean, I was highlighting so feverishly. I mean, on my Kindle. But because I was like, holy shit, holy shit. I feel like this woman is in my head, in my life. Yeah, it's awesome. Those people are from Tifton, Georgia. Like, complaining about everything. Nothing is nice. What is Tifton going to do? Ban me from their group? People are going to think we live there.

[00:28:16] They're going to try to find us. No, Tifton is like, Ty-Ty. See? Ty-Ty, right there. Dave is talking about Ty-Ty. Oh, Dave knows Ty-Ty? I don't know. I think he knows. I think he's just saying thank you, thank you. Oh. Besides, Thrak knows where we live, so if somebody's going to kill us, it's going to be Thrak. Oh, my God. Anyways, let's continue on to Astro Bot. Yeah, that's happy. Don't cry. Astro Bot.

[00:28:48] That's the one that has Spider-Man, right? Yes, the one where I kept knocking Spider-Man off of the PS5 and he kept swinging back up. Mm-hmm. Um, Thrak is going to kill us with kindness. Aw. The synopsis of this book on good reason makes it sound great. It's wonderful. Yeah, from what she told me and what she read to me, yeah, it does sound like a really fun book. Maybe I should read it. You should. Maybe. It's very quick. I read it in Puerto Rico.

[00:29:16] I read it while we were driving over humps and potholes and flying off the road. Yeah. Anyways, Astro Bot is incredible. It is a 10 out of 10 game for me. It is a platformer. It basically celebrates all of Sony's history. And I am going to go ahead and say that this is probably my favorite platformer of all time. I like it more than any Mario game I've ever played, which I've played a lot.

[00:29:46] And basically, Odyssey is the only one that has cemented itself from the start into my platforming liking. It's just great. It's a huge celebration. You have special stages that are just uncharted or Ape Escape. The Ape Escape stage is great. They give you a little Ape Escape suit and a net. And you go catch monkeys. And then those monkeys are like robots dressed as the monkeys from Ape Escape. It's Crystal. It's my sister. Yes. Yes.

[00:30:15] You're catching my sister with monkey nets. What else? There was a God of War one based on the 2018. I don't remember when that game came out. The remake. Not the remake. The new series. The first one. And it's just such a good, fun, happy game. It is just happy.

[00:30:39] Astrobot himself is just a cute little robot that's just trying to find his friends and stop this giant booger alien from destroying your PlayStation 5 spaceship. You fly around on DualSense 5. The whole world is just like robotic and stuff and it's all happy. There's one stage which was my absolute favorite called the Trunk of Funk. I think that's what it was called.

[00:31:01] And it's basically just a giant tree that you bring to life and it starts singing to you telling you, get in my mouth. Get in my mouth. It's so good. Oh, yeah. I think you showed me that part. Yeah. Well, a funky base line is like being played in the background. It's so good. Such a good, good, fun game. Is it supposed to be like the tree in Zelda? I think that's just a thing. A general tree?

[00:31:28] Yeah, a general tree with a face thing. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of the Great Mighty Poo from Conker. Do you know about the Great Mighty Poo, Karendon? Poo Bear? No. Winnie? I am the Great Mighty Poo and I'm going to throw my shit at you. A huge supply of tish comes from my chocolate starfish.

[00:31:58] How about some scat, you little twat? I've shown you this a million times. It's a giant turd in the middle of a toilet with corn for tea. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I remember this. Dani says she wishes she could record herself reading books that have copyrights. Right? Threk says that he would most likely read the book, but he is a liar and the worst reader.

[00:32:27] Dani loves Ape Escape. I want to get into Ape Escape. Dave Jackson was playing it the other day on his stream and it looked really good. Yeah, Dave says that it's a game thing. Trees with faces. Yeah. Zelda tree. The Deku tree. The Kirby tree, which is a tree that you fight in every Kirby game.

[00:32:51] And Threk says the Great Mighty Poo is a boss and conquers Bad Fur Day and you fight a giant piece of shit with toilet paper. Yeah, you just throw toilet paper in its mouth on it. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Excuse me. So, anyways, Astro Bot is incredible. I really don't know what to say about it because it's just such a pure joy to play.

[00:33:17] It is just from start to finish, just straight up, just happiness. And I think that playing Astro Bot was probably the happiest moment of the entire year for me. Just that whole... It wasn't a moment with me? We've done nothing the entire year. We've just hung around. I do love hanging out with you and I find a lot of joy in it. But it doesn't bring you ultimate joy.

[00:33:44] Like Robot Kiryu or Robot Leon S. Kennedy or... Yeah. There's also kind of like a little Pikmin function where the more robots that you have, the more stuff you can build and they help you find other collectors. That's so good. Cute. Such a great game. I just had a thought. What? I think I have everything that I could make the Pikmin I designed now. Oh, cool. I might need to play around with him more. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:14] Why don't you make an Astro Bot 2 and tell me about your next book? Same Astro Bot 2, me later. The Ember Quartet? Remind me later. Yes. So I do need to Google something really quickly. If we can have some mindless conversation until I find this. Because I can't remember if it's from Air or Ember. Wish we had ad breaks, but maybe Tuesday. Maybe. Maybe Tuesday.

[00:34:44] Thanks to all of you and your help. Yeah. Thank you all for helping him. Yeah. I know I've helped too, but you're not obligated to help. Yeah. You all... Not that I am complaining, but you know. You all got me here. And I don't think this audio is going to be usable, but we'll see when we're done. Yeah. I found it. Okay. So it's not from Ember. Yeah. Look at how low that is. And I think it's... What? The audio, it's really low. Oh. Is it going to be salvageable?

[00:35:14] We'll see. Or is this going to be a YouTube-only episode? It might just be a YouTube-only episode, which is fine. Maybe I can pull the audio straight from the video. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, Ember Quartet. I kind of cheated because this is a set of four books. Dave says that you made it sound like they were Skyrim attendants, being like, I am obligated to carry your burdens. Yes. You are a Skyrim attendant, as am I.

[00:35:43] Lydia is great. I like that character. I think I only swapped out Lydia for Ayla, the wolf lady, because wolf lady. But, yeah, on my other playthroughs, I just kept Lydia. All right. Nice. Sorry to get the test. Go. Okay. So, I'm trying... Surely I didn't explain this on the podcast, because we've only recorded once since I read it, because I also read sort of this in Puerto Rico. Okay.

[00:36:13] So, I'm an influencer for Penguin Teen. Yay, name dropping. I'm not stopping. And Penguin Teen gave me an arc of air by Sabah Tahir. Air as in H-E-I-R. Air to a kingdom. And I looked it up, made sure that it was not part of a series. Um, said it was the first book in a duology. I didn't read any of the synopsis.

[00:36:41] I don't know that reading the synopsis would have helped me. But, basically, I read this whole book, and at the end, it, um, had, uh, you know, uh, now you should revisit the Ember Quartet by Sabah Tahir. Here's the first chapter of the first book. I read the first book when I worked at the call center, when we first met.

[00:37:07] Like, this was, I think, probably the first book I finished when we started dating. Um, and I didn't love it. I did not love it. I don't know why I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I gave it three stars. Um, but it just didn't really resonate with me. Um, so, okay, flash forward. I read Air back in July, was freaking obsessed.

[00:37:33] And then I was like, you know, it's been seven years since I read that book. Let me read this first chapter. And I did. And I was like, oh, fuck. I have screwed up because the characters in the Ember Quartet, so that, the chapter that I read at the end of Air, um, are like the parents of the people in this new duology. And I had no fucking idea.

[00:38:00] So everything that happened in the Ember Quartet led up to Air. Oh, and I loved Air so much. I loved it so much. Like, holy shit, I'm just flabbergasted. I was reading it on the beach while you and your parents and sister were in the ocean. And I just can't put it down. So good. I was eating my strawberries and my whatever the hell else snacks they had.

[00:38:28] Anyway, um, so I read that first chapter and I'm like, fuck. I gotta, I gotta go back and reread these books. I never read past the first book and there are four. Four! So I immediately go put all of them on hold with the library because we are sadly in book buying ban territory these days. Um, I put all of them on hold and there was such a long wait for all of them.

[00:38:58] But thankfully the first three wound up coming in faster than they said. So I read the first three books in like a month, which is unheard of for me. Um, Is that when you got into your like reading? That was when I was like a fiend. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. As Burger Champ said, fiend. Um, so I devoured the first book in like two days and I was like, holy shit, why didn't I like this? What is wrong with me?

[00:39:24] I think the only, the only conclusion I can come to is that because I was reading at the call center, I was interrupted so much. I think that really jarred my reading experience on a lot of things. Um, but then I devoured the second book. I devoured the third book. And then I had to fucking wait like a month for the fourth book to come through on my holds. I almost succumbed and asked you to buy it for me, but I waited and I waited.

[00:39:54] Y'all, this series is so fucking good. And it's such a, I feel like really good parallel for what's going on in the world right now. I know nobody wants to talk about it, but like specifically the Israel, Gaza, Palestine stuff.

[00:40:15] It's very, it's, it's very challenging to read something like that when something so incredibly similar is going on in the world. Um, but it's also nice to read it in a fantasy context. I feel like that sounds bad.

[00:40:38] It's, it's, it's hard to read it when something like that is happening, but it's also more palatable because you know that at least this one can't be real, if that makes sense. Like, I mean, there's gin and magic and all this stuff. I don't know. So it's, it's incredibly good. I don't know what the fuck was wrong with me almost eight years ago now. I think it was the, the, the, the interrupting. I think so.

[00:41:08] Cause I mean, we were allowed to read in between our calls. So like I would read for like a minute and then have to step away, go back, figure out where I was, read for a minute, step away. It's very tedious. So you said that this, there's no chance of whatever's in the book happening. And Dave said, Dave said, and there's a chance because there's a chance for resolution. Unlike in reality. Okay. Yes. Yes.

[00:41:36] I thought he was going to say something about gin and magic starting to be real. Um, but yes, yes. There is a chance for resolution and there is not in real life. In real life. Um, Danny threatened me. She said, I better put the name of the series, uh, in the chat. And I did the Ember Quartet. The Ember Quartet. The first book is an Ember in the Ashes. Okay. Um, she was going to fight me if I didn't. So fucking good. And most of the characters are not white. So that's also fun. Nice.

[00:42:05] Oh, I forgot to say something. I'll say it in a second. Also, uh, Thrak is really getting into the, he's trying all the Elder Scrolls games. So Skyrim, Marwind, all that. He says the only one that he's kind of gotten into is Oblivion. And it's because Patrick Stewart is there. Oh, I love Patrick Stewart. That's what I thought of when you opened that gigantic Star Trek thing yesterday. Um, oh, oh. Which then makes me think about that time when he wanted to be Frasier Crane's boyfriend in Frasier. Oh, that was great. One of my favorite episodes of all time. Uh.

[00:42:34] I wish Frasier had gone over to the other side for Patrick Stewart. Let me look up this character. Okay. So, uh, Dragon Age. I completely forgot about this character. I was going to mention her. Um, but the moment that I saw this character, I was like, oh my. And then I kept her in my party the entire time. Nev. Mm-hmm. She is, uh. Disabled. She's missing a leg. And she's a magician. And I made a decision that got her hurt in the first mission. So it made me feel super bad.

[00:43:03] And then I fell in love with her. And then we had, uh, times before the final mission. So. Oh. Yes. Okay. I feel weird you telling me this. I have an Indian girlfriend. Oh. Okay. From India. Okay. Magic India. Oh. In Dragon Age. Okay. I absolutely loved her. She was amazing. And Dave. Interesting. See? Dave says Nev rules. Oh. Okay. Yes.

[00:43:33] Oh. Thrak says that the Patrick Stewart episode is amazing. Oh. So good. Right? Oh. I was so sad when he just wouldn't give in to the urge. We know he all has. We all know he has. Excuse me. He also says that the Star Trek The Next Generation Captain's Holiday episode is really good. So maybe we should watch that. I've never watched Star Trek. Me neither. Never. We have a Star Trek thing back there somewhere. I don't care to open that door. And Danny finds it funny that I'm telling you about Nev and my feelings towards her.

[00:44:04] Well, I mean, I'm over here drooling over Adam Driver. And Aragorn. Yeah. Always. And like, those are like actual humans. I'm dreaming about a... A video game. A video game character. An animated person. Yes. Next game. Like a Dragon Infinite. Well, this was my first... Yakuza! Yes. This was my first 10 out of 10 of the year. Is this where you're going to talk about our food from the other day? And how you felt like you were going to get up and... I was going to mention that earlier and I completely forgot. You should bring it up now. Yeah.

[00:44:36] The episode is about they force Picard to take a vacation. They force Patrick Stewart to take a vacation. How do you take a vacation in space? Right. Anyways. This game was incredible. It continues Ichiban's story from the last game. They also bring back Kiryu for this game. And there are some very, very good plot twists in this game.

[00:45:04] One comes early on and it destroyed me entirely. Like, I was at the point where I was like, I'm just going to finish this chapter and go to bed. And the ending of the chapter happened and I'm just sitting there like, how the fuck am I supposed to go to bed now? Like, my heart is shattered about these middle-aged men that smoke and fight and do stuff with other criminals. That's how gaming is like reading. Yeah.

[00:45:34] It is. Like, it was just like my, like I was sitting there holding the controller. I was like, I think I texted you what happened. I'm like, what the fuck? Like, how am I supposed to get, like, what am I supposed to do? And I have to go to work tomorrow? Tomorrow? No. This is bullshit. And then it went into another chapter and it didn't circle back to that till the end of that other chapter, which introduced another twist. So I was like, what is my life?

[00:46:04] This game was incredible. It was so good. The combat was amazing. The combat was amazing. The story was amazing. The characters were all great.

[00:46:17] You know, I've seen a couple of articles floating around saying that the Like a Dragon series, the new reboot with Ichiban, does a really good job of creating character arcs and presenting characters as middle-aged men having to go through difficult situations.

[00:46:36] And I'm like, yeah, I could see 45-year-old me, 45-year-old Thrak, 45-year-old Dave, 45-year-old all of our listeners going into a dungeon to fight a bunch of people because one of us has schizophrenia. Dave says, after doing a five-hour marathon to finish a game, how am I supposed to fall asleep at 3 a.m.? Exactly. Or finish any major arc in a game? Yeah. How are you supposed to, especially when they drop a bombshell, like what happened in this game?

[00:47:07] I will say, I feel like the ending of this game was not great. I feel like Ichiban was treated horribly to the point where it would break any normal person at the end of the game. And he was just himself still there. I just felt, in contrast to the last game where I was horrifically sad and almost crying holding the couch while you were asking me, what the fuck is wrong with you?

[00:47:38] This one made me feel angry in a way that if he breaks now and just murders everybody, it's justified. But it was still such a great game. Talk about our food that I almost didn't enjoy because of snow anxiety. Bear your emotions, right? I am hyped for the Pirate Yakuza. I got to pre-order that. That is a game that I am buying and playing.

[00:48:03] The Like a Dragons do a great job of telling stories other games wouldn't tell. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Like being released from prison at 45 and being homeless and having to figure out how you're going to get your life back on track with the stigma of being a felon. That is fantastic storytelling. Very real. Yeah. And it's handled in a great way. I love these games. I absolutely love them.

[00:48:34] And then this one has to do with Ichiban's mother and his dad and everything that happened to lead to where he is. It's such a good game. The food. I don't care what we were eating because we ate Japanese food. So I was having a sound though. I would like to say the funny thing about the food.

[00:48:57] There's a pho place across the road from the bookstore and we were so hyped to get pho and like extra hyped because last time we were there in the summer and it was really hot. We're like, okay, good. It's not going to be hot this time. They're closed. Like signs are gone. Everything. Windows are boarded. It was such a nice show. And he's like, fuck this. We're going to a, what are they called again? Isakaya. An Isakaya. Isakaya. Isakaya. Isakaya.

[00:49:27] Isakaya. And I was like, okay, I hope it's close by. It was literally two stores down from the bookstore in the same little complex with the Mova Tea place. So, yeah. Because the thing is, last time we went, we were in Atlanta and I looked up Isakaya. We found one of the best Japanese restaurants we've ever eaten at. Oh, I wish we'd been close to that place. Oh, man. I was upset. Those people in that store were delightful. Their food was incredible. They knew what they were doing. Nobody was there. It closed. It's fucking heartbreaking.

[00:49:57] It was so good. It was possibly better than the place we love in Orlando. I would argue that it was comparable. I wouldn't say better. It was the most comparable we have found. So, we went to that Isakaya, which we're going to talk about later in Gorbage. We noticed it last time, but it was after we'd already eaten this all.

[00:50:21] And we were sitting there eating and I look outside and I see the snow falling, kind of like in, I think it's Yakuza Kiwami. That's set around Christmas time, so there's snow falling a lot. And I look outside and I look at my food and I look at Kyrin and I'm like, I feel like I'm going to finish eating this. Go outside, smoke a cigarette and get into a fight with a bunch of Yakuza. And she's like, you're so fucking stupid. I did not say stupid. You insinuated it. Oh, my gosh. Which is normal.

[00:50:51] Anyways, Yakuza, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, 10 out of 10 for me. What's Air? Okay, Air is the book I've already mentioned. The book that's after the Ember Quartet. So, I actually read this book twice in 2024. Because I wanted to experience it the way I should have experienced it after all of the context of the Ember Quartet.

[00:51:18] And y'all, the number of times I got chicken skin reading this book the second time. Having the context? Holy shit! I was so mad at myself for everything I missed. Everything I didn't, like it didn't even register. And I read it on audio the second time. So that was really fun. If you're an audiobook person, I highly recommend listening to that one.

[00:51:46] I say listening, but I do still mean reading. Because audiobooks are reading. There's a full cast of narrators. So each, it's a multiple point of view. The whole series is multiple point of view. But this audiobook, and the others might too. I just haven't read them on audio. It has a whole cast of characters, which is really fun.

[00:52:11] Um, but for air, I just want to read you these quotes to make you understand why you need to go read these. But don't fuck up like I did. And read the Ember Quartet first. First. Okay. No one can manipulate those with faith like a person who has none. When you sacrifice other people's children on the altar of your ambition,

[00:52:40] it's only a matter of time. Ugh. Before you'll be willing to sacrifice your own. So what I'm getting from this Sabatahir person is that they just want violence. Sabatahir is the signing that we missed because we were too broke. Oh, that one. Yes. And then, so funny story.

[00:53:08] One of the main characters she carries over to air is Helene. And, um, Helene happened when she was on tour and some of her tour stops got canceled because of Helene. And she's like, it's not, like the irony's not lost on me that I abused this character so much. The storm. She's taking out her wrath on me. Yes. That was pretty funny. God, those books are so fucking good. Ugh. Something you missed.

[00:53:38] Dave said, those random gangsters on the road wouldn't want to catch Faw-filled Chris's hands. What? Like if I was Faw-filled, like filled with Faw, the gangsters on the road that I was going to fight after smoking my cigarette wouldn't want to. I haven't smoked in years, so that would be interesting. That's not true. You haven't smoked in like a year. You mean like smoke-smoked, like regularly smoked. Like even had one. No, you've had. It's been a long while.

[00:54:07] No, you've had them here. Have I? Yes. The night that my friend was trying to hit on both of us. Oh. Those were hers. It was like a year ago. Yeah, because you had a pack around the holidays when homeboy was here all the time. And he smoked like one a night. He stressed me out. Yeah. You have not been stressed in a long time. You haven't asked for cigarettes in so long. The one time you did ask, you talked yourself out of it. I did. I'm so proud of you. Yeah.

[00:54:39] Let's see. I said I wish it was Faw, because Faw to me is like spinach is to Popeye. Popeye loves spinach? Popeye the Sailor Man. Spinach. He eats it, gets strong, beats the fuck. Oh, yeah. I love Faw. With Faw. It's the best. Punching anvils out of the air. He said drop this book in chat so Thrak won't read it. He said I didn't come here for hair racing quotes, but here we are. Oh, boy.

[00:55:08] Dani says that she loves that these books elicit these emotions. Oh, they're so good. They're laughing at me. They're laughing at me because you called me out. For smoking? Yeah. Sorry. I'm not going to let you forget that I let you smoke sometimes. I mean. That was a deal breaker for me. And remember how I quit? Like. I do remember. I will never forget. Two weeks into us meeting? Yeah. Well, no, no.

[00:55:38] It was like two months. I wasn't? Yeah. Because you left to go on the road at a month. No, I quit before that. No. You quit before that, but then you went on the road and you started again. Oh, we're not getting into this. Just move on. Move on. What's the next game? My mentor was like. You could have said, I don't smoke anymore. Do not give me any. After he bought a carton. You take them. You smoke like a freight train.

[00:56:08] You keep them. He would have smoked them eventually. Listen, Mama didn't raise a quitter, so I'm not quitting. That's what Dave says. Silent Hill 2 remake. That one was a 9.5 out of 10. It is a remake of the PlayStation 2 Silent Hill game. It was really good. I wasn't expecting it to be that good. It is a 9.5 to me for one reason only. I bet you won't know what that reason is.

[00:56:38] Try. Guess. The music. The music was good. One wild guess. You give up? The silence. I wish it was the silence. The silent hill, right? Yeah. The silence. Okay. The. What's it called? The reason is because it was way too dark. Oh. You have a flashlight. Like literally? Really?

[00:57:05] It's like basically imagine if they cut off all the light and the only thing you can see is where the flashlight is flashing. That's it. No. And it's not because it was scary. Because honestly the way that I play horror games. I'm the scariest thing in the room. Because I was giving my hands to everything that popped up. Like they would try to run away from me and I would chase them down to put them down.

[00:57:31] This is why my nephew wanted you to come beat up his bully instead of his dad. Because Uncle Chris is big and strong. So the problem is that I didn't know where to go a lot of the times because I couldn't see anything. Like it was like looking straight like black. Like darkness. Like right here. Awful. Awful. Awful. Designing. And it didn't give you the option to raise the brightness on it. Because sometimes doing that lets you see a little bit more.

[00:58:03] I struggled in some of the stages. Because they were narrow and long upwards with enemies crawling down and all that stuff. And like I got a board with nails on it. I don't. I'm not worried about the enemies. I just want to see where I'm going. I need to see what's going on. What's his face? Walking dead. Negan? Negan. He has a bat with barbed wire. It's similar. I guess. Let's see.

[00:58:34] Smoke like a freight train. Is what Danny's saying. No. No. Chris. It's a seven year old bully. Take it easy. How do you know it's a seven year old? Because you said my seven year old nephew. Oh I did. Danny says she's always turning up the brightness so far. And Thrax says I bet angry Chris is like Red Hulk. Kind of. Man did I ever tell y'all the story about that time that dude almost hit us in the parking lot at the apartment complex. Hold up.

[00:59:05] Danny says DW wife I quit smoking and it's hard as fuck. And Sarah's here. Oops. Trap is here. I think it probably helped that you never really smoked a lot. Did you? No. Well I think I started when I was 19. Or two. Then something would happen that would annoy me and I would pick it back up.

[00:59:31] But I also hated the taste that it left in my mouth and I hated the smell. So immediately after I would smoke a cigarette I would scrub entirely. So yeah. I said your name by accident. I am so sorry. Let's see. Oh. The time with the dude in the apartment complex. Oh yeah. We were. I don't remember exactly how it happened. I don't remember who was at fault.

[01:00:00] He was at fault because I was backing up and he just. He like flew back behind us and then he stopped right behind us and rolled down his window and he's like what the fuck are you doing? You're about to hit me. Chris is like I wasn't going to hit you. We're in the car. And he like went to get out and Chris got out and he immediately closed the door and drove off. Because you're quite tall and look like a very, very, very angry bear. I would.

[01:00:30] When you have your resting bitch face on. I would. Whenever I would walk the dog I would just stand and the entire time I was outside I would stare at his apartment door because I figured out where he lived. And I would just stand there just staring at him seeing if he would come out until he moved. And I remember when you met my mom for the first time in the parking lot and you got out of the car and she's like he just kept coming and coming. Let's see.

[01:01:00] Dave says yeah. Wash hands. Take shower. I haven't smoked since I quit my band which was about five years ago. Yeah. It can be a really big social thing. RBCF resting bastard Chris face. That's good. And you're sending me pictures of games. Perfect. I'll let you know. I'll look at them and let you know what I want and we'll make a deal. Trap.

[01:01:29] Thank you. Where was I? So Silent Hill 2. Fantastic game. The darkness. Apart from that. That's just that one little thing. But everything else was great. I am not scared by a lot of things. My fight or flight is always fight. It's always fight. Even when I want to fly it's fighting.

[01:01:54] So this game really put me in that fight or flight and kept me in fight the entire time. And it's because it triggered a bunch of responses in my brain where I felt like if I was here in real life I would kill myself. I wouldn't hesitate. I would blow my brains out. Because it is horrifying. It is such a scary world.

[01:02:24] Everything's decayed. Everything is basically dead. It's abandoned. The monsters coming out are your deepest, most horrifying things that you can ever imagine. Isn't the thing with the triangle head thing? Pyramid head. Yes. From Silent Hill. The noise that the world makes. The quiet. Just whenever you're at a point where it's just quiet. I love being in the quiet.

[01:02:53] But there is a point where it goes past quiet. And it's just completely unnerving and unnatural. And that really gets me. So the game did really good in triggering all of that. And there were no jump scares at all in the game. Like, there were no jump scares. It was just all atmosphere, tense, world design, everything. It was pure horror for me. I loved it.

[01:03:20] And on top of that, I got to abuse all of these monsters with my baseball, my board with nails in it. Yeah. This game was amazing. If only the brightness would have been adjusted. 10 out of 10. There's the fat guy, the abuse victim, the asshole kid, the nymphomaniac. Make Silent Hill a peaceful place. I love that you guys finally did what I asked for. I'm so proud and happy.

[01:03:50] She's been asking us for years to do a live episode. So thank you, Trap. We're here. This is for you. So let's keep steam rolling along. We have two more each. Oh, no. One more each. And then Gorbage. And we're done. Yay. So tell me about When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson. Okay. So Jandy Nelson would have never been on my radar if it had not been for you. Why?

[01:04:16] Because this was in the time when you would go to the bookstore when you really, really loved me and you were obsessed with me and you thought I was the cutest thing in the world. You would go to the bookstore and just pick me out like 10 books that you thought I would like and bring them home for me. Okay. So I'm going to say something and I hope you finally internalize this. The reason why I don't go to the store and buy you books anymore is because you have all of them.

[01:04:42] No, you need to just, you need to download my live and log into it. So you have my library. But the thing is, I don't know what books they send you for advanced readers copies on your Kindle. And I don't know what all the books you have coming in the mail are. So that is a big problem. Well, that's why they have a really good return policy. Maybe someday I'll buy you books.

[01:05:11] Anyway, so yeah, you bought me, I'll Give You the Sun, years and years ago. And I freaking loved it. Jenny Nelson, at least from like these two books, she has another book that I haven't read yet. It's very much about like writing about siblings and normally at least one of them is queer and like navigating that.

[01:05:40] But anyway, so I read that one and then there's the second one that I haven't read yet. And this woman has not published a book in years. And thankfully, because of Penguin Teen, once again, they're like, hey, we saw that you've read this other Jenny Nelson. Do you want to read her new book? So they sent me, actually sent me an arc and a finished copy.

[01:06:10] But once again, it's about siblings. But these siblings, their dad is not part of the picture. One of them is kind of like a CD dropout. CD as in S-E-E-D-Y, not CD. As in disc. Yes. The other one is trying to figure out if he's queer or not.

[01:06:38] He's very confused and very angry, understandably so. And then their little sister, very quirky, very weird. Think she sees angels. Weird in a good way. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. And them just like navigating through their own struggles and also coming together with their shared struggles of like not having their dad in their life. Because he kind of abandoned them.

[01:07:08] It wasn't just like he was never there. But then like there's also, I don't know, it's very, very good. And like the girl that the little sister thinks is an angel winds up playing into each of their lives without them knowing. If that makes sense. I don't want to spoil this book. It's wonderful.

[01:07:32] It's very much like two halves that come together at the end to make the whole and you don't really see where it's going. If that makes sense. Kind of. Kind of. It'll make more sense if you read it. It's very good. It's very gay. I love it. I love gay. I mean, they do make for good storytelling. They do. I can't believe that's really my only gay book on this list. Damn. No, it's not. It kind of is. Lula Dean?

[01:08:01] Well, yeah, Lula Dean is gay, but not in the way that I'm thinking, if that makes sense. I mean, I'm pretty sure there are gay people in every single one of these, but yeah. David says that it's true love whenever I bought you books. It was a sweet time to be alive.

[01:08:32] And Danny says it's hard to buy things for people who always buy their own things. The thing is, she doesn't buy her own things. Yeah, I understand things. She gets them gifted. Gifted. Which I'm grateful for. Trap. Don't let any of them see this and think that I don't want them anymore. Trap is chastising me, saying, how dare you? I know. Dave is saying, fuck the book buying ban. Get back to the bookstore. He says that I need to get locked out of the house until I come back with five books as tribute.

[01:09:02] Well, to be fair, we're trying to make businesses happen and money needs to go back into the businesses happening before it goes into my library of 810 books. Yeah. And yeah, he's kind of like Kanji from Persona 4. All right. So that's your final book? Yes. Okay. Sweet. My next game is three games in the same series because I played these one after the other really quickly and they were amazing. I can't wait to get back to them.

[01:09:29] It's Ys 1, 2, and Ys Origin. I had never played an Ys game. I decided to get into them last year, late last year. I am going to play through the entire series. I played those three. Wow. Wow. These games, 1 and 2, are particularly old. Like, their design is old. But it's a fun design. Like, you run around.

[01:09:56] Whenever you get to the enemies, the character attacks automatically. So there's no really any skill involved with the fights except for the second one. There are some puzzles for the boss fights. But the story is just so good. It's such a fairytale-esque kind of story. Fairytale-esque. Yeah. Like, there's two goddesses. Twin angel-looking goddesses. And you're basically the chosen one in every single game, apparently. See that?

[01:10:26] Trapp is saying it. The protagonist is the chosen one of every town. So every town you go to, you're the chosen one. That's great. So is it, like, satire of fantasy? I would say, like, it's just a fantasy story. But super cliched on purpose. But not making fun of it. Mm-hmm. Isn't Ease the same main character? Yes. Except for Origin. Origin is, I think, 300 or 700 years in the past.

[01:10:54] And that one goes into, like, full-on beat-em-up style RPG gameplay. And it is so good. And that one I really like because you get three characters that you can play as. So you have three different takes on the same story. And they're all great. It's basically just good versus evil. There's demons all over the place that you have to fight. But the demons just look like regular monsters.

[01:11:23] There's, like, magic metals that will help you fight the demons better than, you know, just regular weapons. It's so, so good. I would say if you want to get into the E series, one and two are good places to start. Especially the remakes on PSP. So you would have to play that version.

[01:11:52] And I would say play it with a guide because they are kind of not hand-holdy. And they won't tell you exactly what you need to do and where. But they are worth it. I really, really enjoy them. I think the first one is, like, four hours. And the second is, like, ten. The music is fantastic. It is so good. The music is great. Yes, it is bump combat for the one and two. Origin, again, just straight up beat them up. It's just climbing the Demon Tower, whatever it was called.

[01:12:23] And it's so, so, so good. I am going to continue the series. I'm probably going to start three today if I get a chance. Let me see. RPG Corner. Ys is so good. Our protagonist is the chosen of every town. Yes, Ys is the same main character. Adol. Satire and the fact that it wraps back so hard on the satire that it takes itself seriously. Yes, that's exactly it.

[01:12:52] It makes fun of itself so hard that it's actually serious about it. Series is great. Fantastic. Like, I am a believer of the series. I will not go back on Ys. And I gave each and every one of them a nine out of ten. I feel like one and two are victims of its time.

[01:13:17] So, some small improvements could get it a ten. Origin. I don't know why I gave Origin a ten. Because that game was honestly perfect on its own. I think it might have been just the storytelling. Having to see the same story three different times, three different ways. But yeah, that's basically it for the best games and books that we experienced last year.

[01:13:46] Anything else you want to say before we go into Gorbidge? Your hair is distracting me. It's very Alan Cumming-esque. Very Alan Cumming-esque. Should I do that? Do it. I'm doing it. Do y'all not see Alan Cumming before he cut his hair? We've become obsessed with the traitors. Yes, talk about the traitors for a second. In the last week, like, last weekend, we seriously stayed up until one o'clock in the morning.

[01:14:16] Watching the traitors. Because I had watched, like, the first four episodes of season one by myself while I was making earrings. And I was thinking to myself, I think my mom and Chris would really like this. And so I made them start watching it with me, like, Sunday night while we were eating dinner. And we watched the entire season until 1 a.m. It's taken over our lives and the hair. Adrian Brody of King Kong.

[01:14:45] Adrian Brody and Alan Cumming are pretty... They look a lot alike. Yeah, they're pretty much the same person to me. Except skin tone. Yeah. And the nose. Yeah. And the nose. Alan Cumming is fabulous. Alan Cumming is fantastic. I love that guy. His outfits are so wonderful. Jokes on you. And modifying at the same time. Jokes on you, Trap. It is my second clip. Because Akira did one last night of an NPC getting blown the fuck up. So, ha! There you go.

[01:15:15] So, it's time for... Gorbage! That is give me the gorbage. I can't stop yawning. And I'm so cold. It's early. We're almost done. Yeah. We just need gorbage and food. Yeah. So, we went to Tenya Japanese Eatery. That's the place we were talking about where we were sitting. And I felt like a yakuza getting ready to smoke a cigarette and fight people. Which I didn't do. We had dumplings, curry, and a katsu sand dough.

[01:15:47] While we lived in Orlando, there was a ramen restaurant. And they had the most amazing handmade dumplings I have ever had. And we spontaneously ran into trap there. One time. Yes. A very, very long time ago. That was super weird. Wasn't she like... Weren't we like eating and she walked in? Or weren't they eating and we walked in? I don't remember. It was so weird. Like, what the heck? Yeah.

[01:16:17] So, they didn't have to wait for a table because we had a booth. So, that was cool. I miss doing that. Like, going somewhere and running into friends and spontaneously having dinner with them. So, those dumplings to me were the best dumplings I've ever had. And Tanya dethroned them. Yeah. They were really good. I wish I had had less anxiety while we were eating that meal. The dumplings were... They were good. They were chewy, soft.

[01:16:45] They had a nice crispy bottom layer from the pan fry. The inside had scallions. The sausage inside was so good. But the dumplings by themselves had a really, really good flavor. And they weren't fennel-y because I really don't like when dumplings are fennel-y. It was just delicious, rich, tasty. And then it had a ginger sauce, was it? Yeah, it wasn't normal.

[01:17:14] Soy dipping, yeah. It was normally soy, but I don't know what it is. I don't know. I can probably recreate the sauce if I put my mind to it. But anyways, it was like a ginger, kind of like an oil. It was very, very good. It was very oily. Yeah. Yeah, it was so good. Tell me about the curry. The curry was great. It was very sticky rice, and they put a little bit of slaw on the side, some pickled... Carrots? Carrots? Yeah, the carrots were really good. I didn't need those.

[01:17:44] Carrots. And then katsu tenders, I guess. Yeah. And then obviously the Japanese curry. I wish there had been more of that. That's really my only complaint. And I wish they would pound out the chicken. And then, like, it was thick. And it was kind of... I don't know. I get really weirded out by chicken very, very easily. It tasted good. There was nothing wrong with it.

[01:18:14] But the fact that it was so thick, and it was so hard to cut through, and there were some stringy bits that I had to yank apart. That weirded me out. Like, I think it would have weirded me out less if I had more curry to drown it in and distract myself. But I was also having anxiety. But it tasted very good. All of the flavors were good. The chicken was very crunchy. But more curry. Pound out chicken. Slaw was great.

[01:18:43] The only acceptable complaint, I wish there was more. I had the katsu sando, and I kind of had the same complaint about the chicken. Because usually when you get a sando, they pound out the chicken and make it, like, even thickness all across. And what they did is they fried their chicken, which were like chicken fingers. Tenders, yeah. Yeah, they were delicious. They were bulky. But they were big. So, like, big-ass tenders in the middle of a sandwich. And they had shokupan, which is the Japanese milk bread.

[01:19:12] So, all of the flavors were perfect. Like, the katsu sauce, the slaw, the pickles, the cucumber pickles. Everything in the sandwich was fantastic. My only complaint, I just wish the tenders would have gotten pounded out and made more flat and even. Because as you ate it, you know, the tender is kind of like a finger, right? It goes chunky all the way to thin. And so, as you were eating, you would get, like, a huge chunk of chicken.

[01:19:43] And then all the way to nothing. Instead of having it all even. I thought it was great. I thought it was very, very good. I would love to go back and have the rest of the menu. They also had, like, these udon. Didn't they have ramen? Yes, they had ramen. These udon miso, was it? Miso or curry noodles that they were advertising in the front? I don't remember. Next time, I'm probably going to get those.

[01:20:08] So, I am excited to go back to Tanya Japanese Eatery in Decatur, Georgia. And we'll always go get a bubba afterwards. Yes, and tayaki. And tayaki. But without the ice cream. That ice cream was not good. That ice cream was very artificial. Yeah, very, very artificial flavoring. Oh, the tayaki was so good. It was great. We didn't get a picture of the tayaki, did we? I don't think so.

[01:20:37] So, tayaki is basically a pancake stuffed with, like, some sort of custard. And when we ordered it, we ordered it with strawberry cheesecake, thinking it was going to be, excuse me, stuffed with strawberry cheesecake. But it wasn't. It was stuffed with the custard, so. Yes, actually. Oh, you do? Mm-hmm. Oh, perfect. Then we'll post that on the whatever. Okay. Um, it was very good, tayaki. Um, did you enjoy the tayaki? Did I? Yes.

[01:21:07] You ate all of it. I loved it. What is this? From Brittany. Oh, never mind. Oh. I was like, what the hell is this? Uh, yes. It was amazing. I did not like the ice cream, which is why you were so great and let me eat the tayaki by myself. Yes. So, Tanya Japanese Curry Eatery, not Japanese Curry, Tanya Japanese Eatery gets a Gorbage. Gorbage. Yeah. Right. Are we ready to suffer? No. Let's start with the Doritos.

[01:21:35] I think we'll have no pain there. Okay. I just hope they're not bad, because this was me. This was all me. Do you want to show them off and talk about them? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, we were at Sam's last weekend, and we saw these Doritos Golden Sriracha chips. Um, I don't really like Doritos. I have to be in a very specific mood to eat them at all. And I'll really only eat the regular flavor and the hot mustard, because I became fucking

[01:22:04] obsessed with the hot mustard when they came out. Um, I wish they would have them other than just in the summer, which seems to be what they're doing. But at least they're bringing them back. It's fine. David's saying you should chew directly into the mic for Will's benefit. I will! That's what I think every time I have to chew something. Please don't. Just mute the thing. Do they smell good? I don't know. No. Okay, just grab one and get ready. I will talk while you mute and chew.

[01:22:34] I like the smell. They smell like chilies. Not chilies the restaurant or chili the food. Kind of like spicy chilies. Um, you're done crunching. How is it? It's a very subtle flavor. It's a very subtle flavor. Very subtle. Mmm. I'm getting a little bit more of it now. Like, it's definitely the golden sriracha flavor. But it is very subtle.

[01:23:03] Like, it's not hitting me in the face like the mustard does. I think I like them. They're very... They're very subtle. Like... I figured it out. What? Pimento. Pimento. Pimento. She broke. Get me. It's straight up pimento. Yeah? One hundred percent. They can't hear you.

[01:23:32] One hundred percent. Um... Mmm. I like them. Mmm. I like them. So, Threk ate too many of the hot mustard Dorito and they made him sick? I... I almost got to that point. Oh, sorry. Mmm. Dave says... I was gonna say, smells like Chili's, the restaurant? Like Suburban Regret? We had Suburban Regret last time we went to Chili's.

[01:24:02] Close those up. I am gonna fuck those up when we're done with this. Me too. Well, we're gonna... You can have all of them. I don't care. I am gonna eat all of... Those are great. Oh, I wish I had a nice turkey sandwich. Text my mom and tell her to get some turkey and bread. Some sun-dried tomato turkey. Some sun-dried tomato turkey. Okay. Sorry, I'll have to hear this. Keep talking. Okay. Are you really texting me? Yeah, I'm texting her right now. Okay.

[01:24:29] Sun-dried tomato turkey is the best turkey. If you have not had it, go to your Walmart. Go to the deli and order a pound of the sun-dried tomato turkey. You put that shit on the... Is it Nature's Own? The bread with all the seeds in it. Oh. Oh. See what I did last summer? Was I made my little turkey sandwich. And I put the hot mustard to redips on it.

[01:25:00] Fucking phenomenal. Best sandwich ever. Ever. That sun-dried tomato turkey is really good. Yeah. Multigrain? I think it's the multigrain one, yeah. The big bread. It's almost like brioche-style thickness. I need to do some research before we go into the hot sauces, so if you want to start pulling them out and talking into the microphone. Okay. Where else would I talk? I don't know. You tell me. Sorry.

[01:25:29] You're going to hear all the noises. These crackers are also very good if you've never had them. They're the Savor It Six Cracker Assortment. I don't know if y'all can see this, but... They're very good crackers, especially if you're having a charcuterie night. We haven't had a charcuterie night in so long. And we have fancy cheese. Yes, we do have fancy cheese. Why don't we try to be fancy cheese? That would take too much. Yeah, it would.

[01:25:59] And guess who's here? Who? Yo-kai. Do I know Yo-kai? Yes, you do. She texted you the other day, man, like, you know, my work wife. Coochie board. Yes, a charcuterie board, as that lady on TikTok says. Okay, we don't need to do beware. There's beware. He said beware for last. For very last. Do we want to do all of them, or do we just want to do... How many do we have?

[01:26:28] We have five. And then the little packets. How many packets are there, and are they repeated? Looks like there are only two. Marie Sharp's... Smokin' Marie habanero pepper sauce. Isn't that one we've... That one we liked? I don't think so.

[01:26:57] And then Belizean heat. That one we liked, I think. If I'm not mistaken. How are you doing, Yokai? What are we doing? We're finishing up. We're going to have hot sauces, and then we're going to go be miserable. You're probably going to get some really fun keratin facial expressions. Yeah. So, Trapp is probably going to get good... Wait, wait, wait. Oh, you're going to go through them? Yeah. Trapp is probably going to get some good clips out of this. Okay.

[01:27:26] So, we have... Habanero pepper sauce. So, this one's weak. That one's only two peppers. Wait. And that's also the one that's the packet there, so we don't need either one of them. No. These are different. Oh. Yeah. Pure mango habanero. So, you're going to like this one. I want to go to Wingstop! Smokin' Marie. So, Smokin' Marie. Put that back. Okay. And that we had Belizean heat last time we had salsas. Yeah.

[01:27:56] Garlic pepper. Ooh, that one sounds good. You made a clip earlier. I had Wingstop for the first time a few weeks ago. It was pretty awesome. It can be really awesome if they know what they're doing. It can also be sucktastic. Yep. And it's very upsetting. And he said... I ask can everything really well. Beware. The last. The last. So, do we want to have all of them? Yeah. Let's just do it. Let's do it. We're on camera. Let's do it.

[01:28:25] We're going to probably have to end it immediately. Because I'm going to probably have to get up and go cry. Again. For like the third time. Okay. So, definitely beware for last. Yeah. Let me see. Which cracker? Thrac made a clip earlier. Wingstop is awesome. And it's cool you're late. At least you came by. And I appreciate that a lot. Yes. Thank you. A sub-a-thon challenge without affiliate. Hey. Maybe in a couple of days.

[01:28:55] We'll do affiliate sub-a-thons. I don't know what that means. But... Good thing is we're almost there. Darren, she just finished watching Hot Once with Bad Bunny. Oh, boy. Do an outro beforehand. No. The outro will be funnier without suffering. No milk. Because we are dumb. And we can't stomach milk. Yeah. Ugh. Gross. I can't even think about it.

[01:29:23] And Yokai says coconut ice cream. We make fun of people who drink milk. We do? All right. So, one of my friends from childhood. For some reason, he's always been obsessed with milk. Obsessed with milk. And his wife told us a story that one day they were drinking. And he had like three, four locos. And after he was done with the last one, he's like, I want a glass of milk.

[01:29:53] And she's like, no, you're going to be sick. He's like, I don't care. I'm having a glass of milk. And he was sick. I mean, he was going to be sick already. He had three, four locos. But damn. Just remember, I was playing video games. We were playing Guilty Gear. And he just had a glass of milk in his hand. That's so weird. Twelve locos. Yeah, twelve locos. Yeah. Ugh. I'm so cold. Let's do this. Okay. Which one first?

[01:30:23] Uh, let's do... Let's see. Let's leave smoking Marie. Because apparently the smoke ones are awful. Okay. Garlic? Garlic sounds good. Mango. Let's start with garlic. Okay. Then we'll go pepper. And then we'll go mango. Okay. 12 loco. I tapped out at 8 loco. Says Dave. It's spinning in place.

[01:30:49] My only 4 loco story is once at college I went to the bathroom and saw three or four empty cans shoved into the toilet at like 8 in the morning. Oh my gosh. That's great. That professor had a miserable life. Do you want this cracker? Uh, I don't care. Or do you want a piece of a cracker? Yeah, give me a piece of a cracker. Okay. I should have done a piece of a cracker. Yeah, go first. This smells...

[01:31:18] Oh, this smells like Puerto Rican chili. Like, uh, that hot sauce that you put in food. It smells really good. It's a garlic pepper sauce. It, um... I feel like it would be good on, um... The rice that your aunt makes. You know, the rice she makes that we put the hot sauce on. It's given me notes of that, but it is very garlic heavy. Yeah. It's good. This one's good.

[01:31:47] Yeah, I feel like I've had this at a Puerto Rican place before. Yeah, it's a garlic pepper sauce. Lightest, but blocking it. Is that better? I don't know. Maybe. Yeah, the light is like right here, so I can't get a good... Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I've tasted that before. It was good. Yeah, that is like a... The heat's not too bad. No, that is a very good sauce to start with. I don't feel anything about that one, but... It was good. Yeah, it's crackers with hot sauce, so that we can actually just taste the hot sauce

[01:32:17] and not ruin the flavor of them with some other flavor. That smells like Frank's. Oh, yeah, it does. I love Frank's. Yeah. What is this one? I think it's just a habanero sauce, just like a two level two garlic pepper sauce. Okay. Hold up. Put it on your side. Marie Sharp's garlic pepper sauce.

[01:32:49] Yeah, these were all given to us by Burger Champ. Give me another piece of cracker. He sent these... Has it been almost a year since he sent them? Actually, this box might say... Actually, this box might say when it's from. Yeah. Yeah. That just smells like Frank's to me. It tastes like Frank's with more of a kick. April. Yeah. April? April? Yeah.

[01:33:19] Almost a year. We suck. This one. Um... This would make really good buffalo sauce. I like it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's pretty good. Uh... This is the habanero pepper sauce. What am I doing? Habanero pepper sauce. Yeah, I like that one. Yeah. Now I just want some wings. But I want wing stock wings.

[01:33:48] I want mango habanero crispy ass wings in their blue cheese. Smother that bitch. You want to go to Columbus? Yes. Um... Here's your mango habanero. So far, so good. Why are you making the throw-up face? Help, it's just spinning in place again. Who's making the throw-up face? You okay? Oh. Why? I don't know. I think she's weak to hot stuff.

[01:34:21] I... Hey, Akira. You came back for the best part. Um... I don't like the mango habanero sauce. I feel like it's good the first two wings. Oh, I love mango habanero! Then after that is just pure fire and no flavor. Hey, Dave. You're packing? Cool. I like the smell of this. It smells very mango-y. It's a little too mango-y. I like the... What is it?

[01:34:50] The Louisiana rub? The Louisiana rub and the honey sriracha. I like rubs. I don't really like sauces on wings. I feel like that doesn't have a ton of heat. I like the flavor. Yeah. Yeah, I like... It's very mango-heavy for me. Yeah. Well, you're also not a huge fan of mango. Exactly. I am. But I love mango habanero. Mm-hmm. At Wingstop. Mango habanero at Wingstop. Okay. So, that was...

[01:35:22] Mango habanero. These are all Marie Sharps. Okay, I'm scared. Smoke and Marie. Burger Champ was saying, the smoked sauces all suck because they all have fake smoke in them. Yeah. I remember that really taking over. And... Like the one. I really hate fake smoke. Fake smoke. Love me. Love me. I need to get another whiff of that.

[01:35:52] Oh, God. It smells like E.T. Like the ride. It does. Like E.T. at Universal. But it also smells like the Sunny's parking lot. The Sunny's parking lot. Mm-hmm. Let's see. Let's see what I'm missing. Here you go. Oh, Yo-Kai hates spicy things. Well, I love spicy. But I'm not... So, she's asking how Akira became a mod.

[01:36:21] Well, she became a mod because you disappeared and she asked, can I be a mod? And I said, cool. Everybody can be a mod. So, she became a mod. Uh... Let's see. Uh... What I did last time is I got five and five so I could try different sauces. I did original hot and mild last time. Hot was good. Mild was meh. I mean, I like mild because of the flavor. Um... But I can see that.

[01:36:53] Habanero. Habaneuro. Are you okay? You want to talk? Look. He is dying in the background. Oh, God. It stinks. It smells so bad. It smells like terrible barbecue sauce.

[01:37:37] It tastes like plastic. It's so bad! It tastes like if somebody melted the barbecue bottle into the barbecue sauce before pouring it out. But also threw in a really hot pepper. Oh, that is gross. Oh, shit! I can't get over the flavor. Yeah, that was really bad. Oh, thank God for Major Melon.

[01:38:07] You are crying. I'm scared. That was really bad. Oh, that was really bad. Let's see. That fake smoke is really... Meanwhile, wifey is dying. She lives. It tastes like that. Yeah. Yeah. Trap made a clip. Hopefully it's you dying in the background. Probably. These caps suck. What the hell?

[01:38:37] Get off. I'm very scared. I didn't like that smell either. Or my nose. Yeah. Okay, so that's the beware. Apparently that's the one we had to leave out for last because it would blow out our taste buds. Actually, Champ sent some really good stuff apart from all the really terrible stuff. The really good stuff was really good. There was like this one cactus sauce. Oh my gosh, that one.

[01:39:07] We put that on our Jamaican beef patties. We need some Jamaican beef patties. Mm-hmm. We should get some. Okay, I'm going in. Here's your cracker. That one was so good that we ended up buying like an actual bottle of it. It's made out of cactus and habaneros. So good. You okay? He said this one will blow out our palates, so.

[01:39:38] I was okay. And it's like slowly building. I can't tell if I'm okay or not. I feel like my tongue's just getting hotter and hotter. I'm just like tingly. The flavor's not bad, but the flavor only lasts for like a second.

[01:40:07] The flavor's really good. And then your tongue feels like there are little fireworks going off on it. Really? My mouth is just getting hotter and hotter. You know the drinking, that's not helping, right? I know, but it helps me for a second. This cracker helped. I don't know if I put enough or not. I don't know either, but I'm scared to put more because my tongue is on fire. It's her placebo.

[01:40:39] I don't think I had enough. Give me another cookie. A cracker. I need to try this again. I do feel like the back of my throat is acting up, but I think it's because of the last one. Oh, shit. You put a lot on there. My tongue is still like on fire.

[01:41:10] But like not in an agony way? Agonizing? Nothing. Really? Nothing at all. See, I don't have that issue of getting like the fire shits after I eat hot stuff. Sarah's like... Stop! I am so sorry. I will cut that out of the audio. Trap is like... You're going to shit your pants with fire. And Yo-Kai is like...

[01:41:40] That ass is fuck. I'm just going to keep eating crackers until it goes away. Nothing on the beware. Absolutely nothing. It tastes really good. But... No. Don't cut it. The last one is beware Mary Sharps. All of these were Mary Sharps.

[01:42:10] These were all really good. I wish we would have brought the cactus out because I don't think we had it. Oh, I feel something now. On the show? I feel something now. My tongue is still... Like the roof of my mouth... It burns. Every time I breathe, I feel it. Yeah, that sauce is starting to kick. I feel like I need to go pick up some of the snow out there and shove it in my mouth.

[01:42:38] But like it's not as painful as some of the other ones have been. It's just like kind of unpleasant. I can agree with that. It's unpleasant. It's not bad. It's unpleasant. It tastes good for the second that you can taste it before it starts to burn. Yo-Kai says don't eat the yellow snow. And Thrak wants us to rub it on our faces. Luna made some really big spots of yellow snow. Let's show Luna.

[01:43:08] Lemon flavor? No, they're kiwi flavored. Luna! Golden kiwis? I love golden kiwis so much. We should get some. Luna Cam? What are you doing? I'm getting Luna. For the Luna Cam. So gross. She needs a bath and a haircut desperately.

[01:43:39] Say hiya, baby. But there was no point in giving her a bath until the snow is completely gone because she gets icky. Say hi, Luna. Hi. Say the podcast listeners can normally hear me digging holes in the carpet. Mm-hmm. And they heard her last night throwing a fit when you got here. Oh, when she was having nightmares? Or she was freaking out wanting out? Yes. To get to me? Yeah, she was barking her head off and I ignored her. I'm her person. Yeah. Okay.

[01:44:09] Episode over. Let's go ahead and wrap it up. And we can get started on ending the stream as well. So let me get the script. I'm struggling a little bit. I don't have a script. Well, thank you everybody for listening. It's been a while. Well, hopefully this audio isn't fucked because I'm looking at it right now. It's quite fucked. Oh, my God. What was that? Oh, that is unpleasant.

[01:44:39] Thank you everybody for listening. It's glad to be back. Hopefully we'll be back at least once a month together in one of my other projects running like a solid voice with Thrak who has been here the entire time today. I am starting a 3DS project soon with Aaron from Superpod and I'm trying to start something Dragon Age related. Hopefully that gets off the ground soon. I just need to figure out with who.

[01:45:10] Yeah, I'm probably just going to extract the audio from the VOD afterwards. Off the rails in the last two minutes wouldn't have it up any other way. Isn't that how it usually goes? Yeah. You look like you were about to have some attack over there for a second. I feel like it was the Mountain Dew and the last hot sauce fighting each other. Probably. Yeah. Talk about your stuff. Give me dog and talk about your stuff. What stuff? The stuff that you have right there on the counter. Oh, I started making earrings.

[01:45:39] If you're on Instagram or Facebook if you can check out a novel, Bobble, A Novel Bobble, B-A-U-B-L-E. Don't be like my boss and think I was trying to start a bobblehead company. And don't be like my boss and tell me that the name doesn't make any sense. Google the definition of bobble if you don't know what it means. It totally makes sense. I was trying to stay on brand with the bookstagram and the podcast and all the things.

[01:46:09] Oh my goodness. I cannot with you. The funny thing is my grandpa used to do this with her but he'd blow in her face and say, riding in the car, riding in the car. He's freaking out. Stop. Oh my God, Luna, no. Put her down. I can't. So yeah, I started making earrings. I became obsessed with earrings when we were at Dragon Con back in 2023.

[01:46:37] And we got a cheap laser cutter and we started making earrings. So if you want to, you want to hold them up to the camera just to show off some of them. Yes. Send me the link real quick while I show these off. Which link? The link to the Instagram or the Etsy or whatever. Oh, Yokai put the Instagram link in the chat. Thank you. Thank you, Yokai. Very much. And then let me... These are supposedly fourth wing from the book?

[01:47:06] They're fourth wing inspired. As much as I hate fourth wing, everybody else loves fourth wing. So... Oh, and Thrak threw in the Etsy. Thank you, Thrak. Oh, thank you. Y'all are so much faster than me. I appreciate it. We're doing our very first in-person show next weekend. It's a sad girl. I'm going to do those in different colors too. These, I don't love how they turned out. I don't love the colors.

[01:47:37] But I'm working with the acrylic that we've got right now until we can buy fancy different colors. I think these are great. It's got Little Aliens right there. These are hand-painted. And Yokai, we have not forgotten you. I will get some matches in the mail tomorrow. I'm sorry. We suck. These came out really cool. These like glitter. Because after we threw the clear coat on, it kind of makes like a little glitter effect. It's also metallic paint. Oh, it is metallic paint? Yes.

[01:48:08] Okay. Gives me this royal human vibe. See, it was giving me Dandadon vibes. I made these last night. They're very simple. But, I like them. Got your rib cage. People are going to be like, but that's Halloween. And I'm going to be like, but Halloween is year-round for me. That's my life. Exactly. So yeah, thanks for your support. I appreciate it. It was very fun. I got my first two Etsy orders yesterday. Oh yeah, you did. I did. That's awesome. I want to put this thing down.

[01:48:38] Oh, give her to me. My poor baby. She is fighting me. She's struggling. Yeah. Alright, so that's it for this episode. Carden, do you want to say goodbye to everyone? Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye, everyone. Bye.