E09 Blood Bound 01: Meanwhile, at the Airport Ramada

In this episode, Uncle Mike's Book Club discusses chapters 1-3 of Blood Bound. 

This is the episode where you find out what terrible people we actually are. It also begins a new running joke: we start the ongoing way to bring us back from tangents, “Meanwhile, at the Airport Ramada…”
 
We discuss vampire lore across fandoms, vampires not letting go of the fashions from their human days, revisit what a single wide trailer doesn’t have room for, updates on Briggs’s vampire lore (and what would it REALLY take to destroy Wulfe?), if Blood Bound is the creepiest Mercy Thompson book, vampires can grow claws??, what level of naked is Mercy for her retelling of the events of the night with the sorcerer, how Mercy’s single wide trailer can apparently have a third bedroom AND the closets aren’t full and can fit a 6ft tall vampire, why Stefan can sometimes teleport and sometimes not—what are the limits??, if vampires in the Mercy-verse have mirror reflections, enriching your power-word word-power through unfiltered Ben swearing, which Chinese place do they get takeout from??, and speculation about Warren and Ben’s relationship.

Random things mentioned: Days of Our Lives, how the different Mercy-verse readers pronounce names differently, Skeleton Crew (and Disney Star Wars), the creepy Doctor Who episode “Blink,” Kelly’s Band and baby bats, Weekly World News, Coast To Coast AM (you can actually find it in podcast form, though it’s no longer hosted by Art Bell), Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, the Chili’s theme song (by way of Austin Powers), parts of the USA where everyone has blankets draped over their couches, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Demon sweat live, Sorcerer’s code, Repo Man and repossessing demon and devolving into a Night at the Roxbury reference, The Room’s “Anyway, how’s your sex life?” which has theatrical showings where people throw plastic spoons and they play football in tuxedos…

As always, there are potentially spoilers for every single book published in the Mercy-verse: shorts, the Mercy Thompson book series, AND the Alpha and Omega book series (everything through Blind Date with a Werewolf, anyway). It’s okay if you aren’t caught up, as long as you’re okay with spoilers for books you haven’t read yet. 

Links:
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Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:04 Recap Guy
00:05:06 Start talking about Blood Bound
00:09:40 More Vampire lore explored
00:11:50 Meeting the new vampire at the hotel
00:17:53 Goth Baby Bats, The Weekly World News, and Coast to Coast AM
00:21:04 Back at the Airport Ramada (Stefan is drooling and Cory is killing)
00:23:54 Mercy comes to with a vampire and a werewolf stare down
00:28:49 Daniel the baby vampire already met the sorcerer backstory
00:30:55 Stefan asks Mercy to testify in the Vampire Seethe Court
00:31:37 Stefan the vampire asks to "sleep" for the day in Mercy's Closet
00:33:39 Do vampires have reflections in the Mercy Thompson universe?
00:35:00 Mercy can't sleep with a dead vampire in her closet
00:36:53 Mercy's VW Rabbit has scars from the night with the vampires
00:38:48 Meet Mrs. Hanna's Ghost
00:39:55 Mercy goes to work fixing cars
00:42:15 Mercy asks Zee about Sorcerers
00:44:39 Mercy is approached by the reporter after hours
00:47:02 Ben and Warren come to watch Mercy/ take her for a nap
00:48:37 Mercy/Warren/Ben relationship hashing out
00:52:29 Wulfe ponderings and episode close
00:53:43 Outtake

Recording Date: 
2026-01-31

YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/UMZMKXeLTzQ

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome to She Who Wrenches, a Mercy Verse reread-along podcast. I'm Brittany. I'm Eric. And I'm Kelly. Today we're mostly talking about Blood Bound, but everything through Blind Date with a Werewolf is fair game, including fair game. Spoiler howl. In case you don't remember, this is the one where we learn how to kill a vampire and discover that sorcerer apparently isn't just a synonym for wizard.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

So Mercy and the Demon Ridden is the subtitle of this one, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:42

But but first, let's get a recap of the last two seconds of Moon Called that we talked about last time.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And now it's time. I guess it already did the sting. Yeah. So I don't have to sing it.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

No, you don't have to sing it. You can, but I'm you can see what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Oh no, I can't sing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

I have a template that just sticks it in in the right spot. I mean, I just move it to the right spot and it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

I thought this was a PG show.

unknown 1:12

PG.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Welcome to She Who Wrenches after dark. So you need your car worked on, huh? Did you blow your head gasket?

SPEAKER_02 1:24

If you're gonna get car talking, you're gonna get so much dirty out.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

No, I'm oh yeah. I have a little crank my crankshaft's knocking. I think I might have thrown a rod.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

At one point in our friendship, he was trying to teach me car things, and um That's adorable. I just kept giggling at all the neighbors.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Everything is just sounds dirty.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

The slang term for camshaft is bump stick.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

If I could bump my own stick and never leave that push push rods, yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Okay. All right, so now it's time for recap. Okay, so now it's time for recap guy! Gabriel shows up to work finally. He'll work for less than minimum wage, but it's like, you know what? I'm gonna prove myself and I'm gonna show you that I'm worth minimum wage. And then we talk about Tad getting jaded in college and our conspiracy theories, our master debating, and this Faye by the barrel years. And then more Gabriel, because Jesse walks in and he he turns into Gabriel Cal Risio, like, oh, what have we here? You certainly belong with us amongst the wrenches.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

That was exactly what I was thinking when you said it.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

We have Scheidenfreuder for Christy because apparently she's mother of the year with all her dating choices. So Jesse gets to go live with Adam. Tony shows up and takes off his fake nose of sunglasses, and Gary's like, oh, hey, you, I want my lunch money back. Adam and Mercy go on their date and uh speak nudge and enter some porch drinks, but you know, uh then uh Samuel comes out and C3POs them, and Samuel and Adam are having a lipstick raising contest, and Mercy's like, uh, I don't have time for this, so I'm gonna put on my celibacy sweats and goes and meets Stefan for a good uh crankshafting repair. Yeah, good crankshafting, you know, because there's plenty of work to do on a vanigan.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

And and and who doesn't love a good crankshafting?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Right? Yeah, I mean it's got the the Vosserboxer engine, so you know in here Yeah, gotta find that coolant leak along those tubes. Yeah. And so I think that's pretty much where the story wraps up, but our podcast kept going and talking about uh different strokes and same old mercy, and Pad May is uh going down a plot we can't follow, and then Urkel in space because that belonged in the uh book about werewolves, um a new Disney show.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

So look, I'm certain we can draw a straight line from there to there.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, so and also uh re-recap why we like the books, because it's time for recap guys and gals, I guess. I don't know. Also, there are there's no third bedrooms in a single wide trailer.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yes. Of all the things that make us need to suspend disbelief, that's the one I feel like is the furthest bridge.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Or as we get to in this book, there's there's also no closet that a six-foot man can lie down comfortably in.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I mean, I feel like that's legit, but if you've got three bedrooms, I feel like maybe it's a little less normal. That's all.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Many's the time where I woke up in my trail having dreamt there was a third bedroom in there, but there wasn't. It's like I'm so disappointed.

unknown 4:49

Get up.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

But how many times did you wake up in the closet?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Uh uh peeing or not.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

And scene. That was the end of the last book. Thank you. Recap guy.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

I know I'm out of the podcast. Let's talk about Blood Bound, shall we? Sure. Really? We're not gonna talk about the latest Disney Star Wars show. That's another podcast, sweetheart. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

We're on to the second book now. So, and this one starts. This one, not I want to not with a bang, but we kind of get a lot of action. No, phone rings in the middle of the night, and it's Stefan saying, Hey, I could really use a favor. Mercy saying, you know what would be a favor is not calling my behind at 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

But I have to work.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

But I will let you finish a finish your sentence as a measure of my love for you. And he needs his favor is uh will you come be my arm candy while I head out to the airport Ramada in a studded leather harness. I gotta see a man about a maid. All right, write that one down, recap guy. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah, I'm kind of sad I didn't come up with that. So yeah, I'm just gonna cry over here.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

We also we also find out an interesting thing about Stefan, and I guess I am gonna pause and pronounce that correctly every time just to make sure we can I continue to remember it, that it's Stefan. Yeah. Which, because there has to be a side quest occasionally, um I I I will never admit this in public, but I watch Days of Our Lives, and there was a character on Days of Our Lives whose name was is is Stefan, and so I was always sort of associating in the book, so sort of my mental picture of him is the guy that played this guy Stefan on Days of Our Lives. And now we find out it's Stefan, and so now it's kind of like a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

But also, that's how Laura Like King pronounces it. So that's been in my head as long as I've been listening to the books.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Exactly. Same. Because apparently, now if if Stefan ever shows up in Aspen Creek, I wonder what his name will be.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

It won't be either Stefan or Stefan. It'll be some weird third thing. You know it's true. It'll be Jeff.

unknown 7:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Like instead of pronouncing the very common name Leah.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

No, it's Leah. It'll be Steve. There it is. Steve Urkel and Stefan. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

That's how we got to Urkel, isn't it? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

So anyway, the thing that we find out about Stefan when he shows up is that he normally doesn't lean into the whole like stereotypical vampire thing. I sort of get the feeling that I mean, because she says, like, I've really never seen him in anything but jeans and t-shirts.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah. She didn't make the observation when he shows up, like in his duster, serious vampire look. It felt more like he had taken off a costume than put on a costume.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I did think that was interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah. And and t-shirts would be relatively new for him.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

In fairness. Like relatively, yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

It's one of those things where Stefan makes an effort to be as human as he can be. To yeah. He's he's trying to assimilate. He fights, he fights like, because a lot of vampires, when they're described, wear whatever clothes were popular when they were alive.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Yeah. At of their time. Like that's it.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Style of clothes. And even though they're really dismissive of humans, like can't seem to let go of that, which is weird.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Which is the thing I was thinking too, as we continue to learn more about the vampires and stuff, is like the fundamental disdain that they have for humanity as a whole. And yet, I don't like, of course I'm gonna go around in this shirt with all the ruffles down the front, like that was that was the height of fashion in my human lifetime. So why would I ever let that go? Is a very weird thing to have along with. But all of you are peasants.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And and I know part of that is like the vampires are more powerful the older they get. And so you don't want to appear young. You want to appear older. I mean, when we get to scrawny boy, then he tries to act older than he really is. Yeah. You know, yeah. Corey Letten.

unknown 9:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Who we meet at the airport Romata, incidentally. That's who we're going to see.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah, in in the uh coyote cover BDSM outfit. Yeah. Oh, they do they do confirm the uh threshold. Like, well, yeah, I mean it would have worked two seconds ago, but you invited me in, so we're good now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

And I like the ones that we get that are that low-key sort of world building. Like when he makes that mention, you know, it's like, oh yeah, that's oh right, that's true. Okay, cool. You know, like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah. Like which of these things are true.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

But also like not having to stop and pull over for a minute and go, okay, here's the rules with all the vampire stuff. Like, we don't get any of that. It's just sort of like, yeah, it would have, but not anymore. Ha ha. And then off we go. You know, it's just the mention, the casual mention that makes the world building sort of work. I appreciate.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Well, and I feel like we were still learning things about vampires in blind date with a werewolf. Like, oh, when they're this old, it doesn't because normally like a dead vampire's ashes was what we thought, but then they're like, no, no, no, if they're this old, they'll come back from ashes. So you better go dump them in salt water. Yeah, which was surprising. I mean, I know Mercy like makes an allusion to that. Like, if she ever, this is a while ago, if she ever killed Wolf, she would also do the like drop him in three different oceans. But like, you didn't know if that was a normal thing or because he was older, just because he's like that creepy to her.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

So And I feel like uh why not both? I think the answer here is yes. Yeah, especially when it comes to Wolf, because yeah, I feel like whether or not that was going to be an effective mechanism, that is like literally the least you could do. I would try to find a way to take like a portion of those ashes and like yeet them into space, you know. Like there's just to be sure, you know, because like mix them in holy water and then yeet that into space, like something. Yeah, heap that into space. You gotta you gotta something. Like there it just feels like given everything that we know about him by the last book, um, yeah. Even then we're not a hundred percent sure that that would actually do him in.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yeah, it's like the end of Christine where you see a little piece move, it's like, ah, Wolf's gotta be back.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

It's very much that. Yes. So we go, we go meet this dude. Yeah. Yeah. Meanwhile, at the airport Ramada.

unknown 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Mercy's like, what's that horrific smell? I can't smell anything past it. The the comment was, how did the car smell more like a vampire than Stefan the vampire? Stephon.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Stefan the vampire, yeah. And they have like a weird conversation, like once they show up. And everything about Stefan is like the opposite of Stefan is ever is like the opposite of everything we know about him so far. Like at one point he like yanks on her leash. Like, that was weird. Like, like all of the other stuff that he's doing and like being very like serious and everything, and it's all weird, and like everything about the way Stefan is acting right now is very weird.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Mercy smells something, and it's like, what is it? Oh, it's fear, and it was Stefan.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Stefan. Yeah, what could scare a vampire? And all of a sudden he's like, Hey, so if I die right now, um, go tell the mistress what happened. Yeah, hook a brother up. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Like, whoa, what? She's like, I'm sorry, what? This was not part of the deal when we left the house. Yeah, no one, no one, yeah, this was not what I signed up for. I was sold a bill of goods. Yeah. Yeah. There's favors and there's favors. And yeah, go tell Marcelia to avenge me is is not favors. Like, come on. We also get them the note that like no one in the hotel, no one is sleeping in the hotel. No one in the hotel is asleep. No one's here and sleeping out.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

When I don't remember how he puts it, but it was like, This is a ghost town.

unknown 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Yeah. Corey was like, There's no one sleeping here.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

He was like, Don't wake anybody up, and Stefan's like, There's no one sleeping here. Like they can all hear heartbeats and there ain't none.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Right. And that was the thing was no one is sleeping, was the part that I was like, Yeah, oh, so does that mean you know that there are more here and we know they and maybe they look sleeping and sleeping, and yeah. So yeah, that was fun. And then Corey comes down with a case of the lols, which was like super creepy.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

All of the giggling.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Uh yeah. You know what's creepier than uh Underhill giggling? Creepy vampire Corey. Yeah. Yeah. Corey Littleton giggling is creepier.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Corey Littleton's lols are terrifying. Yeah. That's yeah, no, no, no, no, no.

unknown 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

And this might be a place to say, I don't know where, but this might be the creepiest book. Like just overall.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, because it starts off really creepy.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

It starts off with yeah, creepy stuff, and it doesn't lighten from there. There is more than one scene where discussing an inf eating an infant happens.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

But also like we get a lot of it's very dark, and we spend a lot of time in that sort of with the sorcerer and the uh like that it is a demon and all this kind of stuff, and we spend a whole lot of time in that without with a lot of discussion of it, and not a lot of like obvious violence or carnage or any of that stuff. We get like, you know, mentions of it. It's a little more silence of the lambs scary because your brain fills in all the stuff that you're not seeing. And so, and this is a lot of like, we're gonna discuss this, and so then you you know, you're filling in the rest of it in the back of your head instead of just seeing, you know, we're getting described. This is what's happening, this is what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

There's more that's hinted at thanks to say like kill bill.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Right. And the hint, this is like the opposite of kill bill, because the hinting is the part that sends your brain into, oh, well, that's because it's whatever is the thing that freaks you out is the thing that that is the hint that you're gonna fill in for yourself. I agree that this is probably the for that reason, because it starts here with the airport holiday in, and then we go from there, you know, and it like never really lightens up a whole lot after that.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

No, there's not a lot of light in this book. There really isn't. I didn't find it unbearable or anything, but it just, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

It's a a much different tone and a much different like vibe, I guess, overall, because of all of that. Because, oh, it's a demon, oh, it's this, oh, it's that. It's ancient things that you know that like we don't normally deal with and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

If you find yourself sleeping in a ranch house in the middle of nowhere by yourself, maybe don't start this book at that time. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, no, that may or may not be when I saw Blink.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Oh, yeah, no.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

No, don't, don't, don't do that.

unknown 16:51

Don't do that.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

I didn't go to bed right after I watched that one more episode. Um, you'll be shocked to learn. I am I am not surprised in the least, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Um, wow. Uh yeah. Uh Doctor Who. Doctor Who blink. It is a fantastic episode. It is a beautiful entertainment unit in and of itself, but that you should totally watch it. Watch it home alone at night. Yes, watch it in the afternoon. This is happy hour viewing. This is not witching hour viewing. Because yeah, it can totally mess with you.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

So uh they start off with the two vampires hurling hurling insults at each other.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Meanwhile, at the airport Ramada.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

And Stephon still insults uh Littleton by saying, You st you still have that new vampire smell.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah. Fresh off the showroom floor.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Which apparently is an insult. Yeah, but apparently it's a pretty big insult for vampires. And the fangs come out.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

What's really funny about that is that uh I've seen a lot of long story, but my Instagram feed for the band that I am in is a little weird. And it shows a lot of things from accounts that are for like goth people. And apparently I'm shocked. If you are a goth person and you have not been at it very long, then you are referred to as a baby bat. And so it was when I hear when I'm watching them go, oh, you know, you've still got that fresh off-the-showroom floor smell. All I can hear in the back of my head is you baby bat.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

And it just amuses me. Oh, it really works. It really works. Okay. Or Bat Boy.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

No, Bat Boy's different. He is the patron saint of the weekly world news.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Ah that was my favorite tabloid because it was the only one that was funny. It was supertaining. Yeah. I I bought more than one issue of that. I don't know what you're talking about. You remember when I interviewed you to Coast to Coast? It was that, but in magazine form. Or Coast to Coast. Yeah. Art. Coast to Coast was the thing where the guy would interview somebody with some wacky conspiracy, and every time every time he was 100% on board with it, even though it was totally different from last week's conspiracy. And the one you listened to was the one with the guy named who thought he was the reincarnation of Adam. Oh, I you know, I vaguely remember something. And my favorite line is he was like, Yeah, I know you wouldn't know me from well, Adam.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Wow.

unknown 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Art Bell was really something. Oh coast to coast. Coast to coast is mmm. Oh, that's the stuff right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

And it was it was it was always just right, and he always was really knowledgeable about whatever their crackpot thing was that week.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

And so, like, here for it. Whatever it was. Yes. Doesn't matter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Yeah. You can get the archive, but you do have to get a subscription. I didn't trust me to remember to unsubscribe, or I would have like gone on a binge.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Oh, it would have been online. Yeah, there it is. It still may someday. There are still um less official sources for some of that stuff where people have been like, this is one I was on and shared it, or like I have the saga of this thing that happened across several episodes and it's all archived here for you to listen to.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Like, oh yeah, it's oh if I was ever awake in the middle of the night, I'd be like, oh, right, I should scan and see if it's on right now. And a shocking amount of the time it was.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah, because you know what is only good at night? Coast to coast with our bell.

unknown 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Oh, wait, no, I don't know if it would work in the daytime. It would not work in the daytime. For newborn nighttime feedings. We'll do a worklog of coast to coast. Okay. Because it is way better if you're sleep deprived.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

I was gonna say it might make more sense if you're sleep deprived. I think it did make more sense.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

We could listen to it now then.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It is entirely possible that listening to it now would be like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I get it. I see what you're saying. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. Go artibelle. Coast to coast. Yes. So baby bats at the airport remada.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So baby bats. So, yeah, vampire remada.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Yeah, I think we've already got an episode title. Meanwhile at the airport remada. So midnight at the airport remada. Does it sound more interesting that way? So even though we know it's like four in the morning. No one is sleeping. Wink. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

At a certain point, Stefan sort of stops responding like us, Stefan, would. Yeah. And Corey gets creepier, and uh maid is brought out like dessert and very kindly does not spare us much of the details, but Mercy's response to it. She's trying to tug on her leash, she's trying to get away, she's trying to stop him. And save the maiden can't do it. Is completely trapped there and has to just watch this happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Yeah. And apparently Stefan grows claws. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Right. Like he had the fangs showing and the eyes red, which we hear other times, but like his hands were actually like fingers were like clawish. Yeah. Taleko. Yeah. When does that come in handy? Anyway. Good question. So yeah, I was like, oh yeah, I hadn't really caught that before. So he's being all creepy, gross, but actually not doing anything and just staring.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

But it's still very creepy because Stefan has become the anti-Stefan. And like is not and it's not like we know him super well at this point. This is the second book. He had like a casual at best walk-on part in the first one. But still, everything we know about him at this point sort of flies out the window. Like a bat of Stefan that we did not that we did not realize. That and we find out from Mercy that Mercy did not realize was a thing. So, which is part of where she starts getting freaked out.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Though it's a cold and lonely night, they can still see murder by the motel light. Bat out of motel, just saying.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Oh no!

SPEAKER_00 23:29

I need something stronger.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Yeah. All I have is water.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah. Oh, why can't you beat him? Mercy tries to get him. Put those fangs on his throat. He heals it like immediately, throws her at the wall, and she's out. O-U-T out. But she had to like witness the whole maid being killed slowly and painfully.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah. And it's a whole thing. So like the I think the next chapter starts like Mercy's like waking up and hears a very grumpy werewolf.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's like her Adam and Samuel still arguing on the porch about six months later. Six months later. They could be. I mean, werewolves hold a grudge.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

I mean, yeah. And she like wakes up. I don't know if she opened her eyes, but she like comes to basically and is like, I've been better.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

I feel like a vampire threw me across the room.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

So he's grumpy because he's like, I'm not a vet. And that's sort of when Mercy's like, oh yeah, I'm still a coyote. That's weird. And she's like, well, let me fix this so that I can go calm everybody down. And she goes to shift and like lol, no. Because she's still all harnessed up.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Stefan's like, oh, I have to take her out of her street walker uh harness.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Gotta get this back to the club. Yeah. Samuel's like, back the app up, and then he goes to do it. And is like, ow, ow, ow, ow. And Stefan goes, Yeah, it's silver, but if you want to let me, I can do this and it won't hurt you.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah. Sit burn, Stefan.

unknown 25:10

Ow.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

But pretty much, yeah. So we finally free her. She changes shape and she goes, Let me tell you about the evening I've had. And Stefan is like, hmm, that's not the evening I had.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

He swears up and down, this is what happened. And she swears up and down, oh uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Well, I mean, he was suspicious that his memory was wrong because he didn't remember Mercy getting hurt and he would have.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Which is part of which is another piece of the well, isn't that interesting that we get out of this? Because he's like, I yeah, because he has been trying to reconcile this the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

From So he got the vampire Roofie.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yes! From the time that they have fled the airport Ramada to getting back to her house in Finley and like getting her there, say, you know, waking Samuel up, making all of this happen so that you know everybody's like staring at her on the couch, trying to figure out, you know, if she's okay, how not okay she is for whatever reason. And so all of that time he's been trying to reconcile, like she's messed up, I don't remember it. I really feel like that's a thing that I would know, and I feel responsible because I'm the one that asked her to go with me. I don't know how this happened, but I have all the evidence in front of my eyeballs that it did. Something's up. And he knows something's up and is trying to figure out what it is, which is part of why he's really interested in finding out what she remembers about the evening. So she's like, here's what I saw. And he's like, Here's what I remember, which turns into, hey, do you remember that time when we went to the vampire seed and and and you were there and Samuel almost got taken down by a vampire that plays piano? That was awesome. Yeah. Let's do it again. Do you remember how much fun you had last time? Because we're gonna do it again now. Well, not now, because he says, Hey, guess what? It's so late in the day. Uh, I can't get anywhere. You got a closet.

unknown 27:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Can't take a step back. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

So something that I find very distracting since I noticed it, and I hope I don't ruin it for you forever, but sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Um sorry, not sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

I shifted because you're telling me anyway. Yeah. Right. So she shifts, right, into human and at no point ever gets dressed. So is she just sitting there telling this entire story naked?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Samuel uh takes the blanket off the couch that she used to cover up the thing that Ravia has scratched up her couch and puts it over. Okay, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

So she's got a blanket on something.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

I mean, she's still wearing a coke and a smile this entire time.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Yeah. But she has a blanket. Okay, she's got the blanket. I don't know how I missed that.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Because it's a very small detail buried in all the other stuff that's happening. That's why.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

There's a lot of stuff happening, but I swear I was listening for it and not finding it. But okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

I only remember it because I'm like, okay, so this is another legitimate thing of my native land, is that all couch backs have blankets upon them. Uh, regardless, like the origin of the blanket can vary from place to place to place, couch to couch to couch. But a lot of times it was it was somebody's grandma in the 60s or the 70s who has bestowed this upon you and you have nowhere else to put it except the back of the couch. Ask me how I know. So, yes, there's a blanket.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

What would have been nice to tell Mercy beforehand, which was, oh no, I was suspicious that he'd already altered a vampire's memories, but he was a baby vampire. So I didn't think it would happen to me. And that's what we hear about Daniel's story.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah, that we didn't realize that it would work on an actual vampire. We just thought he could maybe work his magic on a baby bat, not on a real vampire. Poor Daniel.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

He he's dying from guilt.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Yeah. Yeah. And on a hunger strike.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Which is which is interesting because later um Ben eats him and then he's dying from guilt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

So You are what you eat, I guess. Guilt. I mean What's your guilt food? Well. Vampire. Vampire. Baby bats. Baby bats. I want my baby bat, baby bat, baby bat.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

I know how that ends, and it's not better, and it's still funny.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

No, it's not better. No. Ribs. Get in my belly.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Oh no. Oh no. Oh wow. Well, that's playing on a loop in my head the rest of the day. Yep. Uh yeah, so yeah, after all this, turns out Daniel's Catholic because he's just covered in guilt all the time. And it's eventually killing him. So yeah, he's super Catholic. We get it, we do get a name, I think, at this point. Like we find out Stefan confirms the name with the hotel, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I think is Cory Littleton.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

No, we know it's there, Port Romata. Yes, Cory Littleton.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Well, he did.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

That was back when they were at at the hotel.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Oh, at the hotel. Okay. Okay. I thought we had gotten that as part of the like part of the investigating or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

So No, that was that was like in conversation with Corey. Okay. They're like, hey, you gotta come testify for me because you know, if you don't, they'll just assume that my testimony's real and they'll probably kill me for it.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Yeah, and we're and and at this point we're all pretty sure it isn't true. And that's why they need you to talk to them. So yeah, this is that whole, yeah. Do you remember that one time when we went to the Steve and like almost all of you almost died? That was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

So we should do that again, is where that. Yeah. It was fun. Yeah. Remember how much fun you had last time almost dying? Yeah. Can we try that one more time with feeling? Remember the piano recital?

SPEAKER_02 31:33

That was that was fun. Maybe not Samuel. He tastes too good. Yeah. And then this is when he's like, hey, is there room for me, a six-foot-tall guy, in your single wide closet?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

In your obviously single wide trailers closet.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

And apparently the answer is yes, sure. Also, I haven't filled it with stuff that I need to trail out of it. It was like easy to clear out, which I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Which leads me to believe maybe it's a single wide. Maybe she just keeps all the actual stuff in the closet of the office in that mythical third bedroom. That's all I can think of. This is another belief moment because she says, Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do think I have a place where you can sleep on a pillow with a blanket because in a closet. Yeah, in my closet, because you will be sleeping. Because ain't no dead people up in here. Correct. Ain't no dead people up in here. So you will be sleeping. This is what's happening. Although I always thought that this was later, the reread, reading this, oh, that sounds like really terrible after all this stuff happened for him to be like, oh crap, now I'm stuck. Then we find out later he can teleport. And I'm like, why is it that you think you can't get where you're going at this moment?

SPEAKER_02 32:55

I think, okay, this is my headcanon. Yes. But um it's too close to daylight for like his power drains as the sun gets close to rising. And so he may not have enough power to teleport. And also he's just been through some stuff. Also, he's just been through some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah, so there may not be a lot of juice in that battery. Again.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

That's that's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah. I just remember when we find out he can teleport and then and that he can take someone with him. And I'm like, wait a minute. Wasn't there a point when he had to sleep in the closet because then I was like, hmm. So you can't.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

There's definitely limits to his teleportation throughout the thing. And even at one point we find out, oh, Marsilia can teleport way further. Oh, yeah. And probably not need as much rest time in between. Yeah. Coop time. So we never address it directly. Like it's never addressed directly that I can recall. Obviously, my memory is not perfect. But I am just assuming, based on like side effects, vampires have reflections in this universe, right? I don't know. Like, I got into this with Ollie for a while, a a baby bat themselves, a friend of ours. I was like, I don't, I think they can't, because there's like they're not captured well on camera, but they are captured. And it's not said what technology is used for this camera, but if it is of a certain vintage, mirrors are in him. I'm assuming because it hasn't really been brought up that they do have reflections, but that is one of the like mythos that um we haven't really directly confronted. Yeah. But I feel like it would have come up if they did not have reflections. Also, how how the F does that work? Like everything has a reflection. I know. Anyway, it breaks my brain a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

It's been one of those things forever with vampires. That's like, yeah, yeah, it's been one of those things.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

It's very funny and dead and loving it, but mostly I think it's ridiculous. So I'm glad that that doesn't appear to be a thing, but also I don't have like hard evidence that it's not a thing. I have light evidence that it's not a thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Yeah. We don't really spend a lot of time with it, I don't think. So no. Now it's the next day. The sun has come out because we had to stuff stuff on in a closet. So Mercy like rolls out.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

She's like, I'm not sleeping with a dead guy in my closet.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Yeah. She's uh uh she's sort of realizing that maybe now she is in fact slept wrong years old because everything hurts and all of it's terrible and she has to like make noise to you know stand up and everything. Samuel, bless his heart, called Z and was like, You can have the day off if you want the day off, because I called him already and he said and decided he would go cover the shop for you. So you've got a sick day if you want a sick day. She like attempts and then fails. Because like lays down and goes, and it's one of those things, you know, where your brain goes, There's a dead guy in your closet. And so then, you know, oh crap, yeah, um, that's not gonna fly. So uh I guess I'm up after all. She gets up, rolls out to the kitchen, and her day just gets better and better. Because who's sitting in the kitchen but the sampler platter himself with a cup of coffee and the friendly neighborhood Alpha on the other side of the table, staring right back at him.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Yep, having that lipstick raising contest.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Man, it just gets funner and funner as they continue.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Mercy kind of gives herself away a little bit because she's been avoiding Adam since they're like Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Date Too Hot to Trot date. And so she's like, Oh, I thought you were gonna be out of town. And he's like, Oh, you're tracking my movements. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

You know what I'm up to, don't you? Uh-huh. Isn't that interesting?

SPEAKER_02 36:45

And then you get another porch argument like thing where she's like, Yeah, I want out of here now.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yeah, you lose my tracksuit.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

No. She gets to see evidence of the night before in her trusty rabbit car.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

With the uh blood in it and a dent on the dash.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

I don't know why she's so surprised there's a dent in a dash. I don't think it's terribly hard to do that to a rabbit.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

I don't know if you can tell VW isn't Eric's car.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah. Maybe it's because it's a new one and like you can see the fingerprints of it, I think is part of why it's it's not like it was a pristine dashboard and now it has been defiled by whatever happened by this deck. Right. I don't think that's the case, but my headcanon in this moment was that it's like because it was fingers, because it was Stefan grabbing the dashboard.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Oh, was it? I thought he punched it.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Or maybe he punched it, but it's very obvious it was something that Stefan did in the night, which would not be the regular wear and tear of a usual in my head. Whatever the dent is, it's obvious where it came from. And so I think that's part of why like it really strikes her as like, you know, he did something. I know Eric, but something hard enough to leave a lasting mark on the dashboard, like that's pretty notable.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

I mean all Stefan smash.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Exactly. Yeah. Then we spend a little bit of flashbacky time. We move on to, oh, because Mercy's trying to sort things out, and so she's remembering like living in Aspen Creek and Samuel and when she got sent away, and all these kinds of things, and then like, oh yeah, and then I went on a date with Adam, and I've been trying my hardest to ghost him, even though that's not a phrase yet that people use at this point. Like, I'm I'm still ghosting him.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Um and a date with a werewolf before that was written.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Yeah, which is great because you know, she can talk to ghosts, so you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

On the way in, we meet Mrs. Hannah's ghost.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Yeah. But do we know that she's a ghost at this moment?

SPEAKER_02 38:59

We do. I think as she's walking away, like as they're ending the conversation, she's like, she's like, she was wearing, you know, warm clothes, but of course it was a cool night when she died. So of course she's wearing things. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

I couldn't remember where where it comes in that yeah, we know that this is she's not regular folk. That's just sort of like a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

Because I don't think the ghost thing gets. It's very spiritual. I don't think the ghost thing gets directly addressed in the previous book. Like, I think it's obscurely mentioned, like, people say there's no such thing as ghost, but it's not like no, no, no. Like, I am the ghost whisperer. Yeah, I can't look anywhere without seeing a dead people.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Yeah. So we meet her. This is when she like is looking out for her. She's like, You should get a bag of frozen peas for that. Because like, because boys won't like you if you have a black eye or whatever it is that she says, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Well, I think she assumed it was from karate.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Boys don't like girls with too many muscles. Oh, okay, yeah. Cause I remember she tells uh Gabriel, because Gabriel's like, What happened to you? Karate. So then we meet some dude who says he's like heard of her. Like, I know who you are.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Well, yeah, he his thing that he comes in with is she's like, oh, stupid white belt, and he's like, Oh, I wouldn't want to fight a white belt, blah, blah, blah. As an edge in and introducing himself, and she's like, bye-bye. I go to the garage now.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Yeah, I don't, I don't enjoy this conversation. Oh, look at my wrist. I must be going somewhere else right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Yeah, I think I hear a water pump leaking. I gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

I think that crank just shafted. I gotta leave. I I got business. Any other game?

unknown 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

She goes in, she strolls into the garage, and what does she get in the garage? A huge ration of static from Z himself, who's like, Oh, you should not be, oh uh-uh, you are in so much trouble. Don't talk to vampires. Doo-do-do. What are you doing? And then, like, he's in the middle of getting up a full head of steam to really give her the business and is basically like, hang on, gets out his phone, calls Samuel, and says, Yeah, she's right here. I'm not done yelling at her yet. Stops, tells her, I'll be right with you, calls Adam, hi, she's here, I'm not done yelling at her yet. Thanks, bye. Hangs up and then tries to go back to it. And eventually Mercy just gets mad at him and tells him, Oh, yeah, I'm all bruised up because me and Adam, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And then, like, stomps off. At the end of at the end of a completely reasonable and adult conversation, they have a a what's the phrase? A full and frank exchange of views. And then we move on to uh she comes back in her work clothes with you know the jumpsuit on or whatever, and Z finally, you know, fine, take a wrench and go crank that shaft, and and then uh off we go.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Go change the headlight fluid.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

That shaft needs cranked. That crank needs shafted. Take your pick. I don't know which one is the one you actually have to do. So they start finally settling in and and everybody kind of calms down a little bit because now we got cars to swear at instead of each other. So we're gonna do that for a while. Till Mercy can't help herself and goes, So, Z, you olden so and so. What do you know about sorcerers?

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Yeah, you ever heard that dancing album, Demon Sweat Live? Um so backstory to that, or he's like, oh, Mother.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

So we try to find out about sorcerers. Basically, it it starts to it starts out as a vocabulary lesson, right? Isn't that like do you mean sorcerer? Is it demon or a devil? Yeah. Is it a devil? Is it something else that starts with D? You know, we kind of get some what sort of capability do they have depending on uh depending on who's driving this particular crazy train, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Yeah, they have to look up the sorcerer's code. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

Ow, that one hurts.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

So that's for you, techies. If they're a demon rider or demon ridden, like who's right, and eventually the demon will be in control, but how long can they hold out?

SPEAKER_01 43:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

So before they get repossessed.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Now I'm just thinking about repo man in a completely different world.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. And I was like, Emilio!

SPEAKER_01 43:45

So we spend some time on on the the semantics of the situation, and like it matters who's driving the bonker's bus. It matters at first, but at the end, it's always gonna be the demon doing the driving. So just so we're clear, this is what's up. This is where we're headed. So if this is what's actually happening, we have a huge problem. Basically, like we have a huge problem. It's gonna take all kinds of know-how and probably Z and who knows who else to solve. So kickback, coyote. The grown-ups are gonna take care of this for you. Because we all know how well that goes. The end of the book. And now we're on to book three because Mercy stays out of it and everyone else takes care of it for her. The end.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

The end. Okay, so next time we're gonna tug. No, I'm just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

So we get to the end of the day now that we've had our vocabulary lesson and everything else. And Mercy's like, no, guys, I'm good. Y'all can go. So she sends everybody home. She's there by herself. And who should show up at the garage?

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Enjoy it while it lasts, Mercy. You're not gonna get to stay by yourself that much longer.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Exactly. So then she gets a whole bunch of deeply inappropriate questions if this were a good friend of hers to be asking. And this is just literally some dude off the street strolls up and is like, so getting it on with Adam. Let's talk about that a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Let's ask if you're having sex with the werewolf. Yeah, you do it. Doggy style, what? I don't know. So must be how's your sex life? Yeah, anyway, Musty.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Hold on, I need to go get some plastic spoons to throw at you. Eric, do you have a football in the other room? We could toss back and forth this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

No, but I I'll I'll bring it up.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

We do have a tuxedo jacket, though.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Yeah. Oh, okay. Very important.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Now you can learn how to play ball.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

So Mercy finally clues into this dude and is like, oh, well, you're a reporter. You're not trying to like, I see what your agenda is. Your agenda here is you're trying to write some story. Uh again, they they don't really have this at this time, but you're trying to like cli write some sort of clickbaity article about me, and I'm not having it.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

So that's fairness is way less creepy than you thought at first, right? Yes. Like, oh, you know, please open with that next time because otherwise, ew.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

Just because OMG ew. Yeah. So so much ew. And then she's like, so yeah, no. And he goes, Yeah, but but the check won't bounce, and you'll be famous. And she's like, hmm, let me think about that for a minute. No. No. Still no. No, no. No.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

And then Warren's like, the litus said no.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

So, and not only did we get Warren, but we also get Ben. And again, I am going to express my desire to pay a couple of dollars extra to get the book that has unfiltered Ben in it. Because I feel like everyone, whenever you get a chance to enrich your word power, you should take it. And when those are power words, it pays to enrich your power word word power. So I really want the opportunity at that. And I also appreciate that I think I just broke Britney a tiny little bit there. He says, Well, let me give you my card. And she's like, It's contaminated, but fine. If it means you'll go away, then good. Go away. So then Ben is basically like, Wow, you look terrible. Which just endears him to everybody. And then we find out why they magically showed up out of nowhere. I know it wasn't magical, but still.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Um, it's because they are under orders. The werewolf protection program.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Yeah, you have an entourage now.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

To go to the seeth. Which is good, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

You're going to the seeth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

We go hang out in Richland, so Mercy can take a power nap and get all gussied up at Warren's house. She crashes, wakes up, Chinese food. Hey, alright. I feel like I know the Chinese place in Richland. Because I think I've been there. Um, they never name it, but I've now decided that it's that Chinese place. Um their barbecue pork is spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

Um Walker's welcome.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Over dinner, we find out off screen, Adam called, and that Stefan has hit the ro Stefan has hit the road. So he's up and out the door. So your house is now sleeping guy free. So if you want to go home, you're good now. Because this day has not been spectacular enough already. We get Ben going, tell me why you do not like me. I really need to know. And we're gonna have it out over some chow mein, and this is what's happening. You don't like women. Yeah, Mercy's like, uh, well, here are all the ways that you suck. There are like two, and here they are, and I'm not a fan of either of those things. So here we go.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

The line I enjoyed was she was like, You don't like women, and he's like, hey, points at Warren, like, there's a guy who doesn't like women, and he's like, I like women just fine, better than most men. I just don't want to sleep with them. Yeah, which I appreciate.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

I really like that about I like that Warren is very like upfront about that.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

He's not mad. I like that he and Ben kind of get on fine.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

They don't expect, yeah, they have an interesting relationship at this point in book two, because we have to add the head can in here. I feel like the two of them have had this similar conversation like a relatively a long time ago, like not long after Ben came to the pack, because Warren was just not gonna have it and is probably looking out for mercy a little bit, and is basically like, here's what we know about why you're here, and we need to have this out. And I feel like Warren was maybe the first because he sort of got assigned, Ben sort of got assigned to Adam. So I feel like Warren was the first person in the pack to give him a chance, kind of, and like I'm gonna kind of set this stuff. I know what you're accused of, and I know the circumstances, and I feel like Ben looked him in the eye and said, I did not do this, and that Warren believed him, and that was like the first person here, you know, Tri Cities, that like was able to just take him at his word and go, like, you know, I'm I'm watching you. If you say you didn't do it, I'm gonna try and believe you in that. And, you know, I can tell if you're lying, right? So I feel like they at some point had it out, and so Ben is sort of not holding Warren's preferences against him, and Warren is not holding Ben's accusations against him, and the two of them are gonna just sort of take each other at face value, and it's very much a at this point, it feels a little tenuous, but it's very don't start nothing, won't be nothing kind of a situation. And so the two of them are sort of like good with each other at this point, and I like in my head, that's a thing that happened off screen. It's like the two of them had it out and they've decided like I will take you on a trial basis. We're still within the return window.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

And they're both sort of people who don't fit in the pack in a traditional sense. Correct. For very different reasons, but yeah, they're a little, they're a little misfitty that way.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

The two of them are now the island of misfit wolves. Suddenly the phone rings, which apparently causes Mercy to choke on her General Toes chicken. We find out, uh, we have a reservation at the seeth this evening. Make sure to wear a jacket, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

We're a turtleneck.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

There you go. There is a dress code for the seeth. So they're like, you know where it is, right? And Mercy's like, I I don't want to, but yes. Yeah. Try not to think about it. Yeah, I I've this is why I drink. I drink to forget where it is. But you know what? It hasn't looked yet. So yeah, I know where we I know where we're going.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Let's uh let's do this. Yep. And that's probably where we should leave it at the end of chapter three. The next thing we'll do is chapter four, where they go to the seed. And we meet Wolf. He's really like one of the biggest characters that doesn't even get a mention in the first book.

SPEAKER_01 52:47

Yeah, because he takes up so much space in the rest almost.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Yeah. He takes up, I mean he doesn't take up a lot of words, but he takes up a lot of emotional space.

unknown 52:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Because he's always kind of in the mix after this, even if we're not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

Yeah. Like he's he's always uh he's a whole thing. And he's one of the very few characters that's that big that comes in early, but not in the first book. Right? I mean, like later we get Sack, later we get Sherwood Post, but um, like there there are characters that come in later, but Wolf is so big and and not in the first one, which is just interesting. So we're gonna go to the seed next time in chapter four. Thanks for joining us. Should we have a farewell howl? I think so. Okay.

unknown 53:33

Ow.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

I said I was gonna write that down, and now I have absolutely no recollection of what I was gonna write down. From like 30 seconds ago. I wish I had thought of that one.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

30 seconds would be awfully long for me.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

I know. Well, we'll rewind it.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

There's literally a recording of it.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

We'll rewind the tape from here. I'm gonna say that a couple times. Rewind the tape.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

We do. So we'll page you if when we find it.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

There it is.