I Talked To God | CreepCast

32:15that's all right not every problem is going to get solved immediately that said we're outsourcing this problem

32:25i'll keep trying sergeant thank you sir

32:33just uh not every problem is going to get solved immediately as they're flying in between the two of them like straight into the walls.

32:48His smile was friendly. There was a twitch in his brow. Something in his voice. I've poisoned this scene for me. I apologize. It's something in his voice like annoyance I hadn't heard before. Wait. Am I being fired? No, no, no, no. A brilliant mind like yours? No. No, no, no, no. That's the most condescending shit I've ever heard in my life, dude. No, no, no, no. A brilliant mind like yours? Slingshotting the babies into the wall with goggles and helmets? No. You're actually being promoted. Getting a nice fat bonus to your pay. Plus, new security clearances. I nodded my head and then asked, Will I still be in this office and in the same lab?

33:33General shook his head. Son, you'll have the new office and a lab. Both on sub-basement 11. My eyes grew wide. Sub-11? Wait, there aren't even buttons for that on the elevator. When? Put his hand up to stop me. You'll be using the elevator you didn't even know existed before now. You'll need this. Reduced a new badge, this time with a magnetic strip running along it. Follow me. I did as I was told and followed the general out of my office, which was immediately flooded by a few men who proceeded to grab anything that belonged to me and towed it after us. Just arms full of baby dolls. Leave the baby dolls, dick.

34:15I can't. It's my life's work. I'll never know. I looked back and began to object. I looked back and began to object. One of them started manhandling sensitive equipment. Yeah, the slingshot. But the general waved as we continued down the corridor. It's just that infant mortality is so far removed from cybernetics that I'm sure it's going to come into the story somewhere, and that's why, but it's so abrasive initially. Well, we've had so far we've had three deaths, but none of them have been infants, so it just feels jarring, I think. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. We rode the elevator back up to the ground floor and passed a few more hallways up to a door I'd seen a few times, but never paid a second glance to.

35:03It was labeled Supply Closet Omega, which now that I read it seems somewhat odd now that I see the closet was labeled Omega that was suspicious a closet labeled Omega in a giant building called Esoteric Tronics seems kind of weird that there's an Omega here in this building called Esoteric Tronics and I've been firing children at the wall for the past 13 years every single room there's just babies flying

35:41these babies keep dying god damn it when will it be enough yeah we need more babies the general inserted my key card into a slot beside the door which unlocked with a hiss and swung open inside the room was a series of computers with men and women sitting at them working diligently across the room a set of elevator doors awaited me you'll be working alongside these men and women here when it comes to contacting us with project updates through the elevator you'll find an access to sub levels three through eleven go ahead and head down to your lab and you'll be briefed by your colleagues your office is just there and he pointed to another door which now had my name on it i walked up to the office door and opened it a set of oranges and pine needles wafted out of the office which seemed old and unused when i closed the door again glass rattled slightly i could see that the lettering used to spell my last name was much older than the lettering used to spell my first and i could also see the outlines of residue and the shapes of letters spelling my father's name underneath it you think he's just being tested on uh no i think the idea was that he thought his father was staying home, didn't have a job, but he was actually part of this program.

36:57Flash forward a year, and I was no closer to a solution to this problem than I was infancy mortality issues. You gotta quit mentioning them. The babies won't stop falling.

37:15Damn you, baby! Damn you to hell no matter what i tried what combination of elements were used or methods of cooling helium still seemed like the best option left the office on a cool spring night air damp from recent rain drove home to my two-bedroom apartment i shared with elaine my wonderful world greeted me as i came into the living room slipping off my shoes and sinking into the couch she sat down beside me and curled up to me stroking my face tenderly as it let out a long sigh and pressed my fingers to my temples. Rough day? She asked. I nodded. Well, tell me about it. Not particularly, it's just that we're no damn closer to a solution now than a year ago.

37:59She shrugged my chest now, almost nervously. Well, I have some exciting news. I looked up and she reached behind her, slowly pulling the...

38:21she reached behind her slowly pulling out a pregnancy test my eyes honed in on the blue shade of the tip i stammered over my words what wait are we we i'm gonna be a dad she nodded her head excitedly and i wrapped her up in my arms and i jumped off the couch picking her up and dancing around this baby is i hate to say but this baby is fucking dead dude it's such a bummer it's it's such a bummer to be like we're so happy just to know i'm like there's no fucking way in hell that baby is lasting infant mortality three times infant infant mortality rates far far too often to have any kind of hope that this baby's gonna make it to fucking two yeah right bro god daddy wants to introduce you to my slingshot yeah that's why I was gonna make a joke about how that the story now enters an interesting moral complexity because it's like, you know, his whole career is slingshotting babies, but now that he has one of his own, will he be able to put it in the slingshot?

39:38I think what's going to happen if I can try to set my own bear trap is that the dad, which by the way, bear trap with the baby died thing. I know the story brought it up, but it's mine. It's mine now. So that's fine. I think that we're heading in an area where the dad tested on something on the main character when he was a baby and it's getting ready to be like, you know, the cycle continues kind of thing. Yeah. I don't know what that experiment is, but I do think that it's like a generational kind of meme. Yeah, yeah, I think so. That's why he's able to see it. And I think all of his kids, that's probably why his sister and brother are so messed up.

40:18Yeah. They're older than him? Or no, his sister was five years younger than him, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think they all were. I think all of them have been experimented on. we kissed deeply and went to the bedroom to celebrate that night for the first time in a year i dreamed in the dream i was floating once again in that black room where only a sliver of light could be seen this time there were no figures moving in the light beyond the light began to fade soon i was enveloped in nothing but a pitch black darkness as if i shut my eyes tightly in the void I could see small dots no, clusters of dots the rings rotating around them and each ring containing its own dots I recognized these as atoms as the dots floated freely above my head I counted the electrons around me floated atoms of melanithum, barium, copper, and oxygen soon the metal atoms would dance around me combining them pairs with the oxygen ones to form powders and solids then fire blazing hot from underneath as if a portal to hell had opened up and i could feel the flames lick me from underneath it came and it burned everything around me until all at once it disappeared what was left was a shiny black floating disk of monanthinium barium copper oxide perfect material for my problems.

41:45A superconductor capable of handling the heat of hell. Woke up in a sweat with the lame beside me and jumped out of bed, which garnered a groggy response from L. So excited I didn't even recognize that all too familiar smell in the air. I ran into the living room and dragged out a blackboard where I hastily wrote down the formula of this new inorganic compound. cu ba zero 15 la 1.85 oxygen 4 but you have a one point a point whatever i sketched out the structure and stepped back to look at my work yes this was it the solution to my problems i quickly went over to the phone and began to dial the number to the lab before a clock on the stove caught my eye it was only 3 a.m no one was even awake or there right now I couldn't sleep When Elaine woke up around 5 she came to the living room Where I had sat staring at the blackboard the entire time Richard?

42:43I smiled at her Elaine this is it The solution to the heat Pointed eagerly at the blackboard Which she glanced at and gave me a groggy thumbs up Before going back to the bathroom Another hour passed and Elaine left to go to the hospital She worked at as a nurse on a base in Maryland Finally I was able to get ready And head out myself for the lab I was so eager to share my discovery that I had to drive back ten minutes in and get my keycard When I got to the lab, I could hardly contain myself I entered the supply closet and revealed my findings to my colleagues and team of workers who relayed the information to the general It was a few hours later when he would arrive, coming down to the 11th sub-level and into the lab Richard!

43:23Good news I hear! He opened his arms wide and then came in to shake my hand His grip was tight on my hand Yes, sir. Very, very good news. A breakthrough. Said excitedly, clasping the open hand and shaking it. I've discovered the key to our heating problem. This is wonderful, son. Tell me, how'd you do it? Oh, sir, that's the funniest thing about it. It was a dream, actually. Caught a glance between the general and one of my colleagues, followed by a small nod. Then he turned his gaze back to me. Walk with me, son. I did as I was told and fell on a step beside the general. A dream, huh? We approached the elevator.

44:01The doors opened and we stepped inside. As the doors were shut, the second time of my time here saw men entering the lab to take things out. Sir? What do you know about your father, son? Stared at him in a stunned silence before asking quietly. My father? The elevator lurched and its doors opened. We couldn't have gone farther than a floor or two. Yes, son, your father. I understand he was a stay-at-home father for most of your life. What do you know about before your life? I raked my memory for stories about him before me being born, only to be slightly shocked. I knew absolutely nothing. I responded as much, and the general nodded.

44:39I suspect they'd keep it quiet. It was their duty, after all. He stepped out into an enormous room with computer towers and monitors active, all of them stationed by men in radiation suits. Two of the men got up and brought up suits of our own. The general indicated for me to suit up, and I did. Looked at one of the men and said, Make sure all that info from upstairs gets out to IBM. They'll know what to do with it. The man nodded, got on the elevator, and scented. He strode over to some consoles, which showed on its black screen of dots surrounded by interlocking rings, each ring itself containing multiple dots.

45:15An atom, sir? The general chuckled. Well, kind of, but no. We walked to a door on the far side of the room and entered a hallway which shot out for a few hundred feet before turning sharply to the right. Your father worked here, as I'm sure you noticed by the door. In the late 30s and early 40s, he worked on a top secret project. You know it as the Manhattan Project. Down here, we just called it another part of Project Gabriel, as we will with your superconductors. Unofficially. Officially, that information is on its way to IBM. I know he's saying like I was a part of a greater test, but that's just funny.

45:53that it's like, to me, the Manhattan Project is just another project. That's what it's like in this sick and twisted mind of mine. Still remained silent until we neared the corner. But why, sir? He stopped just before the corner. The general turned to look at me directly, sizing me up and down. Son, what you're about to see is highly classified. With your dream and this new information you've brought us, I think it's finally time to let you in on this project Turn the corner to yet another hallway This time a single door lay on the right side of it All the way at the end There's no light coming from under it And a feeling in my stomach like waves against the bow of a ship hit me hard My legs felt like iron as I dragged them along after the general The door at the very end of the hall had a keypad to its side And the general stepped in between me and the pad to enter a code With a green flash of light and a very loud thud noise, the door hissed and swung open Inside, lights began to cut on one by one, revealing an even more enormous room than the first In the middle, when my eyes finally saw it, my jaw fell open and I sank to the ground The general just stood there, arms crossed Son, this is Project Gabriel the center of the room suspended midair by some sort of electromagnetic energy field being propelled by several giant obsidian colored in the center of the room suspended midair by some sort of electromagnetic energy field being propelled by several giant obsidian colored pillars so tarnished set of interlocking rings upon each of which had dozens of bloodshot eyes Oh, it's an angel.

47:36They have an angel inside of an electromagnetic prison. At its center, a ball of hot energetic plasma was cracking and spitting electricity, which would contact the field around it and dissipate. My God, what is that thing? The general put a hand on my shoulder and shook, prompting me to stand up. According to it, it's the angel Gabriel. looked on in horror at this tortured being what what general walked closer to the obelisk on the far right which had wires coiled around its face leading to a console general typed something in and then stood back as crackling beams of plasma shot from the obelisk and into the center of the angel let out the most unearthly wail of agony a wail that pierced my brain and caused it to rattle in my skull I grabbed my head and fell once again to the ground.

48:35Stop! Stop it! The general came to my side and helped me up to my feet. Sorry, I had to be sure. You see, Richard, you are special. Your father was special too. You can understand. Communicate with the angels. We aren't sure why. We don't know why only some people can and why some people seem entirely removed from them. but we suspect it has something to do with bloodlines dating back to the very oldest peoples. We'd know more only. Well, no matter the pain we inflict, Gabriel won't reveal all his secrets. I swayed on my feet, the pain in my head dying down but remaining present. But why? Why do this?

49:16The general looked at me with a straight and unfeeling face as he answered. Because we were losing the war, son. We were losing the war and Germany was going to bring about the Book of Revelations. he told us pointed out the angel now he came to your father one night and told him of the impending end of the war and that soon your father would be and that soon your father would impregnate your mother with the second coming of Christ who would grow to lead the Christians in a movement called the Rapture a mass exodus to the last livable place on the planet there God would come and give us the tools to start again to make a heaven on earth The general just cracked out of his mind.

49:59You are Jesus. Are you serious? That's awesome. Me? Wow. I'm Jesus. Are you saying that I'm Jesus Christ? Meanwhile, the angel's like, oh. Yeah, the angel's like, oh. Help me, please. If you had an angel there I like how the angel Flew up one day His big stupid fucking eyes floating around He's like hey no seriously by the way Hitler's gonna blow up the world And they're like imprison that thing They're like Lock it away Yeah like he came down to visit him And they all jumped on him to hold it down Like quick quick put it in the time prison Put it in the time prison Stop it No

50:56and then immediately the general's like yep your father impregnated your mother brought about then your father totally your father totally filled your mom up okay no no no yeah you're the main you're the main character no you don't have to No, seriously. That's what happened. No, you don't need to. I get it. I understand how that works. I've heard that. How funny would it be if it's like, why do you think it was, do you ever think it was weird that you were born with a beard? Yeah, it's just like, he's just like, that explains how I always walk on water. Or what? Do you ever thought it was strange how you have holes in your hands and feet and that you were born with a beard?

51:42Well, they just said it was a birth defect. No. you're jesus christ yeah the entire story he's he's wore like the the purple sash and like the the white robe and he's like wow white robe and everything he's just like i can't believe i got a job at esoteric oh all right and they've imprisoned the angel gabriel apparently yep also the angel was like hey you guys should probably stop hitler and then they caught him i mean that's what i mean it's like what i mean what i mean is they like he came up and he's like no seriously i'm telling you this guy's gonna like fucking blow up the world or something like he's like he's like giving them like a kind of a cool heads up and they're like uh-huh that sounds good sedate him like why why do this uh-huh it's like uh-huh yeah tell me more and behind their back they're raising they have a frying pan that they're gripping yeah the uh the uh what you know it's kind of weird is like i mean they're we're probably getting to this but it's like it's not even like they're trying to harness his power the guy literally just flew in and he was like no no seriously if you seriously like fuck you should like watch out because it's gonna be crazy because he's just like why why do this because we're losing the war and it's just like well all he did was tell you that hitler was gonna blow up i assume what it's saying because they're like project maddenhattan was just a part of project to gabriel i assume it's the energy that They gave the Americans the ability to create nuclear weapons, I think is what's being implied.

53:34The look on my face was pure incredulity, despite the evidence. Your father, the diligent soldier he was, came to me and reported what he had been told. We couldn't allow that. So we scoured ancient text and we found a way to the trap. And we found a way to trap Gabriel.

54:00they looked they looked at they looked at some like old scrolls they saw a giant butterfly net of course

54:09the dad went and stood underneath

54:15the dad and stood underneath a giant cardboard box with a stick propping it up And he's like, oh, Gabriel. Gabriel, I can't hear you. Can you come over here? I need you to be closer. Where is that? It's nothing. Just come here. You got to tell me. Hold on. Right next to the box, they have a giant spinning frying pan. As soon as the box drops, just ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

54:58So we scoured ancient text, and we found a way to trap Gabriel. Your father called to him, and as you can see, he came. Glancing back, I could see each bloodshot eye was on me. Now, staring as if asking, pleading for help, I looked back at the general. Gabriel here gave us the secrets to cracking the atom open. He gave us the power of God himself. he gave us the language of god it was that he walked over to and gently patted the monitor by the obelisk microchips processors the etchings on the boards sigils of the heavens designed to move and control energy to manipulate god's power i think i've talked about that on this show before right you know people like will make that connection that microchips look like ancient sigils like they're entrapping supernatural powers and that's how they work i think i've talked about that before cool concept definitely cool there's also some other stuff in here that yeah i'm picking up on it's just a lot of information happening at once like we believe that people that can speak to gabriel dates back to ancient times so that's likely in reference to the nephilim right half human half angel hybrids um those are something we saw in mother horse eyes another adaptation of that idea uh and then there's stuff like uh we'll lead us there's going to be a rapture but we need a new jesus to lead us but then the quote-unquote christ figure that appears around the time of the rapture is actually the antichrist so perhaps it's a negative instead of a positive but like i said there's just a lot being divulged at once in a flash, I recalled my dream during my time in the war.

56:41Dark room, my father's face pleading and apologizing. He tried to stop you to free Gabriel. General looked at me with a raised brow. So he did tell you something. I dreamed it in Vietnam before my father died. The general nodded. I see. Yeah. Your father became quite the altruist. I thought that said autistic. Sorry. I see. I was quite the altruist.

57:19I see. Yes. Your father became quite the altruist. At some point, decided what we were doing here was unethical, disturbed. He tried to make a case saying how we won the war. we diverted the rapture and stopped the end of our world. A fool's thought. How could he know that? Maybe we only delayed it. And even if we did avoid it, there was so much more Gabriel had to tell us. Still has to tell us. The giant butterfly net people. Puffed out my chest defiantly now. My father's son. No! This has to stop, General. This is wrong. You know it. I know it. Do you know what evil you're bringing down on this world?

58:06What if God... Son, God is dead. Gabriel himself told another dreamer we used to have under our thumb. She was so in tune that she could sit in this very room for hours alone with him and bring back so much information. Only none of it was particularly useful, so we cut her loose.

58:31he says that he says that you should always like you should always like take meat out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator if you want to turn the frost properly god damn it gabriel we already know that he says that hot wheels are a lot better than matchbox cars okay all right we have got to find someone we gotta find somebody he says uh gabriel says be sure to check your credit history before you apply because if you do it at the application there could be some unseen things and you know you trust the company so gabriel says to always ask the car dealership for the carfax on the car before you buy it and uh gabriel said simon says is uh is is a little better than uh bop it but he says he likes to play both i can't say she's the bird because it's obviously a sister right right right yeah that's talking so it's like it's like sisters sitting and they're in for like 17 hours just having this.

59:27Yeah, Gabriel said that his favorite comedy of all time is Kung Pao. They're like, is there anything cool with like solving cancer? Let me ask.

59:43No, no, nothing about that. But he does have Bop It. He does have Bop It if we want to play that. But he does have a pretty killer streak on Bop It. God damn you I like the The idea that as soon as Sharon got out She's like well I should probably overdose now It's probably all I got left going Or was it the existential Crisis of being like God's dead I can't handle it So I'm just going to fucking get high But if you don't trust anything they're saying And they don't have good info then why would you trust The God is dead thing I thought because she said Gabriel Said that that's what That's what he said Is that not what Gabriel said?

1:00:25Oh, yeah. Gabriel's giving her good info. It's just not useful to them. Yeah. So he's like sitting there. He's like, no, seriously. Like the best way to do mac and cheese is to bake in the oven and have like a little crispy layer on top. Also, God's dead. You also want to figure out that like when you're reseeding your lawn. Hey, what was that last part? When you reseed your lawn, you want. No, the one before that. Oh, yeah. God, he's been dead. He's dead. He's gone. Yeah, he's been gone a while. Why do you think I'm down here? What the fuck do you think I'm doing? Why do you think I'm stuck inside of this box?

1:00:59Do you think that that would happen otherwise? Flashes in my mind of my baby sister sitting here in the dark with the angel before her. Sharon? General simply stared back and then said, Correct. She threatened to tell on us. So we...

1:01:21she threatened to tell on us is such a funny line correct she threatened to tell on us so we did what had to be done unlike your father she had no family we could threaten to keep her in line i like the idea that uh like a local beat cop could take down the government angel operation hey so my job uh esoteric tronics they have a giant angel down there he's talking to me about I'll bop it and receding my lawn. Okay. I also like, cause they said that the way they started this program is his father who was already working for the government came to them and was like, Hey, an angel told me we have to stop Hitler.

1:02:01And they, they didn't just like fire him. They were like, really? And then imagine they think it's fake the whole time. And then they get them there and the angel actually shows up and they're like, Oh my God. Is there a way that this connects it with Joseph Smith at all? Because does this not read like Joseph Smith? Yeah, look, you can. I take enough flack from the Mormons. All right. If you want to start a fight there, you go right ahead. I'm not sure. I'm just saying that Joseph Smith, he talked to the angels like that. I didn't. That was a legitimate question. It could be. No. I was just wondering.

1:02:36I thought Joseph Smith talked. Well, okay. Yeah. Sure. You know, buddy, this is the Joseph Smith story. just for you. Better be careful making jokes like that, then we'll... Okay, cut that. Cut that from the episode.

1:02:57That's such a historic moment. That's the first time you've ever had a spastic cut that. I'm the person that says cut that. Cut that or bleep that or do something. Do not bleep that in the episode. The rush of heat to my head overwhelm me. and I rushed the general in anger. I didn't think first, I could only act. He sidestepped, and I rushed past into the field of electromagnetic energy, which reacted violently. Time seemed slow as the rotating rings beyond me came to a near halt. A booming voice within my head echoed out. Help me! Help me! Help me, please! Suddenly, time returned to me, and I was ejected outwards back onto the floor.

1:03:41The general shook his head. Now, son, please. Let's be pragmatic and reasonable, shall we? You do have a family. You wouldn't want anything to happen to your lovely wife and soon-to-be baby, now would you? I froze. How did he know about the baby? Is my house wiretapped? Are they surveilling me? I stood to my feet, shaken to my very core. You sick bastard! Leave them alone! Then work with us, son. Work with us! Think of all the discoveries to be made The advancement for humanity I rocked back and forth Woozy Looked again to Gabriel Whose eyes bore sadness and pain I could scarcely imagine Decades of torture Unnatural capture Decades more to come No, I wouldn't do it I wouldn't condemn this being to an eternity of torment I couldn't I stood tall with the false bravado Well, I've never been a very religious man The general smiled warmly, and then I replied, But I won't let you do this.

1:04:43The smile faded, turning into a grimace of annoyance. I made a run for the console this time, aiming to smash it or grab the wiring. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, echoing through the chamber. Warm blood read down my back and chest. I looked down to see a bullet hole directly through me. I clutched my chest and turned slowly, gurgling and coughing up blood, expecting to see the culprit of my death. The general stood there, arms folded behind his back with a look of disappointment. I swiveled my head around and there at the door was Elaine, pistol in hand. No tear in her eye. I fell to the floor, no air in my lungs to protest or inquire.

1:05:20I heard the sound of her footsteps as she walked up to the general's side. Too bad you didn't agree, daddy.

1:05:29The general nodded. Yes, well, we always have the backup. And he placed his hand on her stomach Don't worry, I got pregnant By Jesus So now I will have Jesus 2 or 3 Back up Jesus Back up Jesus As I lay there I listened to the raspy breath escape from my lungs I was dying, no doubt about it I really wasn't a very religious man And I offered no prayer to God in my end Despite this, as I lay there Life fading away I could see the bright and warm light at the end of the tunnel Black There stood my father Smile on his face with the hand extended My mother and sister at his side Despite ever being a religious man I was going home And that's the end That's the end So I I like the concept I don't really know how isotopes come into it I guess because I guess it's kind of drawing that Adams look like Biblically accurate angels which is a cool concept and it brings up the thing that I like about like circuitry being sigils and stuff like that or runes yeah the microchip thing yeah the microchip thing I like all that I like the stuff about an angel being imprisoned and like I like the details about the family when it was kind of a mystery as to what they were writing about what the burned hole in the ceiling means how they're able to communicate with each other all that was interesting I felt like it got bogged down with a lot of the like general details a lot of the exposition at the end like the things about him being jesus never came into play amazingly the infant mortality never came into play either that didn't pull up like that just got brought up a lot didn't go anywhere um the only thing i could think is that do you think rapture never came up stuff like that so do you think that the infant the infantile uh mortality rate thing do you think that was at all linked into us supposed to be like uh that they have tried to bring back like the second coming of christ before but they keep dying or something you know it was too vague it sounded like he was trying to solve the cure to like sids like sudden infant death syndrome or something i thought that it was something like that too i'm just just you know food for thought i'm trying to see how it ties in because there's a lot of themes that tie in the idea of like the capturing the angel the problem I think that my biggest stipulation with it is that the general, it's just when someone is so overtly evil and the motive just seems so, just kind of silly.

1:08:05It's like the Sheriff Ambroska. I wouldn't say it's as bombastic and fucking crazy as that, but it is this thing where it's just like, as this angel came down and warned us about Hitler, so we captured him. And it's like, I get man is inherently evil, but I guess I just wish that there was more. like the idea of like well he has so many secrets to tell us i think that like that's i think that's fair i just i don't know i just i i guess it just wasn't totally bought in on that and then like kind of like crazy motive and then and then this idea of like well you know what i'm i won't do it i'm gonna stop you whatever and then you can just get shot and that's just kind of the ending i like i i guess just like if you're introducing that thing it'd be nice to have him just kind of play around with it more it was just kind of very quick i guess you know i mean it's a lot to take in very abruptly a lot of it a lot of it given more time i think would do better i think maybe instead of the general explaining a lot of those things at the end they like you know since our main character is a scientist he can kind of figure stuff out as he goes a bit vietnam didn't even really factor in to the story like i thought it would maybe maybe he had some experience or vision in Vietnam that related to combat or something that like the only thing that I thought father's visions of World War II perhaps or something like that yeah the only thing that I think was supposed to be there the only thing that I think that Vietnam helps with is that it's just the parallels with his father like I think his dad was like active during World War II or whatever but then also I'm wondering if like oh because he had this military job if that's literally the justification to why he would get this government job yeah you know yeah versus it being like well i don't know i just i got hired because like maybe that's just because my mom's a politician which didn't really come into except for mentioning maybe that because his dad was in this program his mom was given political favor maybe but yeah i also don't think you need the ending where he's going to heaven and seeing everyone i go also him being like i'm not a religious man it's like you have undeniable evidence of the supernatural and god you're looking at an angel so maybe you become that really quick all at once um yeah i don't know i think there's a lot of good elements i think if you cut a lot of the fat and use that time to expand more on stuff the general reveals at the end so it comes more natural and isn't dumped all at once i think it would read more naturally because i like the concept of like humanity imprisoned an angel which is actually a concept in an ARG that's been floating around you say ARG a YouTube series that's been floating around called angel engine that is about a group of scientists that imprison an angel and use it to try to make like a perpetual energy system and then like it's about heaven like I haven't watched it and I'm not that big of a fan of it because all the art for its AI, which I think is really lame and dumb.

1:11:09But the concept of it is interesting. The idea of humanity imprisoning an angel and then like the supernatural war behind the scenes, which I saw, I was listening to one YouTuber talk about it and he raised the point that maybe it's actually kind of smart in a meta sense because the series is about like humanity imprisoning a power they can't understand to try to get things that they want and it's using ai so maybe it's like a statement about ai because it does it but that it doesn't directly critique ai and the whole thing's like made itself off of ai so that may just be accidental like irony you know but anyway i mean i i doubt it i doubt it has that many metal layers behind it i think that this story though like i like the like i agree i i like the idea of the you know capturing a spiritual essence and that has like that's the thing that's been like progressing technology and all this other stuff forward for the past like 100 years or decades or whatever you know in the uh or the decade it's only the 40 or the 80s but uh i i and i tell you i like that elaine is in on it.

1:12:23I think that I just... I think to do something that makes it feel satisfying because her coming in, it's just like there's a bunch of kind of cheesy things where you come in and it's like, oh, my wife is here and it's like, sorry, daddy. I guess, you know, he's a fucking idiot. And he's like, okay, that's okay. We have all that. I think like it would have been interesting if he's like stressed and if she would have made a really big emphasis on like Reproduct Like being like we need to have a kid Like we need to have a kid And like putting a big emphasis on that To where you could have developed Some of that kind of like weird Just kind of like some of the things in the background To where if you re-read it You're like oh fuck that's why she was being so Pushy with this or whatever I think there's a lot of ways that you can get that going Also I think you could have had Gabriel Trying to talk to you or something You work at this job and you're getting all these signs And these different things I'm still wondering where the orange scent came in.

1:13:22Remember they kept putting an emphasis on that? The orange and pine. Yeah, the orange and pine. You could connect that back to some memory he has or some visual. Because again, the mystery phase was the best part of it. Which is, you know, that's the best phase of any story is the discovery or the adventure of everything of basically just all these clues being left around for you and stuff. It just felt like a bunch of pieces that just a lot of loose ends that just didn't really feel like they came together. Once again, though, I think that that's, it's pretty fun. Also, I mean, did you like the fact that they, that it was an actual angel?

1:14:02Um, you know what I mean? Like, could it, could it have been something where it's like what they thought was an angel? If the story was about that, then that'd be fine. I think like angel engine, if it was about humanity imprisoning an angel, but where it's kind of like set dressing amidst everything it's like well how did they imprison it like what does that mean to imprison an eternal being like infinite power you know like did they use angel capabilities to imprison it probably not because it had to talk to them first um so it's like something um maybe if it turned out to be something that isn't an angel or like a fallen angel if it was if it said it was gabriel but it turned out to be like um uh who's abaddon the the demon of the pit or whatever another a powerful demon or something that could be interesting and it used the angel powers to imprison it but humanity thought they had an angel that could be cool yeah but if humanity thought they had an angel and like also it wasn't trapped but it was just there on its own will and it was feeding stuff to where then you could be like is this like is this good you know i mean like is this a thing that we is is that you like this idea of trapping something just feels kind of i don't know it just isn't it's not hit me hit me super well or even like how in a i don't know if you've ever seen evangelion but uh the way that they did the way that they show or the way that they like uh basically show angel sometimes is just in human form and this one character it'd be kind of cool if it was just one character or it was just like one humanoid person that was like a cell or something that's like trapped somehow um just to just the back and forth it's just the the the biblically accurate angels things are just they're huge it's just such a loud thing i don't know i mean i'm rambling by this point at the end of the day it's an interesting idea but it just it was a little all over the place for me.

1:16:01I think I like the ideas. I think there was good writing bits in there. I think that maybe just workshops of the way the details come out and stuff because I liked it. I enjoyed it. I thought it was a good read. Maybe think of and I want to see more done with it. I'd like to see more from this author. So makes me think of Jacob's Ladder meets Angels in the Outfield. So it makes me think of actually reminds me of Jacob's. I thought that was going to lean more into that side of you know like where it turns out he's back in vietnam yeah or just like this whole idea of like just you know such a huge thing of faith and the afterlife and all that kind of stuff but it really plays into uh his death in the war yeah stuff like that um all in all though fun story also cool to see it come from our community and stuff a lot of fun yeah thank you guys so much for watching this week's episode uh thank you to all the audio platform listeners on spotify and apple podcast.

1:16:54We appreciate it. And thank you to our very supportive and very beautiful patron supporters as well. It really does help us out. If you're interested in writing and you're interested in just being fucking creative in like a storytelling aspect and you want somewhere to show it, put it on our subreddit. It's awesome. Not everything needs to be gold. You know, it's just fun seeing where people's minds are coming from and seeing how people are getting inspired by each other here. And I think that we have, we've read a lot of really great shit. So please be creative and start writing we will see you next week bye-bye and if the angel gabriel ever tells you to hurl babies into a wall with a slingshot um you know i'm not your dad so do what you want

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