Character · Book 2, Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Princess Donut

GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk — Bea's tortoiseshell Persian show cat, carried into the dungeon under Carl's arm. An Enhanced Pet Biscuit makes her sapient, a tiara makes her royalty, a charisma score in the forties makes her a talker of goblins and a natural on television. Crawler #4,119. Carl is, per the system, her Royal Bodyguard.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — The jury room
• Chapter 2 — Race and class
• Chapter 3 — The Over City explained
• Chapter 4 — Knives from a window
• Chapter 5 — Boxes at the Pug
• Chapter 6 — Signet
• Chapter 7 — The lion's heart
• Chapter 8 — Water Lily
• Chapter 9 — Heather the Bear
• Chapter 10 — The big top
• Chapter 11 — The pitch
• Chapter 12 — Mongo holds the pyramid
• Chapter 13 — Mordecai's room
• Chapter 14 — The One-Eyed Narwhal
• Chapter 15 — The Desperado Club
• Chapter 16 — The Silk Road
• Chapter 17 — GumGum
• Chapter 18 — Miss Quill
• Chapter 19 — Danger Zone
• Chapter 20 — Manasa's last song
• Chapter 21 — Katia
• Chapter 22 — The Mysterious Letter
• Chapter 23 — Ten sticks of dynamite
• Chapter 24 — Remex
• Chapter 25 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
• Epilogue — Epilogue: the leaderboard

Arc

The choice

Donut's first act on the third floor is her most consequential and her most theatrical: 'Cat. Final answer,' then a fake Artist Alley pick and a real Former Child Actor one, taking the Manager benefit that chains Mordecai to her — 'And scene' (ch. 1). She spends the floor immune to poison, a Character Actor borrowing a merchant class, with a Cockroach skill that will save her life while she sleeps.

The partner

Carl says 'He's not your child, Donut. He's a pet' and regrets it; she says 'Partner' (ch. 5). The floor keeps proving her: the sentry kill from a roof, the reconnaissance of the circus, 'Sic 'em'; Second Chance on a mold lion and Clockwork Triplicate on the zombie (ch. 7); the master negotiator at five general stores (ch. 14); the fan-box photograph of Bea that she loves and Carl no longer minds (ch. 17); the decision — hers — to finish GumGum's quest because GumGum died for it (ch. 17); Tucker destroyed on air (ch. 19); the overacted bait over the spy scroll (ch. 21). Carl watches her hide her cunning behind a camera face and worries she inherited it from Bea's mother (ch. 12).

She loses a day to Water Lily and wakes dreaming of Ferdinand as a porcupine (ch. 12), tells a galaxy that Ferdinand, a moggie, is the love of her life, and Carl tells it his name was Gravy Boat (ch. 19), and asks Carl to promise she will not die alone (ch. 17) — then holds him to it: 'We do this together' (ch. 23). Under the glass case, waiting to die, she says the thing she has been pretending not to know: 'I'm not as dumb as I pretend to be. I know she's dead' (ch. 24). The next chapter takes her tiara to ash (ch. 25). She ends the floor level 26, seventh on the leaderboard, wanted by Lucia Mar and by Hekla, and outraged about a Celestial box (epilogue).