Chapter 35 of 35 · Book 3, The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

Epilogue — Epilogue: the wheel

Book: The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook · Previous: Chapter 34 — Tizquick and Brandy · Floor: Floor 4 — The Iron Tangle · Series: the series

Opening

Loita stood atop the table that normally contained our snacks in the production trailer.

Summary

Loita stands in a puddle on the snack table — no suit, a rebreather, a Bloom dahlia pin Carl memorises for the scratchpad, which now also holds the Syndicate's logo and Jaxbrin's star. Zev has had a 'personal tragedy… back home' and been sent to a 'temporary reeducation retreat […] never long, especially on the weak-minded.' Loita will attend every interview, with 'tighter controls' on what crawlers hear there ('more equitable'), and there are no more snacks. 'You don't scare me.' 'Ditto.' On Odette's couch: Katia's impersonation of Carl, Donut on the Maestro ('the third time now he's gotten fucked by Carl?'), a new snick called Carl's Naughty Little Piggie Goes to Market, and the Death Challenge explained — a betting event where the AI put Carl's survival at 50 to 1, and Borant, having lost heavily, is appealing. Odette made money. Carl says it anyway: 'I hope it covered the amount you lost sponsoring Hekla' — the crab ranch was hers; 'that was my husband,' then, off air, 'I hope one day to explain it further.' Loita mutes Odette twice: once at Eva, once at 'It's not like I warned them that Chris…' The fifth floor's theme was chosen by paid vote; the preview is blurred for the crawlers; 'I'm glad you have all those crafting tables.'

A bare room with four one-way doors and two wheels. Donut spins: Land, Sea, Air, Subterranean — Air. Then the opponent: the Razor Fox Kite City, the Dirigible Gnome Wasteland Fortress, the Nightgaunt Precipice, the Great Dirt Island of the Wind Sirens — 'You must storm their castle in the sky.' A door opens on hot sand and wind. 'It looks like a giant litterbox out there'

Characters

• Loita — Bloom; the new PR agent; mutes Odette; no snacks.
• Odette — Profited on the Death Challenge; sponsored Hekla herself; nearly says something about Chris.
• Zev — Sent to reeducation.
• Princess Donut — Team leader at the wheel; 'Let's go kill some gnomes.'
• Carl — Records symbols; calls Odette out on air.
• Katia Grim — 'Next time maybe I'll pretend to be you.'
• Lexis — Caught between two shouting women.
• Chris — Something Odette was about to warn them of.

Locations

• Production trailers — A surface trailer: inventory locked, doppelganger powers off.

Motifs

• Borant — Reeducation; censorship of the interviews; an appeal over odds.
• The show — Snicks, a betting event, a paid vote on the next floor's theme.
• The Skull Empire — Odette on the Maestro; Donut's count of his humiliations.
• Meadow Lark (party) — 'It's not like I warned them that Chris…'