Chapter 28 of 99 · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Chapter 28 — The interlocution; the question Orren wanted asked

Book: A Parade of Horribles · Part: Horrible One · Previous: Chapter 27 — Plenty of Plenty: Lexis in the greenroom · Next: Chapter 29 — The stampede; Harbinger · Floor: Floor 10 — Don't Come in Last · Series: the series

Opening

“Well-met, stranger!” the caprid said as we entered the studio.

Summary

Botis, a goofy Harbinger-breed goat, magistrate of 'tonight’s tunnel event', seats them on stools on a turntable under a spotlight, live already, with a ring of goats in shadow and the interface dead. After a long stare: 'YOU HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH!' — 'Death! Death! Death!' — Donut appeals, death is stayed, judgment begins. A small red goat asks whether their daily foliage input is sufficient (Donut: Carl's bathroom breaks, his broken food boxes) and is honoured to lift the sentence; a satanic one keeps it; another asks which three spells Donut would combine for a second War Crime ('I won’t be able to cast it until the twelfth floor'); a jowly one asks whether Carl knows what Justice Light did, and tells him: a trap that broke the in-game Nothing and loosed its inhabitants onto three floors — the weakest onto the twelfth, nothing seen of the fifteenth, snippets of slaughter and torture in Club Scolopendra where 'the dread Kyryap' and Krakaren Prime are, 'a parody of our partner' — until a female goat clears her throat. The HUD comes back: the goat is Bathin, a chief engineer of the Plenty Tunnel Project 'which opened up the veins of the galaxy'. Orren, online with Prime Minister Victory: these are the Plenty's leadership, ask them about the integrity of the tunnels, exactly as scripted. Victory levels: the AI is spread beyond the system, killed a Mantis system, blew up Valtay-leased factories, nobody knows how it feeds itself; mobs are loose; the Plenty control the tunnels and have not answered. Orren: a good portion of the unsponsored gods roam free, manifesting briefly near tunnel nodes; the AI is hard-coded never to touch a god's mind — the same system that lets sponsors drive them — and its control of unsponsored gods 'has been turned off', so the gods act independently; the entity at the kinder facility is a god, not Eileithyia. Carl rephrases: 'Does the public know that the gods have escaped from the dungeon? And that the enhancement zones of the current AI have jumped into your tunneling system? […] Do they know that they need to fucking run?' Victory: he said it live, and the AI let it out. Orren: 'And now the party really begins.'

Characters

• Carl — 'Do they know that they need to fucking run?' — said live, and the AI let it out.
• Princess Donut — Appeals the death sentence; Carl's bathroom breaks as daily foliage.
• Orren — Online with Victory: ask about the tunnels, exactly as scripted; 'And now the party really begins.'
• Baroness Victory — Levels: the AI killed a Mantis system, blew up Valtay factories, nobody knows how it feeds.
• Lexis — Has not entered the studio; she needed a moment.
• Justice Light — What he did: a trap that broke the in-game Nothing onto three floors.
• Scolopendra — Slaughter and torture in the club inside her; Bathin, on the goat show: 'the dread Kyryap' is there.
• Eileithyia — Not the god at the kinder facility.
• The System AI — Hard-coded never to touch a god's mind; its control of unsponsored gods 'has been turned off'.

Locations

• The production facility — Stools on a turntable under a spotlight; Botis the magistrate; Bathin of the Plenty Tunnel Project.
• The Nothing — Broken by Justice Light's trap.

Motifs

• The Syndicate — The Plenty's leadership on the show; the tunnels 'opened up the veins of the galaxy'.
• The Krakaren — Krakaren Prime is in the club, 'a parody of our partner'.
• The gods — Unsponsored gods roam free, manifesting near tunnel nodes.
• The show — 'YOU HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH!' — the judgment.