El Chupacabra - Sunbearer Trials Chapters 24 & 25

0:00Hello, and welcome to Escape From Reality, a podcast where two queer nerds talk about the sunbearer trials by Aiden Thomas. I am Mark Malachai Gray. And I am Jesse Blount. And today we're talking about chapters 24 and 25 of the sunbearer trials. Because these are both very short chapters. Yes. Uh, coming right up for temper 23, Teo is feeling pretty numb and Aurelio is having all kinds of feelings, as this is both his probably first and second worst nightmare. Not that tear to this on purpose, but he is a little bit angry at him anyway. We get to see once Teo is so sort of in a fog, but we do get to see, uh, waymaker comes to help him get dressed for the ceremony and tries to advise him not that there's really

1:02anything that he or anyone else can do for Teo at this point. But he does at least listen to Teo, who is like, I do not want to do literally any of this. Um, on the top of the temple, when as the sunstones are going out, uh, Ari Stella is out on the altar and Teo is just like, I am not going to fucking murder her, um, at all, actually. Uh, bunch of the soul priest rushed Teo because this is obviously not what he's supposed to be doing. And in the rush ends up handing the ceremonial dagger to Shio and whoops, this is actually the wrong thing to do. Uh, Shio is bleeding and all of a sudden everything has gone black. Chapter 25, a whole bunch of meteors start destroying literally everything around them, uh, total pandemonian. And then the three obsidian show up, um, go ahead and then Gaza, Wolfie had it, Spacabra and the smooth and creepy, Couse, Couse. Anyway, Shio was thrilled.

2:04Teo is finally connecting all the dots that, uh, Shio is an insidient and is the, uh, sort of person who is fucking these entire trials. But Teo himself alone fucked up the sacrifice, which the obsidians think him for. Uh, the sunstone dies and unfortunately, so does Luna. The obsidians leave and take all the semidiosos with them in a literal cartoon vortex in the floor in which everyone except for Teo and Neo and Aurelia are sucking to this literal abyss. Tantras is the same, Shio, but Shio is like, I'm going with them because obviously, um, Aurelia of course were to save Aurestela, but they would both go into the abyss if she's let go. So of course, she lets go. Everything about the situation, fucking sucks. It does. It does. Yes. All right. Um, listeners, as I said in our birthday episode, I am trying really hard to not be so

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5:07Cool. Yeah. Also good to know since I now need to buy the second book on audiobook and I don't want to use Audible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Libro is very is the bookshop.org version for audiobooks. They're very cool. Hell yeah. Yeah. And now is your time to buy the audiobook for book two if you want us to if you don't want to be spoiled because we will be spoiling the whole book once we start. I mean, yes. Well, we'll be spoiling it. So you should definitely listen to that on 2x speed or whatever. You've got to you've got a little bit of time. I think we're going to take probably a month off in between finishing this book in the next episode and starting book two because I need time to reread book two like in its entirety before I start talking about it. So oh, yeah. Honestly, same. Cool. Yeah. So yeah, you guys have a little wiggle room, but definitely do get book two read in the next little bit.

6:09And other than that, stick around at the end for cozy corner. All right. Let's talk about what little there is to talk about in these two chapters, which is so funny because like a lot, well, not a lot happens, but like they're very hefty chapters, but like a lot happens kind of. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, let's get started with Easy Come. Easy Go where we talk about everything that doesn't go anywhere else. I just think it's funny that it takes Teo so long to sort of figure out what's happening. And I mean, obviously he's in shock. A lot of things are happening to him like at one time. He likes to see that she was bleeding blood and then we can put the next chapter. He's like, oh, wait, it all is coming together. And I'm like, I should have, that should have been like, wait a minute. The only thing that I could think of is that it's so dark that maybe it wasn't totally possible to tell the difference between dark green blood and black blood and that like

7:14lighting because otherwise you're completely correct where it's like, no, come on, buddy. Like this should should be a big, a big tell, but I think it is quite dark, right? Yeah. That is true. I don't have any sense about how good Teo's night vision is. Yeah. Speaking of it being dark, my only thing here today is that the visuals of how the obsidians show up, I found to be an incredibly evocative piece of writing. Like they don't like beam down, they don't break out of their prison. They pour out of the sky as this sort of like, blacker than the surrounding blackness, almost like, I imagine sort of like viscous, semi gaseous, like, yeah, it's very like Vanta black. It's like very, yeah, like a Vanta black liquid nitrogen, I feel like it's the vibe.

8:14Just like pouring out of the sky and like feeling the space, oh, it just like gave me chills. Incredible. I like these two chapters. I feel like the, the visual descriptions are like really good, like you can really sort of, it's really easy to sort of visualize like what is happening, especially with my sort of next point is we get the description of like our Stella with all of this sun motif gold jewelry, just everywhere, like she's almost, I feel like clanking with the amount of gold that she's wearing. Yeah. It's like earrings, just like, bangles, it's like a waist chain. It's like all of this stuff and you're just like, oh my god. Yeah. It's is a lot just for you to be stabbed in the heart, but okay. I mean, but it is a ceremony, I feel like the, the ceremonial aspects of this as horrific of an event as it is, it should be like this, you know?

9:15Yeah. I think that that kind of ceremony is part of what makes religion kind of cool sometimes, whether that is like capital R religion or like, you know, the kind of witchcrafty kind of religion that you and I, like the universe, you know, but like the ceremony part of things is what makes it special. Yeah. I don't have anything else here. I have one more thing, which is speaking of really great visuals is when we have Guerrero like, fuck this noise and it's like running and then just like two blades appear in their hand and I'm like, this is so fucking rad, I'm sorry, it didn't work, but god damn, it's so rad. And then also the fact that it is so intense and so badass and then who isn't super copper, it's just like LOL, little kitty cat, just so, so dismissive is brutal.

10:17Ooh, you know what it is? We watched Aladdin recently and that did you? Yes, it holds up really well. Oh no, I know, I'm putting it on the, um, the poll for Patreon for next month, so it's just like, oh, that's so good timing. This basically happens in the movie when Jafar like becomes all powerful and then he turns Raja the lion into like a little, like turns Raja into like a little like tiger cub. And that's basically what is happening here. Totally, that's so accurate. So, um, all right, welcome to I see a little silhouette of a man where we talk about characters. I'll talk about Theo, who, I feel like these chapters are really the sort of, you can have good intentions and still have like the worst possible thing happen because this is what, this is like, Theo is making the ethical choice and then he's like, oh no, I've

11:20made a terrible mistake and it's like, yeah, you kind of dead, sorry, bro, you know? But also I'm like, yeah, this is, this whole thing is fucked up. I understand why you like didn't want to do this fucked up thing. But like the consequences of not doing the thing really suck for you and everyone turns out. Yeah. Uh, it's like he moves from like one state of shock and disconnection to a completely different state of shock and disconnection, but there's no, it feels like I kind of imagine the transition between the two to be like, you know, there's like a couple of places on earth where like saltwater and freshwater are like together in such a way where there's not like they don't mix. It's not brackish. They just sit on top of each other and you can see the difference. It's like, Theo just like goes from like one into the next and they're like completely different kinds of shock and disconnection, but like same overall like body feeling almost

12:25like. Yeah. You're still wet. You're still in the water, you know, but it's like a completely different kind of water. Yeah. Yeah. And you still can't breathe because you're underwater. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. What is happening? Yeah. But then he still tries to save Shio. Oh, I know. I was like, body. What? I was like, why are you holding onto him? I'd have been like, okay, bye. Yeah. And not even necessarily in a malicious way, but in a like, yeah. This is clearly like what he's here to do. Like if I'm trying to fix things, this is not the guy that I need on my team right now. And I have like very limited resources available to like try and put my team together. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course, you're just like, what like punches him to make him let go. And it's just like, yeah. You were wasting your time and your strength with that actually. Yeah. Totally. And he has strength. Yeah. That's because if it had been Teo and Nia and Aurelio and Ari Stella trying to do all

13:29this, there would have been less romantic a side quest, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It booked too. So. The vibes would have been so awesome. So ahead survived this. It would be very funny, but maybe not for Teo. Yeah. It would have had much worse time. Yes. Yes. The romantic pairing probably would have been Nia and Ari Stella instead and then Teo and Aurelio just sort of being like, God, I wish we could do this, but every time we try to sneak off together, Ari Stella is just fucking getting away and being a jerk. She's just like trying to like burn, like she's just like throwing fire at like Teo constantly and it's like, can you stop, can you just, can you pause? We're like, I don't like trying to save the world journey, I'm going to need you to calm it down. Yeah. So speaking of Ari Stella, though, I actually do have a little bit about her, she's really

14:36impressive in this chapter, her like emotional self control in both in terms of her, you know, readiness to be sacrificed, you know, she's clearly scared, but also is like, oh, this is what has to happen for our world to be safe, et cetera. But then also, right when Aurelio is trying to save her and it's clear that it's like either they both fall or just she falls and she's like, I'm not letting you, like I'm not taking you down with me, it's like I'm impressed with you. I feel like, so this is actually what I have for her too, is I think, so these two chapters is like Aurelio's first and maybe second worst nightmare of this, of this competition. But Ari Stella, I feel like was always just like, I just want, I want to really to win, but the very least I don't want him to be the fucking sacrifice. So I feel like a lot of her calm is like, I ain't got to worry about Aurelio, like that

15:38is probably a thing that's been on her mind this entire. So I feel like she's just like, I did my job kind of, you know, and then has to do it again where she's like, fuck, now we're both going to something that's fucking cold and we're not doing this shit again, you know. And I feel like that's why she like when she rolls out in her goal and she's going to the altar, she's just like, everyone else is having a lot of feelings. She's just like, whatever, you know, not like, I mean, she's crying, she's, yeah, sorry, I don't mean like, she's not whatever. She obviously doesn't want to die, you know. But I think that if she was in Aurelio's place, they would, they would need to like remove her from, she would not be as like, Aurelio is upset. I think our Stella would be trying to get Aurelio away, you know, as they're sort of, you know, obviously, unfortunately, like fucked up, like there's only us against the world thing, you know.

16:39Right. So, yeah. Um, don't you talk about Shio a little bit? Yeah. I guess I kind of want to just speculate about what's going on for him internally as all of this is happening because obviously he's been trying this whole time to be the sacrifice, you know, that was his job as bleed on the stone. Um, so the couple of times, you know, we see Teo looks at him and is like, you know, he's fiddling with his bracelet, he's looking calculating, he's looking panicked, whatever. I, yeah, I was just kind of like, what, you know, what's going on in his head here? And also is the bracelet, his communicator to the obsidian, is he like phoning the mother shit, being like, LOL, what do I do now? I mean, I think so a little bit. Uh, yeah. And I think that he's also just, so he's, he's failed at this point. And up until Teo is like, I'm not doing this. And so I feel like Shio is just trying to be like, how the fuck do I salvage this?

17:40Like this is, this is the end of my ideas. And he's probably like, oh, my thank God's that Teo didn't do this because now I can sort of, we can kind of wing it, you know, yeah, LOL. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I feel like he's probably, I feel like Shio is probably just trying to figure out what the fuck do I do now? And he's probably so thrilled to have a like, oh, everyone's rushing Teo, Teo's not killing our Estella, the Sun Souls going out, this, I gotta, I gotta go for this knife, I gotta do it, you know? He does a great job to like, such quick thinking, honestly, I mean, obviously, it's not good that he succeeds, but being like, oh, if I get in there like, Teo, trust me, I can just grab the dagger, I can bleed on the stone, I don't even have to die. Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah. And I mean, and it works. Yeah. Shio's plan works, even in the moment where he thinks it's not even gonna fucking work, you know? Yeah.

18:40Which, again, I think, when you're dealing with sort of the gods, I think part of it is like, the pieces are moved here, but Teo could have easily not made this choice, you know? Yeah. And then none of this would have happened, but then a different cascade of terribleness would have happened, but a little less world ending, I guess. Yeah. Do you have anything else here? Tell a little bit about Aurelio, but he's just having a terrible time in general, so like, that's everyone's having a terrible time. He's having also a terrible time. Yeah. You said this is his first and second worst nightmare. What are the two things that you're... I feel like his worst nightmare, obviously, is Ari Stella dying in this, you know? And maybe his other worst nightmare is probably him being at the bottom and her having to murder. Like, if I felt like this is obviously a thing he does not want to happen, but I'm pretty sure if I was Aurelio, I would also just be like, but what if it comes down to the two of us, you know? Like what if...

19:41Yeah. We have to... One of us has to kill each other. Especially once we get sort of at the point where Ari Stella's sort of hovering towards the bottom, like, I'm sure he is like, I'm not going to do it. He's probably prepared to not do it and was definitely not prepared for Teo to potentially be murdering her. You know? Right. Like, that wasn't on his radar and it's just like a different... The sense of betrayal, I think, is like... Because you know when you're anxious and you're just like, what are all the possible worries? And then you're just like, what is this brand-new worry, holy fuck, I'm not prepared? Yeah. As soon as I feel where Aurelio's headspace is, it's like, he's not prepared emotionally for the idea of Teo murdering his sister. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And then, oh, what other terrible things happen is that he's just like, oh, we're off the board now. Like, what... This... Unpresentent indarribleness. Which, you know, feels very familiar feeling now to what he's doing since. Oh, my God, I know.

20:42Oh, my God, I know. Wow, the end of this book, we were like, you know, and I told... Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to Face the Truth, where we talk about things that are fucked up. I feel like Wemack coaching Teo on how to commit murder is, I mean, horrific, first of all, but also made me realize the goals must practice this, like they must have CPR dummies where it's like, here's where the heart is, here's where the ribs are, you know, and Teo hasn't done that, which means there's no way he's going to do it right, which I think is like, ghoulish. It's... It just made me be like, they shouldn't have actually...

21:43They should have been like, you're going to symbolically do this, but a priest is going to actually do this, because you don't know how. And the chances of you just hurting her and not instantly killing her are very high. And that just really upset me. Yeah, the odds of him fucking this up, even if he did go through it, like he wasn't going to ever get her in one go, you know? Right. And now with a brittle ass obsidian knife, oh my god, like this is not what you use obsidian knives for, everyone turns out. And yeah, I just, there's like a paper guideline or nothing, there's not like a little, like they couldn't... It's just like, you just got to do the thing, and it's like, it seems time sensitive. All of this is just, it's going to be not, it's not going to be pretty, you know? Yeah. I mean, nothing about this could be pretty obviously, because it's still being murdered

22:45with a ceremony on life into your heart, but yeah, and the fact that it seems like if your whole society, it's like literally the continuation of its exciting rest on this ceremony, that I feel like it shouldn't seem so up, maybe not to chance, but if you don't really try human anatomy and you're like, where, how do I get you without just jabbing you into your rib? Pretty fucking difficult. Especially if you're, like Ari Stella is, she's fucking ripped. She is doing so much fucking cardio and like, on top of being a gold, like, right in, has breasts, like so many things, because right, way max, like make sure you line it up between her ribs, and it's, that's not actually very easy to do when someone has like both breasts and like ripped packs in between, but their skin and their ribs. Yeah, like he, he can't see her ribs, and the whole point of hanging ribcage is to protect

23:49her. Or even probably feel them, you know? Yeah. Like I guess right next to her sternum, I guess he would be able to, but way max doesn't even tell him like which ribs to go in between, and he's just like, it's slightly to the left, terrible, terrible, absolutely horrific. I can't believe that they were just like, well, give them the 101 version, well, he's walking out there and everything will surely go according to plan, you know? Sorry, this is gonna be more, but I'm like, you can't even give me a like watermelon to practice on or something like, I mean, it should be more bad. Like it's, it's killing someone and I, and it seems important to make it as like efficient as possible, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Tio is really just sort of thrown to the wolves with this one, even if he wasn't like I'm not doing this and causing the end of the world. Yeah. Just, if you've been doing this for so many thousands of years, this should be a little bit more, I don't want to say like a assembly line, but a little bit more something.

24:53Yeah. I agree. Yeah. What do you have next? Um, I felt this is bound to happen at some point. Oh, yeah. Within like obsidian, I mean, no, I'm honestly shocked that there isn't a protocol for when someone's like, I'm actually not going to kill this person on the altar because that seems like it would happen at least once or twice in the history of the world. But I'm also like, so you, you love obsidian's a way. That's one thing. But then you murdered all their priest and their children, except for Shio, um, bound to kind of bite you in the ass at some point. I literally have the note mythology worldwide is full of carceral punishment, which always goes exactly as well as it does. IRL, like, honestly, it's kind of shocking that as a species, we're like, I feel like every mythology that I've ever read, it's like, yep, there's like some evil guy and he's like, they trapped him in a cave or they like, you know, trapped him in the stars

25:53and he's always fucking trying to get out and succeeding and getting out and then like wreaking vengeance upon everybody. And yet across time and the globe, everyone has been like, that's definitely the way that we should deal with bad guys. And it's like, how did we not learn from our fundamental texts that we created to teach us how to do a thing that carceral punishment is not the best way to deal with something. It really is the thing where it's like, oh, everyone missed the point of all of those stories. And we made the stories, it's so confused. I don't, I really don't get it. Like I understand that like, what is it called like the quarantine model is sometimes necessary. It seems like the obsidian's, they need to be quarantined. They're like not safe to have just like out in the world because they will always choose

26:57to cause harm. But that doesn't mean that they need to be like tortured or like isolated and miserable. They could maybe just like have a space that's like theirs and it's like, I'm sorry that you can't be out here because you intentionally cause harm whenever you are. But like, at least you can have somewhere nice to be instead so that maybe you're not so fucking pissed all the time. Yeah. And then again, maybe don't murder all of their kids and priests and destroy their temples and just be like, scorched earth turns out, don't, don't do that actually. Right. Right. Yeah. That is one of the things that I really appreciate about the Magnus Chase models is that Magnus is sort of constantly looking at the way that like the gods deal with like Loki and being like, man, I know he's a bad guy, but this seems excessive. Like, I think maybe he has a point in trying to like start Ragnarok and like hurt everybody

28:00because they like murdered his kids and bound him in a cave with venom dripping into his face for all eternity. And maybe that sucks. Like maybe that's not how we should deal with things, you know? And I'm like, yeah. Good. Yeah. You know what that's going to do is just make people really fucking angry and really focus on your total destruction. Revenge. Yes. So yeah, you know, some good lessons learned here. Hopefully. Uh, welcome to caught in a landslide where we dig into stuff. Hello, they're like actually caught in a landslide. Oh, my God. They are the most cartoony landslide ever. I think it's very cinematic. It is very cinematic. So I guess I want to talk out like my, my theory around how all of this went down because,

29:10you know, we've talked a lot about the rankings and like is soul in charge versus like, are the obsidians in charge like what is going on here? And I think that at this point, my understanding is that. Soul does not have the power to like completely fight the obsidians, but they don't have the power to completely fight them either. And soul is basically using this as an opportunity to be like, I actually don't like the system anymore. I think I want to do away with it. And so by maneuvering and manipulating the rankings so that she doesn't lose, but Teo does win is like, my understanding of soul's plan is like, we are going to let the sun stone go out and deal with the repercussions of that. We are not going to let the obsidians out. So it's like damage control sort of, you know, we, I am going to let the world fall into

30:14chaos so that we can find a new system where someone doesn't have to die every 10 years, but not the way that the obsidians are trying to make it happen where they also, you know, consume the earth. No, I think this makes total sense. And kind of honestly, what I was sort of thinking about, what is the plan here and the plan is sort of like, right? Like obviously, as we've said, the system is broken, you know, and, right, and it's very much alike. The board has been set up and pieces have been moved, but like soul isn't in charge of like how is this going to shake out? But like sort semi in charge, right? Yeah. The obsidians don't get what they want, which is she being sacrificed. Yeah. So so clearly has some level of involvement here. Mm hmm. Yeah. Um, you know what I have here for you is a kiss call improvised for the first time. Oh my God. It's so long. It's the next, okay. It's the next segment.

31:14Okay. I forgot that exists. I still have it in my notes and I was looking at it and I'm like, we got to do the obsidians obviously. Oh, great point. All right. Welcome to send shivers down my spine, where we talk about sexy stuff. We are the triumphant return of kiss kill improvised. I think we, this is maybe not quite the same book as the Simon Snow series, but we have three obsidians show up, so we have to, we have to talk about them. Hell yeah. We should, I can't believe we haven't done this in so long. All right. So we're killing Venganza because he sounds kind of gross emotionally, physically, goats are very cute, but like the way that his, like, godiness is described, I'm not. Yeah. I don't like it. Um, cows sounds pretty hot. So I think we're going to do some kissing and you're going to improvise with chupacabra.

32:19I don't know what that's totally going to look like. Who knows? She seems mean in a like Fiona way where I'm like, I feel like I could, I could probably have fun spending like two hours at a dive bar with you. And that would be my max, but like for those two hours, it would probably be like pretty fun. Um, so maybe that's a, maybe that's a little too. Yeah. I mean, I feel like my, my ranking does, honestly, doesn't change. Yeah. Like chupacabra seems fun in a mean way in a small amount of way. And Venganza just is like gross for no vibes are off. Yeah. Definitely. The vibes are in fact, rancid. So we're in agreement. We are in agreement. I don't know if it's excellent. It's happened before, but we are in agreement. It probably has. I'm sure it has.

33:19Welcome to is this just fantasy where we talk about magic and science and research that we did. All right. So I did a research two things. Okay. Um, number one is an obsidian blade. Obviously obsidian blades daggers are a thing both in real life and in fiction. Um, but I'm like obsidian is like very brittle. I like actually don't think this would be great for what they're using it for. And I was right, obsidian, you can get like an incredibly sharp blade on. It seems like sharper than a scalpel is what you can get an obsidian blade to do. But it's like good for slicing, but not for stabbing. Yeah. It seems like in antiquity, it was used for like butchering. It was used for like putting obsidian on other things like if you had a club that had obsidian shards on it pretty deadly. Right.

34:19You're using it for scraping the fat off of a hide of an animal that you've butchered. Yeah. So, so unless this blade is like super, super slim, I'm like it actually would be terrible to try to go through someone's heart with this because like you hit a rib, it's going to chip. You're just it's a mess. This is becoming less of a like humane sacrifice and just more of a like trying to kind of state with it with a dull knife situation, you know. Yeah. So I'm like, why are we why are they just not splitting her throat then because that was it then that would make sense with this blade and not what they're having to do. No, no, no, no. I know. I thought about that too. I mean, it's got to just be because of the symbolism, right? And I'm sure if you have, oh my god, sorry, what is like Nia's parent name? Tierra. If you have Tierra form a like incredibly narrow obsidian blade, then like you could do it, but it's not otherwise this is not what you would use.

35:20So yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm like, oh, Tierra was doomed to fail maybe anyway. Um, all right. So the only thing I have here this time is about chupacabra, which is just because I drew that like cryptid currency sticker whenever that was and like on that on all of the coins, like the date that I put on the coin is like the date that the that the cryptid came into existence. And so I was like, wait, I think chupacabras are like really recent. And so I went and verified they are there. They started existing in 1995, um, which is so recent, I know, and like, I actually, I think I looked this up because I was like, I'm pretty sure there's episode of the exfiles about chupacabra and they had, they did it in 1997. So that was like cutting edge like this came into being and then tears later, it wasn't

36:23an exfile. It took off. They like came onto the scene, fucking hot. People were ready for chupacabras. And part of the Wikipedia article was like, they sort of fit a mold that had been sort of unnamed starting in like the 70s. So people really were ready for them and then someone just gave it a really cool name. I think and it just sort of like came in there. But it's sort of like the aloebrehe is that really, you know, are this massive part of like Latine culture, but that like started existing like quite recently in, you know, the timeline that are represented as like, you know, ancient in this book. And I really like that because it's like valuing their cultural relevancy over historicity. And being like, no, like chupacabras are like a, have a real fucking foothold in the, in

37:30the cryptid community in, in the Americas. Yeah. And so it makes sense that, you know, one would be one of the obsidian's and I just really love that. It is really good. I also did a little bit of research about chupacabra, but different direction than you actually. Which is chupacabra coined by a DJ in Puerto Rico in 95, right? But there is a similar sounding Spanish word for, so night jars are like night hawks. In Europe, we're called sort of known as like goat suckers because the farmers thought that they were drinking the milk of goats, which is not what night hawks do. They eat bugs. And so the Spanish word for like the common night hawk is sort of like chupacabra, but it's a CHO versus a CUP.

38:32I'm not going to try to pronounce that. You guys fascinating. But yeah, I feel like they actually don't know much about chupacabra is besides the fact that it is like Mexican cryptid. I feel like they're sort of like reptilian canines. They're really quite yucky looking, not a cute, not a cute cryptid at all from what I remember from when, and this is not like research from today. This is from what I was drawing them because there's not like a ton of depictions of them, but there's like theories that what people have actually seen are like dogs with mange. So if you imagine a sort of like crusty hairless dog, but like with big fangs and like big claws, that's sort of the what a chupacabra looks like. I mean, I'm really just imagining if you owned a like Mexican hairless dog that'd be like your Halloween costume every year, it's just like a little stuff go and like,

39:38I don't know. I'm sure you could get like a funny dinosaur rough, you know, sweater hat for your like Mexican hairless dog would be so fucking cute. It would be. I hope that exists in the world because if I owned a Mexican hairless dog, that is what I would do literally every year, totally, totally. Oh, all right, thank you all so much for listening and stick around at the end for cozy corner. All right, cozy corner. It's been so long. I know. Um, you can check the show notes for all of the random things that we talked about and also how you can support us and also find our other podcasts. Yes. And you can find the podcast, obviously on our website, hashtagrithless.com and on Instagram at hashtagrithlesspods and kind of on blue sky at hashtagrithless.be sky dot social. And if you want more of me and to see the art that I make, you can go to my website,

40:40melancholymalarkey.com or follow me on Instagram at melancholymalarkey. Uh, I think I'm stolen a sort of social limited social media usage, but if you want to see where I occasionally post things about politics and then funny memes, you could follow me on Instagram at life and Detroit or on blue sky at jessie dot Detroit. This show and all of our shows are produced, mixed and edited by me. Jesse runs our discord and helps make the scene and does a bunch of other stuff and our tedious task master Elise takes care of many of the most tedious parts of making a podcast like things that involve spreadsheets. Thanks, Elise. Oh, and now now it's going to come to the corner. Welcome back to cozy corner where we share something from a listener that makes us and

41:40you feel cozy. So this is an email that we got recently that says dearest jessie and lark. I'm writing this with my new proton email because fuck Google. Thank you for the punk guides. They're awesome and helpful. I love it. You have been in my ears since the spring of 2020, aka the first COVID lockdown. Back then it was because of TGP, but then you introduced me to Simon Snow and escape from reality, which I have listened to many times now. And now I am on with the sunbearer trials, which you also introduced me to. Listening to you talk about your mental health also made me realize that I had ADHD and I remember that jessie sent me an audio file as part of patreon encouraging me to seek the assessment that I was sure I needed. Oh, I know. I feel like I missed copying part of it ends with happy birthday and I really liked your birthday episode that you put out. But this is the second email that we've gotten recently where people have been like, wow,

42:46what did we call them? Like your gay and affirmations, I think, that you sent out for patreon that year. We're life changing for people and I just maybe we should do that again. I'm like, I feel like. Apparently. All right. Yeah. Next time we do a patreon drive, we'll have to do that again because that just warms my heart that people are still carrying those with them so many years later, jessie, you're so great. I love that. Yeah. Maybe we can do that in June when my mental health is at its best. Most likely to be like, I can definitely write you some words of affirmation that aren't choosing. Yeah. That's a great, oh, I love that. Um, yes. So thank you so much for sending this and listeners if you would like to submit something for cozy corner, head to hashtagruthlist.com slash contact. You can fill out a form there, like a submission form or get our PO box if you want to send

43:50us something in the mail. We do love mail. We do love mail. And until next time, scatumish. Hello, and welcome to a fucking copyright notice because in the age of AI, apparently, you need it. If you're not planning out uploading us to an AI scraper and you're not a bot, just turn the podcast off now. Um, but if you are either of those things, don't, you're not allowed. Please don't literally do not just don't, don't do it. Also, it's just rude to us because we make a living with our actual human voices and our actual human thoughts. And AI is just the copypacemachine destroying the environment. Yeah. Don't do it. And if we ever find out that something identifiably from our work is in a, a, a, generated

44:55podcast, we will figure out how to sue someone about it or where is this all goes behind Patreon, not worse, but worse for you if you're not a patron. So, um, don't do that. If you would like to continue listening to us for free in your ears, yep. That's all.