0:00

Cool shoes. My brother would love those.

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Ooh, I don't share my sources. Ah,

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well, I just found them using Circle to search

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with Google on my new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold

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or situations. Kangaroo lady shows

1:01

up. Ray Gun. Ugh,

1:04

I was so sad. Nashville,

1:30

Tennessee, what is gooooooome?

1:35

I was all excited. I just got new fake

1:37

money for the money gun and I was over

1:40

exuberant in how much I loaded in. I was

1:42

like, I want it to be nice and full

1:44

and it was too full where I jammed the

1:46

money gun. That's just how much fun energy I'm

1:48

trying to bring to Nashville. How's it going, everybody?

1:50

We having a fun time tonight already? Well,

1:54

good, because we haven't done anything yet. So this

1:56

will be great. No, I'm very excited to be here.

1:59

I'm very excited to. Return to Nashville.

2:01

It's been a minute since I have

2:03

been here. Oh-ho-ho. As

2:05

the lighting changes. But

2:07

I'm super stoked to be back. I'm super stoked

2:09

to be covering Heroes of Olympus here in your

2:11

fantastic city. I had a bit of a troublesome

2:14

time getting here, which you may have

2:16

seen me posting on Instagram, but my flight was

2:18

supposed to leave at 8 in the morning. It

2:21

did leave at 3 p.m., which

2:23

is, you might be aware, not close

2:25

together! But it was

2:27

okay. I was able to do lots of prep

2:29

for the show in the airport, which is all

2:31

good. So let's get into this show. We've got

2:34

some spicy chapters of The Lost Hero to cover.

2:36

And of course, I will be joined by a

2:39

special guest because I'm never doing this alone. I'm

2:41

never on this journey alone, so please make some

2:43

noise for our very special guest. This episode, he's

2:45

someone that I used to live with in college,

2:48

and now we're still hanging out doing different nerdy

2:50

stuff. Make some noise for Michael Hollis! Hello,

2:55

hello, hello, hello. How

2:58

are you doing? How's it going? Pretty

3:01

good. How's it for

3:03

you just to have to drive to the show as opposed

3:05

to have to fly and everything? Like you have to come

3:07

for the other shows with me. Yeah, it was a pretty

3:09

smooth two-hour drive from Huntsville,

3:11

Alabama. Mm-hmm. We're

3:13

halfway through. I let you know, oh, oops, I

3:16

will not be landing at 10 in the morning. I

3:18

could have slept in. But

3:20

alas, here we are. We're going to be

3:22

in the air. We're going to be covering

3:24

some chapters from The Lost Hero. You've

3:27

been on the podcast enough now. We're getting into

3:29

the territory of, I haven't solidified the guest questions,

3:31

but I still want to ask you some fun

3:34

ones. So one that I've been workshopping a little

3:36

bit has been, if you had a Riptide, so

3:38

you've got a sword pen, what inanimate object would

3:40

it be? Jason's got a coin. Percy's got a

3:42

pen. What would you have? Okay,

3:46

my first thought was that

3:48

it would be a regular pen, because it'd be

3:50

really convenient for a pen that, like, you can't

3:52

lose. Oh, okay, so your Riptide is just pen.

3:54

It's just a pen. It's still

3:56

magic, because it, like, pops in my pocket.

3:59

Sure. It's just a pen. My

4:02

slightly more fun answer was a pen that turns

4:04

into a water bottle that's always full. Oh, that

4:06

would be good. That would be a fun thing

4:08

to not be able to lose. And you don't

4:10

have to worry about a heavy water bottle. Yeah,

4:13

because I have this guy that I bring everywhere,

4:15

and it clunks around. And if anyone has a

4:17

Hydroflask or one of these things, it's

4:19

fun whenever you drop it in the

4:21

airport, and it sounds like the hallway

4:24

exploded. So that's always a good

4:26

time. Or if you accidentally hit something with

4:28

it, you're down

4:30

on the ground for minutes on end. Yeah, it's a good time. I'm

4:33

just now realizing that I misunderstood the question.

4:36

You were wondering what object I would have

4:38

that would turn into a weapon. I think

4:40

it's not what pen my object

4:42

would turn into. I think it's more fun.

4:45

The question should be, because we don't, as

4:47

much as we want to, we don't need

4:49

swords or javelins. Swords not super helpful.

4:51

I think this is how the question becomes

4:53

official. You get a thing that's an

4:55

anatomy. Or it's an anatomy

4:58

object that you have on you, and then it

5:00

turns into a different thing that would be useful.

5:02

That's a way more fun question. So we've stumbled

5:04

into success. You're welcome. Well done, just as we

5:06

planned. Now, speaking of things we planned, there is

5:08

something that I wanted to do, because when we

5:10

had, by we, I mean

5:12

me, when I had the

5:15

very interesting delayed flight situation,

5:18

I was in pretty good spirits about it, A, because

5:20

I was in a part of the airport that had

5:22

a lounge that I had access to, so I got

5:24

free food, and like, what are you gonna

5:26

complain about when you're eating free food? But the

5:28

real thing was a very

5:30

fun comedic moment that happened right

5:33

after the devastating news came in. So we're gonna do

5:35

a little bit of acting here. You may have seen

5:38

our work in Rice University's production of Midsummer Night's Dream,

5:40

which is available on YouTube. But

5:43

Michael will be playing the role of the person

5:45

giving the announcement after we have de-planed. We were

5:47

like on the tarmac for like 15 minutes, where

5:49

they were like, we're just checking a problem. And

5:52

then they were like, oh, we gotta do this

5:54

other test. It was another 15 minutes. Then they

5:56

do the full test solution, another 30 minutes. We're

5:58

on the tarmac for an hour. And then eventually

6:00

the captain's like, guys, we gotta get off the plane. I'm so

6:02

sorry. The way I found this out was after he did the

6:04

second thing, where he was like, oh yeah, we're just gonna do

6:06

this test, we'll be good. I had a whole row to myself.

6:08

So I was like, sweet, I'm gonna go to bed. So I

6:11

just like took a nap. And then

6:13

I woke up to everyone de-planing, but

6:15

we were still in New York. And

6:17

I was like, hmm, problem. So

6:19

this takes place right after we've de-planed

6:21

and they're giving us the bad news.

6:23

Michael's the gate agent. And then I

6:25

will be the woman sitting across from

6:27

me at the table kind of close

6:30

to our gate, but not at our gate. Okay,

6:32

let me get in character. Yeah, me too. For

6:35

all those here booked for the 8 a.m.

6:37

flight to Nashville, here's the situation. There was

6:39

a mechanical issue with the plane and we

6:41

have a new plane headed to the airport

6:43

for us. If you checked a bag, you

6:45

need to head to baggage claim and get

6:47

your bags. If your destination is Oakland, Sacramento,

6:49

Las Vegas, or Denver, you will have to

6:51

get your bag from the oversized luggage counter.

6:53

When you pick up your bags, explain the

6:55

circumstance to the attendant and get the bag

6:57

tagged from them. If you have a connecting

6:59

flight, you'll most likely miss your connection. So

7:02

you will get your bags, go to the ticket encounter

7:04

to work with the agent about the booking of a

7:06

flight to get you to your other destination. If

7:09

you didn't check a bag, you can stay right here

7:11

as we'll be taking off at the game next to

7:13

us at 1.25. That

7:16

sucks. And it was it and

7:18

I lost my mind. This old lady

7:20

was just sitting across scrolling her phone.

7:22

She is not waiting for this flight.

7:24

She's on a different flight. This announcement

7:27

was minutes long. People are

7:29

very frantic. And there's like, when she would

7:31

say things about getting her bag, there'd be

7:33

like murmurs of like, what, no, and all

7:35

this stuff. And she just doesn't look up

7:37

from her phone and she just goes, that

7:39

sucks. And I lost it. It

7:41

was so good. And it genuinely put me in good

7:44

spirits for the rest of the afternoon. I

7:46

mean, she wasn't wrong. She was not wrong. It

7:48

did suck. But for the other people who checked

7:50

their bag and I've never been more vindicated in

7:53

my never checking a bag life. Now let's talk

7:55

about books. This is clearly a Percy Jackson podcast.

7:57

You can tell by the ceiling that has our

7:59

logo on. So for the folks at home,

8:01

not lying. So

8:03

here we are, chapter 41. It's

8:05

called Leo, surprisingly, but

8:07

we will re-title it by the end. Where we

8:09

last left our heroes, they were going

8:11

up Mount Diablo. Now we're recording this

8:13

on August 24th. You haven't heard the

8:16

podcast episode that is coming out tomorrow. By

8:18

tomorrow, I mean Monday, which is not tomorrow. So

8:20

if you had heard that, this is the point

8:22

of the show where you would have gone, oh

8:24

my gosh, you would have been so proud of

8:26

me because in that episode which is coming out,

8:29

I correctly predicted that they're going to

8:31

Mount Diablo. So, Jess, you

8:33

should all be very proud of

8:35

me. But,

8:37

yay, we did it. Now

8:40

there's people that I can tangibly see they're proud of

8:42

me rather than just me screaming into my microphone at

8:44

the home recording like, see, I told them. So

8:47

we are going up Mount Diablo. So

8:50

it begins with this quote, Leo

8:52

hoped the taxi could take them all the way to the

8:54

top. And as someone that's been on Mount Diablo, you can.

8:56

You can take a car basically all the way to the

8:58

top. There's like a lookout. So you can hike it if

9:00

you want. If you just want the views, you can just

9:02

drive up. So. There's

9:04

not a ranger station that's closed

9:06

with a gate halfway through. I'm

9:08

sure there is, but there are

9:10

some factors contributing to what

9:13

should be an easy drive to the top.

9:15

So the car breaks down and the road

9:17

is closed, which just really stinks. And this

9:19

is classic Gaia, or again, as we will

9:21

be saying in the podcast, we haven't heard

9:24

yet, the audio book calls Gaia Gia. And

9:26

I think I'm just going to call her

9:28

Gia now, imagining that she's like a small

9:30

Italian woman. I

9:33

don't know why they, I don't know how

9:35

they decided on Gia and not Gaia. It

9:37

seems pretty obvious to me, but I just

9:39

want to keep calling your Gia for the

9:42

rest of the podcast. My sister has it

9:44

like a tiny chihuahua named Gia, which is

9:46

a much different vibe from like an immortal,

9:48

primordial goddess. But

9:51

like equally is like angry and mean. I love

9:53

it. I love it. So it's all Gia's fault.

9:55

So Leo gets out quickly because he has a

9:57

bad feeling about the car troubles. And.

10:00

Yeah, the dirt road has basically

10:02

turned into quicksand around the wheels.

10:05

So Leo then pays the cabbie and tips

10:07

him handsomely because the money that they're using

10:09

is from Aphrodite and I appreciate this. When

10:12

you have money that isn't really yours and

10:14

you have the opportunity to give someone a

10:16

fat tip, give them a fat tip. Why

10:18

not? When generosity literally costs you nothing. Right.

10:21

When I was still an engineer and I had like

10:23

the company card to go out for meals and stuff,

10:25

I would tip quite well. And I was already a

10:27

generous tipper since I worked as a waiter for three

10:29

years. But unfortunately now the

10:32

company card that I have, I pay

10:34

it off so it's not as loose

10:36

as I was with my engineering money.

10:38

I still tip quite well. I

10:41

was going to say about the opening line and then I got

10:43

distracted thinking about my sister's very

10:45

angry dog. I really like Uncle

10:48

Rick's, like it's not quite in medias

10:50

race, but he like just skips a

10:52

bunch of steps. Right. I

10:55

hope the taxi could take him to the top. I

10:57

had to like go back to the chapter before there

10:59

was no taxi. You just jumped from like

11:02

they were at this cafe and now you're

11:04

at the top. And I really appreciate he's

11:06

like very economical with how he like paces

11:09

things and yeah, jumps to the action. It's

11:11

nice. I think it's the narration

11:13

style of this book allows him to not only

11:15

trim the fat, but it also just lets you

11:17

do some fun things that catch the reader off

11:19

guard because I'll have the same kind of thing.

11:22

You read this first line and then you go

11:24

taxi what? But then you can piece together it,

11:26

save some time. And then it also is why

11:28

like the first line of every chapter is just

11:30

so much fun because you don't know what's going

11:32

to happen. Yeah. He trusts you to

11:34

like catch up a second. Yeah. It's him

11:36

trusting that the reader isn't going

11:38

to be like completely thrown off. And that

11:40

is the joy of this being like slightly

11:42

older age demographic as opposed to the Percy

11:45

Jackson books. Okay. Now

11:47

we can go back to the terrifying game of the floor is

11:49

quicksand. Yes. The floor is

11:51

quicksand. He quickly tips the guy handsomely and then

11:53

he takes in the view. Jason points out looking

11:55

out of the view. He goes, that's Concord to

11:58

the north and that's Danville to the south. escape

28:00

and defeat the villain and then I

28:02

love that he says with the mountain

28:04

exploding behind him which is funny that

28:07

obviously a mountain exploding would have to

28:09

be a volcano but it

28:11

is funny that in Leo's dream

28:13

of what a fantasy magical

28:16

fiction movie is it did happen to them when

28:18

they left from the Diaz mall and it exploded

28:20

behind them so he's getting to live out his

28:22

cool action movie fantasies I also get the impression

28:24

that Leo has seen a lot of Tristan McLean

28:27

movies I don't know if it's they've talked about

28:29

it like he's a fan of action movies or

28:31

something but yeah I think he's definitely

28:33

the type that would enjoy that kind of frenetic

28:36

explosions happening everywhere I like to live in the

28:38

fiction where Leo is a huge fanboy over Piper's

28:40

dad and he just has a constantly like keep

28:43

it chill like don't be weird don't be weird

28:45

you might get invited over for dinner and then

28:47

you can meet him don't be weird so

28:50

narrator Leo in what I can only

28:52

assume is the in a world voice

28:55

says but this wasn't a movie Tristan

28:57

McLean was half dead and about to

28:59

be eaten the only people who could

29:01

stop it three fashionably dressed teenage demigods

29:03

and a megalomaniac goat great

29:06

great narrator Leo's so fun I'm a big

29:08

fan of narrator Leo hedge

29:11

then states there's four of us and only

29:13

one of him so I like this thought

29:15

process from hedge and then Leo asks him

29:17

did you forget about the part where that

29:19

guy is a 30-foot tall giant which account

29:21

for like at least three or four right

29:24

I mean if you just stack them you

29:26

know let's say they're average of like why

29:28

we already know he's got at least two

29:30

leos right just on his

29:32

biceps allowed so yeah he's probably bigger

29:34

than the four of them combined so

29:36

I don't know that it's gonna work

29:38

but hedge then decides to adjust his plan

29:40

and he says okay okay new plan

29:43

the boys distract him and Piper goes

29:45

and saves her dad and everyone turns

29:47

and looks at Jason who goes what

29:50

I'm not the leader to which Piper goes yes

29:53

you are and then everyone kind of

29:56

nods in agreement and Leo as the

29:58

narrator lets us know that they haven't

30:00

really discussed it, but no one disagrees,

30:03

not even Hedge, who has all this

30:05

confidence he's okay with deferring to Jason.

30:07

And Leo, very maturely, recognizes that getting

30:10

to this point, getting to Mount Diablo,

30:12

that was a team effort. But Jason

30:14

has been the go-to guy in high

30:17

pressure situations. Even though Jason doesn't

30:19

remember his past, it is clear to Leo

30:21

that he's been in these battles before and

30:23

he has a sense of calm about him

30:25

when these stressful moments present themselves. So it's

30:27

clear as day, this dude's the leader, let's

30:29

follow this guy. And I really appreciate this

30:32

from Leo because I feel like the past

30:34

couple of chapters where he was narrating, starting

30:36

with the Medea stuff, we were getting these

30:38

seeds of jealousy. Does he not like Jason?

30:40

Does he wish he had the spotlight? Does

30:42

he not think that Jason deserves this? So

30:45

I'm really glad that Leo has come along and

30:47

come around and it didn't really take that long.

30:50

Yeah, I do think it's a really

30:52

cool characterization for Leo to underline that

30:55

while Jason isn't explicitly like the leader

30:57

of the quest, he's definitely like the

30:59

field marshal or the general, in

31:01

those pressures. He's the one calling

31:03

the plays, he's the one that they trust

31:06

to coordinate them. Yeah, and I guess what's

31:08

good is like, they don't really know exactly

31:10

what they're doing. The quest is just kind

31:12

of like, let's vaguely follow the prophecy.

31:14

So you don't necessarily need a strategist,

31:16

which is good since Jason can't remember

31:19

anything, but he does have

31:21

these instinctual things. And we'll see that when he

31:23

does the Latin things, we were kind of just

31:25

like bursts out nose stuff. So for him to

31:28

be kind of like the point of reason when

31:30

those moments come up, I think it totally makes

31:32

sense. So then we get this

31:34

quote, Leo wasn't exactly the trusting type, but he

31:37

trusted Jason with his life. And I just think

31:39

this is really good growth for Leo and I

31:41

really like it. Gives me good optimism about his

31:43

development as a character. Cause I don't want him

31:45

to be like whiny mopey, oh man, Jason's so

31:47

much cooler than me. Boy, I want him to

31:49

be cool and sure of himself because Leo is

31:52

cool and should be a sure of himself. So

31:54

Jason sighs and says that he regrets to

31:57

admit it, but hedges new plan is probably

31:59

their best. of action and Leo's then everywhere

32:01

is like okay yeah this isn't like a

32:03

good plan but it is

32:05

our best man lab the bar the

32:07

bar is the floor they don't have

32:10

the luxury of time to discuss this

32:12

or any other plan with the deadline

32:14

fast approaching but then Leo gets an

32:16

idea about what his toy can do

32:18

so check offs wind up huh has

32:20

returned we'll see what happens but then

32:22

Leo ends the chapter with let's boogie

32:24

before I come to my senses okay

32:27

Leo cool so that's the end of chapter 41 which

32:30

we will retitle I wanted to

32:32

get a little hiking pun in the

32:34

mix so I wrote no switching back

32:36

now so

32:39

on hikes there's these things called switchbacks did

32:43

you have a chapter 41 retitling yeah

32:46

I mean definitely something about like I

32:48

go on the toughest hike of my

32:50

life yeah we'd need to workshop this

32:53

but something like we walk up to

32:55

hell oh like not Diablo like said

32:57

going down there going yeah I like

32:59

that that's a good one this one

33:01

okay let's do the beginning of chapter

33:03

42 before we break for intermission now

33:05

chapter 42 we get to

33:07

the point where they're like picking their plan and they're

33:10

like oh yeah let's do this plan is the end

33:12

of chapter 41 and then the beginning line of chapter

33:14

42 quote the plan went wrong almost immediately great so

33:18

fun but also it didn't

33:20

though right I think it's like

33:22

just talking about Leo's self-confidence that

33:24

the minute something stressful happens yeah

33:27

he's like catastrophizing when like really maybe

33:30

wasn't that thorough of a plan to begin with

33:32

but everything happens according to what they were planning

33:34

to do yeah I was much more concerned I

33:36

thought when it said the plan went wrong almost

33:38

immediately be like okay break and they'd move and

33:40

then enchiladas are just be like I see all

33:42

of you and then like throws a rock yeah

33:44

and then it's like a roll for initiative but

33:46

no so Piper starts to

33:48

go along the ridge while the boys

33:51

just go straight to enchiladas through the

33:53

clearing Jason has the Lance version of

33:55

flip tide in his hand and he

33:58

just yells giant like very confident but

40:00

Shaquille O'Neal, always my point of rankings

40:02

when I'm talking about large people. So,

40:06

Enjiladas notices that Leo's emotions have changed.

40:08

She sees his facial expression change when

40:11

his heart drops and he laughs louder

40:13

and then he states that he is

40:15

prepared to make good on his end

40:18

of the deal if Piper does hers

40:20

by betraying the boys. And then Leo

40:22

looks at Tristan and he for

40:24

sure looks rough, but he's definitely still

40:27

alive, which is good. Piper then yells,

40:29

dad! And he mutters, pipes, where? And

40:31

I've got to throw the challenge flag

40:34

here. Piper, you told Leo you didn't

40:36

like pipes as a nickname, but your

40:38

dad is calling you pipes, you hypocrite.

40:42

Did she say I don't like that as a nickname or

40:44

did she say you're not allowed to call me that? Did

40:46

she just kind of cut them off? Like, that's

40:48

not gonna be a thing. You're not allowed to use that.

40:51

All right, we're gonna go to my very legal PDF and

40:53

we're gonna Control F for pipes. And

40:55

we're gonna see how many folks

40:57

at the live show. This is how the

41:00

sausage gets made. Ooh, dee dee dee dee

41:02

dee. Okay, so there's more pipes

41:04

than I thought. Too

41:07

close to pipes. Okay, so her dad does call her

41:09

pipes a lot. Oh, okay, you're

41:11

right. All right, so he, Leo

41:13

in chapter, hold

41:16

on. X5, seven, nine. Oh, I've got to do some

41:18

quick Latin, 29. In

41:21

chapter 29, Leo says pipes you're

41:23

right and Piper responds don't call me that.

41:26

So, oh, that's a daddy's girl thing. Yeah,

41:28

that's what my dad calls me. My dad

41:30

calls me pipes. You can't call me that

41:32

Leo. You're just my friend. You're not my

41:34

dad. Okay, cool. We

41:37

solved the mystery, yay. So he says

41:39

pipes where and then enchiladas informs

41:41

Piper that all she needs to do is

41:43

swear her loyalty to him. And then Piper

41:46

looks back and forth between the group and

41:48

Tristan. And I love that Leo gets a

41:50

little worried. He's like, uh, enchiladas is definitely

41:52

going to kill you. So don't do what

41:54

he wants. Like I like that Leo isn't

41:56

a hundred percent sure that she's going to

41:58

stick to the plan of. like

46:00

Clopey's kind of giants, maybe they're

46:02

more like Titans kind of. Right,

46:04

because we had Prometheus was very

46:06

smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Titan

46:08

morphs, so we'll have to see.

46:10

So Jason gets to his feet

46:12

and readies his lance, but Enchiladas

46:14

bellows again, and a dozen ogre-esque

46:16

creatures emerge. And I

46:18

was wondering this, but then narrator

46:20

Leo even clarifies it. He means

46:23

really emerge because they came up

46:25

from the ground. They're seven feet

46:27

tall, which is more manageable, but

46:30

again, Shaquille, they're just Shaq. Oh,

46:33

it's one Shaq. No, it's just not a basketball

46:35

goal. No, it's seven tenths of a basketball goal,

46:37

but it's too much shorter than Shaq. Shaq is

46:39

pretty tall though, so I don't know. So they're

46:41

seven feet tall, but it's one of those things

46:43

where it's like when you call an NBA

46:45

player short, like by comparison, seven feet tall

46:47

compared to 30 feels great.

46:49

It's like the flip of fun. You're like, oh

46:51

yeah, Steph Curry. He's a little guy. He's six

46:53

foot three. He's just so much shorter than LeBron

46:55

and Kevin Durant, all the other guys. So

46:58

they are seven feet tall, and they

47:00

each have six arms. Now, these people

47:02

were in a dream, I think, earlier

47:04

in the book. Like they had the

47:07

humanoid multiple armed figures, maybe like the

47:09

Hera flashback or something when Jason was

47:11

teleported over. Not the flashback, but the

47:13

like teleport dream when Jason was knocked

47:15

out thing. And they have

47:17

these extra arms. They're all wearing leather

47:19

loincloths. A lot of loincloths in this

47:21

book. A lot of loincloths going on.

47:24

The Cyclopes and Monocle Motors had them. Because it's

47:26

like, you know, still a kid's book. Oh,

47:29

so the canters be naked like they were

47:31

being? Yeah, that tracks, sure. Yeah, I'm sure

47:33

in the Greek art they were just free

47:35

balling. So they also,

47:39

in addition to this, they smell about

47:41

this Leo says, quote, six guys who

47:43

never bathed with six armpits each. Leo

47:45

decided if he survived this day, he'd

47:47

have to take a three hour shower

47:49

just to forget the stench. And

47:52

I think that is a perfect place to break

47:54

for intermission. Unless

47:56

you had some sort of quick comment to make.

47:58

Great, cool. But let's first. say goodbye to the

48:01

podcast people because at this point, if you're listening,

48:03

we're gonna break for the lost Euro. So let's

48:05

all say goodbye to the podcast people. Goodbye

48:08

podcast people. Hello

48:13

and welcome to the lost Euro Shubioh edition. Reminder that

48:16

the Shubioh is in New York city and that is

48:18

where you should be either in person or virtually via

48:20

the internet tonight. If you're listening to this, the day

48:22

comes out. Monday, September 23rd at 7.30 PM Eastern. We've

48:25

got a live show slash live stream for the

48:27

first two chapters of the son of Neptune. That's

48:29

the next book in the series. I will be

48:31

joined by Johnny Frolick, seeing the live on stage

48:33

to break these down. If you're in or in

48:35

your New York, come through. If you get the

48:37

internet, also come through. You can go to the

48:39

newslumband.com/live for tickets. And for the stream, you can

48:42

watch it live, 7.30 PM Eastern to 9.30 PM

48:44

Eastern, or you

48:46

can watch it whenever is a better time for

48:48

you because every ticket comes with a seven day

48:50

replay. So if that day or time doesn't work

48:52

for you, or you're hearing this after Monday, September

48:54

23rd, as long as you get a ticket before

48:56

the end of the day on September 30th, you

48:58

can watch the stream. And if you're a patron,

49:01

you get 20% off tickets. So

49:03

that is pretty sweet. It's gonna be really

49:05

fun. We'll do Q and A so you

49:07

can email in questions, even if you are

49:09

not live in the audience in New York.

49:11

So there's a lot of fun stuff happening.

49:13

I have just recently finished reading The Lost

49:15

Hero. I'm going to read the first two

49:17

chapters of the son of Neptune tonight in

49:19

prep for the show. I'm recording this little

49:21

mid-roll break here on Sunday. And I

49:24

can understand why Kelly suggested I do the first two

49:26

chapters of the next book at the live show because

49:28

given the ending of The Lost Hero, this

49:30

is gonna be pretty hype. And I don't think

49:32

that you are gonna wanna miss it. So be

49:35

a part of the action, whether you're there in

49:37

person or you are there virtually, gonna be a

49:39

really fun stream as well. Go to thenewsonoflenspian.com/live for

49:41

tickets. Now, if you get to the end of

49:43

this episode and think, oh my goodness, that was

49:46

so great. I can't wait to hear Mike and

49:48

Michael's thoughts on the next episode. Well, you don't

49:50

have to. All T&O patrons get access to the

49:52

video version of the live show that we did

49:54

in Atlanta. So you can go to thenewsonoflenspian.com/Patreon and

49:56

join any of the T&O tiers and you can

49:59

see the video. of Michael and I at

50:01

The Atlanta Show doing four chapters of coverage.

50:03

So if you really can't wait for the

50:05

next set of chapters, you don't have to

50:07

head on over to thenewsalampan.com/Patreon and watch us.

50:09

And you get to watch next week's episode

50:11

a week before everyone else. And then you're

50:13

a patron. And then you can use that

50:15

Patreon discount to come to the stream on

50:17

Monday. Come on. Also, just

50:20

in case you didn't get an email about this or

50:22

you didn't see on social media or you didn't hear

50:24

this in the last episode, the Vienna, Virginia show has

50:26

been moved to December 3. That

50:28

is a postponement. And I just

50:30

want to make sure that you don't go

50:32

to the venue this week to go and

50:35

watch it because it's been postponed to December

50:37

3, which is a Tuesday. But you should

50:39

come through. That'll also be really, really fun.

50:41

And also, as of this past Friday, the

50:43

tickets for the show in Austin, Texas on

50:45

December 16 are now live. You

50:47

can get tickets for that at thenewsalampan.com slash live.

50:50

And head on over there to see where else

50:52

we're coming. We've got Dallas and Toronto and a

50:54

whole bunch of other cities. Boston still has some

50:56

tickets left for the early show. Lots of fun

50:58

stuff going down with the end of the year

51:00

touring schedule. Now, at these upcoming live shows, we've

51:02

got new merch. But you don't have to be

51:04

in attendance at the live show to get the

51:07

merch. You can get the new merch at thenewsalampan.com/merch.

51:09

That includes the new posters that we have that

51:11

are gorgeous. And I have signed them if you

51:13

want my scribble in the bottom left corner. There's

51:15

the new et to no ethan pins. And then

51:17

there's all the other stuff that we've got. Socks

51:20

and stickers and shirts. A lot of other cool

51:22

stuff all over at thenewsalampan.com/merch. And finally, just a

51:24

scheduling reminder that next week I will be taking

51:26

the week off. September is a five Monday month.

51:28

So not going to be posting an episode to

51:30

the feed. If my schedule allows, I might post

51:32

a little something to the feed about whatever charity

51:34

that we are donating for the week off. If

51:36

I don't post something to the feed, I'll talk

51:38

about the charity that we supported in the mid-roll

51:40

break of the next episode. Now, I have mentioned

51:42

the Patreon a little bit here. And I want

51:44

to give a shout out to the folks who

51:47

have joined the Patreon most recently. So shout out

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to our newest Ultra God Tier patron,

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demigod to your patrons, Bearworx13, Victor

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52:04

you all so much for your support. May Hypnos bless

52:06

you that if you ever need to operate on low

52:08

sleep, you are able to operate on that sleep well.

52:11

Maybe sometimes you can only get a handful of hours

52:13

of sleep, but hopefully Hypnos can bless you to make

52:15

the most of those hours. Now, if you're all caught

52:17

up on the news and let me know you're looking

52:19

for a new podcast to listen to, you're in luck

52:21

because I make a bunch of podcasts. And if you

52:23

like this one, you'll probably like some of the other

52:25

ones. One of the ones you might enjoy is a

52:27

little podcast called Horse. I co-hosted with my buddy Adam

52:29

Mama Walla, where we talk about all things about the

52:31

NBA and the WNBA, but only the fun, entertaining aspects

52:34

of it. We don't get into the nitty gritty of

52:36

the analytics and stuff. We just talk about the storylines

52:38

and the drama and all that cool stuff. The WNBA

52:40

playoffs have just begun, which is a very fun time

52:42

for you to listen to our show. So

52:44

you can head on over to horsehoops.com or you can

52:46

search for horse wherever you get your podcasts. Now, unless

52:48

you're listening on Patreon where you get access to ad-free

52:50

episodes, you're going to hear words from a few sponsors

52:52

who make it feasible for me to be a full-time

52:55

podcaster. Some of you are read by

52:57

me and others of them won't be. The ones

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that aren't read by me are inserted locally. So

53:01

if you live in Bolivia, don't be surprised if

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you hear an ad in Spanish or several dozen

53:05

indigenous languages. According to the website that I use

53:07

when I do these, that's the official language of

53:09

Bolivia, Spanish, and several dozen indigenous languages. It's pretty

53:11

cool. But once that's complete, we'll get back to

53:13

this episode of the New Olympian. Cool

53:16

shoes. My brother would love those. Ooh,

53:18

I don't share my sources. Ah,

53:21

well, I just found them using Circle to search

53:23

with Google on my new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold

53:25

6. Uh, what? And

53:28

I texted them to my brother on the

53:30

other side of this massive screen. Where did

53:32

you get that phone? Lucky for you. I

53:34

don't gatekeep my sources. Tell him. Get

53:37

your own Galaxy Z Fold 6 now at

53:39

samsung.com. Requires internet connection. Results may vary by

53:41

uniqueness, clarity, and framing of circled image and

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related factors. This

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episode is brought to you by Progressive, America's

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your bike, starting as low as $75. That

1:00:00

is fantastic. That's a lot of moving arm

1:00:02

vroom vroom at the same time, acting like

1:00:04

you're driving a car. And I would imagine

1:00:06

that they're not doing a good job of

1:00:09

pantomime, where I don't think they're putting their

1:00:11

hands at 10 and 2 and very politely

1:00:13

driving. They're doing the very bad pantomime drive,

1:00:15

where they're going really high up and down,

1:00:18

left and right. And no

1:00:20

one actually drives a car like that. This just

1:00:22

bugs me as an improviser. Phones don't look like

1:00:25

your pinky is pointing out and your thumb is

1:00:27

pointing up. You don't hold a phone

1:00:29

like that. It's funny that we did not

1:00:31

do this bit on stage, and it's a purely visual

1:00:33

bit. And I've saved this for the audio only. Right.

1:00:35

I was like, how do I respond to that? Because

1:00:38

I can see your hand. But you

1:00:41

get it. And if you're old enough to know what

1:00:43

the phones used to look like. Back in our day.

1:00:45

Right. It doesn't make sense to

1:00:47

the kids that have never seen a phone

1:00:50

that's that long. I think they've seen enough

1:00:52

people poorly pantomime phones. So that's

1:00:54

always bugged me. And then also when people

1:00:56

pantomime drinking out of a glass and they

1:00:58

put their thumb in their mouth, you know

1:01:01

how you hold a glass of water like

1:01:03

that. Anyway, this is improv shenanigans corner with

1:01:05

Mike. And we'll get out of this nitpick

1:01:07

territory. And back to Percy Jackson. Enchilada says

1:01:09

that they have a score to settle with

1:01:12

heroes, specifically those named Jason. And this is

1:01:14

just getting unfair. Jason didn't

1:01:16

ask to be named Jason. He

1:01:18

doesn't deserve all the bad rep

1:01:20

of previous Jason's. And for the

1:01:22

two of us being Michaels, this

1:01:25

sort of thing is absolutely terrible. There are so

1:01:27

many Michaels out there. And if we

1:01:29

have to bear the burden of all the horrible

1:01:32

Michaels in the world, of which I'm sure there

1:01:34

are millions, like we got to

1:01:36

deal with the baggage of every bad Michael.

1:01:38

That's not fair. Yeah, has to

1:01:40

be at least a few war crimes in that

1:01:42

list somewhere. I don't know. For all these people

1:01:44

to hate Jason just because of his name is

1:01:46

not it would be different if he was like

1:01:48

related to the guy. Maybe we'll find out that

1:01:50

to be true. I don't. And what was the

1:01:52

original Jason? He's a demigod. Was he a demigod?

1:01:54

Is he a demigod? Who are his parents? I

1:01:57

don't remember. I know he's a hero, but he

1:01:59

had his lineage percent. I don't know that

1:02:01

he's a demigod Jason and the Argonauts

1:02:03

Jason parents. We can just look stuff

1:02:05

up now. I know right. And

1:02:08

we can take time to answer questions as

1:02:10

opposed to being terribly afraid of Oh no,

1:02:12

are we being boring on stage? A somewhat

1:02:14

unconventional hero. Jason was the leader of the

1:02:16

Argonautic expedition in the quest of retrieving the

1:02:18

Golden Fleece, the son of Aesen and

1:02:20

Alchemity or Alceme or Alceme or

1:02:22

Alceme or Alceme D A L

1:02:24

C I M E D E.

1:02:27

So yeah, so Aesen named his

1:02:29

son Jason. Come on. Come

1:02:31

on, Aesen. It seems like it used to be a

1:02:33

lot more common that you'd like, you

1:02:35

know, like just names were derivative slightly of.

1:02:38

Yeah. Of course, an example is not coming to

1:02:40

mind, but I've got one King T'challa and King

1:02:42

T'chaka. Right. Or like

1:02:44

Aragorn son of Arathorn. Yes, you're right. I'm

1:02:47

sure there are non-fictional examples of this as

1:02:49

well. But that's boring. Yeah.

1:02:53

It is like, is it a Boromir and Farmir?

1:02:55

Aren't they brothers? Like, yeah, basically the same name.

1:02:58

So, yeah, I can see that. I always

1:03:00

thought the T'challa and T'chaka thing was fun

1:03:02

because they're one letter next to each other

1:03:04

in the alphabet. You just gone down the

1:03:06

list. Like, do they just keep it? Is

1:03:08

it like King T'chama next? Right. So

1:03:12

anyway, I appreciate it. It must

1:03:14

be such a trade off of like,

1:03:16

correct me if I'm wrong. By this

1:03:19

point, you've learned that Jason is somewhat

1:03:21

of a like offering to Hera. Like

1:03:24

he was named Jason because Hera

1:03:26

liked the original Jason or something.

1:03:28

Right. So it must be like a trade off of

1:03:30

like the people who will like you because you're

1:03:32

named after this figure and the people who try

1:03:34

to kill you because you're named after the first

1:03:37

guy. Correct. Correct. Now,

1:03:39

the Giants start chanting that they want

1:03:41

to kill Yay-Sun and they

1:03:43

form these pointed stones in their

1:03:45

hand out of the earth. Now,

1:03:47

for Yay-Sun, is this like a

1:03:49

Greek thing of why they're pronouncing

1:03:52

it wrong? I was wondering why

1:03:54

specifically they did Yay-Sun and not

1:03:56

Jason. Yes, I think in Greek

1:03:58

there isn't a. J

1:04:00

modern right. Yeah. At least you would

1:04:02

use an eye. Yeah. We say Latin

1:04:05

use an eye instead because I did take

1:04:08

a lot in high school. So I know

1:04:10

this. So yeah, I guess that would be

1:04:12

that. Okay. So yeah, they're saying Jason enchiladas.

1:04:16

Now we can do this. We can Google

1:04:18

things. Yeah. Looks like there's not a J

1:04:20

sound in ancient Greek, just like in Latin.

1:04:22

What was it from Raiders lost arc where

1:04:24

it was like Jehovah spelled

1:04:26

with an I was like a big plot

1:04:28

point. Oh, I was just remembering earlier in

1:04:30

the book when flip tide was a coin

1:04:33

and it had Julius on it, but it

1:04:35

was Julius because of size. So that look

1:04:37

at all these references pop culture now tells

1:04:39

Piper that she has a choice save her

1:04:41

father or try to save

1:04:44

her friends and avoid certain death.

1:04:46

And I feel like the guarantee

1:04:48

is the more enticing

1:04:50

option, but I think that's exactly what

1:04:52

he's going for. He's trying to make

1:04:54

option B not sound as

1:04:56

appealing. Piper steps forward.

1:04:58

So enraged that the earth born back

1:05:01

away. Narrator really about this is quote,

1:05:03

she radiated power and beauty, but it

1:05:05

had nothing to do with her clothes

1:05:07

or makeup and its confidence. I like

1:05:09

this. I like to see the aura,

1:05:11

the beauty, the impressiveness of a child

1:05:13

of Aphrodite being chalked up to confidence

1:05:15

because that can go a long way

1:05:18

in someone being hot. So for that

1:05:20

to be the explanation here, as opposed

1:05:22

to just, oh, wow, she looked pretty.

1:05:24

I think it's very cool. I like

1:05:26

this being introduced. Piper, when she steps

1:05:28

forward with all of this power says,

1:05:30

you will not take the people I

1:05:32

love, none of them. And it works

1:05:34

very well because the earth born apologize

1:05:37

and begin to retreat. And shall I

1:05:39

just tells them to stand their ground

1:05:41

and then tells Piper that this is

1:05:43

why they wanted her alive to use

1:05:45

her power for their benefit. He realizes

1:05:47

that she has made her choice. So

1:05:50

he tells the Giants that he will

1:05:52

direct them to Jason so that they

1:05:54

can enact their revenge. But plot twist,

1:05:57

he points at Tristan and obviously we're

1:05:59

not supposed to like enchiladas. Obviously he's

1:06:01

a bad guy. He's evil. That's pretty

1:06:03

clever. It's a really good

1:06:05

move. It's a really good move. The

1:06:08

earth born don't seem like they have

1:06:10

the brain space to recognize that this

1:06:12

doesn't really make sense. And

1:06:14

they're not looking at context clues. They're

1:06:16

just going to think our boss points

1:06:18

at him. We attack him. Really smart

1:06:20

move from enchiladas. Unfortunately, you got to

1:06:23

hand it to him. We are getting

1:06:25

some evidence that he's, at least in

1:06:27

some ways, a match for Athena in

1:06:29

terms of trickery and cleverness, that

1:06:31

he's not just like a dumb brute we're used

1:06:33

to with that kind of monster. Totally. Yeah,

1:06:36

that's a thing that you don't necessarily see

1:06:39

because all the giants are meant to

1:06:41

take over particular gods. And yeah, Athena's all

1:06:44

about planning. And this guy on paper would

1:06:46

seem like he's just big strong. But no,

1:06:48

he's thinking. Narrator Leo then

1:06:50

says, quote, Leo's biggest surprise. One

1:06:53

look from Jason, and all three of them

1:06:55

knew the game plan. When had that happened

1:06:57

that they could read each other so well?

1:06:59

And I like this. I like the unspoken

1:07:01

knowledge, just the teamwork, making the dream work.

1:07:03

I think this is good. It shows that

1:07:06

the friendship is there. This happened with our

1:07:08

original trio, or at the very least, we

1:07:10

had Percy and Anabeth kind of being able

1:07:12

to predict each other's moves without saying anything.

1:07:14

So for this trio to get that is

1:07:16

awesome. And like Jason's specific skills as a

1:07:18

like battle master. Yes. You can kind of

1:07:21

direct them non-verbally, and they know what the

1:07:23

tactics going to be. Jason

1:07:25

charges at enchiladas. Piper rushes to

1:07:27

Tristan. Leo heads for the tree

1:07:30

harvester that is between Tristan and

1:07:32

the earthborn. And the giants then

1:07:34

chase after Leo. But he gets

1:07:36

to the harvester in time and

1:07:38

swings the crane arm through the

1:07:40

bonfire, which sends logs toppling down

1:07:43

towards the earthborn. And two of

1:07:45

them are toast, literally and

1:07:47

figuratively. Leo hits a button, and

1:07:49

then blades come out of the crane arm

1:07:51

and begin to whir. And I

1:07:54

just got to say, thank goodness that

1:07:56

there was machinery around for Tool Boy.

1:07:58

Thank goodness that there was some large.

1:08:00

heavy machinery around. I wonder if it

1:08:02

will keep coming up because Leo is

1:08:04

very helpful in the Monocle Motors fight

1:08:06

because there is big machinery. Now he's

1:08:08

helpful in this fight because there's big

1:08:10

machinery. So hopefully that's a recurring theme.

1:08:12

**Matt Stauffer** I have the exact same

1:08:15

note written down, was other than giving

1:08:17

Leo a way to participate in this

1:08:19

fight, why was there construction

1:08:21

equipment here? **Matt Stauffer** Yeah. **Matt Stauffer** Like was it

1:08:23

purely a, like a meta

1:08:25

game move or like, was there a narrative

1:08:27

explained? Were they building something? Was

1:08:30

there like a logging site already here

1:08:32

that they took over? Like that didn't

1:08:34

quite seem clear. **Matt Stauffer** Right. And

1:08:36

even continuing to read this chapter, I

1:08:38

was unsure as well. I had the

1:08:40

same question because I don't think it's

1:08:42

just the equipment being there because earlier

1:08:44

Enchilada said they've been very helpful with

1:08:46

the construction equipment. **Matt Stauffer** Yeah. You

1:08:48

know, they're driving the room rooms and

1:08:50

whatnot. **Matt Stauffer** Of course. So it

1:08:53

seems intentional. And I guess it's

1:08:56

just for the

1:08:58

offering. Like they wanted to have like

1:09:00

a cleared out space to set up

1:09:02

the bonfire. I mean, I guess they

1:09:04

needed logs for a bonfire. It seems

1:09:06

overkill. **Matt Stauffer** Like we saw that

1:09:09

Insolatus was chanting into the fire. So

1:09:12

it kind of implies that there's some kind of ritual

1:09:14

going on. But otherwise, like

1:09:16

plot wise, it just seems like he

1:09:18

was there specifically waiting for them and

1:09:20

for no other purpose. **Matt Stauffer** Yeah.

1:09:22

So I guess they were just clearing

1:09:25

out the space for it. It does

1:09:27

seem unnecessary, but it does allow Leo.

1:09:29

**Matt Stauffer** Thanks for Leo. **Matt Stauffer**

1:09:31

Participate in this fight. Leo

1:09:33

notices Piper cutting her dad free and

1:09:35

Jason fighting and enchiladas and dodging his

1:09:37

slashes and his fire breath. And

1:09:40

then Leo says, coach hedge was still heroically

1:09:42

passed out with his goatee sticking up in

1:09:44

the air. I love this. Forgotten that hedge

1:09:46

was in the mix. I'm glad that we

1:09:48

get the insertion of comedic relief coach hedge.

1:09:50

Even when he's not an active part of

1:09:52

the scenes, he's still comedic relief just in

1:09:54

what happened to him. So great. And

1:09:56

at this point, I wrote him in. **Matt Stauffer** Still heroically

1:09:58

passed out. **Matt Stauffer** a great little he's

1:10:01

doing a great job at being unconscious. The

1:10:03

little sassy along there from Leo is fantastic

1:10:05

as the narrator. And here everyone may notes

1:10:08

hedges quote after the fight is going

1:10:10

to rip because he's totally going to

1:10:12

take credit for being the reason that

1:10:14

they won. He did this with King

1:10:16

Midas, he's going to have some sort

1:10:18

of quote where he's like, ah, I

1:10:21

showed them didn't I and I cannot

1:10:23

wait to see what it is. The

1:10:25

fire is spreading across the mountain and Leo knows

1:10:28

that he must stop it because even though he

1:10:30

would be okay, his friends won't be they don't

1:10:32

have any sort of fire resistance power. And

1:10:35

then an earth born charges at Leo so

1:10:37

he is able to easily defeat him with

1:10:39

the blades very fun that this earth born

1:10:41

proving what I said earlier that I don't

1:10:43

know that they are the brightest lamps in

1:10:45

the living room. Just running straight at a

1:10:48

machine with worrying blades does not seem ideal.

1:10:50

So he gets vanquished quite simply. And

1:10:52

then one screams bad vroom vroom

1:10:54

and Leo asks if they want some

1:10:56

bad vroom and then narrator Leo

1:10:59

says unfortunately they did. So all of

1:11:03

the earth born start throwing rocks at Leo

1:11:05

Leo does a back somersault off the harvester

1:11:07

just in time since when has Leo been

1:11:09

able to do fabric somersaults? Yeah, it's a

1:11:12

new thing. And I feel like he even

1:11:14

later in the chapter wonders how he was

1:11:16

able to do it. I guess you just

1:11:18

got to chalk it up to demigod

1:11:21

battle instincts. Right. Yeah, some

1:11:24

gymnastics training. Yeah. So at

1:11:26

this point, I was wondering, where is Leo's

1:11:29

gadget we had the gadget and of course,

1:11:31

it's going to come back because we even

1:11:33

had Leo knowing how to use it, he

1:11:35

set it up and I'm thinking where is

1:11:38

this and then literally the next line in

1:11:40

the book is Leo yelling dozer and it

1:11:42

springs to life just in time because these

1:11:44

ogres have now picked up rocks to throw

1:11:46

at Piper not ideal. So it then drives

1:11:49

towards the enemies and is able to use

1:11:51

its shovel to block Piper for most of

1:11:53

the rocks that are thrown at her just

1:11:55

as she finishes cutting Tristan free and I

1:11:57

did not like that the narration said most

1:12:00

because fun fact, most does not mean all.

1:12:02

So there is a chance that Piper and

1:12:05

Tristan are going to get hit by some

1:12:07

rocks. And I don't think that they are

1:12:09

more used to rock throwing. This

1:12:13

is great. I'm making a bunch of jokes I didn't make on stage. I love

1:12:16

this. So two of

1:12:18

the rocks bounced back off of the

1:12:20

shovel block and defeated the

1:12:22

Giants. Thankfully there was enough rebounding action

1:12:24

to knock them out. And here's the

1:12:26

answer to what is the most, what

1:12:28

got through. One rock got through, it

1:12:30

didn't hit a person. It hits the

1:12:32

engine of the dozer. So it's out

1:12:35

of commission. And that's fine. We'll take

1:12:37

that. Not the idea situation, but yeah,

1:12:39

we'll take dozer. True indeed, the battles,

1:12:41

the bulldozer. Not a long career, but

1:12:43

had a good peak. Very helpful. You

1:12:45

did what you could in the time

1:12:47

allotted. Made the most of

1:12:49

it. Piper begins to drag Tristan away and

1:12:52

then she is chased by the final earthborne.

1:12:54

But Leo refuses to let them get to

1:12:56

her. So he just grabs anything that he

1:12:59

can from the tool belt and it turns

1:13:01

out to be a screwdriver and he goes,

1:13:03

hey, stupid, and chucks it at the giant.

1:13:06

And it sinks into his forehead all the

1:13:08

way to the handle, which rules. That's great

1:13:10

blue hairbrush energy. Oh, you're right.

1:13:12

I've got a thing. I got to

1:13:14

do a whole lot, but canonically, it makes sense

1:13:16

that the, I just need to catch all tool

1:13:18

from the tool belt would be a screwdriver. I

1:13:21

feel like that in Swiss army knife would be

1:13:23

the most logical things of I just need something

1:13:25

that works because you can do a whole lot

1:13:27

with a screwdriver. So I

1:13:29

think it thematically makes sense because it

1:13:31

goes all the way into the handle

1:13:33

that rules. It doesn't defeat the monster,

1:13:35

but it does get his attention enough

1:13:37

where he's no longer focusing on chasing

1:13:39

down Piper. And I would imagine that

1:13:41

something stuck in your forehead between your

1:13:43

eyes would get your attention. So I

1:13:45

think this is quite logical. Yeah. Nice

1:13:47

little elemental lobotomy. The

1:13:50

earth born stops, screams, and pulls it out.

1:13:52

And at this point, Leo realizes that it

1:13:55

is the biggest earth born of the bunch,

1:13:57

unfortunately, so they have saved the best. for

1:13:59

last. And then we get to go from

1:14:01

the narrator. G had really gone all out

1:14:04

creating him with extra muscle upgrades, deluxe ugly

1:14:06

face, the whole package. Oh great Leo thought

1:14:08

I've made a friend. And I think that's

1:14:10

a fun way to describe this. And it

1:14:13

especially makes sense for Leo being the car

1:14:16

machinery techie kind of guy.

1:14:18

Yeah, thinking of everything as

1:14:20

a, you know, a package

1:14:22

of features, upgrades. Right.

1:14:24

He didn't just get the baseline model of

1:14:27

Subaru Outback. He got the Explorer edition with

1:14:29

four wheel drive and a moon roof and

1:14:31

all this stuff. So I think it's a

1:14:33

fun description. And this is the kind of

1:14:35

narration stuff that I like. You truly do

1:14:37

get the sense like, oh yes, Leo is

1:14:40

narrating this chapter and it sounds different from

1:14:42

when Piper does it and when Jason does

1:14:44

it. And I think it's fun. Now

1:14:47

the earthborn screams in all caps,

1:14:49

you die, friend of Jason dies.

1:14:51

Very fun. I like the earth

1:14:53

born. They're a fun villain set

1:14:56

to go against. And

1:14:58

the earthborn scoops up two mounds of

1:15:00

dirt that then become rock cannonballs. Leo

1:15:02

tries to grab something else from the tool

1:15:05

belt, but he can't think of anything. So

1:15:07

he has to go to his backup plan

1:15:09

of fire and he screams Hephaestus like he's

1:15:11

a power man. There are worse plans. But

1:15:13

sorry, I stepped on your power Rangers joke.

1:15:15

No, you're good. It's totally fine. Yep. Yep.

1:15:17

Yep. I'll, I'll take it again. He

1:15:20

screams Hephaestus like he's a power

1:15:22

ranger getting ready to put the

1:15:24

Megazord together. And he charges at

1:15:26

the ogre with just his fists

1:15:28

as weapons. But then the narrator

1:15:30

says he never got there. So

1:15:33

I wrote my notes. Oh, but

1:15:35

the narrator Leo continues quote, a

1:15:37

blur of turquoise and black flash

1:15:39

behind the ogre, a gleaming bronze

1:15:41

blade sliced up one side of

1:15:43

the earth born and down the

1:15:45

other six large arms dropped to

1:15:47

the ground, boulders rolling out of

1:15:49

their useless hands. The earth born

1:15:51

looked down. Very surprised. He mumbled

1:15:54

quote, arms go bye bye. Then

1:15:56

he melted to the ground. And

1:15:58

at first I'm thinking, Oh, Okay,

1:16:00

yeah, this is Piper, but since

1:16:02

when does Piper have cool teleportation

1:16:04

abilities? I was thinking very Nightcrawler

1:16:06

from X-Men. She poofed. Like

1:16:09

a blank cloud of turquoise and black. Exactly. And

1:16:11

I was thinking turquoise and black, like that's a

1:16:13

fun color scheme, but Aphrodite feels more pink to

1:16:16

me. I don't know why she would

1:16:18

do this. And then I wrote

1:16:20

in my notes, oh, her outfit, not

1:16:22

a magical blur. She is. No, just

1:16:24

a visual blur. Just a very nice

1:16:26

dress that is some combat

1:16:28

ready. I had forgotten about her outfit

1:16:30

because really Hedge was hyping his up a

1:16:33

lot and Pipers didn't really come back. So

1:16:35

the turquoise really threw me for a loop,

1:16:37

but this is a really fun description and

1:16:39

good for Piper to show that she has

1:16:41

some battle prowess. Obviously we have seen her

1:16:43

talk her way out of situations. How sharp

1:16:46

is this dagger? Or

1:16:48

just, I guess she is cutting through mud. So it's

1:16:50

not like too tough, but

1:16:52

yeah, we have seen her now talk her

1:16:54

way out of situations. We've seen her kind

1:16:57

of intimidate her way through situations, but now

1:16:59

we've seen she also can wield a dagger.

1:17:01

She can also get in the mix if she

1:17:03

needs to. So she can do main hand attack

1:17:05

if needed. I think this is the first time

1:17:08

that we saw her actually use the dagger offensively

1:17:10

and not just like as a

1:17:12

big glass. Yes, not just

1:17:14

as a decorative piece. Yeah, this is the first time

1:17:16

I think that she's used it. I guess she used

1:17:18

it to cut her dad free, but this is the

1:17:21

first time she's used it to vanquish a villain. So

1:17:23

that's cool to see and good to know for the

1:17:25

future. She can use this thing for more than just

1:17:27

seeing if she looks scared. Piper

1:17:30

then is just standing there panting, wielding

1:17:32

a dagger covered in clay. Tristan is

1:17:34

beside her. He's in rough shape, but

1:17:36

he's not dead, which is key here.

1:17:38

That is huge. Good thing to know.

1:17:41

We love a father who is not dead yet.

1:17:43

We love an alive dad. Piper

1:17:45

has a wild look in her eyes and that makes

1:17:47

Leo glad that she is on his team. So again,

1:17:49

glad she's on our side. She would be a terrible

1:17:52

asset for the other team to take hold of. And

1:17:54

then Piper just says, quote, nobody hurts

1:17:56

my friends. And it makes Leo feel warm

1:17:59

and fuzzy inside. because just

1:18:01

for Piper to admit and recognize, yeah,

1:18:03

Leo's my friend too. It's not just

1:18:06

Jason, I'm also friends with Leo. That's

1:18:08

really nice for him. My imaginary boyfriend's

1:18:10

imaginary best friends. Yeah,

1:18:12

the how many degrees of separation, but no,

1:18:14

Leo is her friend and I think that's

1:18:17

fantastic. She then yells, come

1:18:19

on. And Leo realizes the battle is

1:18:21

not yet over because quote, going to

1:18:24

Nerator Leo, Jason was still fighting enchiladas

1:18:26

and it wasn't going well. Dun, dun,

1:18:28

dun. And on that dramatic note,

1:18:30

we end chapter 42 and

1:18:33

this episode. You have anything else to say

1:18:35

though before we wrap things up? Yes,

1:18:37

I thought it was really fascinating. This seems

1:18:39

like we've had a pattern here of bimactic

1:18:42

moments that are being narrated

1:18:44

by someone other than you

1:18:46

would expect. You had

1:18:49

Leo was narrating when they finally

1:18:51

found Thalia. And so I was

1:18:53

kind of like, what does

1:18:55

Jason think? Then they got the next chapter that

1:18:57

was from Jason's point of view and so kind

1:19:00

of makes sense. And then this one where

1:19:02

they're finding Piper's dad, you

1:19:04

would think that they would be this big emotional thing

1:19:06

of what's going through her head when she's trying to find

1:19:09

her dad, but it's Leo still.

1:19:11

So maybe Leo is just like the action

1:19:13

guy. Like he's more fun to follow during

1:19:15

an action scene and then we'll pivot to

1:19:18

one of the other characters to like debrief

1:19:20

what they felt about it later when there's

1:19:22

some downtime. Yeah, I think it makes sense.

1:19:24

And I think it makes sense over the

1:19:27

timeline of the story because basically early on

1:19:29

we were learning of Leo's tragic backstory trauma

1:19:31

and all that kind of stuff. True, he

1:19:33

started as feelings guy. Exactly, he had the

1:19:36

Tiaquita thing, he had figuring out his own

1:19:38

powers, how do I fit in with the

1:19:40

Hephaestus cabin? Now I'm saving Phestis, I'm in

1:19:43

the bunker by myself, I'm not telling anyone

1:19:45

what's going on, I have these fire powers,

1:19:47

I'm scared of them. So

1:19:49

that was that early on. And on the

1:19:51

flip side early on, Jason was, I don't

1:19:53

know anything. So earlier, Jason was the, we

1:19:56

just gotta move the plot along narrator and

1:19:58

then I would say. that Piper was kind

1:20:00

of in between and then more in the

1:20:02

middle, Piper was kind of the we got

1:20:04

to move things along narrator. And now in

1:20:06

this case, we have Leo taking that because

1:20:08

we already kind of know Leo's deal and

1:20:11

his emotions are set. We understand where he's

1:20:13

coming from. Jason now, since

1:20:15

we're starting to learn more about him, he's

1:20:17

not plot narrator anymore. He is, oh my

1:20:19

gosh, Thalia, oh my goodness, I'm

1:20:21

learning about how I fit into the big picture and

1:20:24

all this stuff and what I used to do in

1:20:26

my past and all these things. And then Piper also

1:20:28

just all the dad stuff. So yeah,

1:20:30

I think it just kind of has has shifted. I

1:20:32

don't know if that's an intentional thing by Rick. I

1:20:34

don't know if it's just kind of how the story

1:20:36

shook out, but I think you're right. Or

1:20:38

he just set up a rhythm of this is the

1:20:40

pattern and whoever is turned as it is, then you're

1:20:43

the one that gets to tell us about this.

1:20:45

Yeah, it could just be that. But I think

1:20:47

it is working out really well narratively. And

1:20:51

especially in these chapters where we still got

1:20:53

to move the action along and we can't

1:20:55

have too much emotion. Last time we had

1:20:57

an action and emotion chapter, it was, I

1:20:59

think, Piper and Medea in

1:21:01

that fight. And in the grand scheme of

1:21:03

things, not much happened. Yeah, it was like

1:21:06

a lot of stuff that almost happened. So

1:21:08

there's tension like, are they going to fight?

1:21:10

But I guess you couldn't have that from

1:21:12

one of the boys' perspective because

1:21:14

they were, you know, mind wiped. Yeah, it was

1:21:17

like two full chapters when really they just kind

1:21:19

of like met Medea, went down, fought, went up

1:21:21

and whatever. And it took a long time. It

1:21:23

was still awesome, but it took a long time.

1:21:25

So for Leo here to kind of move things

1:21:27

along works out. And then, yeah, just like the

1:21:29

Jason Thalia thing, I'm sure we'll get into the

1:21:31

Tristan emotion with Piper later. And

1:21:34

I think it makes sense for those chapters

1:21:36

to happen when they're not fighting. We can

1:21:38

have Piper Nary when we're talking to Tristan

1:21:40

as opposed to when we're just saving Tristan

1:21:42

who is passed out. So I think it

1:21:44

all kind of works and shapes together. And

1:21:46

it makes for some good chapters. And this

1:21:48

made for some good content. So hopefully everyone

1:21:51

enjoyed this best of both worlds episode. It's

1:21:53

like a black and white cookie. You got

1:21:55

the live, you got the not live, Bing,

1:21:57

bang, boom, super fun. Oh, let's say what

1:21:59

our. re-titling sort of for chapter 42,

1:22:01

I had retitled it. I tinker with toys.

1:22:03

Just kind of felt like, you know, you

1:22:06

think it might just be his little tinker

1:22:08

thing, but then it's also the big bulldozer

1:22:10

type equipment. What did you retitle this chapter

1:22:12

as? I think I

1:22:14

piggybacked on your title because

1:22:17

of it's like the construction equipment, something

1:22:19

like I tinker with Tonka trucks or

1:22:21

Tonka toys. Yeah. Cause

1:22:24

it's just those little yellow bulldozer dump

1:22:26

truck things that I had growing

1:22:28

up. It seems like Leo would be into. And

1:22:31

unsurprisingly, I did not have those. Who

1:22:34

would have ever guessed that Pink

1:22:36

Pants Boy didn't play with Tonka trucks

1:22:38

growing up, but we will

1:22:40

now conclude this episode. Thank you so

1:22:42

much, Michael, for joining both in the

1:22:44

past and now here again. You're welcome.

1:22:47

The different past. Past me was probably

1:22:49

a little higher energy. It's on 2

1:22:51

p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Michael,

1:22:53

we're getting the, all the essences,

1:22:55

you know, it's never just the

1:22:57

full spectrum of the Michaels here. But now

1:22:59

since we're not live, do you want to plug anything?

1:23:02

Any, anything to promote to the folks at home? No,

1:23:05

just, you know, love your neighbors, figure

1:23:08

things out. The world's weird right now, but,

1:23:10

uh, yeah, that's what I got to say

1:23:12

about that. Fantastic. Love your neighbors. What

1:23:14

a good message. Well, Michael, thank you so much for

1:23:16

joining again. Listeners, thank you so much for listening. And

1:23:18

until we figure out what's going on next time from

1:23:20

the Atlanta live show, where the audio did work, confirmed

1:23:23

that one is going to work. It'll be live the

1:23:25

whole time you get the Q and A and the

1:23:27

whole big shebang. You can watch the video

1:23:29

version up on it on Patreon right now is already up. So

1:23:31

you can get early access if you don't want to wait until

1:23:33

then. I'll see you later. Hello,

1:23:42

thank you so much for listening to this episode

1:23:44

of the New Stellumpean. This podcast is created, hosted

1:23:46

and produced by me, Mike Schubert. I also run

1:23:48

the social media and the website. Our editor is

1:23:50

Sherry Guo. The music is by Bettina Kumpelman is

1:23:52

in writing Google and the art is by Jessica

1:23:54

E. Boyd. If you can't get enough of the

1:23:56

podcast, you can get involved in a couple of

1:23:58

different ways. First, you can support us on Patreon

1:24:00

where you get bonus content. You can go to

1:24:02

thenewsylimpian.com-patreon. You can also find us on social media

1:24:04

or at NewSlympian on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You

1:24:06

can go to our website, thenewsylimpian.com, to learn more

1:24:08

about the show. You can check out live shows

1:24:10

that we've got coming near you at thenewsylimpian.com-live. You

1:24:13

can check out our merch page at thenewsylimpian.com-merch.

1:24:15

That's also where the D&O Coffee lives. And

1:24:18

for community stuff, we have a subreddit where you

1:24:20

can chat with folks, reddit.com-r-sylympian. And

1:24:22

we also have the Discord, which is accessible to

1:24:24

all folks on Patreon. Speaking of the Patreon, I

1:24:27

want to give a shout out to our folks

1:24:29

producing at the highest tier, our producer-level patrons. Shout

1:24:31

out to Kelsey Gillespie, the Damned Steam Nuggets, Vicky

1:24:33

Garcia, Veronica Bartova, Frida Vixtra, Megan Moon, Craig McRoberts,

1:24:36

Taylor Paine, Sabrina Balsiger, Bony Pony, Polyburg, Nicky Harris,

1:24:38

Tatiana Schmitz, Andrew Rose, Josh Sayer, Josh Wilke, Abby

1:24:40

Ryan, Ashton Gabrielson, Marco Redhouse, Sam Samrivi, Riley Kiddas,

1:24:42

Mrs. O'Leary, Milo Kim, Sam Koff, Julia Kendall, Rike,

1:24:45

John Drillsma, Rayla Matthews, Sky Mallory, Persassabeth, Aidan Parsiani,

1:24:47

King Bastion, One Damned Distraction coming up, Ginger Spursboy,

1:24:49

A Cup of Salas, Meg Roy, Bradimas Prime, Skylar

1:24:51

Sisters, Scott Sheldon, Sophie, Natania Page, Ann M. Thayer

1:24:54

Cohen, Finlay McCloud, Sarah Elise Arntzen, Bella, Hayden Neal,

1:24:56

Percy Jackson, Han Haley Hingleheimer Schmitz, Katherine Sloan, Jessica

1:24:58

Phillips, Haley Merry, Jim Jam Cooby, Kit Co. Crumbs,

1:25:00

and Christine Park. If you want to help out

1:25:03

the show in a non-monetary way, word of mouth

1:25:05

helps the show so much. Whether you post about

1:25:07

the show on social media or you reach out

1:25:09

to someone directly, someone who you know is a

1:25:12

big Percy Jackson fan or someone you've been trying

1:25:14

to convince to get into the Percy Jackson books,

1:25:16

saying, hey, there's just pockets. It's called the New

1:25:18

Salimian. It's really good. It's good to get out.

1:25:20

Also, you could leave the show reading and reviewing

1:25:23

whatever podcasting app you're using, whatever you do to

1:25:25

spread the word of the show really does help.

1:25:27

I'm appreciative to anyone who has done it in

1:25:29

the past, and I'm appreciative to anyone who will

1:25:32

do it in the future. But I'm just so

1:25:34

thankful that you tuned into this episode, and I

1:25:36

hope you tuned into our next episode where we'll

1:25:38

be joined by Michael Hollis once again, this time

1:25:41

live in Atlanta to break down chapters 43 through

1:25:43

46 of The Lost Hero. Reminder

1:25:47

that's not going to be on September 30th, but

1:25:49

instead on October 7th. And until then, I'll Percy

1:25:51

you later. Hey,

1:25:56

everyone is going to see me some more mix. So with

1:25:58

the lashes that are coming up, I'm going to be selling

1:26:00

the T&O. and in order to make the packages, because now

1:26:03

I have to do it, my merch company doesn't do it

1:26:05

anymore, I gotta do it myself, I have bought like a

1:26:07

spool of thread, and I need to snip it into the

1:26:09

necklace pieces. I have it right here and it's in a

1:26:11

bag and stuff, so I'm just gonna like prepare me

1:26:14

for spool snipping, and

1:26:17

just do it near the microphone. Ah

1:26:32

yes, the satisfying sounds of unwrapping. Thank you

1:26:34

so much for listening. In

1:26:37

a world where time is running

1:26:39

out on limiting the climate crisis,

1:26:41

one criminal mastermind is putting our

1:26:43

people and planet in greater peril

1:26:45

with each passing day and

1:26:48

lying to the public about it. This

1:26:51

true crime of the century is

1:26:53

fueled by big oil. Hey

1:26:56

true crime fans, wanna help us

1:26:58

write a different ending to this

1:27:00

disastrous future? Get the facts. truecrimeofthesentury.com.