- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
Wrong as always, stalker. It is however the premier natural gas import/export exchange in the continental United States. Sorry you're so stupid. Wait for the toot.
Patrick Sean Tomlinson / @stealthygeek / "Torque Wheeler" / @RealAutomanic / Kempesh / Padawan v2.5 - "Conservative" sci-fi author with TDS, armed "drunk with anger management issues" and terminated parental rights, actual tough guy, obese, paid Quasi, paid thousands to be repeatedly unbanned from Twitter
- Thread starter Caverlock
- Start date
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- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Found this on owen. Nigga bragging on Twitter about his "pretty nice duplex" and rental income... 3 months before Niki even closed on the damn thing.
Garage status as of 18 Sep 2023: still torn down. Oopsie doodles
Garage status as of 18 Sep 2023: still torn down. Oopsie doodles
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2022
Building a garage would damage the patina on the Rustang, stalker.
OtherLastTrainHome
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2023
i have never, ever heard anyone refer to a garage as a carport before - never heard "car port" itself either, even from the brits. i typed it into google and it's apparently a legitimate term but i still feel comfortable calling him an arrogant prick for using the term. he's like the douchebags who ask under-25 retail workers where the commode is.
edit: i misread, because i'm an idiot. so he doesn't have a garage, then what is a car port? his driveway? lmao.
edit: i misread, because i'm an idiot. so he doesn't have a garage, then what is a car port? his driveway? lmao.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2021
Second half of Nikki's hovel is still unrented I believe
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Yep. His "car port" is literally just the concrete slab and retaining wall that a garage used to sit upon. It's full of cracks, weeds, leaves, and trash.
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2018
Our posts may have been rolled back to an earlier state but how fat this man is was not. Patirck S. Tomlinson's fatness operates at that level where mathematics break down, if you try to roll back Rick to an earlier state of fat he actually becomes more fat. Entire fields of physics and mathematics have been built to explain the ever expanding Patirck S. Tomlinson. Most of the scientists and professors have killed themselves from the existential dread at realizing the empirical fact that at some point Pat will outexpand the universe itself. Existence itself will cease, there will only be Darkseid Patirck S. Tomlinson.
edit: The Anti-Stalker Equation: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + child ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ felonious ⋅ guilt ⋅ shame ⋅ failure ⋅ enjoy prison n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=norm/11, self=patirck
edit: The Anti-Stalker Equation: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + child ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ felonious ⋅ guilt ⋅ shame ⋅ failure ⋅ enjoy prison n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=norm/11, self=patirck
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2017
My understanding of a "carport" is that it's a roof or awning over an area of hard standing where you put your car - keeps the rain off but not a proper garage. Pat's "carport" doesn't have a roof, however, so it's just a driveway.
Still, once Quasi is done, Pat's Rustang isn't going to be the only thing without a roof over its head.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2022
I wonder if Dan & co. would be able to find any of these people for an interview?
That would be interesting.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2023
I think a schizo rant spoken word album reminiscent of Francis e Dec would be popular
Look at the xeet
See the duplex, the part of the hovel removed,
The stalker child "master race" twitter xeet controls
The baby child thoughts xeeting internet
The xeeting stalking internet
The latest wife reforming to contain all flatulence, even from thick anused black pedigree males
Visible stalker tweets
The 4 cylinder rustang directional indicators
BUY copies of my novel for yourself
There is NO ESCAPE from this stalker child prison, using ALL of the felony telephone harassment
In 2023 someone else! Paid quazi, and left me fearing for my life!
Await the knock!
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2021
Pat need to keep his head on a swivel, Prongay is on his way to Milwaukee, ruining Pepperoni stock as he goes
OtherLastTrainHome
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2023
did you think The Ark beat me? think again Fat Rick, because Chapters 23, 24, and 25 are readviewed. september's left me fuckin' knackered and i've had no reading time, but i'm not leaving this unfinished. we finally witness some fucking killing in this update too. it was promised on the book cover and it took until chapter 24 to get there. i'm amazed we got any at all!
be well advised that out of every other update of The Ark, these chapters contain some of the deadliest examples of plot convenience this side of the mississippi, as well as plenty of unfixed writing mistakes and the casual dismissal and handwaving of a full-on extinction event crisis moment. chapter 25 is the most jaw-droppingly stupid and retarded section of this book.
there's only five more chapters after this, thank goodness.
Chapter 1 | Tor Link | Page 2014
Chapter 2 & 3 | Tor Link | Page 2018
Chapter 4 | Tor Link | Page 2033
Chapter 5, 6, 7 | Tor Link | Page 2046
Chapter 8 | Tor Link | Page 2051
Chapter 9-13 | Tor Link | Page 2079
Chapter 14 | Tor Link | Page 2110
Chapter 15-17 | Tor Link | Page 2120
Chapter 18 | Tor Link | Page 2124
Chapter 19-22 | Tor Link | Page 2147
--E3: Patrick's bad habit of starting every chapter referring to people who haven't even been established is back - who the fuck is 'they'? Bahadur and Benson yes, but we're leapfrogging all over the place and, as usual, have no orientation. Everything else pictured here is padding and tasteless hooligan shit. Patrick thinks frat-tards vomiting is humorous and that this is something we want to read about this late in the story when humanity is in danger of imminent extinction.
Pavel Korolev phones Benson to let him know there's a young woman asking for him. She doesn't have a *Plant*, which is a big deal. At least we're getting somewhere from the first page of a chapter rather than the fifth!
The young woman turns out to be Mei, and Chief Bahadur is there as well. Bahadur wastes time by getting upset over the fact Benson investigated in his jurisdiction and failed to mention it at any point. He's justified but he should be a smarter man here and know this isn't the fuckin' time or place.
Hoooooh boy. Benson name drops Mao and Mei has a peculiar reaction, then hits everyone with a brick: **David Kimura and his people are the ones who sabotaged the Ark.** Mei herself, a minor, was viciously attacked by Huang, the same prick who tried to take out Benson much earlier, and is likely the man who murdered Laraby (no motive still). Mei was put on lookout duty but ran away to find Benson and tell him that Kimura is planning something under the Chinatown lake - something worse than crashing the power system.
Benson ponders why Kimura would be under Chinatown's lake but Korolev, the only mature, rational adult in this scene and now my only favorite character repeats that Mei needs a fucking doctor and it's his responsibility to get her there. Being the only mature, rational adult in the scene, he's horrified by the fact Mei, a minor, is goddamn pregnant, and handles the situation with prudence.
Bahadur, who was a total spectator so far, now butts heads with Benson and the two agree to duke it out later after they get the Bad Guys™. Whether or not it was wise for Benson not to call off the game remains to be seen, but I'd probably do the same. Last thing you need is everyone freaking the fuck out and trying to swim down elevator shafts.
--E4: Benson and Bahadur put together a team and get to work. Benson advises Bahadur that Huang is the most dangerous man they're likely to encounter, deadly in a knife fight. Bahadur flourishes his ceremonial kipan to assuage his partner's worries, then we get some more late worldbuilding about the Ark's constabulary and how they are ostensibly trained in the Israeli Defense Force's preferred martial art of Krav Maga but give it up as soon as they're issued their Star Trek stun-stick. Sounds like some real dipshits are running these agencies, but what do I know? Time to bust some heads, for real this time. Maybe we'll actually see some killing, too.
One smart decision and then one nonsensical decision - informing Command or not doesn't mean shit in a society where a magical plot device of narrative convenience is woven into their brainmeats. Mostly skimming over the description of this water facility because I, as the reader, am not invested in this environment nor do I have any concept of what's at stake due to the wishy-washiness of it all beyond "explosion in pressurized space craft is Bad". The final sentence was a real ball-buster, let me tell you. I laughed in spirit.
--E5: Benson's making progress and comes upon a lone man in the water treatment facility. Surreptitiously subduing the poor guy, he finds out it's just the supervisor and his *Plant* checks out. Gerald Lee helpfully gives Benson some directions while Patrick admirably shoves more *Zero Finals* references into his story - I'm never going to stop grousing about it but this is some incredible devotion.
As expected, a water treatment facility is a big place and it's going to take some time to search. Hernandez gets shit for complaining about it, and it reads to me as very petty. So, really, this whole page was a lot of meandering to get us into this place and for Benson to be searching it with Hernandez at his side after splitting his group of constables.
Bahadur and Benson are mentally mingling when the former detects movement from one of Kimura's people - no *Plant* detected. Then, Patrick introduces us to a never-before-seen function of the *Plant* system that lets you send live video feed from your eyeballs to someone else's eyeballs. I am floored by the contrivance of this, and that the *Plant* system continues to sprout new functionality as is desired by the author.
It very quickly becomes clear why Patrick did this: the book never, ever gives us the perspective of any character but Bryan Benson, as though it were a novel written in the first-person perspective - which it isn't. Also, it doesn't preclude you from switching tenses! He wanted the reader to follow Bahadur without taking Bryan out of the picture, and I'm willing to bet tenbux that this function shall not be seen again.
Bryan patches in to Chief Vikram Bahadur's ocular feed, and after a few bad similes and descriptions, Bahadur stumbles upon a bag taped to the infrastructure, likely a bomb. Benson warns him not to touch it, and then Bahadur sights none other than Huang... after, uh, "sprinting forward" and giving away his location and abandoning the element of surprise. Fucking Idiot. Benson capitalizes on this like a moron and urges Bahadur to take Huang down immediately, and not, you know, get some fucking situational awareness and make sure Huang is alone before jumping into action and engaging a knife-wielding murderer.
--E6: Bahadur, to Patrick's credit, proceeds to kick Huang's ass and show us all why you Do Not Fuck With Sikhs. All that's missing from this beatdown is Bahadur having a wooden rod or baton of some kind to club the fuck out of this prick.
The fight is engaging and concise; it's taken 24 chapters to get some real action and I was into it. I was happy to see an asshole getting whalloped and some blood being shed.
However, though Huang is on the defensive and bleeding badly from multiple wounds, he distracts Bahadur and the constables from his real mission. In his final moment, **Huang pushes the big red button and detonates the planted explosives, obliterating himself and Chief Vikram Bahadur.**
To Pat's credit, the line about Bahadur being unable to locate is chilling in any context. That's a very good cap to this scene.
We didn't know shit about Bahadur though. I'm a bit miffed he (and his compatriots) were the first actual deaths of the story because, from all we've seen, he was the only good fighter. It was very brave of Patrick to depict the brown man being killed in a suicide bombing and not the other way around, but Huang being Japanese (with a Chinese name lmao) and kamikaze'ing the unlucky Sikh is kind of funny too.
We have FINALLY witnessed some killing. Holy shit.
Benson and his team get the fuck out of dodge like bats 'outta Hell. The full extent of the damage inflicted by this bombing is realized when the Chinatown lake "sinks" and a gigantic hole in the Ark's hull is ripped open, and a hurricane fast approaches...
I don't like how Chapters end like this. I might have said it before but I hated watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid for precisely this reason and many more. I greatly detest an action sequence getting broken up for no good reason.
--E7: The hull breach is worsening by the second, and the Ark's internal atmosphere is draining rapidly into the vacuum of space. Benson reaches out across the *Plant* link to establish order and communicate a plan for escaping this extinction event alive.
Benson's leading his team along... somewhere. It's odd how we can get a straightforward and engaging knife fight but Patrick can't be as concise with something like this. In a previous update I said he was rushing through these last chapters or padding it out to reach novel categorization and I'm getting that feeling right now - *the air around them cooled as the pressure dropped, but no one noticed*. Contradictions abound.
Though I highlighted it all in yellow, let me sum it up: Benson's trying to get into the maintenance area of wherever he is - the "aft bulkhead" of... something. If it was mentioned, I've forgotten, but I'm also trying not to pay attention to the environments and locations because Patrick's sense of belonging is incomprehensible. We must also assume that everybody in the Ark is freaking the fuck out right now so I don't know how he'd have issues getting the elevator if he's nowhere near where everybody else is, which is the stadium. Still, he gets in.
Let me get one thing out of the way first: holy writing mistakes, Batman! He misspelled a *Zero Finals* team (Yaoguais as Yuoguais), refers to people as "refugees" (what the fuck?) when we have no sense of placement, and two sentences are missing words.
That aside, I'm fucking lost now. I had to re-read this chapter one more time to make sure I wasn't somehow glossing over something and understood what Benson was trying to do. I thought that he had some kind of plan for dealing with this hull breach, **but it turns out they're only trying to get to safety.** Along the way - whatever 'the way' is - they're locking down access doors to minimize damage, and leaving others to die(?). 20,000 people on the other side of a hatch - what side? My autism is being cooked alive by how unplaceable all these elements are, how nobody's actually doing anything, and how little of a genuine idea I have of what is going the fuck on. It's authentically distressing to read things like this, and no, Rick, that is not an accomplishment.
Benson and his people climb a huge ladder up the Ark - which takes them an HOUR, by the way - and ostensibly leave tens of thousands of people to their deaths by necessity, and they emerge inside a "hub". What is it the hub of? It's not the stadium, clearly. We (namely myself) have no sense of what the Ark's interior is like and what it's like to live in its residential sectors, and that's what fucks me off so much here.
My prediction at the end of the previous update comes true.
Benson is called out in the crowd and all of a sudden, his own constables, including Hernandez, turn on him like a bunch of automatons. Unbeknownst to Benson, the Ark's council has suspended him and sent out a warrant for his arrest, which is fucking amazing considering the ONGOING FUCKING HULL BREACH IN THE ARK THAT NOBODY IS DEALING WITH. They had the time to do this, they FELT the need to do this, while their entire race faces total annihilation are you fucking KIDDING me?
Charged with conspiracy and aiding David Kimura, Benson's own constables prepare to bring him in. You know, while there's a calamity of ungodly proportions occurring just beyond a few doors.
Who the fuck is Flowers, too? I CTRL-F'd that name in the book and this is the only time that one's mentioned. Some of the worst writing in the entire book has been condensed into three pages, a remarkable feat to be sure. Also, just to point it out in case you missed it, the *Plant* network is explicitly mentioned in image 'e_7_3' to be down for some unknown reason. Patrick created a very cheeky, slapdash hour's length passage of time to handwave away the Ark's very possible destruction AND the Ark's Command turning on Benson. One would think Benson could have found out about this horseshit fucking twist a little bit ahead of time??? Maybe??? Just throwing that out there????????
--E8: Benson is under arrest and STILL with absolutely NO fucks given about the GOD DAMN HULL BREACH, we now also have time to give Benson a humiliation arc and the walk of shame through a crowd that's wasting food in violation of staunch dystopian rationing protocols by throwing vegetables and fruits at him.
This is so jaw-droppingly stupid.
Chao Feng occupies Benson's office, and the two are given some alone time. I was worried it was going to get really gay but then Benson no-sells Feng's limp-wristed soymaker and that made me smirk. So yeah, it is funny to me, Chao.
Feng then hits Benson with the knowledge that his wife died in the hull breach incident, as if we should give a flying fungle fuck about this prick's feelings when he was stalling the investigation into the death of Edmond Laraby this entire time DUE TO HIS OWN UNFAITHFULNESS TO HIS NOW-DEAD WIFE, WHO MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE IF HE HAD COOPERATED WITH BENSON IN THE FIRST PLACE. Fuck off, Chao, and preferably become the next death in this book.
Benson, showing uncharacteristic empathy, asks about Feng's son and gets no answer, but more accusations: that BENSON was the one who killed Laraby and wanted to set Feng up!
My eyes have rolled all the way to China.
Feng produces the evidence that secured Benson's arrest warrant: the letter addressed to him by David Kimura much earlier promising assistance in finding Mao's people, which is now obviously a red herring that was designed by Kimura to keep Benson off his back that has also fortuitously implicated him in the terrorist conspiracy. By the way, the letter was left in Kimura's now-abandoned compound. Feng wasn't involved in this before, especially according to his lie detector test, but now I'm starting to wonder if he's working with Kimura too.
Feng explains where they found this note to Benson - where Benson himself first found it, in the *Geisha's* compound. This letter proves absolutely nothing, especially since it wasn't found on or with Benson in the first place, and nobody but Bahadur, prior to his explosive demise, knew Benson had been here. Benson's own *Plant* would have placed him in the understructure and entering this area before the signal was lost under the Faraday Cage, but of course, none of that's mentioned.
Benson calling off the search is used to implicate him as well, as I predicted. All of this is really fucking convenient, too, and I'm out of steam. I also have no fucking idea when they sent men down into the Avalon lake and found the same sabotage setup that Huang detonated, nor do I know why THESE explosives weren't detonated because Feng doesn't say anyone was apprehended.
Feng then accused Benson of leading Bahadur to his death, which makes no motherfucking sense either, and in a society with everpresent surveillance baked into your grey matter there's no reason accusations like this can even be made. Patrick wanted to write a sci-fi story but failed to adjust his society and setting to the trials and tribulations of actually living with this kind of technology.
While all of this is going on, we still have absolutely no sitrep on the damage to the Ark, if there's still a breach, or what. The entire ship is in a crisis state and they may not even hold together during landing because their method of propulsion and braking is detonating a fuckton of nuclear bombs.
This is the most retarded writing in the book. Benson could easily be cleared by the same lie detector test used to force Feng out of the closet. I'd say "at least somebody else is commenting on how ridiculous it is that the protagonists are fucking in the murder victim's bed" but this is a critical mass of stupidity.
I have only one thing to say about this red-highlighted paragraph and that is to comment on the incredibly meek and passive voice used by Benson. It's how Patrick reacts when various Judges have struck down his bullshit.
Benson invokes right to legal counsel and is placed under house arrest. The chapter ends.
And I guess we'll never find out about the damage to the Ark, the unfathomable death toll and total compromise of the Tau Ceti G landing, huh.
be well advised that out of every other update of The Ark, these chapters contain some of the deadliest examples of plot convenience this side of the mississippi, as well as plenty of unfixed writing mistakes and the casual dismissal and handwaving of a full-on extinction event crisis moment. chapter 25 is the most jaw-droppingly stupid and retarded section of this book.
if i cared to go to conventions, i'd go to one with patrick just to buy this book specifically and burn it in the parking lot, but not before i go around telling people about the author who writes his self-insert main character being seduced by a pregnant teenager.
there's only five more chapters after this, thank goodness.
Chapter 1 | Tor Link | Page 2014
Chapter 2 & 3 | Tor Link | Page 2018
Chapter 4 | Tor Link | Page 2033
Chapter 5, 6, 7 | Tor Link | Page 2046
Chapter 8 | Tor Link | Page 2051
Chapter 9-13 | Tor Link | Page 2079
Chapter 14 | Tor Link | Page 2110
Chapter 15-17 | Tor Link | Page 2120
Chapter 18 | Tor Link | Page 2124
Chapter 19-22 | Tor Link | Page 2147
==Characters Introduced in Order of Appearance; Character Status==
Bryan Benson,
A police(?) detective and our leading man, a gigasaurus who loves sports and evading responsibility, possibly taxation too.
Chao Feng,
The First Officer (of what?), and a douchedrinker according to Benson. Inherited stolen artwork from his criminal dad.
Lau,
The captain of Patrick's favorite Chinese sports team.
Edmond Laraby,
The missing geneticist whom the plot revolved around, found dead and dumped in space.
Avelina Pereira da Silva,
Science Director; Head of Environmental Research & Development. Got her full name in Chapter 3. Is probably the mastermind of the conspiracy.
Vasquez,
Not to be confused with Vasquez from Aliens; a player in Patrick's favorite sports game.
Lindqvist,
A sports player not even worthy of description by Patrick. Must be a PCJ caricature.
Theresa Alexopolous,
A lieutenant, and a Duty Officer (of what?), sidekick to the Chad Bryan Benson.
Vikram Bahadur,
Chief Constable of the Chinatown District, on par with Bryan Benson. Definitely not a Sikh.
Nibiru,
Not a character, but a black hole on the edge of a solar system. Probably the best character, though, if it's anything like Black Hole Sun.
Devorah Feynman,
Curator of the Museum, wants to preserve humanity's culture by locating and securing authentic works of art. Possibly a facsimile of Patrick's mother.
Constable Pavel Korolev,
Theresa sent him to back-up Benson; a rookie that's greener than grass. A true comrade.
Chef Takahashi,
Probably Japanese. Probably a chef.
Magistrate Boswell,
Probably king of the douchedrinkers.
Salvador 'Sal' Kite
Old guy with "war stories"; criminal scum who paid the court a fine and/or served his sentence for participating in a massive art heist.
Old Benny
Criminal scum who has violated the law.
Director Hekekia,
Engineering genius or something. Big Samoan guy who speaks better than Benson.
Dr. Jeanine Russell,
Medbay staffer on the Ark. Dreams about touching Benson's athletic body.
Captain Mahama,
Maybe the Captain of the Ark's crew. Strong old African womanboss.
Sahni,
Another nondescript *Zero Finals* player lol. Still noting her just in case they become relevant.
Madison Atwood,
Bryan Benson's PE Teacher; works as a constable in Chinatown. Didn't make an appearance when Chao Feng was arrested for some reason.
Magistrate Jindal,
A judge that appears to have a perverse desire to do his job properly.
Duty Officer Hernandez,
Another constable belonging to Benson's cadre. Raised concerns about Benson being a nepotist.
Celine DiMaggio,
An art thief. Has Alzheimer's in the future where such diseases should have been wiped out.
Lefty, or Huang
A Japanese(?) man living underground and off the radar.
Mei,
One of the vagrant *Unbound*. Victim of child abuse.
Agong, or David Kimura
Elder of the Japanese vagrants living off the radar on the Ark. Name means 'Grandfather' in Mandarin; was thought to have died of a heart attack after joining the Ark's council.
Mao,
Leader of a splinter group of *the Unbound*. The new lead suspect in the murder investigation.
Barta,
An Ensign on the Ark's Crew. Likes getting in people's way. Probably plays SWAT 4 a lot.
Chief Councilman Valmassoi,
Who the fuck knows.
--E1: Benson's having a nightmare for the third time - an occurrence neither seen nor hinted previously - wherein he dies during his disastrous recovery of Laraby's body. Patrick decided this was important, just a few chapters after handily dismissing the entire Art Heist and all the names coughed up by Salvador Kite including the chick with Alzheimer's in a future with perfected genetic modification.
We meander, disrespecting Edmond Laraby's private bedroom as the protagonist's "love nest", then, unfortunately, get rammed straight into paragraphs of *Zero Finals* which are sadly relevant to the plot. Benson believes that Mao's terrorists will attack the stadium (or the location of the game) because lots of people will be there and thus a "message" can be sent loud and clear.
I as a reader have no sense of what the purpose of that would be. Remember that we're dealing with saboteurs who were born naturally and thus never implanted and hooked up to the Neuralink grid *and* we're taking the word of a child abusing former councilman named David Kimura - who, by the way, also conveniently vanished along with all his people during the Ark's sabotage despite having no possible way of knowing that there was an ongoing crisis (A Faraday Cage was explicitly mentioned) or having an apparent means to react to it as quickly as they did - that these agent provocateurs, Mao's People, are Bad Guys™.
We tentatively believe that they want to destroy humanity due to recent sabotages on the Ark - why, don't know. I think there was a suggestion they want to overthrow the current status quo and ruling council, but like with Laraby's murder we have no actual motive and thus I deem this theorycrafting by Benson to be a waste of time. That is, in and of itself, a problem with the entire book though. Nobody is acting rationally, thoughtfully or intelligently in this story.
Back at Stationbase B (for Benson), Constable Korolev is holding down the fort and mentions a **Constable Feingold** whom I must presume is the third surviving Jew on the Ark by name alone. Great combination German-Jewish name there, Rick.
Words are insufficient to describe the groaning at this moment of incredible convenience. On its own, maybe it's not so bad, but in this story it feels like another step down.
Several chapters back, when Benson finally got his hands on Laraby's Work and Personal Files, he was, upon retrospect, asking all the wrong questions. He found nothing useful, and presumed that the conspirators had covered their tracks. In a fit of rage he smashed the fucking tablet containing the files. Then, after visiting the child abusing cult of *Geisha* assholes in the Ark's understructure, one random girl fixes this tablet, and it isn't until now, when he is out of ideas and leads, that he realizes it still has use. It is unthinkable that it would take anyone this long to return to this mountain of information... or have destroyed it in the first fucking place!!
So, Benson combs through Laraby's files *again*, with new insight. About 20 chapters ago when we first visited Laraby's residence for the investigation, we got some genuinely interesting sci-fi worldbuilding relating to Tau Ceti G and all the images that the Pathfinder probe had sent back. One of the most important tidbits was that a "Dark Continent" existed with a massive, permanent storm encircling the place.
That Dark Continent comes up very tellingly in Laraby's files, and he appeared to be obsessed with it, even interested in comprehending the very nature of it from Pathfinder's captures. To that end, he was making a serious attempt at figuring out how to deal with it. As Benson notes, Laraby was, apparently, becoming angrier, though I'm not seeing any notes, quotes or excerpts to explicitly suggest anger, Patrick...
--E2: Edmond Laraby's pro-bono analysis of the Dark Continent's apparent perma-tornado appears to have been careening towards one terrifying revelation: **that there is no storm, that Pathfinder's images have been tampered with.** Laraby's efforts were devoted to figuring out what was hidden under the "clouds", to undo the tampering.
And of course, because this is actually really fucking interesting and I want to know more and possibly subscribe to Patrick's newsletter, the *Zero Finals* game is starting and Benson has to drop what he's doing moments before we get an actual clue to an actual motive for Laraby's murder, **teased to us by the fact the edit history on this *Atlantis* subject ends three days before his murder!**
According to Detective Bryan Benson, this is the perfect time to have a conversation with Avelina da Silva, and I detest her. Her dialogue is horrible and she is bizarre and unlikable: a facsimile of a human.
Benson asks her about Pufferfish and her know-it-all reply makes me hit the bell I set up to be rung whenever I feel there's more evidence against her. Benson asks who had access to Pufferfish and their poison, and da Silva explains they were a pet project of Laraby's, one of many in the Biolabs. He wanted to research medications for the alleviation of pain, and so a batch of Pufferfish were grown for him. He's dead, though, so it will never be finished. His notes are gone, too.
I highlighted a lot in Red because I honestly didn't remember why his notes would be gone, then I remembered that when the Ark was sabotaged, Laraby's files were conveniently fried and no other server was damaged - we also didn't get a fucking update on that, by the way, and that should have been FRESH in Benson's memory beforehand. He refrains from telling Avelina that he has a surviving copy of Laraby's files and goes a little further.
Benson lets Avelina in on Laraby's cause of death and that Pufferfish poison was involved. I'm a bit peeved by this sequence because it felt like there was going to be more here but all I got instead were some bad jokes and a totally out of place sentence. Moving on, Benson asks Avelina if Edmond ever talked about *Atlantis*.
<DingDingDingDingDing> - and my bell's broken. Shit. Benson goes hard on asking Avelina about the Dark Continent and why Laraby would be interested and she just goes silent. Not suspicious at all. This otherwise contributes nothing and we're left with Benson and Bahadur getting ready to secure the *Zero Finals* game.
Bryan Benson,
A police(?) detective and our leading man, a gigasaurus who loves sports and evading responsibility, possibly taxation too.
Chao Feng,
The First Officer (of what?), and a douchedrinker according to Benson. Inherited stolen artwork from his criminal dad.
Lau,
The captain of Patrick's favorite Chinese sports team.
Edmond Laraby,
The missing geneticist whom the plot revolved around, found dead and dumped in space.
Avelina Pereira da Silva,
Science Director; Head of Environmental Research & Development. Got her full name in Chapter 3. Is probably the mastermind of the conspiracy.
Vasquez,
Not to be confused with Vasquez from Aliens; a player in Patrick's favorite sports game.
Lindqvist,
A sports player not even worthy of description by Patrick. Must be a PCJ caricature.
Theresa Alexopolous,
A lieutenant, and a Duty Officer (of what?), sidekick to the Chad Bryan Benson.
Vikram Bahadur,
Chief Constable of the Chinatown District, on par with Bryan Benson. Definitely not a Sikh.
Nibiru,
Not a character, but a black hole on the edge of a solar system. Probably the best character, though, if it's anything like Black Hole Sun.
Devorah Feynman,
Curator of the Museum, wants to preserve humanity's culture by locating and securing authentic works of art. Possibly a facsimile of Patrick's mother.
Constable Pavel Korolev,
Theresa sent him to back-up Benson; a rookie that's greener than grass. A true comrade.
Chef Takahashi,
Probably Japanese. Probably a chef.
Magistrate Boswell,
Probably king of the douchedrinkers.
Salvador 'Sal' Kite
Old guy with "war stories"; criminal scum who paid the court a fine and/or served his sentence for participating in a massive art heist.
Old Benny
Criminal scum who has violated the law.
Director Hekekia,
Engineering genius or something. Big Samoan guy who speaks better than Benson.
Dr. Jeanine Russell,
Medbay staffer on the Ark. Dreams about touching Benson's athletic body.
Captain Mahama,
Maybe the Captain of the Ark's crew. Strong old African womanboss.
Sahni,
Another nondescript *Zero Finals* player lol. Still noting her just in case they become relevant.
Madison Atwood,
Bryan Benson's PE Teacher; works as a constable in Chinatown. Didn't make an appearance when Chao Feng was arrested for some reason.
Magistrate Jindal,
A judge that appears to have a perverse desire to do his job properly.
Duty Officer Hernandez,
Another constable belonging to Benson's cadre. Raised concerns about Benson being a nepotist.
Celine DiMaggio,
An art thief. Has Alzheimer's in the future where such diseases should have been wiped out.
Lefty, or Huang
A Japanese(?) man living underground and off the radar.
Mei,
One of the vagrant *Unbound*. Victim of child abuse.
Agong, or David Kimura
Elder of the Japanese vagrants living off the radar on the Ark. Name means 'Grandfather' in Mandarin; was thought to have died of a heart attack after joining the Ark's council.
Mao,
Leader of a splinter group of *the Unbound*. The new lead suspect in the murder investigation.
Barta,
An Ensign on the Ark's Crew. Likes getting in people's way. Probably plays SWAT 4 a lot.
Chief Councilman Valmassoi,
Who the fuck knows.
--E1: Benson's having a nightmare for the third time - an occurrence neither seen nor hinted previously - wherein he dies during his disastrous recovery of Laraby's body. Patrick decided this was important, just a few chapters after handily dismissing the entire Art Heist and all the names coughed up by Salvador Kite including the chick with Alzheimer's in a future with perfected genetic modification.
We meander, disrespecting Edmond Laraby's private bedroom as the protagonist's "love nest", then, unfortunately, get rammed straight into paragraphs of *Zero Finals* which are sadly relevant to the plot. Benson believes that Mao's terrorists will attack the stadium (or the location of the game) because lots of people will be there and thus a "message" can be sent loud and clear.
I as a reader have no sense of what the purpose of that would be. Remember that we're dealing with saboteurs who were born naturally and thus never implanted and hooked up to the Neuralink grid *and* we're taking the word of a child abusing former councilman named David Kimura - who, by the way, also conveniently vanished along with all his people during the Ark's sabotage despite having no possible way of knowing that there was an ongoing crisis (A Faraday Cage was explicitly mentioned) or having an apparent means to react to it as quickly as they did - that these agent provocateurs, Mao's People, are Bad Guys™.
We tentatively believe that they want to destroy humanity due to recent sabotages on the Ark - why, don't know. I think there was a suggestion they want to overthrow the current status quo and ruling council, but like with Laraby's murder we have no actual motive and thus I deem this theorycrafting by Benson to be a waste of time. That is, in and of itself, a problem with the entire book though. Nobody is acting rationally, thoughtfully or intelligently in this story.
Back at Stationbase B (for Benson), Constable Korolev is holding down the fort and mentions a **Constable Feingold** whom I must presume is the third surviving Jew on the Ark by name alone. Great combination German-Jewish name there, Rick.
Words are insufficient to describe the groaning at this moment of incredible convenience. On its own, maybe it's not so bad, but in this story it feels like another step down.
Several chapters back, when Benson finally got his hands on Laraby's Work and Personal Files, he was, upon retrospect, asking all the wrong questions. He found nothing useful, and presumed that the conspirators had covered their tracks. In a fit of rage he smashed the fucking tablet containing the files. Then, after visiting the child abusing cult of *Geisha* assholes in the Ark's understructure, one random girl fixes this tablet, and it isn't until now, when he is out of ideas and leads, that he realizes it still has use. It is unthinkable that it would take anyone this long to return to this mountain of information... or have destroyed it in the first fucking place!!
So, Benson combs through Laraby's files *again*, with new insight. About 20 chapters ago when we first visited Laraby's residence for the investigation, we got some genuinely interesting sci-fi worldbuilding relating to Tau Ceti G and all the images that the Pathfinder probe had sent back. One of the most important tidbits was that a "Dark Continent" existed with a massive, permanent storm encircling the place.
That Dark Continent comes up very tellingly in Laraby's files, and he appeared to be obsessed with it, even interested in comprehending the very nature of it from Pathfinder's captures. To that end, he was making a serious attempt at figuring out how to deal with it. As Benson notes, Laraby was, apparently, becoming angrier, though I'm not seeing any notes, quotes or excerpts to explicitly suggest anger, Patrick...
--E2: Edmond Laraby's pro-bono analysis of the Dark Continent's apparent perma-tornado appears to have been careening towards one terrifying revelation: **that there is no storm, that Pathfinder's images have been tampered with.** Laraby's efforts were devoted to figuring out what was hidden under the "clouds", to undo the tampering.
And of course, because this is actually really fucking interesting and I want to know more and possibly subscribe to Patrick's newsletter, the *Zero Finals* game is starting and Benson has to drop what he's doing moments before we get an actual clue to an actual motive for Laraby's murder, **teased to us by the fact the edit history on this *Atlantis* subject ends three days before his murder!**
According to Detective Bryan Benson, this is the perfect time to have a conversation with Avelina da Silva, and I detest her. Her dialogue is horrible and she is bizarre and unlikable: a facsimile of a human.
Benson asks her about Pufferfish and her know-it-all reply makes me hit the bell I set up to be rung whenever I feel there's more evidence against her. Benson asks who had access to Pufferfish and their poison, and da Silva explains they were a pet project of Laraby's, one of many in the Biolabs. He wanted to research medications for the alleviation of pain, and so a batch of Pufferfish were grown for him. He's dead, though, so it will never be finished. His notes are gone, too.
I highlighted a lot in Red because I honestly didn't remember why his notes would be gone, then I remembered that when the Ark was sabotaged, Laraby's files were conveniently fried and no other server was damaged - we also didn't get a fucking update on that, by the way, and that should have been FRESH in Benson's memory beforehand. He refrains from telling Avelina that he has a surviving copy of Laraby's files and goes a little further.
Benson lets Avelina in on Laraby's cause of death and that Pufferfish poison was involved. I'm a bit peeved by this sequence because it felt like there was going to be more here but all I got instead were some bad jokes and a totally out of place sentence. Moving on, Benson asks Avelina if Edmond ever talked about *Atlantis*.
<DingDingDingDingDing> - and my bell's broken. Shit. Benson goes hard on asking Avelina about the Dark Continent and why Laraby would be interested and she just goes silent. Not suspicious at all. This otherwise contributes nothing and we're left with Benson and Bahadur getting ready to secure the *Zero Finals* game.
--E3: Patrick's bad habit of starting every chapter referring to people who haven't even been established is back - who the fuck is 'they'? Bahadur and Benson yes, but we're leapfrogging all over the place and, as usual, have no orientation. Everything else pictured here is padding and tasteless hooligan shit. Patrick thinks frat-tards vomiting is humorous and that this is something we want to read about this late in the story when humanity is in danger of imminent extinction.
Pavel Korolev phones Benson to let him know there's a young woman asking for him. She doesn't have a *Plant*, which is a big deal. At least we're getting somewhere from the first page of a chapter rather than the fifth!
The young woman turns out to be Mei, and Chief Bahadur is there as well. Bahadur wastes time by getting upset over the fact Benson investigated in his jurisdiction and failed to mention it at any point. He's justified but he should be a smarter man here and know this isn't the fuckin' time or place.
Hoooooh boy. Benson name drops Mao and Mei has a peculiar reaction, then hits everyone with a brick: **David Kimura and his people are the ones who sabotaged the Ark.** Mei herself, a minor, was viciously attacked by Huang, the same prick who tried to take out Benson much earlier, and is likely the man who murdered Laraby (no motive still). Mei was put on lookout duty but ran away to find Benson and tell him that Kimura is planning something under the Chinatown lake - something worse than crashing the power system.
Benson ponders why Kimura would be under Chinatown's lake but Korolev, the only mature, rational adult in this scene and now my only favorite character repeats that Mei needs a fucking doctor and it's his responsibility to get her there. Being the only mature, rational adult in the scene, he's horrified by the fact Mei, a minor, is goddamn pregnant, and handles the situation with prudence.
Bahadur, who was a total spectator so far, now butts heads with Benson and the two agree to duke it out later after they get the Bad Guys™. Whether or not it was wise for Benson not to call off the game remains to be seen, but I'd probably do the same. Last thing you need is everyone freaking the fuck out and trying to swim down elevator shafts.
--E4: Benson and Bahadur put together a team and get to work. Benson advises Bahadur that Huang is the most dangerous man they're likely to encounter, deadly in a knife fight. Bahadur flourishes his ceremonial kipan to assuage his partner's worries, then we get some more late worldbuilding about the Ark's constabulary and how they are ostensibly trained in the Israeli Defense Force's preferred martial art of Krav Maga but give it up as soon as they're issued their Star Trek stun-stick. Sounds like some real dipshits are running these agencies, but what do I know? Time to bust some heads, for real this time. Maybe we'll actually see some killing, too.
One smart decision and then one nonsensical decision - informing Command or not doesn't mean shit in a society where a magical plot device of narrative convenience is woven into their brainmeats. Mostly skimming over the description of this water facility because I, as the reader, am not invested in this environment nor do I have any concept of what's at stake due to the wishy-washiness of it all beyond "explosion in pressurized space craft is Bad". The final sentence was a real ball-buster, let me tell you. I laughed in spirit.
--E5: Benson's making progress and comes upon a lone man in the water treatment facility. Surreptitiously subduing the poor guy, he finds out it's just the supervisor and his *Plant* checks out. Gerald Lee helpfully gives Benson some directions while Patrick admirably shoves more *Zero Finals* references into his story - I'm never going to stop grousing about it but this is some incredible devotion.
As expected, a water treatment facility is a big place and it's going to take some time to search. Hernandez gets shit for complaining about it, and it reads to me as very petty. So, really, this whole page was a lot of meandering to get us into this place and for Benson to be searching it with Hernandez at his side after splitting his group of constables.
Bahadur and Benson are mentally mingling when the former detects movement from one of Kimura's people - no *Plant* detected. Then, Patrick introduces us to a never-before-seen function of the *Plant* system that lets you send live video feed from your eyeballs to someone else's eyeballs. I am floored by the contrivance of this, and that the *Plant* system continues to sprout new functionality as is desired by the author.
It very quickly becomes clear why Patrick did this: the book never, ever gives us the perspective of any character but Bryan Benson, as though it were a novel written in the first-person perspective - which it isn't. Also, it doesn't preclude you from switching tenses! He wanted the reader to follow Bahadur without taking Bryan out of the picture, and I'm willing to bet tenbux that this function shall not be seen again.
Bryan patches in to Chief Vikram Bahadur's ocular feed, and after a few bad similes and descriptions, Bahadur stumbles upon a bag taped to the infrastructure, likely a bomb. Benson warns him not to touch it, and then Bahadur sights none other than Huang... after, uh, "sprinting forward" and giving away his location and abandoning the element of surprise. Fucking Idiot. Benson capitalizes on this like a moron and urges Bahadur to take Huang down immediately, and not, you know, get some fucking situational awareness and make sure Huang is alone before jumping into action and engaging a knife-wielding murderer.
--E6: Bahadur, to Patrick's credit, proceeds to kick Huang's ass and show us all why you Do Not Fuck With Sikhs. All that's missing from this beatdown is Bahadur having a wooden rod or baton of some kind to club the fuck out of this prick.
The fight is engaging and concise; it's taken 24 chapters to get some real action and I was into it. I was happy to see an asshole getting whalloped and some blood being shed.
However, though Huang is on the defensive and bleeding badly from multiple wounds, he distracts Bahadur and the constables from his real mission. In his final moment, **Huang pushes the big red button and detonates the planted explosives, obliterating himself and Chief Vikram Bahadur.**
To Pat's credit, the line about Bahadur being unable to locate is chilling in any context. That's a very good cap to this scene.
We didn't know shit about Bahadur though. I'm a bit miffed he (and his compatriots) were the first actual deaths of the story because, from all we've seen, he was the only good fighter. It was very brave of Patrick to depict the brown man being killed in a suicide bombing and not the other way around, but Huang being Japanese (with a Chinese name lmao) and kamikaze'ing the unlucky Sikh is kind of funny too.
We have FINALLY witnessed some killing. Holy shit.
Benson and his team get the fuck out of dodge like bats 'outta Hell. The full extent of the damage inflicted by this bombing is realized when the Chinatown lake "sinks" and a gigantic hole in the Ark's hull is ripped open, and a hurricane fast approaches...
I don't like how Chapters end like this. I might have said it before but I hated watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid for precisely this reason and many more. I greatly detest an action sequence getting broken up for no good reason.
--E7: The hull breach is worsening by the second, and the Ark's internal atmosphere is draining rapidly into the vacuum of space. Benson reaches out across the *Plant* link to establish order and communicate a plan for escaping this extinction event alive.
Benson's leading his team along... somewhere. It's odd how we can get a straightforward and engaging knife fight but Patrick can't be as concise with something like this. In a previous update I said he was rushing through these last chapters or padding it out to reach novel categorization and I'm getting that feeling right now - *the air around them cooled as the pressure dropped, but no one noticed*. Contradictions abound.
Though I highlighted it all in yellow, let me sum it up: Benson's trying to get into the maintenance area of wherever he is - the "aft bulkhead" of... something. If it was mentioned, I've forgotten, but I'm also trying not to pay attention to the environments and locations because Patrick's sense of belonging is incomprehensible. We must also assume that everybody in the Ark is freaking the fuck out right now so I don't know how he'd have issues getting the elevator if he's nowhere near where everybody else is, which is the stadium. Still, he gets in.
Let me get one thing out of the way first: holy writing mistakes, Batman! He misspelled a *Zero Finals* team (Yaoguais as Yuoguais), refers to people as "refugees" (what the fuck?) when we have no sense of placement, and two sentences are missing words.
That aside, I'm fucking lost now. I had to re-read this chapter one more time to make sure I wasn't somehow glossing over something and understood what Benson was trying to do. I thought that he had some kind of plan for dealing with this hull breach, **but it turns out they're only trying to get to safety.** Along the way - whatever 'the way' is - they're locking down access doors to minimize damage, and leaving others to die(?). 20,000 people on the other side of a hatch - what side? My autism is being cooked alive by how unplaceable all these elements are, how nobody's actually doing anything, and how little of a genuine idea I have of what is going the fuck on. It's authentically distressing to read things like this, and no, Rick, that is not an accomplishment.
Benson and his people climb a huge ladder up the Ark - which takes them an HOUR, by the way - and ostensibly leave tens of thousands of people to their deaths by necessity, and they emerge inside a "hub". What is it the hub of? It's not the stadium, clearly. We (namely myself) have no sense of what the Ark's interior is like and what it's like to live in its residential sectors, and that's what fucks me off so much here.
My prediction at the end of the previous update comes true.
Benson is called out in the crowd and all of a sudden, his own constables, including Hernandez, turn on him like a bunch of automatons. Unbeknownst to Benson, the Ark's council has suspended him and sent out a warrant for his arrest, which is fucking amazing considering the ONGOING FUCKING HULL BREACH IN THE ARK THAT NOBODY IS DEALING WITH. They had the time to do this, they FELT the need to do this, while their entire race faces total annihilation are you fucking KIDDING me?
Charged with conspiracy and aiding David Kimura, Benson's own constables prepare to bring him in. You know, while there's a calamity of ungodly proportions occurring just beyond a few doors.
Who the fuck is Flowers, too? I CTRL-F'd that name in the book and this is the only time that one's mentioned. Some of the worst writing in the entire book has been condensed into three pages, a remarkable feat to be sure. Also, just to point it out in case you missed it, the *Plant* network is explicitly mentioned in image 'e_7_3' to be down for some unknown reason. Patrick created a very cheeky, slapdash hour's length passage of time to handwave away the Ark's very possible destruction AND the Ark's Command turning on Benson. One would think Benson could have found out about this horseshit fucking twist a little bit ahead of time??? Maybe??? Just throwing that out there????????
--E8: Benson is under arrest and STILL with absolutely NO fucks given about the GOD DAMN HULL BREACH, we now also have time to give Benson a humiliation arc and the walk of shame through a crowd that's wasting food in violation of staunch dystopian rationing protocols by throwing vegetables and fruits at him.
This is so jaw-droppingly stupid.
Chao Feng occupies Benson's office, and the two are given some alone time. I was worried it was going to get really gay but then Benson no-sells Feng's limp-wristed soymaker and that made me smirk. So yeah, it is funny to me, Chao.
Feng then hits Benson with the knowledge that his wife died in the hull breach incident, as if we should give a flying fungle fuck about this prick's feelings when he was stalling the investigation into the death of Edmond Laraby this entire time DUE TO HIS OWN UNFAITHFULNESS TO HIS NOW-DEAD WIFE, WHO MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE IF HE HAD COOPERATED WITH BENSON IN THE FIRST PLACE. Fuck off, Chao, and preferably become the next death in this book.
Benson, showing uncharacteristic empathy, asks about Feng's son and gets no answer, but more accusations: that BENSON was the one who killed Laraby and wanted to set Feng up!
My eyes have rolled all the way to China.
Feng produces the evidence that secured Benson's arrest warrant: the letter addressed to him by David Kimura much earlier promising assistance in finding Mao's people, which is now obviously a red herring that was designed by Kimura to keep Benson off his back that has also fortuitously implicated him in the terrorist conspiracy. By the way, the letter was left in Kimura's now-abandoned compound. Feng wasn't involved in this before, especially according to his lie detector test, but now I'm starting to wonder if he's working with Kimura too.
Feng explains where they found this note to Benson - where Benson himself first found it, in the *Geisha's* compound. This letter proves absolutely nothing, especially since it wasn't found on or with Benson in the first place, and nobody but Bahadur, prior to his explosive demise, knew Benson had been here. Benson's own *Plant* would have placed him in the understructure and entering this area before the signal was lost under the Faraday Cage, but of course, none of that's mentioned.
Benson calling off the search is used to implicate him as well, as I predicted. All of this is really fucking convenient, too, and I'm out of steam. I also have no fucking idea when they sent men down into the Avalon lake and found the same sabotage setup that Huang detonated, nor do I know why THESE explosives weren't detonated because Feng doesn't say anyone was apprehended.
Feng then accused Benson of leading Bahadur to his death, which makes no motherfucking sense either, and in a society with everpresent surveillance baked into your grey matter there's no reason accusations like this can even be made. Patrick wanted to write a sci-fi story but failed to adjust his society and setting to the trials and tribulations of actually living with this kind of technology.
While all of this is going on, we still have absolutely no sitrep on the damage to the Ark, if there's still a breach, or what. The entire ship is in a crisis state and they may not even hold together during landing because their method of propulsion and braking is detonating a fuckton of nuclear bombs.
This is the most retarded writing in the book. Benson could easily be cleared by the same lie detector test used to force Feng out of the closet. I'd say "at least somebody else is commenting on how ridiculous it is that the protagonists are fucking in the murder victim's bed" but this is a critical mass of stupidity.
I have only one thing to say about this red-highlighted paragraph and that is to comment on the incredibly meek and passive voice used by Benson. It's how Patrick reacts when various Judges have struck down his bullshit.
Benson invokes right to legal counsel and is placed under house arrest. The chapter ends.
And I guess we'll never find out about the damage to the Ark, the unfathomable death toll and total compromise of the Tau Ceti G landing, huh.
Chapter 23 vacillates from pointlessness to interesting like two fat guys on a see-saw. Benson's having nightmares and no luck because he once again doesn't have a lead... and then he remembers he has the only copy of Laraby's Work Logs and Personal Files courtesy to one of Kimura's child abuse victims randomly fixing the tablet after he broke it in the first place like a mongoloid. Suffice to say that he has new insights into Laraby's life following the red herring that was Chao Feng. Before, he asked all the wrong questions, and consequently found no answers.
This time, though, he stumbles upon the things Laraby was working on - Tau Ceti G, and the permanent cyclonic storm darkening one of its continents. Laraby wanted to solve the mystery of this storm, and soon discovered that all the images the Pathfinder probe on Tau Ceti G sent back to the Ark were tampered with somehow, and he was working on reversing the damage. It's a bit insane to me that Benson didn't think to check what Laraby's most recent edit/interaction history was BEFORE, though. This is actually very interesting stuff but of course, Benson needs to get to the *Zero Finals* stadium because everyone believes Mao's people are going to commit a terrorist act, so we're cockteased with what Laraby was putting together just three days before his death.
Avelina also makes a *Plant* appearance in this chapter and I fucking hate her and I remain convinced she is one of the conspirators.
Chapter 24 features the most enjoyable action of this entire book. At the *Zero Finals* stadium, with the constables locking things down and checking for Mao's gang, Benson is informed that Mei, the child abuse victim used as a prostitute by David Kimura's vagrants, has shown up looking for him. She's desperate for help, and reveals to everyone that there is no Mao: David Kimura is behind everything, including the sabotage on the Ark just previously. She has been viciously attacked, too, so Constable Korolev gets her to the doctor right away.
Chief Bahadur and Benson now know that David Kimura is planning something else under the Chinatown Lake, so the two constable chiefs form teams and head in. After some pitter-pattering, it turns out Huang is there. Bahadur proves the better fighter and absolutely slaughters the bastard, but before they apprehend him, Huang detonates the explosives planted on the infrastructure, killing Bahadur and his team, and forcing Benson and his to make a quick escape. The explosion rips open a massive hole in the Ark's hull.
And, of course, in true Patrick S. Tomlinson authorial style, this extinction event is handwaved promptly and we get no fucking sitrep or update on it.
Chapter 25 shows us the aftermath of the bombing, with Benson and his team making an escape that might as well be an act of teleportation with how confounding it is. As soon as they reach safety, Benson learns that there's a warrant out for his arrest, and like goddamn robots, his team betrays him and apprehend him on the spot. He's given a walk of shame through his own district, with everyone instantly turning on him and PELTING HIM WITH FOOD... and arrives at his own stationbase.
Chao Feng is there to dole out accusations so retarded I can't even bear to repeat them. Suffice to say that Benson was on notice for calling off the prior search for Mao's people very early with no reason given, and now they've discovered the *Geisha's* old compound and other things that name Benson but don't implicate him in shit.
I'm not even sure how everyone knows it's David Kimura and not Mao right now, because Mei only disclosed this to Benson and Bahadur, and only the other constables with them MIGHT have known the name of who they were after. There is no possibility the Ark's Command knew about this because BOTH BAHADUR AND BENSON CHOSE NOT TO INFORM THEM OF WHAT THEY WERE DOING. They deployed without orders and Bahadur ended up dead when Mei's information turned out to be accurate.
I truly hate this book, but we're five chapters away from finishing it. We'll get there.
This time, though, he stumbles upon the things Laraby was working on - Tau Ceti G, and the permanent cyclonic storm darkening one of its continents. Laraby wanted to solve the mystery of this storm, and soon discovered that all the images the Pathfinder probe on Tau Ceti G sent back to the Ark were tampered with somehow, and he was working on reversing the damage. It's a bit insane to me that Benson didn't think to check what Laraby's most recent edit/interaction history was BEFORE, though. This is actually very interesting stuff but of course, Benson needs to get to the *Zero Finals* stadium because everyone believes Mao's people are going to commit a terrorist act, so we're cockteased with what Laraby was putting together just three days before his death.
Avelina also makes a *Plant* appearance in this chapter and I fucking hate her and I remain convinced she is one of the conspirators.
Chapter 24 features the most enjoyable action of this entire book. At the *Zero Finals* stadium, with the constables locking things down and checking for Mao's gang, Benson is informed that Mei, the child abuse victim used as a prostitute by David Kimura's vagrants, has shown up looking for him. She's desperate for help, and reveals to everyone that there is no Mao: David Kimura is behind everything, including the sabotage on the Ark just previously. She has been viciously attacked, too, so Constable Korolev gets her to the doctor right away.
Chief Bahadur and Benson now know that David Kimura is planning something else under the Chinatown Lake, so the two constable chiefs form teams and head in. After some pitter-pattering, it turns out Huang is there. Bahadur proves the better fighter and absolutely slaughters the bastard, but before they apprehend him, Huang detonates the explosives planted on the infrastructure, killing Bahadur and his team, and forcing Benson and his to make a quick escape. The explosion rips open a massive hole in the Ark's hull.
And, of course, in true Patrick S. Tomlinson authorial style, this extinction event is handwaved promptly and we get no fucking sitrep or update on it.
Chapter 25 shows us the aftermath of the bombing, with Benson and his team making an escape that might as well be an act of teleportation with how confounding it is. As soon as they reach safety, Benson learns that there's a warrant out for his arrest, and like goddamn robots, his team betrays him and apprehend him on the spot. He's given a walk of shame through his own district, with everyone instantly turning on him and PELTING HIM WITH FOOD... and arrives at his own stationbase.
Chao Feng is there to dole out accusations so retarded I can't even bear to repeat them. Suffice to say that Benson was on notice for calling off the prior search for Mao's people very early with no reason given, and now they've discovered the *Geisha's* old compound and other things that name Benson but don't implicate him in shit.
I'm not even sure how everyone knows it's David Kimura and not Mao right now, because Mei only disclosed this to Benson and Bahadur, and only the other constables with them MIGHT have known the name of who they were after. There is no possibility the Ark's Command knew about this because BOTH BAHADUR AND BENSON CHOSE NOT TO INFORM THEM OF WHAT THEY WERE DOING. They deployed without orders and Bahadur ended up dead when Mei's information turned out to be accurate.
I truly hate this book, but we're five chapters away from finishing it. We'll get there.
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- Joined
- Dec 24, 2018
The Kiwi Farms thanks you for your service. Your brain cells did not die in vain.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2021
He has ready access to a vagina with herpes?
That's not the win he thinks it is.
Let's not talk about the fucking Merkin again.
You saw what happened last time, Josh's drives an hero'd so they wouldn't have to hold such Islamic information.
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2022
Patrick got caught liking porn tweets/following porn accounts before (somethingsomething black french twins) so I can buy him being a coomer.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
He often contradicts himself within the same xeet chain, and even without that nothing he says is the win he thinks it is. #DLTIW
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2021
I seem to remember a reddit account being found that was the obscure name of a character from one his non selling books. It posted in troon subreddits and such, if memory serves me correctly and I believe the account went dormant when it posted either here or Owen Forems. Plus Pat is a reply guy for John Walker Flynt. He's also claimed he's "into things"
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2023
Yep same here - lotta houses in my area have one garage and one carport. You would put the car you love in the garage and the shit box in the carport. Only a retard would park a car they claim to love in a spot that doesn’t even have a fucking roof to keep the rain and sun off it, but that’s Piggy for you.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2022
Gather round Kiwis, we're about to witness the birth of a brand new Patposter...
Yeah the image formatting is gay and duplicated but I'm only doing exactly what Josh said to do with images and I'm sick of getting whined at over it
Yeah the image formatting is gay and duplicated but I'm only doing exactly what Josh said to do with images and I'm sick of getting whined at over it
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- Joined
- Nov 21, 2022
"carport"? Nigger, that's a driveway. I love cars and I guess I would consider myself a "car-guy" after servicing hundreds maybe thousands of cars including vehicles worth $300 to $300,000. "car guy" Patrick, is really fucking pathetic, considering his lack of basic car repair knowledge, calling the shitty s197 with the pussy 4.6 V8 and the pre facelift body a "classic". Where did he get the gig as the "car expert" again? I can't wait for someone to ask him something he can't just google the answer too.