Faster, Darkspeed!

The truth. Lost. The word was spoken to no one, but it reverberated off the hotboard of atlas youth's upcraft, like a confession. He had ignored the warnings of the Xeroine Synod and allowed the mandatious archcasters of the lithic tide to obscure his true course once again. This time, there would be no going home. Thank you. Wow, like a corpus in everybody. Like a on behalf of Harris Brothers' books, thank you for taking this time to read from the newest installment of the Dark Speed saga, Faster Dark Speed, folks. And if you're okay on time, we can open it up to some questions. Yes, of course. Anybody? Hands is fine. Yes. You. I like a huge Dark Speed fan since, like, forever. I'm sure a lot of us are. Yeah. I just think the world your mother created is so important. Each of her books is like, you know, it changed the course of my life. At last, Dark Speed is practically like my Bible. Within you, Dark Speed, I actually proposed to my fiancé using atlas's speech to read Yelika at the Citadel. Oh, that is amazing. Mom would have loved that. She was one of a kind. When I heard you were going to pick up where she left off, I thought, that felt so right. And I read your book over this past weekend. And I'm a little confused. Can you explain the choice to focus on this new rocket fuel shortage thing out of nowhere? And this weird minerals are, guy? Well, you know, I mean, mom didn't really leave a road map for where she saw Dark Speed going. But I think that she trusted me to be faithful to the spirit of it while still finding some ways to make it my own. All right. But why didn't you use all of the great stuff that your mom set up, like the duorads or that? Kill them, heresy. Yeah, well, I really think that when you read the next one and you see the big picture, it'll all make sense. Thank you. Yes, you. Hi. Yeah. Is there a reason why in your book the characters don't say the stuff they would really say or do the things they would really do? A reason? Sorry. Are you asking, look, mom and I are different writers. There's no way around it. But I love Dark Speed just as much as you all do. And I want to see mom's story finished properly with heart and a sense of adventure. And that involves making choices and taking some big swings and actually writing. And honestly, sometimes I feel like you people will just not give me the benefit of the doubt. So I'm sorry. Yes, you forgive them like they can't imagine how hard it's been for you to be throwing into all this. Thank you. That's very nice to hear. Is there a question? It's going to be all right. The best Dark Speed stories are still to come and they'll be written by you. Thank you. Okay. Let's call it there then. LICO will be signing autographs in the new fiction section in 10 minutes, so hope that you'll join us there. Let's hear it one more time. These people hate me. They don't want my autograph. Of course they want your autograph. You're Luella Torvisson's daughter. A craft's away. Susan. There you go. Thank you, Susan. Hi. Who should I make this out to? I hope that wasn't for much in there. I just. I felt that shit. It's you. Thank you. No. That was very sweet of you to stick up for me. I knew your mother. We worked together. I'm George. George Flakos. I used to call your house when you were very little. Mom's George. Yes. You were her. I think she usually described me as a research assistant. Oh my God. What are you doing in Sacramento? Oh, I love here. This is where Luella would come to see me. Oh. I haven't been well, like a. Otherwise, I would have contacted you sooner. Ideally, we would have met before she passed. Um. Right. Are. Are you here with someone? Listen. Your mother didn't invent the dark speed stories. She received them with my help. But it's all truth. Zara wins. The lithic tide. We can continue her work. No book is false, but it's not your fault. Yeah, please let go. Back away from her, man. All right. I'll go. Meet Nith, Magnolia, and Town, tomorrow at noon. Please. It's fine. It's fine. Why not? What a creep. Yeah. Thanks. Make this out to Steve, please. Oh, actually, can you write thanks for saving me from that creep? Making the reins on a story everyone already loves has to be a little scary. Can you keep the magic that drew people to it in the first place when you know there are people out there who believe getting it right is a moral obligation? This is the truth I'm Jonathan Mitchell, and this story is about legacy, expectations, and what happens when a story starts making demands of its own. And before we continue, the truth is an independent show. And right now, listener support is really what's keeping it going. The ad-free feed directly pays the writers and actors who make these stories possible. And without enough subscribers, we can't keep making new episodes. So if these stories matter to you, if you want the truth to keep existing, this is the moment to help. You can subscribe at the truthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. There's a link in the show notes. The truthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. Now back to Forward Dark Speed. Oh, that's great. So there's going to be another movie? I don't even realize that it's going to have a little martini. So yeah, let's go out to the trades next week along with the official announcement of the next Dark Speed movie, which will be. Oh gosh. At last, the Dark Speed. How about that? We're going back to the beginning. How did we get here? You mean you're adapting the first book? Again? Mom's book? Yeah. Didn't you just make that movie? Yeah, like eight years ago. It felt like why not go into this next phase with the most iconic Dark Speed story, you know? With that confidence and clarity that comes from having already told it. With some changes, of course, subtle changes in emphasis. But what about my book? Faster Dark Speed is what happens next, right? Especially, and we're just not adapting it. We're not adapting it. We're just not adapting it now. Yeah, but, hey, Dan, can I talk to Dan? Yeah, you got me like, don't do this to me, Dan. This gives everybody an excuse to ignore my book. If the movie's just skip it, it's like it's not real. Yeah. Yeah, listen, like the reaction to. Yeah, it's selling. But it's also. it's like it's the fans, okay? They say they don't feel like it's real Dark Speed, and a movie is thousands of people and millions of trailers. Yeah, okay. Well, just let me show you what I have planned. I'll send you a treatment, the whole plot for the next book, and it's going to put everything into context. You will see. I'm working on something really special. Does anyone on your site is that, right? Okay. And we'll always hear you out. You hear our line to that whole magical tourism thing, but the people want real Dark Speed. And we can serve her. That was youth, and it lasts Dark Speed. Oh. It doesn't get any more with Dark Speed even that, huh? All right, go. Over here. This is great. Oh, thank you for coming. Have you eaten here? The Magnolia? I haven't. It's lovely. It's an old fashioned cafeteria, but with a modern global twist, food from everywhere. I started coming every Sunday once I qualified for the discount. My daughter drops me off with the newspaper that I'm in heaven. Oh, you want to go through? Oh, I think I'll just get a coffee. Oh, my gosh. Your hair like that, you look just like your mom. Listen, George, I still don't feel great about our interaction at the reading. So, this is not meant to encourage that kind of behavior. I know, and I'm sorry. We've just lost so much time. I felt I had to reach out and grab you. Let's go. The fact is, I don't meet many people who really knew my mom, and even worked with her. And I realize that maybe you'd have something that you kept from those days, like notes that she kept. So well, I never kept notes. No need. Okay, but maybe letters or anything that could help me convince people that I'm not, that I am doing what she wanted. It'd be different if she hadn't gone so fast after the stroke. We could have written one together. It's just that it's been too easy for people to make up their minds that everything she did was genius, and everything that I do is wrong. And if they really loved mom and all the decisions she made, then well, I'm one of those decisions, she picked me, whatever I'm sorry. Like a frustration you're feeling is completely understandable. Yeah. I think you may be under psychic attack from a lithic tide. Okay. See, this is-- Wait, I can help you. But you've got to listen. For 78 years, I lived here as George Flackis, but before that, I was someone else, as Zerowin soldier from the other side of the universe. Jesus, maybe I should go. Why? Because you think I'm a hopped up or a dementia? All right. Do you remember out placing from the books a Zerowin technique for making someone suddenly feel that they're somewhere else entirely? Yeah, of course. Okay. Give me your hand. I really shouldn't be doing that. Hold us. That's who it is. Yeah. Drink your coffee. Your mom. Hot. Hot. Like a--where I'm from, the war your mother wrote about is really happening. My people have fought the lithic tide fearlessly for centuries, but her enemies learned of a key weakness that we Zerowin draw our power, our will to fight from our connection to our own history. So they began to erase that history, warping it, stamping it out. And meanwhile, killing us in droves. We realized it was only a matter of time before they wiped us out completely. So we decided to send our history somewhere else to create a backup. Something our descendants could find later. Earth. Well, Earth was really the only choice. If we send our message anywhere else, it would be seen as a threat. An abstract religion, a subversive propaganda, but on Earth, under the right circumstances, a story will be spread, even if nobody believes it. It just has to amuse them. So with what little strength they had left, our priests began the transmissions. They also sent me the consciousness of a Zerowin soldier to look for someone on Earth. Who gave me a truth, resonate, a storyteller, Luwella. She was hard-working, so talented, and it just so happened she was looking for a spark. And now thanks to her, well, look around, 400 million books sold in over 16 languages, movies, video games, even a theme park, all dedicated to my people, my faith. By the time my descendants arrive, this whole planet will be their church, as long as the story gets told in full. Like a, will you help me complete the dark speed histories? When can we start? Yeah, but this house, as soon as I could afford it, it never lived more than a few miles away, it didn't gust it up much, I hope you don't find it depressing. But longitude and latitude, this is where the transmissions are clearest here. So all those trips out of nowhere, and she was just coming here? Do you know how crazy that drove my dad? She never told us anything. I call when I determined that broadcast was coming, they're time with the movement of the planets. But she left that stuff to me, and that's a George stuff, she'd say. We'll go ahead, sit in that chair, and then I'll just, I'll hear it. Oh, you'll know what's happening. I think there was some bottle of water around here. I've always did just seem a little too good to be true. How did a lady from Minnesota think of all that? I mean, you know, she was smart, but like, how'd she get it so right? Here. This is warm and very old, but you should stay hydrated. Okay. Jesus. You look just like you're sitting there. I'm sorry, I'm getting a stall, check that. I'll wait in here, so I don't distract you, I've butterflies, we're packing business. Anything you need, you just say so. Okay. Thank you, George. Oh my god, it's good, it's really good. With a clarity of purpose that seemed to ward off even the dust and darkness, atlas youth descended the stone steps of Kilwim Catacom. The durods had revealed all. He was the true prophet of lung. The priest at the bottom of these stairs was an imposter, a lithic suturge and the hunt for kermis fuel, the struggle with hack the minerals are. These had been illusions, psychic predations of the lithic tide. He felt his every muscle animated by holy certainty, no one could stop him now. Wow, like, seriously, all I can say right now is, wow, this stuff sings. Yeah, I mean, it's really just a treatment with a few fleshed out scenes, but it's, I can't stop. And so the whole last book was a dream. Yeah, it was, it was, well, it was sort of like a weaponized hallucination, but. That's genius. And just because we're all, we're back in there, like it's right, you know, editors just like over the moon right now. Millie's pretty excited, yeah. I'll tell you, he was also very excited as Lincoln, I sent it to him, I couldn't help myself. And I think, I mean, I think this is the next movie. I think we open with that catacombs chase. And then the catacombs is a spaceship, people are going to be shouting at this, like a bar of speed. Yeah, dark speeds back. They're going to be chanting dark speeds back. Well, like dark speeds back. Dark speeds back. I really like it. I think you can do a meeting here at Primordial, a chance for you to tell us, Mike, hey, I'm Lincoln, your vision in the rest of the story, Fredic, Friday, yeah, yeah, I'd love that. Tell everybody I cannot wait to show them what really happens next. Great. And in the meantime, hey, just keep it coming. Good morning, George. I brought donuts. Oh. And I got stuff for sandwiches too. Let's get to work. Oh. So thoughtful. My daughter read me your treatment, by the way. You're splendid. Oh. No, I cry. Oh, George, you have the well, the same feel for the little moments, the emotional detail, the exchange you wrote after Atlas rescue's pride, Muriel. They will see you at my side and know they've lost. That gets it. That's my people summed up, right there, whether it was ever really said. That was the well or two. She knew when to add a little flourish like that. Well, I'm just so glad that we're doing this right. And I want to make up for lost time. I am ready to go nine, 10 hours straight in that chair. Yeah. Well, we can't control how fast the transmissions come. They can't even know for sure that anyone's tuning in. It's all one big in a galactic act of faith. I just want to help your people, however I can, George. I owe you everything. Well, OK, better set. It's time. Oh, all right. Let's see what those Zorrowins got for us today. He dies. He dies. George. George. George. Oh, what is he doing? I toast. Atlas youth. He dies at the cataclybaration? Oh, we're already there. How is that possible? George, how is the hero of the story dead? Well, of course he dies. It's a central event to my faith. Atlas youth sacrifice. A cataclybaration. It's what happens afterward, like a-- Lincoln Server just signed a six-picture deal, George. Well, what difference does that make? What difference? He's Atlas youth. And I have a meeting Friday where Wamp's was tell him what he's doing in those six movies. He want me to tell him that he's in two pieces at the bottom of a moon like? His love survives. George, this is the one thing that cannot happen in Dark Speed. And it is what happens. But it's suicidal for the franchise. I'm going to be sidelined, retconned. I'm going to be self-publishing out of my garage. Just, they're going to call it fanfic, like, OK, what would Mom do? What would Mom do when something in your history wouldn't resonate with our people? Well, I left that up to her. She was the writer after all, huh? Well, I always just seemed to get it right. Why does Adam set you like, huh? And we'll continue in just a moment to hear all of our stories add free. Go to the truthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. Like, right here, you're still in Sacramento. Why the hell are you still in Sacramento? Yeah, I'm just, well, I'm finding it easy to work out here. It's quiet. The ideas are just flying. God, I wish I knew what that felt like. You better keep them flying right into my inbox. Actually, there is something I wanted to run by you. OK. So last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I had something in my head, sort of, what if, what if it's time to adjust how the character of Atlas Youth operates in the dark speed saga? Because whereas now he's, like, right in there, so present, what does it look like hypothetically if he's. I like it. We got a little surprise for you here. Is somebody special? Stop by the shop. Like a Lincoln server here. Oh, oh, oh, oh, my God. Whoa. Hello, Lincoln. I'm such a fan. We met, actually, at the. Yeah, I remember. Listen, I'm on my way out, but I wanted to let you know how excited I am about the new stuff. I'm so, so glad that you like it. Yeah. And not to butt in, but it sounds like we are in sync with Atlas. I see I'm taking it even more active role in the next few chapters. Right. Right. More active than. I mean, you're the hero league. Sure. Yeah. No, but you know, a lot of ways he's been mostly reacting. You know? I want to see what happens when he hits that driver's seat for real. I'm thinking the next three movie posters are just Atlas alone. You can only tell him apart by the battle damage to my uniform. Oh, my God. Like? That's exactly what I was thinking. That's great. Okay. Well, all right. Excellent. All right. Also, what about Ninevech? Oh, yeah. Yes, that's great. Oh, luckily, I just put out the short ribs. You really should try some all the time. Okay. Here's an idea. What about the afterlife? What if Atlas fights a parallel battle in the afterlife, so he's dead, but Lincoln still gets to do action. There's a real, uh, Zarywood afterlife per se. There's a state of psychological pain. Oh, the league. Yes. Shit. That's right. I forgot. That's been established. What about dream sequences? We Zarywoods are very into dreams. Eh. I don't know. Atlas could come back as a memory, a memory that gives people advice. I've seen shows that do that. Could we just skip Atlas getting killed somehow? What? Skip it. I mean, if we're careful about it and we keep everything else sane, then I mean, think of it as like a flourish. You should leave out the sacrifice at Calus Agressmore than the flourish. That's a distortion. That's exactly what the lithic time was. Okay, okay. It's just a, I'm sorry. We're brainstorming. Eh. Listen. The Zarywood's power, all of this, relies on our story being told as it happened. Please don't forget that. Now I get that this part of the story disappoints you, but it's just like we're just getting to the good part that Brad Muriel, Atlas's protege, inspired by his sacrifice founds. A new religion. She takes on the lithic and chris of leagues. She becomes a derotic beacon, a messiah. But Brad Muriel is played by Lucille Jimenez, the Olympic gymnast. She's not an actor. We can't build an entire franchise around her. Oh, so then stop worrying about actors. Just write the books. Yeah, but they aren't just books anymore. They're IP. They're brand strategies. If I get this wrong, then the execs are going to squeeze me out. And then when your descendants get here, their history is going to be an edgeless market research and nothing. It's not going to happen. You're a gifted writer like a, and there's power in the truth. It's like your mother used to say, "We know better than everybody else, Torch, because we know the real story." But it was easy for her. She started out as nobody with nothing. And I am underneath all of this. And I'm dealing with investors and business managers and millions of fans who are always comparing me to her. I'll probably just be fighting my whole life just to hang onto this, and none of it's going to really be mine. I'm tired, like I better call the call to pick me up. Can you come to the transmission house tomorrow? Another transmission already. Yeah, this one will be different. I promise. Everything is all set for that meeting tomorrow. Like Lincoln cannot wait, a better save room for that celebratory martini, because in my opinion, we can't lose. Gosh, I feel like I just can't catch my breath this week. Do you mind if I said no, to the timing is less important today. Yeah, take these. What are these? Pebbles, keep them apart. They're from the park, but they could have come from anywhere. It's another technique and never made it into the books. It's a form of out placing, centered on objects. That's something I should be trying, 78, but I've needed something into these, a memory, a moment I remember with Luella that stuck with me. I'm sure it's been changed by time, but whatever you want, you just tap them together twice. Tap them together twice? Yeah, it's just a trigger, silly, I know. That's very sci-fi. Well, I am what some of that stuff is based on, you know. I think I finally heard you yesterday, how I can really help you, and well, whatever you're ready. I'll give you some room. I'm sorry, I'm coming out of these transmissions just drenched. I was having so much trouble with this last one, George. I kept asking myself, why would Atlas use a company readily get to the trials at Starlet's Citadel? Atlas is holding off an army on the other side of the galaxy. Red just stole his girlfriend. It doesn't make any sense. Why would anyone write it like that? I knew that's what you would say, George. I brought it up to Ryan and Leica at dinner, don't worry. I didn't tell him about this place, but I told him the plot required something that nonetheless just didn't feel right, and I described it to them best I could. And Leica had the answer. She told me, "At least you should say to red, I didn't want you to be alone." Can you believe that? I didn't want you to be alone. You have to make a story useful to people, George, more than just a list of names and events. It has to be something they can identify themselves and consider their own lives through. And Leica gets that at five years old. She's just got that instinct. All right, I'm ready. Let's see what these are Owens have for us today. Oh, my God, thank you, George. What's the answer? I figured, whenever you want, you could use those pebbles to remind yourself that you and your mother have always been writing this story together. Dark Speed is yours, too. But those motorcycle stunt guys have the most insane stories. What are their originals? Admittedly not the coolest about women, but man. That's awesome, Lincoln. And Mike, if you're ready, I think we get to it the reason we're all here. Like a tortoise and Miss Dark Speed herself. Hey, hey everybody. Okay. This, I've been looking forward to all week. No joke. Leica's going to walk us through what she's been calling the future of Dark Speed. Like whenever you're ready. Yeah, sure. Thanks. And Jack, Mike, Lincoln, everybody, Dark Speed is moving into a new phase. We're reaching the crux, really the point of the story that my mom was trying to tell. It's going to feel different. And that's good. The next novel, Forward Dark Speed, here's the cover. We'll kick off a whole new trilogy. New adventures centered on the classic Dark Speed themes of trust, prophecy and family. Something will be gained and something will be lost. After the discovery at the Killwin Catechomes, the journey to lithic one and the distress signal from Catacac, all in the treatment that you read, will move to an altogether different setting. A funeral for the Zarawins will suffer a loss at Catacac. A loss that would seem to doom their movement, or is it this sacrifice that allows the Zarawins to move on, to change, to become something new, something they were always meant to be? We see heads bent in prayer. We see flowers on a silver coffin and in that coffin, bride-marial. Bride-marial is dead. And then we see Atlas at the day us just completely drained of tears, and he looks out at the crowd, and he says, "They think they killed our friend, but they only brought her closer to us. We carry her with us now, inside of us. She will accompany us through strife, sorrow, imprisonment and torture." A Zarawin need never despair, because a Zarawin is never alone. Suddenly, two mourners draw off their cloaks, cable guns, it's a lithic attack. Yes. Holy shit. I'm going to make a million of these. Hello? Hi. Sorry, is George there? Is this Leica? Yes? Hi, like, yes. I'm Nicole. I'm George Starr. Oh. Hi. Is George okay? Well, dad fell this weekend. He's crazy. All right. But I think it's set him back a little. All those clarity issues from before we change the meds that did he tell you about all that? Just a little bit, but is there anything I can do to help? I'm back in LA now, but. You know, I'm sure he'd appreciate you coming by. Sure. Your family means a lot to him. We're at Mercy General, so, you know, if you have some time. He's still pretty much just sleeping a lot of the day, though. So I, you know, don't expect much. Thank you. Can I just have a moment with him? Sure. No problem. Hey, George. It's Leica. God, how did this happen? I feel like we were just talking. Can you hear me at all? I brought you some food from Magnolia. You know how hard it is to sneak food out of there. And just leave it with a nurse. I just. I just wanted to tell you that the meeting went great. And I should have called you right after, but I figured it out. How to keep Catazac in the story with just a couple changes to make the big movie guys happy. Kinds of changes that mom would have made, I think. And they loved it. We are full steam ahead. Yeah, sometimes when you're writing the answer just comes to you. Like something that solves all your problems at once. And well, so I switched Atlas out for bride. Because. Because the sacrifice itself is what's important, I think. And loyalty and family and all the themes are. They're there. It works perfectly. And we're never going to have to change another thing. Gosh. I hope you can hear me. I was hoping that you could. I can't get the pebbles to work, George. I tried this morning. But. And it was such an amazing gift. But when I tapped them down, nothing happens. And it's. I got worried that it meant that. That I changed the story too much. That I distorted things. Did I? I hope. I hope that you would tell me that it was okay. Because you left it up to me, George. You told me that. You said that it was up to me. Oh, God. Am I. Am I why you feel? And what about the transmissions? I can't receive them without you. How is I supposed to know that it would happen just like that? You know the kind of pressure that I'm under. And I could feel it all slipping away from me. Maybe. Maybe they got to me. The lithic tide. Is this them? Maybe they confused me somehow. We can keep fighting. And there's still time to change things. I can fix it. I'll take it back. And then you'll get better. Because there's power in the story as it happened. Look at everything. It's done so far. I can get it back. I had it once, and I can get it back. Real dark speed. I promise. I promise. I promise. To hear more original stories like this, go to thetruthpodcast.com. You can also follow us on Instagram, Strans, and Blue Sky. Our handle is the truth fiction. Forward dark speed was written by Hunter Nelson, and directed and sound designed by me Jonathan Mitchell. It was performed by Liz Lyme Cooler, is like a Michael Cullen, as George. Jacob Williams, as Jack. Hunter Nelson, as Dan. Brian Morbito, as Lincoln's server. Danielle Delgado, as the well at Torvison. Autumn Gomez-Toglay, as Nicole. Lewis Cornfeld, as the moderator. And David Bluv Band, and Mary McDonnell, as the fans. And if you love our show, please subscribe to our ad free feed. Go to thetruthpodcast.supportingcast.fm. You'll hear the show without interruption, and you'll be helping us make more stories. I'm Jonathan Mitchell, and you have been hearing. The Truth.