Character · from book 1
Zev
A two-foot-tall kua-tin in a water-filled 1950s space suit: Borant's Assistant Communications Representative, assigned to Carl and Donut as their PR agent once interview requests pile up. Terrified of her own government, starved of anyone to talk to about Gossip Girl.
Race and class, since book 1: Kua-tin
First appears: Book 1
Series arc
As of book 2. Borant's liaison and the first operator who is also a person. Her book-1 speech is the series' statement of the machine from inside; in book 2 she is agent, messenger and signatory — she carries Carl's ultimatum, signs his contract, books Danger Zone, and co-writes Donut's serial. Suspended once already for helping.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Borant's bankruptcy and the Valtay fleet at the door | B1 ch. 36 | open — Mordecai's whispered politics; Odette: the next season is the Valtay's. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 1
The first face of Borant that is also a person. Her one speech (B1 ch. 36) is the series' statement of the machine from inside it — her family, her Party boss, everyone afraid — and her friendship with Donut is the first alliance across the crawler/operator line. She has already been suspended once for helping (B1 ch. 44) and knows the AI is watching her.
Through book 2
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl | 8/48 | Ch. 35, Ch. 36, Ch. 37, Ch. 38, Ch. 39, Ch. 41, Ch. 44, Ch. 47 · the book's own page |
| 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario | 15/26 | 1, 4–5, 8–9, 11–12, 15–21, 23 · the book's own page |
By book
Zev in book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl
Introduced at the end of ch. 35 by a warning that weapons may not be wielded in the presence of Admins, Zev is two feet of kua-tin in a bubbling 1950s water suit she cannot move in, on her first trip into a dungeon that has eaten twelve site-prep workers. She is there to tell Carl and Donut that she is their PR agent now. Carl's temper gets the book's clearest statement of what the game is from the other side: her family will be wiped out if she says the wrong thing to a Party boss; everyone here is afraid; 'we are all parts of the same, inexorable machine' (ch. 36). Then Donut mentions Chuck and Blair and Zev has a friend.
She is suspended for warning of the Rage Elemental a half-second before Jack's stream hit the wall (ch. 37, ch. 44), cleared on appeal, and returns knowing the AI has noticed her. She tells Carl to stop using the slingshot because it is boring (ch. 47), that the Meadow Lark storyline has completed, that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that the Party is delighted with a sex tape she cannot quite bring herself to describe (ch. 44).
Zev in book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Morning check-ins by chat (ch. 4); a request from Carl that she says is impossible and tries anyway (ch. 8, ch. 9); the messenger for the Vengeance of the Daughter deal, signing on Carl's behalf ('That's terrifying, Zev') (ch. 11); the booking of Danger Zone (ch. 12); the fan-box vote she cannot reveal (ch. 17). She thinks they are dead when the trailer is pulsed and meets them in the saferoom with her HUD-off rule glitched (ch. 20). Donut is writing an intergalactic Gossip Girl with her.