Lunatics Library 20 - Campfire Tales

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<v Speaker 1>Hello everyone.

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<v Speaker 1>And welcome back to another episode of the radio hour podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Abby Brer, I'm here with Alan Kuan.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello.

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<v Speaker 1>And today we have a very unique episode for you all we do.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes.

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<v Speaker 1>So usually for Lunix library, we call for submissions for short stories or poems on a certain theme, right?

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<v Speaker 2>Uh, yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Up well aware

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<v Speaker 1>This episode, we wanted to make it any theme we wanted to just feature really awesome stories that fit into the genre of what we talk about here that aren't tied to a theme.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh.

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<v Speaker 2>So just like the, the, the, the, the, the POY pizza of, um, of stories, the

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<v Speaker 1>POY pizza.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>That's the catchall category.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>So we wanted to just feature six really awesome stories that aren't tied to a theme and, you know, kind of as a follow up to our 100th episode, just as a way to feature new voices, new writers, right.

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<v Speaker 1>And new narrators.

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<v Speaker 1>So very excited about this episode, there's gonna be a lot of debuts and a lot of really chilling, haunting, and beautifully written and beautifully narrated stories for you.

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<v Speaker 1>Neat.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm kind of thinking of this episode as like sitting around the campfire, exchanging well written, uh, spooky ghost stories with your friends.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, we put out a call on social media.

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<v Speaker 1>If you follow us at the lunatic project, that's a really a great way to hear when we have submissions open or unique calls like this.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't, we're, we're usually looking for stories on a very specific theme, but we were incredibly overwhelmed to be honest with the submissions that we got and so many really awesome stories and writers I'm gonna give just like a general content warning ahead of the stories.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of them are horror comedies.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of them are a little bit more graphic than maybe we usually feature on the episodes.

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<v Speaker 2>I thought you were warning people against comedy.

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<v Speaker 1>Uh, yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Be careful.

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<v Speaker 1>No, just in general, like they're all very different.

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<v Speaker 1>They're different lengths.

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<v Speaker 1>They're different levels of graphicness or, you know, things like that.

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<v Speaker 1>So just kind of listen at your own risk.

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<v Speaker 1>Um, nothing's like incredibly difficult, but just, you know, just to give you a general content warning, these are horror stories, right?

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<v Speaker 1>So at the end of the day, the spooky, that's the theme we're working in.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>There's some violence, there's some things like that.

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<v Speaker 2>And to everyone that doesn't understand that, thank you for being new here.

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<v Speaker 1>Uh, I also just wanna say this, I'm gonna, throughout this episode, tell you where you can support these writers and the narrators where you can support them on social media, follow them on social media, or buy their work, support their work.

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<v Speaker 1>We are very lucky and grateful that all these writers shared their work with us, and we wanna make sure we are all coming together to help support them as well.

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<v Speaker 1>And I just wanna say too, I'm so incredibly excited for this.

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<v Speaker 1>I love these stories.

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<v Speaker 1>I think they're super unique and different, and it's just really cool to kind of have so many new voices.

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<v Speaker 1>So many of our friends helping out with narration, and I think we should just get into it.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>First story is a new writer that not a new writer in general, but a new writer to Lunix radio hour.

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<v Speaker 1>Cause we're super excited to have found him.

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<v Speaker 1>Jameson Reinauer is the writer and producer of the popular audio drama pest.

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<v Speaker 1>He is also the author of the wear Wolf murder.

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<v Speaker 1>Mr.

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<v Speaker 1>Barking mad.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, that sounds fun.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes.

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<v Speaker 1>I know.

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<v Speaker 1>You'd like that.

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<v Speaker 1>And the writer and director of the award-winning short horror films corner boys in the house of the yoga, his ghost play grave lullaby was a finalist for the Kennedy center's David Cohen playwriting award in 2012 Jamie's short fiction and poetry has appeared in strange horizon and drama to space waves magazine across the margins, mirror dance among others.

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<v Speaker 1>And he's been featured on multiple podcasts, including cast of wonders and radio on bound and more his new play blood bath Victoria's secret.

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<v Speaker 2>What was the name of that play again?

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<v Speaker 2>Blood

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<v Speaker 1>Bath.

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<v Speaker 1>Victoria's secret.

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<v Speaker 2>Cool.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>Jamie has a PhD in Victorian Gothic fiction.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition to publishing scholarly articles on Dickens Lafa and contemporary vampire film, he edited the Val court edition of Sheridan Lafa news Carmilla from 2009 and wrote a book length study of urban Gothic fiction.

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<v Speaker 1>He has taught writing in literature for over 20 years currently at Warren Wilson college in North Carolina.

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<v Speaker 1>So everyone be sure to check out PEL set, wherever you listen to podcasts, follow him on Twitter at JM ridden hour and on Instagram at Jamieson ride an hour.

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<v Speaker 1>And we'll link everybody in the description.

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<v Speaker 1>So you can find everybody after this,

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<v Speaker 2>What an accomplished guy.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes.

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<v Speaker 1>And incredibly impressive, incredibly accomplished.

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<v Speaker 1>And this story was just so, so, so good.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm in love with it.

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<v Speaker 1>And I thought it would be a great place to start.

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<v Speaker 2>It's like, well, right, well, you know what, Mr.

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<v Speaker 2>Brad, now I, I once placed in a science fair.

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<v Speaker 1>What place?

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<v Speaker 1>Um, participant

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<v Speaker 2>Don't don't get lost the minutia.

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<v Speaker 2>Um, I, but it was, I made an electromagnet.

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<v Speaker 2>What is that?

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<v Speaker 2>What's an electromagnet.

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<v Speaker 1>Is it like a mag?

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<v Speaker 1>A fridge magnet?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>It's uh, it's a fridge magnet.

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<v Speaker 2>Great,

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<v Speaker 1>Good job.

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<v Speaker 1>A oh

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<v Speaker 2>No.

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<v Speaker 2>Electromagnet is when you send it's a magnet that you can turn on and off with electoral current,

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<v Speaker 1>What is the use case?

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<v Speaker 2>It got me thinking like, yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>What could an electromagnet possibly do?

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<v Speaker 2>What use would a magnet be?

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<v Speaker 2>If it wasn't always on the, the one most close to home would be at my, uh, father's former scrapyard, a gigantic electromagnet, like with a diameter or four feet would just like crash into a pile of metal.

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<v Speaker 2>You turn on the magnet and then it would just pick up a whole ball of steel.

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<v Speaker 2>Right.

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<v Speaker 2>Hmm.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh, and then when it gets over to what it wants to drop, guess you can actually drop it.

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<v Speaker 1>So you just made something that already exists.

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<v Speaker 2>I, this was a science fair, not an inventor's festival.

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<v Speaker 1>Isn't that usually like, isn't there like a premise in a science fair, like a hypothesis.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh,

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<v Speaker 2>Just make a thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>Well,

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<v Speaker 2>I was like in fourth grade.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>Well,

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<v Speaker 2>But, okay.

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<v Speaker 2>Here's another example of an electromagnet fire doors Used to be those giant horizontal sliding doors on slanted rails and they're counterweighted.

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<v Speaker 2>Yep.

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<v Speaker 2>So it used to be that if there was a fire, the whole room would heat up enough.

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<v Speaker 2>And the weight which was made out of lead would melt, which would sever the counterweight.

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<v Speaker 2>And then the fire door slam shut, you know, trapping the fire and also everyone inside.

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<v Speaker 2>But now fire doors are held with electromagnets.

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<v Speaker 2>So if the fire suppression system is activated, the power is cut and all the doors, which are, you know, on hydraulics.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh, now the electromagnets is not holding them open.

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<v Speaker 2>They just swing shut and close off hallways.

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<v Speaker 1>Cool.

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<v Speaker 1>It's handy.

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<v Speaker 2>Hence by, you know, trapping, trapping, hopefully trapping the fire, stopping airflow, that sort of thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>You've convinced me.

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<v Speaker 1>I see, I see why they're important also just to get back to the story, there's a bonus treat for this story because Bob, Don will be reading it for us today.

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<v Speaker 1>And of course you all know Bob, Don, but check out his podcast hidden.

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<v Speaker 1>No, and Bob's short story hour to help support him as well.

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<v Speaker 1>So without further ado,

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<v Speaker 2>I would like to hear more of Bob superlatives.

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<v Speaker 1>Should we talk about Bob a little?

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<v Speaker 1>You don't think we've done that enough on the history of this podcast?

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<v Speaker 2>Just, just softball one in there.

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<v Speaker 2>Best

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<v Speaker 1>Hair,

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<v Speaker 2>Best hair.

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<v Speaker 1>I was trying to think of something we don't talk about all

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<v Speaker 2>The time.

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<v Speaker 2>I guess I did ask for super, He does have very luxurious hair.

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<v Speaker 1>Most likely to

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<v Speaker 2>No, you got be with best hair.

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<v Speaker 1>Most likely to have the best hair.

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<v Speaker 2>What do you mean most likely are you?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, that's superlative is like in high school, most likely you

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<v Speaker 2>Would just get best hair.

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<v Speaker 2>That'd be a super it's the best or the, you know, of something.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, great.

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<v Speaker 1>He has the best hair.

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<v Speaker 1>Great.

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<v Speaker 1>Of probably like a normal cross section of people.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>I, I was gonna suggest we talk about, you know, his, um, survival training, but no, I think, um, best hair.

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<v Speaker 1>That's that's what?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, his survival training makes him uniquely.

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<v Speaker 1>No,

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<v Speaker 2>No, no.

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<v Speaker 2>We'll save that for next time.

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<v Speaker 2>Good job, Bob.

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<v Speaker 2>You won best hair.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay.

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<v Speaker 1>Well anyway, let us get onto the today's main event, which is featuring stories that people have written.

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<v Speaker 1>And again, very excited about this one.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's roll the tape.

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<v Speaker 3>I gave ride an hour red by the,

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<v Speaker 4>There were two other cars at the pumps.

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<v Speaker 4>When Marlon pulled into the exon station on broad river road, he angled the old Buick next to pump or three on the outer edge of the big lighted canopy.

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<v Speaker 4>It was a big, stupid car gray with a burgundy interior.

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<v Speaker 4>The only legacy of his two years dead grandmother, the price free had been about what he could handle.

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<v Speaker 4>And at any rate, his pride was the thing of the past.

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<v Speaker 4>Marlin cut the engine and sat at the weed while the car ticked and shuttered into silence.

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<v Speaker 4>The weight of the last 20 minutes would eventually harden around him, but for now he could move thickly.

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<v Speaker 4>And with effort through the world, it was inevitable that someone like genie would get tired of someone like him, but he had expected some event, some precipitating factor to start the final decline today.

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<v Speaker 4>He had blindsided him.

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<v Speaker 4>He had gone to the ABC store and when he got back his clothes and PS4 and a few other personal items were in a box on the landing, outside the apartment.

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<v Speaker 4>Jeanie had chained the door and wouldn't answer his questions.

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<v Speaker 4>Or please, when he had pounded and cried for 10 minutes, the man from 4d had come out on the land and said that if Marlon didn't leave genie alone, he'd find his deadbeat at the bottom of the stairs.

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<v Speaker 4>The man from four D was big enough to make good on this prediction.

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<v Speaker 4>The box now sat in the back seat of the Buick, a remarkably small container to hold all a man's earthly possessions.

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<v Speaker 4>As he sat in the car, catching his breath and trying not to start again.

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<v Speaker 4>He realized that on top of everything else, he had left the bag from the ABC store on the landing, outside the apartment,$12 worth of whiskey.

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<v Speaker 4>He considered going back for it, but he knew he couldn't face 4d.

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<v Speaker 4>Again.

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<v Speaker 4>He laid his forehead against the steering wheel and gave himself up to the late afternoon, South Carolina heat baking through the windshield, into his skull.

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<v Speaker 4>It had only been 20 minutes, but already Jeanie was fading into perfection, becoming an icon of all Marlon wanted to grasp, but would never reach.

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<v Speaker 4>It was a familiar feeling watching Jeanie take her place.

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<v Speaker 4>At the end of a long line of women, stretching back to high school, a long line of locked doors.

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<v Speaker 4>He would have to look for a job, but first he needed a place to stay.

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<v Speaker 4>The night he had$25 in his pocket.

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<v Speaker 4>Marlon wasn't a religious man, but at that moment, he prayed, please.

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<v Speaker 4>Someone give me deliverance.

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<v Speaker 4>The sound of another car woke him from histo.

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<v Speaker 4>Brought the back into focus.

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<v Speaker 4>A blue Pontiac grand pre was pulling into the slot on the other side of pump.

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<v Speaker 4>Number three, moving too fast for the parking lot.

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<v Speaker 4>The car rocked on its shock.

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<v Speaker 4>As the driver braked, gravel surfing a little too far forward for the pump.

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<v Speaker 4>Two men got out whooping and grinning.

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<v Speaker 4>The driver wore a white t-shirt and tight fitting jeans stuffed into cowboy boots.

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<v Speaker 4>He was wearing sunglasses under a huge yellow straw cowboy hat.

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<v Speaker 4>His companion was tall with metal spines ju out between chains on his leather jacket and a bright blue Mohawk spiking out of the smooth skin of his head.

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<v Speaker 4>He also wore shades and a dirty t-shirt under his jacket, screamed rancid.

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<v Speaker 4>They were the most incongruous pair.

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<v Speaker 4>Marlon could imagine.

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<v Speaker 4>They seemed like parodies of their types as if they had pulled cowboy and punk up on Google images and designed costumes around the results.

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<v Speaker 4>Their car had Rhode Island plates.

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<v Speaker 4>He wondered what music the two could agree on.

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<v Speaker 4>During a thousand mile drive the punk Saed towards the convenience store.

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<v Speaker 4>The cowboy grabbed the pumps.

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<v Speaker 4>Nozzle Marlin only realized he was staring when the cowboy who was pulling the no to its furthest extent in an attempt to make it reach, looked up and met his gaze.

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<v Speaker 4>He gRED at Marlon showing teeth so white.

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<v Speaker 4>They seemed to glimmer in the setting, sunlight, the cowboy wedged the nozzle in the yawning mouth of the grand PR gas tank and gave Marlin a nod still grinning.

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<v Speaker 4>Then he pointed both his index fingers at Marlon like guns, squeezing his thumbs down and making a pow noise with his mouth Marlin flinched.

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<v Speaker 4>In spite of himself, the cowboy cackled and followed the pump into the store, leaving the pump, running Marlin, pulled himself outta the car and stood up.

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<v Speaker 4>He glowed after the cowboy and yanked his own gas nozzle off the pump.

00:14:13.509 --> 00:14:16.600
<v Speaker 4>The light of the setting sun filtered through heavy clouds.

00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:23.690
<v Speaker 4>Suffusing broad river road in the haze of orange and gold Marlin pressed the trigger and listened to the gasoline.

00:14:23.830 --> 00:14:24.690
<v Speaker 4>Run into the Buick.

00:14:25.450 --> 00:14:28.289
<v Speaker 4>A man in a red tracksuit came out and got in a Toyota.

00:14:28.649 --> 00:14:33.289
<v Speaker 4>Terel on the opposite side of the lot and drove off disappearing into the rush hour flow.

00:14:34.149 --> 00:14:41.440
<v Speaker 4>The only left at the station where Marlon's Buick and the grand Prix parked nose to trunk next to each other with the pump between them.

00:14:42.269 --> 00:14:49.500
<v Speaker 4>Marlon stood by the pump idly, looking at the grand Prix while the pump clicked through dollars in gallons, it was an older car.

00:14:49.590 --> 00:14:52.460
<v Speaker 4>Originally, an electric blue that had faded over time.

00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:58.409
<v Speaker 4>The surface was scarred and pitted and were one large panel on the driver's side door was patched white.

00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:00.940
<v Speaker 4>The windows were smeared and dusty.

00:15:00.941 --> 00:15:03.500
<v Speaker 4>And at some point on the cars tripped down from new England.

00:15:03.529 --> 00:15:14.350
<v Speaker 4>Someone had written something in the dirt on the back glass Marlin couldn't read it properly from where he stood, but could see the finger with tracks scrolled in a diagonal across the defrost lines.

00:15:15.149 --> 00:15:20.000
<v Speaker 4>He squinted through the act door glass to try and see what it said, but he couldn't quite make it out.

00:15:20.789 --> 00:15:22.330
<v Speaker 4>The writing was shaky and wide.

00:15:22.629 --> 00:15:26.330
<v Speaker 4>And at any rate, he was distracted by something moving in the backseat.

00:15:27.220 --> 00:15:34.240
<v Speaker 4>He stood roughly even with the driver's rear door of the Pontiac, but the afternoon glare couldn't penetrate the gloom in the car's interior.

00:15:35.250 --> 00:15:39.190
<v Speaker 4>Marlin took a step forward and peered cupping his hands around his eyes.

00:15:40.139 --> 00:15:46.519
<v Speaker 4>His vision slowly adjusted to the Merck enough to let him see the dim outline of a figure stretched out on the backseat.

00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:52.389
<v Speaker 4>Someone, a member of the weird little traveling group, sleeping through a pit.

00:15:52.419 --> 00:15:56.149
<v Speaker 4>Stop the figure moved again, shifting its legs on the seat.

00:15:56.210 --> 00:15:59.350
<v Speaker 4>And Marlon could faintly hear what sounded like a moan.

00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:01.889
<v Speaker 4>He glanced toward the store.

00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:06.940
<v Speaker 4>The cowboy was at the counter paying for something in the punk was behind him waiting his turn.

00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.250
<v Speaker 4>Marlon leaned forward, looking deeper into the darkened car.

00:16:12.259 --> 00:16:17.559
<v Speaker 4>The person in the back of the car was a woman, her long black hair tangled across the backseat.

00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:21.289
<v Speaker 4>She was wearing a thin white dress under a short leather jacket.

00:16:22.169 --> 00:16:33.620
<v Speaker 4>She was barefoot as Marlon watched the woman sat up and put her hand to her head, sitting up, put her more firmly in the sunlight slam planting through the cars, grimy windows.

00:16:34.730 --> 00:16:36.230
<v Speaker 4>She squinted against the light.

00:16:36.419 --> 00:16:41.250
<v Speaker 4>Looking gro around Marlin could see bruises on her wrists.

00:16:41.529 --> 00:16:44.529
<v Speaker 4>A livid scar jagging down the inside of her arm.

00:16:45.269 --> 00:16:48.399
<v Speaker 4>She looked confused, drugged.

00:16:49.490 --> 00:16:58.860
<v Speaker 4>She slid back down onto the seat sprawling, but continued twisting her head, head back and forth, looking at the interior of the car as if she couldn't understand something fundamental about it.

00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:00.429
<v Speaker 4>Was she in trouble?

00:17:01.289 --> 00:17:05.430
<v Speaker 4>Marlin looked again at the convenience store, saw the cowboy waiting with his hand on the door.

00:17:05.431 --> 00:17:09.349
<v Speaker 4>While the punk finished his purchase, the punk was leaning across the counter.

00:17:09.351 --> 00:17:12.549
<v Speaker 4>Speaking to the clerk at close range, they would be coming soon.

00:17:13.740 --> 00:17:14.569
<v Speaker 4>She called the of police.

00:17:15.269 --> 00:17:17.289
<v Speaker 4>Was he actually witnessing an abduction?

00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:26.250
<v Speaker 4>Marlin reached in his pocket and felt for his cell phone then realized it was in the box on the back of the Buick, along with all his other stuff from Jeanie's apartment.

00:17:27.180 --> 00:17:28.319
<v Speaker 4>The girl sat up again.

00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:34.799
<v Speaker 4>There were dark circles under her eyes and she wore bright red lipstick smeared at the left corner into a clownish Stripe.

00:17:35.829 --> 00:17:39.809
<v Speaker 4>Marlon could now make out what looked like rusty stains on the front of her dress.

00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:42.720
<v Speaker 4>She leaned her head against the window glass.

00:17:43.539 --> 00:17:45.400
<v Speaker 4>She was five feet away from him.

00:17:46.390 --> 00:17:51.049
<v Speaker 4>The two men kidnappers were crossing the parking lot, crunching gravel under their boots.

00:17:51.589 --> 00:17:59.519
<v Speaker 4>Cowboy had a package of beef jerky in a bag of Doritos in the punk carried a two liter Pepsi and a small paper bag with the top folded down.

00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.769
<v Speaker 4>They were talking still grinning.

00:18:02.509 --> 00:18:04.289
<v Speaker 4>Marlin stood unable to make a decision.

00:18:04.990 --> 00:18:08.289
<v Speaker 4>The woman or girl, she looked younger than Marlin moaned.

00:18:08.290 --> 00:18:10.369
<v Speaker 4>Again, rolling her head against the window glass.

00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:16.609
<v Speaker 4>He stepped sideways from the left to the right side of the pump, trying to see the girl better, trying to see the whole situation.

00:18:17.500 --> 00:18:21.640
<v Speaker 4>The new angle didn't help, but now he could read the writing on the back glass of the car.

00:18:22.339 --> 00:18:25.519
<v Speaker 4>The letters were erratic, wiped into the grim in a two fingered.

00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:27.000
<v Speaker 4>Help me.

00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:29.059
<v Speaker 4>Marlon was sweating.

00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:34.420
<v Speaker 4>He moved back to his previous position, bought time by turning off the pump and replacing the nozzle.

00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:38.779
<v Speaker 4>He continued to stare at the girl while he twisted the cap back onto the gas tank.

00:18:39.500 --> 00:18:42.039
<v Speaker 4>He understood the hungover gaze and slack jaw.

00:18:42.339 --> 00:18:43.920
<v Speaker 4>She definitely looked drugged.

00:18:44.579 --> 00:18:47.990
<v Speaker 4>The grand PR pump shut off with allow THK startling.

00:18:47.990 --> 00:18:52.509
<v Speaker 4>The girl, she looked up and out of the glass directly meeting Marlon's stare.

00:18:53.130 --> 00:18:56.509
<v Speaker 4>He tried to reassure her with his eyes to let her know she wasn't alone.

00:18:57.309 --> 00:19:02.890
<v Speaker 4>She watched him for a brief moment, eyes dilated and unfocused, and then her entire face hardened.

00:19:03.789 --> 00:19:18.990
<v Speaker 4>She spoke loudly, clearly audible through the glass, but the are you looking at the men arrived at the car cowboy, put away the nozzle while Sid vicious opened the passenger door and put his soda and bag in the passenger seat.

00:19:20.019 --> 00:19:24.319
<v Speaker 4>Marlin could see a dam in greasy, stain spreading on the underside of the bag.

00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:30.789
<v Speaker 4>The girl in the backseat leaned forward and began talking to him in a fast gesturing toward Marlon.

00:19:31.529 --> 00:19:36.829
<v Speaker 4>The punk looked sharply up focusing his shade covered eyes on Marlon who backed toward his car.

00:19:37.730 --> 00:19:41.190
<v Speaker 4>The cowboy still standing on the close side of the grand pre ticed.

00:19:41.690 --> 00:19:43.470
<v Speaker 4>He turned towards Marlon as well.

00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:45.039
<v Speaker 4>Can I help you?

00:19:45.040 --> 00:19:45.240
<v Speaker 4>Boy?

00:19:45.819 --> 00:19:47.200
<v Speaker 4>He asked, still grinning.

00:19:47.900 --> 00:19:52.150
<v Speaker 4>The girl was staring at Marlon through the, her eye is dark rimed and hard.

00:19:52.890 --> 00:19:59.230
<v Speaker 4>The punk came around the front of the car and the cowboy stepped up on the concrete riser that separated the two sides of the gas pump.

00:20:00.220 --> 00:20:02.200
<v Speaker 4>Marlon fumbled for the door of his car.

00:20:03.180 --> 00:20:04.119
<v Speaker 4>Oh, don't go yet.

00:20:04.259 --> 00:20:06.319
<v Speaker 4>So the cowboy, we ain't had a chance to talk.

00:20:07.250 --> 00:20:09.670
<v Speaker 4>The punk moved to the right disappearing behind the pump.

00:20:10.329 --> 00:20:12.779
<v Speaker 4>The Cowboys teeth were even, and pearlescent.

00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:15.720
<v Speaker 4>He looked older than Marlon had first guessed.

00:20:16.430 --> 00:20:22.339
<v Speaker 4>There were lines around his mouth and streaks of gray at his temples where the dark hair showed underneath the hat.

00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:36.160
<v Speaker 4>His arms were muscular stretching the t-shirt at the shoulder and bicep tattoos snaked down from under the sleeves, coiling green images that Mar and couldn't quite make sense of even staring at our little Alices back there.

00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:38.720
<v Speaker 4>The cowboy continued that ain't polite.

00:20:39.630 --> 00:20:43.250
<v Speaker 4>Marlin reached again for the handle of his door, but found another hand there already.

00:20:44.029 --> 00:20:47.450
<v Speaker 4>The punk had circled around the end of the pumps and was standing next to him.

00:20:48.549 --> 00:20:51.880
<v Speaker 4>No, no said the punk smiling up close.

00:20:51.900 --> 00:20:57.069
<v Speaker 4>The man spiked hair was insane, huge and solid and impossibly blue.

00:20:57.740 --> 00:20:59.119
<v Speaker 4>He had tattoos as well.

00:20:59.529 --> 00:21:02.839
<v Speaker 4>Green loops and swirls that could just be glimpsed at his wrists.

00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:05.359
<v Speaker 4>Disappearing up into the sleeves of his leather jacket.

00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:09.279
<v Speaker 4>Faint blue hys covered his skull next to the Mohawk.

00:21:09.740 --> 00:21:11.279
<v Speaker 4>He leaned in close layering.

00:21:11.670 --> 00:21:16.430
<v Speaker 4>When he did Marlon saw something shift behind the man's dark glasses.

00:21:17.740 --> 00:21:20.529
<v Speaker 4>Let's all just stay said the punk, right?

00:21:20.750 --> 00:21:21.930
<v Speaker 4>The here.

00:21:23.430 --> 00:21:28.079
<v Speaker 4>I, I, I didn't mean to stare Sid, Marlon looking wildly back and forth between the two.

00:21:28.890 --> 00:21:31.789
<v Speaker 4>He took a step away from the punk towards the rear of the Buick.

00:21:32.490 --> 00:21:33.349
<v Speaker 4>She looked like she needed.

00:21:33.769 --> 00:21:34.869
<v Speaker 4>She ain't need nothing.

00:21:35.049 --> 00:21:38.990
<v Speaker 4>You got said the cowboy, the hell business is it of yours.

00:21:39.609 --> 00:21:41.670
<v Speaker 4>He stepped down off the concrete partition.

00:21:42.299 --> 00:21:48.609
<v Speaker 4>What are Alice is doing in our, he stepped up to Marlin and shoved his face forward.

00:21:49.369 --> 00:21:50.849
<v Speaker 4>He thought you wanted a piece of that boy.

00:21:52.150 --> 00:22:00.400
<v Speaker 4>No, you, the kind of man sees a woman in a car and thinks he'll just go get him some the same shifting happened behind the cowboy shades.

00:22:00.670 --> 00:22:03.599
<v Speaker 4>Something was definitely wrong with the men's eyes.

00:22:04.650 --> 00:22:05.650
<v Speaker 4>I, I thought she was in trouble.

00:22:06.380 --> 00:22:12.910
<v Speaker 4>Marlon said the cowboy pushed the edge of his hat up with his thumb, an old Western movie move.

00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:17.180
<v Speaker 4>Well, why would you think that he waited for Marlon's reply?

00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:18.900
<v Speaker 4>I was wrong clearly.

00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:19.420
<v Speaker 4>I'm sorry.

00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.259
<v Speaker 4>Marlon could see Alice staring at him from the car opposite.

00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:27.130
<v Speaker 4>She was younger than the two men, but somehow she scared Marlin.

00:22:27.130 --> 00:22:30.170
<v Speaker 4>The most, the look she gave him was pure hate.

00:22:30.759 --> 00:22:34.089
<v Speaker 4>Clearly he was wrong, said the punk, his breath sour.

00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:35.890
<v Speaker 4>Our Alice aint in trouble.

00:22:36.710 --> 00:22:37.930
<v Speaker 4>No said the cowboy.

00:22:38.589 --> 00:22:40.170
<v Speaker 4>He reached up to adjust glasses.

00:22:41.170 --> 00:22:43.490
<v Speaker 4>I think, oh boy, here might be the one in trouble.

00:22:44.279 --> 00:22:50.759
<v Speaker 4>Look, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding said my, why don't we just get in our cars and be on our way?

00:22:50.900 --> 00:22:51.119
<v Speaker 4>Huh?

00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:53.440
<v Speaker 4>He looked frantically around.

00:22:54.190 --> 00:22:55.690
<v Speaker 4>The parking lot was deserted.

00:22:56.150 --> 00:22:58.970
<v Speaker 4>No clerk could be seen behind the counter in the store.

00:22:59.730 --> 00:23:02.910
<v Speaker 4>The traffic on broad river road might as well have been miles away.

00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:04.630
<v Speaker 4>Ain't nobody here.

00:23:04.650 --> 00:23:09.579
<v Speaker 4>Boy said the cowboy and we ain't gonna on our way just yet.

00:23:10.789 --> 00:23:18.400
<v Speaker 4>He reached in his pocket and pulled out a folding knife, slowly, opening it while he spoke, we're gonna sit a spare and we're gonna talk.

00:23:19.210 --> 00:23:22.589
<v Speaker 4>He lifted the knife, ticking it back and forth like a metronome.

00:23:23.529 --> 00:23:25.170
<v Speaker 4>We should all get to know each other a little better.

00:23:25.180 --> 00:23:25.849
<v Speaker 4>Don't you think?

00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:29.059
<v Speaker 4>Marlon watched the tip of the knife.

00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:30.059
<v Speaker 4>He fell.

00:23:30.150 --> 00:23:33.289
<v Speaker 4>His whole life had been lived on this hot September afternoon.

00:23:33.650 --> 00:23:34.769
<v Speaker 4>Standing next to the old Buick.

00:23:35.769 --> 00:23:37.789
<v Speaker 4>The punk made a low sound in his throat.

00:23:38.450 --> 00:23:43.789
<v Speaker 4>Marlon looked at him, glancing away from the blade and saw something surge under the shades bulging forward.

00:23:44.529 --> 00:23:45.269
<v Speaker 4>Marlon ran.

00:23:46.049 --> 00:23:49.150
<v Speaker 4>He dodged around the back of the Buick and ran for the convenience store.

00:23:49.369 --> 00:23:53.180
<v Speaker 4>He heard the boots of the two men on the asphalt behind him moving leisurely.

00:23:53.539 --> 00:23:56.259
<v Speaker 4>A couple of Pepe, pews chasing a frantic cat.

00:23:57.160 --> 00:24:00.819
<v Speaker 4>Marlon pulled the glass door wide and stumbled inside calling out.

00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:08.059
<v Speaker 4>He didn't understand what kind of thing he had inadvertently brushed against, but surely with another normal person beside him, things would be okay.

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:09.859
<v Speaker 4>He stopped still.

00:24:09.861 --> 00:24:16.690
<v Speaker 4>When he saw the clerk laying half behind the counter, a spray of blood stain, the wall behind what was left of the body.

00:24:17.430 --> 00:24:20.289
<v Speaker 4>The man's chest was a wide wet hole.

00:24:20.950 --> 00:24:25.150
<v Speaker 4>The bell over the door tinkled they get hungry to the punk.

00:24:25.569 --> 00:24:31.829
<v Speaker 4>He lifted his foot and brought a dark Martin down heavily on Marlon's knee, Marlon crumpled to the floor.

00:24:32.589 --> 00:24:34.720
<v Speaker 4>They dragged him back across the parking lot.

00:24:34.940 --> 00:24:38.480
<v Speaker 4>One on either side and slung him across the back of the grand Prix.

00:24:39.150 --> 00:24:44.160
<v Speaker 4>The traffic continued to roar past on broad river road, but no one pulled a into the exon station.

00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:46.859
<v Speaker 4>The two men held Marlon down.

00:24:47.250 --> 00:24:52.460
<v Speaker 4>They were strong needing only one arm apiece to keep impressed against the haw metal of the car's trunk.

00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:55.539
<v Speaker 4>You seem so concerned about our little Alice.

00:24:56.180 --> 00:24:58.380
<v Speaker 4>So the cowboy, his grin getting even wider.

00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:00.660
<v Speaker 4>We should at least introduce you.

00:25:00.661 --> 00:25:04.210
<v Speaker 4>Don't you think Marlon heard the door of the grand preop.

00:25:05.019 --> 00:25:08.279
<v Speaker 4>He struggled against the arms that held him twisting INE effectively.

00:25:08.900 --> 00:25:12.240
<v Speaker 4>He turned his head, saw the back window, scroll, help me.

00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:16.789
<v Speaker 4>He realized that the words couldn't have been written by the girl in the backseat.

00:25:17.569 --> 00:25:20.980
<v Speaker 4>They were wiped into the dirt on the outside of the glass.

00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:23.200
<v Speaker 4>Sorry about the dirt.

00:25:23.420 --> 00:25:31.839
<v Speaker 4>The cowboy said looks like we ate, had washed the car since Virginia, when Marlon turned his head again, Alice stood in front of him.

00:25:32.710 --> 00:25:41.700
<v Speaker 4>She was very, very young and the smeared lipstick looked like blood across her mouth and chin hail eyes, small wicked hands.

00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:55.539
<v Speaker 4>Her hair was length and hanging black as it was possible to be the dark stains on the front of her dress, outlined something familiar, something that Marlon couldn't quite remember, she stepped close to him, almost straddling his legs.

00:25:55.730 --> 00:26:00.539
<v Speaker 4>Heat came off her in waves in the S sweltering, South Carolina afternoon.

00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:01.740
<v Speaker 4>She felt like a furnace.

00:26:02.779 --> 00:26:05.779
<v Speaker 4>The punk giggled he's real ready.

00:26:05.829 --> 00:26:10.220
<v Speaker 4>Ain't she said the cowboy, Alice climbed onto Marlon.

00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:14.220
<v Speaker 4>And at the same time, the punk and the cowboy took off their sunglasses.

00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:20.859
<v Speaker 4>The things in their eyes were a glistening TLE reaching and straining towards Marlon.

00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:26.329
<v Speaker 4>When he saw what was under Alice's dress, he started screaming.

00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:32.680
<v Speaker 1>I thought I lush loved this one.

00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:43.240
<v Speaker 1>I love when we have villains like that, I thought it was such a, it almost felt like a Western to me in the way that it unfolded in the language and the tensions were high.

00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:48.160
<v Speaker 1>I was on edge and yeah, it just was brilliant.

00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:48.759
<v Speaker 1>Loved it.

00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:49.079
<v Speaker 1>I,

00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:52.470
<v Speaker 2>I, I just loved to with misdirection and a little bit of a twist.

00:26:52.900 --> 00:26:53.190
<v Speaker 1>Sure.

00:26:53.410 --> 00:26:54.269
<v Speaker 1>Yes, absolutely.

00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:55.309
<v Speaker 2>It's just cool.

00:26:55.310 --> 00:26:55.990
<v Speaker 2>It's well written.

00:26:56.099 --> 00:26:56.509
<v Speaker 2>It's fun.

00:26:56.539 --> 00:26:57.390
<v Speaker 2>It's a fun story.

00:26:57.619 --> 00:26:58.509
<v Speaker 1>Very satisfying.

00:26:58.609 --> 00:26:58.829
<v Speaker 1>Yes.

00:26:58.849 --> 00:26:59.309
<v Speaker 1>Oh my God.

00:26:59.430 --> 00:26:59.990
<v Speaker 1>A great story.

00:27:00.019 --> 00:27:00.309
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:27:00.529 --> 00:27:03.390
<v Speaker 1>And again, as always Bob Don chef's kiss, you know,

00:27:04.250 --> 00:27:04.950
<v Speaker 2>Chef's kiss.

00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:12.299
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna leave all the ways you can support Bob and Jamie's work and, and that they're doing in the links below.

00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:13.660
<v Speaker 1>So make sure you follow them there.

00:27:13.930 --> 00:27:14.220
<v Speaker 1>Cool.

00:27:14.529 --> 00:27:14.819
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:27:14.990 --> 00:27:15.339
<v Speaker 1>Great.

00:27:15.779 --> 00:27:15.859
<v Speaker 1>All right.

00:27:16.019 --> 00:27:16.380
<v Speaker 1>On to the next.

00:27:16.529 --> 00:27:16.819
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:27:16.820 --> 00:27:18.019
<v Speaker 2>Does this one have a succubus?

00:27:18.250 --> 00:27:19.660
<v Speaker 1>Well, you'll have to listen and see.

00:27:19.980 --> 00:27:19.980
<v Speaker 1>All

00:27:20.059 --> 00:27:20.059
<v Speaker 2>Right.

00:27:20.060 --> 00:27:20.660
<v Speaker 2>Fingers crossed.

00:27:21.289 --> 00:27:23.720
<v Speaker 1>We're going to downshift if you will

00:27:24.549 --> 00:27:25.160
<v Speaker 2>Downshift.

00:27:25.470 --> 00:27:25.759
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:27.720
<v Speaker 2>To we're going uphill.

00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:29.039
<v Speaker 1>Uh, no.

00:27:29.390 --> 00:27:29.680
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:36.039
<v Speaker 1>I was just trying to make a transition from a story named grand pre to a story named light shift.

00:27:37.180 --> 00:27:46.829
<v Speaker 1>But this story is by Derek Hutchinson, we featured his workbook for on the cannibalism series and he wrote that like very scary story that we love so much.

00:27:47.410 --> 00:27:52.109
<v Speaker 1>He has a short story collection, the undertaker and other macab tales that Alan loves hell

00:27:52.269 --> 00:27:52.630
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he does.

00:27:52.980 --> 00:27:54.230
<v Speaker 1>It's available on Amazon.

00:27:54.250 --> 00:27:55.390
<v Speaker 1>So make sure you check that out.

00:27:55.890 --> 00:28:02.099
<v Speaker 1>You can also follow Derek on Twitter at Derek M Hutchins and on Instagram at the man who knew just enough.

00:28:02.579 --> 00:28:06.700
<v Speaker 1>I really like this story because even though it's very short, it's incredibly effective.

00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:09.819
<v Speaker 1>And I thought it just was the perfect thing to add to this.

00:28:09.920 --> 00:28:13.259
<v Speaker 1>So the other bonus is that John C.

00:28:13.259 --> 00:28:18.859
<v Speaker 1>Cook of the Fido podcast, our dear friend, John, is going to read it for us and it just came out beautifully.

00:28:18.861 --> 00:28:20.180
<v Speaker 1>And I'm very excited for you to listen.

00:28:20.569 --> 00:28:20.859
<v Speaker 1>Cool.

00:28:21.210 --> 00:28:21.500
<v Speaker 2>Here

00:28:21.500 --> 00:28:22.049
<v Speaker 1>We, you go

00:28:27.250 --> 00:28:33.410
<v Speaker 3>Light shifts red by dear red cook.

00:28:35.829 --> 00:28:36.940
<v Speaker 5>Steph hated.

00:28:37.130 --> 00:28:43.410
<v Speaker 5>When Tom worked the late shift, she heard the door open softly and silently re iced.

00:28:43.650 --> 00:28:44.009
<v Speaker 5>He was home.

00:28:45.569 --> 00:28:47.710
<v Speaker 5>Tom slid into bed next to her.

00:28:48.289 --> 00:29:00.109
<v Speaker 5>And Steph caught a whiff of a rans head odor like soured milk as she was about to confront him about the smell, her phone buzzed in the dark, alerting her of an incoming text.

00:29:01.490 --> 00:29:01.710
<v Speaker 5>Tom.

00:29:02.609 --> 00:29:04.069
<v Speaker 5>Hey hun sucks.

00:29:04.150 --> 00:29:05.579
<v Speaker 5>But of a gotta work a double tonight.

00:29:06.049 --> 00:29:06.819
<v Speaker 5>I'll see you tomorrow.

00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:10.470
<v Speaker 5>Steph's heart caught in her throat.

00:29:11.769 --> 00:29:14.190
<v Speaker 5>If it wasn't Tom in bed next to her.

00:29:15.329 --> 00:29:15.990
<v Speaker 5>Who was it?

00:29:19.859 --> 00:29:20.150
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

00:29:20.170 --> 00:29:21.190
<v Speaker 1>So what did you think?

00:29:21.630 --> 00:29:21.750
<v Speaker 1>I

00:29:21.750 --> 00:29:24.109
<v Speaker 2>Mean, you looked at me at the, the reaction was, oh.

00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:24.710
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:29:24.750 --> 00:29:24.869
<v Speaker 2>I

00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:29.299
<v Speaker 1>A felt very disturbed by that twist.

00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:30.539
<v Speaker 1>He wasn't expecting it.

00:29:30.859 --> 00:29:31.220
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.

00:29:31.299 --> 00:29:33.339
<v Speaker 2>I I've back in, back in college,

00:29:34.569 --> 00:29:35.380
<v Speaker 1>This has happened to you.

00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:37.019
<v Speaker 2>Not, not to me personally.

00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:37.700
<v Speaker 2>Oh my God.

00:29:38.089 --> 00:29:43.740
<v Speaker 2>This is, this has happened to people that I know where, you know, you're, you're in a dorm room situation.

00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:46.089
<v Speaker 2>The hallways look very similar, you know?

00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:46.529
<v Speaker 2>Sure.

00:29:47.150 --> 00:29:48.809
<v Speaker 2>The doors are all identical, right.

00:29:48.990 --> 00:29:59.769
<v Speaker 2>People are experimenting with alcohol and whatnot for the first time drugs and be, and people don't really know how to know how to handle being inebriated yet.

00:29:59.829 --> 00:30:00.490
<v Speaker 2>You know how it goes.

00:30:01.349 --> 00:30:09.680
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, the, a friend of mine, sweet, sweet mate situation, you know, not a, not every everyone like knows each other and is, you know, friends ish.

00:30:09.681 --> 00:30:10.279
<v Speaker 2>Right, right.

00:30:10.349 --> 00:30:11.279
<v Speaker 2>They're sleeping.

00:30:11.630 --> 00:30:51.380
<v Speaker 2>They think that their roommate, uh, is coming home and then instead of, uh, climbing into their own bed, they climb in with my friend and it's like, Hey, that's kind weird.

00:30:51.769 --> 00:30:52.059
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:30:52.190 --> 00:30:52.539
<v Speaker 2>Right.

00:30:53.079 --> 00:30:58.140
<v Speaker 2>And then, you know, look over and it's just a complete stranger that has somehow entered their home.

00:30:58.279 --> 00:31:00.380
<v Speaker 2>That's terrible climbed into their bed.

00:31:00.690 --> 00:31:00.980
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:31:01.240 --> 00:31:03.900
<v Speaker 2>And that's just a really weird, uncomfortable thing

00:31:04.180 --> 00:31:04.180
<v Speaker 1>Finally.

00:31:05.009 --> 00:31:05.009
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:05.329
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:31:05.349 --> 00:31:05.809
<v Speaker 1>For sure.

00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:09.210
<v Speaker 1>Even if it's like a drunken mistake, even like, I don't even know how that happens.

00:31:09.349 --> 00:31:14.730
<v Speaker 1>It still feels like such a violation when somebody's in that like intimate space with you, like a stranger.

00:31:15.170 --> 00:31:15.170
<v Speaker 1>Yep.

00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:15.769
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:31:15.970 --> 00:31:20.650
<v Speaker 1>I thought that's why, again, this story is so effective because it's like, oh my God, it's a little more sinister.

00:31:20.680 --> 00:31:24.730
<v Speaker 1>Obviously there's some kind of demon perhaps situation going on, but

00:31:25.259 --> 00:31:28.000
<v Speaker 2>So obviously not the exact same situation.

00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:28.200
<v Speaker 1>Sure.

00:31:28.201 --> 00:31:30.079
<v Speaker 1>But still it's a jarring thing.

00:31:30.750 --> 00:31:31.039
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:36.119
<v Speaker 2>I, uh, I mean, I've read so many stories on the internet of these types of situations.

00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:36.480
<v Speaker 2>I

00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:49.670
<v Speaker 1>Was gonna say the reason why this one, I loved because it reminded me of like a real life Reddit thread that I had found years ago about this happening, obviously again, not with like a demon or something, but more so with some kind of drunk people

00:31:49.950 --> 00:31:49.990
<v Speaker 2>Predator.

00:31:50.349 --> 00:31:50.349
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:31:50.380 --> 00:31:51.390
<v Speaker 2>It's usually drunk people.

00:31:51.400 --> 00:31:51.750
<v Speaker 2>Right.

00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:52.190
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:31:52.549 --> 00:31:54.710
<v Speaker 2>And so getting back to the author of the story, Derek cuts.

00:31:55.069 --> 00:31:55.069
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:57.990
<v Speaker 2>First off, I just really love his writing style.

00:31:58.109 --> 00:32:01.829
<v Speaker 2>And I, I know he talked about it in a previous episode, but definitely check out his book.

00:32:02.250 --> 00:32:05.750
<v Speaker 2>It is one of my favorite collections of short horror out there.

00:32:06.329 --> 00:32:06.619
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:09.380
<v Speaker 2>One of his stories like still sticks with me.

00:32:09.779 --> 00:32:09.779
<v Speaker 2>Ooh.

00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:19.019
<v Speaker 2>He has a really great way of taking very relatable situations and injecting just a little bit of supernatural to like keep it kind of fun.

00:32:19.089 --> 00:32:19.380
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:32:19.381 --> 00:32:23.259
<v Speaker 2>But it just it's real enough that it's, it sticks with you.

00:32:23.619 --> 00:32:24.299
<v Speaker 2>Cause like it's impactful.

00:32:24.369 --> 00:32:24.660
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:32:24.661 --> 00:32:29.049
<v Speaker 2>It's like, you know, it's the non-fiction store is that always like really get you going.

00:32:29.220 --> 00:32:29.569
<v Speaker 2>Right.

00:32:29.710 --> 00:32:30.009
<v Speaker 2>You know?

00:32:30.890 --> 00:32:31.690
<v Speaker 2>Uh, but thank God.

00:32:31.691 --> 00:32:34.569
<v Speaker 2>He just leaves a little bit of supernatural as a mental buffer.

00:32:34.839 --> 00:32:35.130
<v Speaker 2>Well,

00:32:35.130 --> 00:32:53.400
<v Speaker 1>I think it's such an interesting kind of thing to think about because a lot of people like you can see we've talked about this before, but you know, in times like the great depression, horror has like a huge, huge resurgence to where things like when things are hard, people turn to like that for escapism or the adrenaline or for a lot of other reasons.

00:32:54.140 --> 00:33:02.559
<v Speaker 1>And I think it's really interesting when you have things that are like stories or films or any kind of horror that is realistic.

00:33:03.420 --> 00:33:09.509
<v Speaker 1>And I think that for me can be more difficult versus like super not church is really fun, but I do really enjoy.

00:33:09.510 --> 00:33:29.019
<v Speaker 1>It's very similar, I think to the shining where, which maybe the shining is, is a little bit more on the supernatural side, but like where you take real things like substance abuse or real situations that could happen and talk about them in, in this way where you kind of like are straddling the line between you're making it incredibly believable.

00:33:29.089 --> 00:33:30.619
<v Speaker 1>It's not like a total fantasy world.

00:33:30.621 --> 00:33:30.859
<v Speaker 1>Right.

00:33:30.861 --> 00:33:33.619
<v Speaker 1>So everybody can kind of relate to it on some human level.

00:33:34.119 --> 00:33:41.259
<v Speaker 1>And then like you said, you kind of just inject a bit of horror or fantasy or something into it to make it a little more palatable.

00:33:41.260 --> 00:33:53.299
<v Speaker 1>And it's a way to tell really important stories or explore really important or almost heavy issues, but in like a way that's accessible for people mentally, because it's not just like a documentary about that thing, you know,

00:33:54.450 --> 00:33:55.099
<v Speaker 2>It's a great book.

00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:55.779
<v Speaker 2>I'm great

00:33:55.779 --> 00:33:56.819
<v Speaker 1>Book, everyone go check it out.

00:33:57.099 --> 00:33:57.099
<v Speaker 1>Yep.

00:33:58.329 --> 00:33:58.619
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

00:33:58.750 --> 00:34:04.569
<v Speaker 1>Shall we perhaps transition a little comedy relief in the middle of this episode?

00:34:05.569 --> 00:34:06.769
<v Speaker 2>Uh, I think that'd be appreciated.

00:34:07.019 --> 00:34:07.369
<v Speaker 1>Great.

00:34:07.509 --> 00:34:13.690
<v Speaker 1>So this is another Lunix premier, this writer, Ryan C Bradley's first time being featured on lunatics.

00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:19.489
<v Speaker 1>He has published work in the Missouri review, the rumpus dark moon digest and other venues.

00:34:19.550 --> 00:34:23.880
<v Speaker 1>His first book Saint's blood will be published by Saint Russ, your books in April.

00:34:23.940 --> 00:34:25.360
<v Speaker 1>So we're super excited about that.

00:34:25.409 --> 00:34:27.880
<v Speaker 1>April is coming up very soon

00:34:28.219 --> 00:34:29.199
<v Speaker 2>And your mother's name

00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:30.360
<v Speaker 1>And my mother's name.

00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:36.840
<v Speaker 1>So this specific story that we're about to read anytime was originally published in literary hatchet, number 20.

00:34:37.260 --> 00:34:38.840
<v Speaker 1>So make sure you all check that out as well.

00:34:39.139 --> 00:34:49.349
<v Speaker 1>And of course, follow Ryan on Twitter at Ryan B of 48 90, or check out his website, which I think is always just a great way to see what writers are up to or any kind of creators.

00:34:49.980 --> 00:34:52.469
<v Speaker 1>Ryan see Bradley blog@wordpress.com.

00:34:53.369 --> 00:35:00.309
<v Speaker 1>And the other exciting thing is that this story is performed for us by Michael Grossa of Jollyville radio.

00:35:00.989 --> 00:35:07.940
<v Speaker 1>I think the first three readers today are, uh, pizza ICERs, but Jollyville radio again.

00:35:08.070 --> 00:35:09.500
<v Speaker 1>We've talked about them many times.

00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:13.539
<v Speaker 1>We love Michael CRO and we're very excited that he's able to read the story for us today.

00:35:13.650 --> 00:35:14.139
<v Speaker 2>Awesome.

00:35:14.190 --> 00:35:14.739
<v Speaker 2>Let's do it.

00:35:14.989 --> 00:35:15.579
<v Speaker 1>Let's do it.

00:35:15.581 --> 00:35:16.260
<v Speaker 1>Roll the tape.

00:35:27.170 --> 00:35:28.210
<v Speaker 3>Read by Michael.

00:35:30.989 --> 00:35:35.489
<v Speaker 6>He slides a piece of gum in its silver foil out of the package and holds it out for her.

00:35:36.150 --> 00:35:38.250
<v Speaker 6>She hesitates and then she takes it.

00:35:39.099 --> 00:35:39.650
<v Speaker 6>Thank you.

00:35:39.989 --> 00:35:43.090
<v Speaker 6>She says and choose anytime.

00:35:43.590 --> 00:35:46.480
<v Speaker 6>He says not you're welcome.

00:35:47.139 --> 00:35:48.280
<v Speaker 6>Not no problem.

00:35:48.860 --> 00:35:50.880
<v Speaker 6>Not don't worry about it.

00:35:51.260 --> 00:35:58.929
<v Speaker 6>He said, anytime that night he rolls over and tries to find a section of the bed.

00:35:59.079 --> 00:36:00.690
<v Speaker 6>Cool enough to lull him to sleep.

00:36:01.389 --> 00:36:08.559
<v Speaker 6>He thinks he's found it when her shadow casts over the bed, she hold holds out her hand expectantly.

00:36:09.300 --> 00:36:11.280
<v Speaker 6>It takes him a moment to recognize her.

00:36:11.889 --> 00:36:14.760
<v Speaker 6>She's PAER nearly shimmering in the darkness.

00:36:15.670 --> 00:36:18.760
<v Speaker 6>There's a greenish hue around her eyes and her mouth.

00:36:19.659 --> 00:36:20.880
<v Speaker 6>He thinks it's a nightmare.

00:36:22.219 --> 00:36:22.440
<v Speaker 6>Gum.

00:36:23.260 --> 00:36:26.610
<v Speaker 6>She in tones, I don't have any.

00:36:27.300 --> 00:36:31.559
<v Speaker 6>He says, you said anytime.

00:36:32.420 --> 00:36:35.260
<v Speaker 6>She says, that's insane.

00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:38.500
<v Speaker 6>He says, but the pact has been sealed.

00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:39.619
<v Speaker 6>The covenant made.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:40.739
<v Speaker 6>She does not.

00:36:41.309 --> 00:36:44.780
<v Speaker 6>Until he has gone to the convenience store and gotten her, the gum.

00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:49.019
<v Speaker 6>She visits him at work.

00:36:49.079 --> 00:37:00.260
<v Speaker 6>The next day, three times at home, he locks the doors and nails the windows shut, but she still finds her way in his boss, calls him into a meeting room.

00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:07.289
<v Speaker 6>He thinks he has earned motion and maybe he had, but a desk drawer pushes open emitting a green light.

00:37:08.179 --> 00:37:13.289
<v Speaker 6>First her slender white arm stretches out and then her damp noded hair.

00:37:14.429 --> 00:37:15.489
<v Speaker 6>And then she's there.

00:37:17.690 --> 00:37:22.289
<v Speaker 6>Anytime she says, he gives her the gum and tries to shoe her.

00:37:23.309 --> 00:37:24.599
<v Speaker 6>This is highly irregular.

00:37:24.980 --> 00:37:28.159
<v Speaker 6>His boss says the opportunity has passed.

00:37:29.780 --> 00:37:32.599
<v Speaker 6>He goes to a club and dances with a beautiful woman.

00:37:33.389 --> 00:37:37.199
<v Speaker 6>They kiss and he feels a tinge, a foreknowledge that he may marry.

00:37:37.201 --> 00:37:37.679
<v Speaker 6>This woman.

00:37:38.619 --> 00:37:40.360
<v Speaker 6>He hands her, his phone to get her number.

00:37:40.829 --> 00:37:48.230
<v Speaker 6>Neither can stop grinning between them floor tears, a under a green light illuminates the Onestar club.

00:37:48.610 --> 00:37:51.710
<v Speaker 6>The people around them stop dancing through the chasm.

00:37:51.969 --> 00:37:52.710
<v Speaker 6>She emerges.

00:37:54.230 --> 00:37:57.260
<v Speaker 6>Anytime the woman hands him back his phone.

00:37:57.969 --> 00:38:04.380
<v Speaker 6>When he calls, he discovers the woman who could have been his wife, gave him the number of the rejection of hotline rather than her own.

00:38:05.909 --> 00:38:07.090
<v Speaker 6>He tries to escape.

00:38:07.429 --> 00:38:14.610
<v Speaker 6>He moves from the east coast to the west coast and then to Ohio, he makes brief stops in Pulaski, Tennessee and Algers.

00:38:15.070 --> 00:38:19.570
<v Speaker 6>But wherever he goes, she is there demanding the gum that she has been promised.

00:38:20.670 --> 00:38:28.320
<v Speaker 6>His sister advises him to turn lemons into lemonade and he starts running a pool, collecting bets on when she will next need a slice of gum.

00:38:28.900 --> 00:38:31.679
<v Speaker 6>He records his every waking moment with a webcam.

00:38:31.780 --> 00:38:33.519
<v Speaker 6>So the betters know he isn't lying.

00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:40.039
<v Speaker 6>Masturbation and showering become awkward, but the new business settles him and allows him to finally date.

00:38:40.670 --> 00:38:41.960
<v Speaker 6>When the gum woman shows up.

00:38:42.059 --> 00:38:44.480
<v Speaker 6>Now his dates are amazed rather than frightened.

00:38:44.789 --> 00:38:47.230
<v Speaker 6>They had all heard, but no one really believed it.

00:38:47.739 --> 00:38:49.230
<v Speaker 6>They do everything under the sheets.

00:38:49.369 --> 00:38:50.829
<v Speaker 6>So the cameras can't see them.

00:38:51.679 --> 00:38:53.260
<v Speaker 6>He gets married and has kids.

00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.380
<v Speaker 6>She is in some family photos waiting for the gum.

00:38:56.409 --> 00:39:08.329
<v Speaker 6>He'd pledged his children imitator and his wife laughs off suggestions that the agreement is anything more than a business he'd been hooked winged into when he was young, his kids grow up and move out.

00:39:08.670 --> 00:39:10.210
<v Speaker 6>He and his wife have a good marriage.

00:39:10.510 --> 00:39:15.130
<v Speaker 6>It is not free of strife or infidelity, but they make it through the long haul and are happy.

00:39:15.130 --> 00:39:18.250
<v Speaker 6>They did on his deathbed.

00:39:18.510 --> 00:39:20.369
<v Speaker 6>He hands the woman, a slice of gum.

00:39:21.340 --> 00:39:21.969
<v Speaker 6>Thank you.

00:39:22.469 --> 00:39:29.920
<v Speaker 6>She says she's also old, maybe eternal, but has weather the years better than he has at the very least.

00:39:30.050 --> 00:39:31.800
<v Speaker 6>She's always had wonderfully fresh breath.

00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:33.880
<v Speaker 6>You're welcome.

00:39:34.300 --> 00:39:35.639
<v Speaker 6>He says and laughs.

00:39:36.099 --> 00:39:40.059
<v Speaker 6>At how one poorly chosen phrase had had such an impact on his life.

00:39:41.199 --> 00:39:43.019
<v Speaker 6>She leaves he dies.

00:39:44.400 --> 00:39:45.929
<v Speaker 6>He's floating towards the light.

00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:47.449
<v Speaker 6>It's unbearably.

00:39:47.451 --> 00:39:53.409
<v Speaker 6>Beautiful feels like a hot shower on a long day, a cold beer on a summer afternoon.

00:39:53.739 --> 00:39:58.840
<v Speaker 6>Everything he'd ever wanted and couldn't have, then he hears scratch.

00:40:00.219 --> 00:40:02.349
<v Speaker 6>He's back on earth underground.

00:40:03.130 --> 00:40:04.670
<v Speaker 6>His coffin is wrenched open.

00:40:05.969 --> 00:40:07.670
<v Speaker 6>She holds her hand out.

00:40:10.150 --> 00:40:10.150
<v Speaker 6>Anytime.

00:40:13.949 --> 00:40:17.789
<v Speaker 1>I think a very strong lunatic premier for Ryan C.

00:40:17.789 --> 00:40:17.789
<v Speaker 1>Bradley,

00:40:18.590 --> 00:40:20.219
<v Speaker 2>Everyone loves a good old, uh, court quirky curse.

00:40:20.690 --> 00:40:20.980
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:40:21.260 --> 00:40:26.260
<v Speaker 1>A quirky curse is an interesting sub genre to think about

00:40:26.739 --> 00:40:27.579
<v Speaker 2>Or quirky curses,

00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:28.260
<v Speaker 1>Quirky

00:40:28.260 --> 00:40:28.659
<v Speaker 2>Curses.

00:40:28.739 --> 00:40:29.340
<v Speaker 2>I mean this fall.

00:40:29.849 --> 00:40:30.460
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, totally.

00:40:30.659 --> 00:40:31.900
<v Speaker 1>I think it, it was just playful.

00:40:31.900 --> 00:40:32.539
<v Speaker 1>It was fun.

00:40:32.980 --> 00:40:38.219
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed kind of how ridiculous it gets, obviously at the end in the supernatural elements of it.

00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:39.860
<v Speaker 1>So a very fun story.

00:40:40.019 --> 00:40:43.329
<v Speaker 1>And in the middle of, you know, some darker horror stories,

00:40:44.159 --> 00:40:49.050
<v Speaker 2>Also a slice of gum, is that a regional thing?

00:40:49.360 --> 00:40:51.090
<v Speaker 2>I've always called it a stick of gum.

00:40:51.369 --> 00:40:52.530
<v Speaker 1>I call it a piece of gum.

00:40:52.909 --> 00:40:54.369
<v Speaker 1>So it's definitely regional.

00:40:54.599 --> 00:40:54.889
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

00:40:55.510 --> 00:40:58.570
<v Speaker 2>I'm just picturing him, just like ding it up with like a nice pairing knife.

00:40:59.110 --> 00:41:01.039
<v Speaker 1>The fun thing I think about like come together.

00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:11.440
<v Speaker 1>One of the fun things, many fun things about coming together with all the pizza rice podcasters, which is a podcast collective we're part of and all of the podcasts are from different areas of the us.

00:41:11.940 --> 00:41:22.710
<v Speaker 1>And we all have very funny, like regional or not funny, but just we've discovered the way we talk about things sometimes is different in the language we use, even though some of us, you know, are on the east coast or whatever.

00:41:22.780 --> 00:41:23.510
<v Speaker 1>It's it's funny.

00:41:23.530 --> 00:41:25.710
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I think that must totally be a regional thing.

00:41:25.809 --> 00:41:27.150
<v Speaker 1>And it's fun to find those things.

00:41:27.530 --> 00:41:29.190
<v Speaker 2>I'm just so glad Michael read this one.

00:41:29.329 --> 00:41:31.429
<v Speaker 2>He was he's the perfect person to read this story.

00:41:31.449 --> 00:41:31.829
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh.

00:41:31.831 --> 00:41:32.110
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:41:32.110 --> 00:41:34.989
<v Speaker 1>When I read it, I was like, Michael got something for you.

00:41:35.610 --> 00:41:39.110
<v Speaker 1>And he of course was very gracious to record it for us.

00:41:39.429 --> 00:41:43.739
<v Speaker 2>I also wasn't expecting the epic of, of, of man's rise and fall

00:41:44.280 --> 00:41:45.539
<v Speaker 1>Heroes quest, if you

00:41:45.539 --> 00:41:46.500
<v Speaker 2>Will, a hero's quest,

00:41:47.659 --> 00:41:51.780
<v Speaker 1>A heroes quest live a normal life despite a quirky curse.

00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:52.860
<v Speaker 2>That's right.

00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:53.380
<v Speaker 2>That's

00:41:53.380 --> 00:41:53.500
<v Speaker 1>Right.

00:41:54.050 --> 00:41:54.340
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

00:41:54.489 --> 00:41:54.780
<v Speaker 2>Next,

00:41:55.289 --> 00:41:55.860
<v Speaker 1>Here we go.

00:41:56.559 --> 00:41:58.019
<v Speaker 1>Now we have another Luna yet.

00:41:58.021 --> 00:41:59.539
<v Speaker 1>Another lunatic premiere.

00:41:59.570 --> 00:41:59.860
<v Speaker 1>Cool.

00:42:00.119 --> 00:42:02.610
<v Speaker 1>We have so many stories states so exciting.

00:42:02.679 --> 00:42:07.809
<v Speaker 2>It's amazing how much content you get when you're not like, Hey everyone, write a story about cannibals.

00:42:08.449 --> 00:42:09.730
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly.

00:42:10.269 --> 00:42:12.929
<v Speaker 1>So this next story is written by F R Diaz.

00:42:13.019 --> 00:42:15.329
<v Speaker 1>Again, their premiere on Lunix radio hour.

00:42:15.900 --> 00:42:18.409
<v Speaker 1>She's a new author in her new debut novel.

00:42:18.829 --> 00:42:23.320
<v Speaker 1>The effects of her Nearium is now on sale at Barnes and noble and Amazon.

00:42:23.550 --> 00:42:23.840
<v Speaker 1>Whoa.

00:42:24.110 --> 00:42:25.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's cool.

00:42:25.670 --> 00:42:26.239
<v Speaker 1>Very cool.

00:42:26.739 --> 00:42:32.880
<v Speaker 1>You can follow her on Instagram at F dot R dot Diaz, underscore a dot morbid dot writer.

00:42:33.170 --> 00:42:34.360
<v Speaker 1>Again, we'll link everybody.

00:42:34.900 --> 00:42:37.260
<v Speaker 1>And on Twitter at author F R D,

00:42:37.579 --> 00:42:41.260
<v Speaker 2>I feel like being able to buy your book at Barnes and Nobles, like wow.

00:42:41.320 --> 00:42:41.940
<v Speaker 2>You made it.

00:42:42.559 --> 00:42:43.380
<v Speaker 2>That's so cool.

00:42:44.170 --> 00:42:44.460
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:42:44.530 --> 00:42:45.059
<v Speaker 1>Very cool.

00:42:45.130 --> 00:42:45.659
<v Speaker 1>Very cool.

00:42:46.360 --> 00:42:55.059
<v Speaker 1>And the story is read today for us by Rob sand, who you might remember from, uh, she did a recording for us, for the ed grow and post series.

00:42:55.320 --> 00:43:01.050
<v Speaker 1>And she's been on the cast before the Waverly Hills episode, big fans of Robin excellent narrator.

00:43:01.510 --> 00:43:03.769
<v Speaker 1>And I thought pairing these two just made a lot of sense.

00:43:04.210 --> 00:43:18.960
<v Speaker 1>I also just wanna mention, I had a lot of fun pairing narrators and you know, once we kind of figured out the final six stories, pairing narrators with them and like, you know, again, for any time, it just made so much sense for Michael to be the person to read that.

00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:22.039
<v Speaker 1>And for Graham pre it just made sense to have Bob do it.

00:43:22.380 --> 00:43:25.239
<v Speaker 1>And this is one of those as well, where I was like, this is a Robin story.

00:43:25.260 --> 00:43:28.400
<v Speaker 1>So I'm really grateful that she agreed to record this for

00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:28.480
<v Speaker 2>Us.

00:43:28.481 --> 00:43:29.079
<v Speaker 2>Beautiful.

00:43:29.081 --> 00:43:29.639
<v Speaker 2>Let's do it.

00:43:29.869 --> 00:43:30.159
<v Speaker 1>Roll.

00:43:30.161 --> 00:43:30.480
<v Speaker 1>The tape

00:43:37.750 --> 00:43:39.230
<v Speaker 3>Has never been wrong.

00:43:40.590 --> 00:43:40.590
<v Speaker 3>Red.

00:43:41.349 --> 00:43:45.030
<v Speaker 3>I have R ideas red by Robinson

00:43:47.150 --> 00:43:47.719
<v Speaker 7>Come closer.

00:43:47.769 --> 00:44:06.269
<v Speaker 7>Young man, I feel as if I know you as if I'm drawn to you, Madam Marielle tells the young man walking past her fortune telling it was Mardi GRA new Orleans tonight, the streets were festive decorated in green, yellow, and purple.

00:44:07.550 --> 00:44:15.539
<v Speaker 7>All of the local fortune tellers were out on the sidewalks in their booths with their cards and their shiny fortune telling balls.

00:44:16.570 --> 00:44:19.610
<v Speaker 7>But Madam Marielle was known to be the best in town.

00:44:21.039 --> 00:44:32.929
<v Speaker 7>All of her tellings came true is that so the gentleman replied, he took a seat in front of her and places, one leg over the other with his hands in his lap.

00:44:33.829 --> 00:44:45.119
<v Speaker 7>He was quite handsome in his skinny suit and tie slick mahogany brown hair comb neatly to one side, a smile to die for and piercing green eyes.

00:44:46.059 --> 00:44:49.659
<v Speaker 7>Yes, young man, place your hands on the crystal ball.

00:44:49.800 --> 00:44:51.340
<v Speaker 7>And I will reveal your future.

00:44:52.460 --> 00:44:54.119
<v Speaker 7>I'm afraid I can't do that.

00:44:54.900 --> 00:44:56.320
<v Speaker 7>She looks at him perplexed.

00:44:56.820 --> 00:45:01.599
<v Speaker 7>See, out of all the fortune tellers, I chose to walk past you.

00:45:03.059 --> 00:45:08.210
<v Speaker 7>Madam Marielle felt her skin crawl and her heart began to race with anxiety.

00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:14.030
<v Speaker 7>She leaned her back against the chair, her hands still on the crystal ball.

00:45:14.900 --> 00:45:17.440
<v Speaker 7>He leaned forward and placed his hands over hers.

00:45:18.340 --> 00:45:22.010
<v Speaker 7>Madam Marielle suddenly felt as though the air was sucked out of her lungs.

00:45:22.989 --> 00:45:31.280
<v Speaker 7>She felt as though she was drowning, her chest, an indescribable amount of pain, her bones cracked and split under her skin.

00:45:32.059 --> 00:45:35.739
<v Speaker 7>She wanted to scream, but the discomfort was overpowering.

00:45:36.769 --> 00:45:41.940
<v Speaker 7>Her voice was a mere whisper of agony in the wind with pain in her eyes.

00:45:42.119 --> 00:45:43.960
<v Speaker 7>She looks up at him, please.

00:45:44.469 --> 00:45:45.679
<v Speaker 7>What are you doing to me?

00:45:46.099 --> 00:45:47.000
<v Speaker 7>Who are you?

00:45:48.440 --> 00:45:50.860
<v Speaker 7>She cried while tears ran down her cheek.

00:45:51.400 --> 00:45:52.619
<v Speaker 7>You're not here for me.

00:45:53.139 --> 00:45:53.780
<v Speaker 7>Mad and Marielle.

00:45:54.199 --> 00:45:56.570
<v Speaker 7>He smiles with a, a wicked look in his eye.

00:45:57.389 --> 00:45:58.650
<v Speaker 7>I'm here for you.

00:45:59.909 --> 00:46:05.130
<v Speaker 7>C you owe me his hands laying heavily over hers.

00:46:06.210 --> 00:46:08.019
<v Speaker 7>Each breath of air was agonizing.

00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:11.179
<v Speaker 7>Her shiny long black hair turned white.

00:46:12.150 --> 00:46:16.219
<v Speaker 7>Madam Marielle quickly aged from 35 to 85 years old.

00:46:17.389 --> 00:46:19.889
<v Speaker 7>Her eyes were filled with sadness and pain.

00:46:20.550 --> 00:46:28.929
<v Speaker 7>As she felt her body weakened with each passing minute, I gave you everything you asked for money fame.

00:46:29.800 --> 00:46:32.860
<v Speaker 7>You're one of the most well known fortune tellers on the block.

00:46:34.019 --> 00:46:37.969
<v Speaker 7>Met M Marielle has never been wrong mile faded.

00:46:38.670 --> 00:46:39.769
<v Speaker 7>He tightened his jaw.

00:46:40.619 --> 00:46:42.639
<v Speaker 7>And what have you given me in return?

00:46:43.739 --> 00:46:44.800
<v Speaker 7>Her heart sank.

00:46:45.619 --> 00:46:51.650
<v Speaker 7>That's when she knew she now knows who he is, please, please.

00:46:51.909 --> 00:46:52.409
<v Speaker 7>Not yet.

00:46:53.400 --> 00:46:54.139
<v Speaker 7>She begs him.

00:46:54.920 --> 00:47:01.010
<v Speaker 7>His hands felt like a hundred pounds over hers, leaving paralyzed in fear and regret.

00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:03.219
<v Speaker 7>You know who I am now.

00:47:03.269 --> 00:47:03.619
<v Speaker 7>Right?

00:47:04.550 --> 00:47:05.809
<v Speaker 7>You know why I'm here.

00:47:06.590 --> 00:47:08.849
<v Speaker 7>His eyes filled with darkness and despair.

00:47:10.150 --> 00:47:11.369
<v Speaker 7>She nod slowly.

00:47:11.980 --> 00:47:14.210
<v Speaker 7>Every movement felt like sandpaper.

00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:17.260
<v Speaker 7>Her skin now fragile and wrinkled.

00:47:18.039 --> 00:47:22.250
<v Speaker 7>He finally took his hands off of stands and buttons.

00:47:22.251 --> 00:47:23.090
<v Speaker 7>His blazer back.

00:47:23.750 --> 00:47:25.449
<v Speaker 7>You only have a few hours left.

00:47:26.050 --> 00:47:28.260
<v Speaker 7>Madam Marielle make them count.

00:47:29.130 --> 00:47:31.190
<v Speaker 7>And I'll see you real soon.

00:47:32.179 --> 00:47:35.070
<v Speaker 7>Lucifer tells her your debt has been paid.

00:47:35.889 --> 00:47:48.219
<v Speaker 7>He growled in a low distorted voice, then walks away into the darkness of the night, whistling a soft tune in the coldness of the wind leaving Madam Marielle to die.

00:47:52.320 --> 00:47:57.219
<v Speaker 2>My favorite part was when the fortune teller got hit with the Unal reverse card.

00:47:58.099 --> 00:47:58.300
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:47:58.300 --> 00:47:59.500
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was a clever twist.

00:48:00.300 --> 00:48:04.530
<v Speaker 2>It, it, it gave me, um, you know, and, and, and don't take this the wrong way.

00:48:04.949 --> 00:48:05.170
<v Speaker 2>Me.

00:48:05.349 --> 00:48:05.570
<v Speaker 2>Yes.

00:48:05.719 --> 00:48:06.010
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

00:48:06.190 --> 00:48:07.369
<v Speaker 2>And EV everyone out there.

00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:07.690
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

00:48:08.349 --> 00:48:12.809
<v Speaker 2>It gave me, uh, ghost rider vibes, specifically the Nicholas cage movie.

00:48:13.409 --> 00:48:14.570
<v Speaker 1>I don't know that I've ever seen that.

00:48:14.679 --> 00:48:14.969
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

00:48:14.971 --> 00:48:15.690
<v Speaker 2>That's probably for the best.

00:48:15.760 --> 00:48:17.929
<v Speaker 2>It's not a great movie, but I enjoy it quite a bit.

00:48:18.329 --> 00:48:18.329
<v Speaker 2>Oh,

00:48:18.329 --> 00:48:18.570
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

00:48:19.110 --> 00:48:20.690
<v Speaker 2>And it's all about making deals with the devil.

00:48:20.920 --> 00:48:21.210
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:48:21.210 --> 00:48:26.119
<v Speaker 1>F R are Diaz submitted a few stories and I loved them on, we had so many submissions.

00:48:26.121 --> 00:48:29.599
<v Speaker 1>We just picked one per author, but I really liked it.

00:48:29.639 --> 00:48:31.960
<v Speaker 1>I definitely go check out her book again.

00:48:31.960 --> 00:48:36.980
<v Speaker 1>It's called the effects of her Nearium and it's on sale now at Barnes and noble and on Amazon.

00:48:37.539 --> 00:48:38.619
<v Speaker 2>That definitely gonna check that one out.

00:48:38.690 --> 00:48:38.980
<v Speaker 2>Yeah,

00:48:39.320 --> 00:48:39.780
<v Speaker 1>For sure.

00:48:40.219 --> 00:48:42.139
<v Speaker 2>I, I made the, uh, UN reverse joke.

00:48:42.420 --> 00:48:42.420
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:48:42.420 --> 00:48:48.219
<v Speaker 2>Simply because it's normally the fortune teller who is like the mysterious antagonist.

00:48:48.269 --> 00:48:48.619
<v Speaker 2>Right.

00:48:49.360 --> 00:48:49.579
<v Speaker 2>But

00:48:49.579 --> 00:48:51.579
<v Speaker 1>No, or just the, my, the mystery in general.

00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:52.889
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:48:52.891 --> 00:48:57.650
<v Speaker 2>I mean, but no, they're us, I'm, I'm thinking of, you know, uh, like drag me to hell.

00:48:57.699 --> 00:48:58.050
<v Speaker 2>Right?

00:48:58.239 --> 00:48:58.530
<v Speaker 2>Sure.

00:48:58.530 --> 00:49:01.650
<v Speaker 2>Where it's always that fortune teller that got snubbed the, yeah.

00:49:01.650 --> 00:49:04.090
<v Speaker 2>The Ramani that puts the curse on somebody in this case.

00:49:04.150 --> 00:49:05.170
<v Speaker 2>No, she has the curse.

00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:05.570
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:49:06.170 --> 00:49:07.050
<v Speaker 2>Although it's not even really a curse.

00:49:07.079 --> 00:49:10.289
<v Speaker 2>It's just, you made a deal with the devil now you gotta pay, right.

00:49:10.760 --> 00:49:11.250
<v Speaker 2>Hell yeah.

00:49:11.349 --> 00:49:12.210
<v Speaker 1>That's how it goes.

00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:12.769
<v Speaker 2>It's it?

00:49:12.949 --> 00:49:14.480
<v Speaker 2>That is apparently how it goes.

00:49:14.510 --> 00:49:15.280
<v Speaker 1>It's about justice.

00:49:15.980 --> 00:49:17.639
<v Speaker 1>Or I would say like, I guess, I don't know.

00:49:17.641 --> 00:49:23.440
<v Speaker 1>It's just, it's not even, it's just about follow through and about like the rightful ending of the deals you've

00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:23.599
<v Speaker 2>Made.

00:49:23.699 --> 00:49:26.280
<v Speaker 2>No, I mean, I think that's the word it's justice pay up.

00:49:26.349 --> 00:49:26.639
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:49:26.989 --> 00:49:27.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:29.039
<v Speaker 1>And of course, Robin did a beautiful job.

00:49:29.070 --> 00:49:32.840
<v Speaker 1>It's like a haunting, I gave pretty strict parameters around.

00:49:32.940 --> 00:49:34.389
<v Speaker 1>We wanted shorter stories.

00:49:34.391 --> 00:49:34.710
<v Speaker 1>Right.

00:49:34.710 --> 00:49:36.510
<v Speaker 1>Because we wanted to feature multiple.

00:49:36.739 --> 00:49:37.030
<v Speaker 1>Sure.

00:49:37.849 --> 00:49:42.989
<v Speaker 1>And in just a few pages, like the scene I'm, I'm there, you know, I can see where we are.

00:49:43.150 --> 00:49:45.269
<v Speaker 1>I can feel what it's like on that street in new Orleans.

00:49:46.250 --> 00:49:51.110
<v Speaker 1>And I think she does a great job at like developing the atmosphere in a really quick way.

00:49:51.110 --> 00:49:51.389
<v Speaker 1>Right.

00:49:51.391 --> 00:49:52.829
<v Speaker 1>Where you're just like immediately in it.

00:49:52.831 --> 00:49:54.460
<v Speaker 1>And you know, what it feels like to be there.

00:49:54.750 --> 00:49:56.500
<v Speaker 2>Short format is very difficult.

00:49:56.929 --> 00:49:57.219
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:49:57.400 --> 00:50:11.579
<v Speaker 1>And all, I think all of these writers did a really good job at capturing not only our attention, but kind of like spinning up these, you know, especially in horror or fantasy or sci-fi where you're literally sometimes like spinning up a world or you're introducing supernatural elements.

00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:18.610
<v Speaker 1>And to do that in a believable way, in a really short form, like you said, I think is very difficult and impressive.

00:50:19.630 --> 00:50:23.730
<v Speaker 2>So speaking of short format, do we have another story?

00:50:24.230 --> 00:50:25.969
<v Speaker 1>Oh, we have two more stories.

00:50:26.619 --> 00:50:27.170
<v Speaker 1>Shall we?

00:50:27.570 --> 00:50:27.570
<v Speaker 1>Yep.

00:50:28.190 --> 00:50:30.369
<v Speaker 1>So we have our last Lunix premiere.

00:50:31.119 --> 00:50:34.050
<v Speaker 1>Emma, Catherine is a who fanatic from Glasgow.

00:50:34.289 --> 00:50:34.409
<v Speaker 1>Scotland.

00:50:35.269 --> 00:50:46.039
<v Speaker 1>When she's not scaring herself to death, she's either podcasting as one half of the yearbook committee podcast or she's streaming Indy games on Twitch as variety streamer, girl of Gotham.

00:50:46.041 --> 00:50:46.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:46.719
<v Speaker 1>It's fine.

00:50:46.909 --> 00:50:47.400
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah.

00:50:47.639 --> 00:50:48.559
<v Speaker 1>I am such a fan.

00:50:48.800 --> 00:50:52.599
<v Speaker 1>I, since she submitted this, I've checked out the podcast, checked out the Twitch stream.

00:50:52.909 --> 00:50:54.320
<v Speaker 2>What kind of stuff does she stream?

00:50:55.949 --> 00:50:56.429
<v Speaker 1>Like everything.

00:50:56.619 --> 00:51:02.190
<v Speaker 1>It's so many different genres of games and it's, the streams are all very fun to watch.

00:51:02.289 --> 00:51:08.030
<v Speaker 1>And she, I don't know, has like a really great presence as well as she reacts to the games or scared by certain things.

00:51:08.130 --> 00:51:09.110
<v Speaker 1>So yeah.

00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:09.989
<v Speaker 1>Super fun channel.

00:51:10.289 --> 00:51:11.070
<v Speaker 2>So she plays horror

00:51:11.769 --> 00:51:15.869
<v Speaker 1>Horror, but I don't think exclusively, no, kind of like across all genres.

00:51:15.940 --> 00:51:16.219
<v Speaker 1>Cool.

00:51:16.329 --> 00:51:16.619
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:51:17.010 --> 00:51:17.300
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:51:17.739 --> 00:51:24.340
<v Speaker 1>I've I, again, I'm not like familiar with a lot of the games she was playing, but a lot, a few of them, I was like, I, I should play this game.

00:51:24.539 --> 00:51:25.179
<v Speaker 1>I would like this game.

00:51:25.380 --> 00:51:25.900
<v Speaker 2>I, I don't know.

00:51:26.059 --> 00:51:29.219
<v Speaker 2>Ever, ever since the metal beast went into hiatus,

00:51:29.599 --> 00:51:30.820
<v Speaker 1>We need a new Twitch or

00:51:30.980 --> 00:51:35.619
<v Speaker 2>Possible, you know, indefinite retirement, indefinite hiatus.

00:51:35.730 --> 00:51:36.019
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:51:36.409 --> 00:51:39.179
<v Speaker 2>There's just been that Twitch streaming void.

00:51:39.940 --> 00:51:39.940
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:41.019
<v Speaker 2>You know, left there.

00:51:41.159 --> 00:51:43.099
<v Speaker 2>So if you think this is the one

00:51:43.739 --> 00:51:49.780
<v Speaker 1>I think that we re replace, I know it's sad, but listen, metal beast has retired.

00:51:50.099 --> 00:51:50.300
<v Speaker 1>I think.

00:51:50.650 --> 00:51:56.090
<v Speaker 1>And girl of Gotham is now the official Twitch streaming recommendation of Lunix radio hour.

00:51:56.949 --> 00:51:57.730
<v Speaker 1>Go check her out.

00:51:58.190 --> 00:52:01.809
<v Speaker 2>I'm I'm gonna check it out thoroughly before I give my official endorsement,

00:52:02.510 --> 00:52:03.170
<v Speaker 1>But it's coming.

00:52:03.530 --> 00:52:09.610
<v Speaker 1>I promise, uh, you can also support Emma, Catherine on Twitter at girl of Gotham.

00:52:10.070 --> 00:52:15.039
<v Speaker 1>And I'm gonna, uh, like a very slight additional content warning on this one.

00:52:15.070 --> 00:52:22.920
<v Speaker 1>It's not graphic at all, but there is some conversation or terminology about drug culture, I would say, but with a twist.

00:52:23.019 --> 00:52:25.079
<v Speaker 1>So just in case, that's something that you're sensitive to.

00:52:25.780 --> 00:52:32.429
<v Speaker 1>And the bonus, the cherry on top, if you will, is that this story is read by Ethan Collins, uh, who you'll remember.

00:52:32.431 --> 00:52:37.710
<v Speaker 1>He's been on the podcast as part of our cannibalism series and he is a best friend of the pod.

00:52:38.150 --> 00:52:39.949
<v Speaker 2>I didn't realize we got the big E doing this one.

00:52:40.090 --> 00:52:40.309
<v Speaker 2>The

00:52:40.329 --> 00:52:42.030
<v Speaker 1>Big E yes, indeed.

00:52:42.159 --> 00:52:42.829
<v Speaker 1>Shall we listen,

00:52:42.889 --> 00:52:43.309
<v Speaker 2>Please?

00:52:52.940 --> 00:52:54.739
<v Speaker 3>Red body Collins,

00:52:57.309 --> 00:52:59.150
<v Speaker 8>Lana never once got caught dealing.

00:52:59.940 --> 00:53:06.670
<v Speaker 8>When teachers found her behind the bike sheds, she had nothing more sinister than her vape and a duffle bag full of little green micro chips.

00:53:07.090 --> 00:53:08.110
<v Speaker 8>It was the perfect trick.

00:53:08.730 --> 00:53:11.429
<v Speaker 8>If anyone ever asked about the tech, her answer was simple.

00:53:12.170 --> 00:53:13.340
<v Speaker 8>It project, sir.

00:53:13.800 --> 00:53:15.420
<v Speaker 8>And the teacher was instantly defeated.

00:53:16.340 --> 00:53:18.739
<v Speaker 8>A new girl appeared through the Emerald vape smoke.

00:53:19.500 --> 00:53:32.059
<v Speaker 8>Lana had never seen her before, but she wreaked a fresh meat school uniform, just a little too neat, thick black hair, teased back into a sleek and flawless bun makeup utterly perfect and not an eyelash out of place.

00:53:32.969 --> 00:53:34.449
<v Speaker 8>I've gotten nothing here for freshmen.

00:53:34.849 --> 00:53:37.210
<v Speaker 8>Lana said, matter of factly, it was true.

00:53:37.550 --> 00:53:38.489
<v Speaker 8>She didn't deal to anyone.

00:53:38.490 --> 00:53:44.730
<v Speaker 8>She didn't know, no matter how much money they offered new kids on a bad trip, equal a trip straight to jail.

00:53:45.769 --> 00:53:46.389
<v Speaker 8>I'm not a freshman.

00:53:46.610 --> 00:53:48.190
<v Speaker 8>The new girl said, I'm a senior.

00:53:48.300 --> 00:53:48.949
<v Speaker 8>Just moved here.

00:53:49.539 --> 00:53:50.150
<v Speaker 8>Good for you.

00:53:50.510 --> 00:53:51.030
<v Speaker 8>Lana snorted.

00:53:51.489 --> 00:53:57.039
<v Speaker 8>You're still not ready for what I've got the said nothing in return and left at school.

00:53:57.199 --> 00:53:58.480
<v Speaker 8>Lana kept an eye out for her.

00:53:59.389 --> 00:54:04.239
<v Speaker 8>They shared no classes and nobody else had seen her red flags waved in Lana's head.

00:54:05.510 --> 00:54:07.989
<v Speaker 8>A week later, Lana was reading a book in her usual spot.

00:54:08.409 --> 00:54:09.190
<v Speaker 8>It was science fiction.

00:54:09.409 --> 00:54:15.150
<v Speaker 8>Her favorite that day, she had already sold three chips, all to regular customers looking for a very good week weekend.

00:54:16.119 --> 00:54:20.019
<v Speaker 8>The new girl appeared again, interrupting Lana's reading time by taking a seat beside her.

00:54:20.900 --> 00:54:22.019
<v Speaker 8>I thought I told you no.

00:54:22.380 --> 00:54:24.699
<v Speaker 8>Lana said impatiently, folding down the corner of the page.

00:54:24.701 --> 00:54:25.219
<v Speaker 8>She was on.

00:54:26.179 --> 00:54:28.900
<v Speaker 8>It had been just getting good to where do you get it?

00:54:28.940 --> 00:54:31.599
<v Speaker 8>The girl asked still not directly asking for a chip.

00:54:32.550 --> 00:54:33.269
<v Speaker 8>I have my sources.

00:54:33.869 --> 00:54:36.550
<v Speaker 8>Lana said with a smirk, the girl did not respond.

00:54:37.010 --> 00:54:38.429
<v Speaker 8>Her makeup was a little smudged.

00:54:38.530 --> 00:54:43.909
<v Speaker 8>Now that Lana could see her up close, a few strands of hair were loose and her tie was ever so slightly AEW.

00:54:45.059 --> 00:54:45.949
<v Speaker 8>What do you do with it?

00:54:46.170 --> 00:54:47.949
<v Speaker 8>She asked leaning closer to Lana.

00:54:48.449 --> 00:54:51.659
<v Speaker 8>The girl smelled incredibly clean, not just soap though.

00:54:51.809 --> 00:54:59.099
<v Speaker 8>Like clinically clean being near her brought thoughts of hospitals or laboratories of rubber gloves and white sterile rooms.

00:55:00.159 --> 00:55:03.699
<v Speaker 8>She stared deep into Lana's eyes and Lana felt a little drunk on the green of them.

00:55:04.320 --> 00:55:05.619
<v Speaker 8>She felt cocky and in control.

00:55:05.800 --> 00:55:10.210
<v Speaker 8>And as if this girl would do anything to get Lana's junk, you want a taste?

00:55:10.690 --> 00:55:12.130
<v Speaker 8>Lana said leaning a little bit closer.

00:55:12.829 --> 00:55:15.530
<v Speaker 8>The girl noded her face only inches from Lana's.

00:55:16.110 --> 00:55:21.050
<v Speaker 8>No girl had ever been this forward at school with Lana before most of them were scared of her and the rest weren't interested.

00:55:21.559 --> 00:55:22.449
<v Speaker 8>This was exciting.

00:55:24.070 --> 00:55:27.230
<v Speaker 8>Lana reached down and fetched, a little black and green microchip from her bag.

00:55:28.329 --> 00:55:29.750
<v Speaker 8>It was softer than most would expect.

00:55:30.019 --> 00:55:36.500
<v Speaker 8>Like a, a gentle piece of rubber with fine metal protrusions, a tiny futuristic spider waiting to be tasted.

00:55:37.380 --> 00:55:39.460
<v Speaker 8>Lana stuck her tongue out and placed the chip on it.

00:55:39.960 --> 00:55:41.460
<v Speaker 8>The new girl bristled slightly.

00:55:42.170 --> 00:55:44.659
<v Speaker 8>Most people were surprised when they saw this to be fair.

00:55:45.539 --> 00:55:47.139
<v Speaker 8>The metal legs clamped on Alana's flesh.

00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:49.579
<v Speaker 8>And she gave out a tiny involuntary gasp.

00:55:50.239 --> 00:55:50.900
<v Speaker 8>It was a good pay.

00:55:51.650 --> 00:55:53.329
<v Speaker 8>A pain she knew was followed by pleasure.

00:55:54.150 --> 00:56:08.489
<v Speaker 8>The little chip began to instantly dissolve on her tongue, the soft green square melted and flowed into the pink pricks left by the spider legs, which also began to dissipate wa slowly leaned in towards the new girl tating, how she wanted to share this high.

00:56:09.070 --> 00:56:10.250
<v Speaker 8>The girl froze for a moment.

00:56:10.309 --> 00:56:14.079
<v Speaker 8>Her body going very deaf and eyes filling with confusion and surprise.

00:56:14.860 --> 00:56:16.719
<v Speaker 8>The temptation was too much though.

00:56:17.510 --> 00:56:20.170
<v Speaker 8>The new girl leaned in and she and Lana kissed it.

00:56:20.170 --> 00:56:24.090
<v Speaker 8>Wasn't about passion or finding her once true love or even finding yourself.

00:56:24.949 --> 00:56:26.170
<v Speaker 8>It was that microchip.

00:56:27.139 --> 00:56:30.349
<v Speaker 8>They pulled apart and Lana felt the full effect of the hallucinogen.

00:56:31.010 --> 00:56:35.219
<v Speaker 8>She imagined the new girl had a faith filled with beautiful green eyes, all blinking at once.

00:56:35.960 --> 00:56:38.260
<v Speaker 8>Her hair was a galaxy of twinkling stars.

00:56:39.039 --> 00:56:42.380
<v Speaker 8>Her hands were eternity, embracing her face with warm darkness.

00:56:43.389 --> 00:56:44.650
<v Speaker 8>It was a good trip.

00:56:46.230 --> 00:56:48.309
<v Speaker 8>Lana shut her eyes and gave herself a gentle shake.

00:56:48.311 --> 00:56:50.710
<v Speaker 8>Shrugging off the worst of the Intertel T trance.

00:56:50.710 --> 00:56:55.059
<v Speaker 8>She was in when she opened her eyes again, she'd missed fifth period gym class.

00:56:55.119 --> 00:56:55.900
<v Speaker 8>Not that it mattered.

00:56:56.599 --> 00:56:57.699
<v Speaker 8>And the new girl was gone.

00:56:58.619 --> 00:57:02.380
<v Speaker 8>Lana grabbed her book and vape and decided to go home and sleep off her cosmic kiss.

00:57:03.849 --> 00:57:05.909
<v Speaker 8>The new girl returned a mere three days later.

00:57:06.500 --> 00:57:10.349
<v Speaker 8>This was always how it was one trip to the stars and they wanted the moon.

00:57:11.480 --> 00:57:12.269
<v Speaker 8>Those were mine.

00:57:12.409 --> 00:57:13.869
<v Speaker 8>The girls said pointing to the bag.

00:57:14.409 --> 00:57:16.659
<v Speaker 8>Her per new kid, demeanor was gone.

00:57:17.159 --> 00:57:18.179
<v Speaker 8>Her tie had been lost.

00:57:18.199 --> 00:57:20.940
<v Speaker 8>At some point, her hair was loose and flowing around her face.

00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:25.420
<v Speaker 8>And her eyes were rimed with streaks of black eyeliner and mascara ran down her cheeks.

00:57:26.250 --> 00:57:26.539
<v Speaker 8>Nope.

00:57:27.019 --> 00:57:27.900
<v Speaker 8>Lana said arrogantly.

00:57:28.340 --> 00:57:28.860
<v Speaker 8>I found them.

00:57:28.969 --> 00:57:29.619
<v Speaker 8>They're mine.

00:57:30.599 --> 00:57:31.260
<v Speaker 8>You found them.

00:57:31.280 --> 00:57:32.300
<v Speaker 8>The girl gas tears.

00:57:32.360 --> 00:57:33.300
<v Speaker 8>Now forming in her eyes.

00:57:33.440 --> 00:57:34.139
<v Speaker 8>You stole them.

00:57:35.019 --> 00:57:38.659
<v Speaker 8>Lana stood up abandoning her usual nesting spot where her bag and booklet.

00:57:39.300 --> 00:57:39.860
<v Speaker 8>I stole nothing.

00:57:40.809 --> 00:57:41.780
<v Speaker 8>Then where did you get them?

00:57:42.860 --> 00:57:45.780
<v Speaker 8>So crashed out weird car in the middle of the field, behind my house.

00:57:46.369 --> 00:57:47.010
<v Speaker 8>It was a wreck.

00:57:47.409 --> 00:57:47.969
<v Speaker 8>I stole nothing.

00:57:48.489 --> 00:57:49.130
<v Speaker 8>I just took some.

00:57:49.429 --> 00:57:53.289
<v Speaker 8>No one was coming back for the girl, moved faster than Lana could comprehend.

00:57:53.710 --> 00:57:58.809
<v Speaker 8>She was on top of her, pinning her to the ground and knocking the bag over little green chips scattered around them.

00:57:59.429 --> 00:58:00.329
<v Speaker 8>You have no idea.

00:58:00.469 --> 00:58:03.329
<v Speaker 8>The girl snarled her green eyes glowing, brighter than natural.

00:58:03.670 --> 00:58:06.769
<v Speaker 8>You've been using these for fun and you've been using them wrong.

00:58:08.099 --> 00:58:10.019
<v Speaker 8>Lana's brain felt like she was on drugs right now.

00:58:10.440 --> 00:58:12.219
<v Speaker 8>The new girl was stronger than she imagined.

00:58:12.239 --> 00:58:14.179
<v Speaker 8>And the kiss they had shared was a distant memory.

00:58:14.610 --> 00:58:16.619
<v Speaker 8>This person on top of her was pure rage.

00:58:17.440 --> 00:58:24.340
<v Speaker 8>The new girl grabbed a chip and held her arm out for Lana to see she pushed a nail into her wrist, revealing her skin to be some kind of facade.

00:58:25.079 --> 00:58:27.420
<v Speaker 8>She pulled it up at the split to reveal sparkling.

00:58:27.500 --> 00:58:32.250
<v Speaker 8>She shining mess underneath shimmering, goop covered wires, pipes, and pistons.

00:58:32.630 --> 00:58:35.250
<v Speaker 8>The blood like fluid that leaked looked like an oil spill.

00:58:35.869 --> 00:58:43.809
<v Speaker 8>She pressed the chip into a sinuous strip of flesh on her wrist inside as it got to work, her body perked up like a dying plant who just tasted rain.

00:58:44.389 --> 00:58:47.889
<v Speaker 8>The chip fused into her flesh with a quiet hiss and merged into the goop.

00:58:48.469 --> 00:58:50.239
<v Speaker 8>This was all repeated on the other wrist.

00:58:50.780 --> 00:58:59.599
<v Speaker 8>And then finally one right beneath at the base of her throat Lanae very still during all of this watching as the once meek high schooler shifted and changed.

00:59:00.340 --> 00:59:02.679
<v Speaker 8>She slid off Lana and Judd peeling away.

00:59:02.681 --> 00:59:16.219
<v Speaker 8>The disguise skin slid to the ground like shed leaves and the new girl creature fine and found itself to be whole again, Lana scarpered backwards grabbing her book and her vape and leaving the chips as far away as she bloody well.

00:59:16.221 --> 00:59:20.119
<v Speaker 8>Could the girl turned to her and looked down at the trampling teenager?

00:59:20.739 --> 00:59:26.400
<v Speaker 8>The thing was double the height that new girl had been its hair really did look like it was hiding a galaxy within it.

00:59:26.460 --> 00:59:32.480
<v Speaker 8>And her face watched her with thousands of green eyes, four great goat, like legs pushed her forward.

00:59:32.579 --> 00:59:34.440
<v Speaker 8>And she crouched over Lana with disgust.

00:59:35.619 --> 00:59:37.400
<v Speaker 8>Do not ever take something.

00:59:37.420 --> 00:59:39.199
<v Speaker 8>You do not understand it.

00:59:39.599 --> 00:59:45.719
<v Speaker 8>Hiss at her with five beautiful voices speaking at once and whatever you do, don't eat it.

00:59:47.159 --> 00:59:56.429
<v Speaker 8>Lana nod almost entirely forgetting how words works, pressed her book to her chest and scrambled to her feet through creature looked down at her with pity in some of its eyes, rage and the others.

00:59:57.210 --> 00:59:57.590
<v Speaker 8>I'm sorry.

00:59:57.989 --> 01:00:00.110
<v Speaker 8>Lana S sniffled clutching her stupid vape pen.

01:00:00.110 --> 01:00:06.750
<v Speaker 8>Like it was a Tasman that would protect her, the thing scoffed and turned away, ripping a hole in reality, with one of its long Claude fingers.

01:00:07.489 --> 01:00:08.670
<v Speaker 8>You weren't ready for it.

01:00:08.769 --> 01:00:13.619
<v Speaker 8>The creature said before it stepped into the, a tear and vanished, closing the rip up behind it.

01:00:17.900 --> 01:00:25.420
<v Speaker 2>I think I can speak for most people in that, that story took some turns I wasn't expecting.

01:00:25.570 --> 01:00:28.139
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, absolutely.

01:00:28.860 --> 01:00:31.739
<v Speaker 1>I loved the play on kind of like scenario.

01:00:31.960 --> 01:00:37.420
<v Speaker 1>You feel like, you know, like, oh, high school drug dealer, but then totally something unexpected,

01:00:37.519 --> 01:00:41.420
<v Speaker 2>You know, the story of the you're intimately familiar with the high school drug dealer.

01:00:41.460 --> 01:00:45.690
<v Speaker 1>I think it's a trope that we see in a lot of different me media, like all the time.

01:00:47.070 --> 01:00:49.929
<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying that I was a high school drug dealer.

01:00:50.110 --> 01:00:50.530
<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying

01:00:50.530 --> 01:00:51.969
<v Speaker 2>Alleged high school drug

01:00:51.969 --> 01:00:52.210
<v Speaker 1>Dealer.

01:00:52.489 --> 01:00:55.170
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying I'm familiar with the trope from other media

01:00:56.469 --> 01:00:57.730
<v Speaker 2>So much to say about this story.

01:00:57.800 --> 01:00:58.090
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

01:00:58.099 --> 01:00:58.570
<v Speaker 1>Let's hear it.

01:00:58.650 --> 01:00:58.650
<v Speaker 1>So,

01:00:59.380 --> 01:01:08.079
<v Speaker 2>First off I was getting a bit of, um, Hyperion vibes, as soon as they started talking out, just like super weird future sci-fi drugs.

01:01:08.389 --> 01:01:09.719
<v Speaker 2>It's a novel by Dan Simmons.

01:01:10.260 --> 01:01:15.800
<v Speaker 2>Oh, it's a, it's a long series, but uh, yeah, they have crazy descriptions of drugs, literal

01:01:15.889 --> 01:01:18.199
<v Speaker 1>Drugs or this sort of like, sci-fi take on that.

01:01:18.400 --> 01:01:20.360
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's, it's, sci-fi wild.

01:01:20.909 --> 01:01:25.829
<v Speaker 2>Lose your mind drugs, um, that just like, you know, drugs that don't exist reality.

01:01:26.039 --> 01:01:26.389
<v Speaker 1>Right.

01:01:26.769 --> 01:01:30.869
<v Speaker 2>And as soon as they started talking about dissolving microchips and hallucinogens, I was like, oh, cool,

01:01:31.179 --> 01:01:31.469
<v Speaker 1>Cool.

01:01:31.619 --> 01:01:32.269
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, totally.

01:01:32.420 --> 01:01:33.789
<v Speaker 1>It's such a fun world.

01:01:34.369 --> 01:01:40.110
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I think it, I was also just thinking about Hyperion cuz she was saying like, and then I was reading sci-fi, which is my favorite.

01:01:40.380 --> 01:01:40.670
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:01:41.610 --> 01:01:42.070
<v Speaker 1>We relate.

01:01:42.269 --> 01:01:42.389
<v Speaker 1>I

01:01:42.389 --> 01:01:45.349
<v Speaker 2>Don't, I don't wanna paraphrase just cause I, I don't, I really like the story

01:01:46.219 --> 01:01:46.699
<v Speaker 1>I did too.

01:01:46.860 --> 01:01:47.340
<v Speaker 1>I loved

01:01:47.340 --> 01:01:47.500
<v Speaker 2>It.

01:01:47.559 --> 01:01:49.980
<v Speaker 2>And then you have demo robot.

01:01:51.239 --> 01:01:51.739
<v Speaker 2>Yes, please.

01:01:52.170 --> 01:01:56.659
<v Speaker 1>Well, I loved my, one of my favorite parts of it too was the description of the speaking voice.

01:01:57.320 --> 01:02:15.969
<v Speaker 1>And when cuz there was like five voices kind of coming out and then the eyes and how some of the eyes I forget were like looking at her with P in some of the eyes were looking at her with anger and I thought that was such a cool because you see, you know, like the giant spider eyes, that kind of thing, but never the eyes are like expressing different emotions.

01:02:16.119 --> 01:02:18.610
<v Speaker 1>That was like a unique, I was like, oh hell yeah,

01:02:18.840 --> 01:02:20.289
<v Speaker 2>That makes me think of berserk.

01:02:20.969 --> 01:02:22.730
<v Speaker 1>What the graphic novel

01:02:22.730 --> 01:02:23.530
<v Speaker 2>Graphic novel.

01:02:25.409 --> 01:02:30.880
<v Speaker 2>Just you, I mean, you get the Bayt the, which has like all sorts of faces on it all with different emotions.

01:02:31.110 --> 01:02:31.400
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:02:31.579 --> 01:02:37.199
<v Speaker 2>And it's just like, you know, you get like the, the tree of suffering and you know, all sorts of crap going on.

01:02:37.679 --> 01:02:37.679
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:02:37.681 --> 01:02:43.519
<v Speaker 2>But you know, and, but let's not sidestep the fact that this, this goat robot can plane shift.

01:02:44.460 --> 01:02:45.480
<v Speaker 2>That's really cool.

01:02:45.519 --> 01:02:46.719
<v Speaker 1>I would, I wouldn't have, yeah.

01:02:47.530 --> 01:02:48.030
<v Speaker 2>So cool.

01:02:48.420 --> 01:02:48.949
<v Speaker 2>Like yeah.

01:02:49.309 --> 01:02:53.949
<v Speaker 2>It's so go robot once their stuff back or no, it's not even their stuff.

01:02:54.019 --> 01:02:56.869
<v Speaker 2>It's just the, the person is abusing it.

01:02:57.019 --> 01:02:57.309
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:02:57.311 --> 01:02:58.630
<v Speaker 2>They're just familiar with this stuff.

01:02:58.769 --> 01:03:01.630
<v Speaker 2>So, so much lore is going on in this story.

01:03:01.630 --> 01:03:06.030
<v Speaker 1>I want like more like, I want a novel version, you know, I'm like, okay, I wanna see the whole story.

01:03:06.110 --> 01:03:07.269
<v Speaker 1>I wanna know what happens next.

01:03:07.550 --> 01:03:07.550
<v Speaker 1>And,

01:03:07.550 --> 01:03:15.380
<v Speaker 2>And you actually touched on this earlier where, when you are writing sci-fi or fantasy or anything with heavy world building.

01:03:15.530 --> 01:03:15.820
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:03:15.820 --> 01:03:18.699
<v Speaker 2>Getting that into a short is really difficult.

01:03:18.800 --> 01:03:23.820
<v Speaker 2>So KU kudos all around and an excellent job again, uh, by Ethan Collins's reading it.

01:03:23.960 --> 01:03:24.179
<v Speaker 1>Yes.

01:03:24.181 --> 01:03:25.099
<v Speaker 1>Ethan did amazing.

01:03:25.480 --> 01:03:27.059
<v Speaker 1>And I totally agree.

01:03:27.449 --> 01:03:32.739
<v Speaker 1>Very fun and accessible because again, you're in a trope that you understand and it kind

01:03:32.820 --> 01:03:33.659
<v Speaker 2>Of, you, you understand,

01:03:34.400 --> 01:03:48.690
<v Speaker 1>And it kind of lures you in and then slowly you kind of realize, oh, there's microchips, oh, there's this, but it's not so heavy in terms of like needing to know all these fantasy elements or world building elements, it's just like, oh, there's like enough spice in here that I understand.

01:03:48.699 --> 01:03:49.889
<v Speaker 1>We're not in the normal world.

01:03:49.909 --> 01:03:50.769
<v Speaker 1>As we know it now,

01:03:51.090 --> 01:03:55.250
<v Speaker 2>I like that it's being referred to as like microchips, but that's not even what it is.

01:03:55.769 --> 01:03:56.010
<v Speaker 2>You know?

01:03:56.010 --> 01:04:01.329
<v Speaker 2>That's just, that's our closest analogy to what we have that these things are.

01:04:01.380 --> 01:04:01.730
<v Speaker 2>Right.

01:04:01.980 --> 01:04:02.690
<v Speaker 2>Which is cool.

01:04:03.190 --> 01:04:03.480
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:04:03.530 --> 01:04:04.159
<v Speaker 1>Super cool.

01:04:04.460 --> 01:04:05.840
<v Speaker 1>So everyone goes to support.

01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:10.440
<v Speaker 1>Emma, Catherine will leave the links below and on social media, we'll try to tag everybody.

01:04:10.460 --> 01:04:13.679
<v Speaker 1>So you can just quick follow, but final story you up for it.

01:04:14.199 --> 01:04:14.480
<v Speaker 2>Uh, yes.

01:04:14.659 --> 01:04:19.119
<v Speaker 1>So this story is written and read by my friend, Billy keenly.

01:04:19.860 --> 01:04:30.550
<v Speaker 1>So Billy, you might recognize his voice when you hear it because he was on our recent cannibalism story episode, reading a story written by Derek Hutchinson, who again was featured today as well.

01:04:30.570 --> 01:04:32.630
<v Speaker 1>So it's really nice to have really such

01:04:32.630 --> 01:04:34.070
<v Speaker 2>A community of in the network there.

01:04:34.349 --> 01:04:34.349
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:04:34.449 --> 01:04:36.150
<v Speaker 1>Of people who are helping us.

01:04:36.300 --> 01:04:37.150
<v Speaker 2>It's like connects,

01:04:37.630 --> 01:04:38.190
<v Speaker 1>Connects.

01:04:38.329 --> 01:04:38.869
<v Speaker 1>What's that?

01:04:39.750 --> 01:04:40.269
<v Speaker 2>What are connects?

01:04:40.460 --> 01:04:40.750
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:04:41.789 --> 01:04:42.230
<v Speaker 1>Like, oh you

01:04:42.429 --> 01:04:42.789
<v Speaker 2>Pour child.

01:04:43.500 --> 01:04:43.789
<v Speaker 2>What?

01:04:44.079 --> 01:04:45.019
<v Speaker 2>No, I, sorry.

01:04:45.139 --> 01:04:50.780
<v Speaker 2>I mean, Lincoln logs are cool, but connects are like, not Legos.

01:04:50.780 --> 01:04:51.619
<v Speaker 2>They're pretty different.

01:04:51.980 --> 01:04:55.739
<v Speaker 2>But you would build these like cool machines outta connects

01:04:56.010 --> 01:04:57.539
<v Speaker 1>Lego electromagnetic machines.

01:04:58.260 --> 01:05:04.730
<v Speaker 2>Uh, were there I'm sure there was some kind of electromagnetism used, uh, a bit because they had motor.

01:05:05.510 --> 01:05:07.969
<v Speaker 1>See how I brought that theme full circle on the episode

01:05:08.190 --> 01:05:08.610
<v Speaker 2>You did.

01:05:08.719 --> 01:05:09.010
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:05:09.849 --> 01:05:10.650
<v Speaker 2>Um, you okay.

01:05:11.349 --> 01:05:14.929
<v Speaker 2>Electromagnets are necessary for turbines.

01:05:15.309 --> 01:05:17.090
<v Speaker 2>Not all turbines, but electric turbines.

01:05:17.559 --> 01:05:17.849
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

01:05:17.851 --> 01:05:19.250
<v Speaker 2>That's a pretty important machine.

01:05:19.670 --> 01:05:20.929
<v Speaker 1>You made one in connects.

01:05:21.639 --> 01:05:23.690
<v Speaker 2>I've used one to power.

01:05:23.789 --> 01:05:24.849
<v Speaker 2>The big ball roller co

01:05:25.550 --> 01:05:26.480
<v Speaker 1>Made of connects.

01:05:26.539 --> 01:05:26.760
<v Speaker 1>Yes.

01:05:27.500 --> 01:05:28.320
<v Speaker 1>What's a big ball.

01:05:28.320 --> 01:05:28.920
<v Speaker 1>Roller coaster.

01:05:29.519 --> 01:05:29.519
<v Speaker 1>What's

01:05:29.639 --> 01:05:29.639
<v Speaker 2>That?

01:05:30.199 --> 01:05:31.039
<v Speaker 1>God, it seems like.

01:05:31.041 --> 01:05:32.440
<v Speaker 1>You're just saying a lot of words right

01:05:32.460 --> 01:05:32.679
<v Speaker 2>Now.

01:05:32.920 --> 01:05:36.559
<v Speaker 2>So it's a, you build this like six foot tall roller coaster

01:05:37.179 --> 01:05:38.039
<v Speaker 1>And then you ride it

01:05:41.820 --> 01:05:42.519
<v Speaker 2>Six feet tall.

01:05:45.710 --> 01:05:46.349
<v Speaker 1>Like a slide.

01:05:47.210 --> 01:05:48.710
<v Speaker 2>No, it, you be,

01:05:49.789 --> 01:05:51.989
<v Speaker 1>I'm just fixturing you in the backyard.

01:05:52.139 --> 01:05:54.590
<v Speaker 1>Like building a slide and calling it a rollercoaster.

01:05:54.710 --> 01:05:54.710
<v Speaker 1>No,

01:05:54.710 --> 01:05:56.429
<v Speaker 2>This is something you do inside.

01:05:57.090 --> 01:05:57.869
<v Speaker 2>And it's like you

01:05:58.269 --> 01:05:58.869
<v Speaker 1>An indoor slide.

01:05:59.500 --> 01:06:00.590
<v Speaker 2>It's not a slide.

01:06:00.909 --> 01:06:02.630
<v Speaker 2>It, it, it goes, it does loops.

01:06:02.630 --> 01:06:03.989
<v Speaker 2>It goes up and it's a roller coaster.

01:06:04.210 --> 01:06:07.460
<v Speaker 2>And like the car know goes all across it.

01:06:08.079 --> 01:06:09.059
<v Speaker 1>How big is the car?

01:06:09.530 --> 01:06:09.820
<v Speaker 1>Like?

01:06:10.179 --> 01:06:11.739
<v Speaker 1>It's like you put a beanie baby in it.

01:06:13.800 --> 01:06:14.820
<v Speaker 2>That's still too big.

01:06:16.639 --> 01:06:17.139
<v Speaker 2>So picture.

01:06:17.289 --> 01:06:17.579
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

01:06:17.581 --> 01:06:17.980
<v Speaker 2>Picture.

01:06:18.039 --> 01:06:18.260
<v Speaker 2>So

01:06:18.260 --> 01:06:19.099
<v Speaker 1>What's the point of it?

01:06:19.250 --> 01:06:22.619
<v Speaker 1>It's like a, an electrical or like a mechanical engineering.

01:06:23.079 --> 01:06:23.900
<v Speaker 2>Let me just rephrase.

01:06:24.050 --> 01:06:27.619
<v Speaker 2>Imagine building a gigantic roller coaster out of Legos.

01:06:27.889 --> 01:06:28.179
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:06:28.369 --> 01:06:28.659
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

01:06:29.130 --> 01:06:29.820
<v Speaker 2>Does that click?

01:06:30.820 --> 01:06:31.110
<v Speaker 1>Sure.

01:06:31.190 --> 01:06:31.469
<v Speaker 1>I could.

01:06:31.869 --> 01:06:32.590
<v Speaker 1>I can picture it.

01:06:32.619 --> 01:06:32.909
<v Speaker 2>Okay.

01:06:32.911 --> 01:06:33.989
<v Speaker 2>Now they're not Legos.

01:06:34.429 --> 01:06:34.829
<v Speaker 2>They're connects.

01:06:35.329 --> 01:06:36.989
<v Speaker 1>Can you physically describe a connect?

01:06:37.179 --> 01:06:37.469
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:06:37.889 --> 01:06:43.380
<v Speaker 2>So connects are, there's like a very many different types of pieces.

01:06:44.159 --> 01:06:47.659
<v Speaker 2>You have the sticks and you have like little Sprockets that they clip into.

01:06:47.860 --> 01:06:48.139
<v Speaker 1>Oh, oh, oh.

01:06:48.199 --> 01:06:48.699
<v Speaker 1>I'm with you.

01:06:48.760 --> 01:06:49.219
<v Speaker 1>I'm with you.

01:06:49.289 --> 01:06:49.579
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:06:49.699 --> 01:06:50.739
<v Speaker 1>I know what you're talking about now.

01:06:50.740 --> 01:06:51.860
<v Speaker 1>So you built a roller coaster.

01:06:52.360 --> 01:06:53.539
<v Speaker 1>You put a car on it.

01:06:53.541 --> 01:06:54.699
<v Speaker 1>Nobody was in the car.

01:06:54.800 --> 01:06:56.059
<v Speaker 1>It was a car for ghosts.

01:06:57.480 --> 01:06:59.420
<v Speaker 1>And you felt accomplished I'm with you.

01:06:59.530 --> 01:06:59.820
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:07:00.119 --> 01:07:02.050
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, if feet I get it, it's like,

01:07:02.050 --> 01:07:03.170
<v Speaker 2>That's the car for ghosts.

01:07:03.199 --> 01:07:06.409
<v Speaker 1>It's like a mechanical engineering thing you do when you're a kid for

01:07:06.489 --> 01:07:09.409
<v Speaker 2>B I, I think maybe a baby squirrel could ride it

01:07:09.849 --> 01:07:10.969
<v Speaker 1>A baby squirrel.

01:07:11.349 --> 01:07:11.570
<v Speaker 1>Wow.

01:07:11.590 --> 01:07:12.650
<v Speaker 1>So it's very small.

01:07:12.679 --> 01:07:12.969
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:07:13.170 --> 01:07:14.409
<v Speaker 2>But I said, baby squirrel.

01:07:14.411 --> 01:07:14.650
<v Speaker 2>How big?

01:07:15.090 --> 01:07:15.090
<v Speaker 1>No.

01:07:15.090 --> 01:07:15.449
<v Speaker 1>What a baby

01:07:15.570 --> 01:07:17.489
<v Speaker 2>Squirrel like this big, like a peanut,

01:07:18.650 --> 01:07:19.250
<v Speaker 1>A poly pocket.

01:07:20.079 --> 01:07:20.730
<v Speaker 2>It's too small.

01:07:22.110 --> 01:07:22.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:07:22.400 --> 01:07:23.840
<v Speaker 1>Well this is getting impossible.

01:07:24.579 --> 01:07:27.000
<v Speaker 1>Why don't we, why don't we play the last story?

01:07:27.150 --> 01:07:27.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

01:07:27.900 --> 01:07:34.360
<v Speaker 1>So before we do follow Billy on Instagram at Billy keenly, again, Billy's extremely talented.

01:07:34.550 --> 01:07:36.000
<v Speaker 1>He's a very good friend of mine.

01:07:36.219 --> 01:07:37.960
<v Speaker 1>And it's an honor to feature this story.

01:07:38.699 --> 01:07:41.840
<v Speaker 1>And it is actually featured in a previous issue of Lunix magazine.

01:07:42.090 --> 01:07:47.389
<v Speaker 1>So it's really exciting to be able to include it on the podcast as well as in the magazine.

01:07:48.329 --> 01:07:49.110
<v Speaker 1>So here we go.

01:07:49.300 --> 01:07:51.510
<v Speaker 1>Roll the tape on the final story.

01:07:51.909 --> 01:07:52.349
<v Speaker 2>Okay, here we go.

01:07:57.909 --> 01:07:57.909
<v Speaker 3>91.

01:08:06.230 --> 01:08:11.809
<v Speaker 9>If you play this sound, your true love will text you an unremarkable.

01:08:11.811 --> 01:08:13.329
<v Speaker 9>Chirping noise came through the speaker.

01:08:14.070 --> 01:08:26.039
<v Speaker 9>He watched as the boy in the video, went Mooney with exaggerated emotion, a banner notification flicking across the top of his phone screen, holding it closer to the mirror, just as the alert was about to vanish a backwards name.

01:08:26.041 --> 01:08:29.279
<v Speaker 9>He couldn't read said, Hey, which he could read backwards.

01:08:30.380 --> 01:08:33.840
<v Speaker 9>No similar notification made its way through the commingled clean and dirty laundry.

01:08:33.979 --> 01:08:35.960
<v Speaker 9>Beside the bed he laid in scrolling.

01:08:37.140 --> 01:08:39.439
<v Speaker 9>He lifted his eyes up from his phone to look around the room.

01:08:40.420 --> 01:08:43.479
<v Speaker 9>The aluminum Dish's dinner had arrived and sat undisturbed from hours.

01:08:43.869 --> 01:08:48.750
<v Speaker 9>Go the condensation from the underside of its plastic cover now lost to the stale air of the apartment.

01:08:50.430 --> 01:08:51.590
<v Speaker 9>Wouldn't that be nice?

01:08:52.369 --> 01:08:53.069
<v Speaker 9>He said aloud.

01:08:54.050 --> 01:08:55.869
<v Speaker 9>The ting of disappointment caught him off guard.

01:08:56.689 --> 01:08:57.390
<v Speaker 9>No sensible.

01:08:57.390 --> 01:09:00.789
<v Speaker 9>Part of him had expected an unknown soul made to light up his phone.

01:09:00.960 --> 01:09:01.630
<v Speaker 9>Unprompted.

01:09:03.359 --> 01:09:04.340
<v Speaker 9>That's not how it worked.

01:09:06.479 --> 01:09:08.050
<v Speaker 9>He'd had enough suggested content.

01:09:08.909 --> 01:09:12.489
<v Speaker 9>The videos were all rips of ones he'd seen already on another app.

01:09:13.510 --> 01:09:18.090
<v Speaker 9>He navigated back to his main feed, less with intent than mindless muscle memory.

01:09:19.079 --> 01:09:31.380
<v Speaker 9>It seemed like every third or fourth post was an advertisement On the heels of a tired meme about corporate tax rates and just below a glowing family portrait of a business school acquaintance.

01:09:32.199 --> 01:09:42.449
<v Speaker 9>He paused The photograph was of a woman with wide set, green eyes in a line pose the profile name, simply read Harriet.

01:09:43.670 --> 01:09:45.649
<v Speaker 9>She looked straight into the camera's lens.

01:09:45.869 --> 01:09:56.729
<v Speaker 9>Her lips full with a cosmetic sheen beckoning in a peachy hu, A sheer white dress with a deep V flowed around Harriet's body Posted a minute ago.

01:09:56.730 --> 01:09:58.569
<v Speaker 9>There was no accompanying text.

01:09:58.869 --> 01:10:00.640
<v Speaker 9>No, no likes.

01:10:01.670 --> 01:10:03.520
<v Speaker 9>He'd never seen her before in his life.

01:10:05.409 --> 01:10:08.199
<v Speaker 9>After another glance around the room had yielded, no surprises.

01:10:08.260 --> 01:10:09.880
<v Speaker 9>He tapped through to her profile.

01:10:10.890 --> 01:10:16.279
<v Speaker 9>There weren't many photos on her grid, but the half dozen or so that were there were worth pouring over.

01:10:17.590 --> 01:10:22.949
<v Speaker 9>Each had Harriet in an alluring slips, slightly parted though.

01:10:22.951 --> 01:10:24.270
<v Speaker 9>She was physically stunning.

01:10:24.409 --> 01:10:28.510
<v Speaker 9>His gaze wasn't base in nature or packed with lust.

01:10:29.489 --> 01:10:34.350
<v Speaker 9>The minutes he spent looking at each picture seems to flow by in peaceful contentment.

01:10:35.739 --> 01:10:43.550
<v Speaker 9>The spell of it was such that in those moments with those photos, he felt a piece that had alluded him for a lifetime.

01:10:44.920 --> 01:10:49.550
<v Speaker 9>Under the final oldest photo finally was a caption.

01:10:50.840 --> 01:10:56.149
<v Speaker 9>Everything you ever wanted, come make your appointment today.

01:10:58.210 --> 01:11:00.069
<v Speaker 9>No phone number, just an address.

01:11:01.149 --> 01:11:03.149
<v Speaker 9>Ninety one, nineteen Lamont.

01:11:04.869 --> 01:11:17.439
<v Speaker 9>He'd only moved here a year prior, but in his vert of explorations of the areas, circling out from his apartment and his office, he was fairly certain that Lamont in the 91, hundreds wasn't particularly far away.

01:11:19.020 --> 01:11:27.829
<v Speaker 9>And as if it were the most natural impulse in the world, he decided that he'd walk over after work the very next day, What would be the harm?

01:11:29.399 --> 01:11:31.529
<v Speaker 9>It's not an offer of prostitution.

01:11:31.949 --> 01:11:33.689
<v Speaker 9>He rationalized aloud.

01:11:34.920 --> 01:11:40.250
<v Speaker 9>It's probably psychic stuff In the morning.

01:11:40.310 --> 01:11:43.159
<v Speaker 9>He awoke with an unfamiliar of purpose.

01:11:44.220 --> 01:11:48.439
<v Speaker 9>The pod from his countertop coffee machine tasted less like a pale imitation than usual.

01:11:49.420 --> 01:11:53.880
<v Speaker 9>He slipped his bag around his head, over his shoulder and hit the streets with a bounce in his step.

01:11:54.939 --> 01:11:58.439
<v Speaker 9>The 15 minute walk to his office was navigated via unconscious memory.

01:11:58.470 --> 01:12:05.390
<v Speaker 9>With every moment of his act, thought preoccupied with Harriet, Would she even be at her office when he got there?

01:12:05.909 --> 01:12:06.869
<v Speaker 9>You know, actually he hoped it.

01:12:06.871 --> 01:12:08.350
<v Speaker 9>Wouldn't just look like an office.

01:12:08.829 --> 01:12:14.270
<v Speaker 9>I mean her parlor, you know her parlor, he, he really couldn't imagine what it would look like.

01:12:14.850 --> 01:12:18.699
<v Speaker 9>And he hadn't left enough time to walk by 91, 19 Lamont before work.

01:12:19.920 --> 01:12:27.300
<v Speaker 9>One more thing he would've liked to do, but somehow never got to turning the last corner leading to his company's squat.

01:12:27.439 --> 01:12:29.220
<v Speaker 9>Two story, downtown outpost.

01:12:29.880 --> 01:12:33.819
<v Speaker 9>He came upon a long queue of people waiting outside an an open store.

01:12:34.569 --> 01:12:42.250
<v Speaker 9>Some sat on camping chairs brought for the occasion while the rest shuffled around in place, checking their phones or nodding their head to air potted music.

01:12:43.470 --> 01:12:49.649
<v Speaker 9>He approached a man around his age, near the back of the line, removing one of his headphones, prompting the man to do the same.

01:12:51.159 --> 01:12:54.369
<v Speaker 9>What are you waiting here for Sneaker drop?

01:12:56.069 --> 01:12:59.399
<v Speaker 9>He hadn't noticed the beginning of the queue winding back around the corner.

01:12:59.470 --> 01:13:02.680
<v Speaker 9>He'd just turned You collect sneakers.

01:13:03.390 --> 01:13:03.680
<v Speaker 9>Yeah.

01:13:04.149 --> 01:13:05.800
<v Speaker 9>Some I sell some too.

01:13:07.220 --> 01:13:08.640
<v Speaker 9>You wait on lines like this a lot.

01:13:09.720 --> 01:13:12.880
<v Speaker 9>I guess the questions seem to make him self conscious.

01:13:14.340 --> 01:13:21.659
<v Speaker 9>It's a ritual, Nothing about the ensuing Workday registered on more than a superficial level.

01:13:22.520 --> 01:13:27.140
<v Speaker 9>He replied to messages as they came, attended the meetings that PAC marked the grid of his calendar.

01:13:28.399 --> 01:13:30.579
<v Speaker 9>His thoughts were fully trained on the walk.

01:13:30.649 --> 01:13:39.050
<v Speaker 9>He'd take once five 30 arrived back down the Boulevard passed his apartment, building winding his way to Lamont in the a 9,100 block.

01:13:40.270 --> 01:13:46.890
<v Speaker 9>The nervous anticipation reminded him of being younger, less sure of what was waiting at the end of any given street.

01:13:47.750 --> 01:13:51.649
<v Speaker 9>Not knowing for sure, at least what the next turn could bring.

01:13:52.670 --> 01:14:01.560
<v Speaker 9>What could be thrust into your life waiting just beyond the corner Outside world, dull to a homogenous thumb.

01:14:01.659 --> 01:14:08.319
<v Speaker 9>As he passed his home today, he wouldn't walk the two flights up to his door and open it and sink into the couch.

01:14:09.119 --> 01:14:15.800
<v Speaker 9>The, the spell of his usual routine had been broken and each step towards Harriet felt like a small rebirth.

01:14:16.739 --> 01:14:18.920
<v Speaker 9>His legs felt strong underneath him.

01:14:19.449 --> 01:14:22.550
<v Speaker 9>The rhythm of his footsteps ringing pleasantly in his ears.

01:14:24.090 --> 01:14:26.789
<v Speaker 9>It didn't occur to him to call it happiness.

01:14:28.970 --> 01:14:34.789
<v Speaker 9>The facade of 91 19 Lamont was nondescript to a degree that it made him wonder if the walk there would be for nothing.

01:14:35.760 --> 01:14:37.550
<v Speaker 9>There was a grocery store on the corner.

01:14:37.850 --> 01:14:43.140
<v Speaker 9>The man behind the counter was print auto tickets for someone consulting a small spiral notebook.

01:14:43.760 --> 01:14:47.779
<v Speaker 9>But 91 19 seemed dark and devoid of any activity.

01:14:48.939 --> 01:14:55.899
<v Speaker 9>Save a glimmer of light emerging from below the front stairs, Making his way around to get a closer look.

01:14:55.900 --> 01:15:02.250
<v Speaker 9>He saw a second steeper set of stairs leading down to a endure, difficult to see from the street.

01:15:04.189 --> 01:15:07.729
<v Speaker 9>Having had his hopes nearly dashed upon first impressions.

01:15:08.310 --> 01:15:17.579
<v Speaker 9>He took this discovery as a sign to press on to find Harriet, to see her hear the voice that emerged from those lips.

01:15:18.840 --> 01:15:24.899
<v Speaker 9>The thought the, the tiny hope that the voice behind those lips would string together.

01:15:24.900 --> 01:15:32.579
<v Speaker 9>Enough words to create a spark, to show him something, anything that he truly wanted.

01:15:34.710 --> 01:15:42.329
<v Speaker 9>He walked to the top of the concrete steps and took four careful, but quick hops down, knocking on the door in the same fluid motion.

01:15:43.800 --> 01:15:48.050
<v Speaker 9>Soon he could hear movement behind the door, making its way towards him.

01:15:49.649 --> 01:15:53.529
<v Speaker 9>A rush of Jasmine hit as the air behind the door, coed out.

01:15:54.590 --> 01:15:59.000
<v Speaker 9>He compelled to inhale deeply and appreciate it, but found his breath cut short.

01:15:59.060 --> 01:16:02.800
<v Speaker 9>As he made first contact with Harriet's Emerald eyes.

01:16:05.029 --> 01:16:06.039
<v Speaker 9>Welcome stranger.

01:16:07.390 --> 01:16:08.560
<v Speaker 9>Have you come to see me?

01:16:10.100 --> 01:16:13.800
<v Speaker 9>He didn't feel like a stranger rationally.

01:16:13.801 --> 01:16:15.199
<v Speaker 9>The word stung him slightly.

01:16:16.369 --> 01:16:17.829
<v Speaker 9>He composed himself enough to talk.

01:16:19.890 --> 01:16:20.109
<v Speaker 9>Yes.

01:16:20.750 --> 01:16:21.989
<v Speaker 9>I saw your advertisement.

01:16:23.300 --> 01:16:23.590
<v Speaker 9>Good.

01:16:24.970 --> 01:16:26.909
<v Speaker 9>She took a half step back into her parlor.

01:16:28.810 --> 01:16:30.909
<v Speaker 9>Are you here to book an appointment?

01:16:32.579 --> 01:16:34.479
<v Speaker 9>He closed the half step now between them.

01:16:35.720 --> 01:16:36.000
<v Speaker 9>I am.

01:16:36.420 --> 01:16:36.710
<v Speaker 9>Yeah.

01:16:38.079 --> 01:16:39.909
<v Speaker 9>Could you say it for me please?

01:16:41.649 --> 01:16:42.710
<v Speaker 9>Say what?

01:16:43.069 --> 01:16:43.470
<v Speaker 9>I'm I'm sorry.

01:16:45.050 --> 01:16:46.229
<v Speaker 9>Please say the words.

01:16:47.909 --> 01:16:51.390
<v Speaker 9>I am here to book an appointment.

01:16:52.489 --> 01:16:54.069
<v Speaker 9>Her lips crawled into a smile.

01:16:54.289 --> 01:16:58.939
<v Speaker 9>As she finished The hair on his arms stood up.

01:17:01.159 --> 01:17:06.819
<v Speaker 9>I'm here to book an appointment In a moment he was inside and the door was shut behind him.

01:17:07.600 --> 01:17:10.619
<v Speaker 9>The sounds of the city were muffled into the silence of his memory.

01:17:11.039 --> 01:17:23.250
<v Speaker 9>The feeling in his chest made it seem his entire life had been restlessly building to that image on his phone, in this liberating walk over the enchanting woman who was leading him deeper within this building.

01:17:25.109 --> 01:17:25.529
<v Speaker 9>Please

01:17:26.590 --> 01:17:26.810
<v Speaker 10>Sit,

01:17:27.720 --> 01:17:37.659
<v Speaker 9>Give me just a moment and we can begin The room was lit dimly, but illuminated enough to make out the ornate decor lining the walls.

01:17:38.789 --> 01:17:51.609
<v Speaker 9>The table he sat at was small, but exquisitely made and the top of polished Chestnut Soft surfaces to lounge on line the walls and the heady Jasmine sent he first encountered at the doorway.

01:17:51.869 --> 01:17:53.130
<v Speaker 9>Now fully enveloped him.

01:17:54.350 --> 01:17:58.840
<v Speaker 9>He mustered up the courage to remove a nagging bit of doubt, his mind.

01:18:01.199 --> 01:18:09.880
<v Speaker 9>I need to, um, I need to make sure this isn't about, you know, He couldn't look her in the eyes and say what he had to.

01:18:10.020 --> 01:18:12.279
<v Speaker 9>So he stared straight down at the floor.

01:18:13.510 --> 01:18:15.619
<v Speaker 9>We're not having sex, right?

01:18:17.039 --> 01:18:20.739
<v Speaker 9>She smiled warmly without a hint of mockery or disdain.

01:18:21.880 --> 01:18:24.020
<v Speaker 9>No, no, my sweet.

01:18:24.119 --> 01:18:26.500
<v Speaker 9>No, we're not here for sex.

01:18:28.079 --> 01:18:31.340
<v Speaker 9>She parted the beads of a curtain leading to an anterior room.

01:18:32.470 --> 01:18:33.329
<v Speaker 9>You don't want that.

01:18:34.819 --> 01:18:38.090
<v Speaker 9>We're here To give you what you want.

01:18:39.590 --> 01:18:42.729
<v Speaker 9>She stepped away through the beaded curtain, leaving him alone.

01:18:43.930 --> 01:18:45.810
<v Speaker 9>A new doubt, swiftly replaced the old one.

01:18:46.510 --> 01:18:47.649
<v Speaker 9>He wasn't sure what he wanted.

01:18:47.650 --> 01:18:48.409
<v Speaker 9>He never had been.

01:18:50.510 --> 01:18:53.050
<v Speaker 9>She returned only a minute later with a small T service.

01:18:53.051 --> 01:18:56.880
<v Speaker 9>I on a tray, steam rising Laly from the spout.

01:18:58.229 --> 01:19:01.579
<v Speaker 9>After placing it down, she took the seat, opposite him at the table.

01:19:04.609 --> 01:19:07.659
<v Speaker 9>Will you take tea with me stranger?

01:19:09.819 --> 01:19:10.939
<v Speaker 9>I can introduce myself.

01:19:11.079 --> 01:19:13.180
<v Speaker 9>We don't have to stay strangers.

01:19:14.930 --> 01:19:19.869
<v Speaker 9>Her expression remains neutral, but warm her eyes steadily trained on his.

01:19:21.250 --> 01:19:24.229
<v Speaker 9>If his words registered with her, she gave no indication.

01:19:25.770 --> 01:19:28.310
<v Speaker 9>She asked again, softer,

01:19:30.100 --> 01:19:32.470
<v Speaker 11>Will you take tea with me?

01:19:34.329 --> 01:19:36.420
<v Speaker 9>He felt no urge to protest further.

01:19:37.479 --> 01:19:39.699
<v Speaker 9>He nod his approval and she began to pour.

01:19:41.300 --> 01:19:46.270
<v Speaker 9>When his cup was full, she poured her own and returned the teapot to the tray.

01:19:48.899 --> 01:19:49.909
<v Speaker 9>Take it in your mouth.

01:19:51.260 --> 01:19:52.750
<v Speaker 9>It's the perfect temperature.

01:19:53.130 --> 01:19:53.750
<v Speaker 9>Not too hot.

01:19:54.409 --> 01:19:55.310
<v Speaker 9>Not yet Luke warm.

01:19:57.220 --> 01:20:00.840
<v Speaker 9>He raised the cup to drink, but she extended her hands to stop him.

01:20:02.640 --> 01:20:04.279
<v Speaker 9>Do not swallow.

01:20:06.479 --> 01:20:08.939
<v Speaker 9>He brought the tea to his lips and allowed a sip into his mouth.

01:20:09.640 --> 01:20:13.619
<v Speaker 9>He held it comfortably on his tongue and placed the cup back down on its dish.

01:20:14.810 --> 01:20:19.050
<v Speaker 9>Harriet took his wrists and brought the him closer across the table.

01:20:20.630 --> 01:20:25.090
<v Speaker 9>Her touch made his heart leap up burying itself in his throat.

01:20:25.149 --> 01:20:28.489
<v Speaker 9>Not far behind the elixir, he was asked to delay swallowing.

01:20:29.750 --> 01:20:35.250
<v Speaker 9>She looked deeply into his eyes, caressing his inner wrists, softly murmuring words.

01:20:35.390 --> 01:20:37.569
<v Speaker 9>He couldn't quite make out.

01:20:38.779 --> 01:20:47.159
<v Speaker 9>He tried to read her lips to discern what she was saying, but soon found himself too entranced by their beauty to catalog their movements.

01:20:48.899 --> 01:20:54.960
<v Speaker 9>The liquid in his mouth became warmer her hands and his wrists felt like extensions of one.

01:20:54.961 --> 01:20:55.199
<v Speaker 9>Another.

01:20:55.859 --> 01:21:00.510
<v Speaker 9>His heart raced quickening to a critical rape for abruptly slowing to a meditative thumb,

01:21:02.220 --> 01:21:02.710
<v Speaker 10>Swallow

01:21:04.210 --> 01:21:07.149
<v Speaker 9>The T radiated, a warmth through his entire torso.

01:21:07.260 --> 01:21:10.149
<v Speaker 9>Then down through his legs and out through every extremity.

01:21:10.800 --> 01:21:16.859
<v Speaker 9>The Jasmine smell of the room now lit up his mind in euphoria, every synapse at both full alert and total peace.

01:21:17.720 --> 01:21:25.420
<v Speaker 9>The chair, he sat and felt like an embrace as Harriet's thumbs traced, tiny circles inside his wrists, never averting her gaze.

01:21:25.520 --> 01:21:32.210
<v Speaker 9>As she watched this moment cascade over him, He opened, opened his mouth to ask something mundane.

01:21:33.279 --> 01:21:34.850
<v Speaker 9>Like what kind of tea is this?

01:21:35.310 --> 01:21:39.130
<v Speaker 9>But nothing came out his inability to speak.

01:21:39.131 --> 01:21:41.329
<v Speaker 9>Didn't even alarm or please him.

01:21:41.710 --> 01:21:45.569
<v Speaker 9>It simply was Harriet stared into his eyes.

01:21:46.270 --> 01:21:47.329
<v Speaker 9>And he was content.

01:21:49.949 --> 01:21:56.880
<v Speaker 9>I'm going to ask you a question now, stranger and you'll answer with what's inside your heart.

01:21:58.579 --> 01:21:59.520
<v Speaker 9>Do you understand?

01:22:01.619 --> 01:22:03.399
<v Speaker 9>He made no attempted speech that time?

01:22:03.989 --> 01:22:06.119
<v Speaker 9>Just a compliant, grateful nod.

01:22:07.539 --> 01:22:07.760
<v Speaker 10>Yes.

01:22:09.180 --> 01:22:09.399
<v Speaker 10>Yes.

01:22:11.390 --> 01:22:13.670
<v Speaker 9>Inched closer to his face across the table.

01:22:14.770 --> 01:22:18.069
<v Speaker 9>Her breath was impossibly sweet enough to overpower the Jasmine.

01:22:19.210 --> 01:22:25.189
<v Speaker 9>The intimacy of it made the prior euphoria spill over into ecstasy through the red lips.

01:22:25.190 --> 01:22:29.869
<v Speaker 9>He'd spent an hour staring at just a night ago, but a lifetime ago she asked him,

01:22:31.220 --> 01:22:32.619
<v Speaker 10>What do you want?

01:22:34.100 --> 01:22:37.819
<v Speaker 9>And without hesitation, he knew This time.

01:22:38.600 --> 01:22:39.819
<v Speaker 9>He knew he could

01:22:39.989 --> 01:22:40.340
<v Speaker 10>Speak.

01:22:42.420 --> 01:22:50.020
<v Speaker 9>I want you Harriet leaned in and sealed her lips upon his kissing him on the mouth.

01:22:51.460 --> 01:22:53.810
<v Speaker 9>The moment, the distance between them was fully closed.

01:22:54.510 --> 01:23:20.680
<v Speaker 9>He could no longer tell where his physical form ended and hers began his fears, his insecurities and sadness all melted away like trivialities rather than the hammers that had fashioned his existence up until now, A previously imperceptible harmony just below the surface underpinning the chaos was suddenly observable to him.

01:23:21.880 --> 01:23:27.960
<v Speaker 9>All of humanity in a glorious harmony in this parlor in one kiss.

01:23:30.600 --> 01:23:39.090
<v Speaker 9>The final thought that was fully his own is D cult to describe no language he'd ever known was up to the task of articulating it.

01:23:40.630 --> 01:23:45.810
<v Speaker 9>The emotion of it might roughly translate to a few inquisitive phrases.

01:23:46.920 --> 01:23:48.489
<v Speaker 9>This now

01:23:50.079 --> 01:23:50.369
<v Speaker 10>Love

01:23:52.560 --> 01:23:55.199
<v Speaker 9>Harriet raised the teacup to Herma off and drank deep.

01:23:56.000 --> 01:23:59.439
<v Speaker 9>A contented smile came to her lips as she lowered it to the table inside.

01:24:00.340 --> 01:24:10.539
<v Speaker 9>She reached into her mouth and pulled from it, a small figurine in the shape of a man, no more than three inches, tall, heavy and dense.

01:24:12.609 --> 01:24:17.899
<v Speaker 9>Welcome home stranger you'll have me for all eternity.

01:24:17.960 --> 01:24:31.210
<v Speaker 9>Now I promise she rose and walked over to a Curio in the corner, placing the figurine on a shelf next to dozens to just like it before picking up her phone.

01:24:35.159 --> 01:24:46.130
<v Speaker 1>Another very good example of a story, a short story that starts kind of in the world as we know it, and then devolves into something with supernatural elements.

01:24:46.439 --> 01:24:46.729
<v Speaker 2>Sure.

01:24:46.829 --> 01:24:51.680
<v Speaker 2>And another story with a, I don't know if it's a saggy bit, but more of a tempts.

01:24:51.989 --> 01:24:52.279
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:24:52.899 --> 01:24:56.359
<v Speaker 2>She was certainly nefarious and used seduction to get her means.

01:24:57.189 --> 01:24:57.479
<v Speaker 1>Sure.

01:24:58.159 --> 01:24:58.680
<v Speaker 2>A Vixen.

01:25:00.199 --> 01:25:01.479
<v Speaker 1>I, yeah, maybe I don't know.

01:25:02.199 --> 01:25:06.359
<v Speaker 1>I don't know the connotation of Vixen and tempts, but yeah, for sure.

01:25:06.520 --> 01:25:08.560
<v Speaker 1>I like her character a lot Harriet

01:25:09.119 --> 01:25:10.510
<v Speaker 2>Again, I, I think you hit the nail on the head.

01:25:10.579 --> 01:25:17.750
<v Speaker 2>It's it's it is a pretty, the character is like the, every man and then gets kind of roped into a little bit of mystique.

01:25:18.340 --> 01:25:18.630
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:25:18.631 --> 01:25:31.500
<v Speaker 1>And I like that the majority of the story is almost about his like internal, you know, monologue where he is like his day to day life, his like internet, you know, like whatever, he's, whatever he is up to, again, like very every man.

01:25:32.119 --> 01:25:35.020
<v Speaker 1>And then it turns into this thing at the end, like, so

01:25:35.460 --> 01:25:36.939
<v Speaker 2>More does like kind of like Indian the cupboard.

01:25:37.350 --> 01:25:37.699
<v Speaker 1>Right.

01:25:38.220 --> 01:25:40.460
<v Speaker 2>I, I only say that cuz he's small and gets put in the cupboard at the end.

01:25:40.489 --> 01:25:40.779
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

01:25:40.780 --> 01:25:41.659
<v Speaker 1>Little figuring

01:25:42.100 --> 01:25:44.939
<v Speaker 2>Actually as that's where the book stops has nothing else to do with Indian, the cupboard.

01:25:44.970 --> 01:25:45.260
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

01:25:45.439 --> 01:25:52.010
<v Speaker 2>So we did have another strong showing from Billy and overall a whole bunch of really great stories on this episode.

01:25:52.510 --> 01:25:53.090
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh.

01:25:53.310 --> 01:25:53.529
<v Speaker 1>Yes.

01:25:53.590 --> 01:26:17.159
<v Speaker 1>And it honestly is like so special to have so many different writers and narrators featured today worth is kind of like a companion episode to our 100th episode, which came out previously and you know, it just feels really awesome and fulfilling to be, to feature work from, from all of these people, to be able to get to know them and kind of be in this community.

01:26:17.300 --> 01:26:18.960
<v Speaker 1>So thank you guys all for being here.

01:26:18.961 --> 01:26:22.119
<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much for supporting everybody that we talked about today.

01:26:22.170 --> 01:26:28.159
<v Speaker 1>Again, I will make sure that you have access to finding them on social media and in the description of this episode.

01:26:28.699 --> 01:26:32.750
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I think it just was like really awesome to get so many.

01:26:33.029 --> 01:26:39.750
<v Speaker 1>I also gave people like a day warning for this and we got so many submissions and it was just really cool.

01:26:39.930 --> 01:26:46.189
<v Speaker 1>So we'll definitely do something like this again in the future and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

01:26:46.369 --> 01:26:46.789
<v Speaker 2>Indeed.

01:26:47.279 --> 01:26:49.109
<v Speaker 1>Thank you guys again so much for being here.

01:26:49.840 --> 01:26:55.659
<v Speaker 1>Don't forget to check out our new film witching hour, which is on YouTube, which we work super hard on.

01:26:55.770 --> 01:27:01.020
<v Speaker 1>It's been two years since we've been able to make a short film and we're so excited about it.

01:27:01.020 --> 01:27:02.420
<v Speaker 1>So go check that out on YouTube.

01:27:02.810 --> 01:27:07.939
<v Speaker 1>Also, I wanna give everyone a heads up that we are gonna take kind of a vague amount of time off.

01:27:07.960 --> 01:27:08.739
<v Speaker 1>It might be a week.

01:27:08.740 --> 01:27:18.100
<v Speaker 1>It might be two weeks, but we're sort of at this very pinnacle moment, we have published 100 episodes of Lunix radio hour, 20 episodes of Lunix library.

01:27:18.789 --> 01:27:30.569
<v Speaker 1>March has been a really big month for lunatics, but also for a and I kind of behind the scenes and other aspects of our life and are so excited for the, the, the series and the episodes that we have coming up.

01:27:30.569 --> 01:27:39.449
<v Speaker 1>And so we just wanna take a little bit of time to really put the, the right amount of energy into that and come back fresh and you know, bright eye and bushy tailed.

01:27:39.451 --> 01:27:43.170
<v Speaker 1>So we will be back very soon and we're super, super excited.

01:27:43.310 --> 01:27:52.359
<v Speaker 1>What's coming up is kind of a continuation of some series that we've worked on on, you know, like almost a year ago, we, we started them on the podcast and so we're super excited.

01:27:52.380 --> 01:27:56.960
<v Speaker 1>We think you guys are gonna love them, but we wanna, you know, give them the attention that they deserve.

01:27:56.979 --> 01:28:01.159
<v Speaker 1>So we will be back very soon and until then, bye bye.