Click for Content Warnings
- Background sounds and music
- Stereo audio (audio will sound different in right and left speakers/headphones)
- Sounds of emotional distress (heavy breathing, sniffling, crying sounds)
- Static
- Mentions of death and murder
- Discussions of cults/high control groups
- Mentions of cannibalism
- Implications of emotional manipulation
- Implied threats of violence
Transcript
It’s always ‘where wolf’, never ‘why wolf’, or ‘how are you feeling today, wolf?’. So inconsiderate. Welcome back to Spirit Box Radio.
[INTRO MUSIC]
Hello, faithful listeners. Welcome back to Spirit Box Radio, where I–
[SAM’S BREATH HITCHES. SAM SNIFFLES SADLY]
INGRA: You’re not crying again, are you? How do you even have any liquid left inside you?
SAM: Sorry, I just. [SNIFFS] It’s fine, I. I’ll be ready in a minute. Would you mind waiting for me outside?
INGRA: Sure. Whatever you say, my liege.
SAM: Don’t call me–
[INGRA’S STATIC]
[SAM SIGHS]
Sorry, faithful listeners. I’m going to take you on another reconnaissance mission. We’re in York, right now. Just waiting for Bliss. And. Well. I wanted to take you with me, so I made them wait until it was time for the broadcast.
[SAM SNIFFS]
Sorry, I need to get myself together. I’m all over the place. I. On Friday, I left the Karpos and when when I tried to come back, I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t cross the barrier I’d made, even though I was the one who made it, and… ugh, I wanted to undo it but Oliver wouldn’t let me, and. I’ve been staying with Anna, but most of my stuff is still in Oliver’s flat, and now we’re in this crappy hotel just outside of York, and. Ugh. It’s just, it’s really been a week, you know?
But it’s fine, faithful listeners. It’s fine. Everything is fine.
[SAM SIGHS]
Everything is… coming up roses.
[SAM LAUGHS SADLY]
[KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK]
SAM: Yeah?
[DOOR OPENS]
INGRA: She’s here.
SAM: Okay.
[FOOTSTEPS]
BLISS: Sam. You look terrible.
SAM: Thanks. You don’t look like much yourself, either.
BLISS: The anorak helps me blend in. I’ll be glad to get rid of it.
SAM: So. What do we need to know?
BLISS: There’s a little one, they say they’ve sent you letters.
SAM: Arlo?
BLISS: Yes. They’re going to meet us. They have things they need to tell you.
SAM: You made contact? I told you not to approach them.
BLISS: I remember. They approached me and knew who I was right away. There wasn’t much I could do to avoid it, especially given your other orders were ‘keep a low profile’ and ‘don’t hurt anyone’. You really put a damper on fun, you know?
SAM: How did they know who you were?
BLISS: They had a True Arcanist Tarot deck.
SAM: What?! When did they find you?
BLISS: Just now, right before I came to meet you two. That’s why I kept you waiting.
INGRA: And there’s me thinking you’d finally adopted a sense of style.
BLISS: [FONDLY] I’ve missed you.
INGRA: I’d miss me too. So, Heir Apparent, what do you want to do? We still on for showing up and demanding to speak with their leader?
SAM: I don’t know if B is their leader, strictly speaking.
INGRA: Come on, have you never seen a single movie?
SAM: Ingra. I was unconscious for a quarter of my life and I can’t remember a good chunk of the rest of it.
INGRA: Yeah, and I was the embodiment of a concept for the last couple hundred years and I still managed to get a Netflix subscription.
SAM: This isn’t important. B might not be in charge but I know he’ll speak with me if I ask. He wanted to talk to me more last time we came. He called into the show, even. He’ll talk. But. Bliss. This Arlo person, did they say anything else?
BLISS: They offered to meet you, by the ruins the Museum Gardens. Alone.
SAM: Okay. What do you think I should do?
BLISS: Me!?
SAM: Yes, you!
BLISS: I don’t know! I’m Ignorance.
[SAM SIGHS FRUSTRATEDLY]
SAM: [QUIETLY] Oliver would know what to do.
INGRA: Yes, well, unfortunately the Unrelenting is bound into his shop with a seal so tight not even we can cross it.
SAM: YES I KNOW, I REMEMBER. Do you think I asked you here by choice?
INGRA: You know what? It makes more sense for us to be here than it does him. We’re your Major Arcana and he’s still playing for the other team. Everything you tell him is compromised.
SAM: As if the Man in the Flat Cap wouldn’t know it all already.
INGRA: Don’t be ridiculous. Are you all knowing?
SAM: What? No.
INGRA: Exactly. And he’s not either. He gets his information from sources, and you’re sleeping with one of them. Or, at least. You were. Until you locked yourself out of his—
SAM: YES, THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME. Right. Bliss. You go to the entrance to their tunnels, keep an eye out for anything suspicious or alarming and come alert us if you see anything.
BLISS: On it.
[BLISS’ STATIC]
SAM: Ingra. You and me are going to meet Arlo. But you’re going to stay by the gate of the museum gardens, alright? I should meet them alone.
INGRA: Should I keep you in my eyeline?
SAM: Yes. And keep a lookout for anything strange.
INGRA: Nobody will harm a hair on your pretty head, Heir Apparent. Don’t worry.
SAM: I’m not worried, just. [SAM TAKES A DEEP BREATH] I guess I’m scared.
INGRA: Why? They’ve picked out their sacrifice. They’re wrong, I’m pretty sure, but they’re not going to try and eat you or anything.
SAM: No. But they’re going to try to eat Maria Gillespie. I– what if I say something wrong, or they find out I’ve spoken to Arlo behind their backs, what then?
INGRA: You’re disgustingly well meaning, you know.
SAM: Thanks, I think.
INGRA: Whatever. Are we walking, or?
SAM: No, lets—
[INGRA’S STATIC]
SAM: [WOOZILY] zap… ugh. I hate it so much.
INGRA: Here.
SAM: What is it?
INGRA: A mint. It’ll help.
SAM: Oh. Thanks.
INGRA: We live to serve.
[PAUSE]
INGRA: Are you going or not?
SAM: No, I am. I am. I just. Ingra. Thank you for doing this.
INGRA: No need to thank me. I’m just doing my job.
SAM: You do more than I ask. You, Bliss, and Indi. Thank you.
INGRA: You expecting to die in there or something?
SAM: No?
INGRA: Save the speeches. I want to sleep tonight at some point.
SAM: Right. Right.
[SAM TAKES A DEEP BREATH]
[SAM WALKS DOWN THE GRAVEL PATH OF THE MUSEUM GARDENS]
ARLO: Are you… him?
SAM: I am Samael Apollo Enfield, Heir Apparent to the Blood Rose Crown. I speak and will—
ARLO: Will be heard.
SAM: Arlo.
ARLO: You actually came.
SAM: You sent a message to the show, a long time ago, didn’t you? You were scared.
ARLO: I am. Don’t you understand what it means?
SAM: What what means?
ARLO: I heard you cross reference with what people know in your forums. The people in those videos, they’re all dead. The Subscribers ate them. They were willing to go, but. I don’t know. They’re going to eat Maria.
SAM: But if she’s making videos doesn’t that mean she’s willing, too?
ARLO: You don’t understand. Maria is willing to go but I don’t think she fully gets what’s happening. I don’t think she thinks she’s going to die.
SAM: You’ve met her?
ARLO: [TREMBLY] Yes.
SAM: You care about her.
ARLO: She’s nice. Well. No, she isn’t. She’s kind of catty and shallow actually, but. I don’t know. She’s naive. She lived in that cell in Rome for so long, I don’t think anyone really understand what she’s been through. Now she’s free and she’s just offering herself up like this… I don’t know.
SAM: Like a lamb to slaughter.
ARLO: She’s capable of making her own choices but I just don’t know if she has all the context here.
SAM: What do you mean?
ARLO: When they eat Maria, it won’t be like the others. It’s not just a sacrament. It’s the Redistribution. She’s redistributed; become one with the one, do you understand?
SAM: You become one with the one by consuming them.
ARLO: Exactly. But, that’s not all the Redistribution does.
SAM: No, it’s just a retelling of the prophecy that Indi and the others heard. It’s about the end of the world, or. Kind of.
ARLO: Who’s Indi?
SAM: Doesn’t matter. It’s the apocalypse, isn’t it?
ARLO: Yes. We become one with the one and it’s the first step towards the end.
SAM: I see. So they think eating Maria Gillespie is going to end the world.
ARLO: Can you help me?
SAM: End the world, or stop them?
ARLO: Stop them! I don’t want them to eat Maria or end the world.
SAM: I don’t want that either. I don’t know if I can help but I will try.
ARLO: I–
SAM: What?
ARLO: I think. I think they’re wrong about Maria.
SAM: What do you mean?
ARLO: I don’t think eating her is going to bring about the end times.
SAM: Why not? The rest of your lot are convinced she’s an Heir Apparent.
ARLO: But that’s the thing, isn’t it? An Heir Apparent doesn’t make any sense, because. Well. An Heir Apparent is just someone who is next in line to inherit a throne; that means any particular crown can only have one of them at a time, right? So even if she is an heir apparent, whose to say she’s the Heir Apparent to the Blood Rose Crown? What if she’s heir to something else? What happens if they eat her and something terrible happens?
SAM: What’s worse than the end of the world?
ARLO: I don’t know, but the end is just an end, isn’t it? It’s all over, but then it’s done. I don’t know, but it scares me that it could be something else, and…
SAM: What?
ARLO: What if they eat her and it means nothing at all?
SAM: Oh. I see.
ARLO: I need to do something. Please, you have to help me.
SAM: I will. Or at least, I’ll try. What do you know about the Redistribution?
ARLO: I don’t know. I mean, I have an idea of what the plan is, how it will all go down. It’ll be like the sacraments, in a lot of ways. They give them a drink that makes them sleepy, then they bleed them. Every piece of them is used; hair thrown into the fire, skin too. We cut the bones to make a broth–
SAM: I don’t need a recipe, thanks, what is there to know besides how they prepare the body?
ARLO: The whole ritual is centred around the sacraments, the killing, the preparation. Once the broth is made it’s divided up for everyone and we sit and consume it together until the whole pot is gone. We sing songs, tell stories about the sacrament we just ate, remember them as we take them in. The Redistribution will be just the same.
SAM: Except when you finish—
ARLO: The world will end. Or it won’t, and we’ll have killed Maria for nothing.
SAM: Just Maria? The other deaths, won’t they be meaningless too if this whole Redistribution thing turns out to be a bust?
ARLO: Please, Sam. We have to stop them.
SAM: Yeah. We do.
[MAGIC HUMS BRIEFLY]
ARLO: I should go. They’ll notice I’m gone.
SAM: Wait – Arlo. You’re sure none of the others listen to the show now?
ARLO: B made us destroy all the radios.
SAM: Doesn’t he have one in his room?
ARLO: He destroyed that too. Now we just have the gramophone.
SAM: Be safe, Arlo.
ARLO: I’ll try.
[RAIN BEGINS TO FALL. ARLO WALKS AWAY.]
[SAM SIGHS]
[INGRA’S STATIC]
INGRA: What a freak show.
SAM: Yeah. Bliss? Bliss!
[BLISS’ STATIC]
BLISS: You called?
SAM: Keep a special eye on Arlo. If you can get into their hideout, go down three sloping tunnels. You’ll pass four corridors on your right, two on your left, and then you’ll reach a door. Go through the door, and you’ll find a small room. There’s a wire bed, a gramophone, a desk, and some boxes. Check there’s no radio inside. Alright?
BLISS: Got it. Though, I could just zap right in now I know where it is.
SAM: Great idea.
BLISS: It was, wasn’t it? How funny.
SAM: Thanks, Bliss.
BLISS: No problem, captain.
SAM: Just—
[BLISS’ STATIC]
SAM: Just call me Sam.
INGRA: It’s just weird, that’s all.
SAM: What is?
INGRA: Calling you just ‘Sam’.
SAM: That’s my name.
INGRA: One of them.
SAM: Yeah, the one I like. So please, just use it.
INGRA: Sorry. I’ll steer away from the honorifics. I’m just used to calling the One Who Walks Here and There ‘sir’ or something along those lines.
SAM: He made you call him that?
INGRA: I don’t know if he made us, but he did, you know, make our deals and command us around. It was implied we should treat him with a certain amount of dignity, you know?
SAM: What’s he like?
INGRA: I don’t know. Taller than you.
SAM: [SCOFFS] That’s not hard. I mean, personality. What’s he like.
INGRA: Annoying.
[SAM LAUGHS]
SAM: Good to know.
INGRA: Yeah.
SAM: Am I annoying?
INGRA: Less than him.
SAM: Wow, Ingra. Careful, that was almost a compliment.
INGRA: Yeah, yeah.
[QUIET FOR A MOMENT]
SAM: What is it?
INGRA: What?
SAM: You went all quiet.
INGRA: [SIGH] You’re making us different.
SAM: I know. I’m sorry.
INGRA: No, no it– it’s good. I think.
SAM: Is that… gratitude?
INGRA: Don’t get carried away, now.
SAM: Alright. You know, I don’t think it’s me that’s changing you. I think you’re changing by yourselves, and I’m just not trying to stop it.
INGRA: Yeah, sure, hundreds of years of stasis and we just snap out of it?
SAM: I don’t know. But I’m not doing anything, Ingra.
INGRA: Whatever you say.
SAM: And don’t say ‘just’, like it’s nothing. It isn’t. I know you’ve been… struggling. I know you all have. I don’t know how to do this.
INGRA: Do what?
SAM: I don’t know. Be in charge, I guess.
INGRA: You’re doing fine.
SAM: Thanks.
INGRA: Don’t mention it. Really. Do not bring this up again.
[SAM LAUGHS]
SAM: Alright, I won’t.
INGRA: You’re alright, Sam.
SAM: So are you.
[BLISS’ STATIC]
BLISS: What’s up, losers?
SAM: Where did you find a cornetto?
BLISS: At the shop?
SAM: Did you— never mind. What’s wrong?
BLISS: Nothing.
SAM: Then why are you here?
BLISS: Oh, I went to the room you described. No radios. I did find this little guy though.
SAM: A toy solider.
BLISS: Isn’t it cute?
SAM: Yeah, I guess.
BLISS: You can keep it if you want.
SAM: Er, no. That’s fine. You hang on it.
BLISS: Awesome. He’s got a little hat, can you see?
SAM: Yes.
INGRA: He does have a little hat, and a backpack.
BLISS: Isn’t it cool?
SAM: It’s amazing, sure, did you see anything else?
BLISS: Nothing you didn’t mention, oh. Except for the large chalkboard on the wall covered in plans.
SAM: What!?
BLISS: Yeah.
SAM: What did it say?
BLISS: I don’t know, you didn’t ask me to look at it.
SAM: Will you go back and see?!
BLISS: Sure.
[BLISS’S STATIC]
INGRA: Give me your phone.
SAM: What?
INGRA: Just, give it.
SAM: Okay.
[INGRA’S STATIC]
SAM: Hey, I need that!
[INGRA’S STATIC]
INGRA: Here.
SAM: My phone, thanks! What did you—
[BLISS’S STATIC]
BLISS: She took a picture.
SAM: Oh, great idea, Ingra. Um… yeah. This is what Arlo was describing, except… here they say they’re to chant ‘one with the one’ until it’s over. That’ll be difficult with a mouthful of people soup.
BLISS: These people mostly suck, by the way, if you were wondering.
SAM: What do you mean?
BLISS: They’re just not very nice to that little one you met up with before.
SAM: Not very nice how?
BLISS: They don’t let them talk.
SAM: Please make sure Arlo’s okay, Bliss. Let me know if something goes wrong, and. If it looks like they need help right away, like if they’re in danger or something, you can help them, but use the minimum necessary force, alright?
BLISS: No knives?
SAM: No knives. Unless you need knives, alright?
BLISS: Ugh, fine.
[BLISS’ STATIC]
INGRA: It might have been a mistake to let Arlo go back to them.
SAM: What else could I do?
INGRA: I don’t know.
SAM: Me neither. Okay Faithful Listeners. Thanks for coming with us. I really appreciate you. Goodnight.
[END]
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