{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"S02E01: The Best Way Out is Through","description":" Jasmine Control, a new hire at a shady governmental agency called The Department of Variance, went through an extended supernatural orientation that ended with her manager, Yellow Access, trying to meld the minds of every worker in the office. To save her friend Scarlet Jaunt from death at the hands of her new boss, Jasmine used her newly discovered psychic abilities to jump into the past, to a point where Scarlet was alive. She miscalculated, and now she\u2019s stuck in Scarlet\u2019s memories from 10 years ago. This season picks up with Jasmine, Scarlet, Violet, and Daryll visiting the woods to see a lunar eclipse after their senior year of high school, ten years prior to the events of season one. But something else is lurking in the woods with them. Something\u2026midwestern. The friends will have to figure out what\u2019s going on and put a stop to it if they ever want to escape, and if Jasmine ever wants to return to her normal life. Check out our website for more info! Join our Patreon for early access! CREDITS: Cast of episode 1: Cody Heath, Jesse Syratt, Em Carlson, Tatiana Gefter, Dexter Howard, Lena Garcia. Art by NerdVolKurisu Written, scored, edited, and narrated by Rat Grimes. Transcripts available in episode notes at somewhereohio.com (CWs: alcohol, food, smoking, derealization) ___ TRANSCRIPT: ORANGE: It\u2019s just as Green said: the stairway to heaven is always moving. I figured I was on the first step when I heard the cat in the diner. I was heading to a little city in Michigan. I know, I know; \u201cOrange Splice? In the field? Shouldn\u2019t you be behind a desk at the Commission signing off on quarterlies?\u201d But on some cases I can\u2019t help myself. I can tell you that Red\u2019s disciplinary report\u2019s gonna have a lot of Orange in it. So this little city in Michigan, an industrial husk of a place. Full of slick palms and the poor souls wriggling between their fingers. I packed my bag and blew the joint. I slept in my rumbling hatchback on the way, and I ate and bathed as the great American trucker does. As I crested the overpass bend on the final leg of the drive, I saw a city blooming with rot. Squat brick piles wheezing into the streets, oily sunlight, cars bleeding rust into the earth. Plumes of gray hovered over the place, like cotton soaked with kerosene. One little spark and the whole thing could blow. Maybe we\u2019d all be better off if it did. Maybe we\u2019re better off forgetting places like this. Scooping out what little\u2019s worth saving and dumping the rest. Writing them off as a loss\u2013another failure in the long lineage of midwestern decline. Or maybe it\u2019s not that simple. I wasn\u2019t going to Deerland to set it ablaze, after all. I was being led there for something else. And so I rode up through the boiling roadkill highways of vulture county, past towns so small you could hear every single prayer on a quiet night. By antique malls decked with the heraldry of genocide. Under billboards letting you know you\u2019re fucked before you even get there: Hell is real, and it\u2019s about 25 miles that way. I was going up there to find Olivia, now designated Jasmine Control by the Department. First saw her face on a milk carton, and I didn\u2019t even know they still did that. Maybe they don\u2019t. I slid downstairs that morning in a haze, a little box of strawberry milk I\u2019d bought from the grocer in my hand. The milk itself didn\u2019t last long. I turned the empty carton over in my hand, then unfolded and tore open the bottom. I held it up to my ear and listened for the ocean. *sounds as room ambience becomes waves and various sounds* ORANGE: I heard through and beyond the carton, through my wall and the early pink light outside, through misty pines and hundreds of miles of the big flat nothing. Through and before my life, and after too, and into a hip spot in Deerland, a coffeeshop on the corner that used to be three apartments. The tip jar on the counter was a glass milk jug filled with quarters and crumpled singles. And taped to the side was a photo and one word: MISSING\u2014Olivia\u2026Olivia. I exited the highway on the right, tires sizzling down the griddlehot blacktop of the narrow streets of Deerland, Michigan. I\u2019d need somewhere to stay in this weather. Cruised a while and found a place overlooking a decaying mall: Hotel 7. One better than Motel 6, the owner assured me through a pushbroom mustache. One worse than Super 8, I thought. Next I needed food. I was wading through thick waves of exhaustion by then, rolling slowly but surely onward, bowled over by the blindfolds and needles of fate. On the way to my room, I stepped into a corridor dripping with window unit condensation and lined with posters. MISSING. A face repeated in nine squares. I shook my head and stared deep into the paper. GIRL MISSING. I got caught on the origin of the word, germanic, maybe dutch. Gone, disappeared, vanished, typically without a trace. To be absent. In absentia. Guilt without a face, death without a body. Holes in the ground, gaps in memory. The girl on the flyer opened her mouth and said something I couldn\u2019t hear. Her breath caught in the humid air, suspended green in the neon glow overhead. I fumbled with my lighter in my pocket. I flicked it on and patted my coat pockets. No pack. I hadn\u2019t had a smoke in two years. That\u2019d change soon. High above, rising over the fire escape and ascending into the sick bruised sky, I saw two glowing spheres. The kid\u2019s breath vanished and so did I. Once again back at my kitchen table, soggy milk carton in my hand. If you were in my place, Green, what would you have done with your life? If you saw what was coming. Dive headfirst or take a dive? Deerland or Des Moines? After that first vision, I made the choice quicker than I\u2019d like to admit. I dove, deep and breathless, into the variant night. Wait, let me back up. I\u2019ll tell you how it happened chronologically\u2013ontologically\u2013not how my brain stitched it together. See, in my head I had already been to Deerland via milky astral lanes, already tried the coffee and divined the lines in the sidewalks. I was three days ahead of myself. Psychic lag. Pages colored in without lines. I would be there in three days\u2019 time. I would seek out Olivia, this missing girl, and a creeping feeling told me there\u2019d be more to it than that. More Departmental business, which meant more paperwork. Figured I might as well get packing, I was in for a long night. *** NARRATOR 1 (italics until Nyarrator\/Narrator 2 shows up in ep 8 are Narrator 1, played by Rat): Jasmine looked around the jeep, trying to center herself. She was lightheaded, dizzy. She couldn\u2019t tell if it was a side effect of the binding agonist or if this situation was just too much for her mind to handle. Psionic nausea. OLIVIA: Is this how Green felt all the time? It was not. ASH: Look, Jasmine, you don\u2019t know me, but I\u2019m going to help you however I can from the wire. I used to work for the Department, as well. Assigned name Ash Chorus, stationed with the Dead Letter Office, then the\u2026the division of Fictobiology. I\u2019ve been sort of\u2026telling your story for you, as strange as that sounds. I may have gotten a few things wrong, but I think I captured the heart of it. And I will continue to do so. I only ask one thing of you, and recommend another: do not mention me to anyone, and do not tell the others what you\u2019ve done. ALEX: Dude, who are you talking to? OLIVIA: Oh, it\u2019s just my mom making sure we got here okay. You know how she is. ALEX: I guess. We met a couple times, right? Whatever, we\u2019re almost at the clearing. This is gonna be epic. OLIVIA: Yeah, uhh \u201cepic.\u201d Hold on. *quieter, on phone with Ash* What the hell is going on? How do I get back to my time? ASH: I\u2026I\u2019m uncertain. What I do know is this: you\u2019re in a memory, not in the past. For the time being, dispense with any theorizing and stick to what we know for sure: you, Jasmine, are in a memory from a little over 10 years ago, and that goo you drank that let you do this has worn off.  Now you can\u2019t get out\u2014a jaunt gone wrong\u2014and you\u2019re just going to have to live through this memory, however long it lasts. OLIVIA: I guess that\u2019s why it was Scarlet\u2019s last resort when I was being chased. But still, she was dying, I had to do something! ASH: I know, I know. Keep your phone with you, and hold it to your ear if you need to talk to me. I\u2019ll help however I can in my limited capacity. Now hang up, you\u2019ve been on the line too long and Scarlet\u2019s getting suspicious. OLIVIA: Okay, okay. *click, then quietly:* How did they know all that? The simplest explanation was that Ash Chorus was not real. They were as much a phantasm as this place, this metastatic memory structure. Like the larks, the butterflies, bigfoot. OLIVIA: They\u2019re\u2026you\u2019re fictobiological. Sterling would have a heart attack. Wait, so you\u2019re like a cryptid or something? Can you tell me if Nessie\u2019s real? In a sense, Olivia was right. But now was not the time to speak with the air. Her compatriots were growing concerned. OLIVIA: Fine, I\u2019ll stop talking to the first fictional person I\u2019ve ever heard. Normal world. Olivia recalled the advice of her father: the best way out is through. All she needed to do was live through this moment. This wasn\u2019t the past, and she had no way of altering what happened here. The only thing that could change was her mind. NADIA: Is she good? She\u2019s muttering and looks like she\u2019s gonna hurl. OLIVIA: Yeah, yeah, I\u2019m fine. Do you have anything to drink? DARYLL: Ch\u2019yeah, dig this. Daryll took one hand off the jeep\u2019s wheel and leaned forward, reaching into a bag at Violet\u2019s\u2013Nadia\u2019s\u2013feet. He rifled around and pulled out a familiar blue and white can. He tossed one blindly into the back, and Jasmine fumbled the catch. Scarlet\u2013Alex\u2013snagged the can and cracked it open, taking a long sip before handing it to Jasmine and wiping the foam from her mouth. ALEX: Hope you like the bitter stuff. It was not the bitter stuff, it was gas station party fodder. OLIVIA: Ugh. I was thinking more like, water? Or Gatorade? *pause* Hey, wait. You\u2019re eightee\u2014I mean we\u2019re 18! And we\u2019re in a car. With open containers. This is\u2026this is bad. ALEX: Calm yourself, Liv, it\u2019s fiiine. We\u2019re basically in college now. Have you seriously never had *emphasized \u201cA\u201d* A beer? OLIVIA: I mean, I have, I like wine more, but\u2014 ALEX: Man, you\u2019re like 30 years old. Just let loose and enjoy the night. What, are you gonna tell my mom I brought some weed, too? Jesus. DARYLL: You are kinda harshing the mood here, Oli. OLIVIA: Whatever, but if we\u2019re going to do nicknames, can you not call me \u201cOli\u201d? NADIA: Yeah, like who even is Oli? How about Livia? Via? DARYLL: \u201cVita means life\u201d *Alex laughs* OLIVIA: How about this: we\u2019re going out in the woods, we\u2019re drinking illegally and, I assume, trespassing. So what if we had, like, codenames? ALEX: You remind me a lot of my cousin, Liv. He\u2019s five. *to the others* I don\u2019t know why we brought her, she just sometimes\u2014 OLIVIA, ignoring Scar: I\u2019ll be\u2026hmmm\u2026my shirt\u2019s yellow, so I\u2019ll be Jasmine. DARYLL: Aladdin, sick. OLIVIA: You can be Violet, Nadia, because you love purple and black. NADIA: I do. OLIVIA: And Scarlet for Alex, because. Hair. ALEX: Rude, fuck off. I dyed it for a reason, asshole. DARYLL, holding back a laugh: Nah, dude, it\u2019s pure gold. OLIVIA: And you, uhhh\u2026 DARYLL: Fuckface. NADIA: Ew ALEX: Fuckface Killer. OLIVIA: I was thinking something like\u2014 DARYLL: Vegeta! NADIA: No. ALEX: Nope. OLIVIA: What? DARYLL: You could just like\u2026call me Daryll. OLIVIA: Ugh. Nevermind. I just thought it would be easier\u2026forget it. The jeep\u2019s tires crunched and spun gravel as the four sped down unpaved roads through the trees. Hung overhead were dark boughs, holding the high heat of the night in their leaves. A ranger station hoved into view not far ahead. A small pickup rumbled in the driveway, its headlights illuminating the forest beyond the trail. DARYLL: Shit, shit, dump the open cans. Daryll threw the remaining beers into the backseat. Alex nestled the cans at her feet and covered them with a blanket. She fished in her pocket for the worst joint ever rolled and stuffed it in her sock. RANGER: How are you folks doing tonight? Daryll squinted against the light beaming at his face. DARYLL: Uhh, do you need my license? RANGER: No, I\u2019m not a police officer. I\u2019m just here to make sure you guys stay safe. DARYLL: Oh, yeah. Dumb. Sorry, sorry sir. RANGER: You wouldn\u2019t have any fireworks in there, would you? No sparklers or firecrackers? We been having trouble with some rowdy teens lately, almost started a forest fire last week. Wouldn\u2019t be you, would it? DARYLL: No, no. Not in here! We\u2019re not really firework people, you know? RANGER: And of course you wouldn\u2019t have any illicit substances, now would you? The ranger lifted her flashlight and shone it through the back windows. Alex winced and sat upright, Olivia put on a smile and waved. Nadia\u2019s eyes didn\u2019t leave her iphone. The ranger looked vaguely familiar to Olivia, but she couldn\u2019t place why. The ranger pressed her hand against her forehead and inhaled sharply. DARYLL: Y-you okay? RANGER: Ope, sorry, just a headache. Think we got a storm coming on, with the humidity and all. Messing with my sinuses. All the pollen doesn\u2019t help any. *pause* RANGER: I see you folks have a telescope. You all out here for the eclipse? DARYLL: Yeah we\u2019re looking for a place to set up the scope. RANGER: Gotcha. Well, the public gathering is back that way down the trail. You passed the parking lot about a mile back. Bout half mile ahead, the trail\u2019s off-limits after hours. Road\u2019s closed. So you folks ought to head back thataway. DARYLL: Oh, okay, sweet, thank you. We\u2019ll do that. RANGER: Enjoy the eclipse, then. And watch out for rain. DARYLL: Oh, we will for sure! I hate getting wet, so\u2026 RANGER, puzzled: Huh. All righty then. *ranger leaves* ALEX: That was hella close. DARYLL: Dude I sweat through my shirt. OLIVIA: We should probably drive back to the parking lot, then, right? DARYLL: No way, dude, we just had a clean getaway. We\u2019ll just have to find a place to ditch the Jeep. *jeep shuts off* DARYLL: Guess it\u2019ll be on foot from here. *** *chain shakes* OLIVIA: Says \u201cno entry.\u201d DARYLL: Olivia, try to keep up. That\u2019s why we\u2019re going there. Gonna be no one else around. ALEX: Don\u2019t be a narc, Liv. *sounds of footsteps, crunching gravel* ALEX: Oh, hey, this is the spot? NADIA: Gonna be kinda hard to see the eclipse from here, but whatever. DARYLL: Nah, it\u2019s up ahead still. Down the trail and across the stream. Then we\u2019ll be at the clearing. ALEX: Cool, come on Nadia. Want to like\u2026walk together or whatever? Nadia had slipped on a pair of clunky headphones, nodding her head to some distorted guitars and guttural screams. A band of red spread across Alex\u2019s nose and cheeks. ALEX: Chhh, whatever, dude. Come on Liv, let\u2019s go. *** *blanket flaps, grassy footsteps: ALEX: You guys want a slim jim? Sour patch kids? DARYLL: Slim jim anybody? I got slim jims here! 2 for 5 or 3 for 5 or 4 for 5! OLIVIA: So this is just outside of\u2026where again? DARYLL: The DL, duh? I guess you don\u2019t live in town, so. We\u2019re like 20 minutes out from your place, 30 minutes from Ohio. It\u2019s pure Michigan, baby. ALEX: I\u2019m actually kind of\u2026excited for this? NADIA: Probably the beer talking. ALEX: I had one sip before we had to toss \u2018em. NADIA: I mean, it\u2019s cool and all. I\u2019m mostly here for the hangs, though. OLIVIA: The weather\u2019s perfect for it. Clear sky, hot summer night. Where\u2019d you get the telescope? I assume it\u2019s not yours, Alex. ALEX: Dude, it\u2019s your telescope. Are you sure we don\u2019t need to take you to urgent care or something? Right, her dad bought it for her sixteenth birthday. Had her initials on the case. OLIVIA: O.H.M\u2026 He set up a spot in the backyard for stargazing. She remembered the tall grass tickling her ankles, cicadas winding down their song in the cherry blossoms, condensation rolling down the side of a glass. The stray cat rubbing against her leg. She remembered the drawings of the constellations in her book. OLIVIA: Cygnus, Aquila, Heracles\u2026 She had snapped one of the tripod\u2019s legs when he left. He stopped by and taped it back together while she was at school. OLIVIA: Oh, yeah, didn\u2019t recognize it for\u2026some reason. Nadia sat down first, reclining on her elbows and looking up through the sparse branches overhead. Olivia sat across from her on another blanket, and Daryll leaned against a wide trunk with a cold drink in hand. DARYLL: Which one is that? OLIVIA: The constellation? I think\u2026the teapot? It might be part of Sagittarius. NADIA: It is. DARYLL: Oh, is it??  How would you even know? NADIA: Googled it, duhh. Alex looked over the three of them, equations spinning around in her head as she tried to calculate whether it would be too obvious to sit next to Nadia. She would\u2019ve liked to, but then Liv and Daryll would be like \u2018hey, why didn\u2019t you take the empty blanket, you nerd?\u2019 and then maybe Nadia would be weirded out. But if she sat on the empty blanket, then Daryll would have to choose one person to share a blanket with, and what if he sat with her? And\u2014 OLIVIA, quietly: Stop overthinking and go sit with Nadia. ALEX: Oh, haHA, yeah, totally. Sorry, I was just thinking about\u2026basketball. *quietly, to herself* Basketball? That\u2019s the kind of game I\u2019ve got?? Alex took her spot next to Nadia. She could hear Nadia\u2019s music bleeding through the foam pads of her headphones. She was sweating. But that was fine, right? It\u2019s hot out, people sweat. And it\u2019s not like she was sitting that close to Nadia. Oh god, was she sitting weirdly far away? Like she was trying to avoid Nadia? Alex took a deep breath and scooted a little closer. Nadia paid no attention to this or to much of anything that Alex was doing. She was locked in to the music. The crickets were humming in the tall grass nearby, spiders dangled and spun in the branches, tadpoles darted down a trickling stream. All was quiet, for a moment. OLIVIA: Wonder if it\u2019s about to happen. ALEX: It\u2019s uber dark out here. DARYLL: Yeah dude, moon\u2019s about to be gone-zo. ALEX: It\u2019s time already? DARYLL: Dude, this space shit owns. I can see the craters through this thing. OLIVIA: Ooh, let me see! ALEX: Whoa, you can see from here. There\u2019s just a little sliver. NADIA: Kinda makes me feel sick. Like knowing it\u2019s really out there, and we\u2019re here, small and alone. DARYLL: Aaaand it\u2019s gone. Complete darkness enveloped the group. The humid air clung heavy as wet gowns around them. The moon had vanished behind the shadow of the planet, and even the insects, birds, and Nadia\u2019s headphones hushed their songs in reverent silence. OLIVIA: Gosh, I forget how dark it can get out in the country. ALEX: You basically live in a farmhouse, dude. You\u2019re in \u201cthe country\u201d all the time. OLIVIA: It\u2019s just\u2026I\u2019m in my room a lot I guess. Don\u2019t get out to see the stars much. ALEX: I see the taco bell drive through more often than stars. DARYLL: Fuuuuck, now I\u2019m hungry. The gloom that surrounded them did not relent, even long past when the shadow should have given way back to the gentle glow of reflected light. OLIVIA: It should be back by now. ALEX: Give it a sec. OLIVIA: And where are the constellations? NADIA: The sky\u2019s like a black curtain. ALEX: Probably clouds. OLIVIA: No, it was clear when we got here. DARYLL: You think the moon\u2019s broken? Hey, try taking it out, blowing in it, and putting it back in again. Olivia could feel her pulse hammering in her throat. It was hot before, but the air was growing hotter, and the cool breeze that rustled the nettles and ivies was still. She was slick with perspiration, and the moisture in the air had her struggling for breath. Her eyes darted in every direction, looking for some landmark or image to anchor herself, but found nothing. In the total blackout, they could be anywhere: a basement, the bottom of the ocean. Or they could be nowhere, the great void between blasted stellar remains and dead planets. NADIA: It is weird, right? ALEX: Hey, uh, Olivia, check that telescope. Do you know what\u2019s going on? You\u2019re the space nerd, right? OLIVIA: There\u2019s nothing there. NADIA: What do you mean, \u201cnothing there?\u201d ALEX: Well, it\u2019s there we just can\u2019t see it, right? *silence* ALEX: \u2026right? It must be coming, the thing that Scarlet and Violet\u2014Alex and Nadia\u2014saw all those years ago. OLIVIA: No, it can\u2019t be. Olivia knew, but they didn\u2019t know, couldn\u2019t know, that this would change them. NADIA: Oh, hey, there it is. ALEX: Finally! Hey, wait. What\u2019s\u2026why is there\u2026 DARYLL: That\u2019s fucked up. That these next few hours would be the worst of their lives. OLIVIA: O-oh my god. There\u2019s\u2026there\u2019s another. There are two of them, just hanging in the sky. Two moons. END ","author_name":"The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio","author_url":"https:\/\/www.somewhereohio.com","html":"