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SMNTY Fiction: Dark Family Secret · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is any and Samantha, and welcome to Stephan.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told your production of I Heart Radio and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it is time for another edition of Smindy Fiction. And
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: as always, thanks right up front to super producer Christina
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: who makes things happen. And also right up front disclaimer.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: If this is not your thing, we only do it
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: once a month, so you know, move on. We'd love
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to have you. But if you don't want to be here,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: move on, Samantha. When he came out a bit more
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: bluntly than I did, Okay, sorry, that's just where we
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: are today. Okay, perfect, perfect, perfect um. So to start
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: this one, I guess I should say like, this one's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a little gnarly. Um, not that too much. I'm trying
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to think of a way to describe it without spoiling it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But it's a little gross. It's not that gross. Little gross.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I think you'll be fine. Okay, I'll put that out there.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you, Samantha. We've talked about this
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a lot in several locations, but I don't think i've
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: ever asked you. Did you like people to read what
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: you wrote? It's according to who it was, and if
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I trusted you I sent you one of my short stories. Actually,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I had a small group of friends that we did
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a little writing club so that we could get together
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and quitta ea other's writing and talk about it. At
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the end of thing, we were a pretty healthy group.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: There was about four or five of us and we
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: would share stories and short stories and gift critiques. And
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: then there was a few friends that I would send
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to and let be like, let me know what you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: think about this. So, yes, handful of people probably all
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: could be like ten and less ten and less. That's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: pretty good, though. Yeah, how do you when someone would
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: send you something that they wrote to read? Were you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: like nervous to do it? Were you like, what if
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: this is terrible? I can't know. Um, it wasn't until
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: after the fact of like oh what do I do?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: But initially I would just go win and be like
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all right, here we go. And also who it was,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: because if I know you and know the type of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: writing you do, I'm like, oh, here we go, type
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of like mentally preparing. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, that
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: makes sense. I I'm very protective of stuff I've written,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: which might sound funny given that would do this segment.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Now you did destroy your previous works. I did. If
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you don't know what she's talking about listeners when I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: think I used in high school. Gosh, I can't wait
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to talk about Turning Red. There's so many things that
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: connected with in that movie. But there was a point
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in high school where I destroyed pretty much everything i'd
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: ever written, including a four book and then an ethically
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: long Harry Potter fan fiction and Peter Pan fan fiction
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and Lord of Rings fan fiction. I ripped them up
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and then burned them. Sad. Yeah, I'm really sad. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: bet they were terrible, But I wish I could read
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: them and make that judgment for myself. Now, yeah, I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: wish I could. That's a lot of commitment, Like I've
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: hit a hundred, I think a D fifties, the Maccid
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I don't like, Nope, done. Yeah, And I think one
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of the reasons I destroyed it is something we've also
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: talked about before, where I felt like, that level of
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: it's not perfect, so I have to get rid of it.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: But also I was ashamed of them because I was
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: even though like now I'm a sexual, uh, I was
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: going through puberty and I was writing about what I
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: thought like and I just sex, but like kissing. And
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I remember in my to the Rings when I wrote
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I let a friend read it, and there's a kissing scene,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and she, rightfully but hurt my feelings, pointed out, I
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: don't think that's how kissing works. You don't kiss for
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that long, because I think I like, they kissed her
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: ten minutes under like a waterfall or something. Look, one
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of the worst kisses I ever had was doing the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: movie Kiss and it was so bad. It was like,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: what are you doing. I was like, yeah, that was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: bad because that's what I'd seen on TV. But it's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: so unrealistic. So this is what we were taught. So
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I don't blame you, Thank you, thank you. But I
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was embarrassed when she said that because I was like, oh, no,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: she's right. I have no idea how this works. And
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: then one of my brother's friends accidentally he read one
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of my journals and he was real neat about it. No,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: that's an invasion of privacy. It was it was it
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: was a short story. It was a fan fiction. It
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was a celebrity fan fiction. I can't remember who it
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: was with, but he is the car broke down and
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I helped him. I helped him out and then he
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: fell immediately, of course, of course. And then my mom
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: she read one and she had the grace not to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: say anything, but that one was kind of sexual. That
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: one was a little so I was like a turning
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: red moment. It was sexual in yourn. I know. That's
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: why I can't wait to talk about it. It's gonna
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: be great. I was like, oh, my god, this is
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: exact thing, same thing happened to be almost oh, but
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I said, the short story reading today is kind of
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: an abridged I wrote a trilogy of books that's based
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: on this idea, and this is like a three page
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: short story that is sort of consolidating it. Um. And
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I loved this story. I did my first Dungeons and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Jagon's campaign. The character I made I've talked about before
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: was based on this, which actually was really difficult because
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: it's a real messed up story. So you introduced that
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: element into a just in Jackon's campaign. I guess, real messy.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: But I loved it, and it was something I did
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: for stress where I would write on this right on
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: this story, and people really wanted to read it because
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: they had heard me talk about it. Um. Probably no
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: one has seen it. But there is a movie I
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was in called Annie in the City, and they even
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: mentioned it in there, like there's an assassin at the
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: end that like wakes her up in a dream that
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: characters involved in this. But it's kind of it's it's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: well known, it is what I'm saying. My friends knew
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: where I was writing it, and I wanted to know
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: about it, wanted to read it, and I kept like
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: holding it close to my chest. No one ever was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: going to read it. I still have people ask me
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: about it. In fact, a colleague of ours recently asked
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: me if I could read it. I was like sure,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and then I never sent it because I am very
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: protective and like I get really in my head about
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: if something's good or what if what if it's not feminist?
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: What if I'm like passing on some harmful message that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm passing on, which I guess
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: ultimately be good to know that better than not know
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: that or you trying to publish something. But at one time,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: my one of my ex boyfriends read part of it
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know he read part of it, and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I freaked out, like not on him, but like in
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: my in my heart, like in my body panic, Samantha panic.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And he said I liked the part that I read,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and I was like, then you're messed up too. And
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: then I thought, well what does that say about me?
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: So listeners, you're in for a treat and go inside
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the mind. Yes, and I have some points I want
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to discuss afterwards, but in the meantime, let's get to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: to this short story called Dark Family Secret. Can I
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: let you in on my Dark Family's Secret? We all
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: have origin stories, lies we tell ourselves over and over
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: until we believe them. The lies I told myself they
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: held so much power over me. I wanted to be fearless,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: but fear exists for a reason. Open your eyes to
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the lies. I will change you, It will liberate you
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: if you let it. Be brave. Living with a lie
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: is easy, but don't shy away from the gray. As
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: complex and unsatisfying as it may be, embrace it. It's
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: where you live with all of us. I first heard
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of Nova as a pledging reporter researching a string of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: unexplained phenomena, people disappearing into thin air literally, others apparently
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: harnessing fire in their fist, manipulating time, super strength, superspeed,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: quick healing generation, and with all of this whispers whispers
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of an elusive drug behind it. It was called Nova.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Even finding this information took a monumental amount of leg work.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It was as if the people on the no authorities
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: included were actively hiding it. Even as the rate of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: these incidents increased, cover ups became more difficult to believe,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: thet whispers growing and possible to ignore. The difficulty of
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: finding it made the allure of being the one to
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: break the story all the more intoxicating. Asking around, for
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the most part, resulted in blank stares, but on rare occasions,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: these sustions yielded parentoige responses or vague threats, urges to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: drop it. If I knew it was good for me,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: but I didn't drop it, some would argue I didn't
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: know what was good for me either. I scoured the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: dark corners of the Internet, encountering images and stories that
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: made my skin crawl, that made me think of people
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: in a different way that are forever burned into my brain. Finally,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I uncovered a form dedicated to finding people who sold Nova.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: For the first time, I acknowledged the question that had
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: been lingering in the back of my mind, like a shadow.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: If I got my hands on some was I going
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to try it? Who doesn't? What superpowers? Right? The paranoia
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: surrounding it, the threats hinted at something sinister. Still I
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was curious. I put out feelers to the group, build
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: up a rapport, established a trust as much as can
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: be established in the darkest corner of the Internet, trying
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to get a lead on an underground drug. It took time,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: but I got an invitation to an address I didn't recognize,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: with instructions to show up after midnight and to promise
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that if I shared this with anyone, the consequences would
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: be severe. This was followed by a block of personal
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: information social security number, apparent social security numbers, phone address,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: credit cards, passwords. My stomach curdled, and for a moment
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I teetered on calling the whole thing off. But I'm
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: nothing if not stubborn. The next night, I found myself
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: nervously looking around a dark alleyway, fighting against the chill
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: in the post midnight air. A fog hung in the dark,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: obscuring the streets the sky. I checked my phone GPS
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: for the fourth time to confirm that I was in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the right place. I wrapped my arms around my midsection,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: wondering if I should just leave, if it had all
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: been a setup. A metal creaking to my left made
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: me jump so badly almost fell over. Red light flooded
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: into the alleyway, the fog twirling within the humming crimson beam.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It was a door in the ground. I just assumed
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: it was a cellar or for maintenance, and certainly didn't
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: look like something I should open. I crept towards it,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: anticipation building almost painfully within me. My friends always joked
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: my curiosity would get me killed. One day, as I
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: got closer, I realized there was a heavy, pulsating beat
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: coming from inside. An electric energy from within or without,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I couldn't be sure. Made the hair on my arms
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: stand up. A tall, thin man emerged, dressed mostly in black,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: his silhouette throne and struck relief in the red light,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: almost making him glow around the edges a thin, bright
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: red line. For a moment, we stared at each other, frozen.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Then he turned sharply on his heel and left eerilysa
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: islence swallowed up in the red and the fog. I hesitated.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: He'd left the door open. I needed answers, I needed
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: to know. I longed for fame, prestige, for immortality in
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: one form or another, that gaping need. I don't know
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: why it was a part of me, why it's a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: part of so many of us. A way to cheat death,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: perhaps to convince ourselves that we mattered. Decision made. I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: strode towards the cellar door, blinking against the light. As
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I turned towards its source, a red rectangle burned on
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: my retina, as if in a trance. I descended a
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: set of steep metal stairs that clanged with each step,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the sound oddly loud, despite the music growing in volume
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: as I headed towards it. On the final step, the
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: door slammed shut behind me. I nearly jumped out of
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: my skin. Screen caught my throat. When I spun around,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: another figure stood in front of me, a pale, smiling
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: figure for the second time in as many seconds. I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: almost fell backwards, gasping wildly. Hello, she said, pleasantly enough.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I tried to look behind her to gauge the safety
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: of entering further, but her body in the entry way
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: scared my view. I wondered how likely I'd be able
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: to lift the door in the chance I needed to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: make a quick exit. She laughed and unseddening the false sound.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Do not be afraid, she said, I will be your guide.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Then she held out her hand as though to take mine.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I forgot how to breathe. I did not take her hand,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: but I steeled myself and took the final stare, descending
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: completely into the burning red light. She smiled, too white
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: for her face. Her eyes blowed unnervingly. The woman led
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: me inside her pace. Oh. The entryway led into a large, wide,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: open space, big enough that the red light mellowed and
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I was able to make out the details of the space.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: On the left was what appeared to be a bar.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: The board above sporting names. I didn't recognize the descriptions underneath,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: reminiscent of wine or oysters, where it's like salty, briny, robust,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: fruit forward, bitter. Some had phrases like take a walk
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: on the wild side, flirt with death. Next to the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: descriptions were two sets of percentages, ranging from relatively low
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to quite high. Some almost assize too high to be alcohol.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: The prices were exorbitant. I shifted my focus to the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: center of the room and faltered with a dreadful start,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I realized that the people sitting around the tables were
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: hooked up to what looked like ivy bags of dark
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: liquid to stretching like umbilical cords. The woman's hand on
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: my arm directed me forward. Still processing what I was seeing,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I allowed her to lead me to a table in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the center, and she guided me onto a soft leather seat.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: She sat across from me. That too wide, smile on
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: wavering on her face. Tell me what you seek, she asked,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: My mouth dry, I managed nova. Her voice was strange,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: vibrating when she responded, you have come to the right place.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: What what? I looked around, unsure what to ask. First,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: I gestured at the ivy chords. Is that Nova? She nodded, once,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: her eyes bright. What about the percentages? She told me
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Nova was unlike anything I ever seen, that it offered
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: an unlimited power, immortality, but that the offering did not
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: come without a risk. The first percentage was the likelihood
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: you turn forever, never needing to take Nova again to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: reap its benefits, becoming more than human, a part of
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the new world order. The second was the risk of
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: death or insanity. My gaze darted back to the board
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: so high I breathe this. Many people are willing to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: take the risk, aren't you, the woman asked, I was,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I realized. Her smile grew wider, as though she already
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: knew the answer. Human life is meaningless, she said, nova
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: can offer so much more. Life can be so much more.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: The greater the risk, the greater the reward. In the end,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I still went with the least risky option, cringing at
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the price. She asked if I'd like the drip or
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the drink. I asked the difference. She looked at me
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: for a long moment before she stood without responding. I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: glanced around as she rose to get it for me,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: subtly cataloging the other patrons. Their faces were painted with ecstasy,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: as though they were seeing wonders, untold wonders unimaginable. It
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: filled me with awe and terror and cavernous curiosity. I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: had to admit there was some excitement in toying with
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: death and madness. The woman returned with a glass of dark,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: viscous liquid, retaking her seat and delicately placing it in
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: front of me. I stared at it, the red light
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: reflecting off of it. My heart pulsing along with the music.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Something about it pulled a siren song. Tentatively, I grasped
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the stem, slowly, twirling it around, asking if I drink this,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I'm my just die or there's my mind right here, yes,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: she smiled. I thought of my body being dragged out
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of this grungy space, tossed like garbage. No one would
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: ever know what happened. Or I could take this right
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: now and become legendary, no risk, no reward. I tossed
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: it back in one big gulp, slamming the glass on
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the table with perhaps too much force, wiping my mouth.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: It tasted like salt and overly ripe fruit. I took
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a gasp, then another, thinking it hadn't worked, but I
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: was all alive after all. Then the world split apart.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: My mouth was on fire. Every taste but on my
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: tongue was reverberating. It was like tasting pure undistilled power.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I had never felt anything mike, It never believed anything
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: like it could have existed. It was as though I
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: had been dead and was now alive, that I could
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: truly see for the first time, and everything so much
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. I could
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: see time itself, all of the past not taken, the universe,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: like bear, all of it. Mine too alive to alive,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: life itself, fire, fire, fire, too much for this pitiful body.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I was laughing wildly. I realized my skin tingled with pleasure.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: A wide smile pulled up my lips. I forced my
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: eyes to focus every breath pure electricity. The glass in
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: front of me exploded, and I laughed louder. People looked
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: at me and away, grinning, clearly having seen it before,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: ready to go back to their own highs. Is this real?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I asked what? There was no answer. Instead, my guide said, congratulations,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you survived. Then I asked the question I should have
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: asked at the outset, but had been too afraid to,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: afraid it would stop me. What is this? What is nova?
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Do you care? The voice asked, and for a moment,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: bathing in the beautiful warmth and casing me, I didn't,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: but I made myself nod. Ever, the curious one, it's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: a gateway to what we could be, what we could experience.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It's the next step in human evolution, she offered, somehow
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: both serene and terrifying. I persisted, you want in on
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: our dark family's secret. She whispered, somehow loud over the music.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Now that you're one of us, The words blared chaotically
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in my brain. She leaned closer, a red halo around her,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: everything in vivid clarity. Why it's blood, my dear. Her
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: words were like horrible bells, clawed hands wrapping around my lungs.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: The blood of children aged, it's the most effective. I
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: stared down into the broken glass at the vestiges of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: dark buscus, liquid dream like surreal. I pivoted, observing all
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the patrons hooked up to their I VS. They all knew.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I realized they all knew, and we're choosing it anyway.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And the children, do you kill them? My voice sounded
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: distant to my own ears. Only sometimes came the far
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to non slad answer. They're rare, the ones that into SNOVA.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Try to keep them alive again. I glanced around, wondering
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: if what we've chosen was life our death. Ultimately I
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: decided it didn't matter. I did not ask any more questions.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I didn't push the high was so great. I just
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: didn't want to know, and knowing what I do now,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I would do it again. I try not to linger
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: too long on that thought, but it is the truth.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I was one of the family now, a family connected
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: by blood and by the knowledge we drank the blood
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of children, joined forever by the dark truth of what
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: we've done. My family is growing all around to be
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: honest with herself. Give them the chance. Can you be
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: certain you wouldn't take it? And we're back? Yes, Yes,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: very dramatic, very dramatic. So there are several things I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: want to talk about. First of all, I want to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: say I wrote this the first version of this story
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: in middle school, and I've rewritten it like seven times.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: But I had this idea a long time ago, I
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: want to say, because it's weird to be reading this now,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: which is a story about drinking someone's children's blood essentially
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to get powers. When Q and On has this whole
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: idea that is very similar as part of their conspiracy
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and way of thinking. And when that happened, when I
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: was hearing about what they believe gave me boss oh
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: no looks like hands to me, going okay, um, I
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: think it's some bed pan and you bypass that. I
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: love it so so I think one of the things
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: we've talked about that is related to this. We've discussed
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: it many times. Is this idea of really playing on
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: women and their protection, like I need to protect children
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and those quote maternal instincts and using that sort of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a trojan horse for a lot of other nefarious things.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Because if you're saying I mean essentially, if you get
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: behind the like we've got to protect the children flag,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I feel like we've used that for so many damaging
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: causes throughout time. So when I originally had this idea,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: which again I was in middle school, which I guess
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: you can judge me for that if you want, but
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I think I think I was going off of the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: what would be the most kind of disturbing trolley problem
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of I want superpowers? Oh it means I'm drinking this
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: child's blood to get them? Do you still do it?
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: So I get like the that I remember I had
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a teacher I think I've talked about her before, Ms. Tipton.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: She was my language professor, and she was so difficult.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: She was in high school. She's so hard. And I
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: read this essay one that I had written about well,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't think we should go to war in Iraq,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and I had like a really what I thought was
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: like a really moving passage and there about basically like
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I focused in on a story about a child who
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: had died in a strike, and she was like, you know,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you can use that stuff, but that's a lot of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: emotional manipulation, and you're doing a lot of like you
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: need to give more than that. And that's like a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: lot of our politics today does that. Like we were like,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: here's this one story, it's so terrible, right, therefore that
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: means all of it's terrible. We have to fix yeah, right, right,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that really stuck with me. I think
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: obviously I still think about it to this day. But
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: it also is interesting again, this is a really consolidated
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: version of what I originally wrote, and I do have
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: plans to read more of it on on here eventually.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: But it also has like the most cinnamon role of
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: cinnamon roal characters before I even know what a cinnamon
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: role was. So then you feel extraterrible because it's a
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: cinnamon role that you're doing this too. And it also
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: has a tripe. I know we've talked about it recently
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and I've written several things about this, so clearly it's
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a thing and I know that people it bothers people
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and it is worth talking about. But of the like
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: journalists who isn't a good journalist who you know, um
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: falls in love with the subject or engages in something
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: like this. I like this character because she, um, she
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: has this whole backstory in my head about wanting to
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: be famous, like wanting to be a journalist for the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: wrong reasons, like um, So I think that's also something
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: we should talk about. But I just want to say
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I totally hear that critique, and I think it's a
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: good critique. I think it's legit mm hmm, especially for
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: like women journalists right right. And then the title from
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this one I liked because I like a lot of
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: that stuff of you know, the dark things in our
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: families that we try to hide, that we keep secret,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and in this one, being like, if you know the
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: secret of how you've got the powers, the dark family secrets,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you know where it comes from, so you're kind of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: connected through this bloodline, through this drug, So to continue
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to engage in it dark family SECRETO. Yeah, it didn't
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: end well for my character and Dungeons and Dragons, I'll
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: tell you that it didn't end well for like anybody's
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: character in my campaign. But you know, we all made
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: our choices. We made our choices. It is there, it
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: is well. We hope that you've enjoyed this fictional segment.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: We love doing them, and we'll see you next month
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: with another one. Uh. In the meantime, if there's any
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: fiction in the public domain you want us to read
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and give the same treatment to we up to do it. Um.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: You can emails that stuff in your mom stuff at
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: i heeart meta dot com. You can find us on
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts or Instagram at stuff I
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Never Told You. Thanks it's always to a super producer, Christina,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: super duper producer. Oh yeah, and thanks to you, you're
• 30:30
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• 30:32
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