#Sarah has broken many phones reading books on her reading app. Do not let that girl read Red Queen... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cecilspeaks · 5 years

Text

147 - The Protester

Hot singles in your area are staring into the forest and grinning absently.

Welcome to Night Vale.

Astronomers are frantically trying to determine why a chunk of the moon is missing. Ragged and greedy like a slice removed from a pie by hungry hands rather than a civilized serving utensil, the gap in the moon has been baffling professional sky gazers for weeks. Fun fact: did you know a group of astronomers is called a commotion?

Astronomers believe the moon could be eroding, because people have stopped believing in it, like ancient Roman polytheism. Others have theorized that the moon was damaged by enemy ships in the ongoing Blood Space War. But people on the internet have countered that this is part of the mandala effect, and that that piece of the moon has always been missing and we’re collectively misremembering. Like how those beloved picture book bears that we all remember as the Berenstein Bears, have by all physical evidence always actually been spelled “The Dog Pound Boyzzzz”. Boyz with a Z. Because of the 2016 city ordinance that proclaimed that anything can be true if you say it loud enough, astronomers are forced to consider all sides.

I don’t know any astronomers, but I do know a scientist! My husband Carlos has been the leading scientific mind in Night Vale since we started dating, almost six years ago. Carlos says that he has been studying and interesting meteorite he found out in the sand wastes and scrublands beyond Night Vale. He believes this particular rock is a piece of the moon. Standing before a giant wall of blinking lights, flickering screens and intermittent beeps, Carlos determined that this piece of the moon broke off only one month ago. But this is impossible, because no one can remember seeing the moon breaking apart in the sky. Well, maybe we were all asleep when it happened, I told Carlos as I dabbed away a small crumb from a cheese Danish that had gotten stuck in his beard. Oh, fun fact: Carlos grew a beard! And I have never liked beards on men, but now – I do. It’s got two thin silver racing stripes down the chin, and the hair is so soft. We’ve been married over two years and every day, I fall more in love.

Oh right, the moon, OK good God, always with the moon. [mutters] Yeah, yeah… Carlos has been studying an unusual number of empty homes and businesses about town. He noticed that the houses on either side of us are completely empty, but he didn’t remember them being empty before. He remembers us having neighbors, but he couldn’t name a single thing about them. He believes this might be related to the damaged moon. Whatever happened a month ago to the moon immediately caused us all to forget it, because something in our timeline changed. Carlos said: “Perhaps we are not forgetting people and events, perhaps they never existed at all.” His eyes were cloudy with pensive thought, and I touched his furry cheek and said: “You’ll save us, hon. I know you will.” He smiled and asked if I’d be willing to reach out to archeology professor Harrison Kip again. Carlos, uh, had been communicating with Kip about this very issue, but now emails to Harrison keep bouncing back, and his phone number is no longer in the phone company’s database of working numbers. I laughed and said: “Carlos, I don’t know who Harrison Kip is!” Carlos looked worried, and said he wasn’t sure he did either. But he felt like he should.

Protestors have organized a sit in in front of city hall, demanding an end to the Blood Space War. The city council, seeing the crowd of about 150 people gathered around the front entrance of their building, took immediate action. They announced they would be taking a long planned family vacation to the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, until this whole protest thing runs its course. “We don’t believe South Dakota actually exists,” the single-bodied, multi-voiced council said. “When you look at a map, it seems like it exists, like it’s just right there when you look at it and it’s between two other identical states, so it would make more sense for it to be there than not. Anyway, this feels like a great time to take the kids to see Mount Rushmore.” As the city council said this, several small childlike heads emerged from the city council’s singular body and screamed in happy unison. Or terrified unison. Mm, it’s hard to get an emotional reading on screams.

The organizer of the protest is 20-year-old Night Vale community college student, Basimah Bishara, whose father Lieutenant Fakir Bishara returned home from the Blood Space War three years ago. Basimah greeted her father’s return with joy, but that joy has since been replaced by confusion and pain. Let’s hear Basimah’s story in her own words.

Basimah: Time no longer works correctly for my father. I understand time does not work correctly for many people in Night Vale, but it had always worked correctly for him before the war. In December 2015, he returned home after 11 years of serving our city, our country, our planet in a war that still makes no sense to me. I was six when he volunteered for service, he was 30. 11 years later when he returned home, I was 17. My father was 19. He did not remember joining in the war nor having a daughter nor meeting his wife. He is a teenager, like I was. I no longer am a teenager, but my father still is. He has stayed 19 years old. Time no longer works correctly for him.

My mother Tahira raised me. She expressed reticence about the band I started, the music we played. She grounded me when my grades slipped and shouted at me when I told her I had a girlfriend. But she came to love Marina and more, my mother came to understand as both as people, as women. Not as rivers to be damned or levied.

My father’s return has been especially hard on her, because she is 45 and her husband is a 19-year-old stranger. You probably know what it’s like to have a father, to have a man much older than you who changed your diapers or watched your diapers being changed. Who taught you to speak or ride a bike, who helped you develop as a human from an animal from a larva from the simplest, squirming wad of meat into an adult. That father will always be a father, not a friend, not an equal, a father. You probably do not know what it’s like to see a father at your age, to talk with your father when he is also barely an adult. To have your father lonely and inquisitive think of you as his only friend in the world, while you look to him for guidance and love. But he is incapable of both, at least not in the way you need to be guided and loved.

It took two years for Fakir to open up about the war and it still makes no sense to him nor me. The Blood Space War requires constant shifts through time, through worm holes to change lost battles into won battles, to undo what has already been undone thousands, millions of times over. The future does not look like a blank page, it looks like a tattered sheet of paper, grayed and frayed from countless transcriptions and erasures of history. Battles are won and then undone through time travel. We lose our lives and then regain them by traveling backwards and fighting again. We are winning the war by perpetuating the war. Last month, the Polonians attacked our earth, I am sure of it. The only evidence is our broken moon. I believe the general undid this attack with time travel and this has changed our reality, changed who was born, who ever lived in the first place. People are disappearing because they will have never existed.

People think we’re crazy for protesting. I’m 20 and my father is still 19. I’m not crazy. My mother Tahira is not crazy. We are angry.

Our next protest is scheduled this afternoon at the corner of Earl and Somerset by the Dog Park near the Ralphs.

Cecil: Not sure what Basimah was referring to. That’s an empty lot by the Ralphs. There was word for a dog park to be built there many years ago, but it never materialized.

[clears throat] Let’s have a look now at local news. Earth sciences professor Simone Rigideau announced today that she is scrapping all text books and lesson plans at the community college in favor of organized prayer to a god named Huntokar. Several students and parents argued against such an extreme divergence from core curriculum in favor of French religious practices, but college president Sarah Sultan supported her staff member by saying: “Cut Simone some slack. She doesn’t even teach classes. She’s a transient who lived in a storage closet inside the earth sciences building for 20 years. The only reason she has the title of professor is because of antiquated squatter’s rights laws.” Rigideau donned rabbit furs and an old bicycle frame wraught into the shape of antlers, and began spray paintin the Fibonacci sequence on the cars in the college parking lot, all the while singing a ballad about clocks.

The intergalactic military headquarters released their first quarter earnings statmenet this week. Investors were displeased to see that each of the board members of the privately own space defense contractor had purchased a 125-foot yachts and NFL franchises. But those fears were quickly allayed by the announcement of layoffs of more than 5,000 employees. Stock prices for the intergalactic military soared to an all time high this afternoon, at 490 dollars a share. Senior strategic advisor Jameson Archibald said the intergalactic military has no actual earned income. 100 per cent of their gross is from venture capital. Archibald said: “Some investors keep asking how we plan to monetize our military, which is a stupid question, man! I mean, look at this Patek Philippe watch I bought. It’s encrusted with 10 pounds of diamonds, and the watch face was made using an actual piece of the Sistine Chapel. We are doing fine.” Archibald added that the intergalactic military is developing an app and a subscription service that allows people to engage in celestial war fare any time they want for only 12,99 a month.

Alright, listeners, I heard back from Basimah, and she said I was right. There is no dog park. Of course I was right. If I knew there was a dog park being built in this town, I would have reported it immediately. Carlos and I have a dog. His name is Aubergine because he’s purple and European, and Auby is adorable and we love him dearly. I mean, I wasn’t into the idea of having to care for a dog, but Carlos strongly urged this case one morning over breakfast when he said, “I think we should get a dog”, and 20 minutes later, we were leaving the SPCA with our adopted pet. [clears throat]

Basimah said she was positive there was a dog park next to the Ralphs, but when she arrived at the corner of Earl and Somerset, it was all empty lots. To be honest, I don’t remember her mentioning a Ralphs before, because I would have corrected her. There’s never been a Ralphs affiliate in Night Vale. This is what Basimah had to say. Um, hang on, let me just insert the tape I used to record her. And there we go.

Basimah: If a person never exists, did they disappear? If you never knew them, can you miss them? My father spends most of his days playing basketball with friends he made at the rec center. He is 19 years old and trying to escape a decade of inescapable drama from warfare. Asked him who my mother was. I grew up with only my uncle Omar and did not know my parents until my father returned from war. Fakir did not remember my mother. He did not remember his marriage or my birth, because it has not happened yet in his timeline. Asked what if mother didn’t exist at all. What if the general’s time traveling has altered our lives so much that my mother was never born and you can never meet her. My father, the teenager said: “If I never met a woman, I do not know I will not miss her. But I’ll meet another woman.” I asked: “What if I was never born?” My dad said: “Basi?” He hid his tears and then he hugged me, but it was not the hug of a father and daughter. It was the hug of a son and mother. He buried his head into my shoulder and sobbed, repeating: “Basi! Basi!” And I comforted his heaving head with my palm. I said: “Father, Fakir. I think I shall no longer exist soon. [voice fades] I think I-

Oh OK, sorry for the dead air, listeners, I was playing a recording of an interview I did. Wait, nope. I just checked, there’s no tape in the player at all. I thought I had been talking with… Ugh. Aah! Who have I been talking to? Maybe it was my husband Carlos reporting on his findings about the damage done to our moon or, mh, or maybe it was nothing at all. [clears throat] Well, let us forget that we forgot, and go now To the weather.

[Shake” by Wednesday’s Wolves https://www.wednesdayswolves.com]

We have an update on the Blood Space War, Night Vale. John Peters says his brother has returned home again. When he left a month ago, James Peters was 22 years old. But he is now in his seventies, which is the age he should be. John held his brother tightly, crying in gratitude and relief that his own family could return to some kind of normalcy. James at first was heartened to see John again, to see his home again, and to learn that he and the general had thwarted the Polonian attack on our planet. But his tearful smile drifted slowly downward, an evening shadow overtaken by night. Upon James’ face now was the sudden knowledge that he had made a grave error. James looked around Night Vale seeing empty lots and homes, abandoned buildings and sparse streets. According to James, thousands of people have gone missing from Night Vale, because they never existed or never moved here in the first place. The general had leapt in time to successfully stop the Polonians from ever reaching Earth, but the change in the timeline caused Night Vale to change too.

Listeners, this may seem strange, but perhaps there are people you once knew, family you once lived with, places you were in, all of which are gone, and without your knowing. I have tried hard to think of any memory of any experience or person I have lost in the last month, but I can think of none. I told James Peters that perhaps the change in timeline did not matter if no one knew what they had lost, if no one noticed any change. James said: “Cecil, I just don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe if we had a scientific perspective on this, we could better understand how this is affecting us as a community.” And I said I didn’t know any scientists, not personally anyway. There’s the strange woman who lives in the storage closet at the community college, I suppose we could ask her.

The important thing is that we are safe, and that another veteran has returned home, and it is another beautiful day in Night Vale.

Stay tuned next for “Conspiring to Love”, our new relationship advice show, which as a lifelong bachelor sounds like something I should check out.

Good night, Night Vale, Good night.

Today’s proverb: “Nothing lasts forever” is a phrase with two meanings, and they’re both true.

#welcome to night vale #wtnv #welcome to night vale transcripts #episode 147 #the protester

104 notes · View notes

dailyaudiobible · 6 years

Text

05/01/2018 DAB Transcript

Judges 13:1-14:20, John 1:29-51, Psalms 102:1-28, Proverbs 14:15-16

Today is the 1st day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It's great to be here with you at the beginning of a shiny sparkly new month. Today is the 121st day of the year. So, we are moving right along. And it's exciting to be here with you today for the next step forward, which will lead us back into the book of Judges in the old testament and then into the gospel of John that we began yesterday when we get to the new testament. We're reading from the Names of God Bible this week. Judges chapter 13 and 14 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the book of Judges we've obviously met a famous character in the Scriptures, Samson. And we're getting going in his story.

And in the book of John, Jesus is calling together a group of friends that will follow him throughout his ministry. We'll later know them as the disciples.

And then we get to Psalm 102. And it is a cry of the heart from a person who is certainly suffering. I mean, the kinds of language that are being used here are likely things that we can relate to at some point or another in our lives. Don't hide your face from me when I'm in trouble. Turn your ear toward me. Answer me quickly when I call. May my days disappear like smoke. My bones burn like hot coals. My heart is beaten down and writhed like grass. I'm nothing but skin and bones because of my loud groans. I'm like a desert owl, like an owl living in the ruins. I lie awake. I'm like a lonely bird on a rooftop. And this person is describing a depressed, hopeless state of being. And I know that there are many within our community who are feeling that way at this point in time. Have we ever stopped to consider Psalm 102 though? Have we ever considered that this was written with us who are reading it now in mind? Because it is. The writer of this psalm certainly pours out their heart. Definitely, lets us know how they're feeling. We can immediately associate those feelings with things that we've gone through. But the whole thing takes a turn once we get to verse 12 - You, O God, remain forever. You are remembered throughout every generation. You will rise and have compassion on Zion because it is time to grant a favor to it. Indeed, the appointed time has come. When we get to verse 18, this will be written down - speaking of this psalm - this will be written down for a future generation so that a people yet to be created may praise God. God looked down from his holy place high above from heaven. He looked at the earth, he heard the groans of the prisoners and set free those who were condemned to death. So, this writer is in a lot of pain emotionally. It's being described for us vividly. But his choice is to turn to worship and look forward. Look forward into the future in order to find hope. What he or she is going through isn't going to last forever and as difficult and as hard as it is to find hope in the situation that's being described in this psalm, the writer looks way, way out into the future, knowing that this isn't going to last forever. And hope is out there. Hope is still available. May we take comfort in that as we move into this new month.

Prayer:

Father, you remain the same. You will never end. From beginning to end, you will be there and beyond. There is always hope. And, yes, a lot of times we get trapped in our own circumstances. In the spinning vortex that is our lives, we get stuck and we can't see our way out. And it seems like we're sinking, sinking, sinking. And we forget to reach with hope to the future, understanding that even what we're going through now affects future generations as we see in this psalm today. So, come Holy Spirit. Bring us hope, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It's home base. It's where you connect and find out what's going on around here. So be sure to check in.

And, like I've been saying, visit the prayer wall and find out other ways to connect. Check out the resources that are available in the shop as we continue our journey through the Scriptures.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. Thank you. We wouldn't be here every day fresh every day if we didn't do this in community together. And it's one of the beautiful things about our community is that we do it together. And we move forward through the Scriptures every single day together. And so much happens. Like even if we look back, here we are in May already. If we just look back, so much, so much has happened in our lives, so much counsel that the Scriptures has given us. It just changes us. So, it's a beautiful thing that we can do this in community. But we must do this in community to continue forward together, so thank you for your partnership. There's a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello DAB family this is Linda from Alberta calling. I hope everybody is having a wonderful day today. Right now, I am on the, kind of, back roads of southern Alberta driving home. I was away for a few days and such a beautiful morning. I was listening to the prayer line and just thought I’d give a quick call in now. And I don’t have really an exact intention as to why I am calling in. I just felt that I needed to call in. My daughter, she still has her, you know, her life of mental health and addiction. And it’s improved immensely since I first started listening several years ago and had the whole family praying for us. On the other hand, my other daughter had her first baby. So, my husband and I are now grandparents and that’s super-duper exciting. She had a baby boy. So, even though at times, I was thinking, things are kind of bittersweet and sometimes I shouldn’t feel as good as I do, but for a few weeks now, I’ve been really feeling like just everything is as it should be. I just feel like so content and at peace. And I just know it’s such a special gift from God. And I know He’s always there and present but I just wanted to share that. And occasionally I wonder about Scott from Alaska. I remember when I first started phoning in, I think he might’ve even prayed for my family, but I haven’t heard from him in a long time and maybe I’ve just missed him. Also, Brian the truck driver, thank you for your message. I just heard it today. Today’s the 28th. I’m a couple of days behind but thank you for that. I really enjoyed what you had to say. And I did want to say God bless everybody. Bye-bye.

Good morning this is Princess Sarah in Tulsa. Today is April 28th and I just love, so much, that I get to pray for you guys from all over the world. And some of you all I’m starting to recognize your voices before you say your name. And, so, that’s just super fun. So, today, I’m just calling on behalf of, I’m going to call the Mr. and Mrs. Smith, because I haven’t asked their permission to talk about them, but they are a young military couple with three little kiddos. And Mr. Smith has done several tours in Iraq and probably has a dose of PTSD. And he’s been a tough guy and he’ll admit that now. And his wife has now kind of hardened her heart. And she’s kind of giving up on their marriage and he is doing their love __. He’s trying to make a go of it and trying to become a better man and I’m not even sure that either one of them really have ever met the Lord. They know about God and believe in God but here is my prayer request. They have the opportunity this summer to go to Operation Heal Our Patriots. They have a week with a go to Alaska and it’s put on by Samaritans Purse and they have fun and the see bears and they, you know, see all sorts of adventures, but they also have lots of counseling and marriage…opportunities to grow their marriage and to forgive and then they can even renew their vows and be baptized. __ is there. I’m just asking that you guys would pray they would go. I think that Mr. Smith is now willing and now Mrs. Smith is kind of vacillating, thinking maybe it’s just too late for them. Would you just pray they go? And also, if you’re a military couple who has had some struggles, man I suggest you get online and apply for this amazing opportunity. It’s all paid for. You just get there and be blessed. And, so, I just look forward to hearing that Mr. and Mrs. Smith take this opportunity…

[Singing] My strength is surely failing. This trial’s come both left and right. And in the center I am lost in being. Not a trace of hope insight. And if tears were only raindrops the universe would be flooding now. Lord, I call You today. Please don’t pass me by. A storm of fear now surrounds me. The failing heart is all I see. Broken dreams with painful memories. Request for help abides in me. Still I know you’re standing near me but I just need your hand in mine. So, Lord I ask You today, please hear my cry. Hold my hand today lest I fall. Guide my steps all the way. Please hear my cry for the tears of life is all I know see. Please walk me through them. That’s all I ask of you [singing ends]. I hope this ministers to somebody today. God bless you.

Hi everyone. It’s Margo from Australia. I was just listening to the community prayer line and I just had to call in. I want to say something to Mark Street, my fellow Aussie from Australia. I heard that it was once mention this already and I perhaps have missed it but you seem quite downtrodden at the moment by that whole incident with the dating site that happened. And, you know, I can understand. It’s an awful thing to happen but you know why that happened don’t you? It’s because you were doing the challenge about calling in for sexual sin. That’s why it happened because Satan went, ‘no way, now I’m gonna get him.’ You know, Satan has had a small victory. Don’t let him turn it into a big victory. I think you should go back to your challenge of calling in for sexual sin. The whole reason Satan did that is because he liked what you were doing. And he will be so happy to see that you are discouraged and downtrodden. That’s what Satan wants. You know what? Put it behind you. Move on. You are no worse than any other human on the face of the earth. We all make mistakes. And you know what? God loves you. We love you. Don’t let Satan have a big victory in your life. Anyway, hope that is encouraging. Hope that everybody has a lovely day. I have been at work and I’m just driving into the evening service at my church. So, off I go. Have a great day everyone. Bye.

Hey DAB family. This is Christy in New York. I’ve been busy with my new puppy, so I haven’t called in from the home because I don’t get to listen to much at home because I’m listening to see if he’s doing something. So, anyways, I’m listening a lot more in the car and I think it was on the April 14th community podcast that there was somebody who called in and I couldn’t really tell what you are saying, but I did catch that you kept saying I love you. And I’m sure there was a lot of people that kept saying, ‘I love you’ back. So, I just want you to know that I love you back. I’m sure that the rest of us at the DAB family love you back to. And we appreciate that your listening and bring along with us. I also wanted to thank Brian because April 16th was my birthday and, although I did listen to that podcast on that day, it was a nice birthday gift anyway to hear the adorable voice of your son answering your questions. So, thank you for that. And I just want to pray right now in general for everybody in the DAB community. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this community. We thank You for the gift of each other, the gift of Yourself offered through these people offering their stories and their time in prayer, to be a part of this community. We thank You for the privilege, we thank You for the chance to do this through Your servant Brian and his family. We ask for You to answer the prayers of all the DABbers, the ones that are on that we can hear and the ones that we can’t hear, the ones that we haven’t even thought of to pray for ourselves, Lord Please, meet all the DABbers needs, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially. And we love You and we thank You. Kristi in New York. Bye.

0 notes