TNT Opening theme begins

Leanne:

Wasting Company Time presents Tell No Tales, Episode Twenty-Four: We Suffer as One

TNT Opening theme ends

[SFX: Recording Begins]

[SFX: Classical music playing]

[SFX: Tape pulling and bandages being applied]

Leo:

(WHISPERED) Oh my god.

Julia:

Okay, you’re set. I’m not a doctor but my recommendation is… a metric fuckton of germolene and change the bandages regularly?

Riley:

How many Kilograms are there in a metrick fuckton?

Leo:

(WHISPERED) Holy crap. What the hell?

Julia:

Uhhh, more than in a shit ton but less than a fuckload? You good over there Leo?

Leo:

Huh?

[SFX: Mouse clicks, then headphones removed]

Oh, yeah, Riley, how’s the shoulder?

Riley:

Bandaged. Julia does not have a healer’s hands

Julia:

Even I can’t be good at everything. I come close though. What’s with the wide-eyed panic and the holy craps? The recorder pick up something good?

Leo:

It picked up… Something for sure. Good might be a stretch. Horrifying might be more accurate.

Riley:

More horrors! That’s what we need! Do press play, Leo, let’s hear these lovely horrors.

Julia:

Shush, Leo, ignore them, I’m actually interested in whatever horrific thing you found with your recorder.

Leo:

Yeah, well, whether you’re being sarcastic or not, I don’t think we’ve got a choice but to listen to it. Here. So this is where I asked that thing who it was, or. What it was. I don’t know exactly, I haven’t had time to splice the two recordings together but… Listen.

[SFX: Mouse clicks, classical music stops playing. Mouse clicks again to signal recording playback]

Multiple Voices (on recording):

(OVERLAPPING, QUIETLY THROUGHOUT) We suffer as one. We suffer as one. We suffer as one.

Voice Two:

What are we?

Voice One:

(OVERLAPPING) I don’t remember. How do I not remember?

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) We are all of us, we are each other.

Voice One:

(OVERLAPPING) Who I am, who I was, I should remember, shouldn’t I?

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) Raise your voice at us again, kid, try it. Try me.

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) Stay back, please, some of us are so angry.

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) I’m not me any more, I’m us. We’re a we.

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) See what I can do. We’ve had everything taken from us. Everything. But we have this at least.

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) Some of us want to hurt you just because you’re someone to hurt. Someone they can hurt.

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) We aren’t a who any more though, you got that right, we’re a what.

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) We are strong now. We can tear you limb from fucking limb.

Voice One:

(OVERLAPPING) I haven’t been me for so long.

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) Please, run

[SFX: Mouse clicks]

Riley:

Sorry, but… What the fuck?

Julia:

Seconded.

Leo:

Exactly.

Julia:

So it’s… I mean it’s hard to pick out one voice but that’s… That’s a ton of spirits, right?

Riley:

A metric fuckton, you might say.

Leo:

Yeah. They’re all definitely spirits, or we would have heard this without the recorder.

Julia:

So… Oh shit, this is… This could mean… This is unheard of, Leo. This is new discovery territory. The implications! The spirits… they’re… what, amalgamated in some way? And that, somehow makes them visible. Which is… Groundbreaking in itself. It implies that the essence of a spirit, its visibility as much as its tactility is influenced by its compactness. It would make sense, spinning out from the theory behind how we capture the spirits with the stasis capsules but the idea that this could be transferred to visibility wasn’t even… I’d have been laughed out of the university just for hypothesising…

Leo:

Julia, Julia. Look as much as I love to see you soliloquise about science — and believe me, I do love to see it—

Riley:

Wow, adrenaline makes them bold, I see.

Leo:

Despite that, I think you should hear the rest before you get too excited. I don’t know if you remember, but the next thing I asked them was how we could see them, why they looked like…

Riley:

Like a giant monster that wanted to eat us alive?

Leo:

Yeah. That.

[SFX: Mouse clicks]

Multiple Voices (on recording):

(OVERLAPPING, QUIETLY THROUGHOUT) We suffer as one. We suffer as one. We suffer as one.

Voice One:

You ask us how we look like this…

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) This isn’t what I look like.

Voice One:

(OVERLAPPING) Try asking him how you can see us at all.

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) It’s what we look like.

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) It doesn’t matter how we look, what matters is we’re strong now.

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) Stop looking at me, please, stop it stop it, stop it!

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) I’ve got to be in here somewhere, surely?

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) Together we have form. We can tear this world apart.

Voice Two:

(OVERLAPPING) There’s got to be some me left to separate, hasn’t there?

Voice Four:

(OVERLAPPING) Why should we look pretty doing it?

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) I’m disgusting we’re disgusting hideous disgusting.

Voice One:

(OVERLAPPING) We didn’t ask to be seen, we didn’t ask to become this.

Voice Three:

(OVERLAPPING) Look away look away before I do it for you.

Multiple Voices:

(MOSTLY IN UNISON, THOUGH OCCASIONALLY SLIGHTLY OUT OF SYNC) We’re an abomination. We should never have looked like this. I don’t know where I end and the others begin. It aches, this hold, this bind. Like skin stretched taut over a skeleton too big, too wrong. Patchwork. A puzzle that doesn’t fit.

[SFX: Mouse clicks]

Julia:

Yikes.

Leo:

Yeah, yikes about covers it.

Riley:

Patchwork. A puzzle that doesn’t fit… Do you reckon Frank was forcing them together somehow? Is that what he was doing in those labs?

Leo:

That’s my best guess, but why?

Julia:

Who knows why that fucker does anything.

Leo:

(QUIETLY) We could. If we let him explain.

Riley:

Could we though? I mean who’s to say he’ll tell the truth?

Julia:

He wouldn’t tell the truth, why would he? He’d spin some lie and give us an NDA to sign, some shady pay-off to go start new lives somewhere else if we’re lucky.

Leo:

I think we’re way past NDAs. Whatever Frank’s doing in those labs, in those workrooms, with those files… It goes beyond a few fucked up experiments. You’re forgetting I asked the… amalgamation thing one last question.

Julia:

You asked it what it was doing in the lab, what Frank had to do with all this?

Riley:

Yeah, and whatever the answer was pissed it off no end.

Leo:

Yep. Pissed off might be the understatement of the century. Here.

[SFX: Mouse clicks]

Multiple Voices (on recording):

(OVERLAPPING, QUIETLY THROUGHOUT) We suffer as one. We suffer as one. We suffer as one.

Multiple Voices:

(MOSTLY IN UNISON, THOUGH OCCASIONALLY SLIGHTLY OUT OF SYNC) Frank? Frank Williamson, the thing who calls himself Frank. What do you see? A man? Maybe, once. Maybe to your eyes. Your pair of two living eyes. Limited by their number, by the plane they exist in. We see all of him. Every last inch. An abomination, just like us. A prettier abomination. More controlled. But a disgusting patchwork monster just like the one he turned us into. Maybe we’ll rip him apart too when we’re done with you.

[SFX: Mouse clicks, then again and classical music resumes]

Leo:

So. Yeah. There’s that.

Julia:

An abomination just like us.

Riley:

There’s that word again. Patchwork. Like the spirits being bound together but, how can that relate to Frank?

Julia:

I don’t know, disgusting monster sounds about right if I’m being honest.

Leo:

But he can’t be anything other than… human, can he? He’s… I mean he’s physical. He speaks to us, he runs a company, he’s shady, yes, he’s doing some messed up stuff in the name of profit and maybe now, science, but he’s… I’ve known him seven years, when Noah died he… He’s got to be a person, right?

Riley:

Ghosts can be people too, Leo. You know that better than anyone.

Leo:

Yes but… You know it’s completely impossible, don’t you? Ghosts can’t… He’s alive. He has a heartbeat. He… asks me how my day is and he intimidates people with eye contact and he— he held me. About six years ago, right here at this desk, when I got the call that my brother had died, he held me, he comforted me, he let me cry in his arms. ghosts can’t do those things, he’s alive.

Julia:

I would… normally agree. That it’s impossible. But that amalgamation we saw tonight should have been impossible too. And they were saying that Frank is like them.

Riley:

It would explain the photo too.

Leo:

The photo.

Julia:

Shit. Yes. I’m not sure how yet but it’s got to be linked. The photo of Frank, looking exactly the same age from that article in the 1970s.

Riley:

Frank’s a ghost.

Julia:

Frank might actually be a ghost

Leo:

Frank is not a bloody ghost!

Frank:

As heartwarming as it is to hear you defend me so voraciously, Leonardo, unfortunately, your friends are in the right here. Though I like to think I’m a little more than just a ghost.

Leo:

Christ’s sake Frank do you ever just think about making some noise when you approach?!

Riley:

(MUTTERED) How very ghost-like.

Leo:

Shut up! Frank. Explain yourself.

Frank:

No need to get so riled up. I promised that I would. I intend to. Patience is a virtue, Leonardo.

Leo:

I am so, completely, fresh out of patience. And how many times do I have to tell you Leonardo is not my name! It’s just Leo! It isn’t short for anything!

Julia:

Didn’t you choose your name because Leonardo DaVinci is like, your hero?

Leo:

Yes but I didn’t actually officially change it to Leonardo, it’s just Le- jesus christ this is so not the point, Frank, care to explain?

Frank:

Happy to. We’ll go next door, into my office. Just you and I, Leonardo, one on one. I want to do this properly. An interview. Like the other spirits you’ve interviewed.

Leo:

(WEAKLY) other spirits.

Julia:

Not a chance.

Riley:

Yeah, you really think we’re going to just let you take Leo into a private room alone right now? After everything? You’ll fucking kill them, you… you…

Julia:

Cuck!

Riley:

Yeah!

Frank:

(LONG PAUSE) Mx. Matkins I don’t think you really have the authority to let me do anything. But I do appreciate this camaraderie. From both of you. Your protectiveness. Okay, I’ll play. Three questions. You get three questions to determine whether I’m (CHUCKLES) permitted to tell my tale to our trusted interviewer here.

Leo:

Does the trusted interviewer not get a say here?

Riley and Julia:

No.

Julia:

Okay so first question. What do you do with the spirits in the warehouse?

Riley:

Oh, we’re not even conferring? Sure.

Frank:

Many are just stored, for now. Some I use in my experiments. Inter-planar physics research. Drug trials, that sort of thing.

Julia:

Drug trials?

Frank:

Mostly though, I consume them.

Riley:

You what.

Frank:

Is that your second question?

Riley:

Obviously not, you unbelievable twat.

Frank:

(CHUCKLES)

Riley:

Okay, okay. Second question. This photo. From 1975. It says it’s of Edward Whitley. But it’s you, right? You’re Edward Whitley?

Frank:

What an apallingly tedious question. I’m no more or less Edward Whitley than I am Frank Williamson. Try again.

Riley:

Try agai- It won’t count as our third question, will it?

Frank:

(CHUCKLES) No. And neither will that, since I’m feeling generous.

Riley:

Okay. Okay. (UNDER BREATH) dickhead. Try again. You’re not… Right. Right, so, who are you, really, then?

Frank:

Better. My name was Richard Whitley. The youngest son of Montgomery and Marianne Whitley. I was born on the 13th of November, 1903.

Leo:

For the love of god, say sike right now.

Frank:

I beg your pardon?

Riley:

Leo, you can’t quote memes at someone who’s over a century old.

Leo:

Still processing that, thanks.

Julia:

Wait, okay, so you’re a hundred and eighteen years old. So when… No, no okay. How did—

Leo:

Wait. Julia, stop.

Julia:

But-

Leo:

No. If these questions are supposed to determine whether or not I’m comfortable going into Frank’s office alone with him to interview him, then I get to ask this next one.

Riley:

That’s… fair actually.

Julia:

(GROANS) Okay. Okay, yeah, it’s fair. Just… If you do go off to interview him I’m sending you off with a list, okay?

Frank:

As I’ve said, I do plan to be fairly comprehensive in my explanation.

Riley:

I’m sure Frank thinks incredibly highly of his own storytelling prowess.

Frank:

I am much too old for modesty, after all.

Leo:

Christ’s sake— Frank. Back at the warehouse, you told me you weren’t done with me. Something about us being… Valuable to each other. What does that mean, what could I possibly have to offer you?

Frank:

Oh, come now, Leonardo. You might be younger than me by a good long while, but you are certainly too old for modesty yourself. You have plenty to offer. You are intelligent. Inquisitive. You managed to build a device that no academic in a century of inter-planar physics research has even come close to building.

Leo:

Yeah, for lack of funding, not for lack of—

Frank:

I refuse to allow you to downplay your achievements. If nothing else it offends me, as the person who is currently in need of your help. I am exceptionally bright. What need could I ever have of your help if you were anything less than exceptionally bright yourself?

Leo:

Which you still haven’t explained—

Frank:

The spirit plane is crumbling, Leonardo. Does that pique your interest?

Leo:

Sorry, what?

Frank:

That marks your final question, I’m afraid. Though I will tell you this. It is exactly as dire as it sounds. As a resident of that plane myself, I’m sure you understand it is a particular concern of mine. And I know you care too deeply about certain spirits to allow this to progress further. So. We are tied up in this together whether we like it or not. Are you willing to hear more?

Leo:

Guys…

Julia:

No.

[SFX: RoManTiC fabric rustle]

Leo, no. Come on, you know this is a bad decision.

Leo:

God, Julia, one day, do me a favour and hold my hand when I’m not on the verge of a breakdown? Because this is like the third time this has happened now and someday I’d like to actually be able to enjoy it.

Julia:

Walk away with me right now and I swear I’ll never stop.

Leo:

(PAINED) I can’t. I’ve got to hear him out. And you’ll literally just be on the other side of this door, what harm could he actually do to me, even if he wanted to?

Riley:

Leo, how do you know you can trust him?

Frank:

Because as I’ve already mentioned, we still need each others’ help. That puts Leonardo here in a very unique position of power that they do not often find themselves in. That, and, well. They said it themselves in their oh so lovely defense of my humanity. They know me. I might have done some things you do not approve of, some things most men are too weak to do, but Leonardo is sensible enough to know I’m still human. Human enough to grieve with them in their darkest moment.

Leo:

I… I don’t know about all that, honestly. But Riley, I’ve got to. You really willing to just walk away right now with no answers?

Riley:

No but…

Leo:

Then this is what we’ve got to do.

[SFX: Door opens]

Leo:

After you, Frank.

[SFX: Recording Ends]

Closing theme begins

Leanne:

Episode Twenty-Four of Tell No Tales, We Suffer as One, was written and performed by Leanne Egan. You also heard the voices of Shannon Kelly as Julia, Phil Thompson as Riley, and Asher Amor-Train as Frank. With additional ghost voices by Lauren Keller, Asher Amor-Train, and Josie Thomas. If you enjoyed this episode, the best way to support the show is to spread the word. Leaving us a rating and review in your listening app of choice is a huge help, or you can follow us on Twitter or Tumblr @tellnotalespod

Links and information about transcripts can be found in the show notes. Tell No Tales is distributed by Wasting Company Time Productions, under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share-alike 4.0 international license. Thank you for listening, and remember: the dead don’t bite.

Closing theme ends