ep06 - hot chocolate brandy and the devil

A visitor visits. A shadow lurks. Is it the devil, crawling up MS Svalbard, or is it just a dream? Let's hear what Joshua has to say. 

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SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey there, this is Jalan. I'm the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department, located on the coastal strip in East Antarctica. I'm signing in for yet another cold shift. So Joshua came by today, and not in a way that would be of any service to fashion. Like he wore an overcoat made from Grig. Now Grig was a grizzly bear that Joshua grew up with, who who sadly passed away at the ripe old age of 53. It is kind of beautiful, I think, because even after Grig's passing, uh the grizzly bear is still looking out for Joshua, protecting him in a way. Also, Joshua wore this orange hat, he had huge goggles on, leather mittens and boots you could crush a tank with. He's a true beast of a man. Very cool. But uh to the untrained eye though, he might look a bit rugged and like he hasn't washed his clothes in a decade or himself for that matter, but fear not, because who needs to wash when you have sub-zero temperatures? Am I right? And that's a little trick for you there because wool is best washed in a heap of snow. Anyways, Joshua came by and knocked six times on my window before I realized it wasn't a part of the beat from my drum machine. You see, I've uh I've been experimenting with the recording some music. I mean why not? Now I was thrilled to have Joshua over. It's it's certainly been a while, so I invited him in for a cup of coffee and asked Ingrid to make us one. I swear she makes the best coffee around these parts. I mean, if there had been frequent visitors here, we probably would have opened up a diner and we would call it what makes you arc tick. Anyway, Joshua didn't really say anything for a little while and neither did I. We just sat there warming our hands on the mug, looking into the air, listening to old fans spinning. Sometimes it sounds as if they are cheering. But it's it's a soothing ambience, it really is. But when he finally spoke through a beard the size of an elk, he uh he asked me how I had been. I told him I've I've been fine, thank you, and we did that whole dance back and forth, how are you, how am I, good, fine, thank you, all of that. And when he finally came down to business, he told me that for many days now and many nights he had uh seen through his binoculars uh this this sleek figure standing by the facility, unmoved by the blizzard and unbothered by the cold, just standing there. At one point Joshua told me he had begun to worry that something had happened to me as I would never let anybody stay outside when I could invite them in, you know, but what if Joshua told me I had suffered a stroke? At least I'd have my to-do lists in order, right? But yeah, it's nice of Joshua to worry. And he decided, Joshua told me, to go investigate. Now, he didn't like the sight of the sleek figure standing by the front door, given that no ordinary man would survive conditions of such spite. So he walked up to the north end of the facility, which is the other end, really, if you think about it, but every end is north, but yeah. The point is he did it unnoticed. Joshua is a stealthy boy, let me tell you. Once for my birthday, he prepared a festive meal for me without me noticing. I even went into the kitchen to make a sandwich without noticing. So, stealthy boy indeed. So, yeah, Joshua told me, here I am. I took a sip of my coffee when reality kicked in at the same time as the caffeine did. Does that mean, I asked Joshua, that the sleek figure is outside the front door as we speak. Joshua seemed pretty cool about the fact and said, yes, we should assume so, Joshua said. So I got up from my favorite coffee chair and I started walking towards the entrance hall, but Joshua said, Stop, and he came after me. You don't know what's behind the door, he said. I think I do, I told Joshua. I think it might be Thomas Grind, I told Joshua, the the overseer. Which is when I saw fear in Joshua's eyes. So I asked him, What's wrong? And he asked me to repeat the name. So I did, Thomas Grind, I repeated. I I think he's been here before, I said, because I saw footsteps outside the door a few weeks ago and I I should have let him in, but I didn't. And the fear was real, I could see it render completely in Joshua's green eyes. So I obviously asked, Did you know who Thomas Grind is? And Joshua said one word, he said the uh okay, Joshua said two words. He said the devil. So we went quietly back to our respective chairs and sat down again. I asked Ingrid if she could make us a cup of hot chocolate instead and perhaps pour a sip of brandy into each. I think what makes you Arctic should also be a bar as Ingrid pours the perfect amount of brandy into hot chocolate. She really does. Now I wonder if there is a reality in which chocolate is the predominant life force. And in that world are hot chocolate models. Anyways, we sat there sipping our hot chocolate brandy for a while when I came back to the topic at hand. The devil? I asked Joshua. Then he took a sip of his brandy and he looked me straight into the eyes and uh started to tell me about the overseer. Now grind, Joshua told me, first appeared to me in a dream. Okay, and let me just point something out there before I continue that for those who haven't gone camping in below freezing temperatures, the brain loves it. You know, as long as all of your vital organs are safe and warm, the brain loves to cool down. And in the cold, I mean, let me tell you, the brain will dance across many nebula. It will swim in the deepest oceans, it will laugh and cry and truly live for a millennia before waking you up to a new morning. You know? Just a bit of context to Joshua's story here, okay? So yeah, and in that dream, Joshua told me, Grind came into my tent. He wore a suit and a and a striped tie, he had yellow teeth and sunken black dead eyes, Joshua told me. So I asked him, you know, how how do you know it was Thomas Grind? Well because Joshua told me. He told me, Joshua told me. Joshua continued by telling me that as he sat there in his tent with Thomas Grind, the oversteer staring at him with his dead, sunken black eyes, not more than two words were spoken. Du gehst, he said. At first I brushed it off as a dream, Joshua told me, you know, nightmares are common. But one day as I sat fishing from the port side of MS Svalbach, Joshua began to tell me. But then I interrupted him, I must confess, I interrupted him by asking if he had met Alexander Voss, you know, the captain on board M. Svalbach. And I have, Joshua told me. He's a very nice man, Joshua told me. But I had to know, you know, is he okay? I asked Joshua. Because I'm a bit worried, you know, in the blizzard and all, but Joshua said, Don't you worry, he's in his absolute prime, okay? Which was very good to hear. I was relieved, so I said, I'm sorry, Joshua, sorry for interrupting. Please go on with your story. Now Joshua continued his story and told me that when he said fishing, he noticed a figure in the blizzard. And suddenly Joshua told me the figure started to crawl up the side of the ship, and as it came above the railing and onto the deck, I noticed, Joshua told me, that it was the same figure from my dreams. It had the same sunken eyes, the same yellow teeth, same smoked suit and the same striped tie. Joshua then took another sip of the hot chocolate brandy and I did the same. Then Joshua proclaimed that this is the best hot chocolate brandy I have ever had. And I I 100% agree, it really is the best. Now, Joshua went on with his story and told me that when Thomas Grin stood on deck with him, he was looking at me, Joshua said, intensely as if trying to spot a bacteria on my skin, you know, just properly looking, he said. Well so what did you do? I asked Joshua, you know. Well I panicked, of course, Joshua said. And um then I started to run. And as I was running, Joshua told me, I got really warm. Warm unlike anything I've ever felt, not like warm in a summer day, warm when when summers still were a thing, but it felt as if I was on fire, so I started to undress and panic, and because the deep earth anomaly department was closer than my tent, I I ran toward it, and as I came to the door I I must have blacked out because that's pretty much all I remember from from being there. Wait a minute, I said, so the footsteps outside the door they they were yours? I asked Joshua. At first I thought it was yet another dream, Joshua told me. That was until you told me about the footsteps. They weren't grins, Joshua told me. They were mine. But I I don't understand I said it, because there were no footsteps leading away from the facility. Now, just like me, Joshua had no idea how that had happened. All I know he said is that I woke up in my tent with hypothermia and spent three days in and out of consciousness, then another three days absolutely terrified, because I heard footsteps just outside the entrance of my tent, and I swear it was the sound of hoofs and sneering. And at first I really thought it was the fever playing tricks on me, Joshua said, but now I know it was the devil. And after that we just sat for a bit drinking our hot chocolate brandy. There were no more knocks on the door after that, but I I insisted that Joshua would stay for a few days. It it was, after all, my time to worry, you know. So yeah, Joshua has been staying here for a bit. It's been really great. I I offered him the labs so he could work on his faster than light uh travel project. An offer that he happily accepted, and he's been in the labs uh ever since, tinkering along with this project, humming away on some tunes. And I even had to ask Ingrid to ease down on the hot chocolate brandy a little bit because as tough as Joshua is, he's still a human being with a human being liver. You know? So yeah, and I and I know Jaran, the duplicate, has been helping him out in the lab too, but I I think Joshua is way ahead of the curve intelligence-wise, for either of us to be of any real use, you know. As much as we love helping out a friend, holding screwdrivers all day, it gets a bit boring. So yeah, things are nice at the moment. I I try not to think about Thomas Gaind all that much. I mean, if he really is the devil and out to harm us, I think he would be able to come inside and do his damage without having to knock. You know, perhaps he is just strange and overly polite. You know, perhaps he has difficulties with socializing, or perhaps he really is the devil, but we'll figure it out in due time. There's no need to rush anything here in the Arctic, time stands still, you know. So why rush it? I haven't been idle though, you know. I've been uh tinkering myself. Uh as I think I already told you, I'm recording a few songs on my ukulele and my drum machine. It's been a great way to relax my mind when I have some time off, and the plan is to have at least one song ready for the solar flare radiation celebration, which I don't think I told you about. Did I? I don't think I did. Anyway, let me tell you about it. The the the solar flare radiation celebration is a celebration I began planning just after meeting with the tiny alien entities. They fill my head with all sorts of information and also information about their sun and how their sun is connected to all the suns in the same cluster of galaxies by this type of radiation, unknown to us human, but there's a connection by quantum entanglement. So the suns are nourishing each other and looking out for one another. And this checkup, so to speak, happens once a year, and it's the tiny alien entities' big annual celebration. And they go nuts over it every year, let me tell you. You know, they they go wild. And uh I also feel a bit responsible for their presence here on earth, and that way being away from home when their solar flare radiation celebration takes place, so I decided to throw on myself in honor of their greatness. I already started to slow cook my infamous papaya stew, and Ingrid is busy deep cleaning the facility, and Jaran the duplicate, is preparing a speech. And I've seen him scribble away in his little red notebook, so I look forward to hearing what he is planning to say. And I hope Joshua will attend as well. He he didn't reply with words, but when I told him about Ingrid's famous hot chocolate brandy, he gave me a nod. Which I think is Joshua's way of saying I'm in. I really can't wait. It will be a shindig of cosmic proportions. I can feel it. Like Howard the Duke famously said, we shall melt the caps and flood the world with our glee. Not sure about the context of that, but it works, you know. So yeah, good things ahead. I have a lot to do, a lot to plan, and uh in order to plan it properly, I need uh good days of rest. So I'm gonna tuck in. The day is about to start, so uh I'm gonna have a good rest and uh log off for now. So yeah, this is Jaran. Signing off yet another cold shift.