ep19 - within these walls

Someone else knows how to play the ukulele. And it's not Thomas. 

A friend from the world of reflections also says hi, which is always nice. He has a thing or two to tell. 

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https://coldshiftpod.com/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:21

This is Johan. I'm the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department located on the coastal strip in East Antarctica. I'm um signing in for yet another cold shift. Tonight has been well nothing short of bizarre. I mean the strangest thing happened. So tonight I woke up, um as I always do, luckily, to the sound of my uh ukulele being played. It's a nice way to wake up, to be honest, and and it was, you know, my ukulele sounds pretty great. But when my brain left the state of being half awake, half asleep, I thought, wait a minute, you know, who who's playing my ukulele? So I sat up and looked straight into what I first thought was a mirror. Because sitting on the end of my bed playing my ukulele was me. Different clothes, but still very much uh me. Good evening, he said. He said it in Norwegian, but I will retell it translated, you know, in case you great divers from the far future are a team of international researchers, yeah. So anyway, I I replied to myself, uh I said, What? And he told me not to worry, uh that he understood my confusion. You know, he was too once. So I said, Thank you for understanding, but who are you? I am me, he said. Nothing short of exactly that. Which made sense, you know, I am me also. So I gave him a compliment on how well he played the ukulele, uh, because one can be both impressed and confused at the same time. So I told him, you know, I I I still don't understand though, uh are you a copy? No, he said. So I asked him, Are you a robot built by Thomas Grind, you know? Oh no, no, no, he said, I I really hope not. Are you? he asked. Which is a question I I haven't thought about until I asked it or he asked it. And I said, I I also hope not. I said, I mean, I put salt on my food. I don't think a machine would cope with salt, you know. Ingrid sure doesn't. But I am you, he said. But not you you, he said, uh you are you and I am I so I rubbed my eyes for a bit to give myself time to think without looking more confused, and then I said, What? What? So he told me that during an annual subparticle reset the fuse imploded and he hit his head and everything went dark. Later he woke up in the kitchen area. The kitchen area he first mistook for his kitchen area, but the kitchen area he soon realized was very different from the one he was used to. So thinking he was overworked, or you know, perhaps he had hit his head during the subparticle reset, he went to bed. Turns out he said I had been redirected to this place. So I asked him when was this? It's quite a good old time ago, he said. Which is strange, because you know why haven't we met? I I asked him that, why haven't we met? Which is because he he had been hiding, he told me. So asked why did you have to hide? And he said, I reckon you have met Thomas Grind. You you hid from Thomas Grind, I asked him. So he said, Do you know what Thomas would do if he knew I was here? No. I said no, no. Exactly, he said. That is what he did. And now I have a phrase I use in situations just like these, which is what? And then he said, you know, have you noticed any changes around here? What kind of changes? I asked. And as soon as I asked, Thomas knocked on the door. Which is very rare. I could hear it was Thomas because he has a very distinct knock, so to speak. And uh the copy of me uh to duplicate your um or you're gonna duplicate, I don't know. He dropped to the floor, removed the lid from the ventilation underneath my desk, and he he crawled inside it. And he he said, you know, keep your cards close to the chest, he said. And then disappeared just in time for Thomas to open the door and stick his head in my room and have a look around. He said, You should ventilate, he said. I I will, I told him. Then he asked him, he said, I require the particle entanglement entangler. I need your half of the code. So I I told him what the code was, and he didn't even say thank you. He just had another look around the room and left. Didn't even close the door. So I closed the door before checking the ventilation shaft, you know, but it was empty. No sign of of the copy, the duplicate Yaran. Oh Yaran the duplicate. So I thought, you know, was this a dream? But then it struck me because it it all made perfect sense. Was this duplicate version of me? You duplicate Yaran or Yaran the duplicate, is he the culprit in the mystery surrounding the visitor to my room? If it wasn't a dream and I see him again, I will ask. But that doesn't mean I can't solve them. The rest of the night was was weird. Uh my focus was scattered all over the place. It was looking for signs of uh Yaranda Duplicate or duplicate Yaran. I I'll just call them Yaranda Duplicate. I think it clings better. Ooh. Perhaps I could ask him if he wants to make music together with me. I could use a bass player. Oh, that would be fun to be in a band with oneself. You know, would agree on everything. I will do that. Anyway, he didn't show up, and uh I found no signs of him whatsoever. Does he live in a ventilation system? How is that possible? How long has he been up there for? So as I went through the hallway, knocking on the walls to find any caveats, uh you know, is it that caveats? Holes in the wall. When I did that, all of a sudden, Frederick came into view in one of the mirrors. I noticed by him telling me, you missed many spots. And I was I was so happy to see him that he was doing good. Uh you know, at least it looks like he was doing good. And I I would like to give him a hug, but it it's it's a mirror, it would look weird. But I told him, Dude, there is a copy of me behind these walls. I told him. Yeah, there are endless copies of everyone, everywhere, he said. So I looked at him because what what a funny thing to say. Are you somehow connected to the research that went on here during the first part of the war? I asked Frederick. Well, he said, I'm connected to the failures of the research. What failures? I asked. Just one, but that was more than enough, he said. Is that why you live in the mirror? Yes, he said, but it's not that bad. And did it really research time travel? I asked. No, not at all, he said. So I I I dug on, you know. But but block theory, I said, you know, the the past, present, and future exists all at once. I said, you know. Then he sat down, he said, you know, time was never the problem, he said, which is what they all failed to comprehend. He cleared his throat and you know, he's gonna start talking more. And he said, block theory was just the initial catalyst, or catalysator, or whatever. Block theory was just the initial catalyst for the project down here, he said. Its properties are not really that useful. They wanted to prevent the war by locating the exact point in history that sparked the events. They were mostly determinists, quite radical ones too, he said. And nothing happened independently, so by eliminating free will from any equation, morality was just another construct they could deny. What did they do to you? I asked. He said, you know, I'm just a facility manager, he said. So I interrupted him and I said, Hey, I am too. We both are, he said. Which isn't always a good thing. But I was eager, and you know, I started to things were afoot, so I asked, but but but but the sphere, I said, you know, Joshua had a lot of notes on the sphere. Do you know what it is? Not particularly he said, but the researchers called it residue. But they ignored it, being too blinded by the results. So why did it appear? I asked. Well, because tapping into the constraints of reality is it's like smashing a gingerbread house with a hammer, then trying to rebuild it just as it was. Do this over and over and over and over, and the gingerbread house will begin to look quite funky, he said. And there will be lots of crumbs left, I said. I love gingerbread. Frederick does too, he told me that I love gingerbread, he said. So we sat there just thinking about gingerbread for a while. But I I continued, you know. So I said, but according to Joshua, I said the sphere was growing. Why did it grow? I asked. Well, because they never stopped smashing the house, Frederick said. But the sphere just appeared recently, I said, you know, there are no researchers here now. Well that's not entirely true, Frederick said. Thomas is a researcher. Joshua was a researcher, and who knows what's behind a red door. Which was another thing I had wanted to discuss with Frederick, you know, I tried before. So I asked, what do you know about the red door? Then Frederick got this shadow across his face. Well, there was a time when I tried to figure that out for myself, Frederick said. I should have left it alone. But it's so strange, I said, you know, when I first met Thomas, the the red door was wide open, I said. Which should have left you in a perpetual state of fear, Frederick said. Am I safe? I asked. If you do your job, you might be. Will you stay here for a bit? I asked Frederick. I'm quite alone these days, I said. Yeah, I will, Frederick said. Oh also the duplicate is a cool dude too. And after that I had to complete my work for the night, and we said goodbye for now. And thinking back on the night that was, I'm I'm not sure what kind of part I am in what kind of machinery, you know. Is it a good machinery? Or or is it a city stomp world-ending brute? Anyways, I'm I have two new friends, as it turns out, which is nice. Also, when fixing the door on the shed in the pantry, I noticed a hatch in the floor. And under it, I found a box. In the box, sealed in airtight bags, fresh coffee. I mean, it might snow every day down here, but Christmas came twice this year. So I cleaned the coffee maker, I brewed a fresh pot, knocked on Thomas Gaines' door and gave him a cup, and he actually smiled for the first time in a long time and shook my hand. And two of the bags I reserved for Chef George and Alexander Voss on board Emma Swalbach. And uh, you know, it's it's just amazing how much light something so dark can bring. Man, I love coffee. And I love my ukulele. I'm currently I'm currently writing another song these days too, so if you'll indulge me, oh great divers from the past, present, and and future, and I will give you a little taste of it. Okay? Here it goes.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

I wonder what roses smells like Will I ever know? I'm wondering if rain feels cold, will they let me go?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I wish I could get a hold on you to keep you out of fire, out of fire, yeah, and hide you here with me.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Something along those lines. And I will ask the the copy version, Jan, the duplicate, if he wants to join too. That would be fun, but I'm I'm enjoying it anyways. With fresh coffee kicks in, you know, creativity flows, man. Still doesn't keep me from getting tired. It's been a long day, a weird day. So I think um I think that's it for now. I think I'll tune out as uh as it were. So yeah. This is your