From Passerine

Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

"Breaker breaker. This is Passerine calling back to Whiskey. You got the name right. I caught your response a little late, honestly just pure luck that I went to check my radio. I couldn't believe it when I heard you reading out my message. Felt a bit like a dream.

As someone who's lost people, I know how much apologies mean little. So, I'll just say I get it. For me, I recently lost a family member, and we were going through their clothes, trying to figure out what to keep and what to give away. It's amazing how much of someone you can find in their clothes, the colours they picked out, the brands they stick to. My person, she loved colour and animals. She volunteered with a whole bunch of different organisations and kept the polo shirts from each one. It was wonderful. And it hurt like hell, because I'd see a jacket I remembered her wearing, and I realised she'd never wear it again. She'd never add another patch to her jacket covered in all the places she'd went. And thinking about losing her just makes me think of all the people you stand to lose in life. Made me terrified about all the clothes and possessions I was going to have to go through in my life, all the memories I was going to have to fold and put into a box, like it was that easy,

To cut my ramble short, I understand you. And you are always welcome to respond in this way. The darkness is never as warm as you think it will be.

You mentioned not knowing things about me, and well, like you, I'm a little cautious about letting big details slip. But, I'm happy to make a little trade, to keep things fair.

My favourite colour is blue, specifically the way the ocean looks from a cliff on the beach on a sunny day. I once nearly concussed myself when ice-skating. In just two weeks, I'm upending my whole life and heading off into the unknown. Not a bad unknown, but just a different one. Maybe I'll be able to give you an update on that later. I love the sound of rain, and the waves, the scratch of a pencil when you're writing a story. I'm a writer, which is my only excuse for how long this message will probably be. My hair is short, and no one can agree on whether it's dark blonde or brown.

That's all I can think of for now. Thank you for your promise, I'm holding you to it. And I'll keep up my end over here. No more sinking into dark corners for me.

By the way, a passerine is actually a category of birds, passerines make up over half of all bird species. Big bird fan over here, but I also picked it as my name because it's the title of a song that wasn't yet released in your timeline.

This has been Passerine, out for now."

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To Kentucky.

Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

You know, I've heard a lot of really strange things listening into this radio. Funny things, sad things, scary things. When you open up your frequency to not only the rest of the world, but Every possible version of that world, well, you know, you're gonna hear some stuff. But I have to say, this bit about Kentucky, Delaware, these states moving... As you drive across the country and not moving with any kind of pattern, but just being in a different place than it was the last time you drove there, I, that is up there in terms of the strangest. I'm not sure I can say that I believe you. It feels rude to say that I don't, but like I said, I hear a lot of really crazy things on these airwaves. And usually you can tell, you know, if somebody's a total crackpot and you've sounded sober. But if you're not, if this is not just highway hypnosis, but Something helped along by some substance that you've taken or are maybe taking regularly? Um, well, you know, just let me know where you're getting it because sounds pretty cool to me.

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A message from Kentucky

Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Hey there, Whiskey. Oh, a while ago my partner sent you a message that said, I still don't know where Kentucky is, and, well, you'll be glad to know, but we finally found it. It's beside Delaware. Let me start over. I've been driving these roads since before I was even tall enough to reach the pedals on my dad's big rig, so I knew where Kentucky was supposed to be. I knew where all the states were supposed to be. That they just aren't there anymore. I mean, they're still there, as in they still exist, but they're not where they're supposed to be. It's like... Someone picked up the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and shoved them all back in different spots.

Kentucky was the first one we noticed. I was driving south out of Ohio, and as soon as we crossed the border, What should have been the border between Ohio and Kentucky. We found ourselves instead in Tennessee. Now, I chalked it up to a particularly dramatic case of highway hypnosis, or Up to the fact that the drive through Kentucky is just that unmemorable. But then it kept happening. I'd be going north out of Missouri and find myself in South Dakota. I'd head east out of Utah. And end up in Oregon. South from Michigan? I ended up in Maine. Making a map of the changes was pretty much useless, since the landscape seemed to keep shifting. Now, some things stayed consistent. Oklahoma stayed attached to Kansas, although maybe a little too attached. Took two weeks of driving in every direction before we finally got out.

California's still along the coast, and I guess the locals won't give up the beach for anything. I admit in half of Michigan never seems to move, but the Upper Peninsula wanders from time to time. Last month I found it in the middle of Montana. Don't. Asked me how I could tell the difference. And Nebraska? Well, I don't think anybody would notice if Nebraska moved anyway. So we're left to just wander the country, I guess. Kinda like you. Try to keep to a route and track where things are moving. See if there's any pattern. My better half is a knack for these kinds of things, but so far even they're stumped. So we just have to celebrate the small victories, I guess. This is a pretty good one. This morning, we finally found Kentucky. Like I said, it's beside Delaware. Problem is that now we have no idea where the fuck Delaware is.

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To Breaker Rum.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Breaker Breaker, this is Whiskey calling out for Breaker Rum. I do see what you did there. Sorry if I, uh, didn't totally read your message right. I think, well, there was some static in the Morse code and... I'm not entirely sure I got everything right. But if you're from England, how the hell did you get here? Unless were you here before?

I mean... I guess I'm assuming that you're here because it sounds like you think that the dog that I saw along the highway was your dog, but if that were the case, surely I would have found you in all my looking.

It's kind of you to see me as tanned and gorgeous and happy and I guess I'm happy more than I'm not. Happy being relative. To, you know, everything else. I think, on the whole, I am as happy as I can be. Dogs would make me happier, definitely, but barring that, everything else that would ease my life, bring me joy, those things are a little farther out of reach and a lot out of my control, so.

If you really do think that the dog I saw was your dog, well, I don't know, should I come back to Kansas, try to find you? And your now three dogs? Seems kind of fruitless, but what else am I gonna do? Either way, I- I'm happy. I'm happy that you found your dog. And that you got some more. I hope the four of you are very happy together.

And I, I don't know what you meant about the Birdie stuff. I'm, honestly, I think I'm choosing to ignore it, um, because, well, there could be a lot of people out there, um, named Birdie and you spelled it differently in any case. Yeah, I'm just gonna assume that this whole thing is a weird coincidence, um, so that I don't go crazy trying to chase ghosts, uh, again, because... I, well, I've had enough of that.

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A message from Breaker Rum.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Oh my God Whiskey thank you so much...I found my dog because of you. I swear I couldn't survive without him...I'm disabled and he does so much for me then one day he ran after a car - one car in 2 years and Brandy hates the bloke in it on sight and...I wanna go back to England...see if it's the same there...at least I know which berries are safe...mind you my crappy driving isn't an issue here. I only got your messages occasionally and really really staticky but suddenly the radio thing switched itself on loud like you were shouting about The Dog With Purpose and I knew...I knew...and now I can feel I'm living not just surviving especially as Brandy returned to me with 2 youngsters I swear are half wolf....so I'm protected right? Thing is you did something wrong. I didn't. Why do I get the wonky spine and extra pounds and you..you know...took a life and you get to be...I see you as tanned and gorgeous and happy and...but hey I have dogs so I'm the winner yes?

Tell Birdy I'm out here. Please. He knows why.

I don't know how you do your funny names call me Breaker Rum. See what I did there?

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To Persephone.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

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If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Hey, Persephone. Um, yeah, sorry I think you missed me by quite a bit. I haven't been in L.A. for almost a year. Is that right? Jesus. More than. God, more than a year. Time really flies when you're driving around the country aimlessly. Time really crawls when you're still trying to navigate a relationship with somebody that you have to make work because they're the only other person in the world.

That's not fair. I want to make it work. I, I, I do. I just. I still don't know what to do. I still don't know how to build a future. I don't know if I should be like you and keep searching for answers, keep searching for other people, or if I should just cut my losses, be grateful for what I have, and settle down. Maybe it's not about having a plan. Maybe it's just about finding little moments that you can...We, um, we found a working jukebox the other day in an old diner and spent, like, an hour and a half playing every song we could and just dancing. And it was, it felt so good, you know, to hold Harry in my arms like that. To watch her laugh. To hear her sing. To get to spin her around in the middle of a diner. A place I never would have been able to do that. Yeah.

But it was also bittersweet because you know, the places where I would have taken her dancing, we had friends there, community, and...I've danced with lots of women at those places, but never someone that I really loved. And I really want to. Um, but, um, yeah, I'm not, I'm not in LA anymore. Um, but if, if you are, um, and you're looking for a working jukebox, there is one in Los Feliz at the, um, oh, that, the, the pie place, um, on Vermont. Yeah, I, so if you... If you're still there and that jukebox is working, tell me because I don't know, maybe that'll be a sign of something. Maybe that'll mean that we can actually find each other or maybe it just means that that jukebox works in every universe. Um, but. Either way, let me know.

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A message from Persephone.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Hey Whiskey, this is Pershephone, callin out again on day 42. Since the radio static went silent a couple days ago I think I have even less of a chance of making contact with you. I'm not even getting residual transmissions anymore, which is... Definitely not a confidence booster. I'm still in the city, trying to match your location and send something through, but the probability of you still being here is getting slimmer by the day. The last I heard you were planning on leaving LA, so... Not great. Still no contact with anyone else, verbal or otherwise. I might move on soon, keep the search going. So if you, or literally anything else wants to say hi? Send me a sign. Okay. Signing off.

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Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

(breathless) Hi Herm, uh, it's, it's me again. Well, I just wanted to get on the horn and say that, you know, I was thinking about what you said about feeling like a kid when you complain and you know, how I was missing feeling like a kid in any sense and so anyway, um, Harry and I, we, we found some, some sleds at a sporting goods store. And we went sledding. And I can't remember the last time that I just let myself go sailing down a hill without a care in the world and- and no matter the consequence. It was...it was freeing. It was fun. I don't think I've ever seen Harry laugh like that. I don't think I've ever laughed like that. So thank you, Herm, for inspiring me, however inadvertently. And I hope...I hope you find something that makes you feel like a kid in a good way.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Hi, Scarlet. God, this is trippy. I guess I'm talking to Red, too, because. Well, I don't know what you all can hear of what I'm hearing, but, Red, if you can hear me. A person? Well, a person that sounded just like you reached out and says their name is Scarlet, or that's a pseudonym that they chose because of you. Well, now I don't know who I'm talking to. Two different versions of the same person speaking to me from two distinct universes. Both universes sound tough. And lonely. But universes in which the two of you have taken very different paths, had very different lives and experiences. 

I think about her all the time. The other me. Well, all of the other me's. What are they doing? What lives are they living? In how many universes are they already dead? In how many universes are there accompanying Harry's keeping all of those Whiskey's company. In how many universes are those Harry's driving all of those Whiskeys completely insane and vice versa? 

I shouldn't say that. Things have been a little better lately. The arguments fewer and farther between, but...I don't know. Now we're at the point where things are just aimless. We settled into a rhythm. For a while there, you know, in Pennsylvania. And then obviously the year I was gone...well. That was aimless in its own way, but the driving without a destination in mind was kind of the point. But I don't- I don't think we're ready to settle back down. 

But we need to do something. We can't just keep moving from place to place without any destination in mind or without any purpose. Harry really needs a purpose and we've gotten good at the staying alive bit that that's not going to keep her occupied for long. I'm not going to keep her occupied for long, I- 

How do you keep a brain active when you only hear one voice? Scarlet, you said that you've only been hearing your own voice for the last seven years, and I can't even imagine what that's like. Just having Harry to talk to - just one other person to talk to - it's not that we've...I haven't gotten sick of her. I worry sometimes that I'm not interesting enough for her, but. I don't know. 

Even with what we are to each other now, with what we're trying to be to each other, that hunger to find more people...it's still there. I think she feels it too. She doesn't want to admit it because she doesn't want to admit that she spent seven years cooped up in that house with me, begging me not to leave for nothing, but... 

We can't change the past as much as we might want to. And there's no way of knowing who else might be out there. I'm really glad, Scarlet, to have broken the silence for you, to have brought color into the life of your counterpart and I don't know, maybe brightened some other sense of some other you somewhere, but is that enough? Don't you want to find someone? Have you tried looking--? Sorry. Bad choice of words. I just mean...are you certain that you're alone? 

Because we weren't. Junior and Donnie have been out there this whole time and...I've tried- I've tried reaching out to Birdie again. I even called out for Fox a few times. You may have heard it. I don't know, but having some kind of guidance, having some kind of direction to go in, it was...well, it was really frustrating, but it was also helpful. And Birdie, they said something had changed, that they couldn't see the path clearly any more, that the timeline we were in was different than the timeline we started in and I-- 

Nothing's different. Nothing is different and I don't know if I'm terrified of finding out what's changed or if I'm dying to know. 

What would you do, Scarlet? If you could change your world, press a button saying that things would be different, but you didn't know in which direction, would you do it? Or would you choose to keep things the same even if it's not quite enough? It's still safe. Would that be better?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.

If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.

If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.

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[TRANSCRIPT]

Hello, Whiskey. My voice might sound somewhat familiar. And I suppose it is, but at the same time… it really isn’t. You received a message from someone calling themselves ‘Red’, and that’s… there’s no other way to say it, but that’s MY voice. I would know it anywhere. It’s all I’ve heard for these past seven years, except for your transmissions, and the occasional stray advert on the airwaves. And when I first heard it, I honestly thought I was going crazy. Thought maybe I’d sent a transmission without even realizing it. It… wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. I mean I do talk to myself, so that’s probably a sign of something, right? But then… this… Red, this other version of me, she started talking about white walls, and painting them, and colour, and rainbows, and that… Well, that made it clear that it wasn’t me. Not unless I’d gone completely crazy. 

See… (laughs) ’See’… I’ve never seen the walls in this place. I’ve never seen the walls in any place. I don’t know what shade of green money is. I don’t know what the sun looks like. I can tell you what the heat of it feels like on my skin, or the smell of a five-dollar bill, and I know every single bump and dent and bit of texture on the walls of my home… but I’ve never seen them. I’ve never seen any of them. I’ve been blind my entire life. Or… at least as long as I can remember. I won’t get into the… medical details, it’s not like I was in a position to understand them at the time. An infection, a bad fever, that’s all I really know. I certainly don’t envy my parents for what they went through, let’s just put it that way.

So… you couldn’t bring colour back into my life, though I appreciate the sentiment. There’s just never been any there to begin with. I know some people do get lucky – such as that luck is - get to see shapes, or shadows, or pinholes of vision… I wasn’t lucky, I guess. Story of my life.

But I am lucky to be here, I suppose. Beats the alternative. And wherever Red is, it sounds like she’s somewhere similar. And… probably pretty lonely. I know that feeling well. The… desolation, the hopelessness. The silence. So… thank you for breaking the silence, at least, Whiskey. I’m very grateful for that.

And Red… if you’re out there, somewhere, able to hear this… I don’t even know how you would reach out, or how I would hear it, or if that would… destroy time and space or something, but just… I’m here. I’m here if you need someone. I’ve… become very well-versed in talking to myself. You’re… you used a pseudonym for a reason, and I suppose I should follow suit. Don’t want them tracking me down, after all of this. So… if anyone wants to reach out, whether it’s Whiskey, or Red, or… some other alternate version of me… you can call me Scarlet.

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