Jack Allison nodded at what he thought were all the appropriate times, head bobbing like a dinghy touched by light waves. His mind cast adrift as his producer droned on.

“If you look at our growth here—”

“The graph shows that—”

His producer had gone to the trouble of crafting a survey for the fans of Jack’s show, a survey to which a vast majority of his fan base had completed, letting their thoughts and suggestions be known in an official capacity for the first time.

Deep down Jack knew that he owed them a little more, a lot of effort had gone into acquiring the data before him after all, so he decided to throw in some encouraging and periodic uh-huh’s and mhhm’s in-between nods of agreement as his producer continued to divulge his findings.

“And here are some of the things fans would like to see in the future.” Jack’s producer said and Jack suddenly came back to himself, no longer adrift.

He didn’t know why but he was suddenly struck with the feeling that it was very important to hear and understand what his producer had to say. Jack focused on the screen shared window populated with data.

“One viewer would like to see more positivity on the show, Jack” Said his producer as he scrolled down the list. “This one would like to see more structured bits, and this one would like you to…” His producer trailed off and Jack could see the confusion in his face from the video chat window. “Wake...up?”

“What?” said Jack.

“It just says, wake up. I’m sorry I don’t remember this being here before, I grabbed the data this morning and- holy shit there’s thousands of them!” Jack could hear his producer spin the scroll wheel on his mouse and sure enough, on-screen countless messages scrolled passed, all saying the words WAKE UP or WAKE UP JACK

“Wake up?” Said Jack. “Wake up from what?” Jack suddenly felt queasy, light-headed. He mumbled some excuse to his producer and stood up shakily from his computer chair.

Once he got himself steady, he attempted to take his first step. Big mistake. Within seconds he found himself falling, falling for what seemed a time longer than it ought.

When the carpet came up to meet him, he winced bracing for impact, only there was no impact. He passed through the carpet as if it were air, and kept falling this time through a bottomless darkness, a ceaseless void. His throat scraped shrieks the only thing to keep him company as he fell through cold space. He fell for what seemed like years until he spotted something at what must have been the bottom. It started as a pinprick at first and then grew until he could make out what it was.

A bed, his bed. Three bodies were bundled under covers, one he recognized as his partner Cait, the other their dog, Kenny. And the last must be him he thought.

Before Jack knew it he had hit the bed, his entire body jolted with an impact decades in the making, every bone in his body no doubt shattered to pieces.

He lifted his head and cried out in pain. Only it didn’t sound like him.

At once Cait was at his side picking him up...picking him up? That wasn’t right, how could they do that?

But they were showering him with kisses and affection and he couldn’t think. “Oh there there my little Jackie-poo, were you having a bad dream?” Cait crooned, face inches from his.

“Kenny!” Cait got the attention of who Jack suddenly realized with horror, was Cait’s wife. *“Jackie had a bad dream” *

“Aww, poor thing,” said Kenny Allison half-asleep *“Come here little dumpling” *and Jack felt himself being carried over to Kenny’s side of the bed. Jack protested, kicking and flailing his tiny little legs, shouting his horror in a language that only dogs could understand. “NO! THIS ISN'T RIGHT! IM A MAN! IM A MAAAAAAAAAAN!”

Topics discussed on today’s episode include: Lin Manuel Lame, Hunters’s Anonymous Art Auction, Van Notes and Jack The Vote.

Airdate: 06/18/21 - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1060016934