Lunatics Library 2 - Medusa Stories

Welcome to the second episode of Lunatics Library! These companion episodes will feature short stories that go with our historic deep dives. In this episode Miranda Warzel, Adam Bashian & Laura Sudduth read Medusa themed stories to you.

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If you want to write for us or submit stories you've already written: email filmsaboutlunatics@gmail.com or DM @thelunaticsproject on Instagram.

If you're a voice actor with a microphone set up and want to read for us, get in touch! 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 0:17

Hello and welcome to the lunatics radio hour podcast. I'm Abby[inaudible] I'm here with Alan could Kadin hello. And this is episode number two of lunatics library. We have three Medusa themed, short voice acted stories for you guys. For those of you who are just joining us, lunatics library goes with our longer historic deep dives, right? So earlier this week, we had an episode on the history of the Medusa lunatics library, accompanies those episodes as a chance to showcase some short fiction that we've written that you've written and that we can have our friends voice act and kind of give a little bit more space to these themes. So this has Medusa week, and this is the story episode. So if you haven't gone back and listened to the history of Medusa, please do that next. I like when you said Medusa week, it's like shark week, but with Gorgons yeah, it's Gorgon. It's Corgan week here at Lynch X radio hour. So yeah, I'm really excited about these stories as always, but we have Adam Bashin of dark interiors who voice acted. One of the stories. He is a Broadway actor, as well as his girlfriend, Laura Sudduth, who is also a very acclaimed Broadway actor. And we have a friend of the pod Miranda, Warsaw, who is a brilliant voice actor reading a short poem to kick things off for us. I got to say, I'm, I'm very excited for these stories. Yeah, me too. And I'm really excited because you wrote one, which is very good. I did. And you know, I, so obviously I have heard this story before, right? We, we were there when it was recorded and Oh, it's good. Yeah, it's good. We got, we got very good voice actors coming at you today. So why don't we jump right into it? Kick things off with Miranda, RSL, reading a poem that I wrote on Medusa. This one's a little lighthearted. If you will, just to, to wet your Medusa whistle. Okay. Consider considerate wind. Well, you have to wait and wait for the poem. Everyone loves a Medusa poem to just kind of easy into the day. I agree. I think so too. I think that's right from the Bible.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Okay.

Speaker 3: 2:42

6:00 AM her hair snakes sing time for the day to began. She stretches tall. Her serpents, wiggle nip her ear. She lets out a giggle. The sun shines bright outside the cave. Her snakes shrink back scared and grave. Fear, not it's only the sun frightful Medusa declares towards the source. She starts to run leaving behind their humble layer. Her powerful legs pound the ground somehow without emitting a single sound muscles ripple wings expand moments later above the land. She sees her prey, serpents scream, Medusa dives, deep, a familiar regime, but Whoa, what's this not a deer, but a man she realized too late plummeting too fast to break. What's he doing in this exile place? Forbidden land unfamiliar face don't turn don't look. She mentally pleads yearning for a friend, the warmth, the touch on someone to depend a millisecond of dreams and hopes crushed and gone as the man turns to GOC and immediately turns to pure solid

Speaker 2: 4:30

Well, consider my Medusa whistle wet. Yeah. What'd you think? It's great. It's so cute. Ah, yes it is. And as always Miranda wardell@alien.me on Instagram. Follow her for a lot of fun vegan recipes and the bedtime stories. I just, I love that the imagery of it's like a Disney princess with all, I prefer a little friends except she's just got her little, you know, a little hair, a little noodle friends on her hair, a little noodles. Yeah. And it's just like, Oh, you see little snakes. Don't be afraid. It's okay. Yeah. And that's she turns someone a rock. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, that's what you do. Yeah. You just, you know, being, being a Gorgon. Exactly. Hashtag hashtag Grogan things. All right. So next up we have Adam Bashi and of dark interiors. Remember from a few episodes ago, we interviewed Adam and also Adam and Laura very recently on a Sunday auction of darken terriers, which is, if you aren't aware, they sell antiques curiosities oddities, but they did an auction a lot recently that went to charity. And so all the proceeds from the auction lot went to charity. They're supporting the Southern poverty law center. And so if you are interested in learning a little bit about that, maybe making a donation, if you're able to, we just wanted to use this platform to amplify the work that they're doing to help support the Southern poverty law center. If you would like to check it out, please click the link below. Yeah. Yep. Great point, Alan. We will leave link in the episode description.

Speaker 1: 5:58

So now Adam Bashin reads a story that I wrote very modern take on Medusa. If you will.

Speaker 4: 6:20

The vibrations from the subway, rattled up my feet and through my joints. As I rode the train towards work, I held the cold metal pole in front of me avoiding the inevitable accidental eye contact with other commuters. When the announcer started to speak, I slid my hand into my jacket pocket and turned down the volume of my music. Just enough to hear attention riders due to police activity. This train is being held in the tunnel. I repeat due to police activity. This train is being held. Thank you for your patience. I said under my breath, the adrenaline from the situation was waking up. My groggy brain I'd be late for work again. The other travelers went back to their headphones and books. Quiet returned to the train car. Acceptance passed through all of us. We'd be late for work. The minutes ticked on the unrest started to grow in my throat. The panic of being trapped inside a slim metal train car, packed with people and no way out there was nothing I could do to urge the train forward. No escape, hatch, no easy exit. I tried to calm my brain deciding to pull up a meditation instead of the metal music, but no service. Great don't panic. People started to shift uncomfortably. One rider who was standing sat down right on the dirty subway car ground. I thought of how much sticky spilled coffee and dried spit mucus line. That floor. I stayed standing. The conductor's voice echoed again through the car. Everybody dropped an earbud to listen. Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the delay. We know you all have places to be. There was a train stuck up ahead. I repeat the train up ahead is experiencing mechanical failure. Sit tight. The travelers around me erupted into frustrated, moans mechanical failure. Didn't sound good if only we'd been stalled at a station, but no, we were stuck frozen in the tunnel between 28th and 23rd street. Less than a stop for my destination. My mind wandered. Wondering how hard it would be to sneak off the train and walk to the station. Impossible. I knew, but I was so close to freedom. the MTA. I muttered to myself, the blue haired girl. Next to me overheard. Seriously, she returned. How many fare raises does it take to fix a mechanical problem? I smiled and nodded suddenly a terrible noise filled my ears. It sounded like metal crunching into metal. My first thought was they must be towing the train up ahead. Out of the way, ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm. As we look into what's going on up ahead. What the? I thought don't they know vibration started to shoot up from the subway cars floor again, but this time we weren't moving my feet shook. I grip the pole tighter, the lights flickered in the car. The other commuter started to panic. Headphones were pulled out of ears. A few people stood trying to see out of the windows. As the lights turned off again, I saw something move through the cars long window judging by the screams. Others had seen it too. I didn't know what it was. It was shadowy and dark, but I instantly knew that the train ahead had installed that something had stopped it and now it was here. Now it was outside our train car. The lights died again. This time they didn't flicker back on, there was movement outside the window on the other side of the train and then the sound of rattling and hissing. It filled my ears so violently. I immediately threw my hands over them trying to block out the terrible noise, but it was no good. The sound penetrated my eardrums as if a thousand snakes lived inside my brain. I looked to the left. As one of the car doors was slowly being pried open. What was outside the people closest to the door, starts to scream and scamper away, tripping over the other commuters. As everyone pushed away from the opening door, people cramped, densely into the two opposite ends of the car, creating a hole in the middle with a bang, the door slammed open for a second. There was nothing. And then purple-ish smoke started to fill the car from all sides of the opening. Snakes started to slither in terrified, screams erupted from the passengers. People were cloying to get away from the snakes, trying to pry open the other windows and escape. The suicide proof windows didn't open wide enough. We were stuck. The snakes kept coming 10 20. It was hard to tell how many there were the hissing sounds unbearable. The purple smoke had made it impossible to see, like we were all just in a nightmare. And then she entered the snakes recoiled and we saw in horrified clarity that they were attached to her head. They were part of her, the snakes sprouted from her, right where her hair should have been. They EBD and changed size and shape acting as her fluid Scouts in arms. They arched upwards slithering into the air, around her in all directions, making her look so much bigger than she was. If it hadn't been for the terrifying mob of serpents across her crown, she wouldn't have been so scary, small, but muscular her skin, a faded green, she almost would have looked sickly. If her cheeks weren't flushed with color. She turned her head and looked right at me. I felt her eyes pierced my soul and the eyes of every single creature on her head scanned me looking, not at me, but through me right into core, I felt like I was being electrocuted by her gaze. And then she looked on filling me with temporary relief until I tried to look to move to do anything that was frozen, but not like the train of the tunnel. I was stone, pure stone. I couldn't even see my body to confirm, but judging by the other souls in front of me slowly turning into statues before my eyes, the girl with the blue hair looked at me, horror in her eyes. As she transformed into solid rock, I can see her out of the corner of my eye. And I know her stare will be locked in me for as long as we remain, our minds are alive. Maybe not even our minds, but our souls, something some spark of life is still active within us, resulting in excruciating agony, a never ending purgatory, a never ending retelling of this story. This moment, over and over again. As the passengers turned into rock Medusa's skin grew brighter. Her stance taller her serpent hair longer, the hiss louder. She fed off our flesh strengthening her terror. She swept off the train car, leaving us here in darkness alone, but together buried alive in the tombs of our own bodies. Would they ever come to clear the train or did she get the whole city preserving our final terrified seconds of corporeal life as she slithered back to whatever hellscape from, which she crawled out.

Speaker 2: 13:36

It's always an honor to have very talented voice actors read your work and to have Miranda and Adam read one in one episode is very fun for me. Uh, this story in particular, which I think is so interesting because I know for a fact that you just like wrote it on a whim really fast. And I think it is one of your best. Thank you. The atmosphere,[inaudible] all these things just kind of clicked together. I think you've come really far as a writer. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, some days you're just in a dark mood, you know, you can just turn, you can just crank it out. I mean, compare that story. What are you going to say? A story that I wrote that you don't like with one of the very early ones, you know, there's just so much more palpable atmosphere, you know, and I also love that you didn't get like bogged down with like, how the did we get here? Nope. You're just on a subway car and Medusa shows up. If you would like help save me from Allen's harsh critiques, you can submit stories for linen Tech's library. Email me at films about, and@gmail.com or message me at the linen text project on Instagram in all seriousness. Thank you very much on that really means a lot. Um, it also is so wonderful hearing professional voice actors who bring these stories to life. Yes. And speaking of well, before we jumped to the next thing. Yes. Your story reminded me of something that I haven't thought about for quite some time. Okay. Are you familiar with the game called legendary? No, I don't think so. So it's a game where you, I don't know if like you're an archeologist or something, but it takes place in New York city. Cool. And you go to the museum of natural history and I don't know if you're supposed to steal it or if you're there and you just open it, but you open this artifact and guess what it was Pandora's box of. And then all these Greek monsters, uh, and mythological beasts start flying out. And then they're all over in New York city and you've got to, you've got to deal with it. And so you get these situations like on a subway car getting like attacked by like hypocrites. Is it modern time or is it like in the forties? Modern. Cool. That sounds fun. Yeah. What platform is it on? It? Uh, it is like two generations ago. So, uh, X-Box three 60 and PS three bummer. Why do you have that? I have all of those. I don't know. I just know I have a PS4. Well, okay, cool. That's a great recommendation. That sounds very fun. I didn't play, I didn't play much of it. Cause like, uh, a friend had it. Got it, got it. But uh, it, I remember it being very fun. Cool. That's awesome. All right. Big finale story. Now it's not the big finale. It's the finale because Alan wrote this one and whenever Alan writes a story, it is rare, but it is golden. And this one is no exception. This one is very good. So without further ado, the final story

Speaker 1: 16:59

Tell stowed written down, read by Laura Sutton.

Speaker 5: 18:08

Marcos ran excitedly with the other hunters. They'd been stocking the enormous bear for hours. And even though it was almost night to the end of the hunt loomed near the bear put up quite the fight and Giles was going to have a large scar on his arm from when he got too close. But now their prey was on the run it's arrow and spear riddled body was leaving a bloody trail through the forest. The flesh of the bear would mean survival for the village. So they rushed deeper and deeper into the woods. The trail of blood led to the mouth of a large cave. Marcos could tell that there was something familiar about this cave, but he couldn't place it. He, the others stared into the abyss, but the dark cave was silent. It seems that the bear had finally succumb to its wounds, not taking any chances. Marco struck a torch and hurled into the darkness. Firelight bounced around the rock walls. And then what they thought was the back of the caverns started to move two huge blood red eyes gleamed from the Torchlight and began to rise to nearly the lofty stone ceiling. Marco stumbled back as the mountain of dirty black first stepped forward from the depths, a towering black Wolf hound with burning eyes and leathery bat like ears held aloft, the bear carcass in its great jaws. Marcus wanted to flee. He wanted to run all the way back to the village and lock himself in his small home, but that he knew he and the others would not get away. And he now knew why the cave seemed familiar. They had blended into the den of the infamous bar guessed. They had all been told for boating tales of the great Hellhounds since they were children, none of them expected to become part of these foreboding tails themselves without a word, Marcus dropped his spear and ran. All of the hunters did the same. Maybe if they scattered, at least one would make it back home. They fled through the dense forest and could hear the mighty bar guest barking and crashing through the trees. Marcos ran blindly. All that mattered was to get away through his terror. He barely registered that he was suddenly in the air. Marcos crashed down hard onto the dry and sunken river bed. His vision began to dissolve as he lay on his back as his world faded to black. The last thing he saw were two burning red eyes looming high above him. Marcos, Marcos, are you out there? He blinked awake. Marcus could hear familiar voices in the distance. It took him a second to acknowledge that he was still alive. As his eyes adjusted to the searing daylight. He gave out an involuntary yell right above him was the snarling jaw of the bar, guest Marcos flailed, and rolled to the side as he prepared to Dodge an attack. But that was when he noticed it. Wasn't moving. In fact, the whole beast seemed to have been turned to stone. The others arrived. Then as Marcus continued to backpedal from the inanimate Hellhounds sculpture, Marcos, think the gods you're alive, cried Sophia. As she threw her arms around him. When the others returned to the village, we feared the worst. The rest of the search party eyed, the large stone beast Dorian. One of the village elders pushed his way through the group. Did you see it happen? Marcus realized he was being asked a question. Huh? Did you see the beast change? Boy, do you know how they're turning to stone? The old man pressed? I, I stammered Marco says he sat back down to collect himself. I'm not sure we were all running of the beast was so close. Then I think I fell from the ledge. I remember it being on top. Me and then I don't know the old man scoffed and turned to the petrified monster. First, the troll. And now the bar guest Marcos turned to Sophia. What's he talking about? This is not the first monster to be found, turned to stone, replied Sophia just last night. One of the shepherds noticed that the sheep were up very on edge and wouldn't go near the tree line and he grabbed a few of the village warriors and went to investigate, hoping to scare off the wolves or whatever was lurking. Just past the tree line. They found the largest troll any had seen it wasn't until the spear flew and shattered that they realized it was made of stone. The village all went to sea in some thought it was an elaborate prank, but how could it be if the trolls massive rock fists, clenched trees still rooted to the around Dorian took a long breath. No, the bar guest, this is very dark and powerful magic. We can only hope that whatever is hunting. These beasts is satisfied with staying in the woods. Should it attack the village? I'm not sure what we could do to stop it. Marcus took one last look at the petrified Wolf found as they all headed back in for the next few days. No one ventured far from the village. Okay. Or afraid of what was lurking in the woods before long though, the terror of the forest came right to their door. Marcos right outside. When he heard the old bell from the Watchtower, one of the village guards was ringing the old dented bell while frantically pointing towards the trees. The alarm proved unnecessary though, as the unmistakable sound of trees being broken and torn from the earth, permeated the entire village, Marcus grabbed his spear and headed out with the other hunters to defend his home. He helped form a line at the edge of the village and stared hard into the woods in the distance. They could see trees falling and hear them rending. The sound was getting closer. Whatever was coming was approaching very fast and its head burst forth from the trees followed by an endless serpentine body. A great black snake plowed through the open field between the trees and the village. It's jagged black armored body snapping away, rooted trees like try twigs. The first volley of arrows and Spears fluid, the creature most fell short or harmlessly bounced off it's armored reptilian hide a few brave warriors, ran forth from the line to try to stop the charging. Serpent. Marcos was tempted to join them. When he heard the voice of old man Dorian yelling behind them fools, he screamed. That's a basle IX. Could you not get close? But his voice was lost in the battle. The first of the warriors was about to plunge his spear into the spiked head of the serpent. When the beast immediately stopped short, a second set of eyelids flicked, open revealing dazzling, Emerald eyes that looked onto the warrior. The man faltered, but not from fear. His feet could not move. He glanced down in horror. As his body was slowly being turned to rock. He made one last effort to throw his spear into the curse at Emerald eyes. But his fingers petrified never to open again. The Basler opened its large spiked mall revealing row. After row of dagger like teeth, the beast snapped at the man shattering his brittle body to dust Marcos gripped his spear tighter. What good would it be against such a monster yet? He watched as more warriors ran forth arrows and Spears rained down on the serpent that bounced off like pebbles. The village hunters had also taken to the field and tried to surround the Leviathan. More Spears flew, trying to find a in the armored hide. But then the second eyelids again, flicked open Marcus watched in terror as the piercing, Emerald gaze swept across his friends. Some yelled with rage, some screamed with fear, but all fell silent as their throats stiffened to rock Marcos fell to his knees. This was the end of his people. He was so lost in hopelessness that he almost didn't notice the hooded figure fly from the woods. The cloaked shadow moved like a race. And in second stood directly in front of the mighty basilisk the monster roared and flicked open its eyelids, the Emerald gaze bore straight through the figure, another sculpture for the killing field. But then the cloaked figure began to laugh. Apparently impervious to the petrifying glare. That's cute said a woman's voice with the charm of acid, but mine's better. She threw back her hood revealing a writhing mass of snakes. Marcos could not see her face, but instinctually did not want to. The basle is locked eyes with the snake haired woman end in an instant. The massive serpentine Leviathan was flash frozen into stone. The woman casually put the hood back up. They had been warned, her caustic voice singed the air, these lands and everything in them are from my hunting alone. The village looked on in stunned silence as the woman dragged a finger along her latest sculpture and sauntered back into the woods.[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 28:35

I have to say you, when you write stories, you really go all in, in a way that I usually do not. And I appreciate that about you. This one is very good. I really loved it. Well, thank you. Yeah, it was definitely. So this was a first time experience for me writing something and then hearing such a talented professional, bringing it to life. Yeah. Which was such an incredible experience. Truly. It is. It really is. I can relate to that a lot, but yeah, Laura did an amazing, amazing job and really took it off the page. You know? So if you know, if any of you at home want to hear your work brought to life by professional voice actors just, well, she'll tell you what to do. Email film, spelling checks@gmail.com or DM me at the lunatics project on Instagram. Thank you. One thing that was really fun about writing this story was I just blended a bunch of different mythos, right? I didn't want to be, uh, too rooted in Greek mythology. Cause it was kind of blend in some jammers already. Sure. I don't know if you could pick up the three different mythologies. Oh, come on. You can do it all. Okay. Greek mythology w obviously, cause you got Medusa. Norse mythology. Yeah. Cause the troll Caltech mythology and the bar guests. Good job. Thank you. I mean, those are probably the three mythologies that I know. So although Bassel list, where's the basket list from. Wow. Yeah. I just Googled it just because not knowing anything about the history of the basil Lisk and it just says it's from Europe, Beastie Aries. You're a Beastie Aries. Sorry, European Beastie Aries. You're a PNP stories. Yeah. And like I'm looking at pictures of like a traditional basilisk. Yeah. Uh, and it, it looks like an aardvark with, uh, uh, like a parrot beak and a little top hat. It has a top hat. Yeah. Um, maybe that's not what that's supposed to be, but that's what it looks like. And it's fun. Um, regardless, it was a lot of fun writing the story and hearing Laura, uh, just work. Her magic was such an honor. Totally. Yeah. I it's the, the most fun and rewarding part. One of the things is having voice actors read stuff that we've read. Anyway. Thank you guys so much for listening as always our doors open for featuring work for collaborations, get in touch with us, our doors open because we still do everything remotely because social distinct protocols are still. So yeah. Thank you guys so much for listening. We really appreciate it. If you have any ideas about what these, what these story episodes can be called beyond the lunatics library, let us know if you love lunatics library, let us know. We're just, we're in a malleable phase right now. You know, we're looking for any and all feedback and participation. We'll be back next week with another historic deep dive. But until then, thanks for listening and we'll see you next time. Bye. Hi.