| “ | I hear every city’s got a place like Oldtown, and Hyperion City is no different. Oldtown was terminal – infected by so much crime and poverty that Hyperion decided long ago the only thing to be done was to keep it comfortable until it passed quietly. | ” |
—Juno Steel
Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 1) is the seventh episode of the first season of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released June 7, 2016.
Overview[]
They thought they’d gotten away with it. They were just kids when it happened. Juno Steel, Sasha Wire, and Mick Mercury – they were just kids when they did it. It was supposed to be a game, the kind kids play when there are no adults around to talk to… when there’s nobody around to tell them just how deadly their little game could be.
Trigger Warnings[]
- Alcohol
- Death and violence
- Gore
- Deception and gaslighting
- Sudden loud noises
- Claustrophobic spaces
- Past trauma
- Natural disasters
Episode Summary[]
Juno Steel is taking a day off to visit Oldtown (where he grew up as a child) to have drinks with his childhood friend Mick Mercury. Rita calls in to report that the owner of a Martian artifact, Samantha Cartwright, has died and the apartment of a local ancient Martian researcher, Dr. Lillian Strauss, has burnt down. She also reports that the largest sandstorm of the century is about to hit Oldtown.
Juno meets Mick at the Pour n' Floor bar, where Mick shows enthusiasm at how well Juno must be doing to own a car. Mick offers to buy all the drinks—much to Juno's surprise, as Mick never buys. The two reminisce about visiting the Pour n' Floor together as children (the drinking age having only recently been raised in the area from 8 to 18) until the third member of their childhood trio Sasha Wire arrives at the bar, having received a tip to come there for personal reasons. Juno becomes suspicious that they've been brought together for nefarious purposes, until Mick finally tells them he had won an hour of free drinks. The bartender then fires on them from a gun hidden in his mouth: he is actually a mechanical puppet. Mick is grazed by a bullet while taking cover. As the trio discuss how to escape, an emergency siren sounds to announce the sandstorm Rita mentioned has begun, putting Oldtown into lockdown. The childhood friends bicker anxiously, revealing that it's the 25th anniversary of the death of Sasha's sister Annie Wire. When they begin to recall some of the mean pranks they played on Annie as children, the bartender plays a recording of their voices plotting to make Annie drink a disgusting concoction they'd created called "The Skinner's Supreme." Juno reluctantly drinks it when he notices a glass of it, concluding the bartender will not resume shooting if he does. The others join him, gagging over the taste, and Sasha reflects that this day has started just like the day Annie died.
The three decide to go to a nearby observation deck in the hope of getting a strong enough comms signal to request help exiting the lockdown area. They are disturbed to realize it is on top of Faust's Funworld, a defunct playplace built by Andrew Faust, an arms dealers turned "philanthropist", several decades ago with the intention of giving Oldtown children a safe place to play. Though Juno remarks that "Funworld got kids off the streets. It was less wet and a lot easier to sell drugs indoors anyway." The trio have mixed memories of the place: while they had many good times there, it was also a popular place to sell drugs, and they remember children panicking or even having mental breakdowns inside the tube maze. There were persistent rumors of children having died inside, and Mick fears that an awful smell in the building is that of decomposing bodies, which Juno denies. While they work their way through the maze, they are attacked by someone piercing through the tunnels, and Mick is stabbed in the leg. Juno shoots the attacker and calms Mick while Sasha gives him a medical (possibly tetanus) shot.
Sasha finally gets through to her mentor, Agent Burgess, who reveals the storm is too deadly for backup to arrive. A recording of Annie intercepts the call, wishing them luck on their trials and implying that Sasha used to scare Annie by grabbing her inside the tubes when they were kids, at least once resulting in a sprained ankle. Annie then remarks the tubes "are like a nightmare, a nightmare I've been in for a whole 25 years. Alone, alone until today!" She invites them to play at the factory, where she says they killed her.
The trio have no desire to do this, all three terrified by the thought and almost certain that doing so will result in a trap. Instead, Juno announces that there's one route even a lockdown doesn't close: the sewers. As the episode closes, he gives a monologue to the listeners about being plagued with nightmares of mistakes and guilt, mostly over people who died because he wasn't "good enough." He calls himself the "Defective Detective" and explains that of all of his nightmares, the worst is of the Oldtown Munitions Factory where he killed Annie Wire.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
Starring
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Kate Jones as Rita
- Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Sasha Wire
- Mia Dilluvio as Annie Wire
- Additional voice work by Tara Fiaella and Kevin Vibert
Crew[]
- Kevin Vibert, Co-creator, Lead writer, Sound-effects designer
- Harley Takagi Kaner, Co-creator, Director, Lead editor, Sound designer
- Grahame Turner, Lead editor
- Ryan Vibert, Composer and performer of original music
Quotes[]
RITA: Aren't you forgetting the magic word? JUNO: I'm not going to say “please” just so you'll do your job. RITA: Well, I ain't gonna work under conditions so antagonistic, Mista Steel. I got a very delicate constitution. JUNO: ...Please. RITA: Sure, boss. Have fun with your friend!
MICK: Hey, Jay, nice ride, buddy! Lookit that, chromed upholstery, plastic windows, a steering wheel!
(WOLF WHISTLE)
This thing new?JUNO: It was, once. About a decade ago. And that's not chrome, Mick, it's tape. MICK: Cool, cool. Hey, can I park this? Always wanted to drive one of these. JUNO: ... A car? MICK: Yeah!
MICK: Aaaall right. How do you like your whiskey, Jay? JUNO: With an active desire to do me harm. MICK: I asked about your whiskey, not your men, but fine. I'll have what the lady's having.