283 - Work from Home

to Europe.

“May of 2026, we will be in Edinburgh on May 27, Manchester on May 28, that's my birthday.”

London on May 29th and finally on May 30th, we are closing out our short little John

over seas in Amsterdam. This is our newest live show, Murder Night in Blood Forest, and it is so wild and so much fun. You got to come see it, tickets are on sale now, so Europe, go get your tickets, come see us at the end of May.

We'll see you there. Tickets are available at welcome to Night Vale.com/live. Also, if you like to gear up with Night Vale stuff, we have set brand new merch in our store. We just put out a t-shirt that says laughter is the only medicine. We have this really cool hot and cold tumblr designed by Jessica Hayworth, with these really

“really creepy moths on them, and also, you know, why not?”

We just made a trophy. And it's a trophy, you can get for yourself, this says first place, hottest scientist. I don't know, you do you. We also have new bumper stickers, we have posters, we have t-shirts, spider wools, baseball cap, shorts that say creepy on the butt, you know the drill, we have tons and tons of stuff,

and we're always adding new things and taking away all things.

So if you've seen our store once, you've only seen it at that one time, it's always changing. So check it out at welcome to Night Vale.com and just click on Store. Okay, now let me get you to your Night Vale episode and hey, thanks. You can't undo what has been done, but you can pretend it didn't happen, welcome to Night Vale. There's a sandstorm in Night Vale today, which has made the roads really dangerous.

The sanitation department is out there now, pouring ice and sleet everywhere to try to prevent the sand from building up. We are expecting four to six inches of sand, along with wind gusts up to 25 miles per

hour, so schools are closed as our most workplaces.

So there's still that dilapidated house near Larry Lee Roy out on the edge of town that still seems to be open despite the treacherous conditions. It's not even really a house, so much as three and a half walls, barely supporting each other and no roof. Still, there are lights on in the windows and people there.

The people at the dilapidated house walk inside and then different people walk out minutes later.

“I think it's in art gallery or an escape room or something, anyway.”

That place is still open, but everywhere else in town is closed because of the sandstorm. The roads are not safe, night Vale, what with the high winds and the thick sand covering the streets. And all our doppelgangeres plotting through the dusty haze with murder flickering like bonfires in their eyes.

My husband Carlos, who is the bravest scientist who ever lived, closed his labs today. Even I, the most intrepid radio journalist alive, am having to do my show from home. Though I did ask my producer, Elise, to go up to the station so that she could patch my ISD in line through to the radio tower. Thanks Elise.

Well, we'll discuss a raise at your next performance review, Elise. But for now, I hope everyone other than Elise and the people milling about the dilapidated house are staying safe inside, conducting their work over Zoom or Slack or hinge or whatever the big tech sites are these days. Personally, I find to work from home day kind of nice, because I get to see my family.

Carlos right now is teaching our son Esteban about plants. They're growing an avocado plant from a seed on the window sill. Carlos is explaining how plant life grows from seeds.

a full person.

Esteban looks pretty incredulous.

“It's very cute when he's trying to understand something new.”

He frowns and throws his brow and you can see his eyes narrow. He's quite the determined little guy. Well, I'm here to report the news, not describe how adorable my boy is. Let's have a look at the community calendar. One day night is the winter recital at elegant Sally's kitchen supply store and dance

studio, the downtown location. There will be performances by all of her classes from the five-year-old creative movement kids, all the way up to the teenagers who are in advanced ballet.

They'll be performing pieces from master choreographers, Martha Graham, Alvin Ali, Jose

LeMone and Renata Bliss. The winning teams at Wednesday night's recital will be promoted to the professional night-velled ballet theater.

“The losing teams will be relegated to Swank Jim's choreography warehouse and kitchen”

utensil outlet, the one by the airport. Thursday afternoon is a career fair over at the rec center. Additionals from dozens of fields will be on hand to meet those seeking work or looking into new careers. There will be seminars on hot topics in business right now, like how to brace yourself

for layoffs and human resources are your besties, girl you can tell us anything. Of course dozens of companies will have booths where candidates can talk to those representatives and even hand in a resume that will be carefully ignored and then shredded and used as bedding for the CEO's guinea pig breeding tank. The one he raises to feed his pet boa constrictor.

No jobs will be offered at the career fair. Friday night is karaoke night at the post office. George Dunham nightvails postmaster said he thought it was a waste to close the post office every day at 4 p.m. so why not have a daytime business and a nighttime business at the same location?

“You see it all the time with those dance studio and kitchen supply store combos?”

He said Dunham added the post office doesn't have a license to sell alcohol so it's BYOB. They also don't have a karaoke machine, but he is pretty good at guitar and he knows all the popular songs. Like that famous one by Jason Isbold and a couple of other Jason Isbold numbers, specifically

these slower Jason Isbold songs that mostly use open chords. So come on down to the post office this Friday night. Saturday afternoon the nightvails cinemaplex will be showing usker nominated short films. Of course you'll see all the animated live action and documentary shorts from 2025's slate.

But also some classics from yesterday, like Bimdob the Club Tobaniac Dragon from Finland. A groundbreaking dock called Beneath the Village Green, the left-handed astrology cults of Midland, Odessa and maybe my favorite live action short of all time beyond here nothing and maybe not even that. It's about two young people who sit out to prove the earth is flat by walking to its edge.

But along the way they fall for each other and it is through the power of love that they come to understand that the world is in fact round. That all things are round. Everything is a sphere. The earth, marbles, love, waffles, cats, filet mignon, potato chips.

They get married and have a baby who is a perfect sphere and they live alone in a house that looks like a volleyball and raised chickens that also look like volleyball's. It's very romantic.

Finally, this Sunday is the day that the prophecy mentioned.

This is according to a press release sent to me by Harrison Kipp. And I can't tell if he's announcing it as adjunct archaeology professor at Nightvail Community College. Or if it's got something to do with that religion of his, it sounds like the latter. Either way, he just says, "Here, I'll read you the whole thing and you can make up your

own mind what he's getting at." This Sunday is the day our great prophecy has long predicted. Observe, Sunday, devotees and derelicts alike for it shall be as has been foretold.

And of the world, and eclipse, a sale at the Toyota dealership come on Harrison help us out

here.

“I don't know, maybe I should give his show the twilight gospel hour a listen someday,”

but when you work in radio, it's like listening to the radio just feels like you're still at work. This has been the Community Calendar. I'm getting an update from the sanitation department that the ice they've been pouring over the roads doesn't actually melt the sand.

They got it backwards, so there's a mudslide on Route 800 on the southbound slope to exit 4.

The wind is really picked up outside, so mudslide or not, Nightvail, I'd stay indoors

for the next several hours. So as is usual for a sandstorm, I can see everyone's doubles out there on the hunt for flesh. Then black shadows shambling through the dust clouds. In fact, I can see the faint outline of two men and a little boy standing just on

the edge of our lawn staring at our house.

“I cannot make out faces, but I think I already know what they look like.”

Speaking of doubles, I heard from Dana Cardinal are former mayor and current amateur detective. She's found some new details into the murders of the angel, formerly known as Marcus Vanston, as well as the stabbing death of Jalen Rutherford at the radio station, as he was trying to apply for an internship. Dana said she looked up Rutherford's linked in account, which I think is a dating app,

like I said, I don't know all these text sites, but not only was Jalen a business student at Nightvail Community College, but his previous employment was part-time bookkeeping for Marcus Vanston, the angel, so we have a connection between the two murder victims. Plus we know that days before his death, Marcus Vanston wrote up a will which left everything in his estate worth billions to the community college.

Interesting discovery from Dana. It makes me wonder, was Jalen Rutherford in some kind of cohoots with Marcus Vanston that rubbed someone the wrong way, and what cohoots would make that someone want to kill twice, and how his Nightvail Community College involved? Surely they wouldn't want them dead unless they were trying to speed up that whole estate

transfer thing? Oh yeah, maybe they killed Jalen to keep him quiet. They thought if he were to work at the radio station, he might blab to a trained journalist who would have broken this huge story and then won a Pulitzer. Ooh, a Pulitzer would have been really cool.

This is all conjecture though. We still don't know how an entire community college could get in and out of Vanston's locked library, or how they could have killed him. What's that, Elise? Oh, that's just your double at the door.

It's a sandstorm. Elise, what did you expect for her to bring you cookies? Of course she's threatening you with a shovel and howling. Elise just locked the door. No, definitely don't let her in, she'll disappear when the sandstorm lets up.

More on the murder investigation soon, but let's go now to the Children's Fun Fact Science Corner.

“Today in the Children's Fun Fact Science Corner, we're discussing how life is created.”

I'm actually learning all this for the first time myself, as Carlos is trying to explain

to our nine-year-old son that you can't grow in avocado plant in a day. Life is a slow process. It needs a seed, fertilization, water, sunlight, warmth, and nutrients. Each day the tiny seed grows a bit more, changes imperceptibly. It sprouts roots and limbs, or in the case of a boy it grows taller and stronger.

You can't see the change, but it's happening. Millions of cells dividing every day. Science only seems like magic, but it's actually an observable miracle. Carlos is saying to Esteban, "But Esteban is just shaking his head, no, maybe he needs a nap.

He looks grumpy."

He's pulling out the toothpicks and cradling the seed to his chest.

He's whispering something to it.

“Now he's placing it on the floor and pressing it down into the carpet.”

It seems to be sinking as if the rug were soft, unpacked, low. Esteban is turning his body east, lifting his hands high and uttering an incantation for the gods of nature. A small vine is emerging from the floor. It's growing thick with leaves and bulbs.

Oh, that's now a full-grown avocado plant.

Esteban looks so proud of himself, he's really into this witchcraft thing. Carlos looks dejected. No honey, I'm sure it's just a phase.

“He'll learn to love science just like I did.”

Oh, you're cute when you smile, you know. There you go. What?

Well, this has been the children's fun fact.

Wizardry corner. Sure. And now let's have a look at financial news. What's that, Elise? You let her in the building, no, your double wants to kill you, Elise.

So get a knife from the breakroom and end her before she ends you. Oh, not a she, a he. Oh goodness, that is quite the strange turn. Um, let's talk off air while I give an update on the, Carlos, Carlos, what is happening out there?

Oh god, okay, listeners, the avocado plant has grown to the ceiling and is rapidly twisting itself around the living room. I need to go save Carlos and find Esteban, um, Elise, take them to the weather. [Music] Some of the strange is about past its prime still out for behind.

Turning stones in this aging line, I don't know what I hope to find. How I've stumbled in a working deep to slow the march of time. Twenty-seven, as I've gone to see this truth is hard but not unkind. Who tells the ice in the sway? How does the wanderer find the very way?

Now, as the golden light fades to graze, I don't know what to say. I still don't know what to say. Maybe next time we'll take our chance while our sun's still high. All those paths that we've lived our days, small greens in the sky.

“Oh, when I'm quiet the truth is plain, yours the same as mine.”

I want a cold enough of the paint, the water and the wine. Who tells the ice in the sway? How does the wanderer find the very way? Now, as the golden light fades to graze, I don't know what to say. Still don't know what to say.

That time to steer straight into the school?

Brad tells the ice in the sway, stars help the wanderer find their way. Now, as the tired light fades to graze, I promise I will stay. I want you a day, don't know what it's to say.

“The world is the best way to be able to see the world.”

The legendary checkout of Shopify is just the shop of your website, just the social media and the world is between you.

That's the music for that.

And I am Richard Spate, we were both on a little show you might know, called Supernatural. And we've got writers, producers, composers, directors and will of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Crippky was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent, decoveny type.

“With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes, so please join us and subscribe to Supernatural, then and now.”

Okay, oh, that was close.

So thankfully, I was recording this show from my study where I keep all my books, including Plantopedia, the definitive guide to House Plants by Lauren Kamalary and Sophia Kaplan. It's the collector's edition, which comes with a small electric chainsaw. I managed to cut Carlos free from the branches which had wrapped around his throat and chest. Then we found Esteban in the corner crying, because he knew he was in trouble for doing unapproved magic.

“He explained to him, sternly, that people can get hurt if you're not careful.”

This is true for magic, for science, even for journalism. All of us have to be very careful with the choices we make. We cannot act solely out of anger or frustration or fear, every action must have intention. Esteban wouldn't look at us, he knew all this, this is why he was crying. He was embarrassed and scared, which made us feel terrible.

There is a constant, horrible balance as a parent, between wanting to teach your child consequences, not raise them to be entitled, set them up to understand that their choices can hurt others. And on the other hand, your deep drive to protect them, to keep them from any harm to save them from negative emotions.

It is an impossible equation, and a parent is asked to solve it every day. We sent him to his room and told him to take a nap, "He's not in trouble, but we wanted to talk to him at dinner and before watching any videos." Carlos is cutting up what's left of the giant plant. It's going to take more than a day to clean all this up.

But the avocado's accrual are the size of half-in-pinsures, so I guess we'll have guacamole

Oh, and I talked to Elise, who said that the person outside the radio station was Jalen

Brotherford's double.

“He was waving a shovel because he was planning to kill his double, but was actually kind”

of relieved to find that his double was already dead. Murdered months ago by a still unknown assailant. Elise asked Jalen's double where he comes from and where he goes when the sandstorm ends. He says he doesn't know the answer to either. He just is, and then he is not.

But while he is here, he simply knows he is his other self, and that he must find that other to destroy, and hopefully replace them. Elise said, "Well, your resume is pretty good, Jalen. If you have the same skills as your double, would you still like to intern here?" Assuming you don't disappear when the sandstorm dies down, she added.

And Jalen said, "Yes, he would love to intern for the radio station. It's his dream to replace his double." The two of them had teeth. They made small talk and watched the dust clouds swirl past the windows, down the streets and out into the sandwastes.

As the blue of the sky lazily but fully emerged, Jalen's double touched his own hands, then his own chest, then his own face.

He finally reached out to Elise and she took his palm in hers, a firm reassuring handshake.

And agreement that he still exists. That he had a job, that he had a body, that he was Jalen's brother for it. So, I guess we have an intern now. I'm excited to meet him. Last time I saw Jalen, he was face down in his own blood in our lobby, so it'll be weird

to see him all normal like. I bet Jalen will be excited here about this. He killed her double, way back when she was my intern, she and Jalen will have so many fun stories to share. Oh, and I should note, the sandstorm has passed.

So has the work day. Stay on that zoom call if you want, but now it's a fun zoom call. Maybe you want to finish managing your digital infrastructure business solutions in. Letterboxed. Again, who can keep up with all these apps?

“All I'm saying is you're welcome to keep working if you think you have to, but I'd urge”

you to get outside, sweep your lawn, steal the last bit of sunshine, and then make dinner with your husband with your son. Maybe a dessert, maybe play a game. Maybe you can still catch the latest episode of Antler Cove after the kid goes to bed. Remember, that work can visit your home, but it's not welcome to stay at the night.

Stay tuned next, for the sound of a tired scientist digging through the cabinets for

that danged Moka Hete we got as a wedding present, but have never actually used.

As always, good night, night veil, good night. Welcome to night veil is a production of night veil presents, it is written by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranner, and Breel Williams, sound design and production by the voice of night veil is Cecil Baldwin, original music by disparition, all of it can be found at disparition.net. This episode's weather was the emerald and the mine by Bishop Decker, find out more at the

link in our show notes. Comments, questions, email us at [email protected] or follow us on blue sky at night veil radio or on Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok at night veil official. Or, just go to sleep, do you have any idea how late it is, you'll feel better if you get more sleep.

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Today's proverb, money doesn't grow on trees, not with that attitude at well.

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