And That's Why We Drink - Listener Stories: Vol. 53

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Sit back, relax and enjoy our chill 90s coffee shop vibes this month, boozers and shakers. Let us set the stage: you're walking back to your seat with a scone and a London Fog in hand. Maybe you're wearing a black turtleneck, maybe you're even wearing one of those weird shrunken crinkle shirts that had no right being as popular as they were. You hear the snaps that tell you the last poem is over and a new artist is about to take the mic. You chit chat with the friend you dragged with you for moral support, until you hear it... the most mournful, dulcet tones you've heard all night. They're speaking of love, loneliness and the dangers of lamp light. Their red eyes meet yours as they deliver their well rehearsed verses and for a single second that holds all of eternity, you're locked together in this supernatural moment. Welcome to our Cryptid Poetry Slam! ...and THAT'S why we drink! Please consider supporting the companies that support us! Right now, you can go to HuntAKiller.com/DRINK and use DRINK, for 20% off your first box!Helix is offering up to $200 off all mattress orders AND two free pillows at HelixSleep.com/DRINKStep up your cooking game now and head over to Misen.com/DRINK for 20% off your first order!This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and And That’s Why We Drinklisteners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/DRINKGo to HelloFresh.com/drink12 and use code drink12 for 12 free meals, includingfree shipping!

hello it is march 2021 welcome to our listeners episode you know what this means we're a sixth done with 2021 that's that's not right yeah six twelve eighteen months there's 12 months and so that would be a quarter oh i see what you're saying because we finished february yeah i thought you meant like through march no we're not a sixth done after this month will be a quarter done i see yes after march will be a quarter done i don't know listen i don't know why i'm challenging you on math but welcome to our march show eva sent us a bunch of stories and said don't look at the subject lines and then said sorry i yelled at you so i don't i feel like i feel like last year our theme like we had a theme every month for stories and i feel like this theme now is just different instructions from eva every time on to not look at a certain part of the paper.

I kind of like it because I kind of like being told what to do so I don't have to figure it out myself. Amen. So it's kind of a relief, honestly. It's like takes the pressure off. So, yeah, I guess it says you go first and then she apologized to me. So there are a lot of apologies going around in this email. Oh, OK. I haven't accepted the apology yet. We'll see how I feel after the episode is over. And she apologized to me. So there are a lot of apologies going around in this email. Uh-oh. Okay.

I haven't accepted the apology yet. We'll see how I feel after the episode is over. But you're up. TBD. TBD. I did just tell Eva. I was like, as long as it's not like a subpoena from Zach Bagans, we're probably okay. Okay, wait. And then Eva said it's the opposite of that, which we were like.

Yeah, let's all go on a journey together and try to figure out what the opposite of a zach bagan yeah from the haunted museum so we'll see what it is but i understand already i think what the theme here is tell me you figured it out after looking at a subject not like off the top of your head no no i figured it out because i just opened the first one that's what i just said after looking at it you figured it out right oh after looking yeah okay because i haven't seen anything i was like you are way too smart for me today okay so i haven't seen anything so you can surprise me then uh i will i think right away well i don't know i don't even know if you will understand if you remember the reference um i probably don't i'm glad that you recognize how terrible my memory is so well i only say because it was one small like random tangent brain thought that i said out loud and you were like what the

fuck and then when was it was it when i was editing or was it before i was editing no it was a couple weeks ago i'm just gonna go and i think if you remember the reference maybe this isn't even the theme but i have a hunch this is what Eva was talking about. Okay. I'm just going to go. And if you don't know it by the end, I'll tell you what I'm referring to. Perfect. Okay. So this one, first of all, if the theme is what I think it is, thank you to everyone who listened to me in that random reference.

This makes me so happy. And my dopamine levels are at an all-time high so this this entry is from mothman um i know it's a freaking slam poetry or whatever by cryptids you have got to be kidding me at least of course i remember this listen i am so happy even if this is only a like a one-off but for those of you who don't know uh i mentioned a couple episodes ago that i thought it would be really funny if people submitted slam poetry as they as cryptids and we would see what the cryptids would sound like at a slam poetry contest so i i couldn't be happier this is every i said this was all i wanted and I meant it.

I actually am going to lay here and imagine that Mothman is serenading me with his poetry because that feels really romantic and like right down my alley. So I'm just going to lay here. You go ahead. I'm going to, okay. Candles are lit. The lights are low. The door is locked.

Lower the blinds. And I'm on my fainting couch just in case and uh this one and also it's a two-week it's an uh a belated gift for valentine's day as i'm yes very romantic good point so this one by mothman who goes by they them obviously obviously um the subject line is red love which i imagine has something to do with their eyes their eyes okay here we go this is red love by mothman and remember we do we do snaps at the end because we're at a poet we're at a coffee house with this poetry slam oh i see okay my eyes are red and they awash the world in hate anger lo, loathing. Stop laughing during slam poetry, Em.

It's not as romantic as I thought it was going to be. I feel like I need to like snap as you go. We need someone with like a, what's that? Like a tambourine or something. Okay. My eyes are red and they'll wash the world in hate, anger, loathing. I'm keeping the tempo. My wings beat faster and faster.

Oh, I see. Okay, I see. Let's start over. Hang on. I'm seeing the theme here. Okay. I got it. I'm ready.

Do the snapping. I'm on it. I'm on it. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. Sorry, Mothman. Okay.

Okay. Okay. My eyes are red and they awash the world in hate, anger, loathing. My wings beat faster and faster, hunting, chasing, catching. It's a hurtful world and I open my mouth to screech, buzz, cry. For no one can understand the pain inside. Clawing, fighting, hurting. But then I see you.

You who are tall, hairy, beautiful. Thank you. You who walks with a speed that is crushing, deadly, fantastical. You who understands the loneliness fear pain and suddenly my red eyes see the world with passion lust love my heart is the one beating faster and faster, searching, yearning, wanting. My mouth bends open to shout, trill, moan. And there's a different pain inside that's clawing, pushing, festering.

Because you are worth it all, my ape man, grizzly bear, Bigfoot. Yes. Rated R. Rated r rated mature hi my name also hi my name is really melissa she her and i hope you all enjoy this poem i had a lot of fun writing it i will be here to write more cryptid or ghostly poems if you want i have a degree in creative writing for just this purpose thank you for all you do oh my gosh that really i thought they were gonna say i'll be here all night i was like okay we're ready for you. We're here all night too.

I'll be over at the smoothie corner of the coffee house. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be at the espresso bar because wow, I feel wired already. I am overwhelmed. That was, I didn't, I had no idea where I was going to begin or end. I just opened the folder and I see the one you just read like from afar and i can see how they're separated like verses beautiful beautiful oh wow eva you really are killing the game here

uh just brava i don't know if all of them are spoken word the next one is not which is probably good because i feel like i wouldn't live up to what you just did for me okay well we'll see how the rest of the night goes, I suppose. Yeah, that was really beautiful and romantic. And I think, I know that this is putting a lot of pressure on Eva because this comes out the day after the next episode,

but can we get some like smooth, well, actually, let me listen to it. Maybe the snapping works, but if not, we can put some smooth jazz underneath. If there's future spoken word that we cover in this, we'll leave the snapping for the first story. And then we'll do a little smooth sax. And then we'll do some like low baritone, some bass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, perfect. We can even have some like in the background, like an espresso machine, like hissing. It'll be beautiful. I actually just look up coffee shop ambiance. Yes. That'll probably be it. Great idea.

There's probably like free royalty free coffee shop music out the wazoo speaking of which let me do a shout out to my favorite uh ambient youtube channel you taught me about this i'm it's great i love them it is nemo's dreamscapes i don't know who you are but brava you are what i listen to every time i have to do any computer work please go listen to nemo's dreamscapes if you it's awesome it's delightful so i my personal favorite for for focus is the deep focus playlist on spotify i swear to god it like puts my brain in a like a trance i think it's like those binaural beats and it like gets in your head it's amazing so depending on what you're doing when

in a pinch when in a pinch i just look up fires like like like uh like a crackling yeah yeah a crackling or like a like a windstorm i love a good rainstorm there's there's one like that on youtube that's like campfire by the lake and i'm like oh that's a little bit of everything that's nice i start sometimes i get anxiety like it just kind of builds up where i'm like what if there's someone hiding behind a tree by the lake and then i'm like this is not good i need to go back to my deep focus it's it's actually your tall hairy bigfoot my red eyes upon you wanting waiting clawing yeah okay anyway this is from gabbs who uses she her pronouns thank you gabbs and this is called quarantine station haunting hyphen very topical okay thank you hey and that's why we drink slash

spooky yang i am an american who has been living in sydney australia for eight years my hot australian boyfriend okay all right okay it's all sexual i'm getting lady jeez i'm getting okay you're just humble bragging all over here seriously and honestly like go for it man i'm proud of you i'm only jealous that's that's what we're just jealous that's the energy you're hearing right now is just jealousy that's all my hot australian boyfriend and i decided to go on an early valentine's Day staycation at the quarantine station. Originally, the site was used from the 1830s to 1984 to isolate people migrating to Australia suspected of carrying contagious diseases. Extremely topical.

Thank you, Gabs. If ships entering. Sure is. I like how Gab's like, in case don't know like what's been going on i do appreciate that she really has zero faith in our in our ability to understand the world which like you're not wrong no you're on top of it if ships entering the heads had a sick patient on board they were required to hoist a yellow flag i have heard about that before disembarking all passengers not just the infected ones here they were scrubbed

within an inch of their lives had their luggage autoclaved and were kept away from the local sydney residents for several weeks or months for healthy passengers it was an extended holiday for others it was a frightening experience of disease and death in total 600 people died here they used acid water to wash the workers and staff experimental and non-scientific practices were used to try and cure people of diseases oh my god it's now a national park with lots of native animals such as possums echidnas bandicoots and little penguins oh so sweet i'm into that also quite a range i love it yeah very australia of you there's probably big spiders too that you're not telling us about yeah you just neglected all the snakes i think we know about all the snakes

and all the spiders there is also luxury accommodation in the renovated healthy quarters which is where we stayed for one night as you can imagine this place is super haunted they have ghost tours and we did and we did go on one but it wasn't too spooky for me i had a moment that shook me i got a migraine and heard heavy breathing when I was walking through the morgue slash workers' quarters. But it's nothing compared to what I experienced overnight in our room. Uh-oh. I know.

I always wish, like, ghost experiences would, like, stay isolated on a tour so that you could go home and talk about it, not, like, go home and, like, be miserable. You wish it was like a like a movie like oh that time in the theater was crazy yes moving on with our lives now let's have a glass of wine and just like chill without any interruption yeah yeah our bed was really big so as we drifted off to sleep we rolled over to our respective sides of the bed i woke up startled at around 3 a.m seeing a full body apparition of a shadow man lying in between us. Oh, on his side.

Facing me. Good fucking bye. Okay. Bye bye. Hang on. Can you? I just like, it took me a second to catch up with the fact that they were in bed with you. That's just next level stuff.

Yeah, because you always assume like, oh, it's at the foot of your bed, like original, you know? In the doorway or something like at least there's a little space removed from you and them like it's like we know the perimeter of the mattress is like your space and like they can just appear over but once they're lying next to you and also like literally barricading you from that's about what i was about to say like you they're in between you and the only other like safety person in the room every time i wake up this happens kind of often which is nerving but i i wake up kind of often feeling like there's someone in the room and i just tell myself like no i had a bad dream and i'm i was rattled and i should just go to sleep and ignore it but i usually wake up and I for sure can feel that there's someone staring at us.

But at least I can like scoot closer to Allison as if she's gonna fucking protect me. But like I at least have that mental safety net. But if I looked over at Allison and instead I saw a ghost corpse staring at me. I don't think I'd ever sleep again. I really don't. I don't know. Nope. Absolutely not.

Especially in like a strange hotel like in a strange hotel room. E.E. Let's see. I woke up to a full body apparition of a shadow man lying in between us on his side facing me. I jumped out of bed screaming. It didn't wake my boyfriend. It was so bizarre. I thought maybe I was having a night terror and shook it off.

I get them, but they're usually caused by visions of bugs in the bed. Doesn't that happen, Al? Or am I not supposed to talk about that no you can talk about that i i haven't gotten permission but it's certainly something i have to deal with so it's something everyone else just blame me i'm far away now no allison has this really cute habit where she'll wake up and have uh it's like the most attractive thing about her she she'll wake up with these weird night terrors that there are uh spiders all over her or i don't know they're not spiders they weren't cockroaches although they should be with the trauma we've had on that but she wakes up with something on her and she freaks the fuck out like she'll like like wake up like robocop like just like like the terminator and then she just freaks out. And

she's like, like gets out of bed. And she's like, dancing around like she's trying to shake things off. And I'm like, what the fuck? And then she'll just look around be like, nevermind. Well, what was I gonna say? It's weird, because I lived with her for like three years. And this never happened. So this must be a new thing thing it's got to be one of those things that like it depends on what you eat or something because it's only happened twice oh oh i thought it was more often it's happened two times too fucking many you definitely call it a habit so in my mind i was like oh this must be like a weekly occurrence so allison has a weird sleeping habit where she will have full conversations with me and just not remember it. That much definitely happened when we lived together.

And a lot of them are borderline threatening to my safety where she'll just like, she looks like she's going to fucking fight me. Like there have been a few times where I've backed out of the room because she just looked terrifying while she was like, she'll wake up and stare me down. Her eyes are open and she's staring into my soul. And she's like, she'll literally point at the door and go no as if as in like get the fuck out and i'm just like it's me it's me i'm right here and she's like no and i'm like okay i'm out got it i got the message got it yeah so it's either that or fucking bugs all over her both are pretty bad not good

anyway um okay so shadow man lying but right yes the corpse shadow man on the bed sorry oh yeah yeah we're still there um let's see uh but i had i thought i had a night terror shook it off i get them but they're usually caused by visions of bugs in the bed i tried to go back to sleep tried but i kept being pushed awake i'd look around the room and see the figure standing in different places but disappearing at the blink of an eye oh no it didn't feel aggressive or evil or even scary it was more annoying than anything i didn't sleep very well needless to say quarantine station in manly a suburb of sydney is absolutely haunted and spooky but also stunning i couldn't recommend it enough

as a story you should cover and a place you should stay in okay well we'll see about that if you're ever in this hemisphere i've been listening to you since 2018 can't thank you enough if it wasn't for you normal normalizing the paranormal i wouldn't have had the courage to stay at quarantine station okay don't put this on us this is not our fault but thank you we didn't tell you to do this kind effort but no i guess we are now using this for content for our show so if you've been listening since 2018 you know that the first thing we would have said is get the fuck out of there and just so you know i have shared and that's why we drink with so many friends here in sydney we love you all the best gabs wow that's spooky

that's the kind of place where i would be like i'll handle the travel arrangements and then i'd be like surprise and then i'd knock at m's door and be like i i regret everything i've done oh christine you you would do that or you have done that for two tours now hmm huh do you know how how quickly the number of haunted places i've stayed in skyrocketed because you were responsible directly for my travel oh god and like i guess in in gab's situation in at least it didn't feel threatening or ominous it was just an annoyance but still it's like that's even weirder it's like what are you doing hanging around that is weird that it because because you'd think any strange presence would feel threatening no matter what but the fact

that it like didn't feel threatening is really alarming to me and and i always i always uh kind of operate under the assumption that if people around you aren't waking up during this it's because they don't want them to yeah and so it feels like they they wanted your attention and to annoy you and have nobody else be able to help. And lie next to you in bed. So goodbye. Good night. Okay.

Moving on. Also, thank you so much for the very topical story, Gab. I appreciate it. Extremely topical. It really was. I appreciate you making sure we knew that, though. I do, too. Yeah.

Okay, number three. Is this another freaking poem? I don't know. It looks like it sure is yay why do i have to get serenaded why can't i serenade you all right because you shut up christine you've serenaded me so many times you finally getting me back for this okay thank you eva for uh-huh at least this time we're not on stage and you're not holding my hand and staring directly into my heart. Oh, I miss those days. Okay, here we go.

This is from Aubrey, who I think is writing on behalf of Mothman. Oh my god. Aubrey uses she, her pronouns. I'm assuming Mothman uses they, them pronouns still. And the first part of it says, sorry, Christine, but as soon as I heard M's suggestion for crypticic poetry slam i had to pause the episode and go write this so here we go it's called mothman's lost love and this is where we insert some sort of like ambient jazz uh okay i take flight yet i do not flap my wings i make no noise as i soar over a pleasant town. Am I lost or did I lose something? Someone? I don't know. I take flight. This world is unfamiliar to me and I am unfamiliar to myself. What am I searching for

that has been lost? My home? My sense of self? Someone I care for? I take flight. Suddenly I feel something. A familiar presence. A tug. I tug in my chest, pulling me like a magnet. I take flight. There is a loud beating, but it's not from my wings. It's from my heart. I am flying. Then I see eyes meet eyes as red as mine. I found them.

The one I have been looking for. We embrace at last. I am home. Oh, wait, there's more. there's more, there's more. Okay. We are two creatures stuck in this foreign world together. We don't know how and we don't know why, but we have each other and we are happy.

We take flight, yet we do not flap our wings and we make no noise as we soar over a pleasant town. Okay. Oh my god. Why are they all love poems i don't i'm not even questioning it it's exactly what i wanted i imagine mothman has like this lore of like looking for love right so like it kind of makes sense yeah fair point um fair point i guess i'm just jealous so i just you just wish someone would write i think that's why you had such a resistance to this earlier i think you just want someone to

pretend they're mothman and write you a love letter i get it is that not what's happening i i see it i see it and i get it exactly what's going on right now your feelings i'm just saying i think you wish someone in like real life, like a high school dream, you would open your locker and there'd be a note and it'd be from your secret admirer Mothman. I mean, yeah, that's like exactly what I want. It's not a secret. This is like exactly, everyone knows it. And it's valid. It's valid.

I just want you to know that. Thank you. Yeah, you're seen and you're heard. Thank you. I appreciate that. So this is from Casper. who uses they, them pronouns. And the subject is, my DNA is helping solve a murder mystery. Good night.

That's casual. Hey, Christine, Em, Eva, Gio, Janie, Mooney, and Lemon. I'm a longtime listener, first-time writer, minus an Instagram DM I sent Em in 2017. Okay, cool. Were you left on read? Because that's usually what happens i don't know i try to i try to at least heart everything that comes my way i always feel like an ass when i do that because they're like write a long message and then i just like heart it and they're like i like to i like to think that if i heart it they at least know that i acknowledge what they said but there's just in a very wonderful way. There's too many messages where if I had the time to write everyone back, I would but there's just too many. I haven't opened messages since 2018. So there are

probably like 10. I mean, there's so many. I appreciate tried. I appreciate them. It's just that there's a lot and it would be unfair to pick who I write back to. So anyway, there you go. Hi, Casper in there yeah hi casper okay i just listened to the beach to sandy episode about poutineries in canada where the challenge was to find reviews of shocking dna results and i think my dna results are right up christine's alley my grandpa got me an ancestry kit for christmas in 2018 because i'd always been curious about my heritage seeing as my maternal grandfather was adopted, and I was kept away from my dad and his immediate family for my safety,

so I only ever heard about my maternal grandmother's family history. The heritage part wasn't super surprising, but the message I received from Yolanda McCleary from Cold Justice certainly was. Oh. Apparently I am a relative of the Eldorado Jane Doe. Hey! Eldorado Jane Doe was the name given to a woman in her 20s to 30s who was found murdered at the Whitehall Motel in Arkansas. Well, did you not catch that with Jane Doe?

No, I didn't. Oh my god. Did you think her name was actually Jane Doe? I thought her name was Jane Doe. This is why Gabs let us know that that one about quarantine was very topical because okay well we need to be reminded every day typically in true crime stories is the victim without an identity i got it i was just excited to hear that there was no i i'm usually very on top of that but i just assumed that there was like i got carried away with the excitement of finding out something about your ancestry and the end sorry yeah i saw your face drop when i said murdered uh you were very surprised

okay um eldorado jane doe was the name given to a woman in her 20s to 30s who was found murdered at the whitehall motel in arkansas in july of 91 the police knew how she died and even who her killer was but have yet to figure out her true identity. Her short life had involved drugs, sex work, and possibly even a bank robbery that had led her to use ever-changing aliases when meeting people, and even when she was arrested. Her murderer, who was her ex-boyfriend, James McAlphin, claims to know her true identity, but has been dismissed as unreliable. true identity but has been dismissed as unreliable i'm related to her on my dad's side and the murder happened before i was born so unfortunately i wasn't much help being able to recognize her but hopefully my dna will help narrow down which of my great-grandparent great-grandparents eight children was potentially her parent as my dad and his mother refused to submit their dna to help

narrow it down so yeah talk about a dna plot twist love everything y'all do casper whoa holy crap did i miss this or do we know why the parents wouldn't want to submit their dna i guess there could be a million reasons yeah i don't know i mean a lot of people just don't feel comfortable with it i think totally valid i i just think if i heard that like i could crack a case and be like i'm on it put me in coach take my Take my blood, you know? Yeah, well, it sounds like there's a lot of stuff in the family history that's trying to be avoided. So, like, the danger from the paternal side. Wow, spooky.

So, that's crazy that Yolanda from Cold Justice reached out to you. Sheesh. I mean, that's pretty dope. It is. The total side, total sidebar, but i really like the name casper and like maybe i'm primed because of like the friendly ghost it's a great name it's a great name so i also love the name jasper so see i'm more of a casper person and i think that's because of the ghost priming the the fact that there's a ghost out there named casper but i do like it i just when i think of jasper i think of one of the 101 dalmatian robbers so you know the one okay uh anyway i think of casper i think of the animated ghost but you

know well casper uses they them pronouns right so i don't anyway if you are casper i since you have they them pronouns i'm wondering if maybe you changed your name and decided on casper maybe not either way it's a dope fucking name congratulations i love it congratulations on a great taste you have in names okay my next one oh my goodness okay here we go so if you are caught up and speaking of extremely topical um hashtag gabs um my most recent episodes have been about q anon um and so this one the title is q anon casualties my mom thinks i want to kill her oh wow okay so we we really shifted from mothman lust did gears here yeah so this is from sona who uses she her pronouns thank you for normalizing pronouns um and this is the story let me make sure that this is okay hi y'all first off i really appreciate

m covering the story of q and on and the obvious empathy they have for the topic oh thank you obvious empathy is really what i was shooting for so thank you uh it's really hard to hear it treated as a joke especially since i have lost so much because of it i don't know if this really fits as true crime or paranormal but i wanted to share my personal crazy story about q anon so let's crack into it my mom has always been into conspiracies so when q anon came about she was all in i don't know how she found it but she was in on the ground floor and was sucked into q anon came about she was all in i don't know how she found it but she was in on the ground floor and was sucked into q anon pretty much as soon as it started in late 2017

uh she would send me all kinds of crazy videos that seemed funny to me because they were so out there and the editing looked like it was some kind of tim and eric sketch um but she steadily got deeper and deeper and i watched her cheerful kind optimistic attitude drain from her come summer 2020 in the midst of the pandemic which she didn't believe was real by the way and the black lives matter protests which i as an anti-fascist uh anti-fascist participated in and she was completely off her rocker uh she would incessantly send texts with screenshots from q drops or breadcrumbs that I talked about in the show and tweets and wouldn't stop despite me begging her to eventually. Oh, she was sending screenshots of Q drops and tweets and wouldn't stop despite me begging.

And eventually I threatened to block her number if she kept it up. When she found out that I was going to Black Lives Matter rallies, she started calling me a terrorist and a pedophile. Oh, good. She was convinced that I was killing babies, which if you haven't caught up yet on QAnon stuff, one of the reasons that the mom might be thinking this is because Black Lives Matter, according to QAnon, is a distraction from the bigger issue, which is that the media is involved in a human sex trafficking ring, especially with babies, a baby trafficking ring. So Black Lives Matter equals feeding into this industry that is actually doing some really shady shit. And therefore you are pro-killing babies because you're enabling the system. babies because you're enabling the system um one day i posted a cab on my instagram and my sister saw it and sent it to my mom because my dad is a retired cop and my sister is and my sister is a narc i was about to say okay yeah my mom stopped talking to me for about three months after that

when i told my sister that uh that we haven't been talking she said yeah that's because she thinks you want to kill her and dad and she told me that my mom has been telling my family that i'm a terrorist and a pedophile because i believe that black lives matter and fashion isn't as bad anyway in july 2020 there was a defund the police rally in boise idaho where i live and it ended up being overrun by literal nazis um and that rally which was a few blocks from my house i i walked home alone about 10 minutes after i got home a group of armed men were talking in the street in front of my apartment i'm nosy as hell so i peeked out my window to see what was going on and i heard one of them say quote yeah it's a little girl she lives upstairs and

they pointed to my apartment building oh god i'm the only quote little girl who lives in my building nothing ever happened from that aside from me putting another deadbolt on my door but part of me is very concerned that my mom was somehow involved with it yikes and the sad thing is that could be so true that could if you think someone's a terrorist are going to kill you like if you really believe it even if it's your own child maybe you find people who can protect you before something like it happens i mean that's heartbreaking i have slowly started to to talk to my mom again but it's been extremely awkward like getting back together with someone after a really sloppy breakup. Things will never be the same between us because of QAnon.

I'm sorry for the long story, but I wanted to thank you again for bringing attention to the topic. I think my friends thought I was crazy for telling them about QAnon three, over three years ago. So it's really refreshing that people are starting to pay attention. Thank you for all you do. XOXO, gossip girl with mommy issues.

P.S. I'm using a pseudonym because i have a pretty unique name and i don't want this getting back to me okay so anyway thank you and yeah that's so in the last episode i just covered we talked about how in a very broad stroke way because there was just not enough time in the world to do a case-by-case situation but uh in general a lot of people aren't just losing family but are being threatened by these brainwashed victims and so it's this is just an example of that i guess so yeah thank you for telling the story and and helping spread the word so yeah because that adds to the that adds like a level of humanity and personal story to the whole uh yeah issue thing the whole thing the whole i don't even

know what to call it yeah if you do want if you are someone who uh that if that related to you in any way or if you felt something from it and you are dealing with something similar um you can check out especially on reddit right now which is ironic but you can check out uh q and on casualties and also recovery with a Q. And those are two really good forums that people are using as sources to find other people with their similar situation. Awesome. Yeah. And the final and the three-parter came out yesterday when this episode comes out.

Yes. It's out already. Okay, cool. And I haven't edited it yet it yet but it's probably gonna be like over four hours so sorry about that our longest yet but yeah uh my bad my bad what are you talking about oh my god m's bad um okay i have something for you oh god we're gonna shift gears here we we seem to be doing that i seem to like, I'm getting fucking whiplash over here. This is from Elizabeth. She uses she, her pronouns.

Thank you, Elizabeth. This is called Mothman at a Poetry Slam. Okay. Well, haven't heard of that yet. Yeah. Eva clearly was like rolling her eyes when I was like, why don't I get to read one? Like, I'm literally a petulant child. So I apologize for complaining before I even knew I got to read one eva knows this too well

did you read number five just now i did okay i just want to make sure she's that she's not like this isn't for you christine um okay so here we go this is from elizabeth hey friends listen i'm that one person screaming in my car because I think you're not that one person. There's apparently a lot of you because I think Cryptid Slam Poetry Night is the best idea Em has ever had. Thank you. Em has had a lot of ideas, you guys. So there's been sandwiches.

There's been all sorts of stuff. This makes me so happy. I'm so glad because I was saying it and I felt ashamed that the idea was so random. But OK, thank you for the- People are into it clearly um i'm already trying to figure out how to include this in my poetry unit with my fifth grade kiddos i teach at school in west virginia by the way i'm not a professional but here's my attempt at spoken moth poetry so much love and light and lamp get it moth joke to all y'all all right this is called

an ode to lamp and self-love so i'm gonna read this as if i were at a poetry slam okay i've never been so ready for a performance i get to serenade you again yeah well we knew it would come to this it all started with a wrong turn you just can't trust your antennae these days Too many new scents accruing in abnormal air. Darkness dissolving the familiar. I asked for directions. Attempt it at least. They were rude.

No. Rigid. Not that either. Ruthless. I understand. I am not a looker. Beauty walked past my door. Charm missed the bus to my place

Ain't that the truth Excuse me I'm trying to read a poem up here on stage and you're interrupting the flow I'm the positive heckler who's like keep going Yeah yeah yeah well I spent about three weeks memorizing this so now Can you say the part about charm again

it makes me so happy I asked for directions attempted at least they were rude no rigid not that either ruthless i understand i am not a looker beauty walk past my door charm missed the bus to my place allure she never left the house honey but i like me well enough i think the pink creatures would have liked me too, had they moved past the radiant round rubies on my face and the elongated elastic extensions along either side of me. I find my wings elegant, thanks very much.

Nevertheless, I digress. Loneliness is a friend I made many moons ago i just ask that next time please help an insect person out with directions or i may never find that fleeting flamboyant fluorescence again fiend you were meant to recite poetry and that person was meant to write it. Excellent. Beyond. Bravo. Now just give me a week to really like practice where the beats are. And I mean, listen, we can start something, Elizabeth.

We can start something. We should make like, and that's why we drink, we should have an annual Poetry Slam where we do a live show of people presenting their cryptid poetry. Why was I not on board with this right away? I think it's because you said Bigfoot, and I just was like, he would just grunt. But Mothman was like something I hadn't really imagined, and it seems like everyone's gone that direction. So I'm finally on board.

Think of Slenderman. Think of the Totswold. Think of the Jackalope. Think of, hmm, oh, Jersey Devil. I mean, we've got a lot we could work with here. There's a lot of options here. Nessie would probably have some really bubbly things to say. The Pukwudgie, he's the weirdo in the group, surprisingly.

Not really surprisingly. Hey, careful. We're at a very safe space here in this poetry slam. We're at this safe space, but he's the one who's like trying to like, I think, he's a little too serious with his art and and people can tell but that's okay that's okay we're all learning i mean you're the one yelling at everyone on stage so if you happen to be the person who sends in pakwaji poetry slam i will mentally marry you because that would just be okay next uh let's see this is not poetry but a wonderful

story this is from Amber who uses she her pronouns and the subject is Rajneesh yay we know about that so here's the story this isn't really a huge story I like that there's no hi or anything it's like let's cut I kind of like that though

let's fucking get to the chase but every time people do that we end up filling so much space talking about how they don't have a hello that it just like wastes time anyway so they know what they're doing uh okay so amber says this isn't really a huge story but i was listening to your most recent episode and i wanted to share this little tidbit my family is from eastern oregon and my mom was a young woman uh when all of this was happening she remembers when members of the cult world came into the town and some people she knew got sick when they poisoned the food at that restaurant the salad bar with salmonella horrifying yeah

salad bar at our chance okay the actual funny connection is that after my grandparents passed we were cleaning out their house and apparently my grandmother being the sensible frugal woman she was bought several large pieces of furniture from a sale uh after the purim purim was shut down uh when we moved these pieces uh were large were large posters with the leader's face on them and were pasted all over the backs of the furniture we all had a good laugh about it but still a freaky moment in time for a an area full of small little communities and that's it but i mean yeah that is chilling super chilling wow to clear out a space and find like remnants of such a traumatic dangerous time it's that's really

eerie um it's like a time capsule yeah yeah because it all got dismantled it's just it's so uh removed from the present yeah so it would be weird to look at it and hold it and be like wow there was a whole other world and community dealing with this the last time someone ever saw this stuff it's so wild yikes that is spooky um who is that from again did we say that was from amber thank you amber um okay so this is the last story then okay i'll get ready this is from kiana he's she her pronouns thank you kiana and the subject is spooky slam poetry my gosh people are really on board with this i'm telling you thank you for letting me uh read some too i'm sorry i got uh childish and whiny about it earlier um she's like i knew you would so anyway she's like this isn't my first rodeo with you

you and eve are both like your siblings if we don't if you don't share the space then someone's mad yep so uh it starts hey y'all m said they wanted some cryptid slash ghost slam poetry and that there's probably one person interested in that well here i am m well you're number four but you're in you're in line you're in the first group here so many of many by the way apparently well at least four four well i'm saying of many because i imagine many more will will present itself i feel like there were some other people who wanted to send in stories but then they were i mean there might have been more but eva just picked four to be fair i'm sure there were more of you or maybe they're like i don't want to be the only one who sends something in and now this

episode will let everyone know no no this is a this is a safe space to send in your poetry. We're kind of trying to mainstream it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, here I am, Em. So I guess knuckle and buckle. Let's go.

There's a car blasting Radiohead outside. So give me a moment. Well, that's actually perfect to really get yourself mentally of radio head and also i love that it gives me an extra second to really prepare for the another uh award-winning performance from christine schieffer oh thank you you're you're gonna have to take a few breaths here because um i think i'm gonna have to really get into it okay really get into it we don't even know who this is yet if it's mothman or we'll find out maybe it's that puck wedgie i was talking about maybe it is i feel the pull once again calling to me summoning me from the darkness the voices echoing inside my

head my hands are cold as death i I don't know where I am. I stumble a single step forward, blindly, arms outreached, fingers searching. Another step forward, the darkness breaks ever so faintly, a dull glow just ahead. The pull is so strong this time. I know I don't have long. Right, left, right, left, faster until my hands feel it. The barrier, firm yet giving under my touch. The voices are no longer in my head. I can hear them, just across from me,

just behind the barrier, calling to me, calling out my name. I start to see them, the faces, distorted from this side. I call back to them as I push against the barrier. All that comes out is a raspy screech. My hands force their way through. They stop calling out. I claw frantically for something, anything. If I could just get a hold, I could pull myself through. The faces start to vanish. I call out again, just a scream. I curse them for leaving. No sound escapes. Why do they always leave me? They must know I'm trapped. Why do they never help me through? The faces have all left. Without them, I'm pulled back into the darkness, haunted by their chance, wishing desperately that they would start again. So I wait. I'll wait forever if I have to. Wait for the call that swirls through my mind.

Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody. Oh, I just got chills. Oh my god. Pulitzer Prize. Pulitzer Prize.

I didn't expect that. I thought it was a moth stuck in a lamp and we went a completely other way i was trying to think i was i that one had like a little like uh like a twist to it i i did not i did not expect bloody mary i was like who's chanting and i get it now at some point i thought it was just like a plain old a plain old haunting and like a general ghost you know no i was picturing lamp the whole time i thought we were doing a lamp joke but wow that was spooky okay well done she said hope y'all enjoyed i definitely had a blast writing this stay spooky friends oh that's fun oh my gosh okay well there you. If you want, if you needed a sign that maybe you should try your hand at some cryptid poetry, there you have it.

You got it. Now I want to write one. This is fun. You were right. I take it back. Thank you. This is the shit. I am so into this right now. Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. Oh, Eva, thank you for letting uh get this out of our system and and perform it on air perform i mean i really am not in i'm not like a poet a poetry reader i certainly don't know what i'm no like i love to read giant anthologies well like when i was like

doing my two mothman ones earlier i feel bad because i'm like not and i don't know how to deliver poetry quite like you certainly were able to i i uh it's only because my dad used to read me a lot of poetry about you know dying and death mostly um so i tried to bring that kind of mystique into it and look where you are today christine look look how healthy i've turned out look how far you've come well adjusted i am thanks dad and thank you everyone for sending in your stories um we very much appreciate it if you would like to submit your own stories for future listeners episodes you can do that too uh and that's why we drink at gmail.com yeah i'm gonna start a new one called like uh i'll come up with a title but like a slam um a cryptid slam at gmail.com will work on it submissions i think it would i think it would also be fun if there was like a narrative at some point where someone describes

the scene like what the like what the what the poet is seeing in the audience. All of these other cryptids. It'll be like interior. Interior. Six rows of folding chairs. An espresso machine hisses in the background. And three rows of black eyed children on a field trip. You know, like. Black eyed children. Okay, let me.

Eva, write that down. I want to write a poem. Two poems where they're from different perspectives of different black eyed children. Hang on a second. Wait, a poet. A poetry where like one's the ghost and one's the live person. They're both dealing with their own version of the haunt. Yeah, they see the different experience from each other's eyes. Take me out of here.

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, if you've got spooky poetry, paranormal poetry, I'm trying to think of alliteration. Kiana, you did a great job with this. I mean, all of you did, this bloody mary was such a twist i love it look you you you got you gave me chills with a cryptid poem i didn't think that would happen and it did so i'm very impressed by all of you oh well i appreciate everybody please send in other personal true crime or paranormal stories as well as your cryptid slam poetry i would love i'm genuinely serious

i would love to have some sort of like annual poetry slam where we have people come 100 on board now like i thought i was like oh this is silly no no i am like one i'm one i'm in i'm on it i'm in i'll invest like i don't know what you need from me tmt i don't know i don't know what i can i can use a staple gun is that helpful you can use a cricket cutter you've got I can use a cricket I'll make some vinyl okay we're all gonna have t-shirts it's gonna be fun I am so excited you heard it here first folks uh and we'll figure that out at some point and at 3 a.m I suppose uh yeah definitely it will be late into the night after a lot of wine we will see you next month for our April listeners story, which is April 1st, April Fool's Day.

Oh, that's right. Oh, get ready. And that's why we drink.