Welcome to Night Vale - 165 - Charlie

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Nothing about Charles Rainier's average New England upbringing indicated he would one day be standing in the middle of a desert searching for fugitives from his own Asylum. (Part 3 of 5) Weather: ��Breathe” by Tanja Daub http://tanjadaub.bandcamp.com We have rescheduled tour dates and an added Louisville show: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/live/ Our third novel, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, is out now: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/books/ Music: Disparition http://disparition.info Logo: Rob Wilson http://robwilsonwork.com Written by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor. Narrated by Cecil Baldwin.  http://welcometonightvale.com Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Check out our books, live shows, store, membership program, and official recap show. Produced by Night Vale Presents.  http://nightvalepresents.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howdy y'all. It is Jeffrey Craneer. I'm not sure which episode of Welcome to Nightville you're listening to, but I am speaking to you from April of 2026. And I'm here to tell you we're going to be in Europe. If you want to see Nightville live and you're going to be in Europe, come check us out at the end of May. We're going to be in Edinburgh on May the 27th. We will be in Manchester on the 28th, London on the 29th, and Amsterdam on May the 30th. Just go to Welcome to Nightville.com slash live to see the show dates and to get your tickets. This is. our newest Nightville live show Murder Night in Blood Forest. It is so much fun. Please come check it out. Also, coming up this month here in April, it is the return of Alice Isn't Dead, brand new episodes of our other crazy hit podcast. This is written by Joseph Fink, produced and with music by Dysperition and starring Jacique and Nicole. So make sure you are still subscribed to Alice Isn't Dead and go get those on April the 13th as new episodes come out. Finally, speaking of other shows, do you want to hear us talk about other things? things. We have three other really great chat shows. First of all, there's Good Morning Nightvale for all of your Nightveil needs. You can hear Hal, Meg, and Symphony talk about every single

episode in order of Welcome to Nightvale. Also, we have Random Horror Number 9. That is me and Nightville star Cecil Baldwin talking about horror movies one at a time in a random order. And then Joseph and Meg do best, worst, which is a really fun podcast where they look at hit TV shows and they review the best rated on IMDB, the worst rated on IMDB, and if you're a Patreon member, they will review the middleest rated on IMDB. So check out all of those at Nightvillepresents.com or just wherever you get your podcast. And hey, thanks. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are written about on Wikipedia.

Welcome to Night Vale. Charles Raynor grew up in Beckett, Massachusetts. nestled in the rolling small hills of the Berkshires. The fiery fall leaves, pristine winter snowfall, lush spring flowers, and sparkling summer lakes belied the average life of young Charles. He went to school, passed his classes. He spent time with friends seeing popular movies and playing popular games. His family ate food together and generally got along.

When he wanted to be alone, he went to a small pond hidden in the woods to fish. He studied sociology at Amherst College and graduated in the top 50% of his class. Nothing about his unremarkable upbringing indicated he would one day be standing in the middle of a desert, behind a roadblock, holding a rifle and a flashlight, and searching for fugitives from his own, Asylum. Last month, a dozen inmates of the Night Vale Asylum escaped during a production of a play. As an attendee of that play, I would say that while the escape was clearly not part of the original draft of the script, it made for an exciting resolution.

I mean, about 30 minutes in, Carlos and I were like, is there going to be a car chase or a shootout or something? I mean that play was boring. And then suddenly, there was both. But the warden, Charles Rayner from Beckett, Massachusetts, did not like the last-minute edits to the plot, as he and the sheriff's secret police have yet to round up any of the inmates now on the run,

somewhere in our vast desert. Nightvale citizens have expressed deep concerns about their safety. A scathing op-ed in yesterday's Daily Journal by Leanne Hart read, Warden Rainer should never have been in charge of such an important institution. His unchecked irresponsibility will lead us all to be killed by psychopaths, who surely hide now inside our basements, our attics, our laundry hampers, perhaps inside our own pants, pockets. The editorial continued. They wield knives, ropes, wrenches, candlesticks, or pipes.

And when we least expect it, these crazed killers will leap out at us screaming about eating our faces, or feeding us to rodents, or whatever other evil actions those two very funny women are always describing on my favorite murder. Charles Rayner called Hart's Claims Neuropypical Abelism, saying that we've become too biased from movies and TV shows that play up harmful tropes about mental illnesses. He added that none of the people inside were of immediate danger to any individual in Nightvale. The Nightville chapter of the ACLU then responded, calling for an investigation into a public facility that would imprison people who had committed no criminal acts and were of no harm to society. Charles Rainer replied,

I said they wouldn't hurt any individual. I didn't say they were of no harm to society. But who were the people in the asylum? Carlos and I attended the production of the play 18713-X-N-T-SB, partially to have a nice date night, just the two of us, but also because I was curious if I would see Amelia Anna Alfaro, there. The air traffic controller has not been seen since 2012 after hearing voices from the missing flight, Delta 18-713. There were rumors she was checked into the asylum, other rumors that

she had gone off to find the missing plane, and other, other rumors that she was disappeared by a vague yet menacing government agency. Amelia was not inside the asylum the night of the breakout, but Doug Biondi was there. He played the pilot of the missing plane in the play we saw. Doug was the impetus for this entire story, really, because it was Doug who, according to Sheriff Sam, had real information about the missing plane.

Members of the National Transportation and Safety Board had also come to Nightvale to talk to Doug about what he knew. And Sheriff Sam obliged by sending those agents from Washington, D.C. on an undercover investigation into the asylum. Yet, like Doug, and the dozens of other inmates in that fearful place, they did not return. According to Doug Beyondy's journal, which Carlos and I found inside the asylum after the play, Warden Charles Rayner developed a paradoxical logic for dealing with his inmates. He encouraged them to talk openly about their feelings under the guise of healing them.

But the more they expressed their thoughts and emotions, the more the warden used this information as proof of their insanity and, by extension, ineligibility for release. But, as Doug elaborates, if inmates refused to talk, they were deemed uncooperative and, of course, ineligible for release. Reading further into Doug's journal, I realized it's just like that novel, Catch 22, in that there's a bunch of talk about airplanes. What stood out most to me, though, was the fact that every other inmate Doug mentions all. also talked about the missing Delta flight. Every single person in there either heard voices of the passengers,

or had theories about what happened, or were, in the case of the NTSB agents, just hoping to find survivors of a missing plane. Doug railed against the collusion between the warden and the sheriff to imprison people simply because they knew something, anything about Flight 18713. This is the last thing, Doug wrote, the day he escaped. This nefarious conspiracy runs deep.

Deeper than we can imagine. There are innocent people on a missing plane and our government wants to destroy us for seeking the truth. Oh well, in other news, they fix the TV in the rec room so I'm hoping. hoping to finally watch Cheer on Netflix. Everyone says it's super good. Doug makes a compelling claim here, but he is wrong. About the conspiracy thing. Not about cheer.

That show is super good. So, back in 2015, my devoted husband and devoted scientist, Carlos, was heading a research project into a day. desert otherworld, a place very similar to our own. We spent almost a year apart while Carlos was in this alternate dimension performing experiments and drawing charts and pouring bubbling liquids back and forth between flasks. It was hard. We had only been dating a year when he left, but we kept in touch talking almost every day, sending each other text messages at night like a A kissy face emoji with a big red heart emoji.

Or sometimes we sent racier messages like the safety goggles emoji with the police siren emoji and the first place ribbon emoji. Oh, sorry if that's a little too graphic. Anyway, Carlos made friends during his many months out of town, and so when he finally decided to return to Night Vale, some of those he met followed him. They came through a portal Carlos discovered in the desert otherworld, a one-sided door. It was difficult to find in a never-ending sandcape, but it is still there.

And as Carlos said, once you know the way, you never forget it. One of the people who came with Carlos through the portal in 2015 was Charles Rayner of Beckett Massachusetts. It was not easy for most of these new arrivals to find comfort or employment in Nightvale, but in just a few months, Charles had become friends with our new sheriff and secured himself a job at the Night Vale Asylum. Few people looked deeply at the asylum, nor at Charles Rainer's quick appointment as Warden. Few people, in fact, look closely at anything to do with mental disorders. It is almost as if we prefer not to see mental illness at all. It is almost exactly like that. Well below the radar of public attention, Charles settled into his new position.

And because there are no accounts of what went on in the asylum and thus no stories of failure, it was inferred that he did a good job. But Carlos discovered something this week. In reading Doug Beyondy's journal, Doug makes passing mention of Warden Rayner cautioning his inmates against listening to the voice of the pilot. The warden warns them that the pilot can control other beings with his mind. It is odd that the head of a mental health institution would patronize his patients with their own inner demons. Carlos at first thought the warden was, manipulating the mental stability of his charges to stir up their fear and confusion in order to keep them there. We don't know if the warden profited from retaining inmates or if he just felt an evil thrill from playing these games.

But in Doug's notes, the warden apparently said, it is possible to escape the allure of the pilot, the power of his voice. Some have, but it is rare, and it is dangerous that you can hear him at all. Carlos remembered when he first met Charles Rainer five years ago in the desert of the world. Charles was so enthralled with Carlos's stories of Night Vale. Charles Rainer could not wait to see this fantastic town, and more importantly, to leave the terrible place in which he lived. He told Carlos that he escaped some frightening people there. Charles Rainer said he had lived in a commune for a couple of years,

It began okay. They foraged and hunted their food. They helped each other and shared shelter inside the fuselage of an old plane. Everything was fine. They were alive, but soon the group became cult-like and aggressive, fashioning weapons and manufacturing enemies. The constant threat of violence toward others, towards themselves, shackled. Charles' every move, but he could not leave. Every time he tried, he heard a voice that called him back. So he trained himself to block out the voices. It took him weeks of determined practice, but finally he broke free.

Carlos said to me, Cecil, sweetie, my hypothesis is Charles Rayner was flying home from Detroit to Albany on June 15th, 2012. And I said, what are you saying, honey, pup? And Carlos said, babe, his plane blipped out of the sky and into the desert other world. And I said, are you saying, kitty cake, that Charles was a passenger on Delta 18713? But then Carlos said, you know, little piggy pie, all this work talk is exhausting. Let's have a glass of wine. Sit out on the deck and enjoy the nice weather.

Breathe up all a bit too much today, but in time You'll be fine You don't need to stop crying Just breathe in, breathe out, take your time Some days you'll run out of spoons But you will recover soon You'll be okay Doesn't have to be your breathing.

Breathe out. Take you to take you to. Listeners, I called Charles Rayner, and I told him what Carlos and I talked about, and he confirmed what we discovered. He was indeed a passenger on 18713. They landed roughly but safely in the desert otherworld in June 2012. They ate their few food items,

and drank their water stores in two days, and soon they began spreading out to find civilization. But the desert was vast and seemingly uninhabited. They were too afraid to venture far from the plane, the only symbol of recognizable society. The pilot led expeditions to find plant life and sources of water. He exuded calmness and clarity, and the passengers followed his example,

occasionally finding peace in this unpleasant and frightening desert. Within a few months, they had developed a rhythm. They were finding food to eat, water to drink. The pilot seemed to know exactly where to hunt, exactly what to say, exactly how to behave. Every passenger fell in line. They all had jobs to do, roles to fill, in this little commune. The fuselage kept them sheltered.

from the searing white days and the icy black nights. Sometimes they sang together, walked together, taught each other how to sew, how to cook, how to make tools. The passenger's fear became camaraderie, which became unity, which became family, which eventually became religiosity. One day they were making salves from cacti, and the next they were crafting weapons. Charles hadn't realized that at first, but every person on that plane could communicate telepathically. They could speak without talking. No, without learning. They were becoming a single organism separated into dozens of bodies.

The loudest voice in their heads? was the pilot. They had grown too complacent, and the pilot began to fill them once again with fear, fear of outsiders of the rest of the world. They began to make barbaric expeditions, hoping to find people or things to destroy. I tried to escape, Charles said to me.

I tried to escape over and over, but the voice was too strong. It was only when I thought about a little fishing hole down near Stockbridge that I would go to in summers by myself to get away, to be alone. Charles said he began to pantomime fishing, casting his imaginary lure on an imaginary line into an imaginary pond on hot desert sand. And when he did this,

The voices quieted in his mind. He could free himself from the pilot's voice, from the pilot's control. I asked Charles why he and Sheriff Sam were locking away people just for knowing about the plane. He said, Cecil, I locked up Doug Beyondy before anyone else. He's from that other world, and he knows how to get back. And if he knows how to get back, he'll join the 187. and lead them into Nightvale. Charles said he was protecting our little town from the threat of the passengers of Delta Flight 18713.

If the pilot enlists Doug and gets into Nightvale, he'll recruit who he can and destroy the rest. But why does he communicate only through Doug? I mean, why not Carlos or Dana Cardinal or Sheriff Sam themselves? Why not recruit everyone who knows the way into Nightvale? I don't know, Cecil. Charles snapped back. But I don't wheel it into existence by yapping about it either, so drop it. Listeners.

Doug Beyondy is about six foot tall, with an unsettlingly long smile and dark nightmarish eyes. If you see him. Contact the sheriff's office immediately. If you do not see Doug Beyondy, then close your windows, hold your family close and repeat a mantra that will clear your head of all outside thoughts. Stay tuned next for a meditative ome. A single oom. for one full hour, uninterrupted by breath and commercial free.

Good night, Nightvale. Good night. Welcome to Nightvale as a production of Nightvale Presents. It is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Craneer and produced by Disparition. The voice of Night Vale is Cecil Baldwin. Original music by Dysperition. All of it can be found at disparition. info or at disparation.com. bancamp.com. This episode's weather was breathe by Tanya Dowb. Find out more at tanya daub.

That's tanya daub. That's T-A-D-A-U-B. Comments, questions, email us at info at welcome to nightbail. Or follow us on Twitter at nightvale radio or live your most medium life. Today's proverb, the greatest trick the devil ever played was designing hotel lotion dispensers to look exactly like hand soap dispensers. Are you squeamish about horror movies but kind of want to know what happens? Or are you a horror lover who likes thoughtful conversation about your favorite genre? Join me, Jeffrey Kramer, and my friend from Welcome to Nightville, Cecil Baldwin, for our weekly podcast, Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number Nine,

where we watch and discuss horror movies in a random order. Find, here's the short version, Random Horror Nine, wherever you get your podcasts. Boo.