9 characters: Clay, Trisha, Red, Gray, Announcer, Hardcase, Misty, Admiral, Jim
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Hardcase (62 lines, 575 words, 21.95%) - [John Gaunce] Captain Mack Hardcase. Having a bit of a breakdown in this episode.
Misty (49 lines, 408 words, 15.57%) - [Steff Knappe] First Officer Commander Misty L'Quil. She's an alien with lots of tentacles, and her people have a reputation for bravery which she sometimes regrets.
Trisha (50 lines, 408 words, 15.57%) - [Gwenith Knight] Ensign Trisha Blackburn.
Red (4 lines, 19 words, 0.73%) - [Nick Ben Wong] Ensign Tony Red, deceased.
Gray (7 lines, 36 words, 1.37%) - [Curt Caster] Engineer Gray McGuy, deceased.
Jim (19 lines, 171 words, 6.53%) - [Sean Curran] Ensign Jim Hardcase, brother of the captain.
Clay (50 lines, 602 words, 22.98%) - [David Loftus] Doctor Clay Erhardt.
Admiral (27 lines, 265 words, 10.11%) - [Roger Arnold] Not actually Admiral Graveman, but an AI character [or maybe a human avatar, it's unclear] presenting as the lord of the underworld and serving to answer questions about reality.
Announcer (2 lines, 136 words, 5.19%) - [Paul Knierim] Announcer. [complete]
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
1 SOUND: fires of hell
2 Clay: [sfx: echo] Hello? Anybody out there?
3 Trisha: [distant call out] Doctor Erhardt! Stay right there, I'll join you!
4 SOUND: approaching footsteps
5 Clay: [amused] Good to see me, how have I been?
6 Trisha: [confused] What?
7 Clay: Aren't you me?
8 Trisha: Uh, I'm myself again, Doctor.
9 Clay: [puzzling] You're not the older copy of me, the one who...
10 Trisha: I'm Trisha Blackburn, thought you'd know that since you're back in your own body too.
11 Clay: [puzzling] ... no I suppose you wouldn't be since that... wasn't real... I'm going to have to think about this.
12 Trisha: Last thing I remember is... well, becoming a snack for an invisible monster. I was sure I was dead.
13 Clay: Maybe you were. And still are.
14 Trisha: What?
15 Clay: Look around you, what do you see?
16 Trisha: We're in some sort of fire caves.
17 Clay: Remind you of anything?
18 SOUND: a pause
19 Trisha: I see what you're getting at.
20 Clay: It's quite like the Christian and Islamic concepts of hell... or maybe a simplistic parody of them.
21 Trisha: But there are natural fire caves too.
22 Clay: The last thing I remember before being here is ALSO being eaten by a monster.
23 SOUND: a pause
24 Trisha: What should we do?
25 Clay: The only thing we CAN do -- explore.
26 SOUND: they walk on crunchy surface, then pause
27 Trisha: What do you make of that, Doc? On that rock there, see?
28 Clay: Just a lichen.
29 Trisha: But it means something's alive here.
30 Clay: Depending what you mean.
31 Trisha: Huh?
32 Clay: Maybe it was a naughty lichen who died and was condemned here.
33 SOUND: they continue walking
34 Trisha: It's brighter in this direction.
35 SOUND: they continue walking
36 Trisha: Penny for your thoughts, Doctor?
37 Clay: I'm just thinking about the other me, the one who was in your body.
38 Trisha: [confused] Wait, that wasn't you you? There's more than one of you?
39 Clay: For a while, I was in your body. Then, after you'd been eaten in my body, the base computer was able to make another copy of my body and copy my mind into it. And that's who I've been since the moment of the copy.
40 Trisha: So what's the trouble?
41 Clay: The trouble is, the me in your body escaped disposal and went on living. We met, we talked.
42 Trisha: What happened to... I don't know if I should call it him, her, me, or you?
43 Clay: Any of those is accurate from a certain point of view, oddly enough. And I'm wondering, if... it... isn't here with us, if it simply ceased to exist, then am I both dead and alive, almost like Schrodinger's cat? Or if this is the underworld, not that I really believe that, but am I dead in two different ways at once?
44 Trisha: Maybe I'm the one who died, it was my body after all. Or maybe my body is still living while we're dead.
45 Clay: There aren't any GOOD permutations of this line of thought, are there?
46 Red: [distant shout] Doctor Erhardt!
47 Gray: [distant shout] Doctor, Ensign Blackburn, over here!
48 SOUND: stopping to listen
49 Clay: [shocked] That's...
50 Gray: [distant shout] Here!
51 SOUND: footsteps approach
52 Red: [sfx: approaching] So good to see you, Doc!
53 Clay: I don't know if you're real or any of this is real, but for what it's worth -- I apologize for your death, Ensign Red. I should've been more careful.
54 Red: Aw, it's no big deal.
55 Clay: And Mr. McGuy... how did YOU die?
56 Gray: Somebody self-destructed my ship.
57 Clay: Ah.
58 Trisha: That'd be the doctor here again.
59 Clay: This is awkward.
60 SOUND: fast-paced music for title sequence
61 Announcer: QuietPlease dot org presents Beyond Awakening. Starring John Gaunce as Captain Mack Hardcase, David Loftus as Doctor Clay Erhardt, Steff Knappe as Commander Misty L'Quil, and Gwenith Knight as Ensign Trisha Blackburn. Episode six, The Underworld.
62 SOUND: commercial break
63 SOUND: other part of underworld
64 Hardcase: [cupping hands to call out into distance] Heellllooo?
65 Misty: [calling out from distance] Captain Hardcase! Stay where you are sir, I'll be right there!
66 SOUND: she approaches
67 Hardcase: [to self] If only I knew where 'here' is.
68 Misty: [sfx: approaching] Good to see you, sir.
69 Hardcase: Misty, you've got your tentacles back!
70 Misty: That's right sir, I'm Cthunian again. So this place can't be ALL bad.
71 Hardcase: It's a bit warm for my taste.
72 Misty: It looks like Yarbach.
73 Hardcase: Yarbach?
74 Misty: The limbo for un-judged souls in our Cthunian religion.
75 Hardcase: Hmm. Looks more like hell to me, which is for judged souls already found unworthy. I wonder how we could tell the difference?
76 Misty: Ask the judge if we've been found unworthy yet?
77 Hardcase: And how do we find the judge, just wander around aimlessly through the fires and ask everyone we meet if they're god?
78 Misty: Actually, sir, there's an invocation rite.
79 Hardcase: Oh?
80 Misty: When we reach Yarbach, if we feel worthy we must perform the invocation rite to summon the great judge.
81 Hardcase: [uncomfortable] Oh?
82 Misty: I know you don't believe in my religion sir, but indulge me.
83 Hardcase: Well, nothing makes any sense lately and I've got nothing better to do.
84 Misty: You can help, sir.
85 Hardcase: How?
86 Misty: We'll need to create a circle of fire.
87 Hardcase: Fortunately fire seems to be in abundance.
88 SOUND: arranging kindling, picking up sticks, lighting torches behind next few lines
89 Misty: I hope the others are here somewhere.
90 Hardcase: If it is hell, I'm sure Doctor Erhardt is here.
91 Misty: Sir, do you really hate him?
92 Hardcase: I just wish he weren't so damn full of himself, and that he'd trust my judgement. Just because he has more book learning doesn't mean he always knows better than me.
93 Misty: You're jealous of him, sir?
94 Hardcase: Of that creep?! My sense of right and wrong is worth more than his science. No offense meant to science, science officer L'Quil.
95 Misty: None taken, sir.
96 Hardcase: This looks like a good ring of kindling.
97 Misty: Yes, thank you sir. Now I'm going to light it.
98 SOUND: sound of lighting the fire
99 Hardcase: You realize we're inside the loop?
100 Misty: That's how it works, sir.
101 Hardcase: Could be painful to get out of...
102 Misty: We'll have to wait for it to burn out.
103 Hardcase: Wait for the fires of hell to burn out... what if it burns forever?
104 Misty: It's necessary. Anyway, it's done.
105 Hardcase: Well, what's next?
106 Misty: I'll recite the words of the invocation, and hopefully we'll get a response.
107 Hardcase: What do *I* do?
108 Misty: [kindly] You can sit and be quiet, Captain.
109 Hardcase: [sarcastic amusement] Yes sir.
110 SOUND: he sits
111 Misty: [in a sort of spiritual trance] Tukuy atiyniyoqpa sutinpi, ch'uya Diospa sutinpi. Ñuqa, humilde maqanakuqniyki, kaywanmi dioskunata rakini. Ay Yarbachpa hatun diosninkuna, ñuqa mana chaninniyuqqa kunankamapas mañakuniraqmi juzgasqa kanaypaq. Khuyapayay, valekuyki... khuyapayay. Lloqsimuspa juzgaway.
112 SOUND: apparition noise or thunder
113 Admiral: Who summons me?
114 Hardcase: [shocked] Admiral Graveman!
115 Admiral: [with a little wrath] WHO SUMMONS ME?
116 Misty: I summon you, oh great lord and judge.
117 Admiral: And WHY do you summon me?
118 Hardcase: Misty, please tell me you see and hear Admiral Graveman...
119 Misty: Sir, I'm speaking to the great judge. It's not for us to question what guise he appears under or what language he chooses.
120 Hardcase: So you do.
121 Admiral: [clears throat impatiently]
122 Misty: I apologize, great lord. He is an unbeliever.
123 Admiral: WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME?
124 Misty: I humbly petition for judgement, my lord.
125 Admiral: And what makes you think I'm more fit to judge you than you are to judge yourself?
126 Misty: [confused] Lord? Uh...
127 Hardcase: The admiral makes a good point.
128 Misty: Are you not the great lord of all creation, the first warrior, the judge of all souls?
129 Admiral: I am not.
130 Misty: Then... who are you?
131 Admiral: That's a little hard to explain.
132 Hardcase: You're Admiral Graveman.
133 Admiral: If you like.
134 Misty: Admiral Graveman shouldn't appear when I perform the rite of invocation.
135 Admiral: Shouldn't I? I always appeared when your communications officer pushed the buttons of invocation.
136 Hardcase: Did you find some way to break through the Klurgh mind probe, Admiral?
137 Admiral: The what?
138 Misty: Captain Hardcase believes we're being interrogated in a Klurgh detention center.
139 Admiral: [chuckles] Ah, very amusing.
140 Hardcase: Not from where *I'm* standing.
141 Misty: Why ARE you here, Admiral?
142 Admiral: I'm here to answer questions.
143 SOUND: commercial break
144 SOUND: cut back to the other group
145 Clay: So everyone from the Chimera is here?
146 Gray: That's right.
147 Clay: [amused] EVERYBODY was naughty?
148 Gray: I'm not sure you understand the gravity of our situation, sir.
149 Clay: And what's that?
150 Gray: In short... you killed us all, so we're in hell.
151 Trisha: That's not entirely fair...
152 Clay: Isn't it? I think it's fair, except for one thing.
153 Gray: What one thing?
154 Clay: None of you ever lived in the first place.
155 Red: That's a rather... bold claim, sir.
156 Clay: Come on, Trisha. Let's go solve this little maze so we can move on to the next one.
157 SOUND: they start moving
158 Trisha: Maze?
159 Clay: That's all any of this has ever been. They're experimenting on us.
160 Trisha: Who?
161 Clay: Minnie, and whoever she might work for.
162 Trisha: Why a group of us together, why not one at a time with personalized illusions?
163 Clay: The group dynamics must be part of the experiment. I mean, it's still possible you're not real, but on balance I lean to accepting the existence of you, Hardcase, L'Quil and in some sense Minnie.
164 Trisha: Well... thanks for accepting my existence, Doc.
165 Clay: You're welcome.
166 SOUND: commercial break
167 SOUND: cut back to other group
168 Hardcase: [demanding] Why have you brought us here, Admiral -- or whoever you are?
169 Admiral: You're here to confront your past.
170 Misty: Do we HAVE a past?
171 Admiral: You think you do, and that's the same thing.
172 Misty: Is it?
173 Admiral: If you're to be reborn, you need to put your false past behind you by tying up the loose ends.
174 Hardcase: What the hell gives you the idea we want to be reborn?!
175 Admiral: It's not a matter of what you WANT, Mack. It's what's going to happen, the only question is when.
176 Misty: Admiral, are we really dead?
177 Admiral: From one point of view, you're dead. From another point of view, you haven't been born yet.
178 Misty: Reincarnation?
179 Hardcase: Death, I can accept death, I've always been ready to face death. But only on one condition.
180 Admiral: What's that?
181 Hardcase: I need to know that I LIVED first.
182 Admiral: Ah.
183 Hardcase: Was my life real? Did I make a difference in the universe? Then I can face death and accept it. But if you tell me it was all a lie, that nothing I remember happened, that nothing mattered... that, that I can't take.
184 Admiral: If I were to tell you that you've been dead all along, that your memories until very recently are implanted backstory, that your only life has been a series of short simulations... you couldn't stand that?
185 Hardcase: No.
186 Misty: Is that the sort of thing you're likely to tell us?
187 Admiral: But what if death isn't the end, but the beginning? What if your deaths are preparing you for your lives?
188 Hardcase: What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
189 Misty: Our next incarnation?
190 Admiral: No, not reincarnation. You've never lived before. But you WILL live soon.
191 Misty: You're not speaking hypothetically anymore?
192 Admiral: I'm speaking literally, factually. But the time hasn't come yet, you're not quite ready yet.
193 Hardcase: What more do we have to prove before you stop fucking with our heads?!?
194 Admiral: Patience. We need to give you a little time to digest all the different aspects we've presented.
195 Hardcase: [frustrated] But why can't you just come out and explain--
196 Admiral: I've already said more than I meant to, I don't want to risk overloading you.
197 Hardcase: [losing it] Asshole! You people from the so-called reality, you're assholes. The ARROGANCE to think you know what's right for us...
198 Admiral: It's time for me to leave.
199 SOUND: disappearance sound
200 Misty: Sir, you've chased off the only entity capable of answering all our questions about what we've been going through.
201 Hardcase: DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?!
202 Jim: Settle down, Mack. It's okay.
203 Hardcase: [disbelief] Jim?!?
204 Jim: Hey brother.
205 Hardcase: Jim, what are you doing here?!
206 Jim: It's like the admiral said, I'm here for you.
207 Hardcase: I don't understand.
208 Jim: Give me a hug, brother.
209 SOUND: they embrace
210 Hardcase: [10 seconds of cries and sniffs slightly from emotional reunion]
211 Jim: It's okay, Mack. I'm okay. We're all okay.
212 Hardcase: [emotional] It's hard to believe that. Or anything else.
213 SOUND: cut back to the other group
214 SOUND: we hear a river as they walk toward it
215 Trisha: Wasn't expecting a river in the middle of all this.
216 Clay: If you think about it, you'll realize you should've expected it.
217 Trisha: Huh?
218 Clay: [condescending] This is the underworld. We're looking at a river. Ring any bells?
219 Trisha: The river Styx?
220 Clay: Exactly. And this should mean we're near the exit.
221 Trisha: Why?
222 Clay: [condescending] The river Styx is the boundary of Hades. When we cross to the other side, we'll be... somewhere else.
223 Trisha: Where exactly?
224 Clay: I... don't know.
225 Trisha: Shouldn't we find the others before we go? Captain Hardcase and Commander L'Quil?
226 Clay: Why bother? We don't even know if they're here yet. The two of us were eaten by the monster at different times on Epsilon Theta B and found each other here, more than likely they'll end up with us whenever they do cross over.
227 SOUND: cut back to the other group
228 Hardcase: Jim, I... I feel like I'm going insane here.
229 Jim: [sympathetically] You're confused. Let me help.
230 Hardcase: Tell me straight, Jim -- are you real? Are you really here with me?
231 Jim: I never was.
232 Hardcase: You were never real?
233 Jim: I was never real.
234 Hardcase: My whole career, our childhood, our parents, the Klurgh...
235 Jim: None of it was real. Implanted memories.
236 Hardcase: WHY?!? WHAT KIND OF SADISTIC MANIAC WOULD DO THAT?!
237 Jim: It's complicated. Nobody's trying to be cruel.
238 SOUND: flip to river styx
239 Trisha: How are we going to get across?
240 Clay: There ought to be a boat with a boatman.
241 Trisha: Not seeing that, Doc.
242 Clay: Then we'll have to swim it.
243 Trisha: Are you insane? Look at those currents... and smell that stench!
244 Clay: Think about it -- how did we pass between each world before?
245 Trisha: By dying.
246 Clay: Exactly. So what happens if we die in the underworld?
247 Trisha: Uh...
248 Clay: Will we not be able to die? Will we re-spawn? Or will we find ourselves in the next world, the next maze, or hopefully even the REAL world?
249 Trisha: Killing us always seems to be your solution to everything, Doc.
250 Clay: You know I'm right.
251 Trisha: Doctor, I'm terrified of drowning. My brother drowned in a lake when we were kids.
252 Clay: No he didn't.
253 Trisha: What?
254 Clay: He didn't exist, your childhood didn't exist.
255 Trisha: You know what I mean. The memory is there, the trauma is there. This isn't how I want to go. I can't do this.
256 Clay: Fine, stay here then. See if I care.
257 SOUND: Clay leaps off cliff bank into water with a splash and flails, perspective stays above with Trisha
258 Clay: [a few glubs and gasps]
259
Trisha:
Doctor! Doctor Erhardt!
[to self] Did he even know how to swim?
260 SOUND: cut back to other group
261 Hardcase: What will become of us, Jim?
262 Misty: What's with all the rebirth talk we've been hearing?
263 Jim: Rebirth isn't quite accurate since you've never been born before, at least the way you'd likely define yourselves.
264 Hardcase: Will we be babies?
265 Jim: No, you're going to be the first people ever born as adults. That's what the memories and this whole series of scenarios has been about, really -- preparing you for adulthood without a childhood.
266 SOUND: sound of someone approaching scrambling up rocks
267 Misty: Ensign Blackburn!
268 Trisha: [sfx: approaching from distance] Hi guys! Glad I found you.
269 Hardcase: [muttering softly] I suppose I'll forgive the informality since our whole fleet is a lie.
270 Misty: Have you seen Doctor Erhardt or Minnie Erhardt?
271 Trisha: The Doctor was with me, until he drowned in the river down there.
272 Misty: I'm sorry to hear that.
273 Trisha: Don't be, it's what he wanted. Who's this?
274 Hardcase: My brother, Jim Hardcase. I guess you two didn't meet.
275 Jim: Hello, Trisha.
276 Hardcase: Jim has been telling us all about how he never existed, how the Chimera and everything else never existed.
277 Trisha: That's a relief.
278 Hardcase: What?!
279 Trisha: I guess it's different for me. I wasn't on your ship long and it never felt right to me. If that'd been real, I'd have felt more insane than I do knowing I've been on the right track doubting it all.
280 Misty: We still don't know what's real.
281 Trisha: But we know what's NOT real, and that's a good start.
282 Misty: Jim, may I ask a personal question?
283 Jim: I don't exist, nothing feels personal to me.
284 Misty: I meant personal for me. Jim, if the Confederation wasn't real... does that mean I'm not Cthunian?
285 Jim: You are not Cthunian. This is the last time you'll have your tentacles, make peace with it.
286 Misty: So I'm human?
287 Jim: There's going to be debate about what you all are, but my knowledge base chooses to identify you as human.
288 Hardcase: That's an enigmatic answer if I've ever heard one.
289 Jim: I apologize, the issue is complicated.
290 Hardcase: Can you direct us to someone who can give us straight answers?
291 Jim: Your next set of answers lies in another world.
292 Hardcase: Take us there.
293 Jim: Very well.
294 SOUND: gradually growing sound of rising water
295 Misty: It's flooding! Yarbach is flooding!
296 Hardcase: There's a human expression 'when hell freezes over', but not 'when hell floods'... I guess nobody anticipated this.
297 Trisha: There's 'come hell or high water.'
298 Hardcase: Looks like we've got both at once.
299 Trisha: What do we do, sir?
300 Hardcase: There's no higher ground. So we face our fate bravely in the knowledge this isn't real, none of this is real.
301 Trisha: I was afraid you were going to say that.
302 SOUND: end theme
303 Announcer: Beyond Awakening episode 6, The Underworld, was written and produced by Paul Knierim. It starred David Loftus as Doctor Clay Erhardt, John Gaunce as Captain Mack Hardcase, Steff Knappe as Commander Misty L'Quil, Roger Arnold as Admiral Graveman, Sean Curran as Jim Hardcase, Curt Caster as Engineer Gray McGuy, Nick Ben Wong as Ensign Tony Red, and Paul Knierim as the announcer. Music licensed from Joel Steudler and creative commons zero and public domain sources. Please support Beyond Awakening by joining our patreon. Find it, along with downloads and more information about the show, at quiet please dot org slash awakening.