Lot 095 : I Invented A New Color. It’s Going To Kill A Lot Of People…

Speaker 1 This week's episode is brought to you by Universal Pictures Black Phone 2. On October 17th, discover the secret behind the mask.

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Speaker 2 This visit to the Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Speaker 2 Do you ever ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out?

Speaker 2 Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too.

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Speaker 1 Today's episode is sponsored by I Know What You Did Last Summer. Get it now on digital.

Speaker 1 When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences.

Speaker 1 A year later, their past comes back to haunt them, and they're forced to confront a horrifying truth. Someone knows what they did last summer, and is hell-bent on revenge.

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Speaker 1 I know what you did last summer is a perfect summer slasher, says Jordan Crucciolo of NPR. Your summer is not over yet.
Don't miss a killer movie night at home.

Speaker 3 Welcome, Traveler. Come in out of the dark and into the antiquarium.
You've arrived at just the right moment.

Speaker 3 Here, resting under glass, is a simple jar of pigment.

Speaker 3 But I would urge you not to gaze too long at its hue.

Speaker 3 Some colors belong to the world we know.

Speaker 3 Others are borrowed from somewhere else entirely.

Speaker 3 The artist who worked with this pigment believed he had made a discovery.

Speaker 3 But creation is a dangerous game, isn't it?

Speaker 3 Sometimes what we bring into the world has been waiting for us all along. This is lot number 095

Speaker 3 and with it the account of an artist who found that his work contained far more than pigment and brushstrokes. It is called

Speaker 3 I Invented a New Color.

Speaker 3 It's going to kill a lot of people.

Speaker 3 Before we begin, I want to point out some of the customers whose names have been etched in brass on this beautiful plaque I had made above the front desk.

Speaker 3 These are some of the members of the inner circle of the antiquarium. We go by the Obsidian Covenant.
Recent initiates include Kim Lecky,

Speaker 3 Vibalet,

Speaker 3 JD,

Speaker 3 Orion Lopez,

Speaker 3 Clara Franklin,

Speaker 3 Dasia Muta,

Speaker 3 Lord Mazrim,

Speaker 3 and

Speaker 3 Evil Below.

Speaker 3 We are ever appreciative of your devotion to the Order. Go to theObsidiancovenant.com to receive the sacrament.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 where were we?

Speaker 3 Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 Welcome to the Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings

Speaker 3 and Odd Goings On.

Speaker 3 I invented a new color.

Speaker 3 It's gonna kill a lot of people.

Speaker 3 All the trouble I've caused,

Speaker 3 the pain,

Speaker 3 the death,

Speaker 3 it all started

Speaker 3 with a breakthrough.

Speaker 3 I'm an artist and painter by trade, but also an inventor. I like to spend some of my spare time experimenting with creating new colors.

Speaker 3 It's a hobby, but I also make some money on the side.

Speaker 3 Primarily through a shade of purple I made. That is marginally popular as well as an ultra-dark shade of black.

Speaker 3 That one's fun because it looks really weird in everyday life to see a coffee mug or a t-shirt that is unnaturally colorless like a black hole or something.

Speaker 3 But this new one,

Speaker 3 this new one's different.

Speaker 3 I call it

Speaker 3 Grupel.

Speaker 3 The name is dumb, I know. But it's got my last name buried in it and it's a combination of the words green and purple.

Speaker 3 That makes sense because that's what the color is.

Speaker 3 Except that doesn't describe it well enough.

Speaker 3 Because people have combined those two colors before and it just turns into an ugly brownish-black barf sort of hue that nobody would want to use for anything.

Speaker 3 But this

Speaker 3 is different.

Speaker 3 It retains the essence of purple and green and makes something never before seen and amazing with them in the process.

Speaker 3 It's like looking at a rainbow for the first time.

Speaker 3 Startling and otherworldly.

Speaker 3 But since I created it,

Speaker 3 I've been

Speaker 3 seeing things.

Speaker 3 And they're all the same color.

Speaker 3 Grupal.

Speaker 3 My laptop, for instance, I turned it off because the colors had begun to look strange. And the problem had proved to be uncorrectable.

Speaker 3 That was when I saw movement in the corner of the blank screen. The reflection of something sliding just out of view at the edge.
I looked over my shoulder

Speaker 3 and saw there was nothing there.

Speaker 3 I left my room and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. The computer could be fixed.

Speaker 3 I thought to myself, I'd just take it over to my friend Dave's place since he always knew what to do with computer problems.

Speaker 3 In the reflection of the bathroom mirror, I saw the tub was no longer the old-fashioned shade of horrible out-of-fashion pink that it had been before,

Speaker 3 the one it had always been since I moved in.

Speaker 3 It was now

Speaker 3 purple.

Speaker 3 It was as if someone had come into my home and replaced my bathtub with someone else's.

Speaker 3 But of course that was impossible.

Speaker 3 My hands started to tremble, my heartbeat quickening as it felt like the world began to turn sideways on its axis.

Speaker 3 I tried to calm myself down, focusing on my breathing, focusing on anything that wasn't the fucking bathtub.

Speaker 3 The bathroom mirror was dirty, so I decided to quickly clean it to distract myself.

Speaker 3 As I finished wiping it off,

Speaker 3 I saw something in the corner of the glass surface, slipping out of view just as my eyes noticed it

Speaker 3 just like earlier with the computer monitor

Speaker 3 the slender pointed tail

Speaker 3 of a lizard

Speaker 3 that was how it looked anyways

Speaker 3 i went out into the hallway to check if a stray komodo dragon had snuck into my house somehow but again

Speaker 3 there was nothing

Speaker 3 I couldn't help but think that the color of whatever it was looked familiar, though.

Speaker 3 Whatever it was, it was colored purple.

Speaker 3 I got the impression of something looming and large, crafty and elusive.

Speaker 3 Its skin rough and thick.

Speaker 3 Suddenly it was there again,

Speaker 3 at the periphery of my vision.

Speaker 3 But upon inspection,

Speaker 3 I saw only empty space.

Speaker 3 Nearby,

Speaker 3 I could sense something enormous and awful,

Speaker 3 like a stormhead rolling in.

Speaker 3 Deciding to get out of my house, I left with my laptop to walk over to Dave's place. It was only a few blocks over.
It was a sunny day outside, humid and clear.

Speaker 3 I immediately wished I'd brought my sunglasses, but decided not to go back for them. It was a short walk.
As I ambled down the street, lugging my heavy old laptop,

Speaker 3 I started to have more and more troubles

Speaker 3 seeing.

Speaker 3 The sun was so bright, I found myself blinking repeatedly, then having more and more difficulty opening my eyes each time.

Speaker 3 My vision became reduced to momentary glimpses between each blink. until my eyes simply forced themselves closed.
I couldn't see it all anymore.

Speaker 3 The only thing I could see was the new color I had created.

Speaker 3 It filled my vision instead of the usual darkness when I blinked.

Speaker 3 I didn't know where I was,

Speaker 3 only that I had been walking on the sidewalk a moment before.

Speaker 3 There was no shade nearby and I was stranded, completely blind in the middle of my walk.

Speaker 3 Unfortunately for me, I had unwittingly crossed into the roadway and was no longer on the sidewalk, but standing in the middle of a busy intersection.

Speaker 3 Suddenly, someone tackled me, landing on me and sending me flying. I heard a car's tires squealing and smelled burnt brake pads.
A loud bang and the crunching of metal and breaking of glass.

Speaker 3 Then people were yelling at me. They were saying, What the hell were you doing standing in the road like that? You should be dead.

Speaker 3 Came the chorus from the people all around.

Speaker 3 I was in the ditch, and my vision came back suddenly, and I had no trouble seeing, as fear and adrenaline took over my body.

Speaker 3 Two cars were mangled and wrapped up together in the roadway, where they crashed into each other.

Speaker 3 The drivers were both bloodied and unconscious in their seats, and people were pulling them out as a fire started to spread from the engine of one vehicle.

Speaker 3 I couldn't see!

Speaker 3 I couldn't fucking see!

Speaker 3 I screamed, but nobody listened.

Speaker 3 The police came and took a statement from me.

Speaker 3 Then gave me a tongue-lashing I would never forget.

Speaker 3 I told them it was sunblindness.

Speaker 3 Which was true, I suppose. And they let me off without a charge of public endangerment causing bodily harm.

Speaker 3 Thankfully, everyone survived.

Speaker 3 If it hadn't been for the stranger who pushed me out of the way, I would have been dead.

Speaker 3 But he wasn't too impressed with my behavior either. My laptop was a write-off, and I limped home with a quickly swelling, twisted ankle.

Speaker 3 When I got back there,

Speaker 3 I could sense it waiting for me.

Speaker 3 It was like I could hear its breathing.

Speaker 3 The creature I had brought forth with my invention.

Speaker 3 Terrified, I decided I needed to destroy it.

Speaker 3 There was something wrong with that color.

Speaker 3 It wasn't meant for this world. I could tell that already.

Speaker 3 The experimental batches of Gropel were in my studio, in the basement, and I rushed down there.

Speaker 3 Forgive me. They say colors can stir memory or unlock emotion.
But this

Speaker 3 shade whispered to its maker. It urged him on.

Speaker 3 Tell me, if you discovered something the world had never seen,

Speaker 3 would you share it?

Speaker 3 Or burn it before it ever saw the light?

Speaker 3 Give it a bit of thought while I go and grab a sketch sketch pad and some brushes. For some reason, I feel

Speaker 3 inspired.

Speaker 2 This visit to the Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Speaker 2 Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out?

Speaker 2 Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too.

Speaker 2 You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com.

Speaker 2 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.

Speaker 2 Why, hello there. You've reached the antiquarium.
If you wish to leave a message, please do so with the town and have a great day

Speaker 4 hi i bought a carved chair uh an antique really

Speaker 4 very old you said

Speaker 4 very powerful you promised

Speaker 4 i bought this throne really for my husband

Speaker 3 He's a fan of antiques, history, ancient history.

Speaker 4 Well, I gave it to him. I gifted it to him.
And shortly after, he is

Speaker 4 hospitalized

Speaker 4 in a coma, they say.

Speaker 4 They don't know why. They don't know when or if he'll ever wake.
But I bought this from your shop, and I'm really mad. I'm really upset.

Speaker 4 Your reputation,

Speaker 4 I thought he would be dead, right? I didn't want him around. A coma?

Speaker 4 I was really hoping for more. I'm very disappointed.
I don't know if I'll shop again at your place.

Speaker 4 End of messages.

Speaker 3 Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 Let us return. The artist.

Speaker 3 The pigment.

Speaker 3 And what waited inside it.

Speaker 3 Shall we?

Speaker 3 There was something wrong with that collar.

Speaker 3 It wasn't meant for this world. I could tell that already.

Speaker 3 The experimental batches of Gropel were in my studio, in the basement, and I rushed down there.

Speaker 3 The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the thing following behind me. I was too afraid to look back.

Speaker 3 As I raced down the stairs, I nearly tripped, my bad ankle giving out on me as I hobbled down the wooden steps.

Speaker 3 My studio was just ahead, and I raced inside and went to my locked cabinet where I stored all my experimental work.

Speaker 3 The paintings I had done in the new color were there, as well as the jars containing the hue itself.

Speaker 3 It was a shame to destroy it, but it had to be done.

Speaker 3 It wasn't supposed to be here.

Speaker 3 I should never have brought it into existence.

Speaker 3 Pouring paint down the drain is a really bad idea, but I was desperate. So I went over to the sink with the small test batch and opened it, tilting the container to dump it out.

Speaker 3 But then

Speaker 3 something,

Speaker 3 a voice, stopped me, and and my skin went ice cold,

Speaker 3 goosebumps spreading across it.

Speaker 3 Hissed the thing from behind me.

Speaker 3 From the shadows. It wasn't real.
The monster wasn't real.

Speaker 3 I just had to pour out the paint.

Speaker 3 But something was stopping me.

Speaker 3 My eyes were drawn to the test paintings I had done.

Speaker 3 One of them stood out among the rest, and I found myself setting down the jar of paint and looking at it.

Speaker 3 I didn't remember painting it.

Speaker 3 The image showed a beast colored vividly in purple.

Speaker 3 It shone and reflected the light back at me,

Speaker 3 making me think of things.

Speaker 3 Awful things.

Speaker 3 Beautiful things.

Speaker 3 I couldn't tell the difference between them after a while as they flashed before my eyes.

Speaker 3 A dead girl at the bottom of a well.

Speaker 3 Roses in bloom.

Speaker 3 Roadkill with maggots.

Speaker 3 Bloated corpses coming in with the tide.

Speaker 3 Rotten skin. being peeled from a hand like a banana.

Speaker 3 Lemon meringue pie.

Speaker 3 A sunset over the ocean.

Speaker 3 Broken fingernails on the inside of a coffin lid. How did you manage to paint to me?

Speaker 3 Did you see me in a vision?

Speaker 3 For when you made this, I had not yet been to see you.

Speaker 3 You summoned me in a way.

Speaker 3 With this, a long talon on an even longer finger reached out and pointed at the image I had made.

Speaker 3 The one I had forgotten making.

Speaker 3 I could feel the thing behind me.

Speaker 3 It's breathing hot on my neck.

Speaker 3 I have

Speaker 3 never

Speaker 3 seen a depiction as striking as this, though.

Speaker 3 You perfectly captured my

Speaker 3 essence.

Speaker 3 Thank you.

Speaker 3 Why don't you do more of these?

Speaker 3 It would be a shame to waste such a precious talent as yours.

Speaker 3 My hand hesitated, and I found myself not wanting to destroy the paint after all.

Speaker 3 I wanted to use it.

Speaker 3 There was an image I'd always wanted to depict. The paint would be perfect for it.
I just knew it.

Speaker 3 I set up my easel and began to draw, then prime,

Speaker 3 and then laid down the big blocks of color for what would be my greatest work to date.

Speaker 3 The piece consumed my life for three days.

Speaker 3 For 72 hours, I did nothing but paint.

Speaker 3 Once it was complete, I knew it was the best thing I had ever made.

Speaker 3 The image depicted Charon.

Speaker 3 The ferryman from Greek mythology.

Speaker 3 He was taking someone across the river Styx from our world into the underworld,

Speaker 3 the afterlife.

Speaker 3 The ferryman himself was richly painted in my new color.

Speaker 3 You should share it with the world.

Speaker 3 So I did.

Speaker 3 I took it to galleries,

Speaker 3 and the first few people who saw it didn't really like it as much as I did,

Speaker 3 despite an excellent composition.

Speaker 3 The consensus among them was that the color of Charon was off, that the color of him just looked like a brownish-black barf sort of hue.

Speaker 3 They didn't see the new color for some reason.

Speaker 3 So I brought it to more galleries, circling out further and further from my home until one owner I showed it to saw it. And I knew he really

Speaker 3 saw it.

Speaker 3 The well-dressed man immediately exclaimed in delight and took it from my hands. holding the piece up to inspect it,

Speaker 3 fawning over it.

Speaker 3 He told me how much he loved the painting and insisted on buying it for himself.

Speaker 3 He looked mesmerized and couldn't take his eyes from the piece. Please, I'll pay any price,

Speaker 3 he said, reaching for his checkbook.

Speaker 3 I wanted to work with him more, so I gave him a reasonable price and told him I'd be back.

Speaker 3 I would have plenty more paintings to share with him, all with similar subject matter.

Speaker 3 The thought had occurred to me that I needed to do a series of paintings focusing on Charon, but that would require a lot more paint. A couple more gallons would suffice, I told myself.

Speaker 3 So I ordered my supplies, and within a week, I had another large batch of Gwerpel made up.

Speaker 3 My next paintings were similar to the first.

Speaker 3 I rarely slapped a raid anymore. I just worked in my studio non-stop.

Speaker 3 The pounds were shedding from me, and I needed needed to make new notches on my belt pretty soon just to keep my pants up.

Speaker 3 The only thing that seemed important was painting.

Speaker 3 Until I called the gallery and heard the news.

Speaker 3 It turned out the owner of the place who had bought my painting of Charon

Speaker 3 was dead.

Speaker 3 He had committed suicide.

Speaker 3 He stopped leaving his house,

Speaker 3 becoming more and more isolated and catatonic,

Speaker 3 doing nothing but staring at the painting.

Speaker 3 Until one day,

Speaker 3 he had slid his wrists in front of it.

Speaker 3 He positioned furniture to lean against so that he could die while sitting up,

Speaker 3 admiring it.

Speaker 3 Green and purple,

Speaker 3 purple and green,

Speaker 3 life and death,

Speaker 3 death and life.

Speaker 3 I thought about this more and more after that.

Speaker 3 It's hard to want to paint when you know that your work will kill somebody.

Speaker 3 Well, maybe not everyone, but those who can truly see what lies beneath the colors,

Speaker 3 what glimmers back in the reflections.

Speaker 3 I'm afraid of what this has caused,

Speaker 3 what my work has brought about,

Speaker 3 terrified of what will come of it.

Speaker 3 But part of me still seems intent on showing it to others.

Speaker 3 So, what do you say?

Speaker 3 Do you want to see a sample of my work?

Speaker 3 W T

Speaker 3 R

Speaker 3 S E T D L W T P E S P P Y O T D A L T Y E P O T Y

Speaker 3 Thank you for your patronage. Hope you enjoyed your new relic as much as I've enjoyed passing along its sordid history.

Speaker 3 It does come with our usual warning, however.

Speaker 3 Absolutely no refunds, no exchanges, and we won't be held liable for anything that may or may not occur while the object is in your possession.

Speaker 3 If you've got an artifact with mysterious properties, perhaps it's accompanied by a history of bizarre and disturbing circumstances, maybe you'd be interested in dropping it and its story by the shop to share with other customers.

Speaker 3 Please reach out to antiquariumshop at gmail.com. A member of our team will be in touch.

Speaker 3 Till next time, we'll be waiting for you whenever you close your eyes

Speaker 3 in the space between sleep and dream

Speaker 3 during regular business hours, of course, or by appointment, only for you,

Speaker 3 our

Speaker 3 best customer.

Speaker 3 You have a good night now.

Speaker 3 The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings.

Speaker 2 Lot 095.

Speaker 3 I Invented a New Color. It's Going to Kill a Lot of People.

Speaker 2 Written by Jordan Group, starring Trevor Shand, Mark Lapointe, and David Piper.

Speaker 3 Featuring Stephen Knowles as the antique dealer.

Speaker 2 Engineering production and sound design by Trevor Shand.

Speaker 3 Theme music by the Newton Brothers. Additional music by COAG and Vivek Abishek.
The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings is created and curated by Trevor and Lauren Shand.

Speaker 3 Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at AntiquariumPod. Call the Antiquarium at 646-481-7197.

Speaker 2 This visit to the Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Speaker 2 Shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out?

Speaker 2 Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too.

Speaker 2 You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today at Progressive.com.

Speaker 2 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.