217 - Salmon Burger

Speaker 1 Hey, y'all, it is Jeffrey Kraner speaking to you from the year 2025. And did you know that Welcome to Night Vale is back out on tour? We are.

Speaker 1 We're going to be up in the northeast in the Boston, New York City area, going all the way over to the upper Midwest in Minnesota. That's in July.

Speaker 1 You kind of draw a line through there and you'll kind of see the towns we'll be hitting. We'll also be doing Philly down to Florida in September.

Speaker 1 And we'll be going from Austin all the way up through the middle of the country into Toronto, Canada in October.

Speaker 1 And then we'll be doing the West Coast plus the Southwest plus Colorado in January of 2026. You can find all of the show dates at welcome to nightvale.com/slash live.

Speaker 1 Listen, this brand new live show is so much fun.

Speaker 1 It is called Murder Night in Blood Forest, and it stars Cecil Baldwin, of course, Symphony Sanders, me, and live original music by Disparition, and who knows what other special guests may come along for the ride.

Speaker 1 These tours are always so much fun, and they are for you, the Die Hard fan, and you, the Night Vale new kid alike.

Speaker 1 So, feel comfortable bringing your family, your partner, your co-workers, your cat, whatever. They don't got to know what a night veil is to like the show.

Speaker 1 Tickets to all of these live shows are on sale now at welcometonightvelle.com/slash live. Don't let time slip away and miss us when we are in your town because otherwise we will all be sad.

Speaker 1 Get your tickets to our live US plus Toronto tours right now at welcometonightveld.com/slash live. And hey, see you soon.

Speaker 1 Hi, this is Vin from the band Caged Animals.

Speaker 1 You've heard our songs Radio Down and Wildflowers on the weather, and I wanted to let you know that we've got a new album called Make Strange Friends, which blends nine character-driven songs with a nightvale-inspired radio play.

Speaker 1 If you're curious to hear it or pick up a copy on Ruby Red Vinyl, you can visit us at cagedanimals.bandcamp.com. Thanks a lot.

Speaker 1 So just keep driving around

Speaker 1 two feet from the street

Speaker 1 with the radio down.

Speaker 1 Don't turn it off for

Speaker 1 me.

Speaker 1 Need a prophecy? Take a prophecy. Have a prophecy? Leave a prophecy.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Night Vale.

Speaker 1 Um, I'm sorry in advance, Nightmale. I can't find any of my notes.
I had so many stories for you today, but they're all gone now. There was something about a sinkhole and

Speaker 1 something about a flesh-gnawing virus.

Speaker 1 I think a lion escaped from the zoo, or maybe it just visited the zoo. No, no, no, a lion bought a zoo.
That's it.

Speaker 1 My point is, I had all my paperwork in a neat stack next to my microphone, but station management moved it. Or they threw it away or ate it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 But what was left in place of my neatly typed and well-researched news stories was a pile of memos about office renovations.

Speaker 1 We have to clean out our workspaces before we leave today and move to temporary offices in the basement for next week.

Speaker 1 Station management has hired contractors to install new lighting, redo the insulation, replace the carpet, paint the walls, and exercise a malevolent spirit. Oi, that last one.

Speaker 1 Apparently the sales team forgot to close the seance that they opened during a client presentation last week.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I know this because, as I was talking to you, another three-page memo was tossed onto my desk reminding us all the exact procedures for properly ending a seance.

Speaker 1 Anyway. All I've been doing today is cleaning up my office space.
I didn't even eat lunch, but I do have a salmon burger sitting right here, just waiting to be eaten.

Speaker 1 I don't remember ordering it, but there it is. A thick, juicy, mysterious fish patty with melted camembert and salami on a sourdough bun.

Speaker 1 Oh wow, I'm starving. But I must wait until the show is done.

Speaker 1 And now an update on former intern Kareem.

Speaker 1 So earlier this morning, a man who looked, sounded, and smelled exactly like Kareem stopped by our offices. I was excited to see him, but he seemed not to know who I was or where he was.

Speaker 1 He said, I'm looking for my doppelganger, he used to work here. And I said, oh yeah, of course.
Wait, are you intending to kill him? I always heard you should kill your double.

Speaker 1 This version of Kareem paused. He said he hadn't considered that, but I could see on his face that he was considering it now.

Speaker 1 He wanted to know where his parents were. He told me that the other Kareem had taken them from his hometown in a place called Michigan

Speaker 1 Michigan

Speaker 1 Michigandan.

Speaker 1 And I remembered that intern Kareem had talked about this place before.

Speaker 1 I was about to offer to make some calls when I heard a deep, booming voice from behind me. It was a voice, a voice that sounded like many voices.
Too many voices.

Speaker 1 Inhuman voices.

Speaker 1 No

Speaker 1 guests.

Speaker 1 The voice boomed. I saw Karim's face go pale and slack.
His eyes bulged. He saw what was behind me.
He saw what no one should ever see. He saw station management.

Speaker 1 Run, I whispered urgently to him, but he did not move. Run, I grunted again.

Speaker 1 Above him, a set of long razor-sharp teeth hung, and just like that, they snapped down on empty air. Right where Karim's head had been seconds before.
He was finally running.

Speaker 1 Station management chasing him down the hall to the front entrance. Don't stop, I called to him, and under no circumstances should you look back.

Speaker 1 So, if you're my former intern Karim, and you're listening to the show right now, first off, hey, how are you? Second, you have a double, and I think he might want to kill you?

Speaker 1 Or maybe just talk to you, or something in between. Anyway, heads up about that.

Speaker 1 Dang, thinking about doppelgangers makes me hungry.

Speaker 1 That salmon burger looks good. It's double stacked with bright pink meat and long tendrils of fried onions hanging down.

Speaker 1 It has a

Speaker 1 sheen to it, like

Speaker 1 it's sweating, and it...

Speaker 1 It... This is going to sound weird, but even though it doesn't have eyes or a face, face, the salmon burger seems to be staring at me.

Speaker 1 Oh, Cecil, you're only hungry. Let it go.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 so another set of memos just got tossed onto my desk. Let's see what's in these.
Please burn all paycheck stubs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 Please only use reply all when you're really mad about something. Yeah, who cares? No more building false idols in the break room.
Oh, that's written for you, Kathleen.

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm happy you found religion, but we're all tired of hearing about Hunter Carr returning to human form on Earth. Let's see, here's another memo, and this one's directed at me.

Speaker 1 Attention, Cecil Gershwin-Palmer, you have been placed in charge of cleaning out the basement.

Speaker 1 It says here that the finance office has already cleared out all the boxes. I only need to do a thorough sweep and wet mop the floors.
This is ridiculous. Why me?

Speaker 1 We have Clarence Murphy, the maintenance man, to do all of that. That's his job too.

Speaker 1 Listeners?

Speaker 1 A very warm and

Speaker 1 damp hand just slid another memo over my shoulder.

Speaker 1 Ugh, I want to turn around to see who or what it is, but I know I should not. Never look back, Cecil.
Never look back.

Speaker 1 Okay, the subject line. The maintenance man.

Speaker 1 Body of Memo says, It was 40 years ago on a night just like tonight. Maintenance man Clarence Murphy disappeared.
Some say he retired and moved to Palm Desert.

Speaker 1 Some say he fell into the boiler, his body never discovered. Some say he transcended to the next plane of being, but the truth is he never existed in the first place.

Speaker 1 We are all Clarence Murphy, the maintenance man.

Speaker 1 He was a collective dream. He had no body, yet he lives on within us.
So please, pretty please, with sugar on top, clean the stupid basement, Cecil. XOXO, station management.

Speaker 1 And they scotch taped a single bloody tooth to the bottom of the page. The whole tooth.
All the way down the root stem.

Speaker 1 I'm so tired. I need food badly.
Where's that salmon burger? Maybe I can take a quick bite or or two between.

Speaker 1 Where'd it go?

Speaker 1 The salmon burger was sitting right here, only two feet from me, and now...

Speaker 1 now it's gone. Ah! Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Oh, you scared me.

Speaker 1 Listeners, there's a strange man hunched over my desk. Oh, sorry.
Hi, Cecil. It's me, Joseph Fink.
We we met in the coffee shop a few weeks back.

Speaker 1 You said I could come visit you at the station whenever I wanted. Oh, yes, of course.

Speaker 1 Joseph, the pod.

Speaker 1 Pod.

Speaker 1 Pod person.

Speaker 1 Yeah, podcaster. I created Nightfall, and that's why I wanted to come by.
I've been trapped here in this town of my own making, and it's been really hard. Not because it's not a nice place.

Speaker 1 It's surprisingly nice here, in fact. It's been hard because I've been trying to get home.
to see my wife, Meg, and my baby, who I've never met and is more than a year old now.

Speaker 1 Oh, Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. You know, my husband and I went through a similar situation a few years back.
Oh, of course you did.

Speaker 1 I wrote that. I don't follow.

Speaker 1 You know what? That was very nice of you to say. Thank you.
But while searching for a way home, I've managed to meet a lot of people in Nightfale, and it's fascinating.

Speaker 1 I met Dana Cardinal, and she's... This isn't going to make any sense to you, but she sounds exactly like my friend Josica, though she looks totally different.

Speaker 1 I realize in writing the characters for this show that I never really think about what they look like. I guess I just envision the actors who play them.
I don't know. Uh, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 1 This isn't making sense. Oh, wait, you know, that's not true.
Michelle Wynn looks a lot like Kate Jones. That was freaky, but like you, you don't look a thing like Cecil Baldwin.

Speaker 1 Okay, uh, what do I look like? Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Let me describe your exact physical appearance.
So first off you...

Speaker 1 What was that?

Speaker 1 Well, I can't see exactly what you see, but based on the smell of burnt hair and olive brine and the look on your face, it's probably station management. Whoa.

Speaker 1 I never would have imagined them looking like that. I mean.
Joseph, station management does not like guests in the building. Uh, I need you to go clean the break room.
What? Why?

Speaker 1 Well, you're our new intern. Absolutely not.
No way. Well, you're in the building without a guest pass, so according to station management's rulebook, you either work here or you die here.

Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 understood. Cleaners are under the sink next to the snake bucket.

Speaker 1 Great. Intern Joseph and Station Management have finally left.
Wow, listeners, this day is too much.

Speaker 1 I'm so hungry. Oh, dang.
I should have sent out my new intern to get me lunch since my salmon burger disappeared. Oh, no, wait, here it is.
Listeners, my salmon burger is climbing the wall.

Speaker 1 It's about 18 inches wide now, if you include the length of its long, sharp legs, and it's climbing the wall. And now it's devouring the clock.

Speaker 1 I use that clock for ad breaks, salmon burger. Come on.

Speaker 1 Oh, speaking of which, it's time for a word from our sponsor. And for that, we go to Deb, the sentient patch of haze.
Hi, Deb. Hi, Cecil.
Heard you're going to have to work in the basement, yeah?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're moving us down there for a week while they do renovations. My cousin Rob lives down there.
He loves to read books, playing video games, and creating humidity. He's a real normal kid.

Speaker 1 I think you'll like him. Oh, I'm looking forward to it.
So, who is today's sponsor? Today's show is brought to you by Payapsed Blue Ribbon.

Speaker 1 Yes, Payapsed Blue Ribbon is made from the freshest ingredients. Malt, barley, spring water, microbes, probably,

Speaker 1 um,

Speaker 1 salt. I don't know.
What else did they brew beer with? Chicken stock? I've never made beer before.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeast. I know they put yeast in it.
Definitely yeast and wheat germ. Is that a thing? It is now.
Piazzed Blue Ribbon makes their beer with all of these things.

Speaker 1 And most importantly, they make their beer with love. Love of every kind.

Speaker 1 Every kind, Deb? Every kind.

Speaker 1 Cecil. Wow, that sounds like a delicious beer.
I can't wait to wrap my...

Speaker 1 Meg?

Speaker 1 Is that you? Who is this? Oh, that's just our new station intern, Joseph. Oh, intern.
Good luck, pal. You're gonna need it.
That's heartbreaking. You have Meg's voice.

Speaker 1 You sound exactly like her, but you're not her, are you? What's this guy's deal? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you.
It's just Meg's voice is...

Speaker 1 Well, it's beautiful. And it's funny and smart.
And when I hear her speak, especially now, especially here, I feel happy. Your voice makes me happy, Meg.

Speaker 1 Deb.

Speaker 1 That's all. Deb, you sound like my wife.
Well, that's real sweet of you. Listen, I don't know who Meg is, but I hope that you.
Oh, oh my ad. Holy mackerel.
Is that a spider?

Speaker 1 Oh, you're a big son of a gun. Ah, geez.

Speaker 1 Uh, hey, you two, listen up. Um, station management is not happy about this ad being disrupted, so you better get out of the booth.
Um, intern Joseph, back to work.

Speaker 1 Deb, draft an apology to the sponsor. Salmon Burger, stop destroying my studio.
Listeners, go now to the weather.

Speaker 1 You must be out of motherfucking mind

Speaker 1 And full of shit you don't care about no one's feeling

Speaker 1 Why can't you just do it right?

Speaker 1 You're out of pockets for the lies you've been dealing

Speaker 1 Little piggy squealing

Speaker 1 Keep name out your mouth.

Speaker 1 Every lie I hear you tell is the statue

Speaker 1 of your credits, gone south.

Speaker 1 Talk your shit just one more time.

Speaker 1 I prevent the old.

Speaker 1 You go through friends like they will dollar bills.

Speaker 1 Your burning bridges cause you love to play with fire.

Speaker 1 Here's some hearts who swan all bills.

Speaker 1 I've got your bits right here. But Scottish left your time shall soon expire.

Speaker 1 Here we stop.

Speaker 1 You are acting all these thoughts of aggression.

Speaker 1 Keep my name out your mouth.

Speaker 1 And I hear you tell who this discussion made your brain.

Speaker 1 I'll go great.

Speaker 1 Your gift is more

Speaker 1 type. I'm moving

Speaker 1 out.

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again

Speaker 1 now

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again now

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again.

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again.

Speaker 1 Never speak my name again.

Speaker 1 Keep my name out your mouth.

Speaker 1 Every lie I hear you tell.

Speaker 1 It's the statue that I always tell.

Speaker 1 If all your friends gone sound,

Speaker 1 all of it just warm the time.

Speaker 1 I proven the end

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Speaker 1 Okay, offices are all cleared out, and I'm finally moved down into the basement. It's very dark, but renovations have begun, and by this time next week, we'll have a sparkling new office.

Speaker 1 That's the good news. Now the bad news.

Speaker 1 To the family and friends of Joseph Fink.

Speaker 1 He was a good intern, and he will be missed. He got the break room super clean.
Plus, he told funny stories about how he created this town. But he ran afoul of station management.

Speaker 1 He interrupted one of our live spots, and that'll require a make-good. Joseph did the unforgivable, so station management did the unspeakable.

Speaker 1 They towered over the frightened Joseph, their teeth bared, their sharp claws reared back, and in one fell swoop, they delivered down upon him a pink slip.

Speaker 1 He's fired. Joseph is no longer an intern at our station.

Speaker 1 But at least that will free him up to pursue his favorite hobby of searching for his wife and child. And also to spend more time in this town he loves so much.

Speaker 1 He did mention something about trying to find my former intern Kareem. I'm not sure if Joseph meant the real Kareem or the Kareem double.

Speaker 1 Either way, Joseph said he wants to form a doppelganger support group with Kareem and Dana. Good luck in your future endeavors, Joseph.

Speaker 1 And as for Deb, the sentient patch of haze, she's fine. She's a sentient patch of haze.
It's not like she can be physically harmed.

Speaker 1 Station management did fire her too, but they've fired her dozens of times. And she just comes back to work like nothing happened.
And no one ever says anything. Ooh, finally, an update on my lunch.

Speaker 1 The salmon burger had transformed itself into a spider-like creature the size of a footstool. It climbed up the wall, devoured a clock, a light fixture, and a couple of polystyrene ceiling tiles.

Speaker 1 Then it dropped down onto Deb and Joseph while they were trying to do the ad. It reared back to attack the two of them, but station management arrived just in time.

Speaker 1 Oh, to be clear, station management didn't come there to save them. Station management entered the booth because the new intern was ruining a paid live spot.

Speaker 1 Though, their rage over Joseph's error turned immediately into rage against my spider-shaped salmon burger.

Speaker 1 It turns out station management was right about that seance that the sales team forgot to close out.

Speaker 1 Since the seance had been left opened, that poltergeist or Dybbuk or demon or whatever had gotten loose. It then possessed the first piece of flesh it found, which turned out to be my salmon burger.

Speaker 1 Station management managed to squash it with one hand while spraying it with insecticide with the other, and with yet another hand they covered it with a large bowl, and with another hand they called the exorcist and demanded she arrive this afternoon rather than tomorrow morning.

Speaker 1 And with their other hands they were typing up more memos about how to properly open and close a seance.

Speaker 1 You know, I don't always see eye to eye with station management, mostly because we're not allowed to look directly at them without mortal consequences.

Speaker 1 But also because we sometimes differ on ways to run a radio station. Still, I'm glad they had our back.

Speaker 1 It's like that scene in Hamlet when Hamlet tells Ophelia, I'd fall on a grenade for you, I'd do anything for ya, and Ophelia says, yeah, totally same, and then they get married and move to Portugal.

Speaker 1 That's the kind of devotion that's important to me. So thank you to station management for looking out for us.
Maybe you'd be into a union as well?

Speaker 1 Oh, oh, oh, okay, an abyss is cracking open in the floor in front of me. So changing the subject.

Speaker 1 And a thank you to my friend and professional chef Earl Harlan, who is listening to my show today.

Speaker 1 Earl felt so bad about me not getting to eat my salmon burger that he made me another and brought it up here for me.

Speaker 1 Stay tuned next to the sound of stress eating. Just the gooeyest, hot, mic-smacking sounds you've ever heard.
Good night, Night Vale.

Speaker 1 Good night.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Night Vale is a production of Night Vale Presents. It is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Kraner and produced by Disparition.
The voice of Joseph Fink is Joseph Fink.

Speaker 1 The voice of Deb is Meg Bashwiner.

Speaker 1 The voice of Night Vale is Cecil Baldwin. Original music by Disparition.

Speaker 1 All of it can be found at disparition.bandcamp.com. This episode's weather was Find Out by Agbat.
Find them on any social media platform by searching AGBAT official.

Speaker 1 Comments, questions, email us at info at welcometonightvale.com or follow us on Twitter at nightvale radio or write a book about your life. Go for it.

Speaker 1 Check out nightvalepresents.com for info about our new show, Unlicensed, the first show created by Joseph and Jeffrey since Nightfall.

Speaker 1 Out November 10th. Today's proverb.
The question's not, who's a good boy? The question is, what's a good boy? Ask yourself that, smart guy.

Speaker 1 Hi, I'm here to tell you about Good Morning Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale's official recap show and unofficial best friend food podcast.

Speaker 1 Join me, Meg Bashwiner, and fellow tri-hosts, Hal Lovelin and Symphony Sanders, as we dissect all of the cool, squishy, and slimy bits of every episode of Welcome to Night Vale.

Speaker 1 Come for the insightful and hilarious commentary, and stay for all of the weird and wild behind-the-scenes stories. Good morning, Nightvale, with new episodes every other Thursday.

Speaker 1 Get it wherever you get your podcasts. Yes, even there.