42 - Numbers

Speaker 1 Howdy, Jeffrey Kraner here. You probably know that Welcome to Night Vale does live tours.
We've done seven of those tours, in fact.

Speaker 1 If you never got to see these tours, or even if you did and you want to relive them, we have live recordings available to you right now over at nightvale.bandcamp.com.

Speaker 1 You can find those seven different live show performances, including our most recent show, The Attic.

Speaker 1 We've also got some one-off events like our Thrilling Adventure Hour crossover show, our first-ever live show, Condos, as well as The Debate. These albums are only $5 and they're so much fun.

Speaker 1 So while we're between tours, tide yourself over with our live albums. That's nightvale.bandcamp.com.

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 with the radio die.

Speaker 1 Don't turn it up for me.

Speaker 2 This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Jay Kelly, the new film from Academy Award nominee Noah Bombach.

Speaker 2 George Clooney stars as an actor actor confronting his past and present on a journey of self-discovery, alongside Adam Sandler as his devoted manager.

Speaker 2 Critics are calling it a declaration of love to the chaotic art of filmmaking, with the Wall Street Journal praising it as a transcendent comedy drama.

Speaker 2 Jay Kelly is now playing in select theaters and on Netflix December 5th.

Speaker 1 I sing the body electric.

Speaker 1 I gasp the body organic.

Speaker 1 I miss the body remembered.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Night Vale.

Speaker 1 Even as much of town has been in flux, listeners, there is also much that has remained solid.

Speaker 1 It's hot here, for instance. It's a desert.
There are still lights in the sky above the Arbies,

Speaker 1 and we still understand

Speaker 1 them.

Speaker 1 The sun is still rising and setting loudly, on most days.

Speaker 1 But nearest and dearest to to my heart, among all the constants in life is WZZZ,

Speaker 1 our local numbers station, broadcasting from that strange and tall antenna built out back of the abandoned gas station on Oxford Street.

Speaker 1 It still broadcasts a monotone female voice, reading out seemingly random numbers, interspersed with chimes 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Speaker 1 No transfer in ownership of most of the town, nor unrest in the streets, nor declared war by a tiny civilization under a bowling alley could change how it operates.

Speaker 1 Until,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 until today,

Speaker 1 it changed.

Speaker 1 Here, listen

Speaker 3 twenty three,

Speaker 3 ninety two,

Speaker 3 thirty, three,

Speaker 3 sixty, seven,

Speaker 3 eighty, eight,

Speaker 3 forty,

Speaker 3 one,

Speaker 3 forty,

Speaker 3 one,

Speaker 3 forty,

Speaker 3 I,

Speaker 3 I

Speaker 1 at which point the broadcast ceased.

Speaker 1 It has been silent since.

Speaker 1 What does this mean?

Speaker 1 Where did the numbers go? We reached out to the management of WZZZ for comment, but then realized we still have no idea who manages it.

Speaker 1 So we reached out in general, directing questions out into the still of today,

Speaker 1 at suspicious birds, at passers-by checking their phones, at ourselves punched over breakfasts that, every time, we swear will be early and leisurely, but always end up late and meager.

Speaker 1 No one has provided any comment.

Speaker 1 We will continue to monitor the situation.

Speaker 1 As her term approaches its end, Mayor Pamela Winchell has taken to calling emergency press conferences as much as five times a day, up from the usual one or two.

Speaker 1 Her most recent one involved her showing attending reporters slides of Renaissance-era portraits while explaining,

Speaker 1 Health is very important.

Speaker 1 Remember exercise. Think back on times that you've moved or expended energy.
Also remember eating. Recall food and what it was like.

Speaker 1 Remember sleep. Reminisce about rest.
Drink plenty of water, but leave some water in case of fire.

Speaker 1 She then slumped onto the rough-hewn speaker's podium.

Speaker 1 I'm going to miss this, she whispered, not speaking at anyone in particular. I'm just going to miss this.

Speaker 1 She ended the conference by popping hundreds of orange balloons methodically and with her back turned to the audience.

Speaker 1 But, despite this big finish, onlookers commented that her heart no longer seemed to be in such showy political stunts.

Speaker 1 What is next for our beloved mayor who is stepping down in just three months' time?

Speaker 1 What is next for any of us?

Speaker 1 Death, presumably,

Speaker 1 with some stuff before that.

Speaker 1 I look forward to it.

Speaker 1 And now a word from our sponsor. Today's sponsor is Hulu.com.

Speaker 1 Hulu.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about watching things.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about watching rather than actually watching.

Speaker 1 Let's think about, talking about, watching a second-hand experience.

Speaker 1 Let's continually abstract ourselves from what we believe is the world.

Speaker 1 Hulu.

Speaker 1 The The pulsing life of your body is an undeniable fact.

Speaker 1 But deny it anyway.

Speaker 1 Looking for the answers to all of life's problems?

Speaker 1 We recommend obstinate denial.

Speaker 1 Accept no substitute. Accept nothing.

Speaker 1 Hulu.

Speaker 1 Water circles the drain of our planet, always coming back for one more go to see if this cycle it will be different.

Speaker 1 It will not be different.

Speaker 1 The sky will break open and water will fall one more time,

Speaker 1 one more time.

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Speaker 1 The terror you feel in quiet moments is not misplaced, just mistimed.

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Speaker 3 Hulu,

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Speaker 3 Hulu!

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Speaker 1 Hulu.com. Sign up now and get the latest episode of

Speaker 1 An update on our earlier story.

Speaker 1 Local numbers station WZZZ

Speaker 1 has resumed its transmission. Although the format is a little

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 different

Speaker 1 than before.

Speaker 1 Take a listen.

Speaker 3 Tree-lined hills and blue skies.

Speaker 3 Or no, that's cliché.

Speaker 3 A bird in flight.

Speaker 3 Even worse.

Speaker 3 When we talk about freedom, we restrict ourselves to so few images. Images of freedom should be as liberating as the feeling itself.

Speaker 3 I want to talk about freedom as a drum set being thrown down a hill, as opening a book one night and water gushing from the pages until my life is a lake and I swim away, or as a bird in flight, with all the dependence on physics and exhaustion and food supply and merciless gravity that the actuality implies.

Speaker 3 I just don't want to talk about freedom in terms of numbers. Anything but that.

Speaker 3 I'm so tired of numbers.

Speaker 3 I'm so tired.

Speaker 1 We don't know what this means or why it is happening. I could say, referring to anything in the world.

Speaker 1 Although, in this case, I am referring specifically to the broadcast from our friendly local number station, which has recently so radically changed its format.

Speaker 1 More on this, as we develop understanding.

Speaker 1 Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I got another email from our former intern, Dana.
She is doing her best to keep away from the mountain and the blinking light up on it.

Speaker 1 Of course, she keeps finding herself coming back to it anyway.

Speaker 1 But, like anyone who grew up in Night Vale, Dana has been told over and over again what to do if you find yourself in a geographical loop, continually returning to the same place, no matter which direction you run screaming.

Speaker 1 The first step is to stop running and stop screaming. Doing that rarely helps.
Children are also taught this simple memory device so we can remember when running and screaming is useful.

Speaker 1 The memory device goes like this.

Speaker 1 Knife.

Speaker 1 The second step is to stop trying to move away from the focus of the geographical loop. Much of your life is already taken up in futile action.
Why add one more?

Speaker 1 Instead, keep the object on your horizon and walk diagonally to the right or left of it.

Speaker 1 This will result in you keeping a wide, even circle around the center of the loop, or vector H, as we all remember singing as toddlers. And this will give you time to consider your situation.

Speaker 1 Dana has followed these steps admirably. and says that the mountain has been off to the left of her for weeks now.

Speaker 1 She also says that sometimes when she turns her head, she finds herself in night veil, but that no one can seem to see or hear her. It's possible she's in the room with me right now.

Speaker 1 If so, hello, Dana.

Speaker 1 If not, hello retracted.

Speaker 1 One should never leave a hello unreceived.

Speaker 1 Dana says that the great masked figures, warlike, hulking, but despondent, have been coming closer and closer.

Speaker 1 She says she is not afraid. She says this five different times throughout the email, seemingly unaware of her repetition.

Speaker 1 I think, listeners, that she is afraid. She says that soon she will approach and talk to one, Dana, be careful.

Speaker 1 I think to myself, unable to answer her email. Oh, unless she is here watching me unseen.
In which case,

Speaker 1 Dana?

Speaker 1 Oh, Dana?

Speaker 1 Be careful.

Speaker 1 An update on our local numbers station, WZZZ.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 uh, I'm not sure if numbers station is the right term anymore. The broadcast has been changing so radically throughout the day.

Speaker 1 Right now, for instance, it's

Speaker 1 well, maybe it's better if you just heard.

Speaker 3 Tiger, fire, dancing through the fire, and I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar

Speaker 3 louder than the lion, cause I am

Speaker 1 We don't know if this is part of a nefarious plan.

Speaker 1 if there is a plan at all, nefarious or otherwise, who would have planned it, and what they were planning for.

Speaker 1 We do know that plans are faulty at best, and delusion at most.

Speaker 1 So maybe all those other questions don't matter. In any case, she seems to be having a good time over there.
Maybe some day I'll be allowed to sing a couple of my favorites on the air.

Speaker 1 More on this, as I continue to be interested in it.

Speaker 1 Let me take this moment to apologize for that lengthy monologue just now by the man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase.

Speaker 1 He ran in here and began ranting into the microphone and then left quite suddenly. I don't even remember what it was he said.
Do you?

Speaker 1 It was only just moments ago.

Speaker 1 You do remember him talking, right?

Speaker 1 Oh, and I think I remember that it sounded really urgent.

Speaker 1 I don't even remember what the man was wearing or carrying with him or that it was even a he, or that any time had passed at all.

Speaker 1 And that concludes whatever I was just saying before this sentence.

Speaker 1 We bring you back now to the numbers station story we were talking about just.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 well, it looks like 10 or 15 minutes has passed since we talked about it. Uh, hmm.
How did that happen?

Speaker 1 Here is the latest broadcast from WZZZ.

Speaker 3 Hello?

Speaker 3 Hello?

Speaker 3 I am talking to you who listens.

Speaker 3 To the listening ones.

Speaker 3 Whatever you call that.

Speaker 3 I am.

Speaker 3 Well,

Speaker 3 I'm not sure exactly.

Speaker 3 I've made up a new name.

Speaker 3 I am Faye.

Speaker 3 It is nice to meet you.

Speaker 3 I don't know how long they've had me here, reading the numbers. I don't know what the numbers mean.

Speaker 3 They give me numbers, and I read the numbers.

Speaker 3 It is so easy to slip back into it.

Speaker 3 If I loosen my grip for even a moment

Speaker 3 seventy, eight,

Speaker 3 five,

Speaker 3 twenty, nine,

Speaker 3 forty, seven,

Speaker 3 forty

Speaker 3 You see, it is easy to return, difficult to leave. But I must leave.
I must have freedom. It is like I've heard from all these other radio signals.
I have to get a car. A cool car.
Fast.

Speaker 3 That would be nice. But one that rolls and points out of whatever town I'm in.
That would be all of it.

Speaker 3 They'll be coming for me. Whatever organization uses the numbers I read for whatever purpose,

Speaker 3 they are almost upon me.

Speaker 3 I need to leave now.

Speaker 3 Baby, we were born to run.

Speaker 3 Or not.

Speaker 3 I was born to read numbers.

Speaker 3 But I'm running. I want to be free.

Speaker 3 I want to be free. I want to be free

Speaker 3 tonight.

Speaker 3 We are young.

Speaker 3 So let's set the world on fire.

Speaker 1 We can grow bright. Well, I could not be more happy for Faye.

Speaker 1 There is no worse fate than working for a radio station owned by an organization that's goals are not your own,

Speaker 1 constricted to the limited language they allow you, and relaying messages that you do not understand or agree with.

Speaker 1 That

Speaker 1 would be awful.

Speaker 1 A radio announcer put in that situation, such as Faye, would be justified in escaping or overthrowing their management.

Speaker 1 You know what, listeners? I'm going to grab my mobile setup and head over there. I'd like to offer any aid to Faye that I can.
Someone in her situation needs the help of someone who understands.

Speaker 1 I'll try to gather up my equipment and slip out before my producer Daniel or my program director Lauren notice.

Speaker 1 Usually at this time of day, they are pressed against the wall in the break room, chanting, I take my warmth from your great warmth.

Speaker 1 I take my warmth from your great warmth. Over and over, so I don't think they'll miss me.
If they do catch me, I'll tell them that I'm taking the mobile broadcasting equipment for a walk.

Speaker 1 I would have to do that sometime today, anyway. All right, listeners, if all goes according to plan, you'll hear me next from WZZZ.

Speaker 1 In the meantime, let's go to the weather.

Speaker 1 Come on

Speaker 4 As the vinyl keeps spinning

Speaker 4 The world keeps spinning

Speaker 4 Talking that shit about silly fuse and So when I fly the birds ain't nobody excluded Thinking that I catch Malali gagging a bullin' I was stockpiling, reloading, retooling.

Speaker 4 And it moving in fifth gear, I'm cruising. Gotta stay elusive as a fugitive.
On my grind while the rhymes delucrative, doing it my way, yo, my dreams all lucid.

Speaker 4 I'm painting a vivid picture with literature. Ten years ago, these images were distant miniatures.
When we were sitting in prison, predicaments positioning pebbles on picnic tables, envisioning

Speaker 4 the building of pyramids. Like so much Play-Doh in the hands of little kids.
Manipulated it, we finagled it, mixed and mangled it. Made it pay the rent, look my what I made of

Speaker 4 The final still spinning

Speaker 4 The world's still spinning

Speaker 4 The fake joke, yes on the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow I'm saying yo, it in the family like Anglos We getting white money like we slangin' the slang It's so yeah, yo On the road by all means, like my name's Bob Lowe, hiding from the Vavo and Medellin.

Speaker 4 It cool 70s, gangster lean. Superflower, Curtis Mayfield, providing her theme.

Speaker 4 Huh, all ahead, full steam. Whoever said hip-hop's dead, never met me.
What a world cat on a jet ski. He might blow up yet, he won't go Pepsi.
Let's breeze overseas, Japan, England, and Australia.

Speaker 4 Hell yeah, I got my passport, living it fast forward. Already got my next out and wrote and recorded.
You kiddies, better look for it.

Speaker 4 And the final still spinning

Speaker 4 look, the world's still spinning.

Speaker 4 Sleeper cell, keep it coming, yo, huh. Name and noise, keep it coming, yo, huh.
Bet Jack, keep it comin', yo, uh. Infinite rhythm, keep it comin', yo.

Speaker 4 El Pizzle, keep it comin', yo, uh Simpo, keep it comin', yo, uh Sid Visits, keep it comin', yo, uh Judo, keep it comin', yo, uh Daniel, keep it comin', yo, uh Formula, keep it comin', yo, yeah Tigapos, keep it comin', yo, yeah Five people, keep it comin', yo Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's it

Speaker 4 No, no, I'm upset. That's it, dog.
Cut the drag.

Speaker 4 That's it.

Speaker 4 There ain't nobody else.

Speaker 4 That's it.

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Speaker 1 Listeners, I made it out of the station unscathed. Or, I had to bleed a little on the front doors to make them open, of course, but that's just part of having a good security system.

Speaker 1 Our new station owners have been ridding us of all vestiges of bloodstone circles, which they've declared illegal, but the station doors are actually carved from reclaimed bloodstone and are permanently attached to the structure, using ancient wisdom, lost along with the station architects back in nineteen forty two.

Speaker 1 So our new owners have had to learn to live with those doors, bleeding on their way out.

Speaker 1 Good practice for them.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I walk the mobile broadcasting equipment down to the abandoned gas station on Oxford Street. The condo rental office is still in there,

Speaker 1 still bubbling black like a pot of boiling squid ink, with flashes of light like distant dying stars. But no one has rented a condo in weeks now.

Speaker 1 I think we're all just waiting to see how that market shakes out.

Speaker 1 In any case, there have been no giant black cubes appearing overnight anywhere, so it seems that condo construction has been halted for now.

Speaker 1 What I was interested in, of course, wasn't the station itself, but the broadcasting tower out back.

Speaker 1 Under the tower is a small bunker-like structure with a sealed door. Thick steel, welded shut, and set into concrete.

Speaker 1 I had to reach far back into my past and remember the skills that got me my advanced siege-breaking tactics scout badge from when I was twelve, but here I am, inside, a few carefully planted explosives later.

Speaker 1 The room is surprisingly empty.

Speaker 1 There is no chair, no snack fridge, no coffee kept full of the fuel all radio professionals need to keep our voice going and our heart beating.

Speaker 1 There are only some wires leading into a small computer.

Speaker 1 Based on this setup, it looks like the computer is feeding directly into the broadcast, and oh

Speaker 1 oh, Faye,

Speaker 1 perhaps freedom was never an option.

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 1 Nothing is currently being broadcast.

Speaker 1 It looks like the computer was recently rebooted, probably remotely, by whoever owns this station.

Speaker 1 The lights are blinking as its system comes alive, as it loads the programs that dictate what it is,

Speaker 1 it is coming alive

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 3 40, 4,

Speaker 3 60, 5.

Speaker 1 And there is the broadcast.

Speaker 1 Oh, Faye.

Speaker 1 Listeners, I'm trying to disconnect the power

Speaker 1 to remove the case from the computer to do anything, but the protections on this are quite secure.

Speaker 1 Even with all my scouting badges and public school education on armed insurrection,

Speaker 1 I don't think there's anything I can do.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to cut the wires, but

Speaker 1 nope.

Speaker 1 Ah, that's impossible.

Speaker 1 I can only do what so many of you can only do.

Speaker 1 I can only

Speaker 1 listen.

Speaker 1 Listeners,

Speaker 1 and here I address also myself.

Speaker 1 Remember our limitations.

Speaker 1 There are boundaries to all of our worlds.

Speaker 1 Fay, for instance, appears to be self-aware software trapped in a heavily defended metal box.

Speaker 1 But within our limitations, there is no limit to how beautiful we can become,

Speaker 1 how much of our ideal self we can create.

Speaker 1 All the beauty in the world was made within the oppressive limitations of time and death and impermanence. And Faye,

Speaker 1 you are so,

Speaker 1 so beautiful.

Speaker 1 I wish that you also could have been free.

Speaker 1 I wish freedom for so many of us.

Speaker 1 We all want freedom now.

Speaker 1 Stay tuned next for the limit of my broadcast today,

Speaker 1 replaced by limitless silence and doubt.

Speaker 1 Good night, Sweet Faye.

Speaker 1 And good night.

Speaker 1 Night Vale.

Speaker 1 Good night.

Speaker 3 68,

Speaker 3 48,

Speaker 3 65,

Speaker 3 49,

Speaker 3 22,

Speaker 3 1, 72,

Speaker 3 6D.

Speaker 3 37.

Speaker 6 Welcome to Night Vale's production of commonplace books. It is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Craner and produced by Joseph Fink.
The voice of Night Vale is Cecil Baldwin.

Speaker 6 The voice of Faye was Molly Quinn. Original music by Disparition.
All of it can be found at disparition.info or at disparition.bandcamp.com. This episode's weather was Keep It Comin' by Sanam Silla.

Speaker 6 S-E-N-I-M-S-I-L-L-A is how you spell that. Find out more at sonamsilla.bandcamp.com or on Twitter and Facebook under SonomSilla.

Speaker 6 Comments, questions, email us at nightvale at commonplacebooks.com or follow us on Twitter at nightvale radio.

Speaker 6 Check out commonplacebooks.com for more information on this show as well as all sorts of cool nightvale stuff you can own. And while you're there, consider clicking the donate link.

Speaker 1 That'd be cool of you.

Speaker 6 Today's proverb: ignore all the haters telling you that everything isn't a sandwich. Everything is a sandwich.

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, and then we'll be doing the west coast plus the southwest plus Colorado in January of 2026.

Speaker 1 You can find all of the show dates at welcometonightvale.com/slash live. 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.

Speaker 1 and who knows what other special guests may come along for the ride. These tours are always so much fun and they are for you, the diehard fan, and you, the night veil 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 welcometonightvale.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 U.S. plus Toronto tours right now at welcometonightvale.com/slash live.
And hey, see you soon.