Episode 5: Charybdis
SFX: Ignition. A van engine rumbles. The god radio hisses as someone turns the dial to tune into a station. The opening theme plays, at first distorted before clearing up.
THEME: (sings)
If there’s a stranger all alone
Set her back to walk the stone
TITLE:
Hearthbound
Episode 5
Charybdis
THEME: (sings)
Will she find her way back home?
SFX: Wind and dune howl outside. Glass shatters as something smashes through the trailer window, and then wind and dune are LOUD AND HERE.
CAL: Fuck! Help me get this board up.
ODESSA: You get storms like this often?
CAL: Yeah. Never this big though.
SFX: Cal and Odessa lift a board to the broken window.
CAL: Hold it!
ODESSA: Got it!
SFX: Wind and sand batter against the board.
ODESSA: I’m sorry. We can’t--
CAL: Yeah, no shit.
ODESSA: Once it passes, I’m gone. Promise.
SFX: Cal nails the board down, as the storm continues to rage, muffled.
CAL: Are we going to talk now?
ODESSA: Do you want to?
CAL: Fuck no. I’d rather take the fucking storm.
SFX: Something huge clatters into the side of the trailer.
CAL: I said what I said.
ODESSA: We don’t have to talk.
SFX: Mack whimpers. Cal puts her tools away and goes to sit in stubborn silence on her bed. Odessa sits further away. Mack whimpers again, more plaintively. Odessa scratches Mack in the awkward quiet.
CAL: Who was it?
ODESSA: Sorry?
CAL: The man you saw in the Shoals.
ODESSA: I… don’t know. I thought I recognized him from a wreck that I was picking through a few days ago.
CAL: What did he want?
ODESSA: Nothing. Salvagers tend to keep to themselves. Most places are picked so clean these days that it’s not worth wasting time fighting over scraps. That bunker of yours was a good find. I’ve never seen something that old so untouched.
CAL: I know. No thanks to you and your phosphorescent pooch, we have enough cans to get us through this shitpool. For a few days at least. That’s worth a headache or two.
ODESSA: I guess I can’t argue with that.
SFX: A grudgingly more civil beat. Then Cal, uncomfortable in the silence…
CAL: Do you think that guy is following you?
ODESSA: (sighs) I… listen. You were right. There wasn’t anyone else there. I don’t know what I was seeing.
CAL: My dad was like that. Seeing things that weren’t there.
ODESSA: Your dad? I’m sorry. You don’t have to--
CAL: Yeah.
We were driving south to the gulf. It was taking us forever because Mom wanted to stop at every ridge or rock face.
We’d all strap a chair on our backs and climb until we got a good view. Then we’d sit and just look out for hours until the sun went down and the crickets started to sing.
When we got to the basin, there wasn’t much to see from miles around so mom would just bring the chairs to the top of the trailer and we’d sit up there.
ODESSA: That sounds nice.
CAL: It was. Then dad got bit. It was just a little sidewinder, but the bite got infected, and we didn’t know how to fix him. Towards the end, he was hallucinating all sorts of things. He thought there was a man in a long coat following us. That the coyotes were dancing for him. That mom and I lost our faces.
When we buried him, we didn’t move from the spot for a month. Mom didn’t want to leave his body. But we were running low on supplies, so eventually we kept driving south.
We’d stop on occasion, and Mom would just stand outside and look out. And then after a while, she’d get back in without saying a thing to me, and then she’d keep driving.
We heard the dune before we saw it. It was really beautiful and strange. I dug through all our stuff and found our chairs, and Mom and I headed up. It’s pretty hard to climb on sand, so it took us a really long time. But when we made it to the top, we sat there for the whole night under the slow circle of stars. Stayed until the sun came up.
The next day, a sandstorm rolled in, just like this one. It went on for days. Mom told me she was going out to see if she could find water.
That was three years ago.
Thing is, I don’t remember if she even took the cans with her.
ODESSA: I’m sorry.
CAL: She might come back.
ODESSA: Do you want her to?
CAL: Yeah. Yeah, I do.
ODESSA: Do you want to wait for her?
CAL: No.
ODESSA: It’s a lot to ask.
CAL: What?
ODESSA: To hold out hope.
CAL: How long have you been gone?
ODESSA: Five years.
CAL: Your wife…
ODESSA: Penelope.
CAL: Penelope. Pretty name.
ODESSA: We made promises, but that was a long time ago. If I could do it all again, I don’t think I would have asked her.
CAL: Ask her what?
ODESSA: To wait for me.
CAL: Yeah. Do you think she did?
ODESSA: Yeah. She would have. As long as she could. But no one can wait forever.
CAL: Five years isn’t forever.
ODESSA: No. But it’s a long time. We were kids when we met. I had left home at sixteen and had been walking the country ever since, finding work where I could get it, but there was always a reason to move on. Long-haired men with nice eyes but empty smiles. Fields abandoned with the first frost. Mothers waiting for their children to be old enough to carry every thing they never wanted to be left with. But I remember, the first time I saw her was the first time I saw the sea. She was diving for abalone.
CAL: Aba--?
ODESSA: Abalone. It’s a mollusk. A sea snail. Crusty looking on the outside, but the inside of its shell is… iridescent. Like the Milky Way. Tastes good too.
I saw her duck underwater, and it was close to three minutes before she came back up. I counted. After her third dive, she spotted me and waved. And I stayed.
CAL: Why?
ODESSA: Why did I stay?
CAL: Yeah.
ODESSA: They were kind, her people. I was happy to work, but they were just happy to have me. I’d never had that before. When we felt ready, we left together. Made our own home.
SFX: The storm outside is steady, comforting, white noise, a lullaby.
CAL: Do you know “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”?
ODESSA: That’s an old sailor’s song.
CAL: My parents used to sing it together all the time. I don’t know where they learned it.
ODESSA: Remind me how it goes?
CAL: Um… I think…. hold on…
(sings uncertainly)
I was bound for the shores of Eden
Spring budding in my steps
Nevermore for…
Nevermore for….
(spoken) Fuck.
ODESSA: (sings) Never more for kneeling
ODESSA and CAL: (sings) Nor time left for regrets
CAL: (sings) But the lady is a trickster
ODESSA: (sings) And pulled one over me
ODESSA AND CAL: (sings)
So I’m stuck here 'tween the Devil
And the deep blue sea
Oh the Devil, the Devil and the deep blue sea
ODESSA: (sings)
He pulled me in his arms
And whispered in my ear
Old Scratch could give you everything
Just say the word, my dear
I ask only of your favor
As I’ve been alone you see
Have pity for a Devil
On the deep blue sea
Oh the Devil, the Devil, and the deep blue sea
CAL: (spoken) Wait, isn’t there—
SFX: Odessa strums her guitar hammily. It refracts enthusiastically
ODESSA: (sings) Madame Brine–
SFX: Odessa hits her guitar switch and continues playing, without the refraction.
CAL: (sings)
Madame Brine then wrapped around me
And murmured words so sweet
ODESSA: Hey!
CAL: (sings)
Promised me oblivion
If I drifted off to sleep
ODESSA: Alright!
CAL: (sings)
Her wine-dark drew me closer
With a smile so like a dream
How I’m torn between the Devil and the deep blue sea
ODESSA AND CAL: (sings) Oh the Devil, the Devil, and the deep blue sea
ODESSA: (sings)
But behind his burning gaze
I saw a soul forlorn
CAL: (sings)
So I took his hand in mine
And said I’ll take the storm
ODESSA and CAL: (sings)
Two castaways could make it
If they both learn to agree
So I set sail with the Devil on the deep blue sea
Oh the Devil, the Devil, and the deep, blue sea
SFX: A comfortable silence. The storm has stopped.
CAL: (spoken) It stopped.
ODESSA: What?
CAL: The storm. The dune. It stopped singing.
SFX: Mack perks up. Cal walks to the trailer door and opens it.
ODESSA: Where are you going?
CAL: Up!
ODESSA: Can I come?
SFX: Cal takes a few steps down the trailer stairs.
CAL: Yeah.
SFX: Odessa and Cal walk together to the foot of the dune. Mack yips happily and trots along. Their footsteps soften in the sand as they clamber their way up.
CAL: (breathing heavily) It’s not too far.
ODESSA: (also out of breath) I’m fine!
SFX: Their breathing deepens. Odessa hits a particularly loose patch of sand and stumbles.
CAL: You okay?
ODESSA: Yeah! Yeah. I’m good.
CAL: Here.
SFX: Odessa clasps Cal’s hand, and Cal pulls Odessa up with a grunt. They make it to the top of the dune as their breath evens out.
ODESSA: Wow.
CAL: Yeah
SFX: A red-tailed hawk screeches.
ODESSA: Hey, look! An eagle.
CAL: Um. Actually, that’s a red-tailed hawk.
SFX: The wind blows.
CAL: Which way are you headed?
ODESSA: West.
CAL: I’m not staying here.
ODESSA: Do you want to come with me? Or we can just drive in the same direction for a while––
CAL: —I’ll come with you.
ODESSA: Okay.
CAL: I’m keeping the trailer.
ODESSA: You can hook it up to Alby.
CAL: Alby?
ODESSA: My van.
CAL: Okaaay.
SFX: The hawk calls again, further up.
ODESSA: Where do you want to go?
CAL: I’m not sure yet.
ODESSA: We’ll play it by ear.
CAL: Okay. I want to leave tonight.
ODESSA: Are you sure?
SFX: Cal stretches and with it releases something from within that had been tight and coiled all this time. She relaxes.
CAL: Yeah.
ODESSA: Alright then. Let’s go.
CAL: In a minute.
SFX: Just the wind. The god radio hisses, then clicks off.
THEME: (sings)
If there’s a stranger all alone
CREDITS:
Hearthbound
Episode 5
Charybdis
Features the voices of
Jo Chiang as Odessa
Manami Maxted as Cal
Odessa's Guitar by Pete Lanctot
Hearthbound is created, written, and produced by Jo Chiang
Directed by Jack Towhey Calk
Music directed by Ginger Dolden
Sound design and editing by Levi Sharpe
Additional dialogue editing by Anna Kelly Rodriguez and Amador L. Rodriguez
Music production, additional engineering, and mixing by Pete Lanctot
Production managed by Charlotte Muth and Neaco Fox
Special thanks to Multitude Studio and our illustrator, Anya Boz
Stay in touch with us on hearthboundpod.com
You get home safe now, you hear?
THEME: (sings)
Set her back to walk the stone
You may wonder, but never know
Will she find her way back home?
JO: Hi! Jo here! Singing dunes exist in the deserts of California, in southern Africa, in Wales, China, Japan, Egypt. You can come across Cal’s dune, also known as Sand Mountain, driving through Nevada on Highway 50 in the middle of the notorious Forty Mile Desert. I sent a video of singing dunes to our sound designer, Levi Sharpe, and he said, no problem, and created the dune moans you hear in these last couple of episodes using his own voice.
To hear more of Levi’s work, check out another show he sound-designed called Roommate from Hell, an audio sitcom featuring Bea, a 10,000-year-old demon who fought in the rebellion against the tyrant god, and Claire, a 30-year-old atheist. Levi’s soundscapes are just so full of life and small surprises, and I feel so lucky that he built Odessa’s sonic world.
If you like sea shanties, check out Join the Party by Multitude. An actual play podcast, their third campaign is a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk. Previous campaigns covered weird summer camp, modern superheroes, and, of course, a high fantasy adventure. Here’s an introduction from Join the Party DM Eric Silver.
SFX: Upbeat synth music.
ERIC: Daring adventures, high-stakes dice rolls, and lots of hilarious bits await you on Join the Party, an actual play podcast. Every Tuesday, join me, the best Game Master in all of podcasting, Eric Silver, and my cast of rowdy players as we craft tangible worlds, share genre-pushing storytelling, and so much more. Marathon our completed campaigns: a pirate story set in a world of plant and bug people, a Monster of the Week game at a weird and wild summer camp, and a modern superhero epic. We even have monthly afterparty episodes, where we answer your questions about the story, and let you see behind the scenes about the show. Whether you’re a long-time tabletop RPG player or you’ve never touched a D20 before, you’re welcome to join the party. Head to joinpartypod.com or subscribe to Join the Party in your podcast app right now.
JO: That’s all for now! And of course, thank you for listening to Hearthbound
