Ep. 8: Jack's Beanstalk, Part 8

Transcript by Raina Harper

Kyle (as Piper) 

[Two long labored breaths.]

Kyle

Piper took in deep haggard breaths, chewing the last few remnants of the bean in his mouth before scooping up the rest in front of him.

[Threatening ambience begins.]

He had done it. He had infiltrated this realm of data, the true face of the beanstalk. He had evacuated Jack out to the physical realm, and now only one thing remained. Piper stood up straight and stared at All. The lashes of the golden string had knocked the giant to the ground, but even while prone he stood stories above Piper.

Kyle (as All) 

I told you already, intruder. Get out!

Kyle

A hurricane-like wind emerging from All’s mouth tore past Piper who stood there unphased.

Kyle (as Piper) 

Frankly there, giant, I don't think you’re in a position to make demands, now are you?

Kyle

All scowled in both anger and pain, and spat out:

Kyle (as All) 

Now listen here, boy. Just because you made a deal with a devil does not mean you have true power.

Kyle (as Piper) 

A devil? “A” devil? Ha! No, no, no, no, NO! Giant, I did not make a deal with a devil.

Kyle

From behind Piper a few strings reached out from the shadows and pulled the golden lute that Piper had dropped to the ground.

Kyle (as Piper) 

I made a deal with The Devil. Capital T. Get it?

[Evil action music begins.]

Kyle

From behind Piper the voice that had been Piper’s companion ever since it first convinced him to use the beans at the bottom of the tower started to laugh.

Kyle (as ???) 

[Maniacal laughter.] Hey there, champ!

Kyle

From behind Piper the strings reemerged, but this time each of them was connected to another piece of data ranging from the smallest simulation of a butterfly to the fiercest, most unknowable creatures.

Kyle (as All) 

[Mustering strength.] I will—

Kyle

All tried to respond, but before he could the golden strings from this mysterious creature that had been aiding Piper tore into his back and picked him up by his shoulder blades like a puppet master plays with marionettes.

[Music ends.]

Back in the realm of the physical, on the top of the beanstalk, Jack heard All’s screams of pain and the sinister cackling of the lute’s strings. There was honestly something comforting in such explicit malevolence. After all, when you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop, it’s nice when it finally hits the ground. Jack scanned her surroundings, talking to herself as a way to drown out the noises.

Kyle (as Jack) 

Okay. Okay. So, I’m here, I’m me, I have… blade arms.

Kyle

Jack stared down at metal protruding from her forearms, the side-effect that Piper had seen when he first saw Jack blip into the tower.

Kyle (as Jack) 

Okay, okay, um… honestly not the strangest thing I’ve seen. Maybe I can use them. Maybe I should…

[Action music begins.]

Kyle

Jack’s voice wavered as she saw golden strings the width of smellephant trunks coiling around the tower, rapidly approaching its top. Her eyes then darted around and she saw that she was not yet at the very top of the tower, and instead a small pole led even higher up.

[Rolls.] With an 18, Jack took her new blades and thrust them into the side of this tower, using one hand to brace herself on this precarious new perch while using the other to steadily pull herself higher. She was moving fast, fast enough to outpace the golden wires rapidly ascending the tower, but Jack knew that the tower wouldn’t ascend forever. Eventually she would be at a point where she would either have to be consumed or fall.

The one thing Jack couldn’t understand, though, is that if she was in the physical realm, and the devil controlling those strings was in the data realm, why were they here as well? There was no way they could affect both this data realm and the physical realm unless they were somehow controlling the manifestation of the beanstalk itself, unless they somehow had gotten control of…

Kyle (as All) 

[Shouting.] OUT!

Kyle

Jack held onto the side of her perch as All’s bellowing yell shook the entire tower, and with that it all clicked. Even though All’s realm may have been digital, that digital data had to be stored somewhere. All was the beanstalk, and if Piper and this demon controlling the strings had somehow grasped control of All, then that means they had grasped control of the tower itself, and the only way to stop them would be to drop the tower. Jack could scarcely believe the words as she let them out of her mouth.

Kyle (as Jack) 

How do I drop a tower…?

Kyle

It was a feat that seemed impossible. Jack could barely overpower one of the strings let alone the tower itself. If she couldn’t overpower them herself, all she could do was climb, but that might be enough.

[Rolls.] With a 6, Jack’s air left her body as the golden strings which had been rising the side of the tower firmly grasped onto her stomach.

[Rolls.] She pushed against the wires to no avail, but then, remembering the new blades on her arms, stabbed in instead. The wire, again, thick as a tree trunk, whimpered and retreated a bit, allowing Jack to jump on top of it. As she did, she realized that she had been pulled off of her perch, that the strings had reached beyond the tower to catch her.

[Rolls.] Jack jumped again, higher up and further out, and again the strings caught her. So, Jack jumped again, and again and again and again, and began running for hours, some believe days. As she ran, the strings continued to reach higher, further past the peak of the beanstalk in order to catch her. After much running, after much jumping, and after a fair bit of stabbing, Jack and the strings had gotten so far up that the air was thin and they had created a mass larger than the tower itself, and heavier too.

With a massive groan and a shockwave so powerful that it became the source of destruction myths for towns thousands of miles away, the base of the beanstalk cracked under the weight of this giant massive string hanging above it. It cracked some more, and more, until finally, with not a singular massive thud but instead hundreds of thousands of pieces falling, the beanstalk crumbled to the ground.

[Music ends.]

Most people don’t know this story. All they know is that Jack and her Piper entered the beanstalk and quite some time later it collapsed.

[Magical western music begins.]

While people did not know the details of what happened, they do know the effects, which were more than enough to cement Jack and Piper’s legacy.

For the crumbling of the tower did not kill the data within, instead, like dust rising from a building collapse, these pieces of data spread into the sky and populated the air, harkening the beginning of a Ninth World and a new form of life, one that existed in the data breathed around us… for Jack, by felling the beanstalk, had created the Datasphere.

[Music ends.]

Kyle (as announcer/All) 

… Oh! Were, um… doing this again? Alright. … One billion and fifteen years in the future!

[Music plays, ‘Friends’ by miracle of Sound.]

Mankind’s dominance over the earth has long since been usurped by technological advancements and visitors from beyond the stars. Much like the reign of the dinosaurs, each new world has climbed out of its predecessors’ ashes before meeting a harsh finish. Now, in the ninth such world, humanity struggles for survival on a planet ravaged by powerful artifacts. Our heroes unleashed horrors unbound by natural reality but defeated them by learning to master the magic of the past.

While their tale may be done, theirs is not the only story to tell, for time moves on, and before you know it you find yourself at the Future in a Flash.

[Music swells before fading out.]

Kyle (as Q-BO) 

[Bloop.] Well, that was a long episode, and one that featured a surprising amount of exposition. We’ve now finished our first chapter. Congratulations!

[Sounds of a very small audience cheering and clapping.]

Next week we’re going to be releasing a full compilation of this chapter which we’ll be doing every time we wrap one up. Because our next episode will be in two weeks, I have two questions for you. First: Whose perspective should we follow for the next chapter? Should it be the champion, the con artist, or the wallflower? Additionally, would you like to continue with the third-person narration or switch to a first-person narration style? Be careful. Whatever choice you make will be what we use going forward for the rest of the story.

You can answer those questions and ask any questions you might have in our Discord which you can find linked in the description. Down there you can also find Friends by miracle of Sound, the song that played at the very end.