COVID39 By cover art

COVID39

By: Mark Millien
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  • Summary

  • Twenty years after Covid-19 brought the world to a standstill, a man and a woman who were quarantined together as kids question the validity of their current romantic relationship. They salvage audio recordings left by their parents during the pandemic, our present, to come to terms with their trauma. This is a fictional audio drama that points out the humanity of our fateful present and examines the future we are helping to create for our children.

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Episodes
  • COVID39 : Chapter 1

    COVID39 : Chapter 1
    Apr 7 2020

    Dr. Estrum offers Randi and Shane a revelatory solution to a painful problem.

    https://thesevensages.com/covid39

    Cast

    Dr. Estrum Melissa Thomas

    Randi Halle Millien

    Shane. Mark Millien

    SFX and Music Contributors

    SFX

    Q Tone [Query]

    Tone 4.wav by patchen of freesound.org

    Q Tone [Response]

    Tone 3.wav by patchen of freesound.org

    Music

    Nostalgia and Discovery

    This Fight - Cinematic Piano - Part 1 by RealNorth of looperman.com

    This Fight - Cinematic Piano Loop - Part 2 by RealNorth of looperman.com

    Created by Mark and Halle Millien

    Cover Art by Halle Millien

    Written, Directed and Produced by Mark Millien

    Glossary

    drifting: a term used to describe when one is using the Q to communicate across its platforms.

    Q: slang for the quantumnet; a technology that uses discreet qubits of transitory particles to hold almost limitless amounts of data and transmit them at near light speed using the bones of the internet as infrastructure.

    Run: a nickname Shane uses for Run.

    tabs: all social media forms have been aggregated into a single hosting network that collates and slots their information into packets or tabs that have replaced likes and upvotes. Tabs, like their predecessors, can be monetized.

    This series is intended to be a companion to people experiencing what we are all experiencing on a daily basis but provide some levity and beauty and a sense that none of us are alone via narrative. Something you could listen to after being depressed by your daily news podcast, but abounding with a hope that is hard to see right now. We hope it provides inspiration, hope and a little distraction to our collective chronicles.

    #covid39 #covid19 #coronavirus #quarantine #rona #quarantinechronicles #covidchronicles #coronachronicles #qibi
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    12 mins
  • COVID39: Chapter 2

    COVID39: Chapter 2
    Apr 8 2020
    Randi and Shane listen to the first letter, from Shane’s father. The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rateCastRandi Halle MillienShane Mark MillienSFX and Music ContributorsSFXQ Tone [Query]Tone 4.wav by patchen of freesound.orgQ Tone [Response]Tone 3.wav by patchen of freesound.orgCheersMy bourbon by Me of MeMusicDesmond’s First LetterPG-Sunshining by PaulGuanez of looperman.comCreated by Mark and Halle MillienCover Art by Halle MillienWritten, Directed and Produced by Mark MillienSpecial thank you to Puppy Pals for keeping our eldest dead-eyed and limp enough for us to get this podcast out.GlossaryIRIS: Independent Retinal Immersive Scanner; a passive laser suite integrated into various bits of everyday tech that interprets your eye’s movements and translates them into digital action. Effective for drifting on the Q, inputing textual commands, communicating wordlessly and interacting with eleventh generation tech in an almost seamless way. It would appear like telepathy to people of today.vam: slang for videogram.Desmond’s First Letter:Shane. I’m sitting across from you feeling guilty. The TV, as I type this, has drained your soul away. You are a husk of your normal self, deadeyed and limp. I try not to take your surplus of energy for granted. I try to marvel, in every moment, the mechanics of your limbs, the buoyancy of your spirit. I’m practicing staying present. One of the many lifehacks I’ve adopted culled from emails, newsletters and instagram posts from the perpetually zen. But right now I’m so thankful for your stillness and silence that I’m giddy. These two tribes of beasts that have become our Quarantine children. I made you all peanut butter and jelly sandwiches today with that thick Trader Joe’s bread. We’re running out. Dr. Birx recommended that this week, these next two weeks in particular, that we should all stay home. We’ve been sheltering in place together with the Morgans for weeks now, but this was different. She said trips to the grocery store and pharmacy should only be taken in emergencies. We’ve been watching the rest of the world suffocate, praying for Italy and praying to not to become Italy and now it feels like it’s our turn to choke. The prime minister of Britain is in intensive care. Each day there are more people with masks when we take our walks, even here in Dallas. We politely cross the street half a block away from our neighbors who have become potential carriers, well meaning and innocent threats. Your mom is doing better with it all than I am. At least I think she is. It’s hard to tell. She’s constantly moving. She has a job and she can do that job from home. Which would make us aristocrats in the new scheme of things but I don’t have a laptop job. I bought her three bottles of wine the last time I went out to the store. I peeled off the labels so that she could just enjoy whatever was in her glass without worrying about the price. It’s hardest for Helen, with Roderick gone all the time. I tasked you kids with picking her some flowers from the backyard. Flowering weeds, really. They’re dying in a plastic cup a couple of feet away from where I’m typing this. I don’t think she’s noticed them. Even here, it’s hard for me to talk about Roderick. I don’t know what to say except that when he’s gone the sun can’t quite reach beyond the panes and we wait for him in unwanted shade. There was a report today that said black people are being infected and dying disproportionately to other groups. At the beginning of this there was an internet rumor that metastasized into colloquial pseudo wisdom that we were somehow immune. Seems like it was so long ago that we were so proud of being so stupid. Majority black counties are dying at six times the rate of majority white counties. And we are just at the beginning. Before you were born I tried to reconcile the dangers that would stalk you in your life. I thought that I had been adequately paranoid and thoughtful. I was wrong. I never considered this. I never knew to be terrified of this new thing, waiting for you to grow, so that it could strangle the life out of you or leave you without a community of elders to nurture and guide you. But I saw something amazing today Shane. There was an election today in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Another family, like ours, stood in a scattered line, under a sky that dumped rain and ice, for hours, so that they could vote. The only reason they were there, were because a group of cynical people gave them a choice. Vote or stay home, thinking that the less people turned out, the greater advantage it would give them. I don’t know how most of those people voted, just like I don’t know what tomorrow will bring into our home. But they risked their lives today and I’m hopeful that they did so in defiance of the cynics and not in support of them. I’m probably wrong, but for the sake of the world I want for you, I...
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    10 mins
  • COVID39: Chapter 3

    COVID39: Chapter 3
    Apr 9 2020
    Randi reads a letter from her mother and confronts Shane about something he’s been hiding.Doctor’s PhotoCastRandi Halle MillienShane Mark MillienSFX and Music ContributorsSFXQ Tone [Query]Tone 4.wav by patchen of freesound.orgQ Tone [Response]Tone 3.wav by patchen of freesound.orgMusicHelen’s First LetterSad Boy by Sizeoff of looperman.comCreated by Mark and Halle MillienCover Art by Halle MillienWritten, Directed and Produced by Mark MillienGlossary-American Political PartiesBlack Party the coalition that concerns the rights of people of color specifically.Condemnics an offshoot of the religious right who traffic in conspiracy theories concerning the what and how of COVID-19.Democrats the center-left establishment.Green Party environmentally centered and extremely powerful.Jurists an offshoot of the mainstream right that considers the rule of law to be sacrosanct with literal originalist dogma with no variation.Loyalists an offshoot of the GOP that considers the 45th president to be the greatest president in history and seek to emulate and venerate him in every way.Platonics an extreme left-wing group that demands socialism and observance of every cultural hegemony.Helen’s Letter:Dear Harrison, this will be a series of minor and major confessions which seem apt since we are all being punished. We decided that we would share these with you when you turn ten. For you, that’s just two short years away, but you’ll still be too young for all of this. You say you understand what’s happening and I believe that you do but I confess to you, that I do not understand what’s happening. Every morning I wake up knowing exactly what to expect. It’s been a series of unchanging yesterdays. How could that be? There should be something inherent in the DNA of a Monday that differentiates it from a Sunday. Something your circadian rhythm would pick up on and murmur to your subconscious. But to me it’s all a desert of time like an hourglass resting on its side. Second confession. I am not fond of the Phillips. Mara walks around like the queen of the vagabonds, tethered to so many things that are somehow still important. Desmond watches over you and the other children like he is competing for an award, or attention or maybe affection. Before we were abandoned in this place I had decided that I’d had my fill of these people so everyday is a new torment in tedium. A third confession. Part of it you know, so I’ll start there. Your father is a hero. Objectively. To his community. His city. America. Shit. The world. A cosmic savior. So powerful in his generosity that he has given his family to the people we share a wall with. Saint of saints. He is here less and less. I don’t know what to think of that. I don’t know how to feel about that. I confess that I hate him for it. I will confess that I can say things to you that I cannot face myself because the man that you will become can handle my weakness. You can forgive me for it. My sweet boy, I can ask that of you in a way that I can’t of your sister. She is too strong to forgive me for becoming this angry, petty person. So to you, my future son, I leave one last confession. I saw a post today of spouses who are doctors, who spend 18 hours out of every single day, fighting the virus. You couldn’t see any part of their skin in the post. They were covered head to toe in medical blue latex and plastic. They held one another, separated by their transparent face shields and the contagion that could be lying dormant in their breath or blood. It is the only contact they are allowed and it was clear that they cherished it. There was nothing routine about the need between them. I envy them so.#covid39 #covid19 #coronavirus #quarantine #rona #quarantinechronicles #covidchronicles #coronachronicles #quibi
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    8 mins
Drama & Plays Science Fiction
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