Drabblecast 411 – Wholesale Solution

[mightytwix]

Drabblecast 411 – Wholesale Solution

by Fred Greenhalgh and Jack Bowman

Episode art by Kit Ainslie

Twabble: Spring is awful, filled with scuttling things and pollen. The trees revenge for the fires burned in winters long night. by Hazel

[Weird Beard]

I loved this production, if I wasn't quite sure where the meat plant was. Is it on Earth or Europa?

Where do I find the rest of the story?

[El Barto]

Wow. That story was intense. My heart was racing as my adrenaline was pumping. Hey, wait a minute...

I too was unclear about where this was all taking place, as well as a few other things.

Reading the screenplay text at https://www.drabblecast.org/2019/07/19/ ... -solution/ helped. There, it becomes very clear that this stuff is all happening in a "butcher shop for food-grade meat humans" because, well, the text says exactly that. I got the feeling that it was all happening on Earth because that's where all the hungry people are. But it isn't clear.

Interestingly, the text also strongly suggests that the main character, Clay, is being actively harvested for his meat while the story is happening. ("The sound of a meat saw powers up, and Clay screams.") It is unclear to me whether he is having meat carved off that then regrows or if he's being killed. The former would seem to make most sense.

One other thing that remains unclear to me is whether the goal of the project is to generate adrenaline for its own sake, or just to grow human meat. The medical professionals in the story say they are “Squeezing twice as much adrenaline from every meatsack, and “look at the adrenaline collected.” Those things suggest they want the adrenaline as a byproduct. Maybe adrenaline makes people grow meat faster?

I couldn't find the rest of the story either. If you go to http://www.dagazmedia.com/universal-solution/ you can sign up for updates. It would be fun to read the rest for sure, and even more fun to listen to it.

[ScubaMan]

Oh hell yeah!
Uncle Norm, please use some % of my monthly patronage to secure additional episodes of this VERY distopian world. It was like listening to the lovechild of “The Matrix”, “Total Recall”, “Inception”, “2001 [HAL going on the fritz]”, and a James S.A. Corey (Leviathan Wakes) book.
ADVICE TO OTHER LISTENERS = re-listen to it using a set of headphones. I don’t know WHO did the sound effects and mixing, but DAMN! Your layering of different conversations did not go unnoticed!

So THAT’S what the title was all about. I appreciate a tale that has an incoherent title that only makes sense at the episode’s end.

Indeed, this episode was different from your usual Drabblecast fare. Sure, it could be posted on Escape Artists’ EscapePod ... and then it would fly off the rails, (with A.S. Looking on in horror). Nice.

[Lisa3737]

Loved it! More, please!!!

[normsherman]

I agree! Keep the encouragement coming on this one if you enjoyed it folks, Fred has potential ideas for expanding this with future pieces in a series.

[behind the ziggurat]

I enjoyed this one! At first I was almost put off by how chaotic the beginning was, but once the back and forth between Clay and the AI started I was hooked, who doesn't love sassy/sinister computer programs talking to humans in their scifi. I'm intrigued that it's part of a series, because it certainly feels like Clay's tale has reached its conclusion. What will the rest of the series contain, more short stories of Europacorp/The Committee doing dastardly things to people in the name of profit and progress?