Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. starting a business can be overwhelming you're juggling multiple roles designer marketer logistics manager all while bringing your vision to life shopify helps millions of business sell online build fast with templates and ai descriptions and photos inventory and shipping sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl that's shopify.nl it's time to see what you can accomplish with shopify by your side Hello, friends. I'm Andrew Crabtree, the creator of The Void, and I cannot thank you enough for listening. If you're enjoying The Void, it would mean the world if you checked out our Patreon. In addition to week-ahead, ad-free episodes of The Void, you'll find The Minds of Milton, another full production, full cast audio drama set in the same place and timeline as The Void. You'll also find our Director's Cut podcast, where I sit down with a cast member and give you behind-the-scenes commentary on each episode. If you're loving The Void, you won't want to miss this. There's a link in this episode's description. Now enjoy The Void. Welcome to Curated, the lost archives of the curator. The curator was an important figure in Milton. To so many, he stood larger than life. Years after his tragic death, at the hands of Jordan Cain, I would find his meticulously archived journals. Their pages would tell me the story of an unsung hero who helped keep the void at bay for years, long before another soul even knew the darkness was creeping in. I still miss John. Like countless others over the years, his stay in my life was brief, but deeply impactful. Let me take you back to 1979 and a pivotal moment in Milton's history. The gates were still open then though few people left and the legend of the void was starting to build. Don't take it from me though. The following words were taken directly from the journals of my friend John Zacharias or as you may know him, the curator. Our first entry is dated March 12, 1979. Dear Lined Paper Therapist, It's been too many years since I've confided in your trustworthy pages. It's been a decade since you helped me sort the last mess I found myself in, but we won't revisit that right now. I can still remember the day my mother gave you to me, shortly after my 15th birthday. It was then that my parents chose to completely uproot our lives, leaving the comfort and routine of our day-to-day in Chicago's north side. It was April 1954 when we arrived in Milton. While we couldn't cram into our 1949 Ford wagon, we strapped to the top or just left it behind. And so much of the life I loved, what made me comfortable, we just left piled up in the only home I'd ever known. And for what? Milton was obviously a downgrade. Our home was smaller. We made less money. There wasn't even a school. We dropped our entire lives into the desolate forest just to support my Uncle Gideon. I'd struggled with the rapid and unwelcome changes to my life. I'd loved Chicago. I loved the lake, the food, the girls, my job. The smell of those grilled hot dogs waving across the baseball field. It wasn't even a baseball field in all of Milton. I'd been happy and carefree back home. I must have come across as sullen and withdrawn in Milton because my mother pretty well forced me into journaling my thoughts and emotions into your pages. She called you the lined paper therapist Milton being so new and underdeveloped in 1954 didn have any kind of mental health services Not that we much acknowledged mental health disorders in the 50s anyway. We were among the first hundred people to move in, so it was primitive. Without anyone to help or to talk to, my mother bought me a journal required me to fill one of your pages each day. Guess she thought if I was writing, I was processing, and that was better than wallowing. Not sure I ever told her this while she was alive, but it worked. Slowly, I started to make sense of the world around me, come to be at peace with it. Eventually, I even started to enjoy it, I think. Seeing my problems and anxieties detailed on your lined pages truly did help me organize my brain and process my new life. Now, in my adulthood, I don't come around every day like I used to, but I do check in with the therapist from time to time, especially when I'm working through something. And that's where we find ourselves today, therapists working through something. Life in Milton has always been strange. After all, it's a certain type of person willing to drop everything and run off into the woods, all in the name of a new way to live. But lately, it's been more than the eccentricities of the locals. At its core, the strangeness started about ten years ago, not long after Uncle Gideon and my favorite cousin Leo went missing. Gideon was one of Milton's original founders. He and Desmond Cain planned and founded the town together. Uncle Gideon was the planner and organizer. Cain was the money man. and as Milton grew, they agreed to be co-chairmen of the city council. Those days, there was no mayor. The only governing body was the council and it was pretty common knowledge that most everyone would vote with Uncle Gideon. He had their respect. Well, he'd earned it. And then out of the blue, in July of 69, Gideon and his son, my cousin Leo, went missing, never to be seen again. It was bizarre. The two most beloved people in Milton, just gone. Desmond Cain started telling everyone that would listen that the forest did it, that the woods were cursed and the darkness swallowed them up. At that point, I'd never heard of anything like that. I'd spent plenty of time in the woods and never had any problems. I'd say Cain was lying, and maybe he was, but the thing is, The evil of the woods surrounding Milton is a proven fact these days. And I've seen it. I've looked into the darkness. Was it always there? Lurking in the shadows those carefree days I'd spent foraging, hunting, skipping rocks on the creek? Or is this evil a newer addition to these woods? These days only supply trucks come in and out of Milton very frequently. Sure, an occasional family gets cabin fever and bolts, always careful to leave in the morning when the woods are supposedly at its calmest. With no real way to know if those people make it out alive, rumors, well, they run rampant. All of this nonsense though, the thing that has set poorest with me is how quickly the the town forgot all about Uncle Gideon and Leo. They were such an important part of getting us here. And now they're pretty well written out of town history. Anyone that had moved to Milton in the last 10 years had never even heard of them. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping Sign up for your 1 euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify That shopify It time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. As I write this down, I think it through. I think all signs point back to Cain. On his word, no investigation was ever launched into my family's disappearance, and out of the fear it generated, he was named Mayor of Milton and given sweeping powers. Town follows his lead so as he's done his best to wipe away the memory of Leo and Uncle Giddy and the people here have just let them go. But not me. I want to start a museum in my dad's oldest storefront on Astoria Street. I want to tell the story of the real Milton. I want to look into their death or disappearance or whatever it turns out to be. As hard as it will be 15 years after the fact, I owe it to them to try. Too many lies in this forsaken place, and I want to be the keeper of the truth. Until now, I'd been too afraid of what Cain would do to me. But as I see how things are going around here, how he abuses his power, I can't sit by. I'm going to need you, therapist. I need you to keep fast to the secret truths I might uncover. I need your unbiased pages to preserve the facts. So let's just get started with what we know today. In 1954, Milton was founded by my uncle Gideon Oswald and Desmond and Cain. When my family moved in shortly after the founding, all signs pointed to an amiable working relationship between those two men. They wanted Milton to be a utopia, a place of great resources and good people working together to build a fine society. In 1961, seven years into their experiment, Gideon and Cain still governed Milton jointly, but saw the need for a widened voice of influence, mostly at my uncle's insistence. So the town council was created with Oswald and Cain as the co-chairman. Then in 1963, for the first time in Milton's recorded history, Uncle Gideon and Desmond Cain publicly disagreed at a council meeting. Gideon voted in favor of expanding the City Council membership from five to nine members. Cain voted against. The council sided with Gideon and the motion passed. Then in 1969 Gideon and Leo Waswell were reported missing by my parents. At a City Council meeting, Cain claims to have witnessed a monster of darkest magic slay them at the edge of the forest surrounding town. In response, a terrified council makes Cain the sole chairman of the council. 1970, first disappearances are reported in the forest. Frightened by the developing darkness, the council appoints Cain as Milton's first mayor with wide-ranging power. To this date, there have been 28 more disappearances attributed to the woods in the last nine years. People are scared. They won't even approach the tree line. Some of them even have a slang term for it. They're calling the forest the void. They say it's a dark expanse devoid of any light or goodness. Legend grows every day. They say if you enter the void, you won't come back. I don't know what to believe myself. I want truth. I'm tired of peddling in whispers and hushed rumors. I miss my cousin. I miss having someone that cared. I miss having purpose. I need something to believe in, therapist. I need hope. And maybe this quest for truth won't end up hope but at this point I settle for closure at least From the Archives of the Milton Register article dated May 20th 1963 written by George Truman, Jr. Staff Writer, article titled, Tensions Build at City Council. I think it would be a normal thing to see two grown men disagree about governance at the local level. Certainly, in all of our former lives, scattered about locations abroad, we witnessed heated political disagreements. But, at least publicly, it had never happened in Milton. Not before last night's city council meeting. A meeting that had gone routinely until the last item of business. A proposal, presented by co-chair Gideon Oswald, that if passed would see the size of Milton's council grow from a delegation of five individuals to nine. Milton was founded to be a better society, to be a place free of repression. An expanded council allows us more checks and balances, protected from the power-hungry few. Oswald was quoted during an address delivered to those gathered at City Hall, As much as I trust Desmond Cain, and myself as it is, nobody is above reproach. These extra voices are needed to ensure the future freedom and prosperity of Milton. A reasonable argument from a reasonable man. His co-chair, Desmond Kane, would not agree. The vision for this utopia originated with a few, and only a few can be entrusted to nurture and protect its future. If we aren't vigilant, the ideologies we fled will find us again in our new home. I have your best interests at heart. Trust me. I will be voting no on this measure and expect the council's support in my opposition, Cain rebutted. The remaining three council members unanimously sided with Oswald in the motion passed by a tally of four votes to one. As Oswald adjourned the meeting, tensions in the room were palpable, and Cain did not take his defeat with grace. These type of interactions are not pleasant for anyone involved, and unity and harmony are what lured many of us to town in the first place. But I would urge us to trust the system that is in place for our good. Emotions ran high last night, but we will band together and be better for it tomorrow. After all, that's what makes Milton so special. Well, we are back. I want to thank everybody for all of your patience as this feed has been quiet for a few weeks now. as we have been pretty hard at work on season two and this mini series you're listening to right now curated. I am really excited to share what we're working on with you. This is the first of six planned episodes for curated. So I'd love it if you'd come back next week for that second installment as the curator gives us a look at Milton in 1979. If you haven't already, it would mean the world to myself and our wonderful cast. If you checked out our community on Patreon. There is so much exclusive content built up that I know you will love. In addition to the entire ad-free season one of The Void, there are 18 episodes of our companion audio drama, The Minds of Milton, as well as behind-the-scenes director's cuts for every episode of The Void. So, I hope you'll check it out. Link to our Patreon in this episode's description. I am Andrew Crabtree, creator of The Void. I wrote, directed, and edited this episode of Curated. I also voice adult Sam a huge thank you to my dad Len Crabtree for coming back and lending his amazing voice to the curator he did such an amazing job bringing that character to life in season 1 of The Void that it inspired this entire mini-series alright and one more thing before I sign off here I do want to take a second to genuinely thank you the fans of this show I have had the absolute privilege of interacting with several of you on a personal level on both Patreon and Instagram. And hearing your stories of listening to The Void and what it has meant to you is something that I really struggle to put into words. So to you guys, I dedicate Curated. When season one of The Void launched, I never planned to write Curated or produce spinoffs like this. Your interest in Milton and the world that we're building here, your desire to know more and see more of these characters, it inspired me to dig deeper into this world than I ever intended. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. I hope that curated and the currently in development season to live up to your lofty expectations. All right, I'm done. Sorry for rambling. Come back next Monday for chapter two of curated. I'll see you then. The Fable and Folly Network where fiction producers flourish.
