Pirate Radio (A Contact for Lighthouse)

Pirate Radio (A Contact for Lighthouse)

Lighthouse is something you can see out the window, if you're sitting on the Throne of Salt. They did something with card-based resolution, which I've always been very fond of, so I've done a little writing on something they're fond of.

Radio Live Free
A station you hear through the static.

Nobody tunes into Radio Live Free by accident. Some loyal listener showed you how before they disappeared, or you got some strongly worded advice in a chain email from a friend you don't keep in touch with, or you read a weird creepypasta and decided to give it a try.

There are all kinds of different rituals: sometimes you have to dance under power lines. Sometimes you have to fall asleep to the static under the open sky. Sometimes you just have to be in the right state of mind. If it works, it rarely works twice.

You'll know if you do it right. The voice of Radio Live Free will crash through the static in all its joyous noise and start shouting at you. Radio Live Free is a very good pirate radio show. The host is crass and loud but only because they're passionate. They're fast, breezy, and fun, self-promoting but never gross. They sprinkle in jargon but only the kind where you feel smart, never the kind where you feel stupid.

They talk about action. Anti-authoritarian action. If someone's killed a cop or burned down a municipal building or robbed a bank or started a community garden, they feature it. Names and codenames and contact info are available, if you call in and ask. In between there's little rants against taxes and fascism and public libraries and mathematics, all with equal fervor.

They do lots of promotions, and they don't take donations, they sell opportunities. They know where that new designer drug is being synthesized, and you'll know too, if you're the 12th caller. They know who's making it and who they're connected to and where they live, and you'll know too. They know where to sell the drug, and they know why the buyers really need it, even if those people don't know themselves. And if you're the 12th caller, so will you.

Payment in information only. And they don't want names and dates, they've got plenty of those. Radio Live Free wants secrets, the more painful and personal and destructive the better. You might have a few that belong to someone else, but eventually it gets easier to sell your own. There's no judgement here, they say. No guilt, no shame, no fear. Just whisper it under your breath. If you can hear them, they can hear you.

Radio Live Free likes it when their opportunities pay off, and they like them to pay off publicly. If you happen to wreck part of the power grid or run an elementary school teacher off the road while you do it, all the better. The better you do, the bigger your feature.

The opportunities usually pay out in exposure. Because you're not the only ones who listen to Radio Live Free. Once you start tuning in, your names and codenames and contact info are up for grabs, same as anyone, and that means if you get a big feature, you're going to start getting offers.

But here's the last thing about Radio Live Free. The more the Radio likes you, the more it wants to talk. Maybe it starts getting easier to find the station. Maybe you start finding it by accident. Maybe it starts playing in the store when you walk under the speaker. Maybe it starts replacing the songs on your phone. The sheep standing by you, blinking brainlessly under the fluorescent lights? They just hear static, baby. They don't know how to listen. But you do. You get it. Talking is transaction. Names and days that could get you killed, secret shames that weigh down your heart, the kind of awful things you want to bleach out of your brain, they're all for sale, and most people don't even know they're selling them.

And of course, there's always the suspicion that there's someone else, standing in the middle of the grocery store just like you are, asking where to find you, and what your real name is, and how they can hurt you the worst. And of course, if they're a loyal listener, Radio Live Free will be eager to tell them.


Hooks  Boring.
We don't teach and we don't inform here on Radio Live Free because we don't snitch and we don't tell you how to think, but mostly because we don't know jack shit. But in the name of smashing up information into little bitty unrecognizable pieces and also making you some fucking scratch, here's what we've got for you today.

Be our 12th caller and you'll have a chance to:

Plunder
Pillage (Different Than Plunder)
Wreck
Infiltrate (Persona Provided)
Spy On
Murder Everyone At The Scene Of

a

Secret Business Conference
Shady Under-The-Table Deal
Cynical Display of "Goodwill"
Genuine Display of Goodwill
Crisis Actor Dress Rehearsal
Morale-Building Cookout

for

A Powerful Corporation
A Criminal Organization
Our Federal Government
Our So-Called Municipal Government
The FBI (Or Other Pigs)
Some Academic Bullshit Artists

and

Sell Off Your Gains (Contact Provided)
Learn Something Useful
Meet An Old Friend 
Make A New Friend (Not For Sure)
Strike A Blow Against Tyranny
Maybe Get Laid?


Insight Unlocks

Black Tape Recorder (I-1)- It will record everything worth listening to, whether you want it to or not. There's no need to replace the tape. Just keep it safe. It's basically an antique now.

Cigarette Lighter (I-1)- You'll never lose it. And you never know when you might need a cigarette lighter.

A Visit To The Rook (I-2)- It's a very good tattoo parlor, but it moves every night. They specialize in oblique metaphors, impossible designs, and hidden messages. And in recording things you'd rather not forget.

The Black Tapes (I-3)- A box of matte black cassettes, detailing unsolved police cases. Private conversations, tense interviews with eyewitnesses, midnight monologues to the mirror.

A Song Request (I-3)- Radio Live Free doesn't play music, except for static. But tonight, it will make an exception, for you.

Dark Night of the Soul (I-5)- Radio Live Free knows things about you that you don't know about yourself. It would be incorrect (but not very) to say they know everything about you that you hope other people don't. And that might be useful information to have.

Don't Touch That Dial! (I-5)- Is there a TV or radio broadcast or Skype call or walkie-talkie conversation you really need to stop? Well, lucky you, it's been interrupted by a very special, very disrespectful message.

Confessions From Make Out Creek (I-7)- The controversial fake autobiography of a teen suicide victim. Except.. this version is different. It's thick, heavily annotated. The characters are notably familiar. Even relatable. Sometimes the plot has an eerie correspondence with your life. It catches up with the present day halfway through the second act.

A Red Cigarette (I-9)- Red is the brand. And the color of the ribbon. You'll have to specify the name, the date, the time (a minute, no more or less). Inhale memories, exhale pain. It will hurt, but not as much as it hurt them. When the hole in their skull heals, they'll probably try to kill you.

Top 40 Hits (I-10)- There's one way to be in the world. Free. Everyone else in the world is dead, they just don't know it yet. Well, tonight it's time those corpses got buried, loyal listeners. We're going to be running down 40 of our biggest hits for you, and one lucky caller gets to write the hit list.


Major Goals

Kill People Burn Shit Fuck School
Radio Live Free is intensely devoted to a kind of cartoon anarchism. They will curse the prison-industrial complex and the institution of marriage and the Great Chain of Being in the same sentence and you can never tell if they're joking. They don't care about injustice. They care about Freedom. Oppression is one of the fetters that binds us, they say. But love is another.

Break On Through To The Other Side
Radio Live Free has a particular interest in doors, and, generally, in thresholds. They like to hear about what people see in the moments before they fall asleep, and the dreams they forget after waking up. They collect portholes from downed submarines and security camera footage of border crossings. This is not an innocent interest. They are preparing a blueprint.

No Inside, No Out
The world is a house, and you are a house, and we say a house is a place without walls. Your skin is as porous as cheesecloth. Your ear leads into your brain. This is a kind of freedom. Embrace it. Our teeth and our hands and our eyes are yours, if you know how to use them. Your secrets are our secrets are everyone's secrets. We are all of us public and universal. Open wide.