Mick Mercury and the Night Before

Poster by Sharon Oh

**Mick Mercury and the Night Before** is a holiday special episode of The Penumbra Podcast Season 3. It was released December 24, 2019.

## Overview

A 100% canon adventure involving three best friends just as their adult lives are about to begin. "The Oldtown Trio," they call themselves, and they've been close for so long it seems like nothing could ever get in the way of them being friends forever. But something's been rubbing the Leader of the Gang, Mick Mercury, the wrong way for a few months now, and he's hoping one last big, exciting, completely-canon adventure will be just the thing to bring back the good old days.

And it just might. If it doesn't kill them, first.

### Trigger Warnings

* Sudden loud noises
* Child abuse
* Deception and gaslighting
* Reference to alcohol use
* Violence and threats of violence
* Violent death, gore, and blood
* Claustrophobic spaces

## Episode Summary

Mick Mercury tells a story of sneaking into his high school after hours with his childhood best friends, "Tasha Connector-Cable" and "Bruno Bronze." It's "Bruno's" birthday, but the three senior students need to get into their biology teacher Mr. Nikolas's room to retrieve a piece of writing he confiscated from "Tasha."

The trio becomes nervous when they hear noises in the building, but lightly brush them off as "probably just organized crime," given that multiple corpses have been found near the school recently. They find "Tasha's" sheet of notebook paper, but decide to hide in a cabinet when the noises become closer.

"Tasha" is horrified to discover something on a shelf that smells like blood, causing Mick to gasp that, by the Earth calendar, this is the time Old Man Winter should appear. Old Man Winter, he explains, is a legend his mother told him about a zombie who presides over a goblin army, using his mindreading powers to decide whether people are good or deserve to have their stockinged feet cut off. "Tasha" and "Bruno" tell him that robbing Earth history museums doesn't mean Mick's mother was an expert on the subject. They emerge from the cabinet to find "Tasha's" paper is missing. She and "Bruno" quarrel about whether to pursue whoever took it. "Bruno" has acquired thirty-nine misdemeanors in his young life and is unwilling to risk obtaining a fortieth.

Mick, who has been trying to mediate between them as "The Leader of the Gang," tries unsuccessfully to end the argument about whose future is more jeopardized, but they all run to another room on hearing a yelp. They find Mr. Nikolas there, and are startled to see he is wearing bloodied gloves. He teases them, chuckles at Mick comparing him to Old Man Winter, and explains that he is only preparing fetal megaheifers for dissection. All three teens offer information to win back his approval for "Tasha," with "Bruno" explaining that she's been very busy helping her parents, immigrants from the Outer Rim, run their Hanumanian food stall. Mr. Nikolas relents in sympathy and returns her notebook paper. They thank him, and he remarks that he thinks she'll make an excellent police officer, revealing that the paper contains an essay for her application, due at midnight that night.

"Bruno" reminds her that when they once called the police about a robbery at the food stall, the cops broke more windows and punched "Tasha's" dads. She explains that's what she's written her essay about, because she believes there *should* be good people to call for help. She hopes to improve the system from the inside. "Bruno" sheepishly reveals he wrote an essay on the same subject--in fact, that's why he cares so much about having fewer than forty misdemeanors, so he won't lose his eligibility for the HCPD. Mick reflects as narrator that his friends had gained new dreams while he stayed the same, and he didn't want the good days to be over. Teenage Mick lies to them that he wants to be a cop too, so they can stay together. With only an hour left before the deadline, he plans to take his hovercycle home to whip out an essay of his own.

They rush back in the direction of the cabinet they hid in to look for Mick's lost keys, only to discover Mr. Nikolas cutting the legs off the corpse of their principal, Mr. Donovan. They trap him in the cabinet and push desks in front of the door. The three are afraid to call the police for help and earn new misdemeanors for breaking into the school, so Mick decides he'll take the fall to protect his friends's dreams. He tells them to run so he can call for help. even though it will bring him to forty misdemeanors, unable to follow them in this new phase of life. They swear to be friends forever, and he tells them he loves them, for the first time in the episode using their real names: Sasha Wire and Juno Steel. Adult Mick reflects that the good old days had already ended then--he just hadn't realized it yet.

"The End," Mick says, and then has a short conversation with his father, Bartholomew Mercury Sr., about how much he's enjoyed writing the story. His father is proud of him for finishing it, and asks to read it. Mick explains that he tried to obscure his friends's identities, knowing that Juno didn't want to be named and assuming Sasha wouldn't either. As the conversation continues, it becomes clear that his father is suffering severe short-term memory loss, already forgetting that half-remembered phrases had appeared in Mick's story, and sighing that he never liked what a "downer" Juno could be. Mick wistfully changes the subject and hugs him.

## Cast and Crew

### Cast

* Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury
* Sophie Takagi Kaner as Tasha Connector-Cable (Sasha Wire)
* Joshua Ilon as Bruno Bronze (Juno Steel)
* William Schuller as Mr. Nikolas
* Glen Moore as Mick Mercury, Sr.

### Crew

* Kevin Vibert, Co-creator, Head of Operations, Lead writer
* Sophie Kaner, Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, Sound designer
* Kat Buckingham, Head of Merchandise and Outreach
* Alice Chuang, Head of Design
* Noah Simes, Production manager
* Ryan Vibert, Composer and performer of original music
* Promotional art by Sharon Oh

## Trivia

* This episode was released on December 24, Juno Steel's (noncanon) birthday.
* This is the first episode in the Juno Steel series to feature Mick Mercury in the title, and the second arc in the series overall to feature a different character in the title. The first arc that did this was Peter Nureyev and the Angel of Brahma (Part 1) and Peter Nureyev and the Angel of Brahma (Part 2). It is also the second episode to be told from the perspective of someone other than Juno Steel.
* This episode makes reference to a creature called a "megaheifer." A heifer is another word for a cow.
* In this episode, Mick tries to hype his friends up by recounting past adventures of theirs, featuring references to the classic Scooby-Doo plot formula.

## References

 Bonus Episodes

 Other Episodes
 Live Shows