Uncle Raven's Storytime Theatre: Never Never Land

Cover art by Sarah De Buck

**Uncle Raven's Storytime Theatre: Never Never Land** is a 2018 single track written and produced by Paul Shapera. The track was released on July 14, 2018 with a "Name Your Price" tag. It features Paul Shapera as Raven and Lauren Osborn as The Floozy, with surprise appearance of Psyche Corporation as Han-Mi and another Paul Shapera's character, Lloyd Allen.

## Synopsis

Uncle Raven tells a story in a non-linear, incoherent fashion. It is a story of how he came to be the man is. He talks of his previous self, David Adams, and how his flowering led him to the *Playhouse.* Once there, David met Lloyd Allen, fell in love with him, and (at Lloyd's insistence) began embodying the archetypical showman, gradually changing him into Raven.

He explains that Lloyd was very interested in searching for a pocket dimension to Elysium and was working on reaching it.

Raven also tells the story of a boy and a girl who kept falling in love. Each time the boy would tragically die at the age of 13, each time the accident would include an old man. The girl would die, too. The two of them would reincarnate and in the next life be the best friends, love each other and die all over again. In some lives they would manage to grow older but lose their love and kill each other. In one particular life they took their own lives suspecting that if they went on they would stop loving each other. Finally, Raven tells of a life *many lives ago* where the boy and the girl built a corn-man and smeared it with their blood, making a wish to be like Peter Pan and never grow up and never stop loving each other. This is, ultimately, why they go on dying tragically in the following lives. Raven does not go into details on how their wish came true, but only narrates the actual events.

After the story ends, Raven leaves to stroll the Carnival grounds with a glass of scotch, and quietly admits that while he doesn't remember what it was like to be David Adams anymore, he was a better person than Raven is. His musing, however, is cut short when he catches sight of a strange, doll-like figure approaching.

Raven, disgusted by the doll's appearance, wonders aloud what "that thing" is before it speaks to him, revealing itself to be Lloyd. Realizing his long-lost love has returned, Raven breaks down and weeps as Lloyd tearfully apologizes for leaving him for so long, and that he "tried so hard" to get back to him.

The weeping stops when Raven notices another person with Lloyd, and questions what she's doing there.Han-Mi is revealed and tells him: "*Oh, you're going to love this one, gramps.*"

## Continuity

*Storytime Theatre* takes place after the events of *The Ballad of Lost Hollow*. At the end of *The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly*, Han-Mi met Lloyd Allen, who asked her for help in reaching the *Carnival*. Lloyd explained that he had left to retrieve Raven's daughter, but it went wrong and it was the reason he ended up stuck as a doll. He reveals the girl was Son-Mi, Han-Mi's grandmother.

## Cast

Paul Shapera as Raven and Lloyd Allen (uncredited)

Lauren Osborn as The Floozy

Psyche Chimere as Han-Mi (uncredited)

Cover art by Sarah DeBuck