Juno Steel and the Haunting of the Terrible Trio (Part 1)

Arc poster by Ellison Estephan.

**Juno Steel and the Haunting of the Terrible Trio (Part 1)** is the fourth Juno Steel episode of The Penumbra Podcast season 4, and the sixth overall. It was released December 7, 2021.

## Overview

Superstar writer Mick Mercury is missing, and he's not the only missing man Juno Steel is looking for. Low on sleep and lower on patience, Juno will need to solve the mystery of this haunted Dollhouse Manor quickly... or else something a little more solid than ghosts might find him soon enough.

### Trigger warnings:

* Sudden loud noises
* Death and descriptions of death
* Kidnapping
* Deception and gaslighting
* Violence
* Parental abuse
* Depictions of alcoholism
* Body horror
* Violence towards animals (described)

## Episode Summary

Juno Steel goes looking for his old friend Mick Mercury, now a wealthy and popular author of stories about the "Bold Crown Gang," starring "Bruno Bronze" and his friends. Juno is mildly irritated by them, since they're reworked versions of things that really happened to the two of them and Sasha Wire when they lived in Oldtown together, but the only one he's actually read is the one Mick was working on in Mick Mercury and the Night Before. Puck Falco tells Juno over comms that they really enjoy the Bold Crown Gang stories, nudging him until he admits the connection. They also tell Juno that Mick bought a home called Dollhouse Manor from a shady estate agent whose office disappeared after the sale. Mick has been teasing his fans that he'll write a haunted house story soon, and although Puck is excited for it, Juno whines that he *knows* what inspired that story, and it was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to him. Mick had promised never to tell anyone.

Juno muses that Dollhouse Manor isn't far from home. It's built on a floating planetoid not far from the North Pole of Mars. It's well named, "all soft pinks and baby blues." A stranger who claims to be "too expensive for this conversation" answers the door to crisply inform Juno that Mick isn't receiving any visitors. He eventually talks her into letting him in to charge his comms. Juno flippantly asks her whether the house is really haunted, which irritates her, but she won't chat with him about the house, or the dog he can hear barking. In a charming patter, he correctly identifies her as Mick's personal assistant, and she finally thaws enough to tell him her name: Miss Germane.

After Miss Germane leaves Juno in a room to "privately" call for help with his supposed car trouble, he calls Puck and makes coded references to old cases of theirs to communicate his current situation. In his narration, he remarks that he's spent enough time around the rich and eccentric to know that sometimes odd behavior can indicate something sinister, and sometimes it's just a quirk. Juno continues his pretense that he was on the phone with his "Mixter," with whom he's trying to buy a house. Miss Germane tries to see him to the door, but another member of the household staff interrupts with an urgent phone call about a "police matter." She takes the call in alarm, only to respond in disgust when seemingly told it's a noise complaint about the barking dog. Miss Germane walks away to continue the call. Juno tells the interrupting assistant that their shoe is untied, then disappears when they bend over to look.

He calls Puck from deeper into Dollhouse Manor, as he explores. Juno says he's worried Mick has fallen back into a drinking problem, saying it would explain his withdrawal and erratic beahvior. Puck is more concerned about ghosts, saying that the woman who built Dollhouse Manor "used it as a dollhouse for *real people"* and then killed them. Juno eavesdrops on a conversation between more staff members, one being told to bring a bottle of wine upstairs from the kitchen. Juno sighs and sets out to "save Mick from himself. Again." He can't help but resent Mick for getting his life back on track, only to fall apart again when Juno *needs* him.

Trying to tune out the creepy porcelain dolls lining the walls, Juno explores until he overhears two members of the house staff bickering. The gardener, Marty, tells the other, Sammy, to bring another bottle of wine from the kitchen for the boss. Juno sighs, believing this confirms his theory. Trying to tune out the creey porcelain dolls lining the walls, Juno follows Sammy to the garage, where Marty is. He eavesdrops while they give the wine to Miss Germane, who leaves with it, and continue to bicker. He realizes "the boss" is actually Miss Germane; Mick hasn't been drinking all the wine after all, and Juno wonders whether he's even giving the orders in the house.

The assistant he tricked earlier, Ricky, enters the garage to ask Marty and Sammy for help hunting Juno down in the house, only to spot him hiding in the doorway. The trio threaten Juno with a beating, only to be sppoked by a hovercycle in the garage apparently turning itself on. Juno feeds into their fear and suggests they run. When this works, he praises the hovercycle--actually Ruby--for a job well done.

Now alone, Juno tries to take stock, only to, at last, encounter something like a ghost: the barking dog, looking *exactly* like Mick's dog Wilco, who has been dead for thirty years, and smelling "like the instead of a mortician's office." Mick himself isn't far behind, and is delighted to find that "the guy" in the house is actually just Juno, though they talk at cross-purposes, and Mick isn't entirely convinced there isn't *also* some guy in the house posing a threat. Mick asks what's brought Juno here, guessing right away that it has something to do with Sasha. Juno narrates sadly that it's impossible to know which adventure with your best friends is going to be the last one. He suspects the high school version of the Oldtown Trio will haunt him forever, like they have unfinished business.

## Cast and Crew

* Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
* Chelsea Ruscio as Puck Falco
* Melissa Barker as Miss Germane
* Kiki Samko as Ricky
* Lindsay Eagle as Sammy
* William Schuller as Marty
* Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury

## Trivia

* Harley Takagi Kaner "stitched together" sounds from four different dogs to create Wilco's appearance.