Juno Steel and the Infernal Grind (Part 1)

Arc poster by Ellison Estephan

**Juno Steel and the Infernal Grind (Part 1)** is an episode of the Penumbra podcast. It is the eighth Juno Steel episode of Season 4, and the fifteenth overall.

## Overview

Aurinko Permanent Corrections is not like other prisons.

At Aurinko Permanent Corrections, they believe in rehabilitation. They believe that all of us have the ability to be better, do better, and it is with this certainty that the warden might look you in the eyes and ask: "So why aren't you doing better? And what do I have to do to you to make you start?"

### Trigger Warnings

* Incarceration and prison
* Enclosed spaces and sudden loud noises
* Torture
* Mob violence
* Emotional abuse
* Threats of violence and death
* Manipulation and "brainwashing"
* Abuse by mental health professionals
* Self-inflicted harm
* Starvation and sleep deprivation

## Episode Summary

The episode alternates between scenes of Juno Steel, Puck Falco, and Rita planning a mission where Juno will go undercover in a prison, the Aurinko Permanent Corrections Facility, and scenes of Juno carrying out the mission. This prison has a Dark Matters personal pen, and Juno is sure Buddy Aurinko, Vespa Ilkay, and Jet Sikuliaq have all been sent there. In monologue, he reflects that even when he thought sending people to *any* prison was part of his job as a "good guy," he would *never* have let one of his perps be sent to Aurinko Permanent Corrections.

Juno's plan is to spend three weeks in the prison making contact with his three friends, and coordinating their escape. Mick Mercury's PA, Ms. Lately, will pick them up. The prison was designed by Buddy's father, Palomine Aurinko, a cruel behavioral scientist. He is now dead, but his methods are still used, and Palomine's voice is still played over the intercom. Rita arranges for Juno to be undercover as Maximum "Max" Action. As the three of them go over the daily schedule of the prison. Puck explains that Palomine wrote a book of old techniques: "Starving, sleep deprivation, fostering distrust and paranoia, presenting a single figure as your only way out, carrot and stick. Toys for tyrants, whether they were the kind who ran a prison or government or dog kennel or boarding school." It was criticized by every human rights group in the galaxy, so naturally that's what inspired Dark Matters to hire him.

Puck doesn't want Juno to go. "It's as close to brainwashing as it gets." They're afraid it will break Juno, even with only 21 days to endure. Juno feels the risk is worth it, and he can keep himself together. He needs to save his friends, and isn't willing to take time to think of another plan, time in which something terrible might happen to them.

In a montage of Juno commenting on the prison, punctuated with announcements in Palomine's voice, Juno admits that he *would* have lost his mind even before two weeks had elapsed, without the comms he smuggled in. Puck calling him once a day was the only thing that made him feel like Juno Steel. Puck, on one of these calls, promises to have Rita shuffle the seating arrangement to get Juno at least a glimpse of one of their friends. While Puck is still on the comms, an announcement brings a change of routine: everyone is brought into the prison yard for a "demonstration."

A prisoner has been brought before the crowd for "Deconstructive Criticism." The prisoners are to criticize him, and provided with a short list of possible topics from his life. The crowd hurls criticisms, insults, and threats at him, and Juno can feel a scream building up inside him, too. He, and the rest, are sick of the routine, sick of the orders, feeling a rush from the promised "reward" of two extra minutes of dinnertime. Juno desperately looks around the crowd, and finally sees Buddy. She's screaming, too, and Juno finally feels the fear Puck had tried to express: Buddy has been broken, too.

78 begs for the punishment to end, swearing to give up anything asked of him, including poetry. The prisoners in the yard look ashamed. Juno yells Buddy's name, but is zapped by a guard. Juno thanks Puck for keeping him sane, and the guard zaps him again, frying the comms beyond use. Juno freaks out and attacks the guards. He is assigned a punishment of his own.

Juno wakes up strapped to a dentist chair. He mouths off at Palomine's voice, but is forced into a sensory deprivation tank, with nothing to latch onto *except* Palomine's voice. Juno asks who he's talking to, an algorithm, or a psychiatrist using a voice changer. He's told that kind of question got him there, and is shocked. He is asked a series of questions, to which he is supposed to answer "good" or "bad." He cannot answer in a "socially unacceptable way, qualify his answers, or lie about his beliefs, without being shocked. "Palomine" intends to alter his prisoner's very self, but Juno narrates that the torture was designed to be perfect for Max Action, not *him*, and the lack of meaningful rewards keeps him being deeply affected.

When the session is over, Juno answers rudely when asked if he's ready to behave, allowing him to be sent to his own Deconstructive Criticism session. He begins to think with pleasure and amusement of his friends, and tunes out the shouts, only laughing and taunting the crowd, looking for Buddy. He calls out to here, "You, with the red hair," and yells that she should "mark my words, Buddy, because *I'm taking you out!*" Buddy begins to laugh too, and Juno knows the prison doesn't stand a chance against them.

## Cast

* Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
* Stewart Evan Smith as the Voice of Palomine Aurinko
* Chelsea Ruscio as Puck Falco
* Kate Jones as Rita
* Sarah Gazdowicz as Buddy Aurinko
* And Lydian Meloccaro, Tyler Rosati, and Mertz as the Ensemble