Characters / Within the Wires

This page covers characters in the podcast Within the Wires and the novel set in the same timeline, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs.

Introduced in Season 1

The Narrator/Hester Wells

Voiced by Janina Matthewson

The narrator for season one. She is pleasant, but monotone in her relaxation instructions. However, pieces of her narration may hint towards something more personal. She is actually Hester Wells, a young woman who remembered her childhood friend. However, Oleta got admitted into the Institute, so Hester became an Institute staff member to observe her, and eventually free Oleta. This was an apparent success, although she had to evade capture when she fled the Institute, as told in "Black Box". By the end of season 2, she had returned home, and had reopened the Karikari Contemporary in Aotearoa, became the curator, and continued to live her life with Oleta in their cottage by the sea.

• Bad Liar: She is really bad at hiding just how much she knows about the patient listening to the tapes personally, such as locations of scars and her childhood.
  If that really is how you got that scar. How would I know? I'm just a voice on a cassette. On a standard issue relaxation cassette.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: By Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs," The Narrator uses autogenic training exercises in order to help the patient recover childhood memories via a cybernetic implant, memories of a childhood friendship with the Narrator herself.
• Not So Stoic: She is usually pretty good at being impersonal, but during Cassette #4, she becomes notably more emotional revealing a personal connection to the patient, and dispenses with all pretense of impartiality in Cassette #6, directly addressing the patient by name. Afterwards, she allows herself expressive moments fairly frequently.

The Listener/Oleta

The receiver of the relaxation cassette tapes, an unnamed medical institute patient. Her real name is Oleta. She was an old friend of Hester's who remembered her sister after meeting her. The Institute took interest in her, and eventually admitted her in as a patient.

Introduced in Season 2

Roimata Mangakāhia

Voiced by Rima Te Wiata

The principal narrator for season two. She is an scholar of art, and a successful artist in her own right. She has been hired by various museums to give tours on the artwork of her good friend, Claudia Atieno.

• Fangirl: Is one to Claudia Atieno.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Especially as the season goes on. Roimata becomes increasingly snappy and critical of Claudia, but still loves her nonetheless.

Claudia Atieno

The primary focus of season two. She is a world renowned artist a close friend of Mangakāhia's, and subject of many rumours after her mysterious disappearance.

• Dead All Along: Despite Roimata's frequently stated hope to the contrary, Claudia is found dead in the mid-70s and has evidently been dead since the day she disappeared in 1971.
• Jerkass: She is revealed to have been a serial plagiarist throughout her career, stealing concepts from other artists and taking credit for them; one time, she even let people think the artist she copied has stolen the concept from her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite this, Roimata still says that Claudia is a wonderful person, giving friend, and had a deep heart for those she cared about.

Vishwathi Ramadoss

The Secretary of Trade for the New Society. She is initially mentioned as an acquaintance of Claudia Atieno in Season 2, and was the mentor of Michael Witten in Season 3.

• Ascended Extra: Of a Sort. In Season 2 she is mentioned several times as one of Claudia's acquaintances. In Season 3, while she still does is not heard directly, she plays a larger role in the plot as Michael's mentor before turning against him
• Greater-Scope Villain: Season 3 reveals she is one for Season 1 as one of the co-founders of the Institute

Introduced in Season 3

Michael Witten

Voiced by Lee LeBreton

The principal narrator for season three. Michael is a Society bureaucrat and the current Director of North American Trade.

• Affably Evil: Loving spouse, supporter of labor rights and free speech, appreciator of the arts, and an occasionally bad-tempered, cutthroat Society loyalist politician.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the end of season 3, he is genuinely appalled upon reading Amy's proposal for what is implied to become the Institute, describing it as a prison that punishes people for having certain feelings rather than the place of therapy that he envisioned.
• Mean Boss: He's a jerk to Amy, upbraiding her for being overly familiar while continually giving her tasks that are completely outside of a reasonable secretarial role.
  Amy, on second thought, if you can’t embroider a nice cursive script, please just find a tailor or something to teach you. I dunno, figure it out. I’m positive you can figure it out. I think you said you were learning pottery or woodworking? I should remember these things. It was something crafty, so you’ll pick this up in no time.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Is frequently heard using profanities in his dictations.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The final tape of the season, recorded seven years after the previous one, reveals that he is nicer to his new secretary, Timothy, than he was to Amy. Additionally, seeing Vivienne suffer from having been separated from her children until they reach the age of 10 seems to have affected his position on the Society's familial laws.

Amy Castillo

Michael's secretary and assistant, and the receiver of Michael's dictation tapes.

• Beleaguered Assistant: Michael often praises her abilities while piling ever more work on her, much of which (such as embroidery) is far outside her job description. However, as we do not see Amy's reaction, we cannot be sure how beleaguered she is.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: She starts out as a lowly, overworked secretary for a government bureaucrat and apparently ends up co-founding the inhumane prison that is the Institute.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Being the founder of The Institute makes her this for Hester and Oleta.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Michael describes her (both directly and indirectly) as an utterly amazing secretary, capable of effectively managing a critical office that oversees commerce for all of North America. She's a fantastic researcher, and Michael - a massive control freak - trusts her enough to not watch over her shoulder as she works.
  Of course, my staff member Amy Castillo was not able to dig up anything about current weapons production, and if she cannot find anything then I’m sure no one can.
  • However, this also becomes deconstructed towards the end; as the result of this and Michael's Mean Boss tendencies, she apparently schemes with other Society figures and uses her access to Michael's office and home to land herself a management position.

Vivienne Witten

Michael's wife, and a huge supporter of the arts. She collects art from various painters, like the then-globally-unknown Claudia Atieno.

• Connected All Along: She is the mother of Oleta and Nell from Season 1

Karen Roberts

Another Society Bureaucrat in Europe who has history with Michael.

• Greater-Scope Villain: Season 3 Cassette 10 implies she is one of the co-founders of the Institute, making her this for Season 1.
• Playing Both Sides: KR Development works closely within The Society to rebuild the world. It also has people supporting the Cradles, the rebels who refuse to join The Society.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Michael mentions that she is popular with her staff and the people of Europe. The Pilot (in Black Box) raves about the amazing things she has done and how many people are better off because of her efforts.

Introduced in Season 4

Freya

Voiced by Mona Grenne

Leader of a survivalist group called the Cradle which rejects the New Society.

• Cult of Personality: Freya is quick to identify the ideals of the Cradle as her own teachings and vice-versa. She appears to be successful in carrying out this goal.
• Manipulative Bastard: It is strongly implied that Freya tips the Society off to the location of the Hedmark enclave of the Cradle, out of frustration that political reform wasn't moving as quickly as she would like, and knowing that a massacre would gather public sympathy faster.

Sigrid

Freya's daughter, and acting leader in her absence.

Jure

A businessman who claims to be sympathetic to the Cradle.

• Internal Reformist: Believes the Cradle might be able to exist within the Society, eventually.

Introduced in Season 5

Indra

Voiced by Ameira Darwish

A performance artist, and Nan's ex-girlfriend. She leaves messages for Nan over the course of the season.

• Cultural Rebel: Was part of a theatre troupe called Gorgeous Watkins that primarily made small productions critical of the Society
• Motor Mouth: Indra admits that she's a bit of a motor mouth, especially when leaving voicemails.
• Rule-Abiding Rebel: Indra is in a subversive theatre group, but refuses to read a black-market uncensored version of King Lear and dates a government employee.

Nan

Indra's ex-girlfriend, who receives voicemails from her.

• Et Tu, Brute?: The cause for their break-up is implied to be because Nan was spying on Indra.
• Foreshadowing: has a watch with the initials GN on the back, foreshadowing her connection with Gwen Nettles
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Nan has grey eyes that Indra raves about.

Gwen Nettles

Voiced by Norma Butikofer

A former agent of the Internal Investigations Division whose voice mail messages are also included in each episode.

• Affably Evil: She's an IID agent, but otherwise she's a perfect polite and somewhat socially awkward young woman.
• Evil Brit: She speaks with a Received Pronunciation accent, and was involved in the IID.
• Fair Cop: Indra talks repeatedly about how gorgeous Nan is.
• In Love with the Mark: Sent to investigate Gorgeous Watkins, she meets and falls in love with Indra, a member of the group. It's implied that Gwen was so taken by Indra that she even started using IID resources to help her plays.
• Two Aliases, One Character: Her voice mail in episode 10 of Season 5 reveals that she and Nan are the same person, with her having taken the name Nancy/Nan as an alias while investigating Gorgeous Watkins.

Introduced in Season 6

Cliodhna Byrne

Voiced by Leah Minto

A nurse-practitioner acting as a home care nurse for Grainne Lynch. She lives in Galway and has a girlfriend named Siobhan, but is expecting to be at Grainne's house for at least a couple months.

• Sanity Slippage: Her ten day stay at Grainne's house and the strange things that seemingly happen to her there cause her to fall into insanity. She even remarks on it herself several times.

Grainne Lynch

An old woman living 15 miles outside Ballinroche. She broke her hip recently, leading to Cliodhna being assigned to her for home care.

Introduced in Season 7

Elena Hernandez

Voiced by April Ortiz

The co-owner of a stationery store and widow of Rose Torres. She is dying of disease and/or old age, and sends a cassette and some personal items to Rose's daughter, Anita.

• Happily Married: It is clear throughout the tapes that she was truly, deeply in love with Rose.
• Polyamory: Elena and Rose had an open relationship and occasionally dated others.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Elena was a much less extroverted person than Rose, but loved being dragged around the world by her.

Rose Torres

Elena's late wife, a travel writer for The New Yorker, Life, The Telegraph, and The Post, among others. She gave birth to a daughter, Anita, as part of the Society's repopulation efforts.

• Happily Married: From Elena's descriptions, Rose loved her back as much as Elena loved her.
• Polyamory: Rose and Elena had an open relationship, although Rose was more outgoing. Anita was the result of a one night stand while Rose and Elena were in Jakarta.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Rose was a much more outgoing and risk-taking person than Elena, but seemed to love having Elena along on her travels.

Anita

Rose's daughter, and the recipient of the audio cassettes for season seven. She was born in March 1981.

Introduced in Season 8

Tony Tollinger

Voiced by Joey Rizzolo

A motivational speaker who gives away the first cassette of his motivational tapes for free in order to sell the remaining nine, either the standard (generic) version or a premium version customized for a specific listener.

Brian

A person who purchased the premium, customized cassettes from Tony Tollinger. He's an Associate Sales Representative for Carter Supplies, Incorporated, and lives in Atlanta with his husband, Andrei. His goal is to become the Vice Director of Sales (Rubber Division). Previously named Greg. He framed Tony for treason and stole Tony's life.

Introduced in Black Box

The Pilot

Voiced by Jeffrey Cranor

A cargo pilot working for KR Development. He carries people around occasionally, sometimes illicitly. He carries Hester around to help her escape after Season 1.

Introduced in You Feel It Just Below The Ribs

Miriam Gregory

Voiced by Kirsten Potter

A war orphan who fell in with some of the founders of the New Society; her memory-alteration techniques became the basis for the Society's efforts to remove family bonds. She later helped co-found the Institute, not realizing the ends it would be turned to.

Nora Bostwick

An American trapped in Europe during the Great Reckoning; she helped found a commune that lasted for some time, and later became one of the founders of the New Society. On the Society Council, she fought for the travel credits that allow Society citizens to travel the world.

Rosemary

Miriam's protegée and friend, and later co-founder of the Institute.

• Only Known by Their Nickname: Miriam never informs the reader about Rosemary's full name, leading to the manuscript's editors to speculate on who she might be. Despite putting forth the idea themselves, their best guess is Dr. Rose Haverstock, who did work with Miriam and was open about their affection, as well as a contributor in the drafting of the Age Ten Laws, they are reluctant to believe to due to Rosemary's actions.

Teresa Moyo

Miriam's wife, an artist and fashion designer.

Yuriatin Press

Voiced by Adepero Oduye

A possibly secret press that opposed censorship and championed free speech. They got their hands on Miriam's memoir after the Societal Council chose not to publish it, and after much debate, decided to discreetly release it with minor edits and footnotes to improve clarity of the text. Their motto was "Sermo Liber Vita Ipsa" meaning "Free speech is life itself" in Latin.

• Rule-Abiding Rebel: Despite opposing the Society's censorship, the editors of the Yuriatin Press were still vocal in their support of the Society as a whole, and took great offense when Miriam criticized its actions and caustically labeling her an "extremist" and "alarmist".

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