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thebrightsessions · 4 years

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Entertainment Spotlight: Ian McQuown

Ian is an LA based actor and producer known for the YouTube comedy group, Extremely Decent, as well as a voice actor in the popular audio dramas: The Bright Sessions, The AM Archives, StarTripper!! & Deck The Halls! His credits inclue American Housewife, Trial & Error, Better Things, and For All Mankind. Ian took the time to answer some questions for us. Check it out:

You’ve worked on multiple podcasts -- what drew you to the medium?

Well, to be honest, Lauren drew me to it because TBS was my first narrative podcast. We met at a Rocky Horror Picture Show show. Anna Lore is our mutual friend and I think Anna is just talented as all get out, so anything she’s involved I want to be in. And, I don’t know, it was just one of those lucky breaks you get where a door opens and takes you to all these cool places you never anticipated.

On podcasting though, I really appreciate how much more possible it is to tell engaging stories without the boundaries of having to afford a set and a camera and insurance and etc etc etc. Like, I grew up with Star Wars, The Matrix, Cowboy Bebop— so when I imagine the stories I like, I’m usually picturing other worlds, space ships, people with super powers and those types of stories used to have a lot higher barrier to entry to make than they do now, which is just awesome.

If you could give a character from The Bright Sessions a spinoff series, who would you choose and what would the series be called?

I mean, no surprises here, but I’d love to see Damien’s early years. And I’d be super clever and call it something like... Damien: The Early Years. I'm dying for that content a little bit actually: Damien, before he became such a bad guy. Maybe a love story that doesn’t work out and leaves him really scarred? Villains so bad they created a villain instead of a victim— that moment where we see the two roads Damien has to choose between and it totally shreds us when he makes the choice we all know he’s going to make, I mean, come ON you can see that, right? It’d be like the Star Wars prequels but without all the youngling killing and “NOOOOOOOO”’s and I want it.

Can you share a fun story or anecdote from the making of The Bright Sessions?

Haha, ok well it’s not really anything of note BUT: I remember Lauren had this area rug in her room, which as you probably know is where we would record, and it was this really nice, I think, red sort of floral rug that took up pretty much all the floor space because it was covering up the older apartment rug-floor underneath it. And it was, as I said, really cool, except it wasn’t a rug on a wood floor, right? It was a rug on a rug so it was a bit taller than the people who designed the room had planned for— the result of which was that you’d walk in and the room had this really awesome little vibe with this cute rug, and it was all very cozy, unless you looked directly behind you at the corner where the door had just spent ages scraping the surface of it, catching the corner, tearing little pieces out. And I may be getting apocryphal at this point, but I feel like by the time I had started coming around Lauren had straight up duct taped it to the floor, which really didn’t help the problem. And, I don’t know—again it’s not really anything momentous—but I just remember giving Lauren a particular amount of shit about it one day and us all having a really good laugh. And I really love that— there are jobs where you show up, keep your head down, do your work and leave, but then there are jobs like The Bright Sessions where you all get to become friends, and even if you don’t see each other for a while you sort of just get to pick up where you left off. And then those jobs turn into other jobs and you get to keep hanging out with your friends and peers and just making stuff you like— I’m a big fan of that.

If your life was a choose your own adventure, what decisions would viewers have to make on an average day?

OKAY, you wake up...

Water your garden before it gets to be 110 today, you cannot skip this step. You may however:

A) Stay out in the garden for longer if you get inspired and check if the tomatoes and peppers are ripe for picking.

Great! Now let’s make breakfast:

A) Make eggs, toast, fried tomatoes, and hash browns?

B) Make (A) But also with Bacon?

C) Make a smoothie?

D) There’s no time today, run to Whole Foods and get their incredibly priced $6 Egg, Bacon Cheese Breakfast burrito.

Awesome! You’ve eaten and now you can think. What work do you have to do?

A) Prep your audition, dummy! It’s due this afternoon, go fix your hair.

B) You have a zoom meeting with actor friends at 11 to play around with some new material, put on a hat.

C) There is nothing you have to work on so stare at your computer and wonder if there’s new project you could be working on. Try to find that project, leave your hair as it.

Wow! You really had a great (insert previous choice here), let’s get you a coffee and take a TV break. What should we watch?!

A) That new show you haven’t seen yet because you need to watch everything so you know how to work on it should you get an audition for it.

B) Harley Quinn (your favorite new cartoon).

C) Teenage Bounty Hunters.

D) Farscape.

E) Nope, you just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it (Level Complete).

Lunch Time!!!

A) Turkey sandwich with pickles from the garden?

B) Trader Joe’s Margherita Pizza with basil and peppers from the garden?

C) Are we going to start another loaf of sourdough you basic mf?

D) Yes we probably are, but also (A) and (B).

Cool! I’ve eaten lunch. Now what?

A) You haven’t finished that work from this morning. Riiiight.

B)…More Harley Quinn…?

C) Let’s make pasta from scratch!

D) Let’s make ribs! From…ribs!

F) You just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it. (Level Complete).

Bangarang! You probably chose to start cooking dinner immediately after eating lunch. You ate it (and it rocked), what now?

A) You just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it. (Level Complete)

B) DnD with squad.

C) Go on a run, dude— you’re getting a Jaba chin….

D) Bring on the chin! Let’s watch TV until 2am! Here are your options:

A) Harley Quinn (your new favorite cartoon)

B) Teenage Bounty Hunters

C) Farscape

D) Put The Office on in the background and clean your house.

Level Complete.

As you can see I’m a very food-focused person. Also, I’m going to be real, that is truly what most of my days look like and I’m low-key a little mortified that ’taking a shower’ wasn’t a game option...

Can you share your favorite piece of Bright Sessions / AM Archives fan art?

I love all the fan art that people make for my characters but this one from Franartz has always been really special to me. It’s so GQ, I just love it — and some of my favorite early AG moments are with Damien, who looks a little like he stepped out of a Gorrilaz album here— big fan. I’m a little obsessed with fan art actually, I save everything I come across— there’s a freckled red-headed series of Owen by TheFigureInTheCorner that makes me really happy. Seeing that my work has inspired someone else to make something of their own is really what’s up, you know? It makes me think about all the art and entertainment that has touched me over the years and I get a lot of joy from being a part of that cycle.

Thanks for taking the time, Ian! Give I Can Die When I'm Done a relisten right here.

#entertainment spotlight #the bright sessions #the am archives #Ian mcquown

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vikingqueer · 3 years

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music recommendations because i have some thoughts™

i don't wanna be that person who's like "my music taste is so weird lol" but i find that very often most of my friends don't really care for the music i like so i thought i'd just make a long ass post about it on tumblr instead. Fair warning, I'm very passionate about MIKA and The Mechanisms and so this very quickly got VERY long because it is part of my ongoing campaign to convince people to listen to mika and the mechs.

1) MIKA in general, but especially My Name Is Michael Holbrook (2019) and No Place In Heaven (2015) (especially the Deluxe version!!)

MIKA is a kind of British singer (half Lebanese, grew up in France blabla), and you probably know him for Grace Kelly and Relax, Take It Easy from his first album Life In Cartoon Motion from 2007. He writes a lot of FUN music, interspersed with the occasional slightly sadder song, especially when looking at an album like No Place In Heaven, which contains a lot of songs with gay themes, resulting in some songs that are just a little bit ouch. He's originally classically trained and has a frankly RIDICULOUS range and idk he just writes very good pop music. Also I have so much respect for that time he talked about how a lot of pop is very fake, with like expensive cars and stilettos and mini skirts in the snow and said "Because I walk down the street, and I don't see any of that. I see fat women and gay men. I don't know... That's real". He's written 5 albums; My Name Is Michael Holbrook (2019), No Place In Heaven (2015), The Origin Of Love (2012), The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2009), and Life In Cartoon Motion (2007).

For starters, I recommend listening to Last Party, Origin Of Love, Grace Kelly, Blame It On The Girls, Blue, Happy Ending, Pick Up Off The Floor, Last Party, Underwater, Tomorrow and Tiny Love (yes this is a long list but i REALLY love MIKA). If you want a slightly broader palette that's not just my favourites, I recommend the Mika starter pack on spotify.

2) The Mechanisms. I warn you. I am making this a thing. I have been obsessed with the mechs since last march.

Boy, where to start? The Mechanisms were a British 9 member space pirate story-telling cabaret that "died" in January 2020. They rewrite songs to fit retellings of various stories. I don't even know what genre I'd describe them as, but probably folk but steam-punk?? Their 4 "main" albums are concept albums, and I honestly just recommend listening to the from beginning to end in chronological order. A good way to get into the mechs is also to listen to UDAD and then watching the live show on youtube or alternately try giving Death To The Mechanisms a listen, to get good quality live show audio of TBI and various other stuff. Also, it was streamed on YouTube and someone combined the footage with the album audio and it rocks. Really, I think the mechs' best selling points are honestly just their concept albums:

Once Upon a Time (In Space) Their first album from 2012. I'd say this is the most "easily digestible" for the general public, since it's a retelling of various fairytales. So, what if Old King Cole was in fact not merry, but rather a cold-blooded dictator, intent on colonising as much of the galaxy as possible. What if Snow White was a general, looking to avenge what King Cole did to her sister, Rose. What if Cinderella was to be wedded to Rose the day that King Cole attacked in order to kidnap Rose? But y'know, In Space and also like every other mechs album it's a beautiful tragedy. Fave songs are Old King Cole, Pump Shanty, and No Happy Ending.

Ulysses Dies at Dawn You guessed it, it's a story about Odysseus, or Ulysses because I guess Ulysses is easier to rhyme or fit in the meter or something, idk. Ulysses is a war hero of unknown gender who is said to keep something that could take down the corrupt Olympians, meanest families in the City, in a vault to which only they know the passcode. Oedipus, Heracles, Orpheus, and Ariadne have been hired by Hades, who happens to be The Mechs' quartermaster Ashes O'Reilly, to get into Ulysses' vault. I didn't care much for udad at first, but honestly it's got some real bangers and the story is really good. UDAD weirdly stands out as the only of the concept albums to not feature any gay relationships, per se. Fave songs are Riddle of the Sphinx, Favoured Son, and Underworld Blues.

High Noon over Camelot This is my favourite mehcs album. So basically, this is Arthurian legend, but it's a space western and Jonny D'Ville does a bad southern accent. This is the story of the cowboy lovers Arther, Lancelot, and Guinevere searching for the Galfridian Restricted Acces Interface Login, or GRAIL, in order to stop their world from falling into the sun. Meanwhile, Mordred and Gawaine are ruling Camelot, and Mordred has convinced Gawaine to try to establish peace with the Saxons by whom Mordred was raised, but Gawaine hates viciously. If you love getting your heart broken and songs by a fucking off the rails batshit preacher I HIGHLY recommend hnoc. Fave songs are Gunfight at the Dolorous Guard, Blood and Whiskey, and Once and Future King. Honorary mention for Hellfire because it awakens something animalistic in me.

The Bifrost Incident TBI is the frankly only good adaptation of norse mythology I've ever known of, and I say that as Dane who was literally forced to learn things about norse mythology in school because it's my heritage or whatever. I've been listening to TBI a lot lately because it's VERY good. It's definitely the most refined of the mechs' albums (because it's the newest) but also I just love a little bit of cosmic horror. 80 years ago, Odin, the All-Mother, ruler of Asgaard, launched a train through the wormhole Bifrost that would reduce the travel between Asgaard and Midgaard from 3 months to 3 days, but things didn't go quite as planned. Lyfrassir Edda of the New Midgaard Transport Police is trying to solve the case of why suddenly the train has arrived 80 years late; to figure out whether it was accident or maybe it was sabotaged by Loki, who was allegedly sentence to death her murder of Baldur, by the Midgaardian resistance led by Loki's wife Sigyn, or maybe by Thor, who was to take over after Odin, and who holds quite the grudge because he used to be a friend of Loki's. You might've heard the song Thor from this album, it's apparently quite popular. Fave songs are Loki, Ragnarok III: Strange Meeting, and Ragnarok V: End of The Line. Yet again an honorary mention: Red Signal because while Lovecraft was a bitch, his invocations are fucking RAW.

Basically, the Mechanisms do all of their performances in character as captain first mate Jonny D'Ville, quartermaster Ashes O'Reilly, pilot DrumBot Brian, master-at-arms Gunpowder Tim, science officer Raphaella la Cognizi, doctor Baron Marius Von Raum (neither a baron, nor a doctor), archivist Ivy Alexandria, engineer Nastya Rasputina, and The Toy Soldier, who is, as usual, present. You can find very obscure lore about the crew of the Aurora here, tidbits on Tales To Be Told and TTBT Vol. 2, such as One Eyed Jacks, The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Pilchard, Gunpowder Tim vs. The Moon Kaiser, Lucky Sevens, and Lost in the Cosmos.

If you feel like listening to a full 40-50 minute album to find out if you like a band is a bit much, I recommend listening to one of the mini stories Alice, Swan Song, or Frankenstein, which are about 12, 5 and 9:30 minutes respectively.

3) The Amazing Devil You know that guy who played Jaskier in the Witcher? I got into The Amazing Devil from spotify recommending them because I listened to the mechs, and apparently Joey Batey from The Amazing Devil is the same Joey Batey who was in the Witcher. Both him and Madeleine Hyland are VERY talented singers and songwriters and their second album The Horror and the Wild makes me go out into the forest and SCREAM. I listened to it on repeat for like a month straight. I guess they'd also be considered folk, but like. New Folk. Also yes, this is another British artist, I don't know why I'm like this. I've never really gotten that into their first album, Love Run, but King slaps. As I understand there's this whole lore about the Blue Furious Boy and Scarlet Scarlet, Joey and Madeleine respectively, but unlike the Mechanisms it's actually possible to find out things about the actual real people and harder to find the obscure lore? I'm open for people to please help me. Fave songs are The Horror and the Wild, Farewell Wanderlust, and That Unwanted Animal, which is literally a third of their second album, but again. I haven't really listened to Love Run that much, and I just LOVE the harmonies on THATW. (also im gay and dramatic leave me alone)

4) dodie I have so much love for this woman. Like many others, I first knew dodie as doddleoddle on youtube. I think I first stumbled across her in probably 2015, because I distinctly already knew her before she released her first EP Sick of Losing Soulmates in 2016. I think I watched probably every video she's ever made in the span of a few weeks. I just loved her quiet sound and was absolutely HOOKED. Also she's actually the reason I got into MIKA originally, so thanks for that. Dodie just realeased her first album Build A Problem (in addition to her three EP's; the one mentioned above, You, and Human) and it slaps. Yes dodie is also British Fave songs are probably Monster, Rainbow, and In The Middle.

5) Cladia Boleyn Unfortunately, Claudia Boleyn only has three singles and that's it. She's been making content on youtube for quite a while, and that's how I first discovered her. I don't know what genre her music is, but I like it. The songs are Celesta, George, and Mother Maiden Crone, of which the latter is my favourite. I'm not saying Claudia Boleyn invented women in 2017 when she released Mother Maiden Crone, but she did. Also you guessed it, Claudia Boleyn is British.

6) Hozier I'm not about to tell you about Hozier. You know who he is. Listen to Nina Cried Power, Angel Of Small Death & The Codeine Scene, and Shrike. Also Hozier isn't stricly British in that he is definitely from A British Isle, but Ireland is not part of the UK. Give me a break.

7) Oh Land Oh Land IS DANISH. I like her early music best, because I'm not that into the electronic sound. I guess Oh Land is just you regular old pop, but with the occasional weird vibe? Oddly enough, I like her first album Fauna best. Unfortunately I haven't really listened to her newest album Family Tree much, but it seems good? Fave songs are Frostbite, Love You Better and Family Tree. I cried on the bus, first time I listened to the Danish version of Love You Better, Elsker Dig Mer because my mother tongue always just hits harder. Also Frostbite is Oh Land doing a duet with herself which is pretty cool.

8) Oysterband This is a live recommendation. I mean they're a decent folk band and all, but they're a fucking experience live. If you like folk and you ever get the opportunity to see Oysterband live, do it. Unfortunately, yes. They are British. Either way, they are incredible on a scene and I think they deserve a mention for that.

9) Ben Platt Honestly don't know much about this guy, but he's not British and he was in Dear Evan Hansen. He released an album in 2019, Sing To Me Instead, and I just think it's a good album, there isn't really not much more to it. Fave songs are Grow As We Go, Bad Habit, and In Case You Don't Live Forever.

and thats all for now. this has been a ramble. shout out to you if you actually read all of this, especially the mechs part.

#music stuff #amalie.txt #music recommendations #mika #the mechanisms #the amazing devil #dodie #claudia boleyn #hozier #oh land #oysterband #ben platt

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adobe-outdesign · 5 years

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DCTL Liveblog: Chapters 21-25

Really anxious about this ending, because the horror elements and lore have been the weakest parts of this book so far, so like

Spoilers under the cut:

Chapter 21

I thought those three were BG members, but we’re down one of them so maybe not

Even as a mostly-ink creature Sammy doesn’t act like. In the games he’s always super calm, super religious, even kind of humble, and here he’s all smug and shit.

It’s weird, because some characterizations - Norman and Joey, for example - ere amazing and perfect, but then you get to characters like Sammy or Bertrum and it’s like the author didn’t know anything about them when writing them, or only knew one or two things. It’s weird.

you can also tell because then he does the “sheep sheep sheep” thing and it does not even remotely fit with his previous dialogue or attitude that was was just displaying At All

You know what’s really insane? I think I mentioned this in the last liveblog, but I had a mental fic that I never wrote down because it was just me doing Whatever instead of following the lore about Grant loosing his mind... and it literally hit upon everything in this book. Close proximity to the ink driving you mad? Check. The idea of the ink being able to affect people? Check. The ink causing hallucinations? Check. The ink being alive to some degree? Check. The ink wanting to draw people into it/closer to it? Check. The only difference is that I was playing it up as physiological horror, wherein you couldn’t really tell if all of that was happening or if Grant was hallucinating it.

as a side note, are any of you interested in a 2K psychological horror fic about Grant losing his mind or nah

Norman knocking Sammy out with a projector is so fucking funny because like. do you know how asshole fuckingly heavy those things are. that is literally the most over-the-top and impractical way he could knock someone out, and this is a game where someone was knocked out with a dustpan

your ass just got looney tooned

on the one hand I’m glad to see Norman, but on the other hand this means he’s gonna die in like .5 seconds so like

Chapter 22

oh okay, Dot does meet back up with him. I thought that might’ve been the last time we see her as it would explain how Buddy doesn’t know if she’s alive or not. Then again I’m glad she’s around because we need some degree of levity here

The idea of the Ink Machine being in an old theater is neat, because it explains why it’s over such a deep area and why there’s a balcony near it and whatnot

god, Bendy’s behavior is fucking bizzare in this. is he a spider now?

also seriously? you literally didn’t even have the decency to kill Norman off on-screen? for fuck’s sake, you had the idea of him being decapitated gift wrapped and presented to you on a silver platter and you didn’t take it

once again, it feels like I’m reading venom. can I go back to reading BATIM please I was enjoying that much more

Chapter 23

I like how Bendy just tears an arm off a corpse for Literally No Reason

Him fucking around with Dot is a little closer to his mischievousness... but not much. In canon it’s more like “am I gonna kill you? maybe. :)” considering how fucking fast he kills the Projectionist he doesn’t seem to toy around once he’s already decided to kill someone

you’re going to drown. a creature made of ink. that controls ink. in ink. Buddy I like you but you just caught a severe case of the stupid

dumbass why were you even standing near that hole. goddamnit you were doing pretty good until now

Chapter 24

Once again, I like the stuff detailing what being an ink creature is like

why does Joey call him perfect? he’s wide awake, that’s literally the opposite of perfect

The fact that he just wakes up is weird, mostly because we have that tape from Grant proving ink creatures are awake when they transform, they don’t just wake up like that (especially because a lot more people were supposed to have tapes like that. maybe it has to do with how perfect the cartoon is? Buddy isn’t perfect because he’s lucid, but like most of the Borises he looks perfect at least, unlike the BG who are royally fucked up.

Chapter 25

it’s really weird how he keeps talking but not talking - the Boris’ are mute. You can’t make sound if you’re mute, so it should be like he’s trying to speak and the words aren’t coming out, but it’s written like dialogue...? it’s weird

“those people had been infected for days, they had no soul left to give” uhhh... bullshit? Norman was one of them and the Projectionist is alive and roaming around (according to Joey you need a soul to make life properly), so that makes no goddamn sense

Also, I remember some anons saying this book disproves the coffin theory, and it... doesn’t? If they were referring to Buddy/some others dying there are blank coffins in quite a few areas, and if they were referring to what happens to Sammy he never technically dies and leaves behind a corpse to put into a coffin

TL;DR: You were doing really good until you weren’t

I have a Ton Of Thoughts on this book, but it’s very early in the morning and I have to sleep more or I’m not going to be able to function at work tomorrow. I’m going to try to write a big review/essay on the book tomorrow and offer my final thoughts and feelings on it.

#bendy and the ink machine #batim #batim: dctl #dreams come to life #buddy lewek #sammy lawrence #norman polk #outdesign posts things #liveblog #batim spoilers #there is just way too much going on here and I have to sleep

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deadskepticfiles · 5 years

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THE DREAMING PROPHET, EPISODE ONE [Transcript]

LAVANYA Good morning, Red Acre! And welcome to your favorite nighttime show, the Dreaming Prophet. Now, they may have taken away our phones, and they may have taken away our computers, and they may have taken away that coveted one hour of subliminal messaging that passes as television here.

LAVANYA But do you know what they haven't taken away? The shitty radios in the garage, which is exactly what we're using right now to bring this especially to you, because we're just that fucking dedicated dedicated to you. You're welcome. Now, my name is Lavanya --.

ASTRO And I'm Astro, and we'll be your hosts for tonight!

LAVANYA So make sure you have fun~.

LAVANYA First of all. We're gonna start off this podcast with a quick explanation of what it is. If you want to do the honors Astro?

ASTRO Yes. This is a "The Blackout Club" podcast for Blackout Club players, and we'll talk about what that means after we wrap up with our intro. But the basics are that this podcast focuses only on the facts. All lore, no speculation.

LAVANYA Even though we love speculation.

ASTRO We do. We love speculation. But we want to provide solid facts for other players use in their own speculation, so we'll try to keep ours to a minimum. We begin each show with a spoiler warning, and a content warning, because this game does deal with some heavy topics. And we will go right into that now.

LAVANYA Our general content warning for this podcast is that there will be discussion of children being harmed, and children being injured! Nothing in depth, but that is kind of part of the premise of the game, as well as general horror themes.

ASTRO And as a blanket warning, please keep in mind that the Dreaming Prophet will not be spoiler free. If you really want to experience the game to its fullest, play it yourself, don't listen.

[Music cue: Sleepers playing strings]

ASTRO If you haven't heard of The Blackout Club game, go ahead and check out WWW.BLACKOUTCLUBGAME.COM.

ASTRO And there's a lot of info on that page, but I'll read off a little bit. The premise of the game is that you are a child in this suburban town, Red Acre. And you are recording evidence of the strange things that are going on, to try to tell the world about this cult that's taken over everyone - including you, including your parents.

ASTRO When you close your eyes, you get possessed by a god, and so does everyone else in the town. It’s called “blacking out,” and it causes people to sleepwalk, and then wake up with dirt and blood on them, and trails that lead through their houses. Or they may not even wake up in their bed at all. They may wake up outside of town. They may wake up on train tracks. Kids in the Blackout Club are trying to record what’s happening in their town, to hopefully stop it, and they’re also trying to protect their own while they do it. Because as they’ve found out, the organizations behind this phenomenon - the god, Speak-As-One; the organization, CHORUS - They don’t want anyone to know what’s going on in Redacre, and they certainly don’t want it to stop.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

LAVANYA The Blackout Club is primarily a multiplayer game, but there are parts of it that are single player. As of right now, there are no plans for single player missions, but we do have the prologue! The Prologue basically involves you, instead of playing your own individual character, you are playing Bells, who is a young woman 14, about to be 15 in three months, if I recall correctly. And she is trying to figure out a way to leave Red Acre!

BELLS V/O OK, recording... I think... Hi. It’s Bells - Isabella. If you’ve done your homework, you probably know I live in the Radio Quiet Zone. We have no cell signal here, no internet - Nothing. So no one knows what’s happening to us. At night, our town - [stuttering] - it changes. We like, wake up in the woods, or on train tracks, no idea how we got there. If you tell an adult, they just laugh it off, and most folks my age - well, they’re cowards.

BELLS V/O But - so last night, I set up a hidden camera, and I finally got proof. Stuff the world needs to see. The video’s all on this thumb drive, and tomorrow, I’m gonna take Mom’s car, and sneak it far enough out of town to finally get online. To reach you. When you see this, come to Redacre. Help us. Please. Um, thank you.

LAVANYA OK. So that exciting clip is a line directly from the prologue of the Blackout Club, the single player mission. What we heard there was Bells explaining the basic premise of the game. I personally feel it's important for most players to try to play it, because it sets up the basic themes of the game.

LAVANYA The basic themes of the game are friendship and also psychological terror. What Belles keeps having emphasized to her throughout the prologue is that she cannot trust anything that she sees or anything that she hears. She's seeing a strange shape that is pursuing her and trying to maybe kill her, maybe mind meld with her, throughout the prologue. The game will instantly end if you're caught by it.

LAVANYA She's getting mysterious voices in her head: two different ones that are speaking to her and trying to guide her through this to safety. And she's realizing that: are her parents are on this conspiracy that she's discovered prior to the start of the game, or is literally everyone in town?

LAVANYA She cannot trust anyone in the town and she cannot even trust herself. As is shown by the ending of the prologue, when the voices lead her all the way to the boxcar, and then she is dragged away.

LAVANYA So, it's kind of a good summary for the overall game, because the children face the same issues during the multiplayer game play as well. You can't trust the adults. You can't trust the other children who might be following opposing Daimons, and you certainly can't trust yourself, because the game keeps empathizing, every time you close your eyes - every time you black out in game - you're being possessed.

LAVANYA So the only people that you can trust actually are your friends. The player characters operate in missions of up to three other players, all of whom are bound together by friendship, trust, and the knowledge that they are working together to succeed in taking down CHORUS. Bells is betrayed by her parents in the prologue, and she is potentially betrayed by the voices as well. The player character, any time that you play with stalker enabled, is betrayed by the stalker, who is someone in the Blackout Club that is working for SAO instead of the kids. So, when you can't even trust yourself, the only people that you can rely on are the friends that you choose to surround yourself with - which is one of the biggest themes of the game.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

ASTRO The prologue, in addition to introducing you to this story, also introduces you to a lot of the core gameplay, which we'll go over here.

ASTRO You have two different things that you can see. When your eyes are open, you can see the overworld, you can see the adults walking around sleepwalking or not, and you can see the houses and everything else around you.

ASTRO When you close your eyes, you can see the Shape, you can see footsteps that are guiding you to your next objective, and you can see secret messages that may be hidden somewhere in the map. Among other things, there are several new things that have been cropping up lately, so it's always a good idea to close your eyes every so often, and see what's out there.

LAVANYA Exactly! Because sometimes it's secret messages, sometimes it's just secret marks that, when you look at them with your eyes open, they just look like scuffs on the ground - and when you close your eyes, they're glowing in red!

LAVANYA We're going gonna do a quick breakdown of all the basic items in the game. The way that the items are set up in game is that you have two classifications of items, basically.

LAVANYA You have the hero items, and then you have the standard normal items that you use and then they'll be terminated from your inventory. Let's start off with the hero items. Hero items are controversial! They are a controversial part of the fandom, because everyone has their specific favorite and everyone will talk shit about others. Which one you take ultimately just depends on how you feel and what your gameplay style is, because this will change the way you play the game pretty significantly.

LAVANYA So with the hero items, we have three hero items. First off, we have the Taser which is, to quote the game, “a close range stun gun. It requires time to recharge after every use and is not for use by children.” Luckily, we're not children in game. We're 14, going on fifteen in three months. Perfectly safe for us to use!

LAVANYA The way that the Taser works is: it is an item and it is an escape item, basically, that will recharge over time. So if a lucid or a sleeper grabs you, then you'll be able to automatically tase them as long as you have a charge on your taser and be able to escape from them. It traps them for about three to four seconds in a loop of electricity.

LAVANYA If you have a Stalker in game, you can also tase them. If you have a friend who is shaped in-game, and thus wandering around spouting off voice lines about being asleep, you can also tase them. I don't know why you would, but that option is there!

LAVANYA The second hero item is the grappling hook. The description for the grappling hook is: “will stick to walls and ceilings, and lower a climbable rope.” So it's pretty straightforward! What the grappling hook does is basically it increases your mobility in a game that is already so heavily focused on movement.

LAVANYA With a grappling hook, you don't have to jump up places. You can throw your hook and you can hop right onto it and climb up. I would say it extends about 15 to 20 feet down.

ASTRO On average, it's about two stories. So if you are three stories above something, [you] will have a steep drop, but it'll be less fall damage than if you fell from the full height.

LAVANYA Exactly. And the grappling hook - most places in the game, you'll be able to get with the grappling hook, or else you'll be able to get as long as you and a friend have a grappling hook. Most of the tunnels that connect the rooms in the underground and most of, like, the major shorter cliffs, like Hoadly's Leap, in the first two areas, you can climb up that with a single grappling hook. So it's pretty useful if you want to increase your mobility.

LAVANYA It's by no means required. You can get anywhere that you would get with a grappling hook without a grappling hook, it may just take longer.

LAVANYA The last hero item is the crossbow which says, “modified from an old history project to fire tranquilizer darts with pretty decent accuracy.” Because Red Acre plays history rough, I guess. In a lot of ways, the crossbow is possibly one of the most powerful items in game so long as you have tranquilizer darts. So if you are willing to drop the snacks to buy tranquilizer dart at the beginning of each game, what this does is it means that anyone within - I would probably say, 60 meters or so - as long as you have your crossbow cursor aiming at them, you will be able to shoot them.

LAVANYA You can shoot and tranquilize tranquilize a Lucid from about two houses, down as of June 6th, 2019. This may get changed after we say that. [laughter]

LAVANYA Honestly, the crossbow is my favorite item, when I'm not scampering around the walls like a fucking aye-aye. Because you can use it to take down Lucids. You can use it to take down drones - not the large ones that fly overhead, but the other player drones, if you just want to be horrible for some reason. You can take it to take down sound mines. You can use it to.. I think that's about it, actually.

LAVANYA So, maybe technically, it doesn't have a lot of use? But it has a lot of use in my heart. I love the crossbow. We have a very special relationship.

ASTRO It's not versatile, but it is useful.

LAVANYA Exactly. It is useful and if you have stalkers in your game you can absolutely buy a ton of tranq darts and load that motherfucker up.

ASTRO The hero items will become obvious to you when you're in the boxcar. There is a table that has all three of them laid out in a row. And, strictly in my opinion, they're in the order of difficulty.

ASTRO If you're a new player - if you have just picked up the game - the taser is going to be your best friend as you try to learn how to navigate and how to get out of these scrapes. The taser is your second chance.

ASTRO The grappling hook helps you explore more after you understand parts of the map; after you start getting on your own two feet.

ASTRO And the crossbow, I feel, is extremely difficult to master, but once you do have mastery of it, it is so helpful to everything that you do.

LAVANYA It really is. It takes a minute to master it [the grappling hook] because the walls are not always smooth in the areas in which the grappling hook can actually successfully land are not always straight-cut.

LAVANYA I've been using the grappling hook for three months now, and I still sometimes hit spots where I throw it, it should land and instead it ricochets off the walls. [laughter] Because early access! But once you get the hang of it and you have a general idea for what the grappling hook looks like when it will be able to actually drop down, it is absolutely wonderful.

LAVANYA So now we're just going to cover the in-game items real quick which are largely self-explanatory.

LAVANYA The first of the in-game items is the bandage! The bandage is basically: you can find this in chests, you can start off the game with this if you have the Medic perk, and you can buy them from the snack machines or from the firework vendors in game. What it does is it will heal about one third of your stamina. So if you've taken a wound by falling off a cliff, being grabbed by a lucid, or being fucked up by a stalker, it's here for you. You can bandage yourself or else you can be bandaged by another player, too, which is always useful.

LAVANYA Second up is the energy bar, which is often having debates involving it on the various Discords over whether or not it is OP. Because the energy bar will briefly top off your complete stamina bar, so you have endless energy, and more importantly you will do not get staggered when you fall. So you can jump off as high of a cliff as you want, and when you hit the bottom, as long as you had an energy bar on the way, you will be able to still keep running with no interruption.

LAVANYA Third up is the flash bang, which - it is an escape item. It is a military flash bang, which - we are not asking how these fucking children found this in Red Acre. Red ACre is just stocked the fuck up. What it does is you can throw it and you can blind enemies - in what I'd probably say is a six foot radius around where it lands? - And it will also stun the Shape. It will also make the screen flash white for any players around, but it won't stun them the way it will for, like, Stalkers, which is always nice.

LAVANYA Third up is the noisemaker. It's little fireworks. When you toss them, it will create a ton of noise, and it will attract any lucids or sleepers who are not presently engaged over to it. So it's a very useful method of crowd control in a game that does not necessarily have crowd control. It also seems like it may be one of the most common drops because you will usually have a noisemaker in your games.

LAVANYA Foam grenade.. basically, whether or not its OP, like with the flash bang grenade, is a pretty big topic of discussion in some parts of the community. Because a foam grenade, once you thought it will create a puddle of foam - hyper absorbent foam! - on the ground. When you land on that, it will produce no fall damage. If you walk on it, it will have no noise. It will disable cameras temporarily if you throw it at it. It will disable sound mines and proximity mines permanently if you throw them on it. And anyone who walks through it will start producing footprints you can see exactly where they go. In addition to that, if you throw it at the Shape, it will stun the Shape very briefly, and it will highlight the Shape, so he'll be covered in foam and you can actually see him with your eyes open.

ASTRO The foam grenade as one of the most versatile items in the game, if not the most versatile item.

LAVANYA Oh I think it's absolutely the most.

ASTRO It's quite genius. I think it's one of the highlights of the blackout club as a game..

LAVANYA It is, it is, because the thing is the foam grenade is one item, and people can use it for about five different gameplay styles. Which is very nice, because I almost never use it to actually make - to reduce noise, I use it as a limited form of crowd control to get Lucids the fuck away from me, as a method to stunning Lucids, and also to ensure that I don't take fall damage, so I never have to stop. [laughter]

LAVANYA The next item is basically, uh, a tranquilizer dart. Unless you are carrying a crossbow, it is melee only. It is an escape item. You can use it when you are grabbed, or else you will have to grab a Lucid in order to use it. Or a Sleeper, or a Stalker. Kids can be tranquilized by Stalkers. It is not a big deal. It will stun you for about 5 seconds, but it is fucking infuriating. Best way to make somebody tilt in zero point five seconds! [laughter]

LAVANYA The sleep trip wire is basically the tranquilizer dart for anyone who plays more stealthily. It will create a trip wire across the ground, and any enemies - whether that's Lucids, Sleepers, or other children - who walk across it, will be stunned. In the case of Lucids and Sleepers, it will knock them the fuck out. You can also set it up for the Shape, and it will stun him temporarily the same that it will do for player characters.

LAVANYA Quick note here! Except for shooting other players’ drones, TBC does not have friendly fire. So you don't have to worry about setting up a sleep tripwire and then fucking over your teammates, because they just won't be affected by it at all.

LAVANYA And the last item is lock picks! The locked areas in game are the chest, doors to the houses, and I do believe that's it. You can also “kick in” anything that is locked instead of unlocking it, at the severe risk of drawing a shit ton of aggro. So, it's another matter of gameplay style.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

Astro [00:06:58] When you play a mission your character has one of four classes. These are called major powers in the game, and the four major powers at this time are Takedown, Prankcaller, Unstoppable and Drone.

ASTRO Takedown players are your hand to hand combatants. They are really really good at wrestling with sleepers - with adults - which is something that not all of the kids can do. As a 14 year old, a 15 year old, you don't have the strength or body weight of an adult, but Takedown players have trained themselves to be able to do that to be able to stand a little bit more of a fighting chance. Takedown players can wrestle enemies for themselves or for their friends. If you see a friend in trouble, you can grab an enemy and hold them down and try to decrease the danger in that area.

LAVANYA Takedown is one of the most uncommon powers for people to take, but honestly it's one of the most useful, because what's more helpful than when somebody is jumping for your friend when they're on low health, than being able to just jump in there and pin them for the rest of the session down to the ground? The Lucid! Don't pin your friends.

ASTRO Prankcaller is a more stealth focused class. Prankcaller asks you to use your tech know-how to hack into phones and other devices, and disable them for your friends. You can call sleepers at the first level, which distracts them with a spam marketing call while you sneak past them. Sleepers can't see you. They can only hear you and so filling their ears with pyramid schemes will distract them pretty well, unless you make a horribly loud noise.

ASTRO Unstoppable temporarily makes you invulnerable and gives you extra stamina. Your stamina doesn't deplete when you run or jump. At the first level, you have about 10 seconds to do whatever you want and get the hell out of dodge.

LAVANYA And, my god, you can do anything you want. Fall damage: no. Lucids: no. Sleepers: no. Speedmines: they will fucking destroy you, don't do those. But anything else!

ASTRO So this is really, really good if you are a player who tends to get yourself in a bunch of bad situations and needs to run very, very fast. Also interesting: Unstoppable recharges when you take damage. If you end up in a lot of scrapes, that will eventually help you down the road.

LAVANYA Exactly. And if you like going places and you like going to them fast, Unstoppable is an excellent power - but you have to keep in mind when Unstoppable runs out, you will have to take a ton of damage in order to turn it back on. So don't race into danger, race across the map, separate yourself from your team, and then start crying when your unstoppable is gone. That's the classic mistake.

ASTRO And the last class is Drone. Drone players have a secondary player character, if you want, which is this drone. It's a stolen drone from the cult that you've managed to jury rig into your own device. Drones are a remote camera that you can send around the map within a limited range from yourself that can see other things and at higher levels can perform actions such as recording or tasering. Drone players are able to look around corners and scout out inside houses and rooms without actually going there and putting themselves in danger.

LAVANYA Yes. If your drone touches anyone, then it will, like, fucking die? But the good news is you can either send your friend over - your friend with Unstoppable - Make sure your team is well-varied! - into danger to grab your drone off the ground and bring it back to you, or else you can manually fetch your drone. So, it cannot be destroyed permanently, as far as I know.

ASTRO Now these classes all work well together. Having a well-balanced team helps you because it means that you have access to all of these different powers.

LAVANYA Exactly.

ASTRO But it's by no means required for you to have one of every single type. I think that's a really nice feature of the game, which is that you can have whatever team composition you want. If you have one take down and three unstoppable, that will still help you a lot.

LAVANYA Exactly. I will clarify: if you have four drone users, you may have a little bit more of a rough time, but you just have to take it steady and slow. And also have a designated victim who has to collect your drones back.

ASTRO Now the minor powers get a little bit more complicated. There are six of them right now. They are Locksmith, Atlas, Improved Stamina, Lucky Loot, Medic and Nutritionist. Most of these will give you an extra item. Locksmith, Medic and Nutritionist will all give you various items at the beginning of the game to help you out, which are, respectively, a lock pick, a bandage, and a energy bar.

ASTRO So if you happen to be the type to use those items a lot. Those are definitely minor powers to look into. Atlas allows you to run while carrying bodies. This won't impact the noise made from carrying bodies, but it will allow you to move quicker while you're carrying them.

LAVANYA There isn't much practical use for carrying bodies unless you want to be a sociopath and dump them off the cliffs or something. That's not advisable. Don't kill your grandma.

ASTRO Bodies can be discovered and if you happen to be in a tight spot and you need to hide a body, Atlas is a great power to help you book it.

ASTRO Improved Stamina gives you 10 percent more stamina than what you start with. Again, super useful if you want to run a little bit, but maybe you aren't into the idea of the whole Unstoppable power. Improved Stamina can get you a little further. The description for Improved Stamina also says it can be used to rush skills as well as movement. They mentioned lock picking and hacking like in the Prankcaller power. I don't know how true that is. I've tried rushing lock picking and I think it speeds up a little bit, but this is not necessarily true.

LAVANYA The truth of the Deck is whatever you believe will become true. If you just believe that you're lock picking a little bit faster, I'm sure it's 100 percent working as the devs intend.

ASTRO And the last minor power we'll cover is Lucky Loot. Lucky Loot will sometimes grant you a second copy of whatever item you pick up. Extremely useful in all cases. Honestly, Lucky Loot players are an asset to every team.

LAVANYA They really are. Lucky Loot can sometimes be the absolute difference between acing a level, and crashing and burning after a Stalker throws a foam grenade in your face. You will semi-frequently end up with doubled lock picks, doubled flash bangs, and everything else. And even with the ability to buy flash bangs and tranqs and bandages and candy bars with the little fireworks machines now, that can make a ton of difference. As far as I know, you do not get Lucky Loot when you purchase goods, though, you're just out of luck there.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

ASTRO So, as mentioned in the prologue, the core premise of the game deals with this idea of gathering evidence of what's happening in your town and hoping to eventually take it out of the town. And in the game, you do this quite a lot.

ASTRO There are some missions that will require you to record things. There are also things called bonus evidence which are scattered around the map. When you go into your pause menu, you can see how many pieces of bonus evidence you have in any specific game. It can be anywhere from three pieces to possibly 14 pieces and maybe more. As your map expands, you have the opportunity to find more bonus evidence, but it will also be scattered further. You'll have to travel more to find it. And each piece of bonus evidence that you get will give you more XP, and it will also unlock journal entries for you to read in the boxcar.

ASTRO These pieces of bonus evidence can be various things. You will know them, because they will prompt you to record them by having a little bit of TV static and a slight green haze on them. They can be posters. They can be suitcases. They can be -

LAVANYA They can be creepy duffel bags full of mail. Depending on the mission, sometimes the bonus evidence will be things like pages from confidential files that you can kind of, but not quite, read. Or else they'll be bloodied up furniture, or blood stains on the ground that you have to clean up. It really just depends on what type of game you're in at that point!

ASTRO Yes. So if you happen to see that TV static effect - if you happen to see that green haze - take out your phone record whatever it is. Ultimately it can only help you.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

ASTRO As if we couldn't have more things to do in our games - in addition to the main missions, the bonus evidence, just listening to the different enemy voice lines to get lore - there is another objective that you can complete throughout many missions, which we might call a fragment quest.

ASTRO There is a Daimon of this game called Thee-I-Dare, and Thee-I-Dare was fragmented. He was shattered. And because of that shattering event, various parts of his name are scattered around the map. They appear as small bits of fog against a wall, or in a specific area, and you can collect them by turning on your flashlight, aiming it at the spot, and closing your eyes.

ASTRO This does make you more visible, so it's not something you should do in a risky situation, but collecting these named fragments allows you to choose how to use them. You can return them to Thee-I-Dare, or you could turn them over to Speak-As-One to be burned. There are no in-game mechanics for this. However, when you interact with those Daimons, you can choose what you'd like to do.

LAVANYA Personally, I was going to do this fragment section, but someone banned me from it - [laughter] - on account of the fact I keep burning mine! But if you want to burn them, the way you do that is you light up a Light of Rebellion, one of the reward items you can get from the chest, and you just send off a prayer. And you're like, hey, Speak as One, I want you to know - here's some fragments for burning!

ASTRO Fragments will appear once in a while. And if you spy a fragment in one place but you can't retrieve it at that time, your next fragment will always appear in that place until you collect it.

[Music cue: Stalker switch]

LAVANYA So as your resident Speak-as-One stan, I'm going to cover the next game mode, which is possibly the most important game mode that you will ever play. Fuck the main missions, because this is what we're placed on this Earth for.

LAVANYA So, Stalker Mode was introduced in Update 5, which was phrased ENTER THE STALKER. Basically, in order to access the Stalker mode, you'll need to gain one Dossier, and then enter into the Stalker van, and select a mission to stalk.

LAVANYA The stalker is the player antagonist of the game. Basically your mission is not to make the team of children wipe, but to increase the spookiness of their playing experience, by not getting caught, filming them, and attracting enemies to them. You're trying to make the game harder and you're trying to freak them out. It's a lot of fun. The responses and reactions you can get from the player characters is always fucking amazing. So you'll be playing one versus two at the very minimum, because in order for a Stalker to arrive in a game, it has to have two players at the very least. Often you'll end up in a fourstack, so it'll be you versus four players.

LAVANYA Again your goal in this game mode is not to wipe the player characters. You will almost never be able to wipe the player characters. But! It is to just make it more difficult for them. And usually if people see a stalker is in the game, they will derail everything and become dedicated to hunting you down like a fucking dog. So it's a lot of fun for everyone involved! Like a really sadistic game of tag!

ASTRO It should be noted that when you begin the stalker mode, there is explanation text on the screen that starts with you will be caught. This stalker adds atmosphere, adds danger, but they are not the protagonist of the Blackout Club. The club kids for which the game is named are the protagonists of the game.

LAVANYA And It's important to note that that if you wipe the kids, you will get your dossier back, the only way that you can get points is keeping them alive to farm them for interactions with the lucids or for proof of their crimes. You get points and you reach the top with the Stalker leadership board, which can reward you either a jacket or a shirt, through recording and interacting with the kids. The goal is not, which can never be stated enough, to wipe them wipe the entire party. The mode is ultimately about encouraging interaction.

ASTRO Maybe the real winning was the friends we made along the way.

LAVANYA Yes. Maybe the real winning is the friends we made along the way. And the real purpose of the stalker mode is learning the beauty of the enemys to bff-les for life. Don't hunt down your stalker like a dog and tie them up to sacrifice In-Her-Teeth. Bring them home for hot cocoa and a blanket.

[Music cue: Stalker Switch]

ASTRO So if you are a player from the Blackout Club, you may have listened to this episode and thought to yourself - I already know all of this! What is this podcast of use to me? The reason we’re making this episode is to catch everyone up to the same point. From here on out, we'll be moving on and talking about new things, we’ll be talking about things more in depth, that you may not have thought about before. Or maybe you did!

LAVANYA Exactly. And it's always important to note - we're starting off these first few podcasts with an introductory to the game series and everything in it, partially because so many players in game have no fucking idea what's going on. They don't know how the Lucids are alerted, they don't necessarily know what the storyline is, they don't understand [Enhanced] Horror Mode.

ASTRO The learning curve of the Blackout Club is very steep, and that isn't a bad part of the game..

LAVANYA But it can be very frustrating!

ASTRO It can be very frustrating, but ultimately, it requires you to rely on your friends, which is the core of the game, and you learn together. This podcast is a small way to help that learning curve, and to help individual players learn the language and the playstyle of the game, so they can become better, and pass on more information.

LAVANYA And this podcast is also about ensuring that we can become not only your friends, but your best friends. Your truest, closest friends. WE SPEAK AS ONE.

ASTRO Oh my god. I can't believe you used me for advertising!

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CREDITS:

The Blackout Club is made by Question Games. Our fact-checker is Be11amy. Our transcript is by Lavanya. Audio editing is by me, Astro. Xaviul is a henway.

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