INTRO
SATAH: Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs. I'm your host, Satah, and I'm showcasing multiple possible experiences of self-paced games by inviting guests to play them alongside me so I can compile our stories together. If it ever sounds like I find that intro way funnier than it is, it's because I've taken way too many takes to get it on wax.
This is episode 2 of our game of Unplugged Survivor, a game by We Are Heroes Productions and the Tabletop for the End of the World podcast. I promise I am not leading you on when I say that joining me are Happy Birthday and Darling Demon Eclipse. Check out HB's work at gm36.itch.io and Eclipse at eclipse.gay. She recently released a sexy, cool, weird sci-fi romance duet TTRPG called Biotrophication, which I think fits marvellously into the background of the world that we're building in this game, so please check that out as well.
I know the format of this second series is very different from the format of the first, because the format of the game itself is very different. I hope to explore a lot of different but similar experiences over the course of this show, and I really hope that you enjoy kinda coming along with me as I do. This game is definitely closer to the epistolary end of solo and epistolary, but part of the point of the whole show is that you do hear someone other than me playing, and you are going to hear someone other than me playing. My run just ended up very long.
There were about six weeks in between when I wrote the first entries and when I wrote the final ones, and in those weeks, I went through a breakup, caught covid, and wrapped up my final full semester of school. You can absolutely hear the time and circumstances weighing on me as I keep going, and honestly, I am giving myself a single firm gruff pat on the back for sticking with it.
I am glad that I decided to do a little pilot season of five games in the way that I did as I prepared to launch this show, because holy shit, I've learned a lot about the structures I need to put in place to keep games contained enough that the production doesn't totally spiral out of control.
And I want to say all of this in part because I want to be very clear that none of this is a slight on the game itself. I really want to emphasize that because I think there are times as I'm trying to decide where to go next in my recordings that I sound a little frustrated or very tired, and I just want it to be very explicit that that's me straining against the constraints of making a podcast and against knowing I'm about to ask a couple of my friends to do the thing that I'm doing. It isn't me straining against the game itself. The game has evocative prompts, and I love the, like, slow burn of uncertainty that the random ending mechanic introduces. It was stressful. It was stressful for the me that podcasts, but it was exciting for the me that plays. We are all of us so many versions of ourselves, my friends.
Alright.
Let's hand the mic back over to Celebration Establishment, night host of DOOM FM.
GAME
SATAH: Alright had to take a little break there between entries because of various life circumstances, like getting the novel coronavirus, which I do not recommend.
Let's pull a card for number 12. Six of diamonds. And then I need to roll a d6. I got a six. So I'm feeling: diamonds six is “betrayal.” Reacting to: six is “a mutated creature appears.” Huh huh huh huh.
I don't want to undermine the band. TOXOPLASYMBIOSIS. I like that they're allies. And that's real.
Um, I'm curious to explore these being separate things. Like I am not betrayed by something necessar– like I'm reacting to mutated creature appearing, but that isn't necessarily the betrayal that I'm feeling. Yeah. Yeah, I think the mutated creature is going to be at most symbolic? Like I have this image– I have this image of this character who I believe I named, but I cannot remember at the moment. Is it Celebration Establishment? I think so. That's funny. I'm sure they had a nickname. I'll have to read back at some point and figure out what it was.
But I have this image of Cel, like, looking out the window as they're recording and seeing— it's probably not going to be this, but the classic would be a deer with too many antlers or fucked up eyes or whatever. It seems like that's always kind of a mainstay. It happens in The 100. It happens, I think, in Fallout. It happens in the Annihilation movie. It's an absolute classic.
Anyway, just like the– this– of Cel looking out the window and seeing a mutated creature and just sort of, um, meditating on it, and like… I wonder if — I started to think about using it as a — if it's a symbol, if it's a metaphor, sort of going like, you know, the ways that corporations betrayed us that led to what I'm looking at and that sort of thing.
I wonder if it's just that. No, I think I want there to be another layer to it, so there is some amount of personal betrayal. Do I want to figure that out right now?
Oh, it's going to be that they found out that… like, the person who contacted them last time, the corporate spy who offered them a job, that they were like, either told or had been assuming that some sort of encryption data had been tortured out of somebody to get that information. And then what they're learning is that actually somebody gave it up willingly, in exchange for something, probably. But somebody gave it up willingly for their own personal ends and so the betrayal is that and then the meditation of it with the symbol of staring out at this creature is like something about having to take care of each other and not giving in to those that would divide us and that kind of thing? Yeah, I'll figure that out in the writing, but I think that's the general shape of it.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): You're listening to DOOM FM. Your on-the-run station for pre-cataclysm tunes and uncensored news. The place we've run to today specifically is interesting in one particularly novel way: it has a window right in the studio. As you might imagine, for both security and sound quality, we spend a lot of time in rooms where the outside world can't potentially make eye contact with us and in return, we can't look at it ourselves.
I'm making eye contact with something right now, or at least I think I am. It has too many eyes for me to know for sure, but it's certainly gone very still and seems to be focusing its attention on me. I'm not sure… what it used to be. Or maybe it's always been this. At this point, you know, we're probably starting to get far enough down the chain of evolution that it's foolish to cling to the idea that it all comes directly from the old world. Maybe a deer and a wild turkey might not have been able to progenate at the time, but at a certain point, a lot of the rules changed, didn't they? Who knows what's happening deep, deep in the Wastes? What new, unseen contexts have been set up, allowing for the creation of things we just have no reference for?
But of course, we all know there's a line of effects and causes and blame and consequences, shitstorms, unceasing from the dawn of time, past the end of it and on and on forever into the thing we still stubbornly call the future. We talk about the end of the world, but we are here to talk about it. Isn't that funny?
But we only… we're only able to be here to talk about it because of each other. Remember that, listeners. Don't let anyone convince you that it's fair to only think of yourself. Not now, not ever. I know I'm just a voice on the radio, but the signals I send out only exist if someone hears them. No, I don't believe that a tree that falls alone in a forest makes a sound, not if absolutely nothing is there to hear it. I don't think it does.
We aren't trees, though. We can hear ourselves or feel the vibrations within ourselves. Anything you do, you're there for it. Try not to… I don't know. Just don't be an asshole. Just try.
It's starting to rain. The thing outside is opening what I think are its mouths, allowing the water to flow inside. Still staring at me.
Here's… I'm not sure. I'm just going to hit play.
SATAH: It’s lucky 13, baby. Let's go.
Making sure I'm not pulling from my Strange Places deck and am pulling from my Unplugged Survivors deck…
My god. It's getting to the point where when I don't pull a face card, it's like weird. I just… whoa, sorry. [Voice pitches upwards] You just probably heard– my voice changed. I was still talking in my character voice. I didn't realise it. Oh, that was bizarre. Okay.
So, got a 3 of hearts. Gonna roll a d6. 4. So, roll of 4 on hearts is feeling “surprise.” And the value 3 reacting to “archived 21st and 20th century entertainment found.”
[Little giggle]
I've really made a lot of world building choices that, um… [Laughing] are very funny with the in-game prompts. My instinct is to be like, oops, but then also I'm like, that's kind of what these games are for to me? So… good? Anyway.
I'm feeling “surprise,”  “archived 21st and 20th century entertainment found.” Well yeah, I guess one thing that's true is that when we found a big stash before, it was, like, closer to modern era entertainment, like, rebels during the Cataclysm and maybe just after and all that kind of thing. And so, yeah, we can find something that is just our usual milieu.
Yeah, maybe the event isn't gonna provide a lot of inspiration here just because like, that is incredibly in line with what I've got going on. And so it's “surprise.” What's surprising about it?
Mmm. The thing that came to mind there was the idea that there's a third album from an artist that, like, we were all convinced only had two. And I'm not sure– because the path there would be almost like a “Shit, there's a lot we don't know.” Um.
I mentioned a Harry Styles song in one of these entries and so part of me is really tempted… oh no, this is so stupid, but I think I'm gonna do it. I might change the artist because it might be too silly, but also like, fuck it. The idea that we have records of all of the solo work from all of the members of One Direction, but we didn't know they were in a band? And we found like some One Direction albums and we're like, “Wait, what the fuck?” Oh, is that too silly? I don't care. I think it's fun. I'm allowed to get a little silly with it.
Oh my god, making this character do a deep dive of One Direction songs because they're like, wait, Harry Styles and Liam Payne and these other three were all in like, holy shit, we have to play these whole– you have to play the entire discography because this is insane.
I'm doing it. I'm doing it. It's silly and I'm doing it.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): [Laughing] Alright. Alright. Great. Absolutely. You're listening to DOOM FM, your on-the-run station for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
We continue to be on One Direction lockdown. We're getting absolutely awful feedback from this segment. I don't give a fuck. We're listening to every One Direction song in chronological order. That was the first track off of their, uh, third album, Midnight Memories, called Best Song Ever. Bold titles, but who am I to judge?
For those of you fortunate and unfortunate enough to just be tuning in, we recently came upon an incredible cache of CDs– maybe we'll tell you how someday– and imagine my surprise when I recognized a young Harry “Still-us” in the photo of a band. Then as I looked closer, I realised I knew the other four as well. All of their work pops up occasionally.
It turns out the five of them were in a band first. It's absurd. It's beyond belief. It makes me wonder about the sourcing of our other music. What are we missing? What history do we not have access to because we took supplies from the basement of someone who loved Zayn Malik but not his early project?
So yes, to honour that– and because I'm having fun, and doing segments that go against almost unanimous advice from the rest of the DOOM ROOM occasionally tickles me– we're going through each album, song by song.
At the midpoint of tonight, we're going to have Producer Dag herself into the studio to present her thoughts on their evolution so far and to continue to compare and contrast the band's work with the members' later solo work. She wants me to assure you that she agrees I shouldn't be doing this, but if I'm going to do it, I should at least do it right. Everyone remember to send in your thanks to Dag for enabling and guiding us all.
Which, I can only assume, having not listened to it, is a perfect segue into our next song. From One Direction's Midnight Memories, it's Story Of My Life.
SATAH: That brought me so much joy. Let's see what horrendous thing happens next. I probably can't write about One Direction for this one.
Seven of diamonds. Still no face cards. And I'm going to roll… one! So feeling: diamonds one is “violence.” Ooh. Reacting to a seven, “usable technology found.” Huh.
I mean, the first instinct is definitely that, like, that means having found a weapon of some kind.
Hm… feeling “violence.” I guess that could mean, like, wanting to commit it or even already having committed it? Like, that could mean a lot of things. What's the direction I want to go here?
“Usable technology found.”
One of my first ideas is too big. Like, it's the idea that an EMP or something was found that could take out the pods of everybody who's plugged in, but that it would probably kill a lot of them. I think that's too big because I think, like, I'm just not interested in having that big of a moral quandary at this stage in the story, like, figuring out if it's worth it. So I want it to be something that is smaller scale.
What have the other technologies that we've found been? There was, like, a record player, right? Yes, okay, there was the record player and then there was the radio that was given to Cel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really hope that I name this person Cel. And that… I'm not just making that up. I should go back and listen, but I want to be as surprised as everyone else. So...
Anyway, “usable technology found.” A fridge comes to mind for some reason, but I want– like, that would mean that the violence is something about, like, food insecurity, and I don't really want to go there. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to be, but that would be, like, sort of the first place to look.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be a weapon of some kind, just not with, like, something as high stakes as, you know, the dilemma of, like, do we leave all these people plugged in or forcefully unplug them and then most of them will die? But, like, could blow up a building.
Yeah, I think just to settle on, like, the direction of, like, the “feeling ‘violence’,” I think that it's going to be something that, like, has occurred or is occurring simultaneously. Like, this is a pre-recorded broadcast and, like, the thing has already happened and it's going to be something about, like, we found a way to take out some defenses or an office or something and I think I'm not even going to necessarily, like, settle on what exactly happened because I think this is just going to be, like, a pre-recorded message that is, like, gloating a little bit? But not necessarily giving specifics because of the nature of it.
I really have set myself up in a funny place when it comes to, like, giving details because these are all, like, public messages? But I kind of think that's a fun line to walk so, yeah.
I'll get there but it's something in that area. And I guess the other thing is that, like, “usable technology” could mean a lot of things because it can mean– like, there's sort of, like, an immediate interpretation of, like, oh, we found something rare that still works but it can also just be, like, we found something that we can use, right? Which could, like, literally be, like, we found a fuse box that we can turn off, you know?
Yeah, I'll- I'll- I'm gonna- I'm gonna get there in the writing. That's the shape of it.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): Welcome back to DOOM FM, your on-the-run station for pre-cataclysm tunes and uncensored news.
Of course, we're still making our way through every single song released by One Direction, a newly discovered supergroup that was formed before its members would have given it the status of supergroup. That was History, the last track on Made in the AM, their last album. At least as far as we know. We sure didn't find a later one. We still haven't solved the mystery of the missing member on the cover. If any of you have information, of course, let us know.
We're lucky enough that this particular hoarder had the deluxe edition, so we're gonna have a couple of bonus tracks to work through. But not tonight. Tonight, well…
Our deepest apologies if a big boom interrupted your enjoyment of that track. In many ways, we– I shouldn't say we, the rest of the DOOM ROOM is more relieved than anyone that this project is coming to an end– in many ways, I understand that this song was a finale. We hate to interrupt a satisfying climax, but timing is a funny thing.
At this point, I have to reveal that tonight's show was pre-recorded. I'm sorry for the deception, listeners, but I'm sure you're beginning to understand. Enforcers might be distracted, or they might be out on the streets with additional force. We don't know, so keep yourself safe. Stay on high alert, extra high alert. Risk a glance east if you want to see some fireworks in the Potreblyat Stronghold, but don't look for too long and head underground as soon as you can. Metaphorically, literally, we're doing the same.
The rest of the night is gonna loop some safety information, but keep us on in the background if you can. We'll interrupt ourselves with any breaking news. For now, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and good night.
This is a pre-recorded message about a red alert. Details are not yet public, but there have been explosions in multiple Potreblyat buildings. This was expected and should be celebrated, but first, we have to get through to tomorrow. Head underground immediately. Keep yourself and each other safe. This message will repeat until we can give the all clear. Any live updates will be preceded by a 15 second tone. Thank you for tuning in to DOOM FM. [Fading out] This is a pre-recorded message about a red alert. This is a pre-recorded message about a red alert. Details are not yet public, but there have been explosions in multiple Potreblyat buildings. This was expected and should be celebrated, but first, we have to get through to tomorrow.
SATAH: Incredible news. I still managed to write about One Direction.
Let's pull another card. Four of diamonds! My god. This is just… this is… I want to go through the deck so badly to see where all the face cards are hidden. I really hope that I don't– I mean, unless they're having fun. I was going to say I hope that no one else has to do something this long, but maybe they want to? I just feel bad about giving this much work to guests. I now know for next time some adjustments I should make for games like this.
Rolling a d6, getting a four. Also feels like I've had a lot of diamonds, right?
SATAH, OVER THE INTRO SOUNDTRACK: Hi it's interstitial Satah popping in real quick to say that in fact yes, at this point I had pulled seven diamonds, four spades, and two each of clubs and hearts. Incredibly unbalanced. In the last episode, I will link to a chart of our results because I love that kind of shit.
SATAH, PLAYING THE GAME: So diamonds four is “rage.” And a four value on the card is reacting to “newfound shelter.” Huh huh huh huh. Am I mad about the shelter?
For some reason this clicked for me relatively quickly. I think it's going to be reacting to something found in the shelter. And I think what this is, is that like– whatever–, the explosion or whatever that we caused in the last journal entry has forced Potreblyat to like abandon part of the city that they were occupying? And so we're reclaiming it and gonna find something in there that like makes me mad.
It might just be supplies, honestly. It might just be seeing like how well they've been living? Like there's like a barracks for employees and enforcers or whatever. And it's like these motherfuckers had air conditioning. Maybe not quite to that extent, but something like that. It's just, it's going to be like reacting to, you know, they're taking this shit from us. Yeah.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): Statistically, it's likely that several of you are hearing me from a brand new speaker. Welcome to a slightly higher definition DOOM FM. Your on-the-run station for pre cataclysm tunes and uncensored news.
It was fun walking around the east sector today and hearing a consistent stream of my colleagues’ voices. The new digs are looking pretty incredible. It's wild how the other side has been living. Isn't it? I’m not the type to give ground to anyone who works for those fucks, but seeing the infrastructure of their barracks… phew! You do start to understand it. You don't forgive it, but you start to put some pieces together.
I should only speak for myself, but I actually want that to serve as a reminder for anyone listening. You don't forgive it. Even if you come to understand it, you don't forgive it and you don't replicate it.
Without ongoing corporate support, a lot of the grid that supports these amenities is going to start failing. Experts are working on transforming that which can be self-sustaining into something that sustains itself, but even amongst all the rubble and ashes, this is the peak of this place’s comfort. Keep that in mind.
It's a cheerful thought, I know, that things can only get worse from here, but… look. It's just important to temper our expectations. You’re not… entitled to this. None of us are. This has to be something we share. It has to be, or we are just like them. Worse, even, because we should know better. We have to know better. Those fuckers. Those absolute…
Anyway, tonight we're playing songs about home. Here's the White Stripes with Little Room back to back with the Weakerthans’ Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist.
SATAH: You know, I just checked, and when I did practise pulls for this, the average actually was 14 entries. It's just that the lowest one was nine. So I'm only a little bit above average, and not yet to the highest example I did, which was 19. And I think that the stress I'm feeling is entirely that I'm asking guests to do the same thing, and I worry that it's a lot of responsibility, but it's gonna be fine.
And look at that. Ace of spades. And we roll a d6. And get a 1. Spades with a roll of 1 is feeling “overconfidence,” and reacting to the ace value is “Potreblyat defenses find you.” Yup. We probably set ourselves up for that pretty well in the last one.
So yeah, I'm gonna check off my little ominous tracker that perhaps will lead to my doom, we'll see.
I mean yeah, we are currently setting up a base in an old Potreblyat base, right? So like, yeah, they found us. We're right there. And I think the overconfidence plays into that super easily, which is that I'm just like, yeah. Good luck, you know?
Trying to think if I want anything more out of that. No, I think it's just gonna be like a little sitrep almost. Yeah, this one happens to just come very naturally from what we've already established. It's kind of fun.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): Sorry to any of our more distant listeners to pop in unexpectedly in the middle of a song. Listeners who heard alarms start to blare about 15 seconds ago, I think you probably saw it coming.
As a relatively public channel, we here at DOOM FM, your on-the-run station for pre-cataclysm tunes and uncensored news, take some responsibility for disseminating information in a crisis. Here's what we know.
Yes, there are enforcers at the gates. Don't panic. Of course we wanted more time before the thing we've been preparing for happened, but we are prepared for it. You know who you should be reporting to and where you should be. You might not know what comes second, but you know what comes first. We all do. Stay calm, stay focused. We are ready for this. In some ways it's ideal: we haven't had time to become complacent yet.
I am here with you. We are all here together. That's the entire point. We're going to start looping some basic information and as always any breaking news will be proceeded with that god awful beep. You can't miss it.
We can't fucking miss.
I promise you.
SATAH: This is exciting now because technically any pull could be the one that ends the game. Uh, cause we've got two on the tragedy tracker or whatever.
So let's pull a card. It's the jack of hearts. Well this is even more incredible because now we are a single card away from either a good ending or a bad ending. Hot damn. Alright.
Let's roll a d6. Got a three. So feeling hearts three, “friendship”, reacting to a jack is– right, yes. We did this before. “Meeting with peaceful mutant survivors.”
There is the option of this being the same survivors, like the band. Maybe it's more than that. Maybe it's like meeting more of their community because we only met the band before and the feeling I'm having is “friendship,” which is great.
Um, so I think, I mean, we've established this whole like base. So maybe this is like one of the things that was a plan is that like some of the people who've been in the Waste, in the Wastes are like moving in or forming some sort of alliance. Like maybe this is right on the edge of town where we are… this base that we took over or whatever it was we took over is on the edge of town. So we're forming like an official sort of alliance and like trade relationship with this group of survivors that's in the Wastes? I think that's fun. I like that. That's, that's a, like, that's just a nice positive thing to come from all of this.
I'm trying to think– I do want to react properly to the fact that like the last card I pulled was negative. The like defenses finding us and the feeling I was having was specifically “overconfidence,” which I think has to mean there was some amount of hubris or something went wrong. There were greater consequences than we expected in some way. So I might try and find a way to fold that in. Maybe it's, uh, the survivors appeared to be like, “Hey, one of the first acts of our alliance or whatever is going to be that we're going to help you rebuild all of the shit that you lost.” ‘Cause I think– I'm not ready to give up this base yet because I think it's like fun as a– as a development, but I think that it makes sense that it was harder than we expected and we lost more than we thought we would. And I will in some way, you know, react to that and acknowledge that we're being helped to sort of rebuild, um, as we're forming this relationship, this alliance with a bunch of the survivors from the Waste.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): [Laughing and clapping lightly] Yeah. Oh yeah. Fuck yeah. Thanks again to TOXOPLASYMBIOSIS for gracing us with a set from right here in our studio. We're going to give them a bit of time to recover, but then they'll be popping back in to spend a couple hours co-hosting with yours truly. Don't touch that dial– you absolutely don't want to miss our conversation about adapting instruments to extra fingers, singing with gills, and the hottest new respirator accessories for us normies who die in minutes if we went as deep into the Wastes as they do. We’re glad, all of us, that our climate is not as inhospitable to you and we look forward to figuring out how we can adapt to each other.
Of course, I have to take this opportunity to yet again thank the Wastelanders currently helping us recover from last week's clash. We all know we wouldn't have made it if you hadn't shown up and we are grateful to be in your debt. May we all be blessed to never stop owing each other.
It's really something to walk the streets and see people building. I know that we… well. I'm not going to dwell on the mourning. After all, I am the night host.
[Sigh]
My sincere and immediate apologies for nervously succumbing to the temptation of a pun, but really… I'm just excited. The type of excited that makes you want to talk in toasts. To new alliances. To strengthening some walls so you can install doors in others. To a common enemy and to growing beyond them. To you, to me, to us. Especially to us, and to an increasingly expansive definition of the term.
Speaking of us, we're all busy, and I'm meant to spend my minutes off -air doing some clean up and salvage, as Producer Dag's increasingly blinkless stare is reminding me. So let's just let a few tunes loose in a row, starting with a favourite from our recent acquisitions. This is Lady Gaga with Applause.
SATAH: It's entirely possible that you can hear the ice cream truck that is outside my house right now. But prior experience with this ice cream truck is that I have no idea when it will leave. So I'm not waiting. [Gasp] Oh, there she goes. Maybe that's the secret. I just have to talk out loud about it. This dispels the magic.
I don't know how anybody works in an ice cream truck. I feel like I'm gonna do a crime just having that song playing into my room for the amount of time that it… anyway, this is not relevant. I'm gonna pull a card. Okay.
Oh my goodness. Okay. 10 of hearts. It's not over yet. Let's roll a d6. One. Oh my goodness. Feeling “hope.” Reacting to a 10 is “discovered resources.” Hmm.
Oh, this is tough. I'm at a place where I feel like the narrative has been wrapping up so cleanly it's like almost frustrating to, like, prolong it? But in a lot of ways, that is the nature of games like this. And I think that's interesting. I think that I'm just experiencing impatience because this is for a podcast.
But I do want to generally have my eyes toward the end. Like, it could… any pull now could be the second to last pull. So I don't want to open up a bunch of new stuff and have it be like personally unsatisfying. It's totally okay if it is leaving open some narrative possibilities, especially because of the nature of this game being sort of consecutive. That's totally fine. But I want it to feel good for me. So that means that these resources in some way either have to be incredibly inconsequential or they have to be somehow related to what the end is.
I've already done a lot of finding music and finding equipment and stuff…
I think the other thing here is that, like… there's been this whole character arc, you know, where this person has been like, not hopeful and then learned to believe and whatever. And I'm starting to be lost on like what is interesting to explore there. So I think that what I'm actually going to do is just try and make this like pretty short and inconsequential.
Mm. Another type of entertainment maybe. Like– so we're in this former Potreblyat base of buildings and operations and stuff… I was going to say we found a bunch of reading material and then as I was talking out loud I realised that there's got to be something more specific to that, like to our circumstances.
And so I think what this is going to be is that we have found something that we think could be a resource but we don't have access to it yet. So it's like– not exactly this, but the equivalent of we find a VHS and we know that it's recorded an old commercial that we really want to access, but we don't have a VCR yet. And so I think it's going to be discovering information? That's the resource, some sort of information, about, uh– probably the– the… pod, the people who are still in pods? And it's just that we can't decrypt it yet? But I'm feeling like we will be able to, you know?
That's not super inconsequential is it? I kind of talked myself out of that. But I think that ultimately that's more interesting to me and plays, at least plays off of like, what we've been establishing so far in as much of where we are physically in this new base of ours and stuff.
And maybe it's even just that this is uh, Cel being like, ooh, this information, “We have no idea what this information is, but it could be this. Wouldn't that be great?” I'll have to sit and think about how much that fits with this character, but… yeah, maybe it's a locked vault and this is just Cel sort of going into a poetic mode about what it could be. I feel like that's fair. It's almost like a melancholy, like– it is hope and also it's like, this could be so many things, isn't that so beautiful and doesn’t it– isn't it so tragic that it can't be all of them?
You know, yeah, I'm not sure. I'll find it in the writing. This one took a lot more thought than I expected it to, because I think I really was thinking I would pull a third face card there. Nope, not quite yet. More to– this story has more to say.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): All right, thanks to Damien Rice's Nine Crimes for marking number nine on our top ten list of filing cabinet theories. If you're just tuning in tonight on DOOM FM, your on-the-run station for pre-cataclysm tunes and uncensored news, we're counting down my personal top ten favorite listener guesses on the contents of the filing cabinets that got hauled out of the rubble in the reclaimed compound today.
I haven't seen them myself. We are still, after all, I will gently remind you, an on-the-run station– but I heard all about how the one they forced open released acid that completely dissolved its contents… a concoction so devastating that it didn't even leave behind any helpful clues as to what could be in the others…
Maybe I'm caught up in the hype, but come on. We know what Potreblyat is like. They're hoarders. Resources, information, people. They wouldn't rig something to self-destruct unless they couldn't possibly risk it falling into someone else's hands. So I'm on team “it's gotta be good.”
So yes, here is my ninth favourite theory on what's in there: hard drives full of deeply outdated internal blackmail. Thank you to community member T for calling in with this idea. Your joyous cynicism is infectious. There is something so perfectly bleak about the idea that we could do all of the necessary work to safely crack open those cabinets and get leverage on a bunch of corpos who died during the cataclysm, or even just left before everything went to shit.
I also appreciate the implication that Potreblyat had to have dirt on its employees to keep them, rather than just trapping them the way any machine apparatus with seemingly bottomless funds and morals traps its employees. That would be an exciting new detail.
Introducing our number eight pick is Avril Levine with Sk8r Boy. You may think that one's a bit of a stretch because the eight is purely stylistic in the title, but well, as a bit of a teaser, you'll find that it's shockingly relevant to the theory itself.
How's that for intrigue?
We're truly doing it all here on DOOM FM.
SATAH: Okay, I took a little break there, and I've just been considering my options. I think that I'm done with this story. And also, this has become very long for a podcast, which I'm learning from for the future.
I am just going to draw until I get a face card. For posterity, here are the cards I'm skipping: three of spades, three of diamonds, three of clubs– that's insane– two of hearts, nine of clubs, and I've pulled a king.
This is the king of spades. I'm rolling my d6. I'm getting a three. So spades three is feeling “surprised.” Yeah, I bet. Reacting to “found by hunters or radicals.”
So a king… is ominous. This goes on the ominous tracker. And I think… this is not supposed to be the last entry. Yeah, this is the penultimate entry, which makes me even… I am feeling very confident about my decision to skip a few things because that's going to bring us to 20, which is a nice round number. And it would have been like, what, twenty– I wasn't counting– five?
So. Feeling “surprised” after being “found by hunters or radicals.”
So the defences have been kicking around… I’m trying to think about what could be surprising here.
Maybe we'll lean into the radical thing. So it's not like direct Potreblyat forces? It is… members of the community who support them in some way?
Maybe it's a like… I'm thinking of the entry I wrote that was like, don't be like them… I don't, I don't really want to do a like… ugh, yeah, no, just like politically, I don't want to do a like, “the rebels are just as bad as the fascists thing” because that is so played out and boring and a problem.
[Laughing]
There's the idea of like, you know, mutants that are like, “Hey, we should all just go into the wastes and grow extra arms and whatever” but I think that… comes too close to playing into weird disability tropes when like… you know, it's not a one to one, but the way that mutation is, is used in, in media and the things that it sort of like becomes analogous to– because ultimately part of the thing here is that like, I think that these people have these people– like, this is negative, right? So these people have to be wrong. Or rather like the negative could be that it's bad for me in some way, that my character is wrong, but I think that that is too hard to pull off in sort of a short timeline, like, like one or two entries. And so ultimately, these people, whoever they are have to be wrong in some way. And so I want to be really careful about what they represent.
I should have ended this a little while ago; the amount that I'm struggling to come up with like something new that's satisfying shows me that I overextended this narrative a little bit. I don't think I'm going to get this in this– in this sit down. I think I'm going to have to think on this and maybe just, yeah, start start writing a little and see what happens. I am feeling a little bit, uh, I'm feeling kind of stuck. So maybe I'll be back to talk through my process a little more when I when I get there. But for now, just going to have to let it marinate.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): [Far away from the mic] We're back? We're back.
[On-mic now] We're back. You're, um, this is DOOM FM, your– sorry. We, um. Yeah, um, we apologise for the interruption of the broadcast. That's never, um… happened before. We’ve… you can tell, taken control of the signal again, but it's… well, it's always exciting to find new areas that can be improved, right? New…
We can't, um, we can't disclose, you know, all of the details of the tech, but we're… well, we have, we have control of the signal again. And… sorry, I don't, I don't, I don't know if I can do this. If they can take over the waves and they can sound like me? I can't.
It's not so bad, the behind the scenes work, right? I don't have to– I don't have to leave. I can just,... Dag, can you? I'm sorry– I thought I could– then it started talking in my fucking voice. It's like they waited to deploy that until they knew they were about to lose control– anyway, I just wasn't, I wasn't expect–
Sorry, listeners. Um, I'm, I'm just going to, I'm just going to play something and then, um. Sorry. I'm sorry.
SATAH: Wow, I had really rough writer's block with that last one. I'm not– I don't have the dates in front of me. For some reason it didn't like save properly, um, or show up as, as modified looking at the “when this file was last modified” and it's saying the date that I first started using it, which is not accurate. I know that I've recorded in it since then. But it took a couple of weeks or at least a week to sort of chew through how I wanted that to end or, or, or the point– that sort of climactic point.
I think I'm satisfied with it? It helped– I went back and, um, you know, this, this recording, this, this process, this game has– has taken a while. I've been playing for over a month, um, various life circumstances, and I hadn't like reread the other entries in a while. And so after a truly embarrassing and slightly uncharacteristic number of false starts trying to just sit down and bang out that entry, today I sat down and reread all of the other entries and I… I had a…
Last night as I was going to sleep– I've been, you know, like rotating this thing; I returned to it a couple of times a day for the past while. And then last night, just as I was going to bed, my brain did a like, “Ooh, ‘surprise.’ What if, what if the surprises that they call, you know, like someone from Potreblyat calls.” And so I went back and I, I reread all of the entries to see if there was something in them that would sort of point towards that.
And ultimately I was like, I think that if they called, they wouldn't be allowed on the air to give the threat? And I think I really wanted– this, this– I’ve really enjoyed this medium of like writing the banter and, but, but as I think I've talked about in a few of these, you know, card pull segments, uh, it's been a little strange sometimes to try and communicate both like events that happened and be realistic about how someone would talk on the radio– on their highly illegal pirate radio station. And so I wanted it–  I didn't want to give them a chance to talk around it as I have with some of the other events, like give them time to calm down and get into a place where they can speak euphemistically about it, you know? Where they can get to a point where they're like, Hey, well, we all know what happened and blah, blah, blah. I wanted them to be genuinely surprised and feel that emotional reaction happen sort of in real time.
‘Cause I think that was part of the block for me was, was like being like, how do I make this– how do I do this? How do I do “surprise” for this specific event? Anyway. I bet in a while I will be happy with that. Right now. I'm feeling a little bit like, well, okay. It's not bad. It's not bad, but I bet that I'll feel better about it in the future than I do in this moment.
And with that, we are going to pull our f– last card. I nearly said our finalest card, which, I guess– bringing us to a nice even 20 entries. Oh my god.
Our last card is an eight of clubs. And then we roll a D6. Got a four. So four on clubs is “fear.” Yeah, I bet. And reacting to– eight is “secrets of Potreblyat revealed.” Oh no.
[Laughing] I'm sad. I'm sad. I like this character. And– like they had such an arc of, uh, learning to trust and stay put… it's really awful to have to end it on a bad note, but I think that's the rules. I'm fairly sure that, you know, if you hit three kings or aces first, it has to be a bad ending. If you do three queens or jacks first, it can be a good ending.
I don't wanna… [Laughing] I don’t wanna. I want them to be okay.
So part of the problem is, you know, obviously in that entry, what they sort of, you know, talked about– like the gentle version of it, right, is, um, like they just retire. Is that enough? I think, ugh. So I think maybe what this– format wise, I don't think that they'll do another show after that, you know? Like I think it's just too much. And so I think that this should be either they're calling in or leaving a recording in the studio.
And I think… I don't think I want it to be as straightforward– like,  they're certainly not going to go just like, there is a world, I guess, in which they just go and they're like, Hey, I've been so much of a threat if, if I just give myself to Potreblyat they will actually stop being so threatening. Um, but I don't think that that's who they are realistically. And so I think it makes sense for them to leave. You know, like they don't just retire. They, they head back out into the Wastes. And then we can, you know, think maybe sometime in the future, TOXOPLASYMBIOSIS or whatever the fuck I named that band and their little merry crew of Wastelanders can, can pick them up. And that's nice to think about in the future maybe.
But um, yeah, I think I like the idea of it being a call, um, that can be sort of verified, you know, like they, they have… private things set up that off the air, they like verify that this is actually Cel calling in.
In reading the old entries, I realised I have been correct about the name Celebration Establishment. They introduce themselves at one point.
Um, maybe it's even they call in and they aren't expecting to be put on the air, but the new night host just does it. Kind of to be an asshole to be like “What, you're leaving? No, guess what? You're doing one final show, just for a few seconds.” and I'll have to figure out what the secrets are.
So they find something out and that's the reason they're leaving. Like this is, it's been a little while. They've just been living in the community. They find something out and they're like, I gotta dip. I can't do this actually.
Um, I don't know. Maybe we don't even find out. Maybe I'll think about it and I'll come up with something and then, you know, in the writing I'll figure out what they're reacting to. But maybe it's just like… something's too much. And I don't necessarily have to define what it is. We'll see. Let's see how it, let's see how it goes.
SATAH (AS CELEBRATION ESTABLISHMENT): [Echoing slightly] Don't put me on the air. I was just calling to… alright. Fuck. Fuck. Uh, fine. Let me turn my radio down.
[Echo stops]
Okay. Listeners, hello. As Con said, this transmission has been verified. It's really me.
It's been a while. I, uh… I wasn't expecting to talk to you. It, uh, I guess it's the opinion of the DOOM ROOM that I shouldn't leave without saying goodbye. That was my entire plan, but I had to give Con a couple of codes that only I know and, well… 
Is throwing me on the air one last time a guilt trip or a threat? It's not gonna make me stay. I'm not...
Look, I wish someone else were telling you this because they'd be able to give you more of the story, but here we are. My story, my responsibility, I guess– though now, how much do we know about how much control I've had over… ooh, I need to keep this short.
My unplug was planned. “Schedule of people we’re going to release into the real-real on purpose for whatever nefarious plot” wasn't in any of the filing cabinet theories, but there are a lot of things we didn't predict. So yes, I'm leaving. You can argue behind my back for as long as you want about whether I'm doing exactly what they want me to do, but I can't– I can't risk that there's something inside of me that they put there that will wake up one day and put all of you in more danger than I already have, just by nature of the other things inside of me. The me inside of me, the voice, the history, the stature, I can't do it anymore. I'm going to…
Oh, shit. Fuck. Uh, searchlights. Skyguards. I, uh… I'm so sorry, and thank you all for declaring me an acceptable risk, and I'm so sorry that I think you were wrong.
Okay, I gotta try… shit.
Um, take, take care of them, Con– please just, please just take care of them–
HB (AS SHERRIFF EASY): Has this ever happened to you? You’re flopping boneless on the ground, shaking with reality pains as a Potreblyat liaison tells you, “Sir, we've raised the rates on true reality in light of recent network issues, and you no longer qualify for the basic package. We're sorry for the inconvenience.”
And do you complain? No! Your spouse wasn't real anyhow, and neither were the kids. You couldn't afford any to get plugged in.
Well, I says to Gosh, “I want to join the revolution.” Gosh says, “Hang on there, brother, that's not how this works. You still got the shakes and can barely keep the soup down. I say, “It's my right as a free-thinking individual to lay down my life for the cause anyway. We’ve been listening to Doom FM nightly, and there's talk of action, explosions, rebellion.”
“Hang on there, brother,” Gosh says. “Those are from ten years ago. It's personal tapes from the golden days. DOOM FM's been off the air for years now.”
OUTRO
SATAH: This has been Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs. To find where you can find the show, check out foliopod.carrd.co.
You can find HB, who you just got a tiny taste of, at gm36.it.io.
You can find Eclipse at eclipse.gay.
You can find Satah, that's me, at posatahchips on Twitter, and check out my other work at gaygothvibes.online.
Next week, you'll meet players 2 and 3– yep, that's how much longer my game went than theirs; you'll meet them in one episode– as HB and Eclipse and I continue our game of Unplugged Survivor by We Are Heroes Productions and the Tabletop for the End of the World podcast, linked in the show notes.
Thanks so much for listening, and take care out there.