AMA-01 - with Martin and Raymond
The following episode is taken from an Ask Me Anything that was recorded in October 2020 for Database patrons. To participate in future AMAs and ask your own questions, and also get the full uncut version of this episode, become a patron of the show by visiting patreon.com/thescpfoundationdatabase
Martin Taylor is "a millennial who throws himself deeply into interests, as he was born without self control. A fan of D&D and self-described 'Tchaikovsky stan,' he spends his time cartwheeling and driving forklifts."
Raymond Duke is "an artist and aspiring writer, a lover of the occult, macabre, and strange. Oh, and board games!"
Transcript:
JOSH: (dado voice) Hello, yes, this is (normal voice) the first SCP Foundation Database Q&A session for our patrons. Sooo, how were your days, Marty and Raymond? First of all, this is Martin.
MARTIN: Hello!
JOSH: And this is Raymond.
RAYMOND: Hhello.
JOSH: How were your days?
MARTIN: Well, my day was lovely. We both got to work.
JOSH: YAAY.
MARTIN: (laughs) We've been able to get some work in a warehouse. And after putting lenses together and then taking them apart and cleaning them all day, I got to watch Raymond fall asleep on a bench in the smoking patio outside. So, that was lovely.
JOSH: Awesome.
RAYMOND: Yeah, I definitely did not injure my back trying to get up from that because I am, like, eighty years old, apparently.
JOSH: You, you work in a warehouse and you injured your back getting up from a nap?
RAYMOND: Yes. Yes, it's a miracle.
MARTIN: It's a very common injury, standing up.
JOSH: Yes.
RAYMOND: Especially after lying prone for… 40 minutes?
MARTIN: Something like that.
JOSH: So, let's start by, well, why don't you guys tell me what roles you've done so far, so people can re-familiarize themselves with your… body of work, I guess.
MARTIN: “Body of work.” I'll jump first. I'm gonna be honest, I don’t always remember some of the ones I've done. I know that I had a small part in the very famous Plague Doctor episode, which was wonderful. I was an interviewer and I was, “hmm, we'll see about that.” But, I have loved the joke episode… I want to say it was one of the first if not the first joke episode, where the dude just keeps showing up at random places. And I…
JOSH: Oh, yeah, uh, Geoff.
MARTIN: Geoff, yes. And I got to be some, like, high-ranking military commander and get really perturbed by him every time that he showed up.
JOSH: I love that one. That's one of my favorite ones.
MARTIN: I suppose I've also done, was it an SCP Tale? Where I was on the moon and crying about a lawnmower?
JOSH: Yes. (laughs) The Last Man.
MARTIN: Yeah, I think that's the only, like, serious one I've done. And when I get roles, I like them to be really, really stupid or really serious.
JOSH: Yes, you have done… I actually have your list up right now.
MARTIN: Well, thank God.
JOSH: So, you have done… Red Ice was your first episode.
MARTIN: Right! I ended up recording lines for that, I believe, not on my honeymoon, but on a getaway with my wife. (laughs)
JOSH: Oh yeah! (laughs) You’re amazing by the way, I really appreciate that. And I doubt she minded.
MARTIN: No, she was fine. I mean, she would have done the same thing if you'd sent her a script, so.
JOSH: So, you've also done, what's one of the… (reading list) Geoff, yes. Plague Doctor you mentioned. Another joke episode you did was The Collection, where you just get shot at a bunch.
MARTIN: (laughs) Oh my God, I forgot about that one. Yes, I'm gonna have to listen to that on the way to work tomorrow.
JOSH: And Passive-Aggressive Meteorite.
MARTIN: (laughs)
JOSH: And Tubbioca, that's right—— Devourer of Souls, Consumer of Secrets, Lord of Munchies, with Toby.
MARTIN: Yeah.
JOSH: And, Raymond, what have you been in?
RAYMOND: Uh, hello, um…
JOSH: This is mainly just a test to see if you can remember.
RAYMOND: I definitely went back and looked at some of the ones that I was in. So, I studied, I guess. I know the first one that I did was Proboscis Engineers, which was 039.
JOSH: Actually, you were in one before that.
RAYMOND: Was I? Dammit.
JOSH: Yeah, it was just one short little researcher’s note in Collars of Control.
RAYMOND: Oh, that is right. I did forget about that. Oh, man, I flunked.
JOSH: You were also in Afterschool Retention——
RAYMOND: Oh, God, with the school…
JOSH: ——where you interviewed the teacher, yep.
RAYMOND: Yes. Yes, I did. And that's been, I think, the majority of my roles, as an SCP interviewer, just kind of, like, a plainclothes agent who goes around and, “Well, tell me about, you know, what you saw weird here today.” That has been most of my roles. But Proboscis Engineers was one I know where I was basically a found-footage kind of scientist who had engineered those weird monkey workers.
JOSH: I actually really like that one.
RAYMOND: So I think that was, like, my first real character role? Which, I know I don't have a ton of those.
JOSH: You got to be devoured by a Dark Form recently.
RAYMOND: I did. That is, I was gonna say that one was my favorite role that I've done so far, 080. Really kind of got to bust out the acting chops a little bit.
JOSH: Mhm, you did great on that one.
RAYMOND: Thank you.
JOSH: So Brittany asks, for both of you, “Thinking about voice acting as performance, what other kinds of theatrical endeavors have you pursued over the years? And what draws you to performance?” Getting real Inside the Actors’ Studio here.
MARTIN: Oh boy. Raymond, do you want to start? Or do you wanna…
RAYMOND: Yeah, so, I am a very avid Dungeons & Dragons player. A lot of my acting kind of repertoire comes from just kind of letting myself be a role in those games and just role-playing. And that's really my only experience into theatre and acting. This is kind of, like, a new territory for me other than, yeah, other than role-playing. But I've roleplayed for many, many years. I mean, more than 20 really, at this point.
JOSH: We're getting old.
RAYMOND: (laughs) We are. I remember when I used to be the baby of the group.
JOSH: Well, you sort of still are, you’re just, like, in your late 20s, so.
RAYMOND: I am almost 30, if that makes you feel old?
JOSH: (groans) Yes. How about you, Marty?
MARTIN: So, I was in a play that Brittany directed in college. I decided to do that, to be in this play that I think either began performances… I want to say began performances 10 days before my senior composition recital, because I'm a smart man.
JOSH: Oh, that’s right! (laughs)
MARTIN: And… (laughs) I'm trying not to look at the chat right now. I got, like, I always thought, you know, I can kind of act. I did church plays. I was in, like, a few little things here and there. I did, like, some opera at college, obviously never singing because no one wanted that. And that was, I think that was the first time that I had, like, real feedback from a director, and it made a lot of sense. I, like Raymond, have done a ton of roleplaying, have been playing roleplaying games——Dungeons & Dragons, Seventh Sea——pretty consistently for about 15 years, 16, 17, somewhere in there. Let's just say 50 years now. I think what really draws me to it is, like, I have just a crippling desire to be the center of attention sometimes. And I think that's one of the reasons that I generally run games instead of playing in games; I am usually the forever GM because I get to talk more. And I am so sorry for everyone else in my friend group, but I have at least made peace with that. And I sure hope you have, too.
JOSH: Marty, Raymond, and I have actually played quite a lot of gaming together. The first, my very first introduction to gaming was in a tabletop RPG called Seventh Sea with Marty GMing back in… 2007 or eight?
MARTIN: Sounds about right.
RAYMOND: That would have been before 2008, because that was before I met you guys.
JOSH: Yeah.
MARTIN: Good Lord.
JOSH: And then Raymond eventually came in to that same campaign——well… Yeah, the very first time it was, like, a one-shot, and then once we got started into an actual campaign, Raymond came in, like, in the later seasons of that. That was… yeah. (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs) A long time ago.
JOSH: Spera asks, “What was your favorite episode to listen to? And what was your favorite character to play?”
MARTIN: I think you know my answer to this one, as do most of the people in the cast because I keep talking about it. Brothers’ Bride was just so amazing. I listen to that one… I used to listen to a lot of them at work, and then, for some reason, I'm not sure why… obviously, Brittany is amazing in it, she always is, but just something about, like, the story and all of the, like, backstory that kind of comes in there, and you start thinking about who all these, like, kind of hinted-to but really unnamed people are, and it just captured so much of my imagination. I listened to that one twice that day, and I think I've listened to that one at least five times. I, oof.
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: My favorite character, I think, was probably the military commander in Geoff.
JOSH: (laughs) Yeah.
MARTIN: I do prefer silly roles. I had a lot of fun screaming “dammit” and “what in the hell” and all that good stuff. Just fun times. Very glad I don't have very close neighbors now that we're doing this.
JOSH: (laughs) Raymond?
RAYMOND: Yeah, so, I mean, I kind of already spoke earlier, but my favorite character that I played was the, I believe he was a D subject in SCP-080, which was sort of one of my very few, like, long-form acting roles. That's definitely the kind of ones I want to do more in the future. As far as, like, some of the episodes that, like, I've really enjoyed… So, I think kind of, 87 was The Stairwell. I think that one was absolutely spectacular. Just, you know, great acting skills, like, across the board. Just a really cool idea, as well. And then… …oh, I just had it in my mind. And it's gone.
MARTIN: (laughs)
JOSH: I'm so happy with how 087 turned out.
RAYMOND: I think it turned out really well, yeah. Oh!
JOSH: I had been—— Go ahead.
RAYMOND: I remembered. The last Halloween episode we did, the house of darkness, that one——
JOSH: Oh, yeah. FU—— Sorry, I just remembered I meant to send out a script today, and I did not.
MARTIN: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: Add that to my to do list. Um, yeah, I'm really happy with how 087 turned out, because I had been worried about that one since the podcast… well, I had been looking forward to that one since the podcast started, because that's, like, one of the very first ones that I read——it usually is because it's one of the most popular. And then with everything else going on in my life, and then just stressing out about that and a number of other things, I ended up pushing it back, like, eight weeks. Sorry about that, guys.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: But I'm really happy with how it ended up turning out.
MARTIN: I'm sure that… As a patron myself, I would like to think that I speak for a lot of the others when I say that I would rather an episode come out, you know, a bit later than for you to rush it. Because, I'll obviously jump in with everyone else, and… 87 was so good. Like, the… because… you and I met in college, you know, we both have a musical background, and I know your, you know, your talent as a musician, as a composer, as a vocalist. And you are quite a gifted actor, you're really pretty, and also, like, where did this Foley artistry come from? Because, like, it's so impressive. Like, I am blown away with how, like, professional and how great this all sounds, and I could honestly never put forward something, like, that high-quality, like, sound-wise. It's mind-blowing.
JOSH: Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, recording the Foley work for 087 was fucking awful because it was just me running up and down a flight of stairs, like, 10 times in a row.
MARTIN: Oh yeah, I literally could never do that then.
JOSH: That was, no, I don't want to do that again.
MARTIN: (laughing)
JOSH: Um, as far as me, I'm trying to think what my favorite episode to listen to is. I do like last year's Halloween episode. Passive-Aggressive Meteorite, mainly just for the audio—— Mainly, the only thing I go back and listen to is the audio logs. Because I don't want to listen to myself talk like that. Yeah, mainly because pretty much everyone on the voice cast I've been friends with for a long time, so I don't like listening to them, like, screaming in agony, so I tend to avoid listening to those episodes multiple times. But yeah, I think Brothers’ Bride is definitely up there, and Afterschool Retention I'm still really proud of and I love going back and listening to that one, even though it's the longest one. As far as my favorite character to play… Definitely not the Database. I am looking—— like, I don't hate it. It's just, I'm trying to, I want to grab roles that I think I could actually do well, and without it being too confusing with—— like, that's the thing. I have to pick roles where I can do some kind of voice so that there's a very clear distinction between the Database speaking and the character. So every role that I know that I can do that on I'm grabbing for myself because I'm desperate to do something else, you know? I loved… dado was a lot of fun. And… what else have I done? Jesus.
RAYMOND: You’ve done the plague doctor. You did both the regular plague doctor and the joke plague doctor which was absolutely hysterical.
JOSH: That was fun. That was so much fun.
MARTIN: Raymond and I listened to the the joke plague doctor on the way home from work one day and you put our lives in serious danger. I was crying laughing trying to drive on the interstate.
JOSH: This, I was gonna say ‘This is the desired outcome.’ By which I mean, dying laughing, not on the interstate.
MARTIN: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs) Not actually, literally dying. I know you——
MARTIN: The podcast itself is a Euclid class.
RAYMOND: You also did Abel, which I think is, like, one of the really influential SCP characters.
JOSH: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's one of my least favorite. I don't like Abel. Like, that SCP is one of my, of the really popular SCPs, that's probably one of my least favorite.
RAYMOND: Yeah.
JOSH: I think Cain is a lot more interesting. I know, I wish Cain had extensive documentation in the same way that Abel has, I think it deserves it. I'm sure there's some, like, SCP Tales with Cain in it. I'm sure there's, actually, quite a few that I just haven't read. And we may need to look into those, actually, now that I think about it. “How did you all come across the SCP Foundation in the first place?”
MARTIN: I don't want to, I don't want to jump in, but I believe you skipped a very important question from Brittany, who asked why the hell I agreed to do this.
JOSH: Oh. (laughs)
MARTIN: And I have a very short answer, which is, please see my previous comment about always wanting to be the person talking. That’s all.
JOSH: But you do it so well, Marty, so you might as well do something with it.
MARTIN: Oh, thank you! My voice cracks all the time like I'm going through puberty.
JOSH: Same.
MARTIN: Again, I actually don't, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
JOSH: So, Toby asks, “How did you all come across the SCP Foundation in the first place? And did you know about it before the podcast?”
MARTIN: Raymond, jump on that.
RAYMOND: Yeah, so I wasn't really ever, like, really big into the community, but I definitely read several of the articles and at one point even tried to write my own, but that didn't go very well. But I remember finding out or discovering the SCP Foundation back when they were just starting Series III, which are the SCP-2000s. Like, they had just started allocating some of those numbers out. So I don't know exactly when that was, but it was several years ago at this point. I couldn't tell you how I originally found it. I like sort of, like, weird, occult-ish, spooky things, so I kind of dig around for that kind of media a lot of the times, and I probably saw it recommended by someone else. So, I checked it out and I've kind of been touch-and-go with it over the years. Like, I'll come back and read, and then kind of move on a little bit. But yeah.
JOSH: Marty?
MARTIN: I don't remember exactly how I came across it. I did know of it before the podcast and had read a few. I'm not quite as big on spoopy things as a lot of my friend group are. I can't watch scary movies. I say it's because I find them boring but I'm just scared.
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: I think some of them are very, very fascinating. I do love the paranormal aspect, I love the things that aren't answered about them, and I think it's a very interesting idea. So, I think I read a bunch of them when I first came around them or when somebody mentioned them on the internet, and then I think, like Raymond, I was touch-and-go. Probably a lot more go, though. But, I want to say, like, once a year I'd scroll through and read a few more. This, the podcast, has definitely made me think about them a lot more. I'm still not an avid reader of them by any means, but I do sometimes, like, go back and read the ones that Josh has done and I find that I like listening to them far more than I like just reading them.
JOSH: Hm. Yeah, I… I'm pretty sure it was 2010 when I was introduced to them. A friend of ours who's not really a friend of ours anymore, I was living with him at the time, is actually the one that introduced me to them, so. I'm not thankful to him for much, but the place to stay and the, introducing me to this, I'm definitely thankful for that. And actually, one of the first ones was 087, like I said. And obviously I did know about it before the podcast because——
MARTIN: (laughs) ——You didn’t, no.
RAYMOND: (laughs) ——That would have made it really difficult.
MARTIN: Start recording, “Huh, this is cool.”
JOSH: (laughs)
JOSH: Romeo asks, “What type of equipment do ya’ll use? And what do you use to record?”
MARTIN: I have, I can definitely tell you that I use a Samsung C01U USB Studio Condenser Mic, and I can say that because it says that on it right here. I have that going into the USB port of a laptop, and I record on Audacity: only the finest for my friend Josh.
RAYMOND: Yeah, very similarly for me, I have a different microphone, a Tonor TC-777, but I also record into Audacity.
MARTIN: Yeah, I don't think either of us have ever really used anything else.
RAYMOND: I have used my phone a couple of times.
MARTIN: Oh, yes. Yes, I have, as well.
JOSH: Yeah.
RAYMOND: I know for one of the Joke episodes, he requested that I use my phone, like the voice memo on it to get a certain kind of quality. But yeah, it's mostly a stand-up microphone that we have. I think we have, like, three in our house.
JOSH: Yeah, we need, especially since there's three of you in that one house, we definitely need to replace that mic, or upgrade. It's not a bad mic, by any means.
RAYMOND: No, no, I think it sounds great.
JOSH: Yeah, it sounds fine, but just since we'd be taking care of three people at once, I think that's a great place to go next. I am using a Shure SM7B, which is pretty standard for podcasting. And I am using Audacity, because thankfully on that front we don't do anything so complicated that we would need to shell out hundreds of dollars for, like, Pro Tools or anything like that. Audacity does quite a lot. And I realized halfway through the podcast that I was using a seven-year-old version of it.
MARTIN: Nice.
JOSH: And then finally upgraded, and didn't notice much of a difference. It’s a fairly solid program.
MARTIN: It’s Audacity.
JOSH: Yeah. Andrew asks, “Of the SCPs you've read, what has been your least favorite?” Hmm.
MARTIN: What a good question.
JOSH: Yeah. Abel is up there. Definitely of the most popular ones, Abel is probably my least favorite. Of the smaller ones… How about either of you while I'm thinking?
RAYMOND: No, I kind of, out of the ones that, like, I've been a part in recording, I know we had some technical difficulties with the Abel episode. But as far as like other SCPs, like maybe that we haven't recorded or that I've just kind of, like, read over the years, I think there's a few of them that are kind of not very interesting.
JOSH: Yeah, that's mainly the sorts of things that come to mind for me.
RAYMOND: Yeah, because over the years, I mean, you know, SCPs have been written for, like, quite a while now, probably close to 20 years, and I think, like, with each new series, there are, even, like, kind of within those series there are different stylistic changes, as kind of, like, the goals of the SCP community kind of changes and, like, their interests change. So, like, a lot of the lower numbers, not all of them, but a lot of them are just kind of, like, magic items. And it's like, oh, look, it's this weird, cursed thing that does something. And it's spoopy. And I just, I think those are very uninteresting.
MARTIN: I actually do have an answer to this one, which surprises myself even.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: And that is SCP-018, the super bouncy ball.
JOSH: You don’t like that one?
MARTIN: Well, it just reminded me so much of, there was an episode of Batman: The Animated Series wherein, I don’t know, Toymaster or somebody, like, legitimately uses this exact thing. I mean, it's all right. I don't think I've outright hated any of them, or just, like, pointed to one and said, “Oh, yeah, that's not my favorite.” But I think this is the only one that I've listened to that it kind of took me out, because I'm like, “this is an episode of Batman.”
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: So, it's not that I just really dislike it, it's just that I can't take it seriously, I guess, because, I don't know, Toyman.
JOSH: There's, 017 is, for me, is just kind of boring. Like, the ones I'm thinking of are basically the ones that we've done, because they're the ones I know the best. Yeah, that one. A lot of people don't like the older LOLFoundation stuff where it's all, like, Dr. Bright and Dr. Kondraki and all of them doing weird… But, like, 050, To The Cleverest. That one is——
RAYMOND: Oh, I forgot about that one.
JOSH: Yeah, you were in that one.
RAYMOND: Yes, I was.
JOSH: It’s dumb, but it’s funny——
RAYMOND: ——Because I think I did it very silly and you told me to tone it down.
MARTIN: (laughs)
JOSH: Yeah, that, like, I still enjoy some of those. There's a lot more that have survived in the, and are still liked when they're joke episodes. But yeah, not so much in the main series.
JOSH: What is your favorite SCP? To turn it around. Obviously, not necessarily one you've been in.
RAYMOND: So yeah, so 002 is one of the first ones that I remember reading, which is The “Living” Room.
JOSH: Mmhmm. I just love the pun in that.
RAYMOND: Yeah, and I think it's just, like, that right amount of creepy that's just, you know, really kind of hits it home. There's also one that we haven't done yet, and probably won't do for a while because I know it's in the 2000s, but I don't remember exactly which number it is. But it's an SCP that if you talk about it or write about it, it materializes and grabs you and takes you away somewhere. I think I'm really intrigued by the idea of how the article is presented. Because——
JOSH: Oh, is that the one that's just a diagram as the article? I love that one.
RAYMOND: Yes, because it doesn’t understand pictures.
JOSH: Right.
RAYMOND: So it's like this whole story of the SCP is being told through, yeah, through diagrams and pictures. Just a really cool concept, I think, kind of one that has stuck in my mind for a long time because I know I first saw it, like, many years ago. Yes, Andrew, that is the one: 2… what is that, 2521?
JOSH: Yeah.
MARTIN: I really enjoyed, I like the Cursed SCP Number, 048. I thought that one was really interesting. I like, I guess I like the ones that are a little silly, or the ones that are Complete Annihilation Is, like, 18 Seconds Away. So, I like the Dwarf Star that's like, I don't know, eight feet underground and is about to kill us all. That one's a good time.
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: And I like the Sentient Civil War Statue. I thought that one was a lot of fun.
JOSH: Yeah, I like the ones that have a really simple concept, but are just presented really well. Like 053, the, what's it called?
MARTIN: Young Girl?
JOSH: Young Girl, yeah yeah yeah, where it's just a young girl. But if you you're in the room with her for longer than 10 minutes, then people become “rapidly irrational, paranoid, and/or homicidal.” And it's a really short article; it implies a lot without going into detail. Another one, very recent one, 089, Tophet: like, if you had just told me the concept, where you have to perform, like, a sacrifice to keep disaster from happening every once in a while, like, that's not an interesting concept. But the way it's presented where it just gradually, or not even gradually, but just very suddenly, towards the very end of the description, gives you, oh, it's actually, the sacrifice is,——
RAYMOND: ——This really awful thing, yeah——
JOSH: ——like, a baby. And, yeah, and the person that has to do it is the child's mother. Like, it just hits you. Like, those are the types of articles that I like.
RAYMOND: Yeah, 089 was really good.
JOSH: Not that I like infanticide or anything, going by both of those articles.
MARTIN: (laughs) So there’s one other joke that I always do is, whenever, it's like, “Object Class: Keter,” I'm like, “Oh boooy.” I'm, the Heart of Darkness, 058, I loved specifically that, just the weird speech, trying to figure out what the heck it was saying in the background.
JOSH: Yeah, Romeo is really good at episodes like that. Romeo is really good at screaming and I've definitely made use of him that way. Thank you, Romeo, for all of your screaming.
MARTIN: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: Romeo has asked, “Wait, what?”
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: We're talking about what a great screaming person you are, Romeo. Thank you for wailing in agony so many times.
JOSH: Yes. I love how you went full Super Saiyan in Passive-Aggressive Meteorite.
MARTIN: (in response to Romeo in chat) Oh, “before that.” That was more than three minutes ago, I have no memory.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: …So, do you guys have any questions for each other? You and Raymond?
MARTIN: I think Disownedbook just came in with a timely save.
JOSH: Thank you!
MARTIN: Raymond, do you want to jump on favorite movies? Because my answer I’m sure will be a lot quicker.
RAYMOND: Yeah, so I quite like watching movies. I think for a really long time the answer to that was Pulp Fiction. That has kind of shifted over the years. I think right now my favorite movie is Knives Out. Which is——
JOSH: I've been meaning to watch that, I keep hearing really good things.
RAYMOND: It’s so good, it’s so well done. It's, like, on-the-nose and just kind of, at the same time, kind of, like, subversive to the genre. So, it's just, it's really good, it's really well done. I also like Parasite, which is a Korean——
JOSH: ——Another one I've been meaning to watch.——
RAYMOND: ——movie. If you like horror, but you don't like necessarily, like, really awful, horrible things, Parasite is a good choice. It's kind of, like, a thriller. And I went in blind to the movie, like, not really knowing what it was about, and I was not ready for it. It was a pretty intense ride.
MARTIN: Uh… I——
JOSH: Marty doesn’t watch movies, really.
MARTIN: Yeah, I've, the joke is I've seen about six movies and liked about zero of them. But, maybe parts of it have not necessarily aged well, but It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is, it's about 19-and-a-half hours long, but it's just such this non-stop Madcap insanity, and the entire thing is just Too Much. So that's great. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is, I think, probably the only Monty Python movie that I've really watched. My mom introduced me to that one and, again, maybe parts of that have not necessarily aged well, but it's, that one had me screaming, and for a while I was able to quote it. I'm glad that I can't anymore.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: There's just a certain kind of person.
RAYMOND: Oh, I think I'm that person.
MARTIN: I generally prefer comedy or, like, stupid action. Like, we did, as part of, you know, “Hey, everybody's quarantined, so why not?” we did go through and finally watch all of the Marvel movies, because those are movies that I actively wanted to see and still managed to not see them yet, so.
JOSH: Yeah, I mean, honestly, especially, like, for some reason, the last 10 years of my life, I haven't really sought out movies to watch. Like, usually they just sort of happen in front of me. Like, basically, I have a long list of movies that I need to see, that I want to see, that people recommend, and I keep adding them to a list and thinking, “No, I definitely need to watch those at some point,” and then I don't. Like Parasite, like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and, like, the weird thing is I don't really get into horror movies that much. I honestly don't consume horror much at all, which feels weird to say given this. Like, I much, I like performing it and putting it together, but I, it's, there's a certain kind of horror movie that… like, my horror tastes are very specific and so it's kept me from seeking things out because it's just too much trouble to sift through everything. I certainly listen to people talk about movies a lot, but I don't really watch that them, like, well… I'm trying to think what the last movie I saw was. It might have been the new Jumanji movie, like, the first of the new series because——
RAYMOND: Oh, there's a new series? I’ve been living under a rock.
MARTIN: (laughs)
JOSH: Yeah, with, with The Rock. But yeah, the only reason I watched it was because my stepdad was going to take my stepsisters to go see… I can't remember which Star Wars movie was out at the time, but the sequel to the new Jumanji movies was coming out and one of my stepsisters did not want to go see Star Wars, she wanted to go see Jumanji. So I watched the first one so I could go with her, and then it just never ended up happening, so I watched it for no reason.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: Nice. Amazing.
JOSH: So yeah, I think, I think that's the last movie I watched, and that was a while ago.
MARTIN: There was a question from Andrew that I'd love to jump on.
JOSH: Mhm?
MARTIN: If, well, if I had to shift to a topic that wasn't SCP, I would probably nudge Josh into us talking about weird bullshit in classical music, and——
JOSH: Oh God.
MARTIN: ——the infamous story of Anton Bruckner and Beethoven's head…
RAYMOND: (laughs) Oh God.
MARTIN: Tchaikovsky eating a letter he was supposed to deliver because he was nervous, or trying to conduct and holding on to his chin because he felt like his head was going to fall off. Just very normal people, those composers, so, I would do that. Maybe professional wrestling? Just, obviously, classical music, professional wrestling, hand-in-hand.
JOSH: Yup. Of course.
MARTIN: I don't think I would do a D&D podcast, because to me there's two kinds that I've seen. There's “Hey, listen to us play this game,” which, I know some people get super into, I cannot for the life of me watch and/or listen to someone else play D&D. I managed to make it through a few episodes of like a much lesser known one then, you know, Critical Role. And then the other one is “We're going to talk about aspects of D&D,” which, I'm like, okay, I listen to this, and then I'm like, oh, these are rules, and I already know the rules, so.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: And it's like, oh, hey, we're gonna, like, rank these rules, like, which is the best and worst——
MARTIN: ——Oh, are, you know, “so, lemme tell you what the best subclass for Fighter is (sniff) and why is it Champion”——
RAYMOND: ——“Here, lemme tell you why the Trickery Cleric domain sucks,” and it’s like, it clearly doesn’t.——
MARTIN: ——“Ahahahahaw it's awful. So, uh, actually the Life domain is what you wanted to take.”——
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: Anyway. Yes, Disownedbook, we are obviously, we love D&D, but I don't think either of us could actually——
RAYMOND: ——Want, want to talk about it, yeah.
MARTIN: Like, I'll talk about it, I just don't want to sit there and produce, you know, regular content for a weekly, hour-long show or something because I would run out of things immediately. I'll be like, “Hey guys, how, how about them Rogues, huh?” Yeah, I would have no idea what to do.
JOSH: Yeah, that's the thing. Like, I'm great if there's a script in front of me. So anything that I did that wasn't this, it would need to have a script, if it was something that… I could write it, but it would be, like, you would get one episode every year.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: The thing that I still want to do, and we might even, like, if we bring back the Quaran-tainment Series, we might do the first chapter of this just to gauge people's interest: there's a blog on Tumblr that I follow called normal-horoscopes, and they have an ongoing story called Amber Skies. It's this dystopian, like, it would fit this podcast really well, I think. I think a lot of people who listen to SCP stuff would really like this. I think they're, like, 50 chapters in at this point, but they're, like, each chapter is pretty, relatively self-contained? It's all one ongoing story, but I mean, like, none of the chapters are overly long, so it would, like, fit our format really well. And I already have, unbeknownst to many of our cast members, already have people cast in my head. And like, I would love to do that. Yeah, that's something that I would do if we shifted away from SCP stuff.
RAYMOND: Yeah, that was where I was gonna go with it. Just, like, doing something in an actual, like, long-form fiction format kind of like Limetown or The Black Tapes. Just sort of, maybe, you know, keeping to that creepy, supernatural… But here, instead of, like, this technical document, it's actually just, yeah, like, actual fiction, like people talking, or something like that.
JOSH: Right, yeah. We really need to do more SCP Tales. I don't know why we don't. That's, those are, those can be a lot more fun than, and arguably easier to put together, than some of the audio logs we do.
JOSH: “How do you go about finding voice actors for certain episodes? And do you feel content with the team you have or are you looking for more voice actors?” I definitely have a list of, like, different things that everyone on the voice cast can do or is especially good at. I also try not to put the same voice in two consecutive episodes, unless they're, like, doing a very different voice. Yeah, we're not really looking for anyone else at the moment, we've got a pretty good spread. I’m happy with the team as it stands. Yeah.
JOSH: “If you all could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?” says Disownedbook.
MARTIN: If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be somewhere that does not have southeastern United States summers.
JOSH: Oh my God, yes.
MARTIN: I would actually get a decent length of Fall, one that would preferably bring snow reliably at least a few times during the winter. And one that was not, preferably one that was more out of the woods as far as the pandemic goes.
JOSH: Yeaahh.
MARTIN: That, that would be cool.
JOSH: Unfortunately, they're not letting us go to those places.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: (laughs) One that was not facing Current Political Situation. Yeah, I think those are my three biggies. You know, healthcare would be nice. (laughs)
JOSH: Yeah. Pretty much anywhere for me that is cold and has healthcare. So, like, one of the Scandinavian countries or something.
MARTIN: “The SCP Database is relocating.”
RAYMOND: So, I think, to completely turn on both of your heads…
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: Oh God…
RAYMOND: …I would like to live somewhere where it was reasonably warm year-round, like, chilliest being 60 degrees. I do not like the cold.
JOSH: You do not.
RAYMOND: I do not. And then I definitely will not be getting a Swedish accent, but yeah.
MARTIN: I can do a really bad, borderline offensive one. So I won’t!
RAYMOND: I would love to live very far away from other people. (laughs) Maybe, sort of, in the woods by myself, growing my own food, I think.
MARTIN: Occasionally getting scripts for a podcast.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs) Not having to worry about money ever.
JOSH: Sounds like, yeah, that's, that would be the life——
RAYMOND: Near the ocean, I love the——
JOSH: Say what?
RAYMOND: Near the ocean. I would love to, yeah, be near the ocean.
JOSH: I wouldn't mind near the ocean. When I was in Chile the last time it was during the winter, and we went to, it's my… my aunt works for the Central Bank of Chile down there, and they own this resort by the ocean, because most of them are by the ocean because you can't really not be by the ocean in Chile. But it was just these rundown cabins, and me and my cousins always referred to it as The Last Resort. But we went there in winter the last time, and there was just nobody around. Like that's the sort of time I want to go to the beach, is when it's not super cold, but there's nobody around, there's a cool breeze, and it works for Chile because I would never go into the water anyway because even in the summer it's fucking freezing.
JOSH: “What games do you guys play frequently?” This is Disownedbook16.
MARTIN: I feel like we've touched on one of them slightly.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs) Yes, we're all pretty big on Dungeons & Dragons. That’s definitely something that we do a lot. A lot of us are also very into board games. Before the pandemic started, we would have people over all the time, just kind of play whatever new game that we got. But yeah, video games——
JOSH: Oh, I saw a game, like, you get all these advertisements on Facebook, but I actually saw one advertised on Facebook that I really wanted to buy for that. I need to remember that. We started playing Among Us recently.
RAYMOND: Oh, that's right, we did, that was a lot of that of fun.
JOSH: That was so much fun.
RAYMOND: Oh, and we have to do the plug for Monster Prom.
JOSH: Yes. So, at some point, we would like to do something like this again, but we'll be playing a game, we'll be playing Monster Prom. And we'll dole out the characters and we'll each do voices for everything and I think it would just be a really fun time.
MARTIN: I'll jump in and also answer Andrew’s question about favorite D&D or other tabletop character I played. The answer is very different depending on if I'm playing them as a GM or if I'm playing them as a player. Niccolò Ciaconna, the very young lutenist/composer——you know, very, very different than myself——was a character that I played for a very long time in a game run by He Who Will Not Be Named. But the, I've had a ton of fun playing a character that is actually my avatar drawn by the very talented Brittany: Jean Jenoit has shown up in a lot of Seventh Sea campaigns. But I've had a lot, I think I've just had a lot of fun with, like, really small NPCs that don't show up very often, like the stone giant who's a pacifist who loves just carving beautiful sunsets into the cliffside. Little things like that, I think, is what I love about D&D, is letting players interact with those people. (in response to chat) Sorry, “lu-te-nist slash composer.”
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: Funny you should mention loot——no, we won’t get into that. (laughs)
RAYMOND: No, we’re not getting into that. (laughs)
JOSH: No, no no no.
RAYMOND: So yeah, I've played a lot of different characters over the years. Most of my roleplaying experience is as characters——or as a player——rather than a GM. I am kind of starting to get more into the GMing aspect of it. But I do, I don't really think I have any particular favorites, like, I love each and all of my children equally.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: But there is, I'm kind of infamous for one of my characters that I've played a couple of times, a little-known illusionist named Boddynock, who has a little silly voice.
JOSH: Oh, yeah.
RAYMOND (laughs) (Boddynock voice:) Drop that voice on Marty whatever I want! He hates it!
MARTIN: It’s, it’s fun.
JOSH: What's my favorite? There's one character I keep coming back to, and then things keep happening.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: (laughs) Like a global pandemic?
JOSH: (laughs) Like, the first time it was for…
MARTIN: A Pathfinder campaign.
JOSH: It was a Pathfinder campaign. Phinneas Monahan, who's a human monk character that I've played a number of times, the first time it was for a Pathfinder campaign that just sort of petered out and didn't end up going anywhere that Marty ran, it was just, it became difficult for us all to meet. And then the second time was for another, another friend of mine was GMing, and I was like, oh, I'll pick up this character again so I get to play him, and it just… The campaign ended, but it just sort of ended suddenly and not in a very satisfactory way. And then Marty started another campaign, and I was like, okay, I'm playing this character again, because I know this is a reliable group of friends and this is going to keep going, it's not gonna happen again. And then there's a fucking global pandemic, and we haven't met for that since. That's one of my favorite characters to play. I think, one of my more… I've only done him in one-shots so far, but I think my favorite character right now is, uh… what the fuck is his name? I've forgotten his name. Tethren!
MARTIN: Tethren, yeah.
JOSH: Yeah, he's a tiefling Ranger.
(a truck can be heard in Raymond’s audio. Everyone pauses till it passes)
RAYMOND: I was about to say, can you hear that truck in the background?
JOSH: Yes, I did hear that.
RAYMOND: (laughs) It was very loud.
MARTIN: Something went by just farting down the street.
RAYMOND: It was not even the street in front of our house, but several streets over.
JOSH: Because Tennessee.
JOSH: “What's the worst weaknesses you've assigned to characters?”
MARTIN: Oh noooo! So Seventh Sea has a fun thing called a Hubris that you can give your character, which is a fatal flaw. So my character that I spoke of, Niccolò Ciaconna, he had, oh my God, I don't remember what it was, but I was very dead set in my beliefs and I was willing to die on that hill and argue about it, regardless of if it was a proper place or time, and that got activated while, after a booked NPC disagreed with me, this booked NPC who is supernatural, and the book states, when he hits you——and he will——he deals enough damage to either knock you out or kill you, GM’s choice. So, yeah.
JOSH: I never… I'm trying to think if what of my Seventh Sea characters actually used a Hubris instead of a Virtue?
MARTIN: I think the worst weakness you've ever assigned was when you looked at me and you told me that you wanted to cry at the end of the game.
JOSH: (laughs) That's, yeah, meta weakness. Yeah, you're good at making characters cry, but like in a good way——or players cry, I mean.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: Also in bad ways!
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (in response to chat) Oh no!
MARTIN: No! No!
RAYMOND: No, we don’t have time to go into this.
MARTIN: We are not answering that question!
JOSH: (laughs)
MARTIN: Refund her money!
RAYMOND: Because I have written out the worst thing that Martin has ever done to a player.
MARTIN: (laughs) And it takes too long to explain.
RAYMOND: And it’s a big, long story, but, it’s——
MARTIN: I still think it's a three-way tie.
JOSH: This might be one of them. It might have changed since we last talked about this, but my, the character I played in the first big campaign was a composer/violinist, because I was copying Marty unknowingly, named Eliot Swift. And basically, he got stuck in a time loop trying to… you can explain it better than I can, Marty.
MARTIN: He learned that this mysterious, cloaked figure who had saved him several times and then died saving his romantic interest was actually himself but from the future, and realized that this person had left a journal detailing how he went back and how he jumped off of, you know, the tallest mountain in the world to prove to the universe that it was that important and he could go back. So things continue on from there and go very, very badly, and Mr. Eliot Swift is now alone, all of his friends are dead, he just had to kill one of his friends because she was very, very mean, and he decided that he was also going to go and fix this by jumping off the mountain. When he gets there, the person that is around, the Not Dalai Lama, invites him to write down his memories just as, you know, him from the future did. And so he writes down his story and puts it on the shelf and realizes there is another book, you know, next to it, which was him from the future. But the one next to that also looks familiar. And he opens it up and it's his own handwriting. And there's 20 more copies. And then I asked Josh, “Do you still want to jump?” and then Josh started crying.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: It is 7:15 and we probably need to start wrapping it up, because I know Raymond has somewhere to be. And I am starving, so.
MARTIN: Also me.
JOSH: So is there any last minute things anyone wants to talk about? We will, let's say we'll wrap up by 7:30 at the latest.
MARTIN: Oh, let me tell you, my favorite food is sushi, and there is a really good sushi place in my city, and it's really expensive, and they technically offer delivery, and oh my God, I want to eat it all the time, but I can't, because I can't afford it. Sushi is my absolute favorite thing, but I love anything that is mostly carbs and bad for me.
JOSH: (laughs) Same.
RAYMOND: (laughs) Yeah, I definitely agree with that. We're making lasagna tonight and it's definitely one of my favorites.
MARTIN: Oh, the next time we'll do something like this again?
JOSH: That's a good question. Like I said, we might do the Monster Prom thing.
RAYMOND: (whispering) Yesss.
JOSH: That would have actually been a really good thing to plan for Halloween, but I don't know if we're gonna be able to get things together by then.
RAYMOND: (whispering) Ohhh, that’s fair. (aloud) We could do, like a little th——
JOSH: ——And I think I actually have a prior engagement for that day.
MARTIN: ——As do I, yeah.—— (laughs)
RAYMOND: ——Oh, if you have a prior engagement that kind of changes that, okay, never mind. (laughs)
JOSH: As far as the actual Q&A… I don't know. Maybe, I was thinking maybe three or four times a year? Just, if we grow enough that there's, like, significantly more patrons, then we might do it more often. I just want to make sure that we always have things to talk about, you know?
JOSH: “Are we going to put this out as an episode?” asks Von Bright. Yes, we are definitely going to edit it together for patrons as bonus content. And we might also, we might put it out on the main feed much later. Like, if things get really slow, as they might getting toward 093, then we might put it out for everyone else to listen to then. So you guys, so either way, patrons will get a sneak peek at it. It might be pared down a bit——like, stuff that I think should be information that only patrons should be privy to, I'll edit out for that version. But yeah, this will be available for anyone to, any of our other patrons to listen to relatively soon.
JOSH: So what do you, or, do you guys have any Halloween plans?
MARTIN: Yes, I have a Minecraft date. We've got a spooky little house going with a few pals and my stepdaughter. And then, as is tradition, Halloween happens to fall on a Saturday night and I will be playing D&D.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: (laughs) Yeah, I actually don't think I have any plans right now for Halloween. Kind of——
MARTIN: Getting drunk on Reese’s?
RAYMOND: I mean, pretty much. Also, probably, like, actual alcohol. But I think with everything going on, I didn't want to make plans.
JOSH: Right.
RAYMOND: I mean, just because I know I can't go out and do them. So it's just kind of, like, yeah, I, no, I'm just gonna stay home. Probably just gonna watch spoopy movies.
MARTIN: Spoopy.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: Spoopy movies. The last, I don't usually do anything for Halloween. Like, the last time I did something for Halloween was… 2017? I, yeah, my partner at the time hadn't seen Young Frankenstein yet, so we watched that.
RAYMOND: Oh, nice.
JOSH: That's, like, the last time we did anything——last time I did anything for Halloween, I mean. It used to be, I used to, actually, when I was living at my last house in high school and college, my best friend at the time would, we would… I say it was a Halloween tradition——it happened two years in a row. Not really a tradition. But there's this very old road by my house that we would just take a walk down, and it was very, very dark, not very well lit at all, and it's just old houses and, like, a 200-year-old stone wall that was crumbled on one side, trees on either side with a canopy above so it's just super dark, there's no moonlight or anything. And we would take a walk down there, and I would have my mom drop us off on one end and then we would walk back to my house from there. And, you know, freak each other out as we went.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
MARTIN: (laughs)
JOSH: That was the last real Halloweeny thing that I've done besides trick-or-treating. (in response to chat) God dammit, Romeo, I hate you!
RAYMOND: (laughs) Alright, everyone, downvote Romeo.
JOSH: (laughs) It has been a long time. For those of you not able to see the live chat, Romeo has just made everyone, and now all of you listening at home——
RAYMOND: ——Lose the Game.——
JOSH: He just made them lose the Game, probably for the first time in 10 years.
MARTIN: He's also very, very proud of himself.——
RAYMOND: ——Happy about it.
JOSH: He is. So on that note, I think we will be wrapping it up.
MARTIN: Yeah, thanks for ending this, Romeo. This was a lot of fun until you broke it.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
JOSH: Glad to end on a high note.
RAYMOND: Well, I mean, I think, you know, this was a great turnout. You know, I’d like to, you know, say thank you to everyone who supports the podcast.
JOSH: Yes.
RAYMOND: This is a small production. Literally every little bit helps. And yeah, we, you know, we love to do this for you.
JOSH: Yeah, this podcast would not have gotten nearly as far as it has without all of you guys' help. I cannot thank you enough.
MARTIN: And I would just like to say, specifically to Von Bright: No, you’re awesome.
JOSH: (laughs)
RAYMOND: Okay. (laughs) Yeah, it's very, it's been, you know, really surprising to see how much the podcast has grown. You don't really know what to expect out of it.
JOSH: Yeah. It's difficult to know across all of our platforms because not all of them have very good analytics, but on Spotify, we just passed 30,000 followers.
MARTIN: Woo!
JOSH: So yeah, I, there's no way I would have guessed that we would be where we are today when we first started. So, yeah, thank you so much. And on that note, I think we will call it a day. Thank you, Marty and Raymond, for joining me.
RAYMOND: Of course, yeah! It’s been a blast, yeah.
MARTIN: Thank you, Josh, for having us!
JOSH: If we do this again, we'll have two other members of the voice cast, and hopefully we'll get through all of them so you can get a good introduction to them all. And we will talk to you all next time. Have a good one!
RAYMOND: (ghost voice) Tuuune in laaater!
MARTIN: (singing) Byyyyyye!
JOSH: (ghost voice) Spoooookems.
RAYMOND: (laughs)
