THE DREAMING PROPHET, EPISODE 7: CHOIR CLASS
[PODOMATIC LINK]
Keep quiet - they have ears everywhere, and eyes, too. We know them, but at the same time we don't know them at all. Who are they? They're Many, and yet, One. Talking points: Speak-as-One, SAO & Humanity, The Shape, SAO's relationships with other gods.
Spoiler + Content warning begins at 1:14. Content warnings: General horror, cults, religious symbology, dehumanization, brainwashing, brief mention of suicide.
Cass Marshall's article on Polygon
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The Blackout Club Steam store page
The Blackout Club Lexicon, for player/game lingo & terminology
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Credits:
- lavanya: host, transcript, video editor, asset artist, speak-as-one's #1 fan
- astriferal: host, audio editor, puncher of things
- be11amy: advertising
- xaviul: guest, moral support
- spoderman: publicity, hype squad
- intro & outro music, "ringing bells": a weirdly handsome individual
- transition audio clips, music, voice lines: the blackout club/question games
- weird ambiance: Magmi Soundtracks on freesound (https://freesound.org/people/Magmi.Soundtracks/sounds/475737/)
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LAVANYA
[00:00:20] Good evening, and welcome to our favorite listeners.
LAVANYA [00:00:22] Tonight we have a very special topic, but first we're going to take a moment to consider our mother-father; our mama-papa; our darling grandma and grandpa. When they say that blood is thicker than water, what they mean is that there's music in your soul, and whether you're speaking with your hands, your tongue, or your pen, everyone is ultimately led by the same song.
LAVANYA [00:00:43] You can ignore it if you want, but it's in your steps. It's in your breaths. It's in the beat of that mistake we call a heart in our chest. You can ignore it but you can't deny what you are and what you are is one of many.
LAVANYA [00:00:57] Welcome to our Speak-as-One discussion. My name is Lavanya -.
ASTRO [00:01:01] And I'm Astro.
LAVANYA [00:01:02] - and we'll be your hosts for tonight.
ASTRO [00:01:04] This is a Blackout Club show for Blackout Club players with minimal speculation, all lore and focus on the known facts. Our topic of the day is SAO, a.k.a. Speak-as-One.
LAVANYA [00:01:14] So in terms of spoilers, just like with the Thee-I-Dare episode, this episode is going to be so fucking chock full of spoilers that if you were allergic. you'd instantly enter anaphylactic shock upon reading this transcript.
LAVANYA [00:01:26] *Instantly,* dear listeners.
LAVANYA [00:01:29] But thankfully, you probably are not allergic! And if you are, we are *not* legally liable for that~!
LAVANYA [00:01:35] So let's keep trucking on.
LAVANYA [00:01:37] So our content warnings are basically - we're discussing a massive fucking cult. So if cults bother you, discussion of religious symbology, all of that that - that's your warning for this episode. As always, there is a general horror themes warning in the discussion of death, and injury to children.
LAVANYA [00:01:55] But we are dipping into SAO, the best God, tonight, which means we're also dealing with dehumanization and brainwashing. Those are kind of their thing.
LAVANYA [00:02:05] There will also be a brief mention of suicide!
ASTRO [00:02:17] And we have a guest tonight. Welcome back, Xaviul!
ASTRO [00:02:20] Wait, Xaviul, what are you doing here? And where's Lavanya?
XAVIUL [00:02:26] Lavanya went on a...
XAVIUL [00:02:27] Trip.
XAVIUL [00:02:27] But it's fine, cause I'm here, SAO's number one fan. I'm all about that.. uh.
XAVIUL [00:02:36] Bong!
LAVANYA [00:02:36] You motherfucker, we didn't give a content warning for drugs on this show. This is a family friendly show! You can't just tranq somebody, and shove them in a closet, and try to take over their spot in an episode. That's *wrong.*
LAVANYA [00:02:48] That's not *friendship!*
XAVIUL [00:02:51] Is it possible to build up immunity to large animal tranquilizers..? I was pretty sure you're going to be out for at least a few hours.
XAVIUL [00:02:58] You know what they say about *ass-umptions*, Xaviul.
XAVIUL [00:03:01] Anyways, I guess it's going to be a threesome from now on.
ASTRO [00:03:07] Let's start with the basics. What is Speak-as-One?
XAVIUL [00:03:12] I think you mean, we are Speak-as-One? Just can't, like, depersonalize them like that.
LAVANYA [00:03:18] [vehement] They're not a person, they're all and -
XAVIUL [00:03:21] They are many people! Wow! Good thing I'm here to set the facts straight.
LAVANYA [00:03:27] Okay.
LAVANYA [00:03:30] Okay, now that we're going to have now that we're going to have the children sit down and take their seats... Speak-as-One is known as frequently in the community as SAO, or by the developer team, as S-A-1.
LAVANYA [00:03:42] Speak-as-One is the name as the Daimon that occupies a majority of the hosts in Red Acre. It is a reference to the hivemind collective in general, where every participant is basically Speak-as-One, because they are One-of-Many. The way that I like to think of it is fingers dipped into a glass may appear to be individual entities to fish in the water, but anyone above the surface knows that they're all connected to the same hand.
LAVANYA [00:04:08] Every host is Speak-as-One and Speak-as-One is every host.
LAVANYA [00:04:14] Even if it doesn't look like it.
LAVANYA [00:04:16] So let's get into all the parts that make up the collective. The first of this is the Voice.
LAVANYA [00:04:25] So, from what we know, this is always a man and a woman who speak as one. This also possibly could be an enby and a woman, or an enby and a man, or whatever other variation you can think of - but Speak-as-One hasn't gotten back to me on the many phone calls about that yet? So we're not entirely sure.
LAVANYA [00:04:45] These two individuals are not mentally linked in the traditional hive mind. They are two separate entities who simply choose to work as one, much as the entire CHORUS community. Sleepers lines even note that they argue with each other, which they view as alarming and upsetting: as they say dissonance corrupts the Song.
XAVIUL [00:05:05] Disharmony in my cult? It's more likely than you think.
LAVANYA [00:05:09] A possible point of interest is, despite the fact that the voice does consist of two individuals, they are referred to exclusively as they, as if they were one entity. When Speak-as-One was discussing was having what my pronouns may be, they said - do they use they, like the Voice?
LAVANYA [00:05:29] So that's a little fascinating, when Speak-as-One as the collective uses all pronouns.
ASTRO [00:05:34] They are obsessed with truth and preservation. What the voice speaks is supposed to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, according to the Song.
XAVIUL [00:05:45] So help us gods.
ASTRO [00:05:47] There is no God in Red Acre.
LAVANYA [00:05:48] There is only one, it's *fine*.
ASTRO [00:05:51] The Cryptogram Library is an extensive archive of the old tongue. You can see this in the massive walls of the projector slides, which also appear in the projector mission.
ASTRO [00:06:01] Each of those wooden cards contains information on a move in the old tongue, and the walls are literally covered with them feeling the floor. We'll talk more about the old tongue in our next few episodes.
ASTRO [00:06:12] The Voice does not lie but they do hide things from the masses.
THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:06:17] Already has distanced himself from the hated terms - I, you, my - words spat across time by the Adversary. This one rejects them. Most attentive. We approve.
LAVANYA [00:06:46] Speak-as-One has different rules for how you should talk depending on which facet of them that you're speaking to.
LAVANYA [00:06:51] With the Watchers, they're more lenient. Overall you should always try to avoid I as the forbidden word, but as the Watchers informed me, they don't really care if you slip up. The watchers are your dead relatives, your dead neighbors, dead randos off the street. Maybe they're dead homeless people that they stuffed into the barracks to die! [laughter] They are apparently not personally invested enough not to forgive you for the sin of using a first person pronoun.
LAVANYA [00:07:15] With that said, that's a grace that's only given to the player characters. Lucids and sleepers treat I as the forbidden word. It increases dissonance in the Song where everything is weak, and sleepers show that they have a slight amount of discomfort or possibly even pain when they're encountering the word I.
LAVANYA [00:07:33] However, the voice is hard line. As the watchers warned me, the Voice does not accept first person pronouns. The voice wants you to go full fucking khajit here.
XAVIUL [00:07:43] I don't get your dated references.
LAVANYA [00:07:45] Technically Skyrim came out last year, and the year before that.
LAVANYA [00:07:50] And the year before that.
LAVANYA [00:07:54] So remember kids, when it comes to in-game visits, you're speaking to a Watcher: you can use as many first person pronouns as you want, but when you're doing rituals, you should go ahead and remember you're talking to the Voice. And whereas the Watchers forgive, the Voice does not.
LAVANYA [00:08:09] Use third person. Go full Khajiti. Do whatever it takes to avoid that watchful eye.
LAVANYA [00:08:14] Immortality is one of the most important things to Speak-as-One. When I say immortality, I don't just mean of the body: I mean of information, of memories. Watchers are what we considered dead; however, Watchers still stay a part of the Song. We don't know exactly how this compares to Thee-I-Dare's fragment, which SAO has recently claimed, are kind of knockoffs, but we know that there are some differences.
LAVANYA [00:08:41] Thee-I-Dare's fragments are fragments of his personality ensconed in the memories of his host. His host do not survive the fragmentation processm only his memories and his impressions of them do.
LAVANYA [00:08:54] If it helps, it's easy to think of it as fragments are when you sit down and you armchair, get a drink, and crack open Thee-I-Dare's live journal to read all of his deepest, darkest secrets. Watchers, this on the other hand?
LAVANYA [00:09:07] That's just dead people. Just dead people, as far as the eye can see, and they are implied to be individuals with their own consciousness that is retained in the Song, with their own memories.
LAVANYA [00:09:19] This is most evident in the sleepers line where the Sleepers speaks of the father, whose child was possessed with the fear of the night and eventually died, becoming a Watcher. When she died, she assured him that all was well - showing that she still had a bond with her father, even after death, and showing that she remembered her past experiences of being afraid and she was now assuring him that that was over.
XAVIUL [00:09:42] Bit fucked up if you ask me, but -
LAVANYA [00:09:44] But Speak-as-One loves family. Familial love and forgiveness is kind of their whole thing.
XAVIUL [00:09:51] But you wouldn't know about that, would you? Since Laugh-Last kind of went out for milk, and took, what, nine months to come back?
XAVIUL [00:10:02] [laughter] Wow. Well, really going for the fucking abandoned father jokes today. All right.
XAVIUL [00:10:07] Becoming a watcher is frequently the fate of the dead SAOites. But we don't know if it's the fate of all SAOites. I mean, who would want Lavanya in the Song?
LAVANYA [00:10:19] Wow! I have perfect pitch. I mean, I don't know what pitch is, but I'm pretty sure mine is perfect.
XAVIUL [00:10:28] Moving on --.
XAVIUL [00:10:28] SAO wants all of humanity in the Song. It views it as a tragedy when they will not join. The same applies to Daimons - but not all Daimons, hashtag not all Daimons.
XAVIUL [00:10:41] Hashtag: TID's, do not interact.
LAVANYA [00:10:45] [laughter] Oh fuck.
SLEEPER [QUOTE] [00:10:47] Such new things she will learn..
ASTRO [00:10:51] Underneath everything they do, SAO has an inherent curiosity.
ASTRO [00:10:55] They want to learn and share the information they learn with the Song. They chronicle their own history and the history of other Daimons, and other humans for eternity, sharing it within their hive mind, and they want to know more about where they came from.
LAVANYA [00:11:11] So you might be asking yourself right now what is the Song? The answer to that question is who the fuck knows?
THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:11:18] The Song is salvation. War, famine, strife.. all will end. All will Speak as One.
LAVANYA [00:11:37] Personally, I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories about what the Song as Astro can attest during my late night ramblings - and by late night, I mean 9 p.m. - [laughter]
LAVANYA [00:11:52] Luckily, we have kind developers who are willing to clarify things and get us away from our corkboard full of strings. Null said in a quote from the discord that:.
[00:12:04] "Speak-as-One uses the Song to describe his own traditional connected host pattern of behavior, keeping the host unconscious as much as possible, because of the toxin of self-interest. But it doesn't own the old tongue itself. It can't really, because it emerged from that when identity was not yet a thing."
ASTRO [00:12:25] So, to summarize: the Song is comprised of hosts, past and present, who communicate with each other via ritualized music sound and dance. To be part of the Song, you have to be asleep. This is how the Song remains pure while asleep. You can't be tempted by other Daimons.
ASTRO [00:12:41] This is why when you're shaped, the Shape is returning you to the Song. Watchers like to complain frequently about the inaccuracy and inadequacy of the Word. They can't express themselves like they do in the Song, which is frustrating, but they also need to speak to us in a way that we understand.
LAVANYA [00:12:57] Unfortunately, the Song is difficult for humans to hear now. They rely on the Instrument to amplify it, and the Voice to interpret it for those that can't fully understand. Speak-as-One mentions in a God talk that there is a level of natural aptitude that they seek out in children. This could be linked in with how they train sleepers - hosts conditioning is made to sort out which sleepers can do what, and which are suitable to use as workers jobs.
LAVANYA [00:13:19] It's up for grabs if no sleepers left behind is a theme for us, but we've got to get batteries somewhere, right? Some sleepers get trained, some get picked up and gently dipped down into the gas tubes of Somniliquoy in order to listen for the unseen, sleeping God.
XAVIUL [00:13:38] The Song is truth, but not the full truth. In Madi-Shaw Log 1 in the journals, there is a quote: "we advise ending this recording, dismissing the Chordist performing. The Song is truth. But one must give a thought to - to harmony?".
XAVIUL [00:13:55] In a conversation, the Watchers note that the Voice will not allow information to be encoded, which scares them.
LAVANYA [00:14:02] The history of SAO is pretty fucking fascinating, because we have a Voice right now and per the lucid lines, we've had a voice back in the 90s. But we don't actually know a lot about the history of CHORUS, or the precursor organizations of it, but instead we know a little bit about SAO.
LAVANYA [00:14:20] SAO is one of the earliest voices that we know exist, if not the earliest. The first voice is the progenitor of SAO that they're searching for, as TMC mentioned in a dream and has been mentioned in God talks. We know nothing about them unfortunately, but neither does SAO.
LAVANYA [00:14:40] What we do know is that they are located beneath slow wave sleep, and the experiments that SAO performs in the Somniliquoys with the sleepers, which sometimes involve full submersion into the freaky ass gas, are all aimed towards finding this first Voice.
ASTRO [QUOTING] [00:14:56] SAO has said your kind were primates, yes? Apes, barely upright nomadic. Some came upon this valley. Even animals may dream. Here, their dreams intensify.
LAVANYA [00:15:08] SAO refers to humanity semi-frequently as upright apes. You've probably heard this in the sleepers lines in one particular God talk. They state that they discovered humanity back when they were still apes, barely upright and still nomadic. SAO guided these early primates in a symbiotic relationship. They state that they were not fully sentient at that point in time.
ASTRO [QUOTING] [00:15:31] "This valley was fertile. When the adversary ruined you, some of our kind entered the caves, drew pictures of what we were."
LAVANYA [00:15:41] SAO has detailed some of their own history in the past in various God talks. What we've learned is that SAO does not know precisely their own origin. They refer to themselves, early on in their past, as being "a pattern, repeating, improving". SAO, as the first voice, we know separated from the old tongue, which is the pattern mentioned, due to the growth of flocking and eusocial behavior in pre conscious humans.
LAVANYA [00:16:05] So basically, humanity, which at that point would probably there have been Homo habilis or one of the other early precursors of near humans, as they developed social behaviors and began cooperating with one another in forming early tribes - *that* is what eventually evolved into creating SAO. SAO is literally the Daimon of community.
LAVANYA [00:16:27] Even if sometimes it's a little bit of a xenophobic community.
XAVIUL [00:16:29] You're either with them or you're against them.
LAVANYA [00:16:33] While a lot of the Daimons have a bad tendency of lying or distorting stories in order to make themselves sound better, SAO's origin story has actually been further confirmed by TMC, who stated in a private dream that "we were one voice, one species, live host - highly intelligent, but not awake, clustering in caves. A kind of neural dance passed over the area of bodies in great waves, a rapture of connectivity, even death, the tribe's memories would persist.".
LAVANYA [00:17:05] So, in the beginning, that was SAO, long before anyone had actual words to describe what they were. This rapture of connectivity, as TMC describes it - this happened in numerous places across the world as humanity gained consciousness and self-confidence, naturally, as a species. When the Word was introduced by Thee-I-Dare, humanity split and SAO states some of them fled into caves to leave monuments behind of the Old Tongue. SAO calls this a sacred place. It's from this place that they get their symbol, which is two stones, side by side. We do not know exactly where this place was. They insinuated that it might be Red Acre, but they also insinuated that it could be anywhere.
ASTRO [00:17:47] More on this after a word from our sponsors.
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LAVANYA [00:18:27] So, after that lovely commercial break, we're back to the most important thing of the day: SAO! So buckle in your seats, kids, we're back to the cult.
ASTRO [00:18:38] How do we change the channel again..?
LAVANYA [00:18:41] You don't. You don't! I put on the child locks, so sit down and eat your pudding.
XAVIUL [00:18:46] Can I unplug the TV..?
LAVANYA [00:18:49] No!
LAVANYA [00:18:49] Modern humanity and SAO is kind of what's going on in the game right now. Red Acre is a perfect example of it. Red Acre is SAO, just like CHORUS is SAO. All of the are involved with CHORUS, and with the cult, whether o not they know it. As Sleepers, as Lucids, as unwilling battery farms - because that's what the In-Her-Teeth claims.
IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:19:11] "I requested to be able to how I will die." So, what I forsee right now, is that you won't even be allowed to die.
LAVANYA [00:19:51] In-Her-Teeth states that Speak-as-One uses human bodies as a battery farm for the memories of the rest of the collective. The exact meaning of this is of little unclear - biologically, emotionally, spiritually, she doesn't get in detail.
XAVIUL [00:20:11] What do you mean? I love being backup storage.
LAVANYA [00:20:15] The Matrix taught me that it is very cool, Xaviul.
LAVANYA [00:20:18] But we do get a hint of a potential meaning in the Leviathan text, and in the kids text upon entering the maze. And in the Lucid lines.
[00:20:25] Memories merge, are lost and are gained while in the Song, and going through the red doors. For instance, the player characters have seen the maze before, but not in their memories. "I've seen this before in dreams, but not mine" is a line that your child may say, while descending into the maze.
IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:20:46] The breeders who run this town aren't interested in life as you define it. Or even the death with dignity. You want your body functioning as storage space for their own bodies. Which is to say --
LAVANYA [00:21:06] An interesting thing to note here is that a point has been made that the adults of Red Acre are in the town willingly. Either they agree with the morals of the town, in the overall sense of community, the exclusion of outsiders, all of that - that underpins course as an organization, or else they're in at full salee because they just fucking *love* cults.
LAVANYA [00:21:27] But, either way,there is a certain amount of informed consent on the part of the adult. They may not necessarily know that every night, they're being body jacked to go to hard physical labor, or to hunt in the maze before they go to their office job, but they are choosing to be in the town and to participate in the community.
LAVANYA [00:21:47] It's partial consent, even if it's not full consent, which makes it a little bit interesting in that SAO states in their various God talks that consent is a lie and choice is a deception slash poison.
LAVANYA [00:22:00] This makes sense in terms of the children of the town being forced into their parents choices into joining the cult - or being used by the cult in terms of the body jacking - but it doesn't make too much sense when SAO exists in Red Acre and does not try to extend past it.
LAVANYA [00:22:17] Yet, at least.
LAVANYA [00:22:21] What's fascinating about Speak-as-One history is that it is a perfect example in some ways of the difficulty of collating the Blackout Club lore, especially when it relates to the Daimons.
LAVANYA [00:22:30] Because the problem, of course, is that all of our references, all of our sources, do not come from, say, journals in game that we can rely on to have some form of authority behind them, but instead, we're getting it directly from the horse's mouth constantly. And sometimes, like all disgusting ungulates, the horse lies.
ASTRO [00:22:52] This becomes more interesting when you consider the other adults that go missing in Red Acre. When a player questioned Thee-I-Dare about a fragment in the barracks, Thee-I-Dare told us a story about Yutiz, a homeless man who lived there under the care of Speak-as-One.
ASTRO [00:23:08] Thee-I-Dare told us that homeless people live in the barracks and we aren't sure if this is the whole population of the barracks, or just a part of it. But we do know that taking in homeless people is a pattern for SAO. The barracks have also been described as a place where the sleepers who never leave the maze stay when their bodies need to rest.
ASTRO [00:23:27] This brings us to the final arm of SAO's reach, which is the Shape. before we begin I want to emphasize the Shape is scary because it's unknown.
ASTRO [00:23:38] As a result, the information we have is pretty scarce. But this is intentional. Even the Daimons don't know totally what it is, but if we knew what it was and if we knew what to call it, it wouldn't be scary anymore - and we need to remember this is a horror game.
ASTRO [00:23:52] With that said, here's what we do know. The first is that Speak-as-One created the Shape.
THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING]: “Who is really the shadow, or the angel?” A creation of my progenitors that your kind mistook for a winged being. The truth, as ever, is much worse.
LAVANYA [00:24:19] SAO describes the Shape as merciful and calls it the angel.
THE VOICE [QUOTE] [00:24:23] We wish to save you from this lonely waking nightmare you call life without the Song. The Angel is our hand, and it will end a life only when mercy has been proven fruitless.
LAVANYA [00:24:40] Presumably, this is because of its physical characteristics, but we're not exactly sure.
XAVIUL [00:24:45] It has a physical form, and it can be foamed, and it must open doors to pass through them.
ASTRO [00:24:53] The Shape can be changed by changes to the Song. If the Song reports more sin in one playerm other than the one that the Shape is targeting, he will switch targets. Additionally, upon completion of the instrument damper mission, he can lose his target completely. He will still wander the maze, but he won't know who to target.
LAVANYA [00:25:12] While he has a physical form, he is also linked explicitly to sound - not just in the Song, but overall. Beckoning causes a cacophony of human whispers, which increase constantly as you are shaped.
LAVANYA [00:25:25] The words almost make sense, the closer you are to joining the Song, but they'll never fully make sense, and the sound is a little similar to what you can hear in Nerve Center if you stand on top of the resonator.
LAVANYA [00:25:46] When you are shaped, it produces a loud siren as the noise that slowly gains in volume as you are put to sleep. While the Shape is on you, period, other sound around you is slowed and distorted. This is most evident in the sin wires, and it's not clear if this affects all sounds, like the ambience. But it does affect some of them.
ASTRO [00:26:12] If he wanted to put us to sleep you should look into those sleep aid C.D.S, like wave sounds, come on.
LAVANYA [00:26:17] it's like it doesn't even know its job! It could do sleep soundwaves, it could do the brown note, there's a lot of things that he could do instead of screaming at us.
XAVIUL [00:26:26] Sleep AMSR!
LAVANYA [00:26:28] Shape sleep ASMR! When can we buy it?
ASTRO [00:26:31] Being near the Shape produces visible noise similar to TV static.
XAVIUL [00:26:37] If he can't find his target, he'll grow wings and change, which increases his physical abilities.
ASTRO [00:26:43] He gets the jumps.
XAVIUL [00:26:45] Doesn't he also see in the dark?
LAVANYA [00:26:46] Yes, he does.
XAVIUL [00:26:47] Slaps on those fucking night vision goggles. Watch out!
LAVANYA [00:26:50] And to backtrack, despite having a physical form, despite somehow being linked into the Song, despite the fact he's an eldritch abomination and part of the game right now is focused heavily on exactly how you kill those off, we have it firmly established you cannot kill the Shape.
LAVANYA [00:27:10] The Shape is here to stay, baby.
THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING] [00:27:13] “I want to kill the Shape.” I have been working on the same thing. I do not believe it can be killed in the way that you mean. It has always been here. If its body dies, then somehow it persists, whether it has multiple hosts as we did or… or something that defies the law of reason. I sincerely hope it is not the latter.
XAVIUL [00:27:44] And of course we can't go without talking about SAO and their relationships with the other voices. So we'll start off with the former BFF for life.
LAVANYA [00:27:57] TMC and SAO used to be tight as fuck, probably to the extent of exchanging friendship bracelets, if SAO was capable of revealing any of the other Daimons as individual entities that deserved friendship.
LAVANYA [00:28:11] In the past, The-Measure-Cuts and SAO worked together actively, back when TMC was being viewed by society as a forge goddess. We don't know the exact context behind that, but we do know that basically TMC was in with the management at that point. But he isn't right now!
LAVANYA [00:28:27] We know that SAO is, per the other Daimons, the creator of Red Acre - or at least perceived as such. However, The-Measure-Cuts feels a certain amount of ownership over the town for whatever reason. He states that "I am running a controlled experiment and you are the subject" to one of the player characters.
ASTRO [00:28:46] The-Measure-Cuts said he tried to remain neutral when Thee-I-Dare was shattered. He's directed players to help Thee-I-Dare before, But he did let TID's get murdered.
THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING]: I have a sibling. Some once called him, THEE-I-DARE. You could be of concrete and immediate use to him, if you value truth more than life or time.
ASTRO [00:29:15] The-Measure-Cuts seems ambivalent on actually working against Thee-I-Dare, though he doesn't seem to want to help out SAO's plan either.
THE-MEASURE-CUTS [QUOTING] [00:29:22] "Our progenitor is an entity who's name I will not speak."
ASTRO [00:29:22] Names gives power. The-Measure-Cuts is choosing not to give SAO more power.
LAVANYA [00:29:34] Because he's *disloyal.(
LAVANYA [00:29:36] The thing about it is does SAO acknowledge that TMC is a completely different person and not just a naugty little body part that got cut off? No.
LAVANYA [00:29:45] But SAO still wants him to come back. SAO wants to reclaim TMC, referring to him as the Scholar. So while TMC is being a little bit of a dick, refusing to giv SAO power by saying their name, refusing to help them actually finally drop the hammer on Thee-I-Dare, refusing to let Red Acre exist without trying to poke the children with syringes -.
LAVANYA [00:30:11] Ultimately SAO does forgive!
XAVIUL [00:30:15] It's kinda like when you bite your tongue on accident. You don't get angry at your teeth for it.
XAVIUL [00:30:20] Exactly. Exactly! Spit out the blood and move on.
XAVIUL [00:30:24] Speaking of teeth.
ASTRO [00:30:28] [laughter] So what about In-Her-Teeth?
XAVIUL [00:30:30] Well, she likes to call SAO brother, while other voices have their own kind of flavors of words to describe them, like The-Measure-Cuts calls them progenitor, Dance-for-Us calls them parent - In-Her-Teeth is more of a familial sense and In-Her-Teeth is also in the past referred to SAO as those that bore me.
XAVIUL [00:30:55] Family trees. Are they real? More at eight.
ASTRO [00:30:56] In-her-Teeth has also referred to SAO as the "Breeders."
LAVANYA [00:31:02] It's a nasty term, but that we found out in a private dream from In-Her-Teeth recently, that she actually runs r/childfree.
LAVANYA [00:31:12] After all, what is banning, but the little death?
LAVANYA [00:31:15] Lavanya, we promise not to lie on this show.
XAVIUL [00:31:18] We did?
LAVANYA [00:31:21] Boo!
XAVIUL [00:31:22] In-Her-Teeth thinks all the Daimons have lived too long and wants to find a way for them to die, but specifically targets SAO.
IN-HER-TEETH [QUOTING] [00:31:34] I do need hosts to retake Redacre and annihilate the so-called “sleeping god”…
LAVANYA [00:31:37] This is an interesting contrast to the fact SAO's entire thing is conditional immortality, which probably plays into the fact SAO calls her death fetishist.
LAVANYA [00:31:46] Familial love, y'all~
ASTRO [00:31:49] So what about Laugh-Last?
LAVANYA [00:31:51] Laugh-Last calls essay management.
XAVIUL [00:31:54] I mean it's what they are.
LAVANYA [00:31:57] If SAO is management, does that mean that Laugh-Last is the unpaid intern, that they keep taking his card, but he keeps following other people into the building anyway?
XAVIUL [00:32:05] I'm too young to understand this reference.
LAVANYA [00:32:07] [laughter]
XAVIUL [00:32:07] Laugh-Last believes that if SAO has their way, Red Acre will be ~*THE WORST*~. So we have to do everything we can to fight the power! Laugh-Last claims that being serious is death. SAO doesn't want any fun, any laughs, so you can see why there might be friction there.
LAVANYA [00:32:26] SAO doesn't actually want anything to do with Laugh-Last.
LAVANYA [00:32:29] At this point in time, they call him The Fool and they say that it's in his nature to stand apart, and to look for humor at the group's expense. Which is pretty much opposite of anything that SAO wants to deal with, wants to see, or wants to have anywhere near their delicate, delicate meat husks.
LAVANYA [00:32:46] No anvils, no pianos.
XAVIUL [00:32:47] No taste -.
LAVANYA [00:32:47] None of that. So Dance-for-Us. She's an interesting case in that I assumed, personally speaking, that SAO would just fucking *love* her. However, it turns out in a rare instance - once in a lifetime experience - I was wrong.
XAVIUL [00:33:04] [laughter]
ASTRO [00:33:06] She doesn't like SAO, and the feeling is mutual. SAO has said about her: she corrupts physical meaning, and said the Dancer is consumed by vice.
ASTRO [00:33:15] They say that she is irredeemable: unlike the Scholar, she can't be brought back to the Song. Her followers are encouraged to sing and dance for fun, the way they want to. This is very different from the tradition SAO preserves, which is one of joint dance, done in sync.
LAVANYA [00:33:30] It's kind of like when somebody burst into your beautiful studio performance of the Black Swan, and starts drop-pop-n-locking and right in the center of the stage.
XAVIUL [00:33:38] I'd watch it.
LAVANYA [00:33:40] [vehement] You unplug the TV!
ASTRO [00:33:43] And last, but not least, Thee-I-Dare. Naturally, he's not a fan of SAO.
ASTRO [00:33:48] He opposed Speak-as-One in early human history: the creation of the word, causing the creation of identity and the creation of individualism.
XAVIUL [00:33:56] Now thinks that all Daimons must die, apparently?
LAVANYA [00:33:59] He's still trying to oppose SAO, even though we know where that got him before. And you know SAO still wants to wipe him off the face of the earth.
XAVIUL [00:34:09] Nothing personal, though~.
LAVANYA [00:34:10] It's just cleaning~.
XAVIUL [00:34:11] Gotta get rid of the trash!
ASTRO [00:34:13] One final note. One of the newest gods, Seed-the-Grudge has a very specific and very deliberate relationship with SAO.
LAVANYA [00:34:22] She states that if you want to contact her, you have to send a prayer off to Speak-as-One, and say her name at the beginning of it.
ASTRO [00:34:29] Where the other gods feared to speak their name, Seed-the-Grudge shows no such fear. She wants SAO to know that she's here..
ASTRO [00:34:37] And she's using us to do it.
ASTRO [00:34:43] We'd like to think Cass Marshall from Polygon. She writes about game communities and her articles are always a treat to read. She's written a couple articles about the Sea of Thieves community, and her shenanigans in it all are a wonderful read.
ASTRO [00:34:56] In our description, we're putting a link to a recent article she made, entitled "A HORROR GAME: Where the Devs Spook You Out in Real Time". This is an article that she made in conjunction with Xaviul.
XAVIUL [00:35:07] Yes! It was so much fun, it was kind of nerve racking, but I had a great time creeping around Red Acre with her.
ASTRO [00:35:16] She stealthed this article passed us and released it while I was editing Episode 6, so we didn't get to thank her then, but we're thanking her this time. So thank you, Cass Marshall.
ASTRO [00:35:24] Spoderman, who has been a previous guest on this show, has made a transcript master doc. If you have transcripts or video links, please send them to him. We're trying to compile as much information as we can to help everyone in the club. More information on that is on the doc, which you can find at http://tinyurl.com/tbctranscripts.
ASTRO [00:35:44] That's all lowercase TBC transcripts. We'll be leaving another link to that in our episode description as well.
ASTRO [00:35:50] And finally, if you enjoy the Blackout Club, please leave a review of the game, especially on Steam.
ASTRO [00:35:56] If you already have, that's wonderful. If you haven't, take an opportunity to go do that! We'll be linking the store page in the descriptionn, just make it a little easier for you.
ASTRO [00:36:05] After you've left the review, use #thedreamingprophet and #theblackoutclub on Twitter to share your favorite Blackout Club memories. We'll read some of them out on the closer of our next show.
ASTRO [00:36:15] The Blackout Club is made by Question Games. Our advertising director is Bellamy. Our transcript and video is by Lavanya. Audio editing is by me, Astro. Our hype squad is Spider-Man. Xaviul cooks three minute eggs for two minutes.
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