257: Magenta Geist Goes Guesto Mode

[00:00:00] Behold, a cold open. Tom, my son had a scary dream last night. I came in to comfort him. He was like, Oh my God, there were two shadows in the dream. And I was like, Oh yeah, like on the wall, scary shadows. He's like, No hedgehogs.

[00:00:15] Hello, everybody. Welcome to Anime Sickos. It's the podcast for geniuses and the only podcast upon which we look at the four pillars of modern misery.

[00:00:49] They, of course, being famously anime gaming posting and jobs. I am Tom and Anime Sicko. I am Joe and Anime Sicko. This is our first ever full length ad read episode, folks, because I don't know if you know this. If you haven't, you don't care about us. You're a bad fan. Like if you're a bad friend, it's fine. If you could on the way out, remove the knife from our back.

[00:01:16] Yeah. If you don't know about this, I was in a audio drama series called The Disappearances of Lydia Fontaine. And that shit was recorded. And then it when then time just went on. But it's coming out. And so we have my main scene partner for almost all of my scenes in that fucking show. It's Magenta Geist. Magenta, thank you for joining us today.

[00:01:45] Of course. Thanks for having me. It's gonna hear. OK. I haven't talked to like anyone in the cast after it was great. It was so much fun. I had like so much fun, even though I was waking up at ungodly hours to record and probably bothering my roommates. But other than that, I had so much fun. It fucking said you don't know.

[00:02:13] Again, if you don't know about this, you're an evil person and a bad fan and a bad friend. And if we met in real life, we'd be out of you. You got to fight. You got to fight. How we describe this fucking show? It's like a spooky mystery is my main takeaway here. And it's got fantasy elements, which is something, unfortunately, that I gravitate towards as much as I'd like to read nonfiction.

[00:02:40] But, yeah, it's it's very cool. The genre combining that they've done. I want to ask this question because this is interesting. Wow, Tom, what an incredible and novel justification for asking a question. I have a great question. Here it comes. I never read any of the scenes that my guy wasn't in my character, Ethan, because Ethan doesn't fucking know anything.

[00:03:08] And so I don't want to know anything. Did you do that? That's exactly how I did it, too. Yeah, I just make sense. Yeah. Why? Like how? Why would I know? Yeah. Give give the structure. I was so both of you are you exist in a bubble. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. OK, so here here's the story, folks. Magenta and I are the Rivers siblings, Ethan and D Rivers.

[00:03:33] Ethan has a longstanding unrequited crush in his childhood friend, Lydia Fontaine. They meet up in the beginnings of his college years. Tom, you play a college student. Shut up. Shut up. It's audio only. They can't see. They can't. They don't know. So Lydia has seems to have some sort of a strange goings on with her extended family. Her mom's missing. What's that about? Her house got ransacked. What's that about?

[00:04:02] And then she disappears, which was in the title of the show. And the last people to see her were me and D and we go fuck. And the rest of our plot is attempting to find her. Meanwhile, there's an entire other half of the show. So I am told and they they really sounded like they weren't lying that the actress who plays Lydia did record lines.

[00:04:31] So she must be in it doing something. I just don't know. I want to find that out in real time with the audience. I'm really excited to hear it. Yeah, you'd think with with them setting up the auditions and everything saying, oh, these are the three main characters. They're in like a little group together and we start recording and we lose her immediately. Yeah, you're on B squad now. Bye.

[00:04:55] I know you're the main character, but it's so funny because we recorded the pilot, which is like the pilot's been finishing out the whole time. So if you want to hear a little bit of it right now, you can. But in the pilot, it really is like D, Lydia and Ethan. It's a little it's a little group like we could feel the chemistry developing. It's like this is going to really be good. She gets taken away.

[00:05:25] I mean, it's right. That's the plot of the thing. But like, yeah, I think we're definitely going to need some more seasons so that we can eventually maybe all record together. That would be really nice. That's a huge thing. If there's one thing I want you to take away from this episode, listener, it's that when this shit starts coming out, the episodes start coming out June 21st of this fucking year.

[00:05:53] You got to listen to them because there needs to be a season two, both because it was really fun. And I want to know how the story goes. But here's the real thing. They paid us. They like paid. It's like a real operation. Yes. Yeah. You have to support operations. They can do that. You have to because if you don't, you'll go to hell. You'll go to actual devil hell. But it's so exciting. Lowercase art. I say that not to imply that it is smaller.

[00:06:19] I just mean in the sense that it is made by a community and did not come with like a big check from an AI studio. We need more of that these days. For real. Magenta, I got to ask. What is your background as a doer of this kind of shit? Do you do voice acting? Is that like something you had done? No. No, I just did a lot of drama growing up. Like I did. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a movie star.

[00:06:49] Oh. Who doesn't? Yeah, it's like that or astronaut. I understand. Yeah, I got my mom to put me in a lot of acting classes and just did like all the high school drama stuff. But then I just kind of stopped doing it. But I have always wanted to do voice acting because it's I don't know. You could do it from anywhere and it's a little less scary. It's true. You don't have to turn the camera on. We never turned our cameras on. It's fun.

[00:07:19] That's interesting because I would have sworn that like you had like did you were a veteran at it. But I have only ever acted in the audio dramas we wrote for this show. Which is like cheating, right? If you're in the thing you made. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, would you believe I passed the audition?

[00:07:44] And also there's a lot of built in sort of wiggle room there, which is like if I'm bad at it, that's part of the joke. You wouldn't think that I would be in this because that's a chat show. So, yeah. No, when I was informed of the casting of this show and submitted an audition, I was completely of the opinion that I would get a friend's cameo. You know? You know?

[00:08:13] And just like, oh, we have some niche podcasters. Can you hand me that? Yes. That do too long. Yeah. I don't know. You're really good at acting. So that is also surprising to me. Thank you. Dude, the entire time I was just like, jeez, I don't know. But like Sarah, our director, would be like, great, let's move on. I'm like, okay. I think. Sure. Yeah. I think you just fit with the character like kind of perfectly.

[00:08:42] I guess that's how you do good casting. I mean, the character is a fucking annoying. Yeah, I guess I didn't mean that as an insult. No, no. I know. Please. You can say nothing I haven't said to myself in far harsher terms. The character is an annoying. You know, actually, if you listen or read the Swan Boy comic, Noel, you know Noel, the annoying

[00:09:06] fucking guy who's a pedantic asshole who is just kind of tiresome and no fun allowed. That's that's Ethan. That's me, baby. I lived that life. And and to that end, you really need an incredible character to counterbalance that type of person without it becoming very tiresome. Tell us about your character, Dee, Magenta. Oh, my gosh.

[00:09:30] Well, see, I D I have a lot of love for because they're a lot like how I was when I was a teenager. So it's very easy for me to to pull this personality out of my brain. She's like an aspiring streamer. And you said Ethan was annoying. Doesn't even come close to what Dee's doing. What are the worst aspiring blanks you can be? Yeah.

[00:10:00] Well, it helps a lot, actually, for the for the diegetic nature of the show, because that's one of the funny things about that. Funny. Interesting things about it. I guess you could find it funny. One of the interesting things about it is that the show is presented entirely as a series of real recordings. Like every scene has something that like the audio was captured on. And so the fact that Dee is constantly streaming everything she does. Oh, that's so much funnier than.

[00:10:30] Oh, my God. It's like a. Yeah, they thought that out. I love that. Like you can hear the different kinds of artifacts throughout the show that aren't too distracting, but you can like kind of tell, oh, this one's like on an older film, probably. And it's all just based on this like sort of surveillance thing that's underlying the plot of the show that I can't wait to find out what that's all about. Right. Right. So there's. OK. OK.

[00:10:58] Like the image of the show, like the logo is crows. And I know that there are talking crows. But not why. And just like I. I assume that the crows have some shit to do with all of this. But again, I don't. I'll find out with you. Wouldn't it be hilarious if they just like never addressed it at all and they were just kind of there? That's kind of what I would do. But I.

[00:11:28] I also have that urge, that irresistible urge to like when there is a choice that is very hostile to the listener, to the audience to take that choice as the joke. I don't think there are jokes. It's funny, but it's not. They're taking it seriously. I do really love the framing that it's just. Essentially found footage, right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:55] We were just talking, Tom and I, about how found footage is the scariest movie because you can't like fake that. That like came from a camera that was real. You know, that happened. And it's just it's for audio reasons. It's super immersive, too. If it's being like recorded from like your Amazon Echo and stuff. Yeah. It all has funny names. It's a different company. They don't say Amazon, but they come. But it is.

[00:12:20] I will say like the scariest experience I had as a child watching a horror movie was that one scene in signs where it's like a little found footage. Yes, because he's just walking. He's just walking. Yes. He's just walking. It's so scary. I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm also scarred from it because. I think the reason is as a viewer, you are like, well, I'm not going to get a reveal on this fucking alien right now. And it does because it's on this little TV.

[00:12:51] And it's also just like this little shitty alley. And he's like. He just like kind of walks in the alley and looks at you like he wants a smoke. And then and then it is the scariest thing. It's actually no different than the jump scare in Mulholland Drive. It's a guy going like that. They do that. Fucked up guy showing up. Yeah. What if a guy fucking what if there was a guy there? What if someone fucking popped out? That's the worst thing. The worst thing that can happen. What if there's a loud sound?

[00:13:21] We were also talking about how spooky and like, I guess, like scary with tension is my preferred sort of intake. And the thing is, audio is just like built for that. Like because the jump scares are for visual stuff. But if you want atmospheric tension, look no better than just audio, audio, audio. Yeah, for real. There's some spooky scenes, some scary scenes.

[00:13:47] And nothing pops out or yells at you that I in our scenes, at least. I'm not a big fan of jump scares. No. Yeah, I jump at everything. We just did the fear episode, which is about everything that was scary. Oh, I didn't get to say in the fear episode. I'm saying it now because we're back on the topic. I tried to play Myst when I was little and I was the scariest thing in the universe. Because yes. Because I was like six.

[00:14:15] And it was very still and quiet. Perfect time to have someone pop out at maximum contrast. And my brother was like, don't worry. Nothing pops out. And I'm just like, you're lying. You're actually adding to that false sense of security. He was honest. It's like the, and I mean this in a good way, the most boring game ever made. Anyway. It's okay. So the DE character. Okay.

[00:14:45] You're right to say that DE is annoying. But like she's cool. Ethan's lame. Yeah. Maybe so. That's just sort of like the, that's like the dynamic I think that a younger sibling has with an older sibling. The older one is worried about not being too cool enough. And the other, the younger one is just being the most annoying fucking piece of shit that you've ever had to live with.

[00:15:14] With no self-awareness. Yeah. Yeah. And total confidence. That's sort of, Ethan's sort of critical flaw is a sort of dawning dread that he doesn't have it. He doesn't have the, the juice, you know, he's always just going to be, he's always just going to be kind of like a B minus type of guy in all things he does.

[00:15:39] A sentiment that I couldn't possibly relate to, which is why I was so unsure about the quality of my performance. But, but, but on the other hand, D is like, I'm an A plus individual and there's no doubt about that. Let me ride to the fucking moon. I gotta say, as much as I was like, oh, I'm not really an actor. I'm nervous. I was like immediately like, okay, how bad can it be?

[00:16:06] Because in all of my scenes, there is you doing the D shit on the other side. I'm like, okay, I don't have to be funny. I don't have to be exciting. That's taken care of. It was great. You have a foil for that. Oh, I wanted to ask, do you have any siblings? I do. I have four siblings. I'm the youngest. I'm the D in this scenario. Oh, interesting. Okay.

[00:16:31] Cause I do feel like when we do, whenever we record like banter at a certain point, I feel like I just, like, it just feels real. Did you find that? I did. I did. I did. I was like, this is a person who has siblings. It just, it feels very familiar. There were definitely points where it was not hard for me to feel in real life annoyed by the shit you were saying.

[00:17:00] And also, that was like, when we get to do the little banter, obviously everything's scripted, but like, they let us go off a bit as long as we're in the same sort of general area. On the preview scene that they released, which I think you can hear now on the, the disappearances of Lydia Fontaine, uh, RSS podcast feed. They, uh, released a preview scene from upcoming episodes.

[00:17:28] And one of them is us in the coffee shop bickering. Oh, my croissant. Yep. And like, there's one bit where we're just like, it's where we, it's okay. I know what it is. It's, I, I have taken you out of the coffee shop to tell you like, there's a, there's a conspiracy going on, but you keep making fucking jokes. And like, hearing that back, I'm like, actually, this is so good. We're, we're the best at this. This is real. This is real. This is happening.

[00:17:57] I forgot that it was scripted. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. Can I, can I ask a question too? No, no. Let me throw in here. The start of this, you said you were attracted to fantasy elements. I'm going to make you drill down into that a little bit further because there's, I love hearing what specific aesthetic stuff people are sickos for. Uh, uh, I assume fantasy in general is too large of a category. And, uh, the restrictions of language kept you general.

[00:18:27] Let, let, let's, let's talk. Do you need sigils? Do you need runes? Like, what are you looking for? What am I looking for? I like a good, um, almost logical magic system. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Like one where it feels like they're talking about science almost. And there's a method to how everything works.

[00:18:51] Like, uh, one of my favorite series when I was sort of a younger adult was, um, the magicians, those books. Cause they, uh, they talk about like, they go on like the dark web and find like all this interesting stuff about how magic works. Download a spell. Yo. Yeah. It's, it's a really cool series. That's, um, probably why I like it so much.

[00:19:15] It's just cause they put a lot of thought into like how everything works and yeah, they have like little hand movements and they use symbols. Um, there's also, I, I actually have a podcast with Sarah, the producer. Yeah. Um, we haven't done it in a while, but it was about, uh, the name of the wind. And it was just like all the hosts were a spectrum of how much we hated it.

[00:19:41] It really is one of the, one of the most like devastatingly fumbled bags in the history. Is this the one with the sex God? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't read it, but as you can tell, Tom has told me about that part. I mean, it's interesting. Cause in the first one, when he's going to magic school for the first time, and there is a really interesting, logical magic system that makes you think this guy, this guy, guy could have the juice. No. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:20:10] I, when I first read it, I was like, wow, I really liked this. Um, unfortunately I had not read the earth sea books at that point. So I was assuming that the, like the concept of naming and stuff was an original idea, which is a terrible assumption to make. Cause it's in a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, a lot of things, even better ways. Are you watching right now? The great series, Witch Hat Atelier.

[00:20:40] No. Oh, you gotta get on that. Folks, it's the Witch Hat Atelier corner right now. I'm going to give you the gist. Most of you listeners, I look at the discord, are watching this. So you can fucking skip this part. It's a great anime, uh, adaptation of a great manga about, uh, little witches learning magic. And in this world, magic is drawing.

[00:21:06] And it's, so there, there is, you draw a circle and in the circle, you draw a sigil in the middle and then you draw a bunch of little decorations around it. And it's essentially like computer programming. It's like coding. Like you can write in like, like the, what you draw and where you draw it and how you draw it. Show, you know, affects what you do. And so like, you can draw just like a circle with a little thingy in the middle and like some arrows and it'll make like a fire.

[00:21:33] But, uh, the main character, no, the main character, the main character is a teacher who's like an adult and knows shit and is not learning. Uh, in fact, teaching, that's what a teacher does, uh, has like a magical water sword that like when he pulls it out, you can see that like up and down the entire thing is like incredibly intricate designs that like all are working together to create one effect. It fucking owns. If you like that logical magic shit, like again, it is purely code.

[00:22:03] Like it's amazing. That's fucking sick. But also at the same time, potent metaphors about the value of art and being an artist. Yeah, I was going to say drawing, like doing art, especially when you do like animation stuff, it really feels like magic. Do you draw? We don't draw. And every time we have a cartoonist on, we're just like, what does it feel like to be better than God? Yeah, I just, if I could just entertain, it would be like, I'm bored.

[00:22:32] This post-it note should have Goku on it. And then why would I leave the house? Yeah, I do draw. That was like, um, my main thing growing up was drawing and animating and stuff. And then, and then I got into music and people like that a lot better. So now I do that. Yeah. Tell us about the music. Uh, yeah. I started doing music in like 2020. So it's still pretty recent.

[00:23:00] I mean, I guess I was doing like choir and stuff for like five years when I was a kid. Um, so I have a little bit of, and I dated like every band kid. So I got a little bit of music history there. But, um, my, um, roommate is like an incredible, incredible musician. And I would always watch them make music and I'd just be like, Oh, what the fuck? This is so cool. And, uh, yeah.

[00:23:29] One day I was just like, can I, can I, would you, would you mind if I took the computer and just tried that? And it turned out to be so much fun. Like I, I became addicted to it. Like I started feeling like playing video games pretty much. Um, and that really comes through when you enjoy what you're doing. Like people tend to like it more. So, so I got really into that. And, um, now I do like live shows.

[00:23:57] Um, I, I have like a, a long time ago I, I took a CRT monitor, like a computer one and I like gutted it and I turned it into a helmet. Yes. What? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And then, uh, I, I met a new friend who was like really good with like LEDs and like 3d printed me like this little grid. So I have like two like little pixel eyes in like the inside of the helmet. Oh, that's good. Super cool.

[00:24:27] Um, so I performed with that on and just, uh, it's yeah, it's a really fun time. Everyone loves it. It's fun. That's so bad. I have been, it's not a hard need. It's not like a priority, but I have been hankering for a small CRT to come into my life again. Uh, just as like a fun ambient display, like just put it on a shelf and have like VHS quality footage of someone walking through the woods all the time. Like that's what I want.

[00:24:57] They're so expensive now. Yeah. I, what, what I'm imagining is it's the end of the month and everybody's moving out and there's just like a big, or there's a small little working old TV on the street that I can just take. And it doesn't have bed bugs in it. And keep dreaming motherfucker. What you need to do is you need to take that converted into a little, uh, helmet with a light

[00:25:22] up face and then terrify your son and be like, sometimes daddy turns to this. Uh, this is what happens if you look at your phone too long, son. Yes. Yeah. Oh my God. Grow up normal. Uh, hell yeah. I, okay. I, I always want to know when people talk about making music on the computer, I'm like more, more, more. I mean, here's why, because I, and the pandemic was like, I want to be a more musical person.

[00:25:48] I know I will make good on the piano lessons I had for a year when I was little that I didn't put any effort into. And I will actually now this time try. And I've been doing that. I've been making progress that as you could imagine is fucking slow because you're supposed to, by the time you're my age, have been doing this for 25 years and I've been instead been doing it for five.

[00:26:12] Um, so man, so like, Oh, it's like, I understand some concepts and I understand like what I should be doing, but I just can't do it with my hands. And so I'm like, I, that I know the computer. And then I tried to figure out how to do it on the computer and I couldn't do that. And there are a lot of things that cost money for my view. And I didn't do those. It looks like a bunch of bars on the computer.

[00:26:40] You're just always, it's just you're changing bars. Oh my God. Are we talking about bars? So tell me how the bars, how, what, what's your, what's your workflow? Like you open up a, you open up your DAW. You're like time to get working on the bars. What do you like make in? Like, what do you, you, you create in? That's a fun place to start. Um, I was very lucky cause the roommate I was talking about that makes music, um, had like

[00:27:05] did a audio engineering like degree and they got like a free copy of logic pro. Um, and for some reason they're, they were able to like also put it on like two other computers. Okay. And you get two crime passes. Cool. Yeah, I guess so. Um, and it's like an incredibly easy, intuitive DAW to work in. Like you don't need to really know much of anything.

[00:27:32] It comes with like a trillion software and instruments, like really robust synths. Um, and actually I don't really know how to like play any instruments. See, that's, so that's always, that's a fun question because, or a fun angle because I find that is the path for the computer music person, which is like, they're like in the,

[00:27:59] the, the thick of it and they look up and you're like, I've never actually learned what I'm going to notice. What's a, why are there words in the middle of my music? And I say that not to be like, oh, it's not good. It's just like, it's, it's, it's interest in intuition driven. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So I, yeah, I don't, I have no like background in like music theory or anything like that.

[00:28:26] All I have is just having listened to billions of hours of music and like, I have a pretty wide net for what I like break in to listen to. Um, so it's, yeah, like you said, it's just intuition based and, uh, uh, the way I like write my, the actual notes of my music kind of shows my ass for how insane I am because

[00:28:51] I will literally just go to the piano roll and I will click, I will click on a note and then I'll, yep. I'll click on it and I'll move it up and down until I like the note. And then I will go on to the next one. Hey, whatever works. It works. Yeah. That's, I tried once to take, cause I'm at piano. I don't have a real piano. That's expensive as hell.

[00:29:18] I have a electric piano and it's like, okay, I know you can use it as a MIDI controller because it said so. And I know I have a USB cord. So I'm going to see if I can do that. And, um, I tried very hard and I think I need to buy an, like a separate audio box. It was one of those things where it's just like the thing you want to do that seems so intuitive is in fact incredibly hard and locked behind an additional purchase you didn't know about.

[00:29:48] And I got annoyed. And so I went, uh, I mean, so what I'm hearing is I need to have a roommate who already knows all this shit. I mean, that's one of the true facts of all in every kind of hobby you could have. Yeah. It's been, it's been really fun because I've guess I've been doing this for six years now, which seems ridiculous to me. But, um, when I started, it was just like, oh my God, it was a mess and it was very fun.

[00:30:17] I was making music soup and I didn't particularly think too much about how it was getting put together. And then, um, my roommate would come in and just be like, all right, I'll, uh, I'll make this sound like a real song for you. Oh, how do they do that? That's wonderful. You talk about like, oh, I don't actually know an instrument. It's like, I would think that, I mean, especially from my perspective, like knowing about EQs

[00:30:44] and flangers and how to mix is like a much more complicated instrument than the piano. Yeah. Mixing is so hard. Like knowing like what type of reverb would be good. It's like, I'm sorry. What? I do like a good effect. I have a plugin called chip crusher, which is really cool. It like, um, adds spit crushing.

[00:31:09] You can do resampling like moneticity and like, you could put like little filters on it that sound like it's coming from like an old TV or like, uh, all like so many cool, like retro effects. They're really, really fun to work with. Is it? Yeah. Am I remembering correctly that you fucking did the music for the disappearances of Louis Fontaine? I did. Let's, let's, let's mention that. Another reason to check it out. Yeah.

[00:31:39] Um, I did, I did a bunch more music too. That'll be in it. Um, there's even, it's kind of funny because there's like a scene where D is like sharing a bloat core song with someone and she's like, you gotta hear this song. It's so good. And then it's like, I'm the one who wrote it. I forgot about bloat core as a runner. Okay. I, I'm, if I spoil it, I don't care. This is just so good. This is going to make people listen to it. And so this, this whole show takes place in a world very similar to ours, but a little

[00:32:08] bit exaggerated. I think not as exaggerated as Tom, not me, the author would have hoped when he originally wrote it, uh, but a little bit exaggerated. And, uh, in the real life, there's like hyper pop, but in this world, there's bloat core, which is kind of the inverse dark mirror of hyper pop, which is like, no, what if instead of like really blowing out and intensifying the, uh, the energy of pop music, we bloated that shit.

[00:32:39] Every song's 30 minutes, really low. Oh, like I, I have not heard any of it really. And I'm very excited to hear what it actually is. Can I, I don't think they would care if I shared this with you. I have a little document that's telling me what, like, it's like my little guiding light for how to make it sound. Please, please.

[00:33:04] Um, it's, so they said that they just wanted to like describe the feeling. Um, and, uh, then they have like a little list. Number one, it's supposed to be a little unlistenable. So it's just supposed to be bad. Um, and then they've mentioned like Pink Floyd's music from the body just made out of music music from the body.

[00:33:33] Wait, like, like music from the, is this a Pink Floyd album I've never heard of called the body or like if someone farted Pink Floyd music or like their stomach gurgled Pink Floyd music. So it's an album made entirely from sounds human body can make, including slaps, burps, farts, et cetera. What? Um, I also did not know about this. This is, that's so gross. I love this. Okay. More, more, more.

[00:34:02] Um, and then it's supposed to be experimental. Um, and just, oh, they, oh, that's where it is. They told me, okay. So they told me like the Jurassic Park music slowed down by like a thousand plus like a hundred gex, which is just like, and then it's just, uh, supposed to be all over the place.

[00:34:26] So that was a real fun challenge trying to make music that fit all those criteria, but also sounded good. Cause, but it has to sound a little bit bad. I mean, it's, well, it sounds bad for the same reason as like the classic genre of tweet, which is like every gay person is like, you'll listen to this. It'll change your life. Plays the worst song you've ever heard. Yeah. Um, handing the non-binary person the aux cord. Yeah, exactly.

[00:34:51] Um, I am just, cause I'm thinking of this from the perspective of the guy writing the script, cause that's where I've been. And I've done this in the one of the audio drama miniseries I wrote where music played a part and I knew I would get my buddy Chuck to compose it. But so I would just, I wrote him a, uh, intentionally impossible brief to fulfill. And I'm like, this is going to be fun.

[00:35:19] But like from reading this and reading about bloat cord, I'm like, it's so funny that they made this impossible genre that could never actually be not my problem to see how it actually, but like to know that you did it. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Wow. It was, it was kind of fun like helping cause like the, there wasn't a whole lot of specific direction on like, you know, how the drums were supposed to sound or like what really glued every song together to be in that genre. So it was really fun, like having the opportunity to like figure that out myself.

[00:35:49] Like, what is it that makes this song a bloat cord song? Like, cause they all sound insane, but, um, but there is like a certain genesis that's holding them all into the same genre, which is cool. They're all songs that when your little sister plays them and you want to listen to pavement, but instead you're listening to this, you get really annoyed.

[00:36:20] This kicks ass. Can I circle back briefly to the hard magic system we talked about briefly? Just how it's like good. The thing about a hard magic system or just like what it has rules is if even if the book sucks, you can like think about the system, a case point, like Mistborn is not good. Oh yeah. But like I got snickered by that. I was like reading that. It was like so cool. And then like the plot was happening.

[00:36:45] I'm like, oh, uh, but like, you know, a long time after I was just like, oh, copper does this. Like I would think about the stupid freaking chart and shit. It would, it would really give it a long lasting flavor. One of the things I did really like about name of the wind and maybe this is taken from something as well, but I haven't encountered it otherwise, but there's like this concept called Alar where,

[00:37:10] um, they will like basically train holding to competing ideas in their head at once. And like being able to believe both of them at the same time. Um, and it will help them like, like move a coin. If they like attach, if they attach in their brain, like this coin is that coin and they can like actually believe it. They can like move it around. And I remember when I was reading the books for the first time I, I would be like sitting

[00:37:39] at work just, just practicing. Yes, absolutely. Like, look, I've thought I can do a Kamehameha. Like I can do a Kamehameha. It just hasn't happened yet. I mean, if I look at the principles, they make so much logical sense. Like these books, people, uh, have varying opinions on. I thought they were great despite a lot of very obvious flaws. The three body problems series, there's a lot to them.

[00:38:05] But the thing that like, I, I kept thinking was like, this is how it all really works. Like, this is how light speed travel actually works. Like, this is real. Like he figured it out. And like, I've seen afterwards, like when I'm not sort of in the, like the thrall of like, I'm, I'm, it's a page turner. I'm in it. People talk about like how the science is comically stupid and like will explain why. And I'm like, oh, when you put it like that. Yeah. But in the moment, I'm like, this is how the universe really works.

[00:38:33] We don't need, shut down research. We got it. Um, just because like, yeah, it just feels real that the two different ideas in the head. I, uh, am doing a writing project right now. It is not even close to being anything public facing and will not be for probably a year, but there's a part, but part of that is in there. Uh, and I gotta say, if you, you, both you Magenta and you, the listener, think that shit is cool.

[00:39:01] You gotta read the novella Empire Star by Samuel Delaney. It is unbelievably good and is all about that. It is all about like multiple things all being true, all contradicting. But it is by seeing all of them that you can see the shape of truth. Um, it's also 90 pages long.

[00:39:29] It is so you zing through it. Um, anyway, uh, the fucking Lydia show, the Pist experiences of Lydia Fontaine. Folks, I don't know all the magic. Cause again, my character is a rube who is just like a civilian who is like, can you help me? But the few things that I learn, uh, they are logic based and they are badass. There's lots of, okay. I think you can say this is big enough.

[00:39:57] There's like the perfect thing that I love, which is just like, is this magic dangerous? No, no, no. It's perfectly simple, but you have to follow these weird rules that seem completely arbitrary. And if you do one of them wrong, you're going to be lost in a maze forever. It's like, oh, okay. I don't want to be in a maze. Tom, do you remember the, the manga we read? It was like hell's paradise.

[00:40:21] It was like the ninja that has the same essential system at its core that what Magenta was just saying. Cause it's like the power is like when you are both strong and weak at the same time, whenever you do conflicting things at one time, that was like the ultimate power. I don't remember that, but that sounds cool. Yeah. There was like a character that like, they say like, why can't you like has trouble doing it? And they're like, the reason you can't do is cause you're like stubborn and it like doesn't make sense.

[00:40:52] Yeah. Only thing I remember is that there was the one ninja whose power was that she blasted ropes of goo. Yeah. That was not great. That was for fetish stuff for sure. Yeah. It was so that there could be panels of her leaning way over so you could see her cleavage, but she also has big ropes of goo all over. Yeah. I, I know who this is for. I wrote my alderman about that. I was not a fan. Yeah. No.

[00:41:17] Uh, anyway, on that note, this is a perfect segue. Magenta, we have to ask you, we ask everyone this. Are you an anime sicko? I'm sicko. I'm sick. Yes. I'm an anime sicko. Hell yeah. Absolutely. Speak more on this. How do you figure? Um, so I guess the most obvious thing that comes to mind is that I'm not a fan of

[00:41:41] I have been watching Sailor Moon kind of obsessively since like December. Hell yeah. Yeah. Pretty much nonstop, like over and over again, watching all the movies, watching the, like the iceberg videos on YouTube. Like, I don't know what it is about this show. It's very soothing to my soul. Are you watching the dub or the Japanese version? Yeah. The Japanese version. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[00:42:11] I have been curious about watching because I've heard the original dub is just like ridiculous, but I haven't been able to find it. But I could go looking for it. It's something I have to do for my sanity. I have to finish everything. Okay. So I somehow like missed watching Sailor Moon as a kid. I didn't really watch. I watched like a little bit of Dragon Ball, but then famously a kid at school who was cooler than me said that shit sucks. And so I stopped.

[00:42:41] Oh no. So I didn't really watch any anime until like late high school, college. That kid saved you. He really did. So I missed Sailor Moon. So I missed Sailor Moon and I got from the library a couple of the big, big, you know, collected editions of the original manga. And I was reading that. And the main two things that I was taking away from that is like, one, it's so easy to see why this became like an absolute world conqueror.

[00:43:07] Uh, this is so, it's so like addictive and just like, and appeals to people who are not going to be, uh, won over by Dragon Ball. Uh, but at the same time, the manga is so clearly being like, oh my God, adapt me as a cartoon, please. Cause like the pacing is insane. They're like a villain will show up and be like, I'm a villain. I'm so evil. I'm the most powerful one yet. I will shoot a beam at you.

[00:43:35] And they all, all the sailor scouts go like that beam sucked. Then Sailor Moon is like, take this and shoots a beam at them. And then that is the end of that. And it's like, next issue. And it's like, huh? Uh, so. Yeah. Naoko Takeuchi, I think was working for an anime studio at the time. And they essentially asked her if, if she could write something that could get turned into an anime. Oh, no way. I didn't know that. Yeah. So good call. That's pretty much exactly what happened. Hell yeah.

[00:44:04] So is Sailor Moon your, your only real anime obsession or is it just the one that's got you at the moment? It's the one that's got me at the moment. Okay. Um, in high school I was, uh, I read all the death note. That was my favorite, like my first real like foray into the anime manga scene was reading all of those. Um, and then, and then watching the show and then, and then finding a, an AMV on YouTube

[00:44:33] that used, um, that one Coldplay song. Oh, sick. And I became obsessed with it and watched it every night to fall asleep. It's normal. Death Note's fun. A very uneven show. Beginning amazing. Ending amazing. Uh, middle? Kind of weird. And then there's a guy, there's, there's a guy who likes chocolate. I like chocolate. I mean, I, I identify with that. Yeah, for sure.

[00:45:01] I, I mean like also just, you know, your classic Fullmetal Alchemist brotherhood. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Started watching Free Run, but it was putting my partner to sleep. So we couldn't get through it. I mean, that's part of the appeal is, I think when it gets like, I mean, we did an episode about this or rather when that was when Joe was in his chronic pain era. So I did it with a guest co-host Quinn. And, uh, we were talking about Free Run and like, for me, the parts that I really could

[00:45:29] skip is when it gets action-y, you know, when there is, when it like, it's like, oh, you've eaten your vegetables long enough. Here's a tournament, you crazy kids. And I'm just like, I can get a tournament so much better anywhere else. I came here to go to sleep. Yeah, pretty much. It's very, very, I love. One of the things that Free Run does that I really like is they're like little montages

[00:45:55] that a lot of animes, like when it's like going to a new sort of setting, a lot of anime is just kind of throw away. But if you actually pay attention in Free Run, it's like tiny little stories. It's so cool. I mean, that's the whole thing. That's like the whole appeal to me is like the Free Run is, you know, has lived this shit a hundred times. She's done a hundred adventures. She doesn't think any of this stuff is like particularly difficult or even noteworthy. She's just kind of chilling.

[00:46:21] And so like the action and plot is like, I'm going to reflect on what I've experienced. Yeah. And when there's a tournament and no one's reflecting, I'm just like, come on, come on. You gotta reflect. Think about, doesn't this remind you of Himmel? Don't you wish you had said something when he was still alive? He's pretty cute. I mean, don't look at the haircut. None of us have good haircuts. It's anime. You mentioned Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

[00:46:51] Tom has not seen. He kind of fell off. But you want to talk about a magic system? There's something there. There's something there. Oh, yeah. It's good for that reason as well. One of my favorite anime fights of all time is in that show, which is the fire alchemist guy who actually doesn't actually control fire. He just controls like oxygen and he has like little sparkers on his gloves to make the fire start.

[00:47:15] When he's like fighting that like babe homunculus lady and he's all fucked up and he doesn't have his gloves, which have the sigil, which allow you to cast stuff. So he carves it into his hand and he has a lighter. So then he just kills her by like and she can't be killed. Like it's like she just regenerated. So he just like literally keeps hitting her with fire like a hundred times. And eventually she just like goes away. And it's so sick. Just takes her ball and goes home.

[00:47:45] Like this sucks. I'm not having fun anymore. Oh, it's wonderful. Isn't it really like that? No, I mean like she's eventually like gone. Like eventually it does not. She does not come back. But at that point there was not a understood limit that they could like regenerate from. They thought they always came back. And it's very fascist. Like I did like the it's interesting show because it's like the main character is like in this military, which is insanely fascist. But like is also like I'm going to try to do my best. Huh? Do we like that?

[00:48:14] Do we like the fascist boy? I didn't know about that part. Is it just that they wear uniforms? He doesn't care. Like he's not into it. They just like hire him basically. And he's like, yeah, whatever. I'll do it. It's like literally the math guy who likes pure math who gets hired to make killer drones. Yeah. He was just following orders. You can't yell at someone for following orders. Yeah, it's actually it's totally fine. Yeah. And then also they he accidentally made his brother into a drone. I know that.

[00:48:44] I know that part. Yo, they need to make a modern day Fullmetal Alchemist where fucking Alphonse is a drone. He's just buzzing around making the loudest sound in the universe right next to people's faces. Hell yeah. You listed movies. You listed anime. I did not hear any games, which is like good for you. Games. Do you play games or? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[00:49:14] What's your game? Right now I just picked up Paralives. It's like a Sims clone, but it's like indie. And oh, my God, they did such a good job with it. They also were able to like collaborate with Among Us and Dwarf Fortress. What? And something else like Boyfriend Dungeon or something. Oh, hell yeah. So like in the game, you can like play these other games, which is cool. Whoa. Not like actually play them, but like they'll sit on their computer and play it. Okay. Yeah.

[00:49:44] And then there's like Among Us costumes and stuff. I was about to say, it's really missing a trick if they don't let your Sims be in Among Us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun watching them like pull out their phone randomly and just start playing Among Us. Hell yeah. It's a really good game. I was apprehensive just because I've played a lot of Sims and I was like, well, they kind of put a lot of work into it. I don't see the point of playing anything else. There's a lot of those expansions.

[00:50:13] Do you remember how many there were? Oh, yeah. But my partner bought it for me and I was like, fine, I'll play it. And now I'm like having a hard time putting it down. But I also was into Abiotic Factor recently. I'm just starting a Subnautica multiplayer mod. The game is so scary. That's the scariest game that's ever been made because it's about going in tunnels underwater. There's nothing scarier. Yeah.

[00:50:41] We haven't gotten too far into it yet. But luckily, I don't have a terribly overwhelming fear of the ocean. I would say a healthy amount of fear. Yeah. I just, even in the context of a video game, water and the ocean just, like, I'm not supposed to be in there. Things can get me from every direction. I'm used to predators only coming from north, southwest, and east.

[00:51:11] But they can get you from above and below there. That's scary. Yeah. That is very true. That's no good. I think those people, the people who are doing Paralives type projects, which is to say, going, do you remember that PC game from the 90s and 2000s that was really good, but then sort of got driven into the ground? Ah, if only it was still around. And like, then they make it like that.

[00:51:40] The thing that I'm thinking about also is Clone Hero, which is just like the fucking, like, indie guitar hero game. And just like, that is, those people are the most noble, like, that should be the president. It was like the guy who made Paralives. It's like, you made there be The Sims again, but it doesn't have EA shit on it. Yeah, exactly. Stardew Valley was, it wasn't a piece, it wasn't like an EA thing originally, but like, Stardew Valley was sort of, remember Harvest Moon? Yeah, yes.

[00:52:09] It's like Harvest Moon is like, yeah. I loved Harvest Moon. Yeah. It's been so long since there was a good one. Like, oh, I'll make one. They literally have not been good. That's like, they, they, they have gotten very bad. So it's just like, no one cares about these games. So let me just make a good one then. Yeah. Paralives does a, I, something I really value in Sims games is like relationships and how people like communicate and like how their, their relationships develop. And Paralives, I think did it better than Sims actually.

[00:52:38] Cause like in the Sims, you can just spam like flirt, flirt, flirt, flirt. Yeah. You go over to someone's house and then you stand next to the bookcase and you just keep doing the same thing until you're married. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then, so in Paralives, there's like a little timer when they start talking and then when the timer like gets to the top, you can like pick a topic and there's just like a little list of things that you can choose from. It feels a lot more natural. I really like it a lot.

[00:53:07] Also choosing one of three options is something we've talked about. It's just the best part of a game. Like every roguelike. Oh, you slay the spire. Pick one of these three cards. Wonderful. That's all I want to do for the rest of my life. Hell yeah. I'm trying to think. I, I play a lot of games and now I'm blanking on which ones I've been doing lately. Have you played fantasy life? Uh, fantasy life? No. Fantasy life. It was originally a, uh, 3DS game and it is now on PC.

[00:53:37] Um, it is kind of like, I put like a bajillion hours of it in the 3DS one. It is like, like an MMO, but like you change between all the jobs. It's like, okay, I'm an archer and now I'm going to go become a logger and now I'm going to make furniture. Like you switch between everything and then all of those individual jobs level up and they basically start becoming inputs for other jobs because as you go do certain things, it produces other things.

[00:54:04] Uh, and it's just, it's just the right amount of friction. Like it's not, no one jumps out and gets it. Yeah. Like, yes, I've had, you had to plan a little bit and think, but it's not too hard. And you're also, and this is, I think really why it's so good. It tricks you into thinking you're making progress on a hundred fronts because you kind of are, but like, it doesn't really matter, but you're like, oh yeah, I'm leveling up all these jobs. I'm basically employed.

[00:54:32] I've not played the, the PC one that just came out. Uh, my understanding is it's just a hundred times better than the 3ds one. But, uh, if you want to lose a lot of hours, I would recommend looking into that. I'm looking at the Wikipedia for fantasy life. I, the girl who steals time. One, it looks cute too. I didn't know this composer. Nobuo Uematsu. Oh, final fantasy. Fantasy fame. Oh. Wow. Wow.

[00:55:01] Oh, before, before I forget, I just remembered I sunk like 600 hours into Pocopia since I started playing it a couple months ago. Totally forgot about that one. Hell yeah. Which one? Oh, Pocatopia. Yeah. Oh my God. What a fun game. Pocatomopia. Um, we, we spoke about that a little bit when, uh, we had June on as a guest and, uh, I have

[00:55:27] to do my contractually obligated husband duty, which is to say my wife's favorite game is Dragon Quest Builders 2, which was developed by the same team as Pocopia. Oh, nice. And every time someone brings up Pocopia, she gets very huffy and upset because Dragon Quest 2 is better and has more content, but people only care about the Pokemon one. Aw. Yeah.

[00:55:54] There's no combat in Pocatopia though, right? I've seen the Pocopia of gameplay. It looks so cute. What can I say? I'm, I'm like a huge, huge, huge, huge, um, I, like if I had to actually look back and like count all the hours I spent in any one game that added up to anything else, it would be Minecraft by far, by far. Um, but obviously I don't really want to support Microsoft anymore. So it's been nice to have this option.

[00:56:23] And I'm just like building little houses everywhere. It's really fun. And then the Pokemon live in them. So it's like, woo, it's great. The Ditto's got a funny fucking face. Oh my God. Yes. I, I, there's really no arguing with that. And when you see that little dude and you're just like, oh my God, he's cute. If you, if you, if you twirl the control stick around real fast, they like spin around and like grab themselves with their arms. It's very cute. Ah. Ah.

[00:56:52] I love that shit. Um, speaking of, uh, jobs, Joe, you mentioned fantasy life. You can have a bunch of different jobs and it, and it is a fantasy to think that you could have a job. It's a fantasy that you could have a job, let alone nine, that all support each other. Yeah. Uh, uh, it's my understanding that you have recently joined us. Joined the ranks. Hell yeah. To the incredible. I am sorry.

[00:57:20] Uh, did you previously work in something tech or tech adjacent? No, I worked at a restaurant where we ended up getting a manager who hates female presenting employees. What? I was like, I was like, no, I'm okay. I think I'll go do something else. Dude. It's like about half of the people, right? Yeah. Well, fewer and fewer until there were only two left. Uh, hmm.

[00:57:49] That seems like a really weird bias to bring into restaurant thing. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. I wish I had a tech job. That'd be sick. But I guess not these days. I wish maybe like eight years ago would have been awesome. Yeah. You would have spent, well, okay, the way it is, is eight years ago you could have a tech job. Now, the best you could do is like, I have a layoff in the oven. It'll be ready any minute now.

[00:58:20] It's, uh, it fucking sucks ass. Yeah. At least you have, like, the thing that absolutely like kills me is because all of my experience is like being on the computer and sending out a spreadsheet. If I like apply for like retail and, uh, restaurant jobs, they're just like, you have no experience. Get it. Bye. And it's just like, but you don't understand. They took away the spreadsheet job. So like, what do I do?

[00:58:50] Oh, what I do is make a podcast. Yeah. The job market is not great right now. It's no good. It's so bad. Uh, it also doesn't help that, uh, every, no, no, this is not funny, but it, it's hilarious. What is funny is that all the, basically the head of every company is saying how there's never going to be jobs and they're inventing new on jobbing things. Like that aspect of it is interesting.

[00:59:17] Uh, like I graduated in 2011. So obviously I missed the bottom of 2009. It was still kind of like, not great. Uh, at that same time though, no one was just like, we're cooking up less jobs. Why are you booing at me saying that you'll never have a job again? The thing that's just like, like, well, you can't boo because it's gonna happen.

[00:59:46] That's the same as like, uh, you're the weird kid at school being like tomorrow I'm bringing a gun. You can't get mad because it's gonna happen either way. And it's just like, well, you know, that's a good point. It is going to happen either way. I guess I better go to school and greet it with a fucking smile. Ah, it's bad. Yeah. Well, I, um, are you guys looking for anything specific right now or are you just chilling?

[01:00:15] I feel like being in front of the computer is over, uh, which is funny because like I, uh, I am on the upswing now, but I had some health problems where it was like, okay, so I've never needed a job where I am on the computer more and I've never been able to do a non-computer job, uh, less. And again, I, I've improved, uh, a lot now.

[01:00:39] So like, uh, to be honest, there is a program called the Chicago bridge program and there's others like it, which is, uh, career transition, uh, into green weatherization, solar, that sort of thing. I think that seems reasonable if my hand continues to be good because like everything costs so much, people are gonna need fucking solar panels, right? That's true.

[01:01:08] Unless Trump makes them illegal because they're too gay. He effectively has and it hasn't stopped it, which is nuts. Okay. Okay. Okay. I will say 2025 was the first year America got more energy from green energy than the other ones. Yes. No way. Yeah. Yeah. And like, this is all happening despite like the most unfavorable policy environment for it. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, that's, uh, that's it. Uh, I was also thinking that like, that's a real skill.

[01:01:37] Like going on the computer, sending an email that didn't happen when I die. That doesn't count. But if I wired something that counts, uh, yeah, it sucks. What's the whole job? Here's the thing about jobs. They suck ass, but I want one more than anything in the world. There have been a couple of times when I'm like two or three interviews deep into the process

[01:02:04] and I, I try to tell myself like, don't get your hopes up. But like, I start to be like, but maybe, and I like think about like, what would it be like? What would it be like? Yeah. If I had this job, what would it, let me imagine the life where I pull this off. And, uh, to my chagrin, I find that almost always, even in my imagination, I'm just like, God, eight hours of this. Jesus.

[01:02:33] I think that like, as much as I despise my unemployed life and want to get rid of it, I really, it's, it's really nice to have a lot of hours to do just whatever. What have you been doing with your, with your unstructured loser time? I just, I just had an interview and like, I was so nervous. I crushed it. I did really good. Only problem is that I, I can't really work all my Fridays and Saturdays cause I do shows. Um, so they were like, that's not a deal breaker.

[01:03:02] Um, but you know, we'll get back to you. And then I was like, I was at home like pacing, like, Oh my God, I don't know if I'm going to get the job. I'm like really nervous about it. And then I was like, okay, but like, if I don't get the job, then I can continue to do all of these things that I want to do. So win, win. Hell yeah. Yeah. I think having a job, obviously you need one. Um, but. I've heard that. It's fucking sucks.

[01:03:30] I, the thing that I keep coming back to, like physically being in an office, so much of it is standing around doing nothing and everyone knows that there's nothing happening. Uh, so all this talk about important work being replaced by AI just drives me nuts cause it was never like real, you know, like, uh, everyone is trying to retroactively be like, yeah, when I was at the office, every hour was productive for sure. Yeah, for sure.

[01:03:58] I wasn't just standing talking about Game of Thrones too loudly next to Joe for four hours. Uh, yeah, it's a fucked up shit and I hate it. And, uh, I'm sure something better will happen. Yeah. Something is gonna happen, right? Yeah. Something will happen. Yeah.

[01:04:25] Uh, what's gonna happen is that we're gonna keep releasing episodes of Anime Sickos and you, the wonderful listener, go to patreon.com slash anime sickos and, uh, subsidize our weird life. Do it. Do it. No, what you're actually gonna do is you're going to make the disappearances of Lydia Fontaine, episode two of which debuts June 21st and then new episodes every week after that. 10 episodes in the season, the finale is a two-parter.

[01:04:54] What you're gonna do is you're gonna make that a huge success such that Tom will be forced to write and produce season two. More, more, more. Uh, I really hope we don't get written out. Uh, I don't know where, so I, there's, I'm not, we can't say this, but like there's like a hook for what's gonna happen with Dee. I have no idea what the plan is with Ethan. Uh, I guess we'll, I mean, that's one of the ones that we gotta find out. We gotta find out. It's gonna be great.

[01:05:24] Sickomode, sickomode, sickomode. Sickomode, sickomode, sickomode. Sickomode, sickomode, sickomode. Sickomode, sickomode, sickomode. Magenta, you brought to my attention a funny GIF and you might be thinking, listener, are they about to talk about a GIF on a podcast? I can't see it. Shut up. You're a bad, you're a bad fan. All fake fans. You're all betraying me. Do you not have an imagination?

[01:05:52] I don't respect you people. So much answer. Please tell us about this fucking crab. This is the hardest time you laughed recently? Yes. Oh wait, no, it was not, but it was like. Hang on. Yeah, that was something else, wasn't it? But it was, it was up there. Yeah, there was, there's a, there was a GIF of a crab.

[01:06:19] I must've been on something, but there was a GIF of a crab going down on my, my Tumblr dashboard that was floating around in the ocean. And I was playing this song by Ricky Eat Acid called Girls. And I just sat there for like 10 minutes watching it. It was great. Sometimes the GIF hits right. Sometimes the GIF hits. Sometimes it doesn't. We are, I'm looking at this GIF right now.

[01:06:44] It's three shots of a, uh, of a little creature known as a tuna crab. This is a crab that's small as hell. How small? Well, you know, the ocean that crabs live in. You think that living in it, they have some sort of equipment or plan for what'll happen when the water shows up.

[01:07:11] But not this guy, he is, this motherfucking crab is sitting on the sand being like, I'm here on the sand. And a wave comes and he's gone. He's gone. We are, I think we could all learn a little bit about life from this crab. Just give up. Like just, you're gone. Just give up. You're gone. The third shot in the sequence really is just give up because he is like fully, I didn't

[01:07:39] say he, I say he, because I'm a boy and I, and I make these assumptions. It could be a girl crab. We just don't know. Um, the crab is fully submerged and is caught in some type of current and is truly in the like Jesus take the wheel. It's absolutely limp being taken here and there. Yeah. What's the point of even having legs at that point? To, um, I don't know.

[01:08:07] So that you can do the gesture he's doing. I just got a tattoo recently. It's of a wizard with like throwing up sparkles and saying whatever forever. And I think that really embodies that lifestyle. This crab, he's got it. This is what I'm trying to do in therapy is get here. I'm trying to be like the crab that has a cigarette. I've seen a gif of that. Yeah. Crab's cool as hell. Cigarettes. Here's the thing, folks. I don't know if you know this at home.

[01:08:37] Cigarettes are cool and they make you cool. And when you smoke, you look bad ass. Especially when you're a kid. Yeah. That's the issue. Anyone who's saying they're not cool, they're lying. They're bad for you, but because they're cool. Yeah. Add a little jacket to that and you are probably the coolest kid at your school. Yeah. Yeah. For real. You probably kill someone with like a switchblade and they wouldn't even get mad. If you did two, you'd get expelled. But like you get one.

[01:09:07] Yeah. You got the jacket. Yeah. You're good for one. You got a, you got a coupon. You have to pick your asshole kid. Like if you were like, if you like kill a nerd, you'll be the bully and that won't fly. Like you got to kill the bully and then they'll be like, he's a loose cannon, but he got results. Again, I say he, cause I'm a boy. Uh, speaking of wizards, this is neither here nor there, but I don't think I've said this on the podcast.

[01:09:32] And it's one of the things that has been sticking in my mind, uh, lately and really every spring that I've lived where I live. Uh, I live right by a big path that is very beautiful and, uh, maintained by the park district of Chicago. And one of the things that they do maintenance wise every year is that they apply a layer of mulch to all of the soil to help the plants grow.

[01:09:57] And the way they do that is they hire a company that has a big, big, uh, truck full of mulch. And then a big machine that shoots the mulch from the truck through a big tube. And then it shoots out the tube onto the ground. Tom, this is a very boring story. This is not interesting. Shut up again. You hateful people, uh, the people who are holding the mulch tubes that are shooting out are employees of a company called the mulch wizards.

[01:10:25] And they all wear t-shirts that depict a cartoon wizard looking like fucking Gandalf. I'm talking a long, long beard. I'm talking flowing robes, a pointed brimmed hat. And you might be thinking, oh, I get it. They have a magic wand that's making the mulch appear.

[01:10:48] No, the wizard is also holding the big tube, just like the high teenager in real life. I love the mulch wizards. Oh my God. They need, they need their own hats at least. Yeah. The uniform should have like a hat with stars on it. Maybe a moon. I would bring mine from home if they didn't provide one. And it would start a trend. You know what it would do? It would start a trend. The other people on the team would eventually catch on.

[01:11:18] And at some point it's like just going to become a fact that we're going to need them provided by the company because people are going to come to expect it. Say people order the mulch wizards to come mulch there, whatever. And someone without a hat comes, they're going to feel like they got scammed. Yeah, seriously. I'm mostly hiring for the wizards. The mulch is incidental. Mulch comes with being a wizard. It does. You have like an overabundance of mulch once you get to that point in your life.

[01:11:48] You have to study magic sigils. You have to study Amar or Alar. You have to hold in your mind two contradictory truths. One, mulch is really great. Two, mulch smells bad. It's so bad. How can these both be true? Only by fully comprehending these strange mystic concepts can you become a mulch wizard.

[01:12:19] Magenta, thank you for joining us for this wonderful guesto episode. Of course. Magenta and myself acting, being genius, award-winning actors. And the success for Mitt will become full-time careers for both of you. This is real. You're going to be listening to The Disappearances of Lydia Fontaine.

[01:12:46] You can listen to episode one right now, as you have been able to for like... It feels like we recorded this shit in 2001. I don't know when it was. It really does. It's been out for a while, but the rest of the season will begin releasing weekly, starting June 21st, 2026. So you gotta listen to that. You can go to lydiadisappears.com or just look up The Disappearances of Lydia Fontaine on...

[01:13:13] Well, I was gonna say anywhere, but with the AI Google Who's to Say. Look at it on a podcast app. They don't have AI search yet, I don't think. You're gonna be doing that. But in addition to that shit, Magenta, if people want to look into your creative work and whatnot, how would they do that? Yeah. I have a website. It's... Oh, so I guess I didn't mention my music name is Foof, FF00FF.

[01:13:43] FF. So my website is just foof.online. And then my band camp is on there. And I have links to all my other stuff on there, too. It's really, really hard to get people to listen to music. Yeah. Because they just don't want to listen to it if they don't know what it is. Everybody stops listening to new stuff after the age of 19, generally. It doesn't have to be like that, but it is.

[01:14:08] I mean, it's like you say, if I know the gist, if I have been sold, I'm like, what is this band or artist deal? And that is like, okay, I kind of know what I'm going for. If it's just some random person, I'm like, what's your deal? It's hard. Yeah. Like, if you try to send someone a link, oh, listen to my music. They're like, fuck that. No. I don't know who you are, dude. So, yeah.

[01:14:33] Like, I always say, if you want to check out my band camp, everything is completely free. Pay what you want. I just like to have people check it out because I put a lot of love into it. So that would mean a lot if anyone wanted to go give it a listen. Hell yeah. If we were to place one of your songs in this episode in its entirety right now, which song would you want it to be?

[01:15:00] Oh, probably it's called Tell Me. I think it's on my album Growing Up. I got that one on the radio, so I know that it can be likable. There's the radio still? Yeah. Yeah. This was, yeah. I got a song on KEXP, which is like. Yo! I know about KEXP. Okay. Yeah. It was very exciting. I cried a little bit when I heard it. I was like, oh, my God, I'm on the radio. Aliens can hear me.

[01:15:31] Hell yeah. This is Tell Me, by Foof.

[01:17:29] And we're back. Didn't you like that? If you didn't, don't say anything. Shut up. But if you did, yeah, go to Magenta's van camp. There's probably more. That's not the only one you ever did, right? No. Okay, good. There's more. There's a lot more. Hell yeah. Is this over? Have we done the episode? We crushed it. We crushed it and killed it. This was amazing. Thank you again, Magenta, for being here on AmiSaggo. Of course.

[01:18:00] Thanks for having me. This is awesome. Hell yeah. Hopefully, we'll be doing season two of Disappearances before we know it. And then in 2035, it'll come out. No, I feel so bad. When you listen to the episodes, you'll hear where they spent the time. But it took a long time. Anyway, bye-bye. This has been Anime Sickos. I've been Tom and Anime Sickos. I've been Joe and Anime Sickos. I've been Magenta and Anime Sickos.

[01:18:30] We'll see you later. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Anime Sickos. I've been Tom, a sicko. You can follow me on Blue Sky at Tom Harrison. Joe was also a sicko. You can follow him on Blue Sky at ShariaUncle. You can follow Anime Sickos on Blue Sky at Anime Sickos. Or email us at AnimeSickos at gmail.com. You can give us money at patreon.com slash AnimeSickos if you want. Please leave us a review or something. I don't know. Tell a friend.

[01:19:00] Anyway, until next time, bye.