S1: Asked & Answered
Content Warnings (Click to expand)
Crude language
ELIZABETH: Craig? Hello, Craig? RAE: (overlapping) Yes. Craig? ETHAN: (overlapping) Hello, Craig. RAE: (laughing) That’s him, he’s here. TYLER: So sexy. ELIZABETH: Hello, Craig. RAE: Uh, hey everyone, welcome to our first Q&A after season one. I’m Rae Lundberg, I’m a producer, writer, and the voice of Val. I’m here with the rest of the cast and crew-- TYLER: My name is Tyler, and I’m the voice of Milo, and one of the writers and editors of The Night Post. ETHAN: I am Ethan and I voice Nicholas, and also write the original music and run The Night Post web page. ELIZABETH: I am Elizabeth Lundberg, I am the voice of Clementine, and I help write some of the episodes for The Night Post. RAE: All right, our first question comes from Gwen Jeronimo, who asks: Are you having fun? What’s the best part about doing the show? TYLER: “Are you having fun?” Most of the time. The first episode I wrote was episode two, and I made the mistake of having me being the only speaking part for well over three thousand words, so that was not fun. Um, it was especially not fun because I had to re-record everything because the first take sounded absolutely terrible. Uh, but after that, things smoothed out. It’s a long process from beginning to end, from planning episodes to writing them to recording, editing, and then finally publishing them, but I would say I’m having fun. ETHAN: I’m having fun too. Uh, I was admittedly-- I-I did not want to record and have to hear my own voice, uh, but once we got through the first episode where I had to do it, it became very fun, and I like recording now, so. ELIZABETH: Yeah, I think it’s a lot of fun. It’s also a lot of hard work, but I really enjoy working on writing my episodes, even if I procrastinate a little bit, and I think it’s fun to work on a project with, you know, your friends and people you like. RAE: I mean, it’s a new experience for all of us, but I think my favorite part of it has been, uh, being part of the podcast community. You know, I didn’t listen to nearly as many podcasts as I do now, now there are so many that I can’t even listen to all the ones that I want to, there’s just, um, a lot of great creators out there. And they’ve all been really welcoming and helpful as we’ve started this process, so that’s been great. ETHAN: Yeah, I’ve, I’ve been introduced to a lot of podcasts that I probably normally would not have found if we weren’t working on this project. And it’s also just fun, just, you know, seeing the payoff and seeing people listen each week, and talk about the-the show and what they like about it, so--keep doing that. RAE: Yeah, having people say that they connected to something, or that it spoke to them, that’s always the best part of being a creator. I mean, that’s what we look for, and, you know, what keeps us creating. ELIZABETH: If anyone wants to write some Night Post pod fanfiction, we will read it on air. RAE: (laughing) Here’s a question from our official Discord server, from TeaAddict, who asks: What’s been the most difficult thing about starting a podcast? ELIZABETH: Having no budget. RAE: No budget is definitely a struggle. ETHAN: (laughing) ELIZABETH: Listening to the sound of my own voice. ETHAN: Amen. TYLER: Having four people sometimes in a scene, recording, and all huddling around one microphone in a wide-open room with street noise readily available. RAE: It’s funny that you said that right then, because somebody started mowing the lawn like right next door, just then. [THE DRONE OF A LAWN MOWER CAN BE HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND.] ELIZABETH: (overlapping) Yeah, I’m gonna go shut the door. TYLER: Oh no, I hear it. RAE: All right, well, if there’s some lawn mower ASMR, that’s just how it is. Welcome to the South--they love their lawn culture here. It’s very homophobic. For me, the hardest part has been editing the episodes. I’d never done any sound editing before. It was all new to me, and I know that the first couple episodes were...a struggle, and were kind of busted. But, you know, I’m on my way up the learning curve, as I like to say. I’ll get there. ELIZABETH: Uh, this is another question from our official Discord server. It’s from Mercuryislove. What’s your recording setup like? Uh, let’s see, our recording setup is… ETHAN: Frequently changing. ELIZABETH: Frequently changing. That was sort of a learning curve for us, trying to figure out where we could get the best sound. Yeah, right now we just record in our living room with a bunch of blankets over everything. RAE: We all sit around a table, and our one thirty dollar microphone, and we try our best not to bump the table with our titties and so forth. ETHAN: (laughing) ELIZABETH: That was directed at me. RAE: I said “our.” ELIZABETH: Our titties. ETHAN: (overlapping) It happens to the best of us. RAE: Um, right now we’re recording on Discord for the first time, so I don’t know yet what the audio quality will be like for this Q&A. Um, stay tuned. I mean, you--presumably you’re listening to it now, so we’ll see. TYLER: I mean, this setup is an upgrade from the, uh, two tin cans and a piece of string we started with, so… RAE: (laughing, overlapping) That’s true. TYLER: It’s uh, it’s a very basic setup that has served us decently well so far. I mean, we produced fifteen, uh, arguably listenable episodes. (Rae and Elizabeth laughing) I mean, just take, take that for, for what you will, I mean, you don’t have to have a thousand-dollar setup and a professional recording studio to be able to make something that people enjoy. ETHAN: I mean, hey, as I’ve been going through and listening to the episodes, I think our audio and editing has improved considerably. RAE: Let us know what you think, listeners. ELIZABETH: You know, here at The Night Post we’re committed to giving you the-the best product we possibly can, so if you wanna join our Patreon, maybe we can get three or four thirty dollar microphones, and--we would be-- RAE: (overlapping) What would we do with that? What are we, the Rockefellers? ETHAN: (overlapping laughter) ELIZABETH: We would be officially...rich bitches. TYLER: Maybe even three or four of those little styrofoam sound dampening pads to put against the windows while we’re recording, that would be nice. ETHAN: Oh, or we could invest in one of those like, those ASMR mics that actually have the ears on them, like the silicone ears. TYLER: I do not like that. RAE: (laughing) Vetoed. Several people have asked: Where did the idea for The Night Post come from? ELIZABETH: I had the idea for something mail-related because USPS was in the news a lot at the time--that was several apocalypses ago. But I was thinking a lot about the importance of mail for people in rural areas, and just how these systems of communication are not very highly appreciated, but they are, you know, pretty vital to a lot of people. RAE: The idea for Gilt City and the Skelter came from wanting to tell stories about ostracized and marginalized people in the American South. Because while the South is very culturally and demographically diverse, its political structures are monolithic and really regressive. The idea of this kind of borderland seemed like the perfect setting for stories we wanted to tell about resilience and resistance. TYLER: From the get-go, the-the one criterion that we knew, it was just, had to be unapologetically gay. RAE: This question comes from Addison Langhorst, who asks: Val...Clementine...Valentine? Did you do this on purpose? You know, we’ve been waiting for somebody to call us on this. Val already had her name set, and we were still deciding on a name for Clementine, and when I saw that, um, on the list of names that Elizabeth was considering, I-I was like, you know, “It makes a really fun ship name!” So yeah, clocked. ELIZABETH: Yeah, I-I hoped that that would encourage people. RAE: I mean, maybe it’s a bit too obvious, given that we’re married and we voice those characters, but-- (Elizabeth laughing) I do think that there are some twists and turns coming, uh, in that story, so I hope that no one will assume anything just based on that. ELIZABETH: This is a question from Geekeryisafoot on Tumblr: Do you have any thoughts or plans for how long you want The Night Post to be? Uh, we’ve discussed sort of a general, sketchy outline for the future of The Night Post, and I think it could easily fill four or five seasons, if we have continued interest. RAE: We promise not to leave it on a cliffhanger, but we need at least a few more seasons to do the whole story that we’d like to. Uh, if you want more seasons of The Night Post, what better way than to start a letter-writing campaign? ELIZABETH: Okay, our next question is also from TeaAddict on Discord: What’s one thing or several things that we’re excited to develop? ETHAN: I’m excited to write more music for season two, because after writing the opening and ending themes, I got kind of stuck in my, my music production abilities. But, uh, I think I kind of got out of the rut with the end of the season, and some, some stuff I’ve been doing on my own time. So I’m excited to, uh, to get some more original music for us this time around and give a little more mood and atmosphere, and give it the feels. RAE: To me, I’m most excited to develop the relationships between our main characters. Hopefully, the directions that we’re taking it will be, in a way, expected and unexpected. But to me, the characters are the heart of the show, despite, you know, all of the mysteries and supernatural stuff. So that’s really what I’m excited to get into writing. ELIZABETH: I’m excited to shoehorn as many gay characters into season two as I possibly can. RAE: And we’ll need people to voice them, so, you know, keep an eye out. We may do a casting call, if you wanna be in The Night Post. This one’s from Gadzooie on Twitter: Will we get to hear more about the time before Gilt City? Short answer’s yes, definitely. Um, that’s pretty integral to where we’re going with the plot. In episode eleven of this season, we looked a little bit at Prime City, the predecessor of Gilt City. But only the immediate predecessor--there’s history in the Skelter going back, you know, hundreds of years, and we’re going to explore that a bit more in season two. So this is something we’ve thought about a lot, and, uh, I think it’ll be interesting once we can start revealing some of that. ETHAN: We love lore. RAE: Maybe too much. ELIZABETH: (laughing) RAE: Here’s another one from Addison: Who does the Strategist answer to? What does she even do, besides, you know, shady conspiracy bullshit? I mean, granted, shady conspiracy bullshit is...a lot of it. The Urban Strategist is the highest authority over Gilt City’s infrastructure and development, but she’s not doing the nitty-gritty of that, she’s too busy thinking the big thoughts. She’s also the Governor’s left hand, so when the Governor has a platform or policy that they want to implement, it’s Alexandra’s job to figure out how to actually do it. Um, and she has a lot of leeway to make her own solutions and influence things as she sees fit. TYLER: I mean, as we’ve seen from a large portion of the, uh, population of Facebook users, shady conspiracy bullshit and spreading it is kind of a full-time job for a lot of people, so-- (Elizabeth laughs) It’s pretty integral to the character. ELIZABETH: And when she’s not doing shady conspiracy bullshit, I’m sure she’s… ETHAN: Being a mommy? ELIZABETH: Being a mommy! RAE: Being a huge MILF. And that’s canon. TYLER: With the big mommy milkers? ETHAN: Audience, does the Strategist have big mommy milkers? Let us know in the comments. ELIZABETH: Which Night Post character has the biggest mommy milkers? We love to hear your thoughts. TYLER: It’s Milo. ELIZABETH: It’s Milo! RAE: (overlapping laughter) Go off, king. ELIZABETH: We love a man with big old titties. TYLER: (overlapping) Confirmed. ELIZABETH: Ah, this one is from Banana bread on Discord: What kind of music does each of the characters listen to? TYLER: I brought it up in a few of my episodes, about Milo’s specific musical interests. He appreciates some, uh, queer punk rock, music that, you know, most people are just gonna be like, garbage, momma. (Elizabeth laughing) Absolute garbage. But he’s really into it. Anything that’s really loud, kind of obscene--I mean, not kind of, really obscene. Uh, we touch on one of his favorite bands, Riot Queens, in one of the, uh, Patreon mini-stories. So, that’s a little something perhaps you can check into, if you really want to know more about the music scene of Gilt City. RAE: I would say Val’s musical genres are, uh, post-punk--ha ha-- (Elizabeth laughs) --and prog rock, anything that she can just, tune out everyone else, and her own thoughts. ETHAN: What about ska? RAE: Oh, ska for sure. I mean, anything that’s just a little bit out there and a little bit dad music, that’s her thing. ELIZABETH: Clementine’s probably a pretty stereotypical lesbian, and-and would listen to the sad indie girl tunes. Some country music, maybe some classic country music like Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, of course. I think that there’s something to be said about, um, having a fondness for maybe the-the country music that you grew up listening to on the radio. And Clem was close to her father, so she probably listens to that sort of stuff, because she’s pretty connected to the rural side of-of Gilt City. RAE: If we could afford to license popular music for this podcast, it would just be all Orville Peck. ETHAN: I imagine Nick probably listens to a lot of, uh, ambient stuff and lo-fi tunes on loop while he’s living at the station 24/7, with his feet gently tucked into his cozy slippers under his desk. RAE: That’s so funny, because that’s exactly what I was thinking. He probably is like, “I just love to jam out to my house music all day.” ETHAN: Absolutely. ELIZABETH: Everyone else is like, “Why is there elevator music playing in here?” RAE: Got a couple of questions from Addison about what are some of our characters up to, after the end of this season. She asks: Where’s Nick? And how does he know about the spooky stuff before anyone else? I mean, he’s not really on vacation...I mean, that might have been kind of obvious, but--we’ll just say that he’s been at the Post a long time. He’s got a lot of experience, and he’s had a lot of experiences. He’s not the same man he was before. You know, he’s got a number of connections, both inside and outside of the city government, whether or not he knows it. TYLER: It looks like Addison, uh, also wants to know how Ashley is doing. Ashley in the, uh, penultimate episode of season one willingly incorporated himself into the, uh, supernatural life stream that is the Other. One is doing just as well as is possible, considering the circumstances. RAE: Not having a body. TYLER: That is a hindrance on, uh, Milo and Ashley’s relationship. But, obviously we have not seen the last of, of Ashley. RAE: Our final question comes from TeaAddict: Favorite crack theory? ELIZABETH: Nicholas’ handlebar moustache. RAE: No. ETHAN: We knew it would be the first one. TYLER: Would you all like to give us the definition of a crack theory, because...I would like to know. RAE: You know, something really off-the-wall and out there, and it’s probably not true but you like to believe it anyway. ETHAN: So it’s like, like a headcanon. ELIZABETH: Oh, yeah. RAE: Yeah, but like a really wild one. ELIZABETH: Like, Agi is actually Milo’s sister. RAE: Agi is the Urban Strategist. She faked her own death. This is all her design. TYLER: I would like to think that Agi would always have two tea bags and three knives on her at all times-- (Rae laughs) You know, just to, just to be prepared. ELIZABETH: I have some excellent crack theories about who Clementine’s gonna be dating in season two. RAE: Oh, boy. I have a lot about Nick, just because he doesn’t appear on screen as often, so I’m always sitting there writing, thinking, “What if Nick is actually just a gas cloud, and nobody mentions it to him ‘cause he’s kind of sensitive?” ELIZABETH: What if Nick is a giant cicada, and no one mentions it because he’s kind of sensitive? RAE: Aww, and he puts his little cicada feet in his little slippies. And every seventeen years, he screams. ELIZABETH: Screaming lustfully. ETHAN: Don’t we all. TYLER: I mean, I guess you could say he’s one in a trillion. Y-y-you get it, because there’s trillions of cicadas. RAE: I don’t like to think about that. If you don’t live in the American South or somewhere that has cicadas like this, every...what is it, seventeen or eleven years-- ETHAN: Seventeen and thirteen. There’s like, multiple broods, I think they call them. RAE: Yeah. They all come out of the ground to scream at each other for sex and leave their shells everywhere, and it’s pretty horrifying. ELIZABETH: (Irish accent like from the Vine) It’s disgustin’. TYLER: Mood and same. (all laughing) RAE: I haven’t seen any, um, crack theories online yet, uh, but, by all means, if you have a theory about where this plot is going, or the characters or anything like that, you know, post them. We love to see it. ELIZABETH: Uh, people already know, but we really appreciate our listeners and everyone who’s had, um, anything sweet and thoughtful to say about the podcast. Um, we really do cling on to those little bits of attention and appreciation. It’s--really keeps us, you know, motivated to keep creating. So whenever somebody, you know, shares the work, or-or rates us, reviews us-- (Jonny Sims voice) Tweet us on Twitter--whenever they tweet us on Twitter, it’s really, um, it means a lot to us. RAE: On that note, thank you everyone for listening to season one, and for joining us on this question and answer journey. Um, you can always message us on-- (Jonny Sims voice) on Twitter, on Tumblr, on Instagram, or by email--if you have any questions, at any time. ELIZABETH: And don’t forget that we’ll be back on August 11 with new episodes of The Night Post. RAE: In the meantime, keep your eyes on your feeds for bonus episodes. We hope to be releasing those every two weeks, on the usual Wednesdays, and we’ve got some special ones planned for you. ETHAN: Thank you for joining us on tonight’s route. If you enjoyed this Q&A session, let us know what other burning questions you might have. Write a post on social media, and tell your mutuals about The Night Post. ELIZABETH: Tell your beloved mutuals about The Night Post. RAE: Beloved mutuals, it’s all for you. ELIZABETH: It’s all for you, beloved mutuals! RAE: Love you, besties! ELIZABETH: All right, I mean, I guess--I guess we can go get some food? RAE: All right, I’ll tell Craig to fuck off. Good work, everybody. ETHAN: (overlapping) Sounds good. Bye, Craig. TYLER: (flirty) Bye, Craig. Oo-ooh...