The cast of Bleeker Trails left to right: Chester McCoy, Julius Ruffin, Eli Malcolm, Professor Otis Bleeker, Eldrige Mikaelson, Patience Cartwright, Moni, Silas Jacobsen
Artwork by Charidimos Bitsakakis
Y'all of Cthulhu: Bleeker Tails is an original production by Ain't Slayed Nobody that takes place in the "Down Darker Trails" setting of the Call of Cthulhu RPG and is the second season of Y'all of Cthulhu; with an original scenario written by Graeme Patrick. As with Season 1, the theme song for is "Dead Man Walking" by Cody Fry.
The podcast began airing in March 2022, starring cuppycup as the Keeper of Arcane Lore and Professor Otis Bleeker — the manager of an unusual travelling circus that serves as cover for his paranormal investigations, Chuck Lawrence as Eli "Arcanum" Malcolm — an out-of-work stage magician, Bridgett Jeffries as "Lady Solar" Moni — a charming acrobat in the sheets as well as on the stage, Rina Haenze as Patience "The Imp" Cartwright — a genderfluid gunslinger who joins the troupe as a sharpshooter, Brandon Wainerdi as Chester "The Beast" McCoy — a feral-looking man who might be an actual werewolf, London Carlisle as Julius "Ruff & Tumble" Ruffin — a strongman who exercises his mind as much as his body, Wes Davis as Silas "Shufflin' Tim" Jacobsen — an on-the-lam Pinkerton agent turned clown, and Jay Arnold as Eldrige Mikaelson — an eccentric genius who seeks to be the savior of mankind.
In 2023, the series went into hiatus so that the group could finish recording, editing, and working on other projects.
Bleeker Trails has examples of:
- Accidental Murder: In Episode 3, Julius contemptuously throws a drunkard named Earl headfirst into his hovel, with London saying he doesn't care what happens. This bites him in the butt at the end when it's revealed that Earl didn't make it, leading to Julius getting vengefully shanked by the other hobos.
- Ambiguous Situation: Episode 7 has Julius and Silas rescue Ambrose from the prison, deliver him to his mother, and go to the opium den to de-stress. Eli finds them there just in time to witness a strange ritual where the owner of the opium den causes Ambrose to seep amber fluid from every orifice until he's completely submerged, the old man describing it as a feast. It's noted that it's unclear whether Ambrose survives this or not.
- Amoral Attorney: The ironically-named Mister Friend is a lawyer introduced in Episode 2 as an acquaintance of Milford Hardpenny, though the citizens of Junction note he's a sleazy snake of a man. Following Milford's death in Episode 4, Mr. Friend brushes off an outraged and distraught Moni's accusations that he is responsible given he got Milford involved in a dangerous job he wasn't qualified for, and later "accidentally" reads Professor Bleeker's mail and steals some "tea" Professor Hackett sent him.
- Animalistic Abomination: At the beginning of Episode 8, Patience, Moni, and Chester come across some dead and dying people stranded in the desert. It turns out they were the victims of an eldritch entity resembling a ghostly giant jellyfish, which seems tied to a strange emerald dagger that Professor Grist had in his tent. After Moni cuts herself on it, she hallucinates an underwater landscape and is drawn right into the entity's tendrils. Patience grabs her in an attempt to pull her to safety, but all this does is result in them being eaten together.
- Atlantis: Professor Grist is obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis. A half-finished book of spells Moni discovers indicates that Atlantis is actually R'lyeh.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: In Episode 6, one of the prisoners exclaims that he's found the Lord, is a changed man, and won't look at another mule "like that" again.
- Blatant Lies: In episode 6, when Julius and Silas announce they're looking for Ambrose all the inmates promptly claim to be Ambrose, leading to Julius and Silas releasing them just to be on the safe side. One inmate in particular repeatedly downplays the severity of the crimes that got him arrested, eventually letting slip that he's in for multiple counts of homicide.
- Body Horror: In episode 6, Julius and Silas find Dr. Jane Hackett's "son" Ambrose in the prison, despite the other inmates trying to trick them into thinking they're Ambrose. The real Ambrose has been locked up in solitary confinement and eating himself, painting a mural of a giant spider-monster using blood and feces. In episode 7, Julius notices that the experiments on Ambrose have left him with metal bolts sticking out of his skull, with Jane revealing she may have been more complicit in the experiments than she previously suggested.
- Butt-Monkey: Pinky the compère acts as the MC for the various acts, but his thick French accent makes him sound more comical than serious, and everyone finds him annoying. Both Eli and Patience humiliate him as part of their performances; and Moni and Eli find him especially annoying, to the point that in Episode 3 the former has to fight the urge not to slam the door of Bleeker's wagon in his face.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Julius is a bodybuilder who possesses nigh-superhuman strength. In episode 3, he effortlessly picks up a drunkard named Earl — who he had treated rather courteously, a first in the series for a player character interacting with an NPC — before throwing him like a football via an extreme success. He also manages to lift his suitcase, which contains numerous heavy weights singlehandedly despite Gertrude — the eight-foot-tall strongwoman — attempting to sabotage his act. However, Gertrude is able to easily outmuscle and humiliate him, and his mandhandling of Earl turns out to have been lethal.
- Continuity Nod: Professor Bleaker still has Johnny's enchanted letter-opener from Y'all of Cthulhu Season 1—though Chester takes it in retribution for being force-fed eldritch ichor—and is lets slip that he is searching for the missing Sheriff Ellie Bishop.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- When Gertrude picks a fight with Julius in Episode 3, he attempts to out-muscle her only to be effortlessly humiliated — courtesy of a series of failed rolls on London's part — with a single slap taking off a whopping nine HP, which badly throws Julius off his game.
- In episode 6, Cody makes short work of the College Station prison guards with his machete.
- Devoured by the Horde: In Episode 4, Milford Hardpenny gets stuck in a train station water tower and is mostly-eaten by the huge swarm of rats inside despite Patience, Moni, Eli, and Chester's efforts to save him.
- Dramatic Irony: Just as Patience agrees to help one of the circus performers find his escaped boa constrictor, Eli stabs the snake — which was in the process of eating a tramp — to death, and in Episode 2 drags the snake all the way to the Medicine Show.
- Eating the Eye Candy:
- Moni is smitten the moment she sets eyes on Patience, and spends most of Episode 2 frequently giving them "'Fuck Me!' eyes".
- Pinky the compère has to fan himself when Moni performs an "El Paso Sunrise" — effectively a lap-dance — for Patience in episode 2, and is very impressed by Julius' muscular physique — blatantly flirting with him in Episode 3.
- Eldritch Location: The mountain near the archaeological dig-site that Moni, Patience, and Jimmy come across in Episode 8 has been turned into one where the rules of time and physics are broken. Giant ghostly jellyfish attack anyone who tries to leave, pulling them either into a monster-infested labyrinth that manifests their worst nightmares or a prehistoric ocean manifested from Professor Fenshaw's imagination via the power of a gem hinted to have come from R'lyeh. Even more bizarrely, deep-sea mud and quickly-dying prehistoric sea-life are regularly disgorged from this Mental World at the top of the mountain; and the inverse is true, with Chester being drawn up into the ocean upon ascending to the mountain's peak.
- Ethical Slut: Moni is an acrobat who grew up in a brothel and isn't adverse to using her feminine wiles to get her way and make money on the side. Prior to joining Bleeker's Medicine Show she had been involved in a love triangle between two brothers, hitchhiking her way to Junction in exchange for sexual favors, and in Episode 1 she volunteers to work as a prostitute at the local saloon if her gig at the Medicine Show doesn't work out. In Episode 2, Moni almost immediately abandons Milford to flirt with Patience and performs a very saucy dance — Bridgett and Rina delighting in teasing cuppycup's mortified reaction.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- In Episode 2, Moni and Patience fail to spot Eli carrying Lucy's corpse, while Eli crit fails a Spot Hidden and almost falls into a well.
- In Episode 3, Eli fumbles a listen check on the commotion of the night before, causing him to sleep right through it.
- Fiery Cover Up: In Episode 2, Eli suggests burning Lucy the boa constrictor's body to hide having killed her. When Pinky points out that'll draw too much attention, they decide to dump the snake down the local well instead... Pinky hoping that the snake's corpse doesn't poison the water hole.
- Friendly Sniper: While a bit on the gruff, no-nonsense side, Patience is usually quite affable and willing to oblige with a performance of their sharpshooting skills.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Professor Otis Bleeker is an engineering whiz who builds and tinkers with clockwork animatronic animals that behave like they're alive.
- Genius Bruiser: Julius Ruffin joins the Medicine Show as a strongman, but spends just as much — if not more — time studying and reading as he does working out, and has an insatiable appetite for knowledge. He's introduced in episode 2 reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, hoping to join the Medicine Show for a chance to explore the world to see new and wonderous sights.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Pinky the compère is from France, and thus has a very thick French accent and frequently peppers his speech with his native language. Several of the other performers exclusively speak Spanish as well.
- Great Escape: Episode 5 sets one up, with Dr. Jane Hackett refusing to supply Professor Bleeker with his requested ingredients unless Julius helps break her son Ambrose out of jail. Julius runs into Silas Jacobsen while investigating the local opium den for clues, and the two set off into the tunnels under College Station to do so. They succeed in episode 7, narrowly escaping the deranged Serial Killer Cody, but ultimately find Ambrose may have been better off in jail when he's seemingly sacrificed in an eldritch ritual.
- Humanoid Abomination: In episode 7, the old man who runs College Station's opium den is implied to be one when Silas — who admittedly was high on opium and might have just been hallucinating — sees his limbs elongate and mouth open into a Ghostly Gape with tendrils of smoke extending out of it.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Patience Cartwright is a sharpshooter who rarely misses a shot — and when they do miss a can of beans they turn it into part of their act by nailing it in such a way as to drench the poor compère in its contents.
- Kill Tally: Episode 8 reveals that Patience keeps a tally of how many people they've killed by burning their left arm with a lit cigarette, with upwards of twenty scars being visible.
- The Load: Jimmy Johnson is a friendly and well-meaning but dim-witted and incompetent stage-hand who latches onto Chester like a flea to a dog, oblivious to the fact the wolf-man can't stand him. Episode 8 in particular reveals he stowed away on the mission Professor Bleeker sent Patience, Moni, and Chester on, and unwittingly "stress-ate" all of their rations before being discovered. He's especially unhelpful towards the end of the episode, where he sets up a stage to perform for the two archaeological teams and obliviously dances while Patience and Moni are eaten by an inter-dimensional jellyfish-like monster.
- Madame Fortune: Dot Liggett, the fortune teller of Bleeker's Medicine Show, affects a Russian accent as part of her act. However, Episode 4 implies that she might have actual powers... or just use drugs to give people hallucinatory visions.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Silas Jacobsen usually speaks with a deep, gravelly voice evocative of Christian Bale's take on Batman, but can change his voice at the drop of a hat to trick people or disguise himself.
- Master Poisoner: Dr. Jane Hackett is implied to have been one, as she grows a wide variety of toxic plants in her garden and has a criminal record for killing someone with poison. Upon learning this, Julius and Silas make a point of politely refusing her offer to serve them tea.
- Meal Ticket: Milford Hardpenny is well-to-do merchant and a bit of a snobbish Sheltered Aristocrat who looks down on people he considers to be of a lower class than himself. Moni is introduced as his travelling (and bedroom) companion, and has him wrapped around her little finger... at least until she ditches him for Patience in Episode 2. This comes back to bite her when he's eaten by a swarm of rats in Episode 4, with Moni suffering a Bout of Madness over how dismissive she'd been towards him.
- Medium Awareness: Lady Liggett breaks the fourth wall to address the audience in the prologue of the first episode, and in the episode itself as part of a promotion.
- Mercy Kill: At the beginning of Episode 8, Patience, Moni, Chester, and a stowaway Jimmy come across some dead or dying people stranded in the desert. Once it becomes clear that the three survivors won't make it even with medical treatment, Patience grimly puts them out of their misery — to Jimmy's horror.
- Mythology Gag: In The Stinger for Episode 4, Lady Liggett reads Patience's fortune and reveals that they are connected across time and space to figures such as Isabelle and a Mrs. Wilkerson... err... Wilkinson (a reference to the chronically misnamed Professor Wilkinson from Y'all of Cthulhu); doubling as an Actor Allusion since three of these other selves mentioned are Detective Max Hammett (Rina's character in Max Hammett Mysteries), Irene (Rina's character in The Meat Trade), and Nevada Jones (Rina's character in Ain't Slayed Nobody's playthrough of Edge of Darkness).Waldo: [squawks] Pimm's! Pimm's!
- Named Weapons: Patience has named their trusty rifle "Truth", which is engraved into the stock. They also have a pair of combat knives called "Justice" and "Righteousness", and a pair of revolvers called "Mercy" and "Grace".
- Occult Detective: As foreshadowed in the epilogue for Season 1, Professor Bleeker's Medicine Show is largely a smokescreen and money-maker for his work investigating strange and supernatural occurrences. Episode 4 reveals that while the government has currently severed ties with him, he not only has the enchanted dagger from Season 1, but the severed tail of a nightgaunt.
- Oh, Crap!:
- In Episode 2, Moni spots what appears to be Jessie, the inn's valet, dragging a body through an alley and promply decides to mind her own business.
- In Episode 2, Pinky the compère has a panic attack when he sees that Eli has killed Lucy the snake, that half of Junction saw him dragging her down the street, and that she was eating someone — to the point where he has to pass a sanity check.
- In Episode 4, Moni suffers a Bout of Madness after seeing Milford has been eaten alive by a swarm of rats, diving into them in a desperate attempt to save him; while Chester attempts to run away on all fours and gets mauled by the panicking rodents.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Lady Liggett affects a Russian accent as part of her act, but occasionally slips into her natural Texan drawl when she's alone or caught off-guard.
- Politically Correct History: The series deliberately steers clear of reflecting the real-world prejudices of late 19th century society, with no-one in Junction, Texas batting an eye at Patience Cartwright being openly genderfluid and everyone using their proper pronouns.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: While not particularly articulate, Lady Liggett's pet parrot Waldo is something of a Deadpan Snarker, calling her a greedy penny-pincer, and Professor Bleeker's recruitment pitch only suitable for "dead [men] walking". In Episode 4, Patience gets angry at the bird for seemingly misgendering them when saying "Killer", prompting the bird to repeat it with greater annunciation.
- Polyamory: Episode 2 reveals that Patience is involved in a polycule with a duo named Mickey and Caroline, and openly flirts with Moni, who is instantly smitten with them.
- Serial Killer: Episode 6 introduces us to Cody, a victim of College Station Prison's cruel experiments who now prowls the steam tunnels under the town and decapitates anyone he comes across, be they human or rat.
- Shout-Out:
- In episode 2, one of the background voices during the shoot-out at the bar is a child who cheerfully says "I'm in danger!"
- Chester McCoy's last name, bestial appearance, and stage name are an homage to Dr. Hank McCoy of the X-Men. His introduction in Episode 2, riding on the roof of the train that Julius arrives in, is a reference to Teen Wolf.
- In Episode 3, when Moni realizes Professor Bleeker is considering leaving her behind in Junction, she tries to change his mind using the crossed legs maneuver from Basic Instinct as a trump card. If anything, it backfires on her, since Bleeker says she gives off the impression she's too whimsical to do the kind of work he needs doing.
- Silas' default voice was based off the deep, gravelly voice Christian Bale used for Batman in the The Dark Knight Trilogy.
- The ending of Episode 8 and beginning of Episode 9, in particular Moni's hallucination of a ghostly prehistoric underwater landscape and her and Patience being eaten by a giant spectral creature in the former, and Chester and Professor Grist being drawn into the spectral sea and attacked by ghost-sharks in the latter, were inspired by "Fish Night" from Love, Death & Robots. This is made even more explicit by the title card for Episode 9, which shows a ghostly red shark chasing a school of multicoloured ghost-fish through the sky.
- Silly Reason for War: In Episode 8, Patience, Moni, Chester, and a stowaway Jimmy Johnson discover two rival archeological teams — one from Texas University and the other from College Station — seemingly fighting over the discovery of a prehistoric marine animal fossil... until it's revealed that the shoot-outs started over a can of peaches one of the professors claimed his academic rival stole.note Moni and Patience in particular have zero patience for either team's antics, and set about trying to intimidate them into ceasing hostilities. That an eldritch jellyfish is preying on the people who try to leave the digsite — including one of the professors — has only escalated tensions.
- Sir Swearsalot: In Episode 9, Professor Mills is shown to curse like a shipload of sailors, using vulgarity the likes of which hadn't been seen on the show in Season 1.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Professor Bleeker pedals "magical tonic" — at least some of which actually contains strong moonshine, with one particular drunkard named Earl in Episode 3 claiming that each bottle has its own effects. Episode 4 reveals that he gets his ingredients from Professor Jane Hackett, who he sends Julius to get ingredients from.
- Squashed Flat: At the very end of episode 9, Moni gets a whale dropped on her at terminal velocity shortly after escaping the strange prehistoric beach, taking 2D10 damage. The episode promptly ends before it's revealed whether she miraculously survived or was killed, but Bridgett's indignant reaction indicates it was the latter.
- Stage Magician: The first player character introduced is Eli, an out-of-work stage magician — stage name Arcanum — who responds to Professor Bleeker's job advertisement.
- Time Skip: Bleeker Tails starts off in 1894 — three years after the events of Y'all of Cthulhu, which are subtly referenced by Professor Bleeker during his meeting with Eli.
- Thriving Ghost Town: Junction, Texas was once a prosperous boom town, but most of the buildings are run-down and either abandoned or being squatted in by tramps and vagrants.
- Together in Death: Episode 8 ends with a cliffhanger that implies this. Moni is snared by a jellyfish-like eldritch entity and Patience gets grabbed attempting to save her, the two of them holding onto each other just before being eaten. Episode 9 reveals they survived, but are Trapped in Another World.
- Trapped in Another World: In Episode 9, Patience, Moni, and Professor Mills — those grabbed by the spectral giant jellyfish — end up trapped in a nightmarish labyrinth hunted by monsters. They escape to find themselves on a prehistoric beach with Professor Fenshaw, and Chester shortly joins them by being pulled into the ghostly prehistoric ocean and hitching a ride on a giant shark — leaving Professor Grist to drown and be eaten. Fenshaw comes to the conclusion that it's his Mental World and that they must kill him to escape, lest the "jailers" (the ghostly giant jellyfish) come for them. When Patience abruptly vanishes, Chester kills Fenshaw and they're jettisoned from the strange world by a tsunami and returned to the mountaintop campsite. They discover Grist survived... only to get a whale dropped on their heads, crushing Moni.
- Tunnel Network: In Episode 5, Julius and Silas have to navigate a labyrinth of steam tunnels that run under College Station in an attempt to jailbreak Dr. Hackett's son. They run into a cult ritual — that turns out to be a rather gruesome hazing — and take a few wrong turns that land them in the lair of someone — or something — that's been ripping off rat heads and painting the walls with blood.
- Wolf Man: Chester McCoy has claw-like fingernails and shaggy fur covering most of his body, but nobody knows for sure if he just has hypertrichosis or actually is a werewolf. Despite his intimidating introduction in episode 2, he's fairly affable. In episode 3 he's initially mistaken for a mangy dog by the citizens of Junction, and ends his performance by eating a live dove like an apple; while in episode 4 Professor Bleeker implies his condition is the result of a transformation and force-feeds him eldritch ichor to see what effects it will have.
