Web Video / Kollok 1991

S1 Cast from left to right: Skye Hawkins (Meghan Camarena), Mickey Jones (Shelby Grace), Marcus Bennett (Andre Meadows), Billy Baker (Lucas Eubank).

S2 Cast from left to right: Mallory Jenkins (Matt Sohinki), Mickey Jones (Shelby Grace), Laura Bennett (Aabria Iyengar), Embeth "Em" Pegg (Mika Midgett), and Billy Baker (Lucas Eubank)

You've found yourself, back at the start.

Welcome to Kollok, a beautiful little town in Washington State. Surrounded on all sides by mountain peaks and forest, mild weather all year round, Kollok is a veritable paradise.

At least, that’s what the locals would tell you.

Like any small town, Kollok has its questions. What exactly does Synchroneity Tech do behind closed doors? Why is almost everyone in town missing their left index finger? And last but not least, who is Rachel Jewell?

On March 4th, 1991, Rachel existed. She was an ordinary teen girl who had a life, family, friends, plans for the future. Then somehow, overnight, she didn’t. And only five people in the town of Kollok remembered. Armed with her diary as the only proof they have that the Rachel they knew was even real, her boyfriend Marcus, best friend Skye, co-worker Mickey, the boy she tutored Billy, and ex-boyfriend Sammy, set out to uncover the mystery of their friend’s disappearance. But can Rachel be found? Or will digging deeper serve only to expose a few more mysteries that would prefer to stay buried?

Kollok 1991 is the third series in The Phobos Saga made by Hyper RPG. Before the completion of Ten Candles, it was decided a spin off of Ten Candles: The Town would be made a series. After finishing Ten Candles, and learning how to use the Kids on Bikes System with the Kids on Bikes Playtest, Kollok 1991 premiered March 4th 2019. Due to the events of Ten Candles, Kollok 1991 takes place in an alternate universe to Ten Candles, and it was revealed that Kollok 1991, Ten Candles, and the Kids on Bikes Playtest, all take place in an infinite spanning Multiverse.

Due to the Pandemic in 2020 the second season of Kollok 1991 ended on a cliffhanger. In February of 2022 Kollok came back, having dropped 1991 from the name due to a time skip to 2021. This season is split into two parts: 'Ascended', focusing on new characters who had been part of a failed rebellion against Harmonia and are now just picking up the pieces; and 'Legacy', focusing on Laura, Em Pegg, Billy, and Tibby reliving memories from between 1992 and 2021 while not being able to remember the events of 1991.

Season 3 of Kollok concluded on June 27th, 2022. The series can be watched on Youtube here (seasons 1 and 2) and here (season 3).

Tropes for Kollok 1991:

• Aborted Arc: Several, due to the nature of the series.
  • Sketchy, Roger, and the Cheetos. Resolved by killing Roger offscreen.
  • Sammy B, whatever he was doing with the Stonemasons, and him looking for the ten places of Phobos' power in Kollok. Aborted because he was killed by Mickey A.
  • The presence of the British Ministry of Displacement within Kollok. Dropped entirely after Cassandra Crane replaces Mearl Jenkins as school principal.
  • Sketchy attempting to get Marcus to help him take back leadership of the squirrels, which he lost due to Roger's death. Resolved in one Prime by Sketchy defeating the other squirrel in a fight offscreen, unresolved in the other.
• Alternate Timeline: Billy essentially creates one by the combination of changing everyone's perception of himself and his friends to believe that they aren't dead and making everyone think he’s cool, erasing five days worth of memories from everyone in town. Skye creates another Prime by snapping back several days in time and changing the past.
• Anyone Can Die: Jayna Grace, Em Pegg A, both Sayakas, both Lexis, both Mike Hunts, Billy B, Agent Felders, both Mickeys, Marcus B (with Marcus A's death highly implied as well), and that's just the people who've been played by someone other than Zac. Even the Driver himself is not safe. The only person who actually is safe despite how the first part of season 3 played out is Mallory Jenkins, though that is probably to avoid any complications that would ensue if he met his end before becoming the Driver.
• Arc Symbol: An upside down U with two dots in the middle. Linked to Phobos, this symbol is found on the ten metal beams taken from the spaceship that Devina and the Clarity clones arrived on. Prolonged exposure to these beams can grant anyone abilities, while contact with them can re-empower any depowered Chosen of Phobos. Also appears in Ten Candles, among several others.
• Arc Words: Season 2 has "Sink or swim" and "Why?". The former returns in season 3, taking the place of 1 (sink) and the max number (swim) on each dice.
• Beach Episode: Season 2, episode 1. Unfortunately not a Breather Episode. Midway through, everyone who's touched or drank the water hallucinates and all hell breaks loose. Tibby kills a cop, nearly kills Mike Hunt, and cripples Laura's arm. Mickey vanishes in the confusion. While it's said that fracking in the town is affecting the water, it's implied that the crocodile tears drug, or at least the process to create them, is involved.
• Breather Episode:
  • "Billy Baker's Teenagers In Outer Space", a three-part side series between seasons 1 and 2, where Billy GMs a space adventure with Tibby, Mallory, Mike Hunt, Em Pegg, and eventually Laura and Mickey. This properly introduces Laura to the group and helps flesh out Em's character more before season 2. The reason why it's only three parts and the campaign isn't finished is that the third part takes place the night before the ill-fated Beach Episode.
  • The mid-season 2 Halloween special, where Aabria steps into the role of the Driver and all the Billys released from the Grotto after it was destroyed run amok, with almost all of them dying, leaving Billy A (still in a coma) and one other who dies not long after.
• Class Trip: Marcus convinces his parents to approve a field trip to Synchroneity so the Radar can investigate. Thanks to a deal made with the Stonemasons, this goes very badly and several people gain abilities as a result.
• Creepy Centipedes: One is seen in the season 1 and 2 intros, Cassandra Crane is associated with them, and whatever controlled Awut manifests as one once the Doll is broken.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The season 3 finale has a several minute span near the end that's solely Hera's shadows dancing amid flashing/red light that is not mentioned again. The lack of context for the scene is directly mentioned before it begins.
  We lack context
  The Driver is dead
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Jacob Jewell, in a failed attempt to pay off the remaining balance on his daughter's contract with the Bank of Mammon.
  • Mike Jones B hangs himself in Em Pegg's office after a breakdown mid-therapy session.
• Election Day Episode: Part of season 2's "What Comes Next" takes place during a Council meeting to elect a town mayor.
• Equivalent Exchange: Between seasons 2 and 3, Mallory and Mickey A were willingly absorbed into the Black Rock so that Tibby and Mickey B could re-enter the real world. When Mallory returns to the real world in season 3, he unwittingly exchanges himself for AJ. AJ later averts it, as he realizes his powers and uses them to get out without an exchange.
• Euphemistic Names:
  • Mike Hunt and his cousin Herk Hunt. A third, York Hunt, is teased in a rumor.
  • The news anchor who reports the destruction of the south half of Kollok is named Hugh G. Bahls.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Anyone who 'sinks' upon taking the crocodile tears drug melts into a pile of flesh. At least one person to suffer this fate is still living and still conscious to an extent the entire time, though for him it doesn't hurt until after a certain point in the story.
  • The final stage of the Weeping Pestilence involves the breakdown of the afflicted's cellular structure, causing them to melt. They're even referred to as "the melted". This foreshadows the reveal that the Pestilence itself is partly derived from the abovementioned drug.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Kollok 1990, A One-Shot within the monthly fundraiser to keep Hyper RPG's doors open. 100% canon, and plays nothing like anything else in The Phobos Saga.
• Fully Absorbed Finale: For Kids on Bikes Playtest.
• Homage: The initial story arc and premise of the series are one to Twin Peaks, with Agent Perry Bucket being an Expy of Agent Dale Cooper and Ray Wise playing a minor character. It's directly mentioned after the first episode that Zac had everyone watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me the night before.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Several cases:
  • The inciting incident is Rachel Jewell’s disappearance, after which no one except for the main four and her ex-boyfriend Sammy Reilly remember her.
  • Mickey’s father has no memory of the jobs Synchroneity sends him on after they’re complete. Or that he's partnered with a doctor working for Synchroneity to find out their secrets.
  • Skye, Marcus, Mickey, and Billy have their own memories of Rachel erased as the price for making a deal with a mysterious character known only as the Shoveller to bring Skye back from the Grotto in episode 3.
  • The entire town of Kollok save the main four, Tibby, and Agent Bucket as well as some of the higher ups at Synchroneity, mainly Ms. Wu, and Department C have their memories of the past five days erased at the end of episode 9 thanks to Billy’s powers.
  • Billy, Mickey, Em, and Laura don't remember Mallory in season 3 as a result of Tibby causing them to forget 1991.
• Last Kiss: Laura and Em finally kiss onscreen at the very end of season 3, just before Laura's turned into a statue.
• LOL, 69: They use this as the answer to 'what's the temperature', so they can be sure they haven't been replaced. This is how they discovered one of the twenty-eight alternate universe Billys had survived and was coming to school in Billy B's place.
• The Men in Black: Agent Bucket and his FBI pals. Plus CIA agents Yellow and Purple, as well as their unnamed director, in Prime A.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Billy erases the town’s memory, solving the problem of people thinking they were dead but also undoing most of the progress made in the town over the last five days and driving Sammy insane.
• No Title: Season 2, episode 19 doesn't officially have a title and is referred to by its season and episode numbers.
• Once a Season: Every season has one episode featuring a council meeting of some kind, and they always end with something bad happening. Season 1 had Mearl Jenkins' death, season 2 saw the fire department burn down and many people die as a result of crocodile tears-spiked chili, and the council of the gods in season 3 resulted in the gods being tricked into releasing Hera.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Emily Elizabeth Pegg and Mickey's younger sister Emily Turner, who even share the nickname Em.
  • Mike Mikelson and Mike Hunt Jr, who technically share screentime at one point through a flashback.
  • Mickey Jones and Baily Mickey, though one is a nickname and the other is a surname.
  • AJ Greer and Kelvin Lundt's deceased partner AJ.
• Our Spirits Are Different: So, in series, what you would normally call your soul is called your ego. When an ego possesses another body that is not their own, the original body's ego goes dormant and is suppressed by the ego possessing them. Keep in mind this only happens like this between egos who possess bodies different from them (or as season 2 revealed, two Prime Mickey Jones, as they were technically the same person in the same universe even with Prime having been split in two). If an ego from one person goes into the same person from another universe, then the original ego is destroyed, and the body dies once the ego leaves. A noted exception to these rules is the trio of Oscar Venkman, Terrance Kingston, and Burke Chapman, as all three of their egos actively inhabit Burke's body after the Synchroneity incident without Burke himself being suppressed. As Burke makes an appearance in season 3 without mention of Oscar or Terrance, it's probable that the destruction of the Grotto undid their merge.
• Power at a Price: Everything has a price in Kollok. Everything.
  • Every time Billy uses his powers at least one universe dies, Mickey is in a wheelchair from the strain of contacting Skye in Universe 5 using her powers, and Em Pegg's power leads to a massive Sanity Slippage in the Prime A universe. Tibby overuses his healing powers in season 2 and starts to rot as a result, plus his price being that he can feel himself killing another version of the person he heals. When he develops the inverse, his price inverts for it as well. Marcus Bennett is unable to forget any memory that he is given, which allowed Clarity Anah to influence him long after her physical death. Arguably, Lexi Noff's Power Incontinence was her cost.
  • Those with involuntary powers had even worse costs. Mike Mikelson's family forgot he existed. Mike Hunt's invulnerability prevented doctors from saving his life. Nick Blakely's family abandoned him.
  • After Prime B becomes the sole universe that can be accessed, the price becomes even worse. Billy's powers erase Australia and Europe from existence, Em Pegg's power is drawn from her parents' lifespans which eventually kills them, Mickey causes people to lose body parts, and Skye draws from the lifeforce of San Francisco's homeless population.
  • Season 3 has Tibby and eventually AJ stealing Clarity Seven's remaining Phobos energy to use their powers, causing a literal hole in her chest. Billy regaining his reality warping power and using it to help trap Hera nearly killed her, until AJ realized he was also capable of being a power battery and sacrificed himself so that Tibby could heal her.
• Running Gag:
  • Lucas asking if Billy has any tokens prior to the episode starting, among other weird questions like if Cthulhu existed in the game universe which Zac outright refused to answer. Andre even got in on the gag once, asking if Billy had any tokens immediately after Lucas asked, resulting in a Precision F-Strike from Zac.
  Zac: Are you serious?! Roll the fucking intro!
  • Later on, Zac started turning the gag around by looking expectedly at Lucas while asking if anyone had any questions before the episode started, and by asking if he had tokens before one episode of Billy's "Teenagers in Outer Space".
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: With the exception of "Brown Sugar and Butter", "The Council" the season 1 finale and epilogue, and season 2, episode 19, each of the first two seasons has a naming theme. Season 1's episodes are named after surreal paintings, while season 2's episodes are named after songs that came out in 1991.
• Spinoff: Kollok 1990, a one-shot that took place a few months prior to the first episode of Kollok 1991.
• Theme Naming: Everyone from the FBI introduced/mentioned in season 1 has a last name that starts with B: Bucket, Bilfroy, Bell, Butterscotch, Brine, and Bilco. Even Bloom, the director from an alternate universe who appeared late in season 1, followed the theme. The theme continued into season 2 with agent Blake, but then broke when agents Felders and Rayner were introduced alongside him.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted in that Em's mother Tiffany is a therapist, though the only two members of the Radar who see her in a professional manner are Em and Mallory.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Kollok’s founder, Shiloh Anah, made a deal with the Bank of Mammon to resurrect the miners who had been killed as a result of the spaceship crash that created Crater Lake and to make the town prosperous. Everyone descended from the resurrected is born with nine fingers as part of their payment for existing. Descendants of the resurrected are warned that should they break the contract, their entire family line will be erased from time and space, though that is proven to be untrue as the contract ends up being broken more than once.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Riley Reyes, who spiked the chili at the mayoral debate with crocodile tears to make everyone "chill", not knowing what the drug actually did until it was too late.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Season 2 episode 22 is one to Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.