General Results

Here are the Storily Survey Results! Thanks for taking the time to participate! The info you provided will help our robot overlords take over the Podcasting world!

The first Storily Podcast we’ll be doing is Podcast From A Hat! Followed by Pembina Galactic and then Everything Under the Sun!

Podcast From A Hat!

What Was Picked From A Hat?


The writing team picked 15 Objects, 10 places, 5 Story Ideas, 8 Characters and 4 Situations and will try to craft a story out of it! We’ll announce the story synopsis once one is cobbled together!

15 Objects – Picked at random by Cody

  • Music box
  • Rusty hatchet
  • Self sealing Stembolt
  • Glass eye
  • Nun-chucks
  • Coaster
  • Rudimentary AI
  • Amulet
  • Microphone
  • Whip
  • A peony
  • Shoehorn
  • A watch
  • A book
  • A mystical book

10 places – Picked at random by Jami

  • Whiteshell
  • Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Dog Park
  • Catacombs
  • Half Moon (Lockport)
  • Churchill, Manitoba, Canada
  • Island
  • Library
  • Park/Garden
  • The Moon

5 Story Ideas Picked at random by Brenna

  • Someone’s deep dark (or silly) secret is revealed.
  • Someone thinks they killed someone else, who is completely fine.
  • Blind date
  • We’ve woken up in a dimly lit, locked, wine cellar with a splitting headache, no phone, and no memory of how we got there. What happened? How do we get out?
  • Running from the past

8 Characters – Picked at random by Syd

  • Joseph Baran – Basically Jake Peralta
  • Sally – decades old ghost of a little girl
  • Stoned Joe Biden on Acid
  • Cecile Monte-Braque, middle-aged mistress of an heiress.
  • 0000 – secretive AI nobody knows exists
  • Jana “Black Widow” Stringfellow, a sophisticated, sultry, and sexy secret agent who doesn’t take no for an answer, and answers almost to no one. Almost. She wields a Katana sword and a Desert Eagle side arm, and is very good with them, even combined! Her Achilles Heel is chocolate mint ice cream, parallel parking, and endless reruns of I Love Lucy.
  • Movie buff who accidentally commited a crime
  • Parking Authority Inspector who does magic tricks

4 Situations – Picked at random by Alvin

  • A study of friendship/collaboration
  • Unveiling a complex truth
  • A bittersweet ending
  • a general focus on isolation

What Were Our Options?

Below are the pools of thing to pick from a hat that were suggested by the Cool Discuss Team!

Please Provide 5 Objects

Archaic Tablet
Ancient Grimoire
Rusty Hatchet
Rudimentary
A.I.
A Mirror
book
puzzle
skull
pillow
candle
A watch
A peony
plague doctor mask
cigarettes
rocking chair
Amulet
elevator
shoe horn
Christmas tree
piggy bank
Venus fly trap
Music box
Mystical Book
Tea Towel
Camera
glass eye
psychedelic mushroom
camera
synthesizer
microphone
An earth-sized fire extinguisher
frying pan
delivery truck
self-sealing stembolt
beer coaster
Sword
knife
handcuffs
whip
nunchucks
Coffee Mug
Flashlight
Sunglasses
Bottle Opener
Christmas Tree
A Stink beetle

Places Pool

  • Space Station
  • The Stone Archway
  • The Whiteshell
  • Catacombs
  • Apartment Building
  • A library (obviously)
  • a park/garden
  • Lisbon
  • an island
  • on the side of a highway
  • Nova Scotia
  • Winnipeg
  • Churchill
  • The CP railyard
  • The moon
  • Prague
  • Home Depot
  • The Thunderdome
  • Mar-a-Lago
  • Assiniboine forest
  • Assiniboine park
  • half moon (Lockport)
  • the witches hut at KP
  • Salisbury House

  • undersea
  • Dog park
  • library
  • elevator
  • under the bed
  • breakfast nook
  • A meadow
  • The bottom of the ocean
  • Kitchen
  • The backseat of a car
  • A dark alley
  • the old Pinawa dam
  • the Whiteshell
  • the Leo Mol sculpture garden
  • Rainbow Stage
  • Winnipeg
  • Recording Studio
  • Santa Monica Pier
  • Mars
  • The Old Red House on the corner
  • That weird little alley in the middle of the building that Cinematheque is in

Story Ideas Pool

  • A character discovers an AI hiding in their watch It’s 4am
  • the cupboards are empty, and food is *needed*
  • Something important is stolen and must be found
  • Suddenly everyone else in the apartment building is gone, your suite is the only one left
  • Your reflections are moving on their own
  • Someone’s deep dark (or silly) secret is revealed.
  • A character is drenched in a goopy substance (food/mud/blood/etc.).
  • Something lost is found.
  • A character talks to animals/objects like a Disney princess.
  • Someone thinks they killed someone else, who is completely fine.
  • Psychological thrill-murder in Churchill,
  • romance of 2 separate couples at 2 separate times and then time coincides,
  • horror/spirit displeased with trespassing undersea wreck,
  • comedy of the errors in Winnipeg at an office job/library,
  • speakeasy prohibition era romance of same sex partners.
  • Dental appointment
  • blind date
  • is that a spider or fluff
  • approaching co-worker I don’t know well in the corridor
  • forgot my wallet in my car
  • A road trip gone awry – flat tire, we’ve run out of snack food, the last 3 motels have been booked up, we haven’t showered in 2 days and there’s no radio or wifi signal to assuage the growing tension.
  • We’ve woken up in a dimly lit, locked, wine cellar with a splitting headache, no phone, and no memory of how we got there. What happened? How do we get out?
  • We’re checking out a rural property, when our phones ping that there is a tornado warning. We look to the South and see the funnel cloud touching down. We only have a few minutes to get to safety before it hits.
  • Packing up your childhood home – reminiscing and saying goodbye to your formative environment
  • You slipped in the shower and now suddenly every object and looks like a cat. How do you navigate this new feline world?
  • having an affair
  • buying illicit goods
  • running from the past
  • chasing the past, the past catching up to you
  • The world’s first AI-equipped hacky sack has gone rogue.
  • A jealous rival sabotages a magic act by switching out a fake sword for a real one; hilarity and/or tragedy ensues.
  • The long search for a sacred magic item with world-saving power is found, and a small child promptly swallows it.
  • A hero chooses to satisfy their dead friend’s last wish; traverse a warzone to recover their prized bottle of Bordeaux.
  • Our Reluctant Hero is contacted by a childhood friend, who needs help saving their local LARPing property from a corporate land grab.
  • A young hockey fan who fantasizes their favourite hockey player with dirty thoughts, dreams on meeting them one day, but when they unprecedentedly encounter each other at a hardware store, things take a turn for the strangest, weirdest, and most profound turn between the both of them.
  • Ten years set into the future from present day, an astronaut embarks on a journey with their fellow astronauts on a mission to Mars. However, as soon as they leave Earth orbit, they discover a stowaway, and must figure out a way if they need to abort the mission, or continue as planned while taking care of their stowaway.
  • Set in 1985, an FBI agent begins work in a newly created division within the FBI specializing in cyber crimes. However, a case gets out of hand with an agent involved, when they LITERALLY got involved in what would be called “virtual jousting” where the agent involved was heavily influenced by a computer virus, which turns to violence in which they’re mirrored onto the outside world from the computer world by way of jousting unsuspecting victims using an office chair, a keyboard and a mouse.
  • In a post-apocalyptic future, after a catastrophic war that involved biological weapons that costed millions of lives globally, a young scientist discovers a formula that would cure the infectious disease that was spread by the weapon used by warring belligerents involved. However, one of them found out of the discovery made by the scientist, so they decide to go after the scientist and “contain” the scientist at all costs, but not before they make it their life mission to save what’s left of humanity, and thwart the warring powers who caused the destruction of humanity, because the cure wasn’t the only discovery the scientist found…
  • The last monarch in modern times, a king who is slowly losing power with no heir to the crown, his future and his kingdom is at stake where modern democracies are taking over governing powers of the land. As he makes his final attempts to stay in power, a young girl enters the kingdom and asks to speak to the king. Upon initial conversation, it was discovered that the young girl is a lost relative to the king, and brings hope to the kingdom. However, the girl will need to convince the king that times are changing, and that the only way to have a kingdom survive is to adjust to the modern times.

Character Idea Pool

  • Joseph Baran – Basically Jake Peralta
  • Jane Sinclair – reclusive writer that prefers her own characters to real people
  • Chris Woodsman – cheery middle aged park ranger
  • Sally – decades old ghost of a little girl
  • 0000 – secretive AI nobody knows exists
  • A museum curator with an annoying sibling.
  • A construction worker who knits socks.
  • A parking authority inspector who does slight of hand magic tricks.
  • Hemlock Krivistky, a journalist.
  • Cecile Monte-Braque, middle-aged mistress of an heiress.
  • Shea Loughlin: even-keeled, no-nonsense lesbian with a dark past.
  • Jefferson Pierce: incredibly intelligent, but equally vain and self-absorbed.
  • St. John (pronounced Sinjin) Devereaux: Handsome, wealthy, broken, and villainous, he desperately wants to change his nature.
  • Movie buff who accidentally committed a serious crime
  • A grad student who seriously thinks he is going to be able to find a job in his field (lol)
  • pizza restaurant worker who dreams of moving up to pizza chef at nice Italian restaurant
  • Stoned Joe Biden
  • Movie buff who accidentally committed a serious crime on acid
  • A grad student who seriously thinks he is going to be able to find a job in his field (lol) on acid
  • pizza restaurant worker who dreams of moving up to pizza chef at nice Italian restaurant on acid
  • Stoned Joe Biden on acid
  • “The Major”: A grizzled military veteran, now retired, consults as a private investigator specializing in minor parking infractions, petty rime, and the intrigues of lonely rich housewives.
  • Vandersen McDougal: World-famous magician, sex idol, and restaurant franchiser.
  • S&M domitress
  • 50’s gresaser girl
  • vampire slayer
  • Roderick Lyle Moon, a contractor specializing in security and recovery services (also known as a Bounty Hunter), who works closely with and within the Interstellar Space Alliance on various missions. Has a wicked sense of humour and gets along with everybody, but also takes his job very seriously. He is also an extremely dangerous man during crunch time, and by crunch time, means squeezing out a deuce in the bathroom, dangerous. However, his crunch time is also his weakest time, since his vulnerability is also extremely high in this stage. In the end, the gases he produce is his is his specialty, in which they are extremely potent, and is used as a weapon. The gases are collected and contained into canisters, and to be used as a ridiculously high destructive weapon onto unsuspecting enemies, which creates ridiculous amount of damage and destruction, with 1 million times more destructive force than the Hiroshima bomb. However, it only gets to that extreme state of potency if he eats three bean and beef burritos with extra cheddar cheese shreds and sour cream. If you back him to a corner, and he starts eating burritos, you’ve already written your death warrant.
  • Jana “Black Widow” Stringfellow, a sophisticated, sultry, and sexy secret agent who doesn’t take no for an answer, and answers almost to no one. Almost. She wields a Katana sword and a Desert Eagle side arm, and is very good with them, even combined! Her Achilles Heel is chocolate mint ice cream, parallel parking, and endless reruns of I Love Lucy. Her arch rival is the highly talented, slightly arrogant, yet just as sophisticated agent Warren Foxtrot, in which her and Warren always gets into sexually awkward and suggestive situations with him, especially when it comes to fulfilling the same missions, but in the end, will get things done her way, one way or another, but at the cost of getting sexually frustrated.
  • Allan Jefferson, an undertaker seeking a career change, tries his hand in comedy. However, due to the current nature of his job, he takes on dark and morbid comedy, which is questioned at best. He loves animals, reading books, and tinkers around with cars. He is married to his wife Anna, and has two kids, who he also loves spending time with. He gets along well with everyone in the neighbourhood. His weakness is his mother in-law, whenever she comes over, she gets over-excited about anything and everything, and annoys Allan to death with her over-enthusiastic approach in things.

Situation Pool

  • LGBTQ+ themes
  • Moral discussion themes
  • simple sweet love type romance situations
  • A study of friendship/collaboration
  • Unveiling a complex truth
  • A bittersweet ending
  • Comical scenarios
  • political situations and themes
  • a general focus on isolation
  • confinement and the shrunkenness of hope for a decent life in our decadent and so cruelly precarious society
  • Spaghetti Western Space Comedy
  • Dramatic Thriller
  • Mockumentary

Synopsis

How would you handle the end of the Galaxy? When Galactic Transport 779 is thrown out of warp on their way from Earth to Sirius Star Colony, they are faced with the harrowing task of repairing their aging galactic transport before they run out of oxygen. Despite rising tensions, a medical crisis, and panic, they are able to pull together to warp to the closest colonized star system.

What they find will shake the foundations of their reality as they soon come to realize that the unusual circumstances that caused their crisis in the first place, may have spared them from succumbing to a mind shattering Galactic mass extinction. As the laws of physics start to break down and they face time-bending phenomenon, the passengers and crew of PGT-779 are forced to work together to survive, if it’s even possible.

Join their struggle towards a last glimmer of hope as they are forced to reflect on the decisions that have shaped their lives and contemplate what it means to exist, while facing the extinction of every living thing in the Galaxy.

Notes

Themes:
Sci-Fi Drama, serious, thought provoking and reflective.

Inspirations:
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, Event Horizon, Sphere, Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek, Mass Effect

6 – 8 episodes approximately 20-30 minutes each.

You can take a look at my current very rough plot outline here!
https://cooldiscuss.com/storily-pembina-galactic-779/

Character Idea Pool

  • I think for this type of story you need a religious character, but don’t make it a stereotype. No priest vs. atheist philosophical deathmatches please. Maybe several characters on a sliding scale of skeptic to believer, with different opinions and points of view.
  • Cygnus, a young medical trainee who dreams of more than the end
  • Surly doctor who’s a bit of a “Macgyver” when it comes to procedures and emergencies
  • Philosopher who drives one of the ship’s small shuttles, writer for the ship’s weekly magazine, member of bridge crew whose distant ancestor was a psychoanalyst
  • An engineer who is slightly overworked and drinks endless amounts of coffee, and wants to get things done.

What scenario, themes or situation(s) would you like to see in this podcast play?

  • What is ‘the rapture’? Is it a religious or scientific phenomenon?
  • What is ‘the rapture’? Is it a religious or scientific phenomenon?
  • What makes someone a person? Human/alien/AI etc.
  • A contemplation of whether life is worth living when you’re among the last of the living things in galaxy.
  • You’ve never wanted to children, but are now faced with the responsibility of procreating to ensure the survival of humanity.
  • Something like the end of the show Neon Genesis Evangelion—the breakdown of the human spirit in the face of the endless unknowability of the universe.
  • Surviving in a hostile environment of space, while trying to keep everyone calm in a way where everything will be alright, despite any underlying issues that will come back to haunt the crew.

Space/Future Occupation Pool

  • Pilot/Scout
  • archaeologist of alien relics
  • Archivist
  • Doctor
  • Engineer
  • Space shuttle driver, investigative journalist at the ship’s weekly magazine, ship’s pilot
  • Nerdy si-fi type
  • Chief Engineer

Space/Future Occupation Pool

  • Mom
  • Daughter
  • Captain
  • Johnny Montalban: A chief engineer who is cool, calm, and collective, who gets things done, especially when under intense pressure. Although slightly overworked at time, drinks copious amounts of coffee throughout the day to keep on going.

Synopsis

When a deal goes wrong, 4 con artists find themselves stranded on a conservation planet’s caretaker nunnery. Posing as members of the commune on an interstellar exchange program, the sister act is able to embed themselves in the community and start up a money making operation to payback the pursuing loan sharks and avoid vaporization.

They soon discover that the commune hides a dark secret. While their antics, unorthodox methods and odd habits have breathed new life into the sisterhood, it has also drawn the ire of Mother Superior. As rival gangs, investigative reporters, a cranky detective and a family of hyper intelligent bears that roam the commune throw wrenches into their plans, the 4 con artists desperately try to prevent themselves from making fatal errors as they work towards their big break payday.

Notes

Themes:
Quirky Sci-Fi, black comedy, adventure/mis-adventure, horror, there will be cannibals!

Inspirations:
Sister Act, Oceans Eleven, This is the End, Cabin in the Woods, Space Balls, Fast and Furious 5 and later.

6 – 8 episodes approximately 20-30 minutes each.

Character Pool

  • Sven Thurbergson, a cranky detective who gets caught up in space hijinksI think
  • Not a specific idea, but I just watched Orson Welles’ The Stranger (where a Nazi is tracked down in part because of his obsession with clocks) and it might be cool to have one or more of the criminals have some distinctive hobbies or interests that the detective used to try and track them down, and which they have to try and suppress (e.g. affection for a certain drink, interest in vehicle repair, flair for karaoke)
  • A chaotic good character where things gets done in the most unorthodox way possible, yet somehow, benefits everyone for the better.

Situation Pool

  • Drama-comedy of some sorts where things are dire, which ends up escalating to a situation similar to a “Mexican Standoff” where no victory can be achieved for the parties involved unless an outside source interferes. The standoff can last for as long as it can, in which case during the standoff, a lot of dialogue can be spoken between the parties during what is other wise a dangerous and critical time for everyone involved.
  • Betrayal, failed romance between cons, space bureaucracy investigating detective for his unorthodox techniques.