Midnight Pals: I Want to Believe (Patreon)

Stephen King: hey did you hear that thomas wrote an x files episode?Barker: what? which one?King: oh i thinkKing: i think it was calledKing: 'thomas ligotti is from outer space' or somethingBarker:Barker: yeah i don't think it was called that

King: i heard you wrote an x files episodeThomas Ligotti: hmKing: you know, i once wrote an x files episode myselfLigotti: hmKing: it was about an evil dollLigotti: did the evil doll represent the existential void of an indifferent universeKing:King: uh noKing: it was the regular kind

Ligotti: they never actually made my episodeLigotti: they said it was too depressingBarker: damn! whoa!Barker: you? depressing?Barker: get outta town!Poe: cliveBarker: i'm just as shocked as you are!

Barker: so thomas this depressing x-files thing you didLigotti: hmBarker: did it have mannequinsPoe: cliveLigotti: yesBarker: whoa! really defying stereotypes today huh tom?

Barker: wait waitBarker: i'm on a roleBarker: i'm about to use my AWESOME PSYCHIC POWERS to make another predictionBarker: was there a ventriloquist dummy in it?Ligotti: yesBarker: whoa! 2 for 2!Koontz: are you really psychic?Poe: no deanBarker: yes deanBarker: yes i am

Barker: damn thomas i am totally SHOCKED that you'd write about ventriloquist dummiesBarker: i am just so COMPLETELY SURPRISED because that'sBarker: likeBarker: SO out of character for youJon Padgett: s-shut upPadgett: leave him alonePadgett: just shut up!

Ligotti: a ventriloquist dummy is a cosmic doppelganger, real and yet not real, a mocking caricature of the spark of life, a reminder of the cruel joke the universe played on mankind that is sentienceRL Stine: yeah and alsoStine: what if one had a knife?

Ligotti: so mulder and scully face the truth that we are all just in a cosmically indifferent universe, specks upon the tides of fate, subject to unknowable forces beyond human ken that our blinkered minds cannot ever hope to fathomLigotti: the truth is NOT out there