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therealgchu · 2 months

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WIP Wednesday - Valentines Style

i'm not a fan of valentines. i'm not a fan of holidays, in general. but, i thought something fluffy and waffy might be nice for WIP wednesday. the coemancer crew did an art dump for valentines (sorry for not being involved, but i have almost no free time. this has been a hell month for me at work), but i'll tag them anyway @silurisanguine, @fangbangerghoul, @eridanidreams, @staticpallour, @bearlytolerant, @a-cosmic-elf, @aro-pancake, @atonalginger, @samcoesclub, and anyone else i'm forgetting.

i'm planning on publishing the next chapter on friday. it's written, but needs editing.

so, a fluffy little piece. i'm not sure if this will be part of the next chapter, or as a stand-alone vignette.

if you want to read from the beginning on ao3.

Valentines fluffy sneak peek

Hwa felt like she was on a cloud, and was grinning from ear to ear like a maniac. As she and Sam walked back to the Razorleaf, she kept looking up at him and found him looking down at her, with the same grin. “I have never really walked much around Akila. Can you play tour guide for me?” she asked.

Sam smiled, “We’ve got time. Sure.” He grabbed her hand and started leading her around, pointing out his favorite places, where he got in trouble for spray painting a wall, where he had his first kiss. She honestly was only paying half attention to him. What was really occupying her mind was him holding her hand. While they’d held each other’s hands many times before, it was always when they were alone together. She had never in her entire life held someone’s hand in public. Public displays of affection were utterly alien to her, and even something as innocent as holding hands was making her feel a bit dizzy. She felt like she was vibrating and wondered if Sam could feel it through her hand.

Hwa realized he must have, as he paused when they rounded a corner in Midtown. He peered down at her, “Are you OK?” he asked. They had stopped right next to a stairwell that was shaded from the sun. Sam pulled her into the shadows away from the pedestrian traffic.

She tried to speak, but ended up emitting a high pitched squeak instead.

“What was that?” he asked, wide eyed and laughing. “I didn’t think I caught that!”

Hwa laughed, covering her mouth and turning bright red. She tried again, “Umm…this will sound weird, but…I have never held hands with anyone in public before,” she said in an unusually high, whispery voice.

“Seriously?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes. I mean, I’ve never really been in a romantic relationship before,” she stuttered out. “Not a lot of romance going on in organized crime, frankly. At least, not for me.” She tried to affect an airy, casual voice. It came out sounding slightly hysterical instead.

“Heh, I feel like I”ve been lied to by movies and vids,” he mused. “You’ve really never been romantically involved with…anyone?”

“I told you, all relationships were transactional. I mean, sex is just sex. It has nothing to do with emotions.”

“I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily true, but I can see what you mean,” he interrupted. “So, when we’ve had sex…”

Hwa shook her head, “That was different already!” she said a bit frantically. “I was already in love with you, but I didn’t know how you felt. I mean, the attraction was there, but…”

Sam nodded, “sex is sex.”

“Yes.”

“Ok, so what is it about holding hands that has you…well, you’re kinda physically buzzing. I can feel it in your hands.”

“This feels,” and she held up his hand in hers, “this feels really, really intimate.”

“But, sex doesn’t?”

“Sex is a physical need. Biological imperative, and all. It has nothing to do with intimacy.”

Sam shook his head baffled, “I don’t know if I agree with that, but I can see what you’re saying. How is holding hands more intimate than sex?”

Hwa sighed, seeing she wasn’t making much sense to him. Frankly, it didn’t make a lot of sense to her, either. But, he asked, and she could only respond honestly. “Because holding hands isn’t necessary. It’s a choice. And, it’s a…a public choice. It’s like saying, ‘this is mine’. I’ve never had anyone…I’ve never had anyone,” here she looked at the ground, “I’ve never had anyone who wanted me.”

“Ahh,” Sam said after a moment, “sex is sex.” Hwa nodded, seeing he understood what she was saying. “Oh, Hwa, I love you. I’m madly in love with you. Do you want me to shout it to the stars? Because I will.”

She looked back up into his eyes, “No, that’s not necessary.”

He tilted up her chin and kissed her softly, which made her shake a bit. Sam looked at her critically again, “Let me guess, first kiss in public?” She nodded and blushed again. “Oh wow. Then, like…” here Sam grinned lasciviously at her, “I’m your…first?”.

“Oh my god, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Hwa blushed an even darker red.

“No, no! It’s cute! And, you’re even more beautiful when you blush,” he said, and with his body pushed her against the wall, deeper into the shadows.

Hwa started shaking her hands again, which Sam grabbed with one hand. With his other, he leaned up against the wall, pressing her body against it, and kissed her more passionately. He broke the kiss, and stared into her eyes, “I want you,” he said throatily.

She involuntarily squeaked again, which made Sam laugh, breaking the mood. “OK, might be a little too much?” he asked, backing off a bit. She nodded, noticeably trembling and shaking her hands. He kissed the top of her head. “What do you think of public displays of affection?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said in another squeaky voice, her eyes wide and confused.

Sam laughed and took her hand and kissed it. “You are the damndest woman,” he said, shaking his head. “Just when I think I have you figured out, you go and blow all of my ideas out of the water.” He led her back out onto the walkway, smirking, “But, I like the idea that I’m your first.”

#starfield #sam coe #fanfic #space husband #fanfiction #space cowboy #coemancer #to the shore #hwa kim #spacefarer #coemancers #the coemancer crew #valentines #wip wednesday

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sineala · 10 months

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Hi!! I used to be big into superhusbands till about the whole international iron man by bendis (i abandoned there..Tony was too different)... I was wondering, do you recommend current marvel comics? Are they still ridiculously interrupted by crossing over and events?

I am actually really, really enjoying current Marvel comics! I also think now is a pretty good time to hop on board.

If you want specific recs, I have lots of them.

Current comics:

We just got a brand-new Avengers run -- issue #2 just came out this week -- and although Steve isn't on the team (Sam is), Tony is there, and Carol is the team chair. Many of us, myself included, have been really looking forward to this run, because it's being written by Jed MacKay, who is a relatively new writer to Marvel who in my opinion writes comics with very well-characterized characters and a lot of love for the source material. (He is also currently writing what has now become my favorite Doctor Strange run.)

MacKay especially writes a very good Tony; he did an Iron Man annual and an Avengers annual back in 2021 (part of the "Infinite Destinies" series of annuals. The Iron Man one had some very good Tony characterization, and the Avengers annual instantly became everyone's favorite because about half of it is Steve and Tony hanging out at home together, and the other half is Steve and Tony punching robots.

So there's not really a whole lot to say about the new Avengers run yet, but I am excited for it.

(Jason Aaron recently ended a five-year Avengers run. I would recommend skipping it, except for the issue where Steve, Tony, and Thor all go skinny-dipping together in a hot tub. It is the highlight of the run.)

We are seven issues into a new Iron Man run, being written by Gerry Duggan (whom you may remember from 1872), and I swear this is the best Iron Man ongoing comic that has come out since I have been in this fandom. Every issue is actually good, and he's absolutely nailing the Tony characterization, and he's clearly done all the reading. And also Tony is getting whumped hard. I really love it. Every time we get a new issue I am excited to read it because I know it's gonna be good.

(You have missed a couple of Iron Man runs. The Dan Slott run was not all that great, but it had some very sweet canon Tony/Jan and also very pretty art by Valerio Schiti. Then we got Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man run, which was the worst Iron Man run I have ever read in my entire life and featured Tony being a privileged and out-of-touch billionaire asshole who then got addicted to morphine, acquired the Power Cosmic, murdered most of his friends (and, I mean, brought them back, at least), and then decided that he should maybe go to rehab so that he could learn humility which apparently he did not have? My least favorite moment was the bit where Patsy Walker tells him he has no idea what it's like to be suicidal and Tony -- a person who has had at least two on-panel suicide attempts -- agrees that, no, he has no idea what that's like. Anyway. You should skip that.)

I have been kind of meh about the current Cap run (other than the fact that it appears to have given us canon Steve/Emma femdom) because a whole lot of it is basically "CATWS but what if 616" and also they killed off one of my minor-character faves and I am very bitter. There is one more issue left in this run, so you might as well just wait a couple more months and start with the next run, which will be written by J. Michael Straczynski. I know a lot of people have strong feelings about JMS' comics work but I have been a Babylon 5 fan since it started airing and I am excited that JMS, the guy who gave us the "no, you move" speech, is going to be writing Steve. (JMS also wrote Bullet Points, if you liked the Steve in that one.)

(Cap runs you have missed include Ta-Nehisi Coates -- it was fine but for the most part Steve was wildly OOC -- as well as a very short run by Mark Waid whose first arc you should check out because it was absolutely amazing and had great Samnee art. I think you've also missed Nick Spencer's run, which. Uh. I don't even know where to begin with discussing that.)

Recent events:

Comics are still going to be comics, so, yeah, there are always events. Some of them are pretty good, though. If you haven't been here for a few years, you've probably missed AXE Judgment Day, Heroes Reborn, Empyre, and War of the Realms. Possibly also Secret Empire, Civil War II, and Standoff.

Of all of these, I would have to say that AXE Judgment Day (written by Kieron Gillen) was my favorite; it featured the Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals all coming together to save the world from a Celestial that was trying to judge all of humanity and then destroy the planet. You know, the usual. I thought it was pretty well done and had a lot for Steve and Tony to do. They got to be on the same side, for once. Steve got a whole bunch of speeches and everyone got a massive amount of angst; there was actually an entire issue devoted to the Celestial's judgment of Tony. So yeah, it didn't have a whole lot of Steve & Tony together but they both definitely had starring roles for the event.

Heroes Reborn (yes, it would kill Marvel to think up a new name) was an event where Phil Coulson sold his soul to the devil to make the Squadron Supreme have always been the best superhero team on Earth. Coulson has been wedged into the comics from the MCU but Jason Aaron clearly committed hard to making him the most evil person possible.

Empyre -- by Slott and Ewing, art by Schiti -- was probably my second-favorite recent event. It once again featured heroes fighting villains, as is right and proper. Steve and Tony weren't the stars of the event or anything but they did, you know, get to help out a bit. It was a bunch of Kree-Skrull stuff and everyone fought some tree people whose names I am blanking on and it also ended in Billy and Teddy's Big Gay Jewish Space Wedding, so obviously you have to appreciate that.

I remember very little about War of the Realms. It was one of those Asgard things.

You probably missed Secret Empire? And possibly the lead-ins to it, Avengers Standoff and Civil War II. This was infamously the event where Steve was replaced by an evil Hydra version of himself who decided to make America into his own personal fascist state. (Standoff was the event where he was secretly replaced although we did not know this at the time; he spent all of Civil War II -- a Carol vs. Tony event, this time with Tony ending up in a coma at the end -- gaslighting all the heroes pretty hard.) Public reaction to Secret Empire was, as you can imagine, very very bad (they decided to promote this as "this is the real Steve and he has been evil forever" rather than, like, "hey we're doing a villain AU for the next six months") and they ended up concluding the whole thing much faster than they had originally planned to, presumably because the sales tanked hard. They basically did a very, very bad job with this one.

Secret Empire has mostly provided a lot of source material for fandom to pick apart and improve upon -- especially the people who like villain AUs -- and its major highlight is a lead-in one-shot, Civil War II: The Oath, which is a villain remix of The Confession in which Hydra Steve addresses Tony's comatose body and, among other things, tells him that the real Steve loved him, and that he always loved him, even when they fought. So, you know. We all enjoyed that page.

Other fun things you might have missed:

There have been a bunch of fun relatively-recent miniseries!

The thing you will probably be most interested is Captain America/Iron Man, which is a five-issue miniseries by Derek Landy of Steve and Tony teaming up to take down a villain (who is, of course, one of Tony's exes). It has some lovely character moments. The collected edition of this is called "The Armor and the Shield."

Jed MacKay -- yes, the guy writing Avengers -- also previously wrote a run of Black Cat that had a lot of Tony cameos, and then decided to write an Iron Cat miniseries in which Felicia & Tony team up to defeat both of their ex-girlfriends who have decided to try to murder them because apparently, yes, they both have terrible luck with relationships. (In Tony's case, this is Sunset Bain.)

We're also currently getting an Ayodele & Akande miniseries, I Am Iron Man, which is set at various points in Tony's history and I have to admit that I have literally no idea what's going on here but at least it's clear that they really like Tony, and it's sweet.

In what I can only assume was an attempt at some kind of MCU synergy, we just finished getting a second Secret Invasion miniseries (written by Ryan North of Squirrel Girl fame) which was an extremely clever series in which basically nothing was as it seemed, and also Tony was one of the major characters. I really, really liked this one.

If you like weird AUs, we also recently got a (Tom Taylor, I think?) miniseries called Dark Ages, in an alternate future where electricity has stopped working. It did have Steve and Tony.

It is not specifically Steve & Tony related but we just got a Wasp miniseries by Al Ewing, which is Jan's first solo book ever. Yes, ever.

And it has nothing to do with Steve and Tony at all, but I feel like people who don't ordinarily read Guardians of the Galaxy might really enjoy Ewing's run on that, because it is incredibly queer. Phyla-Vell and Moondragon are main characters, Billy and Teddy come guest-star for a lot of it, Avril Kincaid (the new Quasar, who is also gay) is there for a bit, and also the overarching relationship plot is "Peter, Gamora, and Rich decide they all love each other and are all going to be in a relationship." This is extremely heavily implied. There are multiple love confessions and the run ends with them embracing. So yeah, Pete/Rich is canon now. It's great.

That's all I can think of for right now.

#replies #lucrezianoin

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aluminum-allium · 1 year

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Cosmic Wonders Nerva fan art!

I drew Nerva in my OC Pepper’s outfit!

As always, Nerva and Cosmic Wonders belongs to @itsapmseymour they really inspired me to create Passionate Heart!!(this is what pepper is from)

#cosmic wonders #nerva #passionate heart #if you don’t know what passionate heart is it’s a project i’m working on and i will post a master post about it soon.

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spair-m · 2 years

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I burnt my leg and can’t walk without pain so I made another @pmseymourva drawing, cause I can

Here’s Rei! In all her cosmic glory

#art #drawing #fanart #not requested #cosmic wonders fan art #cosmic wonders #pm seymour #pmseymourva #arts #pastels #Galaxy hair #Rei #Cosmic wonders Rei #Spair #Spair M

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cosmichorrorsarestillnicerthanme · 5 months

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heya mr cosmic !! could i request yoimiya x gn!reader who loves painting? thank u so much i hope u have a good day !! :)

Thank you for the request my friend! Though I probably went way over board for this I still enjoyed making it.

NOW! YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND!

Title: Two Very Different Types Of Art

When the two of you met, Yoimiya’s father was sure the two of you were going to kill one another.

He knew he was hard of hearing but…

It might have actually gotten worse when you and her first met!

Heck! The two of you were arguing so loud General Kujou came down to see what the ruckus was about!

He had never seen someone get so terrified from two people’s glare before.

He couldn’t even blame her!

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was keeping an eye on a very special order that it took him months to dig out from the records he would have already hoofed it out of there!

Yoimiya was a fiery girl, and it wouldn’t be the first time she got into a spat about something.

But this wasn’t her usual fiery reverence for the art of fireworks.

This was an argument.

An argument over two very different types of art.

The fire, spectacle, and noise of fireworks V.S. The elegance, eccentricity, and quiet of paintings.

Two things that could not be more different.

Yet, something told him that this was to be the start of something very, very beautiful.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Yoimiya glared at you from across the courtyard as she downed another glass of water.

You did the same to her.

Meanwhile, Ayaka sat next to Yoimiya, wondering how in the world to fix this mess.

It's not as if this was Ayaka’s first time playing mediary to Yoimiya and her latest verbal contender.

But there was something different here.

A… sense that… Yoimiya was enjoying this.

Clashing words with you, clashing wits, clashing opinions.

Ayaka was all for it, she had never seen Yoimiya having such fun.

Alas, being woken up every morning before the sun came up by you and her having a shouting match was not her idea of a fun time.

The same could not be said of the Raiden Shogun, who for some confounding reason had sat in on a few of your arguments.

Neither of you, of course, noticed her at all.

You two were too busy arguing over how the consistency of paint and the powder required for proper detonation in fireworks was different.

Or how properly sourced and high quality canvas was different from the extremely precise and very specific clay shells Yoimiya used in her fireworks.

Or why specific colored paints were harder to acquire than metals needed to make color in fireworks.

It was an interesting situation to witness, that is for sure.

And now, that Yoimiya and you had both burned yourselves out for the day, she was going to implement her little scheme to get the two of you to at the very least, stop having public screaming matches on the proper portions of materials for specific colors.

Hopefully.

So here goes nothing!

“Yoimiya?” Ayaka asked.

“Yeah?” Yoimiya hoarsely responded.

“Are you ever going to ask them out?” Ayaka asked, a fan hiding her smile.

Yoimiya began to cough, spitting out her water.

“WHAT!!!” Yoimiya attempted to yell, but fell short due to her sore throat, making it come out as more of a hiss.

“Come now Yoimiya! I have never seen you invest this much time in someone, quite honestly, the only other thing that you spend more time doing is your fireworks. Even then that is a very close difference.” Ayaka told her friend with a slight, imperceptible chuckle.

Her plan was proceeding perfectly.

Now comes the waiting game.

“Alas, that is the end of my free time for now Yoimiya, I will see you tomorrow!” Ayaka told her heavily blushing friend as she stood up.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Yoimiya stomped back home, Ayaka’s words rattling around in her ears like a rock that was stuck in one of her firework shells.

“As if I would ask that person out!” Yoimiya exclaimed.

She would never ask out someone so stubborn!

So hard headed!

So fun to talk with!

So exciting to run into!

So exhilarating to see!

So-

Yoimiya stopped dead in her tracks, an unfamiliar heat on her face.

“Oh…” Yoimiya squeaked out as the heat spread all throughout her.

“Oh no…” Yoimiya muttered as she realized what this meant.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ayaka expected many things over the next week.

Waking up, not to the screaming of you and Yoimiya but rather the sounds of birds happily singing every day was most definitely not one of those.

“This is… curious…” Ayaka muttered as the full week of both you and Yoimiya not arguing loud enough to wake the dead ended, coincidentally, Yoimiya and you had not been seen at all during that week either.

Did her plan go that well?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

That morning was quite the eventful one for the people of Inazuma as a new form of art was introduced.

Powders coated the ground, creating beautiful tapestries that could be blown away in a moment.

Something that the people of Inazuma had never seen before.

Reds, blues and purples, mixing together upon the ground and telling a tale.

A woman clothed in fire who let colors fly free from herself.

A person clothed in water, who caught the colors and used them to recreate the world.

The woman fought with the person while both were smiling.

Then a new person joined.

A woman clothed in ice.

The woman clothed in ice began to speak to the two combatants.

After that the combatants sat in their respective places, contemplating.

Then the person clothed in water caught a piece of red flame from the woman.

At the same time, the woman saw one of the paintings her colors allowed.

Then the woman in flames and the person clothed in water, began to try and imitate one another.

The person in water let out small, miniscule showers of color from within themself.

The woman in fire began to take the colors from within her and from the few shreds that wandered to her like moths to flames from the person in water.

Then, both parties repeated the process, over, and over, and over.

Each getting a little better each time.

Each getting closer and closer to reuniting once again.

The person in water had created a ball of water that roiled and spun with the color within it.

The woman in flames had created a painting, depicting an explosion with two people holding hands.

Then, both sides ran to meet one another, to show their accomplishments.

And when they exchanged their gifts, both sides kissed, turning everything purple.

Coincidentally, above where the art ended, sat you and Yoimiya.

Heads leaning upon one another.

Completely and utterly dead to the world with quiet snores escaping the both of you.

Yoimiya was holding a small firework close to her chest.

You were holding a painting tightly, but not so tight it would be damaged.

The firework was most definitely not one of the ones Yoimiya would make.

The painting was most definitely not one of yours.

But both of you held the pieces of art in your hands like they were worth more than any amount of Mora offered for them.

And that is because they were.

To you and Yoimiya at least.

#asks answered #yoimiya #yoimiya x reader #genshin impact x you #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin headcanons #genshin impact

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obsidiantheghostfaced · 7 months

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I give you - ULTRACOSMIC_Marvel-edition, using Wombo_Dream and a custom AIGen string to make these. If you like them, please let me know with a like or comment.

Also if you can, please check out the link to our Ko-Fi page below. It would really help us out right now...

#digital art #obsidian ghost face #wallpaper #ai generated #art #starryai #cosmic #ultracosmic #marvel #thor odinson #steve rogers #tony stark #iron man #captain america #fan art #aigeneratedart #wombo dream #wednesday wonder

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all-seeing-ifer · 6 months

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Audio Drama Recs for Buffyverse Fans

Hey there, dear listeners! Are you a Buffy fan who’s been listening to Slayers and it’s got you interested in learning more about this whole audio drama malarkey? Are you a Buffy fan who’s not been listening to Slayers but are always interested in recommendations for new media to check out? Are you maybe even a Buffy fan who’s already listened to some audio dramas but want some ideas for others to check out? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this is the list for you!

The world of audio drama is a weird and wonderful place where niche independent art can flourish. If you look close enough, there’s something there for everyone! It’s my hope that the release of Slayers can help bring this wonderful medium to more people’s attention, so I’ve compiled a list of a bunch of different audio dramas that I think will appeal to Buffy fans, whether that’s because they have a similar genre, similar tone, similar characters, or something else entirely.

No matter what it is you like about Buffy, I can almost guarantee there’s an audio drama out there where you can also find those same qualities. And the best part? All of the following audio dramas are absolutely free. An important part of the culture that’s emerged around indie audio dramas is that these shows are pretty much always free to listen to - funded instead by ads and patreon support. So you can just hop on to spotify, apple podcasts, pocket casts, or your other platform of choice, and get some beautiful narratives written by (and I do sincerely believe this) some of the most talented and visionary creative voices of the past couple decades beamed directly into your ears for the low low price of nothing at all. You literally have nothing to lose except time!

So without further ado, on to the recommendations:

Wolf 359

Listen if you like: Episodic/monster-of-the-week storytelling with an overarching plot, a tone that mixes comedy and drama, pastiches of popular genres (with heart), anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. The Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 61 + minisodes and specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: I’m gonna say something that may be mildly controversial and say that Wolf 359 comes closer to capturing the Buffyverse’s tone and spirit than just about any other piece of media. A child of that mostly unfortunate period of time when every nerd creator on the planet wanted to imitate Joss Whedon’s style and it really does show (not least in the multiple direct references to Buffy the show makes). But while basically every other product of this writing style (including Whedon’s own later work) fell flat on its face into insincerity, Wolf, in a truly cosmically unlikely moment of lightning actually striking twice, just fucking nails it. It’s at once an ironic pastiche of science fiction serials from the golden age of radio while also being a serious and dramatic science fiction serial in its own right, and strikes the perfect balance between the two. While it starts out as more of a workplace comedy set in space, as the show goes on and the characters learn more about the company that sent them on their mission, the tone becomes increasingly serious and dramatic, without ever feeling like too much tonal whiplash. When it’s funny, it’s really funny, and when it’s serious and emotional, it hits depths of devastation few other shows can. While it may be science fiction and not fantasy, it shares the Buffyverse’s anti-authoritarian themes, as well as those shows’ large casts of flawed characters whose problems come just as much from interpersonal drama as from the speculative fiction elements of the story. If you ask me, it’s one of the greatest stories the 2010s ever gave us. But don’t just take my word for it, go check it out for yourself! Go meet Doug Eiffel, Renee Minkowski, Dr Alexander Hilbert, Hera, and a bunch more characters I can’t talk about without getting into spoilers. You can thank me later.

Ars Paradoxica

Listen if you like: A tone that mixes comedy and drama, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 36 + specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Ok, let’s say Wolf 359 appeals to you, but you’d prefer your semi-ironic semi-serious speculative fiction dramedy show with anti-authoritarian themes to have a female lead. I mean I’d still recommend listening to Wolf because while Eiffel may be the protagonist you still get to meet Renee Minkowski and Hera and [OTHER CHARACTERS REDACTED], but you could also try out Ars Paradoxica! Another child of the Whedon-influenced era that produced Wolf 359 with a similarly Whedon-influenced tone, I think Ars is a lot messier, tone-wise, but it’s worth working through that. While it starts off quite goofy and irreverent, as the show goes on it really matures and grows into itself and becomes something very special. It becomes the rare time travel story that actually engages in a meaningful way with the political dimension of the time period its characters’ travel to. It’s about the paranoia of the final days of WWII and beginning of the Cold War, it’s about the bigotries that shaped mid-20th-century society, it’s about war and scientific ethics and the desire for progress and what we’re willing to sacrifice for that progress. But despite its often dark themes, it’s also not as heavy as I’m making it sound, with all of its lofty ideas and high concept science fiction being anchored by a cast of highly flawed yet endearing characters, including the inimitable Dr Sally Grissom herself. Compared to other 2010s audio dramas, it’s fallen into obscurity into recent years, and I think it’s about time we bring it back into the light!

The Silt Verses

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows

Plot summary: Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories.

Status: Ongoing (on its final season)

Episode count: 33+

Average episode length: 40-60 minutes

Why you should listen: It’s my favourite audio drama, hands down. More than that, it’s one of my favourite pieces of art, ever. Do you have even a passing interest in horror as a genre? If you’re a Buffyverse fan, then I assume the answer is ‘yes’. In which case, you should listen to TSV. Of all the horror podcasts I’ve listened to, I think TSV is far and away the most genuinely terrifying (I’d definitely recommend checking out the content warnings before listening) as well as having the most unique, well-thought-out, and generally interesting horror concepts and worldbuilding. It also plays with classic horror tropes in a way that feels vaguely reminiscent of BtVS at times, but its tone and atmosphere and writing style is all entirely its own. Despite this far darker tone and approach to horror, it also shares many of the Buffyverse’s themes. It’s a story about broken systems: living in them, dying in them, striking back against them, trying to fix them, burning them to the ground, all explored through a horror/fantasy lens. If you like how the Buffyverse explores its anti-authoritarian themes, you will probably also enjoy TSV’s approach. If you love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the casts of the Buffyverse shows, then you’ll probably also love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the cast of TSV, especially Sister Carpenter, the female lead of the show as well as one of the few characters in existence whose greatness rivals Buffy herself in my mind. And if you love the Buffyverse’s outlandish and often formally-inventive monster-of-the-week style episodes, then TSV’s own experimentations and propensity for bizarre fantasy concepts will likely also appeal to you. Really there’s very little else I can say without you experiencing the show for yourself. Do you like good things? Do you like things that are good? Go listen to TSV. Again, you can thank me later.

The Magnus Archives

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, fighting the apocalypse

Plot summary: A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back…

Status: Finished

Episode count: 200

Average episode length: 30 minutes

Why you should listen: One of the more well-known audio drama podcasts, and definitely the most well-known of the recent audio dramas! A lot darker, more depressing, and heavier on the horror than the Buffyverse shows, but there’s still a lot that Buffyverse fans will enjoy, from the anti-authoritarian themes to the multiple apocalypses the characters face. While TMA starts off as an anthology series, with each episode being a self-contained horror story, as the show goes on recurring characters start to appear and an overarching storyline begins to emerge. The later seasons of the show really display a similar ethos to the Buffyverse shows when it comes to taking their characters to very dark places, and the way that the show plays with horror tropes will likely also appeal to Buffy fans! Prepare yourself for some truly creepy storytelling and truly heartbreaking emotional moments and give it a listen.

Janus Descending

Listen if you like: Horror, female-led shows

Status: Finished (sequel series ongoing)

Episode count: 13

Average episode length: 15-20 minutes

Plot summary: This limited series, science fiction/horror audio drama podcast follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place.

Why you should listen: While it’s probably the least similar to the Buffyverse shows of any of my recommendations, I think Janus is still worth looking into simply because it’s a really great “starter podcast” for those who’ve never got into audio dramas before. It’s a limited series of just 13 episodes, each episode is only around 15-20 minutes long, and it uses the audio format in a really unique and interesting way. While it does now have a sequel series called Descendants, the original show works very well as a standalone narrative. The horror and tension and tragedy of the story is really well done, and despite how relatively short it is you still get to feel very close to the two protagonists. Another really underappreciated show that deserves more love.

Old Gods of Appalachia

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, anti-authoritarian themes

Plot summary: A horror-anthology podcast set in the shadows of an Alternate Appalachia, a place where digging too deep into the mines was just the first mistake.

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 54+ (not including specials)

Average episode length: 30-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Another dark and gorgeously atmospheric horror podcast (you may be starting to sense a theme here), this one based around an alternate history version of Appalachia where eldritch gods and monsters inhabit the mountains and hills. Much like TMA, Old Gods is primarily an anthology series, consisting of a wide variety of different horror stories set in the same world. These stories range from one-off episodes to season-long arcs, and cover a broad spectrum of horror sub-genres. While I do find it a little hard at times to follow all the different connections between the different stories and arcs, I think it’s still absolutely worth listening to for its tone, storytelling, social commentary (plenty of “fuck capitalism” stories here), and well-written and complex female characters. Definitely a must-listen for all the horror/fantasy fans out there (and I know for a fact that’s a lot of you).

Hi Nay

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 32+

Average episode length: 30-60 minutes (not including specials and minisodes)

Plot summary: A supernatural horror fictional podcast about Filipina immigrant Mari Datuin, whose babaylan (shaman) family background accidentally gets her involved in stopping dangerous supernatural events in Toronto.

Why you should listen: A very fun urban fantasy monster-of-the-week style show that pulls from both classic horror tropes and Filipino folklore. While I haven’t listened to much of this one yet, it’s a really engaging and often emotional listen with a very fun framing device that uses the audio medium in a clever way!

Of course, this is only a small fraction of the wealth of audio drama podcasts out there. I'm only one guy and I can't listen to all of them! If any of you have any recommendations for other audio dramas you think Buffy fans will enjoy, feel free to add them on! And if you're interested and have any questions feel free to send me a message - I always love talkin' audio dramas!

#buffyverse #slayers a buffyverse story #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #podcasts #ifer rambles #ok WHEW i'm done with this thing #this is it this is my contribution to events #i perhaps get a bit sappy in this post but i do genuinely hope that slayers is able to get ppl more interested in this medium #even if it's just a few people!! that would still be such a win!!!#i love audio drama very much and i want other people to love it too #long post

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