#i KNOW wtnv is meant to be good. i know i know i know. and the vibes are on peak!! i loooove the energy!!’

[bulkhummus]

kicks at the dirt im sad no one even liked my comparison of the desert otherworld to the hyperbolic time chamber i even covered goku in a labcoat (carlos) and vegeta in yellow and blood (kevin) in a fun edit for you guys i hate it here kicks at the dirt some more

#im joking #(im not) #i am though #no one understand my warriros bond with dbz and thats okay #its not meant for anyone else to understand but me #i watched all of it and like half of the other one (not super— that was rougherooonie) #and got it out of my system like a bad illness that i liked contractingn #it was good for the brain u know #i. dunno #im so tried #personal #wtnv #dbz

[sammygender]

listened to three episodes of mabel (the podcast) yesterday. SO good, holy shit. i’ve been meaning to listen for years and i get it immediately. just the first episode was so good. turns out i’m not actually that hard to get into podcasts i just haven’t been finding the right ones…

#i KNOW wtnv is meant to be good. i know i know i know. and the vibes are on peak!! i loooove the energy!!’ #But nothing happens. bro. nothing fucking happens. not yet at least #im sorryyyy i need stuff to grip me!!! i enjoy wtnv when i listen to it but i can never listen consistently bc i never ever find myself #wanting to know what happens next #i mean sure i’m only a couple episodes in #but #is the whole show like this?? or does it get more….. plotty? character driven? #it’s got such a huge fan base on here but then again this is the site that can turn anytning into a fan base #same applies for. like. the penumbra podcast. idk i think i tried to start it and i was just like… don’t care. sorry #i have such an I don’t care. issue with media in general. i don’t tend to watch tv alone because i WILL just switch it off. i gotta pick #something and CHOOSE ok i am watching this for the next few weeks! and then set designated times to watch it with my siblings #its just like mehhhh. idk. im picky and i can take mediocrity and find gold in it but i have to be submerged in the mediocrity for that to #happen #but like anyway. wolf 359 is one of my favourite things ever and i thought it was funny and a cool concept at first but it probably would’ve #ended up like every other podcast if i hadn’t told my brother about it and he hasn’t immediately binged the first season #told me it was fucking amazing #and therefore motivated me to speed through until i got to the endish of s1 and went Oh yeah this is some GOOD SHIT. #so maybe i just gotta do that with more stuff??? #but anyway. mabel is reaaalllly good #mabel podcast #oliver talks

[plugnuts]

Cecil Palmer is the fictional host and protagonist (sorta) of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale (which is done like a community radio broadcast of a weird, random, fun, creepy extradimensional town out in the Southwest somewhere). It was really popular on tumblr a few years ago, too, so Cecil was kinda one of the original tumblr sexymen.

Ooooo okay I get it now, I think! I only properly started using tumblr around 2018~2019 so yeah I think I missed that phase lol

But this helps!! I think I might actually check it out then, I’ll have to stick it on my list of things to look at lmao, it’s been growing sm recently. Absurdity and such is actually something that draws me in so that definitely sounds like it’s up my alley, thank you for all the info!!

#ask #(I need a good ask tag lol) #jkl-fff #honestly if a thing doesn’t have a proper plot and just has arcs then it’s honestly easier to keep up with imo #trying to remember story and whatnot can be stressful #I’m quite intrigued by the fact that it’s meant to be off putting and nonsensical like that’s got me 👀 #but knowing that it could mean that it’s hyperfixation worthy HH might need to wait for when my sp fixation dies down before I check it out #lol yeah speaking of I guess that just by liking sp et nb might just be up my alley just bc of how absurd they both are? #idk to what degree wtnv goes but well. sp IS sp lol #thank you again!! this really helps! and I hope it was okay of me to combine the asks ^^ #(and I’m all for the memes and satire let’s GO)

[kerink]

(i have only heard the main podcast and im still reading the books so idk if this gets addressed elsewhere sorry) not counting the legal merging, do you think original Desert Bluffs was a Night Vale, or do you think EVERY Night Vale has a Desert Bluffs? And what about the other towns in the desert, like Red Mesa?

this is one of those things i've grappled with a lot while trying to understand wtnv's world building.

what we know is that huntokar ripped nv out of time to save it from nuclear war. this created a collapsing or black hole effect where all nvs in all timelines are either mixed, overlapped, or connected

what we also know is that nv is connected to some earth in some way that allows for 1. carlos (and the uowii) to come to town, 2. the man in the tan jacket, jackie fierro, and the craytons to move between nv and king city, 3. cecil to travel to europe, a tropical island, and the big city, 4. allow silas and mino to travel between it and the real world

night vale is simultaneously in its own pocket dimension sucking in all the other fractured night vales into a singularity AND a town with a location in the united states where people can travel (even before the events of 190)

that being said

in book 1 we learn that night vale is infectious. my assumption is that the surrounding towns were infected just like king city was and became Weird due to proximity to and inter-mingling with night vale.

(there's also much to be said about the history of nv and how it was weird even before huntokar hurt it, and how there ARE so many Weird towns all over the world. i personally love the idea that pre-1983 nv and other weird towns were all locked down by the world government to keep the rest of the world safe, but in order to keep the citizens from know they're trapped they're kept stupid about the outside world and are only permitted to interact with the other Weird towns. and then huntokars meddling just made things worse, but i digress.)

i don't think the other Weird towns are alt-timeline night vales because of how kevin and cecil function as doubles.

the a matter of blood arc gives us a clear understanding of how doubles are meant to work in terms of timeline shenanigans, and kevin and cecil don't fit that understanding. the danas were all clearly from different timelines and had to travel to the primary timeline. desert bluffs and night vale are within drive time, they're rival high school sports teams. kevin and cecil have different names! the events of the sandstorm do not perfectly parallel - vanessa and dana did not have the same experience.

whatever kevin and cecil are they aren't doubles like the danas and the kareems and the joseph finks. bulk has a lot of really good musing on them as mirrors instead of doubles, but i'll let them speak to that.

so no, i don't think db and pine cliff and red mesa and stone meadow and cactus park and the big city and king city and svitz and luftnarp and franchia and nulogorsk are alternate night vales. i think they're their own cities with their own rich lore and back stories and are interconnected with night vale by virtue of being Weird and therefore isolated and i don't think we've been told how yet

#im only half way thru the fow book which is a great place to get lore on the Weird european towns #wtnv #wtnv meta

[bloopdydooooo]

what's your doctor who wtnv crossover like? 👀

i am so glad you asked! (category 7 adhd event to follow)

so our doctor is cecil (no assigned number since i didnt want to cram the wtnv characters into a doctor who plot line when it would be so easy to make a new one special for them (though cecil does come from a welsh surname meaning sixth (among other things) so he could replace the 6th doctor? it doesn’t matter either way)) and while his name is, as always, just ‘the Doctor’, he lets carlos call him cecil as a treat cause they’re in looooooove <33 (he used cecil palmer like john smith when they met and carlos really like the name (it’s so i don’t have to completely erase either ‘the doctor’ or ‘cecil’ and i think i’m awfully clever) anyways he’s like doctor-weird plus cecil-weird, because they’re all so fucking bizarre (affectionate) he kicks off the fic adjusting to the new body and i felt the need to acknowledge the fact that cecil is usamerican while the doctors generally are Not (is a good fic if you don’t slander your own accent a little bit?)

i considered making carlos the doctor, because he’s. you know. a scientist and not a silly goofy gay who works in community radio, but since so much of cecil’s story revolves around him not being quite as person as the rest of the people around him, about him losing track of his age and everything he’s been through, of him canonically dying multiple times, about his relationships with family and parenthood (etc) i just felt like it would be such a waste to not make him the doctor, yk? (i also considered changing up what it meant to be the doctor to include cecil’s title of ‘the voice�� but that felt like too much so we have doctor!cecil now)

so that means carlos is the companion, he’s introduced while studying the phantom ocean which was actually just like. a big weird alien fish. then they go to the dog park and the desert otherworld and have a bunch of doctor who-ified wtnv adventures together (like lee marvin‘a birthdays, the whispering forest, the auction, etc… but make it dr who sci-fi)

i know most of the actual episodes are the doctor saves his companion and Others, but i’m such a sucker for ‘the doctor needs help’ that i wrote in four chapters of carlos saving doctor!cecil (technically could be six, depends how you count it)

and we finish off with a daleks confrontation which takes place during the blood space wars, because you have to have the daleks at least once, and it’s a good cap on a fic

i’ve made it 13 chapters long, cause all the new who seasons are well. 13 episodes long. and i’m considering doing a (not-)christmas (because even though doctor!cecil wouldn’t be jewish it would be incredibly ethically fucked up if i just. chucked a canon jewish character into a christmas landscape w/out acknowledging it) special afterwards as is customary, to follow the bbc’s standards

i am literally so invested in this fic i’ve written the first three chapters so far and they’re all like double my usual length and i’m considering making them longer because i think there’s still more i could add.

anyways thank you so much for asking i am in love with the world i have created. (would you like the link to the doc? (im so proud of this i want everyone to read it and i only want to post it when i know that i have enough of a buffer for regular updates, given how long the chapters are) (obviously it’s fine if you don’t want to read it no pressure))

here’s a drawing of doctor!cecil i made (though i changed the cape to a tailcoat because it felt Better)

[ID: a black and whit pencil drawing of cecil as the doctor. he’s got dark skin and graying black hair. he’s wearing a puffy-sleeved shirt under a vest and a loosely-done tie. he’s wearing a bunch of jewelry, cat-ear headphones, and star-shaped glasses with beads on his glasses chain. he has multiple chains and beads handing from his belt and is wearing back pants with white pockets. he has a cape tied around his neck and in one hand he’s holding the sonic screwdriver, which he’s looking at and smiling. beside him it says ‘the Doctor (a.k.a. cecil)’ End ID]

i did draw carlos but he’s just like. some guy and i’m honestly not proud enough of that to post it here.

ok i think that’s all (it’s not but you get it)

#ask tag #again. thank you for asking. #i’m insane over my own creation #foolishender #but really though do you want to read it (< rabid with desire to share) #(i’m on s5 e12 of new who btw so like. no spoilers please? just in case) #if anyone reading this wants the link they too can have it

[thatgirlonstage]

Man now I’m in very VERY old WTNV feels at 3 in the goddamn morning but

So I started listening to Night Vale in September of 2013 — I remember very distinctly bc it’s the only semester of college I had a class in the science building and I still associate WTNV with the study/lounge areas on the upper floors where I used to go listen to an episode or two as a break after 8AM lecture — so we were just a few episodes past the one year mark at the time and I binged through it and caught up pretty fast. Which meant I had no long term spoilers about Carlos or their relationship or anything else. Which meant that uh. I did not know how One Year Later was going to end when I listened to it.

Every time I have ever listened to that episode, even knowing the ending now, the line “I am still holding this trophy” makes me bawl. Snot and spit ugly cry. Because it’s a good line, but also bc I can still feel the fucking gut punch of not knowing if Carlos was okay. In a world where we were all very very used to the queer love interest NOT being okay. In a podcast where *people died with great frequency.*

And then he comes back, and he’s fine, and they sit and they talk under the stars and the lights above the Arby’s and I bawl harder.

It was just, it was such a revelation, when I was questioning but hadn’t breathed a word of it to anyone yet, wasn’t out, didn’t plan to be, was still very much in the “I can just be straight and not think about this forever It’s Fine” phase, and my only points of reference for queer media were like. Angels in America. Cultural osmosis of Brokeback Mountain. A vague awareness of the homoerotic themes of Frankenstein instilled by high school English class. The queers all die at the end. Except then this one DIDN’T. And Cecil didn’t pine after him in perpetually unfulfilled desire, either. They TALKED. They sat together and exchanged affections and a whole universe opens up around them.

Just. This show was very much there for me when I needed it more than I even knew. It was kind years before many people cared about giving us kindness.

#wtnv #am I being sappy. perhaps. #that’s ok #I’d rather be sappy than cynical #especially about a show that took my heart and held it back out to me and said it’s okay #it’s okay to look at it. it might be scary. but it’s okay.

[cartograffiti]

November '23 reading diary

In November I finished 9 books, mostly continuing series. I'm also at the caboose end of being very sick with the RSV, to the point that I actually couldn't comfortably read for more than a week, so this is my encouragement to get the vaccine for it if you've been considering it.

Poison or Protect is the next Gail Carriger novella I needed (I'm going in chronological order), and it was very pleasant, but not more than that. It stars Preshea Buss, who was a supporting character in a clique of mean girls in the YA Finishing School series. I can't say I was particularly compelled by her before, but she's been developed interestingly here, now a grown assassin very annoyed to be attracted to a rival spy at a house party. It should technically stand alone, but I wouldn't start here. Preshea's had a hard life, and if I hadn't read any Carriger before, this character's tendency to distrust strangers by grouping them into broad gendered stereotypes could have made me cringe away.

I thought I was pretty far into the Whyborne & Griffin series, but the massive ebook omnibus I've been repeatedly checking out informed me I was only halfway through as I got into Hoarfrost. I was desperately hoping that wintry title meant they were going to the Yukon Territory, which turned out to be exactly right. This one has a slightly slow-moving classic adventure plot of discovering a lost city, and then Hawk did a breathtaking loop-de-loop to use my genre expectations against me.

A Power Unbound was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and it delivered. That's it, that's the pitch, go start with A Marvellous Light.

For the Emelan group read I wrapped up the second quartet with Cold Fire, which had an incredible creepy A-plot and a lot of wonderful moments for Daja, but a pretty insubstantial teaching B-plot compared to the rest of the series; and Shatterglass, which has my favorite teaching plot of the quartet, and a solid but kind of impersonal crisis plot. I always think whichever of the four kids I'm reading about at the moment is my favorite, but I really do love Daja and Tris's pov voices, and descriptions of Tris's student glassblowing gave me delightful fever dreams.

The Children of Green Knowe is a very charmingly old-fashioned children's book about a boy sent to live with his great-grandmother, and becomes fascinated with the ghosts that haunt her house. I listened to the audiobook of this and enjoyed the story, which is heartwarming and only a little scary, but I was more struck by how well L.M. Boston integrates storytelling into the action.

System Collapse is the newest Murderbot book. You probably already know whether or not you're interested in this series about a security robot who has hacked itself and has to adapt to living as a free individual. I like it but don't go feral for it, but this one is my favorite so far, and made me want to reread from the beginning. (By which I mean relisten, because I enjoy the audiobooks with Kevin R. Free from WTNV so much I don't want to mix formats.)

Dressing the Part by Hal Rubenstein is the only nonfiction book for the month, a new book about how television shows have influenced off-screen style trends. I found it fascinating, with lots of photos and brief, focused entries for a wide range of shows. I'm not a big television watcher, so the amount of detail was good for me, but it might feel superficial if you're looking for something specific. Unfortunately, I found that it (at least the ebook) has major editing problems, with punctuation errors that confuse the meaning of sentences, and fact-check failures like misidentifying Rita Ora as black.

Masters in this Hall was the only KJ Charles book left on my to-read list, and since it's a Christmas novella, I went ahead and asked a library to buy it for me, and had a wonderful leisurely time reading a chapter or two a night and giggling over the lovers-to-enemies-to-"what do you mean we could have been on the same side all along" plot. Part of a series, but stands alone fine.

My brain is coming back, callooh callay, and I'm hoping I'll be able to finish Storygraph's Read the World challenge this year. I have the last two books picked out, I just need to get through them. Also the new Foz Meadows comes out this week, and I want to inject it directly into my veins.

#November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year #reading diary #bookblr

[writterings]

I mean. Cecil is Jewish. so not quite christian. but otherwise yeah lmao he really is written like a gay conservative early on and that is genuinely hilarious, i hadnt seen anyone else talk about that portion of his arc!! luv him

oh no i know he's jewish!! and definitely not christian!!! i just meant his behavioral is allegorical to / a parody of a conservative christian, especially with his beliefs about bloodstones, which are usually used a night vale stand-in for religion. his practicing of praying to them and sacrificing to them, but still not identifying as religious, to me read as a parody specifically of types of christianity -- especially since he has used his "belief"in bloodstones to justify political beliefs (or more specifically has used night vale's pseudo religious state status to explain why new comers shouldn't come to the town).

and i think the gay conservative thing makes sense -- but i read it less as a literal gay conservative but more as he's simply just conservative by night vale's standards. like we know systemic oppression exists in the night vale universe, but night vale as a fictional town seems to be void of discrimination towards actual groups that are oppressed. which plays into the theme of how ANYONE can hold bigoted beliefs -- but they can also change, as every character does throughout the series. their usage of outlandish concepts to address real life issues isn't always perfect and sometimes they have to avoid certain things all together, but a lot of the time the weird allegories/metaphors land pretty well.

all together i think making cecil a canonically gay and jewish person just plays into the parody as well -- because you would think that making him act this way would imply that he would be a conservative straight christian in real life BUT knowing what we do about his intersecting identities, we can almost be assured the opposite which is pretty comforting.

over the years and as the night vale world was developed more, i do believe they stopped using his character as a parody so much -- but it's still evident in the first few episodes and sometimes still slips through in more recent ones in the name of continuity.

anyways, glad you enjoy this aspect of wtnv and that you noticed it too!!! hope my take made sense and that also you don't mind me dumping all this? lol. anyways. good night, anon, good night.

[desert-bluffs-and-me]

WTNV quick rundown - 70A - Taking Flight

Featuring the voice of Dylan Marron as Carlos the Scientist and Kevin R Free as Kevin of Desert Bluffs.

Kevin: We all have to start somewhere. We all have to end somewhere too, but let’s concentrate on the other thing. Welcome to… well… hrmm. Welcome to a Desert Otherworld.

This episode marks the first time that Kevin has broadcast from the desert otherworld, which he says needs a better name because names are everything. At the end of the episode, he decides to call the town Desert Bluffs after his hometown. He's very optimistic about gaining listeners even out there.

Kevin tells us that the giant masked warriors have been welcoming to some outsiders, but not others, and that he plans to interview them later. Currently however, he has Carlos on the phone to talk about what he's been doing.

Carlos is trying to find out why their phones have signal and don't lose battery/the source of the desert otherworlds energy. He is interupted by Doug and Alicia taking some of his things to go to war with another group of masked warriors and then interupted by them again when they return, ruining his lab by getting blood all over it (Kevin makes an ummm...interesting sound at the mention of blood).

Carlos is extremely worried for his wounded, giant masked friends and drops his research to try and stop them going to war. Kevin however is still preoccupied with getting Carlos' report, seemingly very invested in the scientific breakthrough Carlos is on the verge of but also ignoring how Carlos is basically having the worst possible day.

All of his research is destroyed by the end of the episode, which pushes him into writing and giving Kevin a goodbye letter 'to a friend' about - '[...]regrets. About mistakes. You know how sometimes you spend a lot of time with someone and you think that someone makes you happy, but then suddenly, one day, you realize maybe you weren’t happy at all. Maybe you both would be better off doing what you love, in different places. Without each other. Maybe neither of you were as happy as either of you thought.' Carlos thanks Kevin for being so kind to him throughout this difficult 'year' and leaves the studio.

Kevin doesn't seem to realise that the letter was meant for him and that Carlos' talk about spending his year wrong was about the time spent in the desert otherworld, but does read the letter and feel (perhaps for the first time in a long time) genuine sadness.

Weather: "Pyramid" by Jason Webley http://jasonwebley.com

Kevin hates pasta salad, even the sight of it causes him to heave.

Alicia built a refrigerator from some cactus pads, twine and three different kinds of birds.

The rollercoaster that was built and can't be stopped, despite having no power, has a tall first hill and a 90 degree drop off that is almost 600 feet. Then it goes into a series of loops, turns and figure eights. Then some spirals where the riders go upside down several times per second. Then there's a sheet of flames that you go through upside down.

Kevin's radio tower is made of stones and adobe and shoots actual radio waves out of the top which appear as blue lightning bolts.

The giant masked warriors apparently helped Kevin decorate his studio with lizards and rodents. Though since Kevin also referred to the Shawns as 'helping him decorate' when he meant 'murdered them for decoration', I wonder if um...did Kevin uh...the giant masked warriors...

Intern Vanessa and her double are apparently there, and Kevin urges anyone with experience in various areas to send in their resume somehow and come help out.

Alicia loses two fingers in the masked warrior battle.

Winds get so bad in the desert otherworld that they create sun-blocking dust storms which hurl plant debris and 'weak willed' animals through the air.

Kevin says he actually enjoys reporting unhappy things because after that he gets to talk about how good it is that those unhappy things are no longer happening. For example, when an outbreak of throat spiders finally ends and people stop losing their lives and/or parts of their face to it.

There's no postal service in the desert otherworld yet.

Carlos seems almost confused that Kevin had decorated his booth with blood asking if it's 'barbecue source' before being corrected with Kevin openly saying it's blood, old bones, lose teeth, beaks and 'things'. .

Kevin seems to really like Carlos, calling him a brilliant scientist, indirectly calling him a ray of sunshine and showing a lot of faith in his work (whilst being a bit pushy, but nonetheless supportive and witha grasp of science that Cecil doesn't have).

Proverb: A rose by any other name is called something else.

#wtnv #welcome to night vale #wtnv quick rundown #wtnv ep 70a

[vizsladyke]

In light of cecil sweep I want to tell you a story. I’m junior high I was an undiagnosed autistic kid and I knew I was gay but after I’d already been through 10 years of Catholic school and I knew I wasn’t in a good spot and hadn’t told anyone. The only social media I had was Pinterest and I found graphics of wtnv quotes on there and started listening. I’d listen at night before bed because I didn’t want my parents to know. In junior high I was also on speech team and as I loved wtnv I decided to do most of the first episode up until the weather as a comedic speech. And I fucking won. I went in front of judges as Cecil Gershwin Palmer and won a Catholic school speech tournament. This was long before Cecil and Carlos were married or officially dating but the fact that I went up there and got to say that speech meant everything.

#cecilsweep

[void-star]

I posted 6,945 times in 2022

That's 317 more posts than 2021!

441 posts created (6%)

6,504 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@perfect-cecilos

@blue-eyes-white-privilege69

@bugssiesbeans

@thisautistic

@closet-keys

I tagged 3,745 of my posts in 2022

Only 46% of my posts had no tags

#wtnv - 306 posts

#pretty art - 199 posts

#dragon age - 170 posts

#malevolent - 167 posts

#amc iwtv - 138 posts

#ofmd - 116 posts

#hfth - 114 posts

#spoilers - 94 posts

#toh - 88 posts

#good fucking content - 88 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#another friend of mine started listening to night vale bc she needed something for her commute and because it gave us a reason to talk more

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

It isn't until Change of Mind that you really realize just how short staffed Minkowski's mission was.

80 notes - Posted June 5, 2022

#4

I listened to Memoria this morning while getting ready for work which was a terrible decision cause it's difficult to put make up on while you're crying.

I just want to say the idea of Pryce inputting a core thought meant to tear Hera down, that runs every time she does anything, and the idea of "giving them my own voice" so the thought is indistinguishable from her own, really fuckin hits me in the mommy issues.

I think one of the coolest things they did with Hera as an A.I. was to create a computer metaphor for some aspects of human psychology; that a self-defeating thought is implanted in someone by another person that occurs at runtime every time.

That a small, single line of "code" recited subconsciously before every thing we do effects our whole systems.

That we need to know it's there to cope and work around it.

It's just very, very good. I like it a lot.

82 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

#3

Wolf 359 is just so good I will never be over it. That whole sequence at the end of episode 28 when they've just pulled the Hephaestus station into a stable orbit, Eiffel is in Lovelace's shuttle detached from the station and drifting very slowly, and he convenes with Minkowski in the medical lab where he gets suddenly interrupted by Lovelace flatlining?

And after a moment of the drama of trying to get Lovelace's heart beating again, the last thing we hear from him is, "Diiiiiiiiid....... was thaaaaaaaaat......??" and then the shuttle explodes?

Just amazing.

I love the flow of the scene and the tension. I love the voice acting. I love that we're hit with two more crises while still exhausted from the cost of narrowly escaping the last one. It's a bunch of emotional beats all in a row.

I literally dream of being this good at writing.

92 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

#2

I’m 25 episodes into Hello from the Hallowoods and I have decided I really like it. Here are some reasons why:

Lots of queer characters at lots of different ages and lots of different stages.

Some of the older characters are just beginning to engage with their queerness and it’s so sweet.

An asexual character!

I appreciate that the writer just threw in anything that seemed fun to them. Eldritch deities? Demons? Spirits? Doll zombies? Punk rock stars? Elemental mages? Capitalism trying to persevere after the apocalypse? Evangelism? All yes, and that’s goals tbh. I wish I could capture that energy.

Consistently the best openers I’ve ever heard.

Fuck, even the eldritch narrator is queer.

The particular way that death shows up as a theme here is really interesting. Death as a lingering consciousness, or a continuation, rather than an emptiness or an end.

Even though they’re mostly all the same voice actor and it’s basically the narrator reading a story to you, there are distinct enough voices for most of the characters that you can tell who is who even without the cues.

My fave audio drama villain archetype, the creepy evil boss, literally thinks she can take on an eldritch god and win. I’m so, so into it.

Water as giving life... especially after death.

Ahhh I recommend giving it a try if you like audio dramas.

104 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Cutter's "recruitment" of Eiffel is such an interesting interaction because until this point, with the exception of Hera, everyone else's sign on has not been so deeply resisted.

Hera AND Eiffel are not thrilled to take Cutter's deal, in fact they really have no other choice.

But Eiffel's scene is the first time we've ever heard Cutter struggle to control someone. He doesn't have the same tools he had with Hera.

It's the first time we hear someone laugh at Cutter, set a hard boundary with him, and literally call him a motherfucker to his face!

I'm also trying to think if anyone else aside from Hera ever really caught on to Cutter. Eiffel literally likens him to Patrick Bateman (American Psycho).

And I really feel like Cutter's agitation is palpable in his silence before he cuts Eiffel off with, "okay, okay! before you say any more things I'm going to make you regret..."

Like, Cutter still successfully lands the hook by making promises about what Goddard can do about supporting his daughter, but THAT MOMENT OF PEAK TENSION!!!!!! And only after Eiffel has been bought into it does he fall in line with the hierarchy and switch to calling Cutter, "sir."

111 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #thank you wolf 359 and hfth people for liking the bullshit i say

[rosielav]

On the final episode of Camp Here and There.

Overall thoughts, roughly a quarter of the way through this last episode:

Pretty good. Very WTNV but at a summer camp. I like the little story bits, I like the interpersonal relationships.

I didn't really like anyone, though. Sydney is interesting but he's just not... Hmm idk he's just not fun to listen to, in the way that say Cecil is from WTNV. Not in terms of his physical voice but like his presence, if that makes sense. I don't like hearing Jed or TEM speak for extended periods of time, as I find it difficult to stay interested or engaged with the way they both speak. Sydney says a lot of words incorrectly, and it causes me to stop actively listening and wonder what word he meant to say, and then wonder how he hasn't heard the word 'quarry' out loud before, or about a dozen other semi-common words (not in like a 'wow he must be dumb' way but a 'wow it's like how I didn't hear X word out loud for years but it's just a lot of examples of this, maybe he spends a lot of time reading and not a lot of time listening to spoken word stuff' way), and then I've lost 2-3 minutes of plot and whatnot bc I was focused on that.

It's interesting. I like some of the story bits. I think it would have been better without Jed, TEM, and that whole thing. So.... Just Sydney, the councilors, the children. That's it. I'd have been very happy to listen to 50 episodes of just camp things happening. TEM storyline just didn't do it for me, especially when I picked up on the 'breadcrumbs' the writers had been leaving (when I know the Big Reveal before its revealed, it makes me not want to listen to hear the reveal, and often makes me not care about the story anymore bc I figured the basic stuff out so what's the point, which I hate about myself)

But yea. I'll respond to this post when I finish this last episode. I might have a huge change of heart haha who knows how this last half hour of content will go for me :)

#Podcasts #Camp here and there #I really really love the just regular camp stuff #Like literally if you took out jed the character entirely #Therefore taking out the elephant man story and the whole everyone hates Sydney plot point #Then I'd literally be in love with the shoe I think #But the part I don't like being the main part kinda sucks nlg #Hoping the next pod I listen to gives me the catharsis I crave like midnight burger did

[the-lunar-warrior]

Can I just say I 100% agree with your tags on that wtnv & tma post?? Because damn. You managed to put it into words /perfectly/

thank you 🥺 (post for reference)

it just irked me so much, such a blatant disregard for a monumental piece of queer fiction that wtnv is, and the genuinely well done horror of tma. both because that's what they are and because that opinion was OPENLY uninformed. like, dont get me wrong, it wouldve still rubbed me the wrong way, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion on what a good work of fiction, and good horror, is

instead, op just run their mouth based on... what, the fandom? i think most of us who have been online for a while can tell that fandoms dont always accurately represent the original content

and on top of that... they made it sound like wtnv is a horror. which it is NOT. if def has elements of it but the genre of wtnv and tma are just... not comparable

and then we come into what i already ranted about in the tags, which is that fear, and what "good horror" is, is subjective

im not a fan of slasher, and while im fine with jumpscares, i find them more funny than scary after the fact. some people love slasher, and very gorey horror. fnaf, which is because on jumpscares is a popular&successful horror franchise — partly BECAUSE many people enjoy being scared in the moment, but then walking away and laughing at how goofy the animatronics are!

psychological, and (among it) eldritch horror? those are VERY different! and some people (myself included) love them, some hate them! and thats alright!

the main difference is: psychological horror is meant to stick with you, sometimes long after you finished watching/reading/listening. it's meant to get in your head

and eyes? being watched? paranoia? thats a STAPLE of all kinds of horror. slasher? a murderer is watching you. jumpscares? the monster is lurking. psychological? the society/ect is judging your every move. eldritch? gods beyond our comprehension are watching

and tma specifically tackles the being watched from the perspective of people living in late stage capitalist (or decapitalist) society, even if it's not easily noticible to start with bc of the mixing with eldritch horror

maybe it's not wtnv that made a generation of people who see "trees are watching and they know your sins" (or however the original post went), as an epitome of horror. maybe it's growing up in the world where there is less and less ways to protect your privacy from governments and corporations alike

maybe it's because when i was a kid, a person saying "your phone/appliances are listening to your conversations" was seen as a nutjob, and now it's something said as a joke about reality

maybe it's because the literal idea that even nature is listening in, that there is NOWHERE to hide is terrifying. or maybe it's, yknow a metaphor for afromentioned constant technological surveillance we experience

maybe it's because some of us remember how it is not to live in a what feels more and more like a panopticon by the day

#the magnus archives #welcome to night vale #tma #wtnv #i talk sometimes #genderfluid envy #long post

[wanderingandfound]

You know that [type of] Tumblr post that's "oh wow Tumblr wasn't baited this time, those pirates really ARE gay" "I am changed irrevocably"? Well, I don't know if it's that I started listening to WtNV 9 years or watched Schitt's Creek or because I saw all the gifs and analysis of OFMD before watching it but it didn't hit me in quite the same way. Like it's good! I enjoyed it! But I went through no personal relevations.

But what has deeply meant something to me, even though I also knew it was coming, even though I thought my years of fandom had satisfied me and I didn't need canon to, is the OT3 in Iron Widow. Like, I knew it was coming from the author's Twitter but I also knew it wasn't quite my preferred genre and it's YA so the pacing was definitely going to be tight (I thought (but was wrong) that it was a stand-alone novel but it's the first in a series (duology?) and it ends not so much on a cliffhanger as a dropped-from-the-cliff-and-thought-was-on-rocky-ground-but-no-the-cliff-is-actually-much-taller-so-be-careful-where-you-step).

Where was I?

To borrow language from Mark Reads, I thought I was prepared. I was not. More canon romantic triads now, please and thank you.

#Also if someone could recommend a triad with MAX 1 man that would be great. #I'm bi. I love men. But like... #Oh let me find that draft and attach an image in the reblogs. #personal #liveblogging stories

[inkofamethyst]

May 16, 2022

You know I relate to Lin Manuel Miranda because I, too, don’t have that great of a singing voice but boy howdy I sure do love me a good solo.

I’m writing this research paper and it’s meant to be twelve to twenty pages long and I really do not know what I am doing.  How did I, once awarded the Senior of the Year in English thing or whatever (alongside my puzzle-friend), end up here?  It’s meant to be mostly regurgitation, but there’s no rubric or anything so I get the feeling that it’ll be graded based on vibes and effort.  I’m cutting it a little close but I’ll get it done.  I always do.

I literally never see the windows open from the rooms across from me which like,,, on some level I get it bc privacy but their rooms aren’t situated like mine, so they only have the one window and I simply cannot fathom keeping the blinds closed literally all the time on my only window.  Man I love my room so much.

I think one of the biggest things I learned from PJO/HOO was that anyone could be a hero.  Age, gender, stereotypes, learning ability/disability, economic class... those things didn’t matter.  Even Paul Blofis, a dude without a magic bone in his body, was able to help in the Battle of Manhattan.  As a ten year old, seeing kids with dyslexia and adhd use those “disabilities” to their advantage as a literal cannon aspect of the story was so so cool despite myself not having either.  I’m literally so excited for the series.

Not gonna lie though,,,,, it’s a little bit funny to me that nobody’s up in arms over Grover being nonwhite when he was white (I’m almost definitely sure lil goat dude was a redhead... like that feels like a description from really really early on that I recall reading, like when they were on the bus or somethin) in the books.  Y’all boutta tear your throats to shreds arguing over hair colors but have no problem seeing a goat-man as nonwhite?  Hasn’t it been shown that the depiction of poc as non-human/animal characters has a lil bit of uhhh racist undertones?  Now, I’m happy for the kid, don’t get me wrong.  I’m just saying that a lot of people’s true colors are showing both from what they’re arguing about and what they’re not mentioning at all.  “Oh ya it was really easy for me to picture Grover as nonwhite” and why exactly is that, hm?

I’m making a list of WTNV episodes that could be good for someone to listen to for their first ever WTNV thing.  Now, I, personally, was hooked by episode 1, but I think there are definitely some better monologues that Cecil’s performed.  I don’t want there to be character arcs (not that one Lee Marvin episode), no major plot developments (no Desert Bluffs)...

Episode 22 (The Whispering Forest) for the opener, 62 for the but no I can’t bc Maureen leaves and that’s a spoiler, 54 (A Carnival Comes to Town) for just one line but it’s got the right amount of creepy, I would do episode 60 but it doesn’t mention weather by name and goes a bit out of the formula so not that one, not 56 bc spoilers, not the episodes about You or Them because even though they’re fantastic they go outside of the normal formula, ... I think of the ones I’ve listed as having cool quotes, E22 and E54 are probably best to show newcomers.

Speaking of podcasts I’m watching CR c3e22 and the whole conversation around 3:19:00 where they’re using edging to describe Chetney’s feral reaction has me in TEARS AND MATT JUST WON’T STOP THEM

...what if I made my dad a Star Trek apron... hmm.  And since we’re on the topic of sewing I’ve got this lovely pink linen blend at home that I’ve known for ages was going to become a bishop-sleeved blouse (maybe princess-seamed, like KittenishBehavior’s Shirt of Dreams? (I do think I’d prefer the tucked-in look, so that might be what I go for, we’ll see)) but every once in a while I start to think well what if I used it for something else (what if it was a tank dress with princess seams (I don’t tend to wear light-colored dresses (...but then I’d have two ways to style it (that assumes I’d even have enough fabric for a dress))), what if it was a half circle skirt (I prefer darker bottoms though), what if it was a chemise-style top (I think I want one in white first)).  And I take myself through a bunch of projects on my list but always return back to the same original idea.  I guess sometimes you just find fabric that fits a project really really well.  

Today I’m thankful that I’ll have the opportunity later this week to visit a smivy smeage lab.  There’s the remote possibility that I could intern there this summer, but I’m not really holding my breath over it.  I’ve never stepped foot onto an ivy league campus before so this should be interesting.  I also get to ride a train up there which will be dope!!  It’ll be a whole day trip on my own, really.  

[reyofsunlight666]

aesthetics vs plot: a rant

(For reference: the books I have in mind as I write this are Moïra Fowley-Doyle's The Accident Season, Deirdre Sullivan's Savage Her Reply and Sarah Maria Griffin's Spare and Found Parts, the latter of which I'm currently reading) This year I've been intentionally trying to seek out and read Irish SFF. Most SFF I usually read is American, and I want to get a sense of what's going on this side of the Atlantic. In practice, this has meant reading mostly YA, as there's very few adult SFF writers in Ireland. And boy howdy, have I noticed some bullshit. *cracks knuckles*

All three of the novels I namechecked above are incredibly high-concept. Mysterious gothic phenomena happening year after year to a Family With Secrets? Yes, please. Retelling of a famous Celtic myth from the perspective of the evil stepmother? Sign me up! Steampunk gender-swapped Frankenstein in post-apocalyptic Dublin? Oh, hell yes. And all three of them are incredibly disappointing. The Accident Season's mystery plot descends into incoherence. Savage Her Reply promises a morally grey woman with power and then promptly skates over how she got that power. Spare and Found Parts has tons of cool worldbuilding details, absolutely zero of which impact the protagonist's life beyond mild inconvenience. In a post-apocalyptic world. All these issues have in common what I've noticed is a wider trend in YA as a whole: aesthetics over substance. What does it matter whether your protagonist is actually memorable or interesting? She's a brown queer woman! What does it matter whether your plot has distinct narrative beats created by protagonist agency causing organic consequences? Look at this Steampunk Desk Porn (TM)! What does it matter whether you make your settings meaningful by including them in meaningful plot points? Look at these escaped zoo animals in Phoenix Park, and watch as the protagonists fucking cycle by them with no consequences! (Okay, I'll admit I've got especially strong hate for Spare and Found Parts. That's because it's fresh in my mind, but the others have issues like this as well.) Look. I definitely have more artistic goals in common with these people than not. But if you include fantastic elements, they ain't just a pretty backdrop. If you treat them like that, they become forgettable, a series of widgets to put together instead of becoming Other and Alive. You have to make them matter.

For contrast, look at Welcome to Night Vale - a work that on the surface has much more hodgepodge worldbuilding. But Night Vale feels much more vivid and alive because it makes the worldbuilding integral to plot, character and place. Citizens of Night Vale are regularly inconvenienced, maimed and murdered by the Weird Thing Of The Week. Things like Carlos heading to the desert otherworld or the army of little people under the bowling alley trigger major character developments for the main cast.

Another crucial thing about WTNV and building a weird aesthetic is that it doesn't go all weird, all the time. There might be mysterious hooded creatures, but they sit in Starbucks. There might be pictures of an almighty Glow Cloud, but they get posted on social media. The show has a basis in ordinary life from which the weirdness can grow.

These books have no such restraint. In The Accident Season, the titular accident season and the old house where the climax happens was more than enough for magical realism. But the author had to go with all quirk, all the time. A rural Irish town and an isolated family needed to be kept ordinary apart from the weird stuff. But no, there had to be an incredibly quirky best friend and an incredibly quirky secret...gathering...thing in the school and an incredibly quirky Halloween party and...ugh. Instead of the actual cool plot & setpieces standing out, they ended up as one more exhausting attempt for the author to convince you how special she was. I wonder how much this is connected to norms of fandom and fanfic writing. I hate to say that, because I love fanfic. But underdeveloped original characters, lush settings that have about as much interactivity as a Pinterest board and little to no grasp of plot feel very internet- and fandom-influenced as flaws. And modern YA, with its interest in diversity, romance and left-wing political standpoints, is heavily influenced by fanfic, even when it's not being written by fanfic authors.

I hate this stuff precisely because of how much I love diverse characters and interesting genre literature and SFF set in Ireland. I want these things to be good because I want more of them - as a reader and a writer. I want to read this stuff. I want to write it, publish it & know that I'm not either getting tarred with the same aesthetic brush as this crowd or having my flaws swept under the rug in the name of ~social justice~ or ~the YA book community~ or some equally gooey concept. And whenever the aesthetic YA/diversity bubble bursts? I still want to get published, and I won't be able to if my aesthetic goals can be brushed off as poorly executed fads.

#young adult #ya books #ya literature #ya critical #literature #books #fantasy #scifi #meta #my writing #sarah maria griffin #spare and found parts #the accident season #moira fowley-doyle #savage her reply #deirdre sullivan #welcome to night vale