#janus descending

[specialagentartemis]

Something always fascinating to me is the "character who thinks they're in a different genre" phenomenon. The theme of the story you are telling determines what the right and wrong actions to take are; but the characters, reacting in-universe to the situation, don't know what story they're in, and the exact same responses can be what saves you or damns you depending on what kind of story the author is telling and what the story's message is about what life is like.

In Wolf 359, Warren Kepler approaches the mysterious and powerful aliens with threats; he kills their liaison and tries to position himself as a powerful opponent. However, he's shown to be wrong and making things worse: his preemptive aggression is unwarranted and unhelpful and bites him in the ass. The aliens want to communicate and understand humanity and share our music. It's Doug Eiffel, the pacifistic (and kind of scaredy-cat) communications officer who loves to talk and share pop culture, who talks to them and understands that the aliens are scary not because they want to kill us but because they don't understand the concepts of individuals and death. Talking to them, communicating with them, understanding where they're coming from and and bringing them to understand a human point of view, is what succeeds. Openness rather than suspicion, trust rather than aggression. Kepler thinks he's a dramatic space marine protecting the Earth from the alien threat by showing them humans are tough and can take them, but that's not the kind of story this is.

Conversely, in Janus Descending, Chel is in awe of the strange and beautiful alien world around her. She wants to touch it, understand it, get up close to it. When she sees a crystal alien dog, she wants to befriend it, despite Peter's warning. But when she gets close to it, extending her arm in greeting, it attacks her and drags her down into the cave to try to eat her. This sets the inevitable tragedy in motion. Suspicion is warranted; trust will get you killed. Because this is a sci-fi horror, with a major running thematic reading about how racism and sexism will destroy your brain and your society, and how the people who think they're too smart to be prejudiced don't see their own prejudice and will end up ruining the lives of the people they still don't fully see as equals, this kind of trust that Chel shows this strange alien is tragic. However it is also a horror story where there are very real hibernating space snakes ready to wake up and eat the fresh meat that has landed on their planet, and by being too trusting Chel has accidentally introduced herself to one.

Kepler, suspicious and ready to shoot any alien he doesn't understand, would likely have survived Janus Descending; Chel, with her enthusiasm for learning about and meeting aliens, would have been a wonderful and helpful member of the Wolf 359 crew.

In a similar manner, in Alien, Ellen Ripley yells to the rest of her crew not to bring the attacked crewmember with the alien on his face back on the ship and into the medical bay, you don't know what contamination that thing might have; she's ignored. She tells them not to let the crewmember out of quarantine even though he seems fine; she's ignored again. Ripley is the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, and she is consistently ignored, until an alien bursts out of her crewmate's chest and then eats everyone and Ripley is proven to be right and also the only survivor. (And it turns out that the science officer consistently overriding her protests was an android sent by the company that contracted them, and said android was given orders to bring the alien back so the company could study it and do weapons development with it, try not to let the crew find out about it, and kill them if he had to in order to do so!)

Ripley's paranoia and mistrust of the situation was correct, because Alien is a space horror and the theme is in space no one can hear you scream (also corporations consider you expendable).

Conversely, in All Systems Red, we have a damaged and almost-combat-overridden Murderbot being brought back into the PreservationAux hab medical bay after being attacked by other SecUnits. Gurathin becomes the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, he doesn't want to let Murderbot out because it's hacked and probably sabotaging them for the company contracted their security and sent it with them. Gurathin thinks he is the Ellen Ripley here! He is trying to warn his teammates not to make a dangerous mistake that will get everyone killed!

However, All Systems Red is a very different story than Alien, and Murderbot is neither a traitor on behalf of the company to sabotage them and steal alien remnants for weapons development, nor a threat to the humans - it's a friend, it's a good person, and it wants to help them against both companies willing to screw them over. Trusting it and helping it is the right thing to do and is what saves their lives. Gurathin is proven to be wrong.

If everyone on the Nostromo crew had listened to Ellen Ripley, they would still be alive (except Kane. RIP Kane), because this is a horror story about being isolated and hunted and going up against this horrifying thing that wants to kill and eat you and just keeps getting stronger. If everyone on the PreservationAux team listened to Gurathin, they would all be dead, because this is a story about friendship and teamwork and trust and overcoming trauma and accepting the personhood of someone very different from you.

Same responses. Different context. And so very different moral conclusions.

Warren Kepler was about how the brash violent over-confident approach to things you don't understand is wrong, and that openness and developing that understanding between people is what's important; Chel was about the tragedy of trust destroying a Black woman who wanted so much to believe in a world that could be kind and beautiful. Ripley was about a woman whose expertise and safety warnings were ignored and brushed aside and everyone who did so died because of it; Gurathin was about how even justified fear shouldn't mean you make someone else a scapegoat and mistrust them because they seem scary.

Sometimes you're in the wrong genre because you need to be, because the author is trying to show how not to react to the situation they set up in order to build the mood and the theme they're trying to convey.

#Wolf 359 #Janus Descending #Alien #The Murderbot Diaries #Murderbot #meta #my meta #it's about what the author is saying about the nature of the world and how to respond to it

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hey!!! You commented on my post about limetown haha which is why I’m here. You offered to give podcast recs! What are your favorites?? I’m looking for some new ones

I completely forgot I had this ask, excuse the delay. Here's a selection of 30 podcasts I enjoyed from a broad range of genres: hopefully at least one appeals.

Let me know if you're after something more specific.

Arden: (Investigative, Comedy) On the 25th of December, 2007, heiress and young actress Julie Capsom crashed her car into a tree and fled into a nearby forest clearing, leaving a trail that seemingly vanished into thin air, and a dismembered torso in the trunk. A decade later, Bea, the first reporter on the scene, and Brenda, a detective on the case, are hosting a true crime podcast about it, and neither is remotely impressed with what the other has to say. Arden is also a retelling of various Shakespeare plays.

Desperado: (Supernatural, Adventure, Horror Elements) In a modern world of gods and magic, three young people, all under the patronage of death dieties, embark on the same adventure for different reasons: for safety, for revenge, and to kill The Old Man in the Sky. Fantastic banter and killer action sequences.

The Far Meridian: (Magical Realism) An agoraphobic young woman wakes one day to discover her lighthouse home has travelled to somewhere entirely unfamilar. As this continues to happen day after day, she uses the opportunity to search for her missing brother. A really unique and charming piece of fiction.

Gastronaut: (Sci-Fi) Interstellar travel audio blog of a former food critic as he travels to an active warzone to get firsthand experience with unfamilar cuisine. ft. Disgruntled martian nobility, sinister businessmen, explosive mushrooms, forbidden snacks, rogue revolutionary artists, and the consequences of your actions.

Girl in Space: (Sci-Fi) The Girl In Space lives alone on a space station, doing science, making cheese, rewatching Jurassic Park, and tending to the plants, animals, and artificial sun entrusted to her. It's a little lonely, but not a bad life. Would be a shame if someone came along to ruin it.

The Goblet Wire: (Microfiction, Weird Fiction) A surreal microfiction with horror elements, taking the form of phone calls to an audio-based game in which the voice of the mysterious Dictator leads each player through fantastic and horrific world and story.

Hello From The Hallowoods: (Horror, Supernatural) A dramatic entity beyond your comprehension visits your nightmares to tell stories of the people (in varying degrees of human and alive) that inhabit the strange, deadly, and beautiful Hallowoods, as they find meaning and sometimes eachother.

Hi Nay: (Supernatural Horror) A year after moving to Toronto, sound designer Mari finds herself drawn into helping people around the city with various horrific supernatural encounters due to her babaylan (shaman) family background. It quickly becomes apparent that there's something much more sinister and complicated happening in the background.

Inco: (Microfiction, Sci-Fi) A perpetually exausted interstellar information trader and her peppy AI find a mysterious (read: bratty) boy floating in space and are inadventently pulled into a world political intrigue.

Inn Between: (Fantasy) Ever curious about what the D&D characters get up to at the tavern between sessions? A generally lighter-hearted (with some exceptions) with richly-written and always-growing characters. A really interesting format, too: a lot of the adventure appears in the "next time" and "last time" segments which makes it all flow really nicely. Not a tabletop podcast.

Janus Descending: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Tragedy) A xenoarcheologist and a xenopaleontologist are sent to a study a dead city on a distant world. Nobody likes what they find there. A unique format, with one set of logs presented first to last, and the other last to first. I'd recommend listening to the supercut for this one.

The Kingmaker Histories: (Steampunk, Weird Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy Elements) In the Valorian Socialist Republic 1911, on her 25th birthday, tailor's apprentice Colette experienced the worst headache of her life. As a result, she fleed from town with a human artificer and a fae chef - both now smugglers - pursued by an utterly furious flesh-crafter. I'm not sure I'm selling how good this podcast is but it's very good.

Life With Althaar: (Sci-Fi, Comedy) A human repairman moves to a space station on the edge of human territory that is perpetually on the edge of self-destruction, and ends up with a less-than-ideal last-minute roomate. Althaar is polite, friendly, deeply interested in human culture, and eager to be friends. Unfortunately he belongs to a species that sends humans into a visceral panic at a glance.

Lost Terminal: (Sci-Fi, Hopepunk) Seth is a very lonely AI living on a satellite. His crew were left stranded aboard with no hope of return, and it's been longer than he can count since then. The Earth below him has changed dramatically, and with only a few other AI down there to talk to, he's very lonely. But! He has a plan to make some new friends.

Love and Luck: (Romance, Slice-of-Life and Urban Fantasy Elements) Voice messages cataloguing two young men falling in love and opening a queer dry bar together.

Midnight Radio: (Light Supernatural, Romance) Sybil McIntyre, host of the ever-popular 1950's nightly radio hour, begins exchanging letters with an old fan who has reluctantly returned to visit Sybil's beloved town.

Midst: (Weird Fiction, Western, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Elements) The old-western planetoid islet of Midst floats, rotating steadily, in a sea of reality-warping darkness. Down in the town of Stationary Hill, things are in movement, and vistors from the light above are about to bring unanticipated change. ft a monocycle-riding monster-hunter, radio-famous airship paladins, deadly mica, the universe's peppiest cultist, good dogs, and a really strange businessman.

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy and Horror Elements) A friendly AI tour guide leads you on a tour of the Mistholme Museum, explaining the strange and often alternatural story behind each item.

Monstrous Agonies: (Supernatural, Relationship Advice) An interpersonal advice show for supernatural entities and other people living liminally in the modern world.

Night Shift: (Urban Fantasy, Investigative) Set in a modern world with the addition of magic, which manifests in small inherited skills/traits, can warp people in horrific ways, or can be manipulated with the right science (and intense work) to induce superpowers. Sebastian Fenn is a barista at Night Shift Coffee, but since things are slow he's decided to start a podcast to talk about various mysteries, crimes and conspiracies around the city, and of course finds himself deeper in them than he'd intended.

The Pasithea Powder: (Sci-Fi, Thriller Elements? I think?) The last major interplanetary war was full of atrocities, but none more infamous then the creation of Pasithea Powder, a memory altering drug which was used to horrible effect and landed it's entire team of creators in prison. So when decorated war hero Captain Sophie Green sees one of them wandering free, worlds away from his prison, she gets in touch with a very old, estranged friend: one Dr. Jane Gonzalez, who's behind bars for the very same reason.

SCP: Find Us Alive: (Weird Fiction, Supernatural, Horror and Slice-of-Life elements) You don't need to know anything about SCP to enjoy this. A research team gets trapped in an underground research facility when the complex collapses and the building is dragged into a pocket dimension. The tear it was designed to study begins creating tiny copies of itself, generating strange entities the team needs to deal with. And as if that wasn't enough, the entire situation physically resets itself every 30 days. And yet, this is genuinely also an office comedy.

Second Star to the Left: (Sci-Fi) Audio logs of a scout sent to explore and establish early infastructure new world, and the communications with the minder in charge of keeping her alive.

Seen and Not Heard: (Slice-of-Life, Drama) Seen and Not Heard follows Bet, who's still adjusting to life a year after a bout of severe illness, and the resulting hearing loss it caused. It's about the ways we make connection, and food, and art, and different kinds of grief.

The Silt Verses: (Horror) In a modern world where gods are abundant, frequently both commercialised and restricted, two devotees of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage.

SINKHOLE: (Sci-Fi, Weird Fiction) Forum posts from a data restoration community in a near future where the human brain is its own computer and one city hosts a massive void.

Starfall: (Fantasy) Seeking to escape her mysterious past and find some purpose, a young swordswoman joins a travelling actor's troupe. This new life is unfamilar and sometimes stressful, but she's taken under the wing of stagehand Fel, who's determined to help her feel welcome as she experiences the figurative and literal magic of the theatre for the first time.

The Tower: (Weird Fiction) A low-key, meditative podcasy about a young woman who decides to climb a seemingly endless tower. Gorgeous sound design.

The Vesta Clinic: (Sci-Fi) New GP Dr. Fae Underwood, with the expert transcription skills of resident AI Sec, writes up patient reports on human and alien patients of The Vesta Clinic, a medical clinic on the edge of human space. Really comfy and creative.

Victoriocity: (Steampunk, Mystery) Set in the steam-powered Victorian city of Even Greater London, an aspiring journalist and a tired detective find themselves working together to solve a strange murder. I say Victorian but as queen Victoria is now an extensive grandiocity of cyborg components following seven only-kind-of-successful assassinations, you may need to adjust expectations a little.

#audio drama #recommendations #fiction podcast #long post #arden #desperado #the far meridian #gastronaut #girl in space #the goblet wire #hello from the hallowoods #hi nay #inco #inn between #janus descending #the kingmaker histories #life with althaar #lost terminal #love and luck #midnight radio #midst #the mistholme museum of mystery morbidity and mortality #monstrous agonies #night shift podcast #the pasithea powder #scp: find us alive #second star to the left #seen and not heard #the silt verses #sinkhole

[fandomscraziness22]

my Podcast Mania! ornament is back and better than ever! With 70 podcasts, this thing is full of goodness! Find it here!

#welcome to nightvale #wtn #the bright sessions #tbs #escaping denver #zero hours #wooden overcoats #wolf 359 #the truth #ars paradoxica #janus descending #podcasts #etsy shop #passenger list #midnight burger #desert skies #ethics town #old gods of appalachia #within the wires #the penumbra podcast #penumbra

[lunacias]

listening to my silly lil podcasts at work like 

#podcasts #the magnus archives #the silt verses #malevolent #red valley #janus descending #the secret of st kilda #listen i wanted to include more transcripts #listen i know four of these are from tsv #but I have terrible memory of what happened in what specific episodes #since some things I wanted to include i listened to last year #like white vault blood crow stories primordial deep #but i just think it's funny i'll be sitting at work #tapping my foot or bobbing my head as a form of stimming #and i realized it probably looks like I'm doing it to the beat of music #comic #my art

[vestaclinicpod]

Happy #AudioDramaSunday! To get everyone in that spooky-kinda mood, today we’d like to share a list of horror audio dramas that genuinely kept us up at night! 

I Am In Eskew - for that constant, droning terror. You don’t realise you’re holding your breath, but you are. 

Janus Descending - we have never recovered from that cave scene. We never will. 

The Magnus Archives - the. blanket. never. did. anything. 

Alice Isn’t Dead - a real throat punch of a story, genuinely scary body horror 

Welcome to Nightvale - it’s all shits and giggles until you have to go to the mirror. . . 

The Black Tapes - Tall Paul still lives in our nightmares 

Malevolent - sometimes we have to listen with our backs against a wall . . . just in case. 

We want more spooky recs! What scenes from horror audio dramas still make you shudder? 

#podcast recs #horror #horror fiction podcasts #I am in eskew #janus descending #the magnus archives #alice isn't dead #welcome to night vale #the black tapes #malevolent

[re-dracula]

99!

You don't even KNOW how good of a show I'm about to recommend to you. Everyone PLEASE listen to Janus Descending. This nonlinear horror story tells you exactly what happens to the two scientists who travel to a far-away planet for research, and it STILL surprises you! By Thee Mistress of Monsters herself Jordan Cobb. You won't be disappointed.

#janus descending #audio drama rec

[ameliapodcast]

Intern, that's isn't even remotely tap related

But wtf You DID NOT SAID TO ME THAT I WOULD BR CRYING MY EYES OFF AT THE WOODEN OVERCOATS FINALE

I thought we HAD BOND ABOUT RUDYARD'S AND ARTHUR'S STORIES

And NOW IM CRYING AND FEELING TERRIBLE AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT DO NEXT

Oh dear! You cried because of a podcast? How could that happen!

I can recommend more podcasts? I mean, @hellofromthehallowoods won't make you cry like, at all! Or Wolf359? They only fight about toothpaste! And Acdemicasaurus will absolutely not make you think about the Interviewer whenever a certain person obsessed with a singular fish shows up. Oh!!!! Primordial Deep also is really light! No crying at all! Come to think of it, I don't think The Pilgrimage will even give you one emotion!

I'm sorry, I am running out of sarcasm. Rule of Thumb: It's all fun and games until you get to season (episode?) 3. Have a hug and a duck and some cocoa my friend.

#evil giggling #fiction podcasts #hello from the hallowoods #wolf 359 #academicasaurus #which is by the way a tag probably only used by me #Primordial Deep #Janus Descending #The Pilgrimage #The Amelia Project #ghostlycollectorchaos #<3 <3 <3

[the-acer-scientist]

HEY! HEY PODCAST GAYS! yes, y’all, hello! fellow podcast queer in need of a recommendation! I am completely sane and normal about (read: incredibly hyperfixated on) audiodrama podcasts and was completely normal and neurotypical conversation (went on an ADHD winding trail of a monologue) with my mother, who has now mentioned that she would actually love to try one!

However: I’ve only really listened to horror (a lá Magnus Archives and Janus Descending) and slow-plot-reveal comedy (Wolf359, The Amelia Project), which are her two least favorite genres. And thus I request your help, fellow podcast enjoyers: any recommendations for mystery pods? (For the readers, she’s a big fan of Patterson, Grisham, and I think Nora Roberts)

any recs appreciated!!

#audiodrama podcasts #podcast recommendation #recommendation request #the magnus archives #w359 #the amelia project #strange case of starship Iris #Juno steel #I would rec her Juno Steel but she would Not React Well to Juno Nureyev and Peter Steel #the bright sessions #Janus descending #malevolent #rusty quill #I’m gonna ease her in and then slowly suggest the Juno steel mysteries n see what happens

[wireless-telegraph]

#archive 81 #mirrors #janus descending #the silt verses #the hotel #polls

[graciliswindowsill]

Started Janus Descending just now and wait, KEPLER?? in another space exploration life threatening job of giving orders???

I'm still in the prologues but if Hera is the computer too I'll not be surprised

#The moment he started talking I though “I already hate him #but why? #and then realized the voice was familiar #janus Descending #w359 #warren kepler #fiction podcasts #audiodrama #tinta speaks

[naazaif327]

I was looking for this podcast I listened to a bit of years and years ago, and I was wondering if anyone could help. It was a horror podcast told in first person by an adult man (I think he was british??) describing the horrifying events of his teenage years in I believe a small town. I remember it being very surreal and strange, with a vibe of someone reading a book, doing the voices for all the characters and split into a bunch of chapters. There was a lot of psychological horror elements to it, not knowing what was real and what could have been a dream, what horrors he actually committed and which were made up, and maybe his father turning out be this crazy guy he keeps running into; also there’s like a cop or detective that seems like the only normal person he could trust. I have a vivid memory of a scene where he walks into some kind of weird underground kink party thing where he gets tied up and saved by the cop friend. I think there were two seasons though I never finished it.

Does anyone have any idea what I’m talking about? I know these are such vague details and sound completely insane, but I’m really hoping someone else know

#podcasts #horror podcast #horror podcasts #the magnus archives #tma #the black tapes #unwell podcast #janus descending #the white vault #archive 81 #horror audio drama #horror audio fiction

[specialagentartemis]

Diversity win! The people who were so desperate to survive that they doomed the entire world are bi, aroace, and non-binary!

#Janus Descending #this is about Descendants #Great going Rori and Axel

[boombox-fuckboy]

Hi!

I have been following this blog for a while now and I love using it to find new podcasts. I was wondering, if you have time, what you think is the scariest podcast you've listened to or what your favorite horror podcasts might be? Thank you, and I hope you have a great day :)

I'm so glad to have helped you find new shows!

I don't really get scared by horror podcasts (not sure why. It isn't some "I'm tough" thing, I get startled by the toaster, and it's not like I never feel unsettled or concerned or icked out at podcasts, just not scared) so I'm not sure I can give you a good answer on that one, but I'll gladly give you ten of my personal favourites instead:

Alice Isn't Dead: The podcast that got me into podcasts. A truck driver travels the USA looking for her wife, who until recently, she had thought was dead. Along the way she has all manner of strange encounters, and sees a side to the world that few truely comprehend.

Archive 81: A young archivist takes a job at a remote outpost organising and digitising a collection of tapes. On the tapes is a series of interviews and investigations made by a social worker in the 90s as she becomes familiar with a bizzare apartment building. The archivist, naturally, has an increasingly bad time. Each season is part of the same story, but they're all a bit different.

Ghost Wax: Recorded interviews conducted by the last surviving necromancer, and various people who died under seemingly otherworldly circumstances.

Hello From The Hallowoods: Supernatural and cosmic horror. A powerful and dramatic entity visits your nightmares to relay stories of the people (to varying degrees of both human and alive) who inhabit the beautiful and deadly Hallowoods. What start off as individual stories quickly connect to a larger narrative.

Hi Nay: A supernatural horror following a young woman named Mari, who's babaylan (shaman) family background draws her into helping people with various horrific supernatural problems around Toronto. Formatted as phone calls to her mother telling her what's happened.

I Am In Eskew: Often-horrific stories from a man living in something that very much wishes to be a city, and a private investigator who was, in her words, hired to kill a ghost. Many people seem to agree this one is scary.

Janus Descending: A xenoarcheologist and a xenopaleontologist are sent to investigate and sample the ruins of a long-dead alien city, and discover more than they anticipated. The format for this one is really clever: you hear her audio logs first to last, and his last to first, and the story is all the more heartbreaking for it. I'd recommend listening to the supercut.

The Lost Cat Podcast: A man befriends strange entities, loses bits of himself and drinks an awful lot of wine while looking for his cat. Soft and cosmic horror.

The Moon Crown: The shortest on this list, but also one of the most fascinating. A disgraced scribe living in a city of humans, beasts, and other bizzare entities, begins to recount recent happenings, and actions she has a hard time explaining, on broadcast. But the people she's hoping to reach might not be the ones listening.

The Silt Verses: In a modern world where gods are plentiful, both illicit and commercialised, two disciples of an outlawed river god go on a pilgrimage.

Although, maybe some other listeners can help me out and share what scared them?

#Please do note that these are not necessarily the *best* horror podcasts. They're my favourites. #audio drama #alice isn't dead #archive 81 #ghost wax #hello from the hallowoods #hi nay #i am in eskew #janus descending #the lost cat podcast #the moon crown #the silt verses #Or like. Some of my favourites. #hopefully this all makes sense I am sleepytired

[keykidpilipili]

Janus Descending Sequel

Or as I like to call it local white man keeps calling dibs on driving the hive mind monsters with the power of the Cain instinct.

#janus descending #janus descending descendants #buddy it's the queue you gotta let me go #janus descending spoilers #janus descending descendants spoilers #I think it's lovely how the trio trusting each other and refusing to leave anyone behind dooms the world while the first installment #had the reverse pattern aka Peter too much paranoid to see Chel is still normal and not infected

[skyfullofpods]

J is for Janus Descending!

Xenoarchaeologists Chel and Peter are sent to investigate a planet, and the remains of the alien civilisation that once lived there. Episodes are released in an inverse chronological order, making for a fascinating narrative structure.

Sequel series Descendants released its season one finale during the holidays.

#Janus Descending #audio fiction #audio drama #podcasts #random podcast recommendations #podcast recommendations #podcast recs #sci-fi podcasts #sci-fi horror #sci-fi horror podcasts

[vestaclinicpod]

On the 5th Day of Podmas. . .

FIVE HORROR POOOOODS 🎶

These horror shows are 11/10s and you should definitely check them out if you haven’t already! 

Join in the reviewing fun with #12DaysOfPodmas!

#12daysofpodmas #malevolent #the silt verses #janus descending #tiny terrors #the white vault #audio drama #horror fiction podcasts