#When I first started listening to Wolf 359 back in 2017

[hephaestuscrew]

I'm not the first person to say this, but there really is something groundbreaking about the lack of romantic plotlines in Wolf 359.

Wolf 359 is a story aimed at and about adults. It's partly about what it means to be human. It's partly about how we exist in relation to other people. It's partly about interpersonal connection and understanding. It has character relationships at its heart. It features so many moments of love and care between characters. It takes place across just over two years of the characters' lives, with 61 episodes and a main cast that grows to a decent size.

And despite all this, the show doesn't feature a single canonical 'on-screen' romantic (or sexual) relationship. Perhaps that shouldn't be as rare as it is, but it's one of the many things that makes Wolf 359 special to me.

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

What are your personal favorite podcasts?

Mod Nic here, I just got access to the askbox (Thank you Mods Kat and Axe!) and I'll be getting to the asks and submissions in chronological order except I wanted to answer this first.

My top three podcasts I can't rank because they all feel incomparable. They are Welcome to Night Vale, Wolf 359, and Friends at the Table.

Welcome to Night Vale: A classic. I've listened to this at least four times. Of course, 20 new episodes come out a year (plus bonus episodes on Patreon and liveshows on Bandcamp) so I haven't listened to every episode four times, because on each listen it gets longer and longer. I found it summer of 2013 when I was on an international road trip and could only check Tumblr on my iPod Touch when the hostel/motel/airport/ferryport had WiFi. Everyone was talking about it so I used the Apple podcast app (before it was subsumed by iTunes (before it was later rejected by iTunes)) for the first time. I remember coming back to the US and being at my grandparents and excited for a good WiFi connection and a lack of time pressure so that I could reblog Night Vale art like everyone else. My comfort podcast. Despite many people comparing any fiction podcast to Welcome to Night Vale, the first one to feel similar on an emotional level to me is Hello From The Hallowoods. It has the same sense of yes, the world is filled with horrors, but life is beautiful nonetheless. A narrator's gentle voice will tell me the happenings of many people who may or may not know each other but still make up a broader community.

Wolf 359: This is not the first non-Night Vale podcast I listened to, but it was the one that unlocked podcasts for me. The first one that I could track easily and was always eager for the next episode. The first one that was dangerous for my sleep and my homework the way that books are dangerous — once I start I can't put it down. I started it early fall of 2016 at the beginning of my junior year of college. I remember walking around parks playing Pokémon Go and coloring a page of an adult coloring book. I believe I caught up at Memoria, which was amazing timing. Opposite of a comfort podcast. I think I've listened to seasons 1–3 twice, but since the show finished I can't listen to more than an episode without getting devastated by emotions. Second media property I've ever had a fic idea for that I really want to write.... just as soon as I can manage a relisten. Not really comparable except for that it also has a protagonist that is a diagetic narrator closely backed by an ensemble cast and a show-long plot (instead of a season-long plot), but Hi Nay is probably the fastest I've ever gone from hearing a podcast for the first time to backing it on Patreon (but it was more a replacement for The Magnus Archives in my listening schedule, turns out I need to be exercising to listen to horror).

Friends at the Table: An actual play podcast that ruined me for actual play podcasts. Started listening in 2017 after I needed to temporarily withdraw from school due to my health collapsing causing me to fail classes. I had been listening to The Adventure Zone, but I actually started it because so many amazing Wolf 359 fan artists and fic writers were making art and fic for F@tT and I just had to know what that was about. I caught up just in time to start with Spring in Hieron. Due to my personal audio issues, I often have no idea what's going on in the sci-fi seasons, but that hasn't stopped me from crying because of it anyways. I can give personalized recommended starting points if I know someone, but in general I'm a big advocate for starting with the very first episode. My favorite season is probably still Autumn in Hieron, despite the audio quality. The moment when an interpretation of a roll from a player caused the pirates to become undead pirates was probably the moment when I got excited about wanting to play tabletop roleplaying games myself. Since I found it I've bounced off of every single actual play podcast I've tried listening to, until a few months ago when I started the Ruin's Gate season of The Unexplored Places. Ruin's Gate has the distinction of being the first time I've been able to track what the rolls of a Forged in the Dark game mean from a narrative perspective instead of just a mechanics perspective.

—Mod Nic

[wanderingandfound]

It's such a different era than when I first got into podcasts. No one from PNWS (The Black Tapes and TANIS), no one from ars PARADOXICA, no one from Greater Boston, were submitted. TAZ Balance did not get enough entries for preliminaries, nor did TPP Juno Steel, and I think there were three TBS submissions total. Neither Eiffel nor Hilbert from Wolf 359 were entered, nor any man from Wooden Overcoats. For the smaller podcasts, there was no one from The Far Meridian or Girl in Space or Limetown, and at the end I'm the one who slipped in Kate from The Bridge and SAYER from SAYER.

To say nothing of the tiny ones, like Hadron Gospel Hour and Station To Station and Crossing Wires (which is coming back!).

I know my perception of fandom size is very very skewed. When I first started listening to F@tT in 2017 I thought it was the second biggest AP behind TAZ, and that CR was a distant distant third. But also, I must remember that it is not 2018 anymore.

Anyways, trends are interesting, I might make this an annual thing and see what changes over time.

[digitalhovel]

Late to the Party: Wolf 359 and personhood

I wrote the first draft of this piece in July 2020, but I never got around to editing it before my Fall classes started and my life became a hectic world of crunch. So, finally edited: here are my incredibly, remarkably am-I-too-late-to-comment thoughts on Wolf 359. New posts coming soon!

           Wolf 359 was an audio drama created by Gabriel Urbina that ran from 2014 to 2017, featuring an incredible group of voice actors, excellent writing, and a story that is, at various turns, humorous, adventurous, haunting, tragic, and compelling. It was a forerunner for the podcast explosion that has swept through pop culture in the last decade and continues growing. Perhaps it just feels that way because of how much I’ve seen it lauded on the internet, but I believe it’s true.

           If I were pitching this podcast to someone, I would sell it on the story. A small crew of people orbits a faraway star, listening to the frequencies of space for any signal that may be unusual. Though it begins as a relatively campy, workplace comedy about toothpaste rationing and plant monsters, the story takes steep turns into hard science fiction and rich, character-focused drama that captures the listener and drives them through to the story’ completion. Through the close quarters of the increasingly unreliable Hephaestus space station, the writers never give the characters enough space to avoid their problems and slow the plot down. This closeness also creates a sense of kindred and family that pervades the show’s themes and makes the audience feel that the characters really have something worth fighting for. Those characters begin relatively archetypically: Renée Minkowski is an uptight commanding officer, Doug Eiffel is a slacker and all-around generic man, Alexander Hilbert is a “mad scientist,” and Hera is a governing, feminine A.I. presence. However, by the end of the show, each is given the agency and opportunity to be the main character of an arc, and each grows beyond the limits of their original shells. The craft in the writing and design of this show is remarkable on its own, but the messages it delivers in the story set it apart as more than speculative fiction.

           Okay, so I’m about to go hard into spoiler with this one. If you haven’t listened to the show, I would highly recommend doing so if you’re interested. If you already have, or if you don’t care, on we go.

           Wolf 359 has many themes. It questions the values of discipline and rebellion, it contemplates what sacrifices are worthwhile to achieve a greater good, and, most existentially, it asks what it means to be a sentient, living person. The podcast confronts this issue time and again, examining it through the lenses of clones and artificial intelligence. The fundamental conclusion the series suggests is: if you appear to be a person, and if you have all the memories of that person, and you continue striving to be that person, then you functionally are that person.

But what happens if you suffer complete and total amnesia?

           In the final episode of the series, Doug Eiffel, bad idea extraordinaire, sacrifices his memories in order to also wipe the mind of Dr. Helena Price, one of the show’s primary antagonists. Because of this, Eiffel ends the show reflecting on a life he can’t remember, comforted by his friends, whom he is now 100% more respectful towards. So, if this new man is Doug Eiffel, what does that mean for him and his arc as a character?

           Doug Eiffel is a jerk. He disobeys instructions, he calls people by insensitive or offensive nicknames, and he acts as if his needs are the only ones that matter. He is the archetypal ideal of a straight, white man. His casual attitude provides a great deal of humor throughout the series, especially during its less plot-centric beginnings before space things start happening. It isn’t until the final season of the show that he learns how his actions have hurt and alienated the people around him, the only friends he knows. After this, he makes an effort to correct some of his behaviors, but he doesn’t have much time, because he is soon sucked into a star and put through a series of plot developments that prevent him from experiencing evident growth in how he treats and respects other people. This makes his sudden mind-wipe reversal seem like a shortcut. The new Doug Eiffel recognizes his previous self was an asshole and can now start again, but the emotional journey necessary to reach this point naturally is cut short. He gets a free pass on moral development, and it denies the audience a truly satisfying end to that part of is arc.

           The other significant part of Eiffel’s arc and motivation is the revelation that he has a daughter, whom he was prevented from seeing after he kidnapped her while drunk and proceeded to get into a car crash that injured his daughter and the passengers of the other vehicle. This information came to light in episode 35, during season three. The possibility of seeing his daughter again became the primary motivation for Eiffel, when before it was simply escaping space so he could get back to the luxuries of Earth such as porn and television. Honestly, this revelation works well. It provides conflict between Eiffel and Minkowski, who now has to decide whether Eiffel is a good person or not. It also provides depth and a severe flaw to Eiffel’s character that makes it difficult to accept him as the plucky “everyman” he acted as for the majority of the show. His memory loss comes at the immense cost of forgetting everyone he cares about, but he barely addresses this in the finale after waking up with amnesia. Perhaps this is the most sensible conclusion. With no memory, his daughter is just another person he has forgotten, and his logged memories will tell him more about the crew of the Hephaestus than his own family. But again, this removes the emotional weight from his character.

           This could mean any number of things. The plot could have required this, and Doug, needing that moment of selflessness to develop as an individual, was the most fitting crew member to lose their memories. It could be that Doug’s memories were wiped because the writers realized he was beyond redemption, and only a new slate would provide him the opportunity to change. It could be that this complication was intended from the beginning, and ending Doug’s arc without complete growth was both a human choice and a message about people who don’t change before its too late. No matter what, Doug’s arc ends abruptly, and it feels dissatisfying to have a magical reset button for him when the other characters have to keep their own memories of trauma (some caused by him, even).

This calls into question what Wolf 359 says about personhood. Personhood is defined by memory and experience in the series. This includes, most importantly, trauma. Betrayal, responsibility, and insecurity induced by trauma severely shape the arcs of every crew member of the Hephaestus. Eiffel escapes all this. It comes at a high cost, but if the show’s message about personhood is that it comes from memories, then Eiffel’s character arc ends in a single selfless act that acquits him of the consequences of his previous mistakes and wrongdoings. The Eiffel who wakes up with no memories is a different character, and pretending he isn’t does a disservice to his story in the previous 60 episodes.

           Wolf 359 has a wildly humanist message, and though the conclusion of Eiffel’s arc undercuts some of them, the series still gives many of the characters the endings they deserve. It is at turns hilarious, terrifying, and awe-inspiring. The story delivers on its evolution from hijinks into philosophical contemplation, and for that it deserves recognition, respect, and another binge listen once I’ve made it through my back catalogue.

[transarchivist]

do you have any podcasts recs? I want to listen to archive 81 but I need some backup and I've already listened to the more "famous" ones, like all of them I binge podcasts like they pay me for me it ajsjjshfje

!!!! ok i'm sorry it's taken me a hot minute to get to you BUT i think i have a good amount of reccomendations :o

these first few are kinda "famous" but i thought i'd point em out just in case! some of them ended a few years ago and they were more well known back when they were running

wolf 359: gotta point this one out juuuust in case you haven't listened to it! amazing sci fi... would drama be the right word? it's very intense and has some really interesting meditations on morality and the self But it's also so extremely funny. complete, ended in 2017

ars paradoxica: america during the cold war, the red scare, intense government conspiracies.... And Time Travel! complicated but amazing plot and a big cast- i would recommend not pausing and listening to something else, it gets complex! mischa stanton directed it so you Know it has stellar sound design (added bonus: lgbt main characters) complete, ended in 2018

the bright sessions: people with superpowers go to therapy! plus: shadowy capitalistic conspiracies, amazing romances and phenomenal character development! i'm not a fan of romances and i Loved the ones here (it's not heavily romance focused though!) (added bonus: lgbt main characters + main lgbt romance) complete, ended in 2018. i think a spin off series is running rn tho!

the adventure zone: this isn't an audio drama, it's an actual play d&d podcast! the first season (balance) is amazing- hilarious and heart wrenching! (the heart wrenching takes a while to kick in but MAN it's so good) the first season ended in 2017. i haven't finished the second big season (amnesty) but i loved what i did listen to, same with the currently running season (graduation)

sayer: starts off as sinister night vale but with an ai and in space, evolves into a complicated save-the-world plot concerning several ais. it's in second person and it's Amazing! lots of meditations on the self and personhood. currently on hiatus but will be ending when it resumes

alice isn't dead: from the people who did night vale! starts as a trucker trying to find her wife, evolves to include shadowy government conspiracies and the power of regular people banding together. ending made me tear up it's really good! it's Big on the horror (the first ep is the only podcast that's ever truly scared me and it continues to scare the shit out of me to this day) but its Extremely Good Horror. very americana too! complete, ended in 2018.

ok that's the more well known ones out of the way, i think? i'm not too confident about how well known some of them are nowadays ^^' all i can say is that i heard abt them frequently in 2016. now onto the lesser known ones ! the ones that are complete are generally pretty short listens (relatively- they're still a good handful of hours at the least)

zero hours: by the wolf 359 people, it's a short anthology that released all at once last year. to pharaphrase/quote the official blurb: each episode is a take on the end of the world, whether the apocalypse is planetary or personal. each episode is separated by 99 years, starting in the past (1722) reaching the present and then overtaking it. surprisingly hopeful ending, made me <:')

i am in eskew: you've probably heard me holler about this before- it follows the trials and tribulations of david ward, who lives in the nightmarish and otherworldly city of eskew. 30 episodes long and complete, with a phenomenal ending! i can't rave about this enough i could Keep talking but i'll cut myself short. it's horror and it's damn good horror! does deal with extremely heavy topics, please be careful!

janus descending: sci fi horror with what has to be the most interesting formatting i've seen in ages: the two points of view alternate each episode... but one is chronological and one is backwards! amazingly done, keeps you guessing until the end! complete. follows peter and chel as they undertake a survey mission on an alien planet

midnight radio: made by @/theradioghost! big on the idea that "all ghost stories are love stories". a 1950s radio hostess gets letters from a fan. horror, big on the 1950s aesthetics, focus on the relationship between one and one's hometown. lovely ending! it's sapphic too :]

the far meridian: by the same people who did ars paradoxica! follows peri, a bit of a hermit who has extreme social anxiety, who lives in a lighthouse that suddenly begins to teleport. each morning peri wakes up and the lighthouse is in a different place! there are like... some horror elements? kinda? but it's not intense imo. it mainly follows peri learning to cope with her anxiety & helping others, with each episode usually having a one off encounter (usually pretty strange!) often has wholesome vibes. s3 is currently in production and is the final season. plus: lgbt characters, and kinda spoilers but peri uses a cane later on!

old gods of appalachia: honestly it's what it says on the tin! a collection of short stories set in historical appalachia that deal with entities beyond human understanding. they're good about trigger warnings, but it's Horror. produced by actual appalachians! stellar music, a Lot strong female characters, and a good amount of lgbt rep! killer music!! it's currently releasing but the latest short story is finished. (do listen in order though!)

the deep vault: by the archive 81 team! in an "almost-post-apocalyptic" america a group of friends chase a rumor about a secret hidden vault, only to Find it! follows the group as they traverse the deep vault. horror, actively points out capitalism a Lot, definetly has an interesting ending! amazing sound design, which is to be expected from dan powell!

tides: the official blurb is short and sweet: "tides is the story of dr. winnifred eurus, a xenobiologist stuck on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces". extremely snarky and endearing main character and fascinating worldbuilding! i don't know the status of s2, but s1 was really good!

limetown: follows one lia haddock, a public radio reporter, as she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened at limetown. all she knows is that 10 years prior, over 300 men, women and children vanished. horror, mystery, and some sci fi elements. presented in a found footage kinda way. i really enjoyed it, especially the first season. complete.

mabel: horror (big on the haunted house type specifically), sapphic romance, fun take on the fair folk/fae! follows anna limon, an in home carer who's trying to get in touch with her client's estranged granddaughter. evolves into a big fae-horror-romance-thing! really interesting romance tbh. amazing imagery and prose- lots of prose + almost poetry, but it's really good i promise. currently on a post season hiatus

spines: horror but it evolves past just horror in an interesting way (keeping the horror bits, of course). follows wren, who woke up in an attic surrounded by the remains of a cult ritual without any memories of who she is or what she was doing. she searches for answers, encountering creepy shit along the way. really interesting take on the super-secret-organization-that's-always-been-there trope! really good ending. one of the main characters is nonbinary + there's other lgbt main characters.

mirrors: by the people who did spines. also starts as horror but evolves past just horror (it's also sci fi). follows three women in three different centuries who are all experiencing the same haunting. phenomenal take on ghosts! like i can't articulate how cool this angle on ghosts is! s3 is supposed to start this year :] one of the main characters is sapphic, and her wife is a supporting character.

the six disappearances of ella mccray: also by the people who did spines and mirrors. evolves past just horror but keeps more of the horror elements? follows the 6 povs of the people who witnessed the surreal disappearance of ella mccray. each saw something different and surreal, and as they search for her, surreal things start happening to them. unsure abt the status of s3 but s1 and s2 are really good! lgbt main characters, including a trans lesbian (played by a trans woman!)

the bridge: horror. follows the crew of watchtower 10 on the transcontinental bridge that spans across the atlantic ocean. i listened to it back in like 2016-2017 so my memory is hazy, but i remember really enjoying it! currently on hiatus.

within the wires: sci fi... horror..? i listened to the first season a few years ago and enjoyed it and i've continued to hear really good things. it's by the people who make night vale! my memory isn't great but iirc the first season is a sort of romance that's formatted as a set of relaxation/meditation cassettes. it's a few seasons in and i think each is generally self contained, im unsure if it's currently running or not

the orbiting human circus of the air: also by the night vale people! again i listened to this a few years ago so im hazy. follows julian the janitor who works at a radio station that broadcasts from the top of the eiffel tower! surreal but in a wholesome way, iirc! i remember tearing up with happy tears at the s1 finale ^^' really good music! i think the second(?) season ended recently

stellar firma: i've only listened to a handful of episodes, but i've liked what i've heard. sci fi improv comedy that follows the newly made clone david 7 and the mess that is trexel geistman as they try and design custom planets. i think it's currently running but i dunno

rusty quill gaming: also another one that i've only listened to a few episodes of. actual play pathfinder (basically d&d) podcast set on an alternate earth. alex newall (martin's voice actor) is the dm. i've heard really good things from a lot of people! i think it's currently running but again i don't know for sure

right! that's. that's what i got.

i mentioned @/theradioghost earlier (shes behind midnight radio) but i would absolutely recommend looking at her rec list tag! she has impeccable taste

[caladblog]

*cracks knuckles*

so i’ve been working on a project. here is your first glimpse of this project.

[wolf 359, canon divergence AU from the start of s4, according to the scripts the mutiny was day 1082 & the contact event was day 1083]

teaser: but what's puzzling you is the nature of my game. Plus, blind loyalty, next quarter's budgets, quantum threading, substandard TV, and all this time.

===

HEPHAESTUS DAY 1101 / MARCH 28, 2017:

On the gravel-covered roof of the main Goddard Futuristics administration building, nestled between two air conditioning units, sits a satellite dish not listed on any blueprints. In and of itself, this isn't suspicious. But apart from its odd location, it isn't marked with a manufacturer's logo or even a serial number, and it seems far too small to provide more than a substandard TV service.

Sprawled on the gravel nearby is Marcus Cutter, fanning himself with a folder of reports from personnel scouts located in minor but secure positions across a wide variety of companies and state departments. "Do you ever wonder," he muses, "where humanity would be without us?"

There is a slim laptop plugged into the satellite dish and a microphone plugged into the laptop and Miranda Pryce is tending to both, sitting cross-legged and heedless of the stifling humidity. "No," she says.

"They'd probably still be stuck in the solar system, bless their hearts." By now, he has gotten used to carrying most of the load during conversations with Miranda Pryce. "A couple permanent outposts on Mars, maybe an aerostatic platform on Venus if they could solve the sulfuric acid thing. Plodding researchers all pulling in different directions, never really getting anywhere significant."

"'Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wilder seas where storms will show Your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars'," she quotes absently.

"Yes, exactly. If we weren't around to disturb them, they'd never bother to lose sight of land." He checks his watch, sighs, and continues fanning himself. "I like to think they'd have cracked fusion power, at least. But in my more melancholic moments I remember that it's 2017 and they're still murdering each other for oil."

"There are worse ways to spend an evening," she replies. "Stuck waiting with you when you're feeling philosophical, just as a random example."

"Now, Miranda," he says, very patiently, "we both know that if it was up to me, we wouldn't be waiting at all--"

"Oh, yes, how will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me for wanting a slightly more solid confirmation of outstanding phenomena than the word of Warren Kepler." She stabs the laptop keys in disgust. "That proposal was ill-conceived from start to finish and I don't know what possessed me to sign off on it. Finding someone amusing doesn't make them qualified for the execution of our life's work."

"It isn't only Warren's word--"

"Fine, the word of Warren Kepler and a handful of miscellaneous rejects." Her lip curls. "I've been brushing up on the Hephaestus's active portfolio and I just have to say: of course it would be them. Why couldn't it have been the U.S.S. Anaideia? Or the U.S.S. Themis, that crew has consistently tested in the eighty-fifth percentile for 'blind loyalty' over the last two years they've been in the sky. Which would be really useful right now."

"On the subject of how much you hate dealing with people, unmanned probes have always been cheaper and quicker to build," Cutter points out. They've had this argument before, but if they didn't both enjoy rehashing old arguments one of them would've murdered the other a very long time ago. "We could've achieved this level of coverage by the nineties, maybe even the eighties if you'd just listened to me back then."

"And if I'd listened to you back then, we'd be sitting on two or three decades of useless data," Pryce scoffs. "Unmanned probes aren't a very tempting piece of bait, are they? Can't catch a fish if you're not willing to skewer a few hundred worms."

As the one who gets the most enjoyment out of skewering worms, he really shouldn't protest, but he's bored. "An unmanned probe would've returned these results by now."

"No, it wouldn't, because radiation moves the same speed in a vacuum whether it's being looked at by a machine or an eyeball," she says, saccharine and condescending. "I am not moving forward on the virtue of one data point, Marcus, and if you had a single gram of sense in your entire skull then you wouldn't either."

He rolls onto his stomach facing her and bats his eyelashes. "So you catch me alone on the roof of our workplace at night, and then you start sweet-talking me? Why, Miranda, I never thought that you'd--"

"Quick, shut up," she says, shoving the microphone at him. "Bunker E just started building a live transmission with the Hermes. Outside of Goddard's official channels, the best line-of-sight is an ESA lunar research base to an American telecom satellite."

Cutter sits up, all business. "Who cares if those go dark for ten minutes? Do it."

"Already done."

"Estimated total lag?"

"Four minutes, fifty-three seconds."

He hums, disappointed, and picks up the microphone. "I can just about work with that. Get it down to three and a half next time, okay?"

She mutters something nasty about quantum threading under her breath as the comms channel opens. A third of the message is lost to static, but it's still mostly comprehensible.

"Visual--of Wolf 359 on--and short-range scans. We've sent--raw images from--scope, they're unbelievable. Even--what would happen--wasn't prepared to see it myself, still don't like to think--possible. Repeat: Hermes Actual--independent confirmation of hue change in--59 as reported by Urania upon arrival at Hephaestus station. Further instructions?"

The uplink crackles. Despite the five-minute delay, Cutter drags the silence out nice and long before saying in cold, clipped tones, "That'll have to be sufficient. Maintain mission parameters. I will keep this in mind when reviewing our budgets for this coming quarter."

He doesn't wait for the commander of the Hermes to respond, just closes the channel the moment he finishes speaking and then turns a three-thousand-watt smile on Pryce. "Has that finally laid your atrocious cynicism to rest?"

"So the first step of the process actually happened," she sniffs. "Doesn't mean that all the rest of the steps have followed. But for the sake of expedience, yes, I suppose we can make that assumption." Her gaze drifts upward, to the panorama of stars half drowned by light pollution, and her voice goes soft. "I never doubted our odds of finding them again. Still, after all this time..."

"I know." His gaze drifts upward as well. "Won't be much longer now."

[keeps-me-green]

Podcasts!

Just a little (not really) list showing all of the podcasts that I listen to as of March 2018. Take it as a recommendation list if you want to.

The Bright Sessions

I love this podcast. Kind of a sci-fi storyline with therapy. Makes me very emotional. Such a bunch of diverse characters, and all of them have likeable qualities. (Yes, all of them, but I would still slap at least two of them) Caleb’s my personal favourite. A lot of canon LGBTQ+ characters too! This is definitely my favourite podcast. (I also found out that it’s ending as I’m writing this and while my heart is shattered, I’m very excited to see what comes next! A spin off and a book for Caleb?? yes??? )

Wolf 359

The series has ended, sadly, as of December 2017. Quite an adventure. Can be very rough on the heartstrings. It started off as quite a lighthearted, comedy-centred storyline in space, but took a huge turn very quickly. I’m still kinda shaken from the ending. But I adore this podcast. Each character has their redeeming characteristics, and their worst moments.(is it safe to say I have a soft spot for Kepler)  

Wooden Overcoats

A hilarious podcast, set in the village (almost a town!) of Piffling Vale. It’s a great podcast for when you just need a good laugh, though the humour can be quite dark. You follow the misadventures of estranged twins running a funeral home, when they are greeted with a handsome new neighbour, with a funeral home of his own. Need I say more? (I also love Antigone.)

Welcome to NightVale

My gateway drug Podcast. The podcast everyone knows, and for good reason too. Listening to Cecil’s superfluous voice is like coming home after a long day. Carlos and Cecil’s love is also very cute.  Speaking of which, I’ve been listening to this show for a really long time, and it’s exposure of LGBTQ+ characters was such a pleasant surprise. 

The Penumbra Podcast

First it’s a hotel, now it’s a train. (I don’t remember when this happened) Anyway, it’s a collection of mini stories, and it has one currently running story, following the adventures of Juno Steel, private eye. I can’t really describe Juno without spoiling the story. I highly recommend listening to it. It can get quite intense and emotional. The other stories are also really great. 

The Lost Cat Podcast

I’ve only gotten into this podcast fairly recently, and I’m happy I did. It’s basically about a guy who’s missing his cat and he ends up in such odd situations. It’s accompanied with really catchy music. (That musical episode was so much fun) I would like a tall glass of wine too.

Eos 10

Doctors in space. I had no clue what to expect coming into this podcast. I think I just saw it on someone else’s recommendation list and gave it a shot. I don’t regret it in the slightest. (Though I could’ve done with a warning for episode 4) The characters are all interesting, and I’m planning to listen to the series again while waiting for it to come back.

Alba Salix, Royal Physician

A Physician, forced to deal with the whole kingdom and their petty medical issues, a disgraced monk and an over eager fairy as her assistants. This one’s the latest podcast that I’ve listened to and I fell in love very quickly. I’m really looking forward to the next season! Sometimes I just wish I could give Alba a day off without worrying about what happens to the house of healing.

The Bridge

This podcast is quite unique, in my opinion. I mean, Bob was quite the surprise. I really enjoy the horror aspect of the story and the overall mystery captivates me enough to stay. It takes place on the Transcontinental Bridge. May or may not have monsters.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

This one’s very interesting. It only has 5 episodes so far, but it is very captivating. It’s basically a sci-fi mystery, sometimes comedy that takes place after a huge war. It’s quite the bunch of characters as well, majority -if not all- part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Orbiting Human Circus (Of the Air)

A gorgeous podcast, from the folks in Nightvale Presents. I fell in love with this story fairly easily. It’s about a circus atop the Eiffel Tower, and you follow the story of Julian the janitor, who longs for the stage. Sometimes he does get on the stage but only misfortune ensues. It’s just so whimsical, sad and happy at the same time. Leticia‘s my personal favourite and ironically, the only person who might actually speak french, but I would still hurt anyone who would harm Julian.

Alice isn’t Dead

Deliciously terrifying. Also from NightVale Presents, It’s basically about a truck driving lady looking for her dead wife, and is met with things that can come out of nightmares. It’s very very emotional. One minute its very romantic and the next it’s terrifying.

Limetown

If you’re into government conspiracies and all that jazz, this podcast is for you. Though, it is very intense and can get quite scary. You follow APR journalist, Lia Haddock as she investigates the case of Limetown, where the whole town disappeared overnight. 

Bonus!

Wireless Theatre

I’ve only listened to one of their stories, the Drayton Trench series, and I enjoyed it immensely. Perhaps it’s because it was a series written by the same guy who created Wooden Overcoats. 

There are podcasts that I’ve listened to but have not really followed through for various reasons. While they may not have worked out for me, I’ll list a few of them down and you should give them a try anyway. Support!

- Within the Wires

- It Makes A Sound

-Return Home

-Inkwyrm

- Ars Paradoxica (I’m actually currently listening to this but things got in the way and I haven’t picked it up again)

- Our Fair City

[wheninrhapsody]

The Road to Rhapsody, Part 2

Just under four weeks!

When I first conceived of Rhapsody, I wasn't sure what medium to use to tell the story. I tried drawing it as a comic, then gave up after about a page. Then I thought of it as a TV show and reworked that comic into a script...which was now a whole two pages. But I knew I could never get it made into a TV show. So then I started writing at as a novel. This time, I got all the way to the third chapter before giving up.

Then, during the summer of 2017, @frondbaby and @lullabyforafaun convinced me to listen to The Adventure Zone. After marathoning that, I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale again (I loved it a few years ago, but then slowly lost interest between updates until TAZ got me into podcasts again), and discovered Alice Isn't Dead, Wolf 359, Inkwyrm, The Bright Sessions, Ars Paradoxica, and a host of other wonderful shows.

Then, for NaNoWriMo 2017, I returned to the Rhapsody project. I always had ideas in the back of my mind, I just wasn't writing them down until NaNo gave me the motivation to do that. I started writing a script, just for fun - I didn't expect it to become a real podcast.

When we were all discussing our projects with each other at a write-in, my fellow writers encouraged me to make WHEN an actual podcast. I wasn't sure at first, but they insisted...and six months later, here we are.

[rottenappleheart]

excelsior! or something like that

I know, I know, I’m a day late on this whole “2017 retrospective” thing that all the kids are doing, but in my defense, I was on a plane from 2 AM - 6 AM, slept two hours, and then began prepping a surprise two-person New Year’s Eve party. More on that at the end.

That was a dumpster fire of a year and no mistake. The biggest thing I can think of when I look back over the past twelve months is that I lost a lot of friends. The fallout from losing A, my best friend since we were six years old, continued to rip chunks away over the year, and I ended it with exactly one in-town meatspace friend left. So. There’s that.

But it takes effort and concentration to remember good things instead of only bad, and that is a skill I should work on developing going forward. Here’s what didn’t suck about my 2017:

living in my own space at last after years of borrowing people’s guestrooms, where I could finally eat off my own dishes and unpack all my books and only have people over who I liked and felt safe around

assembling The Poetry Wall

being a groomswoman in my dudefriend’s wedding

camping with gatheringbones in one of the most gorgeous landscapes I’ve ever seen

started posting that war vet space boyfriends story I’d been thinking about for actual years

wrote a thing for Wolf 359 that had me laughing my ass off for a solid week

listening to the entirety of The Adventure Zone between August and December, ending with some very cathartic crying on Christmas Eve-eve

beginning to play D&D, and then to flailingly try running my own campaign

learning to cross stitch

seeing Sweeney Todd at a pie shop dinner theatre

my boss gradually, gradually becoming less of a horror to me, and having enough money to live on 

and most recently and overwhelmingly of all

being contacted by, and then eventually visiting, my extended family, who I expected to have lost completely when I became estranged from my folks, and rebuilding a sense of self and context and history and understanding I thought I’d never have again.

I think - and hope - that 2018 will be an eventful year. Short version, longer explanation to follow: I’m planning on moving back to the mountains at midyear. I think it’s what I need to do and should do and fingers crossed it works out better this time, because I no longer have the social safety net to fall back on that I once did. (But hey, at least it can’t go worse than it did the first time!) I’m planning on continuing to run D&D campaign(s), continuing to save money, continuing to try creating things instead of just absorbing them. I have some serious brainwork to do about my family and my faith and what I want going forward, but I think I’m stable enough to try engaging with those issues instead of just continuing to avoid them.

The specific goals for the year are as follows:

move the hell out of this area

be more honest with people about my thoughts and feelings, instead of trying to manage and obfuscate them

channel my best Jimmy Eat World: “If I don’t let myself be happy now, then when?” 

Wish me luck, folks. I really appreciate all that you faraway friends have done for me this year.

[caladblog]

2017 The Year in Review

jesus h. fuck, we’re still doing this whole... “the passage of time” thing? really? ugh. okay. give me a moment.

*drags hands down face*

*sighs*

okay! it’s been another year! goddamn look at us go! welcome to my Second Annual Recap of New Fiction Stuff!!

(hark! a disclaimer: this features things that i experienced for the first time in 2017, not necessarily things that were released in 2017, because i live literally underneath a rock and it’s a bit out of step with the zeitgeist down here)

Books

Nominations: Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Winner: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Neuromancer was good but this fic did it better. The Fifth Season was excellent and beautiful-- if you’ve read Jemisin’s previous trilogy about gods, there were aspects and elements from those stories that were really brought into perfect focus here; it’s a testament to her growth as a writer and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next two books in the series.

But The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet takes home the title because it is pretty much everything I want in a space opera. Everything. A galactic civilization that isn’t just an echo of European colonization. Interspecies conflict that isn’t a thinly-veiled allegory for racism. Aliens that are truly alien, different from humans and different from each other, with societies and cultures and values that logically follow from these differences. Lush worldbuilding (universebuilding?) that never sacrifices the plot or the characters. An artificial intelligence who sidesteps or directly refutes every frustrating AI trope in the book. Three-dimensional characters! Found family! ‘Xe’ being used as the linguistically-normal gender-neutral pronoun! A lesbian relationship between a human and a reptilian!

it’s good is what i’m sayin

Movies

Nominations: Rogue One, Thor: Ragnarok, And Then There Were None

Winner: Thor: Ragnarok. Stop the fucking presses, I saw a movie less than a month after it was released. This has only happened, like... twice in the last decade. Literally.

Anyway. Rogue One was good, but I’m not a huge fan of the war stars universe. I’m even less a fan of the marvel cinematic universe, especially what it’s become since cap2, but Thor: Ragnarok just fucken blows everything out of the water. No contest. It’s hilarious, it’s epic, it’s the first movie to get Thor’s characterization right. It loses points for including B******t C*********h, but it gains more points for everything described in this post, especially the way it specifically called out the way that societies built on imperialism try to cover up or whitewash the shameful bloody parts of their history. (“Proud to HAVE it. Ashamed of how he GOT it!!”)

Video Games

Nominations: Space Pilgrim Saga, VA-11 Hall-A, Fallen London

Winner: Fallen London. Confession time: I played a lot of video james this year, kind of went wild at the steam summer sale, and it was really hard to narrow it down to three nominations. Ultimately, though, Space Pilgrim Saga was nominated for humor and space and an endgame relationship between a gray-ace woman and a bisexual woman. VA-11 Hall-A was nominated for design and good music and queer representation and me being super gay for Dana.

But Fallen London wins because I’ve never played something that so naturally and regularly validates my gender identity and queerness. Not only do you get to choose a nonbinary option when creating your character, you also get to choose how the game addresses you and change it whenever you want, however many times you want. It’s always there (being referred to as a ‘gentleperson’ or any one of several non-gendered titles) but it’s never the defining aspect of your character or the subject of scrutiny/ridicule/whatever by any NPCs. Similarly, every point at which a romance is ‘required’* provides you with a male and a female option (and, as far as I’ve seen, the option to romance them both at once, too) and your choice of these is never determined or impacted by your character’s gender. Despite the ‘historical’ setting.

*in scare quotes because it’s needed to advance some stories and unlock others, but you do have the option of just. not doing them. or seducing the character for money or social status or some other personal gain, and not love. i'd like it if there was a non-romance option to advance these storylines, but eh.

It’s also just really well-written and interesting and funny and free to play-- there are storylines that cost money, and I’ve got my eye on several, but you never have to spend anything to advance. Even just keeping to the free storylines, there’s a ridiculous variety of things to do for whatever sort of person you want to play as. Go sign up now! Beware of wells! Don’t go North!!

Comics

Nominations: Harrow County vol. 3 “Snake Doctor”, Bitch Planet vol. 2 “President Bitch”, Ms. Marvel arc “Mecca”

Winner: “Mecca”

Okay.

I don’t remember if I ever posted it anywhere, but when this arc was being released earlier this year I had a Debate(TM) with myself about escapist storytelling vs. storytelling that holds up a mirror during rough times--how can you write escapism when hiding from problems does nothing? how can you write realism when the world already does so much to grind us down?--and I eventually settled that we need both, to read and to be written. Realism to show us how to fight. Escapism to help us rest so we can get back up.

This arc is so real it hurts, especially when you can only read it in monthly installments, but it’s the same hurt as pressing on a sore muscle. It’s necessary. There’s not a single aspect of this story that isn’t directly related to what’s happened this year, and what will go on happening next year, and the difficulty of resisting it, and the importance of continuing to do so anyway.

Also G. Willow Wilson appears to be the only Marvel writer who remembers that hydra is literally a splinter group of fuckng nazis so like

Podcasts

Nominations: Archive 81, Wolf 359, The Magnus Archives

Winner: Archive 81. What can I say? It’s precisely my shit. In fact, it’s so much my shit that it’s kind of hard to believe I’ve only known about it for a few months. Time is fake? I’ve already written in depth about how much I like this podcast over here, so I’m not gonna repeat myself.

Has to be said though that The Magnus Archives was a very close second. Like, when I started writing this post a few weeks ago, I had most of the winners already chosen, but this one was a last-minute decision. Especially when episode 81 (*EXTREMELY LOUD TWILIGHT ZONE THEME SONG*) was released and marked the first time in my life I’ve ever related to a male main character. Maybe a main character, period? At some point I’ll post a list of sampler episodes you can listen to without being too spoiled for the main plot to see if you wanna invest in a thing that’s got 86 installments so far.

so there we go! that’s been a sample of my year’s experience in fiction. see you all on the other side of this arbitrary dividing line that’s only marginally related to physical reality!