#relistening happening soon probably

[mourningmaybells]

really painful when most of the posts in a podcast’s tag are venn diagrams with other podcasts and blanket statement posts… is anyone drawing podcast lesbians here?

[onyourstageleft]

a love letter to my favorite YA lit:

I'm relistening to the Beka Cooper audio books again (a yearly tradition at this point) and every time I hear the opening line of Mastiff, "We buried Holborn today," it takes me back to opening the e-book on my Nook the day it was released in my freshman year of high school and reading that line while sitting on the bleachers waiting for PE to start. I remember flipping back to the previous page to make sure this was the first chapter, thinking I'd never even heard of Holborn. I opened the Bloodhound e-book to compare the dates of her entries and realized the time skip was nearly two years, and got so excited to see what happened to Beka while we weren't with her. We walked the track that overcast day of PE in 2011 and I barely looked up from my Nook, so engrossed was I in Beka's story

that was the first Tamora Pierce book release I waited on; I found her books in probably 2009 and had read most of them by the summer of 2011. I pre-ordered Mastiff so it would be on my Nook as soon as it came out, but I was a freshman in high school and wasn't supposed to stay up till midnight, so I had to wait until the day to read it. it was nearly 13 years (and half my life ago) but here I am, still re-reading and re-listening to the Tamora Pierce books that got me through being a teenager. I remember sitting in my high school's library rereading their copy of Wild Magic over my lunch break to pass the time; drunk crying on the floor of my friend's dorm at a character's death in Terrier my freshman year of college (even though I'd read it 3 or 4 times at that point I always forgot); waiting in the lobby of the technology building of my college campus for my class to start with Spy's Guide on my lap after its release; sitting in my advisor's office in grad school flipping through Mastiff and Page and Lioness Rampant for quotes to include in my thesis; rereading Briar's book at the height of the pandemic. I have a tattoo of Lighting on my arm and a (very rough and needs to be redone) tattoo of Pounce/Faithful on my calf and I genuinely don't think a day has gone by in over a decade where I haven't thought about Tamora Pierce books

the world of Tortall (and Emelan, to a lesser extent) has shaped me, and although this is an attempt to pin it down, I will never be able to explain how much these books mean to me. I know that I may love other series and worlds (I'm currently reading some Terry Pratchett, for example), but they will never make an impact on me in the same way that Tortall and all its various characters has, and that's fine by me

and yet, through all of it, I will never, ever be ready for The Thing We Don't Talk About in Mastiff, not now at a dozen rereads and not in another 13 years

[abubblingcandle]

Jamie Tartt Accent Analysis

Um so yeah, after an anon ask to @withbadhair talking about how Phil is posh and Jamie is Manc, I relistened to Phil Dunster's episode on No Such Thing As A Fish again today and got sucked back into how much I love thinking about the intricacies of regional accents and how much I love thinking about Phil's accent work and how it is great!

So here you go -

A Yorkshire Lass' with an obsession with regional UK accents' take on Jamie Tartt's accent

Phil's Intentions with the accent

Phil has said that it was really his choice what sort of Manchester accent they went for (as Jamie wasn't written specifically to be Mancunian) but he was aiming for New Moston sort of area which is north eastern Manchester suburb (see yellow highlighted area on the image)

But he started by mimicking his agent who is apparently sassy and from Manchester but then listened to people like Aitch (who is from Moston which is probably where the idea for Jamie being from Moston/New Moston came from), Marcus Rashford (who is from Wythenshawe which is south Manchester out of the Outer Ring Road), Jesse Lingard (who is from Warrington which is a town between Manchester and Liverpool to the west) the Gallaghers (who are from Burnage which is south eastern - near Highfield Country Park on the map) which was more season 1 Jamie.

It was mentioned that Aitch was a bit inspiration with the attitude and the sort of swagger as well as the accent itself.

Features of a Mancunian Accent (some things to listen out for)

Research says that the Manchester accent can be characterised by a few distinct features:

The LettER vowel: if there is an ER at the end of a word it is pronounced more like UH. So for example "letter" becomes "let-uh"

The HappY vowel: what Jamie is known for. If there is a Y at the end of a word it is pronounced more like EH. For example "poopy" being "poopeh" or "city" being "cit-eh

H-dropping: this is typically northern but prevalent in Manchester. It is not pronouncing the H at the start of a word so instead of saying "head" pronouncing it "ed".

T-glotallisation: if there is a T in the middle of a word it is sort of dragged over. Like in "better" it can be "beh-uh".

-NG: typically if a word ends in -NG you do not say the G. For example "waiting" is "waitin"

All of these features are more easily noticed in words where more than one of them happens like "happy" becomes "appeh" with both H-dropping and the Y at the end

Analysis of Jamie Tartt's accent from a professional (not me)

Manchester Met have done a study of the different dialects within Greater Manchester and have split it into four categories. Lancashire, Mancs, Wigan, Posh. If Phil was aiming for Moston that would be more Manc but some Lancashire.

Dr Rob Drummond who was the lead on this research was sent clips of Jamie Tartt (edit - as a few people commented on this but he is a friend of No Such Thing As A Fish so was sent it in preparation for Phil being on the podcast but was apparently very complimentary so definitely a Phil Dunster win!) and managed to locate very precisely to just north of central Manchester in the Smedley sort of area which is the blue area on the map. If you compare that with Phil's aim of the red area ... that's damn impressive

So if you are looking for areas of Manchester to set your fics around or ways to make your dialogue feel more Tartt. Then we are looking for the Mancs accent and living somewhere in just north/north west of central Manchester based on his accent.

So yeah thanks for reading my thesis. I was going to go into words and sayings here too but it's after midnight and I have been talking to myself for the last hour just repeating the same words in Queens English, Leeds, and Manc 😂

Disclaimer - this is more based on S3 Jamie as S1 Jamie had a lot more subdued characteristics as Phil was finding his feet with the accent.

Side Plug as I have preordered it - Dr Rob Drummond's book called You're All Talk is coming out soon and it is all about this stuff and also social perceptions of linguistic diversity (which as someone who's accent massively chances based on the situation I am in I am super interested in)

[shadow-the-crow]

okay.

okay.

i did it. i just finished mag 101.

HOLY SHIT

i... i have a lot of thoughts. and i'll make proper posts about them.

but for now i just want to say: it wasn't good in the way i expected, it didn't touch me the way i expected. i mean, it was, and it did, but differently.

am i a bad person for not being devastated because of what happened to Michael? i mean Michael Shelley. maybe it's because i already knew what was going to happen. there wasn't really anything new about it, just the sacrifice i already expected. of course, the repeated "he trusted her" and all that stuff hurt. but i don't feel as bad for Michael Shelley as i probably should. i mostly feel bad for the thing Michael is now, or was. i mean, Michael's pain was also his pain, right? (i'm gonna make a post about that soon.) but yeah, maybe it's because we didn't hear that person talk directly, or maybe i haven't realized the full extent of his fate yet. maybe it'll hurt more on a relisten. idk. but i do feel bad for not being devastated about his fate. that's what y'all were talking about when you said this episode would destroy me, right? or maybe it wasn't. in any case, with the info i had before listening, i was convinced that's what you were talking about, so that's the thing i expected to destroy me.

however, what came closer to destroying me was Michael the Distortion. holy shit. i have so many feelings about him. this whole fucked-up identity thing, the last minute or so of it being Michael... holy shit, his scream. i had to pause and wait until i stopped shaking. although there have been other well acted screams of pain on this podcast... i've never heard anyone scream like this.

oh yeah and i almost forgot: i never expected the "it's not the same person but it's still the same thing" thing to make sense to me. i expected Helen the Distortion to feel like a different being. but somehow it still sounded like it did when it was Michael... It somehow felt the same. I never thought this would be possible, but they really managed to remove the Michael part and keep the Distortion part, just with good voice acting and a bit of sound editing. that's really impressive.

okay that's all i can put into words for now lol

[hearts4pearlescentmoon]

Sometimes I’ll think of a random sound out of nowhere and I’ll have to figure out where this sound comes from. Playing the sound that popped up over and over until I remember a continued version of it and usually the I can track down where it’s from. This also happens with quotes. For the longest time, I’ve had this one quote “in fact made by mice” in my head. And I was so difficult to find out where it was from BUT today I finally remembered.

It’s from the 4th episode of the pod fic, the hermit archives where Zedaph character says “I have full reason to believe that this hole was not in fact made by mice” and he says it in a way where his voice curls at the end. I think that’s why it was in my head for so long

now I am relistening to THA/FTA and I forgot how much this fic influenced me. I may post some redraws of art I did back when I first started reading the fic

anyways HERMIT ART SOON

PROBABLY

[thebrightsessions]

Hey, I've been relistening, and I don't know if this is just a problem with Podcast Addict specifically or a wider issue, but I thought I'd let you several episodes have issues with skipping audio. I unfortunately haven't been keeping a list of which episodes it happens in, and it's mostly fine, just a few seconds skipping forward or back, but s4e11 Wadsworth and s4e14 Sam both skip back like five whole minutes.

I let it just keep playing with Wadsworth and it finished out the episode like normal, it just kept going past the time count that it should've. But with Sam I tried to fast forward to where I was and it just went to the next episode in my playlist before I even got there.

Again, idk if it's an issue with Podcast Addict or if it's something you can even affect, but I thought I'd let you know

Thank you SO much for telling me this! I haven't heard of this particular glitch and, unfortunately, it's probably something we can't fix on our end, but I'm curious - are other people, either Podcast Addict users or not, experiencing this kind of error?

I'll look into it and hopefully it just resolves itself soon! I've found that podcast glitches often do.

[blindrapture]

huh, oh right yeah, there are some other huge things happening, world-changing things, paradigm-shifting things, existential things happening this very moment, I was disingenuous to imply Opeth was that big thing.

Autechre put out 20 hours of new music!

there's a new Sonic game!

Dream Theater are touring again, with portnoy, leading up to the new album in february!!

I finally got through Signalis, riding the high I had after silent hill 2!!! (it was... huh! it was disappointing, after all the hype. in the end it's a game for people who really like the 90s style of survival horror gameplay, and I mean like really fucking like that style. the anime girls are the best part of it, by far, and I am a sucker for the king in yellow, but, man!!! the actual book was way more chilling than what signalis ended up being. signalis basically just did a Chzo Mythos instead. I was hooked on the game for so damn long, needed to work up a lot of courage to get back to it, then I finally did, and there was a stretch of being like "oh shit this is so good," and then a long muddled end, and then in the end I was like "huh. okay. good, that's over now.")

The Dream Machine is getting a definitive edition!!! there's a demo on steam and it's of the first chapter, it's great to see it running so smoothly. I am ecstatic to see one of my all-time favorite games (and narratives) getting a revival.

Mark Z. Danielewski gave another update on his new novel!!!! it's... probably gonna be ready soon!! next year or two!! god I hope!!! I need a new Danielewski novel in my life, so bad.... ;_;

wait shit, there's a new Coldplay album??? (god I haven't even listened to From Earth With Love yet. I may or may not have fallen off of my coldplay fanboy phase around the time they put out A Head Full Of Dreams. then Everyday Life just struck me as a somewhat better Head Full Of Dreams. coldplay's a weird band. they were remarkably good songwriters and entirely competent alternative rock musicians, they were damn good at writing pop, Viva la Vida is kind of a masterpiece of a pop album. Mylo Xyloto took me a lot of listens to really love all that much, and I still don't even know what the fucking plot is, but, it's good music! then Ghost Stories was a heavy vibe, real promising stuff, and A Head Full Of Dreams was supposed to be like a companion to that, and.. it was just a rather basic modern pop album??? I still make a point of getting their albums on CD, mind you. I listened to Everyday Life a grand total of once. maybe I could afford to give it another listen. and From Earth With Love will probably be cool? I love that it has a concept to it. apparently the newest album is a continuation of that concept! good! glad to see it! I miss when those boys still had an alt rock edge. I miss the time before the drum machines and the... high production, equalizers and whatnot. oh god what year is it, is it fucking 1980, what am I saying?)

edit, update: relistening to A Head Full Of Dreams. actually yeah no this shit is good. I get it. took some time, for sure, but this is a great pop album. made me cry.

[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

[chronically-enthusiastic]

HI ELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

you like podcasts, right?

do you have any recommendations? so far i've been listening to all vampires are gay and it's pretty cool but you have a great taste in Things so i thought you might have some suggestions :D

i love you <3

A;S.DKLJFASKJDF SO MUCH EXCITEMENT RIGHT NOW AND i CANT COPE HEHEHEALKSJFHALJ AGAGGGGGHSDFSFFFFFFHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*dies*

Okay.......... *composes myself, adjusts blazer and tie, pulls out a briefcase and begins*

Hmm this post got a lil out of hand so here's a read break for anyone who doesn't want to hear me talk for *copies and pastes into google docs to count the words* 800 words about fiction podcasts :DDDD

Sooo! I have not listened to all vampires are gay, but have read the podcast description so I know a little about what you are looking for....

Audio dramas (In order of how similar to AVAG I think they probably are):

Where The Stars Fell is a dark supernatural podcast (I had to stop listening bc it got too dark....) that seems very similar? I don't remember much and didnt listen enough to get a proper feel for it.... check it out and see!!

I listened to a like 20 episodes of Welcome to Night Vale before that one got too dark - but it is very popular on this website and each ep is kinda like a news report. Its set in a weird town where lots of supernatural things happen and almost every conspiracy theory is true there.

The Unseen Podcast has a *very* cool format. Each episode is kinda a monologue from a different person each week. It talks about their individual experiences in a fantasy world and it has SUCH a cool magic system!! Please listen to this/do more research..... I've spent like 45 mins on this post at this point (I haven't written it in order, this is one of the last parts im writing) and I'm tired so can't really explain it properly.... Sorry!!! But I loved the non-dark episodes of that!!! (they had content warnings so I only listened to the ones with reasonable content warnings)

Civilised is an improvised science fiction dark comedy show about a ship stranded on a planet and strange things ensue. I listened to the first few series but then from what I remember it got a little too dark for me. (my threshold is very low fyi). I listened to that one a while ago so don't have much else to say, check out the first few eps if it sounds interesting!!

We Fix Space junk is again a dark comedy sci fi show (also a dystopia kind of) about scavengers in space! Again, listened to it ages ago so I don't remember much....

The amelia project is kind of a surreal (maybe?) show about a company that fakes people's deaths. Each episode is framed as an interveiw. So far it has 72 episodes, and it has just come to the end of the 2nd part of the 5th series! The first series is very much a collection of semi-unrelated stories but the plot begins to unfold in S2, and *lots* of things start to happen in S3 onwards!! My personal favourite!!!

Wooden Overcoats is a comedy podcast about a funeral home run by Rudyard and Antigone Funn, two probably autistic, probably a-spec, characters. Eric Chapman opens another funeral home and its kinda about their rivalry but also how they kinda cant live without each other and if any of that sounds even remotely interesting please please please listen because it is truly hilarious and excellently written and produced!!!!! It is finished with 4 seasons. My other favourite!!!!

Alba Salix is a fantasy show that is very very fun!! Again, I listened to it a while ago so I don't have much to say bc I can't remember, but it has quite a similar feel to BBC Merlin I think? With more fairies and magic though. I remember loving it very much. I should probably relisten soon!! This is from the website:

"Farloria’s Royal Physician has her work cut out for her. As head witch and the only regular staff member at the new House of Healing, Alba’s got an endless lineup of patients and a bickering King and Queen to please. Fortunately, help is on the way. Unfortunately, that help is from Magnus, a troublesome young ex-monk and aspiring surgeon, and Holly, an accident-prone fairy herbalist."

Forgive Me is a comedy about a father (the religous type, not a parental figure) who runs a church and each episode is framed as a confession in the catholic church. It's not very religous-y and does point out some of the problems with religion etc. Its quite lighthearted from what I remember? The amelia project did a crossover episode with them!

WOW this post got very long! I will put a read break to shorten it........ oops!! I like podcasts very very much.... heheeeee

These are all the fiction podcasts I have listened to (I think? there are probably more that I have forgotten about....) but if you want any non-fiction ones I have a lot more to talk about heheee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you too Echo!!! And thank you for inadvertently letting me infodump about a special interest for this long!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vampyrecorpse]

putting out my opinions as if they matter more than anyone else cause, let's be honest, they dont

everyone, everywhere, everybody, everytime, everypony, everything should listen to scary bitches :P

like they're so fun, and i do want to say that gone after each member of the band to scavenge all their wrongdoings and won't be doing it probably anytime soon. eenyways some of their songs and overviews of the silly stories/feel of them by yours truly who just listens to the songs and it takes the 55th relisten to actually hear the lyrics

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

So yummy, so scrummy bats. maybe don't actually eat them, mainly because eventually your boyfriend who just happens to be a vamp and not just some goth cutie will be murdered and all your porches gone. lots of voice overlaying yum

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

hoping the world doesn't end rn cause I really like this song. however, I have absolutely no idea what it means. i like the backgrounds tho so yes, please listen to it

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

this is such a fun one! do unsolicited conversations vex you? Well so does the scary bitches, but unlike you coward they take it unto their own hands! also, please check up on your next victim of spam before you send them erectile dysfunction mail, and if you interrupt them, prepare for your new future

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

thatzzzzz all for nowヽ（´∀｀）ノ mifht talk abt my fave songs later RaHzfKRckoPTSA :3c

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 2: Boston

This is a funny one, because I started it, was laughing a lot, and was like "why don't I listen to this more often?" And then Hamilton Leeman showed up and I was like "ohhh that's why."

It is really funny- a lot of the rhythms that were slightly off in Abu Dhabi feel a lot more set in place, though I think the one who seemed most off kilter was, for some reason, Arthur. He was mostly a plot/comedy device in this one and maybe that's why- he was very funny but his actions and insights didn't always feel consistent. I wonder if it would have been better if Douglas had been the one to note that Leeman was likely to smoke again- though I do love the "taking a course on understanding people in Ipswich" thing.

Or... maybe it's because he commits manslaughter in this episode?

It's never NOT jarring to see (or rather hear) this happening, and honestly, that's my first major issue with the episode- the stakes are WAY too high. Not even specifically for the second episode- in general I just don't think they ever are remotely at the level of life or death again. Any risk or danger is to MJN as a company, and that ends up being an acceptable level of risk- especially since, as Arthur notes, Douglas will always end up sorting it out. But having a character have a heart attack in the episode, and the conflict being about the best way to deal with the situation... it was too high stakes for a show with this kind of sitcom tone. They should be debating whether to shove the piano to the pub in Devon, not which airport is better for saving Leeman's life (and, incidentally, other people's personal convenience).

The other major issue? The freaking Americans. I'm sorry, as an American I can say that I have never met an American in a British sitcom who I have liked (or if I have, I don't recall). In this episode, they just don't work at all- the performers are funny but don't sound right, and everything is just super over the top. I don't like Nancy what's her name in Qikiqtarjuaq either for similar reasons- maybe I'm just a grinch but just... not super fun. (Incidentally, on that note, I'm always surprised that so many British people love Frasier considering how dodgy the British character portrayals can be- except that, like Cabin Pressure, Frasier is brilliant so I can see why they stick around despite the issues lol.)

Some more early installment weirdness- do we ever see Martin openly looking for another job again before S3? I don't think we do, which is surprising because later on we know he's not getting paid here, and right now in Boston we don't know anything of the kind- so honestly I was surprised it was an open secret. Maybe it's normal to be open about interviewing in the airline world? IDK.

So yeah, the above is why I'm not so surprised that this hasn't been on my rotation in a while- but as it happens, there were some REALLY funny bits. While Arthur felt a bit hodge-podgey, the bits and pieces that he DID do were very funny, especially Leeman's eulogy, and there were a lot of VERY funny lines. I was laughing a lot- in between the parts where I was like "what the hell."

Probably will skip through Boston every now and then, but I don't think I'm going to prioritize a full relisten any time soon. Cremona is the next one, and I don't have great memories of that either, but then comes Douz and we have a nice period of VERY clear sailing ahead! (I fucking love Douz.)

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 178 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the French tamarisk in my garden.

BASIRA: "How do you tell which is which?" JON: "I mean, you could ask me, I suppose. B-But I don’t really see the point. Would it help you to know whose suffering is real and whose is just a grim reflection?" Oh god, yes! Did anyone watch S2 of The Hollow? Basically that. (Spoiler The Hollow S2: Because of a glitch of the cheat there were copies of the players created which of course only can exist in The Hollow, they're virtual. But does that mean they want to live any less than their flesh and blood selves do? Love how the Hollow explores that, even when it takes a bit too long to get to that point in S2)

MARTIN: "God, I hate all of these… loose ends." JON: "I’m sorry." MARTIN: "It’s fine. We’ll just have to tie them all up in one go." JON: "Hm?" MARTIN: "Around Elias’ neck." Classic Martin Kill Blackwood.

Soundscaping appreciation: When they talk in the... presumably hallways of this place, you can hear their voices echoing. As soon as Jon hops into that cupboard and closes the door, the echo is gone (because it's a small space and sound doesn't bounce around that much).

"The thing sat behind the desk" That is always accompanied by a grunting sound. Is it supposed to be a pig? Like in a world of opposites, not humans slaughtering pigs, pigs slaughtering humans.

"When the brand hits him in the small of his back, he has no idea what is happening." I am so happy my horse doesn't have that nonsense of a brand and has a chip instead. Brands can do so much damage and it's just cruel. Burns are extremely painful...

"Is it not better, at least, to be useful?" I don't quite get that statement. The nearest thing in rl I could think of is a job center. Useless waiting with others who are just as helpless as you are. Mountains of unnecessary bureaucracy. Wasting your skills on bullshit jobs they force you to take because they cancel your money otherwise...

[WALKING OFF, MARTIN JOSTLES A BODY] MARTIN: "Excuse me." JON: [Exasperated] "Martin, they can’t hear you –" MARTIN: [Sharp] "I know, Jon. That’s not the point." I guess Martin likes to do that, to treat them like normal humans, so he can uphold a sense of normality for himself. So he doesn’t lose his sense of humanity.

MARTIN: [Loudly] "Enough. Enough! Someone has died! Show some respect. Or don’t you care?" BASIRA: [Incensed] "Of course I fucking care! … [Quieter] That’s the problem." Ah, Martin doing what I just pointed out in the last bullet point and finally Basira is getting somewhere!^^

BASIRA: "I thought we were doing good. I really did. I knew there was some bad shit. I knew Daisy was into a lot of it, but… I thought it balanced out. [Weakly] I thought we were good." JON: [Softly] "I know how that feels." T_______T

BASIRA: "I wanted to help people, you know? When I first joined. Protect people. But then I saw what some of those same people were capable of, and…" I wonder how many people who want to be cops/become cops are really, like, middle to left and just want to help others. And then I wonder how they deal with all the right-winged bullshit and if they get persuaded by the others and actually start to believe the same crap, or if they simply give up at some point, keep their mouths shut or quit.

Aw man, this whole affair with Daisy is just so... difficult. I love this moral debacle. I think it was super important for the whole S5 arc with Basira here to show us a side of Daisy that would actually make her likable. Otherwise we as audience would hardly be conflicted about any of this and probably would judge Basira very quickly.

@a-mag-a-day

[messenger-of-stupidity]

Which redacted character do you think would be the softest to a character who is shy / anxious and deals with self loathing? Asking for a friend 👀

A friend you say? Hmmm

Arguably, every listener deals with self-loathing in some kind of way. And their respective partners (or friend group in Freelancer's case) comfort them.

On the opposite side, you have Lasko and his listener in the wonder of reverse comfort. But your friend (👀) is searching for soft comfort specifically.

Gavin is gonna take the crown. He's pretty versatile and tends to be a personality chameleon. Plus if you look at the DAMN group, he tends to comfort Lasko in his own way by pulling Lasko out of bad spiraling thoughts by flirting. Freelancer tends to be more reserved when it comes to opening up about things they're dealing with and wants to constantly take on other's burdens. Just the fact that he tends to be surrounded with people on a spectrum of shy/anxious and self loathing individuals points towards understanding how to best comfort them. He has a lot of social awareness to understand that what might work for one person, won't work for another. (I love Gavin.)

(Caelum would work too, but he's the obvious choice since his entire existence basically revolves around comforting people and loosening knots. Only problem would be that no one but other d(a)emons and FL can see/hear him O.O So depending on the usage of this information that may or may not be important.)

Below the cut are my reasons for ruling out the other characters if you're interested.

I'm gonna have to eliminate Asher, David, and Milo (purely because their listeners seem outgoing.) Sweetheart could be shy, but that's just because I have a headcanon that since they're a stealth, they're so used to hiding as much as they can even when they're not thinking about it. But that's not canon (*yet*) All we got is that when they're in flight or fight mode, they tend to cloak without trying.

Sam could be a good contender since he's so gentle and comforts Darlin when they start trashing on themselves. Honestly he's probably a runner up to Gavin. But I can't label him the softest because of Gavin's existence. But for whatever reason your friend (I'm not buying it sorry lol) needs this and Gavin just doesn't quite fit the slot, I would go for Sam.

Vincent is slutty. Nah, I'm kidding. Vincent seems more easy at comforting after something happens. Through no fault of his own. The comfort audios we get are always after an event happens that Lovely is struggling to cope afterwards, versus in the middle of something. He does have that awareness that apologizing for it doesn't always help, so kudos to him.

Aaron is also really socially aware, but he relies so heavily on communication to understand a situation (which is good. Communication is healthy) that it might be difficult for him to comfort someone who is shy. We all know that Smartass isn't shy around him, so we haven't really seen him comforting them because of something. *that I know of. I need to relisten to his playlist soon. I miss him.* He did a good job comforting Elliot, but Elliot also seems kind of outgoing. I wouldn't call him shy.

Ollie is a sweetheart. But in all honesty I've only listened to his first two audios so I don't really know much about him O.O

Vega... It's Vega. He'd manipulate you into feeling better, but only on his terms and when it benefits him. I love him.

Regulus... No. Obvs.

Blake could be good at it since he's a yandere so he's pretty into knowing all your details. He would know how best to comfort you because he knows you so well. But he wouldn't be the softest to anyone who isnt his darling, so if that's who this shy/anxious self loathing person is then Blake is off the table. He's pretty single minded.

Guy would be amazing at cheering someone up. But we're looking for soft. Not energetic cheering up. Vulnerable soft Guy in his confession audio holds a special place in my heart though. But his "sleep aid" proved that the best thing when you're trying to calm down is have him go to a far away restaurant to retrieve food.

Avior is a tricky one. So many of his audios were him putting up a front to keep Starlight at arms length. Then afterwards it was most reverse comfort from how I saw it. So Idk how he would be. There's not a lot of evidence in my perspective to make a clear decision.

Ivan - Same deal as with Avior. Not enough objective evidence. First he's a scary kidnapper and then he's begging to try his old relationship again. No comfort stuff really.

Morgan would be great with a reclusive person. (Since I think that's what his listener is? His voice always puts me to sleep. But I'm not sure entirely since I always fall asleep hehe)

Lasko did pretty well at comforting FL after the Kody incident, but his panic in wanting to make people feel better wouldn't make him a good contender. Sorry Lasky.

Kody is a wet noodle.

Huxley would be good at it, but I can see him struggling to find the words he wants to use. Hugs are great and he seems like he is soft with people in a more touchy manner. Depending on the person that can be good. But if you're like me and get uncomfortable when people touch you and you just like the idea of physical contact, then he wouldn't be the top choice.

Damien would kind of be like Guy in the way he could cheer you up, but it wouldn't be soft. As much as he hates it, the first reaction he has is to protect which can get him heated. Not the most calming presence. Plus he's not the most socially aware.

Geordi... it depends if they're in his head. He tries to choose his words very carefully, but he's naturally a very anxious person as well. Their anxiety could feed off of his and then we have another Lasko situation.

Brachium is another pretty good choice. Only problem is he's difficult to reach so he would be difficult to give comfort. But his voice and aura are very calming if a bit somber. He is pretty good at being soft with Sunshine with his "little one"s and such. I love him, he's such a dad.

Cam is kind of like Caelum in the way he would be very good at it. Plus he's obvious. But he's overworked. Let him sleep TT-TT

James is too analytical and focused on saving the world and getting back home. Soft isn't the word I would use for him.

Anton... same vibes as Brachium. He's soft but somber.

Marcus is whiny.

Brian is grumpy. Plus there's no evidence for him.

Quinn would be shit at it obvs.

Echo would just snap his fingers and make you more anxious. He finds that shit funny.

Did I miss anyone? O.O

[starlitangels]

That new video ruined my current thoughts about what caused the inversion and the timeline hurts my head now lol

I'm sorry.

Let's see if I can explain the timeline for you, me, and everyone else who might be confused since I think it makes sense to me.

In The Balance storyline, Brachium said the counterpoints of "the drove" were in Life and he gave the location of the one nearest Elliott and Sunshine to Elliott (in Dahlia) and it turned out to be CloseKnit's headquarters

Elliott and Sunshine investigate, go that meeting where Zeke is presenting (and Blake and his listener are also there listening and Blake was somehow warned beforehand that Elliott and Sunshine were coming and Blake clocks them but seems confused at Sunshine's lack of an aura—though that's probably for his listener's sake) and they get dragged into one of the offices and confronted and Sunshine gets knocked out into a dreamscape of Blake's design while Elliott's powers are muted

But Brachium shields Sunshine for as long as he can and pulls Elliott into the dreamscape with some of the last of the power he has at the moment. He tells Sunshine to run, find Elliott, and not to let go. His little post-credits scenes in and before Inversion show what happens directly after Sunshine leaves him. He hears the drums in the deep and wonders if they're too late. The drove is building even larger. And then that deep voice presumably a Sovereign says, "Death is already here." And the Inversion begins.

And it seems to imply that the drove was that army of shades but that remains to be seen.

Now, time in Death and dreams are probably a little warped compared to Life and the waking world, so when Sunshine finds Elliott and then Elliott gets tortured by Blake and they end up making a deal that involves wiping Elliott's memories and they all wake up, Blake goes to stay with his listener again. And he stays the night at their place. The dreamscape torture and deals could very well have lasted hours (hours during which the stadium was trapped within the ward, fighting the shades), and then Blake leaves to go to his listener's place and Elliott has his meeting and deal with Scorpius sometime in-between there, but he's been unconscious for a while

And then Elliott gets released with his memories blocked. I'm guessing it's the morning after the Inversion, or maybe even the next afternoon depending on how long they were all asleep. And then Blake and Sunshine try again to reach out to Brachium, with no success so soon after he just expended a lot of power and will have to recharge how a Serenity Daemon in Death recharges his magic is currently beyond me but I'm sure we'll find out eventually and Elliott immediately goes to the Department building as we saw today

Following which, Blake goes back to his Listener's place again and whines talks about making the mistake of letting his memories bleed into the dreamscape and blah blah blah

I hope I laid everything out correctly... it's as close as I can get with what I remember off the top of my head Seriously. I didn't get a chance to go back and relisten to anything so this is all just from memory

[thefringespod]

Happy #AudioDramaSunday dear wanderers! This week at work had way fewer meetings which meant more podcast time

Starting off the week, I had a relisten to the entirety of the Technomancy Project because I have a problem <3 I love the Technomancy Project so much and will likely relisten again soon

Also Jason *does* say gods instead of god throughout all of season 1 and I never noticed because *I* say gods instead of god because that's just who I am as a person

I missed a clue

Because of my linguistic choices

And I have no regrets

@re-dracula is continuing its incredible journey and I feel so bad for Lucy. It doesn't matter that I know what happens to her. Hearing Beth Eyre voice Lucy is cutting directly into my soul

Episodes 5 and 6 of @doyoucopypod have made me feel EMOTIONS. Episode 5 in particular made me cry. At my desk. At work. Cody Heath has made me cry with this show TWICE. And I wouldn't have it any other way

Patreon access for @malevolentcast was released this week and yeah. YEAH. I will be screaming about it more once public release has happened but its one hell of an episode (as they all are)

And of course we had the @EthicsTownPod season finale. Louis Hendry has created a crazy fucked up world (affectionate) and I'm obsessed with it. Liz Dokukina and Rhys Lawton absolutely punched me in the chest with the finale (and with the whole season) PLEASE listen to Ethics Town

Last on my listen list was episode 1 of The Silt Verses and hooooooboy I'm already so in love with it. Its been on my list for ages and both Tay and Tot told me to listen to it got moved up and yeah

YEAH

This is my foreseeable future

I believe in Méabh de Brún supremacy <3

Just a reminder that the incredible @chainofbeing is crowdfunding for season 2! They're 18% of the way to their goal with 22 days left

I adored season 1 of COB and know Cai is going to do incredible and wild things with season 2

And the cast is to die for

Here on the Fringes cast members are sending over their audio and im working on editing some bonus content

Season 2 is well underway and I can't wait for yall to hear it!

That's all for this week! Next week will be more Silt Verses and probably another COB relisten because im hyped for season 2 (please please PLEASE back the crowdfunder if you can they deserve the WORLD and if we can't give them that we can at least get them funded)

[humanmorph]

C/W 06-09 thoughts : ]

Boy this took me a bit!!! I made the post for the first set of episodes on August 12. I said then I should take more notes while listening, & I think I in fact took LESS notes. edit: and wrote... more??? ok.whatever

Summary (short)

There's a food crisis. Orth gets kidnapped! The Chime gets an automated message to find him and they track him down to some train tracks where the train Orth was on (with a food delivery) got derailed. They get in a really long fight some people from a group called the Iron Choir (they have Orth!) and also some Apostolosians (only really due to bad phrasing on AuDy's part) . And then don't really win but do get away with Orth, so everything's fine I guess?

(more on faction game down below. too much happens in those to summarize here.)

Ground Game

This is the second (and last!) arc they play using MechNoir. I only just started the episode where they switch the characters over to The Sprawl, and I'm counting that towards the next bunch of episodes rather than this one... Anyways, this arc is like a good argument for that switch. It kind of stands out as a "oh they switch after this, right?" thing now. BUT!

The fight was honestly not as much of a slog as I remembered. Like they've done wayyy better fights since ofc especially with mechs (for me personally PZN is still the standout but PAL has had some Good Shit too) but this is like. It's ok! There's fun bits! I like Aria's mech! Part of it might absolutely be that I like. Give a fuck about mechs now and as a result am able to also imagine them better. I think in 2021, when I first listened, I was like. I guess there's Big Robots. Like transformers? (isn't even familiar with transformers) (really doesn't have a touchpoint for this at all)

I liked the snooping around bit before they got to this 2 episode long fight. I already mentioned it in an earlier post briefly, but we learn some minor details about Orth (they are looking through his office), that now really delight me because I love Orth! But when I first listened I don't think I cared very much at all about him at this point. This time around, his and AuDy's relationship intrigues me expecially with how Jack has been playing them.

Player character update...: AuDy is still my favourite. I still don't quite know what to do with Cass, but maybe I'll get there soon? Mako's funny. Though, and I thought I posted about this? But I can't find it now, an arc this episode also brings the morality of fogging robots onscreen for a bit. AuDy's upset by it. I think the notion of the robot he fogs getting more sentient is interesting...? Expecially if you draw a connection to what gives Mako the ability to do it in the first place. ... I won't say more here because I'm not actually sure but it's definitly running via Rightenousness a little bit, right? No clue if those facts are actually connected or not though. Uhm. I like Aria : ). Not many notes there so far, pretty much just the same stuff I said last time (I'm paying more attention to her where I feel like I hadn't as much on my first listen due to Ali being a little more reserved as a player this early on).

Further up I already talked about the switch to The Sprawl & I know the reasons and agree. however. I do think it's fun when they come up with adjectives, even if it messed with the pacing a bit because it took some time to do well. There's still a bit of this with other games they play later, too, like naming risks in Armor Astir or... whatever it was called to take something in Scum & Villainy (I recently relistened to the bit where Gig gets crushed and blown up and is VERY upset by it. It's still very funny).

Another thing I'm noticing more is that I'm occasionally a bit wonky on the factions, even super major ones ( OriCon vs. the Diaspora). I think it's because I didn't listen to the worldbuilding ep... I remember it having pretty rough audio (though probably not worse than that epispde of AiH where you couldn't hear Art at all), and also I skipped it back when I first listened, too (I'd bounced off before. I feel like I've mentioned this). It made some stuff in these episodes a bit hard to keep track of, expecially talking about the food crisis, and who is affected, and who is blamed, etc. (& I very much enjoyed all that! Like oh! We're getting into it now! Space factions and their politics and their effect on the world our characters move in! This rules. Friends at the Table rules)

Faction Game

Sylvi is so ON it with the faction game it's crazy. The other day while listening I remembered this was her first season on the show, like... damn!!! Just a ton of great ideas. It's really fun seeing them all be so enthusiastic about this.

Really good and fun faction game. I'm enjoying these a ton. A lot of my favourite scenes (or very memorable ones) from my first listen is faction game stuff, so I knew I'd like it, but I'm like REALLY really enjoying it. I've already said this in my other post, but I'm pretty sure it's due to the fact I can pay attention better & parse information.

It's a real big one too with a ton stuff getting set up. RIGOUR, Ibex, the Hands of Grace (hi Vicuna), some first September Institute stuff (like how fogging works!), and Loyalty gets introduced in that episode (hi Kobus, also). A lot of Divines, really! I'll get to this very big and important thing first: Rigour getting dug up!!! I totally didn't remember Austin immediately namedrops it at the end of the episode, lol. That probably wouldn't happen now, but these early seasons are more. informal? just less produced? And I really don't dislike it, it's simply a different vibe. And I'm liking it. (The rough-ish audio is also part of it IMO. Love to hear the static white noise if a mediocre mic under their voices.) I do still really like that scene though. Very effective. The image of a worker getting out of his mech to dig the last bit with his hands... It's good shit. Also just. RIGOUR. It maybe even hits more this second time around, because I know just What has been uncovered here and the consequences it will have.

Another is Ibex getting introduced! Hi!!!! : ) Apparently he's something called a "seductress" (or well. seductor) in the games rules, which I extremely forgot and made me laugh when I heard it. And then they proceed to come up with pretty much his whole deal, which Austin's performance is gonna finetune & shape more later on. I'm just excited! I like this guy! (Something I'm trying to do more this time around is take notes to look stuff up later, like what animals the Candidates are named after. I didn't do this for Ibex until sometime last year! Cool animal.)

This faction game also has the first appearance of Diego Rose who I have in mind as sort of Sylvi's special little guy? He's a pretty important guy in the faction that she plays, so I'm just gonna assume he'll show up way more in the future. But really I just loved that scene of him offering a prisoner they took after he shot their ships down to join the Odama Fleet while also threatening him. And he's soooo cunty about it it's so funny to me. Great job.

Tacking this on the end here: I had to look up the summary on the fatt.wiki because it's really been a while since I started this ep vs. finishing it, and this is like the first scene they play through. (The new season got in the way...!) But yeah this episode also has Grace's first real major appearance (& her Candidates, Vicuna). And it's a great scene! I think it's the first Divine onscreen? And showing one's influence on people ("People in the crowd, some of them begin crying and wailing. It is a religious experience for many."). It's good shit!!! I love Divines!!! They've never stopped being cool as fuck as a concept and there really wasn't a point when they weren't. It's just SO good and it'll only ever get pushed further and in even more interesting directions. And it's nice to be back here, at the start.

????

This is neither here nor there. Not anywhere really. But at some point Jack says "no that's undertale" (I didn't note down what about.) %& it really threw me for some reason like ik the years match up. But I just have C/W in mind as like... ages ago... (it was) and Undertale. Is Undertale. /I/ played Undertale! And that wasn't ages ago (lie) (it was)! Like I was probably playing Undertale when they made this season! Strange to think about.

Grace's arrival(?)

I want to try and draw a little image for each of these sets (though this one took me a bit longer than I would've liked). Here's Grace('s feet, because she's so big) and the sculpture park on Gemm

I'm not actually sure why (I don't think it gets mentioned in the episode???) but I've always imagined that planet (Gemm) as like, really foggy. Maybe because fog + ruined statue park looks really cool? + Graces light through the fog? Yeah, I don't know. The park is also empty here, when of course there's a whole parade and stuff in the episode, but this is just an image (an approximation of it.) I have in my head...