#the inexplicables

[deergravity]

Seeing as my internal rewards system has moved on to 'trans fiction' from 'queer horror audio drama podcast' I thought I should do a little roundup of everything I listened to the past few months.

A rough ranking:

Malevolent. Just squeaking into the top spot here based on 1) technical prowess (iykyk) 2) compelling characters and story and 3) they are my blorbos your honor!!! Mind boggling that Harlan Guthrie has so much chemistry with himself.

The Silt Verses. Only topped by Malevolent bc season 1 is not as polished, but it really doesn't matter. Top tier characters, amazing worldbuilding, intricate plotting and it had something to SAY about the casual violence of systems, the nature of hope, the complexity of being human in a world that tries to make us inhuman. Also, it doesn't rely on some thin recording contrivance (a framing device that has its place) and instead truly takes the mantle of audio drama without apology.

The White Vault. On the topic of framing devices, TWV has a very cool take on found footage recordings. A group of [researchers/archeologists] are sent to investigate a remote site in [Svalbard/Patagonia] and the podcast is structured as a documentarian presenting the notes, recordings and diary entries in a reconstructed timeline. My favorite element is that many of the characters don't make their notes in English, so the segments will often open with the VA speaking German, Spanish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Russian, etc etc before fading into the translation. There are miniseries between the seasons available on their patreon and they were so worth the $10 I paid to access them for a month. Reveals are slow, but worthwhile, and the mythology built for the show is highly original and intriguing.

Deviser. A one season contained story from Harlan Guthrie of Malevolent. Scifi, psychological, lots of wet awful body horror. If you're a fan of Harlan wimpering into a mic, you'll love this one.

WOE.BEGONE. Long, ongoing, and so so so far from the original premise it's hilarious, I'm ranking this higher than it maybe deserves for two factors 1) the creator and the VAs are clearly having a blast and 2) it's riding the line of taking itself serious despite a premise that invites irony poisoning without becoming too wrapped up in itself. It's fun, I think, that keeps w.bg strong.

The Magnus Archives. Should this be one up? Probably. But everyone bloody well knows tma by this point, it's good, great even! Beyoncé of horror podcasts.

I Am In Eskew. Only knocked down due to the actually godawful sound quality. Truly unsettling stories though (the one with the building architect haunts me) and a surprisingly realistic conclusion. You can see the bones of The Silt Verses here, from the same creative team.

The Magnus Protocol. Everything above this is there due to originality. As a sequel series, TMAGP will always suffer in that measure. However, I like our new cast and I do love an alternate reality. Curious to see where season 2 takes us. I'd like to kill Mr Bonzo in a fire.

The Inexplicables. Another one season story, this time from Rusty Quill, with really fun, flawed characters and no recording framing device!

Wolf 359. Storywise, great! Characters, excellent! Kicking it way to the bottom bc they just would NOT STOP referencing H***y P****r. Yes, Doug's characterization hangs on excessive reference humor, but that was one well I wish they'd left alone.

Red Valley. Knocked for HP references too (come ON british podcasters, do better) but more importantly for veering WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too close to real life in season 3 onward. I was here for a horror sci fi story about cryogenics, not to listen to my worst climate disaster fears brought to life via hearing rich old sods try to buy their way out of consequences while the world burns and eco terrorism escalates. Too real. Not bad storytelling, just very much not fulfilling my escapism needs.

It's kinda crazy to me that anytime I mention this genre to normies in my life they say, "oh, like true crime podcasts?" And then I die inside. No dude, like radio drama. Like War of the Worlds.

Anyway, I'm off to get even less relatable by reading a zillion niche trans novels (hello Welcome to Dorley Hall, aka, what if there really was a 'trans cult' force femming dudes to undermine their masculinity? It's amazing how much yarn we can make by subverting the cis gaze.)

[bardnuts]

I'm going through my manuscript for The Inexplicables in preparation for revisions and I feel compelled to share some choice tidbits

anyway it's a novel about wizards having a mob war during Prohibition and I'm sure it will be available to some of you eventually

[laughable-umbrella]

tim stokers voice just told me to smash that like button i need a moment please

[knightofleo]

[carpboy3000]

Excerpt from A Pre-Rapture Pictorial History, 3rd Edition, p. 356: “...Of what can be translated from the surviving art and literature, Helianthian Summer solstices were days of song, spent in fields. The Farmer Queen is accredited with the composition of many of these melodies, some of which survive vestigially amongst modern-day citizens of Sanctuary.1”

[egophiliac]

since Eng is getting 7.5 soon(?), I felt motivated to go back to my Meleanor rig and make her a couple of lesson animations! ...except for alchemy, because the cauldron bubbles proved too hard to photoshop around, whoops.

maybe she just got lost on her way to the classroom...?

(credit: backgrounds are from the game, I just put her on top of 'em)

(aside from the backgrounds, this is not an edit, I drew her from scratch! please do not tag or treat as an edit!)

[ruushes]

mom said it's my turn on the silly batstarion drawings

[pup-rott]

the horrors persist but so do. the whores

[umblrspectrum]

i think i read this in a fic on ao3 but i forgot which one

[spiral-man]

someone was talking about Alice and Celia being anagrams and it’s times like this I really just hate Jonny Sims. Because you see, your first instinct is to theorize what that could mean because it’s got to mean something right? Wrong. This is the same writer who plagiarized his own birth certificate for a main character and then named three important re-occurring characters Michael….IN A AUDIO PODCAST.

Jonny sims is a genius writer, but he also wrote “there is no such thing as a name” about himself and his tendency to just pick names based on whatever first comes to mind. HE VOICED A CHARACTER NAMED DONNY SUMS. DONNY FUCKING SUMS ARE YOU KIDDING ME-

[discosmackdown]

the fallen

[bardnuts]

gonna finish the most homoerotic scene i've ever written and then it's back to Sound & Fury again for a while

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I love it when women on my dash post detailed accounts of their day. We are literally in the same room right now and you’re telling me about your day over a cup of iced coffee

[prokopetz]

I know what t-gel is, but my brain refuses to internalise it. Every time a post mentioning "t-gel" crosses my dashboard, my immediate mental image is, like, an item from a cyberpunk video game that comes in a big clunky injector with blinking lights on it and lets you dodge bullets by getting you so high you start seeing the future.

[egophiliac]

doylist explanation for why Gidel is only in Fellow's non-idle lesson animations: probably something about space constraints and making sure two sprites in one seat aren't covering anyone else when they're not in focus

watsonian explanation for why Gidel is only in Fellow's non-idle lesson animations: he snuck in and is hiding from the teachers, don't give him away 🤫

(I've reached my limit of unsuccessful attempts at pulling them before I need to save keys for Halloween, so I've been living vicariously through youtube videos...but the fact that Gidel just pops up from under the desk to wave his arms around happily is really testing my resolve. D: I'm gonna die when they finally get to do alchemy...)

[lizardsfromspace]

In other news, the group claiming to be the ones attacking the Internet Archive revealed that their reason is...they inexplicably think the Internet Archive is a US government agency?