Do You Love The Color Of My Audio Dramas? (I Just Wanted To See Them In Rainbow Order I Love Them All

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.)

I keep thinking about the possibiity of Arthur and John both dying, John going back to the Dark World... and Arthur not winding up in the Dark World but instead finding himself back in the Waylay.

His Blood & Sand is still waiting, right where he left it. This time it's accompanied by the person who ordered it for him: Parker.

And Parker says, hey, you're finally here, it's all okay now. You've been through all kinds of hell, but now it's over. You can rest. We'll go find your little girl, and you can be at peace together, and be done with all of the pain you've suffered. You can rest. Just come with me, okay?

Arthur's still a little dazed--not quite sure where he is or how he got here or why it's so strange to see Parker again, feels like maybe he's forgetting something important--but oh god he's tired and everything hurts, he knows that much, and going to be with Faroe and have all the time in forever to just be, without worries or fears, sounds like--well, he's not a believer, obviously, but it sounds like heaven. He agrees, and starts to follow Parker out of the bar to whatever's next.

And then the band starts playing a different song:

And you call it madness, oh, but I call it love...

And Arthur remembers what he's forgotten that was so important, and remembers who he'll be leaving behind if he goes this way. Who he'll be leaving behind, alone, in a dark and horrific place, forever. Who he once told he would find again, should they both find themselves in hell.

And Arthur Lester has a choice to make.

I will never escape these two I fear

Whenever humans appear in fantasy or science fiction we are usually the boring default who aren’t strong or fast or magical and the writer has to make something up to make us interesting but we already have a special ability: our stamina.

We can go forever compared to most other animals on earth. When you look it up you’ll mostly find stuff about running but our ability to walk and walk and walk is insane too. We are not the only creature with this ability but we are among the top.

I used to go on walks with my housemate and sometimes her cat would join us. He’d start huffing and puffing halfway through the walk and she’d joke about how out of shape he was but in reality cats just aren’t made for long continuous walking. They hide and attack in quick bursts. Heck I’d sometimes go on walks that turned out to be too long for my dogs despite dogs being endurance hunters like us.

So I think we deserve more acknowledgment for our stamina and endurance in otherworldly settings. We are the race that can keep going long after our party had to sit down and take a breather.

you reckon the reason the spiral took micheal shelly and helen is cause it saw their curls and went 'ive got to have that'

Not romantic, not platonic, just gods favorite and god himself

I've been neglecting faroeverse lately

I also don't think Noel fully bought that lie but he's respectful like that. An ally!!

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

I wanted to mess around with stamp textures and now we're here

codependency