#the big loop

[chemicallywrit]

Happy Audio Drama Sunday! It's been a long week and I'm exhausted, but art exists and stories are beautiful and I love getting to see people's work. Let's get into it.

⚡️ This week I listened to the first episode of @heartglasspod and was just blown away. Like not only are the writing stellar and the characters instantly fascinating, but this concept is so beautiful and weird that I am all in. There’s something very tempting about being able to talk to a loved one who’s passed, especially one whose death is suspicious, but the memory issue and the actual cosmological distance between our characters is bound to cause problems. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

🧛🏻‍♂️ The thing about @theholmwoodfoundation is: I love Tom. I love him. I can’t help but compare our characters to their predecessors, which I think Jeremy in particular would hate, but they all fill very different roles. That said, Tom is still decisive and funny and refuses to let Jeremy panic, which is very Van Helsing of him. The writing here is so nuanced, and the way these characters developed works so well. Can’t wait to figure out what the heck is up with Jeremy.

🪐 This episode of @iriscasefiles has it all. Gangsters. Linguistics. Violence in the face of unspeakable injustice. Soup. I am constantly impressed with Brian as a character—something about how “nice” doesn’t mean “helpless” is really delicious in the context of this particular anticapitalist setting. And it’s encouraging. You can always do something to fight injustice. Even if you’re just a waiter.

☀️ I don’t have much analysis about @thetowerarray’s finale of Calling All Adventurers, except to say I just love this show. The narrator’s first real adventure has come to an end and asked more questions than he started with. The slow burn mystery and eventual victory (but at a cost) was so skillfully crafted. I am very much looking forward to season two. And in the meantime, listen to the show! It’s wonderful.

🩸 There is a risk when crafting a dark fantasy like @last-dance-audio-drama to deal death willy-nilly. For shock value, for "realism," for the sake of keeping the tone. You all know the type of story. Last Dance isn't that type of dark fantasy. I'm caught up now, and 3+ devastating character deaths in and two episodes left to go, I feel like every single death has been earned. None is taken lightly or treated with scorn. Not a one has a background haze of a writer being like haha, gotcha! And each one hits like a truck. I am worried about what's about to happen to these characters, but I trust the story. Not for a happy ending--I think that's a little too optimistic--but for a good ending.

♾️ I'm like, years too late to The Big Loop, but I'm here now and WOW. The Big Loop started in 2017, a project of audio drama OG Paul Bae, and although it's an anthology, I would say all the stories fall into slipstream fiction. The setup is realistic, everything seems pretty normal, and then...things get weird. I'm only so far in, but every single episode has been a new and fantastic little gem. My favorite so far has been "All God's Children," which is very hard to explain without ruining the several twists. If you want to understand where audio drama as a medium came from and hear some absolutely killer writing and acting, please check it out.

That's it for me! I hope my fellow Americans have an Independence Day that is full of resistance and doing what you can, and I hope everyone else has a lovely week where you don't have to hear about what we're up to for once. See you next Sunday!

[twisting-in-wonderland]

'Yuu!'

[suntails]

love will truly live

[min-play]

binged playing In Stars and Time for the past week i still have not emotionally recovered

spoiler-ish bonus drawing under cut

[chipper-smol]

The spectrum of touch therapy

[eggnoodlesoop]

isat traditional sketches yayyyy!!!!

[valictini]

I’ve already said it, I’ll say it again, Mal du Pays is such a visceral and clever word to describe Siffrin’s Sadness. When I first saw it in game it genuinely made me pause like. Yes, it translates to homesickness. But it has the literal word for country in it. ��Country sickness”. For a guy whose core problem is that his childhood, his culture, his country is missing. One could argue it’s a twisted pun. I’m obsessed with it.

[keferon]

Did you think I was done? Ahahahaha no, I have more.

Because chapter 70 of MOMU gave me the very dynamic between them that I missed so much, I just blacked out and started drawing uncontrollably lmao

Also. ALSO. I noticed a while ago that Prowl has the habit of..like…constantly frowning. So. I did a bit of research and made this graph.

In 70 chapters, Prowl frowns rougly 104 times. And the intensity of this gesture is very clearly correlated with the development of his relationship with Jazz, as you can see ahahahahah It might be wrong tho don’t take me seriously I’m not good with graphs

[isatartdump]

i;m a lesbian but i am so insanely attracted to your isabeau it's unreal. please keep posting him i fall in love more every time

Please keep faling in love with Isabeau. He's almost like a muse to me. He always looks divine

Sunkissed. The universe itself stops to stare. Gods I love this guy.

Now have an Isabeau sketch blast because I love him almost as much as I love Loop

And for last- Isa with glasses...

[solargeist]

I don’t know how to draw sifloop

[buttercupshands]

IT'S THE DAYYY! @isat-secretsanta-2024 gift for @cleoisabell!

As for the bonuses!

Full sticker pack of suffering Siffrins from moments in main quest and side quests throughout the game!

SS Discord got the transparent versions too, but I'm too tired to but my @ everywhere

And second bonus and third part is a fic! For the main art!

Anyway, merry Christmas!!! On this fine day I give you Siffrin suffering :)

[0vergrowngraveyard]

he’s a changed hedgehog, mighty

[lucabyte]

siffrin starts the game with oddly empty pockets for a rogue who has a habit of stashing away every little trinket that isn't nailed down

and a hardy pocketwatch is an indispensable tool for oceanic navigation

[meeeeeeeep78]

bugs when you lift up a rock

[hazelnootnut]

ACT 2 "You're... me?" "That's right, stardust!"

You know I've been drawing Loop as their Siffrin form so much that it's got me thinking. I've read and seen so many fics and artworks of Loop eventually getting back to looking like their old self, but I don't think I've seen any so far of Loop already being a mirror copy of Siffrin. So uh, yoink?

ISAT AU where the game plays out the same way (plot-wise at least) but Loop looks like Siffrin the whole time and while Siffrin is extremely perplexed that there's another him, he's still gotta accept their help because how else are they supposed to escape the loops? Good ol' Loop is here to help, helpful friendly Loop!

Siffrin is going through it still but Differently.

[another-ninjago-person]

People were knocking on Kai’s characterization in DR but I don’t see what’s the problem?

He comes off as one of the wisest of the old gen ninja and is easily able to connect with new kids without the baggage of being a legend by meeting them at their level. By being a little silly.

It helps that we’ve passed the point of retreading old ground for the sake of drama: “i’m a hothead and family is danger so i’m going to do something incredibly risky that’s going to mess things up.” or “why i am unworthy/inferiority complex.” They’re finally letting him progress in the spotlight. No longer trapped in the character progression loop!

And because other characters run through his old beats he gets to bestow his wisdom. Telling them he was in their position and respecting where they come from. This happens with Wyldfyre and Cole (and lowkey Nya) and it works so well because Kai gets to be competent. And if there’s one thing I thank DR for is balancing Kai’s silliness and competence.