#listening to a very silly audio drama rn

[bookshelfdreams]

the euphoria of correctly predicting a plottwist is only surpassed by the sheer delight of said plottwist being done in the dumbest possible way

[elizabethshaw]

thoughts on "echoes"!! under the cut bc of spoilers:

this boxset absolutely came out at one of the worst possible times for me (my busiest day of the week, at a time when i have 6 different exams, a presentation and also assessments for my home uni to prepare for), and i fear it may have regnited my 8das fixation somewhat which is. not something i have time for rn lmao. we'll see how it goes i guess! anyway personal stuff over now-

i definitely enjoyed it overall! i'm still not entirely sure where i'd rank it in comparison with the other post-stranded boxsets but it was a lot of fun, and it was (as expected) a joy to hear this tardis team together again :)

i will say however that i did have one major qualm with it, which is that i felt a bit let down with how little it followed through with the emotional plotlines set up in the preceding two sets. i got the feeling when listening to "what lies inside?" and "connections" that they were very much going somewhere with this team's (particularly helen's) emotional arc, and while i won't deny there were some nice scenes with them in this set, the fact that these threads were otherwise left to one side most of the time was a disappointment. there was potential to do some really interesting character work in continuation from the events of those previous episodes and it just. didn't happen. i don't want to sound too down about it because i did still really enjoy these stories, but i think this side of things was missing a little bit for me. hm.

anyway, episode-by-episode thoughts:

birdsong

i think this was my favourite of the set. i really love audio drama that leans into more horror-adjacent aspects (even though i'm not a massive horror fan otherwise tbh), and also love it when audio drama just gets kinda fucked up with it. this story hit on both counts for me :)

love that this continued the running trend from the previous boxsets of the episode starting with eight, liv and helen just getting to be silly for a bit before the Horrors inevitably happen :D

lowkey actually love the concept of barcodes as a written language! part of me wants to try and work out how that could work now

scots pine trees... it never rains... bracken... sand... they're literally in breckland lmao

saying that it does also have the Suffocating Quietness going on so i think i'm onto something here...

when the vortex previews for this set mentioned a family member of helen's first mentioned in doom coalition being relevant to this story, i wasn't expecting it to be the grandmother she mentioned in "ship in a bottle". however it was actually really nice to have helen's relationship with her developed further, and it was woven into the story well i thought

being Normal about the scene between liv and helen at the fireside. i am being so normal about it

"i'm not sure i could do this with anyone else, you know? everything from exploring strange new worlds... to talking about my family." i'm fine. i'm fine!!!

[putting on my clown shoes] this is how liv/helen can still be canon in some form before helen inevitably dies! :))

i love how vivid this story felt to me. i always end up getting visuals in my head as i listen with any audio drama but some stories end up, for storytelling or sound design reasons, or both, creating really clear and vivid pictures in my mind and this was definitely one of those

i hope to god that when i visit home over the summer and listen to these with my mum (who loves these audios but refuses to listen to them without me, which is kind of sweet of her), my dad is not in the same room. i love him but he absolutely would be asking me to pause it every few minutes so he could identify the bird calls and then also getting really frustrated when i inevitably end up being unable to guess any of them correctly myself lol. the pains of being related to an ornithologist

big fan of the way things got increasingly more disturbing towards the end. i do think the eight-liv-helen era has been lacking in terms of properly creepy stories (this is just my personal taste tbf), so it was cool having them properly lean into that for once. i have to say though the mental image of the scout's body with all the roots forcing their way into her eyes is not going to be leaving me for a long time

also thought the sound design was really well done on this one!! you could really feel the discomfort of the silence i think

got slightly choked up at helen and liv singing to bex as she died. i might have just been in a weird mood while i was listening to it but. yeah. it did something to me

anyway had a lot of fun with this episode! it had a lot of elements that appealed to me personally, and the character work it did was nice. i look forward to listening to it again one day :)

lost hearts

m.r. james episode!! i've only ever read two of his stories (both of which are products of me knowing this episode was coming haha), but was quite excited for this one regardless because a) ghost stories! and b) he's actually got connections to a village in the area i grew up in, and as i've never actually seen/heard any stories set where i come from in my life, it was neat to have a story in my favourite show, featuring some of my favourite characters, star someone more or less from where i'm from :')

have to say though i am disappointed to have lost the unofficial "will they namedrop great livermere" bet i had going on with my mum and brother. it's such a middle-of-nowhere village (it's not on the way to anywhere, has 3 streets (one of which is named "the street" and another of which is actually a dirt track), and you invariably see more chickens there than actual people), it would have been deeply amusing to me for it to have canonically existed in the dwu

loved all the direct (and indirect) callbacks to "the red lady" in this story! it felt fitting seeing as on some levels they do share certain elements in terms of plot/setting, and was also just fun for me as that is one of my favourite stories :)

was also a big fan of how active the story felt (not sure if that's quite the right word?) - each of the characters had a clear role to play and all the main cast got something to do, it never felt hugely like any of them were being sidelined, which does happen on occasion with 3+ person tardis teams

if helen had punched someone at some point in this story i honestly wouldn't have blamed her

"he's like the museum of cairo, stuffed inside a... well, a-" "a rude, ungracious little twerp?" oh my god askdfjdsfjkds

(let her swear!!!)

i like how the story was riffing off some of the plot/vibes of m.r. james' actual short story "lost hearts" (helpfully one of the two i've read)! it gave it that nice kind of connection, without feeling overly derivative and like it was straight-out copying it

my only main issue with this episode was that robert felt kinda underdeveloped. they started off well in his opening scene with liv, but i don't think we got enough of a chance to get to know him as a person after that point and i think the story suffered for it a little. i don't think it helped either that he's not a family member helen had ever mentioned prior to this episode, so they were essentially having to start from scratch and with everything else going on in the narrative, didn't quite find the time to give him sufficient detail

loved the emotional moments that were brought out when helen got erased... "helen, she's my- she's everything i have left" ough

and the salzburg parallels?? liv attempting to fly the tardis in a desperate attempt to rescue her friends, much like helen did? this is so... it's a lot

i won't lie, it did feel a bit odd to me that they would go to such lengths to avoid actually naming the uni in this episode as cambridge. i suppose it may have been to avoid spoiling the "it's m.r. james!!!" reveal at the end, but given that i think anyone who would have guessed it was him from the setting being cambridge probably would have guessed it anyway beforehand either from the episode blurb or the fact that the episode literally starts with him reciting one of his most famous short stories, it feels a little pointless. i mean i clocked it as an m.r. james episode when the set was announced and i had never read any of his work at that point lmao. not a glaring issue or anything, but felt like a weird choice

anyway loved helen getting to geek out a bit at the end... i love her :')

i think i'm going to have to relisten to this at some point so i can fully get my head around it but i did enjoy it!

slow beasts

this was a solid ep. not my favourite story this tardis team has ever had, but i did absolutely enjoy listening to it, and thought there were a lot of really good ideas in it!

the colonialism plotline especially worked really well for me, it felt pertinent in just the right sort of way. it's not necessarily something new for dr who, but i think it was definitely a good example of how to do it well.

i think "simple, but effective" is the way i'd sum this one up tbh. not exceptional, but it knew what it was setting out to do, did it, and did it well, and i think that worked. it did admittedly feel a bit strange after two more complex/experimental sort of stories, but i don't think that's any reflection on its actual quality

"here is the psychic paper. be confident. it only works if you're confident." "but... i- i'm not confident?" me if i got asked to use the psychic paper tbh

enjoyed the use of the translation circuit in this one :) i have a lot of thoughts on it as a general thing so i always like seeing the ways it gets utilized in different stories

so! had fun with these! a couple of things that maybe could have gone better, but overall a set of three stories i had good fun with and i suspect will enjoy listening to again. fingers crossed the december boxset is with these guys again and they do a bit more with helen's emotional plotlines next time :)

[autisticempathydaemon]

hello! for your redacted matchup!

some basic things about me is that i'm just an intj-t and a reserved person and have a lot of difficulty opening up to someone. i also am the stubborn type, trying to solve my problems alone and head on with no breaks. it does lead to a lot of issues where people think i'm too hyper-independent, but we ball and we vibe!

as for your whimsical questions (that i adore btw):

i adore long video essays on youtube! usually about books, drama and social issues around the world. mainly because it's cool to hear about how different people perceive the same piece of media!

i spent most of my life hating my name, so you'd have to put me on gun point to change it. that being said, there was a point in time i wanted to change to something similar to my current name so people can pronounce it easier.

the recent avior video is definitely one of my top fives now! i also adore sam and aviors' healing videos, vega's first video with warden and all of vincent's videos where he gets to act like a dork.

i hope i don't get crucified for this but i really can't see the appeal in lasko. he's too jittery and jumpy and i'm way too impatient to deal with someone like that. i'd still want him as a friend, thought.

as for who i am attracted too platonically, all of the DAMN boys, milo, asher and vincent! they're all too best friend shaped for me.

oh god, when i get tired, i tend to ramble about how people annoy me. i'll be shit talking people in my sleep and i think that's funny!

my go to gas station is circle k and i'd usually get either coffee or a peach quencher!

my favourite playlist rn is my darlin' playlist because it's filled with nostalgic songs for me! (a lot of 90a and early 2000s rap and rnb)

ooooh, my guilty pleasure media would have to be redacted audios! i'm a very basic person when it comes to my media choices so this is literally the "weirdest" thing i listen too!

thank you sososo much for having this event open! do take your time and don't feel pressured to have all of these done! i love you and i hope you have a good day! 💞💞💞

Your INTJ-T (the Turbulent Architect) nature gives me fun Aaron vibes- not that I’d necessarily pair you with Aaron but that you remind me of him… and you know what you and Aaron could use? A cute, bubbly pizza Guy.

The beauty in yours and Guy’s relationship would be the lovely, charming ways you contrast; where you might be introverted and stubborn, Guy is extroverted and open- maybe a little opposites attract sort of thing? He seems the type who could easily draw you out of your shell and become, if not your rock, your safe, happy space.

Also, I think Guy would be so tickled pink to hear you be sleepy and grumpy and gripe about the people who irritate you. He’d love laying next to you and encouraging your mumbling, probably recording silly, nonsensical snippets of it for when he misses you. Guy’d think it’s so cute and sweet how garrulous you can be when it’s just the two of you, and he’d be so proud that he is granted the privilege of experiencing you that way.

Song:

Some people want diamond rings/ Some just want everything/ But everything means nothing/ If I ain't got you, you, you

You just know, without a doubt, that Guy would be a sucker for a good, nostalgic, shower jam, and is there any better than this? It’s classic, it’s simple, it’s cheesy as hell, and Guy absolutely sings it off-key in the car, knowing you’d never skip the track and throw him off his groove when he’s having fun.

Runner-ups:

Leaning more into comparisons than contrasts, I definitely considered David and Aaron for you. David, who is also independent and stubborn, would make himself very available as a rock and foundation for you; he is incredibly dependable, which is very attractive in a partner. Aaron strikes me as having the same MBTI as you, as being similar in that way that would make you fast friends.

Note: I am having a fantastic day, thank you ❣️ I hope you are as well and that this, god willing, made it just a touch better 💖

Want a match-up of your own? Read this post, and tell me about yourself! 💌

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

DO YOU THINK WOOZI WOULD LISTEN TO AYESHA EROTICA. THIS IS SO RANDOM BUT LIKE WOULD HE???

YOU LIKE EDGING PEOPLE?? man how do you even do it...like i can never tell when someone is close it's kinda frustrating

so if peer pressure is real...could we all collectively peer pressure you into marrying all of us?? i mean you did say you could do the craziest shit... (ok but thank you to peer pressure because we got an amazing dom!yn fic so huzzah)

I THINK HUZZAH SHOULD BE BROUGHT BACK TOO!! yipee, booyah, all white american venacular...

GALLAGHER GIRLS, DOCTOR WHO, AND SUPERNATURAL??? that's actually really..diverse? thats so cool wtf pls tell me more about those shows

I WILL GIVE YOU IDEAS!! as soon as i can think of them..what do you like to write? i'll kinda base off my asks/ideas off of those so you'll have a better writing experience </3

YOUR BRAIN IS NOT MID??? do you think a mid person would bias woozi?? didn't think so 😒😒

IKR??? HOW COULD HE DO THAT 😭😭😭 istg he literally messaged me first and asked to do everything with me and then out of nowhere he just invites someone else to tag along when we hungout??

im sorry that you're feeling stressed rn 😕😕why is everyone mad at you wtf?? i promise you don't sound narcisstic when you talk about it because if it's bothering you, you gotta let people know how you feel!! im glad the blog and a couple friends can help you feel better; ily and hope you feel better!!

-MISSED YOU TOO (🫨 anon)

I literally have never heard of her before (ASIDE FROM THAT ONE VIRAL TIKTOK AUDIO) but listening to one of her songs... I MEAN HE DOES LIKE SEX SONGS.. listening to some song by arianna one time that had me screaming into a pillow... AND HE WRITES GREAT LIKE SELF-CONFIDENT (?) BOPS (Hit... Super...) ITS VERY POSSIBLE I WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED

OKAY IVE ACTUALLY NEVER EDGED ANYONE BEFORE I TALK TO HEAR MYSELF TALK PRETTY OFTEN... I HAVE ALMOST NO ACTUAL SEXUAL EXPERIENCE I JUST ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN IN THAT TYPE OF INTERNET CULTURE... I AM A FAKE.. A FRAUD...

i feel like it would be really hard to tell when someone is close...

I would marry all of you??? I am literally ready to get married right now??? Let's go???

there's something to be said about white venicular like... It can be so good and funny to say, I used to love 20s slang. Like Hoover was president... people were drinking giggle juice... that shit was the bee's knees !

GALLAGHER GIRLS IS ACTUALLY A BOOK. A TEEN BOOK ABOUT THIS GIRL CAMMIE WHO GOES TO A SCHOOL gallagher academy! that is a private all-girl's school for spies. The first book is pretty good but in the SECOND book you find out that there is also a all-boy's school called Blackthorne Academy AND YOU MEET MR. ZACHARY GOODE HIMSELF.... bro... the books kinda evolve past silly little teenage drama among spy kids who don't know how to be normal and get more serious but my favorite part about my time in that fandom... is that... in the books there are four main girls: Cammie, Macey, Liz, and Bex and all of them have blackthorne boys that we all shipped them with EXCEPT Macey. She had a different love interest cause she is like the daughter of a politician or... something and so her love interest in the books was kinda a lamo nerd and NO ONE LIKED HIM SO ONE PERSON CREATED ONE OC WHO LITERALLY DOES NOT EXIST IN THE BOOKS AND WE ALL ADOPTED HIM. I think his name was maybe Nick? But completely made up. And we all wrote him the same and everything I miss the good old days....

BUT anyways I won't be crazy about doctor who and supernatural but just know I AM crazy about them... my beautiful amazing hyper-fixations.

Doctor Who, a man who stole a time and space travel machine and ran away to save people across the universe just being eccentric and getting up to all kind's of hijinks? Yes. IMMEDIATE YES. The doctor is so funny and relateable and his character is so heavy it just gets me going

AND SUPERNATURAL I am a dean apologist and destiel shipper till DEATH Destiel was the first gay couple in a show I shipped, but like those first few seasons the horror anthology-esque feel of the show is just so fun

WHEN IT COMES TO FANFICS I LIKE WRITING UHM.... uh wow I don't know actually. Anything that will get two characters into a long-relationship kinda fast. Like fwb to lovers kinda? I am kinda good at writing fwb these days LIKE that's like all I write BUT I CAN WRITE ANYTHING I LOVE REQUESTS THAT ARE A BIT DIFFERENT THAN WHAT I USUALLY DO

BRO WHAT THE FUCK. He's playing you... HES A PLAYER. FORGET HIM. BLOCK HIM (i'm just kidding) but also booo him. Get you someone who will treat you right....

I will not go much into it because my stress is making me a little crazy and I'm being a bit crazy these days but in defense of my friends who are all mad at me it's fair. They're mostly mad because I'm hanging out with three different groups of friends and Groups A and B I've been close to the longest and really judge me for hanging out with Group C but I work with Group C the most now and... idk it's a lot. I'm sick thinking about it...

[lildoodlecat]

🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to and publish them. then, send this ask to some of your favorite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨ (Hi Jay!!! It's been a while :3. I'm 16 now and on a quest to play the Xillia(s)~ As you can see, a certain soft medical school boi has quickly worked his way into my heart. I love Jude so much holy HECK he truly is just a lil guy 🥺)

5 songs ohboy.. in no specific order rn i'm gonna go with:

一花一劍 (One Flower, One Sword) by Li Xingyi — which is the,, sub theme song?? for the tgcf donghua slkdfjkld i continue to have many emotions over it AND the official video for it bc ue

白夜 ～True Light～by Shunishi Miyamoto — DN Angel opening! I actually watched the anime when I was a kid bc of this song lskdfjsk

忘羨 (WangXian) from the MDZS Audio Drama — this one is probably self-explanatory.. I think abt my silly little gays very frequently

Ball of Yarn by Cranbersher — one of my favorite lil instrumentals from this guy, made for bg music when he made a stop-motion puppet of Yarny from Unravel (gently pushes his channel toward you he makes so much cool stop-motion and Cranbersher's Guide to Stop-Motion is both interesting and may or may not become a plot-driven narrative with a highly-anticipated finale financed on kickstarter (of which i am a backer slkfdjldfj) to be released tentatively sometime next year :3)

Light Your Sword from Sword Art Online — sao unfortunately has a banger soundtrack and imma be real there's so many medleys reprises and remixes so i have no idea what the original version might be?? for this one bc Luminous Sword sounds similar (obviously) and I'm 90% there's a few more that have the same kinda thing going on so

ohh that took me a hot minute lskfjlsk anyway

(HI PAVV happy birthday!!! i thought it was this month but i wasn’t sure.. also i consistently forget you and my sister are the same age like she is maybe a week older than you?? wild how that happens. And yes!!! I've seen you creeping into Xillia on my dash :D!! Jude truly is just a lil guy I'm glad you like him <3)

[queenoftheantz]

I love wolf359 & TAZ! Do you have any podcast recs? I really rec Turncloaks, it's p much my life rn lol

Oh DO I!?!

yes, I do.

Here are some (in no particular order):

1. Wolf 359 (of course). A small crew is on a far away space station, scanning deep space for alien life. It’s humor, action, conspiracies, drama... so well written, fantastic soundtrack and great sound design. The voices are easy to dsitinguish and the actors really great!

2. It Makes A Sound. A small weird podcast of 9 episodes. It’s about a woman, finding an old cassette tape from her childhood, and her quest to listen to the songs on it. This is a weird one, and many are put off by the start, but guys. Before you judge, get to episode 5. It’s a lovely small story about memory, childhood, nostalgia, and places that hold memories.

3. Welcome to Nightvale. A classic. Listen to a radiohost reporting on his very special little town, and get to know the people and.. other things... that live in it! It’s long, but fun, some episodes almost meditation, and Cecil’s voice is just so pleansant.

4. TAZ (also of course). You have to get past the first chapter where they sort of warm up, but it slowly becomes both a fun improv audio drama, silly and easygoing, and a genuinely sweet story with lots of feelings.

5. Girl in Space. I just listened to this one, and it was a pleasure. It’s not done yet, but it’s fun, curious and easy to listen to! On a withering space station, one girl is surviving together with the AI and the star they circle. Until they get company.

6. King Falls AM. This one is a bit special to recommend, because if I’m being honest, I wasn’t hooked from the start. It was kind of fun, but I felt it wasn’t super good, occasionally a bit cringey, until like episode 35. Then I was a bit invested in the characters. Then around episode 45 I was intrigued by the direction of the story. THEN EPISODE 68. HOOOOO BOY. So yeah listen it’s fun and gets better, it’s like Gravity Falls but... horny.

7. The Bright Sessions. I have recommended this to many friends who LOVED IT. It’s therapy sessions for people with superpowers, and it’s very nice, and well done. It just recently finished too.

8. Alice isn’t dead. A truck driver is looking for her wife, and uncovering the creepy and unsettling things that goes on under the surface. It’s a very good story, and just creepy enough!

9. Ars Paradoxica. I felt like the first season was a bit slow, but it really picked up pace and the last two season were really nice! Scientist accidentally invents time travel as she is flung back to the 1940′s. There, she and her new (old?) team start working on controlling this invention. It’s all about time travel, and focuses on parallell timelines and universes rather than always closing loops.

10. EOS10. It’s sort of hospital comedy in space, with aliens and all that. It’s pretty fun, a bit uneven in sound quality, but with some loveable characters, and will soon be out of hiatus.

11. Penumbra. Penumbra has some fun concepts. Their flagship is Juno Steel, a noir detective on a futuristic Mars, but personally, I’m almost more invested in the Second Citadel now, a story about... unconventional knights. There’s hints of Lizard/Scientist/knight ot3 which is just lovely. I’m not a fan of their sound design, I feel like it often gets a bit messy and hard to follow for me, but they are slowly getting better, so it can be worth a listen! (there’s a remake of the frist juno steel episodes, the murderous mask, and PLEASE listen to those insted of the early versions)

12. Within the wires, season 1. I really enjoyed season 1, but season 2 just didn’t stick with me. Season 1 can be listened to standalone though. It’s a number of relaxation cassettes, with recorded exercises that you are being walked through. But of course, there are other messages underneath.

My tops are Wolf, Taz, WTNV, IMAS, Girl in space and King falls probably!