#pre-strex kevin

[nightvale-radio]

what a polite radio host, sure hope nothing horrible happens to him

[alexalmonds]

I deleted all of my old post, cause of fear (ai shit that was happening)

Here all my favorite ones

[callernumberthree]

My Cecil Palmer design reveal! I know he has amblyopia in my heart. Bonus, my design for the late Mama Palmer:

Coming up; Abby Palmer, Carlos “Dave Robles” The Scientist, and Kevin (The Bigger One)!

[manynarrators]

Please allow me to be absolutely insane over Cecil and Kevin for a minute y’all. I finished relistening through Old Oak Doors a few days ago and have FEELINGS!

Please enjoy some ramblings!

Just imagine. He is the best parts of you, you are the worst parts of him. Once upon a time there would have been few differences between you. (But you did not know each other when that was still the case).

You ask him to join you in the “Night Vale AND Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area”, while your managers refer to it by Desert Bluffs alone. Maybe it’s a last ditch effort to win, maybe it’s some part of you reaching through for that connection. Do you know which? Can you?

You understand each other on an innate level no one else ever can. You’re strangers. You have only ever spoken half a dozen times, and you’ve tried to kill each other in at least half of those. Neither of you can bring yourself to.

You build him a radio station to the best of your abilities.

He gives you hope, he lies to you, he is one of the last people you talk to when even your name ceases to mean anything to you. (The Desert said that he belonged on one side of the door and that you, who were once Voice in your own right, do not).

You are the same, and perfect opposites— until something broke. What happens then?

[ciphercalamitiez]

i hate to admit it but i just learned what the “updog” joke was about oh my god

anyway shame aside, pre-strex Kevin your honor. (i think he is squishable)

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Made my radio boys using this cute picrew.

[baileygpalmerofnv]

“The whole plan is falling to pieces.” (Pre-Strex!Rebellion)

|| @ask-kevin-strexcorp ||

The scientist sat quietly as they listened to the other from his cell-- or rather "cubicle" according to Lauren and the other Strex Corp higher ups. They felt the sudden pain of where their third eye once was twinge as the radio host tried to keep it together. They spoke the same time as he did, tears in their eyes, their face stained with black streaks not only from their mascara but their true tears rolling down their face.

"The whole plan is falling to pieces...."

[neriumdelusion]

Kevin is always a spectacle, always dehumanised in some way. The prophet, the spokesperson of strex, the boy. What he is has always been seen as more important than WHO he is in every era, even as the voice of his town, there’s an element of what he can do for others being more important than who he is himself. He is a radio host, a performer, and oh boy does he perform. Year after year, no matter what he’s doing, he can’t escape being a spectacle, until the only way he knows how to seek self discovery and help is by turning up the radio station in night vale as a child and speak to the town he doesn’t even have connection to (as much as his own, he does have links to it obviously).

This man is always for someone’s gaze, when he was strex’s spokesperson it was more hammered home, no free will and being forced to represent propaganda, and even when he’s escaped that he can’t find comfort in anything else! In mudstone abyss he latches onto his religious power because the need for safety represents itself through his learned need for control and, not unnoticeably, his need to be a spectacle.

Of course people can just like attention and I’m not disputing that, but he is rarely given attention as a person (except like. By Charles and Donovan who are his family. And by Lauren I believe, who may not like him but she sure does see him as a person. Just the worst one she’s ever had the displeasure of being near. She also loves him. He loves her, I don’t care what you say to me.) so he goes to what he’s USED to! Being a symbol, being dehumanised and seen for an ideology, whether it was community pre strex, strexcorp, or religious power, and more recently, he’s the boy. The boy was a mystery and now yet again a symbol for night vales fear (as a figure for nv to project their fear and confusion onto)

KEVIN CANNOT ESCAPE PERFORMANCE. HE CANNOT HELP BEING A SPECTACLE. SOMEONE SHOOT ME

[keter-class-anomaly]

I have been trying to make a design for Kevin because he’s my favorite and I love him, but I haven’t been able to draw anything except for pre-strex Kevin. Because I love him and thinking about him being hurt is sad and then I see what I’ve drawn and it is in fact, sad.

So

Pre-strexcorp Kevin

He has lovely tattoos. Sun on one hand, sunflower on the other. Clouds and stem + roots on each respective arm.

I think I wanted the stem and clouds to represent that you need a little bad to make good things good and then in the post-strex design his tattoos get covered and all fucked up and cool because he doesn’t think that anymore. And because of what he says about strex messing up his body in irreversible ways.

I like him with sunflower imagery for some reason.

He has lots of rings and jewelry, and stickers on his clothes and equipment.

Anyway thanks for reading this horrid rant. Appreciate my art please and thank you. (Reblogs>>)

Give me more ideas for post-strex kevin, for I love him.

[the-pest1lence]

Listening to music on the bus and then I come upon this gem

Ik this is already a game song. But can I just say this is the same vibe I thought for early Strexcorp in Desert Bluffs? Idk, the main singer gives me very much pre-Strex Kevin

[kevin--of-desert-bluffs]

My fave thing is when Kevin shows these obvious little signs of trauma and Lauren is just like..."so, anyway!"

For example, in All Smiles' Eve:

KEVIN: When I was a boy, my father used to make caramel [description of caramel making omitted] he would call the kids into the kitchen and we would all open our hands, and he would pour the boiling caramel into our cupped palms.

It burned our hands so badly, but that was no problem, because we just forced the sweet caramel quickly into our mouths, where it also badly burnt our tongues and lips. It was one of my happiest memories.

Years later, when I was an adult, I found a starling in a shopping center parking lot. Its head had been crushed by a car tire, and its rear leg was still twitching. I watched it for about 15 minutes until it stopped moving.

LAUREN: Thanks for that recipe, Kevin. [Tells her own food recipe].

KEVIN: I still don't know who killed that starling.(his tone here is very soft and sad)

LAUREN: Let's continue with our story of All Smiles' Eve. [...]

-

Like, look at this. He recalled a very disturbing childhood memory that he associates with the holidays and although it's muddled a little and spun to be positive that memory, with no identifiable link, leads onto another one which has stuck with him for who knows why. He completely ignores or doesn't even hear Lauren, stuck on that memory which his brain suddenly recalled. Dissociating a little perhaps.

His memories pre-Strex are very few and don't seem very pleasant, but we only see them through these accidental glimpses. You have to wonder 🤔

[nightvale-radio]

nervous habits, pre and post strex

[kerink]

so about kevin being a threat even pre strex intervention(shot)

[finedinerofmoths]

Actually hold on I can't sleep so let me tell you what I think about Kevin, the smiling god, Strexcorp, and how it all ties together.

(rant incoming)

So! The podcast of WTNV contradicts itself sometimes as to who founded the congregation of the smiling god, and I find it interesting! (I'll try to to source my findings but I'm kinda trash at that so sorry in advance.)

First things first, it was before strex for sure. This is confirmed by the episode with past Kevin and I think a priest of the congregation actually? He talks about smiling, uses friendly language, and overall seems like a happy guy pre-strex in a somewhat similar fashion to during-strex Kevin. Personally I love the contrast, but that's not the point whoops. And after his disconnect with strex, there are still many! people that worship the smiling god.

Here's what I think, and take it with a grain of salt because I hadn't read any of the books or seen the live shows (wiki fandom is my best friend on this), but it seems like the corruption of a religion to further a social/political goal on strex's part.

I refuse to get too political on this but my thoughts on this was the OG religion was positive and harmless, centered around a more spiritual belief of goodwill, optimism, and respecting life (maybe the energy of every living thing via blood and bones and the beauty of just... Life and living thing? Only to turn into a blood and bone fixation? Hm.) Smiling has been proven to help your brain make happy chemicals, and laughing is literally contagious! I read a post that while science is Night Vale's religion, religion is Desert Bluff's science, and I agree. It makes sense that a guy like pre-strex Kevin (as little as I know him) would understand and appreciate these values. Hell, I even think cutting a gaslow smile into yourself could've been an original thing, some religions are like that man, especially not surprising in WTNV.

Strex is obviously sadistic, faux-friendly, manipulative and gaslighting, etc etc etc. It wouldn't be the first time a company or group would use and corrupt a popular religion to seize control, and brainwashing is how cults work! That mixed with torture and meds, no wonder strex employees were so loyal. And they most likely used his own religion (albeit an essentially bastardized version) to condition him. By telling him pain is good (yikes) and "crushing the weak" to paraphrase Kevin himself is all part of this religion HE FOUNDED, they could've easily twisted their own virtues into his. Despite being a prophet, I don't think Kevin has had contact with it for a while now.

However, the smiling god is obviously malevolent, I am not sure about that bit. It either drive him just a bit mad upon first meeting it (valid tbh), it killed him but didn't?? because what is logic in night vale honestly, or somehow tricked him into believing it was a more benevolent presence. Or, maybe he worshipped it because why not, Cecil was totally ready to adhere to the demands of the glow cloud, the distant prince, all of them due to a healthy dose of terror and cosmic fear. Kevin might've gotten luck of the draw.

A thing I don't know yet that's driving me crazy is Kevin met the smiling god via oak door the first time, and it makes me wonder if the desert otherworld is it's domain or something?? And dbt is there now, just thinkin' thoughts about that.

He's shown to be a bit controlling, opinionated and stubborn even before strex (only heartless people don't like cats, Cecil!) and I think strex amplified these traits to terribly negative proportions. As well as using his own trauma, maybe? He compares his father to a thing always watching (in the walls, I think?), the sun to an overbearing father, let's not even mention the burning hot caramel situation. If his father was strict and abusive, it might be easier to say "hey, wasn't that actually a good thing? All that pain, what a great dad!" And turn his brain into a functional positive feedback loop.

Sorry for the whole essay, ack, but I've been thinking about this way too much lately. To summarize, smiling god came first via Kevin, Strex ruined everything as per usual, and religion and science and this podcast are soooo flipping interesting!!!! Okay thanks for coming to my Ted talk, Mothy out

[kadens-a-bee]

Pre-Strex Kevin: Wow, looks like I have some fun stuff to look forward to once I kick Strexcorp out of town!

Cecil:

[ciphercalamitiez]

HE IS SELF AWARE

NOTHINGS WRONG KEVIN I WAS JUST GOING TO DRAW A NOSE ON YOU (a dot.) BUT I GOT TOO LAZY LMAOOOOO

…nvm lemme just

time to put you in the pile.