This is a Hephaestus Crew Found Family zone

Beth (she/they). Podcast blog. Previously @the-empty-man . Mostly Wolf 359, with a sprinkling of other audio dramas. Likes and follows from @imstillturningout . More info in pinned post.

[hephaestuscrew]

Pinned Intro Post

Welcome to my blog! :) I’m Beth (she/they). I have a lot of feelings about podcasts and this is my place to put them!

I mostly post about Wolf 359, but other audio dramas I love that I post about - and that I would highly recommend - include: Arden (link to my rec post), Greater Boston (rec post), Victoriocity (rec post), and Wooden Overcoats.

This blog used to be called @the-empty-man

Mostly this blog is me being emotional about the Hephaestus Crew and/or trying to analyse things. Occasionally I chuck in some utter nonsense. 

This is technically a sideblog because I didn’t realise podcasts were taking over my brain until it was too late, so if you see @imstillturningout pop up, that is also me. I don’t use that blog much, I just treat it as a place to keep random posts I see that I like. This is the blog I actually care about.

I tag my original posts with #the empty man posteth or sometimes #the empty man rambleth if they feel more like my own personal ramblings.

Feel free to send me asks about anything, I love getting them even if I can take a while to respond! I also love people adding to my posts so you don’t need to feel shy about that.

Some links to a selection of random posts that I’m weirdly proud of that you might want to check out: Muppet Wolf 359 survey; poems from Hera’s perspective; rundown of the significance of names in Wolf 359; list of evidence that Rudyard Funn is aroace; montage of Minkowski saying Eiffel's name; things in Wolf 359 that only work as well as they do because it’s an audio drama

Minkowski EssaysTM: Perspective at the end of the Wolf 359 finale; Minkowski's love of musical theatre and what it reveals about her characterisation and her relationships; The significance of Minkowski's weapon of choice within the narrative and characterisation of Wolf 359 ; The role of Pryce and Carter's Deep Space Survival Procedure Protocol Manual in the characterisation, symbolism, and themes of Wolf 359

[commsroom]

wolf 359 ep. 41: memoria 🌊 "everything before memory is about the world around you. everything after it is all in your head."

[hephaestuscrew]

Once again, I've been extremely inactive on here, but at least I can confirm that I've finally submitted my Aroace Rudyard essay (“I don’t do either of those things”: Rudyard Funn as a valuable aroace character) to the Fandalliances zine

[hephaestuscrew]

Pssst... Anyone want a recording of the Wooden Overcoats 10th anniversary liveshow...?

[mothmans-queer-cousin]

Remember everyone go support your fave podcasts!!! For the most part they’re indie productions even the most popular!

however… if anyone knows where I could find even just clips of rudyard ruins Halloween and others. You should tell me.

[hephaestuscrew]

If you are looking for audio recordings of all three seasonal Wooden Overcoats specials (Rudyard Ruins Christmas/Summer/Halloween), you can get them all on a pay-what-you-can basis here: https://www.woodenovercoats.com/the-specials

(And it looks like there isn't a minimum amount for the pay-what-you-can, so I think it can literally be just a few pence if that's where you're at rn.)

[lemodoe]

Visit Original Link

MY TOYS!

[teenjournalist]

Man trapped at the bottom of an old well has been declared largely uninteresting, will not be rescued

[commsroom]

more important things than sanitized pagan rituals 🍕 (by @quibbs)

[hephaestuscrew]

It's so important to me that Minkowski and Eiffel and Hera spend December 25th together to celebrate Eiffel's birthday post-canon. And the hope that they spend that day together is a sentiment shared by Gabriel Urbina.

But Minkowski canonically cares about Christmas itself. Minkowski has people in her life whom she could spend Christmas with. And so there will probably have to be a difficult conversation at some point after the Hephaestus crew return to Earth, when someone says how good it will be to have Renée there for Christmas Day again. And Minkowski will have to look at her husband, or her relatives, or her in-laws - people who loved her and mourned her and celebrated upon her return from the dead - and she'll have to tell them that she won't be there on Christmas Day. And if the person who asks knows her at all, they'll see the look on her face and know that there's no negotiating to be done here.

It's not exactly that she doesn't want to celebrate Christmas with the people she used to celebrate Christmas with. But she can do that on any day near the end of December. Spending December 25th with Eiffel and Hera is something she absolutely cannot compromise on. 

The main reason she'd give for this is that December 25th is Eiffel's birthday. Whether or not it matters to him as much as it used to, Minkowski wants Eiffel's birthday to get the recognition it deserves, because it was so important to him and he never expected anyone else to care or remember.

A second reason - one she might never speak aloud - is that she's always thought that Christmas is a time for family, and nowadays that means that spending it with Eiffel and Hera feels right to her.

But I think there's a third, perhaps equally important, reason underneath those two. Maybe she doesn't admit it to herself consciously, but I think part of Minkowski believes that the only people who can really understand the complicated way she now feels about December 25th are the two people who were there with her when everything went to hell on Christmas Day.

It was December 25th when they realised they'd made contact with aliens, and when Hilbert locked Minkowski outside the airlock and tried to incapacitate Eiffel and tore out Hera's personality hardware, and when everything Minkowski had thought she knew about the Hephaestus mission fell apart.

How can she exchange gifts with people for whom it isn't the anniversary of the one of the worst days of their life? How can she gather round a Christmas tree with people who've never feared for their lives at the hands of Alexander Hilbert and Goddard Futuristics? How can she eat turkey and trimmings with people who weren't there when the Christmas dinner was never eaten because there was a murderous mutiny from one of the intended guests? How can she spend December 25th with people for whom it's never been a day of betrayal and fear and loss and uncertainty eight lightyears away from Earth?

Eiffel doesn't remember that awful Christmas and that brings its own kind of pain for Minkowski. But he was there, and so was Hera, and so (no matter what anyone else expects) Minkowski needs to be with them on that complicated day.

[chai-ky]

Everyone say happy birthday Eiffel

[hephaestuscrew]

ID: Tweet from Gabriel Urbina (@GabrielUrbinaTM) which reads "In the parallel universe where Wolf 359 exists, Doug Eiffel turns 40 today. Happy Birthday, Doug. Getting to write you changed my life. ❤️🎁 I will never say what I think happened after Episode 61, but I will say I *hope* you, Hera, and Minkowski are watching Die Hard today."

[commsroom]

HAPPY 43RD BIRTHDAY, DOUG EIFFEL!! and happy ten years of not having to spend birthdays in space. 🌟🎉🍕📻🎧📼🎵💕🌯🍩🚬☕🛏💤💝💝💝🎁❣ (<- my gifts for him)

[evidently-endless]

modern hamlet making aggressive eye contact with his uncle as he picks the lion king for family movie night

[theholmwoodfoundation]

Hi all!

Thank you so much for all your donations so far. Your support, particularly these last few days as we’ve struggled to get the reach needed, has been seen and so appreciated. We are so, so lucky to have such incredible listeners and supporters in our corner.

We are at £13,554 and 33% funded. It may seem bleak but the best thing people can do is still share and donate. Showing that people still want it made makes it easier to invest in or prove to sponsors as we try to make alternate funding plans for Season Two.

The Holmwood Foundation - Season Two

Season Two of the horror-fiction audio drama about possession, queer identity, and Dracula's severed head!

[autisticslp]

I was talking to someone and they mentioned that they went to London a few years ago and my podcast-addled brain thought, “whoa, just like Clara Entwhistle”

[madeleinefunn]

Aro ace stereotypes aren’t okay unless it’s Rudyard Funn in fact he should have more of them

[hephaestuscrew]

One of your wolf 359 fics made me cry yesterday /pos

Oh I'm so pleased to hear a fic of mine made you feel things! That's the highest compliment for a writer 😅 Thank you for this ask - I hope you are having a lovely day/night! ❤️

[hephaestuscrew]

Discovered today that a frustrating minor issue with my podcast app that I'd just been putting up with and grumbling about to myself for literally years had a very simple solution all along. A humiliating victory...

[hephaestuscrew]

I'm a big fan of how Tell No Tales Season 2 uses the division between episode and mini-episode to highlight the rift between characters. Not only are these characters no longer working together and therefore no longer sharing scenes, they can no longer even occupy the same episode - or even the same kind of episode. The distance between them is highlighted by the episode numbering, by the difference between (for example) S2 E1 versus S2 E1.5, by the week between episode release dates. It's such a simple effective way to use the actual structure of the medium to emphasise the sense of division and isolation...