So I'm seeing a lot of Night Vale stuff amongst the ZR fans I follow. I'm curious, what exactly is it and where do I get into it?
MY VERY OWN "WHAT IS THIS NIGHT VALE THING?" ASK
I could refer you to someone else's intro post about it but it's so much more fun to write my own.
"Welcome to Night Vale" is a podcast styled like the community radio broadcast for a small town out in the desert, with one major twist -- the small town in question is chock full of eldritch horrors, conspiracies, and all manner of weirdness. Amidst all this strangeness, your radio host Cecil Baldwin is like a baby duckling in that he is precious and cheerful -- and probably actually has webbed feet and/or a coat of soft yellow down; what's certain is that he keeps a perfect deadpan about things that one should not be deadpan about (like a glowing cloud passing over the town, dropping ever-larger dead animals as it passes) and has a tendency to let himself get overly emotional about the kind of interpersonal dramas that happen in a small town.
Cecil also has a giant crush on Carlos, a scientist who comes to town in the first episode. It's not portrayed as one of the many strangenesses of Night Vale but rather just as a part of Cecil's character that he would talk on-air about how much he adores perfect Carlos' perfect hair.
Segments that come up regularly:- the weather: always music, always interesting- community calendar: Wednesday has been cancelled due to a scheduling error- Coverage of press conferences by the mayor and/or the town council: "plastic. bags."- Kids' Fun Fact Science Corner: what IS the moon? has anyone done studies on thing?
Recurring characters:- Carlos the scientist and his perfect hair- John Peters, you know, the farmer- the "Apache Tracker", the appropriative white guy Cecil is constantly mocking for his ignorant racism- the hooded figures- A constantly rotating cast of interns. Because they keep getting killed in horrible ways.- the sheriff's secret police- Old Woman Josie and the angels that live in her house
