I figured it made sense to make a thread for this series instead of just periodically taking over the horror thread! Anyway, I'm caught up on TANIS now in addition to the Black Tapes and now I have TWO dangerously adventurous podcast hosts to worry about. TWO also did you know there are 140 black tapes fics on ao3? I didn't, and now I am looking at them
ok point the first: a lot of the fic is Generic Het Fluff about Alex and Strand. look, I'm not denying that I see the appeal but at least give me bickering, damn it point the second: TANIS is about Alex's colleague Nic Silver and his search for answers regarding the mysterious myth of Tanis, a mysterious thing that might be a place and might move around and might give you some kinda boon and might have a conspiracy surrounding it and is definitely weird as fuck. It weaves actual historical shit in with Nic's adventures in the Pacific Northwest. More mystery than horror, more weird spacetime shit than ghosts. I didn't like it quite as much as I liked TBT, but it was def worth listening to.
(puts up my dukes) :P to each their own! I like a lot of the TANIS worldbuilding/arc plot better - it's subtler? - but I don't enjoy nic and mk's interactions as much as the black tapes duo, and the history stories often don't work for me. I mean, they are cool stories but often my suspension of disbelief doesn't buy that they're connected to Tanis. I do love the sneaky journal entries/finale plot twist, though. That was CLEVER.
yeah, that's fair. the black tapes duo definitely has better interactions, i just like the /story/ of tanis better and i am a plot person at heart. the journal entries were incredible! i listened to the last episode during math class because 1. I'm a jerk 2. it was a review day and 3. i can listen to anything i want without anyone knowing because fuck yeah long hair - and i was so terrified that someone was going to catch me because my eyes were getting wider and wider with each passing minute and i couldn't stop listening and my eyes wouldn't stop bugging out
I worked out in like.. episode nine? ten? that Spoiler: spoilers for TANIS morgan had to be the novelist, but I couldn't remember what the journal writer's title was and so I thought maybe Nic was the Zealot - driven by his attraction to mystery, making bad decisions because he's so fascinated with the myth - but when Sam started being all brainwashed it clicked.
Spoiler my problem is that Zealot is one of those words that I never bothered to look up and just assumed I knew what it meant....hold on no, i was right, but i was off by just enough that it wasn't obvious to me until it was spelled out
I started listening to The Black Tapes after seeing it praised in the horror thread. I'm on episode 110 and oh my God I am totally hooked. Tanis has been on my list for ages, so I'll be starting in on that soon. Thank you to everyone that's been recommending them both! Balances out my usual podcast diet of Internet snark and true crime nicely :) Will drop back in when I'm caught up to get in to some proper plot discussions.
Spoilered for 201 reactions: Spoiler "The primary emotion I felt was excitement" NIC NO. cameron why are you so cryptic. I'm with Nic in his annoyance with you "Alcohol .. TANIS, and firearms" "That's funny." "Thanks." "Don't mention it." my fave nic and emkay interactions are when she is vaguely condescending to his dorkiness and he continues to be dorky "Hey Nic? I'm glad you survived the weird death cabin." "Thanks." Aww ok cuteness is good too who's gonna be the first person to write skeevy Nic/Cameron. Nic is so adamant that he isn't owned by telenova. Cameron is so chill and vaguely menacing. Is the part about Coraman being a professor meant to be Nic's narration or more quoting from the PDF? I can't tell.
I just started listening to Tanis, and I'm super bemused by nick going on about how there aren't a lot of "real" mysteries in the world anymore. It just makes me think about how concerned he gets over Alex sometimes being too dramatic in TBT, and it's like....dude. I should probably look up how much of Tanis is a real world thing or if it's semi-fake like some of the stuff in TBT is because it sounds Pretty Neat edit: Spoiler: oh my god, nick "It took me three weeks and a whole lot of bit coin to get her to agree to a five minute skype conversation" AND YET YOU GET ALL UP ON ALEX FOR HER NONSENSE. NICK.....
I think they're both almost entirely fictional, except for the history stuff in TANIS, which is usually true except where it relates directly to the myth. Generally the "creepy shit in the Pacific Northwest" stories are true, while the "creepy shit directly pertaining to Tanis" stories aren't. But yeah Nic does get up to some protagonist shenanigans, doesn't he. It's funny - I think the Black Tapes is a fictional podcast in the TANIS-verse and vice versa.
okay i promise i wont liveblog a whole bunch of stuff but Spoiler: early tanis stuff I'm listening to the girl who was an archaeologist and then dissapeared, and... Okay, girl, you're under Intense Do Not Talk stuff, and you promptly break your contract super hard, and not even vaguely encoded! No wonder you got dissapeared, probably, you were as careful as godzilla. fake edit: oh my god, now we got some House of Leaves shit going on. I can always enjoy that, always.
okay, well, i dont know how i feel about them involving an actual, real person's death in this fiction podcast, that seems a little bit tasteless to me. ive never bothered to look up other things mentioned in the podcasts, but i recognized that specific thing bc i wasnt a kid for it. I wonder if theres anything else that would have ended up being real incidents.
I might jump in on the liveblogging, if I ever get around to actually listening to TANIS, rather than lazy-listening as I try to sleep (which leaves me remembering .2% of the episode and an intense case of deja vu whenever I do actually relisten to it) Buuuut, until then, I was wondering, since podcasts and horror... 1) any other fiction podcast recs? 2) has anyone listened to Limetown ((My general opinion on The Black Tapes goes like I enjoy listening to it and have at times been genuinely creeped out - the Unsound, the episode where they read up demons' names and ways to summon them because I was alone in my room and it was after midnight, some of the parts about Simon - but it cracks my suspension of disbelief at times. Notably the parts where I'm supposed to believe that all these people are willing to have this sent on the radio. Are private conversations not a thing anymore or what (oh my god and especially the parts where someone insists for Alex to turn the microphone off like why would you do that and then be like ' oh yeah but you can keep that conversation in, and summarize the part I wanted the mic off for, that's fine, what was even the point of that) )) ... so anyways, what's everyone's favourite Black Tapes episode?
