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71
Episode Comments / PC771: Wapnintu’tijig They Sang Until Dawn
« Last post by Ocicat on January 27, 2023, 04:32:25 AM »
PodCastle 771: Wapnintu’tijig They Sang Until Dawn

Author: Tiffany Morris
Narrator: Samantha Loney
Host: Matt Dovey
Audio Producer: Eric Valdes

PodCastle 771: Wapnintu’tijig They Sang Until Dawn is a PodCastle original.

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Show Notes
Rated PG



 

In the time of fever, the marks of the animals changed. Waterbirds shone with new radiance: a bright blue iridescence clung to their feathers, glimmering, soaked with the sacred oil of daylight. Their language changed along with their plumage: the chirrup chirrup from their open beaks had transformed into a lilting sort of caw. A shiver jolted through Pi’tawgowi’sgw. As she worked her way through the swamp, she discovered that the world, her world, was newly alive with alien tongues, each one bellowed with an odd sense of certainty. It was as if the creatures’ mouths had always known these sounds, that these new sounds belonged to them entirely. Each odd caw and chirp formed the words that the creatures had been born to speak. The nighthawks, for their part, now screeched owllike into darkening sky, swooping and diving over the water in search of the tiny silver fish they so loved to devour.

It took special eyes to see the full radiance of the swamp. In weaker times she’d thought of it as her swamp, but Pi’tawgowi’sgw knew it was a place too ancient and vast to belong to her, or to anyone; rather, she belonged to it, sprouted up from the water the way the humans had the land. She had heard it said in their tongue: Weji-sqalia’timk, literally, the place they sprouted up from. She’d watched the one with silver hair threaded together tell this to the small ones gathered around the edge of the water, their eager faces murmuring words she did not know. She belonged in the deep stillness of the water. The many creatures in the water with her were not like her. The humans were, at least, sort of like her — more than the fish that shared the water, anyway.




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72
Episode Comments / PC770: The Dragon Killer’s Daughter
« Last post by Ocicat on January 27, 2023, 04:31:49 AM »
PodCastle 770: The Dragon Killer’s Daughter

Author: MacKenzie R. Snead
Narrator: Heather Thomas
Host: Matt Dovey
Audio Producer: Devin Martin

 

Gayamiza was no stranger to pilgrims, but these two were not welcome — an old man and his daughter, foreignness sewn into their clothes, engraved in the blades they carried. The city let them in, as it did all acolytes, but as if swallowing food it was not accustomed to and ’didn’t particularly like. It coughed and gagged, people on the streets looking the other way, mothers ushering their young indoors. There was something about this pair the city didn’t trust, something more than the peculiarity of the father’s beard and the daughter’s burning hair. Any village fool could tell that they carried misdeeds in their pockets, that their pilgrimage was dishonest.

The journey had taken months, and now the father was too tired to walk. His daughter pulled him down the narrow streets in a wooden cart, bumping across unfriendly cobblestones without so much as a stumble. The locals found her strength disquieting, staring from their windows as she pulled her father along like some aged product nobody would buy. Strength like that was not natural in a girl, and shouldn’t be encouraged.

The old man squinted through heavy eyelids at the shining buildings, stiffly adjusting himself atop the armor and longsword that served as his bedfellows in the cart. “Where are we?” he asked hoarsely.

“Gayamiza, Father,” his daughter panted, not turning around to look at him. “Don’’t you recognize it?”

“No,” he croaked after a moment. “I’ve never been here.”

She knew that wasn’t true. The countless times he’d ventured to this place when she was a child, only to return with bowed head to a home sunk deeper and deeper in disgrace and poverty. She tightened her grip on the handles of the cart and leaned forward with determination. Her father would know something other than shame before he died.




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73
About Pseudopod / PseudoPod story makes Bram Stoker Award preliminary ballot!
« Last post by Languorous Lass on January 24, 2023, 06:44:05 AM »
Congratulations to PseudoPod and author Emily Rigole:  the story "The Bear Across the Way" was listed on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards!  See the ballot here:  https://www.thebramstokerawards.com/news/the-2022-bram-stoker-awards-preliminary-ballot-announced/
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Episode Comments / PC769: In The Woods Somewhere (or Stories Never Leave)
« Last post by Ocicat on January 16, 2023, 08:06:31 PM »
PodCastle 769: In The Woods Somewhere (or Stories Never Leave)

Author: Victor Forna
Narrators: Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Ada Nnadi, and Somto Ihezue
Host: Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Audio Producer: Eric Valdes

Previously published by Bad Form (African History Issue)

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Show Notes
Rated PG-13



 

Gods Slap Those Who Summon Them.

We shouldn’t have been there — but we were, hiding behind the kola-nut tree, peering into the silver night, parents worried over our empty beds back home, and that’s why we can tell you today, beside this fire, how the old god was summoned from underneath the earth. Pa Yamba, who had changed his name to Peter —

To Ruben.

Don’t interrupt me.

But we’re both telling the story.

Whatever. Pa Yamba, who had changed his name to Ruben, was the only one who opposed the invocation. “These things always go bad,” he said. Bai Masim, chief of traditions, gave Pa Yamba a reply: “We prayed to the god that those priests brought from their lands, we prayed to his son, we even used their shotguns. Has any of that helped us against these – these – what’s the word?” The catholic stayed quiet, blinking too many times. During his silence, we sighted Thara coming out of a nearby hut. Thara wasn’t even a —

You don’t know that. What does it even matter to the story? And, if she wasn’t a virgin, tell me, would her blood have accomplished the summoning? Tell what needs to be told, or I will take it from here.

You could never tell this story better than me. I only mentioned that so they’d understand why the god slapped Thara when he arose. Anyway, before all that, Thara walked naked, hugging herself to cover her breasts from the cold and the lustful eyes of the elders —

They didn’t look at her that way. Come on.

Whatever. The elders led Thara to a small, rectangular pit. Bai Masim showed her how she must stand over it: feet apart, and resting on the longer sides of the opening. Thara stood so for a while, then her blood, streaking down her legs, began dripping into the pit. One. Two. At the third drop, Bai Masim started chanting an uncanny tune, flinging his feet before him like a rabbit in want of freedom from a snare —




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75
Science Fiction Discussion / Re: Story adapted by Netflix
« Last post by Moritz on January 13, 2023, 03:59:03 PM »
I know I'm a bit late - because I just started using Netflix last month! - but I thought the whole of Love, Death & Robots had a very Escape Pod feeling to it, trying to remember which ones had been podcasts...
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The Writing Forum / Re: Introductory post
« Last post by Languorous Lass on January 07, 2023, 08:42:17 PM »
Hi, Monte, and welcome!
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The Writing Forum / Introductory post
« Last post by Monte_Lin on January 06, 2023, 08:23:42 PM »
Intro post!

(I had thought I had an account, but maybe I never completed reg or it got purged?)

In either case, I'm a writer based in Oregon. I have a couple of stories in Cast of Wonders. Looking forward to the discussions here!
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Episode Comments / PC768: The Consequences of Microwaving Styrofoam
« Last post by Ocicat on January 05, 2023, 08:01:50 AM »
PodCastle 768: The Consequences of Microwaving Styrofoam

Author: Leah Ning
Narrator: Peter Adrian Behravesh
Host: Matt Dovey
Audio Producer: Devin Martin

PodCastle 768: The Consequences of Microwaving Styrofoam is a PodCastle original.

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Content Warning:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)



Show Notes
Rated PG-13



 

We meet when we’re sixteen, and the Spark pops bright orange between us the moment our eyes meet. I don’t want to be friends with her. She’s strange and aloof and unkind. But the Spark is the Spark, and everyone saw it, so soon I’m alone. No one else wants to be friends with her either, so they draw away from me by association.

Now she’s the only one who’ll share a lunch table with me. We sit as far apart as possible, me with my sandwich dripping jelly onto the plastic bag I’ve placed carefully beneath it and her loudly slurping microwaved tomato soup from its Styrofoam bowl. I think about telling her she shouldn’t microwave it and don’t. Maybe if it kills her I won’t have to bother with her or that fucking Spark.

It occurs to me that maybe I, too, am strange and aloof and unkind. It also occurs to me that maybe she’s not the reason no one wants to be friends with me.

I search for ways to get rid of the Spark in incognito browser tabs, rubbing at wrists that weren’t sore before we Sparked. Google just brings up dry Wikipedia pages on the first appearances of the Spark fifty-seven-point-five years ago and chirpy blog posts by Spark-bonded best friends for life who just can’t get enough of spending time together. I pretend to gag even though I’m alone in my room and it’s 2 a.m.

Yeah, my Spark was definitely an excuse for my “friends” to get away from me.




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79
Episode Comments / Re: PC005/767: The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale
« Last post by Ocicat on January 05, 2023, 08:01:40 AM »
This story has been re-run as PodCastle 767: TALES FROM THE VAULTS – The Ant King
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Episode Comments / Re: EP 800: Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death
« Last post by CryptoMe on January 03, 2023, 11:03:36 PM »
This story also didn't work for me. I generally like JK Nemesin's work, but this one fell flat for me. It seemed like we were being hit over the head with a sledge hammer regarding the racism point. That said, I liked the idea of training the dragon with food and would have liked to see it fleshed out a bit more.