Turn on Your Radio and Hide: A Guide to Night Vale

A twice-monthly community update for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.
— the Commonplace Books website

Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (plus occasional guest writers), with a theme song and incidental music by Disparition. It debuted on June 15, 2012, and was downloaded about 150,000 times in its first year; then it caught Tumblr’s attention and that number doubled in one week. Now, it regularly vies with NPR’s This American Life for the number one spot on the iTunes Top Podcasts list.

New installments of WtNV are released on the first and fifteenth of each month. A typical episode involves a central news story that plays out between various recurring features, such as “Traffic,” “Community Calendar,” and “the Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner.” The penultimate segment is always “The Weather,” a song that is lyrically or tonally appropriate for that particular episode. There is also a Twitter feed (@NightValeRadio) and some live performances.

The show is set in Night Vale, a town somewhere in the American Southwest beset by space-time anomalies; eldritch entities, some benevolent, some hostile; and multiple (possibly competing) conspiracies. The powers that be are despotic and arbitrary when they aren’t flat-out incompetent, and are prone to misappropriating funds, or squandering them on obvious boondoggles. Meanwhile, citizens are subjected to constant surveillance, and faced with “re-education,” incarceration, torture, or execution for transgressions. The overall effect is of News from Lake Wobegon as written by H.P. Lovecraft and George Orwell.

Lest this all sound unbearably grim, I hasten to add that the series is extremely funny, thought-provoking, and heartwarming, largely thanks to our host, Cecil, who keeps everyone informed about what’s happening (or what isn’t happening, according to the authorities) ... that is, when he’s not busy mooning over Carlos, the beautiful scientist from out of town. That's right, there’s a canon queer love story involving at least one person of color.

Note: WtNV is very much a live canon. I will do my best to avoid spoilers and unwarranted assumptions in this overview.

The Characters
Heard On the Air • Night Vale Community Radio • Politicians, Public Servants, and Law Enforcement • Townsfolk • Eldritch Entities

Recommended Listening

The Fandom

The ’Ships

Resources

( A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale. )

That's all for now. More to come soon. In the meantime, remember: If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.

Good night, Night Vale. Good night...

Fandom: MERLIN
Pairing: Gwen/Merlin/Morgana/Arthur
Length: 6041
Author on LJ: fleete
Author Website: AO3
Why this must be read:

Because it's a wonderfully written OT4 reincarnation fic, but even more so, it's a well-written fic about trust and letting go of the past but also finding each other again. There's great nods back to canon and the people they once were but also gives lovely details about who they are this time around. There's plenty of endearing moments and the fic reminded me so much about the earlier seasons of Merlin when there was a strong sense of camaraderie between the four of them. And I really enjoyed Morgana's characterization in this.

( Summary & Excerpt )

Ancient Methods of Roasting Chickens

Fandom: WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
Pairing: Cecil/Carlos, Cecil/Steve Carlsberg (offscreen assault)
Length: 879 words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: works on AO3
Warnings: Rape, hurt/comfort
Notes: “Mostly inspired by that time Cecil read the horoscope” (ep. 6, “The Drawbridge”)
Why this must be read:

This is a nasty (though non-explicit) little story with an elegant twist at the end, inspired by two of the horoscopes Cecil reads in “The Drawbridge”: “Scorpio: Curse you! Curse your family! Curse your children! And your children’s children! Vile, vile Scorpio,” and “Taurus: Today is your annual Crime Day. All Tauruses are exempt from laws today.”

"Is this the first time?"

"No."

Only the fear of giving himself tendonitis in a town with horrific healthcare made Carlos keep a normal grip on the steering wheel rather than act like it was Steve's neck he was squeezing. "How often?"

"Every year."

“Vile Scorpio” on AO3

Fandom: WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
Pairing: Cecil/Carlos
Length: 2,688 words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: badfic,net; on Tumblr; works on AO3
Warnings: canon-typical horror imagery, non-human Cecil
Notes: spoilers for “One Year Later”
Why this must be read:

If my last rec brought you down, hopefully this tart and funny tale will cheer you up. Carlos contemplates the nature of Night Vale secrets, reflects on the evolution of his feelings for Cecil, and comes to the rescue when a guest on Cecil’s show turns out to be bad news:

The interview goes pretty well, for the first half. Carlos listens from his lab, because he always does, and Father Jackson babbles deepities in his too-big, too-harsh voice, and it’s all so very tedious that Carlos can hear even Cecil begin to fray.

They’re talking about the inherent purpose of human life, or lack thereof, when things go bad. Father Jackson talks about the Will of God. Cecil mentions something about which god, har har, and, perhaps with so many vengeful deities to dodge, meaning might be better found in the brief and fragile connections made when two hearts or two minds meet within the darkness.

Then Jackson is scoffing, saying something about demons, voice raising into a howl that strains the speakers of Carlos’ radio. Cecil tries to say something soothing, but then Jackson is shrieking about witchcraft and spells and curses sent across the airwaves.

Then there’s a crash, and Cecil says, “What is th—? What are you doing?”

Then he screams, and the radio disintegrates into a thousand writhing black and eyeless worms.

Carlos doesn’t notice. He’s already out the door.

“The reconciliation of science and religion (or lack thereof)” on AO3; podfic versions linked in notes

Fandom: MERLIN
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon
Length: 5387
Author on LJ: flammablehat
Author Website: AO3
Why this must be read:

For the gorgeous description and vivid capturing of all the feelings. This is one of my favorite fics to come out of Camelot Remix earlier this year. It contains two of my favorite things, being a historical!AU (set in Edwardian times) and pining with absolutely gorgeous writing. There's something about pining and having the courage to say what you feel about someone...and somehow Merlin finds the courage to do just that. It's a first time fic that begins around a bath and the writing is really what elevates this into something more. There is such vivid imagery that feels almost surreal at moments, so much unresolved tension between Arthur and Merlin that you can feel it. And it is super-hot. It's the remix to teprometo equally hot Brighter When We Come.

( Summary & Excerpt )

Night Sky Changing Overhead (the Brighter When We Come Remix)

Fandom: WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE
Pairing: Cecil/Carlos
Length: words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: Dreamwidth blog; works on AO3
Warnings: Porn Watching, Sex Toys, Tentacles, Cecil is Human, Carlos is Human, Embarrassment, Blindfolds, Sexual Fantasy, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Dirty Talk, No Tentacles Were Harmed
Why this must be read:

Okay, porn is a perfectly normal thing for Cecil to be watching, even if Carlos didn't expect him to be watching it in the middle of the afternoon; it's not like Carlos doesn't have any porn. This isn't even some kind of Hooded-Figure-fetish, Night-Vale-only porn, which must exist and which Carlos hopes desperately that he never, ever sees.

No, this is porn with which Carlos is familiar, though he's only ever seen small clips, which were quite frankly enough for him. People in rapidly decreasing amounts of clothing are shouting in a language that Carlos doesn't speak, while multi-armed monsters do things that are very impolite, and-

"Carlos!" Cecil yelps, hurriedly stuffing himself back into his pants. "I- you're home early!"

"I had some experiments that had to run overnight, so I decided to leave them," Carlos says, still looking at the screen in fascination.

Cecil follows his line of sight, gulping. "I am so sorry," he says, and he's actually wringing his hands, which is a little extreme even for him. "It's just- it's not serious, it's just a fantasy, I mean- I don't want you to think I think any less of you because of it, Carlos, my wonderful Carlos, because you're exactly, perfectly perfect as it stands, even if you don't have any tentacles-"

"I missed something," Carlos says plainly.

"Let's just forget about it," Cecil says, shutting the laptop.

"Do people here actually have tentacles?" Carlos asks, unable to let it go.

There are a lot of WtNV fanfics where Cecil has tentacles, but this is the only one I’ve run across where he has a thing for tentacles. Fortunately, while Carlos does not have tentacles, he is open to experimentation...

“Wriggle” on AO3