Hi Nay ("Hi Mom") is a supernatural horror fictional podcast written by Motzie Dapul. It follows the Filipina-Canadian immigrant Mari Datuin, whose babaylan (religious and spiritual leader) family background accidentally gets her involved in stopping dangerous supernatural events in Toronto.
One day, Mari Datuin (Motzie Dapul) runs into her neighbour Laura (Abigayle Nichols) being attacked by some kind of rotten abomination. Using traditions learned from her family's history as spiritual leaders, Mari drives of the abomination. Soon after, she is contacted by the two detectives Murphy and Donner (Edward Boxler and Leon Johnson), who tell her that they have had to do with similar occurences before, but Mari and Laura are so far the only known survivors. With Mari's ability to detect and ward of the unnatural, the four set out to investigate paranormal events around Toronto.
The podcast makes use of a Framing Device of Mari recounting the supernatural events she encounters on the phone to her mother. The podcast is inspired by the likes of The Magnus Archives and the trope of the Magical Minority Person, but with the mission statement of putting the focus on said minority person, instead of relegating her to the background. It is part of the Rusty Quill network since September 2023.
Hi Nay, some tropes happened today
- All First-Person Narrators Write Like Novelists: Rather blatantly, Mari talks like she has a script and theasaurus in front of her at all times, despite talking directly to her mother on the phone.
- Bilingual Bonus: The title of each episode is a Filipino word that relates to the supernatural threat of that episode. "Bulok" means "Rotten", and the threat is a flesh monster. "Ginaw" means "Cold", and the threat is a ghost that drains warmth, etc.
- Body of Bodies: The rotten thing in the first episode was made from the amalgamated flesh of a human and a bunch of wildlife that got stuck in a pit and died together.
- Cast Full of Gay: Both among the protagonists and antagonists. On the protagonist side, Mari and Laura are both into women (with Mari being bi or pan), and Murphy and Ashvin are dating. For the antagonists, George Langford turns out to have come by the family name through his lover Friedrich pulling a lot of strings to get him recognized as part of the family (though as a brother since this was the 1800s).
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: As something of a
Spiritual Successor to The Magnus Archives, it also uses cassette recordings as a framing device when events are shown (vs. recounted in a phone call) because strange things happen to digital ones. - Enfant Terrible: In the first bonus episode, Mari recounts a story to Donner about how, as a child in the Batagnas province, she was attacked by a Tiyanak, a monster that appeared as an infant.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: The being in the second episode is a spirit that drains the warmth (literal and metaphorical) from their victim, causing them to freeze.
- Framing Device: Each episode consists of Mari telling her mother over the phone about her recent encounters with the supernatural.
- The Ghost: The titular mother is completely absent from the story, though Mari starts every episode by greeting her.
- Queer Establishing Moment: A double in the third episode. After Mari asks if their dinner is meant to be a date, Laura clarifies that it isn't. Not because she doesn't find Mari attractive, but because she prefers older women. In response, Mari says that she likes older everyone.
- Salt Solution: Mari uses salt to scare away the flesh-thing in the first episode, which is surprisingly effective.
- Ship Tease: Episode 3 opens with Mari meeting Laura, having agreed to help her find something to protect her from the supernatural. When Laura offers dinner in return, Mari nervously asks if she's being asked on a date, which Laura equally nervously clarifies it isn't, though making it clear that she is into women and does find Mari attractive. Mari, for her part, mentions being bi or pan.
- Sinister Whistling: The Benefactor tends to whistle "Billy Boy" in his appearances.
- Spiritual Successor: The podcast wears its The Magnus Archives influences on its sleeves, complete with a normal person getting involved in the supernatural and an intentionally poor audio quality as a result of the framing device.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Milk tea for Mari. So much milk tea.
