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[sapphirenightshade]

Are we dealing with alchemists looking for The Philosopher's Stone?

(I will be referencing partially to the ARG, most importantly to the so called Klaus sheet that has german version on categories the OIAR team is using, and some light spoiler to The Magnus Archives, so beware).

We're four episodes in and cross-referencing each episode so far, there seems to be few things that connect most of them:

an orchestrator

a medium

an obsession

a transformation

Each episode so far mentions some type of third party being involved in the incident: Harriet Winstead mentions a "consultant" that was supposed to help her see Arthur, RedCanary mentions getting harrased by an anonymous stalker, Daria commissions Ink5oul for a tattoo, Dr Samuel Webber mentions seeing his dead wife "Maddie" who stops him from tampering with the transformation (could be a hallucination, but could also be somebody using his delirioum to impersonate her) and today we've got a mention of a "giftgiver" who gave The Violinist the Violin.

Additionally each incident mentions some type of specific medium the characters came into contact with: The Box, The Violin, The Ink (cross referenced in Klaus sheet from the ARG), The Garden (as in plants in the garden). The exception being the Harriet, but we don't know yet what "caused" ressurection of Arthur. This is important, because in TMA items and "mediums" weren't actually all that common, it was very often stressed that relics were medium for the fears to use directly (with people only doing their bidding), not to be handled by others as a medium.

Lastly each episode talks obsession and/or transformation and oh boy, let me tell you about bunch of guys historically obsessed with tranforming stuff through different mediums:

"It's not very suprising, alchemical symbols are everywhere throughout the podcast!" you might say. True, but let's take into consideration, what excactly is a goal of an alchemist? Well the answer is quite simple and there is actually three of them. The Three Goals of Alchemy are:

To turn base metals into noble ones

To discover the recipe for a Philosopher's Stone

To find the Elixir of Life that gives eternal youth and defies death

All of them refer to some type of recipie of method, so where are the recipies? Under our own noses. The recipies are the DPHW catalogue and the database Freddie is sending the incident reports to is an alchemical cookbook! Each entry is categorized something like that:

CAT$$$R&&#### - theme (specification) -/- subtheme [medium]

Some specifications:

$ - are a conbination of numbers 1, 2 and 3. They do not always appear in threes, sometimes it's just 3, sometimes 12 (as in 1 and 2) so forth. These has been widely theorized to be related to the The Tria Prima, a group of three materials which occupy a position of prominence in alchemy: Sulphur(🜍), Mercury(☿) and Salt(🜔) or as they are also characterized Soul, Mind and Body. If we assign each of them a number with 1 being Soul, 2 being Mind and 3 being body, they so far align with the main "components" of each incident or realms they deal in.

R - either appears or not, it was theorized this is a RANK and that previous files were simply misfiled by Sam, but to me it also could be REGIA as in Aqua Regia (🜆) where we are to assume the R was added to the previous element (Aqua (🜄) + Regia (R)). The meaning behind assigning some some incidents the rank of regia has yet to be explained though.

& - these are letters C, BC, B, AB, A and S signifying a rank (or rang in the Klaus sheet) . Lets ignore that S for a second, but they seem to be stages and half stages, well there can't possibly a concept of four stages in alchemy? Let me introduce you to the Magnum Opus (Great Work). Basically each alchemical project went through four stages: nigredo (black), albedo (white), citrinitas (yellow) and rubedo (red) with rubedo specifically signifying a great discovery was made and Magnum Opus was a success, but it does not necessairly mean an alchemical goal was reached.

To summarize, numbers one C-A signify stage of the project, with S, that appears once on mostly redacted cell in the Klaus sheet, signifying that not only the final stage was reached, but the project has been a success.

This could mean a finished Magnum Opus is out there, developed in the field of the Soul and related to the mysterous Mr. B.

# - these numbers are still a mystery, I do have some theories myself, but to summaries I think they are grades and some type of combination (I think it's either 9999, 0000 (as in all 10s) or perhaps 7777 (7 being the most important alchemical number)). Basically a specific combination could imply the specific discovery could be categorized as a Philosopher's Stone. What that could mean for the narrative? We will see, but I suspect it's an alchemical equivalent to an eldritch nuke in this universe.

Last thing to support my theory, the OIAR logo. The lion and the unicorn are obviously symbols for the United Kingdom, as this is a government office, and the words undearneath are "we will not falter" (probably reference to the paranormal incidents they deal with) the rest though?

Alchemical symbols for Salt, Mercucry and Sulphur are right there, all encompassed by an upside-down version of The Philosopher's Stone symbol; The Greatest Magnum Opus:

As to what the Magnum Opus are in TMAGP, each incident has an item associated with it, I noticed that the characters do not get corrupted by people directly this season, but through the use of items like ink, instruments, plants.

[sapphirenightshade]

So, we have this strange motivational calendar in our house, (that we often forget to change) and this is the one I flipped to while getting caught up on Protocol this evening.

It’s more of a warning, me thinks.

[sapphirenightshade]

As women, society has always told us that the worst thing that we can be is disliked, but when that society now threatens our right to exist, there is no other choice than to stand up and fight to protect our autonomy and our communities.

[sapphirenightshade]

Register. Check your registration. Help others register. Vote early if you want. Vote by mail if you want. Vote on Nov 5 if you want.

Stay engaged. We can do this!

We are not going back.

[sapphirenightshade]

[sapphirenightshade]

[sapphirenightshade]

my problem as a nuancepilled s5chad is that I am really compelled by all the ways jon and martin keep winding up hurting each other and the ways in which their relationship is dysfunctional, but unless I am very clear in my intent then I get people who think they agree with me coming into my notes/inbox to say "yeah, it's a bad/poorly written relationship and they're just bad for each other," which isn't quite what I'm trying to say.

I think these are two very unwell people with intensely varying levels of self-awareness, but they also have a strong, heartfelt commitment to each other and appear to really enjoy spending time together, and if, for example, the safehouse period had stretched on forever, they would have had a successful if sometimes very emotionally taxing relationship. I think they both royally screwed up a few times during the apocalypse, and that that was basically inevitable given the environment, and that they showed a willingness to communicate, reconcile, and change. but also they were ultimately the center piece of a tragedy narrative so they were never going to have the chance to actually Become Healthy.

idk, I see where "they're a toxic couple and need to break up" as a take is coming from and I respect having it, but to me it feels the same as saying that romeo and juliet were a toxic couple. nah mate, the tragedy isn't that they're bad for each other, it's that they could have worked out under almost any other circumstances, but they live in a world where that was never going to be possible.

[sapphirenightshade]

Absolutely obsessed with the imagery of a tape recorder capable of biting. What does it all MEAN?

[sapphirenightshade]

OH GOD Colin messing with Freddie to make it malfunction in the same way TMA Gertrude made a mess of the archives OH MY GOD Colin KNOWS SOME SHIT

[sapphirenightshade]

The Magnus institute burned in 1999. The Magnus Protocol is themed around computers from pre-2000. The end of the world craze near the end of the millennium because of the computer dates. I can’t word my thoughts right now but there’s something there I can’t believe I didn’t realise until this episode mentioning the turn of the millennium.

[sapphirenightshade]

ok memes aside i have some insight for the americans tonight as a brazilian

we had a similar situation a few years ago, our own far right asshole was stabbed at a rally and survived. guess what? the right organised and rallied behind it, he got martyred without dying. they turned that event into some divine-esque thing it was nuts. our political climate at the time was perfect for a far right storm, and lo and behold he got elected

it doesn't take a political scientist to see the republicans are about to do the exact same thing so stay vigilant, this is gonna boost his numbers more than you think

[sapphirenightshade]

"I left my home with only 4 changes of winter clothes. Lost my home after only one year of marriage. I had things in there that I was still paying for. I lost my job, and It has been 7 months and counting living in a tent. Everyday is a psychological fight against extreme heat, and not to mention insects and worms.

I find no cause of all of this, but the criminal Israeli occupation. Any human fighting against them in anyone in my defence is a crown above my head"

[sapphirenightshade]

says “I’m not getting my diploma at graduation Myself and 3 other seniors were notified that UChicago won’t confer our degrees at graduation this weekend. Despite finishing 4 rigorous and excruciating years of undergrad This comes off the heels of the university already having me and other students arrested & criminalized. The 4 of us have been targeted for “possibly” participating in campus-wide protests which a large majority of our student body has. We assumed we’d have criminal records before degrees. And now we might not even have that We’ve done the work. We deserve our degrees. Standing on the side of justice shouldn’t negate that. Sign, call, write to tell UChicago this is not okay. We need more support.” Go to his profile and click in the link in his bio for a quick way to contact the University.

[sapphirenightshade]

Wake up babe new fish dropped

[sapphirenightshade]

[sapphirenightshade]

[sapphirenightshade]

to you, it’s a shitty sentence. to some random bitch 500 miles away, it’s a fire line that’ll haunt them for the next 17 years.

you don’t know how impactful your writing is because it’s been in your brain for far too long now. you’ve stared at it for hours and repeated “this sucks” over and over again to the point that you killed your capacity to feel anything about your work.

but trust me, once you get your shit out there, someone’s gonna go over that paragraph you hate and go “jesus fucking christ” and put the book down to have an existential crisis.