#Chester::chat

[rus-st-cyr]

Where: Rus' business

Who: Chester @thegraveyardshifts

It had been a happy accident running into someone he'd been in the system with ages ago. Rus had remembered Chester. Rus the older one and very much over being in foster care. Burnt out on inevitably being bounced from home to home that felt like anything but. All of his things still in the black garbage bag in the corner of the shared room. Chester had been young and so very new to the system. Ten years old and still confused why they weren't going home. It had given the sixteen turning seventeen year old Rus something to focus on other than his unpredictable magic and his own anger. It had been slow going for Rus, never completely trusting of people from the past. But once he'd felt that Chester was a necromancer he'd relaxed a bit, that made sense, probably a reason why he'd been drawn to the other when they were young. Magic recognizing magic.

But no matter the path taken, they had both survived childhoods that statistically told them both that they wouldn't make it further than thirty. Because here they both were. He'd invited Chester over to his business, just to sit, have some tea and maybe help the younger witch with whatever the hell was going on with their aura. It was... mangled but that had been a slow road for Rus. Seeing the other he stood up and came over to give Chester a hug. "Sorry. I'm a hugger now. Not sure when that changed. Thanks for saying yes and coming down."

[naga-raja-suresh]

Where: Club Ω 

Who: Chester @thegraveyardshifts

Even with everything going on in the city Suresh still had an empire to run. The day to day things that could not be foisted off or ignored for long. Even if they seemed like small machinations. Every individual could be the one that made the difference. And Suresh and the Lotus Eaters built a brand on making sure everyone felt that way. It had only been a matter of time before the necromancer called the number he'd given them.

The meeting was upstairs in the private room that looked over the main dance floor through a wall of one way windows. The large table in the middle of the room was brand new, still having it's moving plastic on it. The other had to removed due to the damage Suresh's talon's had done to it. He turned as the door opened and security let the young necromancer in. "Hello, Chester. Care for a drink?"

[naga-raja-suresh]

The best seductions, romantic or otherwise, often made the other person feel like they were the seducer. The necromancer's grin widened and Suresh could feel it. How badly Chester wanted things. And that was were Suresh and his powers lived. A promise of desires fulfilled. All it would take would be an offering on the witch's part.

A breath of hope brushed through the Naga as Chester took the card. And Suresh was certain that the young witch would be reaching out. The Naga nodded his head, "Have a good night Chester. I look forward to you coming to see me..."

The grin on his face grew wider at Suresh's teasing, so sure that they had easily wormed their way into his good books with little more than a funny comment and natural charm Chester was so sure they possessed. Things would finally look up, there would be money and job-security and they'd make powerful friends and nobody, nobody, would ever take advantage of Chester again.

Safety, the idea of it, was tantalizing, and so incredibly close. Hope was something in short supply but, a stupid part of Chester couldn't help but have it, if nothing else. Taking the card, he glanced at the number, noting the crisp card and shiny lettering, shoving it in the breast pocket of his shirt.

"Expect it. The call, I mean,"

[fridayyy-13th]

gonna be honest, feeling very conflicted about this episode, lads. i've been really hoping Protocol won't explain away the (NARRATIVELY IMPORTANT) mystery left at the end of Archives, i.e. Jon and Martin's fate, so seeing as they're the next thing Sam and Celia are gonna be investigating, this is kinda gonna be the thing that makes or breaks Protocol, for me.

i do think there's a solid chance Chester and Norris are the Jon and Martin from Protocol's universe, and that is something i absolutely would not mind. but i haven't actually made a post explaining why i think that, and i should probably do that before it's explained, just so i can mayyyybe say i called it.

(for the record, i'm pretty sure i came up with most of this before the series even officially dropped, when all we had was the ARG and the trailer. i haven't done much to connect this theory to the further information we've learned, so it's probably not fully accurate (if accurate at all). and quite a bit of it is kinda baseless conjecture; i'm just throwing my thoughts out there. just a little disclaimer.)

so!

in Archives, Jonah's primary motivation is fear of death. turning to the Eye is what allows him to body-hop as he does for 200 years, trying to create a world where his Patron reigns supreme, where he is seated upon its throne and cannot die. assuming his motivation is the same in Protocol, this new universe is (likely until recently) untouched by the Entities. if Jonah wanted to evade death, how could he do that without the help of an eldritch fear god?

easy—alchemy.

i'm not particularly knowledgeable about the subject as a whole, but i'm certainly familiar with the Philosopher's Stone (the symbol of which is also present in the OIAR's/podcast's logo, though it seems the OIAR is more focused on balance than on experimentation).

i also know that the seven metals used in alchemy (gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron, and tin) are all components of computer chips. i've been thinking Jonah, or maybe his successors, saw that and began turning their research to how it could be utilized to extend—or preserve—life.

to cut to the chase, bc frankly it's hard trying to sound like i know what i'm talking about and this post would take forever to write otherwise, i think Jonah tried to Sergei Ushanka himself into a computer, because metal and plastic are a hell of a lot longer-lasting than a human being.

but he wouldn't shove his consciousness into some random motherboard without making sure it was safe, what do you take him for?? he is a man of academia. obviously he had to test it on others first, and then he'd do it himself.

cue the thought experiments the Institute ran on kids. the things the experiments quantify are empathy and obedience to authority, which to me screams that they were trying to find kids who were easy to manipulate into more dangerous experiments.

and who are two characters who were kids in the 90s, with circumstances that left them lonely, isolated, and who, even as adults, are desperate to please (whether a parent or a bad boss)? Jon and Martin.

i posit that Jon and Martin were both victims of these experiments, perhaps the first (and only) successful subjects, and Jonah uploaded his consciousness to the computer soon after. their records could have been stricken from the spreadsheet to hide that they'd even been part of the program, and given the Institute burned down soon after, and there were no survivors—it could have been assumed that they'd died in the fire. it isn't like they had the most doting guardians to worry over them.

...but Chester and Norris's voices are those of adult Jon and Martin.

best i can figure, Jonah's plan might have worked in the short term, but computers have had date/time hardware in them since the 80s, so they—and Augustus—are still aging. so they've been trapped in computer software since 1999, and now that Sam and Celia are digging into what happened, they're desperate to catch their attention and find a way out.

(and lastly, a fun little thought—given Jon and Martin were both born circa 1987, they would have been twelve in 1999. they didn't even get to be teenagers.)

[alexluvsskittlez]

happy pride month chat !!

[mister-ancunin]

I feel like changing my twst s/i’s name .

[moonamite]

Chet… is real

[therewithinthestars]

the more she sings the better and better she gets, its so obvious she must be incredibly nervous like this is insane situation, please i promise noone is trying to replace chester, but give her time and grace to grow and get confident

[ptvstvrrr]

Safe to say I have something I'm cooking up with a 90s hip hop song and a certain dog owner

[shutyour-quiznak-01]

chat I might be crazy BUT

tell me I’m not the only one who hears chester’s voice in the back of the main theme????

[hatterhare]

ahhhhh character planning

[the-herdier]

Group chat AU crack. Sorry not sorry.

Mary Jane = Jean

Kim Kardashian = Kim

Judge Judy = Judit

Chestnut = Chester

Big Mac = Mack

Trance = Trant

Local Nerd = Jules

Shitkid/Dick Mullen/Hobocop = Harry

[eye-coded-rat]

(ep1) CAT23RAB2155-10042022-09012024

Transformation (eyes) -/- Trespass [chat log]

"Canaries should stay above ground."

Magnus Institute! Eye horror! Corrupted files! Chester! We've got it all.

[blitzbabysits]

It's not only cupcakes anymore. There are cake pops. Be on your guard

-Chester ( @babysitting-hellhound )

I noticed, heh-

[fridayyy-13th]

so uh are we thinking Chester and Norris are TMA’s jmart now?? i thought we wanted their ending to remain ambiguous

personally i’m still hoping they’re TMAGP’s jmart, and distinct from TMA’s. i’ve got something of a theory(???) about them maybe having been involved with the Institute’s experiments, like from what we saw in the ARG, but my thoughts aren’t very coherent still. i’ll make a post about it at some point :P

it just doesn’t really make sense to me that, if TMAGP’s supposed to be understandable to someone who hasn’t listened to TMA, Chester and Norris would be TMA’s jmart. you’d be missing a lot of context if you were a completely new listener.

idk. y’all have fun with your theories though, this isn’t a diss or anything. who knows, maybe i’m wrong! it’s still far too early to tell.

[back-on-my-binge-shit2]

My BF is a body builder and keeps trying to point out that to get the figure I want I need to put on muscle, and that what I really want is body recomposition not weight loss. And it's like stop being correct and lemme starve in peace