#celia does deep

[caelia-does-stuff]

Hypnotee Imposter Syndrome

Being in the hypnosis community is a strange thing. It's absolutely amazing being around, hearing so many stories about things people have done, and things people plan to do. It's a well of inspiration for many, a melting pot of ideas that people add to, take from, mix together, and improve. But sometimes, it can also be a source of disappointment and pain.

Depending on what circles you run in within the community, it's not uncommon to hear imposter syndrome mentioned, especially among creators. Thinking that they aren't as good as someone else or not as creative. Second guessing their ability to hypnotise someone or create good content in general. What isn't as common is imposter syndrome on the other side of the pocket watch. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of discussion out there providing support or advice from people who say "I don't think I've ever been hypnotised" or "I don't know how to go into trance". A lot of the time, this seems to be met with lines such as "not everyone feels trance the same way" or "just because one thing is harder for you doesn't mean you can't be hypnotised" or even "take a step back, readjust your expectations, and focus on what changes while trying hypnosis, rather than expecting something instantaneous and magical; it takes time". I know I have said these things to newer members of the community, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

But also, I am a hypocrite. I say these things while at the same time not listening to them. Even the other night, during a scene involving hypnosis, I was saying/thinking that I wasn't actually in trance. In the 7 years I've been around the hypnosis community, I've never had that "aha!" moment where I knew I was hypnotised, and even to this day wonder whether I've just been faking it. I see all these incredible stories about how trance is falling down into a void, about memory play, positive and negative hallucinations. I hear about the amazing stories that other people tell, about all the incredible things other people have done with hypnosis; things that I have never been able to achieve, and don't know if I even could. I logically know that hypnosis is different for everyone, and everyone's brain is different, but that doesn't change the envy, the jealousy of seeing other people do it better than you. Sometimes, I feel like a fraud in this community, as a hypnotee who always second guesses themselves and questions whether they can even trance.

Maybe this is just a me thing, but I feel like imposter syndrome in hypnotees isn't thought about or discussed enough. I wonder how many other people have had similar experiences but just kept it to themselves?

[snakeliciousbaby]

Me and my Husband, we’re sticking together.

[thermodynamic-comedian]

the main thing i'm paying attention to and trying to figure out in tmagp is why the fuck are all of these people here. what happened to gwen to make her want to climb the corporate ladder this bad. what happened to alice to make her want to stay at a job she clearly doesn't care about. what's currently happening to colin. what does celia know, and why does she think the oiar has to do with it. why did sam take this job. and most interestingly, why doesn't lena leave. she doesn't seem to want people to work there, she's essentially trying to drive everyone away from the oiar. but she herself stays. maybe she's in too deep. maybe she can't leave.

the main question here is, what could drive a person to work at the office of incident assesment and response?

[snvffsoda]

headcanons for Ren, Strade, and Lawrence for how they are when driving! //bonus Celia!!

certified passenger princess if not the one driving

confirmed by Gato he's an average driver, but has gotten a ticket for running a red light before (he was trying to get to an anime merch shop to buy a rare figure before it was sold out)

turns his AC up all the way, but will turn it down if asked nicely

drives Strade’s old car, it has a citrusy fresh smell, with a hint of Strade's cheap cologne forever permeated into the vehicle itself

cleans his car every couple of months or so, but does tend to throw and leave his trash in the back seat, usually consisting of old Monster Energy cans and fast food bags

sings loudly to the music he listens to when driving but does get self-conscious and stop when in traffic or is being watched by other drivers

tends to speed when driving, and doesn't notice when he does, like he's always in a hurry when he is at the wheel

has anime stickers on his car window consisting of his favorite anime girls he knows its a bit corny, but he’ll defend that decision with his life if told by someone it is

forgets to use his turn singles sometimes

hates the sound of cars honking or blaring during busy traffic, it irritates his sensitive ears to no need

wanta a motorcycle, but can't afford one

better than Ren, but is still kind of reckless when he does drive

can and will drive over curbs and sidewalks when needing to make a tight turn

contradictory king, it comes to calling out other drivers mistakes on the wheel

listens to music extremely loud when he drives and doesn't turn it down when you're trying to talk with him

surprisingly takes very good care of his car, mostly to hold up a nice appearance to his neighbors, or to his unassuming victims who follow him into it

don’t touch his radio, he can and will get pissed.

acts like a dad when you turn on the indoor car light and freaks out about it

speeds when driving, notices, but doesn't really care

car sex, that is all.

named his car and speaks to it like it can hear and understand him

always knows some sort of back alley or sketchy shortcut to get out of traffic every time he's in it

will curse under his breath and sometimes go on mini rants about bad drivers when seeing them on the road or driving near them

can name almost every brand or type of car he sees when driving, definitely a bit of a car nerd deep down, but will never admit to it

has been caught drunk driving, but talked his way out of getting arrested by the cops and was let go scott-free

doesn't even enjoy driving in general, it gives him anxiety, and would prefer to walk if given the option

keeps a blanket and pillow in his car for when he drives out into the woods at night he’ll tend to sleep in his car when he does

has one of those mini solar dancing flowers on his dashboard

the safest driver out of them all, though he does drive a little too slow sometimes

when alone, he’ll punch at slam at his steering wheel when overwhelmed or extremely angry

keeps a plant in his cup holder and waters it regularly

doesn't listen to music when he drives, but will get nervous when driving with someone else and turn on the radio instinctively, so as to not sit in awkward silence

has hot-boxed in his car before

keeps a can of mace in his glovebox, but has never had to use it

loves the sound of rain hitting his car window when driving, and loves to fall asleep in his car when it rains outside because of it

passenger princess 2.0

Driving? you mean a limo?

jokes aside she's a decent driver, but doesn't like to drive herself places, but when she does, she usually gets where she needs to go without any trouble, that being said,

she's been pulled over for drunk driving many times, and has always paid off her tickets or bought a fancy lawyer to make all her DUI charges go away

never drives the same car twice

has argued and yelled with her husband Harold over the phone or with him in the car while driving and has received stares from passers-by before, she doesn't care though

does her makeup while driving when she's in a hurry or on a tight schedule, and is very good at it

honks her horn at bad drivers and flips them off when they pass, definitely the most outwardly aggressive, when driving out of them all

her cars are ALWAYS clean, almost unnaturally so

keeps a gun in her glove compartment and has never had to use it though stands by it that she does need it

has scratched her business enemies cars up, and threatened to run over her husband and the business associates she despises with her car multiple times

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 21 Thoughts: Y2K [Error]s

And we're back, again. Albeit I'm back quite late. This one was an interesting one to start act 3 with. On one hand it's a really good recap for what's lead up to this and a great foundation of what we can presume is to come. On the other hand it's an episode I think is deceptively devoid of new information. There is obviously new stuff to dig into here but in general I think it's not a lot of major stuff and mostly reinforcements of stuff we're already well aware of, or confirmation of stuff that I feel was about as good as confirmed anyway. With that said, this will be quite a read because what there is to dig into does go pretty deep.

Spoilers for episode 21 below the cut.

The conversation with Sam and Celia has a couple of interesting bits in it. Some of it's fairly obvious but there is at least one thing I've not really seen people talk about with it. So, Sam is flirting with the idea of of quitting, which is very Sam, and Celia pushes for him not to and tries to get him back "on track" in regards to the Institute, which is very Celia. Celia does care about her co-workers but obviously she's out for herself more than anyone else in the office. Her "complicated immigration status" is another is a long series of alternate-universe references. I think her comment about the OIAR's lax background checks is a more compelling detail there. Presumably there is a TMP version of Celia, who may or may not be called Celia. So you wouldn't necessarily expect there to be an issue there. "Celia" Ripley does likely exist and is likely British and would likely qualify for a position in the OIAR. Yet the way Celia frames it suggests she thought it would be an issue too. Either something that might come up after she got the job or something to be solved in order to get it. What I think is interesting about that is that it suggests to me that her identity isn't the problem but that they'd have some way to tell she's not from this universe.

That's all pretty normal stuff for this show though. The most interesting part of this is Celia's statement that she has to stay because he can't take Jack back to wherever she came from. I've seen a lot of musings on it but nothing that's gotten to what I feel is the heart of the problem there. Jack can't come with her because Jack is a baby and so can't understand and then engage with the mechanism she used. Which basically confirms that however she did it is much close to Darrien's meditation-induced-travel than, say, a portal to walk through. She doesn't rule out that she couldn't go back either so however it works it would have to be something Jack would have to participate in. Although there is the possibility that she's currently sharing her body with the actual TMP Celia and has merely brought her consciousness over and that Jack can't go because there is no body to return to. The problem with that though is the aforementioned background check. If she was physically living as TMP's Celia then there isn't really a concern there at all. Along with Lady M being about to smell that she's different it probably rules that out. Not a strong confirmation but certainly more pointing in the direction that Celia's body is hers which in turns makes the issue with Jack less likely to be that there is no Jack in Celia's home universe to body hop into.

Okay, so on to the incident proper. Honestly, not a huge amount to dig into this one IMO. Obviously a fair bit happened but it's mostly surface level. Which isn't a bad thing but for the sorts of things I tend to talk about it does limit what there is to say. I'd rather not recount things unless I have something to say about them beyond the text itself. There are still a few things to mention here all the same. Firstly, speaking of Darrien the Dr Welling that is mentioned in the episode is very likely the person who gave their name to Welling Mutare Materia where Darrien was incarcerated in episode 17.

Next up, while it's not talked about in explicit detail there is one thing that sums up the point of this ritual, the "Great Work". Anyone into alchemy will be well aware that this refers the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, the Magnum Opus. Immortality, turning lead to gold, spiritual enlightenment, all of the above. Ask 5 alchemists what it's about, get 6 answers. There are some pretty major implications to this that I've not really seen touched upon. Firstly, it's a near direct confirmation that the OIAR and the Magnus Institute are directly adversarial. If the Institute's goal is the completion of the Great Work then the OIAR's purpose is to prevent that and it's something they. mostly, openly broadcast. The symbol of the Magnum Opus is circle housed in a square, housed in a triangle, that is housed in another circle. That symbol is found in the OIAR's insignia but inverted. Which is about as blatant a statement of opposition as you can really get. In turn that also largely confirms that the OIAR are responsible, or at least wanted to, burn the Institute to the ground. The timing of this is very likely not a coincidence either. This letter is dated 04/01/1999, the dome they're referring to in it (the O2, formerly the Millennium Dome) was opened 31/12/1999, as you might expect. The Institute burned down just 7 days prior to that happening.

Secondly, knowing that the Great Work is pretty obviously the goal at this point recontextualises things like catalysts and agents. As well as the general purpose of the Institute as a whole here. The Great Work isn't generally seen as a bad thing in alchemy, like, it's the whole point of the art. It also doesn't seem like the Institute itself is necessarily perverting that idea either. The PoV character is certainly not happy with the idea that this ritual will harness fear and despair is too great of a quantity. So it doesn't seem out and out capital E Evil as a plan. At least as presented. However, there is

Next up, the Millennium Dome itself has a few interesting elements to talk about in this context. The most obvious one is the Millennium Experience which was a kind of its whole thing for its first year. This was an exhibition of all sorts of bits but of relevance is that the exhibition has split into three major themes; Who We Are, What We Do, and Where We Live. 3 is a fairly major number in alchemy thanks to the tria prima. They're divided further still and Who We Are splits into Body, Faith, Mind, and Self-Portrait. These have some loose alignment with the tria prima, the body, the soul, and the spirit. This is something other people have brought up though and it's not actually the thing I think is exciting about the Millennium Dome. Especially not in context to the episode. The dome is important as an architectural work first and foremost. Everyone should go have a look at it because its major feature is incredibly relevant to the Great Work, this episode's details, and the show's explicit references. The feature of the Millennium Dome are its twelve 100 meter support towers. IRL the 12 towers were chosen mostly because of the strong associations with time, both hours and months, but in this episode a lot of weight is given to the astrological and there are 12 signs in the zodiac. But 12 is also incredibly important for the Great Work too. Typically there are 4 stages that you must take to complete the magnum opus but these stages were expanded upon by various scholars. 12 is a number multiple sources land on. 12 is especially relevant for TMP because it's what's laid out in The Compound of Alchemy; or, the Twelve Gates leading to the Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, written by George Ripley in 1471. Ripley is a very noted alchemist and importantly Celia is his namesake. It really just ticks a whole lots of boxes for "big important thing" in a show like this.

As a final note on the Great Work its presentation as a universal transmutation is quite a shift from more traditional interpretations. As mentioned it's a bit all over the place as for what it means but this incident seems to portray it as something akin to The Change in scale. Universal and far-reaching. It's hard to say too much more than that based on this episode alone but it's worth keeping an ear out for in the future. Even if this version of it is benevolent I can see why something of that scale got them firebombed.

Also, is it just me or does Chester sound much more roboty to start here than in other incidents?

After the incident it's Alice and Lena having a bit of a chat. Alice in this scene is a little peculiar to me, she's very quick to accept that Sam is correct about being lead to a conclusion by Freddy. Although I'm not sure how that reflects on her stance in the last episode. She was obviously trying to protect Sam but it didn't seem like she was lying about not believing his whole conspiracy there either. In this scene though she's pretty sold on the idea. Lena having a heart is nice to see too. I like that she's opening up a little more and is subverting some of the expectations of her assumed archetype.

Gwen and Ink5oul's section is pretty self-explanatory IMO. At least as far as those two characters go. Ink5oul's powers are progressing and she's now able to control mundane tattoos she had no part in producing but beyond that it's pretty expected stuff. Obviously the real standout here is [Error]. Firstly it's a confirmation that they're the one compelling people to spit out statements. Not that I think that confirmation is much of a reveal. There are a few bigger details to pick at here though. They've seemingly marked the whole gang for some reason. If the above is correct, and the OIAR is directly opposed to the Institute, it could just be revenge. Albeit that labours under the assumption [Error] has some sort of allegiance to the Institute. Which I think isn't entirely certain at this stage. The way the transcript describes them is also very perculiar.

A Figure emerges, shrouded in a cloak of whispers. … The Figure continues to emerge, a nightmarish specter of an older world, slowly enveloping Ink5oul’s brash bravado … The Figure breathes deeply, a strange and disconcerting sound, enveloped in pained whispers.

They're three details worth mentioning there. The first is their almost ephemeral description, they emerge and then continue to emerge. Which is a strange phrasing if they were just walking into the scene. The whispers I think are fairly obviously the statements they force on people, not much to say there. "Ink5oul’s brash bravado" speaks to what I was discussing in last episode's post. Ink5oul seems to be fairly inauthentic in a lot of their interactions and are putting on a persona to seem like they're more of a badass than they really are. Outside of that there is just this to mention.

The tape recorder bites Ink5oul before clicking off.

I've seen it brought up a lot and I get why, it is quite funny, but I think it's also speaking to a larger thing. [Error] appears to have much greater control of these than we might be familiar with. I'm not going to get into TMA spoilers but [Error] seems to be conjuring, and commanding, these things themselves which is a very different vibe. I think they might serve a similar purpose overall, the gathering of statements, but more purposeful and I could also see them being [Error]'s physical tether to the world. If they are as ephemeral as the transcript hints at the tape records might serve as their anchor. It's something they can move about but it might be their vulnerability.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: 4254 seems about right but it's also such a weird one that it's hard to really quantify. It doesn't strike me as wrong in any way but the focus of the incident was not on the, well, incident. So it's hard to say.

CAT# Theory: CAT2 is a 2 and I don't have a huge amount to say on these as of yet.

R# Theory: BC seems right. It's what the last letter about spooky shit was rated and this seems to hit all the same notes I mentioned in the ep 19 post.

Header talk: Architecture (Landmark) -/- Corruption (Entropy) is another of those strange ones. Our third in a row. Which likely means they're here to stay, and while that's generally fine by me it does make me wonder what the diegetic reasoning is here. It's a pretty sudden shift to just do this now and it never come up before this. It's also not something mentioned as new either. Corruption (Entropy) is fairly interesting though. It makes sense for the incident but it feels like you could've just done "time" here for the same effect.

[oiar-analyst]

Wow this episode is so full of stuff!!! The statement and metaplot are both super meaty.

Initial thoughts:

- Very curious to see where sam x alice x celia ends up because it's not looking like a typical love triangle. I wonder if it will end up as a poly relationship.

- The statement itself was cool. It also felt like a very overplayed trope though... the rich hunting the poor for sport is hardly unique as a concept (Most dangerous game, etc.), even with the novel innovation that they had to kill each other first.

- Definitely hunt coded... Is it some sort of new hunt/flesh synthesis? The cannibalism is a new thing for Hunt related stuff.

- I love Lady Mowbray as a character.... Like a fully evil Gertrude. She's apparently involved in ARG stuff but I have no idea what.

- Does Lady Mowbray detect that Celia is from another world? the dialogue and transcript certainly suggest as much.

- Wild that Lady M knows Gwen's family. I wonder if this is the type of "external" that will bring Gwen back into her comfort zone.

- The return of the tape recorder and Alice encounters someone who is raving about The Deep. Is it related to the tattoo from a few episodes ago?

- Was the victim's madness caused by the tape recorder? or did it just show up to record it? It certainly seems almost Compulsion/statement-like

- It was implied in a previous episode (11 I think) that Alice was being followed by [ERROR], who is the creature most directly associated with Magnus and the Tape recorder. I wonder if they are related to the current happening.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

The people are different versions but still exist in TMAGP and that absolutly is the one thing moving a very specific TMA AU.

Basically besides joining the Institute, Tim gets very into online supernatural foruns trying to find people with similar experiences. So one day he gets a mysterious mensage from someone about the "thing wearing my brother's skin". The e-mail is about a young lady that says something very similar happened to her and her uncle and she has been investigating similar stories since. They chat more and with Sasha advice Tim decides fuck it and meets the woman, both pretend it's a date.

Everything is well until Tim mentions working dor the Magnus Institute, she, who presented herself only by Gwen, pales and goes "oh you're one of them" and leaves after saying "I'm not playing his games. I'm not feeding him." Tim is very confused, he thinks maybe the Institue tried to investigate her case and failed. They are not in the archive yet so he asks Jon and Sasha with help without giving any detail, basically hoping Sasha conection with Gertrude means she has acess to the archives and Jon being way to into spending long nights working will help them sort whatever Sasha finds.

Except Sasha finds nothing. Until a random day were she comes up with a big grim and goes "you guys won't ever be abble to guess what I found out?" and open in a very funky web page advertising Gwendolyn Bouchard, paranormal lawyer. Sasha is laughting, Jon is ranting about what a paranormal lawyer would even be but Tim is like "oh shit, that's her".

He doesn't connect the dots at first. Or doesn't want to. But he keeps thinking about "I'm not feeding him" and he is like "random question what do you guys know about Elias" and Sasha goes research into it.

At this point he and Jon aren't close friends but they are friends and if their boss is one of the things that ate his brother he needs to figure out something. With the assumption Elias is a clown, Tim does actually notice how creepy Elias is with Jon and is fully "Jon won't belive me but Elias is totally into eating his insides or whatever". So he tells the truth to Sasha and tricks Jon into visiting Gwen's lawyer thing for answers.

I still did not figure out most of the other things, except that Alice and Gwen are together in this verse and Alice made the web design for Gwen's page. I also know I want alt Sam and I want just our Celia who keeps almost meeting them but never doing. Or even a Celia that came back and has a dificult time being at her world and interacting with different versions of people that mattered so much to her.

I don't know still what to do with Sam, because I think Martin was very clearly Jonah backup archivist and the thing is Elias will try to convince Jon Gwen is the crazy/evil one and either he'll suceed making Jon betray his friends and be the archivist but with different assistants (except Martin) or he won't and Martin will start as the archivist. And while backup archivist/archival assistant Sam makes sense I'm unsure I want that for him. I'm thinking maybe this version of Sam after failing to get into Oxford went into a "rebelious" phase instead of doubling down in trying to met his parents high expectations and ended up joining Melanie ghost hunting channel. But not sure.

Like if I actually go the route of Celia is back trying to find help for both her worlds a Sam that's not quite the Sam she knows/cares about would be interesting. Like he is deep down the same but also he isn't in some obvious ways and she might just miss her Sam more. But if this is an AU not as connected with Protocol than maybe a Sam that's pretty much our Sam but if he was in Archives would make sense. Idk.

And ofc Basira and Daisy that I'm always partial to but I have no clue how to add, except maybe with them starting as Gwen and Alice rivals because Gwen attorney bussiness interferes with their sectioned police work. Also Gwen being an attorney is a 100% because I fully think she was her normal manipulative rise to the top and keep the Bouchard's name girl and went into law school for it except she mets Alice and by the same period Jonah happens and she was close to Elias (even if in parts was because she looked better in the family eyes when they were together by comparison) and it changed everything.

I don't know a lot about Alice either but she was Lena's college roomate and atended classes with Colin (yes he is here as well, unsure what to do with him tho). She had a paranormal encounter that left a scar similar but in oposition to Georgie's where she has a "spider sense" sort of think and can feel when the fears are involved, she knows if a library or book fair has a Leitner and where for example. It happened when she was young and possibly involved meeting my boy Gerry but she tried to avoid the supernatural ever since. She was very reluctant over helping Gwen except she acidentaly overheard her talking to "Elias" and Jonah messed with her head. More importantly she knows that ignoring sometimes is worse because some secret involving her baby brother who may or may not have joined Grifters Bone and becamed a Slaughter Avatar.

The supernatural lawyer was a joke from Alice but Gwen took it seriusly and Alice was loke "really?" and guess this moron will need help to not die/became an avatar and became her paralegal (tho it had nothing to do with her actual college diploma).

[starsoftheeye]

i know realistically that celia probably does remember the eyepocalypse, and she knows exactly who jon and martin are and how theyre connected to it all, and she secretly does know what the fears are and shes just working in silence with all this knowledge trying to confirm it in this universe

but can you imagine if she doesnt?

if all she has to go on is the deep, incomprehensible fear shes been left with that something horrible is going to happen if she doesnt act. if she is spurred on purely by how little she knows, because the unknown is always worse than any horror we can know. if at every turn she is proven so right to be scared, and that encourages her even more

because i do. i imagine it a lot

[irradiatedsnakes]

btw in the tmagp launch celebratory stream alice's voice actor said her favorite scene that'd been recorded by that point was "alice and sam go to a place". so i suppose we'll be getting that next week :]

other notes. this statement (hey! actually a statement this time! what the fuck) was SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

the cursed dice angle is so good, the way the statement giver took on that role (roll), played the part, UGH it's so fun. the theme of choice that was brought up is also so good- just. ONE more roll for old time's sake :) especially given that this is a TMI statement and how HUGE IMPORTANT of a theme choice and free will were in tma, felt very fitting. fantastic, loved that.

continuing on my stuff about the entities in tmagp- once again some things here feel very on the nose, particularly the statement giver literally calling himself a mysterious stranger. this feels like a fun little red herring to me, for people a bit hung up on the entities stuff. that's how i interpreted it, anyways. i wanna know more about this world so fucking bad, dude.

also, the institute's in manchester in tmagp, not chelsea/london. which means no milbank prison, no panopticon. interesting. (though soemthing that was known from the arg already- i really need to deep dive on that. tomorrow, maybe.) statement taking and artifact storage are still a thing, evidently, but noting that there's no mention of an archivist or anything like that. and the subject/agent/catalyst stuff, that's Very interesting.

once again, chester bringing up a magnus-related statement, here in obvious reply to what sam was talking about- just when he was considering to celia about dropping his investigations- clearly (imo) to goad him into not leaving it behind. excellent. and fun given the first TMI-related incident with redcanary had the obvious conclusion of THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE IS WEIRD AND DANGEROUS while also having enough mystery to draw sam in further. sam's seen the canary die in the coalmine and has made the decision to keep digging and that's fantastic.

now! characters! sam's paperwork :) VERY intriguing that he's getting all this stuff and celia's got none of it- he said it was due to that box about the response department, but i've got my doubts about that being the reason he's being saddled with all this weird stuff. also the questions on the thing made me laugh, very good. sam and celia have such good interactions, i love how they bounce off each other. also, with regards to the paperwork- i think there's a connection to be made about the statement giver's continued rolling of the dice (it always felt like my choice.) and sam filling out all this creepy, utterly pointless paperwork to "refuse to give it the satisfaction of giving up".

GWEN AND LENA. nigel dickerson, you know, from tv? possibly. i don't watch television. i do hope we'll be seeing exactly what gwen is being told to do next episode.. delivering something, keeping calm, recording the detailed reactions to what's being delivered. maybe we'll get a bit more of a clue as to what the oair is actually for. i do like that gwen's not become one bit less indignant, skeptical, and disrespectful towards lena now that she's got this job. i'm very excited to see her on her fist job she's gonna suck at it i think

i'll admit i was a little surprised to see teddy again. i was worried for a sec he might be going in the direction of getting dragged back to the oair, but nah. not yet, at least :) and ALICE. ALIIIIICE auaaaaagh!!! i don't know if i have much to say baout this part that isn't just (shaking a plushie in my mouth like a dog). very neat that she has agreed to help sam investigate this and actually go to the institute when she's been so staunchly don't get caught up in the creepy stuff! leave the magnus institute stuff ALONE you don't want to get into this spooky shit! like.. she does not want to get involved with spooky shit and she doesn't want sam to get involved with spooky shit but she cares about him and their friendship a lot and this is obviously important to him. so. (plus, the thing about alice's brother having been at the institute alongside sam and gerry..) i like them both so much. i am so excited for next weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

[broodingheroine]

tmagp 15 thoughts

well run? well run dry perhaps???

ew stop flirting right in front of me oh my god

sam you seriously have zero game how did you bag two of these women

please please can we meet luke PLEASE

oh alice doesn't know about jack akdjdjsksk

"a baby. human." why did you specify.

alice thinks babies are cool

the sentinel???

you "knew" them??? past tense???

a couple months ago??? took you long enough

ugh are these rich people gonna hunt the caterers for sport

oh it was her "domain" was it

OH SHES MAKING THEM HUNT EACH OTHER.

reminds me of murder club

wow this guy systematically murdered all of his employees in half an hour. icon.

OH. OH THEYRE HUNTING HIM NOW TOO.

HOLY SHIT?????

CELIA???????

WHAT DO YOU SMELL LIKE CELIA

"catch you" next time. fucking christ.

cheshire bouchards???? what does that mean???

luke is so nice to meet you. I'm still concerned about your wellbeing though.

is this who got out of the trap door??? the one that's been following alice????

UM???? WHY IS ALICE GETTING A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE LEAVE HER ALONE

TAPE RECORDER???

what the fuck just happened

okay so we have kind of a pattern with the water thing though?

that guy in the tattoo episode who ended up obsessed with "the deep" or whatever and now this lady? the transcript has her listed as The Victim which is mildly horrifying but you know

the group of rich people seem to pretty plainly be of the hunt

I do really wanna know why celia smells off though!

and wtf are the cheshire bouchards. what does that mean?

god there was so much here

I was late as hell today because I had shit to do earlier but oh my god

[vieramars]

elaborate now

Hi I'm awake now so uhh yeah Lena with a service dog

This relates to 2 of my headcanons about Lena: 1 that she has chronic pain but thinks it's normal and 2 that she's very much autistic and not getting the support she needs and also thinks her experience with that is normal. She's so far in the disability closet that she doesn't even know it's a closet.

So when she first got involved with the supernatural and realized there's a whole fucked up world out there she never knew about, she decided to get a trained personal protection dog. She finds it easier to trust an animal than a person.

So when she got the prospect (basically a puppy who is determined for a training program before it's born), the program she was going through told her "hey we also have a service dog training program. From the interview it sounded like that would be useful for you" and Lena decided to go with it. She didn't consider herself someone who needs a service dog, but upon doing some heavy research she found enough helpful tasks to teach the dog to consider it a productive choice.

The dog is a very high drive, incredibly focused belgian malinois. Lena refers to the dog by it/its which gives some people a bad impression, but she cares very well for it and took to training quite well after the program finished. This dog constantly needs more tasks to do and luckily Lena keeps finding new ways it can help her stay calm at work and avoid overstimulation.

Mainly the tasks it performs are alerts for high blood pressure and elevated heart rate, creating personal space while walking from place to place, guiding her away from overstimulating situations, mobility tasks like forward momentum and retrieving objects, and deep pressure therapy (though only when in her locked office so nobody will see her lying on the floor with a dog in her lap). Because service dogs have to be washed (retired) if they bite anyone, the dog's protective tasks mainly consist of intimidation rather than bite work (also Lena does not want her dog to attack an external because that would put its life and her job in danger).

She does not bring the dog to work when she has an important visitor, even though those are very stressful days and she would benefit from its presence. She knows that showing any signs of "weakness" or reliance are going to cause issues with the externals and her superiors. On normal days, the dog must always be working in the presence of her employees. Gwen is terrified of it. Alice is desperately trying to catch Lena when the dog isn't working so she can meet it off-duty. The dog is vaguely unsettled by Celia because she doesn't smell quite right. Naturally Lena has to give the dog breaks during the work night, but she makes sure to do so only when everyone else is busy and won't notice her heading outside for a half-hour run.

The dog is not allowed to meet lady mowbray's dogs. When Gwen let lady mowbray into the OIAR, Lena left the dog in her office and locked it to deal with the situation and then had to lock herself in for dpt for at least an hour afterwards because that was the most panic-inducing experience she's had in a while.

The one and only time the dog has barked off command while working was when one of the OIAR computers turned on without anyone touching it.

[theeldritchcorvid]

TMAGP 25 Thoughts

Spoilers, as usual, below the cut

Well, a TW for disordered eating is always a good start, isn't it. These episodes have really been hitting my personal deep seated shit this series, haven't they! First the 'giving yourself up for a baby' thing and now this. Whoo.

ANYWAY, the theory posting does not stop, so we're working from the transcripts.

Norris interrupting at mention of the Minister is rather interesting. I reckon they know who he is, and aren't saying. Do we even know the Minister is a he?

Incident's gross. Had to skim most of it - well done, Jonny, it's incredibly evocative. Hopefully no major recurring characters present, and the burger bit was ESPECIALLY repulsive. In a good way. Hunger can be quantified as an imbalance or a lack of sustenance, can't it. It's another Location incident. Noted.

Also COLIN MCFUCKING BECHER. Taking a hammer to the computers! He's either dying at the end of this season or he outlives us all. And he's seeded the Listening in Sam's head. Watch out for that, everybody.

Finally, what IS causing Celia to teleport? We still don't know and I suspect ulterior motives... whatever it is - train tracks, so far from London you need a coach (for my american friends a coach is like a bus but for longer hauls. they do motorways and shit) - it wants her OUT OF THE OFFICE. In conclusion: HMMMM. Minister may be season finale, and I pray it's Peter.

[cool-person-yey]

YOU KNOW THE DRILL TMAGP NOTES 23!!!

• that title is not concerning. not at all pffft not at all.

• ik it was written by harlan so im hyped

• * ominous music * my beloved

• * office noises * hehe

• hello sam my beloved

• hello lena my dear

• oh the response department!!

• Sam why do you keep doing that cmonnn

• " I just want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes" yeah yeah yeah sure

• oh! chester

• heyy forum thread again

• oh hey nice I guess

• peace right? please tell me they're not saying piece

• oh they are aren't they

• voice is more human!

• you have to be sneaky huh

• oh relationship problem yippee

• so very much alive.

• aquariums are very cool though I agree

• I hope that's an emoji and not :) bcuz if :) ever appears it better be read as two dots parentheses

• oh I relate so hard

• the trans experience right here

• wait who's he

• sorry gamers the auditory isn't processing today

• hahaha wdym is it safe

• oh no I dont think it's going to go well

• it bled a lot hmm that does not seen good

• secret?

• oh that's. that's ominously sweet?

• I'm sorry what???

• you're not?? feeling it??

• oh no

• OH NO

• I mean it does sound cool but oh my

• EYES MENTION

• keep your name,,,

• this is. so trans codded. or is it just my trans ass seeing it everywhere

• the surname being Newman is fucking hilarious

• hi why suddenly everybody commented

• haha sorry what

• oh no not the locked thread again

• who dat

• opening the transcripts

• Celia and Sam!

• he rly called Jon a basic bitch

• try searching for martin k blackwood next

• elsewhere??

• BASIRA??? HELEN???

• we got the whole gang now we just need Melanie???

• hey Gwen

• no you're not <3

• oh no

• hey Alice

• yeah you're totally fine Gwen definitely

• the moments I've dropped my mug wasn't fun

• freak in the sheets Alice mug is not canon then

• she's really dropping everything

• yes of course hide your actual feelings behind jokes haha

• HOW MANY EYES??? TAPE RECORDER??? FUCK OFF

• NO

• OH FUCK ME

see y'all next Thursday if I don't die

[witchinatree]

magnus protocols episode 22 ramble

i managed to push the schedule around so i could listen to this episode when it came out. i am terrified. the vague posts i keep seeing are freaking me out i'm not ready at all

of course you ran away gwenny you're so right for this!!!! "watching figure" OH YEAH. WATCHING.

lena i love you but this is. insane. gwen almost died and you're like i'm so fucking disappointed.

she's still shaking :( poor gwenny :(

woah that sounds familiar "your death would be a problem" is basically what elias told jon when he was exploring the tunnels

oh that's sweet, lena is stopping her external visits!! even if she is being a bitch about it. wait mrs. kelley, she's MARRIED??? idk why that's shocking to me

hey augustus. this is a bad sign isn't it

i know big words too!! saxophone... sorry i've been dragged back into sanders sides kicking and screaming

so it's like .. brain research ???

TWO SEPERATE ANIMALS IN ONE BODY OH NO WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN FOR US

an ocean... an ocean.... i'm so happy we're getting more ocean horror it was something i really wanted in tma. especially with like symbolism because it is deep and that is cool.

i'm gonna have to google so many things

he was so full of joy and whimsy!! oh that's not.

um!!!!! is he okay. why the fuck am i asking that he is CLEARLY not

do you remember that episode in tma where a guy like slowly crawled out of that other guy until he exploded or something, that kind of reminded me of it for a second

wtf wtf wtf wtf why is it talking why is the telegraph talking

what the hell genuine question what the hell

oh yikes it was alice who edited sam's caseload. ruh roh. HOW DID HE KNOW LMAO?????

sam you need to listen to alice i am begging you i am begging you. oh no.

alice thought he could escape the narrative and instead just doomed him for it

SHE CAN'T QUIT CAN SHE? CAN SHE? LMAO CAN SHE?

oh lord

DON'T SAY THAT SAM DON'T BRING THAT UP. POOR ALICE.

"get over it or get lost" :( sam no :(

CELIA WHAT. CELIA WHAT. WHATH HWHAHTWUAHFHWHUAHTHHWH ATHWHAHT

DO YOU EVER

DO

DO YOU EVER

VIOLNELTY SJAKNG???? TWEKAING????????? WHOOOOOOOOOOO??????????????????? I GENUINELY THOUGHT SHE WAS GONNA SAY JONAH MAGNUS. DID WE JUST ACTUALLY GET THEM MENTIONED BY NAME. CELIA I KNOW YOU KNOW. I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CELIA RIPLEY. HOYL FHCIHGUHAF

JONATHAN SIMS AND MARTIN BLACKWOOD THEEY'RE REAL THYYYYYE'RE REAL.

[ribesballtarot]

JUDE BELLINGHAM & LAURA CELIA

Team: Real Madrid

What is the history between them?

Eight of pentacles, knight of wands, seven of pentacles reversed, knight of pentacles, three of cups reversed, king of swords reversed, nine of cups reversed, the hierophant, three of swords, ten of wands reversed

Their history is short-lived, but there's more than meets the eye. First and foremost it seems like there were certain and very specific skills that were used when they would get together. A sense of practicing and recreativity, having fun (feeling joyful and active) but nothing that goes anywhere substantially.

In terms of emotional intensity, or a shared deep connection there's close to none. It's true that the cards show that they'd share parts of each other, but nothing that was more that pure psychal. It's more of a collaboration where there's a misuse of power or even manipulative games, more than anything romantic. It's not the type of history that when you remenice latter it fulfills you, this partnership that they seem to have is within a purpose, but one that left one of the parties very unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

There's a lot of things in their connection that weren't being taken care of, a lot of careless meet-ups, information being transfered to thirds on the low. There's a sense of 'tradition' as if their history dates back to something that has always been done, some sort of foot chain. There's burdens that come with it that makes one spread themselves thin, more for one of the parties than the other.

What does JUDE think of LAURA?

The hermit reversed, four of pentacles reversed, the devil, two of cups, five of cups

He thinks of her as someone who is quiet literally starving for money. From his point of view she's somewhat isolated, acting on the downlow withdrawn from society in a way that her most influential moves are not seen and nobody knows it's her doing. And although he thinks of her as someone who is vicious, his own thoughts betray due to sexual desire and dare I say need to posses her that feel well-feed by her presence. Nevertheless, not even his own viciousness can settle for how regretful and disappointing he thinks of her.

What does LAURA think of JUDE?

Four of pentacles, two of pentacles, seven of swords, seven of pentacles reversed, the lovers.

She thinks of Jude as someone who is established in life, secure in his finances and career, and personality-wise on the more controlling side. His controlling qualities come from being careful and cunning (from her point of view.) He is someone she can make business with but not someone that she can or would directly trust, deceiving. He's more of a trickster in her eyes, and someone who has a lot of resources. She thinks of him as too impatient and too rushed into everything he does. Someone that she's not allowed to make anything come to fruition because he presents her a lot of unrealistic expectations build on lies. It's difficult to communicate with him or connect.

XIX

[disappointingcabbage]

TMAGP 20 thoughts, spoilers under the cut!!

The original title of the episode was Skin Deep, but they changed it to Social Stigma. Inch Resting… giving Ink5oul vibes…

Sam wants to talk to Alice and Celia Away From The Computers about the Magnus Institute. Smart but ineffective, though to be fair he doesn’t know they can listen on, like, every piece of technology imaginable lmao

poor Alice is Done With This Shit, understandable after her chat with Colin tbh

Oh shit Sam figured out the Protocol equals arson shenanigans…

The OIAR had the institute destroyed by Starkwall? I hate that that makes sense, I very much wanted Gertrude to have done it. Gobsmackingly uncommon L for arson grandma I guess.

Wait, not only did Starkwall burn the institute down, they also killed all the employees? Damn, seems like overkill but makes sense if that just means Elias wasn’t bluffing in TMA about how killing him kills everyone at the Institute.

I guess that means Jonah Magnus is super dead in this universe. Nice.

Also Gertrude either never worked for the Magnus Institute in this universe or she was able to quit before the Protocol was enacted and the institute was destroyed.

Alice makes a good point about not wanting to piss off the government by exposing real conspiracies, judging by the extreme nature of Arson Protocols, if Sam keeps digging deeper he could put himself and perhaps also Alice and Celia in serious danger

I love that Celia is advocating for Sam

THE LADS IN THE COMPUTER SENT SAM AN EMAIL WITH DOCUMENTS CONFIRMING THAT STARKWALL BURNED DOWN THE INSTITUTE???

But this time the email address that sent it was gibberish… I don’t think that was the case for the one that sent him Gerry’s address… inch resting…

The fact that they know they’re working for the bad guys this early on in comparison to TMA is really cool tbh

Celia is definitely not beating the universe hopping allegations with her “are we sure destroying the institute was a bad thing? They wanted to end the world” take

Alice is pulling a Georgie and noping out. Fair enough.

Celia’s still down to investigate, hell yeah

HOLY FUCKING SHIT INK5OUL MY BELOVED

Why are they tattooing in a warehouse? Odd choice of venue lmao

Oh, they’re tattooing a corpse. Sounds about right for them tbh.

The fact that they’re commenting on how Gwen has “nice skin” is giving me Nikola Orsinov vibes

The OIAR wants Ink5oul to be an external? Neat. Why weren’t they one already?

Oh shit Ink5oul seems to be in the middle of becoming an avatar and they don’t understand what the fuck is happening

They didn’t originally want to be Spooky, just wanted social media fame. Oof. Also doesn’t help that the first time they went viral it was a complete accident.

Oh shit the statement for this week is just Ink5oul talking to Gwen.

Lmao they accidentally stumbled into the spooky while looking for inspiration (and/or tattoo designs old enough to steal without getting caught)

So Oscar Jarrett was basically the original Ink5oul, and “adapting” his supernaturally flavored designs is the only thing that gets them fame

Ink5oul, bestie, I think your friends were right to be worried about you, not just jealous.

Oh shit Jarrett tattoos don’t decay? Funky!! That explains all the grave robbing.

It’s kind of hilarious that constantly changing venues due to running from the law just kind of helped with Ink5oul’s branding online like no one thought it was suspicious at all, they were just like “ooh spooky blorbo”

Oh damn, emulating Jarrett’s work changed Ink5oul’s own work and made it Spooky? AND it made them want to see people afraid? Yeah this is some avatar shit.

Ink5oul does not in fact want to be an external. That tracks tbh

Gwen do Not talk town to the spooky ink person

“This is the part where you start running” Gwen pissed off the wrong one lmao