#listening to tma with my family

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

my parents are making tma references unprompted this is amazing

[simcardiac-arrested]

wait, that elias?

[no-tengo-ojos]

Has anyone here heard about the podcast Malevolent? It’s the latest Magnus feed drop and I was thinking about trying it out

[hell0jon]

Guys I can assure you British people are real.

I had an encounter with one once, and I can tell you it did not end well

They are in our homes, among our children and families

Be careful, for the true horror does not lie in the darkness of night, but within the shadows of our kin.

[witchinatree]

GENUINELY obsessed that we got a celia statement though like it completely brought back all those feelings i had back when i first listened to season 5 of TMA

like the tunnels era with celia and georgie and melanie and laverne and martin and jon and arun literally one of my favorite parts of season 5

i freaked OUT when i heard her statement the vibes were the same and i cried

[clownhonkbonk]

tHe mAgNus arChiVEs iS a-

[skeletonfromthecloset]

posted this on my instagram story today because i am the funniest person alive

ALSO LIKE FULL CREDS TO @/aishespoeticmuse on insta!!!!

[honeysuckle-venom]

Okay so I know that I'm 10 years too late here but I just listened to Once Upon a Time (In Space) by The Mechanisms for the first time and first of all, I'm in love, it's amazing. Second of all, as I got further and further in I was like...hang on...the narrator's voice is very familiar. Well! Turns out it's Jonathan Sims. Pretty sure literally everyone but me already knew this but I didn't, so today was a day of very fun discoveries for me.

[syntia13treeman]

Sparky spiders?

I just witnessed my dad's cat waking him up from an afernoon nap, (because it's cat feeding time). Dad looked around a little bit dazed, saw me, and said (translation by me):

"I was just dreaming about a big spider. Huge one."

*gestures with hands how big - I'd say it was the size of a small cat*

"It was zooming around the room, throwing sparks. Why?"

No idea dad, you don't even listen to my podcast. 😂

[c0rpsedemon]

when i saw 'cabin in the woods in middle of nowhere new hampshire' bad i mean it. i have a 65 year old father from northeastern mass that's the only type of vacation i ever go on (if you're wondering what it's like it's like a modern day yellow wallpaper btw) . i know my cabins in middle of nowhere new hampshire. i've been to multiple with better wifi than i currently have. that says a lot btw.

[macabresymphonies]

Look, I'm not really on the "Smirk's 14 is back bby" train just yet, but I did notice that Alice of all people has been making some strange jokes all throughout the show so far.

Yes, Alice is like a Family Guy episode, she shoots jokes at mach speed to see if anything lands, but with stuff she's been saying there's seem to be a strange overarching theme of her referencing Entities (or avatars if you prefer). We're not the only one noticing this, Sam very much did too:

TMAGP 06 Sam: Okay firstly, this place is making you really morbid. (...)

I know that she references creepy stuff all around and with Smrik's 14 basically covering each fear on earth we might lean into confirmation bias, but it might be significant in the future so it's better to consider it now than later. With that, let me compile all of Alice's morbid "jokes" so far and how they seem to relate to Fears from TMA:

The Dark

TMAGP 01 Alice: Boooo! Your pathetic addiction to vitamin D will only make you weak.

The Flesh/The Spiral

TMAGP 01 Alice: Listen to me: bones are a lie peddled by Big Milk to keep you buying. No such thing.

The Stranger

TMAGP 01 Alice: Don’t boo me! I created you, and I can destroy you!

The Spiral (specifically mention of molding a person like clay, like in The Great Twisting)

TMAGP 01 Alice: You'll see. Anyway, hurry it up, time to mold you like clay into the perfect government drone for the Office of Incident Assessment and Response.

The Spiral

TMAGP 02 Alice (sardonic): Time isn’t real.

The Spiral (specifically MAG 74: Fatigue)

TMAGP 06 Alice: Have you considered simply bypassing your mouth altogether and injecting the beans directly into your bloodstream? Sam: Great idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Alice: Not enough coffee beans in your blood.

The Dark (very blatantly)

TMAGP 06 Alice: Oh Sam. The sun is the enemy. It rules the world of light but we who dwell in darkness feel only its wrath. Get the curtains.

The Flesh

TMAGP 06 Alice: Then we draw lots and one of you gets eaten at the Christmas party.

The Flesh (again)

TMAGP 06 Alice: “Would you like tea Celia? Coffee perchance? My heart carved from my chest and arranged on a little doily? Please, Celia, cut out my tongue so I can always be there to lick your stamps for you!”

These seem... strangely consistent, whenever she goes her gallows humour bit it's either reference to hating on the sun (light), humorous "I'm baltantly gaslighting you" stuff or reference to eating/getting eaten/cannibalism. Take that as you will, these could be "easter eggs", but they might as well be clues.

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

listening to tma with my family is just a series of "yippee!"s as I keep realizing which episode we're about to hear and what's about to happen or be revealed

[ceaselessims]

i liked bingeing all 200 episodes of tma in like 3 weeks but also i like being a part of the weekly releases of tmagp bc i missed A LOT of details in tma bc i was just putting it on in the background and didn't really start ACTIVELY listening (bc plot) until s2. like i was listening to it again from the beginning while cleaning my room and i was like what do you MEAN mary and gerry were in like episode 5 of s1 like i only remember gerry from Family Business bc i was like "goth sam winchester trapped in a book" and then i joined the fandom to find they're both MASSIVELY popular characters and i was like 👁️👁️ oh dear ! i missed everything !

but with tmagp i get to sit and dissect and get to know characters with everyone so im not missing anything bc i guarantee if i waited until tmagp was finished i wouldnt even remember colin or luke until they like died or gave their own statement or something

[laertesthelocalstranger]

"You're missing out. I'm afraid I have no choice but to name the skull patch Yorick." He's been taught about candle safety, alcoholism, sex, sleep, and breathing deeply all within the last month, but by god she knows her Shakespeare references.

Axel comes home to a dark apartment and a pair of near-yellow eyes reflecting oddly in the dark.

@laertesthelocalstranger

Axel noticed the eyes and paused. It took a moment before he decided the best course of action may simply be to turn on the lights and see what was going on. Maybe it was a lost animal or… a lost person. Not someone here to murder him. Why would someone murder him? Car troubles?

“…hello?” Axel asked as he turned on the lights.

[yourstruly9489]

Distortion Fanart (michael centered)

(saturated version on the left, og on right)

This is long, so a break before closeups start!

Closeups:

Text reads "The Distortion" (the o has a spiral inside of it)

More closeups but the doors on the left page are open, left to right, top to bottom:

Text reads: That was very stupid

Text reads: I am the throat of delusion incarnate

Text reads: There has never been a door there, Archivist

Text reads: How would a melody describe itself, when asked?

Text reads: "MICHAEL" That is a real name

Text reads: Does your hand in any way own your stomach?

Text reads: My very existence, tied to my pointlessness

Text reads: Did you notice which door she left through?

Text reads: I am not a "who," Archivist. I am a "what"

And that's the end of the closeups :D

All the text inside the doors are quotes from Michael Distortion btw. The only exception being "MICHAEL" bc Jon says that, but Michael does respond by saying "That is a real name" so I think it counts as a Michael quote. At least enough to be included.

I'd also like to thank a couple members of the "michael enjoyers" community for helping me come up with enough quotes. I do not remember your names, but thank you :D

The decision to make this spread was fairly impulsive. It started by me doodling spirals on a scrap piece of paper while trying to design a birthday card for a family member. While doing so, I thought, "why not fill a full page in my sketchbook with spirals?" And that turned into "I could make it into a Distortion spread."

And so, we have ended up here with a full Michael Distortion spread.

It was lots of fun to do, and has possibly gotten me out of artblock. Although, trying to come up with 9 unique doors that weren't yellow was quite the pain. Alongside the 9 different spiral patterns inside said doors. (although a couple of the spirals are copies of another)

And now a couple fun facts.

I am currently listening to "More Doors For Me" by elybeatmaker. I thought the song would be fitting.

I have only watched the first 14 episodes of TMA, and none of the TMAGP episodes. Everything I know about TMA is from my sister and Tumblr. For this reason I did only Michael, bc I know him far better than Helen. (she appears less in fanworks)

This spread took me five days. This is because I was either busy, or didn't have the motivation to work on it. The doors took the longest.

There is so much tape. The black background on the left page is black construction paper taped in, the spiral patterns underneath the doors were taped in, the doors themselves were taped on, the yellow door was also taped in, along with the hand and the wrist, both separately taped. It's a good thing I want a thick sketchbook.

My sketchbook's paper is a bit thin, so you can see the spiral behind the yellow door on the back of the next page. (I have since drawn over it, so I don't have a pic)

Each door has a separate color chosen to be the main color of said door. The colors include: Pink, Red, Orange, Yellow, Lime, Green, Light Blue, Blue, Purple, and Brown. The only one that is a normal door color (brown) has Michael inside it.

If you look closely at the right page, you can see where the lines start to get uneven in the background spiral.

I really like the idea of showing someone this spread and have them randomly open the doors, just to see a surprise Michael. :)

Materials used: generic pencil (for the initial sketch) 05 Micron pen random Prismacolors a cool multicolored lead pencil I don't know the brand of kingart twin-tipped brush pens Sipa fineliner pens scotch tape X-acto knife kid scissors black construction paper yellow cardstock A5 Fabriano sketchbook that I hate with a burning passion

Since you read this far, have some bonus Michael doodles!

^This one was variations of a scene from a dream.

^This one is from a doodle page I have laying on my desk, hence the scribbles nearby. I did not color in the lines (yes, that is nendou from TDLOSK to his left) This was also the first time I ever drew him.

I love giving him spiral cheeks :)

[syoemei]

a day later and im still thinking about peter lukas' episode. i think the lonely is such a fascinating fear, not just because of jonny's comments of it kind of becoming a proxy for depression, but because of peter's role as its main avatar in the show (*disclaimer that i've only watched up to s4 thus far).

side bar, i listened to a podcast where they defined "loneliness" as the distance between one's desired level of social connection and their self-perceived actual connection (hence how someone can feel lonely despite being surrounded by people). i know tma takes a bit more literal approach to "loneliness", such with the "not the power to make people disappear but rather the ability to go where no one else is" statement from the s4 q&a, but interesting to consider.

i think peter lukas, though he acknowledges this a bit in his statement, is a very specific manifestation of the lonely. is it a cop out to say it's a very privileged form of it? he himself acknowledges that his family comes from wealth and his mother paid for him to be able to run from home. but more than this, i think this contrast of peter wanting to be alone and yet needing humans to live in order to feed off their fear directly reflects the US' "white flight" phenomena to the suburbs in the mid-20th century. there's this WASPish need for silence and a creation of an in-community in suburbs, in contrast to the cities -- packed to the brim of people.

i know the tma's conception of loneliness also includes the loneliness people feel despite living in bustling city centers -- hell, peter creates that apartment complex to farm the people's loneliness. but i think my point is moreso exaggerated that he is the landlord in this situation. he is the one instigating and controlling the loneliness of the masses. but peter himself? he languishes in his upper class loneliness, isolated from the masses socially, but also economically. he wants the current social order to continue because it is his class that allows him his preferred form of loneliness (with respective agency) versus the loneliness of the lower class masses. he hates other people and yet needs them, just as the upper class needs the lower classes to be their capital.

i almost see this loneliness of the masses then not just as this social fear, but a reflection of the alienation people have to their work under late-stage capitalism. globalization, exportation of labor, the greater distance our goods travel to reach us -- all of this relates to the alienation we feel to each other. if loneliness -- to go back to the definition i brought up -- is our perceived lack, our hunger for, connection, then peter specifically draws on also our lack of connection to our means of production, as he himself is the benefactor of both social and economic detachment and lack.

i don't know if this was the intended meaning of peter lukas' story or the lonely as a whole, but that's where my mind went.