#seriously do people actually do quilling for fun I can't believe it it's not fun

[raevenlywrites]

Time for more The Magnus Archives! Todays listen starts with episode 21: Free Fall through 22: Colony 23: Schwarrzwhatever skipped bc historical shit bores me, 24: Strange Music 25: Growing Dark, 26: A Distortion, 27: A sturdy lock and finally 28: Skintight

(prev episodes here)

Free Fall

Martin! I almosr skipped this one bc one of my fears is "im in a situation i cant walk/climb/swim away from", but my hands were full so i just let it go. and we get an interruption! i love those

Colony

Okay. So I love Martin right off the bat for unfair meta reasons and for pretty legit diagetic reasons. One, I have a fondness for Alex's voice from listening to Rusty Quill Gaming. I always hear him playing this one shot himbo paladin of Apollo, and it always makes me grin. So im just flat predisposed to feel favorably to anyone voiced by Alex.

But two, so far Jon has been presented as kind of prickly. He sounds unpleasant to give statements to, wretched for work for, and particularly hard on Martin. Maybe its justified, maybe not, we havent had a chance to know. So now we get Martin "on camera" and he is immediately cast as pathetic and aligned with the reader: creeped out by all this spooky shit. He goes on to be a very good boy, doing scary shit bc he knows he needs to do a better job for his boss.

And then, brilliantly, Jon subverts this dick boss vibe thats been building by offering a room to Martin. He takes Martin's concerns very seriously, because he takes legitimate archives concerns very seriously. Weve seen hints of this with his reactions to things like the Lightner books, but this is the first time hes reacted with a sense of urgency. its a ramping up of the tension, now that weve established the tone of the work and some truths about the world. its really interesting that this shit isnt in response to dreamer, a direct threat to his predecessor, but rather a direct threat to one of his subordinates. It says some interesting things about Jon's character, and shifts my expectations on how he might react to future incidents.

ugh. im remembering the other reason why listening to this at work was a no go. The sound mixing on this is so bad that even with my headphones cranked all the way up, i can't hear shit :/

Schwartzwhatever skipped due to disinterest in historicals, let me know if im missing any vital clues or fun interruption scenes

Strange Music

Not much to say about this one, although it was fun to listen to Sasha and Jon lampshade the problems of audio media and regional pronounciations of Calliope. Has anyone ever actually heard it pronounced Callie ope (like cantaloupe)?

Growing Dark

So, i happened to go back and listen to 9: A fathers love, while trying to calibrate my headphones, and what a happy accident that I did! Hello, The Peoples Church of The Divine Host! Also, connection to Gertrude's "death" (still not 100 that she's dead, just gone)

Flag: TPCotDH, episodes 9: A fathers love and 25: Growing Dark

A distortion

Sasha! This is another one where my experiences with Rusty Quill gaming make me predisposed to like and trust Sasha. But since Jon also seems to trust her, that makes me more inclined to believe their opinion of Martin as a bit of a klutz, the one you trip when youre running from a bear, most likely to be the first casuality

Very curious about Michael, cant help but wonder if theyre going to lean into angelic mythology or not. Tuck that in my folder of "things to wait and see about"

A Sturdy Lock

By all rights this one SHOULD get to me. I dont remember if it did on my first listen, but this time around all I really care about is wondering from a writer perspective if all these "other statements" that get mentioned every now and again are already written/planned, or just mechanism to add to the sense of a larger world. And from a reader figuring shit out perspective, I'm starting to wonder if the archive is such a mess maybe on purpose. Like, was Gertrude a baddy (/IS a baddy????). Or maybe Martin is not as inept as he seems and is secretly moving things about 🧐

Skintight

I LOVE that this one isnt actually about a grey lady. its really fun how they like to set up common tropes and then sideswipe them XD. Plus its a real treat to hear two actors play off of each other. That works so much better for me than suspending my disbelief that grumpy old Jarchivist is recording these statements with such emotion XD