#specifically tmagp since. you know

[everchanging-cryptid]

New character drawing meme just dropped

[nomoremrnicefag]

tmagp listeners how we feeling

[skyeoak]

Thoughts on tmagp episode 24

*cough* my sister had a newborn a few months ago. Here’s some red flags about “the health visitor” from today’s episode:

- newborns feed every 2-3 hours, usually 2.5. Idk if this is different in the UK but I don’t see why it would be.

- most babies are born with greyish eyes, which changes over time. If Rupert’s a newborn when she’s talking about his black orb eyes, this is maybe a red flag?

- “I couldn’t scream, I didn’t want to wake him” AHHHHHH oh god the psychological horror of having a newborn aghfjgjfhhhhhh

Very Rosemary’s Baby, but instead of going full satanic panic, “Raising Issues” focuses on the self-sacrificial narrative mothers are told, and how that leads to a dangerous and isolating situation as Patricia ignores every red flag in sight. I had my head in my hands. Honestly, I wish we’d dived deeper into the socioeconomic stuff rather than the body horror because back to back with “A New You” it felt like too similar of a story structure, even though imo they’re meant to be parallels.

23 and 24 have been so similar that they’re definitely intentional contrasts to each other. One’s from Chester talking about how you can long to change yourself so fully only for it to all go wrong, and this one’s from Norris about destroying yourself to support the one you love… I am ill, actually. Screaming crying relistening to the last recording in this case file and finding all the points that are reminiscent of Mag 170 (Recollection).

These lines specifically are making me think. Once again, I am ill.

Chester: “Alesis Newman is leaving this world and whatever comes next – though she may look like me in some ways, though she may carry a part of me with her – she’ll be better. Free of all my mistakes. Perhaps people will like her more than me. I already like her more than me. I want to see her walk off happy and strong. I hope she doesn’t feel this now, just be the good parts of me. (hoarse) I hope it’s like I dreamt, I hope she has my eyes…”

Norris: “I can’t remember when… when I last… had sleep. I think… I think days…” + “I don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s not much of me left. I’m so scared. But at least Rupey’s happy…”

Considering this is the first Norris case file in over 10 episodes (since episode 12, unless I’m wrong) and he’s literally just reading the stuff between recordings, I’m a bit concerned.

Who the fuck is reading this statement and why didn’t they mention it to Celia IMMEDIATELY? If it was Sam, he knows she has a kid and is in a support group, and if it was Celia herself, then idk why she isn’t at least concerned (that’s suspicious, Celia.) I guess Gwen and Alice don’t know about Jack, so they’re off the hook.

ALSO rupert? A red name? Philosopher’s stone alchemical reference? Or just referring to the blood he’s feeding on?

I know I’m gonna see a ton of takes on this episode being like “this is why I’m childfree” and, like yeah, I’m not planning on kids either but this story is such an extension of existing social structures that I hope we talk, at least a little, about the social narratives at work here about pregnancy, parenthood, and childcare.

[helpimstuckposting]

TMAGP 30 Speculation

Now that it’s season finale time, I’ve got a LOT to say and a lot of ideas so I will ramble them here and either I’m horribly wrong or horribly right but unfortunately we have to wait to find that out

First, I can’t believe Alice had two mysterious talks with her friends saying they have something super important to say with a horrified quiver to their voices and she didn’t have time to listen to EITHER of them. Teddy and Colin are high high high on the list for ‘died off mic and we only find out next season’

Since Gwen was promoted (idiot) and Sam is… mmm… missing, it looks like the OIAR will need to fill at least one position, and I think it would be fun if Teddy came back to take his place as a main character. It’s possible that what he had to say was “This new job… it’s not exactly [working out]” and he was simply looking for a new one, and it’s no more ominous than that. If that’s the case, I can absolutely see him taking his position back next season. Colin’s probably dead, though, I’ll be shocked if he’s not tbh

Speaking of Colin, he called the system Freddy while talking to Alice. You know, the same guy that said “Don’t give it a personality. We shouldn’t even be calling it Freddy.” So the change up here is really blatant to me.

I’m still really attached to the idea that Jon and Martin (and Jonah’s) voices were stolen and they’re not actually trapped in the computers. However, I *do* think the voices are sentient, I just don’t think we’re right about who’s behind them. I think Freddy, the program itself, may be using the voices to push its own agenda and manipulate the decisions each OIAR employee is making. Alice gets a lot of JMJ errors, and is specifically the only person on staff who actively tunes the cases out and does not read into them.

OR, if it does turn out to be our guys, then I think it’s possible they’re working counter productively to Freddy, and the JMJ errors are a result of that — like they’re actively trying to work against Freddy. This could also be why Colin said he messed up, like maybe his attempts to deal with the JMJ errors made Freddy more powerful.

Either way, it seems the OIAR is in a huge bind going into season two. Colin probably did something buck wild and pissed the computer off, he’s probably dead, Sam is missing and they’ll need a new hire, Lena is gone (the only person who presumably knew anything that was going on) and Gwen just got promoted to boss despite having 1) absolutely no idea what’s going on with anything at all, 2) an inability to handle the externals and several panic attacks, and 3) no clue what Lena’s job even was, with no direction from the man who promoted her. It seems like even the PM has no real clue what the OIAR does, how it functions, or who it employs (“I’m sorry, do you hire a lot of murderers for contract and consultancy work?” - the answer is Yes, actually, several!)

Picturing the team next season as Alice, Teddy, Celia, and their boss Gwen is… a comedy of errors (or comedy of [ERROR]s? … Sorry) like that absolutely cannot go well. Although, we are pretty used to people being hired as a boss while they have no qualifications of the sort (also did not go well)

As for Sam, the Archivist, and Hilltop Road, I have a few questions about what could possibly happen. First, if the crack in reality was specifically calling for and tugging Celia toward it, we can probably assume that it’s the TMA universe on the other side, right? Which means Sam and the Archivist are now in our original beloved universe. I’m curious to see if Sam is just going to be MIA for the entirety of season two, or if we’ll get tape recordings of him at the same time as our TMagP friends, and we’ll have updates between both universes. I could see that being very interesting if some voice actors appear as two different people in the same episode (their TMA part, and their TMagP counterpart) but that would probably be really complicated to pull off in an audio format.

Also, we know the TMA fears cannot be separated, and that they’re possibly just one entity and have been one entity the whole time. That’s why they couldn’t start the apocalypse without all of them participating, and that’s why when Annabelle opened the crack in reality they all left the TMA universe. “Any attempt to separate the fears is doomed,” is what she said. She also said, “I would either travel with them, or I would die. I do not know which... Most would simply lose whatever power they have been gifted.”

So, if an archivist travels back through the crack in reality, what would happen to them? They’d be cut off from the entity that gave them power, right? So either the archivist will die, or maybe we’ll find out who Beth Eyre (the voice of [ERROR])’s character really is? Who they were before they became an archivist?

I don’t think they’d introduce [ERROR] and then just get rid of them without any resolution, which leads me to believe we will eventually find out what happened to Sam. I don’t think Sam’s just going to be dead or missing and never come back, I don’t see how there’d be any point to that. He is still the only person we know of who’s survived telling their whole statement, and even though he had a headache I feel like that must be significant. The janitor turned into a rock, I really don’t think a normal person would just walk away with a headache. Like, for all intents and purposes, Sam probably should have had his skin ripped off if we’re following the pattern of [ERROR] related deaths.

I hope next season focuses on Hilltop Road, because the lore in this episode was amazing. First of all, it was hard not to notice how each shop had a different danger. The custodian mentioned the drunk man walking into the newsagent and then he “ignored the smell of burnt hair and charred meat”. Then there was the shop that turned a woman into a mannequin, and Sam and Celia walked past the appliance shop where doors kept opening and closing, and the dentist that wanted peoples teeth. There was also the antique shop from episode 7 that almost buried the manager alive, plus the institute also used one of the units. I could be reading too much into it, but it feels like each fear from TMA has uhhhh… set up shop?

It’s also interesting to me that Annabelle said every owner on Hilltop Road in TMA was marked by the Spider, and died a grizzly death.

“So many schemers and spiders and full-throated monsters. Twisting manipulators and furtive liars. Each meeting a violent, grotesque end.” (TMA 196)

And the owner of Hilltop Center was no different.

“I found the owner dead in his office, with every blood vessel stripped from his body and strung around the room in a grim cat’s cradle.”

Not only did he die a violent and mysterious death, but his blood vessels were strung up ‘in a cats cradle’, which is pretty web-like if you ask me.

Anyway, I’m really really hoping to learn more about Hilltop Center next season, that’s the ONE thing I’m super latched on to post-finale

[witchinatree]

i'm having so much fun with the new tmagp characters (and i will miss them dearly until april 11th) (side note: patreon members get access on my sisters birthday which is pretty cool) and i don't want to compare them to the tma characters because they are unique and different in MANY ways, i just also notice some parallels

gwen is very similar to jon, she has had a somewhat skeptic attitude but has now clearly been exposed to the horrors (bonzo..) and she's also climbing the corporate ladder if you will. she runs the place, she's grumpy, and i think she's closer to becoming an avatar than any of the others (even sam) (see my other post about it if youd like) (idk how to link it on mobile sorry)

alice and tim are kinda obvious, both comedic with younger brothers and are very susceptible to romantic feelings (sasha/sam). there was a lot more going on with tim and we haven't seen much of that side of alice, so i'm really excited to learn about her backstory and/or traumas. less excited about what that might to do her but yk.. yk..

sam/sasha is the most interesting one to me. sam is curious like sasha was. sasha wanted to know which made her archivist potential in everyone's eyes. sam also wants to know, he'd make a great archivist. except he's not cautious, he's like sasha if she had never worked in the artifact storage. i think sasha's strength was what she had already experienced and what she knew, but she didn't know enough and ultimately that got her killed. sam is going to keep learning until he does know enough, but he doesn't have that prior knowledge to stop him from going too far. very interesting characters from both of them

celia and martin i guess? celia's different since she's not exactly from tmagp

lena and elias because creepy murder boss

and finally colin and gertrude which is kind of insane of me to say but hear me out. gertrude cut out the eyes of book covers and magazines and everything in her home. she was incredibly paranoid she just was also a boss ass bitch about it. i think younger gertrude must've been a lot like colin, but she figured it out quicker and realized what she needed to do to survive. she asked the right questions and took the right precautions. she had the archive full of knowledge. colin doesn't have the archive, he's messing with the wrong thing and he's taking every precaution and hurting himself and those around him (sam's phone specifically comes to mind). i think gertrude was like colin but she had the right resources to get through it

idk all of these are very interesting and it makes me worry a bit, but ofc every character is unique and has aspects to them that change their stories. they're probably still gonna die though, we know jonny sims loves killing characters ☹️

[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).

[annabelle--cane]

hmm okay to round up some current disparate tmagp thoughts into one place:

-> the fear taxonomy: I'm not quite sure where I sit on the desires theory currently, but I think it's worth noting that while both of our case subjects from the first episode were explicitly afraid of the spooky things happening to them, none of the rest have been, and I think it's really interesting that tom the horror blogger's whole problem was that he was so desensitized to fear it made him foolhardy (the exact thing our lovely ms georgina barker overcompensated so hard to avoid). yes, you could pick probably any archives statement and try to frame it around a desire instead of a fear because that's how character motivations work, but I don't think it's wrong to point out that since episode two all of our subjects have been remarkably chill about the Horrors happening to them. I'm not totally onboard with the desires at time of writing, I think there a few details that don't quite line up with that idea, but I'm still keeping a pin in the theory.

I also don't think it's wrong to point out that things like "music so hauntingly beautiful it makes a crowd tear itself to bloody pieces" and "paranoia and eye-related gore popping up in conjunction to the magnus institute" are familiar scenarios and seem to match up to the entities as we know them. those are very specific motifs connected to very specific types of Horrors and I think saying it's random coincidence that we're seeing them again is a bit of a weird take.

-> norris, chester, and augustus. in-universe, these voices appeared out of nowhere about a year ago, and one of the central mysteries set up so far is "what the hell is up with all this weird tech?", I think it is a perfectly reasonable assumption to think these voices are part of the mystery and not just an excuse to get jonny and alex's voices in the show. if that were the case, why would there be a third voice? yes, this podcast is meant to be comprehensible to new listeners, but I don't think that rules out any direct ties to archives, I think part of the function of having fresh protagonists who don't know anything about the events of archives is that, if the audience needs to learn anything about the first show, they can learn it along with a viewer-surrogate character.

personally, I think it very unlikely that the voices are literally jon, martin, and jonah's actual consciousnesses trapped in computers, I think those characters' stories are done and there's something funkier happening here (neither them nor not them but a secret third thing, yknow), but dismissing any idea that the voices are related to the characters, again, feels like a weird take.

-> gwen bouchard. honestly I feel like the way the production team have treated gwen's connection to elias vs the way some fans have come at is kind of illustrative. I've seen a couple of groups of fans get weirdly smug about the idea that we don't know gwen is related to elias, her name could just be a red herring, meanwhile on the tmagp post-launch stream everyone there took it as obvious that gwen is a bouchard and thus related to elias. not everything is red herrings, guys. it would be an extremely weird writing move to set up a bunch of stuff with clear links and parallels to archives and have it all be meaningless.

[irradiatedsnakes]

Have you thought about furry designs for protocol characters yet? I'd love to hear your thoughts on what animals they might be, yours are always top tier (though I understand if you need more time to get vibes from everyone lol)

yes i have!! given we're so early on they're all subject to change (and i haven't chosen one for lena given we don't know anything about her Whole Deal yet) buuut

sam: common raccoon

he really strikes me as a cute, fluffy sort of mammal. i chose raccoon for their curiosity and intelligence, and tendency to get into places they maybe shouldn't be.

alice: great blue heron

this is one of those "entirely vibes based" choices. she feels like a bird to me, and her shapes feel sharply-angled. great blue heron struck me, and i vibed with the design so much it cemented pretty quick.

gwen: lesser sooty owl

given the bouchard connection, i wanted to make her a tytonid (tytonidae, the barn owl family, separate from all the other owls which are family strigidae) given elias is a western barn owl. i chose sooty owl specifically for visual/design reasons, since many tytonids just look.. almost exactly like western barn owls, and sooty owls are quite pretty.

colin: northern pike

one thing you'll notice going through my furry choices is that, while i have a lot of lesser-represented taxa in furry aus like invertebrates, extinct animals, and strange birds, i don't have ANY fishes, at least not since switching martin back from being a nurse shark. that's sad. i wanted to choose at least one fish for the tmagp cast, and i think the northern pike, being a grumpy-looking, solitary animal worked well for colin. (also, i think a clearly carnivorous animal deadpan saying "i'm a vegetarian." is funny)

teddy: sloth bear

i just wanted to choose a fun bear for him. he's there for like three minutes. his name's teddy. Bear

celia: golden alpine salamander

for celia, i wanted to choose something that goes through a metamorphosis, as a reflection of her changing name/identity from getting her name stolen during the fearpocalypse. i chose a terrestrial salamander specifically due to the mythological connotations of salamanders being able to walk through flames unscathed, with her having escaped the apocalypse.

[atlitudes]

What The Fuck is an "External"?

The following is a theory for TMAGP containing major spoilers for currently released episodes (about up to 22), as well as semi-vague implied spoilers for TMA. Read at your own discretion!

So far, I, and I presume other listeners, had assumed that the word "externals" was used specifically to refer to the supernatural hitmen hired by the OIAR. This is informed by the way Lena speaks about them, Gwen's title as "externals liaison," and the duties we see her perform in this role, such as delivering a name and address to Mr. Bonzo in episode 10. It also helps that "externals" could easily be corporate speak for outsourced work/employees-- help hired from outside the company to assist with a specific demand.

However, I think this assumption is false. In episode 22, When Lena is speaking with Gwen after her encounter with Ink5oul and the [ERROR], she refers to both of them as "uncontrolled externals." Ink5oul very distinctly does not work for the OIAR or the government-- Gwen was approaching them with an offer to do exactly that, and they declined. Additionally, seeing as Lena did not know the [ERROR] or anything about it, she did not have its contact details, and it has been attacking OIAR staff, it is reasonable to assume the OIAR is not employing the [ERROR] as a hitman. Neither of these two entities work for the OIAR. Despite this, Lena still refers to them as externals.

I went back to see if there was anything like this that stood out to me in the previous episodes, and I noticed that when talking about externals, Lena always refers to the OIAR's spooky assassins as "our externals," which could just refer to the outsourced employees but could also imply that there are other externals that are not working for the OIAR-- that this term is not specific to this organization, and to its hitmen.

From this, I conclude that "externals" is a blanket term for supernatural persons/entities/individuals, and not just those hired by the OIAR. Specifically, I think "external" is this world's closest equivalent to the word "avatar," or a more general name for any supernatural entity.

So far I'm pretty confident about all of this. However, from here on out the logic beomes a bit of a reach.

So, "external" refers to something supernatural. Well... why are they called "externals" specifically? Why is that the name that was chosen? Within the context of the OIAR, it makes some sense, but since it's not just entities associated with the organization, where does that name come from? The word "external" connotes some level of outsider status, of foreignness-- If the supernatural in question aren't specifically from outside of the OIAR, what/where are they external to?

What if they were called that, not because they were external to the OIAR but because they were external from this world, this dimension, this universe? Fundamentally from (or influenced by things from) Somewhere Else?

I think you can see what I'm getting at here.

If that is actually the true meaning of "external," that also means someone gave them that name. Someone knew that there were supernatural forces at play, and knew well enough what they were, and where they were from, enough to name them "external." Do they know about the other universes? Do you think they knew that these things perhaps... came from somewhere specific?

I dunno. There is the distinct possibility that the "foreignness" that the word external implies is simply referring to the supernatural. That these things are "otherworldly" less in the literal sense that they came from somewhere else, but in the way that they defy the average person's understanding of the world. But I think it's more interesting to speculate that they might be alien in some way or another, and that whoever named them "external" knew. Let me know what you think!

[cool-person-yey]

tmagp notes 28 we're so back gamers

• since I ahem. disappeared for like 3 days I didn't see any vagueposts abt this ep soooo I'm in total darkness

• the incident elements and the vas are looking juicy though

• * ominous music *

• will our beloved Archivist appear in the OIAR?

• * office noises *

• also I am having lunch

• trevor herbert how have I missed you buddy. btw how's your brother.

• " such a diverse team too" I can literally SEE their uncomfortable faces. that's like, objectively the worst thing to be said to your face.

• THAT'S IT?

• same alice, same.

• the goddamn externals

• DANNY????? LIKE DANNY STOKER?????

• they're bonding <33

• hell yeah Celia's pan!!

• " you have no idea " oh don't we celia. don't we.

• Teddy!! he's... alive I hope?

• finally some good fucking communication

• so we do know the name of Gwen's grandfather ( and possibly Elia's dad? though idk if they've mentioned it in TMA before )

• gwen you snitch

• " a third party"

• wait what was that sudden voice change SHIT HES BEING COMPELLED

• more??? fuck fuck fuck

• fuck fuck fuck

• guess we getting our first proper statement

• austere is such a cool word actually

• is one of the older women named gertrude perhaps.

• when is it okay to lie... not feeling good about that specific one gang

• great thing to listen to after taking an exam and feeling very stupid after it

• and he ran.

• and he's lost.

• fuckkkk

• FUCKKK

• run boy run!!

• do not enter it of course he entered the goddamn door

• couldn't have known what!?? what???

• just a moment

• oh shit shit shit

• oh no the bone. oh no

• the body is horroing

• maybe I shouldn't be listening to it while eating

• well! that was fucked up.

• to find what??? to find what????

• goddamnit

See y'all next Thursday. I'll stare at the wall for a while.

[anthroposeen]

tmagp 16 relisten notes!!

spoilers for ep 16 under the cut, and also some tma spoilers as well since i cross-reference for theories! :)

celia:

- she physically and verbally comforts alice even though they've had some rocky interactions in the recent past, and she comes off as genuine when giving alice her support

- "i believe you/im serious" -> there isn't a glitch after these lines, and i think its fair to say celia is from the tma universe, the question now is how much she knows/understands/remembers from the fearpocolypse

sam:

- despite being more distant with alice in recent episodes, he's still helping her and checking up on her

- "so that would be Z for zombie?" i thought this was a cute little callback, but also isolated the line because its the first instance we have of sam initiating a bit/joke and alice failing to continue it

- he checks in on alice after they hear Madam E die in the incident and leaves his desk with celia to see about her after she leaves

alice:

- "i haven't seen someone die since..." im taking this to mean that she saw one or both of her parents die and a part of why the drowning victim has shaken her so hard is because its a flashback to those memories

- the woman she met in the alleyway was announced dead by the paramedics immediately, they said she had a lot of water in her lungs and discounted the possibility she could walk or speak

- "maybe that i'm finally losing it" -> i dont think alice is as knowledgeable about the paranormal as we think. she definitely knows more than shes letting on, but i suspect whatever she knows is specific to the oiar and whatever power has touched her life. similar to georgie in tma s3, she knew the paranormal existed and trusted in jon's circumstances but she had little context for her belief, since the only fear she had encountered before was the end. i think alice is operating under a similar world view, and this event does make her question her sanity (shes mentioned old coworkers going odd before, and i think its a genuine worry she has for herself as well as sam and celia)

- she's very blunt and obviously upset after the incident ends, leaving to go get coffee and rebuffing sam as he tries to see about her

gwen:

- she's frustrated that the rest of the team left after the incident and she's alone in the office, and becomes even more aggravated by lena interrupting this to berate her

- she defends lady mowbray's civility (after lena calls externals dangerous) by saying shes a real lady, implying that since she's nobility she wouldn't behave rashly (like mr. bonzo)

- she's frustrated that lena is reprimanding her for breaking a rule she was never told about, and isn't given enough information to gauge risk on her own

- she expresses stress over the real dangers of her job, feeling its unfair she's expected to talk to externals alone without training when they're too dangerous and unpredictable to visit the offices

- despite all of her concerns, she still demands to keep her position and continue her work

lena:

- she's very (reasonably) angry at gwen for inviting lady mowbray to the office

- she says that bringing externals to the office is dangerous and poses risks to personnel

- she explains that the operation to keep balance with the externals, and to exercise power over them, is dependent on how they keep relationships with them. as in, the externals have to be kept at an arms length and not introduced to internal affairs staff to avoid losing the fear and respect the oiar exerts over them. without control over the externals, they lose balance and they may become targets

- she agrees to think on training gwen for a full position as the externals liason

incident:

- narrated by chester/jon, i think this falls into his normal thematic elements of curiosity killing the cat

- most of the incident is told through youtube video format, voiced by the influencer 'Madam E', a goth (im assuming beauty and lifestyle vlog influencer?) youtuber. She got to know ink5oul through online connections

- she received a heart tattoo (unsure of the placement, but i was imagining it over her real heart or ribcage?)

- the tattoo process seems incredibly painful even in this circumstance, and just like in ep 2, the recipient doesnt seem to know the design theyll get until they wake up from the session

- i think the heart tattoo (called the heart's desire by ink5oul) played a role in manipulated Madam E's emotions for them, seeing as how they began a (using ajn's exact terms) situationship following the session

- when Madam E questions ink5oul about how they come up w their design concepts they get cagey and won't disclose their secret method, but offer Madam E a chance to grave rob with them (assuming this is related to the design process)

- "dig." [bruh!] gave me hp damage

- "don't make me break your heart" this is obviously referring to the tattoo and her emotional state, but i think it ties into the tattoo manipulating the subject -> "i could feel the words in my chest"

- Madam E throws out the idea that ink5oul is stealing tattoo concepts from dead bodies, but i dont think thats the exact case. i think that bodies like the one found in ep 11 feed into ink5oul's power and creativity as inspiration and likely as a paranormal energy source of some kind, but this seems more akin to them studying the works of old important artists (and alchemists) and using those techniques to create their art

- ink5oul responds with a callout video targeting Madam E, and i suspect it was about her accusing them of stealing art, not about the grave robbing (which seems a bigger insult to me)

- "it hurts/ i can feel it" referencing the hate messages she's receiving while touching her heart. she then leans forward to show the camera you can physically see a difference (im assuming her tattoo was altered in some way)

- Madam E posted and recalled a video titled "help", then posts a video from a hospital bed where she is clearly ill, stating she has heart problems. the doctors said it was an infection from the tattoo

- she dies on-screen after coughing and choking, but theres a slushie cracking sound as she flatlined (what i'de call wet gore not dry gore) which indicates a problem messier and more visceral than regular heart issues

glitches/lies:

none

extra comments:

- as expected, ink5oul is going to be a reoccurring character functioning similar to a tma avatar. i don't think ink5oul is an external since they seem to be moving independently with their own agenda (and its clear they don't play well with others)

- there seems to be a rift forming between gwen and the rest of her coworkers, and she's been reacting hostile to both them and lena, but has been adamant about continuing her work with the externals. isolating herself from the others while conducting her own missions is a plotline johhny and alex explored plenty in tma (jon, basira, martin) so im excited to see how her journey branches from the themes they've already explored

- this incident falls into line with others chester has narrated, it deals with a person who sought out a relationship with the paranormal and got hurt because of it, though this seems to be targeted at alice moreso than sam (the person chester has narrated to the most), sending a message about how entanglement with the paranormal often leads to bad things. i also picked up on how Madam E says that comments, likes, and views specifically cause her harm, that her social reward had turned into a punishment. this is a pretty clear parallel to alice's situation with sam and celia (she's loosing her hold as the nonchalant, uncaring, funny girl and falling into more awkward and upsetting situations -> this episode she makes one half hearted joke about the victim she met before she moves on)

- huge shout out to ajn for the meta parallels in this episode. every time Madam E was hurt by a commebt i was also brutally stabbed by her garish use of slang. with every new sentence she spoke i felt hours of my lifespan dissolve, truly incredible writing in terms of twisting the meta knife and pouring lemon juice into it

- i think this falls into the category of 'body' (going off of the alchemic trinity of mind, body, and soul) but i could see an argument for any of these categories as well. in the episode, the incident is a category 1, but im not sure if these categories are a reference to the alchemic trinity, to externals, or other factors.

[scarhalo]

Thoughts on the Enrichment Applicability Assessment

TMAGP EP 9 SPOILERS AHEAD

UPDATE: The TMAGP notion board on my pinned post has now been updated for ep. 9! Go check it out :) OOOOH BOY now this is exciting stuff. So the Magnus Institue, or whoever was routing through their files (this could be a whole other tangent...starkwall anyone?) was running artifact studies... and we have very little information about it. As of yet, this is what we know about the classifications of the cursed dice from this episode:

"Viability as subject – none Viability as agent – low Viability as catalyst – medium."

Recommend referral to Catalytics for Enrichment Applicability Assessment.

Here is my running theory...

Alchemical theory of artifact classification A subject is pretty straight forward, it is the base material on which alchemical operations are performed. Agent and catalyst, however, stood out to me specifically for being similar chemical terms, with one key difference. A catalyst is always an agent but not all agents are catalysts. An agent is a substance/compound that facilitates a chemical reaction. A catalyst is a substance/compound that increases the rate of a reaction, and is not typically consumed in said reaction. This leads me to believe these artifacts were being studied for the purpose of being used as ritualistic vessels or weapons. An agent could aid in a ritual, but does not have the power to efficiently carry one out. A catalyst on the other hand could very well be the key player in a ritual.

In the context of the dice, it would make sense for them not to be a subject. They seem to be conducting and changing the world around them, not so much acting as a vessel (for example, I believe the web table in TMA used to bind the NotThem would be a pretty good subject, as it actively had actions performed unto it rather than it interacting with the world). Furthermore, the dice would work as an agent, as they can take a supportive role. But due to them being, you know... unpredictable, it would be difficult for them to take a facilitation role. A catalyst however, is much more likely since the dice are event initiators.

Now onto the catalytic enrichment applicability assessment Enrichment studies are done on living beings, in which the researchers hypothesize adding something will change the subjects behavior. What could they possibly add to change the behavior of the dice? I believe they are (were, when they had them) actively feeding the dice. ANYWAYS; currently wondering where the dice are. Now that we know these studies were happening, where did the artifacts go when the place burnt down? They must have been taken and relocated or scattered. Maybe the OIAR has them...

[trans-jon-rights]

PROTOCOL SEASON FINALE LET'S GOOOOOOO

Spoilers for TMAGP #30

You really should check, Sam. Really, answer your phone.

"Christ, I hope not. I do not feel up to an apocalyptic conflict right now." Sam, you have no idea what's happened to the Other Guy.

"(they’re not paid enough for this)" what a mood

COLIN ????? WHAT DID YOU MESS UP WITH FREDDY COLIN

That goodbye sounded very worrying, Colin

Oh God Gwen you're in trouble

What else is on the line Lena ? WHAT ELSE

Is Lena FIRED ?? Is she QUITTING ???

"Call it a hunch" Celia you're scaring me. Are you recognising the place ?

"We want your teeth." Wait. Is this place full of remnant things from the Eyepocalypse ? Because honestly, that sounds too specific to not be obviously Flesh. I can see a Fkesh domain being like this. And besides, hadn't Celia mentioned meat in episode 7 when she was asking Alice about searching ? If everything seems abandoned, and since Celia clearly knows the place, could it be that a good part of the Fears arriving could have been there, and that the epicentre be affected in this way ? Idk I'm just theorising as I go along.

Why something specifically with a 'door', Celia ? Any spooky experience with doors to share with the class ?

I love how the taxi driver is just like "fifty quids ? I'll spill out everything."

Love the Custodian, he's seen so much shit he's done. I hope he lives.

OH SHIT THEY'RE HERE

"Is this place a wound that never fully heals?" this line rocks

"a half-melted tooth" couldn't that be staright out of that carriage Magnus found ?

The shop that opened for the drunkard seems like something out of the Desolation.

Emaciated people who arrived, though... Well, we all remember Darrien.

Also, I have to say, we have confirmation this comes from before 1999, coming from before 1997. When was the Institute's project's started already ?

Mannequins you say ? Living mannequins ?

That sound design is absolutely great but holy shit what happened to him

The basement of Hilltop is a bad idea, Celia. Just saying.

They found it. They found the crack. Holy shit.

Balance. It always comes to that, doesn't it.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Celia what the fuck. Celia no. Don't, please. No.

Holy shit the Statement.

I think I'm gonna have a heart attack.

Oh Gwen you're in trouble.

THE MAGNUS PROTOCOL IS A PODCAST DISTRIBUTED BY RUSTY QUILL AND LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTIONS NON COMMERCIAL 4.0 INTERNATIONAL LICENSE HOOOOOLY SHIIIT

[hikaaa-bi]

okay so i didn't have the time to listen to the newest episode until just now. so here are my thoughts:

first off. i love lena. i love her. i adore her. that's it.

no, that's not it. i'm glad she put gwen in her place.

i like gwen, i think she's an interesting character. but i can't bring myself to feel bad for her. girl YOU chose this job and you acted so tough, blackmailing lena and acting like you could do her job better. you deserve this, sorry.

the cases are getting interesting. is it just me or does tmagp seem to be adding more instances of sci-fi horror rather than just regular/cosmic horror like tma? i think it's really intriguing, there's a lot of horror potential in sci-fi.

i knew sam and alice would get into a fight but i didn't think it would be this soon. i can definitely understand both of their arguments. alice is trying to help sam but it's not a very good look when she's intruding his privacy and messing with his stuff.

i know everyone is losing their minds over hearing jon and martin's names but i'm just wondering why those two specifically?

it makes sense for celia to find information about jon, since he played an important role in the tma universe, ending the world and then seemingly saving the world and all that.

but why martin? if there were two names that stood out, i would think it's jon and elias/jonah. unless celia didn't get any new information, she's just remembering meeting jon and martin back in the tmaverse.

interesting episode overall but i hope the name drop actually has a point, and isn't just fanservice.

[kisskisskisskisskisskisskisskiss]

No:

We know that the Magnus institute exists in this world, implying that the entities, specifically the watcher, have existed in this world at least since Jonah Magnus was young. So unless they also traveled through time when they went into a new dimension in TMA that doesn't really make sense.

Yes:

That's definitely Jon and Martin in the computer, and how else would they have gotten there? Also it makes sense narratively.

Both:

There were entities already and then new entities traveled there so now it's double trouble.

[witchinatree]

making a list of my favorite quote/ones that stuck with me from each season 1 episode because i feel like it

(i'm starting this after episode 4 but it will be a WHILE before i post it)

episode 1: "bones are a lie peddled by Big Milk" - alice

i love this one because it's a great introduction to alice i think. also it radiates spiral so i hope we get avatar alice not dead alice (isnt there a podcast called alice isnt dead?)

episode 2: "If I wanted to clear the canvas, I would have used turpentine." - statement

this one was just fucking powerful and caught me so off guard like 😶

episode 3: "What would I do without her?" - statement

the norris statement <3 it feels like martin asking what he would do without jon which makes mag200 a lot sadder and i love them

episode 4: "Perhaps you shall prove a stronger will than I, and will yet find it within yourself to destroy this hungry thing of wood and cat-gut." - statement

augustus sighting #1 and we immediately get jonah magnus expressing that it may be possible for gwen bouchard unknown family member to overcome the eye's hunger spooky violin

episode 5: "Voyeur needs to be seen to be believed." - statement

i feel like this one is pretty reflective of how the seasons gonna go? like if you explain the events of tma (mag200 specifically) no one's gonna believe you, it must be seen to be believed!! and also seen!! like the eye!!!

episode 6: "Not sca- This isn’t some poxy blood test, some little pinprick, this is hundreds, thousands of razor sharp points pushing into your flesh." - needles

i love needles so much and i thought this was really funny because it was like "you dont find me scary!! what the fuck!!!" just kind of toddler michael energy

episode 7: "It’s not like we’re wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." - celia

STOP IT. celia you can't say that you just cannot!!!!!! you Know™ too much maam i cant with you

episode 8: "Pleasure to meet you both. I’m Gerry!"

RAGHHHHH OH MY GOD GERRY!!!! i love him so much and idk how to handle him being alive in the tmagp universe!! gertrude too but idk we got so much of her in tma and not nearly enough of gerry

episode 9: "And honestly, it’s kind of compelling by this point." - sam

they got him 😔😔 the horrors got sam 😔😔 also i found this to be an interesting contrast to jon's heavy resistance in season 1 like he was being compelled but he wasn't going to let anyone know that vs sam "its kinda compelling to trauma dump on this paperwork :]" how is he somehow even more victim material

episode 10: "Gosh you’re sexy, here’s a twenty for your trouble.” - alice

does this count as a quote if shes also quoting what she thinks sam should say? idk anyway i love her i would say that to her if given the chance and it was very silly. i will not be addressing bonzo i am scared.

episode 11: "...Thank you, Alice" - gwen

dyhard dyhard dyhard dyhard dyhard. okay also, the way she CRUMBLED at the idea of anyone doing anything nice for her please someone give her a hug and let it be ME. this series is tossing me back and forth between sam & alice (what is their ship name) and dyhard but this put me back to dyhard

episode 12: "You know it's rude to have absolutely no game?" - alice

she's so fucking funny i need her to be okay so badly!!!! i don't think even tim made me laugh as much as she makes me chuckle and this one really got me. it's hard to write such a comedic character in a podcast since you only have the voice but they really nailed it i adore her

episode 13: "Is it my fault?" - gwen

each of these episodes just reveal a little bit more about how loving and soft gwen is and idk i love her so unbelievably much so seeing that she felt guilt about the bonzo stuff just made her so much more real :(

episode 14: "Christ, they’re in the walls…" - statement

theyre in the walls!!! theyre in the goddamn walls!!!!! anyway that got me because i realized the hole before the statement said it. made more sad than scared tbh

episode 15: "Babies are cool!" - alice this entire interaction between her and sam & celia was so awkward, she is so obvious and i love her anyway

episode 16: "It’s not like I was holding doors open for Mr Bonzo or anything." - gwen my wife is so so so stupid but i adore her AND this gives room for character development. i wish she did not do that though. i love when characters are flawed and have depth but i struggled to get past THIS flaw of hers

episode 17: "Thanks, I guess. Not exactly the same, though, is it?" - celia shes talking TO JON IN THE COMPUTER. SHE KNOWS. i lost my damn mind i love her i love her. get the gay people out of the puter please queen

episode 18: "Why would I need to talk to you? Your work is satisfactory. Unless you have a work-related issue I could assist you with?" - lena solidified my opinion that lena is the best boss to ever have, i adore her and i would want to work for her if she wasn't the boss of Creepy Establishment #1

episode 19: "You’re going to throw it in the fishtank, aren’t you?" - alice colin's behavior is like really worrying BUT i'm glad he's back. i was not convinced he was still alive

episode 20: "I suppose it’s too late for remorse, isn’t it? And why should I be sorry? This is what I deserve!" - ink5oul/statement they reminded me of jon a lot, like especially his season 3/4 transformation when he doesn't quite know everything but he knows he isn't who he was in season 1 anymore, i hope we see more of their life and they can be helped :(

episode 21: [Tape Recorder Bites Ink5oul] - audio description i know it's not technically a quote but this is just so fucking funny. why does it have teeth. what does this mean for the lore. holy shit.

episode 22: "Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood" - celia. knawing at the walls of my enclosure i am so not okay. i'm not okay. wtf. wtf. wtf. they're real. wtf.

episode 23: "I had a favorite mug. It said “love you, bitch” and had a picture of a drunk dog on it." - alice. okay i just love this entire interaction because gwen got to open up a little bit and my dyhard heart is so full

episode 24: "I am told that children like me, and I’ve always held the opinion that the world would be a better place if everyone just thought more." - basira. once again this whole interaction was so fun but like idk i loved hearing basira somewhat happy and in a safe place :] my wife <3

episode 25: " I am trying to help, to save us from this goddamned fucking nightmare machine!" - colin. MAN I REALLY WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!!! I WAS SO CONFIDENT YOU WEREN'T GONNA DIE!!!! it's over

episode 26: "I was worrying for a moment that you were Magnussing." - alice. MAGNUSSING BEING CANON MADE ME SAY IT EVEN MORE I'VE SAID IT LIKE TWICE ALREADY

episode 27: "You didn’t tell me the room was labelled, “Archivist.”" - celia. oooooh somebody's got TRAUMAAAAA LMAO

episode 28: "So you’re telling me you know nothing about an OIAR external contract being found with the bodies of two tattooed thugs who met rather grisly ends?" - TREVOR HERBERT???? anyway. ink5oul mention!!!!! i hope they stop killing people it's really rude

episode 29: "Alice, er… we’ve got to talk. It’s important." - teddy. i knew it was over for him but i didn't think it was gonna be THIS bad??? bye babe i guess??? 😭

episode 30: how do i even pick. the whole fucking episode. i can't. i am in a state of shock. i need to lay down for 30 years.