#statement 0132806

[thepumpkinwolf]

[Image Description Start: Multiple traditional sketch drawings based on The Magnus Archives.

Image 1: The book Ex Altiora, open to two pages showing crackling lightning and a night sky with mountains. There is text reading "Ex Altiora" with sparkles around it.

Image 2: A shiny, mechanical, anatomically correct human heart with the name "Alan" written on it inside of a trashbag. A burnt strip of paper reading "found him" ties the bag shut, and around the trash bag lie two teeth and a doll's head with no hair.

Image 3: A candle surrounded either by stalagmites and stalactites or a lot of melted wax. The smoke from the candle forms the words, in wispy cursive, "take her not me."

End Image Description.]

3 more of the patch ideas for my jacket.

Season 1 has so many good episodes, I mean it’s a no brainer that the one with Ex Altiora is. But I have a special place in my heart for the confusion of an episode that Thrown Away was/is.

perhaps clichéd but I love Lost Johns’ Cave alot it’s still one of only like three episodes that actually gives me the chills even relisting to it. I hate caving and Cave diving it was just a bad combo for me. It makes me happy even though the Buried don’t get that much attention, it does at least still have some banger episodes.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

[sisislair]

Decided that I will be liveblogging my experience with listening to the Magnus Archives. I have a general sense of who charachters are and some of the major spoilerish plot points due to going through the tags on Tumblr recently as well as reading some fics, but I'm pretty in the dark as far as the specifics go.

But yeah I listened to the first seven episodes last night! Thoughts as I was listening are under the cut.

Ep 1 - Angler Fish

Jonathon Sims, new head archivist for the Magnus institute(supernatural research place). Employed by Elias bouchard, head of the institute, to replace Gertrude Robinson, recently dead. Jon has worked here as a researcher for 4 years now. Jon is a skeptic. If an investigation has gone as far as possible without conclusion or new leads, it is transferred to the archives. Institute founded in 1818. Archive is terribly organized. 86-91G/H. Very few investigations actually seem to be stored down here, only the original statements. Three research assistants. One named Martin who he finds useless. Other two are Tim and Sasha. Some of the statements cannot be recorded digitally, can only be recorded with a tape recorder. Additional information about the followups is being provided by his assistants. Nathan Watts. Case #0122204. Old fishmarket close, Edinburgh. April 21st, 2012. Institute is in London. Fear of strangers. 6 disappearences Jessica Mcuin November 2005, Sarah Baldwin August 2006, Daniel Rawlins December 2006, Ashley Dobson and Megan Shure May and June 2008, John Fellows March 2010.

Ep 2 - Do not Open

Case #9982211. Joshua Gellespie. November 22nd, 1998. Bournemouth, that's where Jon was born. Fear of strangers. Fear/desire for the truth. Fear of death/being buried alive looks to be the main one. Most clever horror movies protagonist ever. Breacon and hope delivery company. Operated until 2009. Based on Nottingham far north of Bournemouth. Gellespie was the only person to live in that building for the two years he had the coffin. Nobody ever moved in after either. 2 years alone.

Ep 3- Across the Street

Case #0070107. Amy Patel. July 1st 2007. Disappearence of aquaitence Graham Forger. Voyeuristic tendencies from her. The spiral/madness? She watched him ceaselessy. Which hmmm. April 7th. Not Graham. Now being watched in return. Watching seems to be a central theme.

Ep 4- Page Turner

Case#0132806. Dominic Swain. June 28, 2013. Nottingham. Ex alte arua. From higher, from out of the heights. The vast. Jorgun Leitner. Mountains, cliffs. Fear of the sky. Vertigo. Key of Solomon. McGregor Matthew and jorun Leitner. Bought by GRbookworm. Gertrude Robinson? Jorgun leitner reclusive book collector. Had the book made possibly? Pinhole books, Mary keys. Ozone. Mary keys clean shaven with lots of tattooed words, listens to death metal. Her Jared? Painting of an eye. Grant is the sight that we may not know. Grant is the scent that we may not catch. Grant is the sound that we may not call. Jared made the painting. Bones fell out of the shadows of the other book. The dark for her bookshop? Lichtenburg figure in the starry vertigo sky. Childhood friend was struck by lightning because of him. Micheal Crew. Survived. Leather coat, dyed black hair. Jared Key. Had to be bought in order to give it away. Mary keys was murdered in 2008. Overdose of painkillers, extensive post motrum body mutilation. The flesh? Looked the same as the person he met. Her skin was hung up to dry. But with hair and tattoos. Jared charged with his mother's murder, but acquitted. Jared burned the book. 1994 incident related to leitner's library. Current project. His library is a problem. Mary's drying skin had been written on in permanent marker. The tattoos! The same language as the bone book. Jon will try to persuade Elias to make searching for the rest of leitner's books a top priority. They've done enough harm.

Ep 5- Thrown Away

Case #0092302. Kieran Woodward. 93 Lancaster Road Walthamstowe. February 23rd, 2009. Hundred of dollheads. David Attire, Matthew Wilkinson, Alan Parfett. The doll house. Next bag, a single super long piece of paper with the Lords prayer written over and over again in Latin. Ritual. Next bag absolutely filled with teeth. Residents had no idea. Alan found someone. Maybe the person leaving the bags. New bag. Packing peanuts. Metal heart of Alan inside. Saresh and Altman were the police who investigated. The teeth were all the same tooth. Needing to know the truth. Not entirely sure what this one is. Corruption or rot possibly?

Ep 6- Squirm

Case #0140912. Timothy Hodge. The dogstar pub/club. Skinny, student, long henna red hair, tron tights, too much eyeliner. Writhe. Her name is Harriet Lee. Arm scratching. Only water. Art student. Panic, difficulty with adjusting to student life. Recently mugged? Archway, Elfthorn row. Woman with long red dress on ground, which squirmed. Long matted black hair. Felt like she was stabbed. Being followed by her. Dragged down by a weight, skin itching plus vomited near the police station. They had sex, but after. Something squirmed inside her skin. She split open. Writhing worms everywhere. He burned down the flat afterwards. Description of red dress woman matches Jane Prentiss, which is concerning. Hodge was probably wormed during sex. Most definitely corruption.

Ep 7- the Piper

Case #9220611. Staff Sargeant Clarence Berry. Wilfred Owen. War. Poems. The trenchs. Wanting to fully describe the war but unable to. But don't worry. You will. Whistling tune. The whistle of artillery. Reborn in the remnants of his own gore. He met the war. The Piper. Avatar of the war? He said that he was left alive to do the wars work. Joseph rainers tags were found next to him. All who here the Piper never make it back. Hamlin was nearby. Are we the stolen children or the rats driven into the river. His poems now had the essence of the war. The ferocity within him...the war is almost over, and he is sad for it. He died when peace was signed. 1922.

Thoroughly enjoying this so far! But will definitely have to space out listening to it due to the spookiness levels.

[magnus-archives-timeline]

Mag 4: Pageturner

Mentioned Characters:

Jonathan Sims: Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Bournemouth is his hometown.

Dominic Swaine: Theatre technician in the West End, deals with lighting mostly.

Katherine Mendes: Ex-girlfriend of Mr Swaine. Worked as an actress in a representation of a Trojan woman and now working on the play The Seagull.

Jurgen Leitner: A man with a library that published Ex-Altiora and owned Key of Solomons 1863. According to Jonathan Sims, he is a dangerous individual. He is described as a big name in the literary scene in the 1990s. A rich Scandinavian recluse paying absurd amounts of money for books he fancied. He dropped around public view around 1995.

MacGregor Mathers: Owned a book called Key of Solomons 1863 which he sold on eBay in 2007.

Mary Keay: Owned Pinhole Books in Maldon. A very old and thin woman with a clean-shaven head. Every square inch of her skin is tattooed over in an unintelligible script. She has a Leitner book of her own which has lots of bones in it. She got murdered in 2008.

Gerard Keay: Son of Mary Keay who painted the eye in her office and keeps an eye out for the Leitner books. He has a long dark leather coat, artificially dyed black hair and the unshaven look of someone who hasn't slept in a while. Accused of murdering his mother in 2008.

Michael Crew: Mr Swaine's friend who got hit by lightning when they were playing during a storm at 8 years old. He has Lichtenberg figures on his body.

***

Mentioned objects:

Ex Altiora: A 100-150-year-old book bound in real leather with slightly uneven pages. Its title means "From the hights" or "Out of the hights". Written entirely in Latin and no author is listed but there is a plaque at the front that reads "From the library of Jurgen Leitner". It has several black and white, woodcut illustrations about a dozen. Most are mountains and cliffs, one is of a night sky and another of a tower looming over the countryside at an odd angle with small birds.

Key of Solomons, 1863: Sold on eBay in 2007 for just over £1200 by a deactivated user called grBookworm1818. Owned by Jurgen Leitner and MacGregor Mathers.

Untitled book: Mary Keay's book, written in Sanscript, has a bunch of warped animal bones in it for some reason. They fall out when the book is passed through the shadows.

Papers, fishing wire and a safety razor: The contents of Mary Keay's desk.

Painting of an eye: Very detailed, almost photorealistic on a wall in Mary Keay's study which Gerard painted. The more you look at it the more you see the patterns and symmetries that form the image in it. Written beneath it was a text: "Grant us the sight that we may not know, grant us the scent that we may not catch, Grant us the sound that we may not call."

News article from 2008: About Mary Keay's murder. She'd been laying dead in the study because of an overdose but had extensive post-mortem mutilation of her body so it was judged a murder. Her skin had been cut up and hung around the room on fishing wire. In the photograph, she had hair and no tattoos. Gerard was acquitted from the trial for her death after a piece of evidence made it seem inadmissible.

Incident in 1994: Something happened involving Leitner's library.

Case number: 0132806

Date of Original Statement: June 28th, 2013

Date of event: Saturday the 10th of November 2012

Location:

Nottinghill Gate, charity shop

Pinhole Books, Morden

What happened:

Mr Swaine found an old book that looked expensive in a Charity shop in Nottinghill Gate. Since it looked like it was worth a lot more than what it was being sold for, he decided to buy and resell it.

One of the pictures, of an empty night sky, felt odd to him but he still bought it.

He went to the play, which didn't impress him much, and got distracted by the smell of ozone, which makes him think that one of the stage lights must be about to burn. He shows her the book and she looks impressed but the pictures trigger her vertigo.

He sits to have a look at it later that night. The picture of the sky scared him somehow, making him feel like he was about to fall into it. Even though it was just a picture of black ink and a few stylized stars. He does some research and doesn't find much. He finds a listing on eBay from 2007 titled: Key of Solomon, 1863 owned by MacGregor Mathers and Jurgen Leitner, the book got sold for £1200. He then decides to go to bed and has a nightmare but doesn't remember.

He contacts book dealers and asks around for information about it and gets told more about Leitner. The dealer gives him the address of Pinhole Books in Maldon. He went to do his show but kept smelling ozone plus something he couldn't identify without feeling dizzy and nauseous, and he couldn't stop thinking about the book.

He went for a walk and ended up in front of Pinhole Books at 2 o'clock in the morning without understanding how. Mary Keay opened the door, death metal blasting out behind her. He showed her the book and they go inside. Her house was like a labyrinth, cramped with books. She said she hadn't found a Leitner in a long time even though her Gerard kept an eye out."

In her study, Mr Swaine took in the stuff on her desk and the eye painting before she offered him a cup of tea which he didn't drink. After holding the book in the shadows for a second and handing it to Mr Swaine, small animal bones started falling out of it again and again until a pile of bones stood at his feet.

He looked at the Ex-altiora book again and the night sky woodcut changed, a pattern of a Lichtenberg figure reaching down the middle. A childhood memory of his friend getting hit by lightning because of him resurfaced in his mind and he ran away.

He laid on his sofa until Gerard Keay knocked on his door, and asked to see the book. Gerard offered to buy the book for £5000 pounds which Mr Swaine readily accepts. While going to get the money, Mr Swaine finds out about Mary Keay's murder in 2008. Gerard Keay then set the book on fire in a bin. Saying his mother doesn't always know what's best for their family. He also touched fiery ash and said he'd had worse, before walking out and never being seen again.

After “Statement ends”:

Jurgen Leitner isn't a good name to hear according to Jonathan Sims.

Gertrude should have added this statement to the project file Grumble grumble

We should be alarmed that some unaccounted Leitners are out there

Jurgen Leinter has done the world enough harm

Evidence:

Martin couldn't find any matches to the name Ex-Altiora anywhere and Sasha double-checked.

Donation records are all anonymous

Unable to locate Gerard Keay

The drying sheets of Mary Keay's skin had been written over in Sanskript

Information that seems important:

Mr Leitner seems like an interesting character. Evil book collector isn't a usual title for a villain haha

My favourite quote out of the Episode: “Martin couldn’t find any records of Ex Altiora (...), so I assigned Sasha to double-check.”

Personal notes:

I stan a bold granny that listens to metal, even if her books are full of bones for some reason xDD

The Gerard guy seems sooo cool was the thought I had until I heard he might have murdered his mom and gotten away with it haha

Or maybe not, she might still be alive in spirit form or something?

Mr Sims is so mean to Martin ><

<Mag 3

[alchemistoftheend]

Pageturner (Case #0132806)

Pre-Statement

Statement of Dominic Swain, regarding a book briefly in his possession in the winter of 2012.

Original statement given June 28, 2013

Date of Event: November 10, 2012

Statement

Dominic found a book bound in (maybe) leather with the title Ex Altiora on the spine in faded gold letters

Seems old and likely handbound

From the library of Jurgen Leitner

“several black and white illustrations – woodcuts I think – each showing a mountain or a cliff or in one picture what appeared to be an empty night sky”

“I felt an odd sensation when I looked at that image as though, simple as it was, I was about to fall into it”

He’s in the theatre and smelling ozone but cannot pinpoint the source

There are about 12 illustrations

mostly mountains and cliffs

one appeared to be a tower, looming over the surrounding countryside at an odd angle, with tiny birds just visible circling the summit

One was an empty sky; few stylised stars

“I just couldn’t look at it for too long. It seemed to open forever, nothing to do but fall into it”

The music is also getting a lot more intense as he discusses the woodcuts

Latin fell out of favour as a language for academic texts in the 18th Century. Since then it has only really used for religious texts but the book certainly didn’t look like it was full of prayers. (Again this felt important 🤔)

The only relavant information online was a listing on EBay

titled “Key of Solomon 1863 owned by MacGregor Mathers and Jurgen Leitner”

won by deactivated user grbookworm1818

Leitner had been a big name during the 1990s; a Scandinavian recluse whoc custom bound or paided authors write books for him

He dropped from public view around ‘95, but he used to have extensive dealings with Pinhole Books, and gave me the details for Mary Keay, who owned it.

More dizziness and that ozone smell

Mrs. Keay is a very old, thin woman with a clean shaven head, complete covered in tattoos of some script

A son named Gerard Keay who’s often looking for Leitner books

On Mary’s desk was old papers, fishing wires, safety razors, and a picture of an eye

Incredibly detailed, almost photo realistic, with patterns and symmetries that formed into a single image

Written below it were three lines, in fine green calligraphy: “Grant us the sight that we may not know. Grant us the scent that we may not catch. Grant us the sound that we may not call.”

Gerard made the painting

Mary’s Leitner book was written in Sanskrit

did this book just summon a pile of BONES😨

The books change when they pass through shadows

“The woodcuts were starker, somehow, and in the background of each there were new lines, thick and dark, stretching down from the sky. And then I came to the picture of that empty night, but now it had a stark, branching pattern carving through it. A pattern I recognized”

The pattern is known as the Lichtenberg figure. It shows the diverging paths of electricity on an insulating material

He saw those patterns on the back of his childhood friend, Micheal Crew, who had been struck by lightning because of him.

powerful ozone smell, cut through with the scent of cooking meat

Gerard Keay is at this man’s house

a man in a long, dark leather coat. His hair was dyed an artificial black, and he had the unshaven look of someone who hadn’t slept in a couple of days

Mary Keay died in 2008 due to a supposed overdose, but it was judged a murder due to “extensive post-mortem mutilation”

Large pieces of her skin had been peeled away, and hung up to dry on fishing wire, all around the room 😧

Gerard was tried, but some kind of in inadmissible evidence was found clearing him

just casually set this man’s trash on fire 😐

The ozone smell did stop though

Post-Statement/Thoughts

Leitner was already a case in the Magnus Institute

There was some kind of incident with his library in 1994

all the books from Leitner’s library have been custom editions of known texts on dæmonology or the arcane

The skin that was hanging had Sanskrit written over them in permanent marker

John has distain for Leitner that u can hear in this voice

Apparently Ex Altiora translates to “from higher things or from higher goals”

I like to believe this could be in relation to a god/deity of some kind

in one picture what appeared to be an empty night sky/I felt an odd sensation when I looked at that image as though, simple as it was, I was about to fall into it”

When I tell u that this is the MOST BLATANT DESCRIPTION of the The Vast that I’ve ever heard I mean it 😤

Betting money on that 💰

“Key of Solomon 1863 owned by MacGregor Mathers and Jurgen Leitner”

King Solomon was a figure from the known for his wisdom and wealth and son of David and Bathsheba

His epithet was “Solomon the Wise”

He also built the first temple in Jerusalem

This temple might match the description of the tower in the woodcut

It mentions toward the “end” of his story that in Solomon’s later years he departed from the worship of god and adopt other idolatries

won by deactivated user grbookworm1818

GR alsolutely stands for Gertrude Robinson

The Institute was founded in 1818

And I assume a bookworm would be interested in reading through archived statement or maybe she just likes books

There was an “Incident of ‘94” and Leitner seems to have fallen out of the public zeitgeist in 1995

Gerald and Mary Keay??? Maybe they were resurrected or cheated death or faked their death i really don’t know however when taking about Mary, Sanskrit keeps coming up

The Eye painting obvious has something to do with the entity but I’m gonna focus on the caption

Grant us the sight that we may not know. Grant us the scent that we may not catch. Grant us the sound that we may not call.”

Someone (presumably Gerard Keay since he made the painting) is asking or making a plea to a god, let’s say The Eye for the sights, scents, and sounds that they cannot perceive

The Eye itself, I assume is an omniscient god but as I type this I wonder what god could not have omniscient and still be considered as such

Also what about taste and touch, omniscient means all-knowing so why have those two been left out

I don’t know how’d you portray that in an audio but my point still stands

Finally, when Dominic passed his book through the shadows he describes how the image of the woodcut got starker with now visible Lichtenberg patterns

Dominic recognized these patterns bc of an incident with his friend Micheal Crew, who was struck by lightning and now has scars across his body with this exact pattern

The book is absolutely associated with The Vast but the Lightning imagery is also associated with him so I don’t actually know what this means but I’m sure there’s a connection somewhere that I can’t articulate

Also adding that lighting is associated with the sky

[thepumpkinwolf]

[Image Description Start:

Three screenshots of The Magnus Archives transcripts.

The first reads: "And in the end it just became yet another part of my routine. I lived like that for almost a year and a half. It's funny how fear can become as routine as hunger – at a certain point I just accepted it."

The second reads: "It was strange, I'll admit it. But I just couldn't stop myself."

The third reads: "There was something about this, beyond anything else I'd encountered, that... I don't know. It drew me in almost as much as it disgusted me."

End Image Description.]

mag 2 - mag 3 - mag 4

On fear

[jamiekb]

Listening to TMA for the first time (Part IV)

Part I II III

41- 46

#41 Too Deep: damn I didn’t think John could get worse but I don’t blame him. Those tunnels don’t help and I still have my theory that they might connect to some rooms/fenomena described in other episodes. Also cool change to the format, getting John's perspective and feelings on the whole story is gonna be interesting, wonder if the others will do something similar. I would like to at least listen to Martin do the same. Oh and is whatever spoke to him the same that took that hiker/sister?

#42 Grifter's Bone: that is actually a really cool name for a band. So like a siren that incites violence. The descriptions of the characters are very peculiar, thin as bone and with coats. Also I do wonder what Martin is hiding, could be something unexpected.

#43 Section 31: oooooh that’s pretty cool to know about the police work into the supernatural. More on the side that there are things to connect to statements from the institute like the arson victims from the hospital (if I understood which case it was) and I’m sure that spider husks things and the guy that shot himself will come up later on. Oh and the comment about clown dolls, caught me off guard. In the meantime it’ll be interesting to hear about this tapes that Gertrude apparently left behind.

#44 Tightrope: is that actually Gertrude?? Yes it is interesting. Is this gonna be related to the grandpa and weird instrument? Yes it is, nice. Ok now I have actually listen to it. It is interesting that Gertrude just knows about the circus. She know how dangerous they are, how they work and even remarks that they got off easy. Hopefully we’ll learn more about later on.

#45 Blood Bag: don’t like that, more bugs ugh. Again the visuals that the show is able to convey are incredible. Never would have thought how much mosquitos just releasing blood into could be sooo creepy. So I’m guessing that it’s Not-Sasha who’s sneaking around John’s things? Sure we don’t know much about Tim at this point but he doesn’t particularly strike me as spy or something. Who knows, I’ve still got plenty of episodes ahead of me.

#46 Literary Heights: Ok so I thought it was related to the episode with the guy that bought the weird leather book but apparently it’s actually the episode about the librarian and the book he found. But the name of the book is familiar as are the woodcut things. There’s a lot of details that I’m vaguely familiar but just can’t get the picture together, the book, Michael Crew, the lightning scar and the smell of ozone. Also I can’t believe that we are gonna go back to bugs now, seems like not very subtle foreshadowing that spider eating the worm carcasses.

I'll just go back to the details and try to make sense of that episode that way, so:

• Episode 4 Pageturner: case #0132806. The book Ex Altiora is mentioned. And I believe this is the first time that the library of Jurgen Leitner is mentioned. It has odd woodcuts and gives the feeling of vertigo. There is also the mention of an object “Key of Solomon 1863 owned by McGregor Mathers and Jorgen Leitner”, I don’t think this is relevant yet but I want to make note of it. Ok now that looking through it again there are so many details. This does indeed have the smell of ozone associated with Keays, the drawing of an eye and a weird quote. Ah ok. So the lightning pattern (Lightenberg figure) is mentioned and gives us the “origins” of Michael Crew. And Gerard Keay, son of Mary whom he murdered, burns this book that had been given as an anonymous donation in 2012. Which is many years after the statement from episode 46.

So before moving onto the weird figure which I’m almost positive has showed up before I went back to episode 46, to bring back a few facts.

• Michael Crew was struck by lightning at age 8, received a Lightenberg scar. He’s been in possession of two books from the Jurgen Leitner library.

• He was first in possession of The Boneturner's Tale which he left in a library and involved a creature of flesh but sharp and unnatural. The second one was Ex Altiora that led to his supposed disappearance after jumping out of a window in the bell chamber of the local cathedral.

•John mentions that Mr Know didn’t mention the woodcut of the sky with the Lightenberg figure, however it is present many years after just before the book is destroyed. Since this is the second time that the sky just eats the people I’m gonna say they are somehow related. And furthermore that many of the woodcuts are actually places or images related to people that the book has killed?? eaten??? done something to them in any case.

•Jorgun Lietner is dangerous in some way, knows about tunnels and things that shouldn’t be possible. His books bring only tragedy and must be dealt with.

Maybe I could bring some more details together but it’s nearly 3am so I'll just leave it be before the witching hour. It really feels that they want me to bring together every single weird details from past episodes and form them into a coherent blob. Can’t wait for more!

[a-mag-a-day]

MAG 46 - apple cutting

"His name was Michael Crew, though he normally went by Mike" - Was there already a confusion in the fandom back then that Crew already got a nickname to make him distinguishable from Michael Distortion?

"Gottfried Leibniz" - I not E, Jonny! "Ei" in German is pronounced like the letter I. You're thinking of "ie" (like in "Gottfried"), that would sound like the letter E. You can do it in Leitner, why are the other names with "ei" a problem? xD (There was also one in MAG 23).

5:11 "He was able to pay five figures for a copy of a 1559 printing", rustling in the background at "for a"?

Ha, the Malleus Maleficarum… I spend a lot of time hunting down scans of the book only then to realize I mixed up the names of the books I needed (I was actually looking for the Compendium Maleficarum, oops XD)

After "the lightbulbs in my shop would burn brighter" a high-pitched whistling sound in the background starts and it slowly fades out again at "It was February when I got the Leitner book."

"Well, in January of this year, she passed away. Lost balance on the stairs and broke her neck." - Hm, lost balance… Did she experience vertigo perhaps?^^

Wow, during the whole segment of describing the tale of the Ex Altiora you can hear static!

Static again during the period of describing the woodcuts.

"I had bad dreams, as well. I don’t recall them with any clarity, but I’m rather sure they were dreams of falling." - The shitty small sibling of the Ex Altiora is responsible for dreaming of missing a step when almost asleep and therefore startling awake.

High-pitched whistling starts again at "The bulbs crackled and brightened" and stops again at "he was out into the rainy February afternoon."

"but I could make out the words “altiora,” “vertigo,” and “the vast.”" - This is the first time we explicitly hear the name of an entity as in Smirke's 14, right? Prentiss spoke of them too, but she didn't know about them exactly. She said "Webs have a song as well", not "The Web has a song as well". And Gerry used alternative names in MAG 12, Beholding and the Lightless Flame, but not the popular "The Something-Something" way Smirke described them.

At "and in front of him was a strange, branching figure." the whistling starts again with a descending tone while Mike was falling and all stops at "and I was alone in the dark." I don't know if I ever noticed this in any of my listens…

"with a cry of “I am yours,” he leapt through the open window, and – presumably – to his death." - The birth of a full-fledged Avatar right there.

19:56 "comparing his statement to that of Dominic Swain in 0132806", right after 6 thump again^^

"The book which Mr. Knox received did not seem to have a woodcut of the dark night sky, with the branching, arching design of the Lichtenberg figure." - Mike trapped the Spiral lightning monster in the book, right? It took me so long, to get this… I think this arc in general was quite confusing as to what belonged to the Vast and what to the Spiral since I still see a lot of depictions of lighting in artworks of the Vast. Then again, lightning is part of the sky and the sky is a typical domain of the Vast. One of those edges bleeding together I'd guess.

"I noticed the trapdoor appeared to have been disturbed. It was unlocked." - Jon, you are paranoid about the absolute right things!

"The only difference now is… all the spiderwebs. They seem to have spread down there. I think I saw some of the larger specimens actually eating the remains of the worms." - Well…

I used to be obsessed with Leibniz's monads idea, it was so cool

[tmisaccidentreportbook]

MAG004, Page Turner

Case #0132806, Dominic Swain Release date: 30 March 2016 First listen: 13th Oct 2020, still on the morning feed duty.

The first instance of Jonny picking on the theatre kids, the first mention of our Gerard, and the first time I heard the name ‘Leitner’.

- The theatre industry is just ripe for the taking for some of The Entities: the punishing scheduled, the costumes and make up, the sets, the props, the shadowy, dark, secret places of a theatre building, the fleetingness of a pay cheque, the faceless audiences, the politics, the aging out of roles... OK, at one point in season 5 I was jokingly indignant for Jonny ‘coming for the theatre kids’, but 1) I was reminded that Jonny himself is very much a theatre kid and 2) it’s kind of a gold mine to be fair.

- I’ve done a lot of amdram, and I am forever grateful to the theatre techs. They make us look and sound good and they stop flats and suspended lights from falling on us. So thank you, you sweet theatre ninjas. May the blackouts always be long enough for you to do your thing.

- Right, hang tight, I’m going to do a quick wiki dive on ‘The Trojan Women’. Post sacking of Troy, husbands dead, families enslaved. And… oh it’s a yikes fest friends. It’s just a laundry list of atrocities. Cassandra though, definitely a candidate for The Eye, the gift of prophecy, with a little The Spiral or The Web thrown in, no one ever believing her.

- Hey, look, I love history and I love messing with history. I lose my tiny mind at the historical references this show pulls on. I freaking love the ahistorical setting of Rusty Quill Gaming. I didn’t think I’d ever identify with Oscar Wilde but goddamnit Alexander! I will keep doing this, this being assigning historical figures to The Entities. Fight me.

- OK, ‘The Seagull’, Chekov- NOPE. Nope not diving into that, too much like hard work.

- Ah, charity shops. Love ‘em. Can find beloved treasures and the most cursed shit in the same visit.

- ‘From the Library of Jurgen Leitner.’ I think at this stage, I was still naive to who this rat bastard was but to this day my phone autocorrects ‘Leitner’ to ‘LEITNER’ as I have screamed about his dusty ass to dodgelogic just that many times. I have a deep love of books and library collections and everything he stands for offends me on a cellular level. If I am ever asked to prepare an monologue for an audition it’s either going to be the statement from MAG165 or the ‘I Hate Jurgen Leitner’ rant.

- There’s one thing I’ve learnt from Rusty Quill; Latin = Bad News. Magnus trailer, chanting in Latin = Bad News. Rusty Quill Gaming, Ancient Rome, Latin = Bad News. A Leitner written in Latin = Bad News. Look, I know a lot of us did the Cambridge Latin Course, yes, including the writers of that one Doctor Who episode, but Caecilius can’t save us now!

- The choice of ozone smell makes perfect sense but there is something terribly unnerving about it. Something so terribly out of place.

- OK, this has nothing to do with the plot but he mentions the show he’s doing is ‘Much Ado About Nohing’ which is quiet possibly my favourite Shakespeare. I refuse to go to my grave quietly before I’ve had the chance to play Beatrice.

- 2007, grbookworm1818… Ms Robinson… screaming

- Leitner active in the 1990’s, 1995 he dropped from public view. OK we’re getting a time line.

- I wonder if there’s any significance to the name ‘Pinhole Books’.

- ‘Walking felt as natural as falling’… my dude.

- Mary Keay. Mary Fucking Keay… See, when we first meet her, tattooed and blasting death metal, I thought she was awesome… yikes. ‘Her Gerard kept and eye out’. And, unfairly again, I formed an opinion. One of a glowering, hulking enforcer.

- Fishing wire and safety razor… huh?!

- The eye painting. "Grant us the sight that we may not know, grant us the scent that we may not catch, grant us the sound that we may not call’. Our Gerard, a very talented artist. Our Gerard deserved so much better, I love our boy.

- ‘Tea tasting of dust and smoke’. I am not as well versed in tea as I’d like to be, but I have had Lapsang souchong tea before. It felt very decadent for my tastes, who’s used to whatever tea bag I can justify paying for, but I really enjoyed it. Every time I hiccuped or burped for the rest of the day I could taste smoke. I felt like a dragon.

- Place book in shadows, get tiny woodland creature bones?

- The Lichtenberg figure, and the first mention of Michael Crew. The smell, the sensation of falling. Waiting for something. For impact.

- Gerard Keay. My son. The description the statement giver gives of him is not flattering; obviously dyed hair, unshaven and haggard. But, I’m sorry, I you had Mary Keay for a mother, you’d be losing sleep too. Any why is everyone so mean about his hair. Can someone just treat him please, take him to a specialist, get it done right?

- £5k for ‘Ex Altiora’, £1,200 for ‘The Key of Solomon’. Where are they getting this sort of money? I’ll have to ask mum about the last fine arts auction she worked, see what sort of money books were making.

- Would have given it away but feared it ‘wouldn’t count’. There’s something about ownership here,something about responsibility. Reminds me of the golems of Ankh-Morepork in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld buying themselves out of, well, slavery. With the passing of coin, no matter how much or little, something else intangible but vitally important also changes hands.

- This section of finding the news report of Gerard on trial for Mary’s murder painted my opinion of Gerard rather poorly. I thought he was some terrible, dangerous person, holding Mary captive somehow. God, I was so wrong.

- ‘If I never hear the name Jurgen Leitner again it will be too soon.’ Jooooon…. Jooooon whyyyyy….

- ‘Library Incident’ in 1994.

- Jon not trusting Martin’s research efforts, sending Sasha to double check. Rude.

- ‘Cause for some small alarm.’…. SMALL ALARM!?…. SIR! LEITNERS ON THE LOOSE ARE CAUSE FOR HEFFING BIG ALARM.

- Unable to locate Gerard Keay… soft weeping

- ‘Jurgen Leitner has done the world enough harm’. I mean… I agree whole heartedly, but, just see how that glass house treats you in 4 seasons’ time.

Supplemental: In looking for the ‘I Hate Jurgen Leitner’ video link, I found that there has been a dramatic reading in the style of The Archivist with a follow up statement taken post-brutal pipe murder included. Enjoy. 

Supplemental: dodgylogic has once again come through, a very dear friend who is at once my enabler and sponsor through this ridiculousness. But she had some insight into my question about the significance in the naming of Pinhole Books: 

‘A pinhole is how you make a Camera Obscura, a very early form of photography, which is also explicitly associated with The Eye. [x-files theme plays].’ - @dodgylogic 

[vastblueskies]

"Not a problem. Strong coffee, then."

"... Think I could read a statement when I get back, boss? Uh, Statement... uh... 0132806, I think it was. Doing some research for a friend."

@head-archivist-mag-institute

cont. from here

"Right! I know some good brands for that. If it's alright, maybe a sweet to balance it out? I know a few."

[lesvegas]

The Mojave Archives

Chapter 2: Oasis

(Ao3 link)

---

MOH2 – Case #0132806 – Evie

Statement regarding her discovery of a large body of water in the Arizona desert.

Chauncey broadcasts the story of a woman who, upon escaping slavery and fleeing into the desert, discovers an endless ocean.

Content Notes: Agoraphobia, heights, falling, dehydration, heat exhaustion, drowning, thalassophobia, mentions of slavery and murder.

He takes one last sip of mostly-clean water and exhales softly as he enters the metal trailer with tinny steps. He sets the empty bottle down on the corner of the rusted table at the far end by the door, and moves farther in to approach the station’s console. He glances over the buttons and switches and easily picks out one that, when moved up, starts playing the station’s broadcast.

       Smooth jazz emanates from a speaker, and he sighs in relief. The entire time he had lunch, there was this itching paranoia that he ended up putting in a different tape, possibly something annoying like industrial. Relaxing, he skimmed through the box of stories again to pick one out. He took out a file that didn’t look as old as some of the others, labelled only ‘Oasis’ on the folder. Opening it up, he skimmed over the file notes, and decided to go along with it as the song ended.

       He straightened up and approached the console to switch the playback off and to remove the tape before quickly sitting down again, taking a breath before turning the microphone on once more. “Good afternoon ladies, gents, and everybody else; this is Chauncey coming in live yet again from Lone Wolf Radio Station. Hope you had a good lunch despite the nauseating story before, because I’ve got another one for you already. And it was a bloatfly slider, thanks for asking.”

       He lifted the sheets again to skim over the notes once more. “This is another one about someone getting horribly lost, except it’s out in the desert instead of a casino, told by a lady named Evie. Let’s get started.”

 ***

 Evie is the only name I have, you don’t need a last name, do you? ...just making sure, the NCR seemed confused when I only had one name. I thought they would have understood that plenty of us only had the one name, or sometimes even no names at all. Well, I’m Evie, and I don’t know if I had another name before they gave me that one. The Legion, I mean. They… I was with them until I was… I want to say sixteen? Not old enough for any of them to… that doesn’t matter anymore, I’m sorry, I tend to ramble when I think about it. Even though it’s been almost three years now.

       I hope you can understand why I want to skip a lot of the details of how I got out. All that matters is that I did, all by myself. I had to, even if it meant killing someone, I… he deserved it, believe me. I already told that much to the NCR and they didn’t seem to mind, so I don’t know why any of you would.

       The point is, I got out. I left at night, and the only person who noticed me was a younger recruit that could barely handle the knife he had on him. It was a nice knife, actually, I was surprised they gave it to a recruit at all. I’d show it to you, but I lost it in the water.

       The water. That’s what I’m actually here to talk about, sorry.

       After I left the Fort, I ran in a random direction. I meant to head West, to cross the Colorado since I knew there would only be more Legionnaires out East, but I was panicking so much that I didn’t even really think about which way was East. The moon couldn’t help me either; it was up in the middle of the sky, and I couldn’t just wait around to watch and see which way it fell.

       It was cold. It was so, so cold, and I tried to run as much as I could to stay warm, but I think that only made things worse. I was already exhausted from working all day and couldn’t sleep before I made my escape, so after trying to run through the desert for a few hours, well… eventually, I passed out. I’m just surprised I didn’t die then and there.

       When I woke up, it was morning. Or afternoon. I wasn’t really sure, I tried to look up to see where the sun was, but it was like the whole sky was so… bright. Like the sun was lower than usual somehow. All I could do was look around at my surroundings, and at the horizon.

       I still remember what the landscape was like before. There were dunes scattered across the land, huge hills of dirt and sand that seemed to go on forever. But when I woke up, everything was suddenly flat. Featureless, too. There wasn’t a single dead bush or rock or cacti anywhere. It was nothing but dirt, sand, and sky.

       I had no idea where I was, or which way I was really going. All I really knew for sure was which direction I’d been running toward when I collapsed, so I just kept going. I figured if I kept going straight, I’d have to reach somewhere eventually.

       It wasn’t cold anymore. It was hot, even hotter than a usual summer day felt. I couldn’t cover my forearms or the lower half of my legs, and they were bright red within an hour, I think. I was quickly sweating from head to toe, drenching my rags, and I remember it wasn’t long before I started chafing. I didn’t want to take them off, though. I didn’t want to burn up, even if wearing them only felt worse in the moment.

       I walked slowly through the sand. My feet seemed to keep sinking a bit which made it even harder to travel, but it was a relief. The sand was cooler beneath, and it was better than the soles of my feet burning on the surface. I kept staring at the ground as much as I could, because looking at the empty wasteland was… scary. I didn’t like to think about how alone I was out there, and how I probably would never come across a landmark, much less civilization. I sang to myself now and then to keep me distracted, but my throat was soon so dry that I could hardly breathe in through my mouth without having a coughing fit.

       I remember thinking I was about to pass out again when I found it.

       My foot felt it before I really saw it. The sand gave way to hard dirt and rock, and I didn’t bother looking up until I nearly hit a wall. I looked up. There was a stall, stone wall in front of me, ending in sharp points at the top. I looked around. The wall went on for as far as I could see, in a perfectly straight line, and it looked as if the entire desert stopped here. There was nothing else behind me or around; just empty desert, and this seemingly natural wall. I couldn’t exactly walk through or climb over it, so I started heading left, thinking that was probably North.

       I leaned on the wall for support as I walked along it, and I nearly fell when my hand gave way to space. I barely caught myself on the rock wall before realizing I’d found an opening in it. Holding onto the edges tight, I leaned forward just a bit to look through and down.

       It was a cliff. A tall, sheer cliff that dwarfed the rock wall I’d been leaning on. It was as flat as the desert, and whatever was at the bottom was just as flat, and seemed to go on forever as well. It took me a while to realize that the ground seemed to be shimmering, and light blue.

       Water.

       Any fear I had of falling went out the window as I let myself drop. I could have died, sure, but I was willing to take my chances for some water. I could die from the impact, or much slower, out in the desert. It wasn’t hard to weigh my options.

       But I didn’t die. I sank, and realized the water was much deeper than it looked from above, but… for a moment, I wasn’t even afraid. The water was cool, and it was a blessed relief on my skin. I opened my mouth to take some in, and was shocked to find that it tasted pure. Cleaner than the cleanest water I’d ever had. I breached the surface again, but only to drink even more of it. I overindulged a bit, feeling a bit sick as my stomach was practically full of it, but I didn’t care. I was cool, I was no longer thirsty, and I felt a bit less lost.

       Or I did, until I looked back and found that the cliff was gone.

       The water shimmered, but it was still. There was no way some current could have carried me away from the cliff. Was this a nightmare? It felt like a bizarre dream, constantly finding myself in the middle of nowhere. But the water was still preferable to the desert. I could swim just fine, and the water was so clear that I was certain there was nothing dangerous in it. And even if the cliff was still there, it’s not as if I could have climbed back up.

       So, I swam. I was surprisingly good at it; I never had lessons or anything, but it seemed to come naturally to me. I was slow, almost relaxed, until my body started getting sore. It didn’t take long for that to happen. Suddenly, it was like I was burning all over again, only from the inside. My body fought with me; I wanted to keep moving, but it seemed to want to give out, and sink to the bottom.

       When I started feeling especially sore, I looked down again. I thought I could see the bottom before, but now I definitely couldn’t, because just below the surface the water had darkened drastically, and looked more like a deep, black void. I could definitely believe there was something below, and was almost certain something would jump out of the murkiness to hurt me. I started to panic again, swimming faster, but mostly flailing pathetically in the water.

     Just as running had done so the night before, the attempt to swim exhausted me, and my body seemed to give out. Instead of floating on the surface, I seemed to sink like a stone, and watched as the light of the bright sky slowly faded. I was still panicking as water filled my lungs, but all I could do was let the cold and the dread seep into my bones.

     I remember being in the dark for a long time. I’m still not sure if it was in the water or if I was out cold. All I know for sure is that I distinctly remember being pulled out of that void by a few pairs of rough hands.

     A few men had pulled me out of the Colorado river. I was coughing, struggling to breathe, and they practically carried me up a long hill to a refugee camp. To my relief, it was run by the NCR, and they had a doctor with just enough free time to see me. There wasn’t much he could do besides let me stay in the medical tent and warm up, but he listened to me ramble on about all of this like you are now. I appreciate it, by the way, I know this all sounds like some sort of fever dream, but it was… it was too real to be. I was truly alone out there.

     I still felt alone in the camp, but I was warm, dry, and they gave me food and water. The doctor even gave me some sort of ointment for my sunburns. I couldn’t stay for long, though, since they were already low on supplies as it is. I just felt bad for taking up a bed when there were clearly others that needed it more than me, even the odd escaped slave. I eventually left alone, sticking to the roads and never wandering away from them for a second. I found civilization eventually, and… I’m fine. I still get nightmares sometimes, and I do think it was all real, but… I’m fine. I just want to know if you believe me at all.

 ***

 Chauncey cleared his throat, and put the sheets back in their proper folder. “The End.” He said quietly, pausing to think before speaking again. “You know when you’re staring at the horizon and it starts to shimmer? I think poor Evie here got that times ten. Thirst, exhaustion, passing out… sounds to me like she did end up going the right way and reaching the Colorado. But how would I know?”

       He stood, leaning over the mic and bringing his finger to the button. “It looks like we’ve already reached the late afternoon, everybody. I don’t believe in workdays that take up all of your sunlight, so I’m gonna call it a day here. But I’ll leave the jazz up and running for the evening listeners. Have a good night, and I’ll see you all in the morning.”

       He turned the microphone off, and quickly replaced the tape in the radio console before letting it play again. He wondered if he should be reading these things at night, make it really feel like scary stories or something… but that’d mean sleeping in the day, and it was too damn hot and bright for that. Besides, the only other person he knew worked days, and he didn’t want to make her lonelier than she already was. Nor did he want to make the short walk back home in the dark.

       He grabbed his empty bottle from the table and stepped out of the trailer again before starting to head down the hill to Primm. He sighed a little as he looked over the ghost town. He could’ve picked worse places to settle down, he supposed.

[radiosandrecordings]

@iceeckos12 opened my eyes to pre-canon martingerry so. Take this. If Martin gets as protective as he does over Jon in canon, then it reasons he’d act the same even for a different boyfriend, right? 

Jon doesn’t even look up as he’s speaking to him, still flicking through the file in his hands. “Martin I’m going to need some follow ups on the Swaine case, number 0132806. Tim is looking into the associated Leitner, but I’m going to need some research into,” he squints at the page, trying to parse his own handwriting, “Gerard and Mary Keay.” 

Martin drops his cup, sending scattered shards across the floor. 

“Oh good lord!” Jon takes two steps back to avoid the liquid spilling across the hardwood “Martin, be more careful.” 

Martin doesn’t hear him. It takes him seconds, feels like minutes, hours, days, but he finally manages to choke out a response. It is quiet, and severe, more severe than Jon has ever heard him. “He’s in here?” 

“What? Who is here,” Jon responds, twist round to check behind him, as if Martin were referring to a physical presence. 

“Gerry,” and the graveness breaks, Martin’s voice cracking on the single syllable. He takes three steps forward, cheap porcelain cracking under heel. He grabs a fistful of Jon’s cardigan in one hand, gripping him by the shoulder, and Jon is suddenly reminded that Martin is by no means a small man. “When was this statement made?” he asks, taking the file from Jon in his other hand, and cursing under his breath when he reads the date. 

He lets go of the handful of fabric, and takes the statement. Jon is too taken aback, and lets it be lift easily from his grip. When he finally shakes himself to his senses, he opens his mouth in protest. “Martin, what the hell was that?” his hands flit about, but he doesn’t attempt to take the statement back, knowing he’d lose that fight. Besides, whatever was wrong with Martin, it had clearly unsettled him deeply. 

“Has he been in any others?” Martin says, declining to answer. He keeps flipping through the sheaf, despite there only being a handful of pages, getting to the end and starting back at the beginning, like he’ll find something different if he tries again. 

“What? No, not that I know of, not as far as I’ve seen yet, at least. Martin what is going on? Do you know that man? Because if so, I have some concerns, that statement does not paint him in a very flattering light-” 

“Oh you don’t get to talk about him like that,” and it is slowly dawning on Jon that this might be Martin, furious. It’s buried under layers, like it’s something he’s trying to hide, but the look in his eye and the set of his jaw tells Jon that this is a man who he should not try and cross. But Martin was... Martin was Martin. He wore soft jumpers and brought him tea and hummed while he worked. Who the hell was this Gerard guy, and what about him made Martin turn into this?

“I- I’m sorry, Martin, but please, explain for me? I have no idea who this man is, he shows up in the statement, any information you have on him would be incredibly beneficial.” 

“Beneficial?” Martin spits the word like it’s an insult. “Jon, has it ever occurred to you just once in your life that some things are bigger than your project of the week?” 

That one stings. It feels remarkably similar, too similar, to something Georgie had once said. It creates a lump in his throat.

“That sometimes other people are people, Jon. They’re not just statements to be seen to, details to be researched and verified and catalogued and stored away on a bloody archive shelf. You put up this veneer of academia and suddenly people aren’t people anymore. Yes, I bloody well know Gerard Keay.” He seemed to be running out of steam, chest rising and falling quickly with tense, laboured breathing. “I knew him- I knew him really well-” 

Anger seemed to be winding down to sadness, and Jon could feel his face fall from a look of shock at the outburst to a concerned frown. “Martin I- I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-” 

“He was my boyfriend, Jon.” The words come out as a sigh, whatever temper was driving Martin’s impassioned speech well and truly faded, slipping out like a sigh.

“Oh,” is all Jon can compose in response. 

Jon may not be the best at consoling emotions. He may not even be mediocre at it. But it was clear that, considering Martin’s reaction and the context of the statement, he had taken a step too far, and would now have to go about fixing it. 

“I see. Martin would you like to... Would you like to get tea with me?” 

“What?” 

“It’s just... This clearly is... Means a lot, to you. So I am offering to make you some tea and we can... Talk, about it, if you wish. Nothing on the record. Not for a statement. Just you, and I, and whatever it is you wish to say to me. Because it seems like that might be a lot. We don’t even have to talk about Gerard, if you don’t want. But if you do... Either way, I am willing to listen.” 

Martin pauses, jaw slack, and Jon wouldn’t want to assume, but he seems slightly stunned. 

He rolls his bottom lip between his teeth, before responding. “... No tape recorders.” 

“I- Yes, Martin. No tape recorders.” 

Martin let out a breath. “Right. Okay. That’s- That would be nice. Thank you, Jon.” 

‘Your welcome’ seemed a little inappropriate, Jon thought, so he settled on, “Good.” He looked down, and flicked some liquid off his shoe. “Shall we get this cleaned up first?” 

[ofthestrangersilk]

Case #0132806

Statement of Dominic Swain, regarding a book briefly in his possession in the winter of 2012. Original statement given June 28th, 2013. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

The Magnus Archives, Episode 4, Pageturner

[podcastenthusiast]

👀?

Martin has to grab his coat from his desk in the archives, though. He must admit the basement is quite spooky at night, all empty and dark. Except there’s light coming from Jon’s office doorway so–

Wait.

Is he still working? It’s half past nine! Martin can’t really claim to have much of a social life himself, but at least he leaves the Institute at the end of the day.

Sure enough, there’s Jonathan Sims hunched over his laptop, staring at some kind of spreadsheet.

He really should just go. It’s been a few months since their frankly disastrous introduction when he made an absolute fool of himself and, he thinks, almost got fired. Martin hasn’t exactly been avoiding Jon ever since, because they’re coworkers and he is an adult with a (fake) master’s degree, thank you very much. But he’s kept his head down and tried, with little success, not to draw the new boss’ ire.

It’s just that… the thing is, it’s the holidays. Jon looks tired and stressed and–well, sort of lonely? Like maybe he also goes home to an empty flat because his landlord won’t let him have any pets. Or he just doesn’t go home at all sometimes, apparently.

“Jon?”

“Christ, Martin! What is it?” Jon shuts the laptop quickly, but not before he spots an infamously familiar word at the top of one of the spreadsheet’s columns.

“Is that about the Leitner statement?”

“Case #0132806, not ‘the Leitner statement,’” Jon admonishes. “Specificity matters, particularly since I doubt it is the only one we have regarding such a book. And no, it’s a... separate project of mine from before I was transferred to the archives. If there’s some kind of pattern or–something, I need to know what it is.”

“Right. Yeah, that makes sense,” Martin says, slowly. And it does. Having a Leitner database to reference would be pretty useful. But this so unlike the detached academic skepticism he’s comes to expect from Jonathan Sims. He sounds more like Tim when he starts ranting about 19th century British architecture. “Um, can I see--”

“Martin, how much do you know about Jurgen Leitner?” he interrupts, obviously deflecting.

[julamari]

Case #0132806, statement Of Dominic Swain, regarding a book briefly in his possession in the winter of 2012.

[magpodconnections]

Ep4 Page Turner

Case 0132806

Location: Notting Hill, London

Other Places: Pinhole Books, 

Statement Giver: Dominic Swain

Other People Mentioned: Jurgen Leitner, Mary Keay, Gerard Keay

Items: Book (Ex Altiora) 

Other Items Mentioned: Book (The Key of Solomon)

[astronomifier]

Magnus Relisten Eps 3 and 4

Day two. Across the Street and Page Turner

Episode 3: Across the Street Case #0070107 Statement of Amy Patel, regarding the alleged disappearance of an acquaintance, Graham Folger.

An interesting episode. I like how the creepiness comes from more than one source. Graham’s odd behavior is the initial focus, then the odd table, and then it slowly shifts to the creature... I don’t know exactly why, but that bait and switch appeals to me. There’s even a bit of creepiness in our narrators behavior, with her odd obsession with watching Graham. One little thing i liked is that its unclear if Graham’s weirdness has anything to do with the supernatural or not. You don’t often get that on the Magnus Archives. Usually its very clear which part of the episode is supernatural and which parts are mundane... not so here. Is Graham paranoid about the creature stalking him, or is he just weird? or even supernatural himself? And then of course the reveal of the creature is a delightfully creepy bookend to the 20 minute build up of vaguely unsettling stuff. The uncanny valley of not-quite humans is just... delightful, and this spindly, many limbed thing is definitely up there, and then the reveal of the not-Graham is an incredible paranoia generator.

As far as narrator-watch, Patel is decently up there. I mean we don’t get much detail about her backstory anything, but i love how her invasive people-watching tendencies makes her own behavior part of the unsettling atmosphere. We’ll see that a few more times in the show, and but this one stands out because Patel’s odd behavior is in no way supernaturally motivated.

7/10. Maybe 6.5, but i dont want to do half-points in this. Its not quite as creepy as the Angler Fish, but its very close, and offers up so many unanswered questions and expands on the mystery so much that it gets credit for that alone.

SPOILER PARAGRAPH: Ok yes, this is our introduction to the NotThem and thats significant and all, but as there are several more episodes featuring the NotThem going forward, and a lot more heavily than in this episode, im not really going to focus on it here. No today my focus is... WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH GRAHAM? we never learn what his deal is! the scribbling, the notebook eating, its so weird! It seems hes being hypnotized a bit by the Web Table, but i have no idea why the Web would make him scribble in notebooks. Maybe he was aware of the creature hunting him, he certainly seems to be watching his back enough, but again, it doesnt explain the notebook thing. Maybe we’ll never know. One extra thing though, in a later episode someone, i think Oliver the End Avatar, mentions dating another gay man named Graham in London. Maybe the same person? who knows.

Episode 4: Page Turner Case #0132806 Statement of Dominic Swain, regarding a book held briefly in their possession during late-2012.

I wasn’t expecting to like this episode as much as I did. frankly, all i remembered before I started was the book, which, despite being the focal point of the episode, doesn’t really do that much in its own right here. What i had forgotten is that this episode is effectively a series of odd, unsettling vignettes. The book of vertigo that makes the reader aimlessly wander. The mystery of Jurgen Lietner. Mary Keay, being creepy as fuck, Gerard Key’s eye paintings and book burnings, etc. Each works as a little hint of creepiness while also setting up mysteries for the future, all while telling a coherent narrative of a mans experience with a strange magical artifact. On the downside, though, this episode’s focus on setting up unanswered questions means that most of what i want to say is reserved for the spoiler section. One more thing: i’m glad we finally got an episode showing that there are some things that Jon Archivist isn’t skeptical of. 

Not much to say on Narrator-watch today, he’s a theater tech, cool beans, so instead ill focus on the Lightning strike that plays into Dominic’s backstory. Damn is the story of Micheal Crew creep me out. A kid gets scarred by lightning, and later the same fractal as his scar shows up in a book that smells of ozone? “ozone mixed with the smell of cooking meat” gives me the creeps.

8/10. Delightfully creepy, and piques the hell out of your curiosity the first time to. It just asks sooooo many questions! and theres plenty for you on the relisten. Great ep.

SPOILER PARAGRAPH: Gerry’s fucking METAL MUSIC I cannot!!! Anyways this episode has so much stuff in it for future listeners, i dont even know where to start. So here, lets start with GRbookworm1818. I guessed that this was Gertrude from the beginning, so i was so vindicated when that was confirmed later. Anyways, we get our first of many Jurgen Lightner books, and i think Ex Altiora is one of my favorites. Mostly, though, for Micheal Crew and what we learn about his story in later episodes. We’ll save it for then, but suffice it to say that the Lightning entity is one of my favorite Spiral manifestations, and the Spiral one of my favorite entities. I also love any episode that creates a crossover of multiple entities, in this case the Spiral and the Vast. One criticism i do have though is: It is a really contrived coincidence that the guy who finds the book that gave Mike Crew his powers is also the exact same guy who witnessed Crew getting hit by lightning. that kind of takes me out of this.