If you recognise the username, that's cause I was the guy behind the big Discord that popped up during RQ's announcement ARG for The Magnus Protocol.
That server is still active (all ages, SFW, chill place to vibe and talk Magnus), but with the understanding that this coming ARG will be restricted to people 18+, the mod team made the decision to create a side server. This new server functions both as a hub for solving the ARG (when it starts), and as a place for adults to more comfortably have their own discussions about Magnus!
I'm making this post so that people know that there's a place to discuss everything when the ARG starts on the 15th! If you're under 18, you're also welcome in the all-ages server, where we'll be sharing relevant updates about the ARG as they come!
ARG/18+ Server (please note: it's still a SFW server!) -- https://discord.gg/rBDg4HqrSC
All Ages Server -- https://discord.gg/h6bkdqc5yd
If you join the adult server and we find out you're underage, you will be banned and blacklisted from both servers!
Hi all! We just got a huuuuge Kickstarter update, and I thought I'd share the TL;DR that we (the mods of Statement Remains) put together to give people a hand navigating it!
TMP News
- The digital premiere will be available on October 22nd for backers at the Archival Assistant level and above, and for Knight & Noble Patreons.
- It will include a preview of The Magnus Protocol pilot episode and some exclusive bonus content.
- The audio of the preview episode, without the extra content, will be released to KS backers at the Researchers level and above on 31st October.
- There will be a post-premiere livestream on Twitch with cast and crew, sometime after the 31st
- All the pre-launch previews will be exclusive to backers and patrons, but the official debut (in January 2024) will have new content not seen in the previews (including the full orchestral debut)
- The double length pilot episode releases Jan 2024, with a weekly release schedule following (and a 2 week break every 10 episodes)
- They are currently finalising script drafts for season 1, writing for seasons 2 and 3, doing primary recordings for episodes, and editing the Pilot episode
Casting Announcements
- Meet Alice Dyer, played by Seer Pink (they/them). You may know Seer from streaming/tiktok -- this is their RQ debut!
- Meet Samama Kahlid, played by Shahan Hamza (he/him). Shahan has previously played Siva in Trice Forgotten!
Other Castings
- Anusia Battersby (she/her) as Gwendolyn Bouchard
- Lowri Ann Davies (she/her) as Celia Ripley
- Ryan Hopevere-Anderson (he/him) as Colin Becher
- Kazeem Tosin Amore (he/him) as Teddy Vaughn
- Sarah Lambie (she/her) as Lena Kelley
- Ellie Dickens (she/her) as Lady Mowbray
- Tim Fearon (he/him) as [ERROR]
- Alexander J Newall (he/him) as [ERROR]
- Jonathan Sims (he/him) as [ERROR]
There are "multiple returning friends and enemies from The Magnus Archives", but revealing them now would be a spoiler!
Making-Of Documentary
- The documentary is well underway!
- It will feature candids from meetings, interviews, and video diaries from Jonny and Alex!
- The full version will air after the series is concluded, but a teaser segment will be released alongside the premiere!
ARG Updates
- Official start date: **15 September**
- Far larger scale than the mini-ARG, featuring both digital and in-person elements
- Will feature lots of worldbuilding and exclusive story that will provide an even deeper insight into the world of TMP
- Bookmark https://themagnusprotocolarg.com! This will be the main ARG hub!
- Questions about the ARG can go to [email protected]. They will not provide hints/help solve the puzzles.
- Important note from the ARG site: Participants of this ARG must be over 18 for legal reasons.
Mic Updates
- The Podcast Pro mics are nearly ready to start shipping. They are finalising packaging and etching the finished microphones!
---
And a quick note from me on behalf of the SR server! We're currently looking for mods to bolster our team, so that we can feasibly host the ARG solving efforts! If you're interested, you can join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/h6bkdqc5yd
A job I was pretty confident I was gonna get fell through, I need a little extra cash, so... Let me write for you!
I'll take any fandom, but if I'm not familiar with it, there'll be an extra charge for research!
Base price of £20, which covers the first 1000 words, as well as plotting. Above 1000 words, I charge £0.01/word. Premium topics (NSFW, research heavy, other subjects at my discretion) double this rate to 2p/word.
Works that fall below 1000 words are £15. Premium topics under 1k are a flat extra £5.
I will not write:
- Hate speech
- Bigotry
- Other subjects at my discretion
sooo, in the last part of the season five q+a, jonny mentioned how he sees a lot of our lovely jon jarchivist's journey as analogous to addiction, and I hard agree on that, that metaphor is an aspect of tma that always really stuck out to me and I think was done well, but I don't think a huge number of people actively recognize it? or, if they do, they don't tend to talk about it. I might. have spent a certain amount of time getting real specific with my keyword searches to look for it.
I do think most people get that jon's compulsion to read and extract statements is an addiction metaphor by late season four, as it gets pretty explicit in the text around there, but I don't see people use that same lens on his interactions with georgie in season three, at least not as much as they use similarly applicable lenses of anti capitalism or trauma/mental illness more generally.
take this bit from mag 083:
ARCHIVIST: Look, Georgie, it’s not… You don’t need to worry. I mean, I’m not, I’m not on drugs or anything.
[GEORGIE LAUGHS DISBELIEVINGLY]
What? … I could be on drugs!
GEORGIE: Sure. I just… I know that you get obsessive about stuff, and this right here, I… I’m guessing someone dragged you into something weird, you got hooked in and then it all went wrong.
ARCHIVIST: I mean, that is almost exactly what happened.
obviously, this is a bit of comedy, jon comes off as being in the human-manifestation-of-a-sweater-vest probably-doesn't-even-know-how-to-buy-weed vein of person, but also, yeah, that is kind of what this looks like. georgie's anxious, impulsive, obsessive ex with a tendency to self-isolate and an already established nicotine addiction shows up on her doorstep having recently gone through some fairly spectacular trauma and seeming even more stressed and high strung than normal all while being unwilling to tell her what's going on. the conclusion that he might have picked up a drug problem is not an unreasonable one at which to arrive, and even though that's not literally what's going on with him, it continues to be an easy parallel to draw.
under the cut I've put a whole bunch of quotes (no analysis from me on these, I'd just like to prompt some thought) between the two of them from season three that, as it were, hit different if you continue to keep that lens in mind.
mag 087
ARCHIVIST: Uh… Look, you just have to trust me, okay.
GEORGIE: Yeah, and I want to do that, but how can I when you still won’t tell me what’s going on?
ARCHIVIST: You wouldn’t believe me!
GEORGIE: Try me.
ARCHIVIST: … [Sigh] You’re right. It’s… It’s alright. I can just go.
GEORGIE: Come on, I’m not throwing you out, Jon. I know you wouldn’t be here if you had anywhere else to go, and I… I do want to help, but… y’know, you’re a good person. You were, at least. But whatever this is, it’s messing you up! [Sigh] Look I’ve, I’ve got work to do. You listen, or don’t listen, or cross-record, or whatever you want, just… just think about it first, okay? You can choose to leave it alone.
mag 087 (cont)
GEORGIE: That’s it. Whatever the hell this deal is, the tapes, documents, I don’t want them in my house.
ARCHIVIST: Look, look… No, no… Look, you, you don’t need to be scared.
GEORGIE: I’m not! You are! Look at you, you can barely stand!
ARCHIVIST: But I… But I need –
GEORGIE: Listen to me, Jon. I can’t stop you doing… whatever secret bullshit you want to do, and I’m… not going to throw you out on the street, but I’m not having it in by home.
ARCHIVIST: No… No, they won’t. I’ll make sure it doesn’t… I’ll keep it far away.
GEORGIE: No, you need to stop.
ARCHIVIST: I’m not sure I can.
mag 093
GEORGIE: So, what? You were just packing this away?
ARCHIVIST: Georgie, I just, I needed to do one more.
GEORGIE: I asked you not to record them here.
ARCHIVIST: I’m sorry, I… I honestly forgot. It’s been a hell of a week.
GEORGIE: Yeah, not just for you. What, you think you just disappear for five days, then turn up looking like the, like the end of Die Hard, and I’ll just write it off? ‘Classic Jon, what an interesting life he must lead.’
mag 093 (cont.)
ARCHIVIST: Look, I’m moving out anyway, so just… just forget it. I’m out of your life. Alright?
GEORGIE: No.
ARCHIVIST: No… No, what?
GEORGIE: You leave, you don’t get your tapes back.
ARCHIVIST: What?
GEORGIE: When you disappeared, I took the tapes you recorded, and locked them away. Honestly, I thought I might need them as evidence. You want them back, you tell me what’s happening.
GEORGIE: I said I’m fine with it. At least until you’re properly back on your feet. You’re not doing well. You keep apologising and saying you’re changing, but it’s all just the same. If you leave, I think it’s just going to get worse, and I don’t want that.
ARCHIVIST: I do appreci – I mean, I don’t… Georgie, you literally can’t feel fear! Are you sure that that’s not –
GEORGIE: Don’t! Okay. I’m well aware of my situation. It does not make me an idiot. And it doesn’t mean I got a death wish, either.
ARCHIVIST: Is it… Why are you so insistent on keeping me around?
GEORGIE: Because you’re trying to cut yourself off, and that’s… that’s really bad. Look, when’s the last time you spoke to someone who wasn’t me?
anybody who says that jon was stupid for being paranoid during season 2 would Not survive the horror movie
- the previous head archivist disappears under mysterious circumstances.
- he is then given the position of head archivist, something he’s well aware he isn’t qualified for.
- while working this position he’s constantly plagued by the feeling of being watched, to the point that he outwardly modifies his behavior in reaction to the statements to try to throw off whatever the source of this feeling Is.
- during all of this, his co-worker suddenly goes missing only to come back with news of having been held hostage by a living flesh hive trying to eat him with worms.
- this living flesh hive is now sending worms to your place of work.
- while trying to figure out how to deal with the worms he finds a statement from the flesh hive that is Directly Speaking To the previous archivist. cementing the fact that the magnus institute is being sieged by worms Because Of A Grudge Against The Head Archivist Position.
- while this is happening Mysterious Delivery Men show to Directly deliver a dangerous artifact To Him in the magnus institute, referring to him directly as “the archivist.”
- the flesh hive does, in fact, break into the institute and eat him with worms, specifically calling out To Him (to The Archivist) as she comes in.
- while running around trying not to be eaten by worms, one of his coworkers finds a secret tunnel system that’s been directly connected to their building that just so happens to be hundreds of years old.
- and while he’s being Actively eaten by worms his Other coworker finds the murdered body of the woman who was the previous archivist, who the flesh hive had been addressing in her statement, propped up in those very tunnels.
if you look at all of that and say “there’s No Reason for jon to think that anybody was trying to kill him, he should’ve just tried not being paranoid” I’m sorry but the girl from the ring would win. you are not the final girl, you’re not even the fourth.
interesting, do you think intense paranoia born from trauma, supernatural behavior modification from a monster, and a reasonable reaction to intentional murder attempts makes people rational and personable? would you be able to be sociable with your coworkers if you genuinely believed they were actively trying to kill you?
or do you as an audience member have information that jon The Character does not?
yes, I’ll admit my stance is a bit influenced by my knowledge of the situation, but Jon’s actions regarding Tim *are* unreasonable, seeing as, as far as i remember, Jon has known Tim for a good long while, and suspecting him of murder and so then stalking him is still fucked up.
another reblog gets into this point a bit [Link], but at this point jon Already Believes all of the statements we’re privy to.
in those statements we see monsters fully replace people who Used to be people (replacing the memories of everyone who knew them before), we see blood sucking monsters that make people see them as real people, we see people having their actions controlled by spiders, we see people get possessed by spiders and worms that burrow into their bodies, we see Not People who were never real in the first place who live among them anyways.
I’m not saying that stalking your coworker is like, A Normal Moral Thing To Do, but within in the context of the world he lives in and the reality of his situation it’s Not An Unreasonable Reaction To Trying To Stay Alive. And He’s Right.
one of his coworkers that he knew and trusted Was replaced by a monster that wanted to hurt him, that monster was actively changing his perception of reality so that he Couldn’t suspect her despite her change in personality, just the same as she was doing to everyone else.
and, you know, his boss was a hundreds year old monster that was trying to get him repeatedly traumatized and, eventually, cause the apocalypse.
he had Every Reason to be scared and angry and paranoid, he Also hurt someone who cared about him and was just as much of a victim as he was. both of these things are true. you can feel bad for what tim went through while Also recognizing that jon’s actions didn’t come from nowhere.
our understanding of tim as audience members doesn’t translate to the characters in the stories being stupid or assholes for not knowing.
“sure jon had the right to be paranoid but Stalking? that’s going too far.”
you’re telling me, with your Whole Chest, that if you Fully Believed that at least one of your coworkers was a monster that wanted to kill you, After You’ve Already Been Eaten By Worms, that you Wouldn’t be willing to do anything to make sure you stayed alive?
of Course what he did would not be moral in a normal situation, of Course other characters are perfectly within Their right to react to both the horror of the situation and his behavior with fear and anger, of Course we’re allowed to lament how tragic the situation is because everyone is reacting to the trauma and horror they’re experiencing in realistic ways, of Course people are allowed to dislike jon as a character (or Any character ever for any reason, except for kirby)
but some of you are for real saying with your full chest “stalking is completely unforgivable in response to knowing a crazy monster killer is going to crazy monster kill you, if you want to stay alive then you have to be more normal about it.” Like Are You For Real? Do You Hear Yourself?
you are in “scream 7″ and Ghostface is murdering people and you’re not going to try to figure out if the people around you are Ghostface because Stalking Would Be Wrong? you’re just gonna let yourself die because better unproblematic and dead than problematic and alive? be fucking real.
Like. It's a hobby for him, purely, he doesn't plan to make money off of it. It's just for fun. He doodled a bit in his free time and then took life drawing classes in uni because Georgie insisted he needed to get out and do something more than studying so he. Kept studying. But just art this time.
He would describe his style as a kind of realism, but its definitely stylized in colors at least, as he's impatient and goes for bolder colors for lighting pretty early in his process so he doesn't lose the feeling of the piece, especially if it never gets finished. He wants to keep the vibes, just in case he wants to go back to it, so he doesn't forget.
He kinda falls of drawing after he starts at the institute, but I think during season 4 he picks it up again to cope with. Everything. He's not using his fancy drawing supplies since he doesn't have them anymore, just office pens and pencils. It's a lot of Martin, of course. But also Tim. He wishes he could ask Melanie to describe Sasha for him so he could try to draw her too, but he figures that wouldn't go down very well. Besides, telling his coworkers he draws is too much vulnerability anyway. Sometimes he even draws The Admiral, but he doesn't often draw animals so it never does him justice in his eyes.
Then at the safehouse, he works up the nerve and asks if Martin could sit for him for a bit. He doesn't need to pose or anything, just stay right there, Martin, keep reading that book, just don't move too much for a while, the lighting is perfect, he needs to capture it. He needs to map it with pen and paper. His phone camera could never catch the golden light on Martin's hair, and besides, the photo could lie to him later. But muscle memory and scratches in paper are harder to change, surely. He needs to record the moment like this. Hold it to his heart. Feel it in his wrist as he swipes strands of hair across the page, in his shoulder as his arm arcs down the curve of Martin's stomach, in his fingertips as he smudges the pigment he bought from the local craft supply shop to form a reddened cheek.
And Martin's cheeks are red. After everything that's happened, all the distance, his heart wasn't prepared for the intimacy of sitting before the man he loves being lovingly analyzed and having his likeness put to paper. It's exciting and agonizing at the same time, feeling eyes on him for hours as Jon stares down every curve, maps out every freckle, mole, and blemish. And when Martin sees the final image as Jon sheepishly presents it to him, he cries. He remembers feeling the fear of statement givers as he read their stories, living it through the words written. It was kind of like that, only instead of fear, he felt the overwhelming love pressed into every line on the page. Every stroke, every smudge, even tucked into the negative space, filling him up until it couldn't be contained, and he burst into tears. (Which worried Jon greatly until Martin reassured him with a hug and a kiss.)
He doesn't ask Jon to stop drawing him. How could he, when it was always with such love behind it? Not to mention Jon was getting back in the swing of it, oiling his rusty skills, and he was so happy doing it. But he will admit it was mildly mortifying seeing their home fill up with so many portraits of him, steadily increasing in their flattering composition. Jon was drawing from his imagination now that he had memorized most of Martin's form, and it was getting out of hand. He once caught a glimpse of a work in progress of Martin lounging and being fed grapes by cherubs. Good lord.
[Post description: Audio from MAG119 followed by a screenshot from the transcript, where the two don’t match entirely.
Audio transcript:
Tim: Jon, I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can…
Jon: Tim?
Tim: I don’t forgive you. But thank you for this.
Transcript text: “Tim: Back! Get back. That’s right. / John. I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can… then I don’t forgive you. But thank you for this.”
[ID: screenshots from the transcripts of episodes 89, 97, and 131 of The Magnus Archives. The first reads, “ARCHIVIST: Yes, yes, I understand, you could easily kill me, I’m at your mercy, blah, blah, blah. I have heard it before. And from things much scarier than you.” The second transcript reads, “ARCHIVIST: I… Y… Y-you don’t… sound Russian.” The third transcript reads, “ARCHIVIST: That’s it? [he snorts] Hardly worth a rib.” End ID]
[image description: several drawings of martin blackwood on a light pink background. the biggest one is a flat coloured drawing from the thighs up. martin is a fat white man, with short, curly brown hair that has a red streak. he also has a moustache and chin scruff. he is wearing red glasses, black stud earrings, a rainbow bracelet, blue jeans and a red t-shirt with a 1up mushroom on it. he is standing with one hand in his pocket, one holding the rim of a white mug, with his eyes closed and his mouth open in a joyful smile.
in the top left is a headshot sketch of the same design, wearing a collared shirt and looking to the side with a big smile. in the bottom left is a simple full body sketch of martin wearing an open hoodie, jeans and converse, with his hands in his pockets. an arrow labels him as 6′2. end id]
[image: two tweets by absolutesilly, transcribed below:]
it’s important to me that the “A fell first, B fell harder” trope ISN’T about B loving A more. it’s about A spending a long time just getting used to having this (seemingly) hopeless pining going on in the background 24/7, while B is just. hit by a truck with it all of a sudden
fell first: been suppressing their emotions for so long that it’s like white noise for them. always there but mostly manageable. a bruise that only hurts when you press on it
fell harder: If We Don’t Get Married Tomorrow I’m Gonna Start Biting People
Well… I usually don’t really write fanfiction, but instead prefer to stick more directly to the text and focusing on my own visual interpretation for that (unless it is jokey jokes, then all bets are off). But I also am a sucker for casual romance side plots that while being not the main focus of the story still are there and important to the characters and their progression. Hence these kind of scenes don’t need much prompting to form in my brain…
It was important to me that their dialogue, as I imagined it in their voices, still sounded true to their characters and I tried out several things for the coloration of this to make it als light and fluffy as possible without becoming too kitschy? It is more or less the antithesis to the Lonely scene… also since weird kissing sounds are not a problem in this medium… yeah. Yeah.
[ID: A comic about Jon and Martin setting boundaries in the safehouse. It is set on a parchment-textured background and colored in parchment tones. It opens on Jon dropping a duffel bag into the bed with a “fump.” The title, “Less Awkward,” is written on the wall, as is the credit “by LaMaery.” Jon flops onto the bed with a sigh as Martin appears in the doorway. He asks: “Jon?”
Jon sits up a little and asks, “Hm?” Jon sits up more as Martin sits beside him. Martin looks away, expression nervous and awkward as he says: “I… um… I heard from Melanie that you don’t–” Jon, looking a little annoyed, asks: “Yes?” Martin abruptly turns to him and rushes out with a blush: “With you and me being here and sharing a bed and everything, and I just thought it important to talk about boundaries!” Jon sits up fully, looking surprised.
Martin looks serious and sad and says: “I don’t want to do something wrong and make things awkward between us.” Jon looks at him with some surprise, and chuckles. He says wryly: “We’re in hiding from the police and eldritch forces and you don’t want to make things awkward between us?” Martin exclaims emphatically: “Yes!” He looks down and, more quietly, says: “I mean… I want this to work.” He looks up again and asks: “Can it?”
Jon looks forward and asks: “Why me?” Martin frowns and asks: “What?” Jon turns to him and asks: “Why me, Martin?” He hunches his shoulders as he looks away and says, “I know I am not a… a necessarily easy person to be around…” A shot of him gripping his wrist. “… and I’ve been pretty condescending towards you. So why me?” Then a shot of Martin’s hands loosely holding each other as he says, “I don’t know. Why does someone fall in love with another person?”
Martin looks away with a blush and says, “Maybe I just liked that you are a lot of things I am not: keen, self-assured, brave. I admired that. I still do.” He turns away, blush strengthening, and adds: “I guess it helps when you find someone attractive.” Jon looks at him, face open, and says: “I think you are pretty brave, too…” Martin looks back at him, looking surprised.
Jon leans forward, eyes wide and hopeful, and asks: “Can… Can I kiss you?” Martin looks stunned and exclaims: “Of course!” They lean closer together, and they kiss softly. They break apart, looking at each other with quiet joy.
Jon leans his head on Martin’s shoulder, expression falling a little. He says: “To answer your earlier question–I don’t really care for… being touched on and around my… um, private parts.” Then he smiles and says, “Kissing and hugging is fine.” He sits up to meet a smiling Martin’s gaze and says, “More than fine, actually.”
Then he starts to get up, surprising Martin. “As for your… err.” He pats Martin’s upper thigh with a very condescending smile. “I’m sure we can figure something out.” He stands up, straightening his back as Martin stares at his thigh. “And now, I am going to take a shower. It’s been way too long since my last one and six hours of car ride can’t have improved that.“
Martin smirks. "It did not.” He then looks curious when Jon puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “We can’t all smell like tea and doilies.” Martin looks annoyed as he repeats: “Tea and d- Are you telling me that I smell like an old lady?!” Jon, walking out of the room, shrugs and says, “Only in the best possible way.” Martin does not look impressed, but then his eyebrows raise, and he smiles and laughs fondly. The last panel focuses on the painting above the bed, now revealed to be of a Highland cow. Above it are the words “The End.”
The last image is a solo panel of the moment where Jon and Martin smile at each other after kissing. Their heads are still inclined towards each other, and their expressions are soft and delighted. End ID]
