I'm gonna be doing one for every incident a member of the OIAR does in the podcast, all being tagged with #ProtocolArchived
It's mostly as a way to tag everything for each individual statement so I can look up a tag and see every post it matches, they're not gonna be full of in-depth thoughts just the things I think are important. This means character names, locations, and the main factors of weirdness.
All the episodes out so far (17) I've already noted down this information in a spreadsheet, it's just a matter of typing it up and posting here. (queuing them up for now while there's a back log haha) I also plan to separately note down anything important from the office audios, what I'll be referring to as the pre- and post- incident parts of the episode.
This is all very much a work in progress that I'm figuring out as I go, but so far the other main tags I'm using to separate posts are #ratseesthings (anything I notice about the pictures or scripts etc) and #ratrambles (for stuff like this...)
.... aaaanyway here's something super fun that didn't make me cry at all!
(ep1) careful Alice, don't joke about that :)
you know you left both of these guys hanging when they tried to ask for help right? :)? right Alice?
(ep29) Yeah Teddy's doing completely fine. yep.
(ep30) why did you say Goodbye like that Colin. Colin. Colin whY-
So you know, i'm sure this won't have any consequences and that totally wasn't foreshadowing.
side note: she also "created" (read: got him his job at the OIAR) Sam and he's "destroy"ed (maybe, gods only know) so that's ALSO So Fun to think about.
.... aaaanyway here's something super fun that didn't make me cry at all!
(ep1) careful Alice, don't joke about that :)
you know you left both of these guys hanging when they tried to ask for help right? :)? right Alice?
(ep29) Yeah Teddy's doing completely fine. yep.
(ep30) why did you say Goodbye like that Colin. Colin. Colin whY-
So you know, i'm sure this won't have any consequences and that totally wasn't foreshadowing.
side note: she also "created" (read: got him his job at the OIAR) Sam and he's "destroy"ed (maybe, gods only know) so that's ALSO So Fun to think about.
Times Welling Has Been Mentioned, followed by my thoughts
Spoilers up to ep 28, "Interruptions".
Ep 17, Saved Copy. Case dated 30th Nov 1997.
This is the Darrien Darrien case, the doppelganger that comes out of the Oxford Outreach Centre and kills his "better" self.
"Mutare Materia" translate to "Change Matter". Interesting that its worded as "incarceration". and what exactly does the whole "subject, agent, catalyst" thing imply?
This case is filed by Celia.
Ep 21, Breaking Ground. Case dated 4th Jan 1998.
The case touches on the Millenium Exhibition and the construction of the Dome, and we discover this "Dr Welling" believes Y2K to be significant to their plans.
An aged doppelganger of a construction worker emerges from a wall, grabs the younger, and pulls him into the dirt wall.
This case is heard by a suspicious Alice, snooping on Sam's computer and accusing it of giving him the case on purpose.
EDIT: also the mention of metals in the earth the worker gets pulled into
"he turned and walked over to a nearby ditch ... I could see the tell-tale indications of heavy metals in the earthen edges of it"
Ep 28, Interruptions. Case dated 17th August 1998.
And then we have Sam's statement, in which he interrupts a man, presumably Dr. F Welling by the name on the door.
"There was an old man in a tweed suit stood muttering in front of a table and on the table was a person. I couldnāt see their face but they were naked and pale and still. "
Sam doesn't see the corpse well- so it may be someone insignificant or it may be another doppelganger, as seems to be a theme.
"Beside the table was a pile of weird machines and strange shaped beakers bubbling and hissing and whirring. Large chunks of stone and metal hung slowly twisting in the air and the sickly yellow light seemed to come from everywhere."
Strange science things, likely Alchemy related, and chunks of stone and metal hung in the air. I do wonder what metals as this is likely also Alchemically significant...
Here begins my more ramble-style thoughts so beware~
SO! Welling has a whole "Change Matter" research program named after him. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS (is he the head of it? or is it just run based on / related to his research? Did Welling experiment on Darrien?)
all mentions of him take place in the 3 years prior to the Magnus Institute burning down....
What exactly went wrong in his interrupted experiment? taking into account the context of Alchemy + "Change Matter", what did he do to his muscles, skin, etc that forced them still while his bones came free? why did he tear away at himself? (or, why did something else tear away his flesh? did a part of him fight to be free, like the voice found in ep 22, Mixed Signals?)
Going back to the Viability as Subject, Agent, Catalyst thing. Is the body Welling uses more viable to be used as a subject for some reason? Could the rocks and metals used be classed as catalysts, if they are helping perform this experiment/ritual in some way? (the dice in ep 9, Rolling With It, had Medium viability as catalyst... and they caused a LOT of things. is it catalyst vs the world around them, or is it catalyst vs the person that interacts with them? how much it affects the mind?)
Anyway, I'll cut myself off there before my thoughts get even more jumbled, just wanted to compile those mentions of Welling after I heard him mentioned in ep 21 during my full relisten (preparing for the Finale! how wild)
Odd take perhaps, but I find the fact Martin and Jon never met in the TMAGP universeā¦ more sweet, in a sense?
The Jon and Martin we knew, who loved each other, who bickered, and hurt each other, and helped heal each other all the same, they werenāt drawn together by some string of fate, not destined to be together in every universe. No. They just happened to fall in love. It didnāt change anything, and it certainly didnāt save the world, but it was there.
Maybe TMAGP Jon and Martin never met, maybe they died long before they ever could, but itās oddly beautiful in a sense for the two we are familiar with. It makes their story, how they came to truly care for one another, feel more real. I actually think it would be more tragic if it was some destined thing, because it takes away from them whatās most important in TMA ā choice. The choice to stick together through it all and to love one another dearly, even if itās hard sometimes.
āDo you think we love each other in every universe?ā, but the answer is no, and maybe, just maybe, thatās sweeter than any yes could ever be.
āwhen is it okay to lieā being the last question sam was askedā¦ the fact that the static sound appears after someone liesā¦ there are strings here but i can NOT connect them
Always read the Incident Elements for trigger warnings!
If you only wish to listen to the pre and post case segments:
The upcoming episode, TMAGP 25 āGut Feelingsā, is 25 minutes 10 seconds long
3:10 - case starts
17:20 - case ends
All timestamps are based on the episode itself and wonāt include ad times so while accurate for the Patreon-release will only be roughly correct for public release.
Btw truly in love with the writers' choice to make Sam, the one who started out very soft and friendly, be also very rude and dismissive whereas Alice and Gwen, who are outwardly rude and dismissive, show themselves to be capable of vulnerability and genuine understanding under stress. I love you subversions of the character type who typically gets assigned "uwu soft" by fandom
Early access episode released at midnight for me and I listened 3 times before going to sleep I am invaded by THOUGHTS
read at your own risk!
These thoughts are all related to the post-statement section between Celia and Sam btw!
Jonathan "cycling accident" Sims and Martin "some kind of heart thing" Blackwood what the HELL happened to you.
The casefile says 18042024, so the episode takes place 18th of April 2024 and "they died, separately, nearly twenty years ago." so c. 2004 maybe 2005, and these two were "close to the right age" which I guess depends on how accurately Celia could remember/describe they're ages.
Going off of TMA (born c.1987) they would have been somewhere around 16/17/18 when they died,,,,, which is really sad especially for HEART PROBLEMS?
in TMA (mentioned in MAG056) 17 is when Martin dropped out of school to take care of his mum, and nothing notable was ever mentioned for Jon around this age.
also thinking about the fact that this Jon never wouldve encountered the spider book :))) this universe probably had some other horror in store for him but. still. i choose to believe that without the Web being present in this universe he had a perfectly normal relationship with spiders. TMAGP's version of webby horror goodness better not have touched him (however the entities choose to manifest here, the alchemy / the desires, they better have left this poor boy alone)
Also Very Much looking forward to possible Basira and Helen (is she... you know...) (that's actually kinda funny,,, if the only other person (besides Georgie) Celia can find is Not-Spiral-Helen and finds out she was a TERRIBLE person before joining Michael Distortion and is like "nah nvm, I don't wanna know you here, spooky Helen was better")
also also, was talking to my sister about the episode and who else Celia could bring up,,,, if they find Basira will they find Daisy? and will she still be "Daisy"? could it be an Alice Tonner with no childhood spook encounter that scarred her and gave her the nickname? or something wacky related to this universe's spooky shenanigans gave her different childhood trauma that resulted in the nickname. the possibilities are endless
BUT for my very last Also, seeing Gerry and "Gee Gee" I will totally convince myself everyone is Happy Here. Jon and Martin HAD GOOD LIVES BEFORE THEY DIED LET ME BELIEVE THIS.
thought about Gerry and how TMA Gerry died somewhere around late 2014 and TMAGP Gerry is alive as of 28th Feb 2024 when Sam and Celia visited and this means hes lived almost 10 more years here then he did there.
I am so normal about this
(that's a lie if Gerry doesn't make it atleast to 2025 i'm throwing hands)
anyway realising he got 10 more years made me cry.
I have put together everything Gwen said while she was compelled into one big paragraph so yippee!
GWEN [COMPELLED]
āWhen I was a little girl there was a shed at the bottom of the garden that I was always told never to go inside. There were tools and sharp and deadly things that were not right, too dangerous for a little girl. But then one year we lost the gardener to another house and the new one brought everything they needed in the van so the shed was locked up tight and sealed against any nosy children who would think that something in there might be rusty toys for playing without the fear they needed at what damage such sharp metal can inflict on uncareful flesh it took no more than the smallest push to break it open and inside spilled out teeming swarms of writhing bonewhite maggots flesh poured forth from the rotted fox that must have come in through the window seeking warmth not death instead finding only putrescence seeping squirming reaching for me as I-ā
and then ofc it cuts off
very interesting im so completely normal about it
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