THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES  

..pause for laughter

AHAHAHAAHA**

@@wmskemdke Perfect

*them but yeah dgdgdg

Yummy

I imagine it just be like, nah im just curious dawg

I’m sure the reasoning is like that they do it because that is who a person is at their core and to really strike deep at fear

@@tonij-my9sp or maybe they are all allies 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 happy pride month eveyonep

​​@@vera-whatsurdiscord diversity win! the gut wrenching soul crushing tragedy horror podcast is filled to the brim with lgbtq+ characters all suffering equally! (I love this show so much)

@@irongiant5951 we love gay rights on this podcast! what do you think only the straights will suffer??

happy pride month 🌈 🌈 🌈 lmao

GNSDFNSJHDGSJDH

Happy pride month 🎉🎉 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Prid :) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

It just sounds like how people who have become numbed to trauma talk about trauma. When their friends try to snap them out of their unhealthy behaviors and go "that's not normal," and they just go "oh... guess it isn't. yeah okay then." It makes sense, given Jon is basically an avatar for trauma. Although I think he's still human. What makes someone human isn't their physical abilities or the fact they're immortal or not, it's that they still care. And jon is definitely still human in that regard. :)

⁠@@bugjamsYeah, I’ve been repeatedly struck by the idea that avatars are mostly just people with unusual traumas and addictions. They’re not GOOD people, usually, but that wasn’t an option anyway.

This an eldritch horror world I dont think they will be okay...

Same here

i know the reason 👁

@@takeoats * fnaf creepy ambiance starts playing *

me, a nonbinery myself: ooh, they a them :)

🤝

lol same. You know you're starved for representation when you forget about the gut wrenching horror in your joy at hearing one (1) nb character

ikr and i've only recently been trying out the NB label + my *new* name is frances (not quite the same as francis but still) haha

They're just like me 🥺🥺

Yeah, and thinking back to when Martin was burning the pages. It sounded like he was still holding them as they were burning. Then throw them into the bin when I guess they were mostly burned. I would imagine he would try to set it on fire as far way from himself as possible.

I remember the one before meeting Jude Perry and in this episode. What’s the other one?

yeah the "just trying to help" hits hard

Okay but like fr it caught me so off guard and once I processed it I'm pretty sure I was ready to murder the mom

I always used to think of addiction and wanting as two completely separate things, that addiction is where you don't even want it but can't bring yourself to stop, and that if you want it, you can just stop. Lately though I've been getting a very hands-on lesson in how wanting something too much to stop and not feeling like there's a problem IS the first stage of the road to full-blown "Someone stop me, I cannot control myself" addiction. "I'm not addicted," you'll say, "I can stop any time I want." "No, really," you'll say, "I know everyone says that, but I actually could, I'm choosing to do it because it helps." Then comes the next day when you really feel like it would help. "I'm not addicted though," you tell yourself, "I've just had a bad day. I could leave it if I wanted, but I need something to take the edge off." Then comes the fifth, sixth, seventh day in a row. "Okay, I know how this looks, and I admit it might be getting a bit excessive, but if I don't take it I just feel depressed." You see the eyebrow raised at you. Don't you see how needing it or you feel depressed isn't healthy? "Okay, granted, it's not exactly a HEALTHY relationship with it, but this substance isn't even addictive. As soon as my mental health improves, I'll stop." Four, five, six months later. "I only take it because I don't know what else to do with myself otherwise. I get home and try playing video games, but they're just not fun anymore. It's either this or just lie there feeling sad, and that's really bad for me." Then comes the time you have too much and have such an awful experience you nearly kill yourself. "I'm not going to stop it though, I need it, I don't know what I'd do without it." Aha! There it is! Surely NOW you can see that it's an addiction! "No, it's not an addiction. I still want it. I still like it. I could stop if I wanted to, but I choose not to, BECAUSE I need it." But it nearly killed you?! "I'll be more careful in the future, but it's worth it. My life is so empty and joyless without it." Eventually you decide it's time to stop. "See? I told you it's not an addiction. I said I could stop any time I want, and now I'm stopping." Then the next day, as you get home from work. "I know I said I wouldn't do it, but... I REALLY want it... and surely just ONE little cheat day isn't going to hurt. After all, I'm still CHOOSING to do this. I can stop any time I want. I DID stop, this is just a blip. Not even a blip, a craving, a hunger pang. I could have totally resisted if I'd wanted to, I just like it." It isn't even the compulsion that hurts. It's the knowledge that as genuine as my continued use feels, I can never know, and am probably wrong. It's knowing that when I use, I'm probably giving in to a compulsion that I'm just rationalising as my own choice. It's the knowledge that if I wanted to stop, I probably couldn't. It's the knowledge that I've already decided to cut back on several occasions, and just fallen back into it, always telling myself it was my choice. It's the knowledge that the highs aren't as high anymore, and the lows have got so much lower, and that I miss the highs enough to risk it. It's the knowledge that even when I know all this, my life just feels so much worse when I don't use, and that always, ALWAYS results in me thinking "You know what? Fuck it." It's the knowledge that even if all my rationalisation is right, and I'm not actually addicted, that doesn't change the fact that I am going to continue to use, because being addicted doesn't feel bad, but being sober does. It's the knowledge that I'm fully aware of where this pattern eventually leads, but I just don't want to stop, and I know that one day I'll look back on my present self and scorn him for an idiot that sentenced future me to suffer as I eventually will. But I'm not addicted, I swear. I can stop any time I want.

​@sheolcodemonkey4027 This is what antidepressants are for. Much better to have something always taking the edge off than a temporary rush. Still technically addictive, but much easier to stop once you have a good replacement for it. When you know that a pill won't give you any effect for 2 weeks because you've been off it too long, it's a lot less tempting to take one. You learn to deal with the anxiety because there isn't another option. I mean, okay, there's the final option, but even thinking about it makes you feel self conscious and it's not THAT bad yet... and it would be so inconvenient for everyone else... no, best to just try and remember what it was like with the meds and coast like before. (I haven't actually stopped taking meds yet, but I'm working up to it, and there was a period of two weeks switching meds where I had to deal with the above).

I remember when I was first struggling with addiction, before I knew how to look for communities struggling through the same thing I was, the phrase "I don't want to want it" was how I described my experience. I just came up with it on my own. I don't say that to brag, but just to point out that this is a very relatable quote because it touches on something really basic about the experience. Good writing.

The litany against fear from Dune is what I think of I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Same. Like yeah he apparently likes poetry but not theater?

I think its a gay joke.

twin

rest in peace my friend you will not be unharmed

yeah the hook sound every time they said a hook dug into francis' wrists was painful

I wAS tHIiNkinG tHat

That's what the eye feeds on, it feeds on fear.

the comment is funny but the spider is not phobic-anything, it wants to take all your doutbs, vices, temptations, and uncertainty and juice as much fear out of you as it possibly can using these traits. if your enby, and got fears related to things in your life caused by who you are, the web will use that ammo. its why the flesh preys on those with body dysmorphia, it isn't "abliest" it isnt even sentient. a parasite isnt racist for feeding on a minority, its a leech that needs to be expunged

I started thinking that the Web was tied to general storytelling and maybe even the plot drama of this story as a whole. I make it sound too simple, perhaps, but in a way, that would still make it very sinister. Most if not all authors agree that a good story *needs* bad things to happen. Good things can and possibly need to happen as well, but something has to go wrong. For example, they did kind of push Jon into this whole situation as a child, providing him with a personal inciting incident. I'm not meaning to justify The Web, and I'm probably wrong. Either way, I can't deny, the Web is very bad news.

The only thing that "reassure" me is that the Web is still playing its game. The eyepocalypse was not the finallity it wanted. So maybe we still have a change. If the Web is still trying to influence your actions, it means your actions have consequences.

We could have stopped listening at any time, we could have stopped observing this tragedy which would have prevented these characters from moving forward

@@someoneawesome8717 people who stopped listening to the podcast altogether after "obviously i'm going to tell you if i see any good cows" are the greatest heroes.

@@bridgetb.7965 And then we got hit with the hook of "Hello Jon"

I feel similar, Martin’s not helping my will for my oncoming tech week tomorrow. We’re doing Les miserables

upset>:(

hooked

😭🕸️🕷️

living in Spain without the S-

deja vu

I think I’ve finally found the statement that hurt me in a truly personal way. Martin being stuck in the house and forgetting people was upsetting, of course, but I’ve never forgotten things to that degree… and I was mostly just sad for Martin and Jon. This one… the sensation of being on a stage like an actor, being used for the entertainment of others, the awful feeling of addiction, the family going “we just want to help you, you’ll grow out of it,” the “lover” offstage enticing you to do things you don’t want to do… taking so many steps forward only to be dragged back. Well played Jonny Sims, you finally got me

They really put the “non” in the binary

transphobia? because Jon refers to francis as "they"?

@@ianbirchfield5124 likely bc of hte subtext bc of the mc is nonbinary -- "you'll grow out of it", "useless piece of shit" etc. etc. matches a lot of common transphobic phrases

@beltaya exactly this!!!

@@beltaya276 i see. i've never even met a trans person, so i haven't got a clue what it's all about.

I don't think the comments of the voices refer to trannsphobia (although they could easily double as such) but to the drug addiction.

Pause for laughter. FRANCIS’s free hand hits at the wooden floor of the stage weakly. It is unclear whether they hope to achieve something or if it is just an expression of despair. The hook in their cheek pulls tight enough to form a grim smile of sorts. FRANCIS: “What do you want?” THE SPIDER: “The same thing I always want, Francis, every time we do this dance, every single act of our - hilarious production. I want what you want, deep, deep down in the hidden bit of you you’ve tried so hard to kill. You can’t wait for the dance to conclude.” FRANCIS: “I don’t want that anymore. It’s different now; I’m different now. I’ve worked so hard.” THE SPIDER: “I don’t care.” The strings all go taut at once, yanking the weakly protesting Francis to their feet. [THE SWEET STRAINS OF A MUSIC BOX KICK IN.] They are dragged, back and forth and around in a series of clumsy motions that, in another time, in another place, might have been a waltz. But a waltz has a partner. FRANCIS only has a desire, an itch in their bones that flows into them, drip by oily drip, down the glistening strands that suspend them, guide them, hold them. A desire which injects itself through razor-sharp hooks and pools inside their stomach. They don’t want to want it, but… [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.] Pause for laughter. [THE MUSIC BOX MUSIC ENDS.] THE SPIDER: “A fine dance, Francis; that last measure I barely plucked the strings. Now come. Sit down. It’s time for a break. I know how much you’ve been looking forward to it.” [A CREAKING TWIST OF THE HOOKS.] THE SPIDER is almost fully descended now; its bulk eclipses everything above FRANCIS’s head and it swells with joy and amusement. FRANCIS: “Please. Let me go. Just let me go.” THE SPIDER: “Oh, Francis. It’s such a shame that I couldn’t do such a thing even if I wanted to. The man in the audience saw to that. (laugh) I am no more free than you are, little puppet. Ah! If only you could see the strings that bind me, that wind together as they pull me along my own path. Perhaps then you would not blame me so. But they are not the tripping threads we are here to watch, no. So sit, Francis. It’s time.” Another tug of the hooks stretches the skin as FRANCIS staggers towards the table. The blood flows faster, so dark it is almost black. Their chest rises and falls rapidly as they are lowered into the only seat, the dusty air of the theater scratching their throat and drying their mouth. There is the taste of tin, growing stronger. The hits are all arranged before them, spread across the table in a cornucopia of promised oblivions, releases, and delights. FRANCIS feels the hooks tighten as they look upon the offering. That deepest want bubbles up to the surface, but at its core there is still that mute fear, that anticipation of what surrender will bring. There is no escape to be found here, no respite from the charade that is now found to be the sum of FRANCIS’s existence. By now, FRANCIS knows with utter clarity what falling to the call will bring, the awful crawling fate that they will endure before the next act eventually begins. The syringe vibrates, almost imperceptibly, as the dark mass of legs and tiny, glittering eyes that sit within it shifts in anticipation. The cork of the bottle moves ever so slightly proud of the top, pushed by the unfurling thing inside. The cigarette scuttles closer, inch by impatient inch. Their longing is awful. And mutual. Pause. FRANCIS: “I don’t want it. Any of it.” THE SPIDER does not reply. Staring over the table, a memory now tugs at FRANCIS, the faintest residue of an earlier time, when the things before them would have brought a genuine joy to their heart and even a temporary peace. A time when the hunger was sharp and real, not this dull, unending ache that does nothing but propel them towards one grotesque act of consumption after another, but - For all their keen awareness of what it might mean to do so, FRANCIS cannot deny the want THE SPIDER has gifted them. They resist. They sit oh-so-very still and keep their hands held tight to their chest. FRANCIS: “No. Not this time. I won’t.” [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.] Pause for laughter. FRANCIS looks up at THE SPIDER, so close now the thick drippings of its jaws fall onto their shoulders in a sticky stream. It says nothing, but a hook leaps from the darkness backstage, fastening itself into the soft skin at the back of FRANCIS’s free hand. FRANCIS, offstage: “You don’t get it, like - it’s my decision. I know what I’m doing; just - can we stop talking about it, please? It’s fine, i-it just. Helps. It helps.” FRANCIS’s whole body shudders at the sound of their own voice, as the hook pulls their arm forward, across the table. FRANCIS: “No. No!” Their hand closes on the bottle, which shifts and chitters with delight as FRANCIS, shaking, brings it close. THE SPIDER’s legs twitch and jerk as it shifts the doomed marionette’s strings. FRANCIS watches as their hand gently uncorks the bottle, and the first of the tiny crawling spiders begins to emerge - just as their mouth is yanked open by its hook and their arm upends the bottle. As FRANCIS feels the cascade crawl down their tongue and over their throat, they wonder just for a moment, whether this is better or worse than when they scuttle up into their veins, or down into their lungs. It is an impossible question, and quite, quite pointless. Above them, their tormentor cries out in exaltation as its abdomen ruptures, and the spiders within are joined by a rain of countless, tiny legs from above, covering them, embracing them. Drowning them. There is no unconsciousness here, no calm detachment or serene buzz. There is only - the arachnids. Biting. Scurrying. Consuming. And so it will be until the curtain descends at last and THE SPIDER resets the scene, its belly already beginning to swell once again with replacements for the creatures it so gorily birthed. [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.] Pause for laughter. [THE AUDIENCE BEGINS TO APPLAUD, WITH REAL ENERGY THIS TIME - THIS IS PERFORMANCE-ENDING APPLAUSE, FINAL ENCORE APPLAUSE, THOUGH STILL DEFINITELY IN THE RANGE OF ‘POLITE’ AND NOT RAUCOUS.] And so the curtain descends. [THE AUDIENCE CONTINUES APPLAUDING. SOME MEMBERS ARE CHEERING.] The Tragedy of Francis: A comic puppet show in all acts. [THE AUDIENCE QUIETS. STATIC BEGINS TO KICK IN.] Act Forty-Eight Thousand and Sixty-Eight - [THERE’S A SORT OF VOICE IN THE BACKGROUND. IT SOUNDS KIND OF LIKE:] MARTIN (B.G.) (very faded, almost underwater) John? - A stage that is a room that remains a stage. MARTIN (B.G.) One is enough. [BUT THE ARCHIVIST KEEPS GOING.] - The audience - [MARTIN SLAPS HIM.]

ARCHIVIST (wh?) I - Oh - Wh, What? MARTIN (breathing heavy) Sorry. You were starting another, and I didn’t want to wait. We should get going. ARCHIVIST You - You were listening, I - I, I, I thought that - MARTIN No, I - Not for most of it. I just thought I heard - something. Whatever. I went exploring, alright? I don’t know why; I shouldn’t have. ARCHIVIST No, y,you shouldn’t have! MARTIN You know how many stages there are in this place, how many - little theatres? ARCHIVIST Yes. Yes I do. MARTIN Right, stupid question. ARCHIVIST Martin… MARTIN Well, let’s just say they have a full bill, alright? [IN THE BACKGROUND, AN ANNOUNCER REPEATS THE SHOW-STARTING ANNOUNCEMENT FROM EARLIER.] ARCHIVIST Martin. MARTIN What? ARCHIVIST Why did you go looking? MARTIN (fast) Can we just go, please? ARCHIVIST Of course. But… you were safe here. And after everything that’s already happened, I - I, I just don’t understand why you would… MARTIN (sudden burst) Me neither, okay! ARCHIVIST What? MARTIN (emotional) I mean, that’s it, isn’t it? I don’t know! I don’t know why I went exploring. ARCHIVIST (carefully) Are you saying you were… compelled? MARTIN I’m saying I don’t know, do I? (slight movement) I thought I was just curious; it felt like curiosity, but - given where we are, and with the Web everywhere, and Annabelle Cane still out there playing mind games with payphones, I just - (slight exhale) I mean, how d’you even know if it’s your motivation, you know? Being here - (sigh) I-It just makes me second-guess all of it, and I - I don’t like it, it - really scares me. ARCHIVIST I, uh… MARTIN Oh, don’t say that’s what it wants; I know. ARCHIVIST I - I wasn’t going to. [BEAT.] [IN THE BACKGROUND, THE ANNOUNCER STARTS UP AGAIN.] MARTIN Okay. Right. ARCHIVIST I was going to suggest that I could… maybe… Know. I could look. Just a quick peek, to, to see if it was just curiosity or - something else. (beat) Well? MARTIN I don’t - [HE BREAKS OFF, TRIES AGAIN:] MARTIN If you look, and I was - influenced, then how can I trust anything else? How can I believe any of my thoughts and feelings are really mine? ARCHIVIST (struggles a bit) Uh - Well - I, I’ll still be here to check. I’m not leaving you. MARTIN Sure, but you’d be looking through the details of everything that ever crosses my mind? I don’t want that - y,you know I don’t want that. ARCHIVIST I know. [PAUSE. SOME CLOTHING SOUNDS, MOVEMENT.] ARCHIVIST Don’t do this to yourself, Martin. This is what it wants, the, the paranoia. (inhale) Trust me, I, I know. MARTIN Fair. [A SILENCE.] MARTIN (exhale) John, what does the Web want? It’s - I mean, we know it’s got a plan; can’t you just - see what it is? [THE ARCHIVIST SIGHS THE SIGH OF SOMEONE WHO’S GOT TO TRY AND EXPLAIN SOMETHING TO WHICH THEY ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER’S NOT SATISFACTORY.] ARCHIVIST Knowing… Seeing… i,it’s not the same thing as… understanding. Every time I try to know what the Web’s plan is, if it can even be called a plan, I see a hundred thousand events and causes and links, an impossibly intricate - (announcer starts up again) - pattern of consequences and subtle nudges, but I, I can’t - I can’t hold them all in my head at the same time. There’s no way to see the whole, the, the point of it all. I can see all the details, but it doesn’t - provide - context or - (small sigh) Intention. I suppose the Web doesn’t work in Knowledge, not in the same way. MARTIN Oh. Right. ARCHIVIST Sorry. [MOVEMENT.] MARTIN And Annabelle? ARCHIVIST Still can’t see her. If it wasn’t for the phone call - (sigh) - I’d have said she was probably already dead. MARTIN (sigh) Yeah. [BEAT.] ARCHIVIST So… (inhale) Do you want me to? To tell you, if…? MARTIN No. (small sigh) No, I’ll just have to live with it, I guess. Hardly the worst thing I’ll have gone through since - (cutting himself off) I - um. It’s fine. [HEAVY EXHALE.] ARCHIVIST Would you like to leave now? [A BIT OF THE BAGS JINGLE.] [THE AUDIENCE LAUGHTER SURGES IN THE BACKGROUND.] MARTIN (…decisive) Yeah, screw this place. Never liked the theatre anyway. [TAPE CLICKS OFF.]

thank youuu

Also we're really the web with our table and dot and connection trying to figure out between the episode

sanders sides reference?

@@skyhideaway sanders sides reference indeed

@@epiphanierosenstern5635 I'm surprised to find another fander here lol

No. The notion that real life events repeat is a mental distortion. No matter how similar, the complexity of reality means there are differences everywhere. You have to be rational and acknowledge them.

it seems a lot of people aren't aware there's a season 5, unfortunately.

Also, some people just take a long time to get through something

@@thecynicalone7655 also im dumb!!! there's less people here bc most people listen elsewhere, the yt uploads aren't up to date!