THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES #51 - High Pressure 

jon: hmm sasha is fascinated with the table and wax figures.... what could it possibly mean....... a mystery..... anyway today martin offered me a cupcake so im 90% sure he killed Gertrude

Ah, that Sasha, is such a human. Never seen anyone be more a person than her.

Sasha: I like to go to the wax museum sometimes Jon: but WHY

Every time NotSasha says "...yes" I feel very very unsettled.

Jesus fucking hell Jon Martin's like "you want some tea?" and Jon's like "how suspicious!", but when Sasha spends an hour looking at the table and her lunch breaks at the wax museum he's like "I'm sure it's nothing"

In episode 21, "Freefall" there was an old man named Simon who wanted to go sky diving for his charity, and his instructor was called Harriet Fairchild (and the protagonist was requested to help and later on was 'swallowed by the sky'). Hmm.

hey girl im in the water help girl im trapped with nothing but the disorientation of an infinite sea and a creature so massive i cannot comprehend its mere existence

Simon is getting a lot around for a guy his age

IS THIS THE ENJOY SKY BLUE GUY AGAIN?

I'd like to imagine that the reason why no one can tell that Sasha has been replaced is because whatever replaced her can warp people's memories of the person, just like the thing that replaced Graham in one of the earlier episodes. Probably, the only reason why someone could still remember the old Graham was because they had actively seen the thing that killed and replaced him. As that wasn't the case for Sasha, no one knows that she has been replaced, also since the tapes she had made were destroyed, no one will ever know.

Simon seems to have the ability to open portals to endless realms with a specific phrase or phrases. I had a feeling he was the same old man from Freefall.

"haven't seen any long limbed creatures". Bruh what about Michael

One tiny nitpick I have is that while diving, this symbol 👍🏻 means “let’s go up”, not like a normal thumbs up. To communicate that you’re all good you’d give this gesture instead 👌🏻

An interesting fact about IRL Sable Island: it’s full of feral horses! (And only one tree) A ship full of horses once crashed there, and they were left behind and somehow thrived. The area is under government protection, but tours are possible.

I hope someone makes a TMA guided tour of London, so you can visit spots like the wax museum and abandoned building that may or may not kill you. You know, fun stuff.

I have a sneaking suspicion this episode is an apology to every scuba diver who lost their mind during Lost Johns' Cave. Well done, very much accepted, lol.

*describing the really long thing in the deep* me: oarfish

I want to become a deep sea biologist and i swear to god, i will not be happy if you make me scared of the ocean

*Sasha:* staring into the table *Jon:* yes, fascinating *Martin:* offering a tea to Jon *Jon:* YOU ARE TRYING TO KILL MAH!

Enjoy OceanBlue

"Like a web" UM?!? It's spider time boys

John: Tim and Martin are really suspicious, Sasha? No not at all, she just stares at a table in the dark and goes to the wax museum all the time, the most humanly human to ever human

I just realized! In the episode about the bookseller dude, he mentions that Ex Altiora is about a village that sees a giant coming for them that becomes bigger and bigger as it approaches! Exactly like what the lady here sees! I'm guessing that, much like how Michael says the Corridor is his domain, that this is the domain of The Vast, the thing Michael Crew talks about. (Also, why did they decide to have two important characters named Michael in this?)

I'm intrigued by Not!Sasha sounding a bit creeped out when they're discussing the table and long limbed figures.

So the actual paranormal stories can’t get recorded on a laptop and all of a sudden Sasha is acting weird and her laptop won’t work?????

i love how not!sasha isn't even bothering to try; everyone else is just dense enough to miss all the giant red flags she's constantly setting off

Istg at this point I'm pretty sure the whole voice thing Jon does when reading stuff is some form of empathy with how his emotions mimic so accurately what someone would feel when writing or saying stuff like that. Or he's a theater kid.

What she saw underwater is described so similarly to that "beast/god/monster" in the leitner book, ex altiora

I think Simon is the old man from the "Freefall" episode, he was also named Simon. And the flying instructor was named Harriet "Fairchild" Also both in diving and jumping from the plane, the old man says something the victim doesn't understand just before the jump/dive and they see endless sky, and endless sea.

First time listener thought: I find it interesting that this is among many eps where something people love turns dark. Happened in Long John’s Cave, Free Fall, Lost in the Crowd, and now this (from what I can remember). Unsure if it means anything but interesting...

This episode hit me right in the thalassophobia

ex altiora but underwater? this has similar vibes, mostly the impossibly large creature and lightheadedness.

Hey there Cthulhu Way down in your sunken city You're a billion light years distant And the stars are very pretty from Rl'yeh So close and yet so far away

It already takes anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour to cue for Madam Tussaud's. Forget spending extended lunch breaks there, she'd need to take the whole day off...

Wow, a mimic obsessed with uncanny valley copies of real people, not!Sasha is so smooth

Wax museum? Is this a "thanks for teaching us the insides" type of deal? But, like, reverse? It knows its insides but needs more experience with morphing into different shapes? Seriously, how does Jon not get the idea that she might have been switched? He's like the Paranoia Man right now (the hero we deserve), he should be screaming "IMPOSTA" into his recorder. Well, at least he wants to get her away from the table, that's something.

If the thing of the table got Sasha, it changed her appearance completely, as well as her voice (this we can hear), maybe that's why Jon doesn't notice anything strange with her (tho I admit in the episode across the street, she remembers his other face but maybe it's bc she saw the thing going in???? Idk)

A lot of people talking about 👍 being for "go up" not "okay". Imagine if it was actually the case and Julio was showing her that they needed to go back, but she continued to dive and he was like "Ooookaaaay..."

"Martin hasn't quit his job yet. Is he a ghost?" "Tim doesn't seem to be interested in the supernatural. I should spy on his house" "Elias has changed since high school. Did he kill Gertrude?" "Tim doesn't trust a cop. Is he a criminal?" "Sasha has some disconcerting thoughts on the hypnotic table in artefact storage. I think it might be getting to her, I hope she's alright" "Scratch that, she visits the famous local wax museum sometimes. Pretty sus"

maybe NotSasha is one of those things who disguise themselves as people like in episode 34 and using the wax figures at the museum helps her keep up her facade?

So, we have Lukas family that's connected to Loneliness. We now have Fairchild family that's connected to Vast. If Elias is actually a descendant of Jonah Magnus and Magnus family is connected to Open Eye, I'm going to scream...

Once in a while I'd like to hear or read some of the stories that do get recorded with the laptop. For respite, you know.

Oh for fu- Jon, SHE'S NOT HERSELF. How did you not notice??

Again with the high-pitched noise when 'Sasha' speaks.

I absolutely LOVE being underwater. The gentle darkness of it, the pressure you can feel all around it, the muffled sounds around you and the non-existent gravity of it. It's so calming to me, yet I have a fear of drowning and getting hurt by said pressure. On top of that I have magnophobia yet am absolutely amazed by black holes. The sheer size of them makes me shiver, yet I can't stop getting more information about them. Needless to say that this episode was AWESOME. It struck my fears exactly how it needed to, I almost pissed myself at the thought of such a massive hand and how much bigger the body connected to it must be. 10/10 would recommend!!!

“With a thumbs up we began to dive down” lol a thumbs up is a sign to resurface, you use an a-okay symbol to gesture you’re good while diving.

Came back to this after the Titanic submersible incident.

so im pretty sure the tapes that disappeared were the ones where sasha showed up aka not!sasha needs them to be gone so no one finds out she replaced sasha, but the tape for lost and found didnt disappear i think and in that one sasha speaks to so hopefully they find that and figure out its not sasha

I'm mostly hung up on how that woman was expecting the ocean to be warm in Nova Scotia.

Ok I know the hand like thing underwater isn't Michal but just imagine: Michael dividing peacefully

I hate Not!Sasha and how oblivious Jon is AAAAAAAAAAA like BRO it's so OBVIOUS

SPOILERS Love that the Not!Them is so annoyed about the table that its telling Jon its an artifact of the Spider and blaming the table for its own crimes. No reason to hint at either of those things its just that frustrated

hoo boy we got a big ol' cthulhu coming

The first time I visited the ocean, I was amazed at how different the deep water felt. Near the beach the water was warm and inviting. It was peaceful and if it weren't for the crowds I could have easily dozed off in the shallows. And that's where I was for quite a bit before I decided to try to swim out to where I could see some surfers bobbing on the surface of the water. I expected a gradual change. I expected it to be like moving from the shallow end of a pool to the deep end. It wasn't like that. It wasn't like that at all. It was pretty much just like this. I was just beneath the surface, the bright sun still shining above, just swimming along looking down at the ocean floor when suddenly, there was no ocean floor. Just this deep, dark, midnight blue and a gut deep feeling of dread. "Here there be dragons" was the thought that entered my head as I stopped and realized that the sudden chill was quite literal. I swam back a bit and could feel the water around me return to that warm, inviting embrace...but if I stretched out my arm the water turned cold. Almost frigid and the darkness beyond whispered that it was a place full of teeth, and tentacles, and danger. I still love the water. I still love the beach. And even though the worst of the encounter was a minor jellyfish sting on the way back to the beach, I decided the deep ocean could remain unknown to me.

This is easily one of my favorite episodes. Simple, straightforward, but a little like a mix between Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft.

WHO IS SIMON?! I must find out....!

Why was John not affected by the table's hypnotic pattern ? In Episode 39, Sasha just stared at it and instantly got hypnotized . I wonder if the table's effect works only on some people but no others, or maybe a matter of how you stare at the table . ( No spoilers please )

Finally jon is actually looking at the susp person XDD

John's sweet voice and then STATEMENT EEEENDS.

🎵 me and julio down by the graveyard 🎶

Ok off topic, but did anyone else have to pause when they heard "Simon Fairchild?!"

Me a shadowhunters fan kinda zoning out: '...simon fairchild" Wait what?

It’s scarier when it’s local...

Go grandpa go!

Sasha: repeatedly staring at cursed artifact, to the point they're talking about limiting her access to it Jon: haha, classic Sasha Sasha: goes to Madame Tussauds on her lunch break Jon: 🧐 weirdo

So we already have someone trapped in infinite water, an infinite cave, and an infinite sky. Great

what is going on with this simon guy and diving?

I genuinely think whatever not Sasha is, is messing with others perception of it or maybe just Jon. Jon didn't suspect any of it's actions and didn't even mention the fact that the recorder of not Sasha was all static-y

Yo where my fellow Nova Scotians at? Was not expecting this when I started the episode, super exciting 😁😁

She goes to baker street-MAYBE SHE MEETS SHERLOCK AND JOHN SOMETIMES

Had my earphones in when Jon yelled "statement ends"

My theory from this episode and what we know so far: So, this story is very similar with skydiving episode and the one from that book about heights. Once again, we have an enormous big creature, so big, that every time it gets closer you rething how big it is and then it gets closer and thus showing it's way bigger than what you thought. And also, again, we have that old guy named simon. His family is invested in business about sky, boats and diving, so that makes me thing the whole family have as their religion that vast entity just like the lukas family have as their religion the loneliness entity. And this is indeed the vast entity (in my opinion); and you can have vast amount of just sky (skydiving episode), vast amount of just water (this episode) and vast amount of just sea and sky until the horizon and further (something like lost in sea with nothing to see wherever you look and no land no matter how much you swim). So, this family invested in those three because that's where you can find people who can sync with the vast and thus offer them to the vast entity. These businesses, both this witness and the one from the skydiving episode were working for, i believe they were fake businesses created by this family, in order to find people like them. Because of the investments, this family would easily have access to the planes, helicopters, boats etc to supply to those businesses without anything shown on paper. And some of their employees would be other people of the cult (like the other skydiving instructor in the skydiving episode), while others would be unsuspected potential victims. Once they would decide which one would be the next victim, this grandpa, simon, would come along and shout at them something that was either a spell to open a portal to the vast dimension or a spell to target/mark them for the other dimension while the portal was already open ('cause it was never closed) or because the vast entity would open that portal itself to collect their prey that have been marked. The other person who was diving was either a cult member or a fellow victim who didn't make it out of the vast dimension. As for not!sasha, it's interesting to see that she calls the table a web, another spider-reference with supernatural involved, but also she says that the web-table and the not-person were not linked, meaning maybe they belong to different entities? Or the table was made that way to work against those not-people? Who knows? As for the wax museum, i'd like to believe that Sasha is still alive and is trapped inside that museum with wax around it, though i believe it's most likely either a not-people meeting happening there, there is a portal that they use there or they just use the wax for some other only-those-not-people-would-use-wax-for-these-reasons reason. Finally, for simon, we've had alot of hints already of people pressumed dead while they are still alive and kicking, so i'm thinking that these entities can bring people back as a part of them and have them work for them, and they do so in their loyal cult followers or just people that they think they can use them against other entities (since some entities are against each other), like trevor, the vampire killer, he was brought back by an entity and is working for someone, but it's more like they control him (remember how every time he would turn to the girl he was with and wait for her to say what they should do in that nursing home episode?). This also explains how the two delivery guys are still alive even though they'd have been working in that russian circus ages ago, they're not human anymore (if they ever were)

in this world simon married clary and became simon fairchild (: this is a joke if you dont get it you dont get it

Oh finally john is starting to suspect the one he should holy fuck took him long enough!!! She very clearly does not sound the same!!

First time listener. It's been discussed that Simon is the same old man from Freefall (where the sky eats a guy) but I'm also convinced that the fairchild family also has things to do with that episode about a boat where they sacrificed people to the things inside the cargo boxes.

In the credits it says “Not!Sasha” ?????!!!????!??!???!!!!????

Damn, this took place in Canada. And in NovaScotia of all places. That's pretty cool. And fear of the deep is something that's close to my greatest fear, so you could say this was the episode for me XD

This statement is way to close to me 1. I was born in nova scotia and lived in nova scotia for a good portion of my life 2. I love swimming and diving 3. Have seen some scary stuff in the water but never close to dieing. . . . Yet

I mean to be fair maddame tussauds have a mean star wars collection, sasha must love it!

The way my eyes widened when i heard “the old man, *Simon Fairchild* ”

NotSasha: …yes, I like wax figures and the table John: cool, not suspicious at all Martin: John, I made you a cuppa and I care about your mental health and well-being. John: HES TRYNNA KILL ME

I'm mostly listening to these on Google Podcasts and at the beginning of every episode there's an ad or something from a guy who says he's the voice of Simon Fairchild. So I guess this guy is going to be important

As soon as I put my head through, I felt a change wash over me. The pressure increased all at once, becoming so intense that I screamed in surprise and pain, as my head erupted in agony. The pressure was upon my whole body now, and I was finding it hard to move with the crushing weight on every part of me. My eyes bulged as I stared forward, and I saw two things. The first was that below the hole there was no seafloor, just a deep and endless expanse of empty water, as though the boat were on a cliff edge. The second was that it was far, far too dark. The deepest that humans can survive in the ocean is the mesopelagic zone, which begins roughly six hundred and fifty feet below the surface. It is colloquially known, among oceanographers, as the Twilight Zone, as it is the level where only the faintest of light penetrates from the sun, and the water can only be seen in the many shades of darkness. Down that far, any glow that makes it is so diffused as to be utterly useless in determining which way is up. But as I stared out in terror, I was absolutely sure that there was no up. That I could swim as far as I liked - there would never be anything but water. Then I saw it. It was only a shadow in the dark, but it was there. And it was huge. It stretched from one side of my vision to the other, and as I fought against the pressure to turn my aching head, I still couldn’t see the end of it. Only its blurred outline was slightly better-contrasted against the lighter shade of the twilight water that surrounded it. I could not see the ends of it. It was so big it made me lightheaded to think about it, to try and place myself in some believable scale against it. I think it was a hand, but I could not see enough to be sure. Then it moved, slowly but clearly, and I realized how far away it still was, as it got bigger and bigger and bigger, and I could see nothing else, and I screamed. It was the jagged metal of the hole itself that saved me in the end. As I cried out in horror, I felt the sharp edges of it digging into my hands as they gripped it, and the unexpected burst of pain snapped me out of whatever it was that held me in place. With a surge of strength, I pushed myself back into the boat, and I felt the pressure lift all at once. Of course, this brought its own set of problems, but I didn’t care. The lightheadedness was already setting in, and my vision was blurry when I swam out of the sunken ship and headed towards the surface at full speed, ignoring all decompression procedures. I blacked out thirty feet from the surface. I have vague memories of the trip back: fading in and out of consciousness, feeling the worst I have ever felt in my life. Then I recall a helicopter, shouting, and finally waking up fully in a hospital bed. Captain Kemp was there, and he immediately laid into me, calling me all sorts of horrendous names before informing me exactly how serious my condition had been, and how lucky I was to be alive. I should be dead, he told me. And I know he was right. I left the company soon afterwards. I still plan to go back someday, but it’ll be a while longer before I’m comfortable in the water again. Julio never came to visit me in-hospital, and I was unable to get in contact with him after I was discharged. I hope he’s all right. I did ask Captain Kemp what happened to the job after I left, as I also hadn’t seen the old man since that morning. The captain got a strange look in his eyes then, and gazed out of the window with a scowl I had never seen on his face before. “The sea is a dangerous place,” he said, and walked away. ARCHIVIST Statement ends. No real follow-up can be made to this statement, as it all took place in Canadian territory. We don’t have the contacts over there that we do here. Not to mention that what little I could glean appears to be a mass of overlapping and conflicting police, coast guard, and port authority reports. We could spend years trying to unravel this one case, if we had a mind to - and I for one do not. We weren’t even able to glean sufficient information to track down any of those mentioned in the statement aside from Captain Morten Kemp, who now runs boat tours near Winnipeg, and declined to comment on it in the strongest possible terms. Instead, I will focus on Simon Fairchild, who I recall may have come up in Case 0022010, along with a young woman. I may have encountered Fairchild before, or it may just be a coincidence of names. One of my first cases as a researcher for the Institute in 2012 was looking into the history of a jewelers’ in Hackney that had reported cases becoming cracked in the night. Nothing was ever taken, but each morning it would be like a heavy weight had been dropped upon them. Looking into it, it turned out that the jewels had, in the 1930s, belonged to a con artist and fence who had attracted the displeasure of the local population. When one particularly irate customer threw him out of a fourth floor window into a crowded street at midday, no one claimed to have seen anything. A minor possible haunting, with a decidedly pedestrian backstory, but notable because, while I was never able to discover the original name of the con artist, one of his many, many aliases was Simon Fairchild, and it appeared on several business listings around the time. Whether it’s a coincidence or not is something of a moot point at this stage, however. A cursory bit of research reveals the Fairchilds in question to be an exceptionally wealthy family based down in Cornwall. No real business to speak of, but it appears they’ve invested very wisely in aerospace technology, shipping logistics, and underwater drilling and construction. Whatever their origin, I feel it’s worth keeping an eye on them. End recording. [CLICK] [CLICK] ARCHIVIST Supplemental. I had a strange conversation with Sasha earlier today. I have been… doing some research into her, but there’s little to go on, save that she worked in Artefact Storage. I decided to pay it a short visit to acquaint myself with any new acquisitions. Not much worth reporting, really: a new oak wardrobe that light is apparently unable to penetrate; a carved rock eye they keep in a black velvet bag - apparently it interferes with the video cameras otherwise - and a rather nasty-looking scalpel that is supposedly rife with the disease no matter what they used to sterilize or disinfect it. That one’s kept in a hermetically sealed plastic box. I stumbled across Sasha staring at that damn table again. Luckily, I had the wherewithal to bring my tape recorder, and managed to turn it on unnoticed. Recording follows. [CLICK] ARCHIVIST [recorded] It’s… fascinating, isn’t it? In the literal sense, I mean. NOT!SASHA [recorded] Yes. Sometimes I - can’t pull myself away from it. ARCHIVIST Given recent events, I… I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s a fractal. NOT!SASHA No… no, it isn’t, I’ve always seen it more… like a web? ARCHIVIST - I, I guess it has caught us, in its own way. NOT!SASHA I don’t think we’re the first to be caught. ARCHIVIST No? NOT!SASHA I believe it caught Graham as well. ARCHIVIST I thought that was… I… whatever crawled through his window. Unless you think they’re linked, somehow? NOT!SASHA I doubt it. It didn’t sound like the sort of thing that would want to be bound to an object. ARCHIVIST I suppose. And we haven’t seen any long-limbed stalkers, so… let’s concentrate on the table. NOT!SASHA Agreed. If you’ll excuse me? ARCHIVIST Of course. [CLICK] ARCHIVIST Odd, but not alarming, though I think I may discuss restricting her access to the table with Elias. Oh - and I found out where she’s been going when she takes extra-long lunch breaks. It seems harmless enough, but I admit I am a bit baffled. Every few days, she travels up to Baker Street, to spend anywhere from ten minutes to a full hour in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. End supplement. [CLICK]

I would definitely fall prey to the vast, the ocean is gorgeous and horrifying

Halifax, Nova Scotia heck yea shout out to my home town!

16:55 ah yes, the god weapon, the witch eye, and the void dimension wardrobe. You know, no big deal

this one feels rlly lovecrafrian!! it’s cool!

So Sasha and Graham are caught in this things web??

Who want to bet that Julio was caught by the Big Hand and had never resurfaced?

Who else saw the title and went: UNDAH PRESHAH PUSHIN DOWN ON ME PUSHIN DOWN ON YOU

I might not be remembering this right, but from what I can gather, the times when a chosen victim (what I'd like to call a sacrifice) is targeted. person, in this case Simon Fairchild, will say something, a phrase or name of whatever the being is that wants the victim. Eg. the vast, whatever was said in that slaughter house episode, or whatever it was that Simon was saying as she was entering the water. So when they here the words clearly, they're taken into that being's domain and have a high chance of dying. I think of it as being sacrificed. But when they don't hear the words clearly, there's a higher chance that they'll survive the ordeal. Like there's a connection that hasn't been made strong enough to work for the being.

"...and walked away. STATEMENT ENDS" Geez, I almost jumped, no need to shout so loud...

SCP 3000??

I almost cried with this one, I'm scared of the ocean I swear I can't even look down with a basic diving mask, so imagine that... creature. Holy shit. Amazing episode tho. JON WTH, SHE IS SUS

‘…the old man, simon fairchild’ me: IT’S HIM IT’S THE GUY

Sasha is indeed not suspicious 😅😊

oh fuck here goes my phobia:) (the fear of deep water, the fear of large objects....) they finally got me

I’m pretty scared of depths even though have been free diving of the last 4 years Mustn’t I say that this episode shook me to the core 😂

Hey, I'm in halifax right now this is wild. I also grew up here. Now I'm spooked

im not even joking when he mentioned madam tussauds i lost it because ive been there so many times and unless she is having afternoon tea with the queen something is up but it was so unexpected i literally lost it-