File #100 (S3-20) - "I Guess You Had To Be There"

[Oneiros]

OR: "Isolated incidents in aggregate"

We made it folks! The half-way point! ONE HUNDRED episodes of The Magnus Archives! Serious kudos to Jonny, Alex & the wonderful cast & crew who have gotten us to this point and to all of you lovely listeners for supporting & cheering us on!

So... I'm guessing that's not what most folk were expecting?   We'll just have to wait a little bit longer to see what Miss Orsinov has in store for our dear Archivist. And I hope you liked a little insight into the day-to-day goings on at the Institute, totally mundane goings-on, of course. 

Right?

Up to and including visits from mysterious Institute benefactors, namely one Peter Lukas. Probably just dropping in on Elias as a courtesy visit, usual catch-up. A drink and a handshake and then away until the next budget report, most likely...

Those of you who also listen to #RQGaming may recognise some of the other voice actors in today's ep - bonus points if you get everyone   And thanks also go to our Special Guest Star: Alasdair Stuart, playing Peter Lukas, he of Pseudopod.org & Escape Artists fame, purveyors of some of the finest audio stories on the Internet and for free!

So... thoughts? Questions? Anguished wailings of frustration?

P.S. We will be announcing plans for the mid-season break shortly, along with the winners of the #RustyFears writing competition!

[amethystend]

What.

The.

Hell.

Hahaha!

All of the assistants have infinitely more patience than I would have. I would've sent the woman to whom Martin was speaking packing after 90 seconds.

Arachnophobia guy would get even less time than that.

Hilarity aside, it's interesting how all the assistants managed to slip out right as Peter Lucas (of Magnus 33 fame) shows up. I wonder if the impeccable timing has to do with (as Lucas himself mentioned) Elias being protective of his employees.

Some kind of subliminal control/warning?

And what is Lucas's deal, any way? He somehow damned arachnophobia guy (Brian) just by talking to him. No discernible reason nor motive, just suddenly "And I'm sure you need some time to get used to your new situation. Good luck, Brian." And boom, Brian is probably dead or in a state worse than death.

Is it as simple as him wanting to feed his entity/power?

And all of THIS aside... the next six weeks are going to be hell.

[hyoscyamus]

Apr 5, 2018 7:41:38 GMT Oneiros said:

So... thoughts? Questions? Anguished wailings of frustration?

AARGH, evil six week cliffhanger is evil! The horror!!!

Seriously though, I love this episode, it cracked me up from start to finish! Yes, even when Peter Lukas showed up and asked whether Brian Finlinson was really not working for the Archive. It was so clear what was going to happen. Poor sod. (But hey, we're kind of used to Bryn voicing tragic guys.) XD

I loved all the appearances of the RQG cast and of the staff, Martyn especially was so funny again! Just casually walking away from a Spiral trap, like the plumber in #87 who totally failed to notice all the horror around him at first. It makes me wonder whether these 'statements' were real, because they would very much fit with various powers, or whether they were just nonsense tales of weirdos, like Melanie said would mostly show up at the institute. I wouldn't be surprised if they had to be questioned again later. But it makes a lot of sense to get many cock-and-bull stories in an Institute like the Magnus Archives. Nice to hear some of the annoying day-to day grind of their work.

Oh, boy, the awkward talk that Martin had to sit through! It reminded me so much of some customers in my old job, difficult to worm necessary information out of them and then demanding to get stuff. Ugh. He's too soft for this world! Or maybe he just gave her money to get rid of her? Either way, hilarious!

It was very interesting to hear how fast Lukas pulled Brian into Isolation. And I'm curious - do the people vanish into a different reality where they're completely alone? It would make sense with how Melanie suddenly wasn't there anymore. In which case she will probably say that he suddenly vanished when Lukas showed up. Or are they still in the normal world, but not able to perceive other people anymore? Then they would have a very creepy case of lost statement giver wandering around in the Archive while thinking he's alone.

Also very interesting to hear Lukas state that Elias is protective of his employees. Who knows, maybe he actually does care on some level and wants to be helpful. Or it's just that he doesn't want any interference on his home turf that gets Beholding to loose victims/servants. His true motives and feelings still remain mysterious and inscrutable, which is very thrilling. Great writing of an interesting character!

That said - *more loud anguished wailings of frustration because of evil cliffhanger*

[Deleted]

I laughed from start up until the end. Sounded like trying get business requirements from a user or troubleshooting for one who have diagnosed their own issues. (Conspiracy theorist ha)

Now did we witness the mundane? Because i think there were some recognizable powers there?
Or did we witness the distinct lack of the archivists power to compel?

Congrats on the milestone Magnus!

[liraven]

Definitely not what I expected from this episode. I enjoyed it and laughed a lot throughout but admit to a twinge of disappointment when the outro music played and Jon's fate remained unknown. Heading into a long break, that is somehow both frustrating and a huge relief that it wasn't an even more agonizing cliffhanger.

Sometimes while listening to the podcast I find myself yelling at it. Usually it's during the scary parts, like you do with horror movies: "Run!" or "Stop talking into the tape recorder, Not!Sasha will hear you!" or "Don't put your freaking arm in that pit!" This episode it was: "Oh god Martin, please don't give that woman money..." Prerecorded Martin did not listen.

I was surprised to see how seriously everyone took this episode's statements on the subreddit. We're so keen to identify the powers by now that I thought most of the statements were... um a little bit of trolling I guess? Getting us to go "Ah-HA! Ghost on fire is Lightless Flame!" only to find out later the woman made it all up for money. Some folks correctly pointed out a past Q&A session that said all the statements we hear are true, so... I guess they're all real then? Forget the eye tattoos, Jon should invest in a Jack Russell Terrier and a standing dinner date with Georgie.

Also I agree with everyone here that Peter Lucas is terrifying, but it makes more sense now why the Institute and Lucas family are on such good terms. Polite monsters unite? They must have the scariest business meetings ever. "Well, that takes care of the budget for this month. Moving on to special projects, we've scheduled the end of the world for 7th of February. Does that work for everyone?" Maybe for this appointment they'll pencil in the rescue of a certain Archivist?

Echoing others, congrats on the 100th episode! I rarely read/listen to fiction stories more than once, so was surprised to find myself happily re-playing episodes of Magnus, especially after season 2 revealed the Institute as part of Beholding and sort of reframed the whole series. There was obviously a lot of thought and care put into the show right from the first episode. Hope everyone gets some well-deserved rest over the next few weeks!

[dangerfield]

Apr 6, 2018 10:30:14 GMT @justsomebodysmom said:

Or did we witness the distinct lack of the archivists power to compel

I wondered if the archivist has the power to compel truth. These people are making stuff up, so there was nothing to compel.