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knicknackbluecat · 13 days

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Girl help, my brainrots keep mixing

+ I was also a bit torn on the subject of who should be whom, so have a bonus silly too

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knicknackbluecat · 15 days

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dear diary today my cool uncle sighed at me send help

Based on this!

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knicknackbluecat · 27 days

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Eldritch Horror Jolene Masterpost

This incredible reinterpretation of Jolene has become one of my favorite things. I have stitched together a master version of the song from the posts here, here, and here. Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you please don’t take my man. Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; Please don’t take him just because you can.

Your beauty is beyond compare With flaming locks of auburn hair With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

For years our town’s been terrorized By the beast who takes disguise In the shell that calls itself Jolene

Our sleep disturbed by quaking breath Eyes closed against the threat of death That lies behind the teeth of that Jolene

The closer that you get to her The more those edges seem to blur To something that cannot be called Jolene

Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you please don’t take my man. Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; Please don’t take him just because you can.

He screams about you in his sleep, And when he wakes does naught but weep, In terror of the one they call, Jolene.

We cower here beneath your gaze, That sets the earth and sky ablaze, Have mercy at the end of days, Jolene.

Before her wrath no foe could stand, Their corpses piled upon the sand, The blood of gods are on her hands; Jolene.

Her hunger barely satisfied, She feasted on the ones who died, She slumbers now in starless skies; Jolene.

Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you, please don’t disturb her sleep. Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; We’re safe while she still slumbers in the deep.

Your teeth are sharp, your mouth agape Your claws rend flesh, there’s no escape From judgement of the Eldritch One, Jolene

Blackening the summer skies, With burning wings and countless eyes, We tremble at the thought of you, Jolene.

Bliss withered from this awful truth, Gone is the ignorance of youth, The unrelenting mark of that Jolene.

Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you please don’t take my man. Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; Please don’t take him just because you can.

The foolish who came to defend, Their broken minds will never mend, They fell at the mere sight of you, Jolene.

But I’ve seen beyond that auburn hair My eyes have met your vacant stare And I’ve been told I’m hard to scare, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’m begging of you please don’t take my man Jolene, Jolene , Jolene, Jolene; I’ll end this story just how it began I’ll take your teeth if you try to take my man

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Jonathan Sims: I refuse to become another goddamned mystery.

Sam Khalid: *doing everything to solve that mystery*

Idk feels important

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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I think Agent / Subject / Catalyst are the three categories [CAT 1-3] in the case numbers.

Bear with me.

So aside from the dates, the case numbers are split in 3 parts, right:

CAT 1-3 (rarely combination of 2 numbers) -> category

*R (-> rank) A/B/C (sometimes combination of 2 letters from ABC)

DPHW (4 digit number)

* the case numbers for episodes #3 and #4 don't have the R for some reason

This is very much taking into account/based on the stuff from the ARG klaus.xls document btw, which has these exact 3 columns & features some of the episodes' cases where these match up exactly with the case numbers. [if you're interested, it's #2 line 80; #3 line 64; #5 line 75; #7 line 77]

Both category and rank are divided into 3 options, with some exceptions of cases having 2 applied at the same time. So now episode 9 gave us another nice group of three. And I thought, hm, maybe those ideas, Agent, Subject, and Catalyst, could match up with one these as a classification of the cases. And I think it does.

Based on the cases we had so far, I think category 1 is Agent, category 2 Subject, and category 3 Catalyst.

In my tmagp paranoia document with all my notes, I made a table sorting the cases according to the categories for a better overview and to be able to maybe spot similarities:

Let me explain what I think the classifications mean.

1 - Agent.

That's the most self-explanatory one I think. I'm not the first to make the comparison between avatar and agent, and not the first to point out that Needles acts like a TMA avatar.

Agent then is an active purveyor of fear/terror. someone deliberatly acting in such a way to spread it, to scare people. It is the person themself directly and possibly willingly causing the 'unsettling experiences' and spreading fear. Needles is the prime example.

It doesn't work quite so well with #1A, but I'd say the "he" that she interacts with acts as an agent, with him luring her to the cemetary and the unsettling way he is described there, but more importantly, with the laughter that follows, that he seems to enjoy what's happening, her fear. Her fear that's caused by him.

2. Subject.

Subject I would describe with "being subjected to something" or that "something just happens". A subject to fear. Maybe as a victim of sorts, but that's not quite it. Anyway, I think the cases in category 2 group together easily:

What's interesting is that all of the cases feature in some way a person entering a space and being affected by it/by something in a certain space. Or at least it is centred on a certain space. they are subject(ed) to the space.

In #1B it's the TMI ruins, in #3 the garden, in #5 the cinema, in #7 the charity store, and in #8 the service station. The person in #8 himself blames it explicitly on the place, the architecture, on the space he entered.

3. Catalyst.

Catalyst, I would argue, means a moveable object that works to spread fear. That is, a person with a certain object--or artifact, if you will--working together: it's a person with the object as a catalyst, it's the object through a person spreading fear.

To put it more concisely, it's cases of a person carrying an artifact and through them, allowing the artifact to affect other people.

We have the violin and the dice in episodes #4 and #9. In both cases the people who pick them up spread harm/misfortune by using them. In both cases the person first harms themself before learning they can/how they can instead spread it to others.

In episode #1B, which was in both category 2 and 3, RedCanary takes that wooden box/old wooden thing home with them. And it's that box, taking that box, that's linked to what's happening to them. Or what they do afterwards. Because we don't actually know what happens to RedCanary or what RedCanary goes on to do afterwards. We've kinda assumed that they just die, but maybe not? Anyway, my point is, old wooden box thing = artefact/catalyst.

Episode #2 is the biggest hole in this theory I think. Without knowing I probably would've put it as category 1, agent, with Ink5oul as the agent. But instead it's rather that the tattoo acts as a catalyst, through the artist. So far it rather has seemed to affect the artist herself rather than other people through her, except for the confrontation with her roommate. But, as @amelie-isnt-french pointed out, we don't know what she moved on to do afterwards. Maybe it would go on to affect other people. Maybe she just hasn't learned how to do so yet.

Or maybe affecting other people is not even a criteria at all. Maybe it's enough that the artifact comes into contact with a person and affecting them.

I'm aware that this theory isn't without flaws; both cases in episode #1, and esp. #2 don't fit into this as well as the others. But I think it still works.

That being said, I can go even more crazy.

You know that other ARG document, the chdb.xlsx, with the list of the gifted children tested at the Magnus Institute, the one that features Sam and Gerry, the one that's possibly the one Sam mentions in episode #8 through which he found Gerry.

Now my question on looking at this document, or you know, one of my questions, was what does the chdb stand for. I figured db might probably be database. the c could be children, because that's who were tested and listed. but the h? I had the stray thought at some point that it might be host. which I found very unsettling, but also didn't really work as a whole, like "Children Host Data Base"? nah.

But what if the C is not for Children. What if it's for Catalyst. Because Catalyst Host Data Base suddenly makes a lot of sense. We know that the TMAGP Magnus Institute is interested in "supernaturally active items" as the episode 9 statement giver tells us. They have been collecting artefacts/catalysts. Cf. also that old wooden box RedCanary found in its ruins. So they might have in the children been looking for potential hosts for them.

#reblog for my eventual tango conspiracy board #where’s my red string

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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I’m ’bout to go full conspiracy board on this show, swear to ****, where’s my red string

I haven’t seen anyone talk about this yet (though I’m sure someone has) but I’m obsessing over the ‘viability as subject’, ‘viability as agent’, and ‘viability as catalyst’ categories

To me it sounds like the magnus institute is specifically researching avatars and their rituals

Viability as Subject = Use as a Test Subject

Viability as Agent = Likeliness to be an Avatar

Viability as Catalyst = Potential to Start a Ritual

For the dice roller, viability as a subject is none because he died. His likeliness to become an avatar is LOW because he was in the early stages of becoming an avatar, so he’s unlikely to wake up as a full avatar after death. And the viability as a catalyst is medium possibly because of the power of the dice. A further example could be Jon, if Elias had been assessing him with this list I could see all the items being marked ‘high’

This goes really well with my original theory that the reason Chester and Norris are reading these specific statements is because they either are 1) TOLD by an avatar or someone becoming an avatar, or 2) involve an already existing avatar (or in this universe, an Agent)

Furthermore, the protocol sounds like the institutes reaction to anything that gets a high rating on their three check marks. It’s their job to shut down any potential rituals or avatars. In TMA, maybe the team stopping The Unknowing could be considered the same as the ‘magnus protocol’ in this universe.

If any of this speculation is correct, it brings up some VERY INTERESTING questions about when the magnus institute figured all this out, who figured it out and if the children they were experimenting on were potential avatars they were assessing or potential soldiers they were testing

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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tmagp7 is anatomy class students robbing salesa of his homophobic vase and magic carpet and all kinds of other shit and donating it to the orphans of hilltop road </3 good for them hope theyre doing well

#it’s for a good cause

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Magnus Protocol 7: Give and Take thoughts

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk :D

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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In wangxian we trust

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Freshly baked memes for the Magnus Protocol ep 7 (spoiler warning)

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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you know what made me fall in love with lan wangji ? that he didnt spend the thirteen years he lost his love in mourning. that he didnt spend it in seclusion, he didnt grow angry or cold at the world, didnt burn it down. he did not rely on the impossible, a miracle, lose his mind to the motion that he could get his beloved back.

no. instead, lan wangji moved on. he moved on in a way that honoured his love, that would never love him back. he learnt from his mistakes, of letting his rules hold him back, of not standing up for what is right, in favour of the righteous path. he grows from a gentle boy with a big heart and good intentions, who could never properly convey his love to wei wuxian, whose want for righteousness was in conflict with the righteousness ingrained into him. who still stood up for wei wuxian in front of all the sects. the boy, who grows into a still gentle man, goodness still untouched by the world around him, who can properly differentiate between right and wrong, knows when what is right is against his rules, to chose what is right. who goes where the chaos goes, instead of where the glory is.

hanguang-jun does not spend those thirteen years waiting. instead, he takes in a boy who has been damned for being born impoverished, with the wrong surname. he teaches the new generation, with a kind yet firm hand, teaches them to be open minded. honors the laughing boy in cloud recess, who made his shufu lose his composure with his unorthodox ideas. he protects the juniors, lets them have the opportunity grow gentle and kind, good. he is a beacon of light to the common people, he does not forget them. he remembers the boy, who he will belong to forever, who will never be his, and honors his life.

lan zhan had no expectation of wei ying coming back. and that is why he treasures his second chance, so. because he did not think it was his right for his love to come back to him, loving and sweet, in his arms. he is no longer a boy, naive and unknowingly letting the cultivation world think he hates his beloved.

and even if yiling laozu had never returned, hanguang-jun would still live. he would never have forgotten the man who lost his entire life to protect the innocent, and would still raise juniors, see his son married, hold his grandchildren.

he would have lived up to his memory with ever breath he drew - by living free of regrets, wants or envies.

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Okay okay okay, I need everyone to listen to me about this.

I know I kinda talked about this before in a reblog to someone else's post, but the idea has been rotating in my brain ever since and I feel like it needs to be further explored. A lot of people have been talking about the differences between TMA and TMP, and memeing about how people can actually quit the OIAR (which btw, I'll believe when I actually see it, by which I mean if we're able to get through the entire series without Teddy either coming back or turning up dead or otherwise facing "You can quit but you can never leave" levels of repercussions) but like nobody, from what I've seen, has been talking about what imo is the pretty glaringly obvious element at play here. So let's talk about the spider in the room, shall we? What do we know about the Magnus Institute in TMA?

People came there to give statements regarding their spooky experiences, including people who had doubts about doing so (because they weren't sure if the Institute was reputable, because they weren't sure if they believed what they had experienced, because they served a different entity so what reason would they have to do something for The Eye, etc).

The head archivist would ultimately become the Archivist, an Avatar of the Eye.

The Archivists abilities included enabling statement gives to give their statements without going off track or leaving out details (we even see what happens when it's not the Archivist taking the statement), and being able to compel people to tell them things against their will, from statements to their darkest secrets.

You couldn't quit, at least not without gouging your eyes out.

The Magnus Institute was a part of the Eye.

Or was it? Because the other thing we know about the Magnus Institute is that the Web was using it as part of its plan to break free from the TMA world and gain access to the other worlds out there. How much of the compulsion aspects of the Institute-- people being drawn to the Institute to give statements, the Archivists ability to draw statements and secrets out of people, people's inability to quit the Institute--was actually because of the Web? Where does the Eye's "compulsion to seek out knowledge even if could be bad/ harmful" end and the Web's "not being in control of your own actions" begin? Was the Archivist--at least in the form Gertrude and John took--really purely an Avatar of the Eye? Or were they an Avatar of a mix between The Eye and the Web, much like how Martin, if he were to ever become a full fledged Avatar, likely would have been a mix of the Eye and the Lonely, just like his domain in S5 was? After all, Jonah was an Eye Avatar, was he not? And as far as we saw, he never needed to compel information out of people. He just Knew it (and used it to torment people).

One of the themes I've been playing around with in my TMA fanfictions since I first finished the podcast for the first time last winter is how the course of history would be different in the alternate worlds, where the Web wasn't interfering--at least not on the same scale, or for the same reasons--since it had already gotten what it wanted at the end of TMA. And I think that's exactly what we're seeing a version of in Protocol. I think the OIAR is what it looks like when it's entirely the Eye at play, with 0 interference from the Web. The Eye is all about having your secrets exposed, being watched, being followed. The tape recorders--something that would need to be turned off and on (controlled) in order to record something--were a tool of the Web. Now we're "witnessing" the events of the podcast through the audio from security cameras and other things that are constantly running; constantly seeing and listening without needing to be turned on and off. The statements aren't being given by people who somehow found their way to the institute and were on some level or another compelled to tell their tales. They're journal entries detailing a person's private thoughts. They're letters meant only for the eyes of the recipient, sharing secrets not meant for anyone else. They're recorded therapy sessions.

And the statements that are related to the Eye? The ones read in John's voice? They're forum and blog posts, which not only makes them the only ones whose sources didn't have the same expectation of privacy as the others, also ties them to the Web, since computers and websites were previously established as being associated with it.

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Ruins of The Magnus Institute FACTS WE KNOW:

Someone (who runs an urban spelunking forum 👀👀👀) marked it as “cleared,” which has led to a lack of exploration

Pictures don’t upload to the internet and also just fucking. disappear.

People leave with a weird sense of paranoia

Scorch marks from fire 20 years ago 1999 (FIRE? 20 years ago??? Web bond gertrude/agnes hilltop road tree????????)

Third floor mostly gone

Feeling like doors were gonna close and TRAP YOU INSIDE

All! The! Fucking! Papers! In! The! Archive! Are! Gone! FUCK!!!

Old graffiti: symbols - also found on an empty wooden box???

Gross stains all over the floor (hello smooshed worms)

Only images posted (after graffiti images were promised) were of gross/gory Eyes

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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canaries should stay above ground.

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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The Brainrot has set in for Mag Protocol

Frothing at the mouth to see where this all goes

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Love that the vast majority of people listening to the Magnus Protocol right now are coming already from the Magnus Archives and so we’re rocking up like it’s the hunger games or something like-

“alright guys, wallets out, who do we think is gonna be the first to die? I’ve got $20 on Colin”

We really are not beating the “listeners are servants of The Eye” allegations anytime soon. We really will never learn our lesson huh?

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knicknackbluecat · 2 months

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Showing my mother (an IT specialist) the Magnus protocol and watching the look of horror form on her face when she hears "Windows NT 4.0" and "bedrock that the whole system is based on, and it’s been at least fifteen years since anyone actually knew how it worked."

Laughing my ass off and saying "that's not even the horror part of the podcast"

Only to be met with "yes it is"

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