The Magnus Archives - MAG 190 - Scavengers

Episode Date: January 14, 2021

Case ########-30Interactions with various survivors, recorded on location.Content warnings:CultsSelf-recriminationEmotional manipulationMentions of: therapy, innuendo, paranoia & anxiety, instances of memory loss, mild vicarious embarrassment, mild language, ableism, death, mass suffering, physical violence, murder, apocalypseTranscripts:PDF - https://cutt.ly/WjWmr5YDOC - https://cutt.ly/qjWmdQ9Thanks to this week's Patrons: Chris Pawlus, Hope Landers, Natasha Lamont, Brad Bradley, Lindsay Mayer, India Jane Boeckh, Anna Williams, Rook Mogavero, Stephanie, Andrea Hernandez, Ashley Martinez, Chekhov, fig, Rory Teej, Tess, Sumi Coal, Samantha Robie, Molly Young, jaimedraw, gabi, Rebecca Compton, elkwoods, Ursula Brimson, Saoirse, Gabrielle Cathie, Eleanor Carroll, Sasha Aretti, Jehan Keziere, Bevinwrath, Caitlin, Si, Emma Schindler, Klara Boz, Rowan Monk, eliot, Victoria Toomajian, Madeline Knight, Maya, Jess McLean, wovenwillows, Emily Moyer, Vicky Gitre, Elijah Tomshack, Kate Hosack, Siobhan, Aus, Emory Kjelsberg, Ali, Krista Goalby, Katherine Rose.If you'd like to join them visit www.patreon.com/rustyquillEdited this week by Nico Vettese, Elizabeth Moffatt, Brock Winstead & Alexander J NewallWritten by Jonathan Sims and directed by Alexander J NewallProduced by Lowri Ann DaviesSensitivity consultation by Alexander Linde NielsenPerformances:- "The Archivist" - Jonathan Sims- "Martin Blackwood" - Alexander J. Newall- "Melanie King" - Lydia Nicholas- "Georgie Barker" - Sasha Sienna- "Laverne" - Helen Gould- "Celia" - Lowri Ann Davies- "Arun" - Anil GodigamuweSound effects this week by 190042, altfuture, bbrocer, bdavis, blukotek, conleec, Fedor_Ogon, FlashTrauma, Fugeni, indirect, InspectorJ, j1987, kmckinney7, kyles, LampEight, luke_harris_01, MegaPenguin13, ondrosik, p1llowt4lk, pushkin, redcheek, rkeato, Samgd14, sandyrb, savataivanov, Septem36, SpliceSound, sturmankin, thatjeffcarter, Timmeh515, unkleceeg, vckhaze, WilliamJMeyer, Yuval & previously credited artists via freesound.orgAdditional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.comCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quill.You can subscribe to this podcast using your podcast software of choice, or by visiting www.rustyquill.com/subscribePlease rate and review on your software of choice, it really helps us to spread the podcast to new listeners, so share the fear.Join our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillTWITTER: @therustyquillREDDIT:

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Rusty Quill Presents The Magnus Archives Episode 190 Scavengers I don't like it. They've been gone too long. They're fine. Sometimes they take a while. It's hardly the longest they've been gone, is it? How would I know? It's not like I have a watch, is it? Then how do you know what's too long? How do

you know what isn't? Celia, just trust them. They walk this world above the nightmare. It will not take them Yeah, you're right Of course, you're right Besides, you know that they sometimes go to a side tunnel for private contemplation I think it's sweet They can contemplate privately here Can they? There's not exactly many doors down here I guess And the tunnels do have a tendency to echo

Yes, alright right, fine, fine. Excuse me for caring. We all care. Yeah, well. The Verne? Hmm? Has anyone been messing with the supplies? Don't think so. Why do you ask? There's a tape recorder here.

Oh. Should there not be? I don't know. I haven't seen it before. It's running. How odd. Yeah, I don't like the... Hang on. Listen.

Oh, thank God. That them? Yeah. And they were the couple of new people. I don't recognise them. Well, that explains it, doesn't it? Georgie! Melanie!

Over here! Her first name turns with the prophets. Disrespectful. John. Sorry. Glad to see you're okay. We were getting worried. After you. Oh, were you? Both of you?

I'm allowed to care. Where are the others? I think Aaron's off writing. The rest are sleeping. You can sleep here. You don't have to. It does pass the time. This place is pretty nice. Yeah.

I reckon it used to be the hideout of you-know-who when he was living down here. It had supplies and everything. Sorry, we haven't been introduced You are? Oh, of course, sorry This is... Jonathan, John, Sims

Martin Hello And this is Laverne Good to meet you And Celia Celia? Probably The place I was trapped in They took my name, I never got it back But I like Celia? Probably. The place I was trapped in.

They took my name. I never got it back. But I like Celia. So, yeah, Celia it is. Hello, Celia. So, where were you two then? Pardon? They saved you, right?

From one of the nightmares? So, what was it? Celia, don't push. They can tell us when they're ready. No, they're not. We didn't rescue them. No? So where did they come from?

Great question. John, do you want to field that one? Right. Okay, well, we were... We're from out there. We've been wandering the world, seeing all its horrors. God, that sounds awful.

Uh, yeah. But we're old friends of your, uh, prophets. Oh, um, they don't like it when you call them that. We haven't prophesied anything. That's a fair point. I suppose, technically, saviours would be the correct... Shut up, John! Anyway, they're passing through.

They won't be staying with us long. Oh, uh, right. Yes. Hang on. Sims. Melanie, this isn yes. Hang on. Sims. Melanie, this isn't your old boss. What? I used to talk about you in therapy. Oh.

Oh! I suppose that makes sense. Small world. Nice to finally put a face to the name. Yes. Yes. Right. Oh, Georgie, I mean to...

Sorry, just... Do you know what this is doing here? I haven't seen it before, and you're always saying to tell you anything weird, so... I see. Thank you, Celia. Could you turn that off, please? John? John? A word?

Yeah look and I understand that but you've got to realise this isn't just- Uh, Georgie? Oh seriously? The fu- No they can piss off! No I refuse! I can piss off! No, I refuse! I can do this all day! For God's sake! Georgie, it's not going to make a difference. I'm not going to let us be spied on, John!

Look, the tunnels offer some protection, but clearly not enough to stop whatever is manifesting these recorders. If you smash this one, they'll just make another one. Trust me on this, you need to let it go. There are seven with us now. There used to be more. A lot more. But, um... We got greedy. Pulled too many out.

We attracted attention. And... Well, now there are seven. I'm sorry, I didn't know. Martin said you knew everything now. Not everything. Between the tunnels and your and Melanie's position relative to the eye, I'm a bit in the dark here. No pun intended.

Sure. So what, you just want me to leave the tapes running and hope? I want you to accept that trying to stop them listening is only going to frustrate you. Just promise me these things aren't going to harm my people. I promise. I promise that they're not here for you. They're here for me, and maybe a bit for Martin. They seem to like him. That'll have to do, I guess. It's good to see you. You too. I, um... I think I owe you an apology. Oh?

I didn't realise how bad things were for, well, all of you. I mean, I kind of knew, but seeing all this for myself... I cut myself off, and I'm not so sure that was the right thing to do anymore. You had every right to. Yeah, but it didn't exactly help, did it? Georgie, you couldn't have stopped this. Believe me. Melanie reckons you're the reason all this happened.

The whole apocalypse thing. She's not wrong. I was the catalyst. I didn't... Elias... Jonah Magnus used me. Well, obviously. Even Melanie doesn't think you'd have been stupid enough to do this on purpose. Oh. Good. So, this is it? You and Melanie sneak into nearby fearscapes, rescue someone and hide them here? Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but yeah, basically. Then you just stay down here?

These days, that's enough. We still need to eat sometimes and drink. Found some supply caches down here. The organ liner? Yeah, that's what Melanie said too. Also, we found a pretty convenient nightmare that's essentially just an endless supermarket. Turns out if you take stuff from it, it stays pretty much fine. Not nice, you know, but... I did wonder about the Ennui brand coke bottles. Yeah, it's convenient, not subtle. Yeah, it's convenient, not subtle.

Georgie, where's the Admiral? He's, uh... he's fine, I guess. He's enjoying himself, at least. He wasn't immune, not like me and Melanie. And he's a predator, pampered piece of fluff that he is. Turns out there's a place full of cats and their prey. Poor thing. I go to see him sometimes.

I think he's happy in his way, but it's hard to see him like that. He didn't even know I was there. I'm sorry. John, how do we turn it back? I don't know. Was that the recorder? Yeah, it just started. By itself? I didn't do it, if that's what you're asking. It wasn't an accusation. Do you want me to turn it off? That depends. Will it stay off?

Not if it wants to be part of things, no. Then let it run. It's just the two of us, and it's not like we can attract any more attention to ourselves at this point, inviting the Snoop God's favourite kid down for a chat. Hey, that's not fair. And I guess the end of the world must have left me all snappy.

Well, I mean... Don't. Don't say it. I actually did a lot of work on my anger, you know. Trying to put all the supernatural bollocks behind me. And now my therapist thinks I'm the chosen one. Yeah, the apocalypse does seem to bring out the weird in people. Speaking of, you and John, eh? Congrats. Took you long enough. God, I totally forgot. I haven't even seen you since... Well...

Yeah. Not... Not since before John woke up. Before you, er... Cut yourself off. Yeah. Sorry about that. No, I... I get it.

I was still full of ghost bullet at the time, remember? Oh, yeah. I suppose when you think about... I mean... I was still full of ghost bullet at the time, remember? Oh, yeah. I suppose when you think about... I mean... Do we actually know each other? Really? Hmm. Er...

Melanie. Martin. So? What do you do? Oh, um... Huh. I'm actually one of the prophets chosen to walk the end times unscathed. Yourself.

Oh, I'm the Antichrist plus one. That sounds like a rough gig. It has its perks. Seriously, though, how the hell did you and Georgie fall into the prophet thing? Okay, um... It wasn't exactly a choice. It just turns out that since I severed my connection with the eye, you know, and Georgie has no fear,

we're kind of invisible to all the nonsense out there. We only realised when we finally went out to see what was going on. Saw how bad it was. Yeah. It's the same outside London. Worse in some places. Though I guess that's down to personal taste these days. Yeah.

Well, we were out and we found this spiral maze. And who did we find inside but Laverne, my therapist. I wasn't exactly going to leave her there, so we grabbed her and legged it. And that's when we discovered that we can keep others hidden as well. Not completely and not for long, but it's enough to get them here to the tunnels. So once we realised that, we started doing it for more people. Have you had to explain any of this stuff to somebody who just doesn't have the first clue about any of it?

Not often. And it never went great. Yeah, well, tell you what. You sound like a doomsdaying tarot reader. Hours talking about the eye's ascendance and how it's transforming the world into a fearful psychoscape. They didn't believe you? Oh, I wish. No, they believed us. But a few of them took it in a bit more of a religious direction. And here we are.

Okay, but I still don't get the whole profit business. What exactly are you meant to have predicted? Okay, um, I... I said I'd had a vision that it would end. Oh, right. And, uh, have you had a vision that it would end. Oh, right. And, uh... Have you had vision, or...? Right.

Look, I know, all right? It was a shitty thing to do, but... If you had heard how... How hopeless they all were, like when we told them all this, that everyone is trapped in never-ending torment forever, I had to tell them something. I guess.

I hate it. They just keep trying to interpret everything I do. And they keep calling me the blind prophet, which is a whole other thing. Ugh, yikes. Yeah, uh-huh. It's why we head out so much. Sometimes we actually are scouting or gathering,

but half the time, I just need to get away. If I didn't have Georgie, scouting or gathering, but half the time I just need to get away. If I didn't have Georgie, I think I might just snap and beat them all to death. Sounds like they'd probably just thank you for your wisdom if you did that. Stop. We shouldn't talk about them like this. They are good people. Sure. It's just hard not to look down on people when they put you up on a pedestal like that. So how are you and Georgie doing?

Honestly, well, these were not the early relationship hurdles I expected. God, tell me about it. But don't get me wrong. Georgie's incredible. And she's far, far too good for me, and I only hope she doesn't realise that while there's an apocalypse on. But, yeah. And what about John? Oh, you know John.

He's a complete mess, but so am I, and I think we're making it work. Communication can be difficult when you're on an unholy pilgrimage. Modern dating, eh? Nightmare. Um, did you meet anyone else out there? Yeah, loads, actually. In fact, we saw Basira and Daisy.

Are they all right? No, not really. Daisy had kind of gone full monster. Ah. And Basira kind of had to kill her. Oh, oh, oh, that's... Yeah.

So now Basira's on her way, but she's taking her own route. I think she needed some time to process. Well, I mean, that makes sense, though I'm not sure

how much processing she'll manage out there, surrounded by... Oh, I nearly forgot. Careful of Helen, if you see her. She turned up a while back and tried to eat Celia. She was here? Yes. A few times. Looking back, I was so stupid. Because she kind of liked her? Yes.

Yes. Honestly, I had started to think she was on our side. Yeah. John killed her. Sorry, what? Yeah, she tried to... I wasn't there, but they got into a standoff and he... He destroyed her.

He can do that? Mm. Well, I mean, that's... That's interesting to know. Oh, yeah, it's a... Ah. Oh, God, I forgot. I promised I'd listen to some of Aaron Slater's stuff.

No worries. Do you want some company? I wouldn't put you through that. I forgot. I promised I'd listen to some of Aaron Slater's stuff. No worries. Do you want some company? I wouldn't put you through that. I swear, if it's another hymn, I am going to break something. Ooh. That's nice Careful She's very possessive of that chair Sorry Didn't mean to sit on the prophet's throne

I just wanted to check if you were joining us for dinner Oh, food What's on the menu? Cold baked beans Maybe later I just wanted to check if you were joining us for dinner? Ooh, food. What's on the menu? Cold baked beans. Maybe later. It's there if you want it. Do you actually believe all that stuff?

About them being chosen? Yeah, the whole profit thing. Are you asking me personally, or do you want me to speak for the group? Neither. Both. Personally, I don't know what I believe. I saw Melanie every week for months, and if you'd asked if I thought she was a holy person, I'd have laughed. She always behaved understandably, even if her problems were sometimes odd. But? But the world is...

Well, I mean, it's hell, isn't it? Whether it's a capital H hell or not, I don't know, but that's where we are. And Melanie and Georgie, they can walk through it completely untouched. They can rescue people, even if they can't always protect them. I've listened to their own explanation of it, and I've listened to Danielle call them

prophets or angels or the chosen. Neither of them really makes any sense. But you've got to have hope in something. Otherwise, there's no point to anything. So I choose to have hope in them. I guess that makes sense. It doesn't need to. Times like these, it just helps to believe.

I'm not sure it really matters what. So what do you think? Um. Oh, okay, um, right, uh, so, Aaron, I just think that the- I don't think either of us is particularly comfortable with your use of the word redeemers. Right. I thought it was quite a good rhyme. Shut up, John.

I realise you dislike that kind of thing. Your humility is humbling. But I've been considering your words last week, when you talked about how the world we're in feeds on fear how how it how it's powered and shaped and molded by it right and well maybe your powers feed on hope on trust and faith and and hope i want to inspire that so i'm sorry if it's maybe a little florid, but I think it's right to... That's... that's not how it works, is it, John? Oh, no. That's not how it works.

And what would you know about poetry? Oh, well, I... Who even is this? Are you a new follower? I thought you said it was dangerous for the flock to get any bigger. No, he's like us. Able to travel through the world. Another nightmare strider?

I do not want a poem. Are you sure, Prophet? Yes. Yes, he is. He doesn't seem holy. And what would you know? John. Sorry.

Apologies. I meant no offence. Please forgive me. You didn't need to scare him like that. I didn't mean to. Look, we're all tired and you still seem a little disoriented by the tunnels. Let's get some rest. We can talk about next moves tomorrow.

How do you know when tomorrow is? We generally err on the side of caution and sleep in. Sounds good. Oh, John. Your tape's running again. Oh, sorry. The Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 international license.

Today's episode was written by Jonathan Sims, produced by Lorianne Davis, and directed by Alexander J. Newell. It featured Jonathan Sims as The Archivist, Alexander J. Newell as Martin Blackwood, Lydia Nicholas as Melanie King, Sasha Sienna as Georgie Barker. Lorianne Davis as Celia. Helen Gould as Laverne.

And Anel Gorgomoué as Aaron. To subscribe, buy merchandise or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com Rate and review us online. Tweet us at TheRustyQuill. Visit us on Facebook or email us via mail at RustyQuill.com Join our community on the Discord via the website or on Reddit at r slash the Magnus R. Bellews.

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