The Magnus Archives - MAG 198 - Precipice

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Case ########-38Navigating the descent, recorded in Situ.Content warnings:Heights / Vertigo (inc SFX)FallingPanic (inc breathing SFX)Injury / Pain (inc SFX)Explicit languageDiscussions of: emotional manipulationMentions of: arguments, death, self-hatred, lack of self-preservation, paranoia, pleading, kidnapping, alcoholSFX: wind, creaking metal, screaming & sufferingTranscripts:PDF - https://cutt.ly/9zEWNPkDOC - https://cutt.ly/mzEEqgIThanks to this week's Patrons: V Guest, Fiona Porter, Archimedes 871, Annabelle M, CJ, Cowboyhell, Timothy LaGrone, Jen Amico, Sean Hurley, monstrous venus, Madeleine Wenc, Hyst, Plim Flatterband, Daniel Prehm, Charlotte Farquhar, Catherine Cerny, emrys lee, iriki, Miles Frankel, deirdre, Lea F., Kat Lancaster, Eric Silva, Rebekah Paerels, Julian Sanchez, Leah Hunter, Kiri Baildon-Smith, Bonnie-Jo MacLeod, Noa Jamie Remus, Emilie Clifford, Ruby Mitchell, Carol McPherson, Jules Schaefer, Bradlee Allen, Azra, Jasper Vega, Audrey Salo, Nora, Sara Clark, Georgia Wilson, Clowder of One, Abby G, Elliot G Grace, ZeekiZeii, Harley Powell, Alandrea, Rowan Krieghbaum, ty, Colleen Moore.If you'd like to join them, visit www.patreon.com/rustyquill.Edited this week by Annie Fitch, Elizabeth Moffatt, Brock Winstead, Jeffrey Nils Gardner & Alexander J NewallWritten by Jonathan Sims and directed by Alexander J NewallSensitivity consultation by Alexander Linde NielsenProduced by Lowri Ann DaviesPerformances:- "The Archivist" - Jonathan Sims- "Martin Blackwood" - Alexander J Newall- "Basira Hussain" - Frank Voss- "Melanie King" - Lydia Nicholas- "Georgie Barker" - Sasha SiennaSound effects this week by ABouch, AderuMoro, aglinder, AlanCat, alec_mackay, annstory4520, bbrocer, bulbastre, Cell31_Sound_Productions, conleec, corpocracy, CUeckermann, DANMITCH3LL, Darth_Biomech, dersuperanton, dheming, dilsun, Eelke, eitabyte, felix.blume, FocusBay, gfrog, Huggy13ear, IESP, InspectorJ, j1987, jorickhoofd, JustinBW, kyles, laurenmartin236, Microtubule, MTJohnson, PeteIsCool, rkeato, Sauron974, sforsman, SocializedArtist45, speedygonzo, SpliceSound, sturmankin, SunnySideSound, ThunderQuads, tosha73, Volonda, Drkvixn91, nicklas3799, bevangoldswain, MadamVicious, yeopot & previously credited artists via freesound.org.Additional sound effects from https://www.zapsplat.com.Check out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop & 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:

This is the first radio ad you can smell. The new Cinnabon Pull-Apart, only at Wendy's. It's ooey, gooey, and just five bucks for the small coffee all day long. Taxes extra at participating Wendy's until May 5th. Terms and conditions apply. Rusty Quill Presents The Magnus Archives Episode 198 Precipice The End The End So are we going to talk about it or... When we get back to London. I don't... I think we all need some time to think.

Sure. I mean, it's a pretty long walk. We could talk about something else. Like why you wandered off with Annabelle Kane? Sarah. It's important. He can tell us when he's ready. It's fine. It's not exactly a big surprise or anything.

Back in London, after we... Had a blazing row? Yeah, that. What? About what we should do with Jonah. With the Panopticon. About whether you should... Yes.

Well, anyway, after that, I was coming out to look for you. But the tunnels are just all over the place, and you must have used a different way up or something, and, well, she was there. Waiting. I guess. It was so quiet,

and it looked like London did before. So then I figured that she must have had the camera, which meant Selesa was probably dead, and so... Well... So? So I figured she had come to kill you, John. Me? What about you? What about me?

I didn't really think I was important enough to kill. Wow, Martin, that's... Shocker. I have self-esteem issues. Not the point. Anyway, she said she knew what you were planning to do, what would happen to you in there, and... And then she said she knew another way. One way you'd be okay, but she couldn't tell me, she had to show me. And you took her at her word?

Obviously not, but if she was telling the truth, it seemed worth the gamble. Why didn't you come and get me? Because she said if I did, she'd leave without me, and then... Well, we'd have had to stick with crappy plan A, and you'd end up gone. Okay, look, I admit it wasn't great judgement, okay? But I didn't see another choice. I figured you were safe enough with the girls and, well... You were angry. Yeah.

Right. And, if I could give you another way out, it had to be worth the danger. Even if it was kind of... Reckless? A long shot. Hmm. Plus, I knew you'd follow me and save me

If things got bad Look I'm sorry I worried you It's okay But it does look like I was right If she was actually on the level Oh Yeah And if she was

She went about it in a really weird Manipulative way. Yeah. Big surprise. But she did kind of hold up her end. I could have done without all the webbing, though. Still sticky. Well, it's over now and you're safe. That's all that matters. Not quite.

Mm-hm. We do have another option to consider. When we get back. I want to hear what the others have to say about it. Then we should get going. Er, speaking of, um... Where exactly do we go now? Forward.

Er, it's a cliff, John. Over there. Oh, great. Seriously? What happened to the big lake or whatever Vassera was talking about? I was looking forward to the lake. I'm fine rowing. I'm good at rowing. I'm sorry. Some routes are one way.

So what? This is our new path, then? Some rickety ladder on a cliff edge that's so high you can't even see the bottom? Really? I admit it's not a subtle metaphor. Yeah, I get it. I don't need another lesson on nightmare geography. It was obvious as soon as I said it out loud. If there was another way...

Yeah, but there never is. Fine. Come on. Okay. Easy does it. One at a time. One at a time. Careful of your next one, Martin. It's loose. Right. Thank you. Brilliant. Martin, Martin are you alright? Mmhmm.

I did warn you. Are you good to keep going? Yeah, just... Yeah... Yeah, just... Yeah... Martin, would it help to know that if you do fall you'll be okay? Define okay.

You wouldn't die. Yeah, but it would still hurt, wouldn't it? Yes... But not as much as... Crucially, it would still feel like I'm falling an incredible distance, wouldn't it? I mean, you would still be falling an incredible distance. You just wouldn't die when you hit the bottom. Yeah, and there it is. Oh, I have missed your pep talks.

I'm afraid it's the best I can manage. Yeah, well, thanks for trying. Can we just keep going? Right. Ah. What? Right. Right what?

Guys, what's going on down there? The, uh... The ladder ends. What do you mean it ends? I'm guessing you're not talking about the ground. No. No ground. And no more ladder. So what do we do? What do you think? We jump and we fall. What? No. No, I'm not doing that. This is obviously like a wrong turn or something. It's a ladder, Martin. Yeah, I know, Basira, but somehow we've still managed it. You said it won't kill us, right?

Right. We'll just need to try and... Jesus, seriously? If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you join them? No. No, I wouldn't. Martin. They're stupid. Enough.

We just want to make sure we separate out so we don't hit each other on the way down. Oh. Oh Christ, what now? Sorry, I... Are you serious? You couldn't have made a statement before we got on the ladder. That's not how it works. Fine.

I'm out then. You come in, Martin. So my choice is to jump off a cliff or cling to it while John does a statement? And then jump off it. Yeah. Fuck's sake. Fine. Okay. On three. Fine. Okay.

On three. One. Or just go, then. I guess. Down. Down and down and down again. Run after run after run to run down a long forever way to nowhere. A simple path, a line that was defined before we first stepped off the edge. A simple path, a line that was defined before we first stepped off the edge. We beg to find another way, but all around despair is only empty, hollow air.

Don't look down. Don't see how far it is to fall. And still we do not know what lurks so far below and waits upon the ground. The only sound, the howling gale that tries to break us, and the tinny click and clack of rusted rungs begun so far above or below. Which way we move is but a distant glimpse of what might once be hope, but now is only vertigo. As metal creaks and screams, the beams of this iron, thin and dying skeleton we hold

to spite the sky. We don't want to die, but what else is there to do but climb don't look down don't look up the rung above is smooth and white and cool as aged bone slick and brittle as the future dead and silent as the past The rung below is eaten through with rust and creaks and snaps to amber dust when we try to place a foot upon it. Fall away, rotten thing, and leave us to grip with stiff and frozen fingers as we try to linger here and not look down,

not follow in your path. Not surrender to the air. There is another noise. A screeching cry from out the sky and lost as fast within its wide embrace. It is a body. No, a pair. A dozen panicked flailing shapes, their mouths agape with all the terror that we keep within our heart and try to swallow as the void that claims these souls will swallow

them. It is raining. Cadavers that do not know they're dead. Or do they? For from their ragged throats they seem to have no doubt as to their fate. They shout and plead and bargain for gravity to wait and give another chance to hold the ladder close. Then they are gone, abandoned by all but the indifferent pull of the waiting ground below. But they fall slow enough that maybe we may see within their faces us. In feature or in name there's no reflection but the dreadful pained inflection of their fall.

We see our end. And when they pass so fast it seems perhaps they were not there at all. We pause and sweat and shake and swear it will not be us and we don't look down the wind returns to shake the rails to which we bind our path and bids us to continue but something has changed we reach up with a shaking hand no

we reach down with a shaking hand. No. We reach down with a nervous foot. No. And all within an instant comes the gut-felt blow that we no longer know which way we were directed. A moment comes to mind from tinted memory of finding that the sole escape for us was down, beyond the crumbled precipice to descend upon this shaking metal thing and find a solid earth below it where we might be free. And yet there is another other-coloured but no less in focused clarity and recall, a muddy, fetid swamp that clings in cloying, clumping damp

and tries to pull us to itself and claim our last breaths within its awful depths. So in the dread of our extremity we grasp the slick and filthy rungs to pull us up and out. But now the air is all we see and there may be no cliff or swamp to flee or imagine the salvation from this ladder that is all we know exists. All else is empty. And so we wait, our breath held close within our chest, as we wait for a sign of what's to come, where we might go. as we wait for a sign of what's to come, where we might go. We look up at last, and see its twisting stretch that pulls away in all infinity to nothing, and we retch to think of all that way to climb to find nothing but a waving, orphaned tip surmounting all our fears

we look down at last and the space below us is not endless but far worse the ground is there so weak and bare and hard and waiting hungry for our fall how many miles we cannot count for as we try to think about such measurements hungry for our fall. How many miles we cannot count, for as we try to think about such measurements,

it seems to move away. And yet such distance does not dim its need to feed upon our shattered, broken form. And so we cling, desperate, unmoving, holding out with all our might against the smoldering fire of that awful dark desire to surrender to the open arms of empty air as the bodies start to fall around us once again. Right. Well, I guess that's it then. I'm gonna... John?

Mm-hmm, I'm here. I am here. Come on, even Martin didn't make this much fuss. I resent that. There is a big difference between knowing pain and experiencing it. Don't worry, it passes pretty quickly. I know, of course you do, but it hasn't passed yet. Nope. All right, let's get you up. Alright, let's get you up. Okay. I'm okay.

Martin says that's London up ahead. Yes. Looks even more messed up than usual. Yeah. We should be okay, but let's be careful. Yeah, keep an eye out. Was that a joke, or...? Come on, let's get home. You mean the tunnels? I suppose.

I don't really know. Hello? Georgie? Melanie? In here. Hey, what happened here? Are you both okay? Where is everyone? They came for them. Took them away. Like before. Oh God. Who's they?

The things from the city. You know, the ones that served that big high. Because of me? Probably. It doesn't matter. It's the same as last time. We thought maybe keeping our numbers down might help, but...

No, it was always borrowed time. We tried to stop them, but... There were just too many. We couldn't do anything. Just had to listen as they were dragged off. I'm so sorry. Damn. Hang on.

Basira, is that you? Hey, Melanie. How, um... How are you? I'm fine. I mean... Fine compared to... You know...

Anyway, come here. Where have you been? Just wandering. I'll tell you about it later. You got Martin back then? We did. I was actually doing alright until you showed up, and then Annabelle started acting up for company. At which point we rescued you from certain death.

Well, hardly certain death. Well, it's good to see you in one piece. I assume the spider woman is... Actually, no. It's a bit more complicated than that. No. I'll have a real answer, thanks. Annabelle wasn't trying to kill anyone. She just wanted to offer us a choice.

Sort of... tell us about another option, I guess. That sounds... ominous. It is. Yeah. You got anything to drink in those supplies of yours? I think I could really do with one.

We need to talk. All of us. To be continued... by Alexander J. Newell. It featured Jonathan Sims as The Archivist, Alexander J. Newell as Martin Blackwood, Frank Voss as Basira Hussain, Lydia Nicholas as Melanie King, and Sasha Sienna as Georgie Barker. 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, Thanks for listening. To be continued... Monstrous Venus. Madeline Wench. Hist. Plym Flatterband. Daniel Preem. Charlotte Farquhar. Catherine Cerny. Emerice Lee. Iriki. Miles Frankel. Deirdre. Leah F. Kat Lancaster. Erica Silver. Rebecca Pirels. Julian Sanchez. Leah Hunter. Kiri Baildon-Smith. Bonnie Jo MacLeod. Noah Jamie Remus. Emily Clifford. Ruby Mitchell. Carol MacPherson. Jules Schaefer. Bradley Allen. Azra. Thank you all. We really appreciate your support. Alandria Rowan Kriegbaum Ty Colleen Moore Thank you all. We really appreciate your support. If you'd like to join them,

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