The Magnus Archives - The Magnus Protocol 30 - Dead End Job

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

CAT2RS3366-13052024-13052024Transmutation (human) -/- Isolation (urban)Incident Elements:EntrapmentCompelling (supernatural)ManipulationTranscripts available at https://rustyquill.com/transcripts/the-magnus-protocol/You can find a complete list of our Kickstarter backers https://rustyquill.com/the-magnus-protocol-supporter-wall/Created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall  Directed by Alexander J NewallWritten by Jonathan SimsScript Edited with additional material by Alexander J NewallExecutive Producers April Sumner, Alexander J Newall, Jonathan Sims, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d’Raven, and Megan Nice Produced by April Sumner  Featuring (in order of appearance) Lowri Ann Davies as Celia RipleyShahan Hamza as Samama KhalidBillie Hindle as Alice DyerKai Partenie as Ticket OfficerRyan Hopevere-Anderson as Colin BecherSarah Lambie as Lena KelleyAnusia Battersby as Gwendolyn BouchardPip Gladwin as Taxi DriverRobin Hellier as CustodianIan Hayles as Trevor Herbert MPBeth Eyre as ArchivistDialogue Editor – Nico Vettese & Lowri Ann DaviesSound Designer – Tessa VroomMastering Editor - Catherine RinellaMusic by Sam Jones (orchestral mix by Jake Jackson) Art by April Sumner  Support us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/rustyquillCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quillSupport Rusty Quill by purchasing from our Affiliates;Phantom Peak – UK immersive experience – 15% discount with this linkDriveThruRPG – DriveThruRPG.comJoin our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillX: @therustyquillEMAIL: [e-mail] The Magnus Protocol is a derivative product of the Magnus Archives, created by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share alike 4.0 International Licence.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everyone, it's Billy here, the voice of Alice in the Magnus Protocol. Today I'm here to advertise Never Let Go, a new psychological horror film from the director of The Hills Have Eyes and the executive producers of Stranger Things, starring Halle Berry. When an unspeakable evil takes over the world, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and strong bond. Needing to stay connected at all times, even tethering themselves with ropes, they must cling to one another and never let go. However, when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, the ties that bind them

together are severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival. See Never Let Go in Canadian theatres from September 20th. The Magnus Protocol The the the the the the the the

the the You can't ignore her forever. I just don't know what to say to her. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't check her voicemail for another few hours. Really think she's that upset? Five calls in seven minutes and a bunch of messages. What did she say? Don't know. Can't quite bring myself to check just yet.

How this means, well, she doesn't really understand. I don't know. Maybe she's right. What? When I started at the OIR, she told me not to let it get to me. Now look at me. You were attacked? Yeah, by something I released. Because I let stuff get to me. Because I got curious.

My head is killing me. I'm not surprised. When I saw you lying out there, I thought... Well... Yeah. A headache makes sense. Here. You need water?

No. Tough guy. You're lucky we didn't need to run to catch the last Oxford train. What unlucky? Second thoughts? I don't know. It's just starting to feel kind of far away now. I was so certain we had to get to the hilltop centre ASAP, but now...

Well, I don't think there's another train back till tomorrow morning, so we may as well do a bit of snooping. I know. Just wish I could focus properly. Rain's easing off at least. That's good. Thanks, Celia. For what? For coming with me. You didn't have to. It sounded like you'd have gone anyway. At least this way I can make sure it all goes to plan. There's a plan? Besides, you're not the only one who's curious. Well, I still appreciate it. Anyway, what if you were right? When you said we had to go now or something terrible would happen.

You'd just had a weird monster in your brain. Maybe it was the truth. Christ, I hope not. I do not feel up to an apocalyptic conflict right now. Hopefully the painkiller should be kicking in soon. Rest up. We're safe here. Come on Sam, you god damn... Pick up, pick up, pick up! It's following you, you stupid... Excuse me miss, I'm going to have to ask you to rein it in. Sorry!

I don't want to have to ask you to leave. Okay, alright, I get it. Wait, where's the ticket office? Close for tonight, machine's over there. Okay, alright, I get it. Wait, where's the ticket office? Closed for tonight. Machines over there. Are there any more trains going to Oxford tonight? Check the board. I know I can check the bloody board! I just thought you might be, I don't know, useful. You have a good night, miss.

Right. O... X... X and 1. I don't... No real card. God, I don't know. Anytime day return? How much? Christ no! Seriously? Alice? Yeah, Colin, I'm here. Are you in the office at the moment? No, why? For God's sake! I need your help. Erm...

I'm in trouble. Like, right now? I'm not really... I'm kind of in the middle of something. I messed up, Alice. Freddie's... I messed up. I'll come round first thing tomorrow, okay? And then we can... You can tell me what you think is going on with Freddie then, yeah? Colin?

Yeah. Sure. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye, sure. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye, Alice. Colin. Listen, I'll be there as soon as... Oh crap. Oh. Did he... enjoy his visit? He certainly found it... illuminating.

I'm glad. If my job was all that was at stake here, I'd probably praise your initiative. I have no idea where you've been digging these files up from, but you've certainly used them effectively and bluntly. I have no idea- But there is much more at play here than you know, and you are not prepared for the scale of responsibility about to crash down on your shoulders I'm sorry no you aren't but I think you will be is that a threat goodbye Gwen

what that's it that's it give the others my regards and best of luck. You're all going to need it. You sure? There's not much around here. We're fine, really. Fair enough. Cheers. So I'm guessing that's it then? You alright? Just checking for tape recorders. Look, even if it was on the train, which we can't be sure of, there's no way it could

have beaten us here. I mean, how many eyes did you say it had? Plenty. Then, yeah. I doubt it's getting a lift. So we're okay for now, at least. Come on. What unit did you say it was? Seventeen, according to Helen's records.

But it doesn't say if there was a shop there or anything So, how do we know which unit is which? Most don't even have signs left This way you sure? Call her a hunch. Sam. Oh, sorry. These places just make me a bit nervous, you know? I don't think it's actually, like, properly abandoned. Some of the shops look indecent, Nick.

Maps does still list a bunch of businesses here, but no websites or opening times or anything. I can see why. Like, there can't be a real dentist, right? We want your teeth. Yeah. That's not normal. I think it's normal for here. Maybe we should come back in the daytime.

What happened to stopping that archivist? Yeah, well... Errr... Shhh! I think it's coming from that old appliance store. Then it's not Unit 17. Ignore it. But it looks like it's open. Yes it is, and it's probably coming from inside a washing machine, or a fridge, or something else with a suspicious door.

And we both know what happens if we open it. Yeah. I really wish my job wasn't just to learn about all the horrible things that can happen to you in a place like this. Try to think of it as preparation. Now, I'm guessing that it's just around this. Hey! Oh!

Oh, Christ. What was that for? Sorry, it was a reflex. That's one hell of a reflex. Here, let me help. What the hell are you two doing, It was a reflex. That's one hell of a reflex! Here, let me help. Oh! What the hell are you two doing sneaking around here this time of night? We could ask you the same question.

I work here! Sorry, you work here? Yeah. I clean up. Make sure everything stays locked up. Like the one with all the banging? Ah, crap. Which one was it? Er... Grey's Appliances? Right, I better go lock it back up before it's... Well...

Look, you two need to leave. It's no safe here. The lights are mostly gone and the structure is weak so... It's alright, you can just say it haunted. Okay. Yeah. This place is haunted. Like ridiculously haunted and dangerous with it. I don't know if you want to be ghost hunters or something, but trust me, this place isn't here for you.

You should go. Celia? We have business in one of the units. Fine. Just leave me out of it. If you like. I do. Which unit?

Seventeen. The old outreach center? Yeah, I think so. For the Magnus Institute? If you say so. No one's been there in decades. Come on. I'll keep the front locked tight, but I can let you in the service entrance. Just like that. You learn to go with the flow here, and stay out of the way of whatever goes on. I just keep it clean and lock up when I can. If you're

stupid enough to go poking around, that's on you. I've said my piece. Well, that's not exactly reassuring. No, I don't imagine it is. Where to? Hey, are there any other taxis working tonight? Probably, but I'm the only one here here so you take it or leave it. Sorry no yeah it's just I'm looking for someone. Right. This guy Sam have you seen him tonight? I can't tell you that client confidentiality you know how it is. 50 quid? Yeah, I took him and a lady friend over to that creepy old shopping centre up Cowley Way. Weird, but I don't judge.

How fast can you get me there? This time of night? 10 minutes, easy. Wicked, you're on. Look, it's none of my business, but I'm not getting involved in any like crime of passion stuff, alright? I don't want to be a witness to anything. No, no, it's nothing like that, I promise. Now can we go? Sure. After I'll get the 50. Fair. Shut up!

Just one boring night. Is that so much to ask? Can't believe I'm still here after all these years. Looking after this place is as much about what you don't see as what you do. The first time I came here... The first time I came here I knew something wasn't right. I used to clean hospitals and I know what dried blood looks like. And here it... It was everywhere. I didn't believe it, of course.

Didn't let myself recognize it, but I still saw it, right from the start. In the corners, in the cracks. Was it from the victims of this awful place? Was it mixed into the concrete when it was first raised? Or do the buildings just bleed? Is this place a wound that never fully heals? I don't know, but on hot summer nights I can smell it. So I take the job. You wouldn't ask me if you could see my payslips for these last 30 years.

Life was bad when I met the owner. He smiled so wide, like he was so unbelievably pleased to be offering me such an opportunity. I asked about the blood, I couldn't help myself. He just smiled and added another ten grand to the salary. I didn't ask any other questions. I never even learned his name. From that moment on it was just the three of us. Me, the bloodstained silent concrete at the hilltop centre and the dock. In all my time I've never come during the day. It would break some strange unspoken rule. I don't know if anyone has ever come here shopping. I don't know what shops are still open.

I don't know if it closed down years ago and I'm just another ghost loitering amongst the great grey corpse. I know that it gets other visitors though. I know because I clean up bits of them sometimes. A patch of torn-out hair, a half-melted tooth, a rotted fingernail torn from the root. They're never enough to matter to anyone else. I try not to see these days. I ward people away at night, warn them that they shouldn't be here. Usually they listen, but not always. I remember the first time someone wouldn't turn away. It

was the winter of 97. A man staggered up to me, stinking a cheap booze and piss. He wanted to buy a lighter. I told him to leave. I told him that all the shops here were sh... He called me a liar. Then I noticed a light illuminating me from behind. One of the shopfronts, a newsagent I'd never paid much attention to, was open. And apparently always had been. What's more, there was a haggard yet eager old woman I'd never seen before stood behind the counter. I tried to warn the man, but he just shoved me out of the way and walked inside. I went to clean the far side of the centre and ignored the smell of burnt hair and charred

meat. It wasn't all death, though. Sometimes people arrived. Not often. But every now and then you'd find some thin, emaciated soul wandering around, lost and confused. Ambulance would come take him away. Maybe they're fine. But I died too. I only called the police once. Only once. It was the whimpering. There's always noises when you're cleaning, but you lock them up or curse them out and they shut up. By this time, it didn't. It just kept on going. And going. From one of the clothing stores near the east exit.

Patience, I think it was called. And this time I broke one of the unspoken rules. I had a look. At first there was nothing, just darkness and clothing and motionless mannequins. But the whimpering still filled the shop. I checked the mannequins and it was on the third one that I realised what was happening. Why the outfit was so mismatched. Why the clothes had been pinned in place. Why it was bleeding. Why it was whimpering. Of course, by the time the police finally bothered to turn up there was nothing to show them.

Her women had been taken when I went out to greet them, leaving only one more blood stain. I got a caution for wasting police time. It serves me right. The next day I got a call from the owner. He seconded him last time I ever heard his voice. He asked me if I was still happy working at the Hilltop Centre. He asked me if there was anything I wanted to know. He asked me where my daughter liked to shop. I was never curious again. Even when I found the owner dead in his office, with every blood vessel stripped from his

body and strung around the room in a grim trance cradle. I just closed the door and kept cleaning and the pay slips kept coming. I try to take time off. Holidays are important. If you're here too long, too irregular, you start to feel like you're part of the place. Like it's getting inside you, making you a fixture. That's when I take the caravan and get some space. Remind myself of the world. Because at the end of the day it's just a job. But I still dream of the hilltop. In my dream it waits for me.

Silent, grey and eager for my company. Its concrete bones are streaked through with blood like rippled ice cream and I reach out for it. It's soft and cold and yielding. And then the gritty mixture snakes up my arm and begins to harden. It pulls me onward, scraping off skin tearing muscle until I finally fall. It is rough and cold and silent and shy. The world is locked away and when I open my mouth to scream, the cold grey pours down my throat and it fills my stomach with stone. It fills my stomach with stone, fills my lungs with gravel,

and my blood, my blood. We are saved all. It is me and I am it and we are. We are. The lights are gone. So use your phone.

Oh, yeah. Alice? Seventeen, Mr. Walz. Yeah. You gonna call her back or...? She can wait. Besides, I want to look around. There's not much to see. Yeah. They must have completely cleared it out. If they were ever here in the first place. Maybe we should... There it is.

You've got something? Stairs to the basement. Great spot. Well... after you. And they say Shivery's dead. Look, last time I went to a basement, I accidentally released a monster, so... Come on. Do you hear that? I hear it.

Do you see that? Yeah, I see it What is it Look how it splits the light like a prism It's so beautiful Celia do you know what this is? Almost. Wait, what does that mean?

It's complicated. Then simplify it. Sam, listen. For God's sake, Celia, enough, okay? I'm sorry, but enough. I know you want your privacy, but we are way too deep for that now My head's killing me. I'm staring at God knows what and there's some creature on its way to record us to death or whatever So enough

No more mysteries. No more cryptic glues and weird half-truths. Just for once I want to know what the hell is actually going on Just for once, I want to know what the hell is actually going on. It's a wound in the world. A tear between here and where I came from. And it wants me back. What are you saying? It's unbalanced. What? The Institute, Alchemy, all of it. It's all about balance. Dua Prima, four elements, seven planets, it's all the same. You've got

to keep things balanced. And if something is missing, if someone is misplaced, the equation doesn't balance and that's when things get bad. Bad how? It keeps pulling me back closer and closer it won't let me stay. But you don't want to go back. I don't remember much of how I got here. But I know there's nothing to go back to. Here I have a life. I have Jack. He needs me.

I have to balance it for him. What are we doing here, Celia? All this digging? The OIAR? The Magnus Institute? You just wanted to get me here. To make me trust you so that what? You could just use me to pay off some kind of cosmic debt? It was your idea to come here tonight. Was it? I'm sorry, Sam. So it was all a lie? Not all of it. I really did like you.

So what's the problem? We're here, Alice won't make it in time, and I know you're carrying that knife. What happens now? You push me? Stab me? Oh, do I need to jump in myself? Come on! What's stopping you? What's stopping you, Celia? I...

I don't... When I first awoke, I knew nothing. Nothing but the dream of things that sliced my who from me with When I first awoke, I knew nothing. Nothing but the dream of things that sliced my who from me with claws like scalps. Oh, God. They would hunt me and toy with what it meant to be me, peeling away my layers, first my name, then my memory, and then...

You're away from her! She's too young. She's too young. And then the fearless one reached in and grasped me, tore me out, leaving my story to fall away like autumn leaves. I can't leave her alone! This is it. Cool. And like I told the others, there's nothing here, so if you want me to hang around... Sam? Celia? Celia? Sam? Sam? Oh God. Oh God no, please. Sam is that... and silent and whole.

We are the hilltop. We are the hilltop. We are. Not again. Sam! Celia! God. Lena? You dark horse. This is the OIAR.

Bouchard speaking. Hello Gwen. Just do what I was after. Oh, that's, that is to say, what can I do for you, Minister? I'm guessing since it's you picking up, you've spoken with Lena then. Oh yes, she left. Didn't make too much of a scene I hope. Picking up, you've spoken with Lena then? Oh, yes, she, er... She left. Didn't make too much of a scene, I hope.

Difficult business after all. Oh, no. Not at all. Great. In that case, congratulations in order. I'm sure you'll do a fine job. I'm sorry? I'll get someone to put the paperwork across your desk first thing tomorrow and make it official. But, let's not stand on ceremony. As far far as I'm concerned you're the ringmaster now when are you still there yes yes still here so what do you want what should I do don't worry about

me I'll stay out your way. I've never been one to micromanage. You have my full support. Right. Anyway, I won't keep you. Congratulations again and best of luck. Huh. Ha. Sam? Celia? Alice? Alice! Down here! Celia!

Celia! Where's Sam? We've got to get out of here. That archivist thing, it followed you, it might be... What... what is that? What happened? Where's that? What happened? Where's Sam? It attacked us. He tried to stop it, to protect me, even though... They're gone, Alice. They're gone.

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 4.0 International License. The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J. Newell and directed by Alexander J. Newell. This episode was written by Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander Jane Yorke, with vocal edits by Lorie Ann Davis and Nico Vitesse, soundscaping by Tess of Ruum and mastering by Catherine Rinella with music by Sam Jones. It featured Billy Hindle as Alistair, Shahan Hamza as Samama Khalid, Anusha Batasbi as Gwen Bouchard, Lorie Ann Davis as Celia Ripley, Ryan Hope Veer Anderson as Alistair, Shahan Hamza as Samama Khalid, Anusha Batasbi as Gwen Bouchard,

Lowry Ann Davis as Celia Ripley, Ryan Hope Veer Anderson as Colin Becker, Sarah Lambie as Lena Kelly, with additional voices from Beth Eyre. The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner, with executive producers Alexander Janual, Danny McDonough, Lin Sze, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton, and associate producers Jordan L. Hawke, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius de Raven and Megan Nice.

To subscribe, view associated materials or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com Rate and reviews online, tweet us at The Rusty Quill Hi everyone, it's Billy here, the voice of Alice in The Magnus Protocol. Today I'm here to advertise Never Let Go, a new psychological horror film from the director of The Hills Have Eyes and the executive producers of Stranger Things, starring Halle Berry. When an unspeakable evil takes over the world, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and strong bond. Needing to stay connected at all times, even tethering themselves with ropes, they must cling to one another and never let go.

However, when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, the ties that bind them together are severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival. See Never Let Go in Canadian theatres from September 20th. Minute Maid Zero Sugar tastes so great it sells itself, so we didn't bother to write bad.