#martin + tapes

[see-arcane]

Next episode,

Georgie, full gravity, hitting play on an old tape: Did the Archivist sound...like this?

Jon recording: --Statement begins. [INSERT HORRORS]

Sam: Oh my god

Sam: You guys know Chester?

[starfall-xo]

2024 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees as VHS tapes by @ShawnMansfield

[bardic-irritation]

losing my mind what do you mean martin is canonically Down Bad for jon? and jon is canonically ace? these were casually confirmed in the span of like 30 seconds? i thought those were just the typical in-denial fanbase headcanons, they're REAL?!?

[y3llow-hoodie]

[tape-deck]

i've been listening to season one of the magnus archives recently and

[sweetmapple]

Totally normal performance review WIP

[moominmammaonhero1n]

I’m sorry this is all I have please take it please

Also these are the same MAGP designs I came up with when it first came out without any fandom reference and I think it’s so funny everyone has some how drawn Gwen the same like please

[theendorisit]

apropos of nothing, I made Tape-E

Who is Tape-E?

During one of the TMA livestreams (trying to remember which one), a fan question was asked ‘Is there a mascot (for the Archives or the show itself not sure)?’ One of the team suggested ‘Tape-y?’, to which everyone else responded with ‘Oh no!!’. So I thought, oh yes! So yeah, this is your fault 😘

What is Tape-E?

As Mr Bonzo is a parody of Mr Blobby, Tape-E is a parody of Clippy (these last two names rhyme).

Who is Clippy?

Clippy was a microsoft office assistant, introduced in 1997. He was a little virtual paperclip (officially called Clippit, but that name never caught on) who sat on the bottom right corner of the page, and was programmed to give advice in popup speech bubbles when certain actions were taken. For example, if you wrote out an address and ‘Dear’, Clippy would say ‘Looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?’. The name Tape-E in the livestream seemed to be referring to Clippy, as there are many similarities in the behaviour of Clippy, and the actual tapes/ tape recorders in-universe:

always on by default

appears at inconvenient times

provides help you do not want

hated by (mostly) everyone

watching you with cold dead eyes

enjoyed by nostalgia and retro seekers

Why make Tape-E?

As I am of the same generation as some of the RQ peeps, I unironically loved Clippy and Mr Blobby as a child, and it gives me great joy to imagine, in the TMP universe, Sam getting a little pop up: ‘Looks like you’re trying to code a case file! Would you like some help with that?’ In our world this would be impossible - Windows NT (as the official name) was dropped in 1996, one year before Clippy was born, BUT there is voice recording on TMP’s ancient computers, so it’s not totally impossible! 😅😁

What are cassette tapes?

Just a little recap for those who didn’t grow up with tapes: Cassette Tapes contain information embedded in magnetic tape, wrapped around one spool and attached to a second spool. When played, the spools are turned by the machine and the magnetic tape is wound onto the other spool, the information read out through speakers as the magnetic tape moves through sensors. As the magnetic tape can contain different information depending on the direction of tape movement, you can flip the cassette tape over in the machine, and play the tape again, hearing another load of information. This concept is never utilised in the show, but it does mean that cassette tapes have A-sides, and B-sides (as Vinyl records do). Here, of course, this stands for Archivist-side, and Brutalpipemurder-side. On occasion, the magnetic tapes would become damaged, or bent, and could be pushed out of the cassette, causing a horrible noise, and terror to small children who were only trying to listen to their Just William tapes. When this happened, a pencil (or in my case, my little finger) could be jammed into the spiky spool ‘teeth’, to rewind the magnetic tape back into the cassette. Maybe that’s why the eyes are red? 🩸 I am very glad that the TMA tapes are magic, and record endlessly, never need flipping, and never get chewed up by the hungry machine.

Why is the name Tape-E?

Canon answer: the name stands for Tape-Eyes. Possibly Tape-Entity? Undecided.

Actual answer: Tape-y, Tapey and Tapie spellings look weird to me. I think Tape-E looks best.

Why a tape and not a tape recorder?

if you can crochet a tape recorder, you’re a genius and I love you.

What gender is Tape-E?

I might refer to Tape-E as male sometimes because that’s how people often referred to Clippy. But Tape-E is whatever gender Tape-E feels like being.

Why now?

Why not? also now is a good time because TMP episode 15 is an excellent episode

What’s going to happen to Tape-E?

I’m going to gift it to Jonny sometime, if we get more liveshows or book signings. It’s his fault this exists after all. Plus you can write whatever you like in the speech bubbles! Hopefully I can give it calmly? But maybe Tape-E will be yeeted in his general direction in a fit of ADHD-fuelled social anxiety. Only time will tell.

Tape-E is a pattern and design created entirely by myself. The inspiration and world building from whence it came, is entirely the genius of @jonnywaistcoat Jonny Sims, Rusty Quill @rqbossman and The Magnus Archives, which is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution, non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license.

Clippy was invented by Microsoft and Kevan Atteberry, who now illustrates children’s books.

Mr Blobby is an adorable abomination, created from a fevered mind.

[supplemental-i-am-in-the-tunnels]

reposts from our main account, i'll hopefully draw more but i'm not much of an artist

[agentlove]

Then finally, after what seemed like forever, a stupid, arrogant, little man cut the webs and set the monster free.

[eldister]

Happy (late) mothers day

(Harmony and Horror x The Walten Files)

[sewaryka]

i'm doing horrible and i'm trying to imagine jonathan sims telling me it'll be okay to cope but i'll be honest it's a bit of a challenge cause basically everything i come up with is followed by 'he'd not say that' in my brain

[mxflowercheck]

The more tape recorders turn on by themselves the more I think about tape recorders having personalities.

There should be one that despises Elias. Whenever he speaks, recording gets jumbled, his voice is squeaky, there are random ass shrieks at the background, that were not there in reality.

Also the one, that hates cold. Absolutely refuses to work if you left a window open in winter. You need to put a literal scarf around it for it work when it's a bit chilly

And the one that dislikes a particular tea brand and will not work if there's a cup with it near. Once Martin brought two cups and the very second he opened the door recorder just stopped dead. Jon had to ban this tea in the Archives.

[artistlikestodoodle]

Been up since 3 am and can’t sleep, so here’s more H&H junk

And this too ig

It was a vision I had long ago

[lovelyladzzzz]

Martin after Jon comes back but doesn’t really: I hate it here. I hate everyone that is here. I hate myself. I hate Elias. I hate God who put me on this Earth only to suffer. But most of all I hate the fact that HE ISNT HERE!

Basira pretending to read a book next to him: Damn… that’s rough bud.

[forgotten-glasses]

Found this mysterious cassette…

Jk

I recorded the first episode of tma on a blank cassette and it makes me so happy !