#the Blackwood tapes

[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?!?

[magic-dustt]

The way I would sell my soul just to have one person who would be willing to lie on the floor with me and listen to my favorite podcasts. Am I asking for too much? I know you'd like Limetown, I know you'd like TMA, I know you'd like Archive 81. Why won't anyone just lie on the floor with me, goddammit…

[golyadkin]

professional courtesy? don't know her

[moominmammaonheroin]

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.

[orderforbrian]

erm.....😳😳😳😳 POV: you are about to learn what the K stands for

(aka i want tma2 to consist of a very disgruntled martin finally getting the murder spree he didn't get to have in s5 feat. jon stuck in a tape recorder helping him when he's not swooning)

(and yes, this is fully based off lollipop chainsaw fjdsklfjsdl)

[Start ID: Digital drawing of Martin Blackwood from The Magnus Archives. Martin is a fat mixed Polish/Korean man with shoulder length, brown wavy hair that has a streak of grey in one bang. He wears browline glasses, one side obscured by a lens glare. He has a beauty mark under hip lip and a scruffy beard. He is wearing a cableknit blue sweater underneath a teddylined brown jacket, which has some dried bloodstains, and is also wearing jeans with a belt. He is looking up with a vengeful gaze and sneer, and is breathing out a puff of white fog. At his waist, he is gripping a chainsaw. The chainsaw has blue markings on certain hardware and the blade has two blue hearts in the metal at the front and back. At Martin's right hip is a carabiner in one of his belt loops, attached to it is a black tape recorder. The tape inside has green lines on it and each spool has a dot of green (representing Jon's eyes). Above the tape recorder is a bubble with a disembodied face in it (meant to be Jon). Jon has purple and green eyes with white glowing pupils, and is blushing, appearing to be flustered by his husband's state.

There are multiple arrows with text pointing around the picture. "Vengeful gaze" points to Martin's face. "Lonely, Eye, and Web aligned. Read: Ur fucked" also points to Martin's face. "Bloodstained jacket (apocalypse vintage)" points to his jacket. "Big arms (for poetry and cuddling) (and violence)" points to his arms. "Sorry boys, he's taken" points to a gold wedding band on Martin's left hand. "This chainsaw kills avatars" points to the chainsaw. "Husband (he's a tape recorder) (long story)" points to Jon as the tape recorder. End ID.]

some closeups

[the-four-eyed-stray]

I loved the part in the Magnus Archives where Jane Prentiss said "it's wormin' time," and wormed all over the place

[dracosomniac]

Magnus yarnwork masterpost

I've been forgetting to upload some of these, so have the whole collection as one post

All original pixel art is from @podaliedja !! Used with permission!

[ghostofchaos-past]

last night i couldnt sleep cause i was scared of the current political climate and what did i do? wrote out an entire scenario of what would happen if sam and celia went and found archives jmart

[mice-and-moonbeams]

Hi yes I would like to start down this rabbit hole please because I'm totally normal about this ... I am convinced Jon and Martin are part of a tape drive. It links with the tapes from TMA and the trailer for TMP especially with the opening computer screen (I already posted about my thoughts on that).

What is a tape drive?

A tape drive is a device that stores computer data on magnetic tape, especially for backup and archiving purposes. Like an ordinary tape recorder, a tape drive records data on a loop of flexible celluloidlike material that can be read and also erased.

Tape drives differ from hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) in the way data is read and written to the storage media. Tapes store data sequentially, whereas HDDs and SSDs use rotating disks with rapidly moving seek heads, nonmoving flash memory or similar technology to transfer data.

Drives come in many sizes and capabilities. They are sold as standalone units or stacked in data center racks, creating tape libraries. The tapes themselves are often housed in sealed cassettes that can be inserted into the drive and activated.

There are several benefits to using tape drives, particularly for backup and archival uses. They include the following:

Capacity. Tapes have a large capacity for storing data when compared to HDDs.

Low cost. They are economical when compared to other storage media.

Life span. Tapes stored in a suitable environment can last for decades, an important factor for archival storage.

Transportable. Tapes can be easily moved from one location to another and are considered off-line storage.

Disaster recovery. Tape is often the storage medium of choice for data backup and DR. Storing critical systems and data on tape creates an air gap between systems that are at risk from cyber attacks simply by removing the tape cassette from the drive.

Security. Today, tapes support encryption such as Advanced Encryption Standard-256 and provide varying levels of data protection.

[several-ravens]

omg jonathan sims are we finally agreeing on something???

[ravelqueen]

I love how in s4 the tape recorders have apparently turned into adorable pet thingies connected to Jon's consciousness (?), Martin being concerned it might be bored or out of batteries is just so !!!!

I'm sure Jonny is going to make them malicious in short order but for now I'll delight in the idea of a tape recorder materialising in Martin's sad isolation chamber of an office looking for pets

[starrodent]

school is brutally beating my ass with a pipe so here are some doodles

[kai-in-the-korner]

i have made a wonderful financial decision

my friend and i were at a thrift shop earlier and they had a bunch of older (80s and 90s) vhs tapes and me (the guy who doesn’t own a damn vhs player) bought a bunch

one of which…

was top gun…

it is now my life mission to get the box signed by as many people from the cast that I can

[theblankest123]

Man....... tma episode 170 actually made me fucking cry like

MARTIN NOOOOOO AAAUUUUUU 😰😭

[iris-of-the-eye]

* You try to reason with Martin.

* He isn't listening.

You ever have two hyperfixations crash and make an au? TMA Deltarune au baybieeeee. It takes place post-MAG 200 and features a very desperate Martin trying to bring Jon back. I can and will talk more about it.