#tma-taxonomy

[atthecenterofeverything]

"even if you don't personally identify with the label x, it's important to have a word to describe our common experiences. it's crucial we have a word we can all rally under. if it objectively describes you, it's useful as a way to organize and find community"

why is this label, specifically, and not another, considered the gold standard? what rhetorical weight does the idea of an "objective description" pull? when did this specific label arise and under what material conditions? what do the majority of the people who identify with this term look like? where do they come from and where do they live? what language is this label in? who do you include in those "common experiences", and who do you exclude? what taxonomizing system does identifying with this label make you a part of - what other words are the counterparts to your label within this system, and how did they arise? how have these systems been imposed and maintained throughout history, and in parallel to which other violent phenomena? what does it imply about the permanence of the self or a certain coherence of experiences throughout one's life? where does the idea of identity-based organizing (of fighting back based on a word we all find ourselves in) come from? where does the idea of identifying come from? how would you handle someone enduring violence who refuses, flatly, to claim this term or any other that you understand as coherent and in good faith? how would you handle someone enduring violence who claims that their label is the one that should be the gold standard, and everyone else should adapt to it? do you assume that everyone refusing any engagement with your taxonomizing system is unserious, apolitical, privileged, stupid, short-sighted, idealist? since when, and why?

[saintbleeding]

i think it is very interesting how tma spends. a great deal of time saying “maybe somewhat arbitrarily sorting things into binaries and made up unhelpful taxonomies is not the most productive worldview or method of approaching complex things like personhood”. and then. Well

[autisticandroids]

I was thinking about tma and I have a thought about it but idk if maybe ppl would think it's kind of??? A cop out??? Idk but like my thought on this is like tma hinges on Smirkes 14 which- I strongly agree with you- is a patently stupid system of organizing the fears but tbh I feel like that stupidity strengthens tmas themes of cosmic horror and its critique of the philosophical ripples of 1. Enlightenment era ideas of empiricism and the resurgence of those sorts of attitudes in Victorian times (aka slotting all data into taxonomies regardless of their actual accuracy- for example in the real world Race Science comes to mind an inaccurate, arbitrary, stupid, harmful taxonomy developed out of whole cloth to harm and exploit the vulnerable. I consider smirkes 14 to be analogous to that sort of thing- the human impulse towards pattern seeking taken to the logical extreme of applying arbitrary and harmful taxonomies as though they have any internal accuracy when they just dont) 2. Entrenched English systems of power that assert themselves thru institutions- in this case aristocracy and academia (Jonah magnus, the magnus archives itself, the fairchildes, and the Lukas family explicitly. In terms of metaphor I consider those that serve the fears to sort of be metaphorically resonant w those irl who uphold unfair hierarchies such as monarchy or aristocracy. It even kind of plays out in the granular interpersonal workplace dynamics of the archive wherein martin - working class bg- had to fake his cv to get a job and is subsequently mistreated by his boss for not being competent or how Sasha was passed over for a promotion a she was clearly better suited for by a man who was not as qualified)

I don't think this is just a watsonian reading of something poorly written btw (tho tma definitely has its flaws and this interpretation still doesn't necessarily have to retroactively justify this writing choice.) I think it was intended to be understood this way since there are allusions in-text to the Christian parable of the blind men and the elephant and at another point someone (I think it was peter Lukas?) describes Robert smirkes 14 fears as analogous to an ants perception of a human hand descending upon it (paraphrasing here but like something like "would an ant perceive these massive separate appendages descending upon it as a single entity- fingers on a hand- or would the shear massiveness and incomprehensibility render each finger a unique tormentor, separate and independent, all torturing the ant.")

Sorry to be out of the blue but ur one of the few ppl I see critiquing the tma pantheon on the grounds that it's bad (which it is) and I was curious what u might think of what I had to say here

ok this is aggressive haterism so i'm not putting it in the tag and if you are super super super into the magnus archives this isn't meant as an attack or whatever this is just me doing criticism for fun.

so okay. i get wanting to view it this way because if you are trying to work with the text to come to an interpretation that is like. good. then this makes sense. so like this makes sense as an interpretation, but it doesn't really work for me because my critique is more doylist and also less willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

so part one is. in the end. i just think that the fourteen fears make the stories themselves worse. like i think that real human author jonathan sims is "writing to the fears" as in, he is writing horror stories to slot specifically into these little categories. which make his horror stories less interesting. both because he tends to invent cliches for himself and then double back to them and also for more reasons i will discuss later. so on a very basic "i want [MEDIA PRODUCT] to be good (as in fun and enjoyable to consume), and this is making it bad (as in kinda boring)" level, i think this isn't really a justification, you know? like you can say you made the thing bad on purpose but it's still bad. very occasionally a thing being bad on purpose as a self-reflexive critique makes it good, but not as often as just being good in the first place does.

and then part two is. i think you could argue that tma is a critique of the victorian urge to categorize and rationalize things but it's also just. an example of it. the fourteen fears make the individual stories hostile to analysis because they attempt to pre-chew and pre-analyze the stories, assigning them preexisting meanings so that they are already made-sense-of. this hampers them as horror (see part one) because for really good horror you need a sense of otherness a sense of uncanny and if you're like oh this one is the stranger and this one is the eye and etc. it lends a fundamental knowability that just. deflates them. but then also it means you can't analyze them and it's like.

okay. case study. so did you guys remember that tma has a mummy curse episode? i do. it's like flabbergasting to me that tma unironically has a mummy curse episode that's like. you know that's old school racist. are you serious? but like okay. analytically. the episode comes *pre-chewed*. because we know which power this is. this is terminus. this is death. so the underlying fear in this story is the fear of death. that's how we are *meant* to understand this tale. but like be serious. any idiot with half a brain can like, comprehend the underlying anxiety of The Mummy's Curse: it's a story about what if all the tomb raiding, the grave robbing, the mummy eating, in short all of the colonial violence done to things, which is only possible because of all the colonial violence done to people, came back to bite you. it's the anxiety of the colonizer, manifest guilt about what they have done to the colonized. and as much as jonny sims is essentially just copying his influences, those victorian stories he loves so much, that's still what it's about. hell, sims knows this: the reason the woman in the story is so unlikable, so greedy and grasping, so unsympathetic is that jonny sims is soothing his own anxiety: "well i want to write a mummy curse episode, but what if people think i, a white british man writing a mummy curse episode, am racist? what if they think i don't know colonialism is bad? better put a little 'colonialism is bad, mmmmmmmmkay?' opener in to make sure no one thinks i'm racist." but of course the other thing he does is he attempts to gut the story of that unpleasant little meaning. oh it's not the anxiety of the colonizer. it's not about the violence of the victorian era. it's just about death. well, phew, i'm glad i don't have to think about that.

and i'm using the mummy curse one as a case study but that's EVERYTHING. that's EVERYTHING. oh this story about being trapped in an infinite factory where you work isn't processing the horrors of work or of the violence inherent in every product under capitalism that you will never seen or of alienation or of bodies, this is just the fear of slaughterhouse animals. oh this clone of the most dangerous game isn't about colonialism or about dehumanizing people into animals it's just about the fears of literal animals. oh this fucking guy marrying a bug isn't processing any anxieties about sex or our bodies it's just fear of disease. like it flattens everything. the meaning of horror is super overdetermined, i'm not even saying that the mummy curse, which has a pretty obvious meaning as the anxiety of the colonizer, necessarily means only that! it's can certainly also be about death and about a thousand other things. stuff has multiple meanings. but the fourteen fears method rejects overdetermination, meaning bounces off these stories. and that makes them a lot more comfortable: you don't have to deal with the miserable, horrible, sick, reactionary underpinnings of horror stories, the way they (all horror stories, really) function to guard the boundaries of our sick society with slavering hateful jaws, if you just pretend they're about fear of heights or whatever.

like to be clear my argument here is that it's kind of impossible to make horror without reactionary elements so i'm not really criticizing jonny sims for Not doing that, and i'm also not arguing that jonny sims intentionally tried to build an anti-critique wall into his stories by inventing the fourteen fears, i'm just arguing that he kind of did and that makes the stories worse. and i think the way it rejects meaning is unconsciously self-protective from having to see the more unpleasant meaning of the work. and is therefore in itself kind of reactionary.

and i'm also criticizing him for writing a mummy curse episode because come on man, are you serious? but that's not as related to my larger point. though i do think his critique-proof wall shields him from noticing the implications.

part two point five: also i will not give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was trying to kind of fix this issue with season five because season five was worse. guy who learned about progressive politics from twitter last year type understanding of systemic critique. guy who writes every character arc as a kind of Very Special Episode about Important Progressive Topic Of The Day but mostly only because he's scared of getting cancelled on twitter type critique. like horror is overdetermined. "My Horror Show Now Only Does #Issue Episodes Where I Make Systemic Critique For Babies" is a dumb way of reflecting on the way your overarching premise is kind of unintentionally an attempt to make your horror stories critique-proof. not that i necessarily think that was why season five was like that, i just think he got swept up in trying to make Progressive Media, but if it WAS it wouldn't be adequate.

part three: i think the "fingers of a hand" thing was a post-hoc justification because he sort of noticed his fears are a bit stupid. and i think, circle back to part one, that it doesn't solve the fundamentally doylist problem of the stories being written to the fears.

part four: on a very basic sort of ancient greek philosophy type level i just think the fourteen fears are not beautiful and true. quite frankly mister sims, if i was trying to divide all the world's fear into knowable categories, i would not make fucking fourteen of them! that's simultaneously too many and too few! and it's not even a nice number! i would not for some reason collapse together the fear of spiders and the fear of mind control! i would not split the fear of disease from the fear of the fact that we are all bodies with flesh! i would not make the fear of otherness mostly about clowns!

i would not different the hunt from the slaughter from the desolation you FUCKING BUFFOON.

^directed at jonny sims.

anyway thank you for the ask that was fun. i feel like i exorcised a demon out of my body.

[hatsoffiguess]

re: The Magnus Protocol 22

Getting my thoughts down before I dare scroll through the tag, that episode has me less internally screaming and more sitting in stunned silence. Because it's like a bomb was dropped, but it hasn't gone off yet. Ending the episode after thoss name drops was evil

Anyways, my first thought about the message that came through in the case is that it's probably Jon, Martin, and Jonah, right?? Right?? Like, just by itself it's not massively conclusive, but Jon and Martin being directly mentioned after that kind of confirm it for me.

On that note, this episode had me thinking something that in hindsight I could have considered before, but didn't, and that's that [ERROR] and "jmj.error" would make sense to be connected.

I was already leaning towards [ERROR] being in some way connected to Jon, and the possible hints of the TMA theme when they showed up lend towards it being from that universe at least. But the main thing for me is the possessiveness over the OIAR employees; how would [ERROR] know of them? Unless, perhaps, they happened to be connected to or part of the computers there that are watching them. The same computers with Jon and Martin's voices- and possibly Jonah's as well.

There's already the common theory that jmj.error refers to Jon, Martin, Jonah, so there's that. But this episode could imply, with all the "I" and "WE" stuff going on in this episode, that they came through as some kind of amalgam. Or, alternatively, if [ERROR] isn't directly just some physical, external manifestation of the three, maybe "jmj.error" is really "Jon, Martin, Jonah, [ERROR]", in some way.

The real question is: if this is "Somewhere Else", and this is where the fears, Jon, and Martin ended up after TMA, (and Jonah who's body was in the room), what happened to the Web and Annabelle? It seems like if this is the fears, they got changed a bit (unless it's purely a matter of taxonomy influencing manifestation), did the Web have control of that? Or was it unwittingly changed as well? And Annabelle said she'd go where the Web went. So where did she end up?

Final thought, not related to this episode specifically, but I saw the theory that TMA Celia killed TMP Celia before realising that Jack existed, which I thought was interesting and possible! But then I realised that Celia wasn't originally her name, so probably not. Also, Celia clearly knows something is up with the computers and seems pretty chill + chatty with them. Has she already got it all figured out? Is that anything to do with her bringing up Jon and Martin? Cannot wait to see where this goes.

[danthediamondminecart]

So all this questions are very random and these have been renting free in my head for a while. I don't know why on earth was I so nervous to ask the questions but here I am.

1.) I am more of a new fan so first one is gonna be simple question. So, when did you start the TMA au and what is full form of "TMA". Since you have been posting arts of it I thought it would be good for me to just catch up with the context.

2.) I can NOT be the only one who thinks PinkLeaf and TanqR are like human versions of Yin-Yang☯️. Now I know this is not a question but I still wanted to know if there was anyone else who thought of this way. Everything from their personality and even their colour palette, it is the complete polar opposite of each other. Even their uhh... roles (look I forgot the word), it is the complete opposite. PinkLeaf is an angel and TanqR is a demon. The two common things they have is that they are from Robloxia and they both have been a competitor of RB Battles.

3.) When are we getting TanqR's backstory? Like this guy is a literal man of mystery. I really need to know it to clear my questions from the BLSMP like, "Is he different from other demons? (If there WAS other demons that actually exist) or is he like every single demon we know.", "What does he mean 'I am more use to the cold'? Is he from a cold frosty place or something?", "Why did he have a mental breakdown when he broke the deal? Did anything like this ever happen to him in the past?".

4.) I feel like all these questions will be related with TanqR and PinkLeaf but speaking towards the TanqR's side, why does he hate PinkLeaf so much? I know this will be one of the classic 'A Demon hates An Angel' thing but is this really the reason or is there anything else about it or am I questioning the very obvious answer ever.

5.) And last but not least, What's PinkLeaf's relationship with IBella? I know I know, another very obvious answer, but still, I am still curious to know the very obvious answer that everyone knows.

Ok, that's all my questions! ':D

Lotsa Tanqr and Pink questions, lets go!! And don't be afraid to ask me questions, I love talking about my RBB headcanons bc I barely get to talk about em lol

Q1) TMA stands for The Magnus Archives! The Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution non-comme Ahem. The Magnus Archives is a horror podcast! I love TMA because of the way it treats fear and the supernatural - it has a super interesting taxonomy and the worldbuilding is great. I'f you're like me though, you might not like the main cast much, lol. I'd recommend listening to it if you're able to handle the content! (I'm sure Episode 6 will put people who are too young off). The TMA AU is me taking that excellent worldbuilding and throwing the RBBers into that world. To see what they do.

Q2) I actually have a different opinion - Tanqr and KreekCraft are the opposites. They're the perfect example of the Red Oni Blue Oni trope (a trope that I absolutely love), where Kreek is the loud, overzealous, vaguely insane one, and Tanqr is the sarcastic, laid-back and controlled one, but both are confident victors with a love for contest. Their colour schemes even match! Though interestingly, they do the opposite of what their 'oni' normally does - Kreek is the Red Oni, but he specialises in puzzles and intelligence, Tanqr is the Blue Oni but he specialises in combat and fighting. It's a fun dynamic that I love exploring, as you can tell by the fact that I almost always have them butting heads in some way no matter the AU. To me, PinkLeaf is the Purple (or, well, Pink) Oni - the one in the middle, the third party. He's not loud like the other two, he's got a different playstyle, but...he's still equally competitive, he's still equally as ready to win as the other two.

Q3) Maybe one day - but not during BLSMP. BLSMP focuses on the present, on the there and now, backstories (aside from what's relevant, like the previous life games and RB Battles Season 2) won't be delved into at all. But I have written him a backstory! I encourage you to refer back to this post for more information on him. To answer your more specific questions:

A little personality wise - his brutality and bloodlust isn't a common factor between demons, that's a Tanqr thing. Otherwise, no.

Yes, other demons exist. Hoopie and Rainway are two of them.

He just prefers cold temperatures! See the post I linked for details.

Demons value deals as their main form of commerce and often their morality revolves around them. So Tanqr basically just broke important demon code, even if it was by accident. (He would be forgiven for that, but because he's not spent enough time around other demons, he doesn't know that.)

He's never broken a deal before, if that's what your asking. He sticks to the words of his deals - loopholes or not.

Q4) As per this shitpost - Tanqr doesn't hate Pink because he's an angel. He has no problem with them. He hates PinkLeaf because he's a little bitc--

Okay, but in all seriousness, they hate each other because they're both scared of / annoyed by each other. Tanqr hates anyone he sees as a 'threat' to his standing and position - so Kreek and Pink both fall into this category, due to being able to match and surpass his skill in certain areas.

Q5) Close friends! Bella pushes Pink to do things he'd not normally do due to his cowardice, Pink pulls Bella back from doing anything stupid due to her recklessness. Of course Bella has recently becoeme good friends with Kreek too, and Kreek and Pink don't mesh that well together, but they try for Bella's sake.

Thank you for asking!!

[landscaping-your-mind]

I know I said I wasn't going to post another TMA fic, but I've been getting into it a bit more, so here goes. It's a vampire AU! It's not complete, but I have been working on it on and off. I never thought i'd actually finish it enough to post, but here's a first bit :3

---

Jon hates job interviews, especially ones he’s not qualified for. But he wasn’t qualified for research, either, with a degree in literature, so it can’t hurt to try. Besides, if he doesn’t get the job, he might get the assistant archivist position, learn a few things. All in all, it’s going to be good for him.

His anxiety is not convinced.

“Mr. Sims?” calls Mr. Bouchard, leaning out of his office. Jon stands up and takes a deep breath. The worst he can do is say no.

Mr. Bouchard ushers Jon into his office, closing the door behind him, and taking a seat in his chair. Jon sits in the other, and tries his best not to look as anxious as he feels.

“So, tell me, why do you think you are the right fit for this job?”

Jon recites his rehearsed speech about how he’s committed to the preservation of documents, deemed both important and not, about the skills he learned in research, his own interest in anthropological research into the supernatural and his disappointment in the state of the archives disorganisation. It’s convincing, he’ll say so himself, and as he talks, he thinks he can see Elias warm up to him.

Hello, Jon. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself. I’m assuming you’re alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn’t try too hard to stop reading; there’s every likelihood you’ll just hurt yourself. So just listen.

Now, shall we turn the page and try again?

Statement of Jonah Magnus regarding Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.

Statement begins.

I hope you’ll forgive me the self-indulgence, but I have worked so very hard for this moment, a culmination of two centuries of work. It’s rare that you get the chance to monologue through another, and you can’t tell me you’re not curious.

Why does a man seek to destroy the world?

It’s a simple enough answer: for immortality and power. Uninspired, perhaps, but – my god. The discovery, not simply of the dark and horrible reality of the world in which you live, but that you would quite willingly doom that world and confine the billions in it to an eternity of terror and suffering, all to ensure your own happiness, to place yourself beyond pain and death and fear.

It is an awful thing to know about yourself, but the freedom, John, the freedom of it all. I have dedicated my life to handing the world to these Dread Powers all for my own gain, and I feel… nothing but satisfaction in that choice.

I am to be a king of a ruined world, and I shall never die.

I believe there are far more people in this world that would take that bargain than you would ever guess. And I have beaten all of them.

Of course, this desire did not manifest overnight. When Smirke first gathered our little band – Lukas, Scott, and the rest – to discuss and hypothesize on the nature of the things he had learned from Rayner, I felt what I believe we all felt: curiosity, and fear.

But as he compiled his taxonomy and codified his theories on the grand rituals, I began to develop a very specific concern. Smirke was so obsessed with his ideas on balance, even as our fellows began to experiment and fall to the service of our patrons.

I began to worry that if one of them successfully attempted their ritual, then I would be as much a victim as any, trapped in the nightmare landscape of a twisted world.

At first, I attempted prevention, but the cause seemed hopeless. The only way to ensure I did not suffer the tribulations of what I believed to be an inevitable transformation was to bring it about myself. So what began as an experiment soon became a race.

Beyond that, I was getting older, and mortality began to weigh more heavily on my mind. How much in this world is done because we fear death, the last and greatest terror?

I convinced Smirke to work on Millbank, leading him to design it as a temple to all the Fears in equilibrium, such that my own modifications to the design of the Panopticon went… unremarked.

It. Took. Years, for the dread of the prisoners to fully suffuse the place, and I was an old man before I made my first attempt at the Watcher’s Crown, sat in the center of that colossal eye, the great ring of cells encircling me like a coronet.

It was… flawed, of course, as all Smirke’s rituals were, and none of the inmates survived as the power I attempted to harness shook the building almost to pieces, and the murky swamp upon which the prison was built consumed it.

But it left me a gift: For sat in that watchtower, I could see everything I turned my mind to.

It was a dizzying power, and one I discovered I maintained even as I found vessels to extend my life. Of course, I had to make sure the location was kept under my control while I worked on revising my plans, and so I moved the organization I had founded to assist in my research down to London, and the Institute as you know it was born.

I’ll not bore you with details of my bodies and failures through those intervening years. Suffice to say I kept busy, both planning my own next attempt, and doing my best to stymie those others who tried versions of their own.

Surely my interpretation of the Watcher’s Crown had been incomplete; there had been some element of the ritual I had overlooked.

It was not until I met Gertrude Robinson that things began to really come into focus.

You see, the role of Archivist has been part of the Beholding for as far back as my research can go. This isn’t uncommon for the Powers; most of the beliefs around them are guesswork and fallible human interpretation, but there are certain throughlines and consistencies that can be spotted, regardless of the trappings.

But Gertrude was unlike any other Archivist. She simply did not care about compiling experiences or collecting the fears of others. She was driven to stop those who served the Powers.

More than once I thought she must secretly be of the Hunt – but there was never that sick joy in her, that thrill of predator and prey. She had simply decided that this was her position in life, and went about it with a practicality that even I found disconcerting at times.

I once asked her what drove her, what had started her down that path. She told me the Desolation had killed her cat.

I don’t know if she was joking, and, to be honest, I could never bring myself to look into her mind and find out for sure.

In any case, Gertrude’s ruthless efficiency in derailing and collapsing rituals threw into stark relief a question that had been bothering me for almost a hundred and fifty years: In the whole span of humanity, why had nobody ever succeeded?

Perhaps there were a long line of Gertrude Robinsons throughout history, but I found that hard to credit. Could it be, then, that there was something in the very concept of the rituals that meant they couldn’t succeed?

She was clearly having similar thoughts in that last year, all of which culminated with the People’s Church.

When I saw that she was making no preparations whatsoever to stop it, I realized she was putting into practice a theory, and one she couldn’t afford to be wrong. She was going to wait, and see if the unopposed ritual succeeded, or if it collapsed under its own strain as mine had all those years ago.

Knowing Gertrude, I’m sure she had a backup plan if she had miscalculated – but she had not. The ritual failed. And all at once, I realized what had to be done.

You see, the thing about the Fears is that they can never be truly separated from each other. When does the fear of sudden violence transition into the fear of hunted prey? When does the mask of the Stranger become the deception of the Spiral?

Even those that seem to exist in direct opposition rely on each other for their definition as much as up relies on down.

To try and create a world with only the Buried makes as much sense as trying to conceive a world with only down.

Every ritual tied itself so closely to a single power as to render itself impossible. They could bring their patron close, but never sever it from the others, and eventually it would be violently pulled back into the place next to reality where they dwell.

The solution, then, is simple: A new ritual must be devised which will bring through all the Powers at once. All fourteen, as I had hoped I could complete it before any new powers such as Extinction were able to fully emerge. All under the Eye’s auspices, of course. We mustn’t forget our roots.

And there was only one being that could possibly serve as a lynchpin for this new ritual: The Archivist. A position that had so recently become vacant, thanks to Gertrude’s ill-timed retirement plans.

Because the thing about the Archivist is that – well, it’s a bit of a misnomer.

It might, perhaps, be better named: The Archive.

Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, John. You are a record of fear, both in mind as you walk the shuddering record of each statement, and in body as the Powers each leave their mark upon you.

You are a living chronicle of terror.

Perhaps, then, if I could find an Archivist and have each Power mark them, have them confront each one and each in turn instill in them a powerful and acute fear for their life, they could be turned into a conduit for the coming of this – nightmare kingdom.

Do you see where I’m going, John?

It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck.

I’ll admit, my options were somewhat limited, but My God, when you came to me already marked by the Web, I knew it had to be you. I even held out some small hope you had been sent by the Spider as some sort of implicit blessing on the whole project, and, do you know what, I think it was.

Of course, I had to bide my time, get a measure of you before I began to push, learn how you worked – So I decided I would wait until something came for you, and see how you reacted. Attacks upon the Archives were not uncommon during Gertrude’s tenure, and, while she was always prepared, I made sure you would not be.

I reasoned if you couldn’t survive a single encounter, you were unlikely to make it through all fourteen. So, when Jane Prentiss attacked, I watched eagerly, one hand on the gas release from the start.

You acquitted yourself well enough, so I decided to see how far you would get, though I waited until the worms were in you before I pulled the lever. I needed to make sure you felt that fear all the way to your bones.

The discovery that one of the Stranger’s minions had infiltrated the Institute in the aftermath was certainly a pleasant bonus. Even if that sliver of paranoia, that vague wrongness you couldn’t quite place wouldn’t count as a mark, it was only a matter of time before it confronted you in a far more direct and affecting matter.

Admittedly, given the advent of the Unknowing, I needn’t have bothered. But what’s the old saying about hindsight?

More important to me was Sasha’s encounter with the Distortion. If it had taken an interest, then I very much wanted it to cross your path.

So I found one of its current victims and convinced her to make a statement.

Poor Helen. I actually had to put her in a taxi myself, she was getting so lost in those narrow London side streets.

It worked, though.

Between the stabbing and at least two desperate flights into its doors – you’re marked very deeply by the Spiral.

Jurgen Leitner was a surprise, of course, and I was forced to improvise. I had no idea how much Gertrude would have told him, and he could very easily have derailed everything if you learned too much too fast.

I… justified it to myself saying I was going to have to send you out into the world anyway, if you were to encounter more of the Powers, but I can’t honestly pretend it wasn’t a… rather rash move.

Still. I’d requested Detective Tonner be assigned to the case when they found Gertrude’s body in the hope that having a Hunter in the mix would eventually lead to a confrontation, and setting you up as a killer certainly hastened that.

Then it was just a matter of feeding you statements to lead you to a few Avatars I thought were likely to harm you – but probably would stop short of actually killing you.

Jude served her purpose exactly as I had hoped, as did our dearly departed Mr. Crew, marking you for the Desolation and the Vast.

Honestly, I had – nothing to do with Melanie and her Slaughter adventure, but when I saw the situation, I made sure to trap her here, so when her rage bubbled over you would be right there, a ready target.

I didn’t foresee the mark coming from surgery gone wrong, but it was a very pleasant surprise.

The Unknowing was a distraction, but not an unwelcome one. For this to work, you needed more than just the marks; you needed power. And that was something the Unknowing served to test, though it posed no actual danger in the grand scheme of things.

And it did serve another purpose, of course. It inadvertently pushed you to confront death, a mark I had been very worried about trying to orchestrate. If I tried too early, you’d just die. Too late, and you might be powerful enough to see the attempt coming, and maybe even understand why.

As it was, it was just right, and once again, you came through with flying colours.

By this point, your abilities were coming along in leaps and bounds, and I was concerned that meeting face-to-face might end up with you Knowing something you shouldn't.

I had initially planned to go into hiding, but when your colleagues surprised me with the police, well. It was simple enough to cut a deal.

All that remained, then, were the Dark, the Flesh, the Buried, and the Lonely.

I was a little put out when that idiot Jared Hopworth misinterpreted my letters and attacked the Institute too soon, before you were even out of the hospital, but then – Ho, you should have see my face when you voluntarily went to him.

I couldn’t see what happened in there, of course, but given how you came out, I’m very sure it counts as a mark.

I suspected the coffin might turn up again, and once it did, it was simply a matter of getting any, uh… restraining factors you might have had flying off on a wild goose chase, and waiting.

Honestly, Detective Tonner has been proving invaluable through this process. I’d been racking my brains for months about what I could use to lure you in.

And, of course, I knew the Dark Sun was just sitting there waiting. So when it came time, I just whipped up another apocalypse and sent you on your merry way.

Then all that remained was the Lonely.

Poor Peter. He really should have left well enough alone. Or just done what I’d asked in the first place.

Ah well. He knew what I was attempting, and was very unwilling to cooperate until I made him a little wager about Martin.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that, in addition to setting you up for the final mark, he was giving you all the tools you needed to escape from it.

How is Martin, by the way? He looks well. You will keep an eye on him when all this is over, won’t you? He’s earned that.

And there, I think, we are brought just about up to date. I have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane, but past here lies only impatience.

You are prepared. You are ready. You are marked. The power of the Ceaseless Watcher flows through you, and the time of our victory is here.

Don’t worry, John. You’ll get used to it here, in the world that we have made.

Now, repeat after me.

You who watch and know and understand none. You who listen and hear and will not comprehend. You who wait and wait and drink in all that is not yours by right.

Come to us in your wholeness.

Come to us in your perfection.

Bring all that is fear and all that is terror and all that is the awful dread that crawls and chokes and blinds and falls and twists and leaves and hides and weaves and burns and hunts and rips and bleeds and dies!

Come to us.

I – OPEN – THE DOOR!

[raansomware]

HI I AM RANSOM

I use it/it's pronouns! I like horror content and just in general comics! Talk to me about Identity Crisis and the Metal Virus Arc PLEASE. I'm 20 years old!

Im mostly an oc/furry artist but you might find some actual fanart sprinkled in if I ever get the balls to publicly show that stuff off..

I'm plural and disabled mentally/physically and this effects my ability to interact/draw often. I also generally struggle with talking and consistently interacting, so please don't be offended if you don't get a text back!

Here's some of the stuff I like;

Resident Evil

Sonic

FNaF

Ultrakill

Pokémon

Steve Bucheme. I love Steve Bucheme.

Reptiles and bugs!

TMA

Color Out Of Space

Nick cage (see above)

Taxonomy

Dinosaurs

Computers (esp analog/jelly macs..)

Internet History

You can find my Toyhou.se here!

https://toyhou.se/RANSOMWARE

I would like it if children do Not talk to me. Thanks

[felix-01000101]

Read a post yesterday talking about taxonomy or sth, and that essentially being a woman is about experiencing misogyny (this was meant to be about whether the word "woman" actually means anything, and the post is definitely from a transfem POV. That's not a bad thing but it leads to my next point)

As somewhat true defining gender by oppression may be, this definition is horrible the moment you apply it to anyone who isn’t a cis or trans woman.

What about trans men? What about non-binary people? What about cis men who present femininely? What about gay men? They all experience misogyny of some sort (because they tend to get treated as "women-lite" or "sissies"). That doesn't make them women, does it?

This just feels like repackaged tma/tme to me.

And besides, gender isn't "are you oppressed or not?". It's not a binary. Anyone who isn’t a cishet white rich neurotypical fully abled masculine man is going to experience discrimination, especially if they don't adhere to stereotypes drowning in toxic masculinity and gender norms.

[chewchuck]

I'm an anime only fan (I wish I could read but my brain hates text, I've not finished a single book, including comics or manga, in about a decade) and I've only listened to about a season of TMA (because around that time my brain got so much worse I could no longer handle audio only either) but I love applying fandom taxonomies to another fandom's characters so I would LOVE to play in this space!! I can't think of much that hasn't been said already but perhaps the mage could be an avatar of the web?

i was also thinking of the web originally for the mage (hi name is thistle/sissle idk which one the anime’s gonna be going with. sissle is the official translation in the manga but i like thistle better so for now im using thistle lol) but i also really like the spiral for him.

i mean he’s called “the mad mage” and the spiral IS the fear of madness

[irradiatedsnakes]

i don't have any actual theorizing i'm just looking at the eps and going hmm...yes......interesting...........but i'm really really looking forward to finding out how the fears work in this universe.

while i think a couple of the incidents could be quite cleanly slotted into our conception of the 14/15 fears (the letter augustus read about the violin is imo quintessentially slaughter, complete with music-driving-people-to-random-violence (though others have compared it to the flesh as well, i don't see it personally)), many of them are riding lines between multiple.

give and take strikes motifs of multiple of the fears- the choking closeness of the buried, a whole bunch of very stranger-esque people and items, and the hoarding, community, and gross closeness kind of feeling struck me as reminiscent of corruption. the most recent episode about liminal brutalism has flavors of extinction, flesh, lonely, with many making connections to tma's "time of revelation" and "lost in the crowd" episodes.

which i'm a big fan of. in tma, learning all the typical motifs of the fears, putting together what slots where, then having that challenged in s4/5, that was very fun and fit the aspect of discovering the mechanics of the world alongside the characters. but in this new series, while our characters don't know the shapes of the fears, we do. we know all about smirke's taxonomy, the rituals, how avatars work, and i think in large part we're assuming that a lot of this is going to stay the same! which, i think, is going to be a mistake. there's not much mystery about the world and the horror aspect if we already know what's going on.

and like, we do know that some stuff seems similar. in needles' 999 call, he very blatantly talks about feeding on the fear of his victim and the emergency service operator, slotting into what we'd expect quite well. i think this thing is sort of setting us up, in a sense, as an audience, being lured into a false sense of security-in-knowledge before our conception of this world starts to go weird. yknow? that's how i'm thinking it'll go, at least.

[distributedbyrustyquill]

TRICK OR TREAT!

A treat for you, because you’ve been very good for Mr. Spider!

Hello John, apologies for the spam, but I wanted to make sure you were still existing in this world we fear to be perceived in.

I’m assuming you’re not asleep. You always did prefer to relisten to tma the night before school starts (slightly strained). I would try very hard to stop reading; there’s no likelihood you’ll just hurt yourself. So just stop.

Now, shall we not turn the page and try again?

Oh, you're still reading this? You're more stubborn than Blurbo from my shows.

[THE BIG BOY MAN MAKES A PAINED COUPLE OF SOUNDS VERY IN CHARACTER, AS IF HE’S TRYING TO TEAR HIMSELF AWAY FROM THE FACT THAT THE MECHANISMS FANDOM IS DEAD AND PHYSICALLY CANNOT.]

[WHEN HE PICKS THE STATEMENT BACK UP, THE WORDS SOUND LIKE THEY’RE BEING TORN FROM HIS LIPS BY SOMEONE WITH THE NAME OF JONNY D'VILLE.]

Statement of Alexander Jolene Newall (or known as Alexander Jalexander Newlaxender) regarding the inevitable truth of World War 3.

Statement

Does

Something

[A SLAP ON THE TABLE – OR A CRACK? SPOOKY.]

I hope you’ll forgive me for the talk of Bruno, but I have lost many stocks to make this work, a culmination of two days of work. It’s rare that you get the chance to [REDACTED] through another, and you can’t tell me you’re not jumping at the chance to not miss your bus.

Why does a Trexal Giestman?

It’s a simple enough answer: for nothing and nothing. Inspired, perhaps, but –MY JOHN. The loss, not simply of the bright and awesome sauce reality of the world in which you do not live, but that you would, quite willingly, save that world and lead the SOUTHERN MOTHER FUCKING DEMOCRATIC REPLUBICANS to an eternity of happiness and love, all to lose your own sadness, to place yourself beyond hope and living and love.

It is an amazing thing to know about yourself, but - TO THE FREEDOM TO THE REVOLUTION - ,Big Boy, the - TO THE FREEDOM TO THE REVOLUTION - of it all. I have not dedicated my life to taking the world to these My Little Ponies all for my own loss, and I feel… nothing but

*tears*

Not satisfied with the result. (I will never be satisfied~)

I am to be a favored son of a Round Table, and I shall never die.

I believe there are far more people who claim their name is No One in this world that would take that bargain than you would ever guess. And I have lost to all of them.

Of course, this desire definitely manifested overnight. When Jonny first gathered our little band – Ashes, Toy Soldier, and the rest – to make and sing on the nature of the things he had learned from his adventures of a Space Pirate, I felt what I believe we all felt: curiosity, and fear.

But as he compiled his taxonomy and codified his AU's on the cultural phenomenons, I began to develop a very not specific concern. Tim was so obsessed with his ideas on architecture, even as our fellows began to become drunk space pirates and throw em in the airlock til their sober.

[vampirebeverage]

look, i dont think that tma/tme are meaningful categories. i don't think there's a clearcut line, and it feels... not accurate enough to be of any real utility.

im also of the admittedly fringe opinion that the term transmisogyny... is very useful but has been stripped of some of its utility by narrowing the definition? this is purely an issue of taxonomy, not of dismissal of anyone's individual experiences.

in its simplest definition, it refers to the intersection between transphobia and misogyny. that's a useful intersection to be able to describe.

but. currently. it's only ever specifically used to describe the unique intersection of transphobia and misogyny that transfeminine people experience.

... theeeeee problem here is that transmasculine people ALSO experience a unique intersection of transphobia and misogyny. so... what do we call ours? the most accurate term for "intersection beteen transphobia and misogyny" is already taken. some people insist that transmisandry is the term to use, but... fellas, it's just not accurate (however, the people who give transmascs a hard time about the use of this term fucking suck because it's often just a transparent dismissal of transmasc experiences, in the guise of a linguistic nitpick, not understanding that the root of the problem is that we need a word and dont have one)

I'm of the opinion that there are NOT simply two distinct and separate types of trans experience. this is reinventing two distinct gender boxes. there's an umbrella of trans experiences, and underneath that different groups will have some things in common and some things will be different.

anyway, people being dismissive towards transmasc people is a problem and... I'll be honest, a lot of that stems from just classic misogyny.

[autisticandroids]

Me again! My thoughts on tma are a little less harsh than urs for sure but I also think everything u said re: tma is dead accurate- i loved reading it and was nodding my head throughout and going hmhm (also I don't remember the mummy episode- my big gripe w tmas accidental uncritical recreation of racist and particularly orientalist horror tropes was Tom Han of the Flesh. Johnny ur seriously gonna codify this fear of the flesh through a stereotypical Dodgy Chinese Restaurant, u sure u wanna do that bud???)

Also YES YES YES I FEEL LIKE NO ONE TALKS ABOUT HOW FUCKING LAME THE CLOWNS ARE HOLY SHIT. The stranger has some rlly fun stuff in it re: rlly disquieting concepts and imagery (I'm fond of the not-thems tbh and while a lot of tmas episodes arent particularly scary the 3rd ep of s1 with Graham Folger always genuinely unsettled me) but clowns are 1. Not that scary *personal taste I know but also 2. Clowns are not Conceptually Rich Enough to Be a Load Bearing Pillar of a Horror Series About the Nature of Fear 3. Even if they were scary that gets lost in translation in an AUDIO ONLY MEDIUM WHAT THE HELL

And yeah while I'm personally a fan of the idea of a series that introduces you to a taxonomy upon which the whole plot hinges that ultimately reveals somewhere along the way that that taxonomy is in fact useless and actively obfuscative (and I still feel inclined to give a little bit of credit there) I also agree that the smirkes 14 severely damaged the stories capacity to be frightening by lashing them to shallow cliches. And thats a pretty unforgivable sin for a horror series.

Ultimately I feel like a lot of tma as a cultural object is contingent on a simultaneous draw towards and repulsion from Very Fancy Academia. Like. As an aesthetic and vibe and pursuit as a means unto itself (mostly as an aesthetic if im being honest) There's this sense i get (and it may be projection) that the audience and creators and characters are all disgusted by but powerfully enamoured w "Dark Academia" (forgive me for using this phrase but I can't think of a more expedient phrase to get at the specific itch tma seems to be attempting to scratch) especially quasi Victorian aesthetic (makes sense. Sims's previous work was as a front man for a steam punk band Or at least the main writer) but also everyone is aware that fancy old timey academia can be. Yknow. Shitty and corrupt and obtuse and stupid. I don't think tma as a text ever manages to reconcile its desire for academia of a very particular type with its awareness that such a desire is sort of shitty which results in writing thats ultimately kind of inept. I still love it tho. Xoxox thanks for indulging me and giving ur hateful response i found it insightful and fun.

god you're so right about the academia thing. lol. and yeah everything you said about the clowns!!! i liked the notthem too but it's SO dragged down by being shackled to those stupid ass clown. in an audio only medium no less

[sleepymarmot]

A quick chart of the levels on which each Entity operates:

Existential: life, death, existence, the scale of the universe – no direct threat, but difficult to understand and accept

Psychological: the feelings of vulnerability, isolation, disorientation, loss of control etc.

Pain: unwelcome physical sensations including suffocation, nausea etc.

Disgust: visceral revulsion regardless of the level of direct threat

Black: primary level Grey: secondary level

Suggestions welcome!

[leggypuppy]

For some reason I feel like the symbology behind moths and cicadas to be similar in some way. Like, the themes of rebirth in their metamorphosis and the songs cicadas sing remind me of moths for some reason. Do you feel like the Moth embodies not just moths but many insects in general? I feel like connections can be drawn between most insects and the themes of the primordial and chaotic Wood.

oooo this is a really interesting question! it actually contains a few assumptions about the relation between signifier and signified that I noticed tended to spring up in discussions about the Entities from The Magnus Archives (concepts that are pretty similar to the Hours, really), so I've thought about the phrasing of this kind of inquiry a lot.

Here's the way I think of it. The Moth does not embody moths, the insect, and excludes anything outside the order Lepidoptera. Instead, moths in this context are... a useful collection of associations, materials, superstitions, and observations that adepts have found to be the most useful in describing the shape of that particular Hour. So, yes! I do agree that cicadas and other insects with a metamorphic life cycle could be used to stand for part of The Moth in a similar fashion.

I think that when speaking meaningfully* about the Hours, it's important to remember that the connection between them and the concepts/items they're associated with is not one way. It's not like there's the Hour at the top, and all meaning flows down from them to their various symbols. I imagine it more like... if the various representations of an Hour are a bunch of overlapping Venn diagrams, then the Hour is a circle drawn to encompass all of those symbols.

We use things to talk about other things. It's most obvious in fields like occultism or other philosophies, but it's true of statistics and mathematics as well. The flexibility of the signifier is just greatly restricted. The only reason, I think, that moths are the thing most associated with that Hour and the presence of things like cicadas is less is that the moth is a more apt and adaptive metaphor.

Or, as a non-arsehole would put it, most people thing moths just suit The Moth better. That's why it's called that.

*I say meaningful and not accurate because by nature it's impossible to pin a concept like an Hour down in that fashion, and not especially useful to try

[avatarofthebeholding]

Hmmm. On the topic of fear soup, if my OC Ria used one of the many (all extremely valid imo!) taxonomies of fear different than Smirke’s, she would NOT consider herself dual-aligned. She’d serve an entity that includes some aspects of the Web, some of the End, and some of the Dark. The entity? Modeled off of the “Mother of Puppets” nomenclature-wise, but distinct from it - The Hand of Fate. The idea that unknowable forces (Dark) guide you through their plan for your life (Web), eventually deciding when and how you’ll die (End). This is just the seed of a concept I may or may not expand upon in the future, but just. Many thoughts!