somuchbetterthanthat

[somuchbetterthanthat]

So. We know that Celia is a single mom with a one year old, both of Alice's parents are dead and her brother is at least somewhat financially dependent on her, and Sam doesn't want to tell his parents that he left his previous job. We don't know much about Gwen's family situation, but everything so far seems to imply she's from a well-off family.

That creates an interesting parallel between Celia and Alice: they're both working at the OIAR to financially support (aside from themselves) a younger family member, presumably without much help from other family members/anyone else really. While they can technically quit their jobs, that'd make it much harder for them to care for themselves and the family member that is dependent on them.

Now this part miiight be a stretch because we don't know enough about Sam and Gwen's family situations, but i believe they parallel each other in a similar way. What Sam said in the last ep seems to imply that he doesn't want to disappoint his parents or admit he's not living up to their expectations. And if the Bouchard family in Protocol is anything like the Bouchard family in Archives, Gwen probably has some familial expectations placed on her too. They're both also the ones most invested in their jobs, digging themselves deeper into supernatural business in an attempt to climb the corporate ladder/figure out how it all went wrong. They too cannot quit their jobs at the OIAR, so long as they still aren't living up to their family's expectations.

#tmagp spoilers #Yessss I thought of the celia/Alice parallels too #the magnus protocol

[somuchbetterthanthat]

"so who do I talk to to get a complete list of your flaws?"

"No one. I'm mysterious."

oh we know Celia, we know

#My exact reaction #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[somuchbetterthanthat]

brb i need to put my head through a wall

#They are literally killing me #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[somuchbetterthanthat]

(Insert disclaimer here that I'm really not trying to judge or decide if there is "one person obviously wrong" in this interaction, because i'm here to enjoy the MESSINESS and the ANGST of humanity, i'm eating the delicious food and drama provided to me)

The thing is, on the one hand, Sam is completely within his right to set that boundary with Alice - not being comfortable talking about his new building relationship with his ex is like, yeah, a very normal thing to be uncomfy about, there is nothing irreasonable about him asking Alice to back off about prying into it, and Alice should be able to respect that;

on the other hand, if they are friends, and they truly seem to be friends (Sam affirms they're friends! And I believe it after the 13 episodes we saw of them!), AND Alice is the one who reached out to help Sam out of a very bad mental (and probably financial, by that point) situation, helping him get a job, then, yeah, the word professional used in that context is NOT the good word to use at all, and obviously Sam realizes that, and obviously that's what really gets to Alice, beyond the new boundary trying to be established.

At the same time, Alice is clearly digging to get more infos and Trying to be the Cool Friend while being somewhat masochistic about it, since by now it's plain to see she does have lingering feelings for Sam, and the way she goes about it is not always nice, so she's hurting both herself and Sam by pushing and pushing about it and not listening to Sam giving them both a out from that.

BUT ALSO, Sam saying "I know you're not happy about me and Celia" means that he knows that she's hurting herself each time she talks about it; means that he KNOWS that she still feels something for him that he doesn't anymore, and that means that this beautiful, warm, sweet, lovable, people-pleaser of a man has been purposefully using those feelings to get her to do something she didn't want to do literally three episodes ago, and with no shame at at all about it.

THE POINT IS. They're so MESSY. They KNOW EACH OTHER SO WELL. They LIKE each other. They're going to have SUCH A BAD FALLOUT ONE DAY AND ITS GOING TO BREAK BOTH THEIR HEARTS (and mine, while i cackle from the pain).

(oh, and yeah: "We dated in uni, I tried to help her after her parents died, then we lost contact" ??? What a summary, Samama. I'm sure NOTHING is hiding behind those lines.)

#tmagp spoilers #they make me a little bit insane #i was at the edge of my seat the whole last conversation #canon and sam are trying to gloss over their dating but i'm still absolutely certain they were almost married once #and nobody can take that away from me #also WHO ELSE WAS PERSUADED SAM HAD BEEN THE ONE REACHING TO ALICE FOR HELP #you know who sam and alice make me think about? two birds on a wire the song #the magnus protocol

[somuchbetterthanthat]

A theory:

Category: What caused this incident?

Category 1: Direct interference from the OIAR or one of its affiliates. (Bonzo, Needles, the person who reanimated Arthur Winstead)

Category 2: The location where it happened was marked. (Guy who turned into a tree, the charity shop, the liminal architecture)

Category 3: The victim walked into it on their own. (Violinist, dice guy, finance app guy)

Rank: What was the result of this incident?

Rank A: Net positive. There will be a price to pay. (RedCanary is the only A)

Rank B: Net negative. There is a benefit to reap. (Bonzo, Needles, dice guy, finance app guy, horror movie guy...)

Rank C: Net neutral. This incident balanced itself. (Guy that turned into a tree, violinist, charity shop)

Combined categories have more than one cause. RedCanary (23) went to a marked location, and chose to investigate the symbols they found. Gordon (23) chose to investigate the corpse, but was also affected by the cliffside location.

Combined ranks balance differently depending on whose perspective you take. Harriet (BC) was terrified of her reanimated husband, but Arthur had a balanced experience between being reanimated and losing parts of himself. Daria (BC) had a negative experience with Ink5oul, but balanced their own cost/benefit relationship with the tattoo. RedCanary (AB) had nothing but negatives after going to the Institute... but something else benefited from it.

-

Two notes:

1) Both dice guy and finance app guy successfully balanced their experiences as long as they rode the catastrophe curve between loss and profit. It was only when they tried to break the cycle that the final (deadly) negative blow came. This contrasts with the violinist, who reaped the benefits and paid the price willingly into old age.

2) The trailer with Sam's job interview was marked as Category 1, Rank B.

#fascinating #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Leon Stamatis

from the fiction audio drama podcast i've been listening to non stop on my semester break: @greaterblogston

#absolute beloved #best ghost #best man #perfect man #i'm so so so so so happy to see fanart of him #greater boston

[somuchbetterthanthat]

I'm fucking hollering. apollo socked me square in the nose with this one.

#still insane #literally i listen to this ep and i IMMEDIATELY thought of those posts going 'there is nO way-' #but there was ways apparently #bravo and all. #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[somuchbetterthanthat]

the glitch when Alice says she's happy for Sam just rip my heart out why don't you

#tmagp spoilers #the magnus protocol

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Didn’t escape my notice that the audio buzzed here

#im eating this up #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[somuchbetterthanthat]

it's just sort of feel unfair that in my whole family, i'm the only one who sucks at doing things, and by sucking at doing things i mean literally doing things, anything. My dad does his work because that's his job so he just. does it. he does some extra for his family on the side. My mum and my brother go /beyond/ their work. They're like oh i'm not just going to do the /job/, i'm going to invent and create extra stuff to make sure the job is done /efficiently/ and /well/.

and i'm sitting here and it's been four days i've done. literally anything. at all. just because my boss isn't there so i have absolutely no external pressure to get me moving.

and if it was just the job! but no! My brother literally had to make groceries for me yesterday because i admitted last time i basically hadn't done any sort of proper groceries in like. three weeks counting. not coz i didn't have the time, or the money. just because i moved across the place and now my well-used grocery pattern has been disrupted and whenever i think about doing it it's Too Complicated for my brain so we don't. do it.

it's UNFAIR. the one decency i should have with this brain is that it's genetic or something. but no. No. my parents and my brother are just fine. so why me :/

#personal #i'm so tired of myself. even like! I think of the 'way to unblock myself' but then i have to start doing the unblocking things yeah #so i have to find unblock things to start the unblocking things to start doing the things #i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it

[somuchbetterthanthat]

I love you Sam and your burnt out gifted kid struggles

#tmagp spoilers #the magnus protocol

[somuchbetterthanthat]

I’ve seen so many versions of the tma finale where Jon is a distorted thing with a bunch of eyes floating above the ground but hear me out:

The moment Jon becomes the pupil of the eye, he looks even more like himself than he’s looked in years.

I dunno I feel like the implications are kinda sick.

#oh that's /so cool/ #the magnus archives

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Okay but WHY are fiction podcasts so popular in English-speaking countries, and is it the same in other countries? Like is there a super cool Italian horror podcast out there somewhere, or myriads of Polish ones, or Excellent Thai ones, or Egyptian ones or, etc.

Like. Is it just France that apparently isn't doing it (to my knowledge??? Like. France Culture has a few which, eh. There was this one french horror podcast of five episodes that I've listened to for an article forever ago. but although we have TONS SHIT of non-fiction podcasts and I thiiink a few dnd/rpg podcasts growing, fiction doesn't seem to be a thing????

Answers and comments definitely welcome here, I'm curious about how it is in other country, or fellow french people passing by if you've got recs i guess???

#i have no idea how to tag this of course and considering my audience the chances of having a big pool of answers is.ah. #but trying anyway #podcasts #french things #sort of

[somuchbetterthanthat]

the idealized version of my tomorrow self will fix this

[somuchbetterthanthat]

hey you little piss baby

#oh alice #the magnus protocol

[somuchbetterthanthat]

it's so counterintuitive that you can get so stressed about needing to do stuff that it makes you unable to do stuff

[somuchbetterthanthat]

morning mobility routine

#oh i should try that