So statement case numbers refer to when they were originally given, either written or audio recorded by the subject themself. This is how we know a rough timeline of events happening to our Archive team - because of live statements like Naomi Herne, Martin, Sasha, Melanie or Dr. Lionel. Those are especially easy because the date is explicitly mentioned in the statement introduction ("Statement recorded directly from subject, *date*). Sometimes we have live recording episodes without an actual statement. For those there's another way to know what day it. Every episode description comes with a case number, we can use those for a bunch of episodes. For example in MAG 39: Infestation there is no statement, but it still has a case number in the episode description, namely case #0160729(-A). And we also know how to decider the case number into a date because Jon describes it in MAG 33 ("Last three digits of the year, then the day, then the month." - Well, save for a few fuck-ups as MAG 39 would then be 2016, 7th day of the 29th month??? - the wiki has the correct case number, but my podcast app literally says #0160729 instead of #0162907... Aaaanyway).

MAG 160: The Eye Opens is titled case #0181810 (ha, a palindrome! Also nice throwback to when the Institute was founded, 1818) - 2018, 18th of October. But wait, can you guess what I'm getting at? MAG 160 is not a live statement! It's not given live by Jonah!Elias himself, it is written down, sent by... mail, I suppose? (Do you think Elias watched Basira to know when she fiiinally would get to the Archives and then he quickly sent his box via express mail to beat her to it?) to Scotland and is then recorded by Jon. Sooooo, following case number rules this means the Fearpocalyse did not start on the 18th of October, this was the day Jonah!Elias wrote the statement and the world ended probably some time later? Has this ever been addressed? I don't know/remember... Anyways, writing-wise I do believe the world still was meant to end on the 18th of October because why would Jonah!Elias wait to get his statement written down 3 weeks after the last mark. Do it right away to be ready for when the right moment to send it comes. So yeah, I think this episode description/case number ignores the usual case number rules and the statement was read on the 18th, but I also low-key wanna cling to the idea that Jon and Martin had a bit more time for their Scottish Honeymoon T.T

The Magnus Archives

Gravity Falls

Welcome to Night Vale

now, you might be asking: crow, why do these three separate pieces of fiction media that are all beloved by queer youth have in common? other than that, of course. well, buckle your seat belts, buckaroos, because this is a wild ride. TMA S5 spoilers?

so the magnus archives has shown us that there are people and places wherein certain fears are prominent, such as locations gearing up for a ritual and avatars. it is solidified in my mind that Bill Cipher is a manifestation of the spiral, similarly to the Distortion but, you know, different. Bill’s not an avatar - he’s the closest thing we get to the actual entity. when Stanford Pines makes a deal with Bill, Stanford is essentially signing on to be an avatar of the spiral in exchange for knowledge. you might be thinking that Ford should be aligned with the eye, but look at it as his thirst for knowledge leading him down paths that shouldn’t be walked down and decent into madness through that knowledge. him being an avatar of the spiral also makes sense in reference to Old Man McGucket and what happened to him. I don’t think Stanley Pines is an avatar - he’s a person who Ford almost led down a path of madness. The entirety of Gravity Falls was a moderately powerful spiral domain. I think there was also a lot of influence of other entities within Gravity Falls - the weird memory-erasing cult were the dark, that candy monster on halloween was the stranger and the extinction, the anti-teen convenience store ghosts were the slaughter and the end, etc, but the majority of Gravity Falls was centered around the spiral.

this brings me to my next point. weirdmaggedon. in my mind, weirdmaggedon Gravity Falls is a TMA fearpocalypse domain in the interception of the spiral and the extinction. It makes sense - the overall weirdness & insanity of it all, the constant fear that Bill would get out and it would be all their fault, everything fits so perfectly. 

so where does WTNV fit into this conspiracy-board level theory? It’s also a fearpocalypse domain. you heard me! if you’re asking, “but WTNV has been going on for years, and weirdmaggedon lasted 3ish days! how does that work?” well, first of all, time is fake in general, so I don’t care. second, time is canonically fake during the fearpocalypse, so it doesn’t matter. Night Vale is actually just the US, fearpocalypse style. That’s why Cecil, an obvious avatar of the eye, sits in his office presiding over Night Vale, which seems to have every avatar in it in an alternating rotation so that the entirety of the United States compressed into tiny town night vale can get their dose of extreme fear. It makes sense - if you tried hard enough, you can pick out something in Night Vale for every entity. 

i always thought it was weird that the domains could be so easily labelled by the human categorisation of the fears when the whole crux of the ritual’s success was bringing them all into reality at once

then it hit me: this is a feature, not a bug

in a world ruled by beholding, of course it organises the other fears by the limiting terms humans apply to them- if only to aggravate entities like the stranger and the dark

it makes these pockets of fear Known by dividing them and naming them

cats of the apocalypse mood board

(Click images for better quality)

do you remember the fearpocalyspe? do you want to vent about the domain you were trapped in? Complain about the awful circus music? Rant about how stupid the vast domain is? vauge-blog about your boss who was with you in the worm tunnels and does NOT know what personal space means? Discuss whether or not avatars should have rights? Share tma memes? Show me your cool avatarsona? Overall have fun with the Magnus Archives universe? COOL! Me too!

check out my ask blog at @radi0jumper21 !

relationships cont. :

love is an art | gerryXoliver

lost in the rules we made to our own game | basira & daisy - in order

general:

chronicle of terror | the magnus archives

there’s no happy ending in sight | apocalypse domains - in order/unfinished

entities (i may or may not eventually add playlists for the rest of the 14):

the romance of sadness | the lonely

hell is overflowing | the desolation

people are strangers; i’m getting stranger | the stranger

turn your gaze | the beholding

a place called vertigo | the vast

twist the way that they perceive | the web

we all go the same | the end

and the headstones climbed up the hills | the buried