#mag065

MAG065 – Caso 0170701 – “Binario”

Testimonio de Tessa Winters, sobre un extraño programa informático que descargó de la Deep Web hace tres meses.

[Disclaimer/ Aviso]

(MAG039) ELIAS: Right. Tell me again, please. SASHA: You’re kidding. […] Well, for the record, if we don’t do something now, it won’t matter either way.

(MAG058) TIM: Look: I tried talking to Elias about it, but it doesn’t seem to do any good!

(MAG062) GERTRUDE: I should really tell Elias about this. MARY: By all means! He’s not exactly big on action, though, is he?

(MAG065) TIM: […] The actual worst thing is that no one here has my back. With any of it! Elias doesn’t care […].

(MAG079) TIM: […] There is something in this place, and it’s messing up our heads. It watches us all the time, it stops me quitting, I’m pretty sure it would stop Elias firing Jon even if he decided to actually try running this place for once. […] Er… Elias is probably still in his office. MARTIN: I thought you said he was a waste of a suit. TIM: Yeah, well he’s better than nothing!

(MAG096) ARCHIVIST: […] A gift from Elias, no doubt. He could have sent this to me any time, filled me in on Breekon and Hope, but no. I had to find it myself, just in time for him to show me he knew all about it. … Cocky prick.

(MAG096) ARCHIVIST: Ohhh… You thought we were going to, er… y’know. Kill her. DAISY: El–Elias didn’t say. ARCHIVIST: No, he doesn’t, uh… He’s not big on micromanagement.

(MAG102) ARCHIVIST: A month, Elias. And you did what, nothing? […] And imagine what might have happened if your rescue had been slower. ELIAS: Sarcasm isn’t going to help, Jon. ARCHIVIST: The only thing here that “isn’t going to help” is you. […] Fine. At least we now know you’re of zero practical use here. So aside from sending me other people’s statements, what can you actually do to help?

(MAG105) XIAOLING: … How long did you say you have been Archivist? ARCHIVIST: Uh… About two years now. XIAOLING: Well, Elias made a good choice. I did offer him someone, but he thought the language might be too much for him.

(MAG107) ARCHIVIST: What irritates me most is that Elias was clearly aware of this, hence his sending me this. Which seems to serve no other purpose but as a restorative. But as usual… he chose to keep this very useful information to himself.

(MAG108) PETER: Oh. That doesn’t sound like the Elias I know. He killed people himself? […] Elias Bouchard, getting his hands dirty. Well-well. Must be the End Times.

(MAG117) ARCHIVIST: […] Elias seems pretty insistent I go along. Part of me thinks it’s just so we can see if whatever this… preparation he’s been trying to do on me works. And you know what? That same… petty little part of me… rather hopes it doesn’t; that all this time, all his… cryptic nudges and “learn to fly by falling” attitude ends up being a complete waste of time. Just to show him.

(MAG134) PETER: […] But I believe I have a plan. However, it requires this place, and it requires someone touched by The Beholding. Elias was, perhaps unsurprisingly, unwilling to help.

->

- Holder of “fuck”

(MAG065) ARCHIVIST: Well, excuse me if my experiences of th– TIM: Your experiences? Fuck you! I got eaten by worms because of you!

(MAG131) ARCHIVIST: Oh, I… Melanie, I–I’m so sorry, I– MELANIE: Oooh, fuck off?!

- Holder of “asshole”

(MAG117) MELANIE: Elias thinks he’s got this ingenious way to hurt people, but it’s just the same old bullshit in a creepy new package. … Asshole…

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: Tim!! [STATIC:] What do you see? TIM: I see my asshole boss! W– wait… wait…

- Asbestos.

(MAG028) MELANIE: Anyway. We’d been angling to go into the CMH for months, er, but I couldn’t get permission. Apparently there’s asbestos in the walls? It makes it, uh, “too much of a health and safety hazard”.

(MAG090) ELIAS: [SIGH] Tim… This place is very old. It has all sorts of… idiosyncrasies, and not all of them are good for the people who work here. TIM: I think I’d prefer asbestos.

- That-bi-crush-on-the-Real-Sasha

(MAG076) MELANIE: Where’s Sasha, by the way? I wanted to say goodbye. […] I haven’t seen her in a while. Oh. You didn’t fire her, did you? […] Tall, long hair, glasses… She was here when I first came in. Back last April? We had a long conversation about haunted pubs.

(MAG114) TIM: I knew Sasha for years, we… I don’t know Martin as well as I knew her.

- Not tolerating tape recorders anymore

(MAG098) MARTIN: […] Have you seen [Jon] since…? TIM: [GRUNT] Kind of. We tried to talk, but he, he reached for that– Ah, he, he wanted to turn on his recorder. I freaked out a bit, and I said some stuff: if he wanted to talk, no tapes, I just, I just hate that thing.

(MAG136) THERAPIST: Right, have a seat. Do you mind if I record our sessions? MELANIE: I do mind. Yes. THERAPIST: Ah? I mean, it’s just for my own notes. MELANIE: I categorically and completely do not give consent for you to make any recording of me, ever. Turn it off. Please.

- … Apparently talking with each other behind tape recorders’ back

(MAG106) ELIAS: You already have doubts, though. You’ve been talking with Tim, and have convinced yourself that– MELANIE: [DRY LAUGHTER] ELIAS: –even if I’m telling the truth, I’m too dangerous to live. MELANIE: Well.

- Conscious decision to avoid or stop doing Archival Assistant work altogether because The Eye/the place/this work is evil

(MAG098) TIM: Still doing those? MARTIN: … Yeah. Yeah… I did ask Elias if I could stop. TIM: And he said “no” for a mysterious reason? MARTIN: I don’t know? I mean, he kind of explained – I think? Jon’s “too inconsistent” at the moment. He needs to make up for the shortfall, which, I guess, means me. … Unless you… TIM: No. MARTIN: He did suggest I try to get you involved, and– TIM: And I suggest that he not be a scary, magic psychopath. … Whoops! Too late. MARTIN: … Yeah. TIM: [SIGH] … Sorry. MARTIN: No, I– I get it. Heh. They’re not exactly much fun. TIM: Look, it’s not that. I… [SIGH] This place is evil, Martin. And I think doing what It wants? Probably makes us evil. And It wants those things to be read. I mean, I’m not gonna stop you, but, at the same time– MARTIN: I– I get it.

(MAG150) MELANIE: Look. I’m not going to do my job anymore. ARCHIVIST: … I am not sure I follow, you–you know we… we can’t… quit, we’ve all tried. MELANIE: I didn’t say I was going to quit. I said: I’m not going to do my job. No researching; no filing; no… field trips. Nothing that is going to help the Institute in any way. […] ARCHIVIST: Why? MELANIE: Because this place is evil, Jon. And so… doing this job… ARCHIVIST: [LOUD EXHALE] MELANIE: Helping it out… even in small ways, i–is in some way… evil too! Every time we try to use it to do good, it just seems to make everything worse, and… and I will not be a part of that anymore.

- … and sickness due the aforementioned (experienced/planned ;;)

(MAG090) TIM: I hopped a flight to Malaysia. Found myself a hotel. ELIAS: I see. … You were trying to leave us? TIM: Yeah…! ELIAS: But you’ve returned. TIM: I… I got sick. The longer I was gone… I felt weak, like… like I was, I was losing myself…

(MAG065) ARCHIVIST: Statement of Tessa Winters, regarding a strange computer program she downloaded from the Deep Web, three months ago. Is that accurate? TESSA: Well, first off, I didn’t find it on the “Deep Web”. … God, it’s like talking to my grandpa.

(MAG076) MELANIE: I was actually a meme for a day or two. … You… do know what that is, don’t you? ARCHIVIST: Yes, I know what a meme is. You were saying?

(MAG081) ARCHIVIST: No-one ever believes me when I tell them my age. I, I don’t… know if it’s the already greying hair or something in my demeanour, but they always act surprised when I mention being a child in the Nineties. I will admit the last few years have… aged me considerably.

+ Bonus: Grumpy Young Old Grampa gratuitously grumbling in his corner

(MAG097) ARCHIVIST: Georgie, where’s your fusebo–? Right. Right. Keep saying it’s not meant to trip whenever one bulb goes, but “No, Jon, I don’t want to bother the landlord”.