Minimum required reading: The Magnus Archives Episode 38: Lost and Found Audio Transcript

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Nihilio, The Pale, The Endless Snowstorm, The Nothing#

The following is a fanfiction of the Magnus Archives, while both this and it’s source are clearly fictional, the reader is advised to say “This Is Not Real” out loud before reading any further.

This

Is

Not

Real

ARCHIVIST:#

[THE TAPE RECORDER IS ALREADY RUNNING]

For how much longer will my witch of a predecessor vex me! Nevermind the sorry state of the archives, I can guarantee that that this is the first statement left completely redacted. After recovering the text with some paint remover, all I found were citations that go nowhere, like this one, Patricia Pendleton doesn’t exist!

[CLICK] [THE TAPE RECORDER BEGINS SPUTTERING, TAPE IS SENT OUT OF A CORNER IN THE PLASTIC]

Oh for god’s sake what’s this now?

[JON DROPS THE STATEMENT ON HIS DESK AND GETS UP TO CHECK THE TAPE RECORDER]

[THE ARCHIVIST EXHALES SHARPLY AND RETURNS TO HIS DESK IN DEFEAT]

[PAUSE] [THERE IS NOTHING ON THE ARCHIVISTS DESK]

Now where was that-

[LONGER PAUSE]

What was I doing? Oh yes, Martin! Please tell Elias to provide us with better equipment will you!

[YEARS EARLIER]#

Anna knew it wasn’t easy being an archival assistant to Gertrude Robinson, but dealing with these kinds of statements was by far the most mind-bending of tasks. Gertrude would not even instruct her directly on how to deal with them, she would spin these elaborate parables and stories, as if the archival instructions themselves were a book she was writing. Anna knew the following: for a statement like this, either wrap it in a layer of fiction, or make up a name and cite as the true source. “One more thing Anna”, she recalled one of the few things her boss said without a layer of obfuscation, “you must never attempt to verify the sources of Nihilio’s statements, their mystery is our only protection”.

Her current task, was to safely transcribe the contents of a video provided by David Ramao.

“The following is fabricated ‘found footage’ film provided by university student Alfred Alfaro”, Anna penned, doing her best to follow Gertrude’s requirements while also not placing much stock in the idea that the false citation needed to be realistic.

The video starts, it is grainy, dark enough to trigger the camera’s poor implementation of “night vision” which sapped all saturation from the shot in exchange for providing some depth perception to an otherwise pitch black cellar. There is heavy breathing, the camera points to a vase. Our protagonist then takes our view to its mouth and drops the camera inside the vase. From there it is difficult to understand what happens, the camera begins self-chilling, it would appear that from David had never owned a camera.

Anna stops writing for a second, she feels something, as if the story became too real, she remembered another trick of Gertrude’s.

What happened to the camera was not a process but a list of names, and that list is Azimuth-Boreas-Sector-Orbit-Laudanum-Ultra-Tricolor-Ellipsis Nadir-Ellipsis-Gamut-Azimuth-Tricolor-Icon-Orbit-Nadir. There is no contradiction in writing about a camera that never existed. The image comes into focus again and we can make out two figures trudging through snow, one of them David who appears to be arguing with someone but the static is too thick to make out what they are saying. His interlocutor’s body is less formed than his own and appears to solidify out of a ghostly plasma. The audio becomes clear enough to comprehend,

“Without it there is nothing, nothing is a snowstorm,” the ghost says, “it’s spreading dangerously, if we don’t get someone out there to stop it the entire world will be at risk of nihilistic collapse.**

Anna gasped. If this were any other entity, Gertrude would need to be notified of a development like this immediately. It would be imperative to track down its latest developments and prevent the ritual. With Nihilio her strategy seemed to be be the opposite, to obfuscate and then to archive the information and know as little as possible about it. Anna did not know what Gertrude was planning or if she could allow what increasingly resembled carelessness to continue.