THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES #57 - Personal Space
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- Опубліковано 15 кві 2018
- MAG057 - Case #0090404 - Carter Chilcott
Statement regarding their time spent in isolation aboard the space station Daedalus.
The Magnus Archives tells the tale of an astronaut whose participation in an orbital experiment resulted in consternation about what they saw.
Starring: The Archivist - Jonathan Sims; Not!Sasha - Eve Hewitt
Writer: Jonathan Sims
Director: Alexander J Newall
Editors: Alexander J Newall, Mike LeBeau
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![[MAG 56] jon being paranoid for two minutes](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RnFKJlAyZpw/mqdefault.jpg)
Am I the only one who thinks Jon’s paranoia is pretty funny? Like how he’s gone full conspiracy theorist, but isn’t the slightest bit subtle, recording his suspicions of his coworkers while at work, and also is an awful liar? It’s great.
I mean, it's funny but also really worrying
yeah, he needs to sit down, have a nice long talk with Martin about how to take care of yourself, and take a goddamn nap.
It's even funnier because he's right to be suspicious, one of his coworkers is DEFINITELY... not themselves, shall we say, but for all his paranoia he's still dumb as a rock about it.
It’s because he has all these pieces, but has no idea where to begin putting them together.
It’s a huge puzzle, but he has no clue what the picture is supposed to look like.
So he searches for the edge pieces, but can only find a corner or two. So then he tries organizing the pieces by color, but that doesn’t really help him make any sense of it at all either.
So then he just starts jamming random pieces together, hoping for a solid connection, but nothing sticks together properly!
All the while, he’s not getting any sleep, is barely eating, and is paranoid that if he doesn’t get a sense of what the picture is soon, then either he or one of his assistants might die!
Basically, season 2 Jon is frustrating and sad and a touch amusing at times, but upon repeated listens, I’ve really come to really empathize with him, and analyze his behavior.
He doesn’t yet have enough information to truly have any idea what’s going on, but he does have just enough to know that _something_ is going on, and that it’s super dangerous for him and those around him. Poor guy. 😢
In conclusion, petition to give Jon a big hug and some serious therapy, before things go completely off the rails! 🥺
@@TheNitpickChick WOW! That is a really sound analysis!
Sasha: Please dont go through my things or record our conversations
Jon: ???? VERY suspicious....
Is that a wild Velafi?
I mean she is notsasha
@@arthurcosta1657 Spoiler. Boooh.
@@lexa2310 how is that a spoiler?
@@lexa2310 It's in the video description... if she being NotSasha is a spoiler for you than sorry but it's your problem only.
sasha dating wax figure from the museum confirmed
I mean I cannot blame her
Good for her
Not Sasha
sasha be like uhhh my boyfriend?? no u cant meet him he's in canada
he goes to a different school, you wouldn't know him
"Nah he's in Northern Germany keeping.......an E Y E out near a graveyard"
no you wouldn't know him he works at a different instatute.
im deinking candian soda rn
lets play the game: is jon paranoid or is he just that observant?
looks like a stock photo??? thats so specific
i think its probably a mix. i havent finished the episode yet but if this is referring to not-sasha, him being observant may have been twisted into paranoia regarding his coworkers. im sure michaels warning didnt help either lol
with the not-them's ability to warp how people see each other, he might be interfering with that ability somehow? but he might also just be paranoid as a result of the attack or something. i imagine this job can take a huge toll on your mental health
he's right enough that while I wouldn't say he's exactly _paranoid_ , he's certainly really not functioning and coping well enough for me to say he's _not_ paranoid
Stock photos do have that staged look to them- I think it's something to do with the lighting ?
That kind of photo in most cases is probably taken or planned in a studio; rather than out and about on whim, where they're supposed to be, I guess be more focused on having fun than photographing fun? maybe Jon is half picking up on how perfect the pictures look that they probably look too perfect? which could fuel the SUSPISH >:O
I mean, it's only paranoia when otherworldly entities and horrifying monsters *aren't* out to get you.
Yup, just anxiety when it is justified.
i was aware of the running joke that "if you have a fear of something, tma has an episode about it" but i really didn't think my uncommon fear of being trapped alone in space would ever come up
Jjejejeejej, oh yeah. It is true. And it creates new ones
Same bro:’D I almost started crying in horror. Also, ben de Türküm yeyyyy böyle rastgele yerlerde türk görünce mutlu oluyorum da demeden geçmesem olmazdı
@@noodles07307 oo yine her yerdeyiz :) ben bitireli bir yıl falan oldu, baya güzel podcast umarım eğlenirsin
@@zeynep0910 teşekkür ederim çok yavaş ilerliyor ama yavaş olması heyecanı arttırıyor sonraki sezonlarda daha hızlı olacağını tahmin ediyorum baya eğlenceli buraya kadar 👍
I really doubt anyone ISNT afraid of that lmao
Fairchild really loves throwing people into the void of total isolation. Usually people extremely passionate of their hobbies; Sky-diving, deep-sea diving, outer space... I know he wasn’t mentioned but there’s similarities to the cave exploration and the traveller.
Chilcott wasn’t strictly speaking one of his victims, but you’re not far off
Sky, sea, universe all of these have a comon thing and that is : they are not explored. People dont know very much about them
@@astheusual Seems kinda like he just fuckin
Throws people into the ether to see what they find
@Nerissa Wella Cajara episode 51, high pressure.
This was Lucas tho. Fairchild grabbed one of the other ones.
The Lukas AND Fairchild families. Poor guy, he didn't know he was in a crossover episode.
They like group projects!
So what's the deal with Not!Sasha? Is replacing Sasha out of her normal life its entire plan? "Hi, I'm an eldritch abomination and I work as a research assistant. I don't get along with technology. I like coffee, gardening and sitcoms. I'm planning to move in with my boyfriend next month". Just an elder god living a normal life.
It's always a good idea to have someone behind enemy lines. A spy, or someone that can mess with the information and make sure you only see what they want you to see. I think that's what she's doing.
There's no way she killed Gertrude since she showed up during the Prentiss attack, so she's probably a beast to tackle in her own right. Still, it would be anticlimactic if that really is the extent of her plan. Or perhaps that's the horror of it, it not even being that big of a deal.
Look the economies in shambles jobs are hard to get
The Not!Them is the one stranger that can get a salary. It needs to pay the bills for the rest of its creepy friends. The anglerfish doesn’t actually make any money in that charity shop.
@@malaizze Probably no tips for Breekon & Hope either.
Jon really is just the worst spy, huh? Dude's conspicuous as hell
Yea lol
Tbf his job title is archivist and not Paranoia fueled spy
@@toomuchawesomeness5886 it should have been put in the job description
He’s as bad a snooper as Merlin
@@hermazingbartels2377 LMAO truly, that fool couldn’t keep himself hidden for shit
Love that the fairchilds and the Lukas family can collaborate like that. Hooray for creepy eldritch fear families
having listened to the whole show once already, the Optic Solutions Ltd bit hits different :(
@@jessb4141 Hmm. I thought it was a meaner aspect of the Eye. But the camera wasn't watching. And that address is the place where the Sun doesn't shine most of the year. Kinda weird that Darkness uses a closed eye symbol though. Makes it seem secondary to the Eye.
Enjoy Sky Blue II: Intergalactic Boogaloo
In cinemas on February 2020
Genius
But cancelled due to coronavirus
Sky Blue III: Tokyo Drift. We had the endless water bit wit the diver earlier.
Brilliant
anyone else hear that high pitch noise when Jon is talking to Sasha? It’s the same noise as when Michael showed up
i mean, makes sense, whatever not! sasha is clearly isn't human
And the same noise that played when OG Sasha encountered the NotThem
Micheal is cooler though
Yeah. She is an entity but... a little one? The noise that played with Micheal around was louder
i mean, notsasha is from the spiral table, and helen tried to draw michael's corridors but could only make a spiral...
Since I haven't seen anybody talking abt. this in the comments.
The satellite this experiment went on in was called the Daedalus. In Greek Mythology Daedalus was the creator of the Labyrinth, who was imprisoned with his son Icarus, so that he could not reveal the Labyrinth's secrets. Icarus was the same Icarus who flew too close to the sun when he and Daedalus attempted to flee using wings made of feathers and wax.
Man now i realise that this mythological tale which you just wrote is shown in the anime Ergo Proxy (2006)... You can check it out😅
I too realized this as soon as I heard it.
Ohhhhh That's why I thought the name sounded so familiar... Dayum those Fairchilds and Lukases aren't subtle with their naming
Ayyyy another person with exceptional taste I see.
I'm trying to find the comment on how impossible is what the guy said about how he was certain the station was still moving... Worst of all, still in some kind of orbit. That is absolutely impossible to know under those circumstances... It could just as easily be simply rotating. Little cringy mistake. I always cringe when grownups make such basic mistakes from forgetting what they learned in school, especially on the internet. I hope I don't embarrass myself like that when I grow up.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who imagined the most funniest silliest pictures when Jon mentioned that Sasha’s pics with her boyfriend look like stock photos
Pics of two people laughing at salads
I was imagining the shutterstock watermarks and everything lol
When he described it like that I laughed
Immediately thought about them riding one of those multiple-seats bikes, laughing at salads, or in a pose that's _meant_ to look like they're laughing uproariously at something, but it's obvious that they're just imitating the pose while holding still lmao
Chilcott: *literally spent the entire time trapped in preternatural isolation beyond normal space*
Also Chilcott: "There's NOTHING out there. Aliens don't exist."
I interpret this as a "Sims syndrome", that he is constantly denying himself that there was something out there because, if there was, it would be... terrifying. (don't mind me, just a first time listener who came pretty late)
i mean certainly they FELT alone, and why would he think it was aliens?
that Simon guy is certainly getting action for his old age, first parachuting, then gliding in empty spacesuit across the space
Jon is becoming that picture of the "always sunny" guy with all the red string.
Listening to this series for the first time rn, and i'm becoming a similar picture of trying to track all the connections.
jon PLEASE go to therapy I am BEGGING you
😂
Smh don’t you know that in horror therapists are either stupid or just don’t exist/j
as someone with a long time very specific fear of incomprehensibly vast empty voids, I am very much *Not A Fan* of Fairchild!!!
Look buddy, Fairchild just wants one thing and it's to throw random people into various forms of terrifying void torture for no discernible purpose. Let him have his hobby.
Leave sky grandpa alone! He just likes showing people the... _bigger picture_ if you will. Lol
**kind of spoiler?**
.
.
.
.
Also this particular statement can more be attributed to the Lucas family and their isolation experiment. 😉
Fairchild’s hand will be revealed on a later date.
He said the stars were twinkling... I don't know if this was intentional or just a small mistake, but stars aren't supposed to twinkle when you look at them from space
Maybe they were eyes.
He said he knew the station was moving... And still in "some sort of orbit". That's way worse... Like... Moving *relative to what???*
@@juliankohler5086 Now I'm freaking out...
@@juliankohler5086 you just made my megalophobia act up😃 now I can't help but think of something so massive and dark he wouldn't have spottet it like a black hole but I mean without the light orbiting around it. Damn I'm tearing up just at the thought of it
@@ot7biasedmashups That would've blocked out stars.
I played an immersive game where you fly around in space in a limited galaxy. The thing is, there is nothing beyond that galaxy. It is SO creepy to look down or up into infinite blackness. Gives me vertigo. Also being on the outside of the galaxy, turning my back to the void makes uneasy, like something is lurking, waiting. Its all fine as long as you focus on the bright stars and colorful nebula that cradles the game area.
does anyone else like, feel their spine prickle any time "sasha" (aka not!sasha) is mentioned??
... yes
ignorance is bliss
The series including the audio of them changing was such a good choice. It makes the tension build every time because you know something that everyone in the story is blind to.
So on the third listening, it occurs to me - perhaps space was not the actual location, but perhaps it was only a simulation to deceive the participant; it may be that the travel was not vertical but horizontal, an entry or portal into another dimension.....
Man you are a big, big fan dude
That would make sense considering the effects and costs of being in space for 2 years
I considered that actually. All of this could be a really twisted experiment to convince the dude that he was in total isolation, and maybe the view outside was like a realistic screen. Also if that's the case this isn't paranormal, just a fucked up company that needs to go down for lack of ethics
But the company's or should I say companies do deal with stuff that is paranormal
@@Lightning-ik3so Doesn't track. If its on tape, then it is paranormal.
i know everyone has that episode that finally *gets* to them in this series, and this is absolutely that episode for me. the idea of total isolation, no escape, nothing to save you, really made that fear real to me.
hits a little too close to home rn
For me it just brought to mind CGP Grey's last video which is a lesson on how to cope. I highly recommend it in this trying time.
It's called lockdown productivity: spaceship you
This one is my favorite so far. Being alone and stranded in space is goddamn terrifying to me.
It's less frightening when you actually survive something similar.
It's a little ironic Carter was watching "28 Days Later" when you think about it. The movie deals with the feeling of isolation, loneliness, and seclusion. Nice reference there, guys!
Watching horror movies was probably a mistake
I cant wait for John to discover that Sasha got replaced and yet I'm scared. He is already not doing well and I don't want to know what Self-reproach would do to him
this one made me weirdly sad somehow.. the way jon phrased " i'm going to space " made the man sound really happy and excited and him just ending up traumatized of his passion made me feel really sad T T
Cave, sky, deep sea, kill floor, that one street full of faceless ppl, endless corridor, now this, they should form a band or smtng
Yes, Grifter's Bone
i can't stop thinking about this episode it's so so good it filled me with such genuine terror.. when the earth disappears, the part where he realises the camera isn’t connected anywhere let alone is streaming anything, his realisation that his food suply doesn't diminish at all, how he legitimately thinks he's in hell and that the only way to know for sure is to slowly starve himself to death.. fucking chills
Bruh, when someone mentioned that if you have a fear, TMA would have an episode based on it and I went "pfffft no way they have an episode about endlessly stranded in space for eternity" and oh boy was I wrong.
the code saying "no one is coming" gave me CHILLS.
I'm listening to this, while in self isolation because of the Corona Virus XD
Yup
Historical comments
Conrad Lukas
I like the detail with the dreams: graveyards (Alone) and open sea (The Tundra), which are both lonely places connected to the Lukas family
the dude who said cryptic comments in the comments is gone, and i miss him
YES ME TOO marshmallow dude
Apparently what he wrote was spoilery but the spoilers were so vague that the reaction was polarized with some people being pissed and some people being pleasantly intrigued. Can't please everyone type of thing...
@@calhanlon5568 this was definitely the case when not replying to his comments at all would be perfect both for the preservation of mystery and the unsettling atmosphere
Lonely
@@mimkyodar thank you, for your cryptid energy
It be weird listening to this during quarantine.
Honestly mood
I got sooooo much more to listen to....i love it!
...yep...
Hah. No kidding.
it makes me very very grateful i have a roommate and a cat. i used to live on a boat and i was intending to sail across the pacific but couldn't find any crew to help me. quite aside from it being dangerous and difficult by myself, i know damn well that i should absolutely not be left alone with my thoughts for 4-6 weeks straight
man: "we're all alone out there, the dark typing the emptiness together like a tapestry"
me: "oh I like this"
Dark. Very dark
:Whispers:
yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss
"Comrade Lucas"
Me: Oh no-
I would love it if it turns out that the fake as hell smiley people who feature in stock photos are all these odd replacement people XD
Like, the uncanniness becomes just a bit familiar specifically bc everyone's seen a representation of them at some point, even though they're still so... Abnormal
Aw shit, that astronaut dude got himself into the hands of the Triumvirate of Evil, wth. It's like all of these entities just came together and were like "f/ck that dude in particular, amirite?"
how else would you describe outer space if not vast, lonely, and dark?
do you think "Sasha"'s boyfriend knows he's her boyfriend?
Wait, so the Fairchilds, the Lukas family, and the Church of the Divine Host are all working together on this one? That can't be good.
group project :)
pretty sure that the title is a bad pun.
so does Jon not listen to these after teh fact and realize that she always makes it sound distorted?
She's always had that effect on tapes though ;)
DAD. SENT ME. TO THE MOON!
I'm a first-time watcher and I'm really loving going through all of these comments about people noticing things in the episodes that I didn't initially. But one thing I have noticed that not a lot of people have talked about, is the static noise that happens when Not!Sasha talks! It's a rlly cool detail!!
Rationalization:
The food is drugged together with the drinks. (also may be imbued with chanting and stuff)
The fairchild family, The Lukas family, and others are rich families or prestigious people that are tied to the paranormal.
Robert Smirk and friends.
Sasha's really out here dating George Glass, huh
I don’t get your joke but I feel like if I did I would laugh
what are you talking about? there's no george glass at our skiule
is this a spoiler?
Dann Hoff no, it’s a meme. :)
Jon: Sure Sasha 😏
lukas family huh
also i love how the tape recorder has more white noise when "sasha" speaks
A story of Graham'd Sasha and her stock photo boyfriend
this gave me a lot of anxiety and I’ve never heard my fears embodied like this
isolation and loneliness do be spooky
hell of a collaboration. but how else would you describe outer space if not vast, lonely, and dark?
i read somewhere that whatever your fear is, there is an episode for it, and had been waiting for mine. what i had not been expecting, however, was one that addressed all of my fears.
isolation, being forsaken, being so completely out of control, not even being able to get death as some sort of savior...
this episode didn't scare me, per se, more... left me feeling empty and helpless
I have no fears.
@@mistydevillier2197 There's an episode for that too
@@Idran are you /j or /srs?
I get the feeling this archive will be *out of this world!*
Halfway through I heard a low,echoing, and loud humming sound and got spooked. Turns out my sister has just decided to learn bass guitar 😅
Job needs a hug and a warm meal
I really want to make him a lasagna
these are so good - and so much in the tradition of the great scary radio shows of many years ago, like Lights Out! and Inner Sanctum!!!
This reminds me of the movie _Melancholia_ especially the scene where Justine says, “I know we’re alone. Life is only on Earth… and not for long.”
"I'm stuck in gravity, far from where I wanna be."
Bro when notsasha said please dont record our conversations and he ended the confo my heart dropped
this one hittin different in quarantine
Man looking back I have posted so many comments on this. I think I'm just going to make a very occasional one. Keep up the good work! Apparently season 4 has started so I've got a lot to do...! :-)
Hey, what's up
@@MugetsuFused Hi person from 2 years ago
@@eusouabia2986 hi person from 2 months ago
@@N8O12hi person from 8 months ago
Hi person from 2 weeks ago
I have a theory that Fairchild isn't a person but a part of some "emptiness monster" kinda like Michael is a part of the "hallway monster" Maybe they are opposites? Because they both lure people into infinite empty places, but Michaels place is claustrophobic and Fairchild places are vast?
Im a first time listener so please dont spoil
First time listener here as well!! This is a really cool theory :))
I mean,
Spoilers, probably
You aren't entirely off the mark
First time listener. So the main thing I'm getting here is isolation, obviously, and this in turn reminds me of The Alone. Whatever power or entity this is referring to is clearly linked to the Lukas family. However, Simon "Blue Sky" grandpa. His family name does pop around these days, don't it? I'm pretty sure he's connected to Ex Altiora and the sky entity
oh joy! another endless incomprehensible void!
My theory from this episode and what we know so far:
From the beginning of this, at first I thought it was about the vast entity; what's vastier than the empty space, right? Then the Lukas name popped up so I was like "Ah, loneliness entity" and by the end of it we hear that both the lukas and the Fairchild families were involved in this. So, are those two entities the same? I don't feel so, though I think they're like twins, very similar to almost identical but still different. This witness went into space and, as he said, the Lukas person here was annoyed by the fact that they couldn't send just him alone; legally they had to sent at least two others with him. So i believe that's what actually saved him, not the fact that he wasn't eating but the fact that someone else, not related with the cults, saw him and decided to bring him back. We've heard enough times cases that show to us that time in those other dimensions works differently than ours, and he was at some point indeed in another dimension, where he was in the vast empty space and all alone. But maybe him no longer eating and drinking made his senses to bring him out of it somehow, and that's how the other too, even though they were ordered to not pass through his own window, somehow figured out he wasn't okay. Or, maybe, his whole living thing that was connected to the satelite was teleported to the other dimension, which made these people aware that something was wrong? I don't know, but I do believe that if they also experienced something supernatural up there, at some point they'll make a statement to the institute too about it (unless if they were memberd of the cult too, though I don't think so).
Another thing, when at the end John was saying which businesses were part of this project, he named three (the lukas's and the fairchild's were the first two) and pointed out that the last one is located somewhere. Now, I found it odd that he had to point that out, so I checked that out and that is the northest place of humans were "the nights last for a long time", the place that was mentioned in that cult roomate episode. Now, we know that that episode was for the close eye/dark entity, so we have the vast, the loneliness and the dark entities working together (if the first two are different or the same is still not fully clear yet). And also, in that episode, we know that the next time people heard voices from that chapel was the day gertrude died, so most likely the dark's cult of the dark entity itself killed her, which shows once again that the open eye and the dark eye/dark are enemies and the open eye might not be that evil after all (gertrude was unaware that she was working for the open eye 'cause i'm convinced that the institute is working for the open eye, but wether they know it or not is a different matter).
As for not!sasha, is her boyfriend another not-person or an angler's puppet person (since it owes her from helping it from further investigation with the taxidermy shop) or just a wax person? I can't wait to find out.
I enjoy reading your thoughts under every episode, hope you like this podcast!
@@nevka557 Thank you ^_^ I enjoy it, yes. For numerous reasons I didn't have time for it until it was dark outside already for some months and I'm not brave enough to listen to the episodes when it's dark :P But now I have more free time during the day so I'm picking it up again :D
@@evagrev7351 Oh the next season will take you for a ride :D
@@nevka557 Thank you, I'm looking forward to it, especially since the days are longer now 😅😂
wow,,, quarantine mood
Even after 3 listens to the series i love the little touches, like how the static increases everytime a real supernatural thing happens or is discussed.
i absolutely love that this episode is called personal space that absolutely hilarious lmao
This is by far my favourite episode. I dont know why but I absolutely LOVE the way it describes the emptiness of space.
Loving all the episodes, been bingeing them in lockdown lol
I've only just found this podcast a few weeks ago but, have been listening avidly since. The two other crew members were also in "the insides" episode.
as soon as the earth wasn’t there i was like ..... FAIRCHILD
this one always cracks me up, thinking about [redacted] going, "hey, i looked at that guy we put in the daedelus. hes now convinced that hes already dead and in hell lolololol" like everything the statement-giver described being passed around the sponsors as the funniest thing this week
ok so the space station was connected to the freefall/ocean guy, the family that funds the magnus institute and also maybe the cult of that one roommate but also weird eye symbolism?? oh yea its all coming together
Wooooooow... if this was a book, I'd eat it! Amazing work.
"Isolation experiment"
2020 has entered the chat.
as someone who would like to go to space before they die- this is one of my favorite episodes so far. i love and hate it in equal measure.
again, well done.
Well Jon's finally noticing Sasha's behavior 👏
Random person: Boy, I sure do love my mildly dangerous, mildly isolated job.
The Fairchilds: Let's see if we can fix that.
Oh hold on. So the Lukas family serves the Lonly right? Does that mean the Fairchilds have a similar thing going with the Vast and that company (?) in norway with the dark?
Yyyyyupp
Yes to all of the above! :)
(Well.. Simon Fairchild is with Vast. The Fairchilds as a whole aren’t. They’re not the same as the Lukas family.)
i think norway is about lietner. he was from norway if i'm not mistaken. . what was the Lonly again?
This genuinely terrified me. Its always scred me by just how far the human brain is willing to go to rationalise what you see or hear or whatever, and even more so by what it will do to keep itself safe.
(I think. I'm not a psychology person) Either way, it's really messed up
Wait is not!Sasha the same thing that took over the guy who ate the paper?
Yup! Graham became not!Graham. Then Sasha became not!Sasha. :)
@@TheNitpickChick And yet, I wonder if Sasha might be okay somewhere in the Archive? More than likely not
9:10 Mans just wittnessed an emergency meating with a bad outcome
SPOILERS
14:18 - “floating through ancient graveyards, or the open, empty sea”
Damnnn a reference to MAG 13 and 33! Relistening to this is such a delight! Figuring out the entities involved and making connections is so fun lol
I KNEW this had something to do with the Fairchilds! What is it with them and endless spaces?
warnings on the transcript website: existential crisis
me: whop de doo lets go my dudes
edit: oh.
This episode hit differently while you listening from self-quarantine hdhdhdh
Fairchilds 🤝 Nicholas Lucas (and maybe Peter Lucas from that cargo shipping ep?):
Let's mentally cripple anyone who willingly involves themselves with us
I’m very much late but I just realized the dreams Carter says he had were references to previous episodes with the Lukas’ and Fairchilds, endless graveyards and oceans
When I lived in Humboldt County, I legitimately believed it was possible that I'd actually died and was in hell. There was a forest fire near my old house shortly before I moved. I thought maybe I'd actually burned to death, and what I was living through was some kind of hellish afterlife designed specifically to torture me- but no, life just sucked, I guess. Oddly specific. When he said that, I was like, ahhh yes. I know that feeling well.
Well this is one of those. When he described that space suit I got it. New fear unlocked.
ARCHIVIST
Statement of Carter Chilcott, regarding his time spent in isolation aboard the space station Daedalus in September 2007.
Original statement given April 4, 2009. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.
Statement begins.
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)
We’re all alone out there.
I know the statistics. How big the universe is, the probabilities and proximities and the promises of other beings out there among the stars, but I’ve been there. There’s nothing. Nothing but empty, uncaring void, lacing dead worlds and dead stars all together like a tapestry of lonely meaninglessness.
Humans have existed for the smallest sliver of a fraction of a moment in the existence of the universe, and we will be extinguished just as widely. And when we are at last gone forever into the quiet emptiness of death, there will be nothing left but the cold universe.
And nothing shall mark our passing because there is nothing to do so.
Dismiss me if you wish to. Take comfort in your escapist fantasies of aliens and visitors from other worlds, but there’s no proof I can give you beyond the testimony of one who has spent so very long staring into that black and empty infinity and knowing, truly knowing, what it means to be floating and forsaken in an empty universe.
I knew isolation experiments could be rough when I signed up. I’m not some naive fool who thought he’d endure a few quirky side effects for science. No, I’m an astronaut, so I do my research. When I was picked for the project, a long-term isolation study set in conditions of low Earth orbit, I read up on as many previous cases and similar experiments from the past 30 years, familiarizing myself with side effects and likely psychological hurdles.
It was daunting to say the least. I wasn’t keen to experience some of what the previous tests seemed to promise what happened to my mind, but I didn’t feel like I had much choice. I’d had my application to the International Space Station floating in limbo for so long that when a private consortium approached me telling me they’d recently launched Daedalus, a small manned satellite of their own, and needed qualified crew members, I jumped at the chance to go to space at last.
I should have realized that what they meant by “crew member” was “lab monkey”. But to be honest, even after I found this out it didn’t do a lot to dampen my enthusiasm for the project. I was going to space.
There were two other people technically on the crew. I say technically as I never spent any time with them beyond the trip up to the Daedalus. Their names were Yan Kilbride and Manuela Dominguez. I’m sure that they probably did a lot more looking after the station than I ever did, but as far as I was concerned I was the only one up there.
From the chatter I heard before the mission began, each of us had an experiment of our own to be concerned with. But they were also there as a backup in case something went horribly wrong with mine, since the observing scientist simply didn’t have the option of intervening themselves.
I remember the man in charge of my particular project, Conrad Lukas, made a face of rather overstated disgust when he told me I wouldn’t be up there entirely on my own. I got the distinct impression he was one of those people who feel that ethical restrictions do nothing but bind the hands of the true scientist and leave them at the mercy of their subjects’ limitations.
My section of the tiny space station was completely self-contained. There was food, sleeping arrangements, and zero-gravity exercise equipment, all for my personal use. The single entrance to the rest of the satellite was locked and sealed. It could be opened from either side but on my side it required a code. I did have access to the code in case of emergency, but I had way too much riding on the mission to even think about being responsible for its early termination.
I also had one large domed window. It allowed me a decent view of the Earth below, as well as plenty of chance to stare off into space, which I did quite a lot in those early days.
I was told the other astronauts would do their best to avoid that window while doing maintenance or repair work outside. Mission Control had also supplied me with a lot of books and films and other entertainment as, like Conrad had told me at the first briefing, the experiment was into isolation, not boredom. So when I locked that door for the first time, I was feeling in pretty good spirits about the whole thing, to be honest.
I knew I was being monitored. There was a little camera mounted on the wall that kept a beady eye on me. It wasn’t so invasive that I couldn’t get away from it when I wanted to, but for the most part I was happy enough to eat and read and exercise in front of the watchful lens.
Obviously those assessing my progress would never communicate with me directly and they might not even be watching a live feed, so if they had opinions on how I was undertaking my task, I never heard them. Even if my task was just sitting around in a room in space waiting for my mind to break.
I tried not to take too much comfort in the knowledge that there were people watching my every move, as I felt that to find that reassuring would go quite strongly against the spirit of the experiment. I had to really feel alone. That at least it didn’t take too long to set in. I can’t honestly see how strapping yourself in to sleep or drinking your juice with a space foil pack on the straw can have much effect on isolation, but I wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up.
I believe some people would have been more disturbed than others by its location orbiting Earth, but it didn’t feel markedly different to me from any of the other isolation studies they conducted over the last few decades. If anything the silent, rolling green and blue of the Earth far below was another source of comfort, in the sure knowledge of the billions of other people making their way through life who had no idea what was right above their heads.
Both of these comforts lasted me almost six weeks. That was when I was aware I should start to experience some of the more distressing side effects.
I’d already passed through listlessness and a bout of insomnia. And I hadn’t been using my exercise machine properly for almost a fortnight, but I still didn’t expect the severity of the hallucinations when they began.
Twice I was woken up by the sound of the door opening, only to find it as tight as it had ever been. Throughout the daytime I would occasionally hear footsteps, which shouldn’t even have been possible in zero gravity. There was also a blackout for about 20 minutes at one point that may or may not have been real. Certainly we didn’t seem to lose power in any other systems except the lights.
So this was all reasonably distressing, but at least it had the advantage of not being unexpected. No, the first warning I got about how bad things were going to get was the spacesuit.
The clocks read it as 14:30 UTC and I was rewatching 28 Days Later, one of the better films that had been provided for my entertainment, when a movement in the window caught my eye. At first I thought it might have been some orbital debris moving past, but then I spotted it, still at the edge of the domed window.
It was a hand. The white bulky gloved hand of someone wearing an EVA suit. It started to float slowly across the window, followed by the rest of the arm, then the torso, ‘till almost the whole suit slowly floating across.
I was excited by the idea of seeing another human being at first, even if it was only brief or might compromise some of the work, but as the suit made its painstaking drift across the space outside, it rotated enough that I could see clearly through the suit’s visor.
There was nobody inside. The floating suit was completely empty.
And I started to suddenly get very scared.
At last it had passed right across and off into the night, the other side, and I stopped to try and calm myself in the face of what had been a deeply strange thing to watch. I managed to do so, but only until I looked again out of that window.
There were no more empty, floating clothes, but I noticed something that for some reason hadn’t dawned on me when watching the empty suit. It was, to put it quite simply, impossible, and I must have approached it from a hundred different angles trying to make sense of it.
The Earth was gone.
At first I assumed it must have been an orientation change, but that didn’t make any sense. The planet below had never been hidden from my position before and if we shifted that radically I would have felt it, I was sure.
But still the fact remained that where the Earth should have been, there was empty, dark space. I must have watched for hours waiting to see the sun. We were definitely still moving, and from what I could tell we still seemed to be moving in some sort of orbit, but without a planet below I have no idea why we kept the same pattern. Regardless, the sun should have been visible sooner or later.
After two days of waiting, I finally accepted the sun and the moon had gone as well.
It wasn’t completely empty out there. Far off in the distance I could still see stars twinkling. Probably long dead, but I knew that there was nothing they could do to save me.
At some point on the first day, I remembered the camera. I focused my attention on it and began to scream and shout for help, in the vain hope that someone might be watching a feed of it and be able to make contact. I cried and begged and pleaded with that camera for almost four hours before I was suddenly struck by a terrifying thought.
I floated over to it and gently took hold of the cables that were fed out from the back into the wall. I followed them along, looking for where they connected the power or broadcasting apparatus. What I found instead were a pair of neatly severed wires.
Transmitting nothing. Powering nothing. Connected to nothing.
The camera had never even been turned on, and had certainly not been transmitting anything to Earth. So what data had they been collecting?
I still have no idea the answer to that question, but I did feel like I gained some small sliver of control back after spending an all-too-brief hour smashing up the camera.
After that, it was time to break out the code and get the door to the rest of the satellite open. I had decided that even if this somehow was simply a really elaborate and convincing trick to examine reactions to certain stimulus in a test environment, it was still far beyond what I had signed up for. One way or another I decided I was getting out of this damned experiment.
I opened the small safe that contained the passcode document and easily broke the seal on its container. I was desperate to get out of that door as soon as possible and took a few moments to memorize it.
E109GHT8.
I can still remember it vividly as I entered that code over and over in an attempt to get that locked door to open. Each time I painstakingly entered it with as much precision as I still had within me, and each time the password field read out what I had apparently typed in:
“No one is coming”
and the door remained closed.
And that was it. I was trapped alone in a tiny room floating in space deserted empty space. I had plenty of food and water so starvation wasn’t a danger, but sometime in the first week the clock stopped working.
With no timepiece and nothing left outside of the sun or moon keeping any sort of time at all became utterly impossible. If I had to guess how long I spent in that strange exile, I would say somewhere between three and six months. But that is based solely on my eating and sleeping patterns, which were largely fueled by despair and that quiet aching terror of being utterly forsaken. I couldn’t even read my books or watch anything as characters seemed dead and lifeless, the emptiness of their artificial existence made plain to me.
The hallucinations stopped. I did not even get the comfort of company in my delusions, though at some point the line between dreaming and reality seemed to blur. I’d be sleeping, strapped into my bed in the middle of the void, or at the same time floating through ancient graveyards, or the open empty sea. They weren’t hallucinations, though they were dreams, even if the cold did seem to seep out of them and into the bones of me.
I spent so long trying to get that door open, but nothing worked. The mechanisms and electronics were not accessible from my side. When I finally stopped trying it was the final abandoning of my hope. That was also when I noticed something else that alarmed me in a very different way.
I did some calculations and realized that my food and water levels did not seem to be depleting. For all the time I had been there, in what I could now only think of as my imprisonment, it did not seem like there had been any significant change in my supplies. No one could be restocking me, because there was no one but me there. The food remained static, then did that mean I could remain trapped in this place for the rest of my life, assuming I even still aged?
I began to very seriously consider the idea that I had died, and this was Hell. Given that worry, the way I finally escaped it could be considered ironic. I starved myself to death. Well, not to death, I suppose, given I’m alive enough to talk to you, but close enough.
I don’t know how long I just floated there strapped into my lonely cocoon of a bed, refusing to eat or drink, waiting for the end. After everything else, I had no guarantee it was even possible for me to die but I had to try. When I finally faded from consciousness for what I hoped was the last time, it was the greatest relief I have ever felt.
I don’t know exactly when I realized I wasn’t dead. There were various moments I faded back into consciousness and I know that I felt the re-entry very hard. But it is difficult to pin down clear thoughts before the hospital.
No one’s really given me an official account of what happened, aside from that it became known I was in serious danger of death, and my colleagues on the Daedalus retrieved me, and managed to keep me alive until the next opportunity to send me back down.
I’m not pushing to know more, not really. I know what happened. And no rational cover story that they could feed me is going to change it.
I haven’t followed up with Conrad and as far as I’m aware he hasn’t made any attempt to contact me. I was paid in full though, which was a surprise.
I wanted to tell someone what really happened for almost a year before I found your Institute. There’s nothing really to be done about it, I wanted to get it off my chest.
So thank you for letting me get it down on paper.
ARCHIVIST
Statement ends.
While there’s plenty of media coverage of the launch of the Daedalus satellite in early 2007 by Stratosphere Group, a consortium of various scientific and aerospace companies, it seems the actual operation of the facility is guarded with a great deal more secrecy by the various organizations involved.
Martin was able to confirm that during its two years of operation it did have a total of three staff on board: Yan Kilbride, Manuela Dominguez, and Mr. Chilcott.
Beyond that, however, there’s little that can be retrieved from beyond the wall of corporate bureaucracy. Tim was, however, able to get a list of the businesses involved in the venture.
Three names stand out: Pinnacle Aerospace, majority owned by the Fairchild family; a large private investment by Nathaniel Lukas; and Optic Solutions Limited, a relatively benign-seeming company manufacturing specialist cameras for research and industrial application, who are nonetheless notable for having their business address listed as being in Ny Alesund in Norway.
I fear, however, that’s as much digging as I can do at the moment without drawing attention, so it may be wise to let the matter drop.
End recording.
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NOT!SASHA
John?
ARCHIVIST
Um…
NOT!SASHA
What are you doing?
ARCHIVIST
Sash - um, I can’t seem to find a new file for the Hilltop Road case. I thought I gave it to you to follow up on the children?
NOT!SASHA
You did and I gave it back.
ARCHIVIST
Ah, right.
NOT!SASHA
Even if I hadn’t, I would very much prefer it if you stay out of my desk.
ARCHIVIST
Oh, of course, sorry. I didn’t realize you were still here or I would have asked.
NOT!SASHA
Of course.
ARCHIVIST
I’ll see if it’s with Tim then.
NOT!SASHA
Also, John. I have asked before.
ARCHIVIST
What?
NOT!SASHA
Please don’t record our conversations.
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
ARCHIVIST
Stupid. I thought Sasha had left for the evening. I wanted to have a look in her desk for anything that might shed light on her recent weird behavior. I didn’t get much of a chance, but it all looked normal, except there are a few scraps of torn paper. They could be from files or just torn scrap paper, it’s hard to tell.
I’m at a loss. Why she would want to destroy files, though? Still I think I probably need to back off from Sasha for a while after this. I’ll just keep an eye from a distance for now.
I did find several pictures of her and her new boyfriend, though, which puts my mind somewhat at ease.
Well, mostly. There’s something about him that doesn’t seem quite right. Something about the smile, maybe.
I, I mean they’re all pictures of Sasha and Tom, as I’m told his name is, having fun together, but - it’s hard to put into words, exactly, but every one of them looks somehow like a stock photo.
End supplement.
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honestly this whole incident would've traumatized me so bad omg
Woah this one was especially spooky, very little to glean on what was going on in this one other than "Fairchild waz here"
Bro this series went for me from scary to cozy bed time story. My mental health will deteriorate when I'm through with it
Fun fact: He mentions that in his isolation he felt like he died and went to hell- which actually lines up pretty well with some Christian depictions of the concept. In Catholic theology specifically, hell isn't a torture dungeon, but the agony of becoming completely self absorbed, having cut yourself off from the love of God and the ability to love anyone else. In other words, total self-imposed spiritual isolation. I don't know if that was an intentional reference or not but if so it's pretty cool
Yeeeey! He think about suspicious Sasha! And you heard this, heard, strange noises, when Sasha talked?! What is going on with her? What changes her?
Okey, I’ve talked to much last times.
Literrally last episode, I saw the title, and reasoned that it was only a matter of time before they made an episode about space. FUCKING CALLED IT
I really want to see a horror game based off this one.
Totally thought sasha's boyfriend's name would be Graham
Y'know the joke of "if you have a fear there's a Magnus Archives episode about it"? I thought my two fears of complete isolation and space would never pop up. I was so, so very wrong.