![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So I'm listening to The Magnus Archives (I'll have a full post on it later, with opinions and fic recs and links and everything once I finish the series and dig through the ao3 tags). If you don't know what it is, in short, it's a weekly horror anthology podcast with a plot interwoven throughout the series. It's very very good, and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I got to season 3. And one of the rules I set for myself a long time ago (that I break a lot and always end up regretting, ngl) is that I don't do horror stuff I'm not familiar with after dark. I can watch things like Scream (which is, lbr, only horror in that it deals with horror tropes but really it lovingly parodies and also subverts a lot of them (that's another post for another day)), or The Shining, or Psycho after dark, but that's because I know them. I know when the scary bits are, I know when the music is gonna start doing that warning thing, I know when the jump scares are. But MAG? No clue. I'm liveblogging everything to a friend of mine who has already listened to it fully at least once (probably more than once at this point, I know she said she was gonna do a relisten before s4 drops) and she is delighted at my reactions. But I finished season 2 yesterday afternoon after I got off work and plunged right into season 3. And the plot has slowly been coming together over the first two seasons. You get teeny chunks of it in season 1. Mostly just names that pop up in various casefiles and statements, themes that keep repeating. In season 2 you get a bit more. If you're paying attention, you start to notice how some things don't quite fit like they did in the beginning. That's not to say that there's mistakes. They're very intentional. I don't want to go too far into detail, partly because I'm not quite finished yet and I want to wait until I am before I do a full-on discussion/review of it, and partly because spoilers. But anyway, back to the point. The plot starts picking up more in season 2, but when you hit season 3, it's much less "anthology and vaguely connected stories/statements" and more "we've been hinting and nudging and talking around the main plot of the series and now we're gonna throw everything we've got at you". That is to say, the plot really takes off. Everything you've been considering may be connected in season 2 is either confirmed or denied. And it's amazing. But it's also really spooky. There's this underlying terror that starts creeping in that gets ramped up to 11 when you get to season 3. And I, being the insatiably curious type, especially when it comes to stories, had to know what was going to happen. Oh, I could have cheated and looked on the wiki (I admit I've done that quite a bit, though I've since stopped and just let the story unfold), but my curiosity got the better of me. I broke my own rules.
It's winter now, or near enough. Technically it's still fall. But it's the middle of December, and if that's not winter then I don't know what is. At least here, in America. I've got a couple of friends in Australia and it's summer there. Long, hot days. Bright sunshine 'til 9:00 at night, at least. Here it gets dark by 5 PM. I was sitting in the basement while Dad was watching football. I had my headphones in, glancing out the back door every so often to judge how many more episodes I could go through before it got fully dark and I'd have to stop. But then I thought, "this is too good, I have to know what happens. I'm off tomorrow, I should be able to just listen to more with the lights on. Right?" Bad idea. We ended up going to our local zoo to the Festival of Lights, so it was well after 8 by the time I got a chance to start it up again. I really should have left it for the morning. I may occasionally be dumb enough to break my own rules and do horror stuff after dark, but like hell am I doing it when I don't have full control over what lights stay on and go out. Most of the episodes I listened to after we got home weren't too bad, a few shivers here and there but nothing I couldn't handle. And then I listened to episodes 86 and 90. Episode 90 was the one that scared me the worst. I won't go into details about it, but let's just say it was....unsettling. I've got a pretty vivid imagination, and a quirk that lets me replay images on a loop in my head. It's how I can remember film quotes so well. I can picture them just like I'm watching them on my computer, or on tv, or in a movie theater. Sometimes it's annoying, other times it's extremely useful. There was a particular thing mentioned at the end of the episode, and I could picture it so vividly in my head. I was convinced I'd never get to sleep, but at the same time my eyes were drooping so much. Fortunately I'd already taken my contacts out, so my own stupid fear was the only thing keeping me from dropping right then and there. I don't usually wear contacts, but I broke my glasses a couple of weeks ago and I'm just waiting on the replacements to ship to me. Anyway, I didn't want to go to sleep, because I knew I'd have nightmares and would just keep seeing....that. If you've listened to MAG, you know what I mean. But at the same time, I was so tired that all I wanted to do was sleep. So I put on Bob Ross and...actually got a little bit of rest? Not the best night I've ever had, but that's what comes of sleeping on the couch. But no nightmares that I know of. Kept the lights on all night though. Dunno if it helped at all, but it made me feel a little better. I wake up to Dad on a conference call. I think if I hadn't been at my parents house, the nightmares would have been much, much worse. But maybe the thought that there were three other people plus a dog in the house with me helped to keep the nightmares away.
Anyway, I wake up and dive right back in. The sun's still out, bright blue sky shining right out the back door. Makes it much easier to keep the fear at bay, knowing that it's just a story and I can still see daylight so nothing's coming to get me. Logically I know that it's just a story, even in the dark. But knowing and understanding something logically doesn't always make you forget that deep-rooted child-like fear of the dark. And what hides in it. Less so for me.
Statement ends.
Anyway, I got to season 3. And one of the rules I set for myself a long time ago (that I break a lot and always end up regretting, ngl) is that I don't do horror stuff I'm not familiar with after dark. I can watch things like Scream (which is, lbr, only horror in that it deals with horror tropes but really it lovingly parodies and also subverts a lot of them (that's another post for another day)), or The Shining, or Psycho after dark, but that's because I know them. I know when the scary bits are, I know when the music is gonna start doing that warning thing, I know when the jump scares are. But MAG? No clue. I'm liveblogging everything to a friend of mine who has already listened to it fully at least once (probably more than once at this point, I know she said she was gonna do a relisten before s4 drops) and she is delighted at my reactions. But I finished season 2 yesterday afternoon after I got off work and plunged right into season 3. And the plot has slowly been coming together over the first two seasons. You get teeny chunks of it in season 1. Mostly just names that pop up in various casefiles and statements, themes that keep repeating. In season 2 you get a bit more. If you're paying attention, you start to notice how some things don't quite fit like they did in the beginning. That's not to say that there's mistakes. They're very intentional. I don't want to go too far into detail, partly because I'm not quite finished yet and I want to wait until I am before I do a full-on discussion/review of it, and partly because spoilers. But anyway, back to the point. The plot starts picking up more in season 2, but when you hit season 3, it's much less "anthology and vaguely connected stories/statements" and more "we've been hinting and nudging and talking around the main plot of the series and now we're gonna throw everything we've got at you". That is to say, the plot really takes off. Everything you've been considering may be connected in season 2 is either confirmed or denied. And it's amazing. But it's also really spooky. There's this underlying terror that starts creeping in that gets ramped up to 11 when you get to season 3. And I, being the insatiably curious type, especially when it comes to stories, had to know what was going to happen. Oh, I could have cheated and looked on the wiki (I admit I've done that quite a bit, though I've since stopped and just let the story unfold), but my curiosity got the better of me. I broke my own rules.
It's winter now, or near enough. Technically it's still fall. But it's the middle of December, and if that's not winter then I don't know what is. At least here, in America. I've got a couple of friends in Australia and it's summer there. Long, hot days. Bright sunshine 'til 9:00 at night, at least. Here it gets dark by 5 PM. I was sitting in the basement while Dad was watching football. I had my headphones in, glancing out the back door every so often to judge how many more episodes I could go through before it got fully dark and I'd have to stop. But then I thought, "this is too good, I have to know what happens. I'm off tomorrow, I should be able to just listen to more with the lights on. Right?" Bad idea. We ended up going to our local zoo to the Festival of Lights, so it was well after 8 by the time I got a chance to start it up again. I really should have left it for the morning. I may occasionally be dumb enough to break my own rules and do horror stuff after dark, but like hell am I doing it when I don't have full control over what lights stay on and go out. Most of the episodes I listened to after we got home weren't too bad, a few shivers here and there but nothing I couldn't handle. And then I listened to episodes 86 and 90. Episode 90 was the one that scared me the worst. I won't go into details about it, but let's just say it was....unsettling. I've got a pretty vivid imagination, and a quirk that lets me replay images on a loop in my head. It's how I can remember film quotes so well. I can picture them just like I'm watching them on my computer, or on tv, or in a movie theater. Sometimes it's annoying, other times it's extremely useful. There was a particular thing mentioned at the end of the episode, and I could picture it so vividly in my head. I was convinced I'd never get to sleep, but at the same time my eyes were drooping so much. Fortunately I'd already taken my contacts out, so my own stupid fear was the only thing keeping me from dropping right then and there. I don't usually wear contacts, but I broke my glasses a couple of weeks ago and I'm just waiting on the replacements to ship to me. Anyway, I didn't want to go to sleep, because I knew I'd have nightmares and would just keep seeing....that. If you've listened to MAG, you know what I mean. But at the same time, I was so tired that all I wanted to do was sleep. So I put on Bob Ross and...actually got a little bit of rest? Not the best night I've ever had, but that's what comes of sleeping on the couch. But no nightmares that I know of. Kept the lights on all night though. Dunno if it helped at all, but it made me feel a little better. I wake up to Dad on a conference call. I think if I hadn't been at my parents house, the nightmares would have been much, much worse. But maybe the thought that there were three other people plus a dog in the house with me helped to keep the nightmares away.
Anyway, I wake up and dive right back in. The sun's still out, bright blue sky shining right out the back door. Makes it much easier to keep the fear at bay, knowing that it's just a story and I can still see daylight so nothing's coming to get me. Logically I know that it's just a story, even in the dark. But knowing and understanding something logically doesn't always make you forget that deep-rooted child-like fear of the dark. And what hides in it. Less so for me.
Statement ends.
