MAG 39: Infestation

Original recording of Jane Prentiss’ attack upon The Magnus Institute on July 29th, 2016.
== Recording ==
The recording begins with John and Sasha panicking as flesh worms flood out of the wall in John's office. John is trying to retrieve the tape recorder from the mass of worms while Sasha shouts at him to leave it behind. Martin hears the commotion and retrieves a fire extinguisher to spray the worms with, then leads his coworkers to the safe room where he had been staying once the recorder is free. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on inside the safe room, where Sasha is removing a flesh worm from John. The two question Martin on his removal tool, a corkscrew, and he explains that he has been thinking about a potential worm invasion extensively in the time he has been living in the archives. John thanks Martin for his diligence and the three relax slightly with the knowledge that the room they are in is secure.
Sasha asks John why he would retrieve the tape recorder rather than flee immediately. He explains that, as he still does not know what happened to Gertrude Robinson, he is deeply upset by the prospect of dying or otherwise disappearing and his successor not knowing what happened to him.
Martin looks out into the hallway and sees the worms waiting for something. As he watches, Sasha asks John why he values some statements over others. John explains that, regardless of how dismissive he appears, he considers some statements to have genuine substance. Sasha agrees with him and acknowledges that the more "real" statements do not record digitally and can only be archived using analogue technology.
Martin spots Tim outside the safe room, and both he and Sasha call out to him frantically. John sharply reminds them that the room is soundproofed as they watch him pick up a tape recorder that was dropped in the hallway. Desperate, Sasha opens the door and calls out to Tim as she runs into the hall. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on, now recording from the tape recorder in the hallways seconds before the last recording stopped. Tim picks up the tape recorder and speaks into it briefly before he is tackled by Sasha. The two flee, followed closely by Jane Prentiss. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on to John and Martin inside the safe room. Sasha was able to escape the archives and is presumably getting help, but Tim ran into the office where John previously made a hole in the wall. Martin grows upset as he confronts John on his scepticism toward the worms. John insists that he is not a sceptic, but admits that he feels a presence as he records the more substantial statements. He is afraid of what will happen if the entity knows he believes the stories. John asks Martin why, after everything he has been through, he hasn't quit his job. Martin admits he feels trapped in the archives, much like John. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on in Elias's office as the fire alarms sound. Sasha tells Elias that she pulled the fire alarm to get people to leave the building, and he admits he underestimated the danger of the worms. On John's request, Elias had previously replaced the fire suppression system with CO2, but it has not activated because there is no actual fire. Although the gas might kill Martin and John, the two agree that death is preferable to becoming a Flesh Hive and leave to activate the system manually. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on to Martin and John in the safe room as something pounds at the wall. Tim breaks through the wall, having found the CO2 canisters that Martin hid in the office. He brings John and Martin into the tunnels, where quieter, faster worms reside. The recording clicks off.
The recording clicks back on to Sasha walking through the Artefact Storage room after she and Elias were separated. She is recording herself for John's records and discusses her time working for The Magnus Institute. She briefly worked as a practical researcher in Artefact Storage, but transferred due to the intensity of the work. She finds the web table that was previously delivered to John and looks over it briefly, before noticing someone else in the room. She calls out to the person, but her words are drowned out by a strange sound and Sasha screams. After the screams stop, a different woman approaches the tape recorder. She repeats the words that Sasha called out before her death and turns off the tape recorder.
The recording clicks back on to John and Tim, lost in the tunnels beneath The Magnus Institute. After becoming separated from Martin during a worm attack, the two find a trapdoor that opens into the Archives. They open the trapdoor to discover countless worms as well as Jane Prentiss, who calls out to John. The recording ends.
==Trivia==
*Jane Prentiss's worm sounds were created using "Lots and lots of pasta."MAG S1 Q&A
==Continuity==	
* The worms first enter the Archives through the hole John makes in the wall of his office in MAG 38.
* The web table first appeared in MAG 3. It was delivered to The Magnus Institute in MAG 35 and mentioned again in MAG 36.
	
*The NotThem that attacks Sasha first appeared in MAG 3, where it took the form of Graham Folger to become Not-Graham.
*Related Entity: The Corruption and The Stranger
**Jane Prentiss is an avatar of The Corruption.
**The creature that attacks Sasha is the NotThem, a being of The Stranger.
*In MAG 192, some events of this episode are recounted from the perspective of Rosie Zampano, Elias's assistant. When Elias does not evacuate when the fire alarms sound, Rosie decides to stay behind with him and eavesdrops on his conversation with Sasha. She is caught by Elias, who does not outwardly respond or otherwise acknowledge her eavesdropping.
*Martin's poetry is mentioned for the first time in this episode.
==References==
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes