---
layout:          post
title:           "MAGP 39 - Dependents"
date:            2025-04-24 15:00:00 # in UTC
episode_type:      [episode]
tags:            []
voiced:          []
categories:			"tmagp"
podcasts: ["tmagp"]
title_prefix:	"MAGP"
prev_categories: ["tmagp"]
prev_prefixes: ["MAGP"]
prev_episode:	['038']
prev_episode_num:		['038']
prev_episode_title:		["Circling Back"]
next_categories: ["tmagp"]
next_prefixes: ["MAGP"]
next_episode:	['040']
next_episode_num:		['040']
next_episode_title:		["Public Image"]
episode_title:   'Dependents'
episode_number:  '039'
summary:         "CATXXXX-XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX<br/>ERROR (Unknown Source)"
content_flags:   ["PTSD", "Helplessness/Co-dependence", "Grief and Loss", "Abandonment", "Claustrophobia", "Dysmorphia", "Body Modification"]
acast_url:      https://shows.acast.com/themagnusarchives/episodes/the-magnus-protocol-39-dependents
official:        true
---

#### ANNOUNCER

Rusty Quill Presents: The Magnus Protocol.

Episode Thirty-Nine -- Dependents.

##### [Music]

---

##### [Tape recorder clicks on]

##### [Footsteps, which stop as Sam and Georgie arrive at their destination]

#### GEORGIE

Nice place. 

#### SAM

...Huh. 

#### GEORGIE

What? 

#### SAM

I *thought* I recognized the address. This is Alice's parent's house, I'm sure of it. 

#### GEORGIE

_(a little clipped)_ That a problem? 

#### SAM

*No,* it's just... I helped her move their stuff out after they...

*Huh.*

#### GEORGIE

What? 

#### SAM

It just occurred to me -- they could still be alive here.

#### GEORGIE

Not likely. 

#### SAM

Why not? 

#### GEORGIE

Just playing the odds. Older relatives, less likely to make it through everything. Plenty *did,* but if they're dead in *your* universe, hard to believe they had better luck in this one.

##### [She steps forward as she talks, pushing open a squeaky gate]

#### SAM

...Makes sense, I suppose.

##### [Sam and Georgie head through what sounds like overgrown, rustling foliage]

##### [Georgie yanks on an old bellpull]

##### [There is a distant ring in the house]

##### [Silence, except for birds twittering from above]

#### SAM

Maybe she's not in. 

#### GEORGIE

Then she won't mind us having a look around.

##### [Georgie tries the door: it opens with a creak]

#### SAM

You can't just go in! 

#### GEORGIE

Why not? 

#### SAM

What if someone calls--?!

##### [He pauses and audibly remembers the police are no longer a thing.]

#### GEORGIE

Yeah.

#### SAM

Mm.

#### GEORGIE

Stay here and let me scope it out first. Trust me. 

#### SAM

_(down)_ Yeah, okay.

##### [The floorboards creak as Georgie enters the house]

##### [The door swings closed behind her, but we can still hear as she sets off towards, then up, the stairs]

##### [Sam fidgets nervously and begins to hum]

##### [There is a disturbance upstairs, a thud, moving furniture -- then silence]

#### SAM

Georgie?

##### [We can hear bits and snippets of a muffled conversation upstairs]

##### [Sam lets out a nervous breath]

#### SAM

_(calling)_ Georgie?

##### [Another disturbance upstairs]

#### FAMILIAR VOICE

_(muffled, distant)_ -- I'm, I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down and I'm going to go see him --

#### GEORGIE

_(muffled, distant)_ That's fine -- no, wait, wait!

##### [Movement, footsteps clattering down the stairs and approaching the front door]

#### SAM

_(worried, calling)_ Georgie!

##### [The door creaks open]

#### FAMILIAR VOICE (ALICE)

_(quiet)_ Sam?

#### SAM

...Hey Alice.

#### ALICE

H-How?!

#### SAM

Yeah, so, um... 

#### ALICE

How are you *here?* I-I-I don't -- _(voice cracks)_ god, I *missed* you --

##### [Alice rushes forward and kisses Sam]

#### SAM

Mmf--

##### [He resists, but not as much as he probably should.]

##### [Georgie approaches from inside the house, unnoticed:] 

#### GEORGIE

Let me know when you're finished. 

##### [Alice steps back and sucks in a breath. She's crying.]

#### ALICE

I-I didn't believe them -- I, I *couldn't* --

#### SAM

_(overlapping, trying to get her to stop)_ Yeah, so -- um...

#### ALICE

_(overlapping)_ -- and I was *right!* You're *here,* and --

#### SAM

_(overlapping)_ This is going to be a bit... weird.

##### [Click]

---

##### [Click]

##### [We're inside now, in the middle of a conversation. A fly is buzzing around.]

#### ALICE

_(a little heartbroken)_ So you really aren't *my* Sam.

#### SAM

...I'm afraid not.

#### ALICE

...

_(trying to muster herself)_ Then I'm sorry that I...

#### SAM

Don't worry about it. _(trying to joke)_ It's not the first time an Alice has flung herself at me. 

#### ALICE

Oh, so, we're together where you come from? 

#### SAM

Uh -- well... No. 

#### ALICE

_(dejected)_ Oh.

I'm so sorry. 

#### SAM

Don't be! It was mutual. We actually still work together and it's... It's fine. 

#### ALICE

_(surprised, confused)_ Oh.

Right.

...I can't imagine working next to y-- my Sam and not being together, y'know?

#### SAM

_(awkward)_ I-I-It's basically just morbid jokes and... gossip.

#### ALICE

_(taking mercy on him)_ Of course. 

#### GEORGIE

So you and Sam...?

#### ALICE

We got married a month before the Incursion. But then...

##### [She breathes in]

#### SAM

...

_(quiet)_ What happened to him?

#### ALICE

...Appendicitis. We managed to get you to a hospital in time, but... _(sighs)_ It wasn't long after Towerfall. There were hardly any doctors, no supplies... _(welling up again)_ They did what they *could,* but sepsis set in and then...

##### [She inhales, then exhales, shaking]

_(hoarse with tears)_ I'm *sorry,* Sam. I'm sorry I-I couldn't... 

#### SAM

_(awkward)_ Um. I-It's okay.

I'm sure he didn't blame you. 

#### ALICE

You're lucky it didn't happen to you, too.

#### SAM

...

It did. Few years ago, I-I guess around the same time.

I went to hospital and it was pretty straightforward. Look.

##### [Fabric rustles as Sam lifts his shirt and shows them his appendectomy scar]

#### SAM

Alice visited me in the hospital...

_(audible smile)_ She hid a fetish mag under my pillow so the nurses would find it.

##### [They both laugh a little. Alice sniffles]

#### ALICE

I hope she knows how lucky she is to still have you.

We shared a domain, during the Incursion. You learn a lot about someone when you've shared your fear with them. 

#### SAM

I'm not sure I understand... 

#### GEORGIE

Couples often share fears, so. A fair few ended up trapped together during the Incursion. 

#### SAM

That... makes sense, I guess?

#### GEORGIE

Is that why you dream? 

#### SAM

What? 

#### ALICE

_(on guard)_ Who told you that? 

#### GEORGIE

No-one. I spotted the nitrazepam on your shelf. It's more common than people think.

_(sharper)_ It never ends well. 

#### SAM

Sorry, am I missing something? 

#### ALICE

After Towerfall, everyone had nightmares. We all revisited our domains in our sleep, and, well... it turns out people in the same domain ended up... *connected.* 

#### SAM

Connected how? 

#### ALICE

_(intense)_ We used to share our dreams, Sam. 

#### SAM

_(quietly)_ Whoa... 

#### GEORGIE

Sam, you should know. These weren't happy daydreams. This was dark, awful stuff. Not as bad as the domains themselves but still. Most people moved on and the dreams faded, but -- the people who are still playing around with it, er --

#### SAM

What did we dream?

##### [Georgie is concerned but falls silent]

#### ALICE

I'm at work.

##### [As Alice speaks she slowly closes her eyes and falls into a dreamlike, almost meditative state. The world fades behind to be replaced by her nightmare as she gently pulls us in with her.] 

#### ALICE

Someone is yelling at me, trying to return something. I keep telling her we can't accept it, but she doesn't want to hear it. Finally, I just tell her I'll go check with a manager and duck in the back to waste her time instead.

I move to push my way through the faux-velvet curtains behind the counter and instead manage to tangle myself. I'm so *furious* that I've made a fool of myself in front of her, so I double down and keep trying to force my way through the veil of thick cloth, but they just press in closer, wrapping me and smothering me.

I start to struggle, first in anger and then in panic, as I grow hotter and *hotter* and feel myself begin to suffocate. My thrashing only makes it worse, and soon I slump down into the seemingly endless folds beneath my feet. I open my mouth to yell but can only manage a tight, muffled cry.

The cloth is heavy. Heavier than it should be. I strain with all my strength and it yields only to press in closer. I can't breathe anymore and it's so warm and... wet. The cloth is sodden and warm and *heavy.*

I strain one last time, arching my back, hooking my fingernails into the material, trying to drag it from my face, my toes clenched with the heaving effort...

The cloth yields slightly, but then so do I, my strength finally failing me and I am left, unable to even pant beneath the sweltering damp mass.

I lie there, still and quiet for a moment, only to realise I am *not* still. Not really. I am rocking. The cloth is moving, rocking me back and forth, back and forth. It could almost be comforting... if it weren't for the sound.

There is a deep, low roar all around me, rumbling and rushing in all directions; incessant and overwhelming. Soon I can't tell the difference between the noise around me and the rushing of my own blood in my ears. They are one and the same, swelling and ebbing in time together. 

##### [Buh-boom... Buh-boom...]

I want to put my hands over my ears, block out the sound that is so loud that I can *feel* it through my body but my arms are trapped, held fast by my sides so I can't do anything but listen to the pulsing rhythm from the close darkness all around me. 

##### [Buh-boom... Buh-boom...]

The thunderous heartbeat *terrifies* me, because I recognise it. I've heard it my entire life. And with that, I recognise what is wrapped around me, what is shrouding me and smothering me and will not let me free: Living, sweating flesh. Folds and creases and swathes of it pressing in on all sides trapping me, crushing me to the point I can't tell where I end and it begins.

Then I can feel it. Not just the pressure that threatens to crush me with its embrace but the gripe of something within me that does not belong, a speck of grit around which a pearl of pain and fear is amassing. What *is* that? 

##### [Buh-boom... Buh-boom...]

I reach for it but it's burrowed too deep into me. I just want to grab it and rip it out, tear out whatever is inside of me, throw the festering mass as far from me as I can. I manage to reach a hand up and begin to grope at the pain, and as I do, I feel the immense weight all around me press in even harder. And as I grasp the lump, the thrumming meat all around me tightens til I cannot bear it.

Finally, I am forced to release my hand, and when I do, that pressure eases with it.

But I am not comforted. I am terrified.

I can feel the lump in my body, can feel it writhing even when I struggle myself and I realise: it *is* me. It is me, and I am it, and I am trapped within myself and no matter what I do, I will never escape this living tomb.

I surrender myself to my flesh then. What use trying to fight myself? I let my body twist and bend and break without resistance, pulverising me into something unrecognisable, as my joints creak and my bones snap, and then suddenly --

You are there. And we are together again.

There is no speech, no contact beyond the crushing embrace of skin and bone to which we belong, but I can feel you within myself, and feel myself within you. And while I lie, foetal and squirming in this bloody rushing meat, you stand cracked and sharp, enshrined in bone, but *we are together.*

Together... 

##### [Buh-boom... Buh-boom... Buh--]

The rhythm of our malignant embrace finally stutters once, twice, then fails. That deep roar of vitality all around us slows then stills and for the first time, there is true silence.

Then it begins to cool -- the overbearing heat slowly giving way to a pallid chill as the once pliant muscle stiffens like cured leather around and between us. We can feel the liquid pooling beneath us, then slowly rising, tepid and viscous as the skin wilts and sags upon us, dragging us down into the bubbling putrescence below.

The body, our body, rots. Warping and wilting and bulging and melting around us and within us, sloughing off and away, leaving us, only us, naked and withered and bleeding and starving and shitting and dying... but together. *Always* together.

And even now, you are there waiting to suffer with me once more.

##### [Click.]

---

<!-- #### 3. PL ALICE'S HOUSE EXT. -- EARLY EVENING, CLEAR (TAPE

DECK) GEORGIE and SAM are leaving whilst ALICE is lingering still holding onto SAM.  -->

##### [Click]

#### ALICE

It's not long till sundown. You should stay. 

#### SAM

I. Uh... 

#### GEORGIE

I'm afraid we need to head off. 

#### ALICE

_(slightly desperate)_ It's no bother, there's loads of space and I've still got some food left. I don't eat much, so I'd be happy to share --

#### GEORGIE

We *really* need to get back. Warden business. 

#### ALICE

...

_(soft; intimately desperate)_ Don't go.

##### [Someone steps forward. Or back. Impossible to tell.]

#### SAM

I'm sorry, Alice. I really am, but I can't stay. I'm not...

I don't think it would be a good idea.

##### [Beat.]

#### ALICE

_(crestfallen)_ I understand.

_(forced cheer)_ But -- please come back when you can. I'm sure I know stuff that could help! About our domain, our *dream.* 

#### SAM

I'll, uh... I'll come by if I can. 

#### ALICE

_(faster)_ I'm always around so you can drop in --

#### GEORGIE

_(firmly)_ Good-*bye,* Alice.

##### [Georgie walks off, dragging Sam behind her]

##### [The rusty gate swings shut behind them]

#### GEORGIE

_(quietly)_ Don't look back. Just keep walking. 

##### [Footsteps as Sam follows her out]

##### [In the distance, Alice sighs, then closes the door.]

#### SAM

_(quietly)_ That was messed up. 

##### [They continue making their way through the foliage as they talk:]

#### GEORGIE

I should have warned you when I spotted the sleeping pills. Most dreamers -- they're broken. Something snapped and now they'd rather linger in a nightmare they *think* they belong in than face an uncertain reality. 

#### SAM

...

It's so sad. 

#### GEORGIE

_(low)_ It is. _(louder)_ And *dangerous.* Life's difficult these days, and we can't afford for people to just *quit* on everything. 

##### [Sam exhales]

#### SAM

I just can't wrap my head around it. 

#### GEORGIE

Don't try. You were never in a domain so you'll never *really* be able to understand --

#### SAM

No, I mean, I just can't really imagine loving someone so much that I would *do* that to myself. 

##### [They stop walking.]

#### GEORGIE

That wasn't love, Sam. That was grief. 

#### SAM

...But once someone's gone... what's the difference?

##### [A long silence]

#### GEORGIE

-- Well -- either way, this has been a *complete bust.* *No* hints on the Archivist, *no* useful connections to your other self, and we've wasted a whole day finding out exactly *nothing.* 

#### SAM

_(tired)_ I'm sorry, all right? It's not like we had any other leads. 

#### GEORGIE

Let's just get back. We've got a fair distance to go and not much daylight left.

##### [They start walking again in silence]

##### [Nothing but the crunching of gravel, until:]

#### SAM

_(concerned)_ Georgie...? 

#### GEORGIE

What.

##### [They stop walking again.]

#### SAM

Was it just me or was Alice a lot more... articulate than expected?

#### GEORGIE

...

Yeah. She was. 

#### SAM

You think the Archivist...? 

#### GEORGIE

Maybe. _(faster)_ Better safe than sorry. I'll call it in, see if I can get a patrol to come do a sweep.

##### [Rustling as Georgie slings off her backpack and unzips it--]

#### GEORGIE

Oh. *Idiot!* 

#### SAM

What? What did I do--? 

#### GEORGIE

No, me! I checked every inch of that bloody house for tape recorders and I never bothered to check my own bag. *Shit!* 

#### SAM

So that means...

#### GEORGIE

Back to the house. Move!

##### [The tape recorder tumbles to the ground as they take off running]

##### [It is quiet. There is a gentle wind through the trees, almost like someone taking a deep breath...]

##### [Click]

---

##### [Music]

#### ANNOUNCER

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International License. The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall, and directed by Alexander J Newall.

This episode was written by Alexander J Newall and edited with additional materials by Jonathan Sims, with vocal edits by Nico Vettese, soundscaping by Meg McKellar, and mastering by Catherine Rinella with music by Sam Jones.

It featured Shahan Hamza as Samama Khalid, Sasha Sienna as Georgie Barker, and Billie Hindle as Alice Dyer.

The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner, with executive producers Alexander J Newall, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton, and Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d'Raven, and Megan Nice.

To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit rustyquill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us @therustyquill, visit us on facebook or email us at mail@rustyquill.com.

Thanks for listening.