Hey sorry to bother you but important q - is a muffin with frosting a cupcake? Alternatively, is a cupcake without frosting simply a muffin?
Thanks for your time and wisdom.
A muffin with frosting is a pretentious muffin.
A cupcake without frosting has fallen in hard times and doesn’t need all this frosting shame right now.
did you wake up one day and decide to be this chaotic? truly iconic, i wish to exude your energy
Honestly? I think the chaos is me just leaning into my neurospice instead of masking it. Also never forget that online behaviour rarely provides a true window to the person. For instance, I am actually very structured and boring when it comes to private work etc.
please let the little gay men out of the computer for a while. Just to run around. It might be cramped in there. They need enrichment
I am unsure such creatures could survive in the wild. At this point, freedom would just be cruel.
Hello, Alex.
I hope this ask finds you well. I would like to humbly suggest Alextumblr J. Newall as a blog name. That is all, thank you.
Love the horrors,
-A.
Not Alexander Jumbler Newall?
Hi!! How are you?? I'm currently listening to tma, I'm at the beginning of season five and let me just say you guys really did something there like 😭😭
Also, how did you get your start in directing/acting?
So I started with school plays, did some stagecraft experience stuff at a professional theatre then moved into directing stage comedy whilst doing the intern thing for TV. I do not reccomend my route, it was circuitious and foolish.
hey alex!! you reccommended lanark by allistor grey a while ago (have no clue where) but i have to say i enjoyed it a lot!! do you have any other book reccommendations? cheers x
Oh wow! You are the first person I think I have seen to take that advice and not hate me for it. I’d suggest Vurt. I was only reccomended it a couple of years ago and can’t believe I had slept on it that long.
Hey Alex, was there actually a story to be revealed about how Wilde got his scar or was it just to show that he had changed a lot and seen a lot since the party last saw him?
Also I wanted to say thank you for giving me 10 points of psychic damage with everything you create :]
So I have been asked this a bunch but I don’t think I ever answered. Yes there was a story to it. In fact it made it to recording but was cut due to runtime issues. I won’t mention it here as I would need to check my notes to confirm details and not miss speak but I can say it was as a result of a personal betrayal that hardened him to the risks of letting your guard down. Hence his particular brand of reservedness after “the change”
hello and welcome! is Alexander short for anything?
Probably
Hello Mr Alexander, you are a very interesting person and I really like The Magnus Archives and the Magnus Protocol.
Bonaire stares at me from the ceiling of my room when I sleep but he has your voice repeating the words “Glee” for some reason and I feel as if you should take partial responsibility for my sleep paralysis demon
I mean, at least they are gleeful I guess? I personally Hate sleep paralysis. I try to have a good handle on my fear during waking hours and feel so cheated when that gets hijacked by brain-chemistry.
to whichever dread power it may concern, what kind of stuff do you plan on posting here? will it just be a more chill AMA style thing or do you have Plans
At this stage chill ama. I will likely have bigger plans later but right now I am just conquering my phobia of fandom/ social media. (not a joke, I really struggle with this stuff and try to hide it). Also feeling a bit spread thin lately amongst announced and secret projects so have limited time.
Hi Mr. Alexander J Newall. TMP has been so goddamn interesting so far, thank you for creating something completely horrid (fantastic). However, the people have been dying to know:
What’s your favorite color?
Hope you had a good day today making the blorbos suffer.
So I don’t really have a favourite colour that said I have a general preference for black, grey, red and deep green.
Orange is just uppity brown.
Hello there!
wanted to express my gratitude for the amazing podcasts you create, I’m new to the party, having inhaled 200 magnus archive episodes in 13 days and then gulping down all the protocol ones. On my second listen through now!
i wanted to say how much i loved your writing style in episode 12. The scene with Bonzo attacking the groom- I instantly got a visual of someone placing their hands, back of hands together in the middle of a closed book, and folding it round, opening the book, so the front and back covers touched.
but a head instead of a book. Was that the sort of visual you were going for? 🤣 because it was very well communicated!
i hope you keep going, you have a lifelong listener in me!
Yes it was!
Drove through a lot of fog n signal cut out while trying to figure out if you’re the real dude or not. Did you sic the forsaken on me
Just drive carefully, fog is as beautiful as it is dangerous.
welcome to tumblr! would you mind telling us which entity would be the most kickable and which one would be the least kickable? asking out of curiosity
I think The Hunt is pretty kickable since most of the time it’s just someone with complicated boundary issues.
I would not reccomend kicking The End.
hi can you give one totally random line without context from a totally random upcoming protocol episode
“have you been wearing your pyjamas this whole time?”
hi Alex!
so for context, I don't really listen to podcasts (I have difficulty with the visualization) and on principal I DONT do horror (my brain hates me and my imagination overacts), having said that, I've LOVED Magnus. I've been binging it for the past two weeks and I just finished 137. the story and world y'all have made is so compelling and the Fear system is fascinating, it's all just so cool
and also, in case this adds some sense of accomplishment, I've only been unable to sleep twice from listening to the podcast too late into the day
anyway that's all, you're cool and your work is cool :))
I don’t know if I have been called cool unironically before. YOU’RE cool.
would you eat a pickle wrapped in cream cheese and ham
Yes. I do this often, it’s genuinely delicious.
why?
Life is long and full of opportunities.
hi alex, everyone here
HI Everyone, Alex here.
hello alex welcome to tumblr! it's a good site despite what some may say. what's the worst color in your opinion
Hmmmm. Vantablack probably?
hey Alex! oddly specific question I'm v curious about, for rq gaming how were any of your session/campaign prep notes spacially organized? you mentioned about having a sandbox section for interesting random ideas. do you use any other loose columns or sections? I know a lot of stuff just came from deeply knowing the world you built and ttrpg experience but any info is appreciated! I'm fairly new to GMing but have been working on a campaign inspired by Erasing the Line and I'm very excited about it!!
You do NOT want my filing system that said:
1) I work in bullet points
2) I would redraft every future arc when a current arc finished.
3) I made a LOT of stuff up on the fly
4) I like to keep buckets of ideas/ characters/items etc. Ready to draw from on the fly rather than weave a Web before the telling.
I sent an ask earlier but I have another one here just to let you know that you saying you'd kick the corruption started a very long sibling like debate with my friend about kicking the corruption so thank you (I was on the side of just kick it)
Also genuinely TMA and RQG helped me through some tough times so thank you for making such great content and I look forward to anything else you'll make
Yeah elements of the corruption are kickable but you’re likely to lose a foot. :) thankyou for the kind words
Hi Alex,
I'm aware it's nearly a decade ago now but in RQGaming in the Paris arc Hamid incinerated the man who came to take Wilde from them, and you dropped his name casually JUST once in a French accent and it was Dorian.
He was pretty much dead almost immediately after that and none of the party seemed to clock his name.
Any link with Dorian Gray? Did Hamid incinerate a guy who just turned up again in a room with a portrait later?
The name Dorian was just an evocative one I introduced due to Wilde having been introduced recently. That way if I needed to use him later/ he wasn’t a pile of ash there would be thematic parallels I could draw on that felt organic.
what are your opinions on chickens
The greatest deception the dinosaurs ever perpetrated was convincing us they are birds.
But talons don’t lie!
Is there a canonic piece of Martin's backstory that we haven't heard yet? Or maybe a headcanon of yours about him that you haven't shared with anybody?
Much love!!
Head canon: He did not do well the one time he tried the online dating scene.
Hi Alex! What are your opinions on jellyfish?
They are a beautiful precursor to biome collapse.
If I may ask, What's your opinion on crispy god damn cheese?
Crispy is acceptable if browned, not truly burnt but melty is far superior.
How is your cat doing?
We live in the country now and he has a best friend who roams the woods with him.
:3
:4
Hi Alex! Welcome in, it’s great to have you.
First, I want to say thank you for RQG. Thank you for Wilde, who I hated and then loved alongside the party. I had a really tough year last year, and binging it in November and December helped me replenish spoons to put one foot in front of another. I don’t have a TTRPG group anymore, and RQG brought me a wonderful story as well as a strong sense of coming home.
My questions are these: in the final fight, the “You got this,” was that an illusion or was it really Wilde? If the latter, was he tied for initiative or something with Guivers, or something, so he started his movement when the coast was clear? I know the text is silent on this, but I’m curious if you remember what you had in mind at the time.
Again, super glad you’re here.
I’d have to check my notes.
I believe it was really Wilde and there were initiative shenanigans but honestly I hope it was illusion
were you a mythology kid, or are you just good at categorizing/forming cohesive systems as a form of world building?
Mythology kid.
Studied classical literature, Old English and norse literature and read an excessive amount of fiction as a kid
Do you play any musical instruments Alex?
Personally I can play a variety of percussion instuments, and timpani and the drums. Currently learning bass guitar too.
I admit I am pretty rusty.
I used to sing in choirs. I still play classical and flamenco guitar, blues harp.
Currently learning kalimba.
Would love to learn piano, violin, flute and guqin
I made a mistake and realised far too late you can't unsend asks.
Please don't answer the "goodmorning pooks" one-
Still goodmorning though Alex
And good morning pooks to you too.
Whatever that means.
Good morning pooks
Is it?
How's it going atm?
The arrow of entropy remains fixed.
I dunno if this is too deep of a dive to be comfortable, but I was poking at your LinkedIn cause I was curious and now I'm wondering what position you played when you played rugby? I just started playing in the last year
Ha lol. I was rubbish but not afraid to tackle so they made me flanker. I was TERRIBLE at it.
Hi, friend of there person who keeps trying to argue that the corruption is kickable here. Rot is a process not a thing, therefore, unkickable.
Also. I dare you to kick a wasps' nest.
Ah but mushrooms static and flimsy.
Also why would I kick a wasps nest? That’s not very nice for anyone involved.
hi alex, since you've mentioned "neurospice", do you have any tips for other neurodivergent folks on how to do a shitton of work and stay (mostly) sane?
I wish I did. I really do.
I am very lucky that I have a very specific cocktail that means I can work lots but it carries a massive personal toll that I hide from people.
All I can really say is: You are not what you produce.
I wish I could learn this lesson myself.
do u know the muffin man
Who’s asking? I ain’t no grass.
Welcome to Tumblr!! You're probably doing this already, but I wouldn't recommend answering every question - just pick out a few you feel like answering, and delete the ones you don't!
TMA is probably my favourite podcast. I've contributed to at least two other people listening to it, and listening to my friends freak out over the plot twists was really fun. Thank you for your contributions to podcasting, and I'm super excited to see how TMP develops!!
I admit I am currently just answering everything while I learn the etiquette but it’s definitely not sustainable! Thanks for the advice and support though!
A few years ago I was listening to one of the Magnus Archives Q&As and heard you passionately talk about the importance of soundscaping and how you wish it got more attention. I hadn't even thought to think of that before. Since then I can’t help but notice Sounds, both in media and irl, and it’s made the world that much more interesting. So much wonder and delight hidden just under my nose (or in my ears?) this whole time.
Anywho, I’ve been doing a diploma course in sound production and I finish next month. And it’s all your fault good sir. Thanks for being a big nerd about wobbly air, it’s contagious
Very proud of you, you wobbly air champion.
Re: tumblr etiquette while I absolutely love that you're here in an official capacity the full tumblr experience should be absolutely unofficial if possible. The goal here is not to gain followers or attention the goal is to be a gremlin in a pit collecting things that make you happy and hoarding them to your chest so no one else will ever see them. Gaining followers is a curse and people reblogging your posts is a form of torture.
All that is me basically saying if you wish to enjoy tumblr as it is meant to be enjoyed, make an unofficial account. Otherwise you're doing great in the Neil Gaiman/Wil Wheaton/Lynda Carter style of doing tumblr which is basically to just hang around and answer asks.
Also make sure you have anon turned off.
I unofficially understand. My thanks.
i feel kind of annoying sending Another ask but alas i also feel like i really want to. i just wanted to let you know that before listening to magnus, i was a really, REALLY cowardly person. like, fully scared of the dark and the things that go bump within it. i was always just very paranoid about things that i KNEW were not real Getting Me. and i always felt very childish and silly, but i couldn't help it i was just scared. but since i started listening to magnus (in december 2023) i have gotten progressively less and less afraid and that is really a big deal for me. like, i'm not afraid of the dark anymore. At All. which i feel like it's weird that The horror podcast has made me less afraid, but it's just made me look at my fear in an entirely different way than before. i'm really thankful for magnus and everything it has done for me (regarding the not being afraid thing but also just giving me a piece of media i really truly love) and i'm just very thankful for you and everyone else involved and the beautiful thing you created. it really means a lot to me :)
You’re very welcome. Remember you are the biggest badass in the dark imaginings because you can bring horrors into the world and take them out.
Hey! Welcome to tumblr! I second what the other asker said, it’s probably best to pick your favorite few asks out of your inbox and answer them (if for no other reason than most users have a chronological dashboard rather than an algorithmically curated one, so if you answer a lot of asks in quick succession, anyone following you will see all of them in a row).
Actual question: Have you had a chance to see people’s CAT, Rank, and DPHW theories on here yet? How does it feel to have people try to piece together a classification system you’re basically in charge of?
I was horrified to see how familiar people were at navigating such obtuse systems. Capitalism really ruined us huh?
If cavemen and astronauts got into a fight, who would win?
Astronauts. Cavemen can’t breath in space.
goodmorning alex
Is it?
Do you have any cats?
I have 1 cat.
silly jellyfish related asks aside, I wanted to genuinely say thank you so much for all your work on tma and other rq projects. I had never really been into the horror fiction genre before listening to tma but it introduced me to a whole world of wonderful new media, so thank you so much for that. Tma has really been a source of inspiration and comfort for me over the last couple of years, and it’s such a genuinely amazing story that you should be incredibly proud of creating. I hope you don’t feel too overwhelmed by all the asks!
Have a great rest of your day :)
Such kind words! Look after yourself too.
Hello Mr. Newall,
I have asked Jonny Sims this same question a few weeks ago, and it seems the stars have alined to allow me to ask the same question to you.
What is your favourite animal?
Probably the rocktopus.
Or the glocktapus.
What part did you sing when you were in choir?
Lead, tenor or Baritone at a push but I was never very good to be honest.