History Recap / TheMagnusProtocolSeasonOne

* ProfessionalKiller: 'Professional' may be the wrong word, but the [=OIAR=] keeps him around as an attack dog to kill people they want dead for... some reason.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Mr Bonzo is this to Series/MrBlobby, with many of the details of their story being directly lifted. Being originally intended as minor intentionally disturbing parody character, claimed to be a beloved children’s entertainer to prank celebrities, that exploded in popularity (despite also terrifying large portions of the audience) and [[BreakOutCharacter thus gained a much-increased role]], to the point of even releasing a hit single and nearly having an amusement park created. Of course (as far as we know) Mr Blobby wasn’t actually a murderous eldritch horror, with even the show version taking an actively antagonistic role towards the guests and the host (eventually replacing the original comedy antagonist [[MeanBoss Mr Six]]), rather than just being an annoying pest.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Mr Bonzo is this to Series/MrBlobby, with many of the details of their story being directly lifted. Being originally intended as minor intentionally disturbing parody character, claimed to be a beloved children’s entertainer to prank celebrities, that exploded in popularity (despite also terrifying large portions of the audience) and [[BreakOutChaacter thus gained a much-increased role]], to the point of even releasing a hit single and nearly having an amusement park created. Of course (as far as we know) Mr Blobby wasn’t actually a murderous eldritch horror, with even the show version taking an actively antagonistic role towards the guests and the host (eventually replacing the original comedy antagonist [[MeanBoss Mr Six]]), rather than just being an annoying pest.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: As well as being an Expy, Mr Bonzo is this to Series/MrBlobby. With many of the details of their story being directly lifted, being originally intended as minor intentionally disturbing parody character, claimed to be a beloved children’s entertainer to prank celebrities, that exploded in popularity (despite also terrifying large portions of the audience) and gained a much-increased role, to the point of even releasing a hit single and nearly having an amusement park created. Of course (as far as we know) Mr Blobby wasn’t actually a murderous eldritch horror, with even the show version taking an actively antagonistic role towards the guests and the host (eventually replacing the original comedy antagonist [[MeanBoss Mr Six]]), rather than just being an annoying pest.

* MonsterClown: Mr. Bonzo is designed to be a clown-like creature and he tends to frighten a good number of the people who see him, including some kids.

'''Nigel:''' About what? The fact that a few sales ''might'' be from people trying to be edgy? A man's gotta make a living, Geraldine, and it's not like I can tell is someone's buying a t-shirt ironically. Besides, people think of Nigel Dickerson and Mr. Bonzo is never far behind, so it's not like its changing my reputation. In a lot of ways I'm more his prisoner now that I ever was on my show.\\

'''Sam:'''I mean, I do like Celia -- \\

'''Sam:''' But… I’m not sure we’re quite at the "going-to-Manchester-to-dig-through-a-burned-down-building" stage.\\

Another operator answers when the jovial man calls back, and redirects him to the police at his request. The police operator asks some questions, and through his answers it is revealed that the injured man tried to attack the jovial man, though it turned into "an act of affection" as the jovial man, who is either encrusted with or made of needles, embraced him. "Needles" refuses to disclose his location, but explains that he grew up there and it used to be a good place, but "now it's a dreadful place. Not safe to walk at night. I take some pride in that, actually." Needles says that he and the place are marked in a way that "fills that hollow, lonely hole inside quite nicely" and he believes that it's a result of his victims' fear as they realize what's about to happen to them. When the operator asks if Needles was the one to stab the injured man, Needles isn't sure, since the man chose to get very close before he saw Needles' needles, at which point "we embraced". When the operator tells Needles that he's transfering the call to his supervisor, Needles suddenly becomes deadly serious and orders the operator to stay on the line, or "I shall embrace him again and I sincerely doubt he would survive." Needles admits that he deliberately got some of his needles into the man's face and eyes. As the man slowly bleeds to death, Needles revels in his fear, both of dying and of how his life would change if he survived. The operator demands Needles' location again, and Needles asks if he's scared.

* AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: While Gerry and Gertrude had their lives defined by a constant, bloody, futile and ultimately fatal war against the Entites in ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'', here they're happily living in a flat together. Gertrude even openly considers Gerry her grandson, in stark contrast to her rather cold treatment of him in the original podcast.

After a breakup, the statement giver is contacted by Gary, an old friend from school who had previously tried to get the statement giver to join his Dungeons and Dragons games, though the he never saw the appeal. Since he feels so low, the statement giver decides to go to Gary's game night and finds that "Gary has been doing seriously well since school" as he has a very nice apartment and expensive clothes. Despite this, Gary himself doesn't look good and is even limping. The statement giver notices blown-out light bulbs, "a huge leak over his massive sound system", and a stain on a wall that may be blood. No other guests have arrived, and as Gary mumbles about the game they're going to play they get to the topic of dice. The statement giver tells Gary that he doesn't have any dice of his own and will have to borrow some. Gary smiles at this and takes a pair of normal-looking six-sided dice out of his pocket, surprising the statement giver since he assumed that they would be using standard D&D dice. Taking the dice, the statement giver finds them to be heavier than they look, and in hindsight he knows that this is the moment he began to own the dice. As soon as this transaction has taken place, Gary hurries the statement giver out, claiming that the game night needs to be cancelled since another guest couldn't make it. The statement giver starts rolling the dice and discovers that "they make stuff happen". Higher rolls bring good luck, lower rolls bring bad luck. The statement giver doesn't think he was ever compelled to roll the dice, as "it always felt like my choice". After many rolls, the statement giver learns that there is a pattern to the dice and the luck that comes with them. "You get a few high rolls, your next one's probably going to be low. And if you've gotten all the bad luck out, you've got good things coming." The statement giver decides to see if he can pawn off the bad luck by asking random people in public to roll the dice, and despite their varied responses they never actually refuse to roll. As the statement giver continues to do this, he finds that he experiences "a dark joy" when he sees people roll low and becomes angry when they roll high and "robbed me of ''my'' good luck". Over time, however, the statement giver notices that his luck is changing in terms of what actually happens, going from mostly tangible results to just an improved mood to just a feeling that something good had happened, even if nothing had visibly changed. The statement giver starts to feel "less connected to the world, like I was a lucky ghost or something, walking with normal but not really one of them anymore". He begins to enjoy his identity as a stranger that bestows luck on others more than he enjoys his own luck. One day, the statement giver finds Gary in a coffee shop, looking much better than he did before. The statement giver approaches Gary who becomes frightened when he sees what his old friend has become. As Gary starts to apologize, the statement giver thanks him instead and expresses a desire to repay him, placing the dice on the table. The statement giver sees that Gary really doesn't to roll the dice but he does anyway, and for the first time ever the statement giver sees the dice come up with snake eyes. "Maybe they'd been saving themselves for a special occasion. An honor for an unworthy keeper. Or maybe Gary was just really, really unlucky." Without warning, a truck crashes through the cafe wall, and Gary's face and head are smashed in by rubble before the truck rolls over him. No one else is hurt in the accident, and the horrified statement giver runs from the place, now knowing that he has to get rid of these dice.

->'''Alice:''' Hang on, hang on, you already managed to talk Celia into all this guff. Why not take her on your little Scooby Doo adventure?\\

* TemptingFate: Celia explains that after doing a search of the {{OIAR's}} records, she hasn't found any cases relating to the Magnus Institute, and Sam accepts that it may all be a dead end. As Celia leaves the room, we hear Chester's voice chime in...

* TemptingFate: Celia explains that after doing a fairly thorough search of Fr3-D1's records, she hasn't found any cases relating to the Magnus Institute, and Sam accepts that it may all be a dead end. As Celia leaves the room, we hear Chester's voice chime in...

-->'''Alice:''' What is ''with'' everybody today?\\

-->'''Alice:''' Hang on, hang on, you already managed to talk Celia into all this guff. Why not take her on your little Scooby Doo adventure?\\

-->'''Alice:''' Hang on, hang on, you already
managed to talk Celia into all this
guff. Why not take her on your little
Scooby Doo adventure?\\

'''Sam:''' But… I’m not sure we’re quite at the
"going-to-Manchester-to-dig-through-a-burned-down-building"
stage.\\

''[[{{Beat}} (Momentary silence before Alice takes a drink and sighs in resignation.)]]''\

Sam is filling out a mountain of paperwirk from the Response Department when Celia arrives. As he explains it to her, Sam concedes that it's likely pointless but "I refuse to give it the satisfaction of giving up", especially since it's become compelling in how weird and specific the questions are, including asking him to rate his earliest four school-related negative memories, asking how many blood transfusions he's had in the last ten years, and one just asking "Why?". Sam seems to be having fun with it, even though Celia admits that she couldn't find anything about the Magnus Institute. After Celia leaves to get coffee from the breakroom, a case is suddenly read aloud by Chester.

->Statement and Research assessment for artefact CD137. Magnus Institute, Manchester. Private and confidential. Viability as subject: none. Viability as agent: low. Viability as catalyst: medium. Recommend referral to Catalytics for Enrichment applicability assessment. Statement follows.

Along with his statement, the statement giver has brought a pair of dice to give, admitting that he needed to get rid of them and warning them to not roll the dice, even by accident.
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Lena assigns Gwen to hand-deliver an envelope to one Nigel Dickerson and "take note of anything he says or does in response, especially his stress level and emotion state, as well of those of any companions."

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* AdaptationalAngstDowngrade: While Gerry and Gertrude had their lives defined by a constant, bloody, futile and ultimately fatal war against the Entites in ''[[Podcast/TheMagnusArchives]]'', here they're happily living in a flat together. Gertrude even openly considers Gerry her grandson, in stark contrast to her rather cold treatment of him in the original podcast.

Terrance takes a janitorial job with Forton Services in order to de-stress following his divorce. One landmark of Forton Services' site is the Pennine Tower, which once hosted a restaurant at the top with an amazing view. However, government regulations caused the restaurant to close down in 1989, and it became fully inaccessible in 2017 when the elevators were replaced. Even though Terrance is unable to ascend the tower, its Brutal Liminalism still to have an effect on his mental state, something he notices when there seems to be fewer people every night until one night there are finally no people at all. Unsettled, Terrance searches for people but finds no one. When he reaches the parking lot, he finds it to be just as empty but starts to see "streaks of light lingering in the air" over the asphalt.

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Later on, Alice is helping Sam get ready for his first overnight shift. She introduces him to [=FR3=]-d1, nicknamed "Freddy", a program that searches databases all over the internet for "incidents" which it passes on to them to read and assess. As Sam reads his first one, an email, he is quickly shocked by the contents but Alice assures him that it's just a bog-standard incident. She walks him through the assessment process, which consists of determining the incident's category based on what's mentioned most and then using a chart to translate that to a serial number which is assigned to the case before it's submitted. When Sam asks where they're sending their assessments, Alice assumes they go to "some long-dead database that no one will ever look at or care about." Now even more confused as to the actual purpose of this job, Sam starts on the next case and is surprised when a text-to-speech voice starts to read it aloud. Alice explains that about a year ago, three different text-to-speech voices started reading random incident cases aloud and Colin has never been able to figure out the cause. Alice has nicknamed the voices "Norris", "Chester" and "Augustus", though Augustus doesn't seem to pop up as much as the other two. Standard procedure is to just take a coffee break while they read, but Sam decides to stay and finish his onboarding paperwork while Norris reads the case.

After returning to the office, Gwen asks Sam what "awful, terrible thing" he experienced to get a job at the OIAR, but he doesn't say. Their conversation is interrupted by another text-to-speech voice, Chester, reading Sam's next case.

* CallBack: Celia seems to know a lot about what happened in ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' as she directly alludes to the Buried and the Flesh, neither of which have really seemed to manifest in any episodes of ''Protocol'' as of yet, she jokes that at least they don't have to use cassette tapes at the O.I.A.R., and she seems to recognize Chester's voice from somewhere…