#Zorrotrade

[we-never-stop-fighting-kb]

TMAGP 13 connections/theories?

Metallic chittering; maybe a machine? Insectoid design?

1a. What is this metallic chittering thing?

1b. Darrien attacked in a hospital by a weird, mechanical thing. He could see/hear it, as proven by how he called for a nurse, so would be visible like Mr. Bonzo/Needles

1c. Who is the "external" Lena needed Gwen to visit? Could it be this machine or someone "in charge" of this machine?

2. Darrien's incident was live(?)/not read out by Norris or Chester; how will OIAR staff become aware of it in later episodes?

3. Zorrotrade/self-mutilation for money; could be connected to ep. 9's "lucky" bone dice.

4. Sam/Celia are so cute together and will probably be attacked by some sort of avatar in coming episodes. However, I think they'll survive because they are beginning to understand that the cases are real.

5. The name of the episodes--"Futures"--it doesn't quite make sense to me. Could be referring to the "futures" associated with Zorrotrade and projected earnings from incidents, but I think it could have a deeper meaning that will be revealed in later episodes.

Final thoughts: Any way it goes, I think this mechanical chittering being will be another recurring 'avatar' of sorts, like Mr. Bonzo, Needles, the stranger from ep. 4, etc.

#tmagp #ep 13 #futures #zorrotrade #theories #samama khalid #celia ripley

[syntia13treeman]

Case files 13.01

CAT3RB4622-17092023-14032024

what I think happened in:

Case 13.01, the case of "The Zorrotrade App" or "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes: Cryptobro edition"

What we know about the Zorrotrade App:

It likely has no government oversight.

It does some weird background checks of new users.

It allows users to engage in highly profitable and borderline illegal financial exploits.

They have some shady experimental features that are not advertised, hidden under a tonne of submenus and must be found and opted in by the user. (Free will, babey).

They have an Adjustment Department.

What we suspect about the Zorrotrage App:

It's magic.

One of magical perks is protectingusers phone from being stolen;

One of magical cons is compulsive truth spell included in their support line answerphone.

Another magical con: the Adjustment Department.

So let's meet a Zorrotrade user. Darrien Laurel (account number 428813). He had no shame, no self-awareness and no sense of decency. Also not a shred of common sense.

He came from a poor family (though considering his definition of 'broke' I'm not sure if his parents were actually poor, or just 'won't buy me a porshe' 'poor'). He went to private public expensive high school thanks to a scholarship, which – props to him, for this thing and this thing only. Boo to anything else he did with his life.

After school he took student loan, and instead of spending in on studying, he sunk it all in financial speculations (This has to be illegal, right? Aren't there stipulation in the contract about the permissible uses of the loan?) He used every trick in the book (specifically, the "book of things that are shady as fuck and are only technically legal because rich people benefit from them"). Shorting (and possibly indirectly bankrupting) startup companies and trading in cryptocurrency among them.

He used the funds he acquired this way for the ever so important business of impressing his former classmates, getting plastic surgeries, and buying excessive and excessively expensive shit. (Your suitcase does not have to cost a 1000 dollars, you prick). (Why are you buying in dollars, anyway? Did you have that imported from USA? Use pounds or euros like a proper European, asshat).

Then, in 2020, a tragedy: while he was peacefully sailing with his good friend Oli somewhere south of France, one bad investment left him broke – that is to say, just with a few thousands worth of clothes on his back (and in his 1000$ suitcase) (and the watch on his wrist) (and just a few thousands of savings to throw away on a whim).

Truly, a more devastating blow has never been dealt to anyone in human history.

This is when he discovered that his rich 'friends' really did hate him all along. More importantly, he discovered the experimental feature on his favourite app, "Personal Projection Short Selling". There were no instructions, but by stroke of bad decisions and bad luck (blindly investing most of his remaining money + getting drank + braking his friend's TV, and getting kicked out of Oli's yacht, + getting kicked in the face by some muggers respectively) Darrien worked out that it was functionally a wager against his own good fortune.

Another entry into Things that Darrien Did Not Have: a drop of self-preservation.

Imagine stumbling into an illegal casino in an alleyway somewhere, winning your first game by chance, and immediately deciding to start playing there every night, with loaded dice, winning a lot and occasionally getting caught and getting your teeth kicked in.

Darrien did this, but he skipped a few steps. His new business plan went like this:

Put in a wager that he'll have a Bad Day.

Arrange to get seriously hurt and/or destroy one of your relationships, therefore having a Bad Day and winning the wager.

Profit

He spent several weeks knocking around the south of France, purposefully getting into fights (arguments with friends and brawls with strangers both) and accidents. He was getting harmed and isolated and felt it was all worth it because he got paid every time.

I'm going to give him a pass on never questioning how this worked, because at this point I'm fairly sure it's influence off the app itself. It's not constant supernaturalsurveillanceyou're looking for /Jedi hand-wave/ It's perfectly normal for your life's misfortunes to be monetizable. /Jedi hand-wave/ It's all good! Chill! /Jedi hand-wave/

What I can't just hand-wave is Darrien's grand finale. His famous One Last Job, then I Retire I Promise.

He 'invested' a million pounds (£ 1 000 000), burned all the bridges with his family, friends and even strangers on the internet, and then jumped off a cliff. A literal, honest to gods, not metaphorical cliff.

Sir. SIR. There's gambling with your life, and then there's this.

He lost one leg, along with structural integrity of several pretty important internal organs and bones – and he was happy upon waking, because he was (doped up on painkillers) already counting the money he was surely going to get.

Alas, reality check – this was the Find Out part of his ultimate round of Fuck Around.

He loaded his dice, he stacked his deck, he used his cheatcodes – it was only a matter of time before somebody noticed and demanded refund. (somebody knew all along – they were just waiting for the stakes to be really worth it).

This time, the app did not pay up. This time, the app called foul and demanded that he pay up – or be Adjusted.

Predictably, Darrien Laurel was not happy with this outcome and he wanted to Speak to the Manager of this Application.

He called the support line. He threatened the answerphone with legal consequences. (now they hear you). He told the answerphone his life story, up to and including his current hospitalization. (now they know you). And at the end, almost as an afterthought, he said his full name and app account number. (now they own you).

The answerphone dutifully transferred the call to adjustments department. Somebody from adjustments department crawled out of the phone and onto Darrien's bed. The call got disconnected. Darriel Laurel… got Adjusted.

Well. That sure was something. Final thoughts:

Remember when I yelled about Fae rules in case file 05-01? Do not take their money food, do not give them your name. Darriel broke those rules, and just look what happened! Well,

we don't actually know what happened. My first knee-jerk reaction was to say 'he got eated', but Personal Adjustment sounds… much more painful than just death by Mrs. Spider's mandibles. (I keep calling her that, but for some reason my mental image of that last scene is a weird metal centipede skittering out of the phone speaker that's much too small to fit it). I wonder if we'll meet Darriel, or at least some of him, again somewhere down the line. (Would he be like Needles, or more like Not-Arthur?) The incident happened about 6 month prior to Sam hearing it. Is that enough time for a new unholy abomination to incubate? Or… ripen? Whatever the 'adjustment' process entails.

This is the third time we've seen a man changing their fortune through pain. And we know it's possible to game the system successfully, because the 19th century violinist did it – he died of old age, more or less satisfied with his life. Mr. Die and Darrien could never. (Smh. Kids these days. No patience, no self-discipline).

This is… how many times now that we've seen someone's body being transformed? {Not-Arthur, RedCanary (? missing eyes at least), Daria(? - partial, self inflicted), Dr. 'Jasmine bush' Samuel, Cinema Tom(? - potentially), Needles(?), Mr. Bonzo(?), Error(?), Crypto Darrien} That's 3 up to 9, I think. Something definitely likes to play play-do with human flesh.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp case files #tmagp case 13.01 #tmagp 13 #Zorrotrade #ep. written by Alexander J. Newall #ep. written by A.J.N+J.S. #Personal Adjustment #Darriel Laurel #Mrs. Spider #so many connections #Can somebody find my some red string? I gave away mine. #tmagp

[v0idwraith]

#i’m pretty sure zorrotrade is just a fear agent but i also think it’s funny to imagine an actual worker listening to that message #tmagp #tmagp spoilers #the magnus protocol

[your-sleep-paralisis-demon-69]

zorrotrader as a fear entity. i NEED fanart of them because right nlw i'm just imagining black tendrils coming out of a phone

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #zorrotrader

[swordsonnet]

so the main character of this week's case and his mysterious doppelganger are both called darrien, which also happens to be the first name of the protagonist of magp 13 - darrien laurel, aka the guy who quite literally gambled with his own life through the zorrotrade app. i know we all joke about jonny's naming practices, but darrien is such an uncommon name that i think it's unlikely to be a coincidence. maybe darrien laurel is yet another doppelganger of the other two darriens? i wonder how many there are...

#tmagp #tmagp spoilers #the magnus protocol #the magnus protocol spoilers #magpod #if there's three of them would that make them dreifachgänger

[kiddthemaniac]

"ZoroTrade...like Zoroastrianism? I know there's something about good vs evil, but I'm super uneducated so I'll need to do a lot of-"

*sees a post calling it 'ZorroTrade'*

"Ohhhhh like a parody of RobinHood. Shit, that actually makes more sense."

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmp 13 #tmagp spoilers

[unreal-unearthing]

Also what does it say about me (and maybe like… Society™️ as a whole under late capitalism) that the financial ruin inflicted by zorrotrade was scarier than whatever came thru the phone at the end to kill him.

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp 13 #because seriously I actually found the ending a bit anticlimactic #because the horror of that much debt seemed worse somehow #like sure getting eaten by bugs (?) would suck but at least if ur dead you don’t have to deal with collections agencies

[vvanillavveins]

I was going to talk about how interesting a fight between Darrien Laurel and the caterer from episode 15 would be, until i realised that Darrien would just stop fighting back as soon as he notices a Zorrotrade notification going off each time he gets hit

#so nevermind lmao #the magnus protocol #darrien laurel

[syntia13treeman]

What do these things have in common?

red violin

old dice

investing app

#the magnus protocol #they be cursed your honour #no pain / no gain #some pain / some gain #plenty gain / world of pain #violince #Dice of Fate #Zorrotrade

[syntia13treeman]

Welcome to the Zorrotrade!

Our app allows you to engage in borderline illegal financial exploits that will earn you a lot of money. By installing our app you consent to our terms of service, the full scope of which will not be disclosed to you at any point. We offer amazing perks, such as protecting your phone from being stolen; your ability to interact with us at all times is important to us. Do not worry about the compulsive truth spell included in our support line answerphone. It is only there to ensure correct assessment of situation and provide best service to our loyal customers (you are important to us).

Please note: our "Personal Projection Short Selling" feature is experimental and may not function as intended. User discretion is advised. The undisclosed full terms of service strictly forbid users from directly influencing the outcome of any investment made through this feature. Violations of our ToS will result in user being subjected to Personal Adjustment. The terms of service apply regardless of your understanding or knowledge of them. Thank you for choosing Zorrotrade!

#the magnus protocol #tmagp case files #case files supplemental #tmagp case 13.01 #tmagp 13