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supercasey · 4 years

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TMA Child Avatars AU

Alright, so ever since I listened to the episode about Agnes’s origins, I keep thinking about an AU where a bunch of the other Entities, after realizing that it’s at least possible to create an avatar from birth, perform their own rituals and make a bunch of the future Archives gang. This AU has a lot of potential for angst, but since TMA is sad enough, I’ll probably mostly focus on the world building and fluffy/funny stuff (‘cus god knows I’m a slut for that shit).

To all my followers, I’m sorry I keep making kid AUs; I got told in like 2015 or so that I sucked at writing kids and it’s Never Left My Mind, so now I always wanna make stupid AUs in order to practice writing kids better (I also have an original story I wanna write soon with a ten year old as the main character, so yeah, I need all the practice I can get).

Anyways, here’s all I’ve got on the AU this far (explanation under the cut; a very long post is up ahead):

Character Backstories

Jonathan “Jon” Sims - Apprentice Archivist of the Eye

Jon is a very complicated story, at least from everyone outside of the Eye’s gaze. It was Elias’s idea to create him, and were it not for Gertrude getting lucky, no one but Elias, Peter Lukas, and Simon Fairchild would have ever known that Jon existed until he was ready to become the next archivist. Gertrude found out by pure chance when she accepted a live statement from one very frightened Delores Sims, who told the archivist about how a strange man had been stalking her ever since she found out she was pregnant. Out of completely nowhere, her husband died a month after she conceived, and even though it looked like an accident, Delores swore that she saw an arm surrounded by fog push him down the stairs. Things only grew worse for her over the next few weeks, as in the midst of her grieving her dead husband, Delores began seeing green, glowing irises out of the corners of her eyes, watching her every move as she lived her life, which was followed by the stalker in question appearing constantly in her dreams, always watching her from afar, an unpleasant and frankly unnerving grin on his face the entire time.

Suspicious, and finding the description of the stalker all too familiar by the end of the statement, Gertrude investigated Delores’s claims on her own time, going so far as to break into Elias’s office in order to dig up more information on whatever he was up to. No matter what her theories may have been, none of them were anything like what she found in his letters to his associates. Somehow, Elias had conspired alongside the Lukas and Fairchild families to find their heirs/avatars together, and Elias was the last person to acquire one of his own. Gertrude was unsure of the details at the time (and she still unfortunately is), but from what she could gather, the child growing in Delores Sims’ body was somehow touched by the Eye because of something Elias had done, and they would be born with the perfect framework to have the powers that an archivist learns over several years of training at birth! With no time to lose, Gertrude got back into contact with Delores, and after much discussion between the two women, she convinced Delores to come to her apartment when she eventually went into labor, and to give Gertrude the baby after they were born so that she could keep them safe from Elias.

The birth was meant to be done in secret, but the second the first contraction occurred, there was a knock on Gertrude’s door, Elias waiting for her on the other side with an unhappy grimace on his face. He came armed with a gun, and threatened to murder Gertrude if she didn’t allow him to claim the child as his own. Aware she still had many rituals to stop in the near future, and that none of her assistants were experienced enough to stop them by themselves, Gertrude reluctantly agreed to let him inside, but on one condition; the child had to be shared between them. Elias was abrasive to the idea of course, but he eventually complied with his archivist’s demands, not wanting to replace her so early on in her career. The sight of her stalker coming into the bedroom to watch her give birth unfortunately sent Delores into a panic attack while she was still very much in labor, making the rest of the birth a rather dangerous thing, but the child survived, leaving his mother terrified and shaking. Gertrude had planned on letting her go on her merry way after the baby was born, but Elias wasn’t taking any chances, and he shot her as soon as he deemed it safe to.

Since then, Gertrude and Elias have had dual custody of Jonathan- the name was Gertrude’s idea, on the grounds that it was a nice, proper name for a young man- trading him back and forth every other week. It’s been hard, especially with the adults he calls his parents wanting to kill each other, but Jon’s oblivious to most of the fighting right now, assuming his folks are just going through a messy divorce.

Martin Blackwood-Lukas - Adoptive Son of Peter Lukas

Peter ended up running very behind in the whole child avatar thing (a first for his family, something Simon reminds him of on a daily basis), and he really struggled with creating a baby avatar that would actually be able to “keep up” with the other young messiahs that were coming to be. Eventually he realized that his family’s usual method would take too long, so out of desperation he went to Elias and Simon for help. It was Simon’s idea that worked; he suggested that since the normal methods weren’t working, and kids usually don’t become lonely until they’re older, that Peter should try his own summoning ritual like the Lightless Flame did with Agnes. Peter was hesitant at first, but he gave in quickly, sacrificing a number of lonely souls to his entity in a well-timed manner, until finally, he found a small, swaddled baby in the midst of the fog; a supposed gift from the Lonely for his loyalty.

Peter was delighted by this discovery, and so were his colleagues, the men relieved that their hard work had actually paid off for once. After naming the little boy Martin- it was Elias’s idea, though he didn’t have much of an exact reason for the name, simply claiming that it “suited” the child- and before long, Peter began raising his newfound son much the same as he was; in almost total isolation, save for a variety of rotating nannies and caregivers. Unfortunately for Peter, this went horribly wrong almost as soon as he got started, as by the time that Martin was six months old he had accidentally forced five different nannies into the fog out of fear of them leaving like the ones before them had. With no other options available, and being able to actually leave the fog if Martin threw anymore fits, Peter was forced to raise his son by hand, which again went wrong, but for very different reasons, as to his shock, he became quite attached to his adopted child.

This evolved into Peter having doubt of the Lonely for the first time in his life, but he refused to acknowledge it for as long as he could. But he was finally forced to when, after Martin turned five years old, the rest of the Lukas family insisted on performing a test on the child to see how well Martin could handle the fog without any guidance. He had been inside the fog before of course, with Peter holding his hand or carrying him through the dense chill, but the family wanted to isolate Martin inside for a full month. This secretly scared Peter like nothing else ever had, but out of fear of what his family might think, he didn’t say anything at the time, simply watching from afar as his son was dragged into the fog and left to fend for himself. The ritual went wrong within the first week, Martin having a full-scale breakdown and nearly hyperventilating to death, and yet the family kept him in there for another week before the intervention.

The results of the test of course disappointed the other members of the Lukas family, who suggested that they simply leave Martin to disappear into the fog and look for a new, more sufficient messiah to serve their god. The news hit Peter incredibly hard, and despite his previous inhibitions and fear, he knew he couldn’t let the Lonely consume his one and only son. So, without telling anyone of what he was up to, he ventured into the fog, rescued Martin, and fled to live with his estranged ex-husband the Magnus Institute. Since then he’s been living with Elias at his house and avoiding his family at all costs, all while young Martin has grown up alongside the other entity kids and has struggled to figure out his role in everything, but at least he has his dad on his side through all of this.

Sasha James - Chosen Daughter of the Mother of Puppets

(Note: I headcanon the Mother of Puppets as a giant spider, so that’s how I’m writing her… sorry if this is inaccurate, but I’m only on MAG 152, y’all. Besides, I think this is cool af.)

Sasha was very much planned, even more so than Agnes was so many years beforehand. The Mother of Puppets had her minions gather hundreds upon hundreds of orphaned infants and bring them to her nest. She swaddled each every one in her webbing and kept them like this for several weeks, allowing them time to adjust to the webbing and adapt. Unfortunately, most of these children weren’t cut out for the Web’s influence, and while a few indeed held their adoptive mother’s mark, almost none of them were marked deep enough to become a fully realized avatar. The unsuccessful batches were subsequently sent off to orphanages across the world and replaced with new babies, this process repeating for years and years, until finally, Sasha was born. There was nothing special about her parents, yet she not only bore The Web’s mark, she seemed to have it embedded into her very soul. This, of course, was met with celebration from the Web, and plans were quickly made as to how to raise her moving forward, as no one wanted Sasha to end up like Agnes did.

Annabelle Cane ended up being the one chosen to home Sasha for the first few years of her childhood, and she was dutiful in her new, rather honorable role, as she not only cared for the child well, but she treated Sasha as her own, though she was careful to be seen more as an older sister than a mother to the girl; that role was, of course, reserved for Sasha’s real mother. When Sasha finally turned five, the Mother of Puppets announced further plans for the young avatar, calling on Annabelle to take Sasha to the Magnus Institute and give her to one of their hidden agents there so that she could learn more about how the Web uses it’s influence over other entities. This worried Annabelle, who wanted to keep the child near her and prove that she was the most loyal of the mother’s children, but she would never disobey a direct order from the being that had given her life such meaning. So, rather reluctantly, Annabelle gave Sasha to another member of the Web, watching from the shadows as this unworthy follower took the blessed daughter into the institute for further training.

This went wrong within only a few months. Gertrude ended up finding out who the Web’s spy in the institute was, as she had suspected that another entity was trying to control her from the shadows, and after disposing of the threat and searching their home for anything useful that she could use against the Web, she found Sasha. The archivist was tempted to kill the supernatural child on sight, but while she can murder her assistants and enemies without much remorse, on the grounds that it’s always for the greater good, killing a child is a very different story. So she took Sasha in, raising the Web’s child as her own alongside the Eye’s own prodigy Jon, all while trying to help Sasha control her slowly budding powers. The Mother of Puppets has been trying to get Sasha back ever since, enraged that the child is so close to her yet just out of reach, but with no luck, though there’s no telling how long that will last.

Timothy & Daniel Stoker - Dancer and Future Ringmaster of the Stranger

Both Tim and Danny are chosen ones of the Stranger, created as soon as their god had gained enough spare power to create them. Tim was born first, being the Stranger’s first attempt at birthing an avatar that might be powerful enough to help lead the Unknowing, but Gertrude interrupted midway through the ritual. By some miracle, Tim survived the ordeal, but he was left “incomplete” to some degree, leaving him simply marked and not fully connected to the Stranger. The entity’s followers ended up keeping him around though, both because Nikola Orsinov was too fascinated by the newborn baby to give him up, and because his parents wanted him to survive, but it was agreed that another attempt would be made, this time with more planning involved. Four years later, Danny was born, and with Gertrude too preoccupied to intervene this time around (and because she didn’t realize they’d try again so soon), the ritual went much better and created a far more suitable vessel for the Stranger’s powers.

After that, Tim and Danny’s parents died, fully succumbing to the Stranger’s transformation and leaving them orphaned. Not that their presence was strictly necessary after the kids were born, as Nikola Orsinov was more than happy to take over in most of the child rearing, genuinely growing quite fond of the two boys, particularly Tim, as despite his lack of supernatural abilities, she found him to be rather endearing, which is probably the closest she can get to genuinely caring about someone. Both brothers were raised more or less the same way, save for Danny being showered with more praise and being trained as a future ringmaster while Tim was mostly ignored and trained to be a dancer. Some followers of the Stranger feared that Tim might harbor resentment towards his little brother and try to kill him someday, but to their surprise, Tim only grew more protective of him over the years, swearing to keep Danny safe as he grew up to fulfill his destiny and help their family mold the world in their image.

Eventually though, when Tim was eleven and Danny was seven, Tim realized what was actually happening behind the scenes, and not wanting his brother to risk being sacrificed for the world’s destruction, he told Danny everything, leading to the young messiah to run away with him to London (they were raised primarily in Russia, but moved with the circus a lot, and were in France at the time that they finally ran away). There, Tim found the infamous Gertrude Robinson, who he knew had the power to stop the Unknowing, as she had once saved him from becoming the Stranger’s avatar, and inadvertently led him to having a little brother. Tim and Danny have since moved in with Michael, and they visit the Magnus Institute whenever they get the chance, as both boys have grown to become friends with the other avatar kids. You’d think that the Stranger’s followers would be furious about all of this- don’t worry, many of their acolytes are- but Nikola has laughed it off entirely and keeps insisting that the boys are just having a “sleepover” or are away at “summer camp” (in fucking January, apparently).

Melanie King - Cadet of the Slaughter

Honestly, the Slaughter wasn’t as into the whole “let’s make an avatar from scratch!” thing that the other entities’ followers were doing, but hey, sometimes child avatars just kinda wind up on your doorstep, ya know? Melanie ended up being found at about four years old, sobbing on her hands and knees outside of a burning hospital and calling for her mommy and daddy to come back to her, but no one answered her cries, and she was left to weep for quite some time before someone found her. The hospital, you see, had been overrun by the Corruption and promptly burned to the ground by the Desolation, neither of which bothered to stick around for some worthless child. Melanie’s parents were both inside when the entities clashed, leaving her orphaned and scared, and while Alfred Grifter, who had been on his way to a show with his bandmates at the time that he found her, had intended on just leaving her be, he saw the overwhelming rage and blood-lust in her crying eyes, and realized in that moment that she was touched by the urge to kill, just like he was.

Melanie was promptly taken in by Alfred Grifter and the band, who honestly had no idea what the hell they were doing. On one hand, Alfred knew that keeping a kid around was unbelievably dangerous for all parties involved, but on the other, he really didn’t want to leave Melanie all by herself, for fear of what she might do if left without any guidance from “people” who knew what she was going through, at least to some degree. That isn’t to say Alfred and his bandmates were all that great at raising her- they mostly just brought her to gigs and let her play on her Gameboy backstage while they started massacres- but they did at least try to give her somewhat of a home. It wasn’t until five years into this that some other Slaughter followers found out about Melanie’s existence, to which they told Alfred to give her to them for proper training. Knowing her life would be horrible with them, Alfred gave his ward a backpack full of everything she ever owned, a kid sized guitar, her Gameboy, and sent her on the run.

Melanie was scared out of her mind at first, having grown to see Alfred and his bandmates as her new family; she had already lost her parents, so why did she have to lose the band, too!? But there were no other options, she had to run, so she did just that, attacking any adult who tried to stop her along the way. She didn’t actually know about the Magnus Institute when she made her way to London, and Alfred didn’t tell her to go there or anything, but she ended up being spotted by Adelard Dekker while she was looking for a place to stay in the area. Seeing that Melanie was an avatar of some kind, Adelard managed to convince her that he was safe, and to let him take her to someone that could help her. He brought Melanie straight to Gertrude Robinson, who agreed to house the child since Adelard couldn’t, though she ended up letting one of her unofficial assistants (*cough* Gerry *cough*) take her to live in his flat so she wouldn’t be as easy for Elias to monitor/get ahold of.

Julia Montauk & Alice “Daisy” Tonner - Children of the Hunt

(Watch as I fuck with timelines so badly that the people who keep track of this shit will order a hit on me) The Hunt found both of their avatars in strikingly similar yet different ways; Julia was first, born from the womb of another entity’s follower, but bound for so much more than anything the Dark could give her. Years after her destined birth, Julia’s mother was viciously murdered by the People’s Church when she was just five years old, her father Robert Montauk going down the path of becoming a fully-fledged Hunter, and in the process he unknowingly marked Julia with his newfound entity, which in turn unlocked an unprecedented potential inside of her, not that it was fully realized until another tragedy struck her. This next tragedy, unfortunately, claimed Julia’s father. Mr. Pitch was mistakenly summoned, and in it’s rage, it destroyed Robert while he was in the midst of a sacrifice. The monster would’ve gotten Julia next, had it not been for the intervention of a nearby Hunter.

Trevor Herbert honestly didn’t mean to get involved, but when he witnessed a little girl screaming as she ran out of a house, a giant mass of darkness chasing after her, and no one willing to so much as call the damn cops, he knew he had to rescue the poor kid. In a flash he ran over, picked Julia up, and ran away with her to safety, managing to get her in his car (which he stole, but that’s not important) and drive as far away from her old home as possible. In the aftermath, Trevor had no idea what to do with Julia, since he had never actually wanted any kids of his own, but… well, he ain’t heartless, and that monster was still out there somewhere, just waiting to sink it’s cursed teeth into this young child’s flesh. Trevor ended up keeping her after that, becoming her adoptive father as he traveled with her around the UK, slowly but surely training her to hunt the same monsters that claimed her beloved parents.

You’d think that would be the end of Trevor Herbert adopting little girls marked by the Hunt, but nope, he just can’t catch a fucking break! He found Daisy about a year later, when Julia was eight and becoming more adjusted to her new lifestyle. Again, Trevor wasn’t really planning on going on any hunts at the time that this happened, he was just traveling through the area, but upon finding a bloodied up, terrified little girl being chased by a boy who looked possessed… well, it wasn’t like Julia wasn’t lonely, and again, Trevor isn’t heartless, and he sure as hell can’t let things go. So yeah, he kidnapped another child touched by the Hunt, even though this one actually had a living parent, and once again he took to traveling the UK with his adoptive daughters, secretly reveling in his new role as a father. Daisy, while scared at first, quickly grew fond of her new family, and even fonder of her new nickname after Trevor patched up her wounds, and noticed a flower-shaped scar on her back, prompting him to start affectionately calling her Daisy.

Yep, things were going pretty good for the family of three, but of course, shit eventually caught up with Trevor, not that he thought he could avoid it forever.

The police eventually caught wind of “Trevor the Tramp” traveling with two little girls who looked an awful lot like the missing thirteen and ten year olds Julia Montauk and Alice Tonner, and in his desperation to keep from getting arrested and having his children taken away, Trevor fled to downtown London in order to lie low for awhile and raise his daughters in relative peace, only ever going out for food runs and the occasional hunt. It was through one of these hunts that he ended up meeting Gerard Keay, the two of them chasing after the same book that had been summoning shadow people to wreck havoc on the city, and after a bit of back and forth banter over the campfire that was once a Leitner, Gerry convinced Trevor to move in with him so that the girls and him would be safer and actually have a home. Although he was hesitant to accept an offer he thought was too good to be true (also, he’s not gonna lie, he thought Gerry was a vampire when they met), Trevor agreed and moved into Gerry’s flat with his daughters, and has since helped Gertrude and her assistants with monster hunts.

Oliver Banks & Georgie Barker - Fetchlings of The End

Georgie and Oliver are an odd story, with the latter of the two having gained his powers as a mere toddler, being plagued with horrible, ghastly dreams that would keep him awake through the night, leaving him absolutely haggard by morning. His father tried everything to help Oliver through this torment- counseling, medication, bedtime rituals- but nothing worked, and before long, Oliver’s beloved father was claimed by his nightmares, dying of a heart attack that he couldn’t stop. Alone and misunderstood by everyone who tried to raise him, Oliver ran away countless times, coming across Georgie during his last attempt. He found the little girl to also be on the run for similar reasons, but unlike him, she wasn’t the least bit afraid. She wasn’t exactly happy, but she wasn’t a bawling mess like he was. Together, the two of them struggled to survive, relying on kindhearted drifters for support while they avoided the police until, at long last, something took pity on them, that something being a large, fat tabby cat.

As it were, the tabby cat- dubbed The Admiral by Georgie- wasn’t a normal cat in the slightest, and although it couldn’t speak, it’s intentions were clear; it was there to help these lost, orphaned children. Oliver was skeptical of course, but Georgie wasn’t about to look a gift cat in the mouth, so Oliver reluctantly followed the cat and his little sister to an apartment building, and from there, into an unoccupied flat. Since then, the two children have been living with Admiral in that very same flat, the cat providing them with a fully stocked fridge, warm beds, and running water. It’s still unclear what the Admiral is, but he seems kind enough, and is obviously quite protective of his newfound children, accompanying them on their outings and occasional visits to the institute.

Michael Crew - Prodigy of The Vast

Out of all avatars to be raising children for their entity, Simon Fairchild absolutely has had the most fun with it all, treating it almost like a fun game or pastime. He was the first (save for the Lightless Flame having Agnes, of course) to “create” an avatar child, and from minute one he was overjoyed with the results. A few years after news broke of Agnes’ origins, and the followers of other entities were all arguing over whether or not to follow suit, Simon didn’t bother waiting for anyone’s input or permission, simply throwing himself into the deep end and praying he could make his plan work. Seemingly overnight, Simon somehow acquired a baby later identified as the missing and presumably dead infant Michael Crew, who he referred to as Mike when he finally introduced him to his friends/associates. He still hasn’t told anyone how he even got the kid- not even Peter or Elias know what he did!- but by some means, he illegally adopted Mike and took to raising the kid like a duck takes to water; a bit unsure at first, but growing to love it fast!

When Mike was introduced to the rest of the entity followers community, many were shocked (excuse the pun) to see that the infant had a long, frightening Lichtenberg scar running down his right arm, his back, and his right leg, the scars glowing a bright blue whenever he took to the sky or, as Elias learned the hard way after accidentally annoying Mike by bouncing him on his knee for too long when he was a toddler, used his powers to electrocute people. Even with his child being such an oddity, even among other avatars, Simon took it all in stride, proudly bragging about Mike to anyone who would listen, most of these people being victims of the Vast, who were hardly able to hear Simon’s excited rambling over their own shrieks of terror. He usually also insisted on bringing Mike with him, even when he was a mere infant, though he at least kept the kid in a tight harness on his chest. In all honesty, Simon being such an excited parent was what kick-started a lot of other avatars to start acquiring their own child avatars, as he made it look so easy!

However, things weren’t always perfect, especially on Mike’s end as he grew older. Being the eldest and more or less “firstborn” of this new generation of entity-made avatars put a lot of pressure on him at a very early age, pressure which Simon tried to help him deal with by not acknowledging it, which unfortunately didn’t help in the slightest. Thankfully Mike started to feel less unsure of his place in the world as he reached his teen years, seeing as the younger kids were now getting all the attention and giving him a chance to breathe. Even now that he’s an angsty teenager, Mike loves Simon like a father, referring to him as such without hesitation. This, of course, delights Simon to no end, and makes all his peers low-key high-key jealous of the awesome relationship he has with his son.

Helen Richardson - Droplet of The Spiral

Not much was known about Helen when Michael first found her. After being sent into The Spiral by Gertrude on what he thought to be a suicide mission for the greater good, Michael was half certain he wouldn’t find anything but his end in that place. Instead he found a small, strange toddler where he was meant to find… well, he didn’t actually know what, but certainly not a baby, that’s for sure! With no one watching baby Helen, and therefore making him believe that she had been abandoned by The Spiral’s other creations, Michael had no reservations against scooping her up and taking her back to the physical world with him, where he was met be a very confused Gertrude Robinson. Michael wasn’t exactly keen on killing/abandoning a baby after he got out, so he and Gertrude brought her back to London with them in hopes of finding out more about the odd child. Along the way, it became clear that the baby was gifted with The Spiral’s powers, the giggly toddler continually screwing with reality, though she wasn’t aware she was doing so.

Back home in London, it took another three weeks of research, but Gerry eventually found out more about the child Michael had more or less adopted. Her name was originally Helen Richardson, and her father, a rookie paranormal investigator who had once been marked by The Spiral, was obsessed with the distortion, and was willing to do anything to become more than simply marked by it. He ended up finding a map similar to Gertrude’s, and a few years before she even knew it was possible, the father went into The Spiral and used his own daughter as a vessel for the entity, hoping she would be a good enough sacrifice to earn it’s favor. This of course ended in disaster, with the father “disappearing” while Helen absorbed The Spiral’s power, but seeing as she was so young, it couldn’t manifest properly, even after two and a half years spent trying to “raise her” within the deepest depths of it’s domain.

With research still being done on what to do about the child, and whether or not the team can remove her powers without killing or permanently injuring her in the process, Michael has agreed to take Helen in, secretly delighted to be raising a baby. With the Stoker Brothers already under his roof, Michael has his hands rather full with them and baby Helen, but the boys take her antics in stride, having learned quickly how to deal with the apartment they live in occasionally “growing” some new doors and changing color at random. Luckily for Michael, he has back-up in the forms of Gerry and Gertrude, who occasionally take Helen and the brothers off his hands for him so he can take a break/fix whatever Helen may’ve accidentally broken with her powers.

Character Roles in this AU

(Feel free to add your own OCs/other characters if you wanna do stuff with this AU, I’m just naming characters I know about/remember!)

Avatar Kids: Jonathan “Jon” Sims, Martin Blackwood, Sasha James, Timothy “Tim” Stoker, Daniel “Danny” Stoker, Melanie King, Julia Montauk, Alice “Daisy” Tonner, Oliver Banks, Georgie Barker, Michael “Mike” Crew, and Helen Richardson.

Avatar Kids Semi-Reluctant PTA Group: Elias Bouchard, Gertrude Robinson, Peter Lukas, Gerard “Gerry” Keay, Trevor Herbert, Michael Shelley, and Simon Fairchild.

PTA Allies: Basira Hussain (Daisy’s best friend and the local Normal Child™), Agnes Montague (Everyone’s emergency number for avatar child advice), Alfred Grifter (Just shows up to hang out with Melanie and cause problems on purpose), The Admiral (Guardian to Georgie and Oliver and occasionally the other kids; best babysitter), Adelard Dekker (Comes around the archives sometimes and always brings presents for the kids + assistants), and Rosie (Elias’s assistant and the only sane and sensible adult in this Chili’s tonight).

PTA Enemies: Nikola Orsinov (Tim and Danny’s “Mom” who keeps kidnapping Jon on accident), Annabelle Cane (Hates the institute and wants Sasha back), Jude Perry (Hates the kids but loves Agnes; worst babysitter), and Jared Hopworth (Nightmare flesh man that needs to fuck off; mediocre but funny babysitter).

Character Descriptions

(Feel free to tweak the physical designs if you want; I’m just going off my own headcanons, and seeing as my drawing skills are pretty shit, it’s not like I’m gonna be doing much art for this outside of writing. So yeah, go off with your own headcanons if you want to!)

Full Name: Jonathan “Jon” Sims-Bouchard-Robinson Age: 7 Birthday: October 26th (Scorpio) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Eye, Marked by Literally Fucking Everything Guardian(s): Alexander Sims (Biological Father - Deceased), Delores Sims (Biological Mother - Deceased), Gertrude Robinson (Adoptive Mother - Current), Elias Bouchard (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark brown skin, worryingly short for his age, dark brown eyes that glow bright green when he’s using his powers, long black hair with a few green and grey hairbands tied in, constantly “borrows” Martin’s sweaters to wear, occasionally wears skirts but most of the time he wears slacks, constantly looks sleep deprived, has a very intense stare, and occasionally he can be seen carrying his stuffed moth around. Personality: You’d think he’d be a quiet kid, considering his entity, but no, he has Questions and he wants them Answered, goddammit! He wasn’t raised around many kids his age, being home-schooled by Elias and Gertrude all his life, so he struggles to connect with the other avatar kids. Is only close to the S1 gang at first, but he gets closer to everyone else over time. Idolizes Gerry and thinks he’s the coolest guy ever. Appears rather cowardly at a glance, but he’s braver than most people give him credit for. Would die for his friends/family.

Full Name: Martin Blackwood-Lukas Age: 8 Birthday: February 29th (Pisces) ((This one’s for you, Dane)) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Lonely, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): William Blackwood (Biological Father - Uninvolved), Edna Blackwood (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Peter Lukas (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Polish heritage and pale as a fucking ghost, average height for his age but growing fast, pretty chubby, covered head to toe in little red freckles, short and curly red hair, bright brown eyes, wears big round glasses, wears sweaters and comfy trousers almost 24/7, carries a backpack full of “emergency tools” wherever he goes, usually has a cup of tea in-hand, and sometimes wears a small sailor hat that Peter gave him. Personality: Incredibly reserved, much like Mike, but he’s been trying to come out of his shell more. He’s “Best Friends Forever” with Jon, and gets along well with Tim and Sasha as well. Fears Melanie and Daisy. He likes hanging out with the other kids, but he often gets talked over, leading him to withdraw for awhile if it’s bad enough. Adores his dad, and is so much braver than anyone knows. Incredibly snarky when he feels like it.

Full Name: Sasha James Age: 10 Birthday: November 18th (Scorpio) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Web, Marked by The Eye, Marked by The Stranger Guardian(s): Francis James (Biological Father - Deceased), Patrick James (Biological Father - Deceased), Annabelle Cane (Adoptive Mother - Uninvolved), Gertrude Robinson (Adoptive Mother - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of African and Caucasian with dark brown skin, slightly taller than average for her age, long dark brown hair, wears big round glasses, sometimes wears a little make-up if she can get away with it, wears a lot of turtleneck sweaters and long skirts, always has at least one cobweb on her, carries around a stuffed spider that she brings with her to the archives every day, and she wears a headband most of the time. Personality: Easily the most level-headed of the kids, as she’s been raised around paranormal stuff the longest and is rarely bothered by the stranger things that happen. She hates Artifact Storage with a passion, but other than that, she loves exploring the institute and occasionally stealing Gertrude’s laptop to mess with it. Very tech savvy, and even more curious! Incredibly smart, to the point that she can even outclass Gertrude and Gerry with her quick-wittiness.

Full Name: Timothy “Tim” Stoker Age: 12 Birthday: August 3rd (Leo) Entity/Mark(s): Marked by The Stranger, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Markus Stoker (Biological Father - Deceased), Olivia Stoker (Biological Mother - Deceased), Nikola Orsinov (Adoptive Mother - Uninvolved), Gerard “Gerry” Keay (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of Latino and Korean with dark tanned skin, slightly on the taller side for his age, messy/spiky black hair that looks impossible to comb, dark brown eyes, is described as a “handsome young man” by strangers, has a very charming smile, wears a lot of Hawaiian shirts and shorts (even during the winter), needs to wear glasses but he refuses to wear them in the archives out of self-consciousness. Personality: Probably one of the brightest personalities of the avatar kids, Tim comes off as very cool and funny, but underneath all of that he’s rather paranoid, afraid that the circus will come and force his baby brother into becoming a monster. Protective of his little bro and the archive kids, but he still teases them to no end. Smarter than he looks, and isn’t afraid to break his cool guy persona to tell someone off.

Full Name: Daniel “Danny” Stoker Age: 8 Birthday: August 1st (Leo) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Stranger, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Markus Stoker (Biological Father - Deceased), Olivia Stoker (Biological Mother - Deceased), Nikola Orsinov (Adoptive Guardian - Uninvolved), Gerard “Gerry” Keay (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of Latino and Korean with dark tanned skin, about a head shorter than Tim, somewhat neat black hair that sticks up in odd places, eyes are impressively dark and glassy looking, slight gap between his front teeth, is described as being a “handsome young man” by strangers, wears a lot of tank tops and shorts as well as the occasional hoodie if it’s cold, and loves running around barefoot. Personality: A lot of people describe Danny as being a “smaller and cuter Tim”, but that’s just not true. Danny is a lot like his older brother in many ways, but he has a much more refined taste for adventure, constantly getting himself into trouble with Jon on the grounds of “exploring” or what have you. He idolizes his big bro to the moon and back, and loves hanging out with him alongside the other kids. More of a follower than a leader, but he doesn’t mind. Secretly fears the day that the circus will come back to make him into their future ringmaster.

Full Name: Melanie King Age: 9 Birthday: June 7th (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Slaughter, Marked by The Corruption, Marked by The Desolation, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Boris King (Biological Father - Deceased), Carrie King (Biological Mother - Deceased), Alfred Grifter (Guardian - Uninvolved), Gerard Keay (Guardian - Current) Appearance: Irish heritage but not terribly pale, rather short for her age, incredibly thin from malnutrition, short brown hair with the ends dyed bright blue, bright brown eyes, brings her leather jacket and her guitar with her everywhere she goes, wears a lot of pink/blue skirts and band t-shirts, wears black leather boots, has a lot of bandages on her knees and knuckles, and always has a camera ready to record things. Personality: Melanie is probably the most disconnected of the avatar kids (save for Helen), seeing as she only just recently joined the group, but already she’s beginning to befriend Sasha and Basira. She’s very protective of the other girls, and she keeps challenging the boys to fight her (only Danny ever agrees; he always loses). Secretly idolizes Julia and Daisy, but will never admit it. She sees Gerry as her big bro and Alfred Grifter as her adoptive dad; she misses Alfred more than she let’s on. Would stab as a warning.

Full Name: Julia Montauk Age: 13 Birthday: April 19th (Aries) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Hunt, Marked by The Dark, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Robert Montauk (Biological Father - Deceased), Linette Montauk (Biological Mother - Deceased), Trevor Herbert (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Indigenous heritage with dark tan skin, tall for her age, skinny enough to look malnourished, close-cropped red hair that gets her mistaken for a boy a lot, metal grey eyes, a scar runs diagonally across her right eye, often wears medium length skirts and oversized t-shirts, always wears athletic shoes, has a lot of scrapes and bandages on her knees most of the time, and has abnormally sharp canines. Personality: Before the deaths of both of her parents, Julia was considered rather normal for her age, being interested in horses, dolls, and dress-up games. After her mother died, she became more tomboyish, which only became more extreme after her father’s death. Since being taken in by Trevor, Julia’s been trying to act more like an adult in an attempt to seem less vulnerable, to varying degrees of success. She adores Trevor to the moon and back, and sees Daisy as her little sister. A bit standoffish around other children, but she’s got a good heart.

Full Name: Alice “Daisy” Tonner Age: 10 Birthday: March 15th (Pisces) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Hunter, Marked by The Slaughter, Marked by The Eye Guardian(s): Greyson Tonner (Biological Father - Deceased), Antoinette Tonner (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Trevor Herbert (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Welsh heritage with cream colored skin and a light tan, average height for her age, short and shaggy blond hair, has a number of tiny scars all over her face and hands, has a huge scar on her back that Trevor has told her looks like a daisy, striking green eyes, wears a lot of sleeveless shirts and shorts, refuses to wear dresses or skirts, prefers to be barefoot, and has abnormally sharp canines. Personality: Is already rather hot-headed at her age, especially after her encounter with Calvin while he was being possessed by a spirit of the Slaughter. Even so, she’s protective of her newfound family of Trevor and Julia, and while she misses her mother, she believes it’s best if she stays where she is. She loves playing outside whenever she can, and will spend hours chasing after squirrels and rabbits if left alone for too long. A bit argumentative, but she gets along really well with Julia and Basira.

Full Name: Oliver Banks Age: 10 Birthday: June 14th (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The End, Marked by The Hunt Guardian(s): June Banks (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Isaac Banks (Biological Father - Deceased), The Admiral (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark skin, has an array of pitch black freckles on his face, short and neat black hair that reaches just below his ears, ghastly grey eyes that look almost clear and turn black when he’s using his powers; used to be dark brown, worryingly thin from years of malnutrition, wears a lot of baggy and long-sleeved shirts, wears sweatpants, has boots on everywhere he goes, and he’s almost always shivering. Personality: The more distrustful of the “End Siblings”, the only person Oliver even sort of likes is Jon, and even then he’s still scared of him. Constantly fidgeting and yawning from both his paranoia and fatigue. Is protective of Georgie, but more out of obligation than friendship. Prefers to be alone, and rarely visits the archives. He knows something bad is coming, but he’s too scared to do much about it. In the end, he knows he’ll do the right thing, but for now he’s hiding until the bombs finally fall.

Full Name: Georgie Barker Age: 7 Birthday: December 9th (Sagittarius) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The End, Marked by The Hunt Guardian(s): Georgie Grounding Sr. (Biological Mother - Deceased), Sarah Grounding (Biological Mother - Deceased), Jason Barker (Adoptive Father - Deceased), The Admiral (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: Mixed race heritage of African and Indian with dark brown skin, fairly chubby, has an array of light brown freckles all over her arms, back, and face, has long and curly black hair done up in poofy buns using colorful hair bands, paints her nails all the time with different colors every week, cutest little smile you ever did see, wears a lot of ghost-related clothing (mainly t-shirts and jeans), and she brings her ghost backpack with her everywhere she goes (it has her stuffed leopard inside). Personality: Despite being an avatar of the End, Georgie has a very upbeat personality, having no time for her adoptive brother’s endless worrying and fearfulness. In fact, all her fear has been gone since she was little, so she’s never scared to explore something new and parade into danger! She’s very close friends with Jon (even if he’s distant sometimes) and best friends with Melanie, though she gets along with most everyone else as well. She may be a chipper person, but look out, she’s carrying more baggage than she let’s on. Loves The Admiral more than life.

Full Name: Michael “Mike” Crew Age: 14 Birthday: May 13th (Taurus) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Vast Guardian(s): Ramsey Crew (Biological Father - Uninvolved), Whitney Crew (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Simon Fairchild (Adoptive Father - Current) Appearance: Caucasian and pale as a ghost, shaggy white hair that’s almost always wind-swept, strikingly pale blue eyes, smells of ozone and burnt hair, incredibly short for his age, very bony and thin, tends to wear a lot of oversized hoodies on the grounds that they make flying more fun, clothes are almost always pristine and clean, his back, right arm, and right leg are covered in a Lichtenberg scar that glows bright blue when he’s using his powers, permanent bags under his eyes. Personality: A very, very quiet kid, at least around strangers. He’s much bubblier around Simon, but otherwise he’s viewed as an “old soul” by most adults. He does have a sense of humor though, taking a bit too much pleasure out of sending people soaring into the air against their will, especially if they insulted or annoyed him beforehand. Secretly a bit protective of the other avatar kids, and has been known to take them flying if they promise not to let go of him when they do so. Nice kid, but don’t make fun of his height or he might just electrocute you out of spite.

Full Name: Helen Richardson Age: 3 Birthday: February 23rd (Gemini) Entity/Mark(s): Avatar of The Spiral Guardian(s): Tiara Richardson (Biological Mother - Uninvolved), Dexter Richardson (Biological Father - Deceased), Michael Shelley (Adoptive Guardian - Current) Appearance: African heritage with dark brown skin (has the beginning patches of vitiligo on her face and hands), fairly chubby but Michael swears it’s just baby fat, has bright purple eyes with swirling yellow irises, has short but frizzy black hair that cannot be tamed, is often dressed in very colorful onesies and footie pajamas alongside the rare dress, and occasionally she’ll have a child leash vest on (though it often disappears because of The Spiral). Personality: She honestly doesn’t have much of a personality yet, being a toddler and all, but she’s a very giggly child, and loves nothing more than making Michael “be silly” with the use of her powers. Speaking of which, she has very little control of her abilities, and although she’s too young to understand their impact on the world, she still feels bad when she accidentally goes too far and gets Michael hurt. She adores Michael and Jon, and loves it when Michael brings her to the institute with him. Very playful and mischievous.

And that’s all I’ve got for now! I wanna write some fics for this at some point (particularly I wanna write a fic that has all of the kids’ origin stories in better/more detail), but for now anyone is free to fuck around with this AU, so long as you’re not doing too much shipping between the kids (hints at ships are fine, but they’re still kids, y’all) and ESPECIALLY not any shipping of the kids with the adults/guardians. Feel free to PM me or scream about this AU in the notes/tags; I’d love to hear people’s thoughts!

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greyfongschemmenti · 4 years

Text

Under Pressure 14|15

FryeArcana

Chapter 14

The Fog

Notes:

Warning: There is harsh language, talk about depression and death. If you are sensitive I added a trigger warning when it's going to start. It's the last paragraph of the chapter.

The four of you run into a forest then slow down and start walking through the dark forest as Bumi starts calling out for his niece, “Jinora... Jinora's spirit, do you hear me? It's your Uncle Bumi.” Tenzin groans as he tries to think of a plan on how to locate his daughter “Ah, this isn't working. We can't just randomly wander the Spirit World, call out for Jinora, and expect to find her!” Bumi looks around and then looks down at the ground. “We just need to employ the simple rules of tracking.” He kneels down and points to the ground “First we locate her footprints... then we follow them.”

You kneel down beside Bumi looking at the ground and notice no prints spirit or human it’s like no one has set foot on it. “Do you even know what Spirit footprints look like? Do spirits even leave footprints? Face it, your tracking skills won't work in the Spirit World.”

“I think most of the spirits were floating if I’m not mistaken, I mean it was worth a shot, Bumi” you look over at Bumi as you stand up while Kya sits on the ground getting in a meditative sit crossing her legs Indian style “Let me try something.” She proceeds to meditates “Ommmm...” she slowly points over to a direction “Jinora is over there. I feel a lot of spiritual energy coming from that direction.”

“We're in the Spirit World, there's spiritual energy in every direction!” Bumi waves his hands around every direction while you look around and walk away from the group looking for any kind of clue or a friendly spirit who can help. You come across a large cave and see an illuminating star shaped spirit and you’re about to step forward towards it, but you stop yourself. You don’t know if it’s friendly stupid. You step back and call over to the siblings “Hey if you guys are done bickering I found this cave and there’s a spirit here!” You weren’t that far away from the three siblings as you see a bald headed with a blue arrow approach you “there!” he calls out to his brother and sister as they near you “you think it’s friendly?” you ask Tenzin and he steps forward to talk to it “Spirit, hello. I'm sorry to disturb you, but I am in need of your assistance.”

A low gruff speaks while slowly red eyes start to appear one by one and you take a step back feeling on high alert

“You dare wake me, human? Humans in the Spirit World…”

“---uh…I think we should..” you speak as you take another step back as Kya and Bumi glance at you seeing you back up then quickly look at the spirit

--belong in one place only!” the spirit roars and darts the Dark Spider Spirit emerges from the cave, resembling a giant scorpion at a super-fast pace right at the four of you.

“—RUN!” you yell as you Bumi and Kya start sprinting full speed out of there with Tenzin following a couple feet behind.

You skid to a halt as you reach the edge of a cliff with Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin pushing up against you. You look over your shoulder as you see this creature approaching fast. You take the initiative to jump leaving the siblings and yell as you fall down. You reach down the trees down below and bend out your cables grabbing onto a branch and jerk your head up to hear the siblings screaming down below. You bend another cable and quickly decide to save one of them. You wrap it around Kya’s waist, preventing her to hit the ground then gently bringing her down on the ground before you drop yourself down standing up. “Thanks, y/n” she breathes, and you shake your head catching your breath “anytime”. Bumi dusts himself off “Well, that didn't work. Now where are we?” Tenzin uses his airbending to clean himself “we’re completely lost.” You look around and find a path “well nowhere to go but keep moving forward” you look at the three then start walking forward as they follow suit. The path opens up and you’re soon walking down a path of illuminating mushrooms as you walk by. After a couple of minutes of walking you see the same mushrooms from before and your eyebrows raise after the third time you start to question it “uh, I think we’re walking in circles” Bumi denies it “no, we aren’t we’re fine” you think about it for a second but decide to keep walking after two more times of seeing the same mushrooms Tenzin steams up and explodes “We're walking in circles! I've seen that same Spirit Mushroom five times!” you jerk to him “why haven’t you said anything two rounds before?! I said I thought we were running in circles”

Tenzin stutters “I wasn’t sure but now I am sure”

“That's not the same mushroom.”

“Yes, I am.” A voice pops in by the mushroom and you see a mouth appear on the mushroom.

“See? Even it knows we're lost.” Tenzin points at the mushroom as he looks at Bumi dragging a hand on his face as he groans. “Oh, sure, listen to a fungus over your own brother.” Bumi pouts folding his arms. “hmmm, strangely this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a talking mushroom” you mutter, and all three siblings stop to look at you “uh…never mind” you quickly add turning away. Kya raises an eyebrow as she thinks about it “dragon’s beard?” she asks curiously as she eyes you and you side eye her “yeah how’d you know” your eyes widen as you turn your head to look at her “I’ve…might have dabbled once or twice” a light blush creeps up as she confesses to the group. Tenzin scoffs while you and Bumi are amused and you see Kya in a new light while she looks at you the same way “huh…how about that” you both exchange a smile. A strange noise sounding like an ominous that causes the four of you to jerk your heads to that direction, Kya hiding behind her brothers “What's that?” Bumi looks over at the mushroom “Mushroom, is that you?”

“Nope, wasn't me.”

There’s another noise like a footstep coming from the right side and two figures comes out the shadow causing you all to gasp. Soon an older man and a fox come out and your guard is lowered slightly “Iroh?” Bumi looks surprised to see the man. “How...? Where...? It's been so long.” Tenzin looks easily just as surprised. So they know this man. Wait is this the same Iroh from the stories your dad told you growing up about Avatar Aang? “Almost 40 years. It's nice to see you again.” Iroh smiles with his arms behind his back as he greets your group. You watch as Tenzin and Iroh talk.

“How did you know we were here? “

“My friendly spirit fox told me you were lost. I came to show you the way out.”

“Iroh, we are grateful, but we're not looking for the way out. We're looking for my daughter.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but you shouldn't be here. Vaatu has escaped, and darkness threatens to take over. “

“I’m not leaving until I find Jinora. “

“I understand but I beg you to be careful. If you travel too deep into the Spirit World, you could end up in a place where only the lost will ever find you.” You look down in thought while Tenzin looks to his brother and sister with concern. They look at each as Tenzin looks back to Iroh, but Iroh has vanished. Your eyes furrow while you think A place where only the lost will ever find you… you voice out your thoughts out loud “A place where only the lost will ever find you…like a lost and found? Do they have a lost and found here in the spirit world?” you comment as you look up at Tenzin he listens to your words and thinks “A place where only the lost can find you... That's it! I know where to find Jinora!” He motions for you guys to follow and you guys start running back to where you guys just came from and starts clueing you in on his plan “We have to go back to the cave”. You, Kya and Bumi skid to a stop with Kya initiating the talk “woah, are you crazy, Tenzin?!”

you cut in “Maybe you don’t remember…that a big scary spider-scorpion is there who can, oh I don’t know, eat us!” you quip putting your airs up in the air.

“yeah, maybe you’re not feeling right in the head baby brother” Bumi puts the back of his head on Tenzin’s forehead to which Tenzin quickly swats away “I am fine, Bumi!” he exclaims then groans “please… just… trust me” he pleads his siblings then looks at you. Kya, Bumi and you look at each other not really sure what Tenzin is thinking before looking back at Tenzin and give him a nod. The four of you proceed to run back to the cliff Tenzin and Kya go up using their bending while you bend your cables to grab on the edge of the cliff and tell Bumi to grab onto you and you pull the both of you up with ease. The group continues on back to the cave as you stand outside it just like the previous time. Its lure is still dangling and glowing in the dark.

“Are you sure this is the best way to find Jinora?” Bumi asks his brother

“Yes” Tenzin turns to face the opening of the cave and waves his arms, gathering wind in his hands before shooting a gust into the cave “Hey, you, spirit- Wake up!” you put your guard up on high as you wince waiting for a response then see the red eyes light up in the dark “You again?” The spirit screeches and emerges you grit your teeth closing your eyes as it is spitting web at the group.

You’re looking at the sky looking bemused as you all are being dragged over the grassy ground in the webbing. It feels like quite a walk this creature is taking you four, so you speak up “Still think this is a good idea?” you deadpanned still looking at the sky. “Yeah, nice going Tenzin” Bumi huffs out Kya sighs letting out a puff. Tenzin’s ears redden “I know what I’m doing!” Kya speaks up “You’re screaming right in my ear! We can just stop talking” she snaps. Everyone grumpily agrees and the rest of the way was kept in silence. You feel the scorpion-spider lift you guys up and swings the group to the front of it as you’re all daggling over a cliff upside down. You’re eyes widen feeling your stomach drop to your throat and look quickly look at the siblings all looking scared you gulp grabbing whatever you can find and grab Kya’s hand “sorry, being suspended in the air where I can’t see the ground freaks me out” you mutter. Kya didn’t seem to mind considering she was just as scared as you were, so it was nice to get some sort of comfort, “I thought we were going to be taken to a prison.” Kya asked Tenzin. “This is a prison.” He responded back. The dark spirit spider started to talk “Welcome to The Fog of Lost Souls. You will never escape.” The spirit swings the four of you over the edge and the webbing comes undone, letting the you guys loose to fall into the fog. All of you yell your hand slides off of Kya from the force of the swing as you drop through the fog. Your eyes dart around looking for something to grab on with your cables, but this fog is so thick you can’t see a thing quickly lose sight of the siblings. You land hard on the hard earth floor and groan as you slowly push yourself up then fear starts to come sink in. You don’t see Kya, Bumi, or Tenzin and your breathing starts to quicken. “Bumi! Kya! Tenzin!” you call out hoping to hear one of them in this dense fog. “y/n!” you turn your head in the direction of the voice it sounds like Tenzin. “Tenzin?” you call out again and he yells your name “hold on, I’ll come to you just stand where you are. Keep calling out!” you nod to yourself as you raise loud stand in place “Lovely weather we’re having today. I suspect the fog be denser by nightfall” you awkwardly try to keep the mood light even though you are scared of the unknown. You’re squinting your eyes to look for any figures approaching you when you see something “Tenzin?” you call out and you make out the robes and you run to him “thank the spirits!” you hug him glad to find someone. “We need to find Kya and Bumi. We have to stick together and remain focused.” He puts his hands on your shoulder as he advises you. You take in his words inhaling deeply then nod as you both start walking calling out for Bumi and Kya until you’ve found them. Tenzin directs where to go “What kind of prison doesn't have any bars or walls? We could walk right out of here.” Bumi asks Tenzin as he looks around at how open it is

“The Fog of Lost Souls is a spirit prison for humans. I read about it in an ancient text. The Fog is actually a spirit... that infects your mind and slowly drives you mad, imprisoning you in your own darkest memories.”

Your eyes widen as Tenzin explains and you’re about to freak yourself out then you shake your head, knocking it off. Focus. Keep your mind focused, y/n.

Kya stays close to Tenzin “How long can you be trapped in here?”

You see a dark figure walking around and move behind Bumi “what was that” behind them a shadowy figure walks by. It comes into view and is revealed to be Commander Zhao, his hair disheveled, “I am Zhao the Conqueror! I am the moonslayer! I will capture the Avatar! I am Zhao the Conqueror! I am the moonslayer! I will capture the Avatar!”

You all stare at the guy mumbling out as Kya speaks “Hopefully we're not trapped in here as long as that guy.” Just then Zhao sees Tenzin and grabs his collar pulling Tenzin towards him “You! You're him! The last airbender!” Tenzin yells “Ah! No! Get off me!”

“You've grown... But I will still defeat you!” Bumi and Kya grab him and toss him away, Kya knocking him back with waterbending and you bend a column of earth from under him and catapult him away. You all run away as Zhao gets back up “Come back, Avatar! Face me! I am Zhao the Conqueror! I will capture you! Victory will be mine!” Zhao slowly disappears into the fog and his last words echo. “Okay, we need to stick together so we don’t run off and get lost.” Tenzin speaks up as you all stop running after getting a safe distance away,

“what like hold hands?” Kya suggests to which Tenzin shakes his head “no that’s too easy. We can easily let go and run away” You look down at your cables their metal but they’re pliable enough to be used as a rope “we could tie ourselves to one another make like a human chain” you pull out some of your cable. Tenzin listens to your idea “nice idea, but not your cables you would be able to bend your way out we need to use an object we can’t bend out of” Tenzin looks down and remembers his belt cord “we’ll use this” he unwraps some of the cord and starts tying a cord to Kya's waist, then gives you and Bumi another cord to tie around your own waists. You connect your cord to Bumi’s and once everyone is connected to each other

“If we stay together, we'll find Jinora and make it out of this fog.” you guys walk in a diamond formation. You all take turns and start calling out for Jinora, then it circles back to Tenzin

“Jinora! Jinora!” you don’t know how long you’ve been in this fog you can’t see anything within three feet radius of you. it’s dense above just as it is all around you then Bumi gasps and

puts a hand on Tenzin stopping the group “Wait a second.” Tenzin turns around to face him “what? Do you hear something?” Bumi's eyes start to widen as he looks very frightened and starts sweating “Yes, they're all around us. The cannibals, they're everywhere.”

Kya yells at Bumi “Stop playing around Bumi! It’s not the time for one of your pranks!”

Bumi looks at Kya then jerks his head at you and starts screaming grabbing your shoulders “Cannibal!! Get away from me Cannibal!” Bumi starts shaking you and shoving you away “Bumi, it’s y/n!” you yell at him his eyes are so wide and he hasn’t blinked as he stares at you. You’ve never seen a person’s eyes filled with so much fear and you start to internally panic thinking that Bumi, the fun crazy loveable jokester, would hurt you. Kya’s eyes widen as realization sets that Bumi isn’t doing an awful prank and steps up to him “Bumi, stop!” she yells her voice now filled with fear watching her older brother losing it, she tries to calm Bumi. You put your hands on him and try to pry his hands off of your shoulders his grip on you tight. He notices the rope from the corner of his eyes and quickly let’s go of you and starts untying your knot off of his. “No, Bumi! Don’t!” you quickly reach over to stop him and he fights you over it. Tenzin grabs Bumi’s hands then his shoulders turning him to makes him look at him “Bumi, you must focus your mind right now. There are no cannibals. y/n is not a cannibal. She’s a friend” Bumi shakes his head “Yes, there are! Yes, she is! She’s gonna eat every last one of us!” your eyes widen as you start to lose focus then you peer over Bumi’s shoulder and notice Kya starting to act strange. She is looks very lost and confused then slowly brings her hands up to her face and looks at them. You look at her and slowly call out to her “Kya?” Kya slowly turns her head over where she heard your voice and starts to scream loudly “Aah! Who are you two?!” She doesn’t see you behind Bumi as she screams at the horror of the two bend standing next to her. Tenzin grabs Kya's shoulders “Kya, we're your brothers. You must remember before the Fog infects you.” Kya shakes and squints her eyes glaring at Tenzin “No, you are just a vision! I have no family! You can't tie me down!” she yells out.

_______________________________________________________________________

TRIGGER WARNING READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

_______________________________________________________________________

No family…. Your parents. They’re dead… You’ve always feared and wondered if their deaths were your fault. Your dad got sick shortly after your fight. He got sick from overworking too much because he was trying to pay off your medical fees. Your mom died because her heart broke from losing your father. It’s your fault. You’re the reason your parents are dead. You’re the reason you and your sisters became orphans at 16, 14 and 12.

Your eyes water as your mind races with hearing those words over and over in your mind. “it’s my fault” you mutter bringing your hands up to the sides of your head covering your ears

“It’s my fault your dead mom and dad!” you cry out, the voice grows louder, and you wince with guilt, regret, and your heart filling with so much pain as your mind fills with images: seeing your dad tired and growing sicker. Watching your mom spoon feeding him. The moment your dad passes. The funeral. Your mother falling into a deep depression. You trying to feed and dress your mom but she’s just a body with no spirit. Finding your mom dead in her bed, passed away in her sleep, after waking up one morning. Her funeral. The looks on your sisters’ faces as they look up to you

“Stop it!” you yell out trying to stop the images from closing your eyes tight and squeezing your head.

Tenzin looks over and rushes to your side putting his hands on your shoulders

“y/n, it’s an illusion. It’s not real! Focus your mind. Do not give in to fear!” he tries to calm you as you try to focus but the images are too strong, and they start to overpower your mind. Bumi takes that opportunity of Tenzin leaving his side to untie his cord

“They're closing in! I gotta get outta here! Aah!” he runs off. Kya confused unties her cord and runs off as well screaming. Tenzin let’s go of you and rushes to his siblings “No! Bumi! Kya! Come back!”

You open your eyes quickly and you see Tenzin only it’s not him he has taken the form of your father

“Dad?” you look at Tenzin. Tenzin looks around and you see his face, your fathers face, and your eyes water more. Tenzin starts to talk to you and try to calm you, but his voices starts getting replaced with the voice of your father,

“why do you have to such a meddlesome reckless fool, y/n! Your mother and I slaved and wasted away to pay off your medical fees. Was that fight worth it, y/n?!” You don’t say anything and watch Tenzin approach you while saying something as he grabs your shoulder like before to ground you. You hear the muffled sounds of Tenzin but quickly your father’s voice comes back as your father shakes you hard

“Answer me, y/n! was trying to be a hero to that boy worth killing your parents! Leaving your sisters without us! You’re not worthy to be with anyone, murderer. Do you really think Lin is satisfied to be dating you?! Answer me, y/n!” your father’s voice roaring at you and you ball your fists as tears run down your face. You thought you could be strong and stay focused but your father bringing up Lin was the straw that broke the camelephant’s back. You can’t take it anymore and scream in agony, jerking yourself away from your father to yourself free,

“NO IT WASN’T WORTH IT! IT WASN’T WORTH YOU AND MOM DYING, DAD!” you yell out as you force yourself away and stumble back, falling on your ass then hurryingly untie the knot on your cord and get up sprinting away from the illusion of your father,

“Y/N!” a mesh of Tenzin’s voice with your father’s as they yell out for you to come back.

You’re balling your eyes out as you’re desperately trying to find a way out of this hellhole. You run at once direction before running to another still being haunt by the images of your parents. Your eyes dart all over the place as you step backwards and your back is pressed against a rock wall and you stumble back, dragging your back down along it, falling down on your knees slouched over. Heaving sobs until soon you stop abruptly the tears falling down and finishes then you slowly lift your head up. Looking up a head of you your eyesight starts to go hazy and start to feel a sense of emptiness inside you. You feel cold, dark, and empty as the heaviness of your fears causes your head to feel heavy, you hang your head down low.

You couldn’t stay focused. You’ve succumbed into your darkest memories.

You’re now a prisoner to the Fog.

Notes:

If you made it to the end of the chapter I apologize if it was harsh or dark. It is said that the Fog infects people's mind and effectively drives them insane by imprisoning them in their own darkest memories. I wanted to really tackle what possibly a person could go through if they were trapped in The Fog.

#lin x reader #linbeifongxreader #lin beifong x reader #fanfic #tlok #TLOK2UnderPressure #fyrefics

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calliope-love-corner · 4 years

Text

First date

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

The cafe is warm, and airy, and reminds me of the city I was born in, where I am very far from now. I don't mind it, of course. Seeing the world was always my dream, but its nice when some place feels... familiar.

A hot, humid summer afternoon brought me to a little indie Cafe in a tucked away corner of London that seemed rather quiet compared to the rest of the scummy city. Something about the style and decor of the place tipped me off that it was probably run by an american- the patio seating that seemed to take up most of the cafe closed in by rustic wooden railing, raised up on a deck tastefully littered with potted plants and string lights. A few ceiling fans spun lazily overhead, and the low hum of patron conversation was quite a comfortable sort of white noise. It was an afternoon I very much felt I'd experienced before- not quite deja vu, but something similar.

Although I felt quite relaxed during my half day off, I was stuck with busywork, like always. I tapped away at my laptop, digitally transcribing handwritten statements that looked like a pharmacist had written them into the digital world. And I thought my OWN handwriting was illegible- I had nothing on some of these old forms.

Someone brushed past me on the left- a waiter, moving gracefully across the deck with practiced precision. A dishboy clearing tables and hauling stacks of trays and plates and ceramic cups away in his arms like second nature. People hard at work. I took a sip of my drink- iced matcha latte, the same no matter where I went- impressed, and reminiscent of my old food service jobs back home. I never got comfortable in any one place to get that good at getting shit done. There was a certain art to it I guess I never got the hang of.

Someone approached to brush past on the left again, much less practiced than the waiter before them. I immediately try and sink into my seat, trying to look too focused on my work to even notice anyone else. My earbuds helped sell the idea, usually, but whether or not they actually aged music at any given time was a toss up. Today, they played a quiet lo-fi Playlist, low enough to hear the world around me, but loud enough to hear the music. I'd gotten quite good at not talking to people of I didn't want to.

"Boo."

I blink, startled, and look up to find Annabelle sat across from me at my little table in the corner of the deck. How long had she been there, I wondered? Was she the one I just instinctively tried to hide from? Or did she come from somewhere else entirely? Need I remind you of her way of sneaking up on me. There is nothing in this world I know about that she doesn't explicitly want me to.

"Oh. Hi." I push out. It wasn't that I wasn't happy to see her- you'll find that I always am, no matter the situation- it was just... unexpected.

Okay, Annabelle's sudden appearances were always just that. Sudden and unexpected. However, today, I was expecting to be alone on purpose. Now I'm not alone on accident. Whoops.

"Well, don't get too excited. Something on your mind?" She cocks her head to the side, hands folded neatly in her lap. I avoid her eyes, and instinctively push a half-laugh out of my nostrils, not even really smiling.

"Oh, no, I- I'm fine. Just." I trail off, biting my cheek. "I dunno. I sorta wasn't expecting to talk to anyone. Verbally. I guess. Or at all."

I sink my head into my shoulders, looking like I'm trying to retreat into my shell. The last thing I want to do is to offend her, naturally. Annabelle chases after me, leaning forward with interest and placing a delicate hand out of the tablecloth as a gesture of sincerity.

"Worry not, darling. I was just passing through and saw you hard at work, as usual. Thought I'd say hello is all, I don't mean to take up your time!"

That- though- makes a smile play at the edges of my lips. She came to see me. Annabelle is never 'just passing through' anywhere. She, like her master, does everything with full purpose and full intent, and she came to see me. I shift in my seat, letting my eyes trace from her sharp black manicured fingertips, up her arm, finally stopping at her deep earthy eyes. They feel warm looking at me- mysterious as she is. They're quite a sight. Not quite hazel, or golden, or burgundy or maroon or even black. Just deep, and dark, and full. They tell me she knows.

I blink a few times to ground myself. Her warm gaze seems to have warmed my cheeks and the tips of my ears. Her smile is infectious. I look away again.

"I... well, I. Don't mind your company, I guess. I just- just as long as you know that I'm not exactly a star conversationalist at the moment."

Annabelle gives a knowing nod, smile never faltering. "Understood. I'll let you get back to work, then."

And so I did. She got comfortable quickly- moments after I resumed my frenzied typing, she flagged down a server and ordered a chocolate cappuccino. Fitting, I thought. Most people matched their coffee orders well, and Annabelle seemed no different, no matter how alien she was to me at times. I watched her over the top of my laptop as she absentmindedly played with a small jumping spider on the tablecloth as she waited, head perched daintily on her hand, elbow rested on the table. She silently traced shapes on the cloth which the little arachnid followed, leaving behind a stringy trail of web. After her drink arrived, she amused herself with a phone, which I was almost alarmed to find out she had. I suppose it sort of made sense- humanoid avatars have to be functioning members of society too, I guess, at least to some extent.

By the time my own drink was finished and my pastry long since eaten, I gently shut my laptop, tucking it and the folder of statements away in my bag. Annabelle looked up expectantly, and I stretched.

"Feeling better?" She asked, phone now in her lap.

"Mhm. Got a good chunk done, but I need a bit to recoup. If I have to type something about mysterious phone calls or disappearing items one more fucking time I'm going to cry."

Annabelle laughed right on cue. At this point I think I'd feel awkward if she DIDNT laugh at something I said.

"Well, I'm glad. Keeping you caffinated and keeping you sane seem to bleed more and more into each other with each passing day."

"God, you don't even know the HALF of it." I roll my eyes. "Breakfast for me is a monster and MAYBE some chips if I have time- great way to start the day, right? Then I have like two more whenever I can, then a latte or two, THEN I have another energy drink when I get home. I literally have a problem."

Another sweet giggle. "I have no idea what you see in those energy drinks. Frankly, they scare me."

"Oh, they're not so bad. Loud, is how I'd describe it. More efficient than coffee, especially if you do a bang. Those things don't fuck around."

Annabelle cringes. "Sounds awful."

"Hey, to each their own. I'm here for a good time, not a long time."

She laughs. "Sure. Finished working, then?"

I nod. "For now. My brain is too fried to try and decipher any more statements. Did you SEE that handwriting!?"

She rests her chin on primary folded hands. "Can't be any worse than yours." Annabelle teases. My jaw drops in mock-offense.

"Uncalled for!"

"But not wrong." She gives a coy shrug, leaning back in her chair.

I purse my lips. "Touche, but you don't have to call me out on it!" I huff. "You're a real bitch sometimes."

"Yet you keep me around. Not only that, but you enjoy my company. How odd." She smiles. I bite my cheek.

"Can't imagine why." I go on the defense, affectionate mood shifting ever so slightly to something more suspicious. She was messing with me in an unfamiliar way, calling me on my thoughts no matter how insignificant. I can't help but imagine she's trying me from a new angle. Or not- maybe I'm just being paranoid.

"Mm, and unfortunately, I can't be the one to say." Annabelle stands and straightens out her dress. She winks at me. "What i can say is that though I've enjoyed our date, I do have to get going. A spider's work is never done, as they say."

"I don't think anyone says that?" I watch her walk past me. She pauses, and daintily swipes my hat, securing it on her own head. I let her.

"No matter." She turns, and offers a wave over her shoulder, trotting down the deck stairs and sauntering around the corner out of sight. "Until next time~!" I hear her say before disappearing into the foot traffic.

"I better get that back..." I mutter to myself, putting money on the bill tray that had appeared on the table when I wasn't paying attention. I shake my head, and in my annoyance, I can't help but smile just a little.

Suddenly, though, my head shoots up.

"Holy shit, that was a /date/!?" I exclaim, scaring the waitress.

#god she is. literally my every waking thought right now #i have so many drabble ideas♡♡♡♡#all part of the master plan 🕷💐🕸#trapped in my head🗯#selfship #fictional other #f/o #selfshipping #tma selfship

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overdramatic-queer-antagonist · 4 years

Text

Stop The Apocalypse Out of Spite (Pt 5)

I Have Never In My Life Posted On A Schedule.

Ao3 First Last Next

Martin had to lie to Sasha. He hated lying to people. Martin was scarily good at it, but he hated it. Peter used to worry he'd run off to the Web. But Martin couldn't tell her the truth. It would only serve to scare her. Make her paranoid. Martin would tell her the truth eventually. Just not yet.

Elias had called Martin up to his office. Never a good sign. He waved to Rosie as he made his way into Elias's asshole office with the self-absorbed dickhead painting of Jonah Magnus (Also technically Elias.)

"What do you want?" Martin asked, not bothering their usual passive-aggressive song and dance.

Elias grinned that wolfish grin at him, "Well, Son , I wish you'd be more respectful to your father, but I have some questions for you." Anyone who says you shouldn't hate your parents wasn't raised Elias fucking Bouchard. If Martin had to guess (Which he didn't much like to do. Better to not think about whatever the hell Elias was doing,) this was one of those times where Elias was about to hold something over his head.

Still, Martin sat down at the seat across from Elias's desk and looked at him questioningly. "Go on," He said, too tired to try to fight.

Elias frowned at him, "How much sleep have you gotten?"

Martin flipped him off.

"Listen- okay. Yes. Yes. That's fair, but- Mar-Martin, I am your father, and I would-"

"Fuck off, Elias!"

"I would like to confirm that your taking care of yourself."

"You know I'd probably get more sleep if you stopped torturing my friends!"

Elias sighed, "Martin. We've had this conversation before. In order to become the ruler of the new world-"

"I hate you so much."

"I needed to find a suitable sacrifice for the Ceaseless Watcher, and you and the Eye happen to have the same taste in men."

"I don't see why you Need to sacrifice anyone!"

"Martin. I don't want to fight-"

"Then just ask your god damn question!"

"Okay. Okay." There was a pause before Elias threw his head back against his chair, groaning. "I was going to be all menacing and vague about knowing about the NotThem, but now I just feel bad!"

Martin rolled his eyes, "Well, sorry to foil your plans. Is that all?"

Elias pouted. Grow the fuck up, dude. "Well, no. Peter wanted me to ask if you wanted to go on a Tundra round with him, but between you and me, I think he's just worried you'll finally notice that the Eye is much cooler than the Lonely."

"Bye, Elias!" Martin announced as he walked to the vainglorious doors.

"Oh! Martin! I almost forgot! I transferred you over to the Archives. You're an assistant now."

Martin stopped. He's given Elias plenty of looks in his time, all of which entirely deserved, but none quite as deadly as this. "There's nothing you could say that would make me do it," he whispered darkly.

Elias wasn't grinning. For the first time in his life, he seemed serious. "Would you rather I call Peter? He'll actually try to kill him. I was being merciful, Martin. If you do it, he'll be safer. Peter doesn't love him."

Martin's ears rang. There had always been the implication that Elias wanted him to mark Jon. Why else hire an avatar of the Lonely? But something about knowing it was true- Martin had always held firm that Elias and Peter would be great parents if they weren't so evil, but he could feel that conviction fading.

"Hey, Elias?" Martin said.

Maybe Elias looked guilty, or maybe he looked smug. Martin couldn't really focus on expressions at the moment. The room was probably freezing. "Yes, Martin?" Elias answered.

"I think I actually might hate you." And then Martin walked out the door and slammed it behind him.

***

The good news is that Martin was pretty sure he hadn't marked Jon already. The bad news is that everything Martin did made him feel like he was actively trying to. If Martin carried on like usual, he couldn't help but feel like he was tricking Jon into trusting him. If he avoided Jon- Well, that was isolation, wasn't it?

It also didn't help that Jon had tried to apologize for everything he's ever done approximately 500 fucktillion times. And- yes. Martin wasn't going to deny it. Jon was a major dick to him before Prentiss. He could admit that even if he was in love with him. Grade A asshole, skeptic Jon was.

The problem was that Martin couldn't decide what the best response was. If he accepted the apology, Jon would most likely feel obliged to spend more time with him. Bad Idea. If he declined it, Jon would probably isolate himself out of guilt or something.

It's not like he could tell Tim or Sasha, either. Tim hadn't spoken to him since he found out, which was probably for the best, and Sasha would assure him that she trusted that he would never hurt Jon. That was true. He liked Jon and Tim and Sasha. He was never very good with friends (Lonely), but he felt like he could trust them. The problem was that it wasn't his choice whether or not Jon got hurt.

Elias wasn't kidding. It could be either him or Peter who Would kill Jon. But Martin knew that Elias wouldn't call on Peter unless it was a dire situation. Even when they were married, Peter had no qualms vocalizing what a bad idea the Watcher's Crown was. So Martin would just have to wait it out until the last second. Maybe he could find some way to protect Jon from Peter, or Jon would be too strong at that point to just be pulled into the Lonely.

He still didn't know what he wanted to do until them. He didn't like avoiding Jon all together, but he had other friends to keep him from being isolated. Hence he had decided, for the time being, to stay as far away from Jon as he could. It was more difficult, now that he actually Worked in the Archives, but he was doing fine. Taking his lunch break at weird times, avoiding any conversation not pertaining to work, and so on and so forth. Basically, what Tim was employing to avoid Martin, Martin then used to stay far away from Jon.

Martin had already played the avoiding game before. He had been taking any chance he could to stay out of the Archives. But that was mainly out of respect. He got that everything was a lot, and the others weren't raised on it. He didn't want them to feel like they had to talk to him. Now Martin wanted them to feel like they couldn't talk to him.

This had worked for a couple weeks. Martin had almost dared to hope that even Sasha had given up on trying to get him to talk. Then something interesting happened.

Martin had gotten in early that day. He'd been testing that out for a couple days now. It meant he had to spend time when he and Jon were the only ones in the Archives, considering Jon gets to work at like 5:00 AM, but it lessened the likelihood of being invited to hang after work if he left a little early. Usually, the first few hours before the others got there, Jon would come out of his office every 10 minutes and give him puppy eyes. That was as much as he ever dared to do. Today was different.

Martin had gotten in at about 5:45 that day. He wasn't even all the way through the door before Jon grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into his office.

"Jon? What's wrong?" Martin asked, only slightly frantic. Had the NotThem gotten down here? Was he okay? Oh god, what if the NotThem already got him? How could he be sure that this was Jon?

Before Martin could spiral too far, Jon grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing Martin to look him in the eyes. "You've been avoiding me. Why?"

Martin had never been compelled. Jon had never wanted to know anything about him that badly and Elias drew very strange lines when it came to parenting. He had held firm that Martin should never feel forced to tell him anything, magic or otherwise. The fucking weirdo was willing to force Martin to kill his crush. But not to tell him what he wants for dinner. Martin decided he wasn't a giant fan of the sensation of words being forced out of him, but at the same time, Jon didn't know what he was doing. Nevertheless, compelling isn't something people can just resist, so Martin told him.

#the magnus archives #the magpod #tma #tma fic #fanfic #martin blackwood #tma martin #elias bouchard #tma elias #tw swearing #tw self isolation #Fuck Elias Bouchard #All my homies hate Elias Bouchard #jonmartin

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erudite-rebel · 4 years

Note

i gasped when i saw your magnus archives au because i'm a huge fan and your artwork on head archivist ooblek is so incredible. do you have any stray headcanons on it, or maybe how grimm translate to entities, or anything really because i'm so fascinated with this concept.

//You got a big storm comin'

Soooo TMA AU was basically caused by @nightmarebcrn and @jinxedcrow getting me into The Magnus Archives and the subsequent chaos thereafter. Barty was actually built slowly after I began season 3 I think (but it may have been season 2 or even earlier. I remember not realizing just how bad I was setting him up for pain). I'm gonna give a write up with as few show-spoilers as possible beyond the basic concept (Entities) and I will chew on the Grimm bc I didn't quite work on them when I developed this but now that you said it that brain's a-firin' away.

So!

The Archivist of Beacon AKA Why Barty Can't Have Nice Things

While I have written a statement on Barty's past, I'll do a quick write up of his history and who he is as the Archivist.

With all of my iterations of Barty, he is neurodivergent. He has Aspergers (low-spectrum Autism) and ADHD. This presents primarily in hyperfocus, being less than adept at social situations, a tendency to shy away from direct eye contact, and stimming (bouncing his leg, jittery movements, counting in dead languages).

Different to his canon verse, Barty is an only child and his parents were of equal age.

His first contact with the entities was when he was a young boy. He was raised primarily running around a now closed, privately run museum that operated near Oxford University. While no doubt several of the items within have made their way into the Beacon Artifact Storage, at the time he was aware of nothing specifically evil. A new lot acquisition included an unusual set of canopic jars that were written off by several scientists as very good fakes. Despite that, one of the employees – Dr. Herbert Renshaw – became obsessed with them and succumbed to their lure. He killed four people by removing critical organs and permanently disfigured a fifth before disappearing with them. While Barty witnessed the attack which killed his parents, and saw what it entailed, he repressed much of it for most of his life. Working at Beacon brought most of it back.

After his parents died he was looked after by his grandfather, who was a strict and no-nonsense veteran of the second World War. The arrangement lasted only two years before he died of cancer and Barty was released into the foster system, inheritance waiting for him when he turned 18.

Shuttled through foster homes, Barty became something of a punk. He had a big chip on his shoulder, was lonely and desperate for a place to fit in when there were so few that could address his needs. Finally he was sent somewhere with a reputation for 'curing' delinquency. Without knowing it he entered a residence under control of the Web.

Qrow Branwen was in his year in high school. While he and Barty didn't at once know each other, as they were both rather withdrawn and loners, they eventually grew close because of similar interests and attitudes. After a few months Qrow spotted a tell-tale scar on the back of Barty's neck. He'd escaped the same boys home the year before in a bid to be placed elsewhere with his twin. Suddenly frightened for Barty's life, he hatched a plan to help Barty escape. Because Barty was far more under the influence of the Web than Qrow had been it had turned into a rescue mission than a run away. The two of them burned the home to the ground and somehow managed to evade implication.

Barty went to stay with Qrow and Raven with their foster mother, Morrigan Branwen. She was careful to help with his needs, and Barty loved her like a mother, though he never considered Raven or Qrow his siblings. In Qrow he'd developed a bad crush that quickly turned into a deep, devoted love. While Barty wasn't much given to the concept of soulmates, he considered Qrow exactly that.

He and Qrow both were accepted into University and he'd thought they would always be together. Eventually though Qrow began to fade away from him, consumed by something else, and dropped out of University. He cut off contact and disappeared. Barty didn't see him again until Morrigan's funeral and never got any explanation for what happened.

Years later Barty obtained both his doctorate in history and a degree in archaeology. His interests were always skewed to the occult, though something always kept him back from pursuing the real deal of the supernatural. He was looking forward to a life of academia, though something always felt empty to him. Sometimes he'd see a familiar face in a crowd and his neck would itch before they disappeared. He never really gave up the torch he carried for Qrow either, despite trying to move on.

After a talk he gave on a lesser known cult during the height of the Egyptian empire, Dr. Ozpin Newman approached him about a job as Head Archivist in Beacon Academy. He might not have accepted the position if he had already been tenured, but Barty had a shaky research position at the University of London, and Ozpin was offering a good contract. Despite knowing Beacon's reputation he agreed... no one could deny the credentials of a Head Archivist of a major academic institute, even one with ties to potential supernatural research.

It was there he is reunited with Qrow again and settled into his job, hardly questioning why Ozpin might want him... why he made such an excellent candidate for Archivist. He was determined to set the archives right after Maria Calavera's treatment of them, set on making a difference, trying hard to hold onto the belief that encounters – despite having been involved in two such events on his own – were rare.

Fear has a way of catching up, has a way of mutating you, as he was ensnared by The Eye, and caught up in a careful game of chess between Avatars. Guilt is acid in his veins as he loses his employees one by one to different entities. Scars began to pile. Secrets began to be revealed, whether the information merely curled out towards him, or a few careful worlds could force them from the lips of those he put question to.

Eventually he had to wonder if he was even really human anymore... when the voyeuristic statements of fear were far more nourishing to his body than food. But surely it's human to be willing to kill to protect Qrow and his people, to make the world right again?

So, that's kind of a basic write up. As for Grimm, I am currently toying with creatures that are far more horrifying than their base in RWBY. The Grimm are soulless manifestations of dangerous concentrations of fear given form, residual negative energies forming into mindless beasts able to be controlled and guided by their Avatars, provided that Avatar embraces its calling. Tools to reap yet more energy for the entities beyond the veil.

#recent history; headcanons #is anything really real anymore?; tma au #the archivist of beacon; tma #anything else you would like to inquire?; answered #becomestorm

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save-the-spiral · 4 years

Note

fellow wiz/tma fan here: if your wizards were in the TMA universe, what fears do you think they would serve?

(link to entities page on The Magnus Archives Wiki, comprised ENTIRELY of spoilers.)

This is completely incomprehensible unless you listen to like an entire like three seasons of podcast. Luckily, I have, because I’m HYPERFIXATING bitches.

This is my full list of current OCs (aside from wicked beau wright, who is SO undeveloped I dont even KNOW), not all are developed, feel free to ask about them. I have a google doc to keep track or I FORGET. if anyone wants me to do npcs hit me up, im already planning one for the eleven w101 schools and 5 p101 classes.

ALSO I TURNED AROUND AT ONE POINT AND THOUGHT THE LAMP BEHIND ME WAS AN EYE. SO IM DOING GREAT. (ALSO HAD TO TURN A LIGHT ON AFTER A BIT)

WIZARD101

Irisi- The End. Her fear of ghosts, the undead, and the inevitability of death ruled her for a time. She had to overcome it, venture deep into previously resting tombs, entangle with mummies, wraiths, banshees, and simple ghosts. She found a fondness in learning their stories, and she watches her aging adoptive father, Alhazred, and wonders when he will turn into something that simply stops, or if he will linger, and they will chat.

Mahamari Jade- The Buried. Her life magic is nurtured by the earth, and that was a quick fall into allowing herself to be buried alive, to choke on the mud and clay. She had a fear of being confined into one role, and broke free. But now the rock and dirt fuel her magic, the worms nurture it, and she finds a detached peace in returning to the earth from whence she came.

Emrys Pyre- The Lonely. He has self isolated ever since his first great trauma, believing if he had not been a fool, had not dragged his younger sister along, he could have prevailed on his own. It is his deepest failing, and the Forsaken has hooked him deeply in his belief that he alone can survive.

Quyen Jade (Serpentine King)- The Hunt. While others prefer a more active chase in the hunt, there is an aspect of waiting. Not all predators can spend their days racing after the next meal. Lions sleep for most of their day, after all. Snakes as well, feasting only when necessary. When Quyen finds the necessary moment, and strikes, he never hesitates, and the venom and blood call to him.

Morelle RavenHunter- The Hunt. When slighted by the Ravens of Grizzleheim, she began to hunt them down, to prove a point. It is how she gained that name, Raven Hunter. She gave that name to her wife and child, as well.

Morae RavenHunter- The Slaughter. She is not an active avatar, one touched but not guided. Her chronic pain, caused by a sudden attack fueled only by bigotry and ignorance, haunts her. That, as well as her own organs waging war, causing pain, lead to a fear of that pain, a fear of sudden attacks.

Ianthe RavenHunter- The Corruption. His magic has always taken well to fungus, to mushrooms that feed on decay. At first her fascination with pretty, bio-luminescent mushrooms drew her in, but how quickly we fall once we get a taste.

Leo Nightside- The End. For all he loves animals, finds them good companions, he is a necromancer. His respect for death only extends as far as he is willing to bend the rules.

Noah DreamTamer- The Stranger. He has redefined himself so often he forgets who he was, doesn’t want to know the person he was born as. He loses people. He doesn’t remember her voice, how tall she was. He has to become someone he is not to continue on, and not simply stop in place and never move again, not even to breathe.

Haley RainTamer- The Vast. Her fear of heights is unrivaled, ever since a bad broomstick accident where she broke her wrist at age 10 or so. One day the sky will claim her, and until then, she will look up, practicing the magic of the storms that she allows herself to believe rule it.

Fledge- The Desolation. They are so angry, stolen from their home. They are willing to inflict that pain on any who stand in their way, to take short cuts, to technically get the job done to ‘save the spiral’. They find a certain dark joy in how the professors and students of Ravenwood Academy despair when they hear of the fight taking place outside of their own world.

Ursae- The Vast. Not the sky, but the sea. She is a mermaid, of Celestia. Not many know of the deep trenches, the branching and convoluted caves under the sea, the endless darkness. She survives there, and stares back out of the endless depths.

Kestrel RainbowWeaver- The Eye. She sits idly by, content in her passive inaction. She was locked away in a time vault in Dragonspyre, and escaped. Her current events became history books and scrolls. So now, she smiles vacantly from her blacksmithing shop, and asks for idle gossip, and learns about Wizard City.

Elissa Silvertusk- The Web. Taken in, pulled by her own lack of initiative. Her life changed from where it was before, being pulled and puppeted by her mother’s vindictive whims, until now she lives in the web’s embrace, following orders, content to allow someone else to do the worrying, and let herself be dragged along.

PIRATE101

Darling Alexander Dove- The Flesh. He has no concept of the sanctity of sentient bodies. He holds no respect. Of course, he derives no entertainment when his victims are dead, unable to struggle, unable to dance alongside him in a macabre display of skills and how prettily a blade can cut into skin, fur, feathers, and then deep into the muscle, the bone, the flesh itself. It takes a long time to recognize what has gripped him.

Darcy ‘Rusty’ Rhode- The Stranger. She becomes who you expect. She is docile, dumb, ditsy. She giggles at what you say even when it is not funny. Her eyes glint with excitement at the simplest of things, cooing over you. She is just another dumb broad, a woman who flips her long hair and drawls out things, bats her eyes. She becomes someone you do not know when she strikes, kicking you down and then again, pulling out a pistol and winking as if it is a joke you were both in on when she fires right between your eyes.

Zenobia Ire- The Vast. She lost her parents to the storm. She grew up having a connection to it, fearing it, but the way the thunder in those vicious Grizzleheim storms would thrum through her body like knuckles rapping against the tight skin of a drum, it calls to her.

Carlyle Nightngale- The Spiral. He lies, of course. Easily. He is a man of science, but nonetheless, no one can know in this Pirating side of the Spiral. So he tells tall tales of witchdoctors, the same thing every one of these ‘hoodoo practictioners’ claim, even if it’s all a ruse so they all can practice their own spirituality or science in peace. He never tells people what he is doing, simply smiling until they think they are in on what doesn’t exist.

Vitale Florus- The Lonely. He has been consumed by his on insecurities, but even before that, he was one of the few humans alone in a sea of automatons. All he was raised by was cold machinery. So he sits, alone, and tends to a secret garden he knows would be destroyed if he let anyone know. It is easier to not speak to anyone else.

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thevoidcannotbefilled · 5 years

Note

Can you talk some more about this FMA-in-TMA-'verse AU? If you don't want it on this blog, then I'd be fine with something on your other blog, so long as you send me the link to the post (because I wouldn't otherwise see it prolly).

I’m fine with it here!

Okay there’s two versions. 1) Non-Archivist version. The journey is the same but there’s a statement at best. 2) The version where in his research to get his body back to normal, Ed ends up at an Institute possibly even The Magnus Institute or at least, the German branch of the Magnus Institute (bc Amestris is based vaguely on Germany), where Ed ends up as a researcher and then possibly as an Archivist.

Either way the backstory is the same:

Ed and Al are very young when their Father leaves them with their mother left behind. Hoenheim was a strange man, memorable, but still, every strange. He had this gaze, not unkind, but it seemed far too long and far too sharp, and as far as anyone could tell, at the very least, Pinako would say, he seemed as old as he was the day they met him. But some people just age differently…right? Right.

Either way, Trisha raises Ed and Al alone, and the two are free to explore their house…and eventually their father’s study. In there, they find various odd things. Books especially, some of which say from the Library of Jorgen Leitner…?

Trisha finds them before they get a chance to read too far.

But their interest in the supernatural is peaked, and in the little research they saw, they found a fascination with the power it could hold, but to use and to be wary of. They don’t go far, but they look into little things, ghosts, Leitners, even vampires, and with it, they gain knowledge that children shouldn’t have at their ages.

And then Trisha dies.

Now, they know ghosts exist. They know powers beyond their imagining exists. They’re children, and they love their mother…so they try to bring her back.

From here, idk the exact series of events. Maybe they still would go learn from Izumi (which since this is probably modern times, it wouldn’t be as okay to take children, but she probably would send them info. She probably would be Slaughter or Hunt aligned, I’d think? Maybe Beholding, but Hunt seems the best of the three).

I think they’d try to research End specific things and a little bit of Flesh…and of course, it goes wrong. Their mother…she doesn’t come back.

Tbh, I would find it most interesting if they accidentally created a creature..and it lived. A weird combination of Flesh and End, not really living but living enough to have a heart and be made from the ingredients of what makes “people”. There wouldn’t be a door or Truth… just the End and the Flesh mixing and Al and Ed paying the consequences of it.

I can’t think of a way where Al’s soul could be bound. I just can’t. The only way it could work… if we go FMA canon, where Al is in the body of the creature they made… but instead of dying the moment it was created, Al is just stuck in it. Ed meanwhile loses a couple limbs, but more importantly, he’s marked by the End and the Flesh….maybe gaining ability from the End in its mark.

From here, Ed probably journey’s his brother. Al can’t come along because of the new monster form, so Ed would be alone.

If Ed becomes an Archivist and researcher…well, he’s already marked by the End and the Flesh, he would make for a good Archive, no?

I’m gonna go a little bit on the first one, not too much. But just imagine Ed, Roy, Riza, and all the others being stuck in a room together in an Archive with ED as their boss. Or or or, Roy was being trained as an Archivist bc he was marked by the Slaughter and later Desolation, and Ed being put with him as a back-up Archivist/researcher.

King Bradley is probably the head of the Institute, with Father being a Web Avatar with a bunch of other avatars under his beck and control (all based off different powers. Envy: Stranger. Lust: Web or Hunt. Gluttony: Flesh. Greed: Vast Bradley: Beholding but with Slaughter tendencies. Sloth: Buried with a side of Flesh and Lonely. Pride: Dark). Father put Bradley there on purpose in order to keep an eye for any good contenders.

Hoenheim and Father were twins years ago. Father manipulated Hoenheim into being a part of a Web ritual, and ended up making him an avatar in the process. The ritual, of course, failed, and Father after years of observation realized that bringing one person wasn’t enough, he needed many.

Hoenheim left Trisha for similar reasons as in canon: he wanted to become human for him family. He just ended up being too late.

Quick fire things in no particular order:

- Moral conflict between Ed and the others. He is a character who’s main thing isn’t killing in a killed or be killed world, so he’ll have to deal with that.

-Riza’s dad was probably involved in some desolation shit, and as a result, Riza got a fire tattoo on her back to which Roy burned off for her.

-Listen I want Olivia in this but idk how, but she’d be marked by the Slaughter just by how hardcore she is. Alex Louis Armstrong might be a member the Archives as well, or he might just be a random dude? Hmmm. Maybe he would join the Archives later.

-Hughes is def a part of the Archives. He realized something was fishy about this whole Institute business, but he got killed before he could tell anyone the details he found.

-Nina and Alexander is part of a Flesh thing, and it’s just as horrific as canon.

-Ed has HIGH empathy for all monsters, even the worst ones because of Al’s state. As a result, he nearly gets himself killed a lot trying to see the humanity in avatars that don’t want to be human anymore.

-Al is at home getting used to his form. Possibly if there’s a scene where they have to hide or at the very least, get away from the Institute, they go to their place, and everyone in the Archives realizes what Ed’s been fighting for this entire time. Al is in fact, coherent in his new body, if in constant pain, and can barely speak. I feel like he does a lot of research while Ed is gone, in a different way.

-Pinako and Winry are physical therapists. They help Al in whatever way they can.

-Oh! When Ed first loses his limbs, they don’t bleed. They just cut off perfectly, so he doesn’t bleed out. He gets prosthetics.

-Baby faced Ed says he’s 18. Keep in mind, he probably tries to join the institute when he’s 12. He is somehow let in to the bafflement of everyone and his own smugness. At 14, he’s moved down to the Archives.

-Idk if his crew would lead to the end of the world, but it could easily lead to the end of the world with the Web at its center.

#pomrania #the magnus archives #tma #fma #fma:b #body horror #long post #THIS GOT WAY TOO DETAILED #ask the void

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owl630 · 5 years

Text

Monster Support Group

(It's been months and Jon still hasn't gotten a hug or been to a single therapy session so I'm taking matters into my own hands. Also you can tear the idea that Annabelle Cane is a therapist from my cold dead hands)

Being a therapist had been the right career path for Annabelle, and she was usually quite happy with her decision to become one. It had her pulling the strings and being in the center of the action when it came to her patients, and for the most part she considered herself to be an effective one. After all, if she already knew how to manipulate her patients to do something then it wasn't much of a stretch to work backwards and figure out the root of their problem. She had created quite the web of connections, and besides, it was a good hobby to have.

Or at least she had thought it was. The being currently waiting in her office might just be the thing to make her change her mind.

Her spiders had informed her that the being formerly known as Michael was now going by Helen as of around a year ago. She hadn't had to deal with an avatar of The Distortion in years, although to be fair Helen wasn't exactly an avatar as much as a personification. And yet the headache that always came when interacting with them was still going strong. She silently promised herself she'd get herself something from the bakery down the street if she got through this without making any enemies (bribery was such an old method of manipulation) and pulled the strings for Helen to come in.

She did so with a twisted degree of grace, and settled onto the couch. Her limbs seemed to stretch and wrap around the room in an almost web like in a way.

"Weaver! It's lovely to meet you officially!" She said, with a too wide smile that seemed to split her face in half. However Annabelle couldn't pick up on any hints of forced joy in seeing her. She returned the smile with a practiced one of her own, pleasantly surprised.

"Hello there Spiral, or may I call you Helen? I've heard it's what you're going by now."

"You may. Names are confusing, as are coporial forms, but I quite like being Helen these days." Helen replied with an even wider grin.

"Lovely. Now, if you don't mind too very much, may I ask why you're in my office?" She remembered that Melanie King had a connection to Helen, however King was simply a side project she spoke to her therapist contacts about, and a way to keep an agent in The Archives. There was no reason she could think of as to why Helen would want to meet with her.

"I'd like to talk with you about assisting a mutual friend of ours." Helen responded, her form seeming to become even more distorted, as if she was a bit distressed.

"Melanie King?" Annabelle asked curiously, even going so far as to raise an eyebrow.

"No, The Archivist. He's having a bit of a problem with accepting his nature."

She nodded. "Jon did stop by Hilltop road the other day. He seemed distressed." Jonathan Sims was another project of hers, one The Web herself also had an interest in. This conversation was proving to be quite enlightening, especially if through Helen she was able to find a better way of getting The Archivist to be a bit less reckless.

"Yes, he's not doing very well, I'm afraid. He's been refusing to hunt."

"What? I told him it was in his nature, why isn't he listening?" She was irritated and a bit concerned. After all, Jon Sims was important to The Web, it wouldn't do for him to keel over from malnutrition.

"I'm not sure, but I've had an idea." Helen said brightly. "We have both talked to him about this individually, but together we could get him to take some degree of care of himself."

"You're proposing an Alliance." The Spiral and The Web weren't enemies by any means, but neither had they ever been on the same side.

"Exactly!" Said Helen, clearly pleased Annabelle had understood her meaning.

She nodded. "Well in that case, I'll make sure he takes care of himself. A simple nudge should do it."

"Oh, you misunderstand." Helen said brightly. "I don't need you to manipulate him. I need you to be his therapist. I've heard such good things about therapy from Melanie, and The Archivist even mentioned wanting to see a therapist himself. I assumed you would be a wonderful candidate."

"Oh." That was a bit unexpected, but a fair ask nevertheless, "Well, I could certainly try and schedule an appointment."

"Lovely, what time would work for you?"

She felt a faint tug from one of her spiders. It was the one from the archives. Something was happening.

"Now would be best I'd imagine." She said, pulling her coat towards her. "Your corridors would be an excellent means of getting back, wouldn't you agree?"

The nice thing about Helen was that she didn't take much manipulation to convince.

The trip was jarring, but at least it was over quickly. She debated leaving a spider in the corridors briefly, but honestly thought that anything in there for longer than a day would die. Helen eventually stopped by a seemingly random door and opened it.

The Archivist's office was a mess. Papers were strewn about, file boxes knocked over, and in the center of the chaos was Jonathan Sims. His head was lying on the desk, buried in his arms. Blood was splattered across the desk, and pooled near his face

"Oh dear." Said Annabelle quietly. "This is certainly something."

Jon looked up and winced as he saw them. "Not today Helen." He said, his voice ragged. "And you must be Annabelle. If this is some sort of intervention I'm really not in the mood."

"You tried to cut out your eyes." Helen said softly, her bright tone fading slightly. "That was foolish."

He let out a raspy laugh. "Apparently I'm in far too deep to quit. I just... I just thought there was still hope."

Annabelle sighed and sat down in the chair across from him. She had been hired to do this job and was going to make the most of the opportunity. And if her plans involved actually helping Jon then she wasn't about to complain.

"Jon. I'm going to be frank with you. Not as a medical professional, but as an avatar. You cannot continue to do this to yourself."

"I can do whatever I damn well want." He spat. "I'm fine! I'm completely fine. I'm doing perfectly well just with the written-"

"Not that." She said quietly. "You need to be honest with yourself. You're one of us Jon, and you need to hunt just like we do. You may not be able to be human again by taking your eyes out, but you can make the most of things while you're a monster."

"What do you mean?" He managed to ask, his eyes starting to focus.

The compulsion washed over her, feeling almost like her webs. She smiled, The Web chose her servants well. Then she began to speak.

"Well Jon, here's the thing," She began slipping into her role as a Therapist, "You're struggling with the moral aspects of your new powers, but your morality is currently causing you to starve. So therefore, you need to figure out how to reconcile that fact with your own ideals of morality. Thus you should figure out how to use those powers for 'good'." She finished.

Jon blinked, looking a bit stunned. "What?" He asked in utter confusion. In her peripheral vision she could see Helen grin.

"Think of it this way." Annabelle continued, begining to mentally twist the threads of the problem together. "You see nothing morally wrong with using your powers against avatars that threaten you, and yet also see something morally wrong with doing the same to normal people. Am I correct?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes but I don't haunt the nightmares of other monsters."

"Very true." She said with a nod. "However when using those powers you're aware that you're using them against something that is trying to cause harm to yourself or others."

"I guess."

"Excellent. Therefore, I propose you resume hunting, but narrow it down to those who you see as being morally reprehensible."

He stared at her. "I'm not going to be some sort of monster vigilante!"

"Why ever not?" Helen asked.

"Because I'm still going to be a- a monster!" He spluttered.

"Well Jon the way I see it, if you're going to be a monster one way or another you may as well choose to do something useful with it." Annabelle pointed out politely, almost enjoying how his eyes widened as the thought ran through his head.

"Think of it this way," She continued, tugging just a bit more at this line of thinking, "Plenty of bad people interact with our patrons every day and keep their humanity, however immoral it may be. They just need a nudge to see the error of their ways."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are eternal nightmares a fair trade for it?"

Annabelle let herself grin. "I don't know Jon, but I think that you do."

He stared at her for a moment, then started to laugh. It was a broken sounding echo of a real one, interspersed with bits of static. He slumped forward and put his head in his hands. "You're very good at manipulating me into believing I can change."

"I may be manipulating you, but it'll be alright Jon." She said gently.

He shook his head. "You know that I'll be dead the minute my fri- the others find out about this, right?"

Helen stepped over, her limbs elongating, and wrapped herself around Jon in what could almost be classified as a hug. He stiffened then went limp, hugging back tightly as tears rolled down his scarred cheeks.

"I'll be here if they try anything." Helen said, sounding surprisingly sincere. "Just knock."

Annabelle put a hand on his shoulder in a somewhat comforting way, and tugged slightly on the webs around the institute to make sure the archives staff would be busy.

"Same time next week?" She asked her new patient.

#this is completely out of character but I don't care #also I'm sorry this is super long #i can't do a read more cuz I'm dumb #anyway hope you enjoyed this self indugent fic of jon getting some help #tw: implied eye trauma #the magnus archives #the magnus archives spoilers #kinda #tma #jon sims #annabelle cane #helen richardson #owl writes stuff

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soveryanon · 5 years

Text

Reviewing time for MAG147 X_X/

- We already knew that Annabelle was interested in stories – she was “the Story Spinner” in MAG123, had Gregory Cox instal a website to fish out what were basically statements. And her statement in itself feels a bit like a… crafted story, in-universe? It’s explicitly addressed to Jon, meant to be read by Jon, and it contained so many details reminiscent of Jon’s own infancy: both lived near the sea (Hunstanton/Bournemouth); both were raised by a female figure who didn’t hide her resentment (Annabelle’s mother for having to take care of a large family, Jon’s grandmother for having to take care of her son’s son); Annabelle tried to run away and Jon used to “explore” too far to the point of being brought back by the police; Annabelle left her home with a book (Five Go Down to the Sea) while Jon had been led outside by one (A Guest for Mr. Spider); both encountered The Web as kids and were presumably led to fit in Her scheme later on in their lives as young adults… but with enough nuances and straight-out differences (Annabelle coming from a large family while Jon was a single child without a close family, etc.) to clearly set them apart. This passage, especially, felt especially Dedicated To Jon?

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “The air was warm and humid as I snuck out of the house, filled with that slight smell of salt that even now… changed as I am… I still sometimes find myself missing here, in the grimy air of London.”

And what to think of the ~coincidence~ of Annabelle, future Web avatar, growing up in a family of eight children, having a distant mother – while her present Patron is referred as Mother-of-Puppets? Was it a genuine story, or a hybrid creation crafted from various other stories with threads interwoven to form other patterns? Annabelle herself raised the possibility, in a terrifying way (“Or perhaps I am simply telling you what you need to hear, in order to behave exactly as the Mother wishes you to. [STATIC, GRADUALLY INCREASING] Perhaps… I have never even seen a beach.”), and, indeed. Annabelle could be unreliable – we know that statement-givers can conceal information if they want:

(MAG121) OLIVER: And about two years before I came to your Institute, something happened – something I didn’t want to talk about. Didn’t even want to think about. I… [SIGH] I started to see them when I was awake. […] Even when I went to your Institute, tried to warn her, I could see them crawling through the corridors towards the Archives.

(“Lying” is a different matter – can you write a lie when making a statement, or would it work as long as you think/are convinced that an event took place a certain way? We’ve had an example, with MAG015, of events being objectively different from the way the statement-giver described them (“Take her, not me”). But with Annabelle… yeah, absolutely no idea if we’re to take what she said at face-value or not.)

And interestingly, I… don’t feel like we learned anything at all about Annabelle Cane’s actions or history: because she didn’t cover at all the parts of her avatar life that we had heard of. She barely scratched the surface of her transformation, with enough doubt to wonder if she had been led there or if it was a coincidence (something she highlighted, as she said that her experience as a kid “is what engendered in me that terror of spiders which eventually led to my volunteering at Surrey University” but it had been stated in MAG069 that… she hadn’t been told that the experiment was about arachnophobia), didn’t say a word about Neil Lagorio, nor what she was planning with the website in 2015. We only know that she has plans. She is. Terrifying.

- What she said about:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “The Mother is the fear of manipulation and lost control made manifest. So perhaps it is our fear that projects Her influence on everything that happens. Like the mind, retrospectively assigning reason to our actions, so we fit whatever occurs into the neatest pattern we can, and declare Her web both intricate… and complete.”

indeed fits a LOT with the pattern we have seen of avatars reminiscing on the events that led them to their current life. Jude had insisted on her “burn-out”; Mike rationalised that he had always been a bit fascinated by falling, hence going for The Vast; Oliver described it precisely too:

(MAG121) OLIVER: I still remember the first time I tried to touch one. In my dreams, the night before, I had found my way back to my own street. I don’t know why I did it. I knew it was a stupid thing to do, walking past my own home in a dream, but I just– … Maybe I wanted it this way, I mean… when I stepped out the building that morning, I… didn’t turn towards the bus stop like I always do. I turned right instead, walked over to the little alleyway where I knew, some time in the next week, a young woman was… going to have a fatal aneurysm. […] So, I did some digging. Found the identity of a few crew members and started to track them down. I told myself that I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I did. Of course I did. […] I had never felt anything as cold as those veins. It was so… hm, patient. It… made me think of those winter mornings, when I was a kid, with no snow; just… frost and frozen mist over everything. Keeping the world in place, curling you up into yourself and… quietly waiting for you to lose your footing, to slip up and fall. Snap.

Annabelle herself insisted on the idea of control and manipulation when she was a kid, and Jon… Jon had insisted on the curiosity for novelty and on seeing. But if he had been touched, let’s say, by The Lonely, would he have retroactively described his exact same childhood as one of isolation, without any meaningful connection…?

- … I feel so stupid to have just assumed, all this time, that somehow, all Web avatars had to be interconnected to their patron, aware of the Big Plans? Because it was The Web and duh? But nop, apparently, Annabelle doesn’t know about The Web’s intentions (… if it has any “intention”, as Gertrude had questioned MAG145) – she could be lying but. Not Knowing What Your Patron Wants Of You seems to be a recurring thing in season 4, Jon had lamented about it in MAG145 too (which. was. worrisome.).

But Annabelle has her own plans, at the very least, and they apparently involve Jon:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “I’m afraid I don’t actually have these answers for you; I’ve simply been… watching. I’m sure you understand that. Maybe I’ve occasionally been nudging something here and there to keep you safe, to keep everything on track.”

… which does NOT make her an ally, what the flying fuck JON:

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: So, she is… watching the Institute. Interfering with things. … [HUFF] Is that reassuring, or… really, really bad…? I can’t say I’m… [HUFF] I can’t say I’m sad to have another ally allegedly on our side, but I don’t like the idea of being important to The Web. … That’s a really bad place to be…

(Especially since he had mentioned he was… ready to get into danger or to die if it means saving someone – Annabelle’s comment seems to give credit to the idea that she was the one who sent Martin to put the tapes around the coffin to get Jon back? So if she needs Jon alive, and especially given the current situation… that’s Bad, actually…?)

(- I’m… astonished that Jon didn’t get into a paranoia fit about The Web’s ritual, then? Since he has no information whatsoever about it, and had been researching about rituals until then. The Web making a move should make him think of the possibility…? Unless he has already accessed a few of Martin’s tapes? Unless he “knows” the content of the recording? (… But given that Annabelle and The Web are not the same thing, I do wonder if it’s not possible to have an avatar trying to bring its patron’s ritual to completion despite said patron not being overly interested in theory…? We’ve had the reverse case, with Jared refusing to participate in The Last Feast, after all…))

(- So, that “nudging”: it strengthens the idea that she was indeed the one who sent Martin helping Jon to get out of the coffin?

(MAG134) PETER: What does puzzle me, though, and I mean that genuinely, is… why you were piling tape recorders onto the coffin, while Jon was in there. [PAUSE] It’s a question, Martin, it’s– it’s not an accusation. MARTIN: I don’t know. And I just… felt like it might help. He’s always recording, I thought… it–it might help him… find his way out. PETER: Interesting. Were you compelled? MARTIN: [SULLEN] … I don’t know. … M–maybe? I–I, I definitely wanted to do it… PETER: But? MARTIN: I’m… I’m not sure where the idea came from. PETER: You should watch out for that. Could be something dangerous. MARTIN: Sure.

(MAG135) ELIAS: I needed a way to force him to harness his ability more acutely than he had before. The coffin was a useful tool; Daisy an adequate bait. BASIRA: Then you messed up. Way he tells it, he doesn’t know how he got out of there. ELIAS: But he did. And his powers were no small part of it. Even if he required some assistance, they were what saved him. And he’s still achieved what no one – mortal, monster, or anything in-between – has ever been able to. He climbed out of The Buried.

1°) Peter Doesn’t Like It

2°) Elias Absolutely Doesn’t Mind It

Elias, that’s the 100th time this season, but what DO YOU KNOW about the spiders in your Institute…)

(- There were so many mentions of watching/seeing in Annabelle’s statement, and she did acknowledge Jon’s confusion over what is coming from The Eye and what could come from The Web… so there is still That Thing again. With the confirmation that Smirke had been extremely arbitrary and couldn’t stand to acknowledge the possibility that he might have been wrong in his “architecture”, it seems that “An infinite amorphous blob of terror bleeding out in every direction at once.” still remains The Most Accurate description of the Fears.)

- That… was such a powerful move…

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: … You hear that? BASIRA: No, I, I don’t hear– ARCHIVIST: Shh, shh! MELANIE: Yes. Room on the left…! ARCHIVIST’S RECORDED VOICE FROM MAG001: “an organisation dedicated to–” DAISY: Is that…? ARCHIVIST: Yes…. ARCHIVIST’S RECORDED VOICE FROM MAG001: “–academic research into the esoteric, and the paranormal.” BASIRA: Don’t touch it. ARCHIVIST’S RECORDED VOICE FROM MAG001: “The head of the Institute–” ARCHIVIST: No. ARCHIVIST’S RECORDED VOICE FROM MAG001: “–Mr Elias Bouchard–” ARCHIVIST: It’s alright. [BREATHING DEEPER] [FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST’S RECORDED VOICE FROM MAG001: “–has employed me to replace the previous Head Archivist, one Gertrude Robinson, who has recently passed away.” ARCHIVIST: [EXHALE] [THE TAPE IS STOPPED.] DAISY: Something underneath it. ARCHIVIST: I see it. Uh, hand me that brush? [RUFFLING SOUND] BASIRA: Is… that what I think it is? ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] Yeah. [RUSTLING PAPER] Official Institute paper, and everything. BASIRA: Goddamnit…! ARCHIVIST: “Statement of Annabelle Cane.” … She left it for us.

1°) She knew that the assistants were going to The Web’s stronghold for the first time, and she left things that had been taken out from the Institute, The Eye’s stronghold as messages. Meaning she has indeed full access to the Institute and the Archives.

2°) Leaving. A statement. As a gift. Nobody had asked and she left it.

3°) MAG001’s tape, meaning Jon’s whole debut as an unwilling servant of The Eye, potentially meaning that she had been watching all along…

4°) Throwing us into the past, too: because it was the old Jon, pretending he didn’t believe in the supernatural – the Jon who hid and dissimulated (just like he did again with the people he attacked for their statements)… because he was afraid, because he thought that acknowledging them would mean catching their attention. We get to hear this Jon, again, and it’s such. A blow. And a reminder that Jon has been doing that again lately.

(5°) … and they arrived just when Elias was mentioned on the tape, so *squints* Is it because it was just the beginning of the tape, or an invitation to go request Explanations&Answers from that fucker.)

- Same, HHHH that power move of beginning the statement with

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) ““Free will” is a funny old thing – isn’t it, Jon? Can I call you Jon? I’m going to call you Jon.”

… when she revealed a few lines later that she perfectly knew that Jon couldn’t stop reading. So he couldn’t answer anyway because it was an indirect message, but he was forced to read the question and Annabelle’s unilateral decision without being able to agree or protest anyway, and she perfectly knew it. Hhhhh.

(Also, the question was reminiscent of Nikola’s own “Can I call you Elias?” during Jon’s kidnapping&sequestration, and ahahaha, that. Might have been even more triggery for Jon, uh.)

(Aaaand both Oliver, agent of Death, and Annabelle, agent of Web, jumped to a first-name basis with Jon while he was in no position to allow or refuse them – in a “coma” with Oliver, and under compulsion-to-read with Annabelle.

(MAG121) OLIVER: Hum… Hello, Jon. Do you… m–mind if I call you Jon? I… I mean. You don’t actually know me, it’s just… well. “Archivist”, it’s so… formal, isn’t it? And I do kind of know you…? […] The thing is, Jon, right now, you have a choice.

Annabelle and Oliver are definitely kinda-friends, uh.)

(- And the voiceswitch was ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL. Terrifying and wow. Jon felt like someone else, even more than usual.)

- Obligatory squintsquintsquint because:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “I discovered a deep and enduring talent inside myself… for lying. My manipulations were not intricate – but they were far beyond what was expected of a child my age, and I have always believed that the key to controlling people… is to ensure that they always under, or overestimate you. Never reveal your true abilities or plans.”

………… is kinda reminiscent of Martin:

(MAG117) MARTIN: These last couple of years, I’ve always been... running, always hiding, caught in someone else’s trap, but… but now it’s my trap. And, well. I think it will work. I know, I know it’s not exactly intricate, but… it felt good, weaving my own little web. OH, oh Christ, I hope Jon doesn’t actually listen to these. “Good lord, is Martin becoming some sort of spider person?” No, Jon, it’s an expression, chill out. Besides, spiders are fine. I mean, yes, people are scared of them, obviously, but actual spiders, they just… want to help you out with flies!

(And Elias had described his own ability as “weaving” too. And Jon did wonder, in MAG145, if he wasn’t mostly just plainly good at bullshitting. If there are two people we tend to over/under-estimate, it would be Elias and Martin, who both “love manipulating people!”…)

- Obligatory laugh that:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “With any other animal, we talk about “instinct”, we talk about “training”, perhaps if we have spent enough time with them… we talk about “personality”. But we never talk about choice. We never look at a dog racing wildly after a thrown ball and think “What an odd decision that dog has made!”. We talk about the workings of its mind, and its instincts; if it doesn’t chase the ball, we wonder why: is it sick? Is it tired? Perhaps something in the nature of this particular breed, this particular dog, makes it prone to ignoring a game of fetch. The idea of a dog simply… choosing not to chase feels deeply unnatural. Is it even capable of legitimately making a decision? Some would say no.”

Hey, Annabelle. You don’t know cats, uh. And you’re talking to a cat-lover. (Well. A love of The Admiral, at the very least. Who had decided it was time for belly rubs before electing to go on with his day, back in MAG093, in typical cat behaviour.)

- Constant soft static while they were at Hill Top Road, so there is definitely Something Wrong with the place. (However, there was none when Jon read the statement, so did they stop at an inn, or where they back at the Institute already?)

Ivo Lensik had given his statement about Hill Top Road in March 2007, and Jon had mentioned in his follow-up that:

(MAG008) ARCHIVIST: Two families have lived in the house since this statement was originally made but no further manifestations have been reported on Hill Top Road.

Plus, there was Anya Villette’s statement from April 2014 (MAG114), which mentioned:

(MAG114, Anya Villette) “The owners of the house had already filled it with furniture. Not good furniture, of course: just the cheapest IKEA had that wouldn’t collapse under the weight of a textbook. It was all assembled, though […]. It opened to reveal stairs going down into a basement. Nobody had mentioned a basement. Not when they gave me the job, not on the floor plan they’d given me; I’d had absolutely no idea it was there.”

(Anya also mentioned “thick sheets of white plastic, to try and keep the dust off” over the furniture and the fact that she had woken up “in one of the chairs, the dust cover clinging to me like a cocoon”: it sounds a lot like spider web, but she had been able to identify cobwebs as such when trying to reach the basement. So? Is it because The Web’s presence was stronger down there…? Her confusion about things still sounds like textbook Spiral to me, though we learned, since then, that there is the “scar in reality” so… what the heck was happening with Anya.)

By contrast:

(MAG147) MELANIE: When did you say they finished rebuilding? ARCHIVIST: 2008? MELANIE: Hm! ARCHIVIST: Doesn’t look like anyone ever… moved in, though. BASIRA: So this is… ten years of cobwebs? DAISY: More than that. [FOOTSTEPS.] MELANIE: [INHALE] No, I’m sure this is just the normal number of webs that grow up organically…! […] DAISY: Clear. [SHUT THE DOOR.] Looks like nothing downstairs. BASIRA: You wanna… take a moment, before we head up? ARCHIVIST: What about the basement? DAISY: Can’t see one. ARCHIVIST: Huh… DAISY: You want me to take point? ARCHIVIST: Uh… no – no, I’ve, I’ve got it.

So there are Too Many Cobwebs, it looks unoccupied although there used to be furniture, and we still (don’t) have a Schrödinger basement. GREAT.

(And bonus: Annabelle doesn’t want Jon to go there again – or at least, for now.)

- Jon The Tired Young Old Man is back, once again, and it’s been His Season To Shine:

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: Everything’s changed. … [SIGH] Two days out of a coma, and I’m already tired.

(MAG128) ARCHIVIST: [WEAKLY] Statement… ends. [COLLAPSES] [CLICK.]

(MAG131) MELANIE: You’re going now? ARCHIVIST: [NERVOUS BREATHLESS LAUGHTER] [HISS OF PAIN] No. … No, now, I am going for a lay down. That was… that was not what I’d expected. MELANIE: Come on. You can use Basira’s cot.

(MAG137) ARCHIVIST: Everyone else is… running towards something, or running away, and I… [SIGH] I don’t know what I’m doing. [PAUSE] [SIGH] I’m just tired. Think I might go lie down for a while. Get a cup of tea [HUFF]

(MAG140) BASIRA: You look awful. You tried drinking with Daisy again last night? […] ARCHIVIST: [SLURRING] It’s not a hangover. Well, not… [INHALE] I wasn’t drinking. [SIGH] […] Yesterday, I tried something I… [INHALE] I–I deliberately tried to… Know something, like I did in the coffin, but… there was a lot. Too much [SIGH], and I… […] You drink the whole contents of a bar in three seconds, you don’t remember what the merlot tasted like. [SIGH] It just… hurt.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … We’ve been back in London for just over a week, now. I’m… more or less recovered physically. It’s just this nagging sense of unease that won’t leave me.

(MAG147) BASIRA: Jon, focus. Are you getting any “sense” of anything? Can you… “see” anything? ARCHIVIST: No, I’m just… seeing what you’re seeing. Still a bit… weak from my trip North, to be honest. MELANIE: Sorry we couldn’t stop for a snack…! [SHARED SNORTS.] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: This one really took it out of me. [CLEARER] I need to go lie down…! … E–end recording. [CLICK.]

………………………… except that, given His Pattern, and the mention that he hadn’t absolutely recovered from the Dark trip……………….. it probably means he “needs” a new victim to get fully rested. I. Really. Hope. That the girls will keep a close eye on him, uh…

- The Dasira shines… in small but significant ways… and how they like to throw jokes around Jon in tense situations…

(MAG143) BASIRA: [SIGH] Eyes peeled. [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: … Was that a joke? BASIRA: Yeah.

(MAG147) BASIRA: So, where are all the spiders? MELANIE: Ah– I mean, they, they hide. You know, it’s a thing they do, spiders – they hide. DAISY: Perhaps they… bugged out. [FOOTSTEPS.] ARCHIVIST: [WHISPERS] … Was that a joke? BASIRA: Jon, focus.

(Not “bugs” technically, Daisy – Martin would be Offended about it!) I love how both Basira&Daisy are unapologetic about it, how it always takes Jon a moment to realise what Was Just Said, how he used the same tone to ask-what-he-already-knows (this is why people like Melanie like to say you don’t have a sense of humour, Jon.), and how… Basira was the one to demand he go back on track in the last one, instead of Daisy.

- My heart cried a bit about the girls throwing jokes because… yeah, it’s how Team Archives tends to deal with dire situations – and it was… really reminiscent of The Unknowing expedition, with TIM’S JOKES ABOUT THE WAXWORKS orz

(MAG118) TIM: And anyways, it’s not like we're alone in here. Look. There’s Prince Charles. [GROANING] TIM: Oh, if he’d been in an accident. Or the Beatles! If they’d all been in separate accidents, like, like Ringo was in a horrible fire, or Paul was in a car crash, that’s a classic– ARCHIVIST: Yes, Tim. I remember them. The waxworks are… bad. […] BASIRA: So would you say this was supposed to be Churchill or Alfred Hitchcock? ARCHIVIST: Jowls like that, could be either.

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: No, I’m just… seeing what you’re seeing. Still a bit… weak from my trip North, to be honest. MELANIE: Sorry we couldn’t stop for a snack…! [SHARED SNORTS.] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] […] BASIRA: These flares going to work? DAISY: No idea, but… Jon said The Web doesn’t get on great with fire, and we don’t exactly have a flamethrower, so… BASIRA: I mean, at least until we find the one Gertrude stocked [?? unintelligible, Daisy snorting too hard]. DAISY: [SNORT] BASIRA: Right next to the nukes…! […] ARCHIVIST: Well… [SIGH] We’re here now. Might as well push on. MELANIE: … Famous last words. [HUMOROUS EXHALES.]

It’s the same team, minus Tim, plus Melanie…

(Also, the reminder that Gertrude was all about fireweapons… Elias had taunted Leitner about “arson”, and he was positively seething when Martin had begun to burn statements, soooo… really, was Gertrude’s plan to deal with The Eye to burn down the Institute.)

- I’m sad that Melanie doesn’t get a nickname…

(MAG146) DAISY: [SIGH] Come on, Mel. I’ll see if I’ve got a stab vest in your size. MELANIE: … Yeah. Sure.

(MAG147) DAISY: Here, Mel. MELANIE: What even are these? DAISY: Magnesium flares. Technically not legal anymore; if you need more, just shout. MELANIE: Oh? Hum. Fine. [INHALE] Uh, and… and, please, don’t… call me “Mel”. DAISY: What? Since when? MELANIE: Always. I’m… [SIGH] trying to be more… o–open about this… stuff. DAISY: Roger Wilco, Miss King. MELANIE: Mm! Better.

… but I’m SO glad that:

1°) she has trouble, but clearly expressed that she didn’t like it. Worded her discomfort. Tried to fix something that was bothering her and directly impacting her. It’s hard, but she’s doing it.

2°) I’m so glad that Daisy immediately corrected herself, acknowledged it and didn’t even ask for a reason why Melanie didn’t like it. Melanie doesn’t like it, end of story, no fuss.

So no nickname for Melanie, but Daisy and Melanie sound even closer and good together!! ;w;

- Overall, GUUUUH, I’m. So proud of Melanie??? She’s been doing so much better!

(MAG123) BASIRA: Yeah. I did warn you. She’s not, uh… she’s not been having a good time. ARCHIVIST: Mm! Yeah, I did get that impression. [SIGH] Elias is gone. I thought… I mean, wasn’t that supposed to be… it? But she’s still… BASIRA: It’s not that simple. ARCHIVIST: She needs help, Basira. God, it didn’t even get that bad when I was… … Even Tim never threatened me. Not like that.

(MAG125) BASIRA: Oh, yeah, the stuff she takes is pretty strong these days. She should be out for a while. … What? Sleep is hard.

(MAG127) ARCHIVIST: Do–do you think it worked? Is she… BASIRA: I don’t know. She seems more… coherent, I guess. And you did get an apology. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. BASIRA: She said she can cry now, which is, hum… ARCHIVIST: Oh… BASIRA: Progress, I think? ARCHIVIST: Uh… BASIRA: She’s still angry but, she hasn’t attacked anyone. Not even sure she has it in her anymore. ARCHIVIST: Well that’s, that’s good! BASIRA: Hm.

(MAG131) ARCHIVIST: A–at least, it’s out! … Maybe… maybe it’s enough to start healing, start… letting go of the anger. MELANIE: Oh, just stop! Just stop and– listen. ARCHIVIST: Okay. MELANIE: Yes, the, the bullet was bad, right. But it didn’t make me angry. Anger is… Anger’s been all I’ve had for a long time. Years. Maybe since– oh, I, I don’t know, but…! Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve pushed for, was because I was angry! Angry of being past over, being disrespected, ignored… that sort of anger, it, it powers you! … Right until it slips out, and hurts someone. I – hurt someone. And then, one day, I suddenly have this thing that takes all that rage, and it holds it. Tells me it’s right. That it’s me. It didn’t stay in my leg because of some Ghostly Masterplan; it stayed… because I wanted it. ARCHIVIST: … Shit. MELANIE: Yes.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: If you don’t mind me asking, [STATIC:] where are you off to…? MELANIE: Therapy. [STATIC ENDS] … Wait. ARCHIVIST: Oh…! Oh, God, Melanie, I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, uh… MELANIE: [EXASPERATED SIGH] It’s fine. I would probably have told you eventually, anyway. ARCHIVIST: Even so, I shouldn’t have– MELANIE: Just… forget it. [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] It’s good, though. I–I’m glad you’re getting help. MELANIE: Yes, well. We’ll see. There’s a… a lot of crap therapists out there. ARCHIVIST: I guess. Still, it–it is a good step. MELANIE: I suppose. ARCHIVIST: You want to tell them the truth? MELANIE: I don’t know! It’s all a bit… [SIGH] Y’know? Er… C… can we drop it. ARCHIVIST: Of course.

(MAG139) ARCHIVIST: The others are doing… better, I think. Basira’s busy doing research for something secretive, unsurprisingly. But she seems to be adjusting to, uh… the new Daisy. I actually like Daisy now, which is a… really weird feeling. [INHALE] Melanie’s quiet, but I think therapy’s helping.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: Oh, uh, therapy! You’re taking her to therapy! GEORGIE: She… told you, then? ARCHIVIST: Uh, yes. Yeah. GEORGIE: … Well, you don’t need to sound quite so psyched about it. She gets… nervous travelling there alone.

(Compare this with Elias’s:

(MAG127) ELIAS: I believe you’ve recently lost Melanie. BASIRA: … We saved Melanie. ELIAS: As a person, yes, but as a defender…

… go rot in jail, Elias. OH WAIT–) (It’s been almost a year for him, I hope it’s getting long and he’s feeling very bored.)

Still unsure whether Melanie’s therapist is Bad News (… even more concerning: I found Jon’s narration of Annabelle’s statement very close to the therapist’s own jumpiness), but… the therapy in itself seems to be working? She’s learning little tricks to improve her life and remain in control and calm? She is expressing boundaries? It’s good? Melanie!!!

- I’mmmmm a bit interrogative about the comment she made about Jon’s ~compulsion~ to read statement right away:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “Of course, that’s not the real crux of the free will question that’s… bothering you at the moment, is it? I think that one probably comes down to whether or not you’re choosing to continue reading this statement out loud. You didn’t mean to, did you? No, I’m sure you told Basira and Melanie that you were going to glance over it and report back. Perhaps they asked you if you were going to record, and you shook your head – “Maybe later”. That sounds like the sort of thing you’d say. But think about it, Jon: when’s the last time you were able to read a statement quietly to yourself without instinctively hitting record and speaking it aloud? It is just instinct? Habit? Or is it a compulsion – a string pulled by the Ceaseless Watcher or the Mother of Puppets? Or both? I know the summaries have started to confuse you. Where did they come from, when you read a statement fresh? How do you just… sort of know what it’s about, before you even start to read it…? But by then, you’re away: the roller coaster is dropping and you’ve no real choice but to hold on and hope that… I don’t crash you.”

Alright, for the summaries, I… had been wondering about it. And we indeed got a demonstration with live-statements that Jon knew the subject and a few key elements even before beginning to hear the story – and alright, it might be how he knew what the tape was about in MAG146, although there couldn’t have been no name written on it (since Martin didn’t know Jess’s name and Jon is the one who reveals it):

(MAG141) ARCHIVIST: [INTERESTEDLY] You… FLOYD: Uh…? BASIRA: Jon? ARCHIVIST: You used to work for Salesa… FLOYD: W–what, you… Who did? I don’t know what you’re talking about. ARCHIVIST: Mikaele Salesa. You used to work on his ship. FLOYD: … I don’t know you. ARCHIVIST: [ARCHLY] But I know you. BASIRA: Jon…? ARCHIVIST: Floyd Matharu. Served on the Dorian from 2011 to 2014. With Salesa. BASIRA: Jon, I’m not sure about this. ARCHIVIST: I am. Tell me what happened. [STATIC INCREASES] FLOYD: W–what…? What is this? ARCHIVIST: Whenever you’re ready. FLOYD: A–a–alright. [STATIC DECREASES] … Sure… [SILENCE] He… he–he w–was a good boss, you know?

(MAG146) BASIRA: Martin left a tape for us. [SHUFFLING NOISE] ARCHIVIST: And what exactly is on this t– … Oh… MELANIE: Yes.

… But for written statements, we got recent examples where Jon… did some follow-up before recording, or apparently got acquainted with a statement without recording it right away? Cases in point:

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: The investigation is tricky, I don’t want to impose on Basira and, obviously, Melanie and… Martin… aren’t available, but I did do some light searching myself on Gregory Cox. … Vanished, unsurprisingly. […] No notes or follow-up here that I can see, just… [SIGH] It looks like the statement came in just after Gertrude disappeared. […] There’s a small supplemental document with it, though, that is a… bit alarming. I–it’s apparently a list of people whose names appear in the various pieces of text Mr Cox was pasting into the code. It’s unclear if they were meant to be… users or victims, but I cannot help but note that there seem to be the names of several statement-givers who found their way to the Institute, including noted arachnophobe Carlos Vittery.

(MAG125) ARCHIVIST: Regardless, I’ve hit another research dead end with this.

(MAG126) ARCHIVIST: I did do a small bit of follow-up on Deborah Madaki, just for my own curiosity. She didn’t go to Sannikov Land in the end. I don’t know, however, whether that was because she decided not to, or because… shortly after this statement was given, they found the body of one [Mary Randall] in her basement, and she has spent the last nine years in Eastwood Park Prison, where she remains to this day. I can’t find any evidence related to the condition of the body, but I can imagine what a sculptor’s apprentice might be capable of. Even an unwilling one.

(MAG127) BASIRA: And what was that you were doing yesterday? ARCHIVIST: … When…? BASIRA: You were sat on the floor for like four hours. ARCHIVIST: … Oh! Er, n–n–no, I was, er, I was… listening. Y’know, it’s, trying to see if any of the statements… called to me. BASIRA: And? ARCHIVIST: [FLIPS PAPER] BASIRA: Brilliant.

(MAG139) ARCHIVIST: No one’s come seeking vengeance recently, though, and looking at the details for the British Steel Plant in Scunthorpe, it does seem like Eugene is still around. So I can only assume… some sort of equilibrium was found. (MAG145) ARCHIVIST: I did some more digging into Eugene Vanderstock. I thought he was still alive and… working at the steel plant, but it looks like he’s just listed on one of the old directory pages on their website. … I really miss having people who know their way around a computer better than I do…!

So: were those cases of Jon… forcing himself to not read the statements, but already knowing the names/summaries and trying to do some search before he would be compelled to read them, or was this… Annabelle trying to mess him up a bit more, playing on his fears and trying to make him panic even more strongly.

(The fact that Jon felt a compulsion to read the statements out loud is not a novelty: he mentioned it to Georgie in MAG093. What I’m curious about is that Annabelle seems to insist that the recording is on Jon, although Jon claimed in MAG146 that he isn’t the one hitting record anymore. Does he do it unconsciously? I had always wondered about Tim’s comment, in season 3, describing to Martin how he had got mad because Jon and him had tried to talk and Jon had reached for the tape recorder – the way Tim had described it, it… had felt, to me, as if Jon wasn’t really aware of it.

Outside of statements, though: we’ve had had tapes popping up when Jon physically wasn’t in the room, or not yet – so Jon hadn’t manually turned those on. In season 4, there was his encounter with Martin in MAG129 (the tape recorder clicked on when Martin was alone in the room, we heard Jon enter), and his walk in the tunnels with Melanie in MAG131 (we heard them getting closer, and Jon asked her to give him the tape recorder, which she had been unaware of). So. Are the tape recorders a purely Jon thing, whether he activates them manually (consciously or not) or supernaturally? Are they Web and/or Annabelle’s, and she tried to divert his attention there?)

- In the end, I found Annabelle’s statement almost… reassuring? (Oops.) Because, in a way, Basira had already provided a possible Answer to this:

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: I’m sure the flares will work fine. … I mean, un–unless it’s all some… elaborate… plot… to have us… burn this place down again. BASIRA: So what if it is? ARCHIVIST: I don’t follow…? BASIRA: I mean. Anything we do could be part of the “Grand Master Plan”. So – what, we do nothing? Just… sit on our hands, and hope that’s not what the spiders want? ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

Basira had been presented by Daisy as more action-orientated and in a way… indeed, I’m not sure that “intentions” and “who is controlling” is the most fundamental focus of all? True that uninformed actions can have disastrous consequences (and Jon knows that: axing the Web table liberated the Not!Them, for example), but… Annabelle talked about how influences are numerous and their origins mostly unknown, or unable to be identified – it still leaves room for deciding who/what you want to be and what should matter to you? That you’re “you” as long as you decide? We had the case, in season 4, of Jon explaining his descent into the coffin as his own conscious choice, for his own (partially selfish) reasons, and… he brought some good, with that decision and action?

(MAG136) DAISY: Jon… when you went into the coffin. Was it you choosing to do that? Did you actually think you could save me, or was… that something telling you to do it? [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: It was me. I was… drawn to it, I’ll admit, but it was my decision. [PAUSE] It wasn’t entirely about you, though. DAISY: What was it? ARCHIVIST: My– [PAUSE] [INHALE] [SIGH] My memories of the coma are not clear. But I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. But ever since then, I… I don’t know if I made the right decision; I–I’m stronger now, tougher, I can… … If I do die, now, or get sealed away somewhere forever… I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. And I don’t want to lose anyone else so, if I can maybe stop that happening, and [DRY CHUCKLE] the only danger is to me, I– I’ll do it in a heartbeat; worst case scenario… the universe loses another monster. DAISY: That’s messed up. ARCHIVIST: [LOW SELF-DEPRECATIVE DRY LAUGHTER] … Yeah. I suppose it is. […] Plus, I thought… [PAUSE] W– [SIGH] Well, I didn’t know what being down there had done to you. DAISY: You thought I was gonna kill you? ARCHIVIST: It was a possibility.

And even in season 3, he had made the conscious choice of trusting the others, and of burning Gerry’s page – although both were hard, and he had to force himself to stick to it, but this is what he had chosen and who he wanted to be?

(MAG117) ARCHIVIST: Still, it does sometimes make it hard to… fully trust them, I– [SIGH] You– you know what, no. I’m… I’m done with that. No more paranoia. It’s almost got me killed more than once, and… Georgie was right. If I am… slipping, then I need people I can trust. And I… I don’t think that can happen naturally for me an–anymore, so… I’m making a decision. I trust them. All of them. E– except Elias, obviously, that’s not– I mean… I’ve listened to the tapes. I’ve listened to the tape, I– I know what they talk about behind my back, how much they’ve… suffered, because of… this place… because of me.

(MAG117) ARCHIVIST: That’s it, then. I, I think. Except… [PAPER] I, uh… I haven’t burned it. Gerard’s page. … G–Gerry. I, I… I know there’s more he could tell me. He, he wouldn’t, of course, I, I, I know that, b–but he, he, it would still– b–be– there, that, that, that knowledge. I– It it would, it would still exist, I– I, I, I can’t. I… I want to help. I, I want to. But I… uh… I’m scared. On, on tape, just… just– just do it. [UNCAPPED LIGHTER] [HEAVY BREATHING] [SOUND OF A FLAME] Do it! [HEAVY BREATHING] [CRIES OF PAIN, BURNING SOUND] [HEAVY BREATHING, MUFFLED] I… [CAPPED LIGHTER, SHAKY VOICE] … you owe me one, Gerry. Rest in… … Just rest.

(I get that Annabelle is saying that there is always the idea that you’re never truly “you” because so many things are influencing you – but at the same time, I find it instead, yeah, oddly empowering because… “you” are your influences, too?)

(- Re: Jon, it’s. A really thin line, but at the very least, HE is still not fine with what he’s been doing:

(MAG146) ARCHIVIST: [QUIET] … That’s horrible… HELEN: Is it? We do what we need to do when it comes to feeding, don’t we? … Don’t we, Archivist? ARCHIVIST: … Yes… HELEN: It would be better if you embraced it. ARCHIVIST: … It’s not…

(MAG146) DAISY: And the third was after the coffin. ARCHIVIST: A man rejected by all who knew him, searching ever-darker places for love. When he told me his story, he started… weeping maggots. BASIRA: Enough. ARCHIVIST: … I hope so.

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: What I’ve been doing to these people, it– … It hasn’t been because I was… “puppetted”, or “controlled”, or “possessed”. I wanted to do it. It felt good. … But at least, I know I can stop. I just… [INHALE] don’t know how. I… [INHALE] I don’t… want… to stop… … Goddamn! This… [MUFFLED VOICE, COVERED BY HANDS] This one really took it out of me.

And from blaming to The Web to acknowledging his responsibility, and that it had felt “good”, this is progress; and it’s still something he is not embracing, that he’s not okay with, that upsets him. So yeah. The “I don’t want to stop” bit is worrying but… At the same time, the way he’s handling the situation doesn’t scream “I want to keep doing it” either. And I doubt the girls will allow it to happen.)

- I wonder if Annabelle’s statement wasn’t technically meant to… give Jon his “Web” scar. I was positing until now that it had happened with A Guest for Mr Spider, as a kid, when he had been mincontrolled and had also watched the book’s effect on his bully, before it had snatched him – the loss of control on himself and on others. We (/I) tend to focus on the injuries-as-a-collection, as the mark of Jon experiencing the Fears, but technically, “experiencing” also happened to be about getting an inner understanding of their essence? I’m mostly thinking about The Unknowing, when he was able to finally pinpoint what was “Nikola” (what made The Stranger itself), and in the coffin, when he suddenly understood the nature of The Buried:

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: … I see you. NIKOLA: Do you, now? ARCHIVIST: Yes… Yes, I s… I see the sad clown, b–bitter and hateful. I see him finding his way into a ci–circus where nobody knew him. I see him torn apart, becoming the mask, remade by a… a cruel ringmaster. Sometimes a doll, sometimes a mannequin, always hiding in somebody else’s skin. Somebody else’s name.

(MAG132) ARCHIVIST: … Come on… [STATIC] [SHAKY BREATHING] DAISY: Jon? ARCHIVIST: I know… DAISY: Th–the way out? ARCHIVIST: No… I know where we are! There isn’t no out, not here. This is… this is forever deep below creation. Where the weight of existence bears down… This is The Buried, and we are alive… There isn’t even an up.

… and curiously, alongside giving her own example and playing with Jon’s own fears of The Web and the loss of control, Annabelle… gave him a straight breakdown of the nature of The Web?

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “Unless, of course, none of it was intentional. None of it was planned. The Mother is the fear of manipulation, and lost control made manifest. So perhaps it is our fear that projects Her influence on everything that happens. Like the mind, retrospectively assigning reason to our actions, so we fit whatever occurs into the neatest pattern we can, and declare Her web both intricate… and complete. Perhaps She is no more active than Terminus – simply sitting and revelling in the inevitable cascade of paranoia, as those who hold Her in special terror cocoon themselves in red string and theory. Or perhaps I am simply telling you what you need to hear, in order to behave exactly as the Mother wishes you to. [STATIC, GRADUALLY INCREASING] Perhaps… I have never even seen a beach. Don’t… go to Hill Top Road again. [STATIC FADES]”

Basically, Annabelle threw Jon deep into the web by… making him doubt and fear that he could be manipulated (saying he wasn’t, then demonstrating that she could still do it, hence the final order, hence the mentions that she could have been lying all through her statement). So, giving him another paranoia fit while throwing him into the pit re: responsibility and potential guilt because he attacked people and those ones were on him.

- Annabelle’s considerations about “free will” and about Jon’s preoccupations indeed seem to play a lot with his current concerns and fears:

(MAG125) ARCHIVIST: I suppose that’s the question with so much of “violence”, “war”: how much are you really in command of yourself or of others? I’m not sure what scares me more: the idea that deep down, everyone is in complete control of their actions, that everything is, on some level, intentional; or that ultimately, we don’t have any control of ourselves at all, and the rest is just… rationalisation.

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: I don’t like this. I don’t like… not being sure what’s going to be in my mind. What thoughts are mine and what are from… elsewhere. Why I just know some statements are what I should be reading. I assume this one is related to the coffin. To Daisy.

(MAG136) DAISY: [BREATHING HARDER, FASTER] Yeah, well… What do you think? You think I’m weak, just… [SIGH] ‘cause I’m not already chasing the next kill? You think I’m less me? ARCHIVIST: I… [SIGH] I don’t feel like I’m exactly in the best place to judge the… intersection [CHUCKLE] between free will and humanity. Still trying to figure that out myself.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] The more I listen and learn, the more it seems to me we’re all just… “groping about”. Trying desperately to find out what we’re actually meant to be doing. [PAUSE] These things that… loom so large over our lives trap us, and push us, and… sometimes kill us. But they never actually tell us what we’re supposed to be doing. So we scheme and we plot, lash out at each other without ever really knowing why. […] But I’m really starting to worry that there aren’t any answers. Not like I want there to be. There aren’t any answers in Ny-Ålesund; there aren’t any answers in the past; I’ve been inside The Buried, and there were no answers there.

(MAG146) ARCHIVIST: There is… nothing in the world more reassuring than ignorance which we can mistake for certainty. But no. Almost every one of those statements, those… people… that poor old man…

… and technically, she didn’t give any answer either, no certainty. So it really feels like the big purpose was to mess with him? (… to feed herself, maybe? She did mention that The Web was about “loss of control made manifest”, too, and that’s… what Jon is experiencing right now, although he’s aware that he is responsible for his own actions, and that he’s entangled in Annabelle’s plans.)

- One thing that Annabelle mentioned regarding how The Web operates:

(MAG147, Annabelle Cane) “Looking back, of course… and remembering the crunch of used syringes beneath my feet, I realise that addiction… is one of the strongest vectors of control there is.”

And as usual, could be an exaggeration/misleading/making you focus on the outside aspects and elements rather than their effects but… it’s indeed true that there is an enormous proportion of addicts, especially smokers, who have come into contact with The Web – I had finally noticed it thanks to MAG136:

(MAG016, Carlos Vittery) “I walked out there one day with the intention of smoking a cigarette, sat on the rusty garden furniture that had come with the place, and looked up. There it was – stretched between two large branches, silhouetted against the sky it sat. […] I leapt up, and started to head back inside, but as I did my eyes flicked wildly around the rest of the garden, and everywhere they came to rest I saw more lurking spiders, more webs. There were dozens that I could see, which meant there must be hundreds more I could not.”

(MAG056, Trevor Herbert) “In the early 80s, I was deep in the grip of my twin addictions. As I mentioned, after a while, The Hunt became an addiction of its own. Of the two, I’ve always found heroin the easier one to quit. […] But The Hunt… The Hunt is a purpose. It’s not just a way to get through the day, it’s a reason for there to be a day at all.” […] “she locked eyes with me. The weirdest sensation began to flow through me; I wanted to leave. It wasn’t like with a vampire, where I would feel like I’d been spoken to. This was just a sudden awareness of my own desire. I’d been sober for three years at that point, but I felt like I desperately wanted to get high, and I knew that the best place to get some was out in the night. Looking back, I think it might have been my own mind rationalising the way I felt my will being tugged out of the room, but it was still very powerful. If I hadn’t had a lifetime’s experience of identifying and fighting off the effect of the vampire’s gaze, I probably would have done it, too.”

(MAG059, Ronald Sinclair) “We never really got into any proper trouble – but the sort of glares we got just for smoking on the street made me want to break a window sometimes. I never did, though. I’m… not quite sure why I didn’t, to be honest. Before I met Ray, I… would have. There were plenty of broken windows in my past. There was something about living there, though, that… dulled the urge. My memories of a lot of my time there are, well… not exactly foggy, but feel almost like I’m watching someone else’s memories. I remember that it sometimes felt like I do things, without actually deciding to do them – like it was just muscle memory moving me, or a… string gently guiding me. It was never bad, or dangerous stuff, just… things I wouldn’t normally have done, like brushing my teeth.”

(MAG112, Alexia Crawley) “Brandon took to the role immediately, with a gravity and a weariness that I don’t think could have been entirely feigned. He was the only one who didn’t seem excited by the movie, and spent his off-hours smoking and reading quietly in one of the trailers. It was a shame because, for whatever reason, he also seemed to be the only one that Dexter would listen to. I only saw them talking once or twice but every time, Dexter would be wrapped, nodding at… whatever Brandon might have to say.”

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “Despite this or, maybe because of it… [Neil Lagorio and I] became friends. I think we bonded on that shoot; sheltering from the rain for hours at a time, watching a sobby animatronic jaguar gradually start to rust. I had to fight every instinct inside me, everything that wanted to burst out in admiration for his work and his… profound effect on my life. But instead I chain-smoked and laughed, trying my best to come across as my hero’s peer…!”

And it obviously put Jon’s smoking to mind. He had told Leitner that he had been quit for “five years” in February 2017 – except, well, he had cigarettes on him, so at this point, no, he was probably actually back to smoking already and presumably had been for a while. After he had opened the lighter’s package and denied smoking (MAG036, Tim+Jon: “You smoke?” “No… And I don’t allow ignition sources in my archive!”), Elias had commented about his smoking on July 29th 2016 (MAG040, “He’s not smoking again, is he?”) in a way that could mean… that either he knew about Jon’s Past As A Smoker, either Jon had been spotted with cigarettes recently (THAT’S CREEPY, CREEPY BOSS, ALL-SEEING OR NOT), and Tim’s snarky remark in February 2017 fit too well to think it was a completely random example (MAG079, “But he’s going to do something, and it’s going to be bad. And I don’t mean like ‘sneaking a cigarette’ bad – like, properly bad.”). Daisy spotted his cigarettes in MAG091 (“SILK CUT”. FOREVER REMINDER THAT HE SMOKES “SILK CUT” OF ALL THINGS.), he offered one to Gerry in MAG111, Daisy pointed out his lighter in MAG136 and Jon apparently Can’t Think About It (static and then changing the subject) so… something is definitely up with the lighter, at the very least.

-> The moment Jon stopped smoking roughly matches the time he joined the Institute (since he had worked there for four years when he began the series, second-half/end of 2015), but also the death of his grandmother (he mentioned in MAG081 that she “peacefully passed away five years ago”) – was it related to one of those two events? Because he’ll definitely need to channel again the Jon from back then who had managed to quit. (… if he ever did. Because uh. Telling Leitner that he had been quit for five years, while he had cigarettes on him, was… Jon. Jon. You had broken your streak a long time ago, you absolute hypocrite disaster.)

-> And it was ~because he had suddenly wanted a cigarette~ that Jon had left Leitner alone in MAG080, giving an opening for Elias to Brutal Pipe Murder him – something that Nikola would later use to toy with him, by mixing it up with guilt:

(MAG119) ARCHIVIST: It is not! It’s not, I didn’t know, it’s not my fault you died! LEITNER: No, I suppose not. Me, on the other hand… […] I understand, of course. You needed a cigarette! I suppose you should have remembered that smoking kills!

-> So once again: ELIAS, what do you KNOW about the Spiders running wild in your Institute, and about Jon’s lighter.

(- And the smoking/addiction being potentially usable by The Web puts me in mind of a few other people too:

(MAG144, Gary Boylan) “I’d been out easily twice as long as any time before. But my dad didn’t say a word about it – just sat in front of the TV, laughing at some crappy panel show, smoking that… God-awful pipe that left the wallpaper yellow and peeling. I remember thinking he wasn’t content to just destroy himself. He seemed to have to take everything out around him.”

Extinction statement but. Gary’s dad was a vivid picture.

(MAG113, Adelard Dekker) “The deaths were about a fortnight apart, and when the third came in with the same symptoms, Bianca, the coroner, called me in. For the last few years we’ve had an… arrangement. I slip her a bit of cash to feed a nasty habit she has, and if she’s called to any inquest which looks strange, I’m the first to know. Despite her weakness, Bianca is still a damn good coroner, and filled me in on the details quickly.”

………………. Adelard, who had been in possession of The Web Table at some point after its Hill Top Road days, and had been able to use it to bind and trap the Not!Them…

And. And. Technically, I cannot not mention:

(MAG049) ARCHIVIST: Supplemental. Elias Bouchard is a difficult man to pin down, certainly since he became head of the Institute in 1996, taking over from James Wright, who ran the place from ‘73 until he passed away. […] I found an old gossip column in the student newspaper that – sure well – that mentioned him. If I’m not reading too much into it, the implication seems to be that he was… something of a… pothead [CHUCKLE]. Was he… like that when he first came to work here…?

Listen: if I’m haunted by the mental picture of Elias, smoking weed in his office in March-or-May 2015 because the Institute’s budget is getting tight again, and suddenly shouting “You know what? I should totes KILL GERTRUDE to solve my problems. GENIUS!” while a spider scurries away.

then, you have to be inflicted with it, too.)

- Though Trevor had presented The Hunt as an “addiction”, and Jon’s own relationship to the statements had also been presented in such a way:

(MAG107) ARCHIVIST: I’d love to rattle off a lot of potential other reasons for this, nice rational causes of recovery, but… I feel we’re past the point of transparent rationalisations. It looks like the recording of statements has now passed over from psychological compulsion into… a more physical dependence. I don’t whether this is… some sort of classical addiction or something a bit deeper. But either way, this is not the time for experimentation. I’m on a deadline, and if I need to be reading statements to stay well enough, then I suppose that’s what I shall do.

Martin also name-dropped it in his list of potential reasons for Jon’s behaviour and the way he had attacked Jess for her live-statement, and then Jon first tried to blame it on an exterior influence before finally admitting that it was all him, wording it in a way… that indeed matches up with addiction too:

(MAG142) MARTIN: Oh, that can’t– that can’t… I mean, it’s not him, is it? Not, not really? It’s, what, addiction, instinct, maybe mind control, something like that? I… can’t believe he’d choose to do something like that. … No, no, I, I can’t think like that, though, I, I can’t let myself, ‘cause I mean, if, if he’s already gone, then all of this is just…

(MAG146) BASIRA: He knows exactly what he’s doing. ARCHIVIST: I don’t–! Uh, it’s not that simple, it–it feels… [BREATHING QUICKENING] … I don’t know if I can control it, I don’t know if it’s even me doing it…! BASIRA: … So you say you’re being controlled. ARCHIVIST: I–I don’t know. Maybe? Th–The Web, it–

(MAG147) ARCHIVIST: … Annabelle’s right, though. I mean– I can’t trust anything she says to not be another lie to further manipulate and manoeuvre us, but… deep down, I think she’s right. What I’ve been doing to these people, it– … It hasn’t been because I was… “puppetted”, or “controlled”, or “possessed”. I wanted to do it. It felt good. … But at least, I know I can stop. I just… [INHALE] don’t know how. I… [INHALE] I don’t… want… to stop… … Goddamn! This… [MUFFLED VOICE, COVERED BY HANDS] This one really took it out of me.

As of now, I’m not… utterly convinced by the addiction analogy for what is happening with avatars and people’s fears, though, but that’s mostly because I’m thinking in terms of effects, and the fact that in Avatars’ cases, the primary victims are not themselves but other people: here, the main problem is not that Jon has an addiction problem to (live or written) statements, but the fact that extorting live-statements causes pain, distress, fear and overall constant suffering, impacting and destroying the lives of other people (eg Jess). The fact that it makes him feel good or not… is not the most relevant thing as to why he has to stop it; I feel like talking of it solely as an “addiction” might be diminish the gravity of what he does a bit? (Which is why I’m grateful that Basira immediately summed up his actions as a criminal’s: yes, he’s attacked innocent people, yes, he’s acted monstrous, yes, he’s currently a danger.) (But then again… it could be a point to be made, that the statements are actually bad for Jon – that they feel good but that it is… a sort of reprieve, covering up other issues, and that no, fundamentally, these stories are still shattering him.)

However, it is probably the correct analogy to approach how they should get him to stop it or to control the craving – if… it is… even possible… which I’m not even sure about…

(- I am kind of expecting a talk about why the team shouldn’t just try to find a way to kill Jon off, if he can’t or won’t control it? Concretely, of course, it’s not like they would know how to do it: Jon heals fast, can’t harm himself, didn’t manage to get instantly destroyed by the Dark Sun. He has managed to get out of the coffin once and might be able to pull that off again – even if he went back inside willingly, he probably wouldn’t manage to stay inside forever, since he already had “regrets” about going inside after three days. Plus, Daisy had managed to get some distance from The Hunt and to separate herself from it when she was inside of the coffin, but we saw that Jon’s powers had still been active and kicking while inside – so that… doesn’t seem to be exactly an option for him (because The Eye is him/within him? Because The Buried relies on awareness, like The Vast, and it can’t totally be isolated from The Eye?)

But pragmatically, I still feel like the question of what-to-do-with-Jon-and-is-it-really-worth-it-to-ensure-that-he-stays-alive has to be raised…? (Or am I totally heartless for thinking that eh, even if I liked him a lot as a character, if he’s terrorising people and hurting innocents, then no, it’s not worth it, and I’m not interested in hearing him getting glimpses of genuine happiness or jokes or hopes while Jess and probably more are hurt and hurting and their lives utterly messed up because of him.) If Jon is going Monster and can’t/won’t stop, and given how the Assistants reacted, it might cross their mind, and rightfully so? I’m expecting them to at least contain/monitor him, as of now, to prevent further victims, although… it won’t solve anything on the long run. But I want it to stop, arrrrg orz Not solely because I don’t like random people getting hurt, but because it was… the reason… Jess had come to the Institute…

(MAG142) MARTIN: O–okay. Hum. [INHALE] Right, well… [EXHALE] Firstly, I’m re– I’m really sorry that this happened. Hum… in–in terms of next steps… JESS: Just, I just… I don’t know, y–you know, talk to him, I guess? J–just tell him, like, like, I mean that– it’s not okay. You know, right, I’m not… I don’t know what he did, but it– You know, he can’t just go around, and well, you know, just keep doing… MARTIN: Right. I–I understand. JESS: Good! … Well… You… I just, I don’t want to see him again, alright? Ever.

It was hard, it was awful to describe what had happened to her again, she got hit really badly by Institute, but she came because Jon had to be stopped… it was only for this that she came, we probably won’t hear her ever again, and I don’t want it to go to waste………………. ;_;

(YES, I know that we’re potentially heading towards a ritual getting completed and/or many, maaany people dying/getting tortured in the process – but I always find it harder to hear about personal stories than the overall broad picture, and I know that Jess won’t be okay ever (… well, Daisy confirmed the trick of signing up with the Institute to get rid of the dreams/come under The Eye’s protection, but Team Archives has never been… invested in saving/helping people they didn’t personally know), but it’s even worse if her complaint doesn’t mean anything in the end… ;;))

- Okay, so. Probably off-track and gratuitous long tangent but, eh, that’s what speculation is about, right?

I got a bit of a punch over MAG147’s date, because suddenly, time had moved… very fast towards a few Archives Anniversaries. Annabelle’s statement was dated 20th July, 2018; it’s already one month since the expedition to The Dark (Jon took Manuela’s statement on June 16th, in MAG143) and… we’re getting close to the anniversaries of both:

* Jane Prentiss’s attack on the Archives, July 29th 2016.

* The Unknowing attempt, August 06-07th 2017.

… And Jon is very conscious of the time passing, of the dates – he sighed about his perception of time in MAG123 (realising that two years had passed, and that he… hadn’t “lived” the entirety of them), and even mentioned the Institute’s anniversary as a source of dread:

(MAG127) ARCHIVIST: Whatever is happening now… has its origins two hundred years ago. In the work of an evil man. … Exactly two hundred years, in fact. Don’t think that little detail has evaded me. I don’t know the precise date the Institute was founded, but I do know that it was in 1818. … Something’s coming. I know it is. … But I just don’t know what I need to do.

These are of course also the anniversaries of Sasha’s death, Tim’s death. The reminder, too, that Martin is the last one of the original assistants still alive, and so far one has died every summer since Jon was appointed as Head Archivist – if there was a moment to panic over the Assistants “symbolically” being in danger because there is a pattern, it would be now. Daisy mentioned Jon’s PTSD in MAG142, we got a reminder that Jon still had Jane Prentiss’s ashes in his desk in MAG140:

(MAG140) BASIRA: Er… Jon. What’s this. [DRY SOUND] ARCHIVIST: Mm? … Oh. That’s… [SILENCE] That, uh, that’s… my rib? BASIRA: … Right. [PUTS IT DOWN] ARCHIVIST: Yup… BASIRA: And… the jar of ashes. ARCHIVIST: Not– Not mine; I–I mean, it belongs to me, I–I guess, but it’s not… Er, stationery is in the other drawer?

Could have been nothing more than a casual joke but with the anniversary at the corner… I’m not so sure.

But mostly, I’m thinking about Tim.

I’m still… very surprised that Tim was mentioned so little in season 4, when it had been extremely important for Jon that Tim make it back alive?

(MAG118) TIM: You thought you brought me in as a distraction, right? ARCHIVIST: What?! TIM: Let me do it! Go in, maybe you can get some of them– ARCHIVIST: Tim, contrary to what you think, I did not bring you here to indulge your death wish! TIM: It’s not what this is! ARCHIVIST: No?! TIM: No! You knew I might not be coming back! ARCHIVIST: I knew none of us might be coming back, and I’m not gonna let anyone get killed for nothing! TIM: Oh, except for those people in there! ARCHIVIST: They’re already dead! TIM: Not all of them! ARCHIVIST: I am not losing you as well!!

Sasha had been dead for more than six months when Jon realised what had happened, and Tim&Martin learned about it even later – even then, she was… mentioned so much. Nikola pretended to be her during The Unknowing, taunted him about the possibility of her resurrection (“Oh, you caught me~ I’m… Sasha! […] No~! Really, it’s me! Sasha– whatever her name was! Back from the dead, just like you wanted~!”), prompting a visceral reaction from Jon. Sasha was on Martin’s lips, too, when he confronted Elias and his (in)actions. But Tim… from what I recall, this is all we got about Tim this season:

(MAG122) ARCHIVIST: Er, the others. T–Tim? Is he… [SILENCE] Oh… [SILENCE] BASIRA: … Daisy, too. [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: … I’m sorry. […] You’re… sure a–about Tim? BASIRA: Yeah, they, er… They found his remains a few days later.

(MAG123) MELANIE: How did you make it out, then, mm? ARCHIVIST: What? MELANIE: Tim is dead. Daisy is dead. And you, what? You’re just fine? ARCHIVIST: No, I’ve been in hospital for six months! […] Melanie, Melanie: it’s… it’s me. MELANIE: Oh! Okay, so what, “Hi Jon, how are you, get anyone killed lately?” ARCHIVIST: … I… MELANIE: Wipe that look off your face. Like you’re not the reason all of this is happening.

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: She needs help, Basira. God, it didn’t even get that bad when I was… … Even Tim never threatened me. Not like that. […] So: we’re under siege; Melanie is aggressively unstable; Martin is working very closely with The Lonely, who is, predictably enough, isolating him; and, oh, yes, Tim and Daisy are still dead. Which is at least easy to keep track of! BASIRA: That isn’t funny, Jon. ARCHIVIST: I know it’s not–! … Sorry. It’s just… it’s a lot.

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: I have no theories on it, no… no sudden insights. [SIGH] I wish I could talk it through with Martin. … Or Tim. [SHORT SAD CHUCKLE] Or Sasha. But we never really did that, did we…? … Everything’s changed. … [SIGH]

(MAG126) ARCHIVIST: A “Great Twisting”, that Gertrude stopped at the cost of a single life. … I thought… moving away from my humanity would have made that seem more acceptable. That sort of sacrifice… but it just makes me sad… … I remembered Gertrude’s notebook; we found it alongside the plastic explosives, but it rather got lost amongst the business of… [SIGH] saving the world at the cost of two lives…

(MAG133) BASIRA: Good. As far as I can see, Gertrude Robinson was the most effective person in this place. ARCHIVIST: … That’s what Tim said as well.

Plus, from Martin:

(MAG120) ELIAS: Hello, inspector. Martin. I’m… sorry to hear about Tim. MARTIN: Don’t. ELIAS: And Daisy, I suppose. MARTIN: Don’t. you. dare. ELIAS: I suppose it’s some consolation Basira made it out. And Jon – more or less.

(MAG138) MARTIN: I don’t know what he’s talking about when he mentions Millbank. The old prison, I guess? Tim said the tunnels under the Institute were all that was left of it, but… Jon said he’d checked them pretty thoroughly. [SILENCE] [SIGH] I’m not the one who knows all about this stuff…! I wish– … No. No, it’s fine, I’m… fine, I… [EXHALE] I can do this.

And I’m still sad, and a bit curious?, about the fact that… Jon had heard Tim’s last words to him, but told Basira he couldn’t remember how The Unknowing had gone:

(MAG119) TIM: Back! Get back! That’s right. Jon, I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can… ARCHIVIST: [FAINTLY AND FAR] Tim…? TIM: I don’t forgive you. But thank you for this.

(MAG122) BASIRA: How much do you remember? ARCHIVIST: I don’t… Music. Everything was wrong. Gertrude was there, and then… dancing. I think? Then… pain. And I was somewhere else. Dreaming.

Are the memories truly lost, and they’ll never be aware of the fact that Tim pulled the trigger, took his revenge for Danny’s death, and saved the world – and that Jon was never to be forgiven? Or are they stuck somewhere in Jon’s subconscious? Are they buried and meant to be dug out, or… forgotten?

“Grief” has been surprisingly absent this season. We know that Martin had the added dimension of losing his mother – which had… already been an open wound for a while (her refusing to see him), made worse by Elias (revealing to him that she hated him, and why, and carving “what she was seeing” whenever she looked at him into his mind), until she died two months later, and… he explicitly bore that death alone:

(MAG127) BASIRA: Honestly, I kind of regret not just… grabbing Martin and shaking an explanation out of him. But I didn’t want to push it. He was in a… bad place, what with the attack and his mom and everything, so I didn’t press it. Now, I try and bring it up, he just… disappears. Nothing to be done. ARCHIVIST: So–sorry, you said… What happened with his mother? BASIRA: Oh, yeah. She died. About two months– ARCHIVIST: Oh… BASIRA: –after you, er… … Martin was… … He tried to stay strong. Keep it together but, that sort of thing… ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: I, er… I heard about your mother. MARTIN: … Yeah. ARCHIVIST: I am… so sorry. [SILENCE] MARTIN: Thank you. [INHALE] It’s… [SHAKY EXHALE] It’s better, this way. ARCHIVIST: If–if you do need to talk, I– MARTIN: I can’t. ARCHIVIST: No. No, o–of course.

It makes a lot of sense, for Martin, to be especially vulnerable to The Lonely: he always had… trouble connecting with others, and his relationships were shown to be ultimately one-sided. He was hovering around and crushing on Jon while Jon was suspecting him of murder; his mother disliked him and refused to let him take care of her, trying to cut ties; even Tim admitted that he didn’t know Martin as well as he used to know Sasha, and avoided him like he did the other new assistants (we didn’t hear them interact again after MAG104, which only happened by accident and chance). He explicitly didn’t like Daisy, in season 3; had been snappy to Basira, and both Basira and Melanie didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about him, although Martin had shown sympathy towards Melanie in MAG108 (and then, Melanie fell deeper to the Slaughter bullet, and Basira began to turn more callous and calculating). Overall, the fact that he was aware that he hadn’t been able to notice that Sasha had been replaced probably didn’t… help.

But it’s mostly that absence of… anything about the loss of Tim that surprises me a bit, and I find it interesting that neither Jon and Martin apparently took the time to grieve. Aside from “addiction” (reminder that Jude used drugs too!), there’s something else that has been present in quite a few avatars’ storylines – depression. Oliver began to dream when he was depressed (MAG011, “I barely made it through a full year before the stress of my new job, not to mention some problems in my personal life, led to me having a full nervous breakdown. I’d broken up with Graham, my boyfriend of six years and had to leave the home we shared, going to stay with some of the few friends that had survived my year of stress-fuelled outbursts and constantly cancelled plans. It was there, sleeping on my friend Anahita’s sofa, in the depths of my misery, that I first started to have the dreams.”), Jude was going through a burn out when she met Agnes (MAG089, “The point was, that I burned through too much of myself, because I didn’t know what else I could burn. My girlfriend saw it, though she had no idea how to help with the deep depression that had settled over me. […] I was burned out in every sense but one. And that was the one that saved me. It was Agnes, of course. I don’t know where she found me, I only remember sitting in a booth with a beautiful young woman who smelled like matches and incense.”). Kinda goes well with “addiction” in the idea that the Fears tend to recruit people when they’re vulnerable? But keeping Jon in mind, Daisy, mostly, had repeatedly pointed out that he hasn’t been fine for a while:

(MAG136) DAISY: You need to stop moping. ARCHIVIST: I what? DAISY: You need to stop swanning around, being all sad. ARCHIVIST: I’m, I’m not “swanning around”– DAISY: “Boo-hoo, I’m so alone and a monster!” ARCHIVIST: I am alone, Martin is– DAISY: Busy. doing. paperwork. Not like he’s dead. Beside, he’s not the only other person here, you know. There’s me; Melanie; Basira– ARCHIVIST: Traumatised; traumatised; and paranoid, because of me. DAISY: Get over yourself! You’re always talking about choices – we all made ours. Now I’m making the choice… to get some drinks in. Coming?

(MAG142) DAISY: I, I mean, it’s pretty standard stuff. MARTIN: What?! DAISY: Used to see it all the time back in the force, especially with the Section’d. Not like there’s… “normal” trauma, you know? But it’s pretty common. The most important thing becomes control, engaging on your own terms. Even when it’s stupid or dangerous. Anything to not feel helpless. MARTIN: Oh, god… DAISY: And of course, for Jon, there’s survivor’s guilt in there, too. He thinks he’s not human. Makes him very… self-destructive. MARTIN: Yeah, well. We’ve all had trauma. DAISY: And everyone’s changed.

(MAG143) HELEN: … How was it? ARCHIVIST: Mm? HELEN: Looking upon The Dark. ARCHIVIST: I thought I was going to die. HELEN: You seem to think that a lot. I remember when you thought you were going to die at my threshold. ARCHIVIST: … Yeah.

And it would’t be surprising if the fact that neither Martin&Jon took the time, nor did work on grieving… contributed, a lot, to put them in such a bad headspace – Jon feeding from people, being in denial over his responsibility and not trying to actively stop it nor warning the others about it, Martin admitting that the temptation of The Lonely is working on him.

At the end of season 3, Tim’s very last scene, very last words… were technically a reference to a joke about depression&therapy:

(MAG119) TIM: You sound stressed. You know, I hear the Great Grimaldi’s in town. You should go see him. Cheer yourself up. NIKOLA: That’s. not. funny. TIM: I know. [LOUD EXPLOSION] [CLICK.]

(And Peter Lukas had offered Martin to go to therapy (MAG120, “And if you want to talk to a counsellor, the Institute will of course cover any cost.”), although… yeaaaah, coming from Peter, it just sounded. Plain bad.)

It introduced the theme a bit; season 4 then made it pretty clear that in this universe, actual therapy is not a bad thing. We saw it with Melanie, though she did express cautiousness about it (it’s not a Miracle Solution, some therapists are bad or don’t fit you). We saw it with Jess:

(MAG142) JESS: So. It… It took a long time to get over that. I mean… That’s not weird, right? I mean, it was a bad time. You know? It–it stays with you. I was signed off for, what, probably about six months, with the injuries? I had pretty bad, uh, nightmares, claustrophobia, I mean… Obviously, right? But, uh, but–but I did my physio, and, you know, talked wi–with the counsellor they gave me? Look, I did everything I was supposed to, and–and yeah, I… I guess I was fine. You know, once the bruises were gone, I… Well, it’s easy to blame memory, right? You know, ha–hallucination, coincidence, all the… classic shite you tell yourself. Look, life went back to… normal, I… I was fine. Until… [CHOKING] about two weeks ago. MARTIN: And that was when you met J– … Er, one of our employees.

Even Gertrude had directed Lucia towards someone – she sounded… very manipulative and lying through her teeth about the nightmares (? She would know that no, Lucia’s wouldn’t stop, especially after giving her statement?), but I have trouble picturing Gertrude doing the extra effort of recommending someone and actively searching for their contact information if it was just to get rid of Lucia (she really didn’t need to do so, the statement was over and Lucia hadn’t asked for anything!); if Gertrude recommended them, it’s probably that she genuinely knew that it could help?

(MAG130) LUCIA: H… uh. Will it help? GERTRUDE: I’m sorry? LUCIA: Telling my story. To you. Will, will it help with the nightmares? GERTRUDE: If that’s your primary goal, my dear, I would suggest you speak to a qualified counsellor. We can suggest one, if you like; that said, I do believe most people find the process of giving a statement to be rather… mm, cathartic. And whatever nightmares your experience has left you with, I’m sure they won’t be bothering you much longer. […] And do you feel any better? LUCIA: No. GERTRUDE: Mm, that’s a shame. Hang on, let me see if I can find you the number for that counselling service. They’re actually quite good.

We’ve had a broad gallery of characters handling their traumas in different ways, this season. Melanie is going to therapy, and whether her therapist is Web/Eye/Lonely or not… it is working to help her get some control over herself. She’s quieter, she expresses her boundaries – far from losing her voice, she is… reappropriating it. Daisy has not sought out professional help, but she’s careful about how she handles herself, the symptoms and how to prevent falling off – she seeks out company, she talks, she communicates, she tries to repair bridges, while remaining overall careful:

(MAG136) DAISY: [QUICKLY] You’re not babysitting me, alright?! I know that’s what the others think, sometimes, but… that’s not it. I just… don’t like… being on my own if I can help it. You know. Flashbacks, panic attacks, the usual. Just trying to avoid it if I can. ARCHIVIST: I know, Daisy, I–I do. It’s hard.

(MAG144) DAISY: No, I’m ju– [SIGH] Just ignore me. Continue with… whatever. [SILENCE] MARTIN: … Are you alright? DAISY: Yeah. Just a… a bit empty around here. You know? MARTIN: Not really. DAISY: Melanie’s out, and… [EXHALE] Jon and Basira’re still off. Bit worried. But they can take care of themselves, you know?

And on the other side, just like Jon and Martin, Basira just… tried to deal with things on her own, and partially failed and hurt herself in the process:

(MAG128) BASIRA: Do you know how I survived the… The Unknowing? ARCHIVIST: I… No. No, I don’t. BASIRA: No powers, no… magic or… help. I was trapped in that place, and so I tried to figure it out. And I did. A little. So I kept doing it. I kept going through until I got out. I… reasoned my way out of that nightmare. ARCHIVIST: Good lord… BASIRA: Then everything ended, and Daisy was gone. And you were gone. And Tim. And then I got back to the Institute, and Martin send me to meet the new boss. Then I stood alone in an empty office for more than one hour. I can trust me, Jon. That’s it. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

And it could be that Jon… should have gone for therapy, too, and never will. But if there was ever a moment for him to try it out as a way to handle himself, I feel like it could be now? He had been constantly adamant about not going for it and… his reject resurfaced very recently with Georgie:

(MAG058) MARTIN: He’s just under a lot of pressure. You know how messed up he’s been since Prentiss. TIM: How messed up he’s been?! MARTIN: Of course, I’m sorry – sorry, I didn’t mean that you weren’t, just– TIM: No! Because I didn’t start stalking my co-workers! MARTIN: Maybe try talking to him. TIM: Sure. Like he doesn’t already look at me like I’m a murderer. MARTIN: Look, look, you just got to let me work through this. Alright? I suggested therapy, but he just says no, so– TIM: Well, we need to do something! MARTIN: Yeah, maybe.

(MAG145) ARCHIVIST: I’m… I’m alright. I’m trying to, uh… rest up a bit. Take it easy. [HUFF] GEORGIE: Really? ‘Cause… I’m pretty sure I heard talking about a screaming headless corpse just now. ARCHIVIST: Oh… Oh. W–were you… listening? GEORGIE: Oh, uh. Didn’t mean to. You know. These… doors are not that thick. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] … Fine. I’m deep in it. Had some… “close calls”. [SILENCE] GEORGIE: I’m sorry to hear that. [PAUSE] … You should probably get some therapy too. ARCHIVIST: [HUFF] Would you go with me as well? GEORGIE: … No. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. … No, I thought as much.

Because concretely, what can they do now, re:Jon, and what can Jon do about this “addiction” of his to destroy people…? Could be that precisely, it’s over, they’re just trying to buy a bit of time, but Jon is Done For, and either he’s dying at the end of this season, either he’s going full monster. But if there is a solution to at least attenuate the problem, my money is on therapy, with how the theme has popped up here and there, together with “control (of yourself)”…? (And it was especially jarring, in this episode, how… I got the feeling that Jon was aiming for Free Therapy in front of the tape recorder? Except it’s a one-sided exchange, it’s him talking to himself, and he’s not equipped for self-analysis.) (And there is something to be said, maybe, about how inflicting Fears and misery on others and the whole “Feed what feeds you, or it will feed on you”, is textbook “hurting others to not hurt yourself/to stop hurting yourself? So, I don’t know. It’s spooks, it’s alien entities, but we’ve always had a mix of supernatural and down-to-earthness when it came to dealing with the entities and their effects… so maybe there would still be a way to unravel Jon’s issues in a positive way, for once.)

(Aaaah, I’m mostly interested in the idea of Melanie and Daisy talking to Jon about the influence of powers and personal responsibility, potentially more… quietly, after a few days, once they’ve all cooled down. Because Daisy might feel grateful for Jon for having pulled her out of the coffin, and I really doubt she would give up on him. Melanie… a bit less, and she used to genuinely dislike Jon, but she still Knows What It’s like. Both would have rightful reasons to feel bitter/annoyed/mad, though, that Jon has been spilling advice here and there, presenting himself as the voice of reason… and was absolutely not following through with his own actions, once again.)

(- Re: Annabelle’s statement. I have no Personal Offended Feelings about the jovial call-out directed towards the red-strings theorist (“simply sitting and revelling in the inevitable cascade of paranoia, as those who hold Her in special terror cocoon themselves in red string and theory.”), because 1°) THAT’S FAIR BUT HOW ‘BOUT I DO IT ANYWAY, 2°) I’m mostly amused because it adds to the pile of things about how I live TMA as I lived Umineko. I already had a list of things they share that I was amused about (tea, comatose love-interest, and (DUCT) tape, etc.), and I can now add to it “writer using a female character to shout at his fanbase when they’re fumbling around trying to understand The Fuck Is Happening”. Spider woman really interested in stories, insufferable/absolutely awful Witch of Theatregoing, Drama and Spectating – same struggle.)

MAG148’s title is out and OOOOOOOH does it. Sound. Like. Another. Beholding episode. Which would be our 4th already this season – it’s… a lot more than previous ones, really making it feel like The Eye is getting more present and threatening. (Could technically be The Web, too, with that weird intertwining of them that we got lately! Or just plainly Annabelle again.) As for the content: there is an obvious joke to make about Elias and the title would also fit him awfully well (sob); obligatory thinking about MAG003’s Graham; Adelard Dekker had referred to half of it in relation to Gertrude back in MAG113… But mostly: it could… accurately describe the Assistants deciding to monitor Jon? And statement-wise, it mainly screams “PANOPTICON” to me. So. Historical statement once again from the Jonah-Smirke era – or even from earlier, from Jeremy Bentham himself…? (Or from Jonathan Fanshawe post-1831, because so far, with what we learned about him, he had gotten away, and I liked him and I can’t have nice things.) Not necessarily read by Jon; we could switch to Martin again, since Peter had stated that he needed the Institute for his plans, and he had already read Smirke’s letter to Jonah Magnus last time. (… Or it could also be from one of Jon’s three other unnamed victims from season 4 orz)

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #mag147 #tma liveblog #tma season 4 #the magnus archives #tma spoilers/#guess who messed up her schedule this week again #and has 'birth of a new witch' on loop #long post/#i'll stop using victorious-but-barely-conscious emoji when i'll manage to not post these at the last moment (sob.)#... ahahahaha posted the night of 6th-7th august so. obligatory. happy... anniversary... tim... *cries in tim*

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Some Avatar AU ideas (really long but Please Ask Me About Them)

I have a lot of these?? I know it’s a lot but if you see one you like Please Ask Me About It I Would Appreciate It A Whole Lot, It Would Make My Day

- Zhao is careful. The Blue Spirit is caught, and Aang remains so. Katara and Sokka survive their illness, but are never quiet the same, and suffer permanent damage to their internal orans for the rest of their lives, as well as symptoms of early dementia. Zuko is tortured for his treason, given the greatest punishment of all: he is left to live utterly humiliated, blind, mutilated, and armless, doomed to be trapped and tortured in a prison made hell until the day he dies. Aang is left permanently on the brink of death, always inches away from starvation. He no longer hopes for freedom, merely death, that perfect painless peace, so he may be reborn and this ruined iteration can finally rest. Toph never even hears the name Aang, though she is embroiled within a small and dying resistance force. Katara and Sokka take care of Momo and Appa through work in a nearby town, kept from Aang by the intense secrecy surrounding the Avatar's whereabouts. They have looked and looked and looked- it's like he vanished off the face of the planet. They can't go back home; the waterbenders have met the same fate as the airbenders. The earthbenders, what little there are left, scurry and hide like rats beneath the cities they once ruled and loved. Ozai has won. There is no one left to disagree.

- Bending is not a human trait. Back when the world was new, four major races ruled: The merpeople of water, the centaurs of earth, the drakes of fire, and the harpies of air. Merpeople were covered in scales, with long, powerful tails and rows and rows of teeth and arms far too long for comfort. They had flat, almost non-existent noses and huge, solid iridescent eyes that looked like the purest of pearls. Centaurs had human torsos, but the bottom halves of equines from the neck down; they had manes that went all the way down to the base of their hooved-half's neck. They had the ears of equines, and eyes strangely round and colorless. If their hooved-half had horns, so did they. Drakes were quadrupedal and scaled, with long tails often ending in spikes or other weapon-like attributes. They had vestigial wings, mostly leathery, but very rarely feathery. They had long snounts filled with shark-like teeth that could grow back no matter how many times they were lost. They had horns, often massive, of many different shapes (but mostly curved back), with jaggedness or off-shoots usually connotating the ability to breath and control lightning. Harpies were human-like in shape, but were covered in feathers and had digitigrade legs that were feathered on the thighs but more scaled and bird-like below, with very bird-like feet. Their arms were much the same- feathered to the elbow, and scaled and bird-like from then one, with only four claw-tipped fingers on each hand. They also had massive wings, though they alone could not hold them up- a harpy that could not bend was a flightless one. Their faces had half-formed beaks and large, solid eyes and no ears, merely ear slits. But all of the First Races, immortal and powerful as they were, were full of such terrible hate. The earth withered under their battles, crumbled beneath centuries of war. So the spirits bound together, and with all of their power, raised something new from the fabric of the world: humans. Aware of what made the First Races so terrible, they made humans different: they held no power over the world besides their own hands, and more importantly, they could die. And the humans spread. Over every inch of the earth they crawled, finding homes in the nooks and crannies of the earth the First Races' destruction had wrought. But they did not spread merely among their own. Half-things began to exist, creatures of terrible power that could die like mere humans. And they spread, and soon benders were half as common as humans- part mortal, part immortal beings who could have any amount of either blood as long as they had both. They are born human, save for one identifying thing (flimsy, transparent scale patches on legs and webbed feet for merpeople, soft hooves for centaurs, horn nubs for drakes, and featherless winglets for harpies), but as they grow and their powers begin setting, they grow less and less human in appearance. You can tell a benders power from their form- the less human, the stronger. And indeed, in this way benders are superior to the First Races; while they withered and grew ill when their powers were hindered, benders merely become more human-like and none the worse for wear. Benders take on the forms of their powerful predecessors in strange ways. Waterbenders only take on tails instead of legs in the water, and only if their bending is strong enough. The stronger a waterbender is, the longer they can submerge without air; it is even said the most powerful of waterbenders have gills (though no such thing has been seen in decades). On land, they merely have webbed feet and patches of scales on their legs. Due to the human mouth not being half as big as necessary to fit all a merperson's teeth in, young waterbenders just growing their first sharp teeth often have some pulled. For a short time when they are first growing in, a tooth removed will not grow back, and so there is a small window for this measure to be taken. Waterbenders have excellent dark-vision, but are often colorblind. Some develop a small illisium (that glowy thing female anglerfish have on their heads to attract prey), but it's very rare. Earthbenders come in two main categories: bipedal and quadrupedal. Bipedal earthbenders are weaker than their more centaur-like brethren. They have hooves and a tail and usually fur from the waist down. Equine ears are not unusual but not particularly common. Otherwise, they are human in appearance (though black, too big irises are not too uncommon either). Quadruped earthbenders are often nigh identical to the centaurs of old, though missing the ears or eyes is not altogether uncommon. Earthbenders are all born two-legged; the transition from bipedal to quadrupedal is often very painful and arduous. Tradition calls it the cost of such mastery over the very earth itself. The process usually takes a week, but can take anywhere from four days to fourteen, and the entire time the earthbender is racked with monstrous growing pains. People say that the time your transformation takes you is proportional to how powerful the earthbender is. Firebenders are strange; they range from entirely bipedal to a more gorilla-like gait (walking on knuckles and back legs) to mostly quadrupedal, though that's found only in the royal family. Their horns follow the same rules as the drakes. A weak firebender has merely a few patches of scales, while one of, say, the royal family will be covered head to toe in them. Their facial structure depends on the strength of the firebender in question; a weak one will have a mostly human face, likely with slitted eyes and definitely with pointed teeth (a trait found in even the most human of firebenders), while a strong one will have a longer snout-like face with drake-like eyes and teeth. Airbenders always have digitigrade, harpy-like legs, though all other traits (save the wings) are entirely flexible. Unlike the airbenders of canon, these airbenders often keep their hair around shoulder-length; this is because ear slits are super gross and weird looking, and no one wants to see them. After humans and benders populated the world, the spirits decided to remove the First Races- they had served their purpose, paving the way for the Young Race, and were now nothing but purposeless war machines. But with the existence of benders, they had to make a choice: destroy them for their power? Or preserve them for their humanity? An idea was put forth: by creating a being with blood from all powers, they could create a peacekeeper, someone to keep the power of the young in check, someone who embodied how the world could harmonize. And so, with all their power and might, the spirits acted, and the First Races vanished off the face of the earth. And a child was born to two benders (of what type has been lost to time), one with horn nubs and winglets and scales and hooves. Aang always knew he was the Avatar. It was... more than a little hard to ignore. He had grown up lonely; no one wanted to play with a mis-matched child who could do too much too young, who never really looked human, who looked scary with power. Gyatso loved him, and made sure to keep him company... but one old man wasn't enough for a social creature like Aang. He tried to be upbeat, but sometimes it was hard, when you felt less like a person and more like an idol, kept on the shelf and seen but not heard, prayed to but not listened to. He left in the night when he heard he would be separated from his favorite person in the world, and though he could have flown himself, something in him couldn't leave Appa behind. It paid off, when he had at least one friend from home left, a century displaced from everyone he had ever known. He has a long, thin snout that ends in a sharp, short beak, great big black eyes like pools of space-stuff, and horns that even at age twelve show great power. They sweep back like the reins of a horse, and are entirely smooth and without offshoots. His deer-like ears are constantly turning and twitching. His hunched but bipedal body is mostly covered in soft, small feathers like grey down, but his stomach and chest are protected by baby-blue scutes that trail down all the way to the tip of his tail. He has legs like a harpy's, but they end in the dainty, split hooves of a deer. His tail is long and whip-like, and patches of feathers are missing on it to be replaced by yellow and orange scales. Its tipped by a scorpion-like stinger, though he does not know if there's venom in it (how would he check?). His arms are very long and he can comfortably walk on all fours, though he's slanted downwards a good deal. His five-fingered hands are tipped with long, but dulled claws the same black as the rest of his hands and forearms. He has very big wings, the feathers ending in white tips, shaped like the long, fast wings of a tern. Sokka and Katara lived a life about the same as canon, save Katara's penchant for catching fish the 'fun' way. Sokka made a point not to eat those fish, because he did not want to think about how many teeth she had (far too many, in his opinion) and what those teeth had done to the fish (or could do to a person). Sokka is a little afraid of Katara in this world. She has a sclera, but no pupils, and her irises are like liquid rainbow they're so iridescent. Her arms aren't that much longer than normal, but she's got more than enough in claws and teeth to make up for it. She strong enough to grow a tail in water, but not gills, and her scales make a nebula of deep blue and sea prune purple and dark, deep green. Her fins and webbings are a simple light blue. Sokka is a human, and is perfectly fine with it. If it weren't for his sister, he'd be an awful shitstain about benders, and even being the brother of one he's still not overly fond of them. Toph is a centaur, through and through, the spitting image of a First Race- she's a mountain goat, specifically. Small, white, fluffy, tiny curved horns, even her cloven hooves are adorable; she looks harmless if you've never been to the ring. If you have, you'd know she's the most powerful and dangerous earthbender of the century, and that her small horns are sharp as daggers- and she's not afraid to get dirty. Zuko is a firebender, obviously, but he didn't receive a scar- his wings were ripped off. Being vestigial, it doesn't affect functionality, but having entire limbs ripped off tends to have aftereffects, namely pain. Pain, and shame- the fact that firebender wings are vestigial means they are often used as a form of punishment. Having notches in them is a mark of shame- removed? Reserved only for those not good enough to die. His scales are crimson, with dull pink scutes (Azula always says he looks ugly as a scar). His wings were a shade redder. They were leathery as his fathers. But shame is not new to Zuko. While the rest of his family (save his human mother) are perfect quadrupeds, he's had to train himself just to walk on his knuckles, and has a heavy upward slant. His wings were never very big- on the small side of average, really. His tail is only four feet long, nearly doubled by Azula's and tripled by Ozai's (though age is definitely a factor there), and it ends in a simple ivory three-pronged blade-plate, a little bit wibbly and curved, a mockery of the fire nation symbol. His claws are a little above average size and ivory, not the huge royal obsidian of his family. But his horns are the biggest disgrace. Only one and a half feet, straight back and slightly curved down, not a rough patch or hint of an off-shoot on them. The horns of a coward, Ozai said. Only meant for keeping your own neck safe- though yours are hardly long enough to do even that. When Azula was young and feeling extra mean, sometimes she'd grab them and ride him like a bull as he roared and fought to get her off. Now, for reference: he's stronger than the average firebender, but not by much. Average horn length is a bit more than a foot. Tail length is around three feet. Most firebenders are bipedal. The royal family is royal for being purest of blood, aka Strong As Goddamn Shit. So yes, he brings much shame to the family- but most people outside the family would be somewhat frightened by him. He's missing patches of scales, most notably on his face- long ago, Ozai clawed off the scales on the left side of his face, and they never grew back. When Zuko was younger, it was a terrible source of shame. He got older, and realized the visible lack of power brought more shame to Ozai than him, and felt better about it.

- The Avatar is a being born of four soulmates (usually of the non-romantic type), one from each nation, who can fuse to create the Avatar and can transfer thoughts simply by touching, and even boost each others power levels by even only two of them being around each other. They have no identifying marks, and when one dies, so do the other three, so the Avatar's icons even knowing their own identity doesn't always happen. They are all born at the exact same moment. To compensate for this rarity and difficulty in even forming the Avatar, benders are much, much rarer. Rare enough, in fact, that before the airbenders were destroyed, every bender upon turning 16 was tested by that lands spiritual leaders. It is 14 years before this world's equivalent of the canon start of the show. A woman in the hidden places beneath the mountains of the Southern Air Temple, last refuge of the last Air Nomads, dies peacefully in her sleep of old age, never knowing who she was. So too do three others, all of different nations. They are all old, and no one takes notice. Four are born in the same bright instant, also of different nations. 14 years later, and Aang escapes the caverns, young and naive to the horrors of war. He's curious, and figures water as air's sister element would be most welcoming, so he flies south with Appa. He meets Katara and Sokka, and strength floods their veins just from standing close and foreign thoughts fill their heads when they touch and suddenly Aang's destiny, why he felt so strongly he had to run away, becomes clearer than the purest ice. They find a ship, lost and frozen. A flare goes up. A 14 year old banished prince, who left home disgraced and mutilated at age 11, finally lays eyes on two halves of his whole ticket home. There's a fight. It doesn't last very long. But Zuko feels strangely strong. He attributes it to adrenaline, to hope, to anything that won't desolate the very purpose of his quest. He does not touch the airbender as he takes him prisoner (for this is the last airbender- who else could be the Icon of Air). Aang escapes with Katara and Sokka and Appa's help. They travel to the earth kingdom. And it's a lost cause, blindly wandering, searching for the rush of proximity to another icon in a country bigger than any other, but they get lucky, and at the Earth Rumble VI Aang gets on stage and grabs Toph's arm and thoughts swarm each other's heads. Toph throws him off the stage and meets him below and asks him what the fuck is going on, and after excited explanations the Icon of Earth joins their ratty gang. But they all know what comes next. They're stronger than ever before together, but the Avatar can't exist without their fourth and final piece. Upon a realization had late at night, Aang convinces the group to wait. Zuko's been hunting them for months. He won't fail them now. Sure enough, he comes- ponytail and fancy clothes gone, riding a thin ostrichhorse with his uncle, a gaunt look heavy on both their faces- desperate to go home through any means necessary. But Aang is faster than him, and though Zuko's wearing gloves and long sleeves, Aang darts forward and puts his hand on scarred skin and thoughts crash into him like a wildfire. Zuko can no longer deny it. Iroh, who has suspected since he first saw the too-large blast of fire Zuko made in his fight with the Avatar, is supportive and encouraging and convinces him to go back after Zuko runs away. The four Icons finally meet as allies. One problem- they have no idea how to make the Avatar. Iroh tells them it's total trust and opening their minds to each other and Zuko storms away again, because he's a child and also was definitely planning on betraying them all. But he makes up his mind- if he can hide his plan from them, he can convince them to go to the Fire Nation to fight Ozai- and there, he'll turn them in, earning his honor and his father's love. But that means clearing all the thoughts of such a betrayal from his mind, and over time, he starts to believe what he's trying to convince the others he believes. He runs away one night, unable to handle the realization that one can't actually lie in their own head- it just becomes truth over time. He has to make a choice- who is he loyal too? His father obviously, he thinks- but his father, who burned half an eleven-year-old's face off, who banished him for what he had hoped was forever- is he worth fighting for? Of course, says the son of Ozai, subject of the Fire Nation, Crown Prince to the throne. Not in the slightest, says the young boy with friends who care for him, who at some point and entirely without his consent made him care about them too, who loves his uncle and misses him mom and has traveled all around the globe, who knows intimately the horrors of what war leaves behind. Zuko makes his choice.

Please give me thoughts?

#fucko #sorry this is so long?? but i just really wanted to get this out there

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