#also this prompt makes me think of the slaughter from the magnus archives

[silhouettecrow]

365 Days of Writing Prompts: Day 249

Adjective: Raw

Noun: War

Definitions for those who need/want them:

Raw: (of food) uncooked; (of a material or substance) in its natural state, or not yet processed or purified; (of information) not analyzed, evaluated, or processed for use; (of a part of the body) red and painful, especially as the result of skin abrasion; (of an emotion or quality) strong and undisguised; frank and realistic in the depiction of unpleasant facts or situations; (informal) (US) (of language) coarse or crude, typically in relation to sexual matters; (of the weather) bleak, cold, and damp; (of a person) new to an activity or job and therefore lacking experience or skill; (of the edge of a piece of cloth) not having a hem or selvage

War: a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state; a particular armed conflict; a state of competition, conflict, or hostility between different people or groups; a sustained effort to deal with or end a particular unpleasant or undesirable situation or condition

[wolftraps]

"They’ve got one single person who is Desolation + the End (an orphan Daisy found in the burned out shell of a house that they all sort of co-raised...)" Oh I'd love to hear more about them. Both in the Institute family accidentally an entire baby sense and in the WOW is this the wrong person to have mad at you sense. Give them a touch of the Hunt and they're deadlier than any Slaughter. (Course, thats what mum's for.)

Right, so, uh, I didn’t mean to write so much. But I guess that’s the story of Reverb. So, here’s 2500 words of Daisy and Jon raising a monster, I guess?

Basira finds the lead. There have been rumors that the Lightless Flame is trying to create a new Agnes. Jon thinks they may already have. He doesn’t Know, but his attempts to do so gave him a nasty sunburn for a couple hours, so he passed it off to them instead. Almost everyone involved in Agnes’s birth and childhood are gone, but there are still a couple known contacts, and at this point, Daisy can usually just follow the smell of burning.

It’s Basira who finds the lead, though, and takes them up to a tiny town about 100km north of Glasgow.

To what was a tiny town north of Glasgow. Most of it isn’t even smoking anymore by the time they get there. If anyone survived, they’ve already fled. All except for one. There’s no sound that gives them away. No crying or screams. Daisy just follows the scent of smoke to the epicenter of the destruction, and huddled in the middle of the burned out shell of a house, with their head buried in their knees, is a child.

Her first step into the building disturbs some rubble, just enough to get the child’s attention without immediately prompting an attack. Their head snaps up, and they may not be crying now, but the redness of their eyes says they have been.

“Daisy,” Basira warns as she takes a step closer, and Daisy motions for her to keep back.

Another step, the child tenses. Another, they still don’t attack. Another. Another. When she’s finally only a couple meters away, the kid makes ready to run. So that’s where Daisy stops, and sits down amid the rubble and ash.

“Hi,” she says softly. “I’m not here to hurt you. My name is Daisy.”

No response.

“Can you tell me your name?”

Nothing.

“That’s alright. You can tell me when you’re ready.” Daisy slowly gestures at the destruction around them. “I’m going to take a guess and say you did this.” The child tenses. “Also going to guess you didn’t mean to.” They stare at her suspiciously for another few seconds and then jerkily shake their head.

“That’s okay,” Daisy reassures them. “I understand. I’m going to sit here as long as you need to feel comfortable, okay? You can talk when you’re ready, but I’m only here to help.” Their eyes flick briefly to Basira, still standing just outside the demolished wall. “That’s my partner, Basira. She’s not going to hurt you either. She’ll stay right there unless you say she can come in.”

And so they stay for another twenty minutes, sitting in silence.

“D-Daisy?” the child says eventually, their voice cracking and hoarse from smoke.

“I’m here.”

“You… don’t really look like a Daisy.” Daisy laughs.

“My real name is Alice.”

“You don’t look like an Alice, either.”

“Yeah. I didn’t really like it. Daisy’s better.” They nod.

“I’m… I’m Shay.”

“Hi, Shay. Good to meet you.”

“I… I really didn’t mean to,” they say, and their shoulders shake, but there are no tears. Daisy suspects they may be too dehydrated. “I just… I just wanted to see. And- and then I couldn’t stop it. And everyone was screaming! And- and-”

“Shh-shh. It’s okay, Shay. Can I come closer?” Shay nods and Daisy moves slowly, no sudden movements, until she sits again at Shay’s side. “I’d like to hug you, if that’s okay.”

“I- I don’t-”

“That’s fine too. I’m right here. However you need me.” Shay studies her for a long moment, barely breathing, and then a sob wracks through them and they’re buried in her side.

“I didn’t mean to!”

“I know. It’s okay. I know.” She rocks them gently until the shaking stops.

“What’s going to happen to me now?”

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to take you home now.”

“Your home?”

“My home.”

“With you and Basira.”

“With us, and my friend Jon. And Martin and Sasha. Our whole little family. And yours if you want it.”

-

“A child,” Georgie says incredulously. “Someone gave you a child?”

“Technically, Daisy acquired a child. I thought it best they learn in a more stable environment. Also they’re almost eleven. It’s not like we’re trying to raise a toddler in the Archives.”

“I’m not sure that’s better, Jon.” The child in question side-eyes them, but says nothing, just continues to sort papers. “They’re very quiet.”

“Now,” Jon scoffs a bit. “There was a bit of a row earlier, and a yell that may have spawned a small tornado. Shay is cleaning up the mess they created, in silence, or they won’t be going out with Sasha tomorrow to witness Hurricane Gabrielle hit Florida.” He meets Shay’s glare with a flat stare of his own. Stubborn ten-year-olds have a remarkable ability to not be intimidated by staring, though they still break first, with a touch of an embarrassed blush.

“Jon! They’re a child.”

“Georgie! They’re not human. And I’m certainly not going to push them to pick a second patron at this age, so I would rather they participate in events that will occur anyway than for them to start blowing things up near our home.”

“So if they don’t behave, you’ll starve them.” The glare Jon aims at her has her taking a step back. It’s not often Jon aims any of his powers at Georgie, but it’s abundantly clear that that isn’t something she should have said.

“If they don’t behave, they will be taken to northern Georgia, where the hurricane will likely cause serious flooding, but little irreparable damage. They’re already Desolation, Georgie, and I am not going to punish them for living.”

-

“Shay.”

“Oh, uh, hey, mum! W-what’s up?”

“Explain.”

“I’m just… protesting? Oh, come on! We’ve been careful. Minor injuries and some lingering trauma only. And you can’t tell me some of these assholes don’t deserve it!”

Daisy looks at them sternly for a good half minute, just enough to let them squirm.

“You’re targeting the wrong pressure points. And his lordship is over there,” she points to the building currently behind Shay, right on the edge of the localized earthquake they have going.

“Oh. Oops.”

“If you want to level the building three down from that, I won’t complain. Got a Stranger I’ve been after for a while squatting there.”

“Aww.”

“Don’t.”

“What? I think it’s sweet you still bring him Strangers for their anniversary!”

“You want pointers or not?”

“Not saying another word. What’s the secret to efficiently destroying a building?”

-

Jon finds them in the tunnels, sitting against a wall, wrapped around Patrząc. He sits beside them, just close enough to brush arms. Even then, he can feel the heat coming off them. Not burning, but feverish at least, if they were capable of having fevers.

Neither of them say a word for several minutes.

“I keep trying to cry,” Shay says, soft and flat. “I want to. I- I really fucked up this time, but I just… can’t. I can feel them, their terror, and… I can feel when it stops. Every single one, it feels like i’m being dropped into ice water, but I’ve been burning so hot, it feels more like a balm. I… I know we’re not human, but shouldn’t- shouldn’t I be sad? Or… something?”

Jon leans his head back against the wall and considers. “I- spent a lot of my youth blaming myself for… everything, really. It took me a long time to accept that ‘you always have a choice’ and ‘some things are beyond your control’ aren’t mutually exclusive. Just because there is a choice, doesn’t mean it could’ve gone any other way than how it did.”

“Didn’t you literally go back in time to change everything?”

“Yes. And I changed… a lot. It was hard to think of it that way at the time. Back then, it seemed like no matter what I did, everything was still going to go wrong. Some people probably would’ve been… No, no one would’ve been better off. Not in the end. That’s what I still have trouble remembering. We told you I came back because the world ended.”

“Yeah? Because of Jonah Magnus. You came back to kill him, so it didn’t happen.”

“I’m the one who ended it.”

“Wh- wait, what? But you…”

“We tried to run away, but I was too much the Archivist to go without statements. Basira sent us some, but Jonah slipped one in, and it held the words to perform the ritual. By the time I realized what it was, I couldn’t stop reading. It wasn’t a choice I deliberately made, but I ended the world.”

“Oh… fuck.”

“Heh. Yeah. And still, I wouldn’t have come back- I wouldn’t have been able to come back- if Martin hadn’t been killed.”

“I don’t-”

“Do you know about Agnes?”

“Agnes… Montague? I read some of the statements, why?”

“If Daisy never found you. If you were raised by the Lightless Flame. You were meant to be her replacement. Your birth was orchestrated to bring about the apocalypse in the image of Desolation.”

“… Oh.”

“Agnes was conflicted. She had doubts. Eventually, she decided she couldn’t do it. She told them to hang her, so her spark would return to the fires of Desolation and they could try again.”

“… Oh.”

“Do you know the difference between you and her?”

“She chose not to destroy the world and I’m going to do it by accident?”

“No. It’s the same as the difference between timelines for me. The people around Agnes made her choose between dying and ending the world. The difference is that your family would never want you to do either.”

“I… Jon- Dad- There- there are still so many lives being lost. Because of me. And-”

“And you can feel them. Yes. You said it doesn’t feel bad. Does it feel good?”

“Wh- Um… Not- not especially? Mostly it just… is. It’s almost like… part of me wants to be satisfied, but instead I’m just numb.”

“That’s probably the best we could hope for.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. I’ll do my best to explain. We should go back up, though. Your mother is being gruff, but it’s because she’s worried about you.” Jon starts to lever himself up but is stopped by a warm grip on his arm.

“Could- could we stay down here, just a bit longer? The- the cold feels nice.” Jon smiles softly and sits and lets them lean in to rest their head on his shoulder, even though they’ve got enough height on him it can’t be comfortable. The two of them won’t be able to sit here forever. A fretting Daisy is already wearing a hole in the floor of the Archives with her pacing. And it’s unlikely the forest fire is going to go out without some supernatural intervention. He remembers this feeling, though, and how much he depended on Martin’s support.

He can give them this, for a little while longer, and then he’ll call Oliver Banks.

-

Ethan has been at the Institute for half a year when he finally meets Jon’s kid. They’re… a lot livelier than he expected. They blow through the Archives like a whirlwind (and, in fact, may spawn a small one, though it only disturbs some of the discredited statements, so it’s not like it matters), and almost slide into a seat across from Jon.

“Mum says you have something for me,” they say, practically bouncing. “What is it? What is it?”

“Hello, Shay. Lovely to see you too. I’m doing just swell, thanks for asking. How are you?”

“Oh please, you know exactly how i’m doing. But… yes, hi Jon, I missed you too.” Ethan has never once had any cause to doubt his mother’s love, but he doesn’t think he’s ever seen her look at him with half as much fondness as Jon looks at Shay. Though, in fairness, that’s probably because he’s a bit too close to the situation with his own mum.  “Soooo?”

“The Vast.”

“Oooh, that’s a new one. I thought Martin still had a pretty good hold on the Fairchilds.”

“Simon is trying his hand at space exploration again and won’t answer our calls. Helena says this new avatar isn’t a Fairchild and has no stake in our alliance.”

“Is she telling the truth?”

“Unfortunately. Kinsey Harris is a former RAF pilot. In 2031, there was a malfunction and his plane went down. He did not. In August of 2032, he came to the Blackwood Institute and made a statement. Ethan?”

Jon has been doing this more and more lately, quizzing Ethan on case numbers. Sometimes he remembers from his searches through old statements, sometimes he doesn’t. On at least two occasions, though, he’s known without ever seeing it.

“Umm… 07.2031.2032/08/14… I/L/R?” Jon nods, and Ethan tries not to look too proud of himself.

“New guy?” Shay asks, looking him over. They had clearly missed him in their sprint to Jon’s office.

“Not that new,” Jon scoffs.

“Jon.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t need to! Martin and Mum and even Sasha did it for you! I’m pretty sure Sasha doesn’t know what year it is half the time, let alone how long it’s been since I last visited the Institute.”

“Sasha knows what year it is at least 86% of the time, and she knows when it’s been too long since you came home.”

“Can’t we go back to you asking me to kill a guy? That conversation was a lot more fun.” Jon stares at them until they start to squirm, just a little, and Ethan’s spent enough time with him that he’s pretty sure he can see Jon fighting a smirk.

“Kinsey took one of our HR employees, Buried-aligned. She was missing for a week before she crash-landed in the front hall. Now one of our library staff, Len, Pitch, is gone.” All of Shay’s fidgeting has stopped, and there’s a sense of… something in the Archives. Static tension. The calm before a storm.

“Right. Give me everything you have on him.”

“Ethan has been collecting it all. He can fill you in while you grab something from the canteen.”

Shay doesn’t so much roll their eyes as their whole head. “You cannot judge me for skipping a couple meals. I was busy.”

“I can and I will. Go. Eat lunch. And we will see you for dinner later.”

For a second it looks like there’s going to be an argument, but Shay stops before saying anything. “Who’s cooking?” they ask. Jon really does smirk now.

“Georgie and I are making curry.”

“Yessss. Okay. I’ll see you later. Love you!” They drop a kiss on Jon’s cheek and then Ethan is being pulled up the stairs by someone with Jon’s intensity and Ms. Tonner’s feral energy and he wonders if maybe he should be worried, but doubts he’s going to have much time for that.

[efortmanteau]

Inktober Prompts for The Magnus Archives

I was thinking to myself “What am I going to do for Inktober this year?” and I realized my biggest fandom this year is definitely The Magnus Archives! So I made a bunch of prompts. Play along if you like, feel free to tag me (or, if you are in the official Rusty Quill Discord channel, I can see the stuff people post there).

Inktober is a tradition where artists make a piece of visual art every day using an ink medium. It's entirely just for fun. Although most of the prompts will reference drawing, it doesn't have to be limited to ink or even just to 2D illustration. Write a fanfic, create a sculpture, do digital art, doodle on a napkin, sing a song, write a poem, perform a monologue. No one can stop you!

If you don't like a prompt, try one of these: - Go to a dictionary website and take inspiration from whatever the word of the day is. - Take inspiration from a fortune cookie. - Take inspiration from another Inktober prompt (there are plenty around the Internet). - Grab a nearby book, turn to page 31, and take inspiration from a passage. - Draw/make yourself or a friend a character that would fit in the universe. - Make whatever you like!

For prompts of the form "An OC or canon character affiliated with <whatever Entity>", you can draw a character who appears in the show (canon) or an OC (original character, like from your brain!) You can draw an OC you've had for a long time, or someone you just made up. It can be someone who is haunted/cursed by a particular Entity, or someone who was chosen to be an Avatar of that Entity, or someone who just had a run-in with that Entity and gave a statement. If you have trouble coming up with an OC, I suggest finding someone's Entity-themed playlist and basing the character on a random song from that list.

For prompts of the form "A moment from a random episode…", enter the number range into a random number picker online, then relisten to that episode (or read a transcript or summary) to find a moment you want to illustrate.

Appropriately mark spoilers for recent episodes or mature/NSFW content.

Have fun! And it's okay if you can't do it every day or even half of the days.

Here are the prompts for each day:

1. An OC or canon character affiliated with The End 2. A moment from a random episode in season 1 (eps 1-40) 3. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Slaughter 4. Your favorite Archive staff member (current or past) 5. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Stranger 6. One character, at least 3 different times in their life (different seasons, different ages, etc.) 7. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Desolation 8. A character doing a hobby that you imagine them enjoying 9. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Beholding 10. A moment from a random episode in season 2 (eps 41-80) 11. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Spiral 12. One character, 7 times, each with a different outfit 13. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Flesh 14. Some characters as cats or other animals 15. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Hunt 16. A comic of a funny moment (canon or otherwise) 17. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Dark 18. A moment from a random episode in season 3 (eps 81-120) 19. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Vast 20. A landscape, background, or setting that is significant to the plot 21. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Web 22. A pairing/grouping or characters (romantic or "name a more iconic duo/trio/group") 23. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Buried 24. One character, multiple emotions: happy, angry, annoyed, surprised, tired, sad 25. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Lonely 26. A moment from a random episode in season 4 (eps 121-160 or whatever we're currently up to) 27. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Corruption 28. A scene that takes place in autumn (canon or otherwise) 29. An OC or canon character affiliated with The Extinction 30. Your favorite Entity, but as an advertisement (a logo, a movie poster, a postcard, whatever) 31. A scene from (one of) your favorite episode(s)

I’ve also included the rules and prompt list as pictures because colors help my brain, and it might be easier to save a picture to your phone/computer than to bookmark a Tumblr post.

[centaurianthropology]

The Magnus Archives ‘Entombed’ (S04E12) Analysis

Jon goes on an ill-advised and potentially suicidal rescue mission.  Horror and self-reflection follow.  Come on in to hear what I have to say about ‘Entombed’.

Jon seemed very confident at the beginning.  It’s hard to tell where the knowledge that the Beholding gives him ends, and his own stupid assumptions begin.  Certainly leaving a rib and a tape doesn’t seem like a stable anchor to me. Anchoring himself on the other end to Daisy’s voice seems more practical.  In fact, it seems so practical I wonder why he didn’t use another tape with another voice as his anchor out.  That jives far better with the Archivist’s abilities than a rib.

It’s also telling that he left an apology to Melanie and Basira, Melanie because she wanted him to wait for Basira but he knew Basira would try to stop him, Basira because he went when he knew she wouldn’t want him to go.  He didn’t leave any word to Martin, so I wonder if he’s also already giving Martin up for lost as the other two have clearly done, or is simply trying to respect Martin’s demands.  Either way, the omission hurt.

As for the statement itself, it’s strange to hear from Daisy, perhaps the real Daisy for the first time.  She’s scared, but more self-aware than the Daisy who is addicted to the Hunt, and also a lot more Welsh?  But it’s also notable that she can realize the Hunt was in her all her life, gave her a sharpness and a purpose.  I think that might mean that some people, at least, are claimed from birth.  

It’s interesting to contrast Daisy with Melanie.  Daisy and Melanie had bits of themselves that attracted their respective powers from a very early age.  But while Daisy has never been totally free to be ‘Daisy’ until she was trapped in the coffin, Melanie did seem relatively free to be herself, albeit with a directionless and burning anger always inside her, until the bullet.  Daisy prizes her clarity and the self-awareness she has in the coffin.  Melanie prizes the sharpness and the direction the Slaughter gave her.  But both are also aware that they were being used by each respective power, even while they used the power to a lesser extent. They realize they could be better without the power riding them.

But they both also desire the strength power gives them.  Melanie perhaps more than Daisy at this moment, but Melanie’s done less unforgivable things under the direction of her power.  Of course it seems more appealing.

But it also means that a Daisy without the Hunt can recognize the damage she’s done, and want to change.  I wonder if that goes the same for Jon.  He recognized that everyone gets a choice, even if it doesn’t feel like one.  He chose the Archivist.  He chose the Eye.  He could have died, and yet he didn’t.

And yet somehow, he isn’t changed by being cut off from the Eye nearly as much as Daisy was by being cut off from the Hunt.  Jon just seems like Jon, but a little softer, a little less demanding of information. Even when he ‘asks’ Daisy how she’s feeling, there’s no static or sense that he’s really doing more than prompting someone the way you or I might.  

Jon’s realization that a choice is there, and that perhaps it’s one he continuously must make, is perhaps the most powerful thing he could have realized.  He chooses to act human, to be compassionate or not, to help his friends, to have friends, to reach out even when rejected.  He chooses all of that in the face of the fact that he has insides likely lined with Eyes.  In the face of the dreams that haunt him and the ocean of information threatening to drown him, he went after Daisy because she helped him once, and because Basira wanted her back.  Because it was the right thing to do.  

Monster or human, perhaps doesn’t matter nearly as much as I’ve thought it has.  You choose to do good or you choose to do ill, even when the choice is influenced by torrential external factors.  The choice is still there.  It could be stacked.  It’s often an unequal choice, but the choice is still there.

And so are the consequences. Because they’re out now, and Daisy stated all-too-plainly that the Daisy in touch with the Hunt has a burning desire to put Jon in the ground.

But that didn’t matter to him.  Saving her was right.  There wasn’t even a question of leaving her behind when he felt the tug of his anchor. It’s not entirely clear if his rib had any real draw, or if it was the tape he left acting as the real anchor. But the strength of the anchor itself only became strong enough when someone, likely Basira, was smart enough to fetch something Jon has a real connection to and pile all those running tape recorders up next to the coffin.  

They’re out.  But of course, there’s a question of if Daisy gets to keep her self-awareness, and what she is now that she’s free of the Coffin. Will there be more of a choice and less of a drive to kill everything she perceives as a ‘monster’?  Will she find it in herself to find a better way to be? More Daisy than she was before, but also still with the strength of a Hunter?  If everything is a choice, can she make a new choice now?

Or is Jon about to fall victim to the Hunt?  Daisy did want to kill him even before the coma.  With everyone now sharply aware of how inhuman Jon may be at this point, she won’t fail to notice it too.  And if she does, can Basira talk her down?  Would she talk her down?  Basira really isn’t the biggest fan of Jon at the moment, but he did just save Daisy. Would she try to make Daisy see reason? Could she?

There’s a lot about their relationship that is as-yet undefined.  We know that Basira means everything to Daisy, but it’s less clear what Daisy means to Basira.  Certainly she’s been different since she lost Daisy.  She’s been colder, more deliberately distant, but what does that translate into now that she’s got Daisy back?

A more thorough exploration of how they play off one another would be more than welcome.  Perhaps we’ll even get that next week.  The one thing I’ve learned from this podcast is to never try to predict the weird swings and roundabouts this plot might take.

[flockofdoves]

wait ok maybe a bad time to start this at 1:30am (<- started this post last night lmao) but i’ve been thinking so much (for a long time but this week i think maybe prompted by jonny saying stuff in the s5 q&a part 3 about fanon character designs getting more homogenous as the fandom gets bigger its really been on my mind again) about my thoughts on the magnus archives character design stuff

(this turned into such a fucking long post my god sorry lol. just writing this for my own purposes really but i feel ridiculous i spent like a good portion of the past day writing this out dkjfhgfd)

like i already said on that other post character design stuff is full of so much under the surface both really silly and almost nonsensical (like ‘oh this character just feels like they have a lot of triangles incorporated into their design’ or the slightly more connected to reality arbitrary ideas people have about what type of character might wear glasses) and stuff thats incredibly loaded and very much connected to real life systems of oppression. so its like. idk. i like drawing people and fashion and harmonizing shapes and the idea of coming up with people who dont exist through abstracted drawings that somehow click and that can feel cohesive even with different angles/expressions/poses/etc is really fun to me conceptually but Character Design(tm) as a thing even outside of established tropes and schools of it that really lean into elements that can uphold gross shit as shorthand just inevitably theres so much to consider in the implications of making a person (visually) and ascribing traits to them (or i guess in this case largely the opposite)

so thats not something id call fun its just important and inevitably a big factor if i’m going to put any of this to words and can only hope i do so non-clumsily when i wanna talk about this on the whole just bc i find the process of how fanon designs get homogenized interesting (and the purpose of it understandable and maybe a bit inevitable in certain contexts) but also regardless of any actual potential problematic implications in any of that just bc i like the creative process of coming up with character designs i like trying to see when it comes to practicing that through applying it to characters in non-visual media i care about how i can break my guides for what they could look like down to their bare essentials between canon description, things i vibe with personally, etc so that if i have all that written down for myself it can be a good starting place for just experimenting with designs (i dont have any desire to settle on any one design for these characters but its just good general practice for this stuff) and maybe pushing a bit against some things that seem to be generally defaulted to mix things up or w/e. so yeah i’ve just wanted to write all this out for myself for a while, so after that long fucking intro fdkgh here goes!

jon!!!

ok so canonically hes born about 1987 and is like roughly 28-31 throughout the series but looks older to the point where he straight up lies and says hes a decade older at one point, he has graying hair, has been described as looking like he hasnt slept in weeks

(this bullet point contains spoilers up to early s4) depending on what part of canon youre describing him in he canonically has scars from worms probably all over his body (post ep 39), a burn scar on his hand (probably right and probably roughly shaped like a handprint) (post ep 89), actually i’m checking on the wiki now and it specifically says melanie stabbed him in the shoulder? but rereading the transcript and another couple parts that i thought potentially could mention it i dont believe it ever actually specifies (maybe the person who wrote that is conflating how both melanie and daisy’s first injuries from the slaughter are on their shoulders? so even if not canon good guess i guess that his scar from thats on his shoulder) (post ep 125) plus also probably on his throat from daisy (post ep 91), somewhere from michael stabbing him (post ep 47), and who knows maybe even something from mike crew (probably not it was just the height part of things not a lightning strike but i saw fanart of him getting a lichtenberg figure scar once from that which was interesting) (post ep 91)

has been described as ‘scrawny’ and ‘little’ which may just be more of a insult but because of that i support manlet jon lol. also because of that tend to think of him as skinny and not very muscular but i’m def not opposed to him being fat i think its really fun when i do see interpretations of him as such esp in juxtaposition with martin its nice having stuff sometimes where its two fat characters in a relationship. but if i’m leaning on every little word to narrow down character design i’d say hes most likely thin and probably short too.

getting into stuff with no real canon basis, i am a fan of him having long hair like a lot of fanon has him with. its a very tangential justification because i know its more the specific events surrounding this this was describing but when he was described as a “grubby jesus” that helped lol

but! my jon hair opinion that seems to differ from fanon is that i think maybe itd make sense with him being described as looking older and stuff to give him a bit of a receding hairline

not sure about glasses either way i think it just comes down to the specific design whether it looks good or not. there is something conceptually funny to me about giving an avatar of the eye glasses and debating whether that “makes sense” or not lol. one time i saw someones design where he stopped needing to wear glasses later on and i thought that was kinda fun

i don’t really care for like. idk. glowing green eyed jon or multiple eyes or w/e. like i get it. idk probably somethings happening when hes doing like the ceaseless watcher thing or like that one scene where he forced a statement out of that person who described him as “all eyes” like the phrase but maybe not just that as a phrase. so that plus the cover art of the show being green and making people probably theme stuff on that color i guess i cant blame people for doing that but idk just like. it feels kinda just Blah and not that novel to see a lot of the time and a bit too tropey or w/e for my personal taste unless people mix it up a bit. so i tend to prefer him just looking like some guy even later on usually. also with just like brown eyes or w/e

okay so this next part is for both jon and martin because i cant fit this into either of their sections because i feel like i cant adequately talk about this without doing it in juxtaposition to one another

this post summarizes basically anything i’m reiterating here far better but basically by nature of this being a podcast written by a white person for whom most of the first characters voiced (who included most of the most frequently appearing characters outside of those described by others because they were reoccurring avatars or w/e long before voice appearances) were from a small pool of people at a majority white company and their family members, even if that wasnt “intentional” of course that pattern happens so much and more productions should be conscious of that from the get go and reach outside their immediate circles to cast more actors of color from the start of their productions if they have the resources to properly compensate them. so basically from there theres no real totally satisfying solution for portraying “aracial” characters acted and written by white people’s race, because the situation just isn’t ideal in the first place

so like, with that in mind, i know its a bit of a mixed bag with jon in fanon being pretty consistently either ambiguously a person of color or specifically south asian, because i know people of color who were excited from fanon going in for him to be a person of color only to realize hes written and voiced by a white guy and has no canon race (which might just somewhat default to him being written as white since theres no active thought to how him being a person of color, let alone any specific race or ethnicity, might affect anything), but then on the other hand, characters with no race given being defaulted to being portrayed as white is absolutely another common issue in fandoms of things like books and podcasts. so personally because of that i would feel weird portraying him as white in my own designs in contrast with how consistently hes depicted as a person of color, but i would be interested in potentially depicting him as other races beyond the default fanon of him being south asian too (although theres def stuff to consider there that doesnt prevent any interpretation but just is there regardless like his dynamic with daisy in like s4)

and then this post expresses things better than i could ever rehash, but because of the stuff outlined in there in my own attempts at character designs i try to avoid making martin white because of the juxtaposition between that and making jon a person of color in their dynamic. not as pertinent and not something i’ve taken in from any fan of color saying it so i’m definitely not dictating this just talking out my thought process, but by extension of this i’ve also tried to consider how colorism in juxtaposition between them might make it sit better to have martin have darker skin than jon. this does get a bit weird though when balancing how martin has a couple really goofy lines implying ignorance about police abusing their power (i guess charitable interpretations could be that hes plenty aware but nonetheless vocalizing shock in the moment of it actually happening in front of him), so even if as one of the few characters i’ve posted designs of before i drew him as black, when i remembered those lines i guess its just an issue of an “aracial” character being defaulted to being written as if hes white, so even if he certainly could still be black (or any race besides white who might not have the luxury of ignorance about police brutality) it just makes clear that by him being written the way he was nothings ideal because theres not necessarily much depth that can be taken from canon to make certain depictions of him as satisfying or well fleshed out as they could be. oh also so inconsequential to the rest of this and i dont care about this at all beyond just latching onto any scrap to base things off of but the fact that martin maybe knows at least some polish i feel like thats not a language most people just know from school (esp as someone who didnt go to college) or w/e so maybe his mom is polish so probably hes part white at least to wildly extrapolate from there? idrc tho its just one more thing to note on the subject depictions of jon and martins races

martin!

canonically the same age as jon (so approximately born 1987 and roughly 28-31 throughout the series)

theres at least like 4 things in canon that can be used to say hes canonically fat, and some of those lines also more just generally describe him as “big” or w/e so while i dont care about sticking to this as much its easy to argue hes tall too (esp that one point where he says a worm “jumped literally 6 feet through the air at my face” which i guess could be approximate or the worm like. arcing lol and also iirc jonny says he doesnt remember writing that line but regardless its another thing to latch onto to narrow down design stuff)

melanie!

canonically has a scar on her shoulder (as of late 2016), probably on her leg too (if not by early 2017 then by early 2018/ep 125), and is described as skinny

(spoilers for late s4) (also eye trauma mention) post ep 155 she’s blind but trying to research what exactly she might look like like would the results of the damage she does with the awl after going to the hospital would her eyes need to be eviscerated vs enucleated? idk. thinking about lydia saying in a s3 extra in retrospect talking about this where shes like ‘it wouldn’t work like that with [an awl]!’ bc . lol yeah idk. or like would she have scarring on her eyelids or anything, would she have glass eyes, would she feel a need to wear sunglasses to protect her eyes or as a visual cue that shes blind (bc idt shed be the type to just wear it to hide her eyes) or not, etc. i’m not sure! one thing i do know for sure though thats a pet peeve in art is that people make her cane have a red stripe on it when it the UK especially a red striped white cane is for deafblind people, so her cane is most likely just plain white (also theres different styles of white canes but from researching i think shed probably make use of a long cane imo)

my biggest non-canon appearance thought about her is just. melanie king butch 💗

i do think its fun when characters get drawn with unnaturally colored dyed hair for no real reason and do think people should have fun with that more but simultaneously the contrarian in me gets annoyed with how common blue grown out roots straight hair bob melanie is. like the fun of the novelty of being ‘fuck it dying this characters hair’ gets sucked out of it from it being so consistent in fanon. also while she def could be a long haired butch or w/e regardless i just wish fanon of her was way more masc for my own self indulgent reasons

basira

i think the only canonical appearance description is the implication that shes not thin by jared when describing her, melanie, and martin, distinguishing melanie as “the skinny one”

hussain specifically as a surname spelled that way while i’m def no expert, from people i know personally and looking online too seems to be most common specifically with pakistani, indian, and bangladeshi muslims so it makes the most sense to have her be depicted as south asian. considering her VA, her being part black could make sense too but also i feel like its kinda a Thing in a lot of media where they’ll barely have black characters but when they do they’ll make them cops so like idk that’d def require more thought to it.

definitely not on authority on this of course this is just me talking through my own thoughts but i feel like maybe the common fanon of her being a hijabi feels a bit just like . theres not much thought behind it for a lot of people doing it? like it feels like ‘she has a muslim name’ -> ‘she’s muslim’ -> ‘she wears a hijab’ and not much else. like theres just like a whole lot that would need to be unpacked with any main character being religious in this series and actually specifically iirc theres a part in season 5 or something where her and jon reflect on the implications of all this on human religion? and both seem a bit agnostic in their approach. and of course theres people who wear hijabs who arent particularly religious (just like obviously vice versa) but for adults in places that arent majority muslim i feel like a main motivator for that would be connection with ones wider community? but basically all of the main characters in this story like necessarily with the themes and how all this was able to happen to them they feel pretty atomized from any real community (she specifically is paralleled with martin in how she latches onto daisy) none of this is at all to say she couldn’t be practicing islam and/or a hijabi but just that if thats how people want to depict her i think it deserves more thought than just drawing her as such (like for one example of how people have done cool things with making characters muslim i appreciate this artists comics about muslim jon (1, 2, 3)) but yeah! idk just something i’ve been thinking about but very much is not something i can act like an authority on of course. because being a hijabi is something stigmatized i do nonetheless feel slightly weird if i were to go against that fanon but idk

part of me is like ‘we dont need more butch cops’ but then the other part of me just defaults to wanting to make every woman gnc lol. for w/e reason i tend to picture her dressing pretty practically in like khaki cargo pants and hiking boots and flannels and such

daisy

canonically theres here starburst shaped scar on the back of her shoulder

(spoilers for mid s4) i dont care to find it now but i feel like once she was described as scrawny or skinny or whatever (not sure how much focusing on muscle vs thinness if so) but if so that was after she came out of the coffin so i dont think that really implies she always looked like that and i think maybe even by contrast could be implying she was muscular before

def think it makes sense to make her white. generally i do see her similar to fanon depictions of her although i do kinda wish in juxtaposition people would make more women look butch besides her. i think when i first pictured her before seeing fanart or anything it was pretty similar in build and hair color and demeanor such as most of fanon but i pictured her with like . you know like the tight bun women in the military wear lol. so its more ambiguous if her flavor of powertripping “tough” white woman is gay or not. but idrc regardless i dont plan on making much art of her

tim

uhhh i think the only canonical description of him beyond his worm scars (post ep 39) is that basira called him hot in comparison to jon and martin lol

ever since i started listening i keep defaulting to picturing him vaguely like tim from marble hornets lol. so like idk i think its fun when he has defined eyebrows and sideburns and stuff. but not even that i’m really Set on i think theres a lot of fun potential designs for him

sasha

canonically has long hair, is tall, and has glasses

(spoilers for either end of s1 or end of s2 depending on if you’ve figured out something. if you know you know lol) like obviously theres weird stuff in juxtaposition if you make not!sasha a different race than her. i think probably regardless theyre the same race considering melanie didnt note that when describing what sasha looked like. idrc about figuring out what not!sasha looks like ig if i ever make art of her i’ll just figure it out

i think this was the first art i ever saw of her like right around the week or so i started listening to the show that was posted and a mutual reblogged it so i think from basically the start thats how i pictured her essentially. but the main parts of ‘long dark hair, glasses’ i internalized from that are so close to just canon so maybe not saying much

georgie

uhhhh i dont think theres any canon description of her? and i dont have very many opinions on what she does look like honestly except that i think she looks very bisexual lol. i like the idea of her presenting pretty gnc but still maybe having some fun with feminine aesthetics too, but honestly making her present totally masc is really cool too

oh also wrt body type stuff. part of me is a bit tired of how sometimes it feels like fat characters only get to be in romantic relationships if its with skinny characters and rarely are there character designs of two fat people together and melanie is canonically skinny (which doesnt really matter i Could ignore it but i like latching onto descriptions just to narrow things down) and jons maybe implied to be which makes jon/martin like that too. but on the other hand idec i care more about just having fat wlw characters so if melanie in all i project on her cant be that then georgie will be

oliver!

only canonical description of him i believe is “tall, black and careworn, deep lines of worry etched into an otherwise handsome face”

uhh beyond that idk.. not really set on this at all but i feel like maybe he dresses like. business goth lol. like idk. well put together casual clothes like nice quality short sleeve button ups and chinos or nice cuffed jeans but maybe darker colors and a bit of a vaguely edgy but not tacky flair (like fucking idk. raven pattern button up or something lol)

i saw some art of him once where he had long locs and also just idk he was like doing that ominous floaty thing which included his hair and that had a nice rhythm in the art together with the black tendrils in the background so i could appreciate him having long locs/braids/twists or something. but def not set on that and ofc theres like a lot of years to depict him between he could have various hair styles

this is hard to really judge but ive seen posts where people are like ‘haha i draw oliver just like i drew kravitz in the adventure zone’ which is like vaguely annoying to me idk lol. but of course i cant Really know if thats what people are doing from depiction alone bc theres no set appearance for kravitz himself but sometimes i get the Vibes thats whats someones doing and its just like. whatever idk. branch out and design another character!!

there are literally soooooo many more characters i really thought i could make a short-ish thing for each character beyond a few necessary addendums but god even on inconsequential shit this post is already SO fucking long lol so i’m giving up for now i’ve done most of the main people plus my favorite side character so its fine i can get back to this later if i really want to

[centaurianthropology]

The Magnus Archives ‘Zombie’ (S04E02) Analysis

A statement about the living dead might be a bit on the nose, but there’s more than just a scary story this week.  Things have happened over the six months Jon’s been out, and none of them seem good. Come on in to hear my thoughts about ‘Zombie’.

Aha, so we get a little more clarification about the Archival situation, and it’s … not good. Basira was the only person at this point who was both available and apparently capable of coming to deal with the aftermath of Oliver’s visit.  

It’s been six months.

Shit’s gone sideways.

In spite of Jon being all but dead for six months, he sounded surprisingly okay.  Hoarse, but with it.  Intact memory, fit enough he feels like he should be able to go right back to work, everything.  And after her encounter with Oliver, Georgie did not seem best pleased to find out how rapidly and completely Jon has recovered.  She was already rattled by a man who felt like the End, and now Jon’s apparently back from the dead?  I could definitely see how that had all her instincts up in arms.  The last person she saw come back from the dead was the cadaver, after all, and with an emissary of the End preceding him, I have to wonder if she didn’t think Jon was just the same.

Whatever it was, it was enough for Georgie to leave very quickly, refusing to hear much more than Jon’s insistences that he was fine.  For someone who had been by his side for six months, that’s a pretty strong reaction, and shows just how powerfully Oliver must have affected her. And her comment about this not feeling like a second chance definitely hit close to home.  Because it doesn’t.  It feels too deliberate, like something was holding Jon in stasis until it deemed him ready.  

Ready for what?  Well, that became quite quickly and horribly clear. Jon was barely awake five minutes before asking for the Statement that Basira conveniently thought to tuck into her bag.  Far too conveniently, to my mind, and yet another sign that the Beholding used Oliver as the catalyst to get Jon over the final hurdle, and to make him make his choice.

And when he started to record his statement, his sign-on had changed: “Recorded by Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.”

Not “Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.”  Just the Archivist.  

Jon, prompted by Oliver, made his choice.   I don’t know if he realizes it yet, but he chose the Archivist.  He chose to be monster enough to live.  He fell into the Eye, and he gave himself over completely. What that means from here on out is anyone’s guess, but he knows when he’s near a statement.  He’s potentially even less interested in those around him than he was before.  What came back isn’t nearly as human as what went under six months ago.  Is there still enough of Jon in the Archivist to give him a fighting chance?  Damn I hope so.  

And to his credit, I think Jon hopes so too.  And it’s difficult to gauge how human Jon is just off interactions with other people, because Jon’s always been a self-centered prick.  Demanding the statement before he asked after the wellbeing of his coworkers could be down to Jon being Jon.  But the fact that his addiction’s been growing, and the fact that he only woke up when Oliver insisted he make a choice has me worried.

The statement itself didn’t help my concerns.  Having the statement come from someone who has great difficulty empathizing with others or understanding that they might feel and exist as deeply as she does seems to strike awfully close to home for Jon, whose defining character trait is his self-centered coldness.  I think that Jon likely also has difficulties empathizing with others, though he may also have difficulty empathizing with himself.  I think Jon has always been at a remove from the world, and the Beholding is tugging him further out.  Playing on natural tendencies.  He watches people, but he’s increasingly not a part of them.

But it’s also true that Jon’s not nearly as bad as the statement giver.  While he forgets to think of others, and tends toward stand-offish even when he’s trying to be kind, she has what feels a lot more like a disconnect that blossomed into a fixed delusion.  Fixed delusions are a single, delusional thought that someone gets into their head and they can’t make it leave.  In her case, it’s the shift from a difficulty in empathizing with others to a true belief that they are all philosophical zombies.  That she is the only person in the world who’s truly real, who can feel and experience life.  Even when she hurt people around her, she felt nothing, because they weren’t real enough to make her care.

That’s already a horrific mental place to be, but it seems that delusions are a siren song to the Spiral, because her stalker felt like something entirely different to her delusion. This was visual and auditory hallucinations (the Spiral’s stock in trade).  The horror of this comes not from the delusion, but the thought that something could prey on that delusion, making it more and more real until the person’s entire reality is consumed by it.  The Spiral would be just the sort to amp up her paranoia, convincing her that there truly was no life behind anyone’s eyes, and that the hollowness of the stalker was just the final touch to prove it.

Jon’s master, though cruel, at least isn’t playing on his perceptions so directly.  He’s able to assess himself to a certain degree, and he’s lucid enough to acknowledge that his self-assessment might well be skewed. He has no way of telling if he really is the same man who fell asleep six months ago.  He certainly seemed to go from half-dead to fully functional after the statement, which continues to bode ill.

That his first question to Basira was what had happened to him rather than the others also bodes ill. Particularly since he then answered his own question.  Interesting that he does remember the dream, which is disturbing.  

His reactions to the news about the others was also not terribly encouraging.  He seemed merely resigned and slightly, distantly sad that Tim was absolutely dead (they found a body), and that Daisy was likely dead (definitely not; she’ll be back, and I worry that Basira will wish she wasn’t). Even his reaction to Basira refusing to talk about Melanie barely rose to the level of distress.

The first real, emotional response she got out of him was with the news that Peter Lukas had potentially done something to Martin.  Finding out that Martin is no longer around the Archives much, but is instead stuck with Peter for unknown reasons got our first glimpse of something more than tired, sad Jon.  

We got anger.  His “What did he do to Martin?” was a proper growl, and his denial that Martin could be in league with Lukas seemed equally genuine. I’d like to say that I found it encouraging that at least Martin is still getting real, visceral reactions out of Jon (my stupid shippy heart would certainly appreciate it), but I’m worried it’s less a true attachment, and more the Archivist getting territorial.

Because Martin’s been bound to the Beholding for a decade.  He’s comfortable and happy with it in a way even Jon might not be.  The idea that the Lonely would try to steal him is an affront to the Beholding, and I worry that it’s the affront and not the caring driving Jon’s anger.

Finally, an odd note, but one that I found somehow even more concerning than Jon’s disconnect.  There was something in the way that Basira refused to let him see his old clothes and said that she’d get him new ‘better’ clothes that had me inexplicably on edge.  Maybe it was just that Basira never seemed the sort to care about fashion. Maybe that sort of snip would seem better suited to Melanie.  Maybe it’s the fact that, in telling him all this, Basira was absolutely and completely evasive about herself.

But it all left me with the sense that something is very wrong with Basira.  Just as wrong as things are with Martin and Melanie.  It’s true that she’s never talked about herself much, and she lost Daisy which will inevitably leave deep scars, but I get the feeling this goes deeper.  I just … really don’t like the notion that she wouldn’t let Jon have his old clothes. It makes me feel like there’s way more going on than meets the eye (no pun intended).  I can’t explain it better than that.

Conclusions

I’m now officially worried about everyone.  I’m worried that there’s more wrong with Basira than she’s letting on.  I’m worried that Melanie has gone to the Slaughter with a willing heart.  I’m worried about what sort of deal Martin’s made with Peter Lukas to keep everyone safe.

And I’m worried that Jon secretly doesn’t care about any of it.  I worry that he’s as numb as the statement giver was, and just trying to go through the motions of attachment.  The only hint we got from him that was anything more than tired sorrow at the fates of everyone involved in the end of last season was his “What did he do to Martin?” when he found out about Peter Lukas, and even that seems suspect.

I hope I’m wrong.  I hope that Jon is just being Jon, and that he does care, even if it’s at a remove.  I hope that he’s in shock from how wrong everything has gone, and it was just the news about Martin that was the first thing that really snapped him out of it.  I hope Jon comes into the Archives fighting mad and wanting to get those few people left to him back.  Whether it’s the Archivist or Jon himself, those people can only help, and he can help them.

I don’t know what’s gone wrong with everyone, but I get the feeling we’ll be spending the first good chunk of the season finding out, and dealing with it.