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mcskullmun · 21 days

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What's red valley about

*takes you gently by the shoulder and looks deep into your eyes somewhere vaguely near your face*

Buddy I am so glad you asked.

In the hopes of this essay answer convincing you to listen to Red valley it will be relatively spoiler free and ambiguous. Full disclosure I am incredibly bias towards this show because it currently has a death-grip on my brain, mind and soul.

Broadly, Red Valley is a fiction podcast, similar to tma, spanning two and a third seasons plus three fun little mini series. I say "a third" because season three is split into three parts, and we currently only have the first. The second is due to be released later this year I believe.

The premise behind Red Valley, in a sentence is, "In all the sci-fi shows you see, where people can go into pods and wake up 10,000 years later just fine, how did we get there?" It's about the messy stage of theoretical science being applied in unethical ways, in the hopes of changing the world. Its about the early development (and testing) of cryonic preservation tech.

It follows two main protagonists, Warren Godby and Gordon Porlock (who are widely shipped throughout the fandom, though nothing is canon yet) as they investigate, and eventually endure the Red Valley seed vault. Although, as it becomes rapidly apparent, "There aren't a lot of seeds in the Red Valley Seed Vault". The show deals with themes of isolation, memory loss, distrust and mental deterioration. But also friendship, endurance, and uh... weird cruises.

It's characters include:

Karen Godby. Ngl I hate this bitch. She is Warren's controlling, abusive wife and she deserves everything that's coming to her. She uses concern as a way to guilt Warren, and seems generally dismissive of his concerns and feelings.

Aubrey Wood. Initially presented solely through tapes, she fits the "mad scientist" archetype. After something goes horribly wrong with her work, we get to see more sides of her. By the end of season three part one, she is an incredibly well fleshed out character with uh... quite the name for herself. She's also in a canon lesbian relationship, which admittedly does not get enough love here on tumblr.

Bryony Halbech. Cunt/aff. She is the mad scientist. She is the driving force behind the Red Valley project and truly the antagonist of the podcast. In so far as this podcast has one, at least. One brilliant thing about her, is that while she presents as your typical, "heartless, mind over emotions, complete control villain" this is a front that she wears, to hide how excited she is about what she does. How much she cares about her work. She is a "truly evil" villain who still maintains layers and depth.

Clive Schill. Now, if your asking me about Red Valley it's more than likely because you've seen the truly embarrassing affect Mr. Schill has had on me. If you want an in depth character analysis feel free to scroll back on my blog or look for asks I have sent to other fans, there's a LOT. In short, he is an irritating embodiment of capitalism with a flair for creative insults. He's like if Elias Bouchard was a fortnight adult/pos. But his character has so much more to it than that! He loves his family, he is deathly afraid of being forgotten, ect. ect. I'll spare you the essay. He's a morally fucked, incredibly likeable man. He's also responsible for the piece of official Redval merch named "Piss Mug" and Red Valley's sugar daddy.

And for the main events,

Warren Godby: He's just a Guy. Real wet cat of a man. Bitter about his place in the world with no idea how he got there. Of course that's not uh entirely true but just... just listen to the podcast.

Gordon Porlock: Fucking insane/pos. I mean not insane insane, but he is a conspiracy theory, nerdy redditor who canonically has no friends. He's also gay for Warren. He is a very interesting character in that he is Obsessed with cryonic preservation, and seems entirely unfazed by the more gory aspects. He is on the "good team", but isn't vastly different to the Redval scientists.

The podcast itself mostly takes place within Red Valley, a remote and seemingly abandoned research facility in The Middle Of Nowhere, Scotland. This is where some of season 1 and almost all of season 2 takes place, and where isolation is a heavy theme. I personally love it, its got great Vibes and possesses the perfect spooky atmosphere.

Season three is all over the place and follows (Soft, slightly irritated sigh) Clive Schill. It's a wonderful dive into his character, and the attitudes of the common man and the rich towards cryonic preservation. 10/10, no notes. The frogs are great.

Overall the voice acting and writing is amazing. At no point did I feel it dragged, and while I was initially confused when Warren and Gordon were talking (similar accents) they got easier to distinguish real fast. It's funny and sad, perfect combo. There's also some... gnarly sound affects.

Pay Attention To The Content Warnings. For The Love Of Schill Pay Attention To The Content Warnings. Please. There are some pretty heavy moments that took me completely off guard, big mistake.

Final notes, you will see me shipping Clive Schill and Warren Godby a lot. THIS WILL NOT MAKE SENSE WHEN (if) YOU LISTEN TO RED VALLEY. They are, at first glance, the two least shippable characters. I don't mean like Lonelyeyes crackship where it kinda makes sense, I mean AWFUL. TRULY DISGUSTING. My fic, "And I think we're all glad it wasn't me" explains everything, but contains just so many major spoilers for season 1. Just trust me, I'm not mad. The fic explains everything. I promise.

Anyway uh feel free to ask more or talk about it if you decide to listen. I uh. am normal about this podcast. As you can probably tell.

~ Peter

#red valley #long post #cult imma be honest you do not want to know how excited i was when i saw this ask #answered asks

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go-to-the-mirror · 28 days

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I know I said I wasn't going to post another TMA fic, but I've been getting into it a bit more, so here goes. It's a vampire AU! It's not complete, but I have been working on it on and off. I never thought i'd actually finish it enough to post, but here's a first bit :3

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Jon hates job interviews, especially ones he’s not qualified for. But he wasn’t qualified for research, either, with a degree in literature, so it can’t hurt to try. Besides, if he doesn’t get the job, he might get the assistant archivist position, learn a few things. All in all, it’s going to be good for him.

His anxiety is not convinced.

“Mr. Sims?” calls Mr. Bouchard, leaning out of his office. Jon stands up and takes a deep breath. The worst he can do is say no.

Mr. Bouchard ushers Jon into his office, closing the door behind him, and taking a seat in his chair. Jon sits in the other, and tries his best not to look as anxious as he feels.

“So, tell me, why do you think you are the right fit for this job?”

Jon recites his rehearsed speech about how he’s committed to the preservation of documents, deemed both important and not, about the skills he learned in research, his own interest in anthropological research into the supernatural and his disappointment in the state of the archives disorganisation. It’s convincing, he’ll say so himself, and as he talks, he thinks he can see Elias warm up to him.

Hello, Jon. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself. I’m assuming you’re alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn’t try too hard to stop reading; there’s every likelihood you’ll just hurt yourself. So just listen.

Now, shall we turn the page and try again?

Statement of Jonah Magnus regarding Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.

Statement begins.

I hope you’ll forgive me the self-indulgence, but I have worked so very hard for this moment, a culmination of two centuries of work. It’s rare that you get the chance to monologue through another, and you can’t tell me you’re not curious.

Why does a man seek to destroy the world?

It’s a simple enough answer: for immortality and power. Uninspired, perhaps, but – my god. The discovery, not simply of the dark and horrible reality of the world in which you live, but that you would quite willingly doom that world and confine the billions in it to an eternity of terror and suffering, all to ensure your own happiness, to place yourself beyond pain and death and fear.

It is an awful thing to know about yourself, but the freedom, John, the freedom of it all. I have dedicated my life to handing the world to these Dread Powers all for my own gain, and I feel… nothing but satisfaction in that choice.

I am to be a king of a ruined world, and I shall never die.

I believe there are far more people in this world that would take that bargain than you would ever guess. And I have beaten all of them.

Of course, this desire did not manifest overnight. When Smirke first gathered our little band – Lukas, Scott, and the rest – to discuss and hypothesize on the nature of the things he had learned from Rayner, I felt what I believe we all felt: curiosity, and fear.

But as he compiled his taxonomy and codified his theories on the grand rituals, I began to develop a very specific concern. Smirke was so obsessed with his ideas on balance, even as our fellows began to experiment and fall to the service of our patrons.

I began to worry that if one of them successfully attempted their ritual, then I would be as much a victim as any, trapped in the nightmare landscape of a twisted world.

At first, I attempted prevention, but the cause seemed hopeless. The only way to ensure I did not suffer the tribulations of what I believed to be an inevitable transformation was to bring it about myself. So what began as an experiment soon became a race.

Beyond that, I was getting older, and mortality began to weigh more heavily on my mind. How much in this world is done because we fear death, the last and greatest terror?

I convinced Smirke to work on Millbank, leading him to design it as a temple to all the Fears in equilibrium, such that my own modifications to the design of the Panopticon went… unremarked.

It. Took. Years, for the dread of the prisoners to fully suffuse the place, and I was an old man before I made my first attempt at the Watcher’s Crown, sat in the center of that colossal eye, the great ring of cells encircling me like a coronet.

It was… flawed, of course, as all Smirke’s rituals were, and none of the inmates survived as the power I attempted to harness shook the building almost to pieces, and the murky swamp upon which the prison was built consumed it.

But it left me a gift: For sat in that watchtower, I could see everything I turned my mind to.

It was a dizzying power, and one I discovered I maintained even as I found vessels to extend my life. Of course, I had to make sure the location was kept under my control while I worked on revising my plans, and so I moved the organization I had founded to assist in my research down to London, and the Institute as you know it was born.

I’ll not bore you with details of my bodies and failures through those intervening years. Suffice to say I kept busy, both planning my own next attempt, and doing my best to stymie those others who tried versions of their own.

Surely my interpretation of the Watcher’s Crown had been incomplete; there had been some element of the ritual I had overlooked.

It was not until I met Gertrude Robinson that things began to really come into focus.

You see, the role of Archivist has been part of the Beholding for as far back as my research can go. This isn’t uncommon for the Powers; most of the beliefs around them are guesswork and fallible human interpretation, but there are certain throughlines and consistencies that can be spotted, regardless of the trappings.

But Gertrude was unlike any other Archivist. She simply did not care about compiling experiences or collecting the fears of others. She was driven to stop those who served the Powers.

More than once I thought she must secretly be of the Hunt – but there was never that sick joy in her, that thrill of predator and prey. She had simply decided that this was her position in life, and went about it with a practicality that even I found disconcerting at times.

I once asked her what drove her, what had started her down that path. She told me the Desolation had killed her cat.

I don’t know if she was joking, and, to be honest, I could never bring myself to look into her mind and find out for sure.

In any case, Gertrude’s ruthless efficiency in derailing and collapsing rituals threw into stark relief a question that had been bothering me for almost a hundred and fifty years: In the whole span of humanity, why had nobody ever succeeded?

Perhaps there were a long line of Gertrude Robinsons throughout history, but I found that hard to credit. Could it be, then, that there was something in the very concept of the rituals that meant they couldn’t succeed?

She was clearly having similar thoughts in that last year, all of which culminated with the People’s Church.

When I saw that she was making no preparations whatsoever to stop it, I realized she was putting into practice a theory, and one she couldn’t afford to be wrong. She was going to wait, and see if the unopposed ritual succeeded, or if it collapsed under its own strain as mine had all those years ago.

Knowing Gertrude, I’m sure she had a backup plan if she had miscalculated – but she had not. The ritual failed. And all at once, I realized what had to be done.

You see, the thing about the Fears is that they can never be truly separated from each other. When does the fear of sudden violence transition into the fear of hunted prey? When does the mask of the Stranger become the deception of the Spiral?

Even those that seem to exist in direct opposition rely on each other for their definition as much as up relies on down.

To try and create a world with only the Buried makes as much sense as trying to conceive a world with only down.

Every ritual tied itself so closely to a single power as to render itself impossible. They could bring their patron close, but never sever it from the others, and eventually it would be violently pulled back into the place next to reality where they dwell.

The solution, then, is simple: A new ritual must be devised which will bring through all the Powers at once. All fourteen, as I had hoped I could complete it before any new powers such as Extinction were able to fully emerge. All under the Eye’s auspices, of course. We mustn’t forget our roots.

And there was only one being that could possibly serve as a lynchpin for this new ritual: The Archivist. A position that had so recently become vacant, thanks to Gertrude’s ill-timed retirement plans.

Because the thing about the Archivist is that – well, it’s a bit of a misnomer.

It might, perhaps, be better named: The Archive.

Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, John. You are a record of fear, both in mind as you walk the shuddering record of each statement, and in body as the Powers each leave their mark upon you.

You are a living chronicle of terror.

Perhaps, then, if I could find an Archivist and have each Power mark them, have them confront each one and each in turn instill in them a powerful and acute fear for their life, they could be turned into a conduit for the coming of this – nightmare kingdom.

Do you see where I’m going, John?

It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck.

I’ll admit, my options were somewhat limited, but My God, when you came to me already marked by the Web, I knew it had to be you. I even held out some small hope you had been sent by the Spider as some sort of implicit blessing on the whole project, and, do you know what, I think it was.

Of course, I had to bide my time, get a measure of you before I began to push, learn how you worked – So I decided I would wait until something came for you, and see how you reacted. Attacks upon the Archives were not uncommon during Gertrude’s tenure, and, while she was always prepared, I made sure you would not be.

I reasoned if you couldn’t survive a single encounter, you were unlikely to make it through all fourteen. So, when Jane Prentiss attacked, I watched eagerly, one hand on the gas release from the start.

You acquitted yourself well enough, so I decided to see how far you would get, though I waited until the worms were in you before I pulled the lever. I needed to make sure you felt that fear all the way to your bones.

The discovery that one of the Stranger’s minions had infiltrated the Institute in the aftermath was certainly a pleasant bonus. Even if that sliver of paranoia, that vague wrongness you couldn’t quite place wouldn’t count as a mark, it was only a matter of time before it confronted you in a far more direct and affecting matter.

Admittedly, given the advent of the Unknowing, I needn’t have bothered. But what’s the old saying about hindsight?

More important to me was Sasha’s encounter with the Distortion. If it had taken an interest, then I very much wanted it to cross your path.

So I found one of its current victims and convinced her to make a statement.

Poor Helen. I actually had to put her in a taxi myself, she was getting so lost in those narrow London side streets.

It worked, though.

Between the stabbing and at least two desperate flights into its doors – you’re marked very deeply by the Spiral.

Jurgen Leitner was a surprise, of course, and I was forced to improvise. I had no idea how much Gertrude would have told him, and he could very easily have derailed everything if you learned too much too fast.

I… justified it to myself saying I was going to have to send you out into the world anyway, if you were to encounter more of the Powers, but I can’t honestly pretend it wasn’t a… rather rash move.

Still. I’d requested Detective Tonner be assigned to the case when they found Gertrude’s body in the hope that having a Hunter in the mix would eventually lead to a confrontation, and setting you up as a killer certainly hastened that.

Then it was just a matter of feeding you statements to lead you to a few Avatars I thought were likely to harm you – but probably would stop short of actually killing you.

Jude served her purpose exactly as I had hoped, as did our dearly departed Mr. Crew, marking you for the Desolation and the Vast.

Honestly, I had – nothing to do with Melanie and her Slaughter adventure, but when I saw the situation, I made sure to trap her here, so when her rage bubbled over you would be right there, a ready target.

I didn’t foresee the mark coming from surgery gone wrong, but it was a very pleasant surprise.

The Unknowing was a distraction, but not an unwelcome one. For this to work, you needed more than just the marks; you needed power. And that was something the Unknowing served to test, though it posed no actual danger in the grand scheme of things.

And it did serve another purpose, of course. It inadvertently pushed you to confront death, a mark I had been very worried about trying to orchestrate. If I tried too early, you’d just die. Too late, and you might be powerful enough to see the attempt coming, and maybe even understand why.

As it was, it was just right, and once again, you came through with flying colours.

By this point, your abilities were coming along in leaps and bounds, and I was concerned that meeting face-to-face might end up with you Knowing something you shouldn't.

I had initially planned to go into hiding, but when your colleagues surprised me with the police, well. It was simple enough to cut a deal.

All that remained, then, were the Dark, the Flesh, the Buried, and the Lonely.

I was a little put out when that idiot Jared Hopworth misinterpreted my letters and attacked the Institute too soon, before you were even out of the hospital, but then – Ho, you should have see my face when you voluntarily went to him.

I couldn’t see what happened in there, of course, but given how you came out, I’m very sure it counts as a mark.

I suspected the coffin might turn up again, and once it did, it was simply a matter of getting any, uh… restraining factors you might have had flying off on a wild goose chase, and waiting.

Honestly, Detective Tonner has been proving invaluable through this process. I’d been racking my brains for months about what I could use to lure you in.

And, of course, I knew the Dark Sun was just sitting there waiting. So when it came time, I just whipped up another apocalypse and sent you on your merry way.

Then all that remained was the Lonely.

Poor Peter. He really should have left well enough alone. Or just done what I’d asked in the first place.

Ah well. He knew what I was attempting, and was very unwilling to cooperate until I made him a little wager about Martin.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that, in addition to setting you up for the final mark, he was giving you all the tools you needed to escape from it.

How is Martin, by the way? He looks well. You will keep an eye on him when all this is over, won’t you? He’s earned that.

And there, I think, we are brought just about up to date. I have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane, but past here lies only impatience.

You are prepared. You are ready. You are marked. The power of the Ceaseless Watcher flows through you, and the time of our victory is here.

Don’t worry, John. You’ll get used to it here, in the world that we have made.

Now, repeat after me.

You who watch and know and understand none. You who listen and hear and will not comprehend. You who wait and wait and drink in all that is not yours by right.

Come to us in your wholeness.

Come to us in your perfection.

Bring all that is fear and all that is terror and all that is the awful dread that crawls and chokes and blinds and falls and twists and leaves and hides and weaves and burns and hunts and rips and bleeds and dies!

Come to us.

I – OPEN – THE DOOR!

#tma #tma fanfiction #the magnus archives #hope y'all like it :3 #my lonely writing #i'll post it onto ao3 at a later date #idk i need to refine it more lol

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moonsanoverthinker · 2 months

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MAGNUS PROTOCOL EPISODE 7 SPOILERS

Here’s a series of thoughts I had while listening to episode 7 (I’m loosing my mind and these are the most random thoughts!)

I’ll stick them under the cut just incase people haven’t got to it yet! <3

Also edit: I’ve seen things about how these dots were too easy to connect and that theory makes sense. Now questioning are the dots easy to connect because they were supposed to be followed or are they easy so we all go on a goose chase…

Celia why are you mentioning the tape recorders…

“Spoken cases have anything in common” What like one specific voice reading about loosing loved ones? Or the one where the horrors follow people? Or the need for power and to be recognised? OR THE ONE ABOUT THE INSTITUTE?

Celia, dear, why are you asking about flesh and being buried alive? (The Flesh and The Buried perhaps…)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN HILLTOP CENTRE

Is Mr C.Clayton dead? Or is there just something pretending to be him?

“It’s all for a good cause” I’m sure it is!

Also random thought most of this takes place in 2015 which lines up with series 1 of TMA (this more than likely means nothing just thought about it)

Right time to start noting every single item down!

Also isn’t this how Breekon and Hope took over that guys removal business?

Those new worker 🤝Mikaele Salesa 🤝ton of weird objects that may or may not be spooky

Mmm yep those descriptions are fucking awful thanks for that!

Is the man in black clothing a friend or a foe I wonder?

Feeling very Stranger coded this one (I know the fears might not be a thing in this universe but still)

“The voice threw me” DID IT NOW CELIA, SOUNDING FAMILIAR IS IT?

“Whiny little toad” Wonder who wrote that…

“Do you know who voices Chester?” They don’t but you might Celia

“Doesn’t matter. I’m sure it wasn’t anyone important” CELIA. 1. It does matter. 2.NO

COLINS ALIVE!

Johns learnt how to send emails then?

Or is it John or Jon? Are we getting Michealed or this is him?

Was the random name Sims, Sam?

“The real stuff” What is the real stuff? Is what they look at not the real stuff…

“It’s already recorded too…” Colin. What does this mean. Are the horrors listening? Perhaps some might say waiting?

Lena and Gwen! That’s it that’s the thought.

“It’s really quite amusing actually” “Trust me” GOD GWEN. Is she from the violent side of the family? Or the Elias before the horrors side?

“Most people would consider directly confronting me like this a rather foolish idea” Why’s that Lena…

“According to my source” Gwen how did find the source? Family connections?

“Maybe with your job” GO OFF GWEN

“I am not a wealthy woman, certainly not compared to your own family” Every episode I am getting more convinced she is directly related to Elias OR she is the non-Jonah version of Elias and is just cut throat?

“I want ‘in’” WHAT IS ‘IN’

“Step up too the real work” Is…is this not the real work. More horrors await I assume?

“I hope you’re ready for it as you think you are. Consider yourself ‘in’” This will either go splendidly and in Gwens favour or everything is going to be awful! (For now I’m going to assume awful)

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp spoilers #this episode had me talking out everything to no one at all!

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morning-softness · 4 months

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20 questions for fic writers

Thanks to @crit20lesbian for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

Eighteen

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

166,316 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Magnus Archives

4. What are your top five fics by kudos

Netflix and Chill- (TMA, JonTim, 3k, Precanon) Tim and Jon watch Netflix and chill. They do not have sex.

Love, Or Whatever You Call It - (TMA, JonMartin, 20.5k, No Age of the Beholding AU) After Jonah's ritual fails, severing Jon's connection to the Beholding, Jon and Martin try to put the pieces of their lives back together. Adjusting to normal life again after everything is hard, and exploring their new relationship is even harder, especially as Martin realizes he might be aro-spec.

Archive Shenanigans - (TMA, Gen fic, 1k, Season 1) All the assistants are the hot assistant, or Tim says Hot Martin Rights and Hot Sasha Rights and even Hot Jon Rights.

Are You Calling Me ‘Darling’? - (TMA, JonMartin, 2.5k, No Age of the Beholding AU) Jon likes it when people call Martin his boyfriend. Martin…doesn’t.

Here Might You Bless Me - (TMA, JonMartin, 4k, Safehouse Era fic) Martin’s changed after Jon pulls him out of The Lonely, and he’s sure that Jon won’t want to stick around once he figures that out. After all, it turns out Jon has a lot of love to give, and who would want to waste their love on someone who can’t return it? Jon convinces him he’s not going anywhere.

Note: Most of these fics are in my top 6 for hits as well as kudos, but I was really surprised to see Archive Shenanigans make the list. It was the first TMA fic I published, 1k of pure unpolished fluff and comedy, but for whatever reason it has a much higher kudos to hits ratio compared to my more-read fic.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do my best to respond to them, because I want people to know that I read and treasure all of their comments. Sometimes it takes a while though, because I want to give a thoughtful response.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Can’t Have You, Even As An Enemy. It’s a fic where Jon and Tim share a hotel room on the eve of the Unknowing, and talk about (or mostly talk around) their issues. The angst is that it’s written with the intention of being canon compliant, which means that Tim will still die in the explosion, and the best that can be hoped for is that this conversation will give Jon a bit more closure.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I write mainly hurt/comfort, so most of my fic has a happy—or at least hopeful—ending. The happiest might be Can’t We Just Wait Together? (Or Five Times Jon and Tim Didn’t Have a First Date, and One Time They Did), since it’s a 5+1 fic where the final chapter is entirely fluff of Jon and Tim going on a date together.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No. I have comment moderation on just in case, though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. Not yet, anyway. Funnily enough, my fic with the highest number of kudos is about Jon and Tim not having sex.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No. The closest might be Listen to the Voice that Told Me where I borrowed the obedience curse mechanics from the book Ella Enchanted, but it’s not really a crossover of the world or characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I do have a few that were podficced, though.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I tried, but we only got one chapter in before life got in the way. Maybe someday…

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Jon and Martin, followed by Jon and Tim.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Melanie-pov AU where she joins the Archives in Season 2 after she realizes something is wrong with Sasha. I wanted to write it as a choose-your-path style story, because I think it’s easy in hindsight to say decisions characters made were wrong, but a lot harder to decide what the right decision would have been, so I wanted to explore a lot of different ways the characters could have messed up with Melanie added to the mix (and maybe a few ways things could have worked out better). I don’t want to say it will never happen, but it’s a big and complicated project so it definitely won’t happen anytime soon.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I’ve had several comments from readers attesting that I’m good at conveying emotion—particularly negative emotions—in a way that feels real and relatable. I’ve also been told that I do a good job portraying character dynamics.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My biggest problem is that since my writing is really emotions-based, once I’ve hit the emotional high points, it’s no longer interesting to me. Which means with longer fic it’s a struggle for me to actually continue through the falling action to the denouement instead of just stopping right after the climax. (I’ve had two getting-together fics now where I initially wanted to end right after the love-confession scene and had to be convinced by my Beta reader that readers would probably want to see at least a scene or two of the characters actually being together now.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I usually don’t. I definitely think it can add another layer to characterization, so I’d like to where it makes sense for the characters, but I think it needs to be done carefully so that 1. The dialogue sounds natural for native speakers of the language and 2. People who don’t speak the language can grasp the overall meaning of the exchange through context.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Magnus Archives

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Since I’d like to think my writing skill is consistently improving, my favorite fic is always whichever I’ve most recently completed. That said, I have a soft spot for Here Might You Bless Me, which made the Top 5 Kudos list above. It’s a JonMartin safehouse fic I wrote back in December 2020, where Jon reassures Martin that he is loved even if he can’t return the feeling in the same way. (And Jon uses one of my favorite Edna St. Vincent Millay poems to do so, because I wrote this before I got to Episode 165 and found out that Jon apparently disliked poetry in general, and not just Keats.)

Tagging @three-magpies-in-a-trenchcoat, @rookfeatherrambles, @chrisis-averted, @wordsintimeandspace, @suttttton, if you’d like!

#ask game #writing asks #writing ask game

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darkacademiaarchivist · 1 year

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Why does a man seek to destroy the world?

TIME FOR DOING EMBROIDERY AND LOSING MY MIND OVER MAG 160; THE EYE OPENS (oh god oh no oh god)

(i think the first time i was listening to this i was makind dinner and i was just. losing. my. shit. Obviously)

(teasing) Anyways, don’t tell me the phonebox down there doesn’t appeal to your retro aesthetic.

can we talk about how Jon REMEMBERED a small thing Martin said ONCE while he still kinda hated him?

MARTIN: I mean, they’ve finished all the interviews? Apparently they’re calling it a “terror attack.” ARCHIVIST: Doesn’t surprise me. (heh) Appropriate, in a way.

..... (imagine the news tho if it got out that legit paranormal stuff was happening)

ARCHIVIST: Let me know if you see any good cows MARTIN: Obviously I’m going to tell you if I see any good cows.

isnt it funny how nothing after this moment ever happened :'))) (i swear EVERY TIME i see cows i go "omg good cows / is that a tma reference??"

Hello Jon. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself.

NO GOD PLEASE NO

[The Archivist makes a pained couple of sounds out-of-statement-character, as if he’s trying to tear himself away from the statement and physically cannot.] [When he picks the statement back up, the words sound like they’re being torn from his lips.]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW FANTASTIC JONNYS VOICE ACTING IS HERE???? he even sounds like Elias...... help

Why does a man seek to destroy the world?

because you're a stupid bitch man jonah, hope this helps <3

It’s a simple enough answer: for immortality and power. Uninspired, perhaps...

"why is it always immortality, why does no one ever want anything more interesting?" (jonah magnus is a basic bitch)

All this talk about the freedom of being evil and destroying the world... i mean i guess but you could also.... not do this?! have you considered the joy of making the world a tiny bit better. he's a coward.

I am to be a king of a ruined world, and I shall never die.

WAIT HE ACTUALLY SAID THAT?? i thought that was one of that fanon quotes

Jonah / Elias' backstory is so interesting and i wanna punch him i HATE that his plan worked. i'm 100% convinced tho that the web was always pulling some strings, Jonah is giving himself waaaay too much credit

Gertrude would HATE knowing that she contributed to him figuring out his ritual...

How is Martin, by the way? He looks well. You will keep an eye on him when all this is over, won’t you? He’s earned that.

ELIAS I WILL STAB YOU WITH MY NEEDLE!!! (i know we say Elias is gay AND homophobic but he said gay rights here)

i gotta saw the summoning, for lack of a better word, is a absolute BANGER; it's so powerful

I – OPEN – THE DOOR!

CLOSE THE DOOR JONATHAN

MARTIN (frantic) Wake up. Wake up. Wait, John, John, John, WAKE UP! [He slaps the Archivist; the Archivist immediately shudders awake with a disoriented yell.]

😭😭😭

No. No, it’s everywhere. They’re all here now. (voice shaking – but in awe?) I can feel all of it.

wouldn't it be funny tho if the apocalypse was just contained to the UK? if they hadn't left the EU it would be the EU too but the fears respect their decisions.

Look at the sky, Martin. Look at the sky. It’s looking back.

this quote HAUNTS me TO THIS DAY!!!!

@a-mag-a-day

#the amount of comments i wrote for this one makes me once again wish for a tma script book #i'd annotate the SHIT out of that #and assign like a coloured tab to each fear #a mag a day #the magnus archives #mag 160 #my post #tma spoilers

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duckduckgoose-exe · 12 days

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hey you should listen to tma if u like horror its got

-loser british narrator w a very calming voice

-overarching super interesting meta plot but each episode can b enjoyed as it's own

-episodes that dont start off super scary (more suspenseful if anything?) to ease u into it that get worse as it progresses (no jumpscares or anything)

-themes about humanity, consciousness, facing your fears, gods and the universe, etc.

-super cool characters that you get super attached to

(also so much lgbtq rep these horrors r so inclusive fr)

Including but not limited to!!

-loser archivist who spirals into paranoia and insanity

-WORM WIFE!!!

-evil mind reading all-seeing boss

-dude who traps people in corridor hell

-uhhhh some goth kid with a rlly bad hair dye job

-ringmaster mannequin who steals people's skin

I hope this convinces you to at least listen to the first episode 🙏🙏😼

I like night vale soooo I’ll listen soon 🙏

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ollieofthebeholder · 2 months

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to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

Read from the beginning on Tumblr || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 98: February 2018

Martin had made a good effort to be cheerful for Christmas, but he’d been badly affected by his mother’s death and the statement he’d taken from her, and really none of them had tried all that hard to snap it out of him. Jon hadn’t known what to do other than be there for him, and while Martin insisted that was enough, Jon still felt like he should have done more. Melanie, too, had been upset by it, or at least Jon assumed that was what was upsetting her. It was hard to tell with Melanie these days. But it didn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to conclude that the revelation that Liliana Blackwood-King had orchestrated Roger King’s dementia in order to manipulate their children had not gone over well with her. Gerry’s attitude towards the whole thing was hard to read, but Gerry wasn’t one to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Unlike the previous year, they hadn’t spent New Year’s Eve all together; Sasha had somehow managed to convince Melanie to go see the fireworks with her, Tim and Gerry had gone off on some mysterious date of their own—the nature of which they still hadn’t disclosed to the others, and none of them had asked—and Jon and Martin had gone back to their flat and had a quiet night in. Actually, it had been pretty nice, listening to old records and dancing in the kitchen while they made dinner, and they had kissed right at midnight while the mayor’s fireworks exploded on the horizon. Martin hadn’t even had any nightmares that night, or so he said. For a moment, Jon had sincerely hoped, even believed, that the new year would mean a fresh start, that things would start getting better for them.

He still believed it, but he had also bowed to the inevitable and made a list of all the different “new years” marked by the different cultures around the world. Surely one of them would turn the page.

The Christmas decorations had gone down on the second of February, but Tim hadn’t even mentioned Valentine’s Day, much to Jon’s relief. He had to admit he’d been a bit jumpy as the anniversary of that day—the day the Not-Rosie had attacked, the day Jurgen Leitner had been brutally and extensively murdered with a pipe in what had then been his office, the day he’d been forced to go on the run alone—got closer. Martin had tried very hard to give him the day off, but Jon had refused to spend the day without Martin, and in the end Martin had closed the Archives down entirely and told everyone to take it off.

After all, it wasn’t like they could get fired for it.

Jon very much wished he could say he and Martin had come in smiling, holding hands, and refreshed from their day off. Or, for that matter, that any of them had. But neither Jon nor Martin had slept well—Jon because he kept waking up what seemed like every few minutes to reassure himself Martin was still there, Martin because he had evidently had serious nightmares—and it was apparent from the dark circles under Sasha’s eyes when they arrived that she hadn’t either. Although that could have been because she was up earlier than usual, since she’d actually beat them to the Institute.

“Sasha. You’re…early,” Jon said, trying and failing not to let his surprise show.

Martin managed a small smile somewhere between amused and sympathetic. “Melanie keep you up all night?”

“In a sense. We had a fight,” Sasha confessed. “Really nasty one, I don’t even know what started it, and it didn’t matter what I said, she just kept getting angrier and angrier. It finally ended in her storming out and slamming the door so hard she actually woke Nod up out of a sound sleep.” She shrugged out of her cardigan, and Jon winced at the claw marks on her shoulder. “Cat. Not Melanie…anyway, I figured I’d just give her some space and she’d come back eventually, but then I realized it was dark out and she never had. I called her, but then I realized I could hear the phone. She left it behind.”

Jon’s heart kicked into high gear. Martin stared at Sasha, all the color draining out of his face. “Did she ever come back?”

“No. I came early hoping she’d be here, but…”

“Jesus, Sasha, why didn’t you call me?” Martin reached for his pocket, then stopped as it evidently occurred to him that wouldn’t help. “Anything could have happened to her, not just the Fourteen.”

“I—” Sasha dropped her gaze, looking shamefaced, her cheeks flushing. “I don’t know. I should have, but…I just, I wanted to fix whatever I did wrong before I started calling you into it. I guess I thought that would just make her angrier.”

Martin sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “You’re probably not wrong, but she’s got to realize she can’t do this. Not now. Especially not now.”

Jon tried to think where he would have gone if he and Martin had had a fight like that. Not far, truthfully, because even at his angriest he didn’t think he could walk away for very long, but depending on how bad the fight was he might have broken down and bought a pack of cigarettes. Melanie hadn’t smoked as long as he had, but she still might have done something else destructive that she’d theoretically given up. But to be gone all night…

“Can you—” Sasha hesitated, then gestured vaguely at Martin’s eyes.

“Can, yeah, no problem.” Martin’s voice took on a slight edge. “Honestly, these days it’s stopping myself from doing something like that that’s the challenge. Should, absolutely not. It’s not a habit I really need to be getting into.”

“But if she’s in danger…Martin, please, you know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.” Sasha clasped her hands in front of her and looked up at Martin desperately. “Not when it’s something like this. I’ll take the blame if she gets mad about it.”

“It’s not Melanie I’m worried about being mad, but…fine. Fine, I’ll do it.”

Jon held up a hand. “I’m sorry, what are we talking about?”

Martin sighed. “Sasha is asking if I can use the Eye to Know where Melanie is and if she’s okay.”

A chill ran up Jon’s spine. “That…sounds like a very bad idea. Martin, you’re already so tightly bound in it—”

“I know, Jon. But Sasha’s right.” Martin ran a hand through his hair. “Melanie’s been missing for more than twelve hours, and she’s…she’s vulnerable right now. I won’t look long. Just a quick peek.”

Jon considered protesting further, but he knew it was useless if Martin had made up his mind. Anyway, he had to admit that he was worried, too, and if he had the power to Know where someone was like that, he’d be using it about now. “I’ll go find you a statement, then. You’re going to need one when you’re done.”

Martin gave him a crooked smile and bent down to kiss him quickly. “Thank you.”

As Jon headed deeper into the Archives, scanning the haphazard files on the shelves for something promising, he wondered when this had all become…maybe not normal, but expected. Just facts of life, just how things were. Gerry had come back from the dead and subsisted on souls. Martin could read minds and pull information from the ether like some kind of walking search engine. They’d traded in a boss who could plant memories in their heads and watch them without the aid of CCTV for a boss whom very few people had seen in person but could apparently make people who displeased him disappear in a rather permanent fashion. There was a makeshift bunker, complete with camp stove, down in the tunnels, which still held the Not-Them, presumably. Somewhere along the line, it had become just another day at the office. And something inside Jon mourned the fact that the best way he could think of to comfort his boyfriend was with a written record of someone else’s fear rather than a cup of tea.

The sound of commotion from the front of the Archives made every instinct Jon had fire simultaneously. Abandoning the statements, he bolted back towards the main area and skidded to a halt, gasping in relief—at least momentarily. Melanie was there, looking very much as though she had spent the night on the streets, but alive. She was also nearly purple with rage, her hands balled into tight fists as she shouted up at Martin. Sasha stood a few steps away, hands over her mouth and eyes wide.

“—stay out of it!” she bellowed. “You have no fucking right—”

“Melanie, I didn’t, I was only going to—” Martin began.

Melanie steamrolled right over him. “Spooky eldritch powers don’t give you the fucking right to just go in people’s heads whenever you want!”

“I didn’t.” Martin looked somewhere between anxious and angry. It was clear that he was trying to be rational and calm, but Melanie was pushing him to his limits. “You just vanished, you didn’t have your phone—”

“I’m a grown-ass fucking adult, and I don’t need you checking up on me every five minutes,” Melanie snarled, shoving at Martin and actually knocking him back a step.

Somehow, Martin kept his cool. “Melanie, it’s not safe—”

“Fuck you!” Melanie swung a fist and struck Martin in the stomach. He gave a soft grunt of pain and doubled over.

“Hey, hey, Jesus!” Jon rushed over to the group. Melanie whirled on him, and he took a step back on instinct. From the gleam in her eye, she liked that, liked that she’d scared him, which…wasn’t good. He held up his hands in supplication. “Melanie, come on, this isn’t like you.”

“Oh? What isn’t like me?” Melanie tensed her whole body again. “Choose your words carefully, Sims.”

Sims. Not Jon. She hadn’t called him that in a year and a half. Jon swallowed the sudden lump of emotion and tried to speak softly. “You know what I mean. Not you being angry. I know you well enough to know that’s your default state of being, like mine is being paranoid. But you never treat Martin like this, and frankly I don’t like it.”

“I bet you don’t.” Melanie sneered at him. Martin straightened and bristled, obviously as upset at Melanie talking to Jon like that as he was about her talking to Martin like that.

Jon shook his head, very quickly. Martin didn’t need to…he could handle this. He could. “What’s got into you?”

“What’s got into me?” Melanie repeated incredulously. She slammed her hand on the desk, making Jon flinch. “There’s nothing in me that I didn’t bloody well want there.”

Something cold trickled down Jon’s spine, and from the way Martin’s face shifted, he’d evidently had the same thought. He opened his mouth to say something, but Martin beat him to it. “Melanie, your leg. Is it—”

“Don’t you dare!” Melanie spun back around towards Martin and screamed in his face. “Don’t you fucking force me to answer your questions! You have no right! You have no right!”

“I’m not—” Martin began.

Jon jumped in before Martin could make things any worse. “Is your leg still hurting? Are you sure they—”

“And don’t you start either!” Melanie yelled, shoving Jon back. He stumbled and cracked his hip rather painfully against the desk. “You and your goddamn fucking compulsion, I don’t—”

“Melanie, stop,” Martin said forcefully.

There was no static in the word. It was just an order—from a boss, from an older brother, from a friend who recognized the destructive path currently being traversed and was desperate to save her from heading any further along it. Melanie didn’t seem to care. “Don’t tell me what to do!”

“Melanie, please, we’re—” Martin started.

“It’s bad enough that I’m trapped here, but—” Melanie ranted.

“If there’s still a—” Jon tried.

“—trying to help you—”

“—have a minute to myself—”

“—doctors couldn’t see—”

“—listen to me for one second—”

“—all calm down and—”

“—fucking irresponsible—”

“I’ll kill you!” Melanie screamed, lunging at Martin.

“Melanie, no, stop!” Jon leaped for Melanie, his heart in his throat.

Too late. The blade in her hand—a blade she hadn’t had mere seconds before, a blade Jon hadn’t noticed her holding until it was far, far too late—flashed as she plunged it into Martin’s shoulder, then withdrew it in the same swift motion. Martin cried out in pain, reeling back with a hand pressed to his chest, far too close to his heart for Jon’s liking.

There was clang as the knife dropped from Melanie’s suddenly nerveless fingers. To her credit, she looked absolutely stunned that she’d done that, all the color gone from her face. There was a heartbeat of silence as they stared at one another, wide-eyed.

Suddenly, Sasha loomed up behind Melanie, her own face pale. She threw one arm around Melanie’s chest and clapped a tea-towel over her mouth and nose with the other. Melanie stiffened for a second, then started to fight.

“Jon, help me!” Sasha shouted. “I can’t hold her on my own!”

Not sure what else to do, Jon lunged forward and grabbed Melanie’s wrists. She tried to knee him in the balls; somehow he managed to clamp onto her leg with his own knees and keep it down. Her attempt to kick him, or Sasha, with the other leg almost sent all three of them to the ground, but they just held on as she struggled.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Sasha repeated, over and over. Jon was sure they were going to lose the battle any second, but slowly, Melanie’s struggles grew less and less, until she finally sagged against Sasha, boneless and unconscious, leaving the rest of them silent and worn out.

“What,” Jon panted, “the fuck just happened?”

“Chloroform,” Sasha said miserably. “I soaked the towel in enough to knock her out without doing too much permanent damage. Hopefully.”

“Why do you just happen to have chloroform lying around in sufficient quantities to knock her out safely?” Martin asked, sounding very much as if he were doing so through clenched teeth.

“I recommend not asking questions you don’t want the answers to.” Sasha shifted her grip on Melanie. “Someone help me get her lying down.”

“Can someone please get me up to speed here?” Jon asked, not for the first time that day and not, he suspected, for the last.

Martin came over and took Melanie’s legs from Jon, gingerly, then helped Sasha lay her on the floor. “You figured it out, too. I could see it in your eyes. The ghost’s bullet is still in her leg, infecting her with the Slaughter, and it’s only getting worse. We’ve got to get it out.”

Jon blinked. “How?”

Martin looked up at Jon and raised an eyebrow. “How do you think?”

Jon’s stomach flipped as he realized what Martin was implying. “Oh. Will—how long to we have?”

“Until she wakes up, which won’t be long. Chloroform doesn’t last forever.” Martin took a deep breath. “Someone get me a pair of scissors.”

“You’re going to do this with scissors?” Jon said, horrified.

Unexpectedly, the corners of Martin’s mouth twitched. “For the trouser leg, Jon. There’s a scalpel in the first aid kit.”

“I feel like that’s not exactly standard for a first aid kit,” Jon muttered, but he hurried over to the Archivist’s office to fetch a pair of scissors.

By the time he got back, Sasha had Melanie’s head in her lap and was holding her shoulders down, while Martin had spread the chloroform-soaked towel—probably not the cleanest in the world, but Jon guessed it was mostly for the blood—under the leg Melanie was always running. Jon tapped him on the shoulder with the handle of the scissors. Martin took them and nodded his thanks. “Do me one more favor?”

Jon sat on Melanie’s ankle without being asked. Martin smiled at him again, then began cutting away the pant leg. That done, he set the scissors aside, took a deep breath, and Looked. Soft static began gathering, then faded, taking what little color was left in Martin’s face with it. “Jesus.”

“Bad?” Jon asked.

“It’s poisoning her whole system. She’s not gone full avatar yet, but if I can’t get this out…God, I should have Looked at her ages ago.” Martin shook his head and picked up a small packet, then peeled the paper back to reveal a scalpel that was either brand new or had been cunningly replaced. “Right. Let’s do this.”

It was…messier than Jon would have liked, and he had to work hard not to be sick, but he made himself watch as Martin cut a surprisingly neat incision in Melanie’s leg, then dug into it with a pair of forceps. Melanie shifted and groaned, and Jon scanned her face anxiously. “She’s still awake?”

“No.” Surprisingly, it was Sasha who answered, not Martin. “People always used to think that, but it’s not true. She’s just restless from the anesthesia, but she’s asleep and can’t feel anything. Uh…maybe hurry, though?”

“I’m going as fast as I safely can,” Martin assured her without looking up.

There was an unpleasant wet squelching sound, and then Martin withdrew the forceps, seemingly empty…but when he opened them over the metal tray next to him, something landed with a clatter.

“Did you get it?” Sasha asked, her voice shaking a little.

“Yeah.” Martin exhaled slowly and laid the forceps gently in the tray next to the scalpel and, Jon assumed, the ghost bullet. “Let me close her up, and then you can take her back to the cot in Document Storage until she wakes up.”

“And then I want to look at your shoulder,” Jon said, unable to stop the anxiety from coloring his own voice.

Something infinitely sad flickered through Martin’s eyes for a moment, but he didn’t say anything, just concentrated on applying what seemed like an entire box of butterfly bandages to the gash he’d made in Melanie’s thigh. Finally, he was done, and he nodded to Jon to get off Melanie’s leg. The second he did, Sasha scooped her into her arms without a word and staggered towards Document Storage. Jon almost offered to help her, but one look at her face and he knew that wasn’t his place.

“Come here,” he said instead, turning to Martin. “Into your office. Let me see what she did to you.”

Martin gave him a sad smile, but got to his feet and headed for the Archivist’s office. Jon assumed it was the your office bit; even after ten months, he knew Martin still felt guilty about that. He swept up the parts of the first aid kit that hadn’t been used for impromptu surgery and followed him.

Once inside, Martin went without being told to the far back corner, where there was a sturdy floor lamp, and sat slowly down on the floor. He pulled off his torn and bloodied jumper, then simply tugged at the hole in the shirt underneath to make it bigger. Jon grabbed an alcohol wipe out of the first aid kit, hurried over, knelt next to Martin, and began wiping off the blood to see how bad the cut was.

Only to discover that it had already closed itself over, leaving only a shiny pink ridge about an inch and a half wide.

Jon sat back on his heels and stared at it. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Martin said quietly. “Same thing happened with Trevor stabbing me, kind of. Took a bit longer for that to stop bleeding, but, well, I wasn’t…”

“An Avatar?”

“I was going to say ‘Marked by the End’, but yeah, that, too.” Martin sighed and reached for Jon’s hand, then stopped, like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to. “Killing me won’t be that easy. Melanie wasn’t far enough along for it to be that simple.”

Jon shuddered. “She was so angry…”

“Yes. But there was enough of her left that didn’t mean it when she said she’d kill me that she couldn’t.”

He still wasn’t touching. Jon grabbed his hands and laced their fingers together, refusing to let go, then leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the spot. It felt hot to the touch. “I wouldn’t have let her. You know that, right?”

“I know.” Martin sighed and wrapped his arms around Jon. Jon snuggled against him and rested his ear against Martin’s chest just below the new scar. The steady thudding of his heartbeat reassured Jon in a way few other things could right about then.

The sound of a door opening somewhere behind him reminded Jon that Tim hadn’t arrived yet. He sighed and started to turn. “You missed quite a morning. Late night or—”

Martin suddenly stiffened and shot to his feet, dragging Jon upright with him and simultaneously pushing him back. Jon was about to demand to know what the hell was going on when he, too, turned and caught sight of the figure standing just a few feet away, far too close for comfort—one of the two men who had menaced them outside the House of Wax.

Only one?

“Come to make a delivery, have you?” Martin’s voice was low and dangerous.

“Maybe,” the figure—Breekon or Hope, Jon wasn’t sure—said. “Yeah. That’s right. Just here to deliver a—package.”

“Why?” Martin’s voice crackled with compulsion.

Unlike when Jon had tried, the Stranger answered immediately. “Realized that I’m not tied to it anymore.” He—it—knocked twice on a wooden box next to him, and Jon felt what little courage he possessed desert him as he realized it was the coffin—the Buried. “Not on my own. Thought you could have it. Pay your respects, like.”

“Our respects?” Jon asked, bewildered, his voice shaking.

Martin didn’t answer, or move from in front of Jon. He only stared down the man in front of them. “Why are you here?”

“Dunno.” The man actually seemed bewildered, maybe a little lost. “’S not right on my own. Not right. No point in doing it on my own. Dunno what happens now.” He tilted his head to one side. “Thought I might kill you. Missed my chance. Thought I might just deliver something. So…here’s a coffin. In case you want to join your friend.”

Horror seized Jon. Oh, God, Tim. Tim was in there, that was why he was late…

He tried to step forward, only to be barred by Martin’s arm. A sudden surge of anger struck him—not at Martin, but at the thing in front of him—and he snarled, “Get out.”

The wrong kind of static crackled. The figure in front of them only grinned nastily, and there was a whooshing, rushing noise that filled the air as it said, “Make me.”

What do you think I was trying to do? Jon wanted to scream, but the anger was gone, replaced only by horror and terror in equal measures. This thing was after him, after Martin, it was so close, and there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide…

But there was Martin, who continued to stand in front of him, and the whooshing noise died instantly as he said, simply, “Stop.”

Static rose, not soft and gentle but heavy and oppressive, like a sudden torrential downpour on a summer afternoon. The weight of it almost bore Jon physically to the floor, and he saw the thing in front of them reel back from it.

“What are you—stop it,” it protested. “Stop it!”

Martin didn’t so much as flinch. “No.”

Jon watched, fascinated, as the thing before them cringed, literally shrank before Martin’s gaze. “Enough! Stop looking at me!” it howled. Suddenly seeming unable to take any more, it turned and fled across the Archives. A door slammed shut in the distance.

The static died that fast, and Martin sagged slightly, panting for breath.

The world rushed back in. Jon became aware of the situation—the bloody towel, the used scalpel, the small invasion of their workspace, their sanctum. The coffin in the middle of the floor of the Archivist’s office.

The coffin.

Suddenly alive, Jon grabbed Martin’s arm and tugged him out of the office. Martin shook off whatever stupor he was in and followed, and the two of them practically dragged one another to the trapdoor by unspoken agreement, tumbling pell-mell down the steps. They wound up in the small room where they’d spoken after Jon’s return to the Institute after Leitner’s murder.

There was no light. They didn’t need it. They simply collapsed onto the floor, clinging to one another tightly.

Jon trembled head to toe. The adrenaline had worn off, and he was suddenly aware that the Buried, the Fear Martin was most afraid of, was in the middle of the Archives. Tim was trapped in it, and oh, God, what were they going to tell Gerry…and Sasha, she’d be so upset…but what if it took Martin too…

“Tim—” he choked out, unable to say anything more.

“Wh—oh, Christ, we’re going to have to get out there before he gets in,” Martin murmured. “He’s, I don’t think he’ll open the coffin, but—”

Jon looked up at Martin, or at least in the direction of the vague black shape that was Martin, wide-eyed. “He’s…not already…I-I thought that was what…”

“No, Jon, it’s Daisy,” Martin said gently. He kissed Jon’s forehead and tucked his chin over the top of his head. “They…fed her to it. Or—it did. After she killed the other one. She’s in there, and she’s alive.”

“You’re—you’re sure?”

“Yeah. Knew she was still alive before…but yeah.” Martin sighed heavily. “I got its statement. I think.”

“How are we going to get rid of it?” Jon began ticking over possibilities. “It—it can’t stay here, it’s dangerous.”

“I suppose we could put it up in Artifact Storage, but…that won’t help. I don’t know what we have to do with it. We’ll probably have to go over that with the others, and…it m-might need to wait until Melanie’s conscious, at least.”

“You can’t go near it. You—it’ll kill you, or at least it won’t let you go.”

Martin was silent for a moment. Finally, he said, “I am the Archivist, Jon. It’s my job to protect you all. And if that means keeping the Buried away from any of you, so be it.”

That wasn’t happening. It wasn’t. Jon was going to have to come up with a way to get Daisy out, and get rid of the coffin, without Martin going near it. But all he said was, “But Tim’s okay? You’re sure?”

“Yeah, he texted while I was getting the first aid kit, said he’d just woke up and he was on his way. Said there was something important he needed to talk to us about.” Martin sighed again. “Can’t say that fills me with confidence.”

Jon nodded slowly. He completely agreed. “So what are we doing in the meantime?”

There was a rustle as Martin got to his feet, guiding Jon up with him. “We’re going back up to the Archives. And…I think I need a pen.”

#ollie writes fanfic #to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest)#tma fanfic #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #melanie king #sasha james #breekon and hope #manipulation #stress #fighting #anger #knife violence #blood #drugging #nonconsentual medical procedures #panic #mention of being buried alive

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elias-rights · 9 months

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so im on a tma re listen which made me want to give tma fandom & fics a second try, since i wasn't very captivated by either the first time around. fortunately, jonelias fandom clicked for me and ive been able to enjoy plenty of fics and posts and blogs (notably, yours!). ive also rediscovered my love for gerry keay, and am even cautiously interested in the jongerry ship

you know what im markedly NOT enjoying??! the sheer amount of j*nmartin :)) like, its fucking everywhere. i find fics i want to read on either the jonelias or jongerry tags and then i check the tags and SURPRISE its either an ot3 situation w martin OR, in the case of jonelias, elias is only there for the j*nmartin endgame.

im so... ugh. martin was never my favourite character, but i used to find him tolerable. 'used to' being the key word here

anywho, just wanted to vent. i hope you have a nice day!

First off, I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts and those of my fellow Jonelias fans <3 We do have a lot of fun dissecting the bleaker themes of the show. (Also, I had a phase where I was really into Jongerry; the way they just instantly click enthralled me.)

JM is, for real, so ubiquitous that people sometimes don't even bother tagging it. And the prevalence of fics where Elias is just there to sexually abuse Jon so Martin can comfort him is frankly depressing; I went into it a while back, but aside from my distaste for rape as drama, the fact remains that Elias always wants Jon to choose to walk into doom of his own free will.

Maybe I'm just bitter about a story I liked being whittled down to a romance story that isn't even convincing, but JM leaves such a bad taste in my mouth; I'm glad we can bitch about it here, tbh.

#answered ask #anonymous #fandom complaints #anti jm #Have a good day anon!

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mamahersh · 2 years

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MAG 189: Gotta say, Martin getting actually pissed over something was kinda entertaining. Also, once again, rather unsubtle social commentary, though a least a little bit nuanced.

Martin that was incredibly unsubtle.

> "And Jon, no tape recorders".

Now Georgie, I know that you weren't here and that Melanie is an incredibly biased source, but I would like to inform you that generally Jon can't actually control the tape recorders. It's like trying to tell him to stop getting kidnapped in Season 3, it's generally out of his control.

And then the midseason break happened! I was tempted to listen to this one yesterday, and then listen to the next two only today. But I have a schedule, irregardless of the actual contents of the episodes. Admittedly, if we're hitting the tunnels now, I think thematically (despite the break) this actually worked out to a good division of episodes.

MAG 190:I'm going to strangle Georgie.... I might not strangle her.

Really entertaining tunnels episode, gotta be honest. However, if I have to listen to Jon going back to getting raked over the coals for things he has no control over I will reach through the screen and strangle some bitches. But yeah, is it bad that I was happy to hear Georgie actually apologize for the shit she put Jon through in S4? Or at least acknowledged that she had generally fucked up with how she judged Jon without knowing the whole story? Made me feel things that Jon was so... forgiving? See I don't know if forgiving is the right word here, because to forgive someone you have to agree that they did something wrong, and I don't think Jon actually thought Georgie did anything wrong in S4. I know at the time he was saddened and somewhat bitter about her leaving, but I think over the course of the season he convinced himself that it was for the best and that she was completely in the right. He turned it around on himself at least once on tape when he asked if he had made the wrong choice to come back from the coma. After he found out that everyone would have been freed if he had died, he couldn't answer Martin if he would have gone through with it if he had Known that earlier.

Anyways, Jon's going to make me strangle him too at this rate for suicidal ideation and self esteem lower than mine.

MAG 191: Not a lot to say, characters are reiterating and finalizing their positions to each other: Jon and Martin promising to make the hard choices despite their inclinations. Melanie and Georgie realizing that to make hope a reality they need to help Jon and Martin even if they don't like Jon (Melanie) or think the risk would normally be too great (Georgie). And an... ominous little aside where Martin realizes they'll need to move on sooner rather than later.

I would assume next stop is the Panopticon, so I’m excited to see how the initial confrontation goes. Admittedly, I would assume most people generally assumed that this moment coming so soon in “Act 3″ of Season 5 meant that it wasn’t going to go as hoped. Can’t have nice things in Hell and all that! Because here’s the thing, I think that what Jonny specializes in during this season is recreating a literal “Hell on Earth” scenario. You remove the literal concepts of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness from the equation, dump everyone into horrors of their own making, and you get S5 of TMA. I mean, in C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce”, we catch a glimpse of what Lewis’s take on Hell might be like: Humanity divorced completely from God and left to their own devices. Arguably, while S5′s stated intentions are nothing like that, in many cases people’s Fears are manifested in a way that are spurred on by their faults.

Anyways, see you all tomorrow to find out if I actually can reach through the internet to strangle my blorbos from my podcasts.

#tma #the magnus archives #the magnus archives liveblog #mag 189 #mag 190 #mag 191 #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #georgie #melanie #jon sims #martin #It is literally like screaming at a brick wall

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not-the-cheese · 9 months

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one sentence(ish) summaries of every magnus archive episode PART 2

(eps 61-110) thank u for the funny comments and tags on the last part i love u guys

the rest of these may take a while as i've caught up to where i am currently in the podcast but i will finish them like in a month i promise

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61. the thrilling sequel to man does not open coffin: man DOES open coffin.

62. surely this doctor can find an easier way to scam people out of money than putting them in a little book.

63. THE DARK ATE MY BROTHER IN LAW.

64. this is possibly the plot of laura croft tomb raider

65. mmm crumchy

66. what's the opposite of an unboxing video

67. as close to a coffeeshop au as you're going to get from this podcast

68. Doctors hate him! Man REFUSES to die from tuberculosis!

69. your college's psych department has the worst idea ever.

70. reverse death note

71. not even death will stop this woman from taking the british subway

72. man doesn't want to be low key racist in his last moments before getting eaten

73. police versus the second coming of dark jesus

74. lady is haunted by an ad for coffee

75. mike crew says "uh fuck it let's just put this guy on a skyscraper forever"

76. ryan from buzzfeed unsolved breaks into a train yard and suffers consequences

77. you're not a enough of a bitch to be my real mom

78. man gets harassed by his cousin and then exorcises him

79. you know that chase scene in scooby doo with the doors

youtube

80. stupid idiot motherfucking jurgen leitner

81. i have been personally victimized by the sequel to the hungry hungry caterpillar

82. pov: elias threatens to cancel you

83. mannequin takes matters into its own hands after people don't like its pitch for a new window display

84. a hoarder put newspaper on my friend's face :(

85. hey there's maybe a little man upon these stairs?

86. man gets got by a squiggly thing in the dark.

87. plumber is so oblivious to spooky happenings around him that it possibly saves his life.

88. guys i think this guy likes to dig

89. lesbian investment banker finds a new, less evil job: arson!

90. guy who turns people's bones starts a gym where he promises not to turn your bones! (he is lying)

91. i was stalked by lightning for 10 years and i all i got were these stupid scars

92. jonah magnus is a bad friend // another day another elias slay

93. ocd is no match for purple fuzz

94. let the bodies drop gently to the floor let the bodies drop gently to the floor

95. im so sorry my brain refuses to remember what the war ones were about but i think one guy got gently kissed on the forehead so that's pretty nice.

96. diversity wins! the not-quite-human delivery men who stole your identity and business are maybe gay?

97. man gets gaslighted by an entire town about a hole

98. 🎶mister sandman bring me a dream, actually don't, please stay far from me 🎶

99. another one bites the dust

100. archival assistants face off against the general public (they lose)

101. jon finally levels up high enough to unlock an eldritch horror's tragic backstory

102. LOCAL MAN MARRIES BUG

103. peppa eats a clown and they cover her in concrete instead of congratulating her.

104. pennywise stole my brother's skin

105. it's world war z baby

106. Something Big Is In Space.

107. man is interrogated about the time he saw thomas the train roasts people alive and also sans is there

108. actor is stalked by mask who liked his monologue so much that it tells its mask friends to come watch.

109. sometimes a family is just a serial killer's daughter and that guy who maybe killed some vampires

110. yeah man those spiders be eating

Part 1 |

#tma #i hope this convinces you to listen to tma #the magnus archives #sasha james #jon sims #podcasts #gay podcasts #elias bouchard #peter lukas #melanie king #gerard keay #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #funny #one sentence summaries #sillyposting #Youtube #queer

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hauntedhotel · 2 years

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Thoughts at the end of season 2 of TMA:

1. How much of a letdown was Jurgen Leitner??? When Jon said his name I was like, "oh snap! the devil's librarian!" but then he was just some muppet collecting evil books cause he was bored of his rich-kid life and then he just straight up lost them all??

2. I almost don't want to ask but...is THAT what the fuck happened to Sasha? Like...is she dead dead? I can't cope, I was totally hoping they were going to be able to rescue her from table-purgatory or whatever but I might need to scream into a pillow now.

3. ELIAS!!!! Turns out he really did murder Gertie! Tbf even though I was joking when I said I thought it was Elias, finding out Gertie was planning to destroy the archives is a little bit worse than just finding out she was fudging her expenses so maybe it was justified. But the archives are evil (or...are part of a Lovecraftian entity of fear or torment or whatever, I might have to relisten to the episode to fully understand what's going on there) so maybe Gertie's plan to burn the place down was justified. Elias, you are a suspicious little dude and I don't like you, even if I'm not sorry you brained Leitner in the head with a pipe.

4. Jon and Martin intrigue me, because I know people ship them (although I don't know what basis this has in canon so if the whole show ends with Elias marrying them on the Institute roof or something don't tell me) and obviously at the start it seems like, laughably unlikely and the whole time I was listening to season 1 I was like "where tf does this ship come from, Jon is a straight-up bitch to Martin" but dammit, I can already tell this is going to be one of those ships where every tiny stupid thing has my heart-eyes on max. I was listening to the end of Crusader where Martin's asking Jon if he wants a sandwich from the cafe and Jon's like "that depends, are you going to helicopter me if I go to the canteen?" and Martin's like "that depends, are you still sticking to your bullshit story about the breadknife?" and Jon's just like "...I'll get my coat".

Me: oh...oh no...are they...actually adorable?

5. A genuinely sad thing I found about the tail-end of the season was the whole time I was convinced Jon was eventually going to have a proper conversation with Tim about the stalking and I figured it would fix things because Tim is not a monster and I feel like if Jon explained and apologised properly he wouldn't hold a grudge forever, but now Jon's left it to fester and it's past the point of being fixable and now Tim thinks Jon has murdered a random old man in his office.

6. Martin Blackwood, my beloved, he makes my heart grow three sizes every time he speaks! "Living happily ever after wouldn't actually be the worst thing in the world TIM!" You tell him babycakes! Your taste in men is questionable at best but if "secretly an idiot in an academic packaging" is your type then you fight for that happy ending!

*exhales*

Okay. Done now. Stay tuned for unhinged thoughts on Season 3 I guess!

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #tma season two #hotel talks about tma #cause i am probably not gonna stop #me to me: you are not going to ship two fictional characters on the basis of one conversation about sandwiches #also me to me: wanna bet?#tma spoilers

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theknittinggoblin · 1 year

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thought you might be amused to know that all the TMA stuff you reblog has finally convinced me to listen to it lol

Heck yeah!!!

I'm glad, I hope you enjoy it!

#join us!#i got into it myself bc it kept getting recommend to me since I like Night Vale #tma #love seeing new people start media I enjoy

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hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon · 1 year

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hello friend i have a tma flavoured connection

so i've been doing a relisten and i got to mag 100 earlier and tim is taking a statement from the guy who is convinced that his friend got taken by the government in the tunnels right

and i've been thinking about that for a while -- and disregarding that tim is already being an angsty mf about everything, hearing about a guy who breaks into a train station to do some urban exploration with his friend and then said friend gets TAKEN has to be part of the reason why he was so tim about it

OH THAT IS ABSOLUTELY WHY HE WAS SO TIM ABOUT IT

you just know he was listening frantically trying to figure out if there was any hope of that guy being alive because then maybe maybe Danny is alive too, or once he's given up on that he's collecting information because maybe he can destroy this, maybe this is a part of everything he wants to destroy. Do you think that at the end of season three, right before he dies, he's thinking of doing it not just for Danny, but for every other lost person who got taken by something dark in a tunnel?

#Sebastian speaks #spiral why you gotta do this to me on a Monday night #now I'm having Tim feelings again

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tenthdynasty · 2 years

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One Easy Fix for MAG 200

Thanks very much to my fellow TMA Season 5 Critics, and the engaging posts that @elias-rights has been sharing -- I was rotating the canon finale in my mind and Had An Idea

Ok so by no means does this address all of the plot threads or character arcs but it does connect with many of them. And it is a suggestion which lets me make peace with much of season 5 and its ending.

TLDR: It's Martin's idea to stab Jon and let the entities escape into new worlds -- and this was the Web's plan all along.

Fair warning, j/onmartin fans are not going to enjoy this one.

So, the show proceeds apace, the eyepocalypse happens, Jon and Martin do their hiking trip to Mordor London, they are told the Web's plan, they debate the options, we get all the way up to MAG 200 and Jon stabs Elias and takes his place.

And then, Martin shows up. And he is very distressed, of course, and so is Jon, at what he has had to do. But it’s Martin (and ONLY Martin) who is convinced that stabbing Jon is the next course of action. It’s ONLY Martin who is confident (and perhaps it’s because of his own connection with the Web) that killing Jon will whisk them away to where they can 'be together.' And Martin forces the issue and does the deed. And it's not really because Martin is fully a Web avatar or is a bad person, but his relationship to Jon and the way he thinks about him are JUST SO that he could convince himself that he HAS to do this to Jon, FOR Jon.

And maybe Martin does convince Jon to go along with it, but we the listeners are damn clear that it was manipulation, Web tactics, all the way through. And that ultimately, if the decision was left entirely up to Jon, he would not have chosen to die and let the entities out. (But then again, isn't that already canon?)

The point is, ultimately the ending of the show is the exact same, but the INTENT is entirely different. There is nothing romantic about this. There is nothing hopeful about this -- unless you believe what Martin was saying, but then... perhaps you are also falling victim to the Web? The show concludes with reminding you that the entities (PARTICULARLY the Web) are too powerful and too unknowable to outmatch -- which has nigh-always been the theme.

Moreover:

it’s one last tragedy

it’s one more case of “even our care for each other is no match in the face of these horrors” a la Daisy and Basira, and Tim and Danny

in fact care can be preyed upon and twisted into something that serves horror!

it’s Jon getting fucked over One Last Time. He finally had his chance to get revenge on the entities for everything they did to him and to the world, and then he is literally STABBED ‘for his own good’!!

it’s the parallel of Jon stabbing Elias (who never thought he would) and Martin stabbing Jon (who never thought he would) with the same knife

it’s the culmination of the very-present tensions between Jon and Martin this entire season, the way they always seem on the verge of arguing. Because they are both upset and strained by the situation, and how well do they really know each other?

it’s the culmination of Martin’s increasingly obvious proclivity to manipulate, and in the name of how much he CARES about other people. It’s selfless, I swear!!

it’s the culmination of the implication that the tapes are only recording things the Web cares about. The tapes only turn on when the Web wants to record. And most of the tapes are about the entities but they also feature MANY significant Jon/Martin moments. And the implication is that those moments, that relationship, mattered to the Web and its plan. And Martin canonically reflects that he and Jon would never be together if it were not for the events of the previous seasons, all of these events that we heard on tape

it’s confirming, in the most damning way, that the Web was never leaving the final step of the plan up to chance. The plan was never at risk of being derailed by the decision of these few humans. Because no matter what, the Archivist was always going to try and get revenge on the entities because of his own guilt, and the Web not only relied on that but set him up with a web-aligned love interest who would capitalize on that guilt and accuse Jon of 'leaving him,' of 'doing this to him.' Who would again pull that rhetoric of “I’m the heart of the group and therefore my moral compass always points true, and we both know you are a cold bastard turned inhuman monster"

but the gruesome, satisfying irony is made plain by the show: Jonathan Sims, who was the cold bastard, is now the more sympathetic, is the one who STILL doesn't give in to the temptation of the Eye even after it reshaped a world for him, is the one who is willing to die for the rest of the universe. And Martin Blackwood, the soft boy cinnamon roll, is now the one who sics Jon on people he doesn't like, and advocates for the universe to be thrown to the pit. This is not said, straight-forward, in dialogue, but the narrative of this episode makes it clear: this is wrong. This is a tragedy. This is how it ends.

The protagonist of this show tried to keep you from ever having to learn about these horrors, and their victims, but he failed. The horrors turned the victims against each other and won, and that is how their stories got to you, that is why you know about it at all.

Johnny Sims can keep his Creepypasta "the horrors were real THE WHOLE TIME" twist ending AND make it as tragic as this show deserved. We can have our chocolate torte of tragedy and eat it, too.

#this concludes my tedtalk thank you #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #the magnus archives #tma #meta #words

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