#jonah possesses jon au

[snekberry]

AU where Jonah Magnus takes over Jon's body upon learning about Jon's plan to blind himself and run away with Martin. Not eager to reset his progress, Jonah decides to take matters into his own hands and steals the body of his Archivist so that he can end the world himself.

[watchingyoufromthestars]

Already thinking about a tma au but it would require me first to actually design characters which I don’t have time forrrrrrrrr :( but it will be rotating in my mind the rest of the day anyways

[jonahfagnus]

i dont think you ever posted about your "jon sees elias as jonah when he takes the archivist job" au but please start with that immediately 👀👀👀👀👀👀

so i dont think theres very much that i didnt say in the tags of the post i made about it (unless tumblr ate those for some reason)

but basically. yeah after jon takes the archivist position he starts seeing elias as jonah (at elias' age, not as like. a corpse in the panopticon). obviously he immediately realises that its jonah bcs, yknow, the guys paintings are everywhere.

i imagine jon's train of thought is something like this:

did my boss get possessed by jonah magnus -> no thats dumb ghosts arent real -> im having a psychotic episode -> surely id be seeing other symptoms -> what the FUCK is happening

so a huge amount of jon's desire to find the truth about the supernatural ends up focused on jonah. initially he's just doing research into the actual guy jonah magnus himself but that doesnt really get him anywhere because its not like jonah was like "dear diary im an eye avatar and im going to start putting my eyes into other people so i can be immortal" so he starts doing research into elias instead. which also turns out to be quite difficult just doing normal research.

luckily, jon and elias are decently friendly with each other (at least in early s1, which this would still be). so surely its not weird to try and make sure your relationship with your boss is positive. thats just common sense thats just cultivating a welcoming workplace environment or whatever. and ofc elias is like

bcs this is objectively great! jons leaning into the eye hes considering breaching elias' privacy to learn more about him and ofc hes flattered that jon is so focused on him in particular. so he allows jon to break into his office and look through his things and he pretends he isnt watching the entire time, and he casually mentions some flaws in his home security to try and spur jon into breaking into his house (which he doesnt. yet.)

they're sort of not-quite-dating - tim might joke about jon going on dates with elias and jon gets very flustered and denies it and elias is a little over affectionate in public just to see how jon reacts, but neither of them have any idea that jon's doing all of this just so he can figure out why his boss is (apparently) the founder of the institute.

then prentiss happens. then they find gertrude's body.

i dont think jon gets as paranoid as he does in canon - hes been less of an asshole since all of his focus has gone into researching elias and trying to figure out what the fuck happened. so while i think he does do some research into the archival crew, its mainly research into gertrude herself, and continuing his research into elias. now with added stalking!

and of course elias still doesnt care about the stalking because hes still 1. very happy jon is taking to the eye so well and 2. flattered that jon is so focused on him to the point of stalking him. in my heart i know elias considers stalking to be a form of flirting

s2 goes generally the same but i want jon to find out about the not-them just a little sooner so i can make him go "holy shit! elias got not-them'd! what the fuck!" of course this is completely incorrect if you know anything about how the not-them works but jon. doesnt.

jon, of course, breaks the table. then he finds out that sasha got not-them'd. then he finds out leitner is alive. then he finds out leitner is dead.

who else does he have to go to? he shows up at elias' home, maybe just minutes after elias finishes cleaning up, because a man has been killed in his office and he didnt do it.

because i am a soft elias truther s3 isnt just manipulation and horrible things happening for jon. horrible things still do happen (elias very much doesnt discourage him from talking to jude perry, or mike crew, for example) and elias is still a bastard but its probably not any significant amount more horrible than canon s3 was.

jon probably spends amounts of time talking to elias about what leitner told him (which is hilarious to elias) and elias (against his better judgement) doesnt tell jon that leitner was lying, but instead asks him questions that may or may not lead him to figuring out the entities. he's curious as to what's going to happen, and he's sure jon likes him enough that showing just a little of what he knows wont tarnish their relationship

i dont have many thoughts beyond that - the confrontation probably goes differently, for example, and maybe jon permanently moves in with elias. i cant decide how much of a corruption arc i should give jon (obviously he ends up much more content with the eye than in canon bcs the eye is sexy but i cant decide if hes pro apocalypse or not) but when jon finds out that elias is jonah hes like "oh i know" and jonah is like what the fuck do you mean

[sparky-is-spiders]

Help my brain ambushed me with a TMA Warrior Cats au at 11:30 at night. It’s completely all over the place and the only concrete ideas are that Gertrude and Jon are both medicine cats and Jonah is constantly pulling an Ashfur and possessing the clan deputy after the old leader (also him) dies so he can be immortal. Infinite nine lives hack.

[this-is-such-a-bad-decision]

i want to hear about 'possessing bouchard' again because it's delightful

Ah, yes, another in my long line of increasingly niche time travel AUs. In this one, Post-Apocalypse Jon uses his Eye privileges to astral project himself back in time and forcefully possess Elias' body circa season 1. (It went back and forth on whether Jonah was still present as an annoying voice in Jon's head, if Jonah was put in a box and the real Elias got to be the annoying voice, or if Jon and Jonah merged into one big voyeur with better morals and a distaste for the apocalypse.) Why do I want Jon to possess Elias, you ask? Almost exclusively to give Martin a sugar daddy.

I didn't get very far with any kind of plotting, it was mostly just indulging in the fantasy of Having a Good Boss that just makes the archives crew do normal work while he secretly works to stop the apocalypse. I had a very silly idea of Elias calling a meeting and confessing that he may have fucked up the hiring process since literally none of them have an Information Sciences degree, but don't worry, you're not fired, we're sending you to an all expenses paid retreat to an Archiving Conference! Go to this super fancy resort and learn about archiving while I take care of the worms! (He doesn't tell them about the worms.) (Also, "archiving conference at a fancy resort" almost certainly isn't a thing, I just wanted Elias to pay for them to all go on a super nice vacation while they speculate whether or not a body snatcher got him if he's willing to splurge like this.)

I remember extensively daydreaming a scene where they have to go to a fancy dinner at the resort and Martin didn't have anything nice enough, so Elias has a perfectly tailored suit delivered to his room, which Martin finds a bit alarming since he's never been fitted in his life so how the fuck. This is overshadowed by the rest of the team seeing Martin in a tailored suit for the first time and their collective brain turning to mush cause Martin hot. Jon!Elias watching from a hotel painting is not immune.

In some versions Martin also came back in time and was possessing Peter (I'm pretty sure there's a comic similar to this, I'll track it down and reblog after I post), but neither of them knew the other came back, so it's just them both trying to stop the apocalypse while also undermining each other cause why did Peter pay Martin's mum's nursing home fees three years in advance, I have to keep him away from my boy, or why did Elias kill Prentiss what the fuck is going on?

Until of course they figure it out and all is well ^_^

[gonnahaveabigtalklater]

give me an AU where the gang accidentally purges Jonah in season 2, and then they have to spend the rest of the series trying to convince the other avatars that Very Confused, Mild-Mannered Himbo OG Elias is still housing the Eye’s most powerful servant.

smarter enemies like Jude and Annabelle are getting Suspicious and keep trying to visit the Institute to check. Elias remembers exactly 0 things about Jonah or being possessed and is no help at all. Jon keeps trying to make him study old letters while Tim and Martin have decided to just accompany Elias to all Jonah’s supernatural meetings and Weekend-at-Bernies their way through.

it’s a sitcom now:

Elias still thinks he’s mid-20′s and looks up to Jon as a nerdy big brother type.

there’s a running gag where Rosie can resolve any situation no matter how occult, dire, or how little she understands it.

whenever an avatar is Fooled by OG Elias they walk away saying “Jonah seemed a little different but I can’t put my finger on it” before being realizing something like “oh wait, he was wearing argyle! he hardly ever wears argyle!” and not questioning it any further.

jonmartin have nearly kissed like five times but they’re both still convinced they’re unrequited

[falling-forever-upwards]

Dumb TMA time travel AU's I probably won't get around to writing

S5 Jon possesses S1 Jon but like. Only long enough to murder Jonah Magnus and say something extremely cryptic before fainting. S1 Jon wakes up with No Clue as to what just happened.

Jonah eyeballs Jon or Martin and travels back as them to either stop himself or tweak his plan so it's Perfect. He does not think to tell Elias about this.

S2 Jon shows up in the safehouse. Neither Jon or Martin notice until they go to look for the tape recorder, which S2 Jon has stolen to record supplementals. He is, of course, convinced he's going to be murdered, while jmart are just being insufferably domestic in the background.

S3 Jon shows up in the safehouse super traumatized after Helen pulls him from the circus. This one's not funny I just want him to get some Fucking Therapy.

S2 Jon meets S5 Jon face to face and immediately stabs him. S5 Jon just tiredly pulls out the weapon and offers it back.

S5 Jon winds up in the past while Jon is in his coma, and Melanie stabs him. S5 Jon just tiredly pulls out the knife and offers it back.

Melanie travels back in time but Jon doesn't take her seriously because of her whole ghost hunter thing and blatantly does the opposite of what she tells him.

[i-want-it-on-fire]

I see all you still reblogging my "Archivist Tim Crack AU" post, and I'm back with something equally ridiculous: Jon/Tim Fake TV Psychic/Real Irate Magician AU

Way I see it, this can work one of two ways: 1) the version that's fluffier and more in character, and 2) the version with a very fun rivals-to-lovers dynamic. I'll be presenting both here today for your reading pleasure, however there is one detail that does not change whatsoever in either of these versions.

Instead of fixating on an evil spider book as a child, Jon fixates on a book about how to do sleight of hand, and instead of growing up to be a librarian flavored loser, he grows up to be a magician flavored loser. And nothing pisses him off more than people who go on TV and perform magic tricks that they claim are the result of psychic abilities or faith miracles. He makes it his own personal calling to expose and humiliate these charlatans, because using science to debunk them isn't good enough. Even scientists can be fooled by good illusions. A good illusionist, however, cannot.

Version 1

Jonah Magnus is a guy who's been making the rounds on various talk shows where he claims to possess a number of psychic abilities, especially telepathy. He's a bit of a creep, but no one seems to notice or care once he starts getting a crowd going. They also don't care that he is absolutely using this con to swindle people out of their money because so many people are convinced he's the real deal. Obviously Jon fucking despises him, so he comes up with a plan to expose him as a fraud.

He finds out that Jonah is slated to appear on a popular nighttime talk show hosted by Tim Stoker, famous comedian and beloved source of Internet memes. Unlike the hosts of some daytime talk shows that Jonah has already appeared on, Tim isn't known for being a sensationalist. Much of his humor comes from telling it like it is, and it is for this reason that Jon believes he'll make a good co-conspirator.

Jon contacts the show and explains who he is and what he intends to do. Some of the producers are uninterested in spoiling the show, or they're nervous about backlash given how many people believe in Jonah's powers, but Tim immediately finds this weird little magician endearing and decides they should consider it. After checking up on Jon's credentials and confirming that he is, in fact, an accomplished stage magician, Tim calls him back and asks what he has in mind.

Jon gives Tim detailed instructions about how to prepare Jonah's props and tells him that under no circumstances should either Jonah or his people be allowed to touch them before the show. Tim agrees, but even so, Jon isn't quite sure what to expect. Then the night of the show arrives. Jonah Magnus comes on set to a very enthusiastic round of applause, and Tim interviews him completely sincerely, not once letting on that he knows something the fake psychic doesn't. It's a fairly typical appearance by Jonah, up until the props come out and he goes to do his tricks where he moves objects with his mind, because the moment he tries to do anything...it doesn't work.

Jonah is completely shocked, and he struggles to keep his cool and come up with a reasonable explanation for why his "mystical abilities" don't seem to be working tonight. And Tim pounces. Jon fully expects the believers in the audience to get upset as Tim goes through and explains what they did to the props (after all, it's not like anyone has ever thanked Jon for being a killjoy) but instead he turns the whole thing into an absolute laugh riot. The segment is a huge hit, so much so that the network asks Jon to appear on the next episode of the show as a special guest. And amazingly, it's not a complete disaster.

Tim is an excellent interviewer who knows how to get his guests talking about things both they and the audience are interested in, and they have shockingly good chemistry on camera together. It's also a very popular segment that the Internet absolutely eats up when they realize that Jon is actually closer to Tim's age than Jonah's. For about a week Twitter is full of "so which one of you is the talk show host and which one of you is the Vegas magician?" and "imagine your OTP" memes, which Jon finds very embarrassing for completely normal, non-crush-related reasons.

Version 2

In this version, Tim is the phony TV psychic.

I say version 1 is more in character because realistically I can't imagine Tim having either the ambition or the moral bankruptcy needed to actually con a ton of people into thinking he's some kind of miracle worker. However, if we suspend our disbelief for a moment and just accept that this happened somehow (perhaps he's not doing it as a get-rich-quick scheme, and more as an attempt to get famous and have fun doing it) it makes for an excellent dynamic.

Tim has taken the country by storm with his inexplicable feats of telepathy and telekinesis. You know the drill: knowing stuff about people he shouldn't, bending spoons in half with his mind, levitating objects, etc. etc. The real magic, though, is in how charismatic and convincing he is, and he absolutely thrives off the energy in a room when he pulls off a seemingly impossible stunt. Even skeptics are taken in because no one can come up with a good explanation for how he does some of it. And of course Jon absolutely cannot stand this, because he can! He absolutely can come up with an explanation for how he does it, and he's going to show everyone what it is.

After Tim makes a big appearance on a talk show, Jon calls that same show and offers to show them how the trick Tim did works. It doesn't do the same numbers as Tim's segment, but it is the first time any attempts to expose him have actually gained any real attention. Tim and his people are not amused.

What follows is a period where every time Tim appears on another show or shows off some new and amazing trick, Jon is following right behind him calling foul and ruining the spectacle. At first it's just annoying as all hell, but the longer he does it, the more traction he starts to get, and Tim knows he needs to start coming up with some other counter-strategy beyond just inventing new and more elaborate tricks. Jon can sense this kind of counter-attack coming as he starts to get more support, and he decides he needs to get ahead of the game.

Jon pulls the exact same trick on Tim in this version that he did to Jonah in version 1, calling a show ahead of time to instruct them on how to prepare Tim's props so that his "psychic powers" don't actually work. The show-runners agree, and the plan is set in motion. The day of filming, however, Tim can tell something is just a little bit off. He can't tell exactly what it is, but he doesn't need to be a real psychic to read the body language of the host or notice the lack of transparency when he asks questions about the equipment. He also doesn't need to be a psychic to sense Jon's toxic vibes all over this set. So when he attempts his trick during the show and it doesn't work, he can't say he's entirely surprised. Then he does something that neither the host nor Jon were expecting: he calls Jon out and demands he come out onto the set, and though a stroke of blind luck, Jon just so happened to decide to watch the show in person from backstage.

Jon does not agree to come out in front of the cameras, but he doesn't have to. Everyone still knows that he's there, which makes it all the more sensational when Tim starts laying into him. He tells him that he feels sorry for him if he has so little going for him in his life that this is the hill he's chosen to die on. Furthermore, Tim is at least making people happy doing what he's doing, which is more than Jon can say since his career seems to be all about being an insufferably smug asshole. The crowd goes absolutely nuts. No one remembers that Tim's act got fucked up on live TV, and Jon loses a ton of ground as public opinion shifts from "Hmm maybe this psychic is a liar" to "Whether or not he's a liar doesn't really matter, does it? He's not hurting anyone." Jon is unbelievably pissed about this. And to add insult to injury, after the show Tim comes up to him and congratulates him on very nearly getting him. Shame that people care more about a good show than the truth. Then he leaves taking these peak Spiral vibes with him. Slightly disappointed that I'm not a Jon/Michael or Jon/Helen shipper tbh. DistorJon shippers you may steal this idea with my blessing, ily~

Their rivalry continues to get more and more bitter, but as things continue to escalate and they're forced to go deeper and deeper into how the other thinks, they gain a begrudging appreciation for each other's skills as illusionists and entertainers, all while keeping up a very public show of hating each other's guts. (To steal an iconic quote from James Randi, the magician who inspired this AU, Jon at one point says that when he dies he wants to be cremated, and "to have my ashes blown in Tim Stoker's eyes.") It isn't until Tim attempts to sue Jon for being an annoying dickhead that they start being in the same places at the same times more, and they realize they might actually get along if they didn't have so much fun with their cartoonishly snarky banter.

Martin is a writer for a shitty Internet tabloid like Buzzfeed who hates his job, but at least keeping tabs on these two hot illusionists who hate each other is marginally more entertaining than writing another fucking article about the Queen's corgis. Sasha is Tim's PR manager and she thinks they should just kiss already.

[inklingofadream]

yes tell us the kid au

ok it comes with a title, which is "there is something wrong in this house." Also this is obscenely long and may not even make sense

and all the crack stuff is in the backstory, bc elias is the one doing it and the fics from the kids' perspectives. elias going "actually screw this, I'm making one from scratch" is a time-honored excuse to get lil baby Jarchivist, and it's what we're going with here. but, like, making a kid is a lot of effort, and they can't even talk at first, and Agnes didn't work out anyway

So he adopts. Attempt #1: Timothy Stoker, recently lost his whole family to a tragic accident, marked by the Stranger (he hasn't hit on the ritual idea yet but he figures that having some awareness of the supernatural to start with can't hurt. But for now it's all very normal). He can be very subtle about priming Tim to be Archivist, and what better way to ensure loyalty that to be Literally Family?

Unfortunately for Elias, we've seen how Tim reacts to grief in canon, and it's making drastic life changes and getting angry, depending on how much control he feels like he has and how much support he's getting. And not having control is a big theme in this, so he goes for angry. It rapidly becomes pretty obvious that Tim is not going to be a good Archivist.

So we try again, like within a year of adopting Tim. Sasha is Tim's age, and v lightly marked by the Spiral. She's great, Elias is v excited, Sasha is going to be Archivist.

But he still has Tim. And murdering a kid who's not even to double digits is a bit much, even for Elias. But Tim and Sasha bond hard and fast, which, y'know, Archivists do need Assistants. And connection to a beloved brother is probably a pretty good way to get your Archivist back if they end up in the Lonely or the like. You can't use them as cannon fodder, but he figures that Sasha can have one keeper and he can hire randos to fill the other assistant slots.

So Elias' life is going great. Second part of plan: He needs to get rid of Gertrude... some day, but he wants the time to plan it, and she's still useful. But kids grow up, and he doesn't want to put Sasha in place until he's sure he's got a timeframe nailed down for his Ritual, and he doesn't want Sasha responsible for stopping Rituals. But kids grow up and get other careers and turn into their own people.

(Kids are already their own people, you say. Well, Elias barely treats adults like people sometimes. Obviously he's not going to be any better than the controlling and possessive and manipulative stuff we get with Jon in canon with people who also do not have the ability to fight back in the way adults can. Tim can't run away to Malaysia in this! He can't even get out of the city on his own!)

And Elias finds out that he really likes being a parent (this is not at ALL proportional to the quality of said parenting). He doesn't want to be done. And so he puts into use a lil Web artifact, which is that because I say so (and because the experience of being a child and not getting your opinion considered and all your stuff being filtered through what your parents think feels v Webby, to me) he has his kids take vitamins every night, some of which are normal and some of which are Evil Vitamins of Never Grow Up. (the Evil Vitamins have extensive world-building around how and when they're useful, they won't solve Jonah's dying issue bc they're playing on the kid thing, and he's not a kid. Also they are technically still aging, just v slow)

So Tim and Sasha just kind of. Stay 8 or 9ish. And kids that age aren't that observant. It takes them a looooooonnnng time to figure things out.

Meanwhile, y'know, Elias really does like having kids. And if one super-loyal assistant is good, surely more is better? And also, Tim leveled out when he had Literally Anyone besides Elias (because obviously your Vampire Kids have tutors, you can't exactly send em to school) to bounce off of, maybe another sibling will have the same effect. So if he were to find an entity marked orphan (or... not orphan. I think he straight up steals Martin), why not? So he basically acquires Martin and Jon the same way multiple people I know have ended up with extra kids, which is remembering how cute they are and deciding more is better. The kids take well to each other, and Tim in particular gets his big brother instinct activated hard.

And the thing is. Sasha was supposed to be Archivist, but no one really knows that. He didn't tell anyone. And he likes Jon. Jon is just as curious as Sasha, but also waaaay more susceptible to positive reinforcement (for a long time Elias is Jon's favorite as much as Jon is Elias') and reminds Elias of himself more, because boy. So now Jon is future Archivist and the rest will be his assistants. But for now they're all in Vitamin Limbo

And this all sounds very fluffy and goofy, but the actual matter of the story (though it's maybe more a series of vignettes) this is for is from the kids' POV, with them gradually realizing that there's something subtly not right with Elias, and exploring how they feel trapped, how they catch on to little things, and how each discovery has to be pitched to the other three, with varying success. And then focusing on how Jon especially just. Refuses to see it. And trying to convince him otherwise just puts distance between him and the rest and makes him closer and closer with Elias. And tonally it's kind of like a haunted house story? Only the ghost is what Elias is planning for them, and what he's already doing/done to them. Eventually at least Tim stops taking the vitamins, and then that worsens for him because he has more and more idea of how wrong things are, and can't convince the others, and can't take them all away from Elias if he can, and he feels this overbearing need to protect them all but he can't

[yellowocaballero]

Human Relations Snippet: Tim teaches Jon the internet and odious goats are sacrificed to the cult of Bezos

There’s no reason for this to exist. I was rereading a bit of HR and I saw a throwaway joke about Jon wanting to buy Martin a Portal Gun. I started wondering about how that would even work. The answer is, obviously, a 200 year old man squinting at a computer screen wondering why there’s so many horny singles in his area. I get possessed by demons easily, so I took three hours out of writing my daemon au and wrote this instead. Bon Appetit. 

(Edit, quick clarification: I think that Jon would refuse to use the name for the Beholding that Smirke made up, and although all of this exists in my head and you guys don’t know this, there was a lot of tension between Jon and Jonah’s ‘circle’. So Jon hated Smirke and thought he was a hack. He uses Smirke’s terms to others sometimes for ease of understanding or in deference to Jonah (:/) but I think that mentally he mainly calls the Beholding his own name, The Witness. It rings of that personal and intimate connection Jon and the Beholding has. Anyway, onto the story.)

After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.

Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him. 

After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.

Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him.

Peter Lukas was right on almost nothing, Jon thought disgruntledly as he slammed his laptop shut - including in his taste of men, company, philosophies, men, patron deities, professions, and men - but he was right in his proclamation that the internet was the degradation of society. Not that he hadn’t sacrificed his morality and sold out, feeding his patron through something called “incel forums” and “Reddit”. Between him, Jonah’s “Excel spreadsheets” and “TurboTax”, and Annabelle Cane’s ridiculous “MMO guilds”, the Society was filling with computer geeks. Jon could always read the wind: he had to keep up, and quickly. 

Besides, Martin had kindly educated him on how it was almost unheard of for a young man like Jon to not understand how to work that Goggle thing. Giggle? Martin was very streetwise and was one of the most insightful people Jon had ever known, he was definitely right. 

Which is why he had to buy him this “Portal Gun” that he wanted. He had even shown Jon the website! And if Jon was in desperate times trying to navigate these confusing webpages entirely with URLs he memorized, then he would take desperate measures!

“I’m going down to the Archives,” Jon said, slithering off the couch and clutching his laptop to chest. Jonah had bought it for him. He appeared surprised that Jon was using it. “I may not be back for a while. I need...a book.”

Jonah didn’t look away from his own infernal machine. It seemed he was on that ‘Excel’ program again. Was it one of those ‘video games’ he kept hearing about? “Do I want to know what you were doing on that laptop.”

“Reading Wikipedia,” Jon said immediately, and somewhat defensively. Jon had discovered Wikipedia in 2001 before promptly funding it and throwing his weight behind its development. He had spent a solid five years convinced a computer was a kind of electronic screen that let you read digital Encyclopedia pages, like in Star Trek. He’d seen Star Trek. Georgie made him. “Did you know that -”

“Yes, yes, have fun. Haven’t you read that entire site already?”

“Not even,” Jon said defensively. “I can’t just sit and read through entire Encyclopedias anymore, Jonah. We know more things now.”

“What a way to describe the last two hundred years,” Jonah said, not even looking away from his computer. “We know more things. Never change, Jon.”

“You’re the one who never changes,” Jon grumbled. But it was a weak comeback, and considering his brand new delightfully short stature somewhat untrue, so Jon breezed out of Jonah’s office with full knowledge that he’d think of a better comeback halfway down the steps to the Archives.

In fact, it wasn’t until he was at the door, and by then he felt stupid for losing a point against Jonah anyway. He easily opened the door, stepping inside and quickly bee-lining for Sasha’s office. Her burgeoning powers were wonderfully flowing in the shape of access to and understanding of technology. He had never seen such gratuitous breeches of privacy as she casually committed. Every day Jon was validated in his decision to save her from the Stranger. A balance, an equal yet opposite Archivist from Jon, would be invaluable. Not that Jonah and Jon weren’t their own yin and yang, but Jonah’s powers were paltry and out-of-date. Mind reading and spying through iconography was so 1960. They needed fresh blood. 

Sasha had been a wonderful choice, and Jon didn’t regret choosing her to act as saviour. Most of the time. Some of the time she -

“She’s not in.”

Jon’s fist halted in front of the door, about to sharply rap on her office door. He turned around to actually look through the bullpen, only to see that Timothy was sitting in his chair chewing a sandwich. Somehow angrily. Definitely suspiciously. 

“Are you sure?” Jon asked dubiously. “Because you’ve lied about this before.”

“Because you should stop coming down here and bothering her.” Timothy balled the saran wrap in his hand and dunked it in the trash can, somehow undoubtedly giving the impression that he wished it was Jon’s head. “Just bugger off.”

Someone was in a snit. Normally Timothy wasn’t this hostile. Jon had thought that learning his name might make him less mean, but it did little to help. But when Jon looked around he didn’t see Martin, and a quick check assured him that both Sasha and Martin were having lunch at their favorite deli and engaging in that plotting hobby they both enjoyed. Timothy had elected to stay behind, stewing in his own angry and paranoid juices. 

He would have to do this with Martin out of the Archives...and he really wanted to take care of this now so Martin would get it before the weekend...and it wasn’t as if Jon was scared of this boy he was one hundred and seventy years older than…

“Uh,” Jon said intelligently, “can you help me with...something…”

Timothy’s face twisted in a novel combination of surprise and disgust. “What,” he sneered, “your evil fear god or whatever can’t figure it out for you?”

“I don’t need others to think for me,” Jon said stiffly. It was something he’d had to say far too many times. “The Witness is less helpful with...troubleshooting...look, do you know how to work a computer?”

Timothy stared at him blankly. “Like, at all?”

“I’m trying to buy Martin this toy he desires,” Jon said desperately. Fuck it all, he walked over and sat down in the chair next to Tim’s desk. He pulled a little bit closer, placing his laptop on Tim’s desk, and ignored the way the other man leaned away. “But whenever I try I keep on seeing alerts about hot singles. I’m not interested in young women, I just need to buy a ‘Portal Gun’. Do you know what a Portal Gun is?”

Timothy continued staring at him, eyebrows raised. Clearly involuntarily, so quick that he may not even have noticed, one corner of his lips was ticking upwards into a smile. 

“How many credit card scams have you fallen for?”

“Absolutely none,” Jon said, very quickly. He pulled out his credit card, placing it on the table. He knew a credit card was involved, although he didn’t know how. “What do I do? Do I swipe it? Is there a port?” He picked up the laptop and squinted at its sides, looking for a port. “I wanted to ask Sasha for help, since she’s the expert in hacking, but surely you know the basics?”

“I mean...I can’t, like, code, but yeah, I can work Amazon.” Timothy carefully opened the laptop, watching the display light up. He effortlessly navigated to an icon on the screen, clicking it open. 

“That’s not right,” Jon said urgently. “You’re supposed to press the E.”

“I do not want to know how many toolbars you have,” Timothy said bluntly. “We’re using Chrome. That’s another way to look at the Internet.” He rubbed his hands together. “Yeah, I got a grandmother, we can do this.”

Jon perked up. “So you’ll help?”

Went unsaid: even though you hate me?

“Whatever,” Timothy grumbled. Jon decided not to press his luck. 

Jon decided that he liked the Chrome better than the Internet Explorer, because it was simpler and Google was on the first page. Tim rapidly typed on ‘Amazon.com’ into the search bar and easily scrolled through the very busy and picture filled page that immediately popped up. Why was everything so fast? Maybe this was why the young people had no attention span: these pages just came up immediately. No flipping for indices for finding anything in phone books. 

“Right. What was it, a Portal Gun? Like from the game?”

“A board game?”

“Video game.”

“Like on a VHS…?”

“Right.” Tim pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know, Sasha said that you’re one of the most famous sociologists and anthropologists in British history.”

“I am extremely intelligent, Timothy, and I won’t abide any insinuation otherwise,” Jon said curtly. “I cannot be expected to keep constant track every time there’s another - iPhone or whatever. You have teenagers in your family, correct? Do you always know what they’re talking about? That’s, what, a twenty year age gap? Multiply that by ten.”

That shut him up. Timothy sighed again, much more aggressively, but he clicked the white bar and typed in ‘portal gun’ anyway. “Right. Not fucking apologizing, but right. I still don’t fucking know what ‘Twitch’ is.”

“It’s a brief spasmodic contraction of the muscle fibers,” Jon said helpfully. “Fascinatingly, this phenomenon was first observed in frog’s legs before I was even born in 1780, by Luigi Galvani. Erudite man, by the way, but he couldn’t hold his liquor. It was the birth of the study of bioelectricity, although the exact mechanism of muscle contraction eluded scientists for years.”

“Never mind.” Timothy sighed again, the perfect mix of aggravated and long-suffering. It seemed to be the man’s two favorite emotions. “My grandmother has a PhD and she still can’t figure out her cell, either. We had to get her a Jitterbug.”

Amazon, as Timothy explained, was a kind of shopping mall, except you could pick out what you wanted by its picture and have the shopping mall pack it up and send it to you. Jon didn’t quite understand why people preferred this to just going to a shop yourself, seeing as you could get it immediately instead of with a three or four day turnaround, but Tim explained that Amazon was cheaper, had a wider selection, and didn’t make you get off the couch.

“Oh,” Jon said, finally getting it, “this follows the economic model of large scale businesses underpricing their products to undercut smaller businesses in the area, driving them out of business until they hold monopoly over the market and can raise their prices without worrying about staying competitive.”

Timothy stared at him. 

“I mean,” he said, “I guess?”

“This explains why my Alexa project was successful so quickly,” Jon mused. “With a lack of competition or alternatives, consumers are more likely to accept the dramatic invasions of privacy as normal. Normalizing intrusions into privacy took ages, but my early efforts paid off very well. The Ring doorbell was even better, along with the line of security and home protection systems. We’re now working on live streamed 24/7 surveillance to social media platforms.”

Timothy stared at him further. 

Finally, he said, “Alexa was...you?”

“Of course,” Jon said, baffled. Who else would it be? “I gave Jeff the idea and convinced him it would be profitable. I didn’t understand the whole mechanics of it, but once I gave Jeff a vision from the Witness he was eager to implement the divinely inspired spyware.”

Timothy continued to stare. 

“The evil fear god controls Jeff Bezos.”

“He thinks I’m a prophet, actually,” Jon said helpfully. “I let him become Cardinal of the imaginary cult in exchange for funding some of my more esoteric programs. Had him sacrifice a goat and everything, it was great.” At Timothy’s alarmed look, Jon was quick to elaborate, “It was the most evil goat you’ve met in your life. Morally odious.”

“...for my sanity I’m going to pretend that you said none of that.”

In retrospect, although Timothy had worked at the Institute for a few years, it did take quite a bit of time to acclimate to the fact that the Avatars permanently shaped the shape of human existence in order to better feed their gods. Jon knew better than anyone: when humanity made gods, and gods made man, and man made gods...the feedback loop could self-perpetuate for years. Eternity, if needed. 

But they had no luck on ‘Amazon’. With Jon’s eidetic memory he was able to easily pick out the one that looked most similar to the one that Martin had showed him, but all of the little toy guns were for someone named ‘Rick’. Then Timothy took twenty laborious minutes explaining the entire plot of ‘Rick & Morty’ to him, which Jon patiently sat through. 

“I think young people today deeply enjoy explaining media,” Jon said, once Timothy finished telling him the funny jokes. “I’m very interested in your interests, Timothy.”

“You are so fucking condescending. And please call me Tim, you’re sounding even more like my grandmother.” When Jon brightened, Tim - Tim! - quickly said, “This does not mean we are friends.”

Granted, Jon had never once in his life gave a shit about making friends, but he felt as if he should be making more of an effort with Tim. He was a sort of supernatural brother in law, wasn’t he? Although Sasha perhaps Sasha was more of a favored niece. At least, he would be, if today’s generation found some morality and stopped living in sin. 

Good lord. Now he was sounding like Jonah. Georgie used to joke that he was born in the wrong generation - he should have been born a 17th century Puritan instead. Jon found it a very funny joke. Jonah did not. 

“Are there any other shopping websites?” Jon asked finally, after Amazon failed them. He’d have to call up Jeff later and complain. “Or is this the only one?”

Tim sighed. “Let’s check Google.”

Quickly and efficiently, yet with many lightning fast detours, Tim found another site called ‘eBay’ - pronounced ‘e-Bay’, not ‘ehbay’ - that listed off exactly what they needed. They weren’t under the toy section, instead listed as something called ‘cosplay’, but Tim seemed highly resistant to explaining that one, so he dropped it. 

They picked a likely looking white toy gun that looked the most similar to the one that Martin had liked and Tim talked Jon through punching in the numbers on his card into the website and sorting through the billing and shipping information. Tim helpfully took down the numbers on his card to file later. 

“And...done!” Tim said, pressing a button and leaning back. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“It was ten times as complicated as I thought it would be,” Jon assured him, “but also much more fun. What else can you buy online?”

“Oh, god. What can’t you buy.”

Jon brightened. “Can you buy books?”

“Old Gertrude used to buy Leitners on eBay,” Tim said dully, “so yeah, sure, why not.”

Jon stared at his computer. He carefully navigated the mouse to the big red x and clicked out of the internet browser. “That’s enough of eBay, then, I think.”

Guess he would have to stick to buying Leitners in person. It was no good buying fucked up books from sketchy sources. Always stick to people you trusted, or at least trusted to be themselves. Mikaele was Jon’s favorite supplier since the kid Leitner disappeared, and they had a pleasant working relationship. Mikaele shared his grandfather’s stories about the history and culture of the Maori, and Jon told him which of his haunted artifacts would be the most helpful in the imminent apocalypse. 

“Well,” Tim said finally, gently pushing Jon’s laptop away, “that was...something, great bonding session with my local supervillain, please run back to Elias and bother him instead.”

“You were very helpful, Mr. Stoker,” Jon said, as professionally yet paternally as possible. Tim was six years older than his body, so he’s not sure how it came off, but the touch of grey at his temples helped with the dignified air. “And as soon as you start acting like a man and propose to my Archivist, you’ll make an excellent brother in law -”

“Uh, excuse me?”

Jon spun around in his chair to see Sasha and Martin standing at the door, holding doggy bags and looking somewhat flummoxed. Probably confused at the sight of him and Tim having a civil conversation, which admittedly had never happened before. Possibly also confused at how completely mortified Tim looked. 

“Who said anything about proposing?” Sasha asked incredulously. “Tim, are you -”

“No! No, god no!” Tim stood up quickly, holding his hands out as if he was placating a raging bull. “Nobody’s been saying anything - I would never do that to you -”

“Oh,” Sasha said frostily, crossing her arms and letting the bags swing, “would you.”

That was a domestic Jon should stay out of, even though he definitely caused it. He and Martin sidled away in tandem, huddling near the back of the Archives as Tim frantically pled for his life. 

Sneakily, Jon glanced at Martin out of the corner of his eye. He looked happy. Happy, and just as stressed as he always looked - Jon had never known Martin when he wasn’t constantly stressed out, and he was more than aware that it was his fault. 

He looked good, too. Really nice, broad jawline that gave his face a friendly round shape. Just friendly and round in general, it was really handsome. His hair was as nicely short and ruffles as ever. The big glasses were super stylish, and really framed his face well. Really big, broad hands. Jon, who had always been so poky and tall and thin and gaunt, like some kind of haunted scarecrow that lurked through the corners of time, was envious. He wanted some of that softness and gentleness. Really, he wanted some of Martin’s -

“So what were you and Tim doing?” Martin asked. “I didn’t know you knew he existed.”

“You told me his name,” Jon said anxiously. “I don’t forget the things you tell me, you know.”

Martin smiled shyly and him, and Jon found himself smiling back. “It’s pretty good for my ego to hear that I have something to teach the immortal genius.”

“I don’t know,” Jon said, as Sasha yelled in the background, “I’ve been learning a lot lately.”

“Really?” Martin teased. “Anything interesting?”

“Oh,” Jon said, watching the yellow fluorescent light cast Martin’s dim smile in soft relief, “I can think of a few things.”

[snekberry]

Please infodump anything you've thought about for the au where elias takes over jon you cannot give me brainrot like that and then not say anything else

HI ALRIGHT <333

So the whole premise of the AU is that when Elias learned that Jon was planning to blind himself and run away with Martin, he decided to act before that could happen by transferring his eyes into Jon and taking over his body.

Random snippets of information about the AU that i daydreamed about :

First of all, Jon is still alive. Since Elias didn't do any irreversible damage to Jon's eyes when he body hopped, Jon is still connected to the Eye, and it refuses to let him die. However, he's stuck in a state of dreaming, similar to what happened after season 3. He's back to watching live statement givers in their dreams.

Jon subconsciously contacts the Web in his dreams. He ends up making a deal with the Web to gain some control over tape recorders so that he can communicate through them as a disembodied voice in exchange for him somehow feeding the Web.

Elias probably notices the spiders that occasionally approach him, but he interprets this as the Web giving him its blessing.

Elias possesses Jon sometime between MAG 154 (where Jon asked Martin to run away with him) and MAG 158 (Panopticon episode). Martin, having isolated himself from the others, doesn't know about what happened to Jon until MAG 158.

With the Web's help, Jon can talk through tape recorders now, but he initially has a hard time controlling this power. When he tries to contact Martin, his voice comes out as a sudden loud garbled noise that startles Martin from time to time.

Peter takes Martin to the Panopticon and tells him that he needs to kill Jonah Magnus. When Martin asks where Jonah's eyes are, this is when "Jon" shows up and says "Exactly where they’ve always been, Martin. Watching over my Institute."

Martin is baffled at first by Jon's surprise appearance, but as soon as he takes a good look at him, he immediately realizes that there is something deeply wrong with his eyes. Peter can recognize quite quickly that those are Jonah's eyes in Jon's body (Peter is... intimately familiar with his eyes LMAO)

Martin gets angry because if Jon is dead, then everything that he did to keep him safe was for nothing. He makes a move to kill Jonah Magnus, but Elias swiftly informs him that Jon is still alive, and he dies, Jon dies along with him.

Martin does not kill Jonah Magnus. Peter loses the bet, becomes enraged, and throws Martin into the Lonely as per the conditions of his bet with Elias. Even though Elias originally wanted Peter to do this to orchestrate a mark for Jon, he still lets Peter do it anyways since he no longer has any use for Martin.

There are tape recorders in the Lonely. Jon suddenly Knows that Martin is in danger, and he reaches out to him. This time, Jon manages to talk to Martin through the tape recorders. He explains to Martin about what Elias had done to him, and he guides Martin out of the Lonely with a disembodied voice. Martin's determination to save Jon is enough to anchor him and bring him back to the real world.

Yeah that's all I thought of so far

[jon-elias]

With soulmate au I like an idea where Jon has the name of each body Jonah has possessed so like when he’s right around the mr spider he gets another name

Imagine how confused and scared he’d be once he realized the name changed. Would he assume his soulmate died or maybe he’d chalk it up to the trauma the mr spider incident caused him. Either way, I like to think he’s always been uncomfortable with meeting his soulmate.

[gronlandic-edit]

"Ellie", or: the AU where OG!Elias regains control of his body

Or: Stoner Elias is Back, and he's Baby, Baby

I'm working on a full fic for this, but in the meantime, here's a quick introduction:

Takes place in a canon divergence AU set sometime pre-Unknowing. Jon and Martin figure out Elias's plans, destroy the Institute and kill him

As Jon is about to kill Elias however, he goes for his eyes instead

Jonah dies. Jon wasn't certain if it would work or not, but original Elias Bouchard is now in control of his body: blind, traumatized and confused as hell

Elias was about 28 when Jonah possessed him, and that was in 1996, so he spent about 20 years that way.

He has vague, disconnected, dream-like snippets of memories from those years, but nothing he can make sense of. He tries not to think about it.

His body is technically 48 years old, but due to the Beholding's influence, he looks around 35-38.

Once Jon and Martin calm him down and explain what's happened, Elias starts living with them in Jonah's old house. Luckily, Jonah has accumulated plenty of wealth in 250 years, so they're basically set for life.

It's weird for Jon and Martin at first. But... he's different. He carries himself differently, speaks differently, dresses differently, and he looks so much smaller dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants instead of an expensive suit.

Jon and Martin have an established caregiving relationship: Jon age regresses and Martin acts as his caregiver. They don't hide this from Elias, but he's not an active participant either.

That is, until Elias asks one day to join them, just as an observer. A soft knock at the door:

"Can I... can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure, do you need anything?" Martin asks. He's sitting there with Jon's, who's currently absorbed in a coloring book.

"Just wondering if I could sit with you, that's all. Don't much like being on my own."

Jon and Martin are okay with it, so he sits with them for a while. He's polite, quiet, gently interacts with Jon and helps Martin (could you hand me the sippy cup, etc.)

Afterwards, he approaches Martin about it:

"Oh, Martin, uh... could we talk?"

"Yeah, sure, what's up?"

"I had such a good time with you and Jon last night, uh.... I was wondering if..... well, if you wanted to—"

Martin smiles, because he's been picking up on some hints for a while now: "You want to be small?"

"Is-is that the right word for it? I mean, it's alright if not, you and Jon take care of me so much already, saved my life, got rid of that.... parasite, I don't want to overstep but—"

"Elias. It's okay. I'll talk to Jon about it, alright?"

It ends up working well: it's a great coping mechanism for Elias, and while Jon is initially hesitant to be around him while he's regressed—this is the body of the man that let him be eaten by worms, after all—the longer he spends with him, the more positive association he feels until he can look at Elias and no longer even think of Jonah.

Elias starts going by Ellie: mostly when he's regressed, but he likes the name and starts using it when he's big as well.

It ends up being very beneficial/therapeutic for Elias/Ellie. He's essentially starting his life over from scratch, so it's weirdly... fitting?

This is the basic premise of it: I'll post more info and snippets soon!

[iceeckos12]

tma fic recs

I’ve seen a couple of fic rec posts floating around. since ive been reading so many excellent fic recently, i thought that id make one as well! please note this list is going to be 99% jonmartin. also buckle up, because this is going to get long.

Completed

the umbrella by Wildehack (tyleet)

"And to think—all of Jonah Magnus’ carefully laid plans, the centuries of scheming, the murders, the sacrifices, all of that work could have been completely undone if Martin Blackwood had gone back for an umbrella" - holdthosebees

Notes: This is probably my go-to fic if i want an apocalypse never happened scenario. The jonmartin is wonderful, as is the h/c.

Diary and Prenon-nous la main by luftballoons99

Diary summary:

Not for the first time since they ran away together, a camera reel of all the things they don't know about one another whirs behind Martin's eyes, and he can't help but look at all the sprawling magnetic tape and wonder if they’re going to wind up a romance or a tragedy.

or: Office parties, garage bands, and the joy of being known.

Prenon-nous la main summary:

They still haven't talked about it, any of it, not even to pass the time on the long train ride to Scotland. Instead, Martin fell asleep in the seat next to him, pressed into his side from shoulder to knee, and Jon thought about love confessions and verb tense and how the two fit together when you think you're dying.

or: Good cows, mediocre poetry, and other crucial topics of discussion.

Notes: Do you love impeccable safehouse jonmartin characterization? do you love characters grappling with the mortifying ordeal of being known? do you love softness so tender that it makes you want to weep? please read these fic. im begging you.

i’ll tell you about all the times i’ve smiled because of you by cryptidkidprem

Summary:

Martin thinks about their shoes, sitting beside each other on the floor by the bed. Thinks of the way Jon wears Martin’s cardigans more often than he wears his own, the way Martin’s started keeping elastics around his wrist because Jon always forgets his own when they go out.

He thinks about all the gentle touches and fussing over each other they’ve done, and how much is still to come over the next… however long Jon will have him.

They have a long way to go, an entire life to build out of the wreckage Jonah Magnus and Peter Lukas left them, but laying together in a comfortable, sleepy quiet, Martin thinks they’ve got a good start going.

Or, Jon quits the Institute, saves the world, and it turns out to be exactly what he needs in order to heal and start moving forward towards building a life with Martin.

Notes: how many times have i reread this fic? more than i can count. jon quits the institute and it’s just full of soft jonmartins. they get married! god i love them.

go softly by doomcountry

Summary:

And there is nothing else besides this.

Notes: every time i remember this fic i reread it. please heed the tags because martin is blinding jon, but he’s like. blinding jon in the most heartbreaking way possible. idk how the author made this so tender but i know i was certainly crying so!

The Reverb in These Holy Halls by  Wolftraps (AlwaysBoth)

Summary:

Undoing the apocalypse would have been enough for Jon, if all his people survived. Without them, Jon's only recourse is making it so it never happened in the first place. He's going to do better this time.

Notes: Do you like time travel fixits? i sure like time travel fixits. reverb is an excellent one. heavy on the h/c, I wanted to hug jon so so badly. 

Yesterday is Here by  CirrusGrey

Summary:

"Who the hell are you?" Jon could feel his hands shaking. The man laughed, taking a step forward and raising a hand to point at him. "I'm you, from the future!" he said, then swayed, eyes going unfocused, and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint. -------- Post-season-four Jon and Martin time travel back to the season one Archives.

Notes: Yet another time travel fixit! also excellent. the teasing was HYSTERICAL. also Im just going to say this now - CirrusGrey in general writes incredible tma fic. You can’t really go wrong.

unassigned supplementals by  bibliocratic 

Notes: I won’t put in a summary just because it’s a long series of oneshots, but bibliocratic’s writing is amazing. Again, you can’t really go wrong with one of their fic!

let the soft animal of your body by autoclaves

Summary:

Standing in the warm kitchen, slats of sepia light filtering through onto the counter in front of him, Martin doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He half expects them to go through the countertop entirely, glossy and solid as it is. He isn’t used to any of it, yet. The safehouse. Jon. Beams of sun pouring into his hands. After being deprived of everything of significance for so long, the longing that crashes over him is almost painful in its tangibility. He wants to laugh, to sob, to scream and hear it echoed back against the neat, square walls of the safehouse.

In the end, he doesn’t do any of these things. He makes eggs instead. He can do that, can’t he? Use his hands for something simple and plain and good.

(Or: In the safehouse after it all, Martin starts cooking.)

Notes: this fic really speaks to me a) because i project on martin like crazy and b) because food is also my love language. this fic is incredibly soft and it’s all about cooking!

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” by shinyopals

Summary:

I hope you find your new role as Head of the Institute as rewarding as captaining the Tundra, wrote Elias Bouchard, to Peter Lukas. There are so many people working there: all with their own interesting lives, and all desiring your attention and support. I'm sure you will relish the challenge it will bring and enjoy every moment spent with the fine men and women of the Institute. In time I'm confident they'll become like a family to you.

The Magnus Institute has a new boss. The Magnus Institute also has a new tech support technician. These two facts are unrelated, except they both happen at the same time.

Meanwhile Jon's woken up from being dead for six months and for once he's trying his best. He just wishes Martin would stop avoiding him and answer his messages...

Notes: if you’re looking for a good laugh, this fic is SO SO SO FUNNY. i was dying. basically the magnus institute being an absolute bureaucratic nightmare.

hello my old heart  by  firebirdsuite

Summary:

Peter’s wrong, of course. When it’s all over, Martin does still want to tell Jon everything. It’s just—well, there’s a few things they need to work through first before they can get there.

Martin and Jon find each other again in Scotland.

Notes: it’s all about the yearning. and trust me, the yearning in this fic? im just. i sure do love jonmartin, and this is such soft, loving jonmartin it just makes you want to cry

two ships passing by pyrites

Summary:

Gerard Keay is 10 years old the very first time he tries to run away from home, right around the time that Jonathan Sims has just come into possession of his first Leitner.

Or: One dropped stone can change the way the whole ocean moves.

Notes: again, JONGERRY. MY GOODNESS. this fic is beautiful, the writing is absolutely breathtaking and it owns my heart. im so in love with it. the author said you’re going to have emotions about jon and gerry and jongerry and i said OKAY

Terminal Sight by viv_is_spooky

Summary:

Spider silk weaves through the visions of two Seers. Monstrosity is dawning on them both.

Notes: I’d never read a gerryoliver fic before this, but the execution is EXCELLENT and now im sold on the ship forever. This fic has wonderful prose and great characterization and i love it a whole lot.

Incomplete

assistant archivist au by  PitViperOfDoom

Notes: I won’t put a summary since I’m reccing an entire series, but. it is absolutely no secret that i adore jongerry. pit’s assistant archivist au slapped me over the head with some gorgeous jongerry oneshots and then gave me the gift of the main fic (which is still in progress) about head archivist martin. i love this au so so much

dustsceawung by  callmearcturus

Summary:

Martin had always been favored by the summer courts, and moving up north to the little village of Lacuna is a difficult adjustment. It's rainy and lonely and everyone seems to have a strange, distant relationship with the local faerie court.

However: there is a strange man in a cloak who walks past Martin's remote little cottage every few days.

However: there is a moth that keeps getting stuck in Martin's house during the rain.

These events are not as disconnected as they first appear.

Notes: you ever just read a fic that you didn’t know that you needed until after you read it? yeah. featuring the fae and moth jon and excellent characterization.

Illicio by ThatOneGirlBehindYou

As the new Archivist debates between life and death, the Eye ponders on what to offer him in order to avoid an encore of the unfortunate situation with his predecessor.

-----

Gerard Keay opens his eyes at what feels like fuck-ass in the morning, inside a room with far too little space and far too much dust.

Notes: This is also the moment where I reveal that im a sucker for jongerrymartin. please read this fic. gerry is brought back from the dead in s4 and everyone is far better off for it.

where there’s a will, we make a way by bubonickitten

Summary:

"So, what does happen if an Eye learns to See within itself?

What happens is this: the Archive Beholds the Watcher – and the Watcher blinks first."

________________________

Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Notes: this time travel fixit is shaping up to be an absolutely incredible read. i love the way this author writes jon so so much, and the characterization is spot on. this whole fic just satisfies some little part of me. god. also!! bubonickitten’s writing in general? beautiful. please check out their other works.

The Timeline of Theseus by Applea

Jon tries to force the Spiral to send him back, but the Sprial's corridors never twist things quite the way you want them to. Back in 1996, Elias has no idea why or how the Eye made such a powerful Avatar out of an 8 year old, especially when said 8 year old doesn't actually know he has any powers at all. Clearly such a child cannot be left outside the Institute's care. 

Notes: This fic is legitimately brilliant. The author manages to capture the big ADHD mood and the precociousness of baby Jon while managing to write a wonderful storyline. Time travel! Elderly lesbians! A Jonah who is wildly in over his head but was walloped over the head with paternal instinct! Baby Gerry! What more could you possibly ask for?

rooms full of people who do not love each other yet by seaer

Summary:

“Wanted to ask about a book.” The boy has his hand on the counter, and he leans into it, nonchalant. The library is air-conditioned, but by no means frigid, and Jon can’t help but feel sweaty just looking at the layers he’s wearing; what looks like old leather over an olive-green Magnus pullover over his school shirt. “Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Jon says, tetchily, “We’re about to close.”

“I know. Do you have A Journal of the Plague Year?”

Notes: I am so in love with this author’s writing style and the way they write the characters!! The jon and gerry friendship is PERFECT and the character interactions are all darling.

if you read these fics please send the authors some love, they definitely deserve it!! 

[day-time-dream]

ok tma au where jonmartin and lonelyeyes switch places

martin blackwood, a respectable “friend” of the lukas family, is tasked with mentoring the newest addition to the lonely, peter. the mentoring is very hands-off and mostly consists of martin vanishing people and peter looking on in rapt interest. theyve said maybe fifteen sentences to each other. however, sometimes martin has to go visit the magnus institute as a representitive of the lukas family.

where jon sims, head of the institute, has recently hired a new archivist by the name of elias bouchard. this archivist seemingly has a vested interest in getting himself killed and jon has had to rescue him from at least three different avatars already. also sometimes elias seems...,,,very knowledgable about subjects that he simply shouldnt be able to consider. jon is sus.

jon and martin are in love and very happy together. peter and elias instantly hate each other, despite also instantly wanting to make out

in case it isnt clear: elias is semi-possessed by jimmy magnet, who made some questionable host choices back at the start of the whole thing and has been bouncing around hosts trying to get back into the actual institute. elias is the first person hes managed to get hired as, mainly due to the fact that jon can sense his bullshit from a mile away and is Not Interested. he only lets elias in cause hes stoned often enough that jimbo mamba cant really get through to pull any super crazy antics.

jojo mcgee does however keep managing to manuver himself into avatar confrontations, and then fuck off back to beholding-ghost land to let Actual Elias get marked.

its driving jon insane.

more points about this au

-tim and sasha both just tolerate elias cause when hes jonah hes a dick, but elias shares his weed, so they think hes a very hot-and-cold person

-they both adore jons boyfriend, and sasha is a little sus of peter but tim likes him cause tim can ramble on at him for hours and peter hardly says anything

-because of the above, peter tolerates sasha and utterly loathes tim

-timsasha is a happy bi/pan solidarity couple and nothing bad happens to anyone except jonah who can get screwed out of a ritual cause he deserves it

thanks as always to @nocturnal-and-chaotic and @wryn-alexandria-thrives for listening to me rave about stupid AUs

[ghostbustermelanieking]

tma as “the haunting of bly manor”: self-indulgent au ramblings

this started as me really loving thobm’s ending (both in general and as a representation of what i want out of tragic gay love stories in horror) and thinking “wow it’d be cool if tma ended like that,” and ended up here because i started analyzing the parallels and where other characters fit in and couldn’t stop thinking about it. indulge me on this one please

(putting this under a cut in case anyone is watching the haunting of bly manor and doesn’t want to be spoiled. i don’t think you necessarily need to have seen thobm to understand this but it probably helps.)

· okay as pieces of horror that deal a lot in tragedy and death and love and themes of being trapped and fighting against things and reliving moments in time and losing yourself to outside forces, i think thobm works really well as a template for a tma au

· to start off: martin is the storyteller. of course martin is the storyteller

·“statement of martin k. blackwood regarding… a ghost story” more on this later

· the magnus institute stands in for bly, and it’s pretty much the same except it’s in the middle of fuck-all nowhere, and is much less staffed, and half the staff just like. lives there out of necessity

· it isn’t just a temple to the eye though; it’s mostly that, but it’s also kind of like a sinkhole for all the powers. the land it’s on is a mess and divided up between the powers like a mini fearpocalypse

· consider: tim and sasha as owen and hannah come and suffer with me

· ok aside from the inherent tragedy of their stories being in parallel, consider: tim would make those awful puns and sasha would absolutely pretend to hate it

· ok but also consider: sasha dies and no one notices, not even her. she’s taken by not-sasha the lady in the lake and she dies and no one notices it, but everyone wonders where sasha’s always going, why she always seems to be so out of it.

· imagine sasha fading into the background not realizing that shes dead... tim not understanding why she's pulling away or constantly disappearing, why she acts so strangely when he suggests they run away... sasha reliving moments with tim, unable to understand why she keeps coming back to the moment where she pushed him out of the way when something was in the institute, not realizing it’s the last time she saw him alive

· “tell him i love him…” oh my god

· not sasha is the lady in the lake. just because.

· jonah elias magnus is a little bit the lady in the lake a little bit peter quint he’s got the backstory of this being his house and being there for fuck-all-ever, and he’s using all these people as cogs in the machine, trying to get them to lose themselves to the eye or anything else there, using their lives and wellbeing to benefit himself (especially jon more on that later)

· (it should be noted there’s a very good fic with a huge manor and ghosts and romantic stuff and jonah possessing people called antigonish that makes way more sense than this but anyways)

· basira and daisy are a little bit quint and rebecca jessel. not entirely; their backstory is different and so is their dynamic, and daisy doesn’t possess basira to kill her and trap her there forever or anything like that. but she does go over to the hunt and ask basira to come with her. the difference is, basira wants to

· georgie is henry wingrave. minus the spousal infidelity and secret daughter, but in that she refuses to come to the institute. she’s brushed enough with it (with the end) that she doesn’t want to come anywhere near it, or anyone involved. she’s henry wingrave who separates herself from everyone for her own preservation but also loses jon and melanie in the process… who calls all the time because she misses them and wants to either apologize or beg them to leave but can never get up the courage to say anything… who comes back to get them out and dies briefly and has her encounter with the end… who talks to sasha when she reveals she’s dead and says, “tell him i love him…” who helps melanie leave in the end…. jesus christ

· melanie and jon are both dani yes i will elaborate

· melanie is dani in that she’s the last to come, and she thinks it’s going to be a new start even though it’s anything but. (she’s running, although not from a ghostly fiancé, but from the slaughter and the war ghosts and the humiliation she faced on the internet.) she comes to give a statement and ends up never leaving, and the slaughter only tightens its hold on her. georgie disapproves. melanie wants to leave when she figures out she’s trapped but she doesn’t know how

· jon is dani in that he is the second to last to come, and also the linchpin to ending all of it. but he’s also a little bit the kids, in that he’s being manipulated and taken over by the eye and in a lot of danger but he has no idea. he’s still the archivist he still takes statements and elias (who’s a lot less present here but still has some sway over everything) is manipulating the hell out of him ala quint to miles and flora

· the covering mirrors motif pops up here somehow mirrors looking glass eye all of that

· jon still takes statements, and statements are a version of dream-hopping. where they can relive their statements and their fondest memories and all of that, but jon is unwilling voyeur to all of it

· tim and martin are the ones who don’t stay at the institute overnight. jon and melanie and sasha and basira do. gradually tim and martin start to leave less and less

· it ends in a big confrontation i’m not sure how. lake + eye imagery, the power well trying to pull everyone in. sasha accepts she’s dead. georgie comes for her loved ones. jon gives himself over to the eye to save everyone, so they can all leave

· here is where storyteller martin comes in because imagine that ending of dani and jamie in a jm context. holy fucking shit

· jon and martin who leave the institute and go to scotland on borrowed time, knowing jon will inevitably lose the rest of him to the eye someday, but wanting to spend whatever time they have left together. the safehouse period but it lasts for years pls imagine. all of that. oh my god

· jon eventually going back to the institute to protect martin and martin following him and getting there too late… that entire scene by the lake… holy shit holy shit

· storyteller martin who won’t talk about it for years before finally giving the statement (possibly at georgie and melanie’s wedding just because, possibly not like that at all). who gives the statement futilely hoping it’s the key to seeing jon again because that’s always worked before. storyteller martin who is still looking for jon years later, who fills the sinks and tubs and sleeps with the door cracked open. storyteller martin who sleeps unknowingly with jon’s hand on his shoulder

· this is messy and unformed but i’ve been screaming about it for weeks oh my god someone draw this for me

· i don’t expect actual tma to end anything like this but i’d die if it did