#jonmartin comes to mind

[sureuncertainty]

okay here are my thoughts on pj/hazel as a ship (from bottoms which i will probably be hyperfixating on for a bit sorry not sorry)

i guess I appreciate them as ship but i'm having a hard time getting quite on board with it just bc i'm really tired of the trope (idk if it's a trope but I see it frequently) of character A is a total asshole to character B consistently and then like... apologizes once (or not at all) and then B just forgives them immediately and it's fine. like idk i don't like ships where one character is mean to the other, it feels like there's an imbalance there. yeah pj apologized but i lowkey felt like hazel was too quick to forgive her and hazel deserves someone who doesn't make fun of her and is not mean to her 24/7 and who actually shows their appreciation of her and love for her and doesn't make her feel bad about herself, not just someone who enjoys kissing her yknow???

[saragrosie]

I have been sketching. So much tma. Here's some expansions on my Jon and Martin designs I've been doing.

Another note I forgor to mention is I love how after hearing Simon go "it's enough to make your hair turn white" about Martin's office in s4 many of us collectively agreed his hair turned white because of his association with the Lonely. The shared consciousness is real and we use it to play hot potato with the communal brain cell dedicated to the sillies.

Closeup of apocalypse boyfriends (also to the person who said they love my s5 Jon's fancy white girl updo: I think about that every day)

[annabelle--cane]

this is a difficult thing to have conversations about because it provokes really strong reactions in people for completely valid and understandable reasons, so please feel free to hit da bricks on this post whenever you want, but I do want to try and analyse the jonmartin slaps. we get three across 160, 169, and 172, and a line addressing it in 173, and then it never happens or comes up again. none of them come out of nowhere, and they mostly fly under the radar until 173 because they all broadly fit the "slapping someone out of a trance in an emergency" trope, but each of them slowly decreases in urgency.

the first time, the apocalypse starts up and martin comes back to find a passed out jon, can't wake him by making noise, and strikes him in a panic. this makes sense, this is a man who has entered a supernatural coma before and martin had no idea what was going on, so of course he'd jump to something desperate.

the second time, they're in a burning building, jude arrives while jon is still mid-statement, and when making noise doesn't work martin slaps him out of it. this makes sense, they were there for jude and if jon didn't come back to himself then she likely would have hurt them, though martin knew that her powers against them were limited.

the third time, jon is getting pulled into into a repeating statement instead of coming out on his own like usual, so martin speaks once or twice to try and get his attention, and then slaps him out of it. this... again, it makes sense, jon was getting trapped, but there was no immediate peril like before, martin just got freaked out and wanted to leave quickly. he seems to get that it was harsh because he apologizes for it, but they don't linger at all, martin just starts in on them having to leave immediately.

the last time it's mentioned is when they're on night street, during what is one of their most intense arguments. jon tries to talk about the suffering of the children there for longer than he needs to in order to make a point, martin cuts him off, and he pointedly says, "thank you for not hitting me this time." it never happens or is brought up again.

to our knowledge, jon doesn't say anything about the slapping until 173. he's not a guy who's known for speaking up when things upset him, he was amiably working with daisy within about a week of her trying to kill him, so it makes sense that he would just sit with this comparatively more minor thing. however, I do think it's relevant to note that, at this point in their relationship, martin will sometimes voice his feelings and boundaries (not listening to statements, not consenting to mind reading, worrying when jon expresses discomfort with his body), while jon doesn't. from the couple of times he does talk about his feelings this season, I think that tendency comes a few places: he has a hard time being aware of his emotions at all, he doesn't know how to evaluate his emotions' importance in comparison to others', he assumes his emotions are obvious and thus people already act with full knowledge of them, and the topic is just hard to make himself talk about. from what he says in 173, I think the slaps bothered him the entire time, but he made himself be fine with it until he was upset with martin for unrelated reasons and finally let it out.

as for martin's side, I do not think the slaps came from any kind of suppressed desire to hurt or wield power over jon. we've seen him when he's angry at jon, this isn't how he acts, he gets shouty and indignant but never violent. I'd even go as far as to say he doesn't do it in 173 because he's genuinely upset at jon and the situation they're in, and it would never occur to him to deliberately inflict pain on someone he cares about to assert control over them. the connecting line between all of them is fear from something that he wants jon to help him handle. the apocalypse starts, he is stuck inside one of his worst nightmares, and he's paranoid that the web took control of him. he's someone who is "always following, never leading" (170), and he gets tunnel vision when something scares him and his "leader" isn't there.

jon did need to be pulled out of all three of those situations, and words proved insufficient, and maybe a quick jolt of pain was the only thing that could have worked, but martin doesn't seem to consider what that would feel like from jon's pov. in my experience of relationships, if there's ever an unavoidable emergency where you do actually need to cross a line that you never would otherwise, you talk about it afterwards. you do a debrief where you say "I'm really sorry about that, I didn't see another way, I'll try and be better prepared next time." they do this for problems they have later on (177, 198), but martin doesn't do that here. jon's point-of-view just doesn't seem to occur to him. when jon expresses discomfort, he drops the tactic without a word; later, when he needs to anchor jon in the panopticon, he talks him through it before it can get too far. so, it's not about a lack of care for jon's feelings.

I think it comes down to a few things: a) his occasional tendency to treat people as a means to an ends and not think about their perspective. he's so glued to putting others first most of the time that when he stops, he can't find a middle ground and forgets that other people can have feelings about his actions. b) his problems with conceiving of himself as a person of any importance who is capable of doing anything, especially of doing harm. as a concept, "hurting jon" is the thing he would least like to do in the whole world, it is his nightmare scenario and literally the culminating moment of his tragedy. he finds it almost unthinkable, so the idea that he does it casually when he's scared doesn't cross his mind. one of his central worries at this point is that jon is now so powerful that he no longer needs martin, how could he hurt someone like that? he's not anywhere near a comparable level of importance, it's not like he has his own domain that he's not aware of because jon told him about it and he immediately rejected the information. he's powerless and could never bring himself to hurt the man he loves.

I just. think it's an interesting microcosm of some of the lows of their relationship. once the problem is discovered martin instantly takes the note and doesn't put it on jon to explain himself further or assuage his guilt, they are willing and able to adapt, but it still comes from some of their bedrock flaws. martin doesn't understand that he can hurt people, and jon has such an inflated understanding of his capacity to hurt people that it sabotages his self-worth and his ability to respond to pain and displeasure.

[forgetyoursingalongsandlullabies]

I’m kind of obsessed with the Jonmartin timeline and how Jon slowly fell in love with Martin, mostly off tape over seasons 2 and 3. I wrote a little bit of an essay trying to pinpoint the shifts and moments when we can tell something has changed. I love fanfics but I am just so interested in trying to figure out what happened in canon as close as possible. Of course this does involve speculation of emotions that we have no way of actually knowing because Jon Sims does not talk about his feelings.

Anyway it’s long-ish.

Jon fell in love with Martin over season 2 but didn’t start to realize it until late season 3 just before The Unknowing.

Martin starts the show with a crush on Jon. In MAG 22 when Martin makes his statement about the worms Jon feels guilty over how all of the pressure he’s put Martin under drives him to put himself in danger and he has Martin move into the archives to protect him which may be the first caring gesture he has made towards Martin but it’s a big one. Martin, who had a decent size crush on Jon beforehand, is blown away by this and his crush becomes a real big one.

Jon tries to continue being hard on Martin but he does noticeably soften towards him. His criticisms are half-hearted.

During Jane Prentice’s attack when Martin and Jon are in document storage Martin calls Jon out and properly snaps at him for dismissing the supernatural and Jon actually sees Martin in this moment for the first time. Martin had never talked back to him in such a way and Jon can now see him as not just his assistant who makes a lot of mistakes but as an equal who might know better than him in some aspects. They have their heart to heart and Jon is able to be honest for the first time since taking this job. He admits he’s scared and it’s okay, well it’s not okay because Jane Prentice might be moments away from killing them, but Martin doesn’t think any less of him. And then Jon asks if Martin is a ghost and he’s wrong and it was stupid but Martin makes fun of him in a way that doesn’t hurt and Jon isn’t used to that. And Martin, seeing this open and fragile and slightly dumb part of Jon, starts falling in love.

After Martin finds Gertrude’s body Jon is one track minded and focused on finding out what happened. Martin, giving his statement about the tunnels, is in tears not because he found a body and was scared, but because he accidentally left Jon. Jon was too distracted with finding answers at the moment but he heard it and absorbed it over time.

Season 2 Jon is full of nothing but paranoia and is unwilling to trust anyone but it’s his obsessive observations that lead him to getting to know Martin enough to love him. When Jon tries to come back from leave early Martin forces Jon to go home and rest more. Jon wonders what Martin is hiding but reasons that, no Martin is actually concerned about his health. Jon thinks Martin gave him a fake jar of ashes to calm him down, he doesn’t seem to think this gesture is part of a conspiracy, he genuinely thinks of this gesture as Martin lying to him to make him feel better. Jon notes that Martin has been very attentive to his needs and recovery and that he is interested to hear Jon’s theories about Gertrude. He remarks that he has observed Martin’s competence and cunning. Of course Jon is ridiculously paranoid and interprets this attention as some kind of plot against him to slow down his investigation and sees these positive attributes of Martin as reasons to see him as a threat, but again, Jon is absorbing it all. The lines in Jon’s supplementals about Martin’s attention to him implies that they’re spending a lot of time together off tape, at least more than they ever used to, probably at Martin’s insistence and Jon accepting this time by justifying to himself that he needs to watch Martin.

In MAG 53 Jon mentions that Martin hovers near him when he goes to the canteen and Martin says it’s because he’s concerned (based on Jon’s lie about how he got the cut from Michael). Martin offers to pick Jon up a sandwich from the cafe and bring it back for Jon. He doesn’t ask Jon to come with him and Jon acts like he’s annoyed to be around Martin when he sits with him in the canteen, but Jon decides No instead of me refusing the gesture for food or saying yes please pick up that sandwich for me, he says “I’ll come with” making another decision to spend time with Martin when he doesn’t have to. Maybe Jon tries to justify this to himself again by saying he’s keeping an eye on Martin but Jon has made no efforts to go spend extra time with Tim, who was an equal suspect, even before Tim was mad at Jon. (And may I add, if Jon tried this tactic with Tim, going out to lunch, watching him by spending time with him etc. maybe Tim wouldn’t have ended up being so angry with Jon.) But Jon is definitely making the effort to spend time with Martin when it frankly has nothing to do with his investigation no matter how he tries to spin it.

In MAG 56 when Jon makes Martin tell him what he’s been hiding and he finds out Martin had lied on his CV he is so relieved that he is giddy. He is smiling, laughing and stuttering. To Jon’s ‘rational’ mind this doesn’t fully clear Martin of suspicion but emotionally this really seems to be a weight off of his shoulders. On a subconscious level he can start to allow the time they’ve spent together to mean something other than just spying.

Meanwhile Martin can see what a hard time Jon is having and he can see him spinning out of control with paranoia and Martin tries really hard to defend him, maybe not the best thing, we know Martin is a bit of an enabler for Jon, but for Jon’s emotional arc of falling in love with Martin it is important that Jon hears Martin defending him to Tim in MAG 58. Martin never stops calling Jon out on his shit like when he tells Jon that he needs to talk to Tim and that Tim isn’t wrong but nowadays it feels like everyone is constantly calling Jon out, not that he doesn’t deserve it, but when Martin calls him out it’s still clear that he cares, whereas anyone else talking to Jon just seems to speak to him with malice.

At the beginning of season 3 Jon is hiding out and staying at Georgie’s place. We know from Season 4 MAG 149 that Jon used to go on about Martin to Georgie “a lot”. Georgie got the full story about The Archives in MAG 93 and Jon decides to move out of Georgie’s place in MAG 99 when he was then kidnapped by The Circus. There’s usually a week of time that passes between episodes unless otherwise implied and 93 and 94 take place over the same conversation on the same day so I’ll assume 5 weeks in which Jon was going on about Martin a lot with full context. He probably talked about him before then too only more cryptically. Importantly though in the Season 4 Q&A Alex asks, Who knew that Jon liked Martin first, Jon or Martin? And Jonny said “Georgie” so even though Jon didn’t know it yet, he was obviously smitten (at least obvious to Georgie who has dated Jon and recognizes signs of affection and romance in him more than anyone else would).

When Jon talks to Martin in MAG 102 there is a very slight almost imperceptible sweetness in Jon’s voice that we’ve never heard before. The way he assures Martin that it’s ok that he didn’t know he was kidnapped. There is a lot of awkwardness and frankly a lot of heavy breathing from both of them for probably just standing there. Their casual talk about the overall institute and Hannah who is having her baby and had that thing with the milk in the break room last year, Jon doesn’t know who she is but Martin knows that Jon knows her probably because they had been around her together since they spent so much time together last year but Jon was too paranoid and she had nothing to do with the plot, it’s just a very normal and domestic moment. Jon tells Martin he knows he’s been reading statements and Martin is just worried Jon will be jealous that he’s taking some of his job but instead Jon is just concerned for him. It’s different and they both know it’s different and they can both feel the conversation is charged with something but they don’t know what. “It’s not too late. Unless the world ends” means a lot in this conversation, yes it does literally mean it’s not too late for them to talk and continue whatever friendship they were stumbling towards in season 2. It’s not too late for them to pick up this weird, oddly charged and tender conversation that may be leading somewhere else. It’s also foreshadowing that it sort of is too late because their world will end when Jon effectively dies stopping the Unknowing.

By MAG 114 Jon says that he has listened to all of the tapes and has therefore heard the gossip about he and Martin. I think something clicked in his brain when he heard that Martin has a crush on him. He probably never considered that idea because things like romance are never on the forefront of his mind especially when he is in active danger, which he has been for the last 2 years, and even more so he wouldn’t expect someone to have feelings for him in general. Being conscious of the notion that Martin has feelings for him lead him to consider all of the strange feelings he’s been having about Martin over the last year and a half in a way that he might not have gotten to on his own until much later. It’s all part of the plan that Jon suggests Martin stay back at the Institute in front of Elias but Jon is genuinely relieved that Martin will be safer there.

In MAG 117 Jon talks about Daisy and Basira’s bond and how he’s been having to do everything by himself. He’s envious of their bond and we can tell he’s been thinking about how things could be if he had someone (Martin) by his side. I don’t think this part of his testament would have played out this way had he not been thinking a lot since he heard the tape. When he addresses the “office gossip” he is flustered. Possibly embarrassed that Georgie, who he trusts, was giving out this personal information to Melanie but I actually think he’s used to that specific type of gossip about him and I think that the nervous stutter and searching for words comes from trying to address the other part of the gossip, which he is still trying to wrap his head around.

It isn’t confirmed but I do think that Jon listened to everyone’s testimony before leaving and he heard Martin’s “I need him to be ok”. Later in MAG 139 Jon says “I need him to be okay. I just do.” I don’t think he’s consciously repeating the same phrase but I think this phrase has lived with him ever since he heard Martin say it and now it’s just organic to Jon too.

I genuinely do believe that at this point, as of MAG 117, all of Jon’s feelings for Martin are already there and internally he has at least accepted romantic feelings even if he wouldn’t have called it love then.

Jon is put in a 6 month coma the next night and is in a full tilt romantic arc the moment he wakes up. Not 20 minutes after waking from his coma he wants to see Martin, he’s surprised that Martin wasn’t there for him the moment he woke up. Maybe if you asked him the next day he’d say it was a silly notion for him to just expect Martin to be there at any given point no matter when he woke up, but a part of him accepted and knew that if Martin could have he would have been there.

Anyway, all this is to say that if he woke up from a coma desperately in love with Martin all of those feelings had to have been present before the coma. I know there was a lot more thought and consideration and emotional work that Jon had to do over season 4 before he could have been ready for his love to literally save Martin but all of the feelings were there by the time he woke up.

[mamahersh]

Mamahersh’s Post-MAG-200 Fanfic Recommendation Mega Thread

@a-mag-a-day

In celebration of us finishing The Magnus Archives (even if I admittedly fell off around S2 and have been mostly lurking since then), I have compiled all of my fave post series fics for your enjoyment! I will be grouping them in some big, general categories, which I’ll list above the read more here. Depending on the size of this post, it might start looking a bit like that “Do you like the sky?” post But I can assure you that I have read all of these and can give them my stamp of approval!

If you finished the series and were wishing for your best boys to finally be happy, then boy howdy do I have some fanfiction for you!

Time Travel

Somewhere Else

AUs

Uncategorized JonMartin Fluff

By these categories, we should hopefully cover all the recommendations I have, and I hope you all find some new fics! (or enjoy rereading fics you haven’t enjoyed in awhile)

TIME TRAVEL

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

"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.

Probably my fave time travel fic in this fandom hands down; it is also currently the longest whilst still unfinished. While I try not to recommend unfinished fics that I am uncertain of their return to activity, this is a big exception and personally I love everything about it! It’s got Jon dealing with trauma through the lens of his speaking only in Statements, Martin being saved from his downward spiral into the Lonely way earlier in S4, Georgie actually sticking around, Basira having a better grasp of the situation and being more understanding about it, and everyone generally sticking close to character while managing to buck parts of the narrative. I cannot recommend this fic enough, and I very likely already did back near the start of S5.

Something’s Different About You Lately by thesnadger

Jonathan Sims has been head archivist for just a few months, but he has memories of holding the position for years. He remembers monsters, and darkness, and the end of the world. Somehow, he'll have to keep everyone safe from what's coming. Meanwhile, his assistants can't understand why their prickly jerk of a boss has gone sappy all of a sudden.

So TMA time travel fics that focus on Jon going back tend to come in two varieties. There’s the “Jon’s mind goes back and replaces himself/inhabits his past self’s body” and then there’s the “Jon physically goes back so there’s two Jons”. The first two on this list are of the first variety, and if I remember right this was one of the first I ever read. However, I recommend this one specifically because this has an amazing ending. Like, it might just be me, but many of the endings in these feel relatively unsatisfying because there’s magically a third option where Jon comes out unscathed while saving his S1 archives crew from the Horrors. For whatever reason, it was incredibly satisfying having a fic that didn’t shy away from the options presented in S4 and S5 and I love how they characterize everyone in this one as well.

100 Seconds to Midnight by starspangledbread

Jon and Martin find themselves back in 2011 after attempting to release the fears from their reality. The world is the same one they left behind, but now something has come back with them. They have a chance to destroy the fears once and for all, but it proves harder than expected. Who knew that the best laid plans could be thwarted by nosy co-workers, office romance, the inevitable learning curve of being a time traveler turned grifter, and the refusal to believe in subtlety?

Did someone say Extinction!Jon? This also is a part of a series, though the true sequel to this one is currently unfinished (though it should eventually be completed and only has one chapter to go). An excellent romp, I definitely recommend if you’re looking for something kinda dark, some comedy, a little OOC, and Martin being able to embrace his crime side in the name of saving the world.

Yesterday is Here by CirrusGrey

"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.

Written by my fave (and most prolific) JMart author, we have a perfect example of the other kind of time travel fix it fic in the form of Jon physically travelling to the past to try and save the world. As expected by someone I am calling my fave JMart author, we’re going to be getting double dose on the JMart. I highly recommend if you’re looking for something that starts a little bittersweet, but then ends in copious amounts of fluff.

Reverb (Series) by Wolftraps

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.

Summary from the first fic in the Reverb series, I highly recommend the first two fics in this series for different reasons. “The Reverb in These Holy Halls” is a great time travel fic that takes some really interesting turns by the end and unlike most fics actually has Jon try to keep Tim safe by keeping him out of the Archives pre-S1. However “Gossip” I recommend if you enjoy those fics formatted to look like official communication of some kind. It’s got people outside the Archives trying to figure out what’s wrong with them during the events of the first fic, and while it would be very confusing to read without the first fic, I’d almost say it’s worth it if you aren’t feeling the tags on the first one. Really fun and entertaining, you can’t go wrong with either one.

The Triumph of Galatea (for Acis is transformed) by TheOestofOCs

Statement of Hazel Rutter.

Jon couldn’t stop reading.

The Fears, however, are a bit more powerful than Jonah gave them credit for. Jon opens the door, but the world can’t hold what’s on the other side.

Time falls through, instead. Past becomes present, and the future is undone.

Statement begins.

Another fic I definitely recommended back at episode 160, but is well worth the second recommendation and/or re-read. Time Travel, but what if Jon could control as well as go into the dreams of the assistants/other Eye aligned people instead of just his victims’ dreams? Very good, even if unfinished, though the author seems likely to finish someday. Check out their other work as well, it’s all very good and has my fave Circus themed fic written to date.

a map of what matters most by gruhukens

“Is that a body,” Tim blurts before he can stop himself, rising to his feet. Martin looks, if possible, even more scared.

“He’s alive!” he hisses, almost defensively. “It’s not - it’s not Gertrude again, I didn’t kill him, he just – I don’t know what happened to him, I just found him in the stacks like this.”

“And you dragged him up here?” Tim says, and then registers several things at once – the build, the hair texture; the little round scars peppering a pair of thin hands and an awfully familiar face. “Wait, is that Jon?”

----

Jon stumbles back into an earlier Archive, looking for a way to fix the world. (Or, mom says it's my turn for the obligatory time travel au)

Directly inspired by CirrusGrey’s fic that I recommended earlier, this is another: Jon travels physically into the past fic. This one though is far more bittersweet than “Yesterday is Here”, but still an excellent read and does a great job at fleshing out the relationships between all the characters.

Saving the Universe: For Dummies by GhostChoir

Finding a man bleeding out in the alleyway was not what Elias wanted to do today. And he certainly didn’t mean to befriend him. But things never did go how he expected.

****** A Post-MAG200 Jon meets a 1970s Elias, an Elias from before he was corrupted by Jonah. Together, the two of them learn to cope with grief, drink more tea than any two people should be able to consume, and commiserate over shitty bosses. Oh, and just for the hell of it, they stop an apocalypse along the way.

Now for a change of pace: What if Jon time travels to the time of early Gertrude and Elias pre-Jonafying? A very good fic is what! While it’s been awhile since I read this, I do remember it’s quite good and deserves a chance. Note: this is NOT Jonathan/Elias, so my apologies if you were looking for that, but it is two very lonely men getting to just have a reliable friend in times of trouble.

A Little Game of Cat and Mouse by Paptato

“Jonah Magnus.” The cloudy silhouette snarled as it’s hand clamped tightly around Jonah's ascot. That was indeed his name, but Jonah couldn’t begin to fathom what he did to have it spat out with such hatred.

But nonetheless, Jonah was a gentleman and he would kindly address the angry figure as politely as possible, “Yes, and you are?”

“What?” The form spluttered as it slowly came into focus. Ah, yes. That probably wasn’t the proper response to being held at gunpoint by a random stranger. Must have been the blow to his head.

(Or in which Jonathan Sims goes back in time and tries to pull a Terminator, but fails and Jonah Magnus finds a new mystery to solve.)

This is that Jonah Magnus/Jonathan Sims enemies to lovers fic your friends warn you about in a good way. It’s not done, but I think it’s still being updated very slowly. Even if all I ever read is the currently released 11 chapters, I will consider it my one exception to my dislike of Jonah/Jon. As you can probably guess by the description, it’s a time travel fix it where Jon gets shunted back in time to when Jonah was still very human and still trying to figure out the Fears. The Web keeps Jon from explaining his circumstances or anything to do with Jonah’s future in particular, but this is a good thing and they both get to learn how to be more human in a world that previously was very antagonistic to those goals. It’s got a heavy dose of comedy, plenty of romantic tension, and lots of both surprising and unsurprising cameos. If you enjoy Dracula Daily, you’ll probably enjoy this imho.

Déjà Vu by CirrusGrey

Sasha remembers being unmade. Tim remembers being Unknown. Jon and Martin remember being unwound. All of them think they're the only one. -------- The S1 crew wakes up in the past with memories up till the moment they died.

So, here’s another one that’s got quite the spin on it. As you can see from the description, this one is where S1 crew all get their minds sent back in time to the time right around Jon’s first statement if I remember right. Another CirrusGrey fic, so it heavily leans on JonMartin, but otherwise it’s a wonderful exploration of the four S1 characters and ends on a very hopeful note!

oh my darling, just a moment of your time by IceEckos12

The Institute is visited by a pair of time travelers, and Jon has an important question for Tim.

Have you ever had a oneshot that just kinda guts you unexpectedly? While this might not do this for everyone, this is an amazing oneshot that gets right the point. I love it a lot, because of all of the fics where future and past meet each other, it very rarely if ever is addressed that past Jon was a douche. Or well it is but past Jon doesn’t necessarily have a character moment from it. Here he does, and despite the briefness of the fic, the author does an amazing job of giving Jon and Tim a moment while making an almost critique of the TMA time travel genre. Highly, highly recommend, and it won’t overstay it’s welcome if it doesn’t end up being your thing.

The Severing of Webs by chlodobird

After Jon kills the world, he travels back in time. Once there, he gets ready to change the future, to save his Assistants, and to watch as everyone learns to hate him again.

Unfortunately, the tapes wrap around him like a fly caught in a Web—he can't move. He's trapped reliving the original timeline, stuck acting out his past actions like an actor rehearsing his lines.

Sasha will die. Tim will die. Martin—

(Jon screams inside his mind, and someone hears him. Fate is not as immutable as he fears.)

This one is a brand new one! While basically all of the others on the list have been out/updating for over a year at this point; this lengthy oneshot just released this month. tbh, very excellent, which is why it has made the list. Also, quite the twist on the usual premise, where being sent back into his head is actually a bad thing this time. Ends with a giant pile of fluff, but who would I be if all my time travel recommendations were not also fix-its?

-

Somewhere Else

it will be this, always by bluejayblueskies

Jon coughed again, and blood stained his lips and blood stained Martin’s hands where they pressed against Jon’s back and blood stained the floor beneath them and help, they needed help.

Martin doesn’t remember shouting. He barely remembers the faces that had surrounded them, wide-eyed and terrified, all utterly unfamiliar.

.

Jon and Martin wake up somewhere else. Jon begins a slow path toward physical recovery, and several important, long-put-off conversations are had as they begin to navigate a new world that they hadn’t thought they’d be alive to see.

So, I’m sure you all have gathered that I have qualms with how much disparity there is between canon and fanon Jmart. This fic is painful, but is the most in character depiction of post 200 JMart fallout I have ever read. The ending is very cathartic, and takes a “realistic” approach to what happens to Jon and Martin as they begin to navigate their relationship after they both had betrayed each other so thoroughly in the leadup and culmination of MAG 200. If you don’t want them immediately making up, this is the fic for you. They get there, but by all that is good do they take their sweet time getting there.

Out There, Somewhere by Artyphex

"I'm sorry, you were found alone."

Jon survived the apocalypse and now will go to the end of this new, unfamiliar world to find Martin again.

So I think I’m just getting all the angsty ones out of the way first lol. Another slow burn, this fic is Jon’s recovery in the new reality while he also searches for what happened to Martin. Since I don’t post the tags, I will say this ones does feature “Eventual Happy Ending”, and I do promise that both Jon and Martin made it to the new reality and lived. But Jon and Martin both get to pine and cope for a while before that happy ending tag comes into play. It’s incredibly well done and explores their characters really well. Personally, I kinda enjoyed the Reddit saga because people mistaking Jon’s pleas for Martin as an ARG is very typical internet and 100% I would have bought into that at age 13.

Of course I need a therapist. I need ten therapists, working round the clock building me a bionic coping mechanism. We have the technology. by MartinKBlackwoodESQ

A story set somewhere else.

I’mma be real with you all, if I believed that characters could write and publish their own fanfiction, I would be halfway convinced the name is accurate. All joking aside however, this is a “crack treated seriously” fic but with characterization so on point I can consistently hear the voice actors when I read this. Admittedly, it’s made easier by it being written in transcript formatting, but if you’re looking for a hilarious time where TMA is suddenly is turned into a buddy cop adventure where Jon and Martin go to a universe where the Fears hadn’t been till their arrival, and they have doubles that already exist there who are living fairly normal lives till the TMA Jon and Martin crash land into their reality... Well this fic is one I cannot recommend highly enough. It also has a sequel, and it is also well worth the read, even if it appears to be on a bit of a break in it’s updates.

Worlds like phyllo pastry by neworld

After episode 200 Jon finds himself alone in a world very much like the one he left but fractionally different. It's so similar he finds versions of his former friends existing happily in the world. Unfortunately they have never met him in this universe and have no idea who he is.

This one’s unfinished, but personally it’s well worth the read as is. Not sure how I feel about the most recent chapter, but the story up till that point is a really fun spin on “Jon and Martin get shunted to a new reality” where Jon learns how to feed in a way that doesn’t cause problems facilitated by the new reality, and re-meets all the people who he lost till this point and has a very silly antagonistic relationship with his alternate self. While fic might be more of a guilty pleasure, it still is written in such a way that I would rank it high enough for this disorganized list.

Death Is The Easy Way Out by traveller19

After having killed Jonah Magnus and ended the Change, Jon and Martin should finally be able to rest. Rest, however, proves impossible when Jon falls ill. What's more, he begins having vivid dreams of their dead friends - Tim, trapped in the destroyed Archives, and Sasha, trapped outside of them. As Jon's condition quickly worsens and the line between dream and reality begins to blur, love is all he and Martin have to hold on to, because hope is a dangerous thing.

Did someone say sickfic??? But for real, this fic has an amazing balance between an A plot and a B plot, and keeps both at the right level of tension throughout. While this is a sickfic heavy one, it also features Tim and Sasha as ghosts trying desperately not to be. There’s also a lovely sequel and plenty of fluff by the end, but this is a rough ride. ALSO, if you or a loved one had covid / any respiratory illness that caused them to be hospitalized with pneumonia and it could be trigging to read incredibly on the nose descriptions of that experience, this fic is not for you. Or very cathartic. :/

Castaways by CirrusGrey

Welcome to the Castaway Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe and secure landing to those lost souls banished from their home worlds by the influence of Fear.

If you wanted saccharine JMart in a new reality where they get therapy and meet old friends from different realities, this series of (mostly) one shots is for you! As you’ve probably come to expect when I suggest CirrusGrey, the writing is fantastic, the ship dynamics are exemplary, and the character are on point. There is so much to say about this series, but mostly, if you want Jon and Martin healing and then settling together and becoming the stereotypical married couple, then this is it. It’s not done, but it is wrapping up, and I hope you all if you haven’t seen this yet enjoy it as much as I do. And for those long time readers who have been reading it longer than I’ve been in the fandom, here’s your friendly reminder that it exists.

Do Before I Die by SupposedToBeWriting

Somewhere Else, Jon can't seem to shake the strange apathy that now plagues his life. Everything reminds Martin of the end of the world. For a change of pace, he and Martin rent a campervan and go on a road trip. Their mission? To fulfill the 'bucket list' Martin made when he was eighteen and lonely. Jon's looking forward to the beach.

Jon and Martin go on a Road Trip accross Britain. It’s just a wholesome and hurt/comfort as it describes. An excellent romp, and the character studies are wonderful. The Planetarium still sticks with me.

ours is a distant shore (series) by pantsoflobster

“If they ever found out about us, we could make things really complicated for them," Jon said. Martin gave a thoughtful hum and then a loaded pause before he said, “Or simpler.” “What?” “We could, you know…” Martin then made mischievous eyes at him in lieu of expanding. “What?” Jon said, thoroughly lost. “Wouldn’t it be a bit fun to sort of... nudge them in the right direction?”

Months after they arrive Somewhere Else, Jon sees himself in the shop.

Summary is from the first fic in the series, this is a fun little romp for those who hated Martin’s defeatism over his and Jon’s relationship in MAG199 and want to see what would happen if instead he accidentally kick started an alternate version and his and Jon’s relationship Somewhere Else. It’s all very silly, tho the last fic does lean more into the hurt/comfort tag than the previous two. Over all though, if you’re looking for a little crack, a lot of fluff, and Jon and Martin being silly this is a good time.

Written in the Stars Will Have to Do by GentlemanCrow

“Yeah well, god knows why, but he thinks you hung the moon, so you might try treating him at the very least like a human being once in a while.”

It was such a small thing. Small words for a small feeling cloaked in a chintzy veneer of idiomatic dismissal. A trembling little bird cupped in his scarred and battered hands and smothered. Or so he thought. Sometimes trembling little birds turn out to be phoenixes, and those who looked to someone else to hang the comfort of a wise, silvery moon in the sky already have the hammer and the picture wire at the ready.

As far as Jon was concerned, the moon only rose on their Somewhere Else because Martin deigned to pull the strings every night, not him.

This is another one of those JMart Somewhere Else fics masquerading as a Safehouse fic that made me want to cry. It’s just, so wonderful, and once again we have themes of healing, but this time through getting a hobby and sharing it with your significant other. The writing is lovely and really gives off the stuffy academic musings I would expect being in Jon’s head (which we are for the duration of this fic) but adds a layer that I didn’t realized I needed till I read it.

On Errantry by ZaliaChimera

Somewhere Else, Jon and Martin discover that their new home has a very special sort of guardian, and Jon seeks judgement from an unexpected source.

They do say that cats purring can heal...

A cute one shot that deals with Jon’s lingering guilt from S5; this is a wonderful tale from Somewhere Else featuring a giant Cat, Martin being supportive, and Jon trying to reconcile his second chance. Very sweet and fluffy, guaranteed!

Lost, Unfound, But Not Forgotten by Elynn

They didn’t find bodies. Or anything pointing to where they may have gone. In the center of the rubble, what Georgie assumed to have once been the top of the tower, was a puddle of dried, crusted blood, and the outline of bodies in the dust and scorch marks. And she knew that wherever the Fears had gone, Jon and Martin had gone with them. The last victims, snuffed and dragged away with them. --- In the weeks after the Eye-pocolypse, Georgie Barker begins the painful process of mourning her best friend.

So, I know I’m very focused on Jon, but I have one fic of Georgie here that’s 10/10. Post 200, Georgie and Melanie eventually goes to clean out Daisy’s cabin of Jon and Martin’s things for Basira (or something like that) and Georgie finds a journal of Jon’s that he kept whilst there. It’s just as bittersweet as you’d imagine, but it’s fantastically cathartic to read and in our MAG 200 feels, this is a good one for closure.

Not Quite Somewhere Else by hawkfurze

Or you can find it on Tumblr HERE

A special entry to finish out this section, I have a long running comic from Tumblr user @hawkfurze who made a TMA x Infinity Train crossover. While I had not watched the show previously (only seen the trailer/pilot from back before it got picked up by CN), the comic is still easy to understand and explains the Infinity Train parts in such a way as to not need any prior knowledge. I highly recommend this comic for anyone who wants a visual treat delving into the relationship and psyches of Jon and Martin as they try to escape into the next reality.

-

AUs

Two Graves by SupposedToBeWriting

Jon sends the fears far from Earth and flees London, leaving the others to assume the worst. He settles in a small village and opts to live there quietly until he dies, a self-imposed penance. This plan is foiled when the first former Avatar shows up - and Jon realizes that every domain-keeper in the apocalypse still has some faint connection to him.

After a year of being a shoulder to cry on for confused and distraught former Avatars, Jon leads a moderately happy life. He has a flourishing garden, a cat, and some company. All of that comes crashing around his ears (or his head) when a familiar face shows up to his cabin, demanding answers.

This fic is in my top 5 fics of TMA fandom. No contest. It has some of the best healing from MAG 200 for Jon and Martin and tbh the world I’ve seen. It’s got that incredible hurt/comfort and the ending makes me cry tears of joy every time I read it. If you read any JMart fic on this list, please read this one if you can only read one. While I was tempted to put this in a different category, this seemed like the best place to put it.

What Comes After by Mornrandir

More than a year after the apocalypse, the world is starting to move on. Georgie, Melanie, and Basira have learned to move on and get back to living their lives. Then Martin reappears- without Jon- and they have to learn to begin again.

A series based around the initial above description, each entry in the series follows the healing of first Martin, then Jon, then both of them together. While I am a Jon-centric woman, if you are of a more Martin-centric leaning, this first fic in the series should scratch that itch. The final entry is very sweet, and the second definitely has a unique reason as to why Jon shows up so late to the after-Fears party.

The Watcher’s Cows by lenioia

He still remembers the first cup of tea Martin brought him. That’s where it began, not with the dog incident. A sweet and strong blend, reasons for appearance unknown, how could it taste so good, also unknown. Jon stares at what will be the last cup between them. His miserable parting gift. Where it’ll end.

Alt Mag 200, or in a slightly kinder universe which differs by exactly one cup of tea, Martin is the one who switches plan last minute, and Jon’s last half-backed scheme, for once, works.

An AU splitting off MAG 199/200, where Jon’s plan actually happens, but instead of it being quite so bleak he finds a new path with the help of Martin. I know the original ending of the series is probably the most hopeful one realistically, but we all enjoy our fixits here, so this is a really sappy “by the power of love” Jon and Martin save the universe and still get to live in it AU. Highly highly recommend, and it finished within the last 8 months, so it’s “on the newer side” as it were. If you haven’t read it, give it a shot, and if you’ve read it and it’s been awhile now’s a good time to read it again.

The Eyespot Chronicles (series) by SupposedToBeWriting

To Martin Blackwood's surprise, he wakes up in the ruins of the Magnus Institute. He thought he would be dead. The world is back to normal, the Entities are gone, and everyone realizes that it's finally over. The only sticking point is that Jon isn't exactly the Jon that went into the apocalypse. Never one to give up, Martin is determined to make a life for himself and his boyfriend. Even if he is a giant moth.

Summary taken from the first in the series, this trilogy of fics covers Jon and Martin’s attempts at healing in a world that remembers what happened. The first fic focuses entirely on Martin’s struggles, the second on Jon’s, and the 3rd (as you might guess) focuses on them both. The series is excellent, and if you’ve got the fortitude for canon-typical emotional constipation after having just experienced MAG-200 it’s well worth the read.

Another Guest for Mr. Spider by Dribbledscribbles

Jon isn't eating his statements like he should.

Mr. Spider doesn't like it.

Written in transcript format, this AU considers the idea of what if the Web was more hands on it it’s approach to getting Jon to Become more monstrous; or at least not starve himself out. Incredible read, you need an AO3 account though. But I have never been that spooked by a Statement or encounter before I read this fic. If you DO NOT like spiders on you or in your mouth and you don’t like reading about it either, potentially hold off on this fic, or at least skip from where Mr. Spider says “Open your mouth. Do not move.” to when he says “Wash it down with this. Now.” But yeah if you didn’t get enough spider trauma from canon, this fic gives it in spades! (And if you want Mr. Spider getting his comeuppance, you get that too ;) )

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.

A long form AU of what if Gerry Keay was brought back by the Eye to convince Jon to stay on team Monster if you will. Goes all the way through MAG-200, has some great twists and turns, and manages to turn into an “Everyone Lives AU” as well. While it is currently updating, it’s updating every week on Saturday till it finishes, and she only has 2 chapters left. If you’ve managed to never read this, now is certainly the time for it! It is Jon/Gerry/Martin, so if that’s not your exact cup of tea I’d still say give it a shot.

we should ride this wave to shore by ClarionGlass

“archives research & statement envestigation” Timothy Stoker renamed the group “drinks drinks drinks” Timothy Stoker changed Sasha James’s nickname to saucy sash Timothy Stoker changed Martin Blackwood’s nickname to martini kart Timothy Stoker changed his nickname to stonked stonked: so how bout it lads saucy sash: oh god. A TMA group chat fic where the worst problems they have to deal with start with "h" and end with "angovers"

Right, I don’t tend to read chat fics, I’m going to be honest with you all. I have two exceptions and this is one of them. It goes interesting places, the characters are not completely OOC, if it they are at least it’s consistent OOC and not in a grating way. But in all seriousness, I recommend this because of how it ties in with MAG 160 and 200; as well as how the sequel deals with canon S5. The sequel isn’t finished and is slow to update, but I am still recommending at the very least the first one. It’s a good romp and I highly recommend.

Ask an Exec: How to Navigate Cultish Colleagues, Soul-Stealing Bosses, and the End of the World at Work by shinyopals

I've recently been unexpectedly promoted to lead a department in my organisation, wrote the anonymous emailer.

As there was no one working here when I arrived, my manager, who is head of the organisation, had promised me the choice of my own assistants. However, without warning, he simply presented me with an additional assistant. This new assistant’s first act on his first day was to let a dog into the office. It took several hours to catch and clean up after this dog and it has only been downhill from there. I admit I'm not entirely sure what to do with this assistant now I'm stuck with him. I'm hoping you have some advice?

Kind regards, New Manager

Abigail Bailey runs a successful management advice blog. One frequent contributor is from a workplace with some... issues.

While this isn’t quite an AU and is basically canon compliant, I’m putting it here because it’s a “what if Jon was an avid seeker of advice on a management advice blog?” AU. It’s beautifully formatted, and features very in character interactions. If you are a sucker for the TMA trope: how do normal people react to the weirdness at the Institute, then this is a great fic for you. I know it’s probably one of the most popular things to have hit the Jonathan Sims tag on AO3 in recent months, but this is just me reminding you all it exists and well worth the re-read.

JMart Fluff

Author CirrusGrey

Literally anything by them. I think I probably recommend them every time I talk about JMart, but I think on AO3 they are both the most prolific and one of the best writers for the tag. Pick almost any fic they’ve written for TMA and it’s probably JMart. There’s too many fics of their’s to recommend, so I’ll just link you straight to their profile and you can go swimming from there lol.

Jon’s Moving Castle by IceEckos12

Martin Blackwood may not have a perfect life, but he does have a good one. That is, until a series of magical encounters leave him with an unfortunate curse. Out of other options, he goes to the wizard who lives in the moving castle for aid.

Life never goes how he intends it to, though.

Basically Howl’s Moving Castle, but with a TMA spin. You don’t need to have seen the movie to understand what’s going on, and honestly while it sticks fairly close to the movie, it doesn’t stick so close that it feels constrained by it in places where it wouldn’t make sense in the AU they’ve set up. It’s a very sweet JMart fic with a satisfying conclusion.

The 101 Kidnappings of Jonathan Sims (and Other Inconveniences) by beetlejoos

Martin Blackwood never applies for a job at the Magnus Institute. The universe seems determined that he meets Jonathan Sims anyway. But is it Fate, or something more sinister, that keeps bringing the two of them together?

Right, this mostly crack treated seriously. It’s got hurt/comfort, but it’s fairly light hearted throughout. As one could guess by the title and description, Jon is repeatedly kidnapped and brought to wherever Martin is living/working at the time. While it’s not done yet, and not on a schedule, the chapters that are out thus far are well worth the read. That and there’s some cute fan art for it that’s linked to in the end notes. But I recommend this because it’s got that vibe of S1 Jon meets S1 Martin outside of the Institute and romance (eventually) happens. Very fun read if you haven’t read it yet.

i think we’re alone now + alone-verse (series) by milliganopen

Just a couple of guys breaking into a basement. What could go wrong?

Getting trapped in your apartment with your boss, that's what.

Season 1 re-imagined if Jon and Martin had been trapped by Jane Prentiss together.

Initially I recommended this back when we had hit MAG039/022 because it was a great AU to Martin’s Statement where Jon also gets trapped in Martin’s apartment during Martin’s no good very bad 2 weeks of worm siege. HOWEVER, the author has since continued this series and is slowly working their way through canon one season/fic at a time. They’re currently on S3, and I am definitely keeping an eye on it for whenever the next update happens. If you haven’t had the time to check it out, it’s got some very good JMart moments, and their relationship manages to move faster than a glacier.

Fate, or Something by HermaeusMora

"You can't be serious." Jonathan Sims raises his eyes at last to properly look at Georgie, expecting her to laugh and make some quip about finally getting him to put the damn book down, at least.

"Well, I am," she shoots back.

He sets his book aside and turns fully towards her, betrayal clear on his face. "A blind date, really?"

Jon makes the frankly terrible decision to go on a blind date with one Martin Blackwood. Fate ensues. AU where Jon and Georgie are still friends, Georgie likes finding dates for her friends, Martin doesn't work at the institute, and everyone is just a bit happier while canon spooky stuff goes on in the background. Takes place juuust barely pre-canon in the beginning but catches up quickly. Inspired as usual by the wonderful conversations with my friend RavenXavier/somuchbetterthanthat.

A fun AU that challenges the idea that Jon and Martin are incompatible a la MAG199. Excellently done and well worth the time to check it out.

Diary by luftballoons99

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.

A bit of a bittersweet mostly fluff oneshot focused on Jon and Martin having a night in at the Safehouse and talking about good things from their pasts. (Warning, the sequel is rated E(xplicit) for a reason, so I am only recommending Diary. Both are stand alone however.)

Weaving My Heartstrings by arms_full_of_hyacinths

At least he was someone. Someone who could deal with the spiders. That was probably the source of the nerves unspooling like magnetic tape to fill Jon’s stomach with buzzing static butterflies.

Yes, Martin was much bigger than a spider. He was probably the kind of person who cupped them in his hands and talked to them as he walked them out into the garden, which shouldn’t be giving Jon a burst of warm feeling at all, since his preferred method of spider disposal was simply to squash them on sight.

Martin likes Jon almost as much as Jon hates spiders. When a statement from an institute employee sends them spiraling into the center of a complicated web, they'll need to rely on each other if they want to make it out alive.

Bit of an odd suggestion to close us out, but this one is a fun almost episodic plot about an original Statement and the shenanigans Jon and Martin get into trying to research it. It’s very good, features some very on point S1 Jon and Martin along with a bit of a fast forward on their relationship throughout.

And with that, I’ve probably overstayed my welcome lol. I hope you found something new to read! If not, I at least hope that you had fun rereading some old faves. This has taken me a day or two to compile and format, so I hope you all enjoy in whatever capacity that ends up being! Happy end of A Mag A Day, and it was a joy walking alongside you all. Congrats to A MAG A Day blog owners on all your hard work for the last ~210 days and with this post I wish you all a very fond farewell.

[akalikai]

TMAGP EP 22 REACTION (SPOILERS)

"So you just ran away" Lena sweetie my live what else was she meant to do (to be fair, Gwen didn't have to provoke ink5oul)

"Watching figure" yeah OK definitely some Eye creature of sorts I'm rly thinking it's like...The Beholding as a creature or an old archivist

THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY "presumably you didn't get any contact details from them?" "I guess it's slipped my mind as I was fleeing the SUPERNATURAL PSYCHOPATHS!" also Lena I don't think that you were gonna get any contact details regardless that bitch don't seem like they got a phone

Lena genuinely cares about her employees but also she hates paperwork (polar opposite of Elias)

Okay here's the thing right. I kind of get Gwen. She wasn't briefed on how to handle a situation like that, like what was she MEANT to do??? I would be pissed off if shit like that happened and no one gave me any warning (again, though, Gwen also has a tendency to naturally be a bit bitchy so that probably made it worse)

WAIT. HOLD ON MRS. KELLEY?? AM I READING INTO THINGS TOO MUCH OR. GUYS IS LENA MARRIED????

YO GUYS GRANDPA IS BACK

Oh shit okay so they are kind of recreating or continuing Newton's original experiments, seeing as they mentioned an experiment on Canis (which I believe means "dog"). It seems to have been expanded to apes (Hominidae), bunnies (Leoporidae), and old world monkeys (Cercopithecidae). And it seems this researcher is having strange side effects when it comes to his subjects.

"Herr Schmidt" I'm assuming this is German?

Hm, being told to use silver which again is like. Seeming to be a theme. I'm not sure but in the Newton episode, was there silver as well?

Okay for clarification, it seems like "Zeitgeist" is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Einthoven was a Dutch medical doctor and physiologist and he created the first ECG.

Woahhh hold on. So they're talking about severing a bundle of nerves to make it seem like two animals in one body because it messes with sense of self? This kind of makes me think a little of ink5ouls, the way they seemed scared sometimes of what they were becoming and then like. You know. Scary monster let's chase down Gwen and tattoo her against her will.

Hmm okay so this telegraph seems to be directly responding to the researcher's question, not the patient himself. Like it seems like it's Telegraph -> Herr Schmidt's reaction and not Herr Schmidt's thoughts -> Telegraph reaction.

OH. OK. HERR SCHMIDT IS DEAD NOW.

Damn Ursula is awesome she could immediately understand what was happening.

Oh boy. Oh this gonna be bad. Sam is going to find out that Alice was messing with his computer and Sam does NOT seem like the type to be chill with that.

Hm okay so the severing of the nerves might have worked? And perhaps it was like there were 2 people in Herr Schmidt's body? And from what I can tell, they want so badly to get out that they basically BURST out if his head in the deformity from the back of his head? It still doesn't answer WHAT or WHO these two voices are.

Also it makes sense that Augustus is giving something like this because like...pretty sure he's stuck in the computer, probably with jonmartin and they all want out.

Aw man :(((

OH BOY. "You're trying to control me. Again." I wonder if this is referencing their relationship and why they broke up. I can see it, I do think that Alice has a tendency to be controlling out of need to keep everyone around her safe which is pretty different, but I'm on Sam's side here. Taking away his ability to choose just...isn't great.

Yeahhhh Alice seems to have definitely been hoping to rekindle what they might have had but I think the issue seems that she hoped SAM had changed from before while the reason they broke up was because Sam couldn't be with Alice anymore since he felt like she was too controlling. And now that Sam seems to be having a genuine connection with Celia where he feels comfortable and happy, Alice seems jealous.

SHUT THE FUCK UP. OH MY GOD WHAT WHAT WHAT HOLY FUCK HIH WHAT AKDVAKDHWJT E

JONATHAN SIMS AND MARTIN BLACKWOOD????

HEY GUYS WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK HWIAHAOWVEBE RHAJDVAIBDKWBR E

I JUST SCREAMED "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD" WHAT YOU WHAT HUH WHAT

AND THE FACT THAT CELIA MENTIONED THEM BOTH SPECIFICALLY TOGETHER LIKE HELLO???? GUYS IM. WHAT.

I'm sorry shut up this is all I'm gonna be talking about for the next month what the HELL

[elias-rights]

What’s toxic about JonMartin in canon?

It's a really interesting question to get into because there are many factors at play. Under a cut for length.

First of all is the simple fact that they don't know each other. From MAG 159:

PETER

It’s odd, really. You each think you’re so focused on the other, but how much do you really know each other? How much time have you spent together when not working, or bickering, or fleeing from that latest thing that wants to kill you? So. What are you seeking? The image you’ve each created of the other? The people you think you love don’t exist. Not really. And that’s a very lonely place to be.

ARCHIVIST

(cutting off Peter’s echo) Shut up!

Yes, it's a manipulation attempt, but Jon notably doesn't offer a counterargument to his reasoning. Furthermore, it's true: they haven't had the opportunity to get to know each other, at least that we've heard. Not even Jonmartin enthusiasts seem to agree on the question of when exactly Jon started reciprocating Martin's feelings; most of my mutuals share my experience of being completely blindsided by MAG 159/160 and the confirmation of their feelings.

"I need him to be okay" is often cited as proof of Jon caring personally about Martin, but I always viewed it as him clinging to the concept of Martin as his last surviving original assistant; he obviously feels responsible for him and also views him as a symbol of simpler times.

Then there's the fact that they're incompatible. To put a simple example, they don't even get each other's jokes. A brief selection of instances where this happens:

They have the highest ratio of missed jokes I remember seeing between characters in this podcast. This sharply contrasts with, for instance, Gerry, who instantly clicks with Jon's style of communication.

Okay, but this is all about why they're incompatible, which doesn't necessarily imply toxicity. That factor comes in because, throughout season five, Martin is (to put it bluntly) an absolute dick to Jon.

In MAG 181, for example, he joins in on laughing at Jon with Salesa for being powerless, when Salesa at that point was an unknown variable that could've easily been an enemy:

ARCHIVIST

[Compellingly] Tell me what happened.

SALESA

No.

ARCHIVIST

I – uh… W-What?

[DEEP CHUCKLES FROM SALESA]

SALESA

The look on your face! Look, he’s so confused!

[MARTIN LAUGHS A BIT TOO]

ARCHIVIST

Martin!

MARTIN

Sorry. Sorry. Y-You did look kind of funny. It was l-l-l-like you were flunking an exam or something.

Notably, this is after they cross an unknown threshold into the place where an agent of the Web is living, which puts Jon (again, powerless for the first time in a while) in a position where he's at the mercy of the fear that destroyed his childhood. Either Martin is being very insensitive or Jon didn't tell him about Mr Spider, which wouldn't mean anything good re: how well they know and trust each other.

From the same episode:

SALESA

And you?

[SOUND OF A DISGRUNTLED ARCHIVIST]

MARTIN

He’ll behave.

You can make an argument that I'm reaching with everything else in this post, but "he'll behave" is an inarguably disgusting thing to say about your partner, especially when he's in such a vulnerable position.

And then, of course, is the matter of the killing spree.

It starts because Jon impulsively avenges his friend, which he wasn't going to do until the Not-Them basically baited him. (Of course he then felt more secure in his power and part of him enjoyed it. He's in this situation because he was systematically traumatised on purpose by Jonah and forced to read his statement.)

And then, when Jon admits to being ashamed of himself for having these powers, for enjoying them, Martin just bluntly tells him that they should "get their murder on" because "these things" (avatars, of which Jon! Is! One! Nice job implicitly dehumanising him!) are "just evil" (never mind that some of them might have circumstances similar to Jon's). (Also, never mind that revenge fixes nothing, but that's neither here nor there.)

The most egregious example is with Oliver Banks. I know "I'm not going to kill a man just because you're jealous" became a meme line, but it's really not the sign of a healthy relationship.

MARTIN

…Cool, so what’s the problem, then? Take another monster off the hit list; job done.

ARCHIVIST

…It’s not. That simple?

MARTIN

Well, what does that mean. (slight pause, insistent) What does that mean, John? What, what happened to Kill Bill? (barest of pauses) John? John, you said –

ARCHIVIST

I know what I said, and I don’t – (sigh) I don’t know, Martin. I just – I don’t think he’s – (sigh) I don’t know; I don’t think he’s evil.

[Something creaks.]

MARTIN

(really?) Oh, yeah, sure; he’s probably a really kind, benevolent ruler of a hellish fear prison.

I get that Martin is trying to project evil onto every avatar in order to distance himself from them because he's coping badly with having a domain of his own, but maybe don't do that in front of your boyfriend who's struggling with his own avatarhood and whether that makes him a monster. Martin's phrasing even parallels Jon's "all you lose is another monster" line from S4. Tying Jon's worth to some arbitrary definition of humanity that he giveth and taketh away on a whim.

Also, Jon is very notably a person who likes to think things through before expressing them. If Martin can't even be patient while he tries to explain something complex, they're clearly not compatible.

This is from before they kill Jude Perry:

MARTIN

…No. No, I’m not going to choose; I don’t, I don’t think that’s a fair decision to put on me. It’s your revenge; your choice, not mine.

This strikes me as hypocritical. Martin can push Jon to kill the avatars he doesn't like even when Jon clearly isn't comfortable with it, but then places the weight of the whole thing on Jon, as if the killing spree had been his idea. Why isn't it a "fair decision to put on him" when Martin has tried to choose every time until now?

And, I mean, Martin apologises for the pressure, for what it's worth. Except no, the topic comes back, and not in a good way.

ARCHIVIST

What happened to “Kill Bill”?

MARTIN

You weren’t meant to enjoy it this much!

This is about Jon suggesting using his power in a way that would actually make a bit of a difference. Of course it's a fallible suggestion, but Martin's response is just ridiculous. Martin clearly enjoyed the killing spree until it was Jon who put an end to it.

Martin casually dehumanises, dismisses, and belittles Jon on many occasions: treating those Jon's obviously projecting onto like monsters, being whiny and impatient about the statements he needs to survive, or interrupting his train of thought.

Finally (for this post--there were many scenes that I skipped), there's the matter of how the entire crew, Martin included, systematically dismisses Jon's input in the last few episodes. It's like his opinion doesn't even matter, when he's the one arguably best equipped to understand what's happening.

It's genuinely painful to listen to.

[grahamfolgersdeliciousnotebooks]

20 questions for fic writers

[EDIT: sorry if you got a notification that you were tagged in this post even though I didn't tag you. Tumblr's being weird about this one.]

Tagged by @cirrus-grey - thank you! (Also, sorry this took me like three months to do, executive dysfunction is a hell of a thing)

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

33

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

197,768

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The only fandom I've written for as an adult has been the Magnus Archives (and I actually have a lot of thoughts on why tma was sort of a perfect storm for getting me back into creating and consuming fanfic, but I'll spare you for now). There are a couple other fandoms I wrote for when I was in middle school back in the fanfic(.)net days, but some things are better left in the past.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Say You Love Me (Learn to Lie)

I'll take "A Flagrant Misuse of Beholding Powers" for 200

stay with me, hold my hand

Come, my dear, and be a part of my home

please, hurry, leave me, I can't breathe (please don't say you love me)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Sometimes. I really want to get more consistent about it, but my executive dysfunction makes it hard. My big problem now is that it feels weird to go back and respond to comments I got months ago, but it also feels rude to respond to more recent comments without ever responding to those older ones, so I'm feeling kind of stuck. One day, though, my ADHD will be properly medicated and I will get back to responding to every comment I get.

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

Angst is one of those things that I love to read but don't always think to write, so pretty much all of my fics have happy endings atm. The only ones that can really be said to have angsty endings are the pre-Unknowing and safehouse fics where the knowledge of what will happen next in canon makes any ending automatically bittersweet. With that in mind, let's go with Hold My Hand When My Courage Fails, because I DO think a pre-Unknowing kiss makes season 4 angstier.

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

Like I said, I write almost entirely happy endings, so it's hard to narrow this one down. I'm gonna go with Say You Love Me (Learn to Lie) because I threw in the completely unnecessary (but still necessary to me) detail that Sasha survives the Prentiss incident at the end of that one.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No! I've been very lucky on that front.

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

I haven't, though I might someday. As an ace person (somewhere in the sex-nuetral/sex-averse realm) I don't feel super confident in my ability to write good smut. It's really intimidating, but I'd love to try some day.

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

Not really? The only thing I've written that could be crossover is my fic where Jonathan Sims competes on Jeopardy!, but I'm not really sure that counts.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

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

No.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

My AO3 history should make it clear I'm pretty fond of Jonmartin, but I'm also a big Griddlehark (tlt) fan.

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

I've started a tma fic that's essentially a Marple AU (with Gertrude as the Miss Marple surrogate) that plays with the idea of sleuth-as-Beholding-avatar, but it's very tricky to blend all the plot threads I want to include together into one cohesive mystery, so I don't know if it will ever get finished.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'll be honest, I don't think I'm a very good judge of my own writing, especially my strengths. It's not that I think I'm a bad writer necessarily, but I really struggle to pinpoint any one thing that I do well - especially because for every aspect of my writing I like, I can point to five writers in the same fandom who do that much better. Right now I'm just glad I'm getting stuff written at all.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I worry that my characterizations tend to be pretty thin. I also struggle in juggling more than a few characters at a time, and sometimes I will omit characters who logically should be in a fic just because I can't think of anything for them to do.

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

I don't have anything against it. I could see people running into problems if they write dialogue in a language they themselves don't speak (relying on Google translate, for instance) but in general I don't see anything wrong with it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, back when I was in middle school.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Don't make me choose!

I might have to go with Say You Love Me (Learn to Lie) because that was the most fun I've ever had writing and publishing a fic - the response to that one was really great, and since that was one of the only times I actually managed a consistent release schedule, it felt really nice having that to look forward to every Tuesday.

But SYLM(LTL) was my answer for like half of these questions, so I'll also throw out Cut My Hair and Changed My Face (I'm Learning How to Forget That Place). I did a pretty terrible job of tagging that one and it didn't get a lot of hits, but it's one of my favorites. I love s4 Jmart angst, I love Jon & Daisy's s4 friendship, and I frankly can't believe it took me so long to write a fic combining the two.

[urproblematicfav-arsonk]

I think what I hate the most about the last season of The Magnus Archives is that the finale is just so heartbreakingly bleak, and feels so antithetical to a lot of what I thought we were trying to say about abuse/addiction.

Like, Jon spent his whole life being manipulated.

Ever since he was a child, Annabelle Cane was grooming him to be the Archivist until Elias took over. He was severely neglected as a child, spent his adult life terrified and isolated. Every twist in the series is you realizing "oh fuck, THAT'S who was getting him to that! That's what that person was pointing him towards!" The spiderwebs, the letter from Elias, all of the fears he comes into contact with. EVERYTHING is leading up to the apocalypse and this prophecy.

And since The Fears/Avatars are a loose metaphor for addiction, this makes everything that happens to him so much sadder. He has ptsd, a long history of child abuse, no meaningful support system and is being purposefully given "drugs" to make him more complaint and easier to control.

Jon spends all of season 5 traumatized after what he did. He ended the world, and now has to walk through all the death and horror he created. And because of his "addiction", this pain and suffering is actively fueling him and making him stronger. He's so disgusted with himself because all of this feels good to him. And Martin, his ONLY support during this time is as disgusted, IF NOT MORE, by everything he does.

When Jon needs comfort, when he needs someone there for him, to love him and tell him they can get through this and make it right, Martin scoffs and leaves because he can't stand to hear it. Martin forces Jon to use his powers to kill people because he wants to, even though Jon makes it abundantly clear that he doesn't want to hurt anymore people. And when Jon does want to get revenge, and hurt someone for his own reasons and not just because Martin is on a giddy killing spree, Martin accuses him of being a monster who enjoys it too much. (WHEN HE WAS THE FUCKING ONE POINTING JON LIKE A GUN, BECAUSE WHAT? YOU WERE JEALOUS ABOUT OLIVER, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE??)

Annabelle admits to using Jon, that he was her planned project to get out of this hell. She says "I did this to you. I hurt you, I abused you, I drugged you, I did all of this because I knew when the time came I'd say "do this" and you would."

And Jon says "fuck you."

Jon finds out that all of this was "destiny", that his trauma was planned, that every choice he has ever made was never his own, and right now he has Power, right now he can Choose.

Everyone around him says "Jon, you need to do this. Jon, it's the moral thing. Jon, you have to." And Jon thinks "No, its my choice."

I think its so fucking beautiful and powerful that EVERYONE agrees to send The Fears away, and Jon doesn't want to. He wants it to end, he doesn't want the abuse he faced to come to fruition, he wants the cycle to end and die, right here and right now.

And then we get to the end.

Jon made his choice, despite what everyone tells him, he made his choice. And I was so proud of that, and I thought that it was amazing end to a story about ptsd and addiction.

And then fucking Martin shows up.

Annabelle herself mentions how there was a world where Martin was Web instead of Lonely, referring to the fact that originally he was supposed to be. Until the fandom got really into JonMartin and Jonny was like "yea, okay." And ended up cutting the Web stuff cuz it was boring to have a "lover was the secret doublecrosser"

But keeping that in mind, the fact that Jon is making the choice that Annabelle doesn't want, and the thing that makes him change his mind is Martin is just...

There was no point, was there? He really did never have a choice. It was always an illusion. The finale, the story is saying "He was broken from the start, he was never going to get better, why try? Why fight it? Why ever say no?"

Jon's finale act, his first true action by his own will, was taken from him. Because of fucking "romance". Because of a fucking relationship that hurt him, because his autonomy never mattered, it only matters when his addiction serves Others.

Its such...a upsetting end for a story like this. It's heartbreaking that Jonny is an addict himself, and thinks this is....good?

If this was just a story with a tragic end, I'd be upset but accept that, but in the extra interviews and what nots, he describes this scene as Romantic. That its "sweet" that "Love" is what "Saves" the world. Jonny himself says that he actually thinks the choice Jon made was the moral one. To kill the world and completely kill The Fears with it. He said he likes to think about how funny it'd be if JonMartin ended up in another world together, and the cutey romantic adventures they would go on(he was mostly joking, tho)

Its very clear that Jonny wasn't intending this to be a Tragic end. And I think thats what makes me hate the ending so much.

[distortionswife]

JonMartin fic: Together is always better

( Part 1 )

-- note before the fic: this is set after 159 but before the hell that is 160. SO SPOILERS FOR MAG 1-160 --

Together is always better.

" That's the thing, isn't it? Ever since that day... The day Jon came for me, the day Jon took me out of the lonely... Ever since then, we've just been happy.

And if I'm honest, I couldn't be happier. I'm glad we aren't in there anymore, in the institute... It feels so free. I've never seen Jon smile as much, he's so excited to move in with me and I feel the same!"

Martin smiled to himself, writing down his many thoughts in his journal, reminiscing on how everything was better now. He had to kill some time while Jon was getting to his cabin.

" Oh, I'm so excited... Jon doesn't know what i have planned for us but I just know he's going to love it! We'll sort out his stuff and settle him in... We'll drink something and then I'll take him to my favorite spot.

I have a backpack ready with everything we could need, including every little thing Jon can worry about; I have a notebook, first aid kit, one of those little fans for food, so that there can't get any bugs into his drink!

Oh I can't wait to write today down, to capture Polaroids of our day together... To hopefully capture that loving smile, the smile that makes me absolutely melt."

And suddenly the bell rang, it was Jon!

Martin had a moment of panic as he didn't know what to do, his hands up as he looked around quickly, closing the journal and putting it away. He yelled a quick "COMING!" before he bolted it for the door, looking as calm as can be.

Which wasn't calm at all, the sweetheart was a nervous wreck and it showed.

"H-Hey Jon! I wasn't expecting you this soon... N-Not that I mind! Gosh no!" Martin rambled, scratching the back of his head as Jon just smiled up at him.

"I'm happy to see you too, Martin..." Jon chuckled so sweetly, looking well taken care of for once. He did that as of late, since Martin seemed to like it. And if he could make Martin happy with those little things... Maybe it was worth it.

Martin let him in and helped carry some stuff to the bedroom. Jon surprisingly didn't have much, just a big suitcase with everything he held dear.

"Do you want anything to drink? Or do you want to unpack first? Anything is fine with me, so please tell me." Martin giggled a little, smiling at Jon, who just seemed at ease, for once.

Jon looked around for a moment, admiring the gentle and soft colored interior. The U-Shaped kitchen island, the white countertops with light blue cabinets, the metallic gray fridge, the microwave resting on top of one of the counters... How every cabinet held cups, plates, spices, drinks... He's never felt his at home before and it was... nice.

"Ah- Sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment," Jon apologized with a hearty chuckle, "If you don't mind, I'd like to unpack first... It isn't much so I'll be done in a moment."

Martin nodded and brought Jon in for a hug, "I'll see you in a moment, then. I'll go brew the tea and coffee while you unpack."

Jon nodded at Martin, his gaze lingering for a moment as he noticed those tiny details he honestly has grown to love... The freckles on his cheeks or the way his glasses are never on straight.

But that gaze was soon broken, as Martin had let go of Jon to go make tea in the kitchen. And so, Jon set off to the master bedroom they now shared.

Once in there, he opened his big brown suitcase, seeing everything he had packed... Including his favorite photo. He knew how he hated that photo at the time... The very first photo of Jon and Martin together, on the very first work day. Elias had insisted that everyone took pictures together as it would make the team stronger or some workplace bonding type BS.

But... He cherished that photo now, smiling as he saw them still so young and... unharmed. Oh how he longed for those times, no worm scars, no paranoia and most importantly, no eye that was constantly watching and hungering for more.

But Jon didn't adore Martin back then, he wouldn't have what they have now... And that wasn't worth it. Some scars and trauma over Martin?

Martin was his reason for everything... He didn't think he'd still be here if it weren't for him..

But Jon shook off those many thoughts, just happy to finally be somewhere safe... somewhere he's happy. And Martin made him very happy.

Jon continued to unpack, various sweaters, blouses... Some of Martin's hoodies he had stolen... All put away in a second closet, it seemed Martin even did that... After all, the little note on the door said "I got you a closet of your own, so you don't have to panic which clothes are mine and which are yours <;3"

He bumped into the desk by accident, seeing a notebook fall out and looking curiously. Jon saw the words "Jon" and "surprise" and he just closed the book, he didn't wish to know it for once.

He trusted Martin, after all.

It wasn't long before Jon was done, walking to Martin with a gentle smile, he felt relaxed. Part of him wondered how long it would last.

Martin sat him down with a cup of oolong tea, just relaxing for a moment. The two joked a bit about how in the end, it was always going to be them, even if Jon hated him in the beginning.

It was almost time..

"Hey, uhm, Jon? I was wondering something, would you be interested in coming with me somewhere? It's just a beautiful spot I'd like to show you..." Martin spoke, trying to be as confident without leading Jon on to accidentally reveal what he had in mind.

"Oh? Well, I'd love to, actually... But do you have--" Jon started,

Martin immediately cut him off with a chuckle, "Yes, I have everything, including the first aid kit, the tape recorder and a notebook... I've got everything you could ever need, with me."

Jon laughed softly at that, "Well... I guess I'm ready to go then, please lead the way, Martin."

Oh how Jon wasn't used to this, but how he adored it... Martin knew him so well and for once, it wasn't a bad thing.

Martin got up from his seat and walked over to Jon, putting his hand out. Jon immediately took it as he got up, letting go and walking towards the front door.

Both put on their respective coats, it was quite chilly outside and neither of them were in the mood to get sick, even if it'd mean they could cozy up together.

Martin wasn't sure what level of intimacy Jon was comfortable with, of course he was never going to push him on it, that felt unnecessary and wouldn't be good on his part... So he waited until Jon told him or made the move. They hadn't even held hands yet...

Jon stood in front of Martin, noticing him drifting off again, that same misty look in his eyes. "Martin? Martin! Martin come back to me!"

Martin flinched lightly and blinked rapidly, "H-Huh? Oh- Was I drifting off in thought again..? My bad..."

Jon smiled in a reassuring way, taking a hold of Martin's hand, rubbing his thumb over it in an attempt to ease him. Although, both of them blushed very lightly at the gesture. "It's okay, don't worry... I've got you, I won't let you fall back into that place..."

Martin felt himself melt, his heart fluttering with such adoration for the paranoid man before him... He knew he had a heart, just because some eye made him monster-like, didn't mean he wasn't able to care anymore.

"Thank you"

"Of course."

And with that, they left the house, hands intertwined with a gentle almost cautious hold.

Martin lead the way, watching Jon for if he needed to slow down his speed. Whenever Martin got excited, he'd walk faster and talk faster, after all. Not that Jon minded, he always seemed to smile as Martin spoke, it'd fluster the boy whenever he did notice it.

The walk was nice and quiet, going over meadows and through the nearby forest, the lighting of the sun illuminating their path so beautifully and it almost felt... romantic. The golden glow of the low hanging sun, giving them enough warmth to not be too chilly, paired with the gentle rustling noises of leaves in the breeze... It was perfect.

Then they arrived near a big pen, where Martin's favorite cows stood. He let out an excited yelp and ran towards them, many of the cows going towards him as well.

Jon smiled at that alone, bringing out his own camera and taking a few pictures of Martin with the brown highland cows. Oh that smile... What did he do to deserve someone such as Martin?

"Jon! Jon! Come here!! Quick!!" Martin said, seeming even more excited than before.

And Jon, of course, walked over hastily, partially worried something was wrong, probably not reading Martin's tone correctly.

Martin pointed at a calf, it was fluffy and near it's mother.

"Remember that I told you about Bertha being pregnant a few months back? Well... it looks like she had her baby!" Martin explained, squeezing his hands as he held back the excitement that wanted to come out. He couldn't hold it back completely, so his arms waved back in forth in a flapping manner while he watched the new calf.

"That's really exciting, Martin! And it looks so well, too!" Jon replied, happy to see Martin in his true element.

Martin nodded very excitedly, watching as Bertha walked to him with the calf, almost as if to show him off. Martin reached out his hand after the mother gave him permission, the calf sniffed at Martin's hand before pressing his head into the hand.

Jon took a few more pictures, knowing Martin would want this moment captured nonetheless.

After a little more cuddling with the cows, they were back on their way, with Martin's promise that they were "almost there"

Their little walk ended in the beautiful flowery meadow, a beautiful sight of the setting sun and... A picnic cloth and basket..? Oh Martin really did have it all planned out.

Jon felt his own heart flutter a bit at the sight, sitting where Martin told him to, looking over everything in complete awe. Although his heart sank a bit when he felt that damned urge again, looking almost apologetically to his love. "Martin I-"

"No, no, don't worry! I expected it..." Martin smiled, putting down the tape recorder and the notebook with a pen, "I will be a little further away, you can see me if you want to... But wave to me when you're done!"

Jon nodded and watched him leave, before focusing on what kept him alive, recording another statement, about the ones who were once buried down here deep below... And the few that are still breathing.

Martin, in the meantime, was picking flowers, planting a flower seed wherever he picked them. He looked back at Jon, seeing his eyes glow once more, his back hunched.. "Good god Jon has TERRIBLE posture," he thought...

But while he waited, Martin turned the flowers into a flower crown, somehow knowing the dimensions of Jon's head perfectly. A mixture of blue and green flowers to symbolize the two of them.

He watched Jon while he made the statement, from afar so it wouldn't tire him out. Even like this, Martin found a way to adore him.

He waited and waited, how long was this statement? It's taking quite some time.. Oh-! He's done.

Martin giggled a little as he saw Jon waving in an almost exaggerated way, unsure if he'd see a tiny wave.

Either way, Martin made his way back to Jon, sitting on the other side of the picnic basket. He took out some Tupperware boxes with various foods, such as sandwiches and little deserts he had made... the canister with hot tea, some cups... Everything they could need.

"Oh Martin... Did you do all of this for us...?" Jon spoke, practically falling for Martin again.

"Yes! I wanted our first actual date type outing to be special... So... Everything is homemade... It's everything you like, that you told me, I mean... So please, enjoy it.. for me?" Martin explained, a big smile on his face as he offered Jon a cup of tea.

"Thank you... But before we continue this... I have something for you, Martin... And it may be cliche... But I like it." Jon chuckled a little nervously, grabbing something from his pocket and handing it to Martin. It was a small wrapped gift.

Once Martin opened it, it held a locket of some kind, a heart shaped locket with a photo of the two of them.

"I-I know it's nothing grand and as I said, cliche and maybe cheesy... But i wanted to give you something so I'd always be close to you... So you have something to look at if you miss me..." Jon explained, his cheeks red as he did. He was never the one for materialistic gifts, as he was quite bad at figuring out what someone would want as a gift.

Martin teared up, smiling oh so happily at Jon as he held it to his chest, "Oh Jon..."

Jon, however, didn't understand that this was a good type of crying. He immediately cupped Martin's face, his own expression filled with worry. "I-Is it too much? Does it remind you of something you don't like? I-I-I can bring it back and get you something else!"

Martin laughed softly, moving his hands to cup Jon's face as well, "Please don't... I love it..."

"Y-You do..? But- But you're crying!" Jon said feeling confused at the mixed reaction Martin gave off.

"It's a good type of crying, Jon... It's crying out of happiness... I really love it... Thank you." Martin spoke, his love for Jon evident in every way; in his voice, his eyes, his gentle hold.

"I love you, Martin.."

-------------

And that's the end of part one.

I'd absolutely love to write more but I'm also very sick at the moment so I'm splitting up the story into two parts, I hope you don't mind!

The fluffiness is definitely continuing in part two <3

And sorry if it's a little short, once more, I'm sick so I write what I can! and do tell me if you liked it!

[transsexualprophet]

reading gods worst article on tma (Narrating the (Queer) Gothic in the Podcast The Magnus Archives, Maria Juko) and its so bad that its funny. btw this got published in a book (Rethinking Gothic Transgressions of Gender and Sexuality, edited by sarah faber and kerstin-anja münderlein, 2024) and I can only assume the editors didn't listen to tma themselves because good lord what are these takes. come with me as I read this mess

strong start when it claims the entities seek to torture and destroy humanity. patently untrue. we know they have some sentience, but the focus on humanity does a disservice to gerry explicitly saying "you think people are so special its only our fear that counts?". also "destroy". how are you going to get fear if the entirety of humanity is destroyed. we know what the entities wanted (or at least what the web wanted) it is explicitly stated in mag 200. it says so right there so explicitly that I find it impressive if Juko missed it.

calls the beholding the antagonist? if you want to call Any fear the antagonist id go for the web, but even then, antagonist is not the role id ascribe to a lovecraftian entity

"with the podcast’s final season set in a world dominated by the Eye that Jon et al. ultimately overcome to save the world" / "The world comes to depend on [jonmartins] relationship, with the two of them becoming queer heroes." save the world??? heroes?

4. stupidly funny implications. interesting citation for georgie but that's not important right now. the point is the fight against evil and the reading alleging tma says being queer will get you Heroic Powers. Juko's forgetting about the queer characters that get Evil Powers (all of them. all of the powers are evil. that's the point.) did the archivist utilize ace and bi power when he became the lynchpin of the apocalypse and tortured strangers

5. "As a case in point, inclusivity starts at the level of casting: female police officer Basira Hussain is voiced by Frank Voss, who uses they/them pronouns." very true but idk. frank voss and jonny sims are just pals, ill allow Some implications from this but the author is using it to imply more intentional focus on inclusivity then I think jonny was doing

6. "First, the podcast’s main character, the asexual biromantic Jon, is bestowed with supernatural powers, challenging not just heterosexual but all sexual norms of society." BESTOWED? stop using the word bestowed here oh my God. he is not a superhero!! did Juko listen to the entirety of tma without any moral grayness happening here??? also ?? jons bestowed supernatural powers are in no way related to his asexuality & biromanticism??

7. christ. this isnt a bad tma take but it is reminding me why I wanted to quit my literature analysis bachelor

8. did jon utilize ace and bi power when he betrayed martin. did martin utilize gay power when he stabbed jon. jesus christ what do you mean humanity's salvation. the apocalypse isnt fixed at the end by the power of love.

9. i guess? if you felt like it? tma really isn't a queer narrative in my option but I guess?? you could read it like that. if you wanted to. I'm unsure if you should though because these people are deeply unwell

10. "And particularly in the first seasons, Jon and his colleagues often fail to control the evil entities, losing for example colleague Tim at the end of the second season, which leads to a rift between some of the Institute’s members" yeah because truly they were thriving before that. they were the bestest of friends before tim died. they all held hands and danced in circles

11. unsure how much longer i can take this. this isn't the X-Men

12. "[Jon] could be defined as an asexual biromantic who uses his love for Martin as a form of power to save the world." no he couldn't. next

13. "With this in mind, Jon’s exploration of the Archives becomes a metaphor for accepting his (a)sexuality." HUH. NO IT ISNT? jons asexuality isn't relevant narratively At All. go home.

14. for the love of god can anyone hear me. its so dark in here. were the beholding and jonah magnus asexuality allies when they helped jon become an avatar. the sentence after this calls jon the hero of the narrative again btw. patently untrue

15. "Only by accepting his power can Jon save the world." jon didn't save the world.

Juko discusses melanie & georgie but her takes on them are pretty normal and decent in my opinion. if anyone wants a pdf of this horror let me know & ill send it. I'm so annoyed I'm considering writing an email about this. btw it called jonmartin "enemies to lovers" trope and also said their relationship "starts heteronormative and changes to a more equal footing, whilst retaining heteronormative elements". about the gay couple.

to conclude: I don't know which podcast juko listened to about a heroic narrative about queer love that saves the world, but its not the magnus archives. did you know that the eye is an asexuality ally?

[oliverwolfboy]

Bsd tma au fic idea. Ok so the eyepocalypse ended, Jon and Martin (and Oliver and annabelle) got sent to another universe, except the universe they are in is at the start of the bronze period, also when the entities went though the crack in reality a lot of weird shit happened, so now abilities are developing, and smol child Lovecraft exists. Jon and Martin now have a prolonged life span and have to adjust to living in the beginning of the goddamn bronze period, plus a struggle for food because humans are a lot harder to find, but lucky for Jon he has the eye which can tell him where there are some settlements, and where there might be big settlements in the future, because Jon and Martin might not have studied history but the eye saw it. While they are wandering they come across Lovecraft, who despit being a child is still pretty big, so they reasonably freak a little out, when they calm down from their little freak out Jon has the brilliant idea to ask the eye and I quote “what the fuck is that and is it here” to which the eye told Jon that it was created when the entities were going though the crack and that it was essentially a creature made of some small parts of the vast, and the flesh, along with some others, but mostly the vast and the flesh, it also told him that yes it does have a conscious quite similar to humans, and that right now it basically had the mind of a child, so they adopt it (you can decide who's idea that was), and name it after the Godfather of existential horror himself, lovecraft. This fic idea is basically a lot of family fluff, hurt/comfort, and an unholy amount of crack, because JonMartin basically saw a giant eldritch monster said, is anyone going to adopt that? And didn't wait for an answer. This fic idea would need a good amount of knowledge on the early bronze period and tools crafting research, but you can just look into that. Also this would most likely take place over the course of the early bronze period to maybe the medieval period? Or late bronze age, depends on how long you want to make JonMartin's lifespans. This fic idea could also lead into another bsd tma au fic idea.

[gloomiedyke]

Tedependent (Ted Lasso) feels like the lovechild of Jonmartin (TMA) and Rosebrewer (Schitt's Creek) to me.

Like... It's the exact middle ground in my mind. If you put both Jonmartin and Rosebrewer in a blender with a teaspoon of Original Flair and a pinch of Divorced Middle Aged Dads, you get the glory that is Tedependent.

Jon, David, Trent: bitchy outer shell protecting a soft, dorky centre. Absolutely certain that they are not loveable. Lonely, but tends to push people away out of fear of getting hurt.

Ted & Martin: Anxiety. Soft outer shell but they secretly can also be bitches. Natural caretaker, partially because they were forced to be during childhood. Mommy issues.

Ted & Patrick: Suburban White Picket Fence Dad in appearance, seems like the emotionally intelligent one but WHOOPS not when it comes to himself! Teasing people is a love language

[gammija]

HI HI CAN I JUST SAY I have fallen in love with your art style and ALL of your posts on Instagram are making me actually lose my mind. I need more tma x dp for my soul. There aren't that many fics with this crossover, but I thought I'd come by here to suggest "What Comes After" by UnluckyAlis, I think you'll like it! 👀💞 Thank you for making such fantastic art<3

waaaa thanks so much!!! 🥰🥰🥰

i honestly dont have ideas for what a true crossover would be, i just rlly enjoy doing tma drawings in that style - i mean, one of my favorite dp fanon ideas has always been that the ghosts do what they do because they feed on human emotions, fear in particular. im fact, before tma, i had been mulling over a dp au of sanders sides in which 'guy feeds on fear and is conflicted about it' was a p big plot point... and that's the month I started listening to magnus :)

Thanks for the fic rec! im not reading a lot of tma fic anymore but just by coincidence, i already read What Comes After. it's rlly good so far, hopefully ill like their jonmartin characterization when they appear

[princess-of-purple-prose]

Tagged by the sweet-as-pie @thewrongshop!!

3 ships: Jonmartin, sasunaru, aaand griddlehark :)

First ever ship: Oh man, I wanna say percy/annabeth from pjo, but if I had to be REALLY honest and look back, I actually think it’d be. Matt/inez from cyberchase, in a very nebulous way??? God

Last song: Currently listening to “505” by the arctic monkeys!

Last movie: Uh shit wait, probably everything everywhere all at once? But maybe there’s something I’m forgetting

Currently reading: Does manga count? I just started reading fabiniku >:)

Currently watching: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun seasons 2 and 3!!

Currently consuming: I just started taz balance!!! I’m on ep 11 :)

Currently craving: You know, when I started writing this I was gonna say my mom’s rava laddu, but I actually just had one! Dreams do come true 😌 Instead I’ll say I want a really rich chocolate cake, the thought of one has been on my mind for WEEKS now

9 people you want to know better: No pressure to anyone, and anyone I didn’t tag who sees this should feel totally free to participate!! Today I’ll tag: @peachygos, @coulson-is-an-avenger, @emp4, @tmoblrina, @rosie-with-knives, @lesbianmizukage, @arataka-reigen, @mobtism, and @caruliaa!!

Under the cut is a bulleted template of the prompts for easier copying!

3 ships:

First ever ship:

Last song:

Last movie:

Currently reading:

Currently watching:

Currently consuming:

Currently craving:

9 people you want to know better:

[turnaboutdick]

your wish is my command!

first of all, there is no piece of fanfiction i reccomend more than the "Bionic Coping Mechanism" series by MartinKBlackwoodESQ. i'm literally rereading it right now. it's a somewhere else story written entirely in dialogue format with insane worldbuilding and it's insanely funny. best thing i've ever read easily 10/10. the series consists of a finished 81k fic, a recap of said fic and an unfortunately unfinished sequel, but you have to give this one a go. it is so worth it.

for more longer fics, i also reccomend:

"Foggier Yet, and Colder" by mimikutie - a bit out of season for this one, but its a great read with a very interesting exploration of the characters and Actually Evil Jurgen Leitner

"Like A Fly" by Prim_the_Amazing - always a good read for when you need some good ol fucked up avatar romance

"This Lonely Knight" by arthureameslove - an au with very interesting story and compelling worldbuilding. full of enemies to lovers goodness

"A Home For What Loves You" by TheWrongShop - when it comes to s1 canon divergence, i feel like this is one of it's the best little 'tropes'. this fic is very well executed and a fun read.

i also have a bunch of fics that are a bit shorter but have nonetheless occupied my mind for several weeks upon reading:

"Fools in Love" by CirrusGrey - this fic is a fun tma spin on it's own trope. it is also very cute.

"Non-Conjugal Visits" by shinyopals - martin blackwood gets annoyed for 6k words (incredibly fun fic and incredibly fun ending)

"The Perfect Valentine" by Prim_the_Amazing - this is literally so cute reading it makes me giggle and kick my feet

"Sam nie pojmuję, jak w twe zajdę progi" by Mad_Maudlin - only halfway through reading this one did i realize how good it was - when i put the pieces together and realized what was happening, i had just the biggest grin on my face. so good.

Lovebirds by green_tea_and_honey - sweet funny jmart fluff what more do you need. i can also confirm it is accurate to real life.

Office Party by chewsdaychillin - this ones a bit longer than the others but i feel like it's a good exploration of their relationship thru the entire series

Clutching Daffodils by Gemi - probably the most original spin on hanahaki ive ever read. doubles as a great read in general

Ask a Compelling Question by DotyTakeThisDown - i love jon's characterisation in this so much. incredible concept, but even better execution

a little love, a little sympathy by Did - in which martin's falsified cv is not his biggest, darkest, most evil secret..... needing comfort is!

Martin Blackwood and the Power of Research by boredshyandbi - in which jonathan sims has insane infodump game. when i read this for the first time (and every other time) my face muscles actually hurt from smiling.

Not On My Watch by CirrusGrey - in a universe where the institute is a normal workplace, elias bouchard is still a big douche. jon will not stand for this.

Biscuit Week by chewsdaychillin - what if tma was the great british bakeoff. i think about this everyday. also part of a series theres a part 2 :)

Caramel by Louffox - not your typical coffeshop au. this ones hilarious

"Any Version of You" by CirrusGrey - a series of oneshots made for jonmartin week 2024! each one is super good though can't reccomend it enough

there's also an ongoing fic called "Running with the wolves" by NohaIjiachi i've been enjoying! it's going in a direction i really like.

there's WAYYYY more reccomendations, but this post is getting super long, haha. just vaguepost about needing more fic recs when you need me.

i also urge you to check out the authors of all these amazing fics! they have a ton of good works i probably forgot to mention.

anon... ANON!!!1! thank you.

i started reading bionic coping mechanism today in class (lol) and i am Now Hooked. the author has got the characterization on Point. and i am SO INTRIGUED. i am saving all of these and will definitely be screaming in these authors comment sections at some point. THANKS A LOT!!1!