#No real change with Daisy & Basira

[wix-0-nightshade]

Detective AU

Unnamed

Characters - Part 1

• Elias Bouchard: Head of police, he doesn’t like getting his hands dirty. Unless otherwise. Eyes always everywhere.(Isn’t that badge always looking back?…)

• Jonathan Sims: Lead detective ever since Gertrude was presumed dead, seen to many dead bodies in his life. Tired 24/7 and dislikes leaving unsolved cases that can’t be figured out.(What is the deal with “Unnatural deaths”?)

• Martin Blackwood: Assistant of Mr. Sims. Always bringing him the next report or siting of a likely case. Started working there a year and a half after Sims did. Never liked the siting of a dead body since his mother’s death. Comforts those of the victims and asking them question before interrogation the next day.(Why do I feel separate?…)

• Sasha James: Quit her job before Gertrude was found missing. Was head of the archives/records. She lives in with Timothy Stoker. Been friends for a while and soon fell out of contact with Sims.(What did she mean?… What were those…… Things)

• Timothy Stoker: Never joined the force. Works down at the docks having a decent paying job. Always welcoming tourist and making sure fishermen have everything before departing. Rarely appearance from Peter Lucas. Ships started go missing……(Are the water’s getting deeper? Why does that fog roll by when he comes?)

Master Post(+Other AU’s)

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Me: I understand that the point of a story is not always to make the audience feel good, but to make an audience think. When we are presented with a cast of morally complex characters it is the writer's responsibility to make those characters full and rich, and the audience's responsibility to identify that fullness, and to question the instinct to villainize or justify any given character at any given time. In a world built on fear, largely following the perspective of one man who is just as flawed as all the people around him, it is more realistic and in some ways more interesting to embrace the emotional conflict that will come when these people all inflict trauma upon each other. They all hurt each other so deeply, because they're all stuck in the same pressure cooker with literally no escape and no outlet and no information. The tragedy of it is the fact that there was never going to be a chance for them to work together because by the time they learn of that necessity the bridges have already been burned. Sure, they could have stopped it all from happening if they had done it differently. But could they really have done it differently? In their heart of hearts, with the context they had, could they really? And that's what the narrative wants to make you think about.

Also me: But what if like... What if they were friends... What if things were just nice sometimes... As a treat...

[ryutarotakedown]

i feel like. okay forgive me for my lack of knowledge on british politics but i think basira specifically grew up in a household that leaned right and her father was a very pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps man based on his "either accept it and don't whine about it or fight to change it" thing. she gets annoyed about other police officers being misogynistic and racist to her but has never reported it once. once daisy said as a joke that all slow drivers deserve death and basira said "if only deserving were real" and the room got so deadly quiet that she resolved to never think about politics ever again.

[starsoftheeye]

i need sam and celia to work out.

i dont mean that in the "they both live happily ever after and both survive" no they can die if that is what the plot requires, i just need their relationship to be okay. no petty drama or miscommunications that do nothing for either characters or plot other than be interesting

obviously the whole "alice not being over her and sams relationship" makes for good samalicelia shipping fuel and character-wise it is an interesting view into both of their characters, but i will be genuinely upset if it turns into a boring "which one will sam choose" romantic side plot

i can handle arguments, i can handle the realism of trauma and difficult situations making it difficult to maintain healthy relationships. what i cant handle is throwing away potential for a cheap shock, like we've seen in so many love stories before. what i also dont want is an unrealistic narrative that prioritises a relationship over a story

tma done their relationships very well, where the love was real, and at times it improved characters mentalities and helped develop them as their own people, but no matter how much they loved one another, it didn't save the world, and it didn't change fate. jon and daisy turned into monsters, martin and basira had to kill the people they loved most, sasha disappeared, and tim lost his brother, then himself. their love was never world-saving, and whats done would be done by the end of the day, but their love was real, and thats what made it compelling

as a fan of the characters, of course i want them to have a happy ending, and for everything to work out for them in the end, but as a fan of the show? i want it to hurt. i want to be devastated by these characters whose love was enough to bandage the wound but not enough to heal it

[moonsanoverthinker]

Some more TMA headcanons because I’ve thought of some more. Also apologies if this list is a little more chaotic than the other one x (Here’s the first list I make incase anyone’s interested)

Also if people have their own that they’d want to add feel free to because I love reading other people’s x

There’s probably going to be some spoilers for but I’ve tried to keep it as broad as possible :) x

Tim used to steal Jon’s pens - Not because he needed them he did it to annoy Jon

Tim once hid a plastic spider in Jon’s desk then pinned it on Martin

Gerry liked to make puns, Gertrude didn’t like Gerry’s puns - Or at least she pretended not too

Peters changed the locks multiple times but Elias just keeps finding his was back in

Georgie has that really nice kind of swoopy writing - I kind of feel Sasha did as well

Distortion Micheal likes the animated Alice in Wonderland film - Can’t think why… (If I had any artistic talent I’d draw him as the Cheshire Cat but I sadly I don’t have any)

Melanie used to make loom band bracelets - She never gave them to anyone but she’d use specific colours with specific people in mind

Elias likes to shout peoples names then not answer them when they shouted back asking what he wanted

Jon owns a few packs of some nice playing cards (Like the ones with cool pictures and stuff) but no one’s allowed to use them - He let Tim use them once but after he slightly bent the corner of one they became off limits to them all

Jon drinks black coffee because it seems like the mature thing to do

Tim drinks the super sweet coffees because they taste nicer and look pretty

Elias has one of them big spinning office chairs - He’s definitely done the James Bond villain spin

Daisy once told Martin she knew a great place to hide his body - She then proceeded to leave notes around the archives to remind him - Jon would also take the notes down

Not necessarily a headcanon but I just imagine series 5 Jared Hopworth in the garden with a necklace of various body parts and bones

Occasionally Basira would just look out to the fourth wall - I’m imagining it like fleabag style

During their travelling Gerry brought Gertrude a mug from a tourist shop - She kept saying she didn’t like it but once she was back in the archives she would use it all the time

Just Jon wearing some sparkly green nail polish

On the topic of Jon’s nails imagine him with those pointy acrylics - He’d either be in his element or he’d have the same vibe as a dog trying to walk in shoes

Both Micheal and Helen just pinging rubber bands at the backs of peoples head (I’ve got no real explanation for why they do it but then again neither have they)

Jon appreciates badgers - He got a little desk calendar with different pictures of them every month

When Martin was staying in the institute Jon gave him a blanket. He took the blanket with him when he started living at home again and started using it

Tim kept every card Sasha ever gave him

Sasha has a little pot of fake flowers on her desk

Jon pretends to he surprised every time Martin gives him a present - Especially if it’s an out of the blue ‘I saw this and thought of you’ present

Sasha and Tim went ice skating together one Christmas - They claimed it was as friends but Tim did give her flowers

Also some random side notes - Slight spoilers for series 4/5

Listened to 170 and immediately started crying at the end / The descriptions in 172 made me feel physically ill as someone who really doesn’t like spiders / Also I saw a thing on TikTok where someone took Gerry asking to be called Gerry and paired it with I Bet On Losing Dogs by Mitski and it was more upsetting than I was expecting xx

[ao3feed-jonmartin]

to choose to change (punctuation conditional)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/cUJu49X by advantagetexas Grief is a funny thing. Yes, THAT kind of funny. Tim has always rationalized it as a fugue state, a fever dream, a waking nightmare that you can learn to control if you can find the right words, the right joke. It's like casting a spell, really. Mundane magic. Laughter is the only way to snatch lucidity back from the monsters that haunt you, both real and unreal. It's the only thing that keeps them from devouring you. But as he watches the wax museum burn, as he cradles the corpse of the man he hated beyond all reason in his arms, as he comes to terms with the fact that he's alive and Daisy is dead, Danny is dead, Sasha is dead, Jon is...he just can't find the punchline. or; the archivist and co. navigate grief, love, and the eventual eyepocalypse in search of a better future Words: 36798, Chapters: 6/80, Language: English Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M, Multi Characters: Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood, Basira Hussain, Melanie King, Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Georgie Barker, Helen | The Distortion (The Magnus Archives) Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, background melanie/georgie and basira/daisy Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Tim Stoker Lives (The Magnus Archives), Memory Loss, Slow Burn, Eventual Happy Ending, Post-The Unknowing (The Magnus Archives), Post-The Watcher's Crown (The Magnus Archives) read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/cUJu49X

[anotheraccountonthisapp]

What TMA characters do you think would be as an animal? Here's a few of mine! Only just started S4 BTW so opinions may change. Also some of these I based of what the animal represents or their tendencies.

Jon - Moth vibes, dragon fly, fox, panther

Martin - maybe a fox due to appearances. Possibly Cow. Golden retriever personality S1, ooh or an Ainu maybe an artic wolf? Maybe a bear?

Tim - ferret, racoon, lizard, cool animals

Sasha - Mimic Octopus and blue jay for reasons... But yea maybe something mousey or like an owl especially for s1?

Melanie - Pygmy Goat, ram idk she just kinda guves that vibe. Like look at them and then look at her. Same thing.

Basira - crow/raven aka a corvid bcs she's smart

Daisy - wolf, Black-footed cat, other types of hunters

Elias - snake (obvi), jackal, eagle, owl, agree with the horned owl

Peter Lukas - polar bear agree with that, squid/octopus, Kelpie (not real but oh well)

Mike - birds. Idk which just birds. Preferably blue or white. Maybe the Impundulu or Alpine Chough. A goat/ram bcs thunder. Marten. Snow lepord

Michael - Adax, box jellyfish, sea slug, lilac breasted roller

Helen - butterfly, Livingstone's Cichlids, Orchid mantis

Georgie - fluffy cat! Bat, raven, Moth, black swan

Gerry - axolotl, bearded dragon, bat, again cool animals

Trevor - bear, wolf, hawk

Julia - hare, black ram, wolf

Nikola - coyote, cuttlefish, Angler Fish, vampire squid and yknow what screaching owl

Breekon & Hope - margay, rams, bulls, parrot, gorrila, tiger

Danny (Stoker) - honey badger

Any other ideas? Even if it's just one or two give it a whirl ❤️

[sillygerblin]

my thoughts from the new protocol ep!! (23)

1- the audible gasp when I saw the new episode lol

2 - as someone who likes true crime, this piece community sounds a LOT like a cult.

3 - this is one of the few episodes that has genuinely freaked me out a bit. Mostly because one thing I find creepy is fictional irreversible life changing medical procedures. Go protocol writers go.

4 - no canon jmart in this universe love isn’t real (together alone so alone together.)

(still reeling from 22)

5 - BASIRA AND HELEN???? Next episode Celia’s gonna drop freaking daisy and Melanie you guys I really hope everyone listening to tmp before tma is confused by these apparently random names we’re freaking out over.

6 - Alice knows. She knows something. She asked about the tape recorders and I think she’s hiding something. She remembers from before.

7 - “I know how many eyes a human is supposed to have!” That’s gonna change. Ooooh my dear that will change.

[stephaniebrownslover]

My Creepypasta but The Magnus Archives style AU

Okay so this is an old AU that I would like to explain and write, but my street cat is currently sick and he's requeiring all my time and energy and that's okay!

There'll be only character roles and AU explainations in this post.

Character roles and which TMA character they match;

Judge Angels//Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Police officer called upon to deal with paranormal cases

Nurse Ann//Annabelle Cane, Avatar of The Web

Zero//Basira Hussain, Police officer called upon to deal with paranormal cases

Vladimir and Zachary//Breekon and Hope, Mysterious deliverymen and servants of The Stranger

Slenderman//Elias Bouchard , Head of The Magnus Institute

Mary Vaughn//Georgie Barker, "Host of the What The Ghost?" podcast

Ben Drowned//Gerard Keay, Mary Keay’s son and acquaintance of Gertrude Robinson

Rouge//Gertrude Robinson , Former head archivist of The Magnus Institute

Nina The Killer//Helen Richardson, Real estate agent merged with the Distortion

Lulu//Jane Prentiss, Avatar of The Corruption

Masky//Jonathan Sims, Head archivist of The Magnus Institute

Clockwork//Julia Montauk, Hunter and daughter of Robert Montauk

Homicidal Liu//Jurgen Leitner, Collector of paranormal books

Hoodie//Martin Blackwood, Archival assistant at The Magnus Institute

Jane The Killer//Melanie King, Proprietor of the "Ghost Hunt UK" Youtube Channel

Laughing Jack//Michael Shelley, Gertrude Robinson's assistant who was merged with The Distortion

Laughing Jill//Nikola Orsinov, Plastic mannequin created from Joseph Grimaldi

Zalgo//Peter Lukas, Avatar of The Lonely and captain of the Tundra

Kate The Chaser//Sasha James, Archival assistant at The Magnus Institute

Trendderman//Simon Fairchild , Avatar of The Vast(edit:he's changed from Offenderman to Trenderman)

Ticci Toby//Timothy Stoker, Archival assistant at The Magnus Institute

Eyeless Jack//Trevor Herbert, Self-proclaimed vampire hunter

Notes;

-Creepypasta characters, which are the equivalent of The Magnus Archives characters, were selected without caring about gender and the character whose personality is the most similar with TMA role was replaced with creepypasta character.

-The terms like The Stranger, The Vast, The Spiral, The Buried and blah blah and being an avatar etc. will be explained in future as in the podcast.

-Although I'm trying not to go out of personality to a large extent, there will be many things that do not fit because this is a completely different universe.

-Most of the Creepypasta characters are not killers, and some external appearance features have been arranged accordingly. If you don't like it, you don't need to read it because it's an AU. It's that simple.

-This AU is set in London, just like the podcast.

-If there is a thing that you are uncomfortable with, just don't read it. TMA is a podcast series full of really interesting horror stories, and if you're feeling uncomfortable, it's quite normal but please don't push yourself too much.

- All statements in the 200 episodes will not be mentioned in this AU. Only as much of it as will help you understand the AU will be edited into the AU.

-The dialogue is not exactly the same as in the podcast, because it will vary depending on the characters, but the critical scenes may be the same.

-I think that's it, have fun.

-And for you to have a better idea, The Magnus Archives description;

"The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.

Individually, they are unsettling. Together they begin to form a picture that is truly horrifying because as they look into the depths of the archives, something starts to look back…"

[hareofhrair]

An incomplete list of Magnus Archives fic I want to write but probably never will

Romance between a Desolation avatar oc who keeps burning her life to the ground and restarting and a Stranger avatar oc who’s features and mannerisms are constantly subtly changing so they look and act like a completely different person every few days. Desolation starts a new relationship in every city and then watches it go up in flames before she leaves, but she starts to notice weird similarities between her various ill fated paramours and realizes she’s actually just been dating and breaking up with the same person over and over.

Horror short about a Hunt avatar whose thing is being the Perfect Prey, like the Hunt’s version of the anglerfish. Predatory people zero in on her and are compelled to pursue her until they eventually find themselves literally hunting her down with violent intentions, thrilled and horrified by what they’re doing but unable to stop, until she suddenly turns the tables on them and they realize they were the ones being hunted the whole time.

Some kind of “everyone’s avatars” au which starts out as a heartwarming found family thing where they all become monsters together but redeem each other- John’s the Eye of course, Martin’s Lonely, Tim becomes Desolation after he blows up the Unknowing, they kill the Not-Sasha and it regurgitates Real Sasha who has been transformed into a Stranger by the process, Melanie’s Slaughter, Basira’s the Hunt, Daisy become Buried post coffin (it’s complicated), they keep and somehow “fix” Ghost Gerry who becomes an avatar of the End, they recruit Michael/Helen from the Spiral, Annabel Web starts hanging around and they can’t make her leave so she’s eventually just made part of the family through attrition, they recruit Manuela of the Dark because she’s got nothing left after the ritual failed, and Michael Crewe of the Vast just because I like him and I said so, Adelard Decker comes back Corrupted because I’m a heartless bastard, and when the Flesh attacks the institute Melanie cuts off a chunk of Jared which falls behind a filing cabinet and emerges a few weeks later as a semi sentient blob they name Meatball and dress in little outfits. Oh and everyone thinks Georgie is just the token normie but surprise turns out losing her fear was just the beginning of her evolving beyond humanity and whoops now she’s Extinction. With their powers combined Jonah Magnus gets kicked to the curb well before he can pull any shenanigans and yay the world is saved snd we’re basically superheroes now! Except then it turns out their love for each other has actually doomed the world by perfectly balancing the fears in each other, essentially becoming the archive John was meant to be times, uh, 14. Apocalypse time! Yaaay!

Pwp fic about ace voyeur John watching Martin fuck someone else. Tim maybe? That’d be funny.

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

One Six Zero

Jonah knew what he'd chosen to do.

He also knew he hadn't been chosen.

Spoilers to MAG 160. It's my 160th fic, after all.

AO3

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

2018, 18th October

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

For a moment, it is my voice, coming from his lips.

I’m assuming you’re alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn’t try too hard to stop reading; there’s every likelihood you’ll just hurt yourself. So just listen. 

Of course, like all the good advice I’ve given him over the years, he doesn’t listen.

Jon. Jon, Jon, Jon… why do you resist?

You were born for this.

Born for it, even more than I—I chose my god, and though I have teased you about making your own choices, I know the difference. I chose. You were chosen. 

Statement of Jonah Magnus regarding Jonathan Sims, The Archivist. 

My name on his lips… my true, real name. Ah!

Ah.

I grip the arms of my seat, here in the Panopticon, in this dessicated but indwelt temple. Jon. You could have been here with me, were you more wise; I, of course, will still receive the Watcher’s Crown, but that is beside the point.

It will be so much harder for you out there, in the world that we have made.

Why does a man seek to destroy the world? 

I didn’t lie. No. Not here, not in my moment of triumph. Yet hearing these words— for immortality and power, to ensure your own happiness —sobers me a bit. Yes, yes, I shall be king of a ruined world, and yes, yes, I shall never die, and those are key.

But those aren’t truly the reason, are they?

Deep down, Jon, Jon, I know you understand me. I know you feel my rage, though you do not know it is mine for it echoes yours too well. Why does a man seek to destroy the world, Jon?

Because it hates him, and so he must hate it back.

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

The truth comes out there, I suppose. I beat them because they deserved it. Because they hated me; because many still would, if they knew the body I’d taken, knew this sex was not mine by birth, as if any of them have the right to judge me. Ignorant, infantile, puerile little creatures, slithering through their days with puny fears and cheap desires, never knowing the true glory of being seen, never understanding how good it is to know.

To know everything. Every thought, every emotion. Every hidden little secret, tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the wretched human spirit.

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

How he wonders! I see him through borrowed eyes, listen to his voice—to your voice, Jon, a voice I have always liked—and again, I wish you could have been here at the end of it all.

Such a fool. A delightful, easily-led fool.

I know you were confused. My dear Jon, so neurodivergent —a term relatively new, but meaning the same thing as changeling, really. You felt things when you talked to me. You felt our singularity—and yes, I use that word correctly—for we are that point at which change becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, affecting all of civilization. 

You felt it when we spoke, away from Daisy or Basira or Tim. Felt that small and quiet place where only you and I stood, and only you and I shared experience, you and I traded feelings. Where only you and I speak this particular language. Not everyone can be a true cleric for the Eye; it is a dumb master, but both keen and gloriously cruel.

And it chose you. It chose you, over me.

For this… that’s all right. I don’t have to be marked by them all. You do.

The only way to ensure I did not suffer the tribulations of what I believed to be an inevitable transformation was to bring it about myself. So what began as an experiment soon became a race. 

I didn’t have to be terrorized by everybody. I didn’t have to be seen by every firebug and fortuneteller. But you did, didn’t you? It will be worth it. I will receive my crown, and see all; you will be… the conduit, and everyone will see you in their dreams.

Jon. Jon. Jon. If you had been here, you could have watched, too, with me.

You are a living chronicle of terror. 

I have no pity left to give you. The world stripped mine before menarche.

I watch you in my place of power. Watch you trembling, shaking; sweating heavily, rocking back and forth as if to physically hurl yourself away from the statement in your hands, but your face, Jon… your face! Eyes dilated and unblinking, lips pulled back as if in lust, dark cheeks flushed, hair (still too long for office-work, but I never gave you trouble over it) sticking to your forehead.

Jon. You are beautiful. In the way a strange, mutated frog is beautiful: unique, precious, and meant to be dissected.

I would have done, if you’d been with me here. You would have loved it here. Exposed, revealed to the Eye in ways you could never yet dream.

Oh, well. You preferred good cows.

For all your glory… your beauty, your foolish weirdness, your stubborn loveliness… you’ve made your choice, and so have I.

(And so has the Eye, but we will not think about that now.)

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

Martin is coming. I see him, Jon; he’s smiling at the sky, and he’s taking pictures of cows on his phone for you. He loves you, you know. With all your flaws.

I comprehend him because I’ve observed him, but I don’t really understand. If you were mine, I’d burn those flaws away. But no, not him, not bumbling deceitful Martin, who smiles his way into your heart and has every intention of putting up with all your—

You are prepared. 

It’s time!

You are ready. 

Yes! Yes! My heart leaps! My own eyes fill, and tingles of raw adrenaline race through my every limb!

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

I laugh (or sob), with no one to witness, the echoes dying with only the Eye to see.

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

Yes! Jon, it’s time! It’s time! Don’t you see? This will be so beautiful!

Now. Repeat after me. 

I raise my face to the darkness of my tower, my seat rising, the tower shaking, the Panopticon wrenching through the soil of central London like a phallus through virgin flesh, and the irony of this tears more laughter from me even as I expand, change, stretch, rise into the air, and it all

Come to us in your wholeness. 

floods

Come to us in your perfection. 

tears

Bring all that is fear and all that is terror and all that is the awful dread that crawls and chokes 

not the crown, I

and blinds and falls and twists and leaves and hides and weaves and burns 

Jon, it’s not the Crown, it

and hunts and rips and bleeds and dies! 

I am become the Pupil of the Eye and I am lost.

Come to us. I… OPEN… THE DOOR! 

And I think

(Barely, my thoughts rise as I rise with my tower and together we pierce the world) 

I think

this

Crown was

(Jon is screaming, and he does not see how beautiful he is with the crown atop his head) 

meant for…

(Jon) 

for you.

Jon!

The world changes, rips, spills its guts into the water of reality and muddies it, impossible to ever be made clean again. I rise. I see. All.

Bliss. Floating. Smearing. All things, every heart, every fear. All of it, too much.

Jon… you should have…

(he is still still screaming) 

Come to me. You still can.

(chosen he was chosen this was meant for him)

I wish you could come to me. We are meant to torment one another for all time. We—

(the crown magnificent and terrible and shining with the light of his new eyes) 

You will come to me.

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

I am looking back. Jon. I wait for you in the heart of the new world we have made. I wait.

Together, we will see it all.

[doofus-and-dragons]

This will more than likely be the last one of these I have. So, for the last time, here is my live reaction to the final season of TMA. These will be in no particular order because ice been listening to it over the span of a couple of weeks. I only listen to it at work.

TMA S5 Spoilers ahead

The cabin episode made me so sad. The eyepocolypse had even taken away their domestic bliss

I really don't remember the trenches that well. It's not a fear of mine, so it didn't shake me or stick well enough. Still good tho

The sickness episode sent me right back to senior year of highschool. I had to take a minute KXNSKXN

REVOLUTIONS WAS AMAZING I LOVED THE POETRY AND THE ACENGING OF SASHA BY KILLING NOT!SASHA. I love it.

At first I thought the worms was about Jane again but I was very wrong. It was a very interesting take!

Curiosity made me incredibly sad. I feel bad for Eric, Micheal, and Sarah(? Trinity? I don't remember. She was set on fire by a desolation avatar I think)

Also: Gertrude x Agnes perhaps???? Or at least solemn pinning? Maybe I just think it's slightly tragic to make it so and sometimes angst is good yknow?

Roots was ok, but the only part that stuck out to me was the jealous Martin scene. I listened to it like 3 times. I kept rewinding it just to list to it.

Fire Escape was SO good! It gave me a kind of manic energy as I listened to the descriptions of the fire.

Martin in the Lonely again made me cry. That's it.

"Who's this? Your boyfriend?" "Yes actually." "Oh...so is there anyway this doesn't end in me dead?"

The Basira and Daisy stuff actually did make me feel bad for Basira. Like, it's the apocalypse and she's having a whole ass crisis.

SALESA WAS INCREADIBLE

I wonder how he faked his death... man is talented and smart, I'll give him that

Skipping ahead to Martin's domain. Loved that. My boy isn't strictly human and I love that he can't deny that fact anymore.

Martin: Something something "one of you"

Jon, being a smug theater kid bastard boy: "One of us."

Like I heard that and I imagined him smirking ominously and gesturing with both his hands

He sounded so pleased that his boyfriend, as miniscule a role it had or that martin had, was like him, and I love that for him

I'm so glad Melanie and Georgie are happy. Though, the cult does weird me out (cults give me the heebie jeebies. It was a very nice touch!)

They deserve nice things.

Also, my favorite of the Cult members was Anil's character. I can't remember his name right off the top of my head, but he was wonderful. Anil did amazing with that little cameo/role

The scene where's he's arguing with Martin reminds me of that Jojo meme with jotoro and dio, but instead of stands they have their poetry clutched tight in their fists

"I dont need a poet." No, Jon, because you already have one. His name is Martin

Of course Jon gets trapped in the ocean when he doesn't have big string martin to row him out of it XD

SOMEWHERE ELSE SOMEWHERE ELSE SOMEWHERE ELSE

Annabelle Cane is wonderful, I'm so glad Jon didn't kill her. She's so chummy with Martin up until she has to be a dramatic villain and I love that for her!

The ladder episode made me grin like a maniac manly because I would be the Martin in that situation. I love the feeling of falling/floating, but I hate actually getting myself to fall. I physically can't do it. I can barely dive into the lake from my papaw's boat

Martin, there are thousands of fanfics that dive into you two getting together without the trauma. Don't even.

NO JON THE PLAN

Hey, real elias! That's where him being a stoner comes from! Because he is one! Nice.

I love og Elias, and I would protect him with my life I don't care.

Oh wait it was just Magnus dreaming

JON NO THE PLAN FUCKING HELL

I almost cried when Martin was yelling at Jon. The boys are fighting

THE KISS HOLY SHIT ALEX SAKD THEY WOULDNT KISS THEY KISSED AH

They're somewhere else being happy and domestic now you can't change my mind

[envihellbender]

What would the main avatars be like as gods of their own world made in their image?

Addition from Rott: As in the Avatars who’s domain we don’t visit - so I’m basically going to do Avatars I think would be fun instead of try to do them all. Originally I was going to Basira but decided hers would be very similar to Daisy’s since she inherited it so… sorry. If anyone wants that description or any specific ones I haven’t done, ask and I’ll do it.

Jude Perry

Her hair appears as if it’s a fire itself, there is a burning singed look at the scalp, similar to campfire wood. Her hair seems to flicker, being varying shades of orange, yellow, and red which hurts to stare directly at. Sometimes the tips are electric blue like a gas flame. It hurts to touch, but is still cut into a short, spiky hair cut. Her eyes have electric flames in the irises, they’re a burnt brown with blue flickers every now and then. There’s a brush of orange in the whites. Her hands and feet are both like burned out trees, wood like fingers that are the colour of charcoal as it lightens to a soft brown at her elbows and knees. Her nails are like burning blades with the colour and consistency of charcoal.

Jude doesn’t seem to care much about the well-being of her planet, she instead focuses on storming through areas humans can’t step foot in. The people occasionally see her, very few survive. She sees herself as above human beings by quite a way and treats them as her subjects. The world itself is a planet of extremes, in some places it’s desolate in terms of almost constant wildfires during the summer and autumn of anything that has tried to grow in the winter and spring. During this time the land is most habitable and the people who stay underground risk going into the topside. The sky turns from a dark orange to a light yellow, and the ground doesn’t burn their feet. The other areas are the coldest that can possibly exist. They measure at absolute zero degrees celsius, nothing can live or exist there. Occasionally people are exiled to this area or try to survive, their bodies become perfect icebergs, preserved, and existing as a warning.

Mike Crew

His lightening bolt scar is bright and sharp against his skin, just like real lightening. His left eye has an iris that shines an extremely light blue that looks almost like a glowing white. The whites are a soft, almost silvery, grey. His right eye is completely blue but a darker, duller shade, and the whites are a gravelly grey. His skin is extremely pale and almost wispy like cloud. He can’t quite be touched, if you reach out to him your hand goes through him like clouds. His hair is the same colour as the ocean, blue because it reflects the sky but when your hand goes through it it seems translucent. His bones glow through his body when he is using his powers, a white so bright it looks blue. When this happens his skin is translucent and his organs can be seen.

His world is empty, or at least it seems that way. A world of pure ocean, and the beings are all strange, alien sea creatures. Occasionally their humanoid, usually their not. They glow strange colours and are astronomical sizes - the smallest being the size of an Earth blue whale. Each small group of humanoid sea creatures are under the impression they are alone, given they have to travel hundreds of thousands miles to find another. They sometimes see their God, who appears if they travel too far from their own homes in search of food, or sometimes from the occasional idealist who wishes to explore their planet who gets too close to another group. Sometimes they survive, and if they do they dare not leave again. It’s unclear if they see him as a benevolent or malevolent presence, and changes depending on the tribe.

Hezekiah Wakely

His skin is bone, it’s pure white with the exact same consistency and texture. His eyes are like chunks of onyx in his face, and he is extremely tall, with spindly limbs. He has long black hair that hangs in front of his face. There is a crucifix carved into his chest that is somehow visible through his clothes despite being a hollow gash. He still drinks to excess, and if he is cut his blood is literally red wine, he often drinks it as such. He has rats which come from his mouth, several familiars which he adores and spoils. It’s less that he sleeps beneath the earth and more that the earth gathers around him. As a result he often had mud clinging to his skin and hair. His fingers are like long, sharp talons, perfect for digging and cutting any material (living or otherwise) to pieces, they are as white as ivory. Rather than appearing as nails they are his fingers which have grown to a point.

The only liveable areas in Hezekiah’s world are underground. There is a complex network of tunnels where the people have evolved extremely sensitive hearing, touch, and smell but are all essentially blind. Their hands have grown to be like claws to dig and climb. Their skin is rough like leather and covered in a thin layer of hair. Hezekiah is well known to them, he adores them and refers to them as his children. He preaches to them a religion very similar to Christianity but with a focus on the earth, the beneath ground, the hell that exists in the sky, and paints himself as a Jesus like figure.

Oliver Banks

Oliver is the most human of them, but he’s difficult to look at. No human can look at him directly, he appears in the corner of their peripheral vision. When they try to stare he disappears, he only seems like a tall shadow figure. He vanishes on command, and can be forgotten. The only ones he appears to is those who’ve reached the end of their life, he appears to sit and chat with them, until he guides them away. He talks like an old friend, but he has a sad, anxious look in his eyes.

Oliver hates his world. He tried to help the people trapped there, but he can’t do anything. All he can hope is that if he hides far away, in his cavern his people are safer without him. Occasionally people go on a pilgrimage to find their God, if they ever find him. He sits down with them, chats, and they leave having completely forgot they ever met. The people here have short life spans, they are born with disease and as a result they have evolved to grow to be fully developed as adulthood by age two. Five is considered a good middle age. The eldest people here are nine and ten, and are revered by all. If their illness does not cause them to succumb, the dangerous outdoors will. It could be the extreme natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes, ice storms, sand storms, etc, or perhaps the gigantic fierce predators. They appear like mutated versions of bears and monstrous feline creatures. They don’t know that life could be any different, Oliver does, and it causes him no end of pain.

Gerard Keay (working on the assumption he was briefly a servant of the Eye and also I want to do him and it’s my writing)

Gerard’s world is the one most similar to the canon Earth. It is one that is primarily ruled by fear. Each continent is devoted to one of the Entities, and whilst Gerard appreciates fear serves a purpose, he rules them with a very tight grip. Each of the Entities is powerful here but they all bow to him. He can keep them in control. He walks amongst the people of his world, and he can easily appear as one of them due to his shapeshifting abilities. He appears as what is the most unremarkable for where ever he is, changing his racial features, hair colour, height and weight. The problem is whenever he uses his abilities to aid people the sigils of each fear on his skin glow, showing him as the hero they all revere. He despises the attention that gives him, that there are statues and buildings built in his honour. Thankfully he can shapeshift and disappear on command, avoiding the attention it brings him. The god before him, Mary Keay, was a malevolent and sadistic ruler who was the one who created the Entities to begin with. Or rather, that is exactly what the people of the world believe. Only the Entities and Gerard know this is not remotely true. The Keay lineage and the Entities evolved together millennia ago.

Julia Montauk & Trevor Herbert

Julia & Trevor appear the same as their human selves in canon, apart from the fact the beings on their planet have evolved more predatory attributes. They have snouts to sniff out game, sharp canine teeth, and are taller and more muscular. Their world is a forest planet. They are not the rulers and gods as such, the world is split into Hunters and Prey. Julia and Trevor are the oldest of the immortal beings known as the Hunters and are thus revered and worshipped as such. The notoriety and love is definitely something they enjoy but they have a mixed relationship with this. Mostly because they prefer to stay in the shadows, it would make hunting Prey difficult if they didn’t after all. As a result they are not seen by those they don’t kill very often, the Hunters and Prey are a mixture of human and animals. You are born into one side or the other, the Hunters convince themselves that they are important than the other, and that it’s their primary source of food. Julia and Trevor found each other, Julia’s father was a particularly cruel sadist who was feared and hated by the other Hunters meaning whilst she was younger she was treated as a pariah. Luckily none of those who remember her father are still alive. Trevor was a Hunter born amongst Prey, he was the main protector against other Hunters when he was young. He ran away as soon as he his instincts to kill his family began to appear. They didn’t live much longer. Trevor and Julia were hunting alone and separately when another Hunter rounded on Trevor, the scene of Prey from his family still lingering on him. Julia saved his life, and they’ve been each other’s family ever since.

Melanie King

Melanie was once a human. When she was shot by the Amritsar ghost, the bullet was never removed. It infected her leg, slowly growing throughout her body until she was two bodies and beings twisted together. She can force the human body to take over sometimes for short periods of time, hiding the Slaughter from view. Her skin is still different, a tanned human tone fused with a pink veiny flesh, one eye is a empty socket only visible as a black hole, and one is her regular, human brown one. Otherwise she appears as her old self. It hurts to maintain this form, and when she relaxes into her new one she has a golden mask fused into one half of her human face. Four other arms spawn from her waist and back each having a retractable sword which is released from each wrist. Her human side wears regular clothes but her monstrous body has old samurai armour fused into its flesh.

Her world is one she hates getting involved in. She had a nice cabin in the middle of the mountains, she leaves once a month to allow her monstrous side to take over but otherwise lives as a recluse. She tries to focus on only killing animals (which is bad enough), but occasionally another human will slip into the fold. She lives so far away that she can’t hear the bagpipes, the sound that always plays seemingly from the skies when the travelling mercenary groups that take the place of countries attack one another. Few even know that it is Melanie’s domain, but when they see her they know she is not like them. Some bow to her instinctively, others flee, some see a monster who’s head they can capture. Not one creature who has raised a hand to her however has survived.

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 123 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: putting up a new fence (moved again to a different part of the property... I've been patching that fence for years and I got so much done during TMA!)

Web Development, ha! (I know, I know, I'm easily amused...)

JON: (salty) "Coma, great! Let’s rearrange his office. Sleeping people don’t need – pens." [HE STEPS IN SOMETHING WITH A SQUELCH!] JON: "Euagh! What –" Up until this point Jon (and first-listeners) doesn't know what happened yet. Seems like there is still some residue from the Flesh attack, hehe. That’s also the reason they *had* to throw Jon's cloths out. Interesting, that the jar of ashes survived. I'd guess Martin still was there for the clean-up? My headcanon is, he was the one who wanted to go through Jon's office, trying to salvage things and managed to sufficiently clean up the jar to keep it. It gave Jon some closure and feeling of safety back then, I'd totally understand, if Martin wanted to preserve that.

MELANIE: "Tim is dead. Daisy is dead, and you – what, you’re just fine?" JON: "What – no! I’ve been in hospital for six months!" MELANIE: "Something has been in hospital. Something that’s got your face" Even though Melanie and Basira weren't too affected by the Not!Them (Basira almost not at all, she never met the real Sasha), that trauma still sits so deep with all of them. They know the Fears are not benevolent, and one of those things got Jon to wake up. (Also yeah, Slaughter bullet)

MELANIE: "I warned Basira; I said not to let you back in here, but she just" (increasingly angry; starts slamming [the wall]) "doesn’t! listen!" Lydia really nails the rage here. How the voice begins to break.

MELANIE: "Oh! Okay, so it’s what, hi Jon, how are you, get anyone killed lately?" JON: (dumbstruck) "I – I –" MELANIE: "Wipe that look off of your face. Like you’re not the reason all of this is happening! (she takes a breath) Like you’re any better than – than him!" This is hurtful on so many levels. And Jon and Melanie let us know what an impact this had on Jon (Jon being speechless and Melanie making a comment on the look on his face). Jon hasn't been the friendliest of people, but since MAG 22 he’s been on a steady path to change. All of his actions have been either hypervigilance from being traumatized as a kid (which is a defense mechanism. Learn all about everything, you'll hopefully be a step ahead and things can't hurt you - in S2 this really ended in bad actions. Like I understand why he's been paranoid, but the others also don't have to tolerate this from him) or (and this has been all of S3) trying to keep others safe, including Melanie. He just didn’t know how to do it. Mr. Spider taught him if other people get involved, they’ll get hurt. And then Elias, comparing Jon to Elias. As if Elias hasn't hurt Jon enough as well, even if it wasn't that obvious, especially not for the others. Elias' grooming Jon into things he never wanted is just so disgusting to me.

MELANIE: "No! You don’t, do you? He’s still alive. You are still alive. So this place is still –" See above. (The worst of this: She's kind of right! If Jon dies, they'll go free.)

JON: "Okay." [HE TAKES A LONG, SHAKY BREATH.] JON: "I’m sorry." T_T (Yeah, if it wasn't clear from the first two episodes of S4, this is going to be one huge punch to the gut after the other.)

BASIRA: "Alright. Best I can understand it, Beholding, or the Eye, or… whatever you wanna call it, we’re one of the only powers that hasn’t taken a shot at a ritual. Yet. And everything out there knows it." JON: "No – I mean, we can’t be the only ones, surely." Funny thing, this about the Eye haven’t taken a shot at a ritual yet stayed very strongly with me the first time around. So much, that I ignored all the clues that Elias is trying to do exactly this (Gerry in MAG 111 about the Watcher's Crown, Basira later to Elias in prison about him kicking off his little ritual from a jail cell). I bunched the Eye up with the End and the Web (because they also don’t have a ritual as we'll later learn) even though my sister already went "No no, the Eye has the Watcher's Crown" and then I went full Surprised Pikachu Face when things finally happened.

BASIRA: "Yeah, it was bad. We took them all out. Melanie did most of them. She was… she got a knife from somewhere and –" JON: (overlapping) "Basira I-I don’t know if that’s a good sign?" BASIRA: "She saved my life, Jon. She saved all of us. I won’t forget that." Oh, the hypocrisy of this. But we know, that Basira's heavily playing favorites in this season. Jon being back is not a good sign, but when Jon points out Melanie's unending rage and superhuman knife strength, it's okay because sHe SaVeD BaSiRa's LiFe? As if Jon wasn't part of the saving-the-world-from-the-Unknowing-crew, does that not count? (Speaking from a point of their knowledge at this time, of course.)

BASIRA: "Don’t be too hard on him, Jon. Your, uh, situation. It hit him. Hard." JON: (sighs) "Yes. Well, I’m sure there are better ways to deal with it than getting – cozy with Elias’s successor." Jealous? :)

BASIRA: (sighs) "Rumor is a couple of researchers up on the third floor decided to ignore some of his new directives, and… whoosh." I think it'd be really funny to see TMA from the eyes of someone not working in the Archives (or Rosie). Like all those people who have no idea what this place is. And how would they explain this event though. Two researchers suddenly disappearing...

JON: "Oh." [HE LAUGHS, BUT IT, TOO, IS HUMORLESS.] JON: "The more things change… So, we’re under siege, Melanie is aggressively unstable, Martin is working very closely with – The Lonely, who is predictably enough isolating him, and, oh, yes, uh, Tim and Daisy are still dead. (laughing) Which is at least easy to keep track of." There goes his sanity...

"As he told it, she was young, rail-thin underneath an oversized brown hoodie, which she kept pulled up, trying to cover up a network of pale stitches that stretched over one side of her head." Ha, totally forgot Annabelle was already in this. From what we heard about her from MAG 69, I don't know if this was even very obvious to spot when first listening? At that point, all we would know was that she got her head bashed in and dressed in vintage clothes? Oh and spiders of course...

"She just mumbled something about custom requirements and told Greg to drink his latte, which he did, so he tells me, though he can’t stand milk in his coffee." So subtle!

Chelicerae is btw what the "mandibles" or "fangs" of arachnids are actually called.

"According to those who followed such things, all you had to do was start a new thread as a Guest, something Greg had been instructed to make sure was possible, and the title of that thread should be the name of someone you want dead." A digital death note, gotcha! xD Okay, jokes aside, I love this and MAG 65, those internet creepy pastas! 

"He rarely goes out anymore, and, judging by the cobwebs, he definitely doesn’t clean his house like he used to." There's no such thing as random cobwebs in TMA.

JON: "Another gap. And whoever took it didn’t do any follow-up, just… filed it away. I may be the first person to actually read it, so… (same mirthless cough of a laugh) Sorry, Angie. I suppose." There has already been some speculation about this as part of a mag a day. About the Archivist's dreams, how it works, who end up in there. This "Sorry, Angie", is it meant as an apology for the fact that their statement has been ignored for 2 years? Or is it meant for the possible situation of Angie now ending up in Jon's dreams, since the statement's been given after Gertrude's death and Jon is the first Archivist to read it. This would make Jon's diet even more complicated, having to resort to statements which Gertrude has already consumed in an attempt to not "curse" more people.

JON: "It’s unclear if they were meant to be users or victims, but I cannot help but note that there seem to be the names of several statement givers who found their way to the Institute, including noted arachnophobe Carlos Vittery." The name of the person who set the plot into motion. This should be a very loud clue about the Web pulling its strings all this time!

@a-mag-a-day

[oaxleaf]

sorry i got confused when writing, i do think their relationship was changed after basira's non-consensual removal of melanie's bullet. I would also like to add that they are the only ones that we initially witness doing friendship things? we had mentions that hinted at jon, martin, tim and sasha hanging out occasionally during the first few seasons but there was never any real closeness to it i believe while jon was trying to establish himself in a position that wasn't of his comfort and martin was just an interloper. and yes basira is the closest we've had to a tritagonist after tim's death, it's frustrating that people don't treat her with the same respect as jon and martin. one thing i like about her is that very unlike melanie and tim, is that there is nothing particularly personal about her resentment of jon. she doesn't get mad or blame him for not making the effort to properly talk to her after saving him from being killed by daisy or for routinely tormenting her during her dreams. now actively and deliberately torment other people and start the apocalypse? this is her limit. I can't tell if it's because she tends to bottle up her own feelings or because she was a cop or both, I just know that I love her for it.

outside of the classic protagonist/main support/antagonist trio that jon, martin, and elias all respectively represent, basira is the most important character, i think. she has more appearances than most people remember and plays off jon a lot. i'm not quite sure why the fandom doesn't treat her with the respect she deserves and why they're far harsher on her than they are on other characters (beyond the fact that fandom always has a tendency to give male characters more moral leeway and more deep analysis, but that's neither here nor there)

basira has always valued a person's actions first and foremost, and i suppose that could very well come along with or at least play on her background as a cop. after all, regardless of how broken the justice system is, it is meant to solely judge the actions of a person in the context of the law rather than any form of deeper morality. basira seems to find very little point in engaging in anything deeper than the simplest, clearest facts about reality and it's consequences. she finds no point in blaming jon for being in such emotional turmoil that he's unable to apologize for how his actions affect her, not because she has sympathy for what he's going through but rather because any words he could say would not change the simple truth of reality. it's a fascinating aspect of her, and for a long time it serves her quite well. that is, up until she has to face daisy's complexities and finds herself unable to do that. that's the moment that truly breaks her, and even then she keeps the shards inside her, with no interest in speaking about it to other people

i know that i've repeatedly proclaimed melanie to be my favourite character, and that is true, but basira is a close second. it's just really frustrating when people don't actually make the effort to further analyse her just because she's probably the character with the least to grasp on to on the very surface level

[paradife-loft]

roughly halfway through s5 at this point*, and I think so far the parts of this season that have fucked the hardest have been (in no particular order)

1) in 184, the conversation about "avatars" just being a concept, a way to structure things that in reality exist on continuums and bleed into one another; and yet how on the flip side of that, now after the change, there very literally is a metaphysical binary of watcher and watched, the ones who consume the fear** and the ones who produce it, that nobody is capable of existing outside of.

2) the post-statement with Jordan Kennedy in 185 in its entirety. just all of it. amazing. showstopping. perfect. kissing this episode on the mouth.

3) the first half or so of the statement in 172 "strung out" did a whole lot with a very light implicative touch. started listening to it at work and pretty soon after was like Nope This Is Not What We're Doing Right Now, Saving This For Later and had to turn it off.

4) basically all of 167, with how Emma Harvey just... embodies the most integral horror of giving yourself to Beholding, imo. it also managed to really humanize Gertrude to me in a way I hadn't quite gotten otherwise! which I love

5) everything happening in the John-Basira convo in 178, with the second body of Daisy's targets they find. eating it with a spoon and frankly feeling vindicated for the first time in a bit.

----

*yes, I am going slower than I have with... most of the rest of the show... out of a "gotta savor the last bits of dessert" mindset :P sue me

**one of the really interesting changes that seems to have happened once the Powers entered the world, imo, is that not only are the boundaries between the different ones constructed and fluid, but now even the spectrum of emotions & experiences they consume have spread out a bit. fear is absolutely still the main course, but to the extent that some of these domains entail realizations of people's fears, putting the main object of fear temporally in the past or in the present for some people results in somewhat different central experiences under the "suffering" umbrella.

(now I'm digging myself Way too into theory stuff and contemplating differences between some of the "old" fears like the hunt and the dark, which are very... in the moment? instinctual, present-what-is-happening-to-me-right-now-focused? in a lot of their manifestations - compared to things like the extinction, the desolation, and the end, which strike me as very dependent on cognitive understanding of "the future" and entertaining hypotheticals. new species ability unlocked! you've developed the power to have a cortisol-flood about things that aren't even real and present in the room with you now! :D)