#head-archivist-mag-institute

[sead-sarchivist]

Weither intentionally stern or not, they seem... overall afraid of your ga[y]ze. Quickly, they clear their throat and force a few laughs,

"Ha- haha... uhm..." they clear their throat again, "The uh- the problem with that is uh... the uhm... the- the- next bus to Hastings isn't... going to be here... for another hour..."

They force a smile, but their eyes are glistening with the aura of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

[ @sead-sarchivist ]

"Oh! Erm- s- sorry, I thought my boss contacted yours about the- heh- the new building up in Hastings? For uhm... the amount of statements the Archives had... A few people thought it best to make another building."

They whipe their hands on their trousers a couple times, raising one, asking for it to be shaken. Its sweaty again, "S- Sage. Newbert. Uhm... Head Archivist in the Hastings building... pleasure to meet you! E- even if the uhm... timings... unfortunate..."

I... I see. No, nobody told me about the new building.

He reluctantly shook your hand, keeping a stern look. Not like he could really control it.

Well, it was nice to meet you. I assume you'd like to be going now. You're probably very late.

[ian0key]

Jonathan Sims FanArt.

Maybe...in somewhere else...

Jon's appearance is the representation that Jon lost parts of his humanity (Also, he is blind.).

MOREEE

-> -> -> -> -> -> Part 2?? (Jmart Comic)

[bealzebubbb]

thinking about how jon was literally set up to blunder, being thrown into a job position everyone knew he wasn’t qualified for, so he had to scramble to prove his worth to everyone including himself, being dragged into supernatural experiences where he takes the blame for any of it happening when it was all so far out of his control. he had a target on his back since he was a child. everyone he cares about either died or left or wants him dead. except martin. and that one thing, that one special relationship where jon is loved and he can love back, they are thrown into an apocalyptic hellscape that jon can only blame himself for, and rather than reveling in this newfound love, they have to use it as a crutch to even muster the willpower to keep going. i’m gonna vomit

[caeliflammae]

relistening to the magnus archives and ohhhhhh. ohhhh. the foreshadowing of tragedy ohhhh...

[cult-of-the-eye]

MY FRIEND EMBROIDERED ME A MAGNUS ARCHIVES BADGE WITH THE PROGRESS PRIDE FLAG ON THE BACK OH MY GODDDD THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER I'M GENUINELY SO HAPPY AHHHHHHHHHHH

[shhhimnothereiswear]

My thoughts on TMA eps 119-123 -by me on the bus to skl (copied from my notes app)

119. THE INTRO CHANGED???? BRO WHAT. I'm actually not sure what's going on uh HE JUST BLEW UP. WHAT THE FLIP???

120. ELIAS BOUCHARD. WHAT THE FLIP ARE YOU DOING. "regarding the dreams of Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the Magnus Institute, pulled directly from subject" WHAT WAIT HES GOING THROUGH THE 14 FEARS. OMG ELIAS JUST GOT ARRESTED?!??!?!?! BAHAHAH HE JUST GOT FUCKING PUNCHED. AND HE CARRIES ON THE CONVERSATION LMAOOO. PETER LUKAS IS IN CHARGE NOW?!?!?! WHAT. he's so nice T-T

121. ANTONIO BLAKE IS BACK???? WHAT THE FLIP. HE IMPERSONATED A GUY BAHAHAHA. "MEMENTO MORI" WW REFERENCE?!?!??! wait am i stupid who did antonio remind georgie of. BRO WHAT WAS THAT AT THE END

122. JONS ALIVE WOOO!!1!1!!!!1!!! NO HE REFERRED TO GIMSELF AS "The Archivist" INSTEAD OF "Head Archivist of The Magnus Institute" WHYYYY

123. MELANIE NO STOPPPPP. "-decided to ignore some of his new directions and wooshhhhh. "Sorry, what's "wooshhhhh"?" "Wooshhhhh." BAHAHAHA

[magnuspanoptes]

readings of the podcast which try to frame jon as having been tragically manipulated and forced through every decision by elias are of no interest to me. because it's not true, is it. when elias tells him in mag 92 "you always chose to see," he's being cruel, yes. victim blaming him, even. but to completely disregard it as an attempt at manipulation would be a mistake. much of the podcast is about exploiting people's trauma. as i've said before, jon's role as head archivist, back when it was still presented as a mundane office job to the audiences, and he hadn't developed any beholding powers yet, involved filing away statement givers' trauma without offering help of any kind. the institute subsists on this form of exploitation, in a literal sense obviously, because it's a temple to the eye. but even if you take that reveal away, it's also true in simply an administrative sense in season one. and jon used to ruthlessly dismiss every single statement giver with as much apathy as he could muster (while knowing that if a statement doesn't record digitally, then it's the truth), and note that faking skepticism was a form of coping mechanism for him, it was the choice between making statement givers feel small or making himself feel vulnerable—and is this not simply the bureaucratic version of what he does later as a supernatural avatar of the beholding, vampirically feeding on people's terror to stay alive or risk being consumed by the eye?

(Season 3) MAG 117 - "Testament" // (Season 4) MAG 142 - "Scrutiny"

of course, i'm not saying he bought it on himself, that he deserved to be put in an impossible situation later for being an arse in season one. jon too, has had his trauma exploited in the form of a guest for mr spider, an experience which eventually led him to the magnus institute where he would help fulfill the web's designs. so, in the grand scheme of things everyone was puppeteered by forces beyond their control, but would you excuse jonah for eveything he's ever done because of it? then why must jon be rendered completely non-agentic? yes, elias manipulated him, but he has never had to straight up coerce jon into anything. jon's just always done what's been expected of him. because they're alike. their shared desire for knowledge originates from fear. jon always chose to see because something had hurt him once and he needed answers, and we can assume jonah chose the beholding because it was the only entity which would expose him to information on all the other fears. knowledge is a means of survival for both of them, an inclination which later manifests literally as they become avatars who must subsist on terror. it all really comes down to letting yourself be exploited or exploiting someone else to escape that fate (you don't escape, not really, nobody does in the podcast), and jon did choose (with as much agency he could've possibly had in a story like this). the difference between them being that elias feels no remorse for his choice, but jon's character is defined by the enormous guilt he feels about the things he has done and what he must do to continue living, until he doesn't.

[dexterkronos]

Why MothJohn when OwlJohn?

Okay so like being serious here; what's with everyone assigning Monster Johnathan Sims into being a Moth? Why can't he be an owl?

This has bugged me an inordinate amount and in true Eye Lady fashion, I'm gonna try to prove my propaganda ideation has merit (and also unravel this bloody mess).

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

Please help me unravel this with your own theories/responses/knowledge this is critical for my AO3 Magnus x (OwnSeries) AU

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

Points for OwlJohn:

Owl symbolism in the Magnus Institute's logo

Owls (mainly the Little Owl) are associated with the Greek Goddess Athena (Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Handicrafts), and the Eye is a Wisdom-based Entity fragment.

Being an Owl (Athena) puts them at odds with Spider (Arachne), thus being reflective of the Eye (Watching) and Web (Acting) mindsets.

Harpy John! Like, hello???? Bird wings??? Being a big floofy owl creature like Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House????

Owls blink super quickly so like, metaphor for not being able to close eyes?

Points for MothJohn (so far)

Mentions of a 'chrysalis' in MAG 162

Death's-head Hawkmoths are apparently tied to supernatural/evil things?????? [Source: Wikipedia..? (i cant remember)]

Moths apparently represent transformation and rebirth??? [Source: some website labelled the "Tarrant Country College" idk i took a cursory glance]

Quote about being between a moth and a pilgrim [MAG 164..?] (Courtesy of @cirrus-grey )

Moths can have eyes on their wings to scare off predators (Courtesy of @nonbinarytoast)

If I've missed anything, please tell me because I'm genuinely curious for the sake of the Magnus-(Own Series) AU I'm cooking on AO3.

Might even try cooking a MothJohn vs OwlJohn propo image, or use one of my Archivist OCs for the Magnus-(OwnSeries) AU. Or both. Or all three.

(Also yes I know about Sphinx!Jonn and Dragon!John variations but there's no. bloody. owls.)

[dgoul]

I wrote a script based on my TMA roleplays on Twitter, trying to copy the unofficial scripts style.

Context: After the Panopticon reveal, Jonah goes back to his role of Head of the Institute and convinces Martin to make Jon stay with the excuse of what would happen if he were left alone with his uncontrollable powers; Jonah likes to poke in Jon's mind, Jon wears a skirt and him and Tim are very close.

Google doc link and snippet ! Notes are open. Let me know what you think of it !

[vlly-of-despair]

Ok but like, we need to talk about Alice and the ‘victim’… (spoilers for TMP)

I’ve been kicking around the theory for a little bit in my head now that the Magnus Institute program for gifted children is meant to find children who have an aptitude to act as conduits for the Fears via meditation practices that can transport their consciousness to the ‘Somewhere Else’, aka the layer of reality in which the Fears resign.

I made a past post about this, but for a summery: In the Magnus Archives, the Fears are described as gods from another realm, not necessarily from another universe, but rather in a different layer of reality we usually can’t see or comprehend, but can bleed into our world in the small weirdness of the statements we see throughout the narrative, and humans being able to harness gifts derived from the warped reality of these beings via becoming an Avatar. In the Magnus Protocol, people may channel the powers that may be from the layer of reality through becoming an ‘External’ or by an object, or environment. They categorize cases regarding the Somewhere Else as subjects being viabilities as subjects, agents, or catalysts (see ep 9 as an example of this cataloged on record).

Now, I personally believe whatever the Magnus Institute was cultivating, they wanted to specifically target areas of greater knowledge.

In TMA 127, John describes to Basira the ability to see into the minds of others as:

It’s like there’s a, a door, in my mind. A-a-and behind it is, is the entire ocean.

Before, I didn’t notice it, but now, I – I know it’s there, and I can’t forget it, and I can feel the pressure of the water on it… when I’m around p-people, or.. places, or.. ideas? A drop or two will push through the cracks at the edges of the door. And I’ll… know something.

Now both Sam and Gerard both applied to the Magnus Institute program, but were not accepted. When we saw the ARG Mag Testing sheets from past children’s names, as well as the criteria they ranked the children on, many being less so on their intelligence, but on their empathy, obedience, and conformity. So my best guess is that they find the most obedient children of high intelligence, those who may be able to harbor great ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ about the intellectual comprehension of most people, and that are apathetic enough to endure the possible… casualties tapping into the Eldritch horrors may call upon. Then they train them to become figures similar to the Archivist, but to the degree in which they can ‘open the door in their minds’ completely. This didn’t go so well… like at all… taken by the fact that the ‘protocol’ was enacted and the whole institute burned to the ground. Did they open a rift to this dangerous world? Is the OIAR fighting against those who try to push too much of these Outer Gods into our material world? To ‘see’ too much?

Curiously, there is a child in the ARG spreadsheet listing the children involved with the ‘gifted kids program’ with the name Connor Dyer, the same lat name as Alice. Many people, including myself, think this IS Alice and her deadname, prior to transitioning.

So, Alice was involved with the program, and her denial of the fact and urging Sam to stop researching the institute raises some big red flags. Where am I going with this? Well, if we go back to MAGP 15: WELL RUN, we see the victim that approached Gwen being compelled to spill out her fear as she is ‘drowning’ on land, trying to grab Alice as she whispers about seeing an endless, dark sea. Alice’s reaction is sooo interesting to me. At first it seems normal, she sees a dying frantic woman, reacts in panic and calls the ambulance. However, once she sees the tape recorder, she becomes utterly terrified. She says, “ I’m sorry, I can’t-.” And runs.

Alice, what about the tape recorder specifically triggered you so much? Is it because perhaps you remember this scene? Using a tape recorder, as a child in the Magnus Institute program, to document your decent into that same vast ocean beyond our world? Is if because if suddenly clicked what this is, what has happened to this woman, that she was compelled? That her thoughts were spoken with far more clarity after death because her corpse is being puppeteer by a power which unlocks the minds and fears of others beyond their mind alone? Why are you working at the OIAR? And why did you invite perhaps the only other person you know who could have the abilities the Magnus Institute searched for in youth?…

[drawlabs]

“Can I have a cigarette?”

MAG 01 - Case #0122204

Statement of Nathan Watts, regarding an encounter on Old Fishmarket Close, Edinburgh. Original statement given April 22nd 2012. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

[mart1n-k-blackwood]

After walking Jon knocked on the side Martins desk.

Martin? Martin, do you think you could.. make some tea? Two cups, I have a statement giver... they aren't feeling well.

@head-archivist-mag-institute

Uh,, yeah! I'll be down in a few minutes. Are you alright?

[astheflowersgrow]

I'm still kind of unsettled by Jon calling himself just "The Archivist" (I'm at MAG 132). Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute London is a function, his job, but now thats all he is. He's the Archivist.

Sorry for rambling its the worms in my brain

[terminalvelocityfrfr]

SPOILERS FOR A TMAGP + TMA!!

So what’s everyone’s theories for Tmagp?

I’m talking the institute burning down, GERRY BEING ALIVE (+ GEEGEE), the undeniable evidence that Celia is the same Celia from the cult in TMA, the archivists, [ERROR], PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THEORIES‼️

Kinda off topic too but has no one caught onto the reference to protocol in mag 068??

need a remind you what year the institute burnt down in the protocol!verse? Could this be maybe stuff leaking through like Annabelle mentioned? We never got a reason how those statements were leaked, and if we did I can bet money it sounds like bullshit, and better yet we haven’t got anything on how the institute burnt down in the protocol universe.

My bet is Gerry and Gertrude just got their petrol on a bit earlier before..whoever was head of the institute could interfere. Or maybe it was THE head of the institute did it to stop a dreaded power? We r still without so much info and s2 is about 11-12 episodes away!! Give us theory juice!!

[kairos-polaris]

inspired by this post by @you-call-it-obsession

just thinking about all the trinkets in Elias' office and how they drew Jon's attention during his first interview. he gets flustered when Elias points it out but Elias just smiles and tells him about how he came into possession of that object.

it becomes sort of a tradition for them, that whenever Jon comes to Elias' office, Elias will tell him a tale or two about the things he owns. more often than not, it turns into five or six because Jon is too curious and Elias enjoys his curiosity (half of the Institute is convinced they are fucking because why else would Jon visit Elias so often and stay there for so long? they aren't)

their meetings become less frequent as Jon is made the Head Archivist and he certainly isn't sad about it. but it makes the rare opportunity to listen to Elias talk even more precious. season 2 Jon is paranoid and tells himself he shouldn't be as entranced by Elias and his stories but each time he can't help himself but ask more questions

mag 92 with the statement is Elias' subtle offer of bringing that tradition back, that's why when everyone leaves he offers to tell Jon about Barnabas Bennett, another statement for his Archivist to feel better. he does the same in mag 102 (statement disguised as a regular story so his Archivist feeds) and then right before the Unknowing. during the latter one he openly offers Jon statements so he is strong enough during the Unknowing. there is a feeling in the air that this is their last time, Jom suspects it and Elias knows for sure that he is to stay away from Jon after his Becoming

Peter chooses a different office so Jon is free to visit Elias’ whenever he pleases. he goes there when he finds himself missing Elias too much, he gently touches all the things there, thinks back to all the stories Elias already told him. all the stuff he has no ideas about. he wishes Elias was there, so he could yell at him for turning Jon into this only to abandon him when he needed him most. and Elias watches him every time and a tiny part of him wishes he was there (unfortunately for everyone involved his evil plans are more important 😔)

[gravemations]

Don't know alot about Dreams of an Archivist yet, purely for a spoiler free experience with TMA but i have some questions:

If y'all are going with Alex being once worked as an assistant under Gertrude, does Jon often try to interrogate them about what Gertrude was like or what was their relationship with her(and get more information of her). In general what did Alex think of Gertrude? How did her death affect them? How did they react when it was found out she was shot dead?

Also when in the timeline did Alex began working under Jon's team, were they still working in the Institute up until Jon arrived, How did Alex adjust to being in a new team(?) What was their relationship with Jon before S2, Did they partake in the S1 Finale infestation, What did they do, Were they away from the building for who knows what, Did their human form slip up being bombarded by worms or did the worms/Jane printess didn't go after them because of reasons i have yet to go far into soon(still at ep56)

I have so many questions especially on what the heck is going on with Lankmann and the veldiguns in this au, i have no clue about any further insight of what avatars are yet but they aren't fears??? (No spoiler regarding TMA but answer all the questions above if you wanna)

Alright I will try my best to explain these plot points without going into spoilers so these will be basic answer that probability will not too in depth with.

qestion 1. I definitely imagine that Jon would go try to interrogate Alex about Gertrude post finding her body in the tunnels. (I doubt he care to really ask many questions about her before hand)

Alex dosnt really like talking about themself or their past for understandable reasons so most likely during season 2 they are kinda avoidant of Jon and when They do have to say something it is usually vague or not the whole picture. (this put Alex into Jon sus list on could be murders)

Alex wasn't really attach to Gertrude, they did not speak a lot with her and never really intend to outside of work talk. Gertrude did tell them about the basics of what she was doing but keep alot of things from them.

Honestly surprised that a gunshot of all things took her out, thought she go out in a different way but not unexpected.

2. Yes they have been working at the institute for a long time even into Jons original hiring and moving to role of The Head-achivist, They are very curious about the sudden premonition and knows Gertrude is not the type to retire so they do know somethings up.

They like the compere of the new team, it had been a while since they have had to work with people but is genuinely kind to the team.

They get on with Sasha and Martin well, They tend to have good chats with Martin on break Sasha is usually busy but the few times they chat have been positive even thought after the events of Mag: 26 she had been interacting with them more till well you know.

Alex gets along with Tim till Season two is in mid swing, things are never the same after that. They uses to work together alot but not so much any more.

Jon and Alex relation ship is complected from the start season one They are both purely Professional they didnt really know how to think about Jon he was just his new boss, that was and till season 2 where Alex starts to empathizes with Jon more because they remember how scared they where back in Eastridge and can tell Jon is taking it hard but dosnt want to get close.

Alex was unaffected physically by the worms because anytime the worms make contact with them they just die due to them being a partly veldavercated human so they didn't go after Alex but instead went after everyone else. (they went to go grab the extinguishers Martin hide)

(and that's it omg that's a big ass wall of text)

Note I am not the main authority on DOAA its a group this this is just my interpretation of events.