#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

[jazzically]

he was watching their houses.

jon sims... was watching....

OH I GET IT NOW

[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.)

[the-archivist-official]

Jonathan Sims, Head archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

// rest is ooc! -

Just a silly rp Account really!

Timeline is around s1-s2, (as that’s as far as I am in tma currently). I would be thrilled to have anyone interact, wether it’s an rp of a canon character or of an oc, (statements also accepted!) any interactions are welcome!

This is my first roleplay account on tumblr so please be patient! And don‘t feel bad to instruct me on anything like the style you want me to respond in or smth, It really is helpful aslong as your nice!

Tags will be using:

Unseen by the eye - In character, but not really canon/doesn‘t follow canon exactly

Ask the all knowing - Responding to an ask that isn‘t like an rp ask thing, like just a question

Jon‘s inbox - responding to an „ask“ that is an rp (like in the style of an email or someone giving a statement!)

Boundaries:

please no flirting or anything! This account is run by a minor and I’m just not comfy with it!

He/Him pronouns when referring to character and/or owner

Please no spoilers! It‘s just not cool! (Currently on MAG 118)

Tagging me in something TMA related is alway okay!

Before I end this, Here‘s my Archivist playlist incase anyone wants it!

[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 !

[sonja-artefact-storage]

//current ongoing event: break time! read here :3

Hi, I’m Sonja Villanueva. She/Any.

I’m… taking a break from work right now. Just at home right now. And outside, too— well. not in the Institute would be a good word for it. And, er— Please don’t disturb me too much. I’d rather not think too much about work right now.

(//yall r totally allowed to disturb her btw)

Let me know if you have any questions.

asks are open

unreality warning for the whole blog!

ooc, rules, and info under cut :D

yoyoyoyooo @iiinkos back at it again with another tma rp blog!! just an idea i had, probably less big and crazy as the others :)

i also run the rp blogs @gerry-the-archivist (an au in which gerry became the archivist) and @a-thousand-little-things (my 3 avatar ocs)

info:

- (ooc) or // = out of character

- sonja’s mentioned once in one line in dig as someone to look to talk to about artefact storage. and considering artefact storage’s reputation (sasha in mag 39), i thought, “what if she was terrifyingly competent and also definitely traumatized?” so i’m here now c:

- she can take in artefacts and all that if you wanna give her some :)

- she can also do rps where she belongs to other universes and in different timelines :D if she does, and no other member of her specific universe is in that thread or whatever, she will not have been replaced as head of storage during her break, and instead will still be head.

- rn she doesn’t know about the fears :3 my reason for this is that jon (canonically a good researcher) couldn’t find shit on smirke’s supernatural bullshit (mag 50). and even if sonja did find out somehow, she’d also probably. tell her assistants and employees and shit. including sasha. who’d probably tell jon and the others :p so yeah she doesn’t know and has basically had to rely on vibes and herself when dealing with The Spooky <3

- update! sonja is now aware of the fears!!! she’s still learning about them and she’s pissed that elias didn’t say shit :3 i encourage yall to take advantage of that

- i’ll make a post linking lore stuffs and all when it happens :D however i don’t plan on doing anything very extreme lore-wise with sonja, but she does have a backstory c:

- sonja was hired to work in the magnus institute when she was 21, and is currently 31. if we’re going by canon timeline, she’d be born in 1984 and hired in 2005 and it’s currently 2015, but in this universe there isn’t really a canon time for the “present day,” so. only the age stuff applies ig

- her last name being similar to syl’s, while being intentional, has no bearing on the plot, i just thought it’d be funny

- she is mixed black and filipino (filo because i cant stop projecting on characters)

rules:

- flirting allowed

- i might be ok with rping a relationship? but i can’t promise i’ll be good at it, and i might call it off if i feel like it’s too much :P she’s neptunic tho so no men or masc aligned

- no sexual content, or suggestive for that matter

- it’s fine to start new rps, join old rps, or just generally interact, i don’t mind

- anyone can rp with me, doesn’t matter if you have an rp blog or not, or are just an anon, or whatever

have fun c:

mod uses they/them

[goodhunterwill]

Ok so, The Magnus Archives season 1 is complete and that final episode is brilliant, so much good stuff. Also poor john I take back what I said, man is just scared shitless and pretending to not believe and honestly I get it.

Started out on season 2 now and John is already getting paranoid so I'm very intrigued to see where this all goes.

Running Theories:

• Sasha has absolutely been replaced by whatever creature is in the coffee table that replaced the previous owner from MAG 3 (I think?), seems all but confirmed from the last episode of season 1. She even talks a bit differently from when we've heard her before, different inflections in her voice. Elias seems to be already suspicious, and John has picked up on it too when he took her statement.

• Gertrude absolutely was up to some weird shit whether she was involved with it or trying to stop it I'm not sure but I think it's the reason the Archives are as messed up as they are, she had it that way for a reason I wanna say. Like all the weird stuff with the ritual circle in Scotland with her pictures or the guy who dreamt of her dying. She knew way more I'm sure.

• In the same vein, Elias is very suspicious right now, you're telling me your head archivist goes missing one day and despite knowing there are tunnels under the Archives (surely they had to know, they mention already knowing about the prison tunnels before I believe) you don't go check? Or get a team to do it? Unless I'm misremembering details he has to have been involved in this in some way shape or form.

----

Things I'm excited to see more of:

• Gerard Keay just seems like a very mysterious character who clearly knows a lot about this stuff, specifically Jurgen Leitner, and I would love to see more. something tells me he isn't dead as it's stated he is.

• Similarly, I'm very interested in finding out more about Micheal, and why he helped Sasha and the Institute out before. A walking talking Uncanny Valley thing from what I've gathered and I'm very intrigued

• John's gonna go a bit loopy and do something dangerous or a bit mad, thinking people are after him and I don't know if I'm excited or dreading what he's gonna do haha. And just figuring out what's going on under the Archives with the mystery person down there and the stairs with the arrows.

----

Oh also, I adore Martin and John's relationship right now. I know it was tense but their heart to heart in the sealed room was very nice, hearing john open up like that and Martin explain why he's stayed. Oh and Martin giving John the ashes to help calm him down a bit and it working, and John telling himself off for thinking maybe Martin has an ulterior motive by asking that and just accepting he's actually looking out for him? I don't know where this goes with these two but I love that it seems love John is actually coming around to Martin now. I could be reading too much into it and I probably am haha but it's nice to hear them get on and not have John be mean to him all the time lol.

But yeah, just loving this, I literally haven't stopped listening and I'm hooked. I'm so glad I found this!!

[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?…

[thereisnoplan]

Test, test

New Head Archivist Martin Blackwood tests some recording equipment. (763 words)

Basically a short fic of how the little monologue at the beginning of mag 001 could've gone if Jon and Martin swapped their roles at the Institute.

Written for @jonmartinweek 2025 day 2 - prompt "Role Swap"

[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.