#insert obligatory beholding reference here

[hungryslothwrites]

Francis Forever by Mitski / Presumably Dead Arm by Sidney Gish / Naked, the Night Falls by The Crane Wives / Presumably Dead Arm again! / Against the Kitchen Floor by Will Wood / Iris by Goo Goo Dolls / Francis Forever again! / This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone / Take Me To Church by Hozier / Iris again!

[madmaudlingoes]

Last rambly Magnus post for a bit. But goddamn, 126 gave us a lot to work with ...

I proposed in my other post that the big threat Peter and Martin discuss in 126 is the emergence of a new Entity, one that jeopardizes the existence of the Beholding and thus directly threatens the safety of Team Archives. Peter’s stake in this, aside from the prospect of Fifteen sapping fear from the Isolation, is that the Lukases have put a lot of money and resources into the Magnus Institute; they don’t want to lose the resource they’ve built. (Especially if I’m right that Fifteen represents fear of technology -- “Web Development” shows at least one other Power is interested in going digital, while Peter doesn’t eve know how to use Excel.) There’s also a “big picture” that Elias apparently doesn’t pay enough attention to, the metagame of different fears balanced against one another -- gaining Fifteen, especially at the expense of an established Entity, would upset the balance of terror that currently exists.

So what exactly is Peter going to do about the emergence of 15? And what exactly does Martin think they’re going to do about that?

I’m probably jumping the gun here for multiple reasons, some Doylist and some Watsonian. MAG is a serial podcast and we might well find out new information in a week or a month that casts all this in a different light. That’s not Jonny cheating us, that’s an artifact of the medium, and of each episode being part of a textual whole. In-universe, well, this episode was all about people using their “assistants” as tools, and Martin’s at least aware that he’s being manipulated and Peter isn’t telling him everything. However, I’m also going to assume, for now, that a) as writer, Jonny’s not going to mislead the audience without a purpose, and b) in-universe, Martin’s not dumb enough to go along with Peter’s plan without evidence, no matter how emotionally vulnerable he was when Peter proposed it. Peter is almost certainly misleading him about some things, but

In other words, this could be jossed but I don’t think it’ll be completely invalidated.

Here’s the key exchange from 126 that I’m focusing on, courtesy of @tmatranscripts and @justasmalltownai:

MARTIN A- a simple 'hello' isn't going to make any difference to-

PETER We've been over this. The sort of power you’re going to need relies on your-

MARTIN (resentful) Obedience.

PETER ...Isolation. It needs to be you, Martin. You're the only one who could possibly balance between the two.

MARTIN But if I could just explain-

PETER And how do you think Jon's going to react to that explanation, hm? You think he'll accept it calmly? Come through with a well-considered, rational response?

MARTIN That's not fair.

PETER Or would he assume he knows better than you and do something rash?

So one thing at a time. Martin need to “balance between the two” -- two what? Entities? My first thought was that he’ll be a balance between the Lonely and the Beholding, but I can’t yet figure out how that would be helpful for combating Fifteen, especially if it’s something that could potentially harm Beholding avatars. Then again, if Martin becomes some kind of double avatar, he might be able to resist that damage and anchor the Beholding as a separate Entity.

But then again-again, Martin doesn’t jump to “isolation” as the specific thing he needs to cultivate. So perhaps he’s not (knowingly/deliberately) pursuing the Lonely. In which case, “the two” might be referring to the Beholding and Fifteen itself. Of course, having Martin work on Excel sheets doesn’t seem like behavior that would cultivate the power of a tech-based Fifteen, but a) I could be wrong about its nature, or b) it might not be something Martin has to deliberately pursue, but rather, be ready to brace himself against.

Admin also doesn’t seem like behavior that would draw him closer to the Beholding, of course, but if the Beholding is itself in danger, Martin might be safer keeping his distance from it. He’s read enough statements by 116 that Basira calls him a “back-up Archivist” and Elias doesn’t dispute that; leveling up in monster any more might make him too vulnerable.

(That Martin goes straight to obedience as the thing he needs to practice in order to gain spooky power is ... interesting, and a bit Webby? But it’s still super unclear what the Web’s motivations with the Chelicerae forum were, whether it’s courting the Machine or trying to help the Beholding resist/incorporate it.)

(Insert here obligatory joke about how all the Powers want Martin to be their avatar/boyfriend.)

Next up, “You’re the only one who can do it” -- which smacks of emotional blackmail, but again, Martin’s not going to believe that without a reason. What would he believe makes him exceptional? Well, being honorary back-up Archivist might make him uniquely qualified to work with Beholding stuff. What could make him uniquely qualified to balance it with the Lonely, though?

Well, there’s a theory that Martin’s absent father might be a Lukas (if not Peter himself). That doesn’t guarantee anything -- as Gerry pointed out, the Powers care more about personal choices than breeding. But Martin wasn’t part of that conversation, and if Peter tells him his various failed relationships are the fault of the Lonely in his blood ... well, that’s a bit more appealing than “You learned bad coping mechanisms as an abused child and I’m recruiting you as a human sacrifice because you’re convenient.”

(Martin supposedly looks just like his father, right? And Naomi Hearn mentioned that all the Lukases she met at Evan’s funeral had a strong resemblance. So it’s interesting that nobody around the institute has yet seen Peter, much less Peter and Martin together...)

Finally, Peter digs on Jon, and gets Martin to agree that Jon would oppose whatever they’re planning and do something “rash.” About the plan, or about the threat of Fifteen? If Martin is so uniquely suited to “balancing” things, then Jon trying to stop him is of course counterproductive, whether it’s because Jon thinks Martin is an idiot (which Martin probably still believes) or because Jon doesn’t want to sacrifice anyone else (as he expresses in this episode). Other ways Jon could fuck this up: refusing to acknowledge that Fifteen is a threat, or acknowledging it but trying to form his own, not-sacrificing-lives plan for it, or acknowledging it but going to Elias for help after everything Martin went through to get Elias out of power. The man tried to kill a shapeshifting monstrosity with an axe once. He makes mistakes.

And finally ... what is the plan? How does Martin “balance between the two” and either stop Fifteen from coalescing, or at least stop it from destroying the Beholding in the process? And, just as importantly, what does Martin think the plan is vs. what Peter’s actually setting him up for?

I’m not sure about the former question -- maybe Martin thinks that just being a double avatar will protect the Beholding and keep the Machine from emerging, like an anchor. What I strongly suspect about the latter, however, is that Peter is actually setting up Martin to merge with Fifteen in much the same way Michael Shelley was tricked into merging with the Spiral ... and then leaving him trapped in the Lonely, cut off from any form of fear or worship that could feed him.

Which is absolutely an idea I stole from @copperbadge, but also makes a terrible amount of sense here. The parallels between Martin and Michael, and how much they cared about their respective Archivists, are pretty obvious; the Spiral is an ancient and well-established power, but Fifteen would be a vulnerable baby taking its first avatar. If Martin believes he’s got the power to balance out Fifteen and control it, he’ll give himself over to it willingly. And if he’s purposefully isolated himself from anyone who cares for him, there will be no one able to protect or rescue him from the Lonely, allowing Peter to seal away Fifteen, if not forever, then at least for a good long time.