#jane prentiss could never

[daffydilled]

We're not concerned with the ending, more the journey.

[imheretofuckspiders]

tma - fears but they're desserts

saw a post about jane prentiss but instead she has gummy worms and wanted to expand upon that

the buried - almost inedibly rich chocolate cake. you're struggling through your slice. your vocal cords feel as if they've become clogged with mucus, sponge drying the inside of your throat. you can't swallow. you can't breathe.

the corruption - gummy worms as aforementioned. everything is covered in a mixture of citric acid and sugar. you thought you could keep it contained to the bag but the gritty substance has somehow scattered all over you and your carpet. the ants are coming.

the dark - what is in this mousse. there's bits in it, oddly chunky bits that feel somewhat overcooked yet slimy in texture. you eat out of politeness, fearing what the next bite will hold.

the desolation - you didn't spread the meringue thick enough on your baked alaska, and now the ice cream's melted and the cake's burnt and the carpet is on fire. nice job.

the end - there's too much molasses in these cookies. it's the wrong molasses too, it tastes faintly of black olives. they're charred and sickly, but you feel bad for the little old lady offering them so you take one anyway.

the eye - this is- wait- how the fuck are you meant to eat this? did it necessarily have to be plated on a miniature clothesline? it takes up half the table and holds exactly four tiny cakes pegged to the thing. it has a stupid name like 'big daddy's chocolate surprise' that you had to say out loud in front of your date.

the flesh - i'm sorry there's WHAT in this chocolate pudding? sure, you can put it in savoury dishes and cook it, but in chocolate pudding?

the hunt - it's easter you little shits go find your damn eggs

the lonely - freezer burned name brand ice cream straight out of the tub. you're eating it with corn chips. best served while crying about how no one will ever love you.

the slaughter - ow. ow. owwww. don't fuck with sugar glass unless you're prepared to fuck with sugar glass. tanghulu looks easy on youtube, but the sugar has to be heated to 150 celcius. also, it's possible to cut your mouth on the shards. just an overall painful treat.

the spiral - you are surrounded with trays and trays of failed macarons. when they develop feet, they crack. some are sunken in the middle. some became stuck to the sheet. your eyes are teary. your hands are aching. your ears are still filled with the whirr of an upright mixer, and you can only smell sugar, egg and the smoke from when the mixer overheated. you will die cursing the french.

the stranger - there's something about your mum's pineapple tarts that you just can't get right. no matter what you do, they'll never taste like hers.

the vast - improbably large sundae. you didn't think it would be this big when you ordered it. even sharing with your friends you can only get about halfway through. it terrifies you in its enormity.

the web - you can't stop eating this tiramisu. you made it for some reason, maybe to ration over a while, maybe for a party, but that doesn't matter now. it's somehow so light and airy despite being mostly cream, and you'll be having just one more bite for a while to come.

[theunseenoddites]

I think that some of the victims of the corruption are so tragic, I always think of a particular one with a man who was so lonely and he finally started talking about meeting the love of his life, and that she had kids and he was so happy to be apart of their lives. And in the end his "wife" and kids were thousands of bugs who had taken over his apartment and him. But he died thinking he was loved, I think about how you could hear Jane Prentiss losing herself in her statement, how she began to describe it as a love that was all consuming. That needed her, that couldn't thrive without taking everything she had. The loneliness of these people, how the corruption promises itself to be a loving and all encompassing thing. That it will never abandon its host, that being broken down is it's way of making you whole.

[mitchasaurus-r3x]

Spoilers for all of tma :p

I had a tma time travel fic idea that basically goes like Jon gets sent back in time after mag200 and doesn’t find Martin, so he ditches the institute immediately and goes to current timeline Martin in his flat and Martin being the lovely, too kind man he is is like “OH MY GOD” and future jon is like “HEYY LISTEN IM FROM THE FUTURE AND YOU NEED TO DO THESE THINGS IF YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO LIVE AND IM MOURNING BUT IM AWFUL AT FEELINGS SO IM PROJECTING MY LOVE AND CARE I SHOWED MY MARTIN ON U” and current Martin goes “ok.” So NOW what happens is Martin does stuff with future Jon’s advice, and current Tim and Sasha are so confused and suspicious but oddly enough current Jon isn’t? Instead he’s more kind and friendly to everyone, even Martin (only by a smidgen, he’s not that great)! But Martin is too caught up in whatever future Jon is saying will happen in the future, so he doesn’t quite notice.

Then eventually, the Vittery statement comes in, and Jon assigns it to Martin. Martin tells future Jon of this and he goes “NOOO NONO NOPE tell ur Jon to drop the case immediately , and do not go investigate.” So Martin calls up current Jon with his phone on speaker so future Jon can listen and current Jon is… surprisingly understanding? Like he just sort of, drops the case as soon as Martin mentions it. Actually, he says that he was planning on calling Martin to TELL him to drop it.

Which, is wierd.

Future Jon never remembers even thinking about asking Martin to drop the case, but maybe with Martin changing the timeline already he’s softening up quicker? Well whatever it is, good, Martin is off the case and hopefully will never need to ever meet Jane Prentiss or be so so lonely in his flat. But future Jon has a job to do, he still needs to eliminate Prentiss, and luckily he still has some residual Archivist powers. Not as powerful as in the apocalypse, but maybe alright for one more smiting (he decided to kill Jonah in a different way, preferably taking out his real body in the Panopticon). So he sneaks down to Vittery’s flat in the dead of night, not before telling Martin where he was going (Jon is all about communication now, he WILL make it up to this Martin, he WILL be better). He makes it down and plans to duck into the basement with the same window but… there’s someone(thing?) hunched over the basement window. Jon immediately goes Archivist mode, stalking up to this figure and … wait.

Martin?

No, he shouldn’t be here. Jon TOLD HIM to stay out of this, how dangerous this would be. In a sudden flash of anger he grabs Martin’s shoulder, ready to cuss the man out, and he whips around armed with… a fire extinguisher? And his hair is longer, and his stubble is gruffer, and his eyes are washed out and it’s… it’s his Martin. His Martin wielding a fire extinguisher at his chest, in an old band shirt, and smelling like old books and dust.

They kiss right there on the street, fire extinguisher squeezed between them, certain of crawling worms just inside that window ready to eat their flesh, but they kiss right there and everything is ok because somehow Martin made it here alive, and he didn’t find Jon in the Panopticon so he ditched in tears and went to the only place he could stand. Current Jon had stared at him, pissed, confused, worried, every combination of emotions but he let Martin stay, and Martin told him how to save his friends, to stop taking live statements, to keep the archives in chaos, and to make sure current Martin never goes to Vittery’s flat. And uhhh yeah they kill Jonah somehow and it’s one more for the everyone lives/nobody dies tag!

[kitsunesakii]

Printer issues

Chapter 1

(A conversation between Sasha and Micheal before the siege of Jane Prentiss)

Sasha stared as the printer sputtered and grunted. A pause, another sound before silence. She grumbled and hit the roof of the printer a second time. Nothing. A small mechanical shutter and then nothing. Sasha let out an exasperated sigh and sat back. It was unbelievable that she could hack into anything Jon asked her to, but she was thwarted by a damn printer. She considered bugging Elias about it but she wasn't in the mood to deal with him. If she wanted the details to the statement printed, she'd have to use the printer at the desk to artifact storage.

Just lovely.

Sasha dragged her hands through her hair as she made her way to the other end of the Institute. She didn't have to pretend she enjoyed the place. It wasn't... Natural. She had figured out that much. And not just because of the worm infestation gathering outside the walls of the Institute. She had felt it before as well. She sensed it when they had followed up on statements only to find the person dead or missed. She had noticed it when at her desk and it felt like a thousand eyes staring daggers into the back of her head. And she noticed it now as she sat behind the Artifact storage reception desk and logged in, praying desperately that the printer would connect and behave in a timely manner.

The printer made a small wine and a short compliant huff before a paper started feeding through. Sasha dared to breathe. The paper pushed its way through and the printer made a delighted chime. She frowned. The printer paper, which should have printed out an information sheet about a drug company in relation to a health crisis, was instead a mess of colors and patterns, Sasha found it was hard to look at after a while.

Just. Bloody. Lovely.

She didn't have time to think before laughter ricocheted off of the wall and shattered through her mind. Micheal. Lord, she really needed to get paid more.

Sasha forced herself to at least try and stay calm.

"Hello again, Archivist Assistant, what leads you down here to such a place?"

She eye'd him carefully. The last interaction had left her compromised and almost dead in a graveyard and while she was safely within the Institute, she doubted that would actually be a genuine factor against him.

"The printer wasn't working." She answered rather dumbly.

He giggled and walked forward, picking up the headache of colors splattered over the paper and looking it over. "It doesn't seem broken to me." He laughed again and she felt it in her bones.

She shook her head and swallowed. "No- not this one, the one upstairs."

"Ah yes, well that one has never seemed to work." He giggled again and she managed a small frown.

What would he know about the institute's printer? She thought it was best not to ask. Instead she carefully moved towards the computer and gestured at the screen. "That's why I'm opting to use this one."

"You should try again then." His hair washed over his jaw and his shoulder as he tipped his head. His grin spreading further than the confines of his face.

Right. Sasha clicked print and watched the printer go through the motions of odd sounds before spitting out yet another distorted array of colors and shapes. Maybe she'd just be better off telling Jon he wasn't getting a paper version. Surely she could just email the details to him?

Micheal's laughter reverberated through the room as he leaned against the counter, holding his face in too long fingers.

"My, my, Assistant, whatever are you printing?"

Sasha let out a half hearted chuckle. It was too late into the day to have to deal with this. She ignored his question. "Yeah, obviously this isn't working."

"Giving up already? Oh Assistant, come on, give it another try." His smile was all teeth.

"It's Sasha." She said, rubbing her forehead.

"The printer has a name?"

"No, Micheal, my name. My name is Sasha."

He laughed again, his form spreading out like smoke before reflecting colors like glass, just transparent enough to see through whilst also noticing your reflection.

"So you say, will you try again?"

"Yes cause I'm sure it'll work better than the first two times."

"Sasha?"

She snapped her head in the direction of the voice, seeing Sally walking towards her with a concerned expression and carrying a stack of books.

"Who are you talking to?"

Sasha turned back to where Micheal was standing, except Micheal was gone and the door he had come from no longer seemed to exist. Of course.

"Oh um, no one, just talking to myself."

Sally didn't press the matter, instead disappearing down an adjacent hall. Sasha scowled and tried pressing print again, almost crying with relief as the document finally printed. Sasha quickly grabbed it and went to walk away before glancing back at the tray. Back at the two distorted pages. She grabbed those as well, folding them up and tucking them into her purse.

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

"Thank you, Sasha, I'll have Martin look into the drug company's representative tomorrow."

"Great, just don't ask me to print out anything in the future, I've had quite enough to last me for a while."

Jon gave her a quizzical expression and Sasha let out a belated sigh.

"Nevermind, I'm headed home. Don't forget to feed yourself, Jon."

He muttered some backhanded response and she headed for home.

Sasha tossed her purse on the kitchen counter and started brewing a cup of tea. She spent most of the evening getting out of work mode and into comfier attire. Finally pulling out the distorted papers from her bag and looking them over. The colors were...pretty. For lack of a better word. Oddly distracting, mildly disorienting, but pretty nonetheless. She hummed and taped them to her fridge. A bit of eye-catching decoration never hurt anyone.

Chapter:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[sarcasticscribbles]

Okay, what are some random as head cannons you have for TMA?

Tim Did ballet as a kid (but it was really more of a gymnastic class target to girls), and really enjoys dancing Very poor relation with his family: he never got along with his mother, and Danny acted like a mediator for the pair. His father passed while Danny was still alive and once he was gone neither bothered to stay in touch. Wasian, and his mother is originally from Hong Kong Jon temporarily replaced Danny in Tim’s life as a younger brother when he started the Institute, however that relationship faded at the end of s2. Danny used to travel a lot, and got hyperfixated on different activities and would seek out where he best could practice it: surfing, snowboarding, sailing, rock climbing etc. He could be gone for months before he got bored and jump on the next thing. He would always bring Tim a souvenir including T-shirts, candy and bracelets.

Sasha Middle child in a rather big family, her fear of being forgotten is rooted in her childhood. Sasha is left-handed, but notsasha is right (another key difference is Sasha never takes off the bracelet Tim gave her, notsasha doesn’t even acknowledge it). Smoker Career driven, and in a constant need to prove herself Her necklaces are from Gertrude. Gertrude wanted to prepare Sasha for the role of the Archivist, and Sasha experienced a sense of guilt when Elias pick Jon instead, feeling she let Gertrude down.

Others Peter Lukas wears an eyepatch he doesn’t need (to mess with Elias) Agnes is Swedish Jane Prentiss used to be Pagan Daisy with floral tattoos Oliver Banks with an Egyptian background Melanie Doc Martens Lesbian Michael is a spiral and Helen is a twist

[ch0c0latedrag0n]

I had a realization, and now I must share it with the world.

Sasha and Tim are assistants to the Magnus Institute. And as has been established in season 4 (3? 3 or 4) assistants of the Archivist never live very long. I love Sasha and Tim, and they are important and valued characters, but in the grand scheme of things, they were always destined to die. Martin is also an assistant. So why hasn't he died? (Maybe he still does but I'm only on Mag 186) Because Jon has been excluding Martin from the very beginning. In the very first episode, he says, I have hired two assistants, plus Martin the idiot (or something along those lines). And from that moment on, he was seen as different. The eye never fully claimed him, which led him to join the lonely. I believe that Martin was supposed to die when he was attacked by Jane Prentiss, but because Jon is a stubborn arse, he didn't. And when Martin joined the lonely, Jon saved him from that too. Jon protected Martin WAY before they fell in love, even before Jon came to think of Martin as more than an idiot. And he didn't even know it. Jon protected Martin until Martin could protect himself.

[wix-0-nightshade]

The Worms

“Jon. What the fuck do you plan to achieve with this?” Daisy asked staring at him, arms crossed over her chest.

“I plan. To find out what the hell is going on, besides…. There started to be a worm infestation. We can’t be at the station currently. You heard what Elias said.” Jon replied as he was crouched down picking up dead worms with gloved hands and setting them in a bag.

“Elias isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, he’s been,” Basira paused trying to think on how to put it, “off. Of sorts.

“You can say that twice, giving us a “vacation” till they clean the station….” Daisy muttered clearly still irritated.

Jon stood up once again zipping the bag shut before setting it in the bag against his side. He removed the gloves and threw them in the nearest trashcan. “Let’s get out of this park, better get home since there’s no siting of the woman in red. She’s been coming up more frequent….”

“Wasn’t her name Jane? Or claimed to be.” Basira asked walking beside Daisy while Jon lead in front.

“Jane Prentiss,” Jon spoke remembering, “took me a moment. Doesn’t help with all these late nights….”

“Then sleep.” Daisy said putting it blunt. “Or you to wrapped up in those old investigations? You really need to toss those back in the cabinet and move on. You weren’t even apart of any of them.”

Jon grumbled in response thinking before finding his response. “That’s the thing. It’s. I can’t. Something doesn’t sit right with me. It’s that unsettling feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, or a thought you can’t remember but try so hard. Drives you to the edge,”

“Never thought the detective would open up.” Basira spoke up listening, “Least we could do is offer a hand. Besides being on the same team that is.”

“I’ll figure out something….” Jon muttered before silence filled between them.

———————————————————————————————————

They all continued walking before getting back to Daisy’s car. Jon paused looking towards a direction feeling like something was there…. Something watching. Daisy already got in the driver seat before Basira pat Jon on the shoulder. “Let’s go home, been a long night.”

“Right…. Yeah….” Jon replied hesitantly hearing her door soon close and it was another moment before he heard the sound faint crawling worms. He got in the car before another moment and Daisy drove off from the park without asking. Neither of them did as this was beginning to become normal. The paranoia.

———————————————————————————————————

They were halfway to Basira’s place before Jon felt something crawl over his hand. If he weren’t so still he probably wouldn’t have notice spacing off, “Wha-“ before he finished he felt it burrow in his hand. “Agh!”

“Jon?” Basira spoke turning her head back even through the dark as Daisy focused on the light. “Better not be messing around back there-“ Daisy began before the sounds started and then grow louder.

“Their worms!” Basira stated as Jon yelled in pain once more feeling worms crawl up him not realizing how quick. Basira gone to open the door but appeared locked, “Daisy-“

Daisy tried unlocking the door all the while trying to keep the worms off, “It’s not working! Damnit! They’re everywhere!” She shouted angrily.

“Okay! Okay, try and keep calhhhaaa!” Basira began but cut off short feeling several of the worms burry into her without even noticing where they’re at.

“Light! Damnit!” Jon said while Daisy gone pressing it on without a second thought. How many were there…. They didn’t know. But the surface’s were being covered quick. It was late enough there were barely any cars but they needed to get out before getting covered by them.

“Basira, glove box. Now. Grab the gun and shoot the window.” Daisy spoke firmly and direct. She didn’t hesitate opening it up and reaching for it only to find worms fall out and took her shot. The window shattered. The next moments came rather quick.

Managing to crawl out of the window she proceeded to break Jon’s window next and helped pull him out before doing the same with Daisy. How many worms got to them? How many were still crawling under their skin? It didn’t take long seeing the woman in red standing not too far from the front of the car. The three of them dealing with pain all the while managing to stand.

Basira held the gun tight, “Jon. Phone. Radio. Call, someone.” Basira told towards him and he began rummaging through his bag before finding his phone, he called backup.

———————————————————————————————————

Master Post & First

Before

[martington0x0]

HHRRG TMAGP 10

- maybe I’m just coping but Mr Bonzo being a children’s mascot really reminds me of that comment that Annabelle Cain makes in the later end of s5 - something about making a kids tv show to spread the web (not saying that shes involved but it would be interesting to see some kind of development on that idea)

-WORM TRACKS??? JANE PRENTISS IS THAT U MY LOVE???

- quick minitheory i dont know if this is actually anything but in s2 i remember there being something weird in the tunnels with the worms trying to form a door - which was (to my knowledge) never explained - maybe that door was an attempt to dimension hop by the web (cause we know that the web was involved in the original attack on the institute) ???? idk someone please tell me if that was answered

-“introducing Beth Eyre as (???)”

-I know that they could be just reusing a va but HOLY SHIT MEAT PIT LADY???? THE LADY FROM THE FLESH RITUAL IN MAG 130???????? DUDE I AM GOING TO GO INSANE.

-I have NO idea what that means but god that’s so interesting

-(she comes from the episode with the meat pit… the big hole… and Alice repeatedly refers to the institute as a big hole… idk somethings suspicious about that…)

IM GOING TO GO FERAL

[rowanraven08]

Unsolicited tma rant no one asked for:

I’ve been thinking a bit about exactly what makes me like the Magnus archives so much, cause I’m not really into horror anthology. Yeah, it’s a good aspect of the genre, but it’s never really caught my interest that much. And I consider myself a fan of horror, but I don’t actually like that many horror movies that much. I like it as a genre, and watching video essays about it, about how different horror affects us, that sort of thing. Horror doesn’t even make me scared usually. I’ll flinch at jump scares of course, but it’s pretty rare that I’m watching a horror movie and be genuinely afraid of the murderer or demon or whatever’s on screen.

Tma even took me a while to get into. I started it maybe in October or November? And it took me until January to get even a dozen episodes in. It was good, but I was really just waiting until it got to the good bits that made everyone love it so much. I knew there was some sort of meta plot, and had a cannon gay ship, that was all I knew when I started, and the reason I kept on with it. I hate to say it, but if I didn’t know even that, I don’t think I would have listened to more than a couple episodes, because short self contained stories isn’t what I’m interested in. Especially when there’s a magic Latin book and a coffin with knocking (I thought it would be a vampire or something) or some weird thing luring people into alleys to kill them. I took those early episodes to be generic devil worship sort of horror, that the weird details were added in just to add to the spook. That’s something that tends to bother me with horror movies, when there’s all this dark magic just for the sake of dark magic, and ends with this big question or realization that can’t be solved. And I do understand ending movies with something the audience can’t understand, because the mystery and strangeness can add to the horror. But I really dislike this, I’m all cool with hard or impossible to understand endings, don’t get me wrong, but when there’s no way to theorize, no dots to start connecting, I find that really frustrating. A good example (I can’t find what movie it is, so if someone know lmk) is a movie with the classic family moves into large old house, creepy basement, with satanic sort of imagery. I did actually like most of it, the stairs to the basement were normal, until there was a ball knocked down them when the light was off, and you could hear it keep going far longer than the actual staircase was. That these stairs kept going for who knows how long when the light is off. What I didn’t like was the end, where we got to see what was at the bottom of these endless stairs, and there’s long lines of people in this void, just standing there. But there was no explanation for this, no way to start theorizing as to what this could be, why it happens.

This is what I thought TMA was gonna be. Each episode never really ended with an explanation, or a way to theorize (early on) and I thought it would stay that way. I remember in January I was finally listening to more on a plane ride, and got to ep22, Martin’s statement about Jane Prentiss. It wasn’t even this specific episode that got me interested, not fully. I did like the worms, description of Jane prentiss, all that but it was when I kinda realized there was something to theorize about, that there was actually something going on behind the scenes. And it kept me listening. It was a bit frustrating how slow the season seemed to go, because I wanted to know what the worms were about, and I admit I rushed through a few episodes, again, thinking they were just filler short stories to break apart the real meat of it. The episode I think that really sealed the deal was strange music, specifically the bit between Sasha and Jon, I wasn’t too interested in creepy clown dolls, but that silly little debate over how to pronounce calliope was honestly charming. Like “oh, these characters aren’t gonna be overdramatized horror movies characters, at least not too much.” Once I got to the season 1 finale I was obsessed and basically finished the rest in two or three weeks (I listened to the last 120 episode in a single week).

And good lord Jonny I am SO SORRY I DOUBTED YOU. Because none of it was creepy books or creepy dolls or weird coffins for the hell of it, you weren’t actually left with no idea of what the ending meant. You just had to listen to Jon as he because paranoid and pulled out the red string, pulling all the pieces together for you until we finally got the big picture. I never once expected the fears, or avatars, or that Robert smirk was anything but a weird architecture, that Jonah Magnus was anything but a stuffy old man who founded the institute. And that’s why I think I love TMA so much, is there really is a big satisfying pay out as a listener, I didn’t even put the dots together myself and it’s still gratifying. The slow realization that these episodes aren’t just horror for the sake of horror, they have a reason, an explanation, and it still manages to keep a level of mystery and unknowability that makes you just always want to know more. Re-listening has been genuinely so fun, because especially with later episodes I’m able to connect those dots, and see the full picture as it unravels. The thing in the dark alley wasn’t targeting smokers to be spooky, it was a monster collecting victims to use in a ritual, and that addiction is part of the web.

So yeah, that was probably really redundant, but I just really love that slow reveal, all the little bits you can connect, and theories you can make. Jonathan Sims forgive me for ever doubting your writing, I see now you’re a genius, please give me your brain, I need it for my own creativity. Thanks for coming to my ted talk

[jazzically]

MAG 32 HIVEEE BABYYY!!!!!!! oh my god this one. this one is sooooooooo fricking good. i loved every single word of it when i first listened to it and i still do now. its written SO GORGEOUSLY

just the simple fact of this literally being a firsthand account of someone being taken over by the corruption, the infiltrator, that utter terror that comes with every disgusting thing thriving under rotted floorboards makes the concept beautiful by itself

cause jane wrote this just after she became too far gone, fallen helplessly to the worms' song, but before she was completely incoherent due to the lovely harmonies formed by the slithering of thousands of individual bodies through her vital organs. you can hear her despair manifesting, those last dredges of what she truly was struggling through the cloudy haze of unearthly love. and she lets it speak through her so beautifully. remember this is the making of an avatar transcribed. she describes how her relationship with the hive grew into something far more personal than a threat to her safety or sanitation. it's about the confusion that drops in on you at the beginnings of addiction and the combination of desire and sunk-cost that makes you want nothing more than to sink deep into its open arms and fully give yourself over to the only thing that says it can save you.

and throughout it all, she somehow makes this Crawling Rot — this mysterious thing that we know to be inherently gross and despicably filthy, that jeopardizes the security of the archives and its staff — sound hypnotic, in its own twisted way. enticing, even. that is the true horror. that is the most terrifying part, to me: that we are suddenly able to see where she is coming from. it's kinda like how jon spoke on how it unsettled him that the distortion said it wanted to help them instead of hurt them.

plus!!!!! i mean!!!!!! its so viscerally horrible and i love it!!!!!! its literally the corruption its the bending and destruction of things we find familiar and safe (ooOOo stranger and desolation overlap?) like its not just plain old disease and dirt yknow? its the SYMBOLISM of that disease and dirt and what it means to people whose lives become infected :3 love how jonny prolly went "hmm what are people afraid of? bugs? sickness? germs? what does that tie into? ah yes corruption" i feel like this specific statement was a great opportunity to really showcase how the corruption affects the mind and jonny maximized the writing to that effect. that was a lot of unnecessary words but basically what im trying to get at here is that jane prentiss's statement didnt reframe the corruption and her worms for me, it took the whole situation and flipped it on its head, upside down and inside out. it made the flesh hive seem so graceful.

umm not to mention the way the statement drops foreshadowing for the institute being eye-aligned omgomgogmgfndibf

EDIT...

OLIVER BANKS!!!!!!!!!! OOOOLLLLLIVERRR

edit 2 :3

I KNEW THAT IT WAS NOT SO SIMPLE AS TO CALL OUT TO WELL-TRODDEN GODS!!!!!!!!!!

god that line has stuck with me ever since i first heard it. it's SO GOOD. it is a perfect way of putting that feeling

RRRAAAAHHHH the web and the hive are so awesome when taken together

AND THIS. the Hive, more infinite than it can describe itself, is beautiful in a way most will never understand, for beauty is subjective. its indescribability alone is astonishing. the radiance of its power, seen as simple and dismissed without true understanding ever permeating its frothing membranes, is far more than we could ever deserve

i think this paragraph is just SO well done dude like go listen to it feel the impact of those words again because it's so raw: i see now why the hive hates you. you can see it and log it and note its every detail but you can never understand it. you rob it of its fear even though your weak words have no right to do so.

that bit was introduced and explained perfectly. its so satisfying nnnnrrrrrgggghhhhhfnkkffncnnfr

the sheer poetry of this series never fails to amaze me. oh my god

also i love how when jane is addressing gertrude it's done more vaguely so that it's almost like she could be talking to jon and the institute of the present day

poor jane she mustve been suffering for a very long time

[luxury-nightmare]

so, uh I saw this post by @the-lantern-lights, and I might have sillied to close to the sun and now I have a whole new Au.

Worst Case Scenario

Jon should’ve known the Eye wouldn’t have let him win so easily, and under its puppet strings he had wrenched the knife out of Martin’s hand and plunged it into the heart of his one true love. The shock and horror and grief had crystallized in that brief moment, before Melanie and Georgie had been taken, leaving Jon to wallow in the nothing he felt as he marched the world towards extinction. The whispers were so loud, and he knew he’d never be truly alone again under the eye’s piercing gaze.

Sasha didn’t have her name anymore, it had been stolen by that thing, leaving what was left of her corpse to rot under the archives. But what was left of Jane Prentiss had found her, burrowed into her, made her a home. A hive that hissed songs of love through her rotting veins. Then, they had hatched

The face of Tim Stoker had been passed around and around the circus since the unknowning’s failure. Around and around that rotten interference went, shreds of skin coated in shrapnel making a home on each and every performer. The thing who was Tim Stoker at the moment didn’t know how long it had worn this face. But it was long enough for the memories to start trickling in

He couldn’t remember his name, the fog had stolen that from him first. His eyes had grown misty and his movements slowed. He was alone, so utterly alone. His identity had oxidized under the rolling waves and left him with nothing. He longed to be seen, watched, known for the briefest moments, just to prove he was somehow alive.

Barisa shouldn’t have done it, she shouldn’t have taken Daisy’s hand, leaving her humanity behind for the rush of the hunt. But standing there, at the end of the world, her will broke, and she had been selfish for once. It had cost her.

Daisy had been down here for so long. The roar of the hunt had gone silent, and all she could hear was the deafening silence of the tunnels around her as the walls grasped her like a cocoon. And like a melody, the tunnels would sing.

Melanie had heard the song through her veins since she had been shot, a war drum that rattled through her bones. She knew what it was, but she knew if she was rid of it, it would leave her defenseless. So once she blinded herself, severing her connection to the pesky eye, all she could do was hear. And all she could hear was the war-song 

Georgie couldn’t feel fear. She knew that, she had knew that since the corpse had moved, talking to her in a mockery of logic and reason. She knew that. What she could feel, was the ice cold hand guiding her ever so slowly towards her death. A death she was now the catalyst for

Elias had won. He had donned the watchers crown and toke his throne in the swirling, maddening nirvana. He had brought the world to its knee, watching over it from the pupil of the eye. Then why was he suddenly back here?

Basically the Magnus gang + Elias was sent back to Season one after the worst case scenario for each of them (except Elias, he got exactly what he wanted). I may turn this into a fic because I have big plans that include an extinction avatar and character development galore for everyone but what do y’all think?

[justatiredghost]

Jon receives Prentiss' ashes and, perhaps, regains a tiny bit of control over his life.

-

Jon was all too aware of his shortcomings, his temper, how irritating he could be, how he used to drive his grandmother up the wall, the way he never stopped and was just so much all the time, driving everyone away. So, to compensate, he did his best to have absolute control over himself at all times, sure that letting his guard down would cause him to slip back into the annoying person he knew he could be. 

It left him rigid and stiff, incapable of relaxing. His desire to communicate effectively made him sound false and long-winded, putting people off and making them feel like he was speaking down to them. And sometimes he was doing exactly that. There was no denying he could be rude and harsh and defensive, because it was easier to lash out first before anyone else could. As much as he tried, he was not great at this whole control thing. 

Because of this, he spent more time and effort on his appearance than he probably should. It wasn’t that he was vain, far from it, it was just another way to try to have some control over his life, in this case in how he was perceived. His immaculately pressed clothing made him look stuffy, sure, but appearing professional was all he really knew after so long in academia. And it helped with the ever-present feeling that he didn’t belong. 

Investing in the things he could control freed up the energy he needed to put up with what he couldn’t, and his anxieties certainly had plenty to draw from. There were the too-bright lights, the noise interrupting his concentration, the uncommunicated expectations that he had to somehow glean in every social interaction, because apparently he was the only one who hadn’t gotten the memo on the niceties he was supposed to follow. 

And then there was the door to the archives that would sometimes stick and was a nightmare to deal with when his hands were full and he swore he could feel the eyes of everyone around on him as he fumbled and struggled with it. Sometimes he didn’t bother bringing his bag if he was already carrying extra things and didn’t have the energy to deal with awkwardly balancing it all to fight with the door. He could admit that this was probably excessive, but most things about him were. 

Maybe that was what put him off Martin the first time they met. Sure, there was the dog incident, and Jon hadn’t been prepared to deal with that at all; it was his first day and he was stressed enough about doing well and proving himself at this new job. Having to deal with that on top of everything had pushed him over the edge immediately.

But, even beyond that, Martin made him feel even more at a loss on how he was supposed to act than he already did. He was incredibly thoughtful, always bringing him tea and often anticipating anything else he might need, but always got flustered and refused if Jon offered to return the favor. Not that he offered often, Jon was a very busy man, but still. 

It put him on edge, made him feel like he was missing something, like he was always getting it wrong. And if that wasn’t enough to cause him to lose his temper more than usual, there was the fact that Martin made him feel things he definitely wasn’t prepared for. Vulnerability was the exact thing he was trying to avoid with all this, after all. 

He could admit Martin was attractive, he had no qualms about that, plenty of people were attractive. But he absolutely refused to engage with the warmth that spread through him that had nothing to do with the tea, or the way he’d get distracted whenever Martin walked by with his sleeves rolled up, and certainly not the way his heart pounded whenever they ended up close together, packing filing boxes or sorting tapes. It was a relief whenever Martin was out of the archives on assignment, but not for the reasons he claimed. 

After Martin returned from his encounter with Jane Prentiss, though, things began to change. He knew all of this was his fault and the guilt ate at him, making it harder for himself to justify the anger he directed his way, and he slowly managed to bite back some of the crueler comments. 

And, after the attack on the institute, something changed in Martin as well, and Jon couldn’t help but grow a newfound respect for him. While he’d mostly taken Jon’s prickly nature in stride, he actually started pushing back. 

Jon knew he wasn't exactly imposing considering he was the shortest one in their office by a considerable amount, so Martin had never truly seemed afraid of him. Wary, sure, he was still his boss, but he still brought him tea instead of avoiding him and didn’t exactly flinch at his temper. Now, though, he would push back if he felt it was important enough. He'd put his foot down, and when he did, he could be just as stubborn as Jon, if not moreso. That’s how he ended up throwing Jon out of the archives when he tried to come back early from his recovery. 

Jon’s growing paranoia as he tried to look into Gertrude’s murder certainly had thoughts as to Martin’s motivations for this, but suspect or not, it was still true that he was so much kinder to Jon than he deserved. Because, even as he learned to see the stubbornness in Martin’s eyes, or the way he set his jaw, he still seemed to be trying to help him, in spite of Jon’s self-destructive tendencies. 

So, when Martin barged into his office with that same expression, Jon bit down the worst of the rudeness and tried to hold onto that control he’d worked so hard on as Martin placed a jar on his desk with more force than he’d intended.  

”What is that?” Jon demanded, and while it was true he was holding himself back, he still couldn’t keep the edge from his voice. Old habits die hard, and all that. 

“Prentiss’ ashes,” Martin said. 

“What?” Jon asked, absolutely baffled, unable to quite process what was happening. 

“Prentiss’ ashes,” he repeated. ”She’s dead, Jon. She’s not coming back.”

“I— see,” Jon said, at a complete loss for what to say. It was a grim gift, true, but it was also such an incredibly thoughtful one. 

He knew they’d all struggled with feeling safe after their near-death experience, and he also knew he seemed to be handling the paranoia the worst, feeling like he could be the target given his title. Maybe Martin was just trying to placate him, maybe he was even lying and trying to get him to let down his guard. 

Jon very deliberately pushed down those thoughts, though. He was certain he’d never received a gift that held so much significance, that represented a chance at feeling safe again, a rare luxury these days, and he so desperately wanted to believe it was true. Maybe, coming from Martin of all people, he could let himself trust it. 

“Thank you, Martin.”

Apparently Jon let something slip in his expression, because Martin seemed to realize he was being genuine and smiled at him, looking pleased and a little relieved. 

“You’re welcome,” he said, before schooling his expression once again with that hard set of his jaw. “Now. It’s lunch. You’re going to get lunch.”

“Excuse me?” This conversation was certain to give him whiplash. 

”I know you skipped yesterday, and I have my doubts on if you even went home let alone had dinner. So you’re coming with me to the cafe.”

“Okay,” Jon said, weighing his options and coming to a conclusion much more quickly than either of them expected, both of them looking equally surprised. 

“Oh. Okay. Good,” Martin said. It looked like he’d had all sorts of arguments prepared and now had no idea how to proceed. 

Obviously, Jon could have refused. He’d refused any previous attempts to get him to take a break in the last few days as Martin grew more and more worried about him. But, somehow, he found himself choosing to set aside all pretenses. Well, most, anyway. He wasn’t ready to trust anyone or anything completely, but actually seeing the ashes of the thing that had scarred him so completely helped more than he could put into words. 

He was fairly certain the bandages made it nearly impossible for him to maintain his usual stoic appearance, and he imagined the sight of him was more likely to bring to mind the word, ‘deranged.’ That was one more bit of control he had lost, and it made everything so much more difficult to deal with than usual. So this— It meant a lot to him. He didn’t know how Martin managed to slip past his defenses like this. 

“Give me a moment to finish up,” Jon said after a moment, even though he had no intention of working more right this moment.  

“Oh, right, of course,” Martin said, stumbling over his words. But the smile he gave Jon before he slipped out of the office made something ache in his chest. 

Instead of picking up the research notes he’d been reading a moment ago, he just stared at the jar of ashes, feeling warm in a way he hadn’t realized he still could. Choosing to believe Martin in this, at least, felt like the first bit of control he’d managed to regain over his life in a long, long while, so he took a deep breath and stood, touching the jar one last time as if to remind himself of it's existence, and left his office to go have lunch with Martin.

[lizard-queen-izzy]

Hey, you want a blurb from my JonTim fic while it's being beta'd? Yeah, of course you do!

..

Tim was shaking now, it was sending shockwaves through Jon. Jon didn’t know what to say to help, because nothing would fix this. Whatever he and Tim had had before Jane Prentiss, before the Archives? It was gone. Dead and buried and never coming back no matter how much he dug. He could stand there searching for words forever and none of them would undo the damage. So instead, he said all he could think to, knowing it would be the final nail in the coffin.

...

That's all! Have a great day!

[kassandrasdisciple]

Fears X Killers Pt.2

Welcome to part two of what Fears from the Magnus Archives I think the Killers from DbD would serve.

If you missed part 1 you can find it here, as always this is what Entity I think the Killers would be Avatars of, not who they'd be victims of. I.E. The Legion would be preyed on by The Lonely but they wouldn't serve it.

With that out the way, here are my picks!

The Plague

The Corruption

In all honesty Adiris could be the "pestilent chieftain who found her breath sloughed from her body and rotted whatever it touched" in MAG: 200. I won't say much to justify this choice because ... who else would she serve? She feels analogous to Jane Prentiss in a way. She was scared of The Corruption/Entity, she reached out for help from others, but the only answer she got was from The Corruption/Entity itself. She becomes a symbol of Plague, not in shame but in servitude to her god(s).

The Oni

The Slaughter

Rage, pride and avarice. Kazan speed runs becoming a Slaughter avatar. He believes himself to be better than other samurai of the era, killing, humiliating and hunting down any he saw as inferior. He got genuinely confused as to why people had an issue with his mass murdering as he saw it as purifying the samurai class.

His end starts with him being so unable to differentiate his victims that he kills his own father. Instead of taking this as a sign to reflect he blames the lord who's been badmouthing his family name, so he kills his guards, rips out his tendons and tongue and is finally defeated by a whole-ass peasant army.

Kazan is what Melanie would've become if she had a Kanabō instead of a box cutter.

The Deathslinger

The Stranger

This one is gonna be from left field but stay with me. Caleb grew up as an Irish immigrant in the wild west. He spent his childhood being treated as the "Other", watching his father be denied jobs due to his Irishness.

After an adolescence of othering and loneliness, being ignored by his peers, he makes a trade of selling patents, but he doesn't get recognition for these inventions, no that glory goes to his soon-to-be nemesis Henry Bayshore.

After being set up, he's sprung from prison to become a bounty-hunter. Arriving in towns across the frontier to haul off outlaws with his gruesome inventions, and dissappear straight after. He forms the Hellshire gang that eventually helps him kill his last 2 victims; the guy who freed him and his nemesis Henry. They die in a faceless mob set upon them by Caleb.

Caleb was a mysterious trader of ill-fortune like Salesa but, unlike Mikaele, he never rose out of anonymity. He was never recognised for either his patents or his inventions, finally leaving this plane after a mindless mob of gang members and numbered, depersoned, prisoners ripped apart his most hated duo.

The GILF gunman would roll with the Circus.

The Blight

The Eye

Just deadass ran the 1850s version of MKUltra. If Jurgen Lightner invented Cocaine and LSD you would get Talbot Grimes. Both also got brained by a pipe too.

Talbot didn't set out to be cruel or even kill, he just had a hyperfixation for chemistry and drugs. He originally wanted to learn everything about how people react to stimuli and exposure to chemicals. But once he got a taste for the forbidden knowledge of the Entity he obsessed over the Pustula flowers. His thirst for that which he couldn't comprehend lead him into the realms, and into abducting other killers to experiment on even when that is an incredibly stupid idea. He needs to know.

The Twins

The Lonely

The only sympathetic killer on this list depending on how you view Adiris. Very different from the part 1, now they're all bastards.

In this I'll just be writing about Charlotte as its most likely that the Victor we see isn't actually Victor.

With that, Charlotte just wants to be left alone. She's been hunted all her life because of her conjoined status. She's lost all belief in other people as they've continually scorned, attacked, and hunted her. Watching as they burnt her mother at the stake.

I'm not gonna lie, Charlotte's backstory always gets me, it's a shame she's always played by the worst people ever. Anyways Charlotte is solidly The Lonely, she wants to be alone with her family, even if their dead, she wants to rest, and she will kill to protect that isolation. And honestly? I can't blame her.

The Trickster

The Corruption

This also might seem strange but I want to prime you with this first. Think of The Corruption as seen in MAG: 153, Lovebombing. Instead of being like Adiris mirroring Jane, Ji-Woon is the Hive. A Corruption of love.

He killed because he wanted to hear his fans scream his name, beg for him. He loved Yun-Jin for making him a star, and in repayment he gave her a front row seat to his human orchestra. Ji-Woon needs to feel seen and heard and loved. He's closer to the monsters of The Corruption (the hive, petite scarabée, Agape the dog) than the other avatars who serve it.

The Artist

The Eye

I lied! There is another sympathetic killer! I would die for Carmina, she did nothing wrong, and I'll hear nothing more on the matter. However to justify my pick, we'll have to show how Carmina became a killer because of the Eye.

Growing up in Chile, Carmina saw corruption and apathy everywhere. She channeled this into her art, painting her feelings of grief and anger for both herself and her country onto her canvas. When a shady organisation tried to commission her, she exposed them, forming a group of radical artists that painted murals of their exploitation.

Unfortunately when Carmina and her friends sought refuge with her father, he sold them out. But as her tongue and hands were cut off she called down the crows, stand-ins for her own emotional trauma, making her attackers suffer the same pain as her.

I know crows are symbols of the Entity, but in her lore they read as symbolism for her own feelings aswell. Forcing the same emotions onto her kidnappers via animals associated with thought and knowledge? Very Eye coded.

The Dredge

The Dark

The Dredge is hard to categorise. The village it spawns from is an exact match to The Sick Village of MAG: 164. Born of paranoia, the Dredge is a manifestation of the villagers fear, sleep deprivation and repression. However the Dredge doesn't really fit the themes of The Corruption, it didn't root itself in flesh and wait to sprout in silence. It lurked in the shadows, picking off the weak, and alerting the villagers to its existence. Now this was just Otto building up the myth of the Durandee. But these are the attributes the Dredge is eventually born with.

Also within the game the Dredge favours the dark. It strips visability, exploding out of lockers and has a formless incohesion of a body. Within the TMA universe I think it's more similar to the stalking, Still and Lightless Beast. Furthermore, the villagers being a mass sacrifice to call forth the Dredge feels very similar to the mass drownings that the people's church did on the eclipse.

Or I could just say it makes game go dark so The Dark.

The Knight

The Vast

Breaking the mold we have the first, and what I think will be the last, Vast killer.

Tarhos is strange, it's almost easier to define him by what he isn't. He didn't revel in Slaughter like Oni, only killing when people were in his way. He was fascinated with the Entity but not like Blight was, he's not obsessed with knowing more, he just wants to be closer to it. He didn't hunt, or isolate or manipulate his followers/enemies. Truely, when you read his lore you get this impression of detachment, the only time he shows passion is when he remembers the feeling of the Entity's power, how insignificant he felt.

It's not just himself he sees as insignificant however, he travels from Turkey to Portugal and doesn't even parse the distance, it's such a small journey to him in relation to what he's searching for, a map to the Entity's realm. He doesn't understand the laws of honour and valour the other Lords hold him to, to Tarhos, laws are feeble restrictions on his freedom.

His apathy to his dead family, his comments on the all encompassing affect of war and how it makes civilians insignificant and his view of this world as "cosmic mud" screams Vast avatar to me and I can't think of any other Fear he'd suit.

The Skull-merchant

The Hunt

Our final killer for this part, and a pretty meh one at that. Adriana's backstory is pretty muddled, she's an overachiever who's dad is a mediocre manga artist (who also prophesied her fate). She has a normal childhood, becomes a business mogul and starts live, laugh loving late-stage capitalism. As with all tech billionaires this inspires a want to kill other humans personally instead of by proxy, so she starts hunting people for sport.

We don't really hear much of her exploits though? Only the one that she fucks up and ends up with her in the realm. Because of this and I guess her interest in hunting people, that she apparently had all along, she's in The Hunt. Abit of a disappointment to end on, and I hope they give her more lore in the future that expands on her murders whilst she was in the real world but we'll see.

And that's our second set of killers!

I just noticed that I've repeated 2 fears twice, same as in part 1. Obviously if you disagree with any of my choices please let me know. Most could be easily assigned Desolation or Hunt but I like trying to find the more unique choices. The only fear I haven't covered yet is The Extinction (and I have a good candidate next time).

The next part will cover Singularity, Unknown, Litch, Dark Lord and Houndmaster. I'll either keep it as just those 5 or cover 5 of the licences aswell to make a full ten.

As always thank you for reading.

< Icons and art came from the dbd wiki and Grace Holsten's tumblr respectively >

[jewishdainix]

"Realm of the elderlings is queerbaiting"

Fitz and the Fool literally confessed their love for eachother and merged their souls for eternity after their biological daughter told the Fool that Fitz loved him more than he ever loved anyone else. It's fine.

"But robin hobb said -"

I'm pretty sure she spoke against the homoerotic interpitation of fitzloved was more than a decade ago.

Neil Gaiman too said at one point that he doesn't see Aziraphale and Crowly as a couple and look at Good Omens now.

I think that we as a fandom tend subotage our own experience and analysis (and honestly, our fun) by focusing too much on an opinion that was expressed a long time ago, and never really applied to the text itself. (Which, the thing that happen in the actual place are what matters. Hobb saying Fitz is straight is no different than jk r*wling saying that dumbldore is gay.

(She also wrote a line in AF where after meeting Carson Fitz drops the fact that upon meeting men he sometimes gets a feelling of an "instant connection" of a "deep friendship that could have been" which sounds like the description of attraction/a crush/whatever you'd call this (Idk the difference between these Im aro) by someone who wouldn't know to call it what it.)

"They didn't kiss"

1) By the end Fitz had Jane Prentiss levels of worm infection and was very very weak. Non of them initiating a kiss at that point makes a LOT of sense from a watsonian perspective.

2) Did "I said into his panting mouth" mean NOTHING to you???

3)