#like a lot of the ‘monsters’ in tma are just people with powers. they can be reasoned with to a degree. they can be killed. they have intent

[motziedapul]

@hinaypod has been shadowbanned for unknown reasons - either bad actors, or an auto flag, or because we post links as part of our podcast promotion. Or perhaps the Palestine posts, who knows.

Either way, while we wait for Tumblr to respond to our ticket, it's the perfect time to tell everyone to follow the @ above if you want to follow a Magnus Archives inspired, Rusty Quill Network official podcast about a Filipina immigrant dealing with supernatural threats in Toronto caused by cursed objects and immortal rich occultists from the 1920s who fuel their magic off violent death.

It's about how supernatural horror will never trump the horrors of real life fascism, and about how love, especially queer love, can change the very fabric of reality.

The protagonist is a 5 foot tall cheerful, warm and sunny Filipina woman with magic powers and personal trauma that's ten times worse than your average grumpy podcast man. The main villain is a faceless, nameless, powerful immortal threat in a fine suit, only known as The Benefactor.

It's got that delicious, TMA inspired analog sound (from phone calls and tape recordings) and spooky standalone stories mixed with an overarching plot that a lot of our listeners have made murder boards and spreadsheets for 👀 Theory crafting is popular in this fandom. Some episodes are so scary that people can't listen to them in the dark, but others have described it as their comfort podcast. We have more sound effects and music than base TMA; it adds to the horror, but we also like to include old jazz and classical music depending on the moment and character.

It's female led with a BIPOC majority main cast, and it's so overwhelmingly queer that we have a token cishet couple (an immortal Instagram influencer and her drippy bloody monster husband who crawls on the walls).

The protagonists are queer, the villains are queer, and we've got love stories both wholesome and toxic, happy and tragic. Old men in love, young men in love, young and old men and women in love, women in love in the 1920s, women in love in the 1940s, men who love women then men, women who love women than men, gay betrayals, lesbian tragedies, trans seductions of 150 year old former villains, NB romances in-between taking over the world.... Romantic surgeries and beheadings...

And milk tea 🧋

We're not the kind of podcast that'll ever get as huge as The Magnus Archives, but that's not really what we're aiming for. We're just aiming to reach people who would resonate with our message and love Hi Nay as much as we do!

So give us a follow and a listen! You can find us on Rusty Quill (they approached us, not the other way around 😉✨) and on almost all the major socials, and of course, wherever you listen to podcasts.

[averagespaceman]

jon sims headcanons +appearance timeline!

SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS OF TMA after the cut‼️

to start here is the timeline image (if you’ve seen it before no you haven’t)

now for the meat n potatoes!

(1-3 are all hair-timeline related)

1. i headcanon jon as having decently short hair at first just to be professional or whatever even though he prefers it longer (alternative mf), then season two hits and he just kinda forgets about it cause he’s too busy being paranoid and stalking his coworkers. he remembers again after the [brutal pipe murder], but just kinda decides short hair is not worth the upkeep and buys a pack of hair ties that he then keeps on his person throughout the rest of the show, and ends up with this beautiful mess that floats when he uses his powers. maybe he has martin help him with it in various ways just to have an excuse for a domestic moment during the eyepocalypse, who knows (i do because i say so and i like drawing men with long hair)

2. he has an almost-curly wave pattern that tends to frizz easily but is not that hard to handle when he actually takes care of it. totally not projecting definitely not why would i do that? georgie was the one to show him the magic of curl products and from then on you could never catch him without at least four different ones in his bathroom, even after he cuts his hair for work. he wishes he liked masculine woodsy type scents for his hair products, but he does not. he prefers the fruity bath and body works type stuff. at first he never lets people get close enough to him to learn this, and even if he did start warming up to people enough to let them get close, they wouldn’t have anyway in s2 because he’s a paranoid lil bitch boy. martin begins to associate those scents with jon later on but doesn’t realize why until they get to the safehouse and he sees all of jon’s hair products and immediately understands.

3. jon greys a lot over the course of the series. he goes through a lot of stress so obviously this would make sense, but since he was marked by the web so early on i think that would have happened whether or not he’d been chosen as the archivist (yknow cause white hairs are kinda similar to webs? idk it makes sense to my brain parasites). also it makes him look older than he is, which he appreciates at first because it helps with his stuffy academic persona

4. he has kinda the same feeling about shaving throughout the show as he does with haircuts, as in at first he tries to stay clean-shaven for professionalism, but eventually he gets to a point where he only shaves when his facial hair starts being inconvenient and/or bothering him sensory-wise because he’s autistic (we’ll get to that later)

5. as soon as he learns that his job entails monster encounters and almost dying regularly, he basically says fuck you to the dress code and starts wearing skirts and jewelry and all that fun stuff because he likes it, and if he gets fired then it might be worth it to get out of there. he’s wearing a skirt in the s2 image because i say so. sweater vest + long pleated skirt combo jon yes please (i will be drawing this soon, trust)

6. as alternative as he is, he never got any more piercings than the four on his lobes because at the end of the day he was still an academic and wanted to pursue research, and knew that that kind of thing pushed the boundaries of that image a little too far. he regrets this later but doesn’t think too much of it since his priorities are placed… elsewhere

7. at some point during s2, elias/jonah notices his lack of care about the dress code and decides to gift him the eye earrings that i gave him in that image. obviously he has ulterior motives but jon doesn’t know that and thinks they’re cool so he wears them regularly. he’s also given a glasses chain with eye charms on it, but he forgets to wear it most of the time since he can barely see without his glasses anyways so he has no need for it

8. obviously he can’t go back to his house in s3, so he has to borrow a lot of what the ghost? merch from georgie. he is still a skeptic about the ghost hunting genre despite everything he knows now, but he still wears it because he doesn’t have any other option and wants to support his friend. he’s a very sweet guy at heart but just doesn’t want to admit it most of the time because it’d conflict with his stuffy academic image

9. it’s fairly common to see people draw him as not needing his glasses anymore after his avatar transformation, as well as his eye color changing, and i fuckin love it gimme more of that please. i also saw someone say that all the eyes are green because jonah has green eyes but after jon becomes the pupil all the eyes turn brown, but idk how to feel about that one since the whole show is just green atp and it would be weird to change that

10. in s5, he has eyes all over his body and they usually don’t close unless they’re about to get poked or touched. when he uses his power, the sclera turn black and the irises glow. he also has the funny glowing eye halo but it’s not tangible so it’s not too big of a deal for him. also, fun fact: i never draw eyes with pupils. it’s just not a part of my style. i only threw them in here because he can literally see everything, especially in his glitched-out finale form. it’s meant to seem like he’s looking at you because he is. the archive can s̠҉͍͊ͅẹ̿͋̒̕ẹ̿͋̒̕ y҉̃̀̋̑o̯̱̊͊͢ư̡͕̭̇ he is w̦̺̐̐͟ā̤̓̍͘t̲̂̓ͩ̑c͕͗ͤ̕̕ḣ̖̻͛̓ỉ͔͖̜͌ṇ̤͛̒̍ĝ̽̓̀͑

11. literally everyone thinks this man is beautiful. he is so pretty and even people who aren’t attracted to men can see that. however, most are dissuaded by the stuffy academic persona at first and the “you look like hell” vibes later, as well as his generally standoffish personality. this does not apply to martin, who sees all of those traits as 100% his type, or elias/jonah, who has a religious sort of reverence toward jon as his perfect archivist (this was touched upon by alex during the magnus fanfic-reading video and i’ve loved the idea ever since). jon does not like this but he’s also unaware of it for most of the show so it’s not too big a deal for him

12. i only just learned who dev patel is from people fancasting him as jon, but i looked him up and yes i approve of the fancast. i also drew these before i looked him up so i think i accidentally drew dev patel a few times (also as a white person i can’t say much about his race and how it would play into his character but whenever i see art of him that doesn’t portray him as a poc i just go “why is he white” so i’m just gonna go along with the majority of the fandom’s interpretation of him being south asian)

13. he is very small. not too short, per se, but small, like a tall skinny person was scaled down in photoshop. he’s about 5’7, and at first he wears shoe lifts to hide this, but eventually just decides to wear platforms and heels like he did in college, and sometimes just forgoes them entirely because he’s stopped caring. martin likes to pick him up and carry him around the safehouse (and in places where he’s cut off from the eye) and he enjoys it.

now for some non-appearance related ones that have been chewing on my brain along with the parasites

14. WE’RE FINALLY GETTING TO IT‼️ he’s 100% autistic (i’m autistic and i hit him with the tism ray). him responding to “have you seen a dog?” with “in general, or…?” is so autism-coded it’s not even funny. he doesn’t have too many sensory issues but he hates tight pants and ties and things like that. he also hates the feeling of air on his skin most of the time so he always wears long sleeves if he can help it. for the first few days after he realizes he doesn’t need his glasses, he keeps wearing them anyway because he’s so used to them. he doesn’t melt down but he does shut down sometimes, though he does lose the ability to go nonverbal after his transformation and that fucks with him a lot. martin is a big help with this in s5 because he’ll just be quiet, not provoking the eye to give or collect information at all.

15. he was definitely in the mechanisms in college. i don’t know too much about their lore yet since i’ve only listened to the first two albums (ulysses dies at dawn is a fucking masterpiece), but picturing a young version of this jon as jonny d’ville is absolutely wonderful

16. he definitely liked martin in the early seasons but he didn’t fully realize it until later. i think his bullying was a result of him having the feelings and not quite knowing what those feelings were because he’s autistic. my biggest point of evidence for jon not truly disliking martin is that when they were trapped while hiding from jane prentiss, jon straight up thinks that he’s hallucinating martin being there because his presence is comforting.

17. he is CANONICALLY ASEXUAL AND FUCKING PROUD. him being ace makes me so happy as an ace person myself, especially since he’s in an mlm relationship with someone who’s (assumedly) not ace but is not expecting anything out of him, just like myself. i feel incredibly seen by the whole magnus team just for that but this is a headcanon post so i won’t get into all that. he is very much a romantic and was incredibly touch-starved post-georgie and pre-martin, so he’s happy to be physically close and intimate as long as it doesn’t go any further than that. he loves big hugs and kisses and cuddles from his boyfriend and that’s fucking wonderful!! okay moving on from the projection

18. for his whole life, his favorite color was blue, specifically that of the sky or similar lighter shades like periwinkle and cyan and those such as. they’re peaceful, and he looks good wearing them. but after his coma, he realizes just how much he likes green, and starts wearing it a lot more… he doesn’t realize that it’s not his own brain producing that thought.

19. he does not look like the type to like rock and metal, but he does. he loves how complicated in structure metal can be, especially when it utilizes more melodic aspects as well. if he could have heard take me back to eden by sleep token (well, most of it—there are some flops on there), he would have loved it. he also loves classical pieces for that same reason, but the heavy stuff is super appealing to him on its own. he sometimes listens to prog and math rock as well, just to follow along with the time signatures and long runtimes projecting again maybe but it kinda makes sense so i’m putting it out there

20. he was never as much of a media nerd as he was an academics nerd, but he loves long speculative book series like a song of ice and fire, red rising, and the stormlight archive. intricate worldbuilding gets him every time, and he’ll throw himself into it completely, as is canon. he tried playing dungeons and dragons once, but the amount of pre-existing rules bothered him since he couldn’t do everything he wanted to with his character. star wars also bothers him because there’s so many inconsistencies in the lore. but, it did inspire him to write his own space opera lore for his band.

jesus christ that’s more writing than i’ve done for any of my novels in months yippee i’m dying over here

anyways that’s all i’ve got for now, i hope to incorporate this stuff into my art from here on out but hey maybe i’ll hyperfixate on something else soon and never draw mr. jarchivist again! has happened before could happen again folks

to finish off here’s my proper art of him again cause i feel like adding it!

c ya later 👁️

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

Hi there, I've been wanting to start a new podcast and seen a lot of people talking about Malevolent and The Magnus Archives (I thought they were the same podcast for the longest time...). Anyway, it seems like maybe you've listened to both of them? Do you have a recommendation of which I should start with? I know almost nothing about either of them lol

hi! i'm far from a podcast connoisseur, but i have listened to the entirety of both tma and malevolent and i'm a huge fan of both, so i'd be happy to give a pitch for them haha. i will try to give the vibes without spoilers.

i listened to tma first, and the premise is that everything you hear is being recorded onto a tape recorder, primarily by the head archivist of the magnus institute, which is a private facility that collects and researches statements of paranormal experiences. each episode is jonathan sims, the archivist, recording one of these statements, and then giving his (usually skeptical and scathing) opinion at the end, along with what his assistants' research has turned up on the events of the story.

it's a very slow-burn show, as it takes 20 episodes to even hear another voice and 40 episodes before Shit Gets Real. things shake up a lot at that point, but i don't want to give spoilers.

it's extremely well-made, and i think one of its biggest flaws is also one of its biggest accomplishments, which is the incredibly intricate, non-linear web of characters it weaves through all 5 seasons. a name will be mentioned in passing in a statement, a description of a person mentioned in another, and then a couple seasons later it turns out they're the same character and vitally important to the plot.

(i call that a flaw bc my adhd ass had a HARD time keeping track of all these names, remembering who was who and what happened to them, and mixing up names pronounced similarly. you can consult the wiki, but that will also give you spoilers.)

the story-telling is superb, the characters are great, the romance subplot is wonderful... i think the only thing that isn't exciting for me is that i'm not really a horror fan for the sake of horror itself, so i don't absolutely love listening to the all the standalone statements, which make up the majority of the show. i really like the plot and character work that surrounds the statements.

now, malevolent is often put in the same category because they're both about english men experiencing The Horrors, but the listening experience is VERY different. while tma is like listening to a repressed autistic man tell you a spooky bedtime story, malevolent is being thrown into the shoes of a blind man running for his life while a demon screams in his ear to run faster because the monster is about to eat them.

malevolent is about arthur lester, a 1930s private investigator who comes to in his office, suddenly blind, with a voice in his head and a corpse at his feet. he's just opened a book that was imprisoning an eldritch being, who has subsequently taken up residence in his head and stolen his eyesight.

arthur and the entity, who later chooses to name himself john doe, have no choice but to work together to navigate the world to both figure out what just happened and how they're going to separate, and outrun the powerful forces that want to kill arthur and take john back.

since arthur is blind, john has to narrate everything he sees and describe what arthur needs to do, which works extremely well for an audio drama format. it also works really well to inflict a very visceral type of horror, as we're in the same position as arthur, "blind" to what's happening until john tells us.

while the plot is interesting and the messages are, imo, good ones, the main selling point for me is entirely john and arthur's relationship. they start out as unwilling allies, arthur terrified and john manipulative. slowly, they work their way toward tentative friendship, as they bicker and discover that their love language is being just absolute cunts to each other and divorcing every ten minutes. by virtue of being forced together in their "get along body", they figure out how to sand down those rough edges, how to understand each other and work out their problems, how to apologize and open up and trust each other.

eventually, they become so entangled that they are essentially one being, with enough love for each other to defy the gods and crawl through a blizzard on broken legs in the mere hope of being reunited.

where tma is the asexual podcast (since jon is canonically ace), malevolent is sort of the aromantic podcast. arthur is not quite canonically aro (i have a rant for why i think it's creator-confirmed, but it's not confirmed in-text), but he's as aro-coded as i've ever seen, and him and john are as qpr-coded as i've ever seen. the creator says that they're never going to be confirmed romantic (though he's fine with shipping), but they've also said "i love you" to each other, and it just really warms my little aro heart.

the same as tma, i think malevolent's biggest flaw is also it's biggest strength, which is that it's literally a one-man show. harlan guthrie writes, edits, soundscapes, and voices EVERY single character, which i think is incredible. i only call it a flaw because there are times when i do think he could have maybe used a co-writer or editor on some rough areas, and because it's a common complaint that there aren't more women in the podcast.

i'm not sure i can recommend which one to start with, as to me they have very different vibes. maybe just listen to episode one of each and see which one fits your mood better. i think they're both excellent, just not actually as similar as we like to joke they are.

so yeah, that's my long schpiel about my two favorite podcasts lol 😊 feel free to ask if you have more questions!

[cannibaldetective]

this has probably been talked about, but martin burning statements in s3 and it being simplified to a tantrum and his feelings for jon, erasing him as a person outside of jon and the archives shows a lot not only about martin but also elias.

martin has always been reduced to jon's plus one or jon's employee, and he wasn't even chosen by jon (not until s4). elias immediately pokes fun at him and tries to make everything about him seem as small as possible and that his association with jon is all that really matters, "of course did jon tell you to do this?" martin is not allowed to form his own thoughts according to the eye, according to elias someone who holds a mass amount of power above martin's head, his life, his job, everything he has going for him. martin even assumed that elias is going to threaten him with bad things about jon, someone who makes up a very small part of his life up until this point all because of how much he's been manipulated and controlled that it slowly makes him feel smaller, like the world he lives in is so much smaller then everyone else around him. it makes him insignificant. the lonely was always coming for him, because everyone else made it that way. then his mothers actions in his childhood is used as a weapon. this also shows once again how martins existence is reduced to another's. his father. his mother could only see his father but not the person he was. nobody has ever seen martin for the person he was (which honestly makes peter lukas manipulation in s4 worse - esp in MAG 159)

this could even be a commentary on fandom and queer ships (even ships in general, but queer ships do get this treatment a lot more imo) where the characters are entirely watered down to their ships instead of who they are as characters and their analysis is watered down to each other and only each other - and I see this a lot with martin, alongside characters like will graham, viktor, michael shelley, gerry keay, anya even marceline and bubblegum! characters and their valuable storytelling elements and lessons just are removed for the sake of shipping discourse.

elias is now shown to only care about jon, something VERY clear during the entirety of the show. he cares about the monster he can create with jon more than anything. elias isnt a cunty queen (even though we love to see him that way, which is totally fine) he is a monster, who wants to use and abuse whoever he can control. elias has always been on a power trip, even when he was jonah. he ability to just survive through the horrors has given him enough ego that it means he can do whatever he wants to whoever. elias has always wanted martin to be controlled outside of the eye. he wants him excluded, he wants him insecure, he never wanted him to feel this sense of inclusion just imposter syndrome. a feeling that he's forcing his way into things because that's how he wanted to design him. elias designed jon AND martin. he made them how he wanted.

elias being portrayed as a queer icon in fandom doesn't help but continue to reduce martin as a character, which honestly sucks.

martin deserves to whine and cry and be uncomfortable by the supernatural because for the entirety of his employment his been tortured by the idea that he isn't valuable unless he's being helpful. does this make him a people pleaser? not really. does this make him a damaged individual who for his entire life has been reduced to nothing but another person in his life? yes.

again this goes towards tma's themes of humanity and individuality, what makes you human but what makes you an individual? why are you different? why can you do what they can't?

[doberbutts]

I think the terms TMA/TME work best when they're used as rules of thumb, rather than expected to function as strict categories. They're often helpful, but occasionally they can become obfuscatory, and there are edge cases where they can't be neatly applied. In those cases, they should be set aside, but with an understanding that they will be brought back into conversations when helpful.

To give a personal perspective - I'm a trans masc individual who has, upon occasion, experienced misdirected transmisogyny. I was on T for 5 years, then came off it (partly due to health problems, partly due to starting to identify as nonbinary rather than as a man) and began presenting in a more feminine manner, and people would regularly mistake me for a trans woman.

When people thought I was a trans woman, I did notice an increase in hostility, harassment and unwelcome advances from strangers. Groups of men would shout at me in the street, mothers would glare at me and physically pull their children further away from me if I came near. I also started getting catcalled and couldn't enjoy a night out in a club without being groped. I'd experienced some of these things as a trans man and as a girl, but probably never at such a high frequency or so intensely.

I definitely think I got a taste of transmisogyny and people do still assume I'm trans fem from time to time. But I still wouldn't describe myself as TMA. I don't shout it from the rooftops, but if it feels relevant in the context of a conversation, I will say I'm TME. Because I think the terms are about overarching dynamics, rather than whether or not an individual has ever faced a single instance of transmisogyny.

For me, there was always a sense of distance between myself and any negative experience, that came from knowing they'd misread my AGAB - "that lad just called me a chick with a dick! How funny! I'd be so lucky!" / "You're harassing me for using the female showers at the gym when I am literally menstruating. Are you going to stop being a creep, or do I have to show you my bloody tampon?" There's a degree to which I can sidestep or disavow their idea of me in a manner trans women can't.

I also don't know what it's like to deal with many other elements of transmisogyny, or deal with it as an overarching narrative in one's life rather than a freak episode.

I think it's fair to say I have at times been a grey area and I could use my experiences to argue against the validity of TME/TMA, but I don't want to do that. I don't like it when the terms are just used as a way to say AFAB/AMAB while being perceived as less problematic. But I think it is helpful to have little shorthand reminders about specific power dynamics that do have an impact in our communities. I have absolutely seen transmisogyny play out in queer spaces, both online and IRL, and I think it's worth having vocabulary that emphatically reminds people to check themselves and to not assume they don't have internalised bias against trans women just because they're trans masc.

Trans women are a boogeyman in popular culture and the collective unconscious in a way trans men never have been (at least, not to anything like the same extent). Trans women face an intensity of monstering that I think most people won't understand unless they spend a lot of time sharing space with and listening to trans women. The rapid adoption of TMA/TME feels like an attempt to fast-track that understanding en masse. Maybe it's a bit clumsy, but I do think it's having an impact and important conversations are happening. I don't know if the terms will stick or fall out of use. Having been in the trans community for over a decade and seeing how our vocabularies evolve, I'm inclined to think they'll stick around for a few years and then largely disappear. But I feel that while trans women are finding them useful, we need to be respectful of that fact.

Idk sorry to rant in your askbox, I wanted to give my two cents. Feel free to ignore lol

I'm going to be a bit blunt here: in the span of time I've been off tumblr to, you know, sleep... I've gotten 20 different asks trying to convince me to like the usage of tma/tme and also several transphobic asks about my top surgery. The transphobic ones I blocked and deleted because I'm literally 3 weeks out and will not be dissuaded. But I'm simply not willing to continue arguing a point I've made very clear that I don't love the usage of this particular theory the way it's currently being used.

You can like it for yourself. I have said this over and over again. I do not like it for me, and do not think it is accurate for my life or my experiences or the reality that is what I have to go through on a regular basis. True to everything else that I've posted, I don't really care what you call yourself. If you want to call yourself TME and you believe that framework works for your experience, more power to you. Just don't label me that, because I don't think it works for mine.

Trans women are absolutely a boogeyman in a way that trans men often aren't. That is, unfortunately, one of the ways that hypervisibility is such a curse. Everyone knows what a trans woman is, and a good majority of those people also think the only good one's a dead one. That's bad. That's transmisogyny, and we should ally with trans women to help fix this problem.

Also unfortunately, as trans men become more and more visible to the world, instead of facing mass erasure and dying in silence or escaping to live in stealth, trans men are also beginning to become a boogeyman as well. Now we are a social contagion, a craze, with rapid onset gender dysphoria, mutilating ourselves and ruining our precious bodies, carving out our wombs, simultaneously debasing ourselves and also becoming predators lurking to snatch daughters up and forcefeed them our ideology, betraying women by becoming a mockery of men. What's worse, we tend to politically close ranks with trans women and cis women alike so it's harder for transphobic lawmakers to divide and conquer as they're used to with cis men, so instead they have to demonize us to prevent any further allyship.

That's the conversation trans mascs are trying to have.

Genuinely, I do agree that trans women face an othering that most people do not grasp without understanding transmisogyny theory, which is why I think everyone should have at least a basic understanding of it. But I also think that's true of many other demographics, and that if we want to get out of the pit that bigoted society put us in, we've got to work together to do so. It was, after all, the combined efforts of Marsha P Johnson AND Storme de Laverie that brought us out in the open. And among me friend group, we have people from all different races and backgrounds and genders and more locking arms to ensure the safety of each other, wanting to understand and know each other, lifting each other up.

[boneyardbob]

Whoops I said I’d post this like three days ago my bad. Head canons for the masks in Marble Hornets! I may post a bunch of shorter stuff that are general headcanons soon. Also if you want more details on this lmk I’d love to dive deeper @forgottenporkbun @monszsterz

Here's my headcanons for the masks. Honestly I could go on like a huge, rambling essay about why I think these things, my inspo for these ideas, down to the details of what they feel like and how they work but Imma try and keep this short. I plan to put all that other stuff in my fics anyway and if you're reading this you'll probably wanna read my MH fics so you'll figure it out eventually. The idea that Tim and Brian made their mask with stuff from Hobby Lobby is REALLY funny but I have to stick with the idea the masks are gifts from The Operator (TO). Tim got his in college because if he was given it at any point while in the hospital, it would probably be found and taken away. TO waited until Tim was free before gifting it. Its when their "relationship" begun. TO switched from this unfamiliar, constantly looming monster into this warped guardian angel. This is obviously very fleeting because by the time Jay runs into Tim in MH, he's forgotten this entirely, or repressed it, and is back to viewing TO how he did his entire childhood.

During the tail end of college, while filming Alex's project, is when this Masked Era began and it ended for an unknown reason a quarter of the way into MH. My timeline isn't great but roughly that's the situation we're talking about. This is when we get all those videos of Masky and Hoody stalking Jay and Alex. I don't think I could fully call Tim and TO's relationship that of worship but that's the closest I can get. Tim knew what he was dealing with was some kind of unimaginable creature, but it could feel human emotions FOR HIM. At least if he listened. If Tim did what TO wanted, then in return he got benefits. At some point he understood TO needed him-either to keep living or to stay grounded to earth, and things got a little extra toxic. I imagine its a LOT like the Fears and their respective Avatars in TMA. I use you to get food, I give you powers that make it easier for you to get food, win win.

These benefits were really only accessed when wearing his mask. The more he wore it and the more work he put in for TO, the better things got. At the very least it instantly cleared up his lungs so he could breathe easily, he no longer suffered from migraines, he didn't have any hallucinations that weren't purposeful messages from TO, and most debilitating affects from mental disorders were gone so he wouldn't feel depressed or anxious. Fuck if I had a magical mask that made me neurotypical and took away my chronic illness I'd kill people in the woods too/j. More benefits were added on with time like growing stronger, healing faster, its kinda giving the vampires from Twilight ngl. My RP partner and I make a LOT of Twilight vampire jokes about them. It also spiraled Tim into a euphoric mania, giving him the energy and desire to sprint around the woods all hours of the night. This was an addictive sensation that had him craving his mask. He had to share it with someone.

His closest (and really only) friend at the time was Brian so he opened up to him about it and eventually got him involved. Because of Tim's medication and natural resilience to TO he eventually got OUT of this cult-like situation but Brian couldn't. He got to the point he was constantly under that mask and if he took it off for long enough, he'd probably suffocate and die. This explains why he ends up homeless, constantly in his mask state, and seems to have uncanny abilities. He just disappears into thin air, he seems to be doing physically GREAT despite living on a mattress in the woods with no source of food or money, and we only ever hear him cough. That ties back into my idea their vocal cords melt due to the TO disease. He can take the mask off for short bits of time. Its not like an astronauts helmet, more so an oxygen tank while hiking a tall mountain.

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Hello, I would like to tell you a little story called "how I failed to listen to malevolent." I hope you enjoy.

I am pretty sure I came across your monster Magnus series when it was still being frequently updated. It was fantastic, lots of fun God!Jon vibes and much other besides. Of course, I had to see what you wrote other than that. And you had two other big Magnus fics, "I prefer my heart..." and "and eat it, too." So I read "and eat it, too" and I liked that one even more. But big problem. Crossover.

Well, I liked your fic. More than anything else, I loved how you wrote the characters. Good characterization is worth its weight in gold, and I wasn't going to let a little thing like a new fandom keep me gated from so much high quality fic—because it seemed you had written a ton of stuff for the fandom. This one massive 750k series about Hastur and whatever? I could do the prereqs. Easy. Only had to finish up to 29 for this fic.

Here's the kicker. I tried. But man, the density of it, the interplay, the detective work, it just didn't work for me over an audio medium. I got up to 10 and then just let myself read the prologue chapters featuring the main characters as a treat.

So um, that didn't work. Whoops. I sort of bulldozed through the entire fic in one day, just like I had "and eat it."

...I may have reread "I prefer" a couple of times since. It's just such good Jon/Martin past canon content. Even if I did learn that John was the King. Whoops.

And I mean, I'd already been spoiled. So I might as well read corrupted, when it came out. I didn't exactly intend to, but I HAD to read that little side story you did in the dark world. And sure, that's where I finally stopped purposefully skimming a few parts and learned that Faroe had drowned, but it was worth it!

Then I read "yellow city." I mean, it was a complete canon au! It probably couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know! And cloud city. But it was such a cool follow up to such a wild cliffhanger! Arthur in the city of a mad god? Come on, what a dynamic!

So I mean, it only made sense to read corrupted. It probably wouldn't tell me anything I didn't already know! And sure, Tim wasn't my favorite character, but I liked TMA and SHIT THIS WAS REALLY GOOD AND WHY AM I SHIPPING THIS—

....I should really just listen to malevolent so I can read surrogate, right? That's the prize. 750k of a cool ass au you and your cowriters had been churning out. Frequent updates. I mean, as much as I'd spoiled myself, I still had huge gaps other than what happened around certain points. I didn't know most of what happened to Arthur, other than a few key points. I didn't really get Kayne's place in canon. I knew almost nothing about Faroe. Didn't know what actually went down with Parker in canon, all of this stuff.

I made it two episodes in before I lost my airpods and started procrastinating listening.

...surely. surely. I could just check out the first few fics in the series and see if I could grasp it.

Can you tell where this is going.

So, i finished surrogate. Kind of. I ended up skipping around a bit the last 50 fics or so because I got so entranced with Arthur and John's relationship and kinda couldn't commit to going to bed without seeing where it was going. But um. Wow. That is a hell of a fic.

And also oops I got spoiled on cannibalism, yellow, how parker died and who he is, Kayne, and like...so many things. So many things. Whoops.

I think you (and your coauthors, but really this process started probably back around "I prefer") might have ruined me for power dynamics. I am not sure how i will ever find a relationship more exciting and delightful and sexy than one is a god, one is a human, both are people, both really want this to work, but you know, things are getting in the way. Like tentacles. And the inability to touch their loved one without exploding them. And years of failed communication.

Holy shit, Arthur is a true paragon of self loathing. I can't even. How many years of this slow burn?!!!? A decade!???!! Literally can't believe I'm saying this, but poor Hastur. Poor everyone around them.

Like, I myself am ace. I don't really care about sex in relationships I'm reading, and I honestly don't even care if characters are together or not as long as they're interacting in fun ways and not pining across the room. I really can't overstate that. But even I was screaming, by like 140 fics into this series, "JUST FUCK ALREADY!!!"

okay but seriously what's going on in surrogate right now is having all of my wildest wish fulfillment for fiction written and displayed before me. I have already reread the relevant fics in the series. John and Arthur having their like fifth divorce, this time because congrats, it's a god (that doesn't share a head with his favorite person anymore), is such good fucking food.

I must ask, I have noticed you bring up a malevolent server at some point in your chapter notes. Is this an open server? Despite me, still, STILL, having failed to listen to malevolent, I would love to have people to scream with. Though of course if it's not open, totally understand.

Apologies (for the deception) for not leaving comments on any of your fics. I have a bit of a problem with commenting, it's sort of a procrastination, ADHD thing. I hope to leave them one day. But in the meantime I would like you to know that I have read SO MANY of your fics, and enjoy them on a range from "this is great" to "I would not be upset if someone ripped out my soul and replaced it with these words." Love your stuff. Thank you for returning to the chaos that is fanfiction, cause finding fic like yours is the reason I am still here!

Okay I took a while to answer this because every time I read it I would end up squealing and sort of dancing around the room, neither of which are conducive to replies. XD

Thank you so so SO MUCH for this note! I don't think I can fully explain how incredibly much it meant to me. This note is legitimately going in the little collection of "read this when you think you suck" things to help keep me going. You're amazing. THANK YOU.

And honestly, the spoiling with Malevolent is fine! I find it's fun on relisten when I don't have to worry about what's going on lol.

Though TMA does, and possibly always will, hold my heart.

ALSO! Those fics are all going to be finished!! We've just been busy moving and dealing with family drama and job stuff and just... life, but none of them will be abandoned. <3 <3 Corrupted and Just Another Side Quest are both on track to be finished early 2025!

Surrogate will take a while longer. We have three solid seasons planned out, plus a bunch of side fics which will go into the "Surrogate Sides" series. We're insane.

From one ace to another (high five). I completely understand re: the slow burn, and that means (IMHO) we did it right. 🤣

(I mean... that's where Yellow City came from. Do I "get" smut? Not really... but emotional transformative mind bending stuff? Yeaaaah. Yep. Totally.)

Thank you again for this FREAKING INCREDIBLE NOTE. I really, seriously can't say it enough. <3

[jazzically]

welcome to yaptown!! population: me!! eps 9 through 11 lesgoooo

magp 9

oh we getting straight into it huh!!

BAHAHAHAH JONNY SAYING "Nooooo" IN MONOTONE

i thought that whole thing was the title of the podcast but then he kept talking so i guess it's just The Podcast

eh

ok so im pretty sure we've established that the dedications at the beginnings have plot relevance

sigh i guess it's kinda sad that sam and alice (or gwen or celia or even whatsherface lori ? lena) don't get to read out statements but tbf they don't seem to me like characters who would do that

not in tHe HeAd aRcHiViSt'S tHeAtEr KiD sTyLe anyway

Sooo in tma the statements were canonically dramatic because the eye likes a bit of flavour - seasoning, if you will - to its spooky stories

but why are they like that in tmagp? (genuine lore question not passive-aggressive criticism)

ooh maybe sam has superpowers like he can call on specific statements the way the archivist could /j

or maybe "chester" is just a butthead who likes yapping at inopportune moments

ooooooooo i did think that artefact storage had a lot of podcast/canon potential. this is one of those worldbuilding bits that isn't hurting the original story in an overexplain-the-mystery type way jonny was talking about in the tma qnas

hehe i see them sneaking in ttrpg

AYE THAT WAS A REALLY GOOD ONE!!!!!! YAAAAHHHHHSSSS CORRUPTION OF POWER SYMBOLISM BABYY

magp 10

:OOO so are the dedications canon or not - ??? am i missing something really obvious??

OOOOOO A TV INTERVIEW THIS IS COOL AS WELL

THIS IS A SICK STORY WHAT

hahahah gsjg i love how rq basically actualized a magnus archives AU

HE DID NOT JUST ACCIDENTALLY FREE AN ELDRITCH MONSTER OH GEEZ OH NO

magp 11

STOP I LOVE THEM

Of course referring to past tma lore sometimes is inevitable given that we're dealing with The Literal Magnus Institute but it's still very well done. a mystery no matter who listens

sam and alice are giving twilight sparkle and rainbow dash

RRRREEEEEEEE i nearly forgot about jonnys whole "must make every side character important later" thing EEEEEE... the lore goes hard

i realllllly like how natural it feels

it's truly reminiscent of both the beginning and the middle of a story (beginning of sam's story working at the oiap or whatever, middle of the larger plot timeline) - so much so that it's hard to forget the episodes are fictional and are actually being recorded and edited chronologically eeeeeee theres so much setup already and it's only ep 11 props to rq

aaahhhh is lena a villain or not!!!!

what is an external? lol i don't Know Things

mate do people's voices just not change over time? it's bonkers (in a good way) to me how similar jonny (and everyone else tbh) still sounds after five years

[squircatlies]

Here's a crossover nobody asked for, but has wormed its way into my head and won't leave: Good Omens × The Magnus Archives.

To clarify, not characters taken from one and put in the other's setting, both characters and settings put together in a weird soup.

I know the crossover doesn't make any sense, but the thought of the Them and the NotThem existing in the same universe greatly amuses me.

Further ramblings below the cut.

I've been debating between the Fears being an invention of Hell that has gone out of control and them being completely unrelated, outside beings with a power level closer to God, I feel like the first option diminishes their status a bit, but it is funnier. Maybe there could be a connection between them and the four riders of the apocalypse?

I want there to be a concrete divide between the divine/occult and eldritch, so that it's not just Hell's horror department and Angels and Demons are separate from monsters and avatars. But in universe not a lot of people know about the existence of either (aside from faith of course, which isn't the same as knowledge), so the ones that do encounter them have little to no basis for telling them apart. Also the Fears have a more active presence on Earth, so Angels and Demons often get mistaken for avatars by those in the know about the Fears.

The broad strokes of both narratives stay the same, so the GO apocalypse is prevented, but then TMA eyepocalypse happens and GO's characters are really salty about it. The eyepocalypse doesn't trigger a war between Heaven and Hell because of a legal loophole.

Tadfield is completely immune to the influence of all the fears because of Adam's powers, like Salesa's safehouse during the eyepocalypse or like how Aziraphale and Crowley hid Gabriel from Heaven and Hell with a miracle. Aziraphale's bookshop and the building with elevators to Heaven and Hell are the same in that aspect due to the concentration of divine/occult energy. This also applies during the eyepocalypse.

Aziraphale is Jurgen Leitner's biggest hater. He drunkenly made the Jurgen Leitner rant™ in universe while Crowley was cackling and wheezing on the floor. He's been "in correspondence" with Jonah Magnus 200 years ago and is the reason Jonah got obsessed with immortality in the first place. They first met each other at a discreet gentlemen's book club. Aziraphale deeply regrets ever talking to him. He had to fight off Mike Crew with a broom, when he was still looking for a Leitner to call his own. People in the know about the Fears, but not the existance of Angels and Demons assume Aziraphale to be an avatar of the Eye, possibly another Archivist.

Crowley's assumed to be an avatar too, but noone can agree what fear he serves. For a time Desolation was a popular theory, which he hated. Now they lean more toward the Web, the Stranger or the Spiral. He knew Maxwell Rayner back when he was Edmond Halley, because they were both in the astronomy circles at the time. A lot of the things he takes credit for on his reports to Hell are actually the doing of Fear avatars, it works out, because Hell refuses to acknowledge the Fears as a point of pride and noone bothers to check.

Gertrude thought about blowing up the bookshop, but Aziraphale convinced her otherwise. They had tea.

Jared Hopworth called Aziraphale a slur once and had to promptly change career paths.

Jon and Martin passed through Tadfield at some point during the eyepocalypse and met Adam. It was kind of awkward, but they got to pet Dog.

Agnes Nutter wasn't an avatar, she was just like that. Her prophecies mostly didn't concern the Fears, aside from telling one of her descendants not to go to the hundred and fifth house on a road atop a hill.

Anathema and Newt stay as far away from the Fears as possible, especially after Newt's encounter with Sergey Ushanka (Newt accidentally deleted him).

Everyone thinks Shadwell and Tracy are avatars, of the Hunt and the End respectively. They're not. They're just scammers. Tracy likes that it makes her seem more legitimate. Shadwell doesn't like the Fears, but he doesn't count them as witchcraft (except for the Flesh, because nipples, obviously), so he doesn't really care.

Nina and Maggie on the other hand are avatars. They're pretty good at hiding it though. Not sure which ones, probably the End and the Vast. Nina's ex is an avatar of Corruption.

[british-catgirl]

dis is just a random way to end off da month but like, for whateva reason I was o'ertaken by da urge to check out dis femboy meme channel 'cause fuck it why da hell not, and skimmin' top comments most of it was either A. agreeing with what the meme just said as the hypothecial femboy or B. other people sayin' dat dey wouldn't mind a femboy boyfriend or sumdin like dat, but anyways da comments consitintly referred to dicks as joysticks and I was like 'wow, dis is just tik tok style content and comments on YT' but dats when it kinda hit me Femboys are just censored trans women I am ninety-nine percent most TMA followers already had dis notion and I'm just kinda slow, but for da equally slow among us basically all da comments could've been talkin' about trans women or replace femboy with trans woman and nothing changes. the femboy tropes are the same e.g striped thigh highs, drinkin a lot of monster energy, majoring in computer science, yada yada. some of da memes would easily just be transfem memes, and most of da time the voiceover adds bits not in da memes to make dem explictly 'bout femboys, hell da words in da meme was 'eepy princess' and in the title were instead 'eepy femboy princess', it's just- dis is like baby's first transmisgony but it felt necessary to state. and da point I want to make is dat I've never actually, met a femboy who was like, actually a boy or didn't transition later. like never. either dat or dey're still young. and all of dat with dat whole 'egg' debate, it just makes me see femboys, not as malicous, like of course sometimes dey are but so is anyone, but da point is dat all I see with femboys are people pleasers, and most of dem who do hold transphobic values it tends to be internalized from interactions from other people and affirmations dat it's okay to just be a femboy, youse don't have to be a woman. it's like, kinda chaser-y, 'bout how many people want femboys but not wanting anything to do with trans women and hence want da femboys to stay as femboys so dey can keep deir transphobic values close to deir chest while having some form of power over dem, as many chasers do with trans women, getting into relationships because of deir power over dem instead of love and like-

listen, all I wanted to say, is dat if you're a femboy readin' dis, try being a girl for a bit. just a wee while. even just alone, or just online. and see how dat is. for youse. just, youse don't have to do it for me, youse just gotta do it for youseself, ya hear me? if ya would press dat button dat gives youse money with da chance to be turned into an anime girl without a second dought, just try it on for size for youseself and no one else. whateva youse come out on da other side don't bother me none but please just try it.

[tortellini-time]

Absolutely no worries if not but. C. Can I read your hive paper pls

MAJOR TMA SPOILERS AHEAD YOUVE BEEN WARNED

Hi!

It was for a class, so I can't post it until its been graded, so ill probably either post it or make it into a video essay in a couple months.

Also this is going to be a little rambly and weird cause it's very late and i wrote this a while ago.

But i can give my general outline and the gist of it! the main point was analyzing how tma uses humanity as a theme to present moral dilemmas. The start was basically just explaining how entities and avatars work, and i made it seem very cut and dry what was an wasnt an avatar at the start.

The first couples pages of actual content was basically about when does a person stop being counted as human and start counting as a monster, avatar, ect. My first point is analyzing the hive statement and how it makes both the listener and jon realize that the monsters in statements used to be people with very everyday issues, and it starts to humanize all of the previous statement's spooky guys (thats the technical term ik).

The next section was on identity and how characters chose to retain/abandon it. Contrasting Micheal deliberately seperating itself from its identity and humanity and sasha who is forced to abandon it/it's robbed from her. Also i started setting up how characters use this perceived lack of self to justify their actions, and to jusitify their actions against others (looking at you daisy).

Another thing is that Jonah doesn't care about his sense of self and identity, willingly throwing it away again and again for power, and not really caring if hes still human, and he's still doing these terrible things. His view is that becoming monstrus doesn't actually really matter to your actions and goals.

Daisy is an interesting contrast to Jonah here, cause they're both using their abilities for their own gain (immortality, perceived justice) but Daisy becomes uncomfortable with how this use is affecting her and tries and fails to seperate herself from it, unlike jonah who doesn't care.

Then i went into how a lot of these arcs ive just described apply to Jon at various points as he is becoming more of an avatar and just generally goin through it. But unlike jonah or micheal he's still trying to hold onto his humanity for a good part of the podcast (and i couldn't get into it but him and martin in season 5 could tie into this too). Also how Jon's continued (even if they arent very good efforts) efforts to reach out to people and trying to help are signs he is still valuing others in his life (even though he ends up pushing them away and it gets complicated he still goes to georgie, martin, hes kinda friends with daisy for a bit, freeing gerry).

Then i discussed the viewers changing perception of the avatars and jon throughout the podcast and how their understadning of the moral dilemmas in the podcast kinda grow with jon's understanding of them. And the realization that a lot of the shitty people aren't avatars, and a lot of the avatars aren't shitty people. A lot of them just ended up getting mixed up with a big eldritch thing they didn't really sign up for.

Also i had a whole chunk on gertrude and how she stays very unaffected by the entities and yet still does all this horrible stuff, and justifies it completely to herself.

Also the bits about how people are either running a domain or being tortured by one, and how the divide isn't between human and inhuman its between people being hurt and people hurting others, and the entities are just a tool people are using for this. And even people who start out interacting with entities for an overall good (like gertrude trying to stop the world from ending) reason still end up hurting others directly or indirectly.

I wrapped it up basically by comparing the entities to real world systems and how it's impossible to completely separate yourself from a flawed system (economic, political, social, ect). And the idea of being forced to compromise your own morals for survival/achieving your goals can cause a loss in personal identity and can cause more harm then the goals you were trying to achieve, and how the podcast presents these ideas in a very unrealistic context that can still be applied to parts of real life very effectively.

uhhh so yeah, thats the gist of it, ill be posting the full thing in awhile, hope you found this interesting.

[a-dumbass-jester]

Witch’s heart x The Magnus archives au!!!

Claire - Vast

Ashe - Spiral

Wilardo - End/Hunt

Sirius - Eye

Noel - Flesh

Charlotte - Slaughter

Zizel - Stranger

Lime - Desolation

Rouge - Web

!!Also quick disclaimer it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been into wh so some things might be incorrect!!

First off idk if this is just wh but with the entities of if it’s entirely tma’s world. It’s probably going to be the first tho

Also all the demons are human(or at least used to be)

Also for non tma meowtuals here is a chart of the entities and here is a video essays for them(it’s unfinished, there’s still two entities to cover) i also linked the wiki pages for the entities mentioned, if anyone is interested (I’d recommend listening to the actual thing but if you don’t wanna watch 200 episodes to understand this, here you go)

- Vast!claire was actually the second to last one I came up with. If Wilardo’s still immortal/ 500 years old she realizes that in a few hundred years no one will remember her and that she doesn’t matter in the big picture. And while initially it scares her later she instead finds comfort in it. She becomes a lot like Simon. Becoming a very “live in the moment” kind of person. “I don’t matter in the long run why not have some fun”. I can also she her having fun with the falling thing. There’s a hc I remember seeing for the vast avatars (specifically Simon) where their eyes changed depending on the sky. Claire already has blue eyes, just add clouds or stars!!

- Spiral!Ashe because they have a lot if similar themes. Spiraling mental health, hallucinations, fake friends, manipulation. I can see him trying to bring his family back and accidentally sacrificing himself to it instead. Also it’s avatars are typically very tall and thin(and colorful). I also like the idea of Ashe being a surreally tall, thin and colorful hallucinatory headache. The spiral has a fake place called “Sannikov Land” and I can imagine him saying he’s from there

- End/Hunt!Wilardo. Idk witch one to pick so I’ll explore both. The end is mainly if he’s still immortal. If he is, he finds comfort in it and that the end will take all eventually. It might be centuries but it will take him and he will finally get to rest. I also rlly like him with the ends powers. Like the dreams of peoples deaths, THE ROOTS (That show how people DIE!!!)

For the hunt, it’s mainly if gramps is alive (and their both mortal) mainly because I’m assigning them to Julia and Trevor. At some point them meet probably dealing with the end or another entity and end up sticking with each other in a similar was Julia and Trevor did (idk how they met I just assume that’s what happened), and both of them end up becoming part of the hunt

- Eye!Sirius, idk how he got marked but I assume maybe messing with Dorothy’s stuff or a leitner. I think the wanting to know, see and understand thing fits with Sirius very well. I can see him using it to call bs on some stuff Ashe says. Like going back to “Sannikov Land”, Ashe says he’s from there and Sirius is like “no your not. That’s not a real place.”

- Flesh!Noel is the last and most difficult one I came up with. It’s also a bit weak but it fits the best. Originally I chose it because of the flesh monster he becomes. But the rest of it kinda fits as well. The flesh is strongly associated with dysphoria, and even if you don’t hc him as trans that would still be a lot of dysphoria he would of had as a kid. I also rlly like Noel having a more animalistic fear. He became an avatar when he was cursed in cannon

- Slaughter!Charlotte. It seems a bit easy giving the war criminal the war and (sudden) violence one but anyway. She’s probably still (mostly) human. just a bit more (openly) violent, and quick to do so. The slaughter is also strongly associated with music, specifically air(?) instruments so I like to picture her walking onto a battlefield (especially no man’s land) in an actual war/military uniform playing the flute or something.

- Stranger!Zizel. This one was kinda a bias because the stranger’s my favorite(and I love Zizel) but I also LOVE uncanny valley doll Zizel. Idk if she was ever human because the stranger seems to prefer manifestations over human avatars. And either would work so idk. I feel like it adds to the lack of identity tbh. But anyways uncanny valley doll Zizel <3<3

- Desolation!Lime. This one was probably one of, it not the easiest to assign. From the fire themes, to the destruction of others and their lives. I can see her with a similar role to Jude Perry. She encounters the cult of the lightless flame sometime in her 20s (specifically 25 because that’s when she becomes a demon in cannon) and falling in love with their beliefs. I can see Lime following Jude’s story in general. She joins the lightless flame in the 80s/90s and after becoming an avatar she becomes made of wax. I like to imagine her and Sirius as that one scene where Jude and Jon meet. They make a deal where Lime would tell Sirius (pre eye) something important but they have to shake hands, lime, made of wax, burns his hand.

I can also see Matty being part of the lightless flame. Like the burning down Ashes house and destroying his life is something they would do

- Web!Rouge. I feel like control theming fits well with Rouge. If anyone were to create structured plans on how things could go I feel like I would be her. The web also has stong themes of addiction, puppets, and that your actions aren’t rlly yours, which I can see fitting. I also rlly like a spider like Rouge. Like her with multiple spider like eyes and arms. The web is also called “the mother of puppets” which I can see fitting her. I also sometimes see people draw her with a web on her jacket so

Other side stuff (world building kinda)

I’m rlly glad I assigned Web and Desolation to Rouge and Lime because their known to not get along. They constantly clash because of the Web’s intricate plans and the Desolation’s destructive chaos

I feel like do to how close Noel is with Rouge, he was also marked by the web. Not a very strong mark but still a mark.

Dorothy plays a similar role to Gertrude because she deserves to be an absolute badass. She’s spent a good majority of her life fighting the entities, stoping rituals, etc.

Fiona and Sirius’s parents were still accused of being “witchs” and burned but this time the main motivator was that Nicholas would accuse people of serving an entity

Speaking of Fiona Elford I’m giving her Fiona Law’s role because they share a name

(Also I would link Fiona Law’s wiki page but she doesn’t have one apparently)

Fiona would pass out when she got scared which helped her survive against the entities. She would be unconscious so they couldn’t feed off of her fear, and left her alone

Giving more to the role Gramps is going to play, Trevor is a vampire hunter, so Gramps would probably take that role, and and fell victim to the hunt first and later finds Wilardo.

That’s basically it!!

I don’t have much for plot. It’s jut wh characters in tma so I assume it’s like just that plot

Wait actually they still meet in the mansion but it’s connected to the entities

There’s no murder or timelines but it was genuinely the rain!

The entities mess with them for a bit and are let out a bit later either before the change or as it’s happening

The five of them wonder a apocalyptic world where the entities have taken over (and maybe meet the “demons” again)

That’s genuinely it!!! If anyone has any ideas, please say something, I’d love to talk more about this

Thank you for reading!!

[draculagerard]

You know how sometimes I send questions I could easily Google to your inbox because it’s more fun to hear a friend talk about their interests than see what the internet says?

Well anyway today it occurred to me that despite having absorbed a lot of spn knowledge through tumblr osmosis, I know basically nothing about Sam Winchester, one of the main characters of the show. Like I feel like I’ve got a at least a vibe of what Dean is like just from like … seeing memes and Destiel posts and stuff, but I could not describe Sam to you. Which feels like a shame.

So what’s his deal? What’s his personality like? What kind of character arc does he go through? Any Sam Winchester hot takes?

HII yes I would absolutely love to talk about him. so basically to explain his Thing, I need to give a little lore drop (bear with me).

Before he was born, his mother made a deal with a demon to let him in her house in 10 yrs. So when Sam was 6 months old, Azazel came into the Winchesters' home, fed baby Sam his own blood (and then killed Mary). Now, this ritual basically gave Sam psychic powers that he discovers in his early 20s, which is where the show begins.

Now time for an essay. Im sorry you ask me about Sam Winchester and I cannot shut up.

Anyway his whole thing is that he is The Freak and that he feels Unclean. And even before he knew it was the demon blood, he was like there is something inherently wrong and dirty about me and stuff. Theres a quote that kind of puts together all the scenes of him talking about that

"I remember looking at this picture of Sir Galahad [as a little kid] , and, and, and he was kneeling, and— and light streaming over his face, and— I remember… thinking, uh, I could never go on a quest like that. Because I'm not clean. I mean, I w— I was just a little kid. You think… maybe I knew? I mean, deep down, that— I had… demon blood in me, and about the evil of it, and that I'm— wasn't pure?" And then he talked about how something that was slowly killing him was "purifying him".

And no matter what he did or where he went, he didnt fit in. Not in his family, not in any of his schools, and not even when he ran away from home to go to college to live out his "normal life".

Personality wise, he's the kind of guy who always can make other people talk about their own feelings, and he acts all sensitive and kind, but also he's a fucking hypocrite because he never tells anyone how he feels. It's very fun comparing Dean and Sam because Dean is like No i Cannot tell anyone how I feel and then spills his guts and then Sam is like Sharing feelings is healthy :) and then takes every genuine emotion to his grave.

More on his personality: Overall he's pretty like sarcastic and bitchy but in a younger brother kind of way. In the beginning he started off very angry and explosive and always jumped headfirst into problems. As the show went on, though, he just got visibly exhausted and tired of being angry and became the full opposite, where he's the one who never got angry while Dean became the angry one.

Also, veryyy important, he is the Nerd One. Like his catch phrases are "according to the lore" and "so get this", both said while looking at his laptop screen, reading through a bunch of stuff. He's the one who does the research and shit.

Actually wait. youre a tma fan. I can explain him very easily by telling you that he's like if Jon was a SPN character. Yk how Jon starts getting powers and it's a horror thing and he has crises about how much he's human and how much he's a monster. Exactly that. And also yk Jon's guilt thing? Sam has that too. Ofc with the human/monster element, but also you know how Jon blames himself for starting the apocalypse but in reality he was just a pawn who actually set off the last trigger? Sam did that EXACTLY and blames himself too. Also the nerd thing lol.

Sam Winchester hot takes? I have literally so many but none of them will seem hot with my curated tumblr. Like saying that Sam's thing about being impure is literally just a metaphor for being queer. Not intentionally queercoded but wow is it fucking queercoded. Oh actually a hot take is that I love late-seasons Sam as well and will defend him to my GRAVEEE.

I have so much to say but no way can I fit it all on this post soooooo... hope that gave you a basic understanding of him !!!!

[blood-injections]

I've been brainstorming the tma au i was going to start writing it but now. The hunger games au brainrot has taken over sorry im starting that instead. Basically its a fusion of the two worlds since they're like super similar anyway, bat city/the capital, same difference. Dracs/scarecrows/peacekeepers/etc. Snow/the director. Same thing. And both had wars that the younger generation experienced only a sliver of but are still being punished for. Battery city is just like on a smaller scale and more condensed than panem obviously. The districts are like the different sectors of battery city- city center, the highrises, the neon district, a few others ill come up with names for, and the slums, which is like the district 12 of battery city. Theres some infrastructure like technically outside the city like farms and power stations to the north and east that people work at, but its all walled and connected to the city keep Battery citizens in and rebels out.

Rebels, or killjoys, fight not just the games, but all of Better Livings bullshit, but some definitely have a personal vendetta against the games and the director. Theres not many killjoys yet since it hasnt been crazy long since the wars, theres only been so many games, most current killjoys are veterans of the wars or children born in the desert by them, or survivors that managed not to get rounded up, or lastly, those that have managed to get out of battery city to join the rebelion. Lots of which rebelled after losing someone important to the games or just realizing how fucked it all is. Theres the underground rebeion inside the city, the juvie halls, but they're different.

The arena for the games.. I'm figuring it out. My initial thought was that maybe they just dump them in the desert, but that'd make it too easy for the rebels no matter what defences and monsters there are. Thats the killjoys domain. Besides, the games are very high tech despite being relatively new, because its bli and theyre futuristic and shit, theres laser guns. Im thinking either the arenas dead in the center of the city, a big dome that the levels of battery city are build around. Or its oitside of the city like the infrastructure is, to the north or somewhere hard for the rebels to get to because of radiation and bad land and and stuff in the way, but bli just fly the contestants in easy. And maybe the arenas like in what used to be a giant football stadium.

The games are pretty much the same as the since material, two people picked from every district, every level of the city. Theres not twelve of them though, there'll probably end up just being eight or so. But I think I might make a twist, that the zones kind of count as another level, and if Better Living has any killjoy prisoners at the time, they'll be thrown in as contestants, or maybe not, maybe targets, so that its just a very elaborate execution. Theyre thrown in to be hunted and whatever contestant takes them out gets a reward that could help them win.

I'm gonna make the Phoenix Witch a huuge thing in the games. Like shes not something many battery city born and raised people know about, only some droids and slums people and juvie halls, and they only know stories passed on by killjoys or zomerunners or past victors of the games. But no matter who you are, once you step foot in the arena, you can feel her presence. Contestants will see her in their dreams or out of the corner of their eye, they'll see her at night collcting the souls of the fallen even if their bodies have already been cleaned up by bli. They'll see her when they die and whoevers left standing in the end will go home with her great sorrow, but also her forgiveness for what they've done to win, to survive. Each and every tribute will pray to her at some point, even if they dont know her name yet. They just feel her, and they allow themselves to find a sense of safety in believing in a higher power. And they pray that the other tributes do not suffer, and that if the times comes they pray to go quickly themselves, and if that times does not come, they pray to be forgiven for the blood on their hands. Or maybe not, maybe they pray for a divine punishment, a reckoning for their sins. But no such punishment ever comes, only the witch wiping your tears and telling you that you will heal.

Just. Love and hope and sorrow and grief perceiving in the face of slaughter and horror and the hatred of those in power that dont believe in the inherent goodness within every being.

[glassfullofsass]

Do you like Tamora Pierce? Do you like horror?

I've convinced Leverage watchers to listen to TSCoSI (and vice versa), now let's see if I can convince my Tortall babes to listen to The Harrowing of Minerva Damson.

Prepare for: Lady knights! Magic! Powerful cat-shaped creatures! Monsters!

Did you read In the Hand of the Goddess and think "but what if it was only the bits where they fight the Tusaines over the River Dell? What if the monsters were here already? What if Roger was only a shape in the mist but still as evil and powerful?" Did you get to Lady Knight and say "Yes, more death. More unkillable creatures. More terror."?

Listen to S1, The Knight of the Unquiet Dead. Trench warfare. Vampires. Sorcerers. Ghouls. A magical cat. Made up magical spells that work by the power of friendship and sheer necessity. A Lady Knight (Minerva) who Is The Authority Here, Thank You, and also is So Tired (TM). Alanna's personality facing Kel's war.

Not quite ready to commit, but horror is your flavor?

Try the first inter-season arc, Chevalier, which features the same setting but different characters. One necromancer, two Lady Knights, three magical horses, four (?) vampires (and some nauseating gore), and healing from your grief by learning to survive. Still a lot of those Alanna and Kel vibes, but also giving Bekka Cooper: gritty, dark, bare-knuckled and bloody. Cat not included.

Missing the cat?

It's back in S2, Black as Knight. It's smug, dangerous, and clever, but so is our returning heroine Minerva. Also my TMA girlies will feel right at home in the cave episodes (Buried babes can I get an amen?). A friendly (and dilf-able) werewolf garwalf, binding terms and conditions, gargoyles tearing the absolute shit out of some soldiers. Again, giving Alanna in her Rides era, but put that attitude in the plot of Rampant. Also giving Kel's willingness to sacrifice just about anything to save people.

Need a different pace?

Inter-season arc 2, Goliad Gabby is all Verlidaine (just Daine) Sarrasri. The plot is literally country bumpkin sharpshooter slays the big bad monster with help from her trusty animal companions. There's even a real rom-com shaped happily-ever-after for this one! (for real though. The gore? a little icky. The Big Romantic Speech? I couldn't make it through.) Gabriella Gabby is just your average Texas Trickshot, until the Order of Joan recruits her personally to put her skills to use. Also reminded of Bekka's grit here too. No isn't really an answer when there's work to be done.

Now, I have read Circle, but I don't have those stories soaked into my bones well enough to pull comparisons out as readily... I will say the very grim and horrific realities of war that Pierce digs her pen into in Melting Stones and Battle Magic are very present throughout the podcast. It's labeled horror for a reason. Check the CWs and take care of yourselves <3

Also, did I mention, the premise of the universe is based on Joan of Arc inspiring a cloister of nuns to become knights and fight monsters?

The production team has more projects in the works, and hopefully the third Minerva season will be released in the next few months (early 2024). They have a website, patreon, instagram, a rather defunct tumblr (@the-joaniverse), and all the usual podcast platforms.

[vinegar-on-main]

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OC. INFO I NEED RIGHT THIS INSTANT

1. Full name, age, gender, height, etc. Just bio info really.

2. What kind of world do they live in?

3. Are they good or evil? Protag? Side character? Villain? Hero?

4. Magic powers of any kind? Skills they have?

5. Favorite fact about them

6. Character arc?

7. Any other info you desperately want to tell someone

WOOOO YEAH OKAY

Putting this under a cut cause this is Loooooong

THIS ISNT PROOFREAD AT ALL HAVE FUNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Also tagging @meme-boys-blog cause he’s heard me brainrot about her :p

1. Okay so that’s a bit complicated cause she uses three of em, depending on form. If she’s a human person, that’s Kuze, if shes humanoid, that’s Kuma, and if shes Shadow Creature, that’s Kurokami. It’s all the same person, just presenting as different aspects, you know?

Also she frequently uses bynames so watch out :p

Beat answer for age is Yes. She’s older than literally everyone and anything due to being a creature that is made out of the stuff that exists between realities.

Her gender is whatever you want it to be, but she generally prefers she/they. But she can manifest as any gendered human person as Kuze. The only exception is pronouns of it/it’s, mostly because of some Hollow Knight Stuff.

Also!!! Kuze fun facts: there’s some Rules that Kuze has to follow when manifested, it’s not a lot, but it’s just enough to tip off observant persons that they’re not exactly the Most Human. For example: all forms have to follow the basic template of white hair, pale skin, black eyes, black clothes. Of course, the black can be any dark shade of gray, so there’s some variation in the outfits. Eyes do not reflect light, skin doesn’t get cut like flesh and instead cracks like porcelain, bleeds Void, body temp is always room temp, etc.

Here’s a drawing I did of each one, from right to left, it’s Kuze, Kuma, and Kurokami

2. Yes? Yes. She’s kinda my proxy into fandoms. An op SI oc. But she has her own personality sorta??? It’s A Lot.

3. Lawful neutral. She has her own personal values and sticks to them like glue, but overall she enjoys the concepts of freedom. She has the potential to be the scariest thing ever with eldritch horror shenanigans, or the wine aunt with weird eyes. She tends to make the worst kind of friends (See: Michael Distortion from TMA) because of her loose morals.

She’s not really on the side of destroying worlds, instead going for the cosmic horror angle of “not yet”. And even then, the Void doesn’t really need her direction.

She also travels to diff universes cause she likes the connection, and also she fears becoming a true monster. I mean, wouldn’t everyone?

4. She’s basically the God of Shadow in all its forms, but she doesn’t control it directly. All forms can stop time with ease due to a visit to jojo and stealing DIO’s stand for herself, Names have Power and she can stop it for an infinite duration. Also she can invoke someone’s true name to tell them what to do, this can manifest in different forms, but she tries to make it subtle :p. All forms are also skilled in every instrument type because music is kinda a huge deal for her, and also can create constructs that fall under the same restrictions as Kuze’s form. They can be pretty much anything. But she usually abuses it to make musical instruments on the fly. Almost forgot about the child in the room, during certain plot parts of Transformers Prime season 3, she made a trade with Rafael to repaint Bumblebee in exchange for his knowledge of computers. And given that this kid can hack The Pentagon… yeah.

Kurokami has the power to change her size to be as large as she wants, but the low end is 7 feet, plus horns. Power to dwell/hide in things/peoples shadows, only consequence being that the shadow itself is darker than normal.

ALSO!!! Soul shit, it’s a lot, but it’s a called direct interfacing. She dislikes the process cause it’s Very Invasive (think of it like forcibly issuing commands to someone)

Also also dream shit, she has a major influence over it cause when Radiance died, they left a power vacuum.

Kuze and Kuma have the previously stated abilities, as well as being overall weaker than Kurokami. The time it takes to get from either of these back to Kurokami is quite literally nothing, as the form can either melt or straight up explode, but going from Kurokami to Kuze/Kuma takes longer, even longer if it’s Kuze.

5. When as Kurokami, there’s some Special Voice Quirks!!! She can speak as any person that she has met or knows the Name of, and usually speaks with more than one voice. Her default is usually some kind of femme fatale, but they could also be a confident businesswoman type beat. Also, she speaks in plurals, using we/us/our instead of I/me/my. I just think it’s neat!!!

Also whenever she arrives in a new place that she’s gonna Chill in, she makes a card that automatically charges a random bank account that’s on an internal list. She mostly picks billionaires. She also can eat but she doesn’t need to but food is good.

Coffee addiction. Lots of coffee.

6. Okay so it’s a bit hard to pinpoint her timeline, but I’m gonna try my best.

- In the Before times, before Kurokami was Kurokami, she was something else, think of it like a Guardian Angel on crack and also omni-dimensional.

- She basically was that before she started looking after the cast for Persona 5, 4, and 3 in that order. When she was done with Persona 3’s main plot, something… spoilery happened that made her have an epiphany and was basically the catalyst for her to begin her search

- the search being, of course, to become her own functioning person. She eventually found her way to HK universe post Dream No More, and traveled down to The Abyss to dunk herself in Void.

- the most recent adventures were, in this order:

- TMA, where she made friends with Michael distortion and also became a menace to Elias. She rearranged his books and moved his shit semi-weekly

- Octopath 2, where she had huuuuge beef with the final boss for kinda encroaching on her domain cause she’s petty. Also she asked the gods pretty please for her to say hi to their chosen and give ‘em a boost

- A revisit to personas 3, 4, and 5 Royal, where she revisited the place and could do what she actually wanted with Joker and Co. also fucked with Kasumi a little because she wanted to know Her Deal early.

- SMT IV, kinda visited it while passing through, but ended up making friends with Hikaru, so there’s that. So now she’s here to play music and kick ass. Also probably provide moral support for Neutral route via fun music times

-Pokemon X/Y: Yeah this was meant as a bit of a one time thing but here we are. She’s here to hang out with Sycamore (who highkey thinks she’s a Zorarark but doesn’t leave her because science!!!! Breakthroughs in Zorarark behavior!!!) and also spend an entire day working on her new holo caster because SOMEBODY decided to listen in on them. Also she’s there for the main events of the plot and I’m trying to justify Sycamore having fully evolved Kanto starters.

-SMT IV: Apocalypse. She’s gonna go hang out with Hikaru and also hang out with a different traumatized kid. But this one has a knife and is a gremlin. Nanashi gives her wicked flashbacks to TMA and ends up alerting Dagda when she tries to figure out the kids deal. Either way, Nanashi has a new stalker and Dagda has a new nuisance.

7. I have some documents saved on my laptop that are literally just Shit I Wrote for discord friends but I can post em here if you want. They’re kinda mismatched and scattered, but they give the sense of “shit happening in the background.”