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soveryanon · 6 years ago

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Part 3 of The Magnus Archives liveblogging; MAG034 to MAG040 *strangled mix of happy and sad noises* (As usual: contains spoilers (until the end of season 3) that I really should not have known anything about, were I a decent person, with also the possibility that I misunderstood said spoilers.) (One last time: warning for… length.)

… when I had mentioned to @sazandorable about the end of MAG033 that ahaha, Jon’s audible frustration seemed to be his equivalent of (╯°Д°）╯︵ ┻━┻ flipping a table, I had been answered with a “:))) Flipping a table, you say.” And now that I've listened to what followed, obviously, let’s be clear, I’m so, so mad about her comment, but at the same time, it’s the only one I could have ever accepted.

One of the first things I ever heard about the series was Aza commenting about the podcast she was listening to that had one assistant replaced, but nobody had noticed she wasn’t the same. So given that Sasha was the one female assistant… I knew it would be her. The statement about Graham Folger (MAG003) had made me guess that something similar would happen but I hadn’t understood that the problem was apparently the table. So when ~something big~ was delivered in MAG035, then confirmed to be a table in MAG036, I was expecting that it would be the thing that would get Sasha killed, and indeed, the table it was ;; (AND IT STINGS EVEN MORE THAN WHAT I BELIEVED.)

Alternative headlines for this post: - Local man SAVAGELY MURDERS ONE OF MARTIN’S SPIDER ROOMMATES, unleashes worms apocalypse in the process. -

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Because I’m scared, Martin! Because when I record these statements it feels… it feels like I’m being watched.

Me, having been wondering for a while where I stand as a receptor/listener/audience, pen in hand and ready to take notes, wondering how long it will take for him to squeeze out his backstory or any personal information: *whispers softly* I have no idea what you’re talking about, sweetie.

That said.

Gooooooooooooooods, I’m so maaaaaaad about Jon =D

You got me, you scoundrel!!

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Of course, I believe. Of course I do. Have you ever taken a look at the stuff we have in Artefact storage? That’s enough to convince anyone. But, but even before that… Why do you think I started working here? It’s not exactly glamorous. I have… I’ve always believed in the supernatural. Within reason. I mean. I still think most of the statements down here aren’t real. Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe… thirty, forty that are… that go on tape. Now those, I believe, at least for the most part.

I WAS WONDERING SO HARD WHY YOU WERE WORKING THERE, YEAH!!! It was so fitting with his overall… attitude, that yes, he would be a sceptic and dismiss most of the supernatural cases, except for the few that he was a bit more knowledgeable about, mostly Jane Prentiss and the Leitner books. Of course he would, with his elitism and scholar haughtiness!! I had assumed that he would get convinced with due facts over the course of the series. I wasn’t expecting that actually, no, he had always believed in those things and was just lying through his teeth while recording!! Despite the fact that I was strongly suspecting that he was being an Unreliable Narrator!! (I had guessed that yes, he was hiding some information; not that he was purposely trying to mislead whoever was listening when it came to his personal opinions in the matter.)

It mostly gave me two good keys to handle the series: on the one hand, that characters are aware of the oddities around them. Obviously, as a listener, you immediately guess that if only a few statements resist technology, then it might be because these ones are paranormal, unlike the ones that work on computer just fine, which are probably a load of bullcrap; but you also accept that… characters might be a bit dumber, because they’re in a story and, well, it’s easier to guess about the narrative when you’re not inside of it? But nop. They were aware from the start that there are paranormal events around them, that the Institute is a living proof of it, and that the fact that some statements weren’t recording on computer meant something about them.

(MAG039) SASHA: Jon, what did you mean by “real statements”? ARCHIVIST: You know what I mean. The ones that have weird wrinkles, or that just seem to have something solid to them. They all have one thing in common. SASHA: They don’t record digitally. ARCHIVISTl: And we have to use the tape recorder. At this stage, if it records to my laptop I almost don’t bother.

And on the other hand, it also explained to me that Jon, as a main character, might hide things from us (listeners/tape recorders) or from other characters, and that there can be a gap between the moment he does realize something and the moment he feels ready to publicly admit it. Which, obviously, makes things way more challenging!! And interesting!! I’ve been liking him more and more lately anyway but this, by itself, would have been a good reason to decide that okay, yes, I surrender, I do Like Him A Lot as a character. … Okay, no, to be perfectly honest: I do love him as a character, he has achieved that status already.

Jonathan “You smoke?” “Nnnnnoooooo…” Sims

* eufinjkrefdhuinjIUHJNUILBUTHJNIUYB JOOOOOOOONNNNNNN………

(MAG036) TIM: Er, what is it? ARCHIVIST: A lighter. An old Zippo. TIM: You smoke? ARCHIVIST: No. … And I don’t allow ignition sources in my archive!

(I like his tone here! First a bit distant, pensive?, then firm and almost scolding; the Archives are now His Baby and he didn’t want to give Tim any bad ideas, uh.) Ooooh, that self-righteous tone he used followed by the return of his stuck-up voice, which kind of implied “how dare you even suggest I might have smoked one cigarette in my lifetime!! And you better not do it in my Archives or I’ll skin you!!”, vs. three episodes later:

(MAG039) SASHA: […] I think John’s got a lighter somewhere. ELIAS: He’s not smoking again, is he?

… JON, YOU LITTLE SHIT. *buries face in hands* So yeah, he used to smoke, but it doesn’t match with his Respectable Image apparently so he won’t even tell his own assistants. (I’m still HYSTERICAL over his deadpan answer to Tim… yes, this is not a lie, but it’s the moment you should mention you used to smoke if you want to be absolutely honest, and he just. he just didn’t. and dodged. and almost scolded Tim. JON. JON. J O N!!!) * Relatedly, I LOVE HOW HE CAN STILL BE AN ELITIST STUCK-UP ASS IN TIMES OF CRISIS. When ~something~ was banging on the wall and threatening to break it down, and they were assuming that it was Jane Prentiss/the worms:

(MAG039) MARTIN: I thought that wall was meant to be solid?! ARCHIVIST: So did I. We don’t have any sort of weapon, do we? MARTIN: I mean… I mean, I suppose we could use— ARCHIVIST: Don’t say the corkscrew! MARTIN: Okay.

The corkscrew SAVED YOUR LIFE, Jon, show it a bit more respect!! (Poor Martin who just… obeyed this one.) * It’s… not exactly surprising, but noteworthy to point out that Jon never wondered why he was being targeted by Jane Prentiss.

(MAG022) ARCHIVIST: I just received another text message. From you. “Keep him. We have had our fun. He will want to see it when the Archivist’s crimson fate arrives.” MARTIN: What does that mean? ARCHIVIST: It means I ask Elias to hire some extra security.

(MAG039) PRENTISS: Archivist. TIM: Ah. ARCHIVIST: Shit.

Jane Prentiss was here for him, and she/it/they made it pretty clear all along. Yet, Jon never questioned it; why would he, personally, be the one to get targeted? It… does make sense, given Jon’s personality, to think that he just thought that yes, if someone had to be pursued, it would be him, but it’s still curious that he… absolutely rolled with it. Never wondered if he had caused something that would lead him to deserve this situation, or if he had any connection to Jane Prentiss somehow, nothing. (My spoiled self takes note that she used the “Archivist” title every time, and that for her/it/them, Archivists are probably interchangeable? The thing she was becoming hated the last one, so she went after the following one. Is it absolutely because of Martin that she targeted the Archives, because he had accidentally met her, or was she planning to go after them at some point anyway?) * He was all Defensive about “MY ARCHIVE” and all, but his standards dropped quickly when it came to Jane Prentiss vomiting in their files:

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: What’s [Jane Prentiss] doing? MARTIN: I don’t know. She’s messing with the boxes. She’s holding one up and… ahh! ARCHIVIST: What? MARTIN: She’s… She’s destroying them. Sort of. ARCHIVIST: Sort of? MARTIN: Well, I don’t really know what that stuff coming out of her mouth is, but I think we should probably burn them. ARCHIVIST: Right.

I was expecting Jon to take offense about Martin’s suggestion, to scream something along the lines of Over My Dead Body, Martin, but nop. Suddenly, burning their own files doesn’t seem so Out Of The Question anymore, uh. * I realize that I never really wondered about what kind of computer Jon is using for work. I just assumed, I just know he can only be using a Mac (not tech-oriented enough for Linux; way too snobby to use Windows; so Mac it is. Search Your Feelings, You Know It To Be True.) * I was amused and curious at the beginning of MAG034 (the one with Dr. Lionel Elliott), since Jon sounded… way less harsh with him than with Naomi or Melanie, the only live statement-givers so far excluding Martin&Sasha. So I was wondering: was that casual sexism or casual elitism, since Dr. Elliott was a scholar? Was Jon a bit more sympathetic with him because of affinity with fellow academics? AND THEN JON’S POST-STATEMENT MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT WAS BECAUSE “FELLOW ACADEMICS” ARE USUALLY THE ENEMY.

(MAG034) ARCHIVIST: The first thing about this statement that makes me dubious is that it comes from a fellow academic. Historic and prestigious as the Magnus Institute is, there are still many within the sphere of higher education that do not grant it the respect it deserves, and some have been known to make false statements as ill-conceived jokes.

So Jon is able to get cautious when he feels like being an ass could damage the Institute’s reputation, uh? Also, that’s super rich coming from Mister “I was initially inclined to re-file this statement in the ‘Discredited’ section of the Archive, a new category I’ve created that will, I suspect, be housing the majority of these files” (MAG001). It was also super-funny to have… someone who was closer to a “reflection” of Jon himself than previous statement-givers:

(MAG034) ARCHIVIST: And the apple, did you… eat it? DR. ELLIOTT: Do I look like an idiot?!

Take that, Jon =DDD (I mean, yes, sorry Dr Elliott, you probably do look like an idiot to Jon, but then everyone does, and Jon himself has admitted that he is one, so.)

(MAG034) ARCHIVIST: Oh good lord! That’s… DR. ELLIOTT: Deeply unpleasant, yes. You can keep it, if you want. As proof. ARCHIVIST: We do not want it. I’m afraid it isn’t really proof.

“Deeply unpleasant” sounds like something Jon would have usually said, and I’m still cackling hard that Jon Didn’t Want The Apple but used a “we” to cover his own personal disgust before trying to back-up his rejection with ~logical arguments~ (“I just said it was enough of a possibility that I don’t think your… tooth apple has a place in our artefact storage. Also, it is technically medical waste.”), pffft. And he still ended up taking the apple!! Or at least the teeth. * Too classy for puns, but will do them anyway, and TWICE, TO BE SURE THAT EVERYBODY HAS HEARD HIS JOKES, JON PLEASE, YOU NEED A LIFE… YOU NEED FRIENDS THAT AREN’T TAPE RECORDERS… (Especially with his “You should have seen Tim’s face when […]”: if the only “you” in his life is the damn tape recorder, then yeah. Jon no.)

(MAG035) ARCHIVIST: […] On the one hand, this statement represents a complete dead end […]. From an evidence standpoint, this case is a complete bust. […] It seems we’ve reached something of a dead end. No pun intended.

And it wasn’t the first time he was making puns (MAG024: “No details are given, but it apparently required Mr Rentoul’s hospitalisation. I’m reminded of a somewhat tasteless joke about loose tongues.”) and he even had already made this one (MAG029: “Aside from that it’s almost a complete dead end.”) and would again make it later (MAG036: “Another tale full of dead ends.”) So, obligatory “dead end(s)” joke when a death is involved, but he just has trouble owning up to his puns when he makes them, uh. But he does anyway, and it seems like the universe just loves to give him his due for his puns!

(MAG035) ARCHIVIST: […] End recor— Urgh! Goddamn it! [SOUND OF METAL CANISTER BEING KNOCKED] Martin! [DOOR OPENS] Martin, where did you put the rest of the extinguishers? Martin!

Here, that was terrible, have some worms! I’m so fond of the way his voice just… switched, from cold professional sternness to sheer disgust. (It sounded like just another day, at the same time… So yeah, not the first time worms managed to sneak into the Archives at this point, apparently.) * Compared to the last batch of episodes, I had the faint feeling that Jon miiiiight be a bit better lately? That he sounded less tired overall? But then, his conversation with Tim in MAG036 made it obvious that… no, there is still lingering tiredness: he’s less in control of his voice when he’s surprised or questioned, needs more pauses before wording something, sounds like he’s searching for what to say (even though his answers stay sharp)…

(MAG036) TIM: Oh, ah, nothing urgent, um, it’s just Elias was asking a couple questions about the delivery. ARCHIVIST: Delivery? What delivery? TIM: Ah well, that’s actually what he was asking, huh! Um, apparently Martin, uh, took delivery of a couple of items last week addressed to you. Did he not mention it? ARCHIVIST: No, he… Oh, yes, actually. I completely forgot. He said he put it in my desk drawer, hold on.

… and he didn’t even pay attention to the delivery Martin had mentioned. mARTIN IS A GOOD BOY, it’s just you (/your memory) (/your current state) that sucks, Jon!! Someone sure is sleep-deprived, to forget things like this. (Sadly relatable.) The following episode just confirmed that yep, Jon was, in fact, Not Doing Any Better Sleep-wise:

(MAG037) MARTIN: […] Look, you need to get some sleep. [SILENCE] … I’ll see you later. […] ARCHIVIST: […] I have no idea what any of this means. I’m… very tired.

(Or was it because Jon took two statements consecutively? It’s not confirmed that MAG036 and MAG037 took place on the same day but it’s most likely: MAG036 ended with Jon announcing that he needed to talk to Martin, with some urgency, and MAG037 began with Jon ordering Martin to repeat what he had said on tape, and then using the same tape for his next statement.) Anyway, Martin has noticed that Jon is not fine ;____; * AND MARTIN NOTICED AGAIN that Jon is not fine in MAG040, as soon as the record begins, and despite the fact that Martin himself is exhausted:

(MAG040) MARTIN: [Tired] I mean, I already told the police. ARCHIVIST: Well, now tell me. I need to hear it, I need to record it. MARTIN: I… alright. … Are you okay? ARCHIVIST: Fine. Painkillers are starting to wear off, but… It’s fine.

(Martin’s small tired voice, while Jon’s was more impatient/jumpy, with the usual sharpness… but yeah, way less controlled. Pain sneaking its way back into his system.) The fact that the painkillers’ effects were wearing off and that the real state of his body was catching up on Jon was audible just with the way he was introducing statements this time around:

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Statement of Elias Bouchard, Head of the Magnus Institute, regarding the… infestation, by the… entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July 2016. … Whenever you’re ready.

[…] ARCHIVIST: […] Anyway. Statement of Timothy Stoker, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, regarding the infestation by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July 2016. Just… take it from when you got back from lunch.

[…] ARCHIVIST: Statement of Sasha James, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, regarding the invasion by the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss. Statement recorded direct from subject, 29th July 2016. In your own time.

[…] ARCHIVIST: […] It’s fine. Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant, etcetera, etcetera. Go.

From getting back to the gist of it with Elias (and having to summarize what happened with Jane Prentiss in a few words), to repeating it almost words for words with Tim and Sasha (I hate your memory, Jon.), to butchering it with Martin because he is all out of spoons. * Though yeah, Jon A Bit High On Painkillers was a thing at the beginning of MAG040, too:

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Our friends in the hazmat suits gave me a clean bill of health, bloody holes notwithstanding. And they seemed quite keen to quarantine anyone showing even the slightest sign of infection. It’s just… pain.

He was a bit nasal and out of it at the beginning of this one, that “Our friends in–” was hilarious, and I’m… not surprised, but howling a bit that Jon, even when exhausted and just coming out of traumatic events, with drugs in his system, casually uses the word “notwithstanding” (nonobstant!). Not fine, but still himself.

* I did notice that from MAG035 to MAG038, Jon was… not tearing down statements to pieces anymore in his follow-ups, not really. Those ones were a bunch of sad stories, and I wondered if Jon was trying to avoid being completely insensitive about these people (he was less judgemental, more neutral about the impossibility to cross-check information), or if he was just tired and fed up, or if he was getting convinced that yes, maybe, maybe there were dark forces at work down there… With MAG039’s reveals in mind, it’s probably that he was caring less and less about His Plan To Pretend That He Was Not Believing, uh ;; (But I’m glad I did notice that he sounded… less and less sceptic. Congrats, Jon, you kept that up for months!). * Does Jon even listen to his own recordings so far? It seems unlikely, since Tim had brought up a list of mistakes (MAG033) and Martin’s conversation with Breekon&Hope was recorded after MAG035’s statement, but Jon didn’t sound like he had heard it in MAG036 nor at the beginning of MAG037 (he asked for all the details that Martin could remember, but he could have had the audio information, at the very least, if he had listened to their conversation – or maybe he wanted the visual details?). We didn’t have any mention that not!Sasha had harmed the tape from MAG039 that Jon had kept, and the real Sasha had talked on that one too, so if Jon doesn’t realize soon that the voices are different… it might hint that he never relistened to that one either; which is a bit more understandable in that particular case (it was a testimony of his own traumatic experience, and he’s been clearly shaken by it). But overall: I don’t even know if it’s bad archiving practice, but at the very least: not proof-reading (/proof-listening?) is bad researching practice and Jon is giving me second-hand embarrassment. (<3)

(MAG037) ARCHIVIST: Waste of tape, really. [Martin]’s right. Might as well get some use out of it.

So Jon had a statement ready to be read…? Although he had recorded one not too long ago…? When would he have chosen to record this one, if not for the recorder being already on? (Also, please, someone explain to Jon that you can wipe and overwrite tapes. To get a fresh empty one for a later statement. Do students and researchers really need to hear you pressuring poor Martin to repeat the same information and being an overall ass to him?) * About Jon’s unreliability – or, at least, the fact that he isn’t sharing Everything with us. When he learned from Tim about the table that was delivered to the Institute for him, he inquired:

(MAG036) ARCHIVIST: Tim… Tim, it doesn’t have a hole in it, does it? About six inches square?

… But the only description we had of the table so far was Amy Patel’s, who had mentioned “the middle of the table, where there was nothing but a small square hole” (MAG003). There was no mention of the size of the hole. So I was wondering: was Jon able to know this because he’s actually getting supernaturally immersed in the statements (insert here all the imagery about falling/diving into a book, living the story as you read, etc.) and notices a lot more details than what was technically written, when he reads them? But then, when I mentioned this to Aza, she laughed and said that I also could have guessed the size of the hole on my own. … and yup, there sure was a mention of an item of that size: “a small wooden box, about six inches square” from Ivo Lensik’s statement (MAG008). Which means that THIS FUCKER CONNECTED THOSE DOTS AND DIDN’T BOTHER MENTIONING HIS CONCLUSIONS ONTAPE. EFF YOOOOOU JOOOOOON, HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME. He guessed that the box that was destroyed on November 2006 (MAG008) was the item that was supposed to fit into Graham Folger’s table – Graham having been “replaced” on April 7th 2006 (MAG001) – and never mentioned any of it, it’s just. RUDE. RUDE, JON. RUDE. * brb, still rolling on the floor over the fact that the Scepticism Was All An Act… Because JON WAS SCARED…….

(MAG039) MARTIN: Then why do you— ARCHIVIST: Because I’m scared, Martin! Because when I record these statements it feels… it feels like I’m being watched. I… I lose myself a bit. And then when I come back, it’s like… like if I admit there may be any truth to it, whatever’s watching will… know somehow. The scepticism, feigning ignorance. It just felt safer. MARTIN: Well… It wasn’t. ARCHIVIST: No. No, it wasn’t. Still, it’s not my fault we’re going to be eaten by worms.

That sounds very convoluted and at the same time… understandable and raw? Human? The fact that Jon was searching for his words and clearly remembering something unpleasant… aouch… I was wondering about the effects these statements had on Jon, Jane Prentiss’s aside, and aouch, he is able to tell that… there is something more. (Is that feeling due to their god, since I know there is somethingsomething about feeding the monster, or is that Elias in particular?) (And I love how Jon switches from giving a genuine confession about how he really feels and showing vulnerability… to compensating with bratty defence. “Still, it’s not my fault we’re going to be eaten by worms.” lISTEN, yes, technically not your fault, but Prentiss also quite clearly targets you and you only, so you could at least sympathize with Martin about how it’s even less his fault.) * Jon himself acknowledging that he is an idiot is… Beautiful…

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: [Bitter laugh] I hope so. Only an idiot would stay in this job. MARTIN: [Chuckles] Wouldn’t that make you an idiot? ARCHIVIST: Yes, Martin, that was my point.

(Fortunately, Martin does things that Jon sees as “stupid”, too, so hey! Good match.

(MAG039) MARTIN: Well, so the worms didn’t know they were there! Look, I know it’s stupid. ARCHIVIST: Yes. Yes it is. They’re just… they’re just unclassified parasites. They don’t have consciousness, they can’t plan, they’re just an unthinking infection.

I’m still “………..” over the fact that Jon can word it that way with a straight face/voice.) * He countered Martin’s pessimism later but there was also an instance where he was… very grim and matter-of-fact, resigned, about Tim’s chances of survival, and it hurt.

(MAG039) SASHA: Turn around. Just turn around. MARTIN: Oh god. There she is, there she is. ARCHIVIST: [Muttering] There’s nothing we can do.

But in the same episode, there was ultimately some Trust And Complicity between Tim and Jon, that I’m not really able to describe.

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] I’m recording this in case— TIM: In case the trapdoor opens back into the Archives and Prentiss is there to kill us. ARCHIVIST: In as many words, yes. Tim? TIM: Alright. [TRAPDOOR IS PUSHED OPEN TO SOUND OF FIRE ALARM AND LOTS OF WRITHING] PRENTISS: Archivist. TIM: Ah. ARCHIVIST: Shit. [CLICK]

If it had been Martin, Jon would have snapped, probably. But Tim summarizing their worst case scenario like this? Got a free pass. (Also, that was, once again, one hell of a way to end an episode. JON. JON SAID “SHIT”. HOLY FUCKING FUCK. You knew it means Seriously Bad.) ;; They went in that… together, uh. Despite the fact that Tim was clearly collateral damage. * I had wondered a lot about whether or not Jon was afraid of dying, or had a special stance about death… and it sounds like it was more a matter of how he could die, without being able to have a say in the circumstances surrounding it. As a result, Jon sounded past everything, reaching a point in which okay, yes, he could laugh about the possibility of dying, it was coming and he could try to face it since it would be on his terms (recording everything). I am also a bit surprised that apparently, he is way more afraid of dying of ~rational~ causes (bullets means guns means clear intent from a human behind the act) than from a supernatural entity.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Gertrude Robinson, the last Archivist at the Magnus Institute, and my predecessor, was murdered. […] She was killed, in the Archives, by someone who used a gun… and that scares me far more than any spectre or twisted creature. Because that means someone here is a killer. […] There is something in these files, in these statements. I know that now, some deeper mystery. I think Gertrude Robinson found it, and I think that is why they killed her.

The… sheer… dread… in Jon’s voice in that second sentence… (complete with a self-depreciative half-laugh/shaking of voice)……. his delivery was slower, way less firm than usual, and I wanted to learn more about Jon, I wanted to get to know the real actual Jon under the layers of this façade, and I’m getting it… through the form of terror… * There were a string of declarations about “seeing” starting MAG038, mostly from Jon, which culminated with Sasha’s death and replacement at the end of MAG039, and aouch T_T First, Jon and the spider:

(MAG038) ARCHIVIST: […] Urgh. Urgh. [SOUND OF CHAIR SCRAPING] I see you…

(MAG038) SASHA: […] Do you see anything? […] ARCHIVIST: No, I don’t think so, it… [WORM SOUND INTENSIFIES] Sasha, run. RU—

(You don’t see worms, you hear/smell them first…?)

(MAG039) SASHA: Do you see Prentiss? If we could get her— MARTIN: I, I, I don’t see her! I don’t see her! I don’t see her! I don’t see her!

(MAG039) SASHA: Can you see what’s going on out there? MARTIN: Ish. When did we last clean these doors? ARCHIVIST: What can you see?

(MAG039) MARTIN: There! There, there, there! I see him! SASHA: Oh god, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t see them.

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Right. There we go. Martin, what do you see? […] I need you to describe what’s going on.

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] Speaking of, can you see anything? MARTIN: I don’t know. I can’t see because the window is covered in worms.

(MAG039) TIM: Why do you have a second tape recorder, Martin? MARTIN: Oh, um… well, I’ve been using it to record myself. I write poetry and I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm. ARCHIVIST: … I see.

(MAG039) SASHA: […] [Hushed and panicked] Jon! Jon, I think there’s someone here. Hello? I see you. Show yourself.

(MAG039) NOT!SASHA: [Words warped] Hello? … I see you. [FOOTSTEPS] [Clearly] I see you.

(… In a lot of cases, circumstances and tones, though, Martin was saying that he couldn’t see. Mm…) * I had discovered tired!Jon with last batch of episodes, but I now have… shaken!Jon. Very, very shaken Jon. He insists on getting other people’s statements in MAG040, despite not being fine, and in the end… we don’t know, technically, what happened when Tim and Jon went face to holes-in-the-face with Prentiss? Jon insists on skipping the subject every time it comes up (because he already knows what happened to him): but what happened exactly? Did they have time to try to flee? Did they scramble to get away? Was it Prentiss launching worms at them (like with the nurses when she had been hospitalized), was it a wave of worms covering them? Was it slower, a few worms biting them, allowing them to still be conscious of the others coming, allowing them to cling on to the hope that they might manage to flee? Was it quick, was it excruciating minutes? Jon doesn’t want to share that story (at least for now?), and when that timeframe comes up in discussions, his breathing, pretty often… becomes Wrong:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I do apologise that it took me quite so long to figure out how to actually work the system. If I’d been quicker… ARCHIVIST: It’s fine. We’re alive. ELIAS: … Yes… Well. […]

(Grunts noises from Jon, towards the end, before he cuts Elias short.) (Also, Elias didn’t ask Jon to define that “We” and :[)

(MAG040) TIM: […] Could’ve been worse though, eh? Another couple of minutes and— ARCHIVIST: Yes. … Yes. It was… … Anyway. […]

That was Jon cutting him and stopping the words (didn’t want to hear how it could have been worse – to picture that it could have been worse. Jon’s distress tends to express in ragged breathing, while Tim’s is more in his expirations.

(MAG040) NOT!SASHA: I went over to check, and you were alive, so I pulled you back to where there was more air and began to remove the worms. Are you alright? ARCHIVIST: Sorry, just… difficult to hear, you know.

Heeeeeeeeeee was breathing very heavily. It’s hard, for him, to hear anything about when he came into contact with the worms. * I already know about Jon’s Compulsion power, I’ve been very attentive to when he was asking questions, to try to guess if it could be there or not, and there hadn’t been a “oh, that might be it?” moment… UNTIL MAG040.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Martin. How did Gertrude Robinson die? MARTIN: I don’t know – not for sure. It was so dark, and I only saw the body for a few seconds. The police were quite clear that the cause of death could be absolutely any— ARCHIVIST: MARTIN, how did she die?! MARTIN: She was shot! Three times, that I could see. … Three shots to the chest. ARCHIVIST: Right. … Right… Thank you Martin. MARTIN: … Sure.

1°) I’m guessing that yes, the thing about the compulsion is that… it will go undetected for a while, because obviously, ordering an answer is close to demanding one, and by essence, people come to talk with Jon, so they’re less likely to refuse to give him answers. But here, I got a chill, because: was Martin trying to avoid to say that Gertrude had been shot (to not upset Jon further), or had he been unable to remember, before this exchange, that he had actually seen her with bullet wounds in her body? Could be both; either Martin was circling with weak excuses, either he was genuinely reminding Jon of the context to explain that he hadn’t seen the body in details… and then was suddenly able to tell. (As a result, it’s… not sure that the police knows about the bullet wounds. Martin’s sentence was actually going in the other direction; but he could have been trying to bullshit Jon then ;;) 2°) Their tones escalate, Jon’s voice is VERY firm when he pressures Martin, and then Martin also spoke in a louder voice… and right after, it passed. Their voices were super thin, almost whispers. 3°) … I’m crying that, yeah, if it was the compulsion-I-heard-about… it looks like the first time Jon used it was on Martin. On Martin. That’s… so horrible, why is it always Martin?! ;____; * I’m… very emotional over Jon’s enthusiasm when he explained how he actually works, what he truly thinks, what he finds interesting in the Institute, etc. He was so passionate! Sounded so alive when he explained his reasoning! There was adrenalin, there was fear and pain, there was urgency and danger, and he was… past that? There was some pure, genuine, untainted glee about how… things are currently a puzzle, and he wants to piece things together, he wants to keep working on these things, he want to tackle the work that still needs to be done, while being well aware of the bad aspects (he feels watched, he feels scared, but he knows that they've put their finger on something). With his own restrictions unbuckled, I don’t think I had ever heard Jon so genuine and simply… happy. (Happy to talk about what he is passionate about? Happy to drop the act? Happy to be able to be seen for what he is?)

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Look, even if you ignore the walking soil-sack out there, and the fact that we are probably minutes from death, there is still so much more happening here. MARTIN: I’m not sure we can really ignore the— ARCHIVIST: Every real statement just leads… deeper into something I don’t even know the shape of yet.

1°) mARTIN (I love/hate how Jon just. Ignores him sometimes x’D But Martin is right, it’s not like they could make abstraction of the current issues.) 2°) Jon sounding passionate and genuinely interested in what he does!! … On the other hand, I’m sobbing in advance: this is why he is ~good~ for the work, but it’s… not a good thing at the same time, is it. His personality fits, but fits so well that it’s also why he is doomed, isn’t he. The curiosity, the “need” (craving) to know at any cost… * … On that note, it’s horrifying to realize that… yes, Jon never questioned why Jane Prentiss targeted him personally. But also: that Jon himself didn’t do anything during the crisis except using the tape recorders, giving reports of what was happening, and asking others (Martin) to describe what they were seeing when he himself couldn’t get up. He didn’t kill worms (he shouted to Martin to get the fire extinguishers); he had trouble taking decisions (and Martin led them to the backroom); we didn’t even hear him removing worms from the others (but we got to hear Sasha crushing one that had previously been buried in him); he didn’t try to warn Tim (unlike Sasha and Martin) or to save him (like Sasha did); Tim was the one to destroy the wall and to lead them in the tunnels, to open the trapdoor… Jon did nothing but witness and record what others were doing. (And yet, he got the worst of it, along with Tim ;;) * Yay, Jon got terrible experiences! But he faced them with Tim! Yeah, okay, he sounded too adamant about getting proof of people’s official stances of things, and it sounded more like he was trying to see if there was any contradiction or if someone had lied by cross-checking testimonies–

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Fine! Fine. I’ll go home as soon as I have everyone’s statements.

–but maybe after this traumatic event, it will lead to more friendliness and camaraderie amongst the staff, they have bonded, and the power of friendship will–

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: […] but I cannot trust anyone. I’m going to figure this out, and I’m not going to stop. … They’ll have to kill me first. End recording.

noooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! (And it comes from someone who is terrified of dying!!! Jon, what the fuck!! Don’t!!!)

I’m really fond of the fact that in the end… Jon is not exactly a “narrator” but still acts a bit like it for us listeners (he’s a mediation between us and the story, it’s through him and what he accepts to tell us that we’re able to discover this universe) and at the same time, hides. Hides information from us, hides himself from us; it makes me want to know more about him, despite the fact that he is the character we’re following? He makes concessions sometimes, lets some things slip, but it’s overall hard to know what he’s thinking, what he’s planning. At this point, I have this question nagging in my mind, I want to know (and maybe it is the core of the story): Who is Jon? Who is he as a person? What does he think and feel, under his facades? (… and the only way for me to know that is through the tapes, isn't it. And “discovering/learning who Jon is” is precisely what the Beholding is doing through the tapes, isn’t it. I would like to know more about him, but it’s also impossible to do that without him getting hurt, isn’t it…)

Martin Blackwood

^It was an headline from the French equivalent of The Onion from last month aND IT WAS FITTING. * Martin writes poetry!!! <333

(MAG039) TIM: Why do you have a second tape recorder, Martin? MARTIN: Oh, um… well, I’ve been using it to record myself. I write poetry and I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm.

And heeeeeee’s now using a tape recorder, too. Great. (D:) He also temporarily acted as Jon’s eyes when they were hiding in the sealed room (MAG039)… so it sounds like he’s walking in Jon’s footsteps, uh. * Did he get a new phone, at the very least, since Jane Prentiss had kept it in MAG022 (and texted Jon). What did she do of the phone afterwards. Did the Institute pay for Martin's new phone, or not even. * He had been living in the Archives for four months when Jane Prentiss attacked ;; … And he has squirrel-like tendencies, apparently, hoarding fire extinguishers:

(MAG035) ARCHIVIST: […] Martin, where did you put the rest of the extinguishers? Martin!

(MAG039) MARTIN: … Maybe. Maybe, maybe he found the spare CO2. ARCHIVIST: Spare? What? Where? I never saw any. MARTIN: Oh, I, er… I, I hid them in old casefile boxes. ARCHIVIST: What, why? MARTIN: Well, so the worms didn’t know they were there! Look, I know it’s stupid.

(MAG039) TIM: Funny story really. I ran into the office, worms everywhere, horrible death and everything, tripped and fell in some boxes and there were like 20 cans of gas in there.

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] in fact I was getting ready to raise the issue of Martin’s continuing to live in the Institute’s basement, especially as I believe he’s been stealing fire extinguishers.

(Listen, I. I relistened to this last one many many times and it’s unrelated but I need to share this: jON CHUCKLED AT THIS!! At least, there was air coming out through his nose, and it definitely sounded like a chuckle. Martin did something that cracks Jon up. Martin!! Martin, you scored!!!) Anyway, he stashed these fire extinguishers in Jon’s office aND IT SAVED TIM, give this boy a raise!! Also, the heck Elias, there could surely be other reasons than “I’m suspecting him of stealing fire extinguishers” to reconsider having someone living in your workplace for four months. * … Martin and spiders continue to be a Thing, uh.

(MAG016) ARCHIVIST: […] But as I told Martin earlier, he was there for over a week, so there is very likely a perfectly natural explanation for the fact that his body was completely encased in web.

(MAG022) MARTIN: […] I like spiders. Big ones, at least. Y’know, y’know the ones you can see some fur on; I actually think they’re sort of cute—

(MAG022) MARTIN: […] And then I remembered that I’d seen quite a lot of spider webs in the brief time I was down there, and maybe I should check it out again. I mean, like I said, I’m not really afraid of spiders. So… I went back for another look.

(MAG038) ARCHIVIST: Ah… Yeah, a… a spider. […] I tried to kill it… […] SASHA: Did you get it? ARCHIVIST: Ah… I hope so. Think so. Nasty, bulbous looking thing. SASHA: [Chuckles] Well, I won’t tell Martin. ARCHIVIST: Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem.

(MAG039) MARTIN: I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck. […] No, no… it’s just that whatever web these statements have caught you in, well, I’m there too.

(More on that last one later.)

(MAG040) MARTIN: […] There was dust on everything. […] No worms. No cobwebs. Just… an old corpse. Gertrude Robinson.

(It’s… very strange of Martin to point out the absence of cobwebs. Mentioning absence of worms was logical, since they were the Main Threat, but why spontaneously notice that there were no trace of spiders…?) So!! Since Jon said that:

(MAG037) ARCHIVIST: […] We’re not in the business of destroying knowledge.

… Martin, you should really, really nickname all the spiders roaming around the archives variations of “Knowledge”. “Big Knowledge”, “Valuable Knowledge”, “Precious Knowledge”, “Important Knowledge (DO NOT KILL)”. Maybe, then, Jon would leave the creatures in peace. I do remember that Carlos Vittery had mentioned that there might be so many spiders around his flat because of the worms (MAG016: “Our building had acquired something of an infestation of some sort of insect I didn’t recognise – small, silvery worms, almost like maggots but slightly longer – and I assume that they provided a good meal for the eight-legged little monsters.”), and that Jane Prentiss herself had mentioned spiders in her attic when she discovered the nest (MAG032: “Was it the spiders? There were webs in the corners, around the entryway into the attic. I would watch them scurry and disappear in between the wooden boards. ‘Where are you going, little spiders?’ I would think. ‘What are you seeing in the dark? Is it food? Prey? Predators?’ […] Webs have a song as well, of course, but it is not the song of the hive.”). It sounds like spiders and worms are tied to entities that do not… really get along – or that spiders have the upper hand over the worms, overall. So, given that Jon discovered the infestation because a spider went to the wall in MAG038… was the spider attracted by the food? Was it tied to the lighter with the “spider web design” that Jon received in MAG035 and discovered in MAG036? Was it trying to attract the staff’s attention to get them to discover the worms before they would be ready to strike? … was it trying to warn Martin specifically, because hey, hey, friend, look! you’re in danger! there are some things behind the wall, but I have your back bro? * With Jon admitting that he had felt… observed, and the fact that there is still no official reason for him to have dissed Martin so hard before MAG022, I wonder if the two mightn't actually be linked. Sasha had mentioned, too, that she was apparently perceiving Martin as the weakest of the bunch (MAG026: “Martin is a great researcher, but his self-preservation instincts are not the strongest, and to be frank I thought that if this Prentiss were a danger everyone seemed to think, then he’d almost certainly be dead.”), and it didn’t sound like Jon was disagreeing with her – quite the contrary, he trusts her overall. … could it be possible that Jon purposely makes a point of portraying Martin as this incompetent, useless assistant when recording, hoping that if “things” were going to go after the staff members, then Martin could probably be spared if deemed too insignificant and not worth it? It’s just a hypothesis, I’m not firmly believing it, but it would then portray some of Jon’s decisions in another light: Jon thought he would protect the weakest assistant (while Tim and Sasha sounded competent enough to deal with mysterious forces), but then Martin was targeted first, and Jon would have realized that he had in fact miscalculated and designated him as the easiest one to target, hence the offer for Martin to stay in the Archives, protected. (I’m more ready to believe that it was either something spider-related on their first few days as coworkers, or something supernatural in Martin himself that makes people look down on him… but I find interesting to consider the possibility, now that I know that yes, Jon can lie, and will lie if he feels that it’s making his world safer.) * I Have So Many Feelings Over Jon & Martin’s ~heart-to-heart thing~ (AND IT’S JON WHO CALLED IT THAT…):

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] Why are you here Martin? MARTIN: Well, well, Prentiss is out there and you can’t run so— ARCHIVIST: I mean at the Archive in general. Why haven’t you quit? MARTIN: Are you giving me my review now? ARCHIVIST: No… We’re clearly doing a whole heart-to-heart thing and, truth be told, the question’s been bothering me. You’ve been living in the Archives for four months, constant threat of… this. Sleeping with a fire extinguisher and a corkscrew. Even you must be aware that that’s not normal for an archiving job? Why are you still here? MARTIN: [Considering] Don’t really know. I just am. It didn’t feel right to just leave. I’ve typed up a few resignation letters, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hand them in. I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck. ARCHIVIST: Martin…You’re not, uh… You didn’t die here, did you? MARTIN: What? What? N-No… what?! ARCHIVIST: No, I just… No, just the way you phrased that... MARTIN: Made you think I was a ghost? ARCHIVIST: No… it’s— MARTIN: No, no… it’s just that whatever web these statements have caught you in, well, I’m there too. We all are, I think. [Sigh] … … A ghost? Really? ARCHIVIST: [Tiredly] Shut up Martin.

1°) Martin’s spontaneous answer is to mention the fact that he doesn’t want to abandon Jon in this precise situation!! Even when he hadn’t understood what Jon was really talking about!! (And he… kind of went back to the same kind of thing at the end, overall: that Jon is there, and that he’s staying there.) 2°) Jon never gave them their individual review before, did he. 3°) “WE’RE CLEARLY DOING A WHOLE HEART-TO-HEART THING” J O N… ;w; (I love how he still manages to be a bit dismissive of the concept, with that “thing”.) 4°) Jon, even before all the worms: is it normal for an archiving job to deal with all the stuff you’re dealing with in the statements. 5°) … JON THOUGHT THAT MARTIN MIGHT HAVE BEEN DEAD ALL ALONG… Martin getting so offended and not letting it go… (Was Jon ashamed of that one, since he went back to Dick Mode and told him to shut up at the end. Accusing someone of being a ghost sounded pretty stupid, granted <3) * My heart feels warm and fuzzy at the evolution from Jon dissing Martin when he wasn’t able to bring back some information (MAG014: “[Martin] could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.”), to… accepting that if Martin wasn’t able to, then it’s not his fault but exterior circumstances (MAG036: “[…] Martin’s research would seem to indicate the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books, but it doesn’t explain why none of the officially-listed staff can be located for follow-up […].”) ;w; Martin is not deemed as incompetent anymore, he’s a researcher on the same level as the others now. * Even when he tries his best, though, he still had trouble getting his points across:

(MAG035) MARTIN: I’m sorry, are you two meant— […] Look, you really can’t actually— BREEKON: Package for Jonathan Sims. HOPE: Says right here. MARTIN: Well, I don’t really know where he— HOPE: We’ll just leave it with you. BREEKON: Be sure he gets it. MARTIN: Okay, I– I will, but you really do have to actually— BREEKON: ‘course. Much obliged. HOPE: Stay safe. MARTIN: … … I’ll… try? BREEKON: Your recorder’s on, by the way. HOPE: Might want to change that. MARTIN: Oh… hum… so it is. Thanks. BREEKON: No problem. HOPE: At all.

He was utterly dominated (verbally) by Breekon&Hope all through the exchange (they cut his sentences, led the conversation; probably were on each side of him, physically, a bit threatening, cornering him?), and it does sound like he got the ominous vibe from that “Stay safe” (his “I’ll… try?” was sooo cute). Despite it all, he keeps trying ><! He can also be pretty pessimistic and picturing the worst easily:

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Stay with it, Martin. Tim. What happened to Tim? MARTIN: They got split up and he ran into the office. You said that’s where you made the hole. When you were recording. And they all came through, so… he’s dead. He’s dead in there and he’s covered in worms and that’s it. ARCHIVIST: We don’t know that. MARTIN: … Maybe […].

* AOUCH AOUCH AOUCH… So Martin did mention the feeling of being trapped, with a sort of resignation? when it came to working in the Institute,

(MAG039) MARTIN: I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck.

… but that feeling was more raw when he lost himself in the tunnels:

(MAG040) MARTIN: […] I was trying to go back – not that I knew what back even meant down there – when I heard the scream. I don’t even know how to go about describing it, but I thought… well I hoped… Well, when I started to find the shrivelled bodies of worms all over the place, I knew she was dead. […] So I wanted to get out of there. I was looking for a way up, but it felt more and more like I was trapped. […] When I finally found a door, I thought it might actually get out, but instead…

And he did mention that he had a torch on him when he was down there (MAG040: “I, I always keep my torch on me, ever since I moved into the Archives so, I had that, at least.”), and…….. shit. It’s because he’s claustrophobic, isn’t it. (MAG015, Jon: “Martin declined to help with this investigation as he’s ‘a bit claustrophobic’”) He truly had prepared himself for the worst; ending in a dark, closed place, and the staff getting attacked by worms (he had the corkscrew ready to remove them…). * I’m all the more sad, as a result, that spontaneously (when frustrated or stressed), Jon goes back to… being dismissive of him, very casually.

(MAG037) ARCHIVIST: [Rosie] says the same as you. Two men, doesn’t know how they got in, too intimidated to ask, looked “exactly like you’d expect”. Useless… MARTIN: S-sorry… Look, John, I do think we should destroy the table, though. I mean, if it’s the one from Amy Patel’s statement. Just in case. ARCHIVIST: Elias told me the same thing. Luckily he phrased it as advice rather than an instruction, so for now I’m more inclined to keep studying it. We’re not in the business of destroying knowledge. MARTIN: I suppose. Can I go now? ARCHIVIST: Yes, go on. MARTIN: Thank you.

1°) I’m inclined to go “inb4 Martin was right” but at the same time, Elias was going in the same direction so mayyyybe not. (Or is it a matter of Elias allowing himself to be able to say “I told you so!” later on.) 2°) mY HEART BLED AT THIS “Useless…”??? JON, HOW FUCKING DARE U. And Martin answering with a stammering “S-sorry” ;___; And Martin asking permission to leave, and Jon… granting it?? Like Martin was a scolded child??? Fuck you, Jon!! All the bad things that will happen to you might be proportional to the ways you treated Martin, you can’t blame karma for biting you back in the butt!!!

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] Martin has disappeared. […] during one of the more alarming encounters, Martin ran off. TIM: He thought we were behind him, I think. ARCHIVIST: He didn’t think at all. Tim was with me, and my leg slowed me down. He must have taken a turn we didn’t see or something. We lost him. […]

Jon… still expected the worse from him? That Martin forgot about them? Which yes, could have been the case, but it’s still… going for the most individualistic (although understandable if you’re not Jon) option. Even Tim took Martin’s defence here? And according to Martin, it’s what happened!! Martin didn’t leave them on purpose!! ;_;

(MAG040) MARTIN: No, I mean… I’m sorry I left you. ARCHIVIST: … Oh Martin. MARTIN: [Tearful] It was an accident. I thought you two were with me! I mean, the worms came at us, and they were so much faster, and then there was the gas, and the running, and I just… I, I thought you were right behind me. But when I turned round you were gone. You were both gone. It was an accident. ARCHIVIST: I know. It’s fine, Martin.

Jonathan “I know” Sims, you trashtalked him behind his back in the previous episode!! :| (And Martin feels guilty about it, and I’m heartbroken, his VOICE when he apologizes and explains again and again that… he hadn’t wanted to leave them behind…) * WHY DOES MARTIN APOLOGIZE SO MUCH… You do nothing wrong, sweetie!!! ;___; Even when fucking effing JON praised him, even when Martin had saved their lives, it still ended up with Martin apologizing, somehow???

(MAG039) MARTIN: […] Look, you guys got to go home every day, okay. I didn’t! I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to do when… well, y’know, this happens. ARCHIVIST: [Softly] Well… thank you. SASHA: That’s why we’re here? MARTIN: Yeah. The room’s sealed, I checked it myself when I moved in. ARCHIVIST: Climate controlled, as well. Strong door. Soundproof. [Sigh] These old files are far better protected than we ever were. Alright, I’ll grant you it’s a good place to lay low, but— SASHA: They could still come in through the air con. ARCHIVIST: Not easily. And… not en masse. It is actually safe. MARTIN: Ha! ARCHIVIST: Except, of course, that we’re trapped. MARTIN: Ah… yeah. … sorry.

(It was super pessimistic of Jon to present it as them being “trapped”, though? Sure, they would feel trapped twenty-four hours later, but right now: they’re safe, they’re protected, they can’t be harmed, and someone would have likely noticed their absences before the end of the day and/or the worms would have been noticed first, prompting some reactions from the Institute, since the ECDC apparently Knows How To Deal with these worms. Why present them as being “trapped” when they’re basically in a bunker during an attack? … Jon had complained about the fact that Martin had confessed about being a bit claustrophobic back in MAG015, but maybe Jon himself is and doesn’t want to admit it?) And, of course, Martin breaking down in MAG040…

(MAG040) MARTIN: Right. Well, I was doing some background checks for case 0081709, when you and Sasha started screaming, so I went to ch— ARCHIVIST: Yes, yes, yes, I was there! I was with you for almost the whole time, and that tape. survived. just fine. MARTIN: … sorry. ARCHIVIST: Ah, it’s fine, I just… I only need from when you got separated – from when you got lost in the tunnels. MARTIN: No, I mean… I’m sorry I left you. ARCHIVIST: … oh, Martin. MARTIN: [Tearful] It was an accident. I thought you two were with me, I mean, the worms came at us, and they were so much faster, and then there was the gas, and the running, and I just… I, I thought you were right behind me. But when I turned round you were gone, you were both gone. It was an accident. ARCHIVIST: I know. It’s fine, Martin. Everybody’s… [sigh] Everyone’s fine. I just need you to tell me what happened next, and then, it’s finished.

… Martin’s slow voice, getting harshly cut by Jon; Martin’s weak voice and little countenance…….. His “I’m sorry I left you” which is just… Martin isn’t on the verge of crying, but his words are moist, trying not to crumble, small voice and probably small lip movements?? And then his voice shivers and shakes and my HEART SHATTERS JON, YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING TO DESERVE MARTIN……. T______T (But Martin is so upset that even Jon relents and tries to calm him down!! Jon doesn’t get angry at him, he… feels that it wouldn’t work with Martin and/or feels bad about putting him in this state ;_;) The fact that Martin feels GUILTY over getting lost… feels like he abandoned Tim and Jon….. MARTIN T_______T * But at the same time, Martin keeps surprising me!! I somehow always end up expecting him to be meek and shy, and there are hesitations, there is uneasiness, there are apologies, he has trouble getting heard by the others, pretty often… but he’s also so much more, every time. He had planned ahead for the case the worms would invade the Archives – while Jon was just unable to give any direction about what they should do when it happened. He’s able to come back and to say things that need to be said, like when he questioned Jon’s decision (/ adamant requests/orders) to get Martin’s declaration on tape at the beginning of MAG037; even if he complied (begrudgingly), even if he stammered a “S-sorry”, even if he took Jon’s remarks in stride, he also…

(MAG037) MARTIN: […] Look, you need to get some sleep. [SILENCE] … I’ll see you later.

… pointed out A Deeper Problem regarding Jon. As advice? As a defence? Both? In any case, I would have expected Tim to point it out to Jon, so good surprise to hear Martin doing it. (I pictured Martin as… watching Jon intensely from the doorway, eyebrows slowly twisting in worry? And Jon not crossing his eyes, staring a wall, like a bored/sulky child, just waiting for him to piss off. And AOUCH. Martin ;; I’m just… Martin just got pushed and pressured, Jon was downright insulting here and there (mostly with second-degree remarks), and Martin… still left a ~door open~ with his “I’ll see you later”………… ;; Not wanting to give up on Jon, uh… Martin Cares…) And, of course, he called Jon out for the scepticism!! He had noticed!! He… wasn’t even feeling betrayed by Jon’s behaviour, he had seen through it – he was annoyed that Jon would lie like this!!

(MAG039) MARTIN: Seriously?! ARCHIVIST: What? MARTIN: Why do you do that? ARCHIVIST: Do what? MARTIN: Push the sceptic thing so hard!? I mean, it made sense at first, but now? After everything we’ve seen, after everything you’ve read! I hear you recording statements and y-you just dismiss them. Your tear them to pieces like they’re wasting your time, but half of the “rational” explanations you give are actually more far-fetched than just accepting it was a, a ghost or something. I mean for god’s sake John, we’re literally hiding from some kind of worm… queen… thing, how, how could you possibly still not believe!?

He’s not a weak thing, he is aware of what is happening around him and he cares, very deeply ;_; * MmMMMMmmm I wonder if Martin might have ADHD or something of the kind.

(MAG040) MARTIN: […] And there was more dust in those corridors too, and dead rats, even some discarded wine bottles. At one point there was an empty packet of mint imperials— ARCHIVIST: Martin… MARTIN: Sorry. Yeah. Um. […]

His thought seem to be drifting a lot, prone to digressions, and he has trouble keeping on one track; in this case, he was even recounting a Very Bad Experience but still chuckled when describing the food he had found in the corridors (getting into a totally different mood). I don’t know if we notice it more with him because he’s Martin, or if Jon gets more easily impatient with him than with the others (since He’s Martin; Tim could probably have gotten away with the same description), but… * It’s impressive but so far, he’s the only one of the Archive team to… be physically alright. Sasha got the cut from the worms+Michael (MAG026), and ultimately got killed (MAG039) though the others haven’t realized it yet; Tim and Jon got… many bloody holes in their bodies. Martin? Nothing. (Nothing so far?) T___T I love him so much??? He deserves to be fine and okay and valued and comforted??? Give him a raise and a blanket??? T___T

Sasha “Well, I won’t tell Martin.” James

* Definitely sounds like she was good with reports – and that Jon trusts her judgement about her discoveries.

(MAG036) ARCHIVIST: […] it seems the records from the closure of Ivy Meadows are… well, according to Sasha, calling them ‘patchy’ would be very generous. […]

* Happy/non-upsetting things first:

(MAG039) [SOUND CUTS IN MIDWAY THROUGH THE ARCHIVIST SCREAMING] MARTIN: And… there we go. Recording again. Did you get it? [PAINED CRY FROM ARCHIVIST AS SASHA EXTRACTS WORM WITH A SQUELCH] SASHA: There. And I just want to point out that I didn’t make this much of a fuss. ARCHIVIST: [Breathing heavily, aggrieved tone] I think your removal was substantially cleaner.

… it wasn’t explicit, so I do wonder if Jon was referencing Michael’s extraction from MAG026, or if Sasha had just got bitten again and they did a ~I take care of yours/you take care of mine~ exchange? (Because if Sasha has been bitten again, then yes, Jon would absolutely mention that he was cleaner at removing worms than others doing the same to him, ahaha.) Also, it was Martin’s corkscrew and yet Sasha was apparently the one to use it on Jon, so what happened. Did Martin just reveal the item and announce they could use it to remove Jon’s worm(s), and Jon went into a frenzy because the sight of Martin with almost-a-weapon was too much so Sasha had to step in to offer her help… (“Jon, you’ll die if I don’t–” “NO!! Don’t come any closer!!” “*sighs* Move aside Martin, I’ll take care of the big baby :/”) (If so, that biaaaaaaas, Jon!!! And he screamed anyway, Martin doing it or not.) * Jon was definitely… more at ease around her than with the others.

(MAG038) ARCHIVIST: […] Urgh. Urgh. [SOUND OF CHAIR SCRAPING] I see you… [THUMP... THEN SOUND OF COLLAPSING SHELVES] [NOISES OF EXCLAMATION] [DOOR OPENS] SASHA: Alright? ARCHIVIST: Ah… Yeah, a… a spider. SASHA: A spider? ARCHIVIST: Yeah. I tried to kill it… the shelf collapsed. SASHA: I swear, cheap shelves– ARCHIVIST: Yeah, I… SASHA: –are… Did you get it? ARCHIVIST: Ah… I hope so. Think so. Nasty, bulbous looking thing. SASHA: [Chuckles] Well, I won’t tell Martin. ARCHIVIST: Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem.

I LOVE SASHA’S PRIORITIES… She went to check on him, complained about the shelves being cheap and then right away remembered to ask if Jon had reached his target <3 Sasha was quite clearly cracking up and!! I like that Jon doesn’t take offense when she does!! He was a mess words-wise and it was kinda cute?! He had some awkward laughter, some breathlessness, the scene was utterly ridiculous (he was being ridiculous) and he knew it <3 … and also, I guess it avoided for him to get mad at himself for destroying furniture. (Describing a spider as “Nasty, bulbous looking thing” is… not wrong per se, but also not very helpful, though.) The comparison between how he’s relaxed around Sasha and quick to complain about Martin huuuuuurts, though. But I like that it’s saying that yes, Martin has already lectured Jon about the importance of spiders in the ecosystem. (Or at least once. I have no doubt that Jon would complain about Martin harassing him about it if Martin had only mentioned it once.) * She was A Big Damn Hero, who had already put herself into danger when she had followed Michael, and who again took big risks to save Tim’s life (something neither Jon nor Martin try to do, while Sasha… just rushed out to tackle him to save him).

(MAG026) SASHA: […] As I was about to exit, though, it called after me, and said if I was interested in saving your life it would be waiting at Hanwell Cemetery. […] It called you by name. You. And Martin. And Tim. […] Part of me wanted to tell you about it immediately, to make a statement, but even if you believed me I knew you’d try and talk me out of going to Hanwell Cemetery, and I had just about made my mind up to go. I didn’t know if what Michael had said was a threat or a warning or just a lie, but I decided I couldn’t take the chance. So I went to the cemetery.

(MAG039) MARTIN: No. No, it looks like they’re… waiting, I think. ARCHIVIST: For what? MARTIN: I don’t know. Tim, maybe? SASHA: Oh god! MARTIN: I think he was out at lunch. SASHA: Quick, someone call him. Tell him not to come back inside. […] Oh god, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t see them. [SASHA AND MARTIN BOTH START CALLING OUT TO TIM] TIM, LOOK OUT! […] SASHA: What is he doing? No, Tim, just run! Leave it alone! […] Ah, screw this.

(MAG040) TIM: […] I think I was going to try and hit her, but that’s when Sasha knocked me to the floor. It, it was a good move, actually. Prentiss didn’t seem to expect it, and we crushed a lot of worms when we fell. They were slow to react, and we were running before they really went for us. I mean, all this happened in the space of a few seconds, so I’m not exactly certain. Sasha had to basically drag me behind her.

(MAG040) ELIAS: [Sasha] told me she had set off the fire alarm to get everyone out, and that you and Martin and Tim were currently trapped by Jane Prentiss.

Jon was already pessimistic about Tim’s fate (and couldn’t use one of his legs), Martin didn’t try to rush towards Tim to help him, but Sasha did. Martin, Tim and Jon were her three idiots, uh? She was always about protecting people… even when she left the archives, she activated the fire alarm (prompting everyone to leave the building) and went straight to Elias, to explain to him what was truly happening and to find out what they could do to neutralize the worms in the hope of saving the others… * … the last contact she had with any member of the team was… Tim letting go of her hand…

(MAG040) TIM: […] Sasha had to basically drag me behind her. I saw the shelf in front of us was about to topple. There were so many worms on it so, being the hero I am, I let go of her hand and told her to get help. She made it out the main door.

Tim joking about “being the hero I am” while… the irony… of what happened… is that it contributed to the chain of event that led to her death damniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit ;; (I’m wishing a bit that Tim will never realize it but AOUCH AOUCH AOUCH???) * … and she died alone, thinking about what Jon would want her to do and concerned and worried for the others (MAG039: “Okay, Jon. I know you’ll want to know what’s been happening. If you’re still alive after this. […] I got cut off from Elias. I hope he made it to the fire system, but who knows. Maybe everyone’s dead already.”), in a… place… that she… hated… (“I’ve had to retreat into Artefact Storage. That should tell you something about how bad it is out there. God, I hate this place.”) It’s even sadder given that… I’m not even sure she was still working at the Institute by choice, since she apparently had money-related issues:

(MAG026) SASHA: […] I love the Institute’s building, of course, it’s beautiful, but from a money point of view, I really wish it wasn’t in Chelsea. Everything around here is so expensive.

(MAG039) SASHA: […] Did I ever tell you I first joined the Institute as a practical researcher? I had to analyse and investigate all the stuff in here. Take notes after sleeping in the rusted chair, write in the memory book, all that sort of thing. I transferred after three months. Would’ve quit, but couldn’t afford to back then.

I’m just. Heartbroken over her. The others haven’t even realized she’s dead, she just… disappeared in all possible ways, and that chain of events wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t saved one of her coworkers’ life… I’m sad?? I’m so sad and inconsolable??? * Specifically with the table: Sasha knew what was written in Graham Folger’s journals:

(MAG003) ARCHIVIST: […] Sasha told her we’d managed to locate what we believed to be one of Graham Folger’s journals. Doubt it would have done much good. It just says the same thing on every page: the words “Keep Watching” over and over again.

… so I’m guessing that she didn’t “watch” (the table?) enough. It reminds me a bit of Will’s mother in His Dark Materials, and the way Will hypothesises that she sometimes focused on counting things to try and escape the Spectres… * I can’t help but wonder how things would turn out, if she had stayed alive… She was already on to something re:Elias avoiding some discussions:

(MAG039) SASHA: […] I… I asked Elias about it once, but he just muttered something about funding and mission statements. He’s good at changing the subject, isn’t he?

… so I wonder whether she would have been able to actually get suspicious of him… I know that Tense/Paranoid Times are coming from Jon, and maybe Sasha would have been able to defuse the situation, or to redirect it towards the right person, uh…? * I’m heartbroken that we’ve lost one member of the team ;; And it hurts-but-doesn’t at the same time, that… technically, we never hear the four of them together? Sasha and Tim never interacted on tape except for when Sasha tackled him!! And yet!! I have feelings for these 4 idiots!! I have no problem picturing their daily life!! * … And Not!Sasha creeped me out so much, efudsjnfr. First thing: static as soon as her statement began (while the others were fine), even before she began to speak, and… her (its?) way to describe ~what she did~…

(MAG040) NOT!SASHA: I pulled a fire alarm, because the worms were following me, and I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. I went to Elias. We talked. We were going to save you, but the worms came, and I fled into the Artefact Storage room. You know I hate the Artefact Storage room, so it must have been bad. ARCHIVIST: You used to work there, didn’t you? NOT!SASHA: Yes. For three months. It was dreadful. I used to think that it was the most dangerous place in the Institute. […] I saw the worms in the main Institute. They shrivelled and died. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that scream though. I could hear Prentiss screaming even from there. […] Yes. Michael… With the bones in his hands. We still don’t know much about him, do we?

Sasha had amusement and some slyness in her words (a bit cat-like). Not!Sasha’s voice is smooth, but distant and unconcerned; she’s saying sentences without giving life to them – she had no personal feelings about (the true) Sasha’s actions. … But she did some things, on her own, and:

(MAG040) NOT!SASHA: Yes, I returned to the Archives, and all the worms were dead. You and Tim were lying there, but you weren’t moving. You just lay there, the dead worms still half inside of you. The trapdoor was open next to you, and more were inside. I went over to check, and you were alive, so I pulled you back to where there was more air, and began to remove the worms. Are you alright? ARCHIVIST: Sorry, just… difficult to hear, you know.

… so yeah, she saved Tim and Jon. So why. What is the plan for them (/for Jon), and how much will they wish that they had died out there rather than suffering whatever she has in store for them… (It’s also hitting one of Jon’s fears/anguishes, technically, though he’s not conscious of it: (MAG026) “The idea that there are things out there like that that want to help us… For some reason, that makes me more uncomfortable than the worm-infested creature stalking the Institute”).

(MAG040) NOT!SASHA: They took you away, so I waited with Elias. He was looking at me strangely, but we were both quiet. It had been a very strange day.

:w I know that the season 3 finale dealt with ~The Stranger~ so. She dropped the word.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: […] Are you feeling alright? You seem a bit… out of it. NOT!SASHA: Yes. I am very tired. It’s hard to keep track of things sometimes.

What a hard day. Killing off A True Hero and replacing her is soooo tiresome isn’t it. (Jon… did briefly feel that something was off, but is it because Not!Sasha’s spooky powers don’t hide her intonations when it’s wrong (and anyone would notice), or is it because Jon specifically could feel it…?) (She went meek and “I will uwu” with a small voice right after, pfffft.)

ANYWAY, I’M STILL GRIEVING FOR SASHA… you deserved the world, princess é_è And we get… that thing… instead………………………………

Tim “Joe Spooky” Stoker

(MAG039) TIM: … still working? Ah, okay. Test, test. What are you doing on the floor? Huh. [Imitates Archivist voice] Statement of Joe Spooky, regarding sinister happenings in the downtown old—

I’M LOVE HIM SO MUCH… no respect for Jon (overall tone + “Joe” + “SPOOKY”), it was amazingly beautiful. Tim. TIM. (+ we had the context, we knew he was In Danger, so switching to Tim’s point of view was just Magical. Sasha&Martin banging on the door while Tim is not hearing a thing and getting distracted by the shiny object and the occasion to poke fun at Jon behind Jon’s back, while the Queen Worm was right behind him.) (Let!! Joe!! Spooky!! Give his statement!!) … I also love Tim's official recounting of these events:

(MAG040) TIM: Well, I could tell something was wrong as soon as I got back. It was quiet. I mean, it’s normally quiet, but it was dead quiet. I spotted the tape recorder lying on the ground, and went over to… er… see if it was damaged, and… as I was checking it I heard Sasha shouting.

Yeah, not proper to mention the “Joe Spooky” thing given what had happened since then, but his hesitation gave away that he remembered and that he knew Jon wouldn’t have liked it. (Sad that “Sasha” lost the tape because Jon didn’t get to hear about it, though! :( It’s probably the only reason why Tim’s still alive at this point, uh.) * I learned thanks to MAG040 that his full name is Timothy Stoker and SHHHHHHH… given that he’s so outgoing, it must have been really, reaaaaaaaaally weird for him to hear about Timothy Hodge (MAG006) flirting in a bar and having a one-night stand with a woman infected by worms, and then getting infested himself and dying in the events recounted in MAG026. Awkward. * I like how (before MAG040) Tim’s sentences are always so jumpy and less… slick, compared to Jon. He makes a lot of pauses, small filler sounds, like he’s circling around Jon and trying to convey what he wants in the best way to get Jon to answer peacefully (without fearing him either). There is always a smile in his voice, and so much warmth! (AND I KNOW THAT IT WON’T LAST, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO mE!!!) * He was apparently… delighted? Hysterically happy? Super excited? when he learned about MAG035’s case having to do with Robert Smirke, according to Jon (“You should have seen Tim’s face when I told him. Architecture is one of his specialist areas, and he has always talked of Smirke as one that fascinates him. How did he phrase it? ‘A master of subtle stability’.”) I wonder if that case was related to their banter reported by Sasha in MAG026, since we know from MAG024 that they were already working on the Harold Silvana case at that point? Jon sounds more like he's gushing about Tim’s enthusiasm here, rather than that they really fought about the subject, so I’m guessing that I was right, and that Jon just teased him a bit about Robert Smirke for the sake of it. Idiot dorks <3 * Twice now he’s been a middleman/messenger between Elias and the archives/Jon:

(MAG033) ARCHIVIST: […] Which reminds me, if you do see Elias, tell him thanks for the extra extinguishers. TIM: Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure.

(MAG036) TIM: Oh, ah, nothing urgent, um, it’s just Elias was asking a couple questions about the delivery.

So is there a cold between Jon&Elias at this point, is Tim the Mandatory Delivery Man for messages. When I mentioned this to Aza, I was answered with: And I’m keeping this screencap here for Posterity (and for going back to sob about it later).

(Alternatively: Elias was asking Tim to ask Jon about why the eff he’s getting his furniture delivered at work.) (At least, everybody probably guessed that it wasn’t coming from Ikea, since Jon apparently has a personal vendetta against it according to the trailer (“… piled so many files on a shelf. Don’t buy them from IKEA.”), which is? uncalled for??? Ikea shelves are powered with the strength of Norsemen as long as you don’t move them around once settled, if Jonathan (Coulton.) taught me anything.) * I forgot to mention it explicitly, I think?, but I know that He Bi (which is why I can bask in the queer mentions with him already), so:

(MAG038) ARCHIVIST: […] Tim actually managed to find a copy of Mr. Ramao’s marriage licence. It exists, is signed, dated and official… and half of it is blank. Only Mr. Ramao’s details are on the document, and if it wasn’t for the context of this statement, it would appear he was married to nobody. But he was married.

There were many sad things about it: the events of the statement and the statement itself took place in 2012, two years before same-sex marriage was legalized in the UK. Which means… that Andre&David probably got married in another country. And it’s Tim who “managed to find a copy” of that marriage licence: so I’m guessing that he fought to find it, that he really wanted to find it, that he really wanted to believe that yes, this man had not… invented his married life? T_T (Queer people solidarity T_T) More happily, though:

(MAG034) ARCHIVIST: […] Still, Tim made contact with Elena Bower in the King’s administration office, and while she couldn’t find any actual records of them in the system, she does remember them being there, and confirms that she assigned them to Dr. Elliott last year. She could be in on it, of course, but Tim seems to believe her.

1°) Did Tim sleep with her. 2°) Jon trusts Tim’s judgement!!! Same as with the Dreamer’s statement (MAG011: “I had Tim look into it, as I don’t entirely trust the others not to have written it as a practical joke and slipped it into the archives.”), it sounds like he trust Tim a great deal? * I do wonder:

(MAG039) TIM: Oh… PRENTISS: [Slowly intoning over worm sound] Do you hear their song?

Was there a special reason for Tim to be targeted like this? She hadn’t spoken to Martin, it didn’t sound like she had spoken to Harriet Lee (according to Timothy Hodge); does Tim have a… connection with That Thing? He said that he wasn’t able to understand what she was saying, though:

(MAG040) TIM: […] [Prentiss] tried to say something, but I don’t know, I couldn’t really understand her through all the…

(So we could hear her through the tape, but not Tim, who was even closer to her? Is it because… it wasn’t a regular voice but something that was distorted for human ears?) And in the same way, I feel like he dodged a bullet, re: the table ;;

(MAG036) TIM: Oh, ah yes, yeah, it was sent straight to the Artefact Storage, a table of some sort. Ah, looks old. Quite pretty, though. Fascinating design on it. […] Um, I’ll be honest I didn’t really notice. It was quite— ARCHIVIST: Hypnotic, yes. […]

(BUT IT GOT SASHA INSTEAD SO I’M STILL SAD…) * I loved Tim already, I’m even more in love with… high-on-CO2!Tim.

(MAG039) [SOUND OF PLASTERBOARD AND TILE BREAKING] TIM: Hi guys! […] Funny story really. I ran into the office, worms everywhere, horrible death and everything, tripped and fell in some boxes and there were like 20 cans of gas in there. MARTIN: Are, are you alright? You seem a bit… TIM: Fine! Fine! Gas… bit light-headed. Not a lot of ventilation in the tunnels. Come on!

tIM……… He has the Best Entrances, okay.

(MAG040) TIM: […] I found myself lying on top of a whole bunch of CO2 canisters, which are damn hard by the way. The worms were still coming, so I used them. I mean, I went full Gas-Rambo. After that… my memory gets a bit fuzzy. I think the paramedic called it ‘respiratory acidosis’… from breathing in all the carbon dioxide, rather than your more traditional oxygen.

He was such a treat; there was this tense, anxious atmosphere, heart-to-heart talk between Jon&Martin, who thought that it was unlikely that Tim had managed to make it out alive, death lurking around… and then bam. Tim rips apart a fake wall and barges in, totally out of his mind but still aware of the situation.

(MAG040) TIM: […] [I] ended up sprawling into this pile of boxes that I thought were case files. Instead, I found myself lying on top of a whole bunch of CO2 canisters – which are damn hard by the way. The worms were still coming, so I used them. Er, I mean, I went full Gas-Rambo.

“Full Gas-Rambo”… tIM…………. (and the stupid little detail of the fact that the canisters are hard. Tim… trying to get back to normal dandy life, in which he can complain or note random things…) * … the CO2 made him lose some inhibitions too… tIM…

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: You’re not bitten, are you? TIM: No, I don’t think so! Have a look! ARCHIVIST: Yes, alright Tim, you look fine. Put them back on, please.

I’m guessing the “them” is trousers again, so Jon is apparently Fated to see his male assistants without trousers (or even less) at some point. Whether Tim showed his arse or genitalia, Jon said he looks “fine”, though. Jon please <33 * … It’s incredible how even in the worst situations, or to recall traumatic events about himself, he still manages to crack jokes here and there. In a hollow and “I’m fucked up and everything is fucked up ahaha” tone but. Still. Jokes.

(MAG040) TIM: Sure. Just… quarantine, y’know? … Not as much fun as it sounds. ARCHIVIST: You were certainly in there longer than I was. Everything alright? TIM: Yeah. I just made some joke about itching and… suddenly they were doing a whole bunch more tests. ARCHIVIST: Well, itching is one of— TIM: I know… I know. I was trying to lighten the mood. I’m fine, though. Except for the holes. … And the pain. … And the blood. … And the nightmares.

…………….. quarantine does NOT sound fun, Tim, holy Mew. And the joke. Oh gods. His voice was so tired, super slow, you could hear that he regretted that joke so, so, so much, that it meant more discomfort and added trauma. It’s either joking or crying, for him, at this point, isn’t it.

(MAG040) TIM: It’s a bit of blur, to be honest, ‘cause when I turned around, there she was. Prentiss. Her face so full of holes it’s like, “my eyes are up here~”, but they’re not, you know? They’re just… uh.

TIM. (And that. That sentence didn’t make any sense. It was just that he couldn’t make the joke with Jane Prentiss because no eyes anymore.) * And he’s not a complete idiot either!!! He’s actually pretty smart, notices things, connects dots and make hypotheses about what he observed!!

(MAG040) TIM: […] I have a theory, actually. I think [the worms] weren’t ready to attack when you found the tunnels. It’s like something in the Institute slows them down, and makes them… hum… heh, sluggish. And that noise they make, that squirming sound? They don’t make it when they’re in the tunnels. I don’t know why. It was only when they came into the Institute – maybe the light, or the aircon, or something? – I’m not sure, but I think it made them weaker, and they’ve been down there for months, breeding, building up their numbers until there were enough to properly bury us. Except you found that hidden passage, and they had to act.

(He was getting some life back in his voice, when explaining his ideas, too!) * ONCE AGAIN, I’m sad about his description of… what was his last moment with Sasha (and Sash's last moment with anyone from the team):

(MAG040) TIM: […] I don’t know what I was going to do, I think I was gonna try and hit her, but that’s when Sasha knocked me to the floor. It– it was a good move, actually. Prentiss didn’t seem to expect it and, we crushed a lot of worms when we fell. They were slow to react, and we were running before they really went for us. […] so, being the hero I am, I let go of her hand and told her to get help. She made it out the main door.

She saved him, and he knows it. He cracked a joke about what he did (because in his mind, she’s still alive, he can joke about that! she managed to flee and to get help, and got through the ordeal unscathed!) and it’s to say that HE “LET GO OF HER HAND” AND IT WAS THE LAST CONTACT SHE HAD WITH HIM… WITH SOMEONE FROM THE TEAM…………………………….. I hope that he will… never realize it, oh gods………………. * I’M IN PAIN because I know that Things Go To Shit In Season 2 and that it’s especially bad between Jon and Tim… but I wouldn’t have been able to predict that from MAG040. Because… Jon is a bit better with him than how he usually handles people? They were together, they faced Jane Prentiss together, they got the same kind of injuries, the same trauma, they can Relate when hearing each other’s comments, and… Jon sounds aware of that, that his experience and Tim’s are similar. He doesn’t need him to recall the events that horrified him, and he has a few kind words:

(MAG040) TIM: [Tired] Do you need much? I’d really like to go home. ARCHIVIST: I sympathise. It won’t take more than a few minutes.

(Tim’s voice was so small ;; The end of an era, there is a hollowness (ha. many hollownesses.) in his voice there…)

(MAG040) TIM: […] There didn’t seem much point staying, so, I went into the tunnels. They were cold. Dry. You know that worm smell, that earthy rotten smell? ARCHIVIST: Oooh yes. TIM: Well… yeah.

(Jon’s voice was very small there, too ;;)

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: […] Could you… describe the tunnels? TIM: You were there. ARCHIVIST: Humour me.

(Jon was almost whispering.)

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Good. Good. Go home, Tim. Get some sleep. TIM: Heh. Yeah. Sure.

(Aaand Jon went from weak voice to a bit firmer, but more like he was trying to get some composure back than being authoritative. And Tim was scoffing; he knew he… wouldn’t be able to sleep, uh…)

Anyway, I love him and he’s going to break my heart, isn’t he ;;

Elias Bouchard

* I’m laughing because:

(MAG017) ELIAS: […] By the way, have you seen Martin?

He sounds like that PNJ who subtly tries to get you back on the track to the Main Quest when you’re getting distracted (“Jon, Jon, Martin is not here, something happening with Martin, maybe you could focus on that Jon.” “Jonathan, THE TABLE and the zippo, Jonathan, pay attention to the items, JONATHAN.”) * Lalala:

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: [Weary] … Statement of, uuuuh… ELIAS: Jon… as your boss, I’m telling you to go home. ARCHIVIST: I’m fine. ELIAS: Look. You look like a mummy. You need rest. […] Jon! She’s gone. I went with the ECDC people when they took her away. I watched her body burn. Jane Prentiss is dead. You can relax. ARCHIVIST: You know why I can��t. When Martin found… ELIAS: That’s a matter for the police.

1°) With Jon temporarily out, someone had to watch/record this, uh. 2°) There have been a few rough exchanges between Martin and Jon, but Elias and Jon do argue for real and it’s a treat <3 It escalates quickly, Jon’s voice (raw, drifting, a bit low at first) gets tense and firmer in his tone, and Elias keeps having those frustrated and reprobating throat noises, and you get the feeling that both of them are indeed verbally fighting to take possession of the topic. Jon keeps starting to talk before Elias ended his own sentences! Even Jon can’t be dismissive of his own boss – but he’s still very very stubborn and… impertinent with Elias. Almost trying to boss him around.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: … Tell me what happened to Gertrude Robinson. ELIAS: Jon, how many times do we need to go over this? ARCHIVIST: We’ve never got it on tape. ELIAS: You can barely stand. Just… why don’t we just do this tomorrow? … … Fine. On the 15th of March last year, […].

(Jon cutting the end of Elias’s sentences! And you could hear Jon staring hard and hard and hard as sole answer. Elias gave in and complied, but clearly annoyed, with a dry automatic diction <3) * I have Many Things To Scream About When It Comes To That One Sentence:

(MAG039) SASHA: […] I think John’s got a lighter somewhere. ELIAS: He’s not smoking again, is he?

1°) There is a fire alarm going off, Sasha just explained they're being invaded by worms and attacked by an Abomination: is the fact that Jon may or may not be smoking (again) really a priority, Elias. 2°) ……………. still even when pretending to not know that Elias is Elias……. it sounds so terribly paternalistic and not the kind of comment a boss should allow himself to say about a subordinate……… Whether Jon might be smoking or not is not your business…………… 3°) … does Jon even know that Elias knows that he used to smoke. (For how long has Elias set his eyes on Jon, exactly? Was it before Gertrude’s death?) * I… don’t know how he operates, what he can and cannot do, if he has Restrictions or is totally free to do whatever. Obviously, however, given that I know he’s not… exactly benevolent (let’s say.) and is hiding who/what he is, a big question I have regarding him is: is he bound (by supernatural restrictions or by personal ethics) to tell the truth, or can he lie? (As in: lying for real; not only omitting or changing the subject, which he seems to do quite a lot – as even Sasha had noticed.) Wondering this gives another dimension to some of his sentences, assuming that no, he can’t explicitly lie (but can bend the truth to say a non-lie while avoiding to reveal information):

(MAG039) ELIAS: To be honest I always thought they were just… overreacting. Other staff have seen them around, but no-one’s reported any aggressive behaviour or anything like that. You know how those two are… Jon puts on a good show, but sometimes I swear he’s worse than Martin.

(MAG040) ELIAS: I… know I have often seemed dismissive of your concerns before […]. But… honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate what you’d been talking about until I turned that corner and we saw what I can only describe as a… a tidal wave of filth rushing towards us.

=> Well, Jon will have worse anyway, so no need to take this one too seriously, right? It was ONLY Jane Prentiss. Come on. Not a big deal, right.

(MAG040) Martin finding her body in the tunnels is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.

=> Of all fucking people working at the Institute or investigating Gertrude’s suspicious disappearance, Elias wasn’t expecting that MARTIN would find her body. (THAT’S SO MEAN FOR MARTIN WHEN YOU HEAR IT THIS WAY…) His description of Gertrude’s disappearance is, all in all, pretty neutral and is readable as a not-lie, but there are two details that are noteworthy: 1°) “so I assumed she was dead and left the investigation to the police”: you can’t assume something you know, especially since there would have been ways to word it in a non-personal phrasing (~It was safe to assume~, ~Anybody could have assumed~ etc.)… but then, I don’t know if she was dead-dead when he left her/the body, nor if he was the one to drag the body somewhere else (since the crime scene and the place the body was discovered were different). 2°) … he said that Gertrude’s disappearance was discovered and reported “On the 15th of March last year”: however, according to MAG025, it was the 15th of May. March 15th was, however, the day following ~Antonio Blake~’s written statement about his dreams regarding Gertrude’s death (MAG011). So was it a mix-up from the writers, was it an inconsequential mix-up from Elias, or was that… a mistake made on purpose, because there had been blood on her desk around that time but it was related to another story, not her actual murder? * I’m really amused by the fact that… I know due to spoilers that I have to be careful of him, that’s he’s bad, baaaaad, bad news. But every time he speaks, I have this ringing of “oh, it’s just boring/neutral/a bit useless Elias” flaring in my mind =D (Also, as if his voice actor was just filling in, but not really used to acting. I already know it’s not the case, got some audible proof even… and yet. I still have the impulse of thinking “Oh, it’s just Elias” when hearing him in my current episodes, which baffles me every time. You sneaky falsely boring middle-aged man, you. (Kudos to his VA!)) (Though yeah, I got to actually hear him a bit more thanks to MAG040, and his voice was more noticeable then (unrelated to the fact that, by default, his scenes are funnier when he’s arguing with Jon). Very clean and… I think the word I would use to describe it is “neat”? His elocution is very clear, not exactly cutting, but there is something sharp there.) * But then, it sounds like other characters share the feeling and it’s… how Elias is identified (/gets identified) by others. Sasha wasn’t exactly too impressed with him (clearly feeling that she had to insist to make him do something actually useful to potentially help Jon, Tim and Martin), and Jon himself doesn’t seem to consider Elias useful either:

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] I still don’t know what happened to Gertrude. Officially she’s still missing, but Elias is no help […].

* Again, about what he said about Jon (and Martin) and the worms:

(MAG039) ELIAS: So… these are the worms he and Martin have been going on about? SASHA: The ones terrorising us for months? Yeah! ELIAS: To be honest I always thought they were just… overreacting. Other staff have seen them around, but no-one’s reported any aggressive behaviour or anything like that. You know how those two are… Jon puts on a good show, but sometimes I swear he’s worse than Martin.

I want to say that Elias is also so mean to Jon, but then, that would make me be mean to Martin. So, usually, in the group of four, Tim and Sasha are (perceived as) the ones less likely to ~overreact~? (That’s especially funny considering how, at that exact time, Tim is currently getting High On CO2 and a total mess. And how Martin, having been panicking for months over the concept of an incoming worms invasion, pre-emptively found a solution that would remove them and thought of a place to take shelter in. But Sasha has been Great overall, granted, and Jon… didn’t do a lot except for shouting at Martin and complaining about Sasha’s worm-removal.) * … Though, I’m terrified over how he casually got LIFE OR DEATH power over the people in the Archives:

(MAG039) ELIAS: Not quite what I meant. On Jon’s insistence I recently changed the Archive’s fire suppression system to use carbon dioxide. Should have done it years ago, really— […] SASHA: Wait. Wait. Will it hurt Martin or Jon? ELIAS: Almost certainly. Er, I’m not a doctor, but I know dumping a lot of CO2 on people isn’t generally considered a good idea.

(Jon, what have you done.) Even when ignoring spoilers (he killed Gertrude), THAT’S SO VERY REASSURING… Fitting with what Jon said about how “These old files are far better protected than we ever were.” (MAG039) but I’m also staring so hard about how… ahahaha… there would be… a convenient way… to kill off all the staff if they were a bit troublesome and too uncooperative or something………… that would be less bloody and “cleaner” than with Gertrude, wouldn’t it……….. (was it really “on Jon’s insistence”. Wouldn’t be out of character for Jon given that he had asked for more fire extinguishers, and carbon dioxide means less harm to the documents, but at the same time, those are not… ideal conditions if you want to work without fearing for your life.) * Maybe Not That Immune To Worms:

(MAG040) ELIAS: Luckily it seemed the things were mainly concentrated in that one mass, leaving the other corridors largely vacant. It took me ten minutes, maybe fifteen, but I made it with only one close call.

Oh no, Alexa, this could have been so sad, play “Despacito”. * I still don’t know why Jon was chosen specifically, and I do wonder if Elias was planning to keep him at all costs as the new head archivist, or if he… allowed himself to test the waters a bit, to check if Jon would be up to the task, keeping the possibility of discarding him if he wasn’t a good enough fit. I mean, I know that he killed Gertrude! And even with Jon, he obviously played with fire (ha.) by releasing the carbon dioxide at the last moment. His official stance to Sasha was that he hoped that Jon would survive given that:

(MAG039) Er, I’m not a doctor, but I know dumping a lot of CO2 on people isn’t generally considered a good idea. I really don’t want to have to find another Archivist so quickly after Gertrude, but from what you say… it might be a mercy.

1°) ……………… I do love how his public persona is just… casually so ruthless and un-empathetic. Whining about having to find another archivist when he’s mentioning that oops, Jon (and Tim and Martin) could die while the system is saving the Institute. Everyone in this institute has their priorities wrong. (And yes, it’s even more hysterical when knowing that he killed the previous one. Complaining about having to find another Archivist after you killed the last one? YOU DON’T SAY.) Same thing in the following episode when he recalls ~what happened about Gertrude’s bloody disappearance~, he summarizes his stance with:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] so I assumed she was dead and left the investigation to the police, for all the good it did me. And I appointed another archivist.

Laconic tone for the end of the story (but with a slightly higher pitch: it wasn’t “annoyed” like at the beginning), and Jon was… breathing hard throughout that last sentence. Aouch. Also could you please try to sound sad about one of your employees’ mysterious death, Elias. 2°) I know (thanks spoilers) that Elias has selective omniscience and can see what is happening (if he focuses on it). So he knew how much danger Jon and the others were in, he probably could see the moment Tim and Jon went face to… faces with Jane Prentiss, and he acted at the last minute. Was Elias planning to move a finger only if he had to and there was no other way for Jon to make it out alive? Or did he make the decision to help-if-necessary during the crisis, because Jon had… somehow lived up to his expectations and proved himself as the new Archivist? In the latter case… would it be related to the fact that Jon tried to record at all cost what was happening (endangering himself to retrieve his tape recorder (only to lose it again a few seconds later) and even getting bitten in the process, asking Martin to describe what he was seeing for the second tape recorder), thus ~validating~ Elias’s choice? (In all cases: thaaaaaaaaat’s absolutely creepy, I love it. Terrible.) * Look, yes, he probably timed his actually-doing-something-for-once thingy, but the way he described it:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I composed myself, and decided on a more roundabout route to the boiler room. Luckily it seemed the things were mainly concentrated in that one mass, leaving the other corridors largely vacant. It took me ten minutes, maybe fifteen, but I made it […].

……… I doubt that the building is big enough to require ten to fifteen minutes to reach a place, even when a taking a detour. That is, when you’re rushing. Did he have the time to have a cigarette, one or two coffees, and even to wait for the coffee to cool down to an acceptable temperature, before lifting a finger. * Re: Elias’s public persona being very casually ruthless: the difference between Jon living the horror and Elias ~describing the horror~:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I turned on the fire suppression system. And… that’s when I heard the scream. I… can’t really describe it but… well, I’m sure I don’t need to, you were a lot closer to it than I was. ARCHIVIST: It’s the last thing I remember before blacking out. Tens of thousands of… things without mouths screaming as one. ELIAS: … Yes. Horrible sound. Anyway, […].

(With Jon’s voice shivering and clearly Not Fine, while Elias is just deadpan and firm and that “Anyway,” kills me.)

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I headed down to the Archives to see what had happened. Sasha was already there, but you and Tim were in a bad shape. It looked like a few dozen worms had been going into each of you when the carbon dioxide killed them. Was like bloody Swiss che— ARCHIVIST: YES… thank you, I remember everything from when the ambulance arrived. Quarantine, bandaging, etcetera.

hE’S ALSO SO FUCKING SAVAGE??? ELIAS, OH MY GODS………… Jon is traumatized and Elias just casually describe Tim and him as looking like gruyère (“bloody Swiss cheese”), oh mY GODS… (And Jon was… breathing hard, and he stopped him sharply, so almost getting a panic attack over the recounting of the events, uh. Does Elias feed on Jon’s discomfort and suffering? Because if he wanted to very casually and ~innocently~ make someone ill at ease, yeah, it was a very efficient way.) * Anyway:

(MAG037) MARTIN: […] Look, Jon, I do think we should destroy the table, though. I mean, if it’s the one from Amy Patel’s statement. Just in case. ARCHIVIST: Elias told me the same thing. Luckily he phrased it as advice rather than an instruction, so for now I’m more inclined to keep studying it.

1°) Spoilers aside: I’m laughing that… it’s not like Elias is in charge of the Institute, isn’t it. It’s not like he’s supposed to have a say in how they should handle Suspicious Items that are received in the Institute and that will be kept inside of its Artefact Storage, instead of giving very vague “oh yeah, maybe we should destroy it… idk… do whatever…”, uh. Same thing when he reported what he was doing during the worms invasion, it was hilarious:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] This afternoon, just after lunch, I was going over some budgets in my office, as I normally do on a Tuesday […]. the fire alarm started going off. It was annoying, but not too worrying at first. I, I packed my work away, and began to calmly head towards the evacuation point, when… Sasha came barrelling through the door […].

If it had been a planned training for emergency, he would have known about if beforehand, so his public persona knew it was either someone accidentally setting the alarm or a genuine case, but his official stance about it is “Oh no, there was annoying noise disturbing my Tuesday Budget Ritual, and I even had to evacuate :(”. Same thing with his stance about Martin’s stay:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] in fact I was getting ready to raise the issue of Martin’s continuing to live in the Institute’s basement, especially as I believe he’s been stealing fire extinguishers.

“Yeah, sure, one of my employees has been living in my building for four months, that’s fair, but hoarding fire extinguishers? Too unprofessional.” And in both cases, Jon is not surprised by what Elias is saying, so it’s just… regular Elias comments. THIS IS YOUR FUCKING INSTITUTE, ELIAS…………………….. you could also get a bit more upset about the damages the worms caused – it’s going to cost a lot! (In case you haven’t noticed, I’m really cackling at the Boring Useless Bureaucrat persona =D) 2°) I have no doubt that this fucker knew what kind of Bad News the table meant, so comparatively, what he officially said about it is… so… noncommittal, pfFFFTTTT. Keeping the table turns out to be a mistake? Elias had advised you to trash it!! Destroying the table turns out to be a mistake? Well, Elias hadn’t instructed you to trash it, he only gave you some advice that you were free to disregard!! Your fault in all cases, Elias Did Nothing Wrong because he did nothing at all, You Can’t Complain, Jon, No, Really, You Can’t. bUT FUCK HIM ANYWAY!!

(MAG040) NOT!SASHA: […] I waited with Elias. He was looking at me strangely, but we were both quiet. It had been a very strange day.

Fuck yooooooooou, you know!!! :| … I’m not sure, however, whether he knew what would happen to Sasha: if it was a pure coincidence (and he rolled with it), if he was aware that it was likely to happen to her, or if he did get ~accidentally separated~ from her at that moment in a deliberate and conscious effort to get her to hide in the Artefact Storage room (where the table was stored, where Sasha would be alone, and where it was very likely that she would get… murdered and replaced). So I can’t scream at him for being a tiny bit responsible (yet), but I’m eyeing him in the meantime. * But apparently, sometimes, when the stars are aligned, Elias can apparently behave like someone who is *gasps!!* helpful:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I called the fire department, ambulance and a contact at the ECDC who had previously been involved in the Prentiss investigation.

… Yeah, needed special staff to get rid of the (worm) corpses. (Aaaand he has a ~repertoire~ of people to contact, apparently?)

The Magnus Institute / The Archives

We got a bit more information about how things apparently work around here!

* According to season 1’s Q&A

(S1Q&A) Alex: “How large is the Magnus Institute, as an organization?” Jonny: There are between 80 and a 100 staff in total. Very few of them are focused on the Archives; I think probably the core staff is maybe 40.

Does it include the cryptids. (That’s not gigantic but leaves some space for not knowing everyone / mostly knowing people in your own services, indeed!) * … The Institute is not here to help you, even if you’re desperate. It wants your stories, but it won’t help you.

(MAG037, Jason North) I’ve asked and asked and your people only ever tell me to write my statement. Put it down on paper for investigation. Is that going to help? No. Of course it isn’t. Even if you had the power to do something, would you? Or would you rather watch my son burn so you can take notes. […] I won’t let my son burn, even if you cowards don’t have the guts to step up and do something. […] But yes, I know, you want the whole goddamn story, don’t you? So you can look over it in ten years and go “Hmm, interesting” long after Ethan and me are dead.

* So, yay! Characters had understood that the statements not recording on computer meant they were Spooky. I was wondering, since the tape recorders do have the advantage of singling them out of the bunch of others, if they were treated differently – apparently, it wasn’t the case at first but Jon is focusing more on them nowadays (MAG039: “At this stage, if it records to my laptop I almost don’t bother.”) Jon also basically said that, so far, we might have heard all the recordings on tape (“I mean. I still think most of the statements down here aren’t real. Of the hundreds I’ve recorded, we’ve had maybe… thirty, forty that are… that go on tape.”): 38 statements so far, minus Martin’s and Sasha’s, and three other live statements. So 33 that came from papers, already in the Archives. It also seems that Jon is also able to… feel that they’re different even before recording them, maybe? (“The ones that have weird wrinkles, or that just seem to have something solid to them.”) Or are those literal “weird wrinkles” in the paper, which would be an indication that some people (Gertrude?), before the current team, used to read those but disregard the others? * Working in the Archives is not a Safe Job:

(MAG026) SASHA: I should really quit, you know. We– we all should. I don’t think this a normal job. I– I don’t think this is a safe job. ARCHIVIST: You’re probably right. Do you want to quit? SASHA: No. I’m just– I’m just too damned curious, I suppose. You? ARCHIVIST: No. Whatever’s going on, I… need to know. Get some rest.

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: […] Why are you here Martin? […] Why haven’t you quit? […] Why are you still here? MARTIN: [Considering] Don’t really know. I just am. It didn’t feel right to just leave. I’ve typed up a few resignation letters, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hand them in. I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck.

(MAG039) SASHA: […] I’ve had to retreat into Artefact Storage. That should tell you something about how bad it is out there. God, I hate this place. … Did I ever tell you I first joined the Institute as a practical researcher? […] I transferred after three months. Would’ve quit, but couldn’t afford to back then.

I would scream at all of you to quit but then Sasha is already dead and I knew that curiosity (/not ~keeping watching~ enough?) would kill the cat TT____TT (Also, Martin, sweetie, is your last sentence supposed to reassure us re: the reasons why you don’t feel like quitting? Because it… was a bit terrifying, that whole extended metaphor about an insect stuck in a web. Who/What/Where is the spider. If he had said that he wanted to stay because he had grown fond of the others and didn’t want to feel like he was leaving them behind, I would have dug that, considering how he’s been a sweetie pie so far, but here… it sounded more like a consequence of him staying. He never explained why he didn’t (want to?) quit.) * It sounds like the Institute itself had an effect on the worms? Tim said that the ones in the tunnels were “faster for some reason. And quieter.” (MAG039) than the ones in the Archives, and Jon confirmed it right after (“Tim was right about there being fewer worms down here, but they are much faster. More aggressive.”) When Tim went over the events in MAG040, it’s also something that had struck him (“[In the tunnels,] I did see some more worms, though. They were fast. I only saw a couple, but it was still proper jumpscare territory.”) Back when they had first encountered them in the wild, Martin and Sasha had described the worms as quite fast (MAG022: “the worms began to writhe out of every hole and cavity, falling to the floor in a cascading… wave and starting to crawl towards me with… with alarming speed. […] Just as I was bringing up the camera app, one of the worm-things reached at me and leapt at my face. That thing jumped literally 6 feet through the air at my face.”; MAG026: “The worms also seemed to have taken notice and began to move towards me at an alarming speed.”), so it seems that their behaviour inside of the Institute was the anomaly. Something (the building itself?) was able to slow them down? Tim himself was hypothesizing this in MAG040. Anyway, worms were trying to populate other levels, according to Sasha (MAG039: “The worms are on the upper floor. Not as many as down in the Archive, but enough.”) * I was wondering at which level are the Archives located? I had assumed ground floor or basement floor, and that sounds correct! Elias’s office is apparently on an upper level (not surprised) (MAG040, Elias: “We hurried down, and it was clear everyone else had already evacuated. We… had reached the ground floor when… well…”). Plus, the dent on the wall caused by the collapsing shelf caused by Jon thwacking it caused by an innocent spider visiting the Archives, revealed that this one was not an “exterior wall” (as Sasha had assumed until MAG038) but some sort of plasterboard panel separating the Archives from… hidden tunnels. So the Archives are on the lowest (official) level in the Institute. (Which sounds usual and all but is also pretty dangerous for papers in case of flooding.) And Elias did describe the place where the statements were recorded in MAG040 as “basement filled with a thousand rotting worm carcasses” (he had offered to take the statements in his office instead) and also commented about “the issue of Martin’s continuing to live in the Institute’s basement”. So yep. The Institute hides the nerds in the basement. * I’m guessing that the tunnels that the Archive Team discovered are… sadly related to the ones created by Robert Smirke mentioned in MAG035 (Old Passages, the Harold Silvana case)…? As summarized by Jon, “These tunnels are a maze, and we don’t know where we are.” (MAG039). Martin also said about them:

(MAG040) MARTIN: […] It’s a, it’s a maze down there, Jon. I don’t know how far the passages go, maybe miles. I think it must be the old Millbank Prison, like Tim was saying before. I even found some stairs at one point, but I really didn’t want to go down them.

So the Institute is the tree and… it has roots. Deep, deeeeep roots. * There are least two mysteries lying underneath the Institute (unless it was the same room and Tim didn’t notice Gertrude’s corpse): the room that Tim saw (where worms behaved strangely, trying to make a doorway?), and the room that Martin saw.

(MAG040) TIM: No. I did see… uh, I mean, maybe… ARCHIVIST: What? TIM: No, it’s just… I think I was still gassed, and it was dark, but… I found a room. ARCHIVIST: Go on. TIM: I didn’t stay long, ‘cause it had a lot of worms in, and they weren’t acting like the others. They were sort of… wrapping around each other, like they were trying to form a… thing, like a structure or something. A ring. I was probably still out of my skull, and half-hallucinated the whole thing, but it looked like they were trying to make a doorway. ARCHIVIST: A doorway? Is it still there? TIM: No. I pumped two full extinguishers into that room. Nothing was getting out.

(Tim was almost chuckling at the end. Proud of himself for this, at the very least, uh.)

(MAG040) MARTIN: […] When I finally found a door, I thought it might actually get out, but instead… It was a small room. Square. There was dust on everything. Cardboard boxes were piled around. They were full of old cassette tapes. […] She was sat in a wooden chair in the middle of the room. No worms. No cobwebs. Just… an old corpse. Gertrude Robinson. She was slumped forward, but I could see her mouth hanging open.

The Tape Recorder(s)

* Season 1’s Q&A had a question about which sounds were canonical in the tapes (and mostly the status of music):

(S1Q&A) Alex: From sort of a directorial standpoint, I’ve always had it that the music is not part of the actual recordings…? Jonny: Yes. Alex: However, the tapes detect the distortions, the sound effects of things actually happening, the voices of the people […]. Jonny: Everything that you hear is on the actual tape within the world of the Magnus Archives, except the music.

Niiiiice /o/ … As a result, as mentioned above, I wonder if the tapes have the power to somewhat “translate” some sounds/voices?

(MAG039) TIM: Oh… PRENTISS: [Slowly intoning over worm sound] Do you hear their song?

(MAG040) TIM: […] [Prentiss] tried to say something, but I don’t know, I couldn’t really understand her through all the…

We listeners could hear her perfectly, but apparently, Tim couldn’t (while he was positioned close to the tape recorder, probably between it and Jane Prentiss). Is that it, do they have the power to translate/fix/catch the distortions? I’m also wondering what is the relation between the statements and the tape recorders: are there parts of the statements that described inhuman sounds, and that Jon read as they were written (and the tape recorders made them audible)?

* Jon used to dislike that tape recorder – but that’s not the case anymore.

(MAG033) ARCHIVIST: No. I don’t have time. I still have a mountain of haphazard statements to get through, not to mention that I need to keep this wretched tape recorder on hand – just in case I encounter one of the files too stubborn to work on anything else, and when I do, I have to actually– TIM (BACKGROUND): Oh, woah– ARCHIVIST: –read the damn thing, which is… TIM (BACKGROUND): –woah… woah!

(MAG039) SASHA: Why record it? ARCHIVIST: What? SASHA: Before, in the office. It, it was stupid going for the tape recorder like that, and then when you dropped it out there— ARCHIVIST: I said I was sorry. If I’d known Martin had another one stashed in here, I never would have… SASHA: No, it’s, it’s fine, just… I just don’t understand. I thought you hated the damn thing. You’re always going on about it. ARCHIVIST: I do! I did. I just… […]

“I did”, yIPS. But now, Jon is… I don’t think that saying “he’s grown fond of it” would be the right thing; it’s mostly that he polarized a lot of his actions around it? Keeping it running, keeping things recorded, is almost becoming his priority?

(MAG039) SASHA: What are you doing?! ARCHIVIST: Almost… SASHA: Leave it, it’s not— ARCHIVIST: I got it!

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: What, Sasha, NO! [DOOR OPENS] SASHA: Tim, look out! ARCHIVIST: Watch out for the tape—

(Aouch, for this last one ;;;; There were… other things to shout about…) It was to the point that when unable to stand up, he asked/ordered Martin to be His Eyes… and not even for him:

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Right. There we go. Martin, what do you see? MARTIN: Hm? What? ARCHIVIST: I can’t really stand up yet. I need you to describe what’s going on. For the record.

(MAG039) ELIAS: You [Sasha] did bring a tape recorder. I just thought Jon would appreciate as many supplementary recordings as possible. For the record.

(GUHUTGVHIBGH Elias’s “For the record” is him deliberately quoting Jon, isn’t it. They didn’t say it at the same time, since we couldn’t hear the Fire Alarm system yet when Martin and Jon were talking, while it was already on when Sasha and Elias were talking… So Elias’s was definitely after Jon’s and the same phrasing sure doesn’t sound like a coincidence and that’s terrible of him.) (You could also go “Awww cute! Elias is attentive to Jon's concerns!” I guess but.)

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: Martin, could you pass me the tape recorder? MARTIN: Sure. I think it’s running out, though. ARCHIVIST: Fine. I suppose I can turn it back on when we’re being eaten alive.

(MAG039) SASHA: [SPEECH IS ECHOED FROM THE ROOM AS SHE WALKS] [With some despondency in tone] Okay, Jon. I know you’ll want to know what’s been happening. If you’re still alive after this.

(I love Jon’s sarcasm better when it’s turned towards himself in self-depreciative/grim expectations =D) And of course, Jon was concerned that a valuable tape was lost:

(MAG040) ELIAS: […] I suggested [Sasha] turn the tape recorder on, largely so this sort of debrief wouldn’t be necessary. Did you not get the tape? ARCHIVIST: No. There was… some sort of problem. Sasha told me the tape was lost. ELIAS: Hm. […]

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: Right… Right. What about the tape? You had the tape recorder, the one I’d just recorded Mr. Ramao’s statement on. But when you gave it back, it was empty. NOT!SASHA: Yes, I dropped it a few times. The eject button must have been hit. I didn’t notice until you pointed it out. It’s probably around somewhere. Is it that important? ARCHIVIST: It’s important to me.

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: […] Some of my tapes are missing. Maybe it was Prentiss, but she seemed more interested in the written files, and the other tapes seem fine. There’s no sign of debris, or anything that would indicate they’ve been destroyed, but, in addition to the tape Sasha lost earlier, the tapes for cases 0051701 and 0160204 are gone. I don’t know why these two specifically, but I cannot trust anyone.

……………. I do understand (it’s tangible proof) but still… he’s not feeling comfortable with the idea of losing the tapes in particular… AND I ALREADY UNDERSTOOD WHY THESE TAPES IN PARTICULAR DISAPPEARED… The calliope case and Sasha’s encounter with Michael both had the original Sasha’s voice on them (+ obviously, the one in which she was killed and replaced). Strangely, though: Sasha also spoke on Martin’s tape recorder (when they were in the safe room) and Jon mentions that that one “survived just fine” – despite the fact that not!Sasha would have had plenty of time to dispose of it when she joined Tim’s and Jon’s bodies after Prentiss’s death. So did she do something to that last tape (but Jon hadn’t noticed yet at this point), or… is Jon, anyway, unable to listen to it again, since it hits too close to home? It contains his screams, his fears, his confessions about his stance about the supernatural and, of course, his encounter with Prentiss, and Jon is clearly traumatized by that last one. * I also wonder if Jon won’t prevent some tapes from circulating: the one from Martin’s tape recorder (MAG039), for the reasons mentioned just above, and the one from MAG040, since… Jon ended that one with his thoughts about Gertrude’s murder, and the fact that he “cannot trust anyone.” We learned thanks to Tim (MAG033) that students and researchers sometimes listen to the tapes, and so do the assistants, since they pointed out some of Jon’s mistakes, but maybe Jon will prevent that for new ones? It wouldn’t sound like a good idea to allow people to hear about it when one of them could be Gertrude’s killer. * And now, Martin has been shown using another tape recorder, too:

(MAG039) TIM: Why do you have a second tape recorder, Martin? MARTIN: Oh, um… well, I’ve been using it to record myself. I write poetry and I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm.

Did he buy/bring it in himself, or did he find this one in the Institute? Jon had mentioned in the trailer that he had found the tape recorder he is using in the building (“I managed to unearth this old tape recorder from storage, and these cassettes, archaic as they may be, are still better than nothing.”), so there could have been a few still in shape. … And Martin mentioned that Gertrude’s body was surrounded by tapes (MAG040: “Cardboard boxes were piled around. They were full of old cassette tapes. […] She was sat in a wooden chair in the middle of the room.”), so WOOOOOOPS, looks. Like Gertrude was using them, too, and this is probably why there are so many cassette tapes in the Institute. But how did they proceed, before tape recorders were a thing? Did they have another way to separate bullshit statements from “real” statements?

Overall notes on episodes’ contents

* MAG034: Live-statement of Dr. Lionel Elliott about the peculiar seven students following his “Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology” class at London’s King’s College during the first semester of 2016: Erika Mustermann, Jan Novak, Piotr and Pavel Petrov, John Doe, Fulan al-Fulani and Juan Pérez. He isn’t able to remember anything about them since they were almost aggressively unnoticeable (“They all just looked so… normal. Unremarkable.”) They were curious about basic anatomy knowledge and also apparently learned to breathe, to get accurate bones and heartbeats through the course. Dr. Elliott avoided them as much as he could and still ended up pretty messed up by practical lessons, one involving skeletons and the other hearts dissection. At some point, he went to visit their house (they were all living together.) and heard “a muffled scream of pain came from somewhere deep inside the house. It sounded ragged, like whoever was crying out had been gagged.” He Didn’t Teach Them About The Liver and fled. At the end of semester, he found an apple and a handwritten note (“Thank you for teaching us the insides”); cutting the apple in half, he discovered “human teeth arranged in a smile”. According to Jon’s follow-up, those are “healthy adult teeth, and most of them appeared to come from different people”; he also mentions that the previous year, Dr. Rashid Sadana (teaching the “Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Complementary Therapies” course at St Mary’s University) ~committed suicide~ and left a note saying “NOT TO BE USED FOR TEACHING”.

………….. They Wanted To Learn. They were kinda cute in their own way. Terrifying, but also really eager to learn. They looked so out of things and totally following their own interests that it diluted a bit of the horror, it was almost comedic sometimes? Such as when Dr. Elliott when to their home and heard the screaming, it was almost… cartoon-ish. Horrible and poor guy who was inside, sure, but also so incongruous that it felt almost funny. (I didn’t catch on to Dr Elliott’s… quirky voice? because hollow laughers of ahaha-I’m-so-eff’d-up; I thought he was genuinely trying to alleviate the mood at first, being indulgent about the technology, throwing in little morbid references, but nop, it became more and more explicit that he was totally losing it. Oops.) I assumed that Dr. Rashid Sadana had been killed off by the Things because he was deemed a bad teacher (and that they had left the note to convey that no!! this one is bad!! and has a bad body!! give us a better teacher!!) but a friend mentioned that it could be that he got the class the previous year, committed suicide for real, and put the note to request that his corpse not be used in anatomy classes. Oopsies in both cases. (But I would assumed that he would have asked to get cremated or something, to escape the faint probability of being used as teaching material?)

Small things overall: the worms are getting more and more present, WOOPSIE (Dr. Elliott commented on the infestation). I liked Dr Elliott’s programme of his statement, which… set the mood (“Where do want me to start? The bones? The blood? The… uh… the fruit?”) and made you wonder how those things could tie together; his honesty about his, erh, lack of concern for them as a teacher (“I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but I came to terms with the fact that I didn’t care if they passed any exams, and that actually made the whole affair more manageable. I just did my best to stop caring.”, “And I’d long since decided with this class, that if I couldn’t see or hear it, I didn’t care.”) but also booooo-ooooo, bad teacher! When Jon mentioned that “Juan Pérez’ is the generic name of choice in most Spanish speaking countries” Iiiiiii didn’t know this one (more used to “fulano”)? So idk if it’s my own lack of culture but it is listed on the English wiki, so I’m eyeing Jon hard since his linguistic researches (officially “a quick Internet search”) apparently consisted in consulting… Wikipedia of all things <3 That’s so shameful for a researcher. It was also interesting to have him and Jon interacting because 1°) An episode beginning with Jon going “Apologies for […]” to someone??? In my TMA episode??? It’s more likely than you think!!, 2°) The fact that Jon’s Ritualistic Procedures were not exactly understood by Dr Elliott and that he had to… orientate him a bit more (“[…] Statement begins.” “*silence* Now?” “Yes. Just start from the beginning.” “Right. […]”), it just made Jon’s little quirks sound so silly, 3°) As mentioned earlier, I’m still laughing at someone throwing a “Do I look like an idiot?!” at Jon because. Yeah, likely that for Jon, y’all idiots. But it was nice to see someone implying Jon’s question was super duper dumb =D

* MAG035: Harold Silvana about the underground tunnels he discovered during renovations taking place at the Reform Club located at 100 Pall Mall. During a night shift, together with Rachael Turley and Alfred Bartlett, they were joined by Gerard Keay, who was searching for (and smelling?) “Leitner’s pages” and destroyed a bit of the wall with a hammer (“I heard a scream, high-pitched, but it definitely didn’t come from any of us.”) that revealed a corridor. They went in, Alf(red) felt as though the corridors were getting “narrower” (but measuring it proved that it wasn’t the case). They reached a crossroads, with thirteen doorways (“There was one that, for all the world, it felt like I was going to fall into it. Another was so dark that our torches didn’t seem to reach more than a few feet inside.”) plus their own, and a datestone in the middle signed with Robert Smirke’s name. Gerard began running down one, Alf followed him; Rachel went back to get help, Harold followed Alf. He stumbled, at some point; Gerard ran back out holding a book, and Silvana kept seeing small bones, and discovered Alf’s dead body in a small room at the end of the corridor. He had trouble getting back out (had trouble remembering) but eventually managed. The Police was there, retrieved Alf’s body. Harold’s team had to reconstruct the wall and swear they wouldn’t dig deeper (ha.); Harold gave this statement to tell someone the truth about his coworker’s death.

So that was the Harold Silvana case mentioned by Sasha back in MAG034! My heart had screamed “Tim! Tim!” as soon as the statement began to mention architecture, and even more when they discovered the tunnels (and then Robert Smirke was even mentioned!). I was so glad to have confirmation that Tim worked on this one <3 There was a sort of… tender amusement? in Jon’s voice when he rambled about Tim’s reactions (“You should have seen Tim’s face when I told him.”). It was almost half of the post-statement and totally gratuitous, that was so cute from Jon! However, there was something a bit weird about Sasha’s research around Harold Silvana’s statement:

(MAG024) ARCHIVIST […]: I thought you were trying to get hold of those police reports for the Harold Silvana case? SASHA: Tried and succeeded. They were actually quite helpful.

(MAG035) Over the last three months Sasha has attempted to contact Mr. Silvana, Rachel Turley, the management of the Reform Club and any of the police officers involved. All of them flatly deny any of this ever took place.

… what she had said back then and what Jon concluded here didn’t really match, so…? (Or is it again a matter of Jon… withholding information at the time of the recording: the fact that the police is trying to cover it up could be perceived as a valuable information, although a very concerning one ^^’) I really liked this statement-giver’s voice; the way he gave off the feeling of being pretty objective about his work and what he’s doing (having to use fancy nouns (craftsman, artisan) to qualify what he does but being aware that he’s mostly a “builder”) while being pretty confident at the same time (“So yes, my services are expensive, but me and my team are worth every penny. And the sort of people I deal with, or should I say the sort of people whose personal assistants I deal with, can afford it. / I don’t have a company, per se. People hire me for me, and I have a small team I trust to help out with the work itself.”) – he’s working with Rich People but he’s not one of them, really conscious of money issues here and there, including when it could be a disservice to him (“We were given to understand that the police were handling the matter, and if we pursued it closer then we would not be getting any further work from members of the club. As this covers almost everybody who can afford our services, we complied. It makes me feel sick, though, like we’re just abandoning Alf, dishonouring his memory. It’s not even like he had any family to miss him, it just feels wrong. I guess, maybe, that’s why I’m talking to you.”) I really like that yes, he had his interests in mind, of course! that’s human! but also shared this story in the hope of… something being done for his friend’s memory, because he didn’t like that they had to silence the truth about his death.

This one statement managed to intertwine many familiar names. Jurgen Leitner, Gerard Keay (I was wondering if it was him since his first description; then he confirmed his name! and Jon was assuming that yeah, it was indeed Gerard Keay and not any Gerard), Robert Smirke. Gerard Keay (who, again, seems to be mostly involved when Leitner’s books are around?) seemed to be trying to protect bystanders in previous statements – Lesere Saraki in December 2011 (MAG012) and Dominic Swain in winter 2012 (MAG004) – but it wasn’t really the case here ;; Events from this one took place at least ten years before the other two (statement was given in June 2002), so did something happen inbetween, which prompted a shift? He was also portrayed as very young in this one (called “kid” and he answered about his mother when asked a question: “When we asked him how he knew what was behind that wall he just shrugged, and told us that his mother knows all about this stuff.”) … I’m especially laughing really hard at how Harold described Jurgen Leitner back in 1987, because? Y’know? With the collection of Evil Books, I was a bit thinking about a stern, sinister person, but Harold described a… lunatic? throwing a tantrum when builders wanted to respect Legal Procedures when he asked them to dig a hole in his office (“When we told him we’d need to confirm it with the commercial landlord, he got very defensive, told us that it was fine and he’d need to discuss it with some other contractors first. When we told him we’d just need to have a quick phone call with the owner, he started screaming that we didn’t understand what we were talking about, that he didn’t need to explain himself to the likes of us, and there were some things… that were too important… too powerful to be owned. Then he just started yelling at us in Norwegian until we left.”)

Cute things aside, WHAT WAS THAT ENDING……………. Worms being here (it answered a question I had about whether or not the worms were getting inside the building or only around), and it sounded like Another Friday (Jon was already used to it?), and there was a ~special delivery~ from ~two mysterious characters~ for Jon, although Martin was the one there for the reception. (The script spoiled me about Who Was Speaking; I… objectively know that I should pay attention to any mentions of a pair of delivery men, I did until now, but somehow I think I wouldn’t have thought of them in that exact moment. Somehow.) Also woopsies, the sound of worms… faded when B&H’s steps began to be heard (we could still hear the sound when Jon left, so he didn’t squash them). Did the worms… flee… at their approach…

* MAG036: Nicole Baxter, a funeral director/mortician, about the strange incidents happening in Ivy Meadows Care Home during mid-August 2011-or-2012. She was working in Baxter and Gordon Funeral Directors (in Woodley) – William Gordon had passed away 5 years prior, George Baxter (Nicole’s uncle) is currently running it alone, Nicole and her cousin Josh (George’s son) have been hired to help. One day, Nicole Baxter received a call from a nurse, Alenka Kozel, about one of Ivy Meadows’ thirtyish residents (Bertrand Miller) who got ill and passed away (“I asked her for a few more details; she started to say something else, but the call was cut off almost abruptly.”) When Nicole and Josh went, the place seemed smellier and dirtier than usual; the new director, John Amherst, was unsettling (Josh declined shaking his hand) and took a while before accepting to lead them to Bertrand Miller’s body. On their way, they didn’t see anyone else (“I thought I spotted one of the nurses at one point, but they had turned and walked away as soon as they saw us.”). John Amherst instructed that Bertrand Miller should get cremated and the ashes returned to Ivy Meadows, for a “private remembrance service”; when Nicole&Josh saw the body, they were appalled but he told them that “the disease that had claimed poor Mr. Miller wasn’t contagious”. A bit of Nicole’s skin was accidentally exposed despite her gloves, during the handling, and she touched the corpse; it kept feeling itchy afterwards. George Baxter had trouble believing them but ended up taking care of the matter (“He had us tell it to him one more time, before he nodded, told us to stay away from the corpse of Bertrand Miller, and left, telling us he had to make a few calls. I have never seen a cremation done with such a quick turnaround […].”) and refused to send the ashes back to the residence. Two weeks later, Nicole received another call from Alenka Kozel, who just repeated “Come quickly. We’ve taken ill. We’ve passed away.” Nicole decided to go back to the place: it was silent and felt even dirtier and ill. She heard a tapping sound and went around to the other side of the building: what remained of Alenka Kozel was tapping against the window. Nicole tried to flee, got tackled by a strange old man who was accompanied by a young woman; the pair decided to let her go. They apparently burned the place down. Nicole’s hand is Still Not Fine at the time of the writing. Post-statement reveals that she lost her left hand “in what she calls ‘a workplace accident’”; that Ivy Meadows had been officially decommissioned in July and burned down on September 4th due to a gas leak; that Bertrand Miller had died on July 19th according to his death certificate – one week before Ivy Meadows was decommissioned. No trace of a John Amherst anywhere.

(Statement was given in November of the same year, though, and it’s stated as 2012, while Jon is mentioning the year 2011 in his post-statement… so it looks like Mr “I’m not re-recording them” made more mistakes! =D)

My computer is still dying and loves to lag at the worst times because it did it once again (“There was nobody behind it, and I rang the bell. I always wore gloves when on a removal, and was glad of that fact now, as I noticed a /// greasy residue on top of the small brass bell.”), giving me a bonus jumpscare. I had been warned that it was a ~disgusting~ statement, but no, it was a very sad one??? A story about… out-of-the-loop people, isolated by their situations, who had managed to make a good place for themselves despise the circumstances (“Something about the mutual loneliness seemed to lead them to create a real sense of community. It was the only place I ever went where the residents still gave me a smile. […] It was just a happy place, even if I was only there to do a sad duty.”)… and they ended up getting caught, imprisoned and consumed (?) by some evil thingy ;; Nicole Baxter had described Ivy Meadows as “removed enough from main road that it stood alone”, “almost entirely populated by those elderly who were entirely supported by the state”, “Old people without money or family, sent to be looked after by strangers”, and Jon added in the follow-up that the records were disastrous, making it hard to pinpoint who was still living there at the time, and that the staff was mostly undeclared immigrant (“the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books”), so there was really this feeling that… something preyed on vulnerable people, who couldn’t fight back, and it was very, very sad. Jon himself didn’t exactly try to shoot this one down, he mostly highlighted the lack of physical proof in a way that was very neutral compared to his usual standards (he didn’t complain about people wasting his time or whatever), so it gave me the impression that he was a bit… gentler, towards these people who apparently suffered a great deal without anyone noticing, and who now can’t be remembered.

I liked Nicole’s tone! The first part of her statement was very aware and reflexive, she sounded very polite and neat overall? Not assuming that everyone would share her reasoning, so explaining her thought process in detail (“Fear is a strange thing, isn’t it? What you’re afraid of. […] There is one thing about dead bodies that does bother me, though. One thing that... eats at me, as it were, and does give me that sick tightness of fear deep in my gut. It is rot. […] That… the fear, the feeling. That tingling, squirming fear at the back of my mind […].”), before catching herself (“I’m rambling. Disregard this first page, I’ll start again.”), able to appreciate people and to throw in some dark humour here and there (“It feels odd to consider the fact that you will no longer exist some day, but you didn’t exist for billions of years before your birth, so, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to conclude that you will not exist afterwards in much the same way. I try to see life as a pleasant holiday from non-existence. It provides some comfort when the truth of my own mortality stares me in the face every day.”; “For a funeral director to say she has a favourite nursing home probably sounds a bit like the Grim Reaper talking about his favourite hospital, but it’s true.”). The self-awareness was still present at the time of her statement (“at that point we had no idea that there was anything wrong, but looking back it seems like we both felt there was something off about it. Or maybe we were just too hot for conversation and hindsight is colouring my memories.”) and there was a cautiousness about the way she dealt with her own memories that I found very pleasant. It sounds like George Baxter might have had an idea about what had happened, or at least had contacts who were able to provide some assistance/instructions about how to handle the body? Maybe we'll we hear about him again?

Nicole’s “I stood there, torn between wanting to flee and needing to know.” reminded me a bit of how Lesere Saraki had watched without doing anything (MAG012: Gerard Keay’s “Yes. For you, better beholding than the lightless flame.”) and, of course, Jon’s own declaration to Sasha (MAG026: “No. Whatever’s going on, I… need to know.”) Plus, there were two options later on (“I asked them what was going on, and the old man looked at his companion, as if asking permission, said something about knowledge being a good defence here. She shook her head and said that leaving quickly was a better one.”), so I really had the reflex to wonder about what Jon would have done instead, there. I’m not sure whether Alenka Kozel (the nurse) had tried to bait the statement-giver inside the residence, or was trying to get help – thinking at first that removing and disposing of the corpse would save them, in her first call, maybe? The first call had been cut short and John Amherst was apparently angry that someone had called for the morticians, so it sounded a bit as if… she had tried to do this in a last attempt (whether or not she was already contaminated herself), before getting caught and maybe prevented from interacting with Nicole when she went to retrieve the body. The second call sounded more like she had only vaguely kept the reflex of How She Used To Human ;; (The residence was already illegal at this point, but I’m not sure if the staff knew about it when it happened… and then it was already too late for them, uh ;;) No idea about “Trevor”&the woman’s priority: granting the Ivy Meadows’ people an actual death to free them from their state? Trying to prevent the thing that had contaminated them from spreading further? Neutralizing John Amherst?

Small Jon Things: I found Jon’s tone especially funny when he reported the cross-checking (“We did contact the Baxters. Joshua Baxter repeated the first part of the above statement. George Baxter told us not to listen to tall tales. Nicole Baxter said she stands by her account […].”); I don’t know what is making me smile exactly in those repetitions, the… laconism, maybe? Also, when Tim interrupted him and asked if he could talk, Jon went from one voice to another (“Yes… Yes, I’m just about finished here, what is it?”): drowsy at first (although he had been more composed when acknowledging Tim’s entrance), then firmer, Usual Boss Jon Back At It. The contrast was nice <3 AND I’M SO GLAD TO HAVE HEARD TIM AGAIN!! Jon discovered that a lighter and a table had been delivered for him, is worried about the table, is going to ask more about it to Martin (“I need to talk to Martin. Uh, end recording.”: 1°) Yes, you always need to talk to Martin. Please, talk to Martin more. 2°) Jon probably moved a bit in his chair when he opened the drawer and/or talked with Tim, since there was a slight strain in his voice at the end, perfectly making you hear that he was extending his arm to reach the tape recorder and turn it off. Nice touch!)

… THERE WAS ONE THING SUPER STRANGE, and it is how. the. heckie. Jon managed to think about Trevor in the statement (“And the old man and his companion… who does that remind me of? If he wasn’t dead, I’d think it might have been Trevor—”). The only mention we had of him, afaik, was in MAG010 (Trevor’s own statement), so an internal POV, and Jon… thought about him despise the fact that it was an exterior description here? (And also despite the fact that Trevor apparently died the year prior.) And the only shared trait between Trevor in MAG010 and this mysterious man here is the accent from Manchester? So 1°) is it a matter of Jon once again withholding information, and knowing more about Trevor than what he said?, 2°) is it a matter of somethingsomething spooky happening, that allowed him to recognize someone because he’s read a first-person POV of the same person once?, 3°) … or did Jon forget to mention that he had seen pictures of Trevor? (MAG010: “So everyone around Manchester knows about Trevor the Tramp, sure. I hear someone even made me a page on the Internet and it got a few thousand likes. I don’t know exactly what that means but it sounds nice.” => Jon didn’t mention whether he checked that page, but should have been one of the first things to do.) Anyway, something was weird about that.

* MAG037: Jason North, about his discovery in the forest, near Loch Glass in Scotland. He found a clearing with trees that seemed deliberately arranged in a circle (they must have been planted at least fifty years ago), with a stone in the middle serving as a chair or an altar, with scorch marks on the ground. First weird thing happened when he entered the clearing: he got suffocatingly hot and his bottled water boiled his throat, making him collapse for a while. He noticed dead animals at the edge of the clearing, that looked like they were all badly sunburned – either they all were at the same time, either they were preserved in this state somehow. Iron nails were planted on the trees, suspending old milk bottles thanks to strings that “seemed far cleaner and newer than the bottles or their contents”. The content of the bottles varied (“some had pine needles and twigs, some were full of dirt, and one or two even held what appeared to be rainwater”) but all had, inside, the photograph of an old lady and a lock of hair (“grey, in poor condition”). While trying to take a picture, he accidentally dropped a bottle, which shattered on the ground; he knew he had done something very bad and fled, taking the picture with him. His car burned on the way home; his home (and his wife) burned during the week. He wants to save his son, Ethan. (Follow-up explains that, seven years later, the son is still alive; Jason immolated himself three days after giving his statement.)

Beginning of the episode had the discussion between Martin&Jon (about the deliveries for Jon) that was announced at the end of the previous episode… and it was more of an interrogation, really. I wanted to hear Martin again but not!! like!! this!! Jon, you’re going back to MAG022, ie not deserving Martin’s existence :[ How dare you pressure and be so cutting towards him!! How many times did Martin have to repeat himself before Jon launched the tape recorder ;; (And only because in the end, Jon wanted a trace of Martin’s version. Friendship ended with… well, nobody, but Tape Recorder Is Jon’s Best Friend Anyway, now.)

About the statement in itself: LOOK, I was already sad for the dude in MAG035 (the fact that the cause of his death was kept silent), I was sad that the isolated elderly and immigrant workers in MAG036, and now this??? I’m not spooked, just incredibly SAD????? I was the most heartbreaking one that I ever heard so far????? T________T 1°) It’s not the first one, but I have a Weakness for a character being well aware that they made a mistake, or at least did something that they shouldn’t have done… but Jason was also aware that he was also suffering from a very cruel and disproportionate retribution and aouch aouch aouch… (“I’m sorry. I know. There’s no-one to blame but my own stupid self. Blundering in where I had no right to go. […] For everything it’s done to me, I didn’t really do anything at all. Just messed around in the wrong clearing. […] I didn’t need to enter the clearing. But I did. […] The moment I crossed that threshold I knew I had made a mistake. […] I’ve always been too curious for my own stupid good. […] God knows I should have just left; it’s not like there weren’t plenty of warning signs. I just chose not to pay attention. […] and instantly I knew that I had meddled with something I should have left alone. […] I shouldn’t be in this mess. It’s absurd. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just dropped a bottle. That’s all! I don’t deserve this. I don’t.”)

2°) … he turned towards the Institute for help while… suspecting that they wouldn’t help. He is right, I guess? The Institute will never move a finger to help, that’s not its function, it’s here to… watch people burn (and other things, but “burn” fits, here)………..

3°) … and it wasn’t even help for himself only, it was for his son!!! And he just loves his son so much and you could hear it and T___T (“I just need to know if you can save my son. […] If I’m scared I’m going to lose Ethan like I lost everything else, then I’ll curl into a ball and never get up. I won’t be able to do anything to stop it. I won’t let my son burn, even if you cowards don’t have the guts to step up and do something. […] I didn’t mind being alone, though, because I knew I had my little boy Ethan waiting for me back at home. Four years old and already sharp as anything. And my wife Lucy. She used to be waiting for me as well. […] Now there’s only one thing I have left that I value. That I love. And I cannot lose him. I can’t lose Ethan.”). His job used to have to do with protecting animals (“Do you know what a pine marten is? It’s a wee bear. An adorable wee bear that needs to be protected.”), and the two were resonating strongly, and he had seen those scorched animals and he was fearing for his son and it’s just. The parallel was awful?! ;;

4°) I… found Jon overly emotional compared to his usual self, and it was subtle, mostly having to do with his way of delivering information: he began the follow-up with the mention that the little kid is still alive (“He didn’t, in the end. Lose Ethan, that is. Ethan North is currently a healthy eleven-year-old boy living with a loving foster family in Inverness.”) and… it gave me the impression that it was indeed the Most Important, that needed to be said – as if, in a way, it was to bring comfort to Jason, to convey that information to him posthumously? Jon didn’t need to put reassuring adjectives (“healthy”, “loving”) but he did, because he deemed that important. And gods ;; The rest of the follow-up, explaining that Jason North had apparently immolated himself just three days after giving the statement (“There’s no reason to believe that when Jason North doused himself in petrol on August the 10th 2009, then lit himself on fire, he was doing anything other than acting out the delusions of a paranoid alcoholic.”) was so… unconvincing, and Jon himself sounded unconvinced by what he was saying, that it made it clear that yes, the Institute did nothing; that yes, Jason North killed himself in the end to protect his son from whatever curse was pursuing him. So the follow-up was… giving me the impression that Jon was trying to communicate to Jason that yes, he did it, he had managed, he had succeeded in saving his son in the end (or at least, that it can be said and known that Jason did it). Jon’s voice was also less firm than usual, he was a bit softer and slower. Could be the tiredness, could also be because it was… simply a sad story. (Span of guilt, maybe, too, on the Institute’s behalf? The fact that Jason was desperate for help and didn’t receive any, just got told to write his story… without any compensation?, should sting a bit.) I had guessed that the picture was probably Gertrude’s ;; So what happened? Was it a ritual to try to kill her off, or something she did to neutralize some evil spooky powers from another cluster? Jon Couldn’t Anymore, at least (“I have no idea what this means. I have no idea what any of this means. I’m very tired.” with his voice drifting, he sounded like he was on the verge of dropping from his chair, eyes already closed and overall… very vulnerable.)

* MAG038: Andre Ramao, about an old vase and the disappearances of items around him. He is in the antiques business, used to have a shop, has been facing financial difficulties and ended up buying from Mikaele Salesa (who has a shady reputation legality-wise) in March 2012. Andre bought cavalry sabres from the Revolutionary War, a British artilleryman’s tunic from World War I, some more items. He got a crush on an old Chinese pot from the Jiajing period (“the blue glaze was painted on in crisp, thin geometric lines. They repeated perfectly and seemed to get smaller and more intricate the closer I looked, but the shapes they formed never lost any of the precision, seeming to continue on however closely I looked. The effect was disorientating, and made the vase seem smaller than it actually was. It made my head hurt a bit when I looked at it for too long. It was amazing.”), ended up buying it. However, later, when he received the invoice, the vase wasn’t listed: he contacted Salesa, who didn’t believe that he had ever owned the vase, asked for a few pictures, was suspicious (scared?) overall, and told Andre to keep it. Items then began to disappear around Andre: a pair of polished shoes, then a signed copy of Catch-22 that he held dear, etc. – including items bought from Mikaele Salesa, who, when called, answered that he had never sold these items to him (and they had indeed disappeared from the invoice). His husband David was beginning to get really worried, not remembering the items and thinking that Andre needed medical help. A month before giving his statement, Andre fell asleep in front of the vase (“I don’t remember my dream. Running, maybe?”), woke up seeing the missing items (and more) falling out from the vase; then, “the pale shapes of long, thin fingertips begin to creep above the lip of the pot” and he ran away. When he came back, David was gone, and so was the vase. According to Andre’s landlord, he has always lived alone. (The beginning of the post-statement reveals that, although the second name is blank, there is a marriage licence attesting that Andre was indeed married to someone.) Jon is cut short in his follow-up by the sight of an Unholy Creature (a spider on the wall), smashes it, makes shelves collapse, gets Sasha’s attention (and chuckles), causes a dent in the wall, discovers (many?) worms and screams at Sasha to run away.

I was thinking that this one might break the stream of Statements That Make Me Sad, and I was indeed pretty neutral at first despite the fact that it sounded right away like it wasn’t just a punctual spooky event but an ongoing thing, a bit like a curse (like last statement); from the get-go, the narrator sure didn’t sound like he was having a good time, but he was also able to crack a few jokes (“We haggled a bit, and eventually reached a price I considered only a little bit unreasonable.”, “[Mikaele Salesa] asked me if I’d had a chance to try out the sabres yet, which I’m pretty sure was a joke.”), so it couldn’t be that bad? And then, there was His Problem, the escalation from innocuous items to the book that was precious to him, and the mention that he was married to a man, the fear of being gaslighted/going crazy (“My perceptions are the only ones I can trust. Maybe. I don’t know.”, “For a while I thought he was actually trying to gaslight me, make me think I was losing my mind”), and now it wasn’t a book but the love of his life who disappeared, and there is no trace of him left, no proof that they were married… (“David was gone. I allowed myself some brief hope that maybe he’d just left me, maybe he’d escaped with just a divorce. But no. One call to the housing association confirmed that, as far as they were concerned, I’d always lived alone.”). LISTEN, that was… incredibly upsetting to think about, for a queer couple?! To think that his husband disappeared and that nobody would remember that they were married, to think that the person he loved was just erased like this…? (I mean, yeah, it wouldn’t have been funny for a straight couple either! But for a queer couple… there is the added heartbreak of people who maybe had to fight a bit to get to their current life, who were probably used to have people around them denying who they were, that they had a bond, that they were a couple – and here, one of them got erased out of existence…) (And it’s Tim who found the marriage certificate!!! Must have been super sad for Tim…) I wouldn’t have remembered the “Salesa” name from MAG014 if Jon hadn’t mentioned ~ case #0112905~! Also dealt with antiques, was also shady, except not alone back then. Andre mentioned some books (“several crates packed to the brim with heavy-looking volumes”) ssssso maybe he’s also hoarding some Leitners? Jon was pretty neutral for a follow-up, and he insisted pretty clearly that Andre Ramao had been married, so ;; Good. But given that his speech was interrupted by the spider, we don’t know if Andre Ramao is still alive or if they managed to contact him again.

… I’m still putting my hands on my face over the fact that 1°) after MAG016 and the “ghost spider”, Jon still thinks it’s a good idea to smash spiders (you’re so getting haunted, dude, and it will be karma for upsetting Martin), 2°) THAT HE DID IT IN WHAT IS BASICALLY MARTIN’S CURRENT HOUSE, 3°) that he dared to complain about Martin’s recriminations (“Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem.”). I myself really don’t like spiders but LISTEN! If there is a kind soul that would be ready to get the spider out, you take this opportunity and you send them to their dea- to their duty. THAT ENDING… I was expecting the season finale to probably span two episodes, didn’t expect for things to go south already at the end of this one x’) The wall is not an exterior wall but a fake wall with… things crawling inside or behind. Welp. At least, we’re beginning to know how worms were getting in.

* MAG039: Worms Apocalypse. Tape Recorder 1 (the same as from MAG038): Jon trying to retrieve the tape recorder in the middle of the worm infestation; Martin arriving, beginning to use the fire extinguishers; the three of them running… and Jon losing the tape recorder. Tape Recorder 2 (Martin’s): Sasha, Jon and Martin in the sealed room. Jon gets at least one worm (painfully) removed thanks to Martin’s corkscrew, has trouble standing up. Jon explains that he doesn’t want to die as a “mystery”, hence the obsessive recording (“Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened.”) and makes a distinction between “real” statements and everything else – he pays more attention to the statements that don’t record digitally. Outside of the room, it looks like the worms have receded a bit; Tim comes back from his lunch; Jane Prentiss is approaching; they try to warn him but he can’t hear them; Sasha decides to barge in (out) to save Tim. Tape Recorder 1: Tim “Joe Spooky” finds the tape recorder lying on the floor and shamelessly pokes fun at Jon; Sasha jumps on him and they struggle a bit. Sasha grabs the tape recorder. Tape Recorder 2: Martin and Jon, now alone in the sealed room, hypothesise about Tim’s survival chances – they’re low, but Martin had a secret stash of fire extinguishers hidden in the office. Jon doesn’t think it was necessary to hide them, since the worms can’t have a consciousness. Martin gets mad at him about the scepticism (they’re supernatural!), Jon defends himself and confesses that he does believe the ~real~ statements but was afraid to state it, since he always felt watched during the recordings. Meanwhile, Prentiss is vomiting into some boxes. Jon wants to know why Martin is still working here; Martin admits that he has thought about quitting but didn’t in the end. Jon misinterprets his wording as Martin being a ghost. Tape Recorder 1: Sasha found Elias, after having activated the fire alarm (urging people to evacuate). ELIAS REVEALS THAT JONATHAN “I don’t allow ignition sources in my archive!” SIMS USED TO BE A SMOKER. Elias explains that until now, he had been a bit dismissive of their fears of the worm-things. The carbon dioxide system used to regulate fire hasn't turned on, however, since there isn’t any real fire; they go to activate it manually. Tape Recorder 1: Something is banging on the wall of Jon&Martin’s room. Turns out to be Tim, alive (yay!) and high on CO2 (YAY!): he found the fire extinguisher, and also secret tunnels, and also is totally out of it. They decide to try to go through the tunnels, since there are less worms there. Tape Recorder 2: Sasha is in the Artefact Storage, having gotten separated from Elias by a “wave of worms”. She explains that she used to work there, at first, and that she hates the place. She notices the Fucking Table that was delivered a few episodes ago, then sees something and addresses the thing. She screams. Something repeats some of her last words (“Hello? I see you.”) Tape Recorder 1: Tim and Jon are in the tunnels; they lost Martin (or Martin left them behind), and the tunnels don’t sound like a great idea anymore due to the worms’ aggressive behaviour. Tim is going to open a trapdoor, hoping it doesn’t lead them back to the Archives. Tim opens it: apparently, it does – there is Jane Prentiss. Indication that the situation is catastrophic: Jon says “Shit.”

I’m a stupid silly brat, but I really had to pause, 2’30 in, to just… shake it off and laugh (I was in tears). Jon having the worst priority and risking everything for the tape recorder because OF COURSE? (Jon, no.) Jon shouting orders for Martin to do things but being at a loss about where to go or how to take initiative? (Not holding yourself to your own standards, uh? =D) Martin’s frantic “I don’t see her! I don’t see her! I don’t see her!” while spraying CO2 everywhere. (He… probably had his eyes closed at this moment, wasn’t he.) The “[RUNNING, PURSUED BY WORMS]” which was just… Beautiful. The fact that we jumped to the worm extraction, and yes, that moment was chilling (Jon… screaming. Gg. Gg. Aesthetic.), but also immediately followed by Sasha commenting about how disclaimer: Contrary To Some People, I Have Not Been A Softie!!, because Priorities, with Jon coming back from Painland just to bite back about how He Obviously Got It Worse So It Can’t Be Compared because PRIORITIES. And the reveal that they have used a corkscrew, that Martin had been hoarding a corkscrew, and Sasha’s immediate reaction being to ask if he was basically partying in the Archives (picture Jon’s horrified&murderous face here, probably). Martin explaining his reasoning, followed by the biggest pause ever perfectly conveying the Stares and the Judging, before Martin tried to defend himself (“Look, you guys got to go home every day, okay.”) At this point, I was losing it from laughter. Yes, the situation is dire! Yes, bad stuff happening! But rfidjnrfdcuhjn they were all adorkable at the same time. Silly idiots. Just. Those three’s priorities. (Sasha: to explain that she takes pain better than Jon / Jon: to explain that no, it’s because Sasha was bad at removing his worm / Martin: justifying why he had been clinging for dear life to a corkscrew for the past months.) And silly urban posh idiots – who somehow never… ever… considered… a tick remover… for worms… (or even tweezers!!!). The three of you have never set one toe in the countryside ever, have you. (I’m really, really losing it over how nobody thought about using a tick remover.)

I think I gushed extensively over many things from this episode already, so I’m going to stick to the basic facts: I had seen fanarts of smoking!Jon, I had assumed it was for the Aesthetic of it (which. Indeed. Noice.), but I was… not prepared… to learn it this way (=> because Elias made a quick comment about it, and the way he delivered that information). That said, FUCK YOU ELIAS RE: WHAT HAPPENED TO SASHA (I’m even more upset given how Sasha… quickly mentioned that she was aware that Elias was a bit too suspiciously shady, being too good at changing the subject when it’s apparently touchy, and ahahaha, she’s the first one to die, right after… discussing and rushing with Elias. How convenient.) It was really action-packed and all the dialogues were great, damniiit! The way tension and laughs were mixed together, with the delivery of information, and how… yes, finally, we got to get a glimpse of Jon himself during the crisis!! Aaaaand the fact that Sasha died… raised the stakes, I guess: because this one thing means Changes and means that no, definite and bad things can also happen… even when we think that the worst is behind. (I have heard of some of the Many Awful Things to come. But this was the first incidence of something terrible and definitive happening: Martin had made it out alive in MAG022, so did Sasha in MAG026, Jon’s worm was removed at the beginning of this episode, and so far, they had managed to avoid them… But Sasha didn’t escape the table.) (And then, the worms got Tim and Jon. But it’s pretty ironic that, in the end, Jane Prentiss, who was set up as the season’s antagonist… didn’t manage to kill any of them, while The Table did.)

* MAG040: Worms apocalypse – The Follow Ups. Jon got out of quarantine and is on painkillers, and refuses to go home until he has the staff’s individual statements about their whereabouts during the invasion. Elias is not happy about Jon’s stubbornness, confirms that Jane Prentiss is dead and burned (he watched.), but ultimately relents. - Elias was in his office when the fire alarm was activated. He began to evacuate, was joined by Sasha, who explained that she was the one responsible for the fire alarm and that the others were currently trapped in the Archives, attacked by worms. They went to activate the fire suppression system manually, got separated by a tidal wave of worms. Elias took another road, activated the system alone after a while, called the fire department, an ambulance and a contact at the ECDC that had worked on a Jane Prentiss case before, and went down to the Archives. Sasha was already there, with Jon’s and Tim’s bodies – in bad shape. Jon and Tim were taken away, Jane Prentiss was being prepared for disposal, when Martin came back through the trapdoor, saying that he had found a body. Jon asks Elias about Gertrude Robinson’s death, and Elias begrudgingly answers: on 15th March 2015, he had come down to the Archives, discovered lots of blood on her desk; the police confirmed it was hers and that a human body couldn’t have survived such an injury. The police took over the case, and Elias appointed Jon as the new archivist. - Tim is out of quarantine and dead inside: his joke about “itching” led to more tests, hence the fact that he came out after Jon. Tim recalls how, after lunch, when he came back to the archives, he discovered the tape recorder on the ground: Jane Prentiss appeared, Sasha tackled him, they struggled a bit and he told her to go get help. He ran to take shelter into the office but discovered more worms and the hole in the wall. He found the CO2 canisters, used them a lot, went into the tunnels – and has some trouble remembering details from then on, because of respiratory acidosis. He avoided the few (fast) worms he met, wandered a bit until he heard Martin’s and Jon’s voices and demolished some plasterboard and that’s when they got reunited. Tim is not sure, but he also thinks that he recalls a room in which worms were forming a sort of ring, or a doorway. He killed them with CO2. - “Sasha” quickly explains that she saved Tim, fled, activated the alarm, went to Elias, got separated from him, retreated in the Artefact Storage room. She heard Prentiss’s scream when the fire system got activated, and saw that the worms died. She went back to the Archives, discovered Tim’s and Jon’s bodies, still alive but barely, dragged them to a place with more air and began to remove the worms. Elias joined her with the people he had contacted; Sasha explained what had happened and waited with Elias. One or two hours afterwards, they heard shouts, and Martin came back from the trapdoor, saying that he had found Gertrude’s body. Elias called the police at this moment. Jon asked about the whereabouts of the tape she had on her: Sasha says that it probably got ejected one of the times the tape recorder fell. - Martin is tired, got interrogated by the police. He feels guilty that he left Jon and Tim back in the tunnels, insists that it was an accident, is not fine about it; Jon calms him down. Martin describes how he got lost in the tunnels, until he found Gertrude’s body, sat on a chair with boxes of tapes around. He ran away and managed to find the trapdoor, in the end. He doesn’t think that he will be able to find the place again. Jon pressures him to know how Gertrude died: Martin finally confesses that he saw three bullet wounds in her chest. - Gertrude was shot and it terrifies Jon. He thinks that she had managed to learn a secret behind the statements, and that that's why she was murdered. He notes that some of his tapes are now missing, and that he won’t trust anyone around him – but that he’s going to uncover the mysteries.

I screamed a lot about this one in the character sections, so I’ll try to be quick (ha). I… loved it… so much… the way Jon behaved differently with everyone… the way the information was distilled (slowly making us understand that Martin had found a body, that it was Gertrude’s body, the fact that we finally heard the whole story from Martin’s mouth at the end)… I’m weeping at Jon towards the end, because obviously, NOOOOOOO DON’T D: (It’s very close to the feeling of excitement you can get when a character usually announces that he will go on an adventure, or go after a mystery… but here, it’s not coming with joy. It’s Jon going deeper into something that is likely to hurt him, and he doesn’t sound like he’s doing with a happy vibe, but with fear and dread. And he’s going alone. And Aouch.)

* Season 1’s Q&A

… It’s making me feel very very weird to call People Behind The Show by their first names like they’re old friends when I’m a newcomer and I’ve been listening for uuuuuuuuuuh 8 weeks but apparently that what the fanbase does s o…

- Laughed hard about Jonny explaining that they got asked a lot whether his/Jon’s accent was fake (“I go a little bit dryer, a little bit more…” “Academic.” “Academic, yes, for Jonathan, but it is my real voice.”: that was very charitable from you two, you could have said “more stuck-up and haughty” for Jon because the difference was jarring =D and he’s giving academia a bad name.), but

Alex: Funnily, no one asked if all the other characters’ voices are real. Jonny: No, apparently they, they sound– Alex: Human. Jonny: –they sound genuine […].

- … I didn’t know that Jonny had planned from the start that the series would be 5 seasons-long bUT I LOVE IT!!!

Jonny: Then I crafted the ending… as in, the ending of season 5. I hate series that don’t have an end goal. […] And since then, aspects of the end have shifted slightly with the writing – because they always do – but I still know where it’s going.

- … and I love how, in the same breath, it’s also very down-to-earth.

Jonny: A couple of the episodes which are… dream-like in tone because they were written to be dream-like, others are a bit dream-like in tone because it was very late at night when they were written.

- Preparation for an episode:

Jonny: Obviously, I've been fasting for a few days to purify the blood. […] To be honest, largely it involves just reading down a few paragraphs in the Archivist’s voice, to get my head in the right space for actually reading it.

- Alex’s Sufferings laid in the multicast recording episodes because directing challenges! =D

Jonny: [They were] easily the most complicated. Alex: Ooooh yeah. Jonny: Because we were doing an actual audio drama rather than an audiodrama-esque anthology series.

- Question about “Are there any Magnus Bloopers? Has Jonathan Sims ever laughed, ever?”

Jonny: No. No. Alex: *undignified laughter* Jonny: No, I laugh a lot. Alex: *BURSTS OUT LAUGHING* Jonny: I laugh uproariously. Some might say that I laugh too much. Alex: Not many. Jonny: No, no, I've never actually heard it, but I assume they say it.

(From the production side, though, Alex said they won’t release the bloopers any time soon “because they’re a bit of a mood-killer” :( So we’re getting killings and our happy mood getting repeatedly hurt, but still no bloopers.)

Jonny: Also, I’m very sweary in real life.

LET JON SAY “FUCK”!!! (Though yeah, Jon’s “Shit.” was… earned.) … But it’s also having to do with itunes’ ratings, ooooh.

Jonny: No rude words. I could say ‘BOMBS’ maybe… Alex: *laughs* Jonny: … but I won’t.

(I KNOW ABOUT TIM :[[[[[[)

- … Alex, what did you DO to pasta. (About the SFX for the Hive)

Alex: I won’t tell people how we make the worms sound, but it just involves A LOT of pasta. LOTS AND LOTS of pasta. Jonny: Deeeeliiiicious screaming pasta.

- Status towards fanbase is LOVE, main emotion is “gratifying” and oooh, reminds me a bit of Ryuukishi07’s stance: Jonny said he was lurking (~keep an eye on~, said twice.) to check some people’s specific opinions, because they tended to pick up on things (and if they didn’t, it meant that Jonny should insist on them). … And also, about the mistakes that had been spotted (I’m guessing this is what prompted the beginning of MAG033 with Tim? =D), “It’s actually fair.” (and Jonny compared to getting someone pointing out your mistakes during a final exam), because it is a ~Mystery~ so you’re supposed to get the tools to understand things! … so yeah, all the comparisons between TMA and Umineko (insert here discussions/debates from the canon about Mystery/Fantasy/Anti-Mystery/Anti-Fantasy/Without Love It Cannot Be Seen) still totally stand /o/

- We’re keeping the “regular” formula /o/

Jonny: Generally, as the series goes on, there will be more of that [like end of season 1/more live-actions things]; at its core, it will still remain one episode = one statement = one story.

- Biggest challenge in season 2?

Jonny: Balancing horror and mystery.

(Because there is The Power of the Unknown at the beginning of series, so it’s easier, so the biggest challenge would be to balance the “unknown and story while at the same time providing enough answers to the mystery”; giving answers but not everything; and we’re getting promised that some things will stay hidden. YEP UMINEKO ALL OVER AGAIN YAAAAAASSSSS!!!)

- Alex commented about “Jonny’s sultry tones” so is there a competition going on with Ben (and others) about who’s getting the Sultriest voice.

Alex: And weee look forward to seeing you again for season 2! Jonny: See you then :)

I’M NOT SMILING AT THAT LAST ONE :[

Actualization on current main threads:

- Jon & Injuries I DID GATHER that Jon has been collecting injuries by the end of season 3, so I’m keeping track of them. * MAG039: bitten by at least one worm towards the beginning (“Did you get it?”), maybe more, and it was on his leg:

(MAG039) ARCHIVIST: I can’t really stand up yet. […] MARTIN: Can, can you walk, Jon? ARCHIVIST: No, I can limp.

* MAG040: at the end of the previous episode, encountered Jane Prentiss, and it went… badly, so currently covered in holes/scars. And so is Tim.

- Oh So Many Red Flags for Gertrude * MAG037: during the summer of 2009, Jason North discovered a clearing with scorch marks, with trees in a circle. Bottles were suspended, each containing a picture of Gertrude (“An old woman, probably in her fifties or sixties, wearing reading glasses and grey hair curled into a tight bun. She stared out disapprovingly from every bottle.”). Jon dates the picture as “circa 2002 as best I can tell.” * MAG039, Jon: “I still don’t know what happened to Gertrude. Officially she’s still missing, but Elias is no help and the police were pretty clear that the wait to call her dead is just a formality.” (… Revealing that it wasn’t a clear death, contrary to what we had been told until then. In MAG011, Jon had reported that Elias “simply said she had passed away and not to worry about it overmuch. Actually, now I think about it, his exact phrase was that she ‘died in the line of duty’, which I had assumed meant having a stroke at her desk or something similar”.) * MAG040: according to Elias, on the 15th of March 2015, she disappeared and a lot of blood was discovered at her desk – the Police did confirm that it was hers, and Elias appointed Jon as her successor. At the end of MAG039’s events, Martin discovered her body when he was lost in the tunnels:

She was shot three times in the chest. Jon believes that someone from the Institute murdered her, because she had put her finger on something hidden under the statements.

- FEAAAARRRRS … It sounded superfluous to pay attention to this since “it’s a podcast about fear and about gods/Entities related to fears” was something I knew even before beginning to listen, but at this point, Jon is beginning to understand that the way people experience fear(s) is relevant, so! I want to keep track of the steps, now (/but I’m also too lazy to go back) (for now): * MAG032, Jane Prentiss’s statement: “You must understand, it sings so sweetly, and I need it, but I am afraid. […] The song is loud and beautiful and I am so very afraid.” * MAG033, Carlita Sloane’s statement: “[Sean Kelly] didn’t talk any more than the others, but he also didn’t go around with that blank look on his face. He looked scared.” * MAG035, Harold Silvana’s statement: “[Alfred Bartlett] was dead. I couldn’t see any injuries on him. He didn’t even seem hurt. But looking at how still he lay there, the terrified, awful expression frozen on his face, there was no chance he was alive.” * MAG036, Nicole Baxter’s statement: “Fear is a strange thing, isn’t it? What you’re afraid of. For most people, a corpse is at the least unnerving and, for some, outright terrifying. Or maybe it’s disgust. They are two very different feelings, aren’t they? Though they often bleed into each other, if you’ll pardon the pun.” MAG036, Jon: “Still, there’s a lot here that puts me in mind of other statements. Something in the way Ms. Baxter talks about fear. I can’t help but be reminded of statement 0142302, how Jane Prentiss talks about her own fears.” * MAG037, Jason North’s statement: “I’ve been drinking. […] Only way to keep the fear from settling in. If I’m scared I’m going to lose Ethan like I lost everything else, then I’ll curl into a ball and never get up.”

- Fractals Geometrical patterns YES ALRIGHT, that’s a lot of mysterious items/obsessions with geometric patterns here and there, so *squints* * MAG003: Amy Patel described The Table (currently at the Institute, forwarded to Jon) as “an “ornate wooden thing, with a snaking pattern of lines weaving their way around towards the centre. The pattern was hypnotic and shifted as I watched it, like an optical illusion. I found my eyes following the lines towards the middle of the table, where there was nothing but a small square hole.” Tim confirmed the “Fascinating design on it.” (MAG036) * MAG008: Ivo Lensik’s father suffered from schizophrenia (or did he.), went recluse to dedicate his life to his ~work~: “fractals. He became obsessed with them, seemed to spend all of his time drawing them, staring at them, measuring the patterns they created. He would talk to me for hours about the maths behind them and tell me that he was on the verge of a great truth. He was going to shake mathematics to its foundations once he figured out this truth, hidden in those cascading fractal patterns.” He was found “in a pool of blood, with deep gouges along his wrists and arms. […] The inquest ruled his death a suicide, although the coroner wasn’t able to identify the tool that had made the cuts on his arms or why he had such a look of fear on his face.” * MAG038: Andre Rameo’s vase was described with “blue glaze was painted on in crisp, thin geometric lines. They repeated perfectly and seemed to get smaller and more intricate the closer I looked, but the shapes they formed never lost any of the precision, seeming to continue on however closely I looked. The effect was disorientating, and made the vase seem smaller than it actually was. It made my head hurt a bit when I looked at it for too long. It was amazing.” … And Ivo Lensik’s father had told him that “someone was following him, told me that they were planning to stop his work. I asked him who it was but he shook his head violently and said I’d know him when I saw him because ‘all the bones are in his hands’.” (MAG008), which is… the way Not!Sasha described Michael (MAG040: “Yes, Michael… With the bones in his hands. We still don’t know much about him, do we?”), unlike Sasha, who had noticed the big hands but not described them in these words. So. The death of Ivo Lensik’s father sounds quite likely to be related to Michael, and it seems that Not!Sasha had heard about him/it? (… Sasha tended to say “it”.)

- Worms * They tend to go inside the building by MAG034:

(MAG034) ARCHIVIST: Well… quite. Now, if you’d be so good as to— DR. ELLIOTT: You know you have an infestation, don’t you? ARCHIVIST: Excuse me? I’m not sure— DR. ELLIOTT: Yes, little, grey, maggot things. I saw a few on the way in. Don’t recognise the species, but I’d say you need to get the exterminators in here. Gas the little blighters. ARCHIVIST: You saw them? You weren’t bitten were you? DR. ELLIOTT: Bitten? They’re worms. Still, I’ll admit I didn’t like the look of them. I reckon the sooner you get someone in to kill them dead, the better. ARCHIVIST: We’ve tried, believe me.

* … Sometimes popping up in the Archives as of MAG035, given that at least one appear(s) near Jon and that he already sounded a bit used to the procedure to exterminate them (“Martin, where did you put the rest of the extinguishers? Martin!”). * There. A lot of them, hidden by plasterboard-that-wasn’t-an-exterior-wall at the end of MAG038. * The main characters of MAG039, apparently synched with Jane Prentiss or something since they all died when she/it did. Had the time to scar Tim and Jon, probably forever.

- Spiderrrrrs * MAG008: in late 2006, Ivo Lensik discovered the box that apparently goes inside The Table: it contained a green apple that immediately rotted and split, freeing hundreds of spiders; Ivo then “smashed it with a crowbar and threw the remains into a skip”. * MAG016: ghost spiders haunting Carlos Vittery, who died shortly after giving his statement (his “body was completely encased in web”). The spiders may have been attracted by the worms, since Jane Prentiss was hiding in the building’s basement? According to Carlos, “they provided a good meal for the eight-legged little monsters.” * MAG022: Martin is knowledgeable about spiders, won’t allow Jon to slander them (“I knew there was something not right about the whole thing from the off. I said it probably wasn't natural, him dying and being encased in web when he was found, and I stand by that”) and also Loves Them – “I like spiders. Big ones, at least. Y’know, y’know the ones you can see some fur on; I actually think they’re sort of cute—” (Jon… doesn’t.) * MAG032: Jane Prentiss reported spiders in her home, before discovering the nest – “There were webs in the corners, around the entryway into the attic. I would watch them scurry and disappear in between the wooden boards. ‘Where are you going, little spiders?’ I would think. ‘What are you seeing in the dark? Is it food? Prey? Predators?’” * MAG035: Breekon and Hope (?) deliver an old zippo with a spider web design on the front for Jon, who discovers it in MAG036. * MAG038: a spider on the wall, that Jon smashed with glee despite all common sense, led to the discovery that the worms were infesting the passages around the Archives.

- Teeth * MAG005: The bin men discovered a bag containing “hundreds, thousands of teeth” at 93 Lancaster Road. According to police reports, they were “all in different stages of decay and didn’t match any available dental records, but all two thousand seven hundred and eighty of them were the exact same tooth.” * MAG034: Students form anatomy class left an apple with “healthy adult teeth, and most of them appeared to come from different people” inside of it for Dr. Lionel Elliott.

- The Table (aaaand the box.) According to Amy Patel, “an “ornate wooden thing, with a snaking pattern of lines weaving their way around towards the centre. The pattern was hypnotic and shifted as I watched it, like an optical illusion. I found my eyes following the lines towards the middle of the table, where there was nothing but a small square hole.” (MAG003) * MAG003: used to belong to Graham Folger, who had bought it years ago in a second-hand shop (“It had been in pretty bad shape but he’d spent a long time and a lot of money restoring it, though he’d never been able to figure out what was supposed to go in the centre. He assumed it was a separate piece and couldn’t track it down.”) Graham was ~replaced~ by a Not Graham on April 7th, 2006. * MAG008: on November 23rd 2006, Ivo Lensik discovered “a small wooden box, about six inches square, with an intricate pattern carved along the outside. Engraved lines covered it, warping and weaving together, making it hard to look away” under the bleeding tree from the House on Hill Top Road. The box contained a green apple that immediately rotted and split, liberating hundred of spiders; Ivo then “smashed it with a crowbar and threw the remains into a skip” (Agnes Montague’s body was found on the same day: she had hanged herself, was 26-except-she-shouldn’t-have-been, and had a severed right hand with her.) * MAG035: the table was brought in by Breekon and Hope delivery, along with a zippo, for Jon. (<- unclear what they delivered exactly, since they only mentioned a “Package for Jonathan Sims” to Martin at this point) * MAG036: according to Tim, Martin “took delivery of a couple of items last week addressed to you.” Jon had forgotten, until now, that Martin has put it in his desk drawer: he discovers the lighter/old zippo with a spider web design on the front; the table, meanwhile, “was sent straight to the Artefact Storage”. * MAG037: Martin actually didn’t see the table and thinks Rosie must have signed for its reception, since her desk is on the way to Artefact Storage. According to Jon, Rosie described “Two men, doesn’t know how they got in, too intimidated to ask”, so it’s not actually quite clear if she signed for the reception? Martin thinks they should destroy it, Elias advised in that direction, but Jon decides that nah. (“I’m more inclined to keep studying it. We’re not in the business of destroying knowledge.”) * MAG039: during the Prentiss attack of the Institute, Sasha took shelter in the Artefact Storage, arrived in front of the table (“I’ve found… I’ve found that table you were talking about. Don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Just a… basic… optical illusion. Nothing special…”) and felt someone; was replaced by Not Sasha, without the others being aware of it.

- The Lighter/old zippo with a spider web design on the front. * MAG035: the zippo, along with The Table, was delivered by Breekon and Hope delivery for Jon. (<- unclear what they delivered exactly, since they only mentioned a “Package for Jonathan Sims” to Martin at this point) * MAG036: when Tim mentions the items that Martin received for Jon the previous week, Jon remembers the package that Martin had put in his desk draw: he discovers the lighter (and vehemently denies being a smoker).

(MAG036) TIM: Okay. Is there anything unusual about it? ARCHIVIST: Not really. Just a sort of spider web design on the front. Doesn’t mean anything to me. You? TIM: Ah no. No. ARCHIVIST: Well… show it to the others, see what they think.

(So the others saw it, which explains why Sasha was able to tell Elias that Jon had a lighter in MAG039.)

- Breekon and Hope delivery I’m almost tempted to wonder if they’re not actually working for the Institute, since the red calliope was taken by them before January 2005 and it had been stored in the Institute’s Artefact Storage since “somewhere in 2007”, but I’m also feeling that this could be a hilariously wrong assessment. * MAG035: On-tape, post-statement, while Jon was away and Martin had come down, they delivered the ornate wooden table that used to belong to Graham Folger (MAG003). * MAG037: According to Martin, remembering the delivery, they looked aggressively normal: “There were two delivery men. They were big, and they spoke with cockney accents that might have been fake, and they delivered a package for you. I don’t remember anything else about what they looked like. […] They looked normal. Like you’d expect. They looked like two, huge, cockney delivery men.” According to Rosie, reported by Jon: “Two men, doesn’t know how they got in, too intimidated to ask, looked ‘exactly like you’d expect’.”

- Mikaele Salesa * MAG014: Lee Rentoul had mentioned that Noriega, his target, was supposed to meet with Salesa: “a big Samoan guy with close-cropped hair”, “dealt mainly in stolen art and curious, valuable stuff, and was paranoid as hell, which meant Noriega was going to be there alone”. Salesa came with “four men in dark suits, who carried a square wooden crate between them” and they left with it (apparently, the business transaction didn’t work out). … was it the coffin from MAG002, maybe? * MAG038: according to Andre Ramao, he “has a good reputation for quality, but a… bad reputation for legality”. Andre Ramao bought a spooky antique vase from his “showroom” (a warehouse); Mikaele Salesa was the only person to have ever laughed about his joke (“I’ve been in the antiques business for a long time. It’s not what it used to be. […] There’s a follow up to that one, you know. Something along the lines of the joke being so old only an antiques dealer would be able to sell it.”) When Andre contacted him because Salesa hadn’t put the vase on his invoice, Salesa didn’t remember ever owning it, asked for pictures, and declared: “I do not remember having that thing, which means it belongs to you.” Andre mentioned that there were big books in Salesa’s warehouse (“I recall I felt a moment of relief that I didn’t deal in books, as I caught sight of several crates packed to the brim with heavy-looking volumes.”), so maybe some more Leitners? * MAG038: Jon, in his follow-up, identifies him a bit more; “he appears to have something of a knack for locating objects displaying more… disconcerting phenomena. I believe some of the more bizarre things in the Artefact Storage area were purchased from him.” (Is he perhaps tied to the Institute?)

- Trevor Herbert and a woman * MAG010: on July 10th 2010, Trevor gave his statement about the death of his brother and his activities as a vampire hunter, succumbed to lung cancer in the Institute’s break room before he could keep going. * MAG036: a “faded white Transit van” was parked in front of Ivy Meadows. There was an “old man” with a “long, white beard matted and filthy”, a “thick Mancunian accent”, a skin that was “unblemished pink” who temporally immobilized the statement giver (Nicole Baxter); he was accompanied by a “young woman, tall and lean with close-cropped hair and a deep scar over her right eye” who advised to let her go. They burned down Ivy Meadows (and what was left of their residents…?). No further description, but Nicole felt like she had already seen the man (“I could swear I recognised him from somewhere”) and Jon couldn’t help but think about Trevor for some reason (spooky? Hiding information from us again? Went to consult Trevor’s Internet page mentioned in MAG010?).

- John Amherst * MAG036: he was the new Director of Ivy Meadows, succeeding Hannah Ramirez (“tall man”, “rail thin”, “wore a faded brown suit that seemed to have been cut for a much fatter man. His eyes were a watery blue and his dark hair stood on top of his head in an unruly mess. He must have been around forty, but had a nervous sort of energy to him”, had a “thick, sweaty hand”). According to Jon, he doesn’t exist (or not under this name?): they’ve been “unable to locate anyone fitting that description anywhere within the care or medical sector, and he certainly never ran any nursing homes.” Unclear if he died in the fire or is at large ;;

- Mary and Gerard Keay * MAG035: before June 4th 2002 (the date of the statement), Gerard Key (“looked to be in his late teens”, “dressed all in black, with heavy looking boots and a T-shirt with the logo of some band emblazoned on it, Megadon or Mastodon, or something like that. His hair was long and greasy, almost down to his shoulders, and looked to be dyed almost the same black as his clothes.”) was searching for “Leitner’s pages”, destroyed a fake wall and went into hidden corridors apparently constructed by Robert Smirke. He retrieved a book and fled. Due to the amount of bones, I suppose it’s the Leitner book that Mary Keay had in her possession in Winter 2012 (MAG004)?

- Jurgen Leitner (and his books) * MAG035: Harold Silvana and Rachel met him in London back in 1987. He was then, “a businessman from Norway”, described with “portly, middle-aged, short blond hair in the middle of going grey, well-tailored business suit”, and had his office in the building next to the Reform Club (100 Pall Mall). He wanted them to dig a hole (“He said he needed a hole put through the floor. I thought there would have been a basement under there, and he said no, the building’s basement didn’t go under these rooms.”) Jon confirmed that he had “hired out an office on the ground floor of 100 Pall Mall between 1985 and 1994. He was apparently one of the premier worldwide dealers in rare and antique books at the time, with items selling for the sort of sums where an office in Pall Mall doesn’t raise any eyebrows.” (MAG035) * MAG035: Harold Silvana could smell something like “Damp old stone and musty paper, just a faint whiff” (which was apparently the smell of “Leitner’s pages” according to Gerard Keay?). Gerard Keay retrieved a book that left bones behind in the corridors elaborated by Robert Smirke, so probably the book Mary Keay had in her possession in MAG004. Jon wonders if the books in the tunnels were “where they were found, or just where they were stored.”

- Robert Smirke Tim is a fan! * MAG035: mentioned by Harold Silvana as the architect behind the British Museum and Carlton Club (which got destroyed during the Second War, and where the 100 Pall Mall currently stands instead: “it looked like the underground foundations, or whatever this place was, had not been damaged”). Apparently, he constructed a system of galleries underground, one entrance being on 100 Pall Mall: Harold&company reached a crossroads with fourteen doorways (including theirs): “There was one that, for all the world, it felt like I was going to fall into it. Another was so dark that our torches didn’t seem to reach more than a few feet inside.” In the middle, a datestone had a mention: “Robert Smirke, 1835. Balance and fear”. Harold’s coworker was found dead in “a small, round room. Against the walls were old bookshelves, decayed and empty, save for a few mouldering pages” and Gerard Keay had apparently retrieved a book from here (leaving bones behind). Harold Silvana had trouble getting out, took some wrong doors in the crossroads, only remembers “the vaguest memories: flashes of a pile of paper, completely covered in cobweb; a figure stood in the darkness, a stranger I didn’t know but was sure meant me harm; my skin burning, hot, choking on smoke down there in the dark.” (I’m supposing there was one doorway for each entity…? … was it including one for the Institute then.) According to Jon, “Smirke’s buildings have higher percentages of reported paranormal sightings than any other architect of similar profile.” * MAG040: Tim thinks that the tunnels under the Institute might be related to some of Smirke’s buildings (MAG040, Martin: “It’s a, it’s a maze down there, Jon. I don’t know how far the passages go, maybe miles. I think it must be the old Millbank Prison, like Tim was saying before. I even found some stairs at one point, but I really didn’t want to go down them.”)

Live statements so far:

* MAG013: Naomi Herne * MAG022: Martin Blackwood [archive team] * MAG026: Sasha James [archive team] * MAG028: Melanie King * MAG034: Dr. Lionel Elliott * MAG040: Elias Bouchard, Tim Stoker, “Sasha James”, Martin Blackwood [debriefing post-Prentiss attack]

Time, what is time

Additional note: Sasha went after police reports for the Harold Silvana case back in MAG024 (March 2016), and Jon recorded this one in MAG035 (July 2016) – so at least 4 months passed between some research and the recording. I’m assuming that they’re all working on multiple cases at the same time, but still, that makes quite a long time before the beginning of their investigations and the moment they archive/“close” cases! * MAG013: 13/01/2016 * MAG022: 12/03/2016 [Martin begins to live in the Archives] * MAG023: one week later (Martin: “It’s been a week and we’ve seen nothing.”) * MAG026: 02/04/2016 (recounting events from March 31st and April 1st) * MAG028: 17/04/2016 * MAG031: Mid-May 2016? (“It’s… been two months now… since Martin returned…”) * MAG034: 12/07/2016. * MAG039: [28th or 29th July 2016] * MAG040: 29/07/2016.

Quotes that I keep in mind, feeling that I’ll cry over them soon:

(MAG037, Jason North’s statement): God knows I should have just left; it’s not like there weren’t plenty of warning signs. I just chose not to pay attention.

(Jon ;;…….)

(… Already crying over the fact that Jon wanted to “keep studying” the table, hence keeping it intact, hence Sasha’s death, but also, that “We’re not in the business of destroying knowledge”…)

(MAG040) ARCHIVIST: No. I need to be here, keep watch, I need to be sure…

There was obviously some terrible “hahaha.” feeling, as a listener, when Jon went on about how he was feeling ~watched~ when he recorded, and how he was afraid that the thing watching him perhaps could learn/know about what he was truly thinking. It’s. Exactly what we listeners are doing. We’re the voyeurs. And we’ve made him feel Uncomfortable since the beginning. GREAT.

(Yeah, this post got insanely long, I’m hooked, I’m in pain, I hate everything, and I’m consuming the series like precious sweets. Or have been so far; I want to have caught up by the end of the hiatus but it looks like an impossible task if I keep trying to review it, and I Don’t Know How To Deal With Concision :| So I’ll ~see~. I’m laughing at myself for having thought that hey, Cass! if you take notes and everything, you won’t need to relisten to this! Thanks past!self, nearpast!self already relistened to everything a few times anyway, and present!self is planning to relisten to this series a lot anyway, YOU THOUGHT you wouldn’t like the series enough to do it and you were Wrong. So anyway. IT’S AN AMAZING SERIES, I LOVE IT SO MUCH??? And I know there's a lot of even better stuff to come???)

#tma liveblog #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #long post #... insanely long ufihnjfd i have feELINGS DAMNIT #*aggressively preventing her partially spoiled self from getting out of the chest*#hey! i'm heartbroken but at least things won't get worse right? right? right.

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neuxue · 8 years ago

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Wheel of Time liveblogging: The Gathering Storm ch 12

In which no one expects Egwene to be made of awesome. Their loss. Or gain, depending how you look at it...

Chapter 12: Unexpected Encounters

I’m glad we’re seeing more of Egwene this book.

The poor Red sisters assigned to babysit her know all too well what they’re getting themselves into and they don’t like it.

It had been well over a month since Siuan had conveyed her disturbing news in Tel’aran’rhiod

Wait, really? A month? The frequent POV-switching is definitely giving this book a faster pace, but it’s wreaking havoc on my ability to keep the timelines straight. That’s never been a strong suit for me in the first place, frustratingly. The Cleansing was a nice catch-up point, but after that…even last book I felt like I was losing track a bit. Ah well. It’ll all converge eventually, right?

The events were a reminder that the world was coming apart. This was a time when the White Tower should have been a source of stability. Instead, it divided against itself while Rand al’Thor’s men bonded sisters. How could Rand have allowed such a thing?

Well…he didn’t. Except he sort of did, by basically ignoring the Black Tower and more or less everything that was going on there. But then, he also didn’t have anything to do with this directly. Except, that’s part of the problem. So in conclusion, it’s complicated.

I do think she sees the bonding as a bigger problem than it actually is, but it’s not hard to see why she reacts this way. Even in context, to a reader with far more information than Egwene herself has, the bonding of the Aes Sedai is a moral and ethical mess of a minefield. It’s a perfect example of how two wrongs don’t make a right, but the do make a right clusterfuck of things.

That’s with context. Egwene has a fair bit of the information connected with it, but she doesn’t have everything. Nor is she getting it from an unbiased source – and she herself is far from an unbiased observer. And at this point, she really doesn’t have a way of knowing what Rand is thinking, or how exactly he reacted to this or what he would and wouldn’t do. I also am fairly sure she doesn’t know that Rand was bonded unwillingly. It’s been a very long time since they’ve seen each other, especially in terms of how much has happened in that time. So it’s frustrating to see her thinking this, but it’s also not at all unrealistic. So much depends on perspective, and what information is available. And Egwene is Aes Sedai, and her entire focus right now is on the White Tower. So anything that interferes with that is going to get a strong response, and perhaps sometimes a disproportionate one.

There was obviously little left of the youth with whom she’d grown up. Of course, there was little of the youthful Egwene left either.

I like the balance in this, and the sense of acknowledgment that the blame doesn’t necessarily lie with one of them alone.

I’ve no doubt said before that one of the things I enjoy most is watching characters move along the friends/enemies ‘axis’. Rand and Egwene are a rather fascinating example, because they’re certainly not enemies, but they’re very nearly antagonists at this point. Yet there is still an underlying fondness, and an underlying familiarity. They think about how they don’t know each other anymore, but they did once, and that still comes through. Neither wants to hurt the other; the antagonism comes more from a difference of position and perspective and perception. They’ve essentially inherited opposing roles, and the more they come to embody those roles, the more strained their previous relationship becomes.

But that previous relationship is what makes this so interesting; it would play very differently if a random young Amyrlin were chosen, who had never met Rand al’Thor. Then there’d maybe be a sense of tension in watching them both, and wondering what would happen when they finally met or confronted one another. But the fact that Rand and Egwene do know each other – whether or not the Amyrlin and the Dragon Reborn do – and Egwene once tried to help Rand learn to channel and Rand once stayed to fight in a town full of Seanchan because he could not live with himself if he didn’t try to help free Egwene, and they once loved each other and in some way probably still do, and they’ve each had parallel but distinct and entirely excellent arcs in the interim, makes it all so much better.

Plus, I just like watching characters become enemies or friends or allies or antagonists out of circumstance, when it’s not what their original inclinations were. It’s one of my favourite things. (It’s why I just about died when Moridin saved Rand’s life in Shadar Logoth and then they reflexively fought Mashadar together while holding hands). All variations. Give them to me.

That, oddly, led her to thinking of Gawyn.

This is more disappointing to me than any of her thoughts about Rand, by a very long margin. You could do SO MUCH BETTER, Egwene. Like not having a romance subplot at all! Sigh.

Gawyn could look after himself; he’d done a competent job of that in the past. Too competent, in some cases.

Er. I mean, I don’t even hate Gawyn, but I think you’re giving him a bit too much credit there. The guy is a mess.

Siuan and the others would deal with the Asha’man matter. The other news was far more disturbing.

Okay, so maybe she’s not putting as much emphasis on it as it seemed. I am also rather amused at how both she and Rand have had their moments of outrage related to this whole deal, and then both delegated it to other people to sort out.

All in all, it’s probably best that they do delegate. The Asha’man and Aes Sedai are going to have to eventually learn to work together, and being able to carry out civil negotiations is not a terrible first step. At least in theory. In practice, given how the last book ended, it might be a bit more of…a mess.

But if it’s Dragon and Amyrlin calling all the shots there, it could end up being more complicated later, especially if one or both of them…isn’t around anymore. If there’s a way to establish actual working relationships between the two Towers (heh), that’d be ideal.

Egwene’s more disturbed by the fact that Halima was one of the Forsaken. Which, yeah, fair.

Egwene’s backside hurt, but the pain was growing increasingly irrelevant to her. Sometimes she laughed when beaten, sometimes not. The greater pain – what had been done to Tar Valon – was far more demanding.

A greater and more important focus, that makes other pain irrelevant and easy to��well, in her case, not ignore so much as accept without issue. I will spare you yet another rambling essay on how Egwene and Rand cope with pain, but suffice it to say the various similarities and especially differences of method and circumstance continue to fascinate me.

It wsa going to be a full day, with her appointments with sisters, her scheduled beatings, and her regular novice load of scrubbing floors or other chores.

And I thought my schedule was bad.

Bennae has asked for a repeat lesson with Egwene, which is apparently unusual. Eventually the Tower is going to run out of sisters to teach her, if they’re all only willing to do it once.

Egwene cleared off a stool, placing the dusty skeleton of a rat on the floor bewteen two stacks of books about the reign of Artur Hawkwing.

I was going to say this seems like an unrealistic caricature of an academic – those are very different fields of study, after all – but then I glanced over at my own bookshelf. Considering that I’m not even in acadaemia, nor am I nearly as old as Bennae…yeah, fine, I’ll concede this one.

“Let’s see…” Bennae mused. “Suppose that you were in a situation where you were in conflict with some members of your own Ajah. You have happened upon information you weren’t supposed to know, and your Ajah’s leaders are quite upset with you. Suddenly, you find yourself beign sentenced to some most unpleasant duties, as if they are trying to sweep you under the rug and forget about you. Tell me, in this situation, how would you react?”

Subtle as a brick, Bennae.

Egwene seems to share that sentiment, but does an admirable job of playing along and offering decent advice, rather than laughing or getting up to hit her head repeatedly against the nearest wall.

I suppose her time with the rebel Hall did give her rather a lot of practice in maintaining a front of polite patience. It’s a useful skill to have.

“Likely, she’s being ‘punished’ to keep her out of the way while the Ajah leaders search for a traitor. When they know there isn’t one, they’ll be more likely to look at the fallen sister’s situation with empathy – particularly after she’s offered them a solution.”

“Solution?” Bennae asked. Her teacup sat in her fingers, as if forgotten. “And which solution would you offer?”

“The best one: competence. Obviously some people among the Ajah know these secrets. Well, if this sister were to prove her trustworthiness and her capability, perhaps the leaders of her Ajah would realise the best place for her is as one of the caretakers of the secrets. An easy solution, if you consider it.”

So this is clearly the ‘next step’ in showing how the perception of Egwene within the Tower is shifting – her story last book ended with her having solidly won over the novices and with some of the Aes Sedai looking at her a bit differently. Now, she has a sister actually asking her for advice, in a manner that could only generously be called indirect. She is winning this part of her battle, winning the Tower over to her from within.

Still, I can’t help but find this particular conversation a bit…I don’t know. Too easy?

It’s not that it doesn’t reflect well on Egwene, because it does. The solution she proposes is very neat, and she presents it straightforwardly, without any veiled threats or demands. It’s not a ‘I will solve your problems but only if you make me Amyrlin’. She’s simply demonstrating her own competence, much as she is telling Bennae to do. Proving her trustworthiness and her capability, and offering a solution to the problems that plague the Tower, by showing that she is willing and able to help an individual sister.

No, the part that makes me sort of raise an eyebrow is that Bennae has to ask for help in the first place. Bennae is well over a hundred years old, and as an Aes Sedai she should be no stranger to manipulation. Or to thinking her way through things.

That said, Bennae does seem to be presented as not the brightest of the bunch, and I think part of the issue overall is that while Aes Sedai are very good at manipulating people and circumstances, many of them seem less good at dealing with change and uncertainty. The Tower is in crisis, and for the most part they’re not equipped to deal with that. And then along comes this girl who doesn’t fit anywhere – doesn’t fit into the rigid power structures and heirarchies and complicated webs of authority and position that the Aes Sedai put so much store by – to throw everything further into chaos. Except that instead of acting like a wild card, she walks calmly through the halls and gives advice to novices and refuses to break or even be visibly shaken by what is being done to her, and what is happening in the Tower and the entire world around her.

So she’s become something of a beacon of stability in a time of uncertainty. Not to mention, oddly enough, a point of unity in an increasingly divided Tower, wherein Ajahs and even individual sisters are more and more isolated. So from that angle I can definitely see how she’s drawing this kind of attention from not just novices and Accepted, now, but a sister who doesn’t know how to deal with a sudden change in circumstances, when so much is not how it used to be. When the old ways aren’t working and the rules aren’t as solid as the once seemed, and those unable to adapt or to push against the prevailing currents of chaos are struggling.

“Unjust punishments sometimes cannot be avoided, but it is best never to let others forget that it is unjust. If she simply accepts the way people treat her, then it won’t be long before they assume she deserves the position they’ve placed her in.”

Egwene’s turn to be about as subtle as Perrin’s hammer to the face.

But it’s a truth that perhaps needs to be hammered in, a bit.

And actually, this helps further explain why a sister with far more experience might be looking to someone like Egwene for advice. Aes Sedai carry their air of calm superiority easily when around ordinary people, be they commoners or kings. But amongst Aes Sedai, it’s rather more complicated. There is a strict heirarchy, and the various points of etiquette and authority and submission are thoroughly drilled into them, and so no matter how confident a sister might be outside the Tower, put her in a group of other Aes Sedai and she may find herself struggling to assert any kind of position whatsoever. So to even think of fighting against what’s happening in the Tower, or of standing up for herself to Ajah leaders, is probably close to unthinkable for your average Aes Sedai.

Egwene, though, was never even raised to Aes Sedai by the ordinary methods. She was brought in and raised for the sole purpose of being a puppet. She was supposed to fit neatly into her incredibly limited place. From the beginning, she was supposed to accept the way people treated her.

And from the beginning, she refused to. She defied those unspoken rules and manipulations, at first by outmanoeuvring them or appearing to submit to them, and eventually by showing them all too clearly that no, she would not be the puppet they wanted her to be. She refused to accept the way they treated her, and in the end she showed them that she did deserve the position they placed her in…but not at all in the way they expected.

She has never been an Aes Sedai in the Tower, subject to all the pressures and complexities of the heirarchy. It never had time to work its way into the core of who she is, making her unable to fight against it where necessary. Instead, she jumped in right at the point where everything was thrown into chaos, and she fought for her place from the word go.

To most other Aes Sedai, especially those who have spent a long time in the Tower, in this ingrained system, that’s something of an alien concept. And not one readily adopted. So to then see this girl not just fight the status quo but instead regard it calmly and then proceed as if it didn’t exist…perhaps it’s not so surprising at all that an Aes Sedai suddenly ‘demoted’ in some way would look at Egwene and wonder how she does it. Wonder if maybe she could help. Because she’s been demoted farther than anyone, and she appears to give exactly no fucks.

“I am always willing to help, Bennae,” Egwene said in a softer voice, turning back to her tea. “In, of course, hypothetical situations.”

It’s such a stark difference to Elaida – and a crucial one, especially in terms of appearances. Elaida is largely isolated, and takes a domineering position with regards to Sitters, much less individual Aes Sedai. She rules by edict and fear at this point. Whereas Egwene does not threaten, does not demand, does not even campaign, here. She just responds to a question, and offers her advice willingly – and makes it very clear that she is willing to give advice. She makes it clear that she still believes herself Amyrlin, but she also doesn’t set herself so untouchably far above the rest as to alienate them completely. She is Amyrlin, and the duty of the Amyrlin is to serve.

She could so easily fall into an image of desperate overconfidence or deluded arrogance, in her insistence that she is the Amyrlin Seat. Instead, she projects calm confidence, and combines it with a form of humility that only serves to highlight that confidence.

Turns out Bennae isn’t the only sister summoning her for advice, now. Things are changing. It’s time for the next step, whatever that is.

So a Brown praises her reasoning, a White praises her logic…

And now Suana is trying to recruit her to the Yellow. I see what you’re doing, there. Of all Ajahs and of none…

“Being of the Yellow isn’t about skill, child,” Suana said. “It’s about passion. If you love to make things well, to fix that which is broken, there would be a purpose for you here.”

And that, Egwene does have. She may not be a healer in the traditional sense, but she has taken on the task of healing the White Tower. In order to heal what the oncoming end of the world may bring. And she also has sought to find ways to unite all women who can channel, to close rifts there.

Nynaeve said of Egwene, early on, that “Egwene has the desire to heal, the need to.” And…she wasn’t entirely wrong, as it turns out. Just…Towers and maybe worlds, rather than people.

“My thanks,” Egwene said. “But the Amyrlin has no Ajah.”

This really is one of my favourite aspects about the exact manner in which Egwene was raised. There’s an echo of the ‘chosen one’ idea, almost, as ‘of all Ajahs and of none’ takes on a hint of prophecy. Except it isn’t prophecy, it’s just Egwene and choices. So it’s a nice interplay.

And I’m liking this hinting of how Egwene fits or can be perceived to fit aspects of each Ajah. Especially as they are increasingly divided and set against each other, she stands as someone who can unite and embody all of them.

It was a shocking conversation. Suana obviously didn’t consider Egwene the Amyrlin, but the mere fact that she was recruiting Egwene to her Ajah said something. It meant she accepted Egwene’s legitimacy, at last to some degree, as a sister.

I’m getting the nagging feeling, now, that things are going too well. In the ‘something disastrous is about to happen’ kind of way. Things are going her way, she’s winning over sisters rather than just novices, the perception of her is shifting…when an arc hits this point of everything smoothing out, that’s when things tend to catch on fire.

“have the Sitters spoken of what to do about the tensions between the Ajahs?” “I don’t see what can be done,” Suana replied.

Well challenge fucking accepted, said Egwene.

Once she left the Yellow sector of the Tower and collected her Red Ajah attendants, she realised something. She’d gone through all three meetings without being assigned a single punishment!

Yep, definitely time for something to explode.

There is the looming threat of the Seanchan attack Egwene dreamed, hanging over their heads…also there’s Mesaana still in the Tower, and Aran’gar off somewhere…and the ominous way Tarna’s delegation to the Black Tower ended last book…and of course there’s always Elaida. So really, no shortage of places from which total disaster could strike. Excellent.

They were coming to accept her. Unfortunately, that was only a small part of the battle. The larger part was making certain the White Tower survived the strains Elaida was placing upon it.

But even in getting them to accept her, she’s working towards that. She’s providing them with a rallying point, and now with hints and pieces of encouragement dropped to reach out to one another across the walls that have gone up. And she’s giving them a point of stability around which to gather, when the Tower’s foundations shake. The more they accept her, and the more they listen to her, the stronger that position will be.

Now time to pay a visit to Meidani, who has quite an impressive collection of souvenirs. Cool.

“Besides, I’m still not certain how I regard you.”

“I don’t care how you regard me,” Egwene said evenly, seating herself on an oversized oak chair, bearing a plaque that identified it as a gift from a moneylender in Tear. “And Amyrlin needs not the regard of those who follow her, so long as she is obeyed.”

“You’ve been captured and overthrown.”

Egwene raised an eyebrow, meeting Meidani’s gaze. “Captured, true.”

*whistles softly* damn.

“The Hall among the rebels will have chosen a new Amyrlin by now.” “I happen to know that they have not.”

Man, Egwene is on a roll here. It’s been a while since she got to drop a solid one-liner on the Hall; she must have been getting bored.

Poor Meidani never even saw her take on the Hall, and thus is entirely unprepared.

“Even if that is true, you must know that they picked you to be a figurehead. A puppet to be manipulated.”

Egwene held the woman’s gaze.

“You have no real authority,” Meidani said, voice wavering slightly.

Egwene did not look away. Meidani studied her, brow wrinkling slowly,s tep by step, furrows appearing across her smooth, ageless Aes Sedai face. She searched Egwene’s eyes, like a mason searching a piece of stone for flaws before setting it in place. What she found seemed to confuse her further. “Now,” Egwene said, as if she had not just been questioned, “you will tell me precisely why you have not fled the Tower.”

Beautiful.

Never underestimate the power of silence and unwavering eye contact.

Also never underestimate Egwene al’Vere. Really. People have tried. Now they have regrets.

“Why not leave?”

“I…cannot say,” Meidani said, glancing away.

“I’m commanding you as your Amyrlin.”

“I still cannot say.” Meidani looked down at the floor, as if ashamed.

Curious, Egwene thought, hiding her frustration.

OH. IS SHE…if she can follow this, or put the pieces together, and figure out that there are Aes Sedai in the Tower working together to track down the Black Ajah…if she can join them and make it actually work…talk about healing the Tower.

So Egwene can get other information out of Meidani – that she’s not a traitor, that she’s trying to renew a relationship with Elaida on the orders of ‘the others’, etc. Which is enough to indicate that there is a stronger reason for her to not be able to speak of her reasons for not leaving. Come on, Egwene, find a way to get the answer to this one. That would be a major step forward, potentially.

“We will mend the damage that Elaida has done, and I will sit in my rightful place as Amyrlin. But we have work to do.”

“I can’t—”

“Yes,” Egwene said. “You can’t tell me what is wrong. I suspect that the Three Oaths are involved, though Light knows how.”

Not three, Egwene. But she’s getting there, and I also like how she stopped herself from just pushing Meidani the way Elaida would have done. She’s firm, but she’s presenting this instead as a problem for them both to approach. And also giving Meidani some indication of why, rather than just trying to force information out of her.

“You can’t tell me why you’ve remained in the Tower. But can you show me?”

YES. HELL YES. LET’S DO THIS.

Meidani’s not certain but Egwene’s already on to the next issue, which is how to get out of Meidani’s rooms without running into spies from other Ajahs. Because the Tower is fucked.

Oh. Okay. That’s one way to do it.

“What is that?” Meidani asked.

“It’s called a gateway,” Egwene said. “Used for Travelling.”

“Travelling is impossible!” Meidani said immediately. “The ability has been lost for…” She trailed off, eyes opening more widely.

Meidani is getting in about ten minutes what the rebel Hall got over the course of weeks. I almost pity her.

I like how the first person in the Tower Egwene has shown Travelling to is the woman who clearly has a lifelong love of travelling. It’s a nice touch.

“Yes, Mother,” Meidani said

Well that didn’t take very long. Just some well-placed silences, a steady glare or two, and a demonstration of trust in the form of a weave that, to Meidani, would be a true gift. Not to mention solid evidence of Egwene’s ability to casually do the impossible.

“I must warn you, however, that you may be surprised at what you are stepping into. It could be dangerous.”

Meidani. Please. Have you met Egwene? I can barely remember the last time she did something that wasn’t dangerous. Her introduction to the story was basically ‘I’m going to join you as you flee the Two Rivers in the middle of the night’ and she hasn’t slowed down since.

And HERE WE ARE. Four Sitters in a room, all of different Ajahs, not at all expecting to have Egwene al’Vere unleashed upon them.

“The al’Vere girl.” Ah. Right, well. This will be interesting.

So they’re berating Meidani for what they see as a breach of her Oath, and completely ignoring Egwene. We’ll see how long they can keep that up. I’m betting a page.

Oaths Egwene didn’t know about, meetings away from the upper corridors, a Warder guarding the door…were these women of four Ajahs, or of one?

Ha. So close, and yet so very, very far.

And just like that, Egwene’s figured it out. Part of it, anyway.

“You gave her a fourth oath, didn’t you?” Egwene interrupted. “What under the Light were you thinking?”

Yukiri glanced at her, and Egwene felt another swish of Air. “You were not given leave to speak.”

“The Amyrlin needs no leave to speak,” Egwene said, staring the women down.

Not even a full page. And so the fun begins.

“Has this entire Tower gone as insane as Elaida?”

Well someone needed to say it.

“It was only done out of necessity. This one couldn’t be trusted, not after siding with the rebels.”

Already explaining themselves, even if it is with a tone of dismissive authority. Still, that’s a far cry from just ignoring Egwene. And if they’re trying to justify their actions to her, she’s already won half the battle, as far as this conversation goes.

“Do not think we’re unwaware of your own involvement with that group, Egwene al’Vere,” Yukiri said. […] “If we have our way, you will not be treated with such coddling as Elaida has shown you.”

Egwene gestured indifferently. “Still me, execute me or beat me, Yukiri, and the Tower will yet be in shambles.”

She has somehow turned a situation in which everything is at stake into one where she has nothing to lose. She has made herself untouchable; there is absolutely nothing they can do to her, short of destroying the Tower itself. Because she has made herself into a symbol of a higher cause, and has dedicated herself to that cause: healing the Tower, and uniting the Aes Sedai to face Tarmon Gai’don.

So she can say things like this with absolute conviction, because she believes them now. She can sit here with these women and ignore their threats and stare them down, because what can they do to her? Nothing has worked so far, after all. And it throws them completely off-balance, because they have no idea how to deal with her. She’s outside their ‘system’, and refuses to be pulled into it. Yet she’s not working against them, either. She’s on their side, and she’s working for the Tower itself, and so long as they are doing the same, there is absolutely nothing they can do to her.

“Sometimes, difficult decisions must be made. We cannot have Darkfriends among the Aes Sedai, and measures have been taken to search them out.”

Little do they know that Egwene was one of the very first ones assigned to search out the Black Ajah, long before these Sitters even acknowledged its existence. It’s a nice way to weave that thread back in, after so long.

And the fact that Seaine has even told her this much shows that their attempts at ignoring her – and ignoring her authority – are already falling apart. You don’t waste your time justifying your actions to someone who doesn’t matter. You especially don’t do so if it involves divulging highly sensitive information.

So these women were using the Oath Rod to search out Black sisters. If you took each sister, removed her oaths and made her reswear them, you could ask her if she were Black. A desperate method, but –Egwene decided – a legitimate one, considering the times.

The question then becomes, how do they make it a widespread requirement? Not the fourth oath, of course, but the unswearing and re-swearing? Because if there were a way to do that, to implement it throughout the Tower…then perhaps we could end up with something like what Egwene ‘remembered’ in her Accepted test. Something that destroyed the Black Ajah.

“But swearing this woman to a new oath is unnecessary!” “And if the woman is known to have other loyalties?” Saerin demanded.

Oh, it’s well and truly over for them, now. The argument, I mean. It was as soon as they acknowledged her enough to start explaining, but now that they’re trying to argue back? I’m going to go ahead and call this one for Egwene.

Though she’s willing to put aside the issue of the fourth oath for now, perhaps because she knows she’s gained something of an upper hand. Or at least a position of equality, even if they don’t see it yet. So she’s going to press them for as much as she can get, because this is a rare opportunity: four Sitters, each of different Ajahs, who are also involved in something that could greatly benefit the Tower.

“What of Elaida herself? Have you determined if she is of the Black? Who gave you this charge, and how did your cabal form?”

“Bah! Why are we speaking with her?” Yukiri demanded, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. “We should be deciding what to do with her, not answering her questions!”

It’s a bit late for that, Yukiri.

“If I am to help in your work,” Egwene said, “then I need to be aware of the facts.”

Framing it as a given that she is going to help – she’s not asking their permission, she’s moving directly on to step two. It’s a very useful trick.

They’re still trying to shut her down. That’s cute.

“One more word, and I shall see you taking penance until you run out of tears to weep.”

“I doubt you can order me to any more of it than I already have, Yukiri,” Egwene said calmly. “Unless I am to be in the Mistress of Novices’ study all day each day. Besides, if you sent me to her, what would I tell her? That you personally gave me penance? She’d know that I wasn’t scheduled to see you today. That might start raising questions.”

“We could just have Meidani order you to penance,” said Seaine the White.

“She won’t do such a thing,” Egwene said. “She accepts my authority as Amyrlin.”

Every part of this scene is beautiful and I love it.

“That’s meaningless. “We’ll just order her to send you to penance.” “Will you?” Egwene said. “I thought that you told me that the fourth oath was meant to restore unity, to keep her from fleeing to Elaida with your secrets. Now you would use that oath like a cudgel, forcing her to become your tool?”

They handed her that one on a silver platter. But then, of course they did. They’re still thinking of her as a novice, or as a rebel, as someone they don’t need to take seriously. They’re still underestimating her, and she’s had far too much practice with using that against those who try.

Besides, they’re Sitters. They’re not used to having to justify themselves or explain themselves, especially to a girl in novice white. So they are stepping right into these traps without realising that Egwene can and will make full use of every misstep.

“No woman should have this much power over another. What you have done to these others is only one step shy of Compulsion. I’m still trying to decide if this abomination is in any way justified; the way you treat Meidani and the others will likely sway that decision.”

It’s not really shy of Compulsion at all. And yeah, okay, there is a reason for it. Whether or not that reason is acceptable, though, depends on where you’re standing. Much like the way in which the Asha’man bonded sisters – because that’s actually not far short of Compulsion either, and is justified from one angle but less so from another. It all gets messy fast.

Yukiri’s still trying to get the others to ignore Egwene, but that train has long since left the station. Meanwhile Saerin still thinks they can treat her like a child.

“You cannot continue this charade of being the Amyrlin Seat. We all know how often you take penance, and we all know what little good it is doing. So let me try something that I assume nobody else has tried with you: reason.”

“You may speak your mind,” Egwene said.

I LOVE IT. I also actually like that Saerin is taking this approach here, because she’s not that far wrong, really. Few have tried anything resembling reason with Egwene. They’ve just tried to force her back into what they think her place should be, despite that failing spectacularly at every turn.

But the very fact that Saerin is taking this approach means Egwene has taken control of the situation. They haven’t recognised it yet, but she has turned the focus of the room onto her, rather than letting them proceed with ignoring her. They’re addressing her now, and very much on her terms.

“All right. For one thing, you can’t be Amyrlin. With that forkroot, you can barely channel!”

Oh come on, you call that reason? That’s such a weak argument it actually starts slightly detracting from the scene. Not in a major way, but…she can’t possibly have thought opening with such an easily countered statement would work.

“You’ve been demoted to novice.”

“Only Elaida is foolish enough to assume one can remove an Aes Sedai’s rank.” Egwene said. “She should never have been allowed to assume she had that power in the first place.”

“If she didn’t assume it,” Saerin said, “then you would be dead, girl.”

Now that’s a far better point, because as Saerin sees it, Egwene’s caught by that one. Except…what she’s failed to understand is that Egwene actually has accepted that.

Egwene met Saerin’s eyes again. “Sometimes, I feel it would be better to be dead than to see what Elaida has done to the women of this Tower.”

Egwene isn’t fighting for herself, or for her position. She’s doing both as a way of fighting for the Tower itself.

And if I weren’t already convinced she was going to die, the honesty with which she embraces this would probably have done the trick.

“I must say,” Seaine said quietly, “your claims are completely irrational. Elaida is the Amyrlin because she was raised properly by the Hall. Therefore, you can’t be Amyrlin.”

Egwene shook her head. “She was ‘raised’ after a shameful and unorthodox removal of Siuan Sanche from the seat. How can you call Elaida’s position ‘proper’ in the face of that?” Something occurred to her, a gamble, but it felt right. “Tell me this. Have you interrogated any women who are currently Sitters? Have you found any Blacks among them?”

OH.

“Now tell me this. Were any of these Black Sitters among those who raised Elaida? Did any of them stand to depose Siuan?”

HERE IT IS.

There was silence.

“Answer me,” Egwene said.

“We found a Black among the Sitters,” Doesine finally said.

‘Answer me,’ Egwene commands, and one of them obeys. Full round to Egwene.

But more importantly…Egwene has now managed to create a moment not unlike some of those she’s pulled on the rebel Hall.

“Siuan was deposed by the bare minimum number of Sitters required,” Egwene said. “One of them was Black, making her vote invalid. You stilled and deposed your Amyrlin, murdering her Warder, and you did it unlawfully.”

“By the Light,” Seaine whispered. “She’s right.”

Boom.

I love these moments, and Egwene is so wonderfully good at delivering them.

And okay, by that same logic, I suppose you could say Egwene’s entire war vote was also unlawful, as it was decided by the minimum number and if I remember correctly, Delana was among them, and potentially other Black sisters as well. But Egwene was raised by a full Hall, and the declaration of war and seizing of the war powers was more a way of making them acknowledge the authority they elected to give her but then tried to withhold.

Besides, the technicalities don’t actually matter here. They only matter in the sense that Egwene needs to find something that will make them see her as Amyrlin. This, it turns out, is such a thing. Seaine chose to argue with her on the basis of legality, Egwene countered with truth, and Seaine at least has acknowledged it as legitimate grounds for her claim.

Now it’s time to cement it.

She had to remain in control. She had to.

Part of the reason she’s so good at landing these moments is because she sees them through. Not only that, but she knows how to pick her battles. She knows when to push, and when not to. And she knows that when she does press for advantage, she has to follow through.

“You call us false, Yukiri? Which Amyrlin would you rather follow? The one who has been amking novices and Accepted out of Aes Sedai, banishing an entire Ajah, and causing divisions in the Tower more dangerous than any army that ever assaulted it? A woman who was raised partially through the help of the Black Ajah? Or would you rather serve the Amyrlin who is trying to undo all of that?”

Well when you put it like that…

And she’s finally in a place where she can put it to them that directly. She isn’t dropping hints here, or giving advice. She is facing four Sitters, and she has just shaken their view of Elaida’s legitimacy, and so she is making them face the choice: her, or Elaida. Making them see that it is a choice, and that it’s one they can’t just ignore.

“Surely you’re not saying that you think we served the Black in raising Elaida,” Doesine said.

“I think we all are serving the interests of the Shadow,” Egwene said sharply, “so long as we allow ourselves to remain divided.”

Yes.

There’s really not much to even say to that, except that it is true even beyond the Tower. So long as the Light remains divided, chaos reigns and the Shadow triumphs.

And it’s such a great statement, because it does reframe the whole thing as so much bigger than a power struggle or a petty argument. The ‘we’ also frames it not as an accusation but as something they must all combat.

“As admirable as I find your work to discover the Black Ajah, I am far more encouraged by your willingness to work together to do it. In the current Tower, cooperation between Ajahs is rare. I challenge you to take that as your main goal, bringing unity to the White Tower.”

An interesting place to take the conversation, but actually a very good one. Because they really are pretty much the only multi-Ajah group functioning at the moment, and therefore they are a starting point. It also further emphasises that Egwene is not fighting them. She is working with them; they are all on the same side, here. The side of the Tower itself.

She stood up, and she half-expected a sister to rebuke her, but they almost seemed to have forgotten that they were speaking with a ‘novice’ and a rebel.

Funny, that. It’s okay, you get used to her. Sort of.

“Do you have the Oath Rod here?”

“No,” Yukiri said. “It’s difficult to sneak away. We can only take it on occasion.”

And now even Yukiri, who argued the longest against even engaging with Egwene, is answering her questions with full explanations.

“A pity,” Egwene said. “I’d have liked to take the Oaths.”

Huh. I would have thought saying that would just highlight the fact that she isn’t exactly Aes Sedai by the normal ‘rules’, but I suppose the statement itself also emphasises her commitment, and her complete confidence that she is Aes Sedai.

But I don’t think that, if Egwene swears the Three Oaths, it’ll be done in a hidden-away room in the basement of the Tower, with only five sisters as witnesses.

“Regardless, you will promptly take it and release Meidani from the fourth oath.”

“We’ll consider it,” Saerin said.

It’s not a full statement of obedience, but all things considered it’s really not that far off. That Saerin is even saying they’ll consider her order is more about saving face than anything else, at this point.

“Know that once the White Tower is whole again, the Hall will learn of this action you have taken. I would like to be able to inform them that you were being careful, rather than seeking unwarranted power. If you need me in the next few days, you may send for me – but kindly find a way to deal with the two Red sisters who are watching me. I’d rather not use Travelling within the Tower again, lest I unwittingly reveal too much to those who would be better left ignorant.”

She left that statement hanging before walking to the door.

Beautiful. I just love the chance to watch a character come in and own a room like that.

They were not expecting her, and what they got was not what they would have expected if they were. And, like the Hall after the war vote, they’re going to be seeing her very differently now.

Meidani is stunned, but Meidani hasn’t seen Egwene work before.

“You really are the Amyrlin,” she finally said.

Indeed.

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#this entire arc is a gift #Wheel of Time #neuxue liveblogs WoT #The Gathering Storm

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