#sasha the archivist nothing bad happens

[sarcasticscribbles]

Okay, follow up, so give me your take on TimSasha and ‘three spinoff aus, that live in your head?”

tim has a crush on sasha

[autisticsupervillain]

The Magnus Archives AU: The Magnus HR Department

Because the Distortion is kinda sorta Michael, it's still under the contract for Elias that Michael signed. Distortion Michael finds its plans derailed by having to still work at the Institute. With nothing else for the Spiral agent to really do, Elias makes him head of HR, tasking him with feeding anyone who complains too much to the hallways. Archive staff is exempt because Elias still needs them so Michael has to settle for being an unbearable coworker to Jon instead of killing him as planned.

Jon only discovers this when he takes Not-Sasha to the HR office to help fix her computer for the fiftieth time and sees Michael sitting there with bags under his eyes and a cup of glowing coffee. Not-Sasha has an existential crisis when Michael explains the situation, realizing that they might be stuck under Elias's contract too. This being Season 2 Jon, this breakdown only further convinces him that Sasha is trustworthy and everyone else isn't. How else would you react to finding out the eldritch abomination stalking you was now your co-worker?

Not-Sasha tries to quit, but Elias makes it clear he knows exactly what they are and reassigns them to HR to keep them from trying to kill his employees. Elias is hoping this'll provoke the Stranger cult to attack the Institute so Jon can get marked by them, but Nikola thinks this situation is hilarious and leaves them be so she can hear about all the juicy Magnus office drama instead.

The Archive Staff try to be sympathetic to "Sasha" being stuck working with her stalker and Tim even threatens Michael not to lay a hand on her. Jon stops by to offer his support to Sasha and Michael is flabbergasted to see a Head Archivist who actually cares about his employees. Not-Sasha is just annoyed.

Everyone outside the Archive staff thinks that Michael is just a myth, until one day he walks out into the break room, nabs some random guy, and drags him back to the HR Office so Michael can "hear his complaint". After three minutes of screaming, the guy is never heard from again. Everyone tries to resign in mass after that, but Elias tells them to take it up with HR. No one does.

Martin thinks he's protecting the staff by satiating Michael with tea. Michael plays into this because he thinks its funny. And the tea is really good.

Not-Them uses Michael's hallways as an uber to report back to the Circus about their ritual plans. And to gossip with Nikola about the burgeoning Jon Martin love drama.

Not Sasha's new responsibilities keeps them from trying to kill anyone and Sasha's absence keeps Jon from investigating her and discovering the truth, so they survive undercover past Season Two. Instead, Jon happens across Jurgen while investigating the tunnels and the rest plays out as in canon from there.

When the Unknowing is foiled, Not Sasha gets their revenge by being maliciously compliant, become a very helpful HR Rep who improves the workplace in ways that help employees but inconvenience Elias/Peter. Michael helps because Peter keeps sending bad employees to the Lonely instead of letting him eat them, so he's pissed too.

While annoying Jon in his office one day, Michael notices Jon about to burn Gerry's page and swipes it from him. When Michael reads Gerry's page, he explains that if the contract can keeo Michael on staff now that he's the Distortion, then Gerry probably still works here too now that he's a book. The HR Department now spends all of Season 4 complaining about Gertrude and passive aggressively annoying Peter, with Gerry as an unofficial member (no one can find Peter to ask him what Gerry's job should be now).

Finally, the Season ends with the HR Team preventing the apocalypse by realizing that Elias technically isn't protected by the contracts while in prison, so Michael just stops by jail and yeets him into the hallways. Jon kills Peter to save Martin and Martin is now head of the Institute, working to undo the damage Elias and Peter did while trying to keep the HR Team in line. They can't hurt anyone else while working for him, after all.... mostly.

[rubykgrant]

I had this one funny concept for a Magnus Archives AU that basically had Jon just constantly being pulled out of the main-character role, so stuff always STARTS to happen, but then it never actually WORKS, and I just thought of a very funny addition to it, so I'm sharing it again-

-At some point, Jon has a bit of a stress-induced breakdown at university and just drops out. Even though they aren't dating anymore, Georgie offers him a place to stay while he kind of tries to sort himself out, and he just. Stays. It's fine

-As a result, Jon is much less pretentious, but a LOT more blunt. He just doesn't keep any of his weird thoughts to himself, and has no inclination to keep up a "professional" appearance. Thus, Georgie gets gremlin-Jon as her roommate. It's fine

-Georgie eventually meets Melanie, and they collaborate on a few projects regarding various supernatural topics. Because Jon is just THERE, he always winds up heckling Melanie about her "spooky show". While it is annoying to hear them argue, Georgie notices that Jon and Melanie ironically motivate each other when it comes to research

-Melanie invites/dares Jon to come with her on a few investigation trips. Spooky stuff keeps trying to kill Jon, he's like a magnet for this stuff, but also nothing ever manages to kill him. He and Melanie work together more, having this weird antagonistic-rivalry thing going on as they explore creepy areas, and film monsters trying to bite off Jon's head. Then they both go back to Georgie's apartment, where Jon cooks everybody dinner. This is actually sort of nice???

-Georgie and Jon eventually visit the Magnus Institute, for spooky reasons, and learn about the recently missing Archivist, while meeting the "temporary research team"; Martin, Tim, and Sasha. They're all a little unorganized, but willing to help answer questions if they can. Jon has ZERO hesitation or humility, just flat-out telling Elias he's weird, and also telling Martin "You look like the human personification of a classical painting of a sky full of clouds in soft morning light. Where's the bathroom?"

-Elias is silently losing his mind, because this rude little man is practically RADIOACTIVE with fear-marks, but Jon has no interest working here, and even if he did, Jon doesn't have the "qualifications" for being an Archivist (not that it really matters, but for the farce of legality, it would help). Martin is perpetually flustered, because he truly can't tell is Jon is flirting with him or not (to be fair, Jon isn't sure either. he's not gonna stop, though)

-Georgie comes along at some point to see the library, and Elias is BAFFLED by her; she has almost as many marks as Jon, but somehow feels "blank" when he tries to SEE what caused any of these fears (he doesn't understand she is incapable of feeling fear like that). Well, Georgie sure has the qualifications for the Archivist position! Elias offers her enough money for her to take the job, and as a bonus (for Elias... or so he thinks), Jon helps her record/catalogue various statements

-Georgie keeps being a wrench in the works. Nothing bad happens to Sasha. The very first day Martin doesn't come in for work, Georgie asks Jon to go check on him, he sees the worms, tells Georgie, who makes up a more believable lie to get some rescue people over there, and Jane Prentiss is dealt with right away. Martin doesn't get trapped in his apartment for days and days. Georgie saves everybody from the Circus shenanigans. It goes on like that. Occasionally, Elias will call somebody like Peter to try and scare people, but Georgie keeps fixing it, and Jon keeps being a fear-magnet who also won't die (Elias is most sincerely pissed-off)

-Also, because Martin's apartment still got all gross, Georgie and Jon invite him over to stay until he finds a new space. Martin still isn't sure if Jon is flirting with him, but he kinda likes being doted on... (at this point, yes, Jon approaching him with romantic intent. He doesn't change anything about his behavior, so to Martin, there is no difference. It might not be clear until Jon asks what Martin wants to do for their 6 month anniversary)

[itsclydebitches]

I haven’t read a whole lot of TMA fic, so I’m sure this already exists somewhere, but I really want a time travel fic where Jon goes back to Gertrude’s era.

So it’s 2007-ish, before his younger counterpart has started working at the Institute, but years into Elias and Gertrude’s tenure. They’re having a normal day serving the semi-omniscient fear god when a fucking full-fledged avatar of the Beholding - complete with a small mountain of tapes - falls through a rift in space-time and crash lands on Gertrude’s desk.

(Season 5 Jon might have decided not to kill Helen and instead used her to get here. If he ever sees her again they’re going to have A Talk™ about her choice of transportation.)

For the record, a hot mess of a man falling from the sky indoors is only like... the eighth most interesting thing to happen to Gertrude this week. Still, it’s clear he’s not entirely human - one gets a sense for these things, even without a giant eyeball’s help - and she’s got a knife on him faster than you can say “Statement.” This doesn’t seem to faze the man.

That annoys the fuck out of Gertrude.

Meanwhile, Elias has nearly passed out from the supernatural alarm bells going off in his head because the Ceaseless Watcher’s special little boy is here!!! What does that mean? Hell if he knows, but this man is ALIGHT with the Entities’ marks, just dripping with the power of the Eye, and Elias finds he has the sudden urge to drop to his knees before this stranger, something he’s only ever done post-Watcher’s Crown.

(This might be a Jonlias fic, whoops.)

Elias, seeing The Archivist for the first time: 😍😍😍😍😍

Gertrude, seeing The Archivist for the first time: 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

So after introductions Jon is all, “Yes, I’m an eldritch monster that’s forced to feed off the trauma of others, but I’m your eldritch monster. Please, Gertrude, I’d like nothing more than to carve out Magnus’ heart with you so he can’t destroy the whole fucking world.”

Elias, suddenly experiencing true fear for the first time in decades, feeding the Eye and being fed in turn and basically entering a feedback loop where this powerful stranger threatening to murder him is the hottest thing he’s ever Seen: !!!!! 💖💞😱!!!!!🤩😊💚!!!!!

And at first Gertrude’s like hell no, not having any more goddamn avatars in my archives thank you, but then the trio passes young intern Sasha James (shhh don’t worry if that fits the timeline) and Jon looses it. The hold that the Stranger had on him in his original timeline has broken and he’s able to recognize this as the real Sasha - her face, her voice, her very panicked looks towards her bosses as this random man sobs into her shoulder. And Gertrude’s like dammit, clearly The Archivist still has some of his humanity left. No true Fear monster would ever willingly be that embarrassing.

After prying Jon away from Sasha and promising her a raise to avoid any HR reports, they get the whole long, traumatic story out of him, but any plans to just permanently kill Elias kinda... sputter out. It’s a little bit of a Web thing, a little bit of a time travel thing, and a little bit of Jon just feeling... wrong when he considers it, no matter what he’s told Gertrude. It’s similar to when he let Annabelle live, though Elias has done absolutely fuck-all to earn his mercy. This confuses Jon, though it’s pretty far down on his list of worries.

The good news is that Jon’s mere presence puts a permanent wrench in Elias’ plans. He’s never going to repeat the ritual to open the door, obviously, and good fucking luck marking another archivist while he’s Watching. Given Jon’s suspicions that he became semi-immortal after waking from his coma, he’ll be Watching a damn long time, you megalomaniacal bastard.

The bad news is that since Elias can no longer plot an intricate manipulation, he’s decided that the next best thing is to just convince Jon to bring about the end of the world willingly.

By wooing him.

Elias: “We can be Kings of a ruined world together, Jon~”

Gertrude: “I am not paid enough for this.”

So begins the office romance comedy of Jon’s nightmares, where instead of hating him for ruining his world domination plans, Elias is smitten - in a suave, very creepy kinda way - and has decided that he’ll simply wait Jon out, wearing him down until the inevitable day when he realizes that they were meant to be. A full-fledged Archivist was dropped into his lap, ranting about how he out-foxed a future version of Elias, tormented by his own monstrosity, and people expected his narcissistic ass to not fall head over heels with his own creation?? As if.

Jon is Not Having A Good Time.

Originally when he landed here he was all, “Where is my Martin whom I love so dearly? Where is the support and companionship that I crave?” But after ‘bumping into’ him a few times outside the Institute, Jon comes to the bitter conclusion that whatever connection they had is gone. He recalls Martin’s firm belief that they never would have become a couple without all the trauma they’d been through and though this time around Jon definitely doesn’t hate him... he doesn’t love him either. Oh, he loves that he exists, seeing Martin whole and blissfully ignorant of the Fears helps heal something in Jon, but it takes him a very long time to admit that he’s too nice. Too caring. Too tentative in his insecurity. Jon grinds his teeth and admits in the privacy of his own thoughts that he was attracted to a bastard version of Martin, one who showed off a little bit of his own monstrosity, was connected to his own domain, could cut just as cruelly with his words as Jon could with his powers... Meeting with him now over coffee, inches away, Jon has never felt farther from him. This Martin simply isn’t a part of the world that created Jon.

Good, he decides and firmly steers Martin away from the Institute. Thanks to some blackmail and Peter Lukas’s money, Martin finds himself with a caretaker for his mom and the promise of a full ride through whatever creative writing program he can get into.

Meanwhile, Elias is of course stalking and spying on Jon whenever he can, doing the metaphorical equivalent of doodling hearts in his notebook whenever he catches a glimpse of why Jon no longer connects with Martin. He’s a bastard avatar with shitty morals and, frankly, far better taste in poetry. Open your third eyes, Jon!!

Gertrude, who avoided sacrificing Michael after a stern talking to from Jon: “You sure you don’t want the Spiral to eat you, kid? Anything’s better than watching this clusterfuck.”

Michael: 🙃🙃🙃

After a while the Institute settles into a new kind of normal. Jon, Gertrude, and Michael defend the archives from the slew of enemies they’ve both amassed, stopping the occasional ritual in their free time. Jon has long come to the conclusion that the Fears couldn’t have originated here - not with the Eye being unable to see its own creation - so starving them in this reality at the expense of their world wouldn’t serve the greater good. The best they can do is continually contain them - which they’ve gotten real good at. Elias continues to bother Jon with a fervor that’s almost admirable (he can see how this guy managed plans for upwards of 200 years) and waffles between playing the Mysterious Boss archetype that he’d used on Jon the first time around, and just giving in to the utter adoration he feels whenever Jon is in the room. It’s clear he’s long since started worshiping Jon rather than the Eye and the Eye is... totally fine with that?

Gertrude: “How did you get the Ceaseless Watcher to treat you like a favored child?”

Jon: Trauma?? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

After seeing how much happier Martin is, Jon guides the rest of his former assistants away from the Institute, Sasha included. It helps, a little, but it also makes him even more isolated than he was the first time around.

Gertrude realizes this, so when Elias’ flirting - “I’ve found a fresh statement for you, Jon. Oh do stop glaring, it’s just a bit of chloroform. She’ll wake up soon. You can’t be satisfied with stale writings for forever” - starts inducing more fond annoyance than fear or horror, she becomes #Concerned.

Gertrude: “You realize that desensitizing you to his actions was the point all along, right?”

Jon: “Mmhm. But is it still manipulation if I know it’s manipulation?”

Gertrude: “You cannot possibly be considering this.”

Jon: “Would it help if I admitted that dating Elias wouldn’t be the worst decision I’ve ever made?”

Gertrude: “NO.”

The thing is, Jon liked Elias before he revealed himself to be an immortal body-snatcher hell-bent on creating... well, hell on Earth. He liked the soft academic exterior, his careful words, love of organization and attention to detail, the dry humor, cutting intellect, those suits that likely cost more than three months of his salary combined... In fact, Jon is now in a place to vividly remember the embarrassment he felt while interviewing for the archivist’s position, too busy avoiding looking at Elias’ lips to catch the hungry glint in his eye.

Of course, that Elias only exists as a veneer... though what was Jon’s “I’m just a normal man going grocery shopping, please ignore my scars and aborted grab as I resist demanding a statement from you” if not a veneer of its own? Where did their ‘real’ selves begin and their conscious choices end? The most awful thing about all this is that Elias is right. Oh, not about them being Kings of a ruined world, but about how no one but another avatar can truly understand an avatar. By this point Jon is years past his coma, fully at peace - or at least, as at peace as he’ll ever get - with the fact that he chose to live as a monster rather than die as a human. That means Knowing things at his leisure... though he tries not to catch anything private. It means Compelling others to provide him with more knowledge... though he’s careful with his questions around friends. It means Feeding off of others’ worst moments in life... though Jon restricts himself to statements that Gertrude has collected first, so that he never haunts anyone’s dreams. And it means spending the majority of his time with other monsters and monster-aligned allies... though Jon plants his feet firmly in his human morals and refuses to budge.

If he can navigate all that, why not this too?

Elias has said more than once that he would make Jon the worst version of himself - said with such glee and promise as to almost, almost sound like something Jon wants. Jon figures that the worst version of Elias, from his perspective, would be to look a bit more human.

“We can bring out the worst in each other,” he agrees one day, followed by a shark-like grin.

Elias hasn’t the faintest idea what he’s just gotten himself into.

And that feels wonderful. Manipulating him into being a marginally better person who doesn’t bring about the apocalypse might actually be more satisfying than stabbing him. The Elias of Jon's original timeline would have HATED this and that makes Jon do a happy little wiggle whenever he thinks about it.

Gertrude: “You’re leashing a fucking dragon, Sims.”

Jon: “Better than letting it roam free.”

Gertrude: “Just so long as he doesn’t chew through the reins.”

Jon: “Yeah well, I’ll be the first one burned if that happens” and he holds up his charred hand with a shrug.

So begins the most messed up courting ritual the world has ever seen. Do they work as a couple? Oddly enough, yes. Amazingly well, in fact. Is it a healthy relationship? LOL yeah right. But then that’s rather the point. Jon gave up on that the day he acknowledged that, yes, a part of him liked being the most powerful being roaming a hellish landscape - liked not being vulnerable for once. Back when he’d first joined the Institute, post-breakup with Georgie, Jon couldn’t even imagine someone liking him enough to grab a drink after work. He’s past pretending that having the cult-like devotion of a lover, the favor of a Fear god, and the grudging respect of everything else that goes bump in the night isn’t really fucking nice.

Sometimes Elias plays the part of a compassionate human for Jon, as a treat. Sometimes Jon let’s Elias bask in another’s terror, as a treat. Sometimes Jon is Jonathan Sims and sometimes he’s The Archivist. “Let’s rule a burned-out world together” becomes a staple request in their relationship, with Jon always giving Elias the equivalent of a pat on the head and a, “Sure, honey. Maybe next week.” They find something like balance that way.

Plus there’s Gertrude, perpetually in the shadows with an arsenal of weaponry and the promise to obliterate them both if they ever go too far. She reminds Jon of his grandmother when she threatens to fuck them up in the afterlife if they ever make her kill them.

Something, something, dysfunctional eldritch found families are beautiful?

Jon and Elias have achieved something akin to an uncanny, domestic bliss when Elias points out that this body won’t last forever...

Jon Does Not Like the idea of Elias kidnapping another innocent.

However...

Jon: “You know Jurgen Leitner is living in the Institute’s tunnels, right?”

And they lived ever after. The “happily” is highly subjective.

Bonus:

Post-apocalypse!Jon meeting with Original!Jon to warn him away from the Institute, painfully thin ever since his coma, hip-length hair streaked unnaturally white, a slew of scars covering every available bit of skin, the slightest green glow behind his eyes, somehow looking supremely confident and powerful while also embodying the most Awkward Academic you’ve ever seen: Hey.

Og!Jon: G-good lord!

Jon: It’s okay. You can say ‘fuck.’ Please say ‘fuck,’ Jon. We deserve it.

[sparky-is-spiders]

Pleeeeease tell me about the time travel jonsasha fic. I'm assuming it's jon who goes back in time? From where, end of s5? 👀👀👀 Is it preestablished js, or canon compliant until the time travel? Are they going to try to kill elias......

Alright. So. This answer doesn't need to have context but I'm going to provide anyway, so buckle up for several paragraphs of rambling. Under a cut for length.

Anyway so last year I made this post. It's not required reading but it is relevant. Basically, in my first six months(?) or so in the fandom, when I was big into jm, I read a buncha time travel fix-its. I've sorta moved away from them (heads up this fic will NOT be a fix-it) but at the time I really enjoyed them.

(To clarify, nothing wrong with liking time travel fix-its or not wanting to touch the implications. Time travel identity theft isn't real and we're all here to have a good time. If that's your jam you do you)

Now. The Thing With Time-Travel Fix-Its is that there's going to be a past version and a future version of your intrepid time-travelers and you're going to have to Deal With That, and a common method of Dealing With That is the time travelers waking up in their past bodies. Pretty normal, not unusual, dodges some complicated tangles re: having two versions of certain characters floating around, a perfectly understandable choice that nontheless carries Implications.

Namely: what does it mean to take the place of your past self? For you? For them? For the person they could be? For the people around you (who may as well be interacting with a stranger)? Is that really you? Are you really them? Could overwriting your past self count as murder/identity theft/Bad?

And I thought about it. And I thought about it. And I thought about it. And then I got super into jonsasha dual archivists AUs.

Okay. Context over. We can (finally) talk about the fic.

So, I am a simple creature and Jon is my darling beloved. So I didn't want to just kill him off before the fic even begins (although. hmmm. tempting, actually). But i did need him replaced by s5 Jon. So. What if he was just... displaced? Shoved out of his own body by an imposter? A ghost invisible to all? Alone? Afraid? Watching his friends interacting with an unknown but possibly malicious entity? And thus, the Time Travel Nonsense AU was born!

So there's no outline and it hasn't had a lot of Rotation Time in awhile, but I do have a series of loosely connected Ideas down so you can have those.

Something else is living in S1 Jon's body. He doesn't know what it is, or what's happening to him. He can't really interact with his surroundings, either. Can't be seen, can't speak to anyone, can't do anything but watch. Even the thing puppeting his body doesn't seem to know he's there. And it behaves... strangely. It has some of his mannerisms, and it acts like him, but a little to the left. It's uncanny, watching something that is him-but-not-him like that... and it's lonely.

(S5 Jon is going to be an "it" because S1 Jon is perceiving S5 Jon as a monster/creature (although I do believe in it/its Jon supremacy, to be clear)).

He tries to figure things out on his own. Tries to signal for help. Tries to take his body back. Tries to speak to the new occupant. Nothing.

The fic initially opens with a transcript of his statement regarding the experience. It's technically for everyone but it's addressed to Sasha specifically. I don't know what happens with it after though.

At some point, he does manage to make contact with Elias. It's So Weird how only his boss can see him, but it's something at least. Especially because he's so goddamned lonely.

He's a ghost at his own job and in his own house. He hasn't spoken to anyone in weeks. The others think his replacement is behaving a little oddly but seem to be getting along better with it than they ever did with him. It's revealing things about him as if it was him. It feels horribly invasive, and lonely, and frightening, and awful. His only source of comfort is Elias, and they start a sort of weird situationship sorta thing. It's a good thing Elias is so helpful and trustworthy huh?

Maybe Sasha finds the tape. Maybe she just thinks Jon is acting Weird. Either way, she gets to snooping and is drawn closer to the Eye.

Elias, meanwhile, is trying to get Jon marked, and closer to being the Archivist, and back in his body, AND trying to figure out what it was that replaced Jon. Jon is trying to do the last two. Idk what s5 Jon is doing. Maybe finding ways to break whatever binding will cause Elias' death to hurt other institute employees?

Anyway, after a certain point, Sasha is connected enough to the Eye (and Looking hard enough) that she can see S1 Jon, and they start working together too. Maybe they try to keep it secret from Elias? Idk.

S1 Jon will get his body back, and S5 Jon is eldritch enough to probably not need one.

Ok honestly by this point things are reaaaaally vague if I'm being real. So, lightning round:

The JE situationship breaks off due to Elias'... everything really (I mean, once its revealed that he's evil and sinister and stuff).

Jonsasha's misadventures trying to get Jon's body back result in them racking up marks.

Sooooo much of this is me being enamoured w/ outsider PoV... time travel but from the perspective of someone who ain't travelling. Another important aspect is S5 Jon trying desperately to fix things but failing because the whole project is Doomed and he is being sabotaged from the start by an invisible force (himself).

Also S1 Jon accidentally making things worse for himself because all the information available and his general situation push him to do so.

Sasha survives the Not!Them (obviously) (how? good question!!)

Jon and Sasha have a weird complicated Thing. Their research into S5 Jon sort of separates her from the others and they kinda become drawn into their relationship and stuff. Also from the whole "same master same monster" situation they got going on.

There's going to be a short tape transcript of Jon telling Sasha about his situationship with Elias. Idk if I'llbe able to indicate it over audio transcript but they are both sitting on the floor or cot or whatever and Jon's head is on her lap.

Jonsasha are t4t and autism4autism.

I have a really specific image in my head of them running out the institute's front doors while holding hands, very near the end of the fic.

They do run off somewhere (maybe Scotland still idk) and they do read the 160 statement. Together <3.

And yeah that's everything. Got vague and floaty near the end there but to answer your questions: yes, yes, canon-compliant until time travel, and maybe at some point idk.

[rotruff]

For the f/o ask game, Sasha James from The Magnus Archives

(being a podcast, she has no official appearance, but i chose some fanart, she is described as being tall with long hair and glasses.) Sasha is an archivist at the magnus institute. She's very clever and loves joking around. She was meant to take over as head archivist, but due to plot circumstances did not. Her best friends are two dudes named tim n martin and they collectively get on the nerves of the main character, jon :3 and nothing bad ever happens to them despite the fact it's a horror podcast (lying) (via @alwaysyaoi )

hmming and hawing and pacing back and forth in front of a big corkboard with a bunch of Polaroids and red string all over it. i can see the vision i can see it happening .... her silly whimsy could win me over i could appreciate some silliness. unfortunately i am short with long hair and glasses so i think we have to fight to the death

[rowanraven08]

<a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/57116713"><strong>Would I do what you have done</strong></a> (1734 words) by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerpyCheeseSandwich"><strong>DerpyCheeseSandwich</strong></a><br />Chapters: 1/?<br />Fandom: <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/tags/The%20Magnus%20Protocol%20(Podcast)">The Magnus Protocol (Podcast)</a><br />Rating: General Audiences<br />Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply<br />Relationships: Sasha James/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist<br />Characters: Sasha James, Alice Dyer, Samama "Sam" Khalid, Gwendolyn "Gwen" Bouchard, Colin Becher, Lena Kelley, Chester (The Magnus Protocol), Norris (The Magnus Protocol), Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives)<br />Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Sasha’s an IT woman and stepping in for Colin rn, Trans Sasha James, Trans Alice Dyer, trying to save the computer men from the horrors, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, as well as warnings tbh, if I have violence or anything later on I’ll make sure to warn before hand, Canon Typical Suffering, full discloser im not fully sure where this is going yet, but we’ll get there hopefully, No beta we die like Colin’s going to<br />Summary: <p>Colin’s mental health leave has unfortunately left the spot of IT manager open for now… and so Sasha James takes the place to fill it, and now things are getting weird….</p><p>OR: Sasha joins the OIAR and Chester is trying to get her to help him</p>

Hey folks, you want a protocol fic that has Sasha? And Tim? Feast up, I swear nothing bad will ever happen to them

[itchyeye]

Okay, on the discussion of characters, I was LITERALLY thinking earlier today of how Sasha is one of my favorite characters in TMA. (Sorry I went on a tangent but hear me out-)

Sasha. A character who we BARELY hear from in the one season she's alive in, has had such a MASSIVE impact on the entire fandom that to this DAY people still make AU's where she lives, of her relationship to multiple other characters, to what could have been or WHO she was based on a few one liners, a statement, and her final moments. After that it's the impact she had on other characters that helped us see her for who she was. We were fed some information on her (Ex. Jon thinking SASHA would have pranked him with a statement and not Tim, Gertrude wanting to make Sasha the next Archivist because she knew she would've been smart enough to see what was happening, Sasha choosing to follow Micheal who was clearly a Not Human Thing,-), but we weren't spoon fed information on who she was if that makes sense? We, through context clues and just idk, good writing on Jonny's part, were able to put together this character in our minds of who Sasha was in and out of the office and her relationship with the other characters, even though she only existed for BARELY ONE SEASON.

Cut to TMAGP, and, like you said, we're being force fed these characters and archetypes. LOOK THIS IS GWEN SHE'S SUPER SERIOUS , THIS IS ALICE SHE'S ~QUIRKY~ AND HAS A BROTHER SHE'S TAKING CARE OF (WHICH SIDE NOTE: WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW TIM HAD A BROTHER UNTIL LATER and it's revealed to us in such a great, tragic way and shows some things about his character we hadn't noticed before, or let us explore ideas about him!) THIS IS LENA SHE'S DARK AND MYSTERIOUS MAY BE A BAD GUY WHO KNOWS WHAT'S HAPPENING OOOOH SPOOKY- And I feel nothing towards any of them. I think it's funny that so far a lot of people who don't like the series all admit that we like Gwen the most because she's the most down to earth and idk, realistically written character? But it just makes me so... Idk, it makes me laugh angrily that this new show that is so focused on these new characters so far doesn't have me liking any of them (Gwen's on thin ice-). They're being shoved in our faces way too quickly and are just thrown their entire wikipedia articles to listen to.

Like, that one comment about how Sam and Alice are exes makes me think of how when Melanie mentioned to Jon that Georgie knew him, he didn't go "OH YES MY EX GIRLFRIEND GEORGIE." He was just like, "Oh! You know Georgie huh? Hm..." and it's later we find out they dated.

SORRY THIS IS SO MUCH I JUST AHSIDOAHS dude. Like. I only like Colin and sort of Gwen and that's it. Everyone else is so annoying, and seeing that the show is BARELY focused on the statements, it's a SLOG to get through.

So sorry for such a long message ; -Z

i will say as politely as i can that the amount of attention this fandom gives a particular character is not generally indicative of their story impact BUT i fo agree that i really like the part sasha plays in the story and the way her death + replacement send huge ripples of drastic effect across all characters

and i 100% agree with the rest of this. even gwen is wearing on me because when a character is just. rude? and the only thing you know about them is that they are someone's coworker? why would i like them? why would i be sympathetic to them? i've started plenty of jobs where people are huge assholes for now reason other than already being super burnt out on the position. but it's awful to take that out on a brand new employee? so gwen is on thin ice for me as well.

but yeah i think you've contrasted very wel the way tma created its characters vs the like bullet point lists of Traits™️that tmp characters have instead

[ao3feed-jonmartin]

the magnus birthdays

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/UWmNP9G by phasmahoneypie soft (and happy) magnus archives one shots while I prepare for the pain that the protocol will surely bring, and pretend nothing bad will happen as I relisten to tma. Words: 1606, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Rusty Quill Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus, Peter Lukas, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Nikola Orsinov, Stranger Entities Breekon and Hope (The Magnus Archives), Annabelle Cane, Jane Prentiss, Agnes Montague Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sasha James/Tim Stoker, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Peter Lukas, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Annabelle Cane/Jane Prentiss, Stranger Entity Breekon/Stranger Entity Hope (The Magnus Archives), Stranger Entity Breekon & Stranger Entity Hope (The Magnus Archives) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical The Lonely Content (The Magnus Archives), Pining Martin Blackwood, Martin Blackwood's Poetry, Mentioned Jane Prentiss, Mentioned Annabelle Cane, Sasha James Lives, Tim Stoker Lives (The Magnus Archives), nikola orsinov has a toy shop, nikola orsinov and moisturiser, Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus Being an Asshole, elias bouchard wedding, Married Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Peter Lukas, Peter Lukas Being Peter Lukas, Divorced Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus/Peter Lukas read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/UWmNP9G

[a-mag-a-day]

MAG 61 - apple cutting

HA! Another ambiguous episode title! Hard Shoulder as in Breekon & Hope being like solid wood when Daisy hit them (like them having a hard shoulder) and the hard shoulder of the road. Or possibly Daisy' shoulder was meant as well? Jarring her arm when hitting Breekon & Hope and then being hold with a firm grip by her shoulder so she wouldn't follow Zack into the coffin.

I love Fay's voice btw. I could listen to zir for hours.

JON "…Right. Um, so, you came to deliver one of the tapes. From Basira? The uh, the, the audio tapes. … So… can I have it? Please?" DAISY "I’m thinking." - Is it already happening here? Does Daisy already feel Jon's compulsion and tries to parse what it is? Because next time, she's already prepared:

JON "…If you don’t mind me asking, hhhow long have you been sectioned, now –" DAISY "[angrily] I do mind – … 14 years." - Here it definitely happened.

DAISY "Not as long as you understand my policy: if it gets out, I’ll break every bone in your body." JON "[sigh, muttering] There are worse things that could happen to them…" - It makes me sad, that he is already expecting all sorts of horrible fates that could (and will) happen to him.

(Cont.) DAISY "[confused, possibly offended] What?" JON "Uh, nothing. Uh, statement of Detective Alice “Daisy” Tonner of the London Metropolitan Police. What’s the subject?" - Peak office comedy again.

It's the 1st December. Jordan Kennedy's statement was on 3rd November, exactly 4 weeks ago. Including Jordan's and this statement, that means Jon recorded 7 real statements in a span of 4 weeks.

"A Wednesday afternoon doesn’t see a lot of traffic" - Is it also tradition in the UK that public services are closed on Wednesday afternoons? In the village I'm living in, even all the non-supermarket-chain shops have closed on Wednesday afternoon.

"Part of me wanted to spot some idiot who I could take my bad mood out on" - First time around I immediately decided that this character is an absolute asshole and that I hated her. (Wow, that would drastically change in S4…)

Seriously, delivery vans driving reaaaally slow I find justified to check out. That's very suspicious for not having their load secured correctly and that being the reason for them to drive so slow.

"The man who got out looked normal – so normal that these days I can’t really picture his face. Said his name was “Tom.”" - High probability that this is Not!Sasha's Tom.

"From the back of the van, there was a sound of moaning." - While on my first listen I was lucky to recently already have relistened to MAG 2, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to connect things (because I couldn't remember anything from that episode). But heavy rain and moaning I immediately thought that it's gotta be the coffin!

"I yelled at them to explain what the hell was going on, but they just stood there, staring at it. So I hit one of them with my baton." - Oh yeah, that Daisy definitely is an awful person…

"I shouted for him, started to run but I felt a huge hand grip my shoulder. I grabbed it with my good arm, tried to escape it, but the grip was too strong. The texture of the flesh was like hard rubber. All I could do was watch as my partner kept walking into the earth, on stairs that couldn’t be there." Isn't it ironic? Here they saved her, but the next time Daisy would see Breekon & Hope and the coffin again, Breekon will make her go into the Buried herself.

JON "Uh, there is one other thing – I’ve been meaning to ask Basira, but you might know better –" DAISY "I’m done." - He's doing it again…

(Cont.) JON "Oh – yes, it’s just, j– [quickly] do you know anything about vampires?" - Now here's why he makes the perfect Archivist. Just can't shut up, asking more and more questions even when facing possible violet people (and later monsters)… tbh I'd probably also totally abuse a power like this.

DAISY "[anxious, drawn] Don’t tell Basira. She doesn’t know about that procedure. I, I’m not sure how much she’d understand" - Daisy worrying about what Basira might think of her? Even if it's actually straight up killing monsters in this instance, but Daisy really don't want Basia to know what she's capable of.

It's interesting that the coffin is connecting Jon and Daisy that much. When they met for the first time Daisy tells her statement about the coffin. Next time both of them will be dealing with the coffin, they actually start bonding, which slowly turns into a genuine friendship.

JON "Well, that’s a matter for later. I need to go home. Try to get some sleep." - Good! Keep up that attitude!… I'm also going to sleep now XD

Fay's voice is indeed great,

The Archivist, The Wolf and the Coffin... sounds like a Narnia book

[sarcasticscribbles]

MAG 022 Sasha the Archivist AU

(Statement of Timothy Stoker, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding a close encounter with something he believes to have once been Jane Prentiss). Context (role switching)

[CLICK]

ARCHIVIST Tim, are you sure?

TIM I want to make a statement, something happened, and I don’t know- I mean, it’s what we do, right? 

ARCHIVIST Not really, we research statements. Then we archive them. We don’t make them. 

TIM Fine, fine, but I need to tell someone what happened and you- or this, is the best I got. 

ARCHIVIST Tim. 

TIM Just, hear me out, okay? And then, you can either toss it aside or dismiss it, like you usually do with everything I say.

ARCHIVIST I don’t do that. 

TIM It doesn’t need to be an official statement, I just need it off my chest, please, Sasha. 

ARCHIVIST  …  Are you okay?

TIM I don’t know. 

ARCHIVIST … Tell me what happened. Statement of Timothy Stoker, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, London, regarding…

TIM A real encounter with what I believe to have once been Jane Prentiss.

ARCHIVIST Recorded direct from subject, 12th March, 2016.

Statement begins.

TIM Well, a while ago, a few weeks, you were looking into that statement about the spider that wouldn’t go away. Carlos Vittery, the haunted spider statement. Something about it didn’t sit right with me, the whole web death, that doesn’t happen. No other recorded cases of spiders spinning their web around human corpses in England. I asked Martin about it, he loved Spider’s- a little too much if you ask me. Remember the lecture he gave when you smashed that big one in the library –

ARCHIVIST Stick to the statement, Tim.

TIM Right.  Right, yes. You asked me to find anything I could about Mr. Vittery, and when my usual methods ended up empty-handed, I.. I decided to check out his flat in Boothby Road. It wasn’t too far of a trip, I know the Institute won’t cover it. That’s not why I’m doing it, I’m not looking for Institute funds any more. I found the building, early morning, and it looks just like Mr. Vittery described in his statement. It’s locked, obviously, I can’t get in and no one answered the buzzers. I had already got this far and I didn’t want to come back with nothing to you – because I know what that entails, so I started looking around. I found a basement window that slightly ajar. It isn’t much, but I’m pretty sure I can get through if I can open it. 

[...]

ARCHIVIST

Statement ends. And you’re sure, about this, Tim?

TIM I wouldn’t lie to you. Not about something like this.  I know you take your job seriously, I wouldn’t want to waste your time. 

ARCHIVIST I didn’t say you did. 

TIM No but… I would only do this if it happened.

ARCHIVIST I suppose. Tim, I- 

There’s a room in the Archives, I’ve used it before when I’ve worked late. You can stay there for now, if you want, it’s not too bad. I’ll talk to Geuturde and maybe have her look into some extra security. The Archives have enough lock to make you feel safe, and the windows should be properly sealed.

TIM [Confused & flustered]  Oh. Okay… Yeah, thanks. I honestly didn’t expect you to… Believe me.

ARCHIVIST I thought you said you lost your phone two weeks ago?

TIM Yeah, something like that, when I went back to the basement. 

ARCHIVIST Yeah. I have received several text messages from your phone, claiming you’re still ill with a stomach bug… Last one said you thought it “might be a parasite”. I tried calling you and you never picked up. So, if this does involve Jane Prentiss, then I take it very seri–

[PHONE BUZZES] Wait

TIM What?

ARCHIVIST Another text from you. “Keep him. We have had our fun. He will want to see it when the Archivist’s crimson fate arrives.”

TIM Excuse me? 

ARCHIVIST It means I’ll ask Gertrude to hire some extra security. I’ll tell Jon and Martin too. I’ll check through the Archives, as I think we have a statement from Ms. Prentiss herself in here somewhere.

Recording ends.

[CLICK]

[cult-of-the-eye]

streets????? It's not the worst poem I've ever heard

OMG MARTIN K BLACKWOOD

God I can't get over his fake little middle name

OMG TIM

ha help him Vs stop him

I love how their view of Jon differs so much and they're both sort of right because they both only have a certain amount of information about what's going on

He's never gonna speak to us again

My poor boy is so stressed about Jon I don't think that's the most pressing matter here

Jesus Christ Martin doesn't believe the institute is supernatural?

I guess he would have no reason to cause he'd probably think they were protecting him against Prentiss not anything bad

Omg tims on the money for all of it

OH WHAT THE FUCK

That's so unsettling oh my god

NOT SASHA???

Oh my god Martin he goes down into the tunnels my dude

WHY DID HE TAKE MICHAELS DOOR

He sounds like he's about to cry

My bro really can't think of a stronger expletive than damn

LET HIM SAY FUCK

yeah you are a fucking idiot

Although it makes sense that he couldn't see it cause none of it makes sense, he's trying to piece together shit and half the pieces are missing and there's someone with a knife to his throat of course he's gonna mess it up

Here comes the guilt wahoo

OH SHIT FUCK

"oh christ" my bro is so Oxford posh even when threatened by the prospect of death

What does Martin want? I never actually thought about that

OMG HES SO ANGRY

I love angry Martin!!!

YES KING SPIT THE TRUTH

IT IS FAIR TO WANT EVERYTHING TO BE OK!!! TIM HAS BEEN PUSHING EVERYONE AWAY!!!

MICHAEL????

Sport??? Oh god that's terrifying

Hang on?? Martin my dude what do you think you're gonna do

"Martin look at his hands!!!"

There's two of us and one of you - my bro canonically thinks he can take on someone in a fight (strong Martin K Blackwood supremacy)

SHIT THE DOOR

THE LAUGHTER OH MY GOD

THE PIPEEE THE INFAMOUS PIPEE

oh god he's getting louder

I'm gonna cry

HE DOESNT REMEMBER WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE OH GOD IM GONNA CRY

Fucking hell this is terrifying

"Reliable old Sasha" NO THATS SO DEVASTATING

THEY KNEW HER BUT NOT ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG BUT THAT WASNT THEIR FAULT EITHER OH GOD

THE VOICES THE FUCKING VOICES

I'm going to wear you?? I'm going to wear everything you are?? Like you never existed?? And it will hurt?? IT HURT SASHA

FUCK IM GOING TO CRY

"SHUT UP"

JON I LOVE YOU BUT YOURE SO STUPID BUT ALSO UNDERSTANDABLE PLEASE GET OUT OF THERE

FUCK FUCK FUCK

Oh god the noise is making my ears hurt

The fucking panting

"You like stories"

A nasty man tricked the monster and wrapped it into table

Who??? Jurgen leitner???

Friends?? (Breekon and hope?)

Biggest eyes enemies (stranger hates eyes? Or web hates eyes? What??)

Steal it's secrets

"Stupid arrogant little man"

Nah bro my man is insecure as fuck

Oh shit that laughter

You're nothing...even I could make a better archivist than you??

Fuck off not sasha

I'm sorry Martin, and Tim and Sasha

God I love him I love that in his last moments he's apologising

Will I really become the archivist?? (What's so special about the archivist?? Why do I feel like it's capitalised??)

Please don't kill me

MY POOR BOY

IM LITERALLY SOBBING

What the fuck just happened

WHO THE FUCK IS THAT

EHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK

Gonna listen to mag 79 tonight and tell you guys my reactions wish me luck

[pandorem]

As you have probably guessed by now, the current hyperfixation IS the Magnus Archives and my brain keeps on being bombarded with Thoughts and AU ideas. Anyways Jon and Gerry as Lietner hunters AU, where Jon starts showing up along side Gerry in statements (probably around college time?). Jon isn’t spooky or mysterious monster jon though, he’s closer to season 1 flavoured Jon. Kinder and happier, but prim and snooty and persnickety and all of those other adjectives that you would not associate with a professional book burner and rescuer of victims of the supernatural.

People coming in to the Magnus Institute and sharing their harrowing story, and talk about this mysterious goth they met, and then part way through this utterly unintimidating nerd shows up. He looks like a strong wind could have knocked him over. The mysterious goth gets this soft, fond look on his face that doesn’t match the horror of the situation. The nerd may or may not at some point do something stupidly reckless, or mention having done something stupidly reckless, or get into an argument with the goth over NOT doing something stupidly reckless. They find a book. Goth asks the posh bastard nerd if he’d like to do the honours this time around, and the nerd takes a little too much glee in burning it. The goth watches him in amusement that still manages to be a bit too sappy to be comfortable. What started as a horrific and traumatic event in the statement giver’s life has started to feel like they are awkwardly third-wheeling on a date.

Sasha is probably the archivist in this AU, and she is absolutely keeping track of people who show up in statements more than once. They start trying to put together a timeline of Gerry’s appearances and when Jon started showing up. Tim gets way too invested in how their relationship evolves over the statements.

In case it isn’t clear, this is absolutely a Gerry Lives AU and possibly a Jon Remains Human and nothing bad ever happens to him au. There may be some angst, perhaps a smidge of peril, but as the universe does it’s best to be an inevitable horror/tragedy, Jon and Gerry are out there living their best book burning rom com life.

[picture-of-grace]

au where nothing bad happens and Jon never becomes the Archivist and he and Martin meet when Jon is in research and Martin is in the library and Martin is a little more comfortable in himself (not totally bc hes still doing that thing where people dont notice him much) but hes obv not being put down by a stressed and projecting jon and they like talk about a case or something and instead of Martin head over heels (like he still is but it's more put together bc hes not scared of jon) its jon that's just. completely destroyed. hes just absolutely in love with Martin after the first interaction he cannot handle it and its adorable. fellow researchers and besties forever tim and sasha tease him so much about it bc they love him. just fluff.has it been done. please. please has it been done

[bananonbinary]

Time for a Salty Meta Post about Martin!

people who’ve followed this blog for a bit know that spending six hours combing through text for some goddamn sources is my specialty, so i compiled every time jon ever talked about martin’s work in season 1. which for the record, he stopped complaining about all the way back in episode 26, where he was angry that martin of all people got hurt.

things jon gets mad at martin for:

not being able to find records that don’t exist

not being able to find someone based only on a first name

the Dog

not wearing trousers in his off-hours

being the one that got caught up in the jane prentiss thing

mag 004 and mag 012 both have jon taking potshots at martin over research that was proven accurate by outside sources

things jon has never once complained about:

martin not understanding the filing system and just putting stuff away at random

martin being clumsy, constantly ruining things, spilling tea everywhere everyday, etc

martin turning in incompetent, poorly-edited, or badly formatted reports

martin not understanding the terminology used, skills expected, etc., and generally being extremely new to the field

please for the love of god stop making martin the silly bumbling idiot who can’t do anything right just because he doesn’t have a formal education. there’s zero evidence for it in the text, and it’s really weird to act like a 4 year degree would outweigh the *10 years* of job experience he has, not just in academia, but in the institute itself by season one. my boy has worked there longer than ANY of the rest of the main cast. screw you guys.

tl;dr: martin is never once shown to be bad at his job, jon pretty much only ever gets mad at him for the really stupid first impression and also not finding stuff that no one else was able to find either. after martin got hurt, jon talks about his research basically the same way he talks about tim’s or sasha’s work.

fucking proof under the cut:

(i didnt include the s1 finale or martin’s statement bc that’s just...two entire episodes of them talking to each other, but there isn’t really any notable Martin Complaints in either of them imo)

I swear, if he’s brought another dog in here, I’m going to peel him.

[pre-launch trailer]

.

Well, technically three, but I don’t count Martin as he’s unlikely to contribute anything but delays.

[...] Alongside this Tim, Sasha and, yes, I suppose, Martin will be doing some supplementary investigation to see what details may be missing from what we have.

[MAG001 Anglerfish]

.

Martin couldn’t find any records of Ex Altiora as a title in existent catalogues of esoteric or similar literature, so I assigned Sasha to double-check. Still nothing.

[MAG004 Pageturner]

.

I had Martin conduct a follow-up interview with Mr. Woodward last week, but it was unenlightening. Apparently there have been no further bags at number 93 and in the intervening years he has largely discounted many of the stranger aspects of his experience. I wasn’t expecting much, as time generally makes people inclined to forget what they would rather not believe, but at least it got Martin out of the Institute for an afternoon, which is always a welcome relief.

[MAG005 Thrown Away]

.

Martin was unable to find the exact date the original house was built but the earliest records he could find list it as being bought by Walter Fielding in 1891.

[...]

We cannot prove any connection, but Martin unearthed a report on an Agnes Montague, who was found dead in her Sheffield flat on the evening of November 23rd 2006, the same day Mr. Lensik claims to have uprooted the tree.

[MAG008 Burned Out]

.

According to Martin, who was here when they took this statement, it was at this point in writing that Mr. Herbert announced he needed some sleep before continuing. He was shown to the break room where he went to sleep on the couch. He did not awaken; unfortunately succumbing to the lung cancer right there. Martin says the staff had been aware of how serious Mr. Herbert’s condition was, and had advised him to seek medical aid prior to giving his statement, but were told rather bluntly by the old man that he would not wait another second to state his case. I can’t decide whether this lends more or less credibility to his tale.

[MAG010 Vampire Killer]

.

“Veepalach” might also be a mishearing of the Polish word “wypalać”, according to Martin, which means to cauterize or brand. Admittedly, if Martin speaks Polish in the same way he “speaks Latin,” then he might be talking nonsense again, but I’ve looked it up and it appears to check out.

[MAG012 First Aid]

.

I sent Martin to look into this ‘Angela’ character - not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently, he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He 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.

[MAG014 Piecemeal]

.

Martin declined to help with this investigation as he’s “a bit claustrophobic”

[MAG015 Lost John’s Cave]

.

There simply aren’t enough details given in this statement to actually investigate, short of Martin confirming that Mr. Vittery did indeed live at the addresses he provided.

[MAG016 Arachnophobia]

.

Oh, he’s off sick this week. Stomach problems, I think.

Blessed relief if you ask me.

[...]

I asked Martin to try and hunt down Mr. Adekoya himself for a follow-up, but have been informed that he passed away in 2006. 

[MAG017 The Boneturner’s Tale]

.

MARTIN

Well, I need to tell someone what happened, and you can vouch for the soundness of my mind, can’t you?

ARCHIVIST

…

That is beside the point.

[MAG022 Colony]

.

Martin! Good lord man, if you’re going to be staying in the Archives, at least have the decency to put some trousers on!

[MAG023 Schwartzwald]

.

Martin found one other thing while combing through police reports for the Hither Green area. About a month after this statement was given, on May 15th, 2015, police were called out to once again investigate the chapel.

[MAG025 Growing Dark]

.

I know, but it would have to have been Martin, wouldn’t it? I mean, anything goes wrong around here, it always seems to happen to him. Anyway, we’re getting off topic. Why didn’t you report this?

[MAG026 A Distortion]

.

Martin made contact with the son, Marcus McKenzie, but he declined to talk to us, saying that he’d “already made his statement.”

[MAG027 A Sturdy Lock]

.

Tim and Martin had a bit more luck investigating Tom Haan, though only really enough to confirm that he seems to have completely vanished following his departure from Aver Meats on the 12th of July.

[MAG030 Killing Floor]

.

Martin’s research would seem to indicate the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books

[...]

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.

[MAG036 Taken Ill]

[sparky-is-spiders]

Wanna hear my big major Sasha headcanon? No? Too bad.

It’s hard trying to puzzle things out about her because she just didn’t have enough time on air, so this is cobbled together from a handful of lines and a helluva lot of projection, but I think Sasha really, REALLY wanted to know more about other people. I think she’d see someone behaving strangely in public, spot two strangers arguing a couple steps ahead of her, and want to know why. And she knew she should just ignore them, and even if she did want to pry (and she really truly did, I think) she couldn’t. Not enough access to their lives, not enough known about their identities.

But it was probably different for her friends and coworkers. We know for a Fact that she looked through their records and got into their accounts (seemingly multiple times). But half the time I see it brought up in the fandom it’s a joke, and most of the time it’s not brought up at all. But that’s a huge breach of privacy! I’d be really upset to learn someone did that to me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Sasha because her creepy boundary crossing, not in spite of it. But I think we need to talk about it more. Which is where my headcanon comes in!!

I think that whenever that curiosity got nearly overwhelming, when she needed to know why the person sitting across from her on the train was crying or what the person arguing loudly on the phone meant by that one, clearly cutting remark, she scratches the itch by digging through employee records. And every time she comes across something deeply personal she feels guilty, but she just can’t stop. She wants to know why one of her coworkers if Like That, she wants to know what made Elias and then Jon so qualified for the jobs they’ve been given, why Martin was struggling to do tasks he should know better about, she wants to Know. Why are they the way that they are? What shaped their personalities? What lead them here? What personal troubles are worrying them? Why? And I think she just can’t quite bring herself to ignore her unquenchable curiosity. Why does it matter that she’s come to learn so much about the janitor she’s seen occasionally but never spoken to? If they don’t know she knows, then who’s being hurt, really?

I like to think that, in a version of the podcast where she survives, she becomes an Eye Avatar. Preferably another Archivist but certainly an Eye Avatar. While an Archivist Sasha would naturally have some compulsive powers, I imagine her specific abilities are much more about Knowing and possibly spying. Beholding likes to drop random, deeply personal information about the lives of the people around her. It’s always important (if not to her then to them). It’s always something that shaped them. It’s always the kind of thing that stokes that burning curiosity. Sometimes it happens without her randomly, outside of her control, and sometimes she says that that’s what happened and she’s lying, and most of the time she says nothing at all. If they don’t know that she Knows, then who’s being hurt, really?

This headcanon has been percolating in my mind for a while. I haven’t listened to her episodes in a bit so let me know if I got something wrong and there’s a line that dismantles my entire point. But yeah I think about Sasha a lot. So here’s a long headcanon and a bit about one of my favorite AUs for the character.