#but with jon and an embodiment of his being an eye avatar

[steventheslime]

I can’t stop thinking about when Gerard Key told Jon rather snarkily that “there was no entity of love” or something like that.

Idk I just feel like if there was a force like that, it would make sense, human Love is about as old as human Fear, we’ve been caring for each other for as long as we’ve been afraid.

However, a good chunk of human survival to modern times was based around fear. Self preservation requires fear, but “Love” (or at least caring for others, human connection, etc if you don’t like the term love)is how humans have advanced and found a reason to survive.

I feel like if it was able to be harnessed in the reality bending way fear is in TMA, it wouldn’t be enough to fight off the fears and their avatars in the world at all, barely make a dent, but it could be a way to protect yourself and especially protect those you cared about, if you knew how. And perhaps there’d be the rare person who could embody Love the way avatars embody fear.

After all we’ve seen that despite being an avatar of the Eye, Jon manages to hold onto his core of humanity bc of his connections with other people, mainly Martin.

All this to say is I’m definitely going to design a TMA AU “Love” avatar for funsies.

#TMA #the magnus archives #TMA love au

[heretherebegaydragons]

Places where Jonny Sims brought The Mechanisms into The Magnus Archives

A non-exhaustive list of themes, concepts and interesting situations Jonny might have consciously or subconsciously brought with him from The Mechanisms when writing The Magnus Archives:

Mechanisms

Broken Horses - Ulysses Dies At Dawn

“I wonder if devils get nightmares of all of their victims as well”

Magnus

MAG 142 Scrutiny, MAG 146 Threshold and MAG 120 Eye Contact

The Archivist having nightmares of and with all the people he’s taken statements from, his victims.

Mechanisms

The article Archive Footage on themechanisms.com

 Ivy, who has the title of archivist, is described as being a book, not a reader

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens, mentioned in the statement of Jonah Magnus

The Archivist being described as more of an archive than an archivist.

Mechanisms

Red Signal - The Bifrost Incident

“All the doors are open now!”

The metaphor of an open door signifying that eldritch horrors has arrived and apocalypse is forthcoming

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens, last line of the statement/ritual

“I. Open. The DOOR” (written phonetically).

The metaphor of opening a door signifying the summoning of eldritch horrors and the start of the apocalypse

Mechanisms

Ragnarok II: The Calling - The Bifrost Incident

Odin, a servant of an unknowable eldritch deity, started the apocalypse and is very happy about it

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens

The laugh right at the end.

Jon, a servant/avatar of an unknowable eldritch deity, started the apocalypse and is very happy about it

Mechanisms

Ragnarok V: End of the Line - The Bifrost Incident

The tragic, queer romance of Loki and Sigyn ending in dying together, one killing the other, to temporarily save the world from eldritch horrors

Magnus

MAG 200 - Last Words

The tragic, queer romance of Jon and Martin ending in dying(?) together, one killing the other, to save their world from (and doom another to) eldritch horrors

Mechanisms

Hereward the Wake - Tales to Be Told vol. 2

“But he loved his servant Martin”

The titular Hereward is gay for a subordinate called Martin

Magnus

All of s5 and a considerable amount of s4. First confirmed in MAG 161 - Dwelling

Jon, main character, is gay for a subordinate called Martin

Mechanisms

Olympians - Ulysses Dies at Dawn

“Now, when the inevitable reality of death is so unpleasant, you better believe people will do anything to avoid it”

Death is known to be eternal and unpleasant, and this drives rich people to do anything necessary to survive, including killing a lot of people via. the Sphinx

Magnus

MAG 155 - The Cost of Living

Death is, to the rich woman giving the statement, known to be an eternal, painful state, and her wish to avoid this at any cost drives her to kill a lot of people

Mechanisms

Ragnarok II: The Calling - The Bifrost Incident

“I’ve done it! Though I never knew the dreams that ate at me were true”

“The Void sings it to me”

Odin hearing music in her dreams calling her to carry out a ritual that brings an eldritch abomination into this world and thereby causes an apocalypse

Magnus

MAG 151 - Big Picture

“I still hear the music in my dream”

Simon Fairchild likening the call to make a ritual for an eldritch abomination to bring it into this world and thus cause an apocalypse to hearing music in one’s dreams and desperately wanting to recreate it.

Mechanisms

A Rebel Yell - Once Upon A Time (In Space): Apocrypha

“Guess you gotta pay The Piper in the end”

A character called The Piper who causes great losses on both sides of a war by betraying a lot of the resistance and then blowing up a planet of the oppressing force when they don’t pay up, thus serving not a specific side but the war itself

Magnus

MAG 7 - The Piper

A character referred to as The Piper who is an embodiment of the war

Mechanisms

Orpheus, Dionysus, muriatic acid and the strange whirring thing

“Know enough about the events leading up to a situation, and you’ll know exactly what will happen next. So much for free will”

Magnus

The entire concept of The Web, as it understands all the little details that will lead to a certain outcome, knows exactly which future a certain change will bring. And the existential questions about free will this gives Jon in particular

Some of these are more probable than others, and there most certainly plenty I haven’t noticed, so feel free to add your own

#the magnus archives #tma #The Mechanisms #the mechanisms band #the mechs #jonathan sims #jonny sims #I just find this stuff fascinating #I wonder how much of it was intentional #I considered comparing to thirteen stories too #but I'd only read it once and didn't feel like reading through all of it again so soon #and family business wasn't out yet #but who knows #might add them #or give the books their own list #it sure is fascinating getting to know an author's style like this

[clownfire]

tma au for just roll with it

because this was inevitable.

Braad: Avatar of the Distortion Ob’noxia was a manipulative bitch who lied about the nature of his powers, so obviously. Br’aad’s patron-specific powers were tied to the distortion of time, and how it’s experienced. So that’s the aspect of the spiral he’d manifest.

Velrissa: Avatar of The End (purposefully made an avatar, like Agnes, but severed her connection). The end was the most chill fear ngl, they match her vibes. I think Vel would sever her connection by simply coming to terms with mortality. She would then go on to use her understanding of death to comfort others and free trapped souls.

Peter Sqloint: Avatar of the Desolation, and Marked by the Lonely. Initially only fed the Lonely with the fear that he didn’t matter as much to the people he cared about that they did to him, which under the influence of Exandoroth/Desolation became the fear that you’ll only hurt your loved ones and that they’re far safer without you (kinda works in the way Jon is an avatar of the Eye, but is also greatly influenced by his fear of The Web). (Exandoroth in this AU may be a monster of the Desolation?)

Rumi: Avatar of the Distortion (managed to sever the connection when they became Elayna) I was really tempted to classify as stranger, but my gut wants to make them similar to Micheal/Helen. Something about light refraction ig?

Rolan: Avatar of the Stranger  He more specifically embodies the fear that you are the fake, whilst he incidentally inflicts your standard stranger ‘uncanny valley’ fear on those around him.

Kian: Marked by the Stranger  Specifically drew the stranger’s attention because of his double life. Embodies the ‘is there a real me’ existential fear, plus the fear that your loved ones have been replaced with fakes. 

Rand: Marked by the Lonely  Only mildly, he feeds and embodies the fear in some ways but is not directly connected to or is influenced by it. General paranoia buffet this lad. Had a brief bit where he thought he was being watched by the government, but not enough to be marked by the eye.

#jrwi au #tma au #crossover au #jrwi fated #jrwi apotheosis #jrwi bitb #bitb au #bitb spoilers #jrwi bitb spoilers #krow posts

[quietwingsinthesky]

|| AO3 || DW || FFNet || PF || SW ||

Title: Wonder Where The Manatees Go

WC: 344

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: N/A

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Ship: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist

Additional Tags: Humor, Canon-typical apocalypse, Manatees, Idiots in Love, Crack

Summary:

It's a very important question, Jon.

It’s about halfway (for a definition of ‘halfway’ that takes into account that there’s no such thing as distance anymore) through a Buried domain that Martin stops dead. He looks quite beautiful, standing there and surrounded by the countless waterfalls that line their path. The effect would probably be greater if Jon wasn’t fully aware of the people below the waterfalls drowning intermittently.

“Oh my god.” Martin says, eyes wide.

“What is it?” Jon’s ready to pounce on whatever horrifying eldritch being plans to approach them next. He looks around (and Looks around) but there’s nothing there. Except the waterfalls. And the underwater screaming. But he’s pretty sure Martin can’t hear that.

“Jon,” Martin says urgently, “what happened to the manatees?”

“The- What?” It’s very hard to take Jon off guard nowadays, given that he’s literally the embodiment of knowledge. Martin still manages it on a regular basis.

“The manatees! The sea cows! If any animal in the world was too innocent for this, it would be them.” Martin continues, and Jon just... blinks. He wonders, briefly, if this is it, if this is Martin cracking up.

“I can check?” He says, slowly, and Martin nods, tugging the straps of his backpack to re-shoulder the bag. Jon peers into the impossibly huge but not endless apocalypse the Watcher’s Crown wrought. In seconds, he’s overseen hundreds of different domains, fighting off horror and disgust by focusing on his mission of ‘Find The Manatees.’

Which he does, inevitably, because not even sea cows escape the Watcher’s gaze.

“They’re, um. Fine?” He lies horribly. Martin looks unimpressed.

“Don’t tell me even the manatees are being tortured.” Jon fidgets with the ring on his middle finger. “They are, aren’t they? That’s just-”

“Technically,” Jon interrupts, “ they aren’t being tortured.” It takes a moment for that to sink in.

“No.” Martin says in disbelief.

“Manatees are avatars of the Spiral.”

“How?!”

“Don’t ask.” Jon shudders. Martin promptly goes silent as they begin to walk again. Until a few minutes later when he finally whispers,

“We found the bad cows.”

#old fic. new podfic! #tma #fanfiction #jonmartin #podfic

[jxnxai]

HI SO UM I CAME UP WITH AN AU…..

#its like venom #but with jon and an embodiment of his being an eye avatar #tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #basira hussain #tim stoker #melanie king #jarchivist #lmao if jons a monster hes a jonster lmao #magpod #my art #jonster au #thats my official tag #EDIT: UH. IT WASNT MY INTENTION FOR PEOPLE TO SHIP JON AND THE JONSTER BC #THATS BASICALLY SHIPPING JON WITH HIS INNER THOUGHTS?? #KINDA WEIRD #its a jmart au 💔💔

[lougically]

Lonely!Mahtin

Because I'm one of these people that listen to tma, cry over the angst and tragedy of it and are like ''but what if it was WORST?''

This is my take at ep 159 and what would have happened if Jon hadn't been able to save Martin.

I think he would have fully endorsed his role as a lonely avatar and been the king of his domain in the eyepocalypse. A domain made mainly of the lonely but also of the Web and the eye obv

I would actually pay to hear Jon coming across his domain and having a happy ending from there.

I just want Martin to come to his full powers! (and embody the 'aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go apeshit?')

I started working on this months ago but only finished it today after getting obsessed with this animation by madison sherrick I watched it so many times and listened to the music on a loop

#my art #art #digital art #Tma #the magnus archives #Magnus archives #Martin #Mahtin #Martin blackwood #lonely!martin #Spoiler tma #Tma159 #Tma 160 #Angst

[loumoncollin]

Lonely!Martin

Kinda spoilerish for ep 159? Idk since it's more of a what could have gone worst than Canon!

Spoilers ahead for season 4

(Jean ne lis pas ça stp)

This is my take at ep 159 and what would have happened if Jon hadn't been able to save Martin.

I think he would have fully endorsed his role as a lonely avatar and been the king of his domain in the eyepocalypse. A domain made mainly of the Lonely but also of the Web and the Eye obv

I just want Martin to come to his full powers! (and embody the 'aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go apeshit?')

I started working on this months ago but only finished it today after getting obsessed with an animation by @madisonsherrick

I watched it so many times and listened to the music on a loop 👁️👁️👁️

#the magnus archives #art #my art #digital art #Tma #Tma spoiler #The magnus archives spoiler #Ep 159 #Angst #Martin blackwood #Mahtin blackwood #Lonely King Martin blackwood #Lonely!martin #The lonely #The lonely fear entity #Au Jon couldn't save Martin from the lonely #Au #Tma is a tragedy but what if it was WORST #tma martin #Martin #The lonely domain #Tma fanart

[cardboardqueen]

tma spoilers up to 197, tl;dr at the end

It’s long been my personal headcanon that martin will have to kill jon at the end of the show (or allow him to die, or prevent him from living, etc) for a few reasons

At this point we know Jon has a self sacrificial streak, jon dying wouldn’t be much of a surprise. But we also know that Martin is rather protective and has already gone to great lengths to keep Jon safe (going after him in S2, working with peter, etc)

and in s5, there’s been an emphasis on martin’s agency that I’ve really enjoyed with respect to them being equals in their relationship, but I think there could be more to it

I’m especially thinking of their conversation in 169 about whether to go into the burning building.  The “don’t make it my decision” and both of them learning that they need to communicate their feelings and desires better.  martin refused to make that decision and it was a bad time for both of them (in that their relationship was strained, martin was hurt, and killing jude perry did nothing for her victims).  Martin knows that standing back and letting things happen isn’t useful at this point

and time and time again, martin has shown an ability to contradict the world as it is now. 

He pushed for jon to leave the cabin

he wanted to talk to the soldiers in the slaughter domain

tells jared to lay off of jon in ‘The Gardner’

he is able to break jon out of statements (if with some difficulty) which we know jon can’t do by himself but can with martin’s help

with annabell cane’s first phone call he just fully “nope’d” out of a conversation with an avatar of the web

he sits on the extinction couch! the whole point was the fear of inevitable degradation and pollution and he’s just like ‘yeah its a bit gross but im tired’

he apologized for bumping into people in the processing line

after he’s grabbed by trevor we learn that the reason he could be killed was because trevor was the prey, not the hunter, even with his knife to martin’s throat

he’s able to find his anchor and leave the house in 170 even after being drawn into the lonely’s effect again (something that we’ve not seen from any other victims, even basira’s on her own hunt now)

he had a fairly normal rational conversation with the embodiment of his own suffering and misery and was able to walk away fairly easily

there are others, but it feels a bit like martin’s in the wrong genre, basically.  jon is such a part of the apocalypse that he couldn’t escape if he wanted to, melanie and georgie are immune to the fears’ effect for very good in-narrative reasons, but martin just repeatedly opposes the apocalypse in many small ways that would otherwise feel very out of place if he hadn’t been doing it all season, and the more we learn the more important it feels. 

I think martin’s trip with annabell told us a lot of things, but among them is that martin’s not scared to venture out on his own.  He’s scared of losing jon, sure, but he doesn’t feel dependent on him for safety and is at least somewhat comfortable leaving him and doing things that he knows jon would disagree with.  Over the course of the season he’s developed his own firm opinions re: eyepocalypse, evidenced by the evolution of his feelings about jon killing people. 

some very good screenshots by @lumberyjack​ point out that jon has been referred to both as “the archive” and “the eye’s pupil” in the past, and if what annabell said is true and they have to be destroyed simultaneously, then either jon and martin are going to have to split up to do it (which seems unlikely as they’ve just been reunited), or they’re in the same place

the importance of anchors has been well established in breaking the fears’ control of a situation, jon has already said that martin is his “reason” for being able to go on and stay human and as we got closer to the watchtower he’s been able to keep jon from slipping into a statement or replacing jonah in the eye.  Martin is the reason Jon’s resisting his place at the top of the watchtower, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that he could combat the apocalypse itself

Martin is one of the only people to actively defy the new world order in S5 and in ways that continue to break genre tropes.  He loves Jon and is protective of him, but he’s already said he won’t doom the world over it.  And Jon’s comment of ‘nobody gets what they deserve, not even me’ still feels like it’s yet to come back around and bite us.  Jon may think he deserves to die to save the world but I doubt he wants to die by Martin’s hand and Martin certainly doesn’t want to kill him.  I just think he’s the only one who can.

tl;dr martin has repeatedly set himself apart in this new world as someone who won’t stand for its bullshit.  i’m fairly sure jon will have to die, or at least that destroying the archive will kill him.  I think that martin is going to be the only one capable of killing jon and making sure that he stays dead

#tma #tma meta #the magnus archives #tma 197 #tma spoilers #not for 198 #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #the magnus archives finale #cardboard post #cardboard meta

[notbecauseofvictories]

I’m going absolutely apeshit at the thought of the UK under undead Jonah Magnus’ rule while being prowled by a host of vast, Lovecraftian embodiments of primal human fears.

Mostly I’m fascinated by the idea that the world ends, but it doesn’t....end. You still have to go to work, water your plants, call your mother. Only now, when you’re topping off your oyster card, the PA announces that The Dark is currently occupying Zone 3, and fares for unaffiliated acolytes traveling to Zone 3 will be increased to reflect the liabilities of travel. That’s the kind of shit I live for.

Other things:

the entire population of the UK divvies themselves up according to Entity. I mean, you can stay neutral and unaffiliated, but unless you pick a protector you’re basically just leaving yourself open to all varieties of human fear.

..........this means that the entirety of Great Britain is now 14 cults on 1 1/2 islands. (please imagine this. it’s amazing.)

Jonah is definitely In Charge---I bet he’s still going by ‘elias bouchard’ only everyone ends up calling him ‘Magnus’ after the Institute (and the new seat of power for this fucked up hellscape he owns.) However, while the other avatars are generally content to let him run what passes for “government” in these days and times and the Entities don’t care either way---it’s understood that most of his job is liaising with the other avatars to preserve this fragile, chaotic equilibrium.

Due to the general chaos and the confusing internal politics of it all, it takes the humans a while to realize what’s happening: reports of ugly, preventable deaths increase dramatically before anyone figures out that John Amherst is de facto chair of the NHS; ditto Tom Han and the Food Standards Agency. 

Annabelle Cane for PM!!! 

I’m just saying, Jonah Magnus hands out key governmental and administrative positions to avatars in order to keep everyone’s god fed and the world spinning around him specifically.

The first time someone greets Jon as “The Archive” he absolutely loses his shit and tries to Know how she knows. He mostly just gives her a headache.

(The fact that it’s Daisy, slavering and grinning, flushed with bloodlust even just sitting beside Jon at a bus shelter, makes it so much worse.)

There’s a giant eyeball in the sky and after the very necessary period of general, widespread terror, the Eye In The Sky is a meme. So many memes.

Basira is still looking for Daisy (she made a promise, she would never break it) but somehow also accidentally stumbles into being one of the more notable human freedom fighters in the UK. Please picture her, all no-nonsense Eye-affiliated-but-grudgingly leading a band of ragtag revolutionaries to hunt down avatars and break their authority while rescuing civilians. To her everlasting chagrin, she becomes known by the code name ‘Detective’ and can’t stop thinking about Elias saying it first.

Basira and Daisy also have several extremely fraught, villain/hero-style encounters and sometimes, Basira will find avatars and acolytes she & her people were trying to take down already dead, laid out for her like an offering. She’s not sure how to take that.

JonahElias is the only person having a good time. 

JonahElias is having a marvelous time.

JonahElias is living his best life sorting through people’s embarrassing tracking cookies and eating popcorn under the giant eye that is technically his god.

So many people die/are lost/vanish/are eaten/absorbed/corrupted/swallowed/skinned/changed beyond recognition, humanity stops holding funerals. Well, unless you’re with the Buried. Its acolytes insist upon it.

One time coming back from the shop, Martin met The Lonely in an alley. He absolutely refuses to talk about it, no matter how Jon asks.

Jon has a standing Wednesday morning meeting with JonahElias. He knows, because the little calendar invites ping his mobile fifteen minutes beforehand, no matter how many times he changes his number, his address, his SIM card. (Once, he deliberately didn’t replace his mobile at all. A gilded invitation showed up on the kitchen table.) The first time he actually shows up, neither of them are the slightest bit surprised.  “Okay,” Jon says grimly. “Let’s get started.”

#thank you for this personal gift jonny jingleheimer simms I will treasure it #the magnus archives #the 21st century radio play

[seaglassdinosaur]

“Somewhere between a pilgrim and a moth.”

I guess I’ve been rolling that over in my head because it’s such a strange line in a strange podcast, but, the implications are interesting.

It’s Jon’s description of them as they trek to the tower of the Institute/Panopticon. As pilgrims, it’s a pilgrimage, a travel to a holy location, or a place of great religious power and importance. As many Avatars view the Power as gods, that’s exactly what the Panopticon is, especially for Jon, whether he views it as such or not. At this point, the Panopticon essentially embodies the power of the Eye, it’s the source of all of Jon’s abilities as the Archivist, or at least the place where he conceived them, both of which make it a significant location. Not to mention Mister Magnus sitting up at the top of the tower, the man who set the whole thing up, the Archive being his own personal place of power.

But a moth. With the references to fire, it envokes the idea of a moth to the flame. And that thought, a moth to the flame, has some unsettling implications. A moth flies to the flame because it’s attracted to the light, it’s drawn in, and if Jon is a moth, then he never had much of a choice in the matter. He always was going to gravitate toward the Institute, by his curious and just nature telling him to do what’s right, take out Elias, or by a deeper instinct drawing him in, the Eye or maybe the Web, guiding him to the tower.

But the phrase, moth to a flame? It’s about a trap, someone moving toward something destructive and dangerous by an illogical urge. This season has featured foreshadowing already, of destroying the Archives and burning them down. At this point it’s really a given. And the Panopticon being the flame in the metaphor only strengthens that thesis. But the question is, what happens to the moth? Reaching the flame, it burns up, and I think that this is a warning of Jon’s own destruction. If he and Martin are going to the Institute to kill Elias and burn the place down, I think one of the moths, most likely Jon, will be dying in the process. They can’t reach the fire without being harmed. I wonder on what level Jon is aware of that.

So, between a pilgrim and a moth, Jon made the decision to go with Martin to the Institute, but he was also being influenced to make that decision, be it by the Mother of Spiders, or his own patron, and being pulled toward their journey.

#im sorry for the messy meta #i just #its such an interesting line #and there are so many layers of foreshandowning #i know its kinda messy scrambled thiughts but #i like it #tma #the magnus archives #tma meta #tma theory #tma theories #tma spoilers #my post

[player-1]

Anyone who’s been in the TMA fandom (or those who understand the bare minimum of the story) know damn well that whatever was going on with Michael D. Stortion and Gabriel/Worker-of-Clay was not just a simple Avatar/Entity partnership. No, in the twisted timeline of the Spiral itself, the Armageddon arms-race pales in comparison to the romantic tragedy subplot those two had long before Jon and Martin were in the picture.

(This is also going to be a long one, and with some MAG 101 spoilers, so buckle on in...)

Here’s what I mean:

Gabriel (or in this case, Gabe) works with Neil Lagorio (Web aligned special-effects dude) in the mid 1900′s on their first movie The Labyrinth of the Minotaur. Unfortunately for him, Gabe quits in 1972 just as the movie was released. 

Not much is known of this time after 1972 up until the dreaded sculpting class in 2004. Speculation-wise, Gabriel might have been corrupted by the Flesh during his movie-making times or earlier before he came into contact with the Spiral.

Reasons: -The Spiral connects with the unraveling of reality, question one’s sanity and eventually “spiraling” into insanity. -The Flesh, in its literal sense, connects to the fear of people or animals being killed for meat; even the appearance of flesh/bone being twisted, bent, or butchered. But it can also connect on a emotional level, such as being viewed weaker than others, mostly relating to a person’s body image. That’s also the reason why the nature of his death is completely unlike the Spiral simply letting him fade out of reality. -Gabriel displays more Flesh-like qualities in his appearance and work up until the end of MAG 126. He doesn’t want people to judge him by appearance alone (even if his entire body is made up of clay) but he makes up for it with his unassuming personality and amazing talent. In a literal sense, he wants to mold himself into the kind of person that gets praised for his clay-making abilities, not just from his creations alone.  

[Enter Ｔｈｅ　Ｄｉｓｔｏｒｔｉｏｎ: Stage Left] Of course, while there’s no evidence on how, when or why the Distortion would target him specifically, but there is one thing. Compared to all the other Spiral avatars and fear-aligned creatures, they all used to be humans in the past. The Spiral by nature is to cast aside their humanity and submit to the nature of insanity. But since most of the Spiral avatars either faded out of existence or just refused to do anything ritual-wise, how was it supposed to create a new world if all they ever do is destroy? It adopts an artist, of course. There’s nothing more chaotic than the struggles of a budding sculptor such as himself. But while that may be a convincing argument for the Spiral to get Gabriel to join the Dark Side, there could be more to convince him that it’s worth following the unknowable being of delusions. Long story short, there was no reason for Gabriel to judge himself so poorly if he knew how to reshape the world to how he sees fit. it would convince him that, like the archangel he’s named after, he could show the world the coming future; twisting the laws of reality so that there’s no room to judge how something should be right or wrong, imaginary or real.  As if they were said from the Lord himself, Gabriel heard the Distortion’s tell him about a new world and finally found inspiration in them.

Then comes the sculpting class.  It’s worth noting that, even with the angel symbolism for Michael and Gabriel, it could be implied that Gabriel is also a goody-two-shoes Christian boy who regularly attends church, as evidence of Michael having knowledge about Mass in MAG 20, assisting the Flesh in driving Father Edwin to cannibalism (so the Flesh and Spiral have an interesting partnership, huh?).  Besides that, this is where Gabriel takes the spotlight. From Deborah’s point of view, he was a strange little man from the beginning; eyes always jutted out of his face, appearing right in someone’s personal space and disappearing just as fast, and of course, his works of clay. (Also a random headcanon just because: Gabriel may be afraid of water, either because his entire body being made of clay, and since you need water to help shape the material, he does not want to get it melded into his own flesh. Could also be the reason why he has short and greasy hair, cause he would practically melt into a puddle if he was unfortunate enough to get wet.) And apart from Deborah and her friends’ growing discomfort over Gabriel in general, he’s just vibing in the back of the class, trying to make a shape for the unknowable form of the Distortion. And the second Deborah inadvertently gives him a break from his artist’s block, he quite literally takes control of the class; switching over the biweekly schedule it was before into every week, and even manipulating the space of the classroom to further support his artistic needs. 

“Ray told us the lesson was ‘faces.’ I put my hand up to say that sculpting faces was probably a bit advanced for where we were in the course, but he shook his head, and said that we were… a lot more talented than we thought. He said the key was that faces were twisted. All faces were twisted on the inside, and all you had to do was reach into the deepest part of yourself and put that twisted on the outside of the clay, and as soon as you can scream you’ll have your own face staring back at you.”  (MAG 126)

This is also the key to the Spiral itself. With Gabriel’s assistance, he will be able to let the spiral to insanity move in reverse, create the physical manifestation of that fear instead of letting it collapse and destroy itself. And in that lesson as well, Gabriel finally creates a fitting image of the Distortion...A door, the physical entrance to insanity itself.

Then comes the final stretch in Sannikov Land, the nonexistent island that was said to exist between the years 2009 and 2011. And as Michael D. Stortion explains in MAG 101, was the perfect place for their ritual, The Great Twisting. After everything Gabriel had done to appease his good “friend”, The Distortion seemed extremely invested in the Worker of Clay at that point. Nevermind the fact that its telling Jon how its identity was stolen away from Michael Shelley by merging with the Distortion, but there’s more to this origin story.

“Michael was protective of the frail old woman he believed her to be. So… so delicate, so forgetful, yet gently wise. He cared for her. He trusted her. And she fed him to me. She made him to destroy our transcendence. And she did not hesitate.” “And it was me they sought to stop. Me and the others of It-Is-Not-What-It-Is. Our Great Twisting. The-Worker-of-Clay had laboured for decades on that contorted, impossible edifice of doors… and stairs… and falsehoods… and smiles. A thousand staring morsels stood, and not one of them believed themselves sane to look upon it. And in the centre, the door that would open to all the places that were never there, was me.“ “Perhaps I should have realised what was happening; seen those two lonely figures approaching me, but I cannot tell you the existential joys of truly… becoming. Of an entireness finally crossing the threshold into your self. So ecstatic was my completeness, I did not even hear my own door creak open.“ “Even sharper than the joy of becoming is the agony of being opened and remade. To have your who torn bloody from your what, and another crudely lashed into its place. To become Michael. And to do so at such a crucial point in our Twisting, in our becoming, well of course it destroyed it. The impossible altar collapsed. The-Worker-of-Clay tore out his veins to dissolve himself in crimson mud. The others of us were cast to all the places that aren’t; some have still not found their way out again...My very existence tied to my pointlessness. Wearing my failure as the very fabric of my being. Reduced once again to feeding on the unsuspecting and confused. That is who I am.“ (MAG 101)

Even if all of this was to explain how the Distortion became the being it is in the series, it’s easy to see how overjoyed it was during the ritual. All that the Spiral ever did was bring the sense of unreality and paranoia unto people for ages, only breaking down the mind until they eventually spiral into oblivion. It wanted to be something, it wanted to make something twisted and nonsensical from the world, to shape the world itself to the nature of insanity. And after all that time, no matter how many avatars it had in its control, Gabriel was the only one who began creating the ritual. Even if it was for an ulterior motive, The Distortion was pretty giddy as Gabriel worked for years on end to create the meaning of insanity; to create something that the Distortion saw as the perfect vessel for itself. And even as it was explaining it, with all these feelings of joy and ecstasy and very human thoughts and emotions, this was before it was forced to become Michael. So much for not being bound by human nature, huh? But it’s pretty ironic that, as the embodiment of delusions, insanity and lies, it never considered the idea of having an avatar that could make something out of that chaos. Even if the Distortion was explaining how Michael-not-Michael Shelley came into being, it also can be interpreted as Michael just yearning for his best Avatar so far.  So instead of “I’m going to tell you my entire backstory.”, it’s more like “I’m going to tell you how a nosy old woman and her idiotic assistant ruined my chances to be with my Avatar of the Decade who may or may not be my boyfriend.”

In conclusion, Gabriel AKA The Worker of Clay AKA Igor with an art degree became the Hands of the Spiral because the nonbinary embodiment of delusion (who is also a door) gave a miserable struggling artist a shot of self-confidence (and a shot out of the Flesh’s control), eventually becoming its #1 Boyfriend Avatar of all time, and is the only person that would make the “hates gender and existence itself” Distortion yearn for years after his tragic death.

Takes notes people, this is what peak performance looks like.

#not kh #tma #the magnus archives #tma spoilers #tma michael #tma gabriel #tma michael shelley #gay shit #shitpost #rant post #text post

[megmahoneyart]

why did you draw michael who is white as looking more remorseful and human on half his face than helen who you depict as a black woman who appears angry with both of her eyes spiraled? even despite michaels vocal insistence that he is wholly an inhuman monster and his cruel actions you draw him looking more innocent and human than a black woman who has not done anything nearly as monstrous as him and held onto her human identity more strongly?

Okay!  So, I use this blog to draw and not to talk, but I’m suuuper long-winded when I write.  And to spare the general public, I’ve put this answer under a read-more.  But it’s a good and valid question!  And I appreciate anon’s concern; I thought the question deserved as good an answer as I could give.  So that answer is below:

That’s a totally valid question!  I didn’t intend to convey “remorseful” so much as, upset, with Michael.  Angry wasn’t necessarily what I was going for with Helen either--so it sounds like my expressions overall aren’t reading super well. Helen was meant to be more, I think enthusiastic, is the word I’m looking for.

The big difference between Helen and Michael isn’t one of them being more innocent or more guilty than the other.  The difference is the amount of conflict.  Helen has repeatedly brought up how much better she is at being The Distortion than Michael ever was.  Michael had a lot of knowledge about the Fears, and The Spiral, in particular, before becoming The Distortion than Helen did.  And, along with that, he brought the baggage of being taught that his job was to fight the fears, and the baggage of being scarred by The Spiral before working for the Institute.  He kind of sucks at being The Distortion because his job was to stop The Distortion from performing The Spiral’s ritual--and that leaves both The Distortion hating Michael for fucking up its purpose, and Michael hating The Distortion because it’s the embodiment of what he hated and feared as a human.  Everything Michael Distortion does is double-minded--because part of him is like “Hey I used to work here, and these guys are technically my co-workers, and I kind of want to hang out with them, but I also hate this place” and part of him is “I want to Fuck Everything Up, and I hate All of these people and would be happy to see them dead.”  

Helen, on the other hand, doesn’t have the baggage of foreknowledge or hatred.  She’s Michael Distortion’s victim, at first.  But the second she has an opening to turn the tables, she jumps on it.  And the reason she had an opening is because Michael and The Distortion were at odds and schisming and in Conflict.  She’s set up in season 4 to be a kind of narrative foil for Jon--as they have both become avatars without really meaning to (like the majority of avatars that have showed up on the show).  In Season 4, Jon is constantly agonizing over what exactly he is now, and futilely circling around the morality of his continued existence.  Helen, in season 4, is beyond this point.  She has already accepted the Way Things Are now, and she’s dealing--constantly telling Jon he needs to deal with it (the reality of being a “monster” too).  By season 5, she’s not just dealing, she’s Thriving.  And in seasons 4 and 5, at any opportunity, she (Helen Distortion) is always down to remind Jon (and co) that she is So Much Better at being what she is (The Distortion) than Michael ever was.  

I think Helen Richardson probably had a stronger character than Michael Shelley did, as humans as well.  Not saying that one was better than the other. But Helen was a successful career-woman.  Michael started at the institute as a scared kid, who was then groomed by Gertrude and psychologically experimented on by Emma.  I could never see Helen Richardson ever being someone Gertrude Robinson could emotionally manipulate, or convince to “sacrifice” herself.

And all of that informs how I characterize these two characters’ personalities when I draw them.  And that doesn’t touch on the race issue.

Unfortunately, TMA doesn’t explicitly describe many characters’ race or ethnicity.  A Lot has been said about the few negative vs positive characters who are explicitly characters of color.  It’s kind of a black-and-grey-morality podcast.  But on the side of the protagonists/positively-portrayed you’ve got Oliver Banks, Adelard Dekker, Basira Hussain, Mikaele Salesa.  On the enemy-aligned side you’ve got Jude Perry, Tom and John Haan, Manuela Dominguez, and Annabelle Cane.  And those on the positive side are pretty flawed (aside from Adelard Dekker who is an anomaly on this show); and those on the negative side usually have at least some alternate-character-interpretations and can be viewed as sympathetic (lookin at you, Annabelle).  A lot of discussion has gone into their characterizations and how that relates to their respective races--and the problems therein (Jude Perry is startlingly devoid of family concerns--when culturally a large part of being a successful businesswoman would usually relate to how it benefits or affects her family; Mikaele Salesa’s setting up an Apocalypse Bunker without the crew he cared for is peak White behavior; bastard cops that are WOC (like Basira) absolutely exist--but should a story about a WOC bastard cop be written by a white guy?; the Haans being avatars for The Flesh is straight-up racist; etc).  

But again, the list of characters that are explicitly characters of color is Short.  And the fandom filled in some gaps.  Almost all of the characters get a variety of designs, and some characters don’t have a Uniform Fanon Race (like Melanie).  But some characters are almost always portrayed as a certain race (Jon is almost always portrayed as Desi or Pakistani, Georgie is almost always portrayed as black, Helen is almost always portrayed as black).  I came into the show late.  By the time I arrived, Desi/Pakistani Jon and black Helen were the only Jon and the only Helen I saw when I showed up.  (The first sketches I did for the show, I did before seeing any fan art, and before hearing any canon descriptors.  As such, Georgie would be unrecognizable to most of the fandom--because I drew her white the first time I drew her; and Martin is Too Small in my first sketches--because they were drawn before I got to episodes that described him as tall and chubby and before I saw the fantart--which gives us the Big Martin we deserve).  So that’s why my Helen is black.  (My Michael is white because he is physically described early in the show--and is one of the confirmed white characters).

That said, I accepted the generally-agreed-upon fan depictions of Helen (and other characters) without a whole lot of critical thought from Me.  I’ve since read a lot of good takes on why Jon is depicted as Desi and why his characterization has resonated with certain Desi listeners.  I haven’t read any dissertation on why Helen is black.  My guess is that, where there were no canon physical descriptions (like with Taz Balance before the graphic novels), the fandom Made representation because they wanted it and because they could.  Maybe there was discourse, back in the day, on why Georgie and Helen are usually depicted as black; but I didn’t see it.  My (completely uninformed) guess is that people liked Georgie.  And people liked Helen.  And if they could make the cool lady with a great cat that is incapable of being afraid black, and if they could make the cool lady who has sharp hands and set up her house in the Institute basement for fun black, why not do it?

If you, anon, do have strong feelings that Helen shouldn’t be black and why, feel free to pass that on to me.  I am Not the authority on Helen’s characterization or her appearance--especially as related to race--as I’m 1) white and 2) just another listener of the show.

If I were to start drawing Helen as white, she’d probably be unrecognizable to people that are looking through the tag for their sharp-handed wife.  And I like Helen.  So without additional information, I’m unlikely to change my depiction of her.  But!  If you (or anybody else) do have additional information, I’m happy to see/hear it, and will take any concerns raised with me into consideration.

#tma #anon #ask #characterization #race #long post #readmore

[transarchivist]

So I binged TMA in like 4 days and it messed with my comprehension a bit. So are avatars chosen by fears they are scared of most, fears they like/embody the most or a mix? I can’t figure it out and my memory of canon isn’t helping. Is it different depending on the person and what they get out of their god like a feeling of love or power. Am I just being an idiot?

you're not an idiot at all! it's not a cut and dry thing

overall, it seems to be a mix! there are outliers though. on a scale from "this terrifies me" to "oh hell yeah" you have... jane prentiss at one end and jude perry at another

jane is terrified of the wasp’s nest- the whole reason we have her statement is that she gave it in hopes that the eye could help. jude, on the other hand, loves arson and being a dick. in the middle you have people like karolina gorka, who encountered the buried and survived by just... taking a nap, and is implied to be on her way to avatar-hood.

there’s also people who have their avatar status more... thrust upon them? like jon and michael (annabelle could also fit in this category). or people who actively choose their power, but not necessarily out of a devotion, like jude. martin (who was arguably on his way to becoming a lonely avatar) and possibly elias fit in here.

its just a complicated mix of things, there’s no set way to become an avatar

#tma #tma meta #cae speaks #mine #ask #anon

[iztarshi]

Arts in The Magnus Archives.

There’s something fascinating about the way the arts are used in The Magnus Archives. They’re treated as inherently powerful and often the most direct way to connect to the Entities, which may themselves have been born of human minds and imaginations.

Architecture is where this thought started because I’ve been studying colonial architecture in the British Empire which is a) the era of Smirke and Jonah as a young man, if not the place since they were still in England b) a lot about the way architecture functions as both an embodiment of ideals and a form of social control. My course even unexpectedly invoked the panopticon when talking about the layout of Brazilian plantations and the way it was used to control the slaves.

Buildings that are “inherently wrong” turn up in quite a few ghost stories, but The Haunting of Hill House is the only one I can think of where the wrongness is attributed to the architecture not the place it was built. Hill House is deliberately built with a massive distortion running through it, it’s a trick house and people keep getting lost in it, but this also seems to be why the place itself is “insane”.

The Magnus Archives runs with the idea, with architecture turning up a lot as a way to both control and feed various entities. Most successfully with the panopticon, least successfully with the Silence. (Peter’s problem seems to be largely -- as he himself recognises -- that he chose a demographic that people would mind him placing in controlling architecture. Jonah used prisoners and there’s every possibility Peter could have got away with doing the same if he hadn’t been hung up on tower blocks.)

The workhouses in particular exhibit that mixture of ideals and control and tension between the two as well as the colonial upper-class idea that some types of people need to be controlled.

Writing is perhaps the most inherently important art within the show, since the Leitners seem to come into being without being created by anyone. Or, if someone does create them, I’m dying to know who. The books are the strongest artefacts, and the most likely to create avatars. The power of books to transmit ideas and feelings is in full evidence.

The Eye also does a lot with writing and story-telling. It only does non-fiction, but it’s interesting that its effect on people doesn’t force them to strip things down to the bare facts, but to tell a good story. The stories in You Had To Be There might have made perfectly good stories told to Jon. How many others could be stripped down to something like “I saw a ghost a few times and then I moved”? But told fully that’s still a story.

It also seems to do a lot with oral story telling. The translation of something from its written form to being told itself has power, even if the words aren’t changed. Something is added that makes it worth doing.

The artefacts Salesa deals in seem more plausibly made by avatars than the books. There’s a clay vase for the Spiral, for instance. Did Gabriel make that?

There’s weaving for spiders, and puppetry. Gabriel did stop motion with Neil Lagorio, combining claymation and puppetry and their different powers in the process. Simon became an avatar through his own paintings of the sky. Music for the Slaughter, performance for the Stranger.

Not every Entity has been associated with art, but it runs through several of them.

#tma #maybe that's why Peter seems to get backlash despite his ritual barely getting off the ground? #doing architecture in service of your power actually *is* accessing it on a deep level

[bananonbinary]

you mentioned activist!gerry in your tags and I need to know more about that.

archivist!gerry is the main Point of the fic im writing. trying to write. im three chapters in and nothing but set up has happened yet >:/

anyway. The story is, elias didnt hire a replacement archivist immediately after killing gertrude, he just moved a few possibilities to the archives before making a decision, and the eye got Restless. it’s not even human, it doesnt really “plan” or “think,” it just knows that there Should Be An Archivist and There Isn’t.

so it grabbed a willing eye-aligned avatar who’s conveniently just been sitting in storage in the skin book and is already pretty fucking far from human.

in return for doing archivist shit (like, the actual “voyeur of terror” role of The Archivist that the eye cares about, not jonah’s dumb long-con plan for the Archive, not that anyone else even knows about that), gerry gets to be an almost-real boy again. he’s bound to the institute even more than the others are, and still has his Page lying around that will definitely definitely kill him if someone burns it or w/e, but he mostly can live his life as an actual person. albeit one that doesnt really need to eat or sleep and is technically homeless b/c he super doesnt legally exist or have any money. a regular person that lives at his eldritch workplace. its fine. better than being a book.

(mild spoilers ahead if anyone cares about that, this hasnt come up in the fic yet)

archivist!gerry is a lot of fun to play with, because in addition to his canon abilities with the eye (can see when someone’s been targeted by an entity, very minor Knowing), and the normal Archivist abilities he’ll develop as he grows into the role, i’ve decided he’s also end-aligned on account of being. you know. pseudo-dead. fun end and joint eye-end powers include:

Violent and uncontrollable visions of the possible deaths of his assistants if theyre in life-threatening danger!

The ability to bind someone to an End by speaking it into existence like some fucked up greek prophet! (he can’t actually control what the prophecy is, making this pretty fucking useless for strategic purposes. maybe he’ll Bind you to die like 4 years from now, fuck if he knows)

Supernatural Dissociation where both Entities cancel each other out and his brain short circuits over things related to when he was technically dead.

its still jonmartingerry because i love all three of those relationships. one single brain cell between the three of them and jon never has it.

jonmartin is about the same as canon, altho jon isnt SPECIFICALLY hating on martin because he doesnt feel the need to punch down to assert dominance or whatever dumb shit he was doing in canon. still a “skeptical” asshole tho

jongerry is probably the slowest burn because theyre both terrified of intimacy and think its best to go it alone. thank god martin and tim and sasha are here to force them into Feelings.

gerrymartin is honestly my favorite to think about because martin is aggressively optimistic and a petty fuck, and gerry is emo and supernaturally depressed and will die for you the second you show him the barest kindness. so martin has turned being nice into an act of war, he WILL make this sadsack admit some things arent always terrible if it kills both of them.

also tim and sasha are there vibing, all 5 of them are in a sort of queerplatonic poly pile. the other three arent quite as romantic with these two but the love is just as strong and just as important.

god i was about to say tim is like everyone’s protective big brother and then i remembered theres a fucking reason he aggressively tries to fill that specific role for everyone he cares about and now im sad about both canon and my own au. enjoy your kayaking trip king, no one dies in my story.

you’d think sasha is the keeper of the brain cells except shes actually the embodiment of that xkcd comic where someone pulls a lever and gets struck by lightning and decides to pull it several more times for Science.

#fuck i wrote a lot actually #ty for asking this did make me feel better #archivist!gerry au #i hope some of yall are genuinely interested in this cause i have Many Thoughts On It #Anonymous

[pitchannawarmsourblackhearts]

The Magnus Archives is my favorite fictional podcast, and of course because I have to relate everything Frozen/RotG to other stuff I like, I thought of a Magnus AU.

In case you aren't familiar with the series, the Magnus Institute is a place where people can give statements of unexplainable, often frightening experiences they have. The greater plot revolves around the people working at the archives trying to stop these fear entities (darkness, insects/disease, claustrophobia, etc) from destroying or warping the world- and often, the cults that worship them, or the avatars of the fear entities themselves. I won't say too much so I don't spoil it for anyone. Because it is a very EXCELLENT podcast!

It just struck me that what happened to Pitch basically WAS him becoming the avatar for the power of Darkness! Sometimes the people willingly offer themselves up as this, some do not. Pitch didn't, but now he's a powerful being with the power of shadows on his side. Even one of the names for the Dark entity is Mr. Pitch!

There's no ice entity (because, really, nobody is scared of the cold) but I think Elsa is affected by or even become an avatar for the Lonely- the fear of being cut off, disconnected. You do not have to have to personally fear these ideas in particular for them to affect you or to be an avatar for them. Quite the opposite- often (for better or worse) it's a strength of yours or something you enjoy. Elsa is NOT scared of being alone- that is 100% Anna. Elsa would make an excellent avatar. The Lonely would encourage her natural habit of self-isolation. And fog is associated with this power, much like the magic fog surrounding the forest in F2.

Yes, the Dark is the one associated with colder temperatures so perhaps Pitch at some point, would have attempted to form an alliance with Elsa, like he did with Jack. No romantic feelings, just because cold and dark make sense together, like Pitch says in the movie. Of course she rejects him, mistrusting him and wishing to team up with nobody, naturally. An enemy she's made, then. Elsa doesn't care as much as she should. She isn't one to see the bigger picture; it's why the Eye would never have chosen her even if it wanted to. No, Elsa is occupied with protecting people at a distance and busies herself with travel and studying abroad, never guessing what horrors are slowly circling her like vultures, hungry for the ripe fears and anxieties that so easily fill her soul, never knowing that accepting her sister's love (the weakness of the Lonely) is the true key to protecting Anna and herself.

The Eye, or the Beholding, is the fear of being watched or secrets exposed, and also the drive to KNOW even if the discovery destroys you. Part of that sounds like Elsa but this is her fear, not something she naturally does or enjoys. I think Anna would be like protagonist Jonathan Sims. Yes, they're wildly different in personality (dry, introverted, slightly gruff British guy vs warm, passionate, goofy girl) but the roles would be the same. She would be working as an archival assistant at the Institute till her superior mysteriously dies and the job is offered to her. Anna is very curious, loves exploring, and is often too determined for her own good. She's a natural candidate for the Eye to use in whatever its agenda is. Anna works to understand the mysteries of the statements people have given of their supernatural experiences... all the while trying to piece together what her sister is up to. Why does she always hide? Why has she just grown more and more secretive over the years?

Anna wants to do her job well and not be distracted, but needs to know why she was forced to be isolated for so long, desperate to believe her suffering wasn't in vain. She discovers she has for years had the ability to make people confide in her with total honesty should she simply ask them a question. (Elsa noticed this awhile back and it's part of why she avoided Anna as bet she could.)

The Eye and the Lonely: each embodied by one sister while being the worst nightmare of another (Anna fears loneliness, Elsa fears exposure). Are these beings working together or against each other? Perhaps they will be brought together sooner rather than later, by coincidence if not by design. There are also rivalries among the powers.

Hans supports the Distortion- lies and manipulation. He works as a mirror- showing people what they wish to see but is deep down a warped one, twisting them along for his own purposes and never showing them the truth. He works against both women and the entities manifesting in them. Pitch has already set his eyes on the Eye's pretty avatar, the little overly curious archivist with the annoying ability to set back his plans (perhaps he knew her before his transformation and had been attracted to/in love with her? It would explain his fixation. After all, one character never loses her liking for Jon even after she becomes inhuman. But him also being an avatar for a long time makes sense too). He doesn't need Hans' equally irritating games to distract her from him and his desire to bring her soul to the Dark. Perhaps taking out the Lonely's snow maiden will keep Anna more focused and easier to bring into the shadows.

I'm not done with the series and it's honestly too much to do a fic of but I love the idea. Anyone else like it? Fear is such a prominent theme with both sisters, I thought it was an interesting idea.

#pitch black #anna #elsa #hans westergaard #frozen au #rotg au #the magnus archives