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#but daisy and melanie are far more aggressive than he is so they always get to have fun and be Violent before he can get the chance
trensu · 3 years
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Awww, I’m glad that Jon gets a slice of cat heaven in this AU! I don’t know if Gerry is alive in this AU, but if he is, what if he shows up in the Beholding episode? (Jolias tries to barge in into the episode, but quickly gets kicked out).
I'm thinking Gerry is in the Leitner Episode tbh. Possibly in book form. Idk yet. But Elias definitely tries to barge into the Beholding episode. He forgot to take into account the fact that literally everybody hates him.
Elias: Hello, everyone! I thought I'd offer my experience and knowledge to this epi-
[Melanie roars into the scene holding a knife. Elias staggers back with a yelp]
Melanie: get back here you cowardly bastard!!
Elias: Jon, control your crew! gET THIS MADWOMAN AWAY FROM ME!!
Jon, leaning cheerfully on a set piece: Can't. The Eye told me not to. In fact, the Eye told me Daisy should also get involved!
[Daisy whooshes past him as he says this, her teeth bared and sharp. Elias screams. Jon grins.]
Jon: we can't deny our master. Isn't that right, Jonah?
Elias, desperate: Martin! Martin, Jon will get in trouble if you let this happen! You don't want Jon to lose his show, do you?
Martin: what's that, Elias? I can't hear you over all the shouting.
[A fog rolls in suddenly. It envelopes Elias and takes him away as it dissipates. Daisy and Melanie are left tussling together for a split second before they realize their victim/prey is gone. They snarl simultaneously]
Daisy: god FUCKING damn it!
Melanie: that fucking arsehole got away!!
Jon: why does Peter-fucking-Lukas have to ruin everything all the time??
Martin: Maybe i could go into the Lonely and--
Jon: NO! I-I mean, no. That's not necessary. We'll have other chances later.
Martin, playfully: what, did the Eye tell you that too?
Jon, keeping a very straight face: Yes. Beholding and I have a special bond and it tells me these things.
[A pause before Martin dissolves into full-bodied laughter. Jon watches him, utterly entranced. Daisy knocks her shoulder into his as she walks back to her post and mutters 'get it together sims' with a sly grin. Jon reddens and fixes his gaze to the ground. This episode never airs due to excessive swearing but the footage is found and circulated on the internet anyway.)
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snailg0th · 3 years
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random hc’s for tma characters
jon’s a picky eater
tim was super shy as a child
jon and tim met thru research, jon and sasha met at some big institute meeting where sasha used some dry humor and jon instantly went “you’re the only bitch here who gets me”
this is less of a hc and more loosely confirmed canon but oh well jon dresses up and acts super uptight and academic because as a kid they were told they’d never make anything of themselves
tim says poggers
martin worked in the library before being appointed to the archives
tim and sasha went to university together
jon and sasha bonded over being raised by grandparents
another “loose canon” one but tim is overly sentimental and keeps some of the tapes for himself because after losing his brother and (in my mind) his parents he basically imprinted on the s1 crew and dubbed them his new family
jon uses he/they
jon loves punk music
i am a “the mechanisms was jon’s college band” truther
sasha wanted to go into politics as a kid
tim is neurodivergent (adhd) and hyperfixated on architecture when he was young and then got his degree in anthropology with a focus on culture so he could study why people built things the way they did. the publishing house he worked for specialized in anthropology and archeology
sasha got a degree in english literature, hence her extensive work with leitners. she also minored in religious studies which sparked her fascination the weird esoteric stuff the institute specializes in
jon and tim don’t like bugs. sasha kills bugs. martin takes them outside.
martin attracts the weirdest animals. geese and raccoons and birds and shit just follow him around
jon originally wanted to be an english or history teacher so he got a degree in education. however, he decided he didn’t like it so he switched to philosophy
sasha does kick boxing
one day, tim wants to go and do kick boxing with sasha. she absolutely destroys him.
martin loves stars
jon is allergic to grass
jon and sasha can’t dance but tim and martin can
one day jon wears a hoodie to work and everyone loses their shit because they exclusively wear like sweater vests and shit
elias just throws out people’s lunches sometimes (yes this is based off that one post)
martin likes spiders especially because when he was little he identified with them, as he perceived them as creatures nobody else really liked (*sobs*)
georgie has red hair (i think black people with red/orange hair are so stunning so this is definitely inspired by that love)
melanie started ghost hunt uk because someone told her youtube wasn’t a valid career
melanie got tattoos because people told her she wouldn’t look good with them
melanie does nearly everything out of spite and i love this about her
martins hair turns white after the lonely thing (widely accepted hc)
basira wears the hijab (another widely accepted hc)
basira knows some form of martial arts, not quite sure which one
daisy was definitely one of those kids who always wanted to be a cop 🤢
gerry has an undercut because i say so!
gertrude was definitely hot when she was younger
martin has picked up a bunch of random skills over the years, including knowing flower language
tim definitely convinced jon to smoke 🍃 once at an institute party and the results were exceedingly funny
at the same party, elias shocked everyone with how high his tolerance was (nobody knew he used to be a stoner at this point)
elias enjoys breaking things then asking everyone “who did it”. he enjoys the chaos.
jon caught feelings for martin during the prentiss attack
gerry would definitely wear skirts
martin has a secret cottagecore tumblr account
sasha follows this account. she doesn’t know it’s martin.
jon utilizes pinterest far more than he cares to admit
elias knows modern slang and peppers it in to his vocabulary just to fuck with people
he once wore light up sketchers and called melanie into his office to see them, knowing nobody else would believe her if she told them what she saw. she is haunted with this knowledge.
tim listens to mitski
martin can sew
martin is shockingly extroverted when he’s with people he really trusts and cares about
martin can and will get aggressive with creepy guys at bars
sasha can say the alphabet backwards
in a theoretical world where tim and sasha went to sixth form together (google told me that was the british equivalent to late high school so sorry if that’s wrong) tim would be saluditorian and sasha would be valedictorian (ik the british prolly don’t have this but i’m using this analogy to show that they’re both INCREDIBLY smart)
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scholarhect · 4 years
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2 3 15 babey
HI BRO ILY
2. what’s your taco bell order
crunchwrap supreme. maybe a burrito, idk. i had a bean burrito today but i thought it was gross. plus the red freezy thing (starburst flavored, i think). except today i had baja blast and it was pretty good
i want you to know that this question is the entire reason i made this post. this was the germ, the mustard seed. “ask game: what’s your taco bell order”. and the rest was history
3. tell me about that one thing you wish someone would ask you about
(spoilers for tma if anybody’s gonna listen someday, i guess. literally major spoilers for seasons 1-4. turns out i don’t know how to shut up. thanks for indulging me)
okay. okay i’m gonna talk to you specifically. listen to me, i am talking directly into your ear now. i wish for the opportunity to tell you about ms melanie king. you’ve already heard about her as the inspiration for my haircut and also my fishnet outfit from that time i dragged you to that thrift thing, but she is such an icon. first of all she’s a YOUTUBER. (not like a vlogger, i guess, she hosts a show on youtube. but a youtuber nonetheless.) she hunts GHOSTS. on YOUTUBE. so, she shows up at The Magnus Institute, London, to tell them about that time she saw a ghost (but it was like ... a weird ghost. not a normal ghost. you know). immediately she insults the guy’s shitty old tape recorder that she is expected to speak into, in the year 2016. so they get snippy with each other and end up in a full-blown “The Girls Are Fightinggg” passive aggressive argument because they both view each other as pathetic, fake, not-respectable paranormal investigators. (and they both have A Thing about being respected & taken seriously.) like it turns out that the institute has a fucking laughable reputation in The Academic Community because they’ll just take a statement from anybody about their supposed supernatural experience. meanwhile jon thinks the people on ghost hunt shows are charlatans because their goal is entertainment and, yes, they “do ham it up a bit for the cameras.” ANYWAY. she’s all dragging the magnus institute and he’s like. “but you’re here.” it’s very funny. turns out she can’t tell the Serious Academic Community about her experience because it’s so wild that they’d laugh her out of her career. so she’s here. so she’s got no choice but to tell her story. so the episode continues, and ends, okay, and you’re like, “wow that was a fun and iconic one-off character. right?” WRONG.
season two... she’s BACK baby! after her experience at the military hospital, she wants to do research on War Ghosts, but the magnus institute wouldn’t let her in bc she didn’t have the Academic Clout for it, so the only way is to get an employee to vouch for her. so. she goes to jon like “please you’re the only friend i have here i need help” and they DO fight again but he does agree to help her (because they’re the same person. they are *spiderman pointing meme*). so, later, she’s back. she did some research on War Ghosts and broke into an old train graveyard (which is a thing apparently) and got stabbed by the ghost of an army medic and she got caught and arrested and she was screaming about how She Got Stabbed By A Ghost and somebody took a video and posted it online and then she BECAME A MEME for a couple days and nobody wanted to associate with her anymore. rip. but now she likes jon and she’s here to say goodbye (because she’s going to india) (she also sets off the climax of the season because she just happens to be that one person who can see that the monster pretending to be a major character is not, in fact, that character. she’s like “oh, which sasha? the new one? or the old one?” and jon’s like “what the fuck” and she’s like “there’s definitely two sashas. are you trying to gaslight me.” but whatever)
ok this is literally less than half her arc (i’ve covered. three episodes.) but this is long as fuck so i’ll wrap it up. “what a cool reoccurring character,” you may think! “i hope i get to see more of her!” well GUESS WHAT. she comes back from india (she’s been SHOT BY A GHOST) she wants to talk to jon but he’s not there (he was unfortunately in very close proximity to a murder and he’s on the run so he doesn’t get framed. double traumatic experience, very fun. anyway he’s staying at melanie’s friend’s house, whom she has conveniently namedropped a couple times so far (in the last episode she was like “she actually has nice things to say about you, why didn’t you tell me you knew her” and he’s like “we didn’t part on the best of terms”) because she is his ex-girlfriend, so, though he literally was just pretending that he didn’t know her, he now knows that she doesn’t hate him so he shows up at her place and she hides him from the cops because she’s literally the only person he knows outside work. but this isn’t about him.) so melanie has no job so elias is like “you want a job” and she’s like “sure?” so now she’s an archival assistant at the magnus institute (i realized i had to explain that. i don’t think you even know who elias is. head of the institute, everybody’s secretly evil boss, currently lowkey framing jon for the murder he committed. but lowkey) her coworkers don’t want her there because they’ve realized that their job is evil and they Physically Cannot Quit so they’re like “great now she’s stuck here too” but she doesn’t know that so she’s just like “why does everybody hate me. are you misogynists” because her Disrespect Alarm is going off in her head. and then they have a Department Meeting where jon comes back with an open knife wound on his neck and demands elias tell everyone about the TWO murders and then there’s a standoff situation where somebody wants to shoot elias but he’s “knife cat”ing at her and very dramatically forces her codependent friend slash partner (in the cop way not the gay way) to sign a contract as an archival assistant so that daisy (the cop with the gun) can’t hurt elias because, oh yeah, if he dies supposedly they all do too. so melanie is ... thoroughly disillusioned. and she becomes sullen, too, kind of. and she begins to try to murder elias. queen
things get worse (in a supernatural way. she gets Angry Knife Powers. there’s a Ghost Bullet from India lodged in her leg pumping murderous energy through her body and while she’s asleep jon removes it, it’s all very terrible.) but then she starts going to therapy because she wants to get better and she ends up making the difficult journey to Being Okay. (she also literally blinds herself to escape the institute, and that doesn’t really sound analogous to therapy out of context but it is, okay) and her arc is over and she’s the only character in the story who is currently Okay. we’re proud of her. her last appearance (so far. who knows what s5 has in store. hopefully not much) jon, who is in some deeeeep shit by this point, shows up asking for help, and she’s like “i can’t help you bc i can’t get dragged back into all that, but you’re always welcome in my life as a friend” which is not great for him at that point because he is kind of having a breakdown, but it’s still <3. much better than the beginning part of s4 when she wanted to kill him on sight. also she’s dating jon’s ex now lol
15. if somebody irl you didn’t know asked you how you feel about mcr what would you say (this question isn’t quite asking you how you feel about mcr, but it’s not not asking that)
i’d be like “yeah they’re pretty cool. i like them”
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The Magnus Archives ‘The Puppeteer’ (S04E16) Analysis
A solid little creepy tale about a character you might not remember that you’ve met before.  Which, honestly, is just so in keeping with the theme of his power.  Come on in to hear my thoughts on ‘The Puppeteer’.
Holy shit, one of these assholes has the good sense to see a therapist?  Good on Melanie for taking that step.  She needs an independent ear to help her out (although I REALLY hope this isn’t the therapist that Peter Lukas recommended, because I don’t trust that person not to be another Lukas family member out to isolate and torment people).  And although she’s rightfully reticent to trust any old therapist, trying to find one is good.  And insisting that the sessions not be recorded?  Probably even better.  
The statement itself is a Web statement, which automatically makes thing a bit more convoluted, and delightfully so.  I also really appreciate that Jonny Sims continues to write a very diverse cast of narrators, including ones we don’t get to hear from often.  Having the narrator be a woman who had a successful career, but because of an unplanned pregnancy and the ridiculous demands of her industry, found herself without a job, is not only a great set-up for a horror protagonist, but also a very real sort of character that is very rarely featured in a lot of fiction.  
As for our other main player in the statement, a quick spot of research tells me, although in this universe Neil Lagorio worked with John Carpenter (real horror director), in our universe Neil Lagorio doesn’t exist, nor do any of his movies.  I suppose that someone who was alive and working in the ‘70s might be a bit too recent to turn into a character in a horror podcast the way Jonny has with other real figures like Robert Smirke.  Particularly as there are strong hints that the Puppeteer, Neil Lagorio, was a proper avatar of the Web.  
Not only that, but he partnered with another avatar, this one of the Spiral, the Worker-in-Clay Gabe on his early Claymation.  They eventually split, but it’s fascinating to see that two avatars of different powers might come together and work together because they wanted to work on creative endeavors.  
It brings up questions of free will.  We know Jon works with others, has interests and cares.  We could see him partner with another avatar so long as they had aligned interest and morals.  And it seems the same case with Gabe and Lagorio.  It might not have worked for long (Gabe had his ritual to attempt, and Lagorio had other matters that needed looked after), but when it wasn’t about trying to remake the world, they were happy enough to be creative together. And I really like that, horrible as they inevitably were together.
And like the easter-egg appearance of Gabe, this is also not the first appearance of Mr. Lagorio.  He did the special effects work for Dexter Banks in ‘Creature Feature’ on his (never-finished) film Widow’s Weave about a giant spider and the entire town of people who calmly fed themselves to it.  All based on a movie and/or book that didn’t seem to have existed.  Not only were many of the actors fed to the supposedly animatronic spider that Lagorio built, but Banks himself eventually was consumed as well.  Given what we heard about how he treated those who he didn’t like, but who did interest him, I think this is entirely in line with Lagorio’s character to have arranged for both, and for the Web to have been running a very long game in regards to Dexter Banks.  It’s also notable that, in that episode, Lagorio seemed far more in the background, with Banks the mastermind of the plot to feed people to the giant spider. But then again, that’s also a very Web thing to do, using someone flashy as a front for the true schemer in the background.
That the avatar of the Web is called the Puppeteer isn’t at all surprising, although I wonder if the Stranger felt as though it had been ripped off afterwards.  But the Puppeteer himself did seem to be the very embodiment the Web.  He was very cold, almost emotionless, and people either interested him (those he liked or hated both fell into this category) or they may as well not have existed to him.  That’s the Web all over, uninterested entirely unless it can wrap someone into its schemes.
I also find it interesting that his powers seem to have turned on him in the end.  While he started out being able to control others, he eventually lost control of himself.  I wonder if eventually the power that is being conducted through any avatar burns them out.  Even the ones who aren’t killed through other means will eventually fail because the human body can’t process that sort of power for that long.  
But even in that the Puppeteer was brought joy by turning himself into a puppet in his own house, using a web of ropes and pulleys, and created a parody of normal movement for himself.  And he enjoyed his retirement right up until the Web replaced him with Anabel Caine, and she came to finally kill him.  It doesn’t seem like he was sad or frightened to see it happen either.
And then there was the end. If someone would have told me that Daisy would get a lot more Welsh and a lot more practical after being trapped in that coffin, I would have laughed.  But I loved her talk with Jon.  I loved her leveling that whether he was a monster or not, moping around was pointless.  He can’t wallow and he can’t blame everything bad that happens to everyone around him on himself.
I do like that he basically defaulted to I’m-alone-because-Martin-won’t-talk-to-me, and I sort of wanted Daisy to point out that Martin was not only not dead, but also being influenced by a being of the Lonely. Maybe a bit of persistence on Jon’s part in talking to him wouldn’t go amiss.
Either way, Daisy may be one of the few who really gets Jon at this point.  She’s also been a monster, been taken over by a power, only to have it supplanted by another.  And somehow, that has created a sense of balance in her.  No, she’s not overtly strong anymore, but what Basira seems to fail to realize is that Daisy now has real emotional strength.  She survived the coffin.  She reclaimed her dreams by signing a contract with the Institute.  Even as Basira is finding her a burden, Daisy is forging her own path.
And dragging Jon out of his own head for drinks seems like one of the most practical solutions at this point.  I’m really hoping that she might even be able to do it for Martin (she’s certainly stubborn enough, and after the coffin, I don’t think Peter Lukas would scare her much) and Melanie.
And honestly, I hope Basira begins to recognize the strength and the level-headedness that is Daisy. This season really has been about turning the tables between major pairs.  Martin is now the distant one and Jon is pining away in the most obvious fashion possible.  Basira is stronger and taking risks and running errands for Elias while Daisy is in the archives being practical and making certain everyone around her doesn’t go insane due to the powers saturating the place.  The people who seemed the most down-to-earth now seem lost, and those who were lost are making genuine efforts to be better people.
I’ll admit that Daisy has never been one of my favorite characters.  The whole cop-who-abuses-her-power thing is just not a good look.  But having a Daisy who’s finally at least more in control of herself, who has slipped the leash of the Hunt by getting tied to the Buried and the Eye?  By finding a balance between powers rather than an unhealthy devotion to one?
I think this Daisy is awesome.  Not only that, but I think Daisy may have inadvertently done what I’ve only seen a few other characters do: find a perfect balance in which she is herself and maintains control over herself.  Robert Smirke spent his entire life trying to create an almost supersymmetric balance between the powers, and is the only non-aligned character I can think of with crazy powers.  It’s not clear if he managed it right up to his death, but that’s what makes Smirke so interesting to me.  I think he realized that the powers might cancel one another out if ones allegiance was split between multiple parties.  Leitner did the same, and managed to wield an amazing power in that balance as well.
And now we have Daisy who is balanced between the Hunt, the Buried, and the Eye.  Because it was unintentional, I don’t know if she can keep it up, but in this balance she’s found a peace and a stability I’ve never heard in her before.
And that strangely leaves me hopeful about Martin as well.  Because I think he may be intentionally balancing multiple powers. He’s stringing Peter Lukas along, clearly not the terrified and mindless thrall that Lukas was thinking this poor innocent boy was going to be.  And I think he can do that because he’s been previously balanced between the Eye and the Web.  And honestly, a Martin who forges a deliberate balance is one that interests me a lot.  Martin has always been such a passive character that seeing him become passive aggressive with both Elias and Peter has been heartening.  Now, honestly, I want him to get even more proactive.  I really want a Martin who is using Peter far more than Peter is using him, and because of his connections with the Web, Peter doesn’t even know it’s happening.  I want a Martin who comes out the other side of this plotline having created a unique balance between his own fear of being alone, his desire for knowledge, and his desire for control and slight tendency toward manipulation.  Any of the powers on its own destroys those it claims (every avatar who truly embraces their powers is evidence of that, and Lagorio is just a very overt example of being ultimately consumed by his own power), but those who manage the balance may be the only people who can actually achieve a degree of mental well-being and real, independent power in the entire show.
Either way, I’m very excited to have not one but two characters who may be intentionally or unintentionally dabbling in the balance between multiple powers.  Daisy is getting more and more interesting, and through her I’m getting interested in what Martin might do as a parallel.  And that’s a solid place to be.
Conclusions
Robert Smirke has been my favorite and most intriguing background character since his introduction. His whole balance-and-fear thing is such a different approach to the powers than any of the avatars or other worshippers have attempted.  I have to imagine that achieving that balance is incredibly difficult, and maintaining it without being torn apart must be even harder.  But he managed it.  Leitner managed it.  And now both Daisy and Martin might be managing it.  It all may end terribly, but I am really excited that we’ve possibly got two characters trying to find that balance.
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