2021-09-16 5:57:44 ¶ ●

Okay, remember the post I made about Jon keeping Trevor talking so he didn’t kill Martin so he would be bait for Basira? This is sort of the sequel to that.

In MAG 187, when he smites Helen, I thought that was also really scarily smart.

ARCHIVIST

I see. How long have you been working with Elias?

HELEN

I’m not.

ARCHIVIST

[Faux-shocked] Helen! Is that… a lie?

HELEN

No! No, it’s not. I don’t know him. I’ve never even – Look, I’m happy here, all right? This world is fabulous, and I don’t want you to end it all because you’ve got a chip on your shoulder.

I don’t think this is a lie, here. Because Jon says later that she never quite lies. So, maybe Jon is actually suspicious, although you’d think he could tell. Although (again), he may not trust his own ability to see through delusion incarnate.

Anyway, Jon asks if it’s a lie, and Helen is very scared. (I mean, way to show your cards, being audibly scared in front of the chronicle of terror incarnate.)

So, Jon’s like ‘I will remember that’ and tries to figure out what Helen’s true nature is. Probably because he’s figuring out how to smite her. And when Jon asks Helen if she’s afraid of him, which he knows she is, as, you know, she was afraid in front of the chronicle of terror incarnate.

And why was she scared? Because Jon thought she was lying, or knew she was lying, whichever. She was scared because a lie would be her undoing, something that is categorically untrue. Helen is very afraid of the Archivist.

Maybe she should simply have been afraid of Jon. He really did trap the Distortion in a lie, catch her in a web of her own making, and unravel it, for she is made of half-truths and deceit, and she is the web of her own making, and she is the spiral that is straightened by the iron press of truth. And the unravelling may have been the Watcher’s doing, but the trapping was all Jon.