2021-10-05 5:17:05 ¶ ●

## MBTI Types of TMA Characters

Like Smirke’s 14, MBTI is inherently flawed (for kinda the same reason!) However, I typed them anyway.

MBTI of TMA characters

Jon

INTP

Martin

INFP

Tim

ENTP

Sasha

ESFJ

Melanie

ENFP

Basira

INTJ

Daisy

ESFJ

Georgie

ISFJ

Gertrude

INTJ

Jonah Magnus

INTJ

Gerry

INFJ

Mary Keay

ENFP

Mike

ISFP

Nikola

ESFJ

Peter Lukas

INFP

Simon Fairchild

ESFP

Manuela Dominguez

INTP

Annabelle Cane

ISFJ*

*as she’s a Web avatar, there’s no way to know for sure

Sorry I didn’t do the Distortions, but as they are the throat of delusion incarnate, it feels like a bit of an exercise in futility.

2021-10-05 4:31:45 ¶ ●

I have a question for English TMA fans. I know Martin’s accent is Northern English, but is there any way to tell from which part of Northern England he’s from by his accent?

Alternatively, is it already mentioned in canon?

2021-10-05 4:20:48 ¶ ●

I always thought Adelaird actually spoke in TMA. He does not.

Also even though I know that Oliver first spoke when Jon’s in the coma, but it always felt like he actually gave the statement in MAG 11. Probably because it’s very directed to the Head Archivist, and also because of Jonny’s acting/writing skill.

2021-10-05 3:42:49 ¶ ●

Jonny completing the (main part of the) ritual in MAG 160 without taking a breath implies that Jon, the archivist, can also just. Do that.

One day he’s reading a fake statement that has no commas (so there’s no marked place to pause for breath) and he just stares at it for a second and then reads the paragraph-long sentences with no breaths in between.

2021-10-05 2:00:30 ¶ ●

Imagine what would happen if Jon overheard someone making fun of someone else for being afraid though

In-character reactions range from dong nothing to telling Martin (and him yelling at the person) to yelling at the person himself.

But I’m imagining him going “time for you to become afraid of that specific thing” and going Full Spooky on him. I would love to read this now.

2021-10-03 0:13:59 ¶ ●

I saw a post that was a (TMA fanart, I guess) drawing of someone with fire for a head and the tags were ‘agnes montague I guess’ (via ashes-in-a-jar) and I started thinking about how we’ve made it so you can tell who it probably is.

It’s kind of like the Greeks making statues of the gods and how they would put motifs, like Athena would get a helmet and the aegis (Medusa shield), or Zeus would get a lightning bolt, so you could tell who they are. Because it was oral storytelling. Everyone had their own version of how the gods looked in their heads.

Obviously, it’s a little different with folktales/myths, but as TMA is an audio format, we know little about how the characters look. So Jon gets the eyes around him, Martin might get some fog, Agnes gets candles or fire, etc. You don’t have to rely on those clues as much for visual media since you can just…draw how they actually look. (Although most TMA fanart has homogenized, at least with Jon and Martin.) So I just think it’s really cool that artists made those motifs!

2021-10-02 6:00:26 ¶ ● ⬀ ⬈

corvuspanoptes:

> imagine thinking Jon doesn’t have a sense of humour

From Wikipedia: “The Tower is sometimes interpreted as meaning danger, crisis, sudden change, destruction, higher learning, and liberation.[6] In the Rider–Waite deck, the top of The Tower is a crown“ a crown!

2021-10-02 4:11:02 ¶ ●

Jon’s hair in fanart is…just the best hair. I want that hair now

2021-10-02 0:49:50 ¶ ●

I bet Jon gets really pedantic about words used to describe scary things. Like:

Martin: Well that was terrifying!

Jon: No, that was horrifying. Terrifying is the fear when the scary thing is coming and horrifying is the fear when the scary thing is here.

Martin: …I guess I should expect this from the man who hates the word ‘spooky’.

2021-10-01 7:21:13 ¶ ●

I want to know how exactly anyone thinks Jon is a coward when he comes into work and reads horrifying statements and gets nightmares every time he takes a live statement and still goes into work??? He is being brave almost literally every moment you hear him in the podcast.

I do genuinely want to know what the argument is for Jon’s cowardice, though.

2021-10-01 7:09:48 ¶ ●

I’ll actually make this a new post. I feel like this is the best answer (so far! Please comment more theories if you have them) to ‘how was the Not!Them both in the table and impersonating Sasha’.

It seems to me that the table limited the Not!Them by limiting its initial range of attack to ‘very close to the table’. However, once it took on a form, it could go anywhere. (I guess it couldn’t take a new form somewhere else with that form, but I don’t know. Probably not?)

Which means there was nothing in the table when Jon broke it and Michael’s calling Jon stupid for breaking some random table. Michael calling it effective binding is somewhat correct, as it did decrease the chances of someone getting impersonated, especially deep in Artifact Storage. It also meant that even if the Not!Them took on a human form, it still couldn’t escape into another form. Even breaking the Web Table wouldn’t allow this, because there wouldn’t be anything in the Web Table. (Of course, breaking it before it took a human form would do exactly what Jon thinks it did—release it.)

Binding the Not!Them made it so if the monster took a form, it would be stuck in it for the rest of the form’s life. Who knows what would happen when the form died? I guess it also explains why the Not!Them was still Not!Sasha even way after the table was broken.

This discussion brought up the problem of Graham and why the Not!Them took so long to attack him. Two theories, one not by me and one by me: first, the notebooks were somehow protecting him; second, having a budding Eye avatar protected him somewhat from the Stranger.

2021-10-01 6:55:04 ¶ ● ⬈

ahumaninbakerstreet:

> I am confused about something. How was the Not!Them both bound to the table and impersonating Sasha? I mean, we know it only impersonated her because Sasha came too close, but then wouldn’t it be free? Michael says the table was binding the monster when Jon breaks it. But isn’t it currently in the body of Sasha James (sort of)?

> I mean, unless Michael is somewhat wrong and the table isn’t currently binding the Not!Them. Which is possible. Michael is the Distortion, after all.

All right, there are lots of theories! I’ll probably add more later, as more people comment.

1. The Not!Them just has a very wide range. Not!Sasha was able to go to the Wax Museum, which is a long way away from the Institute. Michael was BSing about the table being effective binding, because that is not effective, Adelaird.

2. The Not!Them was limited in power, not range—it wasn’t stuck to the table/ it could go full monster when unbound. Contradicted by the fact that Jon did notice something monstrous out of the corner of his eye before and that this isn’t actually limiting the Not!Them, as it can take fear and victims perfectly fine in human form in the statements it shows up in.

2a. I’m seeing this one a lot, actually. The contradiction above was from dathen, not me, so I’m going to think about it. It boils down to something like ‘the Not!Them was limited in power and the table let it reach full power. However, we don’t really see what ‘full power’ is. Sure, Not!Sasha gets creepier, but she doesn’t have cause to not be. Jon knows now.

3. The Web made it so that the Not!Them could only attack an archival assistant so that it would get Jon marked when he confronted it. A contradiction arises in that the Unknowing would be a much easier way to mark Jon with the Stranger. This is a very intriguing theory, though. (Also, while it’s canon, I’m not of the opinion that the Web is actually sentient.)

4. The Not!Them can attack only those who move near it but then have a wide range afterwards, using that human body. It seems like this would be the effect of the table. Which actually makes it a little more effective; push it deep into Artifact Storage and really, no one should come near! Sasha…*Beholds you for it* However, we have the weird-as-heck case of Graham, who was near the Web Table, with a bound Not!Them in it, for weeks if not longer. This is the new confusing part about the Not!Them.

Theory 4 seems like the most accurate. It seems as though the Not!Them, being bound to the table, is not able to attack anyone that isn’t right next to the table. However, it can use its new body to travel where it wants.

So, what binding the monster did was to decrease the chances of people getting attacked. What breaking the table did was quite possibly nothing. I feel like the answer to my question is ‘the Not!Them is now in the form of Sasha—there is no monster in the table’.

The real question here is: why did the Not!Them wait so long before eating Graham?

2021-10-01 4:58:49 ¶ ●

I am confused about something. How was the Not!Them both bound to the table and impersonating Sasha? I mean, we know it only impersonated her because Sasha came too close, but then wouldn’t it be free? Michael says the table was binding the monster when Jon breaks it. But isn’t it currently in the body of Sasha James (sort of)?

I mean, unless Michael is somewhat wrong and the table isn’t currently binding the Not!Them. Which is possible. Michael is the Distortion, after all.