in front of one of them is elias bouchard. in front of the other is annabelle cane.
“this is exactly what it looks like,” annabelle says.
(what does it look like?)
“one of us always tells the truth. the other always lies.” says elias.
(oh.)
(oh no.)
you hear a voice from behind you. “yeah, they’re playing that stupid game again. wanna go this way instead? ☺️”
it’s helen distortion! (yayyyyy— wait. no—)
as per The Riddle, what questions do you start asking?
please guys. y'all are missing the point
you have a free pass to ask whatever you want to elias bouchard and annabelle cane
the doors are irrelevant. the riddle’s irrelevant. you already know who tells the truth and who lies.
wouldn’t you take full advantage of this opportunity??
I mean. elias is practically all-knowing. you can get valid info on anything from him.
and annabelle’s not gonna give you proper information,. but you can still try to sort out her deal by asking things and seeing how she answers.
she’s not all-knowing. which means she doesn’t know what you know. fire away asking questions you already know the answers to and see how she warps them.
better yet, find a private place to ask elias questions (helen’s door is right there 👀) and use those answers to sus out what direction’s annabelle trying to guide things to.
(best not to act on whatever information you’re given– that’s probably what annabelle wants. but keep that info on the back burner. for later use.)
was it ever mentioned how elias feeds the eye? he doesn’t seem to read statements so what exactly is keeping him alive?
same for martin– shouldn’t his adjacency to the lonely make him need to feed it?
is jon the only one who we actively see and know about how he feeds his entity?
The Eye is the fear of being watched, having your darkest secrets known, that people will stand aside and not help you when you’re suffering, and probably some other things. I don’t think every Avatar of The Eye relies on, or even have anything to do with, Statements.
It was always my assumption that Elias is the one watching Jon in the first season, though it may have been The Eye itself.
Either way, I do think he will hire people like Martin, that aren’t necessarily qualified for their jobs and are scared of being found out. Found out specifically by him, their boss.
He also can, canonically, see through the eyes of things that depict eyes, most likely giving people the unnerving feeling of being watched.
As for Martin, I’d imagine that his own loneliness was feeding the Lonely, Melanie is antagonistic towards him, Basira is likely indifferent about him, Tim, who you could probably call his friend, just died, Jon was in a coma, Sasha is dead. He then decides to isolate himself from everyone, so it’s probably that.
Personally, I think he was also feeding on Jon, once he woke up. During season four, he avoids any interaction with Jon, when they do interact he is dismissive or outright condescending to him, and he sets the few people Jon does have around him, Daisy, Basira, and Melanie, even more against him than they already were.
honestly this is the most satisfactory answer so far
(also the funniest one)
the only qualification to work at the magnus institute is to lie on your resume. not a single person there is qualified to do the work.
the institute’s been investigate for tax fraud 12 times because the person filing their taxes has never passed a math exam in their life.
the institute’s plumbing is always breaking because the maintenance guy’s resume was submitted by his mother the moment he turned 18 in an attempt to get him out of the house. he never did plumbing in his life and he just barely gets by through watching youtube tutorials on how to repair a sink.
one employee starts a bunch of office drama by dating two guys in her department simultaneously. she gets called into a meeting with elias and instead of getting fired, she gets promoted to Head of HR.
tma au where everyone’s chill with jon being the World’s Spookiest Interviewer and lets him keep taking live statements, inadvertently sabotaging elias’s whole plan
jon’s not the one talking anymore when he takes his statements, and now no one can do the ritual.
someone comes into the magnus institute to give a statement. they glance at jon’s computer screen and see one single folder titled “discredited.” the suspicious lack of any digital folders for investigated or verified statements leads them to believe that all statements are, by default, discredited.
they go home and make a 5 hour youtube video essay cancelling the magnus institute for ‘automatically discrediting all statements’
on the day of jon’s interview at The Magnus Institute elias makes sure to put a sign on his door that says “It Is Polite To Knock 😊”
(the real test is how long it takes jon to enter. elias watches him walk right through the Spooky Sign Door and goes ‘yessss boyyyy… walk right into the things that scare you….’ )
scenario where georgie’s his emergency contact: he had her listed while they were dating and just never changed his list after they broke up
scenario where elias is his emergency contact: elias sees jon’s paperwork and notices there’s no emergency contact listed, and takes the liberty to list himself there
scenario where tim and/or sasha are his emergency contacts: they’re discussing who their emergency contacts are. jon mentions he doesn’t have any. they insist he list one or both of them to prevent jon from dying in a ditch somewhere.
scenario where martin is jon’s emergency contact: same as with elias– martin notices that jon doesn’t have any emergency contacts listed and goes ‘well that’s not good or healthy :(’ and goes and lists himself
they just don’t make characters like martin blackwood. he’s perfect in ways I didn’t know was possible. no one could ever dislikes him because every word that comes out of his mouth fills everyone with so much light and joy that it practically makes life worth living. he’s so smart and capable, but never gets an ego about it. it’s not even clear if he’s aware of how smart he is. he’s incredibly sweet and kind but still has a backbone and can and will take a stand when necessary. he deserves the world but the world doesn’t deserve him.
you know I have multiple posts in drafts apologizing to my beloved shakespeare mutuals for becoming a tma account for the past month or so.
but I think instead of viewing myself as a sellout imma just change my description to say that I post about whatever I want instead of strictly shakespeare + classic lit
you know I have multiple posts in drafts apologizing to my beloved shakespeare mutuals for becoming a tma account for the past month or so.
but I think instead of viewing myself as a sellout imma just change my description to say that I post about whatever I want instead of strictly shakespeare + classic lit
tried to change my description and my computer crashed :(
froze like that for a solid few minutes before shutting down :(
anyway I’m cursed with the burden of forever being what I claimed to be when I was 16.
elias is such a hilarious character because his whole motive is so cartoonishly evil (world domination, immortality, the whole Bringing The Apocalypse thing), yet his whole demeanor is so serious and down to earth.
elias “don’t be so dramatic” bouchard looks everyone dead in the eye and tells them that it’s very important to file their paperwork properly and if they waste company funds he’ll have to write them up and reprimand them on their next performance review.
then everyone leaves the room and he continues orchestrating the end of the world, as if financial responsibility and Ending All Humanity are tasks of equal importance and significance.
you know I have multiple posts in drafts apologizing to my beloved shakespeare mutuals for becoming a tma account for the past month or so.
but I think instead of viewing myself as a sellout imma just change my description to say that I post about whatever I want instead of strictly shakespeare + classic lit
tried to change my description and my computer crashed :(
froze like that for a solid few minutes before shutting down :(
anyway I’m cursed with the burden of forever being what I claimed to be when I was 16.
no joke those apologies were still sitting in drafts.
hamlet au where instead of hamlet’s chain of thoughts being “here’s my father’s ghost -> he wants me to avenge him -> I’ll go do that,” he goes “here’s my father’s ghost -> ghosts are real -> what other paranormal things exist in this world??’ and he goes and becomes a ghost hunter.
absolutely devastating how everyone’s insistence that jon stops taking live statements from people just makes him more dependent on the written ones, to the point where whenever he leaves the institute he needs people to constantly send him statements (because he can’t just feed on the locals)
absolutely devastating how jon’s desperate attempt at avoiding losing his humanity directly leads to him kickstarting the apocolypse. jon’s complete dependance on the written statements is what elias was relying on. taking live statements would have prevented anyone literally putting words into jon’s mouth.
had he just been a little less committed to maintaining his humanity– had he had a little less sympathy or concern for those he had to feed on– he wouldn’t have been able to complete the ritual.
im the opposite of jonathan sims head archivist of the magnus institute because my #1 favorite childhood book that I forced my two living parents to read to me a hundred times is the one where the spider gets all his food stolen
rip tim stoker but if I was mad at my boss for stalking me and three other people on suspicions that one of us is a violent murderer, and then we found out that TWO of us were violent murderers, not only would I not be mad at him anymore but I’d be thanking him for his service
me at the start of tma (a day away from dropping it because I found it boring): the stories are fine ig, but the fact that they’re all very clearly told in the same writing style even though they’re supposed to be from people of a variety of ages and backgrounds is really taking me out of this.
me over a year later, after giving tma another shot: OH SO THERE WAS A REASON FOR THAT.
