jonelias makes me so sad because legitimately if elias wasnt doing this whole evil plan thing or if jon was just down to be fucked up and evil they would really get along well. right. like even outside of the fact that theyre both spooky eye dudes they have so much in common!!! and bro was supernaturally inclined to learn more about things and just. never really truly sat down and talked to the guy who knows literally everything about the eye shit and the magnus institute and has hundreds of years of first person lived historical knowledge on the occult. and then he kills him.
to me s1-s3 jon is regularly listening to elias talk about the occult in between kissing him. its just not on the tapes because jon would never let such impropriety get on them.
Lmao I love the implication that this is where Jon might draw the line. Like. Breaking and entering, stalking his coworkers, suspecting his boss of murder is all fine, but smooches??? Nope. Can’t have that on tape.
Also!!! Consider: I don’t remember the exact quote, but at one point in s1-2 Jon says that Elias’ knowledge of the supernatural is unparalleled, or something to that extent - which means that he must have heard Elias talk about it?? Or does Elias give lectures? Does he write articles? Did he review Jon’s work while Jon was still in Research? Please I need to know more, this one line has been driving me insane for weeks o-o
Breaking and entering just shows he’s very dedicated to the job!!!! But smooching Elias means someone might get the idea that he didn’t deserve his Head Archivist position that he already feels like he doesn’t deserve.
Like I’m half joking about that but I would say they’re friends at least purely based on how rude S1 Jon is to Elias.
LIKE HELP I WOULD NEVER SAY THAT TO THE HEAD OF WHERE I WORK. JON!!!!!
But yes!!!!! I know the quote you’re talking about! I do think Jon coming to Elias for advice (on things he’s researched thoroughly so he looks smart) is so charming. Them bringing each other fucked up books to read. And omg imagine him reviewing Jon’s research, doing it in full view of Jon and making disappointed faces all to the feed The Eye >:3
i mean he doesnt control a lot of the times that the tape recorders appear and start recording so theres a very real chance the Beholding is just homophobic as fuck
Oh trueeeee beholding is homophobic or Jons sitting in his underwear in elias living room splicing the tapes.
(Actually splicing the tapes to cut out secrets is never addressed in the show. (Ithink?) but could happen and is now intriguing to me. Someone please write something on this im begging)
eugh blugh anyway anyway. elias like talks to jon completely differently than he talks to anyone else. if jon is the room he is talking exclusively to jon regardless of how many other people are in the room. if jon is not in the room but there’s a tape recorder running he’s talking to jon. if he thinks jon might have this conversation relayed to him at a later date he’s talking to jon. mag 92 is hysterical because why did you pack this office with as many people as possible for this conversation and then audibly not break eye contact with one specific guy for twenty minutes. well this is because jon is the only person that actually exists to him in this situation. or most situations. elias knows he’s in a podcast but as far as he’s concerned he and jon are the only characters in it and everyone else is set dressing and he gets so cranky about it when the set dressing starts expressing free will. jon is aware that other people exist 95% of the time unless he is actively talking to and/or yelling at elias and then he kind of forgor. mag 102 when elias is like melanie is coming to murder me with a knife for like .25 seconds jon is like the fuck is melanie and then returns to reality and remembers he has a life outside of “weird thing with elias” and is kind of embarrassed. like uh whoops sorry got kind of intense there for a second (elias continues to be kind of intense unabated) (forever)
Thinking about Elias using pet names for Jon, calling him dear and such with the same subtly affectionate tone he uses every time he talks to Jon so it doesn’t even register to him as anything out of the ordinary
Thinking about Elias using pet names for Jon, calling him dear and such with the same subtly affectionate tone he uses every time he talks to Jon so it doesn’t even register to him as anything out of the ordinary
the other thing about elias is that he is like a tumblrina to me essentially. like he saw a wet mean little man he liked and he said oh he’s perfect i’m going to put him in a jar and shake him around i’m going to put him in so many hideous situations. like any time you want to put a man in the microwave it was then that elias bouchard carried you. but unlike tumblr bloggers he managed to leverage this for career advancement slash becoming king of the fucking world which no one here has ever accomplished. you know they say if you do what you love you never work a day in your life.
one of the roughly ten thousand “the thing about jonelias”es i have floating around in my head at any given time is how off the shits ridiculous it is to systematically annihilate a guys life with the intention of forcing him to kill the world and in the process knowingly and deliberately making that guy super overpowered like way more powerful than you easily thus pretty much guaranteeing that this guy IS going to kill you which you are terrified of beyond measure. like there’s no way you don’t know that’s going to happen at some point monstrous hubris aside it is an obvious eventuality you have had time to think this one out. a guy as careful as me doesn’t have accidents etc. and then when he shows up still being genuinely pretty pleased to see him. ugh
i actually really like the jonelias dynamic that i have made up in my mind where it has the potential to turn into such a twisted and wicked relationship where its only driving force is desire. fucked up desire, but desire nonetheless. elias sculpted jon into exactly what he wanted, a god to be worshipped and heralded as the most important being in the universe. he made him into that. and jon will rest his head on elias’s thigh and feel love coursing through them. is it for each other? they can’t say. but it feels good.
if the cards had fallen a different way, i don’t know. maybe jon wouldn’t have resisted so much. maybe he would grow to enjoy it. another one of my made up desires: a jon sims who is just utterly accepting of the monstrosity that made him “other” in the eyes of his friends. he doesn’t care. he’ll take from people whatever he wants. he’ll enjoy the act of feeding. which also goes hand in hand with the kind of pseudo cannibalism that tma had going on when jon was feeding on people’s statements. the dangers of consumption. consuming another person and their fear. scarring them for the rest of their life. is it really so bad to feed and be healthy? jon didn’t want to stop, not really. he felt bad, sure. but. it feels bad at first and then it doesn’t. maybe, he only needed one more person to take the leap into a never-ending hunger. i wanted to see that.
so much potential here! jonelias on their knees for each other. jon is kneeling so that he can be praised, worshipped, loved for his monstrosity, not despite. elias is kneeling because jon is the closest thing he will ever get to god and he is beautiful and one day, he’ll bring the beauty in fear out of the dark and everyone will see.
* wakes up * ah time to JE post in tumblr user ItchyEye's ask box.
CONSIDER
Wikipedia AU
Jon is a history guy and well Elias? hes a historical guy. they get into incredibly heated edit wars but and the turning point is both of them going to town on a guy who is just Wrong Wrong.
I do picture Jon as someone who does gnome work or writes whole articles with no in between. he's pulling out the official style guide he printed out manually
They get into a debate so intense it finally snaps with "Ok, your location is shown as London, and I need to see the face of whoever is insane enough to think this way."
the thought of Jon showing up at the coffee shop they set to meet, seeing his boss, striking up small talk, when Elias decides to Behold why Jon is there and is just externally "You" and internally giggling and kicking his feet about how he's Clearly found his new Archivist (and more)
MAG 193 has lived in my brain rent free since it aired, especially this exchange:
JONAH/ELIAS: Were you drawn here? ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT): Yes. I was. JONAH/ELIAS: Against your will? ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT): No. JONAH/ELIAS: Then why did you heed the call? ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT): Because… this is the place I know I should be. JONAH/ELIAS: Good.
The dialogue is taken from original Elias’ conversation with James Wright Jonah but when you’re listening to the exchange it sounds like a conversation between Jonah and Jon. This is clearly intentional.
Jon was drawn to the institute and to Jonah. The very first teaser of the podcast is a recording addressed to Jonah. He admires Elias’ knowledge of the supernatural. Jonah can call his Archivist, and when he does, Jon comes to him every time.
Ultimately everything Jon does leads him to Jonah. Where he knows he should be indeed.
I love it when Elias is like. trying to be normal boss and Jon keeps hitting the right words.
“Look I can’t let you down there because of Normal Reasons. You could get hurt and stuff. Also we don’t have the budget to let someone else do it.”
“But Elias. I need to know.”
And then Elias relents because his good little eye in training is producing the proper motivations but he still can’t just say “oh well by all means if you’re feeding all your observations into that lil tape of yours I’d love to listen im so eager to learn about the other fears and see you get yourself so deeply tangled in this also hopefully you’ll get some sort of horrible fear mark down there” so he’s just like “…fine”
“normal guy and his pet freak” relationship BOOOOO no. two guys who seem normal but the longer people spend around them everyone realizes they are absolutely fucked and weird except theyre both very into the other persons particular illness
jonelias is like chell/glados (do they have a shipname?). i need you as much as i despise you. i cannot stop myself from talking to you. despite what you’ve done to me i’m still going to let you in. when push comes to shove i will aid you even in the most dire of circumstances and i won’t let myself get revenge because i’ve never truly wanted to hurt you. even though you killed me. twice.
and of course eye symbology in jon being capable of seeing pretty much anywhere in the facility, knowing so, so much about elias, about every test subject, watching him all of the time even when they’re not testing, jon being swathes more intelligent than elias just by virtue of being a computer the size of the facility itself and yet still so nervous, incapable of crossing human lines on his own, still needing elias’ guidance and care despite the power imbalance being reversed
i dont think you ever posted about your "jon sees elias as jonah when he takes the archivist job" au but please start with that immediately 👀👀👀👀👀👀
so i dont think theres very much that i didnt say in the tags of the post i made about it (unless tumblr ate those for some reason)
but basically. yeah after jon takes the archivist position he starts seeing elias as jonah (at elias’ age, not as like. a corpse in the panopticon). obviously he immediately realises that its jonah bcs, yknow, the guys paintings are everywhere.
i imagine jon’s train of thought is something like this:
did my boss get possessed by jonah magnus -> no thats dumb ghosts arent real -> im having a psychotic episode -> surely id be seeing other symptoms -> what the FUCK is happening
so a huge amount of jon’s desire to find the truth about the supernatural ends up focused on jonah. initially he’s just doing research into the actual guy jonah magnus himself but that doesnt really get him anywhere because its not like jonah was like “dear diary im an eye avatar and im going to start putting my eyes into other people so i can be immortal” so he starts doing research into elias instead. which also turns out to be quite difficult just doing normal research.
luckily, jon and elias are decently friendly with each other (at least in early s1, which this would still be). so surely its not weird to try and make sure your relationship with your boss is positive. thats just common sense thats just cultivating a welcoming workplace environment or whatever. and ofc elias is like
bcs this is objectively great! jons leaning into the eye hes considering breaching elias’ privacy to learn more about him and ofc hes flattered that jon is so focused on him in particular. so he allows jon to break into his office and look through his things and he pretends he isnt watching the entire time, and he casually mentions some flaws in his home security to try and spur jon into breaking into his house (which he doesnt. yet.)
they’re sort of not-quite-dating - tim might joke about jon going on dates with elias and jon gets very flustered and denies it and elias is a little over affectionate in public just to see how jon reacts, but neither of them have any idea that jon’s doing all of this just so he can figure out why his boss is (apparently) the founder of the institute.
then prentiss happens. then they find gertrude’s body.
i dont think jon gets as paranoid as he does in canon - hes been less of an asshole since all of his focus has gone into researching elias and trying to figure out what the fuck happened. so while i think he does do some research into the archival crew, its mainly research into gertrude herself, and continuing his research into elias. now with added stalking!
and of course elias still doesnt care about the stalking because hes still 1. very happy jon is taking to the eye so well and 2. flattered that jon is so focused on him to the point of stalking him. in my heart i know elias considers stalking to be a form of flirting
s2 goes generally the same but i want jon to find out about the not-them just a little sooner so i can make him go “holy shit! elias got not-them’d! what the fuck!” of course this is completely incorrect if you know anything about how the not-them works but jon. doesnt.
jon, of course, breaks the table. then he finds out that sasha got not-them’d. then he finds out leitner is alive. then he finds out leitner is dead.
who else does he have to go to? he shows up at elias’ home, maybe just minutes after elias finishes cleaning up, because a man has been killed in his office and he didnt do it.
because i am a soft elias truther s3 isnt just manipulation and horrible things happening for jon. horrible things still do happen (elias very much doesnt discourage him from talking to jude perry, or mike crew, for example) and elias is still a bastard but its probably not any significant amount more horrible than canon s3 was.
jon probably spends amounts of time talking to elias about what leitner told him (which is hilarious to elias) and elias (against his better judgement) doesnt tell jon that leitner was lying, but instead asks him questions that may or may not lead him to figuring out the entities. he’s curious as to what’s going to happen, and he’s sure jon likes him enough that showing just a little of what he knows wont tarnish their relationship
i dont have many thoughts beyond that - the confrontation probably goes differently, for example, and maybe jon permanently moves in with elias. i cant decide how much of a corruption arc i should give jon (obviously he ends up much more content with the eye than in canon bcs the eye is sexy but i cant decide if hes pro apocalypse or not) but when jon finds out that elias is jonah hes like “oh i know” and jonah is like what the fuck do you mean
Every few centuries or so, each Dread Power selects a Messiah. Not at the same time - they’re often staggered over decades, and a Messiah will frustratingly frequently die of mundane causes long before anyone notices them. Worse yet, Messiahs can go their entire life unnoticed, odd enough to off-put their peers but not enough for their kin to take notice.
To find the Messiah of one’s god is a grand achievement. Finding Agnes Montague had brought the Lightless Flame great power; new strength, new devotees, new rituals. It had been so much that Gertrude had felt the need to temper Agnes with her own soul. The Desolation won’t get over that for a very long while.
Jonah has spent his entire life seeking the Eye’s Messiah. It has to be soon - it’s been two centuries, and he’s certain that there was no Messiah when he was alive. The timeframe is perfect, and yet he cannot find anyone. He checks for incidents related to the Eye, keeps note of artefacts trading hands, but nothing. Whether his god’s Messiah simply died as a child, or was swallowed by another power, the search is endless, and yields no results.
This is why it’s so surprising when Jonathan Sims walks into his office for an interview, and makes eye contact with him - ordinarily this would make people uncomfortable, but Jonathan is mostly content in the Eye’s stronghold. Jonah knows, immediately, that this is the one. This is who he has been searching for his whole life.
Jonathan’s Gaze is rather weak, and wielded bluntly. He wouldn’t be able to force any measure of knowledge out of Jonah right now, but it’s surprising he has any Gaze at all. Just more proof that he was made for their god.
Jonathan has found that people become uncomfortable when he makes eye contact with them, and that discomfort can be used to get things he wants; he’s used it to convince teachers to give him better grades or an extension on his work, to convince his peers to leave him be, to convince well-meaning adults to turn a blind eye to his breaking and entering, his trespassing, all the little crimes to satisfy his endless curiosity. There’s no need to intimidate now, of course. The moment he decided to come in for the interview his fate was sealed. He is meant to be here, and always has been.
Jonah reaches a hand over the table and does not break eye contact.
“Elias Bouchard,” he says, voice confident and smooth. On the inside, he’s a bundle of nerves. If he isn’t careful, he could drive Jonathan away from the Eye, perhaps forever. Such a failure would not be forgiven.
“Jon Sims,” Jon returns, seeming equally calm. Jonah’s still debating whether or not to look inside his head. It would be exceedingly useful, but if Jon notices it could be disastrous. He has no idea how Jon would react. The Lonely almost drove away their most recent Messiah by trying to bring him in too quickly, and Jonah cannot afford the same to happen with Jon. There is the chance Jon would notice, and realise that Jonah is like him, and decide to stay. Too risky, perhaps.
Jonah doesn’t pay much attention as they go through the typical rigamarole. None of these questions are necessary. Instead, he does his own research on Jon, the sort that doesn’t require reading his mind.
He Knows that all of Jon’s peers had warned him away from the Institute when he had brought it up, and that Jon had lied to his flatmate about the interview. He has no other job prospects lined up, and still can’t justify the decision to himself. It simply feels right. He Knows that, despite his machinations, Jon’s grades are less than perfect. Like much else in his life, Jon is worried about it, partially because he is innately anxious and partially because he’s worried that he won’t get the job.
He Knows that Jon (much like Jonah in his youth) prefers to find what isn’t already known. He finds education too boring, too easy - he can find what his teachers have told him in textbooks, or online courses; quite often he finds he already knows it, although he can’t say from where. What he wants is the sort of knowledge that is coveted, hidden, and he has a particular taste for any knowledge of the supernatural.
He Knows that Jon has uncanny senses - having been able to detect teachers long before their footsteps began echoing down the halls - and some of his peers used him as a watchman when getting high or drunk, or breaking into offices to find answer sheets. He Knows that Jon enjoyed being the watchman, for reasons he can’t quite place.
Their god’s influence has already spread deep into Jon, into the furthest reaches of his soul. Jon has the ability to compel (although this, like his Sight, is weak and wielded bluntly - Jonah will have to teach him better), and he craves knowledge like he craves blood in his veins. His memory is uncanny, his eyes uncannier. He couldn’t be a better Archivist.
“When can you start?”
Jon blinks, in surprise.
“Oh- er, well, I- ah, next Monday, I suppose?”
“Fantastic,” Jonah says, giving him a grin. They shake hands again, and then Jon is leaving. Jonah Watches him, all the way home, to where he tells his flatmate that he got the job, where he begins to make preparations to move out. Jon casts glances over his shoulder when he thinks nobody can see him, although he can’t tell from where he’s being watched. Yet, despite the anxiety (and excitement) it causes, he makes no move to hide himself.
see the problem is i have so many good aus but i don’t want to post about any of them because most of them are just vibes that i’ll never get around to writing
“You’re doing well, Jon. I only hope you can continue your growth without my guidance.”
[Image ID: A series of black and white images arranged in a grid as follows:
Two dark figures on a staircase. A dark hallway lined with books. London’s Big Ben on a cloudy night. Hands opening a jewellery box with an eye inside. An eye with “the eye has no conscience” written below it. Hands crading the head of a marble sculpture. Two pairs of feet wearing dress shoes intertwined, one wearing ankle cuffs. A painting of a man staring up at a moth. Three overlaid silhouettes of a man.]
