Kind of iconic of Annabelle Cane to go to the trouble of making this long statement and then ending it with “But what if I made all that shit up? Wouldn’t you like to know eyeball boy.” Legend, really
lol it occurs to me I should add the corresponding excerpt from the fic!
Elias being silly under the cut:
[Two days before a surprise visit from the Institute’s investors:]
“You’re gonna have to take that request up to Elias! Extra PTO without leave of absence paperwork requires approval from up the chain!”
“Shit,” the Head Archivist hisses. He fishes his phone from the pocket of his slacks as if to start typing an email, then groans and drops his head. “And of course the poor man’s inbox is probably swamped.”
He takes his cane in hand and turns towards the exit with a heavy sigh and a scowl of acute dread, no doubt thinking of the two flights of stairs between him and the upper administrative offices. “Damned old building,” he grumbles, looking down at the floor to watch where he places his feet amongst the mess. “Who cares about the Equality Act if the place is old as dirt? Elevators would ruin its historical charm. I should sue.”
[Later, on the day of the investors’ visit:]
“Well!” says Elias, clapping his hands and smiling brightly at the gathered people. Poor Martin startles damn near out of his skin. “If that’s all for the Archives, I believe that wraps up our tour. The other department heads should be awaiting us in the Mezzanine for lunch.”
Elias leads the gathering away with his promises of food. The archival assistants at least wait until the investors’ backs are turned before they look visibly relieved. Jon follows them out with the attitude of a man being led to the gallows. He’s surprised (and in no small part, pleased) to find Elias waiting for him at the door with an arm for him to take on his bad side, helping him up the stairs like the gentleman he is.
The Alpha cranes his head down while the others aren’t looking, and Jon startles to feel warm breath on his ear, whispering,
“Play up the sympathy for your injuries.”
“What?” Jon hisses under his breath, then curses when he does almost genuinely trip on the last stair out of the Archive. The group swings through the grand foyer towards the big curving double stairs that’ll take them up to the second-floor Mezzanine, which is decked out for company and a catered lunch.
“C’mon, think of the pity money!”
“Wh- th- Elias, that’s undignified!! And ableist!”
“So what? Make money off your minority status, Jon. For the Institute!”
“No.”
“For me?”
“No!”
“Come on, I’ll buy you an elevator.”
“No!”
“An elevator, and a coffee machine for your breakroom.”
“…The kind that makes fancy lattes and such? Like in Artifact Storage?”
“Of course.”
“…Deal.”
Elias pumps his fist with a near-silent ‘yes!’, which almost ruins the ruse when Jon has to smother his chuckle under a cough.
do people know that the tma ttrpg comes with a little cute audio clip of one archivist telling the new archival assistants what to do? i think people should know that
I just thought of something and now I’m in my (platonic) JonDaisy feels and I’m literally sick I will never recover from this
Okay so you know their intimately fucked up friendship dynamic where she hurt him out of fear, she later helped him anyway because they had a common goal and a common enemy to rally around, then they bonded in a moment of trauma, and she protects him, and they’re best friends, and she’s one of the only positive relationships he has left in season 4 even though she’s weird and gruff about it, and they love each other, and despite all of this she never asks him for forgiveness for the hurt she’s done and he never gives it to her?? What dynamic does that sound like to you.
Siblings.
THAT’S HER LITTLE BROTHEERRRRRRRR FFFFUUUUCK ME, HE HURT HER AND THEN SHE HURT HIM SO MUCH IN RETURN, THEY HATED EACH OTHER, THEN HE SAVED HER ANYWAY BECAUSE SHE’S ALL HE HAS LEFT, AND NOW SHE LOVES HIM SO MUCH AND THEY NEVER GOT THE CHANCE TO JUST MEET AND BE FRIENDS WITHOUT THIS FUCKED UP WEB OF SHARED AND MUTUALLY INFLICTED TRAUMA FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK ME THEY MAKE ME SICK
Post-coma jarchivist makes me sooo insane. Everyone’s like ‘you should’ve stayed dead’ and he’s like ‘can’t argue with you there’. He died for his friends. He chose to become a monster. He came back wrong. He spent six months hovering between life and death and Martin won’t even talk to him. He’s losing his sense of humanity. He hates himself so so much. He can no longer die. He risks a deal with Jared the fucking boneturner to try to save someone who very recently attempted to murder him. He blames himself for Tim’s death. Tim died hating him. With every fresh horror he grows stronger. Someone get this man a vacation and a healthy coping mechanism
I think one of the fundamental horror elements of jon and martin’s relationship (that is super underutilized in fanworks imo) is that when they say “where you go, I go,” they really mean it. by the time they’re striding across that hellscape, and tbh even earlier than that, there is no duplicity or slight or monstrous act either of them could do that the other wouldn’t forgive so they could stay together. personal insults, lashing out, working with the enemy, attacking strangers, direct violence, deliberately endangering each other, murder, encouraging murder, total and complete betrayals of trust, they’ve done it all and reconciled afterwards. sometimes they talk it out and resolve it in a reasonable way, and sometimes they’re just like “hmm. fucked up!” or (“hmm. kinda cute when he does it <3”) and never mention it again.
it’s not just about letting anything slide with each other, either, it’s bigger than that. martin will make the decision on a personal level that he could never live with surviving off of innocent people’s suffering, but if doing that on a cosmic scale is the way to keep jon with him then he will sacrifice all his principles and do it. jon is hell bent on quarantining the fears by literally murdering the planet as quickly and efficiently as possible, but the second this means martin potentially dying in front of him he changes his mind. when jon says that their love for each other is “the real core of it,” he’s not just declaring affection after a fight, he is stating the cause for the incomprehensible tragedy that they’re about to enact. it’s less “the love was there, it didn’t change anything” and more “the love was there, it doomed us all.” it isn’t even a question, they will wrap their soulmate-red binding string around the necks of everyone in the entire cosmos before they sever it.
Back again to expert cursed book hunting duo, Gerry and Mike, cause I just enjoy having an excuse to get the avatar and avatar-adjacent characters to interact. ✨ Also experimenting with short hair Jon, I realized I’ve never actually drew him like that.
Jon’s connection to the Dark is very interesting to me.
It’s not a mark he got unknowingly and it wasn’t exactly forced upon him. It was a clear choice, and he, for once, had some power over this situation. In fact, for once, that entire arc was on his terms. He got to deside what to do, he had an advantage, even tho he didn’t know that.
Did he make the right choices? I don’t know, but he made them himself. Not in a rush, nor desperation.
It’s also something that shows how powerful he’s become. It’s not something he had to do. He did it for himself, because he wanted to know and he wanted to see.
So yeah for almost no reason Jon associates with the Dark a lot to me.
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