“That’s… That’s quite nice, actually. Tingly… but sort of freeing. [Chuckle] You know, even Gertrude never properly tried to compel me. I always wondered –”
To continue my journey in Procreate I wanted to do some experimental portraits of avatars for all the powers! Had to start it off with my favorite bastard men of the series.
[ID: Elias Bouchard from The Magnus Archives designed as a kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He is a small, cat-like creature with off-white fur and four pairs of ears. The first two like that of a cat, with two more long, drooping ears like that of a rabbit. The longer ears have halos in the shape of eyes, and grey dots. Elias also has three eyes, with the main two being a dull grey while the third eye on his forehead is bright green with a white pupil. The green eye has six eyelashes, three long ones on the upper half and three small ones below. He is smiling pleasantly with a calm expression. end ID.]
The thing I love so much about Jonsasha dual archivist AUs is how easily it becomes a “them against the world” situation. Falling into the Beholding at almost exactly the same time, developing similar (although perhaps not identical) powers, having the same inhuman diet, driving away their coworkers…
And yeah that last one IS super vital to Jonsasha because I think they would. Jon’s paranoia combined with Sasha’s stalking skills? Their intelligence and reckless knowledge-seeking? It would be a mess. Tim losing both his close friend and his (work friend? acquaintance?) at the same time, right after a traumatic experience? The others watching as they start withdrawing into each other more and more (even as they’re each monitoring the other for signs of betrayal). Do you think Sasha “lets hang with my creepy monster stalker at midnight (without telling anyone)” James would catch on to the blink-and-you-miss-it reference to the possibility that the web table traps the Not-Them? I am not totally convinced she would even bother getting a weapon before investigating it (which is… exactly what she did in canon, actually??).
I want them to hear the Jurgen statement together. I want them to go out and share a smoke and a charged conversation while Elias does his thing. I want them to go tearing through the London supernatural community with reckless abandon. I want Elias to have to frantically restructure his plans while he tries to figure out how the hell having Two Entire Archivists might mess with his plans. I want them to rack up marks shockingly quickly. I want Sasha to encourage Jon to hop over boundaries with her. I want them to drag each other down. I want them to be feared and hated by the remaining archival staff because Sasha keeps Knowing deeply personal information about them “accidentally” and Jon can’t stop compelling people and they have the same freaky eyes and they’re chasing each other down the same destructive path.
I want Jonsasha taking solace in each other, exchanging statements about their respective supernatural encounters (look it’s cute ok?) and coming to Know each other in a way nobody else ever could. I want them to anchor each other. I want them to make everything worse forever. I want them to always defend each other, even as their own guilt keeps piling up and their friends keep getting angry and hurt. Dual archivist Jonsasha is two sides of the same coin, coming together even as they drive everybody else away. It’s so juicy and I think about it constantly.
I think Elias finds a way to pull off his plan and when he does they slowly give in to their natures and enjoy their apocalypses after a lovely and long mutual corruption arc. That is all.
I want to expand on this now that it’s not super late actually because upon rereading it I am not confident I emphasized the corruption arc of it all enough.
I think they should promise to keep the other in check but actually make each other worse. By the time they’ve gone full monster they’ll have forged a deep and unbreakable connection with both of them being the Archivist and also have pushed away everyone else. They try to justify their own actions by justifying the other’s actions. Sasha covers for Jon when they go statement hunting and vice versa. Sasha uses her powers the way she used her computer skills: learning other people’s personal/private information without their knowledge. Jon indulges in the gossip because learning about Dave From Research’s affair or Melinda From Accounting’s drama with her sister helps them feel a little more human. A break from the loneliness and horror of their lives that just so happens to entrench them both a little further in Beholding.
I want Jon and Sasha to be each other’s lights in the darkness even as they push each other further into it. They bicker like nerds over Jonah’s fanmail one evening and the next they go for a romantic dinner (person who encountered the Fears) in a 7/11 at 1:27 in the morning.
Also I think they should give each other statements about their supernatural encounters starting when they go on the run. It’s a bonding experience!! They’re getting to know each other!! And it sort of continues from their, each of them giving the other statements about following supernatural experiences (even ones the other was there for).
I think they should also have a mental link. It allows them to communicate over long distances but also borrow each other’s powers (I like to think they have some overlap, but Sasha is more about subtlety and Knowing while Jon is more about compelling directly). They read Jonah’s 160 statement together. They dive into the new world together.
Just. Just consider a Jonsasha dual archivists corruption arc. Please?
thinking about jon jarchivist sims as i often do and one aspect of s5 jon that i LOVE but dont see too many people talking about is how shot to hell his morals get (due to him being the Literal Antichrist) but he still remains a character very very driven by his morals. which surely won’t cause any issues at all.
like he asks other people what *they think* he should do so often or just does what *he thinks* is right because he’s running off avatar morality which is basically ‘fuck it, we ball’ and jon wants to be a good person SOO BAD but he’s LITERALLY THE ANTICHRIST!!! you guys….
per my off topic tags on my last reblog. well i think they probably saw a lot of stuff on their big walk that was pretty beautiful in various awful ways but in particular jared’s meat garden is objectively sublime. martin this is why your poetry is shit absolutely zero wonder in the grotesque. skill issue.
[ID: a picture of Jonah magnus from the Magnus Archives. Jonah is white and thin with the upper part of his head obscured in shadows and floating eyes. He is wearing a green pinstripe suit with a yellow button up underneath and a red tie. His arms are spread out and his palms are dripping with blood. There is a golden halo behind his head. Above him is a scroll that reds “Vigilo. Audio. Opperior.” In dripping red scrawl. Jonahs arms and the scroll come together to form the shape of an eye, with jonahs head being to pupil.]
“Nothing is more important for us than that we recognise that we are bound and sworn to that which horrifies us most, that which provokes our most intense disgust.”
btw blackmailing cops is an inherent and profound moral good so by this measure elias bouchard, who blackmails the police on like three separate occasions that we know of, is the only guy on this show improving society. only man with any commitment to the sacred tenet of acab.so think about THAT
btw blackmailing cops is an inherent and profound moral good so by this measure elias bouchard, who blackmails the police on like three separate occasions that we know of, is the only guy on this show improving society. only man with any commitment to the sacred tenet of acab.so think about THAT
“oh he ruined the whole world and put everyone in turbo hell” well i don’t see you making any effort to inconvenience law enforcement.
i’m literally the priest’s favorite sacrificial lamb because i am so docile and sweet and i hold very still when they put the rope around my neck and i trot along so happily while they lead me to the altar and they do not even have to tie me down because i lie so very still and only bleat once or twice in my lovely lamb voice and when the knife comes down it cuts through me like butter and i offer no resistance and i bleed so prettily all over my new white wool and my guts all unspool like the most beautiful shining yarn and my eyes are animal and dumb and hold no accusation and every time i die i come right back as another little lamb because the priest loves me so so much and he always chooses me for the sacrifice every time and he always places one hand on my small and twitching nose to calm me while he lifts the knife and he doesn’t do it for the other lambs only me because i’m his favorite
ship ask game 😁1 Who would be first to to bite down anc consume the flesh of the other, euphoric in the taste and the heft and the slide of the blood 2. who is the ant and who is the ophiocordyceps fungus? 3. who is the dog and who is the master? 4 when the roles are blurred or reversed who would be first to die and how? would it be by bulletwound? the phallic blade? strangulation? 5. Cocaine or Heroin? 6. who licks up the other’s cigarette ash? 7 who is julius caesar and who is brutus? 8. who is jesus and who is judas? 9. did jesus want it? did julius caesar know it was coming? are the betrayed ever proud? 10. who is irrumatus and who is irrumans? who is pedicatus and who is pedicans? 11. did they ever kiss and why not? 12 if they are two sides of the same coin who is heads and who is tails? 13. and if the coin was the holey dollar? 14. And if the dog bit back? 15 and if the dog bit back? 16 and if the dog bit back? 17 and if the dog bit back? 18 and if the dog bit back? 19 and if the dog bit back? 20. Who buys the other flowers?🥰
If you ever find yourself in a horror scenario, remember to blush really hard when the ghost/demon/monster appears. If you do that fast enough you might be able to shift the genre.
This applies doubly if the antagonist is more abstract. If a house starts growing teeth and flesh you’ve gotta be prepared to get a little freaky
guy who conceives of every doorway he walks through as entering something and never exiting and he constantly feels like he is proceeding deeper and wishing he could get back to the start
(ID: jon and the admiral from tma. jon is wearing an oversized hoodie and glasses, and has his hair up in a messy ponytail. the admiral is a large, fluffy cat with a notched ear and a fang poking up and out of his mouth. he is rubbing up against jon, who is sitting down. in one hand jon is holding three papers, and he’s petting the admiral with his other hand. both are smiling. end ID.)
ALT
