March 2024

dcartcorner:

Elsewhere AU - 3.24

dcartcorner:

Elsewhere AU - 3.25

radioactive-yuri:

have u ever considered that jonah magnus spent his life and more chasing divinity with the same desperation that jon rejected it with.

i feel like we focus a lot on jon’s “please, no” when it comes to losing his humanity, but i cannot stop thinking about jonah’s “please, more” about the same concept.

i really really like how michael and helen represent two sides of the spiral.

michael speaks slowly, emphasizing everything, giving you the idea that he’s lying to you, but you’re never quite sure. and that’s the fear. that your own mind is lying to you, that you’re going insane, that you can’t trust anything you believe. this fear was present in michael shelley’s life very prominently, from his childhood all the way to the very nature of his death.

after a while, though, helen speaks with confidence and certainty, leaving no room for doubt, you know she’s lying. you know she is. but you can’t prove it. and that, too, is the fear. that you’re right, but nobody will ever believe you. that it’s all fake, everything society is built on is fake and you’re the only one who knows. and i feel like the little bit that we know about helen richardson also embodies this fear: she was a real estate agent, a very stereotypically deceptive job. i don’t think it’s far-fetched to say she probably lied quite a lot to her clients, all while aware of the reality of the situation herself. the idea of being the only one who knows just how fake everything is but never being able to tell anyone.

i think it’s so cool that they both became the source of the fear that marked their lives.

zarksart:

distortion helen <3

i stand by the headcanon that basic emotional honesty is the one thing that truly confuses helen distortion. she’s more than alright with people pretending to like her for the sake of being polite. that’s how it’s supposed to be. she’s lying to you, and you’re lying to her. that’s what she knows. but if you mean what you say and you say what you mean, well…she doesn’t really know what to do. that’s not supposed to happen. it makes her feel weird and wrong, but in a way, she almost wants it. there’s something addictive about the truth, it’s so antithetical to her very nature that she can’t help but crave it, even if it hurts her in the end.

klm-zoflorr:

klm-zoflorr:

I’m so incredibly weak for Elias “feeding” Jon with one of his own statements

And it’s perfect from Jon’s pov. Like, he’s not compelling anyone, it’s someone giving their statement knowing what that implies. It’s someone he is supposed to hate and who deserves the terror. He doesn’t hurt any innocent party this way, and he gets fed with prime quality statementes. Plus he can learn some more tidbits to defeat Elias. It’s just… The intimacy of it.

melanie: me and my girl don’t argue. she gaslights me, i call her a twink, she pushes me through a nonexistent door, and i take it. like a man.

radioactive-yuri:

melanie: me and my girl don’t argue. she gaslights me, i call her a twink, she pushes me through a nonexistent door, and i take it. like a man.

they’ve both got something real peculiar going on with their genders that’s why helen’s a twink and melanie’s a man even though they’re both lesbians and girls. hope this makes sense. don’t worry too much if it doesn’t tho

not gonna turn this into an actual fic but i wrote out this silly little scene because uhh reasons. @klm-zoflorr @thswrtchdthng so that jonelias accidental love confession idea i had

jonah’s voice kept up the constant flow of words, pointless anecdotes just strange enough to feed his archivist’s hunger, but nothing that revealed too much. it was a difficult line to tread, especially with the pleasent feeling of giving a statement whirring around in his head, blurring everything else until there was nothing but the truth being eased from his lips.

with every word he spoke, he saw jon’s hunger lessen, his mouth hanging open as if to swallow every sentence. and he wanted more.

the compulsion caught jonah completely off-guard, a wordless command, and he was in no state to reject it.

he was already bleeding truth like a faucet, and he couldn’t stop. it felt so good. he closed his eyes and prayed. he couldn’t hear what he was saying anymore, he didn’t want to hear, the only thing that was real was the adrenaline, the fear, but also the relief of true, unfiltered honesty.

and then it was over. every sensation gone, leaving only a deafening silence and an intense tension in the room.

and jonah finally realised what he’d said.

and it was, in the grand scheme of things, not important at all.

but in that moment, it felt like the worst possible scenario.

“…what?”

“leave it. just- just leave it, jon.” he tried, even though he knew it wouldn’t work.

especially not with someone like jon.

“no, no, you- you said you were in love with me. why did you-”

“don’t. don’t, please, just…don’t.”

his face was burning.

he had to leave.

“elias, i understand that you’re embarrassed, but i need to know if-”

“i wasn’t ready. i- i wasn’t.”

his hand trembled on the doorknob when he left.

corporate artstyle helen who slowly turns into abstract, unmarketable art when she starts experiencing genuine emotions.

some of u guys aren’t going to like this but it has to be said. in my mind, elias bouchard looks like the world’s most average business man. and mike crew looks like a long-haired soft butch lesbian.

the only tma characters i can genuinely see being evil twinks are both of the distortions and nikola orsinov.

melanie king and elias bouchard both have tooth gaps. thats all, goodbye again

radioactive-yuri:

melanie king and elias bouchard both have tooth gaps. thats all, goodbye again

this too.

radioactive-yuri:

corporate artstyle helen who slowly turns into abstract, unmarketable art when she starts experiencing genuine emotions.

she’s scratching at her skin trying to hide uneven lines and incomprehensibe features because she looks too Real and Honest but melanie begs her to stop because oh my god this is so much better.

elias really tried to “noo don’t go into the unknowing you’re so sexy aha” tim and i don’t think we talk about that enough.

“the ghost of gertrude robinson haunting the archives judging every decision jon makes” is a very inspired idea especially if it includes gertrude mildly inconveniencing jonah as much as possible, but have you also considered the following: the ghost of adelard dekker haunting the archives screaming crying throwing up in frustration at jon destroying that table.

radioactive-yuri:

“the ghost of gertrude robinson haunting the archives judging every decision jon makes” is a very inspired idea especially if it includes gertrude mildly inconveniencing jonah as much as possible, but have you also considered the following: the ghost of adelard dekker haunting the archives screaming crying throwing up in frustration at jon destroying that table.

OR. even better. they’re both haunting the archives and usually gertrude’s the one getting pissed off at how stupid jon is and adelard, who was never really a part of the institute, has the general attitude of “not my circus, not my clowns” until jon sets the not!them free, and then he’s just like. gg im gonna be real with you i am seconds away from murdering your successor

so basically adelard dekker is like father garcia from faith: the unholy trinity. to me

melanie responds “me when i lie” to almost everything helen says and it pisses her off to no end

well if i was tim stoker i would’ve simply pinned elias against the wall by his wrists. i would’ve pulled him up from his gay little chair by his tie and called him really mean names. “frey you’re a lesbian you can’t be saying this” the fact that i’m a lesbian is exactly why i should be saying this

yffresbeard:

yffresbeard:

yffresbeard:

more stuff about becoming a god being inherently dehumanizing pls

too much focus on Ascension or becoming Greater not enough focus on what is Lost of you

you’re not a person anymore, just a personification. you’re a concept, an abstraction. all neatly defined boundaries and borders, none of the vagueries or blurring of lines or grey areas that come from being mortal.

you can never change, now. never grow or evolve, you are this, forever, stagnant. and the thing you’ve been made to embody might not even be your best trait.

pigeonwithabriefcase:

guys im gonna be real i still dont know who the h*ck adelard dekker is

he’s the only character in the magnus archives who ever did anything right. hope this helps!!

radioactive-yuri:

melanie responds “me when i lie” to almost everything helen says and it pisses her off to no end

imagine trying to gaslight someone because that’s your job but your stupid boyfriend keeps standing next to you scrolling on her phone and saying “me when i lie” so nobody actually believes you.

like i have admitted before, i do ship timelias in a purely sexual way. i think they should have an intense hateful make-out session set to kokopelli face tattoo by ajj but i could not see them dating ever. mostly because they’re both aromantic allosexuals

i just realized being the multishipper i am actually has created a universe inside my own beautiful mind where jonah magnus does, in fact, get passed around like a blunt.

elijah volkov, my favourite spiral-aligned web avatar.

tim and elias both jokingly call each other “bad aroallo representation” for very diffirent reasons, and it makes everybody else just a little bit uncomfortable because they don’t know how to react non-offensively.

ok i know elias putting the information of her dad’s death into melanie’s head is supposed to be like. a scary and intimidating scene. but the way it’s placed directly after the interaction where basira jokes about melanie making elias cry makes me think like. what if she was right and elias got weirdly insecure about it and decided the only course of action to take was to mentally torture melanie about it.

wolfythewitch:

Simon Fairchild

radioactive-yuri:

ok i know elias putting the information of her dad’s death into melanie’s head is supposed to be like. a scary and intimidating scene. but the way it’s placed directly after the interaction where basira jokes about melanie making elias cry makes me think like. what if she was right and elias got weirdly insecure about it and decided the only course of action to take was to mentally torture melanie about it.

it wasn’t because melanie kept trying to kill him. she was just really mean and he didn’t want anyone to know she’d made him cry

radioactive-yuri:

tim and elias both jokingly call each other “bad aroallo representation” for very diffirent reasons, and it makes everybody else just a little bit uncomfortable because they don’t know how to react non-offensively.

they’re just having an argument like “god, you’re the reason we all get stereotyped as sluts.” “oh, and you’re so much better for only ever fucking people you don’t care about?” and everybody else is completely unsure what to do or say.

melanie: man, sometimes i wonder what it looks like inside your brain.

helen: have you ever played cruelty squad

melanie: oh my god. jesus fucking christ

helen: yeah

do you think michael distortion, kevin wtnv, and elijah volkov would get along

most of the time i picture s3 tim with shoulder-length hair that covers his ears, and s3 elias with shoulder-length hair that never actually touches his shoulders because it’s always behind his ears.

tim swears as much as possible specifically when talking to elias, specifically because it makes him let out the most ridiculous sounds of shock and appal everytime.

radioactive-yuri:

tim swears as much as possible specifically when talking to elias, specifically because it makes him let out the most ridiculous sounds of shock and appal everytime.

after enduring a long day of pretty much non-stop tomfoolery from tim, elias let’s out a single, heartfelt “fuck off!” and it destroys both of their worldviews entirely.

radioactive-yuri:

radioactive-yuri:

tim swears as much as possible specifically when talking to elias, specifically because it makes him let out the most ridiculous sounds of shock and appal everytime.

after enduring a long day of pretty much non-stop tomfoolery from tim, elias let’s out a single, heartfelt “fuck off!” and it destroys both of their worldviews entirely.

tim is absolutely delighted at first, but then he realizes that he now has to live knowing he heard elias bouchard say fuck…but no one will ever believe him. he has zero proof. but also elias has to live with the shame of having broken his 200 year long no cursing streak in front of timothy stoker. so it all evens out, more or less.

thediistortiion:

i love fics that write The Distortion genuinely not knowing How to Human and getting something egregiously incorrect.

i don’t mean appearance-wise, i mean silly mistakes. trying to wipe up a spill with printer paper because it misunderstood what a paper towel is. calling an animal by the wrong name.

describing emotions in a door/hallway metaphor. (“hallway full of bees” sorry, did you mean butterflies? distortion, you are experiencing butterflies.)

it was literally a door it doesn’t know this shit!

i think it has some memories attached to “who” it is, thus why it can tell michael shelley’s story, but little details like this? the nuance of the human experience? lost on it. too busy hating being even remotely like a who to stop and attempt to model after them properly.

this makes it mildly offputting and that’s the goal so it’s content <3

also @ distortion shippers this entity does not know how to kiss. gerry/jon/melanie/whoever else is gonna have to teach it how because it will just stand there, eyes open and everything, being a door.

tma s5 as a cartoon. can u imagine. different fear domains in different artstyles. can u IMAGINE.

flesh domain as claymation. oh my god. flesh domain as claymation!!!!

helen constantly switching between corporate artstyle and chaotic scribbles.

the eye is hyperrealistic in the sky at all times,,, and sometimes it turns to look at the viewer,,,,

they enter the panopticon, and suddenly thousands of different scenes from all around the eyepocalypse light up behind jonah magnus and he looks like a stained glass mosaic.

technically nobody can prove timelias enemies with benefits wasn’t real. it’s a free country and i get to choose what i believe

radioactive-yuri:

technically nobody can prove timelias enemies with benefits wasn’t real. it’s a free country and i get to choose what i believe

it started because tim flirts with everyone like. as a joke. and elias actually took it seriously. and then had to convince tim not to brag about it very loudly to anyone who’d listen

radioactive-yuri:

ok i know elias putting the information of her dad’s death into melanie’s head is supposed to be like. a scary and intimidating scene. but the way it’s placed directly after the interaction where basira jokes about melanie making elias cry makes me think like. what if she was right and elias got weirdly insecure about it and decided the only course of action to take was to mentally torture melanie about it.

melanie: i made elias cry?

basira: i dunno, probably. you can be very mean.

elias, watching from his office: shut up, that was one time!! and i was having a really bad day!!!

klm-zoflorr:

Maybe I just want Jonathan Sims to snap

griseldagimpel:

The thing about Simon Fairchild in The Magnus Archives - the thing that’s fascinating to me - is that he didn’t have to do anything wicked to become an Avatar. He did wicked things later, once he’d become an Avatar, but to achieve Avatarship in the first place, all he had to do was make beautiful art of the Vast and fall in love with it.

And it seems as though the Vast fell in love back such that when he fell, the Vast couldn’t bear to see him perish, and so he flew.

Simon goes on and on about how insignificant he is, but the literal god of the insignificance of humanity is invested in him, personally.

The other fascinating thing about Simon is that despite almost certainly having been raised Catholic and experiencing his miracle in a literal Catholic Church, he does not attribute his salvation to the Christian God. I wonder what drove that realization?

i create various horrible situations in my mind specifically engineered to upset, mortify, or otherwise inconvenience jonah magnus every single day. and you could too