2023-02-01 11:35:19 ¶ ●

## I’ve finally managed to persuade two of my friends to listen to The Magnus Archives, and since neither of them have seen any fan content, I asked them to describe Jon to me. These were their descriptions:

S: Olive skin, little moustache, peach fuzz, light brown short fluffy hair, thin black glasses, wears nice brown suit with dark green waistcoat.

A: Double breasted pinstripe suit, red satin lining, matching straight cut trousers a bit too big, high neck shirt collar, winklepickers, monocle, short brown hair in finger wave, roman nose, green eyes, big ears, very pale (because he’s in the dark all the time), deep set eyes from lack of sleep, clean shaven, thin lips, definitely carries a pocket knife, has a briefcase backpack (like a French school child) that has stickers on it from different airports, a walking stick with a handle shaped like an otter with visitor centre pins on it.

2023-02-03 3:04:07 ¶ ●

I’ve been thinking about Martin and Jon’s relationship in season 2, and came across an aspect I hadn’t previously considered.

When Micheal stabs Jon it’s just them, meaning after Micheal slipped away he left Jon alone in his office. The cut was bad, obviously, bad enough to need stitches, but after a shock like that there’s no way Jon took himself to A&E.

He lies that he cut himself with a bread knife, but this lie makes no sense if he was in his office. What I think happened, is upon realising the seriousness of his injury, Jon went to find the nearest first aid kit, most often found in kitchen areas of course.

When Martin comes into the kitchen he finds Jon bleeding all over himself, struggling to open a cheap first aid kit, very stressed, and obviously in a lot of pain. You’d be surprised, but even the most willing people are often incredibly opposed to the idea of hospitalisation for anything less than life threatening, and Jon is NOT the type of person to take a hospital trip lightly.

So, after extensive argument (only ended by Jon becoming too lightheaded to argue his case), they’d go down to A&E, and sit awkwardly together for the hours it takes to finally get seen. There’s something so bonding about sitting with someone in their moment of need, even if you’re not doing much else but being there.

When you’re physically vulnerable like that you also tend to be more emotionally vulnerable; it’s easy to blurt out something profound when you’re more focused on handling pain and bleeding then you are on censoring yourself.

This experience, especially so soon after Prentiss’s attack and all that ensued, opens up that raw connection you can only really ever have in crisis, it may be a trauma bond, as I’m certain they have one, but I think it’s also more than that. It’s seeing eachother at rock bottom and realising just how important they are to you, and just how awful it’d be to lose them.

It’s so early on in their journey, but I think this relatively small event changed the course of their relationship. Martin knew Jon was having a hard time, he complained with Tim, it was clearly distressing, but he still kept an eye on Jon, looked after him. Even in the depths of his distrust this surely broke through Jon’s armour, no matter how little he seemed to show it at the time.

The shared crisis of Jon’s injury gave Martin an excuse to hang around Jon when he needed it the most and didn’t even see it himself.

2023-02-04 3:12:52 ¶ ●

I like to think that outside of the archives Elias was known only as the silly, overenthusiastic, eccentric boss who enjoys paperwork way too much. Realistically he was equally feared by everyone but it makes the idea of Tim trying to expose the whole plot a lot funnier.

“Elias is evil and hes masterminding a terrible plan and if we don’t stop him we’ll all end up dead!”

“Elias….? Like, Elias Bouchard? The guy who religiously does his paperwork on the same day every week… The guy who once sat me down to ask if that weird plant in the hall was freaking me out?”

2023-02-08 15:09:52 ¶ ●

Do you headcanon Jon (tma) as autistic?

yes (I’m from the UK.)

yes (I’m from the US.)

yes (I’m from another country.*)

no (I’m from the UK.)

no (I’m from the US.)

no (I’m from another country.*)

See Results

*please put your country in the tags! :)

2023-02-15 2:55:59 ¶ ●

I know the implication in Basira getting rid of Jon’s spare clothes from the archives was that they were ruined when the flesh attacked, but wouldn’t it be so much sadder if it was because of how his absence affected them?

You know how smells stick to fabrics better than most things? Even if you don’t know a colleague that well there’s a good chance you know what they smell like, even subconsciously. But everyone in the archives knew eachother well, even if they didn’t like it.

With Jon gone everything was left to Basira, we all know how much she had to do to hold the group together, even at the expense of her own emotions. Perhaps she could tell herself it was for the benefit of others that she bundled up the neatly folded clothes, still strongly scented with that fresh, bright, laundry powder smell.

After all, she’d seen Martin standing there in the office, before Peter Lukas showed up of course. Standing there like he’d been looking for something, the cupboard open but his arms hanging by his sides. The smell of clean clothes in the air and a tear on his cheek.

And Melanie, her anger almost as potent as Martin’s grief, but her tears were tears of anger. She’d been looking for a pen-Jon always seemed to have them on hand, but being in that office, that scent in the air mixed with the musty smell of the old books in the place that has her trapped, the place that caused the death of friends, that stripped her of her liberty.

And so perhaps as Basira held a bin liner full of slightly dusty clean clothes and a handful of pens from a desk drawer, she told herself she didn’t feel guilty. She had to do this, for the good of her team. Or at least what was left of it.

2023-02-28 0:11:58 ¶ ●

## Completely irrelevant, incredibly specific headcanons I have for certain TMA characters

Rosie: Uses margarine instead of butter.

Daisy: Doesn’t turn the volume up in multiples of 5.

Martin: Hates that seam inside the toes of socks that kinda digs in sometimes.

Melanie: Always has a bottle or can of fizzy drink around.

Jon: Has a thing about the quality of paper.

Elias: Rhythmically taps the tip of his toe on the ground whilst waiting.

Basira: Likes notebooks.

Georgie: Has pink headphones.

Sasha: Always wears boots that click on the floor.

Tim: Ties his shoelaces weirdly.