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.
[Image description: art of Jonathan Sims with his hands pressed to his face, looking stressed. He has a cloud of yellow-green, bioluminescent eyes around his head. End image description]
every so often i just think about how good it was that the most foolproof one-size-fits-all solution for dealing with basically any horrifyingly evil supernatural monster of the week in the magnus archives was just. burying them in concrete. like yeah i can believe that a few tons of grey brutalist slop would stop the wolfman or pretty much anything in its tracks to be honest. they use that shit on nuclear waste. do you honestly think you’re stronger than a nuke? a fucking nuke?
To Me, The Magnus Archives is about how people love to feel power over each other as a way to emulate safety—and how we grapple with fear and victimhood in various horrible ways.
To me, what makes the Stranger scary and what differentiates it from the Spiral (inasmuch as any entity can be fully distinct from another) is that its manifestations (1) are purposefully pretending to be something they’re not and (2) they know that you know this. Like, there is something viscerally threatening about that specific situation.
Worked for Gertrude from ~1965 to ~1970/80 (time of death unclear)
Was consumed by the coffin due to Emma’s cruel negligence
Michael was hired as her replacement
Official death reported in 2003 from “complications following a liver transplant”
Worked for Gertrude for 5-15 years
Unless actually did die in 2003, in which case, closer to 40 years. But I find that unlikely
Eric Delano
Hired in Gertrude’s first year as Archivist
Worked for Gertrude from ~1965
Married Mary Keay at some point during his tenure
Father of Gerard Keay
Gerard was born ~1980.
Blinded himself after Gerard’s birth to free himself from the eye.
Killed by Mary Keay 2 years after Gerard’s birth.
Bound to the Catalogue of the Dead shortly after his death.
Worked for Gertrude for 15-20 years
Had left the archives months before Gertrude found out
his leaving was hidden from her by Magnus
She thought he was still working on statements when he died.
In 2008 Mary gave his page to Gertrude.
Gertrude talked to him, and discovered the truth about his life and death.
He reveals to her about how one can leave the institute
She eventually burns his page, letting him go to rest.
Emma Hardy
Hired in Gertrude’s first year as archivist
Worked for Gertrude from ~1965
Put her coworkers at risk to satisfy her own curiosity
Forming a relationship with the spider due to her manipulation and deceit of coworkers
Caused the death of Fiona Law
suspected to be behind Eric’s disappearance
Caused the death of Sarah Carpenter
Was murdered by Gertrude
Burned to death in her own flat
Never knew who killed her or why
Died as an old woman
Michael Shelley
Hired to replace Fiona Law
Was hired prior to Eric Delano leaing the institute
so, hired some time ~1980
Was kept ignorant of the archives true nature for his entire life
an experiment by Emma
Fed to the spiral by Gertrude to prevent the Great Twisting
Death occurred between 2009-2011
Worked for Gertrude, presumably, for around 30 years.
Second life as a face to the distortion
His anger and desire for vengeance on the archivist prompted him to eventually be rejected by the distortion - he no longer served its purpose. This occurred in 2017.
So, he was replaced by Helen.
Sarah Carpenter
Hired to replace Eric Delano
So, mid 1980s-1990s
She was hired some time after Eric’s disappearance
Was another victim of Emma hardy
She died around 2009/11 during the Spiral’s ritual
Burned by a representative of the desolation, because of Emma’s cruel negligence.
She was the final straw that led to Gertrude finally realising what was going on with Emma.
