like literally jonah gave his life and then several more lifetimes after that all in service of his most beloved watcher does that kind of devotion not just make your hair stand on end
a devotion so total that he built himself an institute to preside over 200 years of ceasless watching. a temple, an altar, a feeding trough. a worship so complete that he made himself the beating heart of his seat of power, all dedicated to a singular dread power, all under its watchful gaze.
This is apropos of nothing, but I do think that Jonah’s powers have nothing to do with speech. He can’t do the Archivist’s question thing that forces truth from people’s lips. No, his focus is on eyes, on Seeing. He sees through any eyes he wants, and it’s eye contact with him that bares all secrets to his gaze, that allows him to force other people’s memories, gazes and experiences into the viewer’s mind.
Thinking about 💕them 💞 (Jonah and The Eye, his devotion to it for hundreds of years, the way he brought it forth into the world, completing a Ritual that no one else had ever succeeded in, crafting Rituals for the Eye twice! And the Eye, in return, watching his death at their Archive’s hands, with all the fascination his own unrelenting gaze Watched the world with) 🥰🥰🥰
And, see, I think The Eye could have interceded, perhaps even saved him, but It did not. And it was not out of malice, or because It lacked affection for Jonah Magnus. No, it was because It was curious. Because It had to know, to Watch and See it all.
jonah magnus being trans is Such a big brain idea. The Eye is so heavily associated with Watching, but also being Seen. the dichotomy between the fear of being Seen by others vs the euphoria for being Seen for who you are is so inherently tied to the experiences of many trans people; something i assume that would ring especially true for someone raised in an ultra-conservative victorian england. it is no wonder that a man who’s desire for knowledge and desire/fear to be Seen would become such a prolific avatar of The Ceaseless Watcher.
I really think Elias loves scheduling so much because he looks into his employees’ lives and he gives them time off for events that they never informed him of. It’s nice for them - they’ll get a day off for things like their child’s birthday. If they’re worried about missing money when they miss a shift, they’re scheduled to come in for a day that they normally don’t work to make up for it. If they’re not worried about finances, they just get given a day off. It’s so nice, but it’s also so creepy, because how did Elias know that they would need to have the morning off to help their father get to his doctor’s appointment? Their dad hadn’t even told them about it when the schedule was made!
The absolute worst part of Elias getting arrested for murder and Peter taking over as Head of the Institute, is that suddenly everyone needed to figure out how to actually ask for time off. They’ll ask their department manager, but the department managers will say, “I’d approve it, but I don’t actually make our schedules…”
