Jonathan Sims has got to be the only character who could try to become God in order to kill everyone on Earth and still have me believing in his fundamental goodness as a person.
it makes my pupils turn into little beating cartoon hearts that elias’ mask of burecratic, academic, clerical work is so effective that he has to warn the people he imprisons dozens of times not to cross him and they all keep pushing. because they just don’t think he has it in him to hurt them! they don’t believe that their lives are tied to his. they don’t believe he has the capacity for violence. he’s just a suit!! a hands off manager with more interest in admin than management. and gracefully. effortless. on a dime. he can pull their darkest secrets out from the centers of their skulls like fistfuls of writhing maggots forced from their burrowholes into the blinding light of day. he can find you and pin you and look at you in the one place every living creature thinks themselves safe: inside your own head! there is nowhere you can curl up to hide from him. your inner monologue isn’t yours anymore. he can listen in and contribute any time he wants. he can show you what you’ve spent your whole life avoiding. he can force your eyes open when you screw them shut. and maybe if you’d believed him the first time he told you to back down, well….then this really needn’t have happened.
Thinking about trans Jonah Magnus being a confirmed bachelor in the 1800s and historians poring over the letters from his lovers and records of his life.
Two parents who only had one daughter on record, with said daughter disappearing as a teenager (not uncommon, teen pregnancies usually resulted in girls being sent away to a distant relative or monastery, sometimes returning and sometimes not). A month later, the parents’ nephew coming to live with them, with no records of him before that.
Letters to and from Mordechai Lukas and Jonathan Fanshawe and Barnabas Bennett, filled with subtle (and not so subtle) flirtation and invitations to their estates.
Jonah never marrying, never having children, but almost always being seen in the company of another man.
Jonah starting the Magnus Institute with the support of a wealthy man whom he has a very close relationship with.
The Institute becoming well known as a sort of haven for social rejects, one of the few places that would give real work to anyone regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality. This reputation continuing even well into the 21st century, and it being one of the reasons why the Institute is so looked down on.
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.
