Gay on main for Annabelle Cane

Chapters: 1/3 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist Characters: Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Martin Blackwood, Georgie Barker, Basira Hussain, Melanie King Additional Tags: Grief, So Much Grief, Post-Finale, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Panic Attacks, References to Depression, Friendship, Second Chances, spiritually a time travel fic but there’s no actual time travel, Minor Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Minor Sasha James/Tim Stoker, Angst with a Happy Ending, the ‘major character death’ is Tim btw, so: canon character death, but it feels emotionally important to include, Canon-Typical Violence, Pining Summary:

I don’t forgive you, Tim says, and then there’s a click.

-

He has chronic Just Some Guy Syndrome

"I was going to snatch you away. Lure you both into this web, and then take you. Drive him to despair, so that when you returned to him, bulging, and talking in a thousand tiny voices, it would drive him to a final push. "

I’ve been thinking “tapes are Web” for a while now and Season 5 has made that so solid for me that I would be really, really surprised if they aren’t at this point. Here’s my reasoning:

Tapes aren’t Beholding: They could record in Upton House, which was blocked from the Eye. (It’s also more or less said directly to the audience in MAG 170, when Martin points out that the Eye wouldn’t need them anymore.) This means -

Tapes aren’t Jon: Listen. I love the idea that the tape recorders are somehow Jon keeping Martin company in S4, or helping him hold on in MAG 170. But if they’re Jon, what’s he using to manifest them if not the Beholding? Even if you lean into the idea that the categories aren’t cut and dry, or that being the Archive of the fears has made Jon into a unique power himself, Upton House definitely blocked whatever powers he had, but the tape recorders still manifested. I can’t really see them being him.

Besides … listen. The supernatural is never nice in TMA. Even if they were Jon, they wouldn’t be anything good – they’d be something harmful he was doing against his will, or an attempt to help that ended up dooming them. The recorder may have helped Martin in 170, but that doesn’t mean it’s his friend. Any more than the Web is Jon’s friend for helping him discover Prentiss. On that note -

There is really strong evidence in S5 that the tapes are the Web -

Annabelle Cane must be as dependent on the Web as Jon is on the Eye – her head was bashed open and there was nothing but cobwebs inside. If the Web couldn’t get through to Upton House she’d have been as ill as Jon, but she was fine. Meaning the Web can exert influence inside Upton House, while at least two other powers cannot. (Eye and Spiral. Possibly all the others but we know those two for sure.)

There’s a very short list of things Jon can’t See now, and the Web is on it. What’s particularly telling about the tape recorders, though, is that he doesn’t seem interested in looking at them. They’re a strange, obviously supernatural object that’s always with him, that he should be suspicious of, but that he voluntarily keeps around and doesn’t question much. What does that remind you of? Shut up, I’ll tell you what it reminds you of, it reminds you of his stupid obviously Web-aligned lighter.

There’s a moment in MAG 187 where the recorders come up:

HELEN: The tape recorder feels more, um… awake.

ARCHIVIST: Oh. Oh, joy. Come on.

Jon’s “this may as well happen” response is understandable at this point, so one might miss how weird a reaction it is for him. This is the person who vibrated at a frequency that could shatter glass at the prospect of a mystery in MAG 180, and he barely even pauses here. It’s not just that he’s focused on Helen, because he doesn’t attempt to See what’s up with them after she’s gone. He doesn’t even sound interested. It’s almost identical to this moment in MAG 136:

DAISY: She’s Web. Spider’s sneaky like that. Like that lighter you’re always using; where’d you get that?

ARCHIVIST: Mm. Good point. We should keep our eyes open. Anyways - How’s Basira doing?

In both cases Jon has someone point out that the obviously sinister object is sinister. He acknowledges it, doesn’t argue it, then immediately moves on and changes the subject. Not because he isn’t interested, but because the Web is keeping him from thinking about it.

There’s plenty evidence that the tapes are connected to Jon, sure. But given that the Web was the first power that marked him, I imagine they’re just a manifestation of the strings being wound around him.

(Not a S5 thing, but there’s also an interesting connection in MAG 123, where Annabelle Cane is looking for people to tell stories of traumatic things that happened to them for reasons that aren’t really that fleshed out in the statement itself. Pretty noteworthy given what the tape recorders are used for.)

Also. I mean.

I mean.

Just.

JON: “Why did she begin recording them? And why stop? If she’d been doing so right up until her death, she would’ve likely gotten through much of the archive, and… moreover I wouldn’t have had to find this tape player tucked away in the storage room, covered in dust and cobwebs.”

And how the tape for the first episode for some reason was waiting for Jon at HTR in MAG147:

[THEY ALL BEGIN TO TAKE THE STAIRS; THE ARCHIVIST’S STEPS ARE HEAVY, AND THE STAIRS CREAK UNDER HIS WEIGHT. AS HE CONTINUES CLIMBING, BREATHS COMING HEAVY, A STRANGELY FAMILIAR VOICE BEGINS TO RESOLVE FROM THE BACKGROUND.]

[IT’S THE ARCHIVIST.]

[HIS VOICE IS CLEARLY ON TAPE, AND IT SOON BECOMES CLEAR THAT THE RECORDING PLAYING IS THAT OF CASE #0122204 (MAG #1: “ANGLERFISH.”)]

Which isn’t the first tape the Web has left for him; The statement from MAG130 was covered in webs as well.