soon

here’s my piece i did for the @spstylezine in full. this was a lot of fun to do, and i’m very glad i got to be apart of it. a huge thank you again to @bunytime, @sn33z3s, and @pononoin for all their efforts in organizing the zine and making it a really enjoyable experience. <3

— Sylvia Plath, from "Letters Home"

1) he was right. he was literally right. his assessment of the situation, despite being limited and vague due to only having access to limited and vague information, was factually correct in the major points. i will never ever get over that. he literally said in #039: although most of the statements we get aren’t real, i’m certain that the ones i have to record on a tape recorder are. and when i record these statements, i sense that a force outside of myself takes control of me. something that is always watching us here in the institute,and that wants us to be afraid. and like??? that IS what’s happening! that’s exactly what’s happening! that’s a surprisingly accurate description of how the beholding is using jon and the archives. and although feigning skepticism might not have been a successful strategy, i actually think that it was the most logical strategy to try. like ok, you don’t know exactly what’s going on here but you can tell that something Bad is observing your fear and taking satisfaction from it? simply refuse to be afraid. don’t take the bait that this entity gives you. do everything you can not to get sucked in so you don’t give it what it wants. i mean, that’s what joshua gillespie (coffin guy) did, and we’re always talking about how he was basically the only statement giver with brain cells. anyway, s1!jon made the right call on this one, and if there was a way out i think he would have found it. its just that there was never going to be a way out, because that’s how it goes in the world of tma. but jon was still doing the right thing, you know?

2) he didn’t let his fake skepticism get in the way of helping people. that’s why relistening to s1 after getting to the season finale and learning that jon was lying is so much fun for me; it’s fascinating to listen to early statements and realize how many of his supplementals are just “obviously this ludicrous story isn’t worth taking seriously or following up on at all” [spends another several minutes describing how he had the archives gang follow up on every possible lead, no matter how small, even if it required stealing police files or combing through years of accident reports] [provides details that show exactly what he thinks happened without admitting on the record that anything supernatural happened at all, wink wink] “anyway, that was a waste of time and no reasonable person would give a shit about this. fuck you” like??? jonathan sims my beloved.