THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES
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- Опубліковано 17 сер 2020
- Case ########-7. An examination of Gertrude Robinson. Audio recording by the Archivist.
Content warnings: Manipulation - Reported violence - Immolation / Death by fire
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Edited this week by Nico Vettese, Elizabeth Moffatt, Brock Winstead & Alexander J Newall.
Written by Jonathan Sims
directed by Alexander J Newall
Produced by Lowri Ann Davies
Performances: "The Archivist" - Jonathan Sims; "Martin Blackwood" - Alexander J. Newall;
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i really enjoy it when martin asks a random question and Jon starts spewing a statement like a coke with a mento in it
"hey jon have you seen my pen-"
*_"it all started in a gloomy night, four months ago-"_*
lmao the analogy is hilarious
💀💀💀🤣
he's infodumping
@@f_mvaI love TMA's comment sections 💀
Martin: share your feelings
Jon: oh okay *statement begins*
Martin: yep we'll need to work on that
Fuck 😄 If this keeps going, Jon's going to start talking about himself in the third person. "Jon was deeply in love with Martin now, but he wasn't sure how to simply *say* the words, the naked baring of his soul so he simply told Martin to *ask* him. For his part, Martin felt this was a bit cowardly. But he loved Jon (had done, for so long) and his life had been so bereft of affection that he forgave it. ..Martin did get more irritated when Jon narrated Martin's thoughts. Statement ends."
martin: "use your feeling words please"
jon: *chokes*
amazing
jon is so relatable in so many ways
Jon, season 1: “UGH Martin is so USELESS”
Jon, season 5: “You’re my reason, Martin ❤️”
"Just wanted to hear you say it ; )"
I love Jon&Martin so much
Lovin Martin teasin Jon to say 'You are my reason.'
Boy bein bold lol
I love Martin's "😏" to Jon's "🙄".
I really like seeing Martin set boundaries. He's gotten a lot of character development.
i just wish he had some way to know that jon isnt lying to him about not reading his mind. im sure the possibility weighs on him.
HELP I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE 😭😭😭
@@MANNIKINART Be seeing you
@@rosemarycat5 elias real?????????/j
I'd like to think being pestered by Peter caused Martin to gain more confidence about drawing lines.
"I don't know if I would have told them"
- Jon "most likely to give a rib for someone who tried to kill them" Sims
Mr. “let me have the avatar of The Flesh pull out some ribs and dive into the domain of The Buried for Daisy McWerewolf”
Mr. “let’s pull out our eyeballs and run away together”
Mr. “hack away at a spooky table to avenge my friend”
Mr. “I’m going to jump into the literal domain of depression and loneliness to save my not-yet boyfriend”
Really said “idk if I would’ve sacrificed myself for everyone”
@@georgeweasley54
Well that sums up quite nicely. I love how he also once described himself as "not a brave man" but only "a very stubborn one" under certain circumstances lol
Maybe he just couldn't dare to answer that question because he most likely new the answer to it.
the combination of the horrifying apocalyptic hellscape and jon and martin's banter and relationship is so surreal and so, so very enjoyable
Either jon just sat straight up and stared straight ahead as he talked, or he looked like he was having a one sided conversation with martin and was being very expressive. There is no inbetween and both are hilarious
i like imagining him being INCREDIBLY EXPRESSIVE, like not only making the expressions but gesturing and shaking, nodding or tilting his head
me when info dumping about my special interest
If the others had known killing Jon would free them I think the girls would’ve launched a sneak attack, they’re fucking feral
Melanie, at the very least, 100% would have. Not even an instants hesitation from her.
@@sabrinasutter115 Yes :) But also, Jon said he doesnt know if he would tell them, but lets face it, he would have told them and would not have stood in their way.
the way you described them being like rabid dogs descending on Jon is accurate but it still made me laugh
Basira, maybe. Melanie and Daisy, absolutely. Melanie may not have even waited for him to finish his sentence before charging at him with a knife.
S3 daisy would have murked him instantly, he’s the one holding Basira hostage after all. S4 daisy? She needs the eye to protect her from the hunt as much as Jon needs it, and Basira’s already too deep in it.
I feel like if that information would’ve been spilled to the gang Melanie would’ve most definitely considered murder
Esp when she still had that bullet in her leg
considered? she almost murdered jon *without* that kind of incentive, she wouldnt even hesitate
Yeah if they found out in s3-4 that killing Jon would free them they would have put a bullet in him immediately, and the only one who would protest would be Martin.
Considered? She would've stabbed the guy before the statement was even over
@@belugaval144keep in mind that she tried to murder Elias twice on the *chance* that it would free her. And Melanie has had a hate boner for Jon since day one so as far as I can tell she would have jumped at the opuritunity to get a surefire get out of archives free card.
“Methinks the spider doth protest too much.” Jon you are literally the love of my life help
*martin and jon having a quiet, tender moment*
me: :( my god
jonny: *THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES iS A PODCAST DISTRIBUTED MY RUSTY QUILL, AND LICEN-*
"just wanted to make you say it!" this cheeky boi. if he dies i'm setting my computer on fire.
Same
He spent years believing he would never hear something like that from Jon. You bet he's gonna drink that up. And at this point I don't think Jon would really refuse him anything.
I think the web was spewing the strings here again to give marting a reason to feel strong for what is about to come or for jon i guess
Idk how else to say it but imo such comments are even funnier by using that "bold grammar"
Kinda sad when you realise that Gertrude's entire legacy was one big waste of time, that she sacrificed Michael, Yann, Gerard and all the rest to stop rituals that never could have worked.
I really think that Gerry was her just being cruel, though. I honestly see no reason for her to have put him in a book, then leave him on another continent for no reason. I don't see how the book could have ended up in good hands, but her leaving him just cements that for me. Even if her other actions "were for the greater good" that one is the biggest fault in her entire ideology.
What I love, however, is how Gertrude's Archive™could've been its own little Podcast and TMA just feels like an organic continuation of an already fleshed-out story.
fwiw i heard an interesting theory @@biancamlf288 that Gertrude Did That to Gerry because he was becoming an avatar (those eyes) and that wouldve been its own brand of awful, and she wasntsure he could die as an avatar so she... paused him in the book essentially. but i agree, she shouldnt have
She didn’t sacrifice Gerard. He died of cancer.
@@GarethOfByzantium she put him in a book. Also there's hints she may have known about his cancer but left him in ignorance
@@GarethOfByzantiumthat’s just want the government WANTS you to think
Holy crap Michael deserved so much better. I’m so mad. So much better. He had no chance or idea, he couldn’t even make an informed decision in helping.
thats what im saying! of course i feel bad for all her assitants but what happened to him takes my heart the most:(
im just imagining them holding hands as they walk :,-)
Oh their definitely holding hands
Martin in 158: and Jon came back and I had a reason
Jon now: yes Martin you are my reason
WE HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE GUYS!!
I like to think that Jon doesn't blink at all while he's reading/reciting statements.
He’s a Bug of a man
Poor Michael :((( he deserved better
He really did, heck who's to say in his own strange way that he was trying to save the inheritor of his beloved boss' title from a terrible fate?
It's so sad. Especially after he was descibed as so innocent 😞
Gertrude really said “lemme just sacrifice the cutest femboy in the archives”
@@malaizze SFSHJDJSK
@@malaizze how do we know he was a femboy?
Gertrud leaving dead assistens left and right while interupting rituals that would have failed anyway, while poor Jon spends nearly the entire seasons 2-4 to feel bad for every small bit of pain his assistens had to experience. Still don't get why Gertrud is heroised that much.
She was a force of nature, the same way people speak of the power of hurricanes. Dispite their destruction, they are still spoken of years after because of their strength.
I don’t think of Gertrude as a hero. She did a lot of messed up shit, and did it in a cold, calculating way without much obvious remorse.
However she is a fascinating character.
She obviously didn’t know until the Dark’s ritual that all the individual rituals were doomed to fail. She genuinely believed that if any single one of the rituals weren’t stopped, the world would end and become a nightmarish hellscape.
So, with that burden of knowledge and responsibility on her shoulders, she did what she felt she had to in order to stop any ritual she could. Any person she sacrificed, she did with literally a “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” sort of mentality.
It’s somewhat ironic that she was the one who “insisted on staying human” rather than embrace being The Archivist, since she still had to distance herself from her morals and humanity in order to be able to do what she felt needed to be done.
She said herself at the end of one of her statements, “It’ll be years yet when I can afford a conscience.” (or something to that effect)
Basically, I think people admire her because she did what she needed to do without hesitation or apology, and that’s a rare trait.
But it’s possible to admire that aspect of her while still acknowledging that she did a lot of morally questionable stuff in the name of the greater good.
I think it´s abit of "the enemy of your enemy is your friend". You just hate the other fears so much that your happy at least someone was able to fight them even if that someone wasn´t a good human beeing.
And seeing someone beeing a badass is kind of cool even if they are evil.
She was a badass. And there wasn't an ounce of bad intentions or petiness in her.
She just wanted to save the world. If she herself had to kill a couple of guys by her own, to save literal billions of people from eternal torment and horror, she would do it without hesitation.
Yes, it was pointless in the end. That's why she stopped. But she didn't get sad and lose all purpose, she just moved on to the next good she could do.
And she's a savage pyromaniac grandma. Hell yeah.
She also was the archivist for a much longer time than Jon and she thought all the stuff she did was necessary to safe the world. I still like Jon better and think he is a better person, but who knows how he would have changed, if he had been in her position longer
It's certainly a testament to the writing and acting that I'm having such a hard time imagining the process of creating the characters and getting across who they are and what they're like, as like, you know, fictional characters. It must have take a lot of planning and direction and mood boards and all sorts of stuff but it all seems so natural and real that it's like an apple product where you can't find the damn screws to get into it to see how it works. This series is so very good 👏
I love Gertrude as a character. She is Messed up but i love her and this was a great episode dealing with her morality.
We love a morally grey character
So, what you're saying, is that love is going to save the world ?
And if Martin dies, John doesn't have a reason anymore, so Martin won't die !
Martin is unkillable!
YES
This comment aged well huh?
Oh how this aged...
This aged well :)
Ok...what the hell is going to happen to Martin?!
I love how Jon’s ascending to a full on avatar of the eye empowers him to become the third person omniscient narrator for more stories lol
The transcription being: *fond and audible eyerolling* Yes Martin, you are my reason
Is so cute xD I love this little moments of... peace between all the horrible things. At least they have each other.
Now wondering if Martin would be alone in the Lonely or with the Eye...
The Lonely or The Spider, I think. He always had both somewhere.
That was so cute
is it just me or is he reading the outro so much faster now? calm down slim shady the words aren't going anywhere
It's not just you.
There is a special, peaceful patch of Heaven reserved for archival assistants and radio station interns.
Gertrude is not a good person, but she's an incredibly strong one. I loved the focus on the past generation, at the quickening pace of supernatural occurances.
Martin and Jon's discussions on their humanity and personal needs and boundaries is a great way to open and close the episode. But also Martin asking about the "others" being released by Jon's death, not counting himself either because he was no longer an assistant by the end or because he would choose to stay with him.
Exactly that. That little question stayed in my mind after that "the others"
:( I think if Jon found out dying would free them he would have told them... in a note. He was often scared, but showed many times he was willing to die for them :(
Lets get real, it would have been recorded on tape, and he'd leave the tape for them.
Oh. O h. So they really should have killed Jon, huh. God what a loveless life you lead, old man. Permission to hug this creature? No? N o? Okay.
"Who knows"
"I could"
Skdkdkd
Ok I knew that Mikey was an innocent bby but now I know it's definetly canon and it makes me sad and happy at the same time
I just imagine Martin quietly listening to the statement awkwardly and kinda terrified with his hands folded looking like 😶
i love how this podcast expresses the importance of setting boundaries
Jonathan McSelfless Sims really said "I don't know if I would've told my loved ones that killing me would set them free of a lifetime of hurt"
Like he didn't go get his ribs ripped out of his body so he could jump headfirst into the Buried to save a woman he held no fondness for, a woman who tried to kill him.
Like he didn't literally starve himself because he didn't want others to suffer for his actions, because he realized that while suppressing his hunger hurt, knowing that what he was doing scared the people he cared for *hurt more*
Like he didn't follow the man he loved into the Lonely knowing full well he might not be able to find his way back because he *needed* Martin to know that he wasn't alone, that he still had people who cared.
These are just three big examples I can think of. Jon is always throwing himself infront of things to spare others. "I don't know" He says.
Martin: I'm making a run down to the shops, do we need anything?
Jon: Statement of Jonathan Sims, concerning the quantities of certain grocery items in the fridge and various kitchen cabinets in his
“Remind me to tell you about Agnes sometime.”
This makes me sadder than it should.
"curse this flesh prison" same
The way Martin says 'physical danger' at 02:33 is my favorite thing it is So Soft
From a blight upon the archives to Jon's reason to go on, Martin has always been a hero
Jon and Martin being cheezy is my jam
Martin: Do you know _know_ that?
Jon:
Jon: *exhales* To-
I feel like this is the best season. Which, despite wanting more, makes me very glad that it's the last season. Best to go out on the best stuff, after all.
I can imagine martin and jon just wandering around while jon rambles about this
Michael really didn't deserve what happened to him. I want to hug him. :(
I love that Martin is Jon's reason :)
Martin's fabulously written commentary in this season is my FAVORITE thing! Well, one of them. It's a very close tie next to them being boyfriends living through the apocalypse together as their reason to go on :)
So what you're telling me is that the key to resisting the fears is "SCREW THIS STUFF *passes out*"
Jon's recordings are becoming more and more poetic with each episode
I always love to hear more of the institutes past
Ok so like we all agree if Jon had know he would’ve tried to get himself killed right? Like he already did try but like 100%
So The Eye also covers unethical experimentation? That makes sense.
The assistant kept finding cobwebs in her hair. It was a sign she had been marked by the Web and leaned that way. The Eye watches, but doens't intervene. The Web pulls this way and that.
Michael really didn't deserve what happened to him. I want to hug him. :(
It's my personal headcanom that the ghost in 100 is Emma, still aflame from this revenge, testing her ghostly abilities
Yay I'm up to date! At least on UA-cam's end. To celebrate, I thought I'd ask those who read the comments like I do, what of the 14 fears do you fear the most, and who would your patron be, if you had to guess? My greatest fear would be the spiral. Growing up my mum (who had custody of me) had undiagnosed schizophrenia along with a host of other mental disorders, and I am absolutely terrified that I cannot trust myself, that I will end up like her. As for my patron, I honestly think it would be The Eye. I'm... Not the most academic, but my curiosity has always been there, and I think the fact that I have consumed this entire podcast in a single week shows my hunger for knowledge, for stories. I look forward to reading the replies (if there are any), I honestly find the community in the comment sections of these videos so comforting! Ty for reading :)
I know this isn't of much comfort but I'm sorry to hear about your mum, op. To be fair, I actually also found a link between my own mental illness and the entities, as I'm convinced my patron would definitely be the Lonely. I thought the entities were all interesting, but not particularly relatable for me, as I never really found any of them scary (except maybe for the Dark, as silly as it might be) but the moment Peter Lukas showed up and they went more in-depth about what the Lonely is and how it works I had kind of a "(chuckles) I'm in danger!" epiphany because oh shit, that me! The Lonely is literally, word by word, exactly how my depression and social phobia works and functions, and to hear Lukas go on about "wooshing" unwanted people out of existence, disappearing at will, wanting to die alone, and finding refuge in the fog (which coincidentally, is also how my own therapist described my depressive episodes- almost had me blackout right there and then lemme tell you) and finding all of it familiar and almost comforting was... unsettling. I never found any of the content triggering or such but the Lonely episodes really have me go through it, lads. I don't know where I'm going with this, I just had already asked myself your question and felt like sharing my conclusion lol
@@Lisa-fp6pm first of all, thank you for sharing. It honestly does mean alot, thank you. Second of all, I wanna say that I relate to your experience with "the lonely". Ive found many of what could described as my mental illnesses described to me over this series. Also that, the one episode that did "trigger" me was about the Lonely, so yeah. I'm also rooting for you, and I hope you know that, at least. Again, Thank you for responding :)
The Vast is my answer to both tbh. I’ve always been absolutely terrified of heights, deep waters, the endless void of space, but I’ve also always been so drawn to them. Something about looking into the void and having it look back is an absolutely beautiful experience. Greatest fear or not, I doubt I’ll ever stop looking into The Vast. There’s just something so freeing about seeing your own insignificance.
@@notlurking2128 of course! :) it was actually nice to write my thoughts down for once so thank you for asking!! Hope you have a good one :) ❤︎
This podcast made me fear The End...
...the end of this podcast.
Ba dum tss.
I'm still salty about how the other characters treated Michael, like the bean didn't deserve it smh
I am enjoying the relationship banter between Jon and Martin, it's adorable
“cURsE THiS FLesH PRisON”
Why does Martin act like Jon didn’t tell him about having a Domain in a later episode? He literally tried to here and Martin told him not too.
There is definitely not enough gay content on this planet, otherwise I probably wouldn't have had a heart attack when Martin made Jon say "You are my reason" like holy shit I am dead I am dying I am deceased, please buy me a nice tomb stone that says "died from a gay couple that was too cute to survive"
Wait hang on. Hang on. Are *we* the Eye? Like, us, the viewers? Are we the Beholding?
Cos, like, it's assumed that it's the Eye listening to them through the tape recorders. And we only ever view the Magnus Archives world through these recordings. But it's not just that. At the beginning and end of every recording, we've heard a series of clicks. That's the play button being pressed. But you don't normally hear that on a cassette tape. That sound occurs before the recorder starts running. So we aren't just listening to the recordings themselves. It's like we're in the room with the tape recorder, and *we* are pressing the play button.
Idk, just something I thought of
Interesting thing to point out, well done
I think we're an aspect of the Eye, certainly.
Yes.
Martin just walking along. Suddenly his thoughts are in stereo. JON!
1) YES I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MARTIN'S DOMAIN, DOES HE HAS NEW COOL POWERS?!
2) "YOU ARE MY REASON MARTIN" -shut up!!!!
Ok, I thought nobody would ever beat Elias, but now I found a new person tp hate with a burning (no pun intended) passion: Emma Harvey.
Also, the casualty rate of TMA interns is as huge as Welcome to Night Vale one. 😅
Yay, it's here!
I've already listened to this, but this is just another reason to re listen :)
12:41 If I had a nickel for every time I heard my Third Grade homeroom teacher's name mentioned in a piece of media I enjoyed, I'd have two nickels! Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice. . .
This is my first time being here for an upload day!! :) So exciting!
Me thinks the spider doth protests
*"CURSE THIS FLESH PRISON"*
im fuckin dead kids
all this great jmart content is killing me i love them so much
I’ll never get over what Gertrude did to Michael. His story hurts me the most.
This might be one of the most horrifying episodes, because it reminds me of a case I heard of a family's friend that had been secretly tormenting the daughter. Not in a direct child abuse way, but constant sabotage, pretending to be friends who became hateful, leaving awful notes. This went on for years and no one knew. Just this one person's game.
I kind of wish Emma survived somehow. She would be a great deux ex machina Web avatar reveal.
Jon: "Yes Martin, you are my reason"
😢❤
The fact that S1 Jon hated Martin's guts feels like a memory now
"you're my reason" so sweet awww
Þis is one of þe best episodes so far, wow, really amazing.
Martin is feckin adorable
ah this show is so fucking good
Poor michael ( ´-｀)
EXT. SOMEWHERE IN THE UK]
[TAPE CLICKS ON.]
[FOOTSTEPS IN THE GRAVELLY ROAD, WALKING IN A COMFORTABLE SILENCE. THEN:]
ARCHIVIST
Help us with what?
MARTIN
Excuse me?
[IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT THE ARCHIVIST’S STATIC IS PRESENT.]
ARCHIVIST
Annabelle, help us with… what, our, our, our journey, killing Elias, vanishing the Entities - what?
MARTIN
Please don’t do that.
ARCHIVIST
Do what? (realizes) Oh. Oh, right, I, I see, yes. Well, I - Sorry.
MARTIN
It doesn’t - feel great, having someone look inside your head.
ARCHIVIST
You can - feel it?
[MARTIN EXHALES, A SMALL PUFF OF A THING.]
MARTIN
No, but that’s hardly the point, John -
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping) Oh, no, I see, sorry, um, right.
MARTIN
I mean, I don’t want to keep secrets from you, but -
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping) You should at least - be able to.
MARTIN
Basically, yeah!
ARCHIVIST
I-I suppose that’s fair.
MARTIN
It’s just- it’s weird knowing that you can know literally everything I think and feel. E-Especially since you’re not exactly the most open of people - emotionally, I mean.
ARCHIVIST
What - That’s not fair; I share!
MARTIN
Sure you do.
ARCHIVIST
I do.
MARTIN
Okay, so how exactly would you describe your current emotional state regarding all of this?
ARCHIVIST
I -
MARTIN
(overlapping) Go on, I’m all ears.
ARCHIVIST
I feel…
MARTIN
(go on) Mhm.
ARCHIVIST
(sigh) I feel… sad.
[BRIEF PAUSE.]
MARTIN
(flat) Sad.
ARCHIVIST
Very sad.
MARTIN
(*very* flat) Very sad.
[HE SIGHS SLIGHTLY AS HE SAYS IT. THEIR BAGS JANGLE.]
ARCHIVIST
Yes, alright; point taken.
MARTIN
You said you could control it now.
ARCHIVIST
I can, I, I just - it - You’re absolutely right. I will refrain from knowing anything about you.
MARTIN
Thank you.
ARCHIVIST
Unless you’re in danger.
MARTIN
(with a laugh) Physical danger; If I’m in danger of being mad at you or something -
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping) I -
[HE SIGHS.]
MARTIN
(continuing over him) - you’ve got to figure it out the old-fashioned way.
ARCHIVIST
Fine. Agreed.
[A SIGH.]
[THEN:]
ARCHIVIST (CONT’D)
So. What did Annabelle say?
MARTIN
(exhale) She offered to help, but she didn’t say what with; she… asked us where we were going; I didn’t tell her, but… it was pretty obvious she had a good idea?
ARCHIVIST
Did you… feel like she was influencing your mind at all?
MARTIN
I don’t think so, but I mean… who knows?
ARCHIVIST
I could.
MARTIN
(increasingly forceful) But look. She didn’t control me into asking you not to look into my head, if that’s what you’re thinking. That’s all me -
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping) Martin, I’m not looking for a - loophole.
MARTIN
Well, good, ‘cause this isn’t one.
[BRIEF PAUSE.]
ARCHIVIST
(teasing) Methinks the Spider dost protest too much.
[MARTIN STOPS WALKING.]
MARTIN
John -
ARCHIVIST
(jeez) Joking! Just joking.
[THEY START WALKING AGAIN.]
MARTIN
(with a sigh) Do you know where she was calling from?
ARCHIVIST
No. She - No. She’s still - hidden, somewhere; I, I can see her voice coming down the phone line, but the closer it gets to her the harder it is to see.
Mm, Christ, this all feels so - (inhale) obtuse; it’s like, I have the power to drink the whole ocean, but I have to do it through a straw.
[HE SIGHS.]
[PAUSE.]
ARCHIVIST (CONT’D)
What?
MARTIN
Just - I don’t know, it - it worries me, I guess? You know, when you do the whole - (imitation of the Archivist’s ‘Statement Voice’) - curse this flesh prison - (normal) - thing, it-
I get you’re different; none of us are what we were, but, well? It worries me.
ARCHIVIST
Sorry.
MARTIN
That’s not - It’s okay.
[THE ARCHIVIST SIGHS.]
MARTIN (CONT’D)
(brighter) Anyway, my flesh prison - (small laugh) - would like to stop for a bit. How far until the next… domain?
ARCHIVIST
A while. If you want to stop, it’s as good a place as any.
MARTIN
(with a sigh) No, I just - need a moment. One where I’m not just relentlessly pushing forward.
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping, large sigh) Alright, we can stop.
[THEY STOP WALKING. WE HEAR A BIT OF JINGLING AS THEY PRESUMABLY SET DOWN THEIR BAGS AND SIT DOWN.]
[THEY SIT IN SILENCE FOR A BIT.]
[THEN:]
[MARTIN SIGHS.]
MARTIN
Why did it have to be us?
ARCHIVIST
You’d rather be a bystander?
[CLOTHING SOUNDS AS HE SHIFTS.]
ARCHIVIST (CONT’D)
Trapped in one of those places?
MARTIN
I don’t know. No.. I just - (exhale) I bet Gertrude would be able to do this, you know? She - She would eat a hellscape like this for breakfast.
[SLIGHT PAUSE.]
ARCHIVIST
I - don’t think she would have done very well here.
MARTIN
No?
ARCHIVIST
No.
[MORE SOUNDS OF MOVEMENT.]
MARTIN
Do you… Know that?
[A BRIEF PAUSE. THE ARCHIVIST’S STATIC STARTS UP. HE TAKES A SHAKY BREATH.]
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)
To say that Gertrude Robinson never had a friend would not be true. She was close in her way to many people, but looking back I wonder if she ever realized just how strongly she herself reeked of the Lonely.
When she first joined the Archives, she took the place of a man named Angus Stacey, whose face was torn from his skull by a creature of masks and smiles.
Gertrude had thought of as ‘The Grinning Wheel,’ and it was one of the first things to fall at the hands of the Institute’s new avenger. Appropriately enough, Gertrude used fire.
She had some small knowledge of the truth of things when she first took the position, enough knowledge to be dangerous, as the old saying goes, but also enough to be cautious, and it was leaning into this second inclination that kept her alive through those first few years.
Angus Stacey had, in the long tradition of Institute Archivists, been a disappointment to the man whose eyes then sat in the smirking face of one Director Richard Mendelson.
Angus had been too keen to learn, too ambitious in his academic legacy. He had had grand plans to revise Smirke’s Fourteen, and, in doing so, burned through his resources, his luck, and ultimately all but one of his assistants.
When Gertrude was appointed to the role, there was a single survivor left in the Archives: A woman by the name of Fiona Law.
Fiona was the most fascinating combination of curiosity and cowardice, pushing forward and forward into the unknown until the very first moment of threat crystallized, and then she was away.
Of course, retreat is not always possible in such a line of business, and when that proved to be the case, there was a single trait which Fiona possessed that saw her surviving encounters which had killed far braver souls than her:
Because when she was pushed to the very limits of her terror, Fiona Law would faint. And while there are those things in the dark that would kill you as you slept, most get no real delight from it, unless you are awake enough to know what is happening.
And so, through cowardice and unconsciousness, Fiona had survived an entire generation of Archivist. And even stranger, when Angus Stacey died and she had the chance to walk away, she decided to remain.
She had never got deep enough into the mysteries that plagued her to slake that burning curiosity. And she never would.
Alongside this inherited survivor, Gertrude would add two more assistants: Eric Delano and Emma Harvey. They were young, like her, keen to delve deeper into those strange secrets that back then were spoken of more openly.
To them, Fiona seemed something of a joke, a middle-aged chatterbox who told stories of the Blitz and jumped at the long shadows in the corners of the Archives.
Emma in particular was Gertrude’s confidant, the one whose knowledge and instincts she trusted, and the only member of the Institute who ever knew of the strange bond between Gertrude and Agnes Montague.
But Emma had a sickness. As much as she might have despised the aging Fiona, it was the same one that plagued her: Curiosity. That desperate, grasping need to know.
Emma, however, was circumspect enough to recognize the danger of such inclinations in a place like the Archives, and after those initial few years, settled on a question.
The first question to which she would apply her methods of… experimentation: Why wasn’t Fiona dead yet?
The experiments were simple enough. When a statement was close enough and real enough that finding its source seemed a possibility, Emma would volunteer herself and Fiona to investigate it.
Eric had always been a homebody, and had no problem being left out of such expeditions, while Gertrude had far better things to do than worry about the comings and going of her assistants, and so let her trusted Emma arrange things as she pleased.
Once out near danger, Fiona would always find herself ever-so-slightly ahead, always seeming to be inexplicably the first through the door. And more often than not it would close behind her. By the end, the poor woman genuinely believed spontaneously locking doors were a tell-tale sign of the supernatural.
Emma would do her best to observe from safety, making notes, only retrieving the often unconscious Fiona when the danger passed. She watched as her poor guinea pig stumbled through a maze of whispering grubs. She timed the intervals at which Fiona emerged from a hungry fog, and recorded her barely escaping the Sandman who came to take her eyes.
Poor Fiona never suspected a thing. Decades this went on, until Fiona was old and tired. There was less chaos back then. Gertrude’s war was still only kindling, and years might go by without anything terrible brushing against the Institute. But at last, they found a coffin. And it was not a place that could be escaped by fleeing or by fainting.
When Emma came to tell Gertrude what had happened, she found the first of the cobwebs in her hair, the ones she would wash from it every morning for the rest of her life. And Gertrude mourned the first of many losses, and did not suspect the truth.
Eventually, Fiona was replaced by a young man named Michael. Far too young to have such a job, really, but - things were different in those days. He was keen and eager, and Emma had a - slightly different idea of how to test him.
She never really touched Eric, of course. He had been marked early by another who Emma was… keen not to cross.
But young Michael? So innocent, so naive? She decided to experiment with how long she could keep him in the dark as to what was really going on.
As it turns out: All his life.
This time, Gertrude did have an inkling as to what was happening, but had her own escalating conflicts to concern herself with, and recognized the potential in a truly ignorant assistant.
At some point Eric disappeared. It’s interesting the places that Gertrude did and did not think to look for him. She scoured the most warped and darkened corners of London, expecting any moment to find his remains. But she took Mary at her word when she said she hadn’t seen him.
She could have Known the truth, of course, if she had wished, but it was so much easier to make it another pillar of her crusade. Emma knew what had happened, but had no interest in sharing such details.
Eric was replaced by another assistant, not so young as Michael, and hardened with some encounters of her own. She was eager to prove herself, and exactly the sort of person to intrigue the aging Emma.
There was… a fire to Sarah Carpenter, perhaps the one which led to Gertrude hiring her, and Emma’s curiosity ignited once again, this time keen to find out exactly what it would take to break this brave investigator of the unknown.
By this point Gertrude was fully lost to her plots and plans and struggles, and as long as her assistants played their parts when asked, she paid them no more mind. And the frequency of genuine encounters grew as the season of hurried rituals came nearer.
It wasn’t hard for Emma to convince her younger colleague to take the lead in their inquiries. She took Sarah to a cave and sent her deep inside to see how far it went. There was no end, and the darkness was deeper than an absence of light would allow, but Sarah held firm to her cable, and Emma was gracious enough to pull her back into the light.
She took Sarah to the woods with a strange book of astronomy and suggested she go and chart the stars. The brave stargazer stayed beneath the canopy, never quite lost herself to the cosmos, though sometimes when Emma looked into her eyes she could still see a reflection of uncanny constellations.
She even convinced Sarah to stay inside an old man’s house, desperate to see her eaten by a hungry door, but was again disappointed.
And all through it Gertrude could not see what was happening. And certainly the Spider smoothed things, elided questions, wiped away evidence, but it barely had to. Far better to feed Gertrude a steady string of plans to foil and rituals to derail.
Sarah’s luck ran out when Gertrude and Michael were away on a last trip to that frozen island that did not exist. Emma had been given the statement of a widow whose life and home and partner had been taken by a man who, as she put it, “burned on the inside.” And so Sarah and her secret tormentor went looking for this being, and they found him standing in the smoking ruin of an old farmhouse.
He was bald, dressed in dreary office clothes. To a cursory examination, unfit and unremarkable, save for his peculiar surroundings. If they had paused and looked closer, Emma might have seen the drizzling rain rising as steam from his skin. Sarah may have noticed the thin lines in his flesh from whence spilled a dull orange glow.
But they didn’t. And as was her custom, Emma allowed her old knees to betray her, falling behind her companion.
Sarah Carpenter’s last words were “Hello? I’m from -“
And then it was over. He split open like a flower bud blooming, and inside there was only the most terrifying heat. She had no time to run, and by the time she thought to scream it was too late as the thing enveloped her, closing tight, until she was simply more ash, trapped forever inside that charred and hollow shell.
Emma knew as she ran that she might have gone too far.
When Gertrude returned with no Michael to a silent Archive and only Emma’s stammered lies to fill it, she finally started to suspect the truth. She wondered briefly if it was hypocrisy, to feel such anger at what Emma Harvey had done, when she now had blood aplenty on her hands, including Michael’s.
But it didn’t matter. The rage she felt was ice-cold. And so Gertrude went to the one person she was certain she could trust on the matter.
Agnes Montague and Gertrude Robinson only ever met once in their lives. Even if the Lightless Flame had allowed it, what would there have been to say? The bond between them, real as it was, was no one’s choice but the Web’s, and neither of them was keen to play its game any further than they had to.
Their discussion was brief, and tinged with a melancholy, an awareness of mistakes, of their choices and duties and destinies. Neither of them smiled. But Agnes did confirm what Gertrude knew, and the details of Sarah’s suffering only sharpened that deep and wounded hatred.
It was a trivial matter to convince the man who now watched from the skull of Elias Bouchard to allow it, so long as the deed did not take place within the Archives itself.
But it didn’t need to. An employee’s home address is a simple thing to acquire.
When Emma Harvey awoke to the searing heat, she knew she was already dead. As the fire took her, and left her flesh running off her bones like oil, all she willed was not to give it the satisfaction of being afraid.
I wonder if it would have upset Gertrude to learn that, even at the end, Emma had no idea it was her that had arranged it. Maybe not. For all her anger, there was no thirst for revenge in the Archivist, only an eagerness to expunge an infection that had gone unnoticed for too long.
And with that, Gertrude Robinson was without assistants.
She never hired another. She worked with those that seemed useful until they were no longer so - Leitner. Dekker. Keay. Even Salesa on occasion. But she never again allowed herself to trust.
[PAUSE. THEN:]
[THE ARCHIVIST INHALES.]
ARCHIVIST
I, I, I’m sorry; I - I didn’t, um -
MARTIN
Oh, no, it’s, uh - it’s okay. (cough) I just - I couldn’t - not listen, or interrupt. Or -
ARCHIVIST
I, I, I promise, I didn’t know I was going to do that.
MARTIN
I, I understand. (brief pause, exhale) Well, let’s… (sigh) try to avoid that next time.
[HE ENDS THIS WITH A LITTLE LAUGH.]
ARCHIVIST
Yes, quite.
[HE SIGHS.]
[SOME MOVEMENT, AN EXHALE OF AIR THROUGH PUFFED CHEEKS, AND THEN:]
MARTIN
So. What? Without assistants she’d be bad at the apocalypse?
[MORE MOVEMENT.]
ARCHIVIST
W-Without trust. W-Without a reason.
Gertrude needed both the purpose her mission gave her and the control her position allowed. To be here, like us, without a - a reason, without someone to ground her? She - She’d have power, but - no control. No real purpose.
Perhaps she’d have dedicated herself to a d,doomed quest like us but - (quieter, contemplative) No. I think this would have broken her. And she’d have resigned herself to - ruling her domain.
MARTIN
What domain?
[MOVEMENT.]
ARCHIVIST
We all have domain here, Martin. The place that feeds us.
MARTIN
Oh. (brief pause) Where’s yours?
ARCHIVIST
(laugh) I mean we’re - traveling towards it.
MARTIN
Oh. Right, obviously. Duh. Uh, what about me?
ARCHIVIST
(cautiously) Would you… like me to -
MARTIN
(overlapping, sharp) No, no. Don’t tell me.
I don’t want to know.
ARCHIVIST
Okay.
[MARTIN INHALES, THEN LETS OUT A LITTLE HM.]
MARTIN
(coy) So. If you say Gertrude wouldn’t have been able to go on without a reason -
ARCHIVIST
(overlapping, audible fond eyeroll) Yes, Martin, you are my reason.
MARTIN
Just wanted to make you say it!
[A BEAT WHEREIN THE ARCHIVIST INHALES.]
MARTIN (CONT’D)
Cool.
ARCHIVIST
Right. (exhale) Should we press on?
[HE STARTS TO GET THE BAGS TOGETHER.]
MARTIN
No - uh - just, uh - before we do.
ARCHIVIST
Mhm?
MARTIN
A moment ago, when you were talking.
ARCHIVIST
Right.
MARTIN
The old Archivist, Angus.
[THE ARCHIVIST INHALES, A BIT SHARPLY.]
MARTIN (CONT’D)
You said Fiona was… released when he died.
[THE ARCHIVIST EXHALES OVER HIS WORDS.]
ARCHIVIST
Yes.
MARTIN
If you had died,
[THE ARCHIVIST INHALES AGAIN.]
MARTIN (CONT’D)
would the others have been able to quit?
ARCHIVIST
Yes. (pause) I didn’t know.
MARTIN
If you had, would you have told them? Would that have, have changed what happened?
ARCHIVIST
(sigh) I don’t know, Martin. I-I don’t know.
[THE BAGS GET RESHOULDERED. THEY START WALKING.]
[TAPE CLICKS OFF.]
@@Cthulhuer thanksss
@@Cthulhuer thank youu
thank you!!
20:25 You are my reason 💖
Acho que pela primeira vez eu consigo enxergar a dor que a Gertrude sentiu de ter que fazer tudo que fez
Acho que finalmente entendi a proporção dos sacrifícios dela 😢
WHAT. WHAT? *WHAT!* **WHAT?!**
So…Fiona’s liver was fine?
YOU ARE MY REASON 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
HOLDING YOUR BOYFRIEND CAPTIVE DURING A STATEMENT IS //NOT A LOVE LANGUAGE//!!!!!!!!!
gertrude and agnes never met eachother though?????
my man out here rewriting lore
she could’ve just lied to Arthur.
She also told Leitner that she only had 3 assistants.
I’m pretty sure Gertrude is just lying to people constantly. Michael even said that he never met someone so adept at distorting the truth as her :p
1:02
1:11
18:41
The slow burn over five seasons of Jon and Martin sets my soul on fire. I absolutely adore them. Martin is just too sweet and patient. Jon is so oblivious yet so in tune. It's all so painfully, wonderfully delightful. 🥹🫢💚✨🌈