if jonny won’t write the flesh attack on the institute then i will
[ID: A long comic of The Magnus Archives, done in grayscale tones.
The first few panels show a shut office door, with only Basira’s head (covered with her hijab) visible in the corner. The door opens, and Martin enters. Basira emits two exclamation marks but stays silent as he turns to one side to place some files in a shelf, the glare of his glasses obscuring his eyes.
Finally, Basira says, “Long time no see.” Martin’s eyes appear as he startles violently and drops the files. Martin shouts, “Oh Jesus—Christ, do you get a kick out of this or something?!”
The camera pans to Basira, who is lounging back in a chair, holding a small book in her hands. She says, “What do you mean?” Martin answers from off screen, “Gh… never mind. What are you doing here, Basira?”
Basira looks up, closing her book with a snap. She says, “I thought you might show up here sooner or later. Figured I’d pass the time in a room I knew you frequent.”
Martin furrows his eyebrows, a small anger symbol appearing next to his head as he says, “Great. So, what now? What’s so important you’d spend all your free time waiting around for me?”
The camera zooms out to show the whole room. Martin is sweating slightly, having regained the files he dropped. Basira leans further back in the chair, raising her eyebrows. She pauses before asking, “How’s Peter Lukas?”
Martin narrows his eyes, a single sweat drop on his cheek as he says, “…He’s fine.” Basira tosses her hands up innocently and says, “Good, good.” Then there is a panel of her sitting up, staring into space, before the camera zooms back out to a view over Martin’s shoulder. Basira inquires with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised curiously, “Feeling… lonely at all?”
Martin reacts with sharp anger and snaps, “Oh for—is that what this is all about?! You think I’m one of his lackeys now?”
Basira looks down, her eyebrows drawing together. She says, “You are his assistant. I just need to know you aren’t…” A shot of her looking to the side, a drop of sweat falling from her cheek. “Compromised.”
The camera pans up to the ceiling. There’s an air vent through which some darker shades are showing, possibly larger slits, possibly something else. Off screen, Martin shouts, “Compromised?! Basira, we’re all compromised! We’re all trapped here!” Basira answers, “Fine. Then I need to know if I can trust you.”
Martin looks shocked for a second, maybe worried. Then he looks away and says, “I don’t know. Melanie sure doesn’t.”
Basira looks unimpressed, a small anger symbol next to her head as she says, “That’s not an answer.” Martin snaps, “I said I don’t know!!”
He spreads his arms and shouts, “Yes!!” Then deflates and scratches the back of his head, saying, “Err—maybe?” Finally, he raises his hands in a conciliatory posture as he says, “Look, I just need to stay close to Peter to figure out what he’s up to—”
The door clicks open. Basira and Martin both look startled, sweating slightly, as Melanie pokes her head in.
The camera pans to behind Melanie’s head as she looks at the two of them. Basira rises from her chair and says, “…Need something?” Martin just looks at Melanie with a worried expression and silence.
Two panels close in on Melanie’s face. It’s possible to see that her eyes, unlike Basira’s and Martin’s, contain a hint of red. Melanie says, “Heard yelling.” She turns her head slightly and scowls: “Thought there might be a fight.”
Martin turns to the side and says, sweating profusely now, “N-no, there isn’t.” A smaller panel of Basira adds with a small smile, “Not physically at least.”
The camera zooms back out to show Melanie turning to exit back into the corridor, wearing a bitter smile. She says, “Heh. Not for long if I stick around.”
Martin stares after her, saying, “Wh…” Then his eyes widen as he cries, “Melanie, wait!!” He exits after her into the corridor, the door swinging closed behind him as he says to her departing figure, “Just hold on…”
Melanie glances back at him, her eyes obscured by the hair that falls in front of her face. She growls, “Leave me alone, Martin…”
Martin says with a concerned expression, “I… I don’t want to fight, Melanie. Things are already hard enough, infighting isn’t going to help—”
There is a shot just of Melanie’s eyes, narrowed in anger, before she wheels and shouts in all caps, “Oh, piss off!” Then: “Since when do you—”
Martin says, “Huh…?” as he backs away from Melanie, who is approaching him step by step. Melanie continues, “—have the right to preach to me?”
The camera focuses on Melanie as she looks up at Martin, whacking her hand over her heart. She says, “You betrayed my trust! You don’t get to talk down to me like you’re the one who’s high and mighty!”
Martin says with a confused and worried expression, “What are you—”
Melanie snaps, “You promised me!” She flings a hand out, the background fading to show Jon lying comatose in a hospital bed while Melanie and Martin stand next to him. Melanie says with tears in her eyes, “After we saw what happened to—to Jon and Daisy and Tim you promised we could kill Elias!!”
The camera fades back in to show Martin staring ahead with a blankly horrified expression as Melanie continues, “Only for you to go behind my back and get him arrested like a coward!!”
Martin looks away from Melanie as he says desperately, “I—it was too risky! We still don’t know if killing Elias would have killed us too!”
Melanie takes another step towards Martin. She shouts, “I don’t care!! At least there was a chance!!” In the foreground, a piece of wood in the floor pries away, and a claw with four fingers reaches upward. Neither Martin nor Melanie notice.
Melanie looks down at her feet, shaking. She says, “But now we’re all trapped here—” Another step forward. “And it’s all—” She grabs Martin by the collar. “Your—” The camera zooms out to show her shouting into Martin’s face, “Fault!”
In the space between panels, someone shouts, “Guys!!” Martin and Melanie both glance away, eyes wide. Then they startle apart as two bangs resound in the space between them. Martin says, “Jesus—” and Melanie says, “Basira?! What the hell—”
The camera zooms out further to show Basira at the end of the hallway, surrounded by unidentifiable smears of flesh on the floor. She raises a gun in Martin and Melanie’s direction and shouts, “Hey!” Then the camera cuts to her expression, terrified and sweating, as she continues, “We have a bit of a problem!!”
Martin and Melanie both stare at her in incomprehension, even as in the background, something huge looms over them. Then they turn to look, and the camera zooms out with them.
Jared Hopworth, in all his five-armed jeans-clad glory, is at the end of the hallway, action lines radiating out of him. Two tiny bullet holes on one of his biceps are seeping blood, but they don’t appear to have affected him at all.
The camera turns back to Martin and Melanie. Melanie is smiling with an expression both terrified and delighted as she unfolds a small knife in her hand with a “shing!” Martin whispers, “oh shit.” End ID]
my piece for this year’s @podcastbigbang! this piece is for The Spider and the Eye, a TMA rewrite fic by the wonderful @pocketsizedquasar where Annabelle and Jon are childhood friends. it’s a wonderful concept and an even better read, I highly recommend checking it out!
[ ID: A vertical purple-toned digital art piece. The scene is set inside Hill Top Road, viewed from a perspective section cut that views both a bedroom along the bottom and the attic along the top. In the bedroom, we see a full-body view of Jon, who is a posed as if he’s ready to flee, floating green eyes forming a semi-halo behind his head. He stares with a mixture of fear and horror at a tape recorder on the dresser beside a small pile of papers. Speech bubbles filled with the first several lines from MAG 001 emit from the tape.
Above, in an attic filled with boxes, Annabelle sits, curled up, against one of said boxes, sadly staring at discarded half-written statements and crumpled-up pieces of paper on the floor in front of her. In the back of the attic is a small window, from which a thin white crack branches out and curls its way down the entirety of the piece: a hint to the Gap in Reality. Multiple cobwebs litter the destitute rooms, hinting further at the Web’s presence in the abandoned house.
Character designs: Jon is a thin Persian man with dark brown skin and long, dark hair streaked with gray. He wears glasses and a green vest paired with an off-white button-up rolled up to his elbows. He has an ace ring on his right hand. Annabelle is a chubby Black woman with deeper brown skin and an asymmetrical haircut: white hair covers the right side of her head, and her left side is buzzed but covered with a spiderweb. She’s wearing a purple sweater vest and a white button-up rolled up to the elbows. End ID. ]
and another piece for this year’s @podcastbigbang! this one is for Life in Technicolor by the lovely @spacestationdaedalus where Martin loses his color vision after escaping the Lonely. it’s adorable and such a wonderful exploration of their characters, please check it out!
[ ID: A horizontal digital art piece set inside the safehouse. It is a strongly angled perspective view of various scenes of Jon and Martin in the house, gradually getting closer from left to right. The colors start out grayscale and muted on the left, and slowly gain more vibrancy as they move to the right.
On the left, the two stand hesitantly in the doorway, Jon holding the door open and peeking inside with eyes floating around his head. The Lonely billows in behind Martin, and they both carry canvas bags. They are both dressed in ore layers, presumably just having escaped from London.
A bit further into the house, Martin stands at the stove in a small kitchen, something cooking away in the frying pan. He looks back at Jon, who is seated at a dining table, and brandishes a spatula proudly. Jon smiles up at him, cradling a steaming cup of tea in his hands. With light filtering in through a window, the scene appears very cozy and intimate, especially since they’re both still dressed in their pajamas.
On the right, situated very close to the camera, we see a view from behind of Jon sitting on the couch, tilting his head up to face Martin, who stands in front of the couch from our vantage point. With his eyes closed and his face split in a grin, he looks absolutely smitten as Jon gently touches his chin, watching him with a fond eye. The two are dressed cozily in sweaters. Warm strands of color stream around them.
Character designs: Jon is a thin British-Pakistani man with dark brown skin and long, dark hair streaked with gray. He wears glasses and occasionally ties his hair back. His eyes are a warm brown, made visible by the up-close shot of him on the right. Martin is a fat White man with light skin and short, fluffy ginger hair streaked with white from the Lonely. He has dark brown eyes, and he, too, wears glasses, with freckles dotting his skin. He stands taller than Jon. End ID. ]
and another piece for this year’s @podcastbigbang! this one is for Life in Technicolor by the lovely @spacestationdaedalus where Martin loses his color vision after escaping the Lonely. it’s adorable and such a wonderful exploration of their characters, please check it out!
[ ID: A horizontal digital art piece set inside the safehouse. It is a strongly angled perspective view of various scenes of Jon and Martin in the house, gradually getting closer from left to right. The colors start out grayscale and muted on the left, and slowly gain more vibrancy as they move to the right.
On the left, the two stand hesitantly in the doorway, Jon holding the door open and peeking inside with eyes floating around his head. The Lonely billows in behind Martin, and they both carry canvas bags. They are both dressed in ore layers, presumably just having escaped from London.
A bit further into the house, Martin stands at the stove in a small kitchen, something cooking away in the frying pan. He looks back at Jon, who is seated at a dining table, and brandishes a spatula proudly. Jon smiles up at him, cradling a steaming cup of tea in his hands. With light filtering in through a window, the scene appears very cozy and intimate, especially since they’re both still dressed in their pajamas.
On the right, situated very close to the camera, we see a view from behind of Jon sitting on the couch, tilting his head up to face Martin, who stands in front of the couch from our vantage point. With his eyes closed and his face split in a grin, he looks absolutely smitten as Jon gently touches his chin, watching him with a fond eye. The two are dressed cozily in sweaters. Warm strands of color stream around them.
Character designs: Jon is a thin British-Pakistani man with dark brown skin and long, dark hair streaked with gray. He wears glasses and occasionally ties his hair back. His eyes are a warm brown, made visible by the up-close shot of him on the right. Martin is a fat White man with light skin and short, fluffy ginger hair streaked with white from the Lonely. He has dark brown eyes, and he, too, wears glasses, with freckles dotting his skin. He stands taller than Jon. End ID. ]
