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]
[Image description: a digital painting of Jonathan Sims from the Magnus Archives; Jon is a tan-skinned Asian man with shoulder-length greying hair and small pock-mark scars all over his face. He is twisting in the grip of a menagerie of grasping hands emerging from off-page, each representing the mark of one of the Entities. From top center, going clockwise;
A shadowy black hand emerging from a black hole behind Jon’s head;
A long, sharp fingered hand with subtle spiral patterns running through his hair and leaving a bloody gouge in his forehead;
A mannequin hand gently caressing his cheek;
A pale-skinned, clawed hand in a blue windbreaker, raking its blood-stained nails across Jon’s throat;
Three dark-skinned hands with lacy sleeves and painted nails placing a tape recorder in Jon’s left hand;
An enormous, pale-skinned hand griping Jon’s torso, two gore-covered ribs tucked between its fingers;
A dark-skinned hand covered in red-black vines resting on Jon’s left thigh, as the vines snake up his body and around Jon’s right arm;
A hand made out of dirt, gripping at Jon’s right thigh from between his legs;
A pale hand wreathed in lightning, reaching out towards Jon as if to grab him, with a falling porcelain teacup just behind it;
A pale, worm riddled hand wrapping around Jon’s chest from behind him;
A barely perceptible, dark-skinned hand made out of mist, reaching for Jon unsuccessfully;
A pale hand with a bike chain bracelet, clasped in Jon’s smoking right hand;
A tanned skin hand clutching a knife, driven into Jon’s right shoulder;
And finally, a pale hand in a dark suit, reaching down and forcing Jon’s right eye open. The eye glows a sickly green that reflects off the reaching horrors, and oozes a green blood-like substance from the pupil. End description.]
This was my piece for the Eye Love TMA project which I am severely delayed in posting, but hey, better late than never!
My friend has a voice changer thing on his computer and he let me try it and I swear I found the one Alex uses for Jared Hopworth. My life hasn’t been the same. I want to sound like that 24/7 is that too much to ask?
