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the_archivist) wrote2021-07-13 12:42 am
Apocalypse How App
Character Name: Jonathan Sims/The Archivist
Age: 32
Canon: The Magnus Archives
Canon point: End of Season 5 after he gets stabbed by Martin and they go somewhere else.
History: History
Personality:
Insecure: Jonathan Sims does not have a particularly high opinion of himself. He is well aware of his flaws - that he’s fussy and socially inept and off-putting, oh, and also is turning into a monster. Why wouldn’t someone hate him?
His outward attitude hides a lot of insecurity. He hates not being in control. He admits to Martin that the reason why he’s so dismissive of most of the statements is because he’s scared - scared that there’s something so much bigger going on and he doesn’t know what it is, and also there are many many worms trying to eat them and use their bodies as hives.
Self-hating: In many ways, Jon hates himself. He is wracked with deep guilt, and often blames himself for things he had no control over. He speaks so harshly of himself, and blames himself for his encounter with Mr Spider, even though he was a child.
He takes failure hard - he feels deep guilt for the murder of Jurgen Leitner, who was killed when he went out for a cigarette, and also feels responsible for Tim’s death, and for his friends being bound to the Archive alongside him.
His guilt is compounded at his current canon point by the fact that he was used as a tool to end the world and bring about the apocalypse, by Jonah Magnus. He feels that this event is his fault, something that he is personally responsible for, and he is constantly bathed in the fear of the entire world and all of its inhabitants. He likes this and hates it at the same time, and it just adds fuel to his crippling guilt.
He doesn't feel like he deserves people's kindness or help, and often thinks that he would have been better off dying so that other people would be better off.
Loyal: When Jon feels close to someone, when someone is his, he is fiercely loyal and protective, even at his own expense. He willingly throws himself into the Buried’s coffin to rescue Daisy, even though the woman had been quite clear that she thought he was a monster, because Daisy is part of his team and is worth protecting. Even if he doesn't forgive her for hurting him, he wants to protect her. He’s also willing to risk the hatred of people he cares about to try to protect them, such as when he risks Melanie's wrath to remove a ghost bullet from her.
And of course, he willingly walks into the Lonely to rescue Martin.
Curious: Seeking knowledge is one of Jon's main driving force. He will seek it out to the exclusion of nearly all else, even to the point of risking his life - he seeks out two Avatars of other powers in this pursuit, and barely comes out alive each time. Even when kidnapped and threatened, the minute his mouth is open, he’s trying to ask questions and find out more. This is what makes him the perfect Beholding avatar in some ways.
Kind: Despite Jon's often brusque and abrasive manner, he is actually an extremely kind person who cares a lot when he allows himself to. When Helen Richardson gives her statement about the Spiral, Jon is very empathetic towards her, and takes her death at the hands of the Distortion extremely hard, even to the point of getting revenge for it several years later. He wants people to have the chance to live without suffering. He shows great empathy too to the various statement givers, even ones he doesn't meet in person, showing regret for their fates. In the apocalypse, he ends Breekon's existence, partly out of revenge perhaps, but also because the creature is lost and suffering alone. Jon is willing to make himself a monster, a destroyer of humanity, in order to minimise the suffering in the world.
Suitability: Jon is from the universe that the entities originated in and was responsible for the apocalypse there. He carries with him a lot of guilt for his part in the apocalypse, and for releasing the Entities to other universes, so he's likely to want to stick around in order to try and prevent the apocalypse happening in this new place, and to help people escape, if he can. Maybe this time he can make a diference?
He's also smart enough to realise that having access to information is going to help him in the long run, and Beholding aligned enough to want to find out more.
Powers/Abilities: Powers
From a nerfing POV, I'm intending to take him back to his pre-apocalypse levels of powers in S4. No smiting of his enemies, only gets titbits of knowledge from the Eye rather than being omniscient. Can actually still be hurt and killed, etc.
As the Archivist, Jon has a variety of abilities.
1. Jon can compel people to answer his questions. People will answer his questions truthfully and to the best of their ability, although he can’t make you tell him something that you don’t know.
He can also compel people to give him statements - stories explaining a supernatural occurrence they have experienced. When a statement is given, the person giving it will recount the event in incredible detail and eloquence. This has been known to make the statement giver feel a great sense of relief and catharsis when it is complete. He is able to extract statements directly from people’s heads and recount them in the same way as reading a statement.
If he 'hunts' for a statement, he can force someone to recount their statement to him. This is much more satisfying for him, and much more devastating for the victim. The victim will be forced to recount their statement, and will experience it as though they were living through it again. The fear they felt will become almost paralysing for them, even if they had almost entirely recovered. They will also see Jon in their dreams, and often as hallucinations.
When reading transcripts of statements, Jon is able to emulate the voice of the person who gave the statement to a certain extent, and relives the experience in the statement.
If a statement is given directly to him, he will then experience any nightmares that the statement-giver has about it.
Reading statements is still tiring for him, pulling statements from people’s heads is even more exhausting. However, he also needs to read statements to remain healthy as this is what feeds The Beholding. If he goes too long without reading a statement, he starts to become ill. Reading a statement almost immediately revitalises him. He can also use statements to heal himself - reading one vastly improved his condition after being in a coma for 6 months.
He can read statements in any language and will be able to immediately translate and understand them, even if he does not understand that language. He can also understand other languages being spoken to him, but cannot speak those languages.
2. Jon has the ability to Know information that he shouldn’t otherwise be able to. In his home world he theoretically can Know anything. This knowledge often has a horrific bent to it - for example, knowing how someone's primary school teacher died. I'd like to reduce this power to his pre-apocalypse levels; he occasionally gets flashes of Knowing, such as Knowing how to cut a bullet out of someone's leg, but often the knowledge will be horrific.
In the apocalypse world, this Knowing extends to being able to read thoughts. He is mostly able to hold back from this, however it is an effort.
3. Jon heals much more quickly from injuries than a human would. He healed from a deep scalpel wound inflicted upon him in a few days. Supernatural wounds take a little longer. If the wounds are self-inflicted, then they heal near instantly.
4. He has a limited ability to see through illusions and mental manipulation - during the Unknowing ritual, he was eventually able to see through the ritual which was warping his perceptions, and recognised the truth. He was also able to see a cursed ‘ghost’ bullet in Melanie’s leg, and the corruption is was causing, even though it was invisible to anyone else.
Entity Affinity: The Eye: Jon is Beholding's special little boy.
He is extremely curious, and digs into mysteries with single-minded intensity, even when he's scared of what might be revealed, and when what he finds may ultimately destroy him. Throughout the series, he is driven to know more, even to the point of seeking out dangerous avatars of other powers and letting them hurt him, in the service of getting more information.
Inventory:
- A long knife, with traces of blood on it
- A mundane looking tape recorder with a tape inside. This has a tendency to appear at will around him, to record supernatural or important occurrences. It is very cursed already.