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msfcatlover · 22 days

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@fandomwandererer

im still like mid s3 in tma but im practically spoiled all the way to somewhere else, tell me more about the archivist tim story. is the not them even relevant if tim is already marked by the stranger? if it is who end up a not!them? tim would need a spider mark right? wonder what that is

*vibrating in place* ARCHIVIST!TIM STOKER, MY BELOVED!

You have no idea how much I love this AU. You have no idea how long I could talk about it. No, really. It took so many edits to keep this response reasonable.

(This is from my notes document on this AU, and does not include the lengthy conversation that originally spawned it. My adoration of Archivist!Tim cannot be overstated.)

Okay, okay. A couple things to establish. First: I cannot take full credit for this AU. @daydreamingofdragons & I came up with it together while bouncing ideas off eachother, and it spiraled (ha) out of control. This is just as much their monster as it is mine.

Second: Tim Stoker’s trauma is not defined by being from the Stranger. His tie to the Stranger hugely shapes his character, but not the Stranger itself. Tim’s trauma is defined by the feeling that he had multiple chances to save his brother and didn’t; that Tim watched Danny die, too close not to feel like Tim should’ve done something, and even though Tim consciously tries to argue with himself that there was nothing he could’ve done, Tim can never silence the part of him which says Tim’s actions (or lack thereof) indirectly killed his little brother. You don’t need the Stranger for that.

(a few post-s3 spoilers below cut, as well as other answers.)

Third: The purpose of the Archivist is to collect “marks” (scars/traumas) from each of the Entities. The Archivist is chosen for their potential to collect those marks, and how easy they seem like they’ll make it (translation: how much work Elias has to put in himself.) To make a viable Archivist candidate, you need to ask what mark/s they already have when they first arrive at the Institute, how Elias might manipulate them, and how much manipulation it would take for them to start putting “finding answers” above “personal safety.” (So Jon Sims is an exceptionally good candidate because he’s driven by a desperate need to understand, he has trouble trusting others, his self-worth was already garbage by the time he got to the Magnus Institute, a consequence of both being a tendency to do absolutely everything himself, and he walked in already marked by arguably the hardest Entity to manipulate into doing anything.)

While the Web would be needed eventually, it's not needed as a foundation. Any mark will do, though if anyone at the Institute is still marked by the Web, you need to give your chosen Archivist a mark just as (if not more) rare & dangerous to make them the more tempting prospect.

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So, Tim is not marked by the Stranger; we actually had him marked by the End (full statement outlined,) and to compensate for how not Eye-aligned Tim is (canon!Tim wants answers about what happened to Danny, but beyond that curiosity is very much not one of Tim's defining character traits; he's not driven for want of knowledge the way Jon & Sasha are, he's driven by love for those closest to him & a need to find a guilty party who can be blamed & punished for any suffering they endure) we had each one of his assistants be marked by a different Entity. After all, if Tim doesn't care about answers or mysteries that don't affect people he cares about, the answer is to tie those mysteries to the personal struggles of those people he cares about.

Jon kept his Web mark (still Mr. Spider, and Jon was definitely the backup in case anything happened to Tim, but the End was always going to be the biggest risk to get a mark from, which makes it just too tempting even with Tim's temper & disposition taken into account.)

Sasha was marked by the Dark (the first time Tim uses his powers is to protect her from it, eventually leading Tim to directly help Basira & co with the lowercase-r ritual the People's Church performed in s2.)

Martin was marked by the Stranger (and also is the only assistant Tim didn't choose; Martin was Gertrude's last assistant, while Jon & Sasha were on a list of "pre-approved" potential assistants Elias gave Tim.)

(and yes, we fully figured out how Sasha & Martin were both impacted, and how it would tie into the plot & their respective arcs. Especially Martin & Jon's tragic enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story in this version.)

That gives Tim 4 different rabbits to chase down. By the time he's started to clear up even one of them, chances are other avatars would start to poke their noses into the archives' business. And then Tim's temper, need to protect those he deems to be his own, and need for retribution on any who would harm them would keep Tim locked solidly into the Archivist's role. He's not going to try to leave as long as they're still at risk, and he's always going to jump in front of that bus rather than throw any of his people under it. And once Tim figures out what's happening, he's far more likely to try to get ahead of things by taking the fight to the other avatars rather than try to slide beneath their notice the way Jon mostly did.

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The NotThem isn't actually that relevant, though we did play a bit with the idea of NotBasira. Instead, @daydreamingofdragons came up with a new creature who does the opposite: it steals identities by rendering people unrecognizable. Not like it replaces them or completely changes their appearance, but it's the cross-section of the fear of mistaking a stranger for someone you care about & the fear of being rejected by loved ones. This person claiming to be your brother is obviously not your brother---sure, at a distance you might mistake them for your brother, maybe they could even fool someone who doesn't know your brother that well, but you can very clearly see all the little differences that show this cannot possibly be your brother. Especially if you have a picture to compare. It's not your brother, you know it's not your brother, why is this complete stranger insisting that they're your brother? Why do they know so many things about your brother, why are they wearing his clothes, how did they get the lucky charm he never takes off? What did they DO to him?!?

(It is, in fact, your brother. He knows why you're acting like this, he can't recognize himself in the mirror, but it doesn't make your complete rejection of his identity hurt any less.)

I can't remember if we actually discussed this, but I've been calling it the "Innominate." Which is an adjective meaning "something anonymous or unnamed," but sounds like a word that could easily be a verb meaning "to un-name something, to render anonymous," and also works as a proper noun just fine.

It goes after Jon in mid-to-late s2. This leads to everyone needing to figure out whether or not they still trust Jon ("trust & love as an active choice," you're such a good theme and I love you so, so much,) Georgie joining the Institute to investigate Jon's "disappearance" (they reconnected after Jon did the follow-up on Melanie's statement in s1,) and Tim needing to save Jon from Daisy after they find Gertrude's body (s2 finale, rather than s1; but once the police are there, there is one person in this verse who is obviously skittish, out of place, and doesn't want to show identification to the cops, and it's not the Archivist. Tim's being nothing but coolly polite & helpful, because he's worried about his people and wants to get these cops out of his archives as soon as humanly possible.)

The antagonist for s1 is the Spiral rather than the Corruption, and after Michael (& co) invades the Archives, Tim ends up going to Hill Top Road for a guiding thread so he can rescue his friends. He hates it, but Tim recognizes the pattern, has no pre-existing hangups about the Web, and there's an original statement in there about a woman getting lost in the tunnels and following a thread of spider silk all the way to the trap door in the archives. With the help of the thread anchored in Tim's chest, he's able to trick a different Spiral ally into the heart of the Distortion and safely recover Sasha, Martin, & Jon from the chaotic, twisting halls. With the changed heart (and the loss of Michael's obsession) the Distortion retreats for a while.

#tma #the magnus archives #tma au #archivist swap au #archivist tim stoker #archivist!tim stoker #archivist timothy stoker #archivist!timothy stoker #tim stoker #timothy stoker #daydreamingofdragons #fandomwanderer #my writing #mine #my life

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americanoddysey · 2 months

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yeah so Tim why do you just have zip ties

#magnuspod #the magnus archives #jonmartin #jmart #tma #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #the archivist #jarchivist #tim stoker #timothy stoker #the magnus archives is an office comedy #artists on tumblr #illustration #the magnus archive fanart #the magnus pod #tma podcast #art #jon sims

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wilkoakdraws · 5 months

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My 2023 Inktober, done all as Magnus Archives illustrations!

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life-of-a-rat · 11 months

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there are a million TMA time-travel AUs where the S5 crew goes back to an earlier season, but where are my S1 goes to the future AUs???? please????

edit:

there's more to this AU now!

check the "tma reverse time travel au" tag to see it :D

part 1 / part 2

#magnuspod #the magnus archive fanart #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #tma au #the magnus archives au #Jons got eight eyes on his face bc spider imagery #please i need to see more of these #i could only find one #it was good though #sasha james #tim stoker #monster jon?#the archivist #tma reverse time travel au

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the-lantern-lights · 11 months

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Jon: Timothy Stoker, if you show up wearing this to the office, you’re fired.

Tim: ✌️😊

(In case anyone was wondering how I pictured Tim. This was only meant to be a quick sketch to figured out his design I didn’t mean for it to go this far)

#art #magnus archives #magpod #rusty quill #rusty quill tma #the archivist #the magnus archive fanart #the magnus archives #tim stoker #timothy stoker #tma fanart #tma tim #the magnus archives Tim

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sydneighsays · 8 months

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Project for my art class cuz god forbid I be normal

My teacher made me turn it into a comic

Have fun~~~

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stolos · 1 month

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My TMA S1 lineup as promised. Wormed vers below the cut! (please click for better quality)

Unfortunately I’m not as happy with these as I would’ve liked, but it gets my designs across alright.😭

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laughable-umbrella · 5 months

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throw back to when tim dropped his pants during the prentiss attack

#this moment #it’s criminally underrated #PUT THEM BACK ON PLEASE #and right after you’re not a… ghost #a gHOST???#shut up mahtin #the magnus archives #tma #tma podcast #jon sims #tma shitpost #the archivist #tma memes #jonah magnus #martin blackwood #tim stoker

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aziuuu · 1 month

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SEASON 1!!!!

Omw to destroy them woooooo

#tma #the magnus archives #tma fanart #tma jon #tma martin #tma sasha #tma tim #tma elias #jonathan sims #the archivist #martin blackwood #sasha james #tim stoker #elias bouchard #elias that fucking bitch bouchard #chat is tim sexy enough??????#rip sasha I designed you to throw you away :(

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jonsimstwitchyeyeballs · 1 month

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Average JonTim argument

Art reference by @mellon-soup

#the magnus pod #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #tma #illustration #painting #tma jon #tma tim #tim stoker #the archivist #tma s2 #jontim #I think it would be funny if #jon pulled out a stool every time he wanted to be imposing #he is not that short it's just that tim is tall ok #this one goes out to the jontim shippers #I know there's like 3 of you out there

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mintytea-exe · 7 months

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the emotional rollercoaster that is the magnus archives (graphed)

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msfcatlover · 6 months

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Hi, I am once again desperately wanting to try to write the Archivist!Tim Stoker AU my friend & I brainstormed together. It’s a fucking beast, and it’s so niche that for all my love of it, I don’t know if I’d get any feedback which. Y’know. Lack of validation kills the writing drive.

(But Archivist!Tim Stoker makes brain go brrrrrrrr)

#Tma #the magnus archives #magnus archives #tim stoker #timothy stoker #the archivist #archivist tim #Archivist!tim #Archivist Tim Stoker #Archivist Timothy Stoker #Archivist!Tim Stoker #Archivist!Timothy Stoker #Archivist swap AU #my life #my writing #mine

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americanoddysey · 2 months

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