Jonathan 'Eyebags' Sims (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beholding_archivist) wrote2000-03-07 12:01 am
beholding_archivist) wrote2000-03-07 12:01 am
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OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Zet
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
skoegul || voot#2925 (Discord)
Other characters: %
DF Alum: %
Reserve: Here.
IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Jonathan Sims
Character journal:beholding_archivist
Series name:The Magnus Archives
Canon notes: OU - Towards the end of season 4
Species: still more or less human, slowly becoming a fully realised avatar of The Eye
Age: 31 - looks older due to prematurely greying hair and hardly ever getting enough sleep
Arrival Condition: Physically healthy - Mentally? A mess.
History: Wiki Link
Personality:
While Jon puts up a rude and dismissive front, he really is anything but that. He may seem quick to snap back and try to find rational explanations for everything, but he only does this to mask the simple fact that he is scared. And he is scared of many things. Especially of what he reads in the statements he records, knowing that the ones he has to record on tape rather than being able to digitally record them on his laptop are true and part of something bigger and much more sinister than he wishes to imagine. The idea that his predecessor, Gertrude Robinson, was murdered because she came close to figuring it all out bothers him greatly and he does, in fact, fear for his own life.
As mentioned above, Jon is in the process of becoming a full avatar of The Eye, also called Beholding or The Ceaseless Watcher. The Eye is the manifestation of the fear of being watched, followed, having your secrets exposed or that you’re suffering for the sake of someone/-thing watching. It is further the drive to know and understand, even if your discoveries might destroy you. Which does reflect in Jon’s curiosity and how he often ignores obvious danger in order to indulge it despite being scared. Aside from that he tends to easily get paranoid, another clear aspect of The Eye.
Being a bit of a workaholic, Jon has never been a person with many friends. The people that managed to earn his trust however, he is close to and cares about to a point where he will go to great lengths and even risk his own life to keep them safe.
He used to read non-fiction and watch documentaries in his free time and the overall result is that he isn’t the most adept if it comes to socializing. Yet he will try his best to fit in when it’s required of him. Ironically, he becomes more sympathetic towards statement givers and genuine with his feelings regarding his coworkers/friends(?) the farther his transformation into an avatar progresses. A change he himself isn’t very aware of aside from probably feeling the need for an anchor to his slipping humanity. Something he is deeply worried about losing as he slowly turns into what he perceives to be a monster.
He shies away from violence and is more inclined to dodge an attack than trying to fight back. Not that it would do him any good, hardly being much of a fighter. This does lead to him being kidnapped a few times, and while Jon will protest as loudly as possible, there rarely is much he can do to free himself on his own in such situations.
Jon complains a lot and at times even whines and rambles when he’s feeling particularly miserable or frustrated. In that same vein, yes. He can be a bit of a drama queen. Though much rather when he adopts the persona of a statement giver while recording a written statement.
Which takes us to his odd little recording habit. Being thorough as he is, Jon has come to always carry at least one tape recorder and he does, in fact, make ample use of it. Though he hardly turns them on himself anymore and just assumes they turn on on their own by this point. While other characters often aren’t very comfortable with it, Jon claims that he wants to have everything well documented in case he ends up like Gertrude and that his eventual successor doesn’t end up like him.
Though it’s not too difficult to also trace this little habit back to his connection to The Eye and how its thirst for knowledge reflects in him.
Abilities:
Among those aligned with The Eye, Jon takes the role of The Archivist, which has its own set of powers.
° Compulsion
Probably the primary ability the Archivist is known for. He can compel others to answer his questions if he asks and focuses on acquiring the information he seeks. This may be comparable to the Jedi Mind Trick, and Jon has indeed used it to make a person do something against their will. It takes concentration and a strong mind can withstand it. Will naturally require OOC permission.
° Knowing // Understanding
The Archivist sometimes simply knows things he hasn’t known before. This ability isn’t one Jon can control and he describes it as a door in his head and behind that door is an ocean. This ocean is all the knowledge there possibly is. Every once in a while, droplets of water make it through that door, but should he actually open that door, he would drown.
Attempts to actively know something normally result in Jon hurting himself and suffering immense pain. Trying to know what Elias is plotting flooded Jon with more information than he could handle and he ultimately remembered nothing.
The plan here is to have Jon mainly learn useless stuff this way unless something specific has been plotted before. Because infomodding is no fun, but having this human failure possess the Eldritch power to tell you which animal has peed against that lamp post over there? Now that’s where we can have some fun.
Understanding allows Jon to read and understand foreign languages without even noticing he isn’t reading an English text. Obviously this one is rather irrelevant here.
° Archivist's Presence
Useless, but funny: If the Archivist is around, everyone becomes an incredible storyteller! Likely won’t come into play here.
° Persona
Equally useless, but interesting: If the Archivist reads/records a written statement, he adopts the persona of the statement giver and through his monologue experiences what happened. This is why going through multiple statements too quickly leaves Jon exhausted.
° Inhuman Healing
As he becomes less human, Jon heals faster, yet can still be wounded just as easily as before. He further can heal/revitalize himself by reading or listening to statements, drawing energy from observing the terror experienced by others.
The act of consuming, and in a way feeding on these statements/stories also feeds The Eye, with life statements being more potent and satisfying than old, written or already recorded ones.
An unpleasant side effect of statements directly told to the Archivist, especially for the statement giver, are the recurring nightmares that will follow. In these nightmares the statement giver will relive their traumatizing experience over and over and the Archivist will share that dream, always observing but never interfering.
Now this is the point where I plan to put a dampener. Namely, Jon’s connection to The Eye. Without being able to regularly feed its thirst for knowledge, the Entity he is bound to would simply drain him until he starves to death. Weakening that connection makes him less dependent on statements and at the same time also lowers the overall damaging/game breaking potential of his other abilities. As in making his Compulsion easier to resist and his Knowing less useful.
° Convenient Tape Recorders
Another silly one even though in canon it’s actually important: A tape recorder will show up out of nowhere from time to time and start recording when something worth recording is about to happen. Jon doesn’t control this one, obviously.
I would like to include this one to give Jon a source for new tapes. If he finds the recorder before it turns itself off again and disappears, he can scavenge fresh tapes for all his recording needs. If he’s really lucky, the tape may even contain a statement - Which should be helpful to keep his other needs in check.
Personal Item: A cassette tape recorder - Initially including one (1) tape. For some reason this one doesn’t need batteries...
Sample: TDM Link
Name/Handle: Zet
Contact:
Other characters: %
DF Alum: %
Reserve: Here.
IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Jonathan Sims
Character journal:
beholding_archivistSeries name:The Magnus Archives
Canon notes: OU - Towards the end of season 4
Species: still more or less human, slowly becoming a fully realised avatar of The Eye
Age: 31 - looks older due to prematurely greying hair and hardly ever getting enough sleep
Arrival Condition: Physically healthy - Mentally? A mess.
History: Wiki Link
Personality:
As mentioned above, Jon is in the process of becoming a full avatar of The Eye, also called Beholding or The Ceaseless Watcher. The Eye is the manifestation of the fear of being watched, followed, having your secrets exposed or that you’re suffering for the sake of someone/-thing watching. It is further the drive to know and understand, even if your discoveries might destroy you. Which does reflect in Jon’s curiosity and how he often ignores obvious danger in order to indulge it despite being scared. Aside from that he tends to easily get paranoid, another clear aspect of The Eye.
Being a bit of a workaholic, Jon has never been a person with many friends. The people that managed to earn his trust however, he is close to and cares about to a point where he will go to great lengths and even risk his own life to keep them safe.
He used to read non-fiction and watch documentaries in his free time and the overall result is that he isn’t the most adept if it comes to socializing. Yet he will try his best to fit in when it’s required of him. Ironically, he becomes more sympathetic towards statement givers and genuine with his feelings regarding his coworkers/friends(?) the farther his transformation into an avatar progresses. A change he himself isn’t very aware of aside from probably feeling the need for an anchor to his slipping humanity. Something he is deeply worried about losing as he slowly turns into what he perceives to be a monster.
He shies away from violence and is more inclined to dodge an attack than trying to fight back. Not that it would do him any good, hardly being much of a fighter. This does lead to him being kidnapped a few times, and while Jon will protest as loudly as possible, there rarely is much he can do to free himself on his own in such situations.
Jon complains a lot and at times even whines and rambles when he’s feeling particularly miserable or frustrated. In that same vein, yes. He can be a bit of a drama queen. Though much rather when he adopts the persona of a statement giver while recording a written statement.
Which takes us to his odd little recording habit. Being thorough as he is, Jon has come to always carry at least one tape recorder and he does, in fact, make ample use of it. Though he hardly turns them on himself anymore and just assumes they turn on on their own by this point. While other characters often aren’t very comfortable with it, Jon claims that he wants to have everything well documented in case he ends up like Gertrude and that his eventual successor doesn’t end up like him.
Though it’s not too difficult to also trace this little habit back to his connection to The Eye and how its thirst for knowledge reflects in him.
Abilities:
° Compulsion
Probably the primary ability the Archivist is known for. He can compel others to answer his questions if he asks and focuses on acquiring the information he seeks. This may be comparable to the Jedi Mind Trick, and Jon has indeed used it to make a person do something against their will. It takes concentration and a strong mind can withstand it. Will naturally require OOC permission.
° Knowing // Understanding
The Archivist sometimes simply knows things he hasn’t known before. This ability isn’t one Jon can control and he describes it as a door in his head and behind that door is an ocean. This ocean is all the knowledge there possibly is. Every once in a while, droplets of water make it through that door, but should he actually open that door, he would drown.
Attempts to actively know something normally result in Jon hurting himself and suffering immense pain. Trying to know what Elias is plotting flooded Jon with more information than he could handle and he ultimately remembered nothing.
The plan here is to have Jon mainly learn useless stuff this way unless something specific has been plotted before. Because infomodding is no fun, but having this human failure possess the Eldritch power to tell you which animal has peed against that lamp post over there? Now that’s where we can have some fun.
Understanding allows Jon to read and understand foreign languages without even noticing he isn’t reading an English text. Obviously this one is rather irrelevant here.
° Archivist's Presence
Useless, but funny: If the Archivist is around, everyone becomes an incredible storyteller! Likely won’t come into play here.
° Persona
Equally useless, but interesting: If the Archivist reads/records a written statement, he adopts the persona of the statement giver and through his monologue experiences what happened. This is why going through multiple statements too quickly leaves Jon exhausted.
° Inhuman Healing
As he becomes less human, Jon heals faster, yet can still be wounded just as easily as before. He further can heal/revitalize himself by reading or listening to statements, drawing energy from observing the terror experienced by others.
The act of consuming, and in a way feeding on these statements/stories also feeds The Eye, with life statements being more potent and satisfying than old, written or already recorded ones.
An unpleasant side effect of statements directly told to the Archivist, especially for the statement giver, are the recurring nightmares that will follow. In these nightmares the statement giver will relive their traumatizing experience over and over and the Archivist will share that dream, always observing but never interfering.
Now this is the point where I plan to put a dampener. Namely, Jon’s connection to The Eye. Without being able to regularly feed its thirst for knowledge, the Entity he is bound to would simply drain him until he starves to death. Weakening that connection makes him less dependent on statements and at the same time also lowers the overall damaging/game breaking potential of his other abilities. As in making his Compulsion easier to resist and his Knowing less useful.
° Convenient Tape Recorders
Another silly one even though in canon it’s actually important: A tape recorder will show up out of nowhere from time to time and start recording when something worth recording is about to happen. Jon doesn’t control this one, obviously.
I would like to include this one to give Jon a source for new tapes. If he finds the recorder before it turns itself off again and disappears, he can scavenge fresh tapes for all his recording needs. If he’s really lucky, the tape may even contain a statement - Which should be helpful to keep his other needs in check.
Personal Item: A cassette tape recorder - Initially including one (1) tape. For some reason this one doesn’t need batteries...
Sample: TDM Link
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