I'm having so many feelings about Season 1 Jon and Martin right now, and they might be controversial so using this Season 5 conversation as the backbone to this piece:
I'm going bold and I'm going to make the claim that neither Jon OR Martin were in in love with each other in Season 1. Now before you send a pipe bomb to my address, I do think Martin and Jon have always cared for each other. With that out the way:
I know the Martin point is going to be harder to sell than the Jon one, so let's go over that first. Martin has always been connected to The Lonely, which is not just being alone, it's finding comfort in solitude. And his crush on Jon is basically a reassurance that he's going to stay in that comfort zone. From Martin's POV Jon is unattainable: He's his boss, older, and seems to straight up hates him. It looks like there's no chance for connection so Martin feels safe daydreaming, unlike he would if he liked someone like Tim who would be at risk of returning his feelings, and disturbing the loneliness that he had known since being introduced to the concept by his Mother.
Personally, I don't read Martin's crush on Jon as something that's 100% real. I think he cares and frets for Jon, as he cares and frets for most people (in the early seasons especially ) but I think at it's core, his "crush" on Jon is something safe that lets Martin have both the solitude and connection he craves.
Meanwhile, Season 1 Jon is tricky and I'm not going to pretend he's not. For every moment he invites Martin to live in The Institute after being attacked by Jane, he also has a moment where he sends Martin to a murdery puzzle lady with the full awareness that the supernatural is real. Also, if you read the dialogue in the text above, Jon doesn't really explicitly doesn't say that he didn't hate Martin. He puts the words in quotes but doesn't really elaborate on how did feel. Then he tries to make it sound a little better by being like "I just implied I hated you," but he doesn't confirm that he didn't hate Martin. In fact, he doesn't really say anything in this scene that explains his actions.
So with that said, do I think Jon hated Martin in Season 1? No!
He has a lot of moments that show he cares about Martin. Just off the top of my head: He lets Martin stay at The Institute after the worms and buffs the security to keep him safe. He trusts Martin enough to let him describe things for him for the tapes in "Infestation." He also opens up to Martin in this episode about not being a skeptic and feeling scared in The Institute. He even describes what they're having as a "heart to heart." In the next episode, "Human Remains," Jon also comforts Martin when Martin is upset about getting separated because of the worms.
But! You ask, and if you didn't let's pretend you did: "How do you reconcile Jon caring for Martin with everything you said in the paragraph about him being tricky. Well that's because I personally think the simplest answer here is that Jon cared for Martin on a basic human level. However, did not like him that much.
Which I think is the point!
Back to Martin's loneliness, in Season 1 Martin is putting up a bit of a mask. He's gentle, and pleasant, and views Jon as someone to prove something to which the why the whole Prentiss thing happens.
And all of those parts of his personality are true, but we're also missing the parts of the pieces that make up Martin "murder cheerleader" Blackwood in Season 5. Martin can be manipulative enough to draw The Web, he can be petty enough to want to kill Oliver for waking Jon up, and he's prone to centering his own feelings and relationship with Jon over anything else
And saying all of that isn't a callout of Martin. At the end of the day, he's another flawed character in a show FULL of flawed characters. But my main point is, that there's a lot more to Martin then just a quiet, kind, guy who likes to make tea for others and has a totally real resume.
He's flawed, and in Season 1 when he's hiding those the flaws the most, Jon doesn't really care for him. But then time goes on, and Martin starts to show more of himself. From showing his cunning and manipulative side by staying back to distract Elias during The Unknowing, to showing his vulnerabilities in Season 4, to showing off his more flawed side to Jon in Season 5 due to the unfortunate circumstances of that Season, this is when Jon starts to care about Martin in my opinion.
Jon gets feelings for the most real and flawed version of Martin. The version of Martin he only meets because of the trauma they're actively going through. In the screenshot above when Martin says: "It took two years of crisis and trauma to even be compatible," I think that is a billion percent true, but I think it's true because the flawed and messy versions of each other were always going the ones they fell in love with.
Jon needed to be something more than this unattainable crush that Martin could keep safe at a distance. And unfortunately, it's Jon's trauma and grief of Sasha and Tim that ultimately makes him more down to Earth and someone who's wanting the connection that Martin is not fully engaging with. Then Martin needed to be more than the best side of him that Jon saw in Season 1, because that's the side of him that Jon, an also very flawed person, is able to connect with.
I can't believe this is almost 1'000 words and I don't know how to end it. Uh, TLDR: Jon and Martin are together due to trauma, and Jon likely didn't like Martin at first, but it's WAY more nuanced than that.
What I think TMA character's favorite desserts would be just based on vibes:
Jon Sims - French Silk Pie.
Martin Blackwood - RIP Martin Blackwood for being British. He would love southern teacakes. (I know Britain has teacakes, but they're different things and according to Google not technically a dessert.)
Tim Stoker - Molten Lava Cake With Strawberries On The Side.
Sasha James - Cherry Pie.
Melanie King - Lemon Bars.
Georgie Barker - Mango And Chili Sorbet.
Basira Hussain - Rice Pudding.
Daisy Tonner - Carrot Cake.
Peter Lucas - Vanilla Milkshake.
Elias Bouchard - Peanut Butter Cookies.
Gertrude Robinson - Peach Cobbler.
Gerry Keay - Literally any flavor of gelato.
Hezekiah Wakely - Dirt Cake.
Jane Prentiss - Before the worms she liked angel food cake,
Agnes Montague - Red Velvet Cake.
Jude Perry - Cinnamon Cayenne Cookies.
Oliver Banks - Chocolate Lava Cake.
Jared Hopworth - Sanguinaccio Dolce. (Chocolate pudding made with pigs blood, and flavored with cinnamons and cloves.)
Michael Shelley - Vanilla Pudding. (He likes banana pudding too, but he slightly prefers vanilla.)
Helen Richardson - Tiramisu.
Nikola Orsinov - Caramel Apples.
Michael Crew - Blueberry Delight.
Simon Fairchild - RIP Simon Fairchild for being British. He would love deep-fried Oreos.
Some TMA LGBTQ+ headcanon's because guess what I am. Some are meant to be serious. Some are just meant to be funny.
Jon Sims - Jon did not realize that asexual was not the default until he was in his 20's. He heard songs about wanting sex on the radio, and read books where lust was a driving emotion for characters actions, but he thought it was all overexaggerated feelings for media. It was actually when he was with Georgie that she told that some people actually do feel that way, much to his shock.
Martin Blackwood - He realized he was gay later in life than most people on account of being sort of a late bloomer who wasn't really into anyone until he was in his early twenties. He's always amazed by the people who just knew who they were. That was always kind of a battle for him.
Tim Stoker - He's a trans man, and his name was picked by Danny shortly after he came out. He actually thought "Tim" was kind of dull at first, but after some thought it really grew on him, and he liked having such a meaningful connection to his biggest supporter.
Sasha James - She's always looking for queer spaces because that's where she feels most comfortable considering her own identity. Meeting Tim, Jon, and Martin, and getting the chance to work with them was one of the best parts of her job, because it gave her a bit of community.
Melanie King - Melanie has never "technically" come out. She just started dating women and waited for everyone else around her to catch up.
Georgie Barker - She attends pride parades whenever they're around her. She like to be surrounded by community and see's pride events as great opportunities to make more connections. She has a lot of casual acquaintances from there, along with pins that she picks up from booths.
Basira Hussain - She spends a lot of time reading up on queer history. She finds it all very interesting to see how far LGBTQ+ people have come even with the various challenges. She's probably the most educated on this list, and various other characters know a lot as well! (Georgie, Jon, Gertrude, Martin, Especially.)
Daisy Tonner - She's a "I knew I was gay since I was two," person. So many people she knows have really long and nuanced stories about coming to terms with their queerness (Which is extremely valid!!!) while she just sort of always knew.
Peter Lucas - He headcanon's his boat as gay. It feels more familar that way.
Elias Bouchard - He loves rainbow capitalism. He launched the idea to Gertrude once about hosting their own pride night in June, but Gertrude pointed out that would be very homophobic/transphobic considering they would be plaguing queer people with nightmares. Elias thinks that's ridiculous since he's bi and doesn't care THAT much about the gender of his hosts, but whatever.
Gertrude Robinson - Gertrude has a small pride flag on her desk that Gerard left there. She leaves it because she's noticed that it makes statement givers more comfortable with her.
Gerry Keay - Gerard's gender is genuinely "whatever." He has intense gender apathy and is totally fine going by any pronouns. It's all on the table.
Hezekiah Wakely - His love language is writing letters, because he likes having something physical to remind him of all the sweet words he and another shared. Yes, this does have to do with his friend Nathaniel.
Jane Prentiss - She just gives me the vibes of someone who had a WLW situationship in college who fundamentally changed who she was as person.
Agnes Montague - She LOVES pride month because she finds the look of rainbows to be absolutely darling. She looks so forward to it.
Jude Perry - Conversation Jude has had at one point probably: "Have you ever noticed that the orange of fire kind of looks like the orange in a pride flag? No? Look harder then!"
Oliver Banks - He/they pronouns. A big reason he liked working at the gem store is because he got to wear a name tag with his pronouns and people respected them greatly.
Jared Hopworth - He has severely underanlayzed feelings for his childhood friend that was in "The Boneturner's Tale."
Distortion Michael - Michael made the homophobic vase because he was mad that being a spiral creature meant less men hit on him. If he can't be gay than no one can.
Distortion Helen - She sometimes spares LGBTQ+ during pride month to be themed. She kills them once the month is over, but the thought is there for 30 days. #LoveWins.
Nikola Orsinov - Less of a headcanon, more of a story. I read TMA on Github before I listened to it, and some fucking how I thought Nikola was a guy the entire time I was reading. I figured it out once I listened to TMA and actually registered the "her" pronouns Jon was using, but something about me being confused about her gender feels very genderfluid in a way I think a stranger creature would appreciate. But the actual headcanon is: They will take on other genders whenever they get bored with the one they currently have.
Michael Crew - Mike is romantically interested in men, but he also doesn't think about that a whole lot considering his life circumstances, so he's unlabeled. And don't try to label him on his behalf because he hates being boxed in. If you call him bi/gay then he's going to make a big deal about possibly being the other one just out of spite. It doesn't matter if you're technically correct or not.
Simon Fairchild - I feel like he's a very "he's confused, but he's got spirt!" type. Like, if he met a gay person it would go like this: Simon: "Do gay people like roller costars?" Gay person: "We aren't a hivemind." Simon: "Oh." Simon: "Do trans people like roller coasters?"
Anabelle Cane - Lesbian. That's my only headcanon for her but that's the one that feels most important to me.
People don't actually crush on Jon a lot, so a lot of time Martin knows he's being kind of silly and Jon is playful about it because he's not going anywhere.
But then every once and while Jon meets someone he just connects with, because that's just the type of person he is. You either love him or hate him, and when someone loves being around him, they really love being around him.
And that makes Martin's jealously from "kind of silly," to something more serious that Jon is probably going to have to be really reassuring about, and even that likely isn't going to solve the whole problem, because Martin's jealously isn't really about someone liking Jon in general, it's more about the fear of abandonment. He worries that Jon will like someone more than him, or be happier in someone else's presence, or even leave him for someone else. And Jon does make genuine attempts to reassure him, but the doubt is something Martin really struggles with, so sometimes he has bad days where he can get caught up in his feelings about Jon seemingly connecting with someone else in an area which he "failed" at. So jealously is a struggle for Martin.
Then I think Jon is on the total opposite end of the spectrum, where if someone hit on Martin he would be more likely to just raise his eyebrow a bit, maybe have some light banter, then move on with his day. I don't think he would really read into Martin's innocent interactions with other people, or even have big reactions to Martin being flat out flirted with. Which I think could cause an issue in itself, where Martin see's Jon as "not caring," because he doesn't get jealous in the same way, but Jon's had more relationship experience and therefore he's just more settle into the dynamic of a relationship in general.
Plus, unlike Martin, I think Jon's self worth issues are more the loathing sort. Where Martin worries that he's not enough, I think Jon's self worth issues are more so along the lines of letting other peoples opinions of him having a large power over how he see's himself, guilt for things he limited control over, and unease about his wanning humanity. I don't think of any of THOSE issues would turn into jealousy. I think he's more likely to have "What do you see in a monster like me?" moment then a "Did you enjoy talking to that man more than you enjoy talking to me?" moment, where I think Martin is vice versa because his trauma presents very differently from Jon's despite being similar on paper.
And yeah I don't really know how to end this post. TLDR: Martin would probably struggle with jealously even if Jonmartin could be together in a better world. Jon probably wouldn't, because his trauma affects him in a different way.
Evan Lukas is a super underrated character, what do you mean that he not only turned away from his family that worshipped loneliness, but saved someone else he loved from it as well. Once in life by just being there for her, and another in death, by helping her find the path to get out of the fog and onto the road.
By freeing himself from his loneliness he was able to free someone else from his families grip as well. And even after being punished for leaving with death, he still found a way to cling to connection. He still found a way to speak with Naomi after death.
Even death could not make him lonely. In the end he truly won over his family, and the fears himself. Making him a pretty unique character in a podcast where it's near impossible to win once a fear starts plaguing you.
I am thinking about what choices would be available if TMA was a choice based game, so here's batch from each season. (I hyperfixated on this and it got long. Whoops. I think my ending ideas are cool though.)
Season 1:
Flirt with Martin, Sasha, or Tim. I made a post about this, actually!
Believe Naomi in "Alone", or be skeptical of her story. This plays into how skeptical you'd want Jon's mask to be. If you believe Naomi Jon will let his mask break a bit and say strange stuff is out there, if you are skeptical of her story Jon will keep his mask and act how he does in canon. (Believing Naomi raises entity points, being skeptical of her story raises humanity points, because remember, Jon is acting so skeptical because he feels like he's being watched.)
Admit to Martin that you believe in the "paranormal", or don't admit to Martin that you believe in the "paranormal". In the safe room during the worm attack, you can either answer Martin's question about Jon's skepticism honestly or refuse. If you answer honestly the canon events of TMA will happen where Jon opens up to Martin about his paranoia, if you don't, Jon will shut Martin down and say he's just like that and there's nothing more to it. Being honest gives you a major relationship increase with Martin, shutting him down causes a major relationship decrees.
Go with Sasha, Tim, or Martin during the worm situation. If you with Martin, Jon will be there to find Gertrude's body, you will also raise relationship points with Martin. If you go with Tim you will raises your relationship with him, and Tim (High on fire extinguisher) will help Jon walk on his leg. if you go with Sasha you will raise your relationship with her, and then Sasha and Jon will be separated and Sasha will become Not! Sasha! On this route Jon will noticeably be off put by Not! Sasha's presence because he was JUST with her and now she's acting...odd.
Let Tim go home, or make him give a statement. At the end of the episode, Tim will refuse to talk about what just happened, and say that he wants to go home. If you let him go home he'll walk away, and the player never gets to learn his POV of events. However, Jon and Tim won't loose relationship. If you do make him give a statement, you will get to learn about the events through Tim's POV, however, the downside is that Tim and Jon's relationship looses points and becomes more strained. (If you make Tim stay you get entity points, if you let him leave you get humanity points.)
Season 2:
I'm imagining like a scene with a big board with a red string on it, and for a choice Jon has to pick who he finds the most suspicious: Martin, Tim, Sasha, or Elias. Depending on your choice, Jon will treat whoever you choose with more suspicion when they talk. (If you choose Martin or Tim, your entity score will go up. If you choose Not! Sasha or Elias, your humanity score will go up.)
More Under The Cut!
Attack the figure in the tunnel, call out to the figure in the tunnel, or hide from the figure in the Tunnel. When Jon runs into "Sasha" in the tunnels early in the season, you'll have a choice on how to handle a strange figure approaching you in the tunnel. This is really just to let the players "flavor" their Jon a bit, and play into what part of his personality they want to lean into.
Agree to let Melanie into the library or not. If you agree to let Melanie into the library you can be on better terms with Melanie when she gets back from her trip, and Georgie will thank Jon for helping. If you refuse to let Melanie into the library, she'll cuss you out and her and Jon will be on worse terms when she gets back, Georgie will also be annoyed by Jon's refusal and will make a comment about him being snooty.
Tell Tim and Martin about your suspicions about Not! Sasha, or don't. If you don't tell Tim and Martin, Jon will say that he is "sick," like in canon, and Martin and Tim will follow behind Jon later. If you do tell them, Martin will be horrified and Tim will go into denial but INSIST that they go with Jon to figure it out and "prove that nothing's wrong with Sasha." This choice will give you more Martin and Tim content, and Jon will give them a little more context about the whole situation.
Tell Leitner, or don't. I like the idea of this choice being vague, and the player is left wondering "Tell Leitner what???" If you choose to tell Leitner Jon will allude to "A Guest For Mr. Spider," and tell Leitner that his life was ruined by one of his books. But you don't actually the specifics of that until Season 3. If you don't tell Leitner than Jon will ask if he felt guilt for letting the books get into the hands of the public.
Season 3:
Tell Georgie the truth or protect her from it. When you're staying with Georgie in Season 3, you can either tell her the truth or try to protect her from it. If you tell her the truth she tells you about the dead women walking and her fear. However, she distance herself from Jon because she just can't be involved in that. If you protect her from the truth, she'll stay close with Jon but be annoyed at him for not confiding in her, and when she finds out what's happening later, she gets very upset that Jon was risking dragging her into it and not even saying anything.
Tell Basira not to sign the form or stay silent. When Elias hands Basira the form, you can either tell her it's not worth it, or just stay silent. If you stay silent nothing will happen. If you tell Basira not to sign the form, Elias will be more attentive of you, however, you will get the option later to reconcile with Basira at the end of the game. (If you stay silent you get entity points, if you say something you get humanity points.)
Go through Michael's door or refuse. When Jon is kidnapped, Michael will offer him a way out. Jon can agree to go through the door or refuse. If you agree, Michael will tell Jon his story first like in canon, and you get learn more about Michael Shelley. If you refuse, Michael snaps and goes on a rant about Archivists thinking they're so above him. Instead of getting his human backstory, he'll tell you what the first few years of his life were like as The Distortion, and his few failed attempts to go after Gertrude Robinson.
Burn Gerry's page or refuse. If you burn Gerry's page canon will happen. If you refuse to burn Gerry's page, Jon will call upon him later and Gerry will be PISSED and refuse to tell him anymore. He'll say that Jon is just as bad as Gertrude and his Mother, and he wouldn't help him even if could save the world just out of the principal. Gerry will then get so upset that he'll accidentally reveal some lore about Gertrude, or Mary, or the fears, or just something that makes his knowledge real. So Jon will learn something new, but the very real of cost of that is loosing his newfound friendship with Gerry. (If you burn the page you get multiple humanity points, you don't burn the page you get multiple entity points.)
Take Tim to The Unknowing, or don't. Before The Unknowing, Tim insists that he's going to go, and as Jon you can either accept or refuse. If you accept canon will play out and Tim will die thanking Jon for this. However, if you refuse Tim will follow you to The Unknowing instead, and be significantly more hostile when he reveals himself in the theater. This will have ruined their relationship for good, and Tim will die telling Jon to go fuck himself.
Season 4:
After waking up in the hospitalyou can tell Georgie that you're still the same or tell Georgie you've changed. If you tell Georgie you've changed she'll gently say she knows, and give Jon a quick pat on the back before leaving. If you tell Georgie you haven't changed, she and Jon will get into an argument about whether that's true or not, then Georgie will angrily storm out. (Saying you haven't changed is plus one to the humanity counter, saying you have changed is plus one to the entity counter.)
In regards to Melanie's bullet you'll have two choices. You can either tell Melanie about the bullet, or do surgery on Melanie when she's unconscious. (Like canon) If you do the surgery canon happens and Melanie will become more distrustful of Jon. If you tell Melanie about the bullet she'll argue and try to fight Jon (Because of the bullets effects) which will leave Jon's character model with a new scar. Basira and Jon will end up having to force it out anyways. However, Melanie will trust Jon a bit more on this route.
Go into the coffin or don't go into the coffin. Since choice based games are notorious for having choices that change the flavor of the story but don't change the actual story, Daisy will be spit out of the coffin if Jon chooses not to rescue her. Since she'd give up in this route, she wouldn't be feeding The Buried fear anymore so it would release her. If you don't rescue Daisy she'll distance herself from everyone and you'll be locked out of seeing how her relationship with Jon could have developed. if you go into the coffin to save Daisy, you'll get Jon and Daisy's canon mutual understanding after The Buried, and they'll get closer. (Not going in the coffin raises your entity score, going into the coffin raises your humanity score.)
Hug or kiss Martin in the lonely. In true choice based game fashion, you get a friendzone or romance option with Martin.
Keep reading or stop reading during the final statement of Season 4. This choice changes nothing in the main plot, I am just mean. (Keep reading raises your entity score, stop reading raises your humanity score.)
Season 5:
Use Martin as bait or don't. During the Trever Herbert confrontation, you can either use Martin as bait, or tell Martin to stay close. If you use Martin as bait canon will play out. If you tell Martin to stay close Jon will be the one who gets grabbed. This is another humanity vs entity choice. You get humanity points for telling Martin to stay close, and you get entity points for using Martin as bait.
Make Jordan an avatar or leave him to his suffering. When you run into Jordan in "Like Ants," you can decide to free him from the domain through avatarism, or decide that's a fate worth than bug suffering. If you leave him Jordan will call out in agony and Jon will be upset about his choice despite knowing why he made it. If you turn Jordan, Jordan will be distraught to be an avatar, and Jon will feel less guilt about the choice because he "saved" him the best he could. (Turning Joran into an avatar makes your entity points higher, leaving Jordan makes your humanity points higher.)
Kill Simon Fairchild and continue the vengeance streak, or stop. If you kill Simon, Martin will happy with you and Jon will feel more affirmed that his vengeance spree has been well-deserved. This choice makes him very self-righteous. If you don't kill Simon, Martin will be disappointed like in canon, and like canon Jon will admit that the vengeance spree hasn't been all that it lived up to be, and he's uncomfortable with some of the choices he's made. (If you kill Simon, you get entity points, if you let him go, you get humanity points.)
Stay with Salesa or leave. When you get to Salesa's house, you can either agree to stay the night or confess to not feeling well and you and Martin will leave. If you stay you get two different scenes depending on if you romanced Martin. if you romanced you get a cuddling scene, and if you friend zoned him you get a scene where him a Jon sit and drink tea together. If you don't stay you get a scene where Jon and Martin talk about just how bad Jon's eye dependence has become. (Staying raises humanity points, leaving raises entity points.)
End the world or end yourself. This is the ending choice, and I think you could get four endings depending on whether you have more humanity or entity points. If you have mostly humanity points and decide to end yourself, Jon will be able to lapse free of The Eye's power and stab himself to try and doom himself alone. Martin will find him before that happens and Jon will encourage him to just go back and live his life. Maybe whether Martin agrees or decides to die with Jon would depend on how high your relationship points with him were. With a high relationship Martin will choose to die with Jon, while with a lower relationship, Martin will very hesitantly agree to Jon's wishes and say goodbye before going back downstairs.
If you have mostly entity points and decide to end yourself, The Eye will have enough power to revolt against Jon's choice. Martin will be struck down by The Eye's power, and Jon will be forced against his will to be the king of a doomed world.
If you have mostly entity points and decide to end the world, Jon will decide to let the world die out to keep the fears contained to his universe. Martin will be angry with him, but Jon will be resigned and promise to keep him and their friends safe and as happy as he can until the end. The status of their relationship is left ambiguous.
If you have more humanity points and decide to end the world, then the episode 200 ending will happen where Jon will try to keep the fears contained, but be swayed by Martin's emotions to send them away and stay together with the hopes that they can be sent somewhere better.
I'd also think it would be cool if there was a relationship sheet at the end, that showed if you managed to reconcile with the main cast. I think Jon could reconcile with: Georgie, Melanie, and Basira if you picked enough correct choices, dialogue options, and had more humanity points than entity points. If you managed to reconcile with them, they'd have kinder and more affectionate things to say about Jon in the epilogue.
Just saw you take requests, and no pressure, but I am a whump fan who’d like to see how these sad saps spend sick days.
I do take requests! They just take a minute for me to answer sometimes!
Jon Sims - Jon spends his sick days coughing because he's just the type of guy who old man hacks no matter what type of illness he ends up with. He has to carry around a handkerchief whenever he's not feeling great, which just makes the old man allegations worse.
Martin Blackwood - Much like Jon, Martin is the type of person who gets specific symptoms no matter what sickness he gets. So he spends his sick days sneezing like someone just dipped him into a vat of pollen. He also has to carry around a handkerchief whenever he's not feeling great, but he can pull it off with it making him look ten years older.
Tim Stoker - Tim is the sentimental and whiny type when he's sick. He's very much the type to text, "Sasha, I was just thinking how much your friendship means to me. You're one of the best things in my life. If you wanted to drop some soup off at my door, I will die for you if it comes up." And meanwhile all these theatrics are for a mild cold.
Sasha James - Sasha spends her sick days being a real jokester because being sick makes her find everything hilarious for some reason. She acts borderline tipsy while drunk, and actually the first time Jon saw her drunk he judged her a bit because he thought she came into work drunk. (She didn't.) She's a very pleasant sick person to be around all things considering.
Melanie King - Despite being sick, she keeps working on whatever project she has going on until she makes herself worse. She's the type of person who starts a sickness with a tiny cold, then over does it so much that she ends up being able to do nothing but lay in bed with her flu like symptoms.
Georgie Barker - Georgie can spend her sick days being very existential. Every since the dead women walking incident, not feeling good can sink into feelings of "Maybe I'll feel this bad in the end, or even worse, and it will be just as real as I feel now." She needs a therapist whenever she gets a cold.
Basira Hussain - Basira is so stocked up on the counter cold medication and easy to make meals for when she's not feeling like cooking. She spends her sick days breaking into her over the counter emergency medicine stock to see what will help her, and microwaving some soup to sip on while she recovers. She doesn't get sick often, but she hates it when she does because she always feels like she's not being busy enough.
Daisy Tonner - Daisy spends her sick days feeling very hot. She always knows she's sick when she's burning up and can't cool down no matter how many fans she has on or how much ice she's dumped down her clothes. She HATES being mad so she spends most sick days being mad about how her body is betraying her in a way that seems very personally targeted.
Peter Lukas - Peter Lukas always feels cold when he's sick. It settles deep in his bones and is hard to get rid of, even when he starts to feel a little better in other ways. Blankets don't help, jackets don't help, and neither does sitting by the fire. When he's sick They Lonely's fog takes him over even more, which is why it feels like there's ice in his veins.
Elias Bouchard - Elias spends sick days vaguely annoyed. He tries so hard to body snatch a good body that will prevent him from being sick all that much, but here he is, sick anyways. He spends a lot of sick days, just, pondering.
Gertrude Robinson - Gertrude spends her sick days at the office. She brings herself a little bag full of tissues, over the counter cold medicine, and a few extra layers of cardigan in case she gets cold. She smuggles it in like it's a drug. She doesn't want anyone to get the impression that she might be vulnerable and take advantage of that. So she is very quiet about her illness. She just locks herself in the office and says she has "important work to do," and hopes no will question that. They don't because she's terrifying.
Gerry Keay - Gerry spends his sick days under blankets because he's FREEZING when he's sick. He always feels like someone has forced him to take an ice bath, so he tries to fix that problems with sweaters and jackets over sweaters and a blanket over the jacket and sweater, but he still feels cold and clammy. Emotionally it disturbs him a bit to feel so much like a corpse.
Hezekiah Wakely - It doesn't matter if he only has a small cold, he is writing letters like he's on his death bed. "Dear Nathaniel, I am not doing well, but don't worry about me, tell me about your day to raise my spirts." He is worrying everyone and this is before cell phones where you can check in and call. So extra worry.
Jane Prentiss - Jane spends her sick days going out anyways, and she tries to do the right thing and wear a mask and keep her hands washed and such, but at her job at least she still gets scolded with the mindset "If you KNOW you're sick I would still prefer you stay in until you're 100% sure you're better." She thinks this is annoying and has had quite a few arguments about whether or not you should leave the house while sick, even if you're taking precautions.
Agnes Montague - Agnes getting sick is a double-edged sword. On one hand the members of her cult will tend to her when she'd down, so she does have a good system for that. However, because of her status in life she doesn't feel like she can sick. Even at her worst she feels obligated to put a brave face on and play her role, even if she has to run out of the room to vomit occasion, or pretend she's "meditating" to lay down for awhile. So she hypothetically has care, but she knows she can't let the mask down long enough to truly receive it.
Jude Perry - Jude spends sick days doing a ritual to try and have the fire cleanse her illness, even if that ritual might bring more pain than the illness itself. Agnes does not do this because a part of her craves to feel something that reminds her that she's...real. Jude doesn't have these same feelings.
Oliver Banks - Oliver spends sick days avoiding sleep because his fever dreams get even crazier. Tendrils mix with nonsense like people he knows turning a piece of cheese into an elephant with magic. He's always had weird sick dream, but they weren't nearly horrifying before there were death tendrils.
Jared Hopworth - Jared is the type of guy who will just walk around with a serious, transmittable, illness. He'll go to the store, and to the gym, and use stairwells and put his sick hands all over the railing. His mindset is that he needs to be stronger than the sick so he decides just to ignore it, which of course just spreads the illness everywhere.
Distortion Michael - Michael getting sick is agonizing, because he should not feel sick. Things should not be sick, but he is a thing, and also Michael. Being sick pulls at the fabrics of his existence and makes him think of them. So not only his he sick, but he's painfully aware of his existence. He spends his sick days being very "glitchy" and unstable. Holding himself together takes all his energy.
Distortion Helen - Helen is the opposite of Michael. She can not get sick, because she is everything and nothing at all, and everything and nothing at all can not get sick. Since she's better suited to The Spiral and her emotions are pulling out of her less, The Distortion is able to fend off the illness. Unlike Michael who is holding onto the human parts, even the bad parts that cause him to get sick.
Nikola Orsinov - If they have a part that makes them sick, they just change it out. You can avoid ever being sick that way.
Michael Crew - Mike spends his sick days sleeping. The second he gets ill he is exhausted and feels like he could sleep for weeks straight, and he's not one to defy his instincts. Instead he just accepts his fate and settles into bed and assumes he'll get back up sometime.
Simon Fairchild - Simon spends sick days ignoring that he is sick, but unlike Melanie he doesn't get worse. That's because he's God's (Or in this case, The Vast's) favorite.
Anabelle Cane - Anabelle is kind of like how when cat's get hurt they'll isolate themselves to hid from predators. She spends her sick days moving into the shadows and taking shelter from the world to lick her wounds in peace. She's not going to let anyone or anything take advantage of her while she's unwell. So what does she do on sick days? Nobody knows.
The TMA ending kills me because I think Season 5 sets up two battles:
One between humanity and monsterhood, with Jon having to decide how much his humanity still matters in a world where he's already done the worst thing possible (End the world) and now gets rewarded for it by being one of the few people who don't have to suffer as terribly as those stuck in dominions. He's stuck between his humanity and thing that gives him power and saves him. He tries to cling to his humanity, but then he's given another choice:
This time it's between selflessness and selfishness. Jon could make the selfish choice and save his world and the people he loves by sending the fears away and likely dooming another universe just to spare his own. His world has already been damaged in a way that's going to be near-impossible to ever come back to "normal" from, and the people he love have already been effected by it irreversibly, unlike the innocent people in the other universe.
The other option is to make the selfless choice. Doom his universe, himself, and the people he loves, but spare another universe from the horror that's already been inflicted on his. He could just let everything slowly and painfully die out, which would be an agonizing process for everyone he knows, but it would spare possibly billions in another world.
And in the end, Jon makes the selfish choice. He choose his world, the people he loves, the people he hurt, the people he took statements from but couldn't truly help until now. He chooses his own priorities instead of a better tomorrow for a bunch of strangers.
Yet the irony is by making the selfish choice, Jon is also choosing his humanity. He's choosing his love and connections to people over the power he would have as the judge, jury, and executioner of this new world. And of course he does. Because Jon, at the end of the day, is one of the most human characters in TMA, and is there is really anything more human than deciding to keep the people you care for safe, no matter the cost?
One of the weirder character parallels in TMA is the backstory is Trever Herbert and Tim Stocker -
They follow a monster into their home base for the sake for their brother. (Trever wants to stay with his brother, Tim is looking for his brother.)
When they find their brother he's still alive. (Trever and his brother plan to escape, Danny is presumably still alive before the skinning.)
Both freeze as their brother is killed. (Trever freezes under the bed, Tim freezes watching the scene.)
Both live with guilt for freezing and think they were responsible for their brothers death. (Trever confesses this in "Vampire Killer," Tim confesses this in "Sneak Preview.)
They both have a righteous sense of justice and end up killing the thing that took their brother.
When I think of TMA character parallels, Tim and Trever aren't two people who tend to come to mind, but I was watching "Vampire Killer," again last night, and thought to myself, this sounds very familiar.
I always felt like the TMA episode "Alone," needed sad piano music in the back. So here's an edit of that with the music: "Jessica," from the Marble Hornets soundtrack.
Thank fuck The Spiral is not real because I would be the worlds lamest victim of it.
I am playing "Silent Hill 2," RN, and I am having trouble liking the game. The plot seems great so far, but I have gotten lost for embarrassingly long periods in every single section of the game so far.
And yes I know about the map.
The thing with maps is that they don't actually help if your sense of direction is bad enough.
Which would saved Michael Shelley now that I think about it. RIP Michael Shelley, you should have not been able to tell your east from your west's.
It's a very underrated fact that someone made Trever Herbert a Facebook page that has 1'000 likes. Trever Herbert is canonically a niche internet celebrity. Georgie and Melanie might have known who he was.
Do you think any of the cast have a mental disorder? Like autism or ptsd or something. I think Peter has social anxiety!
Yeah! I think a lot of the cast could been seen as having autism, since The Eye is hyper-fixation coded. Jon especially. When he was talking about his childhood and how he was a "deeply annoying," child who bothered the adults with his very particular habits, that unfortunately resonated with me a lot. (I have autism, not to the shock of anyone who has looked at my blog ever.) I also think just his general hyperfixation on the situation, his blunter personality, and his struggles connecting to other people (Often because he prioritizes his hyperfixation over connections) did make me feel like Jon was just me. And that says something about Jon because I have multiple diagnoses.
I also could easily read Martin and Gerard as being autistic. With Gerry because he struggles socially with people he doesn't understand (Could be a neroditypical metaphor) and has a hard time with change and therefore tends to fall back into old patterns. Martin's struggle with people is also why I tend to read him as having autism, and his tea thing reminds me of how a lot of people with autism tend to have safe foods and drinks. Though that could just be me projecting.
I'm a big fan of borderline Tim Stocker. His lash out at Jon is partially because Jon abandons him for the sake of his own paranoia when things to start to go to shit, and Tim struggles to forgive him for it. It kind reminds me of a split, and he has a lot of impulsive behavior that feels familiar. I know a few people with borderline and they remind me of Tim, so that's why I'm going with this.
I also headcanon Oliver to have OCD, which is part of why he get's kind of stuck in an obsessive loop over his dream thing. I also headcanon both Agnes and Mike Crew to have depression.
I also think Georgie has PTSD, with how what happened with the dead women informs every choice and sentence she says in TMA. It's also possible that she has a dissociation disorder, which is part of her numbness that she describes after her fear is taken.
That's just what I'd say personally, but I'm obviously not a psychologist or anything. I am just a nerd.
Attempting, heaving on attempting, to make TMA characters in BG3.
Jon Sims - Admittedly, I killed this one. This was great.
Martin Blackwood - Heavy on attempting for this one considering I couldn't add his canon body type due to BG3 limitation or his fanon glasses. I really need a glasses mod for this game because I couldn't figure out why I thought he looked so weird for like five minutes, then I realized it was his lack of glasses.
Tim Stoker -
Sasha James -
Melanie King -
Georgie Barker -
Basira Hussain - I wanted to give her a hijab since I know that's an interpretation the fandom really rocks with, but the game gave me no options and I couldn't find a mod. :(
