Question about the cult au: I feel like I remember Gerry saying that if he'd found jon before Jonah, he would have tried to convince the eye that it would be better to leave Jon alone so he could "observe him in the wild" or something like that. Not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but what would have happened if Gerry had found jon first do you think?
Sorry for not answering yesterday, our internet was out! You're absolutely remembering correctly!
Very long post, but not putting in a cut because I don't feel like it
So Gerry finding Jon first is totally plausible because when Jonah has speaking engagements whoever comes with- usually Gerry and Michael- hangs around on campus chatting and trying to start developing people into prospective future members or meals. The speaking engagements are recurring, usually a couple times a year at any given institution, so they often have the opportunity to talk to people several times over the course of a year or two to convince them gradually to join
This has varying success; Actual Golden Retriever Michael Shelley is pretty good at this! Gerry doesn't believe in subtlety/doesn't like tricking people, significantly lowering their success rate via "this is actually, openly a cult. do you want to join our cult?"
So I think that's how they would run into Jon. Crucially, I don't think that this scenario is less morally suspect and invasive. It's more a difference in how much it influences Jon's life. Stalking is technically probably less bad than kidnapping, but it's not great. A fair few people from the Institute end up suddenly spending a lot of time in Oxford. Potentially, someone gets some personal details shifted around/forged and Jonah pulls some strings to get someone like Gerry and/or Michael enrolled. They do that occasionally, because a wide knowledge base keeps the Institute fairly self-sufficient and a good job on the outside brings in money. Probably Gerry, because he can like... function in human society better and has a tiny bit of existing rapport with Jon from their first encounter.
But I don't think Jonah and maybe Gertrude stop pushing for the relocate-Jon plan. I feel like as part of the "see but not understand" thing the Eye latches on when someone first has an idea, so having Jon In The Wild is more appealing the same way having him in the Institute was more appealing in the fic. It isn't choosing strategically, it's picking the first answer presented to it. If other avatars find out about Jon it's game over, he's going to the Institute.
So I think it's less he never gets kidnapped than it is just a VASTLY more disturbing and upsetting lead up. Instead of having 5 seconds of being accosted at his front door, it's months and months getting to know Gerry, and to a lesser extent Michael or one of the Stokers who sans the insta-friends chemistry with Jon, being friends with Gerry, inviting Gerry to his and Georgie's movie nights. Maybe there are even some dates, feeling out the do-we-want-to-be-just-friends vs actually we're an awesome couple. For both of them, maybe, the same one night stand and teasing flirting as with canon Sasha but with Georgie if it's Tim, or Michael or Danny doing a couple dates because Georgie's trying a bunch of things out in the wake of the breakup (Sasha can't be the partner, because her family only joined when she was 14 and non-Gerry members with experience as outsiders don't get to leave the Institute)
Gerry, for the first time in his life, has a social circle of people more or less his own age without any baggage from who his parents were. It's all very real for him, but he can't ignore or forget why he's here, how close both him and Jon are to losing that at any given moment. Maybe he even lets on a little bit of The Spookiness somehow and they have a little sharing circle about Mr. Spider and the dead body and Mary's Leitner collection. It's all very real for him, it's very precious, it's very easy to forget why he's here even with Beholding giving him butterflies every time Jon looks at him. It's an inevitable betrayal that he does not want to do but must
I think maybe, when something happens- maybe something spooky that makes it feel like being free is Not Safe for Jon, maybe someone has some loose lips and lets on to someone at the Usher Foundation or Pu Songling Reseach Centre or worse, someone not directly allied with the Institute- things go very differently.
Gerry isn't just in love-by-proxy with Jon, he knows him. He knows how terrible it is to be sucked into the Institute- he only chose to do so because he was very young and didn't have a single other option, no support system, nothing. Just Mary getting worse and worse, increasingly clear that she was working up to something dangerous and that she did not care if Gerry got hurt in the process. Gerry joined the institute after much thought and negotiation- not usually part of the proceedings but Gerry was someone they wanted more than usual, Eric leaving made them look weak and having Gerry back, even in a situation that sets him apart from everyone else in terms of privileges and allowances, alleviated that "failure". If Gerry had another option he would not have done it- thus the tattoos, ensuring that even more than the contract, Gerry is stuck with them. Jon has options, Gerry knows he has options, he has so much potential and has hopes and dreams and could live a long, happy life never setting foot in the Institute. He has everything Gerry wished he had when he had to choose between signing over his soul or letting Mary wear him down and down and down, carving away bits to test a Leitner, to gain access to things, trying out things that she doesn't want to test on herself, being a regular abusive parent in addition to the spooky stuff
And Gerry has been giving updates on Jon, talking about him and his life. Other cult members are intermittently watching from afar or constructing accidental encounters with him. Gerry knows, the cult knows, that Jon isn't close to many people, but he is close to Georgie. (Behind the scenes, much drama about Being Friends With Your Ex, debating if Georgie is something like a saint due to proximity and friendliness with Jon or the worst because she blasphemously broke up with him (it was a mutually decided breakup, but they sooo don't care.)) I think when they take Jon, they take all Jon accoutrements: if he's been there long enough that they got the planned cat, the cat comes with; Jon's books? coming with; Jon's clothes? favorite pieces come with, because Jonah has decided to be Weird about Jon's clothing and doesn't want too many Frightfully Normal clothes competing; Jon's bedding? he mentioned the Sensory Nightmare of finding replacement sheets that don't Cause Problems because of Texture to Gerry, so the bedding comes but is turned over to Jonah and Gertrude so they can determine what makes a good texture to Jon, RIP the kitty cat flannel sheets Georgie gave him as a half-joke birthday gift.
Georgie is the accessory that comes with your Jon doll. Georgie is coming to the cult. Georgie is having a Really Weird Time, because like... they don't have an endgame. People want to get close to her because of Jon- she doesn't blame Jon, but a lot of that S4 energy is coming out in reaction to other people, and probably results in one or two blowups at Jon rather than anyone else (escalating into a two-way shouting match because Jon is also having Big Emotions). Gerry's name is mud. Jonah, Regency weirdo extraordinaire, is Even Weirder about clothes for her. Jonah's kept up with The Fashion for men, because he needs to fit in on the outside. But a LOT of the time women raised in the cult spend on the outside is if someone is getting a degree to help the cult somehow, and like... you can just Do Whatever on a college campus. There was a guy at mine who wore a Union Soldier reproduction Civil War uniform all the time. It's fine if they look a bit odd, because they have the full time they're studying to figure out what professional attire etc look like.
When Jonah is weird about Jon's clothes, it's very deliberate; know the rules before you break them and such. Georgie gets fancied up for stuff like presenting them to the cult, but it's a hapless sort of weird. Her everyday cult wardrobe was picked out by a combination of Gerry and Gertrude, but Jonah's a control freak about the semi-regular Looking At Jon events. It's a mix of Back In My Day leftovers and whatever random bits of women's fashion he absorbed over the last 200 years. Like as far as underpinnings, we are absolutely not talking about anything more modern than a girdle. Creeper measurements gained while they're drugged or the Eye being able/deciding to share when Jonah wants them have not been used responsibly. Probably there is someone in London still making corsets for sale, if you look. Georgie is allowed to complain about a properly fitted corset, it's not stereotyping the past or being ignorant of how they work, it is actually a coercive and at least half-sexist situation for her. The only good news is that Jonah wants to focus on the event and Jon, so he just sics Sasha on her to play lady in waiting instead of becoming part of that process himself.
I don't think Georgie ever really forgives Gerry and co. All the S4 stuff with not acknowledging the intractability of the situation bc it's never spelled out in so many words and it's easier to be angry, it's safer to detach herself, it's frightening to think about how permanent this is, she doesn't have space to give grace to these people or read into the subtext of how little choice they have. Jon is kept separate from Georgie except for Good Behavior, he's in the thick of it and does not have a support system to be picky about. Georgie isn't operating in a place of fear, she can't, but Jon is. They end up being very careful about that conversation, because they're afraid of what'll happen to Georgie if she and Jon have a friendship breakup, they know and trust each other to be ride or die (if out of touch Georgie lets Jon be a fugitive at her place current daily presence Georgie is not going to let something she knows is not at ALL Jon's fault change that) but having an audience means walking on eggshells. So I think Jon does his best to get over the betrayal and ends up sliding back into friendliness because it's the best of a bad lot, he will actually go insane otherwise. Georgie I don't think ends up at more than a stalemate with Sasha (who she sees a lot bc of the Jon inner circle she's The Girl and, again, Jonah's an old-fashioned weirdo). Jon agitates for more freedom for Georgie, but they're still trapped.
The other bright spot is that I don't think they lose the Stokers. Escape means getting BOTH of them out. Gerry lets on how futile getting in touch with the cops is in a Super Normal Non=Suspicious Way. Even if the cops were helpful, TARDIS bigger-on-the-inside secret building addition is not the kind of place you can get a search warrant for. If Georgie gets out on her own, no one is coming back for Jon (Jon tries to convince her to do it anyway), and if Jon escapes alone... he just can't. What would they do to Georgie? He knows, experiences and is increasingly aware, that Jonah can be vicious and petty. Georgie is not valuable on her own. Maybe she'd be fine, because they need bait to get Jon back, but "alive" is an awfully low bar when Jonah could use anything in Artefact Storage on her, can whittle ties to life down to the tiniest thread if he wants. The logistics are too complicated. If Danny breaks Jon out, he insists they go for Georgie and they don't make it out. They trip something, Jonah shows up, and the Stokers are saved by a) plausible deniability, Jon is cut off from everyone because of things like this, giving him things Jonah doesn't want him to have and b) Jon just like. hanging off the Stokers. All misgivings abandoned, Stokers is my best friend now.
So all in all I don't think it's better for Jon, it's just different.
