Hamilton-style musical of rendition of Robert Smirke’s crew and the fallout between himself, Jonah Magnus, and the rest of them.
Ambitious Scottish upstart Jonah Magnus, plunging into the scene of higher society and academia
Interpersonal drama in the esoteric research and philosophy sphere
A power ballad aria from Smirke as he describes his grand, utopian plans for balance
Jonah seeing the wonders of this new world and getting increasingly involved in it, probably getting in some heated theoretical debates with Rayner et al. about it because, being Beholding- and Dark-aligned, their fundamental views would be diametrically opposed
A slowly-shifting musical motif for Jonah as his intentions develop over the course of the play
Barnabas pleading with Jonah through his letter; they’re in separate parts of the stage with different lightings and they can’t see each other. Jonah is reading, rather than listening to, his words
SPOTLIGHTS REMINISCENT OF EYES
Harrowing solo as Jonah sinks deeper into fearing the possibility of rituals
More below the cut because I’m going nuts about this.
I would feel like there’s too much ground to cover (c. 1809 [estimated year Jonah gets introduced to the Fears if he established the Institute in 1818 and talked Smirke into working on Millbank 1815-1821] all the way to 1867 [year of Smirke’s death and the final decommissioning of Millbank: the year in which I place Jonah’s first attempt at the Watcher’s Crown]) if it weren’t for the several decades covered in Hamilton. It provides a pretty good guide for such a varied timeline.
More insane scenes:
Contrast of Albrecht Von Closen’s 1816 letter informing Jonah of his findings at his nephew’s estate vs Dr. Johnathan Fanshawe’s 1831 letter revealing how Jonah knowingly caused Von Closen’s death by stealing his books and got him filled with eyes
Smirke watching the group he formed fall to the Fears in turn, clinging to his alliance with Jonah and therefore being blind to his own turn towards Beholding
Jonah’s financial wheedling with Mordechai Lukas and other donors for his fledgling Institute
Jonah being so gleeful about his brand new Magnus Institute in Edinburgh, after several years of compiling statements informally
HE GETS TO DELIGHT IN ALL THE SCHEDULING AND LOGISTICS!!!
Just. all the letters we have record of. I haven’t even gotten to Dr. Algernon Moss or the conflict between George Gilbert Scott and Sampson Kempthorne
Something something about needing to know what happens, having to watch even though you'd like to interfere, to help whoever you're watching, but your curiosity being too strong. Gosh I hope this doesn't consume Jonathan completly.
Know what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately? The parallels between Jonah Magnus and Barnabas Bennett, and Jon and Martin, but also the vast differences between them. Jonah left Barnabas to die in The Lonely and told Jon in the recording, “That’s what this place [the Institute] is... you may believe yourself to have friends, to have confidantes, but in the end, all they are is something for you to watch, to know, and ultimately to discard”.
But Jon said “fuck that”. He charged headfirst into the Lonely knowing he may die to save the man he loved. And at so many other moments (like rescuing Daisy from the Buried), he never considered those important to him to be merely props to observe. And that is something I have A LOT of Feelings about.
fuck it, barnabas bennett based lonely headcanons (with littol doodles) because i have mental illness:
- i think barnabas bennett's ghost haunts the lonely. you might find him, should you get lost deep enough.
- his ghost is fully blind however, due to have being in some of the dimension's deepest catacombs for centuries now, meaning the fog has completely taken over his sight.
(this ties in to my hc of the lukas family being entirely colorblind due to their affiliation with the lonely, so it only makes sense for poor bennett here to be blind blind after so long)
- if you were to look into his eyes, all you would see is just. mist. whether this is what his eyes look like now or whether they're simply mirrors of everything around you is unknown.
- barnabas often mistakes young men trapped in the mist for jonah, who's "finally come to rescue him after all this time" (even though it's far too late). he gets very upset when they explain that they're not him.
- sometimes he tries giving people directions if he feels like being petty towards the family who damned him there in the first place. the real loneliness comes from the fact he is simply the ghost of an unfortunate man from the past, and he can't actually help you in any meaningful way.
