Okay firstly, thank you for the excuse to ramble about my AU, secondly, so while both those are Very Good and I'm definitely tempted to make timeline-correct AUs for this now (oh the Angst Potential of that first option), this is very different
Buckle your seatbelts, kids, because when I said self-indulgent I meant self-indulgent, this is such a ridiculous concept with little to no basis in canon that purely exists because I listened to Family by Mother Mother too long
This AU is pretty different from TMA canon. In this AU, Jon develops eldritch abilities from a very young age, and is kind of implied to be an accidental Agnes?? An Eye cult in his neighbourhood basically tried to bring about a prophet birth of their own, but accidentally messed up Jon's birth because his mother was in the hospital room right next to the Eye cults nonsense. Jon's parents die like in canon, his grandmother is negligent like in canon, but the key difference is that alot of Spooky Shit just starts happening around him and he's Eye-aligned from a young age.
Oh, and instead of going home after Mr. Spider, he gets kidnapped by the Eye cult on the way back, and he isn't eight, he's like five. (Why was someone as old as Jon's bully nessing with a five year old? Because plot. Also he was enough of a douche to target an eight year old, what's three years younger to him.)
Jon is there for a while, maybe until he's eight or nine, and is basically used as a test subject for rituals, gathering information, trying to get him to be their perfect prophet they wanted, all very traumatic for a scared little kid who doesn't know what's going on. On top of all that, finding out he does have powers and isn't human just adds on to his stress. Him being taken at such a young age also kinda fucks him up, as his first real memory is Mr. Spider, followed by being raised by the Eye cult who he somehow Knows aren't his family.
Now, during all this, Michael has been yeeted into the Spiral by Gertrude, and has been trying to hurt the Eye as he associates it with Gertrude and the Institute. He catches wind of a little ritual going on, heads on down to ruin it, and holy shit, that is a child, being shoved into Becoming by those he should be able to trust. Michael can't help but see himself in that scared little kid, and hey, what better way to crash the party then to steal the tiny eldritch prophet child right out from under their noses?
'Unfortunately' for Michael, Jon latches onto his saviour quick, and just kinda worms his way into Michael's life permanently. He ends up growing up with Michael as his big brother (calling himself 'dad' felt too weird), and though Michael tries his best, Jon stays involved with the supernatural and with the Beholding. He kind of grows up around alot of Avatars as a result, and by the time he shows up at the Magnus Institute, Elias almost screams in joy because wow this guy is COVERED in marks from like every entity, he'll make the perfect Archivist. Jon gets hired, Gertrude dies, Jon gets the promotion, and the season 1 Archival crew is together at last.
And that is the long and convoluted path that lands us at the AU's story itself, wherein Jon is essentially every Avatar's favourite baby cousin and this both solves alot of canon problems and causes a whole bunch of new ones. Jon's prickly nature is essentially him trying to keep humans out of his personal life because ummm his brother has Knives For Fingers. Despite the trauma and hurt/comfort, it is a very silly, very fun AU, and hopefully I cam get the inspiration to write it!
As a thank you for reading this whole long thing, here's a protective Michael and a baby Jon with a juicebox!
