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information.
PLAYER: Prox. (they/them)
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
ulyssean. PMs to this account are fine too!
TIMEZONE: +11 GMT (Brisbane, Australia) (what time is it now?)
PERMISSIONS: Big hell yes to backtagging and boomeranging, threadhopping, handwaving small talk, infomod/fourthwalling if it's IC for your character, minorly godmoding my character to move around, kissing/fighting/smut/death/etc, mind-reading, using powers, etc. If you're not sure about something just ask!
CONTENT WARNINGS: Jon is from a horror canon in a horror game and I will try to be careful with warning for sensitive topics. For my own part, I prefer warnings before any detailed descriptions of child abuse (especially csa) land in my inbox.
NAME: Jonathan Sims (he/him)
CANON: The Magnus Archives, a podcast.
CANON POINT: Generally I prefer to play Jon from S1-S3, but I'm familiar with the later seasons.
AGE: 31.
SEXUALITY: Biromantic asexual (canon, though he doesn't use labels). I play him as sex-positive and kinky.
SETTING: Horror-AU of London, England, Earth, 2017.
SHIPS: Yes: Elias, Gerry, Daisy, Peter, Gertrude, cross-canon. Also open to TMA OCs and AUs, and minor statement givers. My only absolutely not is post-S4/canon-compliant Jon/Martin.
BACKGROUND: Here is the wiki, but it's incomplete, so: a short write up, with spoilers through Season 3:
- Parents died when he was younger, his father of a fall when he was 2 and his mother of complications during routine surgery two years later.
- Raised by his father's mother in Bournemouth, who was resentful at the obligation and didn't grieve well; they did not have a good relationship and he was a difficult, precocious child.
- Had an encounter at the age of 8 with a supernatural book from the library of Jurgen Leitner called "A Guest For Mr Spider", which resulted in a teenager who bullied him being killed. This lead to a lifelong fascination with the paranormal.
- Graduated high school early, read physics at Oxford, spent a while in higher education.
- Cared for his grandmother before her death in 2012.
- Joined the Magnus Institute the same year and worked as a researcher for 4 years.
- Was then inexplicably promoted to Head Archivist despite having no library science degree, and requested Timothy Stoker be transferred with him as an assistant - podcast canon starts here.
- Attempted to organize and digitize the mess of statements Gertrude Robinson (the previous Head Archivist) had left him and discovered some statements would not be recorded digitally and required a tape recorder instead. These taped statements revealed to him that England was filled with connected paranormal events, as horrific domains of supernatural power interacted.
- Was nearly eaten alive by a hivemind of worms (an avatar of some pestilence power) that attacked the Institute.
- Found his predecessor's body in the tunnels below the Institute dead from gunshot wounds, and tried to independently solve who murdered her, by convincing the police to help by turning over evidence and passing on information. Spent months suspecting all of his colleagues of the murder, following to them to their homes and doing background checks.
- Continued to explore the tunnels, certain someone was down there. Was attacked by a monster called the NotThem, which was killed by Jurgen Leitner. Leitner was living in the tunnels and informed Jon the NotThem had been impersonating one of Jon's assistants for a year. When Jon went for a cigarette, Leitner was brutally beaten to death. Jon found the body in his office, panicked, and went into hiding by staying with an old college friend.
- Discovered the Magnus Institute was in fact part of the domain known as Beholding, or colloquially, The Eye, and that he and his assistants couldn't ever voluntarily leave.
- Discovered that his role as Archivist gave him the power to compel truth out of people when he speaks to them, and was why the police had assisted in his investigations with Gertrude.
- Discovered the current Head of the Institute, Elias Bouchard, was the murderer of both Leitner and Gertrude Robinson, but that killing him would also kill everyone who worked for the Institute.
- Was charged with stopping an upcoming ritual of The Stranger called the Unknowning lest it destroy the world.
- Teamed up with his research assistants and a dangerously unstable police officer to find out more information, including interrogating avatars of The Stranger and investigating Breekon and Hope delivery services.
- Was abruptly kidnapped.
PERSONALITY: I am not a brave man. I believe I am starting to come to terms with that fact. But I am, in certain circumstances, a very stubborn one.
First impressions of Jonathan Sims aren't often kind. He's exceedingly, almost stereotypically English in his passive-aggressive politeness; his posh Dorset accent and Oxford vocabulary don't help the impression of being, as one person accuses him, a "pompous ass". He is a reserved man who doesn't enjoy social interaction and isn't very good at it, having almost no friends outside of work. Despite being born in '86, he admits most people assume he is much older, perhaps due to his grumpiness or his old-fashioned interests, or perhaps because his hair is greying and he dresses like your grandfather.
In addition, as most of his life revolves around work, and as the canon is set in his workplace, most of what we see of Jon is in a professional setting. From the very start of his tenure as Head Archivist it's obvious he is annoyed by the jumbled mess his predecessor left behind, and that he prefers things to be neatly organized and in their proper places. His preference for organization extends to his personal habits, and when he's stressed he deep-cleans. He is obviously an exacting boss, as his assistants all speak of having caught the sharp edge of his tongue for not doing their research properly. Jonathan does not suffer fools lightly and takes refuge in being cynical to hide his fear and anxiety. Martin and Sasha are both loathe to come to him with half-finished theories, to the point that they would rather risk their lives investigating further to get solid evidence, though Tim, who has known Jon longer, is much less scared of him and more willing to argue... to the point of serious altercations when their lives start to slide into supernatural hell.
Does he meet with his assistants outside of work? Well, we're told they have a curry night around Christmas that he attends but also that he doesn't particularly enjoy it, attending out of obligation and politeness. Still, due to finding themselves in dire situations, he's had some fairly revealing conversations (particularly with Martin, who seems to be closest to him) and it's likely that they're the closest thing he has to friends. Despite being ornery, Jon genuinely cares for them: he goes out of his way to make sure Martin can sleep in the Institute basement for a while when he feels unsafe at home, and he's devastated when Sasha dies. Later, he speaks of his regret at not considering them allies when they so clearly want to help him — though he does still have a tendency to go off on his own.
"Curiosity killed the cat" would be an apt analogy here: Jon's involvement in the terrible things that have both physically and mentally scarred him come as a result of his unerring determination to find things out. As a kid he wandered and explored a lot, and loved to read (though he was incredibly picky, perhaps due to early Beholding influence) and an old college friend says he was always the sort to ask incisive, aggravating questions that made people want to punch him. So it's no surprise then, that he went into a research position. As Jon reads the statements he often expresses great skepticism, finding a Scully-like scientific explanation for supernatural events. However he later admits that he has always believed in the paranormal, as a traumatizing chilhood encounter was his reason for taking a job with the Institute in the first place, and that his scoffing was a refuge from the fear he felt reading them aloud, because he could feel that they were true as he read them, and could feel something watching him, listening.
Jon has a lot of fear in him, but also a lot of courage: the kind of idiotic, stubborn bravery that lets him pursue danger relentlessly. Unfortunately there's been a lot of danger to pursue. As events around him become stranger and stranger, Jon is gripped with determination to see everything through, starting from the time he discovers that Gertrude was murdered and resolves to find out by whom. He learns to be paranoid of the people around him, and he also becomes practical about things like weapons, food, and light. He does his best to document his experiences because "I refuse to become another goddamn mystery." Slowly the lack of sleep and constant terror manifests in a grim, low-burning anger — when he's on the very edge Jon comes to seem like a man who is a danger himself, a man who could truly do anything if he's pushed to.
Jon might seem like the desk job sort, but he likes to get out into the field and interrogate the monsters himself. Even though the Magnus Institute's creed is one of observation and recording, Jon continuously pushes the boundaries in order to get involved, mostly because he wants to save people and values human life. He's been attempting to get better at working as part of a team and trusting others, though he can occasionally have a "do it all myself" attitude.
Outside of the hideous Lovecraftian terrors of his work, Jon is fairly ordinary. He has a grim, wry sense of humour, being deeply self-deprecating and sometimes sardonically very funny, though it's rare for he himself to laugh unless it's in resigned despair. As mentioned, he can be awkward around other people, and becomes either flustered or irritated by relationship talk. He likes to cook, though it seems unlikely he'd enjoy anything particularly "exotic". Being raised by his grandmother means, as mentioned, some of his interests are a little old-fashioned, so while he makes thorough use of modern technology and knows what memes are, he prefers older bands and films, and high culture entertainment like museums or ballet. In the Q&A it was said that he prefers watching documentaries and reading non-fiction, and that he also collects something esoteric in his spare time. He hates spiders and doesn't seem to care for dogs, but he loves cats. Finally, he used to smoke, but he quit five years ago and only sneaks them if he's stressed.
ABILITIES:
Non-magical.
- Understands modern technology circa 2017, can probably use a smartphone and has a Netflix account, can drive a car, etc etc. Manages a research database and digitizes statements so is presumably fine with computers, especially recording programs and data entry. Not a computer nerd by any means but still a millennial.
- Lives alone, quite good at cooking and cleaning, would make a good housewife.
- Oxford educated. Excellent memory for numbers and dates, recalling stray information and complex case numbers off the top of his head.
Magical.
- Jon has the ability to compel people to answer his questions truthfully. At first he did it accidentally (marked in the podcast by a small hiss of static over his questions) but now he is aware of his ability, though not at all practiced in it. While it can be used to get a yes/no answer, typically the power encourages people to give a complete statement, including information like what actions they took and why, and what they were thinking and feeling at the time, whether or not they would normally be comfortable disclosing that information. To avoid spoilers for new listeners I refer to the static as "zalgotext" a lot.
- While compulsion mostly seems to only elicit verbal information, a couple of times Jon's compulsion has caused someone to do something to assist him to get information, such as when the police gave him tapes from evidence, or when people write him statements.
- When Jon reads a written statement of a true and unique supernatural encounter aloud into a tape recorder, he feels as though he becomes the person who made the statement, taking on their accent and vocal tics, and seeing and feeling what they saw and felt. This greatly tires him — even one a week takes its toll, and more than three a week and he passes out.
CONTACT:
TIMEZONE: +11 GMT (Brisbane, Australia) (what time is it now?)
PERMISSIONS: Big hell yes to backtagging and boomeranging, threadhopping, handwaving small talk, infomod/fourthwalling if it's IC for your character, minorly godmoding my character to move around, kissing/fighting/smut/death/etc, mind-reading, using powers, etc. If you're not sure about something just ask!
CONTENT WARNINGS: Jon is from a horror canon in a horror game and I will try to be careful with warning for sensitive topics. For my own part, I prefer warnings before any detailed descriptions of child abuse (especially csa) land in my inbox.
NAME: Jonathan Sims (he/him)
CANON: The Magnus Archives, a podcast.
CANON POINT: Generally I prefer to play Jon from S1-S3, but I'm familiar with the later seasons.
AGE: 31.
SEXUALITY: Biromantic asexual (canon, though he doesn't use labels). I play him as sex-positive and kinky.
SETTING: Horror-AU of London, England, Earth, 2017.
SHIPS: Yes: Elias, Gerry, Daisy, Peter, Gertrude, cross-canon. Also open to TMA OCs and AUs, and minor statement givers. My only absolutely not is post-S4/canon-compliant Jon/Martin.
BACKGROUND: Here is the wiki, but it's incomplete, so: a short write up, with spoilers through Season 3:
- Parents died when he was younger, his father of a fall when he was 2 and his mother of complications during routine surgery two years later.
- Raised by his father's mother in Bournemouth, who was resentful at the obligation and didn't grieve well; they did not have a good relationship and he was a difficult, precocious child.
- Had an encounter at the age of 8 with a supernatural book from the library of Jurgen Leitner called "A Guest For Mr Spider", which resulted in a teenager who bullied him being killed. This lead to a lifelong fascination with the paranormal.
- Graduated high school early, read physics at Oxford, spent a while in higher education.
- Cared for his grandmother before her death in 2012.
- Joined the Magnus Institute the same year and worked as a researcher for 4 years.
- Was then inexplicably promoted to Head Archivist despite having no library science degree, and requested Timothy Stoker be transferred with him as an assistant - podcast canon starts here.
- Attempted to organize and digitize the mess of statements Gertrude Robinson (the previous Head Archivist) had left him and discovered some statements would not be recorded digitally and required a tape recorder instead. These taped statements revealed to him that England was filled with connected paranormal events, as horrific domains of supernatural power interacted.
- Was nearly eaten alive by a hivemind of worms (an avatar of some pestilence power) that attacked the Institute.
- Found his predecessor's body in the tunnels below the Institute dead from gunshot wounds, and tried to independently solve who murdered her, by convincing the police to help by turning over evidence and passing on information. Spent months suspecting all of his colleagues of the murder, following to them to their homes and doing background checks.
- Continued to explore the tunnels, certain someone was down there. Was attacked by a monster called the NotThem, which was killed by Jurgen Leitner. Leitner was living in the tunnels and informed Jon the NotThem had been impersonating one of Jon's assistants for a year. When Jon went for a cigarette, Leitner was brutally beaten to death. Jon found the body in his office, panicked, and went into hiding by staying with an old college friend.
- Discovered the Magnus Institute was in fact part of the domain known as Beholding, or colloquially, The Eye, and that he and his assistants couldn't ever voluntarily leave.
- Discovered that his role as Archivist gave him the power to compel truth out of people when he speaks to them, and was why the police had assisted in his investigations with Gertrude.
- Discovered the current Head of the Institute, Elias Bouchard, was the murderer of both Leitner and Gertrude Robinson, but that killing him would also kill everyone who worked for the Institute.
- Was charged with stopping an upcoming ritual of The Stranger called the Unknowning lest it destroy the world.
- Teamed up with his research assistants and a dangerously unstable police officer to find out more information, including interrogating avatars of The Stranger and investigating Breekon and Hope delivery services.
- Was abruptly kidnapped.
PERSONALITY: I am not a brave man. I believe I am starting to come to terms with that fact. But I am, in certain circumstances, a very stubborn one.
First impressions of Jonathan Sims aren't often kind. He's exceedingly, almost stereotypically English in his passive-aggressive politeness; his posh Dorset accent and Oxford vocabulary don't help the impression of being, as one person accuses him, a "pompous ass". He is a reserved man who doesn't enjoy social interaction and isn't very good at it, having almost no friends outside of work. Despite being born in '86, he admits most people assume he is much older, perhaps due to his grumpiness or his old-fashioned interests, or perhaps because his hair is greying and he dresses like your grandfather.
In addition, as most of his life revolves around work, and as the canon is set in his workplace, most of what we see of Jon is in a professional setting. From the very start of his tenure as Head Archivist it's obvious he is annoyed by the jumbled mess his predecessor left behind, and that he prefers things to be neatly organized and in their proper places. His preference for organization extends to his personal habits, and when he's stressed he deep-cleans. He is obviously an exacting boss, as his assistants all speak of having caught the sharp edge of his tongue for not doing their research properly. Jonathan does not suffer fools lightly and takes refuge in being cynical to hide his fear and anxiety. Martin and Sasha are both loathe to come to him with half-finished theories, to the point that they would rather risk their lives investigating further to get solid evidence, though Tim, who has known Jon longer, is much less scared of him and more willing to argue... to the point of serious altercations when their lives start to slide into supernatural hell.
Does he meet with his assistants outside of work? Well, we're told they have a curry night around Christmas that he attends but also that he doesn't particularly enjoy it, attending out of obligation and politeness. Still, due to finding themselves in dire situations, he's had some fairly revealing conversations (particularly with Martin, who seems to be closest to him) and it's likely that they're the closest thing he has to friends. Despite being ornery, Jon genuinely cares for them: he goes out of his way to make sure Martin can sleep in the Institute basement for a while when he feels unsafe at home, and he's devastated when Sasha dies. Later, he speaks of his regret at not considering them allies when they so clearly want to help him — though he does still have a tendency to go off on his own.
"Curiosity killed the cat" would be an apt analogy here: Jon's involvement in the terrible things that have both physically and mentally scarred him come as a result of his unerring determination to find things out. As a kid he wandered and explored a lot, and loved to read (though he was incredibly picky, perhaps due to early Beholding influence) and an old college friend says he was always the sort to ask incisive, aggravating questions that made people want to punch him. So it's no surprise then, that he went into a research position. As Jon reads the statements he often expresses great skepticism, finding a Scully-like scientific explanation for supernatural events. However he later admits that he has always believed in the paranormal, as a traumatizing chilhood encounter was his reason for taking a job with the Institute in the first place, and that his scoffing was a refuge from the fear he felt reading them aloud, because he could feel that they were true as he read them, and could feel something watching him, listening.
Jon has a lot of fear in him, but also a lot of courage: the kind of idiotic, stubborn bravery that lets him pursue danger relentlessly. Unfortunately there's been a lot of danger to pursue. As events around him become stranger and stranger, Jon is gripped with determination to see everything through, starting from the time he discovers that Gertrude was murdered and resolves to find out by whom. He learns to be paranoid of the people around him, and he also becomes practical about things like weapons, food, and light. He does his best to document his experiences because "I refuse to become another goddamn mystery." Slowly the lack of sleep and constant terror manifests in a grim, low-burning anger — when he's on the very edge Jon comes to seem like a man who is a danger himself, a man who could truly do anything if he's pushed to.
Jon might seem like the desk job sort, but he likes to get out into the field and interrogate the monsters himself. Even though the Magnus Institute's creed is one of observation and recording, Jon continuously pushes the boundaries in order to get involved, mostly because he wants to save people and values human life. He's been attempting to get better at working as part of a team and trusting others, though he can occasionally have a "do it all myself" attitude.
Outside of the hideous Lovecraftian terrors of his work, Jon is fairly ordinary. He has a grim, wry sense of humour, being deeply self-deprecating and sometimes sardonically very funny, though it's rare for he himself to laugh unless it's in resigned despair. As mentioned, he can be awkward around other people, and becomes either flustered or irritated by relationship talk. He likes to cook, though it seems unlikely he'd enjoy anything particularly "exotic". Being raised by his grandmother means, as mentioned, some of his interests are a little old-fashioned, so while he makes thorough use of modern technology and knows what memes are, he prefers older bands and films, and high culture entertainment like museums or ballet. In the Q&A it was said that he prefers watching documentaries and reading non-fiction, and that he also collects something esoteric in his spare time. He hates spiders and doesn't seem to care for dogs, but he loves cats. Finally, he used to smoke, but he quit five years ago and only sneaks them if he's stressed.
ABILITIES:
Non-magical.
- Understands modern technology circa 2017, can probably use a smartphone and has a Netflix account, can drive a car, etc etc. Manages a research database and digitizes statements so is presumably fine with computers, especially recording programs and data entry. Not a computer nerd by any means but still a millennial.
- Lives alone, quite good at cooking and cleaning, would make a good housewife.
- Oxford educated. Excellent memory for numbers and dates, recalling stray information and complex case numbers off the top of his head.
Magical.
- Jon has the ability to compel people to answer his questions truthfully. At first he did it accidentally (marked in the podcast by a small hiss of static over his questions) but now he is aware of his ability, though not at all practiced in it. While it can be used to get a yes/no answer, typically the power encourages people to give a complete statement, including information like what actions they took and why, and what they were thinking and feeling at the time, whether or not they would normally be comfortable disclosing that information. To avoid spoilers for new listeners I refer to the static as "zalgotext" a lot.
- While compulsion mostly seems to only elicit verbal information, a couple of times Jon's compulsion has caused someone to do something to assist him to get information, such as when the police gave him tapes from evidence, or when people write him statements.
- When Jon reads a written statement of a true and unique supernatural encounter aloud into a tape recorder, he feels as though he becomes the person who made the statement, taking on their accent and vocal tics, and seeing and feeling what they saw and felt. This greatly tires him — even one a week takes its toll, and more than three a week and he passes out.