Work Text:
[Tape clicks on.
Interior: Somewhere underground.
The sound quality is strange and crackling. Elias Bouchard does not breathe.
A moment passes.]
ELIAS
[Sighs, exasperated]
[A second later, a door loudly and ominously creaks open. A swell of static arrives with it, and then fades. The air clears.
Footsteps.]
ELIAS
Good evening, Jon.
ARCHIVIST
Magnus.
ELIAS (JONAH)
The dark has no effect on whether I can see, as I’m sure you know. This is all rather needlessly dramatic.
ARCHIVIST
[Testily] Is it?
ELIAS (JONAH)
Very much.
And where’s Martin, then? [Feigning dismay] Oh, has he left you again? How unkind of him.
ARCHIVIST
[Thin laugh] Imagining yourself taking after Lukas, then, are you? Trying to divide us won’t work.
ELIAS (JONAH)
[Immediate] No. Peter was sloppy. And you do say that, yet here you are. Alone.
[A brief, almost polite pause. Static crackles softly in the background, then clears once again] Ah. I understand. Martin didn’t want to see you like this, did he. No, no, excuse me-- you didn’t want him to see you like this.
Shame is such a fascinating blend of fears, don’t you think? That you’ll lose him like you’ve lost your humanity. Or that he’ll be overcome by the violence that you’d thought he was immune to before, and it will be your fault--
ARCHIVIST
[Cutting him off] Martin is as safe as he’ll be anywhere. And so are Melanie, and Georgie, Daisy, Basira-- you’re not getting near any of them again.
ELIAS (JONAH)
Are you threatening me, Jon? Good lord. I thought you would have accepted it all by now. You completed the ritual, you set up this world of ours, and I am king of it. I cannot die.
ARCHIVIST
[Sarcastic] Mm, yes, I did get that impression from your big evil speech, thanks. [Dropping pretense] I understand perfectly. It was a relief knowing for sure, really. We're rather above the Institute now. I don’t have to worry about the others’ safety if something happens to go wrong.
ELIAS (JONAH)
Do you honestly expect me to think you’re even capable--
ARCHIVIST
Yes.
[A prickle of static.]
ELIAS (JONAH)
...
[Explaining as though patient] We don’t have time for this, Jon--
ARCHIVIST
[Cutting him off] No. Now we have nothing but time. You saw to that. You. Saw. To all of this. [Sharply] Tell me. Are you really so afraid of death that you’d trade anything for averting it?
ELIAS (JONAH)
What?
ARCHIVIST
[Enunciating] Do you think immortality means nothing harming you?
[Jonah breathes in as if to answer haughtily. Then pauses. His breath catches like on a hook.
The hollow silence gets more pointed as it continues.
In the background static builds, at first fuzzy and indistinct, until it crowds out all air; it has levels to it, one crackling like angry insects, one like the teeth-drilling highest note on a violin, one like broken glass. This is Jon’s compulsion effect.]
[Jonah makes choked off, furious noises, as if fighting himself.]
ARCHIVIST
Right. Maybe I should explain. [The static continues behind his words while Jonah sputters in the background.] I haven’t gotten a chance yet, it’s really only fair that I get a monologue as well.
It’s very simple. There are a lot of things worse than the End, and Gertrude knew most of them. And now I know what she knew. You can say what you like about my-- ingratitude, or impetuousness, but I’ve never had a problem getting my hands dirty. The Institute prefers that in its Archivists, doesn’t it? And I was always a quick study.
[A heavy, metallic thud and smaller clangs as several bladed objects are dropped on the ground]
I’m going to peel your skin back from itself and replace layers of your gristle with sawdust, you see. Pack it in with wax. Separate your legs and arms at the joints. I’ll chop Elias’ head from his neck, with you inside it, and cut out its tongue. And you won’t die. You can keep your eyes, I think. See how that goes for you.
What’s left of you I’ll roll in some polythylene and seal it airtight, so you can sit in a nice little pocket of darkness in the eons it’ll take the plastic to degrade. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a front-row seat to watching all the worms and beetles spawn and crawl and die over your transparent cell, and if I’m lucky, they’ll chew through it and into your bones. And you. Won’t. Die.
I’m not looking for a statement, Magnus. I don’t think our master will be too enriched by anything inside your head, anyway. But I’m still keeping whatever the hell that is running, so we have a proper record. Because you were right, when you wrote your ruse of a letter. I am curious. I’ve always been curious.
[Steadily, clearly enunciating] What do you fear, Jonah Magnus?
[Jonah snarls, stubbornly wordless. It’s not a sound a human has made before.]
ARCHIVIST
[Murderous] I suppose right now the answer is me.
[Tape continues running.]
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