Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1.1

Jon has recorded this statement- this damn statement he named 'The Anglerfish'- five times already. He didn't even have to look at the statement, to properly read it, in order to record it. The words flowed out of his mouth like water. 

He knows by now that the tapes recorded on the tape recorder have a special thing about them. Surely, there's a reason why it won't let him record. But, either way, every time he travels back to this point, he always puts them through the computer, just to see if there's anything different. It's never different. Well, perhaps other than the fact he no longer felt like someone was rummaging through his brain since the third 'loop', but that's pretty much it.

"Recording ends," he said, then clicked the recorder closed. He slumped against his chair, utterly spent, just like he always feels whenever he records these tape recorded statements. Another thing to note, he supposed.

There was a knock, and Jon quickly straightened himself up, attempting to look professional. 

"Jon!" came Tim's voice. "Unlock the door! I've got something to tell you, and it's really, really important!"

Jon sighed, getting up from his chair and unlocking the door. The moment he did, Tim pushed him into his office and locked the door. Jon glared at him, tired from the statement he just recorded. He tried to speak, but Tim beat him to it.

"Can you get Elias to change the fire suppression system to CO2?"

Jon blinked, confused. His mind wandered to the worm incident (and the fact that after the worms, Sasha always came back wrong, and his memories were wrong, and he just knew that something happened to Sasha when she goes to kickstart the fire suppression system, and it was related to the statement about Graham Folger, but he doesn't know-).

"I already asked him to, uh, do that," he blurted out. Tim stared at him, before relaxing.

"Good! Good, good, good."

There were a few more moments in silence, before Tim sighed.

"I can't keep anything from you," he admitted. Jon tried to speak again, but then Tim said, "I'm in a time loop. I know you won't believe me, but there's just something that wants me to tell it to you-"

"You too?" Jon quietly asked. If it was a prank (which he hoped to god was not the case), then... He doesn't know what he'll do, actually, but he won't take it well. He's tired of this repeating loop. However, if someone was there with him, then maybe things would go right for once. Tim gaped, before grinning and slinging an arm around the shorter man's shoulders.

"Hell yeah, time looping buddies! Now, how about we go get lunch, bossman?"

Jon stared at Tim. The man who he's closest to, and the man who is now trapped in these loops with him. Maybe. He doesn't know yet.

"Okay," he finally said. When Tim whooped and ran to go tell Sasha (the real Sasha, not whoever replaces her in the aftermath of the worm attack), Jon relaxed. Maybe this won't be too bad.

1.2

Jon came to his senses and realized very quickly that he was not in the Archives. He definitely was not in the Archives, with statements shoved into bookshelves and three assistants just outside his office door, which he now kept open. Has kept open since the fourteenth loop.

No, this was an older place. He saw an office, but he couldn't move. A song was playing in the background. Some song from the 1950s.

(He couldn't move, just like how he just stood there as Evan Pritchard walked into the giant spider's web, as Evan walked to his death. He couldn't move, but he could see. Was that better? He didn't know, but he can't fucking move-)

Then, he heard a gasp, and his worldview shifted, going to the side as someone coughed.

"Fuck, that's never a good feeling," someone said. "John? Can you see the sun?"

Jon flinched. "How do you know my name? Who are you? Where are you? Why can't I move?"

The person let out a 'huh', before saying, "Hello, uhm, John? Are you- what's the phrase? Ah. Are you feeling a bit loopy? Do you need an anchor or are you already one?"

"Am I what now?" Jon asked. He wanted to move, wanted to fidget, to ask Tim where the rubik's cube was (he never told Jon where he put it, and hasn't told him yet), but he couldn't. All he could do was panic and watch. 

The person sighed. "Are you a new looper? God, the runs where someone replaces John are the worst. N-Not to say I don't like you, but I'm just a bit more used to- Oh god, I have to explain everything to you, don't I?"

"Evidently so," Jon grumbled, forcing his panic down. 

"Alright," the person said. "We have some time before Eddie gets here, so while I hide Parker's body, I'll explain stuff, alright?"

"While you hide the what?!"

"Long story," the man said, and then Jon realized, as this man moved, that he was seeing what the man saw when he saw a very dead body. "I'm Arthur, the Anchor of this branch. You are?"

"Jonathan Sims. Call me Jon. I don't know what you mean by Anchor."

Arthur laughed softly. "The Magnus Archives branch, then, hm? You'll learn. Now, here are the basics."

1.3

Tim burst into Jon's office, just as Jon was about to call Tim in.

"I learned everything!" Tim excitedly said. "So we're in this massive tree called Yggdrasil-"

Jon held a hand up, and Tim shut up. With a small smile (he's been smiling more and more lately, in these loops), Jon said, "I got the explaination too. Who do you think is the Anchor, here?"

"I mean, we started looping at the same time," Tim said as Jon led him to one of the chairs that was just across Jon's own chair. "Maybe we're both Anchors! Dramatic gasp!"

Jon rolled his eyes fondly. "Must you always say 'dramatic gasp' rather than actually doing it?"

"Oh, but I simply must!" Tim dramatically exclaimed. "Last loop, some guy named John Doe replaced you. It was horrid! I had to do all the live statements because he couldn't treat them right! He was just whining about some guy named 'Arthur' half the time and he didn't even like Marto's tea!"

"Scandalous," Jon said in amusement as Tim slumped on the desk. He's actually started drinking Martin's tea, and he must admit, it's pretty good. At least Martin's good for something. 

"We call the last loop a 'fused loop', correct?" he clarified after a moment of silence. Tim just gave him a thumbs up, head still resting on the desk. Alright, then.

1.4

Tim Awoke when he was in the middle of a statement. He paused, looked at the computer he was recording it on, then the statement. After that, he looked up and glanced around. This was Jon's office, what was he doing here?

Then, memories hit him. He had a decent life, up until his brother (god, why couldn't he ever save Danny?) got... eaten by a giant spider that came from a children's book that Tim was reading out of curiosity. He got chosen as Head Archivist (why was it never Sasha?! She was more suited for this!) instead of Jon.

The door swung open, and there stood Jon, very not-professional, for some reason (leather jacket and all and wow, was it getting hotter or was it just Tim?), and very out of breath. He slammed the door shut and sighed, making his way to where Tim usually sat.

"So, this is a variant loop," Jon said. "And you're the Head Archivist."

Tim nodded, still shaken by his loop memories (flashes of that damned spdier still ran through his mind) "That I am."

"And according to the memories of this loop, I didn't..."

Even if Jon didn't say anything, Tim knew what he meant. After the thirtieth loop, Jon broke and told him about 'Mr. Spider'. Then, he told Jon about- about Danny, just a few loops after that. And the CIrcus. 

"At least Sasha and Martin are the same," Tim decided on saying. Jon nodded. At least.

1.5

"Sing! Sing! Sing!"

"Alright, alright!" Jon groaned, and Tim and Sasha cheered. Martin laughed softly, sat right beside Tim. He was apparently in this band called 'The Mechanisms' and Martin thought his voice sounded familiar. The man burst into his office and asked if he was Jonny D'ville and, well, Jon was terrible at lying.

He cleared his throat then put on what his Unawake self (and Georgie, oh god Georgie-) called 'D'ville Mode'.

"Like whiskey laced with gasoline, we're deadly when we're drunk! So shut your face and settle down, you sneering little punks!"

Elias walked in after a few songs and then it just became awkward when he asked Jon to sing 'Old King Cole'. 

1.6

It was bound to happen eventually, Jon reasoned to himself when he walked into the Archives and saw a fourth desk and a fourth person. His memories hit him, and apparently, this person was named Gerard Keay. The very same Gerard Keay from statements 0132806 (Page Turner, Tim named), 0121102 (First Aid), and 0020406 (there wasn't an official name yet, so they just settled on 'Old Passages').

"Hey bossman!" Tim greeted. "You look kinda tired. DId you do an acid rain check?"

Acid rain check. A simple phrase that he and Tim decided on instead of the usual 'loopy' or 'need an anchor' stuff that other loopers used since they both didn't really like it. They used to make sure that yes, the other person was looping.

It was also a running joke between the two of them. They both didn't know the actual meaning of the term 'rain check' and assumed it meant something along the lines of 'checking something out'. Thus, the phrase was born after a suggestion that Arthur gave.

"A few minutes ago," Jon replied, massaging his temple. "It feels like I don't have any energy."

"Are you alright, Jon?" Martin asked. They got off to a more decent start (Jon couldn't lie when he said that Martin was growing on him with each passing loop) this time around. 

"Wait, didn't you read that statement that couldn't record digitally?" Sasha asked from behind her computer. Gerard perked up. "The one you recorded on the tape recorder?"

"A statement that couldn't be recorded digitally, huh?" Gerard mused. "What was the statement about?"

After Jon quickly summarized the statement (he could still remember it word for word, the same way that he could remember every non-digital statement, live or not), Gerard leaned back and seemed to weigh some options, before deciding on something.

"Do you know about Robert Smirke's classification of fears?"

1.7

Things were strange this loop. It was a variant loop, Jon could tell. For the first time, when he read the statement he always read first like clockwork whenever he Awakened, he felt energized. Not tired at all.

Then, he realized that there was a Gaze turned upon him. Was that what Gerard- Gerry called the Beholding? Memories flooded in, and Jon breathed out a shaky sigh.

He was a Beholding avatar. Has been since he isolated himself to dedicate himself to discovery and research. That isolation apparently was seen as a 'death' (the death of his old self, who was more social than baseline), and so he Became.

The Beholding shoved the baseline memories into his head, just in its perspective, and Jon froze. Then, it shoved memories of another timeline that was definitely a loop. Except, neither he nor Tim were there, and the Beholding (in a human form, somehow) was replacing some guy named Cecil.

Jon sighed and checked the time. He was lucky that it was nearing lunch, He sent Tim a quick text that he was going to join him for lunch and to ask Sasha and Martin to let them be for a bit.

"Great," Tim sighed. "You're an avatar. And one of the fucking fear gods that Gerry talked about a couple loops back is now..."

"Looping, yes," Jon said, before quietly asking, "Are you mad at me?"

Tim blinked. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"I'm like that thing that- that killed your brother. A-And I pushed you away, I was rude to you when I was Unawake. I'm a fucking monster-"

Tim shushed him and beckoned him to a hug. "Hey, now! I'm not mad at you. Unawake me was mad at you for that thing you did, but I know that the me right now not mad at you, Jon. You're not the thing that killed Danny. Avatar or not, you're still Jon. And hey! You can be a person while not being human!"

Jon laughed, letting himself relax in Tim's embrace. "Yeah, I suppose so."

Pride; a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.

"I think the Beholding is trying to tell me that it's proud," the avatar told Tim, voice muffled as he shoved his face into Tim's shoulder. "It just pushed the definition of 'pride' into my mind."

Then, it shoved some facts about the reason why people feel so satisfied when they're right. Maybe the Beholding wasn't as bad as Gerard made it sound like. That or it created a consciousness somehow.

Affirmation; the action or process of affirming something or being affirmed.

1.8

Jon wasn't Awake. Tim sent out a ping, he went into a 'Demon Slayer' loop as some guy named Kyojuro Rengoku and the local Anchors, Tanjiro and Nezuko, taught him some basic looper stuff, and only got one back, and he tried the acid rain check thing. Jon didn't get it

God, he hated these loops the most. Where Jon's an asshole and he's the only Anchor in the loop. 

He searched up The Mechanisms and grinned, before calling for Sasha and Martin to come see what was on his computer. At least he'll be able to shove the fact that he knows that Jon's in a band into his face. The Beholding gave him some ways to rip the bandage off in the most sudden way possible.

1.9

The one-hundredth loop just had to be a fused loop. Tim and Jon were apparently greek gods (Hephaestus and Athena respectively) in a musical called 'EPIC: The Musical'. Odysseus filled them in pretty quickly. Or rather, he filled Jon in then asked him to tell Tim about it.

"Am I still called Athena?" Jon asked curiously. Odysseus shook his head.

"You're called 'Polyvoulos' more often," the local Anchor said, before grinning. "Polyvoulos, Polyvoulos! The one who shows them who's boss! Unmatched, witty, and king of the best strategies we've seen!"

Jon groaned. He'll admit that Odysseus could sing well, but maybe he could tone it down just a bit?

"Hephaestus!"

Jon just sighed as Tim started singing. That guy could sing, but he knew that Tim would be singing it constantly after this loop was done.

"Trust is not given, it's forged!"

Chapter Text

2.1

"Fucking Alien Stage?!"

He's heard about this loop from John when he replaced Arthur once. From what John told him, it wasn't a fun experience.

Tim paused from his singing with a frown. "Jon? You good? Don't tell me this shit has caught up to you now."

The Anchor, the only awake one between him and Tim, sent a ping. It was just instinct at this point, but he hummed as he got a ping from someone inside the room.

"Nothing," Jon decided to say, before tacking on, "Just a little loopy, is all. I'm used to being an Anchor, but maybe someone else can anchor me this time."

At the corner of his eye, he saw a pink haired lady perk up.

2.2

Jon Awoke sitting on a desk. In front of him was a laptop, opened on Microsoft Excel.

"...What the fuck," he decided to say. He sent a ping, and got two others, one from a confused Tim and a laughing (or whatever the eldritch equivalent to laughing was) Beholding.

"Oh?" he heard a voice snap in his mind, and he jolted. "Is the ever so great Jonathan Magnus confused? How fucking scandalous you body stealing bastard–"

Jon reached out into his memories and paled as Tim barged into the room.

"Sorry Mister Bouchard!" Rosie said, apologetic and panicked. "I couldn’t stop him."

"It's alright Rosie," Jon smoothly said, and he tasted lemon (ew) on his tongue. "I forgot to tell you that I had a meeting with Mister Stoker here. You may leave."

"Lying bastard," that voice bit out. "Just leave Tim alone. The fuck do you even want with him? Aren't you focused on your precious Archivist?"

The moment she left, Jon slumped against the desk as Tim burst into laughter. The Beholding let Jon Know that it was stopping the sound of laughter from registering in people's brains.

"You're mister high and might omni-whatever Elias Boucha-... You alright, Jon?"

"There's a voice in my head," Jon admitted quietly, trembling a bit as his loop memories properly registered. "And my memories say that I'm a... what did he call it? Right. A 'body stealing bastard.'."

There were a few beats of silence before Tim said, "Explain everything. Please."

And so, Jon did, just with a very guilty tone of voice.

"So... yeah."

Tim grabbed Jon's shoulders with a tight smile. "Jonny boy. Jon. Bossman turned double bossman. Do you realize what that means?"

Jon shook his head, ignoring the voice's snarky remark of, "Oh, but can't you just dig inside his fucking head?"

"This is a role swap, right? Total role swap or whatever," Tim asked. Jon nodded slowly. "That fucking means that in baseline, Jonah fucking Magnus is the body stealer, since he's the head archivist."

"In what?" the voice asked. Now that Jon thought about it, the voice was probably the original Elias Bouchard.

"Right, uhm..." Jon trailed off before clearing his throat. "Elias, I assume?"

"What–"

"There's a voice in my head who's very snappy. If this is what the original Elias is like with baseline Jonah, then thank fucking god."

"Yes, I'm fucking Elias. The actual Elias," the voice, Elias, growled. "What do you fucking want? Is this to mock me like you've done oh so many times?"

Jon breathed in and out. "We're time travellers who are looping and will be looping for an indefinite amount of time. Sometimes our timeline changes, we call those variant loops, and this is one of those occasions."

"...You're telling the truth. I can't taste that stupid lemony taste."

Jon nodded, leaning back. "Fears, this chair is comfortable. Tim, if you ever loop in as Jonah Magnus, as he's apparently called, you will love the chair."

"You're telling. The truth. Magnus, what the fuck?!"

2.3

Tim cursed as he drove to Martin's building. Jon had a terrible idea and went to Martin to try and get him out before Prentiss started her torment, but now they're both trapped together. 

"Stupid idiot motherfucking Jonathan Sims," he grumbled under his breath as he parked. He felt the Gaze of the third looper (holy shit one of the goddamn fear gods is looping with them and is actively trying to help) turn into an agreeing one, before it dumped a rant about Leitner that Gerry one did.

"Alright, now that I think about it, this is a shit idea," Tim realized when he grabbed the fire extinguisher. The Beholding rolled its eyes (probably) and dumped some random idea in his head. Would it work? Who knows, but it's Tim's best bet.

"I'm sorry you're trapped with me, Jon," Martin softly apologized, flinching as Prentiss began knocking again. Jon scooted closer, laying a head on Martin's shoulder.

"I'm not sorry for trying to save you," Jon said. After a few moments of silence, only broken by the stupid fucking knocking, he decided to say, "I'm a time traveller. A looper. My loop always resets after the archival staff, including me, get out after Prentiss' attack."

Martin's head snapped towards him. "Wha– Really? I find that hard to believe."

"Loop 127, you told me that you don't believe there's a bad cow. Loop 153, you told me that your favourite colour was sky blue. And loop 176..."

After a shaky breath, Jon said, "You told me you lied on your CV– Which I'm not mad about, actually. It explains a lot and it's why the tasks I assign you to are better suited for you."

Before Martin could say something, the knocks ended early. They both turned their attention to the door.

Amidst the squirming, they could hear Tim speak, loud and clear.

"Oi, Prentiss! Get the hell out of here and leave them alone!"

"Do you hear them sing, Assistant?" Prentiss decided to say. "They sing so beautifully, do they not?"

"I swear to fucking god, release them, or– God, will this actually worK? Or I'll take a statement from you!"

"I made a statement already, Assistant," Prentiss hissed. 

"But the Hive hasn't. Uh, wait, what should I say? Right. Statement of the Hive, regarding–"

"I will leave," Prentiss quickly cut in. "But you will not stop the Archivist's crimson fate."

A few minutes later, Jon and Martin burst out of the door. Jon hugged Tim tightly, shoulders sagging in relief as he broke sobbing. God, he hated this. If this is what Martin went through, then god, he'll do anything to stop this from happening.

2.4

"I know what happens to Sasha during the Prentiss attack!"

Jon sighed. "Good morning, Timothy."

Tim plopped down on his usual seat. Jon just kept on organizing statements, separating them from discredited and credited. 

Tim Awoke late, just after Melanie King made her statement here. Thus, they both decided to come early to talk about their last loops spent separately. The Beholding already shoved its own experiences as someone replacing someone named Gojo.

"So, my last loop, you and Martin switched, and me and Sash switched. At the end of the Prentiss attack, I entered Artifact Storage and, uhm... Beholding? Can you, like..."

The memories were shoved into Jon's brain, and he gasped. "It's like in statement 0070107!"

"Like in what?"

"Alright, so–"

2.5

"I see you!" Sasha yelled, her eyes flickering here and there, trying to find what she saw. "Show yoursel–"

A blur moved past her, and Sasha gasped as Tim shot ice out of his hands and attacked some giant white thing that hurt her head when she looked at it.

He grinned at her, his hair as white as snow. He had a shimmering blue dress on, and Sasha was immediately reminded of Elsa from Frozen. "Let it go, motherfucker."

"I see you!" Sasha yelled, her eyes flickering here and there, trying to find what she saw. "Show yoursel–"

She was pulled back, and she was about to yell at the person who did it, but the words just couldn't come out when she realized it was Jon.

Static rose as he said, "Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing."

The thing gasped. "No. No, wait-!"

"This thing who doesn't know suffering. Who doesn't know the horror of its victims, their constant senseless agony as their very identity and being is stolen."

Sasha could barely hear anything under all the static. Her lungs won't properly take in air, and she shut her eyes, trying to quell the pressure and pain behind them. She could feel wind whip back and forth, could feel her hair thrashing around as artifacts dropped and shattered and broke.

"Feel it now," Jon, if he even is Jon, said. "Understand it. You have drawn out so much despair, and now finally, it’s your turn."

"Ceaseless Watcher, I give you this thing of the unknown. Turn your gaze so that it may be known. Unweave it now, its fear and its falsehood, its hidden teeth and the ones it wears so proudly. Take all that it is and all that it has. It is yours!"

And then, Sasha passed out.

"I see you!" Sasha yelled, her eyes flickering here and there, trying to find what she saw. "Show yoursel–"

A bullet whizzed past her and killed something. Something that might've killed her.

"Maybe the Slaughter does have its uses," Jon hummed.

"I see you!" Sasha yelled, her eyes flickering here and there, trying to find what she saw. "Show yoursel–"

Something picked up by the fucking wind and was thrown out of the door and out the window.

"Let's go, baby!" she heard Tim cheer. "Air bending for the fucking win!"

2.6

"Tim," Jon said. It wasn't English, the language he used to speak, but rather it was gibberish he could understand, somehow. "Why the hell are we in the fucking Sims 4?"

Tim who had a floating green crystal above his head, broke down laughing. "Hahaha! Holy shit!"

As Tim wheezed himself to the loss of his ability to stand, Jon felt his agitation rise further. He wished that he was an avatar this time around, but he wasn't looking forward to getting himself claimed in some twisted way and then dying.

"What?!"

"Jonathan Sims," Tim wheezed, before breaking down into near silent laughter. Jon groaned.

2.7

"Jon?"

Jon ignored Tim as much as he could.

"Hey Jon? Joooon?"

"What," Jon hissed at the other Anchor. Tim just smiled as he tilted his chair back.

"Time isn’t real," he whispered as if it was a great secret. Sam, who was apparently their co-worker in this loop, snorted as Jon took a deep breath.

"Shut up."

2.8

"Wait, how old are you?" Gerry asked curiously. Jon paused from eating to look up at his assistants. This time around, his assistants had the addition of Gerry and Graham (yes, the same Graham from 'Across the Street', Tim confirmed).

"Wait," Jon said as he smiled a bit. "Guess."

"Thirty-six!" Sasha and Tim simultaneously said with mischievous smiles. Martin spat out his tea as Jon gaped, with everyone else breaking down into laughter (well, except Graham, but he had a grin on his face).

"What?!"

"You said guess!" Sasha reminded him amidst wheezing laughter.

"That was so far off!" Jon whined, leaning back against his chair. That was when Graham broke down into near silent laughter.

"Why are you yelling as us?" Tim laughed. Jon could see tears in his eyes.

"That wasn't even close!"

Once again, wheezing laughter. Jon was happy that they were hanging out in Tim's place and not in a restaurant. At least no one got to see his embarrassment and his idiot friends (they were friends, right?) who thought he was an entire decade older than his actual age in this loop.

"Like, normally when people play that game, they're like 'oh'. They guess like a little bit younger!" Jon rambled, before grabbing Tim's shaking shoulders. "Was that a little bit younger guess, Timothy?!"

"Yeah, aren't you like, thirty-nine?" Graham added with a shit-eating grin. Jon banged his head on the desk and groaned. 

When the laughter died down, Martin asked, "So, uhm, were they right?"

"I'm not in my thirties, Martin," Jon said from his position, before deciding to tack on something as a little joke. "I'm in my forties."

"Oh, I knew it!" Gerry whooped. "I assumed that they were just being nice-"

"No, I'm not in my forties, what do you mean I knew it?!" Jon yelled as everyone, once again, broke down into wheezing laughter. "I'm twenty-eight! What the fuck?!"

"Oh, so you're the child here?" Graham asked with that same grin from a while ago. Jon promptly grabbed a pillow that was just laying around (because apparently, Tim hasn't gone through with his 3 AM deep cleaning) and chucked it at him.

2.9

Jonny twirled his gun around as he placed his feet on his desk. He had an agitated look on his face, a look that the local Anchor of this loop recognized. He's already been in this damn place far too many times, and more often than not as the Head Archivist. 

"I don't even know what he fucking looks like!" he complained to Tim. "I know of the fucker, but I don't actually know him. Fucking annoying, considering the fact I've looped in as him too many goddamn times."

Tim laughed. "Yeah. What's this, the sixth time?"

"Why do you replace John a lot?" Arthur asked curiously as they left Arkham for the first time.

"I'm named Jon, Arthur," Jon pointed out. "It's probably just Yggdrasil swapping anyone named 'John' or something similar to it for hilarity's sake."

Arthur hummed.

"John's a surprisingly decent singer," Brian noted as he watched Ashes teach the guy replacing Jonny this loop their songs. 

Ivy hummed, distracted as she continued reading her book.

Chapter Text

3.1

Jon shrieked, clinging to Tim the moment he saw what he thought was a spider. "What the fuck was that?!"

The susuwatari paid them no mind as they scuttled out the house. In the meanwhile, Tim held Jon tight, careful not to drop the now four year old child. Jon was absolutely terrified of spiders, and since these guys looked a lot like spiders...

Well, Tim's just grateful that he already watched the movie with Sasha and Danny.

(And he's grateful that he doesn't tear up or falter when he thinks of Danny now.)

3.2

"Boo."

Tim was the one to shriek this time, jumping towards Martin, who caught him, albeit a bit surprised.

Jon grinned lazily as fog pooled at his feet, making jazz hands. "I'm a Lonely avatar this time 'round. You got a new role?"

Martin and Sasha looked at each other, now even more surprised as Tim answered, "Claimed by the Vast. How do you think I should go?"

"You'd love a dramatic entrance," Jon mumbled, "so perhaps you could jump off a building in front of Jo-"

"You're an avatar too?!" Sasha excitedly said as Tim got out of Martin's arms.

"Sorry Marto," Tim apologized. "Couldn't help but stay a bit longer. You're warm as shit."

"Being made of wax kinda does that for you?" Martin said with a nervous grin. Tim didn't react badly, instead high fiving the Desolation avatar.

"So, Martin," Jon said. "You're the Desolation's. Tim will be the Vast's, and I'm the Lonely's. Sasha?"

Sasha blinked, and with a smile, showcased glowing green eyes.

"The Beholding's."

And it was at that moment that the Beholding decided to shoot out a ping. This... was going to be an entertaining loop.

3.3

"Yes!" Tim cheered when he and Jon Awoke and they realized what loop they were in. "Fucking finally! A hub loop!"

"So, let's strategize for a moment," Jon said. "I often go in as someone who watches or knows a lot because I'm the Archivist, though I also replace people who are narrators or have the same voice actor as me sometimes. You often go in as someone with elemental abilities, most particularly fire. We should target well-known franchises that we're most likely going to get looped into."

Tim nodded. "We're in, like, the 2020s, so we should be able to get into a lot of movies and stuff!"

3.4

"Did you know we have an inventory?!" Tim excitedly said, bursting into Jon's office with a grin. Jon, having just finished taking Miss Herne's statement, rolled his eyes.

"Forgive him, Miss Herne," he said, amusement tinging his voice. "He ran in late and didn't see you enter."

Miss Herne just laughed. It was a quiet one, but a laugh either way. "It's fine. Uhm, I'll see if a cat can help me out. Thank you."

Then, she left. Once she did, and they were sure that she was out, Jon broke down into giggles as Tim groaned from embarrassment, plopping down onto the seat he usually occupied, which was facing the seat where Miss Herne sat before.

"So, about the inventory?" Jon interrupted.

"Okay, so I looped into a Minecraft loop, right? Steve asked me if I had some stuff from my home loop in my second inventory. Then, he mused that to me it would be just a normal inventory, bla bla bla- That isn't important. What is important is that we have an actual inventory that lasts through the loops, bossman!"

Jon raised a brow. "So?"

Tim took out multiple stacks of eggs. "These follow the rules of Minecraft."

He hurled one towards the wall, and a small chick came out of it. Jon grinned as ideas to torment Jonah began popping up in his mind. The Beholding pitched in some of its own. It was a great loop, overall.

3.5

Jon Awoke to turning into a ghost. Confused, he looked around, and saw another ghost, before looking down and realizing he himself was a ghost.

"Tim killed ya?" Gerry asked. He was dressed in a black space suit with two top hats stacked on top of each other on his head. Checking out the loop's memories, Jon nodded.

Someone else popped into the place. His helmet was off, and he had a cyan suit. A Lichtenberg scar ran from his back to under his eye, the Eye told him. Gerry smugly smiled as the man processed where he was, before sighing.

"I did not expect Martin to be the other imposter," the man admitted. Beholding whispered his name into Jon's ear; Michael "Mike" Crew, an avatar of the Vast in baseline. The Web had woven her tapestry and made it so that they'd meet in the future, but it would need an expansion or two for Jon and Tim to get there, most likely.

"Welcome to the dead team," Jon deadpanned before reaching into his inventory and pulling out a jar of Martin's cookies. "We have cookies."

Gerry grabbed one immediately, and Mike commented, "I would've died faster if I knew you had cookies," before grabbing one himself.

Just then, another man wearing a white suit with a headband that made it look like a machete was lodged into his head, Oliver Banks, the Beholding told him, popped in. Jon automatically offered him the cookies, and Oliver took them.

3.6

"We're dragons, bossman!" Tim exclaimed with a large smile on his face. Jon would be a lot of focused on Tim if he wasn't figuring out a certain something. Tim was an Icewing, who's scales were so cold that if someone touched him, it would feel like that part that touched Tim was burning. Jon, however, was a Nightwing who was somehow born under three full moons, which he still couldn't understand.

"How would we be able to have three moons?" Jon mumbled, still confused. "And how likely even is it that I was born under three moons? All I know is that it's really- oh. The Beholding's here. It's somehow one of the three moons."

"...How-"

"Don't ask."

3.7

Jon burst into Tim's house. He and Tim were apparently replacing Gertrude's assistants, with the variant loop being one where Gertrude was in Jon's place. He didn't get how the logic worked, but it worked somehow.

Thankfully, the Beholding wasn't awake, and Jon was already taken by the Spiral. He replaced who he knew as Michael but was apparently the distorted version of Michael Shelly after he died because the last Archivist, Angus Stacey, used him to stop a ritual. 

He knew that Tim was Awake. The guy sent a ping when he Awoke, after all.

"Which one are you, Ti- The- fuck. Which one are you, Assistant?" he asked, stumbling over Tim's name. The now-Buried avatar grumbled in his sleep, slowly rising from the bed. Tim looked at him for a few seconds, before grabbing Jon's wrist and dragging him to bed. Jon yelped, but let himself be dragged into bed anyway.

It was... nice.

3.8

"Hmph, I don't have anything to say to you Akademiya people about that. I think this conversation has reached its end," Tariq said. Lumine, the traveller this time around, and Paimon, the local anchor, just sighed.

As Tariq was about to leave, an unfamiliar man with a tired glare said, "Not just yet. This man is a fraud."

Behind him, a taller man waved at them, and both Lumine and Paimon got pings from them both. The travelling duo were the only local loopers in this loop.

Paimon let out a, "What?!" as she stared at the other loopers. Tariq just clicked his tongue.

"Ugh, you two again! Tch... Deranged Akademiya lunatics!"

The taller man, who had a pyro vision hanging from his belt, just laughed. "Yes, it's us again. Hello, Tariq!"

The man replacing Alhaitham said, "I already warned you that if you weren't willing to sit and discuss things with us, we'd take measures to make things uncomfortable for you."

"Hello travellers!" the taller man greeted. "This guy lied to you. His group's scheme has people getting into their territory, then after being sure that the person wants a certain item, they milk you of your mora."

Paimon and Lumine stood back. They'd get proper introductions after this scene was done.

"So, who are you guys?" Paimon asked. "Paimon's never seen you guys around before!"

"I'm Tim Stoker, and this grumpy cat over here is Jonathan Sims! We're from the Magnus Archives branch and we're relatively new compared to majority of the loops. We have, what, a little more than five hundred loops under our belt?"

"We're older than Jonah Magnus, Tim," Jon pointed out.

"Alright, you guys are replacing who I think are Alhaitham and Kaveh," Lumine interrupted. "Kaveh, I'm not that sure of. Tim, what's your occupation?"

"Architect. Why?"

Lumine nodded. "Yeah, you guys are currently Alhaitham and Kaveh. Jon, you're a major player in baseline. Tim, usually Kaveh dismantles the puzzles and gets us into areas we shouldn't be able to reach. Sometimes, he even takes down Dottore before we get into Sumeru."

Tim blinked, before chuckling nervously. "Is, uhm, Dottore some kid with a shitty bowl cut that's trying to be a god? I may have kicked his ass. That and the cyan guy's ass. They were trying to do some shady shit with the government."

There were a few moments of silence, before Paimon said, "Well, at least we can get Nahida back faster!"

"Archons, this place is a fucking mess," Alhaitham cursed, staring at the mess that his boss, Elias Bouchard, dared to call an Archive. It was uncharacteristic of him, yes, but there were papers supporting a desk. It was well deserved

"Screw the recording shit!" Kaveh exclaimed. "We're gonna fix this up first, and then we're gonna do the recording!"

"If we're even able to fix this before the loop ends."

3.9

Jon didn't really expect Oliver to come to the Archives. Neither did the Beholding, and neither did the Unawake Tim. But then again, Tim didn't even know who Oliver was right now, and Jon only knew who the man was because of that one Among Us loop. 

Antonio Blake from Statement 0151403 is also Oliver Banks, the Beholding told him. Well, that's great.

"Hello," Jon greeted. "Are you here for a live statement?"

Oliver nodded. His eyes seemed conflicted, like he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to do this. Jon set up the tape recorder, and Oliver watched in the meanwhile.

"Statement of..."

"Asphodel Jackson," Oliver lied, "regarding a strange series of dreams."

"Statement begins."

Just as they finished the statement, Jon received a ping from Tim, who just woke up, and Oliver froze, looking around, before asking Jon, "Did you hear that?"

Carefully, Jon sent out a ping of his own, and he could hear Tim making his way to his office as Oliver looked around again, confused.

When Tim burst in, clumsily tripping over himself, Jon just ripped out the bandaid and said, "Oliver might be in a time loop like us."

Then, something flew past them all and broke down the wall. Martin yelped, and then the Prentiss attack started.

Sasha was saved by Jon, who could still access the Distortion and shoved the Not-Them into the hallways with a note stuck to it. Basically, the note told Michael to give the Not-Them hell because it was going to kill Sasha and replace her. That loop, Michael and Sasha were friends even before everything, so Jon was quite sure that the Not-Them was having a lovely time with Michael.

The loop reset.

Jon read the email that Jonah sent. Then he read it again. And again. He knew that Martin was going to join the Archives. He and Sasha were almost always there (except whenever someone replaces them, which was always a shame. He and Tim liked the two of them and wished they would start looping soon). But there was another Assistant.

The Archives were a bit more messed up, so Elias got a fourth assistant. That happened quite a bit, yes. But this name was familiar. As in, it showed up in the last loop familiar.

'I have added Martin Blackwood and Asphodel Jackson as your new assistants. Please accept them into the Archives and give them a warm welcome, despite the sudden addition.'

"Tim!" Jon yelled. They always moved in together whenever they looped at the same time if it was possible. Tim came running over, hair still damp with a towel wrapped around his waist. He was brushing his teeth as Jon showed him the email.

"Holy shit," came Tim's muffled reply. Then, the toothbrush fell out of his mouth, and Jon broke into laughter.

"Asphodel, Tim, do you mind meeting me in my office?" Jon asked. "I just have something to talk to you two about."

When they were alone in the office, Jon and Tim gave a simple rundown of their situation.

"Oh," Oliver said simply, before asking, "How many loops have you guys been through?"

"Just about nine hundred," Tim said. 

Oliver smiled. A bit tired, but at the same time hopeful. "Well, let's see if I can catch up to you guys."

Chapter Text

4.1

"Oliver works at the bank," Jon told Tim, amused. Behind him, Oliver was complaining about a shitty robbery attempt to a tape recorder. 

"At least he's not a living bank," Tim commented.

"This is some kind of sick joke," Oliver grumbled telepathically as Tim laughed himself to death.

"You're- You're Oliver the riverbank!" Tim wheezed. If only Jon was Awake this loop. 

"I think I can guess why you're the Archivist this loop," Jon said upon entering the office that belonged to Oliver. "You could also call the Archives a... databank."

There were a few moments of silence, before Oliver said, "Get out of my office, Jonathan."

"I think I know why you're broke as shit," Tim giggled. "You're bankrupt."

Oliver threw his wallet at Tim.

4.2

When Tim walked into Jon's office, he didn't expect to immediately be hit by a weird square device that looked like if gameboys and a nokia had a baby. He stared at Jon as the man rambled on about 'communicators' and 'loops' and 'Steve- the one from Minecraft, not Steve Carlsberg', then shifted his gaze to the very handsome man who was sitting in a chair meant for those making a live statement.

"What the fuck, Jon?"

Jon paused, then cursed various swear words that Tim didn't even know existed, and then motioned towards the device that Tim held in his hand as he began massaging his temple.

"Oliver. Get the communicator. Please."

Tim grinned. Might as well roll with the punches. "If you want this, then you'll have to earn it."

He bolted off and Jon swore even louder.

Tim walked into Jon's office and plopped down on his usual spot. Oliver, for some reason, just leaned against the door as Tim gave Jon the black ring that he had gotten forged last loop. He was replacing Thor in the good old MCU, so he got to get this really sick ring so that Jon could indirectly and discreetly show his sexuality and holy shit bossman, this thing is literally indestructable, you won't believe-

"Tim, stop your rambling, get out of my office, and get back to work," Jon snapped with a glare. Tim blinked, sent a ping (why didn't he ask about the acid rain check first?!), and when he realized that Jon was Unawake, ran out the door. He had roommates this time, so he thought that the Beholding (who was, unfortunately, also Unawake) told Jon and that was why he didn't move in with Tim.

Oliver huffed in amusement and then told Jon, "Take a polaroid photo of your staff and those you trust. It will be worth it, trust me."

When Jon and Tim looped in together next, they complained about their embarrasing experience without the other looper. Oliver smiled and interrupted, saying, "I recorded you two. Got looped in when you guys were doing that."

Silence. Then-

"And you didn't stop me?!"

Oliver laughed.

4.3

When Jon walked into the Archives, he expected the usual sight. Scattered papers, his assistants chatting or doing down, among other things. What he did not expect was to see a man that looked like him and another man that looked like Martin on the floor while his assistants stared at them, verbally wondering what to do.

"Tim," he called out. "Have you done an acid rain check?"

"Eh, just this morning," Tim said with a shrug, before pointing towards the two men. "They're from the future. Immediately got some kinda overload. Normal archive stuff."

"At least it's not worms," Jon sighed. "Sasha, grab the medkit. Martin, tea. Tim, watch over them. I'll get the ibuprofen. For you guys and for myself."

4.4

Tim closed his lighter with a smile on his face. He walked away from the crime scene by diving into the ground (thank the weird fear gods that were outside the world that he was a Buried avatar this) and only resurfaced when he arrived at his house.

Upon entering the place, he announced, "I burnt down the Magnus Institute!"

Jon, his roommate (unfortunately, Oliver was Unawake), stared at him.

"Tim, could you not have dropped this on me while I was watching a documentary about an arsonist?"

4.5

<Riverbank> jon get here asap

<Riverbank> tims a stranger avatar and hes crying

<Riverbank> he wont tell me why unless youre here

<Cruella D'ville> On the way

Jon immediately wrapped Tim in a hug when he entered the bedroom, where he saw his fellow loopers. The man was sobbing hard. Oliver looked lost, and Jon mouthed, 'Make Tim some tea, please', Oliver nodded and went to the kitchen. It wasn't as good as Martin's tea, no, but it would do. After a few more minutes, Tim was only letting out shaky breaths, but it was clear he was on the verge of breaking down. 

Oliver arrived and set the tea on Tim's desk. As he sat down on the bed, Tim took a deep breath.

"I'm a Not-Them," Tim said, voice so quiet that were it not for the silence (and the fact that they all once got into a loop where their senses were increased significantly), the others wouldn't hear a thing. "I-I stole the real Tim's identity. I killed the real Tim with a smile while another thing killed Danny. We enjoyed it, oh god we enjoyed it. What is wrong with me?!"

Jon parted from the hug slightly and saw Tim. He looked guilty and angry at himself. Jon has seen Tim's anger before. It was explosive, long-lasting, and didn't go away quickly. It was usually directed towards someone else, but whenever it was directed towards himself...

"Do you want this to be a vacation loop?" Jon asked. Tim nodded, leaning into Oliver's touch as the man began rubbing his back.

A vacation loop it was, then.

The next day, Jonah walked into his office to see the resignation letters of the people who were supposed to be in the Archives. Martin, Tim, Sasha, and Jonathan all resigned the day he was going to call Jonathan into his office in order to promote him.

Oliver recorded his reaction. Tim actually laughed, albeit a bit quiet and tiredly, with a voice that was wrecked after hours of crying.

4.6

Oliver walked into his new house, where Tim and Jon were already waiting.

"Please stop Unawake me from ever eating spaghetti," he said, shaken from the last loop.

"...What?" Tim asked, confused.

"Flesh spaghetti."

"Ah."

4.7

"I'm a Beholding avatar," Oliver said as he entered the office and closed the door. "And for some reason, the Beholding has been dumping fun facts about the etymology of words that are synonyms of 'welcome'."

"Oh, it's how it welcomes you to the loops," Tim shrugged. He was, for some reason, replacing Jonah this loop. Jon was Rosie and he was doing an amazing job, dealing with those who want to fuck with the Institute. "You haven't been awake when it was awake and vice versa."

"I have almost a hundred loops under my belt, Tim," Oliver slowly said. "And not once have you and Jon decided to tell me that one of the fear gods outside of our universe was looping too."

Tim just smiled. 

4.8

It was nice to save lives, Oliver thought to himself as he lounged in his room. In this loop, he was a doctor rather than some guy who ran some stupid shop for fun. Yes, he rarely got any rest, but he's long since gotten used to pulling all nighters because his boys are traumatized.

(And when has he decided that the two Anchors were his boys? Who knows? Not even the Beholding knows.)

Then he got a call and maybe he broke a few speed limits, but it doesn't matter because his traumatized boys were fresh out of the Prentiss attack and he's been called to help them.

Tim and Jon were an absolute mess. They had holes covering their bodies, and Oliver had to kill a few maggots. That's right. It wasn't worms, no, it was maggots. A fun fact that the Beholding once told him entered his mind.

Between worms and maggots, maggots are the faster decomposer. Worms can take up to three months to fully decompose a body, but in the best conditions, maggots can decompose a body in one or two weeks.

Oliver, despite not seeing any roots surrounding the two, panicked and unintentionally took the helm of surgery. The other surgeons could tell that he knew the two patients, so they just followed him, even if he was (somehow) ordering two entirely different teams.

Sasha and Martin, both awake, even if the former was slightly burnt (probably Tim's doing, since fire wasn't Jon's thing), just wondered how Oliver knew about these two.

4.9

"Oops," Tim shrugged as Jon broke down into laughter. The living bank (literally) that was actually Oliver Banks glared at him with windows tinted a dark purple.

"You jinxed me, Timothy," Oliver accused. Tim smiled, just in time for Carlos and Cecil to come over.

"A new building has popped up, huh?" Carlos hummed. "Sentient or not?"

"Even better!" Tim said, smile changing to a grin. "A looper who's currently a sentient bank!"

"Well, that explains the scalding hot glare that's being directed towards you," Cecil said with a laugh. "Ah, I should really inform Night Vale about this new development."

Chapter Text

5.1

The Beholding was a curious being who searched for knowledge far and wide. It had the biggest influence among the fourteen Fears that Smirke established, and thus it Knew a lot.

But it never sought to Understand unless it was in a human body. It was usually just conscious enough to snatch the 'tape recorder' schtick from the Web from under her nose and at least be able to like and dislike people, but that was it. 

In this current loop, it had been shoved into some meat suit and was very confused. Memories were conflicting against each other, what it Knew and what this body, the consciousness it stole, also knew. Michael the Distortion was the Spiral. The Web should not be trusted. The other Fears time travelled (or so 'Alvar' theorized). 

It did not seek to Understand until this loop.

And so, with its internal Archive updated with brand new books, the Beholding let the loop end. With these new books, it has decided on a new goal.

Create a proper consciousness and body with only its own will and separate itself from the other Fears.

5.2

"Happy thousand loops!" Tim whooped. This loop was a fused loop, with the two people who taught Tim and Jon the basics of the infinite loops.

"I'm surprised you kept count," Arthur laughed, freezing when John said, out loud for everyone to hear, "I'm surprised you can even count."

Jon and Oliver groaned as Tim whipped his head so that he could stare at the currently human John.

"Is that a challenge, John Doe?"

"Two-hundred and two thousand seven hundred and seven, two-hundred and two thousand seven hundred and eight..."

"Can someone shut him up, please," Jon asked tiredly. "John? You're probably the only one Tim would stop for."

"I want to see how far he'll go," John replied instead. Arthur decided to take action.

5.3

The Magnus Institute was not an institute meant for archiving the supernatural.

This loop, it was a mental asylum meant to make people worse. Jon was the one who took note of the more dangerous ones, alongside those who were supposed to be his Assistants. He even found an Unawake Oliver.

The Magnus Asylum followed the Spiral, rather than the Eye, this time around.

"...Are you fucking kidding me," Jon groaned, stepping away from a woman made of wax trying to get him to shake her hand.

The Magnus Institute was not an institute meant for archiving the supernatural.

This loop, it was an establishment that specialized in sky-diving. An Unawake Jon was one of the more on-hand instructors, with the others (not including an Awake Tim) being the ones at the 'landing pad', so to speak. Jon didn't realize that who he knew as Elias was sending people into the Big Blue Fucking Sky.

The Magnus Skydiving Company followed the Vast, rather than the Eye, this time around.

"Enjoy sky blue, motherfucker!" Tim laughed as he pushed some poor idiot out of the aeroplane they were on.

The Magnus Institute was not an institute meant for archiving the supernatural.

This loop, it was a slaughter house. A very uneccessarily bloody one, in fact. Jon, a Slaughter avatar this time around, was having fun as the one who chopped animals up and finished the job. Tim immediately quit the moment he could.

The Magnus Slaughterhouse followed the Slaughter, rather than the Eye, this time around.

"Please stop coming home drenched in blood," Oliver sighed. "The neighbors think you're a serial killer."

The Magnus Institute was not an institute meant for archiving the supernatural.

This loop, it was a library, filled with Leitners hidden inbetween normal books galore. The head librarian, a man named Jonathan Sims who had knowing green eyes and a cup of tea always cradled in his hands, was always seen as a bit odd, though. Always knowing what book someone wants before they even say it, but he's beloved by all.

The Magnus Library still followed the Eye, just in the flavour of forbidden knowledge.

The Beholding thought that it was interesting how differently the Institute could have followed it.

5.4

"I'm the fucking grim reaper!" Tim announced, barging into Jon's office. He double triple quadruple checked that Jon was Awake, but what he didn't check was if someone was in Jon's office. And there Jonah was, leaning on Jon's desk, looming over him menacingly.

"Tim, get out of my office," Jon ordered with a glare. "I expect you to sort three boxes of statements today and if you don't, I will give phone duty to Martin. That is a threat."

Tim whined, but went to go do his job.

"...Beholding," Oliver slowly said. "Why is my apartment on fire?"

You live in the same apartment building as Martin Blackwood. Jonathan Sims set Prentiss on fire.

"Wonderful," the currently Beholding avatar decided to say.

5.5

"When do you think we'll get an expansion?" Tim asked curiosly as Jon pushed a newly sorted box into one of the shelves.

"We've been at this for more than a thousand loops," Jon said. "It's bound to happen soon. I'm tired of doing this again and again."

Tim hummed, grabbing the fake statements and setting them on fire with a lighter he hid in his pockets. He wasn't a Desolation avatar, no, but he thought it was fun.

Then, the fire suppression system activated. The screams of a being who was once a woman named Jane Prentiss echoed throughout the institute.

5.6

"Hi, Georgie," Jon said into the phone. He was hesitant about calling her, but after thousands of years of looping, he thought that he could see how it would go. 

"Jon!" came Georgie's voice. "How are you? I honestly thought you wouldn't..."

Jon laughed a bit. He avoided Georgie for far too long, so she was technically right. He wouldn't have reached out were it not for the loops.

"I'm fine," he said. "I got a job at the Magnus Institute. I'm, uhm, the head archivist."

Georgie actually laughed at that. "You? The head archivist? Didn't you take English and acting as your majors?"

"Well, my boss kind of forced me into the positition," Jon sighed. "But that's not important. How's the Admiral?"

"We're gonna talk about that first part later, but the stinky boy is doing great!"

"Jon, is that a cat?" Tim laughed. Jon just stared at him, calmly petting the cat sleeping on his lap.

With utmost seriousness, he said, "This is the Admiral. He outranks you. He is a very stinky man."

5.7

"It was time we got a DnD loop," Oliver mused. He was an elf necromancer who was the bartender in the tavern that Jon and Tim often visited.

Jon, a half-elf warlock with an ink blob vaguely shaped like a cat as a companion (said cat was apparently the Beholding), laughed a bit. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So how long until we get roped into some fucked up government scheme?" Tim, a human artificier, asked, swirling his drink around.

"Why did you set the fucking palace on fire?!" John yelled. Arthur just smiled innocently at him.

"Tim and Jon are gonna kill us," Carlos sighed.

5.8

"Why are we slimes," Jon asked, though it sounded more like a statement. He was a small, green slime with a purple bow at the back of his head. Somehow, he's wearing a mask of the same colour.

"Because we are," Oliver replied. He was a brown slime with two electricity conductors stuck to the sides of his head.

"Tim, why is there a green slime and a brown slime in our boss' office?!" Sasha yelled. She was peeking into Jon's door out of curiosity and saw... that.

"Excuse you, that's Serpenjon and Astroliver," Tim corrected with an exaggerated serious face.

5.9

Oliver burst into the office with a panicked expression and for the first time, he slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Why is my ex boyfriend an Archival Assistant?!" he hissed to the two other loopers.

"Your what?!" Tim yelled as Jon motioned for Tim to pay up, despite not looking up from his book.

"I won the bet," he said. "The Graham from statement 0151403 is the same Graham from statement 0070107."

Oliver grabbed his wallet (thankfully full this time) and chucked it at Jon. 

Chapter Text

6.1

The archival staff were always closer than baseline, most especially when Jon was Awake. So of course, they would all be together when a tape recorder clicked.

Martin paused from his cooking. They were staying over at Tim's house for the night, just to recover from Prentiss' attack (which happened earlier because of a nerf war that everyone refused to talk about).

(Tim ended up panicking and accidentally exploded the entire Magnus Institute. The Beholding made sure no one knew it was Tim.)

"Uhm, guys?" Martin called out. "Did any of you bring a tape recorder?"

Jon sighed, seemingly coming out of the darkness and grabbing the tape recorder. "That's Beholding."

"-to say hello," the tape recorder suddenly said with Jon's voice. "-and I finally made up my mind to tell him I was there."

"It's my friend," Jon said with a monotone voice.

"Yes. For you, better beholding than the- shambling horror in the dark."

Jon looked at the tape recorder with amusement. "You're still hung up on the fact that the Dark got to me first?"

"-unfortunately-"

6.2

"Tell John that I don't moan whenever I get hurt!"

"Tell Arthur that I'm right!"

Jon stared at the two archival assistants (because apparently John and Arthur were replacing Tim and Sasha).

"Get out of my office and get back to work."

The two idiots proceeded to scramble out of the office. Jon sighed and got back to his work.

"Statement resumes."

6.3

"Holy fuck," Tim said as he entered what was apparently Jon's domain, whatever that was. Jon was, apparently, a growing Fear's first avatar. What was the name, Extinction?

The domain was just the Earth if it was in an apocalypse. A blackened ground with a red sky that gazed back. A large tower stood at the center of it.

"Do you think I can make the first Extinction artifact?" Jon asked with a glint in his eye.

6.4

"So, how many loops have you guys been through?"

Jon choked on his tea, and he went down coughing his lungs out as Martin helped him get the tea out of his windpipe. Tim dropped his mug, and the admittedly handsome man that stood behind him mumbled something like, "I'm not cleaning that up."

"What," Tim said. Sasha stared back into surprised eyes and repeated the question.

"How many loops have you guys been through?"

Jon looked at Martin for an explanation as he climbed back onto his chair. Martin chuckled nervously.

"Uhm, Sasha and I are kind of aware that you guys are looping..? I don't know how long we've known, really. How many loops we've been, uhm... aware. But, ah, yeah. We know you're looping."

Tim took a deep breath before turning around and stuffing his face into the other man's neck. The man rolled his eyes but wrapped his arms around Tim's frame.

"Why won't they just loop with us?!" came Tim's muffled scream.

"I fucking hate Yggdrasil," Jon groaned, leaning on Martin. Martin, who didn't have any semblance of a crush this time around, just huffed in fondness and placed his hand on Jon's head, ruffling it the same way you would a cat.

"Has Jon been a cat boy?" Sasha asked with a grin.

The unknown man laughed. "Well, I'll be sure to show you two a recording if that happens."

6.5

"I think we're replacing things statement givers," Tim mumbled, curling in on himself as he unwillingly went through his memories again. Lost John's Cave, Danny, who he could never save, the tight space, the pain as rocks cut into his skin, the darkness of the cave, the pain of the loss of a family member. "Do you remember Laura Popham? The one that went into Lost John's Cave?"

Oliver breathed in and out. It seemed like he was processing his own memories. "Yes. Was Alena..?"

Tim nodded. Oliver let out an 'oh'.

After a few moments of silence, Oliver said, "I'm Amy Patel."

Tim's eyes widened. "Isn't Graham your ex..?"

"I broke up with Not-Graham," Oliver said, his voice barely above a whisper. He seemed so tired, so defeated as he admitted this. "I still remember him. The original Graham, that is. It's like his face is carved to memory, and it hurts to know he was replaced."

Tim sighed and scooted closer to Oliver. He was glad he didn't have to do anything this loop.

It hurt. Jon was hurting. The pain was unbearable. He wished he died. He wished he didn't suffer.

Who did he replace? Jon didn't know. All he knew was that it hurt.

6.6

"Why are we chess pieces?" Tim groaned when he Awoke. He was, apparently, the queen chess piece. Beside him was Jon, dressed in a king's attire. Tim could see Martin (a bishop piece) and Sasha (a pawn) somewhere in his vision.

Jon took out the Beholding's tape recorder and strapped it to his thigh. The tape recorder crackled to life.

"Games were played- knows will be his fate- its twisting- Something has changed."

Jon blinked at the unfamiliar words. The second part, 'known will be his fate', was pretty odd. The third and fourth were also unfamiliar. And yet, he just Knew that was his voice.

"So, whatever you're doing is basically showing 'fate'?" Jon asked.

"Right."

...Was that Gerry's voice?

6.7

"And that's how we're going to defeat Jonah Magnus with the power of friendship!"

Martin and Sasha stared at a visibly sleep deprived Tim. The 'plan' was pretty good, until halfway through, it took the sharpest turn a plan could possibly take.

"Okay, Tim," Martin said, "When was the last time you slept?"

"I can see flavours!" Tim happily chirped, before collapsing. Jon, who was leaning on a wall whilst reading a book, just beside Tim, took a few steps forward and grabbed Tim by the front of his shirt before he could hit the ground, all without looking up from his book.

6.8

Sasha's Statement was wrong. There wasn't any 'Michael', there wasn't a mention of fingers so sharp they tore through skin like butter, and it was clear that Sasha didn't meet the Distortion. Unfortunately, with no name to use, it was hard to figure out what this being was without actually reaching out to avatars.

Jon groaned, hitting his forehead with the heel of his hand. He had to focus and figure this out. God, he hated Gertrude and her stupid sorting system because his Archives were a mess and he wanted to shoot her dead-

"Jon!"

Jon yelped, before quickly turning his gaze to look at-

"Arthur?"

Arthur laughed, a sound he didn't hear very often, and Jon realized that a few parts of his body were made entirely of words. It made his head hurt, so Jon closed his eyes. Still, he could 'see' everything, even if it wasn't in the physical sense.

"Hello, Jon. I'm a Spiral avatar. Call me the 'Twisting Insanity', please. That or 'the Librarian'. If you must use a name, then use 'Arthur'."

6.9

The Beholding didn't often get a physical form. The number of times it wasn't at the outskirts of the universe, trying to push in, to be able to actually talk and interacts with its fellow loopers weren't many, perhaps under a hundred, even.

It yearned to be able to directly speak with the other loopers, to not have to convey its feelings through only facts and information. The fact it even had the capability of a proper consciousness is strange by itself, and yet it consistently Awakens with a consciousness.

Its many eyes Gazed upon Jonathan Sims, who was choosing a Statement. It guided his hand towards a new Statement; one about a series of encounters in the streets of Genoa, Italy. It hadn't been recorded, not yet. With Gertrude always avoiding Statement recordings as much as possible, the Archival Staff of this era had a lot of work on their tables.

The Beholding, for a lack of a better word, loved Jonathan Sims the way that a parent would love a child. It saw him as an odd version of 'family', like a cat it's grown to love. It dreaded the future it once saw on the Web's loom. It felt sorry of how much work he had to do, but it couldn't do much beyond being a guiding hand on what Statements were true and which ones weren't.

Another cluster of eyes Gazed upon Timothy Stoker. Timothy Stoker, who it Knew wasn't of the same original universe as Jonathan Sims. He was less driven by revenge, less angry inside. Yes, his anger was still present, but it wasn't as strong as 'baseline'. It was akin to comparing the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. They were both big (Vast, some part of it joked), but the Pacific Ocean was still 10% larger than the Atlantic Ocean. Timothy Stoker was the most interesting, as he originated from a different universe. 

The Beholding wanted to Know more about Timothy Stoker. What made him be less angry? How would it affect the future? A large portion of his 'character arc' centered around his anger. If Timothy Stoker had less of that, then how would it change the future that the Web imagined? Nonetheless, it was grateful that Timothy Stoker wasn't the original baseline Tim Stoker. It would make many situations much worse.

And yet another Gazed upon the last of the loopers. Oliver Banks, who it heard was supposed to save Jon at some point. The Web was always harder to read, so it wasn't quite sure about that. She was, after all, the only ones among the Fears that had any semblance of a proper conscience. Other than itself, of course. The Beholding thought of Oliver Banks as the one who made sure that Timothy Stoker and Jonathan Sims didn't go too far. A living common sense, if you will.

Oliver Banks had many connections to those who were recorded in Statements, those who will be recorded in Statements. Graham Folger, his ex boyfriend. Mike Crew, a friend he made during his teenage years. Gerard Keay, someone who often came into his shop. And now, Jonathan Sims and Timothy Stoker, fellow loopers and object of Oliver Banks' infatuation.

The Beholding yearned for a proper connection. But, it supposed, as a tape recorder that would carry its voice through Statements linked together appeared near each of the other loopers, that what it had would do for now.

Chapter Text

7.1

He wasn't supposed to be here. He knew that. He should not have returned. And yet, as he stared at the Magnus Insitute, he regretted nothing.

His companion laughed. "Even still, the Magnus Institute stands proudly, looming above unassuming citizens."

"We might be able to bring the Institute down," he said. It was midnight. No one was around. He could do this and get away with it, especially with the Beholding by his side.

"Oh, I'm sure you will," the being beside him purred. 

He sighed, flicked his lighter open, and broke into the building. He wondered why there were entire gallons of gasoline, but he didn't care at this point.

He wasn't supposed to be back in time, that he knew. Both of them weren't supposed to be back in time. But then again, the Fears were always unpredictable.

7.2

"Is Jon alright?" Martin asked in concern. Tim just grinned at him.

"He's fine! He just got into a loop where you served us whiskey instead of tea."

Martin set the tea he was holding down and wondered how a drunk Jon was like.

7.3

When Jon entered, he saw his assistants gathered around Georgie's computer. The woman was an archival assistant rather than a podcaster, but unfortunately, she was still his ex. And unfortunately, she had blackmail against him.

"Pump me boys, let her fly down to hell and up to the sky! Bend your back and break your bones, we're just a million miles from home!"

Jon sighed and silently walked until he was behind Georgie.

"Georgina Barker."

Georgie shrieked and fell on her chair with how violent she flinched.

7.4

"Literally everyone is Harlan Guthrie!" Arthur yelled. "I'm voiced by Harlan, John is voiced by Harlan, Kayne is voiced by Harlan, the fucking King in Yellow is voiced by Harlan, literally everybody is voiced by Harlan! Is he the only male voice in the podcast?!"

"Looks like it," Jon said as he went through every male Malevolent character's wiki page to check the voice actor.

Arthur groaned, and John laughed until he was hit in the face by a pillow.

7.5

"Spider-Jon, Spider-Jon. Does whatever a spider does- No, that doesn't sound right. What rhymes with Jon..?"

Jon sighed. Nastya (who was replacing Ned) was changing the lyrics of the Spider-Man theme to fit Jon more, and he didn't know if he liked it. 

"If I named myself Spider-Jon, then that would defeat the purpose of a secret identity," he pointed out. As per usual, Nastya ignored him, focusing on her brainstorming.

7.6

"We're in Hogwarts!" Tim whisper-shouted, shaking Jon's hand in excitement, the other holding onto Oliver. Jon laughed fondly.

"Yes, Tim. We're in Hogwarts," Jon said back.

"Jonathan Sims!" the hat shouted, and Jon slipped away. Tim sent a ping and got far too many of them back. He didn't know exactly how much, but he knew it was at least ten.

"Five pounds you're a Gryffindor," Oliver proposed.

"Nah, I'm totally a Hufflepuff!"

7.7

"Man, we must be the most boring loop to be in," Tim mused as he played with a pen. "I mean, the most we have to deal with is the worm lady, and we usually just let her be because someone somehow keeps on encountering her. When's the expansion coming? I'm bored, Jon. You hear me? Bored!"

Jon rolled his eyes. "Yes, what a tragedy."

7.8

"I got my ribs taken by a Flesh avatar."

Oliver dropped the plate he was washing. Tim... was still in the bathroom. He whipped his head to face Jon, tired, slightly bloody, and incredibly traumatized.

"Are you alright?" Oliver asked. Jon laughed.

"Absolutely not. Please hug me and get Tim."

7.9

"Why are there moths everywhere in the Archives?" Gerry asked when he entered the Archives.

"Jon's a Corruption avatar," Tim said absentmindedly, trying to balance a notebook on a sleeping Sasha's head.

"Ah."

"God, I'm getting dizzy," Michael (because of course Michael used to be an archival assistant, that just makes sense. Thank you, Beholding, for a piece of information that has terrible implications) groaned, before lifting his head up and screaming. Jon came running out of his office and saw Michael, who's nose was leaking blood like a faucet.

Jon cursed and yelled at Tim, "Get your shit together, Timothy Distortion! Michael's bleeding like a faucet!"

Tim, who was idly flipping through a fake statement with knife-like fingers, just ignored Jon. He was the fucking Distortion, he could do whatever he wanted.

(Oliver dragged him out five minutes later after Michael passed out, mumbling something about regrets and 'Oh dear fucking lord, is that really what they feel?'.)

"I think we're going to be buried under these damn statements, with how much there are," Mulligan complained.

"At least you aren't actually a Buried avatar," Gerard off-handedly commented. Hamilton stopped writing to look at Gerard.

"A what avatar?"

Gerard stared at the four revolutionaries. "...You don't- Of course you don't know. There are fourteen fears-"

The Beholding (named Arkyn Sims, in this world) quite liked being a physical being. What it did not like was the fact that it could belong to a different Entity.

"I do not like this," it stated to the tape recorder. Jonathan Sims was replacing it. And unfortunately, it belonged to the Lonely. It did not like the Lonely.

"-but they have little choice in where they end up," Jonathan Sims pointed out through Statement 0121911.

It just groaned and banged its head on the desk, relishing in the flash of pain.

Chapter Text

8.1

Jon did not expect to walk into his boss' office and see said boss' head bashed in. There was a pipe nearby, impossibly bloody, but still there. There was a book nearby, as well, and a yellow door where there shouldn't be a yellow door.

He sighed and dialed 999. No point in stalling any further.

"Messy, crude, yet effective," the avatar said, looming over Elias' body. "I should congratulate you, really, but right now you're not even here."

With the book in hand, it left through the door.

8.2

"I will shoot the damn Queen of Hearts the moment I see her, I swear," Jon grumbled. A Chershire Oliver chuckled in amusement. 

"As long as it isn't Tim, at least," Oliver said. "Then, you'd just propose to dissect him. And he'd agree."

8.3

Tim's scream echoed through the Institute. Jon, the current Distortion, opened a door to where Tim was and rushed through.

"Anchor! Are you al-... Ah."

Tim pointed to what was probably Gertrude's body. Her head seemed like it was exploded, and a portion of her back was cut out to the vague shape of a page.

Jon sighed. "Report this, Anchor. This is likely just another divergence from the loops."

He ignored the growing sense of paranoia that was starting to swirl in his gut. It tasted like grapes. What if Gertrude was killed in such a gruesome way in baseline but they didn't know? 

(What if there was someone or something hunting him down in baseline because he was the Archivist?)

8.4

"What loop is this?" Jon groaned. "Why do my loop memories say I'm in love with a woman named Laura? Why is there someone who's name sounds vaguely like Hitler's first name? Why am I Catholic?"

"You spit out 'Catholic' like it's a curse," Oliver laughed. "Just be glad that I saved you from those lions."

"I am going to kill a man, Oliver. I am going to kill Adolfo if it's the last thing I do."

Oliver just chuckled, albeit tinged with nervousness. "Are you sure you haven't replaced Jonny too much?"

"Slaughter is the second most common Fear I follow," Jon pointed out. "It's bound to leak into my personality."

8.5

Tim muttered a string of 'I hate this, I hate this, I hate this-' as he constantly checked the cameras. He liked FNaF as much as the other guy, but living through it was literal hell. 

"I am going to burn this godforsaken pizzaria if I die one more time." he said, voice loud to make sure the animatronics fucking heard him because god, if he has to hear another jumpscare, he'll go deaf.

8.6

"Why am I blue," Jon said, voice tired and resigned. "Why am I a cookie. This is the worst one."

Tim laughed as Oliver sat nearby, cleaning his microphone staff.

"At least you can shapeshift after this," Tim said. "Meanwhile, I can do some illusions and stuff. Probably summon apple candies or something."

"Candy apples, Timothy. Candy apples," Jon corrected. "I'm going to be a cracked version of the Distortion after this."

"Then I can just lie really, really well," Oliver said. "Probably spread gossip or something."

"And poison people!" Tim added.

"What in the name of the Witches is this sorting system?!" Shadow Milk cried. Behind him, Candy Apple giggled.

"So much lies!" she marveled, going through each of the shelves, passing the true statements and focusing on the fake ones.

"And chaos," Black Sapphire added, looking around at the mess with a wince.

8.7

"Martin, I want you to know that you are an angel amongst mortals," Jon said, setting down the empty mug of tea. "You give me life through your tea and I thank you for that."

Martin chuckled, flattered but also a bit flustered from the sudden compliment. "Thank you, Jon! Tea's what I do best, I suppose."

"No, seriously," Tim yelled from his desk. "Jon's least favourite loops are ones where you don't willingly give him tea. He's a true Brit through and through!"

"Timothy, I'm half-Indian and half-Scottish," Jon yelled back. "I just happened to be born where I was born.."

Silence. Then-

"WHAT?!"

8.8

"This is the tenth planet you've blown up," Jon (replacing Ivy, surprisingly) pointed out. "Please stop blowing things up."

"One more?" Tim (replacing Ashes, also surprisingly) pleaded. "I'll let you join in!"

Jon sighed, before reaching into his inventory and grabbing an obscene amount of C4. Tim cheered.

8.9

"What do you want me to say?!" the man that Oliver saved from the Circus hissed. "Hi guys! I'm Danny Stoker, and I'm in a time loop like you guys! Yes, Tim, I'm aware that I am your dead brother. You cannot prove for sure that I'm not a Not-Them but-"

"Jon has a polaroid of you when he was in a loop where you were alive," Oliver interrupted. "And I'm sure that Tim would be very happy to see you alive. He's been missing you the entire time."

Danny scoffed. "It's been thousands of years for Tim. I doubt he even remembers me all that much."

Oliver smiled, remembering how Tim still held Danny close to his heart, always wondering why he couldn't ever save Danny. "You don't know until you do. Come on, let's see your brother."

The Beholding shoved the image of Danny making his way to the Archives into Jon's mind. The Archivist paid no mind much, beyond accepting the Knowledge. He's long since gotten used to the bits of information he received at random times of day.

"Don't you think that Tim should be the one to know this?" Jon asked the Beholding. The tape recorder that was placed on his desk crackled to life.

"I don’t know what- had to do something- or indeed any reaction at all- Tim-"

"You don't know how Tim would react," Jon mumbled. "Alright, then."

Oliver leaned on the door as Danny entered the safe room. Tim was cursing up a storm about Gertrude's shitty archiving skills and the fact that Elias hadn't replaced the lights. He watched as Danny grabbed Tim by the shoulders and excitedly say, "Hi Tim!"

Tim whipped around, dropping his flashlight in the process, clearly about to say something, then he saw Danny. Oliver couldn't see the younger Stoker's expression, but he felt like it was a nervous one. Then, Tim started tearing up.

"Danny..?"

"Hi, Tim," Danny said. "I'm, uhm... How about we sit down for this?"

Oliver saluted to Tim then left. He should tell Jon about the new looper.

As Tim and Danny left the safe room, the shadows molded themself into a person. He had a look of quiet realization on his face.

"So that's what's going on," he mumbled, before laughing to himself. "I think I've gotten used to explaining things by now. About time I got an explaination for this."

He picked up his book, hidden in the shelves filled with various files that let it blend in, before pushing open a door and entering it.

Chapter Text

9.1

"Good fucking lord, what the hell is that?!"

As Jon took out a harmonica, Tim smiled at Danny, who was staring, horrified, at the being who stood in front of them. They both knew that they could smell Martin's fear from inside his apartment, so they had a tight grip on each other's hand.

"That's Jane. She's a bitch."

9.2

"So you guys have themes?" Danny asked. They were in a My Hero Academia loop this time. Danny's first fused loop, actually.

Oliver nodded. "I often deal with death, darkness, all those wonderful things. And occasionally, space. Don't ask why, I don't like to dive into that."

Tim laughed, slinging an arm around Oliver. "I'm the elemental guy. You need a goddamn avatar from ATLA? I'm your man!"

"He's helpful when we land in a hot place," Jon mused. "I'm often attributed to things related to my position as the Head Archivist. Knowledge, forbidden or not, being able to see things others can't, and other similar things. Although, other than that, I'm also connected to fear and the Fear Entities."

"He's the spooky one," Tim added. He promptly got hit in the head by a tape recorder.

9.3

"Do you ever notice how we often use fire to deal with things?" Jon mused as he watched Prentiss scream, trying to put out the fire that Tim lit up.

"Fire pretty," Tim said. "Fire good."

Jon laughed softly. "Yeah. Fire good."

9.4

"I'm your son!" Danny wheezed. "Hi mom!"

Tim, unfortunately a woman this loop, groaned. "You're going to be insufferable about this, aren't you?"

Danny nudged Tim with a grin on his face. "Forever and ever, mother. Now, let's deal with those suitors until your darling husband arrives."

A blush spread on Tim's face. Danny took pictures.

9.5

"YOU!"

Jon flinched as Jonny suddenly grabbed him and lifted him up. The mech looked ecstatic, a wide grin on his face. Behind him was a slightly (but only slightly) apologetic Nastya and a laughing Gunpowder.

"I finally fucking found you!" Jonny exclaimed. Jon laughed nervously, swinging his legs to try and non-verbally tell Jonny to put him down.

"Yes you did, Jonny. Are you replacing Martin?"

Jonny rolled his eyes, setting Jon down. "Yes, I'm replacing your precious Mah-tin. Don't expect me to make tea for you. I've got a shit ton of whiskey and that's it."

Jon smiled. "Good enough."

9.6

"Oliver Banks. Stop laughing," Jon commanded with a glare on his face.

Oliver cleared his throat, but he was still very clearly trying to hide his laugh.

"Cat-boy Jon! Cat-boy Jon! Cat-boy Jon!" Tim chanted. Danny, confused, just followed along.

Jon's cat ears twitched, and he grabbed a bunched up jacket from his inventory and threw it at Tim. It hit him in the face perfectly.

9.7

Danny burst into the room. He had a giddy grin on his face. Behind him was Tim. Slightly afraid, slightly more confused, but still supporting of whatever bullshit Danny has now.

"Look!"

He collapsed on the floor. Oliver stared at the unconscious body as Jon spat out his tea. A ghost-like version of Danny rose from his body.

"I'm a crack version of Danny Fenton," Danny completed with the grin still on his face.

9.8

"Alright! So, I'm not Jonny," Jon said into the microphone. "Clearly. These guys just kidnapped me and made me replace him for a bit. What did you guys say he was up to again? The extermination of an illegally genetically modified species?"

"And blowing up the planet they live on," Ashes added. "Now, start singing, Sims, or I'll be sure to welcome you to the Underworld myself."

Jon took a deep breath as the crowd cheered. He and the Mechs decided to do a switcharoo this loop, for old time's sake. Jonny was currently subbing in for Jon in the Institute. The only difference was that Jonny had to act like Jon, while Jon himself could easily just say that he was kidnapped or something similar.

"First song," Jon mumbled, before correcting himself. "No, first narration. Alright, then."

He took a deep breath.

"The Bifrost Incident."

9.9

Jon Awoke not a week before his first recorded Statement, but rather as he stumbled out of the Institute, heavily injured and very tired. He checked his memories and found that things were exactly the same as baseline. Sasha also was different. She... she's been replaced by a Not-Them.

It hurt. Both the fact that no one could save Sasha and the fact that he was currently bleeding from injuries caused by holes.

Jon closed his eyes and let the wave of tiredness take him over.

"Expansion time!" Tim cheered, albeit a bit tiredly. Jon laughed quietly as Oliver looked over his wounds. 

"You died for two minutes," Oliver said. "The Beholding took that as your Becoming. Elias panicked. It was very funny."

"Let's see what this expansion has for us this time," Tim said with a smile.

"You are not The Sasha."

The being impersonating Sasha blinked at the figure in front of it.

"No," it lied, choosing its words carefully, "I am Sasha. Maybe you're mistaking me as someone else?"

"You are not The Sasha," the DIstortion said once again as glitching and static grew. The Not-Them was pulled into the Distortion, and nothing was left.

Nothing was left, other than a book placed on the Archivist's desk.

Chapter Text

10.1

"There's something weird going on," Jon pointed out in a hushed tone, careful to make sure no one overheard in the bar he, Tim, and Oliver were in. Danny, unfortunately, was too busy Becoming, so he couldn't come. "We haven't gotten a normal baseline loop without any changes for at least two hundred loops."

"And then, there's the problem with the book," Oliver said. "There's a book that shows up often in our loops. The catalogue of the trapped dead. It's one of the End's, of course."

"It's probably just some artifact that's passed around," Jon dismissed. "However, the Not-Them is taken care of quite often, even before the Prentiss attack. Do you think someone's...?"

Tim leaned back on his chair, swirling his cocktail. "A stealth looper? Probably. Either that, or they think they're looping normally. Which is probably not the case. I mean, there was that one time Michael Shelly was still alive and then Rosie became the Distortion."

"And Gerry's still in the Archives in some of them," Jon mumbled.

Oliver sighed. They were going to burn themselves out finding the cause of all these divergences.

10.2

"Alright, bossman. We gotta talk."

Tim expected many things from the expansion. New avatars to deal with, more encounters with entities, stuff like that. What he didn't expect was to have to set an Unawake Jon aside to tell him to knock off the stalking bullshit.

"Listen, I know you're probably paranoid as fuck because of Gertude's death reveal," Tim said. "But for the love of god, don't stalk your assistants. None of us did it, I'm sure. Hell, if you wanted help to uncover this mystery, I would love to help!" 

Jon stared at him then suddenly teared up and broke down crying. Tim simply wrapped his arms around Jon and let the man cry his stress out while talking about his feelings about the situation with a voice slowly going hoarse.

He would burn the world down if it meant making sure Jon felt fine. But for now, in this null loop (seriously, why were there loops where he couldn't even access his inventory?), he'll have to make due with simple investigations.

Tim felt the Gaze of Jonah pressing down on him like a heavy rock suddenly pressing on his back painfully. His mind was thankfully blocked off by an Awake Beholding, but he still felt that fucking bastard trying to find something in his mind.

10.3

"Why is our Sasha the Not-Them lookalike?!" Tim (the Archivist, this time around) yelled, running in the tunnels as Not-Sasha, who looked like normal Sasha when not in that weird white form, chased them through the dark.

"Because the loops hate us!" Danny (who was replacing Tim, apparently) yelled back in a false cheer, yelping when Tim shoved him to the front.

A yellow door opened, and they both accidentally ran straight into the Distortion.

10.4

Jon tiredly slung himself over Tim the moment he was done with the first true statement he would read this time around. Tim wrapped his arms around Jon, motioning for Martin to make Jon some tea. Martin nodded and went to make tea.

"What happened?" Tim murmured, dragging Martin's chair so it was just beside his own chair, before plopping Jon down onto it. He still held Jon's hands, rubbing small circles to comfort the man.

"The loop always ends early for me, right?" Jon said quietly. "Always ends when I go out to smoke. I got a mini expansion. Turns out Leitner gets killed. Bashed to death by a metal pipe."

Jon's already small frame curled in on itself and somehow became even smaller. "There was so much blood, Tim. So much. Can we take a vacation loop? Kill Prentiss, kill the Not-Them, somehow report Gertrude's body, get all of it done then rest? I got a ping from Beholding and Oliver. Is Danny..?"

Tim smiled sadly. He already moved on properly with Danny's aid, but it was still sad that there were loops where Danny truly was gone. "Dead. He's in a different loop, probably."

Jon nodded, and after a few minutes, got Martin's tea and drank it with eyes that were shining with unshed tears shut closed.

10.5

Oliver sighed. He should be paid for this.

"Tell me what happened, please?"

"Well, I was minding my business," Jon said, inspecting the eyes that now appeared on his arm with fascination, "walking in the park in the dark, when he attacked me."

He pointed towards Danny, who didn't look apologetic. If anything, he had a pleased look on his face. His eyes were still golden, his pupil still slit, and his hair was absolutely ruined.

"He stabbed me in the shoulder, I ran, he chased me, I got knocked down, he stabbed me in the heart. I was claimed enough by the Beholding, so I Became, and now here I am."

"In my defense, he looked like a stalker," Danny piped up. "And besides, at least he can deal with everything faster."

10.6

"You got the ladybug kwami?" Tim asked. "I got the cat one."

Jon laughed. "I don't think they appreciate being called that."

"Damn right!" Plagg huffed.

10.7

"Sasha, did you call fo–" 

"'scuse us!" Tim happily said, waving at Martin.

"Looking for the Archivist," Jon drawled. Martin looked confused, and the duo almost broke character.

"I’m sorry, are you two meant-"

Tim laughed. "Won't take up too much of your time."

"Just got a delivery," Jon shrugged, showing the package to Martin, who sighed.

"Look, you really can’t actually-"

"Package for Sasha James," Tim said, pointing at the label with a smile.

"Says right here," Jon added. Martin hesitated in taking the package.

"Well, I don’t really know where she-" Martin tried again, but once again, Tim cut him off.

"We’ll just leave it with you," the Anchor said, shoving the package into Martin's hands.

"Be sure she gets it," Jon said.

Martin looked a bit more hesitant, but said, "Okay, I will, but you really have to actually-"

"‘course. Much obliged," Tim cheerily said, bowing a bit just for the dramatics. Jon rolled his eyes.

"Stay safe," the other Anchor told Martin.

Martin blinked. "I'll... try?"

Just as they were about to leave, Tim said in a sing-song voice, "Your recorder's on, by the way."

"Might want to change that," Jon said with an almost lazy smile on his face.

Martin looked down at the recorder and mumbled, "Oh. So it is. Thanks."

"No problem!"

"At all."

10.8

"So, now it's our Archivist that's stuck talking in statements," Danny said, staring at the recorder, before turning to the actual Archivist in the current loop. "And you're the Beholding. Like, the actual Beholding. The Fear God Beholding."

The Beholding- Arkyn Sims, it reminded itself, nodded. "Indeed. I hope that in this loop, I'll be able to come up with a sorting system that Jonathan Sims can use even after this loop has ended."

"Thank you- Beholding-"

Arkyn smiled. "Anything for my Archivist."

10.9

"We're in a time loop," Jon admitted to his assistants. Sasha and Martin had been replaced by Gerry and for some reason Joshua Gillespie? He didn't know what was up with that. Tim was, of course, still the same.

"Wait, really?" Joshua asked, a bit skeptical. Gerry just accepted the fact with a nod.

"What happens in the future?" Gerry asked. "Think we can get rid of the problems before they become problems?"

"Prentiss is eternally falling in the Vast," Tim piped up, focused on solving the rubik's cube he held in his hand. "The Not-Them was sucked into a Leitner. Gertrude's still dead. Leitner's hopefully not gonna pop up. Unless there's something sudden, this loop's gonna be chill."

Joshua sighed in relief, and Gerry smiled.

"You guys must have been looping for a while to be able to put down threats easily," Gerry mused.

"It's been sixteen thousand three hundred and eighty one loops," Jon idly said. "Now, I believe we should get back to work."

Chapter Text

11.1

Tim watched as Danny cackled, using a machine gun to take down player after player. Beside him, a pig hybrid named Technoblade whistled.

"Impressive," Technoblade said. "He might actually not die for a bit."

Tim smiled, throwing a grenade behind him. "Yeah. That's my brother for ya. Little gremlin bastard. Opponent at your four o' clock."

11.2

"It's weird how in this loop, I'm just an English major," Jon mused as they walked down the halls of the university. "I'm used to double majoring. Now, I actually get to sleep. That's strange."

"Putting the last part aside," Oliver said, wincing all the while, "you're a double major?"

Jon grinned. "Acting and English."

"Acting?"

"How do you think I pull of D'ville so easily?" Jon asked. When he received silence, he just hummed.

"Exactly," he said in a sing-song voice.

11.3

Jon burst into their apartment. "Tim! Get Gerry, I got shot by a fucking ghost bullet. Beholding somehow beamed the information into my head."

Tim stopped cutting carrots, processing the information from the kitchen. "I'm sorry. What?"

"I'm replacing Melanie, you fucking idiot," Jon reminded, setting down his duffel bag and collapsing on the couch. "Now get Gerry or I will go off on your ass. I've got anger flowing through me like a river and I don't want to be the Slaughter this time."

"You're lucky you caught this," Gerry said, carefully stitching up Jon. "Otherwise you'd become erratic and easily angered. Over time, you'd be claimed by the Slaughter then you'd have a Slaughter induced heart attack, which would be your Becoming. It's not pretty, really."

Jon laughed. "It's not my first rodeo with these types of things."

Gerry sighed. "I know."

11.4

Blood, black blood, at least, splattered the walls and desk. It dripped down his chin and stained his hands. But he didn't care and kept on bringing the pipe down. Up, down. Up, down. Even as the door opened, he didn't stop.

Sasha died because of this thing. He wanted to be the one to do something this time.

"What the hell?!" he distantly heard someone scream, but he didn't care

Gerry gripped the NotThem's shoulder and sent the strongest flame he could create. It burned hotter than any flame he had created. Any flame that turned a Leitner into ashes, any flame that burned down houses, any flame that was every created by his hands.

The thing screamed. It should.

Gerry stepped back, admiring his work. Then, finally, he looked back at Tim, then down.

"Tim. Why is Jon unconscious on the floor?"

Tim smiled, polaroid still in one hand, with many photos laying on the floor. On the other, he held a little green plastic egg with an eye much like the eyes on Gerry's knuckes drawn it.

"No witnesses," he said, uncharacteristically calm.

11.5

"So. You really thought this is a normal loop?" Taro Yamada, the unfortunate Anchor for the loop, asked, walking down familiar halls he's memorized by now. Their most recent transferee nodded, a bit sheepish.

"I thought Oliver was joking when he said that he Became a hundred loops ago because of a falling air conditioner."

Jon promptly got a flick on the head by an exasperated Taro.

11.6

"I got the Spiral as a roomate," the Beholding, or Arkyn, hissed to the phone. "It's name is Andromeda. We all call it And or Med."

On the other side of the phone, Timothy Stoker laughed. "Well, this is gonna be interesting, isn't it?"

"Shut up, it is the first time all of the Fears have consciousnesses. Do not blame me for being a bit nervous!"

"What does love feel like?" Arkyn immediately asked the moment Jonathan Sims picked up the phone. It could practically see his slow and tired blinking even without Seeing him.

"What? Oh. Love, uh, feels like butterflies, I suppose? Constantly wanting to be with who you love, and being fully willing to sacrifice yourself for them. Why?"

Arkyn took a breath. In, and out.

"I think I'm in love with Med."

It missed when the Spiral was human. It could fall in love with it's fellow fear god without any worries about consciousness. Now, it had to hoard all its thoughts to the most specific corner of its domain (libraries, for some reason) to make sure the others (most especially that damned spider) didn't catch on.

It absentmindedly claimed Danny Stoker, just as he was about to be destroyed by the Circus, before realizing the man's predicament and Gazing upon the clowns. 

11.7

Jon sighed as the Traveller, Aether this time, properly entered the domain alongside Mavuika. He sent a ping and got one from the both of them.

"This idiot," he pointed at the Beholding, replacing some small pixelated dragon named 'Ajaw', "managed to somehow kill the final boss before you. I have no clue how we even got access to said boss. Those who can see you are just seeing the same thing we saw last time we looped here."

Aether laughed as Mavuika slow clapped with a smile.

11.8

"Statement of Timothy Stoker, regarding a being that calls itself 'Michael'. Statement recorded directly from subject- Oh, hello Michael."

Michael giggled and waved, taking its 'seat' on a chair that didn't exist moments before and was still in the middle of forming. Tim waved at it and gave it a mug he got from the last loop. It had 'FUCK GERTRUDE' written on it with a glitchy text font. It started actually glitching when Michael got it.

"Hello Archivist," it purred. "Don't mind me. I am simply watching you."

Jon laughed. "That's not ominous. Recorded on the 2nd of April, 2016. Go."

11.9

Tim Awoke, and he got a call. He answered it as he dived into this loop's memories and the feeling of being watched disappeared.

"Hello? You're speaking to the most handsome man in the entire Magnus Intitute."

Jon laughed on the other end. "Hello, Tim. I'm in Gertrude's flat for some reason. Mind picking me up?"

"Once you check your memories," Tim reminded with a smile. After a moment, Jon began laughing.

"I broke in! I broke in. Because of paranoia. Probably another variant loop or something. Just- Come get me. NotSasha's still around and I want that thing out of my Archives as soon as possible."

Tim's smile turned into a murderous grin. "Well, we'll have to change that soon, ey?"

Chapter Text

12.1

He knew that Michael couldn't be trusted. No matter what Sasha said back then, Tim knew Michael couldn't be trusted. And the proof was staring at him straight in the face.

Sasha was dead, oozing black blood probably tainted by whatever Michael is. The being itself was looming above her with a surprised expression.

"You shouldn't be here, Anchor of Flame," Michael said. Then, Tim knew no more as he fell into the Distortion's hallways.

"Hey Bossman!" Tim greeted as he entered the office, newly Awakened. "Guess who's the Spiral avatar this time? Though, looks like I Woke up late. What's this, post Tessa Winters? Yeah, it's post Tessa Winters."

Jon cocked his head to the side. "How did you Become?"

Tim opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. Open, close, then again.

"I... don't know. My memories probably got deleted?"

The two Anchors shrugged and returned to their duties. The animosity between their two Unawake selves were gone the moment they Awoke, unaware of the true nature of the disappearance of the NotThem.

12.2

Jon was a therapist in a city named Gotham, where vigilantes and criminals ran wild. He was an unusual therapist, considering the fact that people could just walk in whenever, given that there isn't someone already in Jon's office. No appointments, no other therapists, nothing. Jon was quite amused by the fact that there were so many people that even needed therapy and both him and the Beholding got quite the good meal every day. 

(The most amusing of times is when vigilantes and criminals came to his little office. Jon was probably the unofficial official therapist of the hero-villain-vigilante community by now, with how much he's listened to the tales of those who make Gotham the way it is.)

"So, why did you come here today, Dominic Jackson?" Jon asked, static rising from his throat as the Ceaseless Watcher turned its gaze (not Gaze, else Dominic would've died) upon the poor soul who decided to grace the Archivist's doors.

"I think I just saw the actual devil," Dominic, admitted, before giving his statement. He found a Leitner disguised as a Bible and read it from front to back. He saw shadows that he thought was demons chasing him, growing darkness whenever he committed sin, and he always felt scrutinized. Watched by god, he said.

Then, when he walked into his room one day, Dominic came face to face with what he thought was the devil in disguise. Decked in all black, the pale figure held the supposed Bible in its hands, the book set aflame.

Dominic ran all the way here after that.

(Jon tasted tungsten on his tongue, with a hint of ink and lighter fluid. While not the best of combinations, he could confirm that the statement belongs to the Dark, Eye, and Desolation.)

12.3

"And so, Barnabas Bennett ended, his soul trapped by the thorns of loneliness that cursed him to be as cold as the fog that trailed him like a ghost of past mistakes as his soul grew colder and colder, frost biting at the core of his soul until the End found him at last and let him wander into its open arms."

Danny took a deep breath, letting the soul of Barnabas wander out the book he held. It was called the 'Book of the Living Dead', a Leitner created by the End and entrusted to him. The easiest way he could explain it, if asked, was that it was a book that contained the souls that Danny finds and lets into the book.

"Welcome to the world, Barnabas," he said with a grin. Barnabas nodded at his general direction, before letting himself look around in an odd fascination. People are walking by, talking, laughing, existing. Danny wouldn't doubt for a second that Barnabas was getting used to seeing people all around after so long of nothing.

(His mind wandered to that one loop where he replaced a certain man on a ship called the 'Tundra'. He knew exactly what Barnabas felt.)

"Whaat?!" Tim whined. "What do you mean we can't gouge Jonah's eyes out?!"

"I gave the permission to his ex," Danny shrugged with a smug smile. "Now, wanna meet the ex himself?"

He got enthusiastic nods. As expected from a bunch of Beholding avatars. He opened his book and turned to Barnabas' page, the old paper as worn as the soul it held.

"The loneliness that was once his silent companion turned into a beast whose claws have sunk into him."

12.4

Jon Awoke earlier than usual. Usually, he Woke after accepting the position as Head Archivist, but on rare occasions, he Awoke before that. He always quit after he Awoke during those times, but now, he realized what exactly he was writing.

A resignation letter.

Jon stared at the paper, reaching out to his loop's memories. Michael managed to convince an Unawake version of him to quit his job and apply for something else more suitable. Tim already quit before him, but Sasha was still in Research.

He sighed and finalized his resignation letter, sending a ping and getting three back. He should deal with Jonah after this.

12.5

Tim was crying. Had been crying for a while. He Awakened not so long ago and crashed in Oliver's place for the night while Jon finalized their move in together. 

"It was bad," Tim muttered. "Fuck, it was so bad. I-I was a kid and then there was this doll, and I learned that my dad fucking killed me by snapping my neck, and-"

Oliver shushed Tim as the Anchor sobbed again. Oliver hugged Tim closer. He needed the comfort, clearly, if a loop left him this distraught.

"You don't need to say anything else," Oliver said, hoping to the Beholding that what he said was good enough. "Just relax and know I'm here for you."

After a moment's hesitation, Oliver leaned down to place a kiss on Tim's forehead. His mind raced as he wondered if it was a nice choice, before Beholding decided to tell him that Tim liked it.

12.6

"Oh dear, this place is a mess!" Aziraphale exclaimed the moment he and Crowley entered the Archives. Papers littered the floor, files were shoved into bookshelves, and all the meanwhile, the original Archival Assistants huddled around Tim's desk.

All three of them turned to look at the new arrivals, before Tim grinned, leaning back on his chair and almost falling if not for Martin.

"Need an Anchor to ground you? I'm your man!"

Aziraphale smiled, albeit a bit nervously as he stumbled his way to Tim's desk, Crowley just following as displeased hisses slipped out of his mouth.

"Yes, please. We're feeling quite loopy. I'm quite used to being an anchor, but I'm afraid I'll need your aid."

"And these are our beloved Archives."

Twilight dropped the books she held out of pure shock. Tim shoved his laughter down as far as he could get it.

"This place is so disorganized!" Twilight exclaimed, turning to look at Tim, who just had his arms crossed with a casual look on his face.

"Yeah, well, Gertrude didn't want this place to be organized, apparently," Tim said, shrugging as he made his way to his desk. "Your office is that-a-way, boss!"

Twilight could tell that this was going to be a loop full of organizing.

"So, we're getting recognition now, are we?" Tim said as he and Cecil walked down the stairs that led to the Archives. Cecil nodded.

"Yes! Your podcast is slowly growing, and so is your Branch. Though, you're mostly known for being that one loop that's a pain because of the Archives, who people know as Elias, and-..."

Cecil stopped talking. Tim looked at what he- yeah, his reaction was understandable.

"Welcome to hell!" Sasha cheerily greeted. Martin just approached Cecil and handed him a cup of tea. Cecil gladly took it and held the mug in one hand as he dipped his finger into it, face still in horror as he looked around.

"This is the true reason why our Branch is a horror one," Tim stage whispered to Martin. "Because anyone who replaces any of us has to deal with sorting!"

"Can I please not do this?" Rei muttered tiredly, already having given up the moment he laid eyes on the mess that was the Archives. His husband rolled his eyes and dragged him to his office.

"Come on, we're all in this together," Kazuki said, exasperated. Martin, Sasha, and for some reason Oliver just watched as the tired assassin was shoved into his office.

"At least it's easier than taking care of a kid," Kazuki sighed when he closed the door, ignoring the 'What the hell?' that came from Rei inside the office.

12.7

"Wait," Jon realized. "As Jonah, I could see anything. I kept tabs on the Archival Staff, usually. Doesn't that mean that..?"

Jonah Magnus usually is able to See anything. Since Jonathan Sims' third loop, the Admins have blocked Jonah Magnus' ability to See in any looper's minds, as well as See what they're doing.

Jon breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't even begin to imagine the chaos that would sprout of Jonah knew anything that he did.

12.8

"Why are we in pots?!" Danny cried as Tim wheezed himself to death.

"We don't even have loop memories or anything!" Jon yelled, grunting as he climbed up using his hammer. 

"Free workout," Oliver muttered under his breath.

Tim panted as he pushed himself up. "Hey! Whaddya call a Martin in a pot?"

Danny winced, but said, "What?"

"A Martin Leprekartin Blackwood!"

12.9

Tim was a Stranger avatar. Again. Before, he used to hate these loops. Danny's death still weighed heavily on his mind, despite the incident taking place more than a decade before he ever started working in the Institute. He still remembered how his anger flared up and burned him. Burned him for the lives that he replaced, burned him for those he tormented, and burned him as retribution for his brother.

And now, here he was, arguing about the true pronounciation of 'calliope' with Danny. The same Danny he mourned for thirteen years. The same Danny that has long since started looping with him. With them.

Perhaps it's because of this that Tim doesn't entirely hate being a Stranger avatar. He still hated the Stranger and anyone associated with it with a burning passion, but is long as he could endure it with Danny, it will be fine. He'll be a monster if it meant Danny was here with him.

Chapter Text

13.1

"My name is Timothee," Tim hissed. "Like fucking Timothee Chalamet."

As Danny broke down laughing, Tim added with a grimace, "Disgusting."

"Please just call me Tim," Thomas sighed. Jonny's cackles were heard from his office, and Oliver just seemed amused.

"Your name is Thomas," Arkyn, who was just beside Oliver, slowly said. "Is it not right to call you 'Thomas', Thomas Stoker? Or shall I call you Timothy Stoker?"

"Call him Thomas!" Sasha yelled from her desk. She and Martin were told of Thomas' actual name in baseline and they, the fucking traitors, cackled themselves to death. Well, Sasha did. Martin, thankfully, tried not to laugh. And failed.

"How is your name Matthias?" Oliver asked, genuinely confused. Matthias just shrugged.

"Somehow, people got Tim as a nickname from that," Matthias said. "Don't ask me."

"What the actual fuck is your name?!"

Timotheos, glanced up from his work, staring at an appalled Jon. He smiled.

"Search up the roots of 'Tim'. You'll find it."

"Just call me Tim!" 

Jon hummed behind him, before unexpectedly choking on his drink as Knowledge was shoved into his head. Jon proceeded to stood up and drag his fellow Anchor to a random storage area with a grin on his face.

"Your name," Jon said amidst giggles, "is 'Tit'. Like, the bird, supposedly."

Tit tiredly flipped Jon off.

13.2

"Jon," Tim said. "There was a saying. A saying uttered by a traitor. Heard of Eret? He was once part of L'manberg. I don't know if your loop memories have caught up yet."

He smiled. "It was never meant to be!"

And he slammed the button, his other hand saluting the man he grew to love. The man who represented the nation that he built with careful hands. L'manberg.

Jon paled as explosions rang out. Tim stumbled forward as the force of the blast blew up the wall behind him as he cackled.

With a manic grin, Tim begged Jon, "Kill me. Kill me, Jon. Let the unfinished symphony that flows through my blood cover your hands. They're already stained red, aren't they?"

"Tim, I can't just kill you," Jon muttered, clutching Tim tightly, knowing that he wouldn't be able to say 'no' to what Tim said, in the end. "Please don't make me do this."

"You have to, Jon. It's part of the script."

Jon sighed and brought out his gun. "I hate you for doing this, Tim."

"I know."

"I won't forgive you for this."

As Jon pointed the gun at Tim's heart, the Anchor of Flame smiled.

"I know."

A shot rang out, and the sobs of a broken lover (though, neither of them really knew, too caught up in the situation to dive deeper than the mere surface) were just barely heard over the explosions.

13.3

"Why did the both of you become serial killers again?" Oliver tiredly asked, burning the bodies that Jon and Tim killed not too long ago with Desolation abilities that carried over from past loops.

"We have to Feed in America somehow," Tim shrugged. "It just so happened that there's a lot of shit people."

"Also, serial killing matches up with our Patrons," Jon pointed out. "I'm the Hunt, and Tim's the End."

There wasn't any other sounds beyond the crackling of fire after that.

13.4

"What the fuck are you doing now?"

Jon (in Elias' body, since he was replacing Jonah) held a finger up as his pen hovered over the paper. Rosie, this loop, was replaced by a grumpy Jonny D'ville. Literally. She was killed and Jon made Jonny replace her out of spite.

Jon drew something on the paper, before blinking. He stared down on the paper, tilting his head to the side.

"We're playing tic-tac-toe," Jon said, voice sounding like he was thinking about something. It also sounded a bit lighter, a bit more casual than Jon's usual tone when replacing Jonah. Jonny blinked.

"We're? Are you schizophrenic now, on top of a self-destructive idiot?"

Jon drew something, blinked, and then leaned back, grabbing the paper and holding it up.

"Elias and I can swap who's in control," he said. "We're playing tic-tac-toe. Now, anything else? If not, get the hell out. I have a game to win and I won't let my former secretary beat my arse."

13.5

"Oh great, you guys again," Oliver groaned the moment that Gunpowder and Jonny, both pouting, entered the building. Oliver, unfortunately, was replacing Rosie this loop. And, equally as unfortunately, the Mechs used the Archives as their own personal HR department.

"He shot me in my bedroom!" Jonny complained, pointing towards Gunpowder. "My sheets were just cleaned!"

Oliver just sighed, pointing towards the general direction of the staircase that led to the Archives. The two Mechs made their way to the place, arguing in hushed whispers.

13.6

This loop, the danger of the dog park and the public library were swapped. Citizens were often reminded not to enter the public library, and those who dared to enter never came out. Tim, however, got a message from Jon to meet him inside the public library and, well, Tim was never one to deny a meet-up.

So, while everyone was busy with doing a mass ritual to please the doorknobs as to be able to enter and exit places with doors without the threat of being absorbed and tranformed, Tim slipped by and entered the library. 

Surprisingly, there were a lot of books compared to the original public library. Kind of like a TARDIS, Tim thought as he walked in. Files and books alike were neatly arranged, and the bibliography section was larger than the original. Though, his head was starting to hurt as swirling colours and forbidden information began trickling into his mind.

A person walked up to Tim. They looked terrified, strings attached to their limbs, much like a puppet. 

"Are you here for the Archivist?" they asked with a violent snap of their neck, a terrible imitation of someone cocking their head to the side. It was only thanks to the less than stellar loops that Tim has been in multiple times that he didn't flinch or stare horrified as their neck cracked.

Tim, instead, smiled and gave them a thumbs up. They nodded, eyes tearing up slightly, before they skipped to where Jon was. Tim followed, rambling about his last loop, feeling Jon's Gaze on him.

They descended down the steps, passing by multiple people reading books on their way to said steps, and the person pointed towards the door. Tim entered, and was greeted with the familiar sight of the Archives.

"Ooo, this place is your domain, isn't it?" Tim realized, sauntering to his desk and sitting down, propping his feet up on the table. From the head archivist's office, a seemingly normal human being peeped through and entered the bullpen.

Jon nodded, taking his seat on Tim's table, just beside where his feet was propped up. "Yeah, it is. I'm a different version of the librarians here. The Archivist, an eldritch entity that's one of few physical manifestations of the Eye. Another Archivist was absorbed by Cecil at some point in time, which is how he's so close to the Eye."

Tim huffed, watching as Jon's skin moved in ways he would've been grossed out by in the past. "You don't seem comfortable in that form. I don't mind if you take it off."

Jon's eyes lit up excitedly, and he transformed.

13.7

"Oh Archivist," a distorted voice purred. An Unawake Jon flinched. Helen Richardson's Statement was taken just a day before, and Jon was injured and paranoid, holed up in his house with a tape recorder in hand.

"Michael," Jon hissed, hiding his fear the best he could. "What are you doing here?"

Michael just giggled. "Archivist, I've come to a decision. Have you heard about the Dread Fears?"

"The what?" Jon asked, voice hushed but curious. A true Eye, and the Archivist to boot.

And so, Michael explained everything to Jon, including whatever's going on with Elias. It felt a pang of Michael Shelley's grief from Elias' loss as it explained what Jonah did to Elias. 

Jon breathed deep once Michael was done.

"How much do you say melon ballers are?"

Michael stopped to stare, then grinned and laughed.

"I think NotSasha's loss is getting to Jon," Oliver said, before sighing. "God, Unawake Jon is genuinely just sad to see."

"Especially post-Prentiss Jon," Tim added, half focused on his rubik's cube. "I've had to talk him out of stalking multiple times and he's just so scared all the time. Actually, where is Jon? He didn't take a week off after Helen's statement. Just bounced back after getting patched up and resting for a day"

A few moments later, something in Tim and Oliver snapped. Not like that, no. It's like a chain wrapped around them vanished. Tim dropped his cube, and Oliver paused. 

"Someone killed Jonah," Tim realized. "Good for us, I guess."

Martin then burst into the room. "Guys! Something happened, I think. Everyone felt something snap, I think. Was this part of what you called 'baseline'?"

Tim shook his head, and just a few minutes of confused discussions later, Jon walked into the Archives.

"You're welcome to quit," he said. "I'm not going to, I'm too far into this Archivist thing, but feel free to do so."

"Jon?" Martin asked quietly. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Jon took a deep breath, and explained what happened. He, apparently, scooped out Jonah's eyes out of Elias' body before destroying them in the Distortion. Right now, the now-blind Elias (because apparently, he's alive somehow) is in the process of dealing with the fallout and choosing who will take over as head of the Institute with the help of Rosie.

13.8

"So, seems like you had a run-in with the Lonely," the current Archivist, Gerry, told Oliver, who was replacing Naomi this loop. Oliver didn't know what he felt about his dead boyfriend being named 'Graham Lukas', but he didn't like it. "Just get a companion, preferrably human beings but a pet is acceptable enough, and avoid being alone."

"So, you believe me, then," Oliver said. "That's... that's good. I'll leave, now."

When Oliver was about to leave, Gerry called out his name. Oliver turned around to see Gerry fumbling in his drawer, before holding up a book that Oliver has seen Danny hold far too many times. Except for this loop, since the Book of the Living Dead was nowhere to be found.

"Give this to the younger Stoker," Gerry said, handing it to Oliver. "Keep it in your inventory, if you must. Can't let this be stolen or worse. Sasha! Mind escorting Mr. Banks out?"

It was only in the next loop did Oliver realize what Gerry said, but by then he was just convinced he heard something else and misremembered it.

13.9

Jon entered a bar. Quite the boring bar, if you asked him, despite its popularity. He ordered a drink, and strained his ears, trying to catch something while waiting for the man he was waiting for.

"-loopers," he then heard. Jon froze, and tried to focus on that conversation. He couldn't tell who it was, under the noise, but he could just barely make out the words.

"Teased- handsome- Lukas- inventory."

"-resting! -Archivist- eyes- splash-"

"-soon? -ready- while-"

"-right! -leave- now."

Just then, who he was waiting for entered. Jon grinned at the Doctor (the Scottish one, at least), lazily greeting him. Maybe he has spent too much time as Jonny D'ville. He's taking up the bastard's mannerisms.

Chapter Text

14.1

"Loops are strange, huh?" Tim mused. "I mean, because of some fuck up, we're stuck redoing a portion of our lives over and over again. Not only that, we have a decent chance of getting into a loop that's different from the original. And then there's also the fused loops and everything else."

"Without the loops, I likely would've been an arsehole," Jon sighed. "I didn't really see my mistakes until it was shoved right in front of me."

Tim hummed, leaning against Jon's shoulder. "I wouldn't have been able to see Danny again. And then I'd probably met Oliver in a much later time."

Jon smiled. "At least the loops are treating us right, huh?"

Tim laughed. "Yup! Like a good relationship."

14.2

"Jon?" Martin called out. "There's someone who wants to give a statement!"

Jon paused. Was it Oliver again? Or a divergence in the baseline? He put the papers he was holding down.

"Let them in," he said. "I'll take their statement."

A few minutes later, a nervous Arkyn walked into the room. It waved at Jon, taking a seat across him.

"I managed to figure out how to separate my consciousness from the other Fears," it blurted out. Jon, after processing what it said, smiled.

"Good for you. How long have you been trying to figure it out, anyway?"

"Perhaps... during what is loop 824 for you?" it guessed. "I do not- I do not know. Oh, right. I suggest you do not use tape recorders when I am Unawake and the Fears are present. They are usually a symbol of the Web, but whenever I am Awake, I steal the symbolism from under her metaphorical nose."

Jon breathed in and out slowly, remembering all the time he's used a tape recorder as a mini diary. "Noted."

A few moments passed, before Arkyn added, "The Spiral is loop aware, just so you know. I taught it the steps to gaining consciousness. All that is left is making it a physical form."

Jon banged his head on the desk with a groan.

14.3

"That's what happens originally?!" Tim yelled. "They don't even bother to ask if he's doing alright?! No shit he'll be paranoid as fuck, his goddamn predecessor died! Because she's the goddamn head archivist!"

"Actually, Timothy, Gertrude's death is because she wanted to blow up the Archives, I believe," Arkyn said. "Also, Jonathan's title is merely 'Archivist', with a capital A. Statements, true Statements, at least, are also supposed to be capitalized."

Jon sighed, off to the side as Tim and Arkyn talked. Oliver was beside him, a cup of tea held between his hands.

"Those are the stupidest reasons to suspect someone of murder," Jon grumbled. "Why am I an idiot? I should've just trusted at least one person. Hell, I'd take the risk and trust Martin or Tim."

"Well, that 'you' isn't you," Oliver pointed out. Arkyn nodded from where it stood.

"Listen to what Oliver said," it said. "This podcast is simply one of a near infinite amount of ways that your timeline could have gone. We have a rare opportunity, Jonathan, Tim. We can see what will happen in our future and divert it who knows how many times. We just have to remember that who we are seeing this through a window. The people in that podcast is not you and will never be you."

"It just sucks, I guess," Tim mumbled. Danny, who was just silent the entire time, gently pat his brother's back.

14.4

"You're the admin, then," Jon said, staring at the admittedly tall man. "Hello."

The man smiled, stars twinking in his eyes. "Hello, loopers. I am Coeus. I suppose it's about time we met, hm? You have gone quite a long way. Looks like not everyone is Awake, though."

Arkyn froze. "Wait. Coeus? Do not tell me you are the Titan of Knowledge. I will actually, as people say, freak the fuck out if you are said Titan of Knowledge."

Coeus just kept on smiling. Arkyn vanished, and a tape recorder appeared on Jon's desk, before it began cutting to various moments where people screamed.

"I guess it's freaking out," Tim laughed. "You good there buddy?"

The screams got louder. Tim kept on laughing. Coeus chuckled to himself.

"I met our Admin a while ago while I was ordering pizza," Danny said in between bites. "Said something about meeting the others soon."

"Sweet," Oliver responded.

14.5

"So, I think we all have the Avatar abilities," Tim said. "Right? We've all been the fourteen types of Avatars."

"And several types of bending," Jon added, lazily letting water swirl around his hand before making it vanish into the air.

"Don't forget the DnD loop abilities!" Danny piped up. "There's a reason Oliver and I can resurrect the dead."

"And thank god for that, or I'd have gotten multiple heart attacks by now," Oliver sighed. 

"Don't we also have, like, a bunch of game mechanisms just... at our disposal?" Tim remembered. "Like that Looney Tunes thing! And we still have those artifacts slash relics equipped from those gacha games, right?"

"Don't forget the power of trauma!" Jon said with jazz hands.

Oliver nodded seriously. "That's the most important power. Not flinching at all because you've seen someone bash someone's head in with a pipe or because you've seen a man being springlocked to death."

14.6

"Hey, ever notice how I'm an End avatar a lot?" Danny asked, feet propped up on a certain Eric Delano's legs. Danny had his book in his hand, idly flipping through pages to see who was trapped in it.

"We're all most aligned to certain Entities, so that's why you're most often an End avatar, while I'm most often a Beholding avatar," Jon said, leaning against Oliver's side. "Though, Jonny's influence may be why I'm also a Slaughter avatar a lot. I'm not violent in baseline, that's for sure."

Tim laughed. "You're more like a pathetic wet cat, bossman. Can't really see you kill someone in the early days."

Jon groaned. "Shut up, Tim. You wouldn't burn down houses to feed the Desolation early on."

Tim just huffed, leaning back against Oliver even more. To be clear, Tim's in between Oliver's open legs, while Jon is leaning against Oliver's side. Despite this, they are not, in fact, dating, nor have they realized any romantic feelings.

"At least you don't have to keep on being smashed by a satellite most of the time," Oliver grumbled. "Worst part about the loops, I swear."

"...Are you sure they aren't together?" Eric whispered to Danny, watching as the trio began to bicker. Danny laughed.

"Very, very sure."

14.7

They didn't Awake early enough to save Sasha. Tim Awoke while high on CO2, and Jon Awoke while being treated by various medical professionals.

"It hurts, every time we can't save her," Tim said as they sat side by side, the doctors having let them have a moment of peace while they checked over the other Magnus Institute staff. "We have all these wonderful abilities and all these opportunities to save her again and again, and yet we still fail, sometimes."

Jon, tired after the worm attack, buried himself in Tim's embrace, welcoming the heat.

Then, a door opened. It was a bright yellow, and the light that came out of the doorway curled into fractals. The two Anchors groaned, eyes closed to lessen the chance of a headache.

"Micheal, please," Jon mumbled. "We're tired from the attack."

"Just leave us be," Tim added, tone almost becoming a whine.

They both froze when instead of a headache inducing laughter that they were both familiar with, they heard a laugh that was hidden somewhere in their memory banks, the memories torn apart by plastic hands that belonged to the Stranger.

"Oh, Anchors!" Sasha, the real one, exclaimed. "Don't be so glum. Don't you miss me?"

Tim tiredly grinned at her. "Sash! Nice to see you. You're all distorted and- ah. What happened to Michael?"

Sasha, who somehow replaced Michael at some point, just pursed her lips. "I forgot about that Assistant. A moment, please!"

She turned her back and closed the door. A few moments later, a very human Michael stumbled out another door, a cup of what was probably and hopefully either tea or coffee in his hands. Sasha was right behind him, grinning as she shoved him out.

"Good luck with the Distorted Assistant, Anchor of Flame!" Sasha said, before returning to what was now her hallways. Michael tiredly looked at where the door was previously, before groaning and stumbling his way to one of the seats.

"I fucking hate Gertrude," Michael said, before taking a sip from his cup. Which was a very familiar cup. It had 'FUCK GERTRUDE' written on it, with the letters glitching quite often.

The two Anchors recognized the cup from a few hundred (thousand?) loops ago. Down to the faint and barely noticable black bloodstain on the handle that was there because Tim 

Carefully, Tim sent a ping. Michael blinked, turning his head to stare at them both with a deadpan stare.

"I haven't even gotten breathing down. Give it a moment, please."

Instead of gracing Michael with an agreement or something similar, Tim said instead, "What the actual fuck?!"

Michael ended up joining the Archival Staff as Sasha's replacement. Things went by a lot quicker after that.

14.8

In the dark of night, an elevator door opened in the kitchen of the loopers' shared household.

"Throw it in!" one of the occupants whisper-yelled. He was met with an amused chuckle as a breeze carried a carefully sealed file that glowed a slight sky blue through the doors, the top of it slotting itself underneath the notebook that was placed on top of the counter by one of the occupants of the household.

The elevator closed, and the blue glow ceased.

"There's a Statement for you on the table," Oliver said when Jon exited the bedroom. Jon yawned, passing by Tim, who grabbed the Statement and offered it to the Archivist.

Jon took the Statement and a tape recorder that spawned thanks to an Awake Beholding. He sat beside Tim and opened it, the tape recorder clicking open.

"Statement of various loopers from the future. Statement taken on loop who knows what. Recorded by Jonathan Sims, The Archivist. Hello Anchor of Sight. Or, well, the past Anchor of Sight. We're the loopers from the future! Surprise, surprise. We got an idea while on an elevator ride and decided to give you a little hint of the future. More specifically, who will join you. In the form of a freestyle poem, unfortunately not created by Martin!"

Jon couldn't even pause because of surprise, but Tim and Oliver did, freezing up when they heard the start of the Statement.

"It started with two, juggling flame and sight

Then came another, ceaselessly watching and learning

After that, followed the one who sees the roots

And after that, came two more, hidden but present

One dear to the Flame joined them later

Before the branch grew larger, expanding even more

There was quite a while before two others joined

Right before the branch grew again

A man who had to learn how to not be lonely

Sailing the oceans while devouring fear

And a man who was taken by a creature who was not him

Devouring knowledge in a literal manner

The selection itself was quite confusing

And yet, the ones who change fate just moved on

That's when the branch grew as it did before

And before long, a man marked by deceit joined them

A lady with claws as sharp as knives followed not too far

They were all greeted with an elevator that led them through a journey

And so they left this poem to the past for them to know

Did you like it? Hopefully so, we got inspiration from Martin! Stay safe, Anchor of Sight, Anchor of Flame. And I think Oliver's there too? And Beholding! Hi you two! And goodbye!"

Jon stared at the note, before slowly saying, "Statement and recording ends."

14.9

Danny replaced Sasha this loop. He knew that Sasha met the Distortion at some point, but he didn't expect it to happen while he was with all the other loopers.

"Archivist and Co," it said with an amused lilt. "Do wait a moment. I believe that the Bookburner is stuck in traffic."

Jon laughed. "Really? Him of all people, set back by traffic?"

"Order up I guess," Tim said with a wink. "Now, where's the menu?"

When 'the Bookburner', who was apparently Gerry, finally arrived, practically all of the loopers were eating or drinking something.

"Sorry I'm late," Gerry said, taking his seat next to Michael. "So, news?"

Michael nodded with a grin. "News."

Without missing a beat, they both said with complete unison, "We're loopers and we've been looping even before the latest looper."

Oliver choked on his drink. Danny went into a coughing fit. The Beholding's recorder let out a string of laughter. Tim and Jon, the absolute bastards, just sat back and watched the chaos unfold.

"They're the reason why there's a significant increase in what we thought was variant loops but was really just them fucking around," Jon added helpfully, before pausing. "And no, Danny, they're not joking."

"How about you shut up for a goddamn moment," Danny said, "and let us process what these two fucks said."

"Danny's been here for a good fifteen thousand loops by now," Oliver realized. "How long have you two..?"

"Just about the same. Maybe a few hundred loops more," Gerry said. 

A string of curses spewed out of Oliver's mouth. The two Anchors were still casually eating their food like a bombshell didn't just- oh.

"You fuckers knew about this!" Danny exclaimed, accusingly pointing at the two. Jon and Tim just grinned at him.

Chapter Text

15.1

"You're not dating them?! Not even just one of them?!"

Oliver sighed. Rosie and Sonja were, unfortunately, two women who loved gossip. And since Oliver himself was often seen hanging around Tim and Jon due to their status as loopers, rumours about him bloomed and spread throughout the Institute.

"I'm not," he said. "I guess I'm a close friend of theirs. We've stuck together because of similar, uh, situations."

Simply calling the loops a 'situation' was a severe understatement, but it still fits in a way. It just doesn't convey the seriousness (or non-seriousness, since Oliver was once the concept of money) of the loops all that well.

"And yet, you look at them like they've hung the moon and stars," a looper replacing Sasha who decided to stay in Artifact Storage, Veritas Ratio from the Star Rail branch, pointed out. Veritas was dragged by Sonja since he could easily decipher truth from lies and she wanted to know the truth. "I know quite well what a lovestruck fool looks like."

Oliver opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. Opened it, and closed it again as he came to a slow realization.

"Ah."

Veritas huffed, turning back to his papers. "Seriously, why am I the catalyst for your little love story?"

15.2

"Why is there a cat sitting on the Archivist's chair?" the Statement giver, some guy named Mike Crew, asked. The poor guy sounded genuinely confused.

"Oh yeah, it's a cativist day," Tim told him. "The Cativist is our boss for the day."

Jon burst out of document storage, carrying a few files. His eye caught Mike's.

"Statement?" Jon asked, just as Mike said, "You're the Archivist!"

Sasha laughed. "Just record the statement, Jon! I think this guy's going to just leave out of confusion if you don't."

Jon rolled his eyes. "Tim, set-up. Martin, tea, please. Sasha, inform the boss."

And so they did what Jon told them to, while Mike watched in confusion and amusement.

15.3

"This is, perhaps, the worst idea you've ever thought of," Jon said once Tim proposed his idea. Jon wasn't in the Institute this time thanks to the being that played the Toy Soldier, Nikola Orsinov, managing to convince him not to join the Institute.

"Yeah, but it'll be fucking hilarious," Tim pointed out. He was the Head Archivist this time. Michael, in a past loop, said that Jonah made those already marked by at least one Fear the Archivists, if there are any. And, well, his Stranger mark was a near constant, at this point.

Jon laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. Just tell your Assistants and change the digital records."

Jonah was having a terrible time. His Archivist has been replaced by a NotThem, and it wasn't the NotThem that's sealed in the table currently placed in Artifact Storage.

He Watched as the NotTim sorted through files, listening to Sasha talk about the date she had just days ago as it tossed the files into the credited and discredited piles. Martin was helping the NotThem organize the files, stacking the files into neat little towers, and Gerard just scrolled through a random article he found about colour theory.

He needed to get rid of the NotThem and replace the Head Archivist, fast.

Jonah Watched the Archives again, the next day. He intended to watch the NotThem, create a plan to destroy it, but instead of a dark skinned man with medium length hair that had grey streaks and was tied up into a half-pony, he saw the familiar asian man with hair that was dyed a blond colour that transitioned into light pink.

His Archivist spoke not in the slightly deep voice that had the undertones of a Scottish accent despite its usually British accent, but the familiar almost fully British voice that always had a cheerful lilt to it, despite the weight that it carried at times.

He blinked a few times, confused. How was Tim back? Did he hallucinate the day before? 

He sighed, leaning back into his chair. At least his Archivist was safe.

15.4

Michael burst into the Archives. This wasn't uncommon, now that the other loopers knew that it and Gerry were looping. However, it didn't usually bring an entire human-like being into the Archives. 

Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened. While Jon was reading out Statement 0110201, Michael dumped someone into the Archives. The Gaze of the Beholding shifted to the man, who pulled himself up, confused.

"Anchor of Sight, meet the Captain of the Tundra," Michael said happily, a grin that tasted of tweed on its face. "He's a new looper. Captain, meet the Anchor of Sight. I trust the Anchor will explain everything?"

Jon nodded, and Michael left.

"I'll just finish this Statement," Jon said, before pointing to the chair that was placed in front of his desk. "Just stay there for a while."

The Captain of the Tundra nodded silently, still heavily confused, and took his seat.

"What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning!"

Jon sighed. In the middle of the Statement, Tim got the other Assistants to start singing 'Drunken Sailor', surprisingly. Before, he'd likely reprimand them for not doing their jobs, but now, he just looked at the new looper and grinned, before grabbing a microphone from his inventory.

He ran towards Tim's desk and hopped on, turning on D'ville Mode as he sang the final segment with Jonny's grin on his face.

"Way hay and up she rises, way hay and up she rises, way hay and up she rises early in the morning!"

Peter Lukas watched the group sing their hearts our and smiled a tiny bit. He's isolated himself for years to properly serve his Patron. He wondered if that'll change at some point.

15.5

"Hello!" Arthur greeted with a smile, entering the apartment and taking his seat just across the trio. "You guys are the new loopers, right?"

"Well, the Bookburner and I have simply hidden ourselves for quite a while," Michael said, its literal face splitting grin on its face. "However, the Captain is someone you would consider a new looper."

Arthur blinked, before slowly nodding. "Alright, then. Uhm, I'm Arthur Lester, by the way. A friend of the loopers in this branch."

The Anchor jumped, before hissing, "Yes, John, I'm getting to it!"

And just as Arthur opened his mouth, the door burst open, and in walked Jon and Tim, the latter carrying bags of groceries as Jon stared at him judgmentally.

"Are we late?" Tim asked, out of breath, dumping the groceries down onto the floor and immediately leaning against Jon, who rolled his eyes but held him up, anyway.

"Just in time, I suppose," Arthur said with a laugh. "Wait, I'll help you out. You look like you're about to pass out."

"Turns out carrying four full plastic bags of grocery wasn't the best idea," Jon drawled, leading Tim to the couch.

15.6

"This is a story of a man named-... Wait, who are you? What happened to Stanley?"

Oliver glanced up, a bit bored. "Fused loop. Go on with the dialogue. What's your name, again? Narrator?"

"No no no no no no no, I don't know you. Is this another glitch? Goodness, we've been getting that quite often," the Narrator muttered, and Oliver heard papers shuffling and flipping. He, honestly, just wanted to rest. He was a bit tired from the last loop (FNaF loops were always tiring to Oliver), but he's played the Stanley Parable. If he made the right choices, he'd be alright, and this would be a relaxation loop.

"Are you alright?"

"No!" the Narrator exclaimed. "Every one of my scripts don't say 'Stanley', they just say 'Oliver'! Where the hell is Stanley?!"

Oliver sighed, grabbing his phone from his inventory and tapping a specific set of numbers as the Narrator panicked. "I'm calling Coeus."

Coeus did come by, eventually, and explained everything to the Narrator once Oliver told him about what happened.

"Well, that's... unfortunate, I suppose," the Narrator slowly said. Oliver could tell that the Narrator and Stanley probably has co-dependence issues. He certainly could tell that the Narrator was missing Stanley. He wasn't stupid, after all.

"Your loop normally ends after ten endings have been completed, for fused loops," Coeus said. "However, I am uncertain about how long your loop goes for baseline or variants. It is surprising you haven't encountered a single variant loop.

"Well, I think we did. We just brushed it off as a glitch."

Coeus nodded. "I will try to contact your Admin. In the meanwhile, I suppose I can trust Oliver to explain everything to you. Just create a new ending for this run."

Oliver looked at Coeus in betrayal. He did not know how to explain literally everything. Unfortunately, the man just smirked at him and vanished.

15.7

"Have you guys been a concept?" Telemachus curiously asked, rolling away from his desk to look at the local loopers.

"Last loop, actually," Tim said. "We were colours! I was red, obviously, because of my fiery passion for my lovely job-"

"I was green," Jon cut in. "I was pretty much everywhere, so I saw everything. Fits my theme."

"Yeah, and then Oliver was white, wasn't he?" Tim asked. "Danny was orange, Gerry was black, Michael was... uh..."

"Neon yellow," Jon said, "hilariously enough. Beholding wasn't there, but Peter was. He was blue, I think. Specifically, the more muted blues. Powder blue, sky blue, beau blue, queen blue, alice blue, shades like that."

"I don't know what those colours look like," Telemachus said after a brief moment of silence. Tim snorted.

15.8

"So, this is the apocalypse, isn't it?" Gerry asked. "Eye up in the sky and all that."

"Hello, Beholding!" Tim yelled at the Eye. Its Gaze turned to him, and it seemed pleased. Then, it Looked at Oliver, and he waved as they all received a ping from Beholding.

A few steps forward, and they stumbled into a Domain.

"The public library!" Tim gasped. "Where's the spooky boss? Where is he? Jon! Spooky boy!"

Then, the Anchor yelped as Jon seemingly appeared out of nowhere, saying, "Don't call me 'spooky boy', Tim."

"Christ, are you sure you aren't one of the End's?" Gerry asked, a hint of laughter in his voice as Tim gained his bearings. "You just popped up like a ghost."

Jon rolled his eyes. "Keep it up, and I won't be explaining all this."

"Nevermind, ignore my previous statement."

At that, Jon laughed. "Eyes are so predictable. This is my domain, also known as the Eternal Library of Alexandria. A vast collection of horrific information that people shouldn't know. And yet, they're forced to know these as they read the books within my library. They contain one's deepest desires, so deep they've shoved it down and forgot about it. Private information, made public within my library."

"The fear of being known," Gerry realized. "An Eye domain."

Then, the doors burst open. The group of loopers directed their gazes to the door, and there stood an older and more traumatized version of Jon and Martin. Jon had floating eyes around him, and a tape recorder was strapped to his leg with a holster. Martin, however, had pure white streaks in his hair and fog that lazily swirled into the library.

"Hello Archivist, Forsaken Assistant," Jon greeted with a smile. "I'm the Librarian. But you can call me-"

"Tim?!"

"Gerry..?"

"And you! You're Oliver!"

"Wait, you look like me!"

There was a few seconds of silence, before Tim broke it, saying, "Well, the spooky Librarian's name certainly isn't Tim. Not sexy enough for that!"

"Don't call me the spooky Librarian either!" Jon exclaimed with a pout, a book titled 'Before I Fall' in his hand. He gave it to the Archivist.

"Read that, it'll explain everything," he said. "I hope."

15.9

"Hello, Archivist," an unfamiliar-but-familiar voice calmly greeted Jon, who was in the process of making breakfast. It was distorted, just like Michael's. Even sounded like it. But there was something more ancient, more twisted about it. "You are the Eye's first True Archivist in a while, are you not?"

"Yeah, probably," Jon said. He should be more worried about the being in his kitchen, but honestly? He's just woken up and he's hungry. He's going to have his damn pancakes, and he'll have them as soon as possible.

"Do not let me stop you, Archivist," the being giggled. "I will stay in your... kitchen? Is that what you called it?"

"Stay in the dining area. Chairs and a table. I'll be there in a bit."

"So, you got a physical form now?" Jon summarized. The being, who was apparently the 'corporeal' form of the Spiral, had explained its situation. Beholding taught them the steps, and it finally got it this loop, according to Beholding.

The Spiral nodded. "I will need your aid to adjust to my new situation."

"You're more formal than I thought," Jon pointed out, pointing his fork towards the Spiral, who shrugged. Probably. Jon wasn't sure.

"I do not know anything else but this, I suppose," the Spiral mused. "Now, do I need to eat the same way you were eating?"

Jon paused, before grabbing another fork from his inventory and stabbing one of the pancakes and offering it to the Spiral. It startled, then took a cautious bite out of the pancake.

"Oh," it said. "I like that."

Jon gave the fork to the Spiral, and they both ate in silence.

Chapter Text

16.1

"It's lonely, isn't it?"

Martin and Sasha looked towards the man who, according to Jon, was replacing someone named Tim. Fog swirled around him like moons revolving around a planet, and a thin layer of it covered the floor of the Archives. And yet, no one really seemed to mind that.

"Being loop aware," Giyuu said, staring at Jon's office door. "You don't know what happened in the past. You don't know how those who are looping got there. You don't even know if you act like how you would in 'baseline'. Who knows what the people you thought you knew have been through?"

Sasha sighed. "Yeah, I agree. I know Jon's done this a lot, but I don't know how many times he's looped. I want to know, I really do. I want to know what happened for him to be like what he is now. Not all stuck-up and kind of annoying. It's just..."

"You don't know it it's a good idea to bring it up?" Martin tried. Sasha nodded.

"I'm apparently the only hashira who isn't looping," Giyuu said with an irritated tone. "Whatever the position of 'hashira' even means. The others didn't explain it to me. They refuse to, even. Says that I shouldn't worry about that now."

"It's annoying, not knowing stuff," Sasha agreed with a sigh. "Even more so when the loopers are hiding it from you."

Giyuu hummed in acknowledgement, and it was at that moment that Jon and the person replacing a certain Dr. Lionel Elliot, Kocho Shinobu, exited the office.

"Tomioka, do you mind leading Ms. Shinobu out?" Jon asked. "After all, you're the only one who knows her."

Giyuu nodded and led the woman out of the archives.

16.2

Cordyceps is a genus of ascomycete fungi (sac fungi) that includes over 260 species worldwide, many of which are parasitic.

"Cool!" Tim yelled as ran away from a horde of zombies, mentally counting down the seconds before the grenade he threw just moment ago exploded.

Cordyceps has a few species that are beneficial to humans.

"Oh, sweet!" the Anchor said. skidding to a stop as the grenade exploded. "Why have you been dumping information about cordyceps for ten minutes?"

The fungi that has infected the human race is a mutation of the fungi known as Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as the zombie ant fungus. In this universe, the zombie ant fungus is a part of the fungal family 'cordyceps'.

"Oh shit, for real?" Tim asked, noticing another group of zombies and sending them to the Vast as he caught his breath. "Well, that's cool. 'Gonna tell Jon that. Did he play the Last of Us?"

Jonathan Sims did not play the Last of Us, nor has he heard of it.

"A crime. I've got to tell him 'bout this. Surprising I got this loop, really. Isn't he usually the one who gets apocalypse loops?"

Jonathan Sims loops into at least 92.48% of all apocalypse related loops that the Magnus Archives branch has gone through. In 96.25% of those loops, Jonathan Sims is either the 'main character' and/or the indirect or direct cause of the apocalypse.

"Oh shit, really?! Damn, bossman's the antichrist."

16.3

"So, this is a hub-like loop?" Peter mused. They managed to get a place that could fit all eight loopers, by some miracle, and they had just settled in. "I like it! Lots of people, but this place is far enough."

"Ah, this is your first hub-like loop, isn't it?" Michael asked. He wasn't the Distortion in this loop, thankfully. "Well, we get quite a few of these. Probably because we're set in a more modern time."

"The only real difference between this place and ours is the Fears," Danny said, munching on some chips. "So sit back and relax motherfucker, we're gonna make you somewhat social! Or at least in our little group."

16.4

Jonathan Sims, for the lack of a better word, is strange nowadays, Basira would say if you asked her. He always seemed tired, but not in the 'I haven't had sleep in three days' tired, but rather 'I've done this so many times I'm bored' tired.

He sometimes gave her apologetic and sad smiles whenever she gave him the tapes that surrounded Gertrude's body. He made a side comment about how 'Usually, Tim would be convinced that the two of us are dating, but he knows the true situation, so you don't have to worry about that any time soon'.

He's just... strange. 

Basira doesn't know if she should trust him. Daisy says she shouldn't, but she doesn't want to start distrusting without reason.

(She hoped she could trust him.)

16.5

Peter knew that at some point, he'd get into a loop where he doesn't follow the Lonely. The loopers get many of those, according to Gerry, to the point where everyone's just an honorary avatar of almost every Fear. Except Jon, apparently. He's the only one who's been an Extinction avatar.

But it's strange. Fog didn't follow every waking step any longer. He no longer felt the familiar presence of the Lonely surrounding him, but rather he felt the pull of the oceans. He travelled the seas to feel the freedom it gave him, surrounded by the vast expanse of the watery depths, only accompanied by his crewmates.

This time around, he was a Vast avatar, rather than a Lonely avatar.

He still isn't quite sure what to make of that. But, still, he'll keep on hanging on and sailing the seas. And if he has to push someone off the boat to feed his Patron, following that someone down and waxing poetry about the Vast and the ocean as they struggled to rise back into the surface because suddenly the surface is always too far? Then, well, he really doesn't have to mind now, does he?

16.6

"Why are you doing this, Tim?" Jon asked curiously, watching as Tim drew out the design of a room on his tablet. More specifically, what he wanted to transform document storage to.

"I got into a loop where we, as in you, me, Sash, and Martin, got some random closet changed into a place called 'Camelot'," Tim said. "Really inspired me, so I managed to pull some ideas from that loop and, well, now I'm planning this!"

Jon hummed, looking at the design. "That's... actually pretty good. Huh. Good job."

An hour or so later, Tim let out a groan as he set his tablet and stylus down, stretching a bit as his bones popped. Jon, who, at some point, had decided to get a book and settle down beside Tim on the couch, looked at this fellow Anchor.

"It's done!" Tim said with a yawn, before suddenly crashing down onto Jon's lap, hugging the man's midsection.

"Tim-!" Jon yelped. Tim just grumbled, and after a few moments, fell asleep.

(A few hours later, Danny came back from college. Upon entering, he saw Jon and Tim on the couch, sleeping. He quickly took a photo and excitedly sent it to Michael and Gerry.)

"Wow," Gerry said upon laying eyes on the decorated storage area. "How'd you put this together in three days? This definitely wasn't like this last time I came in."

"Sleep deprivation, caffeine, and extra help from Martin, the best man in the Archives!" Tim replied with a grin. "Sorry, Jon."

Jon just rolled his eyes. He had already settled on one of the beanbags, a file containing a true Statement in one hand and some tea in the other. Michael just waltzed in before Tim even entered the Institute, going through its door and sitting on the floor, playing solitaire the moment it found the cards.

"And who paid for all of this?" Gerry asked again.

"Peter, obviously!" "Peter Lukas." "The Captain, of course."

"You seem awfully giddy about this," Jon noted. Coeus gathered all the loopers up a few hours ago and now was leading them through the Institute very early in the morning.

"Well, it makes sense that I look forward to your reactions," Coeus responded, his hands behind his back. "After all, it's a gift from me to you. A congratulatory one, for reaching a hundred thousand loops."

"Been that long, huh?" Gerry murmured to himself. Michael was the only one who heard him.

They stopped in front of document storage. Coeus opened the door with a smile.

"Oh my fucking god!" Tim exclaimed, running into the room and spinning around, taking a look at everything. Jon followed him, then Oliver, then Danny, then Michael and Gerry, and finally Peter.

"It's still the same as before," Jon said in surprise.

"I recoded this and made it into a type of inventory, so just put whatever you want to get in a later loop and it'll be here. That door there," Coeus pointed at a door that wasn't there before but isn't a part of Michael, "is a gateway that can always be accessed to this room."

"You're the fucking best!" Danny said, laughing happily all the while. "Wait, can we expand this place? 'Cause I was thinking of doing something to this place but, well, no space."

"Of course. I've made it so that once everyone agrees on a decision, someone can edit this place, similar to how a sandbox game like Minecraft works. That being said..." Coeus trailed, before smiling at the loopers. "Happy one hundred thousand loops, everyone. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed your stay."

16.7

"Alright, y'all!" Stelle yelled, clapping her hands to get everyone's attention. They were all in the party car, and Stelle had grabbed a whiteboard that had the fourteen Dread Fears listed on it, which was positioned in front of where everyone was gathered. Arkyn, who was replacing Dan Heng, was standing on the other side of a whiteboard, holding a basket that had a bunch of magets dumped into it.

"Today, in celebration of this hot piece of ass completing its third adventure, we're gonna be sorting the Aeons into categories based on..."

Stelle trailed off, glancing at Arkyn in panic. 

"Based on Robert Smirke's categorization for the Fears," Arkyn finished. It stuck a magnet that had 'Hunt' written on it and placed it under the 'Hunt' category. "Hunt for hunt. Obvious reasons."

It then grabbed two more magnets, labelled 'Erudition' and 'Remembrance' and stuck those under 'Eye'.

"The Eye is the fear of being known, correct?" Himeko asked.

"The fear of being watched, being known, being exposed, having your secrets known, eyes, and forbidden knowledge," Arkyn listed. "But yes, you are right."

"Corruption's the nasty shit, right?" Stelle asked. When Arkyn nodded, she reached into the basket and slapped the magnet labelled 'Propagation' under the 'Corruption category'.

Welt stood up and reached into the basket, pulling out 'Beauty'. "Where would this be?"

"Likely the Corruption," Arkyn said, placing 'Finality' under End. "The Corruption is about filth and rot, but often times, those who become a hive mine is said to feel love by whatever made them into a hive. Butterflies, maggots, worms, anything. Speaking of which..."

It picked up two magnets, 'Order' and 'Harmony', and stuck them under the same category. 

"Stelle, why'd you put the Permanence under Vast?" March asked. All eyes went to Stelle who had been filling out some other categories. Trailblaze under the Eye, Preservation under the Buried, and Permanence under the Vast.

"A lotta life," Stelle said, shrugging. Himeko went and reached for 'Nihility', placing it under 'Vast'. She paused, then got 'Abundance' and placed that under the same category, before shaking her head and putting it under 'Corruption'.

"The Abundance is meant to embody too much life, to the point where it becomes infectious," she explained to the confused Arkyn, who nodded in understanding.

An hour and a half later, everything was filled out after a lot of explaining and a lot of 'Okay, hear me out, but-!'s. 

Elation was under the Spiral, Equilibrium under Stranger ("Listen, Equilibrium's basically communism and we all know how that went, so it goes to Stranger because the Strangers are dicks, and so are communist governments! Boomshakalaka baby, I cracked the case!"), Enigmata under Stranger, Destruction under Desolation, and Voracity under Flesh.

"This took far too long," Arkyn said. "I am going to bed."

16.8

"I propose we call the Lonely- Stop screaming."

"What the fuck do you expect me to do when someone fucking appears behind me all of a sudden?!" Tim cried. Jon grumbled under his breath about 'Lonely avatars and their stupid little invisiblity hack-' as Martin and Sasha just sat there, confused.

(Jon managed to drag the other loopers to what they now dubbed 'not-ument storage' and introduced them to the two loop-aware assistants, so that's why they didn't act hostile towards Peter.)

Peter just laughed a bit. "Yeah, yeah. I propose we call the Lonely 'Evelyn'!"

"As long as we let the others name their own Patron and let Beholding and Spiral keep their names," Jon said, though his voice sounded a bit irritated. Mostly because he spilled his tea when Peter suddenly arrived.

16.9

"Can I have a hand?" Martin asked, carrying a few boxes. He groaned when Jon and Tim, both sentient wooden soldiers this loop, popped one of their hands out of their sockets and offering it to the man.

"I mean 'can someone help me'!" Martin exclaimed. Jon laughed, popping his hand back into its socket and grabbing half of the boxes.

Sasha, who was at the entrance of the Archives with Basira beside her, laughed at the policewoman's unconcealed confusion.

Chapter Text

17.1

Jon knew that something was off the moment that Martin simply introduced himself as 'Martin'. That didn't really happen much during the loops, after all. It was always 'Martin Blackwood' or whatever his full name was.

Then, he noticed how his Archives felt a bit colder than usual. Of course, Tim didn't have much of a problem with that (he apparently blew up some circus back then, driven by revenge, and became a Desolation avatar), but Jon certainly found many problems with that.

And of course, while he had his suspicions, he didn't want to despair over a fact that might not have been true.

Well, bad news for him, it was true. Because Martin wasn't a Blackwood, he was a damn Lukas. And Peter, the asshole that he was, swung by the Archives, gave Sasha a metaphorical heart attack by suddenly appearing behind her, and was honest to god acting more like Simon Fairchild, who Jon has had multiple unfortunate encounters with during variant loops.

As he watched Peter chat up Martin while openly discussing how to kill off Evan Lukas, Jon decided right then and there to figure out a way to Become an avatar faster. Surely the Beholding would help him Become one of its avatars faster, right?

17.2

Sasha knew Tim long enough to know when he actually romantically liked someone. 

"Tim," she called out for what must've been the third time in their conversation, snapping her fingers in front of Tim's face. He jolted, blinking as he came back to his senses.

"Uh, what?" he asked, stumbling over his words a bit. Sasha snorted.

"You should've seen yourself," she said, before leaning towards him with a teasing smile. "Now, who's the lucky person?"

He stared at her, confused but slightly taken aback. "...Huh?"

"You don't act this way unless you're in love," she simply said. He stared at her even more, before laughing a bit.

"Yeah, you caught me," he said with a grin that matched her own, before it shifted into a more fond one. Sasha whistled lowly. Oh, he was down bad for whoever this was. Lucky person.

"I moved into a new place a few months ago, yeah?" he asked, and Sasha nodded, fully focused on Tim's words. "Well, my roommates are... I can't even describe them in a way that accurately describes them. Oliver got this mysterious aura around him for the first few weeks, but now? Oh, he's just downright adorable at times, and utterly hot in others. Or just really... wow in general."

He leaned back, eyes a bit unfocused. "Then, there's Jon. He's just outright ethereal. Divine. Like an angel who fell because he was too human. Yeah, he's probably the one with the criminal record in the house, but that adds to his charm. And did I mention how he's like the sun? All bright, literally, he's super fucking smart, and all hot. Someone looks at him and they're blinded."

It took a few more minutes of him just spouting poetry or something for Sasha to laugh incredulously.

"You really are down bad for these guys, huh?" she said. Tim just smiled and winked.

17.3

Jon had a nightmare. No, not the same ones that he got because of live statements. It was far too early for that. He had a nightmare about a statement he never read in this loop, mixed in with an experience he still had nightmares about.

Carlos Vittery's statement combined with Mr. Spider.

It started easy enough. Him running around, laughing joyfully. He thought he'd actually have a decent dream about a childhood he barely remembered. But no, he ended up finding that damned spider that Vittery found as a child, and before he could even register it, he crushed it.

Then, thousands of skittering spiders. Unlike the original statement, they were all fully formed but small, crawling from his arm, his torse, legs, and before long, he was frozen in fear, tears almost coming out of his eyes as spiders covered his body.

He stood as still as concrete as spiders began biting on him, the sting of their bites making the nightmare all too real. He stood as still as undisturbed water as he felt nothing other than the hairy legs of spiders crawling on him. He stood still as pain flared out in his body, the outside world completely out of reach by this point.

But, he began shaking as they began entering his body through the holes they've somehow managed to tear into his body. He began shaking as he felt his control over his body slip away, the reins taken over by the Web. He still shook as he was forced to open his eyes.

He would've completely froze over again if he could still control his body as his head moved down to let him look at the book that forced him down a rabbit hole he wasn't sure he liked.

A Guest for Mr. Spider.

His body picked it up, and began moving, opening the book and walking to who knows where as he gained his bearings and began trying to get control once more. Jon was forced to read those cursed words, see that damn massive spider, in what he hoped was a nightmare, at this point.

His body stopped, dropped the book, and in front of him was a door. His body knocked, and at this moment, he realized where he was being taken. He stared at Mr. Spider, trying desperately to gain control of his body, trying to get out of his death.

His heartbeat thumped loudly. So loudly, he wished that he could check if his heart somehow managed to make its way next to his ear. It almost seemed like it was... saying something.

Oh, it was.

"Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves."

Jon felt his body pause. Slowly felt sensation reach out to him, slowly felt his own body, bit by bit.

"Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves."

He barely realized that the spiders that were once all over his body were no longer there. He barely realized that Mr. Spider was no longer looming over him. 

"Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves."

All he really cared about was the fact he could feel. And-...

He was waking up.

Jon shot up with a shuddering gasp. He heard the person (Voice of the Paranoid, he reminded himself) repeating that mantra pause, before someone else (was that Voice of the Hunted, or Voice of the Opportunist?) hissed at him to keep doing it.

"It's fine," he mumbled, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes. He sighed shakily and shifted his body around until he was able to lean his head back against the wall. "I'm fine."

"Do you... wanna talk about it?" the Voice of the Hero asked gently.

Jon stopped to think about it. His loop memories said that the voices (all twelve of them) in his head could see his dreams. But still, he liked the rumble of his voice, the feeling of vibrations grounding him, so he tended to talk as some kind of grounding technique.

So, he talked about the dream, only pausing when Narrator suggested that he should drink a cup of tea or some water.

This loop was interesting, with voices in his head that acted vastly different from their canon personalities (the Voice of the Smitten wasn't just all about romance, the Voice of the Cold was an anchor to reality, and so much more). His life was already pretty cool before he Awoke (alone, alone, all alone) with all these voices.

He wondered how the loop would turn out.

17.4

"Y'know, I once beat an old man to almost death 'cause I thought he was Leitner," Gerry offhandedly said, on his way to wherever the Narrator was leading him towards. "I thought he was too pathetic to be Leitner, so I left him alone. Then, I got into this shit, looped in as Jon, and learned that the old man was, in fact, Leitner."

The Narrator sputtered. "Wh- What? Pardon? Repeat that?"

Gerry grinned up at the ceiling. "I beat an old man to almost death-"

"Alright, alright, I get it! Just- Just get up the stairs."

"Oh, I remember sending Stanley to his death here," the Narrator said with the same tone one would use to describe the weather. "Quite gruesome. Well, since the platform's here, just hop on there and don't hesitate."

Gerry paused right in front of the platform, the Narrator's words properly entering his brain. As the platform moved away, he looked at the ceiling with both his eyebrows raised.

"Oh dear," the Narrator said, his wince audible. "It seems like you have to jump off. You missed the platform, you see, so this is practically the only way to reset the loop."

Gerry did end up jumping, but not without a flurry of curses escaping his mouth.

17.5

"I'm replacing who?"

Jon calmly sipped his tea, then placed it down on his desk. "You're replacing Sasha."

"You better not fucking let me die," Shinazugawa hissed, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt and pulling him forward so they met eye to eye. 

"We never do," Jon simply said. "Now, please get out? I have a statement to record."

"Is he alright?" Michael, who survived this time around, asked in concern the moment he walked into the Archives.

Hizashi Yamada (who Michael was told just recently Awakened a few hours ago over text) was panicking about not wanting to die. Martin awkwardly pat his back, sending a look that said 'You better explain this later' towards Jon.

Tim sipped his tea (which demon did Martin sell his soul to in order to make the best tea in the world?) and grinned.

"He learned he's replacing Sasha."

"Please don't let me die," Nikole (or Princess, as she's known in her loop) said with a sigh. "I've had enough of that in my loop."

"Yeah, we don't let anyone die, usually," Tim reassured. "Unless it's whore-nah, then we let the bitch die."

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed, which let Martin pass tea around the archives, before Tim's voice broke through the silence.

"So, is your name Princess in your canon loop?"

He was promptly hit in the chest with a foam blade, vaguely shaped like the Pristine Blade.

"I swear to god I am going to jump off this building if I have to read another bullshit statement," Chuuya complained. 

"Don't do that, now," Gerry said, tired from the Statement he just read. "You have a different opportunity to die. Just wait 'til Prentiss attacks."

"Till fucking who attacks?!"

"I hate this job!" Peter loudly announced as he walked into the archives. He was younger, his hair dirty blond, and he had nothing more than a stubble rather than the beard he usually had. He replaced Sasha this loop.

Tim laughed as Peter sat down on his usual seat. It was still weird to him, seeing other people sit where Sasha usually sat, but it's not like he could do anything about it.

"We won't let you die or whatever," Gerry, who replaced Martin (damn it all) reassured with amusement, patting Peter's back in false sympathy. Peter just groaned, removing his glasses just so he could pinch his nosebridge.

17.6

Jon, at this point, doesn't even react when Sasha, while giving her Statement about Michael, said that it introduced itself as 'Mike'. 

"So, it's Mike now?" he asked as the familiar yellow door opened just barely at the corner of his eye, moments after Sasha left.

"It is indeed, Archivist," Mike purred, draping itself over the back of Jon's seat.

"Mikaele," Jon repeated, the Distortion coming through its door with its usual cat-like smile. The now-named Mikaele went straight to the discredited pile that was just to the right of Jon's desk.

"Yes, that is the name that the formerly named Michael Shelley was born with," Mikaele said. "I will go with that name, for now."

Jon sighed. "Alright, then. No use in arguing with you."

"-fucking Mick! That's the stupidest name I've been given!"

Peter, who was the Distortion after accidentally falling into its corridors and finding it's Heart, rolled its ('his' felt wrong to it) eyes. Literally. Its eyes spun in what was probably its sockets. Or was that its mouths?

"Why so worked up about a name?" it asked with a tinge of the Distortion's amusement. Names were almost pointless, most especially to Spiral and Stranger (and sometimes Vast) avatars or aspects.

Mick, very human and replacing Martin, looked at Peter with a pout. "It sounds like Mickey Mouse's name, just if it was a nickname, which is very stupid."

Peter just laughed. It's lucky that it doesn't care about its name all that much

"Archivist, I think the tree is fucking with me."

Tim took a sip of his tea and then set it down, laughing at the utterly blank tone that Michael used. "Why do you say so?"

"Shelley's name is Mikhail," it hissed. "The tree is mocking the site of my betrayal using the origins of this name. Can you believe that?"

As it flopped onto one of the chairs meant for statement givers with a whine, Tim had to cover his mouth to at least try to muffle his laughter.

Danny (who was replacing Karolina Gorka, surprisingly) was met with Michael (human, this time) yelling into a pillow. Tim was wheezing his lifespan away just a few feet away from Michael, Martin was nowhere to be seen, and Sasha had a massive grin on her face.

"What... the fuck is happening?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Apparently," Sasha said, then pointed to Michael, "his original name is Michael. But in this loop-"

"His name is Rick," Martin intervened, giving... Rick a cup of tea.

Danny winced and walked past the assistants and headed straight for whoever the Archivist was' office.

17.7

Beholding liked to think, now that it could think for itself. Sometimes, it thought about its likes and dislikes, its hobbies, or even past loops. Right now, it was thinking about the last one. More specifically, a loop that it got very early on.

It Awakened to an apocalypse. A blackened earth, a red sky, and fear all around it and the world. It took a few moments for it to realize that it wasn't just Watching through its many eyes, but it was, quite literally, on Earth.

Curious, it dug into its loop memories and was immediately taken aback by the amount of experiences that its Archivist went through. As it went through every memory, every Statement taken by its Archivist (intentional or not), it would wince if it could. He went through a lot.

After that loop, Beholding found that every single Statement that was taken in during that loop (from the very first Statement, all the way to its Archivist and his beloved's final goodbyes) was still kept in its Archive. It could still view those Statements. It could still use them.

It just had to hope that those Statements corresponded to future events exactly.

17.8

"Statement of Oliver Banks about..?" Jon trailed off, motioning for Oliver to finish.

Oliver stormed into the Archives minutes ago, decked out in neon pink clothing. He had an uncharacteristic scowl on his face, but considering the fact that his clothes were pink and glittery, there was probably a good reason.

"A prank that the Distortion no doubt did on me," Oliver finished, massaging his temple. "God, how do I even begin this statement?"

Then, he explained the situation. One bright and wonderful day, Oliver woke up, expecting the day to be normal. He planned to go through his Becoming in a few weeks, since he hadn't gone through with it yet, but he still had to do some preparations before then. 

He did his normal routine, got breakfast, took a shower, but then when he went to go dress up, he opened his closet to see every single piece of clothing he owned recoloured to be pink. Some of them, most especially his coats, were even covered in glitter.

Michael then appeared, laughing at him, also decked in neon pink with glitter spiral designs. Then, it implied that it was the reason why everything was pink. After that encounter, Oliver went straight to the Institute to (complain) make his statement.

Jon really couldn't help but laugh once Oliver was done, but he did manage to get Michael to revert Oliver's clothes at the end of the day.

17.9

"Why do you think I was chosen as a looper?"

Allan Schrieber (Danny didn't know how he got the original Elias' roommate's soul into the book, and he didn't want to ask) looked at him, as if asking him to elaborate. All the souls inside the Book of the Living Dead already knew about the looping situation, though.

"I mean," Danny mused, throwing the stress ball into the air and catching it, then doing it again and again, "I'm dead in baseline. I don't think I even come back from the dead. Yeah, I'm Tim's main reason for coming to the Institute, but that's practically it."

Allan hummed. "Maybe the loops wanted to give you another chance? Or maybe it was safer for you to be a looper. Maybe Tim needs your support in the future. Or it was just some funny haha thing that the ones choosing the loopers decided to do."

Danny sighed. "This is so confusing."

All that Allan did was laugh. "Just go with the flow, Dan! Nowhere else to go but forward. You've got another chance, man. Use it."