Proof that the remaining 10% is worth going into the Buried for here.
These are recommendations made by tropers for The Magnus Archives fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. After a few samples, you will be able to note the interests of the tropers recommending them, and judge whether you might be also interested in a certain fic.
Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here. Do warn when a fanfic may head into sexual or non-canon territory. Some people just don't like it, and as we all know, Shipping is Serious Business.
Reviews of fics are encouraged, but if you choose to write one, please make it substantive, and give specific details about what you liked / disliked in the fic. If you want to give a fic a thumbs-up without writing a full review, you can add your troper handle to the Recommendations Line. Please refrain from posting "Comments" or Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
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Authors and Websites
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Writes excellent fic about Gerry Keay, excellent fic about the Distortion, and excellent fic about the combination of the two.
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- I have enjoyed every fic I've read by them, including the ones that I really did not expect to. Cannot recommend highly enough.
- Recommended by: heartss, alzbeta
- Writes a large variety of fic, all of which is extremely good, but be sure to heed the tags; there's a lot of NSFW content, much of it with dead dove elements.
- Recommended by: heartss, alzbeta
- Incredibly prolific, currently has 70 fics in the fandom, and writes a wide variety of fic such that you're almost certain to find something that you particularly enjoy by browsing their body of work.
- Recommended by: heartss
- Has some of the best characterization I've seen in the fandom, across a range of dynamics.
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- I particularly recommend forsyte's fic about the Distortion; I considered linking all of it and ended up deciding it was easier to just do an author recommendation.
- Recommended by: fallingapartinside
- The most realistic Alternate Universes I've ever seen (Head in the Lion's Mouth
is already linked in the General folder, but I also rec all of renwhit's other fics).
- Recommended by: fallingapartinside
- Fantastic characterization of Gerry Delano(/Keay) and Georgie Barker; the way pyrites includes casual mental health representation is also incredible.
General
Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Pretty much anything that doesn't fit into one of the other folders.
Informed Consent and Other Cosmic Ironies by KiaraSayre
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Fun fact: interview-based research typically has to go through ethical review, and while oral histories have generally been exempt, that is less and less the case. Another fun fact: Tim is no longer allowed to fill out paperwork.
Add ReviewMerry-Go-Round by Prim_the_Amazing
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Just after breaking up with Georgie, Jon finds a strange taxidermy shop.
Head in the Lion's Mouth by renwhit
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: He fell into a deep bow, smiling the whole while. “I’m the ringmaster, of course.”
“Is that skin— is it yours?” Old wood groaned as the Archivist shifted his weight. “Originally, I mean.”
“It is!” the ringmaster said as he swooped back upright. “Nikola decided I wore it well, so she let me keep it. Why do you ask?”
The Archivist gave him another once-over. “You just… you look familiar. Like someone I know.”
On relearning, reconnecting, and redefining.
come to seem the natural course of things by forsyte
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: A person* named Helen Richardson walks through a door. (*Conditions may apply.)
patterns by fadewords
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Jon is ill and can't stop Knowing things. Daisy helps.
dream when there's nothing to feast on by 75hearts
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Jon passes out after going too long without live statements. Daisy finds him.
not so weightless (nor whole and unbroken) by forsyte
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Jon’s wings take longer than they should to fledge. It’s a contrast to everything else about him at this age—horn-rimmed glasses, sweater vests, an air of serious concentration and his ever-present unholy prickliness, like an old man writ into the body of a gangly teenager. (Wingfic.)
your body is not a word by 75hearts
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: He’s not supposed to pull them out of people. But — people tell their friends about the Magnus Institute all the time, encourage them to make a statement. And so he can do that, too. Right? As long as he doesn’t compel the man, he’s not doing anything worse than that. If anything, they’ll get a better deal from him than they would from well-meaning friends; he’s willing to give them something in exchange.
- Contains sexual content
The Magnus Institute vs the 21st Century: a series of emails and IMs series by shinyopals
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Even when you work at a temple to an eldritch horror masquerading as an office building, you still have to deal with bureaucracy.
Honey Don't Feed It (It Will Come Back) by Silfrvarg
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: What if Jon is more reliant on statements than mere withdrawal would suggest?
- Notes: Part of the Proof That I'm Breathing series.
Discordance by JustGail, Maka_Tsubaki, novelDaydreamer, PFDiva, Purrs, SpookyTarot, tabbyfeathers (orangefeatherybooty), and winteryKite
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Only a few days after finding his way to Georgie's, Jonathan Sims stumbles into somewhere he really, really, was not supposed to be. Namely, a TMA fanserver. Jon reels at the sheer information being bandied about so flippantly. Elias watches his plans go down in flames.
The Admiral in the Archives by NevillesGran
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Georgie brings the Admiral to the Institute to get free cat-sitting and give Jon one last chance to be human. Admiral POV.
you would like it on the moon by gisho
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Martin doesn't want the world to intrude on them. John can't bear the thought of strangers. But Daisy's cottage feels as distant as the moon, and maybe they can make it into home.
a poison that never stung by ante__meridiem
- Recommended by: SanaNaryon
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Melanie is grateful to Jon three times.
The first, for coming back at all. Not that she missed him, not that she’s glad he’s not dead. But the last few months in the Institute have felt hollow and it’s a sickening relief to have a target for her anger again.
The second, for asking to remove the bullet, and allowing her to refuse. This is a more complicated gratitude, because she doesn’t want it. But she can’t bring herself to wish he’d kept this meagre measure of control, of choice, from her. So she is grateful, and she hates it.
The third, for being the obvious monster everyone has their eye on, so they never think to ask about the blood under her nail, don’t wonder when she slips out the door of the archives with a knife in hand. Maybe she should feel guiltier for letting Jon take the fall, knowing full well that everyone involved in their little intervention has at least as much blood on their hands. But she still hates him just enough to be able to swallow down the guilt, so she lets Basira threaten him and swears that she won’t let any of her victims make it back to the Institute with their stories. - Notes: A character exploration of Melanie as she slowly succumbs to the Slaughter. Contains loss of humanity, implied death of major characters, and typical Slaughter-aligned content.
Not Her by TheLibraryBat
- Recommended by: mikey-jinx
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: “I told you before. I want to be your friend."
Sasha James is brilliant and doomed.
When the monster that calls itself Michael begins following her around - saving her, a few times, from danger - she can't help but wonder why.
As Sasha unravels the mystery of Michael Shelley - falling deeper into the clutches of Beholding all the while - Michael searches desperately for a way to save her from her fate. After all, Michael knows better than anyone what it is to be an assistant, and what it is to be doomed.
* Notes: An excellent fic about an odd friendship between Sasha and Michael Distortion, albeit not without its own tragedies.
The Murmuring Bones by Candentia
- Recommended by: Qwerty17
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Once upon a time there was a boy stalked by death.
- Notes: An atmospheric Gaslamp Fantasy read, with a twist near the end. Fic has been deleted, so the link leads to an archived copy.
Fear Avatars in your area! (not for long) by newsagogo
- Recommended by: Afterword
- Status: In Progress
- Synopsis: Despite undoing the Apocalypse, some marks still remain. A few looks at life after.
- Notes: Glimpses into day-to-day life after the end of Season 5, including short passages about normal people getting their lives back together and some hilarious fake social media posts.
by claw and by fang (or by the gun) by Marianne_Dashwood
- Recommended by: Biggby
- Status: Finished
- Synopsis: For Basira, the world ends on the slightly drizzly Thursday morning, right as she steps into her favorite cafe.
It’s hard to describe, the moment she feels the world warp and change and collapse around her, but there is this horrible gut feeling of utter wrongness, and she feels a tug in her navel, a tug that only later she will realise was pulling her back to the Institute. Towards the Archive. - Notes: An alternate universe just slightly different from the one we see, filled with many interesting concepts that are just teased. At the end of the world, Basira, avatar of the Eye, sees the world end and prepares to undertake a journey north with Melanie and Georgie, only to encounter a familiar man without eyes and a reluctant avatar of the Hunt.
Statementfic
Stories written in the format of statements as might be seen in episodes of the show.
Background Radiation by wildwestwind
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Sasha James notices that some things that aren't statements won't digitize, or: isn't it odd that the fear entities have had so little of an effect on human civilization?
all the same organs of feeling by JulisCaesar
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Fear is not an emotion exclusive to humans. This folder contains statements regarding fear of, or by, non-human animals.
Shipping
Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.
Pay the Piper by NeverwinterThistle
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: On the brick wall opposite Jon’s flat, someone has graffitied a rudimentary eye, dilated pupil facing his front door. He sees it while taking out his bin on collection day. It watches. There is a faintly accusatory air about it, as if it has seen him shoving piles of paper into the bin bag, each inscribed with the printed eye. They arrive every day. He has not yet managed to see who is delivering them, although he’s thinking very seriously about investing in a security camera. It probably won’t help. What is a camera, if not another kind of eye? | Elias confesses to his murders, Jon is back at the Archives, and everything is going wrong.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Michael Distortion
- Notes: Contains sexual content and an excellent mystery plot. Canon divergence in season 3.
Choke Chain by dramatispersonae
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Things Gertrude Robinson possesses: decades of experience killing, containing, and otherwise thwarting supernatural beings, an uncompromising drive to destroy the Rituals and the people who would see them completed, Gerry's loyalty. Things Gertrude Robinson apparently also possesses: a monster on a magic leash.
- Pairing: Gerry Keay/Michael Distortion
- Notes: Canon divergence
Sweet As Roses by Prim_the_Amazing
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, alzbeta
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: “Thank you, Martin,” Jon says, mouth dry, and he stands up.
“Oh,” he says, sounding almost surprised. He smiles again. “No— no problem— um, what are you—”
Jon takes Martin by the shoulders, leans up on the tips of his toes, and kisses him.
Jon is under some sort of supernatural curse. Martin is regretting every single one of his life choices. - Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
The Thing That Gives You Nightmares by NeverwinterThistle
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The man with the Lichtenberg scar is alive, seeking revenge for the Archivist's transgression. Martin is sacrificed.
- Pairing: Mike Crew/Martin Blackwood
- Canon divergence in season 3
Professional Distance by Anonymous
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: When his new Archivist has too much to drink at his birthday party, Elias sees an opening.
- Pairing: Elias Bouchard/Jonathan Sims
Woke Up In The Name That I Wore Last Night by dramatispersonae
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The Distortion becomes Helen. The thing it leaves behind is/is not/could be/never was Michael. (Or, Jon and [identity pending] go on the Worst Road Trip Ever)
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/A thing that is not quite Michael Distortion
- Canon divergence in season 3
handcuffs by Prim_the_Amazing
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: It turns out that Daisy still has a sturdy set of metal handcuffs from her days on the force. Jon knows that they weren’t with her on her trip through the Buried, because they’d both had to just give up and throw the clothes that they’d been wearing when they went into the Coffin away as unsalvageable lost causes. The cuffs would still have dirt caught in their teeth.
- Pairing: Queerplatonic Jonathan Sims&Daisy Tonner
Eyes Like Open Doors by divinesick (solipsistful)
- Recommended by: heartss, alzbeta
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Jon knows he can't remain with the Institute. Michael welcomes him to the Spiral with open arms.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Michael Distortion
sending my confessions out to sea by brokenfeathers (forsyte)
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Evan would have done anything to leave. That doesn't mean he's at peace with himself.
- Pairing: Evan Lukas/Peter Lukas
- Contains incest and sexual content
a gift you give yourself by doomcountry
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Whoever this E. Bouchard is, he is extremely, tantalizingly lonely.
- Pairing: Peter Lukas/OG!Elias Bouchard
- Contains sexual content
Keep My Eyes To Serve by Nevanna
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Elias has always found ways to keep Jon close.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard
- Contains (non-explicit) sexual content
The Final Mark by alone_and_sublime
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: “I did something terrible to that man didn’t I,” Jon says weakly from the toilet bowl.
Elias looks down at him. Considering.
“No, Jon. You did what’s in your nature.”
Jon shudders and is sick again. - Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard
ceylon, assam, and darjeeling by Sciosa
- Recommended by: heartss, alzbeta
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: People do not bring Jonathon Sims tea. Martin Blackwood, newly-minted archival assistant, has apparently not received this memo.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
- Notes: Part one of the ceylon and many worlds interpretation series.
ouroboros by Wildehack (tyleet)
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: “You know,” Jonah says, a muscle in his calf quivering agreeably where it’s slung over Mordechai’s shoulder, “it’s really quite—fortunate—that I don’t care for you at all.”
- Pairing: Peter Lukas/Elias Bouchard
- Notes: Was written before the s4 finale; partially jossed by canon. Contains sexual content.
our natural state is drowning by Wildehack (tyleet)
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: That isn’t Daisy Tonner, she thinks, and hates herself for thinking it.
- Pairing: Daisy Tonner/Basira Hussain
Persuade by NeverwinterThistle
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: “Tell me about Michael,” Jon says. He spots the narrowing of Elias’ eyes, the tightening of his fingers. A flicker of something unpleasant, crossing his face like the briefest of shadows. Abruptly, he finds himself sweating. Nervous. He can’t work out why.
- Pairings: Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard, Jonathan Sims/Michael Distortion
- Notes: Contains sexual content.
relearning series by fairbanks
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: daisy likes to chase and jon likes being chased. it's a surprisingly bad combination. + daisy offers some aftercare a few months late.
- Pairing: Daisy Tonner/Jonathan Sims
- Notes: The first fic in the series contains sexual content; the second does not.
Pick of the Litter by DoilySpider
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: How Elias Bouchard fell to the beholding, under the auspices of seduction. He never had a chance.
- Pairing: OG!Elias Bouchard/Jonah Magnus
- Notes: Contains sexual content.
and the rest be sent to hell by forsyte
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The Lukas family's new representative meets with the Head of the Institute. Years later, Elias reminisces on a past life. (Wingfic.)
- Pairing: Peter Lukas/Elias Bouchard
The Anathema Amendment by Anecdoche (so_psychso)
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: On hiatus
- Synopsis: It had said - promised, even, to bring ruin, to not save him. To make him not. In the end, though, Jon's not so sure it has succeeded.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Michael Distortion
to be alone with you by Aza (sazandorable)
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Summer 2018; now that they’ve taken down The Dark, the next threat is Jon. The Team Archive solution involves the buddy system and cohabitation, which is where Martin comes in. Martin has bigger problems to deal with.
Team solidarity, communication, domesticity, lots of cuddles, and Martin multi-tasking a relationship, saving the world and becoming a spook like a boss. - Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
All Your Hard Edges, Sharpened by spacehopper, winternacht
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Elias had shown a subtle but particular interest in Jon since the moment of his initial job interview - always there to catch Jon when he fell. And to push him, when he needed to take the plunge.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard
- Notes: Part one of Sea Glass; contains sexual content.
I wonder if devils get nightmares by Kaylin 881
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: On the way up to Scotland, Jon tries to give Martin space, to avoid compelling random strangers into giving their statements, and to stay awake. He fails at all but one of those.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
but she said it's okay; i got some wilderness skills beneath my belt by blackwood (transjon)
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: She pulls on her hair lightly. Nothing violent. Just a quick, gentle tug. Basira’s eyes blink open and then close again. “Sorry,” she says.
“Why?”
And isn’t that a question –
Sorry for not killing you when you asked me to. Sorry for letting you become like this. Sorry for letting you protect me. Sorry I still protect you. Sorry I still love you.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Liar,” Daisy rasps, but she pulls Basira closer regardless. “You’re a fucking liar, Basira.” - Pairing: Daisy Tonner/Basira Hussain
Communication by DictionaryWrites
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Look, they're trying.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
- Notes: Part of the Monsters Play Games series.
London Calling by Caz (CheeryKralie)
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Martin moves the pad of his thumb across Jon’s cheek, quieting him, a gesture so tender that Jon’s guilty heart hurts. “I mean –– here,” he says. “Right now. This moment, in this room. What’s wrong?”
“I want us to have sex,” says Jon. - Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood, Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard
- Notes: Contains sexual content.
a fact or a weapon by marrowbones
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Jon compels Elias and gets an answer he didn't expect. Or: Jonah Magnus is in love with Jon and it changes nothing.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard
Tendon, Heel by thesnadger
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Contemplations on injury, and the possibility of death. Discussion between the Archivist and Martin Blackwood, in situ. (Post-179)
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Martin Blackwood
bacchanalia by screechfox
- Recommended by: heartss, regicidaloptimism
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: In the heart of an impossible forest, Jon tries not to lose himself.
- Pairing: Jonathan Sims/Michael Distortion
One Hundred Thousand Fireflies by prodigy
- Recommended by: heartss
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Decades after everything goes wrong, Gertrude and Elias catch up. But nothing's ever unconditional with him.
- Pairing: Gertrude Robinson/Elias Bouchard
Monster Bride by fakeCRfan
- Recommended by: SanaNaryon
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: In which Basira and Jon never end up cutting the bullet out of Melanie's leg, the world still ends, and Georgie runs out of safe, practical choices to make.
- Pairing: Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Crossovers
No Heart to Break by NevillesGran
- Recommended by: regicidaloptimism, heartss
- Crossover with: The Mechanisms
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The Toy Soldier meets someone familiar in the Unknowing (so far as anything could be familiar there), and when it survives, it goes to find him (so much as something that was never alive in the first place can "survive" anything.)
jon sims v the nhs series by blacksatinpointeshoes
- Recommended by: heartss
- Crossover with: The Bright Sessions
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Joan Bright has a new patient. He's carrying an old tape recorder and is covered head to toe in scars. Jonathan Sims looks dangerous, but Dr Bright has dealt with all sorts of atypical individuals. She has no reason to be nervous. Right?
- Notes: Does not require familiarity with The Bright Sessions, although it is improved with it.
All Manner of Thing by Ostentenacity
- Recommended by: Qwerty17
- Crossover with: Fallen London
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: A certain Archivist Seeks the Name.
- Notes: Does a really good job of capturing Fallen London's narrative style, and highlighting the parallels of the self-destructive pursuit of knowledge found in both stories.
Eye, Me, Myself by arealsword
- Recommended by: Neelh
- Crossover with: Sanders Sides
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: “Being afraid is a sort of entertainment, isn’t it?” - Considerations on identity and the self. Recorded by the Archivist in situ.
- Notes: An excellent study of the limitations and potentiality of a transcript format, and the usage of literary and theatrical techniques as applied to one man's personal metaphysical hell. While familiarity with Sanders Sides is not necessary, this story contains spoilers for Season 2 of it and Season 5 of The Magnus Archives.
From The Archives by sixteenthdays
- Recommended by: YanDanTDM
- Crossover with: Hermitcraft
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: A collection of statements from the archives of the VOID Institute.
- Notes: Uses the ideas posed by the original to its advantage, with new plots and takes on characters that are both endearing and terrifying at the same time. Knowledge of Hermitcraft is not needed to enjoy the fanfic, though some statements reference certain events from all seasons. Contains spoilers for the whole of The Magnus Archives, though spoiler warnings are placed where applicable.
- Now with an authorized translation into simplified Chinese.
- Also, now with a podfic in progress.
