MAG 189: Peers

Considerations of governmental oversight. Recorded by The Archivist in Situ.
==Pre-Statement==
John and Martin discuss their current position at the edge of confronting Elias/Jonah as well as being the centre of attention in the domain of The Eye. John is nervous and dubious if they can even do anything at all, explaining that it may come down to whether the Eye chooses him or Jonah. 
Martin becomes increasingly frustrated with John as he feels like John is giving up and notices that there is no door into The Panopticon. John cannot see into it or does not want to look and notices the outside of the building is made of one-way mirrors. Martin tries to grab one of the security cameras to use it to break the glass but recoils upon finding it fleshy. He storms off to search for a way in while John prepares to do a statement.
==Statement==
The minister walks through the street, looking down. His eyes travel the lines of rot, stone, and cigarettes. He looks at anything that is not the gaze of the people around him. They are rail thin, or bloated, all stinking of malnourishment and all of them say: "Help us." He wants to help them, as he was once part of them, and will return if necessary but he is terrified of their gazes. He feels a jolt of fear at that thought and shames himself for it. There are no cars in London. If there were, he would not have to look at them, and they would not see him. He finally sees the palace, the outside stained but still translucent, so the masses outside can look inside and plead to anyone to stop the things that kill them. 
The minister walks through the palace and notices gore-filled offices where three men laugh as they weave their pile of nooses. He arrives at the heart of it, which is remarkably similar to normal British Parliament, except that the minister is the only one who can stand up from his chair, as his "allies" are mostly fused to their seats and his "opponents" have nailed themselves to their chairs to keep their spots. Both sides are satisfied with how comfortable they are. 
He starts talking, hoping to bring attention to the suffering happening outside. Nobody hears him at first, but he speaks words, different from their unintelligible yelling. As he speaks every single head in that room turns to look at him and his words falter. He becomes afraid and sits back down with a cough as the room returns to yelling. The big dinner bell rings, and servants run out with their steaming platters of meat. The minister is aware of the crowd outside watching him as he eats and all he can taste is salt.
==Post-Statement==
Martin reappears smiling and excited, claiming he is just happy to see John. He then drags John inside a hatch that leads underground. Melanie and Georgie greet them and tell him to be quiet while Martin apologizes for taking him by surprise, explaining that he was trying to avoid letting the beings in London know what was going on. 
John begins to weaken due to being somewhat cut off from The Eye. Melanie tells them that there is a small group of survivors with them in the tunnels that they managed to rescue from other domains. She and Georgie have unintentionally started a "cult" with these people due to them being impervious to The Eye, Melanie with her blindness and Georgie with her lack of fear. They explain that when The Change happened, they headed to the institute to try and find John since he would probably know what was going on. They were unable to find him and with nowhere else to go, Melanie brought them into the tunnels, which still seem to offer some protection against The Eye.
Melanie is not terribly pleased to see them as she fears it is painting a target on them and possibly putting the others in danger. They decide to move further into the tunnels and Martin questions if Melanie needs any help moving but she snarks back that she has her cane and is competent, questioning if Martin even has a torch. Georgie tells John to turn off his tape recorder and they start moving. 
==Continuity==
*Related Entity: The Eye and possibly The Flesh
==Trivia==
*Laughter can be heard in the background at one point during the statement. These guffaws were performed by Tim Meredith.The Official Magnus Wrap Party on twitch
==References==
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes