#...it's kind of a parallel to cam and pal

[queeoretician]

Initial thoughts on The Unwanted Guest below the cut:

Well, damn. There sure is a lot going on here, and I'm all about it.

Front and centre is the concept of the permeability of the soul, and there's so damn much to chew on around that. Then we have Dulcie! Dulcie! She and Pal finally get to talk, both dead but still kicking! She would have liked Gideon! And we get more direct insight into Ianthe's psychology, which is a nasty little treat.

The first place my mind went was to Paul - if Pal and Cam were already experiencing memory transference, then maybe they saw some kind of soul merger as inevitable, and that was another push towards doing it intentionally, doing it right. But writing it down now I'm less sure of that inference. And the fact that Pal and Dulcie got to talk, really talk, was both wonderful and all the more bittersweet if (I'm assuming) Pal's and Cam's individual souls no longer exist to reunite with Dulcie in Alecto. I have to say, when I first read Nona I didn't really get why people found the birth of Paul to be so sad, but I've come around on it since then. (I should write more about that sometime...)

Regarding the permeability of Ianthe's soul, one thing that occurred to me is that her genderfuckery vibes over the past two books are probably not Ianthe Tridentarius's identity, but a new thing formed of the (imbalanced) gestalt that is Ianthe Naberius. I really hope Alecto gives us more on gender and lyctorhood and soul permeability! I imagine this is all the more jarring for Ianthe with how she's so deeply anchored to her relationship with Corona, to find her ego boundaries to be permeable in relation to Babs. I firmly believe her shell-shocked reaction to the birth of Paul was at least in part her thinking "oh shit, did I eat the wrong person?" If she had wanted this kind of erosion of self with anyone (and I'm not sure she did), it would have been Corona. Having it happen with Babs by accident is a real slap in the face.

Which brings me back to my wild theory for Alecto - Corona will (at least try to) pull a Paul with Judith, and Ianthe will utterly lose her shit. This story really underscored just how little Ianthe understands her sister, which we already saw some of in the embassy scene. Sure, Corona isn't the flawless sword hand that Babs was, but in BoE she's shown herself to be a canny operator and a decent fighter, which Ianthe is steadfastly in denial of. At the end of the day I believe the story of Ianthe will be of someone who loved without understanding, who put her love up on a pedestal and at the same time belittled her as someone both more and less than she actually was.

Another thing that I latched onto was the argument about whether lyctors' cavaliers' souls provide a truly perpetual source of energy or not. Ianthe was pretty adamant that they do, but that honestly came across as arrogance or bravado. There's a strong parallel between lyctoral power and nuclear power, and all kinds of nuclear activity eventually reach a point past which they no longer emit appreciable energy, so I feel confident in saying that lyctoral power also diminishes over a long enough timespan. I'm less sure of whether this will come up in Alecto, though - I would be quite surprised if we saw a 100,000-year timeskip (but if we did that could be super fucking interesting).

Back to more direct applications of soul permeability, I have to imagine there's been some exchange of something between Jod and Alecto, at least before he locked her in the Tomb. That could go in all kinds of interesting directions that I haven't yet had a chance to contemplate adequately.

Speaking of Alecto, the John chapters of Nona seem like a pretty clear case of transference between her and Harrow. I wonder - were those happening concurrently with the Nona chapters? If so, it would make for a nice symmetry between Harrow and Alecto/Nona.

Either way, we've got a gross messy soul transference hookup graph with Gideon<-->Harrow<-->Alecto<-->John (gross) - I'm dying to know more about what this means for each of them (especially with Tazmuir's "if Gideon's soul is a happy meal" line from this interview).

So as usual, Aaaaaaa there's so much to chew on and so much more I want to know and I can't wait for Alecto aaaaaa...

#the locked tomb #the unwanted guest #tlt meta #tlt spoilers #the unwanted guest spoilers #ianthe tridentarius #ianthe naberius #prince ianthe naberius #palamedes sextus #dulcinea septimus #naberius tern #paul tlt #coronabeth tridentarius #crown him with many crowns #john gaius #alecto tlt #nona tlt #harrowhark nonagesimus #harrowhark the first #gideon nav #kiriona gaia

[llovelyclouds]

notes on gideon (the first)

here's all the relevant info on gideon the first i took note of during my tlt reread, in one place!

(you can find the rest of the posts related to this project here!)

GIDEON THE FIRST

titles:

Third saint to ascend, first gen, founded the second, the saint of duty

notes from gideon the ninth:

G1deon & Pyrrha's room in Canaan house includes a drawing of a chimaera that Gideon describes as "familiar" (the imaging & response construct) and a picture on the wall of John and his pals (presumably) with everyone's faces scribbled out with a thick black marker. Also guns (gtn. pg. 205)

notes from harrow the ninth:

the saint of duty (htn. pg. 177)

most likely really freaked out the first time he saw an RB (htn. pg. 173)

Doesn't respond to pain? (htn. pg. 188)

Made a pact with an authority John has no control over (Alecto???? Pyrrha???) that he would protect John from all dangers (htn. pg. 194)

“The Saint of Duty was a thanergy void. The Saint of Duty was the ultimate nemesis of a bone adept.” (htn. pg. 225)

“The closest thing to interest [Gideon] ever showed in anybody was in Pyrrha, and in the criminals he hunted. [...] When he kicked that Edenite commander out an airlock, it was like seeing a man on his wedding day. Not exactly romance though… Harrow, over ten thousand years I’ve known that man, and he is legendarily unamourous. I have watched six other Lyctors carry out a myriad’s worth of inadvisable love affairs with one another, because it is a very long time to be alone, but never him. He was unassailable.” -John (htn. Pg. 228). 

Is described by Augustine as getting really specific obsessions, has stopped listening to anyone, and has caused Augustine a lot of trouble in the last 40 years (htn. pg. 268)\

Pyrrha was ten years older than Augustine, so pre-resurrection G1deon was besties with a cop probably at least 20 years older than him ?? (htn. pg. 278)

John says that G1deon doesn’t talk about her (alecto), but Augustine and Mercy still feel guilty about what happened (htn. pg. 345)

"Don't know why Gideon was always so obsessed with [Wake]... he never cared about beauty, and she was repellent to talk to." - Mercymorn (htn. pg. 409)

Mattaius Nonius fought G1deon, and seems to owe Pyrrha a debt (htn. pg. 455)

I think John at least had some idea about G1deons memory loss/what was up with his and Pyrrha's lyctorhood based on how Pyrrha (pretending to be G1deon) says she didn't know anything about the affair with Wake (htn. pg. 473)

notes from nona the ninth:

"'I'd need my necromancer to teach Camilla.' 'Why?' 'Because you need teaching to be an asset, and Cam wants teaching to be a killer.'"- Pyrrha and Palamades (ntn. pg. 28)

Knew John since they were kids (ntn. pg. 74)

"No, I don't blame you man… He was always looking for things to throw himself on." -Pyrrha, talking about G1deon to Varun (??) (ntn. pg. 116) 

The parallel to Gideon's death… i'm sooo normal. 

Was an engineer pre-resurrection (ntn. pg. 129)

“P- volunteered to go with him, but G- said he wouldn’t arm it if P- was in range. P- went off at him, but it was one of those times where he held his ground against her. I remember. She called him a stupid kid. [...] I took G- downstairs and I got him to face the wall, and I took his arm off. [...] He didn’t feel any pain, and I grew him a new one then and there. Bit of a gamble, but I was sure I could do that by then. I wanted his arm… his material. He didn’t even ask me to explain. That was the kind of guy he was. He and I had grown up on the same street. I’d spotted him for mince pies all the time as kids, so stands to reason he let me cut off his arm and carried a nuke for me. [...] Should still be around here. The arm, I mean. I stuffed it in the morgue so nobody would find it. I've got plans for that arm.” (ntn. pg. 399)

“He was immovable. That was why I wanted him in: G- only listened to two people in his fucking life.” (ntn. Pg. 402)

Died from John reaching out to stop his heart (ntn. Pg. 407)

“I liked you. He liked you-  Gideon liked you. my necromancer and I always liked you… and hey, what's like except a love that hasn't been invited indoors?” - Pyrrha, to Nona (ntn. pg. 461)

#junos silly little locked tomb thoughts #tlt #the locked tomb #tlt meta #tlt analysis #gtn #htn #ntn #atn #ntn spoilers #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #alecto the ninth #gideon the first

[chaikachi]

since you're caught up on the Locked Tomb, I thought I'd send some asks your way because I'm kind of curious:

1) I've gathered Cam and Pal are your favorite characters, but do you any particular favourite moments/quotes of them? Or just why you love them as characters in general?

2) any plot twists you didn't see coming but liked?

3) any dark horse characters that grew on you over the series or that you'd want to see more of?

EEEE I SURE DID!! Okay, warning for anyone that is not caught up with it or plans to read it, that there are going to be spoilers below. You have been warned!!

Yes, they are my favourites.😔 Friends specifically told me to read the books because they are "very much my flavour" and they were right. Which is very rude of them, tbqh :/// As for the why, it's a lot of things, I think. From a character design perspective, I've always been a sucker for scholarly types like Pal, and you can never go wrong with short hair and double swords like Cam. I like that they have a decent amount of contrast and are quite different from each other in some ways while also being soooo alike in others. From a thematic perspective, all the bits and parallels around devotion, identity, and responsibility. How just by knowing someone, we add 'indelibly to their weight'. How this is explored both as a positive and negative thing. How just by knowing someone else - dare I say, to tame or be tamed by another 👀- can change us irreversibly. How burdening those we care about is something we have to come to terms with, and that being burdened can in and of itself be an act of care. How these themes are exacerbated and mixed with plurality and merging. The ever important question of 'where do you end and i begin'? For moments and quotes, a lot of my favourite things about them are just how they interact with one another (or with other characters). The sort of relationship where words often aren't necessary. How so much of their connection is conveyed in actions. "Tell Cam... never mind, she knows what to do." and the "what to do" is her collecting the fragments of his skull off the floor?? that she glues back together with her own hands?? then travelled millions or billions of light years to meet with the one person that can pull his soul back into it??? Her carrying him, despite the risk and harm it poses to herself, because he doesn't have a vessel anymore??? Pal asking Nona to "give this to Cam" and it's a kiss to the back of her hand???? Sick!! Twisted!! I demand financial compensation for damages!!!! Cam had every right to go sit in the bathtub about that!!! What the hell man!!! But I would be remiss not to mention the conversations they have across the voice recorder when they can't speak face to face, the co-fronting/synergy thing that happens when the protect Nona at the beach, and of course: "Life is too short and love is too long."

I'll admit I was spoiled a bit to some things going in so that skews this answer a bit. There were certainly some things I predicted incorrectly but then was like "OF COURSE THAT'S HOW IT HAPPENED, HOW COULD I HAVE ASSUMED DIFFERENTLY". I was not expecting that many people to die in the first book tbh. What happened to the Fourth and Fifth houses hit particularly hard. Was not expecting Gideon to find a decapitated head in Harrow's closet. I think the most surprises I had were in the second book though. Kept asking myself what the heck was going on. The narrator reveal was such an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Like, I kind of figured that was the case but I wasn't expecting that to be how we found out. Camilla showing up somehow out of nowhere?? The full extent of Harrow and Gideon's origins had me at a loss for words. Also the epilogue leading into Nona had me soooooo confused.

Yes. I absolutely adored Augustine. Big fan of his whole vibe; i miss him. Also really liked Magnus, Abigail, and Ortus in the second book. Especially them stepping up and being the Responsible Adults™ Harrow never really had, but always deserved. Also Polyamory Win with both whatever Pyrrha and Dulcie had respectively going on with Cam and Pal aha. Very big fan of Dulcinea in general. From her appearance in htn to popping up in The Unwanted Guest. I don't know how we could see more of her, but I would not be complaining if we did. Muir is really good at characterization tho, i don't know that there have really been any characters I've actively disliked. 🤔

Thank you for asking! I'd love to know some of your fave characters/plot twists too if you feel like sharing!! no pressure tho uwu

#my current crack theory is that cam and pal got the 'u' in 'paul' from dulcie #that's why they were asking if 'she' would see them in the river #and why even tho it was the two of them as paul it was also something unfamiliar to nona. but again. total crack theory LOL #weird situationship characters of all time #honorary mention to pal writing bodice ripper fanfic on the wallpaper to keep himself sane while he was in the river for 8 months #where is that short story tamsyn? i know you have it; hand it over #enough rambling from me 💦 #ask #asks #the locked tomb #misstrashchan

[empty-pizza]

idk if this has been confirmed by the author or if it's just a fairly common fandom interpretation but Paul was named after Paul the Apostle! there's a reasoning behind the lame name :)

Paul the apostle wrote the "love is patient, love is kind" quote, very on theme with the whole message of loved not going away in ntn and the author essentially saying that cam and pal's relationship is the purest form of love. Paul the apostle was created after his predecessor, Saul, was smote by God, which is a great thing to name yourself after after you've recently been reborn. He was also a founder with a goal to unify Christianity to create something that would last, which could possibly hint toward the future of Paul tlt.

There's also the less bibley interpretation that it may be to contrast John, both being mundane and common monosybillic names.

This makes sense. Specific biblical parallels beyond the generalities of jesus figures tend to go over my head as it's just not something I have or want a strong education in. But considering how genuinely interesting it made the John - Jesus parallels, when normally that kind of thing is kind of lame, there's definitely more to this. Jesus parallels tend to be like, "this guy is the savior, the big man, here's some idea that parallels the immaculate conception or the crucifixion or whatever." But the way it used his struggle against the rich, his struggle with healing everyone, his struggle with the need to become a cult leader in order to influence the world, had a lot more to it.

I'm not sure whether Paul will end up uniting people, although he technically already is united people so it's definitely a path his character could go down. I definitely really appreciate the love we saw between the two. It fully pulled off the purely non-romantic, non-sexual vibes, while still making it feel absolute and extremely powerful.

Unfortunately, as monosyllabic names go, John is just a way cooler one than Paul. I know that Paul, obviously, by nature of this post, has a very long history, but it still sounds like the name of like... some guy in the 60s who smokes too much. While John has that timeless energy (the name, but also the guy).

#pizza reads locked tomb #the locked tomb #tlt

[sexcromancy]

okay palamedes. so. every other necromancer we meet is focused on death and/or using life to their offensive advantage. skeletons, flesh magic, the exquisite corpse, siphoning all rely on kinds of death or grotesqueness. but pal's first imperative is to heal. he has combat capability -- the shield he puts up when first meeting Gideon, but it's completely defensive, it doesn't even hurt her. we see him prioritizing medicine several times in Nona; operating on her is what finally causes him to reveal himself to BOE and put himself and Cam in danger, his first action after getting into babs' body is to attend to cam's wounds, and perhaps most crucially: right before they do the ritual to become Paul, what he's excited about is saving Camilla's life, that he was smart enough to find a way to do that (which parallels Gideon's final moments of resolve!) ultimately I would say that is his character thesis, is pushing himself to be capable and smart enough to help people when they need it. this also shows up in his relationship with dulcie; in the bubble she shows off the nasal tube that he invented for her. she is proud of that as a token of his love and devotion for her. this calls to mind the Sarah Ruhl quote about Halstead, who invented rubber gloves for his wife with chapped hands: "he loved her to the point of invention." this impulse even makes its way to Paul: the first thing that they use their lyctoral power for is healing the sixth house of various ailments. and where have we seen that before? "I spent hours and hours a day playing Jesus, that was nice," (John 8:1). as a parallel, I'm not totally sure what this indicates about Paul going forward, but I think there is a difference between John's desire for control and repeated assertions that "we were just trying to help [earth], you were so sick," vs his actual actions, and Palamedes' lifelong commitment to helping others through medicine.

#been trying to figure out how to say this for like 3 days but i think ive refined it as much as possible #basically the point is. hes hot #tlt #ntn spoilers #how much longer will we keep tagging ? whats the etiquette here

[rereadingtlt]

DAY ONE chapter one The main thing that stands out to me in this chapter is the domesticity. The getting dressed, making eggs, getting out the bowls, dont they teach you to count at school, how Palamedes always offers Nona coffee, how Pyrrha shaves every day, doing Nona's hair. I think they closest to this kind of thing in the previous two books was Harrow doing Gideon's face paint, and wolfing down meals. And as I said on my main blog the other day, the murder dinner and the other murder dinner. The whole pace is slowed way down, not just in the sense of going through all these details, but also the bigger structure that the entire book is only a week. Or is it five days, I dont remember now. Books 1 and 2 are frantic plot, murder mystery and survival, scraping by, life and death. In theory Nona's surroundings are similar and the book from Cam or Pyrrha's perspective would have been similar, but the difference is Nona. She is happy. She's grateful. She loves every minute of every day and so we slow down and experience it with her. Im guessing AtN is going to go back to fast paced and frenetic, so it makes a lot of sense to me on multiple angles that Nona gets her own book. To the discussion between Palamedes and Pyrrha that's absolute word salad the first time around - There's site C and site B. This might be the same as the barracks and actually Im not sure what the other option is (I think its looking for the Sixth, who we know are in The Convoy. I'll have to come back to this because I dont remember what Campal knows at this point about where their housemates are). I think that the barracks is where Ianthe shows up later, at this point it seems like there's Cohort members under siege in there, maybe 200 people.

Then, Pal's layered hostage situation. From a chapter or two later, we learn everyone who's not in the Houses are on one of three planets.

"Three million people on a thanergy planetoid millions of kilometres away from us. Nine million people in this city alone.....Three million people, plus nine million, plus sixteen. We refuse to leave any of them behind." And then Pyrrha says "If you asked me to pick between the three of us and those twelve million plus sixteen, I'd pick us." This is extremely curious to me. Its not plus sixteen million, its plus sixteen. Who are the sixteen? Is it relevant that thats the exact number of OG lyctor's and cavs? Contrasted with Pyrrha's "the three of us" makes me even more sure that sixteen and not sixteen million is deliberate. But who the hell are those sixteen? Second, "We refuse to leave any of them behind." Direct parallel to John the chapter before. Cant believe I never noticed this but of course the main theme of John and not leaving anyone behind to nuking everyone is going to be mirrored in our protagonists. I honestly dont remember how this goes for our protagonists so Im going to have to watch this carefully. Small notes , what is with hairy v wooly animals, and what the heck is with the sand jackets that pour sand out in copious amounts if you put them on wrong? What is that for whats the construction what does it look like?

#mine #nona reread

[fortjester]

23 29 49 for tlt!

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

hm, difficult to say. most au's/concepts i come up with sort of run away from me at high speed and i end up writing them just based on how much thought i've already put into them, so aside from the chess au i talked abt for one of the other asks i answered, there's only a few au's/concepts i would like to see but haven't gotten around to? a lot of Gideon Raised In Other Houses AU's i generally get hype abt (re: lose my gd marbles abt) like -- Gideon raised on the Sixth alongside Pal and Cam? I'd go bonkers. Gideon raised on the Fourth, achieves cav primary for same-age heir, only to see them killed in a combat zone and return to Tisis to see Isaac named as new heir? frothing at the mouth. Gideon raised on the Second and laying the groundwork for BARI-Star AU? love it love it love it!

29. What songs would be (or are) on a playlist for [insert fic]? Explain your choices if you want!

since you said tlt in general, i'll just tell you the top five songs on my gideon and harrow playlists lol.

Harrow's songs are: Bishops Knife Trick by Fall Out Boy (listen to that bridge and tell me I'm wrong), Revolution 0 by Boygenius (oh, Harrow abt the Body anthem my beloved), Under My Skin by Jukebox the Ghost (first song to go on her playlist, fresh from first GtN readthrough), Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain (i'm so sorry but "god loves you / but not enough to save you" and "i always knew / in the end / no one was coming to save me / so i just prayed" is so harrowcore i lose my whole gourd about it), and In Hell by Japanese Breakfast ("hell is finding someone to love / and i can't have you")

Gideon's songs are: Marrow by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down (I won't go on and on abt this one bc im fighting a parallels post heavily featuring lyrics from it every single day and i need to believe that i'll win eventually), One More Hour by Sleater-Kinney (shout-singing, passive aggressive lyrics, heavily sapphic coded = gideoncore to me), Big Black Heart by Better Oblivion Community Center (idk, heart imagery and trashcan ending always give me gideon vibes smth chronic), Kiss City by Blondshell (the lyric "i'm adjacent to a lot of love" floored me the first time i heard it and it floors me every other time to, it's SUCH a Gideon lyric), and lastly but not leastly Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye ft. Kimbra (iykyk)

i will drop the links to their playlists with very little provocation

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it!

i have about a dozen wip's on the backburner that i stir every so often when i remember they're there; dead cav club au, tv show au, various Anastasia the First speculative fics, plus something i'm fiddling w/ that i will tentatively codename "pied piper au" (if that doesn't fully give it away)

BUT!

i am also participating in the tlt big resurrection event (referred to in my tags as tlt bre) and I am working on something that i have been codenaming "fucked up au" on my blog. can't tell you very much, the premise itself gives a huge chunk away, but i've breached 70k on it and still have a good quarter of it to fill in/fully draft. This being said, here's some out-of-context dialogue from the first chapter:

“Teacher said there was no way to contact anyone from Canaan House,” Harrow says, dubiously. She herself has never had need to use one, and even if she had she’s not sure she’d know how to use this relic. It’s quite obviously a lot older than any radio the Ninth has, and there’s an abundance of dials and switches that aren’t even labelled.

Nevertheless, Gideon continues to fiddle with the radio as if she weren’t a cavalier at all, but some kind of tech expert. “Well, he wasn’t lying about that. This is a classic am model; it’s for receiving broadcasts, not sending them.”

Harrow gives the device a doubtful look, “What’s the use of receiving if there’s no way to reciprocate?”

Gideon mumbles something under her breath that sounds suspiciously a lot like that’s what she said, but when Harrow asks her to repeat herself, she says, “I said that’s a good question. Pretty sure it was for entertainment.”

ask game

#fuck off lou #my post #long post #music #playlist #fanfiction #my fanfiction #writing #my writing #tlt #the locked tomb #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #no seriously someone give me one (1) good reason to drop the playlist links and i'll do it #ask #anon ask #anonymous #anonymous ask #ask game

[displayheartcode]

Six chapters into Harrow the Ninth and here are my theories

The body in the locked tomb is Gideon! I don’t know how or why, but there were many 👀 about Gideon’s past in the first book

I really really like the line “God’s victory and death was a girl.”

So what if Gideon is some kind of fragment of the body?? And that’s why she’s like that — and could be Harrow’s hallucination

The trauma of becoming a lyctor (plus the hundreds of dead kids in her body) messily broke Harrow’s mind, thus creating the disassociate dreamscapes

If the genre has taught me anything, it’s that the kindly god figure is actually a massive dick

Things are going to increase in mindfuckery

Cam and Pal are totally alive and fine. They’re just chilling nearby.

The Resurrection Beasts are actually failed lyctors

Judging by the relevance of rivers in certain conversations, it’s going to be some kind of liminal space where Gideon and Harrow are reunited, paralleling the pool scene

Ianthe is running her own game in the background. She’ll betray god first and it’ll be awesome

Release what’s in the tomb + resurrect the rest of Gideon + make out with Harrow = kill god

#rachel in real life

[harrowharksoup]

NTN COVER REVEAL 3 DAYS AWAY *starts foaming at the mouth like Alecto*

Some initial thoughts, and: is Camilla Hect on the cover of Nona the Ninth?

I’ll start with the bottom left panel —

The right hand is in a similar position to Harrow’s on the HtN cover, in what I’d guess is a necromantic gesture. We know that Ianthe’s right arm is the gilded bone one, so we can probably rule her out. The skin tone appears to be a few shades darker than Harrow’s, which could point to Gideon, but this relies heavily on the quality and definition of the photo.

I’m not sure if I’m seeing it entirely clear, but the right hand appears to be wearing some sort of fingerless glove. This could support Gideon (or Gideon’s body) as the cover character, since the need for gloves could be indicative of swordplay (though it isn’t the knuckle-knives because those would be on the left hand). The person appears to be wearing some sort of gray clothing that might be a cloak or a skirt/dress.

The N being in a different style than the other three Ns makes sense because it denotes a new character rather than a House title. That’s all I have to say on this topic for now.

Lastly, I’ve read speculation that the strange blue lighting alludes to an underwater setting, and I agree wholeheartedly. The River will have a big part to play in the remaining books, and this would be a perfect first glimpse of that.

On to the middle panel —

I honestly have no idea what that strange diagonal cord-looking thing is — maybe it’s a dog tail (jk). Surprisingly, there are bones.

The final panel —

Now this is a particularly interesting one. It has far more detail and variation in content than the the first two book covers have in their entirety. That might be a hazmat/deep-sea diving suit with a glowing yellow faceplate in the top right corner, and there’s some industrial metallic-looking components that could be part of a space ship or the suit.

The vertical crosses on the top right and bottom right Ns are absent on the middle right N. It makes me think of the crossed out IX on Gideon’s skull symbol that we first see in Chapter 37 when she and Harrow have begun the lyctor process and Harrow is a body containing two consciousnesses. Additionally, we are given the promise that “Gideon will return in Nona the Ninth,” and Gideon herself has been quite resistant to being tied to the Ninth in the past, so maybe there’s some sort of parallel to be found there. It might also be a cavalier thing.

And here we arrive at a third possible cover character I hadn’t really considered before: Camilla Hect. The gray clothing made me first consider the idea, and the rest of the details kind of fell into place to support her as a definite possibility. In this post, tazmuir describes Cam as being “Middle Eastern extraction,” which is supported by the hand’s darker skin tone. The hand is making a necromantic gesture, but we know that Cam now has Palamedes’s eyes (and possibly other Sex Pal traits?), and the glove as cavalier symbol fits with Cam’s excellent ability to go loud.

Overall, I’m inclined to say that whoever is on the cover, they’re probably someone we already know, and they’re likely to have the shared characteristics of both a necromancer and a cavalier. And whether it’s Camilla or Gideon or some body completely new, I am dying to find out. 💀

#i am raging i am foaming at the mouth i am turning into a monster from the depths of the sea like alecto #*emerges from almost a year of meta silence to word vomit about a total of like nine blurry pixels* #yeah this is normal. this is completely normal #guess i should add that there are MAJOR gtn/htn spoilers to follow #and probably in every following post tagged ntn #in the future i’ll probably just tag ‘ntn’ instead of ‘htn spoilers’ & assume all the necessary filtering measures have already been taken #ntn cover #nona the ninth #the locked tomb #fen.op #my.meta #*completely normal for a rabid tlt fan

[theyearoftheking]

Book Forty-Eight: Dreamcatcher

Here’s some random information about me. First and foremost, I hate poop. The smell of dog poop makes me start gagging. Can’t handle it. Never have, never will. My husband knows he’s on active duty (ha! pun NOT intended) if one of our dogs has an accident in the house.

So, it’s kind of ironic I work for a pharmaceutical company that promotes all kinds of GI drugs... I’ve helped sell drugs for various kinds of IBS, and now opioid induced constipation. I spend my work days talking to doctors about poop while they eat tacos. Truly... that’s how I spent my lunch hour yesterday. 

So, why am I talking about poop? Dreamcatcher, y’all. This book is literally FULL OF SHIT. We’re talking everything from the smelliest, most graphically described excrement, to high school aged kids trying to force a boy to eat dog poop... SO MUCH POOP. 

Which made me wonder... Steve wrote this book after his horrific accident, which I’m sure involved massive amounts of pain-killers. Was Steve suffering from opioid induced constipation? Was Steve dreaming about a massive shit that would ease his constipation pains? It’s really the only logical thing I can think of. 

I haven’t read this book since it was first published back in 2001, but  the first thing I always think of is how graphically Steve describes the smell of poop... “a mixture of ether and overripe bananas...” 

Gross. 

So gross. 

Dreamcatcher is an alien invasion story... aliens plan to take over a hunting town in rural, northern Maine. And they multiply by fuzzy spores, known as byrus. When someone comes into contact with the spores, it’s not long before an alien explodes out their anus... hence, the horrible smell and flatulence. 

Four friends, Beaver, Henry, Jonsey, and Pete are all up north hunting when the alien invasion goes down. Jonsey ends up with the alien leader, Mr. Gray, invading his body; Pete and Beaver end up dead, and Henry is tasked with preventing Mr. Gray from depositing a dog heavy with byrus into a major water filtration plant, which would infect a huge swath of the population. 

The boys all have a low-grade form of telepathy, which they developed the day they helped save Douglas “Duddits” Cavill from some high school kids who stripped him down, and tried to force him to eat a dog turd. Duddits has Down Syndrome, and was walking home from school when he was accosted by the high school assholes. After the rescue, Beaver, Henry, Jonsey, and Pete added Duddits to their clan, and he’d tag along with them, play cribbage, basically be one of the boys. 

Their telepathy has intensified into adulthood, and while the boys have lost touch with Duddits, they still try to go hunting every year. So, they’re out hunting when the aliens and the National Guard sweep in. The Guard tries to keep everyone quarantined and prevent the spread of the byrus. It’s okay... take a second and laugh. It’s just another example of life imitating prophetic art. There’s one particularly ucky guardsman, Kurtz, who just wants to build a name for himself by killing the entire town, and preventing the spread of the aliens. 

75% of the book is a race between Jonsey/Mr. Gray, Kurtz, and Henry/another guardsman and eventually Duddits. Henry and Duddits save the world, Duddits succumbs to the leukemia that has been killing him, and life goes on, shit and all. 

There were some fun Steve universe mentions: 

The town of Derry, Maine

Castle Rock radio station

Low men

The Losers Club 

Pennywise

The Dead Zone

Shawshank 

And then there were some lines that made me laugh. cringe, and want to cry. Shall we proceed?

The concept of “temporary quarantine”. We’re currently on day 572,000 of social distancing, quarantining, and living our best lives six feet apart. We were also told this would be temporary.

“Silence gives consent” Steve, buddy, pal... can we work on updating this line in future publications? I think we know that only consent gives consent. Silence is NOT consent. Help a girl out here. Speaking of consent, there’s a line, “...he was with Tom T. Hall: he liked beer.” I immediately thought of this asshole. 

He also thinks silence is consent, and likes beer. For fucks sake, does this man not have the most punchable face in the world? Just looking at it is raising my blood pressure. Fuckstick. 

So, then there’s the greatest debate of our time... “Underhill donned his mask and adjusted the straps without further comment...Do they work? They work on Ebola, they work on anthrax, they work on that new super-cholera. Do they work on Ripley? Probably. If not, we’re fucked, soldier. In fact, we may be fucked already.” I laughed way harder than I should have at this line. Do the world a favor, and just wear ya masks, kids. Look at this cute gaiter I got on Etsy!

Then, there was a reference to a period in time when the Patriots sucked, and no one wanted to root for them. As a die-hard Carolina Panthers fan (don’t ask, it’s a long story); I was pissed with how the Panthers did Cam Newton dirty. So, I’m hoping the Pats have a fantastic season, and make it to the Super Bowl. 

And finally, there was a speech from the fictional president about the alien infection, in which he said, “...we believe that our visitors brought this virus with them much as travelers from abroad may bring certain insects into their country of origin in their luggage or on the produce they’ve purchased. This is something customs officers look for, but of course-our recent visitors did not pass through a customs checkpoint...” 

There’s a good chance this president would have also referred to Covid as, “The China Virus”. 

The plot of this book? Meh. But the number of parallels to our current society nineteen years later? Excellent. Also, I give maddd props to Steve for writing this book out longhand, while recovering from an accident that could have taken his life (or at the very least, his leg). While Dreamcatcher is never going to be one of favorites, you have to respect the grind. 

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 30

Total Dark Tower References: 45

Book Grade: D

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

Storm of the Century: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers: D-

Next, is Black House... which I’m rapidly devouring. The Talisman is still fresh(ish) in my mind, so that should help with making connections between the two. 

Until next time, Long Days & Pleasant Nights, Rebecca

#dreamcatcher #derry maine #derry #stephen king #constant readers #It #quarantine #masks #patriots

[dopebarbariandream-blog]

Placement, balance as well as assimilation

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