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griseldagimpel · 8 months

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John Gaius Headcanons: Perfect Lyctorhood Edition

Headcanons about John Gaius and Perfect Lyctorhood under the cut, as some of them reference "The Unwanted Guest".

To start, why didn't John want his friends to have perfect Lyctorhood? Here's what we have from his conversation at the end of Nona the Ninth:

[John] looked at [Harrow], squinting his eyes against the white and merciless sun. "God must be able to touch all of creation," he said. "I don't-" "You said it yourself. I can't die if [Alecto]'s alive; she can't die if I'm alive. Why would you let something like that run around, Harrow?" Why would you let someone go - away from you - untouchable - two people? I couldn't - I loved them too much - I saw the face of Earth and choked the life out of it and ate it whole. Oh, I knew I was on the clock for the Resurrection Beasts. I pretended she was the only one, but I knew the others were coming. I needed my loved ones to be something I could touch...needed them to be my hands...my fingers." "But-" "There can be no forgiveness for those who walked away," he said. "Just as there can be no forgiveness for me - even though I rip the very fingers from my hands...throw them into the jaws of the monsters who hunt me...as I run from them across the universe, end to end. Something will satisfy them eventually, but nothing satisfies me. Nothing."

Okay, so what does that all mean? Well, my headcanon - and this is just a headcanon, so it could be wrong - is that John didn't object to his friends having Perfect Lyctorhood in and of itself; he objected to having to explain the process to them as that would mean having to explain how his Perfect Lyctorhood was obtained. And he's afraid that his friends will leave him if he did that. Especially if they have a soul-bonded Perfect Lyctorhood best friend who allows them to stay eternally young, meaning that they no longer rely on John for that.

Everyone knows, to some degree, that John destroyed the solar system and then recreated it anew. But everyone in the Empire treats it the way a lot of Christians treat Noah and the Flood Myth. It's just a thing they accept without question. It happened a long time ago. It doesn't mean anything emotionally to them.

But John explaining his Perfect Lyctorhood with Alecto in detail, so that his friends can replicate it, would involve coming clean about him fucking up and causing the Apocalypse. And he's convinced that they won't forgive him if he does that.

So he doesn't tell them that he himself is a Lyctor. He doesn't tell them not to do Perfect Lyctorhood, but he doesn't tell them it's a thing, either. He lets them misunderstand the process.

But then Anastasia and Samael crack it. And they invite John to watch.

Alright, here's how John describes it:

"I was the only one [Anastasia] allowed to watch her attempt. She'd learned the trick was to do the Eightfold slower - more methodically - and it was still more accident than design. But it's not as simple as her getting it right, and me stopping her. She panicked midway though. She hadn't got [Samael's] soul inside her all the way - if she had, Samael dying would have killed her too...They were both in danger. I killed him for her benefit, and she knew that at the time."

This is followed by this exchange between Augustine and John:

"Is that the truth, or the truth you tell yourself?" asked Augustine. "What is the difference?" said God.

So obviously we're supposed to scrutinize John's account. So what's not true?

Well, I think maybe John wasn't thrilled about Anastasia and Samael figuring it out. Even if I'm right about John not objecting to Perfect Lyctorhood in and of itself (just having to be the one to explain it) Anastasia and Samael went last. If they'd actually achieved Perfect Lyctorhood, that's going to make things super awkward with all the Lyctors who out and out killed their Cavaliers, you know? It also establishes that Perfect Lyctorhood is possible, and thus brings everyone one step closer to figuring out that John and Alecto have Perfect Lyctorhood.

And, based on how Nona the Ninth depicts them, John and Alecto would do things like get hungry at the same time. His friends had to have noticed that. But they didn't know that Perfect Lyctorhood was possible, and John's so much more powerful that a regular Lyctor (because Alecto's a god-planet, not a regular human) that they wouldn't immediately go to 'John and Alecto have Perfect Lyctorhood'. But Anastasia and Samael having Perfect Lyctorhood creates a case study. How long until they put it together then?

Still, John didn't shut Anastasia and Samael down from the get-go. We know he didn't because we see Anastasia's skeleton moving around at the end of Nona the Ninth. The process really was interrupted halfway.

And I do think John could have shut it down at the get go. Look, the biggest religion in the world currently has as one of its tenets that it was wrong for humans to learn the difference between good and evil. And most Christians just accept that as given! And that's a religion with no proof of the divine! John's standing there, powering the sun and resurrecting the dead. I do think he could have just outright forbidden something and had them listen, at least long enough for him to come up with a more permanent solution. (Read: he wipes Anastasia and Samael's knowledge of Perfect Lyctorhood. No murder necessary! Just memory-wipe your friends a bit more!)

Alright, so John let's Anastasia and Samael proceed. Now, what does doing it slower look like?

Well, Standard Lyctorhood involves the Cavalier getting stabbed. And Perfect Lyctorhood involves souls getting moved around. And Anastasia and Samael want to do this slowly.

I'm kinda thinking that Perfect Lyctorhood is excruciating. So my headcanon is that Anastasia and Samael were prepared for this, but John wasn't. I think it's John who panicked.

And that's why Anastasia understood afterward. Not because John killed Samael to save her, but because she saw he was genuinely freaked out.

So that's my headcanon currently.

(I've got an alternative headcanon that Alecto was involved somehow, and that this relates to Alecto swearing an oath to Anastasia, Anastasia being sealed in the Tomb with her, and Alecto telling Harrow she is sorry about Samael, but I haven't quite hashed it out. Because I don't think it's the case that it's going to be 'Oh, actually everything was Alecto's fault." But I don't have a good working headcanon yet.)

#the locked tomb #meta #john gaius #the unwanted guest spoilers

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evelynnisfrpinkiepie · 4 months

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@greenhybrid here you go amigo, I wrote this really early in the morning (it's 1 am and I'm awake due to pure spite) so it's shitty but here, I'll edit and fix it later

((we Gon say it's the trio and then you so it's 4 bc they are to prescious to get rid of one of them for the quest))

"you didn't deserve that.."

Athena child w medusa tattoo meets Medusa..

TW (VAGUE) TALK ABOUT SA, A BIT OF VIOLENCE, AND ME CHANGING A BIT OF THE PLOT SO IT FITS SORRY NOT SORRY

This was crazy. The whole "quest thing"

Why would the gods want a bunch of children go out and get a bolt of lighting?

You would think Zeus would be smarter, and get a tracker or somthing, but no, instead, here we are, a bunch of 12 year olds, walking in the middle of the woods, listening to Percy whine a out god knows what and annabeth bossing us around as grover hopelessly tries to calm it down

It was tiring, and I'm getting a headache from all the noise

"can you guys shut up for one second for gods sake, your so annoying" I say with a glare as they both glare back at me

"your one to talk" Percy says with a scoff and I'm quick to reply

"i haven't said anything since the bus, your demented if you think I'm talking and being annoying" I say with an exasperated sigh

"your always talking what do you mea-"

"shut up. No really, I smell... hamburgers" grover puts Percy off with a shush

All three of us look at him with a confused look and raised eyebrow

"ugh- just follow me" he says with a eye roll, speeding up and walking towards the mysterious smell of hamburgers

After a few minutes of walking in silence other then the crunching of leaves, we walk up to a place called "Aunty Em's Emporium" with lots of statues

Like... A lot of them

A suspicious amount perhaps

We walk a few feet in before annabeth speaks

"this is suspicious" she says, eyeing the statues

I nod as they shake it off

"it's fine, what can go wrong" grover says as we walk

"it's a place in the middle of no where, made by someone from our world, with statues everywhere, called "Aunty Em's", isn't that suspicious?" I say with a scoff

"wonder what "Em stands for?" Annabeth says, glacing at me as we both come to the same conclusion in our head as grover stops in front of a fountain

We watch as his face shifts in realization

"we need to get out of here" he says as we nod and swiftly turn around, before being stopped by Alecto

We are so fixated on what the fury is saying, we don't hear the women come behind us before she speaks

"Alecto, if you do wish to come inside and sort this out, you may." The women says, me we all look back, before annabeth and grover quicky look away and me and Percy follow

"medusa." Alecto says under her breath, and my eyes widen as my breath hitches and my eyes dart to my thigh where my tattoo sits, inked into my skin

"now, I'm making food, so if you guys would like to come inside for a bite, your very welcome to." She says, and I can hear her smile though her voice

"no thank you" annabeth says

"well, if you would prefer to be killed by my dear friend, be my guest" she says, turning around and walking inside

Percy has this whole talk about how he thinks we can trust her, and how he's going inside. I don't argue with him like annabeth does, claiming she can't be trusted

I look at Percy before following him

"really y/n? You know what she did to our mother!" Annabeth says as I walk, and I pause for a second before answering without saying a word

"i love our mother, but she did nothing wrong. She is a victim, not a monster"

"if being a victim makes her a monster, then I am a monster aswell." I say, as I walk away from her with Percy and grover quicky catches up

We walk inside, and the smell of warm food hits our noses like a truck

"i put some snakes on the table, the rest will be done shorty" she says before annabeth walks in

"glad of you to join us." Percy says with a attitude not even I could match

"this isn't the same for you as it is for me" she says with a glare

Medusa walks in, her white outfit flowing down beautifully as we all look away from her eyes

"you fear I will trouble you for your parents burdens" she says as she pours what I presume to be tea into our cups

"i assure you, we are not our parents unless you chose to be"

"and i don't believe some of you have chosen to be, not yet anyways" she says as she pours my drink leaving her hand in my shoulder and giving it a squeeze before leaning down into my ear

"beautiful tattoo dear, you didn't deserve that, and your so strong" she whispers as I take a deep breath, and as she backs away I breath, and she pours grovers cup next to me I nod

Annabeth desires to pick a fight, and that leads to Medusa explaining her story

It always makes me cry, to hear it. And of course they notice me crying as I wipe a tear, grover places his hand on my back in a comforting way

"you see, I believe she knows, and I won't burden you for your parents actions." She says with a small smile

Annabeth retaliates, and I sigh as medusa walks away with Percy after claiming something is burning

"get ready to run" she says, and I sigh, shoving the last bit of food in my mouth before getting up and standing next to her

A few minutes later, Percy comes back, looking for a place for us to run to

We can't go outside because of Alecto, so we settle for the basement

K you guys know the rest of this it goes, I might finish it later but for now I'm fucking tired as shit so I'm going to bed, hope it was okay lmfao

Remember, you are so loved and you can always reach out for help if you have ever been though something like this

LOVE YOU ALL MWAHHH💋💋💋

#percy jackon and the olympians #percy pjo #pjo #pjo series #pjo annabeth #pjo fandom #percy jackson #percy series #percy jackson fanfiction #percy jackson fandom

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toughtinkcosplay · 10 months

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Hi!! your Alecto cosplay is so cool and your sword looks FANTASTIC, did you make it? do you have any other pics with it?

thank you so much! that sword is my husband’s handiwork, originally made to go with my gremlin harrow look last holmat, but the process was pretty straightforward.

figure out the scale in comparison to me (who is very short) so that it’s long enough to look BIG but not so long it’ll drag on the floor if i put it on my back.

cut blade out of foam in two pieces (one for each side), carving a channel down the middle.

glue dowel rod down the length of the blade.

carve the blade down with a dremmel on the sides, but it doesn’t need to be terribly flat or sharp to read as a sword.

cover remaining dowel handle in foam for pommel and cross guard.

give it a couple layers of spray on plasti dip and then paint once dry. i think he did silver and then went back in with black for shading.

add painted highlights along edges for fake sharpness.

the whole sword is SUPER light and very con safe! he didn’t actually give it as heavy a coat of plastidip as i’d recommend just due to time, so it’s definitely gotten kind of beat up, esp at the tip. but like, it still looks cool even with it’s non-sharp tip lol.

here’s me right after getting into gremlin harrow for holiday matsuri brandishing my new sword:

and here’s some closeups of its current state:

and i’ll have more photos of it later once we get to editing my alecto shoot from metrocon!

oh and follow my husband @shmaba if you like neat weapon designs. this sword is basic, but he did a whole bunch of cool ones for last swordtember!

#cosplay tips #prop making #cosplay #tlt #foamsmith #tutorial

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terezis · 1 year

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i wish you would write a fic where about an idea you have that you’ve been meaning to start but haven’t gotten around to yet ✨

ok normally i'm not a fan of canon divergent aus where the the plot more or less follows canon, but suspend your disbelief w me: "harrow nova" au where harrow sacrifices herself for gideon during the fight with cytherea, forcing gideon to become a lyctor.

gideon, who in every timeline is predisposed to running away, compartmentalizes from the eighthfold word like harrow did in canon, causing gideon to forget her; therefore her eye color does not change. (the "running away" is metaphorical in this au)

so gideon, newly the first, shows up on the emperor's flagship with her mother's red hair and her father's gold eyes and her cavalier's freshly preserved soul in the back of her brain. also, ianthe is there.

surely no problems will come of this!!!

anyways i think it would be an interesting combination of john trying very hard to keep the old lyctors away from the new ones for as long as possible + the tower princes kiriona gaia and ianthe naberius, speedrun edition.

would be set primarily on the erebos instead of the mithraeum, bc again, john is trying to buy time. for one thing he needs to figure out what the hell is going on, is this a fluke, a coincidence, how was gideon born, etc... then once he puts those puzzle pieces together, he needs to figure out which of friends betrayed him and what he wants to do about it.

is he angry enough at the betrayal to kill bc of it? does he want to play the long game, since there are still rbs out there and he needs all hands on deck to take care of them???

for me the way i see it, john didn't kill mercymorn until she went after him first. canonically he was willing to give augustine a second chance. so i think in this au he'd convince himself that he could get them to come around… but all the better if he never has to: say, if gideon's eyes weren't gold, then he would have waaay more time to workshop his plans.

in short: he tries MUCH harder to get gideon to eat harrow in this au.

since i don't think the tomb has been opened in this au, bc why would it have been, the rb would be a little slower to arrive (varun is chasing alecto.) so i think the primary "antagonist" of the "book" becomes blood of eden, who recently killed 18k+ cohort soldiers.

would be vvv tasty considering gideon looks just like their dead commander, and also corona is working for them, which ianthe isn't going to love!!!

and all the while john is making static noises into the phone whenever mercymorn calls, he's playing dad with his new daughter like he tried to do with harrow only this time that's actually his kid,

and actually you know what i think wake's haunting gideon like she did w harrow in this au. this is me pushing my other hc into the story again: in canon wake haunted gideon her whole childhood, until gideon picked up her sword and wake's revenant possessed it instead. if gideon's a necromancer in this au, she never touched that sword, so her mother's been with her this whole time. here's how the caanan house subplot can still win

anyways good au. would love to write it someday

#groovyaviator #tlt tag #the locked tomb

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gideon-of-navareth · 2 years

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The Book of John (TLT)

***Nona Spoilers Major***

I've seen a couple of posts circulating about the Book of John cipher in NtN, and it's fascinating, but I personally also want to look into the fact that each of those verses are actual verses from the real-life Book of John, which details the life and works of Jesus. And for the most part, they're relevant to the story. I want to lay them all out for reference and introspection, etc. etc. None of my observations are 100% fireproof, and I'm totally open to discuss alternate interpretations. I just find it so intriguing.

Anyway, the verses are listed below the cut, in order of appearance in NtN, along with some notes about the verse itself and the chapter it serves as a title for. Biblical quotes are pulled from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, and page numbers are from the hardcover edition of NtN.

As mentioned above, big fat NtN spoilers ahead! Hella long post under the cut.

John 20:8 (p.13)

"Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed." (John 20:8 NIV)

This is the first chapter, serving as a sort of prologue and preceding the Day 1 "act" of the book. John launches into his story. We get a rough sketch of him and his team trying to secure a mass evacuation of Earth. We are led to believe he's speaking to Harrow. Upon finishing the book, these actually appear to be Alecto's memories (shortly after her resurrection, I imagine), that Harrow is experiencing firsthand. (And I’ll qualify this by saying that at the end of their book-long conversation, it is actually Harrow, and no, I don’t know what that means in terms of the memories.) Perhaps Harrow is the disciple entering the tomb to see and believe. The power of God is about to be demystified through John's storytelling.

John 5:20 (p.73)

"For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed." (John 5:20 NIV)

In this chapter, John goes into more detail about how the evacuation/cryo project fell through. At the end, he explains how the bodies he touched, his favorites with whom he spent the most time saying goodbye, remained intact even after the facility lost power. John's words are cut off, "all the ones I touched, all the ones I loved...they stayed incorrupti". This is the first miracle John describes.

John 15:23 (p.98)

"Whoever hates me hates my Father as well." (John 15:23 NIV)

John describes the early days after his powers first emerged, when they conducted experiments on the "incorruptible" bodies, when one by one his friends came to believe. When he first names Ulysses and Titania, and manipulates their hands from across the room. He describes them as his children, and with great affection. The passage that this verse comes from is titled "The World Hates the Disciples," and in it Jesus essentially tells his apostles that as the non-believers hate him and God, so they will hate the disciples. This seems fitting, as John begins to construct his first followers--even if they are dead puppet children.

John 5:18 (p.127)

"For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." (John 5:18 NIV)

In this part of the "dream" John describes the trials and errors of exploring his power. He expresses that their greatest concern was getting caught, getting "disappeared," getting "used for evil." The chapter finishes with John saying that they decided to livestream his powers, to get the world's attention, to seek out anyone else who might be like him, to "make as big a noise as humanly possible." In this chapter of the Bible, Jesus goes to the pool at Bethesda, and sets to healing the sick and injured, drawing the attention of Jewish leaders.

John 8:1 (p.188)

"but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." (John 8:1 NIV)

On its face, this verse seems pretty random. But take into account the fact that the Mount of Olives was the location where Jesus ascended after his resurrection (Acts 1:11), and where it is said he will one day return. John 8 contains the famous "let you without sin cast the first stone" bit (or at least one instance of it, I'm not a theologian), as Jesus defends a woman accused of adultery. This draws the attention of the Pharisees (judiciary officials, essentially), and Jesus' testimony comes under scrutiny. In this chapter of NtN, John details the first wave of public attention after his necromancy livestream, the antsy government officials. John talks about the barricade of dead livestock, and how he not only got the government's attention, but gave them serious pause.

John 19:18 (p.219)

"There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle." (John 19:18 NIV)

Shit hits the fan in John's story. The trillionaires were getting ready to abandon ship, his team is getting completely castrated in their efforts to continue the evacuation. John rages at how readily they abandoned the Earth. "They saw you suffering on dollar-shop life-support, and they didn't look back. They didn't give a fuck about trying to save you." It's a betrayal of the Earth--of Alecto--and John does frame it that way; but he also clearly internalizes it as a betrayal of him, as an insult and an injury to him, and to the ten billion left behind. I don't know how well it holds water to say that John, the Earth, and the ten billion mirror the three crucifixions, but I'll toss it in here anyway.

John 5:1 (p.270)

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals." (John 5:1 NIV)

Another verse that feels apropos of nothing. But this verse begins chapter 5 of the Book of John, "The Healing at the Pool." This passage precedes the "The Authority of the Son," which contains John 5:18 from a previous chapter. That is to say, this verse is another reference to Jesus healing the sick and injured at the pool at Bethesda. In this part of the dream, John describes his deal with an undisclosed government to shadow-puppeteer their dead leader. He repaired the damage done to the corpse, then worked out how to get him up and moving for a convincing performance. Not gonna lie, I love the disjointed comparison between Jesus healing the living and John repairing the dead.

John 3:20 (p.279)

"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." (John 3:20 NIV)

This is the part of the story where John says "get in loser, we're forming a cult." He's got his nuke, he's got his followers who he promises to save, he formally calls himself necromancer for the first time. In the Bible, this verse comes from the passage "Jesus Teaches Nicodemus." This passage contains the famous John 3:16, and rather than summarize, I'm just going to include the subsequent verses to this one:

"16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." (John 16-21 NIV)

Something something, the trillionaires and governments will pay for their evil and they'll deserve it, whereas anyone who follows John will be saved and preserved and rewarded.

John 9:22 (p.318)

"His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue." (John 9:22 NIV)

For context, this verse comes from the passage "The Pharisees Investigate the Healing." Particularly of a blind man whose vision is restored by Jesus. The young man's parents refuse to invoke Jesus' name when the Pharisees ask who healed their son, because anyone who acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah will be excommunicated, basically. In NtN, John recounts how the authorities did not react well to his whole "necromantic cult" vibe. New faithful came knocking at their door, and violence broke out (between cops standing guard outside the compound and the faithful, I believe), and five people died. John experienced fresh death for the first time. He used the energy generated to kill off over a hundred people. The parallel between Jesus and John being investigated and persecuted by authorities continues.

John 1:20 (p.395)

"He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” (John 1:20 NIV)

This might be my personal favorite. The verse where John the Baptist confesses that he is not the Messiah is juxtaposed sharply with John Gaius' cataclysmic rampage across the solar system--his ascension to godhood. John achieved godhood, but saved exactly no one. He is not the savior. He is not the Messiah. Chef's kiss. The drama of it all.

John 5:4 (p.432)

This verse is handled differently across translations. Essentially it reads:

"From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had." (John 5:4ish)

This is the final Book of John chapter in NtN. After the destruction, John resolves to only resurrect his most loyal, his most favorite followers and friends (first, at least)--and to wipe their memories, to change their names, to bring them back on his own terms because "They won't forgive themselves" if he leaves them with the truth. (Personally I think he's more worried that they won't forgive him.)The parallel may be that the lyctors were the ones healed by the disturbed water.

#ntn spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #nona the ninth #meta #mymeta #the locked tomb #john gaius

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iviarellereads · 5 months

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The Plan, Such As It Is

tl;dr: System Collapse finishes the Murderbot series on Christmas. Last week of the year is a break, and then it's the Wheel of Time with likely between-book breaks for one-offs or shorter series, and someday maybe Alecto the Ninth.

I had a great time watching Desert Bus, and helping with the VST documenting and editing and uploading clips of the process of raising over a million dollars (over ten million in the lifetime of the event!) for a good cause. A most excellent week of "restoring my faith in humanity". But that's a little beside the point of this post.

I also got my hands on System Collapse, but because of how my brain works, I won't be reading it ahead, so we're going to have lots of fun as I read it for the first time in the format of the blog. Let's see if my style changes, if my predictions are well on or off the mark. (I have seen a few posts that spoiled a few moments and character bits, but I'm not concerned about those. I rarely feel like learning things that happen "ruins" anything about an experience anyway. If the story's well told, it's still fun to experience for myself.)

After System Collapse, well, that's the end of Murderbot to-date. And, I haven't run any polls for covering other things. That's because I'm pretty well set on rereading the Wheel of Time series, and revising my previous notes to this format.

It's something I could keep putting off, but the show has gotten so good, and it reminds me of all the things about the books that I loved so much (and how the show is fixing some things I didn't love). I'll also be very excited to do full-series spoiler posts again, Murderbot didn't have a lot that I felt needed commenting on, but the Wheel? Oh, buddy.

But, the caveat here is that the Wheel of Time has, well, fifteen very large books. Eleven thousand pages, over four million words. Coverage would take about three years if I didn't take breaks for other books in between, and I definitely will, so we're gonna be here for a while. I've said before that I was hesitant to cover Discworld for this, and I still am. Discworld has over forty books just in the main series besides the spinoffs, with a comparable total wordcount to WoT. Several of those, I have negative interest in ever rereading. Even if they're largely shorter than WoT bricks, they're also trickier to split, and I won't have as much context to share about them that isn't available elsewhere already. Whereas, the Wheel of Time lacks a lot of spoiler-free resources in print, despite the series being almost 35 years old. There was a huge influx of podcast coverage once the show publicity ramped up, but not so much blog style content. The few prologues and chapters that do need splitting, I've already calculated out from the first time I took the notes.

Mind you, I will be finding time for Alecto the Ninth coverage when Tamsyn Muir finally graces us with her presence, I'll just take a break between whichever WoT books I'm up to by then. And if something else strikes my fancy, I might alternate books. Like, making it through the Eye of the World might scratch the itch well enough, and make me want to dig into the Princess Bride as I threatened to once before, or perhaps when I reach my least favourite sequence of books in the middle, I'll alternate them with the His Dark Materials trilogy, though probably not its supplementary later materials because I'm still refusing to read the Book of Dust.

I totally understand if folks who followed me for other stuff want to jump ship when my WoT coverage starts. I love and can recommend it with some massive content notes and caveats which will be in my intro post for it, but it's not for everyone and treating it like a universal joy is nonsense. But, especially if you can get a library borrow of the first book, whether you get it in print or ebook or either of the incredible audiobook narrations (the full series by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, or the first three are now available narrated by Rosamund Pike, who plays the character of Moiraine Sedai on the show), I hope you'll give it a try with me, and my analysis and commentary might help pull you into a series that's otherwise quite intimidating.

So, System Collapse will finish posting on Christmas, I think I'll take the last week of the year as a breather, and the Wheel of Time will kick off my 2024. I hope you'll consider sticking around and reading with me, especially my Locked Tomb girlies because I've said it before and I'll say it again, these two stories have SO much in common, hashtag Women's Wrongs and unreliable narrators. And, I am gonna try to break it up every so often since these are LONG books, most of them have 40+ chapters so will be two months apiece. But either way, if I'm gonna follow my heart, it's gotta be next.

#blog housekeeping

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soapdish290 · 2 years

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When “The rock that had been made meat” (Alecto) awakes during the Epilogue of Nona, it makes the following observation (bolding mine):

one of the children there offered violence to her, appearing on the altar and raising her weapon high. But the black-eyed infant collapsed on the altar chid her sharply in a clear voice, saying, What is this that thou wouldst do, Tridentarius? Touch her and our vow will come to nothing, and I will slay you where you stand. To which the first child said, Thou knowest not what thou dost. And the second child answered, Not lately, but now.

And this, friends, heavily implies we have Harrow back. Fully and completely, and in her own mind. Oh, and when The Body moves to pledge itself to Harrow, we hear a rather familiar sounding shout...

Which strength pleased Alecto, who said: Notwithstanding, I offer you my service. To which a voice on the opposite side of the shore was raised, exceeding wroth, and Alecto heard it shout in a very great shout: Get in line, thou big slut.

Now, I’m not going to be discussing Gideon/ Kiriona, because I feel uniquely unsure what the entire fuck, but this is definitely that person, and is one of SEVERAL occasions Gideon seems to shine through (killing Crux, asking Nona after Harrow, etc etc). I’ve seen theories the issue was that part of Gideon’s soul was with Harrow and couldn’t return, and all sorts of others - I know not which are probable, but... one way or another we seem to have some variety of our two main narrators bodily and mentally in the same place again.

Honestly all things considered and weird arse language choice aside, probably the clearest of Muir’s epilogues to date

Edit:

Oh yeah I’m not convinced they STAY in one place for more than 5 minutes, because Alecto then goes to stab John in his shitty, shitty chest and only mentioned having "The child who accepted the blade and thereupon fainted with hunger and thirst” with it. I presume this is Harrow. I would not like to put a great deal of money on it, but yeah. Probably Harrow.

#nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #tlt

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wearethekat · 3 years

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HEY. HEY, FELLOW LOCKED TOMB PEOPLES. I still haven’t finished scrolling back through all the chaos that happened while I was asleep, but the official announcement is out from Tor.com! (not sure if anyone’s seen this yet)

Nona the Ninth will publish in fall 2022, with Alecto the Ninth to follow in fall 2023. Eagle-eyed fans may have already noticed the shift from The Locked Tomb Trilogy to The Locked Tomb Series in this fall’s paperback edition of Harrow the Ninth, and Tordotcom Publishing is excited to announce this expansion of the beloved series.

ooo, and more content hints!

Look forward to meeting Nona, as well as a pack of rabid children, a menacing blue sky-circle, and at least one extremely good dog.”

(link here)

#AND MAY I JOIN YOU ALL IN EXCITED SCREAMING #AAAAAAAA #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #tamsyn muir #BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT #also gah fall 2022 is a *long* way away

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lyrifaun · 1 month

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I FINISHED MY BIG PAINTING COMMISSION

pics to follow. Also oops I made her Alecto coded so maybe an Alecto edit to follow too

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darlingofdots · 3 years

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So, what’s up with Aiglamene?

Gideon’s sword is clearly an important part of the narrative, not just because it’s cool as heck but also because it’s the vessel for Commander Wake’s spirit. So what is up with that thing, and why did Aiglamene give it to her?

(citations will be from the Tor hardcover editions)

Aiglamene requested a standard-issue infantry sword from Drearburh stock to train Gideon with (HtN 418) and that Harrow signed the order herself, which I assume means it happened after her parents’ deaths. We don’t know exactly how old Gideon was when she started working with this specific sword, but we know that she would go and visit her mother’s niche in the ossuary to ‘catch her up’ (HtN 477). Harrow says she hated that sword ‘for years’ (HtN 418), which I am taking to mean that she sensed the revenant attached to it, but not necessarily from the outset. Wake says she was hiding ‘in my bones. Then a blade’ (HtN 469), so her spirit initially attached to her skeleton, then the sword - the best explanation for that is that she jumped at some point, either deliberately or by accident.

Once on the Mithraeum, Wake anchors part of her spirit in Harrow (HtN 420, Abigail explains that the Sleeper is tied to a physical object and she can only exorcise the part haunting Harrow), and uses that part to pilot her body to the chapel where Cytherea’s corpse is laid out and stabs it through the heart with the sword, transferring at least a part of herself to the corpse (HtN 136). I’m not entirely sure if at this point Wake is split into two or three parts, one in Harrow, one in Cytherea, and possibly one still in the sword. Harrow continues to react strongly to the sword’s presence, but I think this is due to its strong connection to Gideon triggering the effects of the homebrew lobotomy, as nobody else on the Mithraeum ever remarks upon the sword itself.

Either way, Abigail and the Ghost Crew exorcise the Sleeper from Harrow (HtN 454f) and Pyrrha destroys Cytherea’s corpse by shooting her brains out (HtN 472), so Wake is gone, whether permanently destroyed or moved on to the River.

Now, I’ve seen some speculation as to how the sword got to Gideon in the first place, wondering about Aiglamene’s decision to request it for her to train with. To be quite honest, I don’t think there’s anything odd or suspicious about it. Gideon makes it quite clear that the Ninth House has no real use for her in any of the usual capacities (GtN 24), but when she was little (meaning before Harrow’s parents’ deaths), there would still have been the option to one day join the Cohort and make herself useful to the House that way, by earning prize money etc., so it would have made sense for her to be trained up as a swordswoman.

Aiglamene is positioned as a sympathetic figure to both Gideon and Harrow; obviously she seems to be the only person in Drearburh who isn’t afraid of Gideon and even seems to have some affection for her, but she’s also fiercely loyal to Harrow and the House of the Ninth. She lectures Gideon at length about how joining Harrow at Canaan House is her only chance to get out of Drearburh, but she also scolds Harrow for having ‘dealt her too ill’ (GtN 53), and tells her that if she does not let Gideon go after she has attained Lyctorhood, it will be ‘a betrayal of myself, who is your retainer and was your mother’s retainer’ (GtN 53) and her condemnation of Gideon’s escape attempts (GtN 21) show that although she agrees that Gideon has been treated badly, she still follows and approves of the Ninth House hierarchy.

We know that Aiglamene served in the Cohort (she is repeatedly identified as an ‘old soldier’) and has a fierce sense of duty; she tells Gideon that ‘[a] soldier’s best quality is her sense of allegiance’ (GtN 43). The last Ninth House members who joined the Cohort died in action five years ago as of the beginning of HtN (81), so the Ninth was indeed sending people to serve until relatively recently, which would explain why Aiglamene would decide to train Gideon and also why the House had a standard-issue infantry sword at hand.

There’s been a lot of speculation, I think, about whether there might be more to this, and I obviously cannot definitively say that there isn’t - until Alecto the Ninth comes out, we won’t know anything for sure - but it seems to be that there doesn’t need to be anything more complicated. The puzzle pieces are spread out across two books, but they all fit together and I don’t see any glaring holes. To be honest, I think more complicated explanations that imply that Aiglamene somehow knew about Wake’s revenant or had connections to BoE don’t really work within the narrative; surely if that was the case, she could have figured out an easier way to get Gideon/the sword/Wake off the Ninth, and sooner, without having to wait for an invitation from the Necrolord Prime to present itself?

I am by no means trying to tell people to stop speculating or that anyone’s interpretations are flat-out wrong! By all means, theorise away. But I thought it would be helpful to assemble the information we have in one place, so we can theorise responsibly and with all the tools available to us!

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth #aiglamene #jo rambles #long post

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tazmuir · 4 years

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“But now I shall never get out,” said Floralinda, in tears, “there is no solution to my problem that isn’t a prince, and I’m all out of princes, and I don’t want to jump out of the window and die. This is the worst conundrum I ever heard of.”

(rolls down a dusty hill through open window) Boy! Not much has happened since I last posted on Tumblr (laugh track) but every so often I amble on to tell you, three followers and my boyhood friend Christopher who still hasn’t read any of my God damned books and yet makes fun of me ceaselessly, about all the wild things occurring:

Gideon the Ninth is now available in paperback. This provides warm nesting material for winter, and also contains a new appendix of material, including an in-universe essay about how thinking the cavalier-necromancer relationship is ‘horny’ is an evil idea that nobody should ever commit to in fiction, which is how you know that in-universe fiction commits to it constantly; it also has a dossier compiled by Cpt. Judith Deuteros about how Coronabeth Tridentarius is NOT a babe. Talk about a challenger for Tolkien’s appendices

Harrow the Ninth arrives in less than a month. I received my hardback copies of it (author’s privilege) and flipped through it. It landed open at a scene where Harrow gets told the whole plot of a romance novel. I write only the hardest action scenes

My novella, “Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower”, has been announced for November 2020! That’s this year, if we live! It’s a VERY long novella. My first reader, whose name rhymes with “A.K. Farkwood”, described it as “Enid Blyton meets Slay the Spire”. If you were forced at gunpoint as a child to read “Pip the Elf” and wished dreamily that Pip would fall off a cliff already, this is for you! It’s about an awful princess who meets an awful fairy, and their adventures in being forced into the same small space together eating the same damn meal over and over (NOTE: I wrote it BEFORE lockdown).

Subterranean Press specialises in very beautiful hardback editions and the end physical product will be very specific and lovely, but for those of us with limited shelf space it WILL also be out in ebook (that’s just not available to pre-order).

I’ve received lovely messages and questions and one day I’ll get to them. Until Alecto is done, however, forgive me for that day not being today; soon. Thank you so much for all the support.

#princess floralinda and the forty-flight tower #subterranean press #harrow the ninth #gideon the ninth #publications #the cohort dossier is just a collection of judith deuteros' incredible thoughts but i had fun writing them #'i once met palamedes sextus. he made a joke and therefore should be removed from office'

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actiobellicahq · 3 years

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Happy Holidays, students! We here at ABHQ wanted to say a huge thank you to all of our members. You’ve all participated so well in recent events, and have made our rp holidays so special! We love you all dearly, and we wanted to give your characters a little holiday gift of their own just to say thank you for being wonderful.....

It will never be discovered just who was behind it, but each and every student awoke this morning to find a present sitting on their doorstep, or to find an owl interrupting their breakfast, nearly dropping a parcel in their cereal bowls. A small note seems to be attached to every single gift, neatly detailing what they all were in need of, or what their heart desired, whether they knew it or not. Better not tell the professors if you received something scandalous, students!

The following gifts were delivered:

Amycus Carrow receives a charmed suit jacket that changes colour on command. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the charming chameleon.’

Ajax Graves receives a box with a puppy inside, a red ribbon around it’s collar. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your personal therapy.’

Alecto Carrow receives a gold lighter that never runs out of flame, along with a note that says ‘For your pyromania and love of tobacco.’

Alexander Yilmaz receives a golden quill with infinite ink, along with a note that says ‘For the pursuit of eloquence.’

Alice Macmillan receives a defensive charmed bracelet, which sounds when someone is about to cast a spell. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the protection of the one who protects others.’

Ambrosius Burke receives a ring that changes colour when he’s being lied to. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the truth to be revealed.’

Analiese Crabbe receives a live crab, with a note that says ‘For you to have a Crabbey friend.’

Andromeda Black receives a kit of paint brushes that never fray, along with a note that says ‘For your colourful passion.’

Antigone Graves receives a soft blanket, charmed to have the scent of her home. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the girl who needs a bit of her past.’

Antonin Dolohov receives a small vanishing chest, with a note that says ‘For the man with something to hide.’

Araminta Valentine receives a small zirconium dragon for her bracelet, along with a note that says ‘For someone who’s spirit never gets extinguished.’

Archibald Graves receives a brooch of his family crest, along with a note that says ‘For your homesickness.’

Arthur Weasley receives a Rube Goldberg machine, along with a note that says ‘For the most muggle wizard I’ve ever known.

Bellatrix Lestrange receives a fine silver and emerald bracelet with ‘BL + RL’ etched into the back of it. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your recent vows.’

Benjy Fenwick receives an indestructible football he’d been eyeing up in Hogsmeade, along with a note that says ‘For someone with lots of energy to burn.’

Bilius Weasley receives an extensive healing kit, with a note that says ‘For you to start down your path.’

Calista Travers receives an antique jade hair ornament, with her initials etched in the underside of it, along with a note that says ‘For the jewel of her mother’s eye.’

Charlie Wood receives an older but breathtaking violin, along with a note that says ‘For the ears of your closest.’

Dahey Ryan receives a first edition copy of Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration, which is signed by the author. Enclosed is a note that reads ‘For the boy who yearns for knowledge.’

Daisy Hookum receives a mini garden of self-watering succulents, with a note that says ‘For the sun that shines through your window.’

Damocles Belby receives a phial containing werewolf fur, along with a note that says ‘For the most curious of us all.’

Declan Macmillan receives a colour changing scarf and a smaller matching one for Sir Sprinkle. Enclosed is a note that reads ‘For you and the little one to stay warm.’

Dirk Cresswell receives a trunk that automatically organizes his belongings, along with a note that says ‘For your knick knacks.’

Dolores Umbridge receives a white fluffy ball resembling a kitten. The collar jingles when she’s picked up. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For someone who will never have enough cats.’

Dorcas Meadowes receives a book of advanced old texts, along with a note that says ‘For you to put to good use.’

Doris Purkiss recieves a journal that hides any entry the reader wishes, along with a note that says ‘For your secrets.’

Edith Fortescue receives a locked box with no key. The outside seems to have carved ancient runes, one on each side of the box. What ever could they mean? Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the riddler among us.’

Ellerie Kiriakis receives an enchanted painting of her mother, along with a note that says ‘For her spitting image.’

Emmeline Vance receives a framed enchanted collage of her favourite places, along with a note that says ‘For those days when you’d rather be somewhere else.’

Evan Rosier receives a sneakoscope, along with a note that says ‘For the devious and deceitful.’

Evelyn Kiriakis receives a Mappa Mundi, along with a note that says ‘For the seeker of creatures of every kind.’

Fabian Prewett receives a phial of Angel's Trumpet Draught, along with a note that says ‘For protection or defense, whatever you shall need it for.’

Frank Longbottom receives an Auror official study manual, along with a note that says ‘For you to be prepared.’

Gideon Prewett receives a jacket with his last name sewn into the back, which magically fits ever so perfectly. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For someone who deserves to show off his name.’

Gilderoy Lockhart receives a charmed handheld mirror that compliments it’s owner, along with a note that says ‘For someone who never gets tired of flattery.’

Guinevere Montague receives a box with a small egg. Who knows what will hatch out of it? Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your love of all things destructive.‘

Gwenog Jones receives a new set of Quidditch leathers, along with a note that says ‘For the player who’s fire on the field.’

Halim Gamal receives a small pouch of glistening seeds. What will they bloom? Enclosed is a note that says ‘For every season.’

Harriet Arya receives a copy of Moste Potente Potions, along with a note that says ‘For good, not for evil.’

Isabella De Rose receives a colour changing blush, along with a note that says ‘For the fairest.’

Jackson Flint receives a beetle broach. It seems to light up every now and then, but why? Enclosed is a note that says ‘For not only your secrets.’

James Potter receives a box of infinite-refilling bertie botts every flavour beans, along with a note that says ‘For your insatiable sweet tooth.’

Jimi Macintosh receives a leather jacket that never fades or tarnishes, along with a note that says ‘For the punk rock icon of the school.’

Kingsley Shacklebolt receives a foe-glass, with a note that says ‘For keeping an eye on those who’s hearts are not as pure.’

Lily Evans receives a pair of platform shoes that she’d spotted in Hogsmeade a few weeks earlier and loved. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the girl who gives her all without expecting anything in return.’

Lorcan d'Eath receives a self-tuning guitar, along with a note that says ‘For us all to enjoy.’

Lucius Malfoy receives golden horseshoes, along with a note that says ‘For the most pampered, prestigious Malfoy.’

Ludo Bagman receives an extremely large first aid kit, along with a note that says ‘For your love of getting injured.’

Mack Yaxley receives a silver lighter that never runs out of flame, along with a note that says ‘For your love of watching things burn down.’

Mara Lovelace receives an antique chest filled with equipment to press flowers, along with a note that says ‘For the most precious flower among us.’

Marlene McKinnon receives a pair of rollerskates that won’t ever fray or tear, along with a note that says ‘For the adventurous lion.’

Mary Macdonald receives a box full of Hogwarts themed cookie cutters, including a very Fabian looking Quidditch set. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the girl who bakes to make others smile.’

Mason Macdonald receives a pot plant that apparates whenever it’s needed, along with a note that says ‘For your mobile plant needs.’

Millicent Bagnold receives an everlasting sugar quill, which one can write with. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For bursts of creative energy.’

Molly Prewett receives a chicken, along with a note that says ‘For the weirder Prewett.’

Mordred Abbott receives a large book of sheet music, which is charmed to show an entire piece on a single page, no matter how long. It moves with the music. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For music to our ears.’

Morgana Killick recieves a small pouch of False Pennyroyal seeds. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For a rare soul to have a rare flower.’

Narcissa Black receives a boxed moth, one of the rarest kinds in the world. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the weird and wonderful.’

Nikoli Gallagher receives coloured charcoal that never runs out, along with a note that says ‘For those days when you’re feeling inspired.’

Nimue Mackenna receives a box of rare records, all by her favourite artists. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For an old soul.’

Otto Bagman receives a toaster that mysteriously cooks every slice of toast to perfection. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your curiosity of everything muggle.’

Pandora Joubert receives a deck of beautifully hand drawn tarot cards, some of which sparkle in the light. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your love of the future, past and present.’

Paris Avery receives a pure silver flask with his initials etched into the front, along with a note that says ‘For your coping mechanism.’

Peter Pettigrew receives an indestructible hamster wheel, along with a note that says ‘For the one with whiskers.’

Ramona d'Eath receives a vial of unicorn blood, along with a note that says ‘For a lost soul.’

Reginald Cattermole receives a bass guitar that he’d been eyeing in Hogsmeade, along with a note that says ‘For your love of music.’

Regulus Black receives a leather bound notebook, along with a silver quill that has infinite ink. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the prodigal son.’

Remus Lupin receives a stone that gives off sunlight when touched, along with a note that says ‘For those times where the moon is too bright.’

Rita Skeeter receives a green quill that has an infinite supply of ink, along with a note that says ‘For someone who never tires of words.’

Rodolphus Lestrange receives a watch with ‘RL + BL’ etched onto the back of it. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For your recent vows.’

Rust Wilkes receives a large diamond-shaped rock, which seems to have something enclosed inside of it, along with a note that says ‘For the curious and the cursed.’

Sebastian Laviscount receives a box of infinite-refilling Norwegian candies, with a note that says ‘For that post-Quidditch sugar rush.’

Seraphina Parkinson receives a pair of dragon hide defensive pads, with a note that says ‘For the girl who likes to play rough.’

Sirius Black receives a set of keys, along with a map of the black lake that has an ‘X’ scribbled in the center. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For my entertainment as well as yours.’

Sybill Trelawney receives a large crystal ball (disguised in a hat box), along with a note that says ‘For the future.’

Sylvie Moody receives The Monster Book of Monsters, along with a note that says ‘For your biting kink, or your thirst for knowledge, whichever is stronger.’

Ted Tonks receives a shape-shifting mustache, with a note that says ‘For all your disguising needs.’

Tilden Toots receives a single flower that changes colour depending on the day of the week and the weather, along with a note that says ‘For our beloved gardener.’

Tobias Hemming receives a sketchbook that enables the sketches to move, along with a note that says ‘For your art to come to life.’

Tristan Mulciber receives a set of embellished brass knuckles, along with a note that says ‘For whatever or whoever your heart desires.’

Valerie Petrov receives a very old, well cared for book on Magical Creatures. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For both personal and professional use.’

Walden Macnair receives a velvet clothed cage, that very suspiciously squawks. Enclosed is a note that says ‘For the man on the bench with the bird seeds.’

(Please note that if your character has received a pet or item of some kind that doesn’t comply with Hogwarts rules or one that can slide under the radar safely, they have been delivered to and must stay at their character’s home!)

Some of these gifts aren’t obviously the most attainable or realistic of gifts, but that’s all part of the fun! We wanted to spoil you all and show you just how much we appreciate you being a part of the rp, as we fast approach the one year mark!

#abannoucement

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cellamare · 3 years

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some Locked Tomb thoughts based on @ac-ld ‘s brilliant meta (Harrow the Ninth spoilers below):

**edited with slightly better math oops**

(“I was so caught up in the euphoria of connecting shit dots that I forgot how to read”)

from this post: if YOU were in john’s shoes a myriad ago, what would YOU resurrect first in a solar system you altogether obliterated?????

bc *i* would DEFINITELY start with the sun necessary to sustain all life

Let’s assume that the nine Resurrection Beasts are the revenants of the nine planets that were extinguished and then revived by John Gaius. Let us also assume that John Gaius, who serves as the power source of Dominicus, is some type of solar revenant (and there is textual evidence that supports this theory - the stoma, which opens in the presence of the Resurrection Beasts, opens for John). Here are RB numbers, as presented to Harrow:

“How many revenants are there?”

You prepared for an astronomical number. The Body raised its eyebrows when the Emperor Undying said, “Three.

“There were nine. We called them by number. Over ten thousand years, we have managed to take out a grand total of five. Number Two fell soon after the Resurrection. Number Eight cost a man’s immortal soul, and—I still see that day in my dreams. Number Six died because one of my Hands—Cyrus—drew it into a ultramassive black hole, and Number Six had better be dead, because Cyrus won’t be coming back.”

So: Nine planets, nine Resurrection Beasts. Cool cool cool.

John claims that they’ve taken out five RBs. Specifically, he uses the pronoun “we”. Now, John never directly fights the RBs in the River - he’s always locked away in his room, with the excuse that his death would cause the death of Dominicus and, subsequently, the Nine Houses. Perhaps he’s speaking generally, sharing in his Lyctor’s victories. Perhaps.

Then he proceeds to describe the deaths of only four nope never mind I’m gay and cannot do math three RBs. What about the fifth?

When Harrow asks John about Alecto, he tells her:

“When I first met her, I just called her First, One. She was the first Resurrection. She was my Adam.”

Of course, the Lyctors feel a bit differently - Augustine calls her a “bloody monster in a human suit” and Mercy calls her a “horrible thing...bad in every single way”. And we know that, after his Lyctors pleaded with him, John killed Alecto (“’Eventually, you gave way. You killed her, for us.’”)

Alecto’s is the only death that John claims as his doing. His bodyguard, his cavalier...and one of the unnamed defeated RB?

It’s also curious how John describes Alecto’s death to Harrow:

“My first Resurrection was not a normal human being, Harrow, and she struggled to pretend. And when the cost of Lyctorhood was paid, when the emotions were at their peak...we found out the price for our sin. The monstrous retribution. To be chased for our crime to the ends of the universe, to have our deed stain our very faces and follow after us like a foul smell. She died after that first terrible assault.”

There’s so much double-meaning in HtN and GtN, and I can’t help wondering if this is another. The first terrible assault - by Heralds and an RB, like the one that hit the Mithraeum? Or an assault committed by Alecto, an act that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and swayed John to give in to the request of his badly frightened Lyctors?

Also interesting - Mercy’s reason for why the Lyctors asked John to get rid of Alecto.

“We knew the Beasts were coming and we knew they were partly coming for her. She was going to get us all eaten alive.”

At the time, the assumption was that the RBs hunted every person who “committed the indelible sin” and achieved Lyctorhood. Why would the Lyctors believe that Alecto was specially targeted?? Did the Lyctors scatter throughout the galaxy to spread the RBs attention but found themselves trailed by Alecto, the “foul smell” that followed after them? Were the RBs drawn to the one planetary revenant bound in human form? I’m not sure, honestly. And then there’s the one unaccounted RB (5 gone + 3 left + 1????). I have....many questions and no answers.

#gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #the locked tomb #it's midnight and my brain is happily exhausted

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carelessgraces · 4 years

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@srgnt said: the hierophant / justice / the tower / the world ( major arcana | accepting )

05. the hierophant : what are your muse’s morals / ethics ? do they follow their moral code strictly ?

astoria’s moral code, if it can really be considered a ‘code’ rather than a vague collection of convenient limitations, is extremely flexible. there are a few hard limits for her: she cannot tolerate the intentional harm of children; she cannot tolerate a ruler’s neglect; she cannot tolerate the meaningless harm of the people she loves. pretty much anything else, she can deal with — there’s plenty she won’t endorse, but she’ll benefit from a lot without trying to shut it down if she can spin a way that it’s for a ‘greater good.’ she doesn’t turn to something greater to define her moral code — her belief in the maker and respect for the chantry can only take her so far, and she is a firm believer in creating society to fit her needs, rather than just working with what already exists.

part of this comes from astoria’s very genuine belief that she’s above it. it’s not a knowing display of pride, though it’s definitely due to her pride: astoria knows that she’s in a position of power, and as such, she needs to be willing to bend and break her own rules whenever necessary, so long as she gives the appearance of not doing so. as per machiavelli’s the prince, which doesn’t exist in this universe but is a huge influence for astoria’s characterization:

Since, then, a prince must know how to make use of the nature of the beast, he should choose from among the beasts the fox and the lion; for the lion cannot defend itself from traps, while the fox cannot protect itself from the wolves. It is therefore necessary to be a fox, in order to recognize the traps, and a lion, in order to frighten the wolves: those who base their behaviour only on the lion do not understand things. A wise ruler, therefore, cannot and should not keep his word when such an observance would be to his disadvantage, and when the reasons that caused him to make a promise are removed...

Therefore, it is not necessary for a prince to possess all of the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to possess them. Furthermore, I shall dare to assert this: that having them and always observing them is harmful, but appearing to observe them is useful: for instance, to appear merciful, faithful, humane, trustworthy, religious, and to be so; but with his mind disposed in such a way that, should it become necessary not to be so, he will be able and know how to change to the opposite. One must understand this: a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good, because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion. And so it is necessary that he should have a mind ready to turn itself according to the way the winds of Fortune and the changing circumstances command him. And, as I said above, he should not depart from the good if it is possible to do so, but he should know how to enter into evil when forced by necessity.

Men in general judge more by their eyes than their hands: everyone can see, but few can feel. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few touch upon what you are, and those few do not dare to contradict the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the state to defend them... Therefore, let a prince conquer and maintain the state, and his methods will always be judged honourable and praised by all. For ordinary people are always taken in by appearances and by the outcome of an event. And in the world there are only ordinary people; and the few have no place, while the many have a spot on which to lean.

- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, translated and edited by Peter Bondanella (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 60-2.

11. justice : does your muse find it easy to be impartial in emotional situations ?

sometimes !! astoria is very good at removing herself from a situation to get a better understanding of it; she’s practical, and pragmatic, even though she’s also deeply dramatic. with a handful of exceptions, such as a violation of her very limited code, astoria is able to create and maintain emotional distance, so as to ensure that her decisions, whatever they are, are made with a specific goal in mind. as merchant princess, that’s typically the betterment of seleny, but when she’s making a choice simply as astoria, it’s for her own benefit / the benefit of the people she loves.

when she can’t be unemotional, however, she becomes vicious and intense in her feelings. if she should be angry, she’s furious; if she should be sad, she’s devastated; if she should be happy, she’s euphoric. if there comes a point when astoria’s emotional control lapses in an intense situation, she’s going to go from zero to a hundred in no time at all.

16. the tower : what event drastically changed your muse’s life ? do they resent that event or are they glad of it ?

for astoria, in any verse, it’s always the carrows, and it’s always less of an event than a series of events: here, the carrows arrive in seleny after the death of astoria’s grandmother, escorting her ashes back home after she dies and is cremated in tevinter. they stay with the grimani family — they were close to veronica, her mother, and are astoria’s godparents — and ask to be a part of her life and her education. through blood magic, they put her under a thrall, and begin using her to try and unseat her grandfather as part of an attempt by a rival city to annex seleny.

so, basically, astoria’s being used to kill her own grandfather. this is the period when she’s abused, physically and psychologically, and it’s also the period at which she realizes that nobody else is going to save her, and she has to do it herself. this isn’t an easy feat, mostly because alecto and amycus are both significantly stronger than she is; she knows, then, that she’ll have to manipulate other people into doing what she can’t. she sets a trap, she puts her own life in significant danger, and she waits for someone to show up and help her. the help comes in the form of her personal guard, lorenzo; his aid is the only thing that prevents her murder.

it comes down to a few lessons learned, for astoria: first, she cannot rely on anyone, except lorenzo, to protect her. she has to protect herself. she has to be the smartest person in any room; she has to know all the ways out of a crisis; she has to be ruthless; and if she’s going down, she has to take other people down with her. it’s not an easy thing to learn at any age, but especially not at fifteen. second, she is not safe anywhere, even at home. safety is not guaranteed; it’s bought, usually with her own bloodshed. she leaves seleny for six years, refusing to return home even for holidays, and she goes instead to orlais, where she studies at the university at val royeaux. there, where everyone is perpetually playing the game and constantly at war with everyone else, she feels safest: not because orlais is remotely safe, but because she’s always alert. and third, she is not ready to rule seleny. her inability to prevent the carrows from controlling her could have destroyed her city; if she can’t protect her city, she has no value to it. she spends the time she’s in orlais training as a bard, certainly, and begging lorenzo to supplement her training, but more than that she learns how to read people, how to understand them. she’s small, and her greatest advantage in a fight is her size, but put her against a warrior or a mage and, unless she has the element of surprise, she’s done for. she’s perfectly adequate in combat, but that’s not a guarantee of anything. she has to fight her battles in more subtle ways, to ensure that she is never put in that position again. astoria’s battlefield is a throne room, a war table, a diplomatic engagement, and she must always excel, and she must always win.

she doesn’t regret it, even though she hates that it happened. she tells herself that these lessons were necessary, and that without them she would be too weak to have any right to rule; it’s not a healthy outlook, and i don’t think it’s one she ever changes. she’s not grateful for the suffering, but she is proud of the strength she develops in its aftermath, and of herself.

21. the world : is there one thing in life that your muse must accomplish ? what will they do when they complete that goal ?

found here !!

#srgnt #tw: abuse #tw: mind control #tw: death #(thank you so much sweet pea!)#i. she had a marvelous time ruining everything. ( about )

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