#you have to imagine the vibes with me harrow as the first and gideon as the second just IMAGINE lemme cook here

[tequiilasunriise]

“In another life, I loved you right.”

“In another life, you loved me at all.”

Tag your ship(s).

#okay i’ll start off uhhhh lets see here #griddlehark #you have to imagine the vibes with me harrow as the first and gideon as the second just IMAGINE lemme cook here #bumbleby #but specifically during their V5 divorce arc bc All That Matters owns my ass #‘the one thing that I can count on is that I cant count on you’? YEAAHHH I LOVE FLUFFY BEES BUT WWHEEWWW THEIR BREAKUP ERA WAS SO GOOD TOO #rosebird #do I really need to explain? raven as one summer as two is the obvious route BUT imagine summer as one and raven as two #now. now thats POWERFUL oh the implications #schneewood forest #wondercheetah #tyzula #THE GIRLS WHO GET IT!!! GET IT!!! #white raven #yeah this one’s obvious if you know you know #lightcannon #okay. jinx as one and lux as two. but then flip them and watch the world burn IYKYK!!!! #harlivy #again imagine the specific vibes of Ivy continuously offering her heart to the ONE (1!) human she’s vulnerable to #vs Harley continuously running back to the joker bc she cant break the cycle of abuse like. LIKE AGAIN ITS A VERY SPECIFIC VIBE #rwby #the locked tomb #tlt #nevermore webtoon #i cant think of anything else rn uhhh oops all sapphics

[starberry-cupcake]

I shouldn't be making another one of these because I didn't even give you enough time to catch up and I'm sure you're tired of me (I'm probably losing mutuals over the length of these) BUT I FINISHED ACT II and I think this is the right place for an update recap. I'm so sorry.

previously, in harrowlana the ninth (reference I might explain one day):

this happened

currently, chapters 20 - 22 (END OF ACT II!!!):

we start with a killer epitaph from harrow for her own grave that I absolutely 10000% need in a tshirt yesterday

"Here lies the world's most insufferable witch"

alleged gideon the first, here known as ortus the first (but I am so sure about this one) has tried to kill harrowbeanie 14 times

I honestly don't know how harrow is going through this without outright telling emperor johnny man to go and insert this entire planetary situation right in the center of his bolthole

we're over here working overtime for you and your sorry ass of a plan that is probably terrible for everyone who isn't you

and we have to put up with zombies (we'll get there), the terrible attitude of your remaining lyctors, very questionable food, very questionable decor, very questionable non goth fashions, and also a man who tries to kill harrow at every turn

this is the worst

at least in canaan house we had gideon's humor and camilla's perfection

ANYWAY

emperor john tells alleged gideon the first (if I'm wrong about this, these are going to be embarrassing looking back on) "she's your responsibility, not your punching bag" to which alleged gideon the first answers "I find the responsibility a hard one"

I'm not sure if this is alluding to baby lyctors in general or harrow in particular, or if anything related to the gideon-involvement narrative I'm imagining has anything to do with it

emperor johnny boy tells harrowbean that this guy's problem is that he made a pact with an "authority he has no power to gainsay" to protect emperor johnny john and that alleged gideon the first thinks harrow is a danger to the emperor

I SURE HOPE SO

I SURE HOPE HARROW KILLS THIS MAN

I HOPE ALLEGED GIDEON THE FIRST IS RIGHT

harrow then mentions how she's "lyctor lite" and emperor john of nottingham says he doesn't think harrow fucked up the lyctor thing

he says only one person fucked it up and it was nasty

it was the ninth lyctor, Anastasia (and a song someone sings, once upon a december)

the vacant room harrowbean has taken residence in was meant for her, but she never made it there

she asked emperor john the asshat to kill her and he said no because he's that kind of a person

"she had much more to give"

I hate this guy

he also says "I had a body and I needed a tomb"

harrow asks the question everyone is asking themselves

aside from where tf are gideon and camilla

"God, who did you bury?"

he gets all vague and cryptic so he can avoid taking about what the fuck he's doing

and he quotes Annabel Lee

edgar allan poe's Annabel Lee

this is a bit more in my wheelhouse than shakespeare

to which harrow notes "Who was A.L.?"

now, I have SEVERAL THINGS TO SAY

first, and most importantly, I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS

THAT ICE CUBE BARBIE MIGHT BE A.L.

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS, FAM

here's more magic knight rayearth art of the vibes I get from them to celebrate

second of all, Annabel Lee

I do have Annabel Lee in one of my EAP books, but not the one with the pretty Lacombe illustrations

so here are some Ligeia illustrations from it that have the vibe we're going for, as a treat

now, not to be all ortus over here, but I'm gonna be reciting some poetry

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea.

gonna put that in the 3d model

in the middle of it, like a centerpiece

let's bring back the barbie

this man is doing the whole wife/madwoman in the attic gothic trope but instead of an attic it's a tomb in pluto

another madwoman archetype to add to the list, we've got a whole collection

CHAPTER 21

we have summoned ortus by reciting poetry, because we're back in the gideon-less version of canaan house

so, the sixth is dead in this version

the sleeper or random rifle carrying person shot them in the face a bunch of times

what I wanted to do to not!dulcinea

harrow mentions not having seen camilla or palmolive much in this gideon-less version

devastating for her not to have met camilla

so then protozoa and dulcinea come in

notice I didn't say not!dulcinea

that's because this is the real deal dulcinea and the alive non zombified protozoa

we can know this by their descriptions (especially the hair), the fact that dulcinea knows who tf palmolive is, that she has a breathing tube that palmolive designed for her (this guy istg), that she can identify them and calls them "cam" and "pal"

I was so caught up on this book I forgot to read the short story that came before it btw

anyway, we also know this because protozoa speaks, but we'll get to that

before that, ortus calls the sleeper "the waker" and it's giving me the vibes of the citadel deck

wait, I'm gonna take a pic of some of the cards that give me the correct tlt vibes, so you know what the hecko I'm talking about

(I'm going on unplanned tangents but maybe someone appreciates them)

(we've moved from 3d models to me fetching books and decks from my shelves, what has palmolive done to me)

so, as previously established, protozoa speaks, which is how we know he might be the real one and not the zombie version

he then proceeds to recite poetry

ortus is feral about this

I thought initially that they were gonna have to make room for protozoa in the polycule ortus is in with the fifth, but he doesn't like protozoa coming for his gig

abby says "we're all in this together" which reminds me I did make a high school musical connection with magnus before, so it's funny that it turned out that way

abby asks real dulcinea, aka "dulcie" to her, to bring in mayonnaise uncle because he'll listen to her

why is everyone always into her in all the aus, idk

this one is less bad than not!dulcinea though, but the bar for that was on the subsoil

magnus (who is very much in love with his wife and he's pointing it out every chance he gets) is in charge of looking for martita

harrow is in charge of regina george twin (and yandere twin)

abby thinks regina george twin is the most relevant one

apparently also they're flooded with the rain

which was me last week, so I feel you fam

and we get our traidtional quote, this time by real dulcinea

"Is this really how it happens, Lady Pent?" "No. It's not" "Does it get—better than this? Do you know?"

real dulcinea is saying goodbye to palmolive and the love of my life, who I refuse to accept is in any way harmed in any timeline

and harrow "felt something in her core, though she did not know precisely what it was"

palmolive had a filmsy and we love flimsies because they have what I have started to call "harrow texts"

or "texts which can only be read by harrow"

OP is still ranting, a continuation of the egg rant

I'm gonna transcribe all of it and bold the new part, for my own access, even though everyone who has me in their dash will hate me and block me

The eggs you gave me all died and you lied to me so I did the implantation myself you self-serving zombie and you still sent him after me and I would have had him if I hadn't been compromised and he took pity on me! he took pity on me! he saw me and he took pity on me. And for that I'll make you both suffer until you no longer understand the meaning of that goddamned word. Him I'll kill quick because she asked me to and because that much he honestly deserves but you two mummified wizard shits I will burn and burn and burn burn until there is no trace of you left in the shadow of my long-lost natal sun

could the self-serving zombie be emperor john? could gideon the first be one of the people alluded to? has Annabel Lee anything to do with any of this? since OP mentions a long-lost natal sun? who's "she"? has gideon's mom anything to do with any of this? is this totally not related? is this the actual present? does 'mummified wizard shits' stand for lyctor? because I kinda live for that

ortus, on the other hand, sees an S

ortus in this timeline knows how his dad died, apparently

and we end this part with harrow and ortus finding rusted pipette needles

CHAPTER 22

harrow has killed 13 planets in this practice, which is insane and nobody's asking any questions about it

she was dreaming with ice cube barbie annabel lee and she told her to wake up

harrow mentions the sword sleeping next to her in a loverlike position and it reads like a gideon body pillow to me

remember when I said we should have flushed not!dulcinea into space?

GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT

nobody ever takes the not!dulcinea threat seriously but me

I have to do everything around here

she's a zombie now, which is protozoa's revenge from behind the veil

there's a moment in which she trips but still looks at harrow and it's very creepy and well narrated but I can't help but think of the dracula dead and loving it scene with hypnosis

"it was as though a magnet were stuck in the meat, a magnet that craved some polar force within you" wonder what THAT is about

much like the sleeper/waker, not!dulcinea can pass through wards apparently

harrow goes to wake up yandere twin and says "septimus is walking"

yandere twin doesn't understand at first "the name that had never been cytherea's" and later says "tell her I want my arm back"

which relates to the fact that I've been thinking

if real dulcinea is there in the gideon-less ver

how was not!dulcinea even involved?

because harrow seems to have memories of killing her, of fighting her, of her doing damage in some way, of her being a threat, of her doing it to lure emperor johnny boy to canaan house

so we have some big missing link between the gideon-less canaan version and the emperor's bolthole timeline

she can't be the sleeper/waker, because harrow wouldn't call her "septimus"

so harrow remembers not!dulcinea posing as real dulcinea, which does not happen in the gideon-less version, as far as we can tell atm

AGAIN, DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING, LET ME BE IN DISTRESS

last but not less important

remember not to hint me anything at all and thank you for being patient with me all this time ♥

#luly reacts to tlt #harrow the ninth #harrow the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #long post #gif cw

[vaguely-concerned]

the previews of nona the ninth have started a full on brainworm rave within my cranium by just like... laser focusing in on my mercymorn & augustine feels. and since I have several of their main scenes bookmarked on my audio book app (I am normal), I started going over some of them again and like... wow they’re fucking me up from their very first scene together.   

what really stood out to me this time is that augustine goes up to hold the eulogy for cytherea specifically to lessen john’s pain; in response to god’s grief augustine takes on the task/responsibility of easing it as he doesn’t for either mercy’s or his own. while mercy talks he mostly just listens, respectfully, even (for the first and last time don’t worry lol). I think he probably did care about cytherea in herself too, as much as his motheaten hollowed-out heart allows for at this point (he seems to be quite upset by someone messing around with her body, even aside from thinking it’s mercy doing it), but when you read how the scene goes down augustine only takes an active part in response to john’s distress. he rests his hand on john’s shoulder in comfort and he gets up ‘like it hurts’ to say the words for cytherea. this pattern they apparently set up from the very beginning where mercy confronts john with the harsh truths he doesn’t want to acknowledge -- “There they go, John“, “She said, ‘We had the choice to stop’” -- and augustine smoothes things over in the wake of it, removes discomforts; still does the board meetings he hates for him, as it were.

like. holy shit. imagine having eldest daughter trauma (gender neutral) with god himself for ten thousand years. “Come, swear your loyalty, my son—my brother—beloved—Lyctor—saint.” no boundaries buddy you can only be something in relation to me!!! ‘he could have gone anywhere, but he stuck with me’. what a mess! what an absolute mess, especially knowing it’s been like that right from the beginning. he gave john (and john’s dreams -- his empire) everything: his life, his time, his loyalty, his brother, and john took it. john took it all, including mercy at the end, like she was just another... thing no one would miss. what a brilliant dark mirror of what gideon thinks she wants harrow to do to her but which a) harrow has the soul and sense not to do or want and b) would doom them both if it actually happened. the subtexual/implicit mirrors of the process of lyctorhood just aaaaallll over this empire john has built around him, even & especially with those closest to him. NO normal vibes on this haunted fucking space station I’m going to create an interpersonal dynamic that is so incredibly toxic and insidious it takes you thousands of years to figure out something’s very very off and by then it’s waaaaay too late, we’ve all got rivers of blood on our hands by now and no clean water left anywhere 

(also “Ten thousand years, and I never heard her say an unkind word, except when it was very funny. She loved us unguardedly, all of us, which showed both her patience and her enormous capacity.”

the ‘my bones will rest easy next to your bones’ speech deservedly gets a lot of recognition but I’m always struck by the dry mundane loveliness of that description, the resigned rotted fondness. and he immediately undercuts it by kind of dunking on loveday too which is soooo... *tirls hair around my finger* ahaha nooo stop you’re such a shitty human being you’ll make me completely obsessed with you ;) )

augustine will be like... *turns up to not be the worst person in the room only because john and mercy are also in said room and they’ve got a pretty level playing field going now after all these years, has a moment where after a whole book of a sort of glib mean-spirited ennui he suddenly says something so hauntingly beautiful and profound you get dizzy, goes back to being the worst person in the room again like nothing ever happened* and then you just have to live with ‘Bury me next to you in that unmarked grave, Joy’ forevermore. 

augustine and mercy praying only for their own cessation at the end and not even getting that. their best friend and dad and spouse and boss and king and god... is god. and they couldn’t even get that unmarked grave together. I just. hello darkness my old friend etc.

tl;dr: someone on the internet had to be an augustine stan by sheer law of averages and I am devastated again and again to find that it is me. I am that person.

#the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #harrow the ninth #augustine the first #mercymorn the first #john gaius #please understand that I am unhinged about this #seeing the john prologue and being like 'hm. have I misjudged him?' #and then looking alllllllll around him for how he affects those he 'loves' and going 'no. no probably not' lmao #I cannot explain to you the strange surge of joy I got just seeing mercy's dialogue in the preview. you could feel the... herness of it all #just from that #god why did I have to get attached to the horrible old war criminals there's not going to be anything good for anyone here fhksjdas

[lady-harrowhark]

What do you imagine weddings in the nine houses are like? Do you think they still wear white or abide by any more traditional pre-resurrection customs? Since Jod drew so much inspiration from both Rome and Catholicism (Catholic wedding doctrine is based on the ideas of free will marriage that were tradition in ancient Rome) I think it's likely but there has to be some insane necromancy element too. Maybe a riff on the eucharist from wedding masses? Also, how do you think it varies from house to house? You always have really fun and creative ideas about the world, so I thought I'd ask your opinion about one of my favorite random headcanons to think about. (P.S. I hope the eras concert was fun!!)

Oh gosh, first of all, that is incredibly flattering lol. Second... I actually hadn't given this just a ton of thought before getting this, so it's been fun to thing about!

I think they probably resemble Christian/Catholic wedding ceremonies enough to be recognizable as such, but I would love it if they were like, the funhouse mirror version of that. I LOVE the idea of the Eucharist being involved prominently, but maybe even at a more symbolic level? Like we could obviously tie that to the whole "consume the flesh" thing, but I just feel like Tamsyn could come up with a really cool play on that concept that would never even occur to me lol.

I kind of doubt they wear white; I don't really have a good rationale for this other than vibes. Just thinking about how we see a decent range of aesthetics across the clothing of the Houses, especially in color, it would track that they have differing customs for wedding/ceremonial attire as well. Like, I can't really imagine that the Sixth whole gray librarian thing translates into formalwear the same way that say, the Third does (although using the Third as an example feels like cheating, because I suspect they go over the top for EVERYTHING so no one was gonna be doing it like them anyway lmao).

As an aside, I'm pausing for a moment to push one of my most indulgent AtN bingo card items, which is Harrow wearing white. I know the Lyctor robes are like, iridescent white, but I mean purely white. With Alecto getting so much imagery around light, and how Harrow describes her in the Tomb as wearing wearing "a white shift", it could be a cool parallel. Oh also, now that I think about it, the whole thing about Harrow being a nun, i.e., "betrothed to the Locked Tomb". Plus like, there's something there about the way it would be close to but not exactly like the iridescent white of the Lyctor robes, like, John was trying to emulate that and could only achieve a flashy approximation. And something something Harrow setting aside the black of the Ninth something mumble. But mostly, I'm heart eyes over more wedding/marriage imagery for her and Gideon 🥰 (Idk what to make of that in contrast to the white that the Tower Princes wear, but it's entirely hypothetical at this point, which means that I can ignore anything that doesn't fit my agenda.)

On my last reread, one of the little details that I was actually really taken by was that Magnus is noted to be wearing a wedding ring. So that tradition still stands, at least for the Fifth, and I absolutely melted over it.

I would kind of assume the vibe of a wedding ceremony varies from House to House, maybe along the lines of what we know about the cultures of each and what they tend to emphasize. If that's the case, I would LOVE to see a Seventh wedding; I bet it's gorgeous and deliciously fucked up. I'm really really curious about the wedding that Tamsyn has mentioned being in AtN, especially because she mentioned party dresses, and you know how I love putting blorbos in outfits. I suspect that her saying that is a bit of a red herring... Like if I'm giving my best guess, there WILL be a wedding (an actual one, not just a symbolic Lyctorhood whatever wedding) BUT I don't it will be the focus. I could see it being used really neatly as backdrop for some heisty business, more of a plot device to get people all in one place or as a distraction. I'm not getting my hopes up to see the actual ceremony, I guess is what I'm saying. The real action might be happening in the next room over.

(and P.S. THANK YOU! It was AMAZING and honestly, probably the best night of my life and also I cried for basically the entire thing, I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to be there. I got to go with my best friends, who live quite far away from me and I hadn't seen since January, which made it that much more fun. We went to the second night, and we mostly stayed off our phones/away from any social media so that we could go in and be completely surprised without having seen anything about it, and I'm so glad we did! I wouldn't have held out if we were going to a different date lol.)

#me writing about weddings in the love-and-grief series: 😐 #me adding a post script about the Eras tour: 😭 #no joke though i did tear up a bit. which isn't surprising because i also get teary when i rewatch the videos i took lol #live music in general makes me really emotional but i also get really emotional about Taylor's music in particular #having grown up right along with her (i actually was at one of her first headlining shows in 2008 when only her debut was out) #and how her album releases have magically lined up with a lot of the big transitions in my own life #but anyway now i'm derailing in the tags lol #thank you for sending this! it was super fun to think about and i want to hear everyone else's thoughts! #also sorry i took so long to get to this - my brain has been fried #i still have a few more and i promise i will get to them!!!!! #tlt #my tlt thoughts #ask #anonymous

[decepti-thots]

☕ If you haven't read them that's fine, but... Do you have any thoughts about The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir? (Gideon the Ninth, etc). (And if you haven't read them, highly recommended!)

oh FRIEND, you're in luck! the locked tomb was my Big Readthrough for this year, the first time i've made it through a bunch of big complicated fiction books in a long time. (for years, most of my reading has either been sub-book length, one-off novellas, or non-fiction.)

anyway. my thoughts are that i love it very very much. i was recommended it several times over by people who basically said "you, specifically, should read these books" and i consider it the highest compliment. what surprised me was how they wound up being NOTHING like the vibes i had encountered online suggested to me before picking them up myself. for a start, i was initially kinda less enthusiastic because i thought they were straightforward romance genre crossover books (as in, romance in the genre sense, not just 'people experience romance in them'), and uhhh well i would not call them that, LMAO. also YA? again, these are… not YA books. no idea where that comes from.

a lot of the stuff i really loved about these books is more on the structural side of things, honestly. they're incredibly huge undertakings in that regard, really ambitious not just in expansive worldbuilding or lore but in how they are written. very maximalist in many different directions; the prose is maximalist, the idea of each book being a different genre crossover is a maximalist one… the degree to which each book reads differently on every reread following the first readthrough, THEN also after the readthroughs of the next books in the series. they are books that are so FULL that picking them apart feels overwhelming. personally, that's my jam. so i love it. they are supremely confident books, and that makes it work. i think even a little more nervousness would have rendered them unreadable, tbh. i can't imagine an author less confident pulling off the trick of harrow the ninth's narration, for example. you have to believe you can pull it off and not get sheepish for something that gutsy to work.

they're books i hope to pick apart to see how they tick and potentially learn something about good writing craftmanship from. the way that narrative voice in particular is used to distinguish (and obfuscate!) character within narration itself is really just so good. i really think anyone looking for books to pull apart to learn writing from couldn't do better. because again: they do EVERYTHING. that's not to everyone's taste for reading, but as writing to analyse, cannot beat it in modern SFF.

(for anyone wondering, my fave character is gideon and has been since like, the third page. LMAO. she is my dirtbag sad funny daughter and i would Die for her. but i also love ianthe, who i would have been horribly in love with as a nerdy sixteen year old, god bless.)

#ask meme

[iampresent]

okokokokok. guys. guys. hear me out.  OFMD and The Locked Tomb crossover AU. 

LISTEN. So Jod is like a pirate-lord-guy-thingy in charge of a whole-ass pirate fleet.  The insanely uncreative names of these ships (The Sixth, The Ninth) annoy Ed so much that he decides to pirate the fleet.  So he goes up to the ship that’s called The First (Canaan House) and is met by a startling mix of insanely loyal fighters who would never even THINK of betraying Jod, and people going “Please for the love of GOD get us the FUCK off this boat”.  And so Ed ends up kidnapping all the heirs to the pirate ships and their cavaliers, kinda by accident, and bringing them back to The Revenge (bc they don’t break up or something insane like that wdym?).

And. And. Ok here’s my list of interactions.

-Ed and Gideon.  Fucking perfection. My two ADHD gremlins just vibing together. Ed thinks Gideon’s puns are hilarious. This interaction is made even funnier (to me) by the fact that Tamsyn Muir imagines Jod to look like Taika Waititi.  Also Ed is a huge fan of Gideon’s longsword preference.

-Harrow and Buttons. Look i know you might be surprised but like.  Imagine if Buttons can see the body too.  They would literally just be like. chilling together.  I think he would be really good for her.  Buttons would, however, probably tell seagulls about the bone girl who is haunted but also like. Not stable. or ok. at all.  Just very much a weirdness squared kind of dynamic I need it so much.

-Camilla and Izzy Hands.  I literally just want to see them swordfight guys help I want to see Camilla beat Izzy’s ass seriously i really do.  But also some really cool parallels or contrasts between Camilla + Palamedes and Izzy + Ed.  Very juicy stuff there.

-Abigail and Magnus Pent (because she’s not dead, haha what?? Why would she be dead that’s crazy guys) adopts the entire crew. Full stop. Yes, including Ed and Stede.

-You know that post about Harrow being Palamedes’ poor little meow meow?  Yeah, Ianthe is Stede’s poor little meow meow.  Evidence: I think it would be hilarious.

-Judith Duetoros ends up being in charge of the chase for The Revenge, and she and Coronabeth are not at ALL quietly pining for each other.

-Later on Mercymorn and Augustine defect to the Revenge and that is just. 10/10 comedy

-The Revenge crew generally just thinks that the Ninth objectively cooler and better than any of the other pirate ships because of all the skulls.  Silas Octakierson is horrified by this fact.

-Harrow and Palamedes steal literally all of Stede’s books.  Like he goes into his quarters one day and they’re both just there and all the books are scattered on the floor and they’re discussing them and then they both look up at him like cats who have just been disturbed from a nap and Stede is just like “ok then”

-Ed steals Gideon’s sunglasses for the sole purpose of running up to Stede, tipping them down and smirking, to see what happens. Stede faints is what happens.  Gideon and Izzy are vibrating with anger in the background, Gideon because its HER sunglasses and she was gonna try that out on Harrow but now it will seem like she’s copying, and Izzy because ya know.  Izzy’s just like that.

-Also everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, gets involved on betting how long it will take Harrow and Gideon to confess their love for each other. Like, every single person.  Because it’s the single most obvious thing on the entire ship.

So like... please add on if you have more please please please I want to see your thoughts

#ofmd #tlt

[ajaegerpilot]

ok to make myself feel better im writing out a list of books i've read since my dad died, possibly in order of having been read:

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir (an 'and then there were none' murder mystery novel set in a decrepit castle on an abandoned planet wherein the system everyone grew up in was traumatic and continues to be traumatic in unique ways)

harrow the ninth (secondary because gideon was not the protag. but huge props for the way the voice(s) were written from the new perspective. in a sense both more and less plot-heavy than the first, quite different overall it just happens that the first will probably be my favourite out of the whole series)

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer (paradigm-changing book for sure. collection of short essays, so it's very manageable to read though taking time to think about the concepts which for me were often quite new made it a longer read. also, while this is technically nonfiction I suppose, it's still beautifully written and very much a series of stories being told, so I'm counting it as 'fiction' as it scratches that part of my brain as well)

myth of sisyphus by albert camus (i love this bitch. grimly inspirational and cunty all at the same time, he has the range. the translation i got was beautifully written, though ofc I can't say much for its fidelity to the original)

the little prince (short, easily achievable, makes me feel kind of morose. read it because i wanted to recreate the gideon the ninth vibes. does let you meditate about what love and childhood and imagination is)

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado (collection of short-stories, typically with a horror element, and honestly short-story collections might be my favourite type of book to read as someone who is not great at reading. incredibly rich imagination, written beautifully (although sometimes the descriptions can be Too Much). re-readability potential is HIGH as sometimes you don't understand what's happening until the end (if then) + I think this would be a great book for a book club. except that it has tons of triggers and is kind of horny.)

im trying to read the bear by andrew krivak right now but i think its a little too simply written for me. a kind of want to read 'a man called ove' by frederick backman as i've heard it's good(??), maybe carmen maria machado's more recent book/autobiography bc again I was very impressed by her writing style. i'm working through an e.e. cummings' poetry collection (who knows when i'll finish that) and a book on science writing with my lab. also I feel like I mayy like ursula guein's books, so I'm kind of eyeing her up as well. anyway, I think what I need in a story, or specifically a long story, is 1) beautiful writing 2) characters I care about, and I'll DNF pretty much anything else :P. anyway if u guys have recommendations i'll take 'em.

#btw my dad being dead is not really completely relevant to the fact of the books its just that this is how i categorize my life now #misha speaks #the exception to the beautiful writing thing was that 'this is how we win the time war' book because like. again i think the characters are #the same character and im NOT interested in a romance between the same characters. i dont care that its a novella its too long to keep me. #reads

[moonlightperseus]

That's fair that does sound bad, I'm sorry

I read Gideon because it's one of my friends favourite books but I think that's the only example I have. And there's not, no. I always feel like I'm wasting my time for doing certain hobbies that I love, so it's harder to take free time for someone else's hobby, so that makes sense.

I'm just so bad at watching television, I really wanted to watch it once Babs came in but I couldn't ever get through season 2, it's not even a comment on the show it's a comment on my inability to pay attention.

I am VERY glad I did!! I just finished reading hold still on Libby with my library card which is very rewarding because it was a book I'd wanted to buy AND I'm currently listening to the Graceling Audio book so it's definitely paying off. And I don't usually guess plot points due to the whole "head empty" thing. The first book I ever annotated was the Bell Jar and there's just no highlights until the very end (in which I had to physically resist the urge to highlight every single thing to do with Dr. Nolan) so I'm really not you're gal to tell you if anything was shocking. (Granted I did tell my friend I thought a character had bad vibes and I was right and she was impressed, so)

I personally think Harrow would've fucked me over if I had to listen to it. I already go in and out of paying attention to audio books and Harrow was so confusing for the first like 90% I would've been screwed. Audio books are harder for me because I *can't* do anything else- I have three hobbies, reading, writing, and drawing. I can't do two words at once so my only option if I want to listen to an audiobook is draw and especially since I just loan them from the library there's a lot of stress to draw for like 20 hours in two weeks.

I got to 12. I just keep forgetting it's there. You just like,, click too far into the next issue (page 1) and you're like... "well fuck since I've started-"

I saw that when I looked I just didn't know but fair!!!

I might try!! (I might even do a better job since I have the physical comics)

That's fair, I get that/ Hopefully you like year zero then! (when you get to it) I've never been able to complete sudoku, I know how it works I'm just stupid lmao. And that's fair, my laptop fucking sucks, I need to buy a new one before I start school again but God I don't want to pay for it who cares if this one can barely open the internet.

I imagine it was his phone but I didn't ask. He was kind of sketchy. At one point he tried to give me candy and I said I didn't trust him and then his coworker took a piece and asked if it was weed because "it wouldn't be the first time"

I am!! I just went to my local comic-con (very little comic anything- it was very disappointing. 90% of it was anime which was frustrating because we also have a yearly anime convention, but that's not why I'm telling you) I didn't notice a lot of the cosplays (due to the "oh god why am I here this is terrifying" feelings and the need to not get separated from my big brothers) but as I was leaving I DID see (or my brother pointed out to me, more accurately) a VERY good cosplay of Black Canary. I did not ask for a picture because we were leaving and I am shy but I have been thinking about it since lmao. She alone made me want to just like draw Black Canary for the rest of my life.

ok sorry for the delay in response life’s been busy and when i’m not busy w work i’ve been consumed by a rewatch of a silly tv show from like. eight years ago.

i will say s3 of titans (the season babs was in) definitely felt like the lowest point of the show imo. it was too doom and gloom gotham. but seeing an actual disabled person cast as babs was so cool, she was a fantastic babs she just wasn’t given a whole lot and a good chunk of it just felt like she was just there as a love interest for dick which was very frustrating to me :/

yeah i definitely think there are probably some small bits i missed with listening to the locked tomb books but a good audiobook is my favorite thing for a long drive.

i did read year zero and it was fun. loved seeing harley and ivy be gay and do crime. (and ivy beating up the joker!!)

still haven’t started injustice2 however i’ve been bouncing around reading some current dc runs (hawkgirl, powergirl, wonder woman and the amazons attack comic) and some older stuff (i read an old zatanna special because i was in a zatanna mood) i keep telling myself to read injustice2 and then getting distracted 😔

ooh a comic con that’s cool!! i’ve never been to one, i kinda would like to go to one but also they sound so overwhelming so idk if i ever will. maybe if i find someone to go with. LOVE that you saw a black canary cosplay that’s so cool i love that also you SHOULD draw black canary for the rest of your life (maybe just not. only black canary. variety is good!)

sorry that my response is a little short this time my brain is made of spaghetti tonight but i really wanted to respond bc i feel bad that this ask has been sitting in my inbox for several days. hope you are doing well!! (and hopefully i will actually start on injustice2 soon so i can share my thoughts with u!!)

#comics anon #abby replies

[taylorrama]

The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 13/17

To which shepherd’s field Did which angels descend? And what’s this about eternal non-existence at the end?

Song: Bethlehem, WV Album: [untitled] e.p.

For their final studio album release, mewithoutYou put out an EP called [untitled] and an LP called [Untitled]. Even though they're technically different albums, they're considered to be the same release. This last stretch of mwY and TLT posts will cover the EP first, then the LP.

Overall, the EP hits me as the soundscape for None the Ninth, even if a lot of the lyrics don't clearly connect. Much of the EP has a dry, spacious sound, and as I've mentioned in other posts, I imagine the planet in which Nona the Ninth takes place to be a desolate city in an otherwise dry, desertified climate. Everything is in fragments, but we don't understand how we got here, and some parts of the world are downright absurd and silly. Both of the Untitled albums have this same vibe with some songs being downright incomprehensible to me (and therefore I won't be posting about them lol).

But there are some songs I do understand enough to write about and "Bethlehem, WV" is one of them. Immediately, we have an allusion in the song title. This is a real town in West Virginia and a surprising reference because, in the U.S., you'd expect to make this allusion to Bethlehem, PA, which leans into the nativity story for tourism.

Indeed, the song starts by invoking and upturning the nativity story.

To which shepherd’s field Did which angels descend? And what’s this about eternal non-existence at the end?

In the Bible, and in typical ways that this story is taught, we're told with certainty that shepherds were in the fields and angels of God came to tell them that Jesus had been born. But this song changes these certainties into questions. Now, stories of faith that we once confidently knew don't seem so solid anymore. This disorientation is where we are for much of Nona the Ninth. We're coming from a total fragmenting in Harrow the Ninth into this place that doesn't make a lot of sense. We've learned that God is just some guy and the truth of the Lyctorhood process (eternal non-existence at the end). The way we understand the universe of these books (if we understand it at all) is thrown into question.

Your carcass on the ground Brought vultures to their eyes My frontal lobe is shutting down I bet you hear it all the time

This hurts me in my Harrow feelings. Our poor, sad girl giving herself a lobotomy because she can't deal with Gideon's death or the consequence of having to consume her soul to complete the Lyctor process. She's fractured even further in Nona the Ninth given that she's not even in her own body anymore.

To which shepherd’s field did which angels descend? Or is blessedness revealed to those of us who best pretend? Some counterfeit ideas form ideas all their own I watched them spread for years to my unsuspecting bones

With these lines, the connection I find is more general–this idea of pretending and performing in certain ways to achieve blessedness, whether that be Cam, Pal, and Pyrrha pretending at being a wholesome family; John and the Lyctors performing divinity. "Counterfeit ideas" can easily fit with the whole John backstory we get in Nona the Ninth–God in this universe really is just some guy with some weird powers and he and his friends had to craft a whole narrative around it to make the universe run in this new way. "Unsuspecting bones" is just a nice touch that becomes so literal in a TLT context.

And the nights my heart was tired you sang your saccharine song But when your mouth was quiet was the sweetest sound of all "Soon our ransomed souls will leave this age behind For streets of solid gold", I hear it all the time

I get a bit of Harrow's attitude in the first two lines here, especially calling back to the vow of silence she made Gideon take at Canaan House. The second half invokes a typical religious idea of sure salvation that, to the narrator, is now exhausting to hear. It's a position you can reach after having enough happen in your life to question the ideas you always had about God, and we see that journey throughout the book series.

On a West Virginia road On a West Virginia road On a West Virginia road I did just as I was told

The song ends with this implication that the narrator saw/experienced something in West Virginia that gave him instructions. We don't know what the instructions are, but the general idea of having a spiritual experience and following what it tells you to do in context of these upturning doubts about the religious narratives you're used to is really interesting. I think we can see this in the Lyctors, knowing what they know about how they had to come into their power. There's doubt and grief there, but they did what they were told anyway because they were already too far gone by then.

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 6; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 7; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 8; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 9; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 10; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 11; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 12

#the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #tlt #tlt spoilers #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #mewithoutyou #Youtube

[theavatarspirit]

Do you have a recommendation list of wlw books? Could be your favorites or the ones you thought were the best or just anything really. I'm always looking for more of them

of course my dude

lets get the big boys out of the way

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. you've probably heard about. you've probably seen quotes from it. i myself was late to it (i read it the other month) but lord is the hype worth it (in my opinion). made me crazy.

the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon. yes its big. im sorry but it is worth it. samantha the audacity to create sabran berethnet and let me read the book in a 24 period. the yearning of it all.

gideon the ninth/harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir. its aight. im not the person you should go to about gtn tbh but everyone else out there will tell you about it.

my personal favs

a memory called empire/a desolation called peace by arkady martine. yes i am talking about them again. these two books are the best thing ever written. how many hugos can one woman win. it is so intricate and layered and nobody says what they mean and the politics and the brain surgery and the sluttiness of former ambassadors. thinking about mahit dzmare's character makes me feral. three seagrass can be a teixcalaan so personal.

foundryside/shorefall by robert jackson bennett. me once again banging my one man drum about foundryside. please it is so good i dont care if the fantasy magic system isn't for you. there is a shit talking key. there is brain surgery. there are complex morals. there is a wlw romance just for the hell of it. where the plot goes in shorefall to this day makes me batshit insane. i have read shorefall at least half a dozen times in four months. can the third book come out now please mr bennett i am dying.

the long way to the small angry planet by becky chambers. becky chambers my beloved. i would die for you. i am so sorry i haven't read to be taught yet but i will buy everything you write. but about this actual book it is perfect. everything in this book was so good and soft and whenever i thought something would happen that would make me mad. nope. every single book in this series (there are four of them and all are beautiful to look at if you dont live in america) is outstanding. becky chambers and arkady martine duking it out for the hugo next year.

other books i wholeheartedly recommend

the rise of kyoshi/the shadow of kyoshi by fc lee. yes they are fantastic. if you like atla read them.

when the tiger came down the mountain by nghi vo. stunning novella but i recommend reading the first one the empress of salt and fortune first. also stunning but not as gay.

the jasmine throne by tasha suri. the start of a promising trilogy. the slow burn reeled me in lads. but in my honest opinion not as morally grey as what the people on goodreads said.

sweet and bitter magic by adrienne tooley. do you not mind ya? do you like every single trope imaginable shoved into a book? this is the book for you. the angst got to me ill admit it.

the atlas six by olivie blake. some kind of weird dark academia shit going on here. a plot relevant threesome. not wlw but theres lgbt rep throughout.

the library of the unwritten/the archive of the forgotten by aj hackwith. again not wlw but lgbt rep but i adore these books. third in the trilogy comes out the end of the year and i am stoked. cool library concepts is the best book plot and this are by far the coolest.

steel crow saga by paul krueger. a fun read overall. atla and pokemon vibes with some of that sweet sweet complex moral questions with a fun wlw couple.

jane unlimited by kristin cashore. i dont care it gets really weird in the end i adore this book. get weird kirstin you do you. fun chose your own adventure type thing. main character has romantic moments with two of the characters and its not romance heavy.

finna by nino cipri. novella about two exes trying to get through inter dimensional ikea. yes that is the plot. yes it is good

books that i haven't finished/read yet but have heard they are good

she who became the sun by shelley parker-chan. ive read the first couple chapters and was meh but everyone else ive seen that has read it loved it. is said to be mulan meets the song of achilles, which are two things i have not seen/read so.

one last stop by casey mcquiston. i have read 2/3s of this but ill be honest the sex kinda threw me out of the book. if you dont have this problem and liked rwrb you will also like this.

the liars dictionary by eley williams. if you like pretentious english kid speak. really neat idea for a book is you can get past that.

the councillor by ej beaton. ugh i wanted to read this one so bad but i found it at not a good reading time for me. sounds like it is fantastic though. politics heavy book.

unconquerable sun by kate elliot. if you like greek retellings and can stand tense changes (i cannot).

black sun by rebecca roanhorse. have heard nothing but good things and is hugo nominated and yet i have not finished. shame on me.

these feathered flames by alexandra overy. russian folklore inspired fantasy. dont know whether it is classified as ya but has ya vibes.

fireheart tiger by aliette de bodard. i haven't even started this one but its short and has politics, yearning, and yearning while doing politics.

#this has taken me like an hour so i will stop here. #nobody wanted all this book commentary yet i give #i dont know why all of a sudden im a gay book rec blog but im not mad #i read a lot of books. i have a lot of thoughts on books. i am happy to help #anon

[runespoor7]

locked tomb ramblings

devoured gideon the ninth and harrow the ninth and i Love Everyone In This Bar

ALL OF THE SPOILERS below this line

- i’d unfortunately come across the name Ianthe a few times on tumblr, way more than any other non Gideon or Harrow name, so I knew to keep an eye out for her (in every meaning of the word, ohohoho), which spoiled the reveal about her importance a little

- knew harrow was going to be my fave at the early reveal of Baby Harrow, Age Ten, Hiding The Fact Her Parents Are Dead By Animating Their Corpses.

- that moment at the end of gtn when Corona is wailing bc Ianthe didn’t take her, and you go oh so it’s MUCH MORE incesty than merely the vibes in ianthe’s dialogue, huh

- (me, when the plot of gtn goes on and corona folds every time ianthe takes a decision: *eyes emoji*)

- the homestuck energy is off the charts, i love it. it’s so baroque and the characters are so funny and we are definitely on bad guys’ side!

- necrolord prime, please, sir, is it not enough that you are an immortal emperor with armies of necromancers deploying 15y-olds on the frontlines to keep your empire expanding? necrolord prime????? (he is awful, like the vast majority of this cast, i love him)

- OH HELLO ACT V PART 2

- the previous lyctors are ancestors, in homestuck vibes

- in homestuck vibes: bby harrow with her dead parents she moves around like puppets. that’s a lusus thing. that’s a terezi thing. (rose as a troll gets terezi things.)

- still in homestuck vibes, dearly love the fragmentary world-building and the fact that it’s all horrible (15y-olds on the frontlines!!!!), but culturally speaking it’s taken for granted. we don’t see ppl going on rants on how it’s Unhealthy or Wrong. we do get Gideon realizing it’s jarring, after all, to imagine these kids in a war! but that’s very different

- (was Cam already side-eyeing the fuck out of that. Cam and Palamedes are strong contenders for it, and Cam clearly Hides Stuff-- I presume BoE isn’t as positive as the cult of the Signless was in Homestuck, but was she already involved?)

- hi yeah the fact that 100% of the remaining Lyctors were lowkey betraying John is hilarious

- mercymorn <3 <3 <3 (i: like the shouty ones)

- bby harrow saw a woman in a box and fell in love THIS IS DEEPLY AND WEIRDLY UTENAESQUE

- john is a fantastic akio figure. his take on adulthood and what he’s peddling is very different from what akio did, but he’s the character most obviously buying into gendered roles and expectations? the way he talks about his thing with “Annabel Lee” is nothing but expected. (It’s only through what others tell us, especially Augustine, that we know there’s a lot more to it.)

- (john telling the first gideon he’d have forgiven gideon banging commander wake reads very Gender)

- the pool sceneTM

- the codependency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- gideon checking there aren’t bones booby-trapping the place she’s waiting for her shuffle and harrow spending the night before booby-trapping it better :)

- the number of times i screamed silently about kismessitude feels (harrow’s pitch soup brings all the girls to the yard?)

- *hateshipping mercy and augustine and staring right at them, daring them to say a word*

- wish i’d been more able to focus on the first part of htn instead of going wtf wtf wt

- ianthe never met a bad decision she didn’t want to take home, i’m not even disappointed or surprised or angry, either at her or at myself. ofc she was going to side with god. (probably so she can vanquish him herself later and set herself up as goddess empress, i’m sure she thinks she can fix things better that he can) (i am extremely curious about the things ianthe sees when she screams. what does she see in the river?) (i hope she lets corona save her.)

- (IANTHE LYING TO HARROW ABOUT NOT SEEING THE CORPSE THOUGH Y I K E S. Ianthe (derogatory)!!!!!!)

- absolutely loved the dream bubbles, LOVED that characters who weren’t explored/were sidelined early got their chance here!!

- nothing could have prepared me for Ortus getting a dignity and nuanced characterization and all that in htn, and i <333333333

- there’s an entire thing about the way fiction and memory and history and reality affect one another, especially in htn - it’s a malleable thing, Harrow’s memory is malleable and Ortus’ poem recalls a version of Matthis Nonius that isn’t who the man was, but how he’s remembered. “Is this how it happens?” Abigail the historian not letting Harrow get lost in alternate facts. And that reminds us to be careful of John’s version of Alecto, of BoE’s version of the facts, but also it’s beautiful. we make stories out of things and we make myth.

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #ramblings #gideon the ninth spoilers #homestuck on main

[angieschiffahoi]

Before I start Harrow, I want to share my thoughts on Gideon.

 Spoilers ahead.

While I don’t believe it was the greatest book ever written, it was perfectly fitting for me.

The genre: It was a mix between sci-fi and fantasy, very simple in its worldbuilding, it didn’t shy from some exposition (I hate new fantasy books that don’t use exposition at all... you’re not that good at the spreading the information thingy, I don’t understand your overly complicated worldbuilding!) and used it in pretty much conventional ways. It didn’t invent every single tiny little thing (which I find very annoying in modern fantasy and sci-fi books - let your MC say fuck), but mixed things familiar with our world with future/innovative elements, almost seamlessly. Thank you, Tamsyn, for using insults we know (I understand why TV shows do it, it’s to keep a PG-13 rating and still use swear words, but I find it insufferable when books try to invent terms for everything... even pens or bread). 

I’ve seen people say it is heavily sci-fi and I disagree. It is not hard sci-fi in the slightest and the magical/necromantic elements are a lot more technical than any of the technology, which was basically non-existent (at times I was stunned whenever they mentioned anything that was “modern” or techy, since it felt like fantasy 80% of the time). The author built a magic system and tried to fit it into a sci-fi setting. It very much resembled Warhammer 40k at times (come on, the Undying Emperor?) and had they mentioned Chaos Gods every now and then, I would have believed this was a WH 40K novelette a-la Blackstone Fortress.

The plot: Gay necromancers in space, with a plot similar to And Then There Were None which at times felt a little bit like Catching Fire as well (Tamsyn, did you read my diary?). It was very simple, straightforward and the fact that we only had one narrating voice made it very easy to read and to follow along. The fact that it was a bit cinematic is probably the reason I managed to finish it (I am tired of 100 subplots and 200 characters in the same book). All of the plot twists felt earned, because looking back I can see where the author left those crumbs. I feel like the red herrings were a bit weak (except Ianthe at the end, which was a bit disappointing as the main villain so I was glad to see she was one), because I started to suspect Dulcinea right away (even though I never would have guessed why). Also, I was too focused on the characters to actually pay attention to the plot, so I didn’t guess much going forward, which made me feel pretty stupid, because some of that shit was very obvious. 

The characters: What I really loved was Gideon’s voice. The first few chapters were a bit flowery and there was a lot of purple prose to set the tone (which failed a bit, because I still imagined it more as a fantasy setting than a sci-fi one), but then it flawed perfectly. The jokes (narrated or spoke aloud) were great and it felt like they always fit. Sometimes the insults were a bit gratuitous but I like the trope of being infuriated with someone all of the time, you can’t help but think “oh fuck this bitch”. Also, the puns. Gideon, I love you. I would’ve liked them to be more mature (maybe 20 somethings), but it’s because I’m old and I want this type of narratives to have older MCs sometimes. 

Harrow really picked up in the second part of the book and I can’t wait to see how she’s changed in the second one. Loved Dulcinea from the start and I don’t care she was an evil god-like entity. She was a bit over the top in the battle (that thing about the arms and legs, why?!?), but I do love a dramatic bitch (I still lowkey like her & Gideon together). I was sorry for the Fourth & Fifth houses, but while I loved Magnus, I couldn’t stand the teenagers (but I did feel so, so sorry for Gideon). The Third house was obnoxious and I enjoyed Corona the most. I’m pretty sure Ianthe’s coming back, so we’ll see about that. Not gonna talk about the Eight - gave me WH 40K Inquisitor vibes, felt unneccessarily over the top. The Second was forgettable, I didn’t even understand the captain was a necromancer until she killed Teacher. And Sixth, oh, my darlings. If Camilla is dead I’m going to burn my kindle. Writing wise, concentrating on only one POV, kind of underdevelops secondary characters, so while Gideon’s voice was very strong, I feel like everyone else was a bit forgettable unless Gideon spent time on them. It was a book that could’ve easily been written in first person, if it didn’t have that ending. 

The relationship: I am going to be brief - I love rivalry that turns to love (any kind of love). So, I loved every single interaction between Harrow and Gideon (the pool scene broke me). Palamedes and Harrow had chemistry. I loved that Gideon just adopted everyone: I am your cavalier, now I am yours! Oh, screw it! I’m going to protect everyone! Gideon is such a himbo, even though she’s a shembo, but not a bimbo? I hated every single time the Third called their cavalier “Babs”. 

Things that were left open and Tamsyn better solve before the end of the series: “Gideon, you’re a ginger!” and basically everything fake!Dulcinea told Gideon about her past (”You don’t know what you are to me”). Also, why Gideon didn’t die when she was a child (and the obvious, where is she from?). Where are Corona and Camilla? What happened to Gideon’s body? And a few things I forgot about, because I wrote this “review” yesterday in my head and I didn’t write stuff down. 

Overall it was a very pleasant experience. And I may re-read it in the future to catch the foreshadowing and some hints. Now, onto Harrow the Ninth! Which is confusing? ‘Cause the Emperor called her Harrow the First?

Anyways. We love a tiny goth stirring shit with her “dead” girlfriend’s  two-hander. I am a bit scared, though, since what I really loved was Gideon’s narrating voice, but I’m guessing Harrow picked up some of her mannerism since she “ate” her? We’ll see. 

#gideon the ninth #gideon the ninth spoilers #spoilers #angie rants #ignore #the locked tomb #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #griddlehark

[starberry-cupcake]

We are done with book 1, folks!!!

previously, in gideon the ninth

this happened

also, I was proven right about dulcinea (kind of)

just pointing that out again

final update of this book, it's gonna be a bit of a long one, folks (gideon, from inside my mind, where she is now living rent-free: "that's what she said!"):

we left off in the fight against not!dulcinea

yandere simulator twin w/inner chad was being used as a battery pad

regina george twin is at an unknown location

la gideon and my qp wife are fighting

harrowcita passed out

so basically not!dulcinea unlocks the big magnus archives entity monster harrowbean had previously locked

harrow wakes up to make a bone dome

for scale, this is the dome and mickey is gideon, but she's inside the thing

magnus archives junji ito monster keeps beating the dome from outside to crack it open like an egg

harrowbean starts to disintegrate from the inside because it's hard to make a bone spaceship earth and keep it up

camilla is accepting fate at this point, my poor beloved qp wife

but la gideon is not gonna give up

she's never gonna give you up

never gonna let you down

never gonna...

so harrow starts making a goodbye speech

reminding gideon to take care of the ninth and the barbie in the freezer

for the barbie reference, please go to this recap

but gideon is determined to come up with a plan

*very niche reference but "bien warrior" by miss bolivia plays in the background*

we all know this is a terrible idea because gideon's plans are always "punch really hard" and, in this case, that's a wild thing to do

but she does that

a metal version of that

she decides to, if I understand correctly (because description is scarce for various acceptable reasons) impale herself on the iron spikes inside the dome, to force Harrow to slurp her soul

so this is the situation

absolutely heartbreaking stuff

she's sort of ghost-placing herself behind Harrow to guide her using the sword

like this

and being all silly and gideon-esque and harrow is heartbroken and sad and it's all very very heartbreaking and I'm suffering

I'm ANGRY, OK????

IT'S NOT FAIR

I didn't even like gideon at the start

I complained about her for like a good first chunk of this book

I got mad at her for being dense and not following through with things

I got angry at her way of approaching situations and trusting people I didn't trust

I didn't totally vibe with her vibe most times

and then she made me like her and grow attached and NOW I HAVE TO SUFFER???

what's the point????? you make me like you and then you SACRIFICE YOURSELF?????

WHY??????

footage of me

anyway, it's fine, we're fine, everything's FINE

harrow and force-ghost gideon defeat not!dulcinea by aiming at the "issue" palmolive started

( @lady-harrowhark "paramedics" is actually a much better nickname, why didn't I think of that)

not!dulcinea crosses the veil, hopefully forever, good riddance bitch, you really did fuck everything up for petty reasons

harrow passes out

afterwards, harrow wakes up in like a sort of hospital situation or something like that

the space version of that

there's a man reading stuff in a tablet and a paper

a "flimsy", which I didn't know was something before this book (again, not a native English speaker, doing my best here)

the man has very specific eyes which I imagined in a way that I'm not sure is what it's supposed to be, but I'm gonna keep my version for now

this is the man of the hour, the emperor, many other titles I can't remember, the reason we all got together in the first place

harrow is upset, I'm upset, we're all upset

emperor sama over here can't do shit about it

according to him

which, what are you, the wizard of oz?

he's also like "forgive not!dulcinea, it was my bad" I WILL FORGIVE NOTHING

he says he can't bring gideon back without risking harrowbean as well

very limited for a man who claims to be god

who seems to have beef with a barbie in an ice cube

idk about this guy

so he tells harrow that he's gonna protect the ninth if she becomes lyctor because the universe is going to shit and he can't handle everything on his own anymore

you know what could have helped, my man? COMMUNICATION

WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING AT ANY GIVEN POINT

anyway, harrow is, at this point, tired and sad and grieving for everything so she says ok

according to this guy, the only other survivor is yandere simulator twin w/inner chad who is missing an arm

very convenient for him, who needs lyctors

an didn't, at any point, explain anything

but they "haven't been able" to find the bodies of: la gideon, my wife and regina george twin

everyone else was, at least, partially recovered, as far as I remember he said

they're probably gathering pieces of palmolive from every carpet and piece of wallpaper

I am reluctantly gonna miss that guy

so there is hope that I'm not a qp widow yet and that la gideon might come back in some capacity, which I MEAN, COME ON

also, I don't know if people would be making such a fuss about her arms if her body wasn't of consequence anymore

because I don't know much about these books but I did know that coming in, that and skull make up were my two clues

and we still don't know where she came from and if she's a demigod

and why her hair and eyes are that color

I don't know, I'm unsure about this

I hold hope

keeeeeeep hoooooolding ooooooon ♪

I am sure regina george twin will be back because people have been cryptic about her in replies to my updates

and I hope camilla comes back because right now I'm like a victorian wife, standing at a lighthouse, waiting for her sailor to come back from the depths of the sea, throwing messages in bottles

final extra notes:

THERE WAS A GLOSSARY ALL ALONG

I COULD HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT IT

maybe it was better this way, though, but WHY DIDN'T I LOOK PROPERLY

PALMOLIVE WOULD KILL ME FOR THIS OVERSIGHT

now I know what thanergy is, what thalergy is, what bone magic and flesh magic differ in, can you believe???

I can summon my own construct and everything

it's the only way to make friends as an adult, after all

there is a guide for the names and I have been pronouncing more things right than I thought because many of these are based in Latin and I'm a Spanish speaker so maybe if I had just pronounced them as they sounded to me I could have remembered more names

there is also a list of salseo/tea from judith

I kept making comments while reading them

she was acting like camilla was of no consequence from the start

ALSO PROTOZOA HAD KIDS?????? WHAT????

man, poor dude, rip this guy we never really knew

she did read chad for filth, which is correct

but they were off about absolutely everything else

important ending commentary of the book:

as an ending side note

I'm going to just point this out, with kindness and utmost respect

like, much love and respect and warm regards

don't kill me for this

as an editor

I am enraged with the tagline they have in the cover of this book, now that I've finished it

the quote that's in the cover about lesbian necromancers in a victorian mansion in space and whatnot

it sells the book incredibly short and also tells you things you shouldn't be told because a) they aren't as clear cut as they make them out to be and b) you should be told none of that entering this book

best experience is to know absolutely nothing

like gideon

and since I have an ebook, I see that quote more prominently than any blurb

it reads like the short summary of a fic and it doesn't do it justice one bit

now that I've finished the book, I think this post was about it and I didn't know at the time, because that's fair

this book is very difficult to categorize because it seems to be using a lot of different references and mixing them together in a very personal and unique way to the author

but, because of that, it's a very unique take on different things

I think it stands very aligned with both core classics and more contemporary foundations, at the same time

and the narrative point of view is a bit at-odds with the complexity of the lore, which makes it a very brave first part of a bigger thing for an author to throw out there

and it works, as it is

it actually works well like that

however, as difficult as it can be to explain it, that tagline really flattens it to something that I don't think favors how much more of that it is???

I don't know, that's just my personal & professional opinion, but anyway

I need to go find the next one

you haven't seen the last of me!!!!!

#luly reacts to tlt #gideon the ninth #tlt #tlt spoilers #gideon the ninth spoilers #gif cw #long post #trying not to do literary analysis at the end there #and editing analysis #for all of our sakes

[moonlightperseus]

That's fair, if it makes you feel better I experienced the opposite in a way (I was pretty much directly told I'd have to quit my job, which if I think about it is obvious, but I'm still so sad- I love my job and the people. Part of me is like "it's okay, I can quit my job, go to school, ask for my job back <3" as though It makes any sense to go back to my CASHIER job after completing four years of nursing school) 

And that's completely understandable, everything is one day at a time. I'm sure the future will be better!! 

I would love for that to be something I'm capable of but instead I'm way too?? Bad at consuming media. Like TWO of my friends LOVE sandman so I was like "okay I'll watch it for you guys" put it on and didn't pay attention to a single second. 

I honestly judge that one less I tried so hard to watch Titans so go off. I know she appears in some Wonderwoman comics because I opened volume 8 and she was PISSED about something I missed because I only had volumes 1,2 and 8. But it was definitely largely important. (It should've been the new 52 run) hopefully you like the one you have open!! 

I use it a lot at work to make my hands feel right again, that's it. But you're right!! It's all personal and that's what matters. 

i have a tag on the first book so I know when it's available and then I'll probably try it. I'm glad you've been enjoying it! And that makes sense I get that (personally if I DO start reading it I'll probably google all the vibes because I hate suspense- it's why I got yelled at the last time I read a book my friend recommended. Apparently I "spoiled the end of Gideon" and "found out the whole thing harrows trying to figure out in Harrow" and I was like ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ but now no surprises) 

I went to the library yesterday!! I had to go to work to get something so I just kept running errands so I went to the library and I asked for an online library card. I spent like all night after that just *looking* at my options now. I picked a sad book (my favorite kind) that I need to remember to read and tagged a bunch for later (including, like I said, the Raven Boys- audiobook I think) 

i got to issue 11!! I know that's not a huge jump but I decided I was gonna read a couple and then I did. (because your site is so linear, and like just automatically goes to the next issue, it's a lot harder to stop lmao) 

Did you read the annual with Harley and Lobo? On my old old site that was counted as something else but not yours so I imagine you did? 

and tbch I haven't read ground zero yet, I own it but I just haven't cracked it open. That all sounds great though. 

His name IS Jake. HOWEVER he got the nickname Music Man because he just started playing music out of his pocket because the radio wasn't good enough so I started calling him "music Man" and then I heard his co worker call him Jake so boom Music Man Jake. But if it helps I have to physically restrain myself from instead calling him music man *Kyle* for some reason. (I believe it's because of the existence of Theatre Gay Kyle and Crackhead Kyle already in my life)

I know of that too but I also don't remember where it's from. And she IS in fact significantly better than all of them. Everyone knows boys drool girls rule. She can fuck'em all up and I love her for that. 

I think, in all honesty? I don't know how much you'll *like* year zero (Dinah's in it but not largely, Diana Might have a larger role? But iirc it's not really the marks you're trying to hit) HOWEVER that being said, it's a very short run so I'd say go for it. I'd you don't like it and it's hard to get through just stop. 

​​​​​​​Have a good day <3 

boy howdy my life has been busy, apologies for my delay in response.

as it turns out, and now i can say it bc before i was paranoid somehow someone would find my blog and relate it to my job and learn the news this way, i am losing my job in the sense that my place of work will be closing end of january. i’m gonna miss my coworkers most of all and a good amount of the dogs as well but i’m otherwise handling this news pretty well i think? idk like i’ve said i’ve been so burnt out and i thankfully have the fallback of being able to go back to living with my parents while i recalibrate. i have a feeling i will be sadder the closer it gets to closing time but for now i’m putting emotions about it on a shelf for later.

oh that’s totally fair. i definitely don’t consume every media friends like/recommend bc i don’t have the time and tbh not everything interests me but if the interests vaguely line up i do try. or at least im trying to try. and sometimes trying to try things that don’t necessarily sound particularly interesting but sound like they could be surface level fun and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying something at surface level. idk. its hard to commit to starting new things to be invested in. there’s just not enough time in the world.

(personally if i ever end up in a time loop i will be fucking around and consuming as much media as possible before looking for a resolution.)

i think i honestly stand by the fact that titans has some really good moments. but it just also has some really bad moments. i wouldn’t say it’s balanced necessarily but god the good stuff is so good to me and i am willing to suffer through the bad. (and to some degree. some of the Bad honestly became comedic to me-though bald connor will never be one of those that shit was god awful. boy needs his hair, i’ll say it.)

congrats on going to the library!!! huge step and i love that for you!! you are SO valid re googling the vibes. i didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of suspense in the first book personally but i also was not surprised by two of the “dramatic reveals” but i may have also been potentially over analytic of the first book so i’m not sure i’m the best judge of character.

ALSO!!!! the locked tomb!!! love that series!! they make for great audiobooks though a little confusing and confusing stuff is harder in audiobook format bc i can’t easily reread bits until my brain has digested them. but it’s so much easier for me to get through an audiobook because i can do it while doing other stuff.(i feel like i’ve already talked about audiobooks so i’m not gonna continue on the ramble that’s forming in my head and move on instead.)

i try to make it my philosophy that any progress no matter how small is still progress so congrats on making it to issue 11. i definitely agree that it’s a little too easy to just keep going thru the issues on that site bc i’ve definitely been like “i’ll read a few” and then binge a whole lot. ah well.

i did read that annual! all the annuals were put at the start of each year so i read them before each year.

ground zero is definitely fun if you can put aside the joker of it all! would recommend!

i have not done any more reading of the injustice verse because again. life been busy. but i do think i’m gonna give year zero a try before starting on injustice2 just because it is so short. i keep telling myself i should start on it and then i am so easily distracted and lately i’ve been on a sudoku kick. my sister also shared this house flipping game with me and it’s fun but very frustrating bc it doesn’t run well on my computer so i don’t know how long i’ll keep up with that game.

ahjsjd that’s valid. i take it he was playing it out of his phone in his pocket and not a very small but very cool tiny instrument in his pocket anksdjs

life has been hectic but i’m hanging in there and doing relatively well right now. hope you are also hanging in there and doing relatively well!!

#comics anon #abby replies #anon #i actually typed this out in one go look at me!

[taylorrama]

The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 5/17

Our closeness is such that Wherever she rests her head In the softness underneath She'll feel me And you'll feel me

Song: Bullet to Binary Album: A->B Life

In today's post, we're moving to mewithoutYou's first studio album, A->B Life. Catch For Us the Foxes, featured in previous posts, is their second album.

But both of mewithoutYou's first two albums have this heavy screaming vibe to them with lyrics that intertwine religious experience and the fallout of toxic relationships (romantic and otherwise, but largely romantic). Like Tamsyn Muir, Aaron Weiss is a very referential writer, and his borrowing from Rumi is a constant thread throughout mewithoutYou's discography. Invoking Rumi means we get his mysticism, and the way he conveys union with and experience of God gains a weird flavor when applied to The Locked Tomb. But that's probably okay (read Rumi, or specifically Coleman Barks' translation of Rumi. He's a trip).

Let us die, let us die And, dying, we reply "Oh, don't you tell us about your suffering No, look in our eyes, look in our eyes."

These first two lines are from Coleman Barks' translation of Rumi. I have to specify it in this way since Barks is criticized for being a very loose translator, and that's problematic in several ways (e.g., allegedly erasing Islam from Rumi). But also, it's the Coleman Barks lines that appear in this song and many others.

What does it mean to die in a universe built on necromancy? My main thought with these lines is about Prince Kiriona. At the end of Gideon the Ninth, Gideon is ready and willing to die so Harrow can become a lyctor. But Harrow doesn't let her and is emo about it for a whole book. My other thought is that this, yet again, is a lyctoral lament.

And I can't help but imagine how this admonition to "look in our eyes" could be Gideon-within-Harrow in those Harrow the Ninth moments when she catches a glimpse of Gideon's eyes in her own face. Which leads nicely into the next part of the song.

Let us be, let us be Our closeness is such that Wherever she rests her head In the softness underneath She'll feel me And you'll feel me

This closeness that the narrator describes with the beloved is a common thread of Rumi poems and mewithoutYou songs. The two figures are so enmeshed with one another that they are practically one in the same experience.

This sort of relationship is glorified in certain types of Christian cultures, but contextualized in this raw, heavy song, it's portrayed as toxic. I think Tamsyn Muir is doing a similar thing with lyctorhood. In theory, it's this romantic idea that two people can be so into each other that they intricately become part of one another, but we've seen how that turns out.

And now for some French.

Je leverai les yeux a toi J'ai change cent foi de nom Je leverai les yeux a toi Je n'ai pas d'espoir [Translation] I lift my eyes to you I have changed my name a hundred times I lift my eyes to you I have no hope

Well, "Kiriona Gaia" is just one name change. Two if you count "Griddle." But these lines could also match with Alecto or John. And again we have eye imagery, which means a lot with lyctors.

When you laugh You'll feel my breath there Filling up your lungs And when you cry Those aren't your tears but I'm there Falling down your cheek

This is expounding more on the way that the narrator is so intertwined with his beloved and tell me this isn't also what lyctors experience with one soul devouring another.

And when you say you love him Taste me I'm like poison on your tongue But when you're tired If you're quiet Hear me singing you to sleep

Though in the song and the real context the song came from, this is easily read as the narrator being jealous of another man and possessive, the "him" if applied to The Locked Tomb could easily be Jod. Imagine those who were devoured for the sake of lyctorhood saying this while the one in control professes love and fealty to Jod. Like damn.

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 6

#the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #griddlehark #mewithoutyou #rumi #Youtube