#Don't @ me it's been a hot second since I've read HTN

[arrestedforhomestuckcrimes]

If I did a Locked Tomb fic

This is a large if

It would be.... Complicated. More so than I really have time for rn

G1deon chasing Wake. They aren't supposed to go to the planets but he _does._

Maybe increase the buffer between them so the Ninth has more time with Gideon. Long enough for that to be Her Name.

G1deon finds her. Hears the story. Sees her hair. This _has_ to be his kid-

(Idk how he reacts to the eyes yet. Mulling that over. Baby's eyes do change color though, so maybe Gideon has John's Initial brown eyes, and as she grows they get the trademark gold?)

Anyway. The Saint of Duty can't walk around with a baby in a papoose, and the person he's been chasing and trying to kill is dead.

Maybe he just. Keeps her at the ninth. Gideon grows up in similar circumstances, but has a connection off planet too.

Maybe... Once a year visits?

Poor kid has a connection off planet but one who _insists_ she stays on the ninth that she hates with such intense vitriol.

Does G1deon hide her from the other Lyctors? Does he hide her from Jod?

Or does he go to one of them in a panic? Imagine him telling any one of them that instead of killing Commander Wake he's been sleeping with her. That he has a kid. Without _seeing_ Gideon's eyes, none of the three would have any reason _not_ to believe she's his. (I mean Mercy and Augustine Do have reason to suspect other reasons for this baby but they had no reason to think Wake would get herself _pregnant,_ you know? As far as they knew the dolls would work. Idk, again it's an AU, maybe there's suspicion but they'll play along for now? They never meant for Jod or G1deon to find out about their plans.)

Jod gives him a pat on the back, and since Wake is dead G1deon gets his sympathy and a little bit of amusement too. "I wish I could say I was surprised, but the fact the only person in thousands of years you've had feelings for was your mortal enemy... I'm sorry but it really does fit you." Probably gives him a gift basket.

Mercy is disgusted. You has a CHILD G1deon?!? An infant, a _cell,_ you've gone through losing your caviler and now you're going to put yourself in the position of watching your own child grow old and die?! Don't you DARE expect her to get anywhere near that _thing._ Would be the one to get the most practical oh shit you have a baby gifts.

Cytherea is delighted with the idea in her morbid, "oh this is going to end terribly, but _what_ a story it is going to be" sort of way. She wants to hear every detail of how the two of them actually got together and G1deon does Not want to talk about it.

Augustine is silent until he knows what he wants to say. Plastic smile and a "Good on you chap! Can't imagine this was the best choice you've ever made but I'm glad to see we're still capable of making new and interesting mistakes."

I think only G1deon keeps in touch with Gideon as she grows up. The others... MAYBE a card. But _everyone_ is furious with Jod when they find out Gideon was Harrow's caviler and JOD is shocked because how was he supposed to know? He didn't MEAN to kill G1deon's child, the paperwork all said it was some guy named Ortus! You can't blame him for something like this :< (Yes you can) So when Harrow goes to the Mithriam only G1deon (and dead Cytherea) have ever seen Gideon's golden eyes.

[searchforthescars]

If this is out of line, please feel free to delete this ask :) I follow your Twitter and I read your Cam/Pal ☕️ post here, but now that Nona's been out for a whopping 48 hours, I was wondering how you're feeling about the fandom and the story about Cam and Pal and Paul [screams]

(First of all, I'm very sorry for this delayed reply - it started off as "Well, I want to make sure my self-imposed spoiler period is over" and then continued into "well I don't want to Step In It, fandom-wise." But I have thoughts and you asked, and I appreciate that :3).

The following content was written in mid-September and has been edited slightly for length and clarity. It's still long. Sorry lmao.

Nona the Ninth was, to (probably) the shock of no one who knows me, a gift to me specifically. I joke that this book was written for me because it has so many things I love: apocalyptic settings, examinations of all the hazards and casualties of love, and some EXPLANATIONS OF WHAT THE HELL JOHN DID.

There was also Cam/Pal. So much Cam/Pal. "I hope you know that I adore you, Scholar." SHUT THE FUCK UP?????? HELLO??????????? "LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND LOVE IS TOO LONG" OKAY GOODBYE

Now, I should also say that I've had a Nona ARC since the summer, so I've been sitting on this for a hot minute. My experience reading the book was equal parts "WOW I AM WINNING" and "wow the fandom is going to go nuclear." And while I haven't seen as much hate as I was expecting, I suspect some of that is because I got over my fear of blocking people and have blocked often and liberally if the situation calls for it.

To be clear, I never have an issue with people shipping things that I don't ship. I never have a problem with people actively disliking my ships. What I do have a problem with is people coming into my DMs, notes, askbox, etc., and calling me names, attacking me, and generally being vile in mine own house when they could just as easily scroll away.

That's what happened around Cam/Pal between HtN and NtN. I'm not going to dredge up the details for the sanity of myself and my friends, but it was real and it was bad. Real people were deeply hurt. I've been in fandom - including some really nuclear ones - for more than half my life, and it has never been this bad.

At this point, my stance is this: Nona the Ninth made a near-ironclad case for Cam/Pal being canonically romantically entwined. Nona the Ninth also established that the two of them have been in love for a long time. The scene where they became Paul is, in my opinion, akin to a marriage proposal - especially when you weave in the fact that the "three strands" verse Dulcie quotes about them in Harrow the Ninth is often quoted in weddings and also talks about two people being better than one, etc etc.

My stance is also: if you read them as platonic but vibe just fine with people who don't read it that way, and you filter your internet experience through tagging, blocking, and scrolling past what you don't vibe with - more power to you. You're doing great, and I have no quarrel with you at all.

If you, however, choose to make sweeping faux-pearl-clutching statements about the creeps who ship cousins, you can get the fuck out of my house. Block me, unfollow me, whatever, but this is not the place for you.

Because also, nine times of ten, it's not about the fact that they're SECOND cousins (which is vastly different from cousins). It's about people disliking that a female character is with a male character. The Venn diagram of people I've seen being loudly angry and faux-pearl-clutching about Cam/Pal as a romantic ship and the people who insist Camilla is something that isn't bi and say that anyone headcannoning her as bi is something-phobic is almost a circle.

Again. You don't have to think Cam is bi or ship Cam/Pal. But there is no reason you need to rain on the parade of those who do.

But, because so many people do, I chose to open my umbrella and shout over the noise with my properly-tagged fic and all my online shenanigans. Because that's what fandom is about, for me. And I - like I ask others to do - mitigate my own online experience.

I'm always going to be a little angry and bitter over what happened with the Cam/Pal discourse. I'm always going to grit my teeth when I recall the person who told me they felt sorry for my sister because I "shipped incest." (Ironically, this person ships the Tridentarii.) I'm always going to be twitchy about being a Cam/Pal gremlin on main (despite that fact that I am apparently now something of a Sixth House Expert on TikTok??? weird).

But overall, Nona's release day was one of the most entertaining, unhinged 24 hours I've ever had in fandom. It reminded me of why I love fandom so deeply and fiercely; it's supposed to be about community and celebration, both of the source material and about all the diversity that accompanies a myriad of reads of that same material. I truly hope (edit: as of the time this was posted, the following statement is true) that this is a sign of what is to come for the corners of the TLT fandom I'm in; I hope that we will continue to celebrate what Tamsyn gifted us while also going unhinged over the possibilities left for us in AtN.