#alecto the first

[tomb-of-flora]

Well, if you're keeping track of WHICH fictional apocalypse we're in you can officially rule out The Locked Tomb.

In a deeply disturbing finding that has sent shockwaves throughout the nation and the world, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Thursday that cows have gone extinct.

After fielding numerous questions from the public about where all the cows had gone, the federal agency reportedly conducted an in-depth survey of dairy farms, cattle ranches, and open pasture land across six continents, eventually concluding that not a single member of the domesticated ungulate species remains anywhere on the planet. Full Story

[stringcage]

can you explain tlt lore to me because i (as someone who has never touched tlt) am very confused when i see ianthe (??) and harrowhark because isn’t harrowhark with the lobotomy ginger.. and then who is alecto. wtf

so this is the greatest ask i could hope to receive and i cant thank you enough for sending it 🙏 SO YES allow me to explain to you the anatomy of harrowhark's harem

(spoilers obvs, but i will go as light on spoilers as i can because everyone should read these books theyre insane and i love them. but if anyone is interested in a more spoiler heavy explanation lmk in the notes and i will be happy to provide)

for starters the basics of harrow and gideon's relationship: harrow is a necromancer, and gideon is her cavalier, aka like harrow's bodyguard/loyal knight. and they go to this competition with other necromancer/cavalier duos to become a lyctor, but for the sake of this post lyctor lore doesnt really matter dont worry about the lyctor thing right now

basically yes in book 1 (gt9) harrow and gideon (aka lobotomy ginger (which 💀 oh anon, the layers to this. THE LAYERS)) are certifiably insane about each other but are not technically, through physical or verbal confirmation, romantically involved with each other by the end of the book. but the writing on the wall is CLEAR.

gideon is not in book 2 (ht9) for reasons, and now harrow is essentially trapped in space with ianthe tridentarius, another necromancer who was also at the lyctor competition in book 1. ianthe is a weird freak about harrow (arent we all), and harrow thinks ianthe is gross and lame. but in a way she is also, like, at least an iota of a weird freak about ianthe, but she mostly thinks she's gross and lame. theyre kind of like reluctant coworkers bc they do collaborate on certain things (👀 THINGS) and they might share a kiss here or there

oh boy and then there's alecto, stay with me here. without getting too much into dominicus lore, what you have to understand is that for a shit ton of generations, harrow's family has been tasked with keeping this tomb (a locked tomb, even) shut forever, and they don't know what's inside but they know that god put something in there that can never escape. so naturally when harrow was like 9 or 10 years old, she snuck into that tomb and there she finds this chained up, frozen corpse of a smokeshow of a woman, and that's alecto. and little harrow can appreciate the value of a smokeshow of a woman so she lowkey falls in love with her. meaning that throughout all of that prior fucked up little love triangle, harrow is also thirsting over this dead woman she stumbled across years ago

there's enough weird nuances and details with all of these dynamics that i could go on and on for ages but this is a most basic understanding. again cant recommend reading the books enough if you like insane dynamics!!

[jaradraws]

let me crawl inside your ribcage and 😴 snork mimimimi

[alana-alana-alana]

@mayasaura thank you for this!! I had not thought about it this way!! Made me think so much.

Cuz I always read it as Jod owed the apology 100%, he was totally in the wrong. I mean...he murdered her. And ate her. And killed her bodyplanet and turned her into BARBIE.

But you're right too! She did randomly make him a god. Which is undeniably a weird thing to do to a random man with no consent or instructions. Just because she loved him(?). Which makes some of the last few lines we hear about love from Nona especially interesting... That she doesn't know if what she feels is love but she's pretty sure... which Alecto then immediately embodies because kisses = tounge + teeth so blood makes sense 🤦🏻‍♂️ and then Alecto stabs Job pretty hard...

So yeah...is forgiveness on the table? Is forgiveness the only option in the face of their kind of codepent love? Are they the only people truly capable of forgiving each other? And most importantly - is this why Nona wanted Hot Sauce's forgiveness? Because that scene makes me cry every time and this interpretation made me 😭😭😭😭😭

And of course... the Griddlehark foil of it all!

I'm sooo curious if John's philosophy of forgiveness extends to Alecto. I want to know if Alecto has ever apologized to him for what she did, changing him without explanation and without his consent. He makes excuses for her to Harrow (it's not your fault)(you were so scared) so I'm sure he would have brushed it off if she did. But I want to know if she ever tried.

What would John do if he were offered a sincere apology? Would he even recognize one if he saw it?

[rosenkranz-does-things]

How would you have asked Alecto the First to lie—how would you have persuaded that mad monster into even an unsophisticated con?

[calliclassic]

I finished all three Locked Tomb books within this past week so now I'm feral.

[cutetanuki-chan]

I finished reading Frankenstein

[sableeira]

2025 sounds like the perfect year for the release of a fourth and final book in a sci-fi fantasy tetralogy with lesbian necromancers in space and a beautiful, strong, and angry barbie titular character

[irishyuri]

do you know who i am yet?

[fluffehwuffeh]

murderous barbie ✨

[yuriclown]

even the iron still fears the rot🗡️💀⛓️

[claudiatherelentless]

Unreliable Narrator: Not Paying Attention

Unreliable Narrator: Actively Hallucinating

Unreliable Narrator: Six month old Infant

Coming soon in the Unreliable narrator series! Ancient Rage Barbie!

[finxhes]

This Barbie is the vengeful soul of the Earth made Flesh! Act now and she can be yours for the low, low price of an entire planet!

-

my part of an art trade with my dear friend @janecrockeyre! i am SO pleased with how she came out you have no idea

[future-crab]

What if you were Pluto’s most devout nun and you found out the only two people you’ve ever had romantic feelings for were God’s dead girlfriend and God’s dead daughter. Like what are you even supposed to do with that information.

[foxy-alien]

Alecto the terror and the sublime

[mayasaura]

I was thinking about how we don't actually know how Pyrrha died. Just that by her own telling, she "was killed," and that she was the first cavalier to die outside Cristabel and Alfred's suicide pact.

Before Nona came out, I suspected Gideon the First must have killed her, probably with her consent. That seems unlikely to me now, with everything we've learned about them in Nona.

Also before Nona came out, I came to the conclusion that the lyctors demanded John kill Alecto following a "great attack" on Canaan House and the revelation of what a Resurrection Beast is. Based on Mercymorn's assumption that Alecto was a freak who would attack her on sight, I also highly suspected that Alecto either participated in or perpetrated the attack on Canaan House, thus proving herself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untamed and dangerous in a way that not even John could talk his way out of.

I just recently noticed a detail in Nona the Ninth that might slot all this together like puzzle pieces:

Pyrrha has seen something very like Nona's tantrums before, and that memory scares her. Enough that she avoids even thinking about it.

I think Alecto may have killed Pyrrha.