#and muir

[fisheadz]

A bit of a rundown for the Still Wakes The Cordyceps AU plot line. Ain’t no way I’m making any multi-chapter fic out of this one, and if I do then people are legally obliged to yell at me. Spoilers for both games/show, and @milestonekestrel inspired the AU. Plus, this has Caz Survives elements, sooooo. :P.

• outbreak day happens, and the McLeary family, along with family friends Roy and Billy try to escape their town, which is falling into chaos.

• they get stopped by a soldier in the outskirts, and are almost all killed by him. He’s killed, but not before he manages to kill Cait and Maidie.

• Billy is blamed, due to either getting the guard’s attention in the first place, or failing to save the girls some way or another. He and them go their separate ways. (After getting his shit clobbered by Guess Who).

• many years later, Caz and Suze have separated. He goes to stay in Beira D, one of the QZs, and she runs off to join the Fireflies, eventually settling down in a little survivor settlement (either Jackson, or something else SWTD related).

• Roy and Caz go to "have a chat" with a supplier that screwed them over. Afterwards, they come across Rennick, a Firefly leader. He’s injured, and has a "product" that needs to be smuggled to a group outside of the QZ. Roy and Caz agree on the condition that Rennick gets them back the stuff the supplier sold.

• only, said "product" is actually a man. A very, suspiciously familiar man. Yup. It’s Billy Fuckoff Chamberlain. He’s chained to a wall heater, his arm in a sling and he’s also giving off some very Not Doing So Good vibes.

• Caz is not amused and wants to call it off, but Roy has infinitely more sympathy, and convinces Caz to go through with it. They need their stuff to make it to Suze, after all.

• and so, they start their journey to get out of Beira D and into the open, fucked world. There’s some hiccups along the way, including Caz beating a guy to death and almost getting shot by patrolling Cadal soldiers, but other than all of… that, things go smooth enough.

• then, they find out why exactly Billy is being smuggled by the Fireflies. He’s infected… but immune. A while ago, his arm was torn up by an Infected, and while his friend and totes not crush Kieran turned, he didn’t. He was found by Rennick’s group, and now he’s being sent off to a lab to try and make a cure.

• of course, this sets Caz off again, and he’s SO ready to just fuck right back off to Beira D, but he did already kill a bunch of people getting out of it, and they’ve gotten this far, so why turn back now when they’re so close? Roy tells him as much, and they continue on, a bit more weary of their old "friend".

• they reach an Infected-infested museum, and while they’re sneaking through it, there’s a fight. Roy gets bit, but he doesn’t tell anyone. They’re almost there, and, well, he wasn’t going to last much longer in the End Of The World, either way. They could only give away so much for his insulin.

• they reach the meeting spot… only to find that all of the Fireflies have died, via infection and infighting due to the paranoia.

• Roy is devastated. Getting Billy to the Fireflies was supposed to save everybody, and now the group that was supposed to take him were all dead. During his subsequent breakdown, Caz discovers that he’s bit.

• Roy makes Caz promise to get Billy to the Firefly lab, and evek though Caz doesn’t believe in the so called "cure", he agrees. Roy stays behind to give them time to escape the Cadal soldiers that had followed them there, and Caz and Billy officially set off on their cross-country journey. What could go wrong?

• Caz takes them to a small town a couple miles away from the QZ, where an old smuggler friend of his and Roy’s lived. Well, "lived" is a strong word. More like "holed-up".

• after they dodged all of his traps and the Infected lurking around the outskirts of his base, Innes finds them, and agrees to help them fix up his truck, and take some of his supplies to last them the trip.

• it’s not that easy, though. There’s a lot of setbacks and a lot more sneaking, running, and killing, but they eventually find a truck that’s actually salvageable. They also find Innes’ old partner, Muir. He had been infected, and took the easy way out.

• it’s clear that the sight hurt him, but Innes wasn’t about to stop now. They get the vehicle running, and manage to escape the hoard. Outside of the town, Innes gives them his half-hearted well-wishes, and then Caz and Billy are off.

• they take the truck as far as they can, and make good distance. Until they drive into a bigger city, and encounter a group of scavengers.

• the truck is fucked. They’re stuck sneaking through the city on foot, trying to avoid the scavengers that had overthrown the Cadal base there. The scavengers are relentless, though.

• thankfully, they’re saved by two men, Brodie and Raffs. The two are like father and son, separated from their own group and also trying to get out of the city. So, they all agree to work together, and figure out the next step once they’re in relative safety. (It’s the apocalypse. There is no safety.)

• escaping the scavengers is taxing, and scary, and very annoying, but they make it out. There’s one scare, where Caz nearly drowns in the river, but Brodie is able to get him out and keep him alive. Typical Brodie activities.

• they find a secret little community, that had lived in the sewers outside of the city. Unfortunately, though, it’s clear that no one has been there in a long, long time. Instead, the underground settlement is infested with Infected. Unable to go back, the only way for Caz, Billy, Brodie and Raffs to leave, is to go through.

• they find children, or at least the ones that got the easy way out. They’re stalked by Infected, and eventually, they make it out, and into the suburbs. There, they find more notes from the person who started the community, a woman named Finlay. She and a few others had escaped the sewers, and were out there somewhere.

• when they were almost home free, the scavengers find them yet again, as well as a hoard. They fight them off, with Caz providing backup from afar, and they get away!

• not before Raffs is bit, though. Billy finds out, and tries to use his blood to cure him. The next morning, however, he turns, and Brodie is forced to kill him to save Billy. Distraught, he follows his son a moment later.

• it’s a horrible experience, but Caz and Billy move on. Finally, they make it to the forest surrounding the settlement Suze is at.

• She is surprised, but overall happy to see that Caz is safe. Despite the bad note they left on, it’s clear that they still loved each other, no matter what. Billy, on the other hand, is not as welcome. Caz’s plan was to have Suze send Billy off with some former Fireflies, since she was one herself, and knew where the lab was. She refuses, not wanting to risk lives for Billy. Especially after losing some of her friends to a raid.

• Billy overhears this, and runs off. Suze and Caz go to find him, but first find a bunch of raiders. After they’re dealt with, they find Billy in an old farmhouse. They have a talk, him and Caz, that ends with Billy telling him that he loves him and Suze, Caz telling him that he would never love him back. This… does not go over well for any of them, but they have the raiders to worry about, at the moment.

• in the end, Caz and Billy leave to find the lab, Caz having decided that maybe he went a bit too far, and should make up for it by being nice to his old friend and taking him the rest of the way. Suze stays because she’s an important member of the settlement, but not before she tells them both to get their asses back afterwards.

• on horseback, they reach the college where the lab is, and also find more Infected. The worst thing, however, is that the lab is abandoned. They moved shop to a hospital miles away, after some escaped experiments left the place too dangerous to hang around. To make things even worse, the fucking scavs are back.

• Caz is injured. Bad. Like, high chance he won’t recover or walk ever again, bad. Capital B Bad. It’s winter by now, and with no sign of Caz getting better, Billy is getting desperate.

• so, when a man named Bernard and his goonie friend take the deer that HE took down, and offer anything in exchange for it, he jumps on the opportunity to get Caz the much needed medicine for his - more human - infection.

• as soon as they’re alone, Bernard drops a bomb on Billy: the scavs at the college, weren’t scavs. They were part of Bernard’s community (even Billy can tell that it’s actually a cult, from context clues alone), and the survivors had reported that they were all killed by a man matching Billy’s description, and a short, cunty bastard with a beanie.

• Bernard says he isn’t mad, even stops his goonie friend from shooting him. All he wants, is for Billy to tell them where Caz is. See, Bernard believes that Caz made Billy do those things, due to his bum arm and Caz’s general bossiness. He even wants Billy to join his cult, because he likes his vibe. Billy properly tells him to go get fucked, and his mother as well, before taking off with the medicine. Caz may be an asshole, but he’s Billy’s asshole friend.

• after giving Caz the medicine, he finds out that he was followed, and goes to lure them away from the basement where they were holed up. That’s doesn’t really go very well.

• Billy wakes up to a cannibal live presentation, and after breaking Bernard’s finger while the bastard is trying to butter him up with "community" and "love" and "safety", is almost chopped up to be tonight’s venison stew. He’s saved by the bite marks on his arm. He bites Bernard, making the man believe he’s infected… not for long, but long enough for Billy to escape into the town, and the snowstorm.

• meanwhile, Caz is busy a mile away with torturing and killing some of Bernard’s cultists. He gets a location and books it, killing every fucker that doesn’t have Billy’s stupid face along the way.

• Billy kills a few guys, more out of a craving for vengeance than anything else (Caz’s winning personality is totally rubbing off on him) and, inevitably, gets trapped in the burning diner with Bernard.

• Bernard tries to kill him, hurting his arm even more and is thankfully not as much of a fucking freak as some of his alternate universe counterparts, but he’s still awful and able to get under Billy’s skin with horrible words and accusations.

• by the time Caz finds the burning building, Bernard no longer has any semblance of a face. He catches Billy stumbling out, and there’s a whole reunion, with Billy an absolute mess of blood and gore and tears, and Caz is no better. Through the storm, you can just faintly hear a cartoony "mwah <3". Heart included.

• fast forward many, many days, and they reach the hospital. And are immediately knocked the fuck out by patrolling Fireflies. Caz just cannot stop adding to his concussion collection.

• he wakes up, and Rennick is there, healed and well. And then he says some shit like “you don’t have to worry about him anymore” and “your stuff that we promised you is in your brand new Chevy Tahoe”.

• so, Caz kills a bunch more people, and finds Billy on the operating table, about to have his brain cut out to have a 3% chance of finding some sort of miracle cure. He kills the shit out of the lead surgeon, traumatizes all the nurses, and runs out with Billy.

• before leaving, Rennick tries to stop him. He says they can still fix this, as long as he leaves Billy, and just drives away. Then, when Caz shoots him, he says it’ll all be okay as long as Caz lets him live. Then, when Caz shoots him again, he says… nothing, because he’s dead.

• when Billy wakes up, Caz lies. He tells him that, there was no cure. The Fireflies all died in a hoard attack, and they just barely made it out alive. No, Rennick did not survive. Yes, there was absolutely no way anyone could’ve been saved. No, he’s not lying, what kinda asshole do you take me for?

• they make it back to the settlement with Caz sporting a brand new Shit Leg and Billy’s arm and mental health about 50% worse than it was at the beginning, and meet the leaders Trots and Simon, who welcome them with open arms. Suze is ecstatic, and Caz admits that he and Billy are in love, and she decides "huh. That sounds nice, scoot over I want a spot in this not-quite-situationship" and they live happily ever after.

• for now :>. Until I play the TLOU pt2. Maybe I won’t, all I hear is that it sucks ass and that you’re better off with just your imagination. But I will. Someday. Cos I wanna.

• …I’m gonna regret, aren’t I?

[moonssnail]

Spire shenanigans

[sonacava]

my first ever harrow 🤲

[rhera]

THE INNOCENTS (1961) THE OTHERS (2001) CRIMSON PEAK (2015) THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) THE VVITCH (2015) THE BLOOD ROSE (1970) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946) THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (1969) THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962) THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)

[starsmakenoise]

Here!! My Lyctor Harrow cosplay!! I’m so excited to have these pictures and release them into the world, please enjoy my hundreds of hours of beading and embroidery and decades of religious trauma bundled up into this tiny emo nun :0

[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

[squigg-les]

someone talk about the Nona grief with me. Someone talk to me about the grief.

[arcadiaak]

Close enough welcome back cover of alecto the ninth

[thechekhov]

Harrow's necromantic power includes the ability to create underlighting whenever it's necessary.

Bonus:

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Locked Tomb series (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, and others) by Tamsyn Muir

Endorsement from submitter #1: "An extremely fun, humorous romp! A heart-breaking, soul crushing catharsis inducing tragedy! A thoughtful piece on imperial structures and trauma. On queerness, Muir flawlessly and without announcement, cracks gender open like an egg and spills its disproven guts across the page. The Locked Tomb does it all also bones, bitch."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "Lesbian necromancers in space. So many fascinating, sort of fucked up sapphic relationships going on."

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier.

Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.

Fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, humor, series, adult

The Javelin Program by Derin Edala (Time to Orbit: Unknown series)

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.

Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Science fiction, mystery, series, adult

[mini-godzilla]

The thing that really gets me about the Locked Tomb series is that from a worldbuilding perspective it’s YA catnip. Like any other author would have started it out from someone low ranking in the cohort, maybe falling in love with a rebel or vice versa, introducing parts of the world slowly. There are even houses to sort yourselves into! It’s perfect! That would have been a good story in and of itself! However Tasmyn Muir started in the deepest depths of the equivalent of death cult Amish territory from the POV of someone trying to escape and join the terrible death army, and it works. It’s like if you started explaining the concept of Star Wars with a clone from one of the tanks in Palpatine’s lair. Obsessed with her as an author.

[trueblueboygenius]

this would catch a lot of you

[blondie-drawings]

can't stop thinking about those skeleton lesbians (pt 1)

[onebigsword]

Sad wet nun be upon ye

[captorations]

thinking about how aiglamene has a shitty bone prosthetic leg. notably, i'm thinking about the "shitty" part and what it implies. because you can't convince me that harrow wasn't capable of giving aiglamene a perfect replacement by the age of like. seven. nor can you convince me that harrow wouldn't offer, even if she disguises it as pragmatism. so that leaves the conclusion that aiglamene refused. and the best explanation for why she would do that is: that leg was made for her by a necromancer she cared about.

aiglamene is an old soldier, capable of teaching the rapier, and claims to have seen duels involving a cavalier primary in her youth. so. yeah basically what i'm saying here is that aiglamene was probably someone's cav. and there's a good chance her necro died in combat and made her that leg shortly before

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

tamsyn muir said here is my main character. she is 2 sauces tall and soggy and bleeding. she has not slept in 3 weeks and she gets scared when people smile at her. she is madly in love with a dead body. actually 2 dead bodies. a sigle sour patch xtreme would kill her instantly. you will think about her every day for the rest of your life.