#its got very locked tomb vibes

[may12324]

Volatile Memory, by Seth Haddon

HAWK is a consciousness trapped inside a mask in the shape of a Hawk—or is she just code that thinks it was once alive?

Wylla is a scavenger in need of a payday. Selling HAWK might be her ticket to freedom, but can she justify the sale when the mask speaks back to her?

This is a sapphic tale of revenge and adventure out with Tordotcom July 22nd!

and an alternative version~

[lancerfay]

Happy New Year! I want to be more like, documentative of stuff I'm doing this year because it really helped me confidence wise to see how much I'd done once I sorted my drawings by year. So in lieu of just posting sketches, I think project progress posts might happen at least for a while if they're fun. Especially if folks find it interesting or helpful to see someone else do stuff at a different pace than "and now here's a finished thing". So with that in mind! OC and Vtuber mo(th)del stuff after the fold (long post):

Character Designing

You might remember my previous sketch for redoing her hairstyle (her OC name is Fay btw because mildly self inserting). In addition to the hair, I went and redesigned her outfit and figured out a color palette.

So Fay here had a few previous design iterations, a lot of the monstergirl bits are hugely influenced by Juniper Actias, one of my favorite streamers not only because she's a monstergirl enjoyer but also because she streams so much of her drawing and animation (rigging) work for her models its hugely inspiring (link for her twitch, other links are in her channel bio). I've obviously made sure to distinguish Fay here from Juniper but the influence is at least IMO undeniable nor am I particularly concerned with it being so noticeable, I'm just gonna give credit where it's due.

Face wise I was inspired by this (horny) art of like a bile titan (Helldivers 2) gijinka where the mouth split open on these seams, and that was such a cool way to have mandibles and a fucked up mouth opening (here https://vxtwitter.com/Museumofendings/status/1769777921747456421) cropping the image to show the example here because the original is kinda NSFWcore

On to the outfit, I had an old outfit design, a few actually, and those are here:

As you can see, the color palette's kept a few things and lost a few others. The teal color (my favorite color) has stayed even though I never made a conscious decision for that, it just felt right. That orange was originally picked for matching to the type of moth she's inspired by (Death's Head Hawkmoth) (also yes I know moths don't have mandibles but I'm a monsterfucker sooo...). We went from primarily sashes (its a lore thing) to being an old labcoat design mixed with some of the sashes. Conceptually she's a necromancer and the magic in my worldbuilding is very scientific in vibe, so the combo of doctor and whatnot is fun. You can also see that her claws now take the shape of scalpel blades which is very intentional (inspired by GirlDM's villainess model, Twitch Link more links in her channel bio too). Semi related the claws themselves are lorewise bone that she's grows into those shapes. Very The Locked Tomb core necromancy where its not so much skeletons as much as it is just manipulation of organic matter which is much more expansive and fun. Maybe someday I'll do a loredump about my fantasy setting I write in, but for now you just get that.

Vtuber Model Time

So I make Vtuber Models. Not a secret. I love the process, I love how creative the people that design vtubers can be. Great examples I follow not already mentioned above that I'm pretty sure make their own models are BooBeeQueen, Syraxis, LobotomyBunny, and if pngtubers are more your vibe you gotta see Oceonax who has so many bespoke animations its insane. Additionally if you watch PorcelainMaid AKA Jowol, he's done so many super sick character designs for folks to adopt as vtubers. So anyways, I love vtubers as a creative outlet and for animation its really really fun to see my own art moving just because I'm making faces at an iphone, like below! with my current/most recent model:

This little dark academia cowgirl was fun to make, she's got lots of hand toggles I was messing with, and what I learned when making her was a huge step up from my first model attempt you might remember, the android girl (link to old tumblr post here).

When it came to the moth here I have, a lot of ideas, but to keep it so it actually happens, I'm going with very basic for now. In total our project is going to have: - Face and body movements, facial and mouth tracking, and one or two hand postures to toggle, just like the cow lady up there. - A non-standing pose, as I've only done front-facing models so far and I really like how both Juniper's sitting model looks as well as Matara Kan's sitting pose.

For the tracking we know how to do that but will cover it once we get there for folks that are interested, right now we're making art assets, which folds into the pose! Here's the pose we're going with:

This half-kneeling I think is dynamic, in character, and is (I think) unique and interesting while being able to show off the whole outfit! Not super well pictured are here secondary arms, but we'll get there once we start rendering the parts, since lineart for these things looks...

... A little bit insane. If we're honest with ourselves.

The reason for this is because the model requires each piece that's going to move to be an individual layer and self-contained part. As you can see, the legs for instance are made up of chunks.

Vtuber models are functionally paper dolls, and you use temporary transform tool style warping to animate and move. For that to work the parts of the art needs to be "cut" up into these pieces. Not here that the foot and calf are one piece, I might change my mind and make each foot its own piece just for more options! For now though we're doing it this way.

The face and torso are directly front facing, this is because it's far easier to make a straight on face turned sideways look good than it is to take assets from a 3/4ths angle look anything normal facing forward, and we have to keep in mind the range of motion for those parts.

For the chest you can see here all the lineart for each of the nine (9) parts!

We do this here because we want each piece to have different physics. The way that her breasts move will be different than the cloth physics for the scarf, which is itself different from the cloth for the hanging fabric, and is itself different from the chest strap there, which isn't going to have physics but does need to move independently of the chest for working with facing angles.

We've only just started the head, but you can see here that the hair is already at least seven pieces, and the mouth interior is going to be more than ten.

As seen there where teeth and alternative texturing on the mandibles creates already eight of them, and we haven't even made the cavity parts like the throat or the (I'm not sorry) anatomically accurate proboscis tongue.

So that's where we're at as of 01-01-25! Welcome to 2025 by the by (how hellish). At this current pace, this might be done by the end of january.

I hope if you read this far that you thought this was interesting! Thanks by the way! I'm happy to answer questions if folks are interested in making vtuber models or why I picked different character design things, yapping about creating is always fun! Lastly you can have a bonus little drawing of F4 (the android girlie) I did a weekish ago~

[the---hermit]

Hi! I’m looking for books to add to my summer reading list. Do you have any favorite books that you would recommend?

Hello! I haven't got a book rec ask in ages! I am not sure what genres you like most but I'll try to make a list that is a bit varied so you have options!

The first two books that came to mind when I read favourites to recommend are The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (which I am currently rereading because it's that time of the year again) and The Humans by Matt Haig (which is one of the most underrated novels out there imo). You probably know about The Hobbit, if you have never read the book and are intimidated because lotr is intimidating, fear not because The Hobbit is much more approachable, and it's such a comfort book. You follow Bilbo in his adventure and I feel like it's one of the best examples of books that shut your brain off and let you escape reality for a bit. It's at the top of my list of comfort reads. As for The Humans, it's a novel I recommend every chance I have because it's so good and again super comforting. You read the story of this alien who comes down to Earth and had to disguise himself as a human without knowing anything about humans. And as he learns about humans and what it means to be human you get these amazing descriptions of daily things, and again as I mentioned it feels very comforting. It's the book I recommend for all the times in which you feel a bit lost and a bit hopeless. Lastly if you pick absolutely anything written by Neil Gaiman you are safe to have a great time. He is my favourite author and I think you can't go wrong with any of his books, and you have pretty different vibes from which you can choose!

Approaching your question from a slightly different angle, I really like to save long books for the summer. Of course studying it's the season I am less busy and I can fully immerse myself in longer novels. So if you have big books on your tbr pick one of those even if it's intimidating! I fought my personal big book fear a few summers ago and it's just getting better and better with time. If you want some big book recs I have to recommend The Priory OF The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (as well as A Day Of Fallen Night, which is its sequel, and it's probably the best book I have read so far this year). It's an amazing epic fantasy, with incredible worldbuilding, dragons and anything you can imagine. And I also think it's a great starting point if you have never read epic fantasy before, but want to try it! The big bookTM that made me win my fear was It by Staphen KIng, on which I have a lot of opinions that I won't go into right now, but it was one of the best reading experiences of my life. I basically spent two weeks fully immersed in the book, just reading and it was incredible. If instead of big books you prefer to get into a series last summer I read The Poppy War series by RF Kuang and it was a really good fantasy (tho definitely not a light read so if you consider it check trigger warnings and everything), and of course I cannot talk about series without mentioning The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir. I just reread it in the past couple of month and I had such a great time. The less you know about it the better, just strap yourself in for an amazing time and embrace the confusion it puts into your brain. To this day I have not found a book with a better narrator that the one in Gideon The Ninth, I really really recommend reading it.

Hopefully there's at least one title that you find interesting in the list! If you end up reading one of these please let me know if you had a good time! Happy reading!

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp 15/5

@manorinthewoods submitted: I believe I got confused about the omnipotence thing because I'd talked about it in some Discord server or other. My interpretation of the confusing usage of 'omnipotent' is that it specifically refers to any individual with the ability to exert unlimited power upon at least one individual. This allows for a system where one omnipotent can be more powerful than another, such as a Horrorterror being stronger than a First Guardian. [...] That's all I wanted to say.

The problem is that I don't really understand what it means to exert 'unlimited power' over someone.

Does it mean that you have full control over that person's actions? Or perhaps, the ability to change their nature in any way imaginable? Neither of these traits apply to First Guardians - their powers are centered around controlling space, not people.

Doc Scratch exerts power over Vriska, but his influence isn't absolute. If it was, she wouldn't have been able to use the cueball behind his back. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you mean by unlimited power.

Probably! There are already a lot of human/troll interactions going on, so their relationships will inevitably evolve.

I recommended a few webcomics last year. They're all decent theory-fodder, particularly Paranatural.

That said, none of them are as good as Homestuck at doing what Homestuck does. This is a very unique story, and I'm also not sure what, if anything, I'll liveblog after this is done. I'm certainly enjoying liveblogging, so there probably will be a next project - and I remain open to suggestions.

Dang it. Well, I'm still showing up in search, so at least I'm not shadowbanned this time. Maybe a glitch on your end?

I don't think you're wrong, exactly - but to be honest, there seems to be a bigger issue here than unreliable narration. I still have trouble understanding how any kismesissitude can be healthy.

The prophecy is true!

It's kind of cool that the kids' entire fortune is likely seeded from John's original stockpile. All that Grist we picked up in Act 2 actually went somewhere!

Oh, nice! I feel like there'd be too many combinations to effectively crowdsource, though, unless the pool of alchemy ingredients was extremely small. If you really wanted to implement alchemy in a game, it'd probably have to be at least partially procedural.

To be fair, I have to give credit to John on this one. Some of his funniest moments are when he's not trying to be a jokester.

I know! I probably wasn't clear enough about my question.

My question is whether the phrase 'the numerals of the blind prophets' is a reference all on its own. The phrase is a little out of left field, and the comic itself hasn't explained it.

Pretty sure John's has already been explained - he needs to wake his Denizen and save his fireflies!

As for Jade's, it's indeed hard to say. I thought they'd all be about terraforming, but Dave's seems to break this pattern. Maybe his Quest isn't what it seems - or maybe I was just wrong, and a Quest can be just about anything.

I don't think I'll be able to guess Jade's, since it'll involve the features of a Land we haven't yet seen. All I can say for sure is that it'll have something to do with Space.

Hell yes! This blog's hidden objective - to plug The Locked Tomb - is finally bearing fruit.

It's easy for Aradia to do what she does, because she ''knows'' that she could never have done anything else. 'Understanding' this lets her be reckless.

Once you can convince someone their choices don't matter, you can convince them to do whatever you want.

I prefer Prospit's aesthetics, but Derse's vibes. The Horrorterrors are a better suspicious patron than Skaia - at least they'll help me break the game.

That said, the official quiz assigned me Prospit. Maybe I misunderstand the moons - but from where I'm currently sitting, Derse is the better choice.

The question isn't whether Sburb would screw them over - it's how it would.

I like the idea that Sburb started with only Sprites, and slowly assimilated its victors into its later iterations.

Each Sburb species represents a video game trope, so I could see an aggressive species like the trolls as a border patrol. They're angry, aggressive NPCs who fly their warships around the Veil, making sure Players don't leave the session's boundaries. You're meant to avoid them, not fight them, and they're the bane of any Player who tries to get creative with the Furthest Ring.

Now, what kind of NPC would the humans be?

I'm not a fan of jumpscare horror, but psychological horror can be very interesting indeed.

I didn't expect the comedy meme man to be that good at instilling a sense of dread - but I shouldn't have been surprised. Horror and comedy tread a very fine line.

Thank you!!

This frame in particular is pretty unsettling. Jack never usually shows this much emotion, and you have to wonder if the Ring has gone to his head a little.

Anyway, if we're talking about aesthetics, my favorite area so far is the Battlefield. It's like a chessboard mixed with a Windows XP background, and it's gorgeous in Rise Up.

Neither have been used in the comic, so I'm just going with lusi for convenience's sake!

[zenosanalytic]

Just finished The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon, and in general I liked it.

I think it's a Gr8 setting(more scifi/fantasy stories pulling on non-western inspirations, plz) and a Gr8 PERSPECTIVE on a Gr8 setting(bscl everyone in it is a refugee, and it takes place almost entirely within refugee communities), and a wonderful take on Mecha, a genre you don't usually see in novels, in the metaphysically Weird Evangelion vein(which you don't often see, or see done well, in Mecha, Period). I love how unabashedly queer it and its world is, that it's a M/M/M story that isn't disinterested in, oblivious of, or actively hostile to female characters, and that all of it's characters are so MESSY and Real in their own unique ways. I love it's Compassion. It engages deeply with "faith" in all its variegated meanings in a really interesting and sustained way(tho unfortunately not one that grabbed me as powerfully as The Locked Tomb's approach to these topics does). I thought it did a Really Good Job of expressing thought, confusion, and overwhelming, shifting experiences through text. It has ALLOT of wonderful, subtle worldbuilding in it which I really adore; like the bit ~halfway through the book were a cheeky fondly-mocking comment from one character to another implies that "hermit" can also mean "homosexual" in this setting.

I DID have a hard time getting into it though. It picks up in the second half, but getting through the first half was a bit of a slog for me and I fell asleep allot(tbf: I've also been SUPER BUSY and dealing with numerous Events, so I didn't have allot of time to read and it took me FOREVER to finish this one, so maybe that was a consequence of how disjointed my reading experience was). I'm also willing to accept that getting me to care about such a male-focused story these days is a bit of an uphill battle, tho I don't have that problem with Temeraire so maybe I just didn't vibe well with the protagonist, or I'm being too hard on myself.

Part of it, though, I felt is just how resistant to being understood this book is. Not, like, in a thematic sense, that's all pretty clear, but in a Plot-events sense. Allot of stuff happens very quickly with not much explanation until the very end of the book(by which time you may have ceased to care about an explanation for it), and it relies heavily on Implication; on people Understanding things and acting on them without that being explained to the reader. If that's something you enjoy I think you'll dig this, but if it's something that annoys you, or if you don't like reading books that seem to actively "resist" you, then this is probably not for you. I also feel like(I don't want to be explicit about this as it might be spoilery) particular Shocking Discoveries in the last quarter or so of the book make its world much smaller, kind of undoing the worldbuilding done in the first three-quarters of it? I also-also feel like there are just TOO MANY TWISTS at the end, like: it got exhausting for me how many Reversals of Fortune didn't stop keep happening, though I suppose that's pretty true to its very obvious Anime/Manga roots/inspirations.

Overall though I enjoyed the read! It's being presented as the first in a series so I hope it does well enough to see the future stories Candon wants to tell in this setting get a genuine release ^v^

[qrowscant]

What artists/books/movies/music/etc would you say have been most formative to your style/subject matter? What inspires you most?

oh maaaannnn there’s a lot. what inspires me most is the fact that if i don’t draw or create regularly i turn evil <3 (thats mostly a joke, but i do get very irritable if i dont have some kind of creative outlet haha)

but here’s a too-long list of things that have rewritten my brain chemistry 🥰 dont take this as a list of reccs because some of these are 100% not for everyone LOL

for movies,

the alien franchise (except three fuck 3), the thing, 2001: ASO, colossus: the forbin project, videodrome, and mad god have all done irreparable psychic damage to me. if you can handle it, pleaaaaseeeeee watch mad god. absolutely gorgeous movie. i wish i looked like the assassin (shoutout 2 data for showing me it)

electric dreams is also good but it feels weird sliding it between those other reccs 😭 the tonal whiplash

for books,

house of leaves, obviously. absolutely disorienting narrative that was very fun to pick through and jump around. johnny’s sections are some of my favorite pieces of character writing, and i adore how the text and formatting turns the book into a labyrinth. my only complaint is figuring out similar things in css is HARD.

things have gotten worse since we last spoke is a disgusting novella (said with the utmost affection). its not something i can recommend to most people because it deals with some sickening topics, but it def shaped my love of horror

ihnmaims and tuf voyaging are two short story collections i read when i was far too young, and still enjoy today. also colossus the forbin project (the book). good 👍

the locked tomb series! what else is there to say but Jod Damn! alecto please

for games,

marathon trilogy! me when the ai have issues disorder🥰🫶 it can be difficult to play (use walkthroughs or mods to make things a little easier if you arent in the mood to be frustrated), but its worth it imo. shotgun and mousetrap if you even care btw

cecile richard and kitty horrorshow have been integralllll to my artistic development. cycles and gutless by cecile is the reason I started writing in twine, actually. still some of my favorite works :^)

disco elysium is amazing but everyone knows that. i think making readers feel uncomfortable and kind of pathetic is good, actually.

scorn is like. absolutely gorgeous. the game plays awful imo but its worth it for the eyecandy of lovingly crafted biomechanical horror. i got the art book as a gift and now it permanently resides on my desk.

signalis is a recent one but i watched my friend play through some of it and am itching to try it because AUGH. the vibes are immaculate (even if some of the combat is annoying hehe). @ that one anon who sent me a signalis recc, YOU WERE RIGHT. IT IS 100% MY KIND OF THING

there’s a LOTTT more, many of my inspirations i often forget about because i have an awful memory. i approach a lot of media consumption with the intent of “what can i learn from this?” (both narratively and mechanically) and fucking loooooveeee deconstructing things i enjoy. my toys 🥰

[ahollowgrave]

Hiiiii Pigeon!!!! I saw you comment that you like the Locked Tomb series so I had a couple questions to ask...

Are Odette's little skele friends inspired by the vibe of the series?

Does Odette herself have an inspirations that come from the Locked Tomb as well?

What's your favorite character interaction in the series so far? (Mine is the Harrow Bone Soup)

Who is your favorite of the main protags? (I've got a soft spot for Nona, but its barely above the other two.)

That's all for now, hope your day is going well! ^.^

Oh my gosh hello!! The Locked Tomb has been my favorite series since I read the first book a few years ago! I was obsessed I was full in I hadn’t been that into reading since high school when I would read in the back of every class. Never has a book made me ugly cry so hard.

The second book is the main reason I write in 2nd person POV for Odette most of the time (‘:

I’m gonna slap the rest of this under a readmore just in case people don’t want to hear about the books or don’t want things spoiled on accident !! But also this kind of turned into a long explanation of Odette’s whole deal, sorry (mwah).

But! To answer your questions!

1&2:) Yes. Pretty heavily but maybe not obviously? Like. Harrow and Odette would not get a long and Odette as she is does not fit the Necromancer vibes of the ninth house. But I was so enamored by these goth nuns being so out of place and so devoted and Harrow being so!!!!! Ready to ruin her life for her faith because she needed her faith so badly to cope with the grief.

And then the way it just all!!!! gestures.

Odette was always going to be a nun, as a result, and the psychopomp stuff felt right after I’d been playing her for a while. We run into Ashkin/undead several times in the MSQ, side quests, and fates and the like; someone being able to aid these ‘souls’ and return them to the lifestream feels like a role for Odette.

She would maybe make more sense being a nun of Nald’thal but I headcanon that each of the 12 have their own funeral rites. Nald’thal is the judge of all dead, that is his role! But each of the 12 get a say in how their faithful are laid to rest. A psycopomp’s role, traditionally, is not judgement but guidance and love knows no judgement, but she does know guidance.

The moths in her screenshots are souls themselves, flocking to Odette for aid in whatever form that means. Sometimes it means slaying their body so they can rest, sometimes it means cleaning their resting place or returning items stolen by graverobbers, sometimes it means finishing anything unfinished they have left, or solving their death or just finding them and laying them to rest. Each soul needs something different.

The skeletons originally were a metaphor and a call back to that root influence of the Ninth house. With encouragement from friends, though, they’ve become much more ‘real’ in her canon. Serving as her trust and guardians on more dangerous searches. (When None can’t join her but also sometimes with None!)

So you can see it’s a very loose influence, but the 1st book is 100% the reason Odette exists. Death nuns??? Please… What a gift.

I have a Locked Tomb AU with my friend, peep, in which Odette is the Ninth house Cav and Avidia the Third House Reject turned Ninth House Necromancer. The Cav/Necromancer relationship is sooo intense and I love reading into to them too much, as does peep, so it’s very fun for us. Would third house ever send one of their necro to the ninth house? No! Probably not! But Avidia must always be a reluctant ex-pat, and so! (It’s a complicated story but we really like it LMAO takes place far before the first book)

Ahem!

3:) The soup scene is SO good, I reread it a few times because it was just so!!! Amazing. This is such a hard question because so many of the scenes are so good.

Three-Way with God is good. Ianthe’s Arm Scene (SCREAMS!!!) The pool scene from book one is ofc a fav but ugh.

The one I think about the most is from book three and it’s a tie, I think, between tree moments at the very end of the book.

Paul’s (re?)birth and “You can’t take loved away.” and “Why are you not appeased? That is how meat loves meat.”

I can’t wait for Alecto the Ninth, truthfully !!

4:) GOSH! This is hard also!!! Nona is also a favorite of mine and I know she has influenced Odette heavily. She’s just so!!! Nona loves you!!! I hope we get to see some of her again, just glimpses, now that she’s been returned. Sobs into my hands for four days straight.

I think Camilla Hect is one of my favorites and Sex Pal, of course. Which means Paul… Paul… my love I can’t wait to know you.

You didn’t ask this question, but I do think there is a lot of Hect in my alt Prudence. That quiet competence and skill, that devotion, that dry wit.

Thank you so much for this ask and also your patience while I replied to it! I love these books very, very much and I always love to talk about them. Are any of your characters influenced by them @eorzeanflowers?

[skydaemon]

Necromancing the Crane Wives: Safe Ship, Harbored (2011)

I happened to be listening to TCW when i first read the books and now they are inexorably linked in my head. So, I'm going through the Crane Wives' discography and seeing how each song can be linked to the Locked Tomb series.

Contains spoilers for the Locked Tomb series!!

Can't Have It All: getting Alecto vibes from this one, with "you won't find me where you left me / I'm long gone / you can't bind me in the state you kept me / for so long" and "my mind's made up, though my head still aches and / all my love you tried to take, but / you can't have it all" - which contains a neat little Harrow lobotomy reference to boot! You can see this as Alecto talking to Jod, a warning at the end of Nona.

The Diving Bell: GIDEON!!! This song is wholly about sacrificing yourself for another person out of love, there's water imagery ("i will drown for you", "hold your heart like waves / open my lungs to let you in", "water rushes in / and i will welcome it"), and lines like "swallow my heart whole / seek me like a soul" and "i am not afraid / to give you everything" !!! It aligns perfectly with the part of HtN where she begs for Harrow to consume her and go full Lyctor.

New Colors: this one's a bit more vague, but i connect it to John pre-resurrection, especially the lines "to climb up in the sky / and steal new colors / away from the sun", plus the chorus literally saying "don't tell me that i can't" - very mad scientist/cult leader/twitch necromancer. Also it opens with the line "orange, yellow, green" which in my TLT brainrot i always link to a) Gideon's hair - and by extension, Wake's - b) gideon's eyes - and by extension John's and Alecto's - and c) the fact that Canaan house was the first time Gideon and Harrow saw vegetation.

Caleb Trask: Gideon to Harrow in GtN. The song's about feeling too guilty and inherently evil - specifically because of the actions of your family ("so you got bad in your blood") - to accept love and comfort. There's even a line saying "there's no reason to live out in chains". Slam dunk.

Counting Sheep: this song is about living a humdrum existence in a world that's falling apart ("as the sunlight filters in / then your daily dread sets in / the cycle's beginning, and in your head alarms are ringing"), so i link it to the world of New Rho and the lives of the people there. Also, there's a section at the end where they repeat Frere Jacques in english, which they translate as "are you sleeping, Brother John?". Could be linked to his absence in NtN and the way Alecto finds him in bed.

Hole in the Silver Lining: this one's very simple, with only really two sections that repeat. I link the first section to Palamedes and the rest of the Sixth House, especially "i'll be the one (...) to find it / i take it upon myself to make sure / i do" and "but i turn it over in my hands until / my fingers wear it through". These lines strike me as very Pal, with all the scientific curiosity he shows but also the responsibility he takes for dangerous information.

Safe Ship, Harbored: Harrow in Harrow the Ninth. "things i forgot i cannot do", "i wasn't born a safe ship / something wore me down", "don't waste your blessings on me"? Very Harrow. The chorus (specifically "i am a safe ship, harbored / losing all of my good years to the shallow water") also makes me think of the fact that she's being severely coddled by Jod and unable to leave the Mithraeum without supervision.

Naked, the Night Falls: strikes me as a Harrow love song to Alecto. "into your arms / sell my sorry soul" is basically what Harrow says to the Body, "been enraptured and tied" definitely aligns with Harrow's devotion. Also, the first line is "softly, a cold wind paints my face", which is such a fun Harrow line.

Ancient History: Ninth House vibes because this one has bones!! ("my dream keep digging up the bones of memories / discarded remnants of former times / now every skeleton is slapping its knees") Weirdly, I kinda think of Anastasia, even though I know we don't have much of a canon personality for her. - we know she was a failed ascension and the line "and my poor heart is an open wound / it's ancient history / that's bleeding out of me / so what am i supposed to do?" has some juicy angst for just such an occasion. This song has only two verses, so not tons to say.

October: oooooh Griddlehark! Interestingly, this one can be taken from both sides. Lines like "i know you, you're the daughter of a lonely man" and "I am naught but a scar upon your breastbone" cut both ways, although at slightly different times. Very cute, very sad, very Griddlehark.

The Crooked, the Cradle: this one uses the word "mercy", but unfortunately doesn't make any sense for her or the OG lyctors. Another Harrow the Ninth song, it seems! "and the devil won't know all the love i just couldn't let go", "this cradle still burns like a hole in my chest", and "but i pray / when it's done, when it's through, i'll have something left for you" are all very Harrow-having-feelings-about-the-lobotomy lines.

I Ain't Done: Tridentariiiiiii!!! "i am a pretty young thing / i am consumed with selfish wanting / carelessly broke you down but i ain't done", "a woman in love has no regrets", "wreckage in the wake of cruel betrayal / paid my sins in blood, but i ain't done". The actual narrative of the song doesn't align with her very closely - it's about the ghost of a woman killed by her husband for infidelity - but there's a real Ianthe + Corona vibe to it.

[clambuoyance]

Tag 9 People You Want to get to Know Better

Thanks for the tag @otteritos :D

CURRENTLY READING:

The Young Avengers!!! It's been very enjoyable so far (probably going to start Children's Crusade arc this weekend!) Other Marvel comics I hope to eventually read include: Champions, Kamala Khan books, Runaways, X-Factor or New Mutants, ...just like a lot of stuff.

I've been kind of slacking on my DC reading list but I have way too many to list on there.

I've also been eyeing The Locked Tomb books for aggeeeees now and I've very close to giving in...Gideon my blorbo to be.

FAVORITE COLOUR:

Hmm I think purple is still my ultimate favorite but I just generally enjoy these colors: most pinks and purples, orangey reds, orange, pinkish yellows, and then teal and turquoise :D

LAST SONG:

Escapism by Raye, heard it at my friend's place and went home and kept listening to it. its such a vibe and im addicted to the rhythm and the ending part

LAST MOVIE:

Flushed Away!!! I saw it on Netflix and was like hell yeah I got to rewatch this--I was obsessed with this movie as a kid? Like I loved Rita...It's still pretty funny, but also it's so British lmaooo.

Before that I watched AstroBoy cuz I also saw it was on Netflix and it definitely doesn't hold up as much (there were so many characters the movie could do without, and also its very Anglicized like the character went from Tobio to Toby, etc) but I blame this movie for making me partially obsessed with characters made to replace someone else (coughs)

And before that I watched Bullet Train with my friends! It was so funny and ridiculous I kept laughing. Lemon my beloved <3 Music slapped too

Sorry that was like three movies

SWEET/SPICY/SAVOURY:

Hmm I like sweet and savory stuff...I'd probably pick something savory over sweet though if I had to choose. I'm okay with spicy stuff (I've eaten so much spicy stuff this past month because of my friends ToT) but only if it's like mild...

CURRENTLY WORKING ON:

I don't know--I have like 50 wips :[ Mostly DC fanart (ive been posting less sketches because I want to push myself to color/finish things more)...also got a couple oc things

Anyways that was fun to answer these :D

Im going to tag my moots but feel free to do this if you see it! @legogeek33 @batshit-birds @cowboysorceror @mamawasatesttube @marsipain @tempulian @ethmaron @sunsestart @whitexisneutral

[drewzelle]

“nine mutuals you want to know better” tag game!

Tagged by @sarenhale ! I didn't have access to my computer the past couple days so I'm a bit late, but this was a lot of fun!! Thank you for the tag <3

Last Song: lately I've been relaxing to the Hollow Knight OST (City of Tears best track) but in terms of lyrical music, I recently rewatched the music video for "Little Dark Age" by MGMT because its vibes are fucking impeccable and mesmerizing (I can watch it on repeat for hours)

Favorite Color: purple is my go-to answer (especially blue-ish purples), but I also really love dark greens and desaturated earthy colors so much

Last Movie/TV Show: I feel like I haven't been watching movies lately (I'm more of a show person because I like longer form narratives) but I think the last one I watched was "Better Off Dead" while I was visiting my family for the holidays. It was a weird/surreal but good time! As for shows, I finally got around to watching Scavenger’s Reign!! Every aspect was just amazing, especially the worldbuilding and visuals. 2D animation is probably my favorite medium, so I'm really glad we're seeing more animation for adults that wants to tell a story instead of being a delivery device for lame sex jokes and cringe humor. OH ALSO DUNGEON MESHI!!! For a lot of the same reasons! Excited to watch the new episode tonight :>

Sweet / Spicy / Savory: I have a HUGE sweet tooth, so if I had to pick one, that would be it. Savory foods are great and I love them, I just have a leftover "now's your chance!" impulse from not being allowed much sugar as a kid that I can't seem to get rid of. I'm also weak to the "I deserve a lil treat" trap if I've got a bunch of sweet snacks around, so I have to be careful. As for spicy….I am SO completely unable to handle spicy food it’s almost funny, but really it’s just tragic because I LOVE cuisines known for being spicy, like mexican and thai. If I eat out, I always have to be like “can you please make it mild?” and even then, if it's not seasoned for the babiest of babies, my mouth will burn and my weak, white-person tummy will hurt.

Relationship Status: I keep forgetting I’m getting married in less than six months. My partner and I got engaged like two years ago and have lived together for almost five, so my brain just defaults to "there’s probably a guy nearby" and doesn’t think much deeper on it than that.

Last thing I googled: "morels" because I was discussing mushrooms with my friend and those are some cool lookin' guys! Shaggy ink caps too!

Current Obsession: …….One Piece 😅 I was a big fan as a teen but only got as far as the Skypiea arc before I fell off reading/watching it. The hype over the new live action version reminded me the series existed, so I’ve been not so slowly making my way through again, picking up where I left off. I love how absolutely bonkers, there-are-no-rules, anime-ass-anime it is, but also how genuine and heartfelt it can be. I also enjoy how character-driven so much of the plot is which works because of how interesting the characters are (Chopper, Robin, and Franky are my favs). I just got to the timeskip, so I’m maybe…halfway through? between this and BG3, RIP my free time lol

Last Book: I've been reading through Seiji Yoshida's "Houses with a Story" (slowly, because I want to really take it in and savor it) and it's been a delight. Very relaxing and inspiring :> (up next, I finally got copies of the Locked Tomb series, so soon I will be enjoying The Space Lesbians)

Looking forward to: Being able to organize and enjoy my "new" office space after some hectic days! My partner and I realized we barely spend any time in our bedroom except for sleeping, so we swapped my office into the bigger room in our apartment! There were some complications with getting the internet working on my PC, but we finally got it all smoothed out. Now I finally have all my books and sewing/crafting/creative stuff in one place without it feeling cramped or hiding things away in storage :>

Thank you again for the tag! I'm tagging @justagoos, @icicleteeth, @lunarliart, @saltsparkle, @fael-draws, @juliedillon, @ninamodaffari, @crabdominalpain, and the final slot for anyone else who wants to join in - but please don't feel obligated, this is just for fun! :>

[iviarellereads]

Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 33

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Sixth House icon) In which Harrow finds some unexpected friends.

In the fourth hour, Harrow feels like she's being followed. She sets an ambush for her predator, but it's no predator. It's Camilla Hect.(1) Harrow isn't sure how, as she saw Camilla's body.(2) Harrow feels a trickle from her ear, and she touches it to find "blood so dark that it was almost purple".

Still, Harrow remembers one of her more impossible seeming letters read "If met, give to Camilla Hect." So she extracts it, gives it to her construct, and has the skeleton walk over to hand it to Camilla. Harrow asks if she can know the contents, and Camilla reads off that Harrow promises to help her, if she can, for services previously rendered by the Sixth House. Harrow can hardly believe it, and tries to grab Cam with the construct.

It had been a long time since you had been around those who were not Lyctors. You grasped for her, thoughtlessly, with your construct; you were astonished by the speed with which Hect drew those big, balanced knives from each shoulder, and hurled herself at your skeleton like a stone from a sling. [...] You said, "Cease," but she levered one knife into the base of the spine, severed it, pulled the spine back toward her with a twang--and you heard your voice rise to say: "I need to know you are real!" [...] Camilla Hect sheathed her knives with as much speed and fury as she had unsheathed them, and she said: "No sudden moves." "I am Harrowhark Nonagesimus," you said. "I am the ninth saint to serve the King Undying. I am his fingerbone; I am his fists and festures ... I am a Lyctor, Hect. What hope would you have against me?" "None," said Camilla. And then she added calmly: "Yet."(3)

Harrow asks why Cam is here, when Harrow examined her body personally. Cam ignores the question and examines Harrow's ears and nose, and congratulates her on the impressive "intercranial haemorrhage",(4) which would kill most non-Lyctors.

Camilla came to find Harrow. She gives Harrow a bit of human skull, belonging to Palamedes, and says that he's still in it, but she wants Harrow's confirmation anyway. Harrow can feel thanergy, for sure. Camilla says Pal is a revenant, he fixed his spirit to a particular spot on his skull, and she needs to be sure she's got the right fragment out of all the pieces he was blown into, because the Cohort took the rest away.(5)

Harrow tries, out of curiosity about the kind of man who would do such a thing. She takes the skull piece, and she sits down and enters the River, just partially, to locate him.

You prepared for the ice, and the initial panic of ghosts exploding outward from your body, that safe predatory entry of your brain--the cloudy water, foggy with old blood-- --and you were standing in a room. Your wet robes were dripping onto a scrubbed wooden floor.

Harrow's eyes wander around the room, taking in its small but cozy and lived-in vibe. She even sees a book, The Necromancer's Marriage Season. A voice explains that it's about a Third house adept, Abella Trine,(6) who's "considered a poor prospect on the marriage market". Harrow turns around and sees a man, taller than herself, very thin, playing with his glasses. He keeps talking about the plot of the book, until he puts the glasses back on and says, "Long time no see, Reverend Daughter."

Then he did a very terrible thing. He stepped forward, and he pulled you into a wild embrace--the hold of a man drowning in deep water who cannot help but drag his rescuer down to the bottom with him. He dug his fingers into you in a way you were a little familiar with: tight against the chance that the person in front of you might be a cloud, or a mirage. He lifted you off the ground in his impatient, overfamiliar eagerness, and then he set you down again and saw your face. "Excuse me," you said, with sodden asperity. "Oh. Apologies," said Palamedes Sextus. "Misread the moment. Let's call it cabin fever. Nonagesimus, is Camilla--"(7) "She sent me," you said, wringing out your wet hem.

He thanks God for Cam, and says Harrow's a sight for sore eyes. Harrow first looks for the letters, though they're back on her physical body and besides which there was never one for Pal.

Then she asks incredulously about this projection inside the River. He says it's only really on the bank of the River, if anything, and explains how he anchored a bubble in the River to himself to his body, as he died. Harrow points out that he's defied every law of the River's physics, loose as they are. Pal is more concerned with how many papers he can write about the work he's done.(8)

They discuss the room, the place of Pal's death, and Harrow sticks her head out the door to see how much of the surroundings he was able to retain. He admits he's drafting a sequel to the novel on a piece of wallpaper.

The discussion turns to how impossible it is for a human soul, even a revenant, to live this way for long. Pal asks how long, and Harrow says eight months. Pal asks why it took so long, she should've been here in a week, and Harrow says Camilla only brought her the skull now. Pal says Cam should never have left Harrow's side, and Harrow gives her full name and rank and asks what the hell right he or Camilla has to pretend to know her.(9)

It is in this moment that Pal realizes Harrow became a Lyctor. She confirms it. He asks her to confirm that she did it "correctly", that she figured out what he was on the edge of. Harrow says that her cavalier fuels it.

Before he can do more than come close to cussing about how much God takes and takes, something shifts in the space. They look out the window, and see a figure in an orange hazard suit, with a huge gun.

Sextus was saying, "The hell is--" You said, and your voice sounded strange to yourself, as though you had heard the word only in dreams and never articulated by waking tongues:(10) "The Sleeper."

Pal says Harrow's brought something with her, and it's changing the theorem that's keeping him alive and sane. He needs her to go in hopes that what she brought will follow her out. He confirms with her that Cam has the right piece of skull, that he can focus on it, especially if Harrow can change it into something that articulates. Then he tells Harrow to get out the door.

As they struggle to hold it open, he suddenly looks awestruck, and Harrow doesn't understand the sharp smile that takes over his face. He kisses Harrow's brow and tells her to GO!

Harrow obeys, finally. She gets a little lost in the corridor, which then isn't a corridor at all.

But you were always too quick to mourn your own ignorance. You never could have guessed that he had seen me.(11)

=====

(1) RETURN OF THE QUEEN! (2) Probably in reference to the revised version in the slashed icon chapters. (3) Ohoho, what has our Cam planned now? (4) Intercranial - inside the skull. Hemorrhage - bleeding. And now we have words for what happens to Harrow whenever she's reminded that something is missing in her life and her memories. (5) So, we know what Cam was off doing when she disappeared from Gideon and Harrow's story. (6) Recall from the bonus content of the Gideon paperback, Abella was an alternate name for Ianthe. Love that she managed to squeeze it in here anyway. (7) So sweet that his first act is unthinking gratitude to Harrow for finding him, and his first thought is of Camilla. (8) Ever an academic, wouldn't have it any other way. (9) Harrow doesn't remember any of the real details, it seems she only remembers what has happened inside the slashed icon chapters we've seen. Which does seem like a plausible explanation of the events at Canaan House… ish. Except for the part where she's not pursuing the Lyctorhood at all over there. (10) Admittedly, all the slashed icon chapters HAVE occurred during periods where Harrow was sleeping. Every single one started when she passed out or was laying in bed. (11) And just who would be hanging on to Harrow so tightly, and wanting to narrate this series of events? Who would know that much about sword care and how Harrow was doing it so carelessly, and care so much about why and how Harrow was doing it wrong? Who, fitting those criteria, would Pal be even happier to see, to know that Harrow wasn't telling the full truth even if she thought she was? Who's been telling Harrow's story for and to her, all along? The Eurydice to our Orpheus who physically cannot turn around, for better or worse.

[talenlee]

The Alectopause

How do you handle waiting?

The Locked Tomb is a book trilogy series (hey you can read my opinion about the first book and followups here) awaiting its fourth and hopefully final book, Alecto the Ninth. That book was originally set up to come out in 2022, and as of writing this, it is still not given a release date in 2025. Originally, it was meant toe be the third book in the series, but the prologue of that book was so much fun to write (we are told) that instead of being a short story starting point, Nona the Ninth became its own whole book.

(A book I really like.)

This gap in publication time is being referred to, by the fanbase, in some places (you know, depending on where you are) as The Alectopause. And, you know what, it’s fine. It’s a book, it gets delayed, it’s a creative artwork, these things happen and the thing is, there are longer pauses between books in a series (shout out to the fans of The War Against the Chtorr or even The Wheel of Time). These are not unprecedented horrors in the world we live in. I’ve been joking for a while about the idea that this is just one of the many Homestuck references in The Locked Tomb.

See, in Homestuck there was this big block of time where the author stopped publishing, a period of time known as the gigapause, during which Homestuck stopped updating for a year. One year! Imagine waiting a year for a webcomic to update! A whole year! and then when you waited out that year, what you got was Homestuck!

Going from waiting a year for the next book to now waiting four years for maybe the next book, that’s a pretty sizeable wait, and thanks to that, the fanbase, which… I guess includes me… has been, well, we’re still engaged. We want the next book, and we’re anxious to get it. I haven’t seen anyone complaining about it — there’s a very clear ‘please, take your time, deliver when you can, and I am sad that it’s not now,’ which is a pretty good fandom footing. And then it’s time to go look for fanfiction and theories and fanart to sate the want in the mean time to continue engaging with this thing they love.

Naturally, a byproduct of a particularly engaged fanbase is that during such time, people start getting a little feral. This is the time in a fandom cycle in which the fandom theories start to percolate on one another, where people are engaging with speculative forms of the ongoing narrative that are built not on the original text but at this point are building on the established fanon points, layers of packed down sand that you can stand on, absolutely, this isn’t a problem, but it does mean that the conversations around the fandom’s spaces can involve first needing to do some sort of pre-readings. If nothing else, there are people who have different opinions about the words chussy and stigussy that refer to the same thing but have wildly contrasting opinions on which is the appropriate one to use.

This is the period of time in which the Sherlock fandom got really weird, by the way, like, aggressively and urgently obssesing over things like the angle a character held a plate. We stand in the point in which vibes become theories become fanon become conspiracies become lore become basically facts, I mean if you knew properly, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

One of the things that happens in this space, though, is a thing that gets me a little grimace emoji, where we go from ‘I like this book’ to ‘I like these books’ to ‘I love this author’ to ‘I can imagine and assume I understand this author as a person.’ This kind of theorising has some moments where you see someone peeking through a keyhole at someone who is explicitly staying far away from the door, and then manages to extrapolate from their limited vision something with a confidence that is wildly inappropriate.

An example that will, I fear, stick with me for a while was someone positing that Tamsyn Muir is a secret Warhammer 40k fan, because they can see the threads of that worldbuilding in the world of The Locked Tomb. That’s a first step kind of like, hey, I can see parallels, that’s okay, that’s not a terrible idea to bat around. But then, when I pointed out to them that she is also a Roman Catholic, the response was nah, I don’t think there’s a Catholic influence here. And at that point you’re on the path where you have an image in your head that is more important than the rest of the world, and you are taking a real person who really exists and using their identity as a dolly in your brain you can wiggle around.

(She’s not a Warhammer fan, by the way, she’s mentioned it.)

I am I know, sensitive to this! I know rhetorically, I have written in the past as if I can speak to the author of a work as though I know them. Nowadays I find that writing cringe, mostly because of, you know, that whole, turning an author into a dolly I can yell at, and it’s also kind of underselling the way that works have their own authorial voice and those authors change over time. Like, the human who wrote a book is not the human who started writing the book because the human in question at the start didn’t have the experience of writing the book at the very least. And because at one point a long time ago, I know that I spoke to this author, I am terrified of now as a grown ass boring adult talking as if somehow I have some deep insight.

Seeing people who don’t even have that connection trying to explain that actually, Tamsyn Muir is totally a secret Winx fan, because — makes me shudder at the idea of doing something like that.

The other thing is that much like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, broadly speaking, no book in The Locked Tomb is an unsatisfying story on its own. They all set up the next one, they all leave you with a status quo that can be changed for, we assume, the better, but the story you read, the story at the start of the book, is concluded. These are not a series where every book is left missing a chunk at the end in anticipation of you buying the next one: These are three books that tell a story and get you attached to the characters, then offers you a ramp to see where the story can go and why you should read the next one. I really like that, and that means that to me, if we never get Alecto the Ninth, then none of the other books suddenly become bad.

And what to do in the Alectopause? For me, the best thing to do, is to share in the joy of this series. Make things, talk to people about things, and yeah, by all means, get involved in squirrelly fandom or AU fanfics (I mean, canonically this is a story which includes its own AU fanfic). And who knows, maybe some of those people who start with Locked Tomb fanfic may wind up getting ideas about changing the world, who may have their own theories, who may devise their own worlds and want to write their own stories, walking in the same path of creative practice that I know helped to create The Locked Tomb.

Just, like, let’s all keep a foot on the ground as well.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[snakegills]

your mind amazes me i need your top book recommendations. any amount u could throw 5 books or 20 books at me right now id probably find time for all of them

Ah thank you so much! Here's a quick list of books i mostly read this year absolutely love in no particular order for you! Under the readmore bcs it's quite a bit

- repo virtual by Corey j white

One of the best books I've read all year. A cyberpunk sort of story that follows a few different characters, the first one being a repo man in a virtual game that the entire world plays. More stuff goes down and we are introduced to an amazing cast of characters. Honestly just a beautiful read and I super recommend it for anyone.

- The first 4 halo books (fall of reach, the flood, first strike, ghosts of onyx) genuinely they are incredible for many reasons but I personally love the description of battles. You do not need to have played the games beforehand BTW! In fact it's a much better book without having played the games

- the locked tomb series

Genuinely very good. I avoided reading them for a while, but they are actually as good as people say! The author very much has the vibes of a fanfic author but in a good way yknow? Also women are treated like actual characters. Love that.

- even though I knew the end by c.l polk:

Set in the 30s? Or so? Kind of a detective thing with angels and demons and a woman trying to solve a string of murders to save her soul. A Short read (4hr audiobook) but it honestly got me to finally understand the appeal of noir and detective stuff

- challenger deep by Neal Shusterman

This book is about a teenager dealing with his sudden development of schizophrenia and how it changes his life. Its based on the authors son and the personal experience makes this book incredibly heartfelt and compelling. Also the fact that Neal shusterman has written books I've loved since I was 10 helps

- some desperate glory by Emily tesh

Very interesting read from the pov of a very brainwashed girl in a cult made of the last remaining humans still fighting the war on aliens that destroyed earth. It really sucks you in with the world building and plot! I really love the main character she's the solid snake of lesbians and I need her like carnally.

Interview with the vampire + the vampire lestat by Anne rice

If you like vampires and are okay with things getting a little dark (the concept of a vampire child and everything that comes with it. And incest in the second book) these books are really good! The language she uses is incredible and very Gothic. I tried to read the third book and super hated it but it's not like it was bad I guess

- Carmilla by sheridan le fanu

One of the first vampire novels to be published in Europe! A very interesting read, especially if you have had a life long love of vampire stories. Definitely recommend it over Dracula.

- song of achilles

A great read if you're into Greek legends, especially Achilles and Patroclus. Read it in high-school and it's stuck with me ever since. One of the most compelling love stories of the human race in my eyes.

- Wolf in white van by John darnielle

So im a huge fan of the mountain goats so of course I read all of John's books BUT this one? This one is the best. The way the story is told is just inspirational. He truly writes books that are the journey not the destination. I highly recommend this particular book, but his other works (Devil House and Universal Harvester) are good too. If you are gonna read all three save wolf in white van for the last, it is the best.

- this is how you lose the time war by amel el-mohtar

Everything you've heard about this book is wrong. It is better than what you've heard. Ignore all the Trigun fans that say this book is vashwood it is BETTER than that. A love story between two woman that transcends time and space and just ugh... ugh. Its good.

-in the mountains of madness by hp Lovecraft

If you read only one thing by Lovecraft make it this one. Its his best work. Reads almost like a tale you'd tell around a campfire. )If you liked this one and want to read more i personally recommend the case of Charles dexter ward)

And finally I'm leaving off with a few rapid fire suggestions

- enders game by orson scott card (only enders game do not read anymore you will hate the rest)

- I have no mouth and I must scream, harlan Ellison compilation works

- mister b gone by Clive baker

- jurassic park

-1984 + animal farm

- do androids dream of eletric sheep?

- we have always lived in a castle

- camp damascus by Chuck tingle

- cats cradle by Kurt vonnegut

- the outsiders

- lord of the flies

Anyway I love to read and I've read A Lot of books so if you want a better description of Amy of these or to talk about them I'm always down.

[spockandawe]

NOW. We get into a section of binderary I like to call exciting new leathers. So what happened. Well, I read Moby Dick for book club, and frankly, there was a lot more bookbinding content in that book than i EVER would have guessed. Not that much, by volume, but any bookbinding is always a fun surprise! And one detail that SNAGGED me was the mention of a book bound in shark leather. Naturally, i immediately went on a quest to see if I could find 1) affordable and 2) ethically sourced shark leather, and never mind point two, because I struck out hard on one. So in a fit of self-pity, I bought a scattering of snake, fish, and ray leather, and then had to start thinking about how to use it.

I spent a while kind of paralyzed, but the first thing that REALLY caught my eye was this one white and gold snake hide (with purple tones here and there around the scales), and how it made me think of lyctoral robes, and that means it's time for another round of 'It's About The Bones 👌,' babey!! By the incredibly talented @sunderedstar, of course. Benefits of being friends with an incredible writer include the constant supply of gourmet food that's a pleasure to bind and practice with!

And since this fic had been one of my earliest test subjects for a k118 binding, I wanted to keep that going, and try one of my favorite fics in one of my favorite styles, testing out the new leathers in this format! And the book is a success, but the k118 thing, uh, didn't work. A fun feature of the snake leather is that its so thin I'd be afraid to even try paring it further. Which is great, that's the step I'm worst at! But now I wonder if that thinness means that paste isn't able to saturate the hide the way it would with goat, because the first time I opened this book, the spine IMMEDIATELY popped off the text block 🤣

I'm not mad at all, the book still works great, it's just got a breakaway spine now and can't do the k118 360 degree party trick. And the binding came together gorgeous! This is a typeset I'm still proud of, and I think i found the right fabric in my stash to match and contrast to the snake leather colors, and the embossed endpapers gave it a nice weight and elegance, all without losing that locked tomb flavor, but capturing a very different vibe than my prior bindings. All things told, I'm very pleased, this was so fun to work with!

[kabbal]

HERE I COME

I love to find secondary character that are objectively bad women with something wrong with them and making them worse by finding another horrible woman to ship them with

Starting with a very mainstream ship (for f/f at least) : Cait/Vi from the Arcane animated series :

The large class difference is what kind of drew me in, that and the brash and flirty/reserved and more prude dynamic. They've got a lot of fic about them as a main couple since their buddy cop duo is built off classic fandom tropes, with nicknames, saving each other asses and a "reluctant allies to lovers" progression. Season 2 is rumored to

Then we get to what I would call the mid mainstream level f/f with the Locked Tomb series, and I could talk about any combination of Ianthe, Harrow and Gideon but since I think they get talked about plenty already, I will talk about MY ship of two secondary characters : Coronabeth and Judith

(linking art here since I don't want to repost away from artists)

How do you get with your crush when you've always been a child soldier for a fascist empire and your crush is actively breaking every possible rule of said fascist empire including rebellion and a weird incesty-vibes relationship with her own sister? Can you do it without ending up dead, or a prisonner, or haunted by some ancient beast of destruction? That's a question Judith would like to ask. Will her repressed pining be cut short by tragic and gruesome death?

(I kind of want them to end tragically. For the horrible vibes. And the fix-it fics, of which there are a very appreciated number)

Then we go to a kind of niche f/f since it's built upon ONE character that me and some others who agree with me decided should be into women : Valeria from the 2022 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II game.

She's so very bad, guys. The ethics of the Call of Duty franchise are a fucking mess since the creators thought they could make a "apolitical" war game, but she's a nasty person. She's a mob boss who was okay risking the whole city of Chicago to be annoying. She fucks over the protagonists every time. So of course we wanted her to have a girlfriend. I'm seen a LOT of readerfic for this character since she seems to make people horny, and people (me included) have been creating OCs to ship her with and be the alpha female our hearts desire

Then I get into REALLY niche f/f since I have a femslash pairing in a tv show that has barely had an english sub and obviously no dub. The series Kaamelott is a staple of French culture for its witty wordplay, very quotable moments and tragic scenes, and i have inprinted on two of its secondary characters, Démétra and Aelis

They're two mistresses of the same king, which of course causes conflict. They're constantly trying to up one another in becoming the new queen, and also both failing. I am gnawing on their sexual tension like a bone. I have produced way too many art and fics for them and I pulled my friends into it for a ship between two characters that share maybe three episodes of a six season show, so IF THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY.

anyway I've got more blorbettes (most of them rarepairs) that I ship together like Velma/Roxie from Chicago, Sandy/Rizzo from Grease, Tashigi/Reiju and Nami/Khalifa from One Piece, Alicent/Rhaenyra from House of the Dragon, and many more. Hope this opens some possibilities for people

Since we're on the subject of f/f: shippers, give me recs! What f/f are you passionate about? For me personally I prefer live action and women who aren't full face of makeup level femme, but really, just tell me who your blorbos are and why you're nuts about them.

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[lilliankillthisman]

Augustine, Satan, and Paradise Lost in The Locked Tomb

I was reading through Book IV of Paradise Lost (as one does ya know) and some of the imagery used by Satan to describe his fate suddenly jumped out at me:

Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath and infinite despair? Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

"And in the lowest deep a lower deep/Still threatening to devour me, opens wide" is metaphorical here, but it's a very, very literal description of what happens to Augustine at the end of HtN, swallowed up by the stoma at the bottom of the river. The preceding part fits perfectly too; Augustine literally casts everything around him into hell in a fit of despairing rage.

This got me thinking of Augustine as a Satanic figure; God's angel and Saint who betrays him, attempts to cast him down and is cast down in turn instead. I'm almost certain this is a deliberate framing from TazMuir; Augustine's story is absolutely the story of Satan, and she likes melodramatic religion and classical references enough that I think she's not above references to Milton. This suggests that Augustine is going to reappear later just as casting Satan to Hell is only the start of the story, and that he definitely isn't going to give up on his grudge against John/God. In addition, in Paradise Lost the gates of Hell are guarded by Sin and Death. Lyctorhood is consistently referred to as the Lyctors' sin in a setting where I think no one ever mentions any other sin at all despite our main characters being nuns, so it's safe to say the concept is usually absent and its usage for Lyctorhood is important. Since Sin persuades Death to allow Satan to pass out of Hell, that might suggest that Lyctorhood is key to escaping the place beyond the river. Of course, that won't be easy: "Long is the way/And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light". But I really do think we haven't seen the last of Augustine.

When we run this symbolism along its course we come to Harrow and Ianthe as Adam and Eve; the new creations of God to replace the angels he has lost. Ianthe clearly fills the role of Eve, the woman Augustine/Satan tries to tempt away. Unlike in Paradise Lost she resists his persuasions at the climax of HtN, and in doing so avoids dooming humanity in the form of destroying Dominicus. However, I genuinely think this association is very relevant, and may well predict future events in the series - Eve is not tempted at Satan's first attempt, but instead later in Book IX. How is she tempted away from God? With an apple, forbidden knowledge, and the promise of divinity. That is a remarkably specific parallel to her studies and her suspected goals, and again I really don't think this is wild speculation; I think Ianthe's story could really mirror Eve's, ending with her turning from God in an attempt to replicate his power and getting fucked over for it. The specific way I think she might get fucked over is losing her exalted state and immortality, just as Eve did; to whit, losing her Lyctorhood. If we take Harrow as Adam, that suggests Harrow will cease to be a Lyctor as well.

Btw, the last book of Paradise Lost focuses on the child of God saving mankind, which is definitely good vibes.