#jeannemary

[mayasaura]

why do you think cytherea targeted the fourth the way she did? we know why she killed the fifth, and we know why she killed people generally, but the writing in blood and the chasing jeanne after killing isaac feels weirdly personal

It does seem personal, yeah. I'm sure it was intended to. I'm also sure it wasn't. I doubt Cytherea even noticed they were people enough to have beef with them.

Let's look at her goals:

She's using the heirs as bait to get John's attention, but doesn't want to make the real stakes apparent. So she kills them off, one by one, slasher movie style. She's playing with them, creating a narrative so that when the terrified survivors call for help, John is curious enough about whatever theory they've come up with to come take a looksee.

That's probably why she planted the idea of vengeful angry ghosts so early. She knows it's something that's bound to get John's attention without alarming him enough for him to be on the defensive. His old house is haunted by violently angry revenants? That doesn't sound right, but you never know with ghosts. Seems both interesting and a bit concerning, he'd better take a look.

The Fourth specifically were targeted because their investigation into Abigail and Magnus' murder posed a threat to her plan. They had found Dulcinea and Protesilaus' ashes in the incinerator and raised the alarm, which put them way too close to asking the right kinds of questions. Like: "Whose ashes are these?" and "Is this connected to the other murders?" They had to die, and they had to die in a way that drew attention away from their investigation and lent credence to Cytherea's angry ghost narrative, or the story they had to tell when they called John might be a little too close to the truth to get the intended effect.

So. Giant bone monster in the basement laboratory, a sleeping child skewered in a locked room, and ominous writing in the victim's blood. A tableau designed to be so horrifyingly personal it doesn't occur to anyone it might have been pragmatic.

[domibomz]

jeannemary and issac asked if she wanted to hang that saturday night and gideon said 'oh yeah sure, we'll go skateboarding, 7-evelen slushie running, maybe steal the wheels off some guy's bike' but no. no. she got this.

[6th-for-truth]

I really do love this moment for Gideon, though. Let the poor kid have a fangirl and a bit of dessert. Goodness knows she's earned a sliver of positivity smooshed between all the awful.

Available now on my Etsy here

[rosewind2007]

The Murderbot Diaries

1) Gurathin

Gurathin sighed and rubbed his face and looked off into the distance, like he regretted all his life choices that had led to him standing here right now

The Locked Tomb

2) Jeannemary

the dreadful teen cavalier of the Fourth, who looked as though she regretted everything that had ever led up to this moment

[g1deonthefirst]

explain why you think so in the tags!

[saintalectoshomeforwaywardgirls]

2/10/2024: Happy Lunar New Year!

Who's that little redhead, you may ask? That's Isaac Tettares, Baron of Tisis and the necromantic heir of the Fourth House, and despite being of Chinese ancestry, he's never celebrated Lunar New Year before. They don't have that in space in the future.

(Isaac began life as an Emerson Wellie Wisher doll, but he's since been rewigged with a ZazouCustomDolls wig and dressed in a way he's more comfortable with, thanks to this set.)

Hearing that he'd never had Lunar New Year before, Corinne, Gwynn, and May set out to throw a celebration! Since it's the Year of the Dragon, they're also accompanied by Xiaoying and Guilan, two Fluffnest stuffies.

Corinne is wearing the Lunar New Year outfit; Gwynn is wearing the shirt and skirt from this lil outfit sold by 2debsadorables on eBay, while Isaac is wearing the vest; May is wearing Ivy's New Years dress.

Gwynn and Corinne took another sister picture with the dragons, too.

Later, Isaac's found family (Abigail and Jeannemary, of course) showed up to celebrate with him, and May taught Abigail how to properly give red envelopes to the littles in her life. Isaac, as you can see, is very thrilled.

[ninoacca]

consequences of tlt rereading

[notedchampagne]

each house gets one rendering style the economy is dire

[thechekhov]

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

Bonus:

[cpericardium]

Gideon digging for every negative adjective possible to describe kids four years younger than her

[bugcowboyart]

Blades of the Cavalier Primaries Displayed for your Appreciation

In house order from top to bottom. I’d be happy to explain the choices if anyone is interested!

[chimchiri]

Small art gift for @admiraldora who chose the awful teens as a motif. Had a lot of fun looking up their scenes again and figuring out their overall appearance and outfits.

JM always being in awe of Gideon's biceps are the cutest and funniest moments. I can only imagine how often she she gawks at Gideon in secret and inspects her own muscles in front of the mirror in the fourth's room.

[ellevenstar]

just a couple of poor dumb kids

[artac13]

Welcome to Canaan House! Come meet the crew! We have:

A bone-obsessed goth nun

A jock forced to dress up as a bone-obsessed goth nun

An autistic nerd

An autistic nerd whose special interest is knives and what they can do to human flesh

A valley girl

An evil valley girl

Douche-y Elvis with a sword

An awkward scene kid

An awkward scene kid who's definitely listened to Angel With a Shotgun an unhealthy amount of times

An evil cancer patient

The end result of that laser grid from the Resident Evil movie

The dad you wish you had

The mom you wish you had

An ROTC kid

A worse-adjusted ROTC kid

The bleached leader of the Spanish Inqusition In Space

The actually-very-nice older nephew of the leader of the Spanish Inquisition In Space

And last but not least, the souls of the damned, eternally trapped in torturous servitude!

[katakaluptastrophy]

Imagine being the Cohort soldiers from the Erebos who were sent respond to Judith's distress call.

They land to find a dead Lyctor, run through with a Cohort infantry sword, and two new Lyctors, one freshly missing an arm. I doubt either of them were particularly coherent by that stage.

And then they go to clear the inside of the building. In the room the transmission came from, there's a dead priest and an enormous pool of blood, but no sign of captain Deuteros. Her cavalier is missing an eye and seems to have been blown open from the inside.

A room down the hall is singed and splattered with blood and chunks of human flesh. Perhaps there are fragments of grey robes, or perhaps some poor psychometrist works out that they're looking at what's left of the Master Warden of his House.

Further into the building they enter a study with the words "YOU LIED TO US" daubed across an ancient and beautiful mural. The Third House cavalier lies dead on the floor, stabbed from behind. The Master Templar of the Eighth is lying dead, his throat slit, apparently by his own cavalier's sword. And his cavalier... His eyes are gone, there is something wrong with his mouth. His wrist and neck are broken. The whole room is dripping and sticky with blood and human fat.

Searching past the kitchen, they find the morgue. There's a bowl of ashes (two people's, dead before the pilgrimage even began, confirms the by now very shaken psychometrist). One of drawers lies open and the sheet has been roughly pulled off the body inside: the utterly shattered body of the Fifth House necromancer is lying there, her blouse rolled up to her ribs, a fist sized hole in her abdomen.

Neatly lying under sheets in the other drawers there are more bodies, and the preserved severed head of the Seventh House cavalier. There is no sign of his body. The Fourth House cavalier has been impaled through the chest, shoulders and legs, precisely, like an insect for display. Her necromancer...it might be easier to list the places where he hasn't been impaled. The Fifth House cavalier is just as destroyed as his necromancer: limbs broken, body horribly mangled.

Later, they find the bloodsoaked bed with "sweet dreams" daubed on the wall in blood. If they get as far as the facility, they discover the outlines of two horribly broken bodies surrounded by necromantic diagrams drawn on the floor in pen. One unremarkable room is splattered in blood and singed with spirit fire.

The building is full of collapsed skeleton constructs, seemingly mid task, as if all struck down simultaneously, and as they explore they find more dead priests. They find no sign of the Sixth or Ninth cavaliers, or the Crown Princess of the Third, or of Captain Deuteros. And from what they've already seen, this can't feel encouraging.

It's clear that this building has witnessed necromantic horrors beyond their comprehension. What were the scions of the Houses doing, or what was being done to them? What could possibly cause what they have seen?

And I can't imagine that after seeing the truth of what happened at Canaan House, that John would have taken the risk of those soldiers revealing what they had seen. After all, he's a very careful guy.

[lunaicfantastic]

fav part of gideon the ninth is for the first pre-canaan house chunk of the book, she's all "ugh I'm so normal surrounded by all these weirdo goth freaks when I blow this popsicle stand everyone will see how cool and normal and charming I am" and then she gets to canaan house and realizes that while she might have been a normie jock in the ninth house she is not exempt from being a goth weirdo who hides important doors behind tapestries and sneaks around in the dark so she doesn't have to talk to people. like we talk about her being a jock forced to be goth but nature v nurture babey she's not shedding that bone freak skin anytime soon