#john's and gideon's relationship is so special to me

[kairos-polaris]

John and Gideon are likely closer than people who hate John Gaius would like them to be but it makes perfect sense. Not only has Gideon never felt loved or wanted in her entire life but she probably felt even more abandoned, both by Harrow and Pyrrha.

We know that they care, that they want her so so bad, but Gideon doesn't! She doesn't know what Harrow thinks when she gets her memories back nor does she know that part the reason why Pyrrha took care of Nona was the chance it was Gideon. She doesn't know that Pyrrha thought about her and her life on the Ninth and wished she was there.

Which is why it makes so much sense that she latches onto John Gaius who accepts her immediately. John Gaius whose expression is described as "mildly awed". Yes, the first thing he tells her is a stupid dad joke but at the same time it's him accepting Gideon as his daughter on sight.

John accepts her, he brings her back to life (not fully, but with an indestructible body. he protects her, for his selfish reasons, but he protects her in this way). He gives her a new name, in his language. John gives her titles and a wreath of finger bones like the one he wears. He accepts her as his daughter completely.

Gideon was angry at him in the end of htn but she forgives easily and when you are lonely and abandoned it's even easier to forgive the only person who ever accepted you this openly. Ianthe doesn't say they aren't close or don't spend time together when they argue. Gideon introduces herself with the titles. Because she says John would be even more depressed without them, because this implies she cares for him.

[thanergetic-hyperlinks]

Tamsyn Muir's writing beyond The Locked Tomb

Y'all, turns out there's lots of imagery and themes in TLT that Muir was already playing with in her earlier fiction. A lot of it is easily available online, in which case I'll link to it. (The short stories that aren't can also be easily read if googled, to be quite honest—that's how I read The Deepwater Bride and Why the Mermaids Left Boralus). • The House That Made the Sixteen Loops of Time (2011)

5K. Short sort-of-cozy romance (?) with (you guessed it) a time travel loop. Explores a very queer potential relationship. CamPal enjoyers might find a similar sweetness.

• The Magician's Apprentice (2012, Lightspeed Magazine)

5K. This is the one that stopped me dead on my tracks. It features an older, male mentor figure called John (a “very ordinary man” with “dark eyes”) who introduces the young, female main character to magic that has a terrible cost—and to literature such as Lolita. This excellent post by @familyabolisher does an incredible job of analyzing the very deliberate intertextual links between TLT and Lolita.

• The Woman in the Hill (2015, Lightspeed Magazine, originally for Dreams From the Witch House anthology of Lovecraftian horror by women)

4K. Possibly my favorite! It's a straightforward Lovecraftian horror, centered on the image of the woman (is it human though?) trapped in an unnatural pool inside a cursed cave. Chain imagery too. It does something different from Alecto, mind, but you can see links, ways of playing with facets of a strong central image. It's fun to consider how reliable the two narrators are. Here's an analysis and afterthought from Reactor Mag.

• Chew (2013) 4K. Zombie abuse and cannibalistic revenge story ft. an uncanny woman revenant, told from the eyes of a traumatized German boy. I was strongly reminded of Harrow's conversations with the Body. Tamsyn gave an interview on the themes and her intentions. Interesting to read in light of Alecto, I think, although I don't think she's going the same route in TLT: “the idea of post-war rebuilding connecting to rebuilding the body of the zombie; a Frankenstein who once rebuilt doesn’t act as planned or desired. […] I love cannibalism […] it’s innately spiritual […] any afterlife she goes to, he’s going too.”

• Apothecia (2014, published on Tumblr and tapas.io)

Short webcomic where an alien monster tries to corrupt the ruthless human girl who holds it captive. Musings on responsibility and murder, mention of child abuse. The alien's speech patterns remind me of a Resurrection Beast. You get wonderful dialogue like “Murder is a profession. Job. Employment, you tiny leg dog. There you are, walking along. Walk walk walk. Now you are a walker. Good job. Special child. Murder is like this.” Art by Shelby Cragg.

• The Deepwater Bride (2015, Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine)

The opening line is: “In the time of our crawling Night Lord's ascendancy, foretold by exodus of starlight into his sucking astral wounds, I turned sixteen and received Barbie's Dream Car.” Need I say more? Extremely fun. A novelette where a young queer girl from a clairvoyant family struggles with an apocalyptic event while being annoyed by another very plucky girl. Lots of descriptions with nerdy marine zoology terms. Close in tone to Gideon. In the background, someone dies EXACTLY like that one death at the end of Gideon, which makes me wonder what happened to make Tamsyn interested in this particular image. I also liked that Tamsyn is aware of Nightwish. No link, but you'll get a PDF immediately if you Google.

• Union (2015, Clarkesworld Magazine)

5.5K. Very weird, extremely Kiwi story about a town that gets sent lab-grown wives by the government, but they're not made the usual way so they're Weird and people have feelings about it. Fascinating and eerie description of non-human (in some people's eyes, sub-human) women (?) who cannot be observed to have recognizable feelings or thoughts, yet have some sort of inner life. Quite touching, very uncanny.

• Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (2020)

Short novel (~200 pages). Very funny. I was reminded of Coronabeth because the whole plot is “princess finds herself branching out into decidedly non-princess-like activities”, but other than that—this is a fairytale for adults about people who make eachother worse. No particular links to TLT but a very fun read with some gut punches. Extremely Tamsyn through and through, what with the dubious morality and all.

• Why the Mermaids Left Boralus (2021, in Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth by Blizzard Entertainment)

Set in the World of Warcraft universe. Haven't read this one yet, will report back lmao. As with The Deepwater Bride, no link but I easily found a PDF of the entire compilation. It's illustrated!

• Undercover (2022, from Into Shadow, Amazon Original Collection)

Haven't read it either. Will edit once I do.

[notedchampagne]

What makes a tlt au work for you? Do u have any favourites out there/that you’ve thought of?

its hard because it can go down to the writing! i have a huge bias for things that put focus on the characters acting awful and driving the story forward- if a story has a plot thats great, but its the difference between "gideon and harrow keep meeting up at parties and fall a little bit in love every time" and "gideons angry she lost her childhood to the cult so she attends a party with the tridentarii to shotgun adolescent experiences, and harrowhark, frustrated that gideon is pulling on her metaphorical leash, follows to stalk her". the former retains a 5+1 fic format and is more bite-size, while the latter puts more focus into their growth as characters. im not great at articulating what i like specifically, but ill put my favorite fics below:

what if nona was dogs tugs at my heart: its post-canon, slice-of-life, and has a unique concept (said in the title). i judged a book by its cover because i thought the premise seemed too silly at first but ive been made a fool and its pet clown. it feels so true to nona the way its about all the things nona loves and how she gets to explore the world through new eyes. i love the way it explores characters softening up and getting hurt through a third person pov

we have always lived in the apartment by @thatneoncrisis i keep saying this but for the love of GOD guys this au is so good it makes me cry and feel such a deep catharsis from it. it takes gideon and harrow and the ninth as a cult and explores their struggle to adapt to a modern society when noone ever gets a break (WOW ITS JUST LIKE IN REAL L-). quinn writes the sides of griddlehark i think go overlooked in fanfic often: their codependency, their tendency to lash out when theyre defensive, their mutual paranoia and different coping mechanisms, harrows psychosis and gideons bitterness, their relationships to each other as being the only other person who really understands what the other suffered through. god. i feel lightheaded.

"but SAM, i dont like angst but i want to see this writing!" read gap between a tragedy and a comedy

"SAM, i also like when gideon and harrow are horrible because theyre maladjusted teenagers! but i want more antics where the characters drive things forward over angst!" read whats eating gideon nav

you just aint receiving is one of my FAVORITE modern aus of all time (and i heavily recommend the authors other fics as well!) if you really want to see how much i love this fic the fact that my comments take up the entire phone screen probably says a lot. its hard to put it concisely: it keeps harrows air of misanthropy and cruelty but redefines it as the result of her upbringing and personal struggle to live in a university while dealing with a backpack of mental illness and frustration. it changes gideons personality as the daughter of john gaius in a way that makes sense having her grow up with johns middling parenting skills and getting everything she ever wanted (connecting it back to kirionas personality in ntn!). it brings in side characters (specially palamedes. my beautiful boy palamedes) in ways that compliment harrow and gideon but not so obviously that they only exist to be supports. they have their own lives and ideals. its a modern au that brings in the boiling politics of johns cult uprising once again in a really novel way

semi charmed kinda life by @griddlebait. jesuchristo and all his middle names this fic is GREAT for you if you want a slice of life, coming of age type modern au that explores what its like for gideon and harrow if they actually got the space to see who theyd become outside of the stifling fate tlt has for them. as far as modern aus go im usually very hesitant to read them because im afraid modernizing the characters takes features away from their core but i really love and respect the way the author treats the 69ers with care and draws distinct lines that shows me how their grow and change while keeping a line to the anchor. also they write HIDEOUS (complimentary) PINING. DISGUSTING. some of these chapters were so chock full of dyke drama that they made me nauseous and whimsical. i think once a friend said this fic felt like if gh could be reincarnated and i like that descriptor a lot

til the cows come home is another postcanon fic that made me feel sick and crybabyish about it- i would definitely recommend it if you want to explore a happier ending with griddlehark! with this and what if nona was dogs the thing i like most about them is that they mix up vulnerability with pain and fear, so it feels more lifelike that way if that makes sense. i lost my taste in fluff fics over time but when its interspersed with struggle and characters causing problems because they cant cope with themselves it feels much more earnest and raw

this became very long. im not sorry

[skydaemon]

Rating the mommy issues of TLT characters in alphabetical order

contains spoilers technically

Abigail: can't have kids but clearly maternal as fuck. call her mother. 2/10

Aiglamene: she has inverse mommy issues - daughter issues. -10/10

Augustine: full offense but he has freudian vibes. fuck-hate relationship w mercymorn who is has the energy of a neglectful mother. 7/10

Camilla: clearly raised by incredibly competent parents - unclear if she had a mother. Even if she did her real issues are codependency with Palamedes. 0/10

Corona: unconfirmed but a girl like that did NOT experience maternal affection growing up. 5/10

Crux: yknow what. nobody whose mother held them enough is Like That. 10/10

Dulcinea: idk if she had a mother, but i get 'raised by gay dad(s)' vibes from her. possibly the best adjusted character of all 0/10

G1deon: man is obsessed with doing what God wants EXCEPT when it's not to fuck a terrorist. four parts people pleaser one part horny 5/10

Gideon: mum only birthed her to blow her up, died, then used her afterlife to terrorise Gideon’s not-quite-girlfriend; gave her a desperate desire for external validation and attention, especially from evil cougars. 11/10

Harrow: mum committed genocide to conceive her, never smiled at her, attempted to murder-suicide her. 12/10

Ianthe: unclear. daddy issues but no mention of mother afaik - might not even have one. no indication of mommy issues in her romantic life bc she didn’t attempt to fuck mercymorn. HOWEVER she’s such a freak she can’t possibly have had a positive female role model. 3/10

Isaac: born in a vat but had abigail as a maternal figure so 5/10

Jeannemary: same as isaac but she's definitely sapphic so bump that to 6/10

John: literally reformed the Earth in the image of his mum’s old Hollywood hair Barbie. Also, look at him. 100/10

Judith: 9/10 no questions

Magnus: so chill but also he has the vibes of someone into mommydom shit. he's sucked abigail's tits for SURE 3/10

Marta: idk i think she has 'estranged from family' vibes. 4/10

Mercymorn: her mother might have been good but she can't remember her, so 5/10

Naberius: he kissed his mother on the mouth DAILY and you know it. 10/10

Ortus: mostly daddy issues but you saw his mother. 8/10

Palamedes: I haven’t read Doctor Sex but I have his mommy issues on good authority. I hate to say it but camilla is his mommy. 6/10

Pyrrha: unknown. Loves a milf but then who doesn’t. 1/10

Wake: giver of mommy issues. she's the mommy that's the issue. unrateable

[ETA: @everyone making fun of me for saying he sucks tits like it's something special im SORRY i didn't say magnus sits on abigails lap and pretends to breastfeed but i thought it would be GROSS i guess i forgot what this fandom is. ily all be home for dinner]

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

@st-just, in reference to this post.

Here's my more in-depth review of The Faithless, if you're curious.

The Locked Tomb is something of a special case of queer norm fiction. It took me a while to figure out why I loved tlt so much when I was so cold on all other queer norm fiction, but I do have an answer.

The thing about tlt is that it's queer norm in the sense that queer characters and relationships are utterly unremarkable... but it's also not queer norm because there is no norm. The worldbuilding in tlt is deliberately sparse, such that we have no idea what a normal family or relationship within the Nine Houses even looks like! We know Harrow's parents were married and had her. We know that Magnus and Abigail are married but don't have children. We know that Corona and Ianthe have parents. We know that children can be grown artificially in vats. We know that marriage for political alliance is a concept that Harrow is aware of. And as far as I can remember, that's it! The worldbuilding is a black box, and nothing that we can glimpse in it is strained by unremarkable queerness, which is a very rare thing.

The Locked Tomb also injects other elements that resonate with me as authentically queer. Probably the biggest one is that the characters, in addition to being queer, are horny and weird about it. Like, I know that sounds trite to say, but of all the wlw books I've read, I would say a plurality are pretty chaste, and most of the ones that aren't are fairly tame or understated in the level and type of horniness on display. There's a lot to be said about the overlap between the queer community and the kink community that is way beyond the scope of this post, but without even touching Harrianthe bone sex and Nona's vore thing, one of the first things we learn about Gideon is that she owns porn magazines. It is vanishingly rare for fiction to acknowledge that people have or use pornography, let alone queer characters, let alone in a value neutral way, but a lot of queer people owe some part of their self-discovery to porn, in whatever form. The books are just full of unsanitized, "impure", queer desire, and that's both resonant and uncommon.

The last thing, I think, that makes tlt stand apart from queer norm fiction, is that the queer normalization is localized. In Nona the Ninth, we see life outside the Nine Houses, and it is messy. Pyrrha gets misgendered and stereotyped. Her gender identity is misunderstood and disrespected. The polite fiction of perfect understanding and tolerance of a lot of queer norm settings falls away completely. If you want to take a particularly meta read, you could argue that since the Nine Houses are not an emergent culture but a society designed and created by John, a queer man from our time, that he acted as an author and deliberately enforced queer norm standards on them because if he was going to be God, then god dammit he was gonna have his queer utopia about it.

The locked tomb deals with queerness in its setting in a really novel way that works very well for it specifically, and I really enjoy it. You could argue whether it counts as queer norm or not, because it very much blurs the lines. Something queer about that too, yeah?

[rogloptimist]

the gears are turning (bad)

okay. picture this for me. canaan house + project lyctorhood but i ruin it by adding rpf

dunno how it ends (or starts honestly because who am i gonna make god…) but uhh tadej and jonas consume each other and achieve partial lyctorhood and are existing in weird ass stasis in which parts of their souls are permanently embedded in the other

primoz:

9th house necromancer

he don’t got no cav because he’s super special

was born into the ninth as a non adept (non necro) when there were no necromancers left on the ninth except the reverend mother and father

raised with the sole purpose of becoming the 9th house cavalier with the expectation that a necromancer would be conceived due to his talents w rapier (this is the ski jumping btw)

in a last ditch effort to conceive a necro heir, rev. mother and father do The Ritual (they kill a bunch of babies to harness tre death energy to ensure that the child is conceived as a necromancer) with primoz as an anchor of sorts

do y’all remember how john killed everyone? picture that for me. primoz can feel the thanergy (death energy) bloom slipping away because the ritual starts going wrong, and in an act of desperation he grabs it and it basically radioactive spider’s him; the thanergy bloom turns him into a necro

HOWEVER he basically is being electrocuted with death-energy (thanergy) so he reaches out and accidentally puts the entirety of the 9th’s population’s souls in stasis by chucking them out somewhere unknown

freaks the fuck out and assumes position as reverend of the ninth and pretends everything is fine

brief detour he spends some time at the 6th (this is visma!!!) but the collectivist hivemind drives him insane and he wants out. now he’s alone seeking a necromantic solution to basically murdering his whole planet because he needs to prove that it was worth it (switching from ski jumping to cycling but not being able to quite touch the top, he didn’t do this all for nothing etc etc)

crazy crazy crazy relationship with god harrowhark style ! catholic guilt goes crazy

tadej:

8th house (i know it’s weird but trust) necromancer

adam is his cav- i will talk more about this later

specializes in soul siphoning, i.e. slurping up your cavalier’s soul out of their body and using the vacuum to generate power temporarily (cannibalism metaphors do you get ittt)

weird shit with consumption. he’s obsessed with transcending the limits of the flesh to become closer to god

first time he tried soul siphoning he actually killed the cav because he took it too far!

i also think it would be silly and fun if he consumed his own flesh ianthe/babs style while performing necromancy

sicko christian (everyone on the 8th thinks he’s a heretic, everyone else think’s he’s a nun, it’s actually a secret third thing somewhat adjacent to a communion kink)

controversial within his house for being too flashy (tl dr the 8th house is basically a cult with their interior design done by mr clean), ambitious and dangerous with his necromantic practices

rest of the necro’s don’t really know who he is? they all know he’s weird for an 8th, but not how or why. he’s also particularly intrigued by jonas

would be fun if he was god’s son like literally gideon style

jonas

6th house necromancer

cavalier is matteo (or wout? i’m conflicted. but also i want there to be a scene where matteo tells him you did everything that matters)

specializes in that thing where they read the bones and necromantic remains for death signatures. yeah rhat

born and raised on 6th, unusually high pool in his age group and didn’t show much promise for becoming a warden until recent years. was not expected to be heir to the 6th, people still haven’t gotten used to it (constant underdog narrative we stay winning)

people didn’t like him on 6th for supposed undercompetence, outside of the 6th they all think he’s a boring necro (too by the book)

he starts counting the doors first. just so you know

was friends with primoz while he spent his time on the sixth but grew apart after he went back to the ninth- still is unsure about tf is going on with him, also knew that he defo was not a necromancer before but keeps his mouth shut

tadej finds him particularly interesting, doesn’t buy the calculating librarian look that the 6th house puts forward. thinks he wants something more

remco:

4th house necromancer

from the second but family is fourth, was raised in the cohort

struggled with tight restrictions of the second, was hailed as a prodigy in combat as a child and wanted to serve first line w cohort but was sidelined in teens in command structure, returns to his father’s birthplace the fourth

there he learns the fourth specialty of using thanergy spikes to explode shit and gets really good at it very fast

climbs the ranks of the fourth and becomes heir, but is looked down upon by older cohort members for youth and hotheadedness

weird obsession with proving everyone wrong that needs to be studied in a lab

dunno who the cav is sorry 😔 i think it would be kind of hilarious if it was wout (viva la belgium) and he and jonas keep making eyes from across the room wishing to go back to their beehive days

mathieu/jasper

from 3rd house, jasper is necro and mathieu is cavalier

mathieu comes from a long ass line of cavaliers and was expected to become cavalier primary from basically birth. luckily he’s very very good with a sword but his dad is crazy!

jasper is a necro, born into 3rd royal family. is known for sheer power but also infamous for inconsistency

specializes in flesh magic, specifically loves working with muscle and tendons

mathieu+jasper raised together (is it brotherhood or are they just fucking. who knows. not them)

honestly very into bitch wife idiot husband why change the canon. keep jasper stupid 2024

adam not the one and only yates:

8th house cavalier

as per 8th practice was genetically engineered to be a match to a necromancies for soul siphoning

in this case, it was with his twin simon and i am totally so normal about the two of them !

however upon birth it was discovered that simon’s necromancy wasn’t perfectly compatible with adam’s- because he wasn’t heir material they didn’t care

but when tadej started as an adept and started sucking up people’s souls like a vacuum they needed someone capable of holding onto the shore of the river (wack ass spirit world) for longer and adam was found to be compatible

loyal to the end, but people all note that he looks faded when with tadej

will of steel or something

my various madman ramblings

[carica-ficus]

"Nona the Ninth"

08/07/2024

Reading progress: 116/477 (24%) Read through since last update: 116

And I'm off with Nona! My boyfriend got me the book about a month ago, but I haven't had the time (nor the mental capacity) to pick it up back then. But it's summer and I just finished my last exam, so I decided it was finally the right time to continue the series. I know this book is only an intro to Alecto and offers something a little different than Harrow and Gideon, but I'm welcoming this change with open arms and am very excited to see what Muir's got in store for me.

Ok, enough yapping. Time for the commentary:

Starting off: background for John. Interesting, but I hate that it's so short and vague (in the best way, of course. I'm excited for it to be revealed later on.)

I'm concentrating SO HARD on connecting the pieces from Pyrrha talking to Cam (Palamedes). It's been a while since I've read Harrow, so I'm struggling to connect the dots. Although, I realize much of this is also just new info, so I don't particularly mind. I'm just making sure I don't skip over something important (i.e. I'm doing very active reading).

Yeah, I wouldn't wanna eat those nasty looking eggs either, Nona.

I like how Muir gave Nona a down-turned smile. That's such a cute addition to her design. (If I understood that part about that description correctly.)

Not gonna lie, the part where Nona's difficulty with controlling her body was mentioned was so heavy...

Yeah, no. Everything linked to Nona's disability is incredibly raw. It's filled with sadness, but also compassion and love. She allows herself to be proud of her progress, no matter how small it is, and I love that Muir decided to give her the space to do that. ❤️

One day when I re-read the series (because I will), I'm going to pay special attention to the character's relationship to sex. Or maybe I'm gonna read up on someone else's analysis. Because I find it really interesting how Muir approaches this subject, especially considering many of her characters are on the verge of adulthood and are suddenly entering a world filled with things they know nothing about (or very little). They've all been forced to grow up so fast, but had no time to actually develop into functional, grown adults. Idk, I just find all of this very interesting.

Nona not feeling any hunger? Also resistant to drinking bleach? Ok, so she is definitely immortal and I'm excited to find out why. (I.e. the whole truth about her identity.)

John, I'd laugh at your Coke Zero joke. Then make fun of you for drinking such a shitty drink.

Incorrupti? There's no full stop at the end of the paragraph, so it's obviously cut off. Strange...

I like how the parts are numbered. it's a count-down. And I love how Muir uses this trope. Just when you forget about it, you get reminded and then you think to yourself: shit.

I love the way Nona gets dressed. It's described so well. I have a clear image of her trying to both free herself from her pjs and put herself into her dayclothes. It's such a funny scene.

A CHEESEBURGER WITH TINY LEGS! CUTE!

HHHHH CAMILLA AND PALAMEDES MY BELOVED!!! They're so fucking cute.

Also, yeah Pyrrha's right about the letters. Knowing Palamedes is actually not opposed to writing pornography... 👁️👁️

Damn, Honesty's got balls. That was such a wild mission.

Of course the Convoy is transporting something, but what are those creatures (people)? Hm hm hm. They're cooking up something.

NOODLE IS WEARING BOOTSIES!!!!!!!!!

HE SOUNDED LIKE ONE AND A HALF HORSES!!!!!!!

I LOVE John's titles!!!!!!!!!!

BRUH

BRUH

What is chapter #9?????

I literally inhaled it.

Bruh...

Cam and Palamedes though 😭😭❤️❤️❤️😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️😭❤️❤️❤️😭😭

How am I already at 1/4 of the book? It's been 3 days!! Guess it goes to show I wasn't in a reading slump, but was just reading boring books.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 23 of Harrow the Ninth

Sorry for the break - I meant to start again with this on Monday, but then I discovered my car had been broken into and I wasn't in the mood anymore

Beginning of Act 3. You know, I feel like the end-of-act events of this book lack a lot of the excitement of the end-of-act events of Gideon the Ninth. In Gideon, we had Magnus and Abigail's deaths, the Fourth Teens' deaths, the Cytherea reveal. In Harrow the Ninth, so far we have Harrow sleepstabbing Cytherea and then zombie Cytherea, but these turns of events just lack a certain something compared to the last book

Can we even trust these anymore? If we can, this should be five months after the start of the book and four months before the prologue

Says the swordswoman who is narrating this story?

So, insect that make your eyes bleed and spread "insanity" and also I remember them saying that they're always afraid of them when they're facing them directly (as opposed to just letting their cavaliers control their bodies), so they have some kind of fear aura or something, too

Does he mean to say that Ianthe would be the only one who would bother to protect Harrow, or is he just dodging the question?

She does sort of realize that her memories are impaired, but actually, I don't think she would have have had any memories of Naberius anyway, from the real sequence of events? I don't think they ever really interacted except I guess when Naberius challenged Camilla and Harrow came to her aid, and I can't imagine that she talked to him at all when Gideon wasn't around

Come on, Harrow, you are in love with a corpse

But it is kind of funny and I guess not unexpected that necrophilia is kind of like a classic sin that everyone commits anyway. Actually, I guess in this context necrophilia might not even necessarily have a consent issue with it, since it's actually totally possible that you asked the ghost if it was all right and they said yes

Although, this kind of makes me wonder if Gideon the First and Cytherea had some kind of thing going on before she died? When Harrow asked John about whether someone was moving Cytherea he said this:

You could interpret this as just being because Gideon the First keeps trying to kill Harrow, or he finds it weird talking about him with her because of the name confusion or whatever, but maybe Gideon the First also had some kind of anomalous relationship with Cytherea as well

I guess this also means that technically, zombie Cytherea could have been a hallucination, because someone has been moving her body

Harrow, he asked you to come to Canaan House and sacrifice someone you loved so that you could come with him and get chased across all of space by undead monsters that he almost certainly is responsible for creating and isn't doing anything to ensure that you will survive said monsters and when you went to him and said "please sir, can you make the Saint of Duty stop trying to kill me" he said "no sorry you're going to have to deal with it", he is a dickhead and doesn't deserve any of your fealty

You know, I never stopped to wonder where Harrow thinks the two-hander came from now, since Ortus isn't wielding it in her false memories or anything like that. So in this version of events John gave it to her, and that's why it's special/important? So I guess pre-Work Harrow is relying on her blind devotion to him to guarantee her protection of the sword. I wonder how Harrow is reconciling the idea that John gave her the two-hander with the fact that John keeps telling her to use a rapier instead

Also, it seems I understood what the Sewn Tongue thing was about correctly

[moonglowmuses]

amanda was slowly adjusting to this new existence. here, she had john and the two of them were happy together. she was a quasi-mother-figure to gideon. she had repaired relationships with many people, including jill tuck and mark hoffman. she carried her own biases, of course. amanda young had not lived long enough to have personally met special agent lindsey perez. however, john had informed her about the woman. because of this knowledge, she recognized the other straight away. "i know who you are," amanda confirmed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "i expect that you know who i am, too." amanda swallowed hard, considering her next move. "i suppose that i could do that," amanda mentioned with a brief nod. "i don't talk to cops often. so, i have to request that you not USE ANYTHING AGAINST ME LATER."

LINDSEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED. she did not know what it was that she was doing here and.. yes, she had to admit that was slightly confusing. she had to admit that it was more than confusing, because.. she remembered dying. if she tried hard enough? she could even remember.. what had happened, a few seconds before she had been stabbed again. she hated it. and to hear that something like that could be happening in here again? no. "good evening. i'm agent perez, would you have a few minutes to answer some questions?" (@walstarterblog)

[kingfrumpkin]

harrow & schizophrenia

i was asked to elaborate on my "harrow is schizophrenic" post and im more than happy to! i dont see this talked about a lot and it makes me sad & i hope theres more talk about it as time goes on

without further ado, here is harrow and her schizophrenia symptoms

the DSM-V outlines 5 symptoms of schizophrenia, which includes (1) hallucinations, (2) delusions, (3) disorganized speech (4) disorganized/catatonic behavior, and (5) negative symptoms. one only has to have 2 of these symptoms to get a diagnosis for schizophrenia, given they have lasted longer than 6 months and are not caused by drugs

let's go through these symptoms individually in regards to harrow:

1) hallucinations

there is no doubting that harrow suffers from hallucinations, as mentioned several many times throughout harrow the ninth. her hallucinations are mainly auditory (hearing doors close or people walking) and visual (the Body, hallucinating cythera's body, implied past hallucinations in her dream-river scape.) even in the first book there is evidence of harrows hallucinations, mainly when her and gideon are sneaking around hallways and have to stop constantly for "no reason", according to gideon

2) delusions

delusions are a little trickier to show examples of because the books are rarely from her POV, but i would consider her relationship with the Body a delusion. the Body has no special relationship to her and is incapable of feeling love to her, however harrow believes that they have this deep relationship. technically this could be considered a "religious hallucination" where "someone might think they have a special relationship with a deity" (WebMD). this delusion feeds into her hallucinations of the Body.

3) disorganized speech

harrow has no known disorganized speech patterns or confused thoughts. she has no problem talking/following trains of thoughts accurately

4) disorganized/catatonic behavior

this would be under the category of movement disorders in terms of schizophrenia which, again, is hard to gauge with everything that goes on in the books. however, there is one key line that mentions how harrow would lose track of time simply staring at/being with the body and waste hours doing this. if still at the time, this could be considered catatonic behavior. however, that is possibly a stretch

5) negative symptoms

negative symptoms is a little broad so let's break it down a little.

flattening: "When they talk, their voice can sound flat, like they have no emotions. They may not smile normally or show usual facial emotions in response to conversations or things happening around them" (WebMD)

we don't really have many descriptors of harrows inflection, or lack thereof, when speaking except when in moments of stress or upsetting circumstances, like with harrow witnessing the mercy/john/august sandwich. it could be said that harrow has a severe lack of facial expressions in response to normal day-to-day conversations

withdrawal/apathy: "This might include no longer making plans with friends or becoming a hermit. Talking to the person can feel like pulling teeth: If you want an answer, you have to really work to pry it out of them." (WebMD)

this is another obvious symptom that harrow has. she wants to work with no one and prefers to spend her times alone. she almost refuses to go to the dinner that magnus and abigail have and is uncomfortable the entire time. it is very hard to get answers out of her as well, as gideon is unable to do so and constantly gets frustrated with.

struggling with the basics of daily life: "They may stop bathing or taking care of themselves." (WebMD)

this is another obvious symptom. harrow rarely takes care of herself and has to be forced to.

other symptoms/schizophrenic behaviors

there are links between certain behaviors and schizophrenia that are worth going over, outside of the officially recognized symptoms

this section will be worked in examples of harrows behaviors

harrows rituals

rituals are important to harrow and is stressed in harrow the ninth. in flashbacks, she describes a series of rituals she practices and her strict adherence to them.

obsessive compulsive tendencies are found linked with schizophrenia in multiple cases. in an article in psychiatry MMC, several authors state: "Although OC symptoms in schizophrenia were once thought to occur rarely [...] recent studies have shown greater prevalence". case 1 of this article outlines a man with OCD-type rituals

harrow's paranoia

it is obvious harrow is a very paranoid person with her constant wards and sneaking around in the first house. paranoia is a symptom closely linked with schizophrenia, usually due to delusions/hallucinations

-

and at this point ive hit the character limit so UHHHH YEAH TY FOR READING

[agentnico]

The Mandalorian - Season 2 (2020) Review

People are all going crazy wondering when the PS5 will finally come back to stock, and I’m here like “when are Hasbro releasing that Mando helmet?”. What, I’m no geek, I simply want to walk around in my helmet saying “this is the way” to random strangers, okay? Nothing weird or geeky about that. Nothing at all.

Plot: Bounty hunter is on a search through the galaxy to return The Child (who happens to have an uncanny resemblance to a certain Yoda, only it’s an adorable baby!!) to his kind - the Jedi.

Recently the father of my lovely never-gonna-stop-gushing-about-her girlfriend has allowed me to take advantage of his Disney+ account, so I immediately went and watched all of The Mandalorian series following such rave reviews from both critics and fans of the Star Wars franchise. Okay, that’s a lie, upon gaining access to Disney+ my immediate course of action was to binge through all of Phineas and Ferb because that show is amazing and Perry the Platypus is a badass and what, I’m allowed to like a kids show, its called nostalgia!! Anyway, following that, I did go and watch The Mandalorian...well, I did after also rewatching some Marvel films and checking out other things that Disney+ had to offer first and yes, okay, I didn’t immediately watch The Mandalorian, and when I finally did get to it I took my sweet butt-cheek time with it, but here we are, I finished it, so let’s talk about it now before I move onto WandaVision that’s coming out soon!

Easily put, The Mandalorian is the best thing to come out from the Star Wars franchise since Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm. Yes, the new trilogy is divisive and many can argue that it’s both good and bad, but in reality let’s face it - Disney botched those films completely by not having a clear cut plan and as such making up things as they went along and the result is a mess with so many plot holes it actually makes Tenet make sense! Okay, not true, I still don’t get what in the heavens Tenet was about, look, Christopher Nolan is a cool guy and I’ll happily have a coffee with him on some random Saturday morning one day in the future at his villa overseeing his million dollar Warner Bros fortune as we discuss his antics on Interstellar and acting like I know just as much about science and astronomy as he does, but when it comes to Tenet, I have no clue what was going on! So I take it back, at least the new Star Wars trilogy makes more sense than Tenet, but is good? Not really. And The Rise of Skywalker is prime example of that, as it emphasised how disorganised the writing and ideas for these new films have been, by forcing in Palpatine for the sake of it and also Rey and Kylo having a very very VERY awkward smooch at the end of the movie, which I guess meant they became girlfriend and boyfriend momentarily before Kylo went and snuffed it. What a way to get out of a relationship! But I digress, my point is that the new trilogy overall is a mess, even though there are good parts to those films respectively.

With The Mandalorian Disney took a different approach, by stepping away from the main Skywalker plot-line, and simply making a show that happens to be set in the same universe as the films, but that tells its own self contained story, however still with enough fan service and cameos to make the show feel like it is Star Wars. The first season I enjoyed overall, though I did feel like it dragged a bit and there were a few episodes were you could tell were filler and the writers were wasting a bit of time to fill up the episode count for the season. Now in season 2, that’s where things really picked up!

Season 2 still suffers from a couple of episodes that are obvious filler, and in those episodes you sit slightly frustrated as you await the story to actually make any kind of sufficient progression, however for the most part season 2 is an absolute joy for any Star Wars fan to watch. Central to this of course is the performance of Pedro Pascal as the titular character himself, and taking into account you don’t see his face for the most part, though this season they did really try to accommodate Pascal by showing off his dashing handsome Prince Charming face a bit too often even though it went against what the Mandalorian code stood for. But nevertheless, for the most part you don’t see his face, and so it comes to both great directing and Pascal’s superb voice work to make the Mandalorian character show so much emotion without actually seeing the emotion. In this season we get to see him become even more of a father figure to Baby Yoda, and their relationship is at the heart of this show, so much so that I kept wanting to hear Cat Stevens at the end of each episode! To be honest, it is indeed the well written characters that make this show work. Giancarlo Esposito is really menacing as Moff Gideon whilst still sticking to his signature soft-spoken tone, however I do also wish they made his villain feel more powerful. It never really proves too major of a challenge to beat him, so I wish the writers allowed the character to have more power in a way to fit in with Esposito’s performance. Gina Carano (regardless of her controversial social media presence) works really well as the Rebel side-kick to Mando and as a character in the series is quite empowering for women. There are also special appearances from characters from other Star Wars shows/films that make surprising appearances in this season (that will lead into their own spin-offs naturally) and everyone is extremely well cast! 

From a technical aspect the show looks great, and we need to talk about Ludwig Goransson’s music score! The show never really uses the original John Williams’ tunes, yet Goransson manages to make his soundtrack feel both really different yet still befit to the Star Wars lore, with the addition of a cowboy western tang to it. I’d also suggest looking up the behind-the-scenes featurette to how Goransson scored the show, as it’s really cool to see all the random equipment and instruments he used to create such unique sounds.

Also, I typically do not spoil and films or TV shows in my reviews, so I won’t here either, but by holy Moses I wish I could tell you about the season finale! It’s every Star Wars fan’s wet dream! I just imagine when THAT moment happened in the finale the entire Star Wars fan base pissed their pants in orgasmic unison, and I’m sure it made quite a mess, but that again that’s not the point, the point is that the finale is epic. From the cameos to the action to a certain very emotional goodbye, it felt so wholesome and was so fitting to what this season was building up towards. However the ending does make me question where the writers are planning to take this series next season seeing as how this one ended, but nevertheless that’s a talk for another time. All I have to say is that though The Mandalorian is not perfect and has its rough edges, it is still really pretty darn awesome and is easily the best thing to come out of Star Wars in a long while This is, indeed, the way!

Overall score: 7/10

[number63liveblogs]

Harrow the Ninth: 47

“I thought the messages were hallucinations, even though I never hallucinated like that before. It was easier to believe I was succumbing to the madness again.”

Oh. The messages have been from The Sleeper this whole time, haven’t they?

So, let’s see. The last chapter all but said that Commander Wake was Gideon’s mother, whose life support failed when she was getting to the Ninth House planet. And that would fit with this:

END OF THE LINE. FALLING. OXYGEN CAN’T LAST THE DISTANCE AND WON’T REDIRECT POWER FROM THE PAYLOAD.

(Please, just tell us about Gideon’s Super Secret Destiny, and why her mother calls her “payload”. Because that’s what you call the part of a bomb that explodes, and Gideon is, you know, a human being.)

So, who are the “both” that Commander Wake is referring to?

One of them is John, I think, because she refers to him sending Gideon/Ortus the First after her:

YOU STILL SENT HIM AFTER ME

So, if Gideon/Ortus the First is not one of the people that the letter is addressed to, who is the second person?

HIM I’LL KILL QUICK BECAUSE SHE ASKED ME TO AND BECAUSE THAT MUCH HE HONESTLY DESERVES BUT YOU TWO MUMMIFIED WIZARD SHITS I WILL BURN AND BURN AND BURN AND BURN

It’s a Lyctor, I think, because Commander Wake refers to them as “mummified wizards”.

(Also, who “she” asked her? We don’t know enough about her relationships to other people to see who she’d respect enough to honour her request.

This also puts this bit into context:

I KISSED YOU AND LATER I WOULD KISS HIM TOO BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU WERE

So, theory: the “him” is still Gideon/Ortus the First, but the “you” could be either of the “both” who are being addressed.

Gideon and The Body have very similar eyes. The Lyctoral process gives the necromancer the cavalier’s eyes. A. L. was in the position for John that the cavaliers were for the Lyctors in the Dramatis Personae. She might also be The Body. Commander Wake is most likely Gideon’s mother. Commander wake might have been kissing John at some point.

So, John is a Lyctor with The Body as his cavalier, and also Gideon’s father.

Yeah, that would be a Super Special Destiny, all right.

[myrandomfandomramblings]

The Legends meet the crew of the Raza

Three and Mick:

- hit it off after a hostile introduction:

*Raza crew introduces themselves*

Mick: *makes fun of them for having numbers for names.*

Three: *points gun at Mick* “Want to say that again?”

Mick: *Points flame gun at Three* “Gladly”

*Sara and Two step between them to break them up*

Sara: Cut it out. Killing each other won’t help anyone. Rory why don’t you get yourself and our guests some drinks.

Mick: Fine but I’m not giving them the good stuff

*Only Three accepts a drink and he and Mick end up happily recounting their biggest scores*

Two and Sara: 

bond over being Captains

talk about how they love their teams but sometimes feel like a babysitter. 

bond over the responsibility of leading a team and the pressure that comes with feeling like every loss and failure is on them. Then talk about One and Nyx and Stein and Snart and Rip.

bond over struggling with regretting their past actions and trying to move forward and be better people. 

they get along really well until half-way through the mission when their teams disagree and they both back their teams full-stop.

Five: 

connects with the most legends

Gideon fabricates a hot chocolate for her in the galley

Ray and Nate show her all the cool tech (extra dimensional extrapolators, time carriers, ingestible translators, the atom suit) in the lab

she spends most of her time playing video games with Zari. 

Six and Ava:

bond over initially detesting their teams way of operating but then coming to see the benefits

talk about how they still sometimes question their teams methods but at the end of the day they are their team and family and they trust them

bond over trying to be the rational compasses for their respective teams and on making decisions about which rules to follow and which to break.

Android and Gideon:

compare their respective ship specs

brag about their teams

discuss the similarities and differences between their technology and programming 

like Two and Sara they get along until half-way through the mission when they too both back their teams full-stop.

Four:

doesn’t bond with anyone.  

after 20 minutes he is dead set against working with the Legends having already heard about Beebo the fuzzy, blue kids toy that fought demons, the suggestion of ally bonding via a round of cards to save the time line and the motto “sometimes we screw things up for the better” said with sincere pride. 

is surprised to find a decent collection of good quality hand-to-hand combat weapons, particularly bow-staffs in the armoury. 

Is challenged by Sara to a hand-to-hand sparing match. If she wins they work together and if he wins the Raza crew can take the job for themselves as well as any resources the Legends have that they require. It was quite the fight and they were both so good it lasted much longer than either expected. At the end Sara just pulled out the win. Four reckoned it was home court advantage (since they were on the Waverider) or maybe because he had underestimated her. But he was a man of his word and he did feel better working with the legends now that their captain had earned his respect. 

John and Charlie:

were sent away to John’s house while the Raza crew was on the Waverider to try to avoid exposing the existence of magic.

which was fine by both of them. They were happy to have the time to relax.

Team meeting:

*Discussion regarding the game plan for the mission leads to Sara and the Raza crew talking about their pasts and how they are trying to be better*

Ava (feeling left out): at least when you were bad people you were real people not just some cheap imitation grown in a lab

*Raza crew looks at Two and Android*

Android: are you insulting me?

Ava: No… I was insulting myself

Sara: Ava’s a-

Ava: Don’t say it. *buries face in her arm on the table*

Mick: Clone

Three: You mean like a robot like *points at android*

Sara: I can’t believe I have to say this again. I’m not having sex with a robot 

Ava: *lifts her head off her arm to glare at Sara*

Android: What’s wrong with sex with a robot

Everybody: *starts laughing*

Sara: *apologizes to android*

Sara: *tries to explain that Ava’s fully human but she was created as an adult in a lab*

Gideon:  *supplies all the technical stuff Sara can’t explain*

Two: Do you have nanites?

Ava: What are nanites?

Gideon: *explains what they are*.. but there is no evidence Miss Sharpe has ever had any

Sara: Why?

Two: *Decides to tell her story*

*When she mentions Dwarf Star Technologies Ray gets really excited and starts talking about the dwarf star alloy he used in the atom suit and asking Two if that’s what her nanites are made out of but stops when Two just stares daggers at him.*

Ava: Great so not only was I manufactured but I didn’t even get the cool stuff

Sara: How many times do I have to tell you that you are special and we love you for you

All the legends: *nod*

Android: My team used to say the same thing to me but I doubted them until I discovered I was created to be more

Ava: Well lucky you. I was created to be replaceable. In fact, I was the 12th clone to take my job… after the first 11 were killed.

Three: So you’re more like a Transfer Transit clone, but stable, physically speaking anyway. I think the emotional stability may be in question.

Six: Not helping Three

Android: I’m sorry. If it’s any consolation I can imagine how you feel and if my team’s shown me anything it’s that we have the power to decide who we are. *Pats Ava awkwardly on the shoulder* 

Sara (starting to raise the energy): Ya! Who saved me from malleus

Ava: I did but-

Sara: and who rescued me from an army of vikings, pirates and Romans

Ava: I did

Sara: and who sent Rasputin back to hell

Ava: I did

Sara: See we need you and you are one of us

Android: You guys get up to some very strange adventures

Nate: That we do. So Android what was your great purpose 

Android: *Explains about her creator (Dr. Shaw)

*When android mentions Dr. Shaw’s and Two’s relationship Sara gives Two ‘that look’.*

Android: What about you? What’s your purpose?

Nate: Ahh… well… I know a lot about history and I can turn to steel.

Ray: and he’s a really good friend

Nate: *nods*

Three: Seriously

Five: Well I think that settles it. We’re all just a bunch of misfits. I think we’ll make a good team.

And they did! Until they didn’t.

[boneempress]

yes yes!! on the everyone being trope deconstructions. my point re mercy is that she (in my mind) hews maybe closest to her original trope, where the deconstruction is just that she gets to be deep without being likeable. which i really appreciate tbh. (also that her being mean is like... this book is for the gays, but she's not Hot Mean, + i appreciate that she doesn't have to be!) (1/5) (finally actually organizing these things)

i am v torn on god because he is The Worst (TM) but also mercy and augustine are such faves and they’re so informed by their relationship to him and what he’s meant to them and what he’s been for them and… the absolute betrayal, and the patronizing selfish “care” and they’re all this fucked up triangle of hate and bullshit and caring because they’re the only ones who understand… he’s a third leg of augustine’s affected detachment and mercy’s continual outrage and blugh. (2/5)

and the fact that augustine and mercy’s specializations were the result of his requests and encouragement, that they’ve honed their skills specifically to investigate and destroy him at his request. ten thousand years of betrayal and subterfuge and fucked up loyalty – the fact that mercy considers destroying john a necessary sin, that she’s sparing augustine that pain, that not having to kill john is a KINDNESS, like, what the FUCK. (3/5)

anyway this has turned into a meditation on the nature of a myriad of codependence coupled with betrayal and what that means for mercy becoming an expert in her field and her fucked up internal conflict about how what she’s trained for so long to be capable of is also a thing that hurts so much and is so necessary and the mix of betrayal and anger and horror and worship and wanting him to be worthy of the feelings she’s put on him and how he never will be (4/5)

circling back to the trope thing i hope that one thing we get in atn is the same treatment that the others have gotten for cam, judith & coronabeth, because ily gideon but she is not perceptive in that way? like she sees them as full and complex people but i want to see the archetypes. pls. like maybe they’re there and im not seeing it good enough but like… i want it. (5/5)

Apologies for getting to this so late - I’ve been avoiding answering this because tumblr mobile is awful for formatting anything but also mainly because it’s really thoughtful stuff I don’t have much to add to and it really just makes me want to read Harrow the Ninth again and stew in all the interesting weird wonderful conflicts of that book :) I do love that we’re just sort of given the blurry edges of the view that John is a morally warped figure, who lies to and manipulates the people around him and sees the sacrifice of 200 children or the murder of an 18 year old as potentially valid corrective actions, who has made an entire cult of necromancy and war around himself for 10,000 years of living as a depraved immortal, who wears a crown of baby fingerbones because what the absolute fuck - but also, the object of very genuine devotion by his closest friends, such that they are so torn by his betrayal, and one of the very few adults to show Harrow affection, and real affection, I think.

[arlingtonpark]

Harrow the Ninth Act I Thoughts

This is all your fault, @ghostmartyr. If you hadn’t reblogged what seemed like heavy metal boy band fanart, I wouldn’t be in this hole. And for that, I hate you.

So.

When I first encountered the Locked Tomb online, I couldn’t tell if it was a story about edgy, neogothic, teenaged angst, or something better than that.

Turns out, it’s both.

But in a good way.

I love it. It’s great.

It’s unabashed, it’s thoughtful, it’s entertaining, it’s suspenseful.

Gideon the Ninth is finished, and after starting Harrow the Ninth, I decided to blog about it as I go.

I’ll be doing one post for every act of the book. I hope.

Let’s start with our new main character, Harrow. Newly reborn as a god and one of the only survivors of the last book.

So….

Right now, Harrow’s…

Um.

She’s uh…

-gestures at everything-

She’s fucked.

Fucked, broken, in the shit, started godhood on the wrong side of the bed.

200 babies were killed in the name of birthing her. Her parents died in front of her because of what she did. Death has always seemed to follow her, and she carries the burden of all that death.

Harrow despises her existence and wishes she were dead because of the circumstances of her birth, and yet for that very reason she is committed to living, because if she dies, all those sacrifices would be null.

She takes up the duties of governing the Ninth, she applies herself rigorously to mastering necromancy, and when the opportunity arises to become a lyctor, she jumps at it.

Harrow does this because it’s why all those people had to die. She was birthed to carry the Ninth’s legacy; its traditions and obligations and to some extent its very existence.

The twisted nature of the Ninth and her parents is inseparable from that legacy, so in a sense it was that legacy that led to her infanticidal birth, but regardless, this legacy is all she has. It’s all she was ever meant to have. And so she devoted herself to it.  

Now that she’s a lyctor and her house’s future will be guaranteed, but to do it, she had to sacrifice Gideon, whom she loved.

It’s more of the same shit from her perspective: more people dying for her sake. 200 babies die to grant her obscene necromantic talent, her girlfriend dies so she can gain even more power. Harrow doesn’t mean to step on innocent people to get what she wants…but that’s always how it’s turned out for her.

But to add insult to injury, even after all she’s sacrificed, she still didn’t get exactly what she wanted.

Her house will have a future, but she can never return to it. She’s essentially divorced from the only thing that gave her life meaning.

She can never return to her old life; to the extent she saw that as desirable, she can’t have that. Her old life is gone forever.

Something also went wrong with her ascension to godhood. She’s violently sick, mentally unstable, and the powers she should have are…half baked, for lack of a better word.

Nobody said you could get hungover from ascending to godhood. Harrow should sue.

It’s like going in to surgery to remove a tumor and coming out lobotomized.

Is she even immortal?

It all stings of pointlessness. All that effort for nothing.

Worse than that; She lost everything. Her home, her love, her pride and dignity.

Her only purpose in life now is to fight these hell beasts that she’s never heard of before. Happy days ahead, surely.

Oh, and one of the people she’ll have to work with is named Gideon.

Does God hate her?

And then there’s God.

This guy is sus as hell.

He’s gracious and humble. Perpetually calm and soft spoken. Empathetic and understanding. That’s what He’s like in person.

But He’s…maybe the villain? I guess.

God works in mysterious ways, and I have no damn clue what His are, but it’s probably ugly.

Yes, He’s a cordial Dude…but he’s still the God-emperor of a galactic undead empire.

Dude wears a crown made from the bones of dead babies FFS.

Not to be accusatory, but this guy definitely has skeletons in his closet.

-bu-dum-tish-

One of the things that really got my attention while reading this series is how the magic system in this world is depicted. Usually, in fantasy stories, the magic system is depicted as being morally neutral. Good guys use it, bad guys it, but the magic itself just is.

The Locked Tomb Trilogy isn’t like that.

Necromancy is bad. Perverse, even.

All the necromancers are frail and sickly. Practicing it is deleterious on the body. Doing too much too fast with it causes even more pronounced harm. As in, bleeding from your sweat glands.

Necromancy works by manipulating the life force of living beings and, primarily, the death force those being give off when they die.

The forces of nature that necromancy utilizes are (apparently) fundamental to the universe, akin to the laws of nature, but the use of those forces in this way are clearly a perversion.

It’s sort of like a bad tv show, like Sword Art Online. Sure, the things that went into making the show are natural parts of the world, but you just can’t put those things together like that.

John and his empire epitomize that.

All known beings in the universe are fundamentally thalergetic in nature. They are beings who radiate life energy. Except for the planets of the empire. Those planets and the star they orbit are thanergetic in nature.

They literally radiate death. And they are apparently one of a kind in that regard.

John is the first necromancer. John used his newly harnessed powers to “resurrect” multiple planets that had died.

Except he didn’t really resurrect anything, he turned them into an entirely new form of being using his entirely new form of science that uses some kind of mechanism that doesn’t occur naturally.

What I’m getting at here is that everything about John, his power, and his empire is artificial. Man-made. Perhaps even John-made.

We don’t actually know what happened during the Resurrection. What killed off the planets, how John attained his God-like powers, and what life John lived before it.

Oh, yeah, and every planet the empire conquers is systematically killed over generations to fuel their necromancer’s powers.

Every planet God touches literally dies.

One thing I appreciate about this series is how layered the story is.

The Locked Tomb series is a fun, irreverent romp. It’s about allowing the past to rest in peace. It’s also surprisingly political.

The metaphor is pretty blunt: it’s about capitalism. What’s more, the metaphor seems to be from a progressive or maybe even socialist perspective.

Ok, so hear me out on this. This is less fan theory than speculation about the author’s intentions.

The empire is a society built on a system that requires them to move from planet to planet, gradually killing those planets until they have to evacuate and move to a new one.

This process of gradual death takes generations to play out, so apparently they don’t even consider it to be an event that happens.

The heart of this system is necromancy, a perverse science that is ultimately derived from natural phenomena.

This system places the most powerful necromancer atop a literal throne and worships them as God.

God’s disciples are the lyctors, second only to Him in power. They attained that power by a very special process.

The lyctoral process is exploitative. It requires the necromancer to use their cavalier as a sacrifice and to turn their soul into a power source.

The lyctoral process is built around domination. The necromancer, in sacrificing their cavalier, subsumes the cavalier’s soul into their being to gain power.

The lyctoral process is dehumanizing. The cavalier is degraded from a person to a mere battery, but the necromancer is degraded in a way as well. The necromancer can never return to their house, or any of the other houses for that matter. Instead they must fight and die for God in his battle against the Revenant Beasts.

If you’re progressive, this may sound familiar to you.

Relationships of exploitation, domination, and dehumanization. A society built around perversions. That rewards people with talent in those perversions with idolatry. That cold-heartedly and shortsightedly extracts every drop of usable resources from a planet until it is dead, then moves on to the next one.

To a socialist, this may sound a lot like capitalism.

Saying that is already bold enough for me, so I won’t try to argue that it’s a one to one allegory. Necromancy equals the profit motive, lyctors represent the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (So I guess that means the non-lyctor necromancers are the petit bourgeoisie) and the empire is humanity.

You could make a case for it, but the hot takes in this post are already pretty spicy, so…

OMG Mercymorn. XD

Mercymorn is my favorite out of the new characters. She’s a bitch.

Snide, rude, assertive, bitchy, and standoffish. No, it’s not that I want her to step on me, I just can’t get enough of her interactions.

I guess in real life she wouldn’t be fun to be around, but as a character in a book, she steals every scene. Her arrogant and bitchy remarks always make me laugh.

My one wish heading in to Act II: that Mercymorn is in charge of Ianthe’s training.

Just so she can kick her ass for not measuring up to her standards.

[singledarkshade]

Draining The Swamp

Part Two

(Part One.)

 “Who is this?”

Rip looked up to see his new roommate studying the photo on Rip’s bedside cabinet.

“That’s Gideon,” he smiled fondly at her image.

John gave him a slow smile, “Girlfriend?”

“Best friend,” Rip replied, adding before John could ask, “Nothing more.”

Chuckling John demanded, “Nothing more, but you have her picture by your bed?”

Rip shrugged, “I promised her I would keep her picture with me at all times.”

John eyebrow shot up, “That seems a little…”

“Odd?”

“Not exactly the word I was going to use,” John replied, “But close enough.”

Rip rolled his eyes but didn’t reply. He knew people found his relationship with Gideon to be confusing, but they didn’t understand just how special she was and how much she depended on him. Pulling out the notebooks she’d bought for him, Rip saw the small laminated insert fall out onto the floor.

“What is that?” John grabbed it before he could.

Rip sighed, “Gideon gave me a list of things I’m not allowed to do while I’m here.”

“Number one,” John read, “Do not visit Paris.”

Rip gave a slight amused smile, “She’s always wanted to go there to visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. We planned the trip years ago.”

“That makes sense,” John chuckled, “Some of the other ones not so much. Number six, no eating chocolate ice cream without me. With the addendum, mint flavoured is okay because it is the worst of the ice creams.”

“John…”

His new roommate continued, “You're not allowed to change your shampoo, if you do make sure you use your normal one before you come home.”

Rip frowned, “Enough.”

“It’s the final one,” John said as Rip snatched the list from his hands, “In capital letters, six exclamation points and what looks like gold stars around it, NO NEW BEST FRIEND!!!!!!”

While Rip tucked the list in his book again, he could feel John’s eyes on him.

“As good looking as this girl is,” John noted, “She sounds a little…obsessive.”

Rip grimaced, “Gideon is a genius. She looks at the world differently from everyone else, and I’m the one person in her life she trusts. She likes her world ordered and me leaving for the next six months has disrupted that.”

John winced, “Sorry, mate. I didn’t mean it.”

“Most people don’t get Gideon,” he continued, “If you ever get a chance to meet her then you’ll understand. She is special.”

                               *********************************************

 “Oh God no,” Harry sighed as he walked into the stadium and spotted Gideon sitting on the stage with another woman, “Why can we not just have one day without…” he caught himself and instead finished, with disdain dripping from every word, “The psychic.”

“Detective Wells, Detective Saunders,” Rip greeted them, “This is John Constantine, he’s the bands manager and an old friend of mine.”

“So, you’re not here…” Harry started.

“No,” Rip cut him off.

The bands manager John Constantine stepped forward, “Thanks for coming. Veronica is pretty shaken up by what happened.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t an accident?” Kendra asked.

Constantine sighed, “We’re sure. We had three of the tech guys along with Rip check the light and where it was attached. Both showed tampering.”

Harry looked over to the band, saw Rip staring directly at him so he turned to Kendra, “Saunders, get the band together and organise the statements. Hunter,” he crooked his finger, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

They headed outside, away from where anyone connected to the band could possibly overhear.

“You’re not just visiting, are you?” Harry demanded.

Rip sighed, “No. John hired us to find out who has been trying to hurt Veronica. This isn’t the first incident, but it is one of the more direct.”

Harry swore before asking, “Why didn’t you just tell me inside? You know lying to the police…”

“Because,” Rip cut him off again, “John doesn’t want anyone, especially whoever is doing this know that he hired a private detective. Or a psychic one.”

Rolling his eyes Harry sighed, “Just keep her under control.”

Starting back in, he heard Rip mutter, “Like anyone can control Gideon.”

   Gideon had been sitting with Veronica while everyone checked the lights before it was decided it wasn’t an accident and the police needed to be called.

“I know the police in Central City,” Gideon told the other woman, “They’re good.”

Veronica was shaking slightly when she asked, “Are they sure it wasn’t an accident?”

Gideon gently took the other woman’s hand in hers, “They are. Rip helped them check and I trust him more than anyone in the world.”

“Is he an electrician?”

“No, but he fixes everything in my apartment,” Gideon told her, “And his mum’s, and my sister’s and the office.”

“Office?” Veronica asked making Gideon wince inwardly.

She shrugged, “He should send for someone from maintenance at his work but always prefers to do things for himself.”

Veronica smiled, “Are you two…”

“What?”

“A couple?” Veronica finished amused.

Gideon frowned confused, “Why would you think that?”

Veronica shrugged, “Just the way you talk about him.”

“Rip’s my best friend,” Gideon told her, “We’ve known each other since we were kids.”

A shadow covered them, and a soft cough made them turn to where a young woman stood.

“I thought you might want some tea or a coffee,” she said to Veronica, another Londoner, “Since you’ve had such a fright.”

Veronica smiled, “Thank you, Freya. A tea would be wonderful. Gideon, do you want something to drink?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Gideon stated, she had promised Rip only to drink coffee if he brought it, so he knew how much of it she was drinking. And she hated tea.

Freya gave a smile before disappearing.

“Is that your lackey?” Gideon teased, especially seeing the tattoo on the girl’s wrist of the bands logo although only Jordan’s name was showing.

Veronica chuckled, “Freya is the band’s PA. She gets drinks and snacks, keeps us on time as well as anything else John needs her to do.”

Gideon mused on this for a moment before asking, “How long has she been with you all?”

“Since the beginning of the tour,” Veronica asked, “She is so nice, and I don’t know what I would do without her encouragement.”

Smiling at her again, Gideon turned to where Rip was walking in with Harry. Unfortunately, she knew she couldn’t leave the other woman alone at the moment she caught her best friend’s eye making sure he knew she needed to talk to him as soon as possible.

“Miss Taylor,” Kendra appeared, “I need to take your statement.”

Veronica nodded nervously.

Gideon squeezed her hand, “It’s okay. Kendra is the best, she’ll look after you.”

Standing Veronica went with the Detective leaving Gideon to look around some more.

   Everyone was talking about the fallen light as she walked through. Some were trying to work out who could have done it while others were working to fix it. John was looking harassed when Gideon passed his office as he talked on the phone. Reaching the small kitchen Gideon found Freya fixing the tea for Veronica.

“Are you alright?” Gideon asked, seeing the other woman jump in surprise at her voice.

“Yes,” the younger woman smiled nervously, “Just…worried about what happened.”

Gideon nodded, taking another step inside, “Veronica said you’ve been a rock for her during this time.”

Freya gave another smile but said nothing.

“How did you start working with the band?” Gideon asked guilelessly, “It must be really exciting to be on the road with them and getting to see all the different cities, meeting new people all the time.”

“It is,” Freya replied, “I was just an intern working in the office and John needed someone to help out, their normal assistant wasn’t well. I volunteered and the band liked me. Since the tour began two days later, John asked me to take over as the band’s PA since the normal one wasn’t going to be well enough in time. Pure luck I was in that day.”

Gideon laughed, “Serendipity.”

“I should get this to Veronica,” Freya told her, “It was nice to meet you.”

As the young woman left the kitchen Gideon frowned in thought before heading to John’s office happy to find that he was still in there.

He looked up when she knocked and smiled, “Gideon, what can I do for you love?”

“The PA for the band,” she said softly.

John nodded, “Freya. Good kid, works hard and is very loyal to the band.”

“I’m sensing that she wasn’t always with them,” Gideon touched her temple as she squinted theatrically, “There’s a space. As though someone who is normally with them is missing.”

“Keane,” John supplied, “Keane Markson. He was the PA who normally works with the band but just before we left, he had a car accident.”

His phone rang again, and John sighed, “Sorry, Gideon I have to take this.”

Nodding she left him alone, she needed to talk to Rip.

                                 *********************************************

 Rip spotted Gideon walking over to him and hung up the phone.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked, dropping into the seat at his side.

He shrugged, “Just my boss. I had to let him know where some files were.”

She rolled her eyes in boredom before moving onto why she was there, “I was talking with the bands PA and John. She wasn’t supposed to be with them on the tour but the guy who was, had a car accident a few days before.”

“That can’t be a coincidence,” Rip frowned.

Gideon grimaced, “I know.”

“Harry was not happy we’re here,” Rip told her.

She let out a sniff, “Harry loves us. Well he adores me, but he puts up with you.”

Rip chuckled.

“John is going to send everyone back to their hotel,” Rip told her, “Harry and Kendra will be putting an officer on all the bands rooms but I would suggest we stick with them until everyone is safe in their rooms.”

Gideon nodded before suggesting, “We could try and get a room in the same hotel.”

“I doubt we could,” Rip replied, “With the band staying there it’s probably full.”

“Why don’t you talk to John?” Gideon suggested, “See if he can do anything. We can share, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Chuckling he leaned over and kissed her temple, “I’ll talk to John and Harry, stay with Veronica once Kendra has finished with her. And keep your phone on.”

   Rip reached John’s office and found his friend with his head on the desk.

“Should I ask,” Rip stepped inside, “Or just pour you a very large drink.”

John looked up, “There was a fire in the hotel.”

“Let me guess, Veronica’s room?” Rip grimaced.

“They’re not sure. All the luggage was together in a storage room,” John sighed before continuing, “But it spread and now the entire place has shut down. Meaning I now need to find a new hotel for everyone.”

“Well, find a room for me and Gideon as well,” Rip told him, “We were going to stick around anyway. This just means we were right to stick around tonight.”

John sighed, “Rip, I’m getting really worried what will happen if we don’t find this guy soon.”

Resting his hand on his friend’s shoulder, Rip promised, “We’ll find them.”