#pre-dulcinea

[mlaine]

Two dead bodies, one breathing a little more than the other.

[burlowbeanie]

Locked Tomb Timeline, as far as I can tell

This is a long one, and a bit of a mess. I'll be making other posts about the fun date coincidences and my speculations about their implications, but I figured I should give some of the actual evidence in one solid chonky post so I can link to it and don't need to repeat myself later on.

(BD = before death of the earth; AR = after resurrection; BM = before millennium, AM = after millennium)

Unspecified Pre-Death of the earth: Foundation of Canaan house/the facility that Jod et al used for the cryogenic experiments. Establishment of Kuiper installation, Uranus platform, Mars installation w/ room for 5 million, the Lucifer Telescope, and fusion batteries (Ntn 14, Ntn 74, Ntn 189)

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Now! Some pre-resurrection numbers!

Before 2 BD: C-- sides with the crew (Ntn 13)

1 BD: Governments shift away from the cyrogenics plan (Ntn 13)

0 BD: Jod destroys the world

------------------------------------

Now, the most unclear section of the timeline: the resurrection and its immediate aftermath.

Augustine, from Htn 176: “Alfred and I were there early enough to found the Koniortos Court on the Fifth, but Lyctors like Cyth wouldn’t be born for years and years, and she spent her whole life suffering Seventh House woo-woo theories regarding the value of hereditary cancer … whereas Mercy is the oldest lag except for me, and she was out hammering at the Eighth House before the paint was even dry on the Resurrection.”

The resurrection occurs a few weeks after the death of the earth (Ntn 396). Then things get a bit hazy. We know the approximate order of the resurrections of the original ten disciples, but not how far apart they were staggered - was it minutes? Months? Years?

Similarly, Cyrus/Val and Anastasia/Samael are implied to have showed up before Cytherea/Loveday, when Cytherea was almost 30 years old. Both cavaliers have last names associated with their house, which suggests that either the third and ninth were established enough to at least have a small population by the time that they went to Canaan House, or that they took those names/were given those names later on.

Cytherea-as-Dulcinea says that she "dreamed of being a 9th nun" at age 13, and it's unclear if she's speaking as herself or as Dulcinea or how much she was lying as either persona (Gtn 104). Thus, we don't know if the ninth house was established by the time she went to Canaan House, though it seems like the sort of hint that both Cytherea and Muir would have had a fun time dropping.

Thus, while it is possible/seems probably many/most of the houses were established by the time that any of the newer disciples showed up, especially Cytherea, that is unconfirmed. However, it took until at least 30 years after the resurrection, probably more, for all 16 of the disciples to gather.

A rough order of events during this time, some of which may overlap:

Original disciples resurrected

New disciples arrive

Lyctors ascend; Anastasia fails

Alecto is put in the tomb and Cassiopeia dies

The lyctors and Jod flee to the Mithraeum, leaving the system

Particular questions that remain and would help clarify things:

Were Anastasia, Samael, Cyrus, Valancy, and Loveday born or resurrected? It seems like Cytherea was likely born.

When did Anastasia have a child and found the tombkeeper line?

When did Pyrrha (or G1deon!Pyrrha) paint a nursury? Was it the same time she visited Anastasia "before she got settled" (Ntn 85)? Was Anastasia's child the birth she assisted at (Ntn 121)?

When was the ninth founded? When was the prison installation founded? Was there anything on the ninth before Anastasia was told to prepare for Alecto's imprisonment? Samael seems to have been born or resurrected after the ninth was founded, unless he was given his name later?

-------------------

After resurrection: Actual Numbers. Once we get like 100-200 years out from the resurrection, things start to get clearer. Not clear, but clearer.

100 AR: God names himself Gaius (Htn 521). Is this when Cytherea ascends, since she is given credit for the "naming oneself after one's cavalier" thing? Or was that some God bullshit?

200 AR: Alecto put in tomb (Htn 478)

4000 AR: source gram comes from sixth house to BOE (Htn 529)

5000 AR: BOE comes to the attention of jod and the lyctors; they may have existed beforehand but been unable to find the houses/be found (Htn 154). Augustine begins questioning the purpose of the empire (Htn 483).

Moving into the thousand years before the events of the series:

9000 AR/ 1000 BM: Matthias Nonius lives (Gtn 53)

750-700 BM: New Rho contract drawn up (Ntn 206)

519ish BM: beginning planning of dios apate major (Htn 474)

300 BM: Cyth gets angry (Gtn 402). Last contact between second and first houses (Gtn 456).

100 BM: Jod leaves the Mithraeum (Htn 81).

80 BM: Jod joins the Erebos (Htn 81)

40-39 BM: G1deon starts to really annoy Augustine, who speaking in 1 AM states: “He has caused me more pain over these last scant forty years than I dare to admit" (Htn 268). I think Wake makes the most sense as an explanation for this, though it's off by about five years.

34 BM: Wake reinvigorates BOE (Htn 154). Ortus born? That’s a fun coincidence that means nothing.

30 BM: Mercy thinks Jod should have returned to the Mithraeum then (Htn 81).

25-24 BM: BOE finds out about resurrection beasts (Htn 275) because Wake talks to G1deon (Ntn 155)

21 BM: G1 begins his (final) pursuit of wake (Htn 469)

Sometime after 300 BM, most likely 20 BM, Cytherea teaches BOE about steles and obelisks (Ntn 155)

20 BM approximately, presumably, could be earlier: Augustine and Mercy talk to BOE. BOE gets accurate fleet schematics for the first time in a hundred years and eventually the location of the mithraeum, though those were probably earlier with Cytherea and two decades later with Cytherea!Wake respectively (Ntn 155)

19 BM: Isaac’s dad killed by terrorists on [redacted], presumably BOE (Gtn 459). Mercy and Augustine are “talking” (Htn 87); Dios apate major. Mercy sees Cytherea for the last time and Cytherea laughs so much she insults Mercy (Htn 120), which is an understandable response given that Mercy may have described the dios apate major plan and/or requested her involvement. Mercy sees Sarpedon as a young soldier (about 20 years PM; close enough and matches up with dios apate) (Htn 81).

19–18 BM: Wake dies (Htn 88). Gideon born. Creche massacre.

17 BM: Harrow born.

14 BM Gideon’s first escape attempt (Gtn 24)

13 BM: Gideon is not a necromancer confirmed (Gtn 24)

10 BM: Augustine sees Cytherea for the last time (Htn 120). Wake’s bones get put on rotation (Htn 476).

9-8 BM: Harrow is suicidal. Harrow opens the tomb. Harrow hears/sees the body. Onset of psychosis. Unclear in what order (Htn 49, 247).

7 BM: (Harrow is still suicidal but sees the body?). Harrow and Gideon fight (Htn 477). Gideon sees Harrow opening the tomb. Her parents kill themselves. Gideon gets nightmares about being in the tomb (Gtn 202).

5 BM: Harrow starts puppeting (?girl wtf?? What was going on in the intervening two years???) (Gtn 348). Last ninth house chaplains and adepts are lost in action (Htn 81).

2 BM: Gideon enters Drearburgh for the last time

1 BM: Number 7 estimated five years from the Mithraeum (Htn 125).

0 BM, with rough approximates:

Month 1-3: prepping for Canaan house

Month 4: Canaan house

Month 5: harrow throws up; Camilla nonverbal

Canaan house recovery missions from the emperor and BOE — what the fuck. Who got there first. How and why did they miss the other people. Seems like BOE got there, intentionally left H and I but took G’s body??????????

Month 6: Harrow and Ianthe arrive on the Mithraeum

Month 8: Harrow kills her 13th planet with Mercy. It’s desert and triple-sunned. Wake makes posthumous contact with BOE (Ntn 155).

Month 9-10: When Judith says she begins writing her report; she’s with BOE on a wooded double(potentially triple?)-sunned planet. At one point several weeks (or months?) later Mercy shows up. According to Judith, that is. Judith honey I might need to recuse your testimony for somehow being more of an unreliable narrator than the lobotomized traumatized psychotic unmedicated half-dead triple-haunted 201-souled Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Then I could bump this back to month 8 which would make more sense.

Month 10: Harrow catches G1d!Pyrrah with Cytherea!Wake

Between Month 10 and Month 12: Harrow turns 18. Harrow discovers G1d can drain thanergy. Harrow makes soup. Harrow makes Ianthe’s arm. Dios apate minor.

Month 12: Harrow finds Cam and Pal on a wooded planet and sees Judith. Judith tries to warn Harrow about Mercy’s involvement.

Mercy ditches her for unspecified business. I suspect this is when she meets with We Suffer? Was this when she heals Judith?

1 AM

Month 2: death of the emperor. Quick undeath of the emperor. Nona born(?)

Month 5: Station Red-As-Blood abandoned (Ntn 152). The demons show up on Antioch (Ntn 448).

Month (6?): Nona gets a job (Ntn 41).

Month 7: nona gets shot, cam/pal fusion reveal (Ntn 105 through the end of the chapter)

Month 8: events of Ntn

[bloodofsancho]

Quick analysis of the teaser;

Whoever this is, I think she's most likely Dulcinea/Aldonza. I don't know who the three behind her are supposed to be, but my guess is that they're all humans. Maybe they're rounding up humans and torturing them for entertainment?

I will eat my shorts if this isn't Sancho. Possibly a Color? ...Maybe The Blue Squire? I'll detail my thoughts on this more in my Big Post about Canto 7.

It seems that the Bloodfiends have a Golden Bough. Also of note(!) is that Don Quixote hates Bloodfiends, possibly since there's an entire type of Fixer that hunts them. Or, she could be referring to only this specific group of Bloodfiends. Regardless, this is a huge clue into what the main conflict of Canto 7 will be.

Take note of the screams that can be heard in these frames. I think that if they're holding humans captive and torturing them, or if there's some kind of human audience, Don Quixote may have somehow been forced into harming them against her own will through Rocinante.

Four hundred roses E.G.O!

Hey guys, remember how The Distortion Detective leaves off from Moses trying to make a deal with the Bloodfiends...? And speaking of, The Distortion Detective portrays Bloodfiends as being much more peace-loving than what's shown here. If I recall correctly, post-White Nights Dark Days Bloodfiends are much more violent and bloodthirsty than pre-WNDD Bloodfiends. I think Moses (if that's her) is referring to a specific group of Bloodfiends, as I mentioned earlier.

I'll (finally) make a much more detailed write-up about my speculations for Canto 7 generally soon, and I'll probably make a post just for the season E.G.O

[slyandthefamilybook]

The Nine Houses texting styles

(I haven't included any characters from Nona the Ninth bc I Haven't Read It Yet)

Harrow: Starts every text with "Dear [name]," and ends with "Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House" like a forum signature

Gideon: Lots of keysmashes. Lots of typos. Uses txtspk liberally. Harrow spends most of their conversations correcting Gideon's grammar

Ortus: Responds every time with a video message, no matter what he's replying to. Hasn't yet figured out where the microphone on his phone is so the audio is always muffled

Judith: Will call you

Marta: Will call you on Judith's phone

Coronabeth: So many emojis. Will sometimes reply in just emojis. Ends every text with a 🌹 or "xoxo". Thoughts are broken up into multiple texts (e.g. "Oh don't" "worry about it" "it's fine")

Ianthe: Forgets to text you back for at least 12 hours every time. Screenshots every convo for drama. Refuses to save anyone's number and so always starts a convo with "who is this"

Naberius: Doesn't own a phone

Isaac: Replies exclusively in reaction images. Will not text first

Jeannemary: Will spend 20 minutes agonizing over the proper response, before finally deciding on "Sounds good"

Magnus: Will laugh out loud rather than sending "lol". Doesn't understand slang terms (will follow up a butt dial with "sorry didn't mean to booty call you)

Abigail: Uses way too many gifs, all from her favorite show that went off the air 20 years ago. Texts are signed "Sent from my iPhone"

Palamades: One word replies with periods. Frequently sends random videos (like sewage treatment techniques) with "thought this would interest you"

Camilla: Somehow has a meme for every situation. If she doesn't have one she'll make it herself with a shockingly quick turnaround.

Dulcinea: Sends one-word texts with no clarification. Criminally misuses emojis (e.g. "Movie? 🍆"). Will not clarify when asked

Protesilaus: Is dead. Hasn't figured out how to get a ghost phone yet

Silas: Sends selfies from way too low an angle with text overlayed like a Snapchat. Will spam you if you're a minute late

Colum: So many ellipses... Ends every text with them...

Mercymorn: Still has a flip-phone with a pre-paid plan. Gets mad when people send her multiple texts in a row because it costs her $0.15 to open each one

Gideon the First: Does not text. Will instead show up at your house asking you to explain yourself

Augustine: Over-relies on speech-to-text. Texts are full of "what no I said duck not duck you stupid machine no duck oh John damn it"

Cytherea: Waits for you to text first. Gets mad when you don't.

John: Long rambling voice notes where he frequently gets distracted, leaving minutes at a time of awkward silence

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 01/07

Anonymous asked:i think youre the first liveblogger ive seen to actually remember that orphaner dualscar was eridan’s flarping name?

Mindfang clearly describes the Serkets, so I wonder if Dualscar says anything about the Amporas?

Eridan's greatest enemy does have a duality theme, after all - and he was certainly scarred when the guy stole his crush >:)

@captorations asked:i have terrible news regarding homestuck and the good place: https://x.com/nbcthegoodplace/status/1039908767763259392?lang=en not to mention that. well. the two share more than you've encountered yet. it's very likely not a coincidence. have fun! oh and. re: my ongoing campaign of pointing out the homestuck ancestry of tlt characters. please compare aradia's "i am very much alive and i intend to stay that way" with dulcinea's "i'm not in the river and i won't ever be again"

...oh my god.

On reflection, this makes a lot of sense. Homestuck's fandom is pretty large, and some of its members were bound to be involved in the production of mainstream media. Still, it's wild to see a Homestuck reference - or, technically, a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff reference - on the official Twitter for a show this big.

And Aradia does have a lot in common with Dulcinea, doesn't she? For one thing, they didn't really start influencing the plot until after they died.

Anonymous asked: Not really important anymore, but looking at what Gamzee has in his Strife Deck, it doesn’t look like he has any ranged options: he’s got the bowling pins, what appear to be a discarded sickle and lance from Karkat and Tavros respectively, what I’m PRETTY SURE is a whip of some sort, and the Zillyhoo hammer. The closest to a ranged weapon in that stack is the whip, or maybe the pins if he’s willing to throw them, but neither seem like they’d work very well against Vriska. Barring some secret power or other plot twist, I think Gamzee would genuinely be the underdog in that matchup. (Which feels weird, because Gamzee’s been mutating into a slasher villain while Vriska’s still very much an antihero protagonist. Usually the power balance is the other way around with those archetypes!)

On the face of it, Gamzee didn't seem to have great odds in that fight - but it's hard to know for sure with this pesky Bard. His Strife Deck contains plenty of cards we haven't seen, and whatever he did to the Black King is still shrouded in mystery. Everything's just so uncertain with him.

@mimescantscream asked: I've really been holding back all this time, but now that we've met the Grand-highblood, it really is extra painful to see a Gamzee who was once incredibly loving of his friends (despite their constant ridicule) end up falling down the path that fate seems to have pre-ordained for him. Was he truly always meant to repeat echoes of the past? Could things ever have gone differently for him?

Yeah, I've been having similar thoughts. His PoV seemed completely sincere, so I don't think his original personality was a fabrication, or anything. I think there is a part of Gamzee that cares about his friends - and maybe even he wants it back.

@jade-harley-real asked: […] I want a rant on the bad doctor from you pls pls pls

Scratch is straight up the scariest character in Homestuck.

What's he up to now? Hard to say since we're not telling him what to do. Guardians can never be told what to do.

The aura of menace he's cultivated is incredible, especially considering he barely even moves. He's playing the entire cast like a fiddle, armed with nothing but a typewriter and his own supercharged brain - and there's no doubt in my mind that his confidence isn't a mask. He knows he's going to win in the end.

English is coming. He's basically already here.

@elkian asked: I'll probably never be a Vriska FAN, but I gotta admit, she really never had a chance, what with the only adults in her life being: a trollvorous spider 1 missed meal away from eating her, Marquise "I do what I want" Mindfang, and Doc Scratch. Some role models! @manorinthewoods asked: So, now that Mindfang has been revealed, here's a question for you: how much of Vriska's Vriskyness is because she's Vriska, how much is because of Mindfang, how much is because of her lusus, and how much is because of Alternia in general? ~LOSS (20/6/24)

This is why I don't think she'd be like this on Earth. At this point, it's obvious that none of her Incidents were the result of her personality as it naturally arose.

I mean, look how anti-Aradiacide she was! They weren't even really friends!

Anonymous asked: ‘AA: there are all sorts of friends to meet AA: ones you already know and ones you dont’ I mean…couldn’t she just be referring to various doomed selves? I don’t see why the dream bubbles would just be confined to the alpha timeline seeing as the furthest ring is weird in terms of time and space

I was assuming that only Alpha Timeline deaths would be preserved by the Bubbles, but you're right - I'm not sure that was a reasonable assumption.

The Horrorterrors seem to eschew the concept of the Alpha Timeline. and, they've coordinated with both Doomed and Alpha versions of Rose and Dave. Plus, yeah, there is no time in the Ring, so timelines are probably meaningless there. Why would it only interface with the Alpha?

If the Bubbles do preserve doomed souls, then we might also run into the John who died to Typheus, and the Jade he couldn't save. That's a pair of ghosts I'd be very interested to meet.

Anonymous asked: If every Aradia comes back from every doomed timeline, the number would double each time, so you could get over a thousand of her with only ten doomed timelines.

Fair point- although, if an already doomed Aradia went back in time again, she'd be double doomed. Is that even possible? Would she die twice as quickly?

@mhafanlol2000 asked: Your issues with quirks and speech-to-text are pretty simple to explain. If a troll were to speak into a non-modified speech-to-text program, it would output text with their quirk. Because they, quite literally, speak in their quirk. Terezi probably isnt actually saying “YOU H4V3 LOST TH3 G4M3”, each number at a time, but the vibes are definitely there. I don’t know, this is hard to describe if you don’t inherently get it.

I think, jokes aside, it is indeed about the vibes.

In the troll intro pages, you get told a little about how each troll talks, and I think that's how we're supposed to translate their quirks to an audible medium.

Anonymous asked: i think ppl in the fandom have over time kinda built up a like, generally separate understanding of quadrants from how theyre described in the "official" explanation. which is like, not representative of how these terms are used in homestuck, but probably more useful for describing Good relationships that Do Not Suck. like basically making moirails equivalent to being queer platonic partners, making blackrom more about having a healthy fun rivalry, that kinda stuff.

It's funny, actually - I don't think I've encountered a single asker who accepts the quadrants as they're originally described.

The main issue is that, with the possible exception of matespritship, we haven't seen a single troll relationship with reflects the infodump's explanation of the quadrants. I think Hussie might just have jumped the gun a little when dropping it.

Anonymous asked: Shoutout to Karkat poking his friends in the background! Terezi (crying over Dave) and now Soloux (talking to Terezi). Karkat isn’t sure what the right response is but wants to be included! Reminds me of actual cats, just putting a paw on you for no discernible reason. @manorinthewoods asked: I'd like to note that Karkat poking Terezi's tears is the same sprite (and same 'poooke'!) as Karkat poking Sollux's burnt-out eyesockets. ~LOSS (12/6/24)

My man just likes poking.

@alicesoinions asked: not much to say just wanted to say I really enjoy your liveblog!!

Glad you're enjoying!

I've actually got a few new followers recently. Maybe I'm showing up in people's recommendations?

@heliotropopause asked: Dream bubbles are pretty neat, eh? Neat enough to inspire half of HtN, I'd bet.

…wait.

Oh my god, you're right. It's literally a River Bubble. They're both located in afterlives, for crying out loud!

Anonymous asked: Wanted to thank your liveblog for reminding me of a lot that I had flat out missed in canon, due to not putting it together or just reading too quickly. Most recently and notably on my mind right now, is that Feferi is the one who set up the dreambubbles!!! I had always thought that they were just a part of the world that readers didn’t know about yet, like how we weren’t yet introduced to Alternia and it’s moons until act 5. This went right over my head and it has me absolutely REELING (fishing pun included just for fef!!)

Feferi truly is the MVP.

I wonder what happened to dead Players before the Bubbles?

They're certainly not the only type of afterlife in the multiverse. Alternia has at least two types of undead, which implies that the Players are very, very lucky to have retained their personhood postmortem. Imagine this was what Feferi looked like in Jade's dream.

Anonymous asked: Knowing sollux, he probably already had coded his tech to recognize if his speech ever changed, and gave himself a different typing quirk for it, long ago. Not because he knew or thought it would happen, but because he thought it would be a fun coding project ((I know nothing about coding))

And yet, you somehow know exactly how we think.

Anonymous asked: Something I hadn’t really thought about, until I started reading this liveblog, is how much VRISKA ((autocorrect decided to caps that and I’m leaving it in lol)) was manipul8ted into a lot of her violence. Scratch pushed her towards vengeance against Aradia, and she didn’t want to go through with it. Did VRISKA ever tell anyone how much of her live she spent resisting these forces, or even really acknowledge it? She didn’t hide Spidermom, and arguably her need to kill other trolls was to prevent herself from being killed. BUT on the other hand, VRISKA voice would make it sound like a compliment “I almost didn’t kill you why don’t you appreciate me!!!!!!!!”

The thing is, VRISKA probably felt a lot of social pressure not to tell people she was coerced into her crimes. That would reveal that she was reluctant to kill, which is the opposite of what the Empire wants.

@manorinthewoods asked: You could have written a great Homestuck if you'd been Hussie. I think your style, if translated from reacting-to-comic to making-comic, would work great with what Homestuck is, and could have made a better product. I think you'd make a cerebral Homestuck, which would have been cool to read, except I would have botched reading it like I botched reading Homestuck in our Alpha Timeline. ~LOSS (11/6/24)

Thank you! I've tried to write before, actually, but whenever I reread my stories, they come off as esoteric, stilted and a little hard to follow. It's not an insurmountable problem, of course, and I really need to take a writing workshop at some point.

I'd love to make a webcomic, too, but my art also leaves a lot to be desired. I can adapt sprites just fine, but original drawings are hard, guys. Did anyone else know about this?

Anonymous asked: i counted just now, and only like 24 out of all 54 paradox space comics have zero spoilers. some of them are certainly more substantial than others (e.g. i counted ones that include jade’s consorts that you havent seen yet as spoilers) but a lot of them have Very Big Spoilers

It would have been awfully messy. I'm probably just going to read it once I've reached the Gigapause of 2013, and no longer need to worry about spoilers.

@bladekindeyewear asked: “Nepeta wasn't trying to pacify Equius, nor did she seem to be fulfilling any rigidly defined 'role' in his life. They just came off as very good friends, and their relationship was much better for it.” Well, maybe we ought to look at it through the lens of real relationships between friends? Once a healthy dynamic and boundaries are established, perhaps Moirails stabilize as long as they’re together.

That's a good way to interpret moirallegence - although, it does raise an issue with the quadrant that I'll be discussing on its own post, once I've finished the comp. There's no point in prehashing what I'm about to say, so I'll see you there!

Anonymous asked: karkats message didn't go through because of trollians narrative awareness feature, where it'll display something different in service of one of the several "all"-seeing entities, of which the reader is one <3 watsonian and doylist explanations are kissing with tongue

Since the fourth wall is an actual, physical piece of technology in this world, this isn't even that far-fetched!

@sashonya asked: So, as the session's timers continues to count down, what do you think will happen after The Scratch?

Beyond 'the session ends', it's difficult to say for sure. I think the two most likely possibilities are that the kids start exploring other sessions, or travel to a location completely outside the current scope of the comic. I am, of course, hoping for both.

@ericvilas asked: "I still believe that out of all the trolls, Karkat’s traits were featured the most prominently in humanity" yeah, I guess even humans aren't free from the effects of carcinization

CG: THERE IS ONLY ONE STEP. CG: AND IT IS ME.

[the-nettle-knight]

The locked tomb theory on why there's problems with the River/ magic in general. Spoilers obviously

Jod's power has three manifestations; bone magic, spirit magic and flesh magic and it's his power that's keeping everything running basically.

There's still quite a lot of people/things (the people in cryo that are given to Harrow, the Facility, the Nine Houses etc) in existence since before the Resurrection, about 10,000 years before the start of the books. Jod is obviously maintaining them through magic.

As an aside, any organic matter over 10,000 years old is considered a fossil and 10,000 years ago is roughly the start of what is deemed "civilisation".

We are carbon based life forms, everything inside of us and the things that we build are mostly carbon. Carbon 14 is an isotope that decays over time - basically it's unstable and all elements want to exist at their most stable form, so it loses an electron to become Carbon 13 which is inert. Carbon 14 has a half life of about 5750 years. A half life is the time it takes for half of the C14 in something to decay, and this is exponential. Meaning that by 10,000 years, something has about 1/4 or less the amount of C14 originally had.

I propose this means that Jod is using exponentially more magic (both bone and flesh magic) to maintain anything pre-resurrection than he did at the beginning. Combined with that there's less and less thalagy available compared to thanagy. So there's both way too much thanagy and spirit magic to balance their components out.

Spirits are obviously doing things that they shouldn't - Abigail et al. crossing the river, Harrow's whole River bubble thing and Dulcinea coming back in Palamede's spirit bubble after "dying" twice. Plus, there's very few people being born, so whatever spirit magic goes into making new souls isn't being "bled off" (pun intended) so to speak. Perhaps this imbalance is what lead to the flipping of Lumeria to be unusually violent

[shouldhavebeenpersephone]

In GTN chapter 36, Cytherea says “None of you have learned how to die gracefully. I learned over 10,000 years ago"

Do you know/have a theory as to how Cyth could have learned anything pre-resurrection? She was not one of the original lyctors present for the resurrection and it was only 10,000 years ago. It could be hyperbole but I am suspicious of the “over 10,000 years”.

Thank you so much for the ask! I wanted to take my time with it, I hope you didn't mind the wait.

I actually had been chewing on this with my most recent GtN reread. Bear with me as I cut and paste all the pieces that form my thoughts on this - hopefully it's somewhat coherent to read.

Could "over 10000 years" be a hyperbole? Maybe. A lot of characters tell the 'truth' as far as they believe it to be so even if it's factually incorrect. I don't think, however, that Tamsyn would make Cytherea say it in this specific way if it was a hyperbole. In GtN chapter 35 where Palamedes confronts Cytherea we get the following lines, which are what feed my intuition about this:

"Don't lie to me, please."

Dulcinea said, "I have never lied to any of you."

Cytherea has no reason to lie, especially not after being confronted by Palamedes. She tells him herself - she has been giving pieces of the truth and using those to manipulate the narrative. Because of this and because it's much more fun if it isn't a hyperbole I see no point to dismiss it as an emotional inaccuracy.

So let's say she is over 10,000 years old. How does that work?

First thing I went looking for while trying to figure this out was the question of Cytherea's birth. On the fandom wiki, it states that Cytherea was born into the established Seventh. I have been combing through the books, and I cannot find anything in canon that truly confirms this. What we do know of the timeline and her age is the following from HtN chapter 9:

"When they first brought her to Canaan House, I thought there'd been some mistake. - She was just shy of thirty then, I recall. -

-Was she the first gen, or second?"

"Second," said God. "Early second. We were still experimenting with getting the Sixth installation up and running. Some of the Houses were empty."

Mercymorn spoke up: "No. We had it running by then. Because Valancy was with us, and Anastasia."

-"Yes, you're right. We were all there to meet her. All sixteen of us -

'Some of the houses were empty' is the important line here, because in NtN John 5:4 Harrow describes how the resurrection happened:

-You resurrected some of them. You wake up fewer still. You start out with a few thousand, then, later, some hundred thousand, then millions, but never more than millions. You teach them how to live all over again. You teach yourself. -

The houses are named in order of resurrection. The Seventh, then, comes after the Sixth, which should make it obvious that by the time Cytherea arrived the Sixth was already established - or the Seventh wouldn't have existed. Yet, for some reason, for John this is not as obvious. I have found what could be an explanation in HtN chapter 2:

He said, "No. I haven't truly resurrected anyone in ten thousand years. But at that time... I set many aside, for safety... and I've often felt bad about just keeping them as insurance. They've been asleep all this myriad, Harrow, -

The difference wouldn't be as obvious to John, because he didn't resurrect the houses one by one. He resurrected a chunk of the earth's population, kept them dormant, and piece by piece woke them up to populate the houses. Beyond the fact that Cytherea is never said to have been born on the Seventh in canon (again, to my knowledge - please correct me if I missed it), the following from HtN chapter 2 really seals the deal in my eyes that she was not born on the Seventh but rather woken up for the Seventh.

The emperor said gently, "She needs to go home, Harrow."

"That was never her home," he said.

You did not look. "And will the Seventh House accept her?"

I also considered John might feel Cytherea belongs at home with the other Lyctors and therefore denies that the Seventh is her home, but then remembered the following from the same chapter:

He said, "No Lyctor has ever returned home, once we understood the reprecussions... no Lyctor except one, who knew I would come to intercept her for that very reason."

He is talking about how Harrow cannot go home to the Ninth, and referring to Cytherea going home by returning to Canaan house located on earth. John also talks about the kind of people he resurrected in NtN John 5:4:

-We'll get them all back... some of them, anyway... or at least, the ones I want to bring back. Anyone I feel didn't do it. Anyone I feel had no part in it. Anyone I can look at the face of and forgive. -

Part of the same chapter I included above in combination with this one make me itchy almost. Harrow says 'You teach them how to live all over again.' That almost feels like it should be people who recently learned how to live. Like John only resurrected kids.

Think about it. He resurrects his loved ones and ones he can forgive. People who did not take part in the destruction of earth in his eyes. Who other than children could he really be talking about? Children, babies, who have no power to decide or influence to exert, who - even if they did have the power - do not have the capacity to understand the consequences of their actions. Whose memories will be easiest to erase because there is so little to begin with.

It then also makes sense why there were two generations of Lyctors. The population he woke up had to grow up into adults first. Why else would he have half a band of Lyctors trying to settle all of the Houses? If he was able to pick adults worthy of resurrection, he would have been able to pick adults capable of establishing his houses and becoming his hands and gestures.

One final point that drives this home is the following from the very beginning of GtN in chapter 7 when Teacher tells the Ninth about Dulcinea's condition:

"Dulcinea Septimus was not meant to live to twenty-five,"-

Dulcinea's hereditary disease is the same as Cytherea's. John did not know she was sick when she first was brought to Canaan house, which means that when he resurrected her, she must have been young enough to not be actively dying yet. Perhaps a toddler or a child who had been sick for some time - long enough to know what it feels like to slowly be dying.

So, all in all, my answer is that Cytherea was not born on the Seventh. I am not sure where the idea that the second generation was born on their planets of origin came from, but I honestly doubt any of them were born instead of woken. Cytherea claiming to have learned something 10,000 years ago would be a great way for Tamsyn to give us just enough to figure it out - this is, after all, the same author who gave us the big reveal of the second book in the first sentence of the first book of her series.

[over-bi-the-wayside]

Shitposting absurd tlt theories/headcanons until I get Alecto News: day 8

There’s a whole section of the Sixth House archives dedicated to pre-resurrection artifacts, and they don’t really know how to use a lot of them, and don’t have records to figure it out. So someone once had the brilliant idea to make copies of them, give them to children, and see what happens, because the kids were less likely to overthink it. They’re still trying to figure out what Dungeons and Dragons is, and why its necromancy makes no sense. However, some of the teenagers involved in these tests now place dnd for fun and create the most absurdly detailed campaigns you can imagine. Palamedes ran one after reading Dulcinea’s novels and telling her about the game. Cam played a fighter-monk who was an acolyte. When Palamedes played, he played a necromancer soley because he thought it was entertaining. He learned to work with bone to make miniatures and their dnd group became legendary among teenagers

[randombookposts]

Canaan University Au

Ok I thought of a college au for the locked tomb a awhile ago but I never bothered to write it down until now. Anyways I think they would all go to this imaginary university in New Zealand and it’s like the first book but with a lot less murder. Here’s what I think each house would study

Judith- Criminal justice major. Huge stickler for rules and doing homework. If she’s not in the gym reading a textbook while doing push-ups, she’s in the library getting into a heated debate with a Corona. Had a huge crush on Marta and went to the same college as her to hangout, just getting over it, may or may not have feelings for Corona, maybe.

Marta- In law school, was a mentor to Judith when she was in high school and that’s how they know each other. Gently turned Judith down but they’re still friends and study together sometime. Is the DD at every party.

Corona: Majoring in marketing with a minor in fashion merchandising. Doesn’t do great on tests but aces every presentation. President of her sorority. Can and will gaslight frat boys. Everyone wants her but she only has eyes for the stuck up criminal justice major.

Ianthe- Management major with a minor in maybe finance. Commits tax fraud and gets away with it. Sometimes does Corona’s homework for her. Doxxes people online (mostly Babs), smokes in the dorm hallways. Flirts with Harrow during their study sessions, which Harrow ignores.

Naberius- Economics major, and major fuck boy. Makes thirst traps and is doxxed. Hangs out with the twins even though they bully him. Doesn’t do shit during group projects. Will get a job at his dads company post graduation.

Jeannemary and Isaac don’t go to college but are tutored by Abigail at her house. They just silly teens who experiment with makeup and clothes to find their look. Talk loudly about anime in the school hallways. A little cringe but they’re doing their best.

Abigail- Anthropology professor and is really cool. Tough grader but genuinely loves her students and shares trivia with them. Brings donuts to test days. Will accidentally derail class to talk about books or her husband. If one of her students brings up one of the incredibly niche topics she likes, she will talk about it for hours.

Magnus- Not a teacher but visits Abigail's classes often. Nice guy, helps look after Jeannemary and Isaac. I'm not sure what he would do as a job, maybe chef or stay at home husband lol. Regardless, he's the one making all the meals.

Palamedes- Pre-med, wants to become a doctor so he can save Dulcinea save people. Smartest guy in the room always, a go to for anyone struggling with their biology homework. Has a friendly rivalry with Harrow (it's more rivalry than friendly for Harrow but she grows fond of him over time). Is the one derailing class with philosophical debates.

Camilla- Physics major, too cool for you. Really into sports, just not sure which, like gymnastics or soccer or rugby or fencing. Works hard but actually remembers to eat and sleep too. Probably in student government as well. Her and Palamedes are attached at the hip, they later get an apartment together and that's where all the main hangouts with the other characters happen.

Dulcinea- Suffers from chronic illness and focuses her life on learning and traveling rather than getting a traditional job. She's got multiple degrees in stuff like literature, philosophy, and art history. She is active on social media and has a blog, and sells crocheted animals on Etsy. Became mutuals with Pal and Camilla on social media and they met up later when they went off to college.

Protesilaus- Dulcie's caretaker, helps her with her medical stuff. Becomes like a cool uncle figure to her and her friends. Hangs out a lot with Ortus and they share poetry.

Silas- Double major in theology and philosophy. Freaky teen prodigy who graduated high school early and attends university. Little shit who people are either freaked out by or straight up just don't like him. Will snitch on anyone for anything he doesn't like. Really only friends with Colum.

Colum- Silas' nephew, but way older than him, weird dynamic. Not in school but drives Silas to his classes and Silas lives with him during the school year instead of in the dorms. Nice guy, looks out for Silas' well being the best he can but tries to keep him from being too nasty to others.

Harrow- Double major in theology and archeology. Studies at all hours and forgets to eat and sleep. Local cryptid. Autistic with special interests in religion and burial rituals. Went to Catholic school and had a suffocating home life. Trying to grapple with that as she starts to navigate adult life. Also trying to mend her relationship with Gideon after being so harsh in her younger years.

Gideon- Kinesiology major, butch vibes to the max. Does swordfighting and weight training in her down time. Has kissed both Ianthe and Corona at some point, though it never went anywhere after that. Wears her sunglasses at all times even in class. Finds the worst fashions from thrift stores and wears them to piss Harrow off. Grew up with Harrow in a foster home Harrow's parents ran and also attended Catholic school with her but they rarely interacted beyond antagonizing each other. Reconnected after being randomly assigned roommates. Now they're buddies and hang out alongside the 3rd and 6th, (also the 2nd and Dulcie sometimes too). They all do stupid shit together like sing karoke off key and hit up Taco Bell at 2am after binge watching movies.

[winterburn]

I just finished Nona the ninth from the locked tomb series and I finished harrow not long before that. To be perfectly honest, I hate John giaus, from the flashback chapters it’s clear the man’s a bloody sociopath, he’s also one of those irritating sociopaths who can’t accept when they’ve messed up and blames everyone else. He’s so stupid as well pre-resurrection. Dude, don’t threaten nuclear devastation to get your way, then you murder your last living friend once the sh!t hits the fan, triggering the nuclear devastation. Then he kills the entire solar system during a big ol’ tantrum. Piss off. Alecto gave him his powers so that he would help her, save her from humanities screw ups and then he makes the biggest screw up possible and murders the entire planet with nukes and necromancy. ALSO HOW THE F#CK DID YOU THINK CREATING AN ACTUAL CULT FULL OF GUN TOTING LOONEYS WAS GONNA GO!!!

I hate him more for what he did to his Lyctors too. He murdered Mercymorn in a moment and then he let Augustine into the stoma, he drove Cytherea mad, then she killed all the people in Canaan house (I am so mad that lady Abigail Pent died, she seemed lovely and I wish she was still alive, the fourth kids just didn’t deserve their fate and Magnus was lovely, he was the best of them all and he got murdered so violently. Also Dulcinea seemed lovely, which made her death more upsetting.) why the hell did he let them murder their best friends and siblings, knowing that there was a perfect form of Lyctorship? Why keep it from them? They surely wouldn’t be stronger than him, it would be an exchange of human souls, which probably wouldn’t have the same impact as John having the soul of an overpopulated planet in him.

Also screw the colonist, imperialist bastard whose going round murdering planets willy nilly. What’s the end goal for him?

He’s so awful. I hate him. Keep your damn hands off Gideon.

[benegesseritofficial]

The Locked Tomb characters and if they've read Homestuck:

Gideon: yes

Harrow: gave up before the end of Act 1

Ortus: read it after 14 year old Gideon got obsessed with it. Was briefly able to bond with her about it

Judith: aware of it, refuses to read it

Marta: yes but she'll never talk about it

Coronabeth: yes

Ianthe: no, refers to it as Corona's dumb little cartoon

Naberius: yes. He and Corona talk about it sometimes but never when Ianthe's around because she bit him for saying she was a Vriska. She didn't know what that meant but she hates other people having inside jokes

Isaac andJeannemary: read it together at like age 11. Said shit like "don't let the 10 year olds see this, it's way too mature for them"

Abigail: would enjoy it but never had the time

Magnus: no

Palamedes: no, but had heard so much plot from friends he might as well have

Camilla: has no idea what Homestuck is. Every time she hears someone talk about it her brain flat out rejects the information

Dulcinea: who do you think is telling Pal about Homestuck?

Protesilaus: no

Silas: no, obviously, fun isn't allowed on the 8th

Colum: yes

John: literally yes, still makes jokes he knows no one understands

Augustine: has somehow never heard of this, pre or post resurrection

Cythrea: yes, has drawn her own fan trolls

Mercymorn: pre res John would regale her with tales of Homestuck lore. She hated this. Probably cracked a tooth over hating it so much. Post res hates John's Homestuck based jokes even more than his usually fuckery even though she doesn't know why

[abigailsultimatedecadesblog]

TW: Death, Death of a Child

Please take care of yourself and your mental health 💚

Year 1368

Sunday

Leticia Dulcinea turned into a pre-teen 🎂

Tyesca Ailstall turned into a infant 🎂

Luda Ailstall has died due to Necrotizing Enterocolitis 🫂🕯️

[zombified-queer]

Egg Palamedes has so much potential because you KNOW at some point there was an exchange of letters like

Camilla: Warden's distraught over your coming out to him as a lesbian.

Dulcinea: Wym? I'm pre-ordering.

Camilla: >:|

[transmutationisms]

saw in your latest ask that you just read the locked tomb series and i’d love to hear some of your general thoughts on it! for me it’s pretty cogent thematically and exhibits occasional brilliance (harrow the ninth in particular comes to mind; it’s very technically deft imo) but there are issues wrt execution that i can’t overlook, no matter how much i love the series.

yes i am a locked tomb enjoyer >:) i started gtn on a whim at 3am when i couldn't sleep in surgery recovery lmao and then got pretty sucked in around the halfway mark. readmore so i don't have to worry about spoilers.

honestly my main gripe prior to nona was that i was concerned muir was just going to elide a lot of the imperial violence that her worldbuilding implied. having now read ntn i'm much more enthusiastic about the whole series. i've gathered from seeing some Posts that nona did not get a universally positive reception jfdjshfjd but i really liked it. obviously there's a lot that muir needs to pick back up in alecto, and i agree that harrow had some extremely banger technical moments, but also, nona had the john passages, so....

anyway. it's hard for me to be concise here because there's a lot going on in these books and their intertexts. i think to me the centrally clever thing muir has done is use necromancy, the necromancer/cavalier relationship, and lyctorhood (really just the higher expression of this same relationship) as interpersonal representations and echoes of imperial violence. to me this is what makes nona so good, and even allows nona to re-contextualise harrow and gideon in retrospect. if lyctors are "half-dead cannibals," then so, in some sense, is the empire itself and any imperial subject. death is then not a stopping point of violence but a necessary production of empire; also, there is a really fascinating essay to pull together here about the use of cannibalism as a metaphor in discussing political violence (i'm thinking especially of the french long nineteenth century; invocations of 'bloodthirst' eg during the first revolution; and the social role of butchers and butchery, in relation to tlt's necro-bio-politics and use of the body as a locus and articulation of violence.... yum).

problems-wise i would say the comedy doesn't always land for me. i think muir is trying to do something with memes and internet jokes akin to how cervantes used high/low language and humour in 'don quixote' (obviously a major intertext for both dulcinea and ortus, and arguably also harrow's bubble universe in the river), but sometimes i just don't like it lol. also, i saw a post circulating recently that said ianthe was pre-written for fanfic tropes, and like... true lol i find her mostly uninteresting except for the incestuous and abusive implications (maybe just explicit text at this point) with corona. also i'm interested to see whether muir is intending to do more with race in alecto.

in general, though... yeah i'm really excited for alecto; i think muir has potentially set herself up well. that shift from essentially the limited perspective of a marginal but still imperial subject, to the hints we get of the broader empire on the mithraeum, to actually opening up blood of eden and the process of conquering people (not just harrow flipping planets) was well done. also to do that in nona through alecto's eyes, which are of course physically the eyes of a teenage girl...! and i didn't even get to her own body being modelled on a barbie that she hates. like i said, there's a lot to say about these books lmao. i love you pyrrha dve and i'm dying (haha) to know what muir is planning to do with kiriona.

[captorations]

honestly so so glad i got all my pre-AtN fic writing out of my system before the unwanted guest dropped. particularly the 14k words of first person dulcinea pov that ends with the creation of a dulcamedes paul. my pride over having gotten dulcinea, and the themes she represents in tlt, almost entirely right, is only overshadowed by my delight over the parts i got wrong.

both the dulcinea i wrote and the dulcinea muir wrote agree: there's something lovely and freeing about imperfection, incompletion. and i agree too. if i had been *entirely* right, i would have been disappointed. where's the fun in writing exactly like someone else, even if they're better than me by most standards? i'd prefer to write like me.

[uselessdancedata]

What do you think are the most underrated/underappreciated ballet variations? Mine is personally yellow canary fairy

OO I have some! not all of these are performed in (american) competition dance, probably because of licensing issues, but here we go

in no particular order:

fleur de lys (la esmeralda)

dawn (coppelia)

spanish doll (coppelia)

radish (cipollino) - the cutest thing ever. I wish yagp would license this for the pre-competitive kids

first shade (la bayadere)

dudinskaya's version of the dulcinea variation (don quixote) (the one that's performed by some of the mariinsky dancers, with the inside/outside alternating travelling fouettes. it must be hell to do but I find it mesmerising to watch)

butterfly variation (papillon) !!! it's so fluffy and floaty

all of the chopiniana/les sylphides variations, but particularly mazurka

shirin variation (legend of love)

etoile (paquita)

le roi candaule (paquita)

raymonda dream variation 2

tchai pas

there are probably more tbh I like a lot of variations! and I wish they would be licensed for competition usage because you'd think that there wouldn't be copyright issues for art from the 1800s, but oh well.