#the dulcinea effect

[ooctlt]

You’d both go back to the church? Gideon, would you really follow Harrow back?

previous context: Gid and Harrow, what made you decide to leave the church?

who even let corona in here

[belovedblabber]

I want to make a post about how smart Gideon is but am bad at making posts rn. But I’ll get to it because I feel like defending my darling girl. She’s smart! She’s so smart she’s just thrown into a situation in GtN where she is not given the tools she needs to understand everything going on around her!

Gideon so often gets done so dirty by a lot of slices of the fandom in terms of painting her as like, dumb muscle etc. when there is SO much more to her character. And I can’t help but think that a lot of the time there’s  an element of people being weird about butch women in terms of that treatment. And even more so and intersecting with that, I feel like racism, conscious or otherwise, undeniably plays a role in this treatment of her in many instances. It’s not my place to speak further on that (and I’m sure people who are much more qualified to talk about this have been talking about it and probably getting largely ignored a lot of the time), but it’s a thought that’s popped up for me and has been knocking around my head a lot lately 

[technicolorxsn]

read the unwanted guest the other day and forgot to comment on it oops

[kotaerukoto]

Makoto has a bad habit of risking his life for people he just recently met if bad things happen so he's the "You are now friends with Makoto! Makoto will now die for you" meme

[silasoctakiseron]

The footnote on that poll is crazy like yeah the notoriously un-fraught relationship between Palamedes Camilla and Dulcinea one of whom has been in love with the other since he was 8 years old one of whom is his literal bondswoman who "would have to cook" if they all lived together one of whom is significantly older than the others and dying of cancer which has completely shaped one of their lives in a quest to save her and all of whom seem to have made a pact to find one another in a river of screaming undead souls. The notoriously un-fraught relationship between Magnus and Abigail in which no matter how they position themselves as equal to one another within their marriage one spouse effectively owns the other as a slave in the eyes of law and society and could legally order him to die for her at any time. The notoriously un-fraught relationship between Nona (soul of a planet trying to be a girl who is hiding the fact that she's dying from everyone and whose caretakers know her body belongs to someone else but will not tell her who that person is and are also being forced to steward the body of a person they know in case she comes back for it) and literally anyone. Ok

[mayasaura]

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

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

Let's look at her goals:

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

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

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

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

[captorations]

okay i'm actually going to talk about the phrase "her necromancer" again in the context of TLT being a master class in proper and powerful epithet usage. because while the first time gideon's narration used it for harrow was after picking her unconscious body up and inspecting her after finding her passed out, and the second time after successfully removing her from the situation and having heard her recover enough to wake up and be bitchy for a moment, it was actually used for what i believe is the first time overall shortly before. still by gideon's narration, but for palamedes, referring to him as camilla's.

gideon has just met these people. camilla actually tried to kill her on sight, briefly presuming her a threat. but in that time, gideon has recognized that they *belong* to each other. palamedes is camilla's necromancer, camilla is palamedes's cavalier. with all the possessiveness and codependence and affection that entails.

so a part of her, the part that's been raised on the revered ideal of the necro-cav pair, recognizes them as embodying it. in a way that's actually far more intense than the standard, and in a way that serves only to highlight just how badly gideon and harrow are fucking it up.

but even as she sees their differences, she also sees their similarities. as camilla attacks her, gideon directly acknowledges: "here was a warrior, not just a cavalier." of course gideon would know and appreciate the difference; she was trained by a warrior to be a warrior. the cavalier thing is new, and a facade, and the latter is also true for camilla. both in terms of combat style and in terms of the expected subservience, as gideon is certainly not subservient to harrow in the traditional sense, and camilla and palamedes, as much as they embody the necro-cav ideal, also defy it in that they are *equal* partners. hell, in NtN, camilla teases palamedes for implying that she's mindlessly following his agenda and ignoring her own. "you thought it was your agenda? huh."

then, to drive the nail home, palamedes directly scolds gideon- and harrow- after they retrieve harrow safely. he tells them: "stop splitting your forces."

because pal has seen the similiarities too. not only is he also the young leader of an entire house burdened with an impossible task (saving dulcinea, vs. saving the whole ninth), he has the same issue harrow does, working himself to exhaustion unless someone stops him. so he's telling gideon: you have to be there for her, because she's like me, and if camilla wasn't there to step in, i'd work myself to death too.

it's worth noting that harrow recognizes the parallels between the two pairs as well. it's why she's so wary of pal, even as pal is all but making them friendship bracelets. i've said it before: harrow thinks of herself as a threat, and thus, anyone similar to her must be a threat also.

all this to say that gideon first calling harrow "her necromancer" in the immediate wake of being given an implict lesson by the sixth, doing so for the second time after an explicit lesson by the same, and going on to do so throughout the story, is an exactingly calculated move and devastatingly effective for it. this is what epithets can do in the right hands. and it fucks

[dionysusdecent]

So i saw a post on the Limbus Company subreddit that talked about why the sinners extract weaker IDs compared to what they already have, but it made my mind think about the Mirror Worlds again and just how interesting they are. And i dont necessarily mean the IDs specifically, i more mean how those IDs existing effects the rest of those worlds.

Like, how many of these worlds have the LCB? And if yes, then how do certain IDs change that worlds version of the LCB? One of the more interesting to me is of all things, the LCCB world, because the Bus Crew is directly mentioned by Rodion in her uptie story meaning that that world has its own versions of the Sinners, and should at the very least of Faust to create the bus in the first place. But since Rodion, Ishmael and Ryoshu are in the LCCB in that world, who replaced them as Sinners? Do Effie, Saude and Pilot take their places in that world? And does that worlds version of the Sinners have Yi Sang potentially meaning that Effie, Saude and Pilot in that world can use IDs? Does Pilot have a chef ID in that world? Does Effie have a Dieci ID?

I just really love the idea of Mirror Worlds because the possible ramifications that IDs have on those worlds and how interesting those worlds could possible be. Like in Erlking Heathcliff's world, who replaces him on the LCB if they even exist. Is it an entirely different literary character like Victor Frankenstein, or is it someone else from Wuthering Heights like Hindley or Linton? If its Linton, did the company put in some effort to help him with his body potentially making him healthy?

Mirror Worlds are cool yall, and i dont think enough people talk about the crazy ideas that they could produce, especially with the Sinners and any worlds that swap characters.

One Mirror World just has a SInner group of Faust, maybe Yi Sang, Ahab, Grete (Gregor's sister in Metamorphosis), Linton, Sonya, Kromer, Yuzuki (Yoshihide/Ryoshu's daughter), Raymond, Eurylochus, Jia Huan and Dulcinea

[the-letterbox-archives]

file (0)0-40-000: writer questionnaire

thank you @ominous-feychild, @paeliae-occasionally, and @the-golden-comet for tagging me! this is a writing questionnaire, and before i answer them i wanted to say that i love this game idea! as much as i love loredumping about characters and plots (as bad as i am at plots), i also really value talking about my process and general writing questions like this! alright, let's get on with the answers...

about me

when did you start writing?

i wrote my first novella in two weeks (it wasn't very good or edited, i'm not that good haha) during the 2020 lockdown, and have on that rhythm ever since, albeit on a much slower, yet bigger scale. in terms of writing overall, i've been doing it since i could read. i'm very excited to reach my fifth year of 'official' writing, with 3 books privately released and a fourth on the way!

are there genres/themes you enjoy reading different to the ones you write?

honestly, i don't read as much as i should. i read more as a kid, but i've kind of lost that spark due to poor mental health, busy schedules, and other reasons. but to zero down on the question, i don't hold myself to genres, because i prefer character focused stories, but i like speculative content the most, which is what i write. i don't really vibe with contemporary and slice-of-life stuff, through no fault of the genre, i'm just not that interested in it generally.

is there an author you want to emulate, or one to whom you're often compared?

i don't think my work has reached enough people to be compared to any author, at least nobody has told me i write like someone else. i've done emulation work in school before, but i don't like writing like that, it feels disingenuous with how stream-of-consciousness my writing is. so no, i don't want to emulate anyone.

can you tell me a little about your writing space?

writing anywhere but my house is incredibly stressful, i can't focus on creating stuff unless i'm at home, either in my bed, at my desk, or just in an armchair. nothing too special.

what's your most effective way to muster up some muse?

i wish i had a foolproof way to get my energy going. but since i don't have much obligation to write on a schedule, i'm allowed to write whenever inspiration hits. but it's easier to get in the writing headspace with some non-distracting music/videos.

did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

for settings, not consciously. i don't like writing about real places, i usually use a fantasy world or an ambiguous place without relying on real-world settings for anything less than minor inspiration. in terms of my characters, most of them have parts of themselves taken from me or my past. the most active example of this is basically every character in insincere., all of whom are based of me, my dysregulated emotions, or certain social/societal issues. to sum it all up, my trauma makes for interesting casts.

are there any recurring themes of your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

i try to put a lot of emphasis on character relationships, so i imagine a lot of themes there come up more than once without my active thought towards it. i often just write what feels right, so themes do recur across multiple stories, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone pointed out that some themes come up again, i wouldn't be surprised. i do want to put some emphasis on the theme of trauma and love of all stripes. on the love side, tales from a dying heart is the prime example of this, hell, the entire thing is about love. however, all my stories with genuine character relationships do focus on the concept of love. father-son with laszlo and yaromyr, one-sided platonic with daphne and faye, obsessive distant romance with sunny and darcy, mother-daughter with sasha and dulcinea, the list goes on. trauma is present through everything i write, i'm unable to write anything without it (insincere. i'm looking at you). and they'll all evolve and change, in different ways.

my characters

would you please tell me about your current favourite character?

i don't think i could pick just one, i have so much love in my heart for all of my characters. i adore ven's tired attitude, sunny's humour, daphne and faye's dynamic, laszlo's ambition, sasha's motherly love and intelligence, yaromyr and danareth's relationship, sissy's obnoxious clairvoyance, the list keeps expanding.

which of your characters do you think you'd be friends with in real life?

i'd have to go with ven, sunny, laszlo, and daphne. i think those four would both be people i'd want to befriend, and people who'd want to befriend me (hopefully).

which of your characters would you dislike most if you met them?

i think if i ended up on the wrong side of the fence with danareth, i would hate his guts. i love writing him, but he's such a slimy jerk sometimes that i don't think i would get along with him. i also don't think i'd like the owl from insincere., who's name is yet to be revealed. he sucks, but he does bite sissy, so he gets some goodwill. the last one i can think of would be arthur blackwood, just because he's rich and socially dense, and in the episode i'm writing, he's rude to daphne. and nobody can slight daphne without me hating them (characters i mean). nobody in school rules nor dulcinea is dead has rubbed me the wrong way yet, thankfully.

tell me more about the process of coming up with your characters.

it's hard to pin down my process since it's so emotionally driven. i just make characters on instinct, usually starting with a scene of conversation between multiple characters that i imagine based off a feeling. that's how it works for basically all of my characters. they just kind of... appear in my brain half-formed, then i begin to refine them.

do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters?

i've considered doing protagonist profiles to find similarities between all of them. i mostly write teenage protagonists, and i like writing characters who are super driven to achieve their goal. additionally, a lot of them are traumatised or will be traumatised in their respective series. a lot of emotional turbulence in store for all of my characters!

how do you picture your characters?

i don't, at least in any way i can properly describe. when i imagine scenes in my head every single character has a fully realised appearance, but it exists beyond any way i'm capable of explaining it. i can say i picture them in live-action, yet recently when i picture insincere. i picture it in 2d animation, with very minimalist animation for ven (like moving at a slower frame rate if that makes sense), sissy with rubberhose animation kind of like spinel or jax, and the owl being very expressive in its animation.

my writing

what's your reason for writing?

there's a lot of reasons. i've always been borderline maladaptive daydreaming and had minor dissociative episodes recently, it just feels easier for me to exist in a world i design to my own tastes. it's easier to cope with my existence when i do stuff like that, which probably isn't healthy but whatever. i write to get everything out of my head and because it's fun!

is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers?

i'm honestly still shocked i have readers! that aside, i love all comments, but the ones that really tell me people care about what i write is theories, headcanons, and other noticings like that, those types of comments just make me feel amazing. i also find the "x is just like me fr" funny because that's how i express my love for a character and it shows me that character is either funny or semi-relatable.

how do you want to be thought of by those who read your work?

i just want to be someone who inspired some thought in the reader, and just gave them a good time! i'd be insanely flattered if people took massive meaning from my work and made those amazing tumblr mini-essays about the themes or characters i write about, but all in all i think i want to be thought of as a writer who writes things that people simply enjoy, and want to come back to, maybe make some fan content about. just a small set of slightly memorable pieces in an infinite archive.

what do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

this is gonna sound sad, but i often can't see distinct admirable traits in my writing. if i had to think further out, i might go to my characters. i love my characters so much, and i think because i think about them so much, the nuance that exists in my head about them bleeds into my writing and makes my characters interesting and memorable (hopefully haha).

what have you been frequently told by others is your greatest strength as a writer?

i've been told a few things. no commentary straight from the archives, at least from anything i can remember, but in my real life i've been told i write dialogue well (which i somewhat agree with) and that i write enjoyable/interesting characters.

how do you feel about your own writing?

very mixed. i can't give a solid verdict because i hate my older work because it's cringe, but the stuff i'm writing currently and that i'm still passionate about i enjoy reading back (sometimes), and i think i like what i write now. i'm so proud i got my writing out there into the archives, either way.

if you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

of course! that's what i was doing since before 2020, and even then my books were only circulated around family and close friends, as more of a symbolic gift than anything. i didn't get too much insight back, except for from certain relatives, which i always immensely appreciated. to circle back to the question, having an audience is still very new to me, and if it came down to the criteria the question proposes, i would still write.

when you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? if it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence?

what i enjoy. i am now conscious of my audience, but then again i am not especially writing for an audience, like that's not what's at the forefront of my mind when i write. as grateful as i am for an audience at all (you guys are amazing <3), i'm writing for myself, as i have been since i was a kid.

wow, this was an insightful questionnaire! thank you again for tagging me in, my tag list is just below!

@introchasingstars, @honeybewrites, @noxxytocin, @moltenwrites, @tc-doherty,

@the-ellia-west, @theverumproject, @thecrazyalchemist, @laylathewordwitch, @dragonedged-if,

@leitereads, @autism-purgatory, @gioiaalbanoart, @drchenquill, @fenmere,

@leahnardo-da-veggie, @melpomene-grey, @yourpenpaldee, @corinneglass, @agirlandherquill,

@willtheweaver, @nczaversnick, @davycoquette, @glassfrogforest, @princeofhags,

and @wyked-ao3!

[starberry-cupcake]

I have made up from last time that was about only one chapter, this time we have 5 in a row. We finished act one, fam!

previously, in harrowbean the ninth:

this happened

I want to also thank you for all your nice comments and replies, I read every single one, I promise ♥

ch. 7 to 11 summarized terribly, here we go:

it's time to cross the river

difficult task to perform

as someone who lives literally surrounded by rivers, in every direction, I can relate

my rivers don't carry ghouls though, as far as I know

I mean, there are ghost and cryptid legends, but not ghouls that stick to the windshield of a spaceship like bugs

like these ones do

so harrow and yandere twin aren't doing fantastic

yandere twin loses it in like the first 2 seconds

harrow sees the ghosts of all the ninth kids who died for her to be alive

there's water also, but that part sounds very relaxing, actually

getting covered by water but not needing to breath

I'd be there forever tbh

but we can't, because ghoulies

mercygirl is still doing sound effects like kronk

btw we're changing her name to mercygirl because it's what I've been calling her now

I have been told by a number of you that mercygirl is your camilla so I apologize for disrespecting your blorbina

I might do it again, if the situation arises, though

mercygirl is piloting the ship and emperor the fool is just chillin' until he realizes harrow is walking about and doing theorems, which they didn't think she'd be in a state to do, so they didn't tell her not to do it

these people half-assing plans, who would have thought

mercygirl calls the emperor john

emperor johnnyboy tries telling harrow to come back from her state because she's in too deep and it's becoming dangerous

mercygirl stars talking about the death of cassiopeia (another name that's easy to remember)

says cassiopeia had a ceramics collection, which makes her worthy of all my respect

harrow was thinking "five", idk what it's about

next thing we know, we're back to our gideonless retelling of gideon

in this version, teacher explains things

he says the house was inhabited previously by "ten normal human beings of the Resurrection, though half were blessed already with necromantic gifts"

I'm tired of MATH

he says they left blueprints, he tells them about the Sleeper, he tells them how not to awaken it, he tells them about the trap door, he tells them what's under the trap door, he asks them to work together...

you know what this is like

it's like reading gideon was entering a new game and skipping every tutorial they give you

and reading this is like clicking every NPC's info and reading all that they say

ANYWAY, here is where ortus 1...

wait, this is going to be confusing

I want to call ortus from the ninth "ortus 1" and the new guy "ortus 2"

because ninth ortus was the first to show up

but new ortus is actually older and also is ortus the first

we're gonna go with ortus and lyctor!ortus, for now

so, as I was saying, this is were ortus starts becoming much more insistent in these "flashbacks" about him not being the right choice

which, he's not wrong

we know he's not wrong

and harrow is saying stuff like "unless you can summon matthias nonius" (matthias nonius is becoming a recurrent thing, let's remember harrow compared gideon to him at one point)

and ortus goes "I don't understand why you chose me" to which harrow says "there was nobody else" and ortus exasperatedly says "you never did posses an imagination"

VERY IMPORTANT THING

a skeleton turns around when they're walking and says "is this how it happens?"

we'll come back to that shortly

REMEMBER IT

(I know you all remember it, you've read this already, just act like I'm dora the explorer and play along)

next chapter starts in not!dulcinea's funeral

I'm sad I used the oliver queen grave meme already, I can't use it again to express my feelings

I'm gonna use the steel magnolias scene where they laugh at the funeral instead

so, we are introduced to the famous augustine who's name I will remember

there's some conversation about first and second generations and about not!dulcinea being chosen, and Emperor Johnny Bravo says "we were all there to meet her, all sixteen of us"

MORE MATH

I guess she was the last one of these, but maybe we knew that already, I feel we knew that already

apparently, not!dulcinea was the most reluctant to slurp her cavalier, but that didn't stop any of them, not even her, so

Emperor Johnny Quest says "for god's sake" and harrow thinks "the god who became a man and yet still invoked himself, apparently"

when she's right, she's right

that's better commentary than I could make

I have to respect augustine a little bit because he asked "which one of the kiddies did her in?" and I thought that was hilarious

he is called the saint of patience, which makes my previous comment about them being named via sarcasm very correct

it's like captain planet or the power rangers but chosen as funnily as possible

they start summoning lyctor!ortus by saying that he's interested in "you-know-what", which is both suspicious and childish and the vibes of these lyctors are all over the place

augustine thinks something's wrong, which is an understatement at this point, but ok

lyctor!ortus comes in as if summoned by the gossip and harrow calls him "the next terrible part of your life" which is saying something

lyctor!ortus comes with news of the seventh beast or whatnot that's trailing them

harrow bleeds from her ears and smashes her head on the next available surface to pass out

the mood

who could blame her

this lyctor job is terrible

it's like the end of drop dead gorgeous and harrow is kristen dunst

I'm not explaining that, in case you haven't watched a classic

we are back to the "flashbacks" and we've got a special appearance from the fifth

*studio audience claps and cheers*

they say they prefer to look into books than going downstairs, which is something one would consider if one had known what the fuck was downstairs from the start

abigail also does sound effects like mercygirl, it's catching on

abigail finds a piece of a recipe note that mentions an M and a Nigella

still no G&P

we know nigella is the cav of cassiopeia, the ceramics collector

I remember nigella's name because of the cook, which makes it funnier that it's a recipe

M could be mercygirl

abigail also gives harrow a note

abigail says that she'd like to summon the ghost of a lyctor but she's not sure how that could work or where they go when they die

ortus, magnus and abigail, in this gideonless version, are a polycule

I am convinced of that

while they're talking, magnus says "is this really how it happens?"

REMEMBER I SAID WE'D BRING THAT BACK

IT'S BACK

abigail starts telling harrow that she's got the energy of a lot of dead kids in her and harrow storms out

harrow gets angry when ortus calmly agrees about things and she doesn't want to look into why

I WONDER WHY THAT IS

harrow looks at abby's note again and now there's text on it

it's a longer version of the note she found before

it's a rant

it mentions dead eggs, implantation, some guy being sent after the OP, said guy taking pity on OP

OP is mad about all of this and doesn't use punctuation

what ortus reads isn't what harrow reads, once again

NOW THIS BIT

"ortus, I need a cavalier with a backbone" "You always did and I am glad, I think, that I never became that cavalier"

the gideon points keep adding up

harrow then goes to sleep and is like this

final thing in act I, in chapter 11, is harrowbean stabbing not!dulcinea again, which

always make sure, it's like resident evil in here

just in case, let's stab her a bunch of times

so, are these "flashbacks" happening in real time whenever harrow isn't conscious?

is it her trying to remember what actually happened?

or is it her trying to hide it?

was there actually a longer period of time between the defeat of not!dulcinea and the emperor Jon Arbuckle coming to pick them up?

a period of time in which harrow learned things that made her write those letters?

and in which something happened regarding gideon?

is the note of the implantation also related?

why was gideon born in space?

of course I'm not asking you, please don't spoil anything, I'm just asking the void of desperation and chaos right now

we'll see if any of this gets answered soon or if I just get more questions

also, guess who wasn't mentioned

see you on the next one!! I'll try to get back to the awesome replies I've been getting soon ♥

[yourlastbraincell-kiwi]

A/N: Another Leon and Luis blurb, cause I love making them. ❤️

Pairing: Leon x Reader x Luis

——————🧟‍♀️—————��

“I’ll make it cheap for you.” Luis said, as Leon and I got out of the rickety elevator. Luis gave me a subtle wink, and I shook my head with small smile taking the box from him.

I took out one of the needles and looked at it before handing it to Leon, “Ready?”

I nod and pulling up my sleeve, Leon does a countdown in his head before injecting my arm.

He watched at the liquid in the needle began to disappear and once it did he put it down and massaged the place where the injection was.

After some time we all noticed that the virus, that was in my system, was gone.

“Feeling better?”

I nod my head in response, looking at my hands and arms. “Yeah. I think it worked.”

“Bad news, señorita? All we’ve done is buy you some time. The suppressant’s effects will wear off all too soon.” I felt myself get a little sad hearing that news, but I figured it wouldn’t be that easy.

“You ready to go?” Leon asked and I nodded my head.

He put the other needle in his back pocket, standing up and followed me.

“In that case, we know what we have to do.” He closed his zippo lighter and grabbed the half broken metal pipe, that was sitting next to him and held it out like it was spear. “Then come, Sancho Panza! Let us rescue the Princes Dulcinea!” He said, walking in front of me as to try and protect me.

Leon rolled his eyes, walking past me to grab the pipe from him. “You’re gonna hurt yourself!”

“Hey! That was my lance! Okay, we hurry! I get it!” He exclaimed, but paused to let me walk ahead of him. “After you, señorita..”

[thewertsearch]

@manorinthewoods submitted: ~LOSS (8/11/23) So, long scenario inbound. What if you tossed all the Sburb players we've seen so far (with their powers, but somehow reworked to fit with the Locked Tomb's necromancy stuff) into Canaan House? (My pairings for this would be, in the form of necromancer"mage"/cavalier, Aradia and Sollux, Karkat and Terezi, Rose and Kanaya, John and Dave, Vriska and Tavros, Feferi and Eridan, Equius and Nepeta, and by elimination Jade and Gamzee. Make your own if you want, or throw out the whole system.) What would happen? Who would die? Would anybody achieve Lyctordom?

Oh, I like this one.

[Locked Tomb spoilers abound below. You have been warned.]

I’m mostly keeping your pairings, because I like them. A lot of Homestuck’s powers would break the setting of The Locked Tomb, so let’s just assume the necromancers have the typical abilities of their House, and that the cavaliers don’t have powers. Let’s also assume that the Seventh House is still being impersonated by a Lyctor.

Second House: Captain Karkat Vantas & Lieutenant Terezi Pyrope

A very well-balanced duo. I suspect Karkat would be a half-decent necromancer if if wasn’t for his self-doubt, and Cohort training would replace doubt with cold duty. His magic is particularly destructive, and causes enormous collateral. Bucking tradition, his cav is effectively the leader, as she’s the superior strategist by far.

Endgame: They get pretty far – but when push comes to shove, Karkat would rather die than kill his closest friend, even though she thinks it would be funny. They refuse Lyctorhood, and are murdered by the Seventh.

Third House: Crown Princess Vriska Serket & Prince Tavros Nitram

Vriska embodies the best and worst of both Tridentarii. She’s ruthless, she’s quick-witted, she demands your attention, and she’s not above taking shortcuts. Her cavalier is a lot nicer than the canon one, but just as unlucky.

Endgame: You already know Tavros is ending this story the same way Naberius did. Full Lyctorhood, and the birth of the most dangerous necrosaint the Houses have ever seen.

Fourth House: Baron John Egbert & Sir Dave Strider

These goobers are too nice for the story they’re in. John is enthusiastic, and Dave is dutiful, but they lack the aptitudes required to obtain any keys. If it came to it, Dave is probably the most likely cavalier to pull a Gideon, especially given the Fourth’s tradition of self-sacrifice. John doesn’t have Harrow’s resourcefulness, though, and wouldn’t be able to preserve Dave’s soul.

Endgame: Murdered by the Seventh.

Fifth House: Lady Aradia Megido & Sir Sollux Captor

They’d honestly crush it. Aradia is a born Fifth House spirit talker, and the only Homestuck character to actually be a necromancer. Sollux isn’t a physical fighter, but he declares a laser pistol as his offhand, and no one wants to argue with the creepy scion of the Fifth, so a laser pistol it stays. Since Aradia isn’t a historian, they’re not targeted by the Seventh House Lyctor, and manage to complete most of the theorem rooms before shit hits the fan.

Endgame: Partial Lyctorhood. Aradia eats half of Sollux’s soul, he keeps the other half.

Sixth House: Master Warden Rose Lalonde & Kanaya Maryam

Now we’re talking! A Rose trained on the Sixth would give Palamedes a run for his money, and her partnership with Kanaya would be second to none. Let’s say she still has a romantic history with the Seventh House scion (Feferi, in this case) but is no longer in love with her, having got over her when she and Kanaya became a couple. Palamedes delayed his confrontation with ‘Dulcinea’ due to his feelings, and Rose would confront Feferi much earlier.

Endgame: Can a learned witch of the Sixth defeat an ancient saint of the Seventh? Maybe, if she plays it smart, and makes the right alliances. Write it yourself – I’ve got a liveblog to finish!

Seventh House: Duchess Feferi Pexies & Eridan Ampora

D------EAD before the trials began, Feferi is being impersonated by a sea-dweller Lyctor whose motivations I can’t dig into too much, or I’ll actually start to write this fanfic. Let’s just say she has similar goals to Cytherea, and leave it at that.

Eighth House: Master Templar Equius Zahhak and Nepeta Lejion

Come on, Equius, Your god commands you. Commit the cardinal sin. Become a saint. You’re not going to disobey the emperor, are you?

Endgame: I have just enough respect for Equius that I don’t think he’d kill Nepeta, even if ordered to. They probably go out fighting, before the final confrontation.

Ninth House: Reverend Daughter Jade Harley & Gamzee Makara

Gamzee’s useless, but at least he pulls off the facepaint. Jade’s not going to get much use out of him, unless she’s willing to siphon – as a highblood, he’s probably got a pretty strong constitution. Anyway, Jade’s wolf skeleton constructs are impressive, but she’ll be more or less attempting the trials alone, and that’s a tall order.

Endgame: Not nearly as important as in canon, the Ninth House might survive for a while by not really being a threat to anyone. Jade’s likely to befriend the Second and the Fourth, and go out in a blaze of glory avenging their deaths.

[balis77]

So fun fact about the Dulcinea boss fight if anyone is having trouble with it: Just use Lantern Don. Like, just Lantern Don. Solo.

It is actually fucking insane how hard Lantern counters the entire fight. Like, she and her minions physically cannot damage you enough to kill you as long as you're using block and doing clashes. Don is effectively immortal the whole time, Xichun helps you apply enough Rupture at the start to keep it up the whole fight, and Dulcinea has just enough attacks that don't hit you and her minions block just enough that you won't get wiped out before you get to 6 skill slots. It's insane how easy it is.

I do recommend having Rabbits Boss Mersault, Sevens Yi Sang, and Red Sheet Sinclair as support because their passives are pretty good, but like... even without them this fight is genuinely hard to lose with just solo Lantern. I went from thinking the fight was borderline impossible to om-nom-noming it to death in like 12 turns.

[literallys-illiteracy]

ok, Quixotisms time.

OBVIOUS SPOILERS WARNING FOR CANTO 7 AND CANTO 7 PART 3. ALSO FOR THE ENDING OF THE ORIGINAL DON QUIXOTE BOOK I SUPPOSE?

So lets start off with the obvious references that one can draw.

The Priest, Barber, and Sanson were a trio within the book of Don Quixote who attempted to have Quixano (Don) regain his senses and rationality.

Dulcinea is an unseen, fictional love interest which Don Quixote creates in his mind due to the belief that he must have a love interest to pursue.

Sancho is the squire and sidekick of Quixote, whom was a servant of Quixano, asked to leave the village and thus his family (wife and daughters) (lesbian Don propaganda grows stronger by the day).

The windmill itself is probably the most recognisable non-character reference within the canto, with Don's famous charge against Windmills/Giants in the first part of the story.

Sancho and Don, at the end of the Second part, return to their home village, La Mancha Land acting as a surrogate, wherein Don renounces his notions of chivalry on deathbed — This is the obvious inspiration to the ending of the canto in whole wherein we see the "Sancho-ification" of Quixote, becoming disillusioned with these dreams, the same way ...Quixote... [i need a better way of separating Don Quixote (sancho), Don Quixote (elder), Don Quixote (madman) and Quixano) did within La Mancha Land following the ending to his quest, after he fully sees the futility of what he seeks. Sought. Simultaneously, Sancho's arc was one inspired by that of this same return to hearth; In the final moments of Quixote, when he renounced chivalry and his adventures, is the moment when Sancho becomes "quixotified", seeing towards the ideal, suggesting that they become shepherds to a flock, seeking an unreachable dream.

The continuation of his dream by Sancho in Limbus is a direct reference to the ending of Don Quixote, though the more direct and... violent method of convincing Sancho otherwise.

The mili song is peak, nothing more to add there.

The Knight of the White Moon, who in the book was Sanson (another resident of Quixano's hometown) playing the role of a knight, has been changed to Bari, who seems to be related somehow to a lot more different things, having skills that reference Lobotomy Corporation Damage types (in the Play-duel with Don/Sancho) including the same "mental Fracture" effect that the Fruit of Understanding had, alongsider her resemblance to the unnamed bookhunter from a Library of Ruina ending.

Sanson is blue. also Sanson plays a very different role, not being the Knight of the white moon, nor the Knight of Mirrors (another knight that he masqueraded as). Nor Sanson is from Quixote's hometown, nor does he wish to bring Quixote back to his senses. I am thoroughly confused and i have a headache so i cant be bothered to think more about this.

[jiangshi-art]

Dulcinea! This one turned out great, feels like I'm getting used to CSP, may have gotten a lil over the top with the effects

[lockedtombtheories]

Thanks! I think the biggest thing currently bugging me about HtN is why every surviving lyctor, with 1 single exception, was plotting to kill Jod? My understanding is that it was only when they saw cav!Gideon's eyes on the Mithraeum that they realized Jod lied about the existence of perfect lyctorhood. So why had they spent decades plotting with BoE to open the tomb and murder God? Only explanation I've read is "because he made them kill their cavs," which seems weak.

The short answer is: They at least suspected that he lied about it even before meeting Gideon. She was just the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. Plus, he did make them kill their cavs! Their siblings, their lovers, their closest friends! They dealt with that truth for far more than a lifetime, but they just so happens that they had a lot of time to dwell on it. It’s not really a surprise that it eventually got ugly.

Long answer under the cut, because I love my followers and don’t want them to suffer.

First off: it isn't just the surviving lyctors who betrayed God. Mercymorn, Augustine, Cytherea, yes; but even G1deon was willing to share a bed with the enemy. Either he or Pyrrha told Wake about the RB's and what they do to necromancers, thereby handing her an effective weapon against lyctors. 

And then there's Anastasia, who's implied to have gone against John's orders by even founding the Ninth House. Cassie, who contacted BoE *6 000 years ago*. So who really knows what Cyrus and Ulysses were up to, or would have been if they'd survived for long enough. 

As for why? We get two pieces of explanation in the text. 

YOU LIED TO US

Could this refer to the proof in Gideon's eyes? Sure.  But I'm not convinced that it wasn't the message Cyth always wanted to send. 

Checking in with the other duplicitous sluts:

“You’ve offered us explanations for everything over the years. But—some of them didn’t hold up on examination … It was the power I could never get my head around, you know? I follow power back to its source, John. It’s the skill you asked me to perfect. And the longer I looked at yours, the less things added up.”  “This has been troubling you for a very long time, then,” God said finally. [...] “You don’t get your power from Dominicus,” said Augustine. “It gets its power from you. There’s no exchange involved, no symbiosis. You draw nothing from the system. It relies on you entirely, as we all know. You’re God, John. But—as the Edenites are fond of pointing out—you were once a man. So whither that transition? Where does your power come from? Even if the Resurrection had been the greatest thanergy bloom ever triggered, it would drain away over time. And then Mercy said to me—in a moment of true Mercy vileness—she said, What is God afraid of? [...] I never wanted to believe it when she said, What if he didn’t really put down A.L.? And then—What if he couldn’t put down A.L.?” (HtN, ch. 51)

So: they knew that John didn’t have a tangible power source; and lyctorhood was the only kind of internal furnace they know about. Ergo: yes, they suspected that John had lied about perfect Lyctorhood. He made them kill their cavs. 10 000 years of guilt, literally chasing them across the universe, and for what? For whom?

What kind of God demands such a sacrifice? I think that's one of the central questions of these books. What kind of God demands it? (compare the Binding of Isaac - John) But also: What kind of God punishes it? (compare the Mark of Cain - the Resurrection Beasts) 

But - 

“Why would one of the Emperor’s Lyctors hate him?” “Hate him?” The voice of the girl whom Gideon had known as Dulcinea rose, high and intent. “Hate him? I have loved that man for ten thousand years. We all loved him, every one of us. We worshipped him like a king. Like a god! Like a brother.” (GtN, ch. 35)

They are Believers losing their Faith. They’re questioning the entire foundation of his divinity. Augustine and Mercy are still asking, still hoping that they're wrong - “All that effort to break open the Locked Tomb,” said Augustine, “only to have the answer we wanted wander up in the form of one dead teenager flaunting your genes." - but crucially, they are also lovers going through a messy divorce. You know, when people who once loved each other and were presumably capable of communication are suddenly throwing plates at each other? “Come, swear your loyalty, my son—my brother—beloved—Lyctor—saint.” 

Possibly what Tazmuir is saying is, they're the same picture. But that might be conjecture. 

(edited to add in links to other theory posts. call it the director's cut)