#they have very very necromancer and their cavalier vibes

[rcrisdraws]

Woe upon those who question the love and wrath of devotion.

[Image ID: Illustration featuring two men dressed in Japanese clothing. The man on the left is slightly slouched, with his left arm clinging to the back of the man on the right. He has tan skin, short, choppy, black hair and beard, and round glasses that glint in a way that reflects light. He is dressed in a green kimono with its sleeves held up and deer hide chaps. in the bottom left corner a piece of the red war bow he's holding can be seen. The man on the right is standing with both arms at ease beside his body, his back slightly turned to the camera. He has pale skin, auburn-red hair tied up in a high ponytail and a thick beard. He's very thin and wearing a dark purplish kimono with the sleeves held up and black samurai pants. A pistol and a katana can be seen hanging by his belt. The left arm of this man, facing the viewer, is covered in bright red blood.]

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - John 8:1 🐄

the message now reads: ‘THE/TOWER/HA’ . i’m sticking with the assumption that ‘tower’ is a full word and ‘ha’ is the beginning of the next until proven otherwise

okay and now it’s talking about falling asleep within the dream, which is confusing as all hell. whoever this narrator is, ‘her body was a mystery to her’, which is very reminiscent of the themes throughout of Nona wondering who she is. i really do think that this narrator has to be Alecto somehow or on some level, maybe because of Harrow falling asleep in the Tomb at the end of HtN?

also hammocks made of ‘baby-soft skin’. Ew. 

and an interesting point of reference, John’s eyes are explicitly black w/ white rings on them, so this dream is set after Alecto becomes his cavalier. although it might mean nothing, it’s also very interesting considering just how significant eye colour has been that the torchlight makes the white ring ‘a satiny gold’, given his eyes were originally gold - i wonder if it might have something to do with the type of shared Lyctorhood he and Alecto have going on?

honestly if someone came on the internet showing off that they could control dead bodies or whatever, i would think it was a deepfake or some other trolling as well. i love that apparently there are still Flat Earthers around despite having the tech to have some kind of space station on Mars existing

its ironic people calling him the Antichrist initially, given that he eventually adopts the exact opposite vibe of being a deity. and the whole religious/God/Christ associations aren’t even something that he solely adopted post-Resurrection himself either, even here people, and John’s group of friends, are explicitly comparing him to Jesus and using Christianity as a basis of what to do

and uh yeah, realistically someone broadcasting that they can raise the dead and heal everyone would probably be considered a cultist not just by the government, but by most people honestly 

and we’ve got A— Junior, (presumably) Alfred, joining the team as well, who apparently went from being a hedge fund manager in one life to swordfighting in the next. wild. 

‘she’d adored being a cop’ i like Pyrrha well enough so far, but yikes 

even though John’s still getting to grips with his powers, and can’t do proper resurrections yet, he still seems a lot more powerful than other necromancers later, given he’s able to build an entire wall out of perpetual bone, something which from what I remember Harrow treated as a massive achievement at the end of GtN 

what the actual fuck did those cows and sheep do to you man!!! is this why Canaan House has all that horned skull imagery, as like a weird little tribute to how cow murder contributed to him becoming Emperor. maybe the real cow murder was the friends that we made along the way

‘they treated us like we’d done some kind of huge crime’ MY DUDE.

[theriverbeyond]

I don't think they're "bashing it with their closed fist" bad

However

I do a 100% believe Dulcinea, Palamedes, and by extension Cam have their entire view of sex shaped by cheap erotica. Imagine the worst understanding of anatomy, what is sexual pleasing, and most blatantly inserted author kink, and they all thought that was just normal and how things were supposed to work

Pyrrha has sex with Pal and Cam and they're saying the most batshit terrible dialogue she's heard since Cytherea, because Pal religiously reads smut and Cam has been with Pal for years

okay I hear what you are saying but I need to raise you this: the 6th House final exams involve reciting erotic poetry. the 6th House in general are a bunch of nerdy weirdos. 2/3 of their military is specifically about going out to fuck and breed. The Nine Houses in general, culturally, are literally based on anatomy (necromancy), not even getting into the extensive education Palamedes (and Cam by extension, as his cavalier) would recieve as a necromancer.

Palamedes and Camilla and the rest of the 6th were getting age appropriate sexual education starting at age 6 and repeated every year thereafter until maticulation, with details and info etc of course updated to corespond to their respective developmental stage.

what I mean is: 6th House erotica is painstakingly, unwholesomly accurate. Even in BAD 6th House erotica they can still find the clit. Even in PURPOSEFULLY UNREALISTIC 6th House erotica everything is still very much logically supported.

So: theory is different than practice (esp. because Camilla gives acearo vibes TO ME!!!) but to ME, Palamedes is the snobbiest smut writer/reader you have ever seen. The man has standards. He reads and writes the hottest and horniest erotica you could ever imagine and 90% of it is for the in-univese equivalent of Hockey RPF. He is not inherently opposed to author insert or unrealistic anatomy, but that shit better have correct grammer, coherent characters, and a compelling emotional arc. etc

[sky-scribbles]

The Karlach/Gideon Nav comparisons have sunk deep into my brain at this point, so I think it's about time I laid out my Locked Tomb AU thoughts. Because there are some very fun necro & cavaliar pairings to find among the tadfools and their supporting cast:

For the Second House, we have an obvious cavalier: Lae'zel, trained for the frontlines since hatching, ready to march to war for her Emperor god-queen even if she doesn't know why. Her necromancer is harder to pin down - it could be Shadowheart for the Harrow and Gideon vibes, but I want to use Shadowheart elsewhere. Ghustil Sturnugoss could work, perhaps - until Lae'zel starts to see through the lies she's been raised on...

The Third House smacks of nobility and charm, so my gut says Wyll is our cavalier - yes, he's a spellcaster, but he's the Blade of Frontiers. He wields a rapier; he's Wyll, the protecor. He's asking to be a cavalier. As for his necromancer, the person he's bound to serve, to die for... well, I guess it has to be Mizora, who has plenty of Third charisma herself. Not all cavaliers serve willingly.

We have a much more stable duo for the Fourth: Isobel and Aylin! Isobel is a cleric, made for warding and guarding just like Isaac, and Aylin has a very Fourth House-esque tendency to, as Gideon put it 'charge in headfirst and get all crazy'.

The Fifth house are tricky. They're spirit-speakers, so Withers is the obvious choice, but who's his cavalier? An aged-up Arabella? But she feels more like a necromancer to me, so I landed on an alternative: put an actual spirit into the necromancer role, and make it Thaniel. And have his protector be Halsin, who could fill Magnus's surrogate dad role quite nicely. (Rumour has it that not only does Halsin the Fifth wield knuckle-knives, he carried two knuckles and has a tendency to chuck his rapier away and just slash at you like a bear.)

Gale 'which way to the nearest library?' Dekarios is just begging to be the necromancer of the Sixth House - he even has a House-esque surname, though we'd have to change it so he doesn't sound like he comes from some nonexistent Tenth House (Hekarios? Sextarios?) And if his cavalier is someone who'll remain at his side through thick and thin, protect him from the world and from himself... I guess I have no choice but to make Tara a tabaxi and give her a sword. She deserves it.

I confess to drawing a blank for a really fitting match for the Seventh, so for lack of a better place to put them, let's make it Jaheira and Minsc, since Minsc pretty much sees himself as her cavalier in canon anyway. I suppose if you spec Jaheira as a Spores druid, she does at least have the 'walking corpse' thing down.

The cavalier of the Eighth House is another forced into service: Astarion, serving his necromancer Cazador. He's been trained to be his necro's resource, not his equal; he exists for Cazador to draw on and suck dry. He owns nothing but his sword (and unlike Colum, he doesn't even have his honour; it was tortured out of him long ago.)

And finally, Shadowheart as the Ninth House necromancer - a young acolyte raised in an underground cloister among those who worship silence, darkness and loss; her own memory betraying her, loving her order despite the fact that it has broken her again and again. With her cavalier, Karlach, who just wants to get out of her indentured service already and to be given back her fucking longsword.

[none-house-left-grief]

no please share your Bloodbourne AU with us….im glad im not the only one thinking about this

Hey sorry I'm only getting to this now! I never get asks for this blog so I don't bother checking often.

I don't have any particularly detailed thoughts, and a lot of things just don't fully add up unless you ignore some lore on both ends but here's re a few ideas I've had (they're all just very very obvious connections tbh they're not super interesting I think):

Obviously the religion of the Ninth is the Healing Church

The Cathedral Ward, specifically Oedon Chapel, would be the Ninth/Drearburh equivalent

It gets a bit complicated when we get to talking about the Lyctors, Resurrection Beasts, and BoS, however

I think the best option for BoS to be would be the hunters (Wake being the much sexier and much much less creepy version of Gherman (would that make Pyrrha Lady Maria?) as the leader/founder)

The Byrgenwerth Scholars could be the Lyctors (or necromancers more broadly)

The Lyctors would be the known bosses and scholars we know of (Maria, Micolash, Rom, etc.) although they could also include hunters like Gascoigne

The RBs would be the bosses that are not human (Amygdala, Blood Starved Beast, (potentially Vicar Amelia idk how I feel about including her tbh)

Here's the tricky part:

John and Alecto could be Willem and Laurence, but I see Jod as Laurence in this (because he would use the blood (which in this case it would be the necromantic equivalent ig??) to "help" people but Alecto would not vibe with it)

However Willem was essentially the founding figure of Byrgenwerth, which, if we didn't do a 1:1 comparison could also work

Laurence could also be Anastasia the First, being the respective founders of their churches

Another issue is that I don't know what to make of the necro/cav duos. Admittedly, this is what makes the AU fall apart for me a little, although I'm sure there's a way to make it work

The easiest thing to do would be to make them Hunters, but then the BoS thing would have to be different

We could pull a Soul Eater and have the cavs be the Hunter weapons because the healing church also has hunters, but that doesn't quite fit for me

Unless

The Cainhurst Vilebloods could be the BoS equivallent, going against the church founded under Laurence/John

This lets the hunters be necromancers and their cavaliers, provided they hunt in pairs

This also lets Pyrrha be Maria and have some ties to BoE through Wake

Some characters might not have direct connections tho

Nona is hard to account for on account of the whole Nona thing

Characters like Patches don't seem to fit with tlt either

The House system would have to be potentially scrapped, although they could be allied/paired off based off of branches from the Scholars

Magic is also a challenge, as the closest thing are the Arcane Hunter Tools and Blood which isn't the same as necromancy (especially not TLT necromancy with the intricacies of the River, thanergy and thallergy, etc.)

Lyctorhood would also be a challenge, although it could be as simple as "the soul/body/blood is absorbed when 'ascended'" or something

The whole "Bloodborne is full of references to the horrors of womanhood and pregnancy and femininity and blood" thing also doesn't fit quite as neatly with tlt because it has a more anti-imperialist bend to it and gender-fuckery happens, but it's not quite like in Bloodborne

For this reason, the whole Pthumerian part of the lore doesn't fit in any way that's easily apparent to me, although I'm open to ideas on all of this, particularly I would love to find a way to fit Queen Yharnam into all this without just making her Wake because they're both the only ones who are prego.

Anyway yeah that's about it lmao hope it's as interesting as you thought it would be

[hypnostouched]

My brain rot combines everything i touch so uhhhh dark rise dnd au

Will is a 'human' Bard Sorcerer multiclass. He is Collage of Whispers Bard, and Shadows Sorcerer and he tells people he is only a Collage of Eloquence Bard. Will isn't overly athletic but he is quick and dexterous and very charismatic so the charisma classes suit him well imo, especially as Bard focuses on both rallying allies and crowd control.

James is a High Elf Sorcerer, Aberrant Mind. You could also give him a couple levels in Fighter considering his Steward Background but since he rarely uses his Steward training in the books, we'll just go with Sorc. Again, a charisma build suits James wonderfully.

Violet I think would be mechanically a Leonin but visually human; I was also considering a Beasthide Shifter but I think the Leonin suits better. She would be a Totem Warrior Barbarian with the Bear stats reskinned as a lion. You'd want to do some homebrew to make her shield into a weapon, or just give her some form of bludgeoning weapon and flavour it so her shield functions as both a shield and the weapon. Overall she is a Strength and Con build, an absolute tank.

Now the Stewards I see as a Paladin order but I think taking your whites would be the equivalent of taking your oath, so Cyrpian would be a Half Elf Champion Fighter. He would have intended to multiclass into Paladin. He might also suit Battle Master but I think the overall concept of Champion Fighter, trained perfection and control, suits Cyprian. Despite aiming to be Paladin, he would have shitty Charisma. I love Cyprian.

(Justice would have been a Half Elf Champion Fighter/Oath of the Ancients Paladin)

Kathrine and Elizabeth would be functionally Aasimar but neither would have a class. They'd probably suit Scourge Aasimar since Radiant Consumption most reflects the power of the Lady

And Visander would have been High Elf Oath of Devotion Paladin, and Battle Master Fighter but as of his death has changed oaths and now exists in Kathrine's body so he is an Aasimar Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Battle Master Fighter. Though you could also definitely argue Cavalier Fighter as well.

Sarcean, Anharion and the Lady I'm a lot less sure about since we don't know their vibes super well but Sarcean still feels like a Shadow Sorcerer, but also probably a Necromancer Wizard. Anharion as the Betrayer has very Oathbreaker Paladin energy, and was probably formally Oath of Devotion like Visander. The Lady probably best suits Divine Soul Sorcerer, which is a nice fit with Sarcean and would be part of why her descendants are aasimar.

[haphazardlyannotated]

The Locked Tomb/Steven Universe Crossover

This crossover was inspired months ago by the random thought "Hey, Pearl would definitely want to be Rose's cavalier" and hasn't left me alone since. So here you go, niche audience of one! (It's me. I am the audience)

First of all, yes, Pearl has to be Rose's cavalier. Not only does it neatly align with Pearl's knightly devotion and the institutional power imbalance they're both trying to ignore, Pearl absolutely is the kind of person who would take "my not-wife refuses to kill me and eat my soul in order to attain immortality" as a terrible rejection.

She's so insane about Rose, she'd fit right in in this universe (pun not intended). Also, the cavalier-necromancer romance taboo works excellently for Pearlrose. For one, of course, the forbidden romance. Cav!Pearl confessing to necro!Rose that she's been dreaming about running away from the Houses together to live in domestic bliss on a nice moon somewhere has the exact same vibes as su!Pearl's confession in Now We're Only Falling Apart. But more importantly, cav!Pearl giving Rose's suitors a "You may have caught her eye, but I am her cavalier; she swore an oath to me; our fates are entwined till death do us part" speech only to go to her rooms and wallow in how the very position that ensures she'll be by Rose's side forever is what will forever keep her from pursuing her true feelings is too good.

Meanwhile Rose is in the next room going "Oh woe is me, for I am a cruel, selfish woman, to keep the love of my life from the glory she deserves! Alas, I can't bear to let her go, even though I know in my heart that her care for me is only the rightful, proper care of a cavalier for her necromancer! The least I owe her is not to take advantage of our pure, sacred bond, so I shall go and drown my sorrows in another fleeting affair!"

Writer's choice whether they miraculously manage to communicate before Rose gets herself killed in one way or another, but ironically the dystopian 50% character death rate tlt verse is much more likely to give them a second chance than pastel redemption arcs su, because Steven Universe is a story about healing from trauma with the power of a supportive network of loved ones while The Locked Tomb endorses attacking the cold unfeeling universe with teeth and fingernails until it returns your girlfriend, and both of them are so valid for this.

In this case however it means, that instead of slowly healing, Pearl absolutely refuses to accept Rose's death to a Harrow and Camilla extent. Does she threaten to stab whoever takes Jod's role in this AU? Does she try to break into the Locked Tomb because to hell with the Houses, she's getting her wife back? Both? In any case, tlt rules demand that she succeeds.

Anyway, I put them in the Seventh House because roses.

As for the supporting cast:

Ruby and Sapphire are the Fifth House wholesome married couple who make Pearl and Rose stare in longing for what they cannot have.

Garnet is Paul. Obviously. Cue another, different kind of yearning for what could have been from Pearl. Poor Garnet has just come into existence. She doesn't deserve having to be everyone's emotional support already.

I struggled with figuring out a role for Amethyst for a while until it hit me: Wasn't it fun when Amethyst experienced self hatred over how the life was drained out of her planet to make her? Try being the result of two hundred child murders! Don't the inadequacy issues gain a delightful new dimension when your entire generation has been killed off in anticipation of your abilities? Guys, I think Amethyst is Harrow Nova.

I have no idea what plot has to happen for Rose to end up with Jod's baby, but that is the only role for Steven I will tolerate. And Connie is his cavalier. Obviously.

Peridot is sciency, Lapis is the quiet OP lady, and they're in a QPR. There was no way I wasn't going to make them the Sixth. HOWEVER. Due to how extremely OP Lapis is with an element manipulating power specifically. I decided that she's the necromancer and Peridot is her incredibly academically talented BFF who they're pretending is the necromancer so she can be along for the ride. This would be plot relevant if this crossover had an actual plot instead of self indulgent vibes only.

Jasper gets Judith's role. Completely loyal to the ethically dubious regime, absolutely convinced that she's the only one who is doing the right thing and everyone else is just not strong enough, ends up corrupted possessed by a Resurrection Beast.

Bismuth is a Blood of Eden commander. She would like to fist fight every single Uppercrust zombie, however, just like su!Bismuth, she is easily won over when a former Homeworld gem House zombie shows up on her planet and announces her intent to fight the Diamonds Jod and his Lyctors and/or bust into the Locked Tomb.

[liesmyth]

I'm curious that you think that the existing lyctoral necro-cav pairs shows that John can't choose at will who is a necromancer & who is not, because to me it's the opposite! The fact that both scientists & the lawyer (of intellectual occupations) all end up as necromancers and theis companions as cavaliers strongly suggests a guiding hand. Who do you think he would array differently if he had the power?

A few different reasons! All of them boil down to #vibes. My thoughts on this are all over, and I think it IS possible he chose them. I just think it’s slightly more likely he didn’t.

tldr: if he chose who got to be an adept, I think it was more intuitive / subconscious / accidental than a planned out choice with forethought behind it.

Assuming that he absolutely wanted to create matched pairs (why though? more thoughts below) I AM a bit puzzled over the criteria. It's not just intellectuals, they all were—“a cop and six different kinds of nerd.” Anyway, here are my thoughts, one by one.

Augustine, Mercy, and G1deon: these are obvious. They were his long-time friends, unflinchingly loyal, total enablers. If he did pick and choose, they were always going to be an automatic in.

Nigella: that’s easy also; she seems to be the member of the gang John was the least close to, brought into the gang by someone who was mildly critical of him. She IS a pass.

Alfred: second to least fave, though he was the one who figured out the dirt of the FTL fleet by following the money. (He IS a nerd, and more STEM-adjacent than Cassy. Finance runs on probability theory) I can see why he’d have been left out, though; John doesn't think much of him.

Cristabel: this is harder to justify! John had a very high opinion of Cristabel. He called her ‘sister,’ he saw her as a guide, and near the end they worked closely together trying to find the soul. Maybe he resented her for the way she forced him to ascend, but I didn’t get that impression from the flashbacks + John loves having people around who have their own failings, so he can feel better about himself. If he could bestow necromancy, I don’t get why he wouldn’t have picked Cristabel.

Pyrrha and Cassiopeia: these are the ones that leave me the most perplexed. They’re both strong-willed women who weren’t afraid to stand up to John. But Pyrrha was the one who betrayed her cop friends to warn him, who stood by him even after he killed her former colleagues, who encouraged him to be a “bad wizard” — she absolutely enabled him every step of the way. Cassiopeia, by contrast, was by his side in the early stages and ditched her bosses for him, but she seems to have stuck around just as much for Nigella as for “the cause,” if not more. She drops under the radar a third into the flashback narration when things get weird, and only makes herself heard again near the end to call out John; the only one who did. I really don’t get why he’d have picked Cassiopeia. Likewise, I don’t see why he didn’t pick Pyrrha; it’s true that Gideon was always close to her and “never knew who to pick,” but when it counted Pyrrha never went against John, and also, you know. He did wipe their memory. I don't think he saw Pyrrha as a threat.

Ulysses and Titania: ????? They were science projects. He had no attachment to either of them. Why not make more of his original friends into necromancers and give them Ulysses or Titania as “companions” if he was that attached to that model? The only scenario I can see in which they were included would be if John brought them back before anyone else to serve as a test case, but I don’t get why he’d have kept them around. I can, however, see John keeping them around if they randomly came back as an adept/non-adept matched pair and he was like, oh how nostalgic, control group yet again.

More broadly—regardless of who was picked, I don't think he planned out matched adept/companion sets.

One: Lyctorhood wasn't John's initial plan. He didn't bring them back thinking “I’m going to make my besties my immortal warriors and they’ll need a loyal companion.” He brought them back planning to keep them near him, and possibly to make them immortal. He accomplished that, successfully, for hundreds of years—but their immortality was conditional on their physical proximity to him. (John being John, this would be a feature, not a bug!) and didn’t come with huge necromantic powers. They were still killable. That only became a drawback once they were “on the clock for the resurrection beasts,” when it was imperative that his friends should also be his trusted lieutenants, able to carry out missions all over the universe. “God should be able to touch all of creation,” but he can’t do that if his fingers have to stay by his side. That’s why everyone ascended at the same time and the cavaliers went to their death. Before that, though? There was no point. I doubt he knew of the RBs until after the resurrection was complete.

Two: why the necro/cav pairs? I just... don't see why he'd split his friends into matched couples. I think it’s way more likely that the concept of “death wizard and death wizard’s fighting sworn companion” as social roles and as a tradition, is something that evolved because the original disciples made it a custom, rather than because John designed it to be that way. And, if he could bestow necromancy at will, why not give it to everyone who’d stood by him? Why did it have to be an even number split in couples, everyone with their companion? Like, I don’t think it’s out of character for John to go on a godly power trip and decide who gets to have powers. But I also don’t see why he would create a divide within the group. (Later, after 200 years, I absolutely get why he’d want to be THE most important person in all his Lyctors’ lives. But I don’t get that same vibe from immediately post-apocalypse, based on the flashbacks)

Basically, it's both some of the choices in who ended up a necromancer, and just... the forethought that this decision implies. John isn't a great schemer IMO, and I doubt he was especially lucid in the time right before the resurrection; I don't think he sat down and started worldbuilding his new social order and space empire. (Yes, he very much did build the Houses like a DM worldbuilding for an RPG campaign, but that happened more gradually and his friends had a lot of influence. I don't think the beforehand had much planning involved.)

Also: a lot of what John does, power-wise, is vibes. His soul merging with Alecto was done totally on the fly. Figuring out you can bestow necromancy, figuring out how necromancy is bestowed, doing some trial and error until you know how it works, and only then resurrecting your buddies—IDK, that’s a lot of planning.

Anyway. This is why I think that if he MADE a choice, it was subconscious. That's why more in line with how John does things.

[paradoxcase]

@1spoopyjerk:

you pointed out something interesting about John (at least, something i believe) - for all his presentation as a chill academic, it feels a bit like he does not approach necromancy in the same scientific/theoretical way that all other necromancers do. i can very much imagine ianthe presenting a drawn-out theory regarding necromancy's applications and john just going "yeah that sounds probably about right". his understanding seems primarily vibes-based

Yeah, it does seem sort of like that, especially with his incredibly scientific cure for Harrow's incomplete Lyctor issues, which was just "try to kill her until she's fixed, lol". I guess to him, starting life in a world where necromancy didn't exist and being raised with the idea that such stuff was fantasy, maybe it didn't occur to him, or never really sunk in that it can be scientifically studied in the same way?

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess

I think Augustine and Mercy explictly mention that the war seems pointless, and Augustine begs John to give up his vendetta. At which point John tells him that if 'the man you used to be heard you say that he'd be furious' or something like that...so it really does seem all about a war of vengeance.

Yeah, Augustine asking him to quit the war didn't really seem relevant to me back then, but I guess this is maybe something that they'd be tired of for a long time now and he thought that maybe if John was really going to beg for forgiveness, he could at least give them that given that the cavaliers are long gone at this point?

My theory: a few thousand years after the Resurrection, John discovered the descendents of the trillionaires, or the trillionaires themselves (FTL travel seems iffy in outcome) and could at last get his rage out.

Ah, so BOE are the descendants of the trillionaires who wouldn't fund his cryostasis project and that's his whole damage about them for 10,000 years? Ok, this reminds me of how some dumb white people oppose antiracism stuff by saying like, "but I never owned any slaves, why are you punishing me for something my ancestors did?" and totally miss the point that slavery was not that long ago and the whole institution is still having an effect on society even though it's not actually around anymore, and maybe John is seeing this that way, too, but... in this case (based on the first chapter of Nona) BOE definitely isn't populated by trillionaires, or people who benefited from their long-gone ancestors being trillionaires, and I'm sure that all that money probably lost its meaning when everyone died and it's been 10,000 years since then

[askaniritual]

i have like 3/4 of a chapter left but ive done nothing but read and sleep for like 17 hours now and i need a little bit of a break. theres just SO much i want to say abt this its like boiling my dumb little brain i am overflowing with Thoughts but like its so many thoughts i can only vaguely sketch them all out

i think i need to organize my thoughts into two categories because theres like. things i think shes saying abt homestuck that are very interesting and things i notice that apply to the locked tomb that i think are interesting and then a little bit of venn diagram overlap

like from a tlt angle its very like

none of this is like a criticism btw i im not like. making accusations here im speaking purely on a thematic level. the serendipity gospel is one of those fics thats like 95% original lore by volume so like most of the stuff that feels locked tomb coded is stuff that i think she made up for this that clearly she wanted to translate into her own work

i mean kind of telling that this fic is unfinished even though she very clearly had this plotted from the beginning, no?

whatever im glad its not so similar that she took it down

every part of this feels like a first run at the locked tomb, but its definitely more harrow the ninth than gideon the ninth and not just because of the second person

i mean honestly i would sound like a broken record if i enumerated everything about the way she talks about the fleet that feels very locked-tomb coded

the legislacerator/subjuggalator pair thing feels like a Very obvious first swing at the cavalier/necromancer thing and the inquisitor thing is just the lictor plotline in htn straight up more or less

harrow is definitely terezi but gamzee is Not gideon like theres pieces of it but its not quite the same but i guess thats just because gideon is just dave

gamzee/terezi feels a lot like the vibe that harrow and ianthe have for most of htn. like "i hate you but we are two scared teens now in way over our heads and we only have each other and i really wish we could be softer to each other but we cant so we'll take the comfort how we can get it in sharp words and pain and reluctant bandaging of each other's wounds"

this makes me SO curious as to if we're ever going to get a relationship that feels the way karkat and gamzee are written in this fic a very like "i hate everything in the world but you because everything in the world made me hard and cold and you are the person i can be soft to and the person i want to be good for"

i dont know quite how to say this but its like. this whole thing feels a little bit more intimate and feelings-driven than the locked tomb stuff? we spend a lot of time in the characters heads here just talking abt their feelings in a much more specific and direct way than tlt which is interesting but makes sense because i think fic overall leans that direction. but its an interesting contrast all the same

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 9

i didn’t notice it until this chapter literally began with ‘Nona jolted awake’, but the John chapters seem to take place after Nona’s been sleeping. it was stated in one of them that it was a dream after all, are they Nona’s dreams?

poor Nona, everyone is keeping an awful lot of information from her

okay Nona is being wayyy too nonchalant about being shot, quite frankly

ahh so at least some of the smoke is coming from the city burning bodies & bones, smart move if they don't want necromancers to use them against them

once again Nona is ridiculously physically resilient, surviving multiple jellyfish stings that would kill someone else. she’s obviously some kind of Lyctor, but i’m just trying to think about literally any and all possible situations here no matter how bizarre. uhhh newest theory is Nona some kind of lyctorhood fusion of Harrow & Alecto that also has amnesia i guess

once again salt water is significant, and both it and the beach are very important to Nona. still trying to consider how exactly the theme of Nona liking beaches is related to the beach in the dream sequences, i feel like they have to be related somehow

oh shit things are going down. its very unclear who exactly these people are … the general police, some kind of connection to the Blood of Eden? i’m guessing they’re aware of Camilla’s connection to necromancy? or who knows, maybe they’re just assholes

okay Camilla and Palamedes are literally combined, sharing Cam’s body at the same time. did not know that was a thing they could do apparently. they seem to be working pretty well in tandem, but there’s definitely a very strange and unsettling vibe, like Nona describes how its kinda like they have a ‘new person’s smile’

oh wow Camilla is fucked up from that whole experience, this poor gal keeps getting injured

and its not just the emotional toll, Camilla hosting Palamedes is essentially slowly killing her. the situation is way worse than i first thought 

'Here’s to Camilla Hect, another one of devotion’s casualties’ yeah i imagine Pyrrha has opinions on that matter, given she was a cavalier that literally died for her necromancer to become a Lyctor 

'he was always looking for things to throw himself on’ this has nothing to do with the situation at hand, it’s just got me crying about og!Gideon and her devotion to Harrow again. also an interesting parallel between G1deon & Gid, even though he didn’t end up actually being her dad

[pazak-thion-brady]

1. Bedroom or cafe's if I know I need to focus and hit a deadline. The human noise helps.

2. When the plan comes together and the ideas just slot together properly.

3. Starting a new song and having no inspiration for what it should be.

4. I usually have PM Seymore binge compilations on in the background.

5. Composer, Steven Sondheim and Joe Hisaishi

6. I don't usually create characters, but fav character I've written for was Chloe Price in Life is Strange musical demos.

7. Terry Pratchet/Rick Riordan.

8. Five man band.

9. Romantic or ballad scenes

10. Ana's Mitchel

11. Listen to songs in the style I want it to be, go ajzijejzdisj this doesn't work, listen to different songs until something sounds right, copy down the sheet music, fuck with it, delete it then try to re create the fucked with version from memory.

12. Alcohol, partying, gaming, general forced socialising.

13. Listen to new music and broaden my stylistic knowledge.

14. For Gideon The Ninth the musical demos, I reaserched Gregorian chant music for the first tike since I dropped out of university due to stress of not understanding shit.

15. Listening to new music

16. Spotify

17. 3-5 hours on a good day. When starting a new project I always spend like 8 hours making the first song taking little to no breaks in a writing frenzy then regretting it the next day.

18. I'll usually throw out the whole song and write something completely new.

19. This is a show of death and love a grizly tale we tell, of liers, lyctors, lesbians and cavaliers that fell.

20. Check my YouTube in bio for the first 5 songs.

21. She owns you.

22. Most I've had is 22, current one is only 4.

23. Multi, that's what works in musicals best. Just to give the lead actors little breaks and time for quick changes.

24. Lyrics are basically just poetry.

25. Linear, non linear plays don't do that well. Might try one, one day.

26. Stand alone. It's hard to do a series of plays. Not impossible but hard.

27. Roughs are my demos that go out as part of a pitch document.

28. Fucking everyone.

29. The gays. Aka me. I write things I want to see.

30. "Oh Rachel see you someday, upon that silver screen. I will hold you close, again, see you soon my queen." Sung by a hopeless tumblr lesbian in a story set in 2013.

31. Captain Aiglamene, she appeared in 1 scene and I couldn't get a vibe for her musical identity so I just went generic as fuck with her.

32. Surt. His music was so fun and just flowed. I wrote his song in 1 sitting.

33. Technically yes. I'm writing music though.

34. Scrawled on the walls. I'm mentally sane I swear.

35. Jesus the lesbian is a wannabee escape artist who just wants to escape Pluto and join her dad's army.

36. She dies.

37. "What's the point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes" Dan Hardcastle. Aka Nerd³.

38. Well the outline is someone else's story I'm adapting sooooo, very good, great success.

39. Not my original characters.

40. Essentially fanfiction, of what if this story was full of gay people singing.

41. Currently 3. Trying to focus on 1 but 3 are burning in the background.

42. Look at fan art and take an amalgam of popular costume parts.

43. Yes in audio book format. I'm horribly dyslexic and books hurt my eyes and brain.

44. This will be in my head all day.

45. It's impressive to make boring non classical music.

46. It would look fucking dark and need to be animated. Animated musicals are fucking pumping potion cat snake.

47. I start by reading the book that already exists and song spotting. Going through the book and going, that scene should be a song. Oh this is dramatic as shit, song. Awsw tender, song.

48. Rock.

49. The middle, it slogs.

50. The current one, lesbian necromancers solving a murder mystery in space and singing.

51. Skeletons, ginger, Catholic, goth, lesbians.

52. I started writing when I was fucking depressed and it helped me out of my mental illness. 5 years ago.

53. It means escape from the darkness.

54. If you're thinking about writing, write. If you keep putting it off you'll never write anything.

New ask game for writers

1. Favorite place to write. 2. Favorite part of writing. 3. Least favorite part of writing. 4. Do you have writing habits or rituals? 5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most. 6. Favorite character you ever created. 7. Favorite author. 8. Favorite trope to write. 9. Least favorite trope to write. 10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about. 11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish. 12. How do you deal with self-doubts? 13. How do you deal with writers block? 14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book? 15. Where does your inspiration come from? 16. Where do you take your motivation from? 17. On avarage, how much writing do you get done in a day? 18. What’s your revision or rewriting process like? 19. First line of a WIP you’re working on. 20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on. 21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s. 22. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you? 23. Single or multi POV, and why? 24. Poetry or prose, and why? 25. Linear or non-linear, and why? 26. Standalone or series, and why? 27. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with? 29. Who do you write for? 30. Favorite line you’ve ever written. 31. Hardest character to write. 32. Easiest character to write. 33. Do you listen to music when you’re writing? 34. Handwritten notes or typed notes? 35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________. 36. A spoiler for story _________. 37. Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you. 38. Have you shared your outline of your story ________ with someone? If so, what did they think of it? 39. Do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one. 40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why? 41. How many stories do you work on at one time? 42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc. 43. Are you an avid reader? 44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. 45. Worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. 46. What would your story _______ look like as a tv show or movie? 47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story? 48. Favorite genre to write in. 49. What do you find the hardest to write in a story, the beginning, the middle or the end? 50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had. 51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words. 52. How did writing change you? 53. What does writing mean to you? 54. Any writing advice you want to share?

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

You listed what Houses everyone's in at the start of Mystery Longfic (SO interested about Ninth Janus and Sixth Logan is obvious but also good)

what about your sides? in a Locked Tomb what Houses would they be?

You have no idea how excited I am about Janus the Ninth. I almost called the entire fic Janus the Ninth despite the fact he's technically not the main character. I'm still considering drawing/commissioning a cover that's just Janus the Ninth in the style of the actual Locked Tomb covers for when I inevitably bind the entire thing into a book.

ANYWAY that wasn't the question. Let's see what I can spin.

Me/Min - I'm so incredibly Seventh House it's not funny (but for very different reasons than Thomas is in the AU, we'll get to that in a few chapters). Chronic illness and wasting away, and like, obviously I'm a necromancer. I don't have enough muscle mass to pick up a sword. Come on now.

Hate - considering she's the main chronic illness part of me, I feel like she'd also have to be Seventh House. Taking it purely on the basis of the fact that she experiences all of the physical symptoms I do, but often magnified, I'd say that she'd also be a necromancer (especially with those magic tattoos!) But she also doesn't suffer prettily. With that in mind: if this was a full AU on the same level as Os Rosa, I'd make her my cavalier, with the added fun twist of her being the one with the generational chronic illness (which I believe isn't very common for Seventh cavaliers, for obvious reasons.) Offhand is either the spear or some sort of staff. Never enlisted for the Cohort, because she hates the military.

Passion - Fifth House cavalier! Never enlisted for Cohort either, because she much prefers showing off at formal fighting events. I'm thinking some kind of weighted net thing for her offhand? A bit like her usual long tangly skirts.

Rationality - Fifth necromancer, probably really deep into the philosophy and ethics of River necromancy.

Inspiration - actually I'm going to say all three of these guys are Fifth House. It makes the most sense to me, because Five is the cultural powerhouse of the Nine House System. I don't think Inspiration is a necro or cav, she doesn't give me the vibes of either - maybe some sort of scientist or researcher. I do, however, think that the RIP team has some kind of weird polycule going on where they all live together and work together, and people are like 'sooo are you guys, like, a necro/cav/cav triad' but no it's much more incomprehensible like that.

Dee - Eighth House necromancer with a penchant for burning stuff. The Nine House's only atheist. She genuinely doesn't believe that God exist, but is very good at pretending she does. Don't worry about it.

[lockedtombbrainworms]

Some of my favourite TLT art is the stuff that really captures the vibe of the lyctors we get in the very first scene with Ianthe after she ascends, where she "seems to be more real than everything else" and looks "like she'd swallowed a handful of lightbulbs" (or words to that effect, I may be misremembering the exact wording).

It's not immediately clear if that's something specific to Ianthe, or specific to a lyctor in the process of consuming their cavalier's soul and ascending, or whether they all come across that way when they're not actively hiding it (which Cytherea seems to be capable of, aside from a couple of moments where Gideon sees something off about her before the big reveal). The narration in HtN is from the second-person viewpoint of someone who is at least partway to being a lyctor, and who's dissociating like hell for most of the book to boot, so it makes sense that they'd seem a bit less unreal there, but to an ordinary person they are fucking weird to look at.

And if you know something about what they're actually capable of they're even more terrifying to the average person, even someone familiar with necromancy. Sure, they're blisteringly fast, supernaturally strong swordfighters who heal almost instantly, withstand what should be lethal injuries, and have access to powerful necromancy of the sorts the Nine Houses are used to, but they go waaaay past just "bone magic, but more powerful".

Ianthe kinda… teleports both herself and Silas by dropping them into a pool of viscera on the floor and popping them both out at ceiling height, which is probably some sort of river travel at a guess, and she does it while she's also fighting Naberius and trying to eat him. Mercymorn can fuck you up a million different ways just at a touch. Augustine can drop a gigantic space station physically into the River with a gesture, when all most necromancers and even most lyctors can do is drop their souls in there. G1deon can sap the energy of necromancy, destroy constructs and wards and anything else powered by thanergy, and he doesn't even seem to have to consciously do more than maybe activate the effect.

The fandom calls them the Duplicitous Sluts and humanises them the same way the narrative does in HtN, because that's the whole point of them as characters, I'm not complaining there. I'm just saying that it feels like it adds some extra depth to remember that to the average person, a lyctor is an unimaginably powerful entity that, while superficially resembling a person, looks just off enough that it's clear they're so, so much more. Wake went toe-to-toe with them on multiple occasions, and she wasn't just fighting humans with supernatural power, from her perspective she was facing borderline eldritch abominations.

It's not clear if Paul has the same effect, but Nona doesn't seem to notice anyone treating them like they do, so I'm going with no for now. Is their version of lyctorhood somehow less "off" to the average person?

[violet-prism-creatively]

I am now about 3/4 of the way through Gideon the Ninth! Updating this with the things I realized I got wrong, plus more speculation!

[Also tagging people who reblogged the original post if you have any interest in following along. Let me know if you don't like to be tagged: @vivaciouscynner @galagatriskaidekaphile @trensu @pearlofmydreams @procrastinationaccount @sirjuggles @turtletotem @paradoxcase @lektricfergus @eiseleystarfish @penitent-nunlet]

Nona does not seem to be the name of a third main character. It probably refers to Harrowhark NONAgesimus. And "The Ninth" means that they're from the Ninth House. (Magnus's joke that all the cavaliers have the same middle name is actually pretty funny.)

Harrow calls Gideon "Griddle" and I'm still not sure where that nickname came from

Gideon is not a necromancer, her face is just painted like a skull. And she hates it.

Still haven't met John/God but the Emperor is apparently a god figure

I was correct that the space setting isn't that prominent, but the general sci-fi vibe is. The decaying palace is wonderfully atmospheric, and the lab is creepy.

So far, Gideon and Harrow are not in a romantic relationship; they are grudging allies. They seem to be warming up to each other, though! I think there's some past incident between them, beyond Gideon knowing that Harrow's parents are dead, that caused their hatred. Or at least, I hope there's some explanation for their hatred of each other at the beginning.

LYCTOR not lector

Creepier and more horror than I expected. Current body count is four potential lyctors (why is it always the nice ones who die? :( RIP), two offscreen minor characters, one cavalier missing, and the unidentified remains of two people. I was reading the part where Isaac and Jeannemary died late at night and it was actually scary.

Gideon wouldn't be very likable if I met her in real life, but as a character, she's fun. I like that she's the gender-swapped version of the typical cocky horny self-serving character. Sometimes I'm annoyed that she tunes out discussions of lore, but she's also hilarious-- like when she's asked her opinion on an important matter and instead points out that Palamedes' name shortened is "Sex Pal."

As controlling as the Second House representatives are, I do think everyone collaborating and sharing keys would be the best solution. But that's just me.

Dulcinea seems so sweet, but she's probably up to something

Harrow stop hiding relevant information from Gideon! Gideon stop sacrificing yourself for Harrow and then going back to snarking at her! Just communicate, you idiots!

I'll update again when I finish the book!

I'm about to start reading The Locked Tomb series... so here's what I know about it beforehand, since seeing a non-fan's idea of what something is about is always funny:

The main characters are Gideon, Harrow, and Nona. Are they all "the ninth"? The book titles seem to imply that. Ninth what?

They're necromancers

Also maybe nuns? There's some kind of religious aspect to it

God is a character. Or maybe he's a guy named John. I've heard "Jod", does this mean John-who-is-God or the ship of John/God?

They're in space, but this is not actually very important

I think it's Gideon and Nona who have a romantic relationship? But also they spend a significant amount of time apart

Is wearing skull face paint just a necromancer thing?

Side note: It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the woman(?) on the cover is wearing sunglasses and those aren't just the skull's eye sockets

There's something called a lector I think. Is that a necromancer-nun?

A writing blog I read years ago critiqued the magic system where one of the characters seems to sacrifice herself or something at the climax of one book.

The overall vibe seems to be dark comedy, chaotic but with grounds for some deep analysis about religion and such.

Let's see what I got right and what I was totally wrong about!

[tiltingheartand]

hmmmm okay now this is giving me visions of a cavalier!Hob and necromancer!Dream AU. Tell me it wouldn't fit remarkably well.

!!!!!!!

okay, so, i was waiting to answer this because i still haven’t read nona the ninth (i just finished rereading harrow the ninth, which is good, considering how many things i had completely forgotten) but!

i have no idea how long it’s going to take me to read nona! and! i did not want you to think i Disapproved of the thought because holy fuck i love it. i do not have words for how much i love it. i just.

(i also have a migraine and my head is a little spinnier than normal, so even the scant words i might normally come up with are running dry)

would they be fifth house, was my first thought, but magnus was a husband before he was a cavalier, and i can absolutely see hob as a cavalier; also, something about dream, his general aesthetic and Vibe, is very ninth house to me. (there are, in fact, some very serious echoes of gideon and harrow’s story in that of cavalier!hob and necromancer!dream, which i find delightful, of course.)

come off anon, whoever you are, i just wanna Chat. (and by chat i mean … flail at you, you know. whatever. for a given value of chat it’s accurate!)

edit, 5:35pm: because i know reblogs don’t show up in the tag, but driving home shook some thoughts loose: their meeting in 1789 is basically a cav/necro interaction already, isn’t it — hob mowing down most of their enemies (… “most”) with force, dream coming in and taking care of the last one with Arcane Knowledge. (it’s also possible that’s what you were referencing when you said “this is giving me visions”; i must confess i have no idea what you were referring to, unfortunately.)

also, both in that vein and the gideon-and-harrow one, i have Feelings about how hob would feel about “if aught but death part thee and me”. (… i also have Feelings about how the hell gideon was able to quote from the book of ruth in a world where god is the necrolord prime, the emperor undying, and also a man i cannot see allowing the actual bible to still exist. but i’ve already flapped at @ratsandrunes and @filthyratdad about that.)