#what no alecto does to an artist

[athunderstryke]

hellow locked tomb people I offer you some charcacter doodles on this lovely day

[naomistares]

very short comic of harrow checking ianthe's molars or whatever tf she was doing

[babybutchianthe]

i do so loathe the pervasive notion people have that power corrupts, primarily because doing so absolves the holder of authority of any responsibility by attempting to ascribe the motivation behind their actions to be the outcome of an external corrupting influence, but secondarily because the external corrupting influence at play is somehow separate from what motivated them to gain that authority and power in the first place. if you say the throne corrupts the man, and that the man chose the throne with noble intentions, but that the throne is indelibly corrupting, then why would someone with noble intentions choose the throne? it's fallacy-ridden and a liberal view of power.

where this especially gets annoying to me is when it is applied to a scenario wherein the powerbase, both figurative (empire) and literal (planet's soul), was constructed by the man choosing the throne and was shaped in accordance with his whims, even if he was not the sole architect of it—the lyctors made the houses, but john's authority supersedes that of the lyctors. even back pre-res the structure of his following was very much a cult of personality formed as a result of his comparative lack of engagement with anyone besides his central followers. when people speak out about how john's tale is about the corrupting influence of power, how he was led astray from his noble intentions by Power, i am perpetually asking one question: where did the power come from? and in his case it is a power he cultivated.

but of course there is a perfect rebuttal to that! alecto gave him the power! and to that i return to the first paragraph, which prompts me to ask: by what mechanism did that power corrupt him? why does the mere holding of power change one's aims, as opposed to simply letting one achieve them? do you sincerely believe john's founding a fascist theocracy a certainty, something anyone would do in his situation? is there no aspects of his character—his proud recitation of his colonial scholarship at the start of nona the ninth, his plan to save earth amounting to 'freeze everybody and give her temporary respite rather than seeking out lasting structural reform', “If you have two scientists and an engineer and a detective and a lawyer and an artist you’re pretty much sweet as”—that could point to this outcome being one dependent on a complacency in the existing status quo? would you have listened to a cop telling you to be a bad wizard, and that the history books could be rewritten later to make you a good wizard?

why is his a cautionary tale? why is your perspective one in which power is to be cautioned against, where humility and deference to existing arrangements is somehow more virtuous than affecting systemic change?

why could nobody have done better—why could someone else with power not have done things better—why are you fixated on this idea that power is held by an imperfect authority, and that power by nature corrupts, and thus this imperfect authority is somehow still better than the alternative?

[disregardcanon]

additional thoughts about a yellowjackets tlt OG lyctors au

okay so our pairs are in necro then cav order

lottie as john and laura lee as alecto

natalie and misty

travis and javi

shauna and jackie

tai and akilah

van and crystal

mari and gen

okay so: thought process on these. i already did lottie and laura lee in another post. before lottie Does The Thing, they're a ragtag group of people trying to save the world.

lottie, shauna, and travis are the science team. they're a weird bunch but like. it's A Thing. shauna was always bound for big things and travis is a nerd, and it just kinda Works TM. there's a level of resentment from lottie towards both of their hangers-on, jackie the "best friend" who works in finances and somehow makes shauna (SHAUNA!) feel inadequate and javi, the younger brother who's an artist.

tai's is shauna's friend who's a lawyer that she brings on, and then her partner van comes on with her and since she's a mid-level youtuber she gets the word out. akilah is tai's dedicated mentee and a promising young lawyer, and it's really good to have all of them.

nat is lottie's childhood friend, a former "burnout" and current musician and climate change activist. misty is a research doctor, a citizen detective, and nat's BIGGEST FAN! nat tries her best to not encourage her, but when she gets word from lottie that they're working on this project that's related to climate change and trying to stop it, she comes on board with the project IMMEDIATELY and she can't beat misty off of it with a stick. most people don't like misty much, but she's a skilled asset and they're not gonna throw that away either.

mari is a big time mlm girlie and gets in touch with these people to try to do marketing and then ends up SUPER into the cult. gen and crystal are the first members of her downline and they come too

post-resurrection

nat, tai, jackie, and shauna are the ones who are the most... skeptical about the circumstances surrounding this rebirth. lottie is very much Charlotte the Benevolent Compound Priestess, but something feels... off to them, where it doesn't quite as much to the others.

shauna and jackie's circumstances are carefully crafted to invert the ways that their relationship made her feel small and jealous and project that onto jackie instead. and they both feel like something is kind of... off. but they don't know exactly what or how.

misty is The Most Sacrificial Cav to Ever Sacrificial Cav. like this is misty. she's going full cristabel. are you KIDDING ME!?!?! she figures out the secret to getting nat to ascend to lyctorhood and then drags crystal and javi into it. so we get... nat, travis, and van who've all ascended and are different levels of messed up about it.

van didn't know crystal very well and is able to conceptualize this as A Good Thing Actually TM? in a way that's a lot less complicated than nat and travis and she tries to help them process it, but like. it is VERY different for her. nat and travis are both experiencing very complicated grieving processes about people that were important to them. like javi is travis's baby brother his responsibility HIS person that he was supposed to protect but this is where they are now... and he can't help blaming misty (because of course it was misty who convinced him to do it). and nat feels responsible for JAVI'S death because she should have realized what misty was doing. she should have talked her out of this, somehow. she should have made her feel valued beyond a power boost and a sacrifice. (but misty is misty! and that makes things really hard!) and nat and travis get this in a way that van Does Not and they're awful on-and-off again immortal lovers about it.

after nat travis and van become lyctors, the others try to find Literally Any Other Way. but they can't. as things heat up, jackie and shauna start having some awful fights. like, absolutely atrocious fights. jackie's really not been doing any of the cav stuff because she's just bad at it and she's angry that this is the role she got assigned and something feels WRONG about all of this. and then they have a really awful nasty fight and jackie kills herself spitefully, like oh, you don't need me? then take my death. either use it or let it be for nothing. your move, shipman

and it is very, very ugly.

mari kills gen. she feels kinda bad about it, but it doesn't stop her. that leaves tai and akilah.

tai and akilah, for one, are the only pair left. and that makes the rest of the survivors... pretty petty towards them. it's mainly just because of their own grief, but oh boy. it is hard. van's just like tai. everyone else is getting very upset about this. i think you two should just go through with it. and tai's like oh my god NO! this is akilah. this is my friend. it's not my fault that you weren't friends with your cav. and that gets them into an ugly fight

tai and akilah almost crack perfect lyctorhood, and lottie.. has to stop them. make it happen the way it was "supposed to". but tai still feels how close she came, and years and years later when a new generation of lyctors come up and there's one that's not quite Normal. well. she's got a suspicion why

[vaduart]

screaming into the void

[iamnotshazam]

On Cassiopeia the First, Grand Lysis and the Locked Tomb

Spoilers for Nona the Ninth: This may be an important theory for Alecto the Ninth.

In Harrow the Ninth's conversation where Harrow tells John about the Ninth House infanticide, John says something interesting-

[John addressing Harrow] "You generate too much light, or too much darkness, for me to look at you [. . .] You were awake during your first time in the River, and you performed necromancy, and believe me when I tell you the only one other person has ever done that their first time in. Keep in mind that she was an adult necromancer who went on to found the Sixth House. [. . .] How did they get you?"

I think John may have been speaking more literally about light and dark than I assumed at first. Gideon saw weird auras during one of the trials at Canaan House. But more importantly, Cassiopeia kept awake and used theorems during her first time in the River, too. But her connection to necromancy and death cannot have the same origin as Harrow's, because Cassiopeia was born before the rise of John as God and the death of the Earth. She was a lawyer and Nigella was an artist.

John is taken aback by Harrow's explanation. He wasn't expecting anything to do with eggs, birth, or possibly even thanergy:

"This was . . . all so different . . . before we discovered the scientific principles." "[. . . ] your mother and father committed a type of resurrection," he said. "They did something nigh-on impossible. I know, because I have committed the same act, and I know the price I had to pay. Thalergetic modification of an embryo is difficult enough, but to achieve the same thing with thanergy . . ."

Was Harrowhark Nonagesimus already a Lyctor? There's more than one type. Palamedes called his theory the Grand Lysis or megatheorem, and Harrow rejected it out if hand at first, possibly because she was already familiar with a similar concept and thought it couldn't be that. Her own existence would have been open for discussion if the joining of many souls into a true new soul was possible - so it can't be that, because she's an ordinary necromancer, right?

John ends the topic with:

"Harrow, nobody has the right to know," he said fiercely. "Nobody has the right to blame you. Nobody can judge. What has happened, has happened, and there's no putting it back in the box. They wouldn't understand. They don't have to. I officially relieve you from living in fear. Nobody has to know."

Is God panicking about Harrowhark revealing something to other people? Is God projecting some of his own justifications and anxieties onto Harrow?

The Body (Alecto) is very quick to tell Harrow to lie about her age to Mercymorn. This would have kept Mercymorn from asking questions about the plot to create a child of God to break into the Locked Tomb, but on the first read it's assumed it's Harrow's mind hallucinating a self-defense against investigating the infanticide. But if the true answer might have led to Mercymorn unraveling the success of Dios Apate Major, why would Alecto want her to lie? Why would Alecto want to hide a key to her Tomb? Alecto can't lie. Does Alecto like Harrow that much, to continue her own imprisonment?

Why?

What we know about Cassiopeia as of Nona the Ninth could barely fill a page. She:

Was gay with Nigella but had to keep it secret (why in near future 21st century NZ, though? The nun?)

Was in the original followers, witnessed everything at the cryo-lab, was resurrected, and had her memories erased

Married Nigella, as officiated by John, then turned right around an hour later and told John he was making bad choices

Was at Canaan House with the Lyctors and the Cavs researching how to . . . Lyct. The wiki said she worked closely with Anastasia (?), who had a more complete idea of Lysis, a tripod theory.

Ate Nigella and became the Fourth Saint

Founded the Sixth House, a research library

Left the Sixth House a note 6,000 years ago that eventually led to the Sixth House seceding from the Empire. (Blood of Eden made contact with the Empire 5,000 years ago.)

Is heavily implied to be another Lyctor source for BoE at one point (TV tropes, can't confirm)

Spirit magic and Resurrection Beasts were her specialty

Died in the River fighting a Resurrection Beast, lasting seven minutes under - except Palamedes while being ~mysterious~ implied maybe she didn't die

I'm wondering if pre-resurrection Cassiopeia (truth-teller, secret-keeper) made a note somewhere about how concerned she was about John's mood and possible actions. If she somehow found it again after the Resurrection. If the note was vague in hindsight and she didn't understand the full implications until after Lysis. If she was the first person to understand John was hiding something but also learned that he couldn't read their minds. If she created a moveable research facility and library that held itself separate physically and emotionally from the rest of the Empire, with the ability to move with enough stele, for a reason.

She wasn't like the rest of the Lyctors. She checked in on her House every now and then. She left them a note. Maybe she didn't have to avoid Dominicus like the others. Maybe she didn't have to fear the madness of a Resurrection Beast, where other Lyctors did. The first, broken type of Lyctor. Gideon the First and Harrow both managed to unintentionally make a bodge of their attempt at Lysis. Did anybody else? Would they know how to pick up the pieces and put them back - in a different way?

And was Cassiopeia doing something else during those seven minutes in the River?

There's a backdoor from the Tower in the River that connects directly to the Locked Tomb. Paul-amades thought he knew how to get to the Locked Tomb via the River. Harrowhark began walking towards the Tower as soon as her conversation with God ended. And in the conversation about her parents committing infanticide, Harrowhark told God:

"I am assured they had no previous research to go by. They came up with it themselves."

When her parents learned their daughter had brought Armageddon upon the Nine Houses, they reacted eerily calm. They killed themselves and may have expected her to as well. About a decade before, a person in a haz-mat suit appeared on the Ninth with a baby assumed to be named Gideon. Where did she land, outside of the airlocked Ninth? Who would have gone out to get her? Who gathered up the baby? Who eventually learned this was the same baby that lived through the nursery massacre?

"You remain - what you are," said Crux. "A worthless millstone hung around my darling's neck. You were born to make her suffer. You died as you lived, Gideon Nav - a disappointment to me - and to God."

Did someone put the idea in the heads of Harrow's parents that they needed a necromantic heir so assuredly they would risk the slow death of their house with no children? That maybe the survival of their House would soon not matter? Was there an indication using necromancy that way was even possible?

Mercymorn and Augustine had abandoned Commander Wake after Dios Apate Major. Space is big and stele are hard to come by. Was there someone transporting Wake to the Ninth? Someone with access to the River? Someone with the ability like Nona or Paul

Anastasia was locked in the tomb, as ordered by John. Samael died and Alecto was sorry for him. An oath existed to bind Alecto to Anastasia's blood.

What have Cassiopeia and Anastasia been planning?

[a-big-apple]

Kiriona’s wounds

Ok, fellow boners. I fully and with no hesitation in my heart want everyone to draw what they want, write what they want, and interpret text how they want. That is a core tenet of fandom. But can we talk about Kiriona’s wounds for a minute?

He undid her scarf, and Nona looked away. Beneath the scarf a huge wound in the throat made the neck yawn wide open. When she peeked back, wishing she had her braids to screen everything, she saw that Palamedes had unbuttoned the shirt partway and there was another big wound in the chest--a big purple bloodless puncture wound, with white teeth peeking out coyly from within.

“Damage is consistent with reported injuries. There’s another wound lower down.” (NtN 365-366)

She’s got one wound through her throat, one wound through her chest, and another “lower down” through her abdomen that Nona can’t see because Palamedes is a good polite boy who is not going to pull his dead friend’s whole shirt open. He has no strong reaction to these wounds! They are as expected, “consistent with reported injuries.” They are the same wounds Camilla saw Gideon receive when she died. 

We know from Kiriona that the chest wound obliterated her heart. I know everyone is taught in elementary school that the heart is on the left side of the chest, but it’s only a little bit to the left. It’s really very close to the center, behind the sternum, which is the bone in the front of the chest where the first seven ribs attach. 

(diagram from Wikipedia)

I know a wound with human teeth in it is wicked cool and also not at all outside the realm of possibility for The Locked Tomb, given the stoma, and the devils with teeth-eyes, and the flowers with teeth that John grew for Cassy and Nigella’s wedding. But I don’t think John was messing with Kiriona’s body; he didn’t even have to preserve it personally, since we know from “As Yet Unsent” that it was incorruptible even when it was in BOE’s hands. Gideon is his flesh and blood; his touch and his power have likely been working on her since the day she was conceived. 

I don’t think there are human mouth teeth growing in Kiriona’s chest wound--that is definitely something Palamedes would comment on, especially since Paul is surprised and needs a reminder when they see the teeth-eyes on possessed people on the Ninth. I interpret “white teeth peeking out coyly” as the broken edges of Kiriona’s ribs; a puncture wound that went through her heart would also have had to break through her sternum, leaving ragged tips of rib and cartilage behind. Nona, as she does constantly through the book, is describing what she sees in terms of what she can understand. She’s not an anatomist, and she has no interest in bones.

So, back to the three wounds, as a set. Given the position of the heart in the body, the throat wound and the chest wound are relatively centered. I think we can assume that the third wound follows these two in a fairly straight line, because that’s how fence posts are arranged. Tamsyn peppers in descriptions of the fence Gideon throws herself on throughout the final fight; it’s described as having “bent, bowed spikes,” damaged, like everything in Canaan House. Imagine a wrought iron garden fence with spiked posts, falling apart, bowed this way and that. Gideon “fell forward, right on the iron spikes.” I’m picturing a segment of three, evenly spaced, in line with each other--creating three evenly spaced puncture wounds in her body.

(this great picture came from flickr)

I’m perfectly ready to be proven wrong in Alecto, but I really think Kiriona’s wounds are a simple result of her manner of death, cauterized and preserved by what divine power resides in her already, and not terrifying mouths John stuck into her for some unknown reason. And fandom should keep fandoming and putting teeth wherever we want and imagining all kinds of awful what ifs, because that’s our bread and butter! Just wanted to walk through what I pictured, because I’m not much of an artist.

(Also, sorry, I just have to say while I’m here that I am in love with Palamedes as Doubting Thomas checking out Gideon’s wounds and using psychometry to make sure it’s really her. Extremely poignant to me! I took Thomas as my confirmation name--for Thomas Aquinas, but still--and I’m fond of nerds who need evidence to believe things.)

[toughtink]

some post-nona thoughts and questions in no particular order:

and this will be long and full of spoilers, sorry

so is silas coming back next time? because i have questions about wtf took over his cav especially seeing as those tongue eye things showed up on the ninth house. biblically, silas traveled with paul, so maybe paul will be related to his comeback? idk

what’s with the tower? “kironia” and ianthe are referred to as “tower princes,” the RB was yelling about a tower to nona via judith, and we got a big tower coming out of the river now?? and the whole “the tower has reactivated” cipher or whatever it said, too. the only tower that’s been story relevant thus far is canaan house + the facility beneath it. harrow estimated they only saw ~30% of that tower with the rest going deep under the ocean, which i always took to mean that it was originally a sky scraper that they built a temple/church/palace on top of. OH YEAh! and a tower is in the jod chapters maybe??? it was confusing. (gasp! what! confusing??? in this series?!)

so is nona translating a ton of people’s names when she hears them, and that’s why she calls corona “crown” and has that exchange with hot sauce where she gets corrected on born in the morning’s name? and this is a separate thing from the multi-sentence long names that seem to be BoE tradition?

speaking of weird name stuff, the jod chapters have him using intials to refer to his friends! that was annoying but implies that they didn’t all used to have their fancy mouthful names which makes some sense, especially since jod specifically mentions changing U— and T— to ulysseys and titania. however, i’ve seen a lot of folks under the assumption that he wiped his friend’s memories after rezzing them, but is there evidence for that? i gotta reread htn, but i know that mercy didn’t seem to realize that gideon’s gold eye color was jod’s before it was alecto’s and only put it together near the end—point in memory loss’s favor (tho i don’t think we can officially say it’s purposeful on jod’s part yet.) HOWEVER!! when nona & the gang are approaching the tomb near the end of ntn, pyrrha mentions gideon (the first) and after saying his name a couple times says “G—” like jod does in his chapters!! implying that pyrrha might just know gideon’s pre-resurrection name! so either jod’s friends did retain their pre-res memories OR that memory loss thing happened later, probably post lyctorhood if it could affect the lyctors but not the cav secretly residing inside still??? idk. EDIT: my frand ginny pointed out that on pg 433 jod talks about how his friends “won’t have to remember anything,” because he knows where remembrance lives in the brain, and this sort of mirrors harrow own attempt to alter her memories. i think with pyrrha remembering g1deon’s name, we can say these are likely altered memories rather than a complete clean slate.

i need people to realize that when nona describes “teeth” coming out of gideon’s speed holes, it’s most likely ribs and not literal teeth. also—the speed holes joke is maybe one of my favorites in this book and incontrovertible proof that kironia is indeed our gideon.

i want to know more about anastasiaaaaa! was she another married/romantically involved pair with her cav? did pyrrha mention something about painting a nursery on the ninth?? what if anastasia was pregnant when her lyctorhood went wrong????

what’s this with cassiopeia and the sixth house in communication? that was her house, right? also, cass is the C— mentioned in jod chapters that marries the artist N— (nigella) and has teeth flowers at their wedding. also, she had the tooth trial at canaan house. and the tooth secret message in the corresponding study. what’s with all the teeth? lol

that tooth secret message was about doing soul melanges to power the canaan house staff, including teacher! 6th house theorm was soul melange related, so paul makes sense!!! ;v; (it should be noted that everything with cam, pal, and paul had me in tears and i’m never getting over their recorded conversation.)

gideon is clearly missing pieces figuratively and literally (her heart!! 🥺). TM said that if gideon’s soul was a happy meal, harrow ate the cheeseburger, but that leaves the fries, sauce packets, and toy. so where’s the cheeseburger now? attached to harrow’s soul? or attached to her body? completely absorbed and essentially gone? something has to be powering nona’s lyctoral regeneration powers so i’m kinda team body. that and the fact that she’s wearing the cheeseburger shirt and that feels like TM trying to give us a giant neon sign of a hint?

as for harrow…i saw the icy tomb she climbed into at the end of htn as a metaphorical tomb in her mind, between the lobotomy slits i guess where she was keeping gideon’s soul, thus the nonexistent sexy magazine. ntn makes me think she was also in the actual tomb, aka fully swapped places with alecto? but i suppose either could be true. the jod chapters feel like she’s tapping into alecto’s memories and subbing in herself maybe? that doesn’t really say much about the literal placement of harrow’s soul, tho, just that she has a connection with alecto.

anyways, it looks like she woke up long enough for the epilogue and then promptly passed out again (woo go girl! give us nothing!). and we know that she’s going to be harrowing hell at the start of atn?? good luck have fun i guess???

oh yeah is part of the reason nona’s not all there because not only is she in the wrong body, but she’s dealing with harrow’s lobotomy brain???

gonna come back and add more laterrr—edit: i’ve come back SEVERAL times to add more. maybe i should just reblog or make a new post for more. 🙈 i’m at the end of my gtn reread so htn will be next. oof that one will take a while methinks! and then i can reread nona…which will be my first Proper read through for the final version since i’ve only read the ARC months ago and some random passages since it came out.

[narcissasdaffodil]

For Astrid and Alecto: 💇 and 👖

Hi Sofi! Thank you so much for always sending these, it’s seriously appreciated x Excuse the wait, it’s taken ages for me to feel up to answering these, and actually getting the time is another thing. There’s a reason I always warn for things taking absolutely ages 😂 I’m having to relearn how to answer these, some of these answers are a little short and shit.

💇 for Astrid

What is your OC’s hairstyle?

Dark blonde, wavy. It’s a 2B with hair texture. She had a fringe when she was little and eventually stopped doing it. The fringe maintenance was doing her head in, so she grew it out eventually. Her hair stops at the small of her back. Maggie Rogers with long hair is a perfect representation of her.

How do they maintain their hair?

She sticks to certain hair products, has stayed with the same brand of shampoo and conditioner for a while. She frequently has it up with paintbrushes or pencils keeping it up, basically whatever’s on her desk at the time. She can’t always find scrunchies, hair clips or bobbles in the mess that’s her room, and art supplies work just as well. She’s accidentally dipped her hair in paint before but it suited her.

Do they wash it and/or cut it regularly?

With hair that long, she only washes it every other day and has the ends trimmed every six months.

Have they ever dyed their hair?

She’s dyed her hair ginger, pink, blue, dark brown, golden blonde and black. Both black and dark brown washed out her colouring completely, she suits lighter colours. She has natural strawberry blonde highlights in her hair, so ginger suited her quite well. Going more blonde also suits her, but she’d never go platinum blonde. She hated the pink, it definitely didn’t suit her overall vibe.

💇 for Alecto

-What is your OC’s hairstyle?

Long dark brown wavy hair with a fringe. She originally went without a fringe until a disastrous set of haircuts when she was 14-15 where it was far too short for her. She went for a chin length cut with a fringe which made her look much younger. She already has that issue due to having a baby face. She decided to keep the fringe and grow it back longer again, which took a while.

-How do they maintain their hair?

She lets it air dry and doesn’t tend to put heat products on it. She also leaves it loose mostly, occasionally does a French braid, ponytail or a bun. She has to tie it up and put it in a hair net for work, and she also does Marisol’s hair for fun and if they’re going out. Marisol struggles with anything hair related that’s not basic as she doesn’t have the time or patience for anything more than a wonky ponytail. Alecto’s learnt a lot of hair styles from her twin sister and has practiced a lot.

-Do they wash it and/or cut it regularly?

Usually washes it every other day, and gets the ends cut between every six months to a year. She used to cut her fringe herself every 2 months, but Marisol offered and she let her take over.

-Have they ever dyed their hair?

Nope, she was too scared to touch her hair. She’s heard too many stories about dodgy hair dyes.

👖for Astrid

-What type of clothing does your OC generally wear? Why?

She has a lot of jackets. She has a special denim jacket with a lot of badges on it that’s pretty distinctive. Also jeans and t-shirts are major things for her, she doesn’t care too much about clothes. She has a lot of ripped jeans and denim. Half of her clothes fit the whole artist vibe, and the other half fit the rebel vibe, she’s got two separate sides of her which are frequently at war. She also has some dresses and skirts for going out, and a couple painting shirts. She doesn’t wear anything she wouldn’t like to get messy when she paints for obvious reasons. The t-shirts are mostly old pyjama tops, and old t-shirts where they’re slightly too small or have something wrong with them.

-Do they have any “signature” accessories?

She has a nose piercing which she got when she turned 17 secretly, and the denim jacket definitely counts here.

👖 for Alecto

-What type of clothing does your OC generally wear? Why?

She has a lot of floaty dresses and skirts. She avoids anything too revealing as she’s not overly comfortable with her own body. Certain fabrics don’t sit well with her, and she avoids anything too big or it will swallow her up due to how short she is. She wears a lot of soft fabrics too, she has multiple of the same comfortable cardigan because of the feel of it. She tries to blend in as much as possible, so doesn’t wear anything that’ll cause her to stick out.

-Do they have any “signature” accessories?

She also has a nose piercing and always wears a bracelet to cover her soulmate words from view. She usually fiddles with her bracelet, unless she has her fidget spinner.

[ghostmartyr]

/clears throat/ so, Immi, I hear you like the locked tomb, which is fantastic! from one person also escaping the snk series into TLT to another, what did you think of the characters and plot in HtN? are there any things you're most excited to see when Alecto comes out in 2022?

-pats lifeboat- This baby can fit so much trauma.

SPOILERS, naturally.

With another paragraph informing the curious that unspoiled is the way to go into HtN, since if you aren’t lost and confused, are you really reading Harrow the Ninth?

I read it all in one day, and that was a choice. It does mean my memory and understanding of what all went on is slightly dependent on someone else on the internet exploding over a particular set of paragraphs and explaining their significance to me, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.

HtN disappointed me on one front in that I was hoping seeing more of Harrow 1.0 would help out any future fic endeavors. On everything else, like the first one, being told the story is such a good time that I’m willing to wait on a full comprehension of where it’s going.

I also really like second person.

What I loved most about HtN is how even without Gideon mentioned until very, very late in the book, you can feel her absence everywhere. In the wrong bubble flashbacks you’re commanded to examine the strangeness, but even in Harrow going about her day, the isolation and the wrongness of it decorate her every action. She’s alone, and she shouldn’t be, and the loss she’s unaware of bleeds into a constant echo of grief.

I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated absence as a narrative tool so much. Obviously griddlehark hours go hard once they start in HtN, but even before then, there is so much power to their connection that looking into a world where it never exists still manages to punch you in the heart with how much each one inhabits everything the other is.

The whole series is amping me up with a few thoughts on loneliness, honestly. Gideon and Harrow grow up alone on the Ninth, save for each other. It takes leaving for that to be any kind of good thing. The first book is tag team Among Us with everyone in their little clusters, slowly learning what other people are about as they all drop dead.

The second book has a different vibe and different plot things going on, but it’s similar in that the protagonist gets thrown into a world they don’t fit and have to put on a show. Only now there are even fewer people to familiarize with, with that number correlating directly to how they all killed the person closest to keeping them from being alone.

Lyctorhood is taking the person dearest to your heart and trapping them there forever while they’re stripped of everything that made them who they are.

...Also Ianthe is there.

Gideon, Mercy, and Augustine are the last Lyctors standing after 10,000 years. There were only seven, starting out. Sixteen acolytes who came to the First. The only pair who didn’t succeed in condensing themselves is separated from the pack and sent to live away from their peers on a tiny planet that no one has anything good to say about.

Alecto is John’s -- who even knows, past A Lot, and he puts her to sleep and locks her in a prison no one but he can get past.

God has seven friends. More if you want to count the people in the Cohort, but realistically, he has seven friends. Then they keep dying.

Harrow spends HtN in a spaceship with five people.

One is trying to kill her.

One ordered that one to try to kill her.

Two could not care less about the useless baby Lyctor.

One is Ianthe.

There is no real endgame. There is surviving life, and life has become a game of running as far away as possible so you don’t share your ruin upon your inevitable death.

It’s bleak and sad.

Harrow’s healthiest relationships are with dead people, and some of them she didn’t know at all in life.

Reiterating it, the most plot significant bit of the world is finding someone else in the world, swearing yourself to them, and smashing your souls together until you’ve lost the connection entirely.

My brain’s not in the best place so I can’t do more than gesture loudly at it, but a few people have mentioned that the series’ thesis is a counter to Ianthe’s statement that love is acquisitive.

Harrow tightens her hold around Gideon until Gideon would rather she just strangle her and get it over with, all things considered. It fucks them both up, and when they start working to get past it, circumstance wraps a chain around both their throats.

The necromancers who become imperfect Lyctors have all acquired their cavaliers, and besides the cav, it kills that bond.

Harrow’s rejection of that is why Gideon’s soul is still in the world of the living (and John blood).

She has spent her entire life eating pieces of Gideon to keep herself a horrid imitation of whole, and when she is finally offered that, she refuses.

Grief and how Harrow just can’t are active elements of the book, and Magnus gives her more therapy in five minutes talking about it than she has ever had in her life, but the reason why that isn’t the end of Gideon is because, unlike all the other Lyctors, Harrow turns the offer down.

With the exception of Babs and Ianthe, the relationship between cavaliers and necros about to do the Lyctor thing is cavaliers promising to burn for an eternity while their necromancer lives off the fumes.

Fuck that is Harrow’s response.

Cytherea says, in the aftermath, that they had the choice to stop.

Harrow stops.

A lifetime of doing exactly what Gideon is telling her to do with her death, and Harrow chooses to stop.

Harrow remembers Ortus’ poetry. She regularly sees her congregation off to their deaths. She keeps Gideon’s glasses. She views Palamedes, head exploded and all, as an infinitely better person than she is because of the quality of his exemplary character. She pulls Gideon the First from the incinerator on the night she plans to kill him.

Kiddo has so many fucking issues, but somewhere, she has learned to respect people for being people. That’s why she and Gideon are the heroes of the story, ultimately, and Ortus saying that they’re heroes worthy of the Ninth doesn’t fall flat. They’re actually trying.

Where that puts us for Alecto, I don’t pretend to know.

Since the first book is the temptation of an end to isolation, only to have it snatched away, the second book is the continuation of isolation with a few promising sparks of human connection that pave the way for hope...

That leaves the third book to shed the isolation and allow the connections to thrive.

With Gideon and Harrow MIA.

I know that the books kick things up into high gear in the final acts each time, but if they’re both gone for the majority of the book, no matter how much fun it is, I’m going to miss them. They’re the core leads, and I don’t want to be without them in the final part.

The 2022 release date has aged my soul. I deliberately planned my GtN read to land a month before HtN came out, then suffered when that was delayed. When really that was nothing at all. I hate waiting.

(Insert note that I’m very glad they aren’t forcing Muir to rush anything out. It’s been a rough time, but also, just in general authors should have the opportunity to create the best versions of their art they can, so the extra time hurts, but it’s obviously for the best.)

What I’m most excited for is probably the cover art. The first two have been awesome, and the artist said he’d likely do print sales for all three when the third’s revealed. My wallet cries but my heart does not.

What I dare not be excited for is the potential for Gideon and Harrow meeting again and perhaps hugging. In their own bodies.

I’d take other bodies, but ideally, y’know.

Also I would love for Harrow to finally meet her popsicle girlfriend.

I doubt it would be a wholly positive experience, but by golly I want it. Maybe they could hug too. It would probably kill Harrow again, but who doesn’t expect several people to die again in the third book?

However it plays out, I’m expecting to enjoy AtN. The writing’s the sort that I’ll happily follow wherever it goes. For everything else, there’s fanfic. The only real worry I have is the whole book will be narrated by Ianthe, and while I mentally groan at that, I actually find Ianthe’s commentary delightful, so even in the worst case scenario I’m having a good time.

Thank you so much for the ask.

[ofhestia]

( female | she/her | jennie kim ) —— isn’t that HESTIA JONES? yeah that is them, sitting there at the RAVENCLAW table with those other SIXTH years. when sybill looks into that crystal ball of hers, she sees lazy morning smiles, paint smudges left on soft skin, cozy bonfires with that warm protective glow, a ravenclaw tie twisted and turned into a choker with a dazzling H sewed into the middle, the night sky shimmering in ones eyes, crescent moon tattooed behind her ear, delicately scented quill ink, intimate whispers, swimming in the dark, the pulsing urge to be set free, spilled potions, a broken chain of pearls, cracked mirrors and silent screams, tear stained cheeks. anyway i’ve heard they’re pretty FIERCE, AFFECTIONATE, and OVEREMOTIONAL. apparently they’re a FOR THE LIGHT and HALFBLOOD but i’m sure that’s not related. —— [ brett : est : 23 : she/her ]

minor implied self harm, neglect, trauma? mentions of implied homicide, mentions of mental health issues below the cut.

Hi there, I’m Brett and I’m feeling way more awkward than I normally am? so don’t mind me omg this is a ramble mess, I promise I’ll clean it up for her actual bio page or something okay?

Once Hestia was born, her mother thought that things would change. Thought that having a daughter would change him, make him gain a new perspective. Want to protect something other than himself. As with most pipe dreams, it didn’t happen. He had turned selfish and cruel to her and now, he was going to be that way to their first born. One night, her mother had packed all of hestia’s things. She wondered allowed what was happening. What was that fear sparking in her mothers eyes? They arrived at her grandmother’s manor at midnight, rushed. Frantic. That’s when he appeared. The last time she saw him was that night and the image was burned into her soul. The dark aura radiating off of him, the way he held his wand pointed right at her mothers throat. She stepped in front of her mother just then, a little girl thinking she could protect her. Could stop what was about to happen. She was yanked away, the only true fear entering her system when she saw the tears. Her mothers silent & mouthed ‘I love you’. Then she was gone. They both had disappeared into thin air as she was cradled in her grandmother’s arms. Screaming for her mother, the only person she loved, and never got to see again. 

It wasn’t until she got older that she found out the details. The tragedy of it all. She never found out what exactly happened to her in the end, didn’t ask. Didn’t want to know, she saw it in the way light left her Nan’s eyes. Her aunts. The way they would hold onto her tighter. Silently saying their apologizes. She knew enough. Knew his views. It is faint memories, but she can hear him whisper about her tainted blood. How he was going to lock her away somewhere nobody would ever find her. Her Grandmother tried to convince her that what he said was useless. Whether that worked or not, is still up for debate.

All of it shaped her still, her fierce need to love and protect. To not let others get hurt the way she had, her family had. She prided herself on turning it into something else, into wanting to do good. To thrive. 

To cover all the pain she felt, the rejection from the hatred she saw in her father’s eyes when he looked at her. When his family had looked at her. The bastard. The other woman’s daughter. Being abandoned for something she wasn’t in control of. Of never really feeling like she fit where she was, a puzzle piece with jagged edges. Not fitting into the puzzle. 

She has an intense need to be loved, wanted, for those she loves to not leave. Her emotions are always on the edge of bubbling over into oblivion. Not matter what it is she’s feeling. It hits her deep. The pain, happiness, love, loss. 

She has trouble stopping herself from going to far, saying too much. Getting too angry. Being too possessive. Her wild is alive within her and she fears who she got it from. She’s so passionate in everything she does, things consume her easily. 

She looks for attention in the wrong places, finds beauty in things she shouldn’t.

She always has her paints somewhere with her, often liking to paint on other people if they allow her.

Her temper and anger get the better of her sometimes, lashing out. Scratches and broken mirrors. The screams of her mother, ones she didn’t hear haunt her. She would never let someone she loved get hurt again.

She fears failure, rejection, abandonment. Fears what all the trouble brewing means. Like she was waiting for a death that might not come, but she would fight. Fight until her hands shook and her heart was ready to burst from her chest. 

She’s a dramatic ass bitch. Sometimes, it’s comical others? Not so much.

Horrible at baking, cooking. Doesn’t stop her from trying. She doesn’t mean to poison people with her cookies, the dough turned against her! 

She is filled with courage. Even if she’s scared, she won’t give in. To a point where she puts herself in danger. Her nan always told her not to headbutt into things.

art was given to her as a means to calm down, to distract. it’s become her sanctuary along with books and the stars. She has a deep need to feel free. To let go and just, live. in the moment. To enjoy what she has. 

She can be impatient and stubborn, especially if she’s decided on something. But, a lot of times it takes her a while to decide. So many choices and so little time. 

Quidditch Seeker extraordinaire, this girl can RIDE a broom.

Many times she has fell asleep in the library lost in a stack of books, studying. forcing herself to be better. 

She falls hard and too quick, it often comes back to bite her on the ass. 

She so often is desperate to not be anything like her father that she pushes down dark emotions, bottling them up into destructive explosives.

She’s ashamed of who she is, where she comes from, even when she tried not to be. She often lies about her family, going out of her way to not talk about them. except for her Nan of course, she is a artistic soft, but strong witch. She got that from her. And her mother according to them.

She’s terrible at potions, and she hates it. 

She excels in her other classes though, much work is taken to make sure of it. 

She loves a good party, to forget. to enjoy being young. To dance the night away. 

Her mind runs fast and in a million different directions, she can be drawn in easily. 

She’s incredibly intimate with people, lots of direct eye contact and giving them her full attention.

AFFECTIONATE. She loves to cuddle, snuggle, hug, hold hands. Platonic or not.

She’s also part of the star gazing club, art club and deulling club! 

to be added? I’ll add more stuff I know I will so fkjnfk 

connection ideas  — 

a best friend/partner in shenanigans —

people she fell fast and hard for and got seriously rejected  — sirius

a bad influence on her?  —

close friends — molly, reg

maybe someone who she beings to trust, but they might not be who they are letting on?  —

flings or one night stand? —

 childhood hogwarts friends (they’ve been through a lot) —

 a party buddy —

someone she loathes and that loathes her right back —

 someone she is protective of —

someone she is possessive of —

 someone who finds her dramatics aggravating —

 someone who enables her to be dramatic —

 someone for her to latch onto always down for a cuddle —

 long conversation partner ( she loves having in depth conversations about a variety of topics) —

someone who is a muse for her paintings or someone who likes to get painted on by her —

 someone who calms her! brings her down to earth —

someone who has caught her in one of her breakdowns and actually got her to open up about it? —

maybe a brother or sister from her fathers side of the family? THAT WOULD BE SPICY —  

alecto? to be figured out

I have a lot of ideas I’m very open to plotting so please don’t be afraid to message me if you wanna plot with her or anything! We can have all the fun 

[worldofmuses]

also lowkey sending the wedding one for verity and lets say mystery man bc im curious as to what hers would look like

where they get married

Destination wedding, babyyy. All her friends are rich so she has no qualms about the cost of that tbh. Probably Italy, somewhere scenic and warm and gorgeous.

when they get married ( ie what time of day, what month and season etc. )

Late afternoon, early evening in August. So it’s not too warm but the sky starts to set during the ceremony (which would be outside) but doesn’t fully so everything is just under this warm glow, and then there’s dancing under the stars at the reception.

what traditions they include ( do they get married under a chuppah and crush a glass, garter toss, ‘something borrowed, something blue,’ etc. )

Definitely the whole something borrowed thing, the garter toss she would want to do but wouldn’t because of her family.

what their wedding cake looks like

Elegant. I think three tiers with just simple icing flowers or something, nothing to extravagant. 

….who smashes cake into whose face

Neither. If someone even tried to do this to Verity with her perfect wedding make up she would get a annulment straight away.

who proposed to who first

lol her parents said will you marry this guy and she said sure

who walks down the aisle and who waits at the altar ( or neither )

Verity’s dad walks her down the aisle probably, but I think she’d want it to be her brother if that wouldn’t cause a whole load of drama.

what their wedding dresses / suits / other look like

Idk what his suit would look like (except Verity would insist it was plain so she could have all the attention) but her dress would also be on the more elegant, simple side. Probably either mermaid, fit and flare or trumpet; definitely something that hugged her curves but then went out at the end. She’d have a long engagement just so she could spend loads of time carefully choosing/getting a perfect dress made.

what their wedding colour scheme is and what sort of decor they have

Probably white and yellow, or cream and yellow. She would have flowers everywhere, ribbons on the chairs, twinkle lights and candles to light everything up. 

what flowers are in the bouquet ( if applicable. bonus: what do the flowers mean? )

Yellow alstroemerias (This popular flower symbolises devotion and friendship. Alstroemeria is also a symbol of wealth, fortune and prosperity.), white roses (White roses are sometimes referred to as bridal roses because of their association with young love and eternal loyalty. White roses can also symbolize a new beginning and everlasting love.), white lily of the valley (Also known as the May lily, it means “return to happiness” and most often symbolizes chastity, purity, happiness, luck and humility.), with a bit of greenery in there too.

what their vows are ( eg poetry, traditional, improvised etc. )

Traditional, nothing particularly personal.

if anyone’s late to the wedding

If they were Verity would kill them so I don’t think so.

who’s in the bridal parties / groomsmen / other

Well I don’t know who would be in the guy’s really but whoever his friends and family are, and probably also Christopher since he couldn’t be in hers. Verity would have Emma, Lucinda, Sienna, Josette and maybe Narcissa and Alecto.

what their bridal party / groomsmen / other are wearing

Oooh I think the bridesmaids would wear pale yellow dresses to go with her colour scheme but not to bright or light to clash with her dress. Something simple again because she wants all the attention on her.

who gives speeches at the reception ( bonus: what do they say? recount a sweet memory or two between them? tell an embarrassing story? )

Hmmm, I think Verity would want Chris to do one for her but she’d probably end up picking one of her friends.

who catches the bouquet( s )

Sienna.

what their wedding photos are like ( are they sweet, with the couple holding hands or kissing or ~gazing into each others eyes~? are they silly, with a snapshot of the ‘cake-smash’ moment? or are they artistic, with one of them facing the sunset or holding their bouquets? )

Uhmm I doubt they’re super sweet, they’re probably just kind of traditional and then candids throughout the day.

what sort of food they have at the reception

Not a clue, idk what food you have at weddings.

who cries first during the ceremony

Her mother probably.

how wild their reception gets ( who dances the best, who gets drunk first, etc. )

Probably pretty wild. All her friends are pretty extra and go pretty hard, and she wouldn’t really give a shit what her parents think once she’s married. 

what their rings are like

Family rings probably.

what sort of favours they have ( heart shaped sparklers, mini champagne bottles, personalised candy etc. )

I don’t really know tbh. Sugared almonds because that’s tradition, probably come personalised sweets with their initials on it or Mr & Mrs Whoever. A mini bottle of champagne, but I think she’d do specific ones for the bridal party/groomsmen based of what drink they liked.

where they go for their honeymoon

Multiple places, Verity will keep that holiday as long as possible.

something memorable that happens during the party / ceremony ( do they run out of ice and someone goes to get it in full formal wear on foot, does anyone fall asleep in the middle of the party, etc. )

Verity says how pretty she looks she be the only thing people remember from the ceremony.

who officiates the ceremony

A priest, no one significant. 

what song their first dance is to

I’m not too sure but Verity probably already has a whole playlist of possible songs she comes across.

who gives who away as they walk down the aisle

 Probably just her dad.

@allmymuseinspo

send me 💍 + A SHIP and i’ll tell you—

[prettyvcnom]

💍 + evan & amycus

send me 💍 + A SHIP and i’ll tell you—

where they get married: most likely at carrow manor 

when they get married ( ie what time of day, what month and season etc. ): the middle of spring as the sun is setting

what traditions they include ( do they get married under a chuppah and crush a glass, garter toss, ‘something borrowed, something blue,’ etc. ): they both most definitely had prewedding parties to celebrate beforehand, i could also see amycus being superstitious and wanting the “something borrowed, something blue” tradition

what their wedding cake looks like: instead of being white i feel like it would have been a dark green color. 

….who smashes cake into whose face: evan because amycus wouldn’t want to upset them

who proposed to who first: amycus

who walks down the aisle and who waits at the altar ( or neither ): they walked down together 

what their wedding dresses / suits / other look like: amycus has a classic suit with a dark green tie, he would have let evan wear whatever they desired

what their wedding colour scheme is and what sort of decor they have: dark green and probably not many decorations because amycus wasn’t wanting a super extravagant event

what flowers are in the bouquet ( if applicable. bonus: what do the flowers mean? ): black roses and baby’s breath 

what their vows are ( eg poetry, traditional, improvised etc. ): amycus wrote something down but ended up improvising as he found out he was too nervous to ready, evan’s vows were better but everyone is too scared to tell amycus this 

if anyone’s late to the wedding: no one is late because they are scared of amycus’s reaction

who’s in the bridal parties / groomsmen / other: amycus only wanted his sister, evan would pick marisol 

what their bridal party / groomsmen / other are wearing: dark green flowy dresses

who gives speeches at the reception ( bonus: what do they say? recount a sweet memory or two between them? tell an embarrassing story? ) alecto tells a very embarassing story from their childhood, but also a sweet moment that she remembers between the two and how evan is good for amycus

who catches the bouquet( s ): marisol 

what their wedding photos are like ( are they sweet, with the couple holding hands or kissing or ~gazing into each others eyes~? are they silly, with a snapshot of the ‘cake-smash’ moment? or are they artistic, with one of them facing the sunset or holding their bouquets? ) amycus would have wanted one serious picture, but most of them ended up goofy because he couldn’t look at evan without swooning. lots of heart eye pictures and silly expressions

what sort of food they have at the reception: Italian food 

who cries first during the ceremony: AMYCUS and everyone was surprised

how wild their reception gets ( who dances the best, who gets drunk first, etc. ): Considering how many purebloods are there…. lots of people get drunk. 

what their rings are like: Simple, silver bands with a simple engraved pattern

what sort of favours they have ( heart shaped sparklers, mini champagne bottles, personalised candy etc. ): Probably had a candy bar with candy from Honeydukes

where they go for their honeymoon: Their cabin in the woods

something memorable that happens during the party / ceremony ( do they run out of ice and someone goes to get it in full formal wear on foot, does anyone fall asleep in the middle of the party, etc. ): Amycus almost tripped and fell during their first dance

who officiates the ceremony: Amycus’s mother

what song their first dance is to: If this was a more modern thing then "I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith is so them 

who gives who away as they walk down the aisle: neither are given away since they walked together 

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (back) to the Order of the Phoenix, Ky!

You have been accepted for the role of non-biography character ADONIS CARROWwith the faceclaim of Ben Barnes! We’re so excited to watch you explore the darker side of the game! We especially liked you explanations for Adonis’s motivations and beliefs, and how he’s fit himself into a world where by all rights he shouldn’t...yet does.

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Ky

AGE: 28

TIMEZONE: PST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Daily-ish! I can’t predict my on call schedule, but I’m usually available by Discord for plotting, at least!

ANYTHING ELSE: Nothing you don’t already know!

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Adonis Carrow

AGE: 33

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cisgender male, he, bisexual

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood? Halfblood? Who knows!

ORDER RANK: Affiliated

HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin

ANY CHANGES: N/A

CHARACTER BACKGROUND: CONTENT WARNINGS FOR MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AND DEATH.

PERSONALITY:

Charismatic, refined, perceptive, adaptable, and largely lacking such impediments as any sense of honour or loyalty, Adonis Carrow knows that nothing is forever. Not lineages, fortunes, masterworks, or wars. You only get so much in the world that’s actually yours. As such, the only thing he’s truly dedicated to is himself.

That’s not to say he’s cold. Far from it. He’s an artist, after all; not merely a liar, but a romantic one. Donnie knows how to pay attention, with such a warmth that it’s hard to resist basking in the glow. Is there always an ulterior motive, hiding behind that shine? Well, yes. He’d say so. (And the answer would never have a thing to do with loneliness. Not a thing.) It’s simply in his interests to entrench himself in as many corners of magical high society as possible. Networking, you know. Does that mean he doesn’t genuinely care about all those friendships and torrid dalliances and lingering affairs? No, no. At the very least, there’s base sentiments involved. Maybe some real fondness, even. The best lies have a bit of truth to them, don’t they? Just enough. Just enough that it wouldn’t hurt too terribly badly to cut it all loose the moment circumstances demand. That it won’t sting too much to remember that the most he’ll ever really be to these people is a taste of scandal - and the pitiable once-pureblood who tidies up their heirlooms.

In short, as much as he might enjoy their company or their bed, nobody’s likely to convince Donnie to rearrange his near-entirely selfish priorities. He’s not out to be a hero. He’s in it to survive, and thrive where he can. Donnie knows that’s he’s standing on dangerous, shifting ground, and he’s quick to adjust his footing when things start to slip one way or another. If he has to step on a few necks in the process, so be it.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

The Carrows were many things, back when they were anything; respected, feared, opulent, aspired to. Bearers of that fine, fine name sat the Wizengamot, riddled the Ministry, rose through the ranks of Aurors, had their professorial portraits hung on the walls of Hogwarts. Certainly, they had had their… missteps. Some say the family’s been as close to the Dark Arts as ivy to towers, ever since their far-flung beginnings. That might be a stretch, but it’s a matter of record, certainly, that several Carrows were interrogated at length in relation to their alleged involvement in the many crimes of Gellert Grindelwald. Nothing came of it, of course. In certain circles, their supposed nearness to such a notorious Dark wizard was quite the feather in their cap. Certain circles that continue to welcome them, despite their recent disgrace…

Yes, were, past tense. Now? Apolline stalks the mildewed halls of the family estate at the foot of the Cambrian Mountains, wrapped in her furious disdain and mouldering furs. Her eldest children, Amycus and Alecto - well, they’ve done nothing notable, have they? Except start a few ugly duels. And, apparently, take up service with the Dark Lord. Older than their baby brother by six years, and a difficult pregnancy, the twins had fallen from their parents’ good graces before they even arrived. When Adonis did, a beautiful boy with a beautiful name, cooed over and coddled and shown off as they never were, Amycus and Alecto found an easy target for their collective viciousness. They weren’t pranksters, to be clear. Bullies is hardly sufficient. The twins were torturers, dabbling in Unforgivables before they even wrote their O.W.L.S. - and testing them out, gleefully, on their baby brother. So long as their parents weren’t watching. Wouldn’t stand to see their favourite battered about, would they? Not when they had galas to dress him up for.

Apolline and Argus were never entirely sure where they’d went wrong with the twins. The derision and dismissal of their little childhood achievements? The unkind, constant comparisons? Who could say! An unpleasant feeling. So, they wholly neglected their oldest children, as much as possible - which was a great deal, when any wix would give their left arm to be so trusted by the Carrows as to nanny their apparent heirs. And so Adonis grew up with the benefit of the very best tutors and opportunities, and always striving to meet his parents’ exacting expectations - lest they change their minds, and abandon him to Alecto and Amycus.

He was doing rather a good job of it, it seemed, until everything came apart. Until the strength of their blood, the cornerstone of all they were and had, began to quake and crack. Until his father was found dead. Until his mother, never a sweet creature, soured in the face of owls unreturned and invitations dismissed. Until the twins became even quicker to lash out. At Adonis, most often. Now, Apolline didn’t stand in the way. They could fight for what remained of it all. Kill each other, if murder was what it came to. As her marriage had.

Adonis was out of that crumbling manor before his seventeenth birthday. He’s never been back; there’s nothing there for him, after all. The closest he’s come to his siblings is encouraging the Order to add them to that list of potential Death Eaters. Not that he had evidence, per se. But he wasn’t wrong, was he?

OCCUPATION: Appraiser/restorer of magical artifacts

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

It’s for spite, really. That’s what Donnie would insist, when it comes to his connection to the Order of the Phoenix. Spite, for the pureblood-mad society that cannibalized his family, that’s denied him the comfort and certainty and opportunities he was born for. If their Rome burns, he’ll take up the fucking fiddle for the occasion.

Too bad the Order’s rather less… fiery than he’d anticipated. He doesn’t enjoy the company of raving idealists, especially ones who, so far, seem rather bad at getting shit done. He’s also well aware that most of them don’t trust him, and doesn’t expect that to change; after all, what revolutionary bent on battling Dark sorcery would pick a Carrow to keep faith with? Everyone knows what Carrows are capable of. (Or think they do, anyway. Few know the half of it. Those grandparents who dallied with Grindelwald were hardly serving tea and hosting benefit balls.)

That’s not to say that his involvement should be seen as any sort of atonement on his family’s behalf. Goodness, no. There’s nothing of duty to any of this. Yes, it was a pleasure to see Professor McGonagall again, and he is rather fond of her, appreciative, genuinely, of her mentorship. But he doesn’t owe her, either. Or Dumbledore. Or any of them - these children, for the most part, out there playing partisan. Honestly, he thinks they’re woefully delusional. Too few. Too messy. Too hopelessly outmatched.

In fact, it’s rather risky of him to be helping them at all, and they should be bloody grateful, given that they’re certainly doing him no favours. The outcome of the war itself feels rather immaterial to Donnie; Carrows don’t matter anymore. He won’t be on anybody’s list, Ministry or Death Eater, at the end of all this. And if he doesn’t like how things evolve, from there, he’ll leave. Not as if there’s anything anchoring him where he is. There’s a whole world to see about, full of places (and people) he could settle into, all over again. His skills are, as they say, transferable.

Speaking of those skills. His professional capacities are occasionally of use to the Order, certainly; he’s a master of a niche craft, a field which demands mastery of transfiguration and cursebreaking both. However, it’s the inroads his career - and charms - provide that are most regularly valuable. Whether he’s quietly restoring the gables on the Greengrass summer estate or not-so-quietly seducing an Avery in some back room at the Ganymede, Donnie is well-positioned to notice things of interest to Dumbledore and his army. What, precisely, he passes their way really depends on his assessment. Is it believable? Can it be corroborated? Most importantly, is it likely to get him caught? His safety always comes first. But after that, sure - he’ll drop them a line, see what they make of his news. That’s about the extent of his involvement in the conflict, thus far. And honestly, he’s happy to keep it that way. He doubts the Order will win, but. He won’t lose, and he’s pleased to participate second-hand in the harassment and (ideally) destruction of Death Eaters. His brother and sister, specifically, if you don’t mind…

SURVIVAL:

Whether he’s delivering word to the inner circle or rubbing elbows (among other things) with Malfoys, Lestranges, Notts, and the like, Donnie is quick to assess the people around him, to gauge their values, to pick the right words and the best moments to smile and nod. Some might say he’s only so uncannily talented at all that fakery because he’s got no convictions of his own, nothing at all that matters to him. Untrue. It’s just that uncompromising ideals are an expensive thing to keep, and Donnie doesn’t have any he’s about to die for. Including the Order’s. Especially when they’re losing, which they unquestionably are. Disappointing, really.

When it comes to fight or flight, flight has always stood him in good stead - there wasn’t much else he could hope to do, as a child, facing the combined horror of the twins. This instinct became rather literal when he followed his precocious talents for transfiguration all the way to attempting to become an Animagus, and, with the help of Professor McGonagall, discovered his form to be a striking black barn owl. In truth, his Animagus is rather on the nose in several respects; growing up around the halls and manors of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, Donnie learned young that staying silent and listening to the whispers were vital survival skills for anyone who couldn’t - or wouldn’t - rely on wicked wandwork to attain all their ends.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Donnie does rather a lot of relating. Invitations to all manner of extravagant social events, from that disastrous Ministry masquerade to solstice banquets at so-and-so’s country house to the extravagant fêtes of magical London, land on his desk quite regularly. Who’s he to say no? It’s an honour. Hardly arduous, either - he was raised to weather waltzes and hours of idle small talk. Such a schedule creates ample opportunities to refresh and extend that intricate web of connections that keeps him in silk shirts and Châteauneuf-du-Pape - and, yes, information for the Order. He has quite the tangle of fascinating acquaintances and dear, dear friends out there in the darker, purer corners of British wizardry. The things you can overhear…

From the moment he left the ancestral manor, Donnie’s been sidling from bed to bed, castle to penthouse, making his way on the largesse of wealthy lovers. His string of secretive romances wind on; there’s moneyed dowagers and miserable husbands a-plenty who’d happily welcome him back, open-armed and pining. One might think this could lead to some awkward run-ins and jealousies, but the convenient thing about being untouchable is that nobody will admit to having had their hands on you. So, in a way, his secrets keep themselves from each other. Unsurprising, given that those wix all stand to lose so much more than he does.

In addition to the general stuff above, here’s a few specific connections (any with existing characters have been discussed with and cleared by their players).

ALECTO & AMYCUS CARROW

The twins. The monsters he grew up hiding from, when he could. While Donnie can see that the cruelty of his siblings was rooted deep in that of their parents, he’d also say that the point at which they couldn’t fairly be held responsible for the things they did to him passed a long, long time ago. That toxic favoritism wasn’t his fault, either. But what’s done is done, what they’ve become, they’ve become, and Donnie’s not about to forgive or forget. He was quick to add the twins to the Order’s list of near-certain Death Eaters, and, to be fair, he had concrete reason to believe they were - and he wasn’t wrong. Besides that, all he knows of them, these days, is second hand. It’s been a while; he hasn’t seen either Amycus or Alecto since he left the family estate, seventeen years ago. And he’s not about to go looking.

EMMA VANITY

A cousin of some degree - it all gets so tangled, in pureblood families - Emma is someone Donnie is aware of, but only distantly. They haven’t properly met, but travel the same circles. Just, you know, in different ways. And as different people than they used to be. Both are well-familiar with the best and worst of pureblood society, and, so far, at least, they’ve managed to survive it, even turn their place in the world into an asset - for themselves, and the Order. Not without cost. If they were ever to come across one another, they might find they have rather a lot to talk about…

AINSLEY ABBOTT

A professional acquaintance and something of a personal amusement. It’s just oddly entertaining to see Ainsley all aflutter over whatever antique he’s brought her way. And why would he do that, anyway? Well, see, Donnie’s busy. His genius is in the remaking of things, and that’s fine, finicky spellwork, tricky, challenging, fascinating. The story behind an object, the provenance? He doesn’t find all that especially interesting, honestly. That’s the chore of the job. One which Ainsley is ecstatic to do on his behalf, when called. Saves him time and trouble, so he’s happy to take the help.

EDGAR BONES

It’s not often that Donnie gets called in to sort out a whole bloody house, and for halfbloods, at that, but the money spends. It was Edgar who approached him with the job of seeing to the Bones place. Quite the task, but Donnie’s been enjoying himself - and that elder Bones, Rigby, and his husband - rather more than he’d expected. Lovely family. Shame about the baby and all that, but they deserve a bit of fun before decaying into domestic mediocrity, or whatever.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: I always run with chemistry. That’s it, that’s all! 

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

As a Carrow, Adonis was raised to be every bit a pureblood - privileges and prejudices included. People like him, like his family, were both the paragons and protectors of the best wizarding society had to offer, and rightfully in charge of shaping and governing the magical world. They had helped build it, and, obviously, had created something that would provide for them in return. Their wealth seemed endless, their social credit unlimited. Secure in every sense, the Carrows remained watchful, ever-ready to defend and shore up what they saw as theirs by right - and prepared to decry any possible stain on the society they’d tried to shape in their image. Muggles were a nasty nuisance, rather like rats, you know; plentiful and meaningless. Mudbloods? Repulsive. A sullying of magic itself. Halfbloods? Suspect, debased, common, not to be entrusted with anything too significant. Halfbreeds? Utterly vile, unnatural. The Carrows understood themselves, broadly, as part of a natural alliance of gracious stewards, the great and powerful and precious, standing against the meagre, weak, and mobbish. The Sacred Twenty-Eight existed to set a gloriously high standard, and maintain it, for the good of all of wizardkind. Nothing less would do.

The family’s messy, awfully public, and rather precipitous fall didn’t challenge those assumptions so much as render them fairly hollow, from Donnie’s perspective.

By the time he arrived at Hogwarts, his father was in the mausoleum and the rumors were at their thickest; school was no refuge from the scorn, and it certainly wasn’t just the purebloods of Slytherin house who participated. Halfbloods and muggleborns could be every bit as cruel, and, it seemed, enjoyed punching down just as much as any Flint or Bulstrode. Which meant that he would have to learn to take the hexes and hits - something he’d had too much of, growing up with the twins - or rise, somehow, at any cost. Amycus and Alecto had taken a third option, and brawled their way through the shame, incandescent with hate. Donnie rose. Even if those social scripts had turned on him, he still knew the plot, the roles. Could still play along, to get where he needed to go. Biting his tongue. Smiling at the spite. The price paid was nothing much, really. Integrity’s just a pretty word for putting other people and their principles and schemes before yourself and your own interests, isn’t it? Why would he ever do that? He can always pretend, anyway. That’s all it is. A game of pretend.

These days, Donnie’s playacting - and that pretty face - have won him a peculiar set of privileges. He can navigate the upper echelons of the wizarding world with ease, well-versed in its arcane etiquettes, close enough to power to hear its rumblings and bend ears, but comfortably far from any real responsibility, or the stifling expectations and strictures of being a proper member of high society. Rather liberating, in a sense. Limiting, in others.

Along the way, he’s developed a bizarrely practical perspective on the prejudices of his childhood and class. Donnie’s come to understand that few of the tenets he grew up knowing as givens truly are that. Call it sour grapes if you like, but… really, the whole notion of purebloodedness is just unsustainable, once you reach a certain point. And it’s rather apparent that the Sacred Twenty-Eight hit that a few centuries ago. So if the Order’s fighting a losing battle, so is Voldemort and his lot, aren’t they? Not to mention how many muggles there are, out there. He has to laugh at the notion that the Death Eaters could ever manage to rule much of anything, if that’s the idea. Those blood purists will breed themselves extinct, he figures, sooner than later. Magic will remain. All that ancient and noble shite will wither away, be sold off, melted down. Or wind up with him, perhaps. Delicious, isn’t it? The thought of such relics, the legacy of the high and mighty sorts he should have been, left in his hands. Dusted off and put on display in some chintzy gallery. Bought up to decorate the new muggleborn Minister’s office. Nobody giving a toss for their great, illustrious histories. Just pretty things. He’d enjoy that.

So… does that mean he’s any kind of egalitarian? Hardly. For the most part, Donnie enjoys paintings rather more than people. His formative years gave him no real reason to seek affection and affirmation from others. As for his regard for them, that’s largely dependent on how much you matter, as in, how useful you are to know. Beyond that, well - halfbreeds are simply disturbing, we can all agree. Squibs are miserable things, but he’s never been one to shed tears for strangers. Muggleborns are unfortunate, really, just… hamstrung, in terms of becoming as fully immersed in magical society as a wix ought to be. That’s hardly any concern of his, though. If they’re going to finally get on with it and guillotine some Gaunts and Fawleys or whatever, as those hysterical purebloods suspect, he’d be happy to sit back and enjoy the show. There’s halfbloods everywhere; any battle being waged against their ascendancy is long lost. Donnie isn’t bothered - he’s one of them now, apparently. Though, it does get tiresome, doesn’t it, when they get all up on their middling high horses, acting like the bearers of some new moral standard for wizardkind. Really.

If he truly despises anyone, with a proper passion, it’s those purebloods who are so entirely up their own arses as to presume that they’re better than him for being more reliably inbred. That, he fully acknowledges, is simply his share of the hereditary Carrow malice showing through. He’s been wronged, and he holds a grudge. At least he’s not delusional. Obviously, he’s not going to stop palling around with purebloodists. That wouldn’t be professionally feasible. Besides, there isn’t a swath of society that makes more sense to him than they do; he used to be them, after all. He was raised to withstand some odious company for the sake of appearances, so he can - for the sake of their galleons, now. And the occasional opportunity to cause some vexation through a well-placed whisper. Vicariously, of course. That’s what the Order’s for. He has paintings to finish.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

I guess I’m just excited to perpetrate a new character on all you lovely people, and explore some “ends” the group that I haven’t been able to yet! Seriously though, you’re all great.

PLOT DROP IDEAS (OPTIONAL)

Not exactly a drop so much as a connection, but I’m thinking it would be pretty neat and apropos for Donnie to have been involved in the mission to retrieve the orb from the Nott place - not directly, goodness no. Perhaps in tipping the Order off to the orb existing in the first place and where it would be? Or just appraising the orb they found, and determining it was a fake? Or both! Just a notion, seems like a natural way to tie him in.

Donnie also lends himself well to plots involving infiltration, theft, rumour-spreading, and distraction, and, obviously, anything related to magical artifacts. All pretty workable!

Maybe Donnie isn’t a true believer in the Order or its cause, and maybe he tends to see other people primarily as means to his ends, but… hey, he’s not entirely heartless. I’d be curious to see what might move him to take a more active role in the Order’s affairs, but I don’t at this point know what that might be. It’ll depend on the connections he makes!

ANYTHING ELSE? Not really!

EXTRA FOR NON-BIO CHARACTERS:

PAST:

Adonis was ten when the whispering began. His mother told the children not to mind such talk. That’s all it was. Baseless gossip that dared to imply that their pure, pure blood had been watered down by ambitious, filthy liars, that some branches of their sprawling family had not maintained their lineages so neatly as the others. The chatterings of jealousy; nothing, nothing at all, to a family that counted itself so loudly and proudly among the Sacred Twenty Eight. Nonsense. But that talk spread, and spread. Every rumour rang a little louder. The smiles at those galas took on a snide, superior glisten. Or, worse, to Apolline Carrow’s eyes - worse, those former friends and confidantes began to reek of pity. The sort that turned to laughter when you looked away. The snickers died when Argus Carrow did, suddenly, awfully. An error in his workshop, they said. Nobody looked to closely. Because nobody wanted to cross Apolline, even, perhaps especially, in the vicious throes of her house’s spiral into ruin. And, maybe most importantly… nobody much cared. The Carrows were respected, feared - not liked, by any means. If anything it was just another titillating chapter in an already sordid story. As for Adonis’ part in all that, well. His tale had never been so pretty as his face. He’d been the favoured son of a favoured family, and as the Carrows crumbled, so too had his parents’ doting affection, and with it, their willingness to protect him from his monstrous siblings. After Argus’ murder, Apolline and the twins burned through bridges and the fortune in vain, furious attempts to shore up what was theirs. By the time Adonis started at Hogwarts, he knew he couldn’t rely on much of anything - not his name, his blood, his money, his horror of a family. He’d have to make himself matter, on his own merits. Something a Carrow hadn’t had to do since the bloody middle ages.

PRESENT: 

Thankfully, Donnie’s as talented as he is handsome. Which is saying something, isn’t it? His surpassing skills as a transfigurationist and cursebreaker, combined with his artistic gifts, led him quite naturally to a thoroughly respectable career in magical restoration. A prestigious career, given its intricacy. A career, nonetheless; something he’d never have needed to bother with, in the life that was taken from him. His days are comfortable, nonetheless, especially when ensconced in the generous arms of some new, wealthy darling or two. It’s still not much, coming from the opulence of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. But it’s far from the depths his family’s sunk to, and the life he has is his own. He’s even managed to charm his way back into those circles he was raised in, the circles of power, politics, and wealth. Perhaps there’s only so far he can go, now, only so much he can aspire to. That doesn’t mean he isn’t looking and listening for opportunities to reach higher, as he makes his way around those familiar parties and dinners. Which is how he found out old Professor McGonagall wanted to see him. Which turned out to mean that Albus Dumbledore wanted to see him. Which, it seems, meant that the Order of the Phoenix needed him. And, perhaps to his own surprise, Donnie… acquiesced, at least. Cautiously. It was the part about the Order being out to thwart themselves some Death Eaters that got to him. Thwarting pureblood fanatics, like his sister, his brother. That sounded rather promising. Not that he’d be out there flinging hexes in the streets. No, he’d be much more useful right where he was. Where he can notice things. Useful things. Whispers, as every Carrow knows from brutal experience, can unmake not only men, but dynasties. So you have to keep yours close, and those of your enemies, even closer. Which are the Order’s? Hard to say, sometimes…

FC CHOICES: Ben Barnes, Gaspard Ulliel, Harry Shum Jr.

[kairoskrp]

                                       — On the wicked wings of time, thy kingdom comes

Meet [ Choi Minsu ]

He is a [ twenty-four] year old  [ contract killer & artist ] currently residing in [ nanjin duplex, #405]. Visit and greet  him today!

Personality: 

Sol Minsu is a tricky man to figure out. On one hand, he is as energetic as a puppy and as clumsy as a giant on rollerskates. On another, he can become deceiving and as malevolent as the devil himself. He carries with him a shady aura, one that seems to radiate suspicion and makes people feel stuffy and inconstant. His honeyed words seem to draw those unwary to him, where he sets his trap and waits for it to be sprung. However, this is merely to those he does not trust or he himself is suspicious about, as he holds a completely different persona to those that are truly his friends. His sass and cleverness truly sets him apart from others, and the same goes for his friends. He is not a people-pleaser, and does not identify himself with a specific “crowd”, however, he he finds himself interested in you much more than usual you can expect a caring Minsu who will quite literally treat you like the royalty you are.

Spirit: Alecto (one of the three Furies)

Power: Fear Embodiment

VIsually Minsu’s eyes will become a dark, almost blood red with no sclera present, and his veins become extremely visible and turn a dark red around his neck, arms, and head.

Is able to sort of “sense” a target’s fears and take on that embodiment, using it to his advantage

Is a form of a mental power, although it’s hard for him to pinpoint a direct image of what the victim’s fears are

Is sort of like spidey-sense, where spiderman can “feel” something coming at him but won’t know it until he actually turns and sees it, but in Minsu’s case it’s when he actually turns into it

While in another form he can take on that image’s specific abilities and such, but on a slightly lesser scale

Also, he cannot verbally communicate with anyone when in a non-humanoid state and must rely on actions

If he isn’t focusing enough or if he becomes extremely emotional, his body might accidentally take on a fear without warning, causing possible harm to someone he didn’t mean for it to

As a sort of last resort, and only in the most dire circumstances, he is able to become a sort of cluster of energy which, at the same time, “reads” the fears of everyone in the surrounding area and manipulates itself into mentally exhibiting that fear to an extreme level

The reason why this is a last-resort, is because anyone in the vicinity of Minsu while he does this (anything in visual range) will most-likely die from the mental toll it takes on the victim. Also, Minsu will end up unconscious, or maybe even dead himself, as he is physically and mentally pushing his life force out of his body and using it for destructive means.

Biography:

TW: Extreme violence, heavy gore, heavy blood, themes of insanity, themes of parental abuse

i. Picasso

The room is filled with drawings, from the grey rug to the ceiling filled with glowing stars. Posters of movies, books, and famous art have become the wallpaper, with there being no sign of the former teal walls behind. There is no sign of toys or books in the room, no sign of the mess a 5 year-old Minsu should have made. Instead, there is only a pristine white bed, bedside chests filled with tools and brushes, and large easels covered in paint. Drawings that could be considered a level that of a young adult was compared to “child’s play” by Minsu’s mother, who always made sure that there was never an empty easel, never a blank page, never a painting not sold. It could be said that his “bedroom” was more of a full-time workspace. The rest of the house was no different, with his artwork being displayed in every corner and crevice available in the 5-story mansion. A few years ago, his mother had been living in a middle-class neighborhood and had two jobs, now, the family (consisting of Minsu and his mother) were living high above the upper class stature and the income was solely based off of the money made from Minsu’s artwork. His mother was comfortable and in some terms, lazy, living off of the “gravy train” her son was too young and naive to notice.

ii. Van Goh

It’s quiet the car ride home with the tension in the air growing more apparent by the minute. Minsu’s mother’s hands grip the steering wheel tightly as she jerks it left and right in an unconventional manner. Her eyes are hazy and her lips are pulled up into a mindless snarl, her gaze trained on the 12-year old sitting in the backseat. Minsu knows she’s too drunk to be driving, but the swelling bruise on his left cheek is enough to warn him about the dangers of getting in her way, so he sits with his hands placed lightly in his lap and his eyes empty and staring at the floor. Years of mental and physical torture have left him unresponsive to his mother’s harsh responses, causing him to block out all white noise associated with her.

“You’re an abomination, you know that?” She spits, looking more like the devil than a woman to him. The elegant burgundy dress and the pinstripe suit the two wear are more of a masquerade of the troubles faced at home, a veil to cover up the ugliness inside Minsu’s mother. “A shame to the family, that’s what you are. Might as well have been off with your father if this is how you repay me….” She mutters the last part but subconsciously Minsu perks up a bit. He’s never met his father, a man of low stature and wealth who disappeared soon after he was born, leaving his wife and son alone.

“Did you hear m-” And before she can finish there’s the sound of a horn echoing, the shattering of glass, the screams as his mother is sent through the front window of the car, her body flying through the air before slamming onto the asphalt road, sliding a bit until coming to a complete stop. Minsu’s eyes are shut as his entire world is quite literally rocked, head squeezed between his knees as he feels the seat belt being ripped from him and the cool night air as he too is flung from the car. He hits the ground with a sickening crack, but when he opens his eyes he realizes he is alive, and breathing, although everything is spinning.

He remembers the colors, vivid and bright as he slowly pushes himself up to gaze at the mangled body of his mother not too far from him. His face is emotionless as his eyes travel over the visible bones pushed through brazened skin, the spilled organs across the road, the small twitching of her hand as it lay limp and bent awkwardly in the air. Her face no longer looks like a face, instead to him it resembles the crushed pulp of an orange. He is emotionless when the paramedics arrive, he is emotionless when he is tugged into the arms of a police officer, he is emotionless as he is whisked away in an ambulance to the emergency room although his lips are glued shut in the event of what has happened.

And Minsu learns something that day that stays with him for the rest of his life:

Karma is one hell of a creative bitch

iii. Monet

Minsu is lucky- now 17 years old, he had made enough money when he was younger to still stay in his mansion, although with a caretaker and tutors to help guide him. Now, he has made an impressive name for himself, known for works of art displayed all over the country and beyond. His insightful past seems to hold no weight on him as he paints with brush strokes that of a master, and a keen eye capable of picking out the tiniest and most obscure detail that inconspicuously would change entire painting.

However, not all was happy, dandy, said and done.

As with many celebrities- or rather figures of high idolization -Minsu must keep a persona reserved for the public and one for more personal times. To the outside world, he is a figure of perfection, of simplicity, and seems to model the very well-known statues he makes. He is gentle as dove, but as merciless as a bloodthirsty tiger when it comes to his business, and if anyone were to question veiled incidents….

There is a side to him that many don’t see, where the mind of a madman reigns over his kingdom with fits of rage and destruction. Enticement comes in the form of nightmares and panic attacks, where Minsu locks himself away with dread and sadness, where sobs of terror and screams of a broken mind echo through his studio. Where those that might feel sorry for him disappear like ghosts, and Minsu is left to pick up the pieces of the glory he has built.

His physicality may be that of a man, but his mind is that of the devil.

iiii. Vinci

Minsu is 22 years old when he breaks, finally, and in one sudden and terrifying instance that spirals him further down into the rabbit hole.

Criticism, in Minsu’s mind, is the tool used by insufficient beings to further spread false influence over those who would be classified as better than them. Malicious gazes and harsh words confirm this belief when he meets with these “critics”, one by one being visited by the artist under the guise of simply wanting to show off his artwork in hopes of having a changed review. Whispers in Minsu’s ear the night before had pushed him to this deed. A woman, unseen yet heard clearly through the fog of dreams and nightmares. It’s this voice that plants the seed of his madness, acting only as a guide in his endeavors and beyond with him the vessel of her deeds.

Fear, is their creed. Fear, shines in their eyes as Minsu wields a weapon known not to any mortal but all too-well coveted by the gods. Fear, is the power flowing through his veins as he takes on the form of some unimaginable creatures only fathomable in the deepest recesses of the mind. Fear, fills their cries as Minsu cuts them down one by one, hidden by the darkness of their homes and businesses. He knows not what he is, only that he is a force of terror that can only be found in nightmares and under the bed of a child at night.

A few of them are killed, the rest are found without any physical wounds, but their mind is broken completely. Slurred words and violent outbursts confirm what psychologists think- something happened that traumatized them bad enough to put them into this animalistic state.

No one knows who did it, they say. They find dog hairs, blood with the dna of crocodiles, and the claw marks of an undisclosed creature but no human dna, they say. They tried searching for a culprit but it looks like the cases will be closed, they say.

And no one can see the complacent smirk on Minsu’s face as he sits, watching the tv with luxury filling the world around him. No one can see how the wheels in his mind are turning, twisting, creating a plan that can only be as malevolent as the last.

He sits, thinking about his life and what has led up to this moment. Thoughts sift in and out of his head, before one particular one causes his smile to grow and his attention to become more focused on the future ahead.

The art of killing in enamoring, so why not make it something more?

[artfromthefuture]

The December 1967 issue of Studio International featured a detail from Computer-Epoch on its cover. Inside, in the Magazine's London Commentary section, Charles Harrison wrote about Universal Electronic Vacuum: One of the more dazzling exhibitors in ‘Transatlantic Graphics’, Eduardo Paolozzi speaks of the screenprints in his new series as failures. (Universal Electronic Vacuum is on exhibition at the ALECTO GALLERY).   If we can free ourselves from the spell cast by images with a visual appeal and impact as strong as these have, we may come to agree with him.  The failure is in the process, which, in reproducing the mental excitements of an age in which so much information and so many stimuli are there to be absorbed, can yet find no precise equivalent, in visual terms, for the activities of scanning and digestion.  This is of course only a failure in comparative terms.  No one has travelled further than Paolozzi in search of a solution to this particular problem nor come closer to finding one.  For us it is the evidence of restless search that makes these prints so intensely exciting.  Paolozzi has constantly pushed at the frontiers of printmaking, acting as an ideas-man in a technological context.  Collage elements from all sources – Woolworths table cloths to computer circuits, five and dime store cutouts to fine art reproductions – are manipulated into a series of total images, constructed like nests of Chinese boxes, in which the artist is involved so far as they are critical assessments of a given situation.  These collages are ‘translated’ by the screenprinter and printed in a range of colours decided by a part-arbitrary, part systematic process which guarantees tonal balance.  The printmaker acts as a servo-mechanism for the ideas of the artist.  The employment of computers as means of reproducing episodes in the process of scanning is an obvious next step upon which Paolozzi is already determined. Meanwhile there is much to learn from the Universal Electronic Vacuum.  The content of the prints is one man’s singular consciousness in an age of multi-media, expressed through the language of that age.  The artist feeds us with stimuli which we, so far as we respond to them, can use to establish an image of his idea.  These gorgeous colours and dazzling shapes are not solely for our delectation.  An understanding of the things he does – of his behaviour in a visual sense – gives us insight into the experience of the artist and enables us to share his idea.  The printed sheets of the Universal Electronic Vacuum are not records of visual insights but ideas expressed in visible form.  The sets are printed in such a way that no two runs of the same print produce the same arrangement of colours.  It is less important that the colours are arranged as they are than that each print is different within the same edition.  What matters is the idea of infinite difference, with its far-reaching implications for the structure of our thinking about the art object.  The actual colours printed are no more than the record – the visual evidence – of this idea.  If the artist could convey his ideas without needing to create objects which embody them, he would be no less an artist.  In human terms the artist is the man whose ideas are most energetic.  He is no less than that and no more. There is a real possibility that the rapidly developing involvement with the screenprint, often to the neglect of other, more fine art media, will have the effect of forcing us to look more closely at the real content of art.  It is a paradox that the artist may well be able to reveal more of himself by leaving the execution of his ideas to the technician.  If the object itself, seductive as it often is, can be so accurately specified and so easily duplicated, perhaps we shall come at last to value its physical substance less that the idea for which it is no more than a clothing.