ianthe-tridentarius-apologist

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

scenes in harrow the ninth that always make me get choked up:

harrow reaching for alecto and begging to be able to touch her

palamedes being so excited to see harrow he PICKS HER UP IN A SPIN AND KISSES THE TOP OF HER HEAD when she can’t even recognize one of her only friends

augustine telling mercy “my bones will rest easy next to your bones.”

cam painstakingly gathering the fragments of palamedes’ skull for the smallest chance he might still be in there

gideon gaining consciousness in harrow’s body and the only thing she even wanted was for her to be there.

harrow realizing the theater of her mind and feeling the absolute gut punch of losing the love of her life all over again

feel free to add your misery to this post 😀👍

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

Girlfriends

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

When I finished reading Harrow the Ninth I was confused about why the book was promoted with the line "they are back gayer than ever" but know I understand that the most lesbian thing u can experiment is being so traumatized by your situationship that u need to break your skull open and do a diy lobotomy to forget her

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

harrianthe sketch for the road. may your travels be just as weird and toxic

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

One of the richest motifs in The Locked Tomb is relationships with uncomfortable overlaps.

Of course, in-universe, we've got all the weirdness about cavaliers and their necros: they shouldn't be married (but sometimes they are), they shouldn't be siblings (but sometimes they are). Cav/necro love is a different kind of love, and familial, romantic, or sexual love should be no part of it.

As readers who don't know any necros or cavs in real life, it's very easy to say: well, fuck that. Do what you want.

But the narrative doesn't stop at the necro/cav relationship. It says, okay, now here are all these Lyctors calling each other sister and brother on their way to sexy parties. Here is Nona with frank romantic interest in her parental figures (and roleplaying a very sensual embrace with Cam). Here is John simultaneously trying to be everyone's dad and teacher and commander and lover. Here is Aiglamene trying to filter parenting Gideon through the act of giving her military training. Here is Crux trying to be a loving father to the tiny dictator he serves. Here is Gideon saying she wants to marry a sword that has her mom in it.

And sometimes it's harmless, and sometimes it's harmful. And the narrative asks: what then? What if the beauty doesn't reduce the horror, and the horror doesn't reduce the beauty? How fucked up does a love have to be before you won't root for it anymore?

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

If there were a Locked Tomb prequel about Jod and the Lyctors, which character would you want to be the Narrator?

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

what do u think shes offering u

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

Harkling doodle

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Camilla the Sixth

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

I’m not obsessed with drawing her, you are 😩🫵

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[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

“i asked chatgpt” well i asked palamedes sextus, warden of the sixth house

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

the funeral rites of cytherea loveday

Keep reading

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i still think about them…

(Original post)

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

Coronabeth babyyy

Trying out a new coloring style!

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

picturing griddlehark college/otherwise normal aus is so fucking funny. like. you meet this lesbian couple, right. one of them is on a full sports scholarship, she's big, beefy, a little lacking in social skills but obviously happy to try. she swears every other sentence, has a poster of megan fox in transformers in her bedroom like a 13 year old boy. she's got an anime girl phone background. she wears a black choker all the time which does NOT match her otherwise purely sun's-out-guns-out-paired-with-cargo-shorts type wardrobe.

the other one is a full head shorter than her and shaped like a stick, wears exclusively big, shapeless cardigans and skirts that reach her ankles, will not speak to anyone but the beefcake in full sentences if she can avoid it, and visibly has not slept in a week. the one time you convince her to speak, she ends up insulting you in the most unnecessarily graphic and specific terms you have ever heard, gives you a look which singlehandedly curdles every ounce of self-esteem you've ever possessed, and immediately returns her attention to studying.

one day, you finally work up the courage to ask how the fuck they met and why they're dating. they tell you that they both grew up in a small-town christian cult which the stick figure's parents actually led, beat the shit out of each other daily for their entire childhoods, and finally resolved their differences in their late teens and immediately ran away together. the stick figure twitches up a sleeve of her oversize black cardigan to reveal a bracelet made of the beefcake's baby teeth that she personally knocked out of her skull. the beefcake smiles at her like this is the height of romance. the only issue they will acknowledge in their relationship is that when she was little, the stick figure fell madly in love with a painting of the virgin mary and has never quite recovered. they've been married for 3 years. they are 20 years old.

also the beefcake wears the choker because the stick figure said "no" to dog collars in public.

[ianthe-tridentarius-apologist]

I recently reread the Cohort Intelligence Files, and I feel as a fandom we've not given nearly enough consideration to the possibilities of the year 9995, five years before the beginning of GTN:

17 year old Second Lieutenant Judith and 22 year old Marta are on the Leviathan-class ship Emperor’s Dominion and awarded commendations in within-system war games.

The twins turn 16, presumably with some pageantry (and the looming realisation that perhaps they will not be able to continue their ruse indefinitely).

Isaac and Jean, aged 8 and 9, make their cav vows, presumably while they are still attending school at Koniortos Court.

Abigail becomes head of the Fifth House and makes her husband/seneschal her cavalier (an action which is perhaps only allowed to slide because she apparently doesn't plan to stay in post for long).

15 year old Cam and Pal are two years into Pal's extraordinarily young tenure as Master Warden, perhaps beginning the first overhaul of the Spire in half a myriad.

Dulcinea stops making public appearances as Duchess of Rhodes.

Eleven year old Silas begins to learn how to siphon from Colum.

Harrow begins to puppet her parents, the last Cohort chaplains and construct adepts are lost in action, and the Ninth is closed to pilgrims (and in the Harrow Nova AU, Mortus steps down from his post and scarifies Ortus).

And presumably, John Gaius is running the numbers on the approach of Number Seven and his remaining numbers of Lyctors, and considering his options...