#stand-user ortus

[machoestofmen]

JoJortus

So, after seeing a post by @castellankurze about our good friend Ortus, I was... inspired.

Shoutout to @melikochan, @princesscolumbia and @summersong2262 for their support and enthusiasm while I was working!

[dammit-tazmuir]

Allow me to share some extremely excellent posts about that.

Another thing I love about it though is like... While there are exceptions-- None Houses With Left Grief probably the biggest one, but the first linked post talks about that-- most of the memes work even if you don't Get It.

If you don't recognize The Cool S, Ortus just describing a weird sigil where Harrow is seeing something different still works. The phrasing of "Jail for mother" might feel a little odd if you don't recognize Miette but only a little. Coffee Shop AU doesn't hit in the same way but the contrast between the horrors they endure and meeting in a simpler way is still poignant. Ortus bringing fanfiction to a gun fight and winning isn't as hilarious or satisfying, but creating a link through sheer passion is still compelling.

Even among tumblr users, there are probably memes any of us have missed, and there are times I found myself squinting really hard questioning if something was a subtle one or if I was just looking too hard. (The one that comes to mind is a trail of blood in HtN that made me think of the Color Theory Post.)

The way Tamsyn uses memes, at least when being jarring isn't specifically the point, people who don't recognize them just don't tend to notice. The series' whole tone is silly often enough that they don't stand out. And there's never a scene that relies on you getting the reference to be good. It's just that if you also happen to get the reference and appreciate it, then a given scene gets an extra bonus. Unlike a lot of media trying to invoke meme culture, it's not "hello fellow kids", it's an actual fellow nerd saying "if you know you know."

So many people are under the impression Good Writing needs to follow strict rules to be "professional enough," and here's Tamsyn writing shit like "flowers will die on necromancy's grave" and "you could have lived for her, but you didn't know how" and "love is a revenant" and "you can't take loved away." And at the same time, "man-eating magma fish" and "WE DO BONES, MOTHERFUCKER" and "Sex Pal". And it brings me so much joy.

It always baffles me how Tamsyn Muir writes the locked tomb series as if it's a fanfic. It's such a weird feeling, but I don't in any way mean it as an insult.

When you're reading tlt series there's always this presence of the author that you don't often get on other published books. Like, she'll make in jokes and references as if she's part of the fandom. Right when you're getting immersed in the world she'll pull out a "That's what she said" or "Jail for mother!" and suddenly you remmember that this is a book, with an author, an author really fond of puns and internet memes.

Tamsyn Muir writes like she's writting fanfiction to a small, nieche fandom where all the authors all kinda know eachother, and they've already deviated from canon so much that the stories are their own thing now.

It used to bother me a lot on my first read but now I'm just fascinated by it. It feels like you're reading a work made by a peer. A peer who is really good at writting, but a peer no less.

Maybe it's just that I grew up and have written some stuff myself, and now I can see things I couldn't before. But idk, it just really interests me the way Tamsyn just fucking writes shit like she's just trying to amuse herself or her friends. I came to respect it a lot.

I'm not as good of a writter so there's no conclusion to this really. Just postulating to the void like I'm Palamedes Sextus.