Sam’s Sketchbook

34. V queer. Mostly traditional art, occasional digital as I teach myself how to do it 😬

[ravenswolf]

[salmonsketch]

I just started working at a bookstore and I recommend it to everyone but also, to myself, I’m like “you just ruined another life” 😭🤣

[salmonsketch]

Have we talked about G1deon’s appearance much? I keep getting caught up with how he is written as “strangely burnt” and having his skin stretched too tight over his skull and face and body. She describes his body as being raw and ropey, like sinew over bone, and “an idiot’s first construct”.

So, thinking of this in terms of what we know about How Things Went Down with John and the bombs, and John’s plans for G1deon’s arm when he took it off before he blew him up, would it be correct to say that using that arm and the blown up raw strip of meat that would have been left of G1deon’s body, plus the fact that it would have been one of John’s first three resurrections/reconstructions (ie an idiot’s first construct), is he described that way because John did a shit job of reconstructing the burnt up husk of G1deon’s body? M and A died of gunshot wounds so their bodies would have been easy to fix up and resurrect, but G1deon’s would…not have. Idk if others have said this before, but I hadn’t seen it.

[salmonsketch]

Adding a part from the end of Harrow:

“It was a man who looked like he had been stripped bloody by a wind machine and hadn’t healed all the way.”

And later, his face is described as “craggy, blasted”.

Like, I am aware that an up front and personal nuke would not leave any bit of a body left, but, you know, TM is allowed to have her artistic freedom, and it just seems like too many coincidences.

[salmonsketch]

Have we talked about G1deon’s appearance much? I keep getting caught up with how he is written as “strangely burnt” and having his skin stretched too tight over his skull and face and body. She describes his body as being raw and ropey, like sinew over bone, and “an idiot’s first construct”.

So, thinking of this in terms of what we know about How Things Went Down with John and the bombs, and John’s plans for G1deon’s arm when he took it off before he blew him up, would it be correct to say that using that arm and the blown up raw strip of meat that would have been left of G1deon’s body, plus the fact that it would have been one of John’s first three resurrections/reconstructions (ie an idiot’s first construct), is he described that way because John did a shit job of reconstructing the burnt up husk of G1deon’s body? M and A died of gunshot wounds so their bodies would have been easy to fix up and resurrect, but G1deon’s would…not have. Idk if others have said this before, but I hadn’t seen it.

[katakaluptastrophy]

There's a lot going on with tea in Harrow the Ninth.

It's "overwhelming" and "too much" for Harrow, yet John regularly summons her to sit alone with him and drink it.

You did not understand why anyone ate these biscuits or drank this tea.

In the scene where John gets Harrow to admit what her parents did to create her - nobody has to know! - the entire exchange is framed around descriptions of how much John is enjoying drinking his tea and eating his biscuits, and descriptions of how much Harrow does not want to consume them at all and yet feels unable to do anything else. She understands herself as "required to drink it."

When John tells Harrow about the Tomb and the Body, we again get multiple descriptions of his enjoyment of drinking tea. Harrow is having a much less enjoyable experience: "you had not known you were shaking until God himself reached out to still your wrist, so that you mightn’t spill your tea over your knees." He asks her if she likes poetry or biscuits, and she makes it clear she isn't interested in either. He insists she eats two biscuits, and begins to recite the Poe poem associated with Humbert Humbert's first victim to her by way of reminiscing about who he buried in the Tomb.

In moments where Harrow tries to assert her own agency, tea is there too. When she tells John about the Saint of Duty and Cytherea's body, her tea is "stubbornly undrunk" and John's biscuit crumbles into his tea. John is drinking tea when Gideon finds him interrogating Wake, and when the game is up and Mercymorn and Augustine turn on him, they both smoke and tap the ash from the cigarette out into John's empty mug.

Conversely, we see John drinking coffee by himself in the Mithraeum kitchen when he's not interacting with anyone. Harrow is also offered coffee by Abigail Pent, and "accepted a cup, mainly to warm her hands." Despite Abigail being another powerful figure of whom Harrow feels wary, there's no sense of compulsion or discomfort in this offered drink (despite it otherwise being a situation of gentle compulsion). Harrow feels able to accept it on her own terms. Which brings it roughly in line with how Harrow feels about physical touch from both John and Abigail as well.

But Katakaluptastrophy, you might be saying, sometimes the tea is just tea! Yes, but sometimes the author was a secondary school teacher in the UK, where this is a popular video for explaining the concept of consent to teenagers:

[salmonsketch]

This afternoon I am just wondering, what were the skeleton revenants DOING for the last 10k years?? Canaan House is in literal shambles so they haven’t been doing anything for a *myriad*, so like did they just take naps or play skeleton cards? Did they play pranks on one another??

[salmonsketch]

Since it’s NYE and we can *probably* expect Alecto to arrive in 2024, I’m being vulnerable and posting an Alecto WIP. My art training was traditional fine arts and I know piss-all (quoting Harrow) about digital art beyond what I teach myself. Using different brushes is beyond me. I use like, two. There are things I want to change about it paint wise but I don’t understand all the nuances of procreate so..lol. Reworking that horribly foreshortened arm is probably going to take me six months. It probably won’t be finished for like an entire year. But here she is, my lady Alecto.

[salmonsketch]

I frequently day dream about what Harrow + Gideon scenes might look like in Alecto. My running theory/prediction is that Harrow will give up some of her soul to complete Gideon’s missing soul bits, thereby creating a “perfect lyctorhood”, and that at some point, miss “knack for the aorta” Harrowhark is going to grow Gideon a new heart.

I don’t know what will need to happen so that Harrow doesn’t have a brain aneurysm whilst doing this to Gideon, since if I am correct, her brain is still lobotomized (Nona was still experiencing bleeding from her ears), BUT!! I had a sweet and sexy little daydream that Harrow does this open heart surgery, and to avoid perceiving Gideon, she does it WITH HER EYES CLOSED. Like, only feeling with her hands. And, I don’t have to tell you that would be SO intimate and vulnerable and HOT, obviously. I am sure that there are 1000 holes in this idea but just enjoy this little bit of sweet imagery. Imagine the tender caresses! The FACIAL expressions on them both. “They waited till their wedding night”, and all that lol.

[naomistares]

harrowhark getting her lobotomy done at claire's

(ps: merry christmas eve! you can't see but we just hit 10k on here... my christmas gift to the world, thank you dearly)

[salmonsketch]

Aaaauuuugh

[babydykestar-deactivated2026031]

the locked tomb is so insane. it’s like what if jesus was a butch lesbian and god was the devil. and the love of his life was the holy spirit, an eve he made from his viscera and the energy-signature of the earth. and what if jesus was raised in hell and forced to serve the people tasked with guarding god’s undoing, with god not knowing that god’s true undoing was born in the daughter of his most devout servants. and what if God’s Death and Lesbian Jesus had to share a bloody, torn up ‘get along’ shirt and had an incredibly intricate and complicated relationship that not even death could interfere with or separate out of sheer will and repressed lesbianism alone. and also what if lesbian jesus had a terrible fuckboy sense of humor and amazing fighting skills and god’s death was the most powerful necromancer to exist but she was also anemic and had hypotension and a terrible misguided sense of guilt about being alive. the serpent is a pale blonde woman with one arm and she’s a miserable cynical lesbian. god’s archangels tricked him into an orgy because above everything, he’s just a hedonistic man. lesbian jesus has booty shorts with ‘god wont let me die’ printed on the back, god’s death has a shirt that says ‘god can’t kill me because i died 200 times before i was born’. theres a dyadic-personality tech nerd/assassin who’s gone domestic with lesbian jesus’s mom’s former girlfriend and theyre responsible for taking care of a baby who’s not a baby but is also a baby and she’s also the holy spirit but she’s also god’s death.

[salmonsketch]

THIS IS WHY WE LOVE IT ITS INSANITY IM CACKLING

[salmonsketch]

Whilst listening to the Gideon audiobook for the thousandth time I realized the bit about Gideon drinking the hot tea during what is essentially a meeting:

“She choked discreetly.” The reverend daughter gave her a look that withered the bowels”.

Is quite similar to John eating peanuts in a meeting,

“I ate peanuts the once, discreetly”, which we know was met with Mercymorn subsequently desiring to bathe him in acid for 1000 years.

And I find this just very splendid, that is all.

[salmonsketch]

Was there any other bonus content in the paperback Nona release, or just The Unwelcome Guest? Thanks my bone freaks ☠️

[windmillcrusader]

nine for the soup and for all that was brothed

[salmonsketch]

Get the fuck right outta here lol

[salmonsketch]

Am vibrating knowing we get new material to read next month with the paperback release of Nona. Judging from the timeline between when that happened with Harrow and getting Nona excerpts we should hopefully be getting some Alecto excerpts in like 4-6 months? If they follow the same timeline lol.

[salmonsketch]

“Paul. Just Paul”.

The book is “The Passionate Marriage” lol, which seems like something Pal would read.

[blackteaandbones]

Rough sketch of Harrow I’m working on as a companion to my recent Gideon piece. I have completely forgotten how to draw drapery, but I do like the hands so far.

[salmonsketch]

Ooof can’t wait to see the finished piece! It’s so good!

[salmonsketch]

Harrow Nova

[salmonsketch]

Harrow takes up cooking