[soapy-birblover]

I was inspired by the black-out poems made by @playing-with-colors and decided to apply it to the locked tomb series!

Palamedes my beloved

[rosenkranz-does-things]

How would you have asked Alecto the First to lie—how would you have persuaded that mad monster into even an unsophisticated con?

[lonesomelavenderbones]

Something I love about Gideon the Ninth that I haven't seen talked about yet is how well Tamsyn Muir manages to describe basic concepts like "night" and "salad" as though experiencing them for the first time through the eyes of a chimpanzee.

[nonas-third-tantrum]

Little Briar Rose / Gideon the Ninth / Nona the Ninth

which could mean nothing

[gideonisms]

tlt 🤝 utena

teenage lesbianism won't save you but why not add it to the situation. It probably couldn't hurt. Your crush could become plot relevant later on

[light-camera-bitch-smile]

ianthe: harry can't POSSIBLY love you, nav; she lobotomized herself to forget about you! to love is to remember!

not five pages earlier: gideon waxing poetic about how harrow tenderly wrapped gideon's sunglasses (that harrow allegedly hated btw) and sealed them tightly in an envelope for eight months on the OFF CHANCE gideon came back in some way shape or form

gideon: yeah seems legit. i mean she didn't even seem happy when i died for her so like.

[katakaluptastrophy]

Another reminder that the Mithraeum probably looks even weirder than you think, this time courtesy of the relics of St Munditia in Munich.

All those "shining bones" and "gilded and bejewelled skeletons...dressed in gold and green robes...with amethysts and topazes and emeralds for eyes".

[runasulienadanika]

my roman necromantic empires

[vampire-apostrophe]

Gideons first interaction with both of her parents is the two of them fighting… the poor girl she’s been conscious for the first time in nine months to watch a six person polycule all of whom were involved in her conception absolutely implode.

[thanergetic-hyperlinks]

The opening of the fight in question:

Dad: “now, we both know I'm an upstanding guy who would never stoop to torturing you for intel, but you are tied to a chair and I am immortal so like, I can wait for you to be reasonable for a very, very long time :)”

Mom: “I CHARGE YOU WITH ACTS COMMITED WITH INTENT TO DESTROY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, THE HUMAN RACE—”

[rivertalesien]

Just amazing how all of this came about: nine months on the [Erebos, then the Mithraeum], where Harrow begins her journey into Lyctorhood by vomiting constantly, refers to the sword as "your large steel infant," (pg 31), and while God is explaining what happens to a planet's soul when a planet is murdered, how the revenant is created, she has what might be her first(?) menses (pg. 42).

Harrow goes on to experience constant assault that could be coded in a certain way familiar to a lot of young women attacked by older men (Mercymorn: "What did you say, to make him try to kill you?" (pg 191).

Later she experiences the very unpleasant imagery generated by the Sleeper's pregnancy (and all the failed attempts) while in the River bubble (where she is guided by another mom-coded figure), unaware this is referring to her Gideon, whose mother has been haunting her from that "large steel infant" and once Harrow vacates the premises (her body), Gideon finally emerges and gets a front-row seat to this shitshow where she literally comes out of a closet.

Oh, and Mercymorn who keeps regressing Harrow's age as we count down to the birth of a new character?

Being a mother in this series is a real...well.

[camilla-rekt]

Pg. 42, the blood running down Harrow's leg is from cutting into her thigh with her thumbnail- while John explains the consequences of murdering a planet. Can be read as symbolic of the loss of innocence as she is burdened with- one might say metaphorically pregnant with- this new knowledge.

[jugglingjujube]

the handcuffs Camilla put on Harrow were fuzzy, but Gideon was so confused about everything else happening she didn't mention it

[starrynautilus]

Harrowhark Nonagesimus had always so badly wanted to live. She had cost too much to die.

[broresteia]

the final page of the gideon comic

[corvophobia]

saddest girl in the world

[bodyintheriver]

Wip. I think the resurrection beasts are cool.

[only-alter-idem]

all the other guests: omg don’t turn around but that creepy Ninth nun who took a vow of silence is right behind you! she beat magnus in a sword fight in five seconds. i made eye contact with her yesterday eeek she’s got so much wisdom hidden in those eyes

gideon, wandering around in circles: what the fuck is going on what the fuck is going on where is harrow where is haRROW WHERE IS HARROW

[mayasaura]

It's kind of interesting, really. For all the death and dead bodies and remains in The Locked Tomb, there's very little rot. The remains are burned, or frozen, or dessicated, or skeletonised. The messiest part is either prevented or skipped over.

I don't know if it means anything, beyond putrification generally not being very fun to read or write about. It would be a somewhat different overall tone if Palamedes had to fish around for a key in Abigail's bloated torso while Gideon tried very hard not to vomit into a potted plant. But the absence is noticeable .

[magpiesbones]

I think it’s mentioned in HtN that thanergetic conversion of a planet kills everything down to the microbes so it’s very possible that rot simply doesn’t happen in a normal decomposition-style way (I don’t think the ‘bad way’ that harrow’s parents are in is ever actually elaborated upon) and the closest thing I can think of to rot is actually the Ninth Zombies from the end of NtN

[mayasaura]

If there are people, there are microbes. We carry our dessicators with us. Mostly in our guts.

Besides, Ninth funeral custom is to put the body somewhere out of the way until the bones are ready to be washed and animated, and the Canaan House morgue is kept cold. People do rot in the Nine Houses, they just don't do it on page.

Or, on closer inspection, it could be down to the narration. Magnus is described as having "not improved" since Gideon saw him last, and it takes Palamedes some work to get a ring off his finger. Intriguing possibility: the bodies do rot, and Gideon was just too polite to mention that part.

Edit: Remembered it was Ianthe, not Palamedes, who went digging inside Abigail. And her corpse is described using very clean non-euphamistic language. So she really was just neatly kept on ice.

[scolopendrisims]

I love that Ianthe gets shot with a Herald bullet and screams/froths all over the floor only to then get up, gets hit with a "kys" from Harrow, and then gets succinctly bitch slapped so hard into the water by Alecto that we don't see her again for the rest of the book.

this is not your moment sister, silence