#giddynine

[rubensmuse]

IT'S DONE!!!!!

My TLT granny square cardigan bolero is finally complete! At long last I can signal to the world how truly annoying I am 💪😤

I used this granny square cardigan pattern as a guideline, this granny square pattern for the skull squares, and this rose pattern for the Seventh House eye roses. The laurel wreaths, blindfolds, scrolls, crowns, and even the Second House helmets were all freehanded. Probably my favorite part of this project was making all the little skulls and roses, and my least favorite part was those fuckin helmets lmao

29 patches comprise the body, 20 comprise each sleeve. Each of the nine houses are represented at least twice (including the First!), and when I either ran out of yarn or options on the back panel, I added a final prismatic square I like to call the "Lyctor" patch.

I made the sleeves way longer than necessary out of Fear, but one smart thing I did was add a panel of unornamented rainbow patches, so that the part of the sleeve closest to my body wouldn't have a bunch of ornamentation.

Super excited to wear this to a convention/the grocery store/Easter brunch & sweat to death in it.

[rubensmuse]

the way babs is full of hot air. the way he fights like clockwork. the way he is introduced as decorative. he's a blow-up doll, a wind-up toy, a cardboard cutout through which coronabeth and ianthe have drilled a sneaky glory hole, and this was all before he was dead and being worn as a convenient skinsuit! it was his destiny to be this from the very start!! you all wanna talk about who is and is not "doomed by the narrative"?? you better be talking about Naberius Tern, baby

[rubensmuse]

it might feel appealing, spiritually, to put modern AU!Palamedes in some dark academia sweater with the collar peeking out. but we all know he'd be into techwear

[rubensmuse]

TWO IS FOR DISCIPLINE SHOWIN THAT GRIT

THREE FOR THE NEED TO COMMIT TO THE BIT

FOUR FOR THE HUSTLE AND GETTING THIS BREAD

FIVE IS FOR BITCH I CAN SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD

SIX IS FOR NIXING THE STARBUCKS FOR THRIFT

SEVEN'S INVENTING A SHINY NEW GRIFT

EIGHT FOR THE DRIP AND UNLIMITED SWAG

NINE FOR THE SELL, AND SECURING THE BAG.

[rubensmuse]

wait hang on i need to vaguepost some more. i'm #1 Coronabeth Apologist and Naberius has very rapidly become my boogleyboo, and i still don't stand for the Yanth Slander happening in the babs tag this morning. why are we insisting that babs white knighting for coronabeth is some grand selfless gesture of protective fervor. why are we reading babs' petty insubordinate comments as him trying to drive a wedge between the twins for coronabeth's safety and not because he's simping for an obvious lesbian and wants to impress her. why are we acting as if this is a one-sided abusive relationship in which coronabeth "crown him with many crowns i was radicalized over the weekend I'LL DO IT I'LL REALLY KILL MYSELF IN FRONT OF YOU IF YOU DON'T DO WHAT I WANT RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW" tridentarius is the unambiguous victim. why must babs be underappreciated for his nonexistent heroism. is babs being underappreciated for his personhood not enough for you

[rubensmuse]

i just read your tags on a post from a few days ago and?? do you think the tridentarii aren’t identical twins?

My instinctual answer to this question is "You think the Tridentarii aren't fraternal twins?" Because making the snap judgement that they must be identical is just not as intuitive as this ask is implying it is. They're two different builds and color palettes, and Coronabeth has a different hair texture, so it really surprises me that them being "identical twins" is the assumption to which everyone defaults.

The thing that muddies this discussion for me is that, when people on the internet ask whether or not the Tridentarii are "identical", I have no idea if they mean "they look the same!" or "I headcanon that they are the result of a single zygote splitting into two embryos and developed identical genes!" Because those are two different things, and they involve making two different arguments. I get the sense that when people assume the Tridentarii are "identical", they are saying 1) they are monozygotic twins, but also 2) they would have the same phenotype and be indistinguishable if Ianthe didn't have necromancy eating her titties and muscles or whatever. (Which is also a silly thing to assume, because necromancy doesn't eat your pigmentation, but whatever.) Admittedly, Macaroni and Cheese being different shades of blonde is what made me assume they were fraternal, and that isn't a safe assumption for me to have made because genetics just aren't that simple (see this example of monozygotic twins being born with two dramatically different levels of melanin). The other factor here is, y'know, Ianthe being a necromancer, something hazily theorized in-universe to be genetic (something which, to be fair, we don't know for sure, see this fan theory), and if that is true, boom, there you go, fraternal.

But the other thing we have to consider is that the Tridentarii aren't, like, real. We are talking about fictional characters, so where you or I come down re: their genetic similarities will only matter insofar as it changes the meaning of the narrative. If Ianthe and Coronabeth are "identical" in the genetic sense, what does that mean for their story? Does it make any difference? Is there a purpose to me writing this dumb multiparagraph essay in response to a two-line ask on tumblr, other than to be contrarian and jerk myself off??

I mean, I think so. I think Ianthe's and Coronabeth's story is defined by them not being like the other. They are the two faulty halves of a theoretical complete heir; the platonic ideal of the Princess of Ida, with charisma and likeability and necromancy, too. Their parents "wanted a matched set", but they didn't get one. Them trying to correct this discrepancy with lies and secrecy that isolates them from everyone but each other fits in perfectly with all the other frictions of being a fraternal twin. Like, what's the point of you both? Why'd your mother go through all that trouble to get a pair of shitty normal siblings? And it's easy to internalize that, too, that expectation of unity contrasted with that reality of duality. We are one unit, but you are not like me. If we got here at the same time, why can you do things I can't. Well, fine, then, you have your Thing, I'll have my Thing, too; we're better than a matched set, we complete each other. Hang on, why does your Thing let you do something I can't? Where are you going. Take me with you.

Ianthe and Coronabeth are a set trying to be a match, and they can't make it happen, and it drives them so crazy that Corona would rather be killed and eaten than have Ianthe go do something she can't participate in.

TL;DR: Ianthe and Coronabeth are not literally identical (they are not physically indistinguishable). We don't know if they're genetically identical (monozygotic twins as opposed to dizygotic), and the distinction has not become relevant in any of the books thus far. AND I think considering them to be genetically identical makes their story thematically weaker when compared to the alternative. Therefore, I consider them functionally fraternal until Tamsyn Muir herself says that they aren't, and I furthermore remain flabbergasted that anyone in the fandom would consider that a weird interpretation.

[rubensmuse]

god gives his hardest battles (fandom who all innocently depict abigail pent as thin) to his strongest soldiers (hot girls who think she's fat)

[rubensmuse]

we probably all at least unconsciously noticed this, but i would like to verbally state it: very cool that nona was the book to finally imply an in-universe reason for the ninth house ruling family to have that tradition of speaking their closest-held secrets in a pool of salt water. now we have something diegetic with which to buttress "muir wanted the pivotal character-relationship transformation in the first book to be a literal baptism as well as a thematic one"