joy (acidic)

Somewhere to put favourite Locked Tomb posts I'll never otherwise be able to find again later on this hellish webbed site. Eugh!!

[vividciggy]

That was definitely Pyrrha's last cigarette

Bonus:

[fallowhearth]

It's endlessly funny to me, that so many people read Nona the Ninth - a book where a group of indigenous people from a small nation in the southern hemisphere spend years trying to build a communal plan, begging anyone to take collective action, reaching out again and again for as many people to get on board as possible, only to be stymied again and again by the individually and structurally powerful, who simply didn't care (and couldn't care due to the incentive structures imposed by power) and just wanted to preserve their own power/lives at the expense of everyone else, only for one of their number to be singled out and given immense universe-altering power by a magical entity, which of course led to disaster and the collapse of their original goals because, you know, absolute power corrupts absolutely and will magnify even the most minor human foibles - and came away thinking ah yes, the point is that John as an individual is ontologically evil.

[2impostors]

#i think people also forget john is arguably the most fucked up dude in human history and an unreliable narrator #he probably. can’t connect with who he used to be before necromancy #John The Guy and jod are different guys entirely #the regular scale of trauma does a lot to a normal human brain #john went through arguably the worst trauma a human person could possible experience #while being transformed into a godlike being #they’re not the same person #the same way mercymorn ‘we will not stand for reproductive abuse’ becomes ‘infants as fingers and gestures’ (via @monetarymollusk​)

[liesmyth]

i don't get how you can read the end of john's story and not see someone undergoing a complete mental shattering it's not an excuse it's an explanation of why he did what he did if you had ultimate god powers dropped upon you from a great height then saw everyone you cared about hunted down and murdered in front of your eyes whilst the very people who made living on earth miserable and squeezed every drop of profit from it before abandoning everyone to die escaped in front of your eyes are you saying you could've kept your head in that moment?  ( via @2impostors​ )

[aguacatito]

#john's backstory is SO important to me because it makes so much sense every step of the way#he lost the plot but like. every moment he went down that path.... i could see it.#that rage. that senseless thirst for meaningless revenge#and once he literally becomes god.. why hold himself to human standards of right and wrong? why care for single individuals at all?#and all of this tragedy is 100x better BECAUSE of the good intentions paving the way to hell#how do you look at john gaius 'no one knowingly left behind' 'begged for funds to reduce chance of damage'#'spents weeks trying to handle maternity issue bc people deserve a choice on whether to terminate their pregnancy'#beloved of alecto. she gave the world john because she loved the world!#how do you look at THAT guy and think he was irredemable from the start (via liesmyth)

[moonmargaritas]

I KNOW HOW THE DEVILS GOT TO THE NINTH

Y’all know that theory that devils are souls that have been used to fuel a resurrection? John saying Harrow’s parents committed a resurrection, Cytherea calling herself the vengeance of the ten billion, Teacher saying there are ten billion angry ghosts in the facility.

The devils attacking the Ninth are not the ten billion. They’re the two hundred. The children whose souls Priamhark and Pelleamena used to fuel Harrow's conception.

Now, you may have noticed Harrow’s parents committed their resurrection nineteen years ago, and as of yet nobody in the Ninth House has sprouted long black tongues and eyelids with teeth. So why now?

In Harrow the Ninth, as Varun approaches the Mithraeum, the River empties of ghosts. Augustine says that ghosts flee before a Resurrection Beast. “Poor bastards are terrified.” And the Ninth House has a Resurrection Beast in the basement.

But then she leaves.

Alecto leaves the Tomb, leaves her body behind, and rides her connection to Harrow into Harrow’s body. And now there’s no slumbering planetary revenant to ward off the devils, so back they come. The very next time some Ninth geezer keels over, the devils take the wheel and it begins.

The devils didn’t come to the Ninth. They were already there. They were born there, and they died there. Priamhark and Pelleamena slaughtered two hundred children to save their House, and in so doing damned it.

[poorlythoughtoutdescisions]

I love tlt because my current theories as to who Nona are include:

gideon

harrow

both of them

neither of them

[poorlythoughtoutdescisions]

*knocks on your window* any harrow the ninth thoughts?

oh yeah you're right I forgot to post my standard thoughts post

if it's any excuse i've been (relatively) busy all day and totally forgot + haven't really processed my thoughts fully but I swear I'll make a post some time today/tomorrow but here's something for now

It's really, really good! I'd love to say I wasn't completely confused the entire time but I, as per usual, only figured things out three seconds before they were explicitly stated in the text. Really love how the insanity of everything ended up making sense in a satisfying way, super impressive writing imo, I adored having Gideon back, it really was one of those "you don't know how much you've missed them until you get them back" moments. I mean yeah I was absolutely commenting on anything even Gideon-adjacent with some variant of "I miss her :(" or "where the hell is gideon", but the absolute glee of getting her narration back was unmatched. Her discussion about Ianthe over which of them Harrow loved? PEAK. The way Harrow completely erased her from her mind? PEAK. They're so in love and it's so painful. We are so fucking back.

Also I just love the random sex jokes/meme refreneces also, just really add a lot to the plot in a way I can't quite articulate but it's like sprinkles on a cupcake, yknow? Like yes these are God's newest saints but also teen/early twenties girls with no one except their crush/nemesis and a bunch of 10,000 year old adults who only have each other as company, and it really hones in how much John is in a lot of ways just some guy, like his name is literally "the most basic white guy name guy" (I have a lot of thoughts about John that I won't get into but he's such a good character), and also Mercy's constant deaging of Harrow. What I'm trying to say is that it does triple duty humanizing the characters, adding little bits of levity that I find are really nescessary in heavier material (like harrow can get) and also are incredibly fucking funny.

Also having my beloved Fourth/Fifth/Sixth/Seventh houses back was wonderful I love all of them desperately and I am back around on Dulcie I love her so much and she's ACTUALLY HER this time :D. I will say that I have come to admit that yes Pal did not have any useful information really and I may have overstated his usefulness BUT I retain my point that Pal asking enough questions of Harrow and Harrow asking enough of him could've gotten us SOMEWHERE and I staunchly believe that those two working together are a very good team for getting answers, especially since none of the other Lyctors were any help + Ianthe got vow of silenced as per Harrow's trademark.

Just a warning, I have a copy of Nona (from an online library) for only four more days (don't know if I can read it fully in that time) and then past then it's an unknown wait, probably a week or two, so fair warning for future liveblogging

Yeah :D ended up talking more than I had expected but once i got going I couldn't really stop

[literally-literate]

Me two weeks ago:

It's a shame so many people I follow are into that Locked Tomb series. There is no logical reason to put necromancers in space. It's a marketing gimmick. I heard they weren't even gay.

Me now:

ONE FLESH ONE END

[poorlythoughtoutdescisions]

I knew there was a none pizza left beef reference but it still hit me like a fucking train have I said I love John?

[runasulienadanika]

"Lyctors are the Emperor's gestures"

the gesture: 🖕

[oh-jod-dammit]

Fun thing I realized the other day, incidentally!

The Lyctors are called things like "Holy Finger, Holy Thumb" so like, technically it's not any specific finger, sure. But if you tell someone "hold up two fingers" they're almost definitely going to do ✌️right?

So anyway yeah as the Second Saint Mercy IS the middle finger. 😌

[oh-jod-dammit]

WAIT WAIT WAIT. If you go through typical, all four fingers, thumb, then start the other hand—

CYTHEREA IS THE OTHER MIDDLE FINGER LMAO

[chekhovs-guns]

okay but we should talk more about edward miller's artwork for the locked tomb series. like. these are so beautiful. the only style in which i would like to see tlt adaptation.

illustrations by edward miller for subterranean press edition of gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir

illustrations by edward miller for subterranean press edition of harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir

illustrations by edward miller for subterranean press edition of nona the ninth by tamsyn muir

[wildgeese98]

Wake is an interesting subversion of the Dead Pregnant Wife/Mother because she initially appears to be a classic tragically dead mother. Dead soon after birth, last act trying to protect her child, names her child with her dying (or in this case posthumous) breath. Then we find out the actual truth about the nature of her pregnancy, childbirth, and death. For her conceiving was akin to strapping on a suicide bomb vest. It was a last ditch attempt to carry out a mission she had dedicated her life to. Her pregnancy reveals so much about her character and mindset. It fleshes her out rather than flattening her into a caricature of a mother like pregnancy so often does to characters. It helps that we actually get to hear her talk about her pregnancy and birth in her own words, something you don't usually get from a Dead Mother. It's also interesting to have a character who both chose to get pregnant and yet found the process horrifying as well as a woman who unequivocally does not care about her child, in fact barely views it as human, and is not vilified by the narrative for it. Untimely Wake is still a character who's arc centers around her pregnancy, traumatic birth, and subsequent death. But all of those things serve a role in the narrative basically counter to how they usually would. Wake was not a mother in anything but the most technical sense, she did not love her child, she died trying to kill the baby she'd just given birth to, and that baby is special only because Wake chose to conceive her to use as a weapon.

[light-camera-bitch-smile]

[katakaluptastrophy]

I was going to make a post about the different approaches to naming that seem to be typical in each House (inspired by the note on my phone where I collect old timey names that feel Fifth), but I got almost immediately sidetracked by just how much fun Muir was having with the name Pyrrah.

Because it could of course reference a "pyrrhic victory" - a victory gained at such a high cost it might as well be a defeat. Perhaps a fitting name for the woman who advised John "if they want to make you into a bad wizard, be a bad wizard. We can write the history books to say you were a good wizard. Or at least an okay wizard."

Or a reference to Pyrrha and Deucalion, the only survivors of the flood that wiped out humanity, who repopulate the earth by throwing the bones of mother earth (rocks) over their shoulders, which spring up as new humans. Perhaps a fitting name for one of John's resurrected friends, and one of the few who liked Alecto.

Or a reference to the Theban princess Pyrrha, whose children are killed in a fire by Heracles when he is in the throes of madness. Perhaps a fitting name for a woman who thought Wake's "Bomb" was her's, and mourned accordingly.

Or a reference to the name used by Achilles when he was disguised as a girl, trying to avoid being drawn into the Trojan war. Perhaps a fitting name for a woman who we only ever meet wearing the body of her dead warrior necromancer.

[yuck-pfaugh]

News for enjoyers of unhygienic woman detective geniuses and the sad wet bisexual boys who run their errands and (sometimes) (not often enough) bring them drugs! An Ana & Din short story entitled The Lion's Tusk will appear in the forthcoming Amazon-only fantasy anthology Magic & Mystery, due out on the 28th of July, 2026.

(No sign yet of an ebook of The Fallen Master. I asked Subterranean Press months ago and they told me they don't even HAVE the ebook rights. 💀 Does anyone know anything? I live in hope.)

[runasulienadanika]

"oh you're the locked tomb fan, you must have a lot of merch!"

this is all i got💔this is all i got💔

[cl-gayry]

Ascent from Drearburh - Oil on canvas, limited palette (titanium white, lamp black, ultramarine, yellow ochre)

[poorlythoughtoutdescisions]

okay quick appreciation post for the locked tomb fandom because yall came out of the woodwork the second i started liveblogging this is genuinely incredible and very fun

[yuck-pfaugh]

What it amounts to is that many of us would give years of our lives — or perhaps a selection of our second-tier internal organs — to repeat the hallucinogenic experience that was reading these books for the first time. So we love to read vicariously through new fans. ❤️

Thanks again for sharing with us!

[poorlythoughtoutdescisions]

I'm done gideon the ninth and i have so many thoughts this is going to be borderline nonsensical + in no real order so have fun + i will misspell all the names so have fun

as for why these thoughts weren't liveblogged: I had three hours of driving today (hour and half there and back) (sports is hell) and I use my computer for tumblr

i had heard the pool scene was good but omfg?????????????

I don't know enough about anatomy for this. I had to google where the frontal sinuses were located in the middle of gideon kissing harrow

so so so glad i was reading this as an ebook because the dictionary feature was me best friend there were so many words i didn't know. as someone who uses big words too much according to my friends

the writing was just so good? like how do you blend gideon's stupid lesbian thoughts about every woman she meets and random comments about how harrows ass is flat with some genuinely stunning descriptions???? It shouldn't be possible

love some of the smaller details of the worldbuilding, how ninth soap is made of human fat, gideon + harrow's sunglasses and veil since they aren't used to this level of sunlight, it's all just adding a lot to the story idk

as someone who willingly read, enjoyed, and purchased with my own money, a book about tuberculosis, I think i'd be remissed to not mention the parallels between the older view of consumption/tb as a disease of poets and beautiful wasting away and Dulcinea's illness, I think that's a really interesting thing that I don't really see explored a lot and i really liked it :)

Speaking of dulcinea i would like to adress these posts that i made in the height of ignorance:

Yeah so i don't love dulcinea anymore. she was amazing but also she's directly responsible for literally everyones death so. Highly ironic that i (even if jokingly) said that she'd be the next victim of her own damn monster. I'm sure all of you who reblogged that post with ominous smiles are happy

which naturally brings us to the new character tier list:

Gideon

War Crime

Sex Pal

Jeannemary

Issac

Cam

I love palamedes guys i've said it fifty times we have one guy who knows science and i love him for it. it's kinda just him and harrow (+ ianthe obv) actually actively succeeding at the trials and he isn't made of war crime so that's more impressive on his part

pal, harrow, gideon, and cam's dynamic as a group is so precious to me. Pal and Harrow just talking about fancy necromancy stuff, cam occasionally adding useful input, gideon occasionally adding unhelpful sex jokes. Pal and harrow kinda hate each other kinda respect each other don't want to work together but are working together, pal and gidon are fighting over the same woman, pal and cam are a really good necro/cav pairing, harrow and gidon are a really bad necro/cav pairing and a really good necro/cav pairing simultaneously, it's all beautiful

GRIDDLEHAWK. SO GOOD. I DON'T HAVE WORDS.

the children!!!! Gideon always described them as "teens" so i assumed they were like 16 or something but jfc 13 and 14 are literal infants in the lyctor trials and of course their only real parental figures had to die three seconds and they're left with the disfunctional polycule of doom who immediately get them killed (Harrow.)

speaking of death, wtf basically everyone died. I'm assuming a few of them won't stay that way, both gideon/cam have no body, pal's only got a piece supposedly and i wouldn't put anything past him, it seems kinda weird to get all these great characters and kill them off in book one of the trilogy (also cam and pal aren't nearly as codependent as you guys are saying so i'm assuming they come back or yall are severely overstating it)

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, I'll probably post some of my comments while reading (yes i'm stealing your idea @runasulienadanika) later on + make some of these thoughts more codified and into their own posts + new thoughts so yeah! Really good, you were all right.

+ bonus for once maja wasn't making ominous comments this time!

[yuck-pfaugh]

In my defense, the ominous smile is my tag for this very common, very relatable GtN reading experience, because I couldn't think of anything else that didn't constitute a spoiler. >.> Glad you enjoyed the book so much — and don't give up! You may yet love Dulcinea. ❤️