October 2022

pygmypouter:

it’s pretty nice like this. it’s funny — i never feel like that in the dream.

iris-of-the-lambs:

“We had something very nearly perfect… the perfect friendship, the perfect love.”

sorry but i was not about to draw Bab’s dead ass body for this

smapis:

🧑‍🔬🧬🧪 same but different

kaetor:

[A drawing of Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus. Camilla is facing the front, looking down, holding her rapier in front of her. Her eyes are gray. Palamedes is behind her, turned to the side so that you can only see his head and a bit of his shoulders behind her. The parts of them that are touching are blurred together, and Palamedes is drawn in much gray-er tones than Cam. They are standing in an elaborate background of shapes and things, somewhat evoking an Alphonse Mucha piece and also a tarot card. Behind them is a ring of golden laurels, haloing their heads, and on both sides of them are long leg bones. Right above their heads is the 6th house skull-- a skull holding a parchment scroll in its mouth, and on either side of the skull are two ribcages. There is a dark border around them, and at the bottom of the image are words that read, in all caps: One Flesh - One End]ALT

We are one flesh – I am your end.

(ID in alt text)

eledsart:

spoke to her in her first language

voyaging-too:

When I was reading and rereading Harrow, I already thought that the Mithraeum was a really cool name for God’s space station, but it’s much funnier having read Nona. The Mithraeum is a reference to the Mithraic Mysteries, an ancient Roman cult/religion about a guy who slaughtered a bull, spilled its blood and thereby renewed the world. Or something, I’m not a Classicist and the secret nature of the Mithraic mysteries mean that a lot of the sources are vague or contradictory. What we know for certain that the Mithraea were underground temples, built to look like a cave, specifically the cave where Mithras killed the bull, and that the cultists held their feasts and secret initiation rites there. So far, so good, the Mithraeum is God’s secret temple, a place where new Lyctors are initiated, and where blood is spilled, or at least where spilled blood is remembered.

But then you read Nona, and find out that John sacrificed literal cows in very large numbers, that in fact he made an inside-out cow-wall, and this reference to a mythological killer of cattle becomes pretty hilarious.

lockedtomb-described:

skyrzeart:

“Don’t think about the past / it’s always there anyway.”

[ID: A drawing of Gideon Nav from The Locked Tomb in purple and gold. A young Gideon, wearing a shabby tunic and pants, hugs her knees to her chest and looks at a spacesuit helmet sadly. A sword is stuck in the ground by her feet and she is surrounded by bones. Above, a cloud reveals Gideon in the present. She is a muscular person with brown skin, short red hair, and golden eyes. She faces away from the viewer and holds her sword over her shoulder. A gold circle is behind her. End ID]

ancientannoyance:

Cytherea as Dulcinea, lounging in her sickbed, dressed in torn blue-white sheets, stained with blood that seeps out from her chest. Behind her is mirrored the shadowy form of Palamedes opening the door. This drawing is illuminated in the form of a medieval text, with a sheaf of blue green leaves arched over the top. Bottom center is a stylistic interpretation of a ribcage with blood seeping on it. Left and Right are dark blue columns with a base of blue-green waves. On left is a layer of blue & white thorny vines, a layer of blue green flower bulbs, a layer of white flower bulbs, and the words "for the beauty that withers and dies" twined in red script around the vines and flower bulbs. Right is a layer of vines and blue green leaves and one large flower bulb, and illuminated text, with flower petals and leaves twining into the text, are the words "You’re going to die spewing your own lungs out of your nostrils, having failed at the finish line because you couldn’t help but prattle about why you killed innocent people, as though your reasons were interesting…" Bottom center is a stylistic interpretation of a ribcage with blood seeping on it.ALT

“You’re going to die spewing your own lungs out of your nostrils, having failed at the finish line because you couldn’t help but prattle about why you killed innocent people, as though your reasons were interesting…”

tranthedykentarius:

Alt covers of Gideon, Harrow, and Nona the ninth from illumicrate, along with a letter from the author!!

manyblinkinglights:

nonevahed:

attentiondeficitohlookasquirrel:

“nona the ninth should have been the intro to alecto” to YOU. i think becoming intimately acquainted with the people especially children of this setting and the struggles they face and the ways in which their priorities are small and intimate and far removed from the galaxy-shattering events happening to and around them and then watching as the protagonist and her loved ones are wrenched away from their tenuous peace due to forces and history that have been out of their control for 10000 years is does necessitate like 500 pages actually

i’m on the fence here.  It was painfully slow, but it was very interesting to see a slice of life outside the core of the Empire, on this nowhere colony world, get an idea of how the system of exploitation actually affects people on the ground

taz could push me around the worlds biggest walmart in a squeaky threewheeled shopping cart for nine hours if she wanted.

nonasbirthday:

cabbajes:

harrow casually lying thru her teeth her whole life every time she repeats the Ninth’s prayer

Tags reading: #*opens the tomb* i pray that the tomb shall never be opened :) #*rolls away the stone* i pray the stone will never be rolled away :) :) #*dedicates life to waiting for Alecto to wake up* something something closed eye stilled brain #i pray it sleeps *under breath* preferably with me one dayALT

OP how dare you keep this in the tags

[image ID in alt text]

delicatestones:

once-a-polecat:

meredithalden:

nona brainrot

not pictured: magnus (would never do a crime), marta dyas (would never do a crime where anyone might see), isaac and jeannemary (the pents would maneuver them out of trouble), ortus nigenad (???), numerous well-deserving others

judith | jod | palamedes | cytherea | wake (lol) | coronabeth | mercymorn | ianthe | harrow | nona | silas | gideon | augustine | camilla | pyrrha / g1deon | abigail | alecto

Magnus - a slew of petty misdemeanors, all objectively funny & documented on TikTok.

Marta Dyas - only war crimes, sir. (Her commanding officer is in front of The Hague.)

Pelleamena & Priamhark - Only war crimes, sir, and it was worth it. (They hang themselves in prison.)

Jeannemary Chatur - be gay, do crimes, get charged as a minor & released.

Issac Tettares - Magnus picks him up after a cop gives him a stern lecture for jaywalking.

Ortus Nigenad - sadly, can’t be arrested for busking without a permit.

Colum Asht - would never do a crime.

Our Lady of the Passion - (on the run will never be caught)

Hot Sauce - attempted war crimes, is charged as a minor and released.

Commander We Suffer and We Suffer - (on the run from war crimes tribunal, sells out Merv wing when captured and then kills herself before getting interrogated)

Naberius Tern - keeps trying to get charged with being “too sexy for his shirt”, ends up charged with contempt of court for interrupting proceedings for attention, Ianthe and Coronabeth forget him in jail and never post bail.

Kevin - has never done a crime. Cannot do a crime. Baby.

Noodle - his numerous crimes are probably what Alecto is about. Cannot be held accountable, because Noodle is a good boy, yes he is.

naomistares:

the inherent insanity that is being absolutely crushed because your twin sister chose not to mvrd3r you

txttletale:

gidianthe:

thinking about early in the book when nonas like “ugh itd be so EMBARRASSING to have another tantrum :(” then when we actually see nona have a tantrum it is like. body horror ripping and tearing and bleeding

listen i’d be embarrassed too if i blood tear rip agony suffer flesh and marrow snapped bones endless screaming horror nightmare blood. in front of camilla hect no less

ryuuna:

Ianthe awful nasty girl Tridentarius

lunarlikeness:

say what you will about the sixth house but do not think for a moment that palamedes sextus and camilla hect would not write, elaborately plan, and carry out the most excruciating and disconcerting D&D campaign known to mankind. harrow is forced to participate. gideon is a paladin and her character looks exactly like her. ianthe gets down to death-saves and nobody lifts a finger to help. the fifth house is unnervingly good despite having been explained the rules an hour prior. isaac and jeannemary leave crying

blood-and-kisses:

mayasaura:

Absolutely hilarious that Mercy and Cristabel’s relationship turns out to have been platonic. That means neither of the people who originated the “One Flesh, One End” mantra was sexually involved with their necromancer. It was entirely sincere. An overly earnest tax accountant and a Catholic nun inventing lyctorhood, and they accidentally set up ten thousand years worth of sex jokes

mimiadraws:

gideon! gideon! gideon!

gideonisms:

animate-mush:

gideonisms:

John, after letting his polycule destroy the galaxy for 10k years: you know what maybe it’s unethical to decide who I promote based on who’s in the polycule. Time to message some rich people’s kids on linkedin

I am guessing this one is NOT about Dracula

this is my favorite reply to this post

vaguely-concerned:

john is so condescending about ‘A–’s hedge fund manager little brother’, considering that if it weren’t for alfred and cristabel’s financial detective work the trillionaires could very possibly just have taken off one day out of the blue and no one, including john himself, would have been able to see it coming lol. for someone who’s so horny for his revenge he sure does treat the people who enabled him to even try for that revenge at all like crap huh

(also I’m so unspeakably sad about the fact that my hunch that alfred was augustine’s *younger* brother turned out to be right. and the detail that really broke me was that augustine was the one who brought alfred into it, seemingly mostly to have him close enough to protect him as everything heated up and partially to help with their funding issues? my entire older sibling heart seized up at that, I hope if augustine ever gets spit back out from hell he’ll at least never find out about that because he is an awful old zombie bastard of a god enabler but that’s a realization I don’t think anyone deserves to have. that was his little brother, man.

btw how much of this came from john not liking sharing his found family brother (slash weird psychosexual polycule situation person it’s complicated all right) with his actual brother, do we think. because there’s certainly a disturbing trend in how all the people john loved the most ~just so happened~ to turn out to be necromancers after the resurrection and then the process of lyctorhood conveniently got rid of all the competition for their love and attention lmao. and then it ~just so happened~ he ended up with two scientists, a lawyer and an engineer while the artist, the finance dude, the cop and the nun died. god is a STEM major indeed. when john said he’d kill the humanities he meant all of them)