#castle drearburh
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dude I hate this place *proceeds to draw it*
#the locked tomb#gideon the ninth#aiglamene#is it okay that she's kinda bald? did I go too hard with making her look ancient?#ortus nigenad#love this man#gideon nav#harrowhark nonagesimus#castle drearburh#tlt#my art#bones
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Listen I’m not ashamed to admit that it took me a stupid long time to realize that there was actual space travel involved in Gideon The Ninth. Yes, I did know that the tag line is ‘lesbian necromancers in space.’ Doesn’t matter, my brain just refuses to mix fantasy with space travel.
I can tell my brain that the Ninth house is a space station on Pluto all I want but it keeps making me think that Drearburh looks like this:
#the locked tomb#is Drearburh a bad cgi castle from the 90s#probably not#is that the first thing my brain told me it looked like#yes#Gideon doesn’t even know what the sun was#Drearburh HAS to be worst than a bad cgi 90s castle
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if you’re here hello and hi i love you! and worry not i will be putting together a small plotting guide for harrow soon for those less familiar with her canon but like i said to byleth earlier she is essentially a lesbian nico di an.gelo in space
#again mostly housekeeping this week over here and getting my carrd in a good place#i also am still in the middle of reading ha.rrow the ninth so until then my interactions will be first book based or au stuff!#strongly considering fantasy verse things as canon lends itself to that by already being scifi#castle drearburh... please it writes itself#✗ ooc
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I was thinking about the Ninth and its size and its population.
If we are correct in thinking that the Ninth is indeed on Pluto:
Its smaller than our moon.
Want some way to visualise that scale? As the crow flies, its 1400 miles from Dublin to Andorra.
Thats teeny tiny. Gideon and Harrow are chilling on a rock that could easily bob in the Atlantic Ocean.
In GTN, Gideon reflects that with in the cathedral, Castle Drearburh, it can possibly sit up to 1000 but infers that it is only half full, so maybe 500 skeletons? But then she goes onto inflect that the skeleton congregation is pock marked with people, but She also gives the impression that the people are sparse among the skeletons.
Is it possible that there is only 100 to less than 200 people on the Ninth?
If so . . . . wow. They are far closer to extinction than we realised.
But then John sends 500 folks. Which doesn't seem like much, but when you consider the size of the Ninth and the one habitable drill shaft they call home that's actually quiet a lot of folks.
I also wonder if John sent seed samples, technology, foetal care boxes, ya know other goods and services to revitalise the decaying house?
** please if I have gotten any of this wrong, please dont hesitate to correct me or reblog and add stuff to it.
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Re-reading gtn right now and I just realized I never really paid attention to this part on like page 3 that describes what the main Ninth church looks like
"Gideon peered down at the bottom where shadows gathered over the cold white doors of Castle Drearburh, stately in the dirt, set into the rock three bodies wide and six bodies tall. Two braziers stood on either side of the door and perpetually burned fatty, crappy smoke. Over the doors were tiny white figures in a multitude of poses, hundreds to thousands of them, carved using some weird trick where their eyes seemed to look right at you."
I just kind of assumed everything on Ninth was black but this reminded me of the doorways at the Notre Dame that have all these people carved into them
So maybe it was inspired by this design?
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I love how we know shit-all about how normal people live on the Ninth. We know they live in a crack in the ground that has tiers in it. We know that Castle Drearburh is at the bottom. People live in cells and that children were raised in a communal nursery. There are skeletons working in snow leek fields. It's cold and it's dark and everyone prays a lot. There's the Tomb and multiple other tombs. But like nothing else.
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i drew a layout of the ninth house for a friend, and they thought it might be useful to someone else, so here it is. the layout may not be completely accurate. it’s based on chapter 1 of gideon the ninth; the lines i referenced are under the readmore
Leaving her cell and swinging her pack over one shoulder, she took the time to walk down five flights to her mother’s nameless catacomb niche.
Then came the long hike up twenty-two flights the back way, not one light relieving the greasy dark, heading to the splitoff shaft and the pit where her ride would arrive:
Out here, you had an unimpeded view up to a pocket of Ninth sky. It was soupy white where the atmosphere was pumped in thickest, and thin and navy where it wasn’t. The bright bead of Dominicus winked benignly down from the mouth of the long vertical tunnel. In the dark, she made an opening amble of the field’s perimeter, and she pressed her hands up hard against the cold and oily rock of the cave walls.
She took a turn around the vast landing site just for a change of pace, kicking absently at an untidy drift of grit as she went. She moved out to the balcony tier and looked down at the central cavern
After a while, there was the faraway upward clatter of the skeletons going to pick mindlessly at the snow leeks in the planter fields.
Gideon peered down at the bottom where shadows gathered over the cold white doors of Castle Drearburh, stately in the dirt, set into the rock three bodies wide and six bodies tall. Two braziers stood on either side of the door and perpetually burned fatty, crappy smoke.
More activity in the lowest tiers now. The light had settled into visibility. The Ninth would be coming out of their cells after morning contemplation,
They streamed down the tiers in an angular current,
Aiglamene dragged herself into the small light of the landing field.
The Ninth House was an enormous hole cracked vertically into the planet’s core, and the prison a bubble installation set halfway up into the atmosphere
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#LockedTombtober Day 6: Animal
a/n: short one today. life is busy and sucky so im falling further behind but oh well, you’ll just keep getting these into november
also i feel like i write in gideon’s POV a lot but it’s bc gideon’s brain is my brain lol
//
day 6: animal
griddlehark
//
she names the stupid thing Stasia which is way more than it deserves.
a mean tomb rat shouldn’t have such a regal name, but of course if Harrow is going to give anything a name it’s going to be the most ninth house name on the planet. and of course something that mean is going to adore Harrow.
pets aren’t a thing in the ninth house because a pleasant existence isn’t a thing in the ninth house. it’s impossible for weak things to survive. rats are about the only things that persist in spite of the odds, and it’s always been an annoyance. they nip at your fingers if your hand dangles over the edge of your cot, and sometimes you’ll turn a dark Drearburh corner and accidentally find a small colony of them. they’re not enjoyable, and the only thing that keeps Gideon from stomping on them is that they might jump her in retaliation.
but Stasia is incomprehensibly tame, settled on Harrow’s shoulders as she stalks through the halls and hidden in her pockets as Harrow runs daily service. at meals, Harrow spills droplets of snow leek soup onto the waxy surfaces of the table for Stasia to lap up, and when Gideon passes by Harrow’s study, Stasia is curled up on one of her piss old books. it’s small in comparison to the bigger, nastier rats you find in the bowels of the castle, and has fur that’s a vivid, deep black. it always reminds Gideon of what Harrow would look like if she were a rat.
but that’s not even the annoying part. the annoying part is that Harrow is a massive, raging, fantabulous bitch. a bitch that sneers, picks fights for no reason, scratches your eyes out as kids when you fight, and does nasty shit like get skeletal constructs to push Gideon down the last six steps of a steep staircase. and yet somehow, Harrow often pets Stasia gently with just the tip of her index finger and actually smiles when the thing lifts its head to meet it. somehow, Harrow makes a point to keep small bits of food scraps in her pockets to feed Stasia without even a thought. at this point, Gideon wouldn’t be surprise if the damn thing sleeps in Harrow’s room.
Harrow treats a fucking rat with more kindness than she treats Gideon.
not that Gideon needs Harrow’s kindness. she’ll sooner take a sword to the gut than bother with pining for something from someone so terrible. but it nags at her. it nags at her mostly because Gideon had gone through their whole life thinking Harrow a literal psychopath. knowing now that there’s softness in Harrow’s touch -- knowing that she fusses, cares, and smiles -- is excruciating.
so there was an honest moment where Gideon considers leaving the rat alone when she discovers its leg pinched in the rusted hinge of a door -- probably too slow racing through the gap before the wind blew it shut. its a weak, small thing that would’ve probably died had Harrow not been taking care of it. survival of the fittest and all that when it comes to the ninth house.
but the pained squeaking makes Gideon’s heart shrivel, and she swoops in to save the stupid thing.
Stasia doesn’t bite and doesn’t wriggle. she lets Gideon take her to the kitchens to steal whatever flimsy is left in the dusty cabinets and wrap it around her leg with clumsy fingers. Gideon isn’t sure if it’s enough to make sure it doesn’t die from the injury, but Stasia’s nose nudges against Gideon’s palm, so she hopes it’s enough for now. she plucks whatever crumbs are left in her pockets and holds it out for Stasia to nibble on.
and that’s how Harrow finds her, on the floor of the kitchens and tending to her pet. she’s not breathless or panicked, but there’s a pinch in her already pointed face. her eyes pause on Gideon and Stasia and her shoulders, which were already bunched when she sees Gideon’s face, drop with relief.
“you found her...” Harrow breathes out.
Gideon cups her hands around Stasia’s body and holds her out. “her leg was pinched in a door. i wrapped it as best I could, but if you have some spooky, creepy necromancy shit up your sleeve that’d be nice.”
maybe Gideon shouldn’t judge Harrow for scrambling to pull Stasia in her hands and checking her over like her parents never did for her. it’s so hard to find things that love you back in this awful place. Drearburh, as much as Harrow puts her literal life blood into keeping it alive, shows no interest in returning the favor. but a mangy little tomb rat does. it would be pathetic if Gideon didn’t somehow also understand that need.
Gideon locks eyes with Harrow who looks like she might have a compliment sitting on her tongue that seems more pleasant to chew over rather than speak aloud. but Harrow does something else that Gideon thinks may actually be worse -- she lays a hand on Gideon’s head and gently brushes her fingers through her locks so briefly that Gideon wondered if it was a hunger hallucination. but as Harrow turns her back, she leaves Gideon with a small whisper before rushing out.
“I appreciate you taking care of her.”
it’s so hard to find things that love you back in this awful place. so Gideon can only be angry with herself as her chest tightens delightfully at the newest glimpse of kindness hidden somewhere deep in Harrowhark Nonagesimus.
#griddlehark#the locked tomb#tlt#Gideon nav#harrowhark nonagesimus#griddlehark fanfiction#tlt fanfiction#my writing#thelocked
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Pre-Nona Locked Tomb reread time! Going back over both Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, Mysterious Study, As Yet Unsent and the extra content in the paperbacks, and, possibly, the already-released content for Nona. Assorted thoughts, callbacks, et cetera that catch my eye, with the assumption that anyone else reading has already seen all the above content, so obviously massive spoilers abound.
First up! Gideon the Ninth - Act 1, chapters 1-8.
Chapter 1
The door to the castle has carvings where the eyes seem to look right at you. Whenever Gideon had to go through them as a kid, "she'd screamed like she was dying." Warded?
"Your Lady would stone cold eat a baby". Awks.
"and she loved her sword so much she could frigging marry it." Awkwardness continues tbh
'"I guess I'll disgrace you," Gideon admitted easily. "I feel like I was born to it."'
Chapter 2
Harrow is massaging her wrists and hands the whole time she's talking to Gideon. Even before the reveal, nice bit of foreshadowing.
"All because," said Gideon, checking her clock again, "I completely fucking hate you, because you are a hideous witch from hell. No offense."
There was a pause.
"Oh, Griddle!" said Harrow pityingly, in the silence. "But I don't even remember about you most of the time."
They're in love.
Chapter 3
"I know the things that befall cavaliers, my lord, I know his fate!"
Chapter 4
She reached down and hauled up one of the discarded blades. It was at least mildly hilarious to see Harrow have to heave with all the might of her, like, three muscles. Gideon took it while the necromancer rubbed fretfully at her wrists.
It's okay Harrow you'll get better at that.
"You're bound to the Locked Tomb... and at the end of the night, the Locked Tomb is me."
Hm.
"... if you don't get out now, you won't even get out in a box."
"So what happens if I agree?"
You’ll still get out in a box :(
Chapter 5
"All you need to know is that you'll do what I say, or I'll mix bone meal in with your breakfast and punch my way through your gut."
Which was, Gideon had to admit, entirely plausible.
AND HOW.
Chapter 6
What was Crux doing down in the bowels of Drearburh?
'"I want to watch you die."
"Maybe, Nonagesimus," she said with deep satisfaction, "maybe. But you sure as hell won't do it here."'
Oh yeah that's a fun line I love getting punched in the heart with spikes.
Chapter 7
Timeline details - Jod hasn't been back to the First House in nine thousand years.
Gideon just flat-out in awe of Earth and wondering how anything less wouldn't be on fire. Sixth and seventh are definitely Mercury and Venus, then.
The sunglasses were found in Drearburh, so I wonder whose they were originally? Anastasia's? Samael's? (Anastasia might have brought them back.) Matthias'? Wake's? ...Alecto's?
Edit: Harrow’s reaction here oh man.
Chapter 8
The cups are 'hot and smooth to the touch, like stone but smoother and thinner.' Porcelain, I guess? There are a lot of materials that just... don't appear on Drearbuhr.
"But I see no reason not to hope that I may behold eight new Lyctors by the end of this, joined together with their cavaliers" Yeah :-\
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State of the Blog 01.01.23
Taking a quick break from queues for an announcement: Happy New Year, all!
For this state of the blog update, I’ve decided to show my hand a bit and list every one of the many projects I’ve been kicking around. Think of this as a kind of New Year’s Resolution, perhaps? I certainly won’t get to all of these, but I’m making it my goal in the coming year to at least finish a few!
(And yes, if one of these piques your interest, feel free to reply/message/reblog/etc. No guarantees, but it would certainly move it up in priority!)
Multichapter Fanfics
-If the Fifth Found Out: AU in which the Reverend Parents invite a Fifth adept over to exorcize Wake’s revenant. Abigail and Magnus then proceed to discover a war crime, report a war crime, and adopt a war crime in the aftermath. (Or they try to, anyway. It’s complicated, they only manage to get Gideon at first.)
-The Mysterious Curse of Castle Drearburh: Rumor has it that any suitor who seeks the Reverend Daughter’s hand in marriage is cursed to die soon after. Cam and Pal therefore put on their detective hats to investigate… by using negotiations for Camilla’s marriage to Harrowhark as cover! A Canon Divergence/Fake Arranged Marriage/Mystery AU, where determining the divergence event is part of the mystery. Also featuring: my aroace Cam headcanons, and eventual Griddlehark.
-Butterfly Daze: Seemingly typical Griddlehark Modern/College AU with a supernatural twist. But is Kiriona’s new roommate a vampire? A cryptid? A ghost? Or just a normal, if traumatized kid? Turns out the answer is none of the above… and John, the loving father who has always been part of Kiriona’s life, may know more than he’s letting on.
-Puella Magi Nonagesimus 💀 Magica: Crossover with the setting of magical girl series Madoka Magica, and a continuation of this snippet. TL;DR: magical girls as an excuse for a Time Travel AU. The story is split between the present day survivors in the wreckage of Canaan House, where Harrow and Gideon learn the ins and outs of being a magical girl while bodysharing, and Harrow’s wish-induced dreams of the past, where she and Gideon try to forge a better timeline.
Fanfic Oneshots, in order of more silly to more serious
-harrowhark nonagesimus does not like pizza: God orders pizza for the Lyctors on the Mithraeum. (Somehow.) This goes over exactly as well as you’d expect.
-Effervescent: In which Abigail is very confused as 200 dead Ninth children (led by a handful of shitty teens among them) attempt to crash Harrow’s River Bubble AU party.
-Growing Pains: Character study of ~13 year old Harrow, in which Gideon gets her first period and assumes (quite logically) that it must be another of Harrow’s attempts to kill her.
-All That Glitters: Harryanthe Arranged Marriage AU, where Harrow is running the riskiest puppet show of her life on the Third, Ianthe is initially pissed her dad is marrying her off to some weak-willed nun, and Yakety Sax is probably playing in the background as clueless narrator Coronabeth keeps dragging both of them off to various social events.
-Reverend Daughter for a Day: Back in their bodies and on the Ninth for [insert vague handwavy reasons], Harrow proposes that she and Gideon switch places. For one day, Harrow will be the servant and obey any orders Gideon gives her. No refusals, no limits. Naturally, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
Misc Projects
-Keep a Consistently Active Tumblr: For whatever reason, actually posting things as opposed to lurking is a major struggle for me, but let’s see how long I can keep this up! I’ve still got a few more analysis rambles on the backburner, and plenty of material for themed queues… the trick will be crossing that last step and actually putting them up.
-Gideon: The Last Bonebender: You know those “if TLT was written by a straight, cis dude, what would be changed?” satire posts? Imagine if instead, Gideon the Ninth was adapted for Hollywood by a straight, cis director. Just how bad could it be? Note: this is the closest project to being finished, but needs reworking to be less cynical and depressing. Oops...
-Gideon the Ninth for D&D 5e: A homebrew module that uses GtN as a jumping off point for a spooky dungeon and murder mystery adventure. Try your hand at the other Lyctor puzzles! Play out a full cavalier tournament between all the Houses! Attempt and probably fail to save Jeannemary and Isaac from their fate! …And yes, someone’s going to have to become a Lyctor at the end. Not happening while the owners of D&D are being jerks, that’s for sure.
-TLT Fanfic Rec Lists: At the moment, I’m up to August 2022 in my chronological journey through the AO3 TLT tag. And once I’ve caught up, I’ll have recs to share! Not sure if it would be better to do longer / broader topic lists, or lots of weird and hyper-specific themes like “Gideon Joins the Cohort AUs” or “Life on the Sixth” or “In Which Ianthe Is There.” Maybe a mix of both?
#the locked tomb#gideon the ninth#harrowhark nonagesimus#gideon nav#griddlehark#my tlt stuff#my ramblings#state of the blog#fanfic#having spectacularly failed to find the time for nanowrimo or yuletide#fingers crossed this will work out better#^^;
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I need a official comic or show for the Locked Tomb because even though I know it’s not medieval I keep picturing the background as like….being stone castle walls. Doesn’t matter that HtN takes place on a space ship. Until I’m told otherwise Castle Drearburh looks like this
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From the "40 Questions — Meme for Fic Writers": 7, 28 and one of your choice!
Thanks Holly! For the 40 questions for fic writers meme:
#7: Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
this dumb fucking joke from my dragon!fai/kurogane fic, Your Princess is in Another Castle. it's like 10 years old and I don't think anybody following this blog (except my fav scrublord, @mikkeneko) was in it with me, but i still smile to myself reading this fic and if u can't smile at ur own fic, what else is it FOR:
"Oh my god," Kurogane said, automatically, because like most dragons Ashura wasn't wearing any clothes. His knees suddenly felt very weak.
"Um," said Fai, his glib tongue seeming to have deserted him. "Hello?"
"Can I go?" Yuui asked Ashura. Despairing it was, then. At least he wasn't naked. It was a low bar to meet in terms of presentation, but so far two of the six people in this room weren't making it.
#28: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
Easy peasy! #1, montparnasse, because i adore their poetic prose (as exemplified by the intro to my fav of their fics, the Hawkebella On Southerly Winds):
Once, lost-but-not-lost on a windless night at sea, Isabela told a young sailor, “You’ve got to live like everything can hurt you.”
The sailor, new and green as a beansprout, said it was sound advice. She didn’t understand that it was not. It was fact, like iron in the blood.
#2, Spicyshimmy - handers fandom will know why, but i love their clever playing around with tone, their Hawke characterisation is so fun and sad, and Fareweel Regality remains one of my fav unreliable narrator stories. I also enjoy their larger ensemble pieces particularly in the Mass Effect fandom.
It didn’t take Bethany long to corner Garrett in the den, after he’d seen both the seneschal and Saemus out with a wink and a nod and a sigh of relief.
‘What on earth was that all about?’ she demanded, eyes alight with pure irritation, the mark of a truly loving sister. ‘Do you want the viscount’s son to think there’s madness in our family? Because that’s certainly how you were acting tonight.’
‘Better madness than magic, I’d think,’ Garrett said.
And last but not least, #3, mikkeneko, my favourite scrublord. she can be ur angle:
"Hawke, what's going on here?" Merrill took in the scene with wide green eyes. "What did you do?"
Hawke's expression was insufferably smug. "I found out how to use the Mirror of Transformation to make extra copies of myself," he said. "And... viola!"
"That's the instrument," Varric muttered out of the side of his mouth.
... she can be ur deville....
"Promise me," Kurogane insisted.
"I promise," he said. "I'll... do what I have to, to stay alive." So that you'll have something to come back to.
... but mostly, she's ur mikke.
Somewhere lost in the clouded annals of myth, in the vague spaces beyond the edges of the map where only dragons lie, in places unknown and untread by mortal feet, (do not pass Go, do not collect $200), in just such a dim and murky place, resides a tavern. This mysterious inn can only be reached by --
"How did you lot all get here, anyway?" Wei Wuxian asked.
"Unmapped tributary of the River of Souls," mumbled Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Ninth Saint to the Serve the King Undying, the Reverend Daughter of Drearburh and Heir to the House of the Ninth.
"Secret paths of Yggdrasil," murmured Loki Laufeyson, Shape-Changer, Sly-One, Wizard of Lies, Thief of Giants, Foe of the Gods and Forger of Evil.
"Experimental portals powered by the Elder Blood," said Yennefer of Vengerberg, court mage of Aedirn, hero of Sodden, refugee of Nilfgaard, mother of Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Lady of Space and Time.
"I mean I came here on a donkey, but your things are cool too," said Wei Wuxian.
And ladies' choice, #1: Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
happy endings. eventually. 😎
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Rereading (listening) to GtN and I forgot how much I missed them lol. I’m noticing things on the second pass, like how it’s noted, “whenever Gideon had been made to go through those doors [to Castle Drearburh] as a kid, she’d screamed like she was dying” (pg .17), which seems so intentional for some reason?? Maybe it’s just telling how much Gideon hated being stuck on the ninth.
Also is how when Harrow and Gideon are talking, they seem comfortable in their venomous back and forth when, on my first read, I was like “these two super hate each other.” And they do, but they’re also kind of all either of them have, and having that knowledge on a second read is interesting.
Additionally: “When I am a Lyctor, everything will be different. I’ll be in a position to fix things without fear of reprisal” (pg.58). This is just interesting to me bc it shows how disconnected everyone (surely not just on the ninth) is from how the first house is and operates. And thinking abt how Lyctorhood actually goes for Harrow…. Smh. Maybe she will get there, but it certainly didn’t go how anyone would have imagined!
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due to water restrictions on Castle Drearburh, we now must institute a one end, one flush policy
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vist castle Drearburh today!
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do yall think we'll see more of that ninth house prison? i think i completely skipped that detail in my read through GtN but to me it's super interesting. Drearburh seemed like it only housed nuns and the like but what about the rest of the Ninth? Apparently nothing worth mentioning happens outside of Castle Drearburh, but still, whats it like out there?? how big IS the House, anyway? i have so many questions.. this worldbuilding is driving me INSANE ms muir just give us the detailsssss
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