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derseprinceoftbd · 2 months

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I realized I should say this first before my actual thoughts on the book; Please send me your favorite fanworks! Music, art, anamatics, fics (especially those), you name it! I'm ready for everything and immune to spoilers, and I'm getting this way before uA! Hahahahahahahahahahahaahhaahahahahahahahahhaahahah!!!!!!!!

So: Nona.

Certainly the one with the biggest, most fundamental, and most annoying flaws; slow pacing, too many characters with too little personality, convoluted plot (I still understand nothing about the convoy). And yet the highs were not just the highest of the series, but *21st century literature*. Seriously, the moment Nona clicked felt like turning the page and seeing the imprint of Tamsyn Muir having ripped her heart out and pounded it, still beating, into the page. And may I remind you, *I'm* using the *audiobook*!

Man, I *really* disrespected this series. Like in hindsight without my lenses there is genuinely not one TLT character that accurately maps onto any one Homestuck character, and TSG has just fuckall to do with anything, but I'm a fucking jackass who wants to feel like she knows everything.

On a similar note, *not YA*. I am a moron and should not be listened to. This series is not appropriate if you are under sixteen. Certainly I don't really think you'll *get* it.

Interesting that John is, at once, environmental destruction, death, child predation, imperialism, and religion, but not really actually *patriarchy*, and *explicitly not* capitalism. I'm the kind of person to be grateful for that last bit, even if it does seem out of place with the whole ethos, but really, am I just missing a dimension or should there be more gender commentary? I guess maybe it's an AFAB thing I'm too non-passing to have any social understanding of what Muir's trying to say.

EDIT: REDDIT EXPLAINED EVERYTHING I WAS MISSING TO ME, VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY, BECAUSE I'M GENUINELY A STUPID PERSON.

Anywho, I don't have great confidence in Alecto-that is to say, in the idea that it will come next. I'm almost certain, in fact, that what would once have been Act 2 of Alecto will *also* be spun into its own book, to be released no sooner than 2025 and no later than 2030, and that this will be a 5-book series; I know not whether 4 or 5 will be Alecto, but the other will definitely be Kiriona. I'm willing to put good money on this. I'm not really willing to make any predictions beyond this-I might honestly jinx it if I do.

(Also John was wrong and the rich folks were 100% going to take everyone in later waves.)

So, yeah. Thank you for everyone who read along with me; I'm going to do The Unwanted Guest next, and after that, I'm thinking either Lolita or the Torah and Gospels, then the other, then The Magician's Apprentice, then a reread.

Oh, and I can finally actually subscribe to the fucking tags! Wooooohooooo!

Let's hope none of the talented people have blocked me.

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #john gaius #tamsyn muir #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #griddlehark #alecto the ninth #alectopause #alecto predictions #alecto theory #urbananchorite #the unwanted guest

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captorations · 10 months

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just saw someone criticize tlt for having too many epithets and. that is. the worst take i have seen in a long time. tell me you have fanfic brain poisoning without telling me you have fanfic brain poisoning.

look, i'm firmly on the side of being careful with epithets. it's actually a pet peeve of mine. seeing people repeatedly referred to by their hair colors or race or other physical descriptors is the fastest way to get me to close a book or hit the back button on a fic, far more so than grammatical errors or the like. that's not because of the epithets, but because of how they're being misused.

it is possible to use epithets just for variety, but that should be kept to an absolute minimum. a far more valid use of epithets is to draw attention to traits which are currently relevant. if one character is being manhandled by another, referring to the former as the smaller one, or the latter as the larger one, or even vice versa depending on context, is an excellent form of imagery. but that's a relatively pedestrian use. effective and useful, but not necessarily powerful; not phrases you can build stories around.

but you can build stories around epithets, because the best possible use of epithets in fiction is to tell you what the pov character is thinking, or not thinking, without saying it directly. it's one of the most powerful methods of showing rather than telling.

the first time gideon calls harrow "her necromancer" in tlt is crucial. it's blink-and-you-miss-it, but it marks the first time gideon sees harrow as hers. which is both negative, in that it's possessive, and positive, in that it means she actually fucking cares! which before then, and for a good long while after, she couldn't consciously admit to herself, much less harrow!

for the record, gideon first calls harrow her necromancer after having spent days wrestling with herself over whether she should care about harrow being apparently missing, wavering back and forth before giving in and searching for her, and eventually finding her unconscious because harrow is a moron who kept working until she passed out in a haunted basement. gideon calls harrow her necromancer as she is carrying her, having confirmed that she is unharmed but dehydrated and having just seen her briefly struggle back to consciousness for the express purpose of bitching at someone.

every time it is used thereafter, it carries the weight of every time it has been said previously. the necromancer-cavalier dynamic in the world of tlt is fascinating, both on a conceptual level and in every example we are given. hell, it's the closest thing their society has to gender roles, but that's another essay, and a very pretentious one i have no intention of writing.

tlt is a master class in using epithets correctly. again, if you're just so fucking sick of epithets being misused in fanwork, i get it. i'm right there with you. but epithets are not inherently bad, no more than alliteration is, or goddamn semicolons.

on the other hand, if the person meant the silly nicknames gideon keeps giving harrow, then i'm even more baffled. at that point you just have no taste or sense of humor. but as a rule i prefer to turn venting into lectures that are potentially helpful to others; it's not like i've tagged the person who i saw do this, i'm not here to start a fight.

anyway. to summarize. epithets used randomly to replace calling people by their names: generally bad. epithets used to create imagery or remind the reader of details relevant to the situation: good, useful. epithets used to show changes in perspective and show rather than tell: fucking excellent.

#whenever i see someone say something badly wrong in a literary analysis context #it spawns another of these lectures #which considering it forces me to articulate things that were more inherent knowledge than concepts i was prepared to teach #means i guess i should thank people for being bad at literary analysis #it helps me do my job better #so thanks #the locked tomb #writing

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iviarellereads · 10 months

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Full TLT series to date thoughts on rereading Nona the Ninth, chapters 9-12

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

Nona loves to swim in the ocean. The Earth loves to be surrounded by saltwater and reminded of her home and her happiest times before she was jammed into a strange human body like the Last Unicorn.

How did Varun know to find Nona here? How did he feel her? Was it when she touched the saltwater and remembered? Did she send out some psychic signal?

I just can't help myself with drawing attention to Nona's tantrum talk. I love it so much. It seems so inconsequential right up until it really, REALLY ISN'T. :D

The foreshadowing on Paul is great. I'm gonna have to come back to this chapter between now and that reveal, and review some Paul the Apostle literature, and figure out if there's deeper reference in this momentary synthesis.

But, Pyrrha's conversation with Varun! I'd entirely missed that on my first read.

G1deon's scars on what's now Pyrrha's body. The explosion. We got hints of how scarred he was in Harrow, but I'd forgotten the details.

I hadn't looked up the John verses on my first run but now, in retrospect, they're ALL standing out to me so much in relevance to their respective chapters. In the first one, a disciple believes after seeing (the conversion of Cassie to their side). Second, God showing Jesus miracles he may also do (John's love causing Earth to preserve his favourite bodies, showing him what he may do later (gross, but relevant)). Third, about hating Jesus meaning hating God (on the chapter focusing a lot on the people trying to shut them down).

And here, fourth, "making himself equal to God" (as he learns to use his necromancy). And, okay, while I don't love the imagery of "the Jews sought the more to kill him" (we don't stay quiet for antisemitism here when we know better, especially not when it's being used in a layer to describe the ultrawealthy) but we know that the trillionaires are increasingly scheming against John in the background and you can't split one part of the verse from the other.

Still, I wouldn't have appreciated it on my first read last September, I was in too much of a rush for the plot, but goddamn is it all bowling me over now. Can't wait to look up the others as I read them.

JUNO ZETA! Since reading Doctor Sex I've come around a lot on the fan love of her character. On first read, I had no clue why I should care about what was going on with the Sixth beyond caring about Pal and Cam.

Also, they'll have a Lyctor or equivalent... does Cam, or perhaps Pal at this point, know how close they are to becoming Paul?

#tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #nona spoilers #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers

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fierceawakening · 3 months

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Maybe I’m being petty here but that snippy tlt comment reminds me of nothing so much as when everyone was really excited about Amanda Palmer, and loved that one song Girl Anachronism because it was about what it’s like to be in a psych ward.

And I got why people loved it but I personally wigged out because she has like, one line comparing it to being in a body cast, and I WAS in a body cast and just didn’t feel like she’d captured what’s so creepy about it. Like she didn’t mention the pain, or the needing PAS while loathing the people providing it, or the lack of privacy (I recall an aide noticing I’d been sexually aroused because she had to wipe discharge off me, and rather than letting me be a teenager quietly she asked if I was physically okay and I had to figure out how to say yes and forestall questions about why that was there that I really had no interest in discussing with an adult stranger), or or or… it just felt like a throwaway line where she obviously had zero idea.

Anyway I complained about it and got an avalanche of angry fans enumerating for me that she’d been in a psych ward and I hadn’t, and she could write what she wanted and what was wrong with me being so off the wall mad about one line, comparing pain is okay right?

And me just feeling helpless to explain how that didn’t make me feel any less like the line didn’t speak to The real experience, that it felt like using my pain as a cute image for the Victorian horror vibe and not much else, and I would never censor but I’d never like that line.

And then she did the Evelyn Evelyn thing and everyone went “oh my god is this person maybe weirdly obsessed with the idea of physically disabled people as freaks, and maybe is that not cute?”

And just the feeling, of everyone suddenly noticing and no longer screaming at me.

Anyway I don’t know if Muir is ableist, and my point here is NOT TO insinuate she is.

Just to say that sometimes I’ve noticed an image falls flat to me, and sometimes there’s a reason that ends up being a bit more nuanced than I’m just the fun police. That I’m not saying and no one should be taking me to be saying “that image can’t exist” but there is also something kinda… missing? That I was nervous about for a reason that turned out to be pretty grokkable in the end?

I dunno.

#I strongly dislike the sitcom thing where a character is reckless #and then there’s a brief funny scene where they’re in a body cast #and then it’s never mentioned again #for similar reasons #but again #I am not for banning it #I just think that character should be more affected #it literally makes no sense to me that they’re not #ESPECIALLY when their head is also wrapped #all that AND they’re probably concussed?#that is not a ‘they’re fine next episode’ kind of a deal #they’re not fine

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bookwyrminspiration · 7 months

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popping out of a pile of sketchbooks (i am designing some new ocs... magical girl characters even. having fun) at all the notifications which have reminded to send you a couple more Thoughts even though unrelated to any of your responses!! hello again i have returned!!! and i do have to say, the fourth book in particular has DEFINITELY brought back a lot of memories of gideon the ninth, although i'm not entirely sure why...? one of my notes was "ah gtn but less fucked up. damn does communication do a lot to heal traumatized people" as like. gideon the ninth is indeed very fucked up and as much as the characters develop they do not really get shot with the therapy-inator beam, BUT they do get a similar fun situation of being a group of people stuck inside a dead/ruined thing and the occasional murder mystery/gothic horror-esque tone that both books take on. it was VERY interesting to observe the similarities, which were THEN added to by (in the fifth book) being reminded that the humans came to this universe FROM ANOTHER ONE and the other one was very likely similar to if not just our universe (although this is only based on the uhhh soft evidence that grizzst, one of the first settlers possibly, went to college & the previous universe had no magic), which is ALSO a thing that happens in the locked tomb. well. ish. it is so. just. holding these two book universes in my hands like oh when the sci fi/fantasy thing that seems so otherworldly is both that but also rooted SO deeply in a previous failure of humanity. and it is also hilarious because the destruction of the first universe is always followed by the most ABSURD names in the next it takes a minute to get used to it

Was very nervous reading through this because I haven't read the locked tomb yet, but fully intend to (I already own the first two books) and had no clue how much detail you were about to go into

But! that aside! very very fascinating. I wonder if the fact you've read tlt is influencing how you interpret the events of this one or not, because I did not make the "maybe the last universe was just ours" connection. But also it's entirely possible I just missed that detail; it's very easy to miss many many things.

And yeah!! Things being rooted in previous failure is so fascinating in the way you can't escape the past, you're always going to be affected by it moving forward. Even if you don't know anything about it. Kihrin & Co. were so completely and entirely affected by these past errors in the beginning without knowing shit about them! It shaped their entire lives--and it does for everyone else in the world, too, even though those people aren't super special main characters. something about balancing not looking back so much you can't see what's in front of you anymore while also knowing what's in front of you is completely and entirely shaped by what's behind you.

Also shout out to odd fantasy names! My bad, odd fantasy names + Janel. She's not the only more "normal" name, but when I first heard her name I had a moment of dissonance like...her name is what? I thought this was a super weird different fantasy world. I got used to it with time but it definitely caught me off guard when placed next to say, Teraeth and Thurvishar.

#a chorus of dragons #quil's queries #soryasongsaa #long post #i will read gideon someday I swear #its just not highest on my list of importance atm #but i WILL do it #and then I can also look for comparisons :)

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sylvanas-girlkisser · 2 years

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So, i finished HtN Monday (as well as the NtN preview), and well... it’s fine. Nothing life changing, but I’ll probably be getting the third book on release.

The biggest downfall of the series is, in my opinion the way in which Tamsyn Muir struggles to conceptualize death outside of the purely, for lack of a better word, bodily. Death in the world of TLT means the removal of the consciousness from the body, and the end of bodily functions. Only lip service is paid to concepts such as legacy and mourning; while the metaphysics of death is turned into simply “death energy” (as opposed to life energy, a duality popularized by Dungeon and Dragons).

And yes these metaphysics are explored in, frankly excruciating details, but it never really graduates from a matter of formula and variables. In fact, for a fantasy story steeped in religious imagery, it has a painfully atheistic worldview: everything in the world can be understood and quantified by humans, its just a matter of getting the right mathematical models.

There’s a lot more I wanna say about TLT’s representation of death, but I feel like i would need to go back to uni and spend 4 months nose deep in books about theological conceptions of death across cultures to even properly verbalize it (maybe this is what finally pushes me to start making video essays). I have a really good example that sorta sums up my feelings, but it requires spoiling a major plot twist of “The Stone Sky” so it goes beneath the cut (Hint: “Hello, little enemy.”)

All of this is by the way points in the book’s favor, I like that its’ making me think about this stuff, even if it is largely to talk about how I think the book missed the mark. I love that it tries to do something interesting, even if it doesn’t quite succeed.

Which isn’t to say that the story is without its flaws. When Gideon and Ianthe meet in the second book, and Gideon essentially turns to the reader and goes: “Relationships should be built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect. If your partner is withholding affection or in other ways ‘playing’ with your emotions it could be a sign that they have personal issues they need to work through before they are able to commit to a romantic relationship. Also killing people is bad.” Was pretty cringy, but the scene is there, then gone again, so i can ignore it.

Same goes for Gideon and Harrow’s relationship being based on a lifetime spent growing up together as the only two kids around, which we see at most one or two snippets of per book. It’s a flaw, but it doesn’t really impact the overall story.

Lastly I know I bring up Broken Earth a lot when discussing TLT but I think its justified considering the fact that Muir is, either consciously or uncosciously, making a book that is stylistically very similar to TBE. You’ve got a dystopic setting that blends scifi and fantasy, “specialist” wizard with a lot of real world academic knowledge of related topics (Orogeny requires knowledge of geology, Necromancy requires knowledge of anatomy), and of course the second person narrator revealed late in the story to be brought on by the protagonist inflicting memory loss upon herself.

Please read “The Broken Earth” trilogy by N.K. Jemisin it’s so good

As for the Stone Sky spoilers: Jemisin spends 3 books explaining in great detail how the planet doesn’t literally hate humanity, that’s just superstition. Its a domino effect stemming from a temporary shift in the planet’s gravity caused by the loss of its’ moon leading to destabilization in the earth’s crust and mantle, which is resulting in reocurring catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruption.

And then 2/3rds of the way through the last book she goes “Sike! The earth is actually conscious, and it hates humanity for a sin committed so long ago we don’t even have historical records of it, but which on a planetary scale feels like moments ago”. Specifically as a way to remind the viewer that there will always be things we as humans will never understand.

TLT has a similar concept where planets contain energy representing essentially their potential to support life, as well as the life it has already supported; but this energy is aggressively de-anthropomorphized (that’s a word now). It’s just energy, only tangentially different from the kind powering your phone in this very moment, and that feels like such a misunderstanding of the sense of wonder inherent to the fantasy genre.

#valk yelling at bones

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astraque · 3 years

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Alecto, Atreus, and Analogues: Parallels between The Oresteia and The Locked Tomb

Okay, so mostly I just wanted an excuse to write a title with a colon in it.

what it says on the tin

So, some backstory. The Atreus house is a pretty famous and very cursed Greek Family (think Agamemnon and Menelaus (of Iliad fame), Clytemnestra (of Tumblr Girlboss fame) and Orestes (of “It’s rotten work / Not to me, not if it’s you” fame) and Electra (not really famous, but beloved in my heart). It all started when the original member of the Atreus house, Tantalus, decided that it would be a super great idea to feed one of his sons to the gods. He wanted to test their omniscience. The gods, naturally, didn’t really like this and threw Tantalus into Tartarus and resurrected his son Pelops (who was missing a shoulder because Demeter wasn’t paying attention).

This original sin, as it were, passed down through Pelops’ descendants, and they kept doing terrible deeds and getting punished for them. Essentially, don’t do cannibalism guys, it will make everyone including the gods hate you and your children ! And, in the TLT universe, when we think of cannibalism what do we think of? Well, Ianthe being freaky, but besides that: Lyctorhood. John says “Ten thousand years since I’ve eaten another person”; Gideon’s “All I ever wanted you to do is eat me.” Lyctorhood really is the purest form of cannibalism.

Generations down, this family just keeps murdering each other -- and it seems like the cycle will never stop. During the events of the Oresteia Agamemnon is murdered by Clytemnestra (because Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to sail the Greek fleet to war against Troy), so Orestes murders her. And, because of this terrible matricide, Orestes is pursued by the Furies throughout the events of the Oresteia. He has to flee his homeland and eventually ends up in Athens.

And a name of one of the Furies relentless pursuing him? Not identified in the Oresteia, but later by Vergil: Alecto (side note: her name means endless rage, which is just so...)

So I was a little torn here, because these Furies’ constant pursuit of someone who committed the sin of the Atreus house (murder and/or cannibalism) reminds me a lot of the Resurrection Beasts and the “indelible sin” John talks about them sensing.

But then I’m reminded of a very good theory -- that Alecto is a resurrection beast -- that of Earth.

How on earth does Orestes get this to stop? And how might this play into the events of AtN?

Basically, Athena holds a trial! They all go to Athens and Orestes begs forgiveness (something none of his ancestors did) and Athena puts Orestes on the stand and has a jury decide his fate. Eventually, he is acquitted after a tie. And those furies -- are transformed in the Eumenides (the kindly ones) and are worshipped as goddesses, no longer creatures of revenge, instead protectors of justice.

Now, The Locked Tomb is really a series that revolved around forgiveness. The aggressive Catholicism really shines through in this matter. Does Gideon forgive Harrow for her years of abuse? Does Harrow deserve that? Will the original Lyctors forgive John for what he did to them? Is he sorry? Will Coronabeth ever forgive Ianthe for not choosing her to be her cavalier? Will Harrow ever forgive Gideon for sacrificing herself? Not all of these are on the same level, but it just goes to show how much the concept of forgiveness and whether it’s deserved adds a lot of tension.

Muir I think even said in an interview that in AtN, people will not be getting their comeuppance. I think that aligns with the themes of the Oresteia and the fact that this cycle has to get broken through forgiveness, otherwise it will continue into perpetuity. I think a lot of us saw that interview and figured it was talking about Ianthe just being awful and never getting punished by the narrative for it, but I think there’s a pretty solid chance that it’s going to be about God.

We might have all our characters repent for their crimes, and be found not guilty.

And Alecto, an alleged monster we all love for her monstrosity, might just be transformed.

#the locked tomb meta #tlt #gideon the ninth spoilers #harrow the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #gtn spoilers #htn spoilers #tlt spoilers #tlt meta #alecto the ninth #atn #atn theories #alecto the ninth theories #atn predictions #did this instead of my physics hw due tomorrow morning #and very much needs to be done #oh well #the locked tomb

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rusty-k · 3 years

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A Theory About the Saint of Duty

[HTN/TLT SPOILERS]

Hey TLT people--

There was a reddit thread about the Saint of Duty the other day (link), and I commented some G1deon thoughts of mine that’ve been brewing in my head for a while. I figured I’d bring them to the tumblr tag to open up some discussion and see if anyone else buys this theory, or honestly just to spread some G1deon love. (I imprint on minor characters; it’s a curse.)

This is more or less copied from my reddit comment word-for-word, but here’s some general thought on Gideon the First’s personality, and why I have a theory that he might’ve lobotomized himself like Harrow:

G1deon character thoughts

G1deon as we know him in HtN is likely very different from the man he must've been 10,000 years ago. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he changed significantly between the start of the Wake affair and the events of book 2.

More so than any of the other Lyctors, Gideon and Pyrrha seemed to have had this strong synergy going on. Unlike most necros, Gideon is a buff beef jerky man, and we see two rapiers in G&P's room. The winnowing/construct trial is also referred to as "Pyrrha's trial," which has always struck me as a curious detail and suggests to me that Pyrrha knew more about necromancy than cavs generally do. We know that the saintly epithets refer to the cavs, in general, but I don't think that was exactly the case for G&P; based on the previously stated, I believe they were both equally dutiful people, willing to throw themselves into each other's studies and share each other's skills.

Aug and Mercy were forced to rush their Lyctorization process because of their reckless cavs, and G1deon was next, but the fact that Pyrrha compartmentalized suggests they were closer to figuring it out than Aug and Mercy were--which I think is greatly due to the harmony of their relationship.

We know from what the other Lyctors & John have said that Gid loved and respected Pyrrha deeply. I wouldn't be surprised if the ferocity with which he threw himself into his saintly work over the 10,000 years emerged--at least partially, if not primarily--from his devotion to her. There's Pyrrha, the most spectacular cav and an all-around badass, and Gideon--having taken her to fuel his ascension--acting as John's attack dog with an intensity that would make her sacrifice worthwhile.

It's difficult to gauge how much Gideon actually enjoyed any of this; John seems to think he did, but I wouldn’t trust John for shit, and I'm sure John's understanding of G1d is heavily skewed in his own favor.

I think it's also important to consider Pyrrha's side of this story as it relates to G1deon’s current state, as well as the Wake affair. Her actions raise several questions. First of all, how long did it take for her to realize that she could take control of his body? How exactly did it happen, the first time? And how aware is Gideon? Does he have any inkling at all? Is there something more to his forgetfulness, something purposeful?

I have to imagine that in any case, Pyrrha must have gone through a lot over those 10,000 years. 10,000 years of odd sensory deprivation, which was probably hell for a fiery badass like P. 10,000 years of watching Gideon put up with John's bullshit, of watching the other Lyctors die off one-by-one and accumulate a host of mental, physical, and emotional scars. I'm convinced that Pyrrha's relationship with "duty" changed over the course of the years as she watched from this disembodied perspective, and that her "treachery" against John (her affair with Wake & possibly feeding intel to the BoE) was just a natural progression of that change.

When Wake factors in, I'd bet good money that the driving factor in both Pyrrha and Gideon's attraction to her is that she reminds them both of Pyrrha. Hell, Pyrrha even says this outright: "She was the most dangerous woman I'd ever met who wasn't me." I imagine that P's attraction to Wake, beyond this cool display of cockiness, also emerged from a sort of nostalgia--maybe Wake reminds her of what life used to be when she had a body, when she could fight and command, when she had a cause to occupy her energy. On G1d's side, he sees a woman who's dedicated and dutiful, even if it's for an enemy faction, and a woman who would undeniably make one hell of a cavalier (I think someone says this in HtN, although I'm forgetting who, so correct me if I’m wrong). I'm sure there's nostalgia in it for him, too.

Then, there's elephant in the room: Wake's fiery red hair and Pyrrha's name, meaning "flame-colored." I'm convinced that at least some of the similarities were physical. And at the bottom of it all is the inherent sexiness of finding a worthy opponent who's also hot. Lol.

Gideon Prime Lobotomy Time(?)

Here's where things get squirrelly for me, and the main reason why I have a theory that G1d's current state might be partially self-inflicted.

G&P were having discrete affairs with Wake, which inherently brings up logistical questions. First of all, how? And how exactly did Wake come to "kiss" Gideon "before she realized what they were?" How long were the durations of time in which Pyrrha kept his body under her control? In any case, after Wake & Gideon initiated their leg of the affair, it continued throughout the two years up until Gideon Jr.'s birth, which implies that Gideon Prime had some agency and willfulness in all of it. It's difficult to imagine the permanently-spaced-out-thousand-yard-stare man we know in HtN actively participating in such an entanglement.

Of course, I’ll acknowledge that it's entirely possible that I'm wrong, and that Wake just jumps his bones when she feels like it, and he's like "ok I guess," so take this as you will; but I'd like to put forth the suggestion that G1d's memory loss and overall lack of lucidity might be self-inflicted, to the tune of Harrow's lobotomy. We don't know how aware Gideon is of Pyrrha's presence, but it does seem to be the case that Lyctors having an awareness of the cav is dangerous for the cav. Being an accomplished necromancer, I'm sure Gideon was/is a smart man. Pyrrha mentions that she was "able to go underground" from him, but what if Gideon started to catch on to Pyrrha's presence through the double-affair? What if Wake let something slip? What if the thing that Wake didn't realize about them was the fact that Pyrrha's survival depends on Gideon's lack of awareness?

What if he lobotomized himself at some point, after catching onto Pyrrha's presence, at the expense of his sanity?

What really strikes me is the post-incinerator scene (HtN ch.31, pg. 292 in the hardcover):

The Saint of Duty turned his body toward you. He was clutching his rapier; but it was idle ... His eyebrows were very slightly drawn together, a sort of exhausted crinkle. He looked at you, and he said in a voice you had known since you were eight years old: "I sometimes--forget."

It was the tone--clinical, enamelled, half-defensive, half-endangered--the tone of someone admitting a final fraily. It was familiar because you had used it yourself. Understand I am insane.

It's his quiet resolution that does it for me; he knows something's missing, and he's accepted it. He's being set up as a parallel to Harrow in this particular moment, and it just makes me wonder if the parallel goes beyond his understanding of his own “insanity” and extends to the means by which he has become "insane."

Pyrrha's already being set up as a parallel to Gideon Jr., both in terms of her formerly-skewed sense of duty and her compartmentalization, so I think this sort of dual-parallel between G1d and Harrow would work nicely, if only from a meta perspective.

In short, I think Gideon the First's feelings on everything that happened are complex, fraught. I think "duty" is what defined much of his personality, and I think what we see of him now is the result of split senses of duty having torn him apart:

he's torn between his devotion to Pyrrha (and by extension, ironically, his devotion to John) and his interest in (and perhaps love for) Wake;

torn between John's command to kill Harrow and whatever it is that caused him to pull punches (I'm guessing a combination of basic decency and solidarity); and

at the end of it all, he's quietly accepting of his own "frailty," understanding that the current situation is the shitty result of everything that's happened over the past myriad, and that there's likely no way to set himself straight, even though his shortcomings put him in direct conflict with the man he's "supposed to be," according to this awful religion, and according to what others think of him.

Anyway, for those who’ve stuck around, that’s all I have to say for now! I’m just so fascinated by the Saint of Duty/the Pyrwakeon story that’s going on behind the scenes; there’s such an understated intensity to it, and honestly, it didn’t even hit me until months after my first read-through.

I’m curious to hear what other people are thinking, too!

#the locked tomb spoilers #harrow the ninth #htn spoilers #harrow the ninth spoilers #I have Feelings about G1d #and I want to spread them #and it makes me Sad when people dunk on that beef jerky shrinkwrap man #lol #don't even get me started on how devastated I am that he died off-screen

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skellebonez · 3 years

Note

You write Tang and Red's dynamic so well! Could I ask for more Tang being a wholesome dad to Red with 7 please?

Tang and TLT Red are really interesting to write like this, I could write 500 prompts of them interacting! I decided to go slightly farther back in the timeline for this one. Like. VERY far back in the timeline. So far back this is how Tang decided he was dad now back.

I am apparently incapable of not writing things that are nearly full length fics right now. This is as long as a chapter of SFAUT.

“Do you need anything else?”

The new routine... or was it a habit? Both? Whatever it was,Tang had decided it was alright, despite the fact it had first started out of a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. How could it not have, with one of the first and most stubbornly determined enemies that had been fighting MK showed up at Pigsy’s Noodle’s after hours with two Bull Clones holding onto the side of his truck, haphazardly packed with boxes they could see through the windows and holding an injured arm?

“As of 6 hours ago I am no longer assisting my parents” was the explanation Red Son had given, short and to the point, when they had all raised their weapons (makeshift in the case of himself and Pigsy) at the sight. No one had believed him at the time, but apparently something made MK stop the demon when he made to leave without another word.

----------

“What do you mean? Why the boxes?” MK asked, gripping onto the back of the demon’s coat. He let go and shrunk his staff when he tugged at it and Red Son took in a sharp breathe of pain. Clearly he didn’t think Red Son was a threat with his injury, “What happened to your arm?”

“My shoulder was dislocated,” Red Son explained in shocking honesty at the last question, turning to look at the group once again in only slight hesitation. Tang realized that he looked... tired. His eyes were red and irritated, it reminded him of how MK’s eyes looked when Pigsy first taught him how to cook and he got a face full of hot broth steam in them. “There was a... complication with some demons that wished to do business with my parents. They have been dealt with.” Tang did not miss how MK’s eyes widened in realization. He must have known was Red was referring to.

“Shouldn’t that be in a sling?” Tang asked without thinking, earning a tight glare from Pigsy and Mei as he lowered the bowl he was brandishing back to the countertop. “What? It’s what you’re supposed to do!” Something was... off. Tang didn’t know what, but something didn’t feel right about this. And not in a ‘this is secretly a trap’ kind of way.

Red Son looked at him oddly, then back down as the arm he cradled in his uninjured one before addressing MK again with an aggravated sigh. “I supposed you’ll find out eventually, you’re persistent like that. I have a... safe house, I suppose you’d call it, hidden away in the mountains far outside the city. Not even my parents know about it. I’m going to stay there. I suppose you could consider me defected to your side from now on, should a large enough problem arise.”

“Did something happen with your parents?” Tang asked, taking a step forward with a raised eyebrow and ignoring the yells of “what are you doin have you lost your marbles!?” from Pigsy and the shocked look from Mei.

The odd look was back on Red’s face, mixed with surprise and anger this time. “NO.”

“Because people usually don’t run off to a safe house their family doesn’t know about and defect to the other side of a conflict unless something happened.” Tang emphasized each of the most important parts of his accusation carefully, hoping that at least MK would pick up on what he was hinting at. The silence behind him told him Pigsy seemed to. “Especially with not a truck packed with what looks like everything they own, and double especially when they take the time to stop to visit someone they hate to tell them goodbye.”

“It-!” Red started to snap, a shaky sigh leaving him as he calmed himself. “It’s none of your concern.”

“Did your parents hurt you?” MK asked softly, a smattering of horror under-toning his words and tang could head Mei choke back a noise behind them. It wasn’t an angry one, and definitely wasn’t happy. Pigsy remained quiet.

“NO!” Red snapped with his hair ablaze as he turned back to MK, hissing in pain as he jostled his arm. “They wouldn’t-! They-! Not... not like that.” His temper and and hair and voice fizzled out like someone dumping a bucket of water on a campfire and Tang did not miss the implications of those words, whether Red had meant to let them slip past or not.

“You need medical attention,” Tang stated, putting his hand on Red Son’s good shoulder gently. Red Son tensed under his touch. “I cannot in good conscious let you leave without that at least, especially not if you’re telling the truth about not fighting us anymore.”

“Why?” Red asked, odd look back. Tang realized it was confusion. “I know I just said I’m not your enemy, but why are you offering to help me?”

“Because I want to.”

----------

Exactly WHY that managed to work, Tang still didn’t know. But for some reason his words seemed to have struck a chord with Red Son and he agreed to have his Bull Clone driver follow them (them being MK, Mei, and Tang as Pigsy still had to manage the Noodle Shop) to the secret base (or the Sea-Crate HQ) at Sandy’s.

Sandy was shockingly understanding, welcoming him onto his boat for treatment with just the barest explanation. It probably helped that half of Sandy’s cats immediately flocked to the fire demon to run against his legs and his only reaction to them was a hesitant look down as he tried not to step on them.

Red was unusually quiet the entire time, as if he was trying to understand what exactly was happening around him. Mei tried to make snide remarks to get a rise out of him, to just growls and glowers. MK tried to talk to him about anything, mostly Monkey King related questions, but again he got the same reaction. Mei eventually changed her tactic to talking about tech and that got at least some responses from Red. Eventually they just watched as Sandy patched the demon up and all of his cats piled on top of him to the confusion and amusement to everyone.

It wasn’t until Sandy had properly patched Red up that Tang suggested he just stay at the base for the night instead of heading out that everyone not named Red Son seemed to realize what Tang’s real plan was.

Keep Red Son close just in case. Tang did not think Red was lying, not in the slightest. He was acting too off for this to be an act. But he knew that not everyone on Team MK would agree with him. After all, it was easier to keep an eye on your enemy if he was right next to you. But Tang did not think he was lying. Tang thought he needed help.

He seemed at least somewhat impressed by the base but didn’t really say much. Sandy had brought up the important question of “what if DBK and PIF find out you are here?”, to which Red explained that if they discovered he was there they wouldn’t just storm the place and drag him home given demon customs and the like. Using the safe house instead of his penthouse (and wasn’t it a trip to learn he had a penthouse) was more for him to not have to deal with their attempts for as long as possible.

MK and Mei had jokingly told him he owed them for letting him stay and while their reaction to him agreeing to pay them back whatever they liked was amusing, it made Tang wonder exactly what kind of situations Red Son was used to. Where he would have to pay everything done for him back. He seemed to accept their rebuttal that he just needed to promise not to light anything on fire easily enough.

“Do you need anything else?” was his final question to Red before they left him be, trusting the security system and Sandy (and the ocean) to handle anything that may come up. He placed a hesitant hand on Red’s head, something he did for MK and something he hoped would not offend Red Son. He felt the heat of the fire that would flare up his hair. He could feel it fluctuate, heating and cooling and heating again in response to something. Fascination couldn’t be erased from Tang’s face.

Red looked at him with that odd confused look again and said. “No... but... thank you?”

Red Son announced in the morning that he would be staying and would join Team MK.

----------

“Do you need anything else?” Tang asked, placing his hand on Red’s head. This had become... something. Something he just did whenever he could. A way to gauge how Red was feeling and a way to show him he trusted him given how easily his hair flared up. As well as a way to show he did care. They ended the day the same way every time, the question and the gesture one after the other.

“No, but thank you,” was the reflexive response from the fire demon. It was said so much easier now, so much more honestly. Sometimes he would answer with an affirmative, long ago hesitant but now just as easy as saying the sky was blue.

Tang couldn’t have been more proud of Red Son. He was still the proud and loud and showoff-y and fiery tempered demon he always was, but he was also trying to show he wanted to change. Wanted to be a hero now. Red was still unsure of a lot, but he seemed to be molding himself into the entire team well. Even Pigsy had quickly taken a shine to him after he offered to fix his kitchen appliances!

Tang also did not miss how he was starting to forget to call him Mr. Tang now, at very rare times. Whether it was because of MK calling him something else or just how Red Son felt, the scholar wasn’t sure. But hearing Red Son stop and correct himself with a “thanks d-MR. tANG!” was also something. Tang had decided that was alright as well.

DBK, on the other hand, didn’t seem to think it was given his reaction in that last fight when that happened. But Tang couldn’t rightly care what he had to say about it.

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bright-eyes-strawberry-lies · 4 years

Text

Annabeth “triflers need not apply” Chase

In my last post, I said “another Annabeth hot take” as if I’ve ever posted any of my musing about Annabeth’s character (the posts Percy’s Personal Sense Of Evil and Every Time Annabeth Is Mean To Percy In The Riordanverse] do not count) here on the blue hellscape.

Two disclaimers before I write this: the first is that PJO is my jam. I’ve read those books forward and back more than five times this year. HOO...I’ve read as a whole once; read Son of Neptune twice; and recently skipped through House of Hades specifically for the parts about Tartarus. Every series beyond that in the Riordanverse (Kane, Magnus, Apollo) have been woefully neglected by me as in I haven’t even cracked the spines on them.

The second disclaimer is that I don’t like Annabeth, she’s basically the Christian Gray of the Percy Jackson series. I ship Percy with everyone who isn’t Annabeth because I think he deserves to be happy. But some people were calling for meta so here are your hot takes, folks.

Annabeth is only with Percy because he’s the chosen one.

She disdained Percy from day one, thought that he was worth less than the mud on her shoes and made sure that he knew it. This was before she found out that he’s a child of Poseidon so you can miss me with the “well their parents are enemies” bullshit. After Percy got claimed, Annabeth invited herself on his quest because she’s all about obtaining personal glory and he couldn’t say no because he only had two friends at camp (Luke and Grover).

“He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to until...somebody special came to the camp.” [...] “Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she’s been waiting for.” [Luke] (TLT, pg 102)

“I’ve been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain.” [Annabeth] (TLT, pg 147)

She was silent for a few more steps. “It’s just that if you died…aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world.” [Annabeth] (TLT, pg 169)

Well, that’s not the only reason she’s with Percy.

Chiron made Annabeth swear on the River Styx that she would try to keep Percy from danger. Which comes in handy during the Last Olympian, when she takes Ethan’s dagger for Percy (saving his life) but sucks for her because now her life is tied to his forever. Maybe that’s why she calls Percy crazy literally every time that he has a plan.

“Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger,” he insisted. “Swear upon the River Styx.”

“I-I swear it upon the River Styx,” Annabeth said.

Thunder rumbled outside. [SOM, pg 54)

Actually Annabeth is the creepy one.

Luke always refers to Annabeth as such: daughter, little sister, cousin, family. From the moment he saw her, it was a familial love for him. He constantly reminds her that they were a family and that he wants to be a family.

Annabeth, on the other hand, likes to call him “family” but she has a mad crush on Luke for the entire series that has got to be super weird for Luke. It was super weird for me, the reader. This girl can’t even hug Luke without panting like a bitch in heat (yeah, I said it, and I refuse to take it back).

“This is Luke,” Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could’ve sworn she was blushing. (TLT, pg 84)

Annabeth blushed, like she always did when Luke was around. (TLT, pg 151)

Luke patted Grover’s head between his horns, then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out. After Luke was gone, I told her, “You’re hyperventilating.” (TLT, pg 151)

It isn’t until Luke is literally on his death bed that Annabeth finally agrees that he’s a brother to her.

“Did you...” Luke coughed and his lips glistened red. “Did you love me?”

“You were like a brother to me, Luke,” she said softly. “But I didn’t love you.”

He nodded, as if he’d expected it. (TLO, pg 337/338)

NO SHIT HE EXPECTED IT. LUKE HAS BEEN AIMING FOR THIS FOR FIVE FUCKING YEARS. HIS ENTIRE LIFE IS ALL ABOUT FINDING A FAMILY THAT LOVES HIM (and equal rights for all demigods).

Then there’s the other creepy stuff

Remember that time that she stalked Percy and fans are like “well it’s so romantic!” You’re the same people who thought Edward watching Bella sleep without her knowledge or consent was sexy.

I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass – a humanlike shape. (SOM, pg 3)

As I stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight – a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one. Then it rippled and vanished. (SOM, pg 7)

[Percy realizes Annabeth has been stalking him] “Pretty much all morning.” She sheathed her bronze knife. “I’ve been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone.” [ … ] “There’s no time to explain!” she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. (SOM, pg 23)

For those of you who are like “well she was waiting for him to be alone!” First of all, bitch it’s called knocking on the door and asking to speak to someone like a normal human being. But if that isn’t good enough for you, HE WAS ALONE RIGHT AFTER HE WALKED OUT OF HIS BUILDING. Talk to him then.

But we all know the real reason she’s creeping outside Percy’s window. She’s a peeping tom. Anyone who has been around teenage boys (like, say, the girl who lived with teenage boys for five years) would know that the morning isn’t really the best time to be creeping outside a dude’s window unless you’re hoping for a show.

All she cares about is glory.

Look, we know she’s a glory hound. Annabeth is in this war for the sweet, sweet recognition. She doesn’t care about the unclaimed demigods, she doesn’t care about all of the minor demigods being shoved in one cabin (here’s more info on that). Annabeth is off in her own little world where she’s the only thing that matters.

Meanwhile, our boy Percy is fighting for his mom. And then he’s fighting for his best friend. He actually looks at Camp Half-Blood and goes “maybe this isn’t really right...” Yes, it takes him forever to get to the point where he’s like “Oh, Luke was right about everything” but he does get there.

And then there’s our sweet baby angel, Luke Castellan, fighting from the get-go for fair treatment. Because Luke has suffered his whole life (since he was literally an infant); because Hal Green died to save Luke; because Luke has spent five years in a cabin full of kids who are hurting and whose pain is entirely preventable; because at fourteen, he thinks of himself (and Thalia) as heroes but Hermes says that he needs to go on a quest to be a great hero, so Luke does and it turns out to be the worst mistake he made in his life (up until Kronos).

Which brings up a point, Luke always thought that they were heroes. For him, just being demigods and fighting monsters made them heroes. He didn’t need to go on a quest to prove himself to anyone. But for Annabeth, that is never enough. She needs to go bigger and bigger and bigger.

Glory and being better than everyone else...

Wow, here we are again talking about Annabeth and Percy’s relationship. I really wish we couldn’t, because I’ve already taken literal days to find every instance of Annabeth being a dick to Percy (in the PJO series) and writing them down, conveniently located here if you’re interested in reading it... But it just keeps coming up.

So, being better than everyone else. Where do I begin with that? How about the times that Annabeth thinks that the children of Demeter, yes Demeter the major goddess of the earth, are weak? Or the children of Aphrodite, you know, like Piper who charmspoke Gaea to sleep or Silena who charged into battle against a drakon are nothing but whisy washy airheads? Or really, anyone who isn’t booksmart like her. Like Percy, for instance.

Annabeth’s nickname for Percy means stupid. Every time she uses it, she’s calling him stupid. You know, when she doesn’t actually use the word stupid or idiot. She’s also very fond of calling Percy’s plans crazy, every time he has a plan, despite the fact that his plans have never failed. Now who’s crazy, Annabeth?

For real, though, she’s doing this because she wants to keep him in his place. Annabeth is shit for Percy’s self esteem. She constantly berates him for every little thing he does. She threatens to (and does) hit him on multiple occasions. Every time Percy says or does anything around Annabeth, he always thinks she’s going to punch me.

GUYS THAT ISN’T CUTE. GUYS REMEMBER HOW PERCY USED TO GET PUNCHED INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS BY HIS STEPDAD?

Oh, and does everyone remember where Annabeth mocked Percy’s every choice in TLT but in Battle Of The Labyrinth where Annabeth is put in charge of the quest for the first time and she spends most of it freaking out and cracking under the pressure. It sounds like someone isn’t actually as good as she thought was.

I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about this but in Tartarus, Annabeth is scared of Percy. He’s stronger than even she knew. Percy just wakes up from passing out and kills Arachne before Annabeth can even move. That caught her by surprise. Percy manipulates poison in an attempt to kill the goddess of misery, who has just tricked them and is planning on killing them. Annabeth immediately shuts that down. Because Percy isn’t allowed to be that powerful. She also freaks out when Percy jumps blind over a 20ft chasm while holding her because she didn’t know he could do that.

And Percy is so used to not arguing with her (because she’s going to kick his butt, because it just isn’t worth it) that he just accepts it.

Her home life didn’t suck that bad.

Because I was just talking about Tartarus, Percy says that it smells like Gabe in Tartarus and Annabeth....laughs? She thinks he’s joking. She thinks he’s trying to cheer her up. Why would she think that when they’re in literal hell and Gabe abused Percy for years? Because she’s on a different plane of existence than everyone else.

Annabeth’s home life didn’t actually suck in the way that she’s told everyone it did. It sucked that she got attacked by monsters. It sucked that Arachne sent spiders to scare her for three nights.

Her parents don’t suck. Not even Athena. After ten years of hanging around all of these abused, neglected, traumatized people she finally got...what is it called? Oh yeah, some fucking perspective.

Frederick and Mrs. Chase (who doesn’t even have a name) did their best. There’s absolutely nothing unreasonable about Frederick not wanting Annabeth when she floated down from the heavens like the little Grinch she is. The dude had a few conversations with a woman and the next thing he knows, she’s dropping off a baby and won’t even help him raise it? Yeah, no thanks.

Either way, the entire family was getting attacked because of Annabeth’s presence in the house. So Mrs. Chase not letting her kids play with Annabeth? Makes total sense. It’s like quarantining the kid with chicken pox so that the rest don’t get it.

Fighting about how to handle being attacked regularly? Also makes total sense but the fact that Frederick and Mrs. Chase stayed together is like couple goals. They’re the real power couple of the series.

You know what else makes total sense? Thinking that Annabeth had a series of bad dreams about spiders because Mrs. Chase and her husband are mortals with mortal sight and cannot see divine shit.

Is all of this terribly confusing for a child? Yes. Does her family deserve to die or be vilified because she’s too young for logical thought? No.

Plus they kept asking her to come home. And when she finally did, she ran away again shortly after? She does this twice. Frederick literally flew into battle for her. She is so ungrateful for what she has (she’s rich, with a family who loves her. Literally her only problem is monster attacks).

Annabeth wasn’t homeless for that long

Look, Annabeth ran away from home between July 12, 2000 (her 7th birthday) and was at Camp Half-Blood by December 22, 2000 (which would have been Thalia’s 13th birthday). Her first couple of months were spent alone...unless you count Athena helping her fight monsters and guiding her towards Luke and Thalia.

Which directly breaks the Don’t Interfere Rule. You know, the one that Hermes used as an excuse for not helping his nine-year-old son while he was homeless for five years. Yeah. That one.

Luke and Thalia took really good care of her for those few months. Annabeth mentions that the three of them built shelters all over the place, and since Luke doesn’t mention shelters in his diary or any (pre-Annabeth) flashbacks, we can assume that they built those specifically because they adopted a little girl.

The whole “Family, Luke. You promised.” Is bullshit.

Here’s why. First of all, Luke was fourteen, a baby, barely out of puberty when he made that promise to be a family. He’s only ever wanted to be loved his entire life so that was him desperately trying to add another member to what he considered to be his family (Thalia never considered them family). He also never hurts her (see my post about holding the sky for more details).

Annabeth was with Luke and Thalia for a couple of months at maximum. Then Thalia dies. Luke and Annabeth are split up into different cabins so they cannot eat, sleep in the same room, or do activities together except during the off-season. Annabeth does her best to get into Luke’s pants because I don’t know what else to call it when you pant all over the person hugging you.

Luke also asks Annabeth to join him and be a family again for three whole books to which she repeatedly says no. His last attempt at being a family and keeping his promise happens literally before Kronos possesses him (after which, it is far too late to be a family because Luke barely exists anymore).

“He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him. [...] I told him no way. He got mad. He said...he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I’d get.” [Annabeth] (TLO, pg 201).

Luke asks her to kill him because if he can’t escape Kronos and can’t have his family back, then Luke just doesn’t want to live anymore. Then he dies knowing that Annabeth doesn’t know that familial and platonic love are things so her “you’re my brother but I don’t love you” actually means that Luke dies thinking no one loves him. Probably why Luke immediately turned to Percy with his request for positive change. At least Luke can count on Percy to let him know that his entire life and death weren’t meaningless.

.Fin. Fucking finally.

#percabeth #annabeth chase #percy jackson #luke castellan #pjo #percy jackson series #riordanverse #long post #meta

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apologies-in-advance · 3 years

Text

scene bucket #5(?)

marion: why do we never get percy with feeling

feelings*

kristin: ?

marion: this kid has problems

and

we never talk about them at all canonically

kristin: yeah, idk

like there are (that i know of) two instances of ptsd

in the entire series

which, okay, kids book, but still

he's like seventeen (and so are the rest of them)

they've seen who knows how many deaths. like...

marion: isn't it a YA book tho?

kristin: yeah

but

i think it was targeted to like 13/14?

idk...

marion: harry potter has death plots and people bleeding out and george being rightfully upset about fred

but like

pjo is just yes we have problems in the subtext

kristin: that is one thing i missed.

that i want.

(which probably makes me horrible, idk)

marion: no i kind of want it too

kristin: xD

are we bad people?

marion: no

i think we just want someone to finally be sad

kristin: yeah

marion: bc these kids are like

always happy

bar leo who canonically is depressed but they NEVER SAY IT

kristin: right

like, for example, i feel like with all those deaths (especially, for example, like Bianca and Beckendorf) and with Percys fatal flaw

he'd really beat himself up

like, more so than in the books.

and like Hazel literally was in the underworld.

and even though she was in the fields of asphodel. i feel like that would mess someone up.

marion: hazel faced discrimination

uhM

kristin: eurgh

i've always wanted to explore that, tbh

like, i have this thing that when she finally comes back, she asks Nico where a bathroom is, and he shows her

and she's like "that's not funny"

because there's different colored people in there, too

marion: oh

that's

that's kind of depressing

kristin: oof.

sorry.

idk, its just how i always imagined it going down.

marion: no no you're right

im just

kind of sad

that that would happen

kristin: yeah, ik

marion: to cinnamon roll hazel

kristin: (literally one of my favorite characters)

marion: *sob* i cant deal with this

:'(

this genuinely makes me want to cry

i dont-

how????

kristin: you imagine how hard it would be for her to have to adjust to like having a brother

that was

eurgh

sorru

*sorry

( i don't know if the term white is offensive or not)

marion: nah

kristin: okay, okay just checking

marion: poor cinnamon roll

kristin: D:

marion: i want to hug her and never let go

kristin: sammee

marion: ndfowendonwefon hazel is best

kristin: ikr

marion: hazel deserves best

kristin: yes

like she had to watch her mom die

in front of her

and she thought it was her fault

marion: hazel has angst, percy has angst, leo has angst

like her fatal flaw is guILT

angst budddiees

marion: :[

the angst trio

they cry themselves to sleep and pretend they're ok!

kristin: stOP

that's soo sad.

marion: everyone tries and subsequently fails to get them to talk about their problems

kristin: yeah, ik.

and they're just like, i'm fine.

Stop! Get some help!

marion: we're fine *sobbing*

kristin: through their tears

like, the rest of the seven can hear them crying through the thin walls of the Argo but nobody says anything

marion: *whispers* trauma? never heard of her

kristin: whose she?

honestly, though, like *sighs* it's so sad

marion: hahahaha...

kristin: haha.

*sighs*

like, the fates or whatever terrible being is in charge, just throw these kids and a satyr

on a flying boat

to destroy the earth

in order to save it

marion: and only one of them is mostly ok

actually coach hedge seems ok

kristin: yeah

maybe a little wack-o

but...

otherwise, fine

marion: so 2 out of 8

kristin: (unless we're counting nico)

marion: 2/9

kristin: Who, i think doesn't get as much appreciation as he should

reyna?

marion: 2/10

kristin: ooh, yes

oh, gods were making it worse

marion: 1/5

uhm that's pretty small

thalia?

2/11

kristin: sTOP i feel nico should get more recognition, though. like, he went

through tartarus.

alone.

marion: i think he and will are a focus in toa

but idk

kristin: (informercial voice Only 2 out of 11 demigods per year are mostly okay)

yeah idk either

marion: hey coach hedge isnt a demigod

kristin: CaUsE i HaVenT rEaD iT

oh no.

oops

...

marion: only 1/10 demigods are estimated to be mostly ok

one

out of

kristin: -that's-depressing-

marion: ten

kristin: one

out

ten

marion: low statistics

kristin: the weight of the worlds

*words

(like the weight of the sky on Percy and Annabeths shoulders)

marion: imagine the demigods making an 'into to chb!' video

kristin: uh oh

marion: and they're like so what's so great about being a demigod? and they all have fake cheery voices and blah

percy's just nothing. nothing is good about being a demigod. have fun dying before 18.

i literally barely made it.

they're like

can i quit?

no. no you can't

kristin: can i be fired?

marion: no.

please?

dang it

uhm

kristin: but you can die

have fun!

marion: how is that bETTTER

kristin: *whispers* it might be

nO WHAT HAVE I DONE

...

marion: i dont like the brutal honesty in this conversation

kristin: :/

i don't either, honestly.

*hA honestly*

*brutal honesty?*

*no? okay i'm sorry*

marion: *sob*

kristin: no, i'm fine.

they're all fin

marion: just fine.

kristin: loOK what i found

" The cab sped west. Every gust of wind through Death Valley sounded like a spirit of the dead. Every time the brakes hissed on an eighteen-wheeler, it reminded me of Echidna’s reptilian voice."

tlt

marion: i-

my dude

get some help

perCY

kristin: he doesn't need it

'member?

marion: YES HE DOES

HE FRIGGIN NEEDS THERAPY

kristin: " She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again. I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning."

" The last thing I remembered was sinking in a burning sea, knowing that Tyson was gone forever, and wishing I were able to drown"

marion: IJBUWFDWBJVH GCWDBIUWS

he wants

DrOWN

himself

and he would

kristin: " Thing is, as I was choking just now, I kept thinking: this is payback for Akhlys. The Fates are letting me die the same way I tried to kill that goddess. And … honestly, a part of me felt I deserved it. That’s why I didn’t try to control the giant’s poison and move it away from me. That probably sounds crazy"

that was blood of olympus!

marion: NO NO NO NO NO NO NONO NONONONO

kristin: yEAH

he was talking to Jason

after they were underwater or whatever

marion: and jason did nothing????

bRO

kristin: he said

marion: help hIM

kristin: Jason thought back to Ithaca, when he was despairing over the visit from his mom’s spirit. ‘No. I think I get it.’

THEN

they act like nothing happened

Percy studied his face. When Jason didn’t say any more, Percy changed the subject.

marion: :[

jASON

kristin: >:{

marion: jASON ASNd PERCY

kristin: D:

marion: iowahdnbxcunejwqzhs UGGYUSKNM

kristin: wonder how many more examples there are....

marion: oh no

my stars

kristin: ik

this is depressing

marion: wow

kristin: what about Frank though?

or PIPER

like he dad got kidnapped

*her

and then like she finally saved him

and he was like you're a hero

and then she had to ERase his Memory

marion: oof

true

kristin: like, it's obviously not as bad as the others

but still.

marion: yeah

kristin: *exhales*

DD:

im sorry

one more

" " She shook her head. ‘I’m not Caesar. After finding Jason’s note in Diocletian’s Palace, tracking you down was easy. I only did what I thought was necessary.’ Percy couldn’t help smiling. ‘Reyna, you’re too modest. Flying halfway across the world by yourself to answer Annabeth’s plea, because you knew it was our best chance for peace? That’s pretty freaking heroic.’ Reyna shrugged. ‘Says the demigod who fell into Tartarus and found his way back.’ ‘He had help,’ Annabeth said. ‘Oh, obviously,’ Reyna said. ‘Without you, I doubt Percy could find his way out of a paper bag.’ ‘True,’ Annabeth agreed. ‘Hey!’ Percy complained. The others started laughing, but Percy didn’t mind. It felt good to see them smile. Heck, just being in the mortal world felt good, breathing un-poisonous air, enjoying actual sunshine on his back. Suddenly he thought of Bob. Tell the sun and stars hello for me. Percy’s smile melted. Bob and Damasen had sacrificed their lives so that Percy and Annabeth could sit here now, enjoying the sunlight and laughing with their friends. It wasn’t fair. ""

marion: i-

sang it

dang it

kristin: you sang it

marion: a nice wholesome moment turned into angst

kristin: ikr

DID YOU

SEE

THAT THEORY

about Zoe and bob?

marion: ?no

kristin: HOLD ON

this is game changing

this is what i'm talking about

Bob's a titan.

He's related to Atlas, yes?

You know who else is related to Atlas? Zoe.

Bob=related to Zoe

You know what her last words were? She said 'I can see the stars again, my lady.' before Artemis turned her into a constellation.

Constellation=Stars

'Tell the stars hello'=Tell my cousin/sister/relative hello

marion: *SOB*

i cant do this

kristin: In Greek mythology, Iapetus was a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas

marion: pjo and hoo have too much angst for my pathetic heart

kristin: s

so... bob is zoe's grandfather

marion: aw........

kristin: balling like a baby

marion: *SOBSBsbhsbejdbfeid*

kristin: YES

marion: you cant do this to me

kristin: i'm sorry

marion: i cant do this

this makes me so depressed

osinfdejnd

how

kristin: i have no idea

marion: bob and zoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

kristin: D':

yo, imagine how Annabeth and Percy would react if they figured it out

marion: no nonOnONOnONONoNOn

kristin: I think they'd break

at least percy

marion: percy is sad

kristin: eurgh

marion: it's too much

kristin: you know what the worst part is?

marion: what

kristin: his friends don't even know it

they probably think he's actually fien

*fine

marion: i-

what...

hold up

nopr

kristin: they just think he's this upbeat optimistic sarcastic person

makes people laugh because it's a tension releaser

marion: ,'(

kristin: eurgh

marion: get some help, already

kristin: you know what they should have?

a camp therapist. like some Apollo camper, or smth

marion: something

kristin: yeah

for those who would be WILLING

*cough* not percy *cough

he'd be like I'm fiiine

marion: i dont need therapy

kristin: ha

yeah

marion: yup

kristin: Perce, you sure?

yep

marion: uhm

yeah just gonna

go now...

kristin: *shrugs* okay. whatever you say

*walks away*

marion: *sob* yeah im fine

kristin: they don't even turn around (cus they can't hear him [cause it was internal])

marion: *internal breakdown*

kristin: (meanwhile, on the outside) *grins at whatever dumb joke Jason told him*

*or Leo

marion: :')

kristin: just

fine

whAT ARE WE DOING

marion: poor perce

kristin: Dx

marion: percy is the type to get shot in the stomach and tell them to go look at annbeth's papercut

kristin: but, yeah srsly

Exhibit A

"‘You still claim him then?’ Zeus asked menacingly. ‘You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?’ ‘I have admitted my wrongdoing,’ Poseidon said. ‘Now I would hear him speak.’ Wrongdoing. A lump welled up in my throat. Was that all I was? A wrongdoing? The result of a god’s mistake? "

Exhibit B

" ‘Your mother is a queen among women,’ Poseidon said wistfully. ‘I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still… I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero’s fate, and a hero’s fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic.’ I tried not to feel hurt. Here was my own dad, telling me he was sorry I’d been born. ‘I don’t mind, Father.’ ‘Not yet, perhaps,’ he said. ‘Not yet. But it was an unforgivable mistake on my part.’"

marion: ah and then the mr.brunner incident

kristin: Oh! yes

#pjo #hoo #scenebucket??#suicide #depressed

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kineticallyanywhere · 5 years

Text

Missed a couple of these I’ve been tagged in, figure I should start gaining ground back

tagged by @platoapproved

Birthday: May 18

Zodiac sign: Taurus

Height: almost 5′6″

Hobbies: tumblr, sketching, painting, animating, writing, inching my way into an original comic like I’m a wheel with four sides, video games

Favorite color: light blue-greens

Favorite book: Oof uhhh... The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The whole series, really, but TLT is just so good

Last song I listened to: Loser by Kenshi Yonezu because this reminded me that the song exists so I’m listening to it right now

Last film i watched: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh Spiderman Far From Home? I think? I haven’t been re watching stuff enough lately

Inspiration or muse: Stories about people in bright colors doing sweet flips and using fantastical powers to sick beats (you can see where RWBY grabbed me by the face and said lookatit). A bit more seriously (and sappily), anything that’s just so overflowing with optimism and hope and I have to spew it into something new just to process it all. Hopepunk. Hit me with it.

Dream job: Long term: action story boarder/key frame animator. Shorter term: art teacher

Meaning behind your URL: I was trying to replace my old url (which was... not stellar, but I’ve grown up a bit since then) and the whole two-word naming style is pretty popular cause it’s snappy. I had a whole list of options, and kineticallyanywhere sounded cool cause it’s kinda like... energy? energy that causes something, that can be anywhere. and my blog title is “Yet Improving” cause I guess I’m all about dreaming big and self improvement.

tagginnnggggggg uhhhhhh: @glowstickia @inaconstantstateofchange @captain-truffles @sidereon-spaceace @shadowsnowdapple

#tag games #about me

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iviarellereads · 11 months

Text

Full TLT series to date thoughts on rereading Harrow the Ninth paperback supplementary materials through Nona the Ninth chapter 5

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

I guess I missed that the RBs were numbered in order of discovery, I never really looked at this glossary closely before. I still wonder if they're directly related to the House numbers or not though.

It gives me a little frisson that Judith was in the "Dve Territorials". Too bad she wasn't like… conscious enough to really meet Pyrrha during Nona. That could've been neat. I don't foresee it taking up page space in Alecto, though.

"Accepting a body that no longer works is akin to what I imagine amnesia is like." This is just rude knowing what Nona's book goes into. ;~;

The opening poem in Nona is one of the big sources of my theory that John Resurrected multiple times. First-draft dreams, and "This time will be the time we get it right". Let's say it again together: I need Alecto SO BAD, RIGHT NOW, PLEASE.

I also need Alecto to come and confirm/deny how much of each story of the Resurrection is true. The way Mercy and August talked, it kinda felt like they weren't with John before the Resurrection, but obviously John's Nona-Harrow dreams say rather explicitly that they were, or their dead selves were. The order of the Saints seems basically correct, the order of their cavs is less clear on both ends.

It's very interesting how the icons change so entirely for Nona's book. The Locked Tomb signifying Nona-centric chapters is such an intense hint as to who she is that I completely missed. The fruit tree as the Blood of Eden is a masterpiece, given how chapter 3 starts. The castle/tower for the Tower Princes later. Fantastic. Though, VERY curious how the Tower Princes name ties back into the River's Tower…

"All four pairs of their eyes belonged to other people." Oh gosh. It's funny to find these little lines on reread, because it's still true for Nona, her eyes are John's, not Gideon's. And of course, Pyrrha heard the arguments, knows who Gideon is, but wouldn't have context to suggest that Nona's eyes belong to Alecto instead of Gideon because she doesn't know Harrow touched the Tomb.

Pyrrha's reference to "the Bureau" making me think of how she remembers G1deon's old name (deadname? I still feel weird about what to call the original names since we still don't know how many were taken willingly) and now I wonder if that's what era this refers to, or if she was in some bureau post-Res.

This isn't really just an all-spoiler comment but I love thinking about which names Nona is hearing as names and which she's hearing as words with her language translation.

Nona feeling a tantrum coming with the kids… ohhhh boy that is so much more ominous after seeing the third tantrum. She could be exaggerating her feelings, because that's also a thing kids do when they don't have enough emotional regulation to understand where they are relatively, but still.

It makes Nona sad that Pal can do necromancy, why? Because it makes Alecto sad? Has this been addressed in an essay post? I feel like there's a lot going on here, and I wonder if it's more "Alecto is sad at the reminder of who John was-is to her" or "Alecto gave the power to John before she was Alecto, and it makes her sad that he shared it and bred it out without her permission", or if Nona's sad because it's a reminder of being Alecto. My best guess is 1 and 3 of those, less 2 or I think it would've come up before she was locked away.

#tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #nona spoilers #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers

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samuelfields · 6 years

Text

Investing Lessons From A Surreal 2017

At the beginning of the year, I decided to track my investments with a detailed spreadsheet because my cash flow was increasing and I wanted to make sure the money was being properly deployed based on my risk tolerance. If I force myself to think for hours about how to invest my money, hopefully I won’t rashly spend it on completely wasteful things such as a sports car that can’t fit a baby seat or a vacation property I’ll hardly ever use.

On the flip side, ever since the housing crash I’ve had a heightened fear of losing money, especially since I haven’t had a job since 2012. It takes around three years as an entrepreneur to feel confident you won’t starve on the streets, especially if you become a parent during the process. As a result, I tended to hoard cash, which is suboptimal in a bull market.

This post will go over my investment thought process by category for 4Q2017 and conclude with some investing lessons learned about the year. The goal of tracking our investments is to try and take full advantage of a bull market in a risk appropriate way.

Financial Samurai 4Q2017 Investment Review

In summary, I mobilized a total of $2,263,319 into various investments in 2017. $750,000 of the $2,263,319 was invested in conservative investments (bonds, mortgage pay down, and home improvement) that should return 4% or more gross a year. The remaining $1,510,000 was invested in riskier assets with a target return of between 8% – 18%. My goal is to achieve a 10% total annual return, but will gladly settle for 8%.

The $2,263,319 invested was largely helped by a rental home sale in June 2017, which gave me ~$1,788,000 in proceeds ($2,740,000 sale price). Due to declining rents, expensive valuations, potentially rising mortgage rates, higher property taxes, potentially negative tax policy changes, PITA tenants, better investment opportunities, and less time due to a newborn, I thought it best to sell one of three properties in CA.

Overall, I reduced my risk exposure by $476,681 and increased my cash position by $450,000. Despite the decrease in exposure and increased balance sheet, I still have synthetic full exposure to risk assets due to $1,092,000 of remaining mortgage debt from my primary residence and vacation property rental.

Real Estate

Because I wanted to see if I could find a winter property deal, I held onto a lot of cash. I found two homes that I liked, but the sellers wouldn’t entertain my low ball offers. I wasn’t even sure I’d be happy with the purchase even if they did accept my offer because of all the maintenance and tenant issues I’d have to deal with again. For example, one home had a serious leak in the garage that kind of gave me a little PTSD from all the leaks I experienced at my old rental house.

By Dec 1, I realized I was never going to buy another property in San Francisco again, so I decided to invest another $300,000 in the RealtyShares domestic equity fund after meeting up with the team again for dinner. Since the summer, the fund invested in a flex-industrial deal in Chicago MSA, a multi-family in Phoenix, a strip mall in Orlando MSA, and a multi-family in Canyon Lake, TX.

Although a total of $800,000 in real estate crowdfunding sounds like a lot, I view it as buying a $800,000 portfolio of 12+ different properties across the country at much lower valuations and much higher net rental yields compared to having $2,740,000 in one very expensive rental property in San Francisco that is now at risk of depreciating due to declining rents and new tax legislation that limits mortgage interest deduction and SALT deduction.

The next physical property I will buy will be a primary residence in Oahu. The plan is to move back to Oahu within the next five years before my son starts kindergarten. I really like the idea of buying physical property to personally enjoy, and then renting it out years down the road if you have the funds and the desire to move. If the rental experience goes well, I’ll keep the property. If not, I’ll sell it and follow my BURL real estate investing strategy.

Stocks: Bought The Dips

In October, I started getting excited about the potential passage of a tax plan that would lower taxes for large corporations and businesses like mine with pass-through income.

As a result, I invested more aggressively into stocks because I felt the market would respond favorably if the plan passed. Further, my desire to buy another property kept going down. Corporate earnings are estimated to get a 8% – 10% boost and small business with pass-through income might see an even larger gain.

The timing of this tax plan is fortuitous given I’ve spent 8.5 years building a lifestyle business that has now reached a level where it will benefit from tax changes. Nothing has made me more bullish than business tax reform, which is why I need to keep my emotions in check through this investment review process.

Finally, I superfunded my son’s 529 plan with $70,000 while his mom and grandma contributed $14,000 each. We figured this would be a good method to diversify contributions since once you superfund, you can’t contribute for four years. It’s good 529 plan owners have the flexibility to use the proceeds for grade school education now.

See: How The New Tax Plan Will Ruin Your Life If You’re Not Careful

Bonds: A Positive Surprise

Bonds performed well in 2017 with the the long-bond index fund TLT up ~10%. My California muni bond positions are up ~3.5% + ~4.5% gross adjusted yield for a total gross gain of about 9%. Not bad given I was just looking for around a 4% gross gain.

Once the 10-year bond yield gets back to its 12-month high of 2.6%, I’ll be looking to buy more bonds again. I see a 3% cap on the 10-year bond yield for 2018.

Related: The Case For Bonds: Living For Free And Other Great Benefits

Mortgage Pay Down

If you add on the $815,000 of mortgage debt I paid off by selling my rental house, I’ll have paid off a total of $921,000 of mortgage debt in 2017. It feels fantastic to have almost a million dollars less in debt, even if the interest rate was low. By consistently paying off random chunks of extra principal throughout the year, it was easy to pay down an additional $106,646 in principal.

I’ve still got about $1,092,000 in mortgage debt to pay down between my vacation property and my primary residence. I certainly don’t need so much cash, but I want to continue legging into risk assets just in case there’s some type of downturn or a change in my lifestyle.

My plan is to pay off my vacation property mortgage by 2023. I probably won’t pay off my primary residence within five years because I need as much cash as possible to buy our future dream residence in Hawaii.

Related: Pay Down Debt Or Invest? Follow The FS-DAIR Framework

Everything Else

I’ve committed $200,000 to my friend’s second venture debt fund. They’ve called $96,219 within one year. I expect them to call the remaining $103,781 by the end of 2018. The fund’s objective is to earn a 15% – 20% IRR. Based on the performance of his first fund, a more likely return of 10% – 13% should be expected.

It felt great not having to do any home improvement projects since 1Q because we now have a baby who requires precious sleep. Any disruption of sleep would have been infuriating for all of us since my wife and I were like zombies for the first three months.

Finally, out of the $611,000 in stock investments, $50,000 of that was in highly speculative investments that have surprisingly done well.

Related: How To Make Speculative Investments Without Losing Your Shirt

Main Lessons Learned From Investing in 2017

My biggest mistake was not being more aggressive investing in the stock market at the beginning of the year. I didn’t have as much liquid cash because I hadn’t sold my rental house yet, but it was the Trump presidency and high valuations that gave me hesitation. I wasn’t too hopeful about tax reform either.

My best move was selling a rental house for 30X gross annual rent before the SALT deduction got limited to only $10,000 and redeploying the capital in properties around the country trading at just 10-14X gross annual rent. Life feels so much better not having to deal with housing issues anymore. It’s also nice to worry less about natural disasters.

Here are several lessons from 2017 that may help you become a better investor.

1) Try to look beyond the politics and focus on fundamentals. Given I live in San Francisco, I know plenty of people who decided to pull much of their money out of the stock market at the end of 2016. They were so blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump that they missed out on huge gains.Generally speaking, deregulation and lower taxes are good for business, which is good for business investors. Further, in my mind employment was already on the upswing and interest rates would remain accommodative.

Unless our politicians actually reform laws, there is often a disconnect between how much investors believe our politicians can do and how much they can actually do. Reduce risk if you wish. But don’t get out of risk assets completely.

2) Real estate is an easier investment over stocks. How can this be when stocks just went up ~19%? Having to reinvest my home sale proceeds was exhausting. If I didn’t have weekly reminders to invest, I wouldn’t have because of the uncertainty of what to invest in, the timing of the investment, and the actual act of deploying capital. Every investment I make gives me a little bit of anxiety due to my fear of losing money and looking like a buffoon.

With real estate, despite the leverage, all you’re doing is enjoying your home or collecting rent checks (if you’re lucky). When you’re just living, you aren’t questioning every single investment you make. Therefore, for most people who are too busy to track the market, owning real estate over the long run is an easier path to wealth. Despite my terrible tenants, the $1 million of equity gain from 2012 – 2017 was the easiest investment money I’ve ever made.

If you don’t have enough money to buy real estate, then owning an S&P 500 index fund over the long term is fine too. Just know that the longer you rent, because of inflation, the longer you will regret your decision. Inflation is an unstoppable beast that will eat you alive.

3) Think in percentages over absolute dollars. Because I had never invested more than $500,000 a year in my life, having nearly $1.8M to re-invest was intimidating. But as soon as I started breaking the investment amount into percentages, deploying capital became easier.

Find out what each asset class is as a percentage of your net worth and calculate what each new invest is as a percentage of your investable assets and net worth. This exercise is particularly helpful for frugal people whose wealth has far outstripped their spending habits.

4) Stick to an investment framework no matter what. Once you’ve decided how much you can comfortably invest each month and what type of asset allocation is best for you, execute your plan without fail. It is almost always the case you will be surprised by how much you end up accumulating or how much debt you end up paying down over time.

Wrapping Things Up

Overall, according to the final weekly personal investment performance e-mail I get from Personal Capital, my public investments returned ~15% in 2017. I’m happy with the results because my total capital exposure is significant for how much we spend. Further, my goal after leaving work was to earn a 4% – 6% tailwind a year while I build a lifestyle business.

It’s really hard for me to take on more risk because of my fear of having either one of us go back to work during the crucial first five years of our son’s life. At the same time, I can’t help but want to take full advantage of the bull market while it lasts. The further I can run up the score, the bigger the buffer during the inevitable recession.

Finally, one positive surprise I experienced this year was that once I elongated my investment time horizon to 20+ years due to the birth of my son, I became much more at peace with my risk exposure. Surely by 2037, asset prices will be higher. To invest for someone’s future feels wonderful.

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Financial-Samurai-investing-Lessons-From-2017.m4a

Investors, how did your public investments treat you in 2017? For those of you who have retired or reached financial independence, how have you structured your investments so that you can sleep well at night while also benefitting from the bull market? Graphic by https://ckongsavage.com

The post Investing Lessons From A Surreal 2017 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/investing-lessons-from-a-surreal-2017/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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ronaldmrashid · 6 years

Text

Investing Lessons From A Surreal 2017

Financial Samurai 4Q2017 Investment Review

Real Estate

Stocks: Bought The Dips

In October, I started getting excited about the potential passage of a tax plan that would lower taxes for large corporations and businesses like mine with pass-through income.

See: How The New Tax Plan Will Ruin Your Life If You’re Not Careful

Bonds: A Positive Surprise

Once the 10-year bond yield gets back to its 12-month high of 2.6%, I’ll be looking to buy more bonds again. I see a 3% cap on the 10-year bond yield for 2018.

Related: The Case For Bonds: Living For Free And Other Great Benefits

Mortgage Pay Down

Related: Pay Down Debt Or Invest? Follow The FS-DAIR Framework

Everything Else

Finally, out of the $611,000 in stock investments, $50,000 of that was in highly speculative investments that have surprisingly done well.

Related: How To Make Speculative Investments Without Losing Your Shirt

Main Lessons Learned From Investing in 2017

Here are several lessons from 2017 that may help you become a better investor.

Wrapping Things Up

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Financial-Samurai-investing-Lessons-From-2017.m4a

The post Investing Lessons From A Surreal 2017 appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/investing-lessons-from-a-surreal-2017/

#Financial Samurai

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