#gideon nav i rest my case

[harrows-bones]

“Strangers” by Ethel Cain is actually about Gideon Nav and her time in Harrow the Ninth and how she just wants Harrow to eat her because that’s why she sacrificed herself, and not understanding why Harrow couldn’t just do the one thing she asked of her

“I never blamed you for loving me the way that you did”

#i rest my fucking case #the locked tomb #gideon nav #gideon x harrow #griddlehark #ethel cain #harrowhark nonagesimus #harrow the ninth

[lockedtombbrainworms]

Patriarchy and the Nine Houses

I've been mulling this one over in my brain on long drives recently, and as I'm currently at home resting up after an insanely busy few days and also some sort of illness flareup, I want to put some of what I've come up with into writing. These are coming from the perspective of a somewhat masculine-presenting queer trans woman with some degree of familiarity with anarcha-feminism, a lot more familiarity with anarchism in general, but not really much academic feminist background. I'm also white, which may well impact what I'm taking away from this here.

Something else that might influence what I've written here are the frankly insane doses of decongestants I'm currently on, but here goes.

So firstly, I don't think 'Patriarchy' as common feminist discourse uses the term exists within the Houses.

In terms of "Evidence Against", for one, there is seemingly no gendered violence in the Nine Houses - I've seen more than one post about how at no point does Gideon Nav feel like she's in any sort of danger of sexual assault or anything like that from the men she interacts with - she's quite happy to walk into Silas and Colum's room, and at no point does the narrative mention her being concerned about sexual violence while she, a teenage butch lesbian, is trapped in a room with an older man whose intentions towards her are unknown. She gets worried, sure, but mostly about swords or necromancy, not sexual assault. Our Griddle may be a bit sheltered, sure, but she's read a lot of adult-oriented comics, which in my experience tend to be fairly lurid about any and every fucked up thing that happens in the society that produced them, and none of those, nor anything she's been told by Aiglamene or witnessed on the Ninth, seem to have instilled any fear of patriarchal sexual violence in her.

The houses also don't seem to have a concept of homophobia or particularly rigid gender roles - at absolutely no point does anyone take issue with Gideon's sexuality and gender presentation, despite various other characters being absolute shits to her in various other ways throughout the book - Crux, Naberius, Silas, the Reverend Parents - at no point is it even hinted at that any of them were homophobic or shitty about gender-non-conformity. I don't really think you can get rid of any of those things entirely without also at least taking a big chunk out of patriarchy, if not eliminating it - they're all too tightly linked together.

I honestly don't think you can describe, for instance, Palamedes or Silas or Naberius as benefitting from "male privilege" in the context of the books without getting into some weird gender-essentialist bollocks about how being male Just Does That For You, at which point you may well be sliding into terf shit and I don't really think we have much of a common ground to discuss this from. The fandom's treatment of gender (and race, while we're at it) is another matter, but in the context of the books, I genuinely don't see "male privilege" or "patriarchy" existing within the wider society of the Nine Houses. You can look at the necro/cav dynamic as a sort of metaphor for gender, and I do consider them through that lense in some cases, but it's not a 1:1 map for gender and I don't think it's trying to be.

You could argue there's some weird patriarchal ideas of manhood in Mortus' treatment of Ortus - the guy very clearly abused his son to try to "toughen him up" and make him into a warrior when Ortus wanted nothing more than to write poetry, but while that's arguably written with a patriarchal bent to it from a doylist perspective, at no point does anyone actually tell Ortus he's less of a man in the text. What they do tell him is that he's less of a cavalier, which is why I actually view that dynamic as much more of an exploration of cavalier-hood as a metaphor for gender - 'toxic cavalierhood' rather than toxic masculinity, albeit via a dynamic that's unforunately very familiar to a lot of us.

The big flaw in my argument is that, unfortunately, in the literal sense of the word, the Nine Houses very much are a capital-P Patriarchy. They're run by an immortal God-Emperor dude with some fairly intense catholic shit going on! John actually was raised in a patriarchal society, and while his experiences as a he remembers it, and while he seems to have done an OK job of not passing homophobia, misogyny or strict gender roles onto the society he built after literally fucking nuking the one he grew up in, I don't know if someone in his position of power is really in a position to unlearn anything more at this point. To a lesser extent we see it with Augustine as well - the Saint of Patience definitely reads as a misogynist at times during the text (telling Mercymorn "you have made yourself unlovable" and his whole thing about Ianthe chosing to be broken spring to mind), and while he may not remember the pre-resurrection world, it still shaped him (and his brother, who is as much a part of the man we meet in HtN as the original Augustine who was resurrected).

Also none of this is to say the society of the Nine Houses is perfect - far from it! There's all sorts of fucked up abuse dynamics present, and the entire thing has been a fucked-up expansionist empire since it found someone to do expansionist imperialism on about five millennia before the story takes place, before which it was still a fucked-up death cult living on the reanimated wreckage of a dead solar system. If anything, the lack of misogyny, homophobia, rigid gender roles and the like are a parable - it doesn't matter how inclusive and egalitarian the society of the imperial core is when it perpetuates brutal violence on the imperial periphery.

#the locked tomb #tlt meta #tltposting

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

anastasia and alecto's vow, ninth house mythology, and a 10,000-year-old angry voicemail

alright get ready for a long post because i think i may have figured out something related to anastasia and alecto's vow. but also maybe this is very obvious and everyone else has already been thinking this way and it only just clicked for me. if anyone has said any of this before please direct me to it i'd love to see it!! contains spoilers for the whole series so far.

so rereading the passage in gtn where harrow describes the mythology of the ninth, the house's understanding of what is in the tomb seems very different from how john feels about alecto. now it could totally just be that the original meanings weren't retained over 10,000 years and new interpretations emerged (that's twice the length of recorded human history after all), but i don't think that's the case. i don't think the ninth house has different religious practices from the rest of the houses only because of their isolation, i think their unique understanding of the resurrection was something intentionally communicated by anastasia.

we know the ninth house wasn't meant to exist, that john killed samael during anastasia's ascension and then essentially banished her to die, and that anastasia probably holds a lot of ill will towards him. we also know she cared about alecto. i think there is something to be said for the disconnect between ninth house mythology and how john presents his relationship with alecto; that when anastasia survived she did not pass on the history of how john felt about alecto but how anastasia and/or alecto felt about john.

in the pool scene harrow says: "The Locked Tomb’s meant to house the one true enemy of the King Undying, Nav, something older than time, the cost of the Resurrection; the beast that he defeated once but can’t defeat twice. The abyss of the First. The death of the Lord."

john never saw alecto as his enemy! john never saw her as a beast he had to defeat. he loved her, she was a weird combination mother/daughter/wife figure to him, and he didn't want to put her in the tomb. (this is the part when i'll point out that all of this depends on john not lying about his dynamic with alecto, but based on his chapters in ntn and the way the other lyctors talk to him about her i don't think he is.)

BUT! maybe a furious and vengeful alecto would see herself as his enemy. maybe with the help of anastasia she wanted to preserve a message for john, a warning, something like "get ready because you cannot kill me and i will come back to be your destruction." and this is where we get to the most interesting thing to me about the ninth's mythology around her, it implies knowledge of alecto's perfect lyctorhood with john.

this is the crucial turning point of htn that not even the lyctors knew, they only figured it out when they saw gideon's eyes in harrow's body! but why would the ninth house pray for the thing in the tomb, the death of the lord, to LIVE and SLEEP. why wouldn't they just pray for it to die? why would they say that alecto is a beast that god could not defeat twice? because as we know alecto holds part of john's soul in her and therefore has to live for him to survive. she needs to stay alive locked away because he cannot kill her without killing himself and therefore making the sun go dark and destroying the empire. so here is my theory about the vow:

alecto told anastasia the truth about her and john. i don't know how exactly this relates to the vow alecto made to her, but i think anastasia knew about their lyctorhood. maybe part of it was something like alecto would help avenge samael for anastasia if anastasia preserved some of the truth about john and passed down the threat that alecto was coming for him. i think the overall vow is much more consequential than that but anyways my point is - it's not a coincidence that the ninth managed to get so many subtle details right. it does seem to be implied that the lyctors know alecto is the earth, so the "something older than time" line in harrow's description makes sense, but "the cost of the Resurrection," "the beast he defeated once," to me both of these imply that john is the one who destroyed the earth. the latter example is clear but the former i think is speaking to how the resurrection couldn't happen without john killing and absorbing everyone's souls and then eating part of the earth herself to become powerful enough to bring the solar system back to life. it's not clear how much the lyctors' memories were wiped and if they know about the exact cause of the apocalypse, but if they didn't know it was all john's fault, it's very interesting that ninth house beliefs kind of are implying that it was (even if the people of the ninth don't understand it). maybe alecto told anastasia all of that as well.

finally, the biggest point of disconnect is that the ninth house sees the thing in the tomb as a threat, as something that would destroy god if it got out. john probably knew alecto wouldn't be happy if she woke up, but i don't think he ever tries to frame her as a threat to himself. at the same time i don't think "the death of the Lord" only refers to the fact that if alecto dies john dies, i think it's also a message from alecto that she will be after him. and guess what alecto does the second she wakes up - finds god and stabs him through the heart! (which would have put out dominicus if it had killed him so tbh maybe harrow's parents were kinda correct in their fears.) anastasia sent that threat for her.

so anyways! i think the entire religious beliefs of the ninth house are alecto's "I'm coming to fuck you up I promise you that I promise you I'm coming to fuck you up" moment, and anastasia knew about alecto and john's perfect lyctorhood. (maybe because, as a lot of people have theorized, she almost figured out how to do it herself before john stopped her? but that's another post entirely.) excited to see if alecto carries out this myriad long threat in atn <3

#there is a lot more i could say about this but for now yeah this is all #like i said maybe im the only one figuring this out now #but realizing the ninth prays for things that will preserve john's perfect lyctorhood is what made me think anastasia might have known #would love other people's thoughts! #tlt #the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #tlt spoilers #ntn spoilers #nona spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #htn spoilers #harrow the ninth spoilers #gtn spoilers #gideon the ninth spoilers #tlt meta #the locked tomb meta #analysis #ntn #nona the ninth #gtn #gideon the ninth #htn #harrow the ninth #john gaius #alecto #mine

[dabs-into-oblivion]

closing out the year with a short locked tomb fic because the unwanted guest reactivated my bullshit.

Title: do not go gentle into that good night. go loud.

Summary:

That's the thing about self-sacrifice. You think it all through, you make all of your preparations, and once you've done it you realise you forgot to say goodbye. Of course, when I woke up that morning, I didn't know it would be my last. I must have assumed we would have a few more days. Time stretched so oddly at the end, there—I could see it in Cam’s face, and Harrowhark’s and Gideon's. We were all so tightly wound, and when we came from Marta’s body through the sickroom and then found Ianthe standing over Naberius’ body and the Eighth decided to be the Eighth about it, I thought, This is the day when it ends. If I had said goodbye to Cam then, if I had let her see me leave the room, I would not have had time. I was able to keep Gideon suspended while I had it out with Cytherea, but that was only because she was not my cavalier. I had not spent my whole life with her, taking our every step together.

—

In the truck, while Nona is in Honesty's house, Palamedes makes one last tape recording.

> link and short excerpt are behind the cut <

Clack.

Being dead affords one a lot of time for contemplation. Even now, sitting here in the truck while Nona is inside asking her friends for information that will determine whether the Sixth survives, in a body that isn't Camilla’s for the first time in months, all I can do is think. I suppose that's good, in a sense. I can rest up for whatever comes next.

I was never really sure why I became a revenant and Dulcinea didn't—it probably has something to do with Cam, and with Dulcie’s illness. Revenants need to want to live, or at least to have something to live for. That's a mind fuck, a rabbit hole best not traversed. If I start thinking I wasn't enough for her to live for… well. I’d better not. It would be cruel and unusual punishment, and she wouldn't like it at all.

But in my case, I think it wasn't just me who wanted me to live. It was Camilla, my Scholar, my cavalier, who refused to let me go. She never told me how she survived Cytherea—it never mattered more than the other things we had to say to each other, bouncing in and out of her head like tennis balls and pressing the tape recorder in between. But she did survive, very plausibly in fact, and she went looking for me in the River, and in the end it was Harrowhark who found me.

What Ianthe said about Coronabeth… now that's interesting. It’s the Naberius in her again, of course. He could never bear to be thought of as a lesser swordsman than someone who was never afforded the chance to be a real cavalier. And Coronabeth wanted it. She would have died if it had meant ascension as part of her sister; but even without Lyctorhood, she wanted what being Ianthe’s cavalier meant. None of us saw it at the time, and more to the point, none of us would have believed it of her; but she was terribly jealous of Naberius. She was jealous of Marta Dyas, too. She might even have been jealous of Gideon Nav.

read more on ao3

#the locked tomb series #the locked tomb fanfiction #the locked tomb spoilers #palamedes sextus #camilla hect #dulcinea septimus #nona the ninth spoilers #the unwanted guest spoilers #az writes #my fics #posts into oblivion

[echoequinox]

I finally finished Gideon the Ninth! And boy fucking howdy was that book a slog to get through lmfao, it’s not my favorite book, but it did make me excited for Harrow the Ninth, and I’ll explain that and also why I Didn’t Like It under a read more because lots of spoilers if you haven’t read it

There are five key parts to any given book. Narrative voice, plot, setting, character dynamics, and of course, characters. If you have even four of these INCREDIBLY solid, while one suffers, the book is hard to read.

Case and point: Gideon the Ninth.

I fucking hate Gideon Nav. I fucking hate Gideon Nav, I understand that Tamsyn was writing Dave Strider as an even more annoying lesbian, but all of the nuance and good characterization that Huss gave Dave was completely lost when turned into a late-teens/early-20-year-old lesbian who had just recently graduated David Karp’s Ermagerd Academy for Heckin Puppers.

The way she talks is insufferable. The way she THINKS is insufferable. At any given moment, I agreed with her own self loathing that Harrow should have killed her when she had the multitudes of chances, or that she should’ve died from the nerve gas that killed the rest of the Ninth. I. Hate. Gideon. Nav. 

But that’s the thing! That’s the Narrative Voice, our Unreliably Shitty Narrator. That’s one of the parts of this book that suffered, while the rest kind of excelled. The setting is interesting, the plot was compelling after I slogged past the front half of a book so exposition heavy that I felt like I, too, was a Ninth nun, and these boring, boring pages were Drearburgh itself. The dynamic between Gideon and Harrow - again, paced so terribly, only in the last like... tenth of the book do we get any resolution - was GOOD, and their mutual misplaced guilt felt nice.

The characters? Hoo boy the characters. If you took Gideon Fucking Nav out of this book, it would be easily one of my top three books of all time. Palamedes was a delight, Camilla was fun, Dulcinea?? Dulcinea?? Teacher’s revelation was neat, Magnus and Abigail were fun before 💀

But even then, I have to complain, because of the way Tamsyn writes - and writes Gideon specifically - if she had made a fucking Danganronpa “A Body Was Discovered!” joke at Magnus and Abigail, it wouldn’t have felt out of place. That’s bad!!!!! That’s a BAD thing.

I don’t think books should be stuffy. I think books should be accessible in a way that a lot aren’t, using language that’s hard for readers to connect with, unbelievable narrative voices, blah blah blah, but there’s a line somewhere, where it becomes... maybe not too accessible? But like... I guess going from Inaccessible to Ridiculous.

I asked if the books got better and someone was like “No, and later on they make a none pizza with left beef joke, lol!!” like that was a GOOD thing, like in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty two, having a semi-serious science fantasy book making a none pizza with left beef joke (a post which, for clarity, turned TEN YEARS OLD THIS YEAR) was a point of pride? This sucks! This SUCKS.

I am only looking forward to Harrow the Ninth because finally, god finally, I got the resolution I was looking for in the last 20 pages when Gideon did the one heroic thing she could’ve done and thrown herself onto spikes, killing herself instantly, and saving us from the HORRIFYING possibility of further books being written like they were churned out in 2010 by a 18 year old instead of 2022 by a 37 year old.

Please, Emperor Undying, please let Harrow be more sufferable than Gideon was. Please.

Please.

#gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #anyway that's how i felt about it lmao #this is a negative post so don't open it and then get mad that i'm complaining #anyway i love harrow #YES she's reskinned rose lalonde and that's oka #i'm glad that they weren't explicitly in love because this being a dercecest fic would've felt mmmmmmmmmm weird

[nerdythebard]

#47: Kassandra [Assassin's Creed: Odyssey]

(Art Credit: Sabin Lalancette)

---

This one comes to us as an anonymous request. I was given a choice between this character and Gideon Nav (whom I might still do, I'll put it on the back burner). While Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is not my favourite instalment of the series, I have to admit Kassandra, the Eagle-Bearing Mercenary is a pretty amazing character. I have a feeling I would be able to make each protagonist of Assassin's Creed into a unique build. Would you like to see it? Let me know!

Next Time: When Hope is gone... undo this Lock... and send me forth... on a moonlit Walk. Release Restraint Level: Z E R O

Grab some wine, polish your trusty spear, and let's see what we need to roam the Greek islands as the invincible mercenary:

Lean Mean War Machine: Kassandra is a mercenary, climbing up the sell-sword ranks and being the single driving force able to decide the outcome of the Peloponnesian War.

Bird's Eye View: Kassandra is arguably the first user of the Eagle Vision; in her case that sixth sense is pretty literal, as she's able to project her sight onto her pet eagle, Ikaros.

Ancient Bloodline: (SPOILERS) Through her father, Pythagoras, Kassandra has an unusually high concentration of the Isu DNA, essentially making her a living demigod and giving her access to some supernatural powers.

---

I feel like I've been using this particular race way too often, especially when building gods, but tell me a better option for a demigod than an aasimar. Using the rules reprinted in Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, we get a +2 and a +1 to two abilities of our choice (Strength and Constitution respectively), resistance to both necrotic and radiant damage, 60 feet of Darkvision, ability to use the Light cantrip, the ability to speak Common and another language of our choice, and the Healing Hands feature; once per long rest we can use our action to heal a creature by [a number of d4s equal to our proficiency bonus] Hit Points.

We're lucky when it comes to backgrounds, too, as Kassandra is quite literally a Mercenary Veteran. We gain proficiency in Athletics and Persuasion to better haggle for our rewards, proficiency with one type of gaming set and land vehicles, and we get the Mercenary Life feature; we are able to identify particularly renowned mercenaries and their adventuring companies, as well as get a feel of where the best place to drink and ask for a job could be.

ABILITY SCORES

We'll start this off traditionally, by putting Strength first in priority order. Dexterity will be next, we are no stranger to armour and can easily climb and swim in it. Follow that up with Constitution... I mean, just look at Kassandra; she is RIPPED.

Charisma will be next, because that Hellenic hottie has got it going on (I'll stop now). Wisdom is a little on the lower end, and we're gonna dump Intelligence; we've all seen Kassandra getting absolutely bored and defeated by Sokrates.

CLASS

Level 1 - Fighter: We're starting by getting some good old-fashioned combat capabilities. Fighters get d10 as their Hit Dice, [10 + our Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. The game offers a lot of different armour and weapon types, so you can get pretty much anything; I'm gonna go with a half-plate armour, a shortsword, a spear, a bow, and no shield. Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution, and we get to pick two class skills from the list (Animal Handling and Survival).

Fighters get to choose their Fighting Style first. Since Kassandra's proficient in ranged, melee, and stealthy combat, we once again have multiple choice here. However, since Kassandra is able to move and swim so easily in full armour, we're gonna pick the Mariner style; if we're not wearing heavy armour or a shield, our climbing and swimming speed equals our ground speed, and we get a +1 to our AC.

We also get Second Wind. Once per short or long rest, we can use our bonus action to regain [1d10 + our Fighter level] Hit Points.

Level 2 - Fighter: With Action Surge, we're granted one additional Action during our turn in combat. We can do this once per a short or long rest.

Level 3 - Fighter: At this level, we get a racial ability called Celestial Revelation. Once per long rest, as a bonus action, we can unleash our divine heritage and transform for up to 1 minute. For our Revelation, we're gonna pick Radiant Consumption: celestial light pours from our eyes and mouth. We shed bright light in a 10-foot radius (and dim light in another 10) and at the end of each of our turns, each creature within 10 feet of us suffers [our proficiency bonus] radiant damage. Until the transformation ends, during each of our turns, we can also deal the same amount of radiant damage to one weapon or spell attack.

We also get to pick our subclass; our Martial Archetype. Kassandra is a born Spartan, and eventually the most successful mercenary, so we're going with the Battle Master archetype. As a Student of War, we gain proficiency with one type of artisan's tools of our choice (perhaps Woodcarver's, to help us craft our own arrows). We also exhibit Combat Superiority, which takes for of a pool of Superiority Dice (starting with four d8s) we can use to fuel our Battle Master abilities.

Battle Masters manipulate the battlefield through the use of Manoeuvres. We start with three manoeuvres from the available list:

Evasive Footwork: When we move, we can spend one Superiority Die and add the result to our AC until we stop moving, potentially saving us from attacks of opportunity.

Lunging Attack: When we make a melee weapon attack, we can spend one Superiority Die to increase our reach by 5 feet. If we hit the target, we add the SD result to our damage roll.

Pushing Attack: When we make a weapon attack, we can spend one Superiority Die to attempt to push a creature away. We add the SD result to our damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet away from us. Now, while a leg doesn't necessary count as a weapon, I feel we can all allow the push itself to be flavoured as

Level 4 - Fighter: Time for our first Ability Score Improvement. Let's put one point into Strength and one into Wisdom.

Level 5 - Fighter: We get Extra Attack. During our turn in combat, we can now attack twice instead of once in a single Attack action.

Level 6 - Fighter: Another ASI. This time, we're putting two points into Wisdom, as we're preparing to multiclass into...

Level 7 - Ranger: We got a solid combat base, now time to become one with the land. Multiclassing into Ranger gives us some proficiencies that we already have but also lets us pick one class skill; let's grab Perception. Instead of the initial Ranger feat (Favoured Enemy), we're gonna grab the version from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, called Favoured Foe: whenever we hit a creature with an attack roll, we can mark that enemy as our favourite target for 1 minute or until we lose concentration. The first time on each subsequent turn that we hit our favourite target, we can increase damage dealt to it by 1d4 (it increases as we level up). We can use this feature a number of times equal to our proficiency bonus, and we regain all uses after a long rest.

We're also gonna use Tasha's optional feature, Deft Explorer, to replace the original one. We start with the Canny benefit: we gain two languages of our choice, and we can choose one skill we're proficient in and double our proficiency bonus when using it. Let's pick Perception.

Level 8 - Ranger: We get to pick another Fighting Style. This time, however, we can focus on our bow skills and pick the Archery style; our ranged weapons get a +2 bonus to their attack rolls.

Rangers also get Spellcasting, and that is a good explanation for all the supernatural abilities granted to Kassandra by the Spear of Leonidas. Wisdom is our casting ability, and we don't know any cantrips or rituals. Rangers know a fixed amount of spells, and we start with two 1st-level ones: Absorb Elements and Searing Smite.

Level 9 - Ranger: With Primeval Awareness, we can use our action (and spend one spell slot) to meditate and gain layout of the land. For 1 minute per spell slot level, we can sense the presence of the following creature types within 1 mile radius: aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead. We don't learn the creatures' exact location or number.

At this level, we also get to pick our second subclass; our Ranger Archetype. We can finally get our Ikaros by picking the Beast Master archetype. The Ranger's Companion feature lets us choose a beast companion that is no larger than Medium and has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower. Luckily for us, an eagle meets those conditions. The beast is loyal to us, has its own initiative, can be ordered to Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Hide; basically, it has all the properties of a familiar, except for the ability that lets us see and hear through its senses.

We also get another 1st-level spell (Fog Cloud).

Level 10 - Ranger: Halfway through the build, and we get another ASI. Let's bump up our Constitution by two points for some better Hit Points.

Level 11 - Fighter: Jumping back for some more combat improvement, we get our Battle Master upgrade. First of all, we gain another Superiority Die (for the total of four). We also get to Know Your Enemy. If we spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside of combat, we can learn certain information about it. We know if the creature is our equal, superior, or inferior in regard to two of the following characteristics:

Strength score

Dexterity score

Constitution score

Armour Class

Current Hit Points

Total Class Levels (if any)

Total Fighter Levels (if any)

Additionally, we learn two more manoeuvres:

Parry: When we get damaged by a melee attack, we can use our reaction and spend one Superiority Die to reduce the damage by [SD result + our Dexterity modifier].

Riposte: When a creature misses us with an attack, we can use our reaction and spend one Superiority Die to make a melee weapon attack against our attacker; on a successful hit, we add the SD result to our damage roll.

Level 12 - Fighter: Time for another ASI. Let's boost our Strength by two points, to the absolute maximum.

Level 13 - Fighter: We become Indomitable. Once per long rest, we can re-roll a saving throw that we fail. We have to use the new result, even if it's worse than the original one.

Level 14 - Ranger: We come back into Ranger for the rest of the build. Normally Rangers would get the Extra Attack feature, but we already have that from our Fighter levels and they unfortunately do not stack. Although, it is around this level that a Fighter would get his Extra Attack upgrade (to let him attack three times instead of twice), so if I was the DM, I would allow it.

We also unlock 2nd-level spells. Let's get Beast Sense to finally see through our eagle companion's eyes.

Level 15 - Ranger: We don't get any new spells here, but we get upgrades for some of our previous features: from our Deft Explorer, we get the Roving benefit; our walking speed increases by 5, and we get matching climbing and swimming speed.

Level 16 - Ranger: Our subclass grants us Exceptional Training. On any of our turns, when our eagle companion doesn't attack anyone, we can use a bonus action to command the eagle to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on their turn. In addition, the eagle's attacks now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming immunities and resistances.

For this level's spell, we're actually going to match our eagle and grab the Magic Weapon spell.

Level 17 - Ranger: Last ASI of the build, and we're going to put two more points into Constitution for some better late-game durability.

We also get the Land's Stride feature; whenever we move through a non-magical difficult terrain, we take no movement penalty. We can also move through non-magical plants without slowing down or taking damage from things like thorns, spines, etc. In addition, we have an advantage on saving throws against plant spells that would restrict our movement, such as the Entangle spell.

Level 18 - Ranger: We don't get anything new here class-wise, but we do unlock 3rd-level spells. We're gonna enhance our weapon strikes with Elemental Weapon.

Level 19 - Ranger: We learn to Hide in Plain Sight. We spend 1 minute to create a camouflage that gives us a +10 bonus to Stealth checks as long as we don't move or take any actions. We also get another upgrade to Deft Explorer; with the Tireless benefit, we can use our action to gain [1d8 + our Wisdom modifier] Temporary Hit Points a number of times equal to our proficiency bonus per long rest. Additionally, if we suffer from exhaustion, it decreases by 1 after we finish a short rest.

Level 20 - Ranger: Our capstone is Ranger 11, which gives us a subclass upgrade. With Bestial Fury, our eagle companion gains its own Extra Attack feature, allowing it to attack twice during a single Attack action. For our final spell of the build, we're gonna get Conjure Barrage.

---

And that's the mighty Kassandra, the earliest known proto-Assassin of the entire Assassin's Creed series. Let's see if I did her justice:

We're combat-oriented character, with proficiencies in all possible armour and weaponry, good mobility, some spells to enhance our damage-dealing options, and a very good scouting option thanks to our pet eagle.

Our AC (with half-plate) is 18, we have a +2 to our Initiative and the average Hit Points of 179.

For a Battle Master Fighter, we don't have a lot of manoeuvres or Superiority Dice to fuel them with. Our Wisdom score is not the best, and we keep the negative Intelligence modifier. We also don't have that many skills we're proficient in.

---

That was fun. Not as straight-forward as I thought it's gonna be, but I enjoyed making this one. Let me know what you think, what else do you wish to see, or simply tell me how's your day been. I'll see you next time, lovelies!

-Nerdy out!

#dnd #d&d 5e #character building #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #fighter #d&d #d&d build #ranger #battle master fighter #beast master #kassandra #kassandra of sparta #ac odyssey #assassin's creed #video games

[wearethekat]

Tumblr Reblog Chains: Locked Tomb Edition 2.0

after the mild popularity of my last post tracking reblogs of the Sex Pal quote I posted, the lure of Big Data called again. So here’s the tumblr reblogs chain post once more, now looking at the reblogs of Locked Tomb art by major fan artists in the community. I’m afraid you’ll have to click on the diagrams for a readable resolution. as before, the color code is as follows:

red: user deleted post

dark green: no pictures of Gideon Nav on the last ten-ish posts at the time I went through their blog. tsk tsk. probably normal.

medium green: The brainrot is starting to take over. one to several of this user’s last ten posts are Gideon Nav themed.  

light green: The Locked Tomb has eaten this user’s brain. nearly all posts Gideon Nav-themed. a lost cause.

original post by artist @naomistares​

original post by @toughtinkart​ 

and here’s the original diagram I posted, for reference.

and hey, if you liked this analysis, go check out the art pieces that these are diagramming! reblog it and give its artist a follow! there are some truly amazing, talented artists in the Locked Tomb fandom, and they deserve attention and love. ALL the love. also, shoutout to @ianthelioma​, for having the best Locked Tomb themed url I saw during this exhaustive research. YOU. you get it. honorable mention to @commander-wake-is-a-milf​, who is also awesome.

disclaimers and analysis under the cut.

whew, I’m revising my estimated size of this fandom sharply upwards, to maybe several thousand people who are actively reblogging Locked Tomb posts. There’s a lot more of you gremlins than I thought.  Looking at this, it’s easy to see that (at least in this case) that most people reblogging the post got it directly from the artist. which suggests something about how having a big follower count affects the number of notes and attention an artist gets. this is why it’s always great to FOLLOW artists and REBLOG all of their awesome art! And these posts don’t seem to spread much at all via long reblog chains, with most threads lasting only three or so reblogs. The spread of any given post on here really does seem to be driven by a couple of big, popular users. 

disclaimers: yes yes I know, my color coding is a little wonky in the first one. don’t @ me. if I copied your url down and couldn’t read my handwriting in order search it properly later, you got automatically assigned to dark green. Sorry. Also, keep in mind color-coding is based on the last ten-ish posts by that user when I happened to look it up and might not be representative of the rest of the blog. 

#tumblr reblog chains #the locked tomb #mOAR analysis for you all #current mood: #wishing everybody with 30+ letter gibberish urls a very GO AWAY #and possibly a CHANGE IT #you all are very hard to jam into my little diagrams okay?

[grrrrrr-argh]

List 10 favorite female characters from different fandoms and tag 10 people!

Thanks for tagging me @hklnvgl !! 💜

Hennessy (Call Down the Hawk) Is gay; does crimes. Art forgery is sexy. She’ll be a shithead on her deathbed. I love her. She has a sword made of the moon

Renee Walker (All for the Game) A sweetheart AND a badass. Befriends people that others see as lost causes. Rainbow hair. I rest my case.

Lila Bard (A Darker Shade of Magic) Her main goal in life is to be a PIRATE and she spends most of the trilogy crossdressing. All of her dialogue had me grinning like an idiot

Gideon Nav (Gideon the Ninth) Absolute chad of a lesbian. Couldn’t say no to a pretty girl if her life depended on it. Makes terrible jokes.

Inej Ghafa (Six of Crows) Another girl with PIRATE as her life goal. Master of self-love and respect FIRST. I would die for her

Ahsoka Tano (The Clone Wars) that’s my disaster child. Heart of gold. Friends with all the clones. Probably famous on TikTok. who let this kid have a laser sword

Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra) Genius engineer, strong fighter, and gorgeous? marry me

Kipo Oak (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) She loves ✨space✨ and her music is rad. invented Nerd Punk. loves a cool leather jacket

Scorpia (She-Ra) Truly the MOST ideal character design. Kind. Buff. Loves hugs.

Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) I don’t have an excuse for this one, she’s hot and chaotic and I’m just very gay

Tagging @bi-bliotaph| @vexedeclan | @stamatis| @duskies | @nick-eyre | no pressure, only if you want to! 💜

Anyone who sees this can do it! If you do this tag me so I can see your cool faves too ✨

#every girl on this list is either explicitly queer or extremely queer coded #I didn’t do that on purpose but I think it’s extremely sexy #the purpose of this game is actually to expose me as a big ol’ lesbian and it WORKED. #genuinely had trouble picking only 10 and in most cases with picking only 1 from each fandom. there’s a lot of awesome ladies out there #tag meme

[summerhuntresses]

no grave (can hold my body down)

[ao3]

After Harrow passes out in a bone cocoon, Gideon takes care of her while studiously avoiding any inconvenient revelations.

Gideon could say, with great certainty, that she had never once been concerned about the wellbeing of Harrowhark Nonagesimus. She had been concerned about the actions of Harrowhark Nonagesimus in the past, and how said actions would impact her own life in new and unpleasant ways, but the actual physical wellbeing of the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth was not something she lost sleep fretting over.

 That being said, it was extremely disconcerting to find herself fretting over Harrow now. Gideon had initially laid her down and simply wiped the blood and dirt off her face, worried about the other woman waking up in a fury over her ‘gross overstep’, but now…

 Well, Harrow had been unconscious for hours and Gideon was starting to worry about her necromancer.

She had already cleaned Harrow up as much as she could without undressing her - worried or not, that was a boundary that she was not willing to cross - and now she was just… waiting. Waiting for the woman to wake up.

 It was difficult to keep her eyes away from Harrow, honestly. Gideon knew that she wasn’t going to just stop breathing in her sleep, but the image of her lying there covered in dirt and blood and bone wouldn’t leave her alone.

 Honestly, Gideon had never really noticed just how small the woman was. True, Gideon wasn’t exactly small herself, but she had to have a good foot on Harrow and at least a hundred pounds. Looking closer, Gideon realized that she could see the individual bones in Harrow’s wrist jutting out against her skin.

 “Well, fuck.” She sighed and sat back, arguing with herself even as she knew that she was going to do something stupid. “I mean, I know I wouldn’t want to lay around for Ninth knows how long marinating in my own filth. It would be too much of a temptation for the Eighth, at the very least.” Gideon nodded decisively, smacking a palm on the bed in emphasis and nearly jostling Harrow onto the floor. “Whoops. I’m doing my duty, Nonagesimus. That’s what you’ve wanted me to do for ages.”

 Harrow, still unconscious, did not respond.

 Gideon sighed and stood. “Look, I know this is weird, but… You’re tiny, Nonagesimus. Your name is bigger than you are, for Necrolord’s sake!” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t care what you have to say about it, I am getting you in clean clothes if it kills the both of us.”

 Mind made up, Gideon moved quickly to avoid pussying out. Hauling Harrow into a sitting position with one hand, she stripped her out of her heavy outer robe with the other, immediately encountering a dilemma when she realized that she needed a third hand to keep Harrow upright. 

 “Aw, fuck.”

 Never once in her life had Gideon ever even considered the possibility of hugging Harrow. It would have been like hugging a spiked mace, if the mace was malevolent and actively trying to remove Gideon’s ribcage with its teeth. Six year old Gideon would have run away from anyone suggesting the idea to her. Twelve year old Gideon would have done her level best to break their kneecap. The Gideon from a week ago would have laughed until she cried.

 The Gideon of the here and now had Harrow in what could only be described as an embrace as she struggled to pull Harrow’s damp and disgusting undershirt over her head.

 “How did you even manage to get this gross, Nonagesimus? I thought you were all about dignity and shit, this is just nasty.” Gideon took an experimental sniff of the shirt, recoiling and chucking it across the room nearly immediately. “If we didn’t pack so light I would burn that, Harrow. Burn it.”

 Sitting back, Gideon looked at the girl in her lap, Harrow’s absolute stillness highlighting just how small she really was. Gideon frowned, running a gentle finger over the ribs visible on her side. “Damn, Harrow, what’s wrong with you?” She pulled a new shirt over the other woman’s head with none of the haste she had felt earlier, taking care not to jostle the necromancer. “Eat a sandwich, witch bitch.”

 Her hands betrayed her, though, smoothing the shirt down Harrow’s side with care and sliding back up to carefully extricate a few straggly curls from the collar. She stroked the woman’s hair absentmindedly, lost in thought and ignoring the weirdly damp feel.

 A shiver under her hand made her frown. “I guess all your energy goes to being a prick and not to keeping yourself warm.” She stood and grabbed her spare cloak from her blanket nest, wrapping it around Harrow. “That seems kind of stupid, Harrow. Just sayin’.” She pulled the other woman back into her arms as she tied the cord around Harrow’s neck.

 Harrow shifted slightly in her arms, brows furrowing and a soft grumble rolling from her throat. Gideon looked down at her in surprise. “What? Not used to people touching you, Reverend Daughter?” She stroked a hand down the side of Harrow’s head firmly, the nearly rough touch seeming to calm the woman. Gideon snorted. “It can never be easy with you, huh?”

 A knock on the door startled Gideon badly, arms tightening around her necromancer and eyes darting toward the chest at the foot of the bed with the hidden longsword.

 “Gideon? Gideon, it’s me. Palamedes Sextus. Of the Sixth. And Camila as well.”

 Rolling her eyes, Gideon gently laid Harrow back against the cushions before getting up to throw the door open. “Sorry, I’m not sure I know who you are. Do you have some ID or something to make it clearer?”

 The door swung open to reveal Palamedes frowning at her. “Ninth, I’m positive you should be able to recognize who I am from my name and House. Are you feeling all right? Did you take a blow to the head down there?”

 He put a hand up, seeming to try and check her forehead for a fever before Camila smacked his wrist down, glaring exasperatedly at Gideon. “I honestly preferred it when you didn’t talk, Ninth.”

 Gideon gasped dramatically, clutching her hands to her chest. “Are you saying you don’t love my wit, charm, and dashing good looks, Cam?” She dropped her hands and grinned her most obnoxious grin, the one that made Harrow froth at the mouth and bleed from the eyes in rage. “Bullshit.”

 Palamedes swung his gaze between the women, uncertainty written across his features. “I… don’t know what’s happening right now. But! I wanted to come by and check on the Reverend Daughter. She overexerted herself badly when she did whatever she did, but she should be fine. Cam and I checked her over briefly and she showed no signs of shock or physical trauma beyond the exertion. Try and keep her warm just in case.” He smiled reassuringly at Gideon. “She needs rest, and a lot of it, but she’ll be on her feet terrorizing the Fourth before you have time to enjoy the quiet.”

 Cam sighed from her place at his side. “Somehow I get the feeling that the rest of us will never get to enjoy peace and quiet. Ever again.”

 Throwing her a wink, Gideon said, “Admit it, you like my braggadocious tenacity.”

 Cam blinked. “Nav, do you even know what that means?”

 Shrugging, Gideon told her, “No, but it sounds awesome.”

 “How did you even hear that phrase, Nav?” Cam looked perplexed, which increased the range of facial expressions Gideon had seen her wear by a factor of two.

 Gideon shrugged again. “Nonagesimus yelled it at me when we were like twelve. No idea what it means or where she picked it up, but it sounds cooler than anything I got from Necrotits Prime, volumes three through eleven, so I stole it for my own use.” She grinned. “Good, huh?”

 Camila and Palamedes shared a look that Gideon couldn’t interpret before turning back to her. “You know what, Ninth?” Palamedes sounded more uncomfortable than anything else as he addressed her. “I think you’ve got this handled on your own. Just… just keep her warm and comfortable and don’t let her get out of bed for the next twelve hours at least.” He was in motion before the words finished leaving his mouth.

 Cam watched him go with a raised eyebrow before turning to Gideon. “Good luck, Nav. She seems like she’ll be a fun patient.” She left immediately, missing Gideon’s one-finger salute as she went.

 Gideon slammed the door childishly, muttering curses under her breath as she did so. When her eyes landed on Harrow again she deflated, the irritation draining from her at the sight of Harrow practically swimming in Gideon’s spare cloak. 

 She sat on the edge of the bed, pulling the edges of the cloak tighter around Harrow’s throat. “I can see you shivering, Nonagesimus. That’s honestly pathetic, it’s practically tropical here compared to the Ninth.” Sighing, Gideon stood up once more and picked Harrow up in a bridal carry. Several minutes of cursing and jostling and nearly dropping her necromancer later, Gideon had managed to tuck the other woman under both the blankets and her spare cloak.

 Harrow twitched, brow furrowing again and head rolling from side to side. “No… construct….. how...” She muttered random words in her sleep, anger and fear written on her face as she did so. 

 “Hey. Hey, Nonagesimus.” Gideon shook her gently, not wanting to harm her further after the unpleasant bone incident from earlier. Harrow didn’t respond beyond tossing her head away from Gideon, muttering continuing unabated. Gideon shook her harder. “Nonagesimus. Hey. Harrow.”

 The other woman shot straight up in bed, eyes suddenly wide open and blazing. “No grave can hold my body down, Nav.” 

 Gideon yelped and fell backwards, tumbling straight off the bed. “What the fuck, Harrow!”

 Harrow glared at her. “It’s freezing in here.”

 Sitting up, Gideon stared incredulously. “It’s cold? You wake up from a fucking coma spouting that creepy bullshit and your concern is that it’s cold?” 

 Harrow hunched in on herself, frowning as she snapped, “What are you talking about, Nav?” She drew the cloak further around herself, not seeming to recognize who it actually belonged to. 

 “Ugh.” Gideon pointed at her accusingly. “You are weird, Nonagesimus. Weird and lucky.” 

 Her finger, righteously jabbing toward Harrow, faltered somewhat when Gideon noticed the shivers wracking Harrow’s frame. She looked around helplessly, but there were no more blankets to be seen in the room and no other people either. Gideon sighed. “If you bite me I’m letting you fend for yourself, you gremlin.”

 “What-”

 Harrow’s question was cut off by Gideon flinging herself over Harrow to crash land next to her. She immediately grabbed Harrow around the waist and bodily hauled the smaller woman into her arms, wrapping her in her own cloak and drawing the blankets up around them both. Harrow spluttered, arms flailing pathetically.

 The sight of Harrow in the throes of speechless bafflement was somehow endearing, a thought that Gideon shoved into the deepest recesses of her brain to never, ever revisit.

 “What are you doing Nav.” 

 Gideon shrugged. “Sex Pal said you had to rest and you had to stay warm. You generate zero body heat on your own because you took ‘bone necromancer’ too literally, so really this is your own fault.” She relaxed back into the pillows, dragging Harrow halfway onto her chest and pointedly not making eye contact as she desperately tried to maintain her chill.

 Harrow continued to flail. “This is utterly inappropriate get your hands off me I am fine this is unnecessary what kind of cavalier do you think you are.” Despite her words, Gideon could feel the shivers receding, her own body heat making its way past the shell of ice that Harrow kept wrapped around herself.

 She tucked Harrow’s arms into the blanket. “If you sleep for twelve hours without being a prissy bitch I promise I won’t make fun of you about this for the next twelve to fourteen years.”

 Grumbling, Harrow let herself be manhandled. “Fine.”

 “Fine.”

 (Neither of them ever mentioned how they woke up - with Harrow’s head nestled under Gideon’s chin and Gideon’s hands up Harrow’s shirt. Except that Gideon totally did and Harrow absolutely tried to murder her for it.)

#gideon the ninth #gtn #gtn2019exchange #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #vic writes

[heartslogos]

an oath to keep

Gideon is sitting on a dull ashy rock, boots covered in dull ashy dirt, staring out at a dull ashen sky as dull ash clouds puff around her. She is waiting for a drop ship to pick her up and take her away.

She is certain of two things.

One, when Harrowhark Nonagesimus gets her she’s going to be so mad at Gideon that she’s going to skip straight past frosty rage and into frothing at the corners of the mouth and she might try to pop each individual vertebrae of Gideon’s spine out through Gideon’s mouth like a candy dispenser.

Two, Gideon is deader than disco. Which provides a minor sliver of hope because disco has a weird tendency to dip its toe back into living every so often before being quickly shunted off into its shallow grave.

Gideon, in fact, does feels some minor, weird, buzzing feeling in the back of her skull that signals to her that she’s not all the way gone yet. Just ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent there.

She raises a hand and runs it through her hair, as she sighs, slumping down on the rock to stare up at the bleak sky.

Trust being dead to land her back at the Ninth. The afterlife couldn’t have something a little bit more interesting? Gideon’s no saint and didn’t have many expectations for what the other side would hold for her, but surely it wouldn’t be ye old homestead of eternal bleakness.

Figures that the bad place for the bad people is just the Ninth. It explains so much, honestly.

So far Gideon has catalogued three bits of good news while sitting on her old rock friend.

One. She’s got her two hander. Its familiar weight means that this place can’t be completely awful. Real hell would’ve been stuck in the afterlife with the little metal wand of a rapier and the kind of alright knuckles.

Two. Gideon also still has her glasses. Unscratched, unbroken, and in perfectly mirrored condition that she can see her reflection in them.

Three. Gideon’s existence in the afterlife is not a complete mangled wreck like it was when Gideon threw herself into it to start with. Her arms and legs work, her torso isn’t a sieve with a bonus chance at tetanus, and — not as great, but neither here nor there — her face paint looks fresh, sharp, and unblemished. Which also leads to the bad news that Gideon poked at her face a bit and could still feel the angry little zits on her forehead and the sides of her face.

Being dead, apparently, does not rescue a person from acne. Acne is a powerful curse that extends beyond life. There can be no rescuing from acne.

“Ninth.”

Gideon looks up and is somehow disappointed to see Camilla.

“Yo,” Gideon stands up, waving awkwardly. “Do I apologize?”

Camilla blinks at her, confused, “What for?”

“You’re here.”

Camilla looks around, and shrugs. “Not for long.”

They both look up at the sound of ship engines.

Camilla’s hands rest on her hips as they watch the dull clouds part, and the lights of a ship start to come closer.

“Thank you for what you did back there,” Camilla says as they watch the ship descend. “You do your house proud.”

Gideon shrugs, uncomfortable at the thought of making the Ninth House feel anything positive. The Ninth could suck it. It wasn’t really —

“The Ninth has less syllables than Harrowhark Nonagesimus,” Gideon says.

Camilla’s lip twitches upward at the corner. Gideon has a feeling Camilla already knew that.

“It was an honor to fight with you,” Camilla says as the ship completes its descent, landing off in the distance and lowering its ramp. She turns to Gideon and holds her hand out. “I’m going to join my adept.”

Gideon grasps it. “Hey, what was it that you were supposed to do?”

Camilla’s smile is grim and thin. “Finish it.”

Gideon’s hand tightens on Camilla’s. “And — ?”

She doesn’t now how to finish that question.

Camilla nods once. “It is done.”

They both let go of each other and Camilla turns to walk away. Gideon watches her for a bit before returning to her rock.

“Gideon!”

She looks up and sees Camilla, almost at the ship.

“You could come with us,” Camilla yells out towards her, “You’ve done more than enough. Our part is over.”

Gideon stares at Camilla, and then beyond her at the ship. She imagines she can see Palamedes in the shadow of the ship’s entryway. Boy that would be an awkward ride to wherever dead people go next. No thanks.

“Pass. I’ll wait for mine,” Gideon yells back.

Camilla is very still in the distance before she raises an arm and waves, then turns and completes the walk onto the ship.

Gideon watches the ship as it slowly returns to the sky and away from here. Her throat tightens and she tells herself she isn’t crying. She’s got no paint or brushes. If she messes up her face it’s going to be stuck that way for eternity. No thanks.

Gideon doesn’t know how long she’s been here. It could be minutes. It could be hours. It could be days or years or centuries.

She doesn’t feel tired or thirsty or anything. She’s got enough to do. Infinite laps to run, push ups, crunches, squats, sword drills. She even messes around with pushing rocks around the bleak landscape.

“You.”

Gideon groans, sheathing her sword as she drops her stance. She turns and she sees the hulking mass of Crux lumbering towards her, face grim and foreboding as ever.

“Come on, Crux,” Gideon gestures around them, “We’re dead. Can you drop being a giant wanker for like…a minute? I’ll even pretend I don’t know about the part where you rigged my ship so I would die as soon as I got off planet.”

Crux scowls, coming to a stop a few feet away from her, “Death is the least of what those who abandon their house deserve.” The formal marshal looks her over. “Ultimately you made up for your many flaws, though I can see that your disrespect and lack of manners remains unfixable.”

“Thanks?” Gideon hedges that this is supposed to be the most backhanded of complements, so backhanded that it goes right around to being a complete insult. “You know, Crux, I didn’t think you’d ever kick the bucket. Do I get to ask what did you in? Was it spite? Did you enjoy yourself so thoroughly on the news of my death that you kicked it to see if it was real? Did your dusty old bones just give in and send you collapsing to the floor in a puddle of skin?”

If Crux’s scowl gets any deeper it would threaten to become engraved onto his very bones themselves. Crux’s scowl is so deeply etched into his face that Gideon swears that you could pack the grooves like pockets.

“You wear the paint and patterns of the Ninth like an unattended toddler who put them on in the dark with their fingers,” Crux says. Overhead Gideon hears the sound of a ship coming.

“Looks like your ride’s here,” Gideon says, “Bet you hope that I’m not the one who rigged it this time, eh? Wouldn’t that be a nice turn of the dramatic? You want to offer me some skin mags? For old time’s sake?”

Gideon scrambles to hide behind her rock as Crux advances.

“You can’t kill me, Crux. I’m not scared of you, you old bag of dust,” Gideon says as Crux strides past her and her rock towards the ship, one hand on her sword just in case. The entire way the sound of his breathing and the rattling of his bones made Gideon think of a goody bag for necromancers with knuckles in it being shaken about. Gideon gives Crux’ back the finger.

“Gideon Nav,” Crux says as he walks towards the ship, “You have been a blot on the records of the Ninth since you fell onto our heads.”

Gideon is about to fire off a retort regarding the lack of heads in the Ninth in general, when Crux continues.

“But you saved the Reverend Daughter, and thus the Ninth. You may have been a blot on our records, but you will remain recorded, nonetheless. You were a cavalier worthy of service.”

Gideon watches Crux shamble all the way to the ship and get onto it, saying nothing in return.

Aiglamene comes around eventually, and Gideon is surprised to find herself sad to see her old mentor.

Her face is, dare Gideon think it? Fond.

“What’s up?” Gideon says, mustering up a small salute for the old woman. “You outlasted Crux! Good on you.”

“You are a wretch and a fool, and a legend of the Ninth House,” Aiglamene says. “It is good to see that despite the legends that came after your death and the amount of heroics involved in those legends, you are still Gideon Nav. When we heard word of what you did, I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it. You did — “

“If you say I did the Ninth proud I’m going to throw myself down right here and have the biggest fit you’ve ever seen in your life, and since you’ve been around since the beginning of time it’s going to be one impressive fit.”

Aiglamene gives her a flat look that makes Gideon’s guts gurgle in protest.

“You did me proud, you thrasonical miscreant.”

“You got a dictionary for that one?”

Aiglamene sighs. “I can’t believe that I actually missed you.”

Gideon puts a hand over her heart, “Captain. You do care.”

“I regret the waste of emotion every second I spend looking at you. What are you wearing on your face?”

“Glasses and face paint. Don’t I look like a real proper Niner?”

“You look like a proper malignancy.”

It feels like it’s too soon when the ship comes for Aiglamene. Gideon wants to keep her here, ask her a billion questions about what exactly happened after Gideon died. About Harrow. About the Canaan House. About everyone and everything. About what it felt like to see Crux dead and do a jig over his body.

Aiglamene might even stay.

Gideon’s not so selfish as to ask that, though. So Gideon just gestures to the ship.

“No one’s rigged that one to blow, swear it,” Gideon jokes.

Aiglamene just looks at her, like she’s studying Gideon’s face. Gideon half expects the woman to command her to drop and give her some drills, make sure she’s fighting fit. Gideon expects that she’d do it on reflex.

“If you wait here, you will have a long time to go,” Aiglamene says. “You’ve done your service, Gideon. You did more than what anyone could have asked you, more than what duty asked. You’re free, Gideon. No one owns you, no one can ask anything of you anymore. You can walk away.”

That would be nice if it were true. But it isn’t.

“I made an oath, Captain,” Gideon says. “And I intend to keep it.”

Aiglamene starts to smile.

“You know, so when her lady of eternal gloom and dusk shows up I can tell her that this is what keeping a promise looks like.”

The smile doesn’t go away.

Aiglamene holds her hand out, Gideon grasps it, expecting a firm shake and a serious and slightly formal nod goodbye, but the old woman pulls Gideon in with surprising strength. Gideon is surprised to find that she’s actually taller than Aiglamene now. Which is weird, because one would think you would stop growing when dead.

“Goodbye, Gideon Nav,” Aiglamene whispers into Gideon’s ear. “And good luck.”

It takes a huge amount of effort to uncurl her fingers from Aiglamene’s robes as they part.

Gideon watches Aiglamene go. And when Aiglamene raises her hand to wave goodbye as the ship’s door closes, Gideon salutes. And she holds that position until the clouds have closed over the ship and the gray world is silent again.

There are others. Eventually Lachrimorta and Aisamorta kick it. Gideon takes great pains to make sure that she’s well hidden when she hears those two biddies coming. She’s there for a handful of nuns she recognizes, some other serfs and cultists, various laypeople. Most of them she doesn’t know by name. There are some she doesn’t recognize at all. She does her best to remain hidden for the most part. Gideon would rather not have to deal with them.

Time must pass, though Gideon doesn’t really feel it. It’s like all of time is a giant slush that Gideon stands in the middle of, unmoved and unmoving.

The temptation to get on one of those ships and get away from here is there, but Gideon has something stronger than that. An oath.

Gideon’s word is important. She can’t leave here until it’s completed.

So she waits. She practices drills with her sword, even though she doesn’t really need to anymore. It does keep her fit for running away and hiding from faces she doesn’t want to deal with, which is nice. She does laps. She does sit ups. Crunches, squats, one handed push ups. Clap push ups. Hand stands. Whatever.

She even does the motions for the drills with a rapier and knuckle using a stick she’d found.

Gideon waits.

It feels like not long enough when she feels the dreaded step of Harrowhark Nonagesimus on the horizon.

Gideon turns, hand resting on the pommel of her two hander, the other adjusting her glasses as the shadowy figure of velvet and lace and bone drowse closer.

She hears a ship in the distance.

“One flesh, one end,” Gideon whispers to herself as Harrow comes into close enough view that she can see the press of her thin lips, the coiled tension in her shoulders, and the spite flickering in her eyes. “Sup.”

“You,” Harrow snarls. Gideon holds her ground as Harrow picks up the pace, great clouds of gray dirt and ash puffing away behind her as her long robes hiss along the ground. “You impertinent, selfish, foolish, insufferable, malicious, contrary shit.”

“I feel like that this is just the prologue for an epic speech,” Gideon says, pointing towards the ship coming towards them, “You want to discuss this on that instead?”

“I’m not going to discuss anything with you Griddle,” Harrow snaps, but continues walking towards the ship, “I am not having a discussion. I am going to tell you exactly why you did a completely stupid and unnecessary thing. I am going to tell you exactly the many ways you were wrong and how idiotic you were. I am going to tell you, in great and exact detail, the many ways in which your choices negatively impacted me over the past centuries, and I am going to explain to you in a way that even your single brain cell — which, I imagine has much atrophied over time due to lack of any meaningful stimulus — can understand how incomprehensibly and stupendously ill advised your abrupt departure was and the repercussions of you disobeying my orders was.”

Gideon falls into step behind Harrow, folding her arms around the back of her head and grinning at the back of Harrow’s.

“Oh, you did miss me.”

“It was a cold universe without you, Griddle,” Harrow snaps. Gideon beams. “And I had to deal with it by myself. I had to hold a sword, Griddle. A blasted sword. Do you know how frustrating it was to do — to do laps? It took me years, Griddle. Years. Just to swing a metal stick. A metal stick. Did it ever strike you that I had better things to do? That such physical labor was meant to be delegated to one such as yourself? I doubt it.”

Gideon stops waking and just watches Harrow go at it, snapping as vicious and mean spirited and terribly frustrating as ever. She missed this. She missed Harrow.

And now she’s going to have forever with this.

Gideon’s smile feels like it’s going to crack her face. She’s a masochist.

“Are you coming or not Gideon?” Harrow turns about, one foot on the ship’s ramp, tapping impatiently. “I’ve been waiting for this end for millenium, Gideon Nav. How long are you going to keep me waiting?”

“You’d think with millennium to yourself you’d have learned patience,” Gideon says, slowly walking towards her. “Besides. Aren’t I worth waiting for?”

#heartsfic #gideon the ninth

[searchforthescars]

Two-Toned, Bittersweet - Chapter 2/?

Why yes, I’m back again, BABEY. Enjoy another installation of Hot Mess Gays feat. a crushing Corona and background relational drama because college is just a disaster and everything kind of sucks when you’re trying to survive preparing for finals.

Read the whole thing on Ao3

Coronabeth Tridentarius can handle awkward. She’s really quite good at it. You don’t grow up with Ianthe and not learn how to handle awkward and petty moments like a champ.

She tells herself that as she lets herself into Gideon and Dulcinea’s apartment, unceremoniously dropping her purse on the floor near the door and kicking off her shoes. “You’ll never guess who I ran into,” she calls in the vague direction of the kitchen, where Dulcinea is leaning against the counter.

“We know. She was here first.” Dulcinea sounds as peeved as Dulcinea can get, which isn’t saying much. “She wanted to talk to Gideon.”

“What about?”

“I matched with her on Tinder and gave her shit." From down the nearly non-existent hallway, Gideon closes her bedroom door. "She came by to yell at me.” Gideon runs and slides into the kitchen in her sock feet. “Hi, Corona.”

“Hi, Gideon.” Corona opens the fridge and grabs a bottle of beer.

“Can we not talk about Harrow anymore?” Dulcinea rubs her temples. “Her attitude gives me a headache.”

“She gives me a headache,” Gideon grumbles, opening the oven and pulling out an only-slightly-singed pan of garlic bread. Corona grabs a slice before they’ve even cooled, toasting her fingers and tongue as her teeth sink in. "Is Cam coming?"

"You saw her this morning," Dulcinea points out. "I haven't seen her since class yesterday."

Corona likes the feeling of butterflies in her stomach a little more than she should at the mention of what Ianthe would have called her 'insipid little crush.' Camilla was everything Corona longed to be - smart, good at giving advice, unflinchingly loyal and really hot - and Corona was having an increasingly difficult time keeping her respectful distance. She doesn't even know if Camilla remembers their one-night stand last semester; it had been, in two words, ridiculously good, and Corona still can't decide if she wants to ask for a date or a repeat performance.

Or both. Both is good.

"She's been acting weird," Gideon muses, swiping a piece of bread and sitting back up on the counter despite Dulcinea's repeated shoves at her thighs and pleas to get down, I want my coffee mug and your head is in the way. When that doesn't work, Corona reaches around and pinches Gideon's ear. "Ow!"

"Are you causing someone bodily harm, Corona?" Cam's dry voice sounds from the doorway. She kicks the door closed and tosses her keys halfway across the room, lifting a fist in triumph when they skid and come to a halt atop the dining room table. "Oh, never mind, it's just Gideon."

Gideon raises a middle finger to Camilla, then runs her hand through her overgrown red hair. Corona watches the movement, captivated by the shifting color of the strands. There's no way you could ever get that hue from a bottle.

Gideon hops down to grab the pizza Cam brought and Dulcinea retrieves her mug from the cabinet with a look of supreme satisfaction on her face. Corona perches on the stool off to the side of the kitchen and watches the three of them move around each other, a perfect three-part harmony.

"How many pieces do you want?" Camilla asks her, ripping open the bag of salad Corona knows Cam is prepared to eat all by herself.

Gideon doesn't even wait for an answer, placing two slices of pepperoni-laden pizza on a plate and sliding it toward Corona. Corona gleefully bites into the greasy slice, fully aware that her sister would be judging her so hard right now.

"So what are you guys doing this weekend?" Corona asks around her bite.

Gideon thumps her forehead against the counter. Camilla pushes out a dining room chair with her foot, a hint that Dulcinea takes and Gideon does not.

"We have an invitational tomorrow," Camilla answers for Gideon, "and Nav doesn't want to go."

"It's not that I don't want to go," she says, voice muffled. "It's that Judith Deuteros drives me nuts and I'll probably end up going against her again."

"You'll win. You always do." Corona pats Gideon's arm reassuringly. The muscles flex under Corona’s hand as Gideon lifts her head. "It'll be fine."

“I can count on one hand the times you’ve lost,” Dulcinea says from over by the sink, swallowing a handful of pills with an impressive amount of nonchalance. Corona can feel her gag reflex kicking in out of sympathy, but it doesn’t seem like Dulcinea is even a little bit fazed. “You’re good, Gideon. Deuteros has no idea what’s coming for her.”

Gideon preens a little under the praise. Corona shoves at Gideon’s head until the younger girl stands up and goes to get food.

“I suppose you’ll be in team captain mode all weekend?” Corona asks Cam, who nods, mouth full of salad. “Dulcinea, want to sit together?”

Dulcinea nods. “I heard there’s going to be a house party after.”

Gideon’s eyes light up. “Really? Where?”

“One of your teammates' houses, I think.”

Cam says, “How did I not hear about this? I’m captain!”

“Right, that’s why.” Gideon sits at the table, slouching despite Dulcinea’s scolding. “You’re in a position of authority - that makes you a buzzkill.”

Dulcinea starts laughing and Camilla swats at Gideon’s shoulder. From her perch at the kitchen counter, Corona watches the tableau, feeling a little jealous even though she’s the fourth piece of this strange puzzle. The three of them had already known each other by the time Corona inserted herself into the mix, partially due to Dulcinea’s influence and partially because she was tired of being sad and alone every Friday night.

These nights were good for her, she supposes. It's nice to be part of a chosen family, and equally nice to spend time with Camilla, even though her heart insists on doing jumping jacks every time the other girl speaks to her, or even looks at her.

Therein lies her current conflict, she muses, watching Dulcinea and Gideon tell Camilla a story that seems to be aging Cam by at least three years. She doesn’t want to bring up the one-night stand in case that’s all it was to Camilla; she’s unwilling to break her own heart over something that may have meant nothing. But she finds herself pining for the woman, and knows that if she doesn’t act on it, she’ll spend a long time hung up on the mystery of what could have happened.

Camilla rolls her eyes at the story’s end, shifting her gaze from Gideon and catching Corona’s eye. Her gaze holds on, narrow and dark, as unreadable as ever.

As Corona watches, she smiles.

Read the rest on Ao3

#ttbs #i'm trying to not make this found-family-and-angsty but i'm failing #sorry but like nah #gideon the ninth