#life is too short and love is too long

[cannellaeluce]

one thing that I can’t let go of re: the locked tomb series is the statement I think it makes about identity and permanence and love. Like, I guess we all finished gideon the ninth being in love with gideon’s pov and with harrow as the person she is in relation to gideon. Then we landed in harrow the ninth and we were robbed of both, and I’m sure we all felt like we lost something, and we thought the end goal would be to get to the point where we would go back to having the thing that we lost: gideon’s vibrant voice and harrow’s whole psyche. and then we landed in nona the ninth and... 

I don’t know for ya’ll, but that’s when something in me shifted. phyrra was in the body of her most beloved adept and got to live with her longing for him and for wake redefining her identity; we didn’t care for her in the previous books, but we got to care for her now, and she was worth it. camilla’s body was both hers and palamedes’ and the coronation of their arc wasn’t to go back to how they were when we first learned to love them; it was to let go of both their individualities to become a whole new person, and we readers - just as nona - got to experience the pang at understanding that we were to let go of our concept of camilla and palamedes as individuals, while having to accept that that was the truest form they both could possibly achieve, that they felt no loss whatsoever, that what we perceived as loss was in fact their triumph. gideon - our beloved gideon - came back and she wore another name and we got to love her again, but names matter in this universe, and we had to deal with the pang of knowing that we could love her all the same, but she was - in fact - not the same at all, and when she antagonised our new main characters we found out in surprise that we resented her for it, that our loyalties had partially shifted. and then...

and then there was nona. nona in the body of harrow, who got to be loved as a person separated from harrow because bodies are transient and the soul is what matters. nona who was born to disappear in mere months, something the people around her knew well and which didn’t prevent any of them from getting to know her as a fully fleshed individual and to learn to love her all the same. nona whom we readers too understood at one point that was a character built to fade away. we could have decided not to invest in her, then. we could have decided to be annoyed at not finding harrow in her, at not finding gideon in her. but we didn’t. well, I didn’t. I understood she was born to die, and I chose to love her all the same. because isn’t it how it is? isn’t this how love is? we are mortal things who fall for mortal things knowing full well they won’t last. but we choose to love all the same. the impermanence of things isn’t a flaw ruining what should have been perfect; it is the very essence of things. we got to love nona even though she wouldn’t last. we got to love nona because she wouldn’t last. that’s all fine, in the end, because we got to love someone, and you can’t take loved away.

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth #tamsyn muir #tlt #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #phyrra dve #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #you can't take loved away #life is too short and love is too long #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #and the extenuating wait for #alecto the ninth

[theshmaylor]

I feel extremely silly for not figuring this out earlier, but I was so caught up in the hilarity of the name Paul that I didn't consider it more closely.

so uh, obviously the name Paul isn't a combination of Palamedes and Camilla. there's no real contribution from Cam's name in there.

but do you know what two names you can smash pieces of together to make Paul?

Palamedes and Dulcinea.

Paul is made up of Cam's body, Pal and Cam's souls, and Pal and Dulcinea's names. I can't handle it I'm frothing at the mouth and eating glass and I need to lie down.

my initial reading during GtN was that only Palamedes had a connection to Dulcinea, with Cam as Pal's best friend and observer of Pal's feelings about Dulcinea, but it was really all three of them all along.

in HtN, Dulcie calls Palamedes her 1st strand and Camilla her 2nd, and specifically describes the three of them together.

and in NtN, Camilla is the one to bring up Dulcinea and wonders if she'll know "who we are" in the river. she's not worried solely for Pal's sake, but for both of them. she wants Dulcinea to know her too.

Pal wasn't simply a bridge between two people he cares about. the three of them are a unit and I'm absolutely hysterical and undone about it.

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #dulcinea septimus #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #catch me lying face down on the floor every time i think about them #life is too short and love is too long #image discription in the alt text

[artbyfee]

We will make this end, and this beginning, together.

#camilla hect #palamedes sextus #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #Sex Cam #this is actually part of a really silly and stupid animatic #but on its own is pretty good #I love them #Life is too short and love is too long #they love each other in ways that have yet to be invented by living man #they are on some next level shit

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

It's been over a month since I finished Nona the Ninth and I am still screaming crying foaming at the mouth over those two codependent idiots from the Sixth House. I will never be over them ever in my life.

Also my brother's name is Paul and I need y'all to know how badly that fucked with me

#'i hope you know that i adore you Scholar' #'indubitably Warden' #life is too short and love is too long #'tell me how to do it and i'll do it' #'go loud' #aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAUUUUUUGH #they make me want to chew glass #the locked tomb #nona the ninth spoilers #palamedes sextus #camilla hect

[daisychainsandbowties]

#not just the last part but all of it all of it #trees and light and cattails. i wake up and i know how far it is to mars. there you are. sunrise. that tube of paint i had without realising #like it was waiting. and you. my whole life yes forever yes #life is too short and love is too long #🫂💖🫂💖 i lobe you (you get the joke) #you always get the joke #love you sfm

[itslianaiguess]

thinking about tamsyn and her funky little "you have not begun to see the horrors of love" when asked about alecto the ninth

#tamsyn what does this mean #tamsyn please #please #no #just let them be happy #i'm so afraid #i'm so upset #tlt #the locked tomb #camilla #life is too short and love is too long #also thinking about #how nona and family are love's dress rehearsal before the last book #i ACHE #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #alecto the ninth #tamsyn muir

[the-rat-wins]

If you have friends from earlier parts of your life that you still think of fondly, and you even think, eh, I should see if they want to catch up, but then you don’t do it for whatever reason…

Here’s a sign/reminder to actually do it. 💙

#life is too short and love is too long

[lesstheshadow]

re-entering my locked tomb era. it's about love the horror the terror the desolation the immensity. love as destruction and corruption and love as liberation. love as dividing and love as unifying. it's the problem it's the solution. life is too short and love is too long i'm going to scream

#tlt #book tag #things that make my tear my hair out #the more i think about nona the more i love it tbh because you can see the thematic threads coming together #and this is the core of it and OOUAHG it's so good #you can't take loved away #life is too short and love is too long

[dumpsterfireofsubtext]

Just got to That ™️ line in Nona the Ninth… predictably, I have burst into tears

#palamedes yes my whole life yes yes forever yes #life is too short and love is too long #fuck my liffeeeeeeee #Nona the ninth #misiek reads tlt

[loveaintforkeeping]

Rating: T

Relationship: Camilla Hect/Palamedes Sextus

Word Count: 1k

Summary: if we live to see the other side of this, I will remember your kiss. so do it with your mouth open. That One Scene from Camilla's Perspective

#nona the ninth spoilers #nona the ninth #tlt spoilers #tlt trilogy #tlt fanfic #campal #cam x pal #go loud #the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #yes they kiss in this just so you know #life is too short and love is too long #camilla x palamedes

[vvienne]

camilla and palamedes……

#locked tomb #Gideon the ninth #i was rereading gtn and I still like them very much #life is too short and love is too long

[towerprincekirionagaia]

I just want all of you to know that making this caused me some severe emotional damage 💔 nothing like starting off a Monday by crying at work.

#bill and frank #the last of us spoilers #the last of us #the locked tomb #life is too short and love is too long #emotional damage #the last of us hbo

[theaologies]

I’ll never be normal again I’m not sorry

#DEAR ONE- DON’T #I AM SCREAMINF AND CRHING AND THROWING UP #LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND LOVE IS TOO LONG

[necrowo]

i finished rereading TLT again last night and i have decided to be inconsolable until Alecto is out

#life is too short and love is too long

[showsandshowtunes]

-----

gideon the ninth / nona the ninth

yeaj i'm actualy perlfectyl fucking fine like i'm okay i'm good why do you ask i'm doinf very normal thabk you

#just tell me how to play it/tell me how to do it and i'll do it = I TRUST YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR ME #I'LL DO WHAT YOU SAY NO QUESTIONS ASKED #LIFE IS TO SHORT AND LOVE IS TOO FUCKING LONG BROOOO #i'm collapsed #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #campal #paul the sixth #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb

[lyctorism]

going insane thinking about the paralleled relationships of palamedes’ fondness for harrow and camilla’s fondness of gideon. and their respective simularities! harrow being jealous of gideon mooning over dulcinea. camilla being jealous of palamedes being in love with dulcinea since he was 8. camilla being fond of gideon after realizing gideon also has a melodramatic necromancer. palamedes and harrow’s “necromantic pissing contest”. gideon and camilla’s love of swords. palamedes “I'm the greatest necromancer of my generation”, harrow “like hell you are”. palamedes suiciding detonating himself to take out cytherea. gideon suiciding throwing herself on spikes to send harrow full lyctor to take out cytherea. palamedes “i miss harrow terribly” sextus. harrow “i can’t envision a universe without you in it” nonagesimus, camilla “life is too short and love is too long” hect. gideon “you’ll know what to do” nav, palamedes “she knows what to do” sextus. crazy! crazy insane! thinking about them

#the locked tomb #tlt #griddlehark #tlt spoilers #they're my forever loves sorry #there's more i could go on but like. lol! #SO much more #ableist slurs or whatever (lol) but they're necessary to me ! #also reread parts of GtN and HtN and i must have missed the part #the first time around where palamedes HUGS harrow and LIFTS her off the ground #AND kissed her brow before she left the projection bubble #i'm in tatters........... #life is too short and love too long.......... #thinking of palamedes seeing harrow in the river and then seeing harrow (nona) after the incident with john and the miraethium #'i miss harrow terribly'................ i'm going to start crying #how palamedes takes care of nona (harrow) and loves her............... please #how camilla treats nona (harrow) so tenderly and considerately and fondly #i'm going to start ripping and tearing and killing with my teeth