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listyhanel · 2 months

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I freaking love Ancient Egypt.

I think the animal-headed gods first drew me in as a kid, and then the whole mummy thing just, fascinated me! And the hieroglyphics are so beautiful. I am totally an armchair archeologist--I have watched so many documentaries and read so many books on the subject.

Many years ago, I went to visit a mummy at the Boston Museum of Art. The mummy was a priest in his life, and they had recreated his tomb around him. And it was not the Book of the Dead that graced the walls--it was the Amduat.

The Amduat tells the story of Ra's journey every night when he--as sun god--descends below the horizon. Each panel is an hour, three on each wall. He and his fellow gods journey down Nile of the underworld and then come to a desert, through which his attendants carry his barge.

And every night, in the Sixth Hour, Apophis comes.

He is the embodiment of death and destruction and evil and the end of everything, depicted usually as a terrible serpent. He rises up out of the sands of the desert and threatens to devour Ra and the entire world as well.

Every night, the gods do battle with this beast. Surprisingly, they are lead in many depictions by Set, himself a chaotic, dangerous god.

And every night they put down the beast, and Ra triumphs, and continues his journey to the East, where he rises once again to bring a new day to the people of the world.

But the outcome is never assured, you see. One night, he just might loose the battle, and be devoured, and the sun will never rise again.

This story captivated me. What sort of people would create such a narrative, one where every night could possibly be the world's last?

On the ride home I had a vision of mysterious figures running through an Ancient Egyptian city, and my own story was born. And I knew even before I knew the plot what the name of the story had to be: The Sixth Hour. The hour when everything hangs in the balance. The hour when failure is just not an option.

I wrote and re-wrote the story several times over the years. I realized that I could never research enough to make a perfectly accurate historical story, so I deliberately allowed myself to take some liberties, to free myself from the restraints of perfectionism. That's why I call this a fantasy adventure based on Ancient Egypt and the lands surrounding it, instead of a historical novel.

A friend enjoyed it so much she drew me some fanart, gave me permission to use it as a cover, and encouraged me to share my story with the world, and so I finally took a deep breath and made the plunge. Honestly, it's terrifying to put myself out there. It is not in my nature.

But I enjoyed writing this little story very much, and I would like to share it, in the hope that you will enjoy reading it, too.

Learn more about The Sixth Hour HERE.

Available through numerous ebook distributors. Thanks, Draft2Digital!

#fiction #writing #Ancient Egypt #ebooks #Ancient World #The Sixth Hour #my books

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mayasaura · 3 months

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What a beautiful cruel perfect idea Dulcinea had, wanting her face to be sculpted postmortem to match Camilla's drawing of her. Even if they made it to her funeral, those zealots of truth would never know what she looked like. She never wanted them to. This is the truth, would say her corpse: who I was to you is more real than the configuration of cartilage and bone. Who I am is the person you saw in me.

#the locked tomb #dulcinea septimus #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #dulcimedes #paldulcie #676 #campaldulcie #do we have like. any concensus on how to tag for this qpr thruple #or is their relationship anarchy game just too strong #anyway it's feeling sad about dulcie and the sixth hours again

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harrowharkwife · 4 months

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i'm so used to there just being random unidentified bones laying around everywhere in these damn books that it finally occurred to me, just now, to wonder where the bones on new rho came from. y'know, the bones palamedes always tried to teach nona necromancy on.

they're his.

palamedes, who always loved teaching, living on borrowed time in a body that's not his own. palamedes, mentoring, teaching- parenting, by sixth standards, mind you. and that boy is sixth, through and through.

and the entire point of teaching nona necromancy in the first place was to try and determine if nona is, well, nonagesimus, right? so it has to be bones, it can't not be bones. bones are, like, her whole thing.

but they're not in the nine houses, anymore. things are different, on new rho.

they burn bones here. dig up the cemeteries. a society terrified of zombies will evolve to dispose of its dead differently.

the only bones he has access to now are his own. (camilla wouldn't let anyone take them- skull or hand, doesn't matter. they're still him, and she doesn't let go, remember? it's her one thing.)

palamedes woke up every morning wearing someone else's body to then gently place the shrapnel of his own in the cupped palms of a girl who's the closest thing he'll ever have to a daughter and try to teach her- how did the angel put it, again? normal school, as much as possible, for as long as possible.

(but hey, in a roundabout way, at least it's a chance for him to touch camilla again, right? nevermind that she's not there to feel any of it because he's in the driver's seat, that he can only stay for fifteen minutes at a time. it's atoms that belong to camilla touching atoms that used to belong to him, and that's close enough. he'll take what he can get, these days- if she can be their flesh, he can be the end. so what if holding his own bones is a mindfuck? so what if looking at them makes him nauseous? surely he can suck it up and deal with it for fifteen minutes. it's the least he can do— his poor camilla was the one who had to scrape the bloody pulp of them off the floors of canaan house.)

(speaking of, here's a fun fact: we actually only see nona practicing with the bones one time, on-page. camilla's final line in that scene, before palamedes takes over, is none other than: 'keep going. there are some bones left.' ow!)

remember, too, that the only part of dulcinea, the real dulcinea, that palamedes ever physically touched, was her tooth- the one that ianthe gave him, pulled from the ashes cytherea burnt her down to. he only ever touched dulcie once, and it wasn't until after she was already gone, but that doesn't matter- it still happened, and you can't take loved away.

in this same roundabout, bittersweet, by-proxy sort of way, palamedes has been physically touched by nona, too: the atoms she currently occupies, touching atoms that he used to occupy, and never will again.

the main interaction we've seen between palamedes and his mother took place back on the sixth, with her acting as mentor and him as pupil: the two of them studying a set of hand bones, juno encouraging him every step of the way.

we know that harrowhark's "most vivid memory of her mother was of her hands guiding harrow's over an inexpertly rendered portion of skull, her fingers encircling the fat baby bracelets of harrow's wrists, tightening this cuff to indicate correct technique."

they're still small for a nineteen year old, but the wrists are bigger, in this new set of memories nona's making. and it's not an inexpertly rendered portion of skull anymore- it's a hand, now, albeit one crafted from [a piece of skull reassembled (painstakingly—passionately—laboriously reassembled) from fragments, manually, and not by a bone magician, from the skull of someone who, soon after death or symptomatically during, had exploded.] and the identity and origin of these bones is no mystery at all. they belong to palamedes, and he's consented to their use for this purpose, and that matters.

but the details are just set dressing, really. the foundation of the memory is the same.

palamedes and his mother, juno and her son.

harrow and her mother; pelleamena and her daughter.

nona and her father-mother-teacher; palamedes and his daughter.

#these fucking books. every 2-3 business days i'll find some new detail to be insane about #this post took me like three hours to write. what the fuck #palamedes sextus #nona the ninth #the locked tomb #nona #palamedes the sixth #tlt #ntn #camilla hect #tlt spoilers #pal honey. im :( :( :(#spiritually that man is a MOM okay! there's a reason tamsyn specifically assigned him the same imagery in this scene #that she's been using to represent crucial bonding moments between mother/mother figure and child/child figure #that and the 'sextus you'll make a very irritating wife someday' joke and cam's 'i'll talk to your mother later' face #ie: talk to palamedes about nona #that boy is momcoded i don't make the rules!

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idkaguyorsomething · 1 month

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Even accounting for how erratic their behavior can be normally, the Doctor gets extra bonkers after regenerating. ¡¡Reblog and explain your pick in the tags!!

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grapehyasynth · 18 days

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wille and simon meet sometime after university when their mutual friend, felice, throws herself a big birthday party. they catch eyes when they're in a side conversation with a few other people, but their mutual interest is so obvious to everyone else that the other people slowly drift away, leaving the two of them deep in conversation. friends occasionally poke them during the course of the evening (rosh: "are you two planning to occupy this corner the whole night and pretend no one else exists, or...?" simon shoves her - lovingly, firmly - away) but they're wrapped up in each other. at some point wille excuses himself to use the bathroom, and when he gets back simon is nowhere to be found. he feels like the prince in cinderella. "did he leave?" he asks felice, who's about to go out on the balcony. "simon, did he leave? i wanted to say goodbye. i mean, i wasn't ready to, but i wanted to." felice squeezes his arm - "i'll give you his number." then someone steps in off the balcony and says, "i can give it to you myself." it's simon, tickled pink by what he's heard. wille's too pleased to be bashful, his closed-mouth smile slipping into a toothy grin. felice backs away from them, giving wille a wide-eyed thumbs-up. hours later, they're the last ones at the party, sitting on the couch facing each other, already so comfortable that simon taps the back of wille's hand sometimes when he makes a point. felice has already changed into her pajamas and she sighs, seeing them still there as she comes out of the bathroom. "don't you two have homes you can go to?" sara, her roommate (and/or girlfriend), chimes in from down the hall, "or one home you could both go to?"

#wilmon #young royals #i thought about this while i was trying to mentally yeet myself out of the car on our sixth hour of driving back from the eclipse

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doctorwhoisadhd · 1 month

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WHO IS RUNNING THE BIG FINISH INSTAGRAM

[ID: screenshots of 2 instagram posts from bigfinishprod. 1) a picture of sheridan smith, who plays lucie miller. caption: "Lucie Miller is the epitome of putting slayonnaise on the mother burger and eating it 💅". 2) cover of the quin dilemma, which has 4 different sixth doctors on it, each in a different outfit. caption: "Sixth Doctor you have to stop. You slay too tough. Your swag too different. Your coat is too bad. They'll kill you!" /end ID]

#big finish #lucie miller #dw #sixth doctor #doctor who #ari opinion hour #I FOLLOWED THEM AFTER THAT OTHER POST THAT SOMEONE POSTED AND LIKE. THEY DID NOT POST LIKE THIS UNTIL THIS YEAR

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killmeinmysleepwithachainsaw · 3 days

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I truly do not think that there is any other episode of any series more appealing to my stupid brain than gamechanger's deja vu. Cause we got time loops, psychological torture, terrifying VFX, overdone bits AND MOST IMPORTANTLY DUCKS. Oh and also the Wenis song will possibly stay in my head for about as long as the song that never ends and the painting Ophelia inspired by Hamlet.

#and that's not even a SIXTH of everything i liked about that episode #i know it's been more than 16 hours since it was released but still #game changer #rambles

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starleska · 12 days

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earlier a dear friend was looking for dandyish, foppish-type character recommendations, and you BET i threw the Sixth Doctor straight in their direction!!! just look at him. look at the style. the way he moves. everything about Six is a performance and he's a delight to watch 🥴💖

#hnghg he has such mannerisms. i could just stare at his hands alone for hours #sixth doctor #6th doctor #the doctor #doctor who #dw #classic who #colin baker #starleskatalks

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sandradoodles · 2 years

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Part 17! ~A montage~ (Sometimes you gotta make a last-minute decision to draw Marinette with her hair down, am I right or am I right?)

First | Prev | Next

#miraculous ladybug #marichat #marinette dupain-cheng #chat noir #lovesquare #confessions comic #sandra draws #this part KICKED MY BUTT and I kicked it back #sixth night marinette is a self-portrait of me drawing this comic #please consider full-viewing the jacket #the iris placement isn't 100% where I wanted but even so I spent literally hours drawing and redrawing different elements of that design #in other news #I changed art programs!#(right before starting the longest part in this whole series of course)#I had to relearn how to do everything so that was a fun challenge #not to brag but I can actually utilize pen pressure now #and resize images #and italicize text #it's very exciting!

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bakedbakermom · 4 months

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dana scully x jagged little pill

twists of fate x "ironic" (track 10/12)

The most ironic thing about "Ironic" is that Alanis Morissette managed to write a song called "Ironic" that does not contain a single example of actual irony. (I love this song, it's an absolute banger, it's just ... not ironic.)

What the song is actually about is twists of fate - everything going right then suddenly being struck by disaster, or everything falling apart then suddenly a break goes your way. Very fitting for MSR.

Can't believe we're almost done! Only 2* more tracks to go!

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listyhanel · 2 months

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"You should cherish them," warned Pharaoh. "They will protect you no matter what. They would travel to the West for you, in less than a heartbeat."

In an ancient world that never was, A woman is chosen by Anubis to be his aspect in the land of the living.

She is one of the Neter-shuwt, the god-shadows, protectors of Pharaoh's greatest treasure: his heir. This generation, Horus and Set have both sent their shadows, and Anubis has chosen a woman, a rare honor.

Anubis-shuwt and her seven fellows are finding their current charge most difficult, as Princess Netari rebels against her father and the man he has chosen to be her husband, placing herself and her guardians in far more danger than anyone realizes.

When disaster strikes, Anubis-shuwt finds herself in the company of strangers from Babylon, with most of Syria between them and their shared goal. Now, she must risk everything to save her princess from evil and her heart from the jaws of Ammut.

Look for it where you find your favorite ebooks.

A PoD print version is in the works!

※

Laughter echoed through the temple garden.

Behind the grand temple dedicated to the Neter-shuwt were the grounds and garden where the eight guardians of the heir of the Pharaoh resided when they were not watching her from the shaded corners of the palace. Four were women, unusual but ultimately practical, for they were required to be intimately close to the princesses and queens at all times. They all wore black linen kilts that reached the knee and the women wore black bandeaus or short shirts more for support than modesty. Bast-shuwt's shirt was of the sheerest fabric to show off the elaborate inking around her breasts, of which she was quite proud.

She was a slight, petite girl with true catlike grace and bright eyes, well chosen by her goddess. Her straight black hair was cut short above her shoulders. She turned a sneer upon the man who rolled in the grass beside the bathing pool, howling with mad laughter.

"You're a beast," she told him.

He stopped and looked at her. He had been handsome once, but his face was now marred by the severe markings of the Set beast. Why the dangerous god had sent his shadow this generation was anyone's guess--he rarely bothered--but it was a terribly great honor, and the youth embraced his station with relish. His lines were thick and dramatic, Set's staff, known as the mighty was, graced his arm, and the tail of the beast ran right up his spine, forking right below his skull. In honor of the god he had dyed his shaggy hair with henna, though the color was uneven and the roots were dark. "I am," he admitted. "But I cannot help it! I thought Bata-shuwt had joined us, going by the smell!"

There as a splash and Anubis-shuwt broke the surface of the water with a splutter, giving her head a shake. "Are you finished yet?" she snapped.

Set smiled. "Bast is scolding me on your behalf."

She made a face, leaning back to dunk her hair a final time. "I love the child, I really do! But she has lost her mind!" She climbed from the water and snatched up a thin rectangle of linen to wrap around herself. Once it was tied off she turned and clasped her hands to her chin. "Oh Duffa, you are my true love!" she crooned. "Never mind that you smell like a goat and look a bit like one too, you are beautiful covered in dirt! We shall run away together until Father catches you and sets your head upon a pike! Oh, the tantrum I shall throw will shake your corpse, my dearest!"

Set howled, even Bast giggled.

Horus-shuwt sat up from where he had been resting in the shade of a tree. Of all the Neter-shuwt, most agreed he had the most elaborate and beautiful ink. His artist had decorated him from neck to thighs in an elaborate pattern of detailed feathers, each an individual and unique work of art in itself. His face had been carefully marked to mimic the falcon god, and his legs, along with the hieroglyphs which told of his station, had more feathers and patterns to evoke flight among the celestial bodies. His dark hair was cut short and had a tendency to stick up. "Don't mock the Princess," he scolded in his even tone. "Or poor Duffa. At least he didn't smell like a chamber pot."

"He would have, the first time he raised his beloved's ire," she replied. "And I don't mean to mock him, but he should have known better, speaking pretty words to the girl. I heard him. We all did." She waggled her finger in the general direction of the palace. "He'd croon little songs to her and tell her how pretty she was. He thought he was just getting in good with the royalty. Well, he learned his lesson, didn't he?"

"Offending Osiris with the odor of goat, I assume," Set chuckled.

"No, the Pharaoh took pity on him when he soiled his linens, and sent him to the army camp in the south. He told the Priestess as much."

Set found this hysterical, rolling back on the ground to shout with laughter. Bast shook her head.

"Really?" Horus asked. "He's a good man, our Pharaoh."

"Yes."

"The queen still touches his heart," Sobek-shuwt said quietly from the other side of the pool. He had the darkest skin out of all of them, yet the teeth of the crocodile god stood out sharply on his face. "He knows she would have asked him to show the boy mercy."

They all fell silent at this, even Set, and nodded their agreement. They had all loved the queen very much, and she them, calling them "the little shadows" and sending massive gifts of fruit and beer to the temple on a regular basis.

"Be that as it may," said Anubis finally, combing out her hair. She frowned, considering the hours it would take to braid it all again. She thought about doing something different with it for a moment then discarded the idea; she liked her braids. "I will be much quicker to duck next time, and I suggest my sisters do the same. I feel great pity for this Memnir."

"As do we all," agreed Set, and burst into laughter again.

#fiction #ebook #Ancient Egypt #writing #I had so much fun writing this #I hope there are those who will enjoy reading it #The Sixth Hour

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mayasaura · 7 months

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Actually. Looking at the chronology. The last time Gideon and Harrow talked alone before the pool scene, Gideon accused Harrow of being a jealous creep for telling her to stay away from Dulcinea.

A whole lot of stupifying things happened in between, but really, it wouldn't be surprising if her first panicked reaction to Harrow disrobing was to think Harrow was making a move on her. Relationship definitely hurtling toward something.

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #griddlehark #so much happened those last two days at Canaan House #I lost track of just how much relationship upgrade Gideon and Harrow went through #Gideon goes from insisting Harrow is jealous over her and not envious (guarding something that's hers and not coveting something that isn't)#to lashing out at Harrow in the worst way she can manage without physical violence (threatening to leave her)#to assuming Harrow is a murderer and resolving to kill her herself rather than let anyone else touch her #to finding out Harrow had a good reason for everything she'd done and just didn't trust or respect Gideon enough to tell her #to finding out Harrow's worst secrets and swearing herself to Harrow #....in the span of about. mmmm. three hours? ish?#probably less #depends on how long she was wandering around or with the Sixth really #I'd say someone give that girl a nap but for once she actually got one

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simplyavatrice · 8 months

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when it comes to reading avatrice fics, not writing, do you feel you have a preference for canon?

i wouldn't say i have a preference for them, i fucking adore au's, but there's something really special about a well written canon fic - because at the end of the day, that version of the characters is the one we fell in love with, so seeing their story continued or built upon is just a lot of fun

fics like - show me something of a reckoning (hi @lucytara) or sixth to the ninth hour are just a couple examples of outstanding work within canon that i have recently obsessed over

#avatrice #seriously sixth to the ninth hour is criminally underrated #and erin's fics speak for themselves #but there are so many good canon fics out there

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sub-urbanwitch · 23 days

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