ninth_cavalier: (Default)
Gideon Nav ([personal profile] ninth_cavalier) wrote in [community profile] desperatefans2024-01-06 12:34 pm

Introducing Gideon Nav, Cavalier Primary to the Ninth House, Keepers of the Locked Tomb...

...House of the Sewn Tongue, The Black Vestals. We pray that the tomb is shut forever. We pray the rock is never rolled away. We pray that which was buried remains buried, insensate, in perpetual rest, with closed eye and stilled brain. We pray it lives, we pray it sleeps, we pray for the needs of the Emperor All-Giving, the Undying King...

One minute Gideon is doing the stupidest and most perfect thing she has ever done, heroically sacrificing herself so her necromancer can eat her and achieve true Lyctorhood and break Cytherea the First's body into so many little shards of bone and ribbons of fat and flesh that even her own mother (thousands of years dead, and most likely a huge bitch) couldn't recognize her, and the next she's—standing. Whole, the aches in her leg and shoulder gone, her sunglasses perched on her nose, the comforting weight of her longsword1 on her back. She takes a breath, just for the novelty of it, and looks around.

The first thing she notices is how clean it is. No blood, no mold, no grime, no layers of bone dust. When she breathes, she just breathes air, and it feels like extra clean air, which—she looks further around—is probably due to the actual grass on the actual ground. In the distance there are trees. With birds in them.

Is this—this can't possibly be what the inside of Harrow's brain looks like. The inside of Harrow's brain is undoubtedly as spooky as the outside of Harrow's brain, because where would she even have found the imagination to dream up something this—idyllic?? There's nothing even close to it in any of her experience on Drearbruh, and Gideon would know, having been there and actively making that experience worse for all of Harrow's sorry little life.

No, what she's looking at is—a house. A big, boring, white-painted house, not a bone to be seen. "Okay," says Gideon. "What the fuck."

Anyone looking at her will see a tallish (though not for Mansion standards), broad-shouldered and very ripped butch woman, dressed all in black (black tank top, black pants, black stompy boots). She has short-cropped red hair, medium-brown skin, and her face has been painted with stark black and white skull makeup, atop which she has incongruously perched very old-looking aviator sunglasses. Slung over her back is the aforementioned sword.

1 Typist note: the books consistently refer to this as both a "longsword" and a "two-hander," and from the way its weight and length is constantly emphasized I interpret it to be more toward zweihander than longsword. Also, bigger sword sexier.
lanselos_du_lac: (seriously)

[personal profile] lanselos_du_lac 2024-01-06 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"I know not whether there are necromancers here. But no. Under the control of none that live here now."
new_inglewoodblues: (go on)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-06 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thou mistakest me. Thou art some kind of human thing, though thou hast been touched by witchery. Thou smellst of it." She wrinkles her nose thoughtfully, not stopping on her brisk way to the kitchen. "Bone and meat."
lanselos_du_lac: (oh really)

[personal profile] lanselos_du_lac 2024-01-06 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"I--" He glances down, "Ah."

Lancelot looks back up at Gideon, "I find it helps me to keep my training. I drill every morning -- one never knows when a blade may be needed. Duels, I have not seen. Not yet a tourney, either. We do spar, for sport, with one another. All manner of blades."
new_inglewoodblues: (Default)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-06 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thou wilt find good company. There's a bonewitch here already."
new_inglewoodblues: (Default)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-06 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"Nay," blithely, very cheered by having caught Gideon off-guard. "Merry and buxom and very pretty."
protagonisthalo: (Default)

[personal profile] protagonisthalo 2024-01-06 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Luo Binghe lowers Xin Mo. He only drew it out of instinct; he still has no intention to incite violence here. Having it by his side simply activated his muscle memory. He sheathes it and sets it down again, and then looks at the cover of the book dubiously. "They are fetching," he admits—even though her breasts do not incite his desire, he certainly has enough expertise to be considered a connoisseur. "You can have it if you want. It's not as good as the last one I read."
sporesprouter: (smile)

[personal profile] sporesprouter 2024-01-06 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"Just food. For free. Some that the kitchen just magically provides, and some that people here cook, if we like to cook. But the ingredients show up just as magically."
temnota: (Default)

[personal profile] temnota 2024-01-06 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Aleksander was in one of the kitchens, stirring the contents of a large pot on the stove. It was nothing particularly fancy, just beef, vegetables and various spices he'd managed to cajole from the cold box tossed together in a stew. His kefta was hanging off a chair and he'd rolled up his shirtsleeves to keep them out of the way.

He heard footsteps and looked up. A tall woman with red hair that reminded him of Genya, a curiously painted face and dark eyeglasses. "Ah. You are new, I take it."
new_inglewoodblues: (Default)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-06 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
"I like her well."
kadewest: (VIRTUE.)

[personal profile] kadewest 2024-01-06 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"Space is the final frontier, where I'm from," Kade says. "No living thing has gone beyond our Earth's moon."
new_inglewoodblues: (Default)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-06 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"Art thou a bard, that thou wouldst hear the tale and play it on thine instrument?"
new_inglewoodblues: (go on)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-07 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
Ragnelle does not get the appreciation she deserves. Gu Xiang would have understood her meaning. "I mark well thou art, like a fox on a dormouse."
lanselos_du_lac: (easy)

[personal profile] lanselos_du_lac 2024-01-07 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
Lancelot smiles a little, "There's a welcome table with all manner of lists. I don't know if there is one for sparring. I'm in the field every morning, though, and you are welcome."
new_inglewoodblues: (laughing)

[personal profile] new_inglewoodblues 2024-01-07 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Because thou hast the misfortune of a lady who is little and thin and dare not fart freely, I will permit thee to try once more."
kadewest: (GOBLIN MARKET.)

[personal profile] kadewest 2024-01-07 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
"We don't have lightspeed travel yet! That only exists in science fiction. It exists only in pure conjecture." Kade puts a hand on his hip and regards Gideon for a moment. "I doubt we share a calendar system, but it's 2024 on my Earth."

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