#Harrow come back and get your Griddle

[onlymadplanswork]

I feel like I never see anyone talking about traumatising it must have been for Gideon/Kiriona at the end of Nona, like, after she kills Crux to open the tomb (ultimately in an attempt to save Harrow) she has a full on panic attack and frantically asking why it didn't feel good, even afte the way he treated her growing up, and NO ONE ACKNOWLEDGES IT!!! No one steps up to comfort this scared young girl who hasn't killed anyone before, has suffered so much and now can only hope it all wasn't for nothing and harrow somehow survives Nonas death. In htn she vowed she would die and kill for harrow, which she has now done, but the repercussions are getting to her and noone is there to help her deal with it all. However the horrors don't end there. No, she has to watch her girlfriend whom she thought was dead's closest friend's body litterally fall apart whilst trying to hold the pieces together. If all that wasn't enough, Harrow is then finally alive and right there, but Alecto swears fealthy to Harrow, kisses her and separates her from Gideon once again.

I hope we get to see if and how this is still affecting our belowed tower prince in Alecto

[gideonisms]

For the prompt you asked! Griddlehark end up being fuck buddies by necessity but they still hate eachother or do they??

I had fun with this one <3

In the tight confines of the closet they’ve found themselves in, Harrow struggles for purchase against the horrible shelving unit. Gideon’s set her on a bottom shelf as she scrambles to open what should be a fairly simple button and zipper situation.

“Griddle,” Harrow grits out. “Do you need help getting in my pants? Have you lost your sense of direction? You know the medics have a tea for those struggling with the physical aspects of survival in deep space.”

“Fuck you, I’ll show you my physical aspects,” Gideon answers, predictably. She grabs the hand Harrow is trying to snake down to her pants and holds it back easily, not bothering to be gentle as she finally thumbs the pants open and sticks her fingers underneath the waistband of Harrow’s thermal underwear. “Really?” she says.

“I get cold.”

“Yeah, I bet you do, you frigid bi—”

Gideon breaks off as Harrow takes her wrist with her free hand and shoves Gideon’s fingers down to her cunt, where she’s warm and already embarrassingly wet.

Well, Harrow reasons, it’s been a long assignment. She can’t say she’s made much scientific progress, but she’s begun to chart a good estimate of the time it takes from seeing Gideon to fighting with Gideon to locking Gideon with her in a closet. The average is fifteen minutes. Today, it had been forty-five seconds.

“Oh, you need it bad,” Gideon says. The grin is evident; Harrow doesn’t bother to turn on the lights.

“I have ten minutes until I need to check the cryochambers.”

“Uh huh.” Gideon slides her fingers over Harrow, but not where Harrow needs them. Fucking useless! Nav has never done anything but disappoint. Her thumb barely brushes Harrow’s clit, and Harrow’s hips buck. On the shelf behind her, she hears something topple.

“Gideon, please.”

At that, Gideon’s body goes still. Harrow can’t tell what she’s thinking, can never really tell. Even when she came to Gideon and asked for this the first time, both of them so pent up from nine months of deep space with a bunch of ancient scholars who barely listened to a word Harrow said and certainly didn’t pay any attention to a spare security guard—even then, Harrow couldn’t tell why Gideon agreed. Although she makes a study of Gideon Nav, day in and day out, although she’s memorized her down to the twitch of her thighs before she comes, in some ways Gideon remains a mystery to her.

“Oh. You’ve never asked me before,” Gideon says, sounding genuinely surprised.

“I thought it was impli—oh fuck.”

Gideon slides two fingers in easily, still not gentle, but slow enough that Harrow can back out if she wants. Harrow bears down with her whole body. Her leg hits a broom handle, and she swears, but Gideon curves her fingers so perfectly, hits the mark exactly—in this, she’s always been a quick study. Harrow wants to cry at how good this feels, after all the months orbiting a cold dead rock. After all this time feeling like a corpse in a coffin, perpetually separate from the world.

“All you ever had to do was ask,” Gideon says.

The coffin lid opens. Harrow comes alive.

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 20

i just wanna apologise in advance for how long these posts are getting lol, i have a lot of Thoughts about this book

oh wait nope they are going back to the creepy lab where two people just got murdered. great plan guys

Dulcinea wanting to team up surprised me a little, but it really shouldn't have. she's been paying a lot of attention to the Ninth, and especially Gideon.

'thousands of years after you're gone ... is when you really live' this is such a different, almost warmer, perspective on death and necromancy, and i can see why it appeals to Dulcinea specifically, who's clearly had to come to terms with her mortality pretty early on in life. but its also part of the more disturbing theme that the past never really goes away, and can't help but view this line along the same lines of discovering the ancient study last chapter, and the ancient laboratory, and Canaan House in general, which are only just now having their secrets revealed, and the terrible consequences of those secrets becoming apparent, after thousands of years

'she grasped a railing, leaned over, and proffered her hand' well this is getting very courtly romance

ah yes lets go through the door decorated with a swirl of human teeth, i'm sure there's happy fun times to be had in there. harrow, resident goth interior designer who specialises in bone decor, is probably taking notes as we speak

even after hurting her hand twice, Harrow really just can't resist experimenting even further huh. she's so very reluctant to accept that her existing powers aren't enough by themselves for this

ooohhhh, having to literally suck the life force out of your cavalier to win?? thats so sick and twisted and i love it. these challenges are, again, clearly relying on this intense relationship between the pair, both in trusting them absolutely and in this literal soul-siphoning/melding link thing.

however, it feels like Gideon's really getting the brunt of it in these challenges. Harrow's absolutely putting in an awful lot of effort and power, but it's the cavalier who has to fight the bone amalgamation, the cavalier who has to have their life literally siphoned out. they're about trust and a bond between them, but also seemingly about a willingness to sacrifice your cavalier to achieve that goal, and i have a really bad feeling about where exactly this is going in terms of how exactly one achieves lyctorhood

'under no circumstances will i ever desire your juice' Harrow you may wish to revisit this sentiment when you guys (to my limited knowledge) eventually become girlfriends

'none of this is worth it, at all [...] i'm sorry. We take so much' i'm like 90% sure the voice talking to Gideon throughout all this was Dulcinea, largely because it doesn't really make sense for it to be anyone else, but there were certain lines, specifically these ones, that made me suspicious at first it might be some(one? thing?) else. but it also feels fitting that its Dulcinea coaching her through this.

wow, just wow, i'm really impressed with the writing in this chapter, and how the pain Gideon is feeling is expressed. its such an abstract experience/feeling to describe, but i think its done incredibly well

'Ha-ha, said Gideon, first time you didn't call me Griddle, and died' ok i know she didn't but THANKS for giving me an absolute heart attack with that sentence Tamsyn Muir

Harrow i get understand u are protective of Gideon but let Dulcinea comfort her plz

'you can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor'. ahh the duality of Gideon the Ninth. this just evocative prose about how it feels to be on the brink of death, and then immediately afterwards hits you in the face with a mean girls reference. beautiful, iconic, effervescent.

[fire-swift]

So... Lancer × The Locked Tomb... I like the idea of Griddle being a Balor pilot and Harry piloting a Lich. What about you?

Hey hello, thank you for the question. Also sorry for all the Lancer to my tlt mutuals, it will happen again. Harrow has to pilot a lich, even if just by vibes alone.

I don't know about Gideon in a balor, what was your reasoning? The heiress of the minor house of a remote karrakin barony planet has to appear for a contest with other house heirs, despite being her enemy she needs to bring the prodigy blackbeard pilot, famous for pushing recklessly ahead and engaging in brutal melee ignoring the exposed reactor. When the contest is announced Harrow disappears into dark corners and goes on searches in obscure omninet spaces and comes back in a forbidden mech of ancient lore.

But also, consider: Harrow, mercenary contracted operative stranded on a destroyed ship, modifying the mech of her girlfriend who just died to get harrow here safe, and coming out crying and punching the pirates who did it to oblivion

Or a brand of mechs with NHPs who call themselves necromancers bonded to their cavaliers, and fight as a tandem, the cavalier shooting and moving and the NHP hacking enemies and protecting their mech

[lady-harrowhark]

I’m more asking for confirmation than anything else since I don’t have a copy of htn or ntn I can check, but do we have any concrete evidence that John is still capable of performing full resurrections? Or were the original resurrections the kind of thing that were only possible in the aftermath of 10 billion deaths + 9 planets worth of thanergy being released (much like how harrow’s parents supposedly performed a type of resurrection in the aftermath of murdering 200 children)

I've been paging through, and I don't think we do have any concrete evidence... I also don't think we have any concrete not evidence though either...

I think most relevant to this question is this passage from when John is showing Harrow the 500 he's going to send to the Ninth:

No, I haven't truly resurrected anyone in ten thousand years. But at that time... I set many aside, for safety... and I've often felt bad about just keeping them as insurance. They've been asleep all this myriad, Harrow, and it's frankly a relief to my mind to wake them up.

So if we take this at face value (never a given with John), he resurrected them back ten thousand years ago, but will be waking them up now.

Which, of course, aligns with what he says in John 5:4 of NtN, "...resurrection is different from waking up."

That difference is something I've been mulling over since I first read it, and I don't have any great takes at the moment. It's definitely something I have flagged to keep an eye out for on my next reread though! I think your point about needing that massive amount of thanergy sounds very reasonable, especially compared to Harrow's conception, which he also refers to as a type of resurrection.

Also just as I was typing this I got curious and went back to the avulsion trial scene, where it says Gideon "died" and then pulls the "gotcha!" (except in hindsight it seems it was not a "gotcha!" at all lmao). Very interesting wording here, no?

"Ha-ha," said Gideon, "first time you didn't call me Griddle," and died. - Well, passed out. But it felt a hell of a lot like dying. Waking up had an air of resurrection, of having spent a winter as a dried-out shell and coming back to the world as a new green shoot. A new green shoot with problems.

So we've clearly got this resurrection vs waking up thing again, but I'm really curious about the comparison to the "green shoot," with green being so heavily associated with Alecto (e.g., Varun calls her "green-and-breathing thing"). And especially because it's used with this context of "A new green shoot with problems," because that particular turn of phrase sounds very much like Camilla's description of Nona getting dressed looking like a "worm with problems." (Is this anything? Am I reaching? Am I having fun while reaching?)

I'll also just throw in the verbiage around John saying he "switched [Alecto] off" as compared to, say, the NtN epigram poem's "sleep, I'll wake you in the morning" (and further: "Annabel, good morning.")

I feel like things are kind of coalescing around the difference between a true death and being brought back to life vs a sleep or suspended animation state in which one isn't actually dead, and therefore is simply waking up (I can't let myself go down this tangent right now but it does sound suspiciously like the whole cryo project... moving on!). It makes me wonder if it's not so much that John hasn't resurrected anyone in ten thousand years as much as it is that no one has truly died in ten thousand years for him to resurrect; therefore he can only wake them.

Which seems incompatible with necromancy at first, but is it? We know something's fucky with the River. Perhaps crossing the River (or whatever verb we want to use for that) constitutes a true death, and if something's stopped it up, the thanergy stays pooled up and accessible for necromantic purposes rather than crossing or being cycled back into the River or dispersed or whatever happens to it. A death magic dam, essentially. And if a soul can't finish its journey to a true death, he wouldn't be able to resurrect them, hmm.

I don't know how well that meshes with the 200 dead Ninth children, though, if that's also a resurrection, other than what Harrow says during the pool scene: "The infants alone generated enough thanergy to take out the entire planet. Babies always do - for some reason." The incomplete explanation is conspicuous here, but so is the reference to "taking out the entire planet", now that we know what we know. So that may actually track. (Is John's baby finger bone crown meant to be like... a tribute? Thank you for your service and all that? Yuck.)

Two more incomplete musings and then I really will stop! I've been harboring some thoughts about whether the Ninth (and specifically the Tomb) may have a more direct connection to the River (and the barathron specifically) than other locations do, and if that's the case, perhaps that's also at play in achieving a resurrection, whatever form that may take.

The other thing I'm thinking about here is the whole Alecto/Anastasia/tomb-keeper line situation. If the tomb-keeper line is carrying a bit of Alecto's soul, is this more of a direct, one-to-one passage down the line? Or, over the however many thousands of years since that vow, has it branched out from that central family tree and dispersed amongst the generations? What I'm getting at here is essentially, if many or all of the 200 Ninth children housed a bit of Alecto's soul, taking any/all of them out would be a small scale planetary death... which could account for why babies generate so much thanergy (again, the phrasing of "enough to take out the entire planet" seems significant). It feels reminiscent of the way Lyctors flip planets as well, turning them thanergetic... if killing a planet creates thanergy, could killing bits of a planet (and the children carrying them) create a necromancer?

I swear when I sat down to answer this, I only had the first two quotes in mind and then I just kept pulling at threads and ended up unraveling a whole sweater, so apologies from getting away from what you were asking. But thank you for providing some good food for thought!

[captainimprobable]

Discovered a Griddlehark college AU that I started last year.  I have no memory of writing this and probably won’t finish it, but I thought it was funny ~ All things considered, Gideon is having a pretty good day until It happens.

She arrives at the school just two hours after her projected arrival time, which she takes as a complete win.  She unpacks in record time, which basically just means she puts away the few articles of clothing she owns, stows her fencing gear in the closet, and artfully places a dirty magazine on the bed across the room from hers.  

She does this as both an extension of friendship and a challenge.  

She’s been imagining what her roommate might be like, and she has some hopes: first, that they like working out.  It’s not that she can only be friends with gym rats, but she’s in serious need of a gym buddy and it would be so convenient if her roommate was too. Second, they needed to have a sense of humor.  Gideon had what a teacher had once lovingly referred to as a “disgusting excuse for a crude sense of humor”, and she simply could not entertain the idea of living with a dullard.  (RIP Mr. Crux.  As far as she knew, he wasn’t dead, but he was old as balls and if she didn’t know any better, she’d think he was a zombie or something.)

And third, and most importantly, they had to like tits.

This one did not need explanation.

So when the door opened and her roommate walked in, it was with a hopeful “hey, stranger,” and a smile that Gideon turned towards the door.

And then her life was ruined.

“No,” was all Harrowhark Nonagesimus said, which pretty much summed up Gideon’s feelings.  She sighed.  “Harrow, what are you doing here? Missed me so much that you followed me all the way to college? I’d say that’s cute, but since it’s you it’s more creepy.”

“No,” Harrow repeated again, and swiftly turned and left.

Okay, so that was…strange.  She should probably follow Harrow and ask her what the hell she was doing at Gideon’s school, but she was so hopeful that maybe it was just a stress induced hallucination that she let it go.  

Unfortunately, Harrow returned ten minutes later, positively fuming.  Without saying a word to Gideon, she hauled a medium sized bag into the room, slammed the door, and plopped face first on the other bed.

“Griddle, get this third rate smut off of my bed,” she said icily.

“Aw, come on Harrow, you know you love the-did you just say your bed?”

In response, Harrow cracked an eye open to glare at Gideon.  “God,” she said forlornly, and then plopped her face back down.

“No, actually, I’m Gideon.  But I know you’ve always worshiped me, babe.”

“Can you shut the fuck up for maybe two seconds?”

“Can you maybe get the fuck out of my room?”

Harrow sighed in the deep, dramatic way only Harrowhark could.  “Unfortunately,” she muttered into the bedsheet, “this is my room as well.”

Gideon blinked.  She blinked again.  “I’d ask you if that was a joke, but you have a truly shitty sense of humor.”

Harrow groaned.  “Why me?” she said to the ceiling.  “I do everything right.  I’m a good person-” Gideon snorted at this “-and I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

“What do you mean this is your room too,” Gideon said slowly.

“I mean,” Harrow intoned, “that I was assigned this room, just like you were assigned this room, and the dean has informed me that no, there are no other available rooms and nobody else wants to switch, which means I am stuck with you for a miserable year.” “No, no, no, no,” Gideon said, shaking her head quickly.  “This can’t be happening.  You’re supposed to go to college and shed your childhood, not have it sucking on your elbow like a leech, what the fuck?” “Why Griddle,” Harrow said, now scrolling through her phone, “that was almost a coherent simile.”

[serregon]

Gideon and Harrow for the ship questions?

griddlehark my beloveds. I haven’t written anything for tlt and I haven’t really interacted with the fandom much yet but I’d love to write more about them. also I trimmed this bc it’s Long

How did they first meet?

I mean, they don’t remember since they were babies. but like once Gideon was old enough to be all “oh hey I have a consciousness and memory” her first impressions of Harrow were “ugh look at this stupid spoiled princess”

Who felt romantic feelings first?

you’re telling me that repressed space catholic Harrow spent all her life around her hot butch archnemesis with massive biceps and a big sword and she NEVER thought “shit griddle’s looking kinda fine”. I don’t believe you

Did either of them try to resist their feelings?

oh they are the co-ceos of resisting their feelings

Who initiated their feelings first?

Harrow and I’m begging for Alecto to have a scene where she’s like grabbing Gideon by the shirt collar and being like “god damn it don’t you see I’m in love with you”

Who said “I love you” first?

^^^

Who gets jealous easily?

Harrow is like “back off that’s MY beloathed replacement cavalier”. but like jealous Gideon would be fun too

Who is more protective?

they both have their protective moments. I hate your guts, but I’M the only one who can hurt you. Gideon’s obvious, cavalier and all, and Harrow literally gave herself a lobotomy to protect Gideon from her own sacrifice

Who remembers the little things?

Gideon may just be a jock, but she never forgets Harrow’s favorite color and her favorite flower and her favorite rib bones

Who talks about their feelings more?

I mean, they’re both awful at talking about their feelings, and the past 7 years of mutual hatred could have been avoided if they actually sat down and TALKED. Gideon is less awful at talking about her feelings

Who uses the cheesier pickup lines?

Gideon “would you love me if I was a worm” Nav

What does a first date look like for them?

I think their first date wouldn’t even be planned as a date, they just do something together and sparks start flying and they’re like oh shit is this a date

What do they like to do together?

I know stargazing is cliche for a sci fi story but like,, come on. who doesn’t love stargazing. stargayzing. they point to the constellations that are just weird blobs and say “that’s you”

Which one gets angry the most, leaving the other to calm them down?

Harrow

Do they like PDA?

Gideon likes pda. Harrow says she doesn’t, don’t listen to her she’s lying

What are their big spoon / little spoon arrangements?

Gideon is usually the big spoon, since Harrow is so tiny. but little spoon Gideon would be cute

Does one like the cuddle more than the other?

Gideon is a huge cuddler, Harrow won’t admit it but she’s touch starved as hell and she needs those cuddles.

Harrow: oh no griddle I am NOT cuddling you

Gideon: ok fine

Harrow: w-what are you doing you’re supposed to grab me and cuddle me now

Who hogs the blankets?

Harrow

Who’s more likely to initiate sex?

Gideon

Who’s the kinkiest?

Harrow. is there anything more kinky than lesbian skeleton catholicism? but like they’re still trying to figure this whole sex thing out bc they’re both virgins, what with them literally being the only two people under 35 on the entirety of Pluto

Who is the top and bottom in their sex life? Are they interchangeable?

Gideon is a service top and Harrow is a very bratty pillow princess

Who likes giving and who likes receiving oral?

Gideon LIVES for eating 🐱

[tinypumpkinwrites]

Dear Creator ;)

Hello dear and precious exchange friend! First of all, really truly, have fun. I hope that my requests provide inspiration, so if you find yourself chasing your muse, don't worry if it's not hitting every random tag I threw in!

I am a filthy multishipper, so flex those fingers and gestures any way you want to throw them together. OF COURSE I love Griddlehark, who doesn't? But Ianthe and Harrow make such a GOOD bad romance, and Griddle/Harrow/Ianthe could be a delightfully hilarious polycule. Pyrrha is DADDY but can also have a little heartbreak, as a treat, if you want. Jodybeth can be explosive or established, or Corona can fuck Gideon to get back at Ianthe for going for Harrowhark.

For themes, I prefer fluff or action, less coming of age or whump this season and more horny women making bad decisions, but the stakes are either low or ridiculous.

As for explicit, I'm only interested in Chussyplay for crackfic, which is fine, because crackfic is hilarious. I am down for most pairings and positions as long as the writing is horny and done with one hand busy.

Do Not Want (DNW)

fatphobia, diet culture, feeding fetish

scatplay (pissplay ok)

animal death (this is not john wick)

Thank you again, I look forward to seeing your work!  

[cipheramnesia]

The realistic griddlehark coffee shop AU is Harrow comes up to the counter in a kind of ramrod slouch with a hoodie throwing a shadow over her face and cash clutched in one hand, and she mutters her order too fast, so Gideon keeps having to repeat it back, like "tell press what? I'm so sorry." And she's just got massive flop sweat because Harrow is visibly more enraged with each second.

So she makes the shot and gives it to Harrow, who pulls her hoodie back with both hands in a snap and her eyes are pinned, baby, but in a single motion she swipes the cup, tilts back her head and doesn't drink as much as pour directly down her throat. At that point Griddle develops a nosebleed and then passes out on the spot. She wakes up to getting slapped in the face by Harrow who is like, "your espresso is the worst flavor in the saddest cupboard, I need a second one for the road, get up."

Realistically speaking, I don't think black coffee would kill Harrow. She drinks wine more than once, and I think it's even specified once that it's red; the more tannin rich and strongly flavored of the wines. Evidence suggests that, while she would in no way enjoy it, she could theoretically survive a cup of black coffee.

Therefore the question becomes: Would she? What would she do if she had to choose between keeping her tastebuds or impressing a hot barista? Could lean taut muscle dewy with sweat and steam compel her to do what God could not—finish a hot beverage?

[vaguely-concerned]

thinkingb... about the evolution in the power dynamics in harrow's dream bubble AUs and what it tells us. we go from first completely replicating the original power imbalance between her and gideon except in reverse in the cav/necro switch one. this one is devastating to me because it feels so... stuck, like harrow can't even conceptualize a world yet where their individual existences would not somehow be at the expense of the other. it has the same cast as their actual childhoods, and the characters play themselves out like they did in real life even with their roles reversed, and with the same logic.

but THEN in the one where they’re at the party and gideon is the emperor’s daughter/the ~*princess*~ something starts to happen! we bring in ‘new’ characters in a mirror of coming to canaan house in the real world, with only aiglamene left representing the ninth with her. gideon is still above her in status/power in this one, but in a setting where the possibility of being raised to her level -- BY MARRIAGE! by gideon's choice alone, should she want to make it!!! -- is literally baked into the entire point of the structure of the event she's conjured up, societally and emotionally. it's expressed in terms of politics by way of romance novel structure. (also makes me wonder how harrow actually thinks inter-house politics function fdshkfjas she's just been out there on a cold rock on the outskirts of the solar system, her understanding of what a party is seems wholly academic.) that power imbalance subconsciously still involves giving up(/enforcing, yay codependency) all your agency and emotional wellbeing to someone else, just like harrow is doing in the pool scene in a way --

"I’ve lived my whole wretched life at your mercy, yours alone, and God knows I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you.”

but it's getting there. in any real structural sense harrow has always, always had the power in their imbalanced dynamic and I think that’s part of what she’s trying to process here by putting herself on gideon’s side of it, but on the interpersonal/internal scale it’s been much more complicated and entwined than that and it echoes that too.

it's the guilty, repressed thrill of '...but what if griddle would still choose me if she had every freedom and all other options before her. what if she'd choose me and stay with me even if I didn't forcibly keep her from going?' (which is like... what a lot of their dynamic in the first part of GtN is partially about, when you go back to it with HtN in mind. gideon feels more threatened by the idea of harrow’s indifference than by her cruelty and possessiveness, because harrow hating her always meant more than anyone else loving her, and harrow keeps saying ‘please don’t leave me’ in the most violent and toxic of ways. because gideon only exists via harrow, and vice versa, and they’ve been stuck like that so long. oh boy.) so like. in the same type of situation where harrow decided ‘I must no longer accept being a stranger to you’ in the real world (having left the ninth house for the larger world of all the houses) she has made them actual strangers in the dream, but with hope that they might not continue to be? idk it feels like there’s a lot going on here.

and then in the coffee shop AU they meet as equals, as two people completely outside the dark dreary confines of the ninth and the power imbalance that raised them, and that's where we finally get to actually see gideon in harrow's mind's eye -- and see feelings about gideon harrow normally doesn't let herself look at directly (it involves strong arms ~*dewy with sweat*~ and a lovingly enraptured description of her crooked smile haha. harrow is not good at handling romantic or sexual feelings normally but it rises so sweetly and uncomplicatedly in this one, like it doesn't anywhere else in either of the books to my memory. her attraction to The Body is more like reverent despair, and her attraction to ianthe is....... deeply emotionally ambivalent let's say lol, but this one time it's a description more like the normal belly butterflies you'd get from being in love without quite so much dread or disgust getting twined into it). I think this one is the closest to what harrow actually desperately wants for them as her wildest fantasy -- not that she wants to join the cohort or anything, but to be able to meet as whole, individuated people who have a fighting chance not to break each other.

like... harrow the war crime who feels like she has to live her life in debt to the 200 souls that ensured her existence, harrow who's a lyctor and servant of god and has been in love with a dead woman since she was ten... and the dream inside her that's so strong it almost pulls dead souls back from the river is just to meet gideon somewhere they haven't hurt each other yet, where neither of them has to hurt each other anymore. (or hurt themselves for the other, or use the other as a means to hurt themselves, which is its own endless ouroboros because of their enmeshed state -- everything they do to each other hurts them both as the gideon-harrowhark harrowhark-gideon unit they've been attachment-wise for so long even before lyctorhood made it literal. it's all gideon thinks she is good for, an idea harrow finds so utterly horrifying and repellent that she *waves at entirety of HtN* did THAT essentially to disprove it.) which is still a huge step away from managing to process, accept and live with the ways they HAVE hurt each other and that they might still find a way to touch without doing so again. tellingly this fantasy is still within the power structures of the empire, even if it’s no longer claustrophobically contained to the ninth house and their past in it. God knows they’ve got so, SO far to go before they even theoretically could get there but like... again, I really do believe that is harrow’s dream. give the poor kid a break and let her have this coffee shop AU for now, she's literally dying and holy shit has she Been Through It fjskdafsda

[breeeliss]

#LockedTombtober Day 4: First

a/n: bc it’s less depressing to say that ianthe was harrow’s second kiss lol

//

day 4: first 

//

they’re lying in harrow’s bed fully clothed, still drenched in saltwater, when harrow asks probably the most ridiculous question gideon has ever heard leave her lips. “were your magazines entirely pornographic?” 

the delivery is so clinical that gideon is almost sure harrow asked her to confirm a footnote in some godforsaken bone witchery textbook, or whatever it was that harrow studied all day. it’s only because harrow is violently pressing her nails into the meats of her palms that gideon knows she heard correctly and allowed the silence to fester into some pretty spectacular awkwardness. 

gideon grasps for anything to say in response and unfortunately has to remain satisfied with, “i mean, like...y-yeah? mostly?” 

it’s because of the terrible secrets they now shouldered together -- the inability to let the other out of their sight, the need to fill the silence with noise no matter how inane or ridiculous -- that harrow forces the conversation forward. “what do you mean by mostly?” 

“...i mean, i don’t know. sometimes there’s some plot.” 

harrow raises an eyebrow, and gideon swears she’s taking the piss out of her. “porn with plot? fascinating.” 

“you asked!” gideon squirms. “there’s a lead up. you know, warming up the furnace before sticking your hands straight on it. setting the mood. establishing the vibe. getting the--”

“i quite get the point, griddle.” 

“oh shut up, you were the one who asked. why are you even asking?” 

harrow simply shrugs, scratching at the flaking white paint on her forehead. “...you kissed me.” 

it’s said in a whisper, and it takes gideon a moment to remember that...oh...yes, she did indeed. gideon’s body didn't take much instruction from her brain while they were in the pool. gideon only knew that harrow looked wretched begging for her to be punished for every hateful word that ever left her lips, and gideon unthinkingly showed her compassion instead. 

“you looked like you needed it,” she replies. “you were shivering and crying, that’s a normal reason to give someone a kiss.” 

harrow rolls over onto her side, and her hand falls on the mattress in between them. “is there a lot of shivering and crying in the magazines?” 

“no...at least not that kind. and there’s a lot more than kissing.” gideon shakes her head. “why are you asking, nonagesimus, this is super random.” 

the exhaustion from the day rolls over harrow in waves, and she doesn’t have the energy to snap back with anything other than the truth. “i was surprised, is all. your magazines always sounded rather torrid. but what you did was...nice.” 

gideon frowned. “i'm getting the sense you think i'm only capable of being a total horny asshole.” 

“well...not anymore.” 

gideon rolls over as well to watch harrow’s eyes refuse to make contact with hers. harrow doesn’t allow herself to possess anything resembling hesitation or weakness, and yet gideon thinks this is the first time she’s seen her nervous. “it’s not all ripped bodices and sex. like i said, sometimes there’s nice stuff that comes before it. cute stuff.” 

“like forehead kisses?” 

gideon takes a moment to truly think back. “actually...no. not really. i guess it just felt like the right thing to do, that’s all. if you hated it, you could’ve told me.: 

“no,” harrow says hurriedly. “i...i enjoyed it. it was my first one.” 

there’ve been too many sad discoveries about harrow this evening, and gideon feels a sickening pang after hearing one more. she thinks of harrow’s parents, the geriatric nuns forcing her into prayer, and gideon’s fists making her noses bloody all through their childhood. it hadn’t occurred to her that something as simple as a kiss hadn’t been present in all of that. 

“mine too. it’s not like there were many opportunities. kind of figured in some weird fucked up way you’d be my first. just statistically, you know.” 

harrow actually huffs out a weak laugh at the sorry excuse for a joke. “im sure there are more lifted skirts and popped buttons with the kisses you’ve read.” 

“you’d be surprised actually. like i said. it’s not all ripped bodices.” 

“what are they like then?” 

gideon’s breath catches, and harrow’s fingers stretch carefully, slowly, softly across the comforter until just the tips of their index fingers are touching. and god, they could die tomorrow. they really could honestly be stewing in their final hours at the fuck off edge of the universe in a house that was trying to kill them. there was so much poison that gideon could spew, so much revenge she could dish out, and so much cruelty she could finally force harrow to suffer through. and harrow would accept it without hesitation. but the look in harrow’s eyes clenches around gideon’s heart, and it’s the saddest, prettiest thing gideon has ever seen in her short, awful life. 

her other hand comes up to trace the tear tracks left in harrow’s face paint. “close your eyes.” 

harrow obliges, breath hitching and fingers clenching against gideon’s. but gideon has sworn to keep harrow safe and protected until she can no longer pick up her sword, and this is fealty she can be proud of. 

when their lips meet, gideon decides she’s glad that harrow was her first, and she’ll die content if harrow ends up being her last. 

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 24

oh Naberius why do you have to make everyone’s lives harder all the time 💀 he is being smart though, if challenging the others for their keys has just become acceptable, then this is the best time to challenge Camilla when she’s already injured and weaker.

‘Gideon realised they’d just lost her somehow’ there’s been this background conflict between the two since Ianthe lied about the keys, but i think from this point on Corona is subtly choosing to stick by Ianthe, which does not bode well for our protagonists  

wooooh yeah Gideon and Harrow have each others backs, hell yeah. compare this to when Gideon first challenged Naberius impulsively, Harrow’s come such a long way in understanding and trusting Gideon

uh Jeannemary i love u, and desperately hope u get the chance to kick Naberius’s ass at some point, but maybe stay out of this one ok

ok none of the characters in this currently are possessing brain cells, in what world is sending the two traumatised kids down to the death lab they have been explicitly warned not to go back to, where their mentors got killed like less than a week ago, a good idea?

i totally forgot that half the other houses straight up haven’t heard Gideon speak yet. imagine ur a teenager having probably the worst time of ur life so far, and the intimidating silent death cultist suddenly starts making sex puns

'never work with children, Griddle, their prefrontal cortexes aren't developed' Harrow, i love you, but you are like seventeen neither is yours. altho that is such a seventeen thing to say honestly

Gideon hugged Harrow!! also 'midnight hagette', 'crepuscular queen' this is so ridiculous, i'm cackling. Gideon is just as bad at coming up with nicknames as Harrow, they're a match made in heaven clearly

[dude1818]

Gideon the Ninth reread liveblog part 3: attempting the trials, and the game is afoot

Palamedes tries to bring “Dulcinea” tea at the Fifth anniversary party and is very weird about it. That's probably when he reached the conclusion that she's an imposter

There are many things to say about the Winnowing trial. I'm going to focus on how hard it was for Harrow to compliment Gideon on her sword fighting, but still how glowing the praise was. This might be the first time Harrow had actual respect for Gideon, and she simply doesn't know what to do with that feeling

And then the immediate whiplash with them finding the bodies. Muir is incredibly good at getting the perfect timing to break your heart

[The Third princesses] knelt side by side, holding hands, and for all that Ianthe had made fun of her sister’s intellect Corona never broke a sweat. It was Ianthe who ran wet with blood and perspiration.

Because Corona wasn't doing any magic! Gideon was too busy staring at her “skimpy nighties” to realize that though, and the other necros were doing their own necromancy

I'm not sure why Gideon hated the Fourth House so much at the beginning, other than just because kids are terrible. Even when Jeannemary was fawning over her at the dinner, Gideon did not seem pleased. It wasn't until the Fifth's death broke the kids that Gideon finally felt pity for them

Harrow arranging her breakfast was a concept so disagreeable there was no space left in her head for it.

Harrow let Gideon sleep in and brought her breakfast in bed. She wants them to finally be friends so bad!

“Compared to why, the question of who killed Pent and Quinn is almost an aside.”

“‘Who,’” said a voice, “or ‘what.’ I love the idea of what.”

I'm sure you do, “Dulcinea” 😠

“This is not intended to be collaborative.”

Dulcinea said, smilingly: “Why does everybody think that?”

Cytheria actually knows it is supposed to be collaborative. Reverse psychology by telling the truth?

“I wish Master Silas had just fought me. Not much can hurt me anymore … it would be an interesting sensation, is what I mean.”

That's even more fucked up coming from a Lyctor than from a girl with terminal cancer

“You can’t move thanergy from place to place like that,” said the Seventh, with very careful gentleness. “It has to be life to death.… or death to a sort of life, like the Second do.”

I didn't quite understand this the first time, but I think I see what's needed for Avulsion now. Necromancy is powered by thanergy, but this trial drains all your thanergy nigh instantly. You can't use an external source of thanergy, because it's like trying to get power from ground: that might have the biggest source of electrons, but their infinitely more stable there. Instead you need to find a hot wire, a living source of thalergy, to set up a current to power the necro inside the entropy field

“Because [siphoning is] something Palamedes wouldn’t do,” [Gideon] said, “and he’s a perfect moron over Camilla the Sixth.”

Perhaps the pot calls the kettle black because she's never had a mirror

When [Harrow] spoke again, she made her voice quite calm and normal: “Why?”

“Probably because you asked.”

Gideon slid her glasses back onto her face, obscuring feelings with tint. She found herself saying, “That’s all I ever demanded,”

The blackest they come

“It’s all right,” someone was saying, over the noise. “You’re all right. Gideon, Gideon … you’re so young. Don’t give yourself away. Do you know, it’s not worth it … none of this is worth it, at all. It’s cruel. It’s so cruel. You are so young—and vital—and alive. Gideon, you’re all right … remember this, and don’t let anyone do it to you ever again. I’m sorry. We take so much. I’m so sorry.”

[Gideon] would remember each word later, loud and clear.

This is Cytherea talking. This is why Cytherea is doing all of this

“Ha-ha,” said Gideon, “first time you didn’t call me Griddle,” and died.

I need to refer back to this for that scene

[Dulcinea] reached out one last time to skim a hand over Gideon’s forehead. She whispered archly: “Nice hair.”

Cytherea had figured out who Gideon's father was a while ago, when she inspected her eyes in the sitting room. This is probably the first time she realized who her mother was

Gideon mumbled, “Harrow, you can’t just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor,” but was roundly ignored.

The first thing out of Gideon's mouth after nearly dying is a 10 thousand year old meme. I almost wish that there were some "future memes," rather than early 21st century meme culture crystallizing for 10k years

Eventually, she said: “I didn’t want to die.”

Notably, not "I don't want to die." This is Cytherea's reason, not "Dulcinea's"

A skeleton was packing linen-wrapped wheels of some waxy white substance into a box.

I break up this deeply emotional analysis to point out that Gideon doesn't know what cheese is

Protesilaus's ashes being so much older than they should have been was such a confusing wrinkle to throw in. There were plenty of hints (Gideon's descriptions of him always being like a classic Frankenstein, his automaton-like behaviors, Naberius just having described him as not being at all like his reputation), but it's the kind of mystery you don't figure out because you never even thought there was a mystery!

It's also a little confusing that Dulcinea's body was also incinerated, and had the same time of death as Pro. During Cytherea's exposition later, I got the sense that she killed Pro in self-defense as soon as she was spotted, but struck a deal with Dulcinea

God, of every death across both books so far, Jeannemary's is the most fucked up. It's so unnecessarily brutal. We finally start seeing the kids in a sympathetic light as everything starts crashing down around them, and then she gets murdered in the cruelest way possible. In the safe house! Mocking Gideon for thinking she might actually save someone! I've seen meta that Magnus was the first on-screen death as a “kicking the dog” moment, to make it clear that the bad guy was unrepentantly evil, but I think Jeanemary's death is the most heinous.

I'm also sad that we didn't get to see the twins again in Harrow the Ninth. Abigail mothered them too much and wouldn't even let them play in Harrow's dreambubble, but I would've loved to see more of Jeannemary now that she warmed up

[beholdthesword]

My brain came up with the dumbest griddlehark meet cute au idea this morning: carnival AU

Hear me out:

Harrow and ianthe are reluctant roommates

Ianthe drags harrow out to the carnival/fair and harrow is like ‘wow this is terrible I hate it here’ and just sulks the entire time

Ianthe is bored bc harrow isn’t enjoying herself and so for amusement she’s like hey harrow I bet you can’t ride the tilt-o-whirl without puking and harrows like wtf why would I even try to do that and ianthe is like it’s okay if you’re to weak to do it we can’t all be super strong willed like me (plus I’ll pay your portion of the rent this month) and harrow is like ugh okay fine

AND GIDEON IS THE RIDE OPERATOR

harrow is at the front of the line and Gideon tries to make small talk bc she’s like oh shit look at this cute lil goth girl in my line but harrow is like no thank and just flat out ignores her

Gideon just shrugs like okay fine w/e but then as the night goes on she sees harrow go through the line a few more times and is like huh that’s weird but okay guess she really likes this ride

At some point maybe harrows fourth go around she tries again to make small talk

“So, I’ve noticed you keep coming back. Is this you favorite ride? I personally prefer the roller coasters, myself, higher thrill and all” and harrow straight up is like I don’t like rides

And so Gideon is like okay what the hell is going on

Luckily after this ride, cam comes to replace her as ride operator for her break

And Gideon doesn’t go far just watching harrow go through the line yet again but this time she notices harrow stumbling on her way out, like a lot and says fuck it and goes to help her

“Hey are you okay?” “I’m fine” “if you don’t like rides why in the hell did you get on five times??” “My bitch ass roommate bet me the rent money that I couldn’t do it without vomiting” harrow says while leaning heavily on Gideon and dry heaving (lol)

Harrow grins and reveals “it’s pretty easy to not puke when you haven’t eaten all day” and Gideon is shook like ‘omg bitch what you need to eat it’s like 9pm’

So she drags this poor dizzy goth to her favorite food stand to get some food in her system before she passes out

And she takes her to (of course) a griddle cake stand (palamedes works there and knows them both but says nothing bc he’s a professional, he does gossip with cam later though)

And as they eat Gideon is like “um there’s a pasty angry blonde woman that’s been watching us eat” and harrow turns and sees ianthe like two tables behind them just glaring and harrow gives her the finger and says “yeah that’s my bitch roommate, she probably mad I didn’t puke”

And Gideon looks over again at ianthe and is like “mmm pretty sure she’s pissed because I swooped in to save you - think she’s got the hots for you” and harrow chokes on a cake

And then Gideon says “you know what would really piss her off? If you agreed to go on a real date with me, preferably one not at my place of work”

And harrow really is t like into dating but is very intrigued by this very tall, muscled lady who likes thrill rides but also rescues stumbling fairgoers while on her break and takes them to her favorite food stand time plus it would piss off ianthe bc this griddle cake girl is basically the antithesis of her

So harrow hands over her phone for Gideon’s number and puts the name as first name ‘griddle’, last name ‘cakes’ and Gideon laughs when she leans across the table to see and harrows like “well, you haven’t told me your name yet so this what you get’ and Gideon’s like oh shit true I’m Gideon and harrow is like ‘harrowhark, but you can call me harrow’

(I imagine that harrow is v formal with most people and insists on using her full name, she absolutely hates it when ianthe calls her Harry and routinely destroys ianthes belongings around the apartment ‘on accident’ because of it which backfires a little bc ianthe is loaded and just buys more stuff to replace it)

Can’t decide if I want harrow to stay until gideon gets off work, making ianthe go home alone or if harrow does go home with ianthe and just refuses to respond to any of ianthes questions about Gideon on the way home and ianthe comes home and slams her bedroom door in frustration like a lil toddler tantrum

[ghost-in-the-hella]

73. “I missed you.” Gideon/Harrow

Took me a bit to get my head around this one, but I think it worked out well enough in the end. Consider this an AU where the Emperor never summoned the heirs of the Houses and Gideon therefore successfully escaped to the Cohort. Contains some mild spoilers for Harrow the Ninth, I guess? Kind of?

---

In the opinion of Private First Class Gideon Nav - rising BARI star of the Cohort, dirty toenail of the Emperor, ladykiller in her own mind - closing time is the best time. As much as she loves the hustle and bustle of the mess hall during its peak hours - chatting up all the uniformed honeys, filling three or four elaborate orders at a time like the coffee rockstar that she is, showing off her sick coffee-slinging skillz with style and flair rivaled by none - there’s something soothing about the quiet at the end of her shift that speaks to her soul. The mess hall empty save for a handful of stragglers and night owls. The slow work of cleaning the machines. The pervasive near silence in which every move she makes echoes in the cavernous space. 

It reminds her a bit of nights in Drearburh spent jogging in the recyc mist with only the sound of her own footsteps and breath for company, and enough time has passed since those lonesome nights that she can feel a tinge of nostalgia for them even as she internally celebrates her successful escape. She thinks of the Ninth House rarely enough these days that she can indulge in some light nostalgia without immediately feeling salty about the absolute shitshow that was her entire childhood and adolescence. 

Gideon’s got her back to the counter, wiping out a portafilter and whistling a jaunty tune, when she hears someone step up to the counter. She’s about to tell her unfortunate customer that she’s all closed up for the night - technically she’s still got ten minutes on her shift, but she’s already cleaned out the coffee urns and wrapped up the pastries so seriously fuck off already - when she makes the mistake of turning around. She is immediately and viscerally reminded of the Ninth House again the second she locks eyes with the young woman before her, and it’s not just because she looks like a skeleton.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus looks different, of course. She’s almost a year older, for one thing. For another, her face isn’t covered with ten pounds of ancient paint, revealing an awkwardly ferrety visage that Gideon would hardly recognize if it weren’t for the bottomless black eyes in them and how deeply they stare into her golden ones. There are dark shadows under her deeply set eyes that render her face at least partly familiar, as they echo the sockets of a skull. Her mouth is pinched, as if the stick up her ass has finally penetrated all the way to her cranium and jammed her lips shut. Her nose is thin and sharp as a knife. Her chin looks like it would put someone’s eye out if they were fool enough to try to embrace her, assuming Harrow didn’t slit their throat first for the very attempt. She’s wearing Cohort whites rather than her familiar billowing black vestments, and the uniform makes her look sallow and somehow even more painfully thin.

“Griddle,” she says before Gideon can start to wonder if she’s somehow stumbled into an alternate reality. For how different she looks, clearly Harrow hasn’t changed. Gideon rolls her eyes and returns her attention to the portafilter. “Is this how you treat all of your customers?” 

Beneath her typically peevish tone there’s something unfamiliar in Harrow’s voice, something it takes Gideon a good twenty seconds to decipher. Holy shit, Harrow’s nervous. Gideon’s seen Harrow be nervous before, but previously it’s always been buried under considerably more makeup and Gideon generally hasn’t been the cause of it.

“Customer, huh? Sorry, I naturally assumed you were here just to make my life hell again. Drag me back to Drearburh kicking and screaming, something like that. I didn’t think you might actually be here for a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, well, as usual you are mistaken. I was informed that on this deck’s mess hall I would be able to find a coffee adept who’s considered something of a genius with BARI. I certainly didn’t expect it to be you. I thought surely you’d be on the front lines on some distant planet by now.”

Gideon scoffs. “You don’t expect me to believe you joined the Cohort just to get a decent cup of coffee, do you? I mean, I know it’s all ice cold sludge on the Ninth, but damn, girl.” She fetches a porcelain mug (the darkest one she can find: it’s charcoal gray, but that’ll have to do) despite the fact that Harrow has yet to place anything remotely resembling an order and begins preparing her special extra-dark brew. It’s bitter enough that it’s unlikely to overwhelm Harrow’s stunted palette, and she should appreciate its blackness. 

“Of course I didn’t join for the coffee,” Harrow snaps. It’s funny: her face is much more expressive without her skull paint, but Gideon finds it harder to read. “If I’d known you were the so-called BARI star the others keep rattling on about, I wouldn’t have bothered with coffee at all. I was lured into a false sense of security by the word ‘genius.’”

Gideon grins smugly as she flips the mug expertly into place in a daredevil move that usually earns her at least a smile if not a room number. “I guess some folks appreciate my brilliance.” She braces the triple-shot portafilter against the counter with one arm and effortlessly tamps the espresso grounds with the other.

Harrow scowls, and it nearly makes Gideon homesick. “Your brilliance remains to be seen.”

Gideon locks the portafilter into place and hits the brew button, counting off the seconds in her head. “That’s fine; you’ll taste it soon enough.” As the espresso streams beautifully into the mug, Gideon adds a liberal sprinkle from the jar she’s marked Gideon’s Special Dark Mixture of Doom and Ecstasy.

“I must admit, I didn’t expect to see you here so long after your… departure from the Ninth. I assumed you would have been deployed by now.”

“I was,” Gideon says with a shrug as she flicks the espresso machine off, trying not to sound butthurt about it. “Served for nearly a week before I got injured. Caught a leg full of shrapnel defending my commanding officer. I wanted to stay in the field - it was only a damn limp - but they didn’t want to risk me losing the leg to infection.” She removes the portafilter and bangs the wet grounds out into the garbage. “They started me behind the counter here while I was recuperating, found I had a knack for it, and I haven’t been redeployed since.”

Harrow’s face cycles through several dozen expressions that Gideon can’t quite parse before settling on ‘carefully neutral.’ “How is your leg now?”

Gideon stirs the brew with a wooden swizzle stick to help the BARI blend dissolve. “I’ve got some gnarly scarring, but it only hurts first thing in the morning.” And by the end of her shift most days. And if she walks too much, or stands too much, or sits too much. “Don’t worry, though; I look even hotter with the scars.” Gideon winks while Harrow groans, and for a moment feels like old times. She sets the steaming, fragrant mug down in front of Harrow. “So. What’s your story? I didn’t think anything short of a summons from the Emperor Undying himself would lure you out of Drearburh.”

Harrow eyes the drink as if she expects it to bite her. “I have no story,” she says without affect. “I am here to bring honor to my House.”

Gideon wipes the portafilter with the rag at her hip and locks it back into the machine, then hits the brew button to run hot water through it. “That’s some classic Harrowhark Nonagesimus evasive bullshit if I ever heard it. Why are you really here? The congregation finally all die out?” She jabs the button again and the water dribbles to a halt. “Oh, shit, did they finally figure out about your parents??”

“No and no,” Harrow says firmly. She leans in and gives the cup an experimental sniff. “I have simply decided that I can serve my House better as a Cohort necromancer than as the Reverend Daughter. What better way to disseminate the gospel of the Ninth and expand our congregation than by showing the universe what the Ninth House is capable of.” She attempts to take a sip of her drink and promptly scalds her mouth. 

“Careful, it’s hot.” Gideon studies her and shakes her head. “Y’know, you almost had me, but no. Maybe that’s how you rationalize it to Crux and Aiglamene, and maybe even to yourself, but that’s not why you enlisted.”

Harrow looks strangely vulnerable with her pale and naked face and her seared lips. “Would you believe I wanted to test my mettle and prove that I am indeed the greatest necromancer of my generation on the field of battle?”

“No,” Gideon replies bluntly. Harrow’s studying the steaming beverage like she can’t figure out how to drink it without injury, and she probably really can’t. Gideon still remembers how steep her learning curve was when she first encountered hot drinks after nearly two decades of nothing but cold. “Here,” she says, taking pity on her old nemesis. “You’ve got to blow on it to cool it off. Like this.” She bends and purses her lips, cascading cool air over the surface of the hot BARI drink.

The outer edges of Harrow’s ears turn pink. Gideon realizes all at once that Harrow’s not looking at her like she’s a nemesis at all. If Gideon had to classify the look Harrow’s giving her, it’s more akin to how the handful of fellow Cohort recruits she’s hooked up with since enlisting looked at her right before they hooked up. The idea of that look coming from Harrowhark of all people makes her palms sweat. “Harrow,” she says tenderly, as one peels the hard rind from a soft fruit, “Why did you join the Cohort, really?”

Harrow worries her lower lip between her sharp, bone-white teeth until it starts to tear and bleed. “I missed you,” she confesses, dredging the words up painfully like vomit.

Gideon nods as if this were a perfectly normal and comprehensible thing for her oldest - and only, really - enemy to say and not the most unfathomable thing she’s heard in her entire life. “You should aim better next time.”

Harrow turns livid at that. Rather than using her words like a normal human being (because when has Harrow ever done anything like a normal human being?), she snatches up her mug with the expression of someone who’s just taken a step out onto a tightrope only to end up tredding in flaming dogshit. She pivots with a dramatic whirl that doesn’t quite work without her flowing black robes and takes a sip of her coffee as she goes. She stops short and her eyes widen in the universal expression of ‘holy fuck that’s way more delicious than I expected.’

Gideon grins as she heaves herself up onto the counter, sliding across and landing lightly on the other side in a super cool move that would sweep any girl off her feet (even if the girl in question were a dessicated bone witch). “Oh, fuckin’ get over here,” she says, pulling Harrow into a hug that nearly causes her to drop her mug in alarm. “I missed you, too.”

[zenosanalytic]

Harrow the Ninth: The Ending

OK this one’s pretty short it’s just a breakdown of how I read the ending.

So we’ve got two bits: we’ve got three people taking care of an invulnerable amnesiac in a conflict-ridden city on a world with a carbon economy, and then we’ve got Harrow in the River.

First Bit

I think this one’s rather clear. Camilla(the one who looks after me), Corona(the one who works for me), and Judith(the one who teaches me[only one who can do necromancy]), are taking care of Harrow’s body and whatever/whichever soul(s) are currently inside it. I’m pretty sure it’s Gideon, but with amnesia from the trauma of being deep within, and somehow exiting, The River. I feel like the last bits of Chapter 52 are clear that Gideon didn’t die even if she THINKS she did, if you read between the lines. The last section starts with

“...if you die by drowning your whole life flashes before your eyes?”

and that doesn’t happen for Gideon. Instead, she sees a fading visitation by Alecto(did Alecto perhaps come back to her in those final moments and push her out of The River?), and then Camilla trying to save her life(and apparently succeeding). Also as I’ve written before(and wrote after reading Gideon the Ninth but cant seem to find X| X| X| probably did it on Twitter their search function is CRAP >:( >:() I really don’t see Muir killing Gideon off.

It could also be a merger of Gideon and Harrow’s souls, but I don’t think that’s the case. To begin with the treatment here isn’t nearly commiserate to that particular development, and I trust that if Muir went in that direction, she’d do it justice(I mean: Look at Harrow the Ninth; it’s all ABOUT doing justice to characters and premises). More practically tho Chapter 52 brings up the concept in discussing “life flashing before your eyes” and dismisses it. There IS the implication that the person can do Necromancy, which points in that direction, but the above, combined with my reading of Harrow’s situation, makes me doubt this outcome.

The last possibility is that it could be Alecto in Harrow’s body; there is that vision, and the necromancy(and given Alecto’s ease navigating The River, I’m assuming she’s Necromantic[as are all Planet-Souls hinthinthint]). I doubt this mainly cuz as above I don’t think Muir would kill off Gideon like this and if it were Alecto then where’s Gideon? I suppose it COULD be a triple-soul bodysharing and/or merging situation though.

Second Bit

Harrow chose not to go to her body because she KNEW Gideon was in her body currently and this would displace her, leading to Gideon’s consumption and making all she’s done to keep Gideon alive for naught. She chose NOT to stay in her Dream-Bubble because this is Harrow: OF COURSE she wouldn’t take security, surety, and comfort over the Hard, Chancy, Self-Risking, “Right” course. So:

Harrow destroys her Dream-Bubble(don’t try to argue with me that’s absolutely what it is >:|)

She goes into The River

Then a flash of her hallway, the same one from Ch. 33 when traveling back to her body

Then she’s back in her memory of Gideon dunking her. To be clear: this is a baptism analog.

Then she breaks the surface of the water and she’s back in Drearbruh, back at it’s heart, back in The Locked Tomb; finally “Home”

Alecto’s tomb is Bare(She is Risen!), a two-hander lies within the hollow of the bier, and so does Gideon’s fantasy of a Cohort titty-mag.

I think there are three possibilities here.

One: The Tomb represents her mind/soul and she’s in a modified version of the position Gideon was in throughout Harrow the Ninth. I don’t think this is likely because Harrow explicitly rejected returning to her body, and going into The River was presented as a separate choice from returning. HOWEVER the Hallway(returning to her body) and the dunking(Gideon was underwater, “surfacing”; now she’s pushing Harrow underwater) can be read as evidence of it. As to the Alecto set-dressing, I don’t really think these signs of escape really subtract from this idea as we know Alecto has a spiritual connection to Harrow, and they could be read as symbolizing that.

Two: Harrow has traveled through The River back to Alecto(so to Drearbruh since that’s where Alecto is), through an act of spirit-projection similar to what Alecto was doing with her throughout the book. I think this is a more plausible read given the setting and the possible explosion(the sounds of Alecto escaping), but there are a couple facts which push me in another direction; some quotes I’ll bring up later, the sword(why would Alecto leave her sword?), and Frontline Titties of the Fifth. As has been repeatedly belabored; that’s not even a real publication, Griddle!(though I will say, if she’s spirit-projecting she’s probably in some extra-liminal space btw The Shore and the world of The Living, and maybe thoughts&desires can manifest as spiritual objects within that place. Given all the similarities The River has to The Immaterium in the Warhammer universe and how that plane is directly shaped by thoughts, it’s not entirely out of the question)

The reading I hold to most strongly is this though:

“floundered not to the shore but to the island in the center...”

The Shore has been mentioned throughout HtN as a sort of transitional part of The River which the living arrive at when they either die or project to The River, and here the book is explicitly saying she’s refusing to return to The Shore. She swims across the water to a place on the other side of it; an “island in the center”. And, while the place she arrives is familiar and sentimental to her, it is also, explicitly and textually,

“faraway in a land she had never traveled”

Drearbruh is her home; she opened The Locked Tomb when she was 10; the scene Harrow is in is as familiar as it can be for her and yet the book calls it “a faraway land she [has] never traveled”. She’s home yet she’s faraway. She’s laying in a tomb of ice, glass, and iron and yet it’s warm and soft as cotton bedding to her(someone who has refused such comforts her whole life). It is COMFORTING and COZY to her! A two-hander lays within

“that final resting place of Harrowhark’s one true love”.

Which is HILARIOUS and sneaky ambiguity if you ask me. I mean: obvsl the surface read is Alecto’s “final resting place” cuz that’s literally what it is in the story, but it is the sword that is “finally resting” there now; the sword that can represent both Alecto and GIDEON(and, if we want to go even further beyond getting super-symbolic with it, the hard path of conflict, justice, and suffering Harrow has ALWAYS chosen throughout her life[1]). Anyway the more immediate point is: this is the grave/home/bed of her Love. She finds a magazine that doesn’t exist there; one made up by Gideon which warmly recalls Gideon to her mind as she drifts to her rest.

This book is HEAVY with Christian, specifically Catholic, reference and symbolism. In Christianity God is Love and God’s Home(Heaven) is a “Home of Love”. In Christianity Heaven is(among other things) a place of rest; when one goes there one’s burdens stay behind. This is the first place we’ve ever seen(aside from her “warm” attraction upon meeting BARIstar Gideon) where Harrow’s emotional and physical state is described as “warm” and “comfortable” and the Christian Heaven is a place of comfort. Drearbruh is Harrow’s Home; “Home” is a common Christian synonym for Heaven and “coming Home” is a common Christian synonym for going to Heaven. 

Harrow has Crossed the River, and come Home, to Rest, in a Heaven of her own making.

[1]And also, just cuz I refuse to be unthorough, European two-handers are perennially cruciform. Harrow, by embracing it, is, by necessity, embracing a cross.