#THE POOL SCENE

[teencopandthesourwolf]

op re your tag: #do you think they played 20 questions

yes! yes, i absolutely do! because—as you said—two hours is a very long time to spend treading water while maybe possibly probably about to die, but especially with somebody you don't know all that well.

and this is stiles we're talking about! adhd motormouth stiles stilinski, who cannot bear uncomfortable (or even comfortable lol) silences at the best of times. so put him in an incredibly tense situation? with somebody he doesn't know very well? somebody he is nervous around (because contrary to popular belief stiles does actually have some self preservation instincts! plus, y'know, there's the whole derek is objectively hot as all sin thing)? of course he would start babbling away incessantly! ofc he would!

so yeah yes uh-uh you can absolutely bet your bottom dollar that stiles is gonna rope the local creeper wolf into playing 20 questions!

that boy will absolutely be getting derek to play the “i go to the shops and buy...” recall game that his mom used to play with him when he was a little kid! he will absolutely be forcing der to sing the national anthem with him (derek does not sing, he doesn't, but he's maybe about to possibly die and is losing his mind a little so sue him if he grumbles through the verses an octave deeper than stiles's ridiculous soprano)! stiles absolutely asks derek what his favourite thai order is (it's pad thai, which stiles mocks him for because it's such an unbelievably basic choice, and derek resolutely tells him to fuck off) and stiles in turn shares with derek that his favourite is tom yum goong which obviously means he is more adventurous than derek (which is when derek tells stiles that hot and sour shrimp soup is not really that adventurous, and then reminds stiles that stiles can resolutely fuck off)! and then, what with the whole probable death thing, stiles absolutely starts to wonder if derek might be thinking about his family, and wonders when the last time was that derek got to talk about them, so he asks derek to tell stiles stuff about them, and at first derek is too stubborn (too upset) to talk about them, but stiles keeps asking him more and more questions about his mom and dad and brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents, and derek realises that he really does want to talk about them all so he starts answering stiles's questions in only short sentences at first but then finds himself regaling all sorts of funny stories about them all and thinks of other fond memories because of this, ending up telling stiles things he hasn't thought about in years and it's really nice so then he's then asking stiles about stiles's family, and stiles says he's never had that much of it really but talks about how losing his mom when he was little was and is the fucking worst thing to him because she was his best friend in the whole wide world (he loves his dad too, but saw even less of him back when he was a deputy) and he tells derek how he misses her like a lung and that he talks to her sometimes (which derek does with laura, too, but isn't about to admit to that) and that derek's deadpan humour often reminds him of her, and then he hears derek huff a little bit and it's the kind of huff that sounds almost like a laugh, a kind one, and stiles knew that talking and talking and not shutting up to try and break the ice during this week's perilous situation would pay off and hey! look at that! he absolutely got the trauma edgelord lycanthrope to not only open up about his life but to cheer up and not be such a sourwolf and even laugh a little, too! which hey, if they're about to die, that's objectively actually the best thing a human and werewolf could do together, right?

so yeah, maybe op is spot on and we don't talk about this scene enough. which is a shame really because there is SO much scope here and we absolutely should delve into it more, again and again and again—because i think it is absolutely what stiles (and derek) would do xp

We really need to talk about the fact the stiles was prepared to drown to keep Derek alive.

He was treading water for two hours with Derek weight on him and only when his muscles started to give up did he try and hang onto the diving board. If Scott didn’t get there in time both stiles and Derek would have drown.

Also they couldn’t have been completely silent the entire time. Do you think as they both felt stiles weaken that they’d have to come to grips with the idea of dying. Do you think how Derek was paralyzed in the arms of a human (he doesn’t trust humans) and spent the entire time thinking “well this is the moment he’s going to let me go and I drown”; and how shocked he must of been when stiles refused to let him go. I know that stiles was definitely thinking about his dad. I wonder when the moment was that they realized they might die in that pool. The final moments before they both went under when stiles is trying so hard to keep them both alive. The way that stiles talks about drowning after this incident.

I really feel like we don’t talk about this enough.

[civetside]

i was gonna draw the pool scene TM for real but then i remembered i hate drawing water so i did this instead

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

ok i'm thinking about the pool scene and i'm thinking about harrow in the hospital at the beginning of htn and bodily autonomy and undressing and touch aversion.

i'm thinking about how, yes, she jumps into the pool almost fully clothed, but she takes off her robe first, and we've got a pretty solid idea that she was probably not wearing much more than a shirt and trousers underneath, which is more than thin enough to cling. and her paint is washed off by the water.

obviously, this is a scene where she makes herself vulnerable, where she drops the mask for a second, and the undressing, however slight it appears to us and gideon, is part of that. but it's not nearly the same thing as the gutting rawness and vulnerability she experiences on board the erebos, is it?

thinking about how when gideon hugs her in that state, and kisses her on the face, and cups her chin, she's confused and consumed by self-hatred, yes, but she also feels whole and safe and real. by the end of that scene, she's perfectly content to be soaked through her clothes and robeless and paintless and tangled up with gideon in a corner of the pool. she relaxes her head into gideon's hands and makes no attempt guard herself, physically or emotionally.

compare to john squeezing her shoulders in the cargo bay in htn. just for a second, with no other contact, and she would (paraphrasing, but close) prefer for him to have ripped out her ligaments and flossed them over her broken bones, or dripped her own stomach acid into her eyes. very graphic, visceral imagery.

thinking about harrow and mistrust, harrow and vulnerability, harrow and touch aversion, harrow and autonomy. thinking about how she trusted gideon's hands so much more than she trusted god's. thinking about how the pool scene was a moment of hard-won and intense emotional rawness from her, about what a big deal it was compared to her other behavior, and how her defenses are all so casually stripped from her in htn without a second thought. how no one around her understands what that means to her. how even she looses sight of the privacy and dignity she should be entitled to.

but the narration doesn't. the narration remains so tender and sad throughout the early chapters of htn. because gideon knows. gideon knows better than anyone what it means for harrow to be crying and paintless and out of her robes. gideon remembers how it affects harrow, for someone to touch her.

i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry i'm gonna cry

[dangerouslyhungryprocrastiner]

I love the angsty bone women

I absolutely live this scene...as everyone does hah. Harrow not having a good time is my favorite snack.

Also idk if this is morally too much text from the book to post jfjdjsj ah well

[derseprinceoftbd]

It deeply amuses me how John was so hands off he managed to create a situation where post-pool-scene *maybe one* of his Necros would have killed their Cavs if asked for the sake of the empire, and it *wasn't even Silas*. Like you create an entire house of intensely religious nuts and the most principled stance we ever see one take is "this is either not what God wants or God is *evil*". Judith seems like she would, but I think AYU (AYUS? AUS?) proves otherwise. Ianthe very clearly failed. Isaac... Isaac I actually feel might have. The fourth were pretty screwed up. Abigail, hell no. Pal, demonstrably not. OG Dulcinea, probably made peace with her death and wouldn't kill a man to live. And Harrow, even before the pool scene, clearly had some conflicted feelings. *At most* he could have gotten two proper Lictors out of the experiment, for the 4th and 9th, and then he'd have to kill all the other house heirs to cover it up, and then cover *that* up, because you *know* Abigail and Pal and Silas would just immediately spill the beans upon getting home.

[heykrashly]

I've sunk so low in the sea of sadness That even opening my eyes is not worth the effort

Gideon Nav | @wyyrdplayy Harrowhark Nonagesimus | @cassylvan Photography | @heykrashly

Referenced an artwork by @naomistares

I couldn't resist posting up a preview from the pool shoot from last evening. This was over a year in the making and we'd really started talking about wanting to do it even before that. Last year due to an injury I sustained it just couldn't happen and I sat with all the supplies until this summer and honestly, I'm glad we waited. We got TWO griddleharks, I've upgraded all my equipment, and I was a bit more confident in taking it on.

I was nervous with such a lead up that it needed to turn out right and I think we all hustled and it turned out amazing. Both sessions look distinct and have different things that had me screaming reviewing all the photos. Can't wait to share more (I'll probably post the other pair tomorrow!). We took over 1,300 photos so... there will be a lot trickling out I'm sure.

Thanks to everyone that braved the water and the dark yard, to Katiebee (our other Griddle) for feeding us and hosting and for babysitting my pool while I went home to sleep.

Boy, I missed that I could just write a dang novel on Tumblr lol

[funsizedshark]

“one last question for you, reverend daughter,” said gideon.

harrow said, a little unsteadily: “nav?”

gideon leaned in.

“do you really have the hots for some chilly weirdo in a coffin?”

[teammoth]

A griddle headshot bcs apparently that's all I can draw

And a work in progress that (I MIGHT) finish

[the-locked-chussy]

The pool scene, from the audiobook version of Gideon the Ninth, narrated by Moira Quirk, authored by Tamsyn Muir, as a treat.

[anoes1s]

The pool scene broke me in ways I can’t even express 😭 Gideon’s softness made me cry an ocean of tears (I don’t really like how Gideon’s hair turned out but wet hair is so hard to draw 😩 this was my second time drawing them)

[carlyrossart]

Was the pool scene harrows first hug ever ?

Brb crying

[ardenetoile]

One flesh one end

[manogirl]

Do you think we'll all understand what "the pink scene" is, the way we all understood (and still understand) what "the pool scene" was?

[wyyrdplayy]

Yesterday's cosplay shoot asked the question how many Griddleharks can we fit in a kiddie pool

Left Harrow is @cassylvan

Left Gideon is me

Right Gideon is // katiebeecosplay

Right Harrow is // teafuels

Photo by @heykrashly

[elvencantation]

it’s been 0 days since i cried about the pool scene

first draft in case ur curious. i love it but it’s too dark 😭

[sissiarte]

Say, it looser

Buy the print here

(commissions are open!)