#We Stan Ortus

[artbyblastweave]

Gideon The Ninth Liveread, Chapter 3

In which I post about Ortus a lot! Other things too. But I’m very interested in Ortus!

First off; I like the concept of bioluminescent dust as an omnipresent source of dim light. Feels like a form of adaptive technology for a society with limited resources and a need to light a whole bunch of cavernous spaces regardless; feels like a grounded technology, something that near-future humanity could throw together in a lab given a few months.

Here we get the image of a sea of bone in the pews, “pockmarked by people.” Hammering home the image of the remaining humans as corrupt, messy hanger-ons impeding the aesthetic purity and order of death; the vibe is similarly reinforced a little later with how the Skeletons leave in an orderly formation with no regard to the ability for the humans to get around them. (How sentient are necromantic constructs like this? Do they fill the niche of artificial intelligence within the setting?) 

Ah, Ortus. I’ve many thoughts on Ortus.

So, first off, raw deal. Gideon and Harrow have their incipient Enemies-to-Lovers runaround keeping them occupied; Ortus is isolated even beyond that, and has been for his entire adult life; he doesn’t even get the dignity of being important in his status as cavalier, of being personally close with the heir to the ninth in any way, because the role of bone-porter is obviated by the fact that Harrow’s specific prodigy manifests through being able to do a lot with minimal materials.

Point two. Gideon, who has reasonable grounds to be pissed off at everyone and everything associated with the Ninth, paints Ortus as uniquely pathetic, and it’s a picture we’re collectively primed to accept unquestioningly; he’s burdened with one of the body types most acceptable to poke fun at AND easiest to end up with just through the passage of time. But crucially, Gideon is telling us the ways in which Ortus is a pathetic sad sack rather than having any of them play out in front of us. Ortus as described just sounds like.... a relatively sedentary thirty-five-year-old, reasonable given his total lack of opportunities to socialize; the main reason that Gideon and Harrow are in good shape is that they’re a pair of maniacs playing Tom-and-Jerry, but nobody on this rock is in good health besides them. That said, I don’t precisely blame Gideon for not extending the charity that I can (as I’m rather famously not an indentured servant.) 

More thoughts on Ortus (and why I’m liking this what the story is doing with this Ortus guy!) after a brief digression about....

Harrow’s parents. I will not lie, this is absolutely a situation where the sheer volume of alluded-to atrocities gleefully lobbed about the tumblrsphere primed me to assume that the big secret was something significantly more atrocious. Dollars to Donuts there's a late-game reveal that what Harrow did with her parents is so negligible in the grand scheme of things that Gideon never had any meaningful leverage at all.

That said, this is absolutely a scene that, on further examination, drips with Homestuckery; my mind went immediately to the Baby-Jade-taxidermizing-her-grandfather gag, not just in the material circumstances, but also in the syntax of how the punchline is delivered- “In Fairness, she’d been 10 at the time.” Same style of comically backloading details like that in a deadpan fashion. Actually, the entire quasi-parentless set-up of the book thus far sort of reminds me of Homestuck’s overall vibe. Fantastic. I love it. 

And Jesus. Poor Harrow. Gideon is completely incapable of extending a sympathetic thought here, quite reasonably, but good god. Poor Harrow.

Back to Ortusposting. A recurring pattern is that Muir does something funny and then immediately undercuts it in a way that makes it not actually funny if you read between the lines even a little bit. Gideon’s royally-pissed-off narration primes you to parse Ortus and his Mom as a Buster/Lucille situation, a tried-and-true one-note comedic trope, but then 500 words later that pat, clean-cut view of the dynamic collapses. You immediately realize from her reaction that Ortus’s mother knows something. She knows the things that befall Cavaliers. The histrionics that Gideon finds so entertaining are not the reaction of a woman who’s only afraid of post-partem separation. To the extent that Gideon is even right in her assessment that she “swaddles” Ortus (and Gideon’s is an outside perspective in many ways; she hasn’t been to one of these services in years, she doesn’t necessarily have the level of insight she thinks she does) she does so because she knows full well he's in line for something terrible as the only Cavalier around, probably something that got his dad killed too, and while the swaddling might not be helpful it's all she can do in the face of a shitty shitty situation.  More and more it looks like any undue closeness that Ortus and his mother have is actually just a reasonable defensive measure for two people caught in a den of religiously zealous vipers. And this culminates in...

Poor, guileless Ortus and his doting mother getting the fuck-out-of-dodge on Gideon’s meticulously-stolen shuttle. Immediately after hearing the summons, with limited deliberation. They aren’t useless, aren’t indecisive, aren’t unagentic; they aren’t patsies- and these are all things Gideon’s narration primed me to believe that they would be, so the twist hit like a truck.

Ending line- “Because I completely fucking hate you, No Offense-” is a perfect closer. Vastly ups the comedic tension of the earlier sequence, too, because thus far I perceive no reason for Harrow to hate Gideon the way Gideon hates Harrow, but she’s putting exactly as much juice into her fuckery as Gideon does. Deranged! Completely Deranged.

Anyway, tune in for future chapters, where I continuously wonder to myself when the rest of the cast are going to begin assigning any weight to the fact that being a cavalier is apparently such a fraught prospect that Ortus and his mother immediately upended their status-quo of 35 years to escape him having to do it.

[starberry-cupcake]

I didn't even give you time to rest and we're back for another round of this. Let's give it up for our sponsor @lady-harrowhark who has helped me get here ♥

previously, on the 1st entry of tlt, aka gideon the ninth:

this happened

also, I was made aware of the fact that there's a 4th book happening?????

??????

I thought they were three, I thought I was coming into this with all the answers out and available

emily has already explained to me the situation and I am taking it very well

I'm very at peace with the fact that I'm gonna have to wait

:)

this is how you all feel, huh?

now, get ready for harrowbean the ninth:

we start out strong with 25 new names

we got a list of lyctors and slurped cavaliers

I'm assuming the crossed out people means dead or slurped

we got another ortus, good for him, I'm gonna remember him

we got another two living new ones, it's likely I will remember an augustine, not likely I'll remember the other one

absolutely no way in hell I'm remembering their cavaliers

absolutely no way in hell I'm remembering the dead

I'm gonna have to think of new nicknames

not!dulcinea is listed and crossed out, as she should be

(the emperor's new groove, indeed)

we've got yandere simulator twin w/inner chad

BUT we'll talk about that in a sec

and then there's harrow

and where gideon should be we got g̵̙͉͚̼̾̽̓̏̾̒̒̂̎͆̕͝ͅi̸̱͍͕̎̆̾̐̇̍̀̎d̷̨̪̙̭̮̜̼͆͆e̴̡̻̰̞̓̈́̋͂̇̐̇̀̓̈́̿̅̚ǫ̷͇̟̳̯͇̤̪̻̩̤̒̅͐͛̒̃͑̂͌́͝ͅn̵̢̙͔̩̗͇͎̻͕̲̮͙̞̓͆̋̈́̿͑͋̈̒͌̀͐̕̚͜͜ ̷͍̫̝̖̮̺̩͖͕̞̾̀͂s̶̖͓̗̩̹̹̥͉̘̄͑͒̾̔͋̑͝h̷̯̲̞͗ơ̵̢͕͙̤̳͎̟̳̖͕͓͋̃̀̉̔̎̈́͆̏̄ͅṷ̴̧̨̢̦̭͈̰͓̪̱̠͓̈̿͆̇̀͑͜ľ̴̨͍͖̘̠̖͎̤̮̱̻͚̑̄͑d̸̢̛̛̻̙̪͙̖̋̃̄͛̅̀̃̐̈̿̏̏͘ ̷̢͚̦̱̩̬̟̺̀̄̈́͂͋̂̄̊̾́́̾̆̄b̷̡͕̲̗͇̠̗͓̈́̍̽͊̇͜ę̴̢̡̱͓̱͉̩̖͇̠͇͎̪̟͗ ̵̪̭͔̊̿͜h̸̢̛̙͍͎͖̻̟̗̫̄̐̀̄̃̽͑̚̕͠ͅe̵̘̳͆̉̿̔͘͘r̸̦̰͌̒̐̓̽́̾͋̏͝ȩ̶̢̖̩͙̗͚̲̈́͠ͅ ̶̡͌̃̏̐̑̀̄̉̀̈́͐̀͊̀͠

👀

I don't know

I think maybe la gideon del 9 isn't totally gone

maybe it's true, maybe it's wishful thinking

maybe her soul got back into her body like when you dream you're falling

her body slurped it back like a noodle

and her demigod powers regenerated her like wolverine

and camilla removed her from the location

and they're both alive and well

don't correct me, let me have this

me, waiting for camilla to come back

after all of this info and the poem/hymn/whatnot we got a prologue which starts with "the night before the emperor's murder"

WELL

OK THEN

WHAT HAPPENED WITH BEING GOD????

the emperor's new clothes and all, he was naked all along

this man is a joke, this man is the wizard of oz, what's going on here

anyway

the prologue is in second person with harrow's pv

I think I have experienced harrow's pv before while reading gideon

hoping for her to focus on one important issue and getting frustrated was very much harrow's pv

harrow is in some sort of battle situation getting directed by the emperor and, as I understand, acting in coordination with the other living lyctors

but also harrow is doing something she shouldn't be doing and they're telling her not to do it

which is like, the harrowest thing to do

so yandere twin comes in to talk to her into moving because she'll be targeted if she stays

and there's a moment when I was like...wait a sec

they say she has blue eyes with specks of brown

didn't she have lavender eyes?????

then harrow says "you should have killed your sister, your eyes don't match your face"

?????????????

yandere twin is very insistent on the helping but also cryptic

I am starting to stan her less

she's starting to get on my nerves and it's the prologue

she also says "choke me, daddy" which

THIS IS NOT THE TIME

gideon gets to do those jokes at terrible times, not you

gideon is allowed

so harrow gets in the fight soul-first and is spitted out of the fight and has a sword through her body

we're doing great over here guys

we're just— this is fine

we're fine

it's f i n e

IT'S FINE

I'm gonna leave the next bit for the next one because this is long enough with the reaction images that I think are crucial to understanding the feelings I'm trying to convey. I'm gonna go to sleep and possibly dream of these characters again. I'll try less pictures and more stuff in the next entry. Hopefully. And maybe read the short story that comes before book 1 because Camilla is in it.

[litanisemesta]

Story of PTN

mau cerita perjalanan aku daftar ke PTN wkwk. gatau bakal panjang apa ngga nya siii. mulai dari SMP aja kali ya? aku ga tau kebanyakan anak SMP udah mikirin kuliah apa ngga. tapi aku udah. waktu kelas 7, cuma kepikiran buat kuliah kedinasan di STAN. tapii, naik ke kelas 8 mulai tau PTN dan jurusan-jurusan keren wkwk. first love universitas dan jurusan akuu di Hubungan Internasional UGM, gatau kenapa, keren aja gitu. tapii, ya udah cuma sekedar pengen aja. masih plin plan. dan ya, naik ke kelas 9 ganti pengen ke Psikologi UGM, hehe. lulus SMP, aku daftar ke salah satu SMA favorit di Ciamis, dan di tolak. sakit hati? jelasss. banyak omongan-omongan baik dari keluarga ataupun orang-orang sekitar yang mengganggu pikiran aku. "saingan se Ciamis aja kalah, apalagi se Indonesia" gapapa. akhirnya aku daftar ke sekolah aku sekarang, eh dulu berarti ya? yashhh, di MAN 2 Ciamis 🌷

prinsip aku, kalo aku ga diterima di sekolah yang aku mau, artinya aku harus melakukan yang terbaik di sekolah yang aku jalani. dari kelas 10-12 alhamdulillah selalu dapet rank 1 di kelas, di angkatan juga sii, pas kelas 11 sama kelas 12, alhamdulillah. plan aku kedepannya? tentu masih dengan pendirian pas SMP, Psikologi UGM. eh tapi masih cinta juga sama Hubungan Internasional UGM. tapi ya ga se cinta dulu [eh eh eh]. plot twits nya waktu pengumuman eligible, aku dapet kuotanya, rank 3 alhamdulillah. berusaha mematahkan dan menjauhkan pemikiran buruk yang mengatakan "rank eligible atas biasanya ga keterima jalur raport". ga lama dari pengumuman itu, aku daftar SNBP. apakah ke Psikologi UGM? ngga. oke pasti Hubungan Internasional UGM? ngga juga, hehe. oke pasti di jurusan itu tapi di univ lain? ngga juga sii. plot twits nya aku ga daftar di jurusan dan univ yang aku mau, sedih? bgt. nangis? gatau udh berapa banyak air mata. kecewa? jelas. karena ya aku ambis sama nilai raport selama 5 semester itu ga lain dan ga bukan ya buat Psikologi UGM [azeeekkk] tapi takdir membawa aku ke tempat yang lain [pada saat itu pikirku].

singkatnya, ortu ga suka. mereka ngasih pilihan beberapa jurusan. "kesehatan, pendidikan, ilmu pemerintahan, atau kedinasan." kesehatan? aku anak IPS bgt, berasa sia-sia aja gitu 3 tahun belajar ekonomi sosiologi ujung-ujungnya ke biologi fisika. ilmu pemerintahan? aga nyambung sama HI tapi berat aja gitu. kedinasan seperti keinginan aku di kelas 7 SMP? ah ga dulu. akhirnya ya ambil pendidikan. karena emang seneng ngajar [dan sampai saat ini masih pengen bisa ngajar, walaupun ngga jadi guru]. waktu itu aku ambil PKn UPI di Pil 1, dan PKn UNNES di Pil 2. kenapa PKn? gatau. mungkin karena aga deket sama HI kali ya materinya? padahal aku bukan yang seneng bgt belajar PKn juga, maksudku yaa masih banyak mapel yang lebih aku suka. kenapa ga sosiologi? jujur, selama belajar sosiologi di kelas, aku lebih banyak ngantuknya (maaf pa). jadi ya udah PKn aja, pas mencet juga sambil nangis-nangis jadi ga mikir panjang. kenapa UPI? di suruh ortu juga hehe. mamah pengennya aku di sekitaran ciamis, yaa paling jauh bandung karena ada sodara juga lagi kuliah di bandung (aslinya cimahi sama jatinangor tapi anggap bandung we). kenapa UNNES? ini yang lebih bikin bingung, gatau asal pencet.

time running fast, 28 Maret jam 3 sore pengumuman SNBP. hasilnya? alhamdulillah. ya, alhamdulillah ditolak. nangis? ngga. soalnya lagi puasa, nanggung. tapi ya gitu, omongan orang. yang bikin nangis sebenernya omongan orang-orang, kayanya mulai nangis tuh dari abis buka puasa (lebih tepat nya pas buka puasa, hehe), sampe lagi terawih masih nangis tuh pdhl di masjid dan shaf paling depan (maluuu tapi ya ga bisa ditahan). tapi ya udah, toh aku juga ga minat sama jurusan di SNBP.

oiya aku juga daftar jalur SPAN PTKIN, di UIN Bandung jurusan Ekonomi Syariah. dannnn ditolak.

besoknya, aku langsung cari-cari univ swasta buat jaga-jaga. waktu itu aku bikin akun di 3 univ swasta, UII, UNISA, dan UNJANI. dan daftar di salah satu dari 3 univ tersebut, tentu di jurusan Psikologi (udah direstuin soalnya SNBP juga ketolak wkwk). malemnya aku daftar SNBT, Pil 1 ke Psikologi UINWS, Pil 2 ke Pendidikan Sejarah UNSIL. ga lama dari daftar SNBT, lewat tl aku tuh, pendaftaran jalur Mapres di UINWS. ya udah daftar aja iseng ke Psikologi juga, niatnya buat jaga-jaga soalnya ga yakin di SNBT.

12 Mei, aku tes UTBK di UNSIL, dengan persiapan 50%, belajar ngedadak H-2😀 tapi sebelumnya emang udah nyicil belajar UTBK dari kelas 10 jadi ya tinggal nyantai WKWK. udah lah tuh, sampe rumah jam 7 malem kayanya (untung lagi period jadi ga sholat). oiya yang swasta udah pengumuman, dan keterima. ga lama setelah pelaksanaan UTBK, Mapres UINWS juga pengumuman, dan alhamdulillah keterima. eh SNBT juga keterima di univ dan jurusan yang sama WKWK, alhamdulillahhh. di tolak 2 kali, di terima 3 kali.

pas nulis ini masih nunggu pengumuman UM CBT UGM hehe, karena udah terlanjur daftar. tapii, aku udah official jadi maba Psikologi UINWS, udah dapet KTM, udah bayar UKT, udah bayar Ma'had. istilahnya tinggal berangkat lah ke semarang. tapi yaaa siapa tauuuuu jodohnya di Psikologi UGM seperti mimpi aku dari kelas 9 SMP, who knows? hehe aamiin. walaupun yaaa aku ga berharap bgt bgt siii, udah ikhlas dan udah nerima kalo semisal takdirnya ga di UGM, asal Psikologi😻🌷

Ciamis, 7 Juli 2023.

[daturanerium]

since tazmuir has decided to go all out and give us another title in the locked tomb no-longer-trilogy, here are my theories on what nona the ninth could be:

1. anastasia backstory novella. this was something i hadn't considered right away, but honestly makes the most sense. the "nona" family line that harrow is a part of was started by anastasia, if i remember correctly (i'm going to be honest and say my knowledge of anastasia and the other lyctors is pretty basic so someone else is welcome to jump in here with a solid theory rundown). "the ninth" being crossed out could be reference to her failed attempt at perfect lyctorhood, or her loss of respect (loyalty?) for john. rooting for this because it would mean more lore on the lyctors, which i'm dying for!

2. wake backstory novella. in roman mythology, nona was a member of the parcae (also known as the fates) that spins the thread of life. she is also the roman god of pregnancy. pregnancy is important to wake's story for obvious reasons: her child was meant to bring about the death of necromancy. wake, who was apparently never interested in being a mother, went through the harrowing (heh) journey of pregnancy and birth alone in order to ensure her plan to eliminate necromancy was successful. note that nona is not the goddess of fertility or motherhood, just pregnancy. wake, and by extension, boe, can be interpreted as a representation of the natural life cycle. their entire purpose is to retain the natural order between life and death (one could say the string of life?). necromancy is a disease, necromancy needs to be strategically cleansed (yikes), burning hatred for all necros, etc. wake doesn't just want john punished for what he did, she wants necromancy to die. what is the opposite of necromancy? natural life. in the mythology, nona and her two sisters literally control the thread of life. hello. now, name-wise: we know next to nothing about wake's history. i love her name and what it represents both in-narrative and metawise, but i would be surprised if she was given the name Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity at birth, especially since it doesn't fit the planets' traditional naming customs that tazmuir has been so keen on explaining. who was she before boe? was she born into a rebel family? was she raised against the Emperor, or did she barge her own path? all i'm saying is that i'm not going to completely write off wake having a birth/deadname, and that birth name being nona. "the ninth" being crossed out could be a reference to her defecting from the emperor's society. it's a stretch but i like it! rooting for this one because wake! also wake and pyrrha and g1deon. we need a lot more info on wake, quite frankly. her shadow sits over this whole series but we know next to nothing about her or her true motivations. is she actually that bigoted towards necros or did she just want john to kill her? how did she get here? how did she survive twenty years as a revenant? why did she want to kill harrow? a wake novella would be a great way to flesh her out before we inevitably deal with the repercussions of her actions (whatever they may be!) in alecto.

3. the noniad. i mean, come on. the noniad. she would. she already has like a third of it in htn. why not finish it off? ortus stans rise up rooting for this one because i would lose my mind!!! can you imagine just casually writing the NONIAD.

wish i could flesh out anastasia more but i just know nothing lol. feel free to rb and add on! i'm sooooo pumped to find out what this is u guys

[berah-ronah]

Now that I’ve finished Harrow the Ninth, i have Thots

-I honestly kinda hope that the twist is that Alecto/A.L./tomb girl is actually kinda normal? (or at least was before entering the Locked Tomb) since the only people who have talked about how she’s Wrong are an immortal necroemperor and his 10,000 year old liches, whose standards for “normal” are a bit wonky. It would be delightful for Harrow to show up and be like “ahh... the satan I have lusted over has finally awoken... god help us all” and for Alecto to be like “hey, so I was literally tossed in Forever Jail because I opposed the emperor/his lyctors for moral reasons? why don’t we just fucking dismantle this horrible empire instead of constantly waging a forever war”

-I definitely want to see more of both the BOE AND Camilla, since I love both of them. The BOE are a bit fuzzy tho, since the epilogue hints that they’re from another authoritarian society; that said, considering that the empire kills planets and “relocates” the survivors as a matter of course (among countless other atrocities), watching a MILF in a hazmat suit confront a bunch of “wizard shits” with a shotgun and anti-magic powers was immensely gratifying; even if they were nominally good necromancers, they were still hereditary nobles working to uphold an oppressive empire, and seeing SOME outside resistance against that was nice.

-I’m officially rebranding as an Ortus Stan blog, since watching someone effortlessly deflect Harrow’s honestly still kinda nasty personality with a mixture of sadness, mediocre poetry, and veiled contempt was immensely gratifying, and his work to warp the house-bubble into a poem was REALLY cool.

-I know the series is leading towards gideon/harrow, but I’m still holding out hope that gideon/camilla gets more of a presence, since the scenes they shared in gideon the ninth were DRIPPING with potential.

[starberry-cupcake]

I have made the most 2008 goth forum-like banner I could create to put my liveblogging posts of tlt under because those are the vibes I find appropriate and it gives me nostalgia. If this was 2008 blogspot, you'd be hearing something like HIM's Wings of a Butterfly, or something like that, please picture that.

previously, in gideon the ninth:

this happened

were we are now:

I forced myself to stop reading for the day so I could update a sensible amount and not a thesis length post nobody will read

it wasn't easy to force myself to stop reading

you know how it is

so, turns out that protozoa was dead all along (ish)

people here die and live and kinda live-die and die-live, you know

dulcinea del toboso soraya montenegro septimus was hiding that fact

she has also not mentioned exactly how he died (she said an accident??? harrow said he was stabbed?? what, he fell on a sword heart first????)

I am still not done with her

I still don't trust her

she's gonna die and I'm gonna still think she's scheming

ANYWAY

gideon DID suspect harrow

she had a bit of a crisis over it in front of palmolive's salad

palmolive reacts by taking off and putting on his glasses 25 times

and harrow had my exact thought process of "she's gonna go to dulcinea instead of me if she finds out"

I am very unnerved at how much my thought process and harrow's have aligned so far

very concerned for my mental state

ANYWAY (vol. 2)

palmolive says what I said, that it's not harrowcita's style to kill so sloppily

gideon tells palmolive her past trauma and how all the kids in the ninth except her and harrowbeth died and how she blames herself because harrow kinda had the childhood of asuka langley soryuu in evangelion but worse

palmolive does this

camilla, the moon to my stars, the woman of the year, my qp wife, brings in harrow with a handcuff

so, let me set the scene

there's a guy's head in a box, gideon has told palmolive her life story, and in comes camilla with harrow on a kid harness like she's a scary parent at disneyland

this is a sitcom

anyway, they all go to dulcinea's lair and have a talk with the group

I still kinda stan yandere twin ianthe (sp??), I'm not gonna lie you folks

she's ooky kooky spooky in a fun way

like, deranged (affectionate)

so, as usual, nobody agrees on anything and everyone fights and dulcinea coughs up a hairball

now, harrow and gideon go to the pool

which is salty now, much like gideon

my first thought was "gideon can't swim, she's gonna drown like sonic!!"

but they could stand in the pool apparently so it's fine

I mean, physically it's fine, EMOTIONALLY not so much

it's time to come clean, share trauma and also maybe flirt in the pool, if that's what's going on here

I think it's what's going on

it's hard to tell with them, but there's tension, proximity and hugs and stuff

basically, if I understand correctly, the ninth put all the kids in an infomercial blender and harrowbean was powered into life

but gideon is baby hercules and survived

which explains why she was turned into a blood sprinkler and the next day she was doing push ups like a maniac

I mean, it explains why she could physically do that, not why she thought that's the safe thing to do

so the ninth was like ?????? and feared gideon

and proceded to treat her like konoha treated naruto uzumaki

no adult person in the ninth was making sound decisions, it's what I'm getting at

case in point: ortus and his mom were blown to bits

also, very important

if I understood right, there's a frozen girl in the ninth's fridge tomb

a frozen girl like dr victor fries's wife nora in batman, or hyoga's mom in saint seiya, or han solo

ice cube frozen girl with a sword and chains and the vibe of this specific barbie doll from the haunted beauty collection

it's like if snow white was the apocalypse

you're gonna hate all my references by the end of this

I'm so sorry

there's a threat in a girl, in the ice, in the tomb, in the ninth house, that's the gist of it

and harrow has existential trauma because pretty much every person below the age of 18 died for her to live, so she wants to make it count

and gideon is hercules who comes from elsewhere and has the genes of a demigod or a kryptonian

but all of that doesn't matter, what matters is that harrow says the most metal phrase ever and goes: "I am a war crime"

?????? HELLO?????

and here's the thing (I have told you this @lady-harrowhark ), this is the book @ me every time I discover some truth and I look at my ebook's progress bar

if you're not completely annoyed, I'll be back tomorrow with more reactions to reveals