#and he won't name nona or pyrrha to any of them

[taylorrama]

The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 12/17

The sky, I'd been told Would roll up like a scroll As the mountains and islands moved from their place And the sun would turn black As a dead raven's back But there'd be nowhere hide From the Judge's face

Song: Rainbow Signs Album: Pale Horses

This is our last stop in Pale Horses and the final song on this album. There are bonus songs and an entire EP from this era, but I haven't listened to them enough to find any TLT connections.

Musically and lyrically, we have a reprise of "Pale Horses," but it's not exactly the same as it was in the album opener, which makes perfect sense. In "Pale Horses," the apocalypse is about to start. In "Rainbow Signs," it reaches its grand finale.

So, if "Pale Horses" could be trailer music for season 1 of a TLT adaptation covering Gideon the Ninth, "Rainbow Signs" is the trailer music for the final season covering Alecto the Ninth. But that book isn't out yet so it's only a prediction, but a fairly accurate one, I think, as we'll see later on in the song.

Pale horse songs of a slow decline Sideshow words if the songs don't mind G-d gave Noah the rainbow sign No more water, is the H-Bomb next time?

The first two lines are the same as in "Pale Horses," but these second two lines give us a variation–an allusion to the Biblical story of Noah where the rainbow symbolizes God's promise to not flood the Earth again and kill everyone. In the understanding that most people have of this story, the rainbow is the nice, happy ending full of confidence that the world won't be destroyed again. But here, the suggestion is that, sure, God may have promised not to flood the world again, but what about a bomb?

Why not nuke everyone and start over, Jod?

So if we take these lines a bit out of their context and pretend that there is a direct TLT connection, then who is God? Who is Noah? And what is the rainbow sign?

In an obvious reading, God could be Jod, Noah perhaps Gideon the First or someone else in his inner circle, and the rainbow sign perhaps some aspect of necromantic powers that convey to the masses a hopeful miracle. But because the last line says, "the H-Bomb next time?" that invites a reading that God is someone/something else that initially gave John his necromancy. Unless I missed something in Nona the Ninth, which I probably did, there isn't a clear explanation of where John got his powers to begin with. This would then make John Noah, the recipient of the rainbow sign (necromancy, or put more nicely, life after death). Then, this question of "the H-bomb next time?" has an answer. Yes. The H-bomb.

Pale horse vows in a grave (I-do-yes-definitely) reply Smile for the camera at a 'church' nearby Threw a mute curse at the Boise sky For my fucked up Napoleon-of-St.-Helena-hairline

These lines ground themselves more in recurring themes throughout the album and personal details of lyricist Aaron Weiss (he started living in Idaho by the time the band was working on this album and he hates his hairline). But there are some general ideas we can connect to The Locked Tomb.

We once again have wedding imagery with vows, a church, and concern for appearances. "Grave" of course adds a dark tone to this scene which matches TLT quite well. And this idea of smiling for the camera implies putting on a performance, hiding the real truth of the situation. That can be applied to all sorts of moments and ideas in TLT, but perhaps most closely to the appearances Camilla, Palamades, and Pyrrha craft for Nona.

The fucked up hairline part is kinda funny in the song and really funny if you pretend it's Harrow talking about her own hair.

The last two parts of this section that expound on the black horse, then the pale horse, continue this sense of unraveling of faith and of expectations for how life plays out. We go from hearing that God gives Noah a rainbow sign to hearing that "Cloud" gives "no one" a rainbow sign, which in TLT easily fits with the aftermath of a nuke and some guy named John becoming God.

The music, which has been steady and calm this entire time, shifts into this slow, almost suspended section where Aaron quietly recites prayers in Hebrew and Arabic. This repeats in several cycles, the music slowly grinds to a halt.

And then the tomb opens, or the bomb drops.

(What I mean is, the song hits and hits hard).

With imperial crowns we were 'sent,' Riding out conquest-bent Daylight is breaking Wielding the sanctified sword For the army of the Scarecrow Lord Daylight is breaking Balancing scales at our feet Measuring out two pounds of barley, six pounds of buckwheat

Much of the imagery in this part alludes to Revelation, which is the entire vibe of the last few chapters of Nona the Ninth, in particular, the last chapter written from Alecto's old timey Biblical POV. In a TLT context, the first two lines can easily refer to John and the Lyctors killing Resurrection beasts and colonizing other planets for their empire. This gives John a new, interesting name: Scarecrow Lord. A scarecrow is a fake person that may look huge and terrifying from a distance, but up close it's just some straw.

Beasts of the Battersea Shield At the opening of the fourth seal The sky, I'd been told Would roll up like a scroll As the mountains and islands moved from their place And the sun would turn black As a dead raven's back But there'd be nowhere hide From the Judge's face After which message-less birds take flight without cause To the silence they've heard in the absence of laws Or imperial crowns: Unsent, unsigned--

More Revelation imagery that to me are the strongest matches in this song to the tomb opening and Alecto being returned to her body. I think there's a good chance that Alecto the Ninth's tone will in many cases match the tone of this part of the song: apocalyptic and terrifying with no escape from judgement or wrath. Yet because Nona exists, part of me wonders and hopes that we'll also get something beyond anger and wrath.

The song returns to the quiet it had before this breakdown section, and all the lyrics are very person to Aaron Weiss to the point where only he knows the real meaning behind it because it's based on an inside joke he had with his father that he's chosen not to explain to anyone else. Having seen a couple live performances of this song, I do remember how pained Aaron appeared singing these lines. I have a friend who would never sing this part at shows and instead stay quiet to watch/listen to Aaron because he felt it was disrespectful to Aaron's grief that he can't possibly share since Aaron has chosen to keep the meaning of these lines so private. A lot of this album is Aaron processing the death of his father, so due to those highly personal reasons, I'm not connecting anything in this final part of the album's final song to The Locked Tomb. Not to mention that I don't really see much there to connect anyway.

The next post will start looking at mewithoutYou's final album, an EP/LP release that to me seems like the shattered pieces that remain after this apocalypse of "Rainbow Signs."

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 6; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 7; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 8; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 9; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 10; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 11

[naamah-beherit]

I posted 3,253 times in 2022

That's 2,205 more posts than 2021!

145 posts created (4%)

3,108 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@darlingofdots

@voxofthevoid

@cath-sith

@andromedamirtle

@threegoblinsinatrenchcoat

I tagged 829 of my posts in 2022

#the locked tomb - 129 posts

#tgcf - 79 posts

#hualian - 57 posts

#tian guan ci fu - 51 posts

#hua cheng - 47 posts

#xie lian - 47 posts

#nona the ninth spoilers - 34 posts

#sauron - 33 posts

#mairon - 33 posts

#天官赐福 - 32 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#and now i remember how people always scowl and sneer when you wish them a pleasant time off instead of echoing merry christmas! after them

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I got a Milker sticker for my laptop ���

Every time I look at it, I remember the good ol' days of the Angbang fandom. He also compels me to write more Angbang, OR ELSE.

56 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

#4

Sure, "You can't take loved away" hits right in the feels, but I think the biggest punch in the gut is Pyrrha's "Painted a nursery. Mint green". It makes you think what else the Ninth House has lost.

59 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

#3

TGCF microfics #3: post-canon mishaps

[written on 9 December 2021]

Post-canon Hualian AU in which Xie Lian gets hit with a curse that makes him forget the last 100-200 years, which means he's back to his "smile, don't annoy anyone, try to make people happy", but most importantly "FIGURE OUT EVERYTHING LATER WHEN YOU CAN."

So here he is, in a wrap-up meeting in Heaven after a mission he can't recall, with a bunch of gods he doesn't know, but also Feng Xin and Mu Qing? And they act like his friends again?? And everyone is treating him with respect??? Which is very nice but also mildly terrifying.

As the meeting drags, he keeps fidgeting, trying to gauge the state his body is in. There are a few scratches (which is understandable, because he came back from a mission after all, whatever it might be), some aches at the base of his spine, which he can easily neglect.

Apart from those, he's... fine. There's no hunger or thirst, no weariness deep in his bones. If he were to describe it, he'd say he's... content. Maybe even happy. (what a foreign concept that is)

...and then he notices Mu Qing rolling eyes at him.

MQ: "Yes, yes, we know, you want to go home. Tell your husband it won't take much longer."

XL, externally: (✿◕‿◕)(❁´◡`❁)

XL, internally: I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, WHAT HUSBAND, HOW CAN I HAVE A HUSBAND, OUR CULTIVATION PATH PROHIBITS HUSBANDS, DON'T YOU REMEMBER???

Once the meeting ends, he kind of... loiters around his palace, because what else is he supposed to do? How does one go back to a life they don't remember?

So he sits down. Gets up. Walks around. Sits down again. Tries to remember things he can't even imagine.

He's so wrapped up in his own head ("What husband, I can't have a husband, this must be a joke, but what if it isn't, what does he look like, nononono, don't think about that"), that he doesn't hear the steps or the tinkling of bells.

He nearly jumps out of his skin when an arm snakes around his waist and a cold, moist something lands behind his ear.

"Gege," a man purrs into his ear. "You've been gone for so long."

XL: blue screen of death before a speedrun to reconsidering his vows

XL, a few hours later, very quietly: What just happened???

HC: Gege is thinking so much tonight. Has something happened? Should I provide more distractions? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

XL: AHAHAHAHAHAHA [XieLian.exe has stopped working]

(HC does, in fact, provide more distractions)

XL isn't sure what he expected of a hypothetical husband, but his apparently actual husband who's also incredibly powerful ghost on the side pampers him, showers him with affection, and also brings him breakfast to bed, so fuck them vows, XL will take a husband over them any day.

(it would be nice if Xie Lian knew his name, though)

67 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

#2

KEITH, JIM, PLEASE

See the full post

83 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Every time I see claims that Hua Cheng stalked Xie Lian during the 800 years that passed between the end of book 4 and the beginning of book 1, I feel like fucking screaming. I’ve had enough of this nonsense for the past 4 years to last me a lifetime.

Sure, Xie Lian does have a stalker. His nickname is Bai Wuxiang.

239 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[dammit-tazmuir]

A summary for you! (Will definitely cover a lot you know, of course, but reminders better than assuming and missing things, right?)

---------

In the epilogue of Harrow the Ninth, we follow a girl living in a city very different than any we've seen in the series. It talks about "the person who went to work for her, the person who taught her, and the person who cared for her." At the end, she asks the person who cares for her, "Do you know who I am?" And Camilla Hect answers, "Not yet."

---------

So going into NtN:

Characters and Setup

The setting is a city called New Rho, on a planet outside the Houses, though still under the emperor's command. The people here have already been relocated, some of them multiple times, due to resurrection beast threats. Blood of Eden has a lot of activity here, but even the normal citizens abhor necromancers / "zombies."

The person who goes to work for her is Pyrrha. The person who cares for her is Camilla. And the person who teaches her is Palamades, now sharing Camilla's body. It's a tenuous and dangerous arrangement. Being there at all is killing her slowly, and fronting too long or using necromancy takes a much bigger toll as his soul starts trying to consume hers. If he doesn't front at all, her body will also try to expel his soul. They're determined to make it work and communicate via recordings, written notes, and relaying messages through Pyrrha and Nona.

Nona and Pyrrha were both pulled out of the River by Blood of Eden at the end of HtN (Harrow's Bullshit Dead Girlfriend talking in "the wrong voice twice removed" about chest compressions and such). Camilla had already been picked up by Blood of Eden. (No one except Pyrrha, Cam, and Nona know Palamades is also among them for a long time.)

No one knows who Nona is, least of all Nona herself, but she's in Harrowhark's body and woke up with no memory of anything, even speech or motor skills. Every night, Nona dreams about a scene of Harrow and Gideon in salt water, and every morning Camilla makes her recite as much as she can remember looking for new clues. Everyone wonders if she could be Harrow OR Gideon with memory loss, or Harrow AND Gideon as a full gestalt fusion (a new person, like Paul later is), or if it's someone else in Harrow's body and if so who and how.

There's a lot weird about Nona. Her healing factor is overwhelmingly beyond even lyctor capabilities, closer to John's. She can understand and speak any language when she's present for it, "by making her mouth move like theirs", but has trouble interpreting if she can't see the person. She can't read or write and her brain is madly resistant to learning. She can identify people and intentions by how people move. She's barely capable of lying. She hates the sword and the bones that Cam and Pal try to get her to practice with. (They won't tell her why, as they don't want to lead her.)

Their group works with BoE's "Ctesiphon Wing", under Commander We Suffer, as "Troia Cell". Some other cells in the same wing and "Merv Wing" are more antagonistic to them. Another notable BoE member is Our Lady of the Passion / Pash / "two thigh machetes" sometimes by Nona. (She's later revealed to be Commander Wake's niece, which makes her Gideon's cousin.)

Regardless of who's in the body, BoE sees a potential weapon in Nona and wants Camilla and Pyrrha to try to unlock Nona's necromancy beyond just the healing to give them their own lyctor power to use against John. Most ideally they want to open the Locked Tomb but they'll take what they can get. She's "The Lyctor Project".

Judith and Coronabeth had been traveling with Camilla in HtN too, the survivors of Canaan House. Corona has become a full member of Blood of Eden and changed her name to Crown Him With Many Crowns Thy Full Gallant Legions He Found It In Him To Forgive, aka Crown. She likes Nona and fully believes the gestalt theory, envying the idea (wishing she and Ianthe could have achieved that). Judith is doing much worse, because-

Number Seven, aka Varun the Eater, the resurrection beast they fought at the end of HtN that killed G1deon, is approaching. It's not to the planet yet, but "parascoping", projecting ahead of its path and watching from the sky as the rest of it catches up. It's a matter of time until it arrives and devours the planet. Its blue light infects necromancers with "blue madness", driving them mad. (Nona, mysteriously, is not only immune, but finds Varun soothing.) Most necromancers have evacuated the area. Judith is being held underground at a BoE facility, strapped to a bed, in and out of coherence.

Also, the Sixth House seceded from the Empire. Like it was built in a facility that could be mobile and just straight up moved. This was done after word from Cam and Pal (they do also know Pal's there) and orders a while before her death from Sixth House lyctor Cassiopeia. 16 members of the leadership/nobility/whatever were captured by BoE and are being held somewhere in New Rho as extra leverage against Camilla (and Pal).

(Almost done with characters and setup I swear.)

Nona works at a school during the day as a teacher's aide. The Nice Lady Teacher, Jolie, is just a very normal woman in over her head and doing her best. The main kids at the school are a "gang" led by 14-year-old Hot Sauce, and extremely traumatized and serious girl with burn scars. Her "right hand man" Honesty is 12 and a mini criminal. Born in the Morning and Beautiful Ruby are probably 12-ish give or take. And their youngest member is 7-year-old Kevin. (Hot Sauce is just a nickname because she likes it. Kevin is probably a House name, as that's Nona's first language. At minimum Born in the Morning and plausibly the other two are implied to be Nona's auto-translation thing messing with how she hears it.)

The kids know what a resurrection beast is btw. Kevin knows Varun the Eater by name. The Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus with all her resources and studies did not know what an RB was until becoming a lyctor. This immediately says so much about the state of life outside the Emperor's super special Houses.

The other teacher, called "The Angel" by the kids, is named Aim and is also called "The Messenger" by Blood of Eden, who they're later revealed to be part of. Aim has she/they pronouns and not (just?) in a gender way. Upon hearing Hot Sauce say "we love her", Aim's driver (who doesn't like Aim taking risks by working somewhere) scoffs, "Oh, I get it. A chance to be 'her', huh?" To which Aim replies, "It is my enormous privilege to be 'they.'" Later, Aim talks about themselves using "we", "we are the message." It is not yet revealed what the message is, but a few factors imply it may have something to do with genetic coding they're carrying. (It was also passed down from their predecessor MSN and I'm.... Tamsyn plz...) Also Aim has a six-legged dog named Noodle who is a certified good boy.

---------

Plot - Present Day

Beginning to Broadcast

The book starts pretty slow. Nona is going about her life and we see through daily activities and flashbacks to earlier in the past six months what life has been like her in New Rho. Everything sucks, but Nona is happy. She's only had two tantrums in her whole life, and she's very proud of that, even if that whole life is only about six months. Nona loves swimming in the ocean, and even going to the beach after she stops being allowed to swim helps keep her calm.

One notable early event is Honesty getting a job, and coming to school the next day with a black eye. For a moment it sounds embarrassing and silly when he admits he walked into something, but when he explains, we learn his group had been trying to rob "the convoy"-- a bunch of BoE mega-trucks that drive around underground tunnels-- and saw into a truck filled with people with glowing white eyes who all turned to look at the same time. He was running like hell.

The first time we see Nona's household called in to talk to We Suffer, they head down to visit Judith in the basement. When they walk in, she thrashes and shouts cryptically, stuff about "Green Thing" and "what have they done to you?!" When she calms down a little more, she's still frantic and struggling, but more herself. Toward the end, she once again shouts and thrashes and calls out to the Green Thing.

When the group leaves, Nona asks what the captain was talking about at the beginning and end, and Crown and Camilla stare, deeply unsettled. "Nona...? The captain didn't say anything when we entered. She only screamed." Those moments were Varun speaking through her, and on several other occasions throughout the book, it possesses Judith again to talk to Nona.

Later, there's a Broadcast in the city, projected in a public square. Hot Sauce takes Nona with her as they sneak away from school to watch it. A person whose description matches a very dead Naberius Tern delivers a message from the emperor. It is in fact Ianthe-- now going by Tower Prince Ianthe Naberius, the Saint of Awe-- piloting Naberius's preserved corpse remotely to avoid the effects of Blue Madness. The empire wants the Sixth House and any surviving members of the Cohort returned, and all BoE agents to cease activity and disperse. It's framed like "because God is so merciful, this is all you have to do" when in practice it's more "if one person fails to comply with these demands we'll use violent force."

Ianthe introduces on camera the other Tower Prince, Kiriona Gaia, the Emperor's only heir, and Nona recognizes her as the girl from her dream, aka Gideon. She looks super mega dead.

That night, Aim's driver gives Nona a ride home, because neither Cam nor Pyrrha came to get her. Cam is waiting at home and incredibly relieved to see her, only to realize Pyrrha isn't with her. As far as Cam knew, Pyrrha was going to pick Nona up at the usual time. The next day is somber and rough as they worry about where she could be.

---------

Day After Broadcast

Cam takes Nona to school, but as a final day to say goodbye, with as tense as things have gotten. A lot of other kids have been pulled out already, and others are having their own last day. Hot Sauce has all the gang swear an oath that even if they're torn apart, they'll always be a gang and always have each others' backs. Eventually, everyone except Aim, Camilla, Nona, and Hot Sauce go home.

While looking through drawings the kids had done the day before, Aim had stopped cold at one. After sending Hot Sauce to shut down the generator to get her out of the room, Aim asks Nona about her drawing. The way Nona describes it matches an elephant, but it's not named and Aim says this is a long, long extinct animal they only know about because of their very specialized studies on their old planet.

At some point while talking to Aim, they figure out "Camilla" is a necromancer, and because "she" has been functioning in spite of Varun's light, they assume she's a lyctor. They subtly sent out a call to BoE. As Pal tries to talk Aim down, a bullet comes through the window, right through Nona's head. She heals from it. Cam/Pal were also shot at but Pal was able to stop the bullet.

Pash is there now, revealed to be a personal bodyguard to Aim. She's freaking out about the shit show, because as much as Pash hates it, that's the fucking Lyctor Project they just called a hit on. Aim's been kept so out of the loop they didn't know. But now Merv Wing is outside and they don't want to back down; they're the wing that burns anyone who might be a zombie in public executions. Aim feels very bad about all this, especially since Nona is just indignant in her usual way after being shot, still very much herself.

As Merv Wing storms in, Nona runs to find Hot Sauce, who Pash locked in the generator room now. Aim tried to warn her but didn't really get it through clear, Hot Sauce saw Nona get shot. She's extremely distressed and confused. How could she make that up?? When the coast is clear and they get out, Hot Sauce sees the blood on the floor along with brain matter and the blood in Nona's hair and realizes she didn't make it up. "You're out of the gang," and she shoots Nona in the head again.

This time, when Nona wakes up, she's zip tied down to a chair. Reaching a breaking point, she throws her third ever "tantrum," aka goes absolutely fucking batshit feral with necromantic power. She rips her body apart and just regrows whatever she needs to discard to escape and goes on a rampage. Finally, enough people get close enough to get her restrained and subdued, as she's still physically frail. She hears her own voice yell, "You're killing her, fool!" Some part of her knows she's talking to herself.

---------

Infiltration to Finding Gideon

The next morning, Nona wakes again in BoE headquarters, with Pal there. There's a lot of talking and Pal reveals himself to several more people. We Suffer lets them listen to a radio signal as Crown, wearing a bug, goes to the docked ship where Ianthe (still in Naberius) is stationed, begging for sanctuary and to see Ianthe. She's also brought Judith, which BoE did not authorize, begging for help to save her. Ianthe is repulsed by the Judith part, but begrudgingly lets her bring her aboard. With enough pushing, practically anything for Corona, after all.

Also "the Saint of Duty" is there. Ianthe thinks "he's" been weird but hasn't clocked that it's a whole other person. While Ianthe easily catches the bug Corona's wearing and mocks Blood of Eden before destroying it, Pyrrha uses the code words she's trained with Camilla and Nona to let them know there's another hidden bug they can tap into, and they're able to do so.

Ultimately, they're able to use Ianthe's demand to "surrender Camilla Hect and Harrowhark Nonagesimus" to their advantage. With a haircut and some coaching, Nona pretends to be Harrow and Cam pretends to be only herself. Some temporary dye/film is applied to Nona's eyes to make her look blind, and she's instructed to only answer minimal questions and fake fits of Blue Madness like the captain if asked tough questions. The one time she does this, she can't think of what to scream to 'act like the captain' and in her mind just yelps, "Help! Help! Help!" To everyone else, she actually goes trance-like for a moment and has unleashed another horror scream like her tantrums that genuinely fucked shit up.

While talking to Ianthe, Camilla brings up that the Third House once challenged the Sixth to a duel back at Canaan House. Sixth had right of reply but it never happened, so she accepts now. If she wins, she gets to go free, and if not, she dies. Ianthe rightfully points out that's really really really stupid, but Corona threatens to kill herself if Ianthe has become too much of a monster to grant someone even this little bit of dignity. Ianthe is exasperated, but after enough pushing isn't willing to take chances, and even offers Camilla a slightly achievable win condition with just managing to snatch a handkerchief.

Eventually, Ianthe stabs Camilla, seeming to have one, but Cam's voice says satisfied, "Match to the Sixth." It was always a farce to help Palamades invade Naberius's body. A few seconds to everyone else was much longer for him and Ianthe doing battle in a mental space, but he wins, not only taking control of the body but keeping Ianthe's soul trapped and suppressed for a little while, unable to just return to normal.

Nona, Pyrrha, Camilla, Palamades-in-Naberius, and Crown all search for Gideon. They're hoping if Nona IS Gideon, or part-Gideon, her soul will magnetize to the body, but nothing happens on that front.

Nona finds her first and feels an inexplicable urge to kiss her, and does so. She sees Gideon's eyes open, but when the others catch up, Gideon still looks super dead, eyes closed. They drag her body, debating if it's real or some kind of clone. John's effect on it make it impossible for Palamades to read with psychometry. Whatever the case, they agree they should take the body to the Tomb. Pal still wants to take a blood sample; it probably won't be viable outside the body, but the preservation on her is wild, and however the blood reacts will tell them something interesting.

But as he goes to draw a sample from her thigh, she snatches his hand. "Sexpal! If that's how you get a woman's pants off, it's no wonder I stole your girl!" She's back and worse than ever (I love her). She reveals she was awake the whole time (Nona is indignant, she told everyone!!) and just playing possum letting them drag her around. Not playing dead though, she is super mega dead. John's made a self-piloting revenant out of her. Also the wounds from her death in the first book are still very present, preserved open, which characters question but don't get a real answer about. (Also, she reveals John made her invulnerable. The needle never could have pierced her she just didn't like the idea of it and broke character lmao.)

Despite a wild new level of no fucks to give and questionable motives, Gideon goes with them.

---------

Loose Ends & Reconciliation to Reaching Drearburh

As payment for all this, We Suffer tries to track down the Sixth House, and upon the reveal they're being moved around constantly in a truck, Nona realizes that's what Honesty saw during his job. They're in the Convoy, and she can ask him where the truck was the other day to figure out where it'd be in its path now.

When taken to talk to him, he barely cracks the door. She realizes he's talked to Hot Sauce and knows she's a Zombie, and she's very upset and apologetic, but is glad he's taking that seriously. She'd think less of him if he stopped listening to Hot Sauce. She's still so Nona, so pure and full of love and fury and running on a single brain cell. She says she's gotta go away and tells him where some of her things she wants to leave him are, including the rag she uses at school, because it might have enough chemicals left on it he could sell it to get someone high. And he slams the door, and Hot Sauce opens it, and Honesty is raving that he can't stay mad at a girl like that, who would think of his business! Hot Sauce can't either, though. Nona and Hot Sauce have a sweet moment, the love between all these kids ultimately pure and unconditional and more powerful than their feelings about any factions.

Nona gets the information and delivers it, and the Sixth House leadership are recovered and helped. But also, Varun has gotten close enough that heralds are descending. Everyone has to fight through some, and Nona ends up talking to Varun (through Judith) atop one of the megatrucks. "You said you wouldn't do anything weird!" She begs and begs Varun to withdraw, and ultimately, though it doesn't get rid of what heralds already came down, Varun agrees and does so. When Judith comes back to her senses, she asks in confusion, "Harrowhark...?" And for the first time, Nona, who's on some level known but not wanted to, admits, "No, and I never was."

So now it's a matter of getting to the Ninth House. Preferably fast.

Palamades is confident they can pilot a megatruck through the River. Pyrrha tells him he's not a bloody lyctor and that would be difficult if he was. He's not worried. He and Camilla gather some of their closest friends and family, and have a very deep and heartfelt last talk as themselves. He performs a ritual, and Camilla catches on fire, and when the fire dies down, their eyes are originally-Pal's clear gray irises, with inhuman pupils of originally-Cam's slate gray-brown. They are an advanced form of lyctor, a form where nothing is taken and everything is given, becoming a new person. They name themself Paul.

Nona has begun having "top and bottom" thoughts, her memories trying to surface as she desperately clings to the "middle" thoughts, like someone who can't remember what a thing they hated hearing said, but can hear it approaching and is plugging their ears going LA LA LA LA to block out the details. She'd rather die as herself, this her, and she's afraid to remember, certain she'll forget her life now. She doesn't want to forget loving Palamades or Camilla or Pyrrha or Hot Sauce. Paul tells her they loved her, and she loved them. "It's done. You can't take loved away."

A bunch of people board the megatruck, including Aim, who explains a little of their importance, and Pash, who regrettably goes where Aim goes. Paul is able to take them into the river, and they drive along its surface....

...but it's Wrong. It's not ghostly in the way it should be, and in the distance, an immense distinctly-stone tower juts out and runs seemingly all the way down. Gideon is just "yup" about it. This tower scares those top and bottom thoughts, and we don't get an explanation about it.

At several points since getting shot, Nona has run more on instinct or had her old self seep through. Once she went off on Pyrrha, asking if she had fun playing pretend like this. Pyrrha has also figured out who she is, but Nona made her stop when she started to say it. Harrow's body is incredibly dying at this point, but in the truck, Nona again drags it based on something she just feels drawn to do, taking the wheel from Paul. As she pushes on and on, she starts to wonder if maybe everyone dying together would be nicer; she's known she's dying for ages and has been relieved about it, so why would it be so bad for everyone? Paul reminds her Noodle is in the truck and letting a dog get hurt is too far for Nona. (She's so real.) She books it and makes it to the Ninth House.

---------

The Ninth House & The Locked Tomb

It's bad here. A bunch of folks stay back but those who press forward encounter??? What the fuck ARE those? "Devils" apparently, or corpses who have been possessed by Devils. Gideon says they've been fighting a lot of them on another planet, Antioch, for months, but John said they couldn't travel elsewhere so what the fuck. They also realize this is what possessed Colum back at Canaan House.

True to at least this word, John did send newly awakened folks to help replenish the Ninth House numbers, but a lot of them have been killed. They encounter Crux, who mistakes Nona for Harrow and her admittance she's not for just having one of her episodes. He goes along with the group and they find Aiglamene with a bunch of the survivors barricaded up. It's explained they need to get Harrow's body into the tomb, and everyone helps.

Ianthe shows up, and after a bit of weirdly casual banter with Gideon that does not at all sound like they're enemies, Nona is appalled to realize they're wearing friendship bracelets. Anyway, Gideon still wants the Tomb open, and Ianthe is very confused. Ianthe insists that'd be really bad for John, daddy has been a useless wreck lately and Ianthe's got to do everything around here. Gideon insists John sent her and she's supposed to kill whatever's inside?? And then she'll become his new cavalier?? Ianthe tells Gideon she's delusional. "He loves her, you idiot! John. loves. Alecto! He needs ALECTO."

And upon hearing her real name, Nona's delusion shatters. She starts to unravel, literally, physically, Harrow's body no longer able to contain her. They need a thanergy burst to help unlock the tomb, and Crux snaps that he's the obvious choice. His other choices are waiting to die of basically-poison and being possessed or being healed and killed by devils anyway. Aiglamene berates that all anyone in this house ever knew how to do was die for Harrow. They could have lived for her, but they didn't know how.

Gideon volunteers, having fantasized about his death for years. She makes sure to rub it in his face that she's God's kid first, and he basically tells her 'fuck you and fuck God' because his loyalty is to Harrow and his opinion of Gideon isn't remotely changed by this??? Like. Okay dude, horrible but weird respect I guess. Nona/Alecto isn't seeing shit at this point, just overhearing as Paul and Pyrrha try keeping the body remotely together and dragging it toward the door. She hears Gideon after killing Crux, "Fuck... Why didn't that feel good?!" (In sharp contrast to John finding death intoxicating...)

The door is opened, and eventually magnetism takes hold, and Alecto drags the crumbling body to her own, where Harrow's soul has been since the end of HtN, when she found herself inside the tomb and crawled into the coffin to sleep.

---------

Alecto's POV

Alecto wakes up as herself, breaking her body as she rips herself from her chains, just as Nona did with her third tantrum.

She's almost entirely disconnected. The humans are all children, even the oldest among them, and she can barely tell their voices apart. (The audiobook does a few wrong in the second to last scene, and I'm not sure it that's intentionally reflecting this or was just a mistake because it's definitely hard to follow.)

"The black-eyed infant" (Harrow) is still weak as hell but in her own body and holding in one piece again. She throws herself at Alecto's feet, but Alecto recognizes her, from her dreams and from the 9 years her soul has been haunting Harrow, ever since Harrow opened the tomb when she was 10. She "kisses" her, aka bites her mouth, because "this is how meat loves meat", but upon tasting her blood, she realizes she's Anastasia's descendant. Thus, as she once swore to Anastasia, she swears herself now to Harrow, until such time as the bargain has been paid. (This is the first the audience is hearing of this and we don't get explanation.) To which Gideon iconically replies, "Get in line, thou big slut!"

In the final scene, Alecto enters a room where John is sleeping, unconscious Harrow flung over her shoulder, and drives her sword through his heart. But he just wakes up and greets her. "Annabel, good morning."

=========

Plot - In The Dream

John's and Earth's History, Harrow's Connection

In the dreams, a woman and John walk around as John rambles about his backstory. He addresses her as Harrow, but keeps saying "you" in context to the past.

Long story short because the rest is so long, the "you" is planet earth. She was dying, and she saw a man leading a project desperately trying to save her, and she chose him, and she gave him power over life and death. He learned to use it, but more and more budget cuts and bureaucracy and idiots drinking up propaganda led to trillionaires buying their way off-planet and leaving everyone else to rot and earth to die. John was so pissed off by the end he personally triggered nuclear war, but the souls he ate from that weren't enough.

He tried to eat earth's soul too, even physically shoveling dirt in his mouth, but she was simply too big to contain, so he made a new body from dirt and vomit and blood and bone and shaped her into a lifesize Barbie. Whatever he couldn't contain, he stuffed into this form, and their souls were intertwined, becoming one. But it still wasn't enough. He reached and reached and reached and devoured the souls of all the solar system, creating the RBs. With all that power, he was able to remotely grab one of the trillionaire escape ships, could feel them inside and knew they felt him, but then it slipped from his grasp and escaped. (It's possible this led to the creation of BoE? Or was one part of its founding.) He decided punishing those assholes was worth killing everyone including the planet himself, and he didn't even succeed. His takeaway is "That'll teach me to hesitate."

Alecto was horrified by her new form. ("A monster from the moment you resurrected her, and you went and made her worse.") What had he done to her? Where did he put all those souls? But also, "I still love you."

But now, in this dream, Harrow has been experiencing all of this via walking through Alecto's memories the day after everything was killed, before anything but her had been resurrected. (Notably, when he does resurrect them, he fucking changes his friends' names, implied by how Ulysses and Titania were U— and T— on their death certificates but he changed those. Side note, Pyrrha says "Gideon... G—..." at one point, with the dash like that, so it's??? possible she remembers??? But yeah.)

Whatever is happening seems to have some outside connection and awareness of the present, too, perhaps via the part of John that's part of Alecto and vice versa. The conflation of Alecto and Harrow is made more unsettling with John writing in the sand, "J + E", replacing the E with A, then the A with H, before drawing an uneven heart around it...

Like Alecto, Harrow still loves him, loves her God and Teacher. But she tells him, as Reverend Daughter, it is her duty to understand what it truly means to love God for herself. She will find divinity, whether she lies in the Locked Tomb or her search leads her back to him. He asks where she'll look, and she looks off to a tower in the distance in the water, one that shouldn't have been in the memory (likely the tower in the River). She'll start there, and she walks off into the sea.

And that bit was shortly before Alecto and thus Harrow woke up.

---------

I hope this wasn't too long. I know the book is confusing as hell, and frankly I agree it's the weakest of the three despite being really good, but also feel like a lot of that is from how hard it is to follow and that the actual content is really fun. So yeah, genuinely hope this helps!

Nona the Ninth is really good, even if I found it the weakest of the Locked Tomb books, I enjoyed it a lot. Nona is absolutely adorable, I love her so much.

That being said, what in the ever loving fuck happened in that book?

[mythlived]

[Rasmus] ♂

❛  From the Outside In !  

♂ - … My muse’s father

     [ ┊♟┊ ]  ━  There was silence as Tsuyoshi stared at the data that had been relayed to him over the phone. Rasmus was a good agent. He did what he was told, he killed when he was asked and had no qualms about it, he had no partners that led him astray. He did exactly as he was told. Yet, there were times when his information was lacking. He had mentioned months ago that he had found the deserter, but had run into complications and refused to elaborate on their nature. There had been mention of an unsuspecting informant, but no explanation of what he meant by that. Not only that, but he also managed to dance around an answer when he was asked what was taking so long in disposing of the loose end. A masterpiece in some ways, a complete failure in others. He was willing to put up with some things, considering the agent’s outstanding record, but he was becoming impatient and was not the only one. 

Dr. Ström had raised concerns when Tsuyoshi had mentioned Rasmus’ unwillingness to elaborate on the aforementioned complications and the informant. His most recent information, Tsuyoshi imagined, would only put her even more ill at ease. It had certainly upended most of his thought processes for the day. He had been stuck on one note and one note only for the past several hours. 

                           Someone had tried to befriend the agent.

             The agent refused to say who. Inconsequential, he had said. 

No, that was not sitting well with the scientist. He knew it would not sit well with Ström either. It was probable that Ström would suggest sending someone into the field after him or to help him. That, Tsuyoshi knew, would not go well. They had not taught him to work with others. It was likely Rasmus had his own plan, but if nothing else, he knew the agent was loyal to them, to the organization, to their cause. Regardless of complications, he would get it done. At least, he could only hope that was the case. If it were not… Well, they would end up with far too many research subjects dead to have any viable results. They would have to start over. No. No, no, no. Losing their research was the last thing they could do. No. It was not even an option. The loss of their research would mean a loss in their lives, he and Ström had put far too much into this to lose it because of two or three agents losing sight of the untold end goal. He needed to call her into his own office. If nothing else Ström would be able to look at things with a clearer mind.

He clicked on an intercom.  ❝  Dr. Ström, if you could meet me for data collection, please.  ❞  It was a phrase he used often to avoid letting the agents-in-training know there was some sort of crisis, whether it be within the walls of the compound or without. It seemed to be working thus far.

It only took her a total of ten minutes to reach his door from wherever she had been before. Not bothering to knock, she swept in as if she owned the whole operation. Which, he supposed, she did. But he did too.  ❝  What is so important that you pulled me away from our most recent subject  ?  ❞  A specimen that had been born blind, Sigrid had been intent on seeing how it was affected by their research. Would it stay blind  ?  Would they be able to induce sight through their own means  ?  Even he had been lost in their most current results until he been reminded to check in with their field agents. Until Rasmus had given him reason to upturn the table of his thoughts entirely. 

❝  Unfortunately,  ❞  he said, sliding the notes he had taken toward her, the highlighted note sticking out in stark contrast to the rest even across the desk, ❝  Rasmus has neglected to offer important information, again. He refused to give the name of his informant and has refused the name of this one as well.  ❞  He watched as her eyes flitted from one side of the page over and over, as if she had not read it correctly the first time. 

❝  Send one more. Just to check in.  ❞  She slid the paper back toward him, posture stiff. 

❝  You think he wouldn’t notice them  ?  ❞  It was a slim chance that he or the deserter would not notice an extra agent being sent into the field. 

❝  Of course he’ll notice them. If it’s a threat he needs, then it’s a threat he’ll get,  ❞  she said. She arched an eyebrow at him, as if wondering whether he had truly asked such a ridiculous question. Nonetheless, he pressed his lips into a thin line as he studied her. Always one for action, even when she was clear-headed. He was worried too, certainly, but Rasmus was a special case in a number of ways. Intelligence, socialization, role, and a plethora of other things were different about the agent because they had chosen to build him from the ground up. It was likely he would be more attuned to their movements than another agent could be. They had trusted him with far more than any one agent should have been trusted for. 

Tsuyoshi sighed, sitting forward and glancing one more at the data he had been given. ❝  Any sign of deviant behavior and we’ll send another agent. Until then, we should leave him be. It may be more harmful to show a sign of distrust now than to show one later. ❞  It was hard for him to be certain, but Rasmus’ track record could not be ignored. 

❝  And what  ?  Hope that it isn’t too late  ?  He’s been out for months in the same city as Rhys. What if all of our data is false and Rasmus is feeding us lies  ?  ❞  Anger sparked for a moment in Sigrid’s expression, but she schooled it quickly enough for Tsuyoshi to question if it had ever been there in the first place. But that was a question for another time. 

He scoffed, shaking his head. ❝  Dr. Ström. If he was developing any sort of personality, we would know. If our data was false, we would know. It would change. He would try too hard to keep it from being obvious, no  ?  ❞  

Nevertheless, the seeds of doubt had already been sown. Going through the agents best fit to trace the untraceable would be the next matter on his agenda. They would not be blindsided by betrayal again. 

@duskfloret​

[queeoretician]

Yes! This has been bugging me too! Did he have some way of yoinking their souls back from across the River, or did he just stuff new souls into their bodies?

So I went back and skimmed the last two John chapters of NtN and I actually couldn't find anything that says he fixed everyone's souls in place as he killed them (and he does say that he kills some of them necromantically before the bombs get them)...

Ok, wild theory time: what if he didn't preserve their souls at all? What if the resurrection was him stuffing other/new souls into those bodies? How fucked would that be? We know from Tazmuir's "happy meal" comment about Gideon that souls are divisible, so what if he resurrected people by sectioning off bits of Alecto's soul? Maybe that's why he can't/won't perform resurrection any more.

On the one hand, this seems to fly in the face of the continuity of memory that Pyrrha has from before the resurrection (remembering G1deon's original name, and cultural references like disco and Hairy Mclary). But in John 5:4 he says "I know where remembrance lives in the brain, and [G—] won't have any of it." Not in the soul, but in the brain. And from Nona we know that if you stick a soul into a new body, the resulting person can retain some memories of the body.

But even if he preserved the souls of his inner circle, maybe he didn't (or wasn't able to) do the same for everyone he resurrected. Again from John 5:4:

“You said it yourself. I can’t die if she’s alive; she can’t die if I’m alive. Why would you let something like that run around, Harrow? Why would you let someone go—away from you—untouchable—two people? I couldn’t—I loved them too much—I saw the face of Earth and choked the life out of it and ate it whole. Oh, I knew I was on the clock for the Resurrection Beasts. I pretended she was the only one, but I knew the others were coming. I needed my loved ones to be something I could touch … needed them to be my hands … my fingers.”

And a bit later Harrow says:

I want to know how many of the Resurrection are left, and how many you began with, and what the discrepancies are. I want to know where you put them. They didn’t go into the River. I want to know why she was angry … and why you were terrified.

So that all hints at John doing something different for his friends from what he did for the bulk of the resurrected.

What if the devils are the displaced original souls of the bodies of the resurrected?

This all still feels like a stretch, so I wouldn't put money on it, but it would be totally fucked up (approving) if something along these lines turned out to be true in AtN...

I always come back to how fucking weird Ulysses and Titania are to me post resurrection. Like there's something fundamentally wrong about them and I really need to know what it is.

John said that when the nuclear apocalypse happened he held everyone's soul in place, as they died he made sure to preserve them so later he could go on to resurrect them, right?

But how did that work for Ulysses and Titania? They were dead long before John even got necromancy in the first place, there's no way he could have held on to their souls, but they were still part of his saints post resurrection? Can John get souls that are already dead back? I mean fuck I don't even know if the river existed back then so? Did he lie about something again? Are they just constructs? Are they his weird Necro Cav OCs that he controlled to have insight on what would be brought to a lyctor but not god?

I mean, man, we talk about how fucked up it is he rewrote his friends memories and gave them new names but U— and T— were just... some people whose bodies were donated to help with earths last hope. And he just makes them his servants and turns their legacy into the galaxy's biggest factory for child soldiers?

That's just weird, man.