#fuck it up harrow the ninth!!

[vonspe]

nevarra???inspired stuff of Rook. I had this collar thing in my brain and couldnt let it go

[the-velvet-worm]

actually one of the craziest things about harrow and gideon's relationship is the fact that they're like, unhealthily obsessed with each other but also both think the other does not care as much as they do. gideon literally died for harrow and thinks that harrow hates her so much that she erased her from her memory. harrow lobotomized herself because she couldn't allow herself to destroy gideon's soul. and they're both still just like, "she could never love me." ARE YOU BOTH FUCKING STUPID??????? (the answer is yes)

[zombie-bait]

i cannot conceive of a universe without you in it

Fellas is it gay to give yourself a lobotomy to possibly preserve the soul of your one and only companion who died to save you? Asking for a friend

[absolutedestinyapocalypsse]

the thing getting at me the most after finishing my second read through is john's desperate fear of consequences combined with the ability to wipe people's memories about it. like he accepts that there's conflict between the lyctors, but he doesn't want to/cant comprehend that anyone would have a grudge against HIM. he justifies cytherea's actions as her being overworked, not her having a very real reason to want to stop more lyctors from being born. his fear of consequences is also a fear of change. he's desperately clinging to who his friends were ten thousand years ago, and i think it's entirely possible that he's so desperate he would cut parts of them out that were changing/disagreeing with him. he already demonstrates complete willingness to violate their boundaries and erase their memories "for their own good". He thinks people can and should be fixed- he's frustrated that mercymorn won't let him "fix" her anxiety, he tells them to kill harrowhark or "fix" her. If he has the ability to erase people's memories to avoid anyone being mad at him/stopping his plans, to "fix" the parts of them that were unfaithful or might hurt them, in his eyes, I don't trust that he wouldn't.

imagine how many times over ten thousand years the last straw was pulled and one of the lyctors got fed up with him, or he got fed up with them. imagine how many times over ten thousand years one of the lyctors tried to talk him out of something or objected to some genocide or another, and he found their objection inconvenient. part of the horror of harrow's experience on the mithraeum comes from the fact that she is both in actual danger that nobody is recognizing, AND that she can't remember or trust her own perception of events. Is she hallucinating? is it the ghost? what reason would anyone have to believe her, if she can't even believe herself?

maybe that's the horror of every lyctor- never being sure if you're being manipulated in the normal gaslighty "don't leave me or i'll kill myself and also kill the sun" way, or in the brain tampering way. knowing and feeling a sense of fealty and love and faith in john, and never knowing if it's coming from you, or from some brain magic. Harrow doesn't remember gideon, but there are LOTS of signs that something is very wrong, that something is missing. Imagine how many of those would stack up over TEN THOUSAND YEARS

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

[thelockedchoom]

Harrow the Ninth remains my favorite book in the series like

Two girls under 25 do enemies to just deeply intimate enemies. One of those girls gets a lobotomy (from the other girl!) to try and forget her ex, setting off a cascade of events which include holding ghosts hostage to play house and the eventual resurrection of what may well be the embodied spirit of a dead planet.

All while two 10,000 year old toxic coworkers try to kill god.

[topchomp]

gaydeon da ninth

[notedchampagne]

fight club

[croweofthebog]

oh so we’re all about subverting the chosen one trope until the chosen one nukes the earth and eats the solar system. i see how it is

[s-aint-elmo]

hey girl what if i give you a lobotomy on your request so you forget your dead not-ex. hey girl what if i make out with you to make sure you haven't broken the geas i placed on you. hey girl what if i am the last person left to call you by your house name and you the last to call me by mine. hey girl what if you are the first person i tell of everything that happens to me, and what if you listen regardless of the unholy hour. hey girl what if i touch your face, briefly, gently, more familiarly than anyone ever has in memory. hey girl what if i defend your honour to god himself. hey girl what if you stay awake for six days straight and i carry you to my room and tuck you into my bed with the sword you refuse to part with and keep watch over you all the while, and what if i call you a new nickname for the first time to bid you to go back to sleep. hey girl what if i take off your unwieldy, hateful, alien arm at the shoulder and grow you a new one entirely yours, and what if in your joy over this boon i realize for the first time how you too can look lovely and alive and lit from within. what then. what then

[saddest-girl-in-the-whole-world]

broke: of the ninth youths, ortus is the poet

woke: of the ninth youths, ortus AND harrow are huge poets, harrow remembers tons of ortus poetry and she says stuff like "first flower of my house" like oh my god

bespoke: ortus, harrow AND Gideon are all poetic little shits, do you remember when Harrow confessed her greatest sin to Gideon and Gideon proceeded to engage in a little baptism?? a little ritualistic drowning, washing harrow of her sins??? declaring her wedding vows right before sacrificing herself??? I'm not sure what they put in the articles of Gideons magazines but she is definitely a poetic little shit, dear lord

[multitude-of-eels]

Ianthe in Harrow the Ninth is sooo convinced that this is her enemies to lovers story with Harrow but little does she know that Harrow is already taken by a corpse and a woman she fell in love with so hard she lobotomized herself for her (which Ianthe saw her do, so I don't know why she thinks she has a chance in hell).

[cutetanuki-chan]

a couple of sketches since I'm finished the second book

I'm so normal about Harrow, you can't imagine

[gideonisms]

my hot take that will get me screenshotted by 2-3 ianthe bloggers is that griddlehark is actually more toxic than harrianthe. when you think about it both parties can Leave harrianthe eventually even if they'd still have to see each other. The power imbalance just isn't that severe. and I don't even think ianthe wants it to be. I think SHE thinks she wants it to be a sexy power imbalance but when it comes down to it and the moment arrives when harrow would fuck her out of desperation to be safe, ianthe turns away. She doesn't want harrow that way. She wants harrow to forget Gideon so they can be lyctors together forever. She wants to mutually maim each other. I think it's even consensual maiming. harrow broke one of gideon's ribs when gideon tried to leave her!

[amlli]

silliest worsties

[space--daemon]

fifth-absorbs-the-ninth!au from abigail's perspective as she slowly realises that a) the ninth is being run by half a dozen pensioners and a traumatised preteen; b) the only other preteen on the planet is apparently both their indentured servant (bad) and the first preteen's emotional support chew toy (bad??); c) the cavalier primary is a great poet and a terrible cavalier (sidenote: abigail would fucking LOVE ortus did you sEE her husband??!?!); d) this place is haunted as FUCK including by a vengeful milf; and e) these children need a parent ASAP

cut to abi and magnus trying to surreptitiously adopt the two most feral children they've ever seen without spooking them and also ortus