#gideon - i strongly believe that gideon is not actually hot. i think that gideon believes she is hot because she is exactly the type

[asthedeathoflight]

Do you think Pyrrha and Cam ever bonded over being the hottest cavaliers at their respective Canaan houses

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 28 of Harrow the Ninth

We are now following up on the earlier scene with Dulcinea

What are we meant to read between the lines here? That Abigail has hidden them somewhere? I don't think they can have been sent back, since no one has the shuttles still. It's interesting that the Fourth teens seem to be non-characters in this recounting, considering they are definitely dead

She knows what coffee is, and what it smells like, but tea has too much flavor for her. I also note that Gideon didn't think the tea tasted strongly at all in the first book, but was unfamiliar with the concept of a hot drink. I'm really unsure what conclusions we're meant to come to about the Ninth House's hot drink situation here

How did she verify that event? Since there was no one else there when it happened and she saw both of them jump off the ledge into the ocean, how could anyone else have verified that for her? Or did she just wait for a while and see if she bumped into either of them later?

Actually, now I am wondering if the reason she kept Protesilaus's severed head in her closet without telling anyone for multiple days in Gideon the Ninth was because she wasn't sure if him coming apart had been real or not, and similarly didn't have any outside verification until Gideon found the head and brought it to Palamedes. So maybe when she told Palamedes she thought that he had been in on it, she didn't actually think that but was just using that as the reason for not telling anyone. i think commented back then that it wouldn't make sense for her to think that, as she thought at the time that Palamedes and Dulcinea didn't know each other

So, Abigail gives Harrow this piece of paper based on the fact that Corona has died (or something), and doesn't seem surprised when Harrow reads it, and later hypothesizes that Harrow is haunted. I'm not sure of the connection between Corona dying and Harrow being haunted, unless Abigail has some meta-knowledge that this is a fake memory and the pattern of who is dying in these memories is significant. Also, this is the second time in these memories that Abigail gave Harrow a piece of paper to read, so maybe she suspected that Harrow was haunted earlier as well?

This is kind of interesting, because it's not like they ambushed her this time. She got up and walked into their room alone of her own volition, and it never is made clear in this scene what she did that for in the first place. She didn't decide to tell them about Mayonnaise Uncle and Corona until after she was already in there

Ok, there is getting to be a lot of pronouns and also unquoted reported speech in these and it's hard to keep straight how many people there are here. Let me try:

[1] will remember the first time [2] kissed [1] -- [2] apologized -- [2] said, [2] am sorry, destroy [2] as [2] am, but [2] want to kiss [1] before [2] am killed, and [1] said to [2] why, and [2] said, because [2] have only once met someone[3] so utterly willing to burn for what [3] believe in, and [2] loved [3] on sight, and the first time [2] died [2] asked of [3] what [2] now ask of [1] [1] kissed [2] and later [1] would kiss [4] too before [1] understood what [2+4???] were and all three of [1+2+4] lived to regret it -- but when [1] am in heaven [1] will remember [2]r mouth and when [2] roast down in hell [1] think [2] will remember [1]ne

[2] has already died once and at least expected at one point to die again

[1] and [3] are/were "utterly willing to burn for what they believe in"

If these notes follow the same continuity, then possible [1] is the speaker in the earlier notes and [2+4] are the addressees of the second note, and [2] is the addressee of the first note and [4] is "him" in that note

[3] seems to be someone new

"she" from the second note doesn't seem to be in this one anywhere

So assuming that neither [1] nor [2] are the same person as "she" from the second note, there seem to be at least five people here, one female, two male, two undetermined. If we go along with the idea that these people are John + original Lyctors + a fifth person who is probably [1], then we can at least conclude that Gideon the first probably isn't either [2] or [4], but since [3] seems to be in the past at this point, he could be a Lyctor who is dead now, possibly. Or maybe "he" from the first and maybe second note is Gideon the First and [2] is John and Gideon the First isn't in this note at all. [4] is maybe Augustine?

Ok, like, forget about whatever is going on with Harrow's hallucinations, what on earth is this about?

It is true that Harrow didn't start having hallucinations until after she opened the Tomb, so possibly she is being haunted by the Body? That would make sense, since the Body is in so many of her hallucinations. So is the Body the person writing these notes? We can guess that she might be A.L. and obviously has something to do with John

Also, Magnus seems to think something about this is old news. Does Abigail habitually go around suggesting that people or things might be haunted? Or has Abigail been talking with him nonstop about how how Harrow might be haunted?

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Day 5, Part 2

[This is the seventh part of a collected liveblog/analysis of Nona the Ninth! See here for the other parts. ]

This is it! The final stretch, and much like the previous two books, this is the point where everything suddenly starts happening all at once. That’s why this Day was broken up into two parts - there was so much to comment on!

Chapter 25

-p369 H-uh. So Gideon was aware and with John, at least enough to know that she was turned into a revenant. That should fuel some fun character study fanfics!

-p371 Hmhm. So the River went weird after John almost died? Or possibly Augustine’s stunt? If they can travel through it even when not near an RB, then the changes must be pretty major.

-p371 I’m a little surprised how much Gideon and Nona immediately dislike each other! Even without Gideon knowing who Nona is!

-p372 I’m even more surprised by how little Gideon seems to be traumatized by the idea of going back to the Ninth. There’s some very good and convincing fic in that vein.

She could also be (in fact, it’s very likely she is) hiding said trauma behind that careless attitude. 

She’s definitely hiding something. “Boy how I miss the old place.” is even less believable than Frontline Titties of the Fifth being a real publication.

And thank you Nona for the confirmation.

-p373 Oh dear. So that’s why John is fine letting his weakness out to play. Wonder what Gideon thought about being turned into… that. I strongly suspect she’s joking to cover up her bitterness.

”Speed holes” Yeah, this is clearly defensive deflection. Gideon has always prized her living body as her best quality, so she must be really uncomfortable in her current situation.

Though I wonder what’s the part that’s most eating her. The fact that with her obvious wounds and being a possessed corpse, she’s no longer able to enjoy human pleasures? The fact that all of her body’s strongest abilities now come from John, so anything she accomplishes is  no longer her own achievements? The fact that between John’s modifications and Ianthe’s necromancy, she can’t even rely on her own body to be under her control? Any and all of those could be a terribly deep mine for trauma and angst…

-p374 Good thing we have Nona to read inner emotions! It’s surprisingly dissonant to read Gideon’s irreverent bluster from the outside, but this is still extremely her.

Well, I say surprising, but I’ve long speculated - actually even played with the idea in a “what if GtN got a terrible movie adaptation?” essay - that Gideon’s attitude and humor would come across very differently and negatively when seen from an unsympathetic outside perspective.

I really wonder how much of what Gideon says of how wonderful her life is as Kiriona is true… if any at all.

-Also - so Gideon was faking this whole time and Nona didn’t have her soul?  Wow. Genuinely caught-off guard by that! Now I’m even more confused about the mystery voice when Nona was having her tantrum!

Chapter 26

-p376 - We Suffer has a flip-top computer aka laptop. Hadn’t noticed that before! Though, per John, there is no internet in the Empire. Does BOE have it to any degree?

-p377 Ahh, the Convoy. Is carrying the whole Sixth House? Or just the oversight board?

Even with the numbers earlier, I still have no sense of scale for the Sixth. Presumably they’re larger than the “500 people is the difference between life and death” Ninth, and presumably they’re smaller than the Seventh or Eighth which number in the millions. But are we talking the size of a small town or a medium city?

-p383 So we are getting closure with Hot Sauce!

p385 And that was that. Yet another way these kids read as fairly realistic kids - their worldview is just a little more straightforward and simple (though by no means unobservant or unintelligent) compared to that of the adults. 

Chapter 27

-p388 Oh hey, Gideon has a… cousin? I believe that relation would make Pash would be a cousin. And I remember thinking on Pash’s introduction that she was rather similar in demeanor and temperament to Gideon. Guess hotblooded longing for a fight runs in the family!

I wonder what Gideon will think of Pash? I mean, of course they’ll hate each other and want to fight, but that’s often just how Gideon says hi lol.

-p391 I mean, it was guaranteed that Number Seven would make an appearance, especially after Nona called for help. But like. Poor Judith. She really didn’t deserve this much agony. She’s not even a character in this book, more like a plot item.

[Later me: The more I think about Judith, the more I feel like NtN kind of did her dirty? I’m honestly not that interested in Judith as a character, but by the end of the book, the sheer unrelenting misery and lack of agency for her just got a bit uncomfortable to read.]

John 1:20

-p395 Come to think of it - so necros CAN puppet a corpse and see/hear through it. Ianthe is doing similar in the present day. So in Pyrrha’s trial, was there something preventing Harrow from doing the same in the Response room unless she had Gideon?

-p396 Wow, really going full Don’t Look Up. The trillionaires truly think they can survive when all they have is one ship and its passengers? Even with useful, trained passengers, that’s hardly enough to maintain any kind of civilization.

But then, these aren’t just billionaires, but trillionaires. That means they’re probably yet another order of magnitude out of touch with reality.

Also, like… why not just let them go? They leave, everyone realizes they were betrayed, John is positioned as the next best option, John gets what he wants.

Unless the FTL leaving also blew up the sun somehow?

-p401 Seriously, why bother killing the trillionaires? Just let them get out of your hair! Why start a nuclear war that will kill untold millions, over a single ship full of jerks?

-p405 Dang, if the nun is Cristabel like I suspect, then she’s always been a martyr for John. History rhyming yet again.

-p406 At the end of HtN, John talked a bit about how the Augustine before the Resurrection would disagree with what he is doing now, but it seems like he was being rather disingenuous! Even his closest supporters were terrified and turning on him in the end here, and Mercy specifically did not want those nukes used. No one was on board with what he ultimately did.

-p407 So. Yeah. John destroyed the world because he got mad at a bunch of trillionaires and also things went sour when nukes got brought into the picture.

200 children died for Harrow to live, and she believes she wasn’t enough. Billions of souls died for John’s revenge - and he believes those billions weren’t enough. Hello, contrast.

I’m sure there’s also all kinds of religious resonances here that are going over my head, especially given that Jesus’s thing was forgiveness, while John is all about vengeance...

-p408 Eating a god is very Greek myth, while making a woman out of ribs is very biblical. As usual, TLT blends the two mythologies together.

-p409 Oh, so he just ate the sun and the rest of the solar system. As you do. >I’m surprised at how… non-academic this is. Very soft magic rules, while the series has been very magic-as-tech in the present day. Reminds me of that one comment John made to Harrow in HtN, lamenting how things were different in the early days before necromancy became so clinical. (Or that was the gist of it, anyway.)

-p410 AH. So it was the earth her?self that picked John and gave him the necromancy powers. So the main point of divergence between here and “reality” is that the planet has a soul and it can just… do that.

Is the way that God (the Earth) loves John no matter how badly he screws things up a Catholicism thing?

The way the story still positions John as The Worst, but necromancy itself as apparently a divine blessing... it’s an interesting angle. Not one I was expecting the series to take.

-Also like. Hang on. We’d all been theorizing that the mass deaths was the cause of the Resurrection, that planets were killed to bring them back… but in the end, the other planets were murdered for no particular reason. John killed them just to get to the trillionaires. No wonder they’re pissed off revenants.

If TLT was an anime fandom, it would be guaranteed that a sizable contingent of John Did Nothing Wrong-ers would be hanging around on reddit eating up all his justifications and getting into online arguments. Will that happen in this kind of fandom on tumblr too? I’m already not looking forward to The John Discourse... 

-Oh also also. A single ship (well, more like a small fleet, but there’s one ship that’s called out) escaping God’s wrath? Are the trillionaires also meant to evoke the symbolism of Noah’s Ark? I guess the survivors would probably think of themselves as such, especially if they populated the rest of the galaxy.

Chapter 28

-p413 Hm, I keep thinking the other voice in Nona’s head is Harrow, but now it looks to be the rest of Alecto.

-Real Alecto is a lot nastier and angrier than I was expecting! Even more so than in John’s flashbacks, where Harrow-Alecto is extremely passive.

Of course, she is Alecto. A Fury. Doesn’t her namesake drive people mad? Or was she the one who goes after murderers? (Wait no the murderers one was definitely Tisiphone. Hard to forget that after playing Hades, haha!)

-p415 Oh! So the blindness actually helping shield a necro from RB madness was a real thing!  Does it just not work on Lyctors because of their extra senses?

-p417 Oh hey, Juno Zeta gets an appearance on-page! In other news, wow, you really need to have read the short stories to get the full emotional impact of all of this.

-p421 Oh? Ohhhh? Are we going Perfect Lyctors, or just Cam’s sacrifice?

Perhaps “Perfect Lyctors” as creating a true soul gestalt? That has been hinted at repeatedly, even if I’ve dismissed the idea before…

After all, John and Alecto’s... whatever they did... doesn’t imply that Perfect Lyctorhood exists. Their situation had more to do with a human being unable to consume the soul of a planet and having enough leftover when trying to still create a person. So it might be that there is no such thing as Lyctorhood that preserves both component souls.

Yup, soul gestalt it is! Including some fancy pyrotechnics - but then again, we’ve never seen the Imperfect Lyctorhood process happen on-page either. Even Harrow’s transformation happens between the lines.

-p424 And of course, Ianthe rejects CamPal’s version of Lyctorhood. She would very much not be interested in dying and fusing with Naberius! Curious why she would “despair” at all, though. Would she have done this new version with Corona instead?

Chapter 29

-p427 I’ve still got no idea what Angel / the Messenger’s deal is! Or what the message they’re carrying is.

Could it be related to Cassiopeia in some way? We know she left one message, perhaps she aided in the preservation of another?

Maybe the other part of the message lies with someone actually in the Nine Houses…

-p429 Paul? Really? Of all the possible new names, they chose Paul? …Nobody was going to predict that one!

p430 But what could easily be predicted is Gideon finding a new and terrible nickname for them! Of course. XD

John 5:4

-p432 Oh, so Harrow (or some fragment of her) IS watching the John dream segment! Alecto would not have asked about the Ninth House.

-p433 Wow. And to be even more selfish, John wiped everyone’s memories too. On purpose. Definitely puts a harsher light on that “Nobody has to know” scene between him and Harrow in HtN.

[Later me, Horizon: Zero Dawn spoilers: I’ve been repeatedly comparing these backstory sections to Don’t Look Up, but this detail strongly calls to mind HZD’s Ted Faro instead! John and Ted not only destroy the modern world, they intentionally sabotage the next generation by erasing all of history. And then they both justify this monstrous theft by insisting humanity is better off starting from a blank slate so they won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. But for all those justifications, the real reason for their actions is clearly petty self-centeredness: they know they screwed everything up, and they want to erase records of their own crimes.

...There’s also something deliciously ironic in the fact that Ted Faro is the perfect model of the selfish trillionaires that John was trying to kill. In a roundabout way, it looks like John has become the exact kind of person he hates!]

-p434 Huh, so not only has Harrow been watching these John dreams, Alecto was showing her things too? Harrow now goes from one of the least worldly characters in the setting to one of the most. While… not talking about any of it.

-p434 Ah, I see why Nona’s plot is about her accepting her own death. Earth was afraid to die, and now it’s time.

-p435 Of course Harrow wants to know the theories and the math and the discrepancies.

-p435 So her quest will be about “finding God.” Well, at the end of the day, she is a very religious person.

[Later me: Since Harrow already seems to have met Alecto by the time the John dreams take place, do ALL the dreams take place during the *** before this last part of the epilogue? Or alternatively, since Gideon’s “Told you so.” later suggests she’s seen the Tower in the River that appears now for Harrow - did all of these chapters take place before the book even began? In either case it would mean the chapters being arranged around when Nona sleeps is just a misdirection.]

Chapter 30

-p438 Hm, eyes that have no pupil, just Cam’s grey-brown surrounded by Pal’s clear gray. Probably quite creepy to see in person. Like Dunefolk Lalafell eyes, but multicolored.

-p442 We’ve established that animals that aren’t humans don’t have souls… so good on Nona for thinking of Noodle. :3

Chapter 31

-p446 Ah yes, I’d almost forgotten - we still need to see what happened to the Ninth House! Did John renew it as he promised? I seriously doubt it, given how empty it seems. Did he kill everyone there instead, perhaps?

-p447 Damn, Gideon just straight up walks in and starts murdering everyone in her childhood home. Not even a word about it.

Like, as much as she hated Crux, she’d always had a sword and yet never did this… Gideon has changed way more than I thought.

Wait, no, Gideon didn’t kill Crux, the monsters got him. That makes a lot more sense.

-p448 Oohhh shoot. Did the Tomb opening unleash more of the the eldritch horrors that possessed Colum? Would it always do that…? Is that why Harrow’s parents killed themselves?

[Later me: Wrong here again too… but seriously, how and why did the devil-zombies arrive on the Ninth?

Is this supposed to be because there is something even more wrong with the River? Is this happening everywhere throughout the Nine Houses? The whole galaxy? But John told Gideon it was only on Antioch before this, and I don’t see why he would lie rather than protecting the Houses...]

-p451 Ah, so Gideon was off having devil-fighting adventures. Cool. Also looking forward to that inevitable fanfic!

Finally proving herself in combat, and no Harrow to gloat about it to from afar. No wonder she’s the saddest girl in the universe.

-I also find it interesting that Gideon ultimately did become a soldier - but the most she faced were devil-zombies rather than people.

This seems a bit of a parallel with Harrow, who has killed planets - but all of those were basically mercy kills before they were absorbed into the RBs, and they never spoke or acted intelligent.

So aside from killing Cyth in self-defense, neither of them have had to truly face killing an enemy combatant as a soldier would. Hot Sauce is probably more hardened than either of them.

(This also tracks with Gideon’s responses to Pyrrha’s commands - she still doesn’t have a soldier’s training either.)

-p452  Given that they just need to bite or hit you to spread, they devils are more like zombies, aren’t they? BOE needs to get their terms straight.

You know, the last few chapters of a 500 page book are a very weird time to suddenly introduce the incurable zombie plague happening entirely offscreen lmao

-p452 Oh hey more Ninth worldbuilding from an outside perspective! And more Ninth names. Also confirmation that Harrow’s aunts are both necromancers as well, I think.

-p455 Hello, the Ninth has kids now! So John really did keep his promise. Even if he didn’t like, actually give the Ninth any useful resources to care for and SUSTAIN that new population…

-p456 Aw, Aiglamene getting angry that Harrow allowed Gideon to die! She really did care about Gideon…

-p458 Huh. So the Ninth has been actively turning away the Empire’s spies? And possibly even killing them! Why? Who started this practice? The last spy was thirty years ago and it seems the practice was started long before this, so it couldn’t have been Harrow’s parents trying to cover up their massacre. 

-p459 Oh wow. Based on Crux’s reaction, seems like Harrow has completely dissociated from her body before this too. Enough that she’s said she wasn’t herself. Possession by the other children? By Alecto/Nona? Or just normal mental illness?

Also confirming (as if there was much doubt) that Harrow’s memories of her “infirmity” after opening the Tomb aren’t just due to her lobotomy-induced history rewrite.

-p460 Oof, Harrow’s body continues to take a beating. Honestly kind of doubting she’ll make it back alive - Gideon is back as a revenant herself, but would Harrow even bother to come if someone called her spirit?  She’s a little busy right now with finding God, apparently.

-p462 An interesting choice, to even create Nona as a character in the first place. She’s apparently not Alecto, and Alecto always had her full memories back with John.

My main question for when this is all over will be: what was the point of Nona’s existence? (As cruel as that is to ask?)  Why not cut her out and just rearrange the starting pieces differently, as many fanfics make work?

Chapter 32

-And now we have the chapter image of the tomb finally opened. Ominous.

-p464 Ianthe also going to the Ninth to stop them - I’ve seen that in fanfic too. I’d say a weird thing to introduce at the end of the book, but I’m guessing this will cliffhanger into Alecto the Ninth.

-p466 Damn, what on earth happened between Ianthe and Gideon that they end up wearing friendship bracelets and having a secret handshake?  XDDD

[Later me: I originally thought that it had to be Ianthe who suggested the bracelets. But no, given the callback to GtN, it was almost certainly Gideon! I still maintain that the secret handshake seems like more of an Ianthe thing, though. I’m dying to know the circumstances regardless.]

-p467 I’m surprised that Ianthe would be willing to let Harrow die here! I guess her imperial ambitions do matter more to her in the end. Marrying Harrow may be a goal, but a secondary one in her eyes.

-p468 Wow. Was not ever expecting Gideon to be okay with becoming John’s cavalier of all people!

>This in particular feels... hm. It’s like Cam and the rest showing up in HtN. A little too much offscreen character development to not seem weird.

I wonder if there will be a short story filling in the blanks?

-p472 Implying that Harrow did, in fact, kiss the Body when she entered the Tomb. Sheesh, Harrow! 

Also, she apparently left most of the traps disabled! Wow, that’s a lot more careless than I ever would have thought of her. She didn’t even fix them when she left for Canaan?

-p473 Yeah, that’s exactly how I would have thought Gideon killing Crux would go. “Why didn’t it feel good?”

One of the major themes of this books is about revenge being unfulfilling/not worth it, it seems.

-I once had a theory that opening the Tomb required at minimum a baby death’s worth of thanergy - meaning that Harrow was also a “key” in a way - but so much for that. Turns out it only took the thanergy of one old man to spoof the cell ward.

-p474 Ah. So Harrow took Gideon’s sword with her into the Tomb. Wonder what Wake thought of that! Is she even still around? Pyrrha shot the body she was possessing, but the sword went rather noticeably un-exorcized.

-p474 I guess the “Anastasia is in the Tomb” theories get half-credit? 

Epilogue

-p475 This certainly is a style to do the dramatic confrontation in. The Ye Olde English speech is fun for this one section, but I really hope this isn’t how Alecto normally narrates… it seems like it could get irritating to read very quickly.

-p475 And here, of all places, we have an overt meme. Then Perish.

-p476 Oh shoot. I’d wondered if it was Gideon or Harrow who was opposing Ianthe, and it was actually Harrow!

Harrow using profanity always catches me just a little off-guard whenever it happens.

-p476 Hey Harrow finally gets a kiss from the Body!

Oh. As I expected, Harrow fully expected the Body would kill her as soon as it woke up, but she longed for it regardless.  

(I had a WIP post of how Harrow doesn’t seem to want a living relationship with the Body - her attraction to it seems at least in part a kind of displacement of her suicidal urges. She cost too much to die, but if the Body wakes up and kills her, well, she’s fulfilled her duty, there’s nothing left for her to guard, she can die in peace.)

-p477 Heh, of course Gideon isn’t pleased. Although the idea of true Alecto as Harrow’s cavalier due to a vow to Anastasia sure is fascinating. 

If Alecto is Harrow’s cav that frees up Gideon to be her wife, yes? :P

Or going the opposite direction - if Gideon becomes John’s cavalier, and Alecto becomes Harrow’s cavalier… they might end up dueling each other again, this time with the fate of the universe at stake. And wouldn’t that be a hellish bookend for the series!

Enemies to friends to enemies to… (repeat ad infinitum)

-Huh. And we end on one heck of a cliffhanger with Alecto waking John. But with Alecto already having reached John, what is even the rest of the story? The Harrowing of Hell, presumably? Fixing the River and finding all those missing souls?

Concluding Thoughts >>

[harrysroguecurl]

tag game

rules: tag 10 mutuals who you’d like to get to know better!

i was tagged by @prttybitchin and i want to thank her because I had an old tumblr and I never had any genuine followers that interacted with me in any way so I love you for that <3

name: (i don’t really want to disclose because i don’t want anyone that knows me to find this and i kinda wanna be anonymous, im also still trying to decide if i want to put a nickname in my bio) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ dm me with advice - should i use a cute fake nickname semi-related to my name or say fuck it who cares

star sign: gemini (i don’t know much about astrology but i think it’s kinda interesting, dm me if you know stuff)

height: 5’2

put your itunes (or spotify) on shuffle. what are the first 4 songs that pop up?

Visions of Gideon - Sufjan Stevens (cmbyn soundtrack— this song makes me SOB)

Kiwi - Harry Styles (whatta bop)

Youth - Troye Sivan

Roaring 20s - Panic! At the Disco

ever had a song or poem written about you?

no (FUN FACT: ive never actually dated anyone besides when i was in kindergarten)

when was the last time you played guitar?

i had a pink guitar when i was little and i really wanted to learn but i never ended up doing it but i could play a bangin hot cross buns

who is your celebrity crush?

harry styles is my main, obvi, but there are more. im just too indecisive to pick ones to list

what’s a sound you hate & a sound you love?

i hate the sound that a pan makes when you move it on the stove (like a really high pitched screeching sound or like metal scraping on metal) and i love the sound of rain

do you believe in ghosts?

not really but sometimes i believe ghost stories

how about aliens?

YES! if in the vast expanse of space earth manages to have life then another planet can too

do you drive?

yes

what was the last book you read?

im currently reading Undeniable by Bill Nye and i just recently reread Call Me By Your Name

do you like the smell of gasoline?

HELL NO I DONT FUCK WITH FOSSIL FUELS

what’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

ive never had a really bad injury but im pretty sure i broke my pinky toe when i stubbed it really hard once. it was purple and it cracked and i cried

do you have any obsessions right now?

again, harry styles. im also still pretty obsessed with call me by your name. im also pretty obsessed with flowers right now. ive always loved them but i find myself particularly obsessed over them nowadays

do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

i tend to not forget if someone said something that i disagree with strongly. i don’t know if that really counts as a grudge.

in a relationship?

no :( i kinda wanna be but ive never met anyone that is what i want

im going to tag: @colaharry @treat-ppl-with-kindness @real-work-of-art @haesthete @haaarry @rumandstyles @virginharrie @words-by-han @harryforvogue @harrysaidkissy

[vierranliveshere]

Okay so I have Thoughts about this.

1. There are definitely humans out there who are not from the Nine Houses, including most of BOE, and the people in the city in the htn epilogue.

2. After Harrow confesses to being 200 dead children, John gives her some very weird answers about BOE:

“Someone they left to die,” said God wearily. “How sharper than the serpent’s tooth, et cetera … Harrow, if you bother to remember anything from my ramblings, please remember this: once you turn your back on something, you have no more right to act as though you own it.”

This strongly implies that there had been some kind of exodus from Earth before the apocalypse, and that John has been harboring resentment about that for the last ten thousand years.

My take on John is that he is an asshole and a liar but he wants to believe he is a good person. He says a lot about his reasons and his feelings, and they really don't justify his actions but he very much wants to believe they do. (Very much like Cytherea... huh, it's almost like these books are full of parallels and resonances...) I think John is being emotionally honest here, that he feels his planet was abandoned and wronged by the very people who are now calling him an abomination.

3. If flipping planets is causing the Nine Houses' way of life to be unsustainable, causing them to be forced into endless expansion of empire, wouldn't it be easier/better just to, like, conquer some planets without flipping them and use them for agriculture/resource extraction/etc? Or is there actual genetic influx from the inhabitants of the conquered worlds? Is the actual role of the Cohort to maintain a viable level of genetic diversity in the Nine Houses by adding more people to their civilization? We don't see evidence of this directly in text, (e.g. Gideon or her magazines fantasizing about hot war brides, which seems like it would be very on-brand) but that doesn't mean it's not a thing.

Which raises interesting questions about interfertility of necromantic and non-necromantic humanity. When Harrow is thinking about flipping planets, she uses the phrasing "thanergy mutant." I would really like to know more about what that means on a genetic level.

HOWEVER

4. I still think the Endless War Is Necessary to Sustain Our Way of Life thing is propaganda. There has to be a better way of achieving sustainability. What we see, from John's resentment of the humans that left is that he doesn't want to find that solution. There are at least two quotes from Augustine about the subject:

But don’t forget that he’s spent the last ten thousand years on a perpetual search-and-destroy mission out of, as far as I can tell, purely symbolic retribution. John is never as sentimental as you think.

And Augustine said: “Stop your mission, John. Give up on the thing I know you’ve been looking for since the very beginning. Stop expanding. Stop assembling this bewildering cartography, this invasion force. I’ve puzzled over it for five thousand years, and I don’t believe I truly understand it now. But let it go. Let them go. Nobody has to be punished anymore for what happened to humanity.”

I think Augustine is right here. I think the Cohort is out there conquering planets because John told them they had to, and maybe even convinced himself. But it was never necessary, it never even really made sense, it is 100% just John wanting the people who abandoned him (and his friends, John replies to Augustine's second quote above with that bit about "the man you were") to suffer, unto the 100th generation.

So the last few days I’ve been increasingly obsessed with the cohort: specifically, how little we know about it.

We have a fair idea of the military structure. We also have the general impression that whatever this war is, it has been Ongoing.

Given the overwhelming themes of Catholicism in this series, the Cohort war strikes me as deeply referential of the Crusades. But who are they fighting? BOE was only a recent addition to the struggle, per Mercy. What is their plan of expansion?? What is the point?

I’m hoping we get more in ATN but- this is the smartest fandom I know. One of you knowledgeable people can surely pull something more from this line of thought.

[jeichanhaka]

If Any Would Avenge: Three

Chapter 01|| Chapter 02|| Chapter 03|| Chapter 04|| Chaper 05|| Chapter 06|| Chapter 07|| Chapter 08|| Chapter 09|| Chapter 10|| Chapters 11+||

Chapter Three: Labor

"You need to wait in the hall."

"I'm not bloody leaving my wife!" Killian growled at Dr. Whale, standing beside Emma and holding her hand - though it was more allowing her to squeeze his hand until he lost feeling than him holding hers.

Dr. Whale grimaced, about to repeat his order but then just shook his head - it was obvious that Killian wasn't going to listen, and every second spent trying to make the pirate leave was detrimental to his patient.

"Fine." The doctor muttered, then proceeded to give orders to the nurses. His attention focused firmly on mother and unborn child, hoping to halt the preterm labor. Despite this non-magic realm's advanced medicines, 24 weeks was still much too early in a pregnancy to give birth. And Emma was barely halfway through her 24th week.

“It’ll be all right, luv.” Killian whispered to his wife, though whether she heard or appreciated it was obscured by her cursing out in pain. He barely felt his fingers, Emma’s hand was so strongly vised around his. Sucking in a breath, his own heart racing, he glanced around him at the nurses and whatnots hurrying about, attaching things to Emma. He didn’t understand the purpose for half of them, having lived most of his life in a realm where having a midwife was the epitome of care received by pregnant women. All he cared about was if these monitors and tubes and whatnot would help Emma and their unborn daughter. “...doctor, what the bloody hell is taking so long to fix this?!”

Dr. Whale ignored Killian, instead focusing on the read out on the monitors and the physical condition of his patient. He did glance at Killian when the pirate repeated his question louder and more vehemently. “....If you want to stay in here, you need to shut up and let me do my job.”

Killian scowled, tempted to hit the other man, but refrained. Though he was stressed and his temper high after Gold’s attack, Killian knew better than to strike out at those helping his wife. Best case scenario would be he’d be booted from the room, worst case it would hurt Emma or their child’s chances.

“Good. Now….” Dr. Whale nodded after Killian settled down, and then turned back to the monitors. Reading the monitors, his eyes filled with alarm - though Emma’s was fine, all things considered, the baby’s wasn’t. It was weaker than it should’ve been and growing weaker.

X

The room was heavily shadowed and silent, the only movement in it was Gold setting Belle down on the bed. His brown eyes softened gazing on her slumbering face - the product of a sedative-sleeping draught mix that he’d given her shortly after returning home. He sighed.

“...I don’t deserve you.” He mumbled and pushed a few stray strands of Belle’s hair from her face. “Even though Gideon’s….you still choose not to seek revenge.” He swallowed, stifling the urge to wake up his wife and hold her, to mourn their son together. Simply mourning a loss wasn’t his schtick. “I promised not to hurt Killian or his family further, and I intend to keep that promise.”

His lips twitched, spreading into a thin smirk. Further. It was a pretty useful word: further. He wouldn’t hurt them further. Meaning he wouldn’t harm them any more than he’d already done. It was a promise that stopped him attacking them worse, while also negating any argument that he should reverse what he’d set in motion.

‘Emma should be giving birth soon.’ He glanced at his hand, stretching out his fingers as he thought of the magic he cast. Just moments before Regina had butted in, he’d managed to cast a labor inducing spell. It was one he’d never thought he’d cast - unlike an aging potion, it didn’t speed up a pregnancy to trigger labor. It simply induced it.

It was also irreversible.

‘We’ll see if fate is still on the savior’s side now or….’ Gold’s eyes darkened as he mulled over the possible outcomes. Either the baby would survive or it wouldn’t - and he’d expected the latter to be more likely.

Glancing down at his wife sleeping peacefully, his darkened eyes softened once more. Gold continued his silent watch over Belle, prolonging the moment before he’d have to think about reality again. Before he’d have to face the fact that he’d lost another son - that he’d failed to protect his second son same as the first.

“Gold?!” The loud swish of his front door opening and a strident voice calling out drew his attention. Belle’s father, Maurice, didn’t even bother closing the door or waiting for an answer, before calling out again. “I got your message. What’s happened?!”

Gold cringed at his father-in-law’s voice, not because it was unexpected - he had invited the other man over, actually more like demanded it in a message he sent just before Belle fell asleep. Rather, he felt annoyed by how loud Maurice was, and worried that Belle would wake up from the noise - she was asleep from a magic-enhanced sedative, not a sleeping curse. Unlike a pure magic spell, noise or the like could awaken her and he was loathed to let anything disturb her rest.

Scowling, Gold entered the hall and shut the bedroom door just as Maurice ascended the stairs. Noticing him, the younger man stopped and studied him, trying to gauge things. Maurice’s whole body tensed. “Gold, you sent a message saying something happened and I should come over. What happened? Is Belle okay?”

Gold nodded and gestured towards the room he’d left. “She’s sleeping.”

Maurice sighed in relief. “Thank god. When I saw I got a message from you saying to come over, I thought….” He fell silent, considering his words and the suspicion gnawing at him. The animosity between him and Gold was considerable, and Gold would never contact him except maybe for a family emergency. Maurice stomach twisted: if Belle wasn’t who was hurt…. “Where’s Gideon? Did something hap….” Maurice didn’t need to finish his question, reading the answer on Gold’s face. He drew in a breath, his heart thumping. “He’s just hurt right? He’s….”

Gold tensed and shook his head, while holding back his tears. The man before him may be Belle’s father and his father-in-law, but he’d never considered Maurice family exactly. And the only ones he’d ever share his pain with were family. “...Gideon’s de...dea...d.”

“No. No.” Maurice gasped and shook his head, his face drained of color. He stumbled a bit, his legs going weak though he managed to prop himself up using the wall. “How...how did Belle take it? Does she know? Or….”

“She knows. I...gave her a sedative so she could get some sleep.” Gold admitted, expecting the other man to complain about him drugging Belle. He didn’t expect Maurice to simply nod, accepting the admission calmly.

“That...that’s kind.” Maurice took in a deep breath, struggling with the same thing Gold did - not breaking down. Though whether from being a king and needing to appear strong, or because he didn’t want to break down in front of Gold, was unclear. Swallowing back a sob itching his throat, Maurice brought a shaking hand to his mouth. He stood like that a few moments, taking in deep, steadying breaths and thinking.

“I called you here because,” Gold broke the silence, not comfortable watching the other man grieve. “I don’t want to leave Belle alone while I….” He coughed, his voice cracking as he thought about what needed to be done. Not revenge, but rather arrangements for the funeral….

“Gold?!” Maurice exclaimed as Gold stumbled and nearly dropped to his knees.

“...I’m fine!” Gold growled when his father-in-law offered him help, and swatted Maurice’s hand away. The funeral. His insides twisted, the sensation like a hot poker searing his flesh and boring deeper and deeper into his gut. The thought of burying another son, and one so young…. He couldn’t endure it.

“You’re not fine, Gold.” Maurice firmly rebuked his son-in-law. “No father would be. No parent who loves their child would be.” He scowled when Gold repeated that he was fine, but with more anguish in his voice than anger.

“I need t...to make the arrange...arrangements for….Gideon’s funer…..” Replied Gold, fumbling over some of the words. Taking a deep breath he pulled himself up using the wall and a side table. He glowered when Maurice said something about not having to deal with things alone. “I’m not going to subject Belle to such horrible decisions of which headstone or which coff….” Gold’s voice cracked. “She shouldn't need to make such decisions.”

“Neither should you.” Maurice countered, shaking his head. His expression softer than it had ever been when dealing with Gold, who he’d considered a beast for taking his daughter. “I’m here. I’ll help with the arrangements, with everything.”

Gold leered at the other man, unconvinced of the offer. Belle’s father had never liked him, had never trusted him, and since Maurice often searched for ways to force Gold out of Belle’s life, it was a mutual animosity. The two men stared at each other for a few moments, the hall grown silent.

“....I just need you to watch over Belle.”

“Gold, you….” Maurice shook his head, recognizing the stubbornness and distrust mixed together with grief in the other’s eyes. It was the most vulnerable and most guarded he’d ever seen his son-in-law. The most human he’d ever seen the other be. It drove home just how real the situation was - until that second he’d fathomed that what Gold said was a trick. The thought of his grandson being dead was too bizarre, too surreal to accept. And if Gold wasn’t standing before him, so distraught, Maurice wouldn’t have believed it. “...how did it happen? Gideon was healthy and full of life when Belle brought him over the other day. What happened?” His eyes narrowed when Gold shook his head, but said nothing. “It wasn’t something...some scheme or magic backfiring, was it? Because if it was….”

“Of course not! You think I would do anything to risk my son’s life?!” Gold hollered, his brown eyes livid. “It was that damn pirate! Him and his wife! We trusted them to babysit Gideon, just for the day. Yet, Hook gets drunk and decides it’s a good idea to drive with my son in the car.” Gold’s scowl darkened, his murderous rage from earlier reigniting with each word he spoke. “Emma, who I thought would be the one actually watching Gideon, was off doing who knows what, and couldn’t get there in time to heal Gideon after her bastard husband crashed….” The image of his son’s broken body flashed in Gold’s thoughts and he slammed his fist down on the decorative table. It contained enough force to knock over the vase laid atop it. Glowering at it, Gold slammed his fist down again, shattering the pottery. And then again, and again. Until the shards were dust.

Maurice simply watched, his lips pursed and eyes livid.

“I want to break every bone in that bastard’s body, crush him into dust.” Growled Gold, picking up the remains of the vase and allowing them to slide from his hand. The sensation of the dust in his hand was similar to that of the remains of a crushed heart sliding from his palm.

“What’s stopping you?” Maurice asked crisply, his tone earning him a raised eyebrow and curious glance from Gold.

“I promised Belle not to hurt them further.”

“Ah. Hm….” Maurice nodded, ruminating. He glanced at the bedroom door where his daughter slept, then at the broken vase, before shifting to his son-in-law. Next, he turned around and started descending the stairs. Gold stopped him before he made it to steps down.

“Wait, you need to stay here and watch Belle. I….”

“No. You need to stay here while I go beat the shit out of a certain pirate.” Maurice replied, pulling his arm free from a surprised Gold’s grip. He stared up at the older man’s curious brown eyes. “We may not see eye to eye on many things, Mr. Gold, but one thing I’m sure we can agree on, is no one gets away with hurting family. An accident would be one thing, but if Hook was drunk then that’s entirely different.”

With that, Maurice turned and continued down the stairs, while Gold just stared after him.