#gideon nav said this

[thechekhov]

ah, childhood.

[sprainedankle15]

to everybody that told me i was gonna "have so much fun reading htn"- why the fuck did i just read about god having an orgy? why did the light bounce off the book into my cornea and allow my occipital lobe to convert what i just read into a mental image? god almighty just got bent the fuck over by his two saints undying. i'm sick of you all. you will feel my wrath

[mayasaura]

Was thinking about this line because Harrow what the actual fuck are you talking about, and I realised something.

Not only does Harrow really for real not know that Gideon loves her—in the bullshit context of their lives, this is a reasonable misunderstanding for her to have.

What has Harrow known Gideon's life goals to be since they were children? Hint: There are at least two Harrow is fully aware of.

The first is to be wanted. As much as Gideon hates and wants to escape the Ninth, she also paradoxically craves their acceptance. They're the only community she's ever known. Harrow plays on that desire from the very beginning, mostly by kind of .... well, okay, by negging her about it. Ironically appealing to her sense of loyalty and duty to her house when they both know Gideon never even had that bridge to burn. That kind of thing.

Whether or not she's right, Harrow sincerely believes that acceptance to still be important to Gideon. First flower of my house, the greatest cavalier we have ever produced. You are our triumph. The best of all of us. When Harrow has only seconds left to make amends, she not only banks hard into praising Gideon, she frames it to unambiguously offer Gideon the acceptance she's always been conspicuously denied. Assuring her of her value not just as a person or as a cavalier, but as one of their house, one of their people.

The second thing Harrow knows is that Gideon wants to join the Cohort. Easy, everybody knows that. She's only been telling everyone with ears (and then some) since she was eight years old. It's the bait Harrow dangled to entice her into this mess. She wants to be a hero, to do great deeds like in the comic books. She wants to be a soldier.

Against the backdrop of all that context, Gideon's dying declaration "for the Ninth" starts to sound a hell of a lot more like "for Queen and country." Especially when you remember that Harrow is still the sovereign ruler of the Ninth. From Harrow's vantage point, Gideon could easily be playing the heroic underdog in a war movie. The soldier no one believed in until she threw herself on a grenade to save her squad. The knight errant who proved her chivalry by giving her life in service to her king.

From that perspective, Harrow's line to Ortus makes sense. She's following through on her promise of acceptance, defending Gideon's loyalty to the first Ninth face she sees. She's playing out Gideon's war hero fantasy, where Gideon's act of heroism proved them all wrong about her. In which case Ortus's response, "You are the most worthy heroes the Ninth House could muster. I truly believe that," flows very naturally as a reply. He understands what Harrow is trying to say, and affirms it.

It's not a hero's burial in the Anastasian, but it's the closest thing Harrow has the power to give her. And it's a fucking reasonable interpretation of Gideon's actions that doesn't touch on her feelings for Harrow at all. Fuck me.

[cryptidotter]

Ianthe said "I saw you and your gf from across the bar and the vibes were truly cursed, please do hit me up for a throuple someday"

[harrowedsoup]

I was going to make a post about how sad it was that Harrow didn’t get to see Gideon utterly fail at eating a salad but then I realized that she might not know how to eat a salad either

[carcinogenet1cist]

The thing that facinates me is that Palamedes and Camilla’s care for Harrow started with Gideon. Gideon had the relationship with them; before getting to know Harrow, Palamedes even said that talking to her was like talking to a Ninth house stereotype. Also before even leaving the Ninth House, Harrow perceived Palamedes and Camilla as a threat. But Gideon had a different experience. Palamedes and Camilla helped Gideon find Harrow when she was passed out; then with Harrow’s permission Gideon stood up for Sixth to the Third house; Gideon ran to them when she was sure Harrow had murdered someone; Gideon went to go apologize to Palamedes when she realized she’d broken the bro code over Dulcinea; it was Gideon that Palamedes told to tell Camilla his final words; and Gideon worked so hard to keep Camilla out of harms way when she was injured by Cytherea and Harrow had passed out. It was Gideon that warmed Harrow to them; Nona the Ninth happened the way it did because Gideon was willing to trust.

[unreachedgalaxy]

ohhhhh I just realized the point of the fucking coffee shop AU. like, there's many points to the coffee shop AU. but...harrow in the coffee shop AU proves definitively that she would fall for gideon in any life, regardless of their relationship. no matter the circumstance - harrow would love gideon if she were nobody, if she was nothing more than a cute barista with a flirty smile. gideon, on the other hand, is quite clearly under the impression that harrow only loves her because she is her cavalier. she places being harrow's cavalier as evidence of her importance to harrow. as long as harrow accepts her as her cavalier, then she can never be nothing to harrow, because one flesh, one end.

even as kiriona, she's just waiting for the day she can swear to be harrow's cavalier again (get in line, thou big slut!). but harrow doesn't care if gideon is her cavalier at all - she loves gideon, just gideon.

[lesbianhotdish]

sitting in chair backwards, youth pastor voice Hey, I get it, sometimes you love someone so much you feel like you could die. But you know who else died for love? That’s right, Gideon Nav

[harrowharksboner]

[highimhope]

All my faves are queer muscle girls with a shitload of PTSD

And I LOVE THEM all SO MUCH

[dorkfruit]

making myself late 2 work by drawing griddle harked ...

[bb-enablefreebuild]

I know Wake is descended from people who lived in NZ or at least chose NZ as the country to honor from Earth, but this woman’s Irish energy is off the charts no its not about the hair I’ll kill you if you think it’s that do you understand what I mean. She is running the Space IRA against the Imperial House of Dominicus (“United” Kingdom) Also Catholicism references. Blood of Eden.

Conclusion: Wake is Irish

[sprainedankle15]

i love that upon being verbally abused by a ginger, arrogant ass corpse- nona immediately was like "damn this dyke is SAD"

[mayasaura]

one problem with a theatrical adaption of tlt is htn, where the reveal that Gideon lives on works because of the change of second person to first.

the only way i can think of it working is that the actor playing gideon works backstage, like the lights system (but is hidden from the audience aside from subtle hints)

the biggest hint is when when wake breaches pal's river bubble she 'breaks' the lighting system and the stage goes dark. harrow is ushered into the wings by pal so she doesn't see anything, but the lights flick back on just before the curtains drop for a scene change, and pal looks directly up at the light box in surprise and smiles. if the audience is quick to turn around they can see a flash of a black robe.

Oh boy my friend, have you come to the right place!!

So, fun fact about ninja. Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this. The image of a ninja covered head to toe in black, with a hood and mask, comes from Kabuki theatre. It was originally a stagehand uniform. Like stagehands in modern theatre, stagehands in Kabuki would wear all black to signify that they were not really there, and whatever effect they were causing (carrying a prop, creating a breeze, ect.) was to be taken as happening on its own. Basic stagehand stuff, a lot of productions in many styles around the world do it, especially if they don't have fancy rigging systems.

Someone (I don't remember who now, or in what play) had the idea to dress the ninja in a production up as a stagehand. In the convention of the theatre, this made them invisible. The audience was already so used to ignoring stagehands, they didn't know any more than the characters that the ninja was present, despite the actor being clearly visible on stage. Which meant when the ninja struck, it was as if out of nowhere. I can only imagine the uproar in the theatre the first time it happened. It worked so well as to become commonplace, and the rest is history. The popular image of a ninja is still a kabuki stagehand.

So, back to the stage play of Harrow the Ninth. I think you've hit almost exactly on how to incorporate the Gideon twist into a theatrical production. But not as a lighting tech. Gideon is a stage hand. Maybe there would be more than one stagehand, maybe she would be the only one, but she would operate in full view of the audience, literally setting the scenes. I think it works best if she's the only one, but if the production needs more, she should subtly stand out in some way. As the play went on, we would notice that this one stage hand... increasingly interacts with Harrow, though Harrow never acknowledges it. At first it might look like she's playing Harrow's necromancy, because that would be the main special effect she would need to help with. When Harrow is unconscious at the end of a scene, it's always the same stagehand carrying her out. But we all know she's not really there. Until Palamedes acknowledges her. Turns to look right at her, and speaks to her. I can see the scene clearly. He would look at her, stunned, until Gideon finally took off her mask. The line "Kill us twice, shame on God," would be addressed to Gideon, and then he would turn back to Harrow, kiss her on the forehead, and tell her to go. Gideon, always out of Harrow's line of sight, would guide Harrow away while Harrow looked back at Palamedes.

[y-yyak]

you looked like you wanted to be kissed, that’s all

[camplease]

almost didn’t add pyrrha and offered to make a follow up poll to pit the winner against her because i already knew it was gonna be a pyrrha sweep. but you know what maybe i’m wrong let’s see

also some of these feel like obviously wrong answers to me but my curiosity usually wins out over reason