#maybe Harrow can learn live for Gideon

[cutetanuki-chan]

ever since I had a thought of them also putting Gideon in the tomb at the end, I have known no peace

not the same one on the ninth, just in similar stasis as Alecto and willingly, don't know why maybe some shenanigans so the sun won't collapsed

and not for good, that would be too unfair for her, but Harrow is a lyctor, she can wait for a hundred of years

[absolutedestinyapocalypsse]

i love how as you read more into tlt, the ninth house seems more and more normal. Like if i'm at an immoral evil government competition, and i use human fat as soap and animate skeletons to do menial labor, i'm gonna LOSE if my competition is the third house, represented by ianthe "who HASN'T eaten human flesh and fucked a corpse" tridentarius. My weird skeleton thing seems normal, suddenly. Well-adjusted, even. It's recycling. They're using resources in a sustainable way. Normal and regular and productive for a post-climate change apocalypse universe.

People go on and on about how Muir drops you into gtn hearing from the person who knows the least about whats happening, and does not hand hold the reader through the crazy shit that occurs, and that's all true. It truly is a crazy writing decision to make your first pov character come from the universe's equivalent of amish fundamentalists. But the reader is actually done a huge favor being dropped into the ninth house first, because we already understand that space is cold and what catholic nuns are, and what goths look like, and what lesbians are. Very little time is wasted in the first chunk of gtn ripping hair out of your head wondering what the fuck is going on, because for all of its strangeness, the ninth house is already the most familiar thing we're gonna get.

Because THEN we learn that this whole universe's medieval chivalry system is designed to groom people from CHILDREN to not only be exploited and used as human batteries for necromancers, but to LIKE it. to wax poetic about it. to confuse it for love, to write fucking academic papers about it! Then we learn about planet flipping, an act so horrific and violent it turns the planet's soul into a massive vengeful monster capable of killing GOD. Like what do you MEAN the animals "change"? Is this why noodle has six legs? I would MUCH prefer to wear skeleton makeup and repent forever if the alternative was to witness my family dog grow TWO EXTRA LIMBS because the planet he lived on fucking died. Suddenly, living in the asscrack of a planet where no light gets in seems like a sweet deal when the whole solar system is lit by a sun that MAKES YOU GO CRAZY. The ninth house's WORST sin, killing 200 babies to make Harrow, a waste of resources and an act so terrible it haunts Harrow for the entire span of her life, is like a BLIP compared to the death count Jod's empire. God even hears about it and he's like, no big deal! The cohort probably kills that amount of people in a DAY.

And its ALSO tragic because you realize that all of this trauma and abuse that Gideon goes through is not really because of the ninth house at all. It's really just an individual skill issue that she wasn't treated with compassion. Nobody hated her because she's jesus or a bomb, nobody even KNOWS she's a bomb. It's just Priamhark and Pelleamena being deeply guilty and scared people that motivates her treatment, and absolutely nothing else.

They did something bad, and they know it, and Gideon survived it, and they can't kill her to cover it up, and that's IT. They killed themselves for pride, because they were afraid of the consequences of their actions (both the baby killing and Harrow opening the tomb) coming back to bite them. You can argue this is the catholicism of it all, and I wouldn't say you're wrong, but compared to the cavalier system, where exploitation is in the very lining of the house's institutions, the ninth house is really removed from the space empire's blood factory. This is compared to the fourth house where they have tons of children to be CANNON FODDER to join the cohort at fucking 14, compared to the eight house uncle nephew fuckery, even the fifth house which actually does seems nice to live on but also seems to have the fourth house in some sort of fucked up political bear hug??? (maybe the fourth house has so many kids in order to fight the fifth's battles? which is EXACTLY what jod's whole empire is about; politely stirring your tea and acting nice while you destroy everything) compared to ALL OF THAT, the cruelty that Gideon faces is really more a bug of the ninth's system than a feature.

There's nothing baked into the culture and everyday life of the ninth house that necessitated that cruelty; in fact, for such a pragmatic and resource-scarce place, it's WEIRD that a strong able-bodied young person was treated like a waste of space and resources. It could just have easily not happened, if Harrow's parents had been different people. Maybe they were products of their environment, but so was Harrow, and she values Gideon's life SO MUCH that she'd literally rather carve out parts of her own brain than exploit her. Gideon grows up knowing really NOTHING about cavaliers, so remote from the horrors of the empire that she develops an idea of what the cohort is from porn magazines. And in a lot of ways, that upbringing was desolate and terrible, and in a lot of other ways it literally DID NOT HAVE TO BE.

Gideon's MAIN THING is that she wants to be useful, to be needed, to be loved and it SUCKS that she couldn't even get it in the one place where she was actually an invaluable resource, where the death empire had the weakest reach. Gideon can't even blame her lack of love on the fucked up chivalry system like everyone else can because it JUST WASNT REALLY RELEVENT!?!?! This is like if i rolled up to the trauma competition and everyone else was raised in a nuclear warzone by wolves or something and i grew up in like, the suburbs and was raised by teachers and i somehow STILL WON. truly what the fuck guys.

[starberry-cupcake]

SURPRISE BONUS POST!!!

I finished my recaps last time, but I wanted to pop back in once in a while, because I need to keep you on your toes, if you're still there *crickets* you're gonna have to put up with me on these tags once in a while.

Also, I've been looking at posts now, which is wild!! After so much time blocking them!!! Link me to your favorite fanart of coronabeer as a fellow fat girlie because I need more of that!! Or cool camilla stuff!!

For this bonus, @lady-harrowhark shared with me this ask game by @puffywiz and I thought I'd do it without waiting for anyone to ask me stuff, because nobody ever does and also I do what I want in this sacred space. If any of you want to do it and link me to your answers, please do!

⚔️ Fav Gt9 quote?

I think that "One flesh, one end, bitch" lives rent free in my head. I wrote it in the blurb I made for this gift I sculpted.

It encompasses Gideon to me, but also a turning point for her, and a moment in which she makes that vow her own, because she means it when she says it and she'll mean it until the end. It's a declaration, in the most Gideon way possible, and I really like it.

💀 Fav Ht9 quote?

I think I have two that I like from Harrow.

There's: "Nonagesimus, you hating me always meant more than anyone else in this hot and stupid universe loving me. At least I'd had your full attention" which was a punch to the gut and a half. I mean, damn.

But there's also a Crux quote, believe it or not: “you saw what you saw, Lady, and the only thing you control now is your reaction thereto” which is relatable af to me. I mean, more observe than control, but still. It's hard to do it some days, but we do what we can and continue on. Crux is an asshole but also a better support system than most have.

🐕 Fave Nt9 quote?

Probably "Life is too short and love is too long." Especially in the context of camolive.

They have a wonderful qpr dynamic, from where I'm standing, and I thrive on qprs that show the depth love can have, also when it's not completely romantic and/or sexual. I think it's so powerful that they get to find the balance nobody else has found in this kind of lyctor-ish situation, because of a love and trust so powerful they're able to meet in the middle and discover the path to it together, rather than trust what has been told by others blindly. There aren't tricks, backstabbing, lies, sacrifices at the expense of oneself...there's understanding and a love so deep that it doesn't need to be traditionally labeled. And I think that quote shows all of that and it's the cornerstone of their new identity together.

🏰 Fav House aesthetic?

You all know I'm a Sixth House girlie through and through. If I were to choose a House, I'd choose Sixth any day. I think my skills would be appreciated there.

Also, didn't realize at the time, but maybe this post I made about the esoteric book collection I tracked down can also be included in my Sixth House application.

Working silently by myself while having to sort things and find them their proper spot, especially archival stuff, most especially academic entries where I can learn new things, sounds like a dream job to me. It's this or the Magnus Archives.

👯 Which twin is worse and why?

THIS IS THE HARDEST QUESTION OUT OF ALL

On the one hand, from the start, I was more supportive of yandere twin, because she was ostracized and mistreated and had to live under the shadow of a sister who was unwilling to admit she wasn't the one doing necromancy. She was also a bit kooky and I liked that.

But then she became a lyctor and was pretty insufferable, especially next to Augustine, who is also insufferable. I'm not gonna judge the murder of Chad or the lyctorhood of it all, to each their own, but there are so many horny jokes I can take before I snap.

Also, I lost it at her when she helped dr reverend emperor john when we could have gotten him killed. I got very upset at that and some people didn't like that in the recap because she's their blorbina and I understand that.

Now, she's combining her personality with freakin' Chad, of all people, which sounds like a nightmare.

coronabeer twin (formerly known as regina george twin) I didn't like initially because she was too señorita perfecta and didn't admit to her sister being the one doing the stuff, which I don't respect as a sister myself

I also think she got way too fast on the BOE train and went on with that without really thinking of what that would mean to her sister, the people of the Houses, Camilla and Judith. I think she was less into it because of what they were fighting for and more because they would let her fight, which is what she wanted to do in the first place.

I can't judge her for that, though, she's finding her footing with who she really wants to be, regardless of the propaganda from either side, and also I love her relationship with Judith, which makes me like them a bit more as a combo than individually.

If she's really truly (as nona would say) also a fellow fat girlie, then I do have to support my people.

So, idk. I think initially I thought coronabeer was worse but now I think yandere twin is worse, but it's neck and neck.

✍️ Of the supporting characters, who's POV would you be most interested in reading?

I think Abby Pent. I really grew to like her a lot in the gideon-less au of Harrowcita and I would love to learn more about her life before Canaan. It seems, for what has been said, that her being married to her cav was not a usual situation, kind of unorthodox even, and she seemed like a very smart and determined woman who knew what she was about and wasn't afraid to create her own path.

She seemed like a sort of Deanna Troi and you know I love love love me some Deanna Troi. I'd love to hear more about Abby's past and how she got where she did before things went down at Canaan.

🔬 Who is your fav lyctor and why?

Ugh, Lyctors.

Out of the og lyctors, I think I've said my favorite was Cassiopeia, because she had a ceramics collection and then it was also revealed that she was a good cook, so we can vibe. The fact that she created the Sixth House is unrelated and I found that out after, I promise I'm not biased.

✂️ What is the best hair length on Harrow?

I like the short bob situation she had at the start. The buzz cut is also ok. Long hair is a no. A no-na

*gets shot*

💙 Did any parts of the books make you cry? If so, which ones?

No, but it's not easy to make me cry with a book, or media in general, it does happen, but not that frequently.

The closer I got I think must have been with camolive's last conversation before the paul atreides of it all, that was intense.

🔮 Which one of Harrows AU's do you find the most compelling?

The coffee adept AU for sure.

Where did this came from in Harrow's rolodex of scenarios, idk but I'd love to hear more. Gotta love an author setting up her own aus for fans to fill in the blanks.

🥀 If you could have chosen one character to survive Canan House, who would it be?

My immediate thought is to say Palmolive, so that maybe Camilla and him could have survived being themselves individually, but that doesn't work narratively, so it's just me being selfish and wanting Camilla to still be around as herself.

As much as I love Abby, I think her and Magnus had to go out together, I don't think there'd be any other way for them to be.

So yeah, I'll say Palmolive, narrative needs be damned.

🛡️ Which Cavaliers would you wanna see fight 1V1? Who would win?

Camilla can fight everyone, at the same time, and win.

Specifically, I really wanted Camilla to kick Chad's ass tbh, that one almost happened. It would have been glorious to see that. I got Palmolive defeating yandere twin intellectually instead, but man did I want to see Camilla kicking Chad's butt and making him cry.

🧪 Which Necromancers would you wanna see fight 1V1? Who wound win?

I'd like to see Abby kick yandere twin's ass just as a revenge for her calling her useless in the last story. I think Abby was very under appreciated just because she wasn't absolutely deranged like every other necromancer is. They thought that because she was cordial and nice and had a good balance of professional and private life she couldn't kick butt, and we saw in Harrow that she very well could handle a tough situation when others couldn't. Yandere twin could have used Abby slapping her in the face and telling her to grow up, at the very least.

I'm realizing I'm just making people fight the Third lmao

🤹 Which meme would you want to see make it into At9?

My entire collaboration with this fandom has been memes, so take your pick lol after the ice cube barbie situation, the only thing that could surprise me the same amount would be a meme I used being coincidentally referenced.

If ice cube barbie wanted to do a m3gan dance while murdering dr reverend emperor john, I wouldn't mind. Killer dolls and all that.

Well, this is it for now! I'll pop back up once in a while, I think, while we wait. If you guys have a good "which character are you" tlt quiz or any other recommendations for this space, I'm all ears!

(for anyone finding this in the wild and wondering what is up with these nicknames, this is the overall tag)

[nerds-books-n-worms]

Ok, so maybe I'm just sleep deprived and a little crazy, but this has been rattling around in my mind for a while and I need to put it out there.

I had the song Hallelujah stuck in my head, y'know, like the one from Shrek, and I was surprised by how well it mapped onto TLT. I'm gonna try and explain lyric by lyric.

"I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the lord"- the secret to lyctorhood

"But you don't really care for music do ya?"- most of John's lyctors grew resentful of him for the fact that they had to kill their cavs

"It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift. The baffled king composed it, hallelujah."- the houses, how each lyctor set one up, how John is an idiot who still managed to amass this much power.

"Your faith was strong but you needed proof. You saw her bathing on the roof. Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya"- Harrow deciding she wants to die and opening the tomb only to fall in love with Alecto.

"Well she tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne, and cut your hair, and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah"- Harrow was haunted by The Body, and lost everything because of the power the Earth aka Alecto gave John, yet she still loves her.

"Baby I've been here before. I've seen this room, and I've walked this floor."- Canaan House and all its secrets.

"I used to live alone before I knew you."- Harrow and Gideon were both very alone through the majority of their lives, until getting to Canaan House and letting each other in.

"I've seen your flag on the marble arch. Our love is not a victory march. It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"- Gideon's devotion to Harrow as well as the tragedy and heartbreak the follows them. Neither of them know if the other is ok, and they are tormented by the remnants of the other.

"Maybe there's a God above, but all I've ever learned from love is how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya"- Harrow losing faith in Jod, and lobotomizing herself to protect both her and Gideon.

"It's not a cry you can hear at night. It's not someone who has seen the light. It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah."- John is worshipped, but he has built his empire off the suffering of others. His lyctors resent him (and want him dead), Alecto wants him dead, BoE wants him dead, and in "saving" the world he has doomed so many to an eternity of misery, yet he reaps the benefits of his conquest.

I might be wrong or crazy or some combination of the two, idk. This song has a lot of different versions, so if you want I can share my thoughts on more.

[occasional-rambler]

i’m so late to this particular party but i just can’t get over the potential of jeannemary and Gideon’s dynamic.

Jeannemary and Isaac were the youngest people Gideon had ever met (except Harrow) and she was treated like an animal on the ninth. Gideon never had anyone look at her with anything but disgust and maybe pity, but Jeannemary legitimately respected and admired her, enough to say in front of a crowd that she wanted to fight like Gideon. I do martial arts and that’s about the highest praise you can receive from another martial artist.

I know jeannemary was never going to survive the book but,,, if she’d lived long enough for Gideon to get over her social awkwardness i think they would’ve formed a big sis-little sis mentor-mentee dynamic, with Gideon learning more traditional cav stuff from jeannemary and jeannemary learning Gideon’s unorthodox fighting style and philosophy.

Also it would’ve been entertaining as hell to see Gideon trying to navigate jeannemary’s little puppy crush on her. It’s always weird realising someone admires you/is attracted to you when you’re someone who’s battled self-hatred and low self-esteem your entire life. I guess the potential for how well they would’ve gotten along makes the guilt Gideon felt over failing to prevent jeannemary’s death sting all the more.

(if it wasn’t clear enough, I don’t ship them)

[harrowharks-iliac-crest]

Necromancy

Worldbuilding/Lore

<< Previous: The Resurrection | Masterpost

-

I'm finding it hard to put my finger on how necromancy works, and when it started; clearly, a lot of study is involved, and you can craft theorems from thanergy - necromancers need dead things in order to be able to work; those theorems can then be used for healing, for creating constructs, for damaging living things, for animating and puppeting corpses. It isn't true resurrection, ever, but it can somehow fashion life from life (necromantic healing powers), life from death (using thanergy blooms to heal or create constructs - or, in Harrow's case, a necromantic baby - but was that more a way of infusing an already existing embryo with necromantic ability?), death from life (using what Palamedes did to Cytherea as an example, which would have straight up killed any non-Lyctor), and death from death (using necromancy or constructs to kill/harm someone).

Necromancy doesn't work in space due to the absence of dead things. This seems to be at least partially by design, as the Cohort and Empire don't seem to be using any organic materials - but Blood of Eden seem to be able to get their hands on paper and such, showing that they are available, if not abundant outside the world fashioned and controlled by the Empire.

As far as we can tell, John - maybe Alecto - might have been the first necromancers. Alecto was said (by John) to be the first resurrection. I have a whole section on each of them when I get to character analysis so I won't go into it too deep here. In any case, I don't think necromancy was terribly abundant pre-resurrection. Maybe it was even a skill Alecto had first, and had to give to others somehow. Or maybe the nuclear blast/resurrection altered humans in a way to enable a fraction of the population to show necromantic ability. We do know it is innate in current times, you are either born with it or you're not. But there's not a lot of details on how it came about, and how exactly it works, and what is it that creates necromantic ability in humans.

It seems to come with either an innate or learned ability to "sense" life, and also death; I don't think Harrow had to wait to be a Lyctor to do this. When Harrow was fighting the construct in the labs in Canaan House with Gideon, Harrow had an additional sense for thanergy that Gideon could momentarily access through her. This is also confirmed by the Cohort files which warn BoE agents not to kill in the area of a necromancer, as necromancers will inevitably be able to sense this, and feed off the thanergetic bloom. Lyctorhood sure sharpened and enhanced this ability for Harrow, though.

>> Next: Lyctorhood

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 14 of Nona the Ninth

That's actually a more reasonable worry, I think

I guess Corona was aiming for that job back when Nona and Pyrrha appeared? Actually, if she was, I wonder why BOE agreed to let Nona live with Camilla and Pyrrha instead

My god, is the ship I like actually canon, at least from one direction? Like I read As Yet Unsent and was like yeah, I ship that but I probably read more than was intended into that, and then Corona mentioned having a crush on a boy who liked shuttles, but now that I think about it, that "boy" was actually Judith, wasn't it? In As Yet Unsent she talks about researching wars to impress Judith with, I bet that's how she learned about shuttles, isn't it? But obviously she doesn't want We Suffer to know that

Also lmao at Pyrrha making Corona feel confused. I'd wonder if it's like "how can I be attracted to this person who looks male" confusion, but like, no one seems to have any words or language or categories for sexual orientation in this universe, so it doesn't seem like anyone would have a reason to expect to be attracted to only one gender

Also fairly interested in the "you want Camilla to cuddle you but not in a sexy way" thing

Also sort of interesting to note that Nona assumes attraction is entirely appearance-based - she doesn't know what it says that Corona isn't attracted to We Suffer or Pash because she hasn't seen what they look like, despite the fact that she's had ample exposure to their personalities. And I don't think the story itself is assuming that attraction is purely physical either, because we have Pyrrha giving Nona the non-appearance-based qualities that attracted her to Wake. Maybe this is more evidence that Nona only experiences aesthetic attraction

I wonder who Nona reminded her of? I can't think of anyone who would have frightened Corona

Kind of funny that in spite of how devoted she is to Corona, Ianthe doesn't really know that much about what she's actually thinking

I wonder what this is about? We still don't know what's going on with the Angel

That's kind of weird to say to someone. I mean, the teachers thought Nona was younger because Harrow was short and skinny and a necromancer, which seems to make people look pretty anemic, but Corona is none of those things and she's like 22

Ah Corona, never change lmao

That time was definitely Gideon, I think

I wonder if she actually does, or if she just has a theory, like everyone else in the book. I don't think Corona has any advantages that would help her figure out who Nona is, and she's not an necromancer, unlike Palamedes.

[midnighttreasureseeking]

For the ask meme: What are your favourite books that you would recommend? Favourite episode/scene of IWTV? Any unpopular IWTV opinions? Any Claudia headcanons? (because I love her character haha)

Hi! Thank you for the ask! I’m sorry it took me about a day to answer, I had a lot to say… I’ve done my best to answer them!

What are your favourite books that you would recommend?

I'm glad you asked for books, because I could never choose just one. 

The first one I can think of is The Deep by River Solomon. I don’t spend a day not thinking about this book at least once. And after weathermood’s ‘Once upon a wine dark sea’ series i couldn’t help but think about it even more. Plus you like sea creatures, so it's excelent. It's safe to say it changed my brain chemistry and I was never the same once I finished it. 

Here is a synopsis:

“Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.”

Its very intense, and not so much about the fantasy of mermaids as about pain and pressure Yetu experiences remembering and keeping all these stories plus what she experiences as she flees to the surface. It can be a bit slow at some places but it’s beautifully written in my opinion. It’s maybe not everybody’s cup of tea, but it's definitely worth a read.

Link to The Deep

The second one is Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, I have never opened and read a book so fast. Its chaotic, its gory, its hilarious, its horrifying, I loved it.

Here is a synopsis. (Ive taken both synopsis from Goodreads):

“The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.”

Sounds fun? it is! 

link to Gideon the Ninth

There are more books i love, but as i’m typing this out on a word document i have just reached page two. So time for the next question!

Favorite episode/scene of IWTV?

This is really hard, because I love and could rewatch, to infinity and beyond, almost all scenes (Except the ones where Lestat yells, because it's triggering). I would say that my favorite is episode seven. Where Louis, Lestat and Claudia form this trio and finally work together to achieve something. It’s really nice to see! It shows that in a different world they might have been a nice family….which also makes it very bittersweet. I love the dance, and Lestat's tiny moments of vulnerability where he seems genuine and Louis falls for him all over again. I love Claudia forming her master plan and executing it. Her putting an end to Antionette (finally) and double crossing Lestat. I love that moment where the massacre has just started and all are walking together in slow motion…All the assholes that stayed alive this whole time, Tom Anderson and the police chief, finally being killed. And of course the satisfying humbling of lestat by poison and throat slitting! I love the Dubai part where everything seems to unravel and where Armand is finally revealed! I’m curious to see what the Dubai part is going to bring next season, almost more than the Paris part. 

Any unpopular IWTV opinions?

I do! At least unpopular with other people I like. I don't understand danlou in the modern day. I just don't. I can see and i respect that it happened. The way Louis looks at Daniel in episode one... You can’t tell me that back in the 70s they didn't do a lot more than just talk!

And I get why it happened back then too. The reason being that Daniel was just such a regular guy, the same reason Armand stalked him so long and fell for him. But I just don’t like Daniel. I feel like there is a world full of ‘just regular guys’ and it could have been any other. I might have preferred any other......But it's not my love life and these are fictional characters. I have nothing to say and I'm looking forward to whatever the show decides to do with them. Even if they make out for a solid 10 minutes on my laptop screen..it's not that serious and i wont be upset. It’s just that whenever I see them, and I see people gushing about them I go…ok but why tho? He is mean and annoying and I don't understand? But other than that it's whatever.

Ok best question for last!

Any Claudia Headcanons?

-Yes! I think, if she existed in the 21st century (either human or vampire) she would have really liked pop punk as a teenager. Would it have helped her? maybe not, but it wouldn't have made it worse! It could have been a good outlet? I have some songs! Specifically this artist actually. I recently discovered her and couldn’t stop thinking about Claudia.

RØRY - ALTERNATIVE [lyric video]

RØRY - hurt myself

-Ok this is kind of canon but Claudia loves horror movies. Especially with the fake looking blood and gore. I think she would, in general, be a very critical movie/show watcher but would defend the campiest stuff up and down ‘because it's hilarious and therefore its good’. Also anything from when she was little and she would escape into her tv she will also defend. 

-I think Claudia is a cat person. A dog would demand too much attention and the cat would just slowly but surely crawl into her heart. They would start cordially at opposite sides of the room, then the cat would take Claudia’s standoffishness as an invitation and suddenly he spends all his time on her lap while she tries to write or paint or play piano. And then she is petting him. oh how did that happen...

Thank you for asking these questions, i had a lot of fun answering them! <33

[a-big-apple]

oh shit for the ask meme!!! 4, 5, 12, 23!

omg i forgot about that already jdskjldfkjdfs <3

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

hmmm, one i never started but i want to go back to eventually is an amethyst pov su fic about her and greg finally unearthing the deed to his uncle's mansion that greg mentioned in maximum capacity, and helping steven move into this mansion when he's done driving around finding himself. in my head it's not really a mansion, it just seemed that way to greg when he was a suburban kid, but it's big enough that connie could move in if she wanted, and gems could come and go for visits, and amethyst is sort of facilitating this next step in steven being on his own and having his own life while greg and the gems stay in beach city and have their lives.

5. first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

this is from a tlt wip i've been stuck on for quite a while, about how cam got harrow in handcuffs:

If Camilla had been in a locked room where a child was brutally—and invisibly—skewered to death less than twenty-four hours ago, the Warden would be scrutinizing that room within an inch of its life the instant he got the chance.

12. a trope you’re really into right now

omg i don't even know...i've been craving more takes on harrow and kiriona/gideon after whatever happens in atn, if that counts as a trope! somehow i can never read too many fics about these damaged girls trying to recover on a thalergy planet and learning how to farm or cook or just live a country life while pyrrha and paul and maybe ianthe poke their noses in. i guess this is what i'm into reading more than what i'm into writing, but i've been too busy to write so T^T

23. pick three keywords that describe your writing

this is HARD!! i think i want the three keywords to be musical, mundane, and interpersonal

[misdre]

third day of my gideon the ninth re-read! do i just keep coming back to talk about the sixth all the time. maybe so

the enormoustest tsundere of our myriad, harrowhark nonagesimus. pretending not to give an ass about gideon but going to very silly and masochistic lengths to avoid a situation of gideon getting hurt (…by anything that's not her). i have a very deep love for harrow, she's like a really sad, really angry black cat with extra skeletons

the part i remembered the best of the whole book are the chapters of gideon and harrow doing the first trial and i don't know if i was just that impressed by it (i do really like it, don't get me wrong. it's very anime. and i love bone magic) ooooorr if it's just because this is the part immediately after the sixth had been introduced and i was fatally struck by the knowledge that my life had just been irrevocably altered and i suddenly started focusing a whole lot more on what i was reading hehm. don't mind me i have a clinical case of brainworms

gideon intends this as snark but is it not kind of exactly how john became a necromancer. just saying. by thinking really hard about corpses

i LOVE LOVE the wedding anniversary dinner of the fifth!! SO MUCH!! the whole scene, GOLDEN!!!! the way gideon can not take part in any conversation because of the fake vow of silence so she just listens in to literally everyone, it's so good. such a good way to sprinkle in little details about different characters. thank you for this snack (and an ENTIRE dinner WITH dessert for GIDEON THE GOOD GIRL)

in this next passage, first of all, obsessed with the moth&butterfly comparison of palamedes and coronabeth. in her freeform descriptions of the characters muir went out of her way to mention that corona is Very Tall, Even Taller Than Palamedes which i take as them both being absolute beanstalks. this mental image promptly punched me in the face

secondly, i live for the implication dropped in in the seating arrangement, because in the unwanted guest palamedes says he started thinking gideon was alright after he got over being jealous, IS THIS NOT ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS (i kinda want to draw a comic about it. just need to learn to draw the TLT characters first. i'm gonna be so fucking unhinged once i do)

i truthfully didn't have much of an impression at all about the fourth before i started this re-read -- and i mean literally that i dipped into a TLT subreddit to read threads on the four because i kind of didn't remember nor understand what their deal was -- but wow jeannemary is not only an absolute darling but also a legend. she's such a great baby cavalier (maybe baby gay also). i feel a bit sad that she would probably have gotten along great with camilla. in fact camilla is totally absent in this party scene so i imagine she's just quiet the entire time because she got separated from her warden and is pouting

this is also one of the scenes that highlight the genius of gideon as an unreliable narrator (and i'm loveth my unreliable narrators!!!!!). i mean the previous chapter already made it horribly clear, at the latest, when we realise there's been SO much going on without her having any idea nor her understanding any of it, but here in this chapter is the moment of palamedes bringing "dulcinea" tea and staring her down hard -- and gideon just mistakes it as him having a medical fetish, fair tbh -- but is this not him realising there's something deeply fucked about the duchess here. i don't remember the details well enough (that's the beauty of a re-read. soon i will have the details) so idk if there's some implication afterwards that he thinks it's not her but. anyway my point being there is this whole enormous story of its own playing here in the background and gideon is just so blissfully unaware of any it, as is the first-time reader. so delicious to come back to afterwards when you are no longer in gideon's robes but more like looking over her shoulder. i sure hope someone has written into fic how drastically the tone of how palamedes and camilla talk about dulcie changes after this RIGHT? SOMEONE HAS FIC OF IT RIGHT???? PLEASE TELL ME THERE IS FIC (i am slowly raking through the cam/pal tag but i kinda want to get through this book now first and foremost. but speaking of fic, i continue being incredibly incredibly awestruck by the way writers have managed to turn all the canon sixth nonsense into their fully mastered home turf. i would not fucking understand even half of what palamedes says if i hadn't become so familiar with the lingo through fanfiction and that's so... i don't even know what that is. thanks???? glfgmdgjndf)

wow i'm rambling! i'm coming apart at my seams again! AHHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS SERIES

[cephalon-sancti]

Ianthe as Gog-Agog cracks me up

Gideon as Cio and Harrow as Allison. The death of a loved one makes the other fall into despair and when their loved one comes back they come back different and hostile.

Augustine as Incubus maybe? He offers power, but the power is degrading to the self as he tries to reconstruct you to meet his image of what he wants you to be.

I want to posit Nona as White Chain because both break out of the shell and role made for them and learn to enjoy life and living and being alive alive alive in flesh and blood

Mercymorn as Solomon David because they both think they can solve all the Problems by themselves and refuse to take students.

Get niche with me friends. In a kill six billion demons au of TLT, I'd like to fill some roles. My initial thoughts are:

John as Zoss and Alecto as Jagganoth, OR Alecto as Zoss and John as Jagganoth. Both pairs of characters are in kind of a wibbly state until we see the finales.

G1deon as Mammon - kind of heart, but his grasp on reality is slipping, and the only meaning he can find is in dedication to a cause he no longer understands.

Anastasia as Jadis - the truth-teller, trapped and made to suffer the weight of her knowledge alone.

Pyrrha as Maya - she stands apart from the power structure she once belonged to and sees its folly. Her best friend tried to kill her to attain godlike power.

Ianthe as Gog-agog.

Cytherea as Mottom - she suffered greatly at the hands of the powerful, struggled viciously to get some of that power, and found it rotten on her tongue. Still, she uses her power to inflict great harm on others, because what else is she supposed to do?

Who else do we think?

[theriverbeyond]

I have to believe in my heart that we will get a satisfactory Griddlehark ending but I still spend every single day in fear. Any wise ending predictions?

AHHHH i hope so too. i have faith the ending will be satisfying for each character. im holding onto hope!!! some selected griddlehark thoughts are:

(ideal) they escape from BOE and the 9 houses system, and go live out their lives free of everything that has hurt them. Harrow may or may not lose her necromancy and Gideon may or may not be fully revived, it doesn't matter. Gideon can grow a little herb garden and publish her own porny comic book and chop wood and teach Harrow how to do star jumps. Harrow can relax and never work another day in her life and learn how to do art or write poetry and find peace.

(bittersweet) they die together, permanently and finally, but only after they make up and make peace with each other. this doesn't necessarily mean they will do anything as pedestrian as Kiss, but they will reconcile their pain and hurt and both feel satisfied with what they have given the other and what they have received

(circular) Alecto and John die together, but not before transferring their powers to Gideon and Harrow, who take on their domains of power (i.e. Dominicus, Earth, the River, etc), and then the whole book series ends on an open ended cliffhanger. This then allows the audience to speculate what happens next and how they do it

for Gideon specifically, I have to believe that she will get a satisfying end. what form that ending takes is debatable, but like, her arc is NOT complete right now and i need to believe that she will get what she deserves (positive). some of my Gideon thoughts:

Harrow cashes in her favor with Alecto and brings Gideon back to life

Harrow gives part of herself to Gideon.... completing their two way exchange like what was implied way back in the winnowing/response trial. this may or may not revive Gideon but it WILL make her feel less sad because she won't be missing pieces anymore

Gideon does something very bad that will make her feel much worse for a period of time, before something happens - she snaps, she talks with harrow, she fucks something up so bad it shocks her back to her senses - and she realizes...... something, and then fixes things. idk. this is just vibes

my Harrow thoughts are a lot more nebulous. i don't really know what her arc will look like because so much of her character development is currently unknown - there's a LOT of stuff that appears to have happened behind the scenes in between the end of HtN, the dream with John, and her popping up in her body at the end of NtN. idk. maybe she finds God in Gideon. maybe she rejects the idea that she even needs a God-figure. maybe she becomes disillusioned with Alecto because of all the biting and the meat. idk!!!

anyway 🙏 prayer circle for AtN🙏

[sister-hawk]

mega spoilers for The Locked Tomb

ok here's what i just realized. we had no idea Harrow was seeing the body until the second book, because the first book is from Gideon's perspective and Harrow never told her about it. she told her about seeing the body in the tomb, but she neglected to mention that she's been seeing it walk around ever since. Gideon and Harrow have obviously had a very difficult relationship, which gets way way worse after Harrow opens the tomb. it gets so bad that Gideon seems to think her only course of action is to run away when no one is looking and join the Cohort. as far as Gideon is concerned, there's no salvaging that relationship, Harrow is just too horrible and evil and vile.

and then the events of Caanan House happen, and through the course of it all (especially after the pool scene) Gideon starts to see Harrow in a much more human light. she's not just the absolute monster Gideon has convinced herself that she must be, after years of trauma and abuse on the Ninth House (which she assumes was all Harrow's doing). Gideon sees her for who she really is, an equally traumatized teenager who has had an unimaginable weight placed upon her by her parents' actions (TWICE!). and i think she begins to hope. after all, these two were the only children growing up on shitty old castle/space station, carved into a dark and cold and desolate rock on the far reaches of the solar system, surrounded by a bunch of elderly cultists. they share a bond whether they like it or not. she sees that Harrow is more than she wrote her off as and she starts to think "maybe there's something between us after all." now i wouldn't go so far as to say she immediately wanted anything romantic, i don't know if either of them even understands romance. when have they ever had the opportunity to learn? but she clearly begins to think of Harrow as someone she can trust? kind of, that she must protect, maybe even love??? whatever the fuck that means for these two (though she tries so hard to convince herself that she isn't feeling this because she doesn't know how to deal with it).

then the fight with Cytherea happens, and after a desperate and hopeless attempt, Gideon makes the ultimate sacrifice. she chooses to stop fighting for her life, and instead to die, to ensure that Harrow would live. even though she wouldn't like to put it this way, this is Gideon's ultimate expression of love for Harrow. she chooses not only to die, but to be consumed. to be obliterated, to be erased from this life and the next, just so that Harrow can go on. she gave literally everything for this girl.

and then, when her spirit wakes up inside of Harrow, and she sees (unclearly) what Harrow sees, what is she looking at? what does she see waltzing around in Harrow's mind? the fucking body from the tomb. the body Harrow thought was so beautiful, that on the day Gideon nearly killed her and drove her to suicide, she saw and immediately decided to live for, on the extremely slim chance that it could ever wake up. she sees the body that saved Harrow from her previous cruelty (they were only children). and she knows, it's been with her this whole time. all this time and Harrow never said a word. even in the salt water bath, where all the truth was supposed to finally come out, this little detail never crossed Harrow's lips.

Gideon must have been utterly heart broken. This would be like if you suddenly found out that your girlfriend of the better part of a decade had secretly been seeing someone else this whole time. it must have crushed what was left of her soul. and to top it all off, Harrow pulls this insane plan to make herself forget Gideon. Gideon sees what she does, but of course she doesn't see why, because Harrow would never tell it aloud, especially not to someone like Ianthe. and all she can assume is, now that Harrow has what she needs (the Lyctorhood for which she was so desperate), she wants to throw Gideon away so that she'll never be beholden to another person. she'd never have to be grateful to Gideon, and she'll have the imagined girlfriend in her head, and Gideon will not even be left as a memory.

Holy shit the devastation this (apparent) betrayal causes cannot even be put into words. No wonder Kiriona is so fucking mean.

[thelordligeia]

i fucking love how everyone just. matters so much to everyone else’s character in the locked tomb. and i don’t just mean that the characters care about each other (although they do, and it’s beautiful and horrible in a way only tamsyn muir can achieve) but no character would really exist in the way that they do without the other.

if harrow had never been conceived, gideon would have grown up with other children. she might have had friends. she might have mattered to someone who allowed themselves to admit it.

and if gideon had never been born? harrow’s parents wouldn’t be dead. she would have grown up as the product of 200 dead children, sure, but she wouldn’t have to lead an entire planet when she was 10. but she would also have grown up in complete isolation. she would have been the only child on a dying planet and she would have no one except maybe crux, which isn’t exactly much better.

gideon has her name because of the man that mattered to wake - mattered to her in an awful way, a sad and cruel and doomed way, but a man that was significant all the same. harrow would never have known alecto without gideon. gideon learned the sword escaping from harrow and harrow learned strategy trying to stop her.

and who is camilla without palamedes? they exist separately (well. they did exist separately) but we only ever know them for who they are because of one another.

john is this in its worst form; it isn’t his passion that changes people, that instructs their identity because of how he has impacted their lives - instead, he forces his way into their heads and tears them apart and rebuilds them until they exist as he wants them to - and yet the lyctors still rebel. they still fight because God may be the center of the universe but he isn’t the center of theirs; and because they have one another, and ten thousand years of company means something to a person.

AND NONA - this is the most obvious example we see of this because nona is not alecto. alecto is the soul of the earth stuffed into a barbie body surrounded by john fucking gaius and his lyctors, many of whom are jaded assholes. nona is the earth that has been cared for, that has been loved by cam and pal and pyrrha. she is the earth who sees the world for all of its tiny lives that shouldn’t really matter but do anyway. she is the earth who spends her days with hot sauce and the gang and goes home to people who are struggling but care deeply and fondly for her nonetheless. nona changes because of the people around her.

we all exist within one another - and lyctorhood makes this literal, but is harrow not transformed by gideon long before consuming her cavaliers’s soul? there’s a reason that the lobotomy would never really work; harrowhark’s life was gideon nav. they made each other into the people they exist as in the present. the characters in the locked tomb do not exist as lone figures; they become significant only when they have one another.

and that is, i think, the truest reflection of life. who are we, without one other?

[harrowharks-iliac-crest]

Fuck. Yeah, let's talk about grief.

Have you ever lost someone close enough in such a way that you would, if given half the chance, lobotomise yourself to dull the pain even a little bit?

I have. And I was twenty-six, nearly a full decade older than Harrow.

Really, when you take a little step back, this book is all about grief. About how grief can drive you to do horrible, awful things.

Not just what Harrow did - erasing Gideon from her existence entirely - or at least trying to; though this is probably the most obvious example.

(I kinda can't believe that when I first realised Harrow's memories were all skewed, my literal first theory was "Harrow couldn't deal with the grief and fucked herself up so she could go on not feeling it".)

But also God - in his grief for the whole world, resurrecting it - resurrecting his love, his friends - and then having to deal with the consequences.

But also Mercymorn and Augustine - ten thousand years later still driven to murder by their grief - justifiably, to be honest.

It comes though in Gideon's narration - her grief for her mother, her grief for Jeannemary, her grief for herself! -

It's an undercurrent in the entire book, more present than the River.

If you lost someone that close to you, wouldn't you also fuck yourself up so you wouldn't have to remember?

I remember when I first learned that my best friend had died, suddenly -

Just having to sit there, as the world came crashing down around me -

And just not knowing how to deal with it. at ALL.

I still don't know, to be honest. It's been years.

There's something about the unrelenting cruelty of, of having to get up, having to go on. Having to eat dinner (or at least unenthusiastically pick at it), having to go to bed, try to sleep, having to get up, and go to work in the morning.

Maybe not right away. But whether you like it or not, the world just fucking keeps on turning. It's unrelenting, uncaring almost. How can everything just keep going when your world has just been shattered?

I don't blame Harrow. I don't blame John, or the Lyctors - I don't blame any of them.

I don't blame any of them.

What do you do??? What do you even do?????

And it makes me angry -

It makes me so, so angry, that it's so, so difficult to talk about it.

Grief is one of the most universal human experiences. It is. None of us will go through life without losing someone close to us. If we do, it's only cus we die young enough to become that someone to the people around us.

And how do we deal with it??? In the culture that I grew up in and live in, it's just not really talked about. You talk about it maybe, when it happens, briefly, you maybe mention going to a funeral. You hear awkwardly, sorry for your loss, condolences, I don't know what to say.

I don't know what to say. No one does, ever. It's a problem. It's a problem.

You might bring it up on anniversaries or if something reminds you of them. You might swallow it because you don't wanna bring the mood down. You might not even know how to talk about it yourself.

I don't. Not really.

I really feel like grief is the big elephant in the room in western societies, largely ignored, yet always present. Aren't we all grieving in some way? It doesn't even have to be for a person - a relationship or the climate or a place you've had to move away from - a place you remember being different to how it is now - a time you can never go back to. A pet. Your health. There are so many things you can lose forever.

Aren't we all grieving in some way?

I guess finishing this book has brought a lot of mine up to the surface, quite suddenly. I didn't expect that. But like a kaleidoscope, grief reflects in many colours. I like it when books can play on my emotions like harp strings - and this book has definitely done that; it held up a mirror, and it said:

If you had the power to erase your pain, wouldn't you?

And if you're itching now, as an older, wiser version of yourself, to tell Harrow - tell her that grief isn't easily escapable like that - tell her that those memories are precious, don't you get it - tell her that it will hurt worse, in the long run -

How would you feel? How did you feel, back then, when the wound was still so fresh and raw? When you were younger, more desperate, with fewer options?

Wouldn't you also have chosen to live in a world where your pain was overwritten?

[ambiguouswren]

So nervous to post this & I'm still working out a few things but here's my Reverend Daughter Gideon head canons:

Gideon arrived at Drearburh just like in canon. The Reverend Father and Mother sacrificed 200 children just like canon.

Except this time it didn't yield a Necromantic Harrow. It fails. Gideon, however, unknowingly being the daughter of John at the time, started showed great Necromantic prowess very early on, whereas Harrow showed none. So having no other options and more out of desperation than want, Gideon is officially adopted as the Reverend Daughter and Harrow went into Cav training. Palleamena & Priamhark maybe still unalive themselves & Gideon puppets out of panic. I haven't worked that bit out yet.

Thus, Gideon was shown no love from the Reverend Father and Mother who were now living not just with the shame of sacrificing 200 of the children of the Ninth, but for it being an entire failure. Pushing that displeasure both on Gideon, the child they did not want, and Harrow, the child that represents their greatest failure and possible doom of the House. Gideon and Harrow obviously spend their whole lives taking it out on each other. Harrow funneled that rage into her sword work, wanting to be the best at something, Gideon learned to be a great Necromancer but still very much herself, so shenanigans ensued & people get frustrated with her. The dirty magazines ABSOLUTELY still find their way into her hands. Gideon doesn't WANT to be Reverend Daughter, but feels obligated to because they brought her up. She still desperately wants to be a cohort fighter but any time she tries to train the Nuns would pull her away to go back to Necromancy lessons. Harrow and Gideon still basically loath each other. Harrow angry that Gideon was the person she was supposed to be, & Gideon sour because she didn’t want or ask for any of this and feel reproachful that Harrow is so mad at her for something that’s so horrifically not her fault. Ortus is stuck between all this but is tied to a sense of duty (namely through parental pressures ), but he does like Gideon and I feel like they might kind of be friends? Or at least friendly. Gideon likes listening to his poetry then trying to convince him to make it more sexy. Aiglamine teaches Gideon some sword stuff when there’s a little free time, as the Reverend Daughter is still interested in it and its the only way that she can live out even a little of her dream, but she has to keep it more or less a secret. (Scene: Gideon offers to spar & Harrow just scoffs because she thinks Gideon has never touched a sword in her life. Gideon isn’t QUITE as good as Harrow but they both work up a sweat before Harrow inevitably gets her to the floor, which Gideon makes a very dirty joke about)

Crux hates Gideon and Gideon hates Crux, nothing changes there.

Crux can go touch grass but I appreciate he cares a bit for Nova. So this stays, obviously. Overall I think Gideon’s personality is the same. She still has dirty magazines tucked away, she still works out and has some buffness to her but more for aesthetic then survival like Canon Gideon did. Maybe a bit more lean than large. But she naturally has a bigger build (prob hereditary from Wake). Also she can’t get QUITE as bulky because of how Necromancy was stated to affect the body OR this is an AU and we do what we want because we love a buff Gideon. (or at least I do and this is my HC) I'm sure I'll think of more stuff as time goes by and ultimately this is just my take and all takes are valid. I just love this AU so much. Thank you for reading! Ahhhhhhhh