#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.

[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

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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

[ephemeraltea]

ugh. god. like. no one ever loved gideon. gideon never learned how to be loved. from the first minute she existed, she existed as a necessary little parasite grown in disgust, and from planetfall she was a nasty thrall with limited value. she was a toddler when her caretakers cashed in her life to make one more to their suiting, and when the bank issued a polite refund, those caretakers spent the rest of their lives regarding her with terror and revulsion. the closest person she had, the only adult to conceive of her as real person, barely spoke up to save her life, and never stood in the way of her brutal abuse. she never experienced love. until.

harrow needed her. harrow hated her, and harrow needed her, and called gideon the first flower of our house. the first thing to blossom in their lightless, damp, cold, joyless house. the only thing that was really alive there anymore, or maybe ever. the only one harrow ever told about the Tomb, before God, and her sacrilege, and her beloved. the one who she could never ask forgiveness from.

but gideon had never been loved before. she had never even been wanted. she'd only just, within the last months of her life, experienced being needed, but in a totally clinical way.

so for harrow, who loves what can never be freed, who has lived her life for a God who never knew her and a tomb and that who breathes not from within, who must be guarded and adored silently from a distance... she tucks her devotion behind a wall and tears out the part of her that knows how to enter that room. she forgets, to preserve, to await such a time as that devotion can live free of herself, of harrow. harrow does not know how to love a participant in that love. she takes away gideon's choices.

[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🙏

[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.

[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?

[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

[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

[iviarellereads]

Gideon the Ninth, Chapter 12

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Sixth House icon) In which something lost is found.

One morning, Teacher commends Gideon on fitting in, despite him having sat with her at some meals and knowing that she's definitely not. He's also said that he enjoys all the bustle, when he and Gideon were alone in the room.(1)

By now, Gideon has met nearly all the adepts and cavaliers, but all except Coronabeth and Magnus give her a wide berth. Still, you learn a lot, being silent. The Second House behave like soldiers forced into vacation. The Third seem to come together only because of Coronabeth's social gravity, like planets to her star. The Fourth are like ducklings to the Fifth. The Sixth and Seventh are never anywhere to be found. The Eighth duo, the uncle-nephew duo, Gideon sees only rarely, but that's more than enough, as they act like Gideon is contagious with something.

The corridor to the Ninth assigned living quarters is now garlanded with bones. Gideon left a note for Harrow asking what was with the skulls, and Harrow replied simply "Ambiance." That Ambiance means even Magnus hesitates to greet Gideon, so she wants to shove it somewhere uncomfortable.(2)

Dulcinea Septimus seems to spend all her time on various terraces, reading romance novels. Occasionally she spots Gideon and asks her to move a pillow or just to listen as she recounts the plot of the book she's reading. The sword is never again mentioned.

Gideon goes back to the training room often, even though she prefers to train by herself. She wouldn't need half of what she's done to join the Cohort, but she's always hoped she'd be rushed through and get sent to the front promptly with her skills and strength. Her fantasies about Harrow opening a letter detailing Gideon's medals and prize money and saying something like "Turns out Griddle could swing a sword after all" often get her through a hundred reps or more.

Still, no one can train every minute of the day, so she spends a lot of time wandering the Canaan House complex. A lot of places are blocked off, with CAUTION tape and crosses spray painted on blast doors. You can only go about fifty meters below the dock, and a hundred meters up. She doesn't get bored, exactly, the Ninth kills boredom out of one, but it makes her suspicious.

One morning, Harrow's pillow isn't freshly rumpled differently than it was the morning before, and there's no fresh layer of black clothes in the laundry hamper. Gideon makes guesses as to what might have happened.

1. Harrow had been prevented from coming home for reasons, e.g. that (i) She was dead; (ii) She was too impaired; (iii) She was busy. 2. Harrow had chosen to live elsewhere, leaving Gideon free to put her shoes on Harrow's bed and indiscriminately rifle through all her things. 3. Harrow had run away.

Gideon immediately dismisses option 3, because her childhood would've been MUCH smoother if Harrow were that type. 2 is exciting, but seems almost as unlikely. Harrow is too proper to let Gideon do up all the buttons on her shirts one button off in the wardrobe.(3)

This leaves only option 1. (iii) relies on Harrow being busy enough to forget to come back, which ties back into the dismissal of allowing for option 2. Harrow would never fail to account for Gideon's chaos gremlin-itude. (i) would be the world's happiest accident or murder, and if it was murder, what if the murderer was, like, weird, would that make Gideon's subsequent marriage to them awkward?(4) Maybe they could just exchange friendship bracelets instead.

In the end, (ii) seems the most likely. Harrow hasn't even used the paint supplies, and Gideon has never seen Harrow's naked face.

So it is that Gideon puts on her robe and starts searching. She finds Magnus in the chemical smelling pit room, supervising the skeletons cleaning it, with his trig and glossy-haired adept(5) but certainly no Harrow there so she darts back out before Magnus can finish greeting her. She's not on the terraces, or on the docking bay, or anywhere in the east wing.

At lunch, Gideon broods over her bread and cheese, and decides to give up. It's a futile task in such a large area. And really, it's Harrow's fault for being so secretive and controlling. She wouldn't even thank Gideon for finding her.

Only, by the time Gideon finishes eating, she gives up on giving up, and resumes the search.(6) She finds a door she can force open that she never tried before, leading to a staircase, leading to a precarious terrace, leading to another door, to a hallway, to a curious statue with no arms or head(7), in what may once have been a lobby with elevator access. Down a staircase in the corner of that room, she starts to hear another conversation.

Two people, the "Warden" and another, discuss whether something is impossible, or merely improbable. The Warden has scried the ages of some objects nearby each other, but one is nine thousand years old, and one is about fifty years old. The other voice protests that the limit of scrying is ten thousand years, but the Warden maintains that it's improbable that this object Gideon can't see is three thousand years older than this other object Gideon can't see.

"Inexplicable, Warden." "Certainly not. Like everything else in this ridiculous conglomeration of cooling gas, it's perfectly explicable, I just need to explic-it." "Indubitable, Warden."

The Warden decides that either the whole building was scavenged from a garbage hopper, or he's being lied to on a molecular level. There's something here, like in his fourth circle exams, when the masters seeded the core database with thousands of false records, to teach them a lesson: that you can't rely on anything, because anything can lie to you.(7)

By now, Gideon has snuck up close enough to see them. A rangy young man in a grey cloak, light glinting off the spectacles on his nose(8), and a tall, equally grey-wrapped young woman with a scabbard at her hip. Both are filthy, and twitchy. Unfortunately, Gideon has moved too close, and the sight of a painted skull face in dark robes in a dark corner can't be good for the heart. The cavalier stays absolutely still for a moment, then launches at Gideon, sword out. Gideon draws her arms quickly, and they fight. Gideon quickly realizes this is a true warrior, like herself, not a mere cavalier, and is exhilarated at their matched strengths, the cav even perhaps having a slight advantage.

The necromancer calls out "Camilla!" telling her to disengage. She does so, backing up toward her adept, who does something and makes a false flame wall between the two cavs until Gideon sheathes her rapier and puts up her hands in a ceasefire gesture.

The adept lowers the barrier, wiping bloody sweat from his brow, and chastises his cavalier lightly, then offers apologies to Gideon for the unscheduled bout but NOT for drawing on someone sneaking around in all black. Gideon wants badly to ask how the cav did a backflip down the stairs like that, but is asked if she's here about Nonagesimus, and the Sixth pair(9) read something into her blank expression. Face paint is great for masking.

The necro wrings his hands and asks if Gideon's seen Harrow since the night before last? Gideon shakes her head so emphatically she's surprised her hood doesn't fall off. The young man says she's cutting it fine. Harrow was down there(10) last night, and her blood is on the floor. Her intravenous blood.

At this clarification, something snaps in Gideon, and her body starts moving before the rest of her can catch up. She finds herself trying to lift the hatch, her arms embarrassingly not up to the task. The necro sighs explosively, tosses his bag to Camilla, and bemoans cavaliers. He says it won't open, because Harrow has the Ninth's key. This close, Gideon can see past his spaceflight-thick glasses to the perfect grey eyes behind them.

He had the eyes of a very beautiful person, trapped in resting bitch face.

Gideon keeps futilely trying to open the hatch, while the Warden explains that Harrow's blood hadn't dried yet when he saw it, so she's likely still close to life, and asks Cam to check the perimeter. She finds no sign Harrow left, so the Warden says she's still down there.

At this, Gideon finally breaks her silence and says "Then get off your ass and help me," and he sounds almost relieved when he says "Sure." Something flies through the air, and he fails to catch it, so Gideon gets a half decent look at a loop similar to the one she was given that first day, but with two keys on it. He picks them up, uses the longer one to open the lock on the hatch, and Gideon swings it open dramatically to reveal a ladder of metal staples in a long, dark hole.

Camilla points at the hole, and Gideon looks at her, again noticing her eyes which are not quite grey or brown, but unreflective and fathomless. Cam suggests Gideon go first, then Palamedes,(11) then herself.

At the bottom of the hole is a "retro installation" you'll have to read described for yourself. Palamedes leads the way, and Gideon notices that the sounds they make don't echo, are dulled by the paneling on the walls. There are signs indicating ten laboratories, a pressure room, preservation, mortuary, work rooms, and a sanitiser down various branches.

They head toward Sanitiser, and find blood smeared and splattered on the floor and walls. The trail leads inside the Sanitiser rooms, to a cocoon about the size of a person but made of bone. Gideon kicks it open to reveal Harrow.

Instead of the dance of joy she'd planned to greet Harrow's dead body with, she tells the Sixth she can take it from here. They ignore her, and check for life signs. All good, probably just some dehydration, a drop in blood pressure, and she made the cocoon (which Palamedes is absolutely fascinated by) defensively when she half woke up once, then went back to sleep.

Gideon asks if they can tell all that from Sixth necromancy. Camilla says it's not necromancy, just curative science. Doctor stuff. And Harrow can be moved now. Gideon slings Harrow over her shoulder, at which breath wheezes out of the tiny necromancer, and the cocoon shatters into chips and pebbles. Palamedes whips out a ruler and measures a piece of it before they leave.

At the top of the ladder, Cam takes Harrow's weight for a moment to let Gideon get out safely, then they close the hatch. Palamedes says she needs eight hours of sleep, in a bed not a library, and to tell Harrow she clinks when she walks if she asks how he knew she was in the library.

Gideon says she owes them one. Cam says they did it for free, and Palamedes agrees but asks Gideon to take some advice: it's dangerous down the hatch, and they should stop splitting their forces. Gideon asks how it's dangerous, Palamedes says if he knew why it was dangerous, it wouldn't be. Gideon doesn't understand this, and asks how he figures it. Palamedes replies, because he's the greatest necromancer of his generation.

The not-so-unconscious bundle on Gideon's shoulder mutters "Like hell you are."(12) Palamedes looks satisfied as he says he thought that would bring her around, and reminds Gideon: liquids and rest, and good luck to them.

=====

(1) This priesthood appears to have been alone here for years in isolation, Gideon, give them some credit. They probably do think Gideon's antisocial behaviour is social, and that having anyone new in Canaan House is a bustle. (2) Gideon would be so close to making actual friends if she could talk to anyone here. ;~; (3) Beautiful prank, no notes. (4) This may feel like a callback, but it's not. Muir's forming a habit of dropping you kind of in media res, in the middle or near the end of the thought, without showing you what led there. At any rate, this implies two things, imo: first, that Gideon would be so grateful to anyone who would rid her of Harrow that she might feel obligated to propose marriage in thanks; second, smaller, that Gideon still sees herself on some level as Harrow's property, as the spoils of war, belonging to the strongest, and that anyone who could defeat Harrow might win her as an object. Gideon undervalues herself consistently, and even her cocky thoughts are self-deprecating a lot of the time in the subtext. Just look at her comments about her ultimate fantasy being that Harrow might, one day, say she supposes Gideon could swing a sword in the correct direction. This series is like an onion on steroids. (5) Trig - neat and smart in appearance. (6) Again she says one thing and means the other. (7) Including the narrative. (8) Muir's watched some anime in her time, I see. If you're unfamiliar, TVTropes has you covered! (9) Remember, even if we weren't about to find this out for sure, the Dramatis Personae made this inevitable as we've met everyone else. Use every resource you have! (10) Presumably, down the hatch they're examining. (11) I used to pronounce this as "PAL-uh-ME-deez" in my head, but I guess the audiobooks say it closer to "calamities" because I heard it that way in a podcast of audio listeners and honestly I like it way more. One of these days, I'll convince my library to license the audiobooks on Libby, and hear for myself. Or get another free Audible credit trying to lure me back into a subscription I don't have because I don't listen to many audiobooks, and use it for this. Either way. (12) Nothing like being insulted to wake someone out of a half-coma.

[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?

[fallingphosphenes]

wips introduction

if you're interested in a summation of my primary wips (just the fanfiction) as of right now (july 2024)

(disclaimer because i write a lot of kpop fanfiction: i do not think of my characters as the real actual people they're based off of, so i hope you will not engage with my fanfics like they're reality.)

elegy (temp name) (tomorrow by together)

-> in the modern year of our lord two thousand something or another, during a period of great political, social, and ecological upheaval, beasts from the heavens arrived, fragments of dying stars and planets from universes far away that became known as the astral undead. as humanity learned to harness their power, factions were organized, led by those who had defeated the most powerful astral undead, the planetary undead, whose bones granted its users the most powerful abilities. at hyperion academy, run by the three major factions, magicians (who have the inherent ability to harness the magic within star fragments) and cavaliers (who have the inherent ability to use weapons which have been imbued with star fragments) form bonds to fight together in the great war against the astral undead. choi beomgyu, prince of the golden chasm, better known as the dying realm, a faction which is outcasted for its specialty in deathly magic, despite having defeated a planetary beast, goes to this school and meets kang taehyun, a factionless, untrained cavalier, and a genius.

choi beomgyu/kang taehyun, choi yeonjun/choi soobin

fantasy, probably some angst, more abusive parents, school setting, tournament arcs, war! and what comes with that

inspired by when i read gideon/harrow the locked tomb

current word count: ~44000

time and life (haikyuu)

-> after suffering that greatly, after losing so much, after making it to a worthless, horrific end -- kei blinks his eyes open, and is greeted by the worst sight possible. that after all that struggle, after all that pain; nothing has changed. he is right back here at the beginning. he must live through it all again. 

and no one else remembers.

tsukishima kei/kuroo tetsurou, probably others

fantasy, time travel, superpowers, school setting, angst

inspired by the light novel "a returner's magic should be special"

current word count: ~34500

in every universe? (seventeen)

-> it's harder to be friends in every universe than they thought.

they try, anyway.

ships TBD i guess? multiple ships (probably?) none, maybe?

multiple universes (thirteen)

have you ever been writing fanfiction and not known who to write as your side cast? well now your main cast can be your side cast, with this cool new tool: thirteen different versions of every character!

wins the reward for most complicated fic idea i've ever had

current word count: ~13000

bonus: dream demigods, part 2 (nct dream)

-> (see my ao3 for the description of part one)

huang renjun/na jaemin/lee jeno, mark lee/lee donghyuck, zhong chenle/park jisung

i promise to finish it i swear i'm so sorry

current word count: n/a, because it's being rewritten

please feel free to send me questions about these wips, or ask about what other wips i have (there are so many) !!

[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?