#no wonder alecto didn't know how to kiss

[cutetanuki-chan]

the House of the Sewn Tongue, the Jawless Skull of the Ninth House or Anastasia performing homebrew mandible surgery

I like theories that she had a sewn tongue after failed lyctorhood or the tomb

Idk how much is this possible but I wanted to draw this idea, let Anastasia spill the tea

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 28 of Nona the Ninth

A broken Sixth skull this time, but I'd guess probably not for any kind of deception

Honestly curious about who Gideon thinks Nona is at this point. I guess it's plausible that she does know Nona is Alecto since she did think Harrow was in love with Alecto

Are we ever going to find out what happened? Because I would like to know

Also, this kind of raises the question of why Alecto forgot she was Alecto here? Did she forget when John put her in the tomb? But even if she forgot who she was at that point, she spent all of Harrow the Ninth interacting with Harrow and even giving her advice (and her advice to lie to Mercy about her age indicates that she remembers something about who she is, at any rate) and Nona doesn't remember anything about Harrow here. So did something that happened at the end of Harrow the Ninth cause her to forget?

A ward of some sort, I guess

This reminds me of the whole "why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other friends" thing. Maybe this isn't just because Alecto has a resurrection beast perspective but also because this story is actually full of people eating each other, also, can you really blame her for making this assumption?

So the resurrection beast doesn't just drive necromancers mad, it also makes doing necromancy dangerous, at least for regular necromancers anyway, this didn't seem to be an issue for the Lyctors at the end of Harrow the Ninth

Camilla is like, half-dead in this scene, but she's still making jokes

So if I understand this correctly, they're making plans to somehow travel physically through the River in this BOE truck to Pluto, which for some reason isn't going to be dangerous the way it usually is, but no one has explained why yet

Something that's slightly confusing to me here is that they're talking about Gideon telling them things, and We Suffer is part of this conversation, and I think later GIdeon is outside the truck and sitting up and all, but at the beginning of this chapter Gideon claimed she was still pretending to be dead. So does We Suffer and the rest of BOE know that Gideon isn't really that dead right now, or what?

I think after the last John chapter, it's been sort of established for me that there isn't a right way to do Lyctorhood and there was never any kind of "perfect" Lyctorhood like whatever Mercy and Augustine though John was hiding from them. I guess Pyrrha wouldn't know, though, even if she does somehow remember the story John told, she wasn't alive at the time that John ate Alecto

I guess this is the gay sense and not the political sense?

This is mouth-to-mouth kiss #2, and so far neither of them have been between characters who actually have any kind of romantic hinting

Who is "she"?

I guess Camilla saved some of Palamedes' bones just so that she could eat it to fulfill the cannibalism part of the Lyctorhood ritual?

I don't think we've actually seen what happens during the standard Lyctorhood process looks like - we didn't see Ianthe's, we didn't get a detailed description of Harrow's, and everyone else's happened 10,000 years ago, so I have to wonder how this differs from the others, other than obviously they would usually wind up in the necromancer's body

Also, this seems like possibly a worse or at least not better version of what happened to the other Lyctors, since it seems like both Camilla and Palamedes died and they have become someone new instead

I mean, maybe for Ianthe, but I think Babs is long gone at this point, no?

I guess Ianthe noped out because she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to get back to the shuttle and therefore return with either Gideon or Pyrrha or the Sixth House, and she's obviously been aware of what's going on. But this also means she knows the approximate location of the Sixth House and what their plans are for Gideon's body, which I'm sure will be of great interest to John

[paleio]

dude.... DUDE...... DUDE

OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY

FIRST WATCH HIGHLIGHTS/GENERAL EMOTIONS

> the attic looks IDENTICAL to how i imagined it in my head. i literally screamed and punched the arm of my chair

> every single thing percy says to the oracle. the halloween decoration line made me go hee hee.... that is my boy :)

> OH AND THE VOICE CRACK...... IM GONNA THROW UP HES SO PRECIOUS TO ME

> love love love the way they split the prophecy into 2 scenes. fucking cinema

> annabeth trying to hide her excitement when percy immediately picks her. the quiet pride in her eyes. this twelve year old girl really does think shes THE shit

> GROVER TALKING TO..... BLACKJACK???? I KNOW NOT EVERY SINGLE BLACK PEGASUS HAS TO BE BLACKJACK BUT LIKE. WHYD THEY MAKE THE HORSE SPECIFICALLY BLACK WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY COLORS A HORSE CAN BE. YA KNOW

> grover not believing percy actually chose him and then how much it affects him when he realizes its not a joke... oh boy... i will be making multiple posts exclusively about my beloved g man. aryan you CANT be doing this to me you are irreversibly altering my brain chemistry

> "that's bees" GROVER!!!!!! 💖💘💖💖💕💕💖💘💘💖💕

> different monsters being able to smell different aspects of a person FUCK THATS GENIUS. THATS GONNA BE RELEVANT FOR THE REST OF THE GODDAMN SERIES. i wonder if it will connect to the fatal flaws thing..... i wouldn't be surprised but i would be delighted

> consensus song 🥺🥺🥺🥺 and... like.... the way all of them interact with each other. the way you can see their entire personalities, the way they were raised, their weaknesses, just in the way they talk as a trio. im really emotional thinking about

> every second of annabeth in the gas station. you know what im talking about. yeah. fuck you and your evil mean fucked up foreshadowing mr richard riordan and jonathan e steinberg

> the babygirls!!!!!! (furies) (im so faceblind i cant figure out which is which

> the second she started talking to annabeth i fucking CLOCKED IT. i was like OHHHH.... this is a SHOW. these are EPISODES. they have contained ideas and conflicts. there are episodic arcs WITHIN the seasonal arcs WITHIN the series-long arcs. goddamn it now i have to personally kiss every writer and producer and director on the mouth

> im in love with the trio dynamic because it fucking sucks. there weren't many communication issues or interpersonal conflicts between any of them in the book. even percy and annabeth got along for the most part, despite the awkwardness and bickering. here, though, annabeth is bossy as FUCK. she's acting like this is her quest. percy is whiny and impatient and he deflects every time he's questioned. grover is an ineffective mediator and is clearly uncomfortable being around both of them at once. the vibe feels so beautifully off the whole time and it makes the eventual reconciliation SO much more impactful and compelling

> medusa hot. awooga and all that.

> i like that they all realized immediately who aunty em was. im sad they abandoned the pseudonym so quickly but it makes sense that they'd understand seeing as they all know a good amount of mythology. i think it would've been a scream-at-your-tv moment otherwise

> this is exhausting why am i doing this on my phone

> the plan they came up with is fantastic. i audibly gasped. once when the hat came out and once when i realized they were gonna kill alecto with the head. SMART AS FUCK even though it's not quite a perseus reference anymore

> grover crying over uncle ferdinand.... i can't decide if im sad they didn't make it a funny moment because it's so iconic in the book, or if im glad they played it straight because it gave us a SAD GROVER MOMENT AND ALSO FORESHADOWING. not that i like seeing grover sad... i just like seeing him. i like to look at his haunted eyes and go damn boy... you are one sad boy. good luck with your feelings of inadequacy and trauma repression <3

> writing this is draining my sanity. cmon almost done

> HE SAID THE LINE HE SAID THE LINE HE SAID THE LINE!!!!!!! i am impertinent. top 5 percy jackson quotes of all time. i feel sick just thinking about the other 4 in that list.... im not gonna survive

> cue drive from tlt musical as they leave aunty em's

> oh hey thats lin manuel miranda. im sure he wont be crucial to the overarching plot of the series

> i will be honest the vibe IS kinda perfect. he does look like an emotionally immature divorced dad who complains about his job all the time but constantly works overtime for no reason. its just that he also looks like lin manuel miranda

> love the song choice for the credits

> i will talk about the ep4 preview in a different post im too tired

FINAL (very sleepy) THOUGHTS:

best one yet by far. the more screen time our trio gets the better. grover is a dork and id die for him. its so cool that we get to see the story and characters from a slightly more omniscient perspective, even though i do miss percy's narration. i cant fucking believe this show is real and that they made it just for me

I AM IMPERTINENT!!!! AND IM ALSO GOING TO BED!!!!!!

[mrsfrecklesmarauders]

Marlene couldn't stop thinking about her. Nothing had worked to get her out of her brain. Not distractions, not alcohol, not even kissing Sirius. Marlene only had kissed him to convince herself that she was into boys. Just like she should have.

Sirius was a freaking twat and an idiot. Marlene liked him very much. But not like that.

Marlene couldn't fool herself anymore. It was clear who she fancied.

The problem was that Dorcas Meadowes had been ignoring her since that night. And Marlene couldn't get her gorgeous face, her rosy lips and intense eyes out of her mind. God, she was so beautiful.

"Hey, Dorcas!" Marlene tried to smile when she saw her in the hall.

"McKinnon" she didn't even look at her.

What about the shy smile she gave her last time? Or the way her cheeks got a little pink?

"It is a wonderful day, isn't it?" Marlene continued, trying to keep up with Dorcas who was walking fast. She should have apologized but she didn't know how.

"I was thinking about training later, maybe I can teach you some moves..."

Dorcas stopped abruptly and Marlene as well.

"Why don't you train with your new boyfriend?"

Marlene laughed "I don't have a boyfriend"

Dorcas faced her and Marlene was intimidated by those big brown eyes of hers.

"Sirius Black isn't your boyfriend?"

Marlene snorted "What? No..."

"Alecto is my best friend, McKinnon" Dorcas interrupted, she sounded very angry "And Alecto had been in love with Sirius since she was eleven...."

Marlene knew about Alecto's crush on Sirius. Actually, the whole school knew. Even Sirius. But it was just a crush... She wasn’t like in love with him, right?

"Alecto is really hurt because you kissed on the party"

Marlene shrugged embarrassed

"Sirius kisses a lot of people"

"Alecto is scared because you seem like pretty good friends, so it would be easy for you to be something more..."

Couldn't boys and girls just be friends?

"No there's not..."

"She is jealous and sad because Sirius led her on, and pretended to like her, and she was confused. She really thought something could happen between them. I mean they almost kissed..."

"What?"

Alecto and Sirius had in fact snogged around school in the past.

Marlene wasn't sure if Dorcas was talking about Alecto anymore.

"Alecto got used apparently"

Dorcas was talking about herself. It was her and Marlene who almost kissed but got interrupted. Marlene smiled because she was jealous. Perhaps she felt the same.

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you laughing, right now, McKinnon?"

"Yes" Marlene laughed even more.

"Why?"

"You make me laugh"

"You're impossible! I am saying I'm supposed to hate you"

"But you don't, right?"

Dorcas tried not to smile. But she couldn’t help it.

Marlene thought Dorcas was so adorable, she wanted to kiss her this time. It didn't matter what that made her.

"Dorcas, I swear there's nothing..."

"Dorcas!"

Marlene and Dorcas turned to see Alecto, Alice and Josephine looking very irritated. Alecto looked like she wanted to kill Marlene. Dorcas' almost smile disappeared.

"What are you doing with her?"

Dorcas looked down embarrassed. Marlene got furious.

"Dorcas has her own personality, sweetheart" Marlene spat.

Alecto stepped closer defiantly.

"Wow, McKinnon" Alecto said "I know why you are such good friends with Macdonald. You are both boyfriend-stealing whores!"

"Alecto..." Dorcas warned "Just leave it"

Marlene smiled slightly. She liked that Dorcas defended her. But she wasn't offended.

"Please" she chuckled "Sirius isn't even your boyfriend"

"It isn't your business"

"Sirius isn't my boyfriend either!" Marlene added "He doesn't belong to anyone"

Marlene noticed that Dorcas was kind of relieved about it.

Alecto on the other hand, didn't seem happy. She looked very sad. Marlene didn't know the details of what happened between her and Sirius. But Sirius had the reputation of breaking hearts. And Alecto wasn't the exception.

Marlene couldn't believe she was feeling sorry for her.

"It is obvious that Sirius doesn't feel the same way for you..."

"Shut up!"

"I am just telling the truth...."

"I said shut the fuck up!" Alecto snapped "And stay away from my best friend...." the she talked to Dorcas "Let's go, Cas"

Dorcas looked at Marlene helplessly. How could Marlene doubt what she felt for her? It was crystal clear now.

"Cas!" Alecto insisted.

Marlene wanted to beg her to stay and not listen to them.

But Dorcas started walking towards them. Marlene got desperate and grabbed her arm.

"I thought we were... friends"

Dorcas sighed.

"They are my friends, McKinnon" she said "I am sorry"

Dorcas walked away leaving Marlene alone. It wasn't fair that someone as amazing as Dorcas would be friends with people like that, people who manipulated her.

Marlene was going to let her know what she felt. That there was absolutely nothing going on between her and Sirius. At least she had to try.

[clacing]

The way I was counting down the days when u finished the book shsjsksk when that email notification came I was 🏃‍♀️ like im sorry I was excited but no ur so right.

[Light Spoilers(?)]

The book is totally incomprehensible especially when you get to the part where they're driving the bus, the way the narration switches up is hard to keep up with. Especially given how we are going from Nona's POV to about three of Nona's POV and then we snap back and just don't question that part like???

But I don’t have much to say rn because you're still processing the book and like talking about how Nona is a soup of about three and a half souls and the implication of a Percect Lyctor and the whole of John's chapters, it's all just mush until you kind of crawl through each point.

If you want like a super boiled down explanation of the book; imo it's a book meant to juxtapose Nona and who her original body is. The John chapters go into a fair amount of detail on how the series has gotten to this point(in as much as we can trust John about anything)

But like I'm so very interested in Anastasia and her connection with the 9th house and the relationship she seems to have had with The Body, given what we hear her say about Anastasia during that chapter.

Which like also goes into how Harrow is compared to Anastasia by Mercy(a less attractive Anastasia) and why Harrow and the 9th house specifically has such a nuanced relationship with the Body and the Locked Tomb.

I'm jumping around walls, I'm literally so in love with this book rn I just want to blab about it 😭

DAMN that was quick lmao No you're right the truck part is absolutely when I went from "I don't understand anything that's happening, but that's okay, I will eventually" to "Not only did I not understand anything that happened this far but it's probably only going to get worse" like I was so confused about the dynamics within BoE and the conflict Antioch had with God and the blue madness.... literally what

Having Nona as a narrator was interesting but also exhausting 'cause she also doesn't understand anything in a very different way than Gideon didn't understand anything in GTN or Harrow in HTN. 'Cause she literally doesn't know anything about anything. When they get to the Ninth she talks about stepping in a cage with bars and the floors flying up around them and I nearly had an aneurysm just trying to figure out that she was describing an elevator. And the whole book is like that 😭 I appreciate Muir's dedication to "Show, don't tell" but sometimes.... telling is just fine.....

The alternating chapters were a masterpiece though like how every piece of the story John told brought you one step closer to understanding who Nona was and sometimes paralleling her side of the story. I was so into it I could not stop reading for 7 whole hours on the train

(Also help who are the three and a half souls you're talking about.... I thought it was "just" Earth but I've since been informed that Harrow has consumed part of Gideon's soul so that's the half.... who are the other two.... Harrow and Anastasia?)

And about Harrow and The Body.... I'm so curious what the whole deal is. I don't know if I missed something but like. Alecto's soul was inside her all along somehow, right? And also. ALSO. is Harrow's love for The Body just the result of part of her soul longing for its original body. And that's why once Alecto is back in her body and she kisses Harrow Harrow isn't pleased about it. I literally realized this right now as I was typing 'cause while reading I was so convinced THIS line:

was foreshadowing that "Harrow was Alecto all along and that's why she loves The Body so much" but actually that works even if Alecto is only part of her soul. And the fact that the spirit of the literal Earth (or at least the part of it that John couldn't consume) was just chilling inside her... no wonder Harrow was so powerful and also very mentally unstable

[paradoxcase]

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

So just fyi, the voice used for Pyrrha does change a bit between Harrow and Nona too.

Yeah, I remember that people have told me that, but it didn't seem different in this part of Harrow the Ninth where it definitely is Pyrrha speaking - but you're not really supposed to know that the first time through, so it probably would have been strange for there to be a different voice here

Harrow the prude was definitely freaking out about a kiss. Ironic, considering her first and only kiss was with an apparently dead woman. Ha.

That's funny, I just assumed Ianthe was used to some nasty stuff happening the first time through. But I mean... did Harrow never see her parents kiss? Or is it just because it's a corpse? I still have to wonder at Ianthe saying "oh, who hasn't done that" though, like kissing a corpse isn't that weird, but does everyone in the Nine Houses do this regularly?

I don't know how much Nona actually counts as Harrow, but I guess regarding the first kiss, you could be referring either to Nona kissing Kiriona or to Alecto kissing Harrow at the end of Nona. I... actually have no idea if Alecto counts as dead or not. Prior to being locked in the Tomb, I guess she wasn't really any more dead than the Lyctors and all of the first generation resurrectees and I'm not clear if being locked in the Tomb actually involved some kind of second death or not

[mrsfrecklesmarauders]

Marlene was sweating like a pig as she approached Dorcas. She looked beautiful as always. Nobody was around her. She was looking around kind of lost. Searching for someone to talk to.

If Marlene wasn't a bloody idiot, perhaps she could do this easily. But she liked Dorcas so much that she didn't want to ruin this opportunity.

Please, make this work Marlene. She told herself.

Dorcas' eyes met hers seconds before Marlene got near her. And she smiled. Marlene froze and her heart skipped a beat.

"Hi... You..."

Marlene was an idiot, Jesus Christ.

"McKinnon..."

How could someone be this beautiful?

"You look nice" Marlene said without thinking.

Dorcas' eyes set her eyes on Marlene for a second. Those perfect brown eyes of her.

"I like your sweater" Marlene pointed to the lilac fluffy sweater she was wearing.

"Thanks..."

"I mean it is a good color. You don't see much this color..." Marlene interrupted nervously "And it must be warm and soft..."

"I mean it is..."

"I used to have a blue one when I was younger. Very similar to this one..." Marlene continued quickly. Dorcas smiled amused "I used it everyday and all the time... It started to smell pretty badly... You know like sweat and old... I didn't want to get it off. I wonder why people didn't want to spend time with me..."

Dorcas chuckled.

"I mean I smelled" Marlene chuckled as well "Or maybe it was the fact that I have a weird personality. I seem angry and terrifying but I am actually pretty nice..."

Marlene noticed Dorcas bet her lip which made her hot and adorable at the same time.

"I don't know why I am saying all of these things... I am talking too much bullshit, aren't I?"

"Yeah..." Dorcas nodded.

"How embarrassing. I am sorry" Marlene chuckled. She could feel her cheeks on fire.

"Don't worry. It is adorable watching you struggle"

Now Marlene was sure that she was blushing. She swallowed. She didn't know why Dorcas made her do and say stupid things.

"What I meant was that you look great. Like nice and pretty and all" And Marlene choked with her saliva in the most stupid way ever.

Dorcas giggled and Marlene figured there was no more beautiful sound than that. God, she was so into this girl.

"Well, you look pretty too. McKinnon" Dorcas said nervously, biting her lip. Then her hand moved towards Marlene's hair. Marlene froze again "You hair looks nice today"

Marlene smiled blushing profoundly. She was thinking of something clever to say. Maybe ask Dorcas to dance or go for a drink. So they could chat more. Or maybe Marlene could make herself look even more ridiculous.

But Marlene couldn't say anything because they were interrupted.

"Dorcas!"

Dorcas' usual friends were calling her. Marlene wasn't sure if they were her friends because she hang out with them but she didn't have fun. And she never talked about them. Marlene tended to talk about her friends. Though they didn't have to know that.

Mulciber, Alecto, Amycus, and Avery...

Marlene wished Dorcas would stay with her. She deserved better.

"Gotta go, McKinnon"

Dorcas smiled apologetically.

"See you around..."

Before Marlene could do something else, Dorcas kissed her cheek before going to her group of friends. Dorcas Meadows kissed her cheek!

"Shit..." Marlene whispered when Dorcas was gone, thinking of all the things she could've done better.

Marlene liked Dorcas so much. But she didn't know what to bloody do. She wished she didn't act like a twat around her. And that was the problem.

[bantambookeater]

#no wonder alecto didn't know how to kiss 😭

the House of the Sewn Tongue, the Jawless Skull of the Ninth House or Anastasia performing homebrew mandible surgery

I like theories that she had a sewn tongue after failed lyctorhood or the tomb

Idk how much is this possible but I wanted to draw this idea, let Anastasia spill the tea