#ortus the ninth

[yurithusiast]

Harrow The Ninth chapter 21 out of context:

The S was drawn by me on my phone using my index finger 🫶🏻

[tlturl]

please feel free to elaborate in the notes

[ninthhousefacepaint]

But think about how Ortus writes poems, so he is the poet, Gideon wanted to be a soldier, so she's the soldier, and Harrow was the Reverend Daughter, and the Lyctor, so she's the King. Soldier, poet, king. Ortus, Gideon, Harrow.

[deeply-stupid-and-easily-pleased]

You canNOT convince me this isn't Ortus Nigenad

[skydaemon]

oh my god i just realised my cat and i have the exact dynamic of harrow and ortus. like a needy little girl and her manservant who is also the only person on the planet stopping her from getting hit by a car

[mercymornsimpathizer]

they both became guard dogs

[nonasemporium]

ortus

send me a character [Ortus] and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: Every moment of Harrow the Ninth he was there, I was for him. Favorite thing is hard to list because there's a few different things--I like his investment in Matthias and the Noniad in general, I like that he clearly has a lot of insight after his death on the Ninth, I like that he has this clear undercurrent of frustration and how it was bubbling out of him despite himself. I like how much of a person he is.

least favorite thing about them: Nothing I can say about him is anything he doesn't already know about himself tbh. I guess that despite everything he turned around to thinking maybe he should've been a cav or tried to be a cav, like the whole system is fucked, not that he's necessarily unaware it sucks, but it'd be cool to think a little bigger as well to how horrible the Houses are as a whole rather than live in the daydreams of heroics.

favorite line: Oh, there's so many I love him so much actually, truly: Ortus primly said he thought that nobody who read the Noniad would be the sort of churl who misread a simple and evocative collocation like bone frenzy; he went on to suggest that such a person probably didn’t even read in the first place, and would be more inclined to trifle with prurient magazines or pamphlets than to bother themselves with a complex epic such as the Noniad; he said that he wouldn’t want such a person to read his poetry anyway. or: “Nigenad,” she said, “I am what I am, and I am seventeen. Yet I assure you that I contain multitudes.” “I am fully aware of that, my lady,” said Ortus. Which was perfectly correct of him to say. But Harrow somehow did not like the way he said it. or: “Harrowhark—I don’t understand why you chose me.” Harrow said, “There was nobody else.” His mask slipped, and not the mask made of alabaster and black paint. Ortus looked at her with his steady dark gaze, and his heavy face flickered; she realised with electrified astonishment that he was exasperated. “You never did possess an imagination,” he said, and, obviously upset with himself, his mask reappeared as swiftly as if slapped back on with both hands. or: “You knew,” she said. “You knew the whole time that Mortus the Ninth died at their command.” Now Ortus’s face changed. It slid a second time into paint-splattered, black-irised, hooded contempt. He looked at her as though she were tedious. He looked at her as though he did not know who she was. His contempt made the doors she heard in her ears slam in an orchestra of unfathomable sound. He looked at her as though she were a squalling infant; as though she had not spoken, but rather opened her mouth and vomited. “Harrow,” he said curtly, “you are not the only person who can add up two and two, and arrive at four.” and finally, because I could keep going: Ortus dropped his book. He rose from the chair. He put his arms about her. The dead cavalier held her with a quiet, unassuming firmness; he petted her hair like a brother, and he said, “I am so sorry, Harrowhark. I am sorry for everything … I am sorry for what they did … I am sorry that I was no kind of cavalier to you. I was so much older, and too selfish to take esponsibility, and too affrighted by the idea of doing anything difficult or painful. I was weak because weakness is easy, and because rebuff is hard. I should have known there was really nobody left … I should have seen the cruelty in what Crux and Aiglamene encouraged you to bear. I knew what had happened to my father, and I suspected for so long what had happened to the Reverend Father and Mother. I knew I had been spared, somehow, from the crèche flu, and that my mother had been driven demented by the truth. I should have offered help. I should have died for you. Gideon should still be alive. I was, and am, a grown man, and you both were neglected children.”

brOTP: Honestly, him and Harrow, and it's tragic and it's horrible and neither would choose it, but also in the end there, I think they do see each other. If Harrow isn't an option or if I'm talking about a more equal friendship, him working out his beef with Protesilaus is fun.

OTP: I literally will die on the hill that Colum x Ortus is the best fucking ship for both of them, I will ride for them into fucking battle, I fucking love it so much please everyone open your hearts. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed AND ALONE. The PARALLELS when Ortus is Harrow's cavalier. Let me in, LET ME IN.

nOTP: I cannot imagine pairing him with Harrow or Gideon and meaning it. None of them would be happy there at all, ever.

random headcanon: Genuinely think that Gideon was being kept partially to have to have cav children with him and that's why she got even a little cav training and it makes me sick to think of and I think it's both part of her revulsion at him and also his avoidance of her.

unpopular opinion: I don't know why this is unpopular but he was ready to tear Protesilaus apart, he was so threatened and infuriated by him and it was so funny to me. "And that other dog, too, who is he," he was mad as hell. King.

song i associate with them: I know this is so strange, but legitimately 'Underworld' from Epic: The Musical. He has so many overlapping sentiments--guilt, rage, despair, loss, pride, longing, etc.

favorite picture of them: this piece actually

[incoherentbee]

i think ortus failed harrow and gideon, but i don't think he's at fault for that.

he didn't act as a proper adult for either of them, but can you blame him? overnight ALL of his peers die, he and a single foundling remain, and soon after the revered parents announce their expecting. i think this is when ortus, 17 years old and heartbroken, realize what the Parents did.

can you look me in the eyes and tell me a seventeen year old child should have stepped up and been responsible for that foundling? given her some warmth on the nine, when he himself saw what horrors that warmth and comfort can morph into, over the course of 20 minutes? and how could he stand up and say what horrors the Parents commuted, they own his entire life! he is set to be the cavalier primary for the next generation! any none nineers he told would have assumed him compliment!!

when the Parents and mortus kill themselves, yes the 27 year old ortus should have done something for the last of the month's youth, but he just lost his father. and lord knows his mother would not make stepping up for the girls easy. he was too busy with the personal grief of loosing a parent and trying to keep the other together!

the ninth house isn't known for producing the most emotionally mature, well rounded people, so how could ortus have actually known he was meant to help? he didn't know about harrows insanity till the dream bubbles, and harrow kept him at arms length (even that maybe a generious descriptor of how close harrow let him get in life.) he didn't have a clear opportunity to comfort either of them, so he just Didn't.

like he said in the bubbles, he choice inactivity in life because it was easier. it's easier to fail the last of the ninth house than it is speak up against the rulers of your entire planet.

tl;dr- ortus failed harrow and gideon bc the revered parents failed to protect and nurture the ninth

[spinningthehamsterwheel]

tamsyns 30k gideon pov epistolary au

I'm sorry, her what

i think theres a solidly non-zero chance atn gets split up again and the locked tomb series becomes a pentalogy but the main reason I think that wont happen is I'm guessing we've run out of possible ____ the ninth characters. perhaps valentine the ninth is still on the table from tamsyns 30k gideon pov epistolary au. although if tor decided to suddenly announce bonus book four: Anastasia the ninth i think my dash would lose its collective mind. (same.)

[notedchampagne]

each house gets one rendering style the economy is dire

[faradayke]

is this harrow the ninth?

[wishgrub]

me and the bad bitches i pulled by giving myself a lobotomy <3

[theriverbeyond]

i guess we doin Ơ̴̢̧̙̗͖͍͕͈͚͓̞̣̜̗̘̥̺͔̦̠̠̻̬̼͔͈̹̏̎̈́̓̎̀̆̚ͅṘ̶̨̨̹̱͚̖͖̦̙̱͔͓̠̹̼͍͉̪͇̩̦͎͈̱̣̱̥̫̦̒͝T̴͖͙͓͈̞͖̤̹̪̲̣̭͈̯̝̼̦̬̰͔͗̐̽̓̒̂͋͒͂͛̽̂̐͗̀̎͊̒̌̓͘͜͜͜͠͠͠U̵͉͙͓̝̟̮̦͇͉̩̺̙͙̜͔̔̃͂̇̽̈̊́̈́̈́̇̓͆̂̑̓̀͆̌̑̕̚̚͠ͅS̴̢̠̥̭̤̣̏̃̄͌̏̔͒͌̑́͊̓̓̃́͂̾̿͐͑̂̚͠ now

[wildgeese98]

Harrow the Ninth was actually just a really long elaborate prank on Ortus.

[vaduart]

Harrowhark doodles

(i was rereading hnt. Guys you can't understand how much i love every moment of ortus and harrow in htn. this duo is phenomenal! the narration is so funny, they are funny i love them)

[smittyw]