#that's why gideon the first was the third saint to ascend

[mayasaura]

I was thinking about how we don't actually know how Pyrrha died. Just that by her own telling, she "was killed," and that she was the first cavalier to die outside Cristabel and Alfred's suicide pact.

Before Nona came out, I suspected Gideon the First must have killed her, probably with her consent. That seems unlikely to me now, with everything we've learned about them in Nona.

Also before Nona came out, I came to the conclusion that the lyctors demanded John kill Alecto following a "great attack" on Canaan House and the revelation of what a Resurrection Beast is. Based on Mercymorn's assumption that Alecto was a freak who would attack her on sight, I also highly suspected that Alecto either participated in or perpetrated the attack on Canaan House, thus proving herself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untamed and dangerous in a way that not even John could talk his way out of.

I just recently noticed a detail in Nona the Ninth that might slot all this together like puzzle pieces:

Pyrrha has seen something very like Nona's tantrums before, and that memory scares her. Enough that she avoids even thinking about it.

I think Alecto may have killed Pyrrha.

[missholloween]

Trick-or-treat!

This fic is from April, and it's called "One mind, one voice, one flesh one end". It's the only think I've written for the tlt au, although this one was more Hatchetfiled focused @samuelandthesun, co-writer of the fic, hadn't read nona yet, so there were things I couldn't talk about when planning the au (no permeability of the soul sadly).

If I recall correctly, macnacross was second house, holloweane was fifth, lautski was third and holy ghost eight. Lexthan was out of this because Lex and Hannah were in a non-house planet. I would do things differently though, but this is still a solid idea.

Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth. TW for major character death and description of injuries

(also thanks again to mai for translating the first paragraph <3)

For their bones, for the decomposed flesh hanging from their predecessors’ bodies, she was not going to do what Canaan House’s bizarre mystery was showing her. She could mutilate her body, her soul, and even her fellow Houses’ ones. But she would not consent to killing her cavallier. If being a Lyctor meant giving up the only good thing left in this world, Miss Holloway refused to go through that.

“Holloway, what’s wrong? Have you figured it out? Do you know how to ascend?” Duke’s face was so full of hope it hurt her.

Holloway looked at him and smiles as she had done many other times. Duke knew when something was wrong, but he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to talk her out of whatever it was.

“We’re closer, yes, but I think I’ll need another lab more. I think the Sixth one is still–“

An explosion cut their words. Duke drew his rapier and stood between Holloway and the figure that was now in the door’s frame. Their gloomy hair was as greasy as it always was, now decorated with blood. With their cavalier’s blood.

“Duke, boy, don’t be like that. Is that how you greet a friend?”

Wilbur Cross, the necromancer of the Second House, was not the same person they had met before. Their eyes had become an unnatural blue, and they held their rapier with a dexterity they shouldn’t have. For a moment, Holloway saw the end of their hair turned blonde, although they quickly faded. Wherever MacNamara was, it wasn’t a better place.

“So, you’ve discovered it too” Holloway said, looking coldly at the person who had been able to do that to their cavalier.

“Please, John was begging on his knees for me to absorb him. He will now be a part of me forever.” Wilbur smiled cruely, did an eerie twirl, raised their sword and pointed to Holloway’s neck. Holloway raised a bone wall to stop him, but they cut through it effortlessly- Holloway barely escaped from it.

“Miss Holloway, whatever they have done, Wilbur is a lyctor already… So do the same!” Duke shouted, going towards Wilbur. “Or we won’t be able to stop them!”

Miss Holloway wasn’t willing to do it. There had to be another way to stop him. Is that what the Lord in Black had preached through the galaxy? Was that the reason they had been sent to that house? The saints couldn’t be built through blood. Their history wasn’t made of blood.

But there was no time to think. Wilbur danced between their rapier and their necromancing, attacking the couple from both sides and preventing them to move. Duke could follow the rhythm, but Holloway knew he could not last forever: thanergy was flooding through the newly created lyctor, and Holloway knew they weren’t even trying.

“Why are you playing, Holly? Don’t you think I should see your maximum potential?” Wilbur laughed maniacally just to, some seconds later, return to the perfect stand that had belonged to their partner.

Suddenly, their eyes glew.

“Oh, I get it now.” Wilbur stopped their sword, and let Duke take the lead. “I’m sorry, boy. Believe me, it’s nothing personal.”

Wilbur’s “slip” had not been anything but a trap. When Duke crossed Wilbur’s space, a bone coming from the lyctor cut through Duke’s ribcages. It didn’t take long to expand, damaging the cavalier’s intestines and lungs.

“Duke!” Holloway could barely speak through her tears. “Don’t leave. D-don’t…”

“You know what has to be done, Holly. I can help you, if you’d like.”

Wilbur held out their hand, but Holloway didn’t take it. Her hands were already inside Duke.

[llovelyclouds]

notes on gideon (the first)

here's all the relevant info on gideon the first i took note of during my tlt reread, in one place!

(you can find the rest of the posts related to this project here!)

GIDEON THE FIRST

titles:

Third saint to ascend, first gen, founded the second, the saint of duty

notes from gideon the ninth:

G1deon & Pyrrha's room in Canaan house includes a drawing of a chimaera that Gideon describes as "familiar" (the imaging & response construct) and a picture on the wall of John and his pals (presumably) with everyone's faces scribbled out with a thick black marker. Also guns (gtn. pg. 205)

notes from harrow the ninth:

the saint of duty (htn. pg. 177)

most likely really freaked out the first time he saw an RB (htn. pg. 173)

Doesn't respond to pain? (htn. pg. 188)

Made a pact with an authority John has no control over (Alecto???? Pyrrha???) that he would protect John from all dangers (htn. pg. 194)

“The Saint of Duty was a thanergy void. The Saint of Duty was the ultimate nemesis of a bone adept.” (htn. pg. 225)

“The closest thing to interest [Gideon] ever showed in anybody was in Pyrrha, and in the criminals he hunted. [...] When he kicked that Edenite commander out an airlock, it was like seeing a man on his wedding day. Not exactly romance though… Harrow, over ten thousand years I’ve known that man, and he is legendarily unamourous. I have watched six other Lyctors carry out a myriad’s worth of inadvisable love affairs with one another, because it is a very long time to be alone, but never him. He was unassailable.” -John (htn. Pg. 228). 

Is described by Augustine as getting really specific obsessions, has stopped listening to anyone, and has caused Augustine a lot of trouble in the last 40 years (htn. pg. 268)\

Pyrrha was ten years older than Augustine, so pre-resurrection G1deon was besties with a cop probably at least 20 years older than him ?? (htn. pg. 278)

John says that G1deon doesn’t talk about her (alecto), but Augustine and Mercy still feel guilty about what happened (htn. pg. 345)

"Don't know why Gideon was always so obsessed with [Wake]... he never cared about beauty, and she was repellent to talk to." - Mercymorn (htn. pg. 409)

Mattaius Nonius fought G1deon, and seems to owe Pyrrha a debt (htn. pg. 455)

I think John at least had some idea about G1deons memory loss/what was up with his and Pyrrha's lyctorhood based on how Pyrrha (pretending to be G1deon) says she didn't know anything about the affair with Wake (htn. pg. 473)

notes from nona the ninth:

"'I'd need my necromancer to teach Camilla.' 'Why?' 'Because you need teaching to be an asset, and Cam wants teaching to be a killer.'"- Pyrrha and Palamades (ntn. pg. 28)

Knew John since they were kids (ntn. pg. 74)

"No, I don't blame you man… He was always looking for things to throw himself on." -Pyrrha, talking about G1deon to Varun (??) (ntn. pg. 116) 

The parallel to Gideon's death… i'm sooo normal. 

Was an engineer pre-resurrection (ntn. pg. 129)

“P- volunteered to go with him, but G- said he wouldn’t arm it if P- was in range. P- went off at him, but it was one of those times where he held his ground against her. I remember. She called him a stupid kid. [...] I took G- downstairs and I got him to face the wall, and I took his arm off. [...] He didn’t feel any pain, and I grew him a new one then and there. Bit of a gamble, but I was sure I could do that by then. I wanted his arm… his material. He didn’t even ask me to explain. That was the kind of guy he was. He and I had grown up on the same street. I’d spotted him for mince pies all the time as kids, so stands to reason he let me cut off his arm and carried a nuke for me. [...] Should still be around here. The arm, I mean. I stuffed it in the morgue so nobody would find it. I've got plans for that arm.” (ntn. pg. 399)

“He was immovable. That was why I wanted him in: G- only listened to two people in his fucking life.” (ntn. Pg. 402)

Died from John reaching out to stop his heart (ntn. Pg. 407)

“I liked you. He liked you-  Gideon liked you. my necromancer and I always liked you… and hey, what's like except a love that hasn't been invited indoors?” - Pyrrha, to Nona (ntn. pg. 461)

[mayasaura]

But let's say she did. One of the reasons Alecto was locked in the Tomb was because she killed Pyrrha. Why did she do it? Well, because, as Nona would put it, she had a tantrum. Why did she have a tantrum?

When the lyctors first came to John asking about what they called lyctorhood, Alecto didn't understand what they were asking for. She didn't know it would be so close to what John had done to her. I have a feeling she figured it out pretty damn quickly once she saw what Mercy, Cris, Alfred, and Augustine had done. And she completely lost her shit.

Of course Pyrrha would be the one to step in, that's just who she is. And that's why Gideon the First was the third Saint to ascend to lyctorhood.

I was thinking about how we don't actually know how Pyrrha died. Just that by her own telling, she "was killed," and that she was the first cavalier to die outside Cristabel and Alfred's suicide pact.

Before Nona came out, I suspected Gideon the First must have killed her, probably with her consent. That seems unlikely to me now, with everything we've learned about them in Nona.

Also before Nona came out, I came to the conclusion that the lyctors demanded John kill Alecto following a "great attack" on Canaan House and the revelation of what a Resurrection Beast is. Based on Mercymorn's assumption that Alecto was a freak who would attack her on sight, I also highly suspected that Alecto either participated in or perpetrated the attack on Canaan House, thus proving herself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untamed and dangerous in a way that not even John could talk his way out of.

I just recently noticed a detail in Nona the Ninth that might slot all this together like puzzle pieces:

Pyrrha has seen something very like Nona's tantrums before, and that memory scares her. Enough that she avoids even thinking about it.

I think Alecto may have killed Pyrrha.

[auber-dee]

#that's why gideon the first was the third saint to ascend #alecto saw what mercy cris alfred and augustine had done and lost her shit #of course pyrrha would be the one to step in and confront her #that's the kind of person she is (op’s tags)

I was thinking about how we don't actually know how Pyrrha died. Just that by her own telling, she "was killed," and that she was the first cavalier to die outside Cristabel and Alfred's suicide pact.

Before Nona came out, I suspected Gideon the First must have killed her, probably with her consent. That seems unlikely to me now, with everything we've learned about them in Nona.

Also before Nona came out, I came to the conclusion that the lyctors demanded John kill Alecto following a "great attack" on Canaan House and the revelation of what a Resurrection Beast is. Based on Mercymorn's assumption that Alecto was a freak who would attack her on sight, I also highly suspected that Alecto either participated in or perpetrated the attack on Canaan House, thus proving herself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untamed and dangerous in a way that not even John could talk his way out of.

I just recently noticed a detail in Nona the Ninth that might slot all this together like puzzle pieces:

Pyrrha has seen something very like Nona's tantrums before, and that memory scares her. Enough that she avoids even thinking about it.

I think Alecto may have killed Pyrrha.