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starberry-cupcake · 1 month

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Things were happening too much. Gideon "Griddle" Nav, Chapter 30

I'm gonna have to split these up because there's so much going on.

previously, in gideon the ninth:

this happened

currently, having finished chapter 34:

well, I am exhausted and I'm just reading this

"gideon can't catch a break" should be the subtitle of this book

we literally can't finish a world-shattering disaster, we're onto the next one

the skeletons can't clean the blood fast enough

so, palmolive has a plan

palmolive's plans are like my cousin playing d&d, he talks as if the plan is bulletproof but then you hear him and it's some looney tunes shit

they work more frequently than not, which is infuriating but also moves things along

I feel like I'm constantly arguing with this guy in my head

palmolive's plan is to use the mind reading thingy harrow leveled up when they won against the first boss to show her mentally how dulcinea's key was so that they can break in that door

there are 2546 things that could go wrong with this, but he says he's super sure

he's not, in fact, super sure, but it works

camilla, my qp wife, has the poker face of the century

they look at the room and find some stuff, pins in a board, necromancer notes, the fact that the skeletons aren't constructs, you know, the usual

oh and that teacher and the other dudes are all super dead

which, we all kinda knew that

the fact that the old man didn't have a heart attack at this point is prove enough he doesn't have a beating heart to begin with

I'm gonna say, I love learning book lore and understanding how things work in said lore, but this book is making me feel terribly dumb

I don't know if it's a language barrier, the fact that Gideon doesn't understand the stuff herself and she's the narrator or what, but I feel so dumb sometimes reading their explanations

the gist of it, I believe, is that they don't know what's powering them to do what they do...or who

they can't really delve into it because a fire alarm goes off

I haven't blamed dulcinea for things yet but you know how I feel about her, they check on her and she's still alive, so she's still a threat in my book

they fix the alarm but they can't really delve into it because the Second has murdered Teacher (he wasn't alive but he kind of was, you know how it is) and ratted them out to the Emperor

but Teacher says "one of them" can't come back, which makes me think this isn't as simple as they think it is

the second is a goner btw

they were a goner the moment they thought they could take on Camilla The Everything, love of my life

but they can't really delve into it because mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew tell them the third have opened up abigail's body

they can't really delve into that either because palmolive figures out that abigail had a key inside her body and the third have gone through the door it opened

the third is like when you have a dog that's constantly making noise and then, for 10 straight minutes you don't hear them, so you just know they've done something bad

so gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my qp wife, mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew all go to confront the third

yandere simulator twin is bloody and cryptic in the middle of the room

I could go on a tangent and talk about the madwoman archetype in victorian literature and how she's a representation of the 'lucia' archetype (no relation to me), dulcinea of the 'ophelia' and maybe regina george twin could be a closeted 'jane'

I'm not going to, though, you're welcome for that

so regina george twin is crying in a corner (gideon is emotionally doing the same, probably) and chad is dead on the ground

get wrecked, asshole

well, he's not dead-dead, nobody in this book is ever dead-dead, this is the hotel california of space

yandere twin has absorbed chad's ghost like piccolo and kami sama in dragon ball (rip akira toriyama)

she says she's figured it all out and the whole test was so a necro would soul-fuse with a cav, one flesh one blood one end one bed, I forgot how the oath went

I don't think she's figured it out because we're not ending this book yet

palmolive also doesn't think so

very important note: there's writing on the wall (literal and metaphorical) again saying "you lied to us" and it's the same writing that was featured before and we still don't know what that's about

so the eighth goes berserk and mayonnaise uncle wants to fight yandere twin for slurping chad's soul

duracell bunny nephew goes like "I'm not sure about this" and that was the moment I knew he was toast

I have already established I feel dumb reading the explanations but, for what I can understand, what the eighth does is that the necro detaches the soul of the cav and makes him astral project elsewhere for a time but there's always a tether to bring him back, if that is broken or he drifts too far he can't come back but other things could go into his body instead, or something like that

which is what happens

I thought that the recent dead had, because gideon says there were six people in him, and we've got 6 dead (protozoa, the unknown corpse, the 2 teens and the bride and groom), but idk

all this happens after yandere twin fights using chad's moves and some magic body jelly

this is body horror territory, there are tongues coming out of orifices that should not have tongues and goo flying all over the place

the eighth is dead at the end of it, yandere twin and her inner chad are gone and regina george twin is crying because she wanted to be the one absorbed, which I guess makes sense considering she was training with swords

you know, I had my suspicions that maybe she wasn't a necro after all, but harrow distracted me when she said she must have been a good one

so now we're down to: gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my wife, regina george twin, yandere twin w/inner chad and dulcinea my mortal enemy

and whoever it is that's coming in after the second contacted whatever number there was in the space phone tree

also, protozoa was one of the two bodies that were cooked earlier on, we still don't know who the second is

there's more we don't know than what we do know

see you on the next one, if you're not yet tired of me

#luly reacts to tlt #tlt #gideon the ninth #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth spoilers #long post

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dabblingreturns · 1 year

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One of the most fascinating things in the locked tomb is the juxtaposition between systematic cruelty and personal kindness.

The nine houses and their Shepard worlds are designed to be hostile and Blood of Eden is not known for there clean hands either.

the 1st house is a killing ground powered by the trapped dead

The 2nd and 4th houses are factories for soldiers.

The 8th are religious fanatics.

the ninth house a death cult

The 3rd is a cutthoat gossip hell with cannibalism produced by the CW

The 7th glorifies illness and suffering for no good reason.

The 6th is Academia....which is not a societal group known for there kindness.

We never get to see the cruelty of the 5th they are too polite for that, but no faction that much power without making hard choices over and over again.

The refugee worlds of Nona is a shitty scary place full of upset people.

these places sound horrible.

but over and over again, we see characters who love unselfishly characters who are are kind, character who trust, and characters who want the best for those around them.

Magnus and Abigail who can have no children of there own and instead care for wayward shitty teen.

Corona who cares are Judith even when Judith is almost impossible to care for.

Isaac who just wants to get home to all his little siblings, and Jeanmarie who treats Gideon nav as the older sister she never had.

Judith who just wants everyone to survive, even though she lacks the skill to articulate the desire.

Marta who is flawed and boring and honorable and funny. and who threw herself into battle for anyone she thought might have a point.

Colum Ast who has been worn down into nothing but still refused to break his word to a rude teenage girl who has been chattel her whole life as well.

Protessalous with his roses and his poetry and his kindness to Ortus who has forgotten how to have firends.

Dulcie with her need for truth.

Ortus Nigonad, who is the first person we ever really see form the ninth house who tried to make amends for his past neglect.

Aiglamine and Crux who could not love the children they way they needed to be loved, but they loved them all the same.

Mattius Nonius who came when called to defend people he had never met and who's only complaint was about talking in meter.

Camilla and Palamedes and there insistence that Nona get Agency! and Harrow get compassion, and that Gideon should get forgiveness and also extra food.

Pyrrha with her love, for her necromancer, for her almost daughter Gideon, for the woman she loved, and for the two young people she came to love.

Joli who I have a whole post about.

the Angel who was a vet and became a teacher and got the last of their students out.

we suffer who took a chance on crown, and pyrrha and teh sixth,

And Hot Sause who showed Nona how to forgive and the other children from the gang who cared for each other and Nona and their families.

and I've probably missed some, but these are characters who could turn away, say this isn't my problem, do less, but instead....they chose kindness.

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liesmyth · 4 months

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TLT holiday exchange: it's a wrap!

Authors have been revealed for the @tlt-holiday-exchange. You can find the full collection here; you can find my rec list here.

Thanks to everyone who created, beta-read, left feedback, or otherwise helped this event come together. You rock ❤️💀✨

What I Wrote

slash and burn for the wonderful @/forjodssake. Augustine/John, pre-Resurrection. ft. Augustine's mango vape and John's pathetic swag. Rated M.

“Fuck you,” John says. “I can do rizz.”

Exchange MPVs

Shoutouts to the creators with multiple works in the collection!

PyrrhaDveotee with 13 (!!!!) works. Here they are.

LesbianJesusLovesYou with SIX different works. Here they are.

with FIVE works each: Sluggg (here) and Kat_Hikari (here)

with FOUR works each: @thewinterstale (here) and @celira (here)

with THREE works each: @arithmonym (here) // @friendamedes (here and here) // Raxheim @theriverbeyond (here)

with TWO works each: @aspiranthect (here) // atropinecapra @youweremyridehome (here) // CindFourth @cindthia (here) // Lilac_Jam (here) // @rnanqo (here)

Art!!

Now that creators are public, you can check the art pieces in the collection to see if they are rebloggable on here or twitter.

You can find all the SIXTEEN art pieces in the collection here.

Read on under the cut to find: FIVE (!!!) newer additions to the collection that you might have missed and SEVEN (!!!!) long fics over 15k.

Hot New Entries!!

Some works were posted after the collection revealed, and you might have missed them. Here they are:

Absorbed by grey stone by CookieNS. Rated G.

Aiglamene and Pelleamena share a brief moment after the captain returns from the Cohort.

just like normal by paene. Rated E.

Ianthe gives herself a cock, and Corona is increasingly bewildered that she hasn’t been allowed to sit on it yet.

refreshments provided by Anonymous. Rated E. [ART FILL!]

Abigail Pent getting her tits sucked at a conference by Juno Zeta, as she deserves

Ritual of the Unkissed Skull by Raxheim. Harrow Nova; Rated E.

“There’s a benefit, you know. To not being my real cavalier. It means I can do this,” Gideon says, and kisses Harrow.

the soft animal of your body by pussymedes. Camilla/Nona, Rated E.

Nona goes into heat.

Longfics

We have SEVEN works over 15k words of length. Here they are:

Softly Falling, Tumbling Down by @ambiguouswren. Modern AU. Rated T. 28k.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus lived a perfectly fine life running The Anchorite's Archive, her family's bookshop that she inherited. Then a red haired menace entered her life and turned everything she thought she knew upside down.

come, dearest heart by @patiencespardon. HtN AU, Lyctor Palamedes, Rated E. 20k

In Canaan House, Palamedes Sextus unwillingly ascends to Lyctorhood in order to put an end to Cytherea the First's rampage. He's left heartbroken, grieving, and terribly, terribly lonely.

Reasonable Service by duplicitoussluts. Canaan House Era, Rated E. 19k.

Cristabel and Mercy have a disagreement. Mercy decides to make herself free use about it.

Prey by apredatorywasp. Serial killer AU, Rated E. 18k.

Gideon Nav gets kidnapped by serial killer Cytherea. With the help of her faithful sub Loveday, Cytherea tortures Gideon and tries to break her. Meanwhile, Harrow--joined by Camilla, Palamedes, Corona and Ianthe--searches for Gideon.

here is the church, here is the steeple by thewinterstale. Pre-canon. Rated T, 17k.

Pyrrha Dve once helped with a birth and painted a nursery mint green. Before the paint and before the blood, amidst tragic loss and heart-pounding necromantic discoveries, a quiet, saltwater love story was playing itself out in the shallow depths of the Canaan House swimming pool.

Ain't no sunshine when they're gone by Nightworldlove. Modern AU, Rated E, 16k.

Harrow's been on a business trip and Gideon's missed them terribly, turns out the feeling is very much mutual.

run on (for a long time) by @midnightbaguette. Western AU! Rated T. 16k

It's a wild west out there, full of supernatural forces and dangerous outlaws. Under the direst of circumstances, four of the unlikeliest companions must band together to outrun their pasts, and maybe find something new along the way.

Thank you for reading this far and thanks as always to the mods for another year of holiday deliciousness. If this list helped you find cool stuff in the collection, please let the creators know <3

#tlt fic #fic recs #tlt holiday ex 2023 #tlt fanfic #tlt fanart #tlt #the locked tomb #if you enjoyed these pls leave feedback on the collection <3 #WE FINISH THE SEASON WITH 117 WORKS!!

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corpsesoldier · 2 years

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so. kiriona huh?

under the cut: full nona spoilers, plus me trying to process some thoughts and coming to very few conclusions

what a kick in the teeth that was, huh?

I want to touch on two main things about gideon's appearance as kiriona in ntn: kiriona's behavior toward the other characters and kiriona as revenant and how I think those things might be related.

so I'm open to both the ideas I've seen floating around wrt to kiriona's behavior in ntn, those being 1) this is an extremely traumatized, sad, and angry but functionally complete gideon nav and 2) that this is only a fragment of gideon's soul.

I think enough people mention "parts" of souls enough times for the fragment theory to have weight, as well as the interview in which tamsyn compares gideon's soul to a happy meal (yeah) and saying that harrow only ever ate the hamburger, whither the fries and drink, etc. maybe what we're seeing is the discarded plastic toy of gideon nav's soul.

however, there are things kiriona says and does that are absolutely 100% gideon. I think what's giving a lot of people pause is kiriona's apparent indifference to seeing her friends and allies again and, most significantly, her indifference over seeing harrow's body. for better or worse, one of gideon's defining characteristics is that she cares a whole fuck of a lot about harrowhark nonagesimus. kiriona acts aloof and unconcerned about all that for a good chunk of her page time in ntn, but particularly near the end we some behavior break through that facade that we would more readily associate with gideon (holding harrow's body and telling her to keep it together when nona starts to come apart; telling alecto to get in line when she offers harrow her service).

so, yknow, I think either option is fair game at this point, but unequivocally this is gideon, at least in part.

so then, this is gideon. and given that, there are some behaviors that I am having trouble reconciling with the gideon we've seen thus far.

I have a hard time believing that gideon would shove an injured and dying cam the way that she does, but hey, she's having a really, really bad day. just what we've seen her experience on page could fill her therapy appointments for the next myriad, and idk what eight months with only john "gaslight" gaius and ianthe "girlboss" tridentarius will do to a mf. I am withholding judgement.

but even moreso than that, I have a hard time reconciling the gideon we see in htn with whatever the hell kiriona's got going on with ianthe. gideon hates ianthe. gideon is furious with ianthe for the way that she treated harrow throughout htn, and yet kiriona and ianthe have friendship bracelets and a secret handshake. and so I'm wondering: how much does kiriona remember about the events of htn?

I'm also interested in why god made gideon into a revenant. he did not have to do that—he's god. presumably he could have fixed her body and put her soul back where it belongs, provided he had access to both those things. and yet kiriona is tied to her own mutilated corpse. is, in her own words, mega-dead. why?

perhaps because john wants total control over this asset, this weapon he's created. john, who "knows where remembrance lives in the brain" and is perfectly willing to exploit that. now, he did that with his lyctors while bringing them completely back to life, but gideon has always been a special case. gideon survived nerve gas as a toddler. gideon made harrow's much-abused skull go SPANG back into shape after a few minutes residence in her meat. maybe if john put gideon's soul back in a living body, gideon's healing factor has the ability to revert whatever alterations he may have made to her brain.

(this is assuming I know how revenants work, which is a big assumption. is whatever kiriona's got going on even being processed through gideon's brain, if that brain is dead? unsure. I am not a spirit magician.)

but regardless, we've had a couple examples of how integral memory is to identity in the locked tomb, the biggest one from this very book being nona-who-is-alecto, but alecto-who-is-not-nona. plus the lyctors with their memory of god's fallibility removed, plus harrow reduced by her half-remembered life.

and then there's what kiriona says to aigalemene, "don't—that's where my heart used to be."

is it possible that kiriona gaia is a gideon with the parts most inconvenient to god cut away?

#edit: I’m making this unrebloggable because I don’t totally agree with it anymore but feel free to observe my thought process #idk I don't usually theorypost but I've been thinking about my baby for the last twelve hours so this is what you get #be nice to me I got five hours sleep because I was laying awake thinking about gideon nav #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #gideon nav #kiriona gaia #john gaius #mine

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displayheartcode · 8 days

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if you were going to write a (new, not a previous project) tam lin au, what would it be for and who would you cast in the roles?

Oh…OH…

Gideon Nav, a runaway, has found herself in a tight spot. In an attempt to make herself useful as a sellsword, she’s trapped riding a skeletal beast among the banks of the river.

Blood of my blood, the god under the water warbles. Soon, I will wake.

Gideon dunks him another corpse to feed on.

This is what she gets for bleeding in strange rivers.

When not bringing her miserable puddle of a father dead people, she broods in the forest and practices her sword forms. She dreams of freedom — of salt water and adventures. But, Gideon’s daydreams are interrupted by a sudden appearance from her past. A blood-drenched rag of a woman has found her way in the forest in search of a spell to make her powerful enough to face gods.

Much to Harrow’s disappointment, her bone-scrying has brought her to the ward who once stomped around her father’s castle.

And much to Gideon’s equal disappointment, they find a use in each other.

A tenuous connection is made between them.

Eventually, after much fighting and a near-drowning incident, Harrow finds a way to free Gideon from the river. On a mirk and midnight hour, Harrow scrambles for the reins of Gideon’s hellish horse, but John’s magic is a tricky thing to face. They fall into the river, still clutching each other as Gideon changes in her arms – into beasts and flames and hateful things.

There are false promises made as John speaks through Gideon’s mouth. Little saint of devotion, give up my daughter, and I will teach you how to become deathless.

Let me go, Gideon says. I will not let you die for me!

Harrow wrenches Gideon’s sword free with one hand. She’s choking, her lungs filling with brackish water that shouldn’t belong in the river. But she steadies herself, drawing on the dead that are buried in the mud for power.

“Step off, bitch.”

With the sheer force of hope, with the sheer force of want, she keeps hold of Gideon with one hand and dives the sword through with the other.

The spell breaks.

They live.

#griddlehark #gideon the ninth #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #fic #alecsalamander

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gingerlurk · 3 months

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Lovers' Crest | Chapter 15: Lovers Break

Din Djarin x f!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: All things must break.

Word count: 4.3k

Warnings: 18+ MDNI, slow burn, non-canon (the Razor Crest never gets destroyed, it also gets upgraded with a cabin), post season 3, ANGST, I'm sorry, flashback, Reader's f'd up backstory is in play, implied trauma, bad relatives, canon characters present.

A/N: I'm so nervous about posting this chapter. Pretty sure I lost readers when it first went up on AO3. But I promise there's a happy ending in store, it's just going to hurt for a little bit. Thank you for reading, you're so great.

After a particularly long session of exploring each other’s bodies and pleasures, you sleep deep for an age, swimming in dreams of him. Voice and hands and tender kisses everywhere. Eventually though, you break the surface and blink awake, stretching a hand out to Din’s side of the bed. Your fingers caress the cold covers.

It’s not uncommon for him to rise before you wake; he’s the restless type. Still, right now, it unsettles you.

With the will of worlds, you get up to dress and stumble some minutes later into the bright cockpit while rubbing at crusty eyes. The first thing you clock is an unfamiliar nav path on the instruments.

Something about it makes your stomach churn.

Stepping up behind Din seated in his pilot chair, you snake your arms around his chest and lean over a pauldron-clad shoulder. He reaches a hand up to link gloved fingers with your own. His fully armoured state of dress just adds to the hot and unhappy roiling in your gut.

You’re going somewhere. Somewhere important.

‘Hey,’ you say, clearing your throat some.

‘Hey,’ he responds. He tugs on your arm to get some purchase and turns in his chair to face you, settling his knees on either side of yours. ‘Good sleep?’

‘Oh yeah,’ you reply, hands now resting on his chest. ‘I think my brain shut off entirely after you… did that thing you did…’

He chuckles, coaxes you into his lap so you sit side-on and he can loop his arms around your waist. One of your own goes across his shoulders, the other fingers at his chest plate, toys at the edge of his bandolier. He presses the forehead of his helm into your cheek, murmurs, ‘Mm, well when you have trouble sleeping, I now know what to do.’

You huff a light laugh. ‘You’d do that on request, would you?’ you say, meaning it in jest.

But he goes quiet. He raises a hand and runs it through your hair, draws circles behind your ear. For a long moment, he holds you so tender you could cry. ‘I think you know by now that I would do anything you ask, cyar’ika,’ he whispers.

You shiver, feel a pulse of pleasure over your whole body. But that now familiar sharp pang again, gods always so intrusive, makes you straighten up and hasten to change the tone.

‘We’re going somewhere?’ you say, gesturing at the control panel now behind him. Din’s head tilts up and leans back a little to look square at you.

He holds your gaze for another long beat, studying. You do your best to look passive, curious. He just keeps staring.

Now anxious, you prompt, ‘A job?’

A reverie of some kind lifts, he gives the merest shrug as he twists you both around to the front of the ship. He holds you against him with one arm and reaches for the navigation pane with another.

‘No, not a job,’ he murmurs. ‘I have received a summons to my Covert.’

You frown. ‘To go back to Mandalore?’ you ask.

He shakes his head.

‘No,’ he says again, any playfulness that was between you now gone. ‘They’re here.’ He points to a planet in a system you don’t really know.

Still uneasy in this terrain, traversing this subject that is essentially Din himself, you puzzle over how to ask for more.

‘What, uh…’ you trail off immediately.

He doesn’t make you flounder about though. ‘After the battle for Mandalore and the defeat of Moff Gideon,’ he intones, ‘we Mandalorians began a journey to become united as a people.’

You nod along, having had this recent history lesson already.

‘Many settled on the home world, to rebuild. But we are still built to travel the stars. And now, Bo-Katan has ordered my Covert to patrol this system,’ he says, pointing. He tilts his helm back up to you, an air of fate in his movements. ‘There are rumours of a new imperial threat emerging, and we have to be ready.’

‘Imperial?’ you ask, dumbly. You’re managing to stay still where he holds onto your side, but it’s a stormy sea inside you, heart and guts thrashing and slamming against your will to calm.

‘Yes, or remnants. Alliances of warlords and former military leaders,’ he says, a hand circling on your hip as the other continues to move over the panels, bringing up data and field scores. ‘I do not know how serious it is. Or how far off these imps are from action. But… I must go.’

You don’t know what to say to all this. There’s nothing you really can say. He’s not asking your opinion, not raising it as a question. It’s decided. He’s going. You’re trying to process that internally, take it all on faith. Not lay any particular meaning over this. But you’re terrified. You make a sharp inhale just as he moves the hand on your leg up to your arm, stroking there in comfort. You realise you’ve come to be holding the fabric of his cloak in a white-knuckled fist.

You let go, move to stand. ‘How long until…?’ You trail off again, but your brain gives uninvited options to end the sentence. Until you go? Until you leave? Until this is all over?

Raw hope and fear chase one another across your racing thoughts. You hope he takes you with him. You fear what it means. And you don’t know which one makes the most sense. Which one you are truly feeling. Either way, you cannot get your thundering heart to slow down or your skin to stop prickling.

He doesn’t pause.

‘I was hoping we would go as soon as you were ready,’ he says.

We. Hoping. You were ready.

A hot-cold shockwave cascades over you, shooting pins and needles through your hands and feet. The feeling lands hard – terror-laced panic. The realisation floods in. Something like this. You wouldn’t just be a visitor or a guest this time. You can sense it. The feeling of having sunk too deep into a circumstance you would have no control over. The feeling of being bound, pulled in and held tight. Being crushed under a weight of purpose that was not your own.

The feelings that rear up ugly and intrusive every time you sense Din trying to talk, about you and he, about us. That cause you to dodge, and evade, and distract.

Din speaks up over the rushing in your ears. ‘I know it is complicated, cyar’ika. I know that,’ he murmurs, posture held as if he were in close proximity with a wild animal. ‘But… it will be okay.’

Instead of replying, you edge around him and toward the door, mutter about changing into something more appropriate. He lets you go.

You fuss and fidget over it. Over what to wear. Like it was consequential. Like it mattered. Casting through your meagre wardrobe, you hold one top to yourself, then another. It sends you back to deeply disliked memories of seeking just the right look for whatever Estate function you were to be subjected to in any given moment.

Eventually, you settle yourself on a wraparound vest with a high, stiff collar. The fact that it hides the love marks and bruises Din has given you is just a bonus. It’s not about being ashamed. You’re just comfortable in this. And okay, sure, presenting a more innocent side to Din’s Covert feels important for some reason. This is for him.

This is what you tell yourself as you tuff up the collar and turn to stride back to the cockpit to ready for the jump.

The two of you are silent through the journey. When you returned to the cockpit you’d just taken your seat, and he hadn’t turned back to you. It stays quiet as you descend to a parched and wind-pruned landscape, pockmarked with cavernous openings.

You spy a small, sparse settlement or two dotted among the undulations.

Din knows exactly where he’s going and picks a clear, flat opening in the terrain. Harsh, alien light floods into your safe little cockpit, heralding your landing. The Crest settled, he stands and turns to you, towering over where you reluctantly unbuckle your harness. His imposing presence is something you haven’t felt this acutely for a while, all hard edges and brute force.

Get a grip, you try to tell yourself. It’s Din.

He reaches a hand for you and you take it to stand.

‘It’s a bit of a walk,’ he breaks the silence. ‘Is that okay?’

You just nod, follow. Almost in a trance you follow – match his footfalls out of the cockpit, the hold, across the rocky ground away from the Crest. Every step feels like an approach to annihilation. Your anxiety in overdrive, bile rising and heart pounding. An unnamed dread eating you inside out.

Focusing on his steady, clinking gait is usually so calming to you, so you tune into that. It helps for a little, but then a wide yawning cave comes into view and those sure, even steps carry on straight into the dark. You have no choice but to follow, moving closer as Din flicks his headtorch on.

A winding path opens up into a well-established encampment. Warm light cast over your face and Din’s beskar as you emerge into the space.

The unbearable tension slips away for one second as you hear a pitched ‘Weh!’ and Grogu somersaults over a gathered party into your arms.

‘Baby, hi!’ you say, smiling wide. ‘What are you doing here?’ He grunts and burbles, lets you give him one squeeze before reaching for Din, who takes him from you with trembling hands. You hadn’t noticed he was shaking.

That’s when you take in the rest of the room. Several Mandalorians are gathered around what you understand to be a typical armourer’s forge.

The Armourer is in fact there, in deep conversation with a slightly shorter woman standing next to her. At Grogu’s exclamations, they turn and your jaw goes slack as you recognise the other helmet.

Why would Bo-Katan Kryze be here?

You do the only thing you can do, you turn to the Mandalorian at your side. ‘Din, what’s--?’

‘I don’t know,’ he says immediately, not returning your gaze. He lowers the child to the floor and straightens to approach the two imposing figures, stops in front of them and raises a deferent arm to cross his chest. Grogu follows at his heels but you stay riveted to the spot.

‘I was summoned,’ Din says. ‘But apologies, Lady Kryze, I did not know you would be here as well.’

Bo-Katan gives you each a nod. ‘I came to return Grogu,’ she says. You almost relax for the barest moment, but she continues. ‘And to bear witness.’

‘What--?’ you and Din say in unison but you’re interrupted by the Armourer moving suddenly. Her sure footsteps echo in the space, hushing all present.

She strides around to stand in the space between you and Din, looks from him to you, back again. Addressing Din, she says, ‘You remain together.’

‘Yes,’ Din’s reply is instant.

‘Do you continue to couple?’ she asks and your mouth falls open, eyes wide. What the--?

‘Yes,’ Din once again replies without hesitating.

You’re gobsmacked. Indignant. Why would he just out and say that? To everyone here?

‘I see,’ she says, she looks back at you. The unmoving façade of her helmet gives you the feeling of being a piece of dirty iron that she somehow must shape into a good and useful thing. The Armourer continues to speak, but you know she’s not talking to you.

‘Have you removed your helmet in front of her?’

‘… No.’

‘Has she removed your helmet?’

‘No.’

The Armourer tilts her helm, then turns back to Din, taking several steps toward him. He squares up to her. And even though they’re standing right there talking about you, it’s like you’re not in the room. What the hell is happening here?

She sears Din with her appraisal. ‘But you have removed your helmet in her presence,’ she says, not a question. ‘Haven’t you.’

Din pulls back a little. The air in the room fizzes with layers of tension and you know you’re parsing only the very surface of it all. The Armourer strides back to the forge and picks up a terrifying looking hammer. Bo-Katan has steadily edged around the two Mandalorians facing off and come to stand just by you.

A long, tense pause before Din finally speaks again.

‘Yes,’ he murmurs, rushes on. ‘But she has not seen my face. The Creed says—’

‘I am aware what the Creed says. You twist the truth, Din Djarin,’ the Armourer replies, with a menace in her words that unnerves you. She holds the hammer in a distinctly combative stance. ‘You twist the Creed.’

But Din seems calm.

‘I do not believe I do,’ he says, broad shoulders square again.

The Armourer starts, stance affronted. Another penetrating gaze sweeps over the still and watchful Din. She seems to read something specific in his words. ‘What do you speak of?’

‘I have been reading the texts of the Creed from its original source…’ Din says into the vast space. ‘And more than a dozen different translations.’ He unhooks a datapad from his belt and holds it out to her.

He continues, ‘You told me not long ago that you were uncertain what Mandalore’s new age meant for us, for the Creed, what it means now to follow the Way. You said you were seeking answers for the good of our people.’

She looks at the device warily. ‘Where did you get these texts?’ she asks.

‘The old library, in the royal city – I… when we were last on Mandalore,’ he says, gestures to the woman beside you. ‘Bo-Katan told me of it, suggested I go there to seek the literature. I filled this datapad,’ he holds it out to her. ‘It… may illuminate answers for you, as it did for me.’

The Armourer puts down her hammer and takes the glistening tablet. She curls it against her chest, considering him hard. You don’t know how he is withstanding all this scrutiny.

‘I shall study these,’ she decrees. ‘Be on your guard Din Djarin.’

Din nods, starts to turn back to you as if dismissed – thank gods – but the Armourer is not done.

‘Our business here is not yet concluded,’ her voice booms in the space and rings in your ears. Din stops, turns back. ‘It may be that you have revealed hidden truths about our Creed here, spurred by your connection to this individual,’ she raises her helm to indicate at you. ‘But you know one thing remains absolute.’

A taut bowstring stretches across the expanse of the cavern making up this Covert’s inner sanctum. Every figure in the space stands tall and readied. The air simmers so hot you wonder why you haven’t burnt up on the spot.

‘She is not Mandalorian,’ the Armourer says. ‘She does not walk in your world. And until she does, we must consider her an outsider. This will not do as we prepare for conflict, for war.’

Something passes between her and Din.

‘It is time,’ she states.

‘Now?’ he asks. You can’t read his tone. His voice is only just above a whisper, gravelly and soaked in emotions. You’re just not sure which ones. He glances at you. ‘I thought we would have more time.’

‘Now is not a time for uncertainty, or waiting, Din Djarin,’ she intones. He just nods, acquiesces. ‘We must be sure.’

He shoots you one long, yearning look before turning back to her.

‘Very well.’

You can barely breathe over the panic constricting your chest. You once again turn to the Mandalorian next to you and utter a broken, ‘What--?’

Bo-Katan pulls off her helmet and looks hard at you.

You swallow, force yourself to ask, ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means you can be with Din. The Armourer is allowing you to take the vow, live the way of the Mandalorian, and be one with him,’ she says, in a tone that suggests you might be happy with this explanation.

You don’t have time to process any of that before the Armourer’s voice rings out loud and firm.

‘Din Djarin, will you pledge to be made one, when you are together, when you are apart. Will you share all, and raise warriors?’

The words hang in the air before drifting down over the vast expanse now yawning wide between you and him.

‘Yes,’ Din states. Says nothing more.

The Armourer’s helm swivels to where you’re stood shaking like a leaf. She simply says, ‘Will you?’

‘Din?’ you say. ‘I don’t understand.’ He doesn’t turn to you, doesn’t move. The Armourer, however, levels you with a look. You will the deepest breath you can; it’s not much.

‘Din,’ you try again. ‘Can we… talk?’

Bo-Katan, at your side, whispers, ‘That isn’t how this works. The question has been asked. It must be answered.’

You ignore her.

‘Please,’ you can’t keep the begging out of your voice now. ‘Can… we just go somewhere and talk, Din?’

He still doesn’t turn. It’s like he’s frozen in time, on a precipice.

A memory rears up white hot in your mind’s eye. The shapes and shadows of the Crest’s cabin swim into view, the two of you are entwined and bare.

‘It wasn’t the first time he tried it you know,’ you’re saying.

‘Who tried what, love?’

‘My Uncle, tried to get me married off.’

Din had asked once how you had come to be at that prisoner of war camp where you’d first met. Far away from home. You’d evaded the question. Not now. Not yet. I’ll tell you someday.

But you’re sprawled out and so content and relaxed right now. Din has his head resting on your stomach, where he’d laid it after dragging a series of delicious climaxes out of you. Neither of you have moved save for hands reaching. His own hold your sides and tug you close. Yours burrow into soft curls and stroke wherever’s in reach. Somehow, like this, feeling his hair and breath tickle your skin, eyes covered and mind sated, it’s not too painful to cast back through those old memories.

‘It was just after everything… everything with Torre,’ you say, barely a whisper. ‘He’d said to me, Now child, I am not angry with you. In fact, sweet kin, I am thrilled you have deemed yourself an eligible candidate to be made one within a union. I am merely disappointed you nominated such a worthless companion as a simple house spy.’

You’re putting on his old affectations, trying to mock rather than shrink.

‘He said, Cherished flower, if you have deemed yourself so ready, I have a much, much more worthwhile co-mingling with which to engage your attentions.’

While you talk, Din slowly lifts himself and moves up, until he can loop an arm under your head and wrap the other around you, pull you in close. He leans over you a little. Like he’s trying to shield you from a thing that happened countless years ago.

You just nuzzle into that perfect space between his neck and shoulder. Breathe deep, try to picture the curves and lines of the face hovering above you. You’d traced fingers over it so many times, over aquiline nose, thick brows, plush lower lip. Kissed his closed eyes. You should be able to tell what he looks like by now. But it’s a monochrome sketch. Not satisfying.

‘What did you do about it?’ he asks, pulling you back to your tale.

You smile at the framing of the question. To him, the way he sees you, you wouldn’t have stood for it. Would have fought. Would have killed the fucknut suitor where they stood. Whoever they were.

It feels so delicious that Din sees you that way.

‘I fucked it up,’ you admit. ‘Couldn’t keep up the proper good graces long enough for the general’s son to be even a little charmed by me.’

You feel Din smirk against your hair. ‘I doubt that, mesh’la. I’ve seen you in that world, like royalty.’

You hum at the comment, choosing to take it as the compliment intended.

‘Actually, I got incredibly drunk. I passed out over the entremets,’ you say, enjoying his huff of laughter.

After that disastrous dinner was the first time you’d run. You’d come close to a thing you feared and dreaded, a binding of your will to another. Found that, in the face of it, you’d rather lose everything but your own sense of self. So you ran, thinking you’d slipped away unnoticed in the dead of night, too young then to understand how futile it was. The illusion of your independence had been shattered when you’d returned sometime later, greeted by your Uncle with a simple, ‘Do you have it out of your system yet, dear flower?’

He’d tried again. And again. Each time, you blew it to hell, packed up and tore off. It was almost a reflex. And each time you’d slouched back, he’d carried onto the next match. You thought his patience was infinite. Naïve as you were.

But the final straw was a horrendous dinner at which you’d said some insanely inappropriate things about the political party your suitor was a member of and significant donor to. To be fair, you only spoke up after he – ignoring you for the entirety of the event – explained to your Uncle how a wife was a fine instrument to foment an advantageous social standing.

That was when your Uncle had told you to go, and to not dare come back until you would ‘accept your place and station in this Family’.

You give Din an abridged version of the story. Leaving out the part where you’d cried, begged, said you’d already given up your lover for the Family. You didn’t want to go. The scene – your exile – had played out in the same room he’d announced the more recent deal he’d made with you. The one he’d given you no choice in. And your family had stood and watched it happen both times, exactly the same.

You give him the short version and say you left under orders to come back only when you were ready.

‘You outlasted him there,’ Din murmurs. ‘He had to engage me to find you.’

Your turn to smirk, though sadly.

‘I did some outrageous things while away from that place,’ you say. ‘I think, subconsciously I was trying to get his attention, from all over the damn galaxy. “Come and get me, Uncle, I dare you.” Shocked me to hell and back when he actually did. But… well, it was naïve of me to assume it wasn’t just another proposition into unwanted wedlock.’

A long, quiet stretch.

‘For me, marriage has always been a tool,’ you whisper into the air between you. ‘Either a means of control, or a weapon. Both. I’ve never seen a happy union.’

He just strokes your hair, and says nothing.

The walls of the cavern reform around you, pulling you from the memory. Nobody has moved an inch. Din still stands facing the Armourer by her forge. Grogu’s by his side, looking uneasy. Bo-Katan is at your shoulder, giving you a tap on the elbow, a subtle ‘you still in there?’

One more try. Ignoring the indignant rustles of armour and weapons from the rest of the present company, you stride forward and stand to face Din head on. You just need to get him to leave this place and talk. You’re ready to talk now.

But, when you look up into the face of the helmet you know so damn well, your insides run ice cold.

For the first time since meeting, you truly cannot get a single read on him. Not his thoughts, or emotions, or intentions. An expressionless mask simply stares back at you. He is the blank wall you’d accused him of being some time ago.

You feel unmoored. Tilting into a depth you can’t fathom. Stripped of volition.

Only one thought penetrates the blind panic surging along with the bile and the tremors. One word.

No.

It’s when the harsh outside light hits your face, blinding you after the darkness within, that you realise you had turned on your heel and run from the room. Run from them. Sprinted from that terrifying proposition.

From Din.

You turn back to the opening of the cave, no one follows.

Your feet continue to carry you. There’s nowhere for you to go but away. It’s what you do. It’s all you ever do. Blow it to hell and run.

Run away.

When the frigid paralysis had eased and the reality of the past few minutes started to set into his bones, Din sensed some part of himself had left his body along with you.

It had all happened so fast. He’d frozen, disconnected. Watched himself stand stock still as you tried to talk to him, felt paralysed as you looked up at him with terror and tears in your eyes. Felt himself shatter as you flew from the room.

Bo-Katan had tried to order him to go after you, implored him. But he was outside of himself, senses blurred and sunken. The only decision he was capable of was to return to his ship.

But the Crest sits quiet and morose.

The hull is sealed, and Din knows you aren’t inside.

Grogu, however, babbles a string of hopeful sounds from beside him. Din just stares up at his lonely craft, before stalking toward it.

‘Forget it, kid. She’s not here.’

‘Beh?’ begs the baby.

‘I said she’s gone!’ he rounds on the child, who gives a cry of shock.

Din exhales. ‘She is gone, Grogu.’ He looks at his ship again, its emptiness yawning wide. ‘She’s just gone.’

Prev | Next

I made myself so sad writing this that I had to skip ahead to work on the fluffy, happy ending. Which WILL happen, once these two figure their shit out.

Hope you stick with me, thanks so much for reading.

#din djarin x you #din djarin x reader #din djarin smut #the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian #din djarin #din djarin/reader #din djarin/you #the mandaloria/reader #din djarin x f!reader #the mandalorian x f!reader

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mayasaura · 1 year

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i had a very sad au idea. where gideon gets off the ninth and joins the cohort. one of the commanding officers realizes that gideon shares a name with a lyctor and looks like Wake. cue jod finding out gideon exists and kiriona 2.0 happens (buts Worse)

I love this AU, (and really any version of "Gideon manages to escape to the Cohort and her dad finds out she exists,") though I have to admit I'm not quite understanding your vision. I can't see what makes it all that sad, or Worse than canon.

The way I'm seeing it, this Gideon flipped the Ninth the double-bird then got clotheslined into being a Prince, all with Harrow still safe at home to have her snooty little nose rubbed in it. Gideon will be able to write her a letter saying:

"Addressing Her Ghastliness the Lady Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House serving the Emperor Undying: Hey, asswipe, remember when we were kids and you said my other parent wasn't important? Guess a-fucking-gain, loser! Signed, Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia the First, First Lieutenant of the Cohort, Heir to the First House, only daughter to the Emperor Divine (formerly known to you as Gideon Nav, not that you ever called me by it. Suck on that, creepozoid) p.s. Chill out, I haven't told my dad anything that would embarrass the Ninth, and I won't unless you give me reason to. p.p.s. The Emperor send his regards to your parents! :)"

And she'll still be alive to feel her heart race as she pictures the face Harrow will make after breaking open the seal on this very important missive from the First House to read it.

#like this is a Gideon who became Kiriona having lost NOTHING along the way #she's never had to choose between dying for Harrow or watching Harrow die #she's never held the body of a little girl she promised to keep safe #she's never been a cavalier #or met Cytherea to be reeled into the romantic vision of a dashing knight who lives forever through dying in an act of ultimate sacrifice #she's never thought she finally mattered to Harrow and then had her love and life rejected #sure it was a real bummer finding out about her mom and why she was born #and turns out her existence caused a LOT of trouble for some VERY important people #but her dad doesn't blame her for it!#and he only scares the piss out of her like half the time now #she's adjusting #the locked tomb #ntn spoilers #htn spoilers #gideon nav #kiriona gaia

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blorbo-adoption-poll · 4 months

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Adoption poll preliminary match 9

Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura) vs

Riven (Winx Club) vs

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb) vs

Oscar Pine (RWBY)

Only two can move on

Propaganda under the cut

Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura)

No propaganda given

Riven (Winx Club) Propaganda

guys his mom left him, would you?

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb) Propaganda

Please someone adopt my girl! She used to go visit her mother's niche in the catacombs and tell her decomposed corpse about her day, just to pretend there was someone who cared. All the family she ever had, found or otherwise, was some bones and her imagination that maybe the person those bones used to belong to once loved her. Then, when she was eight years old, the bones were taken away too. She is so desperate for love and affection she would most definitely die or join a cult about it. Save my girl from the cult, and give her a family. No one has ever told her they loved her, not once in her life. Let's change that.

Oscar Pine (RWBY) Propaganda

This baby boy has suffered more than Jesus and still has to be the responsible adult for all the actual adults in this show. My son is 14 years old, keeps getting punched in the face, and is slowly merging with a morally ambiguous Eons old wizard man who’s going through the worst divorce with an immortal witch who wants to blow up everything. Oscar is so sweet and needs a break!

Pollrunner note: I don’t remember writing this but I was right.

#adoption poll #tournament poll #sakura kinomoto #cardcaptor sakura #winx club #winx riven #gideon nav #the locked tomb #oscar pine #rwby

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relatableblorbopoll · 5 months

Text

Round 1 of preliminaries, group 3

The first two places get a place on the bracket

Little reminder: there will be 2 more rounds of preliminaries, the losing blorbos of this poll still have 2 chances of getting in the official bracket

Propaganda under the cut

Conner Bailey (The Land of Stories)

"He falls asleep in class and never hands in his work and gets bad grades but has lots of friends and a big imagination. Likes to write fantasy and science fiction (and maybe other genres as well), and bases a lot of his stories on his own adventures with his sister."

Lucy Honeychurch (A Room With A View)

"trapped in a relationship they feel obligated to maintain ? meanwhile meeting this weirdo who makes question marks out of his dinner and stuff? yeah this was so me and one point and literally helped me break up with my shitty ex. i love lucy honeychurch so much, she just wants to play dumb games with her brother and not be suffocated and live"

Greg Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

"Let's be honest, most of us in middle school were a whiny self-centric bitches, and he's a prefect example of this. He will make snarky comments and wonder why a small child cired becuase of them, find his older brother annoying, be disgusted by his younger sib, make mean jokes towards his closest friend and just KNOW that one day he'll be rich and do nothing"

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

"She's a cocky butch lesbian who can't pull, and I would bet real money she's adhd. Incredibly unreliable narrator, partially because she tunes out of anything uninteresting to her (like the plot), partially because she's not on speaking terms with her own feelings. Deep down she's angry, and lonely, and convinced she's not good enough, and she's terrified to look it all in the eye. She'll keep all her feelings right here and then someday she'll die joking about it."

Akaashi Keiji (Haikyuu!!)

"Outwardly chill 99% of the time but a serial overthinker. Once screamed into his hands when stressed and acted like nothing was wrong right after (see: Image link)."

Burgerpants (Undertale)

"My propaganda is his game dialogue: - "(WHY IS THIS PERSON TRYING TO SELL ME SOMETHING THIS IS A HAMBURGER RESTAURANT I'M JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE)" - "What? Why do you keep trying to talk to me? I'll get in trouble if I get chummy with the customers. Sorry. ... SO, I wanted to be an ACTOR-." - "You've still got time. Don't live like me. I'm 19 years old and I've already wasted my entire life." - "Listen. I like you, little buddy. So I'm gonna save you a lot of trouble. Never interact with attractive people." - "Future? WHAT future? Nothing down here EVER changes. I'll probably be trapped at this stupid job forever. - "Ah... my boss. I love that guy. And by that I mean I hate him so, so much." - "Here's a trick, little buddy: Lie to yourself all the time. It makes you feel better." - "Even if it was just working this awful job... I think I did something! I don't know if it's true, but I'll believe it anyway!" - "Huh? Everyone else is DEAD? ... Does that mean I don't have to work today? God. That it were true, little weirdo. That it were true." - "I can't go to hell. I'm all out of vacation days." "

#tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #character bracket #character tournament #preliminaries #conner bailey #the land of stories #lucy honeychurch #a room with a view #greg heffley #diary of a wimpy kid #gideon nav #the locked tomb #akaashi keiji #haikyuu #burgerpants #undertale

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stars-and-birds · 10 months

Text

guess who just finished harrow the ninth (i’m gonna kms)

AHHHHHHDHSJNSJSHGWJSJHEBSUHSBE

anyway here are my chronological thoughts from earlier

god. rereading parts of the book, you can see she almost never says ortus/gideon’s name aloud. jesus. tasmyn muir u are insane

i have no caption i just love gideon

hot

THEM. god.

all these characters are so fun to read about. i’m glad we got to see more of abigail this book

PRO NOOOO

something about harrow having no one growing up but then have all these people willing to risk their lives again to exorcise a ghost from her body is just. goddamn.

OH GOD MAGNUS

one thing about gideon nav is she will be injured and in a foreign body and alone on a god’s spaceship-house and still keep a kill count

something something love triangle

oh this is so juicy

SHE KEPT THE SUNGLASSES. (not to sound like a broken record but. god.)

oh. ow

i am going to cry on this fucking train

absolutely amazing how this book can make me go from internally sobbing to cackling

oh shit. ortus. no don’t die dude. (he was growing on me. and he means so much to harrow)

quick break to say that i noticed anastasia’s cav was named samael novenary, and wasn’t that the name of the chain or whatever that harrow nova had?

oh???? who is this????

MATTHIAS NONUIS????

okay not to bring up toh but the sleeper saying “i killed wizard’s filth like you all my life” is giving philip wittebane idk (also makes me think that the sleeper is maybe someone from before the ressurection?)

god, the way harrow thinks of gideon even when she’s not there, how she’d act, what she’d say…

LMFAO great callback

i think i forgot to post this but btw when corona came back i grinned so hard i missed her sm

oh no. noooooo.

abigail saying she feels responsible for harrow is sO—

god this is all too much i’m gonna cry

commander wake— who’s that again? the dude from the blood of eden? or someone else?

what the FUCK is going on?? mercy was working for wake??? huh????

gideons mom is WAKE?! (not confirmed yet but. that’s what i’m getting. right? bc it was nineteen years ago??)

“the woman i was pretty sure was actually my mother—wearing the body of a woman i’d had a crush on, who in turn had been wearing the identity of a woman she’d murdered, until i fell on a spike so that my boss could kill her—craned her head around in her bonds” well. that’s one hell of a sentence.

oh my god. oh my god.

ALECTO?????????

OH ALECTO IS HARROWS FREEZER MEAT GIRLFRIEND

wait is she???? i’m confused

oh. god is dead. holy fuck

oh. god is no longer dead. what the fuck

how the hell do you even pronounce pyrrah dve

does gideon have three fathers (god gideon the prequel and pyrrah dve fucking apparently)

IS IANTHE DEAD

IS GIDEON DEAD

IS HARROW DEAD?!???

okay okay whoever that is in the epilogue (who i’m guessing is nona) is being cared for by judith corona and cam right??

WHY DOES IT ONLY SAY GIDEON WILL RETURN HARROWS NOT DEAD RIGHT

SHHHHEJSBAKMS

#esme reads #the locked tomb

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abhorsenkatiel · 4 months

Text

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There's an oblique reference to Gideon's abscense at least once in every one of the Canaan House chapters 😭 Nobody haunts the narrative like Gideon Nav 😭

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I can't with God making his bestie break up with his boyfriend for him 😂☠

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TLT is great because sometimes we get the most epic, dramatic prose ever constructed, and sometimes we get this

It's just...so bizarrely specific. Someone tell me if this is a reference I don't get Lol

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The way Tazmuir teases at her worldbuilding makes me insane.

How does he know this?? What implications does this have for the trillionaires who escaped Earth and their descendants??

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I am Looking at this line and I am Remembering it and I am Coming Back To It Later

👀👀👀👀

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Who???? When???? How????What does that even mean????

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Bonus Harrow realizing that she actually hates this guy so so much

#the locked tomb #tlt spoilers #htn #htn spoilers #abhorsenkatiel reads htn

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harrowharks-iliac-crest · 8 months

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Eighth skull.

After lowkey analysing this pattern for almost the entire book, I can say with a moderate degree of confidence that the skulls give an indication of the original house of people - or more rarely things, customs - who are going to be important in this chapter. Third skull for Ianthe; Fifth for Abigail; Sixth for Camilla/Palamedes, etc.

The original Lyctors - we have Second for Ortus Gideon the First, we have Fifth for Augustine, and Eighth for Mercymorn.

Ergo, I'm looking forward to some Mercymorn action in this chapter. I live in hope.

We're still in Gideon's head for this. A flashback, of sorts.

Do you remember the time when we were little and I told you to stop fucking picking on me, because what if my other mum or dad was, like, important?

Yeah what if?? Lol, lmao. Rofl even.

I remember thinking back when I started reading Gideon the Ninth -

I bet her mum is important somehow. There's no way something like that would be dropped in without ever being followed up on.

But I didn't fucking expect this!!!!

I got on top of you and choked you till your eyes bugged out. I told you that my mother had probably loved me a lot more than yours loved you.

Alas - Gideon Nav's mother wanted to fucking kill her. I'd say Harrow's mother - (who also wanted to kill her, mind) - probably still loved Harrow a tiny tad more than that. At least she'd wanted Harrow to die out of a misguided sense of uh, spiritual obligation or some shit. Not as a means to an end.

“And now we come to the heart of the matter,” said the Lyctor you called Mercymorn. [...] he said, with an enormous sigh: “Ah. The eyes.” “Yes, the eyes,” she said. “Your child … Alecto’s eyes.”

Alecto!!!!!! Name drop!!!!!!! Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alecto is A.L.????

Is she who is buried in The Locked Tomb???????

God said, “Don’t call her that.” “A monster, John!” Augustine barked. “She was a bloody monster in a human suit! She was a monster the moment you resurrected her, and you went and made her worse!”

God is the original Lyctor, incorporating Alecto into himself?

And then buried her body where no one (in theory) could ever get to her???

God, looking at his high school sweetheart who he's about to resurrect: I could make her worse.....

“Annabel Lee … was not the dying kind,” said the Emperor. “It might be more accurate to say that I switched her off.” “You came to us and we asked, Is she dead?” said Mercy. “And you said, As dead as I can make her … I remember, Lord, that you wept.” “Well, I was very sad,” said God reasonably.

She's.... not THAT dead, then????? Not all that dead????? Only as dead as he could make her??? He the God of Limited Power???????????

Hence why he had to lock her away for fucking ever?????????

Augustine said, “You didn’t kill Alecto. And she wasn’t just your bodyguard.” Mercymorn said, “Alecto was your cavalier.”

Bingo!!!!!

“All that effort to break open the Locked Tomb,” said Augustine, “only to have the answer we wanted wander up in the form of one dead teenager flaunting your genes. They were never Alecto’s eyes at all. They were yours, John. Alecto had your eyes from the moment any of us first saw her. And those extraordinary black eyes you’ve always worn … they were always hers.”

So if the starry-universe eyes are Alecto's... who, or what, was Alecto????

(Given that there's a book in the future with her name on it, I somehow doubt we're going to find out right here, right now...)

Still - a resurrection - she was human once but then she wasn't; a revenant in a dead body?

There was no way a cavalier could end up with a necromancer’s eyes. Unless the cavalier failed to die.

All I'm hearing here is that Gideon could have lived, and Harrow could have still been Lyctor. They could have had their two separate, alive, bodies still. If God can do it, why not Harrow?

Well - I'm assuming Alecto was a special case... but then so is Gideon!!! Right???

It explains why Mercymorn and Augustine are so upset with God right now - for this exact same reason.

She said, “Alfred, Pyrrha, Titania, Valancy, Nigella, Samael, Loveday, Cristabel.”

These Lyctors have been carrying their grief for ten thousand years, only to learn that perhaps their cavaliers didn't have to die.

My heart breaks for them!!!!

“I forgive you everything, Lord,” she whispered. And she slid her hands inside him. The Emperor of the Nine Houses came apart, layer by layer. It was instantaneous, but so simultaneously slow—so unbelievably fucking slow—that it was like we saw every moment, you and I. He flew apart. The body of God separated from every divine part of itself. There was a brief flare of that sinus-panicking magic, which fizzled as Mercymorn somehow disconnected all his wires at once.

Mercymorn!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god!!!! Putting all of that anatomy knowledge to use!!!!!

I won't say good use, just yet, but still -

#harrow the ninth #harrow the ninth liveblog #htn liveblog #tlt liveblog #htn spoilers #tlt spoilers #the locked tomb

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softness-and-shattering · 2 years

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Let Me Further Break Your Heart - Gideon the Ninth Structure Analysis

Some Gideon the Ninth analysis by way of writing analysis, just for fun. No spoilers for Harrow the Ninth or Nona; for current purposes Im essentially treating Gideon as a stand-alone. Spoilers all the way through for Gideon the Ninth though. This is your enormous spoiler warning.

Intro:

Im slowly slowly getting back into writing after being very into it for a long time which was followed by a long break in which I was too disabled/tired/brain-fogged to write. So Im poking back around Writing Excuses and Im reminded of this* concept of (I think) Mary Robinette Kowal’s, that treats pacing a lot like programming.

The concept being, when you end a conflict, the timing of that resolution has to match the timing of when you introduced it. The example they use is an A-plot B-plot detective romance.

If the detective walks into the room, inspects the evidence, then notices a hot journalist also in the room, thats an A-whodunnit and a B-romance. The first conflict is the mystery, the second is the romance, therefore the romance needs to be resolved before the mystery is solved.

[requisite disclaimer that the rules exist as guides and you can always break them if it works better for your art, and that something does not have to be intentionally written a certain way for meaning to be drawn from it, within reason]

If the detective walks into the room, spots the cute detective, then examines the evidence, thats an A-romance and a B-whodunnit. That means the mystery needs to be solved before the relationship is confirmed.

And this works with as many plot/character/mystery threads as you have in a story, not just two.

Enter The Locked Tomb:

What I just discovered while pulling that quote was that my original framing was that Gideon escaping was the first conflict, and the epilogue is simply an epilogue, a teaser for the next book, and exempt from the bracketing system. But actually no, the first conflict, broadly speaking, is “Who the heck is this Lord, what the heck is this setting?”. And our final scene is finally meeting god and the promise of learning more about the world than just the Ninth and Canaan House. Huh.

So because my mind is in Locked-Tomb-Blorbo-Land, my mind immediately goes to the first line of Gideon the Ninth:

“In the Myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death! - Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.”

Simple. Harrow is the Ninth. She is literally 200 sons and daughters of her house, their entire future. She is their youngest generation, the youngest person full stop, and their heir, their leader, their Reverend Daughter.

Back to Gideon: She’s a fighter, she’s practical, and well, she’s horny, and her objective is to get away from the Ninth. We soon learn this is her 33rd attempt of her lifelong objective to leave, because she absolutely loathes this place. If she doesn’t leave there will be no escape even in death, as her body will be used to work and clean and grow wilted food.

And yet, the last we see of her in this book is sacrificing herself, a ghost of herself helping Harrow, and then she’s dead and gone. How does that solve her wanting to leave the Ninth?

I was just listening to @onefleshonepod, episode 5, “What’s With The Skulls”, wherein Kabriya and Bailey point out that by Chapter 10, when Gideon rescues Harrow from the lab with Palamedes and Camilla, she’s thinking of Harrow as “her necromancer”, and does all in her power to save Harrow, even while thinking to herself that she would delight in Harrow’s death. She’s growing attached, but she is far from ready to admit that to herself.

And in the beginning, Gideon absolutely loathes Harrow, a feeling which is mutual. She hates the Ninth, she hates its heiress, she wants nothing to do with any of them.

But the thing is, with a story hook, it can go one of a few ways in resolving satisfactorily. The hook is that Gideon wants to escape. Possible resolutions are:

1. She physically escapes and has a life with which she is content.

2. She physically escapes but never psychologically is able to leave it all behind.

3. She does not escape and is doomed to eternal misery (that would be a straight-up tragedy)

4. She does not escape, but rather becomes content or happy with the status quo.

And number 4 is exactly what happens.

And they fight together seamlessly, proudly and aggressively of the Ninth, totally in sync with each other.

The pool scene is of course the central turning point, when Gideon finally has all the information it takes to truly understand Harrow, and to forgive her. Then of course by the battle with Cytherea in the lobby, Gideon is back with the trusty two-hander that she stashed away, and we get from Harrow “I said a necromancer alone. I have you. We bring hell”, followed by: “Nav, show them what the Ninth House does”

“We do bones motherfucker!”

And then, as she is about to sacrifice herself for Harrow, believing that this course of action was the only sensible thing left to do, we get this passage:

‘She mentally found herself all of a sudden in front of the doors of Drearburgh-four years old again, and screaming-and all her fear and hate of them went away. Drearburgh was empty. There was no Crux. There were no godawful great-aunts. There were no restless corpses, no strangers in coffins, no dead parents. Instead, she was Drearburgh. She was Gideon Nav, and Nav was a Niner name. She took the whole, putrid, quiet, filth-strewn madness of the place, and she opened her doors to it. Her hands were no shaking anymore.

‘WHAM-WHAM-WHAM. The structure bowed and creaked. Big chunks were falling away now, letting in wide splotches of sunlight. She felt movement behind her, but she was faster.

‘“For the Ninth!” said Gideon.

‘And she fell forward, right on the iron spikes.’

And then as I noticed while pulling the initial quote, Harrow goes on to meet the “King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!”, and beg for Gideon’s life back, bringing the circle full close.

She wanted to escape the Ninth, and instead she becomes the Ninth. Even more literally, as her consciousness gets scooped up and added to Harrows brain, and then (she) takes that sword and protects her girlfriend, her Reverend Daughter, her love, her house.

[pause for crying/breathing]

In meta, Gideon has fulfilled her character arc in this book, she has resolved her life’s dream/torment, there is no story left for her. After all that build up and tension and sacrifice, its quite likely we as readers would feel betrayed if god had snapped his fingers and brought her back, rendered it all meaningless. This sacrifice was a natural conclusion to her story, and further, even in her death, in Harrow’s brain as Lyctor-battery-juice, she serves the Ninth. She did not escape, she no longer wanted to, she wanted to serve.

Anyway, I just have a lot of feelings!

*with reference to this concept; a transcript of which doesnt seem to exist.

#by the way #the bracket structure thing applies to almost all writing #its why blogs and speeches and things end with referencing the intro and makes it feel all resonant and meaningful and shit #and I broke that rule kinda by not re-mentioning writing advice cause I think that would take away from the oomph #breaking the rules!!#woooo!#Im not your real dad!#gideon the ninth #gideon the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #tlt #gideon the ninth meta #the locked tomb meta #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav

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iviarellereads · 10 months

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Nona the Ninth, Chapter 24

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one!)

(Gideon Nav icon) In which a considerable debate is begun in the fandom.

All the zombie solders crumple where they stood, leaving Nona buried under two. Everyone runs to Cam, who rises to her knees, holding Ianthe's rapier steady to avoid further damage. Crown begs Cam to stay with her, and Cam says she's not going anywhere.

“I’m holding you to that,” said the body of Ianthe Naberius.(1)

Pyrrha grabs the gun and rushes to point it at Ianthe Naberius's body… but lowers it and calls whoever's in there a "fucking legend". Cam tells Pyrrha to remove the rapier, since it missed the pelvis. Ianthe's body says she'll be out of commission with a gut wound like that, and Cam doesn't care, so Ianthe's body does it themself. Crown leaves to find bandages.

Cam asks for some space, as Pyrrha and Ianthe's body are still crowding her. Palamedes asks if she won't look at him, after carrying the remains of his body, his soul, his life. Cam looks him right in the eye and says she would always know him, calling him "Warden". Cam, Pal, and Pyrrha banter a bit, and Pal admits he's expending almost all he has to keep control of the body.

Pyrrha suggests he read it with his psychometry, since this body would have been the conduit for stashing the other corpse. He can't get fine details, but can tell Pyrrha vaguely where to look. Pyrrha says that's practically an intelligence briefing. Pal tells her to take Nona. Pyrrha objects, but he says there's no time, Ianthe is still trying to take control back. It felt to them like much longer than the four seconds it was to everyone else, and his respect for Ianthe has grown, but he'd be lucky to have an hour in control.

Crown has returned, so he tells her to get Judith, and meet them back here. Crown calls him a good man, for not hurting Ianthe. He says it was just safer to trap her than to let her escape back to her own body, it wasn't mercy. She thanks him anyway, and offers to help bandage Cam, but Pyrrha says the guards are knocked out or otherwise busy, there's a clear path to and from Judith.

Crown hesitates, and Nona compares her current state to Noodle, wanting to go out and run but also wanting to stay comfy where he is.(2) Shortly, Crown loses some internal battle, and flees.

Pyrrha rescues Nona from the corpse pile, and they leave as well. Pyrrha asks if Nona's alright, and Nona says she feels strange. Pyrrha offers to pinch her, which Nona bristles at but also breaks out of some of her strange feeling. Pyrrha offers her sleeve for Nona to clean the gunk and plastic bits out of her eyes, and they go on through the barracks to where Pal described.

Nona admits on the way that she's dying. Pyrrha suspected for a while: the soul longs for the body, and she'd know how much it takes to acclimate a soul to a body it wasn't born to.

“But you’re not sad,” said Nona. “Of course I’m not sad. You’re not dying on my watch. Kiddie, when you were yelling…” Nona was still a little embarrassed about that. “I took Cam a bit too literally.”(3) Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but then they rounded the second left and she shut her mouth.

There's an obvious ward on the corridor, and Pyrrha reads messages scrawled nearby, warnings that anyone who enters will disintegrate. Nona asks what the trap is, and Pyrrha throws a piece of pipe at the door, where it crumbles to dust that lands on the other side.

“It’s a shit version of Mercymorn’s old entropy trap,”(4) said Pyrrha. “Not half as good. Done entirely through wards—brilliant—but entirely reliant on wards—fucking ridiculous. Good at keeping people out though … and almost impossible for anyone but another Lyctor to break. See what it’s made out of? That’s blood. Blood wards age, and they burn out if you make them work too hard … And I’m sorry, No-No, but that’s where you come in.”

Pyrrha points out that Nona's regeneration is much stronger than even a normal Lyctor's. They couldn't recover from some of the things Nona can. And Pyrrha hates to ask Nona to hurt herself for this, but it's the most important thing in the whole world. Nona asks what's so special about the body they're after. Pyrrha says she's the key to a very important door, and the last thing Pyrrha has left of the woman she loved.(5) And, she might be Nona's body.

Nona found herself sighing again, like her body wanted to let out all its sound at once. One of her ears felt slightly blocked, and when she tilted her head and blew her nose and pulled at her earlobe a little trickle of water came out.(6) “What if I don’t like me?” she said. “Well, you’ll probably start visiting clubs and trying to hit on the dancers, and going from relationship to relationship not really being able to commit.”(7) Nona was severe. “You talk too much, Pyrrha.”

Nona decides to reach out a hand, but at the last moment, can't do it from her fear. Pyrrha grabs Nona by the elbow and pushes her hand forward into the ward. After several long, gory paragraphs of gore about how the ward affects Nona's hand, the ward breaks like a car backfiring. Nona cries into Pyrrha, and it takes a good half minute to get her to look at her hand, which is thankfully fine except for her nails being long and clawed. Pyrrha trims them for her, roughly, and tells her to start opening doors while Pyrrha cleans up the ward in case it's still partially intact and can reform.

Nona opens a door, but it only holds brooms. Next, there's a door with a key still in the lock outside, so she opens it to find the girl from her dream. She tiptoes in, and a couple of paragraphs are spent describing her in quite a bit of detail.

Nona touches the corpse's hand tentatively, expecting her to be revealed as an illusion or a soap bubble.

What happened made her think much better of the corpse. It opened its eyes—and its eyes were yellow, the gold of the old sky, like hers only much foggier.(8) Those were beautiful: Nona had always adored her eyes, and here they were again, on the corpse, only partially spoiled for being dead. They looked like treasure at night. The corpse looked at her in such mute, helpless appeal—spoke to her in her first language(9)—that Nona did not have to think about what she did next. She leant down and laid a kiss right on that cool, dead, crooked mouth. She kissed her just the once. The corpse’s mouth was soft and rough and cold, and did not respond to Nona’s mouth, but a tremble went through the upper body. Nona was surprised and relieved to find that the corpse girl tasted like toothpaste. At the tremble, Nona pulled back, self-conscious. The expression on the corpse’s face could not have been more rigid with shock and disbelief. She found herself saying, a little defensively— “You looked like you wanted to be kissed, that’s all.”

Pyrrha enters and Nona says she's sorry, but Pyrrha looks at Gideon like she's seeing at least one ghost. Nona turns back to Gideon and finds her eyes closed again, her body still. Pyrrha gathers herself and says she'd know Gideon Nav anywhere, she's the picture of her mother except for her eyes and brows. Nona observes that Gideon's mother was the woman who broke Pyrrha's heart, and Pyrrha says she was ready to commit except for the whole punching Wake out an airlock thing.

For some reason, Nona felt vaguely hurt and envious. She didn’t have a mother for Pyrrha to have punched out an airlock. Nor had Pyrrha ever looked at her the way she now looked at the dead corpse with red hair—a kind of soft, guarded want; a hunger—a living desire to take the corpse in her arms like Kevin’s wanting desire with his dolls. To own, to squeeze, to cosset and destroy.

Nona remembers and tells Pyrrha that she thinks Gideon's awake, and can hear them. Nona admits she kissed Gideon and woke her up. Pyrrha looks at Nona, sad and amused and more understanding than Nona wants. She asks Nona why, and Nona says, no reason. Pyrrha asks what it felt like, and Nona says that's private. Pyrrha observes that she's not a heap on the floor, so there wasn't a soul exchange.(10)

Nona says Gideon looked at her, and Pyrrha asks her eye colour. Gold, like Nona's, but cloudier. Pyrrha is relieved Ianthe didn't transfer into her, and remarks how it would've taken half the Lyctors of old to keep her in hand. Pyrrha wonders why John let her bring Gideon's corpse along, knowing the BOE would lose their minds when they saw her resemblance to Wake.

At any rate, time to get back to the gang, so Pyrrha heaves Gideon over her shoulder. Nona notices that Gideon is wearing a jewelled scabbard on her hip, and a sword hilt above it, all pearly white, and something attached to the other hip with "clear white blades and plate rivets."(11) Pyrrha tells Nona to eat the protein bar in Pyrrha's pocket on the way back up, and Nona grumbles, but she does feel weak.

When they return to the crew, Crown's hand reflexively touches her(12) sword as she declares it was Gideon after all. Pyrrha says it could be a doll copy, as she can't see why John would allow her corpse into the world, ever. Crown rushes to cradle Gideon's head in her hands, playing with the wreath.(13)

Pyrrha asks about the shuttle, and Crown says Pal's language got shockingly filthy when he looked at it. The fuel's warded against use. Cam suggested they secure the Sixth for now, and come back for the shuttle later. Judith's also in bad shape, her sedatives aren't working like they should.

Pyrrha asks Crown to help Nona, who worked too hard to get their prize. Crown offers Nona a piggyback ride, which Nona accepts eagerly.

Back in the main room, Cam is standing, though she looks grey beneath her olive skin. Pal and Cam both look at Pyrrha and Nona eagerly, but Pal's face creases as he realizes there wasn't a reaction. Pal wonders if that means it's a copy, and has Pyrrha put her down. Pyrrha does so, gently, and Nona thinks the corpse prince really does look dead, she's flopping very convincingly. Crown says Ianthe certainly acted as though the corpse was real. Pal kneels and gets to work.

He undid her scarf, and Nona looked away. Beneath the scarf a huge wound in the throat made the neck yawn wide open.(14) When she peeked back, wishing she had her braids to screen everything, she saw that Palamedes had unbuttoned the shirt partway and there was another big wound in the chest—a big purple bloodless puncture wound, with white teeth peeking out coyly from within.(15)

Pal says the damage is consistent with reported injuries, with a second wound lower down. Pyrrha says it would be an exact copy with John's work regardless. Pal says he has an advantage, in that he touched the original. Using his psychometry, he tries, but ends up sneezing and pulling his hand away.

Pyrrha says he just met God, and Pal says he doesn't like him. Pyrrha says God is preserving Gideon, if she's not his own creation, or both. Once he's had his hand on something, necromantically speaking, he obliterates anyone else's fingerprints with his power. Crown says Gideon's body didn't decompose, either, before she was lost.

Pal says that protection may be keeping Nona out, as well, if this is where she belongs.(16) Still, they'll have to operate as if she's really Gideon. He makes a ghost ward, so Ianthe can't come and take over her. As he's fanning it dry, Cam asks about the order of operations, and Pal says they'll secure the Sixth Oversight Body first, as Juno Zeta is good with wards, and might be able to break the ones on the shuttle's fuel. Then they return to the Sixth installation, and get all the necromancers out of Varun's influence. They fix Nona, stop the war, go to the Ninth, and "begin the real fight."(17)

Everyone looks at Nona, who doesn't know what the Ninth House is, but her teeth chatter as if to say something, which she has to clench to keep in.

The ward is dried, so Pal asks for the syringe. Pyrrha says she thought of that, but a blood sample might not be enough. With John's power, even Harrow couldn't have broken in unless the blood was fresh. Pal says Gideon's colour is good, no dehydration or gravity pooling fluids. If her blood survives outside her body, or not, it will all tell them something.

Camilla passed him a little pair of scissors, and he cut a short slit in the thigh of the corpse’s soft leather trousers. Then Palamedes prodded around with his fingers—he placed the needle to the dead skin—and the corpse’s hand shot out and ringed around his wrist before anyone could stop it.(18) Nona noticed that one of the corpse prince’s sleeves had worked up, and that on her wrist was a funny fat bracelet: a braided cord of many colours, none of which matched. “One, that’s not going to work. Two, I fucking hate needles,” said the corpse. “Three—Sex Pal, if that’s how you get a lady’s pants off, holy shit, no wonder I stole your girl.”(19) Palamedes rocked back on his heels. “Not my girl. Unlike some of us, I’ve never much seen the allure of an evil cougar,” he said crisply. “Good morning, Gideon.”

=====

(1) The cheering is surely audible! Unless you didn't realize immediately that this was a classic Pal line. (2) I think I understand Corona here. These are her friends, these are the people she's come to trust and love now that she's been given a chance at a life outside her sister's control. Recall Nona saying Crown wants Cam to love her the way Cam loves Nona. She wants Cam to be her sister, in a way, and not necessarily separate from the codependency her parents forced upon her and Ianthe. It's so sad and so sweet, I think. But, at the same time, Cam and Pal haven't had a chance to talk, face to face, alone, in over a year and a half. Give them a minute, Corona, for pity's sake. (3) It took me a good few rereads of this and surrounding lines to realize that it was Nona saying it. So, just in case the lack of identity marker confused anyone else, here you go. (4) The Eighth lab in Canaan House. The one that requires soul siphoning to survive. (5) Pyrrha's mom energy is just BURSTING AT THE SEAMS for Gideon, seriously. (6) The water again, in weird orifices. What was in that scream? (7) It's okay, Pyrrha, I thought your joke here was very funny if not in the best of timing or taste. ;) (8) Why might Gideon's eyes look diluted compared to Nona's? Well, the corpse thing is, I think, a red herring, because everyone else's eyes are exactly the same in death as in life in this setting. We know Wake doesn't have John's gold eyes, so the breeding out could affect them. If Nona were Gideon and Harrow's souls merged, then her eyes should be somewhere between Gideon's gold and Harrow's black, but not brighter gold. Who would have the brighter gold, comparison to whom made Mercy realize Gideon's true identity? Who would be able to take a Resurrection Beast's cry and give it at full power, enough to disable even held corpses who once had necromantic ability? Who is, as Varun put it, this green thing forced into a body too small, so small Nona thinks there's barely room for just her, let alone anyone else? (9) The language of the body, which Nona has demonstrated so casually throughout. This, more than anything, is why I know that no matter what the fandom debates, this is truly Gideon Nav. She would want nothing more, on seeing someone she thought was Harrowhark Nonagesimus, than to embrace her. Nona can tell, though she doesn't have the context to know that her kiss may have been misinterpreted and inappropriate.

(10) So, here's where my theory comes in as to what happened between the end of Harrow and the beginning of Nona. Gideon (in Harrow's body) guided Pyrrha through the River, somehow, back to her own body. There, something happened, I can't guess what exactly, but it transferred Gideon's soul back to her own body by the same gravity Pal thought would happen to Nona (see: chapter 20) and that Pyrrha makes reference to here. Then somehow Gideon's body slipped back into the River, maybe something instinctual with Harrow's abilities as a Lyctor, maybe something to do with her genetic heritage despite not being an adept. She was drawn back to her father, by his intention or otherwise, which is how she ended up back in House control. This left Harrow's body just up from the shore of the River, in BOE territory, with Pyrrha and Cam/Pal and crew. I wonder if Pal and/or Cam witnessed whatever happened at the "landing", if this informed Pal's guess that Gideon's body would cure Nona. I wonder how he feels when it doesn't work. The described crease in his face later this chapter tells me he hates being wrong but not much else. (11) First House accoutrements for her offhand knuckle knife. (12) Not her sword, exactly, if we recall. (13) Nona never elaborated on whether it was infant finger bones, like John's, or some other sort of bones in Gideon's laurel. (14) I don't recall Gideon taking a wound to the throat. Pal seems to indicate this was the original wound, though I'd have thought Gideon would aim for the heart with that fence post spear, to be absolutely sure. (15) I don't recall the fencepost wound being described as so large as this, though. Also, this is the massive fandom debate: are the teeth literal, like vagina dentata but on the chest, or are they metaphorical, signifying ribs? (16) So reluctant to admit he could be wrong about this one, our Pal scented an option that admittedly would seem to make sense… but nobody knew about Harrow's secret shame. (17) The battle against the God Emperor. (18) See, Nona wasn't imagining it or lying! (19) Two references, back to back, to book 1. That's gotta be our girl.

#the locked tomb #tlt #nona the ninth #ntn #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #nona #pyrrha dve #camilla hect #palamedes sextus #coronabeth tridentarius #gideon nav

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