#[mercymorn voice] BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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necro elysium: director's cut
in which i tell you bonus things about necro elysium (yuck!!).
genesis:
i'm not exactly sure how i came up with the idea, other than it was probably 2022 and i had been playing a lot of disco elysium. i was also thinking a lot about mercymorn, as is my terminal condition. i'm sure i talked a lot to ave about it. i also know i had a conversation with ama, where i soft-pitched a disco adaptation where certain skills would be in cristabel's 'voice.' it seemed like an interesting way to dissect lyctorhood. posts had been circulating about the parallels between harry du bois and harry nonagesimus, but, i'll be honest with you, i think i have very little capacity to write either harrow or gideon. but writing mercy seemed a) something i could pull off, b) a way to gesture at the harrow/mercy parallels without requiring me to leave my zone of interest, and c) there is something about mercy that seemed much more in line with harrier. i think they are both porous, both lacking a certain kind of filter, i felt like if mercy was given a disco skillset, it would really wrestle within her. augustine, i think, would be a bit more a kim. something that at least made pretenses of cohering. (more on augustine later, ofc.) possibly this was also, bc, for the purposes of this fic, i am a subscriber to cristabel having quite a big personality. also, following the release of nona, which gave us some cristabel (!!!) but also kind of dashed my cristabel oct is an e-girl (at least pre-res), I was keen to try and bring my cristabel characterization in closer synthesis with what was now in the text. also, once i realized the obvious semi-pun of "necro elysium," i knew i'd have to write it, if only for the wordplay alone.
anyway, i wrote 1,000 words, dashed off a bit of fanart, and then rolled away.
the skillset & mechanics:
as my fanart attests, the first mercymorn disco skills i pitched were not where we ended up! exclamation and discontent merged into indignation; scrutineer felt distinctly covered by the perception skills; i really wanted to keep acupuncture, because it was by far the funniest, but as i wrote the fic, anatomy was getting significantly more play and i waffled on merging them.
i wanted the skills to still retain a lot of the disco roots, but we weren't trying to have perfect fidelity. we were also integrating the presence of cristabel (more on that later). still, i wanted to be true not only to mercy's 'build,' but also the fact that she is a baby lyctor at the moment of the fic. because she's a just-ascended scientist, her skills are very blue (disco's "intelligence" set) coded. i initially also wanted to give her a skill called "scientific method," but didn't want to upset the balance of skills 'speaking' & so i hope some of mercy's methodical inclination come through in other ways. i planned for her to have very low artistry (a canonical disco skill), but the staging opportunity didn't present itself.
it was important to me that mercy failed some checks, because that feels true to the character & the spirit of disco elysiums checks & how harry interacts with his world. you will notice that mercy fails maybe ever composure check. this was absolutely intentional.
as for acupuncture, it clicked into place once i recategorized it from a 'blue' skill to mercy's sole 'red' (physical) skill. i very much see acupuncture as anatomy applied. canonically, we know mercy & cristabel contributed spirit magic to the megatheorum (see also: the eighth house's reliance on soul siphoning). her pivot to an anatomist also struck me as something born out of repression and grief, and so acupuncture is there to sort of illustrate this shift. the beginnings of a 'brute force' skillset she will continue to grow. in any event, it let me not kill my darling and keep both anatomy and acupuncture in, which felt right.
the art:
now we have to talk about the art because i'm always talking about this art. this art! when i was 80% of the way through the draft, i pitched the wonderful ama/smapis on drawing something for the fic. this was mainly bc ama is one of my favourite tlt artists ever & her mercy and disco elysium art rules. she was beyond kind enough to indulge me, at which point i sent her the draft & left it all in her immensely capable hands.
ama dignified my very silly fic to a level i couldn't have imagined! you may note that also encoded each of mercy's skills to different bodily systems (circulatory, muscular, skeletal, digestive, etc. are all accounted for), which is? genius?? her artistic vision elevated the whole thing & made the synthesis between lyctorhood and whatever's going on in harry's head so much more rich and meaty and nuanced. i cannot praise it enough. it's so good. i gaze lovingly upon it every day.
the unwanted guest:
"You can't admit what's happened here because you're fixated on this idea of the soul as inviolate and inviolable—this perfectly solid, impervious thing, the diamond sitting in the glass of wine. But souls are permeable. When they rub up against each other, they bleed—they mingle—they contaminate each other."—Palamedes Sextus, "The Unwanted Guest"
i started writing & had the thematic beats of necro elysium in 2022, long before we knew "the unwanted guest" was a glimmer in tamsyn's eye. but can you believe? can you believe how prescient i would've looked if i had a) finished a tlt playtext fic and b) also finished a fic about soul permeability? alas, it was not to be. but the publication of "the unwanted guest" did make me want to return to necro; it gave more weight to the reading i was using disco's format to impart.
i will say my personal reading is not that mercymorn is pious because that's cristabel as-a-nun inside her. i think mercymorn is pious because she was literally resurrected by her friend who literally has god-tier powers. when thinking through cristabel's skillset, i was thinking of aspects of mercymorn's personality where cristabel's would be most at home, would maybe latch onto, emphasize. i think of her as a bold and underline, as a different inflection into the lyctor's personality. some were obvious: now that i knew cristabel was a nun, piety was a clear fit; joy was another non-negotiable, as it was the guiding characterization of cristabel we get in harrow the ninth (john saying the saints were to be named after their cavs, augustine calling her a "twerp" and likening her to a child also, through the dark prism of augustine's mind, implied to me someone more exuberant). then i also wanted cristabel's "master of the sword" characterization present and to put the cannibalized cav swordfighting skills in purple (psyche), which is mostly "cristabel" coded skills, but also is, for me, anything gained through lyctorization. hence death's presence.
when we finally meet cristabel, a little, pre-res cristabel, in nona, she's much more utiliarian and practical than the cristabel i had spun out pre-nona. drawing from the way she counsels john, rigour seemed like the driving force. someone who achieves mastery through hard work, through discipline, but also joy is also v present in any sword-fighting scenes to balance it out & suggest that cristabel mastered swordplay partially out of duty & partially out of sheer joy.
one way my fic's use of disco elysium's skillset departs a little from disco elysium's is i wasn't as concerned with creating hyper-distinct voices for each skill. this is partially due to my own limitations and partially because some sets are meant to be, as i say, inflected with cristabel's personality & thus coherent to each other (hence: the whole climax where her voice comes together across traits). one could argue, this is to illustrate the permeability even between these seemingly separate traits. one could also argue i was just not very imaginative.
whatever souls are made of:
i also wanted to note that i sort of see all three of tlt fics in conversation with each other, but whatever souls are made of especially mirrors necro elysium. astute readers (lmao) will notice i hit some similar beats or ticks. is this because of my own limitations?? maybe! but also i do have readings of these characters i'm attached to & am interested in furthering.
i think there's something sort of fun and pleasing and characterizing about how much of whatever souls are made of, which is filtered through augustine, is collaged of references and quotations. it's also a cacophony of voices, but for augustine they're cribbed and for mercy, they're positioned as a fracturing internal monologue. i do think this is consistent with augustine's performative and also deceitful relationship to lyctorhood and the repression surrounding it & to mercymorn's more tortured self-image and inescapable emotional honesty.
the bigger parallel (if we can generously categorize it thusly) is that alfred and cristabel say very similar things to their necomancers. again, i have a beat!! but i hope people will forgive the symmetry for its slight differences. alfred says to augustine that he 'never wanted to be without' augustine (possibly, also, a longing to be included); cristabel hopefully speaks with a bit more righteousness, 'i could not have you stopped...least of all [by] myself.' cristabel's, i hope, adds in an element of someone who believes in mercy's 'greater' destiny, to the wider divinity of the world john is building, who believes that it is loving to propel someone forward. this is also, ofc, connected to how pre-res cristabel propels john forward. is that ethical??? is it good??? maybe not, but it is love. it is a kind of love.
okay this is much too long!! but tysm for reading. i received a few very, very nice asks about other specific parts that i am keen to blabber about, but i will do those in separate posts to give us some breathing room. everything will be in my fanfic tag.
but tysm for reading the fic & ty to the few kind anons who indulged me in this director's cut. <3
#the locked tomb#m: tlt fic#mercymorn the first#cristabel oct#augustine quinque#harrow the ninth#💖💖💖
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8, 22, 23, 25
8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about
fork found in kitchen moment but i find the idea of wake being a "bad/abusive" mother to be totally reductive of wake as a character, and the ideas the text is trying to explore. i know that gideon expresses feelings about her mother both pre- and post- realizing that wake is her mother and she was using her as a tool to open up the tomb -- and those feelings are absolutely valid and very real for gideon to have, so i understand that angle of it. but to me, wake was acting more out of furious desperation and determination to see her goals through and having a baby that she says augustine and mercymorn told her to kill and blow the doors open.
I’m sorry, Nonagesimus. I didn’t know what to do. Maybe I should’ve turned and gotten the hell out of there, holed up somewhere to wait until you came back. But I said: “What—about—my mother?”
“Excuse me. I am wrong. I should not use that term,” said the necromantic saint. She rolled both her shoulders back and wiped those thin dilute tears of blood off her cheeks. “How she would have hated the word mother.”
[...]
“You sent me out there to kill a baby and open those doors. Whose baby didn’t matter on my end. I carried that thing under my heart … threw up every morning that first trimester … felt it kick … had to induce labour and give birth in a shuttle, alone, knowing by then that Gideon was catching up … Do you know, I gave that thing a nickname, my whole pregnancy? I used to call it Bomb.”
i think wake is living in a world where sentimental feelings towards the baby she's carrying is not an option when it comes down to what she's trying to do and what she's trying to achieve, and even then, when wake shoots mercymorn and says goodbye to gideon that feels very sad to me, and tells me that it isn't nearly as one-note as i think a lot of people wish it were. again: i understand the desire to have it be one note, but the series demands you exercise your brain a little more than that imo.
I didn’t know what to say—Thank you? Is this like round five now? I didn’t have to say anything, because her mouth opened, and the voice was Cytherea’s but the gravelly, hard-as-nails tone wasn’t. “Goodbye,” she said.
22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
gideon was the one who saluted harrowhark with his cigarette, not pyrrha! also blood of eden's whole deal. generally i'd love to get a day-in-the-life with pash and aim. + pyrrha's grief for gideon the first that people just sort of brush past when i see her characterized, and how it acts in opposition to camilla and palamedes' whole deal throughout nona. maybe favorite isn't the right word to use for the last one but interesting is.
23. ship you've unwillingly come around to
i genuinely can't think of an answer to this one tbh. maybe pash/nona? but i wasn't ever opposed to pash/nona necessarily, i just find crown/pash or even cam/pash a little more appealing to my tastes.
25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing
we shouldn't be discussing racism in the fandom and the way characters of color, specifically black characters (i'm thinking of judith + marta + gideon the first + pyrrha-in-gideon's-body) are treated in fandom spaces because tmuir is white / because the empire has somehow liberated itself of the issues of racism and homophobia etc. i think it's a copout for many white fans who are uncomfortable with discussing these things.
choose violence w me
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the locked tomb holiday exchange rec list (part 1)
Some favourites from a first partial skim of works posted for @tlt-holiday-exchange. Find the entire collection HERE
art fills
alecto the first!. Alecto. And she is DONE
Creation. Art of John 1:20, the man who became god and the soul who became a body.
Deities. Alecto, Gideon and Harrow in a life-and-death cycle
Dios Apate. “artwork of jod and his duplicitous sluts (in varying states of sluttery 😳)” Exactly what the summary says but HOTTER.
Hotshot. Gideon raised in Blood of Eden & cousin Pash. Two kids born into a insurgency group ought to know how to shoot a gun, right?
no John what r u drawin of ur friends!!. john is a streamer on twitch, he draws shitty smut of his friends sometimes. there are cows.
Rake In The Lake. The Untitled Goose Game crossover this fandom needed, ft. We Suffer/Juno Zeta and Mercymorn
The Eightfold. Mercymorn/Cristabel, Mercymorn’s ascension to lyctorhood
fic fills
A sucker for suicide bombers. Camilla/Pyrrha/Palamedes, NtN era. Pyrrha finds herself at a different end in another bodysharing throuple. (Rated E)
bodies. Pyrrha folds her arms. “You don’t like it,” she says. “People thinking you’re a working girl.” She laughs, a dark sound. “It’s not that different from being a cav, at the end of the day.” Or: Camilla/Pyrrha in New Rho, rated E.
each note's own appointed ghost. Corona / Ianthe; Ianthe and Coronabeth try out necromancer-cavalier roleplay in bed. Everything you’d expect from the summary and more (wink wink)
Giggle. A day before the disaster a nun spends a day taking care of the children in the Ninth House's daycare. Including one troublesome toddler. (It’s baby Gideon Nav and she’s adorable)
leftovers. Corona POV on Camilla/Palamedes, GtN era. “Coronabeth Tridentarius observes, waits, and wants what she can't have.“ (ft. implied Corona/Ianthe)
Schroedinger's Pussy. Gideon/Harrow, GtN AU. Or: in which Harrow wouldn’t recognize a sex thing if it smacked her in the pussy. Yes, it’s the pussy spanking fic
Super Secret File DO NOT OPEN. Mercymorn and Augustine rob a graveyard, but it's a RPG that John is playing. This fic is high on seven different layers of #meta, and it’s hilarious. What this fandom deserves.
telling dreams apart. Cytherea as Dulcinea seduces Gideon in Canaan House. Rated E ft. the inherent dubcon of identity issues, Cytherea pushes boundaries and has lots of fun! Gideon less so.
THE CORRUPTION OF SILAS OCTAKISERON. Silas/Mercymorn, crack pairing played completely straight. This fic is a delight, Mercymorn is ON POINT, and it frankly changed me as a person.
The Sixth's Temporary Housing Shortage. Camilla/Palamedes, getting each other off while sharing the same body. Or: The real reason Camilla won't let Palamedes peddle mediocre erotica is because he writes it about her.
Vol. 805, No. 4. Juno Zeta / Abigail / Magnus. Academic rivarly! Conference hookups! Witty POV voice! A delightful read
we both go down together. Mercy/John/Augustine immediately post Resurrection. E-rated fic that is NOT afraid to ask: Does it count as consent if it's God? ft. sexy cult shit, horny vibes, unsettling narration, stunning prose. Author... call me
we kill the flame. Palamedes/Cytherea. An alternate take on the confrontation at the end of GtN, ft. hate sex and Palamedes with a beard
[recs part 2] [exchange wrap post]
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52
Fifth skull...
The Emperor is dead - now the Nine Houses will start dying...
I understand, Mercy, I really, genuinely do - but -
oh my GOD -
“I wanted it to be me,” she said, in this weird, unearthly calm. “I didn’t want it to be you. I didn’t want it to be you, Augustine, after all … the sin needed to be mine.”
In a really terrible, fucked up way, Augustine and Mercymorn do love each other.
Somehow I managed to say: “We have to go get everyone out. Now.”
“There is no way,” said Mercy, cool as death.
It was Ianthe of all people who said, “How can you say that? Will you not even try?”
“Dominicus will collapse in a few minutes, chick,” said the other Lyctor. He too had the calm of a dying man. I only met that calm once, and it wasn’t on a living human being: it was the calm on a dead girl’s face, speared and mangled in a bed I’d told her to lie down in.
Oh, ouch...
They will not even try? They will just let the planets die?
We’re going to go round up the ships—everyone who’s left—sue for peace as best we can—get the Edenites on side. And then we’ll find a place to fulfil the old promise … Somewhere out there exists a home not paid for with blood; it won’t be for us, but it will be for those who have been spared. Babies always get born. Houses always get built. And flowers will die on necromancy’s grave.”
Her throat was working. “Augustine—”
The Lyctor took her silently in his arms: they held each other like children who’d had a nightmare and had woken in a fright. Just as silently, they detached.
She said in a low voice, “He was right. There can be no forgiveness.”
“Then let us not seek out forgiveness, but forgetfulness,” he said. “Bury me next to you in that unmarked grave, Joy. We knew that was the only hope we ever had—that we would live to see it through … and pray for our own cessation. Oh, we’ll still hate each other, my dear, we have hated each other too long and too passionately to stop … but my bones will rest easy next to your bones.”
I LOVE them. I love them so much.
Gideon stared at the dead cigarette in his hand, and then he said, “Well. Augustine, there’s something you should know—”
White light.
Oh god there's more.
It happened in an instant. It happened over a myriad. A wet red construct knitted itself back together, [...]
The Emperor of the Nine Houses—the King Undying—the Prince of Death—the Necrolord Prime—stood behind Mercymorn. He reached out with his naked hand. Her chest blew outward in a hot shower of ribs, meat, and diaphragm. Her body stumbled forward—he tapped the back of her head, something went crack—and the Saint of Joy fell facedown before Augustine, whose chest was decorated with the desecrated remnants of her heart.
Oh GOD.
Literally. Should've known it wouldn't be that easy to kill him.
Oh Mercymorn. She might be a goner for real though. :(
“It was a lovely bit of work on Mercymorn’s part. She must have been training for thousands of years, to bring that off. But I didn’t get to where I am by being able to die, you know?”
It seems all the anatomy knowledge in the world isn't enough to kill God. What a damn shame. Poor, poor Mercymorn, I'm going to fucking miss her.
I said, “You told that bastard to beat up Harrow?” That was my job, after all.
God said, “I was trying to save her.”
Also my job. “Go to hell, Pops.”
God asked Mercymorn to try and kill Harrow, out of mercy. Hah. Mercy. Geddit.
“Do I get the opportunity?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the Emperor. “You do. I didn’t offer it to Mercy because Mercy really pissed me off, I’m sorry to say.”
“Understandably,” agreed Augustine.
I mean, she did just try and kill him. Fair enough. I guess. I'm still gonna miss her though.
Is Augustine going to take this?
“No, John,” he said.
And Augustine raised his hand.
Is he gonna try and kill God again? After it already didn't work the first time - after Mercy did such an exquisitely thorough job, and it still didn't work?
The River burst through the window in a high-pressure torrent. The Emperor was sucked out into the water, and Augustine dove after him, and Ianthe waded after him. Harrow, the only reason we weren’t pulled out too was because I was yanked back into the muscular, lean-beef arms of the saint who shared my name. [...]
“The hell happened—”
“Augustine’s dropped the whole station in the River,” he said. “We’ve crossed over physically—body, soul, everything.”
What was it - a Lyctor can survive a bit under five minutes in the River??
What about God?? We've seen him in the River once and he had to drag Harrow out of it - he didn't seem affected??? This surely is just a great way to kill all your potential allies??
Or... or just all of God's potential allies. Eeeeek.
Augustine, you bastard.
The station listed again. I said, “Okay. You’re a necromancer. Are you going to do something, or what?”
“My necromancer is dead,” said Gideon.
Ohhhhh... so Gideon the First did die in the River, fighting the Resurrection Beast, -
so this... must be Pyrrha??
Two years before you were born, my necromancer started an affair with your mother … not knowing I’d also been doing the same thing, using his body.”
I said, “What the fuck.”
“She was the most dangerous woman I’d ever met who wasn’t me,” said Pyrrha Dve. “You’re right, though. She was a real dick.”
Hi what the fuck?? Gideon is so right here - what pray tell THE FUCK???
Lmao Commander Wake had an affair with Gideon and Pyrrha both, in the same body?????????
“The stoma’s opened for John,” said Pyrrha, and she sounded—detached, rather than triumphant, rather than grief-stricken. “It must think he’s a Resurrection Beast.”
Oh my GOD. Yeah, that could work...
As he struggled, he somehow pushed the Emperor into a waiting, frenzied bed of the things, which wrapped around his legs—and the stoma sucked down.
This is all very fucking horrifying, to be fucking honest.
I mean, yeah, I was thinking about you too; if I could’ve turned that off I would’ve turned it off years ago, but more importantly—I was absolutely fucking out of my mind Ninth House big pissed off.
As I dithered, Pyrrha sandblasted me with the calm, “Your mother
would’ve picked the bullet.”
“Yes, well, jail for Mother,” I said.
For a thousand years!!!!
High above the nest of tongues, Ianthe was poised as though flying—fluttering white flimsy in the heart of that vortex—as God and Augustine thrashed together. The tongues had retracted almost to the rim of the mouth, and God was not winning. Those demoniacal tongues had him almost entirely in their grip as Augustine pinned him down. The tongues seemed more interested in the Emperor than in Augustine, though they weren’t uninterested in Augustine. God’s desperation, even in your darkening eyeballs, was clear.
If God is desperate here, then this really seems to be some kind of foolproof method. Holy fucking shitballs.
Ianthe seems to be somewhat safe...
Kind of - they still all need to get out of the River somehow -
Can Gideon in Harrow's body find Harrow's little bubble, and her soul?
I watched Ianthe dart down, rip the tongues from the Emperor of the Nine Houses, and wrestle him clear. The tongues entwined in a bower to bear Augustine silently down to that ravenous mouth, to the Hell where only demons went.
Which was Tridentarius all over.
Fucking IANTHE!!!!! Really perfectly happy to kill her mentor to save the guy who's been a giant fucking scumbag for ten thousand years!!!!
... I realise I maybe shouldn't really be rooting for God to die, but hey, man, he killed Mercymorn. I'm allowed okay??
Ianthe, throwing in her lot with the guy who had lied to everyone about everything. Ianthe, backstabbing her own cavalier all over again. Ianthe, with the world in the balance, reaching her hand out and pressing down on the weight marked BAD.
Gideon agrees with me though. Lol.
your bullshit dead girlfriend had come to claim you.
And she said in the wrong voice twice removed: “Chest compressions. I know her sternum’s shattered; ignore it. We need that heart pumping. On my mark.”
Hands pressed. We died.
Please say psyche. Please say there's still some way out of it. If Alecto - of all people!!!! If Alecto is trying to save them - - Please - -
(I need a moment.)
#harrow the ninth#harrow the ninth liveblog#htn liveblog#tlt liveblog#htn spoilers#tlt spoilers#the locked tomb#I need a moment#and also lunch
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(i trembled) when he laid you out
rating: teen | words: 1.1k | chapters: 1/1
summary:
Harrow loses herself in the River. Gideon faces the consequences.
(read below the cut or on ao3)
———
You said, “What happens to a Lyctoral body without a soul?”
God hesitated. “Being separated from your soul won’t kill you,” he said. “Not immediately. But—”
“But we’ll kill you,” said his saint. “Immediately. A Lyctor’s body, empty, with its battery intact but nobody in the driver’s seat? Do you know what could take up residence? Anything could get inside you—any horrible or evil or lonely thing, any miserable revenant, or worse—and you, you Ninth House child, are not remotely qualified to fight an outside predator. You are like a little baby. Listen to this: if we get to the other side and find you’ve gone and left your soul behind—I will separate your brain from your skull without waiting for you to catch up.”
And God said nothing.
———
Lying next to Ianthe, you fell into a numb reverie. The effects of the oxygen flush had worn off too quickly. You took two breaths per minute as instructed even as the world blurred around you.
God told you to keep conscious. You were utterly helpless against his affected paternalism. You were always so eager to obey, weren’t you? You wanted an adult—any adult—to look at you with pride in their eyes, so you stretched out the muscles of your calves until they strained. You pulled your Lyctoral robes over your eyes. You laid on your mummified sword.
This last one was your mistake. You had caulked the sword beneath a layer of bone, trusting that the coating would protect you from its malevolence. Your constructs wouldn’t survive the submersion of your mind in the River, but you hadn’t known that yet. How could you have known?
In the space between the Saint of Joy calling out one minute forty-four and one minute forty-five, the ward exploded.
Your peace did not abandon you immediately. You had enough time to prop yourself up on your elbows and observe Ianthe’s slack face and arched spine. You thought you heard someone crying in frustration. It might have even been me.
As you sank deeper into the River, the water around you filled with corpses. You felt something brush against your foot. You tried to work a section of your tibia through your skin, but in your failed attempt to create a second protective layer, you unwittingly dissolved the first.
God turned around. “Harrowhark, no theorems!”
It was too late. A rubber-bodied toddler with a painted face and very red hair lay dead beside your knee and it was this that destroyed you, it was this that kindled within you something you had no hope of defending against. You howled in a purity of fright. Your grasping hands brushed against the pommel of my sword.
There were two minutes remaining when you lost the tether to your mind.
———
I don’t know how we survived the journey. All I knew was the water. It swept you down, claiming you as its own.
I tried to dive in. It spat me back out. Fair enough.
———
Harrow, are you there?
Can you hear me?
Everything is going to be fine,
just follow the sound of my voice
and don't look back.
I don't think you can hear me.
It was worth a shot.
Whenever you’re ready.
Don’t worry, honey.
I’ll keep the home fires burning.
———
When I woke up in your body, God and the Saint of Patience were locked in a hushed conversation at the front of the shuttle. Ianthe was still unconscious by your side. A rapier, presumably Mercymorn's, emerged from your breast.
“The dead were in her brain,” said God. “Harrow was fundamentally deeper in the River than Ianthe, but I don’t know why.”
“Oh, don't feign ignorance; it isn't attractive,” snapped Mercymorn. "The girl was doomed from the moment you brought her on board!! She was an infant and a terribly incomplete Lyctor besides. I hope you're satisfied with the results of your trials, Lord!!”
Something in my chest burned at terribly incomplete. It might have been the rapier, but I couldn’t tell through the force of my rage.
The strategic move would've been to feign death and listen, absorbing as much of their conversation as I could before they realized I was awake. I wasn’t thinking clearly, though. I rose to my feet.
“Hey, fuck off! I'm the only one who gets to insult her,” I said.
At least, I tried to say. I hadn’t accounted for the waters of the dead flooding your lungs. Instead, I choked and vomited salt water.
God and his saint turned with enough time to watch as I gurgled and fell to my knees. They looked as if they'd seen a miracle, but the miracle was something they dreaded and feared in equal measure.
That they were scared of me at all was frankly unfair. They were immortal, all-powerful necromancers. I was just a teenage girl who didn't know how to die properly.
(Were you dead, Harrow? Was this all for nothing?)
Mercymorn extended one trembling hand. I remembered her promise to separate Harrow's brain from her skull and threw myself backwards, but God stilled her with a light touch to her wrist.
Wide-eyed, he asked, "Annabel?"
I was too busy recoiling from the cost of movement to respond. There was still a rapier skewering our heart. Your body was trying to heal around it. It was some of the worst pain I’d felt in my life, although Canaan House had truly been educational in that regard. At least with the fence post, it was over quickly.
The blade of the rapier was tangled in your skin. I fumbled at the hilt, trying to remove the blade, but it was too slippery to grasp. I didn’t have the leverage.
Distantly, I wondered what Ianthe would think when she regained consciousness covered in your blood, then kicked myself for thinking about Ianthe at all when there was a full foot of steel in your innards. (Also, she was a flesh magician. She would probably like it, which was a possibility I didn’t dare contemplate.)
I felt alone in your head. I didn't know very much about necromancy, but I knew that Lyctorhood only went one way. I was here; therefore, you weren't. All I could choke out was, "No, no, no."
Unexpectedly, something softened in God's expression at my cries. The most powerful man in the universe came to kneel by my side, and I found myself unable to move away. Where would I go? If Mercymorn tried to kill me again, I wondered how long I would try to resist before I let her.
(Harrow, what was the point of me without you?)
"Shhh," God was murmuring. "Who knows how you escaped the Tomb… I suppose Anastasia had something up her sleeves after all. Hush, Annie. You can rest again soon."
I'll be damned if that didn't send my alarm bells ringing, but it was too late. God slid his fingers across my temples. Everything went dark.
#i like to call this fic my ‘mithraeum any% speedrun’ AU#the locked tomb#tlt#gideon nav#griddlehark#harrow the ninth#htn spoilers#ntn spoilers#m speaks
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Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 50
(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one!)
(Second House skull) In which there are a number of shocking reveals, and the other pun that nearly made me defenestrate my e-reader.
THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE THE EMPEROR'S MURDER
Ianthe leads Gideon to God's rooms, but the door stands open when it should be locked tight. The two press themselves against the wall to listen and peek inside.
Cytherea's body is inside, tied to a chair with tendon, as John asks how she's done all this.
The voice was still gravel. "I charge you with acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the human race--"
"Commander."
"--for which the only sentence is death; repeated mass killings, the utter disintegration of institutions political and social, languages, cultures, religions, all niceties and personal liberties of the nations, by use of--"
"Commander Wake," he said. It sounded like he scrubbed a hand over his face; there was a muffled exhalation. "I've heard all this before."
"Call me by my full name, or don't name me at all. I'll be damned if I pass up the chance to hear you speak the words."
He delays a bit, and tries to get away with only a partial quote, but eventually she draws the whole thing out of him.
"Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity,"(1) he recited, all in one breath. "Correct?"
"They're dead words--a human chain reaching back ten thousand years,"(2) said the corpse. "How did they feel?"
"Genuinely sad, bordering on very funny," said God. "Can we talk?"
John continues that Wake has been trying to "commit suicide by cop"(3) since he found her. She asks if the ten billion he killed gave him telepathy, and he half wishes they had, but he knows people. He asks what her mission was, fishing for information.
After some more exchange of words, he asks why she went to the Ninth House twenty years ago, and how she's still a sane revenant after all this time.
"You're not a necromancer--"
"Necromancy is a disease you released," she said. "Necromancy needs to be strategically and deliberately cleansed."(4)
"Don't spout bigotry, Commander. I won't kill you for it and it hurts your cause," he said calmly. "I have access to any number of cute pictures of necromantic toddlers with their first bone. They don't make for fat-cheeked roly-poly babies, but they've got a certain something, and nobody likes toddlers juxtaposed with cleansed."(5)
"How many babies died in the bomb, Gaius?"
"All of them," he said.(6)
He asks again, how she got into Cytherea's body as she wasn't there when he picked it up at Canaan House, and what she was doing at the Ninth nineteen years ago. Before she can even think about responding, though, he asks who's at the door. Gideon almost thinks they've been found out, but Mercymorn and Augustine stroll into John's room, seeming not to notice Gideon or Ianthe hiding in the coat rack.
Mercy says it's all over now, and Augustine suggests that John man up and give in. John asks if he's in trouble (causing Mercy to burst into approximately four seconds of angry tears before she works it out of her system) and if it's really the right time to confront him about it.
As John gestures to Wake, Mercy and August seem to notice her for the first time. He introduces them, but Wake says, with great satisfaction, that they've met.
God said quietly, "You've met, Commander? Can you tell me more about that?"
"I met the woman. I never met the man. She was the spokesperson for both."
Mercy said, "It can't be. This can't be happening. This cannot be happening," and the other Lyctor said, "It evidently can."
And God continued, "In what context?"
"They were working for me," said the dead Commander.
Mercymorn demanded, "Are you flattering yourself, or being wrong on purpose?"
The other Lyctor interrupted, "Joy--" but she was saying, wildly: "Oh, let it happen! If this is happening, let it happen ... We had a deal, Wake! Where the hell have you been hiding for nineteen years?"
"Where--you--fucking-left--me," she ground out. "In my bones. Then a blade.(6) In--that--fucking--hole."
Mercy and Wake argue for a bit, repeating that Gideon was on Wake's tail for two years before he sent her, in a dying tailspin, down onto the Ninth.
John freezes everyone, like he did at the dinner with Harrow's soup, and asks again why Wake went to the Ninth. She replies:
"To break into the Tomb."
Wake goes on to explain most, if not the whole, Dios Apate, Major(7) plot: Mercy's eggs and the dummy incubators were non-viable, so she inseminated herself with the sample obtained. The child's blood was supposed to help her break into the Tomb.
As John explains how this could never have worked, Gideon Prime walks in, finds Harrow and Ianthe cowering, and steals the sunglasses from Harrow-Gideon's face,(8) then continues on into the room until he's noticed by Augustine.
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.
Wake looks like her saviour has just walked in. Duty closes the distance between them, taking a gun out of his belt, and shoots Wake at the base of Cytherea's skull.
God is dismayed that Wake's ghost is completely gone. Augustine asks what happened to Number Seven, but Duty says it ran away. Augustine wants to know how THAT works, with Duty still alive. Mercy interrupts to say she wants Gideon I to hear this too, to know what Pyrrha died for.
God asks Gideon Classic if he was aware Wake was pregnant when she landed at the Ninth House. He did. God asks why he didn't stop her, to which he replies that he thought it was his, to the disgust of Mercy and uncontrolled, desperate amusement of August.
John puzzles out that the plan, then, was to kill a Lyctor's baby to open the wards… but Mercy says he knows they all know exactly what those wards entail. It was his essence, collected in another night of debauchery, twenty years ago. God asks if the baby died en route to the ground, but Mercy says no, it didn't.
At this, Gideon, wearing Harrow's body, emerges from the robes, and closes the space between herself and the group. Everyone turns to look at her, as she comes to stand behind the chair with the body on it.
"I'm-" I said.
The world revolved.
"I'm not fucking dead," I said, which wasn't even true, and I was choking up; everything I'd ever done, everything I'd ever been through, and I was choking up.
And the Emperor of the Nine Houses, the Necrolord Prime, stood from his chair to look at you - at me; looked at my face, looked at your face, looked at my eyes in your face. It took, maybe, a million myriads. The static in your ears resolved into wordless screaming. His expression was just - gently quizzical; mildly awed.
"Hi, Not Fucking Dead," he said. "I'm Dad."(9)
=====
(1) Yes, those are, in sequence, quotes from Henry V, New Zealand's national anthem, and Eminem's Lose Yourself. Also explains the dogtag!
(2) Hmm. Well those are definitely references to our world and time. So… this is the far future, somehow. And Dominicus is definitely our solar system.
(3) I'm not personally a fan of the "commit" part of the phrase (suicide shouldn't be framed as a crime to be committed, but a tragedy of loss and failure of support systems), but "suicide by cop" is such a weird and loaded phrase to find in these books that, up to a point, appeared to be silly space lesbians, y'know? Oh, but we were never quite in a silly book, were we? Not since Gideon's "indenture" on Drearburh was made clear.
(4) I suppose that begins to hint at what the BOE's agenda is.
(5) He's so cold about it, too. Not harsh cold, I don't think, but so calm about discussing a war of propaganda.
(6) In her bones, then in a blade. Perhaps a very large blade, carried nearly everywhere by a certain redhead of her own make. A blade that, perhaps, might give off an aura of malice toward a necromancer sensitive but untrained in reading or understanding the presence of spirits. The first night on the Mithraeum, when Harrow was possessed and found herself in Cytherea's tomb, the sword plunged into the dead woman's heart. A thanergetic link indeed.
(7) Recall, when Mercy was horrified at August's calling the new plan "Dios Apate, Minor" and he had to reassure her that it was Minor, MINOR! before she agreed to go along. Well, they'd used a plan very, very similar to that very one, twenty years before.
(8) Now why would he need sunglasses, and why would he not have his own? I feel like this also carries a LOT of emotional and thematic significance, because as we see in this very chapter, G1deon thought that Wake's baby was his. So here he is, forming a connection with her. The child denied him.
(9) It took me a long moment of thought not to throw my e-reader at this one. I'm just as glad I didn't have the hardcover to contend with because I'd have valued it less than the potential replacement cost of a nice Kobo. Though it would've been VERY cathartic.
#the locked tomb#tlt#harrow the ninth#htn#harrow the ninth spoilers#htn spoilers#gideon nav#ianthe tridentarius#emperor john gaius#awake remembrance of these valiant dead#mercymorn the first#augustine the first#gideon the first
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Ok I'm half-way through the audiobook of Harrow the Ninth and I've decided that I need to start liveblogging it because I'm internally screaming about it all the time
So Harrow the Ninth spoilers ahead (and all will be tagged as such)
Some thoughts up to this point:
- Harrow. Harrow. Baby. I think you're haunted
- Mercymorn dropping Harrows age every time kills me, she's terrible and I love her
- Ianthe you utterly terrible person you. Honestly tho I super admire Tamsyn Muir for keeping around the one character that feels kind of despicable?? Like I do not like her, but I also sort of like her, and I admire that it's not one of the easy characters to love (like Palamedes, for me) that she kept around
- WHAT IS GOING ON I AM SO CONFUSED ABOUT EVERYTHING
- the necromancy in this one is *fascinating*, it so neat seeing it from Harrow's side
- also, the bits about the face paint and cloak/veil being religious clothing was something that didn't really sink in for me when listening to Gideon the Ninth? But its really highlighted from Harrow's POV and it's fantastically done
- The "Is this really how it happened?" etc is so sad to me every time
- I also find all the little signs of Gideon that remain even tho Harrow has erased her from her memory absolutely fascinating
- Gideon my beloved I miss you
- Ortus the Ninth is just so sad
- Ortus (????) the first please stop trying to kill Harrow, but also, if you've sworn to protect the emperor and Harrow has opened the Locked Tomb which is supposed to lead to his downfall I understand *why* you're trying to kill her
- audiobook specific: I dislike the voice of John/God immensely, it sounds like a terrible old man - which I suppose he is - but I still do not like :(
- that said I love John and I love that he gives Harrow cookies and tea and I want him and his necromancers to be happy forever
#harrow the ninth spoilers#harrow the ninth liveblog#tragicallynerdy reads harrow the ninth#locked tomb spoilers#gideon the ninth spoilers#locked tomb#harrow the ninth
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Okay, it's time for my Harrow The Ninth read through post. Spoilers, obviously. Thanks to @shakespearerants, @irascibubble, and @mayasaura for encouraging me to keep going. Enjoy!
I am on page 33 of Harrow the Ninth and I am making a prediction. I initially thought the Body referred to the dead girl in the locked tomb, but now I think it's Gideon. We'll see if I'm right.
Page 44 says it is the dead girl in the tomb, but I'm not convinced it isn't also Gideon
Gideon must be important to have to be erased from Harrow's mind like that, right?
Did Ortus the First kill/try to kill Gideon's mom? The timeline adds up, they said he messed something up nineteen years ago, Gideon was 18 in the last book and time has passed
In the weird retconned memories, after every death, or during, someone says "is this how it happens" which makes me think it's, like, Harrow's brain asking that
Who are those notes from and to? What's up with that?
I love seeing Harrow spend time with Magnus and Abigail. I liked them
If Harrow is haunted, but this is not the real version of the past, is her mind creating the ghost? Is it Gideon? I don't think Gideon would write notes like that though...
Page 291 is Ortus talking to her like she's Gideon's mother? IS HE ASKING WHY SHE BROUGHT ALONG THE BABY?
Is Ortus' cavalier more active or something? Like he doesn't remember because she takes control?
Page 315 "he had seen me" who is he and who is me? Who is narrating this to Harrowhark? Is. It. Gideon? (Later I decide it's Palamedes seeing the Sleeper, who is also narrating and is possibly Gideon. We'll see if that's right.)
Is the poster on page 318 Gideon? Is It? IS IT? But Gideon's hair didn't go down to her shoulders. Is it her mom?
Are Camilla and Coronabeth on the side of the rebellion? BOE? Is old Harrow? I KNEW IT! But I'm sad they're on different sides.
Is Ianthe the spy? Is that how she knew Coronabeth was alive?
Does the Sleeper represent the part of Harrow and/or her brain that erased her memories and it's cleaning up the debris in her psyche? OR IS IT GIDEON? AKA the DORMANT part of Harrow-as-Lyctor? When the Sleeper is unmasked, will we see Harrow or Gideon?
Did Gideon's mother start the rebellion or something? Is that why they had a poster of her? Was she Eden?
So, Canaan house was on earth then?
Did Harrow (old Harrow) tamper with her own temporal lobe? Did Mercymorn? Ianthe?
Whose idea was it for Ortus to kill her then? John? Augustine? Mercymorn? Someone else?
Did Harrow break into the locked tomb? I want to believe she did, because I support her. But if not, who is the Body?
Shit, I can't remember what color Gideon's eyes were. Page 363 when Harrow's eyes are two different colors, black and gold
Ianthe wants to marry Harrow? Weird. I don't ship it. But I'm kind of stuck on Gideon and if I wasn't, maybe.
See a man about a queen? What does it mean? What is Ianthe doing? Also love that she cursed Harrow's hair to grow extra, just to be petty.
I'm so confused by chapter 40. What the hell is going on? Why is Harrow trying to be a cavalier? The fuck? Role swapped false memory? What is even happening?
Is Harrowhark's brain just, like, randomly spit-balling while she's dying or something? Love that Abigail and Magnus seem to be aware that it's not real.
OH OH OH THAT WAS GIDEON! SERVING THE COFFEE AND MAKING HARROW BLUSH IN THE THIRD(?) FALSE MEMORY OR DREAM OR WHATEVER! I love that Abigail is NOT having this, like, no I'm not gonna watch your romance novel version unfold.
I think I've noticed that the ones who have speaking roles the weird memories are the ones who died in the last book.
Are they all taking active part in these false scenarios? All the dead from Canaan house?
Oh my god oh my god here it is she remembers and she's so sad!
So she erased Gideon to save her soul. Nope nope nope nope nope I can't. I can't deal with these feelings. Y.Y
Who the fuck is the angry spirit?!?!
Who fucking stabbed her?
IS GIDEON DRIVING HARROW'S FUCKING BODY AROUND DURING A FIGHT? HELL YES! AND THAT MEANS I WAS RIGHT THAT SHE'S NARRATING!
OH AND I PREDICT THE GHOST IS CYTHERIA!
I'm still thinking about what Harrow did. It's so sweet and so sad and she's so lonely and she didn't even know how lonely she was.
Also I'm already excited to reread this series.
Oh yeah, this is GIDEON in here, swearing up a storm and trying to use a sword.
Okay, first I'm getting emotional just from heading Gideon's voice, then I'm emotional about what it was like for her to be in Harrow's body/mind, then I'm emotional about all the things she wanted to say but didn't have time, AND THEN I'M EMOTIONAL when Gideon says why she thinks Harrow did it and I'm like baby nooooooo it was because she loved you, not because she didn't want to rely on you! Honey, baby, no!
"Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn't even want it." HARROWHARK, I GAVE YOU MY WHOLE LIFE AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN WANT IT. 💔💔💔😟😟😟😭😭😭 Excuse me while my heart breaks.
Oh, also a bigger issue in this book is the whole concept of the afterlife? And it's messed up because of the emperor? I don't know why I wasn't prepared for that but I wasn't.
Ortus holding Harrow and pointing out that she and Gideon were neglected children is making my therapist soul ascend.
I'm such an idiot. His name wasn't Ortus, it was Gideon. He did kill Gideon's mother, that's why she shouted his name. Or they were in love? One or the other... Or both?
Harrow did a find and replace in her brain and it had unexpected consequences.
I've been leaning more and more towards the Sleeper and ghost being Cytheria.
Oh my sweet sword lesbian himbo, how I've missed you. "The sword I had to hold overhead in one hand as I used the other to keep everything inside you; stuff was coming out, Harrow, I don't know precisely what stuff because I'm not a goddamn necromancer."
Gideon is OCCUPYING HARROW'S BODY during a deadly invasion and is like, 'I'm gonna shut my eyes to reach under the shirt and get rid of encumbrances. I tried not to touch you, so don't get mad.' I feel like Harrow would be the first one to say 'do whatever you have to do to stay alive, you imbecile!'
So Mercymorn stabbed Harrow... So the heralds would eat her as a way to buy time? Was that the plan? Gideon calling her "my necromancer" made my heart do a thing.
I want to understand what she's saying about Gideon's mother. Was Gideon a science experiment? Like Kipo?
Where. THE FUCK did Cytheria get the gun?
Dulcie is *horny for revenge* Abigail is a BAMF and my new (and final?) prediction is that the Sleeper is Gideon's mom.
Gideon and Ianthe is a fun dynamic. I love how protective Gideon is, that she's mad at Ianthe for hurting Harrow's heart.
Gideon must have her mother's eyes to be freaking all the lyctors the fuck out.
"I wanted you to use me... I wanted you to live and not die... Harrow. I already gave my flesh to you, and I already gave you my end. I gave you my sword. I gave you myself. I did it while knowing I'd do it all again, without hesitation, because all I ever wanted you to do was eat me." Why am I crying? 😭😭😭😭😭 Why is this the most romantic thing when it's also full of insults and curses and is followed by a your mom joke? What a Gideon thing to do, be so romantic and gross and sassy all at once. I love her, I want to be her. Gideon forever.
Love that Ianthe also thinks Harrow got rid of Gideon because she didn't want her. /s I'm starting to worry that it's silly for me to hold onto the 'because she can't live without Gideon' explanation.'
"But Nonagesimus, you hating me always meant more than anyone else in this hot and stupid universe loving me. At least I'd had your full attention." That's why indifference is the opposite of love, hate is still passionate attention. But this also makes me feel so bad for Gideon because she deserves to be loved, dammit!
Okay, "gall on gall" is pretty hilarious. Good job Ianthe.
Love that the ghost of Matthias Nonius speaks in meter because he's been so deified by the Ninth house, and he's confused by it. It's like people in a musical being aware they're in a musical, like, why am I singing?
Ortus' poem was important after all!
Is it the sword? Does Harrow have to destroy Gideon's sword? Because that would break my heart a little.
"It bewildered her, back at Canaan House, how the whole of her always seemed to come back to Gideon. For one brief and beautiful space of time, she has welcomed it: that microcosm of eternity between forgiveness and the slow uncomprehending agony of the fall. Gideon rolling up her shirt sleeves. Gideon dappled in shadow, breaking promises. One idiot with a sword and an asymmetrical smile had proved to be Harrow's end." I just... This is so beautifully written. And describing Gideon as one idiot with a sword is so perfect and right and I just... 🖤🖤🖤😭😭😭
No no no I hate this either/or bullshit! I know I'm a sappy optimist, but I want both of them to survive, damnit! I want Harrow to be able to go back to her body without losing Gideon's soul. I want Gideon to keep existing.
What does Dulcinea know?!?!
Commander? That's Gideon's mom, right? Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity
What does that all mean? Are those Eminem lyrics? What other language is in there?
WHAT'S ALL COME OUT?
I knew she was in the sword.
Oh my god, if you need John to get in the tomb, and she was trying to get in the tomb and had something, a tool... Samples... She was armed with the baby... Is Gideon's father John? Is Gideon the fucking child of God?
She named the baby Bomb... This whole series could have been Bomb the Ninth... Bomb Nav...
Yep yep called it, child of God. The first time they put that plan in action was to get sperm to make Gideon. The second time was so Harrow could kill the first Gideon.
A dad joke?! A DAD JOKE?!
Gideon and Harrow were so cruel to each other as kids. It just makes me so sad.
Was Harrow able to get into the tomb because she made Gideon bleed?
So is Alecto John's cavalier? Annabel and Alecto... Are the same person? I'm so confused. She's the body in the locked tomb? But how is that related to her eyes being in his genes?
Wait, the eyes switched? I continue to be confused. Did he do the lyctor thing but also put a part of both him and his cavalier into the cavalier's body? But she was never human? What's going on? Why do they think she never had genes?
Oh cool, Mercy killed God and now everyone's gonna die... ... ... Ooooor not.
I love that beating up Harrow is Gideon's job AND saving Harrow is Gideon's job. Very cute.
Sooooo Gideon the OG and Pyrrha both fucked Gideon's mom... With the same body...
Gideon, such a romantic, wishing she had Harrow's name on her lips as she died. "I mean, yeah, I was thinking about you too; if I could've turned that off I would've turned it off years ago" HAHAHAHAHA You can't stop thinking about Harrow even if you want to! God, what a sweet himbo.
"Yes, well, jail for mother" says Gideon... Is she referencing Miette? Jail for mother for one thousand years!
Okay, so we have definitely confirmed that the Body is Alecto/Annabel/God's cavalier.
What did Dulcinea tell her? That Gideon is moving her body around? Doesn't she know that? Shouldn't that not be a surprise?
Okay, so, wait, what happened to Harrowhark?
ARRRRRGH I'm not smart enough for this book! Or I'm not visual enough! I know I should recognize the description of bobbed hair and "lambent" eyes but I have no idea who it is and also WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO GIDEON AND HARROWHARK?! UGH NOW I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK AND I'M GONNA BE SO IMPATIENT AND CONFUSED!
Well that was fun to reread. Impressed I got some things right, but mostly I was very wrong.
#harrow the ninth#spoilers#locked tomb spoilers#locked tomb trilogy#doing my best#lesbians are just so good#disaster lesbian#it's me i'm the disaster lesbian here#i love this himbo#himbo gideon nav#live blogging#abigail pent#dulcinea septimus#ianthe the first#long post
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Lyctor!Silas seeing the way John and all the elder Lyctors treat Harrow. John's babying treatment of her, Gideon’s manifold murder attempts,Mercymorn and Augustine's total lack of care regarding these attempts. I have to imagine that eventually, once they started getting inconvenient: imposing on his dinners and training sessions Silas decides that since John is so intent on formulating a "fatherly relationship" he will tentatively take John up on this instance and ask his Lord why all of this pomp and circumstance concerning the shadow cultist.
Never again.
John explains all of it, in that awful simpering way that he speaks to all of the baby Lyctors explaining that "it's for Harrowhark's own good, and for the rest of you as well". Silas is quietly horrified. He tells his Lord that he understands, and of course he does.
But there is the small voice in the back of his brain that connects the dots and realizes: all of this is not because she is a Black Vestal or inherently unworthy in some unquantifiable manner. If Silas himself had misapprehended the process it would be him being hunted from hall to hall, no measure of peace to be found.
He thinks of Colum that night, so given to his saintly veneration of his now dead Cavalier, wondering what Colum would do. He considers the shield held so firmly by his Cavalier, meant to protect Silas from all danger. He cannot reconcile Harrowhark's status as a Tomb Maiden. But neither can he reconcile with his beloved God's lackadaisical attitude about the repeated assaults.
The motivation for these thoughts is at its core selfish, but he thinks that Colum could bear to forgive him for it. Through fervent and thorough veneration he can perhaps obtain even a small measure of the honor that Colum held as his most valuable attribute.
He thinks to pray for guidance —but the God that he would pray to has allowed—no, ordered this.
He is adrift without Colum to anchor him in this unfamiliar environment. He had assumed, had and believed and prayed that Colum’s sacrifice would be honored in this holy place. He is adrift in this place, cold in these sanctified halls without his Cavalier at his back.
#the locked tomb#silas octakiseron#gideon the ninth spoilers#gtn spoilers#harrow the ninth spoilers#htn spoilers#Lyctor Silas AU
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Harrow the Ninth Live Read: Chapter 6-11
Con: It’s been a while
Pro: We finished part 1!
Con: this post is hella long now.
Chapter 6
Eighth House icon. Oh no. Gotta say, not a fan of the characters from the Eight House in Gideon the Ninth, whose names I now forget. There was Big Dude and Mayonnaise Twink.
OH OK WE’RE STARTING OFF WITH SOME LOCKED IN SYNDROME SHIT.
So, panicked person wheeling Harrow is given the title “Sacred Hand.” I vaguely recall seeing that before; is that a title given to Lyctors? Is this one of the OG Lyctors finally making an appearance? Wheeling the frozen Harrow to the Emperor to “unfuck accordingly?” Well, maybe not. Presumably another Lyctor would be able to “unfuck accordingly” themselves.
Oh disregard it is a Lyctor! And if we go back to the Dramatis Personae, this should be... Mercymorn! Originally of the Eighth House! She seems nice.
“It was his order that she not be touched.” Did the Emperor do this? But hwhy?
Calling Harrow and Ianthe babies is kind of hilarious. Aaaand Mercymorn just knocked this random person unconscious. OH wait is this the person the Emperor said to make static-y noises at? Survey says... maybe? They were called the Saint of Joy, which seems a unique title?
The whole description of the Lyctor and the way she visually dissects Harrow is so poetic, but something else catches my eye here. Harrow says her eyes did not have such a startling transition, which helps confirm my theory that Harrow is suppressing or undid the Lyctor process.
Also using the power of Cringe, Harrow partially(?) undoes the paralysis spell done to her. “An emotion was playing out over her face that was- not unfamiliar to you- but nonsensical; you discarded it.” Eh? What emotion could this be referring to? Confusion over what Harrow did? Awe? Fear? All of the above?
OH okay before I forget, Harrow formed a bone hook inside of her to do that, and she made that bone sheath to hold on to the sword, so maybe her necromancy isn’t being suppressed? Well, maybe. That feels more... internal? Like she hasn’t grown any full ass skeletons from bone dust yet.
...Why is Harrow afraid of telling Mercymorn her actual age? Why is the Body telling her to lie? Why fifteen??
Relief? That’s what flashed across Mercymorn’s face? Oh, duh, because Harrow did that and didn’t immediately die. Duh. Also she straight up said “hiss”? That is weird. Also, thinking back, it is weird there wasn’t an age requirement in the Lyctor trials. Also Mercymorn took Ianthe too???
“You’re not as pretty as Anastasia.” Anastasia being the member of the Ninth House listed with the Lyctors, but not as one of the Saints. Doing this liveread has its advantages, namely that I can remember shit that happened earlier!
OH WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT. “AS Anastasia,” not “As Anastasia was.” Implying Anastasia’s still alive? Matches her name not being struck through in the Dramatis Personae, and Mercymorn said there were 3 OG Lyctors now. Which matches with Anastasia not having that line about being a Saint! I’ve connected the two dots!
Okay there’s a lot going on here. Why is this normal necromancer so fascinating to Ianthe and Harrow? What she’s doing is pretty dope to be fair. Mercymorn called Ianthe 12... which... huh. More on that in a second. First, I need to google what the fuck an animaphiliac is... probably in an incognito window. Oh, okay, it’s just a style of necromancy in this universe okay thank God. Mercymorn also said Ianthe wasn’t as attractive as Cyrus... which is weird... And it reminds Ianthe of being with Mummy... I assume she means her mother, comparing her to Coronabeth? Oof.
So, back to the lowballing age thing. Mercymorn assumes Ianthe is 12, probably because she’s super old and has forgotten how mortals age. Harrow seems to have subconsciously picked up on this, which is why she lied about her age. I’m still in the camp of the Body being non-supernatural in origin. Yes, she has Gideon’s eyes, BUT, she spoke in the voice of Harrow’s mother and Aiglamene. SO, my theory is that the Body is a product of the trauma Harrow’s gone through, that’s kind of externalizing Harrow’s inner thought process. Like I said earlier, I’ve read Twig, and this is reminiscent of that.
OH hey we’re headed to the frontline apparently? Because 3 warships got shot down suddenly? Which begs the question I’ve had in the back of my mind since first picking up this series, who the fuck are they fighting??? Probably not Ressurection Beasts, given what we know about them. Other humans, probably? Dominicus (probably) isn’t Earth or humanity’s home planet.
Okay, hold up. The Emperor is trying to get to the frontline now, Mercymorn wants him to return to “the Mithraeum”, which is presumably the capital of the Empire outside of the Dominicus system? Also, Emperor’s been on the ship for 80 years, and been away from the Mithraeum for 100... Once again, the math’s not adding up...
Okay, so God hugs Mercymorn, she freezes, he confirms that he is leaving, and that he knows exactly who shot down 3 warships???
Okay cool we’re not headed to the fronline, we’re headed to the Mithraeum, whatever the fuck that is.
Ohhh and the Cohort necromancer girl died, or committed suicide? And the Emperor brought her back? ...There’s a story there.
Ohhhh Mom and Dad are fighting.
OKAY ONCE AGAIN A LOT TO UNPACK HERE BUT THE MITHRAEUM CAN ONLY BE REACHED BY ONE MEANS???? AND IT MAY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH BEING A LYCTOR???
...Hey. So. Here’s something. In the description of Mercy’s sword, it says it has a white knob at the end of, and I quote “-you didn’t know the exact technical word. It was a pommel though.” There’s a disconnect there, between Harrow’s knowledge, and the narrator’s knowledge. This has happened a few other times, like just a few pages ago, Harrow says a room is used for bodily functions, but the narrator jumps in and says no one in the universe would call it that, it’s a toilet. And this is going to sound kind of batshit, but like 6 years ago i was in to Undertale, and there was a popular theory that the narrator in that game was a separate character from the PC and... a lot of the points used in that theory kinda ring true here... even the use of second person narration...
So the narrator is a separate character from Harrow? Now, whether this narrator exists in-universe, or if this is a really cool stylistic choice, is another story. Right now I’m leaning towards... I don’t know. Well, hm. If the Body is a kind of externalization of Harrow’s inner thought process, maybe the narrator is an internalization?
That makes no sense.
Something to keep in mind.
Anyway, the shuttle detaches. There’s a sort of irony, in God being tired of people martyring themselves for him, but giving a speech saying “hey if you die in my service I love you.”
OKAY I think we’re about to go faster than light using necromancy? This should be good. OH OKAY WE’RE TAKING A SHORTCUT THROUGH HELL. COOL.
...so what was their original method of faster than light travel that turned out to be unusable? did it have to do with neutrinos in italy?
okay I love Mercy and the Emperor’s dialogue here. Again, objectively, I’m sure they’re bad people who have committed several warcrimes... but the way they bicker is just hilarious.
I’m googling hyperpotamus, and i’m only getting other Harrow the Ninth livereads, so it appears to be a term made for the book. But I have a terrible feeling it’s a pun on hippopotamus.
There are so many quotes here that I absolutely love, including “said the Lord of the Nine Houses, who apparently existed within a complex power dynamic.” and “The magma metaphor falls apart from here.”
...Oh. Okay, serious time. Even at the very start, just post-Resurrection, two of the Lyctors fell to the Resurrection Beasts. Well, one died, and one was “removed from play.” Which sounds horrifying.
So we’re dipping into Hell because you can move fast there. Hell is full of angry ghosts. This explains the ghost ward. Lyctors have hacked the system, and so can kind of survive there. And we learn what happened to Cassiopeia, one of the deceased Lyctors. (Interestingly enough it says she baited physical portions of the Ressurection Beast. Not a beast. Nor is it given a number...)
ALright so entering the River physically sounds fucking horrifying. I’m very glad we only have to do it this once and it definitely won’t come back later in the book nope definitely not.
“and that you felt alone in your head.” ;_;
Chapter 7
Sixth House icon.
There’s not a lot to say here, besides how freaky this is. How much do you want to bet that the faint wail Harrow hears is coming from the coffin with Cyntherea’s body?
JOHN. GOD’S NAME IS JOHN?? #NAME LORE UNLOCKED. IM JUST SO HAPPY I FINALLY HAVE A WAY TO REFER TO HIM WITHOUT STRUGGLING TO SPELL EMPORER EVERY FUCKIN TIME.
Also, Mercymorn knowing his like actual human name further implies some stuff about the timeline of the Ressurection, which I was wondering about previously... but that’s a discussion for later because Harrow’s in Hell!
Not a lot to say here besides
fuck.
A few things. One. I think they’re going to get out of this okay? And by okay I mean alive? We know Ianthe, the Emperor, and Harrow live up to the point of the Prologue, and I don’t think Mercymorn is going to die already.
Two. Cassiopeia was from the Sixth House, going by her Cavalier’s last name, which explains the chapter icon.
Three. The lights? The last page or so is very metaphorical, but, at the beginning it says Harrow perceived herself as a “sickly radiance”, and that she perceived the others on the ship as a light as well. She later said she was an “ova cluster of two hundred pinpricks of light.” So I think in this deep part of the River Harrow accidentally sent herself to, souls (maybe?) are displayed as lights. Harrow’s own soul is literally made up of the hundreds of dead House Nine kids, which is. Spooky. But then, at the end, when they jump out of the River, they bring 5 lights with them. So... either something hitched a ride with them, or it has something to do with Harrow suppressing Gideon and the Lyctor ritual. Everyone else on the ship has undergone the Lyctor ritual (or something similar, in John’s case), and they only have 1 light each. At least to Harrow’s eyes. BRUH IDK WHAT”S GOING ON.
Chapter 8
No further answers here, this is a flashback chapter! So, sheared skull = flashback. And this chapter is going to feature the Fourth House, apparently. Who was Fourth House again? Oh no it was the kids. Oh no. ;_;
So, we are continuing through Harrow’s re-imagination of the events of Canaan House, with her Ortus OC in tow.
Of course Harrow is overwhelmed by normal tea, and of course Harrow thinks dressing up skeletons is stupid.
AND of course Harrow would have a private prayer wishing doom on anyone that looks at her with any kind of emotion.
Hold up, the Anastasian tomb? Reserved for warriors? And presumably derived from the word Anastasia, the mysterious not-Lyctor of the Ninth House??
I can already tell Anastasia is going to become my Pepe Silvia.
Ohhh this is going to be a lore bomb about the timeline of the Ressurection and I’m going to need to pull out my copy of Gideon the Ninth to see if any of this shit actually happened.
TEN? TEN NORMAL ASS HUMANS? AND FIVE NECROMANCERS?? BUT THERE WERE SEVEN LYCTORS. THE MATH DOES NOT CHECK OUT.
Okay so I checked and none of this shit actually happened! In fact, Teacher actually said there were 16, 8 necromancers, 8 cavaliers. Where the fuck is Harrow getting 10 from? Who knows! And rather than explicitly saying “hey check out the basement labs to see how to become a Lyctor,” Teacher actually said fuck if I know. Not actually. But still.
Oh of course it’s called the Sleeper!! I had Kill Bill sirens playing in my head when I first read that.
So, had a whole ass monologue here, but this is already very long and im sleepy, so to very quickly summarize, the Parahumans series had an entity known as the Sleeper that was intentionally very mysterious and raised a lot of questions amongst fans, and the fact that there’s another entity here known as the Sleeper is flooding me.
So, I’m spooked. Again, this entire conversation did not actually happen. Teacher’s dialogue is precious. “go where I durst not go: because I love my life, and I love noise, also.” and “I do not know the answers to any of these questions, only that, already, you are being too loud.”
So, the rest of the chapter plays out with Ortus complaining to Harrow. Intriguingly, he says that Harrow doesn’t have much of an imagination, when she says there was no one else to choose as her Cavalier... And then one of the skeletons says, “Is this how it happens?” harkening back to Parodos, when the Body says something similar. There’s a lot to unpack here. One, like I said previously, because Ortus, and apparently the entirety of Canaan House, is a product of Harrow’s mind, they can maybe give some insight into Harrow herself. However, the fact that Ortus seems to break character and chastise her for her lack of imagination is... I don’t know.
Okay, theory time. “The Work” alluded to in the letters is not only the suppression of Lyctor-hood, it’s also the erasure of Gideon, and the creation of these false memories. Meaning Lyctor!Harrow somehow crafted them; there was conscious effort behind it. Which means we can totally pick these scenes apart to gain further insight into Harrow! The skeleton and the Body asking if this is what happened, and Ortus breaking character (maybe) are her subconscious breaking through... Maybe that ties into my idea of the narrator being an internalization or compartmentalization of Harrow’s trauma? Hmm...
Chapter 9
Seventh House skull, and not a flashback. I’m guessing this is because we’re going to inter Cyntherea’s body here.
Okay, so time seems to have passed. IDK how much of the River Harrow remembers here. It seems like she recalls it like a bad dream. Ianthe’s here, and they’re in a chapel made of bone. Or at least one absolutely covered in bone.
Here’s a question. The necromancy Harrow excels at, that’s creating a whole ass skeleton from a single bit of bone. Is she actually creating a new skeleton? Or is she reforming one. Like if she had two teeth from the same skeleton, could she use that to make two new skeletons? In the last chapter the Ressurection was described as not creating anything new... does that apply to all of necromancy, or just what the Emperor did?
Also another side note, Harrow says the stars glow with an unearthly light, which matches what the Emperor said, that they restarted the stars near the Mithraeum with thanergy, so they’re weird now. Except... wasn’t Dominicus restarted the same way? Or is the Dominicus system a hybrid of thanergy and thalergy? I’m getting my energies mixed up.
Anyway yep it’s Cyntherea’s funeral, and Harrow is checking the fuck out.
Okay we have a new Lyctor... and I’m guessing it’s Augustine, since he and Mercymorn are fighting.
Okay and John’s giving a speech and giving more lore about the pre-Ressurrection and it’s confirmed that this guy is Augustine and-
First gen? Second gen? Sixth installation?? Valancy? ANASTASIA?
bruh im so flooded and this is supposed to be such a reverent moment.
Ohhh this is awkward now that they’re pulling Ianthe and Harrow forward. Okay we get a formal introduction to Mercymorn and Augustine. Augustine trails off before the third... and asks if he, the third surviving Lyctor, knows about the missile strikes...Is the third Lyctor the one leading the people who shot down the warships, which is sounding increasingly like a rebellion rather than a battle against others? Who’s the third again ah fuck it’s ORTUS.
ORTUS is apparently interested in “you-know-what”. Which I don’t know what. Please elaborate.
ORTUS is here and he’s skeletal. OH AND SO IS RESSURECTION BEAST NUMBER SEVEN.
FUCK.
(bruh what the fuck is a pseudo-Beast)
Okay yep time to fight an eldritch god.
Speaking of which, God’s name is John confirmed.
And Harrow bled from the ear and fell unconscious, hearing the name ORTUS.
Chapter 10
Pog we’re almost done with part 1. Fifth skull, sheared, so it’s flashback time.
I don’t recognize immediately where we are; apparently this is in the library in Canaan House? Though I don’t remember one from Gideon the Ninth. We see a bit of personality from Ortus, when he complains about Fifth House poetry, which is nice.
Oh, wait, never mind, that was Magnus speaking. Ortus remains as boring as ever.
Hehehehe dick jokes.
Hey so no fake vow of silence in the false memories of Canaan House! That’s interesting. As is Magnus and Abagail being here, and them being pretty fleshed out characters. As are these cooking instructions from the Lyctors...
HOOOOOOOLD the phone here. The cooking notes mention an M and Nigella... which was the first name of Cassiopeia’s cavalier... How would Harrow know that? The easy explanation is that this is a note that Harrow actually found, and is placing here in her fake memories... The other explanation is that something funky is afoot...
Ooohkay Magnus is asking if this is how it happens now. The simulation is breaking down. AND ABAGAIL CAN TELL THAT HARROW IS A LIVING WAR CRIME. PANIC.
Okay now we’re getting Ortus emotion! He is a grown ass man Harrow. At least, he would be, were he not a figment of Harrow’s imagination.
HEEEEY
WHAT THE FUUUUCK
WE’RE CONTINUING ON THIS DYING EGGS THING
PROBABLY WILL BE RELEVANT LATER.
Okay and the simulation breaks down further when Ortus says “you did have a cavalier with a backbone, I’m not them.” Interestingly enough, it’s hours later Harrow realizes something’s weird... Huh...
Chapter 11
Seventh House skull.
Literally just a paragraph saying Harrow sleepwalked and stabbed Cyntherea’s body.
...She sleep walked... the Sleeper from the fake Canaan House...
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@rattyjol said I should write down all my theories from where I am, at the end of Act I of Harrow the Ninth, so here we go: Musings on the Nature of God, his Lyctors, and specifically Harrowhark Nonagesimus. (Needless to say, SPOILERS!)
first off, I want it noted that, while I do not believe it bears any relation to his role in the Homestuck AU that I highkey theorize was an early stage in the creation of this fictional world, I absolutely hate that his name is John. Stop that instantly.
on the continued nature of God...I detect a certain amount of passive voice re: the rapid death of the planets. You sure used the word “murder” in your analogy there, bud. Why are they hunting, uh, you in particular, huh? Listen man, I”m very sympathetic to mad science gone wrong, just admit that you killed every planet in the solar system - I don’t know yet if accidentally or for personal gain - and...I’m willing to bet that he’s chained one of them, maybe consensually? as his own lyctorean battery. That’s why he’s so OP, and why the other beasts hunt lyctors as well as him.
or admittedly they may just look really tasty. Shining soular flares in the darkness
I highkey wonder if the Resurrection Beasts would be satisfied if he and the Lyctors just let them kill them. Probably not.
In the time between first waking up on the Erebos (GtN epilogue) and the start (post-prologue) of this book, Harrow has Done Something to make herself forget Gideon in every way but the very subconscious (she mouthed the name while thinking herself dying, she saw a red-haired body in the River and it broke her.) Well, she knows Gideon existed at some point, or some red-headed other girl did, but believes her dead as a child. Ianthe helped with this, the Emperor doesn’t know about it, and I assume it’s in pursuit of getting Gideon back alive and well
I can’t tell if she’s having a visceral reaction to the sword just from emotional memory or if whatever she did actually involves the sword. Given that we’ve been reminded that ghosts can be called back using objects they handled in life, probably the latter
the memory-rewritten flashbacks are fascinating. I wonder if something like some of them did happen - did she have a conversation with Ortus about the letter, before addressing the matter with Gideon? Did she ever meet Abigail and Magnus in a library and shove breadsticks into her bag and leave when Abigail asked about the imprints of 150+ other souls on hers? It could definitely have happened, while Gideon was off doing other things...but Harrow’s memory has been rewritten more thoroughly than to just leave out Gideon, because she also doesn’t remember meeting Camilla, and we know she interacted with the Sixths without Gideon. I assume this, too, was deliberate on Harrow’s part, but it’s hard to tell. She certainly is gambling here, desperately
it’s delightful to see more of Abigail and Magnus, specifically in a way that makes it clear why Cytherea killed them first. Abigail was very, very dangerous, with that plan to summon a Lyctor’s ghost and ask them questions.
Given the timing of the memory loss, even Harrow-who-had-a-plan didn’t know what happened to Camilla, Corona, and Judith, and clearly neither does Ianthe. I comfortably assume that the ever-competent Camilla and Palamedes have it in hand (a strong implication from a friend + my own faith in the Sixth having contingency plans assures me that Palamedes is...if not fine, then alive)
I judge it more likely that the Body is a hallucination/false memory, but the fact that she told Harrow to lie about her age suggests that maybe she is...the ghost of the woman in the tomb. I used to think that must be the Emperor’s own cavalier, but given that the Lyctors apparently came about after he was already God, and my theory that he’s more likely to be drawing energy from a planet...I don’t know. I’d guess that perhaps she’s Anastasia, the ninth house adept who never became a Lyctor, except the next book is called Alecto the Ninth, and that’s GOTTA be her
there’s no one in the Dramatis Personae named Alecto. I don’t know where she’s from. M a y b e she is/was a planet?
I thought the Body was Gideon at first, but she has dark hair and a slight build. She has gotten Gideon’s eyes, though, as though from Lyctor transformation...probably because Harrow did whatever she did?
Or it’s all just a hallucination and Harrow is blending the women she loves
A series of conjectures I’m pretty confident in:
Mercymorn asked about Harrow’s age on the suspicion that she’s, well, Gideon Nav
that is, the child who fell into the Ninth 18 years ago in the arms of a dead woman
I think that woman was a Lyctor - not sure which - and she wanted to be a mother? I guess? Because eternal life is a bitch and maybe you want to bring more life into the world, idk. But the Emperor sabotaged her attempts at artificial insemination and when she did it herself, he sent...another Lyctor after her. Maybe it was Ortus Gideon, once of Second House (it was him and his cavalier in that room, G&P), and they had a passionate - or at least pitying but productive - night and then her ghost said his name bc she wanted him to know that yep, they’d had a daughter?
Or she and (adult) Gideon had a romance and yes artificial insemination (it’s probably hard to get pregnant when you’re immersed in thanergy all the time) and...man, idk
I’m very sure that she poured a hysterical amount of thalergy, thanergy, idk into that baby, such that Gideon Nav was impossibly difficult to kill save by her own hand
...ok I think that’s all I’ve got, for now
OH, that line about a lyctor’s body lying empty being dangerous...that felt very foreshadowing. I don’t THINK Harrow is going to at the end of this book, bc we’ve already done that once, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her plan is to bring Gideon back in her (Harrow’s) body in place of Harrow’s own soul if necessary. Alternately, Alecto might end up in it? Or some other lyctor’s body will be lost...almost certainly, actually. I dunno whose or to whom (or to what), but I bet it’ll happen.
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(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7vTyjuuslUqiHauSgsmbuQ?si=WJHuwxgiQ422gub_5ZEC5w)
I got a little obsessed with the idea of creating a Lyctor Love Songs playlist for The Locked Tomb. I’ve finally finished fussing with it and wanted to share! You can read a breakdown of my rationale for these songs below the cut because I always wish other people would do this for their playlists, and now it’s time to put my money* where my mouth is.
This playlist is conceptually a definite spoiler for the process of achieving lyctorhood as revealed at the end of Gideon the Ninth, so proceed with caution if you haven’t finished that book yet. I also made this after reading Harrow the Ninth, but I’ve tried to censor (or at least be vague) in my references to spoilers for that book.
Possibly obvious content warnings for murder, suicide, toxic relationships, and cannibalism mentions—stuff you’d kind of expect from this series, honestly. I’m adding an additional content warning for the lyrics of We Both Go Down Together by the Decemberists including implied rape, which is not in line with the content warnings you might expect for these books.
*obsessive energy
Umbrella - Rihanna
This is a much more wholesome song than the rest, but I really wanted to include it for "When the sun shines, we'll shine together, told you I'll be here forever, said I'll always be your friend, took an oath, I'ma stick it out til the end," and "You're a part of my entity, here for infinity." It has a bit of a “one flesh, one end” feeling to it.
#1 Crush - Garbage
This song is creepy, obsessive, and uses some upsetting violent imagery, which is exactly the mood I’m after here. I really like the idea of being haunted by the other person—”See your face every place that I walk in, hear your voice every time that I’m talking.” I also like the implications of seeking power—”Throw away all the pain that I’m living [...] and I could never be ignored.” The line about selling their soul doesn’t hurt this song’s case either.
Drain You - Nirvana
This feels like a pretty easy connection to syphoning for me, and for this context the gorey, semi-medical imagery is spot on. Also how could I resist “with eyes so dilated I’ve become your pupil,” when there is just so much eye-related lyctor baggage in this series?
Animals - Maroon 5
Here comes the cannibalism. There are so many cannibal songs. I also included this one for the language about absorbing the other person and not being able to escape each other.
I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie
Here for creepy possessiveness, pure and simple. Also, “I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me”—the potential for achieving ultimate necromantic power? Maybe!
Banks of the Ohio - Dolly Parton
When I first had the idea for a “Lyctor Love Songs” playlist, it was just going to be a bunch of murder ballads, but expanding my criteria turned out to be more fun. I really love the way Dolly Parton sings this traditional American murder ballad. This one gets to represent the traditional songs on this playlist because of its river imagery and because I think lines like “she cried my love don’t murder me, ‘cause I’m not prepared for eternity” play well with the lyctor concept. It also makes me ridiculously happy to include a 19th century song on a playlist for a distant future sci-fi setting. We’re all lucky I’m not making a playlist of the oldest extant folk songs I can find for the archives on the Sixth.
Phenom - Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
More cannibalism imagery, yes thank you. Anatomical imagery? Yes, thank you. “Scorched earth”? Sure, I’ll just take that for my distantly post-apocalyptic playlist, thank you. I also like the narrative in this song around rising to power. “First of the secondary class” plays well for me with our spoilery knowledge about the nature of lyctorhood in relation to the powers of the Emperor.
Under My Skin - Jukebox the Ghost
I’d never heard this song before I started working on putting this playlist together, and a friend suggested it in our group chat. It’s completely perfect, and in my opinion, a total bop. “I can fit two people under my skin […] crawl up in there and join me within. I can feel your heart beating under my skin,” etc, etc.
Two of Hearts - Stacey Q
Same vein as the one before! I also think there’s room here for intentionally misreading “I got this feeling that you're going to stay, I never knew that it could happen this way, Before I met you I was falling apart, But now at last I really know we're made of two hearts that can beat as one…” with lyctoral intent—the narrator is in a stronger position now that they’re entwined with the other person.
Tears of Pearls - Savage Garden
So this song is here in part because my high school friends and I once accidentally listened to this Savage Garden CD on repeat at a sleepover for like 5 hours straight, so I love taking the opportunity to break out this song in particular. That aside, I think the toxic relationship structure described here plays well with the lyctors, especially as we see them in Harrow. I particularly like this part near the end: “We twist and turn where angels burn, Like fallen soldiers we will learn, Once forgotten, twice removed, Love will be the death, The death of you.” I would love to include some religious imagery on this playlist, thank you Savage Garden. Also, as we see in Harrow, the older Lyctors sure do handle their emotions...poorly.
I’m Sorry - Margaret Cho
An excellent murder ballad! “I’m sorry I killed you dear, I only wanted you to be near,” and “And I sincerely apologize, My actions were unwise, And now I realize that it killed me when you died,” and “My pride was stronger than your will to live.”
We Both Go Down Together - The Decemberists
Another murder ballad, and even within the murder ballad genre, I think this one is exceptionally creepy. Especially with the murder-suicide implications, I think “we both go down together” works well with the creepiestreading of “one flesh one end.”
Arms Tonite - Mother Mother
Another absolute bop suggested by a friend in my Locked Tomb group chat. I love the imagery, and I think it works exceptionally well for the lyctoral concept—”That I died right inside your arms tonight, That I'm fine even after I have died, That I try to escape the afterlife, That I try to get back in your arms alive.”
Genghis Khan - Miike Snow
Another super possessive song. I know it isn’t really explicit to cannon, but between this and Banks of the Ohio, I really like taking the literally all-consuming lyctoral process as a weird extension of the possessive “I don’t want you to get it on with nobody else but me” energy in this song and some of the others. Please also accept for consideration these lines—“'Cause I don't really want you, girl, But you can't be free, 'Cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene.” That has been part of the fun of this playlist for me—while I think some songs track for some characters more than others, I’m really having more fun with playing with the idea of someone who would intentionally murder and absorb someone they love in exchange for power.
The Beast - Concrete Blonde
Another creepy, somewhat cannibalistic song. “Love is the leech, sucking you up, Love is a vampire, drunk on your blood, Love is the beast that will, Tear out your heart, Hungrily lick it and, Painfully pick it apart.” Cannibalism and that idea of draining someone of their power is a great combo.
Savages - Marina
I love Marina, which is probably the only reason I’m not bowing to the fact that it bothers me that this isn’t even arguably a love song. We see in Harrow how vicious the old lyctors are, and how their dinner parties feel like a thin veneer of civility over some truly rotten cores (I say this as a person who genuinely loved Mercymorn, but like… they’re terrible). Also, how am I supposed to resist “Is it a human trait, or is it learned behavior, Are you killing for yourself, or killing for your savior?” and “I’m not afraid of God, I am afraid of man.” More religious imagery? in my locked tomb playlist? It’s more likely than you think.
Cannibal - Kesha
More cannibalism! I love how vicious this song is, for this purpose. I also feel like “I have a heart, I swear I do, But just not baby when it comes to you,” works well, even if I’m not sure I can 100% justify it.
Bring Me to Life - Evanescence
An explicitly canonical choice. “Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me, breathe into me and make me real” and “Save me from the nothing I've become.” Because I’m an absolute turd, I love the semi-joke I’m finding in many of these song lyrics about the partner being unable to leave. Also because I’m terrible, I really like that this song can be read as regret over having become a lyctor in the first place.
Monster - Lady Gaga
Cannibalism again, and I like that there’s some eye stuff in here.
Cellophane - Sia
I like the anatomical imagery, with veins and blood and brains and all that. I also like “Patience is your virtue, saint o' mine” for a little call out to one of our extant lyctors.
Most of All - Fuel
Like “Bring Me to Life,” I really like the regret and self loathing in this one. I also like the mentions of memories because [redacted]. “And I hate you now, And I miss you most of all, All those times we laughed, The scars that you left.”
‘39 - Queen
First of all, I really like this song. I don’t think I should quite call it a bop like some of the others—maybe a jam? A song that’s explicitly about leaving Earth behind for deep-space exploration and the passage of time works wonderfully well for this sci-fi series about a society that has abandoned a dying(?) Earth and that is populated with a group of very damaged people staring down the barrel of a traumatic immortality. I also like that there’s a bit of eye imagery in the song. I especially like “For my life still ahead, pity me” as a cutting line for a lyctor.
#the locked tomb#locked tomb#gideon the ninth#harrow the ninth#snackerdoodle actually makes a post#enjoy!
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Harrow the Ninth: Act 1 Analysis - Local Bone Lady Newly Single and Ready for Mental Breakdown
I am so scared! so confused! and so turned on by the sepulchered mystery of Harrow the Ninth’s Act 1! And because it’s quarantine time, it’s organizational mapping and near-obsessive theorizing time baby.
I’ll warn you: this got LONG.
Spoilers galore.
This post is to try and organize my own thoughts as well as preserve in time that I don’t know shit when HTN finally hits. All to answer the big question: What in the necro-hell is going on? Here’s what we know as fact:
Gideon the Ninth was about Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter and Badass Emo Princess, and her not hugged enough but grinning through the pain sword lesbian cavalier, Gideon Nav. A catalogue of their romp of death in Canaan House.
Harrow the Ninth is currently cataloguing two things: (1) Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter and Mentally Unstable Concussion, and her cavalier, Ortus Nigenad and their guided tour of Canaan House. AND (2) Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Baby Lyctor, aboard His Imperial and Unending Magic School Bus.
Similar to @Siadea‘s wonderful post (x), I am all aboard the Timeline Fuckery Theory (TFT). Operating under the TFT, I will refer to our cast of characters accordingly. To summarize the TFT, the major point is thus:
In the prologue of Harrow, I think the Harrowhark of Gideon the Ninth (hereby Harrow1) settled in, swan dove into the River, somehow backstroked in time to when she woke up on the Emperor’s ship, and then she resurfaced (with Ianthe’s help), stripped of all memory&detection involving Keyword:Gideon.
Gideon [ORTUS]
It appears Harrow1 has programmed Harrow2 with a find+replace formula for ‘Gideon’ and replacing it with ‘Ortus’ on a pure, sensory input level. I have NO idea how she (or something else) did this. Prologue Ianthe Tridentarius telling Harrow, “I know what you’ve done, and I know how to reverse it” makes me think Harrow did this to herself.
It scrubs the past as well as the present. Proof - (1) When Harrow2 gets the Emperor’s invitation to Canaan House, we gather from context that Ortus asks her if she’s considered someone else. Only we read it as Ortus saying, “have you considered ORTUS NIGENAD?” AND THEN THE SCENE STARTS OVER, but rewound to moments before. Like a glitch in the Matrix; (2) The Emperor’s lips distort when he says “Ortus Nigenad did not die for nothing” and is confused when Harrow2 says it back to him; (3) When the Emperor later says the name of the third Lyctor ‘Ortus’, Harrow2 starts bleeding from the ears and passes out.....We’ll get to him in a sec.
The three syllables Prologue Harrow dies on: Could be ‘Gideon’ and the mark of her successful mindflaying from recognizing the word. Could also be ‘Alecto’. Hell, could even be ‘Nigenad’. Inconclusive.
The Chilly Weirdo Harrow Has the Hots For (alternatively, who tf are you?)
The Lady of the Locked Tomb is appearing and disappearing in Harrow2′s mind, both at her recall of Canaan House and in her (current?) stay with the Emperor.
She has Griddle’s Eyes. As we’re familiar with the lyctors, we know that when their cavs are “eaten”, necromancers’ eyes change to their cavalier’s colors. OR the Lady has simply taken on Griddle’s eyes to put Harrow2 at ease.
She has the voice of who Harrow2 needs to hear. We’ve heard the Lady sound like Pelleamena (Harrow’s mommy dearest), Crux, and Aiglamene (Captain of the Ninth guard). Both of these are people who loved Harrow1.
These characteristics ^ lead me to believe that the Lady can see Harrow1′s obsession with her and is either Manipulating Harrow2 by manufacturing her voice and eyes, or is genuinely trying to love Harrow2 in return. (She may have been present for Harrow’s entire life. See my Ch.3**)
What does she want from Harrow2? --> I think, without support or proof, that the Lady wants to Rise Again (as villains entombed are wont to do). As she doesn’t have a corporeal form, she’ll likely need Harrow’s help. Underlying idea being: the Emperor dies when his Unholy Other Half returns. It would be a little contrived to have the “beautiful lady revealed to be the big bad” device be the GTN and the HTN twist but we’ll see.
Interesting point: The Lady doesn’t like His Holy Frumpyness & Co. “Lie. Lie now.” She’s either protecting herself further down the line, or the Lady thinks that Mercy would have harmed Harrow2 because of this info. It’s possible this is the same interest if she needs Harrow’s help to free her.
Now Let’s Talk about Swords
AKA the sexiest part of this dissertation.
Harrow the Concussed is carrying Griddle’s Two hander. Not just any two hander. It is in fact and distinctly, Griddle’s sword. This is supported by (1) Harrow2 was given the sword by the Emperor “as a gesture” implying he knows Griddle and the sword’s significance to Harrow1. And (2) The severe physical reactions Harrow2 has to the sword’s loathing. In GTN Harrow1 mentioned to Griddle, “I have always felt like that sword hates me”. (this in and of itself is mystifying but I’ve got bigger occult fish to fry)
Either Griddle’s Sword or Cytherea is alive. The fade to black of Harrow rekilling Cytherea is a mystery within a Christmas light tangle of other mysteries and I’m not fucking with it. BUT. There are Five lifeforms aboard the ship that traversed the River: Mercymorn, the Emperor, Ianthe, and Harrow. Harrow2 tells us that the Body/the Lady isn’t in sight. That leaves inanimate objects: Cytherea’s body, or the two hander that hates Harrow.
Harrow2, the Concussed, is not carrying a rapier. Only in the Prologue does Harrow have a rapier on her hip. Ortus the Alternate cav carries a rapier. See the next theory for why this is significant.
The Events of Canaan House Two are Not Real.
These are my weakest theories. They’re all weak, but these ones are chief weaklings. The Time Fuckery Theory’s biggest snag is ‘Canaan House: What’s Real?’, and I think only the events with Harrow2 on the ship with Ianthe are actually occurring.
I think someone is soul/spirit guiding Harrow2 on this Canaan House Round II to show her something. Proof: (1) The repeated “Is this how it happened?”/”This isn’t how it happened.” Clearly indicate that this IS a repeated experience for Harrow, and not the original. (2) Ortus glitches a bit, looks at Harrow2 and says “You never did have much of an imagination.” Someone who knows Harrow1 made him say this. I think. (3) If we count who possibly could spirit-guide Harrow2 on this quest, we have to find the denominator candidates: the only people who knew Harrow1 at Canaan House and at Drearburh are Gideon, and Harrow1 herself. And - if the Lady really has been following her around, the Lady of the Locked Tomb. (4) This theory cannot account for the strobing red egg hallucinations on paper Harrow2 is being delivered.
Second explanation: it’s all happening in Harrow’s head, and Harrow1 is the spirit guide. In support: There is a surprising amount of explanation and character depth from Ortus. I believe Harrow1 knows Ortus enough from childhood to be able to project him onto Harrow2 this way.
Third explanation: Because the people Harrow2 is interacting with are all dead, it’s microscopically possible Harrow2 is tripping some soul-shrooms in the River and having the souls of Canaan House teach her something via flashback. In support: Prologue Harrow says five pairs of eyes close to submerge into the River, but hers would not open again. Incredibly vague, but could mean she was going to be spending a significant amount of time in the River. This theory is unlikely, as Harrow is a bone adept. Souls are squishy and freaky to her. Unlikely also from what we saw of the River. Ie; the River is an inhospitable predator which ripped Cassiopea apart and scares the hell out of Mercy and the Emperor. Not an ideal destination spirit-walk vacation spot. Plus, the only clear reasoning we get from Harrow about why she’s descending into the River is because she knows she’s going to die (although she tells Ianthe she has no plans to die)
Things to Note: (1) Teacher immediately spills the Sleeper beans, lets the laboratory cat out of the bag, and unmasks the key mystery. I think who/whatever is guiding Harrow2 around makes this happen legitimately just to save time. (2) Harrow2 is learning things from Ortus, Teacher, Abigail Pent, etc that Harrow1 and Gideon didn’t know.
If the Events of Canaan House Round Two ARE Real.
If the Great Value Canaan House timeline is actually happening and are physically influential, the implications are fucking vast, because now we’re considering the multiverse of how time works. I am not about to get into that shit because I do (contrary to this post’s existence’s suggestion) have a life, and I don’t feel like rededicating it to the theory of relativity and time dilation.
The biggest question though would then become: How would events have unfolded if Ortus had gone to Canaan House and not Griddle? The only conclusion to that is: everyone would be dead and Cytherea would be alive. Which does not jive with the happenings of Emperor Frizzle’s Magic NecroBus and Harrow2 (many are alive, and Cytherea is dead). It could be that Cytherea is, in fact, alive and needs re-killing via the Act 1 end of Harrow2 stabbing her. I can’t say.
What does freak me out about Canaan2 is Harrow herself.
Not her insanity, mind you, but the fact that Harrow2 is hilarious. She’s always been acidic and funny, but Harrow2 is crude and funny. This is very, very bad. She makes a remark about the term ‘bone frenzy’ that Ortus says only someone who’d prefer ‘prurient magazines’ would think of. Can anyone guess who might be more incline than Harrow to prefer prurient magazines? Say a messy sword necrolesbian with a subscription to Frontline Titties of the Fifth?
Harrow2 is also not chasing Palamedes Sextus around the grounds of Canaan House in a near-suicidal race to Lyctorhood.
Not only is she not working herself to death, but Harrow is doing the opposite: she is socializing. With the Fourth and Fifth! She’s caustic and rude while she does it, but she’s still spending time around them for whatever reason.
All these behaviors are Griddle behaviors and they make. me. nervous.
Is Harrow2 Actually a Lyctor?
Harrow’s Dramatis Personae section lists ‘Harrowhark the First’ with a huge and glaring and delightful redacted section below her name. If someone truly had the time, I’m sure they could sleuth out the layers of the censorship and find out what it says. However, it’s plain that the underlying text does NOT say ‘Gideon Nav, her cavalier’. So we’re left with more questions - who or what died to give Harrow her power? .....As a point of interest, it looks like the original writing has been overlaid with even more text.
Ortus’ eyes were black - the same shade as Harrow’s. Harrow2 wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny that she had successfully eaten her Canaan Redux cavalier.
In the prologue, Harrow1 calls herself “half a lychtor” implying that either 1) she’s simply not trained, or 2) something went wrong in her lyctorhood creation
And then we have this weird Chapter 3** internal narration of Harrow2′s childhood without Griddle. And she’s.. absolutely bananas. She grows up a ghoulish, lonely, nut job. But she still says she had committed the indelible sin halfway. That she hadn’t been able to choke him (Ortus) down.
Her manifestations of power don’t add up. First, Ianthe (undisputedly a lyctor) shoves Babs’ knife through her hand and has no problem with it, or healing right up. Harrow2... isn’t so lucky. Prologue Harrow is also in the process of dying. Conversely, while in the River, Mercymorn dismisses the idea that Harrow2 could possibly be using theorems and freaks out when she discovers Harrow can. Conclusion being: Either Harrow2 is incredible weak, or incredibly powerful but untrained, or she is Something Else Entirely*.
Harrow2 isn’t experiencing lyctoral indigestion. Cytherea tells Ianthe right after she eats Babs, “I can see him fighting you. Mine [meaning her cav, Loveday] came willingly, and it still hurt for a century.” We know Babs still fights Ianthe in HTN, as her eyes are usually swapping shades. It’s not something Harrow1 or 2 mentions as a problem.
* My working theory is that Harrow2 is kind of lyctor-ish and being protected by the Lady, the Sword, or Griddle (who might be incarnate in either).
Side note: It might be too far into the weeds to wonder about but I want to know what pregnancy would do to a lyctor. If we follow the Die Young but Beautiful and Powerful practices of the Seventh House, Dulcinea’s family uses their crappy genes as internal combustion engines: cells dying within them allow a perpetual source of thanergy. On the opposite end of that same theory, a necromancer constantly producing thalergy (life and cell growth) should therefore be significantly weaker, right?
This^ is only relevant when considering the other theory:
Papa Gideon [ORTUS] knocked up a fellow Lyctor.
While it would explain the creepy “egg” texts Harrow2 is hallucinating, as well as why Cytherea spared Griddle multiple times at Canaan house, I doubt this theory for a few reasons:
Of the available lyctors able to carry children, there is Cassiopeia, Anastasia, Mercymorn, and Cytherea. We only know Mercy and Cytherea.
It’s strongly implied that Cytherea and her cav, Loveday, were in a relationship. Since Loveday is technically still inside of Cytherea, I doubt she wanted to date around.
The Emperor strives to present the Lyctors as siblings. This a) props himself up as the holy and imperial papa bear to guide and govern them, b) perpetuates the eternal and indestructible bond of siblings, and c) kills any idea of inter-lyctoral hooking up. Can you even imagine the destruction a Jersey Shore: Unholy Power bar fight would wreak?
I’m not fully convinced Lyctor Gideon [ORTUS] is Griddle’s father. While it would make sense in terms of stature (Lyctor G/O is a single rippling muscle and Griddle’s biceps are... noteworthy), Silas Octakiseron told Gideon that her mother had hair just the same shade as her (source: Sister Glaurica’s toiling soul). Could be that Griddle’s Mom’s soul screaming “Gideon!” was her calling for the Lyctor, her brother/other relation.
However, I DO believe Griddle is... more than. She wasn’t killed by the nerve gas, and Harrow2′s eyes are not Griddle Gold.
As a second side note, Lyctor Gideon [ORTUS]’s cav was named Pyrrha Dve. This is exciting to me because of my slutty fandom tendencies and because a name like ‘Pyrrha’ begs for Tragic Backstory, and I’m here for it. Also, I want more interaction with Augustine as he’s who Ianthe says “won’t come save” Harrow. Eye emoji.
Alecto
As far as I’m aware, there are no solid leads on who or what Alecto the Ninth is. Casting about in wildly unwarranted guesswork, I can throw a few baseless theories out;
Alecto is Griddle’s truer name (possibly birth name or even what she’s called if when she is brought back);
Alecto is the Lady of the Locked Tomb;
Alecto is the Emperor’s Cav. In Harrow’s ‘Dramatis Personae’, The Emperor is listed as well as his lyctors and their cavaliers. Except, the Emperor does not have a deceased cav. He has “A.L.”, his guardian. A.L. =Alecto, mayhaps?;
Alecto, a combination of (2) and (3). The Lady is supposedly the Emperor’s death and who he could not kill twice. If she were his ‘guardian’ she would be a) more powerful than him, and b) someone he was emotionally attached to which he couldn’t bring himself to kill again.
Things I Cannot and Refuse to Account For:
Ianthe Tridetarius became a sewn tongue as a favor for Harrow1. Wtf.
Ortus Nigenad’s self-insert cavalier epic of Matthias Nonius. Wtf.
**The entirety of Chapter 3 is either true or it’s not. Wtf was that shit.
The psychotic “You lied”/”Egg” texts Harrow2 is hallucinating. Wtf.
This is.... all probably incorrect, and I applaud you if you made it this far. I could keep going, the material of Act 1 is that dense. But in answer to The Great Big WTF that is Harrow Act 1 - my theory is simple.
TLDR; I think Harrowhark Nonagesimus is tearing down the laws of the universe to bring back Gideon the Ninth.
#honestly this is incredibly confusing and i don't super blame the dnf folks on goodreads#but im not a bitch so i guess i'm in it for the long haul#obviously#but i get that this much questioning goes past mystery and into bad plot for some#you really just have to trust tamsyn muir to make it all worth it and hope she ties it all together in a coherent way#which i trust her to do#a mistake really if we're going by what she did to us all at the end of GTN but hey#it doesnt count as bury your gays bc we never found a body right?#the locked tomb#gideon the ninth#harrow the ninth#harrow act one#Tumblr ATE my formatting so sorry for the blocks of text!#SPOILERS
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