Strange Names in Nona the Ninth

Nona’s gang of kids, plus the Angel, all appear to have weird names because they are Nona’s transliterations of their names in their native languages into the language of the Nine Houses.

Hot Sauce nodded. Nona guessed again, “Born in the Morning.” “You mean Born in the Morning,” said Hot Sauce. “That’s what I said,” said Nona.

There are seventeen local languages (according to Ianthe) on New Rho. Nona can speak all of them, without really understanding what she’s doing, so she understands the names she hears and the meaning of these names to be synonymous.

Nona understood everybody, and could speak back to them so that they understood her, and nobody ever said she had an accent. This confounded Palamedes. When she first said that she could speak back by watching them talk and making her lips look like theirs, it confounded him so much more that it gave Camilla a headache.

(I think the same thing’s going on with The Building that Troia cell lives in; I think it’s a word in another language that means building and is used as an official name for the building, but I have no guesses as to what that could be.)

I believe Nona is able to do this both because she is Alecto, who plays the role of the Holy Spirit in Tamsyn's Catholic Trinity 2.0, and the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the gift of tongues during Pentecost, and because she is the soul of Earth. The languages spoken on New Rho presumably came from Earth, so of course she can speak all of them!

This is my attempt to reverse engineer all of these names into House / English.

The Angel / The Messenger

BOE calls Aim "the Messenger" and the children and Nona call her "the Angel.”

We Suffer: “Usually you both meeting up with the Messenger, whom you call the Angel, would have been very bad.”

When the Angel first appears, her name is playing on the meaning of “angel” as a caring and godly being – the reader gets that it would make sense for children who love her to see her as an angel, so this remark flies under on the radar:

The Angel was what they called the nondescript, washed-out, dusty-haired personage who came to teach the Hour of Science. Why they called her the Angel was unclear.

But it is clear why they call her The Angel! It comes from a word with two meanings: the Greek word “angelos” originally meant “messenger” and later took on the meaning of “angel” or “messenger of God,” so all names originating from this word have both of those meanings.

Names originating from “angelos” include Angela (English, Spanish), Aniela (Polish), Aingeal (Irish), Anděla (Czech), Andjela (Serbian), Angèle (French), Angiola (Italian), Anzhela (Russian), and diminutives like Angelina.

The name is intended by BOE to mean Messenger, because of her societal role, but Nona is translating the other meaning of her name, Angel, because that meaning is what makes more sense to her given the way she sees and loves the Angel.

It's also possible that BOE has a more formal version of this name as a title for the Messenger and the children's "the Angel" which Nona hears as distinct from "the Messenger" is a diminutive or less formal version of the same name.

Born in the Morning

This name could be Sabah (Arabic), Akinyi (Luo from Kenya), or Asa (Japanese), all names which mean “morning” and more specifically “born in the morning.”

Honesty

This is a bit more difficult and I’m really not sure about any of these. There are quite a few boys' names meaning “honesty.” There are even more names that mean “honest” or “truthful,” but for strictly the noun “honesty” we have these names:

Pheakdei (Khmer, from Cambodia); Satyam, Onnesha, and Sachh (Hindi); Zaka and Sadaqat (Arabic); and Onestà or Onesto (Italian).

I don’t speak any of these languages, so I can’t comment on which name is most likely, and there are probably also way more possibilities that I missed in my deep dive into 457 baby name websites and dictionary translations!

Edit: I've seen "Frank" suggested a lot as a potential name, but I don't think this is likely, because "Honesty" is a noun, and "Frank" is an adjective. I think if Tamsyn intended the name to be a transliteration of "Frank" she would have used the adjective "Honest," not the noun "Honesty " – she doesn't seem the type to overlook something like that.

Beautiful Ruby

I think this name is probably just two names, in an unknown language, one meaning “beautiful” and one meaning “ruby.”

Unfortunately, there are millions of possibilities here and I can’t find any combination that particularly jumps out. If you have more thoughts on this please let me know!

Hot Sauce

Hot Sauce, of course – as a delightful choice that only serves to confuse the reader more with respect to all of these names – is literally just named Hot Sauce. You CAN put it on rice and you CAN put it on bread!!

I hate this girl, I've decided. I signed up for insane teenage lesbians, not six year olds in their bodies. Everything so far from her POV could have been two fucking chapters. It's bad for Pyrrha, because Nona's POV is terrible for establishing characterization. The Sixth were always about *action*, have been since before Camila was created and that action was getting Fef in the Medium, so it feels wrong for them to bum around BOE trying to get Harrow to come back to her body for 6 months, the gang is too numerous to be really distinguished besides Hot Sauce, I just *don't like this*. Gideon's opening was fucking awesome and intriguing and a really great Worldbuilding piece. Nona's, 13% of the way through the book, I keep forgetting isn't set on a craphole modern Earth. BOE Planet #3 is uninteresting, and so is everyone there, except *maybe* Hot Sauce. I think these books have been declining in quality.

personally I can't wait for when harrow returns to whatever planet nona the ninth was set on and finds out she has a small army of children at her disposal who keep teasing her about things she may or may not find sexy and asking about whether she mentioned their names to coronabeth

Nona the Ninth, Chapter 3

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(Fruit tree icon)(1) In which Nona's friends are adorable, IMO.

People mostly trust Nona, and assume she's strange because she's been through some terrible trauma. Pyrrha says that Nona acts dumb, and people love those who are good-looking and dumb.(2) Only, Nona wants to be useful, which is why she got herself a job, even if it's one that doesn't pay.

At about four months, she was allowed to visit the surrounding buildings to their home. Nona caught the attention of a teacher who asked why she wasn't in school. Nona said she did lessons at home, entirely truthfully, but gave the teacher the apartment number anyway. The teacher came by, and talked to Pyrrha and Cam, but was shocked when Cam said Nona is nearly nineteen.

"But she's such a dot."(3) Pyrrha explained without missing a beat that what with everything Nona had gone through she had been ill and still didn't eat very much, which was why she was so knobbly and undergrown. The nice lady said that yes, many of the children had problems like that, but it was still hard to imagine Nona was anywhere over fourteen, wasn't it? The nice lady added that she obviously didn't get her build from her father, and she smiled at Pyrrha. Before anyone could stop her, Nona laughed and laughed and said, Pyrrha wasn't her father. The nice lady got suspicious--Nona could see it in her hands(4)--and suggested that Nona should come anyway, could even be a Teacher's Aide, someone who helped other children with their lessons. They told her Nona couldn't read or write and the nice lady said, Oh.

Still, Nona feels the lure of learning and spending time with other people, and says she wants to go very badly. The teacher asks if they can try it the next morning, just to see how it goes. Nona agrees without letting Pyrrha or Cam argue, and since they can't start an argument in front of a stranger, Pyrrha escorts the teacher back to the door, flirting with her mercilessly. When she comes back, she says she was saving them from the teacher thinking Pyrrha was Nona and Cam's pimp, though she'd "have had better luck pimping out Augustine and Alfred."

Nona gets in trouble for giving out their apartment number, and is forbidden from going to school. But, later, while Nona's having her bath, Pyrrha says Nona will be allowed to try school for half-days, as long as she practices answering questions first, so she can give safe answers. Palamedes convinced them.

Nona asks why Pyrrha flirted with the teacher, when Nona could tell Pyrrha didn't like the teacher. Pyrrha asks how Nona could tell. Nona can't explain it, she just understood the body language. Pyrrha wishes she'd had Nona "in the Bureau"(5) but fails to answer the question.

At any rate, Nona is allowed to become a Teacher's Aide. She likes three parts of school: games, the Hour of Science, and the whiteboard with markers she's allowed to use as much as she wants, and she really only likes the Hour of Science because she watches over the science teacher's dog, Noodle, while she teaches.(6) Even though the job is unpaid, it isn't hard, and it gives her something to tell people who inquire about what she does for a living.

It was just as hard to make Nona learn any facts as it was to make her learn the sword or the bones--harder, probably; as she explained all the time, as sweetly as she could, her brain simply wasn't interested in them. It was as though someone had probably told her everything before and she had already forgotten it.

The lessons all feel familiar, like she's heard them before, but they don't stick.

The teachers are impressed when they find out about Nona's languages trick, but Pyrrha explains it as her having been through many resettlements, which seems to satisfy them. And since teachers really just want help that can clean whiteboards and inform the smallest children where the bathroom is in the language they understand, they're content with her presence.

After her first week, Nona is informed by five of the children that she's their friend now. Hot Sauce is the eldest of the gang, at fourteen, but "queenly for her years". The children think that because she's older, Nona can get them drugs and show them cool things, but Nona absolutely has no idea how to get drugs or where to find things like dead bodies. Still, Hot Sauce says that Nona talks to the Angel, and looks after Noodle.

The Angel is their name for the Hour of Science teacher. The source of the name is unclear, but Hot Sauce idolizes her, and all the children like her.

Still, Nona's worth to the gang is considered very low, below Honesty and Beautiful Ruby, just above Born in the Morning, and the only one below that is Kevin. Those are all their real names, but nobody can tell Nona where Hot Sauce's name comes from.

Nona explains everything about her time at school and with her friends over dinners at home, often hoping that they won't notice that she's using her mouth for talking instead of eating.(7) They all agree that Nona shouldn't buy the kids drugs, but Nona says Honesty found someone else to get drugs anyway. Pal asks if his name is really Honesty and Nona says that's how she hears it(8) but it shouldn't be his name because he lies and he's trying to teach Nona how, too.

Nona longs to be able to lie, but doesn't know how to stop her body from telling the truth. She catches all of Honesty's lies, and soon he confronts her and asks her to stop, and in exchange he'll give her a cigarette once a week. Nona knows he's lying, again, but agrees, and when she gets a cigarette, she gives it to Pyrrha.

Most things she learns from her family(9) but the children teach her everything else, especially new words.

They spend a lot of time loitering and doing nothing.(10) She learns that there used to be rail tracks on the huge road through the city that led down into the tunnels below the ground, but hardly anyone uses the tunnels now. Still, sometimes an earthquake rumbles, and Hot Sauce says it's The Convoy, which Nona trusts to be true though she has no idea what a convoy is for a long time after. She's disappointed when Pyrrha tells her, but she never gets over the feeling like there's something wonderful in it.

One day, the children are passing time in an abandoned office building, when Honesty asks if Hot Sauce is going to join.

"Join what? said Nona, the ignorant one. Which made the others do their usual chorus of-- "Nona doesn't know." "Nona doesn't know anything." "Tell Nona." And Honesty, who had been very nice since the cigarette arrangement, said: "When we leave school, we're going to kill zombies, we're gonna kill necromancers." "You shouldn't say the word," said Nona, forgetting in a panic that that was a Nona rule, not a school rule. All Honesty did was drum his heels on the floor next to the wheelie chair that the stuffing was coming out of and exclaim: "Who cares? I'm not scared. This isn't class, I can say what I want."

Born in the Morning brings up that he(11) once threw a rock at a necromancer and it died, and then the children spend some paragraphs litigating whether a thrown rock that may not have even hit a necromancer could have killed it when the necromancer was already on fire.(12) Ruby calls the argument pointless because the necromancers are all dead, but Born says, not all of them, the rest are in the barracks,(13) one of his dads said so.

Honesty interrupts this line of argument to say that sometimes the zombies go spying outside the barracks, so you have to make sure your friends can eat and bleed, so you know they're still them and not zombies. Nona says defensively that she eats, and Honesty says, nobody's accusing Nona of being a zombie, how stupid. Kevin says he saw Nona eat a pebble, and Nona tells him not to squeal, then tells Honesty that he shouldn't call her dumb again, because her family said she should tell Honesty that they know what he looks like and they'll beat him up. Honesty says fine, he doesn't want to piss off the pimp she lives with. Nona, having since learned what pimp means, feels a tantrum building.

Before any intragroup violence can erupt, however, Hot Sauce says the necromancers will come back, may even already be here. Ruby asks Hot Sauce, what about Varun the Eater?(14) Hot Sauce says it's here for them.

Honesty asks again if Hot Sauce is going to join up, but she doesn't answer. Kevin interrupts to say he has to go to the bathroom, and it's established that he could go alone but he freaks out when he's locked into places even if he can unlock it himself, so someone has to go in case he needs to be broken out. By the time that's resolved, the subject is dropped, and Hot Sauce is just looking at the sky.

Nona whispered, "Join what, Hot Sauce?"(15) Hot Sauce didn't answer her. When she did say anything, she asked a question instead, which was irritatingly like Pyrrha. "You like it here?" "I love it here," said Nona sincerely. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." "You're sweet," said Hot Sauce.

After that day, no one questioned Nona's belonging to the group. She loves her home family, but she loves her friend-family too.

Eventually, when it got dark enough, all their families would come looking for them--Cam always came horribly early--except for Hot Sauce, who had nobody to come looking for her, and Honesty, whom nobody ever remembered about. But even with this flaw in paradise, Nona could do nothing but hug her knees to her chest and feel fantastically, wonderfully lucky, luckier than anyone else who had ever had the pleasure of being born.

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(1) Another new icon! Thinking about the contents of the chapter… what could it mean? (2) I'm not really a fan of the ableism but it's hard to describe an 18-year-old who, well, acts like Nona without going there. She's only six months old, in a literal sense, though she's obviously got more capability than an infant. (3) Dot - slang for "useless person" as well as "attractive woman". (4) Not the only time in this chapter that Nona just knows, somehow, what body language means. What an odd talent for a girl who's only had this body six months. Also, I love that all of this is filtered through Nona's perceptions. Many people have observed that the Locked Tomb series so far is always narrated by the person least equipped to understand what's really going on, and that goes tenfold for Nona. She knows the teacher is upset but has no idea why (she wants to protect Nona, and possibly Cam, from a potential threat in Pyrrha) (5) Presumably, some sort of military or intelligence outfit, in the beforetimes. (6) Noodle is the pupper on the cover of the book. (7) Nona definitely seems to struggle with some sort of eating disorder. She seemed eager about cold food earlier, but not the eggs. At that point it could have been temperature, but now she's definitely avoiding eating outright. (8) Hm. So Nona's language understanding might be kicking in for names, as well. Makes you think about all the names we just got told, and whether Nona's narration is recounting the name as used or the name meaning in its original form. (9) This word hasn't been used to describe them but what else are they, if not this? (10) Well, that's what kids do, especially when they're not given anything else to fill their time for any number of reasons, like living in what amounts to a refugee city. (11) Technically, no pronoun is used for Born in the Morning here, but "he" and "him" are used several times later in the book in contexts that can only refer to Born in the Morning, so I'm comfortable using his pronouns sooner than they appear. This is in no way meant to undermine any headcanons that Born in the Morning may be some sort of genderfluid or nonbinary, I just needed a pronoun, any pronoun, to use to make the sentence less awkward, and the first two instances I came across attached directly to the name were he/him. (12) Muir really, truly remembers what it was to be a weird kid with weird friends, because this is so completely stuff I'd argue about as a kid. (13) The same barracks Pal wants so badly to liberate? Likely, given context. (14) Varun the Eater, huh? From context, it's the thing in the sky. The thing Pyrrha said could stop telescoping? Wasn't that a term used for the Resurrection Beasts in HtN? Hmm… If Varun is here for the necromancers, it does track with the RB lore we were given. (15) We don't get an answer, but I think we can make an educated guess. What organization fights the necromancers?

RUBI ROSE via INSTAGRAM

Apologies for the lack of art recently, I’ve been dedicating my entire life to this animatic. Here’s this frame of Nona and the gang :)

Going around the circle to the right starting from Nona there’s hot sauce, beautiful ruby, honesty, kevin, and born in the morning

rubi rose.

the acoc candy couture vol 2 zine is literally the most stunning thing i've ever seen (CHECK IT OUT AND ALL THE OTHER ZINES FROM THE D20 ZINE JAM) and i drew the rocks sisters like i was fucking possessed or smth

i did a bunch of research to make smth sort of historically accurate for my primsy design last year. this year i wanted to just go off and go for pure vibes only. also i actually saved my process!

i knew roughly 2 things i wanted for this piece: outrageous medieval-esque fashions (historical accuracy not required) and also twists for their licorice hair. i put together a pureref, found a pose reference, and played with several different color palettes really terribly until i found one i liked! the details made me wanna die but the end result was sooooo worth it

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

"What happened?!"

"Fought off a load of thugs, fell down the catafalque hole, battled a bunch of ghosts. You know, the usual sort of thing"

The main trio in Lockwood and Co. (2023-)

close-up

Nona the Ninth, Day Four, Chapter 17

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

(Plant shoot icon)(1) In which the children and the adults make a plan.

WHERE IS PYRRHA?—THE GANG SWEARS AN OATH—THE ANGEL MAKES A CALL— HOT SAUCE DRAWS HER GUN—FORTY-EIGHT HOURS UNTIL THE TOMB OPENS.(2)

Nona wakes, confused about how she fell asleep in all her clothes.

The evening was awful, but Cam didn't ask any other questions once she learned Nona had waited at the school and been driven home by a teacher. She only asks if Nona heard about the broadcast. Nona is ready to tell her about the girl from her dream, but Cam doesn't press the issue, just went to ask Pal something. The last she remembers from the night was admitting she didn't contradict Crown about dating Cam to Pal, and then Pal trying to figure out where Pyrrha went, and realizing she probably went to steal the shuttle, just before Nona passed out.

In the morning, Cam has Nona recite her dream into the recorder alone, while Cam does the washing up that Pyrrha usually does. Nona feels adrift, wondering if the girl in the broadcast really was the girl from the dream or not. By the time she realizes she should start recording, she forgets which button to push, and hits them at random until something happens, and she starts hearing Cam's and Pal's messages to each other.

On the recordings they discuss why the BOE would want a Lyctor on tap, then commiserate about their shared loneliness without each other. Pal can't bear eating Cam's life like this, but Cam says she'd carry his memory anyway, she'd rather have any part of him for real.

Just as the recording moves on to a recorded session with Nona and her dreams, Nona in the present notices Cam standing in the doorway. Nona apologizes and says she didn't hear anything, but Cam just tells her to wash up before breakfast. Nona worries about Pyrrha, and who she'll tell ass jokes to.(2)

In this saintly, uplifted, and really quite terrified state of mind, Nona looked at herself and found that she was very grimy. In a welter of fearful bravery she sponged herself at the cold-water tap until she was free of smuts(3) and old blood and dust, and the water was so cold it made her skin purple and blotchy. She called out, “Camilla, can I borrow a shirt?” and was pleased to hear, “Sure,” so she picked out one that was only a little too big but smelled comfortingly of Camilla. She looked in the cracked mirror and decided her hair was probably all right. The braids were a bit fuzzy but still doable. Thus armed, she went into the kitchen to see about breakfast.

Nona eats more of her breakfast than usual without resisting, so much that Cam doesn't even encourage her to eat more. Nona asks if they're going to wait for Pyrrha, but Cam says, no, Pyrrha's been gone for almost a full day, and Cam's been stuck at home that whole time. She needs to see the broadcast and look for Pyrrha, whose guns are still here, indicating she didn't intend to be gone far or for long.

Cam says she and Nona will go to the spaceport. Nona is excited, but asks to stop in at the school first, to make sure her friends and teacher are safe. Cam agrees, as Pal had wanted to thank the teacher anyway, but… this may be the last time Nona can see her friends. Nona understands, has been expecting it any time now, and says she's loved her friends. Cam says "we" (she, Pal, probably Pyrrha) know it.(4)

Cam goes to get dressed and cleaned up, and Nona does something she never would have normally: she peels up the sniper blazing(5) and looks up at the blue sphere in the sky.

She so rarely got to look at it from here. It hung on the morning horizon, and as she watched the sphere made a low, voiceless moan—a wanting sound—but quiet, on the edge of hearing. A whispered vocalisation and nothing more. “Can you help me?” Nona whispered. “Can you do anything? Do you know where Pyrrha is?” But it only lowed sadly, like a cow.(6) “That’s all right,” whispered Nona. “Sorry for asking.” Then: “Don’t do anything weird, okay? I’m having enough trouble right now.”

Nona gets the blazing pressed back down just in time for Cam to come out. She dresses for outside, and they leave. They can hear voices and sounds like people moving boxes behind doors, and Cam takes the elevator to conserve energy for what's to come.(7) Nobody pays them any attention, but there's an electric tension in the air of the city, as though waiting for a big event.

Nona felt sorry for the city: it wasn’t its fault. It was as tall and tumbledown and snaggletoothed as always.

Nona buzzes into the schoolhouse, and Honesty opens the door. Nona's so glad to see him again. Beautiful Ruby almost gives away that Nona snuck off to the broadcast, with Cam unknowing right behind Nona, but this gives way to asking where Hot Sauce is and Nona explaining. Beautiful Ruby thought Nona would "get a massive hiding"(8), and says Nona's "pimp" scares him. Nona says Pyrrha hasn't come home since yesterday, and they can't tell anyone.

Beautiful Ruby said instantly and kindly, “Won’t tell. Don’t worry, Nona, pimping is long hours and you have to go all over,” and she turned on him and something in her eyes and face made him stop immediately and say, “It was a joke! It was a joke. Oh my God, don’t be crazy at me, stop it.”(9)

Instead of talking more about Pyrrha, Nona asks where Born in the Morning is, but silence answers her. Honesty says breezily that all his dads probably joined up. They're all silent until the door buzzes again, but it's only the Angel and Noodle and Hot Sauce.(10) Cam thanks the Angel, but she waves it off, and suggests they talk once the kids are settled. The other teacher won't be coming.

The Angel brings them all upstairs, and they all sit spread out across the room as usual. Cam takes a seat near the back, strangely meek. The Angel asks if everyone and their families are alright. Beautiful Ruby, calling his mother by her first name, says she said they should give in to the Houses. Hot Sauce says she's weak. The Angel says it can be hard to be strong for more people than yourself, and you should judge people by what they do, not what they say. Hot Sauce says, so if someone says they're a necromancer, you should wait until they do something before you shoot them? Nona risks a glance at Cam, who is listening so intently Nona doubts she's Cam anymore.

The Angel says if Hot Sauce sees a necromancer, she should run in the opposite direction. There's no point fighting them, is there? Honesty asks if the Angel is scared of Necromancers, and she replies that of course she is, she was born on Lemuria. Cam asks what happened there. The explanation seems to make it clear that it was a turned world, and inhabited right up until the moment the final switch occurred between thalergy and thanergy. The Houses won the confrontations in the upheaval of the flip, and twenty years later, here's the Angel.

Beautiful Ruby still thinks his mum is embarrassing him by wanting to give in. The Angel says it's not wrong to not want to fight, and if you think all in black and white, your mind can't be agile. She suggests Ruby try to understand his mum's point of view.

Nona asks if they'll have normal school. The Angel says she can't or doesn't want to teach most of the regular subjects, but she thought she could teach them how not to get into too much trouble in the coming conflict.

She takes out a huge waxed paper map of the city, and lays it on a table. Nona can't understand the map any more than any other writing,(11) but the group discusses where in the city is safe and not safe to go. At one point, when discussing whether one place is safe or not, the Angel says "What we know is that we don’t know anything." Nona likes that as a motto, and a summary of her life.

The Angel asks Honesty to find Southgate and colour it blue. Honesty says, only for her, and colours it.

The Angel said, “Southgate is a good place to go in an emergency. Why do you think that is?” Nona said mechanically, “Because it’s got access to the road out of town and there’s a water pump and the ground is stable and it’s not a priority target for any kind of orbital strike or bombardment.” Everyone looked at her. Then they looked at Camilla, sitting in the back. Camilla didn’t move. She had found some bit of paper and was writing on it furiously,(12) so Nona didn’t even get a “Well done, Nona,” which she deserved because Cam had taught her all that. “What’s bombardment?” asked Beautiful Ruby suspiciously. “No idea,” said Nona proudly. “An interesting group, your family,” said the Angel slowly, with an eye on Camilla. “I mean, you’re totally right—if you have to run away, run there and keep close to the road.”

She continues that they shouldn't wait for each other there, and they couldn't survive in the open desert, but they should make it a priority to find and fill water bottles. Any problem will be short-term. The Angel suggests Hot Sauce show them the building she picked, and Hot Sauce points to a watchtower she's hidden out in before. It's stable and has supplies. She threatens whoever tries to sell her stuff, but Honesty swears he's her best boy, and the Angel reinforces that action is likely to be short-term.

Beautiful Ruby says the necromancers can't do anything anyway, but the Angel points out that now there's a Lyctor involved. They shouldn't be able to do too much, with "the blue madness", but it's good to have a plan.

The lights go out, and the Angel says that will be it for school for now. She tacks the map up so Honesty and Hot Sauce can memorize it, and the rest are to clear out the fridge and take home what's in it so it won't go to waste. Cam is lost in her own world in the back of the classroom, so Nona gathers up the drawings they did yesterday. She can tell which is whose, and organizes them, then hands them to the Angel, who says it might be nice for the children to have a "reminder of normal times" at home. Nona asks if they're never coming back, and the Angel says the broadcast changed everything. Nona knows that much, and says so, sadly.

“I thought you were your own boss here,” said Nona. “I have a lot of bosses,” said the Angel. “How many?” “Millions,” said the Angel, with perfect truth in the set of her shoulders. “Don’t worry about that for now—I’m being unhelpful and unkind—it’s just that, Nona, there comes a time in your life when you have to separate the things you do because they make you feel good from the things that make you—” The Angel stopped so dead midsentence that Nona thought she had had a heart attack, that she had been hurt in a way Nona couldn’t understand. She was staring at the topmost drawing of the sheaf of papers. Nona peeked over, ready to apologise for another one of Honesty’s explicit anatomical sketches. “Oh—that one’s mine,” she said, wanting to break the spell, wanting to help. “It’s mine, don’t worry.” The Angel was speechless for a moment. Then she looked at the paper, then looked at Nona again, and looked at the paper. She said, “Sure,” as though everything were normal and she hadn’t acted like she had been knifed. She laid the drawing aside and said, “Give the rest out, why don’t you?” and smiled at Nona, but it was a weirdly awful smile, as though the Angel had forgotten how smiles worked.(13)

Nona passes the rest out, and the gang all gather in the cloak room. Hot Sauce says they can all come with their families, even Beautiful Ruby's traitor mum, and Hot Sauce can defend them. They pile their hands on like a sports team about to start.

“Doesn’t feel right without Born in the Morning,” muttered Honesty. “It’s for him too,” said Hot Sauce. Then she said— “We swear to protect each other and die for each other. We are loyal to each other forever. Any zombies we kill, we kill for each other, and we’ll say, ‘This is for the others.’ That’s it.”

Honesty, Nona, Beautiful Ruby, and Kevin all swear, and Hot Sauce, as the boss. They go to open the door and Born is there after all, having snuck away. They all swear again, and most of them take off. Nona and Hot Sauce go back upstairs, and Hot Sauce says they won't see Born again until most of his fathers die, they're just baggage holding him back from the gang.(14)

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(1) Another new icon. What could this one mean? There's nothing particularly plant-related here, is there? (2) Whomst among us hasn't had a weird day where our routine is thrown all the way off and had sad weird thoughts only loosely related to it? (3) The nearest common usage of "smut" near this context I can find is a class of fungi that typically infect plants (you may have heard of "corn smut" which is a delicacy known as huitlacoche in Mexico). It may also be used to mean soot. Alternately, since "smut" derives from an old Germanic word for "dirt", it could just mean dirt stains of unknown origin. (4) I feel this implies that Cam wouldn't ask Nona to say her goodbyes if she didn't have to. (5) I think it's been mentioned before, but I don't think I ever went into exactly what was… possibly because I can't quite be sure. Searches for "window blazing" all just return "window glazing", or how to make your Windows computer blazing fast. My assumption is that it's a layer of some sort of vinyl to obscure the positions of those inside and thus foil snipers. The blackout curtains are separate so I assume it's not an opaque black, it may just be like window frosting or it could be more complex. But, the peeling is what makes me think of window frosting, because I used some vinyl window frosting on nearly all my apartment's windows to prevent people seeing into the bathroom, bedrooms, or kitchen when I want curtains open for natural light but don't want to be Observed or Perceived in those spaces. (6) So, Pyrrha definitely wasn't the only one who could communicate with Varun. (7) Ominous. (8) It's interesting how common child abuse seems to be in this community. It's taken as a given. (9) Interesting for Nona to be scary to anyone. (10) Priorities, Nona has them. (11) She can parse drawings, even photos, but nothing meant to convey information? (12) Pal is absolutely taking notes on Nona's behaviour in a group. I'm frankly shocked neither of them thought of doing this sort of sit-in before. (13) What did Nona draw? An animal she's sure makes anatomical sense, from the chapter where she did it. But what could cause the Angel to react so? (14) Hot Sauce is one of the most interesting characters in a book, in a series, so chockablock with interesting characters you can't turn a page without seeing at least one.

Where did we go? What did we do? I think we made something...entirely new....

some closeups under cut :)

and here's the first image w/out text :)

im normal. su makes me feel so normal