IMO ianthe did have a point when she told gideon that what made her crush on harrow different from gideon’s is that ianthe and harrow are equals, and are therefore capable (in theory) of forming a very different kind of relationship than the one that gideon and harrow, as they both exist and percieve eachother right now, could have. bc the thing about griddlehark right now is they each hold eachother as sacred to the extreme. sacred like a holy relic, like a wonder that can be observed and honored but never touched. gideon has a suicidal, overwhelming devotion to harrow. she’s convinced that harrow doesnt care about her and gideon is just… fine with that. that’s part of her devotion. harrow thinks of gideon with a similarly consuming kind of reverence all wrapped up in guilt. and i love it, it’s a delicious dynamic, incredible, but i want to see how they untangle that – they were able to partly shift their dynamic (from childhood codependant enemies) at canaan house but it just switched to a different but still incredibly unequal dynamic on both sides. how do they learn to love the other in a way that accepts the love they are recieving, that believes themselves worthy? how do they learn to love in a way that does not consume themselves? that leaves something left for the other one to love? the AU chapters gave us a taste of what could have been and perhaps what could be later in the series. i need to go lie down.
honestly stressed about how Alecto the Ninth seems to start off with harrow in the same place as we left her back in HARROW the Ninth – asleep in the tomb, with a sword, and a magazine displaying tits. what does this mean!!!! does this mean harrow doesn’t appear in Nona the Ninth???? i know NtN was kind of chiseled off of AtN due to length, and i believe it is on record that the time frame NtN takes place over is like, a week? so this is conceivable but. at the end of HtN, harrow “fell asleep, dropped dead, or both” so…. is she just asleep for NtN? or in stasis? does NtN involve waking her up/“reviving” her soul? what about GIDEON? are BOTH gideon and harrow out of comission/their souls “on pause” during NtN? will these bitches every be concious at the same time ever again!!!!!
im out of the loop but did anything else happen on the alecto exerpt stream?
continuing my endless rereads of tlt but like. why did john say they only discovered the ressurection beast’s “revenge” after the price of lyctorhood had been paid? like yes of course john lies, but he says this to harrow. this is an established lie. he is establisbing the lie. he is telling her how the other lyctors understand the world.
what i mean by this is i dont think John lied about the time frame. i think the RB’s did in fact appear directly after the first lyctors ascended. and clearly the RBs arent actually so drawn to the stated sin of ascension, if we assume that John and Alecto ascended. bc john was hanging out at canaan house and the Dominicis system in general for a long time, maybe hundreds of years, before the RB’s started following them. not to mention cytherea hanging out at canaan for 2+ months in GtN without even making an RB turn in her direction.
im just struck by the thought that not only are the RB’s unable to hurt john, perhaps they are completely subservient to him. maybe he tells them where to go. maybe as God of the Nine Houses he is also God of the Nine House Planets, and thus, their angry revenents. we already know the RB’s cant hurt him. what is he doing, what is he planning, what has he done? who is he seeking revenge for? how is he enacting that revenge? i have so many questions but the overarching question over all of this is WHY. why does his empire exist and expand in the way it does? why does he send his lyctors to fight a threat that only exists because he allows it to? why does he pretend the RB’s are hunting them? what was the real reason he and his saints fled the nine house planets, and why does he uphold a lie that forbids them from returning?
imo people do not give Gideon enough credit for being incredibly fucked up in the head. gonna devote your life to any pretty lady who shows you even the smallest bit of affection? gonna show your love and loyalty by consuming yourself, so you do not have to be percieved in the act of loving, so there is nothing of you left to love in return? gonna devote your life and death and life-beyond-death to a girl that (regardless of the facts) you genuinely believe does not care about you? mentally ill as hell. i love her.
im so sorry to ask a stupid question but can you remind me how we know RB’s can’t hurt jod? i haven’t gotten to rereading htn yet and i sped through it first time around so i can’t remember
no stupid questions! it’s on p. 490, chapter 52 of harrow the ninth. after John reforms his body and explodes Mercy’s heart (after she atomized him). John says:
“‘I didn’t get to where I am by being able to die, you know?’
[Augustine] said, 'The Resurrection Beasts–’
'Can’t kill me’
'You acted afraid.’
’Acted is operative. But this is not an FAQ”’
he could always be lying, this is John we’re talking about, but i don’t think this is a lie. he certanly doesn’t act like a man who is at all concerned by RB’s, what with leaving the door to his “Airless, Must Be Sealed For Protection” room open while a bunch of heralds roamed around the Mithraeum.
thinking abt all the bones harrow was hanging up arround the 9th’s quarters in canaan house and ~ambiance~ is very funny but i just realized. those were bone wards. harrow didnt even really spend any time in the 9th’s rooms so that. that was for gideon. she warded that corridor up and down and she did it to protect gideon, and of course she didnt (couldnt!!!) explain it to her.
image above reads:
In the dream they were sitting on the beach. he had made fire from damp driftwood. the smoke made a black mark where it touched the taurpaulin, at the top, where it was stretched over their heads. the ash was still falling. It made them sick, but only ever for a little while. anything that hurt them only hurt for a little while
In the dream, she sat next to the bundle of meat he’s cut, thighs mostly, for when they felt hungry, which happened rarely and always simultaneously. when it did happen they would be side by side, eating until their stomachs were sore. they would drink from the sea like dogs.
ok so im losing my mind about the entire exerpt but this part stood out specifically. this is harrow’s dream, john’s dream, john’s memory – and in it, harrow is taking the place of alecto. and specifically, i noticed this: they (john and alecto) can get hurt, BUT only for a little while. they get better. they arent often hungry, but when they are, it’s at the same time. this is the first lyctorhood. im convinced that at this point, the world has ended, and everyone else is dead. they’re alive because did something before or as the world ended, and now they’re linked together forever and paying the price.
john gaius is literally the most character ever. im just so fascinated by him going from a person who wants to save everyone, absolutley everyone and fuck all the triollionares who only want to save themselves, and how he becomes what we know him in HtN to be: callous and cruel and manipulative and the leader of a fascist murdering endlessly expanding death cult. he’s a god but he used to be a man – and as augustine said, whereithal did that transition happen?
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i said, Dont let it get to you and I said, Dont get paranoid! I fucking looked her in the eye and said, This is the way we’re getting out, and you know that the moment half a dozen triollionares realize it, they’re going where the oxygen is. That’s what I always told her. They’re going where the oxygen is. Wealthy men head for the exit.
He said: when they called me up and said that the cryo project was over she looked at me and she just said, There they go, John.
remember the part in Harrow The Ninth when harrow asks john “What is BOE” and john says “once you have abandoned something, you have no more right to act as if you own it”?
yeah.
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He said, It was me and A– and M– at the start. It wasn’t that they didnt have money for a bigger team; we were simply the only ones capable of what they were asking. M– for medical, A– because he was the glycerol-6 genius. He could’ve gone anywhere he wanted, but he stuck with me… and thank God for that, because he handled all of the shareholders.
so from my preliminary deep dive it looks like “glycerol-6” is probably a made up isotope (aka variant) of the molecule, BUT!!! glycerol is widely used in the medical and food industry. direct injection of it decreases fertility. it can be used to create explosives. it’s widely used in personal lubricants. and it can very specifically be used as a cryoprotectant to reduce damage to organisms stored below freezing temperatures
god i love this book series
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