#BUT YEAH. Either way. Harrowhark ilu

[dammit-tazmuir]

Hold on. Harrow never actually learned about Gideon's origins, right? She'd checked out by the time Gideon learned and like... there was a lot going on when she finally woke up. There might be more that happened after Alecto also woke up that we just haven't seen yet, but as far as we know she's just now finding out about it or hasn't quite yet. But I just noticed—

Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 49

Nona the Ninth, 24

Gideon has Wake's jaw (among other features) and John's eyes (I assume shape too) and brows. Harrow subconsciously fucking clocked the resemblance. (Edit to clarify: Like, she saw Wake's face, and by then she'd remembered Gideon, but subconsciously clocked "this is almost Gideon's face, this part is spot on, but these parts are Wrong." But given one of the AUs...)

Anatomist Mercymorn, who knows the human body beyond mortal comprehension and who has been close to John for 10,000 years, who had actively worried the new Ninth baby might have been John's kid, saw a young woman she knew to be the Ninth's cavalier who looked strikingly like Wake and suspiciously wasn't decomposing, and still didn't recognize John's features or think to check her eye color. She was so absolutely convinced Blood of Eden must just be incompetent and wrong that she barely looked.

Yet Harrowhark, who had specifically forced herself to forget Gideon existed, still recognized enough that when she started to remember her brain supplied the Divine Highness suitor AU. Truly one of the most down bad characters of all fucking time.