#I have a lot of feelings about Harrow

[lockedtombmemes]

I don't think I have ever felt for a character quite what I feel for Harrowhark Nonagesimus.

she's a creep, she's a weirdo, she's my blorbo, she's a tiny rat, she's disgusting, she's such a fucking bitch, she's baby, she's a product of abuse and veneration, she's a shaky shitty little dog, I want her to be happy, I want her to feel safe, I want her to kill God, I want her to scream and scream into the abyss, I want her to look into the face of the horrors that made her and be unafraid, I want her to eat an entire fruit

[taytei]

finally finished the first book after reading it off and on again for like 2 years

[ace-trainer-risu]

I truly believe that nona is alecto/the body for the very simple and vitally important reason that harrow and nona/alecto/the body will meet at some point and harrow will be like O immortal Body, I have kept troth with you these many long and darkling years, I have sworn my heart, worthless thing though it may be, to you, I cast my fragile and aching body at your feet (and etc etc)

and the Body will look at her with those ineffable golden eyes and open her imperfectly beautiful mouth and say, her own true voice ringing out in harrow's ears for the very first time, "Hi! I like dogs, do you like dogs? I kissed you in the mirror once. Do you want to be best friends?"

And harrow will instantly be like Ohhh :/// I'm cured. I'm not in love with her anymore. where's gideon. ianthe? anyone.

[nikkicafeina]

I'm confused as to why it some find it hard to believe or never consider that Kiriona could genuinely be on John's side.

Sure, John's kind of a silly asshole but almost everyone Gideon has ever met has been an asshole. All of the major players of her childhood straight up tried to murder her (Harrow, the Reverent Parents, the gross aunts, Crux, Mortus) or were chill with people trying to murder her (Aiglamene, Ortus, Glaurica). The only nice people she's ever met died within a couple of days of her meeting them, courtesy of the only woman to ever show interest in her (she was lying about it). Even the sixth weren't particularly friendly with her, there was a lot going on and then Pal froze her body so she could witness him literally self destruct. She thinks Harrow might hold non-murder feelings for her for like, two seconds before finding out she doesn't want her either. And then she finds out her mom (the mom she spent her entire awful, mortally dangerous childhood daydreaming about to cope) also didn't want her! Gideon was gestated explicitly to die, to be thrown away, to be a bomb. The Gideon Wake died thinking about was never Gideon Nav, it was Gideon Pyrrha. Wake never even named her.

So, yeah, sure, John's an asshole but he's an asshole who treats Kiriona like she's worth something. Jury's out on what the hell is up with her body, her soul, and her depression, but still. He makes her a prince, he gives her real authority and power, he claims her as his daughter. He acknowledges her talents and makes plans with her for the future. He gives her his name to make her own.

Nobody ever wanted Gideon Nav alive. Why wouldn't she willingly kick it as Kiriona Gaia in death?

[ridrawsart]

Thinking about Kiriona Gaia and Harrow the First. Thinking about an AU where they met. Thinking about how tragic of a dynamic that would've been. Thinking of what it'd be like to be in love with a girl that can't even remember you and respects you because you're prince to the empire but hates being around you because every time she is she gets massive headaches and starts to bleed from her ears.

Just girly things.

[bornetoblood]

about the hunter paralleling laurence, do you think any of the characters in the game see that? or do you think they’re all too far gone to notice? like gehrman maybe? luv u content btw

Oh wow!! Thank you!!!

I think Simon, Maria and (of course) Gehrman are the only ones who really make that connection.

Simon in the sense that he sees the Hunter as a continuation of Byrgenwerth's curiosity and eldritch digging.

I just think it'd be funny if Maria is so adamant to prevent the Hunter from reaching the Hamlet because she took one look at this little freak and filed them under "Laurence II" in her mind.

And Gehrman... He has some cut dialogue that makes it seem like he's mistaking the Hunter for Laurence (and that he's really pumped to fight them to the death). Also, just the idea that Gehrman can't remember what Laurence looks like, yet is so desperate for him to return, he just starts pretending anyone like the guy is actually him.

[raayllum]

me sitting here with my "broyals having a quasi sunfire sibs conflict over the cube" crack theory waiting for ezran to have one (1) line of dialogue or scene with the cube:

like why would they do this to me:

[onefleshoneendonebraincell]

y‘all, lyctorhood is genetic

Which is a huge mindfuck

But let’s start with my reasoning for this theory. Which is very simple: when John and Wake discuss her plan, John initially thinks her plan was to kill a lyctor‘s child to get a giant thanergy explosion. And he says that it was a good plan. So we know, that at the very least, John is convinced that a lyctor‘s child is different than a regular child, aka that lyctorhood is to some extent hereditary.

And that just brings us to so many questions: why would he assume that? I honestly intuitively thought that lyctorhood wasn’t genetic, that it was simply something done to the body but not to its DNA. Because (not 100% sure on that) literally everything you do with your body doesn’t change your DNA (not taking epigenetics into account but we aren’t manipulating our dna with that yet). So that’s the norm for people. Why would John know that it’s different for lyctors? Did one or more of the lyctors have children? Did he specifically establish their weird breeding pods to stop that from happening? (I honestly don’t think so, but it is weird that they use technology to have children. Do they have to? Did necromancy fuck up their ability to have children? (Actually I think the books mentioned that about Harrow‘s parents but I don’t have the quote))

Also, if a lyctor‘s powers are (even if just to a small extent) inheritable why make more lyctor’s why the eightfold word? Why not just have them have children? Especially since it could be literally outsourced to their pods? The obvious answer would be that the bond between parent and child is an incredibly strong one. Maybe John didn’t want to risk anybody rebelling against him because of their child. (Also, mildly related tangent: I might be wrong here, but it seems as if parent child relationships like we have them (and expect them!) don’t really exist in the locked tomb universe. Harrow certainly doesn’t have anything close to that. Gideon here is the exception, since she expected (and wished for) her mom to love her, to the point of fighting with Harrow over it. So there is an expectation of parental love. But if that’s the case where are everybody‘s parents? With most of the cast of the first book being children and young adults, I would expect parents to be mentioned. But they aren’t.)

But most importantly of all, this puts the whole idea that lyctors are powered by the souls they devoured, into question. Because it’s not like the soul or the link to it would be passed on to the child. So maybe the lyctoral process fundamentally changes the lyctor and then only the changes are passed on? Because I doubt lyctors can be made as easily as „just by having a kid“. Especially with all the thematic weight that is placed on the sacrifice and the horror of devouring another person to reach lyctorhood. One can only become a lyctor for the price of a soul and eternal regret. I cant imagine a child could just get the same powers without any sacrifice.

(Also Gideon’s inheritance from John is heavily likened to a lyctor’s child, but I don’t think that it checks out. John is definitely something else than a lyctor, whatever he is or did)

[xxrat--punkxx]

Thoughts on act four so far ✨

[limelocked]

with the abo perfume industry obviously there would be pheromone masking products but would there also be fake pheromone products for betas? in all the abo stuff i've ever seen it seems like alphas are more likely to be hired for better job positions (ceo, manager, etc) so would it be a good interview tactic to try to smell like an alpha? many things to ponder

im of the opinion that abo things that put alphas automatically at the top are dumb and mostly for the sake of plot rather than the world (which is fine but boring worldbuildingwise), imo betas would probably be put in a lot of those jobs unless the workplace is shitty (re: your boss uses pheramones to intimidate you pov) or your workplace requires it (re: you are a boss and need to use your pheramones to intimidate other bosses, or you need to be physically strong) or thats just the culture (re: king is always alpha so top of company must also), i kinda think of betas as being seen as worker ants in a modern omegaverse world where theyre seen as the most level-headed of the sexes even if this isnt always true

100% think theres pheramone infused perfumes tho for several purposes such as you are a beta who wants to bed an alpha so you put on some omega perfume, you are an alpha who is just some guy and wear a concoction of beta and omega pheramones to make yourself look more friendly and approachable for several occasions, you are a fool omega or alpha who went straight for the opposites perfume and now have to deal with 1 possible irregular heat/rut 2 the smells not mixing well At All and signalling to others that you have a partner (you dont, you are an idiot) just as much as axe body spray signals that youre 15

personally i think that betas also produce and smell pheramones because itd be kinda weird physiologically if they couldnt full out, beta pheramones just being distinct and/or less noticable than alpha or omega ones, if thats something that the beta in question is self-conscious about then wearing alpha pheramone perfume would be viable and even if theres not a Specific market for betas then there must be a market for alphas and omegas who want their own pheramones to maybe smell different

[super-done-dead]

love seeing users who are friends interact on posts. would like to interact with a user whos a friend one day, on a post

[the-bluestreak-cat]

I’m so excited about my five cheese ziti

[katakaluptastrophy]

I think what's so interesting about Gideon as a narrator at the anniversary dinner is the fact that there's clearly tensions that she's just not picking up on because she's only there to eat a dessert.

But these people are all the immensely powerful leaders of the Houses and consider themselves to be in competition for literal godlike powers and the favour of the emperor.

There's so many little snippets that are potentially intriguing: why is Teacher trying to prime the Ninth to consider the Fifth a threat? Why are the Third and the Sixth "sizing each other up like prizefighters"? The Fifth absolutely knew what they were doing when they sat the teen heads of the opposing cults near each other.

Through Gideon's lens, Magnus' speech is a little awkward jokey thing. But...the seneschal of the House that is known to be actively trying to absorb another House is saying it's such a shame they're all so remote from each other and what do they all have in common (and it's so quiet you "could have heard a hair flutter to the floor") - that had to feel a bit different to people who aren't Gideon.

Palamedes' is dissecting the meaning of "Master Warden" and at one point compares it to a prison warden. 'Dulcinea' asking about whether Magnus and Abigail have children is perhaps less small talk and rather more pointedly political. Harrow's apparently stilted conversation with Protesilaus is clearly her actually probing his limitations like he's a bad Chat GPT-run chatbot.

And then 'Dulcinea' tells Gideon she liked the dinner because it was "useful". In her typical "I never lied to you" way, Cyth wasn't lying when she said Abigail had to die because of her hobby - Abigail Pent let loose on the Facility would have risked blowing Cyth's cover sky high. But what does a Canaan House look like where after the dinner party, the Fifth go down to the facility, get a key, and survive to continue their 'the Houses are going to get along or else' agenda? We've seen Fifth House soft power on a smaller scale in HTN: and it looks like inviting a teenager round for coffee, lulling her into a false sense of security with small talk, and then physically preventing her from leaving the room until she does what you want, while smiling the entire time. A series of little coffee chats could probably have led to a lot of cooperation in Canaan House, one way or another.

Gideon jokes about Silas marrying Ianthe because of their similar colour pallete, but it does raise the fact that there seems to be some tension around the Third, its succession, and the *point* of Ianthe. Why is Silas openly saying Ianthe should have died at birth? Combined with Judith's comments in the Cohort Intelligence Files about succession on the Third, it feels like there's something else being said here that Gideon isn't picking up on.

And of course, Harrow wasn't the only one desperate to become a Lyctor because her con was unsustainable. Presumably at some point Corona and Ianthe would be expected to marry, or at least take on more separate roles as Corona prepared to take over the throne and Ianthe was funneled off elsewhere. At some point, their package deal would have become unsustainable and Corona's cover would have been blown. But much as Harrow wants to become a Lyctor so she can reveal the state of the Ninth without repercussions, Ianthe is probably in part motivated to become a Lyctor for the same reason. Because otherwise, what would Ianthe's expected role have been? Amidst the suggestion of anxiety about the Idan succession, the dinner party also presents the fact that the reason Abigail and Magnus' infertility isn't a succession crisis for the ruling family of the Fifth is that Abigail's younger brother dutifully married in his early 20s and had kids. We know there are branch families in Ida - Babs is from one. He may be a prince, but he's not treated well, and you do get the sense that the stakes to stay in power in Ida are high.

We don't learn anything about the political situation in the Houses themselves during HTN or NTN, but in the wake of Canaan House, you have to suspect there are a number of tensions and concerns.

[inkskinned]

it isn't really complicated, but i still can't tell my grandma about it. my girlfriend is also my boyfriend and i'm her girlboyfriend and there are a lot of days this feels like smoothing sheets over a good mattress. it feels like getting a cup of good hot chocolate. we paint our nails lesbian flag pink, and i watch her eyelashes make shadows on her cheeks. she wants to kiss me because i am really good at baking, and i want to kiss her because when i am freaked out about how i spilled coffee, she just hands me extra napkins and helps me clean. he is so handsome i want to eat my fist. they once just winked at me and i couldn't talk for like the next fifteen minutes.

i haven't seen the L word and i was raised catholic. my earliest experiences with queer relationships were through harrowing conversations and hushed questions and blood on the ground. i didn't like boys soon enough. what, are you gay? asked to a 6th grader, almost like a demand.

when she is asleep next to me and i can feel the dreams run up and down her body, i pretend we are both somewhere in the stars. i like to picture a future full of fruit trees, and writing him poetry. sometimes she wakes up, has a whole conversation with me, goes back to sleep, and utterly forgets that we ever even spoke. she is always kind to me, even in that liminal half-there ghost. i like the croaked, raw way her voice sounds in the very-early morning, the way she always seems surprised i'm still here, and home.

on the internet, there are a lot of people who would be annoyed by both of us, and how labels must be pruned into orchids. a box has to hold and define the insides. people must be organized.

we went on a date last night, and the host said, oh, table for 2 nice ladies? neither of us are ladies, but also we are very much 2 nice ladies. i have been wearing her sweater nonstop. he has frequently been forced into wearing my taylor swift official merch quarter-zip because i was worried about him catching a chill, and you simply cannot be cool in an official taylor swift quarter-zip. do not worry: they listen to better music than i do, and their voice sounds like leaves falling.

i wear the skirts and makeup and i am better with spackle and know how to drive stick. recently someone commented on my work - you're just a man trying to reappropriate lesbian spaces. sometimes i feel like she is a clementine to me, and sometimes i feel like he is a german shepherd and sometimes i feel they are a bird. i like watching his hands over a guitar. can i write this poem, even? how can you be a lesbian if you're sometimes with a man? or you are the man?

how can i, huh. you know, our first date lasted 3 days. we'd been flirting for over a year before i finally asked her out. i'd already written her into poetry. she'd already written me into songs.

last night, in the late night, when they woke up again, confused about where they were, they said - oh, thank god. this is your arm. there's just something so precious to me about the specifics, the denotation that the arm was (thank god!) mine. i really liked that definition. i liked the obvious relief because i understand it.

i say yeah, i have a partner. i mean - oh. thank god. it's your arm.

[lesbiancientforesttroll]

Think about Harrow's AU Bubbles

Thinking about Harrow's AU bubbles, not as fanfic references, but as expressions of her subconscious fears and desires, is so fascinating.

The Harrow Nova one is pretty obvious. Harrow's parents were obsessed with her being a necromancer, were willing to kill for it. It's only natural she'd wonder, "What if I hadn't been?"

And the answer Harrow gives herself is: Your parents and everyone would reject you (except, wildly, for Crux). Also they'd be alive cuz you'd never opened the tomb, and you'd be an unpopular orphan they'd abuse (Just Like Gideon). And you'd still be just as devoted to serving the Ninth with a blade. There's a lot there. But the other really telling bit is her relationship with Gideon. Harrow Nova professes to hate the reverend daughter even as she seeks to (re) create the necro-cav bond with her. But that hatred doesn't seem to be mutual. And the bit about the daughter intervening when Harrow was whipped…

That's Harrow's subconscious saying if their roles had been reversed, "Gideon would have treated me better than I treated her. Gideon would have protected me."

The Ball AU also seems like a reasonable extension of Gideon's childhood query: "What if my other parent is the most important guy in the universe?" Answer: Emperor Dad would throw a big party.

But also… it's a bride-finding ball! That's so very telling. It could have been anything, but Harrow invents another scenario where she's fighting, competing to get to Gideon, to be awarded the role of her sworn partner (first cav, now bride), while outwardly claiming not to want it.

Now The BARI Star AU often gets described as a "coffee shop" one, but it's actually set in a cohort cafeteria. And normally I wouldn't split hairs over that, but I think the cohort setting is actually really significant. The Cohort was Gideon's dream, and also Harrow's rival for Gideon's attention. It's what she kept trying to leave Harrow for.

So now Harrow dreams that she's left Drearburh to join the cohort and will meet Gideon there. Not fight or compete for a role where they're bound to each other, but just meet her there. That feels like yielding. Like compromise. It makes me think Harrow's subconscious has matured past trying to keep Gideon with her always and is instead looking for ways that SHE can be with Gideon. Meet Gideon where she is.

(Also this may be a stretch, but I always find it low-key funny that Harrow imagines Gideon in the cafeteria… I like to think her brain is skimming lists of hypothetical military jobs like... what sees the least action... ah, coffee-adept, she'll be perfectly safe there...)

[undeadkazi]

Aiglamene touching Gideon/Kiriona's face. Aiglamene realizing Gideon was dead. Aiglamene, having just kneeled to who she thought was Harrowhark. Aiglamene turning to Nona and Nona realizing that Aiglamene was angry and BLAMED Harrowhark.

Aiglamene doing her duty to her Reverend Daughter first and foremost is everything I expected of her. I think I expected her to like, nod at Gideon/Kiriona in acknowledgement or something similar.

Her reaching out and touching Gideon/Kiriona's face? Gideon/Kiriona recovering FASTER than Aiglamene? Aiglamene being so affected by Gideon dying that Gideon herself recognizes that Aiglamene has turned her blame and anger toward Harrowhark and informs Aiglamene that it's Harrow's body, but not Harrow.

I just had a lot of feelings about this scene. Especially Aiglamene saying, "They killed you."

I just, I really liked this moment. A moment where Aiglamene's duty to Harrow takes a step back to that anger for Gideon. I won't lie, I cried. It shows that Aiglamene cares about Gideon/Kiriona.