[ Midday on Thursday, there's a knock at Gideon's door. If she opens it, and looks down, she'll see an odd-colored Bulbasaur standing by a little basket. Once the door is open, the Pokemon chirps a chipper greeting, then turns to go. Tucked inside the basket are a number of Tupperware containers, filled with all sorts of vegan versions of traditional Thanksgiving dishes— cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, sweet potato casserole— alongside a handwritten note. ]
Where I come from, today is a holiday where we celebrate the people and things we're thankful for. I thought you might want to share these with Harrow. (It ought to beat snow leeks!)
Happy Turkey Day (sans the turkey), from your pal Henry!
[ Gideon requests the Bulbasaur wait a little bit after accepting the food and note. When she finishes reading it, she grabs a paper flyer about a food truck, turns it over, and writes: ]
Fart Father!
Thank you for the food. I am grateful for you (and your food) (and the lack of snow leeks).
Happy Day, Gideon & signed on behalf of Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of Drearburh, Ninth Saint to Bla Bla Bla for I Guess That's My Dad
[At some point! On some random day this month! Shen Jiu shows up with a bakery box in his hands, walks awkwardly up to Gideon, hesitates a moment, then shoves it in her hands like he's playing hot potato with a live bomb.]
This is for Kissmus or whatever. [Um.] So you better take it!
[ There's a delivery from Henry on Christmas Eve— tucked in a gift bag made from recycled paper are several bottles of various supplements all meant to promote healthy bone growth: Calcium, Vitamin C, Collagen, Potassium. Also included is a small jar of Henry's homemade vegan trail mix, and a note: ]
Take these supplements to keep your bones nice and strong! I'm sure that Harrow's magic will also be able to do the job, but it doesn't hurt to bolster that with nutrients, too!
[ On the evening of the 24th of December, Gideon will have a colorful envelope delivered to her door. Inside, there are two things:
a] A holiday card with Jayce wishing her Happy Holidays and a lot of food in her future.
b] A copy of Jayce's blueprints for her soon to be new weapon, designed to the best of his ability following the description of her dream sword.
He has designed the pommel as a skull opening its mouth to reveal another, smaller skull inside. The shape of the crossguards lightly resembles hip bones, and they connect to the blade with metal pieces that imitate a spine. The blade is slightly curved, with a scribble that asks ' in black steel or silver?'. Jayce has also added the engraving Gideon wanted. The letters are written in the Velarian language from his homeworld, Runeterra. It looks like a set of cool runes but he has added a post it note to the blueprint explaining what the text reads: ]
'Gideon Nav, heir to the House of the Ninth, and Harrowhark Nonagesimus Cat blanket.'
[ Of course, everything is subject to change, which is why he is showing her the design before making it a reality. ]
[ Continued from Here. Sharon opts to text Gideon's Relic directly instead of clogging up Hythlodaeus' joke post with something more serious or potentially revealing. ]
I know the basics, the Saint of Duty is my adoptive parent. [ It's not as accurate a statement as she'd like but it's easier than getting into the gritty of P/D, especially if Gideon doesn't know. ] What do you mean by 'kinda a thing and kinda not'?
Wait, the real Saint of Duty or the "Saint" of Duty? [ Which literal motherfucker is Sharon talking about? Technically, Gideon's only met the one, but they've both done things (beyond fucking her mum) that don't exactly endear either one to her. Also, Pyrrha Dve is the only other person who's been through what she's been through. So eesh. ]
Harrow ate me like... halfway. I don't know. It's weird because that was a thing that happened, but here we are in two different bodies. And it's sort of like it still happened, but I'm very much here in my own meatsuit thank you very much. Can't say I've spent much of my time here reflecting on it.
"Saint". [ She didn't expect that nor does she expect what comes next. Sharon frowns down at her relic, lips pursed. ]
You were like Pyrrha then. [ Maybe not exactly the same but... I mean, it seems kind of sus that both Gideons would end up dealing with the opposite side of the same coin. ] It doesn't surprise me that you wound up in different bodies here, halfway and all. Or maybe it would've happened regardless if you got wholly... eaten—that's weird, let's not say it like that.
Whatever. I digress.
What do you mean by the fact that it's like it still happened? Just the fact the memories are there or is there a... a different connection between you two?
Oh, her. [ Pyrrha sunglasses stealing Dve. Gideon guesses she's glad the other cavalier didn't die either, if she escaped some other way. Look at them getting away from the bottom of the River. She has no idea what happens with the "Saint" of Duty back home. Gideon only has her squirmy gut vibe about her own future. ]
That's what she said. Don't think it was exactly the same, but I'm not a necromancer. You'd have to talk with one for all the necro facts. But, uh, maybe don't talk to Harrow about it. It, look, it was weird, and I don't think it'd do her any good talking about it. "It" since we aren't saying being eaten anymore.
[ Gideon's grown a lot in Folkmore. She's come a long way from the ward of the Ninth desperate to get out of the House any way possible. She's talked about Crux, relived some of those memories, and well, seen how different life is for other people than it was on the Ninth. The other stuff? Canaan House and woah woah woah the Mithraeum? Other than dealing with her dad, no. Not so much. ]
Harrow still has her lyctoral power up. And I... am a psychic black hole. Like she is. Necros can't sense my insides without touch. Except for Harrow if we do the mind meld thing. I guess. I don't know if I could do that with anyone else. Because we're connected. We're in different bodies, but I'm still her battery for all that lyctoral shit. My soul.
[ On Christmas morning, Gideon will find a parcel wrapped in black tissue paper and tied up with a stark white ribbon. There's a tag stating "From Steve - Merry Christmas" with a brief note on the back saying that it's customary for him to celebrate this holiday by giving gifts.
Inside contains a hand-knit charcoal gray scarf with a cable stitch. ]
Yeah. I knew them as Duty for the most part. [ But she didn't prefer Duty over Pyrrha or vice versa. It was all the same person no matter the face or the difference in the way they would say their jokes. Her heart pangs. ]
I wouldn't discuss it with Harrow unless she brought it up first. It's not like I need to know, was just curious.
[ Oh, that's what Gideon meant. That seems odd to her but maybe it's better this way, gives them each an opportunity to find their true potential blah blah blah if they have their own bodies while retaining everything else about their soulnap point. ] Oh, that's... so fucked up, Gideon. Like not in a judgy bitchy way, just... Factually fucked up. It doesn't hurt you, does it?
You know her better than I do. We spoke for all of five minutes. I don't think memory loops count.
Wouldn't recommend lyctorhood, but it was either death or death and lyctorhood. And that one came out with someone alive on the other end.
[ It's fucked up, sure, but Gideon chose it. Gideon did this to herself. She's lucky to have her own body, her own living body. ] It doesn't hurt now that we're like this. Soul siphoning is a bitch normally. There's a reason the Eighth House literally breeds for it.
That I do. And no, memory loops definitely do not count.
Yeah, I didn't think it sounded all that great. Shitty choice to have to make. [ But Sharon understands why Gideon made the choice she did. It's not like Sharon would've made a different one, not if the person who would ascend was someone she loved. ]
If soul siphoning hurts like having your soul pulled apart, I'm fucking elated you can't feel that anymore. Horrifying to think they breed for people to suffer that shit.
I changed the memory in the loops. It wasn't the same thing a hundred times.
It beat everyone dying when everyone had already been dying. We were down to very. few. people. Just fuck Cytherea, she didn't get to get everyone.
Oh yes, joy to me. Harrow was very good about it. Never forced it on me. I don't know the specifics of breeding for it. I think it's to make it less shitty? I'm not sure. The necro of that house had such a hate on for the Ninth House that it wasn't like he was going to explain it to me.
I'd have taken issues with Harrow if she'd forced it on you. [ As much as she likes the goth girl, that would've changed her opinion of her instantly. ] Bones just aren't for everyone, though seems really weird to hold someone's house against them. It's not like you chose where you were born.
My memories of—among all the shit that went down—meeting her, yeah. Everyone else stayed caught up in the drama talk, but she often seemed to catch onto us changing things. One time she even flew us away from the Mithraeum. Don't know how much that was her her vs. fox's her.
The worst. Absolute shitcake. Lyctorhood was shitty for her, and she decided the appropriate way to handle it was to murder everyone invited to consider doing lyctorhood 2.0.
Only did it twice pre-lyctorhood. Harrow was very good. Made absolutely sure for the lab trial. Like, her life was on the line if I fucked up and stopped it halfway through. Second time, I goaded her into it. Which like, sure, not the most mature of me, but it also led to revealing Cytherea's shit before she murdered everyone and got away with it.
Yeah he thought the whole house should be wiped out. Just killed. Shouldn't have existed in the first place. Dude invited me for tea with a promise of no violence and then tried to murder me. Because promises to someone from the Ninth don't mean squat. (His cavalier, who had fucking honor, intervened).
[ Ah, she feels a pang of affection and can't help the brief smile that pulls at her lips. ] Maybe influenced by the fox but that sounds just like her.
To keep people from suffering the same fate or just extra crazy after ten thousand years of shitty? I'd probably get a little murder-y in her place, too. Not that she still isn't a bitch.
Mix of both. Like sure, didn't want anyone else to become a lyctor, but she also wanted to lure god there so he'd get murdered. Which, I get being pissed at him, but GUESS WHAT, SHARON. Killing him kills the sun kills everyone on the Nine Houses. So like... also trying to kill millions of other people too. So that calls for some extra crazy.
Heh heh heh, yes she is.
Much as I would have loved to beat the fuck out of him, I didn't have my sword in hand, and also he's a fucking siphoner. He'd siphon me in no time flat, and there'd be a dead Gideon. I was lucky the face off between him and his cavalier got me the fuck out of there. But uh, also, he died a sucky death. It was his own fault, so I don't feel bad for him. But damn, boy, learn.
Believe the end goal was go big and die or die trying. Me and Harrow and Camilla and Palamedes. It took all of us.
No. He was an asshole who deserved it, but Colum didn't. Colum's death was worse. I don't want to recount it, and you can't recount Silas's without going over Colum's. Colum was one hell of a cavalier. Silas didn't deserve him.
The power of don't underestimate the Sixth and Ninth Houses, bitch. Everyone underestimates us.
I can't talk about Colum's death for you to delight in glee at Silas getting the end he deserves, no. It was fucking dumb, and Silas made it happen. He caused both of them to die. For nothing.
One of the longest. Only Harrow and maybe one or two others have been here longer and only by a month. She spent that time basically hiding in a cave, so that doesn't even count.
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