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Xray the Enforcer

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  1. One thing that's been bugging me in Nona:

    Spoiler

    We see that the ecosystem of the planet they're on has been ravaged. Characters have to wear masks outside, it's implied that they're going through their own global climate catastrophe (too hot during the day), the sea walls can't open and the harbor is clogged with venomous stinging jellyfish, etc. How TF did that happen? How much of the population is living in poverty? And what does that say about humanity as a whole that they keep having to get evacuated off of planets after they destroy them? (that alone suggests to me that the timeline is much longer than 10K years.) What is Tasmyn trying to say about humanity in general? 

    I mean, like, John sucks. But honestly it sounds like humanity is destroying as many planets (with the consequent human misery) as the Lyctors are, they just aren't creating RBs when they do it. 

     

  2. On 9/29/2022 at 10:34 AM, Caligula_K3 said:

    I really want to read this, but I also feel like I remember nothing from Harrow the Ninth, which mainly confused me when I read it, and am feeling very intimidated by the series at the moment. Has anyone found a good online summary of the first two books that could help me catch up again?

    @Caligula_K3 -- Karaddin posted a recap earlier in this thread. It's under a spoiler tag, but let me see if I can find the posts. 

    Here's where that conversation starts -- because I realized that I had probably missed or forgotten a bunch of stuff. 

    Anyhoo, the next few posts, especially by Karaddin, can get you up to speed on what happened in the prior two books (esp HtN) to prep you for what's going on. 

    I will say that Nona the Ninth is much more straight-forward, narratively. Very little of the (spoilers for Harrow the Ninth): 

    Spoiler

    POV shifting between Harrow before brain surgery (where Harrow is aware that Gideon is her cav and that Harrow eat Gideon's soul), Harrow after brain surgery (where Harrow hallucinates that Ortus is her cav -- this is the POV throughout most of HtN), and re-emerged Gideon Nav at the very end.


     

  3. Necromancing this thread because skin care is an ongoing endeavor! 

    So I learned something over the last six or so months: My skin has changed so much that mineral-based sunscreens are now too drying for me to use. I've tried 15 or 20 of them at this point and none of them are suitable for long-term use. So I went back to the drawing board and have now landed on using a moisturizer with chemical sunscreens and I found one that works with whatever the hell is going on with my skin these days and LOL it's not even that expensive: La Roche Posay Tolerain 30SPF. My skin is stupid as hell. 

  4. @karaddin I'll dig up the quote, just a sec.

    Spoiler

    Found it in the current Theory Thursday thread on Reddit. 

    When Pyrrha sees the Heralds: “‘You want Gideon the First, and Gideon the First is dead. He’s not coming back. Oh, God, Gideon,’ said Pyrrha, suddenly. ‘Gideon…G—, you died for nothing.’”

    It could just be because she shares Gideon the First's brainspace -- but no matter who remembers it, it means that someone is gaining their memories of the Before Times back. Another Redditor mentions that Pyrrha remembers a bunch of pre-Apocalypse details in Nona, which now that they mention it also rings a bell for me. It's something I'll keep an eye out for on re-read.

    Regarding Anastasia -- yeah good point. I literally just finished the book so got to her body in the Tomb. But yeah, bodies don't mean shit if you can soul-hop. I also wonder about Cassiopeia -- remember how Palamedes talked about the Sixth House's escape plan? And then they suddenly end up in the hands of BOE? If not Anastasia, then I think maybe Cassiopeia (or a part of her) didn't die in the River and has been working with BOE. 

    Speaking of that last chapter -- what are the things attacking the Ninth House? Instantiated devils from the River? (not going to dive into the theory about the devils being the 9.9 billion lost souls of Old Earth just yet)

    Also thank you for the run-down on the necros and their cavs. All of that makes sense. One thing about why Augustine hates Cristabel:

    Spoiler

    I've seen a theory floating around that Cristabel and Alfred formed a suicide pact to force Mercy and Augustine to go forward with Lyctorhood, something they didn't want to do because who wants to murder/eat your brother/friend, even if being a necromancer without one means slowly wasting away?

    And regarding Ulysses:

    Spoiler

    John does not strike me as someone who would search for someone's soul. My man made a cow wall out of other souls inside of Ulysses IMO.

     

  5. Some more questions about Lyctors

    Spoiler

    So, does anyone have info (or a link) to a handy guide to who was who before the Earth died? Here's the quote, which actually changes as John's story goes on but some of the elements stay consistent: 

    "If you have two scientists and an engineer and a detective and a lawyer and an artist you're pretty much sweet as."

    John is one of the scientists and Pyrrha Dve is the detective. But I'm curious who the others are. We know it was M-- (aka Mercymorn) who discovered the financial shenanigans that proved the trillionaires were leaving everyone else to die. But I'm not sure if I can suss out the others. 

    Also did anyone notice that John was lying about how the Earth died? In his first recounting, G-- died, triggering the dead man's switch, nuking Melbourne, which then forced his hand to unleash the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Later when John was talking about the end, he says something like "everything was already falling apart, but it was a shame that Melbourne eventually had to go" and Alecto interjects "Wait...you said that G-- died first." So...it seems John also murdered G- after he set off a nuclear war.

    I'd still love anyone's theories as to AIM's identity. My personal crackpot theory is that AIM = Anastasia.

     

  6. Spoilers for AIM/the Angel through the end of the book and also for Nona

    Spoiler

    OK so there are hints that the Angel/AIM is more than they're saying -- not to mention the fact that different people use different pronouns for them in the book. One character even "misgenders" AIM as "she" and then corrects it to "they". (this happens when everyone leaves the barracks to chase down the Convoy)

    So....is AIM one of the original missing Lyctors (and thus the pronoun correction is actually to the plural "they" rather than the singular "they")? Or maybe another stealth Resurrection Beast like Alecto/Nona?

    Also LOL Harrow's girlfriend is a pile of dirt and vomit and John's floating ribs. <-- which damn, what a hellish mash-up of Eve and a golem. 

     

  7. I started in on Nona the Ninth, but I feel like I need a post where we summarize everything we know so far before going in. Because having to dig through this thread during my re-read is going to frustrate me to no end. 

    What we know so far (spoilers only up to the end of Harrow the Ninth):

    Spoiler

    The body in the Locked Tomb is Alecto, the first person John resurrected. Alecto became mentally unstable (possibly due to an imperfect resurrection -- but also possibly because of John's lying about Perfect Lyctorhood) and violent, hence being locked in the tomb. She was put there by John and [name] and [name]. The blood wards protecting the tomb were keyed to John's DNA profile. 

    Harrow was able to open to the tomb because her hands were covered with Gideon Nav's blood, Gideon being the offspring of John and Awake, a Blood of Eden insurgent.

    John lied about the nature of Lyctorhood and the fact that perfect Lyctorhood (where the cavalier does not have to die) is possible. 

    Harrow had Ianthe do crude brain surgery on her to sever the link between her and Nav (to hide the fact that Nav was "alive"?)

     

  8. On 8/16/2022 at 3:27 AM, Hereward said:

    I can highly recommend the Wyndham-Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, set in 1920s Calcutta.

    I picked up the first book based on this rec and while I haven't finished it yet, I've been enjoying the heck out of the novel thus far. If this book can even moderately stick the landing, I think I'm going to enjoy this whole series. Thank you for the rec @Hereward!

    Oh yes -- I mentioned this in the What Are You Reading thread, but the book fits thematically here too. Will just copy/paste: 

    I also recently finished The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (in the United States she got an extra 0.5 deaths due to similarities with another title) by Stuart Turton. I went in completely uninformed, aside knowing that it was a murder mystery with a spec fic twist, and I'm glad that I did it that way. Anyway, in the spirit of that last sentence, I won't get into any detailed descriptions, but I will say that I enjoyed the journey -- the writing and characters are very engaging (even when they're awful human beings) and the book's ending works well enough if you don't interrogate it too much.

  9. oh wow, that was stressful even reading about it, @Isis My skin would freak TF out.

    So I think I may have finally found a replacement for my previous daily SPF -- Biossance zinc sheer suncreen. It's still missing a bit of the mattefying quality of my last one but the texture otherwise is pretty good and it blends easily. 

    Also been using Deciem's Sensitive Fix -- a serum that's supposed to help with redness and sensitivity (thanks, retinol). It's been about a month and I'm pretty sure my face is less red than it used to be, so that's good. 

    Finally -- decided to get a tinted moisturizer to try to even out my skin tone, since right now it's a bit of a mess. Eventually settled on Colourpop because I didn't want to spend $30 or more on something that I'd hate (also difficult to find them without SPF). Seems good so far. 

    My business mullet is growing out into something closer that I had envisioned when I asked for this haircut, so thank god for that. It's still a ridiculous haircut, but I'm enjoying it. 

  10. 11 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

    Please tell me you have a high-top.  Please.

    hahaha close -- with enough product I could definitely create something approaching that look, but I'm lazy so instead I look like the 3rd-string catcher for a mid-80s Kansas City Royals farm team. It is, undeniably, a business mullet. 

  11. 1 hour ago, Fury Resurrected said:

    I was never able to get a handle on hormonal acne until I was prescribed spironolactone (it’s a pill, not a topical). If you’re not happy with the Differin you could ask your derm about it. It was a real game changer for me

    thanks for the confirmation on that one -- I was thinking spiro was going to be my next step. If everything stabilizes, I might stick with Differin, just because one more doctor/prescription to manage is not something I'm keen to take on. But it's definitely on my radar.  

    [insert obligatory rant about how it's relatively easy for cis women to get spiro for acne, but doctors make it difficult as hell for trans women to get the same goddamned drug for reasons.] 

  12. Been fighting an epic battle with hormonal acne lately. I switched to Differin back in December and it seems to be helping. I'm not loving the skin sensitivity or the fact that my face has become redder, but I suppose those are acceptable payoffs. Now looking for a good skin tint without SPF (I've found two acceptable daily-use sunscreens to replace the Shiseido, although neither are particularly great at shine control). 

  13. On 4/1/2022 at 9:58 PM, A True Kaniggit said:

    I told my mom and little sister less than a hour ago that I was bisexual.

    Still waiting on the reactions. 
     

    Edit: Fuck it. I let my oldest brother know as well. 

    oh wow! Congratulations on taking that step. I hope that your family will be supportive of who you are :grouphug: 

    Also want to acknowledge that coming out can be really stressful or scary (or it can be totally mundane -- it's a totally individual thing), and I want to acknowledge all of the feelings you've been going through during the process. 

  14. Thank you @Ran for the info, as aggrieved as I am to hear it. 

    @timmett My knitting is as terrible now as it was when I chaperoned you two young lovebirds all those years ago, but your eloquence is as delightful now as it was then, possible more so. I am so incredibly sorry for your loss, but I am deeply grateful that you had as many years as you did together. Sending you an ocean of love.

  15. Wanted to follow up -- I might be misremembering, but didn't Lillith's partner also occasionally post here @TrackerNeil? I seem to remember them both living on a large piece of land in Wyoming and her partner being a woodworker? If my deeply faulty memory is not lying to me, and if you are in contact with him, please send him my deepest condolences. If it's who I think, I also really enjoyed chatting with him and I am heartbroken for him, and for you. 

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