Posted by u/balletrat on August 24th 2022

Hello, and welcome to your belated installment of Hot Tomb Summer: now with 300% more AUs! Please forgive any errors below as I am pinch hitting and also have just come off a brutal 12 hour ER shift. I may very well be as delirious as our beloved protagonist. So let's get into it:

Chapter 40 - the role reversal AU

"Harrow Nova", disgraced non-necromantic daughter of the Ninth House, fights Ortus for the role of cavalier to the adopted red-headed Reverend Daughter before the altar of Drearburgh. Crux stops the fight and tells Harrow to apologize to the pilgrims...who are revealed to be Magnus and Abigail. Abigail says "This isn't how it happens."

Chapter Notes:

-Harrow's "I hope she gets boiled in oil..." etc. speech is quite reminiscent of Gideon's "The only job I would do for you" monologue at the beginning of GtN

-We get a very amusing Princess Bride reference here with "to the pain"

-I have missed Crux and his italicized synonyms! (Ok, not really)

Chapter 41 - the party AU

Harrowhark and Aiglamene attend a party with representatives for all the Nine Houses; they appear to be competing for the attention of "Her Divine Highness" who is looking for a bride. Coronabeth(implied) holds court with the Sixth House group. Abigail and Magnus approach and reluctantly interrupt.

Chapter Notes:

-I'm intrigued by Harrow's skull pain being explicitly named as "the Chain" and whether that has any greater significance

-Like Abigail, I would definitely like to see where this scenario would go lol

Chapter 42 - the coffeeshop AU

Harrowhark, chaplain of the cohort, gets flagged down by the Fourth teens (!!!), who take her to the cohort cafeteria where she meets the hotshot new "BARI star" (what a horrid pun), an adept with a quirked smile and red hair…

Chapter Notes:

-The teens!!! It is such a joy to see them here, and they are clearly having so much fun playing out the scenario

-I'm interested by the fact that (spoilers through future parts of HtN) Gideon has her insignia obscured so it's "impossible to tell her affiliation". An allusion to the fact that she's not really of the Houses at all?

Chapter 43 - the OG AU, Canaan House

Harrow wakes up in Canaan House, with "Griddle" on her lips. She remembers Gideon. Abigail and Harrow discuss what is happening, and Abigail asks her about "the other soul". Harrow starts talking about how she performed her lobotomy/forced herself to forget Gideon in order to protect her soul from being consumed. But Abigail replies that she was talking about the "invasive soul" that is haunting Harrow. Harrow realizes she is in a River bubble, and she has pulled in the ghosts of the dead House scions. A gross pink tentacle thing breaks the window and dumps in a bunch of microscope(?) slides, and Magnus opens the door to say they're breaching the walls. Harrow desperately wonders what's going on in the real world, where she has been stabbed in the stomach

Chapter Notes:

-"Add more, if aught but death part me and thee." Ruth 1:17 again, which Gideon said to Harrow shortly before she impaled herself. Sob.

-Who was Abigail betting against regarding Harrow becoming a Lyctor? Did all the ghosts have a pool?? These are the important questions

-Abigail's "it should have been Coronabeth" threw me for a second, but of course she died before the Tridentarius ruse was revealed

Chapter 44

Gideon (!!!!!!!!!) wakes up in Harrow's empty body with a rapier it its abdomen, which she pulls out, and watches as the body heals itself. She sees a Herald, which chases her into Harrow's room. She reclaims her trusty two-hander and cuts it in half.

Chapter Notes

-"You put me in a box and buried me rather than give up your own goddamned agenda" just bury me in the Locked Tomb already

-Gideon's description of the white Lyctor robe as "like Silas Octakiseron go into the glitter drawer" made me laugh out loud

Chapter 45

Harrow, Abigail, Magnus, Marta, Ortus, Pro, and Dulcie gather in the Second House study. Abigail tells Harrow this is where she had stashed the ghosts of the Fourth teens to keep them safe, before she returned them to the River. She also tells Harrow that something is "terribly wrong" with the River, and the ghosts are no longer able to cross it. Harrow talks to Ortus, trying to encourage him to leave, but he wants to stay. Harrow can't understand this loyalty to the House that killed him. Ortus breaks out the most heart-wrenching observation in this book: that Harrow and Gideon were "neglected children" and failed by all of the adults around them, including Ortus-in-life. Harrow sees a reference to "G. & P." in one of the study's books and realizes that ORTUS the First, Saint of Duty, is actually named "Gideon" and that her crude copy-and-paste job had some collateral damage. Abigail reclaims their attention to reveal the plan: exorcise the Sleeper.

Chapter Notes

-I'd been wondering whether the Teacher in the bubble is a real ghost or a construct, but Pro's comment that he "declined to join" suggests the former

-I remember being so blow away by the Saint of Duty name reveal the first time around.

Chapter 46

Gideon fights more evil space bees. One of them eats Harrow's thumb but it regrows itself. She sets off though the station and encounters Mercymorn, who is also fighting space bees. When she sees Gideon, she panics (presumably because she sees the golden eyes and thinks it's Alecto). She references being shown Gideon's corpse (AYU spoilers: which we know is not rotting) but "didn't think to check the eyes". She reveals that G1deon (the Saint of Duty) had been sent to kill Gideon's mother. Then Mercy realizes something... and attacks Gideon. She's winning, until she gets shot by Cytherea's body, which then stomps off. Gideon concludes the chapter by vocalizing the thought in all our heads, namely "What the fuck is going on?"

Chapter Notes

-As Gideon takes off Harrow's bone corset, I found myself wondering what happened to all Harrow's letters. Weren't they hidden in there? Does this mean they're now lost since the whole station went into the River at the end?

-There is clearly a lot of scheming happening behind the scenes in this book that we're not privvy to. G1deon (the Saint of Duty) is the one who has been trying to kill Harrow this whole time, but now Mercy appears to have had some kind of plan that involved Harrow being eaten by space bees...

-I continue to be amused by Gideon tracking how many rounds she's gone with Cytherea

Discussion Questions

These are super dense chapters, with a lot of massive reveals and many more half-reveals that will make more sense in a couple chapters, for those reading for the first time. So let's dig in.

-Only Tamsyn could get away with writing multiple AUs for her own book in the middle of said book. For first time readers: what did you think was going on upon reading these chapters? For re-readers: what do you think triggered the sudden generation of these new scenarios? For anyone: which was your favorite AU and why?

-For rereaders: Crux and Aiglamene seem pretty vivid and true to life in these chapters. Do you think that means these are their actual ghosts (and if so, wtf is going on on the Ninth House)? Or do you think they're constructs?

-What do you think of the progression of AU chapter headings from ????? to ???BEFORE??? to MONTH?? DEATH?

-I definitely feel like I'm missing Significant Things about all the weird shit that shows up in the Canaan House bubble related to Harrow's possession. As in, I think there is symbolic significance to the creepy fleshy bits, random organs, and Science Paraphernalia but am not fully grasping it? (Some of it appears to be related to artificial insemination, but not all of it...). Thoughts?

-WHAT DID WE THINK OF THE GIDEON REVEAL??? First time readers, what was your reaction? Did you expect this to happen, or were you surprised? As a rereader I picked up a lot of hints as to who our second person narrator was, but on my first go-round I didn't pick up on them.

-Harrow's body and healing: it has previously been established that Harrow's necromancy doesn't work when her spirit is in the River (as it is currently). So why is her body healing now? Also, I want to draw everyone's attention to the regenerating thumb, because we had a whole-ass plot and character arc about how Lyctors can't regrow fully severed limbs. So what gives?

-What's up with the two-hander casing being cracked?? What does that suggest about Wake, and what triggered it? What's with the bone shackles under the bed, and what does their presence imply??

-What do you think is wrong with the River and why is it definitely Jod's fault?

-Rereaders: what do we make of Mercy's rambling in Chapter 46? What's her scheme, and what's her endgame?

Link to full discussion on Reddit with Comments