look at my cats

Gideon The Ninth: Here's Magnus' autistic wife, who isn't hot, can't have kids, and is talking about really boring stuff. Aaaand they're both dead.

"Absolutely not"

Because, if I remember right, they only had the one real conversation with her, right? But while the fandom LOVES making Abigail and Magnus Gideon’s parents in AUs and stuff, the same can’t be said for Harrow.

But like. They’ve now seen deeper into her mind more than anyone else. They’ve seen the Ninth, they’ve seen how she views the actions of her parents in the lenses of how she’d be treated if she didn’t have necromancy, they’ve seen her deepest desires when her dreams how much she wanted her duties to the Ninth to somehow match having Gideon and they saw that she was at her core just a teenage girl who wanted a meet cute with the hot girl she had a crush on.

Since I'm never not thinking about House material culture, and since it feels like this is intended to be something quite specific, I've often wondered what this is meant to look like.

And recently in Anne of Green Gables, I came across a description of "a rather vivid chromo entitled Christ Blessing Little Children". A "chromo" would seem to be a chromolithograph, a multicoloured lithographic print (and we've had mention of House lithography in GTN). Terms like "chromo" and "chromolithography" are fairly specific to the 19th century beginnings of the technology, which makes me think we're meant to envisage something of that kind of character.

And the Victorians loved a good mawkish religious chromolithograph.

Anyway, i now rather suspect that young Abigail had the House equivalent of one of these on her wall:

I love a character that can be so nice and so gentle and so caring that you don’t realize how much they are influencing you and it isn’t an act. They genuinely like and care for you. 

I’m sure Magnus looked at Gideon and saw a guarded girl who needed some people to be nice to her. He was probably also thinking about the political boon it would be to have an in with the Ninth House. 

Gideon describes Abigail's confident and unsettling demeanor, before adding "but she was wearing an apron and it was hard to feel intimidated by her."

Later, Cytherea asks her about children, and Abigail has to "bracingly" steer the conversation back to her work, and the manuscript which she has been "married to longer than I have to Magnus". When later confronted about murdering her, Cytherea dismisses that work as a "hobby".

However. I also think that of all of the heirs assembled at the First House, there is a reason that the Pents were killed off first, and that reason is that if Abigail achieved immortality, she would have cleaned house and cleaned up God's act so fast his immortal head would never stop spinning.

Basically:

Demi Lovato / Symere "Lil Uzi Vert" Woods / Stephanie "Jimquisition" Sterling

Demi Lovato identifies as nonbinary and pansexual and uses they/she pronouns; they are a singer, songwriter, and actress. Lil Uzi Vert identifies as gender non-conforming and uses they/them pronouns; they are a rapper, singer, and songwriter. Stephanie Sterling identifies as transfem, pansexual, and non-monogamous and uses she/them pronouns; she is a Youtuber and game journalist.

Christopher "Bob the Drag Queen" Caldwell / Jack Haven / Samira Ramírez

Bob the Drag Queen identifies as nonbinary, pansexual, and polyamorous and uses he/him and she/her pronouns; he is a drag queen, comedian, and activist. Jack Haven identifies as nonbinary and queer and uses they/them pronouns; they are an actor. Samira Ramirez identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns; they are an actor.

Jane Schoenburn / Alex Newell / Alok Vaid-Menon

Jane Schoenburn identifies as transfeminine and nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns; they are a director. Alex Newell identifies as gender non-conforming and gay and uses all pronouns; they are an actor. Alok Vaid-Menon identifies as nonbinary and transfeminine and uses they/them pronouns; they are a writer and performance artist.

Leo Baker / AJ Hikes / Suzy Eddie Izzard

Leo Baker identifies as transgender and nonbinary and uses he/him and they/them pronouns; he is a professional skateboarder. AJ Hikes identifies as queer and nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns; they are a social justice advocate and is the Deputy Executive Director of Strategy and Culture at the ACLU. Suzy Eddie Izzard identifies as genderfluid and prefers she/her pronouns; she is a comedian, actor, and activist.

Chella Man / Jiavani Linayao / F1NN5TER

Chella Man identifies as nonbinary, genderqueer, and pansexual and uses they/them pronouns; they are an actor, model, and artist. Jiavani Linayao identifies as queer and uses she/him pronouns; he is an improviser, drag king, rapper, and actor. F1NN5TER identifies as genderfluid and bisexual and uses he/she pronouns with a preference for he/him; he is a Twitch streamer, Youtuber, and OnlyFans model.