I'm only in act two of TLT book one but I feel 100% confident in stating that Gideon and Harrow both reek. they're nasty stinky!! this is a hill I will die on and my skeleton will continue to fight people!!!
Gideon doesn't recognize what a bath or a shower is. she refused to use the soap in the bathroom on the First because on the Ninth it's made of human fat- so she doesn't use soap at home either. if Harrow does, she smells like whatever they put in the soap (Ninth doesn't seem like the place to have perfume in abundance) and an almost sort of. porky bacony grease smell? and there is no fucking way the 'sonic showers' on the Ninth my roommate mentioned come up later do much at all. even suspending my disbelief despite my disdain for sonic showers as a concept, everything on the Ninth is rotting, there's no way these weird fucks have kept that system in tip top shape. on top of that, Ninth is described as a crypt, an ancient, decaying hole. also does anybody on the weird religious monastery planet have deodorant? probably not. so that's why I think gideon absolutely pongs. this woman smells like hair grease and b.o and dirt and musty mildew and a faint tang of the church incense everything on the Ninth is steeped in. not to mention whatever horrible thing her paint is made out of. harrow smells like pork fat, mildew, must, church incense, dirt, something rotting, and whatever ninth paint is. there is no way on jod's blue earth either of them smell good.
