#Perfect Tea Time with Annabelle

[saintfelina]

alright alright you want something sweet i get it! what better way to usher in the new year than with something uplifting and delectable? it could be a sign of good things to come, it could be something comforting. but what exactly is a gourmand?

simply put, gourmands are scents reminiscent of food. normally based on desserts they'll have notes of sugar, vanilla, whipped cream, caramel, praline, cake, cotton candy, cookie, milk etc. they're normally based around desserts, it's like wearing a bakery. i get the urge! it brings back warm and fuzzy memories, or maybe you just want to smell good enough to eat.

nevertheless, if you absolutely have to smell tooth rottingly sweet in 2025, this is the way to go.

the gourmand to end all gourmands. this is like a hydrogen bomb of sugar and the foremother of all the other scents mentioned (except maybe fantasy). it's ultra potent rich caramel burnt sugar cotton candy. you'll love it or you'll hate it.

fantasy is often a girls first gourmand. and it's a staple in my own collection. it's a bright, almost zingy kiwi cupcake. super potent and i'll be honest one of my only compliment getters. it smells like girlishness in a bottle

petite gateau was inspired by parisian cafes and it fits that to a tea. a warm, buttery gourmand that's a smooth "lived in" kind of sweet reminescent of buttercream. it's like the sweetness of vanilla mixing in with the warmth of the oven radiating throughout your home.

viva la juicy sucre was once discontinued but due to fan response was brought back and it's surged to the top of many a "best gourmands" list. its a peachy, creamy gourmand that's very potent. signature scent worthy and it has that signature viva la juicy drydrown so if you're not a fan of that you won't like this.

sabrina carpenter has been taking the world by storm. but before her hit espresso, those tapped into the perfume game knew sweet tooth was where it's at. super affordable, its a fluffy, marshmallowy scent. perfectly straddling the line between girlish and sensual with its cashmere drydown.

kayali has recently hit the streets with boujee marshmallow and this (along with pistachio gelato) are master gourmands. this one is denser, sweeter and a lot more ultra feminine. it's almost a strawberry marshmallow milkshake. but because of how heavy it is, i recommend going very light with this one.

i know i said i'm not a fan od dupe house but lattafa is a rare case in that they both dupe and create original scents--often times in the same bottle. and this is one of them. said to be a dupe for the infamous bianco latte, this is truly a very beautiful scent on it's own right. rich, sweet and sensual it's almost like an expensive dessert in a bottle.

one of my top fragrances of 2024, pear gelato smells like a cool refreshing treat. the pear adds a lot of freshness, almost like the "ice" in ice cream. it lasts all day and actually gets me compliments. it's an almost photorealistic smell, reminding me of when your ice cream melts and seeps into the sticky waffle cone. perfect for spring/summer.

annabel's birthday cake is unique in that it smells like every aspect of a birthday party. the latex note smells like party balloons littering the floor of a party soaked in the scent of the freshly baked, just brought out cake lit up with candles.

[teaandcheckmates]

hey Percy, when you were gonna marry annabel which ring would you give her like one of diamond yk?

Oh—oh heavens!! M-marriage?? A ring?! For Annabel?!

(Deep breaths, Percival. Deep. Breaths.)

Ahem—well! Hypothetically speaking—purely hypothetically!!—should a certain young Austrian gentleman of delicate constitution find himself preparing to propose to an elegant, brilliant lady such as Annabel Lee (not that he has, mind you! Certainly not! He barely even survives tea with her without knocking over the entire table or fainting into a hedge)—

…then he would want the ring to be perfect.

Not perfect in the grand, glittering, museum-displayed sort of way. Not the kind of ring that screams wealth or impresses dukes. No, no—something simpler. Thoughtful. Something that means something.

Perhaps a modest band of gold with a single sapphire—blue, like the sea she always seems to dream about. Or a pearl, soft and strange and lovely, because it reminds him of her voice when she reads poetry out loud. Or—if he’s being very sentimental—perhaps the diamond could be carved into the shape of a little flower, because she once told him about the wild violets that used to grow near her childhood home, and he hasn’t forgotten. (he never forgets.)

He would tuck the ring in an old chess box, worn and scuffed, something his grandfather once gave him. He’d try to clean it up, maybe add a ribbon—he’s hopeless with ribbons—and practice his proposal in the mirror seventy-three times, mispronouncing “eternally” at least half of them.

And he’d give it to her with both hands shaking and his whole heart exposed like a cracked teacup.

(But again—just hypothetically. Obviously. Ha ha.)

…(Do you think she’d like it?)

With high hopes —Percy

[pjo-tvs-version]

i wanted to drop this review in your messages but it was so long with so many thoughts that I will just drop it here in your inbox

soooo i finished the screaming staircase. in short, i loved it so very much. all the books and tv shows I've watched/read in the past few months have been disappointing me so bad, and I'm so grateful to you for recommending me FINALLY something that clicks. I loved the world building and the world itself so much. I know it's extremely dangerous but i would love to be an agent 😆

as you said, chaotic descriptions: I knew immediately what you mean. the way lockwood and lucy keep on roasting george is so so hilarious and the way lucy described fairfax as looking like a demonic frog 😭😭 i was continuously laughing

the sass: as I was saying, these kids are so damn done with everything, I love them so much. The way they were chatting with their enemies so casually and sassing them (example: "would you like a cup of tea while you ransack our place?"). but at the same time it doesn't feel forced either because they're kids who are forced to do adult work and they're exhausted and need money and it's just perfect 😂

as for the characters I'll go one by one: first of all, poor george 😭 his comedic relief was perfectly balanced. his one liners and jokes were hilarious. I LOVE george and lucy's dynamic, how they bicker with each other a lot and they have such sibling vibes too it's hilarious.

lockwood ooh his personality writing was top level, I could go on forever and forever I loved how he was silly and funny but at the same time for the correct situations he was still serious and you didn't feel like it was badly balanced. I loved how much he supports her.

lucy was perfect. jonathan really knew how to write a girl character perfectly (which is very rare for a male author) 😂 yes she had her moments of "I don't know fashion" that much but it felt very natural. he didn't have to push it in our faces to show that "OH SHE IS A GIRL SHE IS A GIRL" or anything like that. he didn't have to break his back to show that she is strong and sensible. she is smart and everything, but she's also gentle and empathetic which is PERFECT.

(spoiler alert for anybody who hasn't read) id also like to argue that the feminism message comes perfectly through how she was the only one who understood annabel ward, and connected with her to bring justice. it's girls supporting girls and bringing justice to her.

Also her backstory is so sad too, like her father who even if he died he would haunt the pub and not her house 😭 it brings me to another part I loved about jonathans writing which is that he brings personality to his characters in different and unusual ways. example is the biscuit rule instead of flat out saying "you are hired" and the thinking cloth on the table. its beautiful.

i am suspecting that lockwood and lucy are going to be the romance in this series. I was super sure that jonny boy was going to shove it in our faces that lockwood and lucy like each other from the beginning. and if he did, I would have not liked it all to be honest 😂 but there was virtually no explicitly romantic moments in this (except that one joke about lucy slapping george and touching lockwoods forehead to wake both of them up). and that fulfilled I have faith in jonathan that he will handle the romance nicely

otherwise, the plot was amazing, the plot twist was so unexpected, and if I'm not wrong, is the skull you keep posting about the ghost in the jar that's revealed in the end?

I'm so excited to go to the library and get the whispering skull and find out 😁 and I'm excited to see lockwoods backstory eeeeee

Thanks once again for recommending me this series ♥️ also thank you for letting me bombard your inbox with this rant 😅

Last year, I found very few pieces of Literature and media interesting (Arcane, Star Wars and Hunger Games) but nothing other than that. However, I love Locknation so much. It's an amazing fandom full of great people, and there's so much content on here, and I love it. Lockwood and Co. is genuinely one of the few things I really enjoyed up till now, so I am glad that you enjoyed it too! And yes, I would love to be an agent. Also, I will try to cosplay Lucy when I can get my hands on a pair of stockings.

Lockwood and Lucy may roast George in this book but he DOES NOT hold back later on so..... Plus, his roasts later on require aloe vera. Also, Lucy is the queen of unhinged descriptions (she called George's face uniquely slappable).

These kids have every right to go around literally humiliating every person they find. That line, "Would you like a cup of tea while you ransack our place? One lump or two?" is just a chef's kiss. It keeps getting better and better in the later books. There's a line in the show by George "This is a library not a braying gallery for bellends" is one of my favorite.

George "I am a man of science" is such a lovely character. Lucy and him hating on each for literally no reason at all is just so funny. The resulted bickering is out of this world. They do get development and its just so satisfying (cue to the end of book 2 and book 4). Btw if you grow to close George (as @solo-walker did) you are in for a lot of trauma treat. George gets such amazing development later on (aka trauma) and its written so damn well....

I, too, can go on and on about Lockwood's character and how well Jonathan Stroud wrote it. He isn't your stereotypical emo boy but just someone with a haunted past who has to live his life by himself (of course, he has George and Lucy now, but still, he didn't have anybody at some point). His character development from book 3 onwards is so painfully well done (book 3 broke me). Also, I love his sense of fashion, because he'd rather die and trip on his long coat than abandon his pseudo-victorian-gothic-noir style, as Sol likes to call it.

Lucy is so well done in the book series. She's such a relatable character to me (we even have kind of the same haircut and are short, angry girls), and I absolutely adore her. Usually, I do not enjoy first-person POVs, but Lucy's kept me entertained. I really understand her "I don't know fashion" moments because girl, same here 😭. One thing I love about her character is that no matter how harsh she can be sometimes (and trust me you should see her in the later books) she is still a sweetheart. She is always so empathetic abut the spirits she interacts with and that plays a major role later on.

The girls-supporting-girls message was something I didn't really think about, so thank you Help for bringing it up because now that I think about it... Yes, it's beautifully conveyed as the story progresses.

If you think Lucy's backstory is sad.... just wait till you get Lockwood's *evil laughter. But yes, her being used by her mother for money is so sad, and Lucy's reaction to her father's death says it all. The biscuit rule being used to show that Lucy was hired was another piece of good writing and I would love to have a thinking cloth at home myself... very good for communicating with siblings. There is a moment in the second book where the Thinking Cloth plays an important role so I love how details come together. Here's a snippet of it from the show...

About Locklyle..... they canonically never kiss (tehehehehe). The closest they have come to physically is hugging and slapping. It's such an amazing slow burn, and I just really enjoyed how their relationship progressed with each book. It never felt as you said "shoved it in at our faces". Though I'll say this, in the show, it's more clearly shown that there is a hint of a little something but nothing more. Their relationship is written in a kind of satisfying way, so after a moment in book 5, you just kind of feel happy that they didn't kiss. However, there is fantastic fanfiction out there on AO3 on Locklyle, which you should definitely check out only after completing the series.

The plot thickens from book 3 onwards *evil laugh again. But yes, the world-building done in the first 2 books plays such an important role later on (tehehehehe). The plot twist got me too, and the Red Room and Screaming Staircase scenes were so well done but scary in the show. And yes, the Ghost in the Jar is our dear Skull, who is an icon and diva. You will meet him in the second book, so ig you have something to look forward to.

I'm excited to see your reactions as you reach deeper into this world. Also, you're starting Whispering Skull, so hooray🥳🥳🥳. I loved reading your review, and thank you for reading the book because the more, the merrier and I love seeing what other people think about the books. I also apologise for answering this ask so late because it became a little long, and then I fell sick with a little fever, so I hope you can forgive me for that. Do update me as you read Whispering Skull, and hope you like it! Thank you so much for the lovely ask @helpallthenamesaretaken

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in May 2024 🌈

🌈 Good morning, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Farzana's Spite - Felix Graves 🧡 Archangels of Funk - Andrea Hairston 💛 How It Works Out - Myriam Lacroix 💚 Queer History A to Z - Robin Stevenson, Vivian Rosas 💙 Queerceañera - Alex Crespo 💜 Second Night Stand - Karelia Stetz-Waters, Fay Stetz-Waters ❤️ You Can Call Me Cooper - Cali Kitsu 🧡 Gooseberry - Robin Gow 💛 Grand Slam Romance - Ollie Hicks, Emma Oosterhous 💙The Witches of Silverlake - Simon Curtis, Stephanie Son 💜 Drawn to the Enemy - Barbara Winkes 🌈 The Truth of Our Past - Heather Leighson

❤️ Infaust - T.D. Cloud, Ambi Sun 🧡 Garner for Gold - Catherine Labadie 💛 The Z Word - Lindsay King-Miller 💚 Snake Charming - Genevieve McCluer 💙 The 7-10 Split - Karmen Lee 💜 Loving Jemima - Sienna Waters ❤️ The Potion Gardener - Arden Powell 🧡 A Swift and Sudden Exit - Nico Vincenty 💛 The Worst Ronin - Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Faith Schaffer 💙 Murray Out of Water -Taylor Tracy 💜 The Guncle Abroad - Steven Rowley 🌈 The Weight of What Was - Pip Landers-Letts

❤️ The Amazing Alpha Tau Pledge Project - Lisa Henry, Sarah Honey 🧡 I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley - Thom Vernon 💛 Malicia - Steven dos Santos 💚 The Sins on Their Bones - Laura R. Samotin 💙 SLUTS: Anthology - Michelle Tea 💜 You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian ❤️ Death's Country - R.M. Romero 🧡 Cinema Love - Jiaming Tang 💛 The Brides of High Hill - Nghi Vo 💙 Emma - Jenna Kent 💜 Wish We Were There - Lionel Hart 🌈 A Troublemaker in Her Eyes - Genta Sebastian

❤️ I Make Envy on Your Disco - Eric Schnall 🧡 Lavash at First Sight - Taleen Voskuni 💛 Queer Power Couples - Hannah Murphy Winter, Billie Winter 💚 In Repair - A.L. Graziadei 💙 A Heart Divided - Angie Williams 💜 Long After We Are Gone - Terah Shelton Harris ❤️ The Queen of Steeplechase Park - David Ciminello 🧡 Lunar Boy - Jes Wibowo, Cin Wibowo 💛 Hot Boy Summer - Joe Jiménez 💙 Sunhead - Alex Assan 💜 The Summer Love Strategy - Ray Stoeve 🌈 Into the Mouth of the Wolf - Erin Gough

❤️ The Girl in Question - Tess Sharpe 🧡 The Lost Erwain - Mariah Stillbrook 💛 Starfire - Naomi Hughes 💚 Adrift - Sam Ledel 💙 Shanghai Murder - Jessie Chandler 💜 April May June July - Alison B. Hart ❤️ A Bone in His Teeth - Kellen Graves 🧡 Cabin Fever - Tagan Shepard 💛 Don't Be a Drag - Skye Quinlan 💙 The Ride of Her Life - Jennifer Dugan 💜 The Redemption of Daya Keane - Gia Gordon 🌈 Nearlywed - Nicolas DiDomizio

❤️ The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 🧡 The End of Time - Trudie Skies 💛 Silent Ones - Melissa Polk 💚 Prime Time Travelers - Neil Laird 💙 My Darling Dreadful Thing - Johanna van Veen 💜 The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields ❤️ Spitting Gold - Carmella Lowkis 🧡 Last Chance - Claire Highton-Stevenson 💛 Road Home - Rex Ogle 💙 Only for Convenience - Shannon O'Connor 💜 Linus and Etta Could Use a Win - Caroline Huntoon 🌈 Finding Molly Parsons - Alyson Root

❤️ Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding - Maia Kobabe, Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier 🧡 See You Next Month - Jamey Moody 💛 Until You Say My Name - Tatum Schroeder 💚 Disembark - Jen Currin 💙 True Love and Other Impossible Odds - Christina Li 💜 Flyboy - Kasey LeBlanc ❤️ Thirsty - Jas Hammonds 🧡 Hands Off - N. Slater 💛 Flooded Secrets - Claudie Arseneault 💙 The Deer and the Dragon - Piper C.J. 💜 To Be Loved - Frank G. Anderson 🌈 Snowblooded - Emma Sterner-Radley

❤️ Blood Remains - Cathy Pegau 🧡 Blood on the Tide - Katee Robert 💛 We Were the Universe - Kimberly King Parsons 💚 Loyalty - E.J. Noyes 💙 Spirits and Sirens - Kelly Fireside 💜 Clean Kill - Anne Laughlin ❤️ The Worst Perfect Moment - Shivaun Plozza 🧡 Oye - Melissa Mogollon 💛 Here for the Wrong Reasons - Annabel Paulsen, Lydia Wang 💙 Exhibit - R.O. Kwon 💜 Experienced - Kate Young 🌈 Parenting with Pride - Heather Hester

❤️ Road to Ruin - Hana Lee 🧡 Meet Me in Berlin - Samantha L. Valentine 💛 The Advice Columnist - Cade Haddock Strong 💚 where lost & hopeless things go - Bryony Rosehurst 💙 Pit Stop - Ellis Mae 💜 The Switchboard - Christina K. Glover ❤️ In the Shallows - Tanya Byrne 🧡 Have You Seen This Girl - Nita Tyndall 💛 Another First Chance - Robbie Couch 💙 The Only Light Left Burning - Erik J. Brown 💜 Keepers of the Stones and Stars - Michael Barakiva 🌈 A Little Kissing Between Friends - Chencia C. Higgins

[seasalteds]

❀ you’re not from around here, are you? i figured because you totally just missed LARK HENDRICKS walking by. don’t tell me you don’t know who SHE is? they kind of look like LAURA HARRIER and i could be wrong but i think that they might be THIRTY years old right now. they’ve been living in palmview for the last TWO YEARS. and i don’t know if anyone has ever told them this before but they kind of remind me of JESSICA PEARSON from SUITS. if you stick around the town long enough you might catch them in action working in PALMVIEW as the MAYOR’S ASSISTANT. you see this town isn’t really that big of a place, some folks like to call them the MAGICIAN of palmview! they took a liking to the name too after a while, go figure. oh crap, they must have heard me yapping. they’re coming this way. i got to warn you though, rumor has it they can pretty HYPERCRITICAL at times. i wouldn’t take it too seriously though, from the times i’ve spoken to them they seemed pretty METHODICAL to me. we see each other all the time since they live in that THREE BEDROOM apartment beside me over in OCEAN DRIVE. i better leave you to it. it was nice meeting you!

stats.

full name: lark annabelle hendricks.     nickname(s): lala (parents only), whatever julian decides to call her on any given day.     age: thirty.     date of birth: november 20th.     star sign: scorpio.     sexuality: bisexual.     hometown: palmview, florida.     occupation: assistant to the mayor.     favourites: forest green, charcuterie, red wine, stationery, matcha, green tea, reading, cocktails (good ones!), long distance running, early mornings, lilies, funny dog videos.

personality.

despite her poised smile and expertly blushed cheeks, whenever you speak with lark, it feels like you’re participating in a business transaction... and you’re on the back foot. she sees everything in facts and figures and is happy to respond to your worries and concerns with the most logical course of action, even if that isn’t necessarily what the other person wants to hear. in her defense, she believes that’s what others want – after all, it’s what she’d want, but of course not everyone thinks like lark, something she struggles to understand. she also struggles with relaxing. like truly, properly, letting go and relaxing. she can’t recall a time in her life (besides that which we shall not name) where she allowed her inhibitions to take full control and she just went with the flow. the flow is not where she belongs, in her eyes, the flow is just another thing she needs to take control of. on the flip side, she has a capability and independence that’s practically unmatched, and has become an elite resource to her loved ones when it comes to planning, prepping, and perfection. you’ll never hear lark asking for help, not ever, not necessarily because it’s ‘weak’ or anything like that, but because she knows she’ll always eventually get it done, so why bother?

label.

does lark do tricks? no, magic is childish folly! (shout out to mr milchick) but she’s represented very well by the magician tarot card. lark takes the universe in her hands and moulds it in her image, manifesting since childhood for the perfect life she has always dreamed of. her life goals, loves, and hates have all been meticulously planned for her, by her, since the moment she gained consciousness. there is nothing she cannot do. on the flip side, lark’s time in the competitive new york banking scene has left a duplicitous stain on her core. all of her loved ones tell her she can keep her hands clean, she’s a good person, thank you so much for helping me out. the problem is, that attitude isn’t extended to anyone outside of her inner circle, and those are the people who find themselves victim to her manipulations. they’re like a bad habit she can’t kick after existing in an environment where everyone is out to get you.

biography.

trigger warnings: depression tw, mental health tw, bullying tw, anxiety tw.

i. born to good parents and blessed with a good brother, lark’s early life was simply good. what was there to say, really? she cooed over her brother when he was born and pushed her tiny finger onto his nose to make a ‘boop’ sound more times than she could count, her dad stayed up late with her to recite math equations and spelling bee answers, her mom patiently spent hours in make believe lessons as lark taught her things she learned thirty years ago. yes, julian was supremely talented and famous and brilliant, but her family never made her feel less than, and it was perhaps what allowed her to flourish into the logistician she became. 

ii. julian had the creative brilliance and lark had the smarts to match. a million extracurriculars before the age of twelve, shelves gilded with gold from all of her math competition and debate team wins (which evolved to include gymnastics when she got older, if you can believe it), and an endless stream of report cards calling her ‘a pleasure to have in class’ and a ’testament to her parents’. she loved cheering her brother on, loved seeing this world of his that was so starkly different to her own. maybe in another life she’d have enjoyed it but no, she had a plan for her life. a strict, 60 year plan that involved retiring early and getting on the property ladder before she hit 25. it became evidently clear to everyone that knew her that she loved organisation and ridding herself of the unknown.

iii. lark was bullied at school. not by anyone who really mattered, in her eyes, but it does something to you as a kid when you believe you’re doing everything right, only to be told by your peers you were doing everything wrong. as a defense, she grew taller and taller, in the metaphorical sense. looking down on those same peers made it much easier to stomach their vicious comments and pointed looks, but the problem was that she continued to grow. soon, people were having to prove themselves to lark. they didn’t get a clean slate with her, you started in hell and had to crawl your way out… and if she was honest, she kind of liked it.

iv. the time for college came and she knew exactly what she wanted to do. undergrad at MIT, masters degree at harvard, then straight into the world of work in new york city as an investment banker. she didn’t have time to mess around, though she certainly had plenty of confused hook ups who didn’t understand why she would kick them out to proudly state “i’ve got assignments due in 5 months”, but things mostly went her way. she returned to palmview only briefly after graduation, mainly to spend time with her family and friends, before jetting off to new york for what would become the defining moment of her life, but in a way she never predicted.

v. new york city was hard, but lark knew that, of course! she wasn’t naive. she didn’t care about the shoebox apartment, or menacing 10+ hour days, she didn’t even bat an eyelid at her nightmarish asshole of a first boss… until she got hit with something she realised she had no control over, herself. she’d upgraded to a beautiful apartment with a wardrobe full of designer clothes, she had a five hundred dollar coffee machine on her kitchen counter, and her bank account was so healthy it could sustain a small community, but as she laid there and watched the nyc lights dance across her bedroom ceiling, lark realised one thing. she was miserable.

vi. the crash. the come down. the spiral. a few horrible weeks later, her alarm didn’t go off, she had to rush out the door with unwashed hair. she got coffee, only for another commuter to walk straight into her and splash it all over her brand new blouse. when she arrived at work, her key card wouldn’t work, and by this point she was at least 5 minutes late. 5 minutes, really, that was all it took. she finally sat down at her desk at 8.07, pressed the power button on her computer, and was met with a message that seemed to gleefully tell her that her system was corrupted. she. lost it. you would never get it out of her, the true events that unfolded that day, but there was damage involved. plenty of it.

vii. the company feared, in this “new day and age”, that lark’s declining mental health prior to the incident would put a target on their backs, so they agreed to not press charges as long as she left quietly. plus they would give her a decent enough reference, but it wouldn’t be perfect. it wouldn’t be what lark wanted… but she supposed that didn’t matter anymore. 

viii. she returned home to palmview, hair still perfectly blowdried and clothes perfectly pressed, but her family knew something had happened. to this day, only julian knows the extent of what lark went through, as she’s made it her life’s mission to retain the reputation she always had in this town. if there’s one thing the world can take from her, it’s that. the first morning after she came back, she was stopped at the front door by her mother, who seemed concerned that lark was armed with a stack of resumes. ‘where are you going, sweetie? why don’t you rest a little?’ ‘i’ll sleep when i’m dead, mom. don’t worry about it, i love you.’ and that was that.

ix. when lark took the role in the mayor’s office, she did what she was asked to do… and then she decided what she was being asked to do wasn’t good enough. she started colour coding, alphabetising, and diary managing like her life depended on it. bit by bit, day by day, lark almost began to actually enjoy her job – and even more shockingly, her boss. benjamin was, at his core, someone who wanted to do the right thing, the good thing, and perhaps it awoke something deep in lark’s core she thought had long fallen asleep. she was still a strict woman with a negative impression of the world, but maybe it wasn’t so bad using what she’d learned to help someone else make it a better place.

x. life is weird now. it didn’t follow her plan and, for the first time ever, lark doesn’t really know what that means. she’s been the mayor’s assistant for just under two years now, and as the days pass by she finds herself increasingly drawn to palmview and its charms. its slower paced life, its quaint shops – but there’s a hungry pit forming in her stomach, swirling and swirling. will it be enough for the rest of her life? will she have to choose between the hunger and her happiness? will she have a choice? 

[alter-bank]

can i get a check with extra roles? pref with a "female horror protag" aesthetic? with extra roles and triggers if you can C:

Transaction complete!

Check level horror themed brainmade

TW: BLOOD

Name(s) :: Cora, Coraline, Annabelle, Lilith, Lily, Winnie, Blair

Pronouns :: She/Fae/They/It/Blood/Horror/Creature/Scare/Creep/Vamp/Vampire/Fang

Age :: 23

Role :: Apathy holder, archivist, emotion nullifier, guardian, item keeper (hope this is enough roles)

Gender :: Female, horrorgender, distortgender

Sexuality :: Aroace (aromantic, asexual)

Sign offs :: 💀, 🕶️, 🐺, 🥀, 🚨, 🔦, 🧲, ⚔️, 🔎 (as always, can mix and match)

Source :: Brainmade

Faceclaim at the end!

Personality :: [Prn] is very aggressive towards people who hurt the ones [prn] holds dear. [Prn] gets very stressed when they don’t get things perfect the first time. [Prn] loves to watch horror movies in the dark at 3am and doesn’t get scared easily.

Likes :: Horror movies, dark rooms, sleeping, popcorn, sweet food, coffee

Dislikes :: Tea, loud noises, slow walkers, loud chewing, hot days, cold days

Typing quirk :: None

Faceclaim ::

[rhaenyrasbabe]

PAWN IN THEIR GAMES

The British Royal Family want to find a man who is worthy enough to rule with the Crown Princess Victoria Windsor, and the perfect match is no one but Prince Aemond Targaryen of France. Their union was made to give more support to Aemond's claim to the France throne. Until the union was stopped due to Aemond making a mistake to aggravate the status of the British. She supports Rhaenyra's claim as person who is meant for the throne. (Remember that none of this is historically accurate)

TW- Slut-shaming

Multiple characters x OC

"Lady Annabelle of House Smith." The announcer spoke as Lady Annabelle walked in and sat with the Crown Princess who was wait eagerly for her arrival at her chambers

"Hello, Victoria, how have you been?" Lady Annabelle asked as she rested her back on the chair, happier than usual as she just got an estate of land from the King, who was Victoria’s father

"Hello, Lady Annabelle. No, I've not been good as Lady Viserra asked for my father's hand, I could not believe that woman only used me as a pawn in her game," Victoria replied, sipping on the Japanese Black Tea customized for herself. She never felt comfortable with talking to people who call her Victoria, but Lady Annabelle was an elder and like a mother to her and her miserable self, so she allowed her to use only Victoria. Which was a privilege to most people

"Victoria, it's the time men dominate the world. We just try to build a window in our cage and deal with every thing. Lady Viserra was not as bad as Lady Maria Danbury, remember that," Lady Annabelle stated, she was right. That woman lied that Victoria tried to burn her alive with her child, who was a bastard from Lord Treddors

"You are going to be betrothed to the Crown Prince of France, I heard." Victoria groaned, she hated the talk of a big alliance to someone, especially a man who is about to rule a country which named them "toilettes"

"I hate it, Lady Annabelle! It's so infuriating that all they ask now is "do you have a child yet?" or "Is England going have an heir or are you just going to end the monarchy with Queen Victoria?". I cannot deal with those ugly people who think they know us." Lady Annabelle laughed, the princess was a disciple of hers and a very ambitious woman, whoever gets betrothed to her was lucky

“Tis it true then? You’re betrothed to the Crown Prince of France?”

Reynolds, Victoria sworn shield who was a blue coat, arrived. He huffed "Madam, the King has requested a ball for your betrothal with Crown Prince Aemond Targaryen," this statement made Lady Annabelle get her answer

"I will be there," Victoria said to Reynolds, initialing for him to leave her alone, which he did after a few minutes of silence

"Wear a good dress!" Lady Annabelle said as she left her and strolled out of her room to go to her estate, looking like she just got married to the richest man in England

"Her Royal Highness, Victoria, the Princess of Wales. Daughter of King Henry the IX of Great Britain," The announcer did his job as Victoria strutted in the ball room, greeting the lords and the ladies of the realm

"I have invited you all here for my daughter's betrothal, there are many people from France here. Now, you may all dance with anyone!" the King, her father, announced as he fell back on the throne

They all danced around like a usual ball, until Victoria came face to face with another man. He had a very sharp jaw and only one purple eye

"You look like you want to escape this."

"You too"

"You want to sneak out of here and get out of this castle?" Victoria asked, guiding him out of the main dance, which included switching partners and she didn’t want to

He raised his eyebrows “How do you predict exactly, Lady-?”

“If I introduce myself to you right now. You would not want to run away from here,” she said, a statement to which he laughed

“My dear, let me say that it’s the same for you,” he laughed, making her roll her eyes at him

“Well, in the holdfast that Henry VIII had makes a very good escape from here,” she grabbed a chalice of wine gulping it, his face turned into a questioning look

“How do you know?” He asked, looking down at her face

“None of your business, my prince,” she replied, moving a little closer to the guy whose eye widened in shock

“How did you know that?” He asked. “Your closet proves the fact that you’re not a noble man or some rich lord, so I assumed. Where are you from, if you say here, I know you’re lying,”

“Fine, I’m Prince Aemond Tar-“

Victoria choked on the wine due to that statement about himself. “You’re Prince Aemond?” “See, I told you that you’d be shocked,”

“It’s an honor to speak to the man who’s going to be our next king,” Victoria mentally scoffed at her own words. They were both disloyal to their betrothed

“You are from here?” He asked her, as he itched his hair

“Yes, I am a friend of the royal family,” she said, smiling falsely at him

“I have no intention to make any statements about the situation regarding my betrothal,” Aemond told, according to Victoria, he shouldn’t be confessing that to a woman who has never even told her name to him

“Why say it to me?” Victoria asked, sounding ‘pleased’ at his words

“I have no intention to make any statements about the situation regarding our betrothal, right Victoria?” Aemond smirked, which caused her eyes to widen

“How did you know? I thought I hid it so well,” Victoria yelled, making Aemond laugh as he predicted it was her from the start of their little act

“You were not quite stealthy in hiding your anger when I mentioned our betrothal, madam,” he leaned on the wall, smirking at her.

“Tis not my fault but it’s my father’s, he told me that I had to marry you and then proceed to produce heirs so that France and Britain could have a chance of being together again. Our monarchy wouldn’t ‘fall’” she unintentionally dragged her hand from her fact to her neck

“Wait, what about our first born? We are crown princess and prince, we will ascend as Queen and King of England and France. Our first born will-“

She coughed “The King or Queen of England and France,”

“Which means our empires will unite,” he ended

“We will be a start of an empire bigger than the world itself,” Victoria smiled, as she hugged him. Aemond hugged back after staying still for a few seconds

“So, now what? We wanted to run away and now we’re talking to each other,” he said, placing his hands on her waist

She felt shivers as she felt his hands. “My father is going to be so proud of he knows about this,” she said, finger pointing to him and then her

“Now, tell me about yourself, Victoria Windsor,” Aemond said, smiling to himself

“Well, my mother died in childbirth and my father was so upset about her death that he almost forgot about my existence until a maid told him that I was crying and needed milk,” she began, her eyes closing due to the fear of tears

“I was crowned Princess of Wales and I was the first Regnant Princess of Wales in my own right. My whole life I never even had a nice talk with my father and Lady Annabelle was the one to help me through all the pain and challenges I had in life that my relationship with my father was easily broken down. My betrothal with you was my last straw because I thought you were some fat prince who would tell me to lie there and take it,” she finished, the ending making him laugh loudly

“Listen Vicky, I would never tell you to lie there and take it, okay? My name is now in your heart and I hope you see me as a friend or more than someone you are destined to marry,” he comforted her by putting a hand on her shoulder

“Fine, now tell me about you, Aemond Targaryen.”

“I was crowned Dauphin Of France when I was a twelve year old, skipping my half-sister who was Dauphine Of France before but was a woman who wasn’t present to the public. So, my family decided to skip my brother and sister, who were born before me. My sister is a dreamer and my brother is too much of a drunkard for ruling a country. My mother was the only one who cared about me and my grandfather was greedy and wanted me to make him hand off the king. I’m pretty sure my sister and her husband will start a war once my father rots and dies and I become King of France” he ended just like her, making her hug him for all he’s been through

“Your country will be associated with the greatest nation of the world! You would have the Queen of England as wife and you’ll have more people supporting you rather than an usurper,” she encouraged, making him want to take her right then and there

Victoria noticed his eyes darkening. “I like how your eyes darken for no reason,” she said, making him mentally scoff as he knew exactly why his eyes were darkening

“Well, we should go and join the ball before my father announces our names,” Aemond nodded at her and then they walked to the ballroom

“Crown Prince Aemond Targaryen of France and Crown Princess Victoria Windsor,”

“Victoria! Ah, I see you’ve already met your betrothed!” Her father exclaimed happily, the joy of seeing his daughter with a man of his choice made him happier than ever

“Yes, Your Majesty. We have met each other and we like each other very much and we want to ask you to marry,” Aemond said, Victoria happily smiling at him as he spoke

“If you both are willing, Prince Aemond, you shall stay and be wed in the morning,” the King smiled as he led a woman to dance with him

“Well, we shall be husband and wife in a day? Oh gods, I remember not wanting to even see you today and to run away with some poor lord and now I’m marrying you happily,” Victoria laughed as she and Aemond danced together

“Oh, go to your poor lord!” Aemond threw her away from him, her taking that jokingly launched herself at him

“Now, you cannot let me go, my prince,” she said as she was sitting on him, her legs around his waist

He licked his lips as he smiled. “I never thought I could find someone who understood me and my feelings. Now, I think I have found them,”

“Do you truly mean that?” She asked. “So humans don’t fly?” He said in fake astonishment, twirling her around

“You look like you’re straight from a little girls fairytale book,” she complimented him with grace, making him laugh

“You look like the protagonist of a little girl’s fairytale book, my princess,”

"No, I do not look like a-

"You are and you do," Aemond smirked, as she soon realized she was a 'princess'

"Well, I now am calling it a night," the King plumped back on his throne as Aemond and Victoria separated from themselves

Everybody bowed to him as they left the ballroom, while the King told Aemond and Victoria to wait

"I am so delighted that both of you are satisfied with each other and all. Your marriage will be scheduled to the day after your birthday, Victoria. Your father is going to arrive here, yes?" Aemond nodded. "I will plan the decors and everything else with your father and your mother

"Then, we shall return to each other's chambers them, right father?" the King nodded and Aemond immediately dropped her hand, leaving to his chambers. Victoria didn't quite think that much about it as she left to her chambers

"Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Victoria Windsor."

"Hello, Victoria. Did you sleep well?" Lady Annabelle asked but soon hugged her as she noticed the dry tears

"I thought- I thought he was a really nice person," she cried in Lady Annabelle's arms as she lost her balance

"What happened, sit down," Lady Annabelle got her servant to place a chair very easily in Victoria's reach as Lady Annabelle made her sit down in the chair and brushing her lamp as she sat down in her own chair. "Now, dear, tell me."

"I thought the Crown Prince was a really nice person because I talked with him yesterday and he was really nice and kind. I was walking to meet with his parents today as he was talking to some men calling me a 'easy whore'

"Did your father do anything about him then?" Lady Annabelle asked, distressed seeing her non-biological daughter crying in her arms

“No, just told him to leave with his family after I told him about what he did. God, I hope his half-sister usurps him, she deserves the throne more than a cunt like him. I would even help her and she would be supported by the whole of Great Britain,” Lady Annabelle laughed as she hugged her tightly

“Do not worry, dear. France will destroy themselves with the civil war which will arise,” Lady Annabelle comforted her. “You can pick a side and you can choose his half-sister’s. He lied to you about that. His maternal side, the Hightowers planned to make his drunken cunt of a brother to usurp the throne, but he was more responsible than his brother so they forged a ‘confirmation’ from his sick father,”

“How do you know so much about that?” Lady Annabelle smiled as she said “I love the history of France and especially the Targaryens,”

“Well, that’s good then,” Victoria stopped crying as Lady Annabelle spoke “The Targaryens had so much usurpers, council members making the sons King and not the daughters Queen, shaming warrior queens or women. Our royal family problems and usurping is nothing compared to theirs,”

“Well, that is very good for them. As most of them are probably cunts,” Victoria laughed as Lady Annabelle hit her lightly. “Who taught you to speak like that? That is no way a Lady or a Crown Princess would speak in that manner!”

“I apologize, Lady Annabelle,”

"I shall accept this nice apology of yours, dear Victoria" Lady Annabelle said as she bowed in a royal manner of her own

"Then we are friends again, I suppose?" Victoria laughed as she got of their little role-playing

Lady Annabelle smiled "I must admit, I like the woman you have grown to become, dear Victoria,"

"Thank you, Lady Annabelle"

"You shall be a good Queen"

[theinsidescoops]

t. Racism, hate, and threats are a big no-no. Celebrity roasts? Sure, but let’s keep it playful.

Let's make this real. Racism is only allowed if it's a person of color supporting Seb and Annabelle. Or if he is dating a woc. If he were dating a woc, we would have to make up an excuse to not see racism, just say that she is not perfect enough for him. Hate i mean subtle hate is allowed. Let's pretend we're not hating Annabelle and Seb together. Celebrity roasts? Well, misogynism and sexism is allowed. In the end the tea is fake, PR, I can't believe he decided to date that plastic woman even though he only dates that type. Where are the chubby girls?? The ugly ones?? I mean, I know we'd be saying it's fake because if he was dating a chubby girl we'd have to change the tea to he's dating her to get sympathy, therefore it's PR.

Oh, absolutely, I agree. Sebastian out here saying one thing and doing the complete opposite—it’s giving “rules for thee, but not for me.” And don’t even get me started on the shippers.

They’ll verbally demolish you for having an opinion, or drag one of his exes through the mud like it’s their full-time job. But Annabelle? Oh no, she’s apparently untouchable, the queen of their hypocrisy kingdom. And these are the same people preaching “be kind” and “no hate.” It’s almost impressive how they manage to contradict themselves so flawlessly. Iconic, in a trainwreck kind of way.

[ggblasts]

Spotted: A surprising lunch date in Brooklyn that’s got the Upper East Side buzzing! Annabelle Harper and Waverly Broder—two names that are never mentioned in the same breath, unless, of course, you’re talking drama. Annabelle, the current girlfriend of Jasper, and Waverly, the ex—ex-girlfriend and ex-best friend—were seen out together at Brooklyn’s hottest new lunch spot. Is this the beginning of a beautiful new friendship or just a recipe for disaster? Either way, Gossip Girl is ready with the tea.

Eyewitnesses report that the two ladies were surprisingly at ease, laughing so hard they practically had tears in their eyes. Now, what could they possibly have to laugh about? We can’t help but wonder: Was it girl talk or subtle shade? After all, these two have one very big thing in common—Jasper. And while Annabelle may be wearing the crown of current girlfriend, Waverly's history with him runs deep. A simple lunch or something more strategic?

Sources close to the scene say the vibe between Annabelle and Waverly was shockingly friendly. Could they be comparing notes about Jasper? Or maybe it’s just the ultimate power move—bonding over a shared ex. Whatever it is, the laughter was loud, and the energy was undeniable. Maybe they’ve decided Jasper isn’t worth fighting over, or perhaps they’ve got a new plan we don’t see coming. Stay tuned.

For those wondering how Jasper feels about his current and ex flame hanging out? Well, let's just say he hasn’t been spotted in the mix… yet. But knowing how close Brooklyn is to the Upper East Side (and how fast gossip travels), it’s only a matter of time before he hears about this little rendezvous. Will he be relieved that his two worlds are getting along? Or absolutely freaked out? My bet’s on the latter.

Regardless of their history, these two stunners turned heads as they walked into the restaurant, all smiles and impeccable style. But don't let the fashion fool you—beneath those perfect outfits could lie a whole new kind of drama. Did Annabelle invite Waverly to clear the air, or is Waverly playing the long game to get back at Jasper? Only time will tell.

One thing’s for sure: Annabelle and Waverly may have laughed today, but this newfound "friendship" is sure to make waves. Keep your eyes peeled, Upper East Siders, because this storyline is just getting started. You know you love me.

XOXO, Gossip Girl

@xoxowaverlyb @notannabelleharper

[dreamcrash]

@roseypeached: " do you want me to stay ? "

music soflty plays from the speakers in annabelle's candle lit bathroom as she does her nightly skincare routine. she's applying a fask mask as her final step, using her facial roller to roll over the edges to make it perfect. she does her routine slowly, letting the day leave her as she cares for it. her mother once told her that if her skin is always happy then she'll always be happy so she's made that her skin is always as happy as she wants to be.

she drinks from her tea with honey to help calm her throat from the smoke that still lingers. " of course i do. " except she has never been that fond of people in her space after a twenty-four hour shift like the one she just had. she didn't lose anyone but it wasn't easy and it could've gone better, so she's a little grumpy and not the usual host she always is. they haven't been dating for very long so is she ready to let go of the illusion of perfectionism just to spend more time with him? she guesses that's the point of a relationship but it didn't have to feel so scary.

she grabs another face mask from her drawer and gives her best mischievous smile she could muster that is probably more goofy than anything. " but you have to promise not to judge me or my post twenty-four shift tv watching and also i need to put this on you. " she holds up the matching mask in her hand.

[ao3feed-jonmartin]

intertwined sewn together

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/5HBbC7p by orpheussmelody Jon and Martin are starting to really settle into Daisy's old safe house. It's not perfect and needs some refurbishing, but it's starting to feel like home. There's a nice library, a cute little tea shop, and some very good cows. Overall, life in Scotland is calm. That is until some very familiar faces walk into their living room from a large yellow door. ---------------------- The title is from "not a lot, just forever" by Adrianne Lenker Words: 2892, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Characters: Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Basira Hussain, Helen | The Distortion (The Magnus Archives), Elias Bouchard | Jonah Magnus, Annabelle Cane Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Sasha James/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Georgie Barker/Melanie King (mentioned), Basira Hussain & Alice "Daisy" Tonner (Mentioned) Additional Tags: Time Travel Fix-It read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/5HBbC7p

[jaceeverett]

"I shovel off the front deck, that's about it," he laughed, gesturing towards the front door, and the large deck that he had built to be enjoyed during the warmer months. Not so much right now, when it was far too cold to be spending any time outside. He didn't worry too much about shoveling a path to the jeep or making sure the driveway was cleared -- it was a sort of fun adventure, when it was looked at that way. And Jason was always down for adventure. "Perfect, trust me, it'll taste great," he wasn't honestly all that picky with food, especially free food that someone was bringing over, and he took a little time to unpackage everything, reaching up into the overhead cabinet in the kitchen area to pull down some plates, letting Theo take the time to look around, get a feel for the place. He was always most at ease at home in Annabelle Lee; loved the sanctity of the little space that was all his, was full of the things that comforted him the most, which admittedly wasn't all that much. Jason had never been one for material possessions, at least not since coming back from his time in the service. "Sure," he smiled, flipping on the hot water and waiting for it to heat up enough to make two cups of tea, turning to hand his brother the plate of his food. "Can sit wherever, couch or dinette, promise I'm not too persnickety about getting crumbs anywhere."

Looking back at the driveway as his brother did the same, Theo chuckled a bit. "I can imagine, at least you don't have to worry about shoveling too much." That was probably Theo's least favorite part of the winter and snow, having to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk in front of the house. Having to worry about keeping up with it and making sure no one slipped or got hurt. At least out here, there was no one making sure it was perfectly done. But thankfully the jeep Jason had mentioned was able to handle getting in and out, but Theo would definitely lend him his snowblower if need be. He then turned back towards Jason's camper, taking in the decor, then noticing his brother's smile as he held up the bag. "Good because that's what I got you. Or what I think I remember your favorite was," he said shrugging his shoulders a bit. At the mention of a tour, Theo took in the camper with a bit more detail. Seeing the way it was decorated, how his brother made it his own. The last twenty years or so Theo had thought he would never be standing in his brother's home. So seeing it in person and how it was an extension of Jason, gave Theo some goosebumps. Thoughts and images swirled through his mind, wondering how Jason chose certain things, why he chose certain things, stuff like that, and wondering how he got a camper in the first place. Snapping back to reality, he replied, "uh tea would be great actually," nodding along as he answered.

[ask-hattrem]

@daily-eclipseon​ said: Eclipse@Annabelle: So... Wanna have a tea party?

“A tea party?” Annabelle questions. “Something like this?”

[grahamfolgersdeliciousnotebooks]

Martin wakes before dawn in an enormous four-poster bed. Aesthetically, the bed is wonderful – it’s quite a bit older than what usually fits into Martin’s ‘retro aesthetic,’ but he has to admire the artistry of its elegantly carved wooden frame – but it’s a bit too old to be truly comfortable, and Martin can feel an ache in his shoulder that he can already tell will be bothering him all day. Waking up is still novelty enough, though, irrespective of the bed. He hasn’t actually needed to sleep since the world ended, and ever since he and Jon began their grim little road trip, he’s mostly eschewed it in favor of marching endlessly toward London.

He rolls over, and startles at the sight of Jon laying wide-eyed beside him, dark eyes staring sightlessly out at Martin. It isn’t the first time he’s seen Jon sleep with his eyes open, but it will never cease to be unsettling.

Once Martin convinces his frayed nerves that Jon is just sleeping and not dead, he can appreciate the sight for what it is – cute, albeit in a decidedly creepy way. Jon’s face is smushed flat against the mattress with an expression of perfect contentment, jaw slack and brow, for once, unfurrowed, and his hair fans out around his head in a silver-streaked halo. Martin nudges his shoulder.

“Jon.”

Jon grimaces at having his sleep disturbed, but otherwise does not respond.

“Jon,” Martin repeats.

“Mmmph,” Jon mumbles against his pillow. “‘M sleeping.”

Martin glances at the clock beside the bed, and decides to let Jon sleep. They’ve still got some time.

He doesn’t want to risk falling back asleep himself, though, so he drags himself out of bed and stretches, trying with only marginal success to stir some energy in his tired limbs. He shuffles groggily towards the door, but pauses before he leaves. He brushes a strand of hair out of Jon’s face and presses a kiss to his forehead, and Jon is just awake enough to quirk his lips up into a quick, sleepy smile. 

Instinct guides Martin to move through the hallways as quietly as he can, padding with extreme caution across the ancient carpet runners. It’s tricky to navigate in the dark, and Martin can’t even begin to guess where the light switches might be, so he also moves quite slowly.

In some ways the darkness is reassuring. After so long spent in the hazy grey twilight of the post-apocalypse under the vast white sclera of the Eye – their time beneath its unflinching gaze broken up only by stints in a few Dark domains – it’s a relief to see the blue-tinted gloom of early morning in a place where time still functions properly.

It’s also unsettling, though, due in part to memories of the aforementioned Dark domains and in part to the knowledge that Salesa and Annabelle Cane are somewhere in the building. Every time Martin turns a corner or opens a door, he expects to see Annabelle lurking there, poised to tell him something cryptic or menacing or both. He never encounters her, but that doesn’t ease his nerves. A house this old and this huge must be harboring more than its fair share of spiders, he knows.

He only breathes easier when he gets to the kitchen and begins the familiar, soothing process of making tea. After setting the kettle on the stove, he pokes through the cupboards. There’s a box of tea in his rucksack, of course, but he’s curious about the selection in Upton House. He finds quite a few boxes, alongside some poorly labelled (though admittedly very pretty) tins of loose leaf. These he examines closely, peering inside and sniffing each one until he finds a blend he thinks will be both well-caffeinated and appropriately fancy. He debates with himself about how much cream and sugar to add before making the tea according to Jon’s preferences, because sometimes love means sacrifice (and sometimes love means drinking tea that’s way too sweet). Then he pours the whole thing into his thermos and heads back upstairs. On his way, he stops at the linen closet and squints into the shadows until he finds a blanket that he’s fairly certain isn’t an antique.

Jon is still asleep when he gets back to the bedroom. Martin nudges him again.

“Wake up, dear.”

“Mmmm…” Jon rolls over and presses his face into his pillow so that Martin can't hear what he says next, though he thinks he can catch the words “don’t wanna.”

“We have plans, remember?”

Jon mumbles something that he probably thinks is a succinct and well-reasoned rebuttal, but Martin can’t make out a word of it. 

“Come on.” He gives Jon’s shoulder a light shove, rolling him over onto his back. Jon grumbles a bit at this mistreatment. “Last night you said, and I quote, ‘No matter what I say tomorrow morning, make sure I wake up. I don’t want to miss this.’”

“Did I say that?”

“You did.”

“Well, ‘m and idiot.”

Martin sighs and grabs Jon’s arms. He doesn’t pull hard – it’s a maneuver that relies entirely on Jon’s cooperation, and despite his protests, Jon cooperates. He’s on his feet for only a second before he lets himself fall forward and buries his head in Martin’s shoulder.

“Jus’ let me sleep here…” he murmurs into Martin’s shirt. Martin indulges him for just a moment.

“Come on,” he says, shaking Jon off. “If we miss it, we’ll have to go through this whole ordeal again tomorrow.”

That’s enough to get Jon to finally straighten his back and follow Martin out the door.

Jon seems just as nervous in the hallway as Martin. He’s slipped his hand into Martin’s on instinct, and every time a floorboard creaks, it twitches against his palm.

“Do you think she’s awake?” Martin whispers, voicing what they’ve both been thinking. Then he muses, “Do… Do spiders sleep?”

“I looked that up once,” Jon responds in a low murmur, eyes darting between the shadows. “Scientists haven’t answered that question nearly as conclusively as you’d think.”

Martin doesn’t ask Jon why he researched the circadian rhythms of spiders, though he does wonder to himself whether it has anything to do with his spider trauma or if it’s just because Jon is, affectionately, a massive nerd.

The sky has already started to lighten by the time they get outside, turning a delicate shade of periwinkle, though thankfully, the sun still remains firmly below the horizon. Martin is a bit disappointed to see they’ve missed most of the stars, but the bright pinprick of Venus is still visible for the time being.

The grounds of Upton House are rounded on all sides by hedges and low walls, but there is a hill behind the main house from which they should have an unobstructed view of the horizon, so they head there.

Martin hands Jon the thermos while he spreads out the blanket. In this light, he’s less certain that it isn’t antique, and he feels a bit guilty for laying it out on the mud, but he reminds himself that it is, in fact, the apocalypse, so he can probably break a few rules. Once he’s satisfied with the blanket’s placement, in a little nook between the roots of a squat old tree, he sits down and pats the space next to him, inviting Jon to join him on the blanket. Jon is only too happy to oblige.

It’s a cold morning, but they have their tea to keep them warm. When Jon takes his first sip, he smiles fondly and gives an appreciative little hum, and it’s enough to make up for the way Martin’s own taste buds protest whenever he drinks. 

The sunrise happens slowly. It’s subtle at first, a barely-perceptible lightening at the edge of the horizon, then suddenly the sky’s become a gradient, pitch black in the west and pale, soft blue in the east. Then the first weak rays of yellow sunlight peak above the skyline, making the banks of mist that snake around Upton House sparkle and glow a faint and fragile gold.

Martin can’t remember the last time he’s seen a sunrise. Even before the world ended, even when he still regularly saw the sun, it wasn’t as though he went out of his way to watch it. At the cabin, he and Jon had floated the idea of waking up early some day to watch the sun come up – sunrise must have been spectacular in the highlands – but they’d never gotten around to it. They thought they had time.

Martin’s glad they’ve made time now.

Jon sets down his tea and watches the dawn. The weak morning light halos his face and makes the grey streaks in his hair shine like well-polished steel.

“Beautiful…” he sighs.

“Worth the trouble of waking up?” Martin asks, prodding Jon lightly with his elbow, and Jon laughs.

“I suppose.”

The birds are beginning to stir, and Martin hadn’t realized how much he missed the sound of birds until he hears them chirping. For just a moment, the world feels normal again.

They’ll have to leave this behind soon. In a matter of days, probably, they’ll have to go back out into the world where day and night and sun and stars are all replaced by the cold, unending stare of the Eye.

“You could stay here, you know,” Jon says out of nowhere. “Sleep in an actual bed, watch the sun rise in the morning…”

“You could, too,” Martin says. Jon starts to protest, but Martin cuts him off. “Yeah, I know, I know, you can’t spend too long cut off from the Eye, but you could go back and forth. Leave the bubble once a week or so, top up on your horrors, and then come back. It’s an option.”

Jon looks out at the still-rising sun, mulling over his words. When he turns back to Martin, he studies his face with a very serious expression.

“Would you want that?”

“No.” Martin wants to say that he could never be happy here, knowing what was happening to the rest of the world, but who knows, really? The past few days have been really nice, all things considered, and there’s a large, selfish part of him that never wants to leave the four-poster bed and the chirping birds and the truly impressive selection of tea. Given enough time, maybe he could shove his guilt into some distant corner at the back of his mind and learn to enjoy himself. But it wouldn’t be right, and he knows it.

“What about you?” he asks, and Jon shakes his head without hesitation.

“You were right, before. I– I still don’t know if we can fix this, but if there’s even a chance we can, we have to try… I-I have to try,” he corrects himself after a second. “You could stay here. I mean it. I would understand.”

Martin shakes his head. Jon shuffles closer and lets his head fall against Martin’s shoulder. After a moment, Martin shuffles, too, until his legs are bracketing Jon’s and his arms are pressing him gently to his chest. They sit like that in silence, watching the sunrise, as the chill autumn breeze ruffles their hair.

Martin leans back against the tree. Jon leans back against Martin.

“How long do you think we have?” Martin asks. Jon’s been hiding it well, but he can tell that being away from the Eye is already taking its toll. Martin sometimes catches him staring out at nothing with a hazy, vacant expression, and he didn’t miss the way Jon got winded from the short walk up this hilll.

“A few days,” Jon says. “A week at the most. Then we’ll have to go back out there.” Martin can’t quite keep in his sigh, and Jon rubs reassuringly at his knuckles. “Still,” he says gently, “At least this time it’s our choice.”

“I hate our choices.”

Jon attempts a laugh, but it’s a weak, half-hearted thing. “Yeah. Me, too.”

“At least this choice means I might get to kill Elias.”

This time, Jon really does laugh. “You’ve been very murderous lately.”

“What a shock,” Martin says. He doesn’t roll his eyes because he knows Jon wouldn’t be able to see it from where he’s sitting, but he’s certain his voice conveys the message that he wants to roll his eyes. “The apocalypse has put me in a bit of a bad mood.” They both ignore the fact that Martin is very clearly not in a bad mood right now. Jon just gives a fond, distracted hum, then grows serious. 

“We still don’t know if Elias – Jonah – even can be killed at this point.”

“I know, Jon! Just let me have this.”

The sun has risen in earnest now, staining the horizon a brilliant orange. A few low clouds have gathered, and they are painted in intense high-contrast, orange light against purple shadow. 

As they watch the sun burn away the last remaining wisps of fog, Jon says, “I do hope you get to kill that old man.”

“That might be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me,” Martin replies, and though he can’t see it, he gets the distinct impression that Jon is rolling his eyes.

He sits up, out of Martin’s embrace, to pick up the thermos and take a sip of tea. When he settles back against Martin’s chest, Martin leans forward to press a kiss to the side of his neck.

“I love you, you know.”

“I know,” Jon whispers back. “I love you, too.” 

They stay sat there, beneath the tree, well after the sun comes up, well after their tea has grown cold and the gentle chirping of the birds has crescendoed into a maddening din. When it starts to get a bit warmer, Martin stretches out across the blanket like a cat in a sunbeam, and Jon follows suit, laying his head on Martin’s chest and threatening to doze off into another unnerving, wide-eyed sleep.

They both know they don’t want to leave. They both know that they’ll have to. There’s nothing more to be said.

For the moment, though, there is an ancient blanket spread out under an ancient tree, and the warmth of a real sun on their skin.

(View this work on AO3)

[chai-ky]

Okay so I watched the whole archive 81 show in one night and I have some thoughts

Stuff I liked:

1. The little video intros before each episode were cool. Especially the advertisements, those felt very archive 81

2. Mark doing a radio play in the first episode as a nod to the Golden Age

3. The guy they got to play Davenport perfect captured his energy (at least at the beginning).

4. The fact that LMG, Capitalist Nightmare Incorporated™, offered to provide Dan with mental health counseling

5. I think the hardest I laughed during this whole show was when Melody said this was her first time living alone. Imagine living alone for the first time and it's in the most cursed fucking building in the city

6. RATTY!!! I loved all the bits with Ratty in them. Sure wish we'd seen him more than a couple of times

And that's all the stuff I liked! Here's all the stuff that pissed me off:

1. Melody being gay was important. Melody and Alexa being in love was important. It feels like a particularly cruel slap in the face that they took away Melody's identity and reduced Alexa Annabelle to her gay best friend who was in unrequited love with her. It contributed so much to the story of the podcast. Which leads me to the next thing I disliked,

2. Dan and Melody's romantic tension and the fact that they were in contact at all. I didn't like it.

3. The demon. I thought it was stupid. Next.

4. The witches and Melody's backstory. In the podcast, Melody sticks around at Visser because she's trying to figure out what happened to Jesse, right? Which was a good enough reason for me. But I guess Netflix didn't think that was exciting enough, so they made Melody's purpose be looking for her mother. Which I didn't like.

5. the other world literally just being a sad memories place instead of a psychedelic hellscape

6. Netflix's archive 81 is about trying to summon gods already in existence. The podcast is about people wanting power, corporations wanting power and taking that power and making themselves one with gods. It's about wild magic, untamed power. It's about greed. It's about cooperate greed. But Netflix can't make a show about cooperate greed because they are an example of it. So we got this troupe-y, predictable shit show instead

And that's it! I really tried to give this the benefit of the doubt. Hell, there were even parts I enjoyed watching. But the consensus is it's not my cup of tea, and if you really want Archive 81 in your life, listen to the podcast. It's better.

And hey. At least the straights can enjoy it now, too.