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[worldofkaeos]

What’s funny about Lucy’s pov is it’s always so “sheltered Victorian woman”, like she sees his hand veins and loses her shit for four paragraphs, but I guarantee you she’s better than Lockwood

Lockwood’s POV:

She’s a really great sparring partner, her double knot maneuver was flawless and she’s such a great agent. Great thing I’m not attracted to her, that would screw my life up.

*Lucy pulls off her skirt to just wear her bike shorts*

*Lockwood has Thoughts for the next six chapters*

[worldofkaeos]

Stroud is a genius at female characters. He knows their struggles, its like he's been in our brains before. And there's also George who's all about the importance of research (except he throws flares like a madman) and then Holly. Holly throwing flares and being kind of deranged and totally changing Lucy's view of her. Whatever it is, totally adore the characters!

One thing I loved about Lockwood and Co. is just. The girls are pro brute force and the guys are all about proper technique. (Not all girls and not all guys but like, yeah).

Like it's Lockwood and Kipps that are finicky about proper stances and rapier technique (and iirc they both fenced (and Flo kicked their butts cause she's a legend)) and then there's Lucy and Kat who are just like "Look at that conveniently placed heavy object. Imma hit someone with that."

And it's great to me because I feel like in most works of fiction girls have to have exceptional technique and training to be on par with guys in fights, and then Stroud just flips the script. It's great. As a girl I appreciate other brute force girls.

[worldofkaeos]

I really like the choice in Not The Eternal (Ep 8) to have George standing with the Fittes crew before they’re allowed to see Lockwood. You just get a glimpse of it:

[Kat: “go on George, go”; George: “see ya”]

One because he’s just being friendly with them, which makes my heart happy, but also because it’s very book!George.

As much as they don’t really get along with Barnes (though he’s a bit more fatherly in the books imo), at least once there’s a moment where George goes “oh I was talking to Barnes and he was telling me…” because he’s always got his researcher hat on and he’s always getting intel. He doesn’t see appearances and he sure as hell won’t let them stop him from getting information.

[worldofkaeos]

Feel like something that’s not discussed a lot is how unapologetically sincere the show is. I feel like there’s a been a real push against vulnerability and sincerity in favor of cynicism or sarcasm in media, like there’s a fear that showing characters talking about how much they care about each other will be seen as “cringe” or unnecessary. And Lockwood & co just brazenly wears its heart on its sleeve in a way that feels really refreshing to me.

[worldofkaeos]

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[worldofkaeos]

annabeth taking the knife for percy was peak impulsiveness at that stage of their relationship. because up until this point of the series. if i'm remembering correctly. all of annabeth actions were calculated. even her stubborn actions had merit. but taking the knife? knowing he was invulnerable? but taking the knife? knowing that him watching you cry out in agony hurt him just the same if he had been stabbed? but taking the knife? and then lying on a cot in the glisten of the setting sun? vulnerable and slow? grounding him like he's the one who needed saving? like watching you bleed out is enough to kill him? and touching the small of his back brings him back to life? impulsiveness turned romantic. turned angst. turned 'all the words i didn't say but you heard them anyway'. don't talk to me.

[worldofkaeos]

Answers, finally, to two of the most seemingly insignificant cases that you know there's some bigger picture but can't quite grasp—I guess I too have to learn to look away and not focus on the details of what's flashed in front of my face, but of the others, too.

About trauma work, it can also be read as: "To do so, I'd have to ignore the distant shouts (of her father/mother/Jacobs, or of her distractions), probe deeper into the hollows of the past (her trauma of the mill/authoratative figures that leads to her current troubles) and get beyond the psychic disruption of the chain (the thing that protects her, that is her skill of shoving her emotions aside as she has been taught in agent training, and let herself feel her emotions; and also, her urge to constantly run away from her problems)." That means, she has to learn to get past all the noise and distractions that come with busy agent work, or her fear of losing Lockwood, or all her fears really, dig deep to the root of the issue and learn to heal from it, without her armour.

But, this time, she has Lockwood there for her, the opposing force of the voice that tells her her value is based solely on what she can do. And she has her friends around her! And like @womaninwinter said, the difference between this and the Wintergarden case is her friends. I guess, looking at the bigger picture, it hints that Lucy needs her friends to help her heal. It's also to contrast Lucy freelancing on her own against rejoining Lockwood and Co—how in the end, no matter how long she can fend for herself, she still needs them. Her running away from her fears and returning is a form of healing, because before, she ran away from home and never returned. In another way, it's also reinforcing how Lockwood and Co is truly her home, her family, and she'd return again and again, because it is where she belongs.

The further I get into this reread of The Screaming Staircase, the more convinced I am that it deserves the same five-star rating I gave the rest of the series, it's just sneakier and quieter about it in ways that you have to fully absorb the other books to appreciate. Like! Currently going insane about that seemingly pointless hanging case they have in the middle of the Annie Ward investigation. Obviously, it's been pointed out before that this is our first real clue into the depth of Lockwood's grief and the death wish he's drifted into as a result. It also gives us an excellent sense of the team dynamic, strengths and weaknesses, and sets us up for further drama along the same themes for each character.

We start out with the characters disagreeing over the Annabel Ward article in the Times, and Lockwood's praise of Lucy is taken the wrong way - which the show did a really good job with, incidentally - because Lucy hears mostly that Lockwood keeps her around purely for her Talent and she has no agency. From her point of view, the arc here over the course of the series goes from "I trust your Talent" to "I trust you, but not your Talent" to a healthy balance that works best when they're tackling problems in tandem, as a united front.

George is, as ever, focused on the practical (which comes in handy when he saves the day later). From the start, Lucy's already falling to the miasma and malaise - she's always more sensitive to the emotional warfare waged by the supernatural - Lockwood is upbeat, clinging to optimism and a renewed sense of purpose in their work. While this is usually an effective distraction, it can't last forever, and as the emotional contagion spreads, it hits Lockwood hardest:

Lockwood doesn't usually care about the human backstory element to their cases. So why does he ask now? Of chief concern for the current plot, he's now seen the benefit to Lucy's habit of caring and connecting with ghosts, with the case they're hoping will put them back on the map. Then Lockwood finds himself empathizing with a Visitor in a way he rarely indulges:

On reread, it's achingly obvious that that radiating suicidal grief hit too close to home to ignore. But the thing I didn't notice until this third time is how Stroud tells us exactly where to look: the trick is to look slightly away; don't look at the Visitor's face - the point of this scene will come into focus if you stop getting caught up in the immediate details and shift perspective.

From there, we get to a moment I fondly remembered as one of the funniest bits of the first book - Lockwood shrieking only to discover his coat was caught on a bush - and I doubt I would have noticed if I weren't already overthinking the melancholy mood of this scene, but - oh. This moment is also grounding; it's Lockwood being snapped out of a trance, being quite literally tugged back to earth. And while I don't think there's necessarily one single, cohesive symbolism to the coat throughout the series - it plays a part in many - I do think it's probably intentional that here, the coat contributes to saving Lockwood when he's going after the dead in such a state he could very well join them, as compared to the last book, when the coat contributes to saving Kipps (by being sacrificed for bandages). It's one of my very favorite things about this series, how things can be simultaneously silly and serious and have equal purpose in both dimensions.

Here - Lockwood asks his team to cover him, instead of recklessly running off on a mission. They have to and they will, because they're a team, they're better together and he's not alone - despite the vulnerable moment he just had where he might have believed otherwise. Then Lucy tumbles after Lockwood into the emotional pit, as the past gets clearer; and seemingly they're both a little too lost to it - the ghost moves, and Lockwood does not—

(He wasn't attacking; he was too busy thinking about all that he lost.)

—and George finally has enough of waiting for something to happen (good or bad) and intervenes with a salt-bomb. God bless steady, cautious, clear-headed George, who's not going to let his stubborn, impulsive, complementarily traumatized friends drift any closer to danger. Wherever Lucy and Lockwood are too much alike, George is their balance.

Every case has something to say, a reason it's slotted into the story where it is. It is very clever writing, writing for the themes but also letting each plot point have its own resonance outside of the greater whole, and I am frankly in awe.

[worldofkaeos]

[worldofkaeos]

I do still find the Holly-Lucy dynamic so funny though

Lucy: damn Holly must be really into Lockwood my sixteen-year-old boss who's clearly deeply attractive to everyone expect for me.

Holly, an adult lesbian: I just really really don't want to live in this house.

[worldofkaeos]

Sassy George quotes from Lockwood & Co. Book 2: The Whispering Skull (Part 2)

[worldofkaeos]

Dearest Dashboard Detectives,

Do you have a question about Dead Boy Detectives?

Do you have a paranormal and/or tumblr post related mystery that needs solving? 

Do you believe in love after life?

Submit all manner of questions and conundrums here, and come back on May 2nd at 12pm PT/3pm ET for a spirited Answer Time with the cast of Dead Boy Detectives.

[worldofkaeos]

Dearest Dashboard Detectives,

Do you have a question about Dead Boy Detectives?

Do you have a paranormal and/or tumblr post related mystery that needs solving? 

Do you believe in love after life?

Submit all manner of questions and conundrums here, and come back on May 2nd at 12pm PT/3pm ET for a spirited Answer Time with the cast of Dead Boy Detectives.

[worldofkaeos]

[worldofkaeos]

IS THIS CANON IF ITS NOT IM JUMPING OFF THE NExt BUILDING WITH THEM

Barnes: If you two are done flirting

Lucy: I was not flirting

Lockwood: I was

[worldofkaeos]

holy shit anthony lockwood has worn the enemy's clothes 👀💀 KIPPS WTH ARE YOU WEARING

Question of the day.

I'm looking forward to write that soon.

[worldofkaeos]

i just started reading the creeping shadow and i just think it's so funny how stroud keeps lockwood-baiting the reader. "there was a tall slim figure standing.... not anyone i recognized though" like😭😭

[worldofkaeos]

omg!! thank u sm @loveverythingbooks for the tag!! i love this so muchh

despite my arson tendencies, i am also a nature girlie, so i spent forever deciding if i shld have trees or fire in the bg

anyone can and should join in if they want!! but i will just tag @waiting-for-my-hogwarts-letter @chibiosaka and @goosesthegreat anyway (no pressure tho!)

Picrew Chain?!

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1235139

yo I've had this in my drafts for a month (That question mark and vacant expression aint for nothing) I'm baton-passing this to @arcaneseason3 to do the starter tags!