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Here it is, then: the beginning of the end.
Ill kms
“Do you lot have to bend over like that?” a voice asked. “It’s making my eyes water.” A thin, red-haired young man was sitting above us on a granite block in the center of the room. Like the rest of our raiding party, he was all in black—in his case, whopping big boots, skinny jeans, and a turtleneck top.
i love you
“See anything, Quill?” That was Lockwood, dark hair hanging over his face. He picked with his penknife at a gap between the flagstones. Kipps lit an oil lamp, tilting the shutters so the light stayed low. “With you in that position, I’ve seen plenty. Particularly when Cubbins comes into view. It’s like watching a beluga swimming by.”
Anthony Lockwood straightened; he was kneeling in the center of the floor, one hand holding his penknife, the other running distractedly through his hair. As usual, our leader was impeccably dressed. He wore a dark jersey instead of his long coat, and sneakers instead of his normal dress shoes;
ohmy hof
an elegant kink
“I’ve got one.” Holly Munro had been zealously combing the floor at the far end of the room. Now she got to her feet and joined us, light and silent as a cat. Like the rest of us, she was in stealth mode: she had her long dark hair clipped back in a ponytail, and wore a zip-up top, skirt, and leggings. I could go on about how well the all-black getup suited her, but why bother? With Holly, that was a given. If she’d gone around wearing nothing but a dustbin suspended from her shoulders by a pair of polka-dotted suspenders, she’d have somehow made it look chic.
yasss in another life u two are gfs i feel
“I think we need a fresh perspective,” she said. “Lucy, can’t the skull help at all?” I shrugged. “I’ll try, Hol. But you know what mood it’s in.”
YAY EVERYONE KNOWS ABT THE SKULL EVEN KIPPS LUCY OPENED UP EVERYONE IS FAMILY
That was where he always was—at the forefront of the group, standing between us and the darkness.
How poised and graceful he was. His presence gave me courage, even in a place like this. I smiled at him. He couldn’t see me, of course. It didn’t matter.
“Let’s go, Luce!” Lockwood grabbed me by the hand and hauled me up the steps.
This double life had its challenges, and each of my colleagues coped with it in their own way. Holly met it as she did all obstacles, with brisk efficiency that looked a problem in the eye and didn’t blink.
Whether it was breaking into the Fittes mausoleum, or standing up to interrogation in the street, she always maintained her trademark Munro cool. It was hard to imagine her ever losing this quality, and somehow, despite everything, that made me confident that nothing really dreadful could or would happen in this world. Her unflappable demeanor used to make me seethe, yet now I found it a source of reassurance.
Come what may, I knew Holly’s hair would swish like gossamer as she walked; her clothes would flow effortlessly around her curves; her skin would glow with that same coffee-colored luster that spoke of close association with mineral water and green bean salads, and contrasted, reprovingly, with my famous burger-...
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You know, I’m beginning to think that everything your parents brought back has some kind of psychic significance, Lockwood. Even the stuff hanging up downstairs. They were very good researchers. I think I would have liked them.” “I’m sure you would have.”
KNOWLEDGE SETS US FREE
“This is what the Problem means,” he went on. “This is the effect it has. Lives lost, loved ones taken before their time. And then we hide our dead behind iron walls and leave them to the thorns and ivy. We lose them twice over, Lucy. Death’s not the worst of it. We turn our faces away.”
The works I like best always have some kind of philosophical reflection in them. The reflection on death and the dead makes this series more than just a fantasy YA battle series
“Thanks for bringing me,” I said. “That’s all right.” We sat in silence for a time, pressed close together on the stone.
A long pause. Dusk deepened around us. Leaves merged; our hands stayed together. I didn’t say anything.
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Though all it really does is show how arbitrary everything is. A ghost kills my sister. My parents die in an accident. Why did they die and not me? Believe me, I’ve looked for an answer, and there isn’t one. There’s no meaning to any of it.”
“Well, none of us are here for very long. While we’re alive, all we can do is keep on fighting. Try to make our contribution count.
Know what my desire is?” It flashed a sudden grin at me. “Something foul, no doubt.” “To live, Lucy. To live. That’s why I talk to you. That’s why I turned my back on what waits for us on the Other Side.”
Holly scowled. “Did any of these women in her shows get to live at all?”
feminist queen
Rage rose up within me. My hand hovered at my sword hilt. I couldn’t trust myself to speak. George was likewise bristling; I could feel insults incubating furiously behind his glittering glasses. But Holly was good in these situations. She remained impeccably polite. Her smooth, unflustered beauty seemed to have been turned up a notch. As she gazed from under half-lowered lids, her cool demeanor subtly radiated boredom and contempt.
my queen i will become you
“Isn’t it fabulous?” Kipps said, as we joined them. “I’ve seen internment camps that look jollier than this.”
now quill 😭
He’d given her his best smile, which normally had the melting effect of hot water poured on ice.
Another scream made us all jump. It was higher and shriller than Holly’s, so we knew that it was Kipps.
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I peered at the exhibits, and as I did so, a memory rose unbidden in my mind. “I used to see these things at the country fairs,” I said, “when I was a little kid. My sister Mary gave me the money to make one go once….” “Didn’t know you had a sister,” the skull said. “I’ve got six.” I didn’t mention that I hadn’t seen any of them for years; that only Mary still wrote to me from the North of England. I tried to ignore the dull pang that accompanied the thought.
YESSSSSS YES YES THE DIMENSIONS
What was it that made me yearn to walk across? What was it that made me want to give myself to her? It wasn’t just that she was exquisite. Sure, you had the gently smiling mouth, the soft full lips, the set-square straightness of that lovely nose. I could take or leave all that. You could see similar blandly beautiful young people in any fashion magazine. But she was flawed, too. That was the brilliance of it. There was a homeliness to her, something ordinary in the lines of the face that made her seem accessible. It was the flash of Doris Blower behind Marianne de Sèvres.
You sensed that deep down she understood what it was to feel imperfect and unspectacular. She understood your need for love.
I was light-headed with self-loathing.
I spoke softly now. “It’s me. It’s Lucy….” I like to think it was just coincidence that Holly laid the silver net over the Source right then. I like to think it was the sound of my name that brought him back. Who’s going to tell me otherwise? Either way, the twist of smoke rose up and up, and bloomed across the surface of his eyes. Intelligence came with it; intelligence and recognition—and something more than that. He smiled at me. “Hey, Luce…” I slapped him again, sharply and on both cheeks. Take it from me, that’s a hard thing to get right when you’re crying.
Only Holly and I hung back. In my case this was partly due to exhaustion, partly delayed shock at the drastic action I’d had to take to save Lockwood. I simply didn’t feel like joining in. Holly was fine, but she could see the state I was in and wanted to keep me company.
holly is such a good friend
“I know what you did for me.” My mouth tightened. “Swung down on a bloody trapeze was what I did, Lockwood.” “I know.” “I hate heights.” “I know that.” “I hate trapezes.” “Yes.” “Don’t ever make me have to do something so ridiculous and dangerous again.” “Lucy, I won’t. I promise.” He offered me a sidelong grin. “But listen—you were amazing. Holly told me. Kipps, too—he saw the part from when you landed on the crash pad.” “Oh, he didn’t see that bit, did he? God.” “You saved my life.” “Yes, I did.” “Thank you.”
Lockwood didn’t speak until everything was quiet again. “I know you’re worrying about me, Luce,” he said. “But you really mustn’t. These things happen when you’re an agent. You’ve been snared by ghosts in the past, haven’t you? There was the one that made the bloody footprints, and the thing in the tunnels below the Aickmere Brothers store. But it’s fine, because I helped you then, and you’ve helped me now. We’re there to help each other. If we do that, we’ll get through.”
“Aside from his recklessness, his deep-rooted feelings of personal loss, his mild self-absorption, his obsession with his family, and his obvious death wish, I couldn’t tell you anything about him.
this is EXACTLY what 2013 taz plus 2013 tumblr wanted to pull off but he does it so well 😽
“Everything’s changing,” he said. “You know that, don’t you? DEPRAC, the agencies, how it’s all controlled. The big outfits are running the show: the Fittes Agency, the Sunrise Corporation—the people who make a lot of money from the Problem. Independent operations like yours are being squeezed out.
papa barnes and social commentary i love it here
We do good work.” Barnes nodded grimly. “Bunchurch did good work, too.” “Well, not very good work,” George put in. “He was actually a bit useless, wasn’t he?” “That’s not the point!” The inspector gave a sudden roar. He banged a hairy fist on the tabletop, making his cup jerk in its saucer. A gout of strong dark tea splashed across his plate. “That’s not the point! He crossed them, and he’s dead!”
PAPA BARNES
While we were setting out the tea, Holly returned with Kipps. Every member of our essential team was there.
“It’s like I’ve always told you, Lucy,” the skull said, “you and me, we’re a team. Hell, we’re more than that. We’re an item. Everybody knows it.” “We are not,” I growled. “Are so.”
Tonight, with that independence threatened, the mood was different, wary and subdued. Doors were held open for old enemies; muttered greetings exchanged.
The crowd of agents was a vast and colorful array—their jackets resplendent, their rapiers glinting under the light of the chandeliers—and yet compared to the solid, unchanging majesty of the great gold hall, which effortlessly swallowed them all, they seemed somehow tawdry and fleeting, of little consequence.
giving gvt and military parallels like every work with allusions to child soldiers i EAT UP
Holly and I were left in the hall. We looked at one another, but it wasn’t easy to meet each other’s gaze. Hugging was better. That way we could be close, while staring out at nothing. There wasn’t anything else we could do.
i used to pray for times like this
I pushed open the door and saw Lockwood standing at the window. He wore his usual dark pants and white shirt, tie-less, the collar unbuttoned. His sleeves were rolled up, showing his slim arms. His hair had not been combed, and it was not clear to me that he’d slept at all.
ik things are tough rn but 🫦
He had his long thin fingers resting on a chair back; he stared at them as if they belonged to someone else. Then he left the chair and walked around the table and put his arms about me and pulled me to him. Time did weird stuff again. We stood like that for I don’t know how long. I would’ve been happy for it to go on longer.
his advanced age of twenty-two,
I just took psychic damage
“If George was here,” I remarked, “we’d have floor plans of the building, a full list of accredited members, and an annotated history of the organization.” Kipps stared at me. “Everyone’s a critic. Know how I got these? I was dressed as a workman, painting the railings on the house opposite.” He shook his head ruefully. “I tell you, it’s a devil of a job whipping a camera out of your pocket and pointing it at people without them noticing.”
quill i love you so dearly thank you
Lockwood was standing on a roof crest, staring out toward the west. A gentle wind swept his hair back, set the ends of his coat flapping. His hand rested on his rapier hilt. He looked pensive, as if he were gazing into the future and finding something sad. It made my heart hurt to see him. “He is such a poser,” a voice said disgustedly from my backpack. “He’s just doing that for effect. There’s no real reason for him to be up there. Bet we’re not even going in that direction.”
skull gotta be top five fave characters for me
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