LONG LIVE THE KING

Not a meta, just a quote compilation plus Rambling.

My co-host, Andy Caine

Me and Andy live together 

Andy seemed happy enough, but he’s one of the most laid-back people I’ve ever met, so no surprise there. 

We got whatever daylight shots of the Cambridge Military Hospital we needed almost in silence, though Andy kept trying to strike up a conversation.

Then Andy decided to take what he called “a bit of a holiday” from the show, and I wasn’t sure if he was coming back. If he did, I thought maybe we could find a new team and keep the show going. But he didn’t. As far as Ghost Hunt UK is concerned, he’s still on holiday, and it’s just me.

Co-host and they lived together—he was a massive part of her life. Easy-going to the point where he just… eased out…

Antonia Farron, er, Toni, doing camera work

Toni came round to pick us up. She’s the one with the van, so generally does the driving. 

(She smoked constantly, so we had to ride with the windows down and the van was freezing.) I could tell Toni was having a hard time too. 

In the end it was actually Toni that asked we not work with Sarah Baldwin again. Apparently she’d gotten “weird vibes” and didn’t feel comfortable around her.

The others were dealing with their own stuff. We struggled through another year, but it wasn’t the same. Toni was the worst. She just got harder and harder to pin down for shoots, and then I struggled to reach her by phone or email. When she moved down to Bristol in March, she didn’t even tell me. 

I am evolving a theory that ‘Sarah Baldwin’ did more stuff than we heard about that night, that Andy and Toni never talked about anymore than Melanie told them about her arm… or just, what, an utterly inexplicable itch?

I think that’s kind of why I came to you guys. I knew it was what happened at the CMH that was breaking us apart, but I couldn’t actually talk to them about it. 

feeling like maybe you don’t know these people at all..? Now that’s going in a fic direction, lol. I feel like if they were all relying on her for transport then she was probably pretty reliable, y’know, before. It used to be simple for Melanie to reach her. More assertive than Melanie wrt ‘Baldwin’ but then she kinda ghosts them so.

Peter Warhol on sound 

Pete got cold feet a few days before we were due to head out. Apparently he just wasn’t comfortable with the possibility of asbestos.

Pete was always a flake to begin with

I had to hear [Toni was moving] from Pete; in the exact same call he said that he was thinking about leaving the team as well. 

give more notice scrub

idk

Even back then, I could feel all my old friends starting to distance themselves from me. Like they sensed I was crossing some unspoken line about what we were allowed to investigate.

Culture week for @melaniemonth (only...two weeks late.....)! I think food is one of the strongest possible links to culture, whatever your background is. I headcanon Melanie having learnt to cook from her dad, and she grows her own chillies and tomatoes in her flat.

[ID: a digital painting of a South Indian woman cooking in a small cluttered kitchen, viewed through the frame of a door. The kitchen is flooded with golden sunlight, and there are fruiting tomato and chilli plants on the windowsill above the sink.

Melanie is sprinkling turmeric into a pan of curry, and beside her are jars and bags of spices. She is short and muscular with freckled mid-brown skin and a tattoo in Gujarati on her ribs. She is wearing a blue crop top and a loose yellow jumpsuit embroidered with red flowers. She has rings in her eyebrow and nose, several ear piercings and a large cutout earring reading NO! Her hair is jaw-length, fluffy and dyed blue-green at the ends, tied into a half-ponytail. Her missing eye shows pink under her eyelid. She is smiling contentedly as she works.

Culture week for @melaniemonth (only...two weeks late.....)! I think food is one of the strongest possible links to culture, whatever your background is. I headcanon Melanie having learnt to cook from her dad, and she grows her own chillies and tomatoes in her flat.

[ID: a digital painting of a South Indian woman cooking in a small cluttered kitchen, viewed through the frame of a door. The kitchen is flooded with golden sunlight, and there are fruiting tomato and chilli plants on the windowsill above the sink.

Melanie is sprinkling turmeric into a pan of curry, and beside her are jars and bags of spices. She is short and muscular with freckled mid-brown skin and a tattoo in Gujarati on her ribs. She is wearing a blue crop top and a loose yellow jumpsuit embroidered with red flowers. She has rings in her eyebrow and nose, several ear piercings and a large cutout earring reading NO! Her hair is jaw-length, fluffy and dyed blue-green at the ends, tied into a half-ponytail. Her missing eye shows pink under her eyelid. She is smiling contentedly as she works.

Chapter 1: optophobia

Words: 5.3k Rating: M Warnings: Mild injury description, brief reference to drowning

Relationships: Melanie King/Georgie Barker

Characters: Melanie King, Danny Stoker, Georgie Barker, Basira Hussain

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Season 4 AU, Fix-It of Sorts, Unreliable Narrator, (not as unreliable as Danny or Callum but lord in heaven they're disasters), Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Blind Character, Butch/Femme, Butch Georgie, Femme Melanie, Stranger!Danny, End!Tim, Dark!Basira, Autistic Melanie, Character and relationship tags added as they appear

Series: Part 5 of Come What May

Summary:

It’s like, as soon as you place yourself in a specific angle, you’re limiting yourself — even with the Beyond. As big as the Beyond is, or the Vast, or any other definition that comes down to infinity, those words aren’t infinite. I’m probably talking out of my ass here. Either that, or I’m developing the hottest new science for complete morons. Para-anthropology. Note to self: find a name that’s not as hellish to say as para-anthropology. No one made space for people like Melanie. She had always preferred building her own.

CURVEBALL! that's right, everybody: we're going for a CWM first and writing from the perspective of a major character!

Second Installment of the Pharos By Right series

Chapters: 4 / 7 Words: 9.3k Characters: Sasha James, Tim Stoker, Gerard Keay, Melanie King, Jon Sims, Elias Bouchard

Relationships: Gerard Keay/Tim Stoker, Melanie King/Sasha James

Additional Tags: Archivist!Gerry, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Mostly Morbid Humor, Mystery, Corruption!Sasha, Ship teasing, Femme Melanie, Trans Sasha, Transfem NB Gerry (using he/him and she/her pronouns!), The Corruption, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Okay so we all remember MAG 100

Chapter Summary:

A tumble of loose black curls hangs behind pink, heart-shaped hoop earrings and a cautious face, lilac acrylics tapping on the doorframe. The woman straightens up when her wandering eyes find the bullpen, hovering still without entering the room.

“Um… Hello. You… wouldn’t happen to be Sasha, would you?”

She could kill Tim for this.

Or: Bees and women, as promised. (And just in time for @melaniemonth​!)

chapter 2: conversations with people who love me words: 6.2k

“Have you ever had someone try and describe a sunrise to you?” Indira asks.

“Never,” Melanie admits.

“You should,” Indira says. “It’s the best part. Having someone who’ll try and describe something to you, even know you’ll never see it the same way, just because they want you to know how beautiful it is? I don’t know. I think that’s love. And I get to have that because I’m blind. I mean, there’s always going to be things you can’t do because of disability stuff, and that sucks. It sucks when there’s a way around it, but you can’t do it because you’re not getting the right help, and it sucks when there’s just no fixing it. I know it’s hard to be blind. Some days, it’s really hard to deal with my prosthetic, but it’s even harder to use my cane and my wheelchair at the same time. And even with Murphy, there’s a limit to how much I can change that. But the sun’s always going to be there. And that means you still have sunrises.”

Anger is… Anger’s been all I’ve had for a very long time. Years. Maybe since… oh, I, I don’t know. … Angry at being passed over, being disrespected, ignored. That sort of anger, it – it powers you. Right up until it slips out and hurts someone.

and in 190 when she talks about how she feels about the cult:

If I didn’t have Georgie, I think I might just snap and beat them all to death. … I swear, if it’s another hymn I am going to break something!

But look at how she actually reacts to Arun:

MELANIE: [Awkward] Oh, okay, um… Right, so… Arun, I just think that the… GEORGIE: I don’t think either of us is particularly comfortable with your use of the word “redeemers”. MELANIE: That’s… that’s not how it works. Is it? John? ARCHIVIST: Oh? No. That’s not how it works.

John and Georgie are included to demonstrate what “person being distinctly less gentle with Arun than Melanie is” looks like. Actually, ‘gentle’ is a bit of an understatement—I might be better to say ‘timid’.

And it’s not like this is the product of the therapy or, idk, Georgie. Rewind to her first appearance:

I waited for another five minutes, but when Sarah still hadn’t returned I started to get a bit worried. I should have woken the others, but if it turned out she’d just gone to the bathroom, I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of everyone. In that case she should have got one of us up to take over watching, anyway, but she’d hardly been the most professional while she was working with us, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if she hadn’t. After another five minutes, I decided to go look for her.

Like, Sarah is not fulfilling her responsibilities that she agreed to carry out. (and in a kinda dangerous way) But Melanie’s worried about embarrassing her.

In the end it was actually Toni that asked we not work with Sarah Baldwin again. Apparently she’d gotten “weird vibes” and didn’t feel comfortable around her. I agreed, though I didn’t share my reasons. 

She doesn’t even speak up first to say “let’s not work with her again”—again, this is kinda crossing the line from ‘gentle’ to 'timid’. Like, you can react to things that negatively affect you without over-reacting? (This is something she works on in therapy! Speaking up that she doesn’t like 'Mel’; work-stoppage at her evil work: constructive responses.) (the apocalypse, uh, derails this a tad. :| )

What effect does the Slaughter have on this? Well, the next example is while she’s got the bullet in her.

In episode 100, she’s already tired and frustrated when Brian comes in. (let’s get this over with. I just don’t hold out a lot of hope for… coherence.) She does not get coherence. Instead she gets a panic attack. (Admittedly kinda her fault, because she said that the archives couldn’t help with his spider problem. But like, that’s more about the circumstances being objectively panic-inducing, she wasn’t being Mean or anything.) And… she’s gentle.

I… Please, just… There’s, there’s tea there. Okay. Right. Yes. Okay, breathe. Yeah… well… Drink, drink the tea.

I’ll, I’ll get you some biscuits. I’ll get you, I’ll get you, I’ll get you… something… Just breathe! Breathe for me… [BRIAN TAKES SOME CALMING DEEP BREATHS] Okay, yes. Good. Good.

She’s not confident or practiced or comfortable at it. She’s out of her depth and kinda at the end of her rope and… gentle. Trying.

I think the through-thread is—people she has power over. She feels that anger and chokes it down because she could hurt them.

It’s difficult to strike the right balance, when you’re doing that.

(There’s another bucket of just—equals. Basira’s always there; John is for the rest of season 4 after 125; Helen :| ; Martin at least in season 5; etc. She has casual, unguarded conversations, too; and ones that are mostly focused on some goal, and ones where she’s getting what she wants, and all sorts of things.)

Towards people with power over her (the guy with the steady office job and authority over whether her experience counts as genuine; apparent boys’ club; evil mindreading murder boss; etc) she bites back. The difference is it’s safe to do that because—one part she can’t hurt them, and one part it’d be deserved. (Melanie as a comedian who always punches up.)

Except, you know… there’s this bit in where 106 Basira and Melanie discuss how she 'literally’ made Tim and Martin cry, and… while you can construct reasons they could 'have power over her'—seniority, gender—Basira’s only been around since 092. Since that point, it’s obvious that those aren’t real power here. That’s what the Slaughter is doing to her with her; validating seeing the world as more and more against her, handing her power and encouraging her to see herself as a put-upon victim, free to fight back guiltlessly.

And then she wakes up to a numb, wounded leg and stabs John. I wonder—what if “Right up until it slips out and hurts someone. I hurt someone.” & “It didn’t stay in my leg because of some ghostly master plan. It stayed because I wanted it.” in 131 are saying that - like - it wasn’t taking out the bullet that de-Slaughtered her? That it was the wake-up call that she hurt John, someone who was trying to help her, and she didn’t want to do that.

Didn’t want to be that.

[ID: three traditional sketchy drawings. in the first, melanie and georgie sit on georgie’s bed in casual clothes, each holding a glass. they are smiling and talking, and georgie is gesturing with one of her hands. on the bed around them are some bunched-up blankets and a variety of stuffed animals, including a cheetah, a lion, and a komodo dragon. the admiral is curled up next to melanie, and she is petting him. the second image shows melanie and georgie from the waists up. georgie has her arm slung around melanie’s shoulder, and the other in her jeans pocket. melanie has her hand on georgie’s shoulder, and the other in her hoodie pocket. they both have a contented smile. in the third image, melanie is sleeping awkwardly on a couch, with her arm and feet hanging off edges. the admiral is sleeping on her back. end ID.]

[image description: A one page comic divided into three panels. Panel one: A desk cluttered with books of folklore, one folded open and heavily tabbed for research, a pair of noise-canceling headphones, and a laptop with windows for both video and audio editing software open. Panel two: a close up on Melanie’s pale hand, turquoise-polished fingers hooked into Georgie’s belt loop. Georgie’s elbow is visible but her hand on Melanie’s waist is not. Panel three: Georgie and Melanie dance in Georgie’s kitchen. Melanie is a freckled white woman with a brunette undercut that’s growing out, wearing a blue crop top and high waisted grey trousers. Georgie is a Black woman with dreadlocks in two thick braids. She wears a black turtleneck with sleeves rolled up and jeans. Georgie kisses just above Melanie’s eye, making her face scrunch up in delight. The kitchen is full of green light, like sunlight from outside is coming through a tree and then reflecting off the green cabinets. Two mugs sit on the counter behind them, one printed with Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” the other with a cartoony Mothman.  The Admiral and his cat tree are just visible outside the kitchen. end description.]

[id: a digital illustration of melanie king, georgie barker, and the admiral. melanie is a white woman with choppy, short black hair, various scars around her eyes, cheeks and arms, and stretchmarks on her thighs and stomach. georgie is a fat black woman with long blue box braids and stretch marks on her arms and thighs. the admiral is a large black cat. melanie holds the admiral to her chest, scratching under his chin and grinning wide while georgie embraces her from behind, kissing her cheek. they’re both in their underwear/sleepwear. the background is a light peach color. end id]

Just a little sketchy, but it's late enough for @melaniemonth because this was meant to be for Romance Week - I just think. sasha and melanie should have had some nice dates. some wild nights out at a pub gig. some haunted pub tours.

Woo finished this in time for the @melaniemonth prompt "health". I decided to make a tribute to Melanie's recovery, both mentally and physically, by portraying the hardships she's been through and the better place she reaches! The words are from "I wanna get better" by the bleachers, which is an excellent song that always makes me think of melanie (and never fails to make me emotional) ((click for quality))

[Image ID: a digital illustration of Melanie king from the magnus archives. She is a chinese woman with black hair dyed blonde. The drawing is composed like a comic, with panels. On the right there is a 3 strip, which is mirrored on the left. In between these strips sits two drawings, split by a diagonal border, containing the words "I wanna get better".

Panel 1 on the right shows Melanie's face in shadow, as she stares at Sarah baldwin's stapled arm in horror. The background is maroon and a yellow starburst surrounds Sarah's arm, while lines indicating trembling surround melanie.

Panel 2 has melanie looking at not-sasha, confused and frustrated. Not-sasha's face has a question mark instead of facial features, and in the background is a mirror that shows the real Sasha looking with tears in her eyes. lines emanate from not-sasha. The background is a light green.

Panel 3 shows Melanie's leg, bleeding from a bullet wound. The background is red and the wound has indicating lines emanating from it.

The panels on the left look as follows:

Panel shows melanie as Elias reaches towards her. Her eyes are glowing and tears stream down her frightened face. Eyes float around her, looking at her. Her hair is a darker shade of blonde and her roots have grown out. The background is dark green.

Panel 5 depicts melanie holding a surgical scalpel. Angry lines surround her hand, and the background is made up of varying shades of red.

Panel 6 has melanie holding an awl up to her eyes about to blind herself. Trembling lines surround her hand, and a slight tear forms in the corner of her eye. The background is a rough gradient, starting as a dark green in the bottom left corner and ending in a lighter green.

The two illustrations in the middle also show melanie. The first shows melanie at therapy. She is sitting on a chaise lounge in the foreground, talking to her therapist, who is in the background listening. The background is in yellow/orange tones. A light blue speech bubble is connected to melanie, and has the following text:

"So I put a bullet where I shoulda put a helmet and I crash my car cause I wanna get carried away, that's why I'm standing on the overpass screaming at myself, "hey!". "Overpass" is drawn to look the plaque of a therapist's office, and "hey" is written in bright yellow block letters. There are also spiky lines around the word "bullet".

[ID: a banner announcing the second week of melanie month 2021, health week. the background is navy blue, and there are grey dashed borders on the top and bottom. on either side are two flat colored moth vectors, pink on the left, blue on the right. centered in the image are three lines of text: the top line reads “week three: health” in bold white text, the second line reads “april 16th-22nd” in  lime green, and the third line lists the prompts “disability, therapy & recovery, solidarity” in white text bordered by pink. end ID]

Week Three: Health!

It’s the third week of melamonth, and that means it’s time for some healing!

disability: how has melanie’s disability impacted her life? write something about melanie’s blindness, or another, non canon disability you think she might have. or better yet, write how living with both affects her life! 

therapy & recovery: like everyone in the magnus archives, melanie has plenty of things she needs to recovery from–her slaughter wound, her blinding herself, and the various traumatic supernatural incidents she’s experienced, from sarah baldwin to elias’s traumadump, to the general existential dread of working for a place like the archives. show us some of her journey of traumatized to therapized!

solidarity: everyone needs someone who sticks by them when things get rough. this can be melanie finding comfort in meeting other blind people, or just how other people have helped change her life for the better

as always, these are just suggestions! 

if you’re looking for tips on how to write a blind character, check out our resource tag for a place to start, and if have any questions that aren’t on our carrd, feel free to send an ask! reminder that if you don’t have an image description your work won’t be reblogged, and to dm us for one if you can’t write one yourself for any reason.

as someone who loves how synonymous melanie’s recovery is with being disabled, i’m excited to see whatever you guys have planned!

chapter ½: what my therapist says words: 4.8k

“Where’s the Admiral’s cat tree, then?” Georgie asks. Melanie hesitates. “Right.” “I’m not going to hurt myself if I accidentally bump into a cat tree.” Melanie says. “What about how the Admiral feels?” Georgie demands. “If you hurt his tree, he’ll be inconsolable.” “He’ll forgive me,” Melanie says confidently. “It’s nothing a few scratches from his favorite mum can’t fix.” “Inconsolable, Melanie,” Georgie repeats. “He doesn’t know the meaning of the word!” “Sure, but that doesn’t stop him from using it.”