WELCOME TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.

📍 London, England. Located 10 minutes from Paddington Station!

[millicentclyde]

independent M. CLYDE from 🧸 PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL 🐾 curated by maya (21+, south africa, english/spanish/french/russian).

[scyftan]

    Larissa's heart starts pounding instantly. It's actually quite embarrassing to react with an all-over blush and tremble when one's significant-other-we're-in-a-relationship approaches, but this whole experience has been rather bereft of dignity; what's one more instance? She tries not to look at Millicent, who is looking at her buttons, even if there's so many winsome details to enjoy up close: her eyelashes, her fine lines, the crease of concentration between her brows, the shape of her frowning mouth (very kissable) and...

    Enough of that. If Millicent happens to glance up and catch the look on her face, she'll be across the room cowering in a flash, and Larissa will do something self-flagellating and inadvisable, such as getting drunk on Bloody Marys, and Mel and Vikram will be left wondering how they're the ones married but it's Larissa and Millicent staging and restaging Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? all over the chateau.

    She needs something that will carry her through today that will require nothing, or very little, of Millicent. What are her options? She has an absurd flash of herself hiding behind Amelia as though she were the younger sister and Mel the older: a possibility that demands nothing of Millicent, everything of her sister. It won't do. Has she brought a good book? What if she focuses on the thought of coming back to the room at the end of the day and reading a good book?

    Determined to stop staring at Millicent, Larissa's eyes pass over the far side of the room. They come to rest with a sense of finality on the nightstand where the collar lives in its wooden case. She allows Millicent to help her into her jacket, and clears her throat. She hasn't put on any jewelry yet. She is not going to ask for the collar.

    "Do you have," she says, and clears her throat again. "Would you mind if I wore," she's embarrassing herself. She's asking for it.

[millicentclyde]

❛ WORE WHAT? ❜

she finishes adjusting the cuffs on the jacket. but when she looks into her darling rissa's face, the what becomes exceedingly clear, as does the beauty of larissa's face in light makeup. not that millicent isn't very fond of the bright red lips and flawless eyeliner that only a talented shapeshifter can apply to utter perfection (in a way that leaves all professional makeup artists wailing with jealousy), but. well. she wishes larissa knew that millicent's fond of her face in every way she's seen it.

has she ever told larissa all the things she likes about her? she mentioned a few last night. has she ever told larissa she likes her, period?

that's a question for another day. ideally, when she's properly medicated. for now, she frowns. didn't larissa object to the collar and what it meant last night? utterly confusing woman! full of contradictions. LARISSA WEEMS, WALKING PARADOX. millicent rubs her temple.

❛ i am not frowning at you. ❜ she's getting better at this: narrating her facial expressions to prevent miscommunication. she hopes larissa sees her efforts. ❛ just — one moment. ❜

and she retrieves the collar. it's as heavy in her hands as it was yesterday and she hates that it sends a dashing thrill throughout her body. she approaches her darling rissa, a huntress preparing to capture her darling, lovely, precious prey. careful... careful... then… THERE! she places it around that decliate white neck and fastens it. as before, nothing materially changes, but millicent feels all the power in the world. the thought resurfaces: tell her to shift into something that will hurt her so you can spend the rest of the day doting on her while she recovers. she'll need to sleep and you can play with her hair…

millicent mentally slaps herself on the wrist. she does it three more times. STOP IT.

❛ take me to the bloody marys, ❜ she demands. ❛ i mean, er, TAKE ME TO MEL AND VIKRAM. ❜

[lleyksie]

moles, moles, moles.

[stardustmuseum]

girls will be like “this shade of green 😍” about every shade of green they see, and they’re right

[scyftan]

gwen is not actually that much taller than these people but for some reason they made her sit to be in this photo

[omnipotentnothing]

I have a headache because I'm a bad person

[millicentclyde]

millicent Jar and pocket perfec t size for put rissabug in to n\ap! inside very Soft and Comfort with Books and Burgers rissabug live happily put rissabug in Millicent Jar. Put Rissa In Millicent Jar. no problems ever in millicent jar because good Enclosure and Envrionment for rissabug very safe and Secure and warm for little bug then millicent pocket good for rissabug excursion with explorer millicent. Millicent Jar yes a place for a rissabug put rissa in millicent jar can trust millicent for giveing good love to her rissabug. lover millicent

art by @scyftan 💜

[millicentclyde]

pov: you're grant (millie's assistant) and your hot boss, who is off her anxiety meds, just found out there's a peruvian bear 🐻 in town. because you told her.

credit to minnale_photography on ig! 🖤

[gayward-vagabond]

My favorite trope is “janitor in headphones continues cleaning through extreme action”

[millicentclyde]

oh book millie you and your tendencies. 🖤 DADDY COULD HAVE BEEN RICH AND FAMOUS ‼️‼️‼️ 😤

[scyftan]

    Larissa sees the Millicent of her dream. Her gaze on the night birds, sharp and steady; her pointing, her voice: Help me kill one. There's something here that's like that. The hunter in her.

    Is Larissa afraid of that nature? No. When she'd cradled Millicent against her just now, she'd felt all over again the incredible fragility of her beautiful skull, held gently against Larissa's chest; she'd been conscious of both her breathing and her heartbeat, these temporal miracles. She could take that life in one hand in its entirety and crush it before Millicent could think to reach for a weapon. Afraid isn't the word. The animal in her chest is at rest, but its tail is gently flicking, one ear is pricked. Perhaps it hears something she doesn't.

    "I was downstairs." She leads Millicent, moving with human speed. It feels something like wading through mud. "I... Was sitting here." Yes, at last. Vampires do, in fact, sit. The living room is still pristine, as though the estate agent had only staged it for sale yesterday, except that a chair is pushed back a degree, a side table adjusted, a lamp moved, and there is a book on its arm: Rabindranath Tagore, collected short stories. "I was feeling..."

    She thinks of how to explain. When she comes back to the moment, ready to speak, she finds she's stilled her hand in a way that must feel unnatural to Millicent, no minute motion of fingers, flex of palm, sway of arm. She resumes her muddy, humanlike normalcy at once.

    "Quite hopeful, in fact." Her voice is calm, even pleasant, though she isn't sure it's how she feels. "When we were at the Museum, I'd been very certain about us. I suppose that was arrogant of me." Death's smugness, asserting itself with the casual invasiveness of a tumour. She's embarrassed by it, though she knows worse humiliation will come in just a few moments. "I'd lost that certainty. Then you called. Everything seemed possible. Then..."

    She does not specify what happened after that. What would they do? Bicker, like lovers do--you hurt me, no, you hurt me?

    She leads Millicent down the hall from the living room. This is the place she has changed more than any other in the penthouse. A 'media room,' the agent had called it; now it's her lararium. The candles have gone out, so she switches on a standing lamp by the doorway. The windows have all been covered by heavy swags of red fabric. The altar with the three small statuettes is at the center of the room. There are other works lining the walls, on pedestals or framed as appropriate: the Magdalene that Larissa described to Millicent at the party, a scrupulously preserved mosaic fragment, and more.

    She lets go of Millicent's hand to cross the room and pick up her phone from where she dropped it in front of the altar. The cracked case comes apart into two pieces, and the screen...

    She clears her throat. "These may be too delicate for me," she says of the device. "It isn't the first one I've broken." She doesn't clarify that she threw it down in wounded fury before leaving the penthouse to hunt Millicent. No doubt it's quite obvious.

[millicentclyde]

IT SHOULDN'T MAKE HER SMILE, the thought that she drove larissa to break a phone through mere words — and thoughtless ones, at that. millicent's never been good at that sort of thing. she slips out her own phone and turns her attention to it for a moment. google -> rabindranath tagore, collected short stories. that's for her to read later. it might beat reddit or captured and impr(egg)nated by the alien shapeshifter queen, volume 62.

she awaits no invitation to cross to the altar and put her hands on everything. there's something deeply naughty about it, because millicent should be handling these relics with gloves. she'd shoot anybody on her team for touching originals. but she's desperate to entrench herself in larissa's world. the contrast is heavy: this is one of the most modern apartments millicent has seen, yet its contents are plucked from the past. unknown material brushes the tips of her fingers. secret wonder underneath her palms. that smile-that-shouldn't-be brightens.

❛ what arrogance, ❜ millicent asks, ❛ when i was the one saying yay? ❜

she's turned away from larissa for a reason. millicent is ravenous. her eyes devour the room and, with it, what it means to be larissa. she circles the room urgently, with a goal of memorising every facet of larissa displayed openly for millicent to see. when she's gorged herself to satisfaction, she stops before larissa — larissa, magnum opus — and takes the broken phone to set on the altar. blasphemy? could be. but she needed to free larissa's hands, which she now takes with her own.

the hunger returns. and here she'd thought she was satisfied.

❛ everything is possible. ❜ again, what arrogance? it'll pale against millicent's and she's both ashamed and unashamed to admit it. ❛ I FOUND YOU. a week ago, we did the improbable — you, who should not be alive. i could've moved to iran with my mother, or i could have stayed at oxford, and we wouldn't never… ❜ but they did. she looks between those frightening, dazzling eyes that yearned for her last night and then were cast away, punished, upon being struck with the worst feeling: guilt. guilt inflicted by millicent, no less, to both sweeten and augment the poison. so her alien shapeshifter queen walks the earth. so millicent found her. she squeezes those cold hands that'll never retain warmth no matter how much of herself millicent pours into them. larissa is indestructible and vulnerable, fragile, her worth amounting to what millicent assigns. and millicent assigns her the worth of the world. she presses each hand to her lips — a moment to demonstrate that millicent will honour larissa in turn — and she thinks she might laugh. no, she does. it's small and delighted and doesn't capture a fraction of how millicent feels.

i was the one saying yay.

❛ would you give me the world if i asked for it? ❜ before, she'd only wanted larissa's world. now she's changed her mind. these are the inefficiencies of being human. these are the tendencies of being millicent clyde. ❛ tell me. PROMISE ME? ❜

[escapedartgeek]

zora keeps their focus on the birds, understanding in some ways that it is often easier to talk about the work, the process than much else. goodness knows that could be their approach to dealing with exhibitions when they participated in them.

but they do listen to her explanation about how the exhibitions change every few months. and they are a little bit intrigued by the notion of her choosing what she wants.

"hm. interesting. i suppose that must be nice to be able to make those calls in terms of what you want to focus on at a given moment." there's some bit of .. leeway, authority they supposed that came with it. although a part of them is curious what are the consequences of curating working in that particular way?

that's a question that they found themself ruminating over and will probably be pondering long after they have left this place.

"most closely related species.. i see, i see. i understand why that would be the leading approach at the moment."

when her eyes focused on them, zora raised an eyebrow a little bit.

"i mean.. i have some interest in the process of curation overall. having been to exposed to other ways of working in in my current profession, i was .. curious about how that might manifest in other circumstances. "

[millicentclyde]

SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THE CALLS. and if she didn’t make the calls, she’d be employed elsewhere. millicent doesn’t say that to the visitor, but she sets a hand on the heavy oak of one of the displays. cold, polished, sleek under her touch. she practices a smile.

❛ the members of the board have their own ideas about what sort of things merit demonstration. ❜ whatever. ❛ i'm of the opinion that if they cared as passionately about the direction of the museum as they claim, they'd resign and join our lowly ranks. ❜ but walls have ears and millicent is loath to have her words reinterpreted. ❛ what’s the saying? to plant a garden it to believe in the future? a lot of good it does to sit, as the board does, and order others to care for the garden while retaining the authority to choose the seeds. ❜ but that's enough. she turns that practiced smile to the guest and takes in their bright eyes. they're the kind of eyes that brim with questions. millicent's own curiosity is piqued.

❛ what’s your profession, if you don’t mind me asking? ❜ she wonders about the extent of their familiarity with curation. ❛ and what is your process? i hope you don't have a board to answer to. ❜

[terkaterr]

ah doing ma thing just like god int- (remembers im atheist) just like the universe intend- (remembers i don't believe in determinism) just like noone and nothing intended ever. doin ma thang fucking unpredictable style

[victoria-pedretti]

Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy LOVE STORY Season 1, Episode 4 — I Love You

[millicentclyde]

hc(?): millie’s position at the museum.

this isn’t really a headcanon so much as me thinking through millie’s chosen profession and what it says about her as a character. i don’t know at what point fleshing out something mentioned in canon becomes a headcanon. anyway. the plot of the show revolves around millie being a taxidermist. funnily enough, millie never describes herself as a taxidermist (and i believe that millie has a lot of trouble with and aversion to labels). mr. curry references taxidermy (and she shocks him with an electric collar like 2 seconds later so do with that what you will), but the musical is much less direct than the movie is. in the movie, millie specifically is the head of taxidermy which. um. that’s fine. but such a position does not actually exist. not that its functions don’t exist!!! like. someone is making the displays. but it’s not really the “head of taxidermy” or whatever. which like i said is fine. it’s a children’s movey. they wanted a taxidermist villain while highlighting london as the setting and the natural history museum is a staple.

the musical doesn’t say what, exactly, millie’s position is. but a) shes making an announcement about the museum closing in her very first scene and b) her “i want” song is about how much she likes stuffing things and throughout the song she comes to the conclusion that paddington is her next target. the song also buries the real reason behind her obsession with preservation; millie’s abandonment issues are not made clear until later in the show and her “i want” song frames her desires as stemming from a place of ambition: where my father failed/i will prevail/and once that bear is mine/i’ll be the best explorer of all time. her real motives are revealed later in act i and made exceedingly clear in act ii. also note: i think ‘explorer’ is one of or possibly the only label millie accepts. which is funny because babygirl is not really an explorer. there’s a whole character literally referred to as The Explorer and that’s her father. the reason she’s okay with the label of “explorer” is because she wants so badly to be seen and respected as an explorer and it’s just one of those things where she’s an incredibly stubborn and immature person and you told her she can’t join the geographers guild? well now she’s going to be the best explorer of all time and they’re going to regret it 😤

ANYWAY. my millie’s position is not strictly taxidermist. she’s a curator. and two things are very important here. 1) she’s a curator at a highly respected institution that gets millions of domestic and international visitors annually (in fact, the natural history museum is the top visitor attraction in the united kingdom) and 2) her exact position is senior curator in charge, which means she heads the entire zoology collection at the museum. millie reports to the museum director. lshe is one of the highest-ups and oversees at least a hundred employees. this is not an easy position to land and requires significant subject matter expertise and a combination of prior research experience and notable contributions to the field and an understanding of the function of a museum and the field of curation.

quick note. i think someone could make the argument that millie is a selfish, spoiled person and only fell into the position because of her wealth/connections but. eh. i have doubts about this because she seems to cherish her work and because a big point of the musical is that her father was blacklisted in the circles of natural history for his refusal to capture a peruvian bear. so actually i think it’s impressive millie got that position despite her family name, because anyone who knows anything about natural history knows the name clyde. and not in a good way!

so. back to millie. her position is at the intersection of science and art and management. she is a scientist and she is an artist and she is (not a nice) manager. although she fits into the like. classic cartoon villain stereotype (whiny, over the top, dramatic, evil in a way you can laugh at), she doesn’t fit neatly into a specific professional archetype. i do not consider her to be a mad scientist character (but she believes in the cause!!!!), but she is mad-scientist adjacent. she is a practitioner; she’s stuffs animals, but she’s not conducting experiments and furthering knowledge in the field. it’s tricky, though. her position requires a doctorate degree and a research background for a reason. although millie isn’t conducting cutting-edge research herself, she is constantly showcasing the newest advancements in the field of zoology and translating these visually and textually in a way that is digestible by an international general public. millie has an excellent network that spans the globe that consistently sends her research. in fact, many up-and-coming scientists send her their research so that she can elevate and amplify it. zoology and natural history students around the world desperately want to get on millicent clyde’s radar. whenever millie attends research conferences (which she does frequently!), she’s always approached by scientists trying to make a connection and she’s been a never-meet-your-heroes example for tons of hopefuls. unfortunately babygirl is not a nice person and if you try to approach her before 10am, especially if the conference is in a different time zone, she will take a hammer to whichever pedestal she’s been placed on. at least once she was at a conference and was swarmed by a group of young scientists as she was trying to leave and. uh. the crossbow came out and security had to intervene and escort her out.

so. yes. millie is very well known among the scientific community and very respected (even if many people know she’s. uh. got a challenging personality). BUT! millie is also an artist. and i think the musical does draw a comparison between mrs. brown as an artist and millie as an artist. their scenes are one after the other. mrs. brown sings her “i want” song and tries to connect with her daughter. millie sings her “i want” song and disparages her younger assistant grant. mrs. brown, the comic book illustrator, is the good artist. millie, the taxidermist, is the bad artist. i want to make if very clear that i don’t think millie is evil because of her interest in taxidermy. it’s perfectly fine to be put off by her interests and her obsession with taxidermy does stem from a desire to preserve things forever/keep things forever/never be abandoned again, but. being a taxidermist alone does not a villain make. i think millie sucks because she sucks. but, yes, taxidermy is an art even if it’s not pretty or palatable. millie thinks it’s pretty for the record. 🖤

while millie doesn’t identify as an artist, she’s very good at drawing because she sketches out her exhibitions to present to the museum director and the board before implementation. in her private life, millie sketches people she finds beautiful (she’ll sketch a stranger over a cup of coffee just because), but she doesn’t ever show these drawings to anybody because they’re For Her. she’s preserving someone she finds beautiful on a page in her private sketchpad and that’s that. she doesn’t sketch people for their benefit or knowledge. it’s for her own. she’ll also sketch animals and insects she happens to see and she’ll sketch a tree or a flower if she really likes it. #hersecretsketchpad

and millie genuinely enjoys her curation work, to include her taxidermy work. she’s a human being, so of course things about her job bore her/annoy her. she gets bored when the animals she’s stuffing feel too repetitive and she loathes some of the management/representational aspects of her job. for example, she frequently has to attend donor events and she finds those incredibly boring because the museum director has banned her from speaking about a great many topics. she also dislikes giving museum tours, but she only ever gives tours to very high-profile visitors. i’ll get into millie’s dynamics with the rest of the personnel at the museum later on but. yeah. this was just a place for me to gather thoughts about millie’s position and what, exactly, it is.

[stardial]

me

[millicentclyde]

millicent Clyde hands perfec t size for put paddington bear in to live (ignore crossbow)! millicent very Kind and Nice Taxidermist paddington bear will live happy put paddington bear with Millicent Clyde. Put Paddington Bear With Millicent Clyde. no problems ever with millicent clyde because good Taxidermist who love Animals and have big Museum for little peruvian bear looking for Home to live london and crossbow for Protecting bear. With Millicent Clyde yes a place for a paddington bear put paddington bear with millicent clyde can trust millicent for giveing good love to paddington. friend millicent