#sequel time baybee

[gingeragenda]

Purgatory - Chapter One

In the first chapter of the sequel to The Descent that I'm writing with @admirably-abhorrent River struggles to reintegrate back into life at Slough House and cope with the feelings and revelations awakened during the undercover mission.

Surprise motherfuckers we're BACK

Or if you need to begin at the beginning:

We Again Beheld The Stars Part 1: The Descent

[marlynnofmany]

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy writing a narrator who doesn't bother with a lot of dignity? I get to write things like "She stood proudly to her full height (armpit level), and declared..."

[wizisbored]

🎁🎁🎁 I know it's finished, but parent creature conference. It was so fun to read

“You still want me to walk you in?” Charles asks. He can’t pretend he understands teens perfectly, but he’s pretty sure your dad walking you to school at fifteen is ‘uncool’, and - for want of a kinder way of putting it - his daughter is not exactly at an advantage when it comes to being accepted by her peers. But she nods, and he doesn’t question further.

Ten minutes later, Lydia slings her schoolbag over her shoulder and the two set out. The school transfer has actually shortened her commute, to within walking distance now. Could be biking distance too, he’d suggested, and he’s perhaps unreasonably chuffed by the fact that she actually seems to be considering it. Charles spends the walk listening to Lydia talk about her latest favourite film. He’s not as good at really engaging with these things as Emily was, at least not yet, but he’s realised that a lot of the time his kid just wants an audience. He’s happy to be that for her.

They get to the school a little ahead of the majority of students, as planned. Charles walks his daughter to the reception entrance, his hand resting gently on her back as they step into the building. It seems to go very fast after that, Lydia’s been given a timetable and a laminated map and introduced to the teaching assistant who's going to help her find her locker, and he has to say goodbye.

“Let me know if you want picking up at the end of the day, okay?”

“Will do, old man.”

“Have a good day, Pumpkin.”

“Thanks Dad.”

And then she’s gone, and Charles is walking home alone with a knot of worry in his gut.

Scheduling a day working from home might have been slight overkill, Charles acknowledges, but he wants to be sure he can get to the school quickly. Just in case. He definitely wrote down his number correctly for Lydia’s emergency contact, right? Of course he did, he checked all of her paperwork five times. But maybe he should have done a sixth…?

His worrying is interrupted by the door of his home office being slammed into the wall. He doesn’t need to look up to know what’s going on.

“Lawrence, today is not the day for… whatever you’re up to,” he sighs.

“On the contrary, Chucky, I think you’ll find my timing is impeccable.”

Looking immensely proud of himself, he strides up to the desk, reaches inside his jacket, and pulls out a hardback book that he drops onto the desk with a definitive thump.

“Lyds reckons you’re getting stressed about raising a weirdo little medium kid,” he says.

“Is that what she said? Is that how she thinks I see her?”