All things considered, Moira supposes, her life's taken some worse turns. Ready though she is to get out of here, at least no one's actively threatening the lives of herself or friends. Rahne's not getting married on a mad whim and that whole day turned out just to be one massive mistake anyway. She's restless, but she'll deal. That part's been a ( Read more... )

There was only a particular, defined role denial could play and a set term for how long it could be clung to. Mrs. Lovett in her life had grown and come to a sort of agreement with denial, a familiar pattern to which she could fall into, play out and hold in place until it was inevitably time for the security to be let go and turned away, it's ( Read more... )

While Miss Dearheart preferred to wear her heels as much as possible, on the island that wasn't really a practical possibility. Besides hygiene, the heels themselves were suffering considerable wear, so that was her excuse for taking a walk in bare feet down the beach that morning ( Read more... )

Lately, an obsession with escaping this world by his own means had occupied Lord Asriel's mind. He spent days on end pouring over schematics in the kitchen of his house on the beach. And in his recent fit of seclusion, he had neglected to visit any of the Island’s public facilities for far longer than he should have. The post room, for instance: ( Read more... )

There was something going on that had a bee up everyone’s skirts, and if Mrs Lovett hadn’t been so attentive to her cooking that morning, she’d have made an effort to get an ear full of it. Sad to say cooking for a group was no time for gossip (not that she was a gossiper at all, but a woman couldn’t help but be curious when there were people ( Read more... )

Adora Belle Dearheart was really not a self-centred woman ( Read more... )

He'd come to the Compound in search of something to mark the missing of a friend. Somehow, he thought he'd be used to it now, like having it happen so often would put you into the frame of mind that let a man deal with the constant blows of loss and death. The loss of the Mystic Man had pierced him thick in the heart and losing Adora forever had ( Read more... )

Adora Belle didn't check her mail all that often. She didn't see the need for a mailbox in the first place, but Moist or someone must have talked her into it or gone ahead and given her one regardless, because that day she had checked said box and, to her surprise, found something inside ( Read more... )

"What does it do?"

What it does, what it will do, is get them out of there, and fast. Stirling hands her the keys, and, suddenly, she's dying for a bloody cigarette ( Read more... )

It had not taken long, with the extra labour, to construct a house of decent proportions there on the edge of the beach beside the cooling glassworks. In fact, Lord Asriel was pleased with the outcome - it promised to make this world livable, if only in the barest senses of the word. The roof was tall with a vented ceiling, allowing air to ( Read more... )