A Little Matthew Montage To Celebrate Our First Sightings Of Carl Morck. Whoop. Thank You, Netflix. 🥰

CYMB Lazar. Just ‘cos.

Used the Jake Spicer Scrawlrbox 115 and this reference image from Downton Abbey.

Mood: Lazaar / languor

Refusing to do his vampire thing. And driving Ana to distraction. Imaginary, inexpert edits on an Abigail theme.

Wrote a little bit to go with these on AO3. It waffles. It’s undercooked or overcooked. A bit much or not enough. Can’t really decide. But - happily - it’s just for fun.

Edits above using Procreate ✍️

📷 Beautiful original photos (below) by Iain McKell, Phil Fisk and Joe Gillespie. Dress is from Reformation. 📷

(Just in case you needed some kawaii vamps in your feed). 🧛🖤

⬆️ Photo-collage-fan-faffery / the wanderings of my mind as I read the Department Q books

Windswept scenario - Department Q

Above is another (imaginary) candid snap of ‘The Carl and Rachel dance’. It’s early on in the dance - book 2 ish - at the point when the screenwriters have forced them together on the beach (somehow?!) and there’s such a vibe: he’s definitely interested but she still needs a lot of convincing. It’s a bright day but breezy and stickily, saltily damp; the sea spray is everywhere and the fresh air is electric between them. They’re asked to pose for a photo (who knows why?!) and Carl leaps at the opportunity to put his arm around her. It’s a touch - a contact - that’s not happened before. The warmth of him makes her stomach churn deliciously and she dips her gaze and smiles at the realisation. The camera catches the moment. Then the contact is broken. They look coyly - sideways and both suppressing smirks - at each other before continuing along the beach with the rest of the group.

[Cut to some dark, harrowing kidnap scenes - this is a thriller after all].

—

In the books, Adler-Olsen gives only the most tantalising glimpses of ‘The Dance’ between these two. Hence my ramblings 😂 I wonder how the dynamic will pan out in the show. Towards the end of Department Q Book 1 in Carl’s internal monologue, he confesses to being ‘crazy’ about her, despite her wearing a wedding ring (which is later removed). Adler-Olsen leaves us to guess what changes her mind eventually. But if Carl Mørck looks like Matthew Goode it’s not that much of a mystery, is it? 😂🫠

📷 Original pics from @asgoodeasgold (I’m so envious that these are actually your pictures I could cry) and Wikipedia; faffed around with, inexpertly, by me 📷

⬆️ Fan-Photo-Art-Collage-Faffing-Around (still!) imagining an epilogue to Abigail (2024)

This imaginary mini epilogue scenario for Abigail (2024) popped into my head (can’t seem to shift Lazaar this week). Joey goes back to the house after a week or so. I know that really she wouldn’t go back… and if she did, she’d likely be 💀 BUT happily this isn’t real and I’m a hopeful romantic. Especially when there are vampires who look like Matthew Goode involved. Even in a horror film. It seems. Unwise, perhaps. But just for fun 🎡.

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(Imaginary) Mini Epilogue - A Visitor

— Characters are not mine (obvs): they are borrowed from the writers of Abigail (2024) —

When every self-protective instinct in your body begs you to fly but you don’t.

When you feel yourself submitting and you know that’s all part of it.

The plan.

Whose plan?

Is it his plan? Or was it yours when you returned here to this godforsaken place?

Has it been your plan since the moment you first felt his crisp touch on your skin?

Physically, you might be in turmoil but there’s no mental unrest here. Only serene, sacrificial curiosity.

And white-hot desire.

He’s studying you now. Pondering your reappearance. But it is not yet the look of a hunter appraising his prey. There’s a wisp of gentleness in the air between you.

“Ana,” he rumbles, with a depth that rattles through your chest.

He knows your name. Your real one at that. Did he ask? Was he told? What did they say about you? The fact that you’ve had air time in their family life brings a slight smile to your face. Abigail squeezes your hand, which you’d forgotten was holding hers in the moment he appeared, silently beneath the trees, out of the tepid dark air.

The vampire doesn’t know what to do with a smile from you. Yet. His chin recoils slightly and his eyes narrow.

“You’re here,” he observes. The old-worldly way he pronounces the second word widens your smile.

He looks to Abigail for an explanation of your presence - long past dusk, in their garden - but the girl simply shrugs and returns his steely stare.

“I came to check up on Abigail,” you hear yourself asserting as your focus is drawn to his hands adjusting the collar on his fawn cashmere sweater, exposing the pale skin of his neck.

He glances down towards his feet, suppressing a scowl that you suspect is defensive and guilt-ridden; you can’t feel the anger he emanated the last time you met.

“Ah,” he raises his magnetic gaze and your breath stops as you register gratitude in his expression.

His head still bowed towards you, he massages the back of his neck with slender fingers. You contemplate how he smells, right there, at the base of his hairline.

“Very well,” he nods and you feel Abigail squeeze your hand once more.

The vampire bows slightly lower, turns and begins to walk back towards the house. You watch his retreat appreciatively, his tall frame stalking across the darkened lawn, his overcoat billowing at the mercy of his long strides. You know that, once he’s safely shrouded in the shadows of the house, he’ll turn back to look at you.

And you wonder what the next move will be.

📷 photos above faffed around with using Procreate (my current obsession); I think if I were to start again from scratch I’d just use a straight-up Lazaar screenshot as I struggled to make MG as MDCM into him - think I need to elongate his face or something and then obviously there’s the mouth - but I learnt a lot by trying - and it’s all just for fun/ to express an idea so perfection’s unnecessary, I say. Original screenshots/ photos below - please let me know if the MG one is your edit and I’ll add credit; I saved it without any intention of using it (besides appreciating his withering side eye) but then this idea popped into my head and now I can’t find where I got it. Sorry ❤️📷

OK. Now you made me need a ‘Covenant Breaking’ section in all lingerie departments. Just next to ‘Mix and Match’.

(🔊 on) A Discovery of Witches Real Time Read Ch17

"I want to take you home."

Matthew wants to take Diana to Sept Tours so he can protect her.

This is my favourite scene in the whole show, their coming together and leaving Oxford to meet their future. It's so unbelievably romantic and swoony and exciting, it gives me all the feels 💓💓💓

And the way Matthew looks at Diana 💓🫠

📷 Sky/Bad Wolf A Discovery of Witches (2018) s1:03 my edits

🎶 Rob Lane

💛🩶🖤 Lazaar and Joey 4EVA (in my mind at least) 🖤🩶💛

Inspired by some of the amazing Good Omens fan art out there, I experimented with a different style and a new (MaxPacks) brush set in Procreate. This sketch is intended to capture loving a vampire - not knowing if he’s going to bite you or kiss you… and feeling happy either way 😜 Still not over Lazaar and Joey, evidently 😂

Added some yellow options especially for @asgoodeasgold because she LOVES a yellow filter 😜😬🙃

📷 References used: screenshot edit by @asgoodeasgold (below) and photo on Melissa Barrera’s instagram 📷

mixed media fan-art-photo-faffing - just for fun

Dinner time?

Fan Art/photo faffing made with Procreate using screenshots from the film Abigail. Could still use a bit of work but you get the picture, hopefully. My head is full of vampires (again) following the release of The Black Bird Oracle 🧛❤️

⬆️ Fan Photo Collage using extract from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and stills from the TV Show

My favourite book in the whole world. Ever.

I was out and about yesterday and found a well-loved copy of ‘A Discovery of Witches’ in the local train station book swap.

⬆️ A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (p175)

Part of me wanted to leave it for someone else to discover the absolute magic (literal and figurative) of it; part of me was delighted with the connective sign from the universe and part of me grabbed it with both hands as I’ve lent my copy out and am really missing it. I delved into it straight away and got wonderfully lost for the entire train journey.

To celebrate, I edited together a little extract (p175), just for fun, which tries to capture the delectable sensory overload to be found in the writing and the show itself. Can’t really put into words how much I love it.

Carl’s trying (and failing) to enjoy a cup of tea in a greasy spoon on the beachfront. Who’s sitting opposite him, I wonder… 🤔

📷 Photo faffing (imperfect and just for DQ fun) - original photo of MG by Uli Weber for Style Italia and of the greasy spoon from whynow.co.uk blog 📷