#Lockwood and co spoilers

[multifandumbmeg]

Do you ever think about how Lucy not only left, she left right before/at the start of The Black Winter. More importantly, they don't have cell phones in timeline/The Problem UK.

Lockwood couldn't just call her or text to check in on her. There was no email. She left, making it clear she didn't want contact, and gave no address. For the entire BLACK WINTER- AKA the extreme height of ghost activity for the entire duration of the Problem. And she left to pursue her dangerous experiments with befriending ghosts that had already almost gotten her and others killed multiple times that year.

He had no idea where she was. If she was alive. All he had were newspaper obituaries.

When you look at it that way, it makes utter sense how unhinged he became when she was gone. How desperate and bereft he was. Every single person he has ever loved (apart from George, who almost does later) has died. And once he finally met someone strong enough to keep up with him, she left to dive headlong into the most danger that has literally ever existed.

No wonder he became an insane depressed feral nightmare boy. Wouldn't you?

[vryfmi]

i like that the more times you reread The Hollow Boy, the deeper and more complex the answer to “why did Lucy leave L&Co but kept the skull?” gets.

at first it's because skull confirmed Lucy’s talent and she says so herself in TCS. then it's because she knew she couldn't hurt it or bring it to its doom with her talent unlike Lockwood and others.

but ultimately the answer is that she was afraid that her actions would lead to Lockwood's untimely death, but it was Lucy who was rapidly approaching the other side, as her talent grew stronger as well as her connection to ghosts and the world of the dead. and, thinking that skull's the only one who understands being in two worlds at once, she, ironically, chose her companion to be the most life desiring character in the series, who didn't let her spiral during those months apart from L&Co.

[starwarsrebels]

#locklyle LOCKWOOD & CO. | 1.05

[catherineeverlasting]

Some Lucy and Lockwood after the Black Winter for your enjoyment <3 art by meeee

@jonathanstroud

[justjudethoughts]

Not to accuse Lockwood of being extremely malicious and petty, but I really want to know if he did this on purpose. Originally, I didn't think he possibly could have meant that to hit Lucy the way it does — but as I kept thinking, it got more and more curious.

1) Right after saying he has someone to thank, he deliberately makes eye contact with Lucy. You don't do that unless you are intending to thank THAT person, or because you are exchanging knowing glances about the coming statement. But Lockwood knows Lucy wouldn't be giddy to praise Holly. Which means, at the very least, he looks over at Lucy knowing she probably won't like what he will say next. Maybe he isn't intending to make Lucy believe he is preparing to thank her, maybe he just wants to see her reaction to Holly being praised. But either way, the eye contact bodes very badly for his intentions.

2) He knows how well Lucy did the night before. He also knows she was specifically fighting alongside him, for the first time in ages. And, as he admits later, he is intentionally holding her at a distance. I wonder if this is one of his tactics.

3) Lucy says she knows the connected the night before, but that she doubts Lockwood's ability to sustain a meaningful relationship. She obviously doesn't know this at the moment, but Lockwood is severing bits of the relationship on purpose. I wonder if he was a little freaked out by how well they clicked the night before, and this was "damage control."

Anyway, this all seems a big malicious of Lockwood, but golly, the eye contact line is just odd

[paranormaljones]

Honestly though I feel so awful for Lockwood in The Screaming Staircase. He extended an insane amount of mercy to Lucy considering his past. He lost his entire family to The Problem and more specifically his sister to a Visitor that was unintentionally let loose in his house. And then along comes Lucy who unleashes Annie Ward's ghost in his house twice (the first time unintentionally, the second 100% on purpose and without asking). Like, can you imagine what he was going through on both occasions and especially on the second when it was done on purpose??? And he barely even told her off for that one, though he was very clearly deeply upset about it at first. Babygirl I would have had a panic attack. That poor boy.

[blue-boxes-magic-and-tea]

sometimes i wonder if i would’ve survived seeing lockwood reject and separate himself from lucy like in the hollow boy. like … would i have survived that or just imploded on the spot? seeing it all before my eyes i think would’ve hurt so bad idk if i would’ve made it

[rubysunnday]

TOP TEN TELEVISiON SHOWS (as chosen by me) 9) Lockwood and Co (2023) ↳ “Pull yourselves together. You're elite Fittes agents, three of the best I've met. And I'm Anthony bloody Lockwood. Any one of us could see this lot off any day of the week. But all of us together? This will be a walk in the park.”

[krash-and-co]

not to be insane about her on main but you know I never stopped thinking about jessica right. you know I never stopped thinking about jess lockwood

shes like. she's JESS.

shes haunting the narrative. she's haunting lockwood. shes haunting nothing at all, in the literal sense, which is rather strange. shes in Lucy's face and the way she stands at the door. shes got lockwoods eyes, or maybe hes got hers. she's burned into her bedset. she's burned into her house. she's burned into wood. she's a broken pot. she's a clumsy rapier. she's waiting at the apple tree. shes sleeping under her covers. she likes stickers. she's a kid, she's a guardian, she's not going to take off the baby wallpaper in her bedroom. she's clung to youth. she's forced to grow up. she's younger than her baby brother. she's the world. shes important enough to die for. she's important enough to live because of. she's blue and swollen and on the floor and dead. she's pale and smiling and holding her brother in her lap, immortalized, shoved in a dresser drawer because somebody couldnt handle seeing her face.

she's that important. she's that important.

she's a lockwood, she's a mirror, she's lucy joan carlyle and anthony john lockwood and a reminder and a child and doomed, doomed, doomed in such a way that she could save everyone else.

she's the boxes lockwood couldn't open. she's the right time. she's warm feathers and stitches purposefully undone.

in her childishly wallpapered room, she is sitting, watching, cross legged on her bed.

[mellkellyismyhero]

i reread the empty grave last night and this is all i could think of during the final fight when skull comes in with a steel chair at the 11th hour

[multifandumbmeg]

Anthony Lockwood is an emotional chameleon. He changes how he interacts with people to be what they want and need.

Think about how he acts with George. They bicker, they insult each other, they're not touchy-feely, but they get each other. They care about each other. Lockwood treats him like this because that's what George likes: blunt, to the point, back-and-forth banter and sarcasm. He doesn't treat George's neurodivergence or eccentricities as a fault like others, he casually accepts or even lauds them. He's the hands-off but there when you need him friend George needed.

Think about how he treats Lucy. She doesn't realize this is why, which is the cause of much of her internal fury, but he tries to be what she seems to want. Lockwood gives Lucy a huge amount of freedom, doesn't push her to open up, celebrates and accepts her gifts at face value (especially in the books) but in the show when she makes clear what she doesn't want, he apologizes and changes course. He becomes comfortable with her quickly and doesn't treat her differently because she's a girl- he knows she can handle herself and she's just another member of the household, no judgement for being messy or lazy or looking wrecked like the rest of them. He knows that she is closed off and resentful when people pity her or acknowledge her pain, so he shows his affection in subtler ways, like making her toast and tea. Giving her precious things that are part of his past as a show of trust and attempt at vulnerability. Frequently praising her, but only when she truly deserves it, because she wouldn't accept it otherwise. Constantly showing her how much her life is worth to him, no matter how much it drives her crazy. His relationship with Lucy changes as his romantic feelings for her grow, and it gets harder for him to mask how he actually feels and wants to act.

Now here's the controversial one: Lockwood does not show Holly favoritism, nor is a malicious, manipulative monster pitting two women against each other. Every single thing about how Lockwood treats Holly differently can be attributed to him knowing her past and trying to be what she needs. He is helping her. Lucy's internal monologue of intense jealousy is a matter of insecurity. She sees Lockwood's gentleness with Holly as him seeing her as a "real girl" and Lucy herself as "just one of the guys" - read, not a romantic prospect. But Lockwood makes it clear who he favors soon enough: when Lucy decides to leave, he offers to fire Holly immediately because he knows of their feud. It is Lucy he can't live without. Lockwood is, in a word, polite to Holly. He is kind and friendly towards her because her previous boss abused her, and she is traumatized in a fundamentally different way than Lucy. Whereas Lucy hardened but sees the agent life as all she can do, all she is worth, Holly is paralyzingly traumatized by agent work. Which is exactly why he takes her out on cases slowly, watches out for her, and does everything he can to rebuild her confidence. He gets onto to Lucy rather than Holly because 1) Lucy became hostile immediately and fully started their conflict, 2) as mentioned before, Holly is traumatized by an abusive, toxic prior work environment. He's trying to make her feel safe here, and 3) He's completely unaware of how Lucy sees this behavior as a personal slight because he fully respects Lucy as an equal, which he thinks is a compliment.

Also, I think George sees Lockwood's ever-changing personality as completely par for the course. As a fellow neurodivergent, he thinks this parade of masks is how everyone interacts, Lockwood's just good at it.

In conclusion, Lockwood is simply a kind kid with pretty damn high emotional intelligence, which is frankly remarkable considering how alone he's been. Anthony Lockwood tries to be whatever anyone else needs, because there was no one to be it for him.

[vryfmi]

[id: a pencil drawing of Lucy Carlyle from Lockwood and Co books and a carrion crow. Lucy sits on the bench and is bent forward, looking at the crow sitting on her rucksack that is next to her. the crow looks at her as well./end id]

an old au that ive been simmering lately. au in which after the events of TEG, after skull's been silent for months, lucy keeps being followed by crows (or a crow) that keeps almost laughing at her and others whenever they fail at cases, keeps sitting at her windowsill and insisting on riding on top of her rucksack. lucy respects it's resentfulness of being invited inside though, she let's it be free.

[starwarsrebels]

"You won't stick around too long, sweetheart. Not when you find out what he's really like. Everyone leaves him in the end." LOCKWOOD & CO. | 1.02

[yellowraincoat]

I wonder sometimes what the L&Co crew did after they aged out of having the sight. Obviously Lucy makes some mention of them helping DEPRAC clear the other side and you can help with that even w/o sight thanks to the Orpheus society, but I don’t imagine they did that forever or even full time.

I’ve actually thought a LOT about what I think they end up doing as adults so… here’s an extremely long post about it:

George’s path is obvious to me. He becomes a foremost voice on the nature of the problem, and he’s able to go to Oxford for university (or the most prestigious UK university still running) on this basis. He gets a degree in history and goes on to a PHD. He then dedicates several years to writing a complete, multi-volume, history of the problem/agencies/corruption/visitors (which will go down in history as THE TEXT about the problem)

… I’ll put the rest under the cut bc this is fr going to be lonnnng

We also know from the existence of Lockwood and Co the books that Lucy at some point metatextually writes a memoir detailing the antics of Lockwood and co. (Which, go off girlboss, she did a great job.) For Lucy’s career path, I imagine that she is a formal DEPRAC partner for a time goes to the other side more than any of her other L&Co colleagues to help out.

This may be a weird take, but I also think that Lucy’s relationship with the Skull and all the weird experiments on ghosts she witnesses lead her to go all GHOST RIGHTS. She campaigns for seeing ghosts differently and repsecting the dead and works to get DEPRAC to create better regulations for how sources are treated when contained and advocates for figuring out how to release them to the other side rather than destroying sources as a first move. Idk I think it suits her relationship to ghosts; she’s definitely more invested in their humanity than other agents.

I don’t think Lockwood would try to hire young agents as a supervisor to keep the agency going after losing his sight. Especially since he’s aware that the problem is fading and considering he’d still have work available through DEPRAC. I think Lockwood spends his first few post-sight years in lots of therapy and takes time off from working since he’s been running a very intense business since he was like 14. I also think he foots the bill for Flo to get a therapist as well.

They’re both able to work through their grief and trauma from the people they’ve lost, Lockwood works through his habit of repressing his feelings, and Flo works through her feelings of being cornered while in doors. Flo eventually moves into Portland Row, and she and George and Lucy and Lockwood spend most of their young adult lives (whole lives if you ask me) living in the same house or living right next door to each other.

As for Lockwood’s actual career path I think Lockwood’s would make it his life’s work to share his parents findings. He spreads the traditional burial practices and ways to ward off ghosts like that Lockwood’s parent’s researched to help people protect themselves from ghosts around the UK as the problem fades.

I don’t know that I see Flo having a real job. I could see her in advocacy for housing insecure youth (we know London has MANY due to the Problem) but I’d also like to see her have a relaxing-ass life. Enjoy therapy and her friends, date George, plant a vegetable garden. Flo’s never cared much about material goods so I could see her working odd jobs here and there to help contribute to Portland Row Expenses, but mostly focus on nonprofit work and political activism while enjoying her life.

I think both Kipps and Holly stay on at Lockwood and co until it permanently disbands, then I imagine they both work to advocate for the rights of former agents in some capacity. If Holly could further her eduction I think she’d work in the legal system, maybe working in administration/research on cases that are attempting to hold leaders of the Orpheus society and high up Fittes and Rottweil people accountable for compensating traumatized former agents. Oh and she asks out that girl from DEPRAC she was living with (and they were roommates oh my god they were roommates)

I think Kipps might (after he’s matured a bit) get involved with a young adult professional development program trying to address all of the former agents and nightwatch kids who forwent education at a young age to hunt ghosts and help them access free education and classes to gain new marketable skills as the ghost hunting industry declines and kids age out of the sight. He also stops beefing with teenagers (so much) and lives out his destiny as surrogate brother/20 year old adopted father to Lucy George and the rest. And he gets himself a husband bc he deserves it 😤

As for the Skull… I’m in the camp that he does return and he occasionally stops by Portland Row to chat with Lucy and pull poltergeists type pranks on the other residents. When Lucy can no longer hear him 🥲 I still think he sticks around for a while, making his presence known by moving objects and helping keep the house cool in the summer (yayyy ghost chill), he also still speaks to Lucy when she does work on the other side with DEPRAC. But eventually, maybe when Lucy’s in her late twenties, the skull feels ready to move on, and Lucy visits to the other side to say good by and help him pass on.

[catherineeverlasting]

This was my first artwork with a deadline in a LONG time, but thank you to @bobbys-not-that-small for the amazing project and motivation to create a new Locklyle piece :) all my love to Locknation. Happy two years <3

[justjudethoughts]

Dancing phantoms on the terrace, are they second-hand embarrassed?