#daphne reccs

[poppletonink]

BOOK REVIEW: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

★★★★★ - 5 stars

"If violet-eyed men are a gift from God, violet-eyed women are an unfortunate side effect."

Andrew Joseph White's sophomore novel, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is a Victorian-based, queer, fantasy-horror piece that divulges details about real-world issues, and tells a powerful tale of gore, ghosts and friendship. In a world where the veil between the living and the dead has thinned, we meet Silas Bell. We follow him as he attempts to escape an arranged marriage; is diagnosed with the mysterious 'Veil sickness' (that only effects people of violet eyes) and is shipped off to Braxton's Boarding School, where the ghosts of missing students plea for his help. All the while, Silas undergoes a powerful journey about identity, the power we weild and the importance of finding friendships with those who are of a similar mind to us. Throughout, White uses beautifully poetic writing to express profound ideas about the world we live in, such as Silas' feelings about his identity and the fear of death many are akin to. Even so, it remains a painfully sorrowful tale, and its depictions of medical gore are graphic, detailed and horrifying; it is certainly not for the faint of heart. The diversity in this book is outstanding with an autistic, transgender (female to male), bisexual main character and a transhet (t4t) relationship at its heart. The characters are authentic, multifaceted constructs that express feelings that many will relate to, and open your eyes to a completely new world-view. As this is a historically accurate Victorian novel, sexism, abelism and transphobia runs rife within the society we are presented with, and yet, Silas questions and denies these ideas perfectly and in a way that we can all learn from. Ghosts, boarding schools and missing girls in a terribly twisted society - The Spirit Bares Its Teeth has it all. An exceptional and spellbeing piece of literature: this is the perfect book for every horror lover out there to pick up from their local bookshop and to spiral down a rabbithole of reading.

[callsignecholimamike]

Loved this!! Incredibly haunting, lively writing, gripping story. Really awesome character study. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.

[claireelizabethsblog]

~ March's Book(s) Reviewed ~

So.... March was the month of life catching up 😅

Unfortunately I only managed to read one book this month, it was a good one at least. But yes, I didn't have nearly enough time nor head space to dedicate to reading books this month as I would have liked. I was still reading every night, just unfortunately the novels took a bit of a back seat as I was reading a lot of academic papers and then countering those heavy intellectual readings with lots of comforting fanfictions of previously read books. Fingers crossed April will allow me to get back into the novels at my usual rate!

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

(302 pages)

I really liked this book. It was a fairly easy read, which was something necessary for this month, and the mystery element was fun and well done. Some of the wording and themes and characterisations were a little dated, but generally still a really enjoyable read.

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

[daphnedauphinoise]

Heyy Daphne

Do you have any book recs on antropology

I only have one book recc ( on my tbr) and a podcast episode:

Veiled Sentiments

Summary:

Lila Abu-Lughod lived with a community of Bedouins in the Western Desert of Egypt for nearly two years, studying gender relations and the oral lyric poetry through which women and young men express personal feelings. The poems are haunting, the evocation of emotional life vivid. But her analysis also reveals how deeply implicated poetry and sentiment are in the play of power and the maintenance of a system of social hierarchy. What begins as a puzzle about a single poetic genre becomes a reflection on the politics of sentiment and the relationship between ideology and human experience.

Podcasts:

Podcast episode with Dr. Tanya Luhrmann who discusses religion and anthropology of mind

Daphne x

[asheurbanipal]

Where Did That Good-Guy Thing Come From?

<<Previous:

Venom, Eddie x Venom, symbrock

Explicit

6.5k words

Content: anal sex, canon typical violence, homophobic language, mention of child abuse

Ep 4 in series

On Ao3

Summary:

A new difficulty arises for Venom and their erstwhile ward, Spider-Man: an imposter in the famous blue and red suit! One of Peter's classmates, a kid named Dylan who's shrewder than he looks, may also present a new challenge.

"Uh, hi. I'm Eddie. That was a pretty good introduction, thanks." He nodded at Ms. Daphne Smith, science teacher and sponsor for the Gay-Straight Alliance at Midtown High. This particular meeting was one of the special ones where several high schools got together at one of the recc centers in Queens. 

"So Peter--" Eddie nodded to him a couple rows back in the cluster of chairs. "Pitched me this great story. I took it to my boss, and he loved it. So basically the premise is 'what do you as LGBTQIA+ teens want the straight adults in your life to understand about you and your experiences?' An article to sort of…bridge the gap. Something in your own words. So I'll just be hanging out here afterward. If you're interested in talking to me, just come say 'hi.' I promise I don't bite." 

Peter gave an extremely loud snort-laugh on that. 

"Um. Alright! Cool!" Eddie gave a little wave then retreated to one of the corners while they finished up their usual business. 

That went okay, right?

The hormones in here are killing me. How much longer will this be?

Chill out sweetheart. We're working. I'll get you some chicken after this. Bones and all. 

Then perhaps, we can engage in some…amorous congress…

Only if you stop calling it that. 

Amoroussss Congressss

I fucking hate you. 

"Eddie, thanks for taking my pitch seriously. I tried it with Jonah, and he told me to 'stick to pictures, kid.'" Peter had appeared at his elbow. Eddie leaned back against the wall. 

"Eh, he's always been an old fuddy-duddy," Eddie said.

"Yeah, okay, the guy saying 'fuddy-duddy' doesn't have room to talk on that." 

Eddie shoved him in the shoulder and Peter pretended to flail dramatically. 

"Pete, is this…like…the guy?" Another kid rolled up on Peter's elbow. Maybe a year younger, soft with round angles, dirty blond hair. 

"When you say it like that, it sounds messed up, but like, yeah. But don't be weird about it."  Peter flashed quickly between Eddie and the blonde. "So this is Dylan. He's a freshman. He was actually my 'little' when I volunteered at Fish Camp, but then he joined the GSA. So…yeah…"

"Some of those were words I understood," Eddie said. "What about your friend Harry?"

"Harry doesn't…Harry doesn't get this kind of stuff." Peter rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Liz is who he really wishes was here," Dylan muttered.

"Shut the eff up, Dylan," Peter said. 

"Oh my god, just say 'fuck,' dude," Dylan said. Peter flicked away from the harder profanity, though. Eddie had noticed that, too, and had actively tried to tone down his language in response. 

"Dylan, did you want to do the interview?" Eddie asked, trying his best to shift attention from Peter. Dylan blanched white. 

"Um….can I do it anonymously?" His eyes darted around the room, searching for something else to look at. 

"Yeah, absolutely. I'll give you a little fake name." He knew Dylan wouldn't be the only one who asked that question, and it would be something he could turn into a story in and of itself. 

"Dude, did you just straight up come out in the newspaper?" Spider-Man flicked the morning edition at him, mask raised to just under his nose to scarf down a breakfast burrito.

"I don't know…maybe a little." Eddie ate their own breakfast in their street clothes. "I just sort of acknowledged the complexities of sexuality and that like…sometimes people might be a part of the alphabet community in a way that's more complicated than it might seem on the surface. That's all."

"Alphabet community?"

"Is that…is that not what you kids are calling it?"

"Absolutely not."

That's not what the internet says.

"Not gonna argue with an actual teenager about it."

"Hey! It's Spider-Man!" A voice from the sidewalk called up the side of the building with a hoarse morning yodle. "How's it hangin'?"

"The usual!" Spider-Man shot back with a little wave. The pedestrian sort of drifted over Eddie, half-nodded, then kept moving. During the shit with Carnage, he had temporarily become the kind of a journalist an average person might recognize on the street. Now, he got to hide behind being "some dude who worked for the newspaper." It was an easy cover for being seen with Spider-Man, in person. Of course some guy on the crime-beat might meet up with Spider-Man sometimes! He was the friendly neighborhood arbiter of street-level justice!

At the same time, Eddie didn't like this. Didn't like the exposure Spider-Man was putting on himself. Their "patrolling" usually started a little after sundown, and Venom forced Spider-Man to go home at 1am (a negotiation from midnight). They took another swing through the streets then went to bed themselves. Sometimes The Other took some playtime out and about, but often they were satisfied to loll about in bed watching movies. 

Statistically, crime was more likely at noon than 2am, so there wasn't actually a reason to be out all hours of the night. Peter took this to mean they should increase their presence around the city during the day. For Venom, that wasn't exactly an option. Eddie had begged Peter to find the balance between the two, that if he was fighting crime day and night, he would have no time for an actual life. Spider-Man's "compromise" was just shifting his hours around to evenings, afternoons, and early mornings. Which ended up being more hours, collectively. 

The kid was incorrigible. 

Eddie checked his watch.

"You need to get to school, Spider-Bro," he said gently. 

"Yeah, I'm waiting for the bus." 

"Just swing back to Queens. What are you talking about?"

"Nah, Liz's bus. She's with her dad this week, so she has to bus back in. Want to make sure she makes it." Spider-Man nodded to a girl running down the sidewalk to the stop, trying to make it just ahead of the bus rolling up the street behind her.

"Is that…is that the girl you have a crush on?"

"Y-yeah…" The small sliver of visible face under the slightly lifted mask blushed red hot. "We're in first period together, and if she misses this bus, she ends up being late. It happens all the time. Just want to make sure she gets there." Liz made it in time, stopping with a huff behind the long line of riders. She glanced up, caught Spider-Man out of the corner of her eye, then gave him a little smile and wave. Spider-Man waved back. 

"And if she didn't make the bus?" Eddie asked. 

"Offer to swing her across the city piggy-back style. You know…like…as a good deed." Spider-Man pursed his lips under the mask. 

"None of this strikes you as creepy?"

"I mean…maybe…whatever. Not like I'm actually stalking her." But of course he was a genuinely good kid at the center, so he could hear how terrible this all sounded when he said it outloud. 

"You're a weird kid," Eddie said, patting him on the back. 

"You have no room to talk. You bang a goo alien." 

"Yes, but I've accepted my weird and engage with it in a harmless manner that doesn't affect anyone else."

"Bro…" Spider-Man reared back in surprise. 

"What?" Eddie replied. 

"You're not supposed to admit to that kind of thing." Spider-Man pulled his mask down over his last bite of food. "I'm going to be thinking about that all day, now." 

"Kinda xenophobic, bud. Not very affirming of my non-traditional romantic relationship. Very cis-heteronormative of you." 

Spider-Man punched him in the arm, hard.

"You're such an asshole," he said, swinging down and away across the facade of the building. 

"Using our big-boy swears!" Eddie called after him. 

Be nice Eddie. I don't want to lose him.

"We're just goofing, sweetheart." He rubbed his symbiote-made shirt in affection, then swung his feet back over the edge of the roof. "Okay, we've got the all-hands at the office, but my meeting with that detective isn't until 11am. So maybe we can sneak a nap in the break room." Eddie yawned. 

We need to sleep more, beloved. We don't have to meet him here in the mornings. 

"Yes, I do." 

Yeah. Okay. That's fair.

Detective DeWolff's office wasn't the most austere he'd ever been in. Not that he was overly familiar with the interiors of the various police agencies, but they weren't a total mystery. Working various crime-beats brought him across those pathways and straits more than the average upright citizen. 

Upright citizen…

I was until you came along. You're a corrupting influence. 

Am I?

A tendril pressed around the base of his cock under his khakis. 

Don't you fucking dare. 

"Mr. Brock, thank you for coming to meet me." 

Jean DeWolf passed through the door while his back was turned, looking over her collection of medals and honors and references books. Just enough time for The Other to put his body back into a more appropriate state. She signaled he should sit as she closed the door. 

"You're a smart man, Eddie, so I'm not gonna sugar coat this." She dropped a manilla file on her desk and leaned back in the chair, setting the whole interaction off-kilter. "This is about Spider-Man."

Eddie leaned back in his own chair, a stiff thing meant to make the sitter uncomfortable. 

"I don't know who he really is Detective DeWolff," he said. If they were going to be upfront, he wasn't going to bury the lede in defensive objections.

"And even if you did, you wouldn't tell me. Journalistic integrity. No. I get it." She rotated her chair in a little arc. "Everything on the table, I've met him, too. I get a good feeling from him." 

Peter hadn't told him about that. Not that the kid owed him a blow by blow of his day, but he would have thought having a run-in with such a high ranking detective would have crossed their conversation at some point. 

"You were in San Francisco when all that shit went down," DeWolff said obliquely. Eddie nodded noncommittally. "There are rumors crawling up through the woodwork of more of these people kicking around."

"Like Mr. Goo-guy from outer space?" Eddie offered, crossing his arms over his chest. DeWolff visibly hitched. She hadn't expected that. 

"Not specifically…You think it's real?"

"The goo-guy?" Now he'd found himself in a jumble of conversation he hadn't expected. 

How are we playing this, sweet?

Deny. Deny. Deny. Can't nail you down if you don't know anything, right?

"I've never seen it in person," Eddie settled on. "I've asked Webs about it, and you probably already know what he says." 

"'Ms. DeWolff, I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't know what people are going on about.' Ignoring all the eye-witnesses that have seen them together."

"You know how eyewitnesses are…"

"Hm." She cast him a sideways glance. "'Webs?'" Eddie just shrugged. She leaned across the desk, elbows hitting it hard. 

"I asked you to come by because I have a proposal. Something to help keep this city safe that doesn't cross your journalistic boundaries. If you get any hint that shit is about to go sideways, you don't go vigilante first. You call the police. You give us a heads up. You're just some guy, Eddie. If the safety of the city is at risk, there are people better equipped to handle that than someone like you."

Eddie considered her for a long moment, mulling her words against his better senses.

She's scared, Eddie. I can smell it.

Do you think she's suspicious?

I can't smell that. That's the kind of thing you usually have to figure out. 

Fuck.

Eddie leaned forward on his knees. 

"I'm not out here trying to be some kind of superhero. Just a reporter who happened to make a friend who's down on the ground dealing with crime. Haven't even put together a decent pitch on him, yet, because I'm trying to figure out the backside of Jonah's 'Spider-Menace' headlines. So I'm not out here to get in the way of the police doing their job." He lifted his hands in acquiescence. 

DeWolff stood from the desk. 

"That's all I needed." She reached across to offer a shake which he took gladly with sweaty, nervous hands. "That Peter kid actually take those photos?" She asked while in a death grip around his hand. Eddie wriggled out of it.

"I have no idea what's going on there. I've got some speculation, but I don't want to start rumors. Not my place."

She let him go with a non-committal nod and a raised eyebrow. 

I don't like this, Eddie.

Something specific?

The attention. 

Use to not care about that kind of thing. Had to fight you to keep it in your pants. 

That was before. 

A tendril pressed around the crest of his hips as he moved down the street in front of the precinct headquarters, pushing into his skin to press the point. 

We'll stop hanging around Peter in his suit so much. Maybe get him seen with some other reporters. We haven't been doing the best job keeping our head down. 

Eddie did a little turn as he moved down the sidewalk, looking up at the building behind him. He could track DeWolff's office, and seemed to find the shadow of her watching him out the window. His eyes flashed to the top edge of the building where a figure swung free across the alley.

"Spider-Man," he said softly. "Spider-Man?!" Eddie went to his phone quickly. He had Spider-Man and Peter as two different people in his contacts, the one for the costumed hero going to a cheap, untraceable, burner that he himself had bought. He considered all the implications in that moment. He texted Spider-Man.

"Are you at the police station?" he typed, then waited what he hoped would be a long moment before he got a reply. 

"No?" Spider-Man replied after long enough to suggest he had to sneak it out to look at in class. Hopefully he'd be smart enough to not draw more attention to himself. 

It's not him, Eddie. I can't sense him. I sense…something else…

"I know, buddy. Stay tucked. Something's going down."

The next phone call was to DeWolff. 

"You look very distressed calling me from the sidewalk, Mr. Brock."

"I just saw someone pretending to be Spider-Man swinging from your rooftop. I think you might need to check that your house is in order."

The voice on the other side of the line hesitated. 

"Why are you so sure it was someone pretending to be Spider-Man and not the real thing?"

"Gut feeling. Journalistic instincts."

"Hm." She hummed in consideration. "We'll see." The phone clicked with a sense of urgency. 

"Can you track the fake?" Eddie asked. 

If you go now before I lose the scent. 

Connecting to The Other in his more mundane form was weirder than fully suiting up. The symbiote moved their body as they tracked the scent trail left behind, but his muscles didn't want to move at the speed Venom was desperate to get them too. They couldn't climb like this, either, relying on their internal map of the neighborhood to move them down side streets and alleys. 

"There he is." The red and blue body swung around the edge of a building then dropped down behind a cluster of dumpsters at the very end of the narrow road. They slammed hard into the metal of the dumpster, hopping up onto the lid to look behind. No Spider-Man. Just a very confused teenager in an apron for the nearby pizza place and a bag of trash. 

"You see Spider-Man come through here?" Eddie panted. 

"Literally just walked out," he replied. 

Eddie nodded, holding a stitch as he made to move down the street.

Eddie. Wait. The pizza kid.

"What?" Eddie shot back down, careening around the edge of the dumpster. Sitting on the dirty street was a bag of garbage and an apron. 

"And you're sure it's not alien stuff?

"I'm sure, beloved. At least not my kind of alien." 

It was their usual post-work, pre-vigilante routine, taking in some quick calories while they waited for the sun to go down. They'd had the same conversation for two weeks now, now, constantly on the alert for the fake. They thought he'd disappeared until a blog post a few days later. "Spider-Man" had been seen breaking and entering in a few mid-high end neighborhoods. Luckily, based on the comments, most people were pretty sure it was an imposter, bolstered by the fact that Spider-Man had been helping in other parts of the city over the course of the week. Unluckily, it was also because no one had seen "the goo monster" during these break-ins, and "everyone knows Goo-Guy hangs out with Spider-Man at night."

The Other draped their body around his shoulders in heavy ropes as he downed a protein shake. The matter fondled him gently through his boxer briefs and over his bare chest. It wasn't the sort of touching that was intended to lead to anything, The Other just liked to feel…to caress…to squeeze their tendrils into small places from the outside. 

The Other pressed their forehead to his temple. 

"If they're mimicking the kid, they'll show up again. We'll find them. They'll slip up." The Other pecked him on the highest part of his cheek. That little peck turned into kissing, deep and undulating as they dived into the crevices of his mouth with a quickening pace. Tendrils wrapped around him tighter, covering his body in mass. 

"You are so unfathomably gross. I can't stand it." 

Eddie pulled away, releasing himself from the matter. 

"And you need to learn to knock, at some point. These are the consequences of your own actions." 

Peter was standing at his window, turning into Spider-Man underneath his street clothes. 

"Put clothes on. You're about to have a visitor. Watched your neighbor buzz her in." Spider-Man dropped his mask down, and sat on the ledge of the window.

The Other had just finished making him some jeans and a fake band t-shirt when the knock on the apartment door came. 

"Mr. Brock. It's Detective DeWolff. I'd like to speak with you."

"Welcome in, Detective DeWolff." Eddie swung the door open dramatically. "We are joined by our mutual friend Spider-Man." He gestured to the web-slinger who was now perched on his work desk. 

"Oh…well." DeWolff's glance paused over him as she moved into the apartment. 

"If you try to arrest me, I'll flee," Spider-Man half-joked. But only half. That half was extremely important. 

DeWolff's boots made little clunky sounds as she moved across the parquet floor just enough to establish a presence in the room. 

"You're not on my list, at the moment, Spider-Pal. Not until I have actual evidence, you, specifically, did something wrong. But don't get comfortable. Bit glad you're here, though." She pulled a notepad out of her purse. "Mr. Brock, can you tell me exactly what you saw on the roof that day at the police station? When we had our meeting?"

"You didn't tell me you had a meeting," Spider-Man pouted.

"A-shush." Eddie hopped up the stool under the kitchen island. "It's not that much. I was walking out of the building, happened to look back up, then I saw someone in red and blue swinging around the top of the building. I thought it was Spider-Man, at first, but then something didn't seem right. He just didn't…look right. That's when I called you. Then I decided to follow the guy."

DeWolff perked up at that part. 

"But I lost him. I think I can show you where." He pulled out his phone to pull up maps. 

"Yes, please." DeWolff moved closer, but retained her distance. "Was there something specific that led you to think it wasn't this guy?" She pointed at Spider-Man vaguely.  

"Been watching him flip around for months, now," Eddie shrugged. "Could just tell? I don't really know what to tell you." Spider-Man was smart, realizing that Eddie was leaving out the text on purpose. No one needed to know that detail. "This is where I lost the guy." Eddie put his phone out on the island. "He was moving across this alley then he just…disappeared."

"Were you able to tell it was a man?" DeWolff asked. 

"Oh…no…I didn't see their face or hear their voice at all. It could have been anyone. Could have been you."

We're not telling her about the pizza guy?

Somehow, we've managed to keep the Lizard under wraps. I'm not introducing any new variables until we know, for a fact, what this fucker is.

"I see," DeWolff hummed. "Any other details you can recall?" 

"No," Eddie shrugged. "It was all really fast." 

"I see." DeWolff echoed herself as she thought. Her eyes flashed over to Spider-Man. "We haven't had a chance to talk since this 'imposter' started showing up. You're not exactly easy to get ahold of."

"Don't know what to tell you Detective DeWolff." Spider-Man made a dramatic little arc as he hopped down from the desk. "I've just been out doing my neighborly duties. Whoever they are, they've been smart. They always seem to be across the city from me when they show up."

"Which is the thing that's saving you, right now, Mr. Spider," DeWolff said sharply. "Despite Jonah's journalistic insistence, no one actually wants Spider-Man in handcuffs. NYPD still doesn't totally know what the PR looks like for that kind of thing. We'll figure it out, though. So consider it a courtesy that I'm giving you a little bit of a heads up." 

"Understood, detective." Spider-Man gave a mock salute and DeWolff rolled her eyes at him. 

For a few fleeting seconds, her eyes considered a few different options as she turned back to Eddie. She tucked her pen and pad back into her purse. 

"Off the record, Eddie?"

He dropped down from the stool and nodded. 

"Our guy impersonated a police officer and took some evidence from an open case. Did a little more digging, consulted some other departments, we're starting to think this guy's been around for a lot longer than we realized. We're putting together a sort of casual taskforce. A few people who can spare the time to check for some patterns we didn't notice before. Opening up a tip line. Press-releases. The whole shebang. Can I count on you to be an ally in the press?" Her gaze was piercing, sharp, right down into the center of him. 

Let me eat her. That would solve several problems. 

Simmer down.

"Can't make promises like that, DeWolff, but what I said in our meeting is still true. I'm not going to let something bad happen to the city if I can help it. So…"

DeWolff canted her head. Another set of hard moments passed while she decided if that answer was acceptable. 

"That's about as much as I can ask, I guess," she decided. 

The door closed softly behind her, and Eddie threw all the bolts quickly. 

"Hoh, Jesus." Peter removed his mask and flopped awkwardly on the couch. "I thought I was leaving in cuffs for a second there." 

"Scoot over, let me show you the thing I figured it out." Eddie dragged his laptop over to the couch. 

"That I figured out." The Other emerged from his shoulder enough to scoff. They nipped at Eddie's ear. 

"That we figured out." Eddie dropped on the couch and Peter flung himself a little farther away than he really needed to. "Our shape-shifter already has a pattern."

"Did you make this little map overlay thing yourself?" Peter asked, bringing the laptop over into his lap. 

"Yes," The Other replied. That certainly wasn't a lie. Eddie had been sound asleep for that specific part of the project. Eddie leaned over to glance his finger over the screen, indicating a series of color-coded dots and shapes laid over different maps of burgled homes over the past week. 

"All the break-ins happened between midnight and three am with the people at home. Super unusual. These guys here, their neighbor had been out of town for two weeks. House wasn't touched. Came in and out through a window, but never set off the alarm system."

"Also didn't just go house to house," The Other added. "He made picks." 

"Right," Eddie agreed. "And all the neighborhoods were gated communities, which is also a little unusual. Figure there had to be some pattern, so we did a little recon one night after you went to bed."

"Really? Come on man." Peter crossed his arms with a shade of a pout. 

"You would have been so bored, dude," Eddie replied. "Because the only thing I figured out is that every single house in question had a sign out front from the same security company." 

"So we guessed he knew how to shut the system off, somehow. But only that system." The Other took control of the hands to move to the browser and pull up some tabs they had saved. "Eddie thought maybe he was a disgruntled ex-employee, but I think it's because of this." The Other pulled up the series of articles they had found about poorly secured wireless security cameras allowing remote access. It listed some brands of camera that showed the issue, but no specific home security companies that used these brands.

"Either way," Eddie said, "we're pretty certain we have enough information for a good old-fashioned stake-out. Try to at least catch this guy in action."

"Why do we keep assuming it's a 'he?'" Peter asked with a sort of abrupt annoyance. 

"I just use whatever pronouns everyone else around me says." The Other blinked. 

"I don't really have a specific reason. Just…I don't know…"

"Male by default? Little patriarchal brain-rot?" Peter tsked at him. 

"Pete, I am old and I am tired. I'll assume our next unknown supervillain is a woman, first." 

"I'm mostly fucking with you," Peter grinned. "But I do think it's worth noting we don't know this guy's gender. We don't know…anything. If we assume they look a certain way, that's going to get in the way of us being objective investigators." 

Eddie patted him on the back hard. 

He'd let him hold on to that idealism for a little longer. 

Eddie, let me come out to play.

"Not yet." 

They perched up on the roof of a small security hut toward the front of the gated community. He'd been ready to grease palms and spin an elaborate backstory to gain access, but the guard just kind of didn't care. Eddie clicked into the walkie-talkie wrist-watches Peter had wired together. He was beginning to think he had picked that up as a super-power, as well. 

"See anything, Webs?"

"Maybe," Spider-Man replied. The sound of leaves and winds buffeted against the speaker as he held the channel open. "It's this guy in joggers. And he looks like he's just going for a late night run, but that seems super suspicious, right? He's heading toward that first cul-du-sac."

"Heading that way." Eddie shucked off his shoulder bag to stow it in a little divot on the roof. "Don't want to wreck any private property. So be gentle, sweetheart."

No.

Venom landed too hard on the roof of a two-story McMansion overlooking the cul-du-sac in question. Across the way, a familiar blue and red body watched from another roof. The jogger moved into the circle.

"Well, they don't have any powers," Spider-Man clicked over the walkies. "My spider-sense would have picked up on danger, by now."

"Spider-sense? That's what you're calling it?"

"Shut up." 

The kid was right, though. If this was their guy, he hadn't spotted them at all. And there was no alien interference. At least none that Venom could sense. Across the cul-du-sac, the lens of Spider-Man's camera caught a streetlamp. They had bought him a nicer one with a good telephoto attachment. Hopefully it would work in this light to catch the guy's face…wait.

Venom leaned in to watch closer. 

The guy's face was…changing. His features shifting and morphing into a new shape. He seemed to notice, and stopped on the sidewalk. From his hoodie, an injectable pen emerged. He shoved it against the fleshy part of his cheek and pressed the plunger. His face stopped changing for a pause, then started shifting back into the first form. 

"Oh what the fuck," Venom hissed. Their hands dug into the roof shingles as they kept watching. Their jogger started stripping out of their clothes to reveal another suit underneath. It wasn't red and blue this time. 

"Are they trying to be you?" Spider-Man clucked through the walkie. Another pen came out, this one going into his thigh. His body responded by growing bigger. Bulkier. He pulled up a hood over his head, and somehow, the interloper looked just enough the part in the darkness to be almost convincing. 

"Let's go down and find out." It only took a moment to circle around on the roofs and come down on someone's side lawn. Venom shifted their matter quickly into a security uniform. They wished they had a flashlight to drive the character home. 

"Sir? Can I see some identification?" Eddie asked. The shape-shifter turned sharply. 

"You don't want to fuck with me," the shape-shifter said, growling. There was something…off…about the voice. Like it didn't quite match the rest of his body. Mechanical or digital manipulation? 

"I kind of do," Venom replied, dropping the uniform around them.

"Holy shit, you're real." 

Held up in their claws, the shape-shifter's body felt slimmer than the fake bulk the injection had given them. Whatever they were doing, it was half-illusion, half-something else they couldn't even begin to comprehend. Spider-Man dropped down on the other side of the cul-du-sac then skirted around to get within whispering distance. 

"What do we do, now?" he murmured. 

"Why are you doing this?" Venom asked the shape-shifter. "All this whatever it is, and you're using it to break into a bunch of rich people's houses? What's your game?"

The shape-shifter's panic turned softer as he realized Venom wasn't going to immediately kill him. Through the hood he was able to grin, toothy and large and fake. Whatever this technology was, it didn't move quite right. 

"Practice," the shape-shifter lilted, their real voice coming through as sharp and tinny. "And now that I've seen you up close, I know how to make the costume better." 

Venom heard the discharge of the electricity just before the taser jammed into his arm. It wasn't fire or a loud noise but damn it was close. Especially as the shock went across the human heart underneath. 

For several long moments, Venom stopped Being. It was merely Eddie wrapped in symbiote matter, unable to move in the goo-filled space. Around him, The Other had dropped the shape-shifter and they were struggling to keep some sense of corporeal form. They failed, Eddie dropping to his knees on the asphalt. He felt the other float around him in a mass before passing out inside of it.

"Eddie. Beloved. I need you to wake up or I'm going to start feeling one of those panicky human emotions."

Eddie sat up with a gasp, finding himself propped up on his couch.Tendrils snaked over his naked body, gripping him tightly. 

"Where's Peter?" he panted.

"He's fine. He tried chasing down the guy, but he lost him in the trees. I brought you home."

"Did you knock me out?" Eddie asked. 

"Trying to protect your heart and brain. That taser was strong."

Eddie ran his hands over the tendrils. 

"You overdid it."

"Yeah…" 

Eddie squeezed the matter across his stomach. Something jittered in the back of those words, little tracts of emotions that he only occasionally picked up from The Other. 

"You were worried," Eddie cooed. He pried a length of matter away and pressed his lips to it gently. The tendril flicked up and drew the tip down his cheek. The Other's head moved from his stomach to tuck into the space between his head and shoulder. 

"I wasn't sure I knew how to heal you. That wasn't a normal taser. Some kind of something else in it."

"And we're sure it's not symbiote-related."

"Yes. Certain."

Eddie sighed and sat up on the couch, tilting as the blood rushed to his head. 

"So a guy is able to inject himself with something that changes his face, and he pairs it with a high-tech costume. Suddenly, he can be anyone he wants to be. That's…that's fucked up. That's dangerous."

"Sounds like Life Foundation."

"It does, doesn't it?" Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fuck. Knew we weren't done." He dropped his hands against his half-folded thighs. "I'm totally naked." 

"You were sweaty. You want to shower?" 

"No. Maybe in the morning." 

"Not even if I do all the work?" 

"You always do this." Eddie nuzzled a section of tendril by his cheek. 

"You tell me I'm too forward when I just ask. You said you wanted to be 'romanced.' I don't know how to do that." 

"I guess that is asking too much." Eddie ran his fingers along the length of tendril that had wrapped around his shoulders. He kissed it gently. A small tendril emerged to tap at his lips. A warm feeling lifted in the cradle of his pelvis, and now all he wanted to do was fuck.

 It was The Other doing it. He had given them permission, but that didn't stop the little drip of irritation that the choice had been taken from him. But then it was The Other's body, too. The Other had the right to feel horny. To feel flushed with warm arousal after the adrenaline of danger.

Matter slid down the small of his back, between his cheeks, then knuckled over his entrance. Eddie arched his chest, falling back slightly into a cradle of matter. The hammock threw him forward until he was leaning over the back of the couch on his knees. Matter gathered in a mass that created weight on his thighs and butt and back. The Other dropped down over his shoulder and pressed their face to his, teeth clicking in his ear. 

"He can pretend to look like us, but he doesn't have what we do." The Other growled then slowly thrust into Eddie's entrance, expanding and vibrating as the matter crept further into Eddie's insides.

They had started forming a body just to do this bit with more enthusiasm, pumping and slapping like a human set of hips and thighs against Eddie's ass. A thin tendril slid around his thigh to wrap tightly around the base of his cock and the underside of his balls. It stroked and toyed, rolling up and down with increasing pressure. Eddie bucked into the tendril's grip, the back of the couch creating extra friction. 

"Don't edge me this time, sweetheart," Eddie panted, body flopping over the back of the sofa. 

"I get to make that decision. That's the agreement." 

"Then make the decision to cut me some slack. It's been a long night." The words devolved into moans as the tendril around his cock pressed harder. 

"Oh…I suppose." The tendrils started moving quicker, expert machinations on a body it knew inside and out. Inside him, it pressed against his glands and ground as the climax rose in a sweeping, overwhelming wave. 

Just at it pitched to the highest point, teeth came down into the base of his neck, the pain and pleasure cascading into a rolling, hiccuping series of tiny orgasms, each one building into the next until his whole body was clenched tight. He gasped, the high-pitched keen that had erupted from his body leaving his voice hoarse and sticky. 

The teeth didn't move, locking him in place as he shuddered against the back of the couch. He flopped there as it all seeped out of him. Every annoyance. Every tension. Every little nugget of fuckery he had had to deal with that week.

The teeth finally pulled free from his flesh, The Other dragging a tongue across the already healing wound. 

"What if we could do that," Eddie sighed. 

"Do what, my most beloved?" The Other rocked him back until they were lying on the couch, cradled up against each other, matter spreading across his body like a thin second-skin. 

"Change our face. Go be someone else somewhere else. Hole up in a cabin in the woods. Live simply. Is that something you can do? Change my face?"

"Maybe. For short periods. It would be very tiring." The Other dragged a tendril down Eddie's face, their dissolving back into their shared body but leaving the cloak of matter behind.

"That won't do," Eddie decided sleepily. "Besides. I'm a city boy. What would we do all day out in the wilderness?"

Uninterrupted amorous congress.

"Oh, so I'd just die in the first six hours. Not a bad way to go."

I'd keep you alive.

"Just to keep fucking me?"

Yes.

…

Is that romantic? Did I do it?

Eddie yawned and let himself fall back against the armrest of the couch. 

"Close enough."

THE CHAMELEON TERRORIZES LONG ISLAND NEIGHBORHOOD

"Did Jonah question how you got these pictures at all, Pete?"

"Nope. Had a lie ready about visiting an aunt and everything." 

Eddie and Peter sat on a bench in the courtyard of Midtown High School. He had been tricked into giving a talk to the journalism club, but there was a twenty minute gap between the end of school and the start of club activities. He had brought a few different papers from this morning to talk about differences in construction, but the Bugle was certainly leading with the most interesting headline. 

"Hey, Mr. Brock." Dylan paused in front of them as part of the stream of kids leaving school. 

"Hey, Dylan. Did you feel…okay about that article? About the gay kids message to adults?"

Dylan sighed with his whole body. 

"I showed it to my dad. Like…just this 'hey look at this interesting thing' and he asked me if I 'knew any of these faggots.' So…not changing hearts and minds, yet!"

"Dylan, I'm sorry, dude." Eddie patted him on the shoulder.

We should eat Dylan's father.

I might be slightly inclined to agree with you on that one.

Dylan pointed vaguely to the paper. 

"Those pictures yours, Petey?" 

"Yeah…It's…complicated." Peter looked away, trying to figure out where to drop the lie before it got too heavy to carry. Dylan just shrugged again, eyes caught on the paper. A moment passed where his eyes looked between them suspiciously. 

"Are you-?" Then he shook his head, thinking better of it. "Nevermind. See you tomorrow, Petey."

"Dylan suspects something," Peter said to his retreating back. 

"Yeah, maybe," Eddie replied. 

"No I mean, I know he does. He has for a while. "He's going to figure it out, probably."

"Oh…fuck…"

Now we should really eat his dad.

[ataudcanela]

do you have any medieval/gothic book reccs?🍂

♡ hihi … here is an assorted list of recommendations (essentially just a few of my favorites…)

** some of these are poetry & some are prose; some are books & some are short stories/novellas.

medieval

Ælfric, Lives of Saints

various works from Marie de France: Fables, The Life of St. Audrey, Lais

Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la Rose

the Harley lyrics

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

gothic

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Théophile Gautier, La Morte Amoureuse

Clara Reeve, The Old English Baron

Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber

Daphne Du Maurier, House on the Strand

Richard Marsh, The Beetle

Algernon Blackwood, The Willows

[fedyasolnishka]

i sadly don't know about any ships or pairings that reminds me of fyodor and his daughter :c i usually portray him in a kinda self indulgent way tho i try to remain as canon as possible so i think i've ended up viewing fedya in such a specific way that i can't see him in any other character (i might criticize u asagiri but thank you for bringing my most beloved comfort character into this world)…

—❤️‍🩹 (i need more meadia, i dont mind if it's a book, movie, series whatever, world plz gimme daddaughter content)

First pandora hearts, i know it doesn't have Daddaughter but It's a masterpiece to me so.

From now on or next month i'll reblogging gifsets of movies that I like under films tag so if you take that as recommendation. Also I've planned to watch arcane bc of jinx and silco only. They have pseudo father-daughter relationship but She often sits on his lap somehow and there are some scenes that looks like they're abt to kiss but they didn't and That's a problem. Also silco with his cape on kinda remind me of a certain character iykyk and it makes me yearn for him to have a daughter or a young girl that he has soft spot and be the object of his romantic affection in canon soo baadd (Asgr if you hear me-)

I recently rb an amv of them with off to the races by Lana if you're interested! It makes me happy when someone edit a Daddaughter/age gap relationship to a certain "type" of lana songs hehe

For fiction books, I reccomend matilda by mary shelley and my absolute darling by gabriel tallent and since we're both bsd fans, i recc naomi by tanizaki, it's not daddaughter but it has age gap with an underage girl. Also I've been reading rebecca by daphne du maurier, it's not Daddaughter but it has some "interesting" moments

[jorgiebug]

my favorite playlists pt.1, a directory:

tag yourself edition

daphne: rocky beaches, hair blowing in the wind, collage journals, pearl rings, talking to the stars, pastels, the bravery of doing things on your own, the sunrise, film cameras, sundresses, deep grounding breaths, pennies, wishing wells, forgiveness.

it’s a shame: broken mirrors, burning letters in the fire, cracked concrete, bitterly cold winter nights, paper cuts, faded polaroids, a tear stained cheek, anger, cities at midnight, doc martens, red lipstick, candlelight, satin dresses, dead branches rattling in the wind.

the billboards said the end is near: fields of grain, a summer roadtrip, telephone wires, acoustic guitar, campfires, radio static, a well worn backpack, abandoned gas stations, slow dancing under a starless sky, flannels, a fear of being alone, sunspots filled with dust, chemtrails.

you're on your own kid: tattered sneakers, fireflies, rain on a window pane, scrapped knees, daisies and dandelions, height lines marked in pencil, party hats, watercolor paints, letting go, winter melting into spring, cardigans, toast with honey, an old quilt, forced smiles, crinkled eyes, mismatched socks, a torn poster.

would it keep you awake?: steaming cups of coffee, making signs for a protest, flashing lights, screaming at the sky, baseball caps and high ponytails, clenching your jaw, bandaids, ripped jeans, rage, helping someone up, chipped nail polish, subways, autumn leaves crunching underfoot.

[holmesiswherethehartis]

EXACTLY ONE WEEK FROM TODAY I AM MAKING A TIMEKEEPER GROUP CHAT

Please reblog, comment, or somehow else tell me if you want to be a part of it!! Cheers!!

[writingbyricochet]

hi hi hi! i hope you’re having a great day/night! for the autumn asks: crow, dream, novel (oohh book reccs 👀)

Hello Aye! Always happy to see you in my inbox!

Crow - What's an unpopular opinion you have on autumn?

Pumpkin scented things smell bad. I already don't like food-related scents and especially things like vanilla and sugar, so the addition of pumpkin just smells way too artificial to me and I can't stomach it.

Dream - Describe your perfect au.

Hmm, an AU for what? A fandom or my own work? I've been trying for so long to think of an idea set in a 19th century, dark academia ballet AU. I'm laughing a little at myself because of just how specific it is, but I'd read anything set in that universe.

Novel - Favorite book?

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - This is my favorite book of all time. It's certainly worthy of criticism and is not perfect, but it's really stuck with me. I read it every year and never get tired of it. (We don't talk about that "sequel.") Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - Everything I want my prose to be is here. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Romanticism at its finest! The dichotomy between terror and sentimentality is so good. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare - One of the first books I remember being obsessed with. It single-handedly gave birth to my ever-lasting obsession with the name Nathaniel.

Thank you!

Send me an autumn ask!

[dwellordream]

Whats your book wish list?

It’s not done yet and I am open to reccs if anyone has any, I’m open to all genres! Right now it’s a little all over the place with Georgette Heyer, Daphne du Maurier, Jean Rhys, Megan Whalen Turner, Anne Carson, and Margaret Atwood.

[theclassicsreader]

Summer reading reccs?

Rebecca by Daphne du MaurierWide Sargasso Sea by Jean RhysHomegoing by Yaa GyasiThe Book of Disquiet by Fernando PessoaUlysses by James JoyceThis House of Clay and Water by Faiqa MansabInvisible Cities by Italo CalvinoClear Light of Day by Anita Desai

[daphnedauphinoise]

could you make a post on how you make your bare nails look beautiful and manicured? my nails react terribly to polish. thanks!

Hello 💙

Not going to lie, I was lowkey waiting for someone to ask. My nails and I have always gotten well together. I do take pride in them as my natural nails tend to bring a lot compliments in. In high school, the girls and guys would hold my hands and turn it just to see my nails shine in the light and having nice nails has always been a ‘Daphne thing’. 

Cuticle Removal

Sally Hansen Cuticle Care

Nail Care Set  

Cuticle removal is a new territory for me. My cuticles have always passed the scrunity of nail artists and I consider having naturally nice cuticles as one of my top 10 traits. Nonetheless, my feet do need an extra help and Sally Hansen’s gel is the easiest thing to use. I do not trust myself with cuticle clippers at all so chemical removers are my go to. A little squezze, 15 seconds wait and a little push and you are done !! When I am doing my hands, I like to dip my hands in warm/hot water to soften my cuticles up. Do be careful because the Lye (the chemical that does the dissolving in cuticle removers) has no preference between dead skin and live skin. 

I recently purchased the nail care set just because I needed the silver tools you see, and oh my goodness, best purchase ever!!! I don’t really use the first tool on the left but the middle and the right ones are my holy grails. The tip of the middle one to get rid of the dead, hard skin on the either sides of your fingernails.I have never liked the feel of the coarser skin but I didn’t know there was a solution for this. The bottom of the same tool is to scrape built up gunk from underneath your nails. The right tool has a cuticle scraper and a pusher. 

I wouldn’t reccomend removing your cuticles too often, so maybe once a week. What I do and have done since I was a child is push back my cuticles gently using my own nails which is the cheapest alternative to everything.

Cuticle Oils and Butters 

Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream 

Dior Creme Apricot 

Onsen Cuticle oil 

It is important to keep your cuticles soft as dry or cracked cuticles are an opening to bacteria. I religiously apply cuticle oil/cream; I keep one at my desk, one in my bedside table and one in every bag. I have been using Burt’s Bees one for ages and it works well. To be honest, you can just use Jojoba oil ( a must have!) as it has the smallest oil molecules and acts the most like our natural skin oils. It has lots of uses and is relativelty cheap, so if you are on a budget just get Jojoba oil instead of all the fancy ones.  Dior Creme is a cult favourite and I love it too. The packaging is so so pretty and it is just so luxurious; but in saying that the formula is tacky and you have to use your hands to get the product out because there is no applicator. For this reason I like to leave it at my bedside table. The cuticle pen is just easy to carry around.

Buffing 

4 Way Buffing Block 

This is Daphne’s holy grail. Along with cuticle care, buffing is part of my religion I discovered these 4 way buffing blocks years back and it has been a staple since. It is my ‘If I stuck on a desert island I would take...’. It is so so simple to use and it leaves your nails SHINNY!  The blocks comes numbered and you just buff each nail with each side for 10 seconds and voila! Best nails ever! It is is so simple, it is rude not to have one. This is perfect to get that hand model worthy shiny nails without using nail polish. It is low maintanece and you only need to do it once a week. I used to have girls flock to my hands in high school and they oogle my nails with oohs and ahhhs. So I started to carry extra blocks so I could show the girls what to do and I would do it for them and leave the block for them as a gift. I cannot live without these. I would highly reccomend to buy them off Aliexpress for cheaper and in bluk so you can replace it after 3-4 uses. 

Routine

I am a big fan of routines and I have a routine for everything, once a week I like to take an hour out to do them. I start off with the Sally Hansen Cuticle remover and get rid of excess dead skin. Then I like to buff my nails with the Buffing block. I trim my nails into a short square top which suits my hands the best. I like to go in with a cucticle oil or cream and rub it in circular motions. As much as I love nail art and big sparkly gems, I need to keep my nails short and clean for climbing, piano and archery. This also means that my nails have been breaking off due to excess pressure and stress as of lately; so because of the recent changes I have had to reintroduce a couple things for Winter. I reintroduced nail hardners because climbing does a number on your nails, no matter how short you trim them.Otherwise, I also love the Dior Nail glow which leaves a pretty pink hue to you nails which makes them look so healthy and glowly. The first time I had them on in one of snap stories, the amount of swipe ups I got was insane. It is pricey so I like to gift them to my friends so their nails can twinkle and catch the light in the most beautiful ways. 

Also remember, nail health is also largely dependent on you general health. If your general health lacking and you are dull beacause of so, no amount buffing is going to change that. So with like everything, get a varied diet, drink plently of water and make sure you are not lacking vitamins and minerals. 

Other Nail Care Favourites:

SUSANNE KAUFMANNNourishing Nail Oil 

Eveline Cosmetics Diamond Nail Conditioner 

Sally Hansen Nail Hardner 

Mavala Swizterland Nail Hardner 

Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle 

Dior Nail Glow

Daphne xoxo

[daphnedauphinoise]

Could we get your product list for Spring 22 ?

Skincare

First Aid Beauty Cleanser

I have a hate hate relationship with cleanser. No-one gets them right. I have dry skin and nothing is great for my skin. If it actual cleanses, then it strips and if it doesn’t strip it doesn’t cleanse. So it is lose lose for us. I was gifted this cleanser a while back and last week I decided why not and used it for the time and I was pleasently surprised. It feels soft in your fingers ( it is pearlescent when it comes out) as you lather it up into very gentle spuds; formula is designed for sensitive skin so it really doesn't lather. Does it cleanse? I think it does, I don’t consider it to be a heavy duty cleanser but I don’t wear makeup so it suits me fine. I have placed this in my morning routine and I love not having my skin wrinkle on me between the time I dry my face and apply the next step. If you are looking for a gentle cleanser then this one I reccomend. (I know someone will say something here but I do have acne prone skin so I do have to wash my face in the wash as per the reccomendation of my esthetician  )

Body Shop Rose Hydrating Mask

 My new routine has been slathering this after I wash face in the morning , three times a week and this has been a life-saver through the 758 different storms and winds the UK endured the entirety of February. It leaves your skin feeling peach plump and really really hydrated and oh so soft  It is so beautiful. I have noticed a drastic decrease in how quickly my skin dries and I think my month long dedication has paid off. I really like the little bits and pieces of rose petals in the mask which makes it feel like a witchy ritual or something that one would use in Aphrodite’s coven. My skin used to hate Body Shop products but I can tell that they have changed more than just their packaging and I am now more open to their other skincare products. 

Khiel’s Ultra Facial Cream

Spring is start of when you should starting switching products for something lighter. I believe in the importance of matching the season. A lot of the times I feel like once my skin gets too used to a product, it stops working so for me it makes perfect sense to let go of some products and introduce new ones. This was an impluse buy but I will be impluse buying this for a long long time. Formulated with glacial glycoprotien ( protien derived from sea glaciers which help retain moisture and prevents water loss) and olive derived squalane oil, this cream does an amazing job of hydrating and moisturising your skin. I don’t say that sentence often. For my dry dry skin, this cream held up to it’s promise and I only needed to top up every 4-5 hours instead of my previous hourly moisturisation sessions. I think the reason it does so well is because it is a two in one as it combats water loss and general loss of moisture in your skin. I know the biggest tub is steep at around £45 but I think it is worth every pretty penny. Vive la peau hydratée !

Perfume

Miss Dior Rose n Roses

Florals are meant for Spring. Actually, it is imperative that you wear florals during Spring, well when else would you wear it? My favourite floral smell is Rose. I am a rose girlie. I drink more rose water than water, I room smells of roses, my hair smells of roses and in spring I bathe in roses. Eventhough I believe that rose is a cross season smell, spring is definitely it’s time to shine. I am a perfume hound and I constantly scour for the next best perfume, when I got the Rose n Roses as a sample when I ordered a bunch of stuff from Dior and I was blown away. I love Miss Dior blooming boquet and I equally, if not more, am in love with Rose and Roses.It is youthful and light and the emobident of the 💖🌸. It is what the pink Zimmerman dress would smell like. I feel like I am floating through a rose garden and I feel soo girlies and princess pretty when I have this one. This has been a total compliment getter as well because people are attracted to the true rose scent.

Others:  Miss Dior Body Wash, Miss Dior Body Creme  (Body Shop’s British Rose collection is a very good dupe ) 

⭐️: match your perfume to the vibe of your outfit, it is one of the littlest way to be put together. I will be wearing lots of pink this upcoming spring. 

Makeup

GUCCI Fluide De Beauté Fini Naturel Natural Finish Fluid Foundation

One swipe and I fell in love is what I would write back to Gucci if I was ever asked for my opinion. Once upon a January, I was skiving my lectures and walking aorund Harrods when I was captured by a sales asscociate and because of my inability to say ‘no’ I was whisked away into 4 hours of makeup mayhem from which I walked away with a new makeup bag filled with goodies tailored to me. I will not lie, I did spend 3 hours of the 4 at Gucci sampling and chatting away with the kindest clerk which is how I ended up buying the foundation anyway. Apart from the packaging being gorgeous, it has a pink cap ugh, the formula is just how I like it. Runnier, buildable and a little goes a looong way. I am not a makeup person,I am trying to be but I am not one quite yet. But even I can tell that this is a good foundation. I only needed two pumps for my entire face and some neck blending (I decided to get my summer shade instead of my winter shade) and I was smooth. Though, buildable, the cover is on the sheer side so it is perfect for the warmer days of spring. 

Mented Blush in Merry Away 

I recently discovered this beautiful brand and I love love love it! The brand is not inclusive... as in it doesn’t have lighter shades when it comes to face makeup. I know ! Their colour range is limited to tan to deep black skin so if you have melanin you are in for a treat . The brand motto is Pigment is our Passion and I think they pulled through. My problem with a lot of makeup is that it just doesn’t show on darker skin and the colours sit weirdly and it refuses to blend properly into your skin. However, I think this is the solution. If it was another brand I wouldn’t use any of they have colours as I know it just wouldn’t suit me. However, the way these colours have been formulated (it reminds me of Illia and Refy) to work on brown/black skin. Huzzah ! For spring Pinky Promise and Peach for the Stars are what I will be using. The brand is Vegan 🌱 and Cruelty-Free.

These are going to be my staple for the next couple of months. I am so ready for Spring, armed and ready with Anti-Histamine. Let the Pollenation begin !

Daphne xo

[daphnedauphinoise]

Hi! 💗How did you get your KP to calm down ?

Hi hi 💗

I wish I could say I have gotten rid of it but it is still here but in saying that, I do have it under control.

I love the Ameliorate's Keratosis Pilaris line. The brand is dermatologist approved and they are considered to be the number one brand in the UK for treating KP. And I believe in that. I love the brand and pretty much everything about it.

I use the body scrub and the body lotion, both I consider my holy-grails. The products smell really nice, almost like baby products, which is an added bonus.

It is unfortunate that you can never truly get rid of it properly but there are ways to tame it and keep the appearances low.

Daphne xx

[daphnedauphinoise]

If anyone does Ballet here, I just found the cutest dance-wear company called Bloch. They specialise in ballet wear and they have a beautiful range of nude pointe shoes🩰