#lady of the lighthouse

[upontherisers]

night has always pushed up day

a/n: i'm still typing away on my WIP but since i was so inactive this week, i thought i'd share a snippet of an AU i've lived with for a few years but haven't posted from before. title from mumford & sons' 'after the storm'. Lady of the Lighthouse — loosely inspired by Bridges of Madison County (the musical) — is set in a small Wisconsin town post-Vietnam and follows lighthouse keeper Lillian Sikes after she saves a man, photojournalist Ronald Spiers, from drowning in Lake Superior.

“I want to tell a story,” Ron says as Lil sets three mugs on the table, the kitchen door creaking shut behind her.

“Everyone has stories,” Georgie replies. “It’s about finding the right ones to tell at the right time to tell them.”

Lil pulls out the empty chair and sits with a sip of her drink, looking back and forth between the debating writers. Half of this is going above her head, but she wanted to make sure Georgie isn’t going to press Ron for national security secrets while he can’t run away.

Ron raises a skeptical eyebrow and Georgie shrugs. “Everyone has a story. Not all of them are interesting, some are unbelievable, and they’re all important. Vee Albert’s as boring as they come but she’s one of the only locals and she knows this place better than anyone. Jeannie Carmichael won’t say a word about her life before she turned nineteen. Frankie Wilson has a husband and a fiance. Joe Liebgott drove across the country ‘til his car broke down right on Main and Madison, and he hasn’t left since.”

“And now you’re sleeping with him,” Ron says over the rising steam of his drink.

Lil stares out the window before Georgie can look at her, her cheeks flushing with shame. She shouldn’t have told Ron about that. It’s speculation — "mere conjecture," as Joey says. Lil, of all people, knows how much it can hurt to have the whole island talking about you behind your back, even when they’re only looking out for you.

“Allegedly,” snarks Georgie. “Joe is a friend.”

Lil keeps her gaze firmly affixed on the choppy green waves crashing ashore outside.

It’s silent for a moment before Ron speaks. “What’s your story? How does a Harvard girl end up here?”

Lil sneaks a glance at Georgie who’s picking at a chip in her mug with a distant stare before catching her eyes with a painful, yearning smile. 

“It’s a sad one.”

“I can do sad,” Ron wheezes, a cough scraping its way out of his throat. She needs to take his temperature again soon. 

Georgie studies Ron for a moment, taking in the rumpled man with care. He still looks like hell but sits straight and easy, his stare intense but with no malice in it. Lil hopes that his appearance conveys what she had struggled to tell her friend, that Ron wasn’t here to exploit them. Georgie’s on the edge about another writer encroaching on her turf, on her stories and her friends, but there’s nothing to worry about. He means well.

Shaking her bangs off her face, Georgie looks into the dim bulb of the pendant light overhead and sighs, full and weighty. “My husband died,” she declares.

It stops Lil’s heart every time she hears it.

“You were married?” Ron leans forward, wincing in the blanket around his shoulders.

“He was a college friend. We met in the English lit department.”

“What was his name?”

“David.”

David. Dear, dear David. The island’s idealist academic and very own philosopher. A bundle of contradictions — volunteered for the Army before he could get drafted yet avoided any work; prone to bouts of passion but slow to action; not a fighter but often found himself in the middle of pedantic arguments. He had no bedside manner, little tact, and was a bookworm to the point of elitism. But with all of that, he was a true friend. He was fascinated with the lighthouse, always poking around when he came over and cheerfully filling in for Lil if she was unable to work. He was curious about the tiny world he’d found and eager to discover all of the differences between his cushioned East Coast upbringing and the tactile, manual life of the island.

He had dreams. He wanted to bring Murray Eagle Island into the back half of the century and he inspired people — or nagged them — into making change. He wrote with fervor and dedication for the few hundreds on their little island instead of heading to New York and getting on the front page of the Times. He met with fellow veterans when they moved into the area and chronicled their stories, as much as they’d tell him. Most of all, he loved his wife. 

He loved his wife. As much as writing drove him, Georgie drove him more. He leaned on her unabashedly, valued her advice and input, promoted her work over his own, and made it obvious to the lady tourists that wandered into the Editor office during the summer that he was proudly married. They were a good match; he mediated when she pushed too far, balanced some of her more ostentatious ideas — she helped him see beyond technical precision and philosophy. He was the only person who could get her to be honest with herself when her stubbornness got in the way of practicality. 

Lil had watched others around the island in those first years — Don and Dot, George and Mattie — couples who seem to have managed to make the island work for them, and compared their lives to the rapidly cooling affection between her and Mario. But no one showed her what marriage, love even, could be quite like the Websters.

“Can I ask what happened?”

Georgie’s shoulders sinking with the burden of the question. “We don’t know. He went out on the lake for some fishing… and never came back.”

Lil remembers the call from Luz like it was yesterday. The radio in the service room crackled to life while she was doing her last weather reading of the night. 

“Heads up, Lil,” Luz said. “Webster’s not back from fishing. Georgie said he went out at three — hasn’t heard from him since. Keep an eye out, please.”

Normally, a late return wouldn’t be cause for concern. People ran into minor spots of trouble all the time. Bill and Joe convinced themselves they would build and sail their own boat with no prior experience and ended up having to be fished out of the lake by Skip and Alex three hours later. Small dinghies and kayaks got overturned and swept into the lake every other week. Most of the local population were strong swimmers after years on the shore. David would be fine.

But, as Lil looked out into a night so black that she couldn’t tell sea from sky, rain bashing against the window and waves roaring into the rocks and jumping up toward the lightning overhead, her stomach flipped. A freak storm at this time of year was unpredictable at best.

She stayed in the watch room, not even risking a run to the kitchen for coffee, until the sun rose and the storm eased to a gray drizzle. There had been no sign of David during the night and the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach was only growing deeper, but she wouldn’t let herself say ‘missing’ yet. He would turn up, she was sure of it. David was a smart man; he was a strong swimmer and mariner. He had probably just washed up farther down the coast and would contact them as soon as he found a town.

Lil, Luz, Skip, Alex, Don, and Dot made up the entirety of Murray Eagle’s volunteer Coast Guard, so she and George pulled every string, every bit of curried favor, and every piece of blackmail they could with NOAA and the Merchant Marines. She was out with every patrol everyday, leaving Joey to complete her duties at the lighthouse, and they searched. Ten miles of coast in either direction, so far out into the lake that their boats only had enough fuel for the return journey. The Coast Guard officially withdrew their resources after two weeks and David was added to a Missing Person’s list for Lake Michigan. 

The entire time, Lil watched the light in Georgie’s eyes get dimmer and dimmer as they started to face the reality that David wasn’t coming home again.

Things returned to normal a month later. The local police told them that it was likely they were looking for a body at that point and people had lives to get back to, jobs and obligations that could no longer justifiably be ignored. They’d reached out to every town they could find along the coast, even into Canada. If he turned up, they would be notified.

David’s broken boat washed up against the lighthouse a month and a day after he went missing with no sign of its one-man captain and crew. Lil slept fitfully and dreamt of cries for help above the calamity of a storm.

Later that night, after Georgie left and dinner had come and gone, Ron speaks up while Lil washes dishes in the sink.

“You still feel guilty, don’t you?”

A plate clatters against wet metal, and she turns over her shoulder to look at him. Her mother’s blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he sits at the table, looking swallowed in the fabric despite his size. His lashes cast long, curving shadows against his cheeks and stubble has filled out his face since he came ashore clean shaven, giving him a rugged, sea-fairing look. He’s horribly disheveled, the cut on his brow isn’t healing, and he’s running a fever but he’s alive. Lil can see David sitting where Ron is, battered by a battle against the waves but alive, speaking, telling her all about the lake and the night and what he thinks of the weather, ready to go home to his wife.

Tears bite at the corners of Lil’s eyes and she turns around to scrub furiously at a spotless bowl.

“You were talking about him when you said you don’t let people drown, right?”

“Seems like you already know the answer,” she clips, trying to push down the bubble in her throat.

“Lil,” Ron sighs. “There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

You don’t know that, she thinks. She’d turned that night over and over in her mind. What if she missed something? What if she blinked in the dark of the watch room and missed a flash of yellow jacket? What if she turned her head and scanned over a hand reaching out of the water? What if it was her fault that David wasn’t back at his house right now, reading with Georgie or debating Chaucer and Fitzgerald?

George’s words from that first morning come back to her, when Ron slept in her bed and they split a smoke on the front steps as she sniffed and shivered with chill. You’re not invincible, Lil.

She couldn’t rationalize it then and she can’t rationalize it now, but she didn’t have a choice. No one understands why she jumped in, no one believes her. I’m alive, she wanted to say. Don’t you get it? I’m alive. I’m alive so that means I have to try. 

Perhaps it’s her loneliness. Perhaps she’s so desperate for someone that she’s willing to die for the chance, for the suggestion that a life she saves means being known, even for a day, even for an hour. Perhaps it’s the ungrateful woman her mother sees in her and the unruly, impractical dreamer her father wants to wash out of her. But she can’t keep sitting in her tower and let the world happen around her; she has to be a part of it despite her every attempt ending all wrong.

Ron won’t let it go. Teeth gritted with effort, he rises and moves toward her and suddenly she feels both cornered and safe, like a lifelong wish is being held out to her. “You would’ve died had you gone out there, you know that, right? You nearly killed us both trying to get me out of the water!”

“But you’re out, aren’t you?” she snaps, whipping around. You’re out and you’re alive. Doesn’t everyone want to be alive?

Ron looks at her with all the pity in the world, not rising to her anger. Lil bursts into tears as he pulls her into him. 

[spiderwebx]

The Lighthouse (2019)

Midsommar (2019)

The Conjuring (2013)

Hereditary (2018)

Get Out (2017)

Pearl (2023)

The killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

The Witch (2015)

Nope (2022)

Us (2019)

[jadafitch]

Ladies Delight Light, Lake Cobbosseecontee, Winthrop, Maine. When it was built in 1908, it was the only lake lighthouse east of the Mississippi. Lake Cobbosseecontee is known for its excellent bass fishing.

[nopesjsgwhqgsx]

so I'm back on my Lighthouse Lady bullshit, and I'm pretty sure she’s also some kind of supernatural being, because

-lights of her shop + open sign turn on directly when the gang are walking in-front of it for the first time

-the maritime lullaby was playing when she first made her appearance, if memory serves

-her line about believing the girls believe they saw something stands out to me for some reason

-She basically gave instructions on how to reach Lilith, you cannot tell me she hasn't been in contact with Lilith herself

-She had a riddle on how to find the washer women in the painting, also its implied (or outright stated) that shes seen her

-those dolls. Just. What? They look like they were pulled up from the bottom of the ocean

-Her shop was still “open” in the background when Niko’s trying to stick the meat on the music player

-all her paintings were of powerful, non-human, women and also provided some sort of guidance

I’m most likely missing a lot! But yeah! She’s at least a witch, also apparently her name is Asha, and a couple of the meanings for it are wish and desire.

[tricoufamily]

character/story influences tag

Rules: Write up a blurb or make a visual collage of the people or characters (from books, TV shows, movies, etc.) that inspired your OC, either visually, personality wise, or just a general vibe.

i misremembered this tag completely it was all about characters the whole time and i hallucinated the story part? so i guess everyone who did the character version like 2 years ago has to do the story version now sry

tagging @literalite idk who else hasn't done it do it!!!!!! it's fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(media/characters in order) this is the fall: succession, maurice, romeo and juliet, saturn devouring his son, that random dark academia bridge i saw that one time on tv that birthed the entire idea amen blood sports: the batman, the sopranos, macbeth, joker, jesus of suburbia music video, preacher's daughter hugo: fiona from shameless, yuuri from yuri on ice, belle, michael corleone, haruhi from ouran, sophie from howl's moving castle, wirt, elizabeth from pride and prejudice, mycroft holmes, saturn's son beckett: macbeth, arkham riddler, jack dawson, john marston rdr2, gotham riddler, billy loomis, jack skellington, stu scream, dano riddler, timothee chalamet's guy in lady bird, pretty odd era ryan ross, lead singer of midland specifically in the burn out video (it's where the mustache was birthed), kurt cobain, river phoenix connor: dutch rdr2, tony soprano, lady macbeth, arkham penguin, jd heathers, arkham origins joker, lestat, gotham penguin, robbie gravity falls, robert pattinson in the lighthouse, jade from victorious, amy lee, revenge era gerard way

[chiropteracupola]

we could sit here and do our tasks or we could sit here and watch some television or perhaps a movie about people being Miserable and Homosexual at the Ocean. at 3 in the afternoon on a thursday.

[codeandcanvas]

After having watched the very female film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” a few years ago, I will now watch the very male film “The Lighthouse”.

You can read about these two here https://www.broadstreetreview.com/articles/between-the-lighthouse-and-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-one-film-is-true-to-q and here https://www.slashfilm.com/1615264/the-lighthouse-movie-metaphors-symbolism-explained/

The gifs from these films floating around tumblr are usually exceptional.

[lumpofwhump]

Lighthouse whump

(Inspired by @whither-wander-whump’s idea)

Whumpee’s heart pounded in his chest as he hung over the edge of the railing of the lighthouse. The only thing protecting him from being dropped down onto the rocks below, if not into the sea itself, was whatever bit of mercy Whumper had left in her after his attempt to escape. He shuddered, both from the biting storm winds and from the icy look in Whumper’s eyes that suggested that mercy was in short supply tonight.

“Do you really want to see how long you would last out there, Whumpee?” Whumper yelled over the sound of the wind, holding his thin shirtfront in a tight fist.

“N-n-no, p-please, Whumper!” Whumpee tried to shout through chattering teeth, but his voice was almost too strained for him to hear it.

Whumper’s hand loosened ever so slightly, and Whumpee’s stomach abruptly dropped. He frantically grasped for the railing, but it was too far out of reach, and his hands were too shaky for it to matter.

After a couple more terrifying seconds, Whumper abruptly pulled Whumpee over the railing and threw him roughly to the ground. He cowered against the railing, clinging to it for dear life out of fear of both Whumper and the strong winds.

She stared down at his trembling form with contempt before throwing the door back into the lighthouse open and gesturing toward it sharply. “Get in.”

He scrambled in on hands and knees, whimpering every time he put weight on his ankle - sprained, if not broken, from falling down the long spiral staircase in his attempt to outrun Whumper - and quickly huddled against the huge light in the center of the room for warmth.

“No better than when I found you out there,” Whumper sneered. “You wouldn’t have lasted a day.”

After she’d forced him to walk painfully down the stairs to his room, she’d locked the door to the upper level. Still drenched from the storm, he wrapped himself in his thin blanket and looked out the window at the barely visible beacon across the water and through the storm.

If he’d made it as planned, he would be safe and warm in that other lighthouse with his friend. Whoever they were.

When the storm started to clear, the beacon began to blink. A code tapped out with light, carefully spelling out his friend’s concern.

Are you okay?

His foot throbbed as if in answer, and he sniffled and wrapped the blanket tighter around himself from the cold. He felt ever so slightly warmer, though, as he saw the next message come from over the still-choppy waves.

Stay safe. I’ll find you.

--

Continued here.

[hanzajesthanza]

‘Time,’ said Nimue, ‘has neither a beginning nor an end. Time is like the serpent Ouroboros, which bites its own tail with its teeth. Eternity is hidden in every moment. And eternity consists of the moments that create it. Eternity is an archipelago of moments. You may sail through that archipelago, although navigation is very difficult, and it is dangerous to get lost. It's good to have a lighthouse whose light can guide you. It's good to be able to hear someone calling among the fog…’ She fell silent for a while. ‘How does the legend that interests us end? It seems to us—to you and me—that we know how it ends. But Ouroboros is still grasping its own tail in its teeth. Yes, how the legend ends is being settled now. At this moment. The ending of the legend will depend on whether and when the sailor lost among the archipelago of moments sees the lamp of the lighthouse. If she hears the calling.’

inis vitre, the lighthouse guiding the lost sailor.

[buttfacemcgee]

The Veilguard might end up being shit but at least it looks pretty

[cavalierappreciator]

Went on vacation and Rodney go to be a beach dog :)

[postcard-from-the-past]

"The Old Lady" lighthouse near the commune of Plogoff, on the northwest coast of the Brittany region of France

French vintage postcard

[ttaibhse]

hmm

[livinasimminlife]

1.2 All the Single Ladies (LLC)

Let's meet the ladies in Love at Lighthouse Cove! A new reality-TV style story from me - set in the gorgeous Brindleton Bay remake by strawberrysimcakes. Singles will compete for a chance to find true love with lots of romance (and probably some heartbreak) along the way. Buckle up for a sizzling hot new drama. Get to know our OG lady contestants today and tell us who's your favorite!

So who catches your eye? Get ready for a summer of love!