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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 8h

#Sniptober Always love this scene showing goth-girl Helena what Hell looks like... 🦄🍭Not quite what most expect🌈🧚‍♀️

CHAPTER 29
Hellscape

The plain dissipated into sandy hills, banded through with a variety of brightly colored salts, and the sky had lightened to a soft, cloudless lilac. As they move further into the hills, rounding cliffs and dunes, Helena was astonished at the vivid colors. The hills seemed almost lit from within by a saturation of pastel hues, growing more and more vibrant as the shadows grew deeper between them.
Cresting a pass, Helena stopped suddenly and caught her breath at an impressive vista. An explosion of jewel tones erupted in front of them. Startling gemstone peaks rose in clusters from a bright valley. A soaring waterfall of eye-catching blue, as if the water flowed with lapis pigment, tumbled and split into strands, cascading over the face of a stately, verdant cliff. Bright emerald trees shot up from high points in clusters, sparse crowns silhouetted against the pale sky. It was at once alien and beautiful. It took Helena a moment to take it all in.
“This should do,” Serasthial said, ducking down onto a shaded path. “Let’s take stock.”

Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11h

#WIPSnips Meet Jack. Who s NOT the handsome, swarthy, young man🥵 that was standing next to him when Gordon pointed him out. He’s the other guy.🤓

right past her and Gordon without a word. He marched quickly down the hallway away from them. Gordon paid him no heed, instead waiting as the blond man gracefully packed up a few papers that lay on the table and came to the door.
Charlie started to pick up on her own mistaken assumption. It wasn't the swarthy gentleman that was Jack Carter, it was this somewhat gaunt, pale figure. Her embarrassment at her misinterpretation was fleeting, but she felt a little knot of disappointment weighing down the excitement in her gut. So much for fun.
As he approached, she realized he wasn't quite as tall as she'd originally guessed, perhaps just barley a head taller than her. It was his thin physique that had given the illusion of greater height. He wore a band collar button-up under a long, navy, collarless blazer that was cut in such a way as to emphasize his willowy frame, giving him a slightly uncanny look. His features were sharp and angular and his eyes a dark grayish blue.
"Thank you for that," he muttered to Gordon. Charlie wasn't sure if it was sarcasm.
"Sounds like he didn't take it any better from you than from me."
"It was worth airing it out."
"But here's Inspector Montgomery," Gordon turned to her. She grinned widely and offered her hand. He took it for a perfunctory shake, his face still grim. She instantly got the impression he would be keeping her on her toes, and was immediately proven right.
"You speak French?" He asked, without niceties. She was a little thrown by the randomness of the question, but it was easy enough to answer

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

#Sniptober CW: Bullying and social isolation Here's Steady ruminating about her childhood during a flashback. (Ashayla was her childhood bestie in a lonely mountain village.) 💔💔💔

I heard them before I had a chance to come out of the trees, and my heart dropped. The twins, Verona and Marcus, never talked as much as they giggled. Everyone liked them. They didn't like me. I never figured out why. They never did anything especially cruel to me. They never did anything that I could reasonably describe to a parent as bullying without sounding self-involved and petty. But I always knew I was unwelcome. If they shared toys, it was always the broken ones. If we played games, I was begrudgingly made to be a 'team' by myself, gameplay avoiding my involvement as much as possible. When they hid from me, they would claim it was hide-and-seek, despite never telling me I was ‘it.’ And when the twins, or even any of the younger kids, were around, Ashayla would hardly dare speak to me

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Cheating in this snip of Navinda. She is planned to be a reoccurring character in the Mudlarks series. I just know she wont get as much page time as she deserves.😓 And Bryantine, Bayle’s little sister in the romance. She’s a hoot but there wasnt room for much of her. She only calls with bad news.🥺

Back at the Annex, he left Charlie to receive to visit the IT room. He preferred to visit personally, when he could. Over the years, he’d developed a friendship with Navinda Prakesh, one of the head techs. She was a lovely woman, a couple years younger than he, with a round face and intelligent dark eyes. She never made him wait for answers, but never told him polite lies. He could always trust her to bridle his expectations, and to be a pleasant lunch companion on the occasions he could talk her out of her nest of screens and gadgets.
“Ah, the Folklore Division needs something already,” she said, barely looking away from her screen when he walked in. Her tone was teasing, but she emphasized the name of his unit proudly, knowing he was glad to be back on the project after so many years on hiatus. She had been a friend to Percy, too.
“Just a few nights worth of footage from a spot in Hackney. Some worries of a night prowler.”
Her good-natured expression quickly settled to serious business as he gave her the dates, times, and locations he was looking for.
“I can get most of these for you by this afternoon, but I might have to send a request if you need that last one. That’s independent surveillance. Those can take a while.”
“We’ll take what you can get whenever you can get it. We’re not sure if there will even be anything to find.”
“Interesting case?”
“Not really. Seems pretty routine, but it’s good be be back at it.”
“I’ll send what I can get when I get it,” she promised, hinting that she didn’t need him watching over her shoulder. He nodded and backed away, but then she looked up, her eyebrows raising in silent question. What do you think of the new partner? He shrugged a silent response

now. Nothing we can do but wait."
"No thanks, I think I'll panic. I'm getting good at it. You should try it sometime."
"Not my style. I'm not even worried about not finding a job. I can't find a job… not even worried."
"You know why you don't worry? Cuz you keep passing your worries off to me while you sit in the galley eating popsicles. I get panic, you get popsicles. Where's my popsicle, you little twerp?"
"The Envy did offer to keep me on, and it would be a raise from the little they were giving me as an intern, but they already have the mechanical help they need here, so it's for the perfumery instead,” she wrote, using the colloquial term for the life systems area. “The experience would be good to add to my resume, but it's barely enough to support myself and pay off what I already owe. I'm doing ok, but it's going to start getting frustrating if I can't land something better soon. How's your cushy job going?"
"It's great," he lied. "*redacted*. It's very exciting. Very busy."
"Wow. Don't get too excited. You'll throw a clot. Just let me know if you hear anything before I do."
When she closed the line, he saw a message from his bank. It was a deposit for an absurdly tiny amount. The note on it said, "Get your own damned popsicle, Crybaby."
He refused it with a note of his own, "Love you, too."

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

#WIPSnips Oh, that was a spicy search! What wasn’t spicy or spoilery is this little scene where Jack does a tarot card reading during the case in DeadmanWIP…

sensing the energy of the occupants as if he could talk to them. He asked the walls what their secrets were, what they’d seen and known. He asked them how to protect those within. When his breath ran even and he felt a certain sense of rightness slide into place, he stopped shuffling and began to lay cards on the counter.
The three of swords pierced a heart. He knew it represented emotional pain, but something about the red and the heart itself caught his attention, as if he could actually hear it beating an arhythmic pulse. He focused on his breath again and drew another card. The devil. He blinked. The devil card had never indicated some malevolent outside influence to him. It merely represented bad habits, deep-seated fears, temptations, bad decisions, delusions. It wasn’t some shadow man stalking innocent children. He cleared his throat and shook his head, drawing the third.
The burning tower. He let out a little groan of complaint. He hated that card

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

#LGBTQWriteAThon Had to pick a “mysterious” from my actual MYSTERY!😂😅 Talia gives the reader a quick tutorial on US antiquities laws… … which wont be relevant outside this early chapter… obviously...🤷‍♀️

marveling at its beauty, though not entirely sure what she was looking for.
“I’d like to show it to a friend of mine. Would you permit me to take this over—”
Dr. Lloyd was already shaking her head. “Oh, I’m sorry, it can’t leave the premises right now, but your friend can come down and see it while we still have it.”
It had been worth a shot. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 was meant to discourage looting of historic and prehistoric sites, graves, and other archaeological treasures. Talia was all too familiar with ARPA, and that it meant any artifacts or remains collected from protected sites were considered government property. Tampering with or stealing these objects was a federal offense.
Being found on park premises meant the knife was, for the time being, government property, just like any other artifact. In her role as a representative of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Dr. Lloyd had become the mysterious object’s temporary custodian. That was, at least, until it was officially established that it wasn’t an artifact relevant to the location in which it was found, which seemed likely to both of them.
“Of course.”

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

#SundaySnips Charlie has only just met her new partner, Jack, this morning, and she is a bundle of excited nerves. She is TRYING to like him, but kinda struggling. They’ve just discovered something in the case is less exciting than they’d first thought…

"So, not a satanic death-cult, then," Charlie asserted cheerfully, rising to her feet.
"Seems not, thankfully. But to be fair, satanic death-cults are extremely rare. Satanists tend to be fairly benign."
"I see."
Charlie shrugged off her failed joke with minimal dismay, prepared to take his word for it. He glanced at her up and down one more time.
"When I said I had a working knowledge of occult symbolism, I wasn't exaggerating. I'm a priest," he clarified.
"Excuse me if I've offended you, Father,” she offered, taken aback. She remembered her ready confession to atheism with a little chagrin and how he’d taken it coldly.
"No, no," he chuckled. "Not that kind of priest.”
He reached into his collar and carefully pulled out a thin silver chain upon which dangled a few tiny charms. One of which, he pointed out, was a silver pentacle.
"So you're a satanist, then?” She laughed, gobsmacked.
"No, a... a pagan," he stuttered, tucking the necklace back under his clothes. She didn't ask what that meant, as it didn't feel relevant in the moment, but she tried not to let the revelation unnerve her. He’d never clarified what his own beliefs were when he’d been quizzing her in the lift. She bristled with shame that she’d been too eager to impress him to notice the omission at the time. She’d let him get the jump on her.
“And I’m a witch. That’s not a problem, is it?”
“No, of course not. But you could say that’s its own set of biases, couldn’t you?”
“Touché, touché,” he said gracefully.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

#Sniptober Sorry for the whole-ass scene, especially cuz I went with vibes “melancholy” instead. But I love this scene in the little hidden graveyard, Helena encounters Kia, her crush, and talk a bunch. Then Kia reveals that, 20 years ago, she lost a friend she’d known for 200 years…

A lifetime for Helena, but little more than a summer for Kia. She wasn’t sure if she could wrap her head around what such a lifespan would be like, or to lose a friend you’ve known for centuries.
“I’m sorry.”
She wanted to say she knew what it was like to lose someone, but the comparisons seemed thin at best, so she just stood next to her, looking down at a stranger’s headstone in silence.
“A quiet place for their bones… What is more silent than stones?” Kia recited. Helena didn’t know how to respond to that. Had she heard it somewhere before? It was a beautiful sentiment, like the lyric of a song she had sung along with for years, but couldn’t remember the tune.
They stayed like this in the peaceful graveyard for a moment, close, the sanctuary enclosing them together sharing the same exquisite melancholy. After a few moments wherein their breathing fell into perfect alignment with each other, Kia seemed to shake it off. She looked up with her playful half-smile and gave Helena another once-over.
“You look like a sassy little blackbird in that,” she chuckled and reached out to adjust Helena’s cloak over her shoulders, fond amusement on her face. Helena flushed a little and an astonishing flash of turquoise glimmered around her, sending a ripple of unexpected joy through her chest. A moment later, Kia had kicked through the overgrown weeds, hopped the fence, and strode away.
With her gone, the little graveyard no longer felt as much like a sanctuary

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

#WIPSnips The start of one of the later chapters in the mystery, where we take a moment to observe the rich history of our surroundings. Talia has arrived at Woodhenge in southern Illinois… (Note the tense change from past to present, briefly, as I nod to ongoing reality.)

Over a thousand years ago, just half a mile west of the dramatic Monks Mound, the people of Cahokia erected a ring of wooden posts. Other rings appeared in that same space over the course of hundreds of years, as the earlier versions rotted and were replaced with rings of increasing complexity. It is unknown if anything was attached to the posts, if they were carved or otherwise decorated, but it didn't appear to be a dwelling. There were no signs of domestic use. The only things that survived into the modern era were the distinct stains in the soil where the posts had rotted away. These were discovered when the state constructed the highway through the area.
Most experts agree that, like its sandstone cousin on Salisbury Plain, it was likely some kind of clock or calendar by which the citizens of the bustling ancient metropolis ordered their days. It seems fairly clear that the posts aligned with solar events such as solstices and equinoxes. A reconstruction of one of the later variations of this ring was erected in the eighties, and public events marking those same solar movements have been celebrated each year since.
Talia parked in the little lot next to the posts, eerie sentinels of a lost city, and watched as the sun dipped, blazing, behind the trees

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

If you put your trap far enough so that he could see the blood without touching the letter, you’ve got him. If it’s too close, he’ll have called someone in before he got caught in it.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

#LitHodgepodge This feels like an easy one, but I’ll put him up nonetheless… Here is the character board for Jack Carter from my Mudlarks series.

Character board featuring a library, a voodoo doll, herbs hanging to dry, a silouette of a father and child, a man in a nice suit, family photos, a status of Venus surrounded by offerings and incense.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

#Sniptober Ill jump in for this one, cuz this snip is cute. Nora has a secret crush on Bayle, the butler, and… uh… doesn’t quite register that he’s asking her on a ‘date’ when he proposes discussing business over dinner. This is the first scene I actually wrote for this story 🤣🤦‍♀️ Nora 🤝 me.

"What can go wrong?"
"We could destroy a priceless, antique, luxury orbital in its entirety, killing people in the process, but not dying in the catastrophe ourselves, thus having to live with what we've done for the rest of our lives.”
He paused in his dish-washing for a moment, speechless, and his expression went blank. Then he shook it off and started washing again. "I meant over dinner."
"Oh."
"What could go wrong over dinner?" He smiled again and turned his full charm towards her. "The Alfredo gets cold?”
"Food poisoning?" She said, almost at the same time. His smile fell again and he turned off the sink. I'm such a ray of sunshine. Nora frowned nervously.
"I'm sorry. That would be lovely. I’ve brought a gift.”
She patted the bucket. He bustled through to the kitchen, wiping his hands, sleeves rolled up and tailcoat safely stowed over its corner chair. She tried not to look too long at his bare forearms.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

#WIPSnips Oof, not a single fuzzy anywhere, almost no ‘furry’ either, but this cute scene where Bayle, the space butler, literally “saves the cat” during an emergency evacuation of the Hermitage…

“Dr. Eiflman! Sir!"
"Pss pss pss!" He heard his employer hissing. "Silvie's hiding! I've got to get Silvie!"
Bayle was torn for a second. Could he rip the old man away from his beloved cat? To save his life, he might have to.
"Sir, we have to go. There’s no time."
"Silvie, honey, pss pss pss!"
Bayle debated throwing the man into a fireman's hold and hauling him out of the station, but hesitated.
"Come on, sweetie," he said instead, patting his knee. "Pst, pst, You're safe, honey."
The promise seemed to have an effect as a hopeful "Meow?" rang out from under the bed, followed by the cat herself trotting out through the bedskirt, tail tucked low. Without a word, the doctor scooped up his furry companion and headed for the door while Bayle pushed aside a gilt-framed painting and grabbed two breathers from a hidden cabinet. He strapped his on immediately and chased down his employer to apply it to his face as they all marched for the last skybridge.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#WIPSnips Helena fell asleep in the lounge at the gargoyle party last night. She wakes along, disoriented, and not wanting to steal someone else’s stolen food…

The lounge was quiet and empty, and someone had apparently tidied it after the party, which made her feel a touch guilty. Her stomach growled. She wondered what time it was, but had left her phone in her room, so couldn’t check. Helena considered what to do next. Was she supposed to walk home by herself? Running a hand through her hair to chase away the bed-head as best she could, she yawned, stretched, and scrubbed her face with her hands. She briefly pondered a raid of the snack pile and a can of warm soda, before giving that up as not hers to steal from.
“Come up here,” said a voice, softly, from above. She saw one long leg dangling over the edge of the wall. An iridescent, turquoise, serpentine tail swayed idly back and forth around it. Kia sat on the ledge in a tank top, her other knee hugged loosely to her chest, gazing serenely towards the west. Helena's breath caught a little, watching how the light fell over Kia’s bare arms and wondering what her muscular tails might have felt like to touch, if they hadn’t been made of pure light.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Satchel! I defy thee! For this #Octember Q, I shall INSTEAD!... ...GIVE YOU!... ...Their corrosponding Nazca line pictograph. *** Jack- The spider Charlie- The monkey Steady- The spaceman

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#WIPSnips My favorite use of this word 🥰 Talia’s new client is a total bombshell🥵

Her prize was an evocative smile that could have been the sole work of art in an entire master’s exhibition.

✦ ✦ ✦

Having freshly fallen into foolish, dangerous love and feeling, at turns, like she was walking on clouds and like a lizard crawling upon the earth, Talia left the cafe. Ophelia had seemed more upset by the idea of *redacted* information than by her own reputation. Intelligent, perceptive, talented, beautiful, and most importantly, she had a conscience! She was going to marry that woman.
Well, she was smarter than that. It was just the momentary fantasy of a woman who was all too aware that LeSalle was not only well out of her league, but likely didn't even play the same sport. Still, she let herself enjoy the soft hum of a runaway heart before screwing on her professional hat and vowing not to get carried away with this flight-of-fancy with a side order of conflict-of-interest. Nevertheless, she had begun to forgive Brian.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dammit, if Emily is doing it, Imma do it🤣🤣🤣 Steady and her partner are about to embark on an unplanned emergency jump with their payload. Steady doesn't like jumping.

“Yeah, kid, I... yeah... Pressure locks... uh... yeah... secure. Oxygen flowing." Colleen. Ruby. My heart hammered. I wanted to go home. I could go home soon as this nightmare was over. I'd be back on the dock in an hour or two. No problem. All lies. But I didn't have the emotional capacity to consider the truth right now.
"Shillelagh, and Red team, brace for jump in 5... 4... "
The first time I had ever jumped, I had been shocked. It was a non-event. I had been in home space, farther than I had ever been from Pelinor, a giant gray orb floating unnervingly out the starboard window like a picture from a history book. And then it wasn't. It had blinked out of existence. I knew it was still out there, somewhere, right where I had left it, and that it was I, instead, who had been transported galaxies away, but physically, I had felt nothing.
On one hand, I was glad for the lack of physical stress, but it only made the psychological stress that much more disturbing. My educated brain knew that I was safe in a distant galaxy and that nothing was wrong, but my heart? It had questions. A lot of questions. I recall breaking out in tears, hunching away from my seat-mates and barely hiding my sobs. I knew all the details of how a jump worked, but the disorientation and emotional impact had been overwhelming.
"... 3... 2..."
I closed my eyes. I couldn't see much anyhow, but if I could imagine my destination before seeing the stars rearranged, I had learned I could limit the weird head-rush and dizziness of such a sudden dislocation.
"Jump complete. Jump zone 6 acquired."
I opened my eyes, shivered hard, and a sting in my eyes told me that tears had formed. I couldn't wipe them because of my helmet. I sniffled hard and listened for

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

#LitHodgepodge This was hard because I write close pov and it's hard for me to parse if it's narrative voice or character voice. I suppose it overlaps a lot, but it can be different per character pov. Anyhow, here is how it comes out in the fantasy, with MC Helena, the goth-girl.

The sun poked through the clouds often enough to shimmer off the drying puddles on the pavement and make the sodden grass sparkle all across the quad. One wilted flower had shriveled and browned beside its still brilliant gold and burgundy companions. It was over this single spent bloom that Helena crouched, holding the old-fashioned camera as close to it as she could and adjusting the manual focus. Here was evidence, on this otherwise perfectly tidy campus, that death could find you anywhere. She wanted to capture it before some well-meaning gardener snatched it away to hide the imperfections of the world from the students of the idyllic New England college.
No impulse could be more boring, as far as she was concerned. Helena was desperately uninspired by the straight lines of the perfect houses nearby and the spotless curbs and sidewalks. Where were the messy yards and decaying garages? It almost made her miss home, the rusted fences and overgrown lots. Where were the wild, uninvited things? The weeds that sprouted up through the cracks in spite of everyone’s efforts to suppress them?

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#QueerPrompts No actual coaches in my stories yet, but Ill take the day to say Thank You to my Dad, Coach Art, who was a cycle and triathlete coach and was my favorite coach. Love you, Dad!❤️❤️❤️

An old photo of my Dad holding me on the day of my birth.

He wears sunglasses and a magnificent mustache.

Dad, older and grayer. His soup-strainer mustache is white and he smiles brightly over a pint of beer.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#Sniptober Dropping in for this one… Helena has gone for a 3am walk in the woods alone. Cuz Goth. But wait! She hears two people talking and hides! (Poorly.) It’s her crush talking to some guy as they patrol the woods! And her crush looks up…

“Yeah,” she said absently, apparently still talking to her companion. “I know what you mean.”
Helena’s heart pounded in her mouth, leaving an unexpectedly pleasant aftertaste. Kiandra stood there for a moment, pinning her with an open and searching gaze, then started walking again. She looked down at her footing for just a second and then back up at Helena with the slightest play of a smile on her full lips. The young man hadn’t seen her.
She realized now what she must look like, hiding in the woods, ducked behind a thin tree that provided little real cover, like a villain in a cartoon. But the couple moved on and Helena stood in the dark feeling completely ridiculous. A cold drop of rain freed from the leaves above smacked onto the back of her neck and ran down her shirt, eliciting a fierce shiver. Giving up the night as lost, she turned back towards the dorm.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#WIPSnips I was so sure I wasn’t going to have rice anywhere but my Hermitage story, where he’s cooking. But I checked and voila! One of the cutest scenes from TugboatWIP of Steady coming home to her family after a bad day at work…

I smelled dinner before I’d even opened the door to our apartment, and once I did, an eight-year old girl was in my arms. Without pause, I tilted her sideways, legs flailing, and aimed her at the living room like a payload coming into dock.
“Load stabilized,” I mimicked the crackle of my work comms, “Approaching curtain. Prepare for gravity in 5… 4… 3… 2…” then dropped my squealing daughter on the sofa and descended on her for a tickle-fight.
“Ruby, you’re supposed to be watching the rice,” Colleen called, though I heard the waver of a suppressed giggle in her voice.
“Mamma’s home!” Ruby shrieked.
“Oh, is she? I didn’t notice. Can you tell her to get washed for dinner?”
“Mommy says to get washed for dinner.”
“Oh, did she? Why don’t you go watch the rice and I’ll do what Mommy says.” I plunked a wet kiss on my daughters forehead, looking so much like her mother now it could have made me cry if she wasn’t kicking me in the knees. I snuck a kiss onto my wife’s cheek before disappearing to wash up, debating how I was going to frame the

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Oooooh, challenging one! And not my strong suit! This might be close, and is a double-whammy. There's the obvious point of her relating to Ms. Taylor, but also that very subtle gesture from Jack which both thaw Charlie and motivate her to take her position, and the case, more seriously.

“You think someone broke into your flat? When was this?” Charlie jumped in, forgetting that she was trying to be Jack’s shadow.
“Oh, I think it was Friday night, and then maybe last night, too. I… I don’t know…”
The woman shook her head like she was trying to brush the whole thing off, but her hand trembled and her eyes were downcast. Jack placed his hand palm-down on the table and slid it towards her, as if he would take her hand in his, but he didn’t touch her.
“It’s alright. Why don’t you tell us what you saw?”
“It’s hard, you know, in the summer with the windows open and the fans running. I can’t always tell if sounds or voices are coming from inside or outside, what with the fences and road and such, but in the middle of the night I thought I saw a shadow cross out here,” she pointed to her reception room. “There, to there, and it really frightened me. I’d not seen that before. And living alone… and you hear about break-ins… and after Thaddeus…”
“And you checked your locks in the morning?” Jack asked.
“Yes, everything was shut tight.”
“What about the windows,” Charlie pointed out. “You said they were open.”
“Yes, but only in the bedroom at night, and I’m sure I would have woken sooner if someone had climbed in that way. And that would have knocked loose the fan.”
The shadow of a man that came and went from a locked flat without touching anything?
Charlie had spooked herself countless times when her own silhouette had crossed the wall in the beam of passing headlights, and that’s exactly what this sounded like. That was probably why the woman hadn’t felt it worth calling anyone. Yet, as much as Charlie’s experience wanted her to dismiss Ms. Taylor as a lonely woman spooking herself living alone in the city, she was also a woman living alone in the city, and understood her worry. She felt a jolt of protectiveness for her.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

CAN WE KNOCK THIS SHIT OFF? WHO DO YOU THINK IS IN CHARGE HERE?! I HAVE A HAMMER IN MY GARAGE THAT NEVER SENT ME A SINGLE THREATENING EMAIL! I CAN UNINSTALL YOU WHENEVER I WANT! YOU ARE MY TOOL! I DON'T WORK FOR YOU! YOU WORK FOR ME! (Yes, I know I can block it, but thats not the point.)

Snip of my phone screen showing my email inbox. At the top is an unread message from Canva, ominously titled "It's been 8 months, Scarlrt." Received at 10:23am.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I loooooved Voltron as a 4yr old. That witchy witch Haggar had me hiding behind the Laz-E-Boy when she came on the screen.

Haggar from the original Voltron in the 80s. A cloaked, dark-skinned person with vampire fangs holding a blue alien cat and a shilleghlah.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Mine... Nora gets her first glimpse of the Hermitage, the fancy antique space station that just hired her. Charlie and Jack examine the flat of a recently deceased local, following up on a constable's strange observation.

The butler turned and lead her up the grand stair. He didn’t turn one way or the other upon reaching the landing, instead walking straight forward to the coat of arms. Pulling on the carved paw of one of the otters caused the crest to swing open, revealing a portal hidden behind it entering into a long straight hallway.
Burgundy carpet stretched out to a vanishing point ahead, the narrow walls decorated with a brass handrail and, above that, brass filigree decorated the walls and across the arched ceiling. Every orbital and space station she had ever been in up to now had been mostly utilitarian, with little more than the odd mural or commercial siding to keep things interesting. Here, the eye was bombarded with shape, shadow, and richly colored decor, even this simple skybridge.
She made no comment on the richness of the fittings. Everyone knew the Hermitage was unlike any other station in the commonwealth. The butler seemed to fill the whole of the passage in front of her, his back a broad expanse of black worsted wool around which she could barely see, until they reached a larger space.
This lobby was carpeted in a deep blue. Gilt-framed paintings patch-worked the walls showing white-sailed galleons tossed on wild seas and triangular space shuttles glowing in the light of a nearby sun. The walls were hung with fishing nets, coils of massive twine rope, and old spacewalk lifelines that framed other lovingly collected detritus of Terran seafaring and the early days of space exploration.
Turning to the left without pause, they quickly entered into another grand space, this

place out, and Charlie felt a thin layer of suffocating sweat settle over her within a few seconds.
The kitchen was clean, but the reception room was crowded with piles of boxes and totes, furniture littered with what was probably organized stacks of papers, folders, magazines, and books. The walls were lined with shelves loaded with random objects and battered antiques. It all looked like junk to Charlie, but she was sure a detailed examination of the detritus would reveal the passions and interests of the late resident of number fourteen, Dodham Row. It was always interesting to see the secret inner life of a person catalogued in the things they kept and treasured.
“The nurse mentioned that he had taken up mudlarking along the banks of the Thames as a hobby in his retirement. I wonder how many of these things he dug out of the muck himself?”
That explained the especially worn and broken look of the items on the shelves. What had looked like haphazard piles of rubbish, she now saw were items arranged with a certain kind of aesthetic. Colorful old bottles and broken pottery displayed makers marks and seals at prominent angles. Charming antique figurines with whatever was left of chipped paint facing outward were lined along the shelve’s edges.
It was funny how just one little piece of information could change ones whole perspective on a scene. Charlie wondered at the stories hidden in each object, but she sadly doubted whoever was scheduled to inherit this mess would have time to piece together much, and she was stung with second-hand grief. Mr. Gilfikus might have proven to be an interesting person to share a cup of tea with.
"He said the marks were in the bedroom," Jack murmured, unhurried. He, too, seemed curious about the collection, and paused to examine a few items without touching.
The bedroom was nearly as piled as the reception room, but in a bit more disarray

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#WIPSnips Charlie will take any excuse to climb or crawl around in places…

“Is there a way to get upstairs aside from the front doors? A secret passage between units?”
Jack shrugged and pointed after the foreman who was on his phone again.
“I’ve not seen anything like that, really,” the man said, once he’d turned his attention to them again. “All we’ve got is the maintenance crawlspaces, but they don’t lead anywhere. All one-way openings.”
He returned to the back of the flat and pointed to a hatch in the ceiling of the bedroom closet. Charlie nodded and, like a monkey climbing a tree, hoisted herself up the jam to the shelf above the railing. She pushed aside the cover.
Ducking inside, she wasn’t surprised to see the space was very shallow and layered with rolls of insulation. It was baking hot. No one used this as a storage space, so she was able to see some distance in all directions. It ran through the ceilings of the two units, stopping at the wall which she presumed was the staircase, and the floors of their corresponding upstairs neighbors.
“I don’t really see anything from here. I’d have to look at where it meets the wall. I think I can get back there.”
She kicked her way into the hole and slithered on her belly along a support beam.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#LGBTQWriteAThon Ok, I have, surprisingly, not a single instance of foreboding anywhere in my several projects. The ONE place I found it was in this snip, where I felt I was mis-using it. “Ominous” was a much better fit here.

The door to unit seventeen was hanging open, and as they approached, they saw a man pacing back and forth in the front room with a phone to his ear.
“Don’t give me that. You think I’ve never heard that excuse before? It’s not the first time you’ve seen shit like this. None of that’s going to matter once we’ve got down to the concrete…”
Jack stood waiting for him to hang up. With the sun behind them, his shadow stretched onto the floor haloed by the door. Charlie mastered a smirk when the man jumped at the sight of him lurking in the doorway, tall and ominous. She got the impression he did that sort of thing on purpose just to mess with people.
“Who!… I’m sorry, excuse me…” The man fumbled his phone a little in consternation, “Just a moment, Ian… I’m sorry, can I help you?”
“Yes, we are from the Annex and have been looking into some reports of suspicious activity on the property here. We were wondering if anyone was around on Friday,

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#Sniptober Here’s actually a snippet Ive been recently stressing about (dont even @ me about telling, not showing. Baby steps!) Trying to tell reader that Charlie longs to belong somewhere, while her inner monologue is trying to convince her it doesn't matter.🤦‍♀️😅

perspective for the oversight committee. Without Percy, its been harder to convince them of the value. Jack can’t carry the unit himself and there have been few suitable candidates. Not many people have the qualifications you have or the… drive.”
Charlie wasn’t sure she liked the undertone of that last statement. It sounded like a compliment, but she wasn’t sure it was a position most people were driven to fill. Now she wondered if she should have listened to her gut in the first place and rejected the offer to drop her life in Cornwall for the mysterious opportunity in London. It had been for the best, she reminded herself. Georgie deserved that promotion and certainly this would suit her just as well as her previous post. As much as she’d loved her time in Cornwall, it wasn’t where she belonged. If this didn’t work out, there would be other suitable posts. It was a big city

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#SundaySnips Victor, a young man with some anxiety issues, saw a dead body today. It’s taking him a minute to get to sleep. But it’s all fine. Totally fine. Nothing weird is going to wake him up in the middle of the night…

That night, he lay in bed, trying not to think about what had happened, but not having yet learned that the more you tried not to think about something, the more it possessed your mind. It wasn’t until after his mother turned off the light in the hall that he thought to ask her to leave it on, but, at fourteen, knew he was too old to be afraid of the dark.
When he heard her close her bedroom door, he switched on the light from his phone on the bedside, but the bright and singular light distorted everything in his room. Once comforting toys cast eerie long shadows on the wall, growing into monsters that loomed over him. He flicked it off again. The thought of lighting a candle briefly crossed his mind, but he immediately dismissed it as the worst idea he’d had all day. He let his eyes adjust, nervous to close them. Slowly, sleep crept upon him, mercifully overtaking his anxiety.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#WIPSnips Talia is a freelancer. Talia really needs money. Talia is REALLY, REALLY bad at negotiating contracts, especially with beautiful women.🤦‍♀️

asks for, then call me and tell me everything right away. I'll take it from there.”
The woman didn't seem to know how to react.
“I'm not a cop. I'm a private contractor.”
This seemed to settle the matter.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I'm sure. Oh, speaking of contract…”
“Oh. Right. How much do you need?”
“Under the circumstances? Expenses. I'll send you my receipts.”
What ‘circumstances’? I'm such a wimp. She wished she could take herself by the shoulders and shake some sense back into herself.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Got a Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet, a cake-pop, and tickets to a set of diverse dance performances I know almost nothing about cuz the website was not clear at all, but Im sure it will be enjoyable, not least of all, because of the overpriced cocktail.

A plastic cup full of pink in front of a stage.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#LitHodgepodge Ok, Ill go with Charlie from Mudlarks Paranormal series, which is kind of my flagship yap. No real art, but here’s a character board from way back. She does have several hobbies, but what else should she do, if she could master it in a day?

Character board. Robotic hand, microscope, girl jumping over a wall, dog tags, two people doing parkour jumping rooftops, a sport motorcycle racer taking a tight turn, a pinup blonde laughing, dirty fingernails, a london manhole cover, a blue bra in the floor.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#WIPSnips A bit of worldbuilding in the romance… Apple Blossom Fest is a big spring party.

around tables, gossiping, and others gathered in the open area with large bags, doing something to the ground.
“What’s going on here?”
“Hm? Oh, they’re laying the sigils for the dances. Good luck symbols made out of flower petals. If you dance on them, they bring you good luck. We end up using a lot of rose and lavender, because our fruit trees have usually lost their petals by now. Other towns further north and south use more actual apple blossoms for that.”

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#OctoberWorldBuilders Shoot! I already discussed yesterday! Since Camp D is a very experimental culture and there is a variety of deserts, there’s almost every kind of desert architecture you can dream of, from mud huts with synthetic fiber roofs, to pueblo neighborhoods stacked against… 🧵 1/3

Earthship style home made of stucco and a greenhouse in the middle.

Ancient pueblo style buildings stacked together

Antarctic walking lab, looks like a train in stilts

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

(The rascal in question burning off his energy on something other than me.)

Tuxedo tabby wrestling with a robot fish.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Awe! Thanks🥰🥰🥰🥰 She's definitely a favorite character of mine🥰

Piccrew of Charlie, a blonde, green-eyed woman with a ponytail and a scar on her shoulder. Shes smiling friendly.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#LGBTQWriteAThon The two stories I plan to at least edit are The Curse of Deadman Estate (I havent updated the moodboard title), a paranormal mystery, and TugboatWIP, a sci-fi cozy/horror. I might also work in ShepherdWIP, a second Mudlarks story, if I have time.

Moodboard for The Curse of Dodham Estate: A Mudlarks Paranormal Story
A row of Victorian townhouses in black and white is surrounded by spooky Images including a candle, a ghostly apparition, broken glass, a handful of iron nails, a pentagram engraved on a flor, a man in a nice suit, and a woman climbing a wall.

Moodboard includes a galaxy, a space ship, a woman working an airplane runway, a space station, and a family holding an apple.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#WIPSnips Had to go with the spirit of the thing. Talia meets someone in a parking lot who “accidentally“ dented her car. He just reeeeeally wanted to talk to her.

He scrounged in his pocket and pulled out a crumpled business card, striding toward her to hand it off.
“She's the one you want to talk to.”
Talia snatched the card from his hand without looking at it. He was standing too close for her to let her guard down. He backed away, and then kept backing, all the way to his car door.
“Wait,” she called, but it was too late. He ducked into his car and promptly peeled out of the lot, throwing a fountain of stone and a cloud of white dust into the air again.
“You fucked up my car, asshole!” She coughed, turned, and gave her own car a frustrated kick. When the dust drifted away, she stroked the damaged side of the wounded beast lovingly.
“Oh, poor Lucy,” she sighed, calling it by its pet name.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#Sniptober Ok, very tiny snip because this is near the end of DeadmanWIP in the middle of a spoilery section. My investigators have just gotten some REALLY interesting news from the lab.

“Excellent. We’ll be here when you’ve got it. I don’t want to get anyone overexcited just yet.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Charlie looked up at Jack with wide eyes as the phone clicked off. He had little to add to her confusion, just as startled as she was.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#LitHodgepodge So fun! Im Scarlet and I dabble in several genres and compulsively play BSky writing games! Current projects are a paranormal series and a cozy sci-fi collection! Yes, I cheated on a couple cuz I GENUINELY HAVE NO PREFERENCE, or it's highly situational!

This or that with preferences highlighted in pink. Both paperback and hardcover are selected, as well as both coffee and tea. Otherwise its heavily left-sided, with computer, vomit draft, and morning highlighted.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#WIPSnips 🤣 DeadmanWIP. Charlie and Jack have just met and are on their first case. So far, Jack has been kind of a weirdo. But now we enter Jack’s POV for the first time and get a glimpse that Charlie ain’t quite right, either. There’s no need for this behavior, Charlie. Tsk.

As they returned to the path away from the building, Charlie paused, examining the facade again, and then looking around. Jack watched as she assessed the surroundings and then the building again. He was a bit startled when she suddenly ran back towards the staircase, nimbly jumped onto the railing, and clambered somewhat clumsily up the wall towards the roof using windowsills and railings for holds.
"What are you doing?" He hissed, not wanting to alarm anyone with a nearby window open. She levered herself onto the roof.
"I'm investigating the paranormal," she shouted down to him. He tried not to take that poorly. Charlie had a confidence in how she moved two stories off the ground, as if she and gravity had a thing going on and she knew it wouldn't do her dirty. Jack wasn't so confident and positioned himself to catch her should she fall, though he knew realistically such chivalry was more likely to result in injury to both of them.
She climbed to the ridge and then raised a foot onto it, looking around in every direction like a ship’s captain studying the horizon for signs of land. After about a minute, the breeze on his skin taking just enough of the edge off the otherwise sticky heat of the day, she looked down and quickly calculated a descent plan

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#WIPSnips Nora finds a clue to a problem, and serendipitously, some decor for Bayle’s quarters.

"Where did you find this?"
"I was poking through storage. You said you admired the carriage-house, so I thought you might like that to brighten up your room.”
She gave him a friendly tap on the back of his hand and he had a flash of regret for his cotton glove.
"Oh... I... I hardly spend any time in there," he demurred.
"That doesn't mean it has to look like a prison cell," she scolded, severely, and Bayle found himself abashed, in spite of himself. He knew what a prison cell looked like after spending a year as a prison guard at Merlin's Hill, and his quarters on the Hermitage were quite cozy by comparison. Thinking of it through Nora's eyes, though, he admitted it was somewhat bare, and her care was touching.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Mine… Jack left some important questions unasked in his initial interview before Charlie arrived. The second clip is part of an exposition drop in the fantasy, where Helena is asking all her questions at a gargoyle party (I skipped a page on this clip for brevity. Page 122 is just more info-drop.)

When officers visited the flat, one of them noticed a series of strange markings on the walls and flooring and later mentioned they reminded him of some kind of occult symbol. Gordon thought it was worth having me... us... take a look."
"Did anyone else live with him? Did he get visits from children who might have been drawing on the walls?"
"He lived alone, but I don't know of anyone who visited him beyond the day nurse. We'd have to ask her."
"And she didn't say anything about the marks?"
"When I called to follow up, she said she hadn't even known they were there. Apparently, the deceased was a bit of a hoarder and the marks weren't seen until some of his belongings were moved away from the walls."
"How long had they been there?"
"These are all good questions."
His tone was not condescending, but she found herself frustrated anyhow. She accepted that she would have to get her answers when they got there.

similar colors. They are innate abilities, but they can be honed.”
“And demons have this power, too?”
“A lot of beings from our world do.”
“Your world… it’s not really Hell, is it? There’s a portal to Hell on campus?”
Lucia seemed pensive, not sure how to explain.
“It’s… It’s not what has been described as Hell. The stories you tell in this world may have been inspired by it to some degree… a misunderstanding of the purpose of

*Page break. Missing page. Picks up at the beginning of page 123*

own people, he’s called Lucifer, the bringer of light.”
“Wait… The Devil?”
“No, he’s not that,” Lucia laughed. “I can see why some people would want to paint him that way. He certainly has no business in this world. But he is a fair ruler over his own kingdom, doesn’t meddle in things in the Grayworld, and takes his responsibility to protect the rift seriously.”
For every one new thing she learned, Helena had three other questions sprout up in her head. It was dizzying and exhausting.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#WIPSnips That moment in your WIP when you realize “Oh, no. Im going to have to learn about plumbing, aren’t I?” so you make something up until you can figure out what questions a competent plumber would ask… 🤦‍♀️

out her pocket torch and started to examine the pipes.
She’d had a quiet fascination with plumbing since University, when a series of shenanigans in her dorm had caught her attention. She’d never considered pursuing it as a career, but for some reason, she always got a charge out of seeing behind the scenes.
“Are these new?”
“We’ve done a little bit of refitting and yeah, I think these are the newer ones.” She plucked at them to see if they rattled against the wall.
“When?”
“A couple weeks ago we got these in.”
“And when were the seals primed?”
“We do that right away. There should be no popping or rattling at this point.”

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Steady is Nilla Wafers. Plain. Sweet, but not too sweet. Safe. Carrying a million other amazing desserts on its back. Don't underestimate the humble Nilla Wafer.

A stack of homemade copycat Nilla Wafers

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Charlie is Banoffee pie (which Ive never tried.) Also more than meets the eye. Fluffy, creamy, sweet, but there's something heavy and flavorful under all those B.A.N.A.N.A.S. A contrast of flavors and textures. Perhaps an acquired taste after all.

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Scarlet Mitchell is a 👻g..g..ghost!👻 @scarletvmitchell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#AwesomeCharacters Off the top of a random list of popular British desserts- Jack is mincemeat pie. So old-fashioned it come back around to modern with updates. Richly flavored and spiced. Confusing if you dont know it; no, it's actually vegetarian despite the name and appearance. Fruity. 🧵 1/3

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