Yuletide Reveal!

[thisbluespirit]

I've been so amused about my assignment since I got it (not due to the prompt, I hasten to add, just other things), that it's lovely to be able to mention it at last. You see, last year, which was my first Yuletide, I was assigned a Blake's 7 prompt and turned out to be, despite there being quite a few other requests and offers, the author of the only B7 fic in the main collection. (There was a treat in Madness, for me. ♥ still to paranoidangel42 for that one).

This year, I got assigned Blake's 7, and turned out to be the only writer of a B7 fic in the main collection, even though there were other requests and lots of offers. (Other than a treat for me in Madness. iferion! It was you! ♥)

You see why I'm amused? What do I do about this awesome responsibility as the Only B7 Writer in Yuletide? What happens if I don't request or offer it next year? (:lol: Don't worry, that is a joke, but oh, the randomness of the computer selection thingy here.)

So, yes, I wrote B7. Anyone who saw the story must have known it was me!


I got the prompt - ahaha - Avon/Servalan to play with for Christmas. How marvellous & terrifying. And worked out something I could write - I had a theme 'Five Games' and that meant I could write five linked ficlets, which I could handle easier than a plot, and this was fine, except I just ahd a complete low-period for two weeks, to the point where even though I had everything in rough, I thought I'd have to default. It just seemed so frustrating, so I typed up the second section, thinking that if it was over 1000 words I could post it alone - and then did eventually get it all done, although probably it would have been better for me if I hadn't! (Remind me to be well before I sign up for anything again. Say 'Yuletide' at me if I start getting tempted.)

Basically, persiflage_1 helped me out by being such a speedy and helpful beta, who assured me that the section could stand alone, and then beta-ing the whole thing pretty much overnight for me.

Luckily, my recipient liked it (or was at least convincingly enthusiastic in her review!) and I actually got a couple more comments and recs than Hit & Run got last year, which surprised me. Even 2 recs I saw in passing!

The Games theme was such fun once I thought of it, though. I wish I'd been well to play with it properly & get some of the sections much more as I would like them to be. Also, I so wanted the last section to be Ker-Plunk! But I thought you'd have to be me to get that one, and Consequences was a bit more elegant. Also Pt 4 started off as Murder in the Dark and Avon and Servalan turned it into Cheat. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. For the end section, I extended a drabble I wrote once, but as I only ever posted it here under flock, I thought that'd be okay.

ETA: I have to add that though I wish both times I had had more brain to do it more justice, especially this time, I am grateful to Yuletide for forcing me to write B7, because I so wanted to, but the fandom is so established (lovely, and friendly and generally amazing and welcoming, of course, though!) and so I only really played about at the laid-back & fun b7friday plus some cracky things and crossovers.

Just, next year, when Yuletide assigns me to be the only B7 writer again, I want my brain to hand. As it were.


Compendium (4849 words) by lost_spook
Fandom: Blake's 7
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kerr Avon/Servalan
Characters: Kerr Avon, Servalan (Blake's 7), Vila Restal, Cally (Blake's 7), Orac (Blake's 7)
Summary: Five games Avon and Servalan played with each other (and mostly lost).

Thanks very much to the three people who made my Yuletide by writing me Silver. Especially since I gather I really did (as I feared) terrify my assigned writer by my epic DY Letter and went up for pinch hitting... (But, heh, that's presumably how I wound up with 3 fics, so I can't be sorry. Except for the original person: whoever you are, I apologise and next year's letter will be shorter!) On the other hand, my main writer seriously watched S&S just to write me the fic, which makes it even more impressive! And justice_turtle and iferion! Thank you! ♥

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I do my best, when beta-reading, to deal with fics promptly. (Mainly 'cos I know how ridiculously impatient I *always* am to get stuff back from my own beta-readers!)

[thisbluespirit]

You do, and it's always helpful - and in this case knowing that you would beta that quickly made it possible, otherwise I couldn't have done the full-length version, not within the deadline. So, you are very shiny, as ever. ;-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Thanks!

[estirose.livejournal.com]

You got me into Sapphire and Steel! I have to thank you a lot for that.

-Estirose@DW (who will now be ordering the DVDs now that she's gotten her paycheck)

[thisbluespirit]

Wow, I don't know where to start...

I meant to come back and review the story a little more, but I have some concentration issues right now & haven't managed it, but, I did love the fic. And the fandom is tiny, and I haven't seen a gen 'missing assignment' type fic, written as you did, from the POV of Silver and how it feels to appear part-way through. Silver-obsessed though I am, I hadn't even thought of that, and I do love it when a fic gives me something new like that. And so much else - the watching each other, and Silver beating a magical box, and people fighting with books! :-)

I saw your comment on yuletide so I was just about to comment there with admiration for tackling an all-new canon, especially one as mysterious as S&S. (Which I suppose can help a bit in some ways, but even so...) Also your commentary was illuminating as regards the other characters in it. I understood enough to make it work, but it was great to see that, too.

And, yay! justice_turtle who, coincidentally, you also wrote fic for, got me into it earlier in the year and I have been generally obsessed by its mysteriousness and flailing over it (& especially Silver, because I am one of the strange people who came for the 'wrong' David!) ever since. And writing fannish speculation about the periodic table, because S&S is the one fandom where you're prone to do that.

There are some great things around for it (sapphirensteel is the main place to start - I think everything is at least linked from it).

But thank you very much, especially for doing such a marvellous job at the last minute and acquainting yourself with a new fandom to do it.

[estirose.livejournal.com]

Since I have wandered in and out of SF fandoms for years, I'd at least heard of the series, but I'd never seen it (it never occurred to me to look on Youtube!). Your DYW letter finally made me say "Oh my goodness, I must check out this series and I'll start with 3 so I can write this person a ficlet, at least!".

And then I got you as a pinch-hit and started imagining how I could make Silver the hero of the story, and somehow I ended up with this semi-crossover (I really should officially make this a crossover on the tags, at some point).

I had two people kind enough to act as a canon beta and a britpicker respectively (though the britpicker ended up mostly catching spelling and grammar mistakes), and the canon beta listened to me happily squee about my shiny new fandom for about an hour. (I'd gotten through 3 and part of 6 when it went to beta.)

And of course, I read every single public post that you had about S&S, as well as all your Doctor Who recs, trying to figure out what you'd enjoy. :)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, well, I am thrilled that it accidentally got you into the series. As you can tell, I only got around to watching it in the summer and have not stopped obsessing about it/ being a flailing newbie ever since, really.

Your fic was/is lovely, and I'm still sort of gloating over my Yuletide haul of Silver.

Also, I see that you are really on Dreamwidth, and I'm only over there in theory, so we don't really coincide well, but I am off to friend you, and then if you need to flail or squee some more over Sapphire & Steel once you get the DVDs, you are more than welcome to jump in on any S&S posts. Or any post at all. I'm quite happy to stop & change subject to the fasincating nature of Elements any time! (I'm happy to flail over Sapphire and Steel and Lead and Elements generally; it's not just Silver. ;-D)

And, heh... At least my Calufrax posts are less waffly than my usual LJ ones! Thank you. :-)

[belantana.livejournal.com]

By some miracle, there are no actual spoilers for Blake's 7, despite the last scene.

Ooh, yay, because despite failing so far I do still intend to get into this fandom one day...

Congratulations on winning Yuletide! \o/ AND for getting all the pieces in that you wanted to get in. AND for being the only Blake's 7 author again!

(I was worried when I saw you on the pinch hit list, so I am extra pleased that you received bounteous gifts, and that's so great that someone wrote in a new fandom just for you!)

[thisbluespirit]

:Lol: I was about to warn taht though there are no spoilers, I really did not have the time to make it make sense to a non-B& fan. But you found that out. (The cool/fun/scary thing about Avon and Servalan, though, is that there is virtually no fanfic that you can write for them that is more disturbing, kinky, cracky or awesome than they actually are!)

Also... I have no idea what you would/will make of B7. I can't decide - there snark, humour, explosions, great characters and the whole moral questionability and trust issues, which is good, but on the other hand, there's other stuff you may just really hate & it;s old and slow and the sfx is frequently hilarious. If/whenever you do, I will definitely be curious! (It and S&S were made at almost exactly the same time, but they're like polar opposites: S&S has a small budget, uses what it does have on the two leads, and then makes a virtue out of necessity, while B7 has no budget to do what its attempting, but it just doesn't care, it does it anyway. Even if that means the Michelin Man walks in in the middle of a horror scenario.) Servalan's costumes are the most awesome thing on TV ever, though. I've never watched a TV show before where my first question on a new episode was "What are they wearing?"

And, yes, I feared I had driven my original writer crazy, and so it was, but I am indeed a lucky Yuletider yet again. :-)

[lferion]

You are very, very welcome! When I saw your request go by, I knew I had to write you *something.* I'm so glad you liked it!

[thisbluespirit]

I did! :-)