Yuletide: All is revealed

[thisbluespirit]

So, I wrote things for Yuletide. Somewhat more than I expected...

Firstly, and most importantly, my assignment, which was for paranoidangel42. I had, when signing up initially, looked at my list of fandoms I was willing to write and said to myself I might as well have just said I'd write for Paranoidangel. And then laughed, shook my head at myself, reminded myself that Yuletide is a big exchange and added in a bunch of other fandoms... and then got assigned to Paranoidangel! (So, erm, sorry about that - you just got yet more of me instead of somebody new! I had fun writing for you, though! ♥)

Backstitch in Gold (3948 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The House of Eliott
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Beatrice Eliott & Evangeline Eliott, Beatrice Eliott/Jack Maddox
Characters: Beatrice Eliott, Evangeline Eliott, Jack Maddox
Additional Tags: Yuletide, 1920s, Fashion & Couture, Sister-Sister Relationship, Misses Clause Challenge, Women Being Awesome
Summary:

What has been well-stitched together doesn’t easily fray at the seams.

I'd been rewatching HoE recently and was determined to write fic for it, because there's so little of it, and knew what I wanted to do - a sort of big Bea and Evie across-the-years, culminating in a fixit for the ending. But then it seemed to fall flat in various places, and the ending wasn't quite how I remembered it, thus scuppering my planned final section and I floundered for a while. (I had in my head that Bea and Evie had a big row and, actually, they don't. Evie is angry at everyone, but Bea is muted, almost defeated.) However, eventually, I beat it into shape & hopefully it wasn't too bad! (I've learned by now, though, that I pretty much always feel my assignments are terrible - until the next year, when suddenly I realise that last year's was quite good... but this year's is terrible.)

Anyway, it was fun to write Bea & Evie, and I am still very fond of the series. (Which follows the fortunes of a pair of sisters who set up a London fashion house in the 1920s and is good fun & all up on YT if anyone is interested). I did want to work in more characters, though, and more social history... and, yes, well, possibly being unrealistic? I think in my head I wanted to write a big HofE novel, that's all. At least I finally came up with a title I liked. I had the summary before the fic, but it was in danger of being posted as "Untitled House of Eliott fic" as the deadline approached. (Backstitch is the strongest stitch commonly used for sewing & in gold, obviously, but also because that's how Jack refers to Bea early on. Hmm, I'm not sure now why I changed it from "Backstitch in Gold Thread" because that makes more sense! I shall go change it back.)


As ever, I wrote a couple of treats while reading through people's letters, before assignments went out. One was for Clocket, who was having her first Yuletide and had requested S&S and B7, so I thought I'd try and write a little treat, because it's nice to have a treat-filled first Yuletide! Of course, my brain defaulted to S&S and, honestly, I should just have signed my name, because I wasn't exactly very anonymous, unless in the "it's so obvious it must be a double bluff" sense:

Paper Trail (2201 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sapphire & Silver & Steel, Sapphire/Steel
Characters: Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Additional Tags: Yuletide
Summary:

Everything connects in surprising ways sometimes...

(With many thanks to Pers who, as ever, beta-ed most of these for me!)

Also, ariadnes_string had requested Hinterland with a supernatural edge, and I thought that sounded like a great prompt - I'm not sure I could write that fandom as it is, but throw in some fantasy/sf/mythological edge, and I'm good. Plus, I do know Aber in rl, so how could I not try? The only thing was, I'd need some help with the Welsh. Luckily, llywela13 came to my rescue (as I'd hoped) with a beta + Welsh picking/translating. I mean, I know signpost Welsh and have my Grandad's Welsh dictionary from 1960, but I don't think I could have made it otherwise. Anyway, the big surprise was that this was probably the most fun to write, even with a worryingly vague memory of the show, aided by random clips and interviews, & the fic I was most pleased with. Happily, it got some very nice comments. (I don't think much if any knowledge of canon is needed; this is not the usual kind of case for Tom and Mared and there is probably *cough* slightly more banter than the show would allow. Even though I deleted one exchange. So it's just a tiny & odd little ghost story, set in one of my favourite rl places.)

Mind, it was nearly a time travel fic, because I went to Aber in the late 90s and the original students' pub/nightclub trip in it thus involved two nightclubs that are now no more. (One of them I knew had gone; it was just a stop gap, but I had to look up current Aber nightlife - the internet is a wonderful thing! - which resulted in pained cries of, "What??!! They've closed down the Bay!!!" Even I went to the Bay (or Y Bae) once in a while. *sigh*)

Ar Haner Nos yn Glir y Daeth (Upon the Midnight Clear) (1920 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Y Gwyll | Hinterland
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Tom Mathias & Mared Rhys
Characters: Tom Mathias, Mared Rhys, Siân Owens
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Ghosts, References to Welsh Mythology
Summary:

A seemingly open and shut case results in Mathias and Mared hanging about the castle ruins late one night - and they find they're not alone...

The other good thing about getting Paranoidangel was, of course, that we matched on two fandoms, so I had a splendid back-up possibility - Press Gang! She wanted Lynda and Bill Sullivan, and so I had that in the back of my mind as an escape route & then at the last minute it coalesced into actual fic. I really like this one, too, so that was good - at least she'd hopefully enjoy one if not the other! And her prompt was a great one - to look at Lynda and her relationship with her English teacher Bill Sullivan. There's a S4 episode in which Lynda has a dream and he's her guardian angel in it, and Paranoidangel asked, "Is he really?" And this being Press Gang, of course, there's the freedom to play with that idea and simultaneously accept and reject it at the same time, so I did. All of which just reminded me how much I love Press Gang, how unusual it is, and how much is possible to do with it in fic. And, you know, Lynda Day being Lynda Day. More people should write Press Gang! I want to make this happen! Anyway, never mind that, have a Yule fic:

Improbable Angels (1657 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Press Gang
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lynda Day & Bill Sullivan
Characters: Lynda Day, Bill Sullivan (Press Gang), Timothy Winters
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Guardian Angels, Spoilers, Episode: s02e13 The Big Finish?, Episode: s05e01 Head and Heart, Episode: s05e06 There Are Crocodiles, Teacher-Student Relationship
Summary:

Bill Sullivan isn’t Lynda Day’s guardian angel except in her more random dreams; that would be silly.

Then, that all done, and being tired but okay-ish and grateful, I set out to skim the full requests lists and see what ficlets came from it, and so here are my extra Madness treats, including the one that scraped over 1000 words (to my annoyance; it was too flighty for Yuletide!).

Ladies in Waiting (The Hardest Part) (666 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 15th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York
Characters: Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort
Additional Tags: Female Relationships, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

Being left behind to wait is always the most difficult thing.

Blame Shadow of the Tower for this one, but I really enjoyed writing it & got a couple of lovely comments.


The Quality of Mercy (Is Most Definitely Strained) (509 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Blake's 7
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kerr Avon/Servalan
Characters: Kerr Avon, Servalan (Blake's 7)
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Post Gauda Prime, Dubious Consent
Summary:

One of these days, he will kill her.

And then this one. I'm sorry, Clocket! It was a bit dark. I was just looking at B7 fic and Avon/Servalan, and there were a couple where Servalan gets to buy Avon as a slave or captures him at the end, and I was thinking, well, is there fic where it's the other way around? And wrote this. And gave it to Clocket, because she does like Avon/Servalan and dark fic. Er, so I hoped? (Sorry, Clocket!)


Extract from the Memoirs of a Credit Snake (693 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: I Claudius, British Actor RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Snake in the Opening Credits
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Snakes, Humor
Summary:

The stories some serpents could tell had they but world enough and time (and the ability to write)…

And of course this one - I was very amused by the recipient's comment in her letter that she'd even like fic about the snake in the credits of I, Claudius and wrote this total piece of crack. (For research, I watched the intro again, and checked who directed what episodes. I'm just not rewatching IC until I can be sure it won't make me have nightmares about Brian Blessed being poisoned again. There are some things nobody wants to have to face). I wrote it, went over it, hesitated over how terrible it was, and then went what the hell, it's a Madness treat. And posted. And, of course, this is the one fic that's got the most attention, such as that is. Crack wins, every time. Even though I still think it needs a bit more tweaking. I don't think you exactly need canon knowledge to read it. Basically: I Claudius has a snake in the opening credits and was made by 1970s BBC and starred Derek Jacobi. The snake remembers it well, dear reader!


How To Make A Chocolate Cake (The Secret's in the Ingredients) (1200 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sixth Doctor & Evelyn Smythe
Characters: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Cake, Women Being Awesome, Friendship
Summary:

Evelyn agrees to teach the Doctor how to make chocolate cake. It’s not as simple as it sounds…

The one that grew! The recipient wanted Six and Evelyn and cooking, and who can resist that? Pretty much no one, it turns out, as they were kind of overwhelmed by Six, Evelyn, and chocolate cake, but you can't have too much of a good thing, can you? (One of them had almost exactly the same premise as mine, too. I did feel I should maybe have left well enough alone, but, hey, if there were enough Six and Evelyn in the world, they wouldn't be eligible for Yuletide!)


I am pleased, though, that I managed to have more than one fic I could tag for the Misses Clause challenge (Yuletide sub-challenge for fic focusing on female characters), as I've never quite written something that qualified, because I've written stuff that focused on a male and female characters together in previous years.


Also I now know that it was Clocketpatch who risked complete obscurity by writing me that last minute Public Eye/Sapphire & Steel treat. (Thanks so much, Clocket! You're amazing!) My other wonderful gift was by DesertScribe, who's new to me, but whom I hope hasn't written their last S&S fic, because that one was excellent. ♥

Comments

[paranoidangel]

I did find it hilarious this morning when I looked at the archive and discovered you'd written both my fics. When I was signing up I worried that my fandoms were all too obscure, but thought it was ok because you knew two of them, but didn't correlate that to the idea that you might be assigned me.

I did think that given that you're one of the few people who knows either fandom and that you said you'd written treats that one of them might have been from you, but I definitely didn't guess that they both were!

They were both great and perfect. And I liked the title "Backstitch in Gold" - it was obvious to me anyway that gold meant gold thread.

It amuses me that of the three Six & Evelyn fics about cake baking, none of them involve just baking cakes (thanks for the rec for the one I wrote, btw - I didn't guess that you'd written one of those either).

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, when I got my assignment through, I just looked at it, and then laughed. And then, of course, got excited about writing for you. Besides, I think my turn to get you in an exchange was long overdue!

I was totally pretending to be two people when I wrote them. Ish. I thanked my beta in different words and replied to comments on one but not the other. I did keep nearly forgetting not to write here when I'd posted it, because that would have been more of a giveaway!

I keep changing my mind about the title. I might just change it again every so often. ;-)

I guessed you, though! I thought that Six & Evelyn one was your style, and then I saw it had no hit count visible & was pretty sure of it.

[paranoidangel]

I was totally pretending to be two people when I wrote them. Ish. I thanked my beta in different words and replied to comments on one but not the other.

I didn't notice that at all - or maybe I just didn't consciously notice.

The no visible hit count does give me away - but I just don't like the idea of everyone else getting to see how few hits my stories have.

[clocketpatch]

I didn't clue in that you'd written either of mine until post reveals, so well done you! You were much stealthier than I... and I'll have you know that I was absolutely tickled by both of them. I couldn't figure out where all these treats were coming from! I should've known...

[thisbluespirit]

You were stealthier than me! I was genuinely baffled! Now I know it's you, I can see it, but I was so puzzled - and touched and delighted - when it appeared. And I did not look at the whole list of fandoms for Madness, so when it turned out to be Public Eye as well, there was a definite squeak from my direction, trust me.

(Pst, now I know it's you, I'm guessing you must have been working on it very last minute - there are a handful of typos in it: "costumer" (customer), 4th para; "The women paused for a..." (woman); and Frank introduces himself as "Frank Marter" further down.

Also your claim not to write S&S well is entirely false! Your Silver drabble a while back was perfect, and this had Sapphire and Steel's voices spot on, too - and Frank makes a great outsider POV for the weirdness. And you do a good Frank, too. Lots of little downbeat details, and stuff like Frank's answer to what an enquiry agent does ("He enquires.") And just... thanks so much for going above & beyond for me and my ridiculously obscure fannish loves. ♥

[clocketpatch]

Not on my actual assignment though. I got emails from people about the Blake's 7 fic O_o

But I am very, very, VERY pleased to have made you squeak with happy! It was pretty last minute. Thanks for the typo heads up. (costumer-customer gets me every. single. time. I should really just find and replace for it at this point).

*hugs and squishes* It was fun to write, and as said, SO HAPPY that it made you happy, since that was the point. :D

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, oh well, that's the trouble with doing fandoms you write in usually. I thought my S&S was obvious as obvious (and indeed I was guessed the other times I wrote it) but then I haven't written it anything like as much this year.

And, yes! I couldn't say so much when I was away, because I was tired and Mum's laptop is all unfamiliar to type on, but I was expecting an S&S ficlet, not a full-length crossover! ♥ *hugs you back*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

You are amazing!! These sound so awesome! I am pleased as punch and just tickled silly that you did so much Awesome! Brava you!

*HUGS*

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! You're very sweet! ♥

[pedanther]

I really enjoyed that S&S fic (especially the "What are you doing here? This is my house" bit). I didn't guess it was you; I never do when you write S&S for Yuletide - I think it's because I've read so many of your S&S fics that now I just assume that's how everybody writes them.

[thisbluespirit]

LOL! The sign of when I've definitely written too much in a small fandom... ;-)

I thought I couldn't have been more obvious. It's sort of reassuring to know that isn't true.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

As ever it was a pleasure to be your beta - always a joy, never a pain! :D

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thanks! :-)

[newmoonstar]

I'm so surprised an amazed that you've written an actual fic for House of Eliott! I didn't think there even was a fandom for it! I'm definitely going to read it later when I have more time. :D

(And I hope you don't mind that I've friended you. We're already in several of the same Doctor Who comms, and it seems you're into lots of obscure old British TV, which is one of my favorite things too!)

[thisbluespirit]

Ah, well, I just took part in yuletide, which is a huge annual fanfic exchange for rare fandoms, so things that nobody writes for otherwise is pretty much the eligibility criteria! And there are a few of us HofE fans about. We are few, but I have a comm for it, too: house_of_eliott. (Which reminds me - must crosspost this one!)

And I don't mind being friended! I'm off to friend you back. I know already that you like old TV and write awesome Ian & Barbara fic, and that sounds good to me. :-)

[newmoonstar]

Aww, just read it. So lovely. *sniffle* And a most satisfactory solution for the Cliffhanger of Doom!

Eeek! A House of Eliott comm! Have just joined it. :) (I haven't watched HoE in a few years, but it'll always be one of my faves. I'm giving myself some time before a re-watch, since I used to gobble it up four episodes at a time, and it was a little life-consuming the first time around! lol)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you! So glad you enjoyed it. :-)

It is one of those things that's strangely addictive when you watch it, isn't it? I've rewatched S1 at least quite a few times, and even now I find that one episode seems to lead inevitably to another.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

You wrote the Press Gang fic, my guess was right! Although strangely enough, I didn't guess it right away. Basically, I read the fic, really enjoyed it, left a comment, and then thought, "You know who would really like this fic? Lost_spook." Pause. "Wait a minute . . . " Then I went back and looked at things like formatting and word choice, and was 99% sure it was you. : )

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, I wondered if it was me you guessed - you'd read quite of bit of my PG fic before, and also my Six & Evelyn.

I wish someone else had written PG fic, though. That would be nice! And thanks, because your comment particularly made my day! ♥

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Actually, I did wonder about the Six & Evelyn fic, but only after you said that one of your Madness fics had gotten away from you, because I remembered that one of the Six & Evelyn cake fics had said that same thing in the author's notes. But I honestly didn't know if you'd written it. The Press Gang one was a fairly certain guess, and I do honestly love it -- and I would say the same thing even if you weren't the author.

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

Excuse us while we just form a mutual admiration society here... ♥