Obscure & British Commentfest 2018

[thisbluespirit]

Welcome to the Obscure & British comment fest V! Last year didn't happen for various reasons, but it is now back. And it would be wearing a hat if it could. \o/

This is a comment fest for any tiny/small(ish)/medium(ish) British fandom and open to all fanworks.



If you've ever loved any British fandoms, find yourself too obscure for most fests, or you're busy wondering why there's still no Emma Peel in all this Avengers stuff, you're in the right place. Come on in and help yourself to a cup of tea and a crumpet. Also you should make prompts and fill them.


Rules & Guidelines
This commentfest works in the same way as most comment ficathons, although all kinds of fanworks are welcome. (Fanart, icons, fanmixes, vids, or whatever your creative mind can come up with or prompt for.) Just leave your prompt and/or browse through other people's prompts to see what you can fill.

1. Be polite - no bashing or shaming of anyone, or any prompts, characters, ships or fandoms! Thank you.

2. One prompt per post, please use format: Fandom(/Fandom), Character(s)/Pairing(s), prompt (i.e "Spooks, Tom/Ruth, apocalypse AU"). You may repost prompts from previous years (or even from elsewhere, as long as that's okay with the other fest/comm/whatever).

3. Post fills as replies (or links in replies) to the comment containing the prompt. Please format the subject line as follows: Fandom - Character(s)/Pairing(s) - Ratings/Warnings (if included). There's a fills thread at the start of the post. Please also link your fill here, if you can. (I will also start up a masterlist post as soon as we have some fills.)

4. You may fill your own prompts if you wish, and multiple fills are more than welcome. (No prompt claiming, please.)

5. For crossovers any fandom is allowed as long as the first fandom qualifies. (If it's a cracky multi-fandom crossover prompt, that's fine, too, though try and make sure there are always equal or more eligible fandoms in proportion to those that are non-eligible.)

6. Any other questions - there's a questions thread at the start of the post if there's anything else you want to ask.

7. Prompt, fill, away!


Eligible Fandoms
Basically, any rare to small/medium British fandom, no matter how odd, old, obscure, non-existent, random or how shiny and new or in what medium - anything that's not on the below list is fine. (Definitions of British are also fairly wide and hand-wavy - check on the questions thread if you're not sure.)


Non-eligible fandoms
ALL non-British fandoms are ineligible and the following fandoms are British but too large and therefore ineligible for this fest (although don't forget that you can prompt for any fandom as a crossover with an eligible fandom):

Chronicles of Narnia (all), Doctor Who (2005+), Downton Abbey, Harry Potter, The Hobbit (all), James Bond (Craig!Bond films), The Kingsman films, Lord of the Rings (all), Merlin, The Musketeers (BBC), One Direction, Primeval, Sherlock (BBC), The Silmarillion, Torchwood.

(RPF is welcome. Please use specific categories when prompting (e.g. history by century, and all actor/bandom RPF by individual series/film/band or whatever grouping seems most appropriate. In the spirit of the fest, please try and avoid RPF for non-eligible shows/v. popular actors like Tom Hiddleston & Benedict Cumberbatch, but as they turn up in less popular film/TV RPF, that's a guideline, not a rule.)


There's no closing date for prompts or fills - the fest will stay open until next year's post goes up. Once you've created a fill, you're welcome to crosspost it anywhere you like. (If you're posting to AO3, there's no collection for the fest, but there is an "Obscure & British Commentfest" tag you can use if you want.)


If you want to promote the fest, then thank you! Please do. You can find a selection of banners ready made with code here and rebloggable tumblr posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

You can find the previous fest (2016) here. Also: O&B 2015, O&B 2014 and O&B 2013. If you want to fill or repost a previous prompt, you may, although please also post to the fills thread on the current post.

ETA: The fills post is here

For those who don't have an Dreamwidth account or prefer to remain anonymous, anon commenting is on.

Comments

Pride and Prejudice/ Sense & Sensibility

[hiddencait]

Jane Bennet/Colonel Brandon

I've rarely seen it, but a fic TOTALLY won me over to this Jane Austen crossover pairing. I want basically anything for these two - how they would have met in roughly the same time frame, how the Colonel got over Marianne (though no bashing of her please), how the Colonel wooed her, what Jane's family (especially Elizabeth) think of it... anything at all for these two! Epistolary fics are always a plus too ;)

North and South BBC Miniseries

[hiddencait]

John Thornton/Margaret Hale

I want happy betrothed and/or marrieds. That's it. These two both went through so much sadness before they finally got together (especially Margaret with her loss of both her parents) that I just want to see the pair of them finally in love and happy however you get them there.

North and South BBC Miniseries; John Thornton/Margaret Hale

[smallhobbit]

“You look beautiful, Mrs Thornton.”

Margaret Thornton looked up into the mirror at the reflection of her husband and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Whenever I go into the shops I’m greeted by people saying ‘Good day, Mrs Thornton’ and I’m continually looking round to see if your mother has come in behind me.”

Thornton laughed too. “You’ll get used to it soon. And tonight everyone will be keen to meet the new Mrs Thornton.”

“Yes,” Margaret sighed. “I do feel a little bad that more people will be attending the fund-raiser to meet me than because they wish to support the cause. On the other hand, it should mean more money will be raised, which is to the good.”

“Will you wear the necklace I gave you?”

“Would you be terribly disappointed if I didn’t? It was your wedding present and I would like to keep it for times which are special for us.”

“How can I refuse such a plea? Although I must admit I’m rather pleased you’ve said it.” Thornton paused before adding, “My mother offered me one of her necklaces which she felt would go well with your dress, but I shall understand if you would prefer not to wear it.”

He held the necklace so Margaret could see what it looked like.

“That will go perfectly,” Margaret said. “Are you sure your mother won’t mind?”

“She said she would be happy to see it being worn again. Shall I fasten it?”

“Please do.” Once the necklace was fastened Margaret stood up. “There, am I presentable enough?”

“You are the most beautiful woman I know.”

“Then we shall make the perfect couple, for you are the most handsome man I know.”

[el_staplador]

Doctor Who, Zoe Heriot/Isobel Watkins, travel broadens the mind

[romanajo123]

Oooooh!!!

[el_staplador]

Tipping the Velvet, Nan Astley/Florence Banner, idealism

[el_staplador]

Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, where do you get your ideas?

[el_staplador]

Discworld, Polly/Maladict, caffe espresso

[el_staplador]

Lord Peter Wimsey/Hercule Poirot, Harriet Vane and Ariadne Oliver, Robert Templeton meets Sven Hjersson

[pedanther]

Just to be clear: "Lord Peter Wimsey/Hercule Poirot" is the fandom description and "Harriet Vane and Ariadne Oliver" is the character/relationship description, yes?

[(Anonymous)]

Gormenghast(bookverse): Titus Groan/Steerpike. Rapprochement.

Gormenghast(bookverse): Titus Groan/Steerpike. Rapprochement. PG.

[(Anonymous)]

And....I am filling my own prompt, because I have no shame.

NOTE: The PG rating is about the amount of sexuality in the story. It's fairly focused on violence and physical discomfort. This is an AU variation on the final struggle in the ivy between Steerpike and Titus at the conclusion of Gormenghast.

Titus Groan fainted. He had been working his way through the ivy to Steerpike, and Steerpike had been ready, waiting. Steerpike had not known it was Titus who was coming. He had not known that Titus was feverish and as near to collapse as he himself was. He had assumed he would be facing an adversary at his full strength.

When Titus halted his progress towards Steerpike through the thick leaves, even Steerpike’s cunning was not equal to reasoning out what had happened. And so Steerpike waited. And waited. He began to wonder if he were about to be snared in some trap, if some crafty plan he had not foreseen was about to end the life he was so viciously clinging to. But he could not reason out what that trap might be. He ached unbearably. He was as far beyond the limits of his strength as Titus was. And so he waited a moment more, and then, entirely against his will, joined the young heir in an equally profound unconsciousness.

When Steerpike came awake, he automatically tried to shift himself a little, only to find that his entire body had cramped so excruciatingly that he could not move at all. What was it that had happened? Above him, the vines were moving. His enemy was coming towards him. He must have lost a few minutes to his exhaustion, he thought, and the uncomfortable position combined with his many fierce exertions had stiffened his limbs. He strained himself for a glimpse of the boats and lanterns that had ringed them.

They were gone. This baffled him. They could not have vanished in an instant. And yet his adversary was still approaching, as though it had been an instant only--had he and the other man somehow come apart from time? Had moments passed somehow for them while hours, or perhaps even years, had gone by outside this wet, clinging thicket?

He realized the man above him was speaking. He strained to listen, and even that effort hurt. The voice was cursing. The voice was berating its owner for his own weakness, rambling feverishly about it. The voice was that of Titus Groan. All at once, Steerpike understood. He began to laugh aloud. It was a harsh, stained-iron sound that made Titus shudder.

“Shut up!” Titus said. “I’m going to stab you through the heart in just a minute, but until then--shut up!”

“Ah yes. The Lord Groan himself will make right the offenses against Gormenghast that my rebellion has wrought. As long as he doesn’t faint again.”

Titus did not realize that Steerpike had also fainted, and so could not correct the injustice of this flagrant hypocrisy. He said instead, “I’m not doing it for Gormenghast. I favor rebellion, in general. But you killed my sister.”

Meanwhile, Steerpike was testing his limbs to see if he could uncramp them enough to kill Titus. He bit back the cries that tried to escape from him. Titus should not be allowed to know that Steerpike was at this disadvantage. There was nothing obedient in him, but he remained for several moments as quiet as Titus had wished him to be.

If things continued on the path they were on now, Steerpike knew he would be the one to die. Titus was evidently weak and ill, but he was still strong enough to struggle towards him through the vines, and Steerpike had judged, with his ever merciless calculation, that at the speed Titus was approaching, he would not find his strength in time. Perhaps just a few minutes delay might be enough, however. If he could only make Titus falter somehow, then he might still win--he might get his dagger into him, and how sweet that would be. He might even live, since somehow, by some incredible stroke of fortune, Titus had not told his companions that he had found Steerpike. They had left Titus behind--presumably after a considerable search for them both. With Titus gone, Steerpike could slip away alone. His mind returned to what Titus had just said, looking for a way to use it to his advantage.

“That simply isn't true,” Steerpike said. “At least kill me for what I have done--anything else would be less than I deserve and--” here his mouth curled, in a fleeting expression of humor that lived and died unseen. “very disrespectful to me.”

“Disrespectful to you!” Titus cried. “What right have you to demand respect? You are a beast.”

“Every right,” Steerpike said coolly.

He said this with such absolute assurance that it brought Titus up short, and the confusion in his mind slowed his body. Below him, Steerpike honored this small victory with a terrible, white-lipped smile.

“You killed Fuchsia--dear Fuchsia. I have just come from seeing her drowned body--you struck her head and then threw her from her window--” Titus began again to struggle furiously towards Steerpike.

“Stop!” Steerpike ordered. “Stop, you accuse me of something impossible. Today?” Steerpike asked, letting the full weight of that word hit Titus.

She might have died any time--to do on the very day when Titus himself had sighted Steerpike, and seen that he could not possibly have done it, was incredible luck. That Titus had spied him as he had skimmed away with his boat had seemed to Steerpike until now something to be raged against. Now he exulted, loving the knife’s edge of death and survival on which he had been teetering like he had never loved anything.

“How could I have killed her today, your Lordship?” Steerpike carefully curled his fingers and flexed his arms.

Titus, in spite of himself, considered the question. Steerpike was correct. He could not have killed her. His intuition had been, in a way, accurate. Steerpike’s had coaxed Fuchsia towards giving her heart to him, when he had been a murderer, and that had caused the despair that had led Fuchsia to her death. But Fuchsia had confided none of this in him, and his conscious mind, when faced with the bare fact that Steerpike had not actually done the deed, could not supply the chain that would link him to it. His silence told Steerpike that the question had, as intended, blunted his sense of purpose.

“You say you like rebellion,” Steerpike continued, when several minutes had passed, and once he had recovered from the effort of shifting himself a little. He knew that the more confusion he could provoke, the more Titus would delay.

“I understand why you have hated me, all these years. Because you hated the ritual of the castle, and I enforced it. You did not know that I was also a rebel, just as you are. And then you thought I had killed your sister. But now, perhaps you might consider the matter in a different light. Perhaps you might see me as an ally.Tell me, how will you rebel? Tell me, and I will tell you how I might assist you.”

Steerpike did not for a moment think that Titus would accept this offer of assistance. He was simply grasping for any words that might plausibly occupy Titus’s thoughts enough to slow him. And it was working. Titus was not yet on him. Painstakingly, he rolled his right shoulder a little in its socket.

“I am going to leave Gormenghast,” Titus said, and it sent a shiver of hot joy through his feverish body to confess it. “Forever. It is a very simple plan, and does not require anything from you,” he added coldly, after he had finished enjoying his first declaration.

“But what about companionship--will you not be lonely? Why not bring me with you?” Steerpike asked. “I have been lonely, as I have been hunted, and it has been terrible.” This was a bald lie. It had been nothing of the kind. He had been nearly happy, even starving. But it was a lie he thought Titus might well believe. “I have no strength left,” Steerpike continued. “When you reach me, you will have the power to kill me. It will be your choice whether you do.” He hoped that this, too, was a lie.

Titus was silent over this longer than Steerpike had expected. Surely he could not be considering throwing in with him? But Steerpike, despite his surprise, did not waste the time, and at length, he let out a silent sigh of relief--he could move again, at last.

“I must leave Gormenghast alone, and in my own way. You will not come with me,” Titus said, and his voice held that new authority which Titus was just learning both to wield and to love. “But I am prepared to offer you a truce. I do not like you--I will never like you, but I admire your spirit of rebellion more than I despise your cruelty. I will honor you for it, and spare you. I will help you up, and we can take some rest together. When I return to the castle, I will do what I can to help you evade the search.”

Steerpike shoulders curled upwards with his surprise. The offer seemed genuine. His hand was around the blade of his dagger. He still wanted to kill Titus--he felt no gratitude, and no stirrings of friendship. They were not emotions he remembered how to feel. But again, as it had when he had spied Titus below him earlier that day, his desire for survival had conquered his desire to kill the heir to Gormenghast. If Titus was as good as his word, and most young men of Titus’s type found it flattered their pride to be so, Steerpike thought, he really might live. Titus’s help would tilt the balance significantly in his favor.

It was a long, difficult effort to extricate themselves, but at last they helped each other up through the hole that Gertrude had ordered cut in the ceiling, and onto those floorboards. Then they collapsed side by side. Steerpike breathed a sigh of relief upon escaping, at last, the trap that was the room below them.

Steerpike looked at Titus. What a fine thing he was, with his strange almost-violet eyes, his strong features and limbs. It would, he thought with delicious triumph, be his plan that they followed when they reasoned out the best way for Titus to lead the castle away from him. How wonderful life could be. He pushed himself over, across the boards to Titus and pressed a kiss to his hot, dry lips with his own thin, twisted ones. It was a kiss identical in emotion and quality to the one he had pressed to his slingshot. In reply, Titus pressed back, returning the gesture with a far more romantic passion. What could be said or done? Steerpike had no answer for it. And so he simply let his head drop wearily. It just barely touched Titus’s naked shoulder.

They returned to unconsciousness at precisely the same instant, to dream their separate dreams.

[thisbluespirit]

Spooks/BtVS, Ruth Evershed &/ Rupert Giles, chance meeting

[thisbluespirit]

Jonathan Creek/Doctor Who or Sapphire and Steel, Jonathan (& whoever), some things just can't be explained

[thisbluespirit]

Ripper Street/Litefoot & Jago/Doctor Who - Edmund Reid & Jenny/Vastra and/or Jago & Litefoot, cases collide

[thisbluespirit]

Blake's 7, Avon/Servalan, they rule the galaxy together

[thisbluespirit]

Sid Halley Series/The Racing Game, Sid Halley & Charles Roland, lost and found

[thisbluespirit]

Doomwatch, Dr Quist, passing on the torch

[thisbluespirit]

Sapphire & Steel/Timeless, Sapphire & Steel & Silver, they've got to put this outfit out of commission...

[thisbluespirit]

Public Eye/?, Frank's case involves one of those many Cult British Investigators (UNIT, Dept S, The Avengers, Adam Adamant etc. etc.)

[thisbluespirit]

Public Eye, Frank Marker/Helen Mortimer, tea & happy endings

[calliopes_pen]

Dracula (1968), Everyone involved in Dracula’s death gets even more curious (yes, even Jonathan if he’s halfway to almost normal; maybe this brush with Spiritualism is all his idea) about the supernatural, and dare to attend a séance. Because Seward and Van Helsing were genuinely curious about ghosts, too, since vampires were evidently real, and what else could possibly go wrong with that scenario?

Restless Spirits, Dracula (TV 1968), all, PG, 1008 words

[thisbluespirit]

(This all got a little silly, I'm afraid!)

Restless Spirits

***

It was for science, that was what the Professor insisted. If Vampires existed, than who knew what else might? It was the duty of those who knew this to keep an open mind and investigate the matter.

“I don’t see why that means we should attend a séance,” said Dr Seward, who would much rather have been left alone to forget that vampires existed if he could have chosen (even if he appreciated Van Helsing’s point). “It hardly sounds scientific to me. Whatever next?”

“Always an excellent question, John.”

Dr Seward gave a muted harrumph in reply, which Van Helsing took for consent, and then he looked with hope but more trepidation towards Mr and Mrs Harker. To his relief, they agreed.

“After all,” said Mina, “if it is possible to hear from the departed souls, I for one would be glad to receive reassurance about our dear Lucy.”

Dr Seward coughed, but sent a grateful look in her direction.

“Lucy?” said Jonathan, whose thoughts appeared to be elsewhere, although at least not wandering too far any more. He caught himself. “Oh, yes, of course. Poor Miss Weston.”


There seemed little point in delaying, so they tried their first experiment that evening, drawing the curtains and gathering around one table with a candle lit at its centre. Then they held hands and waited. And waited.

“I don’t think anything’s going to happen,” said Dr Seward. “Perhaps we should give it up? After all, even if there are such things as vampires, it doesn’t follow that every other supernatural creature is real.”

Van Helsing shushed him. “Be patient. Humour me a little while longer, if you will, I beg of you all.”

Silence fell again until, some time later, the darkness around them seemed to intensify. They felt its oppression before they noticed it. An icy draft stole into the room, causing Mina to shiver, and then the candle went out. Dr Seward caught his breath, but Van Helsing tightened his grip on his hand before he could panic and break the circle.

They heard a sound of rustling, as the cold wind swirled about the room, causing Dr Seward’s papers to shift on his desk and then cascade to the floor, followed by Van Helsing’s books of myths and folk tales.

Jonathan rose to his feet, suddenly, breaking the circle, and holding out his hands. “Behold!” he said. “I am reborn.”

“I think not,” said Van Helsing, also rising. “You will find I have already encircled the room with garlic – and I have holy water to hand. You see, I knew you would try to do so at some point, but I did not know which one of the Harkers you still clung to.”

“Jonathan,” Mina said, pulling back from the table and staring up at him. “So that was where the ring went! I thought I had merely dreamt it. No – perhaps I merely wished to believe that. Professor?”

Dr Seward blinked. “Eh? Professor? What’s going on?”

Van Helsing ignored his question, and flung the holy water across at Jonathan, even as he tried to back away. He screamed out and collapsed, writhing on the floor before he fell still.

“Jonathan!” said Mina, jumping up. She hesitated before kneeling at his side, however, glancing at the Professor first as to whether or not it was safe to touch her husband.

Van Helsing hurried over. “He should be free of the last of the creature now, I trust. Harker? What do you say?”

Jonathan opened his eyes. “Yes. I think I’m myself,” he said slowly. “Although who that is these days is a good question. For one moment, though – I felt –” He stopped. “Dark glory,” he said eventually, “and then –”

“Life,” said Van Helsing firmly. “Freedom from the curse.”

“I’ll try to think of it that way.”

Before anyone had time to anything else, even to decide whether to try and resume or finish the séance, they felt another unseen presence within the room, this one only a light breeze, seeming to dispel some of the former darkness in its wake. Mina felt it like breath on her skin.

“Lucy,” she said and John, still sitting beside her in his chair turned his head towards her.

Mina sat back down in her chair and took his hands, shaking a little. She felt her heart give a leap inside her as it had not since her friend’s death, or at least, not since that time in the garden. “Lucy? Truly?”

“I only wish,” ‘Lucy’ said, through John, leaning forward, and kissing her cheek, “that we had done this in life and not only after.”

Mina closed her eyes and didn’t dare trust herself to speak, but she gave a tiny nod.

John – or Lucy- pressed one final kiss to her lips, before whatever had come into the room left it again, and only the four of them remained. John pulled back in instant embarrassment, coughing and apologising to her.

“Please don’t,” she said, and then, turning to face the other two in case they had not understood, “it was Lucy.” She flickered a glance back to John. “She had one last word for the two of us – those she loved.”

Van Helsing took out a pen from his breast pocket. “Interesting. You felt no vampiric influence? You are sure?”

“Professor!” said Dr Seward in indignation, at the same moment as Mina denied it firmly.

“That’s your excuse for kissing my wife, is it?” said Jonathan.

Mina squeezed his arm. “Don’t be silly, darling. It was Lucy. I’m sure Dr Seward wouldn’t dream of trying it again – would you, John?”

John pushed back into his chair in alarm. “No, no. Of course not.”

“Hmm,” said Van Helsing. “Well, this has all been extremely fascinating. I see this kind of affair merits further investigation, although perhaps next time we should try a group not entirely composed of those touched by the mark of the vampire. John, you could help me arrange such a thing, yes?”

“Professor,” Dr Seward said, after staring at him, “absolutely not! This is the last time I shall ever have anything to do with any more of your – your damned black arts and your so-called experiments! Science indeed!”

Van Helsing was not listening. “Perhaps Tuesday, do you think?”

***

Big Finish's ATA Girl

[lyssie]

Big Finish's ATA Girl, Mina/Jeanette, post-war pilots and wine

[calliatra]

Lord Peter Wimsey Series - Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter/Charles Parker, Peter has experience; Charles has a sexual identity crisis.

[calliatra]

Lord Peter Wimsey Series - Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter/Harry Vane, Harry-Vane-is-a-man AU: It makes things a bit more complicated, but Peter wouldn’t be Peter if he didn’t enjoy the challenge.

[calliatra]

Lord Peter Wimsey Series - Dorothy L. Sayers, Lady Petra* Wimsey(/Harriet Vane), Lady-Petra-is-a-woman AU: She usually knows how to get her way (and it requires a lot more forethought and strategic planning than people think).

[el_staplador]

Casson family series, Caddy/Michael, what happens in Spain

[el_staplador]

Swallows and Amazons, Peggy Blackett, leeward

[el_staplador]

Sadlers Wells series, Veronica/Sebastian, art for art's sake