Beyond the Roundels

I also wrote stuff, shock, horror!

First, my assignment, which was for butterflymind, who (as it turned out) shares about twenty small fandoms with me, and I matched on two of them in this year's request. I badly wanted to write the one about the characters from the Miss Marple book A Moving Finger, but that didn't happen, and I did have the rough beginnings of a Jonathan Creek fic somewhere that matched the request exactly. Just one problem - I'd set up a typical Jonathan Creek mystery with no solution. (It's amazing what the brain does at need, because suddenly, I could at least come up with something to explain the ballerina, the clown and the vanishing motel...). I would have liked to have had more brain and add a little more mention of random Adam things, and just a smidgeon of something more serious to counterweight all the Maddy-Jonathan banter, but I hope that it is plain that there are feelings going on under here, as it is. Anyway, banter was what my recipient asked for, so overall I'm pleased with it (and very relieved that I caught a minor plot hole before Yuletide actually went live). Happily, my recipient seemed to like it too:

Persistence in Porcelain (4090 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jonathan Creek (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jonathan Creek, Maddy Magellan
Additional Tags: Yuletide
Summary:

Maddy's got a problem involving a ballerina, a clown and a vanishing motel. Obviously, there's only one person who can help. She just probably shouldn't have annoyed him first...

I also wrote two treats out in rough while the letters went up, and finally typed them up after I'd finished my main assignment (I could have done more with the Time Traveller's Guide one if I'd been badly behaved and written things the other way round, but it works. People seemed to like it.) Anyway, reading the letter requesting it, immediately made me think of writing it rather like The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (though it mutated a little from that starting point), and that was what I did. The other, well, the other was a bit of a joke and not exactly very hard to guess as being by me (to say the least), but it came out of a conversation with the recipient, and had to be done.

The Time Traveller’s Guide: Important Additional Information (1722 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:

Because there are always some people who seem to need the obvious spelling out to them…

Striking A Balance (745 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Additional Tags: Curtain Fic
Summary:

In which Sapphire and Steel shop for curtains, for inscrutable reasons.

So, overall, it's been a good Yuletide. And thanks to thankyouturtle, recessivejean, lferion and the_alchemist, who wrote gifts for me!

For the crossover square at trope_bingo. I'm not sure where this came from, except I think somebody somewhere said something about Lix Storm and River Song, and then this happened. It was meant to be all 21st Century fandoms, for a change, but inevitably with me, it didn't end up that way.

Possibly Not In Chronological Order (or Five Times River Song Flirted With Danger) (2325 words) by lost_spook
Fandom: Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (1963), Once Upon a Time (TV), The Hour, Spooks | MI-5, Sapphire and Steel
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Regina Mills/River Song, Romana II/River Song, River Song/Lix Storm, Ros Myers/River Song, Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel)/River Song
Characters: River Song, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Romana II, Ros Myers, Lix Storm, Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary: River doesn’t know any ordinary people, either.

Also on Teaspoon. No spoilers for the crossover fandoms (to the very best of my knowledge). Whether they therefore all make sense is another matter.

Title: The Cat, the Mouse and the Wardrobe
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1929
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire, Silver, Lead
Notes/Warnings: Pre-series, 1760s.
Summary: Completing an assignment is far more complicated when you’ve been forced to change shape.

For trope_bingo Transformations square and 100 Element Prompts #4 sapphire & silver & lead - Crackfic & Physical transformation. (I should probably apologise for turning Silver into a mouse again, but if you’re going to turn Lead, Sapphire and Silver into different domestic animals, how else is that going to go?)

( The Cat, the Mouse, and the Wardrobe )

One of the other fics I had written ages ago, awaiting editing. It took a while, because, really it wanted to escape and become fully-fledged fic, which it can't yet. (Maybe one day.)

Title: Genius Loci
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2552
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire, Silver, Copper
Warnings None.
Summary: There’s an ornamental fountain that’s slowing time down – and that’s not the only surprise hiding within it…

Prompt 70: silver & sapphire & copper - Supernatural AU & Fountain of youth. (1750s)

( Genius Loci )

I wrote fic! What I count as proper fic! (It wasn't a good idea and was in some small part to blame for some of my recent epic tiredness and lack of brain, but only a small part. Anyway, that was two weeks ago; I've recovered enough to do editing.)

seriesfive has been (much to my delight) aiming for a Sapphire and Steel blackout on her trope_bingo card and was discussing what to do for AU: neighbours, when I was struck with an idea - and I thought: I can write this S&S AU, it will be short and humorous and maybe aralias will like it (because I was quashing about AUs; I am a mean person at times). And then it struck me that it was perfectly plausible not as an AU and much funnier. And longer. And lo! Fic.

Cul-de-Sac (No hawkers, traders, cold callers, canvassers or purveyors of religious knowledge) (3583 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sapphire/Steel
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary:

Sapphire and Steel are living ordinary lives in a semi-detached house on a quiet street. Everything is fine. Or, at least, it is until somebody new moves in next door…

(Or, basically, this is fic where Sapphire and Steel are having a perfectly happy suburban life and then Silver moves in next door and is the worst neighbour ever. For absolutely canonically plausible reasons, obviously. Also Steel has a marmalade obsession.)

Title: Birthday Offer
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 917
Characters/Pairings: Lead, Sapphire, Steel
Warnings None.
Summary: Lead gets an unexpected birthday offer.

Prompt 46: lead - Deal with the devil & Birthday

( Birthday Offer )

Title: Reconcilable Differences | on AO3
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages/PG
Word Count: 4954
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Steel, Sapphire (Silver/Steel)
Notes/Warnings: Some canon-type weirdness involving drowning and a ref. to suicide.
Summary: Steel’s lost inside the plot of a romantic novel and Silver’s been sent after him. It should be simple enough, but the narrative’s out to bend them to its will – one kiss and the world might end…

Written for unconventionalcourtship from Mills&Boon/Harlequin summary #28. I also kept the title, because why not?
( Original summary with altered names )

( Reconcilable Differences )

ETA: Whoops, somewhere in the edits I lost this note, but I scribbled this out ages ago and only came to type it up last weekend - and was rather amused (given the upcoming ficathon just started) that I'd apparently already got around to trapping S&S in a romance novel...

Title: Between the Covers
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 663
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire, Steel, Silver (if I was a different writer it would also be all the Sapphire/Steel. It isn’t. Sorry about that)
Warnings None.
Summary: Sapphire and Steel, trapped inside the pages of a book.

Prompt 88: steel & sapphire - Breaking the fourth wall & Everyone thinks they're doing it. (I’m sorry. Silver wouldn’t be left out for this one.)

( Between the Covers )

44 x Sapphire & Steel icons and 53 x Press Gang icons. The S&S icons seem to have been growing slowly on my PC since this time last year, so are a bit of an odd mix. The Press Gang icons were made in the summer, I think and about 20 or so were posted to fan_flashworks for challenges.

Teaser:



Contents: Please note the Press Gang set includes an icon of a clown holding a gun. (There are 12 from S3 "The Last Word").

( I'm not responsible for everything, I just make it look that way )


The usual rules apply: want, take, credit, no hotlinking. For texture credits etc., see my profile.

Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:

... And this was the other thing, which was a prompt from my list doubling up for the challenge:

Title: Haunting
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: Drabble
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire, Steel
Warnings None.
Summary: There are so many ghosts. (Prompt 83: steel & sapphire - Ghosts & Drabble)

( Haunting )

Title: Exhibition
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1748
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire, Silver, Iron. (Silver/Sapphire, also sort of Silver/Sapphire/Everyone)
Warnings None. (I’d warn for excessive flirting, but it isn’t really. Sadly.) Pre-canon, 1851.
Summary: Sapphire, Silver, and flirting in the cause of duty.

(Prompt 79: silver & sapphire - Birthday & Everyone thinks they're doing it. And since Silver and Sapphire and “everyone thinks they’re doing it” is probably only going to result in smirking as usual, this rapidly turned into something else. There is a birthday, though. Partly for persiflage_1 who pulled this prompt out of the list and thought it might be fun. It was. Although it also went too long and nearly killed me. :-D)

( Exhibition )

There has been a shocking absence of Sapphire in these prompt ficlets so far, but no longer! \o/

Title: Watching the Show
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 273
Characters/Pairings: Sapphire. (Sapphire/Steel)
Warnings None.
Summary: Sapphire knows how to run away without leaving. (Prompt 14. sapphire - High school AU & Ran away to join the circus. Well, if high school au can count as ‘learning’. I’m being more cavalier with AU prompts, because I want Elements, not humans.)

( Watching the Show )

From jjpor: Silver participating in turn-of-the-century Russian politics. Turns out he looks just like that chap Pavel Milyukov. If he gets to have some dealings with Patrick Stewart!Lenin (although that could be hard considering how the latter was in exile in various places for much of the time), so much the better.

I wasn’t sure what to do that would be short and not epic, but once I saw Michael Bryant’s Ratchkovsky, I came up with this. It just, er, doesn’t have Lenin in. Or Milyukov. (It's still the prompt, right? If I read it as 'do something with Silver using Fall of Eagles as inspiration...' *cough*) And still I fail at simple and short. *head!desk* (But, anyway, many thanks for the prompt. I quite like how it ended up.)

Title: Turn of the Century
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages/PG
Word Count: 1247
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Sapphire, Steel, Pyotr Ivanovich Ratchkovsky
Notes/Warnings: Pre-series. No spoilers. Mentions of historical events in 20th C Russia. I did no research, but not just from laziness & the state of my brain – I wanted to use Fall of Eagles (esp. ‘The Appointment’) and Michael Bryant’s Ratchkovsky (it’s spelled that way in the serial) & it's S&S, so it's all a bit vague, anyway. Forgive me for possibly making light of a not very pleasant period of history by using it for the purposes of fic (although hopefully not). Nobody needs to have seen Fall of Eagles to read this, though. That would be unreasonable.

Summary: Russia 1905: Things must remain as they are.

( Turn of the Century )