Beyond the Roundels

I also wrote some treats. First off, I was determined to write a treat for allegoriesinmediasres for Shadow of the Tower,( More writing stuff under here ) Pro-tip for Yuletide, though: don't ship Henry VII. Ship people who are in the History plays instead, that's just normal.


i love the rose both red and white (8072 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Shadow of the Tower, 15th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elizabeth of York Queen of England/Henry VII of England
Characters: Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Henry VII of England, Margaret Beaufort, John de Vere 13th Earl of Oxford, Catherine Gordon, Jasper Tudor, Cecily of York Viscountess Welles, Perkin Warbeck
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, The Wars of the Roses, Background Character Death, Hurt/Comfort, Trust Issues, unfortunate people get sacrificed/locked in the Tower in each AU
Summary: I love the rose both red and white, Is that your pure, perfect appetite?

Five other ways it might have gone for Elizabeth of York and Henry Tudor.

***

Going through the letters, I loved halotolerant's Battle of Hastings request. They wanted crack and this instantly occurred to me and my main worry was that I would not have time or strength to eventually write it after my assignment and the giant treat above. (Well, until I wrote it, and then I worried in case they wanted crack, but not a Modern AU.) It went down well, luckily, and everyone was happy; the perfect Yule outcome, except for me thinking belatedly of Jokes I Should Have Made/forgot when typing in a hurry.

Do you want 1066 retold in a 21st epistolary Organic Farming AU? Possibly not, but I have 100% for real been told in the comments that it has a better ending than canon. So, my fic - totally better than an arrow to the eye! It's official.

We'll Burn That Barn When We Come To It (3511 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 11th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Harold II of England/William the Conqueror
Characters: Harold II of England, William the Conqueror, Edith of Wessex (c. 1025-1075), Matilda of Flanders
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Crack, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Epistolary, Humor, Angry exes, Swearing, Arson, Bees
Summary: from: h.godwinson@homespuntwaddle.com
to: brn@norman.org.fr

Hi Bill

Look, can we just talk this over like adults?

And the fact that I’m saying this despite the WIRE FENCE you’ve now erected round the perimeter of my farm ought to show you that I mean it. Please reply!

Harry.

***

Right at the last minute, I also managed to type up a hasty little Dracula (TV 1968) treat for calliopes_pen, a darkish little Jonathan-centric post canon piece, based on part of one of her prompts.

Road to Recovery (2056 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker
Characters: Jonathan Harker, John Seward, Mina Harker
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Post-Canon, Vampires, Victorian, Hurt/Comfort, Dark
Summary: It will take time for Jonathan to become well again, but both Dr Seward and Mina are willing to do everything they can to help him – in very different ways...

(I went over and over it after typing, but it was unbetaed, so apologies for any errors - just let me know and I will fix them, as ever.)

There really were so many great prompts this year, had I only but world and brain enough, but it was a lovely Yuletide that even included a tiny SotT treat for me on top of my gift. I hope everybody else had an equally lovely time with it.

With many thanks to persiflage_1, who never even blinks at the random things I send her to beta, especially at Yuletide! <3 (You dodged a bullet, Pers - there were 1960s vampires in the end! ;-p)

I sid yesterday that I had finished two stories recently, and this is the second - a 500 Prompts fic for allegoriesinmediasres.

blue is the colour (1858 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Shadow of the Tower, 15th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elizabeth of York Queen of England/Henry VII of England, Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort & Elizabeth of York Queen of England & Henry VII of England
Characters: Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII of England
Additional Tags: 500 prompts, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Arranged Marriage, Trust Issues
Summary:

Elizabeth of York in shades of blue across the years.

Meme stolen from misbegotten: List the first sentence (or two because a couple of those first sentences are quite short) of each of the last ten fics you posted.

Skipping the UC ficlets, because otherwise they'd all be meme/random stuff, and those were basically essentially flash-fic writing, my last ten first lines (or so). It is still, almost all meme/comment fic, though:

1. “It’s muddy,” said Silver. It was more of a protest than a statement of fact. “And wet.” (In the Depths (S&S/DW))

2. Liz risked opening one eye and then wished she hadn’t. “What?” she croaked. (Hungover (DW))

3. “I wish you’d told me. I’d prepared a serum for this very eventuality.” (Like Wolves in the Night (DW))

4. Mina was the first to recover her senses, finding herself lying on a stone floor in a tangled heap of bodies that, when she extracted herself, proved to consist of herself, Jonathan, and John. (Trouble Comes in Threes (Dracula 1968))

5. Edward Iveson glanced at his watch and quickened his pace as he headed down Whitehall from Charing Cross towards the Foreign Office. (White Feather (Original))

6. Henry thought it must be a dream the first time it happened. (Half an Angel (SotT/15thC Hist))

7. When Martha got into the tube carriage, there was only one other person inside it – a man. (Trouble on the Line (DW/S&S))

8. Mina found the crypt open. It didn’t seem strange to her that it should be, just as it had not felt wrong to be drawn here at this time of night. (Out of the Darkness (Dracula TV 1968))

9. It was for science, that was what the Professor insisted. If vampires existed, then who knew what else might? Restless Spirits (Dracula TV 1968))

10. The house is empty. It’s looking sorry for itself; narrow and gloomy, with dust collecting in its corners and cobwebs in its attics. (Not So Much Awry (S&S))

Because I felt like it:

1: Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.

2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)

3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble - it's just inspiration.

4: Bravo! Have a cookie.

( The results under the cut )

I forgot to note down the poets, but I can tell you that, apart from one, they were all Robert Service and Emily Dickinson again. That generator seriously needs to see someone about its literary fixations. Still, they fitted perfectly to the fandoms, so I'm not complaining.

What with all this uncanny James Maxwell activity, it seemed almost ungrateful not to write a Shadow of the Tower prompt, so I did. (For dimity_blue, who now tells me that she has also dreamt of JM in the last few days; in her case she was bringing me a signed Christmas card and a bauble with his face on through snowy Regency woods. I've said I'm not at all sure I want the bauble, but she says it is my doom. But in the meantime, here's fic:)


Title: Legend’s Ending
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~1300
Characters/Pairings: Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, Jasper Tudor
Notes/Warnings: Canonical character death. (Spoilers: it’s history, they all die). Also (by a slight metaphorical cheat) for hc_bingo square “sensory deprivation.”
Summary: Elizabeth surrenders everything; it’s how she’ll win in the end.

For dimity_blue in the 500 Prompts Meme: 038 – Close your eyes – Henry VII/Elizabeth of York (The Shadow of the Tower).

At AO3 | ( Legend's Ending )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Hello and welcome! I hope this letter will be helpful, but I know some prefer long letters (like me) and some short (in which case, I'm sorry, dear, author; I've never yet been able to manage a concise Yule-letter). But tl;dr: I like an awful lot of things, sometimes very different things in different contexts, I love these fandoms very much, and I'll enjoy most things that you write for my chosen characters in them. As long as you avoid my few hard and fast DNWs, it'll be fine. I very much hope you have fun writing for me.

That said, here is the long version...

( Cut for annual long flaily Yuletide letter )

(I started writing this post a while ago as I was going to cover more things I've watched over the last couple of months, but a) this bit got overlong and b) liadt told me to post my thoughts on BBC HVIII now, and since doing what Liadt told me worked yesterday, that seemed like a plan.)


( The Six Wives of Henry VIII (BBC 1970) )

Dear Yuletide Writer,

You share a tiny fandom with me, so that makes you a person of taste and awesomeness as far as I'm concerned and I hope that you have fun writing for me.

I am a great believer in the story that you want to tell being the one that's going to be the most compelling to read, so please, write that story. If you are the sort of person who likes a concise letter and a free hand, just go for what you have in mind. The extra details are for souls like me who want them. Do not attempt to give me everything below in one fic; you'd do yourself an injury. If anything seems contradictory, it's mostly because I like all sorts of different things at different times in different fandoms.

( Annual long flaily letter continues under here )

Well, Reveals have happened, and I'm now free to talk about what I wrote. My assignment, fairly amusingly and not very surprisingly, was for liadtbunny, who had requested various lovely things, including Adam Adamant Lives!. And you'll remember that this time last year I was all aglow with just having discovered the series and what a joy it was, and now I've wound up all aglow again with having reminded myself just what a joy it is. If you're a Classic Who/Avengers etc. fan you should head off to watch it now.

( Cut for some talk about the writing )

Anyway, enough of the waffling, here's the fic:

The Maze of Terror (7274 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Adam Adamant Lives!
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adam Adamant & Georgina Jones & William E. Simms
Characters: Adam Llewellyn De Vere Adamant, Georgina Jones, William E. Simms, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Case Fic, Humor, 1960s
Summary: Georgie’s received the invitation of a lifetime, Simms is starstruck, and Adam is on the trail of an unspeakable villain who’s terrifying people to death – literally!


( Also I wrote two treats, in The Moonstone and The Reluctant Widow )


And thanks to Liadt, who wrote my Madness SotT/Ten Stupidest Things fic, How Now Brown Monkey! (I knew it was you! In fact, I strongly suspected it was you when I saw someone had posted SotT in the first place. You're a star! ♥) And my gift proper was written by DeCarabas, whom I don't know and maybe doesn't LJ, but oh my, they so made my Yuletide with that wonderful piece. (I'm feeling guilty enough about requesting a super-super-obscure and uncool fandom and making someone write in it; I'm now also eyeing the other two comments on it, because it kind of looks as if they haven't actually got what's going on. I said it was subtle; I didn't think it was that subtle, but maybe it was to someone who doesn't know all the stuff I wrote in my letter? (Or maybe it was just the other aspect they chose to comment on??) DeCarabas got so much of that in, really quietly and non-crackily, it was awesome. (But, okay, what Dr Seward thinks he is doing is not necessarily what he is doing/what's really happening. It's brilliant. I love it to pieces. Usefully ambiguous headcanon totally accepted. ♥)

Bookmarks and Garlic Flowers (1061 words) by DeCarabas
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/Lucy Weston/John Seward
Characters: John Seward, Mina Harker, Lucy Weston
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: On rational explanations.


I guessed two of Liadt's fics, and one of Paranoidangel's, and otherwise, I was as clueless as ever, but it was fun. Here's to the last of the reccing and commenting - and to the New Year's Resolution Collection 2016! (I am resolved to write one this year; last year I didn't and I wished I had.)

1. I have been watching all the usual challenges go up over at yuletide, waiting for Some Day My Fic Will Come, because this year my Enemy at the Door request would qualify, but alas, Some Day My Fic Will Come has not come and my faithfulness will only be rewarded if some day my fic does come without the help of Some Day My Fic Will Come.


2. In other Yuletide-related silliness, last time I made my Shadow of the Tower request, I went on about the DIY map-making in the show, but I decided to be sensible and leave it at pantomime lions and cardboard spaceships this year. However, I did make a small gif-set on Tumblr and I'm not the only one who was amused by it, most especially Henry's epic food battle map in ep9. (I think there's another instance, but I can't remember.) I don't know why it happens; probably just because the director is Prudence Fitzgerald aka the director who is fine with showing the studio floor, the studio backdrop, having random CSO, super-close-close-ups of James Maxwell and David Collings and probably other people, vaseline on the lens, people talking to camera and whatever else she feels like. (Also, btw, SotT is remarkable because for some reason in 1972 at the BBC, 10 out of the 13 eps were directed by women. It also had a female script editor, a female historical researcher and 1 female writer (2 eps). I don't know why or how, but it's a thing. As is Tudor DIY-map-making.


3. In not entirely unrelated news, I am actually writing up the story where Ace goes on a 'date' with Henry VII that came from this meme. Sadly, though, I am not yet writing the one where Twelve and Cora Mills are buddy cops, nor am I writing the one where Twelve and Henry VII have to run a coffee shop together. Those are still free to a good home if anyone wants to win the internet.


4. And now I had better go, or my mushroom soup I'm making will pay the price for me talking about 1970s telly (again).

I am slowly still doing more of these, so here's another three...

( More memeage )

30 icons made for the hc_bingo square "hugs". I went back through all my screen caps looking for any iconable & expressive hugs and this was the result. Given the odd things I screen cap, it's a little motley, but on the other hand it covers a whole range of hugs from 1959-2013, which is quite nice in itself, after all. (Even if I may have used a pic to icon before, these are all new for the challenge.)


Teaser:





( Multifandom hugs under here )