Beyond the Roundels

Another of the AU_gust ficlets, this one for the prompt "Masquerade Ball" and also for allbingo Crime Classics square "Foreign Bodies." I put 0 research and accuracy into it and the fandom doesn't have enough fic to warrant an AU, but I was thinking about WML when I saw the prompt. Anyway, less traumatic than the actual incident's end in 1.6, one trusts.

Masquerade Ball (633 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Wish Me Luck (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Colin Beale/Matty Firman
Characters: Colin Beale (Wish Me Luck), Matty Firman
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Regency, Spies & Secret Agents, Ficlet, Community: allbingo, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Alternate Universe - Napoleonic Wars, handwaves accuracy, Matty just being Matty in any time period, Implied Sexual Content
Summary: Matty and Colin get caught in a compromising position.

(I thought I was doing better today but I just failed at the summary sentence three four FIVE times in a row, so I do hope my editing was actually okay. It was only tweaking, so let's hope so.)

I've not been posting or even keeping up with people so much because I've largely been wiped out for one reason or another or prioritising something else with the reduced summer PC time - sorry. This will continue for a little while yet, until it is eventually replaced by my usual slightly less flakeyness.


* The other week I managed some flash fic/scribblets for AU_gust (AU August) on tumblr. I've only managed to tidy up and post one of them since, & there are 2 others to follow once I tweak them a bit, as well as 1 more that I don't know if is worth proper posting & a drabble I still need to type up. But this used up my posting energy for now, so they can wait.

Anyway, in a shocking attempt at pandering to what might pass as popular demand among my works, I committed another Miss Marple + supernatural fic(let):

Tea on Sunday (572 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Griselda Clement
Additional Tags: Ficlet, Alternate Universe, Witchcraft, AU-gust | August Writing Challenge, Community: allbingo, Community: 100_women, Community: 100fandoms, Miss Marple is a witch
Summary: Miss Marple's secret is out.


* In other writing, before summer got underway, I typed up the bulk of the longest continuous sequence I'm doing for the current arc at rainbowfic, and then ever since have been scraping away at finishing it and editing it, and I am nearly there, although I suspect it'll still take another week or two before I have the first section ready to post. (I knew this would happen, so I also started two shorter pieces, but one of them, which is more or less done, has just been even harder to edit because tiredness etc. and the other one is still stuck at only two paragraphs, so that plan went well. Summer brain is not up to much. That was why I had to silly no-pressure AU ficlets my way back to life and even then summer rudely and immediately interrupted all over again). But there has been writing of sorts even so.

(The long sequence was one of the very first bits of this arc that I drew up, which is very funny because I essentially set up a sort of grand house murder mystery affair except that then everything changed so much that now my main characters aren't bothering taking part in the murder bit so am not sure if it will read ok (hopefully when edited) or if I committed Worst Murder Mystery ever as a result. I think probably I will also write a note on the header when we get there saying that One Day I Will Come Back, yes, one day I will come back, until then all 2 or 3 of you should go forward in all your beliefs about how people shouldn't wave a murder mystery at you and then literally run away from it, and I will eventually demonstrate that what is going on is in fact an Apocalyptic Overarching Plot, so there. And edit, of course.)


* I am currently listening to: a 1989 BBC Radio adaptation of Wilkie Collins's No Name I was delighted to find, starring Sophie Thompson as Magdalen, Jack May (as Captain Wragge), Eleanor Bron (as Mrs Lecount) & Robin Ellis (as Captain Kirke). I'm going slowly, but have just started part 3. It's very good and they're making excellent use of the epistolary bits, which is where radio has an advantage over TV. Mrs Lecount and her sinister toad have just turned up and Eleanor Bron is obviously a v good choice.


* I have watched some things, which, aside from what I've already mentioned, and a ridiculous amount of TV detectives, includes these:

The Tribe (1998), The Halfway House (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Admirable Crichton (1957), Creation (2009), Cause Celebre (1988) & Eye in the Sky (2015), all of which were either v good or worth talking about anyway. (Creation and Eye in the Sky have brought me very nearly to the end of my Jeremy Northam's viable CV, so I'm a little bit in mourning now; I suppose a new blorbo will come along in time. Talking of which, I found that the iPlayer had the BBC 1970s All Creatures on it, so finally got around to seeing Suzanne Neve's episode of it, which would be the one thing I would certainly have watched with her when I was a child to see if I had shadowy feelings and indeed, as soon as she appeared, before even I saw her, the set was suddenly Significant in the back of my head, so yeah. I think I can prove childhood imprinting on all my top faves and that's what the thing is about, and why even when I'm so ill they reach me in ways that other people, no matter how much I enjoy them in things, don't unfortunately.)

(Hopefully I will get to talk about some of them properly, but I am happy to attempt such talk in comments if wanted, although sense is not guaranteed, and it is true that at least one or two I watched in a fugue state that all I can say is, well, it was good and I watched it very slowly in bits and there we are, but, yes it was good /o\)


* Also random funny thing. My old housemate N lent me a DVD (!!) of The Residence (was not joking about the sheer amount of detectives watched this summer), which I enjoyed so much I recced it to my Dad. A couple of weeks later we had this conversation:

Dad: I've been watching that medical drama you recommended, but it's not that great, really, so I've stopped.

Me: ... Medical drama??

(It turned out he'd found The Resident on one of the back Freeview channels, so I emailed him a trailer of the 2025 Netflix detective show that I magically got lent on DVD as if it was 2015 or something. He found a pirate source and then lost it again, but he definitely liked what he watched so far a lot better than the Resident).

Thank you again to both edwardianspinsteraunt and WyvernQuill, who between them wrote my three amazing gifts! \o/ (I have read them now, and they were indeed just as wonderful as they looked.)

I haven't read more than halfway through the collection on mere first pickings, though, because while I have two things in the collection, I very nearly made it to three but failed on Christmas Eve, and spent the little energy of that kind I had trying to fix the third all week. It was at that sort of stage to drive me wild not to be able to do so. Anyway, for better or for worse, it is posted now, and I'll link to it here separately later, but it was for The Winslow Boy, for edwardianspinsteraunt.


I was assigned The Shadow of the Tower (!!) for misura, who had once written me a Madness treat for this canon and the same characters (Henry VII & John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln) which I have treasured ever since, so I was pretty delighted to be able to return the favour. I had this idea pretty much straight away, although it took a while to work out and be well enough to type up. I worried a bit over the ending (involving a slightly different take on a canonical death) and kept checking their DNWs (and each time, no, they still had not DNWed death, heh) and am so relieved that not only did they leave me a lovely comment before I even got to the collection on the 25th, but they absolutely got what I was going for in that section.

And thanks to persiflage_1 for the beta, as ever!

that strange unmerciful tyrant (2256 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Shadow of the Tower
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Henry VII of England & John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln, Henry VII of England/John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln
Characters: Henry VII of England, John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln
Additional Tags: Battle of Stoke, 15th Century, Loyalty, Rebellion, Trust Issues, Dreams, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, (that goes slightly differently), Episode: e04 The Crowning of Apes
Summary: John of Lincoln knows what he wants - the throne of England. His heart might have other ideas.


I also wanted to write some treats if I had time, maybe some ficlets for Madness, as there were a few requests I eyed up, especially The Winslow Boy (which along with the SotT request, was the other thing I'd have been most happy to get assigned to), and The Time Master trilogy maybe, or The Net (1995).


I did write TWB, but typed it up second - I knew if I didn't attempt The Net treat now I never would, while I was clearly going to write something for TWB sooner or later now. Anyway, so even though the very morning I typed it up I had decided that I simply couldn't do it, somehow nevertheless I wrote the first Jack/Angela fic for unhindered_dreams because the foe!yay needed to exist, and apparently I had to write it myself, dammit. ;-p

(Some of their other prompts were so funny, too, though. I think "Canon, but soulmates" made me laugh the hardest, because I'm not into soulmates as a rule, but "worst possible soulmate except yes actually in some ways they genuinely are" is amazing. As was "following your boyfriend's trail of dead bodies" even if canon is more "you can tell your boyfriend is following you because there's a trail of dead bodies behind you.")


it's the end of the world as we know it (4805 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Net (1995)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Angela Bennett/Jack Devlin (The Net 1995)
Characters: Angela Bennett (The Net 1995), Jack Devlin (The Net 1995)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, Dubious Consent, Mild Gore, Foe Yay, Enemies, enemies with benefits maybe?, Apocalypse, Swearing
Summary: The end of days happens while Jack and Angela are out at sea. Things go differently.

With many thanks to sovay for the beta and US pick!

(The irony of me and Zombie Apocalypse fic is that I don't like really like zombie things, but somehow I like writing Zombie Apocalypse AUs a lot anyway, even if they usually feature more biscuits and team bonding than zombies, so this was comparatively zombie-heavy for me, but that's not saying much, lol.)


The one downside of my plans, other than not quite making it and exhausting myself at the same time (but what else is new) was that, due to foolishly writing treats that involved two different fictional Jeremy Northams, while waiting for Treat #1, I was, oh, maybe I could start on Treat #2 and then my brain for one moment tried to put Jack Devlin and Sir Robert Morton in the same place and broke into distressed pieces, so I took the wiser course of having a rest instead.

I finally managed to complete another AU Meme ficlet, and two makes a post, so here we are:

AU Meme: Sapphire and Steel (1135 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sapphire & Steel (S&S), Sapphire/Steel (S&S)
Characters: Sapphire (S&S), Steel (S&S), Gold (S&S)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Ficlet, Request Meme
Summary: 10 AU scenarios for Sapphire & Steel, written for a Dreamwidth meme.


AU Meme: Kathryn Janeway (1046 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris
Characters: Kathryn Janeway, Tom Paris
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Episode: s02e15 Threshold, Blake's 7 Fusion, Ficlet, Memes, Request Meme
Summary: 10 AU scenarios for Kathryn Janeway in a Dreamwidth meme.

Only a month and a half between them! What's more, I realised that the Janeway one makes me eligible to sign up with Voyager as an option for Remix if I want now, which is cool. Also I'm amused because at least one of those snippets could 100% not be AU, I realised as soon as I wrote it.

I wrote a treat for maythe4thbewithyou! It was Obi-Wan/Padme wingfic, which happened for reasons, but made strange sense of the PT-era Jedi and had to be done once I'd thought of it. Anyway, it was a nice prompt. I had fun.

(Also, he may not be in this fic, but the idea that this AU contained a flying Yoda cheered me up a lot while I was writing it, back whenever that actually was. Also because, like, just because the Jedi are weird beings with wings and fiery swords who worry a lot about falling and becoming demons Sith doesn't mean they're angels or anything. :lol:)

Fire and Feathers (1973 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Wingfic, Wings, Jedi, Alternate Universe - Wings, Falling buildings, Injury, the Republic still falls, Treat
Summary: Winged beings with fiery swords keep falling from the sky.

Also for genprompt_bingo square "magical creatures."

space_swap has just revealed authors, so I can now share what I wrote. This one was for anr, whose prompts included "Padme and Obi-Wan run away with the kids and raise them together on some decrepit old star freighter that breaks down every other day" and so I wrote this. Which was (despite being too long for my current levels of energy) a very comforting and cathartic thing to be writing. And in the end, I was really very pleased with it.

(The only thing I wasn't happy with was the summary. I changed it four times, but everything else was worse than the original. Which was one of the nearly-titles, but I wound up taking it from this song.)

It was a fun fest, I really enjoyed everything I read or looked at that I knew, even though it was so tiny - Voyager, B5, Star Wars, Doctor Who etc.

it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (10926 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Yoda (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Padmé Amidala Lives, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Spaceships, On the Run, Recovery, Loss, Clothes are Important, Found Family, Alien Planet, 5 Times, Slow Burn
Summary: Five pit-stops on the way to anywhere but here.

And thanks to arcanetrivia who was kind enough to beta it for me!

Title: Unclassifiable Cast-offs
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: G
Word Count: 833
Characters/Pairings: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz Shaw, Sergeant Benton.
Notes/Warnings: Superhero AU of Spearhead in Space.
Summary: UNIT needs a new scientific adviser, but she’s proving hard to win round to the idea of superheroes and villains.

For liadt in the 500 Prompts Meme: #296: Unclassifiable castoffs, misfits, marginal cases – Brigadier (DW).

Also here at AO3 | ( Unclassifiable Cast-offs )

Another genprompt_bingo fic. (I've now made a bingo if I want it, but I still have my eye on that border bingo, though...)

his wonders to perform (3000 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 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 & Henry VII of England
Characters: Henry VII of England, Elizabeth of York Queen of England, Margaret Beaufort, Jasper Tudor, John de la Pole Earl of Lincoln, Richard III of England
Additional Tags: Community: genprompt_bingo, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Female Henry VII
Summary: As a woman, Lady Margaret Tudor’s fate is in the hands of others – and in the hands of God, of course. And God, as everyone knows, moves in the strangest of ways.

I finally managed to edit my stupidly long pointless hypothermia/Monopoly fic. (Standalone AU of an an old Runaway Tales canon I still comfort-write when life gets bad and bingo squares enable.) For hc_bingo square "hypothermia" and genprompt_bingo square "hurt/comfort."

It's marginally seasonal, anyway. (For anyone who was wondering, in the end I claimed poetic license on the trains and didn't rewrite it to be in 1947 instead. So, it's a pointless, overlong, self-indulgent work with magical Dr Beeching proof trains. I've got to stop doing this sort of thing, but I probably won't quite yet, alas.)


the only game in town (16355 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Characters: Original Characters, Edward Iveson (OC), Julia Graves (OC), Christy Graves (OC)
Additional Tags: 1960s, Snowed In, Romance, Hypothermia, Hurt/Comfort, Community: hc_bingo, Winter, Monopoly (Board Game), Loneliness
Summary: Edward Iveson wasn't enjoying the prospect of being snowed in alone at his family's holiday cottage, but a double-booking brings Julia Graves to the door and changes all the rules of the game...

Forgive the spamming tonight, but in addition to the one AU meme ficlet I had done, before I fell ill I was nearly through three different stories, two of which I've now finished. This is one, a frivolous Edward/Julia (origfic via an old Runaway Tales canon) 1970s standalone AU, written for the genprompt_bingo square "co-workers" and mostly to cheer myself up.

Paper Games (6202 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Characters: Original Characters, Julia Graves (OFC), Edward Iveson (OMC)
Additional Tags: Community: genprompt_bingo, Office, Office Party, Office Supplies, 1970s, Co-workers, Humor, Romance
Summary: Julia’s playing a game with Edward Iveson, but she really should have worked out the rules first…


In other news tumblr apparently marked a bunch of my James Maxwell posts as being sensitive. It was quite quick at unsensitizing them once I clicked on the review bit, but the algorithms were apparently SHOCKED at hand-holding, monkeys, fainting and pouring your gravy over the table, none of which was explicit last time I looked. Which is why you don't want computers censoring stuff. (I looked to see how it happens and it's not reports or text, it's analysing the images themselves. /o\)

Time for a meme! I thought I'd give the AU one another go round - I did it last year in celebration of the end of summer and here we are again, so:

Give me a character/pairing and I will write snippets of ten different alternate universes for it. One line, ten lines, a ficlet if you're lucky.

Canon Divergence
Coffee Shop
Shapeshifters
Magic
. . . In SPACE!!
Historical
Fusion
Police/Firefighters/Medical
Supernatural
Regency/Romance Novel

I have changed some of the options up again, just to vary things up a bit. The full list of people/pairings I have already done is under the cut below, as I am not sure I could do this twice for anybody! Otherwise anything I know is fair game, and I'll just let you have another choice if I really can't do something. (My tags and my interests are a fairly good indicator of things I know & like between them.)

( List of already AU-ed Characters/Pairings )

The first two results from the writing meme. Both of which got a little longer than these things were supposed to be:

Trouble on the Line (1377 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel, Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Martha Jones, Silver (S&S)
Additional Tags: Crossover, Request Meme, Random Pairing Generator
Summary: Martha's commute home is interrupted by something even weirder than the day job...


Half an Angel (2372 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Shadow of the Tower, 15th Century CE RPF
Rating: General 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
Additional Tags: Request Meme, Random Pairing Generator, Telepathy, Pre-Canon, Episode: s01e01 Crown in Jeopardy, Alternate Universe
Summary: To mark their betrothal, Elizabeth sends Henry half a golden coin, but it seems to be embued with strange powers...