Beyond the Roundels

A fic for no_true_pair's current round, for the prompt "Mona Wu & Death - it's dark and there's only one flashlight," which clearly had to be done. (When it's set for Mona, well, I'm just handwaving a bit, but this is the Legends we're talking about. Handwaving is the canonical order of the day, really. This happened somewhere, somewhen, whether or not in a timeline everybody remembers.)

It also fits prompts for lyricaltitles, genprompt_bingo, 100fandoms, 51pluscrossoverfandoms & 100_women, which may be going a bit overboard, but it just lined up with them all, so...

it's just a jump to the left (958 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Death (Discworld) & Mona Wu
Characters: Mona Wu, Death (Discworld)
Additional Tags: Community: no_true_pair, Community: 100fandoms, Crossover, Ficlet, Community: genprompt_bingo, Community: 100_women, Community: 51pluscrossoverfandoms
Summary: It's completely dark and Mona's not sure where the Waverider has landed this time. Luckily, there's someone on hand to help...

The second part of the meme!

1. Uljabaan (WtOVPIC)
2. Katrina Lyons (WtoVPIC)
3. Servalan (B7)
4. Silver (S&S)
5. Twelfth Doctor (DW)
6. Ezekiel Jones (The Librarians)
7. Hercule Poirot
8. Robin (BBC Ghosts)
9. The Cat (Red Dwarf)
10. G'kar (B5)
11. Death (Discworld)
12. Lucy Greenwood (Craddock & Co)
13. Orac (B7)
14. John Seward (Drac 1968)
15. Zari (Legends of Tomorrow)

( Cut for more memeish nonsense )

Sorry, it took me a little while to finish answering these! (There were loads! It was great! XD)

( The results under here )

Challenge #9: In your own space, brag about yourself. Tell us what things you've done that you're proud of; the things that make you the wonderful person you are.

The worst challenge! Apart from possibly #10, or if they ask you to pick one creator (ONE?!! 1?). Anyway, the examples say I can just rec my own works that I like, so I will do that now. Using only things written in the past year, to avoid it always being the same works again:


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.

As I mentioned in the end of year writing meme, this was probably the story of the year on multiple levels and the most popular one, and I'm not about to argue with that. I think it probably is the best thing I wrote this year, overall.


AU Meme: Gytha Ogg (1232 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Giamo Casanunda/Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Gytha "Nanny" Ogg & Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, implied Gytha "Nanny" Ogg/Owen Tudor
Characters: Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, Giamo Casanunda, Samuel Vimes
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings Fusion, Humor, References to Shakespeare, Innuendo, but probably not as much as there ought to be
Summary: 10 AU scenarios for Nanny Ogg written for a Dreamwidth meme.

I like quite a few of the AU meme ones I have actually managed to do (*looks shifty*) but I think this one wins. It has Nanny Ogg in it, so it would have to. It's also a different tone to the above. I can be versatile!


Trees Too Tall to Climb (1340 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Obi-Wan Kenobi's Mother
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Mother, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Community: 100_women, Community: halfamoon, Mother-Son Relationship, Sacrifice, Jedi, Stewjon, Backstory, Pre-Canon, Community: allbingo
Summary: She's never been this brave before...

I was a bit torn between this and the unexpected Jedi wing!fic AU, but probably this. It also did quite well, which I think probably speaks for itself - it must therefore objectively work, because people do not get into worldbuilding-type fic that is fundamentally about an OC (even if one who must obv have existed in canon) if it doesn't. And I liked it a lot when I wrote it.


I also continued to try and make gifsets and though not being able to do them in my photo editor is frustrating, I have been pleased with the ship and character sets I've been making. I like the Barbara one most so far for the characters and maybe the Kenny & Lynda one for the ships. (What I don't like: why is tumblr suddenly putting that random gap there on this view; it's not there on the dashboard version. *glares*)


Challenge #10: In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, creator, episode, or it could be your fandom friends. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to.

If I wrote a love letter, challenge, it would be private! Anyway, I was also feeling very grumpy - fandom in general keeps migrating to platforms I just cannot do and dropping most of what I enjoyed as it goes, and while I am feeling a bit better about Doctor Who now, I'm still not happy that I spent most of the year upset by and shut out of that as well.

But my flist are still lovely and inclue many longstanding true friends and that is always something to celebrate! So, thanks you lot, for being generally kind and patient and funny and supportive and all sorts of things between you all. ♥

And I did enjoy that flight into SW Prequel era. It was a very pretty place to escape into, and I definitely want to go back there from time to time. I still have ideas unwritten and so on, and the burst of fannishness I had for it startled me. I had no idea I still had that in me!

For snowflake_challenge - Challenge #6: In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, or that you'd like someone to make for you.

I mainly want more anything for or anyone into my ridiculous obscure old telly fandoms, especially the ones with James Maxwell in, but that is too unreasonable to ask.

So:

1. I have a Dear Author tag which contains all my previous exchange letters and therefore details of Things I Like, why, and in what ways I would like All the Fic. Especially if it has James Maxwell in, obviously or by stealth. :-D (Other things are good! I want All The Things when I'm not at my most tired.)

2. Comments on my fic. If I have Thoughts on things, that tends to become fic and because I am actually a lot more shy than I may appear while babbling on the internet, I have always used that as my prime way into talking to people and making friends, and given my shaky concentration, I'm bad at doing it from the other way round (although I hope to improve again soon).


But, funnily, I was about to post this, so I shall include it! I was going back through all my editions of the 15 Characters Meme (and the 12 Characters thing) and noting down things that really should exist, whether as a begging list or a reminder to self, I cannot say, but I think, given this topic, it should go right here! So:

3. All these things should totally exist somewhere, right?


a. The Master goes to Granny Weatherwax's used vehicle lot to purchase a vehicle. Long John Silver offers unsolicited advice about it.

b. Ace, Sapphire, and Cally spend the night in a haunted house.

c. Violet Crawley is made supreme ruler of the globe.

d. Rupert Giles & Violet Crawley get thrown back in time to 1066 in a freak accident. The fate of England rests on the shoulders of one or both of them.

e. Zen & Holly are stuck in a museum after closing hours (presumably ancient exhibits in a technology museum, long forgotten...)

f. Harry Pearce, Esme Weatherwax, and Jane Marple are alone in a house/other building of your choice. It is a dark and stormy night. There is a thunderous knock on the door followed by the sound of feet running away. When they open the door, there is a baby in a basket, and voila, one tiny child has three of the best and scariest godparents ever. Do not mess with them.

g. Charley Pollard and Clara Oswald go into business together

h. Ros Myers is catapulted into another dimension where they meet the good/evil mirror version of their friends. (With bonus debate as to whether this would therefore be the mirror dimension where everyone was fluffy and into kittens and then Ros would have to kill them all, or if Ruth would be a megalomaniac she needed to defeat.)

i. A Bill Potts/Kara Danvers College AU where Bill is teaching physics and passing on the wonders of the universe, Sam Vimes is teaching a criminology course that is turning out to be way more hands on and practical than the university was up for, Kara is teaching a journalism course and is really nervous about it and her first few lectures do not go well, since they involve public speaking. She keeps winding up in Bill's study for biscuits and sympathy. Bill is very helpful and is developing a serious crush. (It'd be adorable only with bonus Vimes. What's not to like?)

j. The Sixth Doctor and Zelena Mills have to fake a relationship.

k. Kara Danvers/Obi Wan-Kenobi, and/or this impressively pretty, explosive and effective sedoretu comprised of Dayna Mellanby & Kara Danvers, Kara Danvers/Bill Potts, Kara Danvers/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dayna Mellanby/Bill Potts and Dayna Mellanby/Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Bill Potts & Obi-Wan Kenobi. It would involve a lot of handwaving, but is that not what fic is for?

l. Kara Danvers and the Sixth Doctor are entered in the Great British Bake-Off. (Optional: Orac is a guest judge and Servalan is trying to sabotage the whole thing.)

m. The Twelfth Doctor and Cora Mills are now buddy cops.

n. Twelve and Henry VII are running a coffee shop that lives off the attraction of Twelve's terrible customer service and Henry's excellent book-keeping. (I don't know what kind of AU it is, but I'd read it.)


(I'd like to point out that I did write the one where Donna Moss got locked in the wine cellar with Eight and One and the one where Henry VII and Ace went on a (kind of date; stuff blew up anyway), and more or less the Jenkins and Twelve find a stray kitten, if you substute 'baby winged horse' for kitten, so I have done my part, or some of it, anyway...)

For the Talking Meme, from hamsterwoman: How about something about Discworld? Favorite characters, favorite books, your history with the series, whatever you want to talk about, really.

Starting backwards (but not), my history with the series - well, given that I managed to start on Doctor Who with Silver Nemesis, I continued that trend by starting Discworld with Eric, the first one I randomly picked up in the YA section at the library. I think I had also been reading the Nomes trilogy, so gave it a whirl on that basis. (There was, I seem to recall, a Nomes adaptation on CITV around this time.) It wasn't the best place to start, but I liked it enough to try the next one I came across, and that was it, really. I think probably I met the Witches or Death next (I'm pretty sure it was longer before I stumbled over a Watch book).

Favourite characters? Probably Granny Weatherwax, the witches generally, and Death. And Vimes. But I am pretty sure Granny Weatherwax and Death were the ones I first latched onto. And Granny really is the best (just so she won't be the worst). My favourite moment for her is probably where she Weatherwaxes the vampires, but there are so many, for all of them. And Discworld is one of the few things where Death's appearances are always welcome. I was very annoyed on finding a new one if Death only appeared once in passing. (At least twice, please, Pterry; preferably more.)

As to favourite books, I've always had a soft spot for some of the one-offs, and particularly The Truth. I'm not sure if I could even say why - maybe because it's even more overtly about the power of words and truth and lies ("A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.") than usual, as well, of course, as being a tale of amusingly shaped vegetables and Discworld screwball comedy. (My only long-ish straight-up Discworld fic is an NYR William/Sacharissa fic that was the very last thing I did before I was ill.) And Otto and the terrible lure of flash photography for a vampire; a passion worth undying for every time.

In other things about Discworld, I think I grew up next to the model for the River Ankh* (otherwise known as the River Parrett in Somerset. (My home town, ladies and gentlemen and others, and its charmingly brown river. It's silt, I promise. It looks even better when it comes out at Burnham-on-Sea and you have blue sky (if you're lucky) and brown sea, but let's not get started on Burnham-on-Sea again.)

Also once in rl, I stood this near to Terry Pratchett. *holds out arms* He looked just like his pictures and had the hat. (It was the Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Award ceremony and he was a guest as a previous winner, but he was already under siege from teenage CKG shadowing groups.)

I don't know what else I have to say, except that I'm glad we had Pterry for a while and that we still have all the books with their mix of wit, wisdom, anger, compassion and puns, and all the characters who inhabit them. I found out that Pterry had Alzheimer's one December in York when I was meeting my two sisters (from London) to go Christmas shopping together. Over lunch, they told me they'd heard it on the news. And then stared at me in surprise to find I was actually upset and got worried about me.


I wanted to end with some quotes, and had no idea how you'd narrow it down, so I went for a few from The Truth (and then one from Hogfather I couldn't leave off):

William wondered why he always disliked people who said 'no offense meant.' Maybe it was because they found it easier to to say 'no offense meant' than actually to refrain from giving offense.

“Ah," said Mr Pin. "Right. I remember. You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where 'traditional values' meant 'hang someone'.

Just for a moment there was an unusual feeling of bliss. Strange word, he thought. It's one of those words that described something that does not make a noise but if it did make a noise would sound just like that. Bliss. It's like the sound of a soft meringue melting gently on a warm plate.

Nothing has to be true forever. Just for long enough.

“Character assassination. What a wonderful idea. Ordinary assassination only works once, but this one works every day.”

And from Hogfather:

( You're saying humans need fantasies to make life bearable )


* Obviously, it owes a lot to the state of the Thames before Bazalgette, but for rl modern models in a county Pterry lived in, I give you my brown river...

Done! Just in time to do a different meme, too... ;-)


( DW: Poul )

( The Avengers: Emma Peel )


( Discworld: William & Sacharissa )

(My friends came, had a nice time, liked each other, and went. I am now vv tired and also have not yet watched DW, because vv tired so catching up must wait, but in the meantime, one of two posts I made earlier; in this case my final Yuletide recs post. <3)



Somewhat belated, but better late than never, as they say.

( 19 recs in Discworld, Georgette Heyer, Howl's Moving Castle, Hundred & One Dalmatians, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, King Lear, The Librarians, North & South, Northanger Abbey, Owl Service, Poldark, Timeless & Victoria )

I didn't have as much chance to read the Collection while away this year, but it is just as full of lovely things as ever, and you can find it all here. Dive in!

However, I did manage to read some short things, so here they are, just nipping in before reveals - my two wonderful gifts, plus a rather random selection of my first pick at the chocolate box, as it were, chosen in exactly that sort of manner! I hope to have a more leisurely go-through in the coming week or two, though.

( 16 recs in Archer's Goon, Blandings, Discworld, Dracula (TV 1968), Dungeons & Dragons (Cartoon), Fire & Hemlock, Flood (2007), Georgette Heyer, Malory Towers, New Tricks, Red Dwarf, While You Were Sleeping & Yes Minister )

Because every time a slightly different one comes along, I have to do it. Like an AO3 sheep. Baa.

( Ficcish navel gazing again )

The list!

1. Adam Adamant
2. Emma Peel (The Avengers)
3. Charley Pollard (DW)
4. Eighth Doctor (DW)
5. Soolin (B7)
6. Silver (S&S)
7. Harry Pearce (Spooks)
8. Cora Mills (OUaT)
9. Clara Oswald (DW)
10. Servalan (B7)
11. Vila Restal
12. Esme Weatherwax (Discworld)
13. Arnold Rimmer (Red Dwarf)
14. Jane Marple
15. Harry Sullivan (DW)


( The shenanigans! )

So festivids went live yesterday and if you like fanvids at all, you might want to take a look at the Masterlist, because there are over 190 vids in tiny fandoms there and marvellous they all are, too. If you don't already know, it's like the Yuletide for vids.

This year, I went, looked, thought I didn't know almost any of the sources, and then of course, kept finding all these things I did and it's wonderful, and, as ever, I'm in awe of all the vidders. So here are a handful of recs from my scratched bit of the surface:

Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking (The Hollow Crown) Just amazing, really. If you only watch one (but why? why would you only watch one???), make it this one.

Beauty in the Breakdown (Amelie) So pretty and right.

Step Into Your Place (Blackadder Goes Forth) Really well done anyway, but it's the clever use of contemporary posters etc. that make it something special.

Just A Girl (Hogfather) I've still never seen this, this vid makes me think I really should. (Michelle Dockery, anyway.)

Glad You Came (Downton Abbey) Joyful DA and sort of all the reasons I keep happily watching, no matter what's happened.

Devils (BBC Gormenghast) Beautifully creepy and fitting.

And in the category of me flailing because I can't believe somebody vidded X, I give you Do What You Feel for Desperately Seeking Susan. (When we were teenagers, my sister and I had this recorded off the TV and watched it at least twenty times. Don't judge me, it was a thing. :lol:)

And lots, lots more.