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 was feeling a bit better yesterday and typed up this, which I've had in my notebook since spring, for A Fatal Inversion. It of course ended up less shippier than planned and maybe even darker than canon warrants, idk. But it was where my brain went when I rewatched it. (The first time around it's a sort of reverse murder mystery; the second it's an intense character study of the fallout in those involved.)

For genprompt_bingo, allbingo, 100fandoms & 100ships, because if I'm going to write super obscure fic that probably won't make sense if you don't know canon, I might as well make it count!


Revisions (1529 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: A Fatal Inversion (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rufus Fletcher/Adam Verne-Smith
Characters: Adam Verne-Smith, Rufus Fletcher (A Fatal Inversion)
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Dark, references to murder, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Flashbacks, Community: 100fandoms, Community: genprompt_bingo, Community: allbingo, Community: 100ships, Pre-Canon, Past Trauma
Summary: Adam and Rufus try to resume their friendship where they left off. It's not the best idea.


Tomorrow I go to have my eye test, so no doubt I'll be around a bit less again, although I'll try to post the last AU_gust bits still if I can - they add up to a bingo line for allbingo and it would be a first if I actually got it completed within the month, lol. (We'll see).

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).

Another little ficlet for this round of no_true_pair, this one I managed to cobble together with a context-less snippet I scribbled a while back, for the prompt "March Twenty-Eighth - Seven & William Palmer are on a boat."

Merrypool Lake (828 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pilgrim (Radio), Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Seventh Doctor (Doctor Who) & William Palmer (Pilgrim)
Characters: Seventh Doctor (Doctor Who), William Palmer (Pilgrim), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Crossover, Ficlet, Community: no_true_pair, Community: 51pluscrossoverfandoms, Fae & Fairies, Community: allbingo, Community: genprompt_bingo
Summary: Of all the tales told on these islands, few are as strange as that of William Palmer, except, of course, for those relating to another near-immortal traveller - the Doctor.

I finally wrote the AU Meme for Catherine Winslow & Sir Robert Morton from The Winslow Boy! I was going to say I have no explanation for why it took me so long, but that's not true: I blame the moment when I realised the perfect fusion fandom was Star Wars (Prequel Era) for breaking my brain into tiny little pieces. (It also took me absolutely ages to come up with the obligatory Romance Novel one, until it finally dawned on me that the 1999 pair had canonically done a thing that would totally be a Scandalous Trope requiring instant marriage in the Romancelandia Regency.)

I should apologise for the SW, the crossover, and probably more, but what are daft AU Memes for if not doing these things?

(The question now is, is it TWB that's the problem or am I just getting terrible at encapsulating an AU into as few words as possible?)

AU Meme: Catherine Winslow/Sir Robert Morton (3933 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999), An Ideal Husband (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow, Arthur Winslow, Grace Winslow, Lady Gertrude Chiltern, Mabel Chiltern
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Crossover, 1910s, Alternate Universe - Medical, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, mentions of John Watherstone/Catherine Winslow, Edwardian Period, Alternate Universe - Regency
Summary: Ten AU scenarios for Catherine Winslow & Sir Robert Morton for an old meme.

As I said, I tried to write a second treat for yuletide, and didn't quite make it. But I got it ready to post today when the New Year's Resolution collection went live.

With many thanks to persiflage_1 who not only agreed to beta in like 0 minutes available on Christmas Eve, but put up with 3 emails of "Here's the fic to beta; No wait, not that version, HERE'S the fic to beta" and then finally, "No, don't beta the damn thing, it's a mess, sorry, i'm going to bed," and then finally beta-ed it today, by which time it had grown 1.5k words over what I told them it would be. (♥ Pers, you're a star!)

I had fun writing it, I should say! I just swithered over what I was doing with it, and then it turned into one of those silly situations where every change begs more change. I'd have sorted it sooner if I hadn't exhausted myself with the zombies already, because what it really needed was just have the time to sit down and rewrite of the first half properly. And then fix everything I'd messed up by rewriting the first half, lol.

ANYWAY, edwardianspinsteraunt had prompted about getting a reversal where Sir Robert was involved in a scandal this time, and also forced proximity tropes and for some reason I got absolutely fixated on combining the two, which was why the original idea of being stuck on a train in the snow got shelved because there had to be the scandal bit (my brain, idk) and that necessitated it being late July 1914, when, cool as the weather was, it would have been unlikely to snow in the south east of England. (Even granted that even as little as one flake might cause a British train to halt, if it were the wrong kind.)

What I'm blathering about and towards is, the whole thing about simultaneously thinking about how hard they were to apply tropes and I couldn't do a daft AU for them + "stuck on a train in the snow" led me to the distracting idea (NOT ever for the gift, do not worry, edwardianspinsteraunt) that OMG what about MURDER? They would have exactly the right skill set between them and Sir Robert would absolutely hate it, it would be amazing.

Me: Someone should write a series of 1920s cosy crime novels where the protagonists are a former suffragette and a posh lawyer.
Me: (reflecting on how many cosies there are) ... one almost certainly already exists, doesn't it?

Anyway, I couldn't put them in a fake relationship, I couldn't strand them on a train in the snow, but I listened to the commentary (which I was taking notes from for sovay, if they still want them) and that got me to an actual fic, rather than a slight ficlet, and here it is.

(I watched TWB too many times again, I'm sorry. I apologise for the wittering. I've just had this fic nearly done stuck in my head and having to rewatch the film extra to keep it there for a week and a half and now I can talk again.)


the furthest stars came thundering at the door (4455 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Edwardian Period, with World War I approaching like the down express, Trains, Smoking, Post-Canon, Scandal
Summary: Catherine and Sir Robert find themselves on the same train, but travelling in quite different directions.

(The title is from a poem about London Bridge Station, written in 1909.)

Another no_true_pair fic, just about sliding in on time for yesterday's prompt. Unlike the others, I did not prepare this one earlier so it's a bit of flash fic I finally got down today, although the scenario occurred to me as soon as I saw the prompt - September Six - Ruby & Kate - too many cupcakes.

Sweet Danger (552 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kate Lethbridge-Stewart & Ruby Sunday
Characters: Ruby Sunday, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
Additional Tags: Community: no_true_pair, Cake, Ficlet, Humor, United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (Doctor Who), Post-Episode: s14e08 Empire Of Death (Doctor Who), Flash Fic
Summary: Kate sends for Ruby in a sticky situation.

(It's cake, but it's not cake fic. Sorry. ;-p)

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...

I've still not really been around properly, although hopefully that should improve again soon, fingers crossed. Both because I've been quite ill most of this summer, for reasons, but also because the ancient borrowed laptop I was using the last couple of summers to get over the lack of access to my PC now sometimes makes sparks when I plug it in and I feel this is a bad sign in an electrical appliance, so I have been saving to only use at great need. ETA: Not sparks, that was a bad description; a back surge from the charger, I think, and I saw a blue flash. (obv = saprks when typing wildly at night.)

Anyway, the other day when the weather cooled down for a couple, I had a go at the poetry meme, but I was too tired/ill to do the full thing. But since I also did that earlier in the year, I realised between the two I had five efforts. And if I post it, now with new working replacement random poetry site links (!! \o/ !!), maybe it'll spread about the place again, and that'd be nice.

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 them 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), 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.

( Smushed results of two attempts under the cut )
* I found two replacement sites. This one seemed the nearest match to the lost one (although so far it has more of a Byron fixation than an Emily Dickenson one), but this one also works too.

The usual writing meme for the year. (Last year's post is here.)

( Cut for length )