Beyond the Roundels

And so my treats. I wrote the first for calliopes_pen, chiefly in a hopeless attempt to remain anonymous, so that she might at least wonder which one was me. (I had vague plans for a rather different one, but I got seized by this idea while reading through her likes in the letter):

Influence (1368 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Abraham Van Helsing & John Seward, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker, John Seward/Lucy Weston, Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker, Mina Harker/Lucy Weston
Characters: Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Weston, Mina Harker
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Dark
Summary: Some personalities are magnetic, they exert an irresistible pull on others.


Then there were two prompts in particular that jumped out at me this year, the first being Wasuremono's great prompt about Miss Marple being a goddess, the genius loci of St Mary Mead, which I obviously had to write:

The Spirit of St Mary Mead (4005 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Griselda Clement, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Historical, Multi-Era, Roman Britain, English Civil War, 18th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century, Misses Clause Challenge, Miss Marple is a Goddess
Summary: St Mary Mead has had an unusual guardian down through all these centuries.


The second was for moemachina, about Feste & Olivia from Twelfth Night. As I've loved Feste since I did the play for A-Levels mumble years ago, I couldn't resist. I had an idea, but then remembered that writing Shakespeare fic is TERRIFYING. So I watched BBC TN twice in a row, found some 16th C jokes and riddles on the internet, built my fic around those and then went for it. And then typed it up while mentally going LALALA not writing Shakespeare etc. Happily, it seems to have got some really lovely comments, so I clearly didn't mess it up too badly.

movements of the mind (1892 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Feste & Olivia (Twelfth Night)
Characters: Feste (Twelfth Night), Olivia (Twelfth Night), Original Characters
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Friendship, Backstory, Jesters, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Summary: ”Look you now, he’s out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged.”


That done, I decided to write a couple of treats for Madness if I could, but the Adam Adamant Lives! fic for Liadt grew large enough for the main collection, even if it was probably too frivolous for Yuletide (and I don't think Liadt was fooled by my anonymity for a minute, either):

Battered and Bruised (1812 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Adam Adamant Lives!
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Adam Adamant & Georgina Jones
Characters: Adam Adamant, Georgina Jones, William E. Simms
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Cake Fic Meme, Cake, Humor, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I was going to label this crack, and then thought soberly about canon, and didn't
Summary: Mr Adamant suffers a truly traumatic incident at a village gala. Unfortunately for him, Georgie is on hand to help...


And lastly, this tiny bit of post-canon for Gerry and Sandra from New Tricks, for Dynapink:

Vintage (532 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: New Tricks
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sandra Pullman & Gerry Standing
Characters: Sandra Pullman, Gerry Standing
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Ficlet, Yuletide Treat
Summary: "You look as if you've seen a ghost..."

With many thanks to Pers who patiently beta-ed all three full treats and a second beta of my long assignment! (Those who have been around these parts a while: I think you can probably already guess which one got the influential rec. Oh, yes. It is my fate, my doom, my only claim to fame. :lol:)

You know how when people joke about having unreasonable expectations for Yuletide: "All I want is a novel length fic for my super-obscure fandom featuring all my favourite things. Oh, and a unicorn pony."

Well, I don't know how it happened, but this year that is exactly what I have:

Wrap The Cloak Of Night Around His Shoulders (58042 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/John Seward, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker
Characters: John Seward, Mina Harker, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Weston, Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: When Vampires Attack, Exorcisms, Hypnotism, Possession, Bats, Temptation, Friendship, Mind Control, Jonathan runs away with Dracula, Van Helsing is clever, Mina protects Lucy, Seward needs a blood transfusion and blanket right about now, There's something in the basement, Vampire Bites, Hurt/Comfort, Character Turned Into Vampire, Elements of Lucy/Mina, staking, Vampirism Causes Irreconcilable Differences, Suspense, Nightmares, Fog, Journey to the Castle, Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Summary: What if Seward and Van Helsing told Mina about the danger Lucy was in sooner? What if Lucy wasn’t bitten a final time that night, because Mina was in the house? This gives them a reprieve. Everything changes for the better and for the worse. Each takes a more active role in their fate as they fight to keep Dracula away from Lucy, and the darkness closes in around them.


It looks AMAZING. I have read the start, but for various reasons the full thing may have to wait until I am home again (SORRY, dear author). AMAZING. I am pining at waiting to read it, but also kind of wanting to make it last forever, because you can't count on practically getting a novel for Yuletide even once in a lifetime, let alone twice. And I am fairly confident from those tags that Dr Seward is going to faint again. What more could I ask for?


Oh, and a pony unicorn:

Lost Souls (6455 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: New Tricks
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Jack Halford & Sandra Pullman, Gerry Standing/Robert Strickland (implied)
Characters: Jack Halford, Sandra Pullman, Brian Lane, Gerry Standing, Robert Strickland
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Murder Mystery, Historical Murder Mystery, Father-Daughter Relationship, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Summary: An anonymous tip-off leads to the discovery of a body. A young woman hangs her hopes on a mysterious charity. And Sandra and Jack experience revelations of their own as they attempt to discover the truth.

Will the Lost Souls find some peace with the UCOS team on the case?


This is actual case fic for New Tricks, reads just like a missing episode, only stuffed with nearly all the things I asked for in that section of my letter! (And I have read this and it's fab.)

If my authors are around, then THANK YOU both for making my Yuletide and then some! <3 I hope everyone else is having a nice time, whether celebrating, Yuletiding or not! (I am. V tired from some cute wee people currently!)


Also, should anyone wish to try and guess my Yuletide fics: I have five fics in the main collection and a ficlet in Madness. Five of them are in fandoms I have written before, one of them is fairly long, and one of them is in a fandom I have never written before. Should anyone guess, I am sure I can manage an icon or put you to the top of the queue for a long lost 500 Prompts fic or something! (Some of them do not feel very anonymous to me!)

ETA: I'm still not here, though...

Well, it did go live, and even though I think it may have been quieter than some years, I got rather a lot of nice things in my stocking!

liadt wrote me Public Eye fic, If I had a Million Pounds and posted a small picspam of James Maxwell from a thing called The Prison. (It looks like a great source for if I wanted Copper-related pics of him.) I also had a picspam from dunderklumpen, who went to all the trouble of finding pics of my random favourite old TV actors for me here.

Clocket made me a brilliant bit of art of Frank Marker; finisterre made me some old TV icons & rosied found me a link to a huge list of genealogy blogs, so I should be able to find something interesting in there.

Also there was more fic! It's been a bumper holiday season for Sapphire & Steel, that's for certain.

I had The Bright Side of Time (Silver, Sapphire, the TARDIS, Clara & Twelve) by kaffy_r, Something Hungry Under the Stone (Silver) by annariel, and Just Passing Through (Silver/Liz) by john_amend_all.

Thank you, everyone! ♥


I did manage to write three little ficlets, as follows under the cut, but I'm sorry I couldn't do more!

( Ficlets in New Tricks, OUaT & Historical RPF )

I've barely scratched the surface and have been mostly working through alphabetically. Until my parents' internet cut out, and after I'd finally read my own gifts to my own satisfaction, I did have a bit where I could even read quite long things (ish), which was fun. And while some of these have been recced a lot, others really haven't that I've seen, so here goes:

( 19 recs in 15th C RPF, Blake's 7, Brittas Empire, Enchanted Glass, Fire & Hemlock, Ghost Soup Infidel Blue, Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Julius Caesar, Madeleine L'Engle/Doctor Who, Matilda, Measure for Measure, Monkey Island, New Tricks & Sarah Jane Adventures )

Meme found in the wild: Make a list of all the characters in your icons. (Although you may have more than one icon of a single character, they only go on the list once.) Alphabetize it. Take the first two people on the list; that's your first pairing. Second two people; second pairing, etc. Treat us to some commentary once you're done.

I thought it'd be fun... I hadn't quite realised what a weird jumble of characters I have - some of them are there more for the action in the icon than the character. So, in most cases, let's say that instead of a commentary, a horrified silence might be more appropriate?

(Actually, it turned out better than I expected. For the first half of the alphabet, anyway.)

( 38 random pairings and an odd man out )

The meme continues, and I am definitely back to being British, although I don't know about obscure. A current show hardly feels obscure to me... I was wavering as to whether or not to include this character, but now I've seen the pilot and S1, she is totally on this list, as she should have been all along...

( I don't know about you but she's making me very excited... )

( So Far... )

We've been packing up the office today for our move tomorrow and in amongst the endless rubbish for the recycling pile and official bits and bobs, I found a scrap of a story I wrote for a Yuletide request. I looked up the request, and my effort would need serious work to match, but it amused me. So I typed it up, not having time for much else this evening. It's not DW; it's New Tricks. (And how I ended up watching that is a seriously long story that I'll leave for another time. It involves a murder mystery party.) And it is just a teaser, as anything else would be seriously disturbing.

***

Title: Idle Conversation
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 472
Characters: Sandra Pullman, Gerry Standing
Summary: Gerry asks Sandra a personal question that might possibly be a proposition.

( It'd be a disaster )