Beyond the Roundels

I managed to import and tweak the second of my 1980s UNIT stories over the past week:

UNIT: Lonely House (25873 words) by vvj5
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)
Characters: Liz Shaw (Doctor Who), Charles Crichton, Original Characters
Additional Tags: United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (Doctor Who), Torchwood One, 1980s UNIT, 1980s Torchwood, Plot, Case Fic, Slime, Aliens, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Angst, Loss, Grief/Mourning, Peril, Abduction, Military, Flashbacks, Injury, Cross-Posted on A Teaspoon and an Open Mind
Series: Part 2 of 1980s UNIT
Summary: November 1985: There's alien slime and tea and explosions, but thats just UNIT. Now Colonel Crichton's trying to wage a war with words instead of guns, Torchwood want their ghost back - and sometimes it takes more than winning to save a life.

This one is rather less plotty and rather more character-centric, but Torchwood still manage to provide some peril.

The question now is whether or not I go ahead to UNIT: Stardust or stop to have a go at typing up the 'missing' UNIT fic while I'm at it. There's one called UNIT: Poltergeist that I still have pretty much in full in longhand plus a couple of pages in a file on the PC. I did always regret not getting to it, and I think typing it up might be manageable, but then I haven't finished going through it. (And, of course, do I type it up first or repost them in original posting order initially?)

(I know how to be popular: just type up random decade old fic about my 1980s UNIT OCs and minor characters.)

I have had two appointments in three days and now I am overtired, but in the meantime, have a post I made earlier. (I don't know why it is that I've been ill for seven years and I still do obviously overtiring things and sit around being obviously overtired and then just wonder why the world and everything and everyone in it is so rubbish and useless and take ages to realise that maybe, just maybe, the main problem is that I am an overtired person, who is also slow on the uptake. Probably because of being overtired. /o\)

(But an overtired person with a post I made earlier, just as if I was on Blue Peter.)


22. Is there anything you regret writing?

I don't think so. There are some things I've removed long ago, and have no desire to put back, and some things still up I think are embarrassing, but it's fanfic, it was for fun, and if other people like it, it can stay.


23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Well, I am fond of a few of them. Of things I have written over the last year, I am probably most fond of Always a Wolf, because in so many ways it is everything I love most about Press Gang and Lynda, since it's a five times fairy-tale AU fic but the only difficulty in it was making the fantastical scenarios AU, because PG is one of the quirkiest and most meta of technically mundane canons. So it just reminds me every time I see it there how much I love Press Gang and Lynda and running jokes that come back and stab you through the heart.


Overall, though, I am not sure, but for today I think I'll say Salt of the Earth, my first fic for who_guestfest, which is the backstory for Martha Tyler, from the DW serial Image of the Fendahl. Mrs Tyler lives on a time rift and fights weird things that come out of it, and unlike Torchwood, does it without murder, retcons, and shagging everything in sight making a fuss.

It may at least be actually more accessible for its obscure subject, because all anyone knows is that Mrs Tyler is a charwoman who is a witch with second sight (probably from living on a time rift all her life), and she helps out the Doctor when he has to kill Death Itself with rock salt. (There'll come a time when she's too old for it, mind.) The rest is open to anyone to play with. Also, it's all a mix of 'magic' and the mundane, and Image of the Fendahl is not as polished as Robots of Death by any means, but I think what's trying to come out in it is just as interesting, with a lot about life and being human. I even still like the beginning: Martha Tyler had always seen things other people hadn’t. Time slivers had danced around her crib, and from the very start, she’d shivered at the abyss at the edge of the woods that her mother happily walked right through.

It's always a surprise to remember that writing it came hard at the time. Anyway, I was pleased with it, and I still like it, and it's probably very me-ish, so there we are.


I also am extremely fond of some of my Edward/Julia AUs, particularly the ones I wrote to cheer me up. They, er, worked for the target audience? ;-p



24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

ALL OF THEM. (Well, most of them. Some exchange pieces are probably fairly tightly done.) I suppose my 1980s UNIT series, while we're talking of stories I still have a fondness for, because I've never transferred them over from Teaspoon because I want to go over them first, and they're too long! I would, if I could (but I can't) like to rewrite them so that the overall arc is more consistent. (I was rather embarrassed at getting so carried away with them at the time that I tried to finish everything off in Stardust, and then still wrote three or four more - and it would have been so much better if I'd just accepted that and not essentially had two showdowns in one series. It pains me so much.) And probably I should find a way to make Jigsaw properly standalone, but that's not going to happen, either.

I suppose one day I should either just post them anyway, or bite the bullet and at least do the minor tweaks, because I am still fond of Tilly and Nat and the rest of them, and the Torchwood* vs UNIT things, even if there are things I would do differently if I wrote them now.

Mind, I think I still need to finish tidying up the S7 UNIT series for AO3 as well, anyway, and that would be more to the point as they actually feature 100% canonical characters.


* It's not that I hate Torchwood, exactly, it's just that their epic and priceless canonical rubbishness as an organisation is hard to resist taking shots at in fic, so I don't.

Title: UNIT: Night Sentries
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 4143
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Sergeant Kennedy
Notes/Warnings: None. (1980s UNIT fic, set about a week after UNIT: Strange Weapons, so very early in the series - no spoilers.)
Summary: April 1985: The Sergeant thinks it’s quiet. Too quiet. Dr Webber thinks that’s a cliché, but that’s the thing about clichés – sometimes they’re true.

For jjpor in the 500 Prompts Meme - Prompt 245: worried by silence, the sentries whisper – 1980s UNIT. Possibly belated birthday fic, should you want to call it that. (Writing OC fic for that purpose always seems a tad egotistical of me, but at least there's a bit of Sergeant Kennedy this time...)

UNIT: Night Sentries (on Teaspoon)

For the ficlet meme, the only one I've managed to do (at least so far) - for jjpor who gave me the prompt “Nat/Tilly, science leads.” (It's a bit dull, sorry.)

Title: Studies
Author: thisbluespirit
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 838
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Tilly Holmes, Sergeant Kennedy
Notes/Warnings: None. (Set soon after Stardust, c. Nov 1987).
Summary: Nat wonders if science is really the answer.

( Studies )

I've been so bad about writing (aside from long things, for some reason) lately that I was sadly going to pull out on my last two crossover fics, but then decided to aim for 300 words each and go for it, and stop being so stupid, and lo, there was fic. I'm sorry if they weren't worth the wait for the remaining patient two on my flist, but here goes:

( Vila and Kenny Phillips )

( Calling Dr Jones )

( This may or may not be a UNIT fic smutty insert )

Thanks to everyone for their lovely prompts for the crossover birthday meme I held, and I wish it hadn't been such an odd summer, and I'd written them all sooner for everyone.

Yet more - Fourteen:

In which UNIT is UNIT and Torchwood is Torchwood, and Anna Taylor discovers the difference.

(Still waiting to be okayed onto Teaspoon.)

(Going on the theory that Torchwood at this time must have been underhand, callous, bureaucratic and completely incompetent, OTT government spies / conspiracists, of course. And that UNIT were still being just a bit too unbelievably cosy for a top secret, international, military organisation that battles aliens. Hmm. Now I've made the chapter sound much more fun that it actually is... :lol:)

There may be some more later, as well. Or there may not. I disincline to commit myself at this stage.

See here, once it's okayed onto Teaspoon. The first two sections of Part Two. And while not all of this happens yet, in Part Two, UNIT receive a visit from a Torchwood agent, and suddenly Dr Webber's losing his temper, the Captain's giving unlikely orders, Tilly's a canary, and Sergeant Kennedy is a murderer. It's no wonder the Colonel's confused.

(The rest of this section shouldn't be too long in coming, so I may as well say that now...)

Edit: The chapters posted so far are up on Teaspoon (but the rest of Pt Two is yet to come. I did say that...)

Story: UNIT Dating (the other kind)
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All Ages / PG
Word Count: 3685
Characters/Pairings: Captain Evered, Anna Taylor
Warnings: None. (Spoilers for UNIT: Wraiths if anyone was at all worried about such things).

Summary: Summer 1987 - UNIT and dating are two things that don't go together, and Anna and Captain Evered find out why as they attempt to have at least one date at some point before the end of the year.

Another one of those UNIT missing scenes again! As I mentioned earlier in the week, I spent most of Sunday writing this, all because belantana reviewed UNIT: Wraiths, very kindly, and then I worried that the lack of some explanation of how and when these two OCs got together might be a disappointment. And then of course I recollected the throwaway lines about dating being impossible when you fight monsters. (And, belantana, even though very probably you didn't want this, there is an Auton. Which is not completely un-Zombie like, after all... ;-D) It just took me an age to get around to the final corrections.

( UNIT Dating )

Normal service will be resumed at some point with memes and catching up with people and all, but I posted Chapter 1 of the next UNIT fic this evening:

UNIT: Silver Bullet

(Waiting for the okay onto Teaspoon).

Unlike the last one, this is back to proper UNIT stuffs, with monsters and running around, and a cameo from Liz Shaw... and possibly one or two other unexplained happenings (all will become clear in time).

(But I had a lovely weekend!)

Story: UNIT: Wraiths
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: WIP
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Tilly Holmes, Captain Evered, Sergeant Kennedy, Private Robinson, Miss Lonsdale
Warnings: None.

Summary: June 1987: UNIT have some elusive aliens to track down. Meanwhile, there's a new recruit causing trouble, some locals who've taken a dislike to soldiers, and Captain Evered has had a letter. Must be the end of the world, or something like it... (And in which we meet three new characters, and, um, really, not much happens.)

(Just a note, continuity-wise, for those who are following this rather overlong saga, this is before the wedding.)

*Does little dance of joy at getting this launched at last* Fic! It seems like a long while somehow...

Oh, yes, please note: not yet up on Teaspoon.

Okay, take two. My misgivings about putting this on Teaspoon, given its OC focus, overtook me, so I whipped it out of the queue and am posting it here instead.

Story: UNIT: Happy Endings
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 4,450
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Colonel Crichton, Nat, Tilly, Sergeant Kennedy, Captain Evered etc.
Warnings: None. (Very OC. Some fluff, even?)

Summary: June 1987: UNIT are having a wedding, but there are some troublesome uninvited guests – none more so than the Doctor.

( Story under here )

Story: UNIT: Double Cross
Author:lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Characters/Pairings: Dr Webber, Tilly Holmes, Sergeant Kennedy, Captain Evered, (plus a Special Guest Appearance in the Epilogue)
Warnings: Absence of DW characters? Some possible cuteness in the Epilogue? None, really.

Summary: May 1987: Colonel Crichton has retired, his replacement’s impressing no one, and now UNIT’s scientific advisor has gone AWOL. What’s a UFO-investigating top secret military outfit to do?

( Oh yes yet more UNIT fic )

It isn't okayed onto Teaspoon yet, so please be patient as usual. (It's probably not the best day to post something, either!)

The other week, when I was feeling a bit too down to write anything at all sensible, I distracted myself with this. And since people liked the other character commentaries, I thought I may as well post it. Although I am embarrassed and it shouldn't happen again. It's just Six, you see, you know what's like...

( Character commentary on Stardust )

And I must stop this. I really need to get on top of my family history instead. (Did you know I have a direct ancestor called John Benton, who was a soldier? But not a Sergeant. :lol:)