Beyond the Roundels

Hail, fellow travellers, and well met. My Dreamwidth is mostly for fic, recs, icons, vids and fannish nonsense & fic/vids/icons etc. generally remain open. I'm terribly obscure and multi-fannish, but generally happy to make new friends with shared fandom interests.

My fic:
thisbluespirit on AO3
vvj5 at A Teaspoon and An Open Mind (the Doctor Who archive)


Current & Past Prompt tables etc: AllBingo Colour Fest Bingo May 2025 | allbingo Gothic Bingo April 2023| allbingo Valentine's Card Feb 2023 | 100 Ships table | 100fandomicons masterpost | 51pluscrossoverfandoms table | genprompt_bingo (Round 24) | 100_women Prompt Table | 100fandoms table | Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card (Legacy) | apocabingo card | Historical for who_allsorts | 100 Element Prompts | Shakespeare Plays Watched.

Also the 500 Prompts Meme. runaway_tales/ rainbowfic Masterpost here.

Notes on permission: Any remixes, fanart, podfic or translations or other fanworks based on mine are wonderful. Please do let me know or link me back on AO3, though - I'll be delighted.

Please don't repost/c+p/scrape any content here to anywhere else. If you want to link to any public posts for any reason, please just do so.

Dear Author tag, for exchange letters.

Friending/subscribing: Please drop a comment here (or any other public post) to say hi first and let me know how we know each other, or which fandom(s) we share. I'll usually friend you back if I recognise your name.

I've been trying to finish off a few runaway_tales things, including another AU. This one was also written for genprompt_bingo square "Happy Endings" and hc_bingo square "grief" and is a modern coffee shop AU. I am so proud of myself, even if maybe the coffee shop is probably too incidental. But a while ago, oonaseckar said to me that it would probably be impossible to do a modern Edward/Julia AU and, of course, if someone says that it's impossible to write something, obviously I have to write it. (I wrote Six/Rose and Steed/Baldrick once for the same reason. Edward and Julia managing excuses to have a fake relationship and then be awkward about it in the 21st C was no problem at all.)

But I crossposted it to AO3, as I think it's a fun/sweet enough standalone piece; also it's for two other comms, and also because LJ's word limit forced me into posting it in two parts over at RaTs, which annoyed me, because clearly it isn't a work that's meant to be in two parts. I hoped I'd done enough amputation, but apparently not. (Dammit, LJ.)

Substitute (13480 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Characters: Julia Graves (OC), Edward Iveson (OC)
Additional Tags: Community: hc_bingo, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Romance, Grief/Mourning, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Brief mention of car accident, Community: runaway_tales, Fluff, Humor, Angst
Summary: Julia Graves has perfectly reasonable motives for fake-dating a customer – it’s all about interior decorating, honestly…

(I was going to do fandom_stocking things at last, but I was feeling too rotten, so I pulled this out of my hidden posts in progress instead. I don't think anyone's getting stocking stuffers from me at this rate...)


Last year's results are here

( Cut for considerable length )

I stopped linking to my runaway_tales fic when I posted it somewhere back at the beginning of the year, but I've still been writing them (if not as much, thanks to being interrupted by surgery and inconveniently long AUs and things). I thought, that since anyone interested knows where to look by now linking was just being a nuisance, but then I thought maybe I'd link to anything slightly different/more relevant to people's interests, so going back over the last few months, I found:

Two tiny ficlets for Enigma House! (My very first isurrendered show, the one about the haunted hotel with the amnesiac heroine and the possibly dead chap in the bathroom and suspiciously Spooks-heavy casting, if anyone has a memory that long):

Uncomfortable Company (G, 350 words. Mia Robinson, Claud Dickinson.) Another day, another unsatisfied customer…

Seize the Moment (PG, 438 words. Mary, DCI Michael Harrison.) It’s time to get out of here.


In a similar vein, I had a prompt for Edward/Julia – supernatural au & lost weekend and it occurred to me that if my canon is supposed to be like a UK 1970s drama series, then the supernatural AU for it must be the UK 1960s/70s action/adventure/sf land where every single village harbours either dodgy cults, mad scientists, or aliens, or something. (The idea of what it's like to be a member of the government in that set up is v amusing; I shall have to return to this one some time. I mean, it's no wonder all the men from Whitehall are unreasonable: every time someone gets a funding grant for a new project it all turns out to wind up nearly destroying half the country, eating up the budget, and even if you don't get killed, you get shouted at by arrogant eccentric geniuses in silly clothes and placated with tea.*)

Weekend Break (Teen, 8373 words. Edward Iveson/Julia Graves, Diana Foyle.) “The Government isn’t doing enough to counteract the rise of demon worship in more remote areas of the country. It’d be a different story if it were happening in the Home Counties.”


* I don't watch too much old telly, honest. *cough*

So, after I started feeling a little better a couple of weeks ago, I gradually picked up some things I'd already finished/nearly finished and started poking at them & as a result have posted most of them in the appropriate places, but not linked here.

1. A Ruth Evershed Character Manifesto (Spooks) for het_reccers (containing 13 recs, much blathering about the greatness of Ruth and ships and possible ships, plus some pics and gifs). (I've been chipping away at this for at least a year now.)


2. I looked at my dw_guestfest WIP and found it was much more complete and okay than I'd thought and tidied it up. It's here:

Self-Made Man (956 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: The Kandyman & Gilbert M
Characters: Gilbert M (Doctor Who), The Kandyman (Doctor Who)
Additional Tags: Serial: s149 The Happiness Patrol, Backstory, Canonical Character Death, Community: dw_guestfest, Community: trope_bingo
Summary: "Close to the Kandyman, were you?" / "I made him." Gilbert M and the Kandyman.


3. Someone reminded me that I once wrote a crossover fic for intoabar, which at the time I defaulted on due to being too ill to cope with the editing from my beta. I poked around my memory stick full of fic and found it and the beta-notes (which weren't actually difficult; I was just that ill back then) and posted that too:

Bar-Room Brawl (2512 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Downton Abbey, Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Tegan Jovanka, Tom Branson, Fifth Doctor, Vislor Turlough
Additional Tags: Crossover, Community: intoabar, Walk Into A Bar, Aliens, Fights, 1920s
Summary: Tegan Jovanka walks into a bar… and meets Tom Branson!


4. And then I did manage to finish typing up a thing for runaway_tales, which is also filling a square for trope_bingo (au: historical), and I think most things are now at least back to my usual sort of hit and miss abilities. \o/

Midnight Escapade (All ages, 1905 words. Edward Iveson/Julia Graves, Christy Graves, Amyas Harding.) It's a gratuitous Regency AU that I wrote at Christmas when I was reading too many terrible Regency romances.

Before I disappear for Christmas (and, hey, have a nice one everyone if you're celebrating; good luck with the avoidance if you're not ♥), a few last runaway_tales:

Fish Out of Water (PG, 5022 words. Edward Iveson/Julia Graves, Roderick Howe, Margaret Howe, Jane Howe, Sylvia Howe.) This wasn’t what Edward and Julia had in mind for their first wedding anniversary…

Little by Little (PG, 14x 100 words. 1908, 1923, 1937, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1963, 1972, 1980, 1986, 1991, 1992; John Iveson/Elizabeth Long, Edward Iveson/Julia Graves, Hanne Graves, Christy Graves, Ron Whittaker, Charles Terrell/Marian Dalton, Anna Miller/Louise Murray, Elizabeth Miller, Michael Seaton, Liz Cardew.) Tea and conversation, and hope.

In Memoriam (PG, 1326 words. Edward Iveson, John Iveson, Elizabeth Long.) How does someone say goodbye? (Written for Flavour of the Day: valediction.)

Truce (G, 693 words. Edward Iveson, Elizabeth Long.) It’s been much too long since Edward has seen his mother… (Written for Flavour of the Day: irenic.)


I may pop up again in between, but I may not. And when I am back (in a week), I'll inevitably be very unwell/tired as a result, so I'll just see you all at some point on the other side.

1. Yuletide noms closed this morning - next up comes the fun! The full tag set, letters appearing, making requests! \o/

(And guess what? I nommed the 1968 TV Dracula as my third fandom. Just as I was about to repent my folly, some nonnie commented on the fandom promotion thread to say that they liked the look of it and that was all the encouragement I needed. So I will have three impossible fandoms on my request list. /sheepish)

But here we go again, folks! *bounces*


2. het_reccers is having an anniversary Trope Bingo, so I requested a card, because that should make me, you know, actually rec something during the month. ( Cut for image & mildly NSFW trope names )


3. I made a post to one of my comms - dw_allsorts (the Doctor Who mini-table prompt comm*) asking for suggestions for prompt tables. I wondered if anyone here would have any suggestions. There's more details over at the post, and there isn't a desperate need - it's just that I know everyone is so different and I'm very aware that all of these tables were made by me, so I thought it might be quite nice to have some by other people? If anyone has any ideas, or would have joined in if there was a table like x, now's your chance! (Also, if anyone would like to suggest a theme for a table/tables, that would also be cool. I didn't think of that when making the post).


4. I wrote a thing for runaway_tales the other day! And so what, you cry? Well, it was not for Heroes of the Revolution, it was for The Pirate Queen (another of the three fake shows I did at the time, only one that had current actors and was In Space! With Pirates! (Well, Pirates-ish.) I had some thoughts about it, so I might occasionally write some bits for it? I don't know, but there's this, which I did hastily for the Flavour of the Day:

Beneath My Dignity (All ages, 444 words. Lio Hadwin, Arkryte II.) Lio gets lumbered with his nemesis on an away trip.


* It is an awesome comm! You should join! I'm not biased; I didn't make it... Oh, wait, I am, and I did. ;-D

First, an absolutely lovely multi-era DW vid, following companions after they've left the Doctor. It brightened my day yesterday, so here's passing it on to you all if you haven't already caught it:

( Cut for Embed )

The vid post for it is here. It's a joyous thing, but the best bit is the Brigadier, obviously.


***

And two more runaway_tales:

The Past Is Neither Dead Nor Distant (PG, 5182 words. Edward Iveson/Julia Graves.) Julia doesn’t like strangers in the house (or mushroom soup), and Edward doesn’t want to talk about his mother. It all comes down to much the same thing, in the end.

And this, which I had far too much fun making (it's technically an art piece, but actually fic in the shape of letters):

Wolves at the Door (and Other Unlikely Tales) (All ages, art. Edward Iveson.) That time the summer term was one unlikely calamity after another (at least, according to Edward).


***

If I'm a little erratic about commenting for a while, bear with me. At this point in August I seem to suffer from stress (summer is a month too long, apparently, and the strain turns into stress just about... now; so it's been for the past three years & at least this year I went "aha!" and stopped before things got worse), so until I feel a little better (which will be very soon! maybe even today!), I shall focus on the creative things.

Take care. ♥

Found in various places:

Ask me a question about one of my fics. It can be absolutely anything in any project and I will answer it the best I can -- even on current progress/plans.

If you'd prefer, you can also ask about my writing for a particular fandom, my writing as a whole, etc.


(I can't imagine what anybody would want to ask me, but I suppose if I post it, I might find out? Or not, understandably.)

***


And also, two more runaway_tales fics (which is where all my writing energies have been going lately, sorry):

Nothing Is Secret These Days (PG, 2467 words. 1959, Thomas Hallam, Edward Iveson, Amyas Harding, Julia Iveson.) “What sort of skeleton do you have in your closet, Edward, that you’d do this?”

Locked Down (PG, 1755 words. 1985, Michael Seaton, Louise Seaton.) Arran and Liesa, hiding out together.

1. I decided to do naarmamo again this year. We'll see how it goes, but it's very laid back (indeed, it's practically horizontal in the nicest possible way) and I can always stop, or go down to every other day if I find it a bit much still. Naarmamo, is National Art Making Month, but it's just fun - you make and share one thing that counts as art each day and you can join in whenever. (It started yesterday, but I know people wouldn't mind if someone turned up on the last day if that was when they found it, or all they can manage.) At the moment, I'm planning to do icons each day. (I will share them here, too, at some point.)


2. I finally posted my Eighth Doctor Recs List to who_at_50, just in case there is anyone who would be interested but doesn't follow the comm. It was meant to be part of last year's big fanworkathon, but, er, it was delayed. I was at the time thinking of doing posts for the other two generally under-represented Doctors (along with Two and One), those being Six and Seven, but it's way past the deadline now and maybe it seems a little big-headed, I don't know. I probably will. I like recs lists and masterlists and things. I can't help it.


3. I've been starting to do some odd little bits of Heroes of the Revolution (my gloomy 1970s fake TV show) for runaway_tales, though I don't know if I'll eventually pluck up courage to do any posting. (Hopefully!) Anyway, I was trying to write a timeline for my alternate post-war history. (It's mostly vague). But it was interesting. I had previously settled on 1991 as the date of the series, but I think I should probably pull it back a bit to the mid 1980s. But I was thinking about various things off the back of this, and also the fact that the moment I start speculating about what happened to rl important people, it doesn't work, even though it's a perfectly sensible question. (If there's anyone you'd like me to kill off in this alternate reality, I could do it quite easily, though... ;-p In the meantime, I shall be contemplating foreign agents in Britain and what they might be up to.)