The Masterlist was very out of date, so it's easier to find my fic at shade_scribbles. (The tags are all neat and accessible & it's much better than the Masterlist was for finding things.)

Links to my accounts at other sites are as follows:

vvj5 at A Teaspoon & an Open Mind (DW only)
lost_spook at AO3

Most of my fiction is for Doctor Who, but with some Blake's 7, Press Gang, Spooks, British Comedy, Sapphire & Steel, and various crossovers and one-off stories for other fandoms.

I've also recently started making fanvids:
Lostspook1 @ YouTube

( Full list of Fanvids )

Sticky for the 'proper' recs posts of fanfiction and fanvids I keep making (because my journal tags are so hopelessly disorganised):

( List of shows etc under cut )

I also have two sites of (mostly gen-rated) DW fanfic recs:

StarCrossed for DW crossovers

They Do Things Differently There for DW historicals.

Because I decided in 2011 that I was going to try and acquaint myself with as much Shakespeare as possible (using the BBC Shakespeare, generally). I'm putting this here as I don't expect to post about them individually, but if anyone is interested you can comment here if - and I did make a pact with lizzie_marie_23, so this will be proof of progress!

( Plays with which I was already acquainted )

( Plays added as watched )

... to sallymn!!

I hope you have a lovely day, whatever you're up to!

Also, there's this, because even though it isn't birthday fic (really, I wrote it for me), it is quite a bit your fault. Because, once the chance to watch Primeval came up, my reaction to something in 1.3 was instantly that Harry Pearce would Not Approve. And since Spooks & Primeval take place in the same time and location... (I don't think it requires knowledge of more than one of either show.) But birthday fic is not meant to be, hai, watch a character from my show pwn someone from yours! (Well, ish, I'm rarely cruel.)

Modus Operandi
Harry Pearce likes the niceties. James Lester really doesn’t care. (Spooks/Primeval)
(All ages, 653 words, Primeval 1.3 episode tag. No spoilers. I literally wrote this after only 3 eps, so I hope characterisation etc. is okay. And, you know, at least I didn't send Ros Myers instead...)

( Spooks/Primeval ficlet )

So, birthday-ish things:

Here are some z-words from my Dictionary of Historical Slang. You probably know them already, but anyway. It also turned out that z related to my home county, too:
Zedland - nickname for the SW of England, dating from the 1780s. (Because we West Country folk often pronounce s as z).
zneesy: frosty, or frozen (c.1780-1840), possibly from 'sneeze', possibly SW colloquialism.
zooks: children's sweets; SW dialect (from sucks), late 19th C - 20th C.

Also, I found Zukalis had uploaded a v amusing new B7 vid, in case you haven't already seen it.

From jjpor: Silver participating in turn-of-the-century Russian politics. Turns out he looks just like that chap Pavel Milyukov. If he gets to have some dealings with Patrick Stewart!Lenin (although that could be hard considering how the latter was in exile in various places for much of the time), so much the better.

I wasn’t sure what to do that would be short and not epic, but once I saw Michael Bryant’s Ratchkovsky, I came up with this. It just, er, doesn’t have Lenin in. Or Milyukov. (It's still the prompt, right? If I read it as 'do something with Silver using Fall of Eagles as inspiration...' *cough*) And still I fail at simple and short. *head!desk* (But, anyway, many thanks for the prompt. I quite like how it ended up.)

Title: Turn of the Century
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages/PG
Word Count: 1247
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Sapphire, Steel, Pyotr Ivanovich Ratchkovsky
Notes/Warnings: Pre-series. No spoilers. Mentions of historical events in 20th C Russia. I did no research, but not just from laziness & the state of my brain – I wanted to use Fall of Eagles (esp. ‘The Appointment’) and Michael Bryant’s Ratchkovsky (it’s spelled that way in the serial) & it's S&S, so it's all a bit vague, anyway. Forgive me for possibly making light of a not very pleasant period of history by using it for the purposes of fic (although hopefully not). Nobody needs to have seen Fall of Eagles to read this, though. That would be unreasonable.

Summary: Russia 1905: Things must remain as they are.

( Turn of the Century )

From persiflage_1: Sarah Jane and Harry discussing Four's scarf.

Title: Passing the Time
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 587
Characters/Pairings: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Notes/Warnings: Casual mention of giraffes. No spoilers. (All fluff, and no substance, really.)

Summary: Sarah and Harry discuss cells, escape plans – and the Doctor’s scarf.

( Passing the Time )

6. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke



Books were her home when she was somewhere strange - familiar voices, friends that never quarrelled with her, clever, powerful friends, daring and knowledgeable, tried and tested adventurers who had travelled far and wide.

Of all the books I probably wouldn't have read if I hadn't been a children's librarian, Inkheart has to be pretty high up on the list of my favourites. It's not only a gloriously old-fashioned, complex and engaging children's fantasy (in the best possible way, and beautifully written - or, very well translated, since I'm unable to read German), it's an exercise in pure bibliophilia. Inkheart is about book-loving Meggie, her book-binder (or book doctor) father, Mo, her great Aunt Elinor (a book collector who verges on bibliomania), an author and a number of escaped book characters. It's a genuine fantasy novel, but the only magic in it is the power of books and words, of printed paper pages, and reading, and writing - and reading aloud. And about the power, danger and addictiveness of stories and the imagination, of the contrast between fantasy and reality. It's also about the way that stories and characters have a life of their own that can't truly be owned by anybody, even their creators.

The hardback copy I first read (published by Chicken House) was lovely - covers, paper quality, typesetting, everything. A lot of thought went into having not just the cover art (which is nice, but not the thing here) but the whole feel of the book match the theme of it, of getting completely lost in a story. (Actually, I'm thinking now, given how much of it is also about loving the sheer physicality of books - the covers, the paper, their presence in the house, under the pillow, everywhere - it's a little ironic to think how many people are going to read an e-book version of this. That's not a criticism... just a passing thought.)

My only regret is that I couldn't have read it when I was 10 or 12 or so. On the other hand, whether I'd have ever been able to emerge again is a good question, so perhaps it's as well. It is, however, very much one of those books that is a worthwhile read at any age. (Stories have their own shape, and sometimes that shape is a children's novel. That doesn't automatically make it not worth reading by adults.)

( Books are like flypapers )

Credits: textures by tiger_tyger

I'm tired, a little too much so catch up on some of my replies to comments just now, but I had this fic ready, and I did promise I would post it this weekend!

From justice_turtle: Q and Silver having a chat / annoying each other / causing mischief / doing anything.

Title: Mousetrap (S&S/Star Trek)
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1040
Characters/Pairings: Silver, Q
Notes/Warnings: No spoilers. I should note that I’ve only really seen Q in Voyager, and never tried to write him before. (So, you know, be grateful that this isn’t the fic where Q keeps appearing at inopportune times during assignments to propose to Silver.) Apologies if I’ve therefore got anything wrong – I have at least vague intentions to watch the rest of Star Trek someday, somehow, and don’t wish to spoiler myself. Basically, the Q and Elements are both mysterious in their own ways.

Summary: A curious Q sets a trap for an Element.

( Mousetrap )

5. The Master / Roger Delgado (Doctor Who)



"In reminiscent mood, are you, Doctor? Poor Miss Grant, you have my deepest sympathies."

This is a very simple one. I love Roger Delgado as the Master. I have no rhyme or reason for it (although I know I'm far from alone!*) other than that he is quite, quite beautiful in his own way and the first Three-era story I saw was The Sea Devils, which sees him dressing in white, and claiming to be reformed, and watching The Clangers.** ("It seems to be a rather interesting extraterrestrial life-form.") Three himself never had a chance, no matter how many sandwiches he pilfered later on. My heart was irrevocably given to the villain (with a little room left over for the Brigadier). In fact, that bit in The Claws of Axos where the Brigadier and the Master wind up working together? If the Doctor had run away at that point and never come back, I wouldn't have minded. Well, not much. (And, his genuine dismay at what the Doctor has been doing to his TARDIS and the state it's in: "Overweight, underpowered museum-piece... might as well try to fly a second-hand gas stove." And on what the Brigadier might do if there's a nuclear explosion: "You could try the usual precautions... sticky tape on the windows, that sort of thing." ♥)

( Some more, and a pretty picture )

From belantana, via some discussion: what sort of Element would be played by Nicola Walker (Ruth from Spooks)? With the rider that it had to be an actual element, and none of these silly metal alloys or gemstones. (Also, apparently, I fail at keeping belantana’s prompts to the length these things were supposed to be. I blame Nicola Walker - she'd make a lovely Element, and I'd like to try Antimony in a proper story. Which this isn't, not really...)

Title: Antimony
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2121
Characters/Pairings: Antimony (OC), Steel, Sapphire, Silver.
Notes/Warnings: No spoilers. Mid/late 1980s, so post-series. (I did think about checking more than my memories of using a ZX Spectrum… but then realised that once you factor the way the games used to differ anyway, plus a sinister time thingy and four Elements, that would be silly. Any errors are due to the evil work of Time. Or Silver. Or Antimony.)

Summary: Sapphire and Steel need help from a different specialist after accidentally losing Silver inside a computer game.

( Antimony )

Time for a confession:

1. I actually did write a fic for Remix Madness.
2. I wrote what was, technically speaking, death!fic. (I don't write death!fic.)
3. I remixed a S&S story that was pretty darn perfect in the first place.
4. By an author who's v v good, anyway.

It was just one of those moments (in the middle of the night, ack) when a story seizes you. There wasn't much time, and I was tired, and anyway. But enough of why I posted in haste and repented at leisure (although, thankfully, the remixee left a lovely comment and seemed to like it \o/. And if remixer and remixee are both reasonably happy, what else matters?) here it is:

It's a remix of astrogirl2's story Time in a Bottle (written for this year's Yuletide) and, if you haven't already, I recommend you read that first (for one thing, it's excellent, as I said). Both, please note, contain spoilers for the ending of Sapphire & Steel.

Trick of the Light (The Lining Is Silver Remix) (1004 words) by lost_spook
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary: Sapphire and Steel can sit out eternity; but one thing Silver cannot do is wait forever.

Since I've never done a remix before, here are a few thoughts (such as they were) on what I tried to do, but this will also be spoilery for the ending, so... you have been warned.

( The lining is Silver )

And of course, very importantly, I now know that the lovely Sapphire & Steel remix ficlet I got was by estirose... who wrote my yuletide fic, so someone who is evidently intent on kindly playing good fairy to me in these things. (Ha. I was wrong about who I thought it was, but I was right about it being one of my Yuletide writers.)

ETA: I'm tired again, my sentence structure is all over the place in this post. Sorry.

Onwards, and an obvious one, but it was on the list of topics that persiflage_1 gave me (and I promised I'd include all those. Except maybe the lemons):

4.Sapphire and Steel



Sapphire: (to Silver, playing with a fruit machine): Sometimes you're supposed to lose. Well, most times you're supposed to lose.
Silver (stops): Oh! I wondered why I wasn't enjoying it.

***
I know I've said far too much about this show since I watched it (obsession is terrible when you've not even got a proper rl to balance it out with) but maybe I can find something new?

One of the things that caused me to watch it, and appealed to me about it once I had, was the fanfic. I'd always vaguely lumped the show in with The Avengers, and assumed Sapphire and Steel were code names. A DWM interview with David Collings ages ago made me wonder if it might be something else, but I didn't have a chance to find out.

And then there was the fanfic. Looking for good Doctor Who crossovers, I came across first Blue and then The Glade. They weren't just good fics, they were both perfectly accessible to a newbie, and mysterious and beautiful. And justice_turtle told me that, yes, pretty much all the S&S fanfic was that great.

And it was, and I love the potential for writing in this fandom. The possibility for weird time-related genfics, the sheer otherness and mystery surrounding the central characters, and (for someone who has an inability to write much in the way of ships or anything approaching pr0n), the strange freedom that the idea of telepathic shippage brings is fascinating. And it allows you to look at the world from a very different point of view, and I love that. The whole concept is beautiful, and there's hardly any canon to bother over. It's also the only fandom I know of where you have to worry during a fic in case you explain too much, or make the plot overly logical.

Since I'm waxing lyrical about both the fic that exists, and the potential for what a person could write, this post was immediately preceded by the epic S&S recs post I've built up since last summer - I finished it a few weeks ago, so it's one I made earlier. Please forgive the morning's spammage.

***

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is Life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver, and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

NB. I got the quote wrong in the icon, but I decided I liked it anyway. At least, the meaning is still the same.

I finished this weeks ago, but I'm continuing to try and post and not hide things, so, again, finally...

Check out sapphirensteel, AO3, ff.net and element_flash for more. sapphirensteel is the central place - most things are linked there, even if posted elsewhere (although you will find one or two only linked via element_flash instead).

By and large, spoilers are few, save for post-Assignment 6 fics. Also: this post became epic, so apologises for any (rather appropriate) time-stealing. (I left out my Yuletide gift-fics, as I'd recced them before.) It's also worth noting that most S&S fic tends to be good, anyway.

( Sapphire & Steel fanfic & vid recs )

Icons I've made but somehow never posted over this past year. Maybe some were even longer ago? Anyway, FINALLY...

Teaser:



( Jago & Litefoot )

( Classic Who )

( Life text icons )

( Misc )

Credsit: Textures by tiger_tyger and twinstrikeish & probably some others. The usual rules apply: want, take, have, credit. No hotlinking, comments are ♥

So, as I mentioned in my last 100 Things post, giraffes is a really good word to stick in the Shakespeare Quote Generator.

This post is probably mainly for my own amusement, really:



( More evil Shakespeare giraffes under the cut )

And now I need to go away for a bit, but that was your Thursday am wake-up Nonsense Post with giraffes. Thank you.

Firstly, (and entirely unrelated) HAPPY BIRTHDAY to shinyjenni! I hope you have a lovely day!

***

I promised I'd also bring pics from Michael Keating's episode of Special Branch (1969). It was a relatively small role, in episode 4 "A Date With Leonidas" (in which the operation was mostly unsuccessful, but they did at least catch the culprit thanks to the unusual efficiency of the Royal Mail) but he was in it throughout the episode as Det. Constable Pearce.

( Picspam under cut )

Also, completely unrelated again, I had this idea for a fanvid, and it's probably because my brain is tired, but I keep thinking instead that I can go and find it on YouTube. But, no, lost_spook, it only exists in your head. *brain!tired* (ETA: went to check. Yep, no one else made it first. Heh.)

Yesterday was an odd day, for a reason that I will explain later (like the Doctor) but also because of a pretty awful one that I can't (nobody's ill or died, but something really crazy and awful has happened to someone in my family - they wouldn't appreciate me explaining online, so I won't). Anyway, it was an odd day & I'm still a little tired, but I'll try & catch up with you all presently.

However, this morning (as well as having to go see the doctor; not The Doctor, sadly, although I wouldn't trust a sick note from him) I woke up to find the Remix Madness collection has opened, and that someone had actually remixed one of my ficlets:

The People On The Balcony (The Lone Girl Remix) (341 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Sapphire/Silver/Steel
Summary: She doesn't know who they are, she doesn't care, but she knows that they belong together.

It's a remix of Stealing A Moment, an OT3ish Sapphire & Steel ficlet I wrote the other week, and it's really lovely, using an outsider POV to look at the three. *pets shiny remix ficlet*

The main collection is here. I haven't really looked properly, but did stop the other day to read a couple brilliant West Wing fics:

( Links under here )

Also, while I am on the subject of ficathons and exchanges and so on, not_primetime is gearing up for its exchange, and I can't sign up, really, but it's sort of Yuletide for medium-sized fandoms that are ineligible for Yuletide but are not those big fandoms with their own exchanges... which includes Classic Doctor Who and the main Big Finish ranges (and, other things, but what else matters?). So I thought I should mention it as relevant to your interests, dear flist. (You should go nominate so ALL THE CHARACTERS are available.)

The 100 Things Challenge continues!

3. Random Generators
The below icons are from the Random Icon Pairing Meme the other week - apparently I lied about the 100 Icons part of this challenge. There will be more than 1 per post sometimes, if it seems appropriate. Yes, look, I made Random Pairing Icons!!




( More icons )
I love random generators. I love them for two main reasons, and the first is that I just do and they amuse me. Simple things please simple minds, perhaps? The second is that, for whatever reason, as a writer, and especially a fanfic writer, I respond well to prompts and games and other stimuli. It's fun, it leads me to unexpected places, gives me challenges (because it's all got to be in character and in keeping with the fictional universe in question). Whether it's the randomness of certain memes (like the 15 characters meme, I Surrendered, or the icon pairing meme) or actual online generators, it works for me. ( More plus links! )

I signed up for Remix Madness again. It occurred to me I should say here, in case, unlikely as it seems, that any of you were wishing you could remix one of my fics one day. (Or, you know, write it properly, lost_spook.)

(You have to offer up your fic in the thread to be able to write, but you can just offer without writing, which is what I am doing, given that my brain is not at a place where it could remix. Oh, and you'd have to have an AO3 account as well if you want to do actual writing. The instructions are all at the link above.)

(I just offered up everything on my AO3 account, which has most things. I don't have a safe story, & I've never done any remixes.)

Something you can sign up for and then do nothing is quite random and pleasing, though. Hopefully some people are actually writing, of course...

Another prompt ficlet (or actual fic, I suppose, flimsy as it is).

From belantana: Nat and Tilly are stuck in a closet (up to you whether this is before or after they're married!) I assumed from this that at least some mild Nat/Tillyness was required… (Nat and Tilly being my 1980s UNIT OCs from a scarily epic series of Doctor Who fanfics I did a while back. There aren't any particular spoilers here, but I'm not sure it would make sense to anyone who hasn't read at least one of those. Sorry.)

Title: Circles
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1261
Characters/Pairings: Nat Webber, Tilly Holmes, Sergeant Kennedy (1980s UNIT Ocs).
Notes/Warnings: None.

Summary: It’s just another day at UNIT HQ. There’s an alien visitor and Nat and Tilly find themselves locked in the cupboard – over and over again.

( UNIT: Circles )