Nico's Journal

These are treats written for Yuletide madness, all being fics of less than 1000 words.

Babylon 5
In the Midnight Dreams of the Emperor - Vir walking the palace at night
Gloves Come Off - Bester before his first visit to Babylon 5

Burn Notice
In Sight - Fiona keeps an eye on Michael; excellent Fiona voice

Cambridge Latin Course / Doctor Who
In Pompeium - in Latin! If you've ever learned it, this is very easy to understand, and they provide a vocabulary table. So cute!

Discworld
Observer Effect - Vetinari watches Drumknott

Discworld / Thursday Next
"Ook," said the Librarian - Fun with footnotes, and footnotes within footnotes, and very meta

Strangely, these all turned out to be at the beginning of the alphabet; coincidence only.

The site is working well for me now, so here are some Yuletide recs in some favourite fandoms. I avoided others, which I love but have not yet seen all of, for fear of spoilers. In alphabetical sequence with more to follow.

Blackadder
Darling's Army - a little cross-dressing at the front
Somewhat Akin to a Limpet - Blackadder at university, trying to detach his unwanted new friend Percy

Discworld
A Day In The... Death! And excellent Death it is
Like Clockwork - a day in the life of Vetinari
A Place Called Home - Drumknott on his day off, with a filing problem
The Whole Damn Rigmarole - Vimes' Hogwatch

Lord Peter Wimsey
All Our Scattered Leaves - extract from letters and diaries around the time of the Armistice; wonderful Honoria voice
Preludes to a Symphony - Harriet and Peter during Gaudy Night
Sceptre at the Feast - scenes with Peter and Saint-George throughout Saint-George's life

Red Dwarf
Upgrade - Rimmer gets an upgrade

The Marlows book series
End of Summer - Nicola and Patrick; so perfectly and beautifully done, it could be canon
Five things that never happened to Ann Marlow - virtue is sometimes rewarded!
...Or What You Will - Ginty at the Merrick's twelfth night party, being Ginty

I've been out all weekend so I haven't had much time to read the finish-a-thon stories until now.

Many of you will have already read astrogirl2's Scenes from a Blending (a lovely set of pieces on how Jacob and Selmak accommodate to each other) and kerravonsen's By Any Other Name (a "Parting of the Ways" AU, involving Rose, a pocket watch, and Romana, plus some excellent Jackie and Mickey), but I must also rec this SG1 story by an author most of you won't know; I didn't.

The Gray by kalquessa

She has the team's voices spot-on, and has written a fascinating story that feels like a real SG1 episode complete with an intriguing mystery and some lovely character touches, and is very moving. If you enjoy SG1, do read it. It's set in season 1 and has no spoilers.

Whether you liked the Doctor Who season finale or not, this alternate ep 3.13 written last week by lizbee rocks. Here is her synopsis and links to all five parts.

Title: How Martha Jones Saved the World and Lucy Saxon Initiated Divorce Proceedings With Extreme Prejudice
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Martha, various and assorted ex-companions, UNIT, a couple of originals, the Master, the kitchen sink... Look, the alternative title was, "Fanwank: The musical!"
Spoilers: "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood", "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", spec for "Last of the Time Lords", although if you believe me on this one ... you can't have my tin hat, that's all I'm saying. Oh, and tech swiped from "The Invasion".
Notes: I R SRS FAN. THIS R SRS FIC.

Two fic recs:

First up, an excellent prequel to the latest Doctor Who ep, The Sound of Drums: But he was so good to my father....

And now for a beautiful portrait of two men, Lord Peter Wimsey's Bunter, and a young Soviet student called Illya Kuryakin: Camera obscura.

Those Heroes fans who haven't already read this very funny story by selenak, go and do so now!

Campaign Secrets

I've seen two season finales this week, and am still thinking about them. First, Heroes

( Spoilery comments and a fiction rec )

We haven't got either Harry Potter (oops, typed Pooter--now there's a crossover idea!) 3 or Shrek 2 here yet; they always wait for the school holidays to release what they consider children's films. But I went and did a How well do you know Harry Potter? quiz gacked from astrogirl2's blog. I got 100%, despite guessing at one question. I'm not sure whether to be proud or worried. Check it out. I loved the alternative answers, in particular Klaatu Borada Nikto.

And while you're at it, if you're a fan of both, do read executrix's very funny (as always) Blake's 7 / Harry Potter crossover:

There Won't be Trumpets (part 1 of 2)
There Won't be Trumpets (part 2 of 2)

One of the B7 fans and writers I met at Star One was Gillian Taylor. She's a professional writer of Westerns, not a genre I like though I did read one of hers, Darrow's Law, a couple of years ago because of its Avon and Vila avatars (Sheriff Darrow and his deputy Keating). Perhaps she has to pull her punches for those books; it didn't engage me or my emotions but her two stories in the B7 zine Star Four did. Her Rehabilitation is a moving account of just how damaged Vila was by the 'readjustments' he went through as a child, and Four Little Words was a blackly funny Orbit AU.

( Reviews )