Aww. Edward Woodward has died - now there's a loss. He was a fine actor, I will always remember him particuarly for his role as Nev in Common as Muck, which might not be his most famous part, but it was a lovely little series.

OMG my flist is entirely covered in Doctor Who and Yuletide! :) For the record my Yuletide assignment is very exciting. Yay! I think it would be impossible to write the actual request I was matched with, which involves characters that I find dull, and I'm specifically forbidden to write the slash pairing I would want to write. But it doesn't matter! Because one of the other requests was a pairing that I should have thought about before - they're such a perfectly obvious, perfectly suited couple! So, apparently I'm writing historical RPS again this year... :)

( And Doctor Who? Wow. So very good. Roll on Christmas... )

Title: Perfect Day
Author: valderys
Pairing: Colin/Bradley
Rating: PG
Word Count: 7,614
Warning: Some small depiction of religious guilt, but not intended to offend (in fact, this is loosely based on a real incident with a friend of mine). Rather a lot of overly analysed emotion, and possibly even angsty schmoop (the horror! :) A first time fic.
Summary: Life is not always a Lou Reed song.

( And Bradley huffed and swallowed, and his brain was slow and stuffed with stupid, or something, because what he came out with was, “I'll show you some fun. You just come with me.” )

It's sign-up time, and my requests are in - which means it's also time for...

*excited*

( Dear Yuletide Writer )


Now with extra Picowrimo update:

Ok, I'm not doing NaNo, and I'm not sure I quite fit with PicoWriMo, but it's closer to what I want to do. So... I've signed up to my third big bang this year (yes, I know :) So for November, I want to try and get as much of my apocabigbang written as I can - it's only 10,000 words. That should be a cinch, right? :)

Being Human, George/Mitchell, and today I have written:

A massive stand-up fight this morning, at top volume, between students at my Academic Institution (I thought). Turned out they were girls from the local (bad rep) comprehensive next door - I wish people wouldn't live up to stereotypes... *sigh*

And on a slightly different note, walking home last night down a reasonably dark and empty street, I heard the distinct heavy breathing of a chap jogging. So stood to one side, partly to allow him to jog past easily, and partly so I could see him clearly in case of any potential funny business. Perfectly normal for a lone female, yes? I'm not sure I appreciate a (large) chap shouting 'BOO!' at me on the the way past...

Ok, here's the update for the last two weekends. Two weeks ago I had my theatre weekend. There was John Simm's play Speaking in Tongues on the Friday and John Barrowman in La Cage au Folles on the Saturday. It was brilliant! My first love when I was a teenager was theatre, I had a Saturday job while doing my A-levels, that I shared with another lad, so I earned my money one Saturday and then went and spent it the following Saturday going up to the West End and going to the theatre. Ooh, I really knew how to party in those days :)

( Play stuff )

( Barrowman stuff )

( Hub 3 stuff )

Oh god, I should be saying what a fantastic weekend I had at glittertigger's hen night, or how my little heart beat faster when I asked David Mitchell a question at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on Sunday, but really, it's all about Yuletide!!

Nominations for fandoms are now open!!

Anyone else already have their six? I know I want Being Human, Desperate Romantics, Peep Show and the Philadelphia Story, but I'm really not sure for my other two...

Title: The Dread and Fear of Kings
Author: valderys
Team: War
Prompt: Coup de Grâce
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: PG
Warnings: Angsty, some violence.
Notes: Written for mcshep_match.
Summary: They were used to odd happenings and sudden danger, even on Atlantis itself. A woman's voice calling John to come away? That wasn't even a blip on the scanner - until John began to listen to it.

The Dread and Fear of Kings

Just seen the first episode of this and generally, I liked it. The funniest thing about it, I think, was given they keep throwing Lost in as a comparison at every opportunity, spotting the Oceanic Airlines billboard :) It made me snigger anyway!

( Minor spoilers for 1x01 )

So Merlin has started and it makes me happy!

( Spoilers ahead )

Also, I can now say the big scene at the end when Merlin confronts ( name spoiler )? That was the scene that I watched being filmed! I will have to do another picspam soon.

And just as the squeeing couldn't increase, in the Secrets and Magic extra, there I was along with lots of us, in the front row at the Expo! It's sort of cool and embarrassing at the same time... :)

Title: It's like a tepid marriage
Author: valderys
Pairing: David Mitchell/Jack Whitehall, David Mitchell/Robert Webb (implied)
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,383
Notes and Disclaimer: Just a thought that occurred after watching last week's Would I Lie To You, and obviously fictional :)
Summary: David could be accused of nostalgia, it was true, but it was just a little dalliance. No harm done.

( He was funny, that was the most important thing. )

I have ten minutes before I start my journey back to the UK. My holiday is nearly over *sob* I'm quite knackered - can I have a holiday please?

I don't know where to start, really. Sunday before last was Sex, Wales and Anarchy, which was a little one day festival that Gareth David Lloyd organised. I went to the one last year too, and this year it was so much better! It was really well organised, I may not have liked every act but I loved enough of them that it was a really great day. Gareth's short film 'A Very British Cover-up' was hilarious.

Then I went on a set visit to Pierrefonds and stared at Colin and Bradley (and a horse and cart) for six hours - that deserves its own post. Soon, I promise.

Then I went to Dragon*con, and I can't describe it all. So many panels, so much fun! So many cool fangirls! See you all again soon, I hope! I met the Shat, although there wasn't any actual physical contact allowed :) Gareth was very sweet and gave me a shout out to the whole room at his panel, saying I went to all his appearances and gigs (not quite true) and then gave me a spontaneous hug when I went to his table the next day! This is a complete first!

Tom Felton is the sweetest lad you could ever meet - I must check his music out on YouTube.

I've run out of time - more later, on the other side of the pond...

Lovely BBQ, plus much lazing around in the hot tub last night, followed by raucous singing (I was a bit croaky) to various Singstar classics. Great party, gaspode and gaspodia!

Of course, my new washing machine got delivered at 8.00am this morning, which is typical, I feel :) If I'd gone to bed at a sensible hour it would have been the afternoon...

Bugger. I hadn't realised that you can't post on Dreamwidth using OpenID, and I want to put my completed Bingo line up on the kink_bingo site, and of course, I can't!

Not a problem, I thought, trixieleitz was kind enough to let me have an invite months ago - I'll go and use that. But there must be a time limit on them, because it's not working - which actually is fair enough, even if it is a bit annoying :)

Anyway. The upshot of this is - does anyone have a Dreamwidth invite code you could let me have? I'd really appreciate it. *sigh* Sorry about this, guys!

EDIT: Got one! OMG - the brilliance of my flist!

Title: Last Dance with Mary Jane
Author valderys
Pairing: George/Mitchell
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,011
Warnings: Implied dub-con
Notes: Written for my kink_bingo prompt ‘aphrodisiac’ – this completes my line – yay! This idea came from my wondering why Herrick doesn't fight George more, at the end, in the basement.
Summary: Mitchell loves George, looks out for him, rescues him – but it may not be entirely for altruistic reasons…

( “Lycanthropy is a disease,” George announces one day. )

Cor. I should have posted through the week but somehow I never got round to it. Anyway, back from one half of my hols in Dorset, and I'm quite tired now. There were trips to a fashion museum (a bit too small), Lyme Regis (walking along the Cobb dreaming of Jane Austen) and fossil hunting along Charmouth beach. I came to the conclusion I am a rubbish fossil hunter. I didn't find one - the Fossil Man felt sorry for me in the end and gave me of his! Oh dear.

There was also enormous amounts of board-gaming, playing pool and eating fine food, including specialities like Dorest apple cake and a Thai-Italian fusion restaurant (although I can't recommend that, actually, thinking about it :)

And, of course, fine company! There were 20 adults and 10 children, it made for a raucous but never dull time!

Tomorrow there is BBQ, and on Sunday, Sex Wales & Anarchy in Cardiff.

Title: Companion
Author: valderys
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,574
Notes: Written for my ‘roleplay/au (prostitution)’ prompt for kinkbingo. This was inspired by Firefly, btw, rather than being a direct crossover!
Art: Now with fantastic art by slanted_edges, OMG! Look here!
Summary: Camelot is a small colony out on the Rim, and they don’t get many luxuries, so when a Guild-trained Companion visits and Governor Pendragon buys their services for his son – well, Arthur is no position to refuse.

( Companion )

Title: Long Shadow
Author: valderys
Beta: madtheo
Rating: R
Pairing: Merlin/Arthur
Warning: temporary character death, dark themes
Word Count: 17,455
Notes: Written for the Merlin Big Bang, boxofmagic. And do go look, I got a lovely book cover from thisissirius, go admire!
Summary: Merlin thought he had problems when he was only Arthur's manservant, and trying to hide his magic. Now he doesn't have to hide any more, but as King by right of conquest he wishes things were that easy. Rulership is a lonely business, and it actually hurts more to imagine what Arthur might have done in his place - but Merlin does it anyway. They had a destiny. Merlin refuses to let it go.

Long Shadow