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Further to the previous: on Tumblr, philomytha and soupytwist were talking about Rivers of London crossovers, and how the timing works, at least, for Nightingale to have made a sea voyage to Australia - and I wrote a story:

that shall be bright (1108 words) by Raven
"...and then Phryne Fisher steps into the room with the full radiance of the southern sun lighting up her hair, and he feels a long, long way from home."

Nightingale, aged twenty-eight and a diplomat par excellence, makes a visit.

I've cleaned it up a bit, and no content notes apply.

I had a terrible couple of weeks there - migraines are terrible; pain is terrible; February lasting into March is terrible - so Galentine's Day got away from me a little, but here we are and I have finally the whole crop of stories. Here's what y'all asked for:

-For littlered2, who wanted something about Buffy and Faith, Faith;

-For radialarch, who wanted something about Dana from Welcome To Night Vale or the faceless old woman who lives in your home, almost there;

-For lamentables, musesfool and leiascully, who all wanted something Brooklyn Nine-Nine in general or Diaz/Santiago in particular, Sovereign District;

-For such_heights, who wanted maybe Senator Knope instituting Galentine's Day as a state holiday, where February is thirteen months long (note: this one is sad! I mean, way sadder than I expected it was going to be!);

-For hedda62, who wanted something about Anna and Ellen from Slings & Arrows, collateral damage;

-For philomytha, who wanted something about the other Lesley, Lesley May from Rivers of London, soft-serve;

-For soupytwist, who wanted something about BREAKFAST FOOD and naturally got something about Leslie Knope, a triptych on breakfast food; (I have decided this one is in the same universe as such_heights' story above, but happier!).

And that's a wrap. I am so pleased to have so many beautiful and talented women in my life; thank you all.

I have precisely three things on my mind at the moment: wedding planning (wedding panic, no, I am calm I am so calm, three weeks to go calm); imminent unemployment (so, so, extremely fucking imminent – Thursday, which means I am spending all my time right now preparing for an arbitration hearing I don’t get to go to); and Welcome To Night Vale. Those unfortunate enough to follow me on other platforms are aware which one of these three I’m actually talking about incessantly. (Sorry I’m not sorry.)

But here’s a fourth thing. The latest in the Rivers of London series has come out, Broken Homes, and after reading it basically for three weeks – Nine Worlds, Night Vale and aforementioned wedding planning and agh imminent unemployment have got in the way – I finally finished it last night. ( spoilers, seriously, spoilers, you do not want to be spoiled for this one )

Generally speaking, I like the books very much in some aspects – the characters, and the worldbuilding, and the – wait for it – sense of place. (Shim bought me the first book purely on the strength of the title: definitely something I would like.) And I’ve written before about how utterly cool-water refreshing it is to have a non-white narrative voice, and while I don’t have Peter Grant’s ethnic background nor his savoir-faire, I recognise the things he does, and says, when he’s trying to get along being the one who looks different in a white-bread world. (I was actually surprised to find out Ben Aaronovitch is white.) My favourite character, very very marginally, is Nightingale – mainly because the books have been so tantalisingly vague about his backstory. I love the snippy affection between him, Peter and Lesley; it’s so charming and unsentimental and practical, I love it. It’s almost found-family, even though Peter and Lesley do have loving families – what I love is that eventually, Peter, Lesley, Nightingale, Molly and Toby actually live in the Folly as a deeply eccentric but functional household. (I kind of want to see the fic where the 2010 census comes through their door.) eta: I forgot! I love this adorable fancast.

I do agree, however, with whichever one of you who said recently the books are weirdly paced, especially the latest – I know Aaronovitch is building up to his big Faceless Man confrontation, but I kind of wish he would do it, do a whole book about it, and then write more about other things? I almost wonder if he’s going to stray into filler, doing what he’s doing. I like the characters, not the plots, I guess – especially as I always have enormous trouble remembering who everyone is and how they all link together.

Anyway, a few recs, because it’s a teeny fandom and a surprising number of my friends write in it:

Ghosts of Ettersberg (3101 words) by kindkit
He calls it Ettersberg, as a man of his father's generation might have said the Somme.It's a thoughtful, loving story about Nightingale's past, and to be honest, I will be very surprised if Nightingale's canonical backstory isn't very like this.

Pest Control (5433 words) by Philomytha
A case fic set in the period Nightingale was on medical leave, and it's a lovely character piece.

Though I Sang in My Chains Like the Sea (10732 words) by lightgetsin
It was amazing the difference between an empty house and a house containing two medium-sized apprentices and a small dog. forthwritten recommended this to me originally; it's a complex and fascinating story about a lot of complex and fascinating things. I am still not sure what I think of the plot-reveal in this story. I don't think that's necessarily bad; it is complex, that's the point. Certainly this is the only story I've ever read where raspberry coffee drinks break your heart.

First Impressions (54961 words) by manic_intent
I read this today and am still kind of amazed that there is this whole, novel-length story in this teeny-tiny fandom; it's not quite an unqualified rec, because it really needs a Britpick. It also has an interestingly off-piste characterisation for Nightingale and Peter, and quite a lot of its own worldbuilding, so I read it a little bit as an original novel with familiar elements. But it's superbly crafted.

What I like about all these stories, and the original books, is that they're the rare example of cheerful fantasy, where the real world doesn't stop just because magic - I mean, Peter visits his mum and the Met wonder where the budget is coming from for all this destroyed equipment and Lesley does not believe in the consent model of policing and Nightingale has really not got the hang of texting. It's all lovely. The only thing I have ever written for this fandom is 400 words of bakery AU (gosh, and I was afraid of being typecast) but I'd like to write something more, I think.