12 - Coming full circle

[lolitics_meme]

Dearest Anons,

In five days (on May 8, 2011) this meme will have existed for a whole year.

It is an extraordinary achievement, your extraordinary achievement, to have kept this going well and alive for so long. With thousands of fics and comments, this meme is one of (if not the) most amazing thing I've ever come across. Not only the amount of fic

Comments

Self Prompt: Steampunk!AU

[anonymous]

3 prompt posts and a hell of a lot of Abney Park later...

Sequel to Hattie and the Plague of Alchemists. Tony, Peter and Alastair have struck gold and are setting out through uncharted, pirate-infested air to mine it for all it is worth. Meanwhile, Gordon has reached the end of his tether and turns to the underground for help.

Features the OT4 + John Prescott with cameos from Charlie, Robin Cook and Paddy, and maybe more if I'm struck by inspiration/suggestions.

This one’s definitely heading to be longer than Plague and probably longer than Integral (I’m projecting 40-50 parts) and I’m also juggling a few different storylines while being unsure as to how exactly they’re going to be resolved. I’ve also had to pump it with a few (hopefully inoffensive) OCs, as I can’t think of RL equivalents to take the roles. To the anon who was unhappy about Peter not having standards - sorry, it gets worse, but on the plus side, he’s about a 1 on the woobie scale

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 1

[anonymous]

Dear Log,

Gordon’s pen rested on the page and a drop of ink oozed from the nib, blotching the paper. He continued scrawling. His fingers were stained.

It has been eight months now since Blair claimed the inheritance and not a waking minute passes when I am not distracted by the injustice of the decision. I am not a bitter man-

Was that true? He paused, peaked eyebrows forming into a deep crease. A curl of hair drooped onto his forehead and he shoved it away, dipping the nib into the inkwell. When it returned to his page, the words were forming more fluidly.

-however, for any human being to be expected to lay prostrate as a lifetime’s worth of work is torn away from under their fingers... it defies integrity. I will refuse to be brushed aside, and will continue John’s work without him, and will do my upmost best to block Blair’s distracting presence from my mind. He spends his working week in Sky City, but when he slips his ill-deserved key in the lock and returns for the occasional weekend, it is impossible to work without the

Re: Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 1

[anonymous]

the cornflower of his eyes remain burnt into my retinas

Gordon, it's called a man-crush.

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 2a

[anonymous]

The greenhouses were placed far from the house, stacked up unsteadily like huge, filthy glass boxes. The body of a deflated weather balloon was slumped miserably atop the gable, long leather straps swinging from the roof. Hundreds of long-since abandoned earthenware pots were piled around them, moss and lichen growing on their surfaces, some filled with rainwater and flitting with life.

As Tony stood before the greenhouses and pulled a watch from his waistcoat pocket, one small pot tumbled to the ground and scuttled away past his ankles and dived into a compost heap. He ignored them as a further two pots flipped themselves over and hurried away, and made his way to the door. He exerted a gentle pressure, and it swung open easily.

It was murky inside; the daylight was filtered out and the air was heavy with the earthy, overpowering perfume of decaying vegetation and fertiliser. Every glass pane was flecked with mud, and Tony wondered if they had always been that dark syrup colour, or if it was just years of grime having built up to

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 2b

[anonymous]

“How cruel and unusual,” Tony said. “Why did Gordon lock you away? Did you misbehave

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 3a

[anonymous]

Above the clouds, the atmosphere was perfectly clear. The Cruise Dirigible glided in silence, whipping up wisps of vapour below its flexing wings. The open deck was smattered with guests, and, on a red leather recliner laid the master of the ship, Roth

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 3b

[anonymous]

“You can continue the game for me. I’d die for a raspberry soda and I must thank Roth and then change my trousers to something more appropriate for the dance this evening. Bye-bye Granny.” Carla gave him a gold-toothed smile, and he swept away, heading for the master of the ship. Roth spotted him coming and shifted his bulk, making space on the recliner

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 4

[anonymous]

Much can be told about an individual judging by their choice in newspaper. Those who buy the Locomotive or the Chimes, for instance, may be gentleman merchants, engineers or academics with families comfortably living in the upper city and politely forgetting about their stray cousins labouring in lower city factories. Many were educated at the Academy, and the rest indignantly claim to have been ‘very happy indeed’ at their universities.

The Solaris was never read anywhere but in public; picked up carelessly on a table in a saloon or flicked through while riding the Griddle Railway. Those who paid their one sequin for the Solaris were rightly treated with suspicion.

The Chainmail was printed entirely in capital letters, ever since the lower case typewriter keys were thrown out by the editor, who decided that the newspaper needed to pack a tougher punch. It was read largely by housewives, the angry unemployed and the senile elderly, and bubbled with hatred towards the lower city, the upper city, the financiers, the sooty-faced

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 5a

[anonymous]

“A pleasant evening,” the footman said, bending in half at the waist. Tony inclined his head, tensing the corners of his mouth in a quick smile. The carriage rattled away down the cobblestoned street and was soon gone from sight. Tony took the handle of his trunk and pulled it to the pavement, wincing. His forearm was still smarting from where the fly-trap had bitten him

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 5b

[anonymous]

“What?”

“Oh,” the slug smirked. “Nothing. What did you want to buy?” The slug rested his chin on the counter. Tony glanced around the shop awkwardly, trying to ignore the unappetising trail of slime leaking out from beneath the slug’s pulsating body and onto the glass of the counter. Beneath the counter was a display of marzipan trains for young boys. Tony backed away, leaning on his trunk.

“I wasn’t actually going to buy anything,” he confessed. “I only came in to escape from the vender outside. It is jolly nice in here though. I’ll have to recommend it.”

“That’s selfish,” the slug said, heaving further up onto the counter, which creaked under his weight.

“Oh. Sorry. Anyway, I think he’s gone now.” Tony made for the door, but was stopped by the slug, who called out:

“You can’t leave without buying anything, or I’ll pull this lever and empty the bucket of slime on you when you skip through the doorway.” Just as the slug promised, sitting above the doorway was a small silver bucket, balanced precariously on a wire mesh.

Outwitted

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 6a

[anonymous]

While men in garish suits and women in feather headdresses flitted about in the heights of the wealthy citadel, so little warmth and sunlight penetrated the depths of the lower city that the streetlamps were ever alight, glowing orange globes lining the pavements. The air was murky with smog and cooling water from the monstrous factories trickled over cobblestones. The gutters were lithe with rats and runaway clockroaches

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 6b

[anonymous]

The last straggling children, who had been watching hopefully from the other side of the street, but were clearly too terrified to approach him scurried away to their homes, one of them stuffing her mouth with raisins as she ran. John shook his fist at the children and stuffed Punch into his wooden case after Judy, then collapsed the theatre, heaving it over his broad back. He bent his knees, and managed to lift his hat from the pavement, tipping the coins into a pocket and slapping it on his head. Rain water trickled down the back of his next

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 7a

[anonymous]

The offices were located on Greater Brigg’s Street, in the uppermost floors of Rosaline Tower, which stretched all the way from the ground, its pointed roof reaching nearly into the clouds. Such high towers would have been unsteady if it weren’t for the spindly girders that ran from wall to wall, lacing them together in a framework of rickets and stringing them together across the narrow streets. The door was painted a pleasant mulberry and a sign swung above, spelling ‘TONY BLAIR’ in gold capitals

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 7b

[anonymous]

“You say that he’s snoozing on a goldmine

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 8a

[anonymous]

Tony reached the top of the spiral staircase and stepped out onto the landing. His father had bought him the fashionable penthouse apartment for his thirtieth birthday and he had been spending his nights in the city here ever since. He pushed open the door and set down his briefcase. He slung his silk scarf at the hat stand and shrugged out of his jacket, unbuttoning his peach-toned waistcoat as he wandered into his bedroom.

“Hello Tony.”

Tony yelped. The lamps were already burning, and a man was standing in front of his bed, holding a covered bird cage in his hands. A man in a poorly tailored suit with black hair and heavy features, one glass eye spinning slowly in its cage.

“Gordon,” Tony edged into the room, closing the door behind him. “I’m not sure if you noticed this but; I keep my door securely locked.”

“And I had a copy of your key made,” Gordon said smugly, swinging the key on the end of the narrow rope before shoving it back into his pocket. Tony stared

Fill: Hattie and the Pirates of Dodrago Cove, part 8b

[anonymous]

“... and when I found him yesterday in the mill house, he had made himself a nest in the old water wheel. He had stolen John’s rare Azelboiki cabbage from the vegetable patch and was- he was-” Gordon threw a filthy, one-eyed glance at the gnome, who was sticking his tongue out from underneath his gag. “I didn’t take the cabbage back.”

“Very well. So... what do you suggest that I do about my silly little mistake? It was hardly my fault, Gordon... can’t you just put Cook-A-Robin back in his greenhouse?” The gnome made a squeak of protest.

“I haven’t finished yet,” Gordon replied, jaws grinding. He banged the top of the cage with his fist, and the gnome stopped squealing. “While I was waiting for you to return, I took the liberty of checking through your desk.”

“Gordon!” Tony gasped. “That’s private“Huh, not any longer. I found a set of invitations, tied up in a red ribbon and fresh off the press, by the looks of them