While I’ve mostly skimmed the BBC’s big press release for its Christmas 2023 line-up, I have decided to grab the details for Call the Midwife. Elsewhere I’ve covered Ghosts and Death in Paradise, both of which the BBC has also covered separately.
Here’s what the nuns are up to this year — I do like the historic scene setting for 1968-69:
…two weeks before Christmas, with Apollo 8 poised to…
Heading out after work had seemed like a good idea in the lonely hours of the previous night, but as soon as Ivan clocked off and found the closest bar possible, he’d changed his mind. Instead, he found himself at an equally close but scabby diner, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
Assuming he could’ve pulled someone, what would it achieve? Shagging a random stranger wouldn’t fix anything-.. wouldn’t provide more than a fleeting moment of the connection he craved. It’d been enough when he was younger, but he wasn’t twenty anymore and Ivan realised he probably ought to set a better example for Pixie, and for Jude; even if they were none the wiser.
Where would he have gone, anyway? He couldn’t exactly take anyone back to Oscar’s, and doing it in the car where his kids might sit the next day didn’t sit right either, nor did a public bathroom or a deserted alleyway-.. he could’ve taken someone back to the house but it was up for sale by now, just as empty and forlorn as Ivan felt, unfit for passionate visitors.
The overgrown garden mocked his inability to change the man he loved every time he looked at it; the lawn browning and far more unkempt than whatever unseen pastures lay out of sight beyond the peeling fences that surrounded it.
Ivan blinked at the cherry pie that slid beneath his nose, his stomach churning at the thought of trying to choke down anything other than coffee right now.
Waitress: It’s on the house.
Ivan: Thanks, but.. I’m okay.
Waitress: You sure?
Ivan nodded, forcing an apologetic smile.
Waitress: I can’t eat when I’m all torn up either.
Ivan: That obvious?
Waitress: I didn’t mean-…
Ivan: It’s fine.. rough day, week-.. month, whatever.
Waitress: Year?
Ivan: [snorts] Y’could say that…
The waitress hummed in vague agreement as she returned the lone slice of pie from whence it came, the sweet smell of it dissipating as quickly as the warmth of their brief interaction, leaving Ivan alone with his ruminating thoughts once more.
Tired of the same three jukebox songs being played in a loop by bored teenagers, Ivan returned to the solitude of his car.
He’d appreciated Oscar and Courtney’s invitation to let him stay with them until he found somewhere new, but their easy, affectionate relationship and happy – albeit slightly chaotic – family sometimes made him feel more alone than ever.
Maybe most people didn’t have happy relationships. Maybe the average person wasn’t destined to find their soulmate and live happily ever after-.. except for them, apparently, though Ivan supposed they’d been through their fair share of turmoil too.
Robin had tried to convince him that everyone had a soulmate out there somewhere, and you’d know it when you found them; but taking relationship advice from an eleven-year-old boy seemed like a desperate life raft akin to clutching at straws, so he hadn’t particularly paid much mind at the time.
Sometimes though, when Ivan felt like he was drowning, they were the only words that gave him any semblance of comfort.
At ten years old, Wyll Ravengard brings a pale, skinny little girl home, claiming she's an orphan. Ulder takes one long look at her-- And. Well.
Ulder’s first impression is that Orin is small.
Silent, next to Wyll’s excited chatter; pale as new bone, squinting in even the low light of a Baldur’s Gate Autumn. A darkness in those strange, pale eyes—like this slip of a child had seen horrors beyond reckoning, and thought they were simply how the world was.
Where did she come from? He asks his son.
I found her in the sewers. I told her she could stay with us. Please?
Ulder couldn’t say no to those eyes—Francesca’s eyes, in a small, pleading face. Couldn’t abandon a child to whatever terrors she had seen, to give her that look, the curious question of When does the ritual begin? My father requires his sacrifice echoing at the dinner table.
She’s missing a tooth, Ulder notices, the thought incongruous with the monstrousness inherent in that innocently asked question.
There are few reasons for a child to insist their father will be displeased by a lack of ritual murder, and Ulder hates them all. He takes his suspicions, and Orin, to the Marshal--praying he’s wrong.
But the Marshal, Abdel Adrian, rumoured son of Bhaal, looks at the little girl, and gently tells her she is no sibling of his. Just a normal little girl: neither doomed, nor destined.
Orin cries. But within her sobs is a confession; the temple hiding under the city, the bloody rituals of violent death, the rotting corpses.
A temple of Bhaal, lurking under the city. Sacrifices made in the name of an evil god.
Ulder is told to take Orin home, and prepare the troops for battle.
A scout is sent to verify the child’s story; a mere formality, a sop to convention. The child was not lying, and the scout confirms it.
For the first time in many years, Abdel Adrian takes the field, with nearly the entire complement of Fist in the city, Jaheira and her Harpers, and a handful of good-aligned clerics.
He doesn’t bother speaking to the Council, letting Portyr waffle about what to do. This is war, and that is Adrian’s business.
The Temple of Bhaal reeks of death and blood. The Bhaalites take no quarter, though the Fist are expected to try. Properly, there should be a trial. For many of them, there will be.
Justice should be done in the light.
The Fist are ordered to arrest, rather than kill. The clerics subdue; the Harpers trap; the Fist do their best. Abdel Adrian will not have sacrifices in the house of his father.
He can’t quite manage it, when faced with Sarevok and his daughter. They are cut down by Adrian’s sword, and Ulder sees the shadow of the monster the Marshal nearly was.
Their bodies are burned, turned to char and ash. Adrian will not risk his half-brother escaping death a second time.
The temple is purged and cleansed; the bodies systemically identified, to inform their families. Riches counted, and Adrian insists it all be given to the families of the deceased, or donated to the temples.
There is already so much blood on the wealth of the Fist.
All of the au’s below are my current active ones, in these au’s you will find the blurb section which is where you guys are able to have your say in what happens during the overall storyline!
for aus that don't have a masterlist yet, they are tagged below!
AU CALENDAR
the universes!
the wips!
Cole and Parker - Big Reputations
Nick and Scottie - The Lost Baby
Luca and Aspen - Pretty Boy
Ethan and Astrid - Perfect Fit
Rutger and Emmy - His Girl
Mark and Abigail - Lessons
Nick and Francesca - Bed Buds
Luke and Isabel - Captain's Sister
Jesper and Emilia - A Bakers Dozen
Ryan and Ava - Sparks
Will and Bailey - Baby on Board
Cutter and Lillian - Meant to Be
Jacob and Ivy - Triple Split
Gabe and Jamie - Teammates In Action
Drew and Erin - It Girl
Seamus and Liana - Unexpected Connections
John and Maya - Baby Hughes
William and Matilda - Star
Matt and Sydney - Golden Girl
Luke and Allie - Hookups and Screwups
The Flyers Throuple - Teammates in Sheets
Cole and Darcy - Match Made
Adam and Sabrina - Write a Song
Sidney and Camille - Homes and Hearts
Steve and Lucie - Long Games
The Umich Throuple - Three's a Match
Jeremy and Adelia - Made Match
Juraj and Alana - A Dream in Time
Quinn and Rouge - Rookie Compliance
Jack and Kennedy - One of a Kind
Gracie and Elias - Little Teammate
Matthew and Lilah - Give a Dog
retired aus
Mitch and Amelia - His Rookie
Nico and Harper - Don't Tell
Elias and Payton - Coaches Daughter
Sidney and Rory - On Ice
Matthew and Billie - Opposing Teammates
Trevor and Daisy - Babies and Buddies
Luke and Blake - Girl Next Door
Quinn and Charlotte - Teammates Sister
Jack and Riley - New Roommate
The Zegras-Hughes Children - Next Gen
Adam and Sophie - Romantic Roomates (because we now have adam and sabrina)
🔮 Good afternoon, my bookish bats. I hope you've had an enchanting, spell-binding October so far. If you want to add a little more magic to your TBR, consider these witchlit books featuring sapphic witches and other mystical beings!
🔮 The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke
🪄 Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
🔮 These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling
🪄 Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
🔮 The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska
🪄 Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft
🔮 Now She Is Witch by Kirsty Logan
🪄 The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinska
🔮 The Circle by M. Strandberg & S.B. Elfgren
🪄 The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores
🔮 The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson
🪄 Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost
🔮 Edie in Between by Laura Sibson
🪄 When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
🔮 Marvel's The Runaways
🪄 Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
🔮 Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
🪄 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Willow & Tara
🔮 All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
🪄 The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder
🔮 The Lost Coast by A.R. Capetta
🪄 Romancing a Gorgon by Tallie Rose
🔮 Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches by Kate Scelsa
🪄 The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
🔮 Not Your Average Love Spell by Barbara Ann Wright
🪄 The Sting of Victory by S.D. Simper
🔮 Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno
🪄 The Reluctant Witch by Kristen S. Walker
🔮 Witching Moon by Poppy Woods
🪄 Keep Your Witches Close by Colette Rivera
🔮 Walking Through Shadows by Sheri Lewis Wohl
🪄 Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
🔮 Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve
🪄 Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu
Best companion to get intoxicated with: Round 0 Masterpost
the elimintation numbers on the posts themselves are largely wrong because I made a mistake and only realised when it was too late, its two per group except 14 and 15 which is 3
I'm still sad that there's essentially no Shortland Street femslash fic. There were a smattering of Nicole/Harper stories back in the day, mostly on the pit of voles (fanfiction.net).
There's a tiny set of Nicole/Maeve stories on AO3 now, and an even tinier bit of Leanne/Rosalyn. There's no Samira/Francesca, even though I know there are other people like me that loved them and were so sad when that storyline went south so fast. There was so much scope for writing fic for them. This is the heartbreak of tiny fandoms.
I want to read Samira and Francesca's conversation at the wedding reception. I want extensions of all the episodes to give them more time together.
I want Francesca taking Samira on a jetboat ride while they're at the conference because Samira has never been to Queenstown before.
And oh boy do I want fixit fic: Francesca doesn't leave, Samira goes after her, they meet again in several years time. Francesca has taken that job at Central and they're quietly continuing their relationship during Samira's later episodes but Samira has had enough of the gossip wheel so she's not telling anyone. Any fixit will do.
Samira and Francesca both start working at Seattle Grace at around the same time but their paths don't cross straight away. To confuse things people keep referring to "the new surgeon from New Zealand" without realising there are two of them.
And then this year, where was the Rebekah/Maeve fic? That was so sweetly done for such a fucked up relationship.
Give me Rebekah and Maeve on the run together fic. Unhealthy Maeve trying to be everything for Rebekah fic. Future fic where they live somewhere very quiet far from everything.
Give me your headcanons where Rebekah didn't have Scott kill Wilder, she really has been trying to do her best and it's just all gone wrong along the way.
Give me redemption fic - Rebekah admits it, does her time and finds Maeve in the end.
Give me a crazy prison AU - Rebekah goes to prison for Scott's murder, but the nature of hearsay, proof and what can and can't be included in evidence means Maeve still gets convicted for Wilder's. And they end up in prison together. Maximum angst.
And where is the longform Nicole/Maeve fic trying to make Watsonian sense of their crazy Doylist on again off again relationship and sudden character changes?
Where is the fluff fic that ignores it all?
Where is my everyone is gay fic that pulls in every possible Shortie character?
Where is my future fic that ignores Wilder's death and has all three of Nicole's stepsons working at the hospital, while Pele is a trouble making teenager?
Where are the AUS?
And my younger self would love fic about Meredith and Annie, or Caroline and Laura.
Tell me what fic you wish for in the comments. Share your headcanons! Or please write some!!!
BOOK ROUND UP: VAMPIRES VS WITCHES
In honor of the season, we have compiled a round up of wlw witch and vampire books! Sapphic witches and vampires are tropes as old as time, which do you all prefer?
The Vampire books pictured are: