sholio: two men on horseback in the desert (Biggles-on a horse)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2024-01-16 10:24 pm

Biggles works in progress

I got tagged for this on Tumblr, but I figured I'd do it over here, in part because maybe talking about it in a place where I'm more likely to be able to find this post again will be more likely to make me finish things. Also, I wanted to post more on DW this month anyway.


• The One With The camera, or: a short fic in which the gang acquire an early Polaroid camera and some cute, flirty photographs are taken, involving Biggles realizing that he doesn't have a current picture of EvS and wants one, and Algy initially taking pictures of them just to annoy them but then having the horrifying realization that they're actually going to keep them. This one was almost entirely written, then I decided to look up how early Polaroids actually worked and found out that circa-1940s ones are wildly different than the 1970s/80s era ones I've actually used. So now it's on hold until I manage to rewrite the photography parts, which is like .... 90% of it.

• And then there's The One Where Erich Needs Algy's Help, or: a fic I started ages ago that's spun off one line in Mending by [personal profile] philomytha, in which Algy tells EvS that if he needs help, to ask him (Algy) instead of bothering Biggles with it. There was a completely different plot reason for it in the fic, but it spun up into about 4K of fic in which EvS actually does ask him for help, but it's currently extremely stalled out because the plot is extremely stuck. And speaking of stuck plots, there's also ...

• .... a Flies East AU in which Algy and Biggles have a sort of platonic soulbond in which it's extremely difficult for them to be apart for very long, because Algy died in France and Biggles accidentally brought him back and now they're sharing Biggles's life energy somehow. So when they're apart, they both start to develop symptoms of the crash injuries that killed Algy, and only being in the same place fixes them. So Biggles is having to do his spy thing while occasionally bleeding and collapsing for reasons he can't explain, and EvS has a whole different set of reasons to be suspicious and also occasionally has Biggles faint on him. (I started writing this one for someone in an exchange a while back, but at this point I've completely forgotten who it was and which exchange.)

• And because you can't have too many Flies East AUs, there's also one in which Biggles is discovered at the oasis when he shows up there with Mayer, everyone still thinks he's Brunow, and he gets taken along with El Shareef in the raid on the British lines and has to figure out how to warn them without giving himself away too much. Mostly this is just an excuse to write them in the desert with horses.

• There is also a hurt/comforty Buries a Hatchet AU in which EvS doesn't show up at the coal face on the day of the fire and escape attempt, so Biggles and Fritz have to switch plans on the fly in the middle of the blizzard, steal some horses and uniforms, and go look for him at the prison. (I have probably a dozen different ideas for Buries a Hatchet AUs in which things go wrong in various ways, but this is the one that's the closest to actually being written.)

• There's also one which is called "The hooker AU no one asked for" in the document header, and is basically the result of a conversation a while back about EvS making extra money on the side after Buries a Hatchet by escorting rich widows to the theater and that sort of thing, and Biggles finding out about this and getting both furiously protective on his behalf and also wildly jealous. (I mean, think about it, he'd be GREAT at being an escort for hire for wealthy society matrons. He's debonair, chameleonic, and extremely good at social etiquette ...)

• I also would really like to finish, or at least write more of, that AU I started a while back about Biggles meeting kid!Fritz when Erich (enemy era) has to bring his nephew somewhere for safekeeping, and Biggles is the first thing he thinks of and basically the only option he has.

Encouragement and votes for what I should try to finish first are cheerfully accepted!

(I also have non-Biggles WIPs, but let's face it, these are the ones on the front burner right now.)
sweetsorcery: (biggles/elshereef)

[personal profile] sweetsorcery 2024-01-17 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, this is tough. There literally can never be too many Flies East AUs, I agree completely, and the second one (meaning the one that won't make me cry about Algy dying even temporarily) would be good?

Also, the photography one sounds fun but a royal pain for you. :D

And having just read what there is of the kid!Fritz AU, I really like that too. Fritz is a darling, and the fact that he adores his uncle isn't going to make anyone see him in a whole new light at all, oh no. :)


So basically, I'm clearly no help here at all. Sorry.
philomytha: Biggles pulling Angus from the water (Biggles drowning rescue)

[personal profile] philomytha 2024-01-17 07:51 am (UTC)(link)
ALL OF THE ABOVE is probably not a helpful answer! But I am making especial grabby hands at the Flies East soulbond one and the Hooker AU which I am definitely asking for now.

There can never be too many hurt/comforty Hatchet AUs, or at least, I'm still writing them too...
black_bentley: (seaplanes)

[personal profile] black_bentley 2024-01-17 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
These all sound incredible *___* but I'm going to need the Algy & Biggles platonic soulbond RIGHT AWAY or I might die.

Also, please consider the hooker AU something that people are Definitely Asking For.
rietta89: (Default)

[personal profile] rietta89 2024-01-17 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
I hope you can soon change that working title to 'the hooker AU everyone asked for', because oh my goodness yes please! EvS getting to be suave and debonair (and go to the theatre and sit in seats he couldn't otherwise afford!), plus Biggles getting jealous and protective = right to my id =D
passingbuzzards: Four multicolored biplanes in blue sky (biplanes squadron)

[personal profile] passingbuzzards 2024-01-17 08:14 am (UTC)(link)

Oh man, I would LOVE to read the Algy-and-Biggles lifesharing AU, what an amazing concept!! (I love all your magical realism stuff + magical realism for Biggles in general, they just go together So Well.)

rosanicus: (timeflies)

[personal profile] rosanicus 2024-01-17 09:16 am (UTC)(link)
These are all truly excellent and so it's quite hard to say which one I'd love to read first but I will certainly join in the chorus of voices approving of the hooker au and the platonic soulbond fic in particular. If this comment continues it will just be a long list of 'and and and!!' because I am very sincere in my enthusiasm for all these ideas <333 Especially even more Buries a Hatchet AUs, it's the ultimate Two Cakes of Biggles fandom I think.
rheanna: pebbles (Default)

[personal profile] rheanna 2024-01-17 10:05 am (UTC)(link)

"Platonic soulbond due to accidental resurrection and now we have to stay in close proximity or we both suffer physical harm" is a GREAT idea.

lunabee34: (Default)

[personal profile] lunabee34 2024-01-17 10:47 am (UTC)(link)
I don't go here, but I vote camera!!

Cheerleads! Encourages! <3

[personal profile] anna_wing 2024-01-17 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
You have my total sympathy on the photography! I wrote a Tolkien fic once for which I wanted a couple of paragraphs of landscape description, and ended up reading entire books about temperate boreal and sub-boreal forests...
sheron: carrying him home (aeroplane flying)

[personal profile] sheron 2024-01-17 01:03 pm (UTC)(link)
- OMG I have to say the one I want to read is the Buries a Hatchet AU (I mean, when has there ever been too many AUs of that?) because I just love them rescuing each other!

- I love the Polaroid one already and volunteer to read what you have so far and tell you it's fine :D

- I also really like the Flies East AU with the soulbond <333333
osprey_archer: (Default)

[personal profile] osprey_archer 2024-01-17 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
So Biggles is having to do his spy thing while occasionally bleeding and collapsing for reasons he can't explain, and EvS has a whole different set of reasons to be suspicious and also occasionally has Biggles faint on him.

This sounds like an extremely Biggles plot and I can't imagine why Johns didn't write it himself.

Also love the idea of a continuation of the story where EvS brings bb!Fritz to Biggles for safekeeping!