This has two parts: Information and the fic itself. For slightly easier accessibility, I will put both in this post itself.
Some information first:
Summary: Clara is assigned a story. (For the Tuesday prompt ‘Favourite Main Character’ of the Victoriocity Appreciation Week 2021. Takes place a week after ‘SMS Brandenburg’. )
(Note: This can be read as a standalone as well, but this does provide some context into Clara’s throw-away line about a wheel and a paper being friends, in Ego ne hic quidem.)
Fandoms: Victoriocity(Podcast)
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Gen
Word count: 438 words
Characters: Clara Entwhistle, Augusta Bell, Bodkin(mentioned), Lavender Boothroyd(mentioned), Lester Horrocks(mentioned)
Additional Tags: News story, written for context, another main character cause I honestly cannot pick between Fleetwhistle, a wheel and a paper being friends is just so wholesome, haha, crack treated seriously as crack, can’t really think of much else, author regrets everything, no beta we advertise like Augusta, here you go
@victoriocity-appreciation for the Favourite Main Character.
Part 2.5(or 3) of Love, Actually.
This was the information. For the rest of the fic, it’s all under the cut.
Fic:
The Morning Chronicler had begun to face an uptick recently with the national intrigue surrounding the matter of the Tower and internal spies, though most would admit that the newspaper, up till then had been incredibly droll.
A few days after the dust had settled, Clara began to see why. Even Greater London was full of crime, on most occasions. Recently, however, things seemed a little….quiet. She stayed nights at the offices, while visiting the paper in the mornings. Even Lester, whom she’d realised had never really lost his touch, to begin with, seemed to have trouble sniffing out the next big story. She greeted Ms. Bodkin at the front desk, who still assumed she’d wanted to meet Dr. Bell, and headed inside, fully prepared for a day of quiet editing.
When she reached her desk(a recent acquisition), she wasn’t quite so alarmed by Lester’s absence….or the fact that Augusta seemed to be a little too happy all of a sudden, when generally, most of her days consisted of her shouting at one of her many siblings or at Boothroyd.
What did alarm her, however, was the wheel placed on her desk. It wasn’t as big in size as an actual object as it was in her mind, of course, but she was a writer, after all. She did tend to exaggerate occasionally.
“Good Lord, what is this?”
“It’s a wheel, Ms. Entwhistle, I thought that should be obvious.”
Clara shook her head. “I understand that, no, I mean, why is it on my desk?”
“Oh! The wheel production mill has decided to put up an advertisement in the paper, something that tells a story, and you are the person for the job.”
“I am the person…..to chart up an advertisement for a wheel?”
“Yes, you could say that the wheel and the paper were best friends.” The wheel and the paper were best friends? What?
Clara blinked. “I…shall certainly try.”
“Right, you might want to get to it, then. We have a deadline tomorrow, spit spot.”
With that, Augusta whirled on her heel and walked out, leaving Clara all alone to lift the wheel off her desk and write the advertisement in peace. She had said that she wanted a piece after all, hadn’t she?
She huffed and puffed slightly, somewhat managing to push the wheel off her desk. The thing turned out to be surprisingly heavy for something of its size. She sighed, shook off the strangeness of this entire situation, and got to work. The wheel and the paper were best friends?
Maybe there was something to work with here, after all.
