Ash Wednesday by Firerose (PG)

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Fandom: BLAKES 7
Pairing: Avon/OFC
Author on LJ: espresso_addict
Author Website: Espresso Central
Why this must be read: Partly because it knocks on the head the stupid notion that "original female character = Mary Sue = rubbish". There is a very strong original female character at the centre of this. So what? It works. As does the original setting, and the sequel plot. Why should an original character be any less available than an original plot or setting to an author who sees a use for one?
Despite the "pairing", this post-Gauda Prime fic is very much about Avon coming to terms with his relationship with the dead Blake. As such, it's typical of the nostalgia and regret that pervade this fandom, but you don't often get this amount of plot into the bargain. Nor such a sense of place:

"The first few hundred metres of descent from the farm had proved the hardest. As Avon had guessed, Zenia was agile over the hill terrain, and she had led them steeply downhill, sure-footed among the bare rocks rendered frictionless by a thin coating of precipitation. At lower altitudes, the dense forest canopy effectively suppressed the undergrowth, making for relatively comfortable passage, and the thick layer of needles underfoot damped all sound of their passing. The smooth trunks and regular radial branches of the coniferous giants seemed to form a living equivalent to the elaborate network of metal pillars and struts of the Dome's huge central meeting area, and their dank drippings were not so dissimilar from its humid recycled atmosphere. But nothing had prepared him for the cobwebs of grey moss, disfiguring every tree, their exuberant growth unchecked in this unnaturally sparse ecosystem."

Ash Wednesday