[Unsent Letters] Dear Correspondent

[graycardinal]

I can't write short letters worth a darn, so while I've got detailed material farther down, it's only fair to give you the list of fandom requests up front. So, those would be:

Castle
Crossover Fandom(s) see below
The Dark Is Rising (Cooper)
Kim Possible
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Stargate (SG-1)
Star Trek:TOS (Movies)
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? (1994)

Feel free to wander backward through this journal and my fic on AO3 (linked to your left) to get an idea of my interests; what I write is very much also what I like to read – and has, over time, added up to rather a variety of fandoms. My past letters for various exchanges are tagged "dear santa" herein.

Things I like:

I’m a flexible reader; the story I want most out of a given exchange is usually the one you want to tell me rather than the one that’s living in my own head (that one, if I want it badly enough, I can always write myself).

Text-driven pluses for me include effective use of wit (aka banter aka snark, etc.), as well as strong characterization & dialogue. I value both respect for and clever use of canon (including well-developed canon-divergence AUs). I thrive on UST (heavy on both U and T), and am neutral where gen/het/slash is concerned; if the pairing is well-developed, I'll read with an open mind.

None of my requests call specifically for mature/explicit content. This doesn't mean I don't appreciate sizzling erotica/smut/porn; it's just that my fanfic-reading interests and my e/s/p-reading interests mostly don't tend to intersect. Also, for this exchange, I find myself not especially interested in any of these characters writing e/s/p.

DNWs:

This section varies somewhat from the one I use for most exchanges, so keep that in mind as you read.

AUs. For this exchange, avoid alt-setting (i.e. coffeeshop, high school, dept. store, etc.). and major canon-divergence in non-crossover requests. This does not mean you can’t extend on canon, fill in blanks, etc.; indeed, Unsent Letters strike me as designed for just this sort of thing. Nor does this necessarily preclude crossovers, even if not formally built into a request.

Explicit sex, or “sexting” exchanges. Most likely not an issue as nearly all my requests are "&" rather than "/", but to be clear - basically, this just isn’t my jam. Non-explicit mention or discussion of sex is fine, though. Please avoid noncon, incest, adult/child, power-imbalanced sexual/romantic partnerships (teacher/student, boss/underling, etc.), and A/B/O settings.

Romantic elements that directly contradict canon. Also unlikely to be an issue, per above, but to amplify: where a character explicitly states a sexual preference/identity in canon, honor the statement. OTOH, if no preference/identity is specified onstage, it’s OK to establish – or widen – one for a given character. It's also OK to create or expand relationships for unpaired characters, including cross-canonical pairings where the potential arises.

Requests

Crossover Fandoms

These constitute an extremely mixed bag; I'm assuming anyone who tackles one of these is reasonably familiar with the fandoms. If you need more prompts for one of this group, ping the mod(s) and I'll do my best to be useful.

• Alexis Castle (Castle) & Dairine Callahan (Young Wizards)

In the revised YW timeline, I think Dairine is closer to Alexis' age than Nita; now, suppose Alexis gets a manual....

• Diana (Wonder Woman: (DCEU / 1970s TV) & Susan Pevensie (Narnia)

It shouldn't be hard to drop Susan into the orbit of either the Gal Gadot or Lynda Carter version of civilian-Diana; the interesting question would be what might happen next.

• Indiana Jones & Evy Carnahan O'Connell (Mummy* movies)*

My own story last round poked at the edges of this prompt; this would give a closer look at just how and when they might actually have crossed paths.

• Martha Rodgers (Castle) & Emma MacGill (Murder She Wrote)

There's a fannish theory that Rick Castle must be Jessica Fletcher's nephew - and even if that's not strictly true, you just know that Rick's mother and Jessica's cousin must have crossed paths during their stage careers....

• Mary Russell (Laurie R. King) & Bruce Wayne (Batman)

It's said that Batman learned his crimefighting craft from the best teachers in the world. One of them could well have been Sherlock Holmes...and in that case, Bruce and Mary might have a history of their own.

• Vala (Stargate SG-1) & Parker (Leverage)

The best thief on Earth and one of the cleverest thieves in the immediate galaxy; put them together, and just watch the fireworks.

Castle
Alexis & Gina • Alexis & Kate • Alexis & Martha*
Alexis & Victoria Gates • Kate & Martha

This is obviously a very Alexis-centric set of requests, in part because I thought the series writers pretty much lost interest in her character after she got back from being kidnapped (and do not get me started on either the nonsense with either Pi-the-boyfriend or the PI-in-training arc). I do want to see Alexis exploring career prospects, but I want to see those prospects arise out of her early strengths: her music, her practical side, and the literary and academic interests she's acquired from those around her.

In particular, feel absolutely free (though in no way obligated) to prowl through my own Alexis-centric fic and spin from there in any direction you feel appropriate.

As to what you might do with Kate & Martha: my watchwords there are simply to focus on warmth rather than angst, and to have fun (and let them have fun).

The Dark Is Rising (Susan Cooper)
Jane & Merriman • Merriman & Will

I am absolutely fascinated by the Jane-&-Merriman prompt, and would be intrigued to see material arising from it at almost any point in canonical time - pre-series, interpolated between the books, or post-series (for the record, I'm in the camp that's violently allergic to the end of Silver on the Tree, but that's why we have fanfic...). As to Merriman and Will, much the same holds, although in that instance I'm also genuinely curious as to how their correspondence might work in the post-series world as Cooper wrote it.

And one idle question, which I'm not sure either Cooper or any of the fanfic speculation has ever addressed: given the canonical alias "Merriman Lyon", how significant might it be that Jane's and her brothers' last name is "Drew"...which might easily be read as a shortened form of "Druid"?

Kim Possible
Kim & Dr. Director • Kim & Monique • Kim & Nana Possible
Kim & Shego • MrsDrP & Dr. Director • MrDrP/MrsDrP

A large chunk of my early fanfic was set in this fandom, and I still have a number of ancient plot bunnies from that era grazing in my backbrain. The main question that most of these prompts raise for me is the degree to which Kim's crimefighting life interacts with her home life, in both amusing and useful ways (and, in a couple of cases, how those around her set and monitor boundaries on Kim's activities).

One specific note: I happily read both K/R and Kigo in this fandom (and there are parts of Season 4 I'm not in love with), but for this exchange, please keep the "&" and my general DNWs in mind if you write for that prompt. That said, I will totally not object to a work that suggests the existence of chemistry in either direction on that front.

MCU
Maria Hill & Carol Danvers • Maria Hill & Cassie Lang
Maria Hill & Kamala Khan • Natasha Romanov & Yelena Belova

The most important things I should say here are as follows: I have yet to actually watch Secret Invasion...but (a) I have been spoiled for the relevant key event therein, and (b) for the purposes of this set of requests, we WILL assume that what happened happened to a Life Model Decoy or the equivalent, that the real Maria is still in the game, and that one of the things she's up to is mentoring, managing, and/or bonding with the MCU's most capable young heroines. (If any of the individual paired requests morphs into a three- or four-way round robin affair, I will totally not object....)

As to the two Widows: feel free to draw on any point in their shared history, whether as nominal sisters or one Widow to another. Also: in this case, you are welcome/encouraged to fix or ignore the nonsense that was Natasha's supposed death during the Soul Stone mission. (Opinionated? Me? Heck, yes.)

Star Trek:TOS (Movies)
Gillian Taylor & Uhura • Kirk & Gillian Taylor
Saavik & Spock • Spock & Gillian Taylor

The clear theme here is "Gillian - and by extension the whales - adjusting to life in the Starfleet era"; Uhura might be helpful in the matter of translating whalespeech, Kirk would offer to show her the town solar system, and Spock could bring her up to speed on Federation technology (and perhaps introduce her to Amanda).

There's arguably more room to play in the Saavik-&-Spock prompt - and here, while the prompt is "&", not only will I not object to the potential for romance, I'll draw your attention to the subset of published Trek fiction that actually goes there - Carolyn Clowes' The Pandora Principle, and the series of Vulcan novels from Susan Shwartz and Josepha Sherman starting with Vulcan's Forge. Making use of that material is completely and totally optional, but if you're familiar with it and so inclined, don't hesitate to incorporate elements from the books into your work.

(Having said that, I am equally interested in the teacher-and-student relationship between the two, and wouldn't mind seeing it broadened in a multi-way circle in which Gillian Taylor was included. Also totally optional, but clearly a possible extrapolation from canon.)

Stargate SG-1
Sam Carter & Cassandra Fraiser • Sam Carter & Vala
Vala & Cassandra Fraiser • *Vala & George Hammond
Vala & None

Why, yes, this is a remarkably Vala-centric list, but then Vala is one of the most entertaining characters in the Stargate corral, and I wanted to give her an opportunity to hang out - metaphorically, at least - with characters she's not often grouped with in the canonical record (or, alternately, to let her out of the mountain and see what she gets up to when traveling around on Earth). A certain degree of mischief can of course be assumed, but she's also both a potential mentor and a fellow offworlder with respect to Cassie, and there are intriguing points of possible connection between Vala and General Hammond or Sam Carter.

And having brought both Sam and Cassie into the picture, I can't resist speculating about how those two might connect with one another when Sam is off the clock and available Earthside.

Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? (1994)
Carmen & the Chief • Carmen & Ivy • Carmen & Suhara
Ivy & the Chief

This set is pretty straightforward; if you know and love this series, you'll have a good idea of the opportunities and open spaces into which these prompts arguably fit. One thing I'll mention here: in much of my own fic in this fandom, I've made particular note of the ACME detectives being computer avatars in a game-universe. For this set of prompts, I'd prefer not to see a focus on that aspect of the setting, so as to better balance the relationships between the various characters.