graycardinal | Recent Entries

I remain mildly amused that I was not immediately tagged for this in the guessing interval (and wholly flattered that the wrong guesses were for some of Holmestice's most talented writers). Likewise, I am still boggling a little at the degree of enthusiasm expressed in the comments on this story over on AO3....

The Mice and the Mastermind
Fandom: Basil of Baker Street, Without A Clue
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2200
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, Basil of Baker Street & Sherlock Holmes, Reginald "Sherlock Holmes" Kincaid & John Watson
Characters: Basil of Baker Street, David Q. Dawson, John Watson, Reginald "Sherlock Holmes" Kincaid
Additional Tags: crossover, AU-Canon Divergence

The Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world has learned all he knows of detection and investigation at the feet of the Master himself. And then one evening in Baker Street, he and Dr. Dawson discover that they may not know Sherlock Holmes quite so well as they think.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: A maze of twisty little passages, all different
Current Music: "Murder She Wrote" theme

Beginning another round of catch-up:

I got both a gift and a treat for Holmestice this summer; there was some discussion in the guessing post as to which was which, but as a practical matter, both were delightful and gratefully received.

One was a lovely podfic:

Podfic: A Foregone Introduction
Source Work: A Foregone Introduction
Fandom: kitten!Holmes, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Narrator:

evilinsanemonkey
Author:

graycardinal /

Gray_Cardinal
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Characters: Dr. Stamford, Murray, Sherlock (kitten!Holmes), Watson (kitten!Holmes)

A fateful meeting takes place at the Bartholomew Street Animal Shelter.

The other was a very well executed fic set in Mercedes Lackey's "Elemental Masters" universe, into which Lackey herself has inserted Holmes, Watson, and Watson's canonical wife, the former Mary Morstan...

Shrouded in Silk
Fandom: Elemental Masters - Mercedes Lackey
Author: tepidspongebath
Rating: T
Category: gen, casefic
Warnings: minor character death
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mary Watson, Nan Killian, Sarah Lyon-White
Additional Tags: casefic, fantasy, ghosts

“It is bad enough,” said Holmes, that Charles Augustus Milverton is the most sordid blackmailer in London in the ordinary sense of the word. It is repugnant that he conducts his business with the sort of thoroughness and calculation that would have done credit to a legitimate endeavor. But it is worse--a hundred times worse!--that he uses your brand of talents to ensnare victims he would otherwise have no hope of trapping."

A retelling of The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton in the Elemental Masters universe

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: not exactly Victorian London
Current Music: "Madeira, M'Dear" (Limeliters version)

Long letter is long; let's see if all the cuts actually work this year.

Why I'm Here

• ( ) •

Likes & Dislikes
• ( ) •

Fandom-Specific Notes • ( ) •

Requests • ( ) •

Batman Beyond / Doctor Who ('63) / Gargoyles / Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century / Tomorrowland

• ( ) •

Batman:TAS / Gargoyles / Kim Possible / Miraculous Ladybug / Stargate SG-1 / Young Wizards

• ( ) •

Castle / Ant-Man (movies) / Diana Winthrop (Chambers) / Leverage / Remington Steele

• ( ) •

Elemental Masters / Devil Went Down to Georgia / My Little Pony Gen. 1 ('84)

• ( ) •

The Master (TV) / Avengers ('61) / Knight Rider / Murder She Wrote / Remington Steele

• ( ) •

Oz (Baum) / Lois & Clark / Mary Poppins / Mairelon the Magician / Miraculous Ladybug

• ( ) •

Stargirl / Agent Carter / Doctor Who ('63) / The Master (TV) / Stargate SG-1

• ( ) •

Young Wizards / Amelia Peabody / Enola Holmes (films) / Oz (Baum) / Mary Poppins / Relic Hunter

• ( ) •

Zeta Project / Miraculous Ladybug / Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century / Tomorrowland / Young Wizards

• ( ) •

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: why am I still up?
Current Music: "North to Alaska" (Johnny Horton)

This was originally going to be a comment to an entry in

bcgphoenix 's journal (to which I was pointed by

skygiants), but it got long and I decided that it makes more sense as a post of its own.

So. Fandom Against Racism is a thing, calling out the OTW for not moving quickly or thoroughly enough to combat racist activities on AO3. Their cause is unquestionably noble - but their call to action pushes some of my personal buttons, and thereby hangs a post.

///

( Context first: )

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: ask the magic 8-ball
Current Music: "Call Me Beep Me"

One bit of housekeeping and one unmitigated bit of teasing:

The housekeeping:

I've edited the post regarding the gift story I received in the Unsent Letters exchange, mostly because the story link was borked but also to add proper author credit now that reveals are up.

The teasing:

Herewith a snippet of one of my current WIPs:

I should advise you,” the scientist said in a mild, apologetic voice, “that this is a secure area, and anyone attempting to enter secure areas here at Q-36 is subject to potential shrinking, rabbitizing, multiplication, spectrographic diffusion, gravitational flux…”

“…and explosive space modulation?” That was Zachary. I blinked. Dr. Honeydew stopped in mid-sentence and took off his glasses – which made me blink again, because although the face behind the glasses had appeared not to include eyes, the scientist’s face now sported a pair of small white marbles, evidently sewn onto the fabric of his head, through whose blue-gray markings he was clearly studying my companion.

“Before I answer that,” said Dr. Honeydew in an apologetic tone, “I’m afraid I need to ask who you are, why you’re here, and what sort of security clearances you have. The owners are very particular about those sorts of questions.”

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: halfway to horizontal
Current Music: that would be telling, now wouldn't it?

Now, then; Unsent Letters opened earlier this week. My contribution this year was a Stargate/Indiana Jones fusion, thusly:

Studies in (Relatively) Contemporary Egyptology
Written for:

Huntress79
Fandoms: Stargate SG-1, Indiana Jones movies
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~3200
Relationship: Daniel Jackson & Indiana Jones
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Cassandra Fraiser, Janet Fraiser, George Hammond, Indiana Jones
Additional Tags: epistolary, stealth crossover, multiple crossovers, Easter Eggs, footnotes

Egyptology is one of those academic disciplines in which everyone inevitably knows everyone else. Sometimes this is a good thing...and sometimes, it makes one's life inordinately complicated.

This was, as the additional tags indicate, my excuse to stuff all of the Egyptian pulp adventure cross-references I could conjure up into one manuscript; I put a warning in the introductory notes that readers wanting to find the Easter eggs for themselves should skip the footnotes on the first pass. (If there were a tradition of author-guessing in Unsent Letters,

sanguinity would certainly have pegged this one as mine from that warning alone, let alone the footnotes themselves.)

This particular set of footnotes, though, differs slightly from my usual style - most of the footnotes included links to in-universe sources for the cited persons or canons. I did that for two reasons: first, it seemed appropriate to the scholarly voice in which I was writing the footnotes, and second, some of the references are to material I couldn't be certain my gift recipient was familiar with. (That said, there's one case where one needs to follow all the way through to a footnote in the linked fic to get to the actual punchline.)

Fortunately, my recipient expressed sufficient enthusiasm in the response (the term "tacklehug" was used) that the effort appears to have been justified. ;-)

Next official deadline is Holmestice, although I've also been noodling at one of the multiple delinquent

intoabar stories I've managed not to post over the last several rounds, and at a fic project that's been percolating for more than fifteen years (!) but is finally within shouting distance of actually being finished.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: another part of the forest
Current Music: "King of the Fairies"

While prowling through my files this afternoon, I ran across a couple of small things from an old LiveJournal discussion of crackfic that I realized I'd never thought to upload on AO3. This has now been remedied....

Getting Things Started
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Muppets
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: 160
Characters: Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Kermit, Scooter
Additional Tags: crack, crossover, commentfic

"Tell me again" said the frog, "why we got such a good deal buying this theater."

Gargoyles, She Wrote
Fandoms: Gargoyles, Murder She Wrote
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: 300
Characters: Owen Burnett, Jessica Fletcher
Additional Tags: crack, crossover, commentfic, murder, triple drabble

It was almost refreshing when the hostess of the present banquet ran screaming into the dining room and straight into Owen's arms, gasping out an urgent cry for help between inarticulate wails.
--

Current Mood: surprised
Current Location: Good heavens, it's thundering outside!
Current Music: "Thunder Road" (Robert Mitchum)

Whoof. I do believe that this completes the catching-up, more or less.

So: we backtrack again; I received two excellent stories this past Yuletide, and here they are. First up, a delightful and mischievous adventure set in the world of Emily Pollifax,sometime CIA courier - but here starring her world-traveling neighbor, Miss Grace Hartshorne, who has no idea that the roguish gentleman whom she's unexpectedly encountered in Rome is in fact a friend and colleague of her neighbor back in New Jersey.

Photo Finish
Fandom: Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman)
Author:

sholio
Rating: Teen & Up
Category: Gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~5600
Characters: Grace Hartshorne, John Farrell
Additional Tags: casefic, caper fic

Grace is in Rome with a tour group when she finds herself caught up in a most unexpected series of events.

As it happens, my other gift also features a vacation - but Dairine's is much quieter and far less stressful, which is something of a novelty for someone who's getting used to having interstellar adventures fall into her lap. For the reader as well as for its central character, this is a deeply effective exercise in relaxation (yes, I know, that sounds weird, but trust me here).

Be My Place to Land
Fandom: Young Wizards • Diane Duane
Author: Gray Shadows (tris_chandler)
Rating: Teen
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~3300
Characters: Dairine Callahan
Additional Tags: minor appearance by Carmela Rodriguez, futurefic, travel

But here, on this unnamed little dustball, she was alone, save for Spot, and Spot was as much a part of her as he was his own entity; even the Mobiles, rasping along at the edge of her consciousness, were distant, separate, away in a way that mattered. On this planet, enjoying the acid bite of her favourite cola, breathing clean, crisp air, a beautiful, untouched vista before, she didn't have to be anything, not for anyone. And, sure, maybe there was some errantry hanging over her, some task for her to deal with once she found it, but...
But even that, she decided, seemed worth it. Worth this.

And now, suitably relaxed, I need a nap....

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: soon to be in bed
Current Music: "Morningtown Ride" (Irish Rovers cover)

[ETA: fixed borked story link, added author credit]

We briefly interrupt the catching-up in order to detour forward to current events: specifically, Unsent Letters is open, and there is a delightful exchange of correspondence in it which (a) was written for me, and (b) is just the pitch-perfect fixit I hoped might emerge from this particular request.

From Childhood to Beyond
Fandom: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures
Author:

senmut / Merfilly
Rating: general audiences
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1100
Relationship: Kate Lethbridge-Stewart & Sarah Jane Smith
Characters: Kate Lethbridge Stewart, Sarah Jane Smith
Additional Tags: cameos, epistolary, slice of life, somebody lives/not everyone dies

A series of letters and texts between the Brigadier's daughter and a journalist.

And a side note: why, yes, I have indeed given my journal a style makeover, because it was long overdue.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: between one moment and the next
Current Music: Mr. Rogers' post-office melody

Continuing the catching-up process: my Yuletide contribution this year was the second I've done for the Judge Dee fandom, but turned out to go in a very different direction from my prior effort. A Matter of Delicacy was essentially a casefic, whereas this one is more of an homage to Judge Dee and his modern chronicler, Robert van Gulik.

A Matter of Memory
Fandom: Judge Dee series (Robert van Gulik)
Rating: General audiences
Category: Gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1100
Characters: Dee Jen-djieh (Judge Dee), Dee Djien-mo, Original characters
Additional Tags: meta, ghosts, post-canon

An American visitor has an unusual experience at the tomb of a well-known detective from Chinese history.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: a modern China that never exactly was
Current Music: "Antiques Roadshow" theme

...because I am in just that kind of mood. Signups for A Ficathon Goes Into a Bar have gone up, and whereas I am almost certainly going to sign up (because I am a sucker for crossover prompts), I am, as always, awash with more ideas than I am legally allowed to have under the challenge rules.

So let's see if I have correctly understood how this poll thing is supposed to work. I do not promise to abide strictly by the results, but I will absolutely take them into consideration as I contemplate the direction in which to take my signup.

Poll #28854 2023 Into A Bar: Who should go in this year?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

View Respondents

Who should I promise to send into the "bar" this year?

View Answers

Alexis Castle (Castle)
0 (0.0%)

Alfred Pennyworth (Batman franchise)
2 (50.0%)

Mary Russell (Mary Russell series • Laurie R. King)
1 (25.0%)

Victoria "Victory Anna" Cogsworth (Velveteen vs. • Seanan McGuire)
1 (25.0%)

someone else (to be specified in comments)
0 (0.0%)

What, you're signing up AGAIN?
0 (0.0%)

What fandoms should I offer for the character you chose above?

View Answers

Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
0 (0.0%)

Batman (1966)
1 (16.7%)

Candleshoe (Disney, 1977)
1 (16.7%)

Doctor Who (3rd Doctor)
1 (16.7%)

Doctor Who (5th Doctor)
2 (33.3%)

Gargoyles
0 (0.0%)

Leverage
2 (33.3%)

Mary Russell series (Laurie R. King)
1 (16.7%)

Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman)
2 (33.3%)

Muppets (all media)
3 (50.0%)

Nancy Drew series ("Carolyn Keene", yellow-spine books)
1 (16.7%)

NCIS (seasons 1-9)
0 (0.0%)

Stargate SG-1
1 (16.7%)

Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (DIC)
2 (33.3%)

Young Wizards series (Diane Duane)
1 (16.7%)

As I mull over my options (and the results of this poll), should I choose a combination that...

View Answers

...offers the greatest potential for over-the-top cracktastic goodness?
1 (25.0%)

...offers the greatest potential for sentimental coziness?
1 (25.0%)

...is most likely to seriously rewrite one or both canons going forward?
1 (25.0%)

...just might set up a sequel to an existing story of mine?
1 (25.0%)

...is nifty for reasons you'll explain in comments?
0 (0.0%)

Which of these hypothetical matches would you be most interested in reading?

View Answers

Alexis Castle meets Carmela Rodriguez (Young Wizards).
0 (0.0%)

Alfred Pennyworth meets Priory (Candleshoe).
1 (33.3%)

Mary Russell meets Owen Burnett (Gargoyles).
1 (33.3%)

Victory Anna meets Comet the Wonder Horse (Brisco County Jr.).
1 (33.3%)

OPTIONAL: Propose the one possible match you'd most like to see based on the above, including the character from whichever fandom you pick.

View Answers

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: at desk, frowning thoughtfully
Current Music: "I Think I'd Better Think It Out Again!" (Oliver)

The talent pool for Holmestice writers is wonderfully deep, and both the group and the mods (a new team this past round, but one with quite a lot of prior experience; the transition was utterly seamless) have consistently done wonders in dealing with my complicated and eclectic signup posts. My latest gift work was no exception - a thoughtful, perceptive character piece focusing on Joan Watson from Elementary as she deals with single motherhood...and certain related challenges. It's a densely nuanced story, and looking at it again now makes me appreciate it all the more. (Note to self for future rounds: consider requesting fanart so we can get a look at Clyde in all his finger-painted glory.)

Building Blocks
Fandom: Elementary
Author:

Merfilly
Rating: General Audiences
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1400
Relationship: Joan Watson & Mary Morstan
Characters: Joan Watson, Mary Morstan
Additional Tags: canon-adjacent, gender identity, slice of life, friendship

Joan, raising her son, decides to seek a behavioral assessment, to be certain she is doing all she can for him.

Current Location: the top of the forest
Current Music: "Winnie the Pooh" (the slow thoughtful instrumental part)

As threatened, this should start the catching-up process as to what I've been up to between posting droughts.

I've been blessed by fellow fans over the years with a generous handful of excellent podfics presenting stories of mine in audio form. I've also been thinking for a long time about trying my own hand at podfic, but till relatively recently my hardware setup hasn't been ideal for attempting it. But in this past round of Holmestice, I was matched with

rachelindeed , who'd written a truly excellent Mycroft-centered story for me in a much earlier round...and I decided the time had come to test the waters. So for that assignment, I fired up Audacity, produced a podfic of that story, and grinned quite a bit during the guessing phase as people speculated on who might have recorded the work. The comments were uniformly both enthusiastic and kind, and it's not at all unlikely I'll continue to produce occasional podfic as the muse arises.

Art in the Blood • Podfic
Source Work: Art in the Blood by

rachelindeed
Length: ~32 minutes
Fandom: Murder By Decree (1979)
Rating: General Audiences
Category: Gen
Warnings: Spoilers (reveals canon ending)
Characters: Mycroft Holmes, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes
Additional tags: POV Mycroft Holmes, Podfic, Podfic Length: 30-45 Minutes, Career Change, Character Study

After the events of Murder by Decree, Mycroft Holmes leaves the British government and tries to decide what to do with the rest of his life.

I also produced a treat for starfishstar - we had both recently expressed interest in "kitten!Holmes", inspired by about five seconds of animation at the end of the screen credits for the Remington Steele TV series showing a tabby cat with a deerstalker and a calabash pipe. With a bit of time on my hands after turning in the podfic, I considered how to approach the material, and unexpectedly came up with the perfect tag line for the feline version of the Holmes-and-Watson meeting scene. This was the result:

A Foregone Introduction
Fandom: kitten!Holmes, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Category: Gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~700
Characters: Dr. Stamford, Murray, Sherlock (kitten!Holmes), Watson (kitten!Holmes)
Additional tags: cats, canon TV

A fateful meeting takes place at the Bartholomew Street Animal Shelter.

This too was enthusiastically received, although there was (of course) no question during the guessing phase as to who'd written it.

Current Location: between virtual chairs
Current Music: "Remington Steele" theme

Just (mostly) finished a project and took a moment to glance at this journal's "Recent Entries" page...and went *gleep*, because last October? Yeesh, there is no excuse, even given that "insanely busy" has been a Thing.

So here is a (very short) post, to at least break the cycle of inaction. I owe several more - for Holmestice and Yuletide, and wholly failed to do a proper letter for Unsent Letters; we'll see if I can get some of the catching up done this evening.

(During which I also need to fix dinner and work out how to rearrange my living room furniture to account for a new floor lamp. Wish me luck.)

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: a good half hour behind the White Rabbit
Current Music: "I'm Late" (Alice in Wonderland)

Greetings, O YuleScrivener, and welcome!

First of all, thank you! As a longtime requester of Seriously Obscure Fandoms™, I am constantly amazed when the matching process succeeds in finding authors who have actually heard of and fallen in love with the canons I so persistently request (there are some new ones this year, but there are also several that I've been reprising for ages now). And I am invariably delighted on Christmas morning when wonderful and wondrous stories land in my AO3 gift-folder. In particular, I've gotten some truly excellent treats in recent years, as well as a stream of gorgeous gifts - it boggles my mind that the Yuletide community is as consistently productive - and as consistently talented - as it is, and the fact that some of those stories are written just for me never ceases to amaze me.

A word about the current letter: With the evolution in Yuletide customs over the last few years, my detailed fandom requests, prompts and all, are mirrored straight from the signup itself. Anyone needing further details regarding a specific request should email the Yuletide mods. (As far as I'm concerned, this goes both for assigned writers and prospective creators of treats - to which I remain very much open - unless and until the mods tell us otherwise.) A year or two down the road, I may actually stop mirroring the request texts over here, and simply refer people back to the signup, just to save typing and formatting the crosspost, but we're not quite there yet.

My AO3 dashboard is linked to your left; feel free to cruise it looking for fandoms of mutual interest (or just to see what all I've written for). Here on DW, all my fic-exchange letters are tagged "dear santa" as well as to the relevant exchanges, Yuletide included. For those of you willing and able to feed my endless desire for crossovers and fusions, let those listings be your guide to prospective combinations.

Now, then: here's what you need to know about my reading tastes:

Things I like:
( Details: )

DNWs:
( Details: )

And here are the requests:

Diana Winthrop series - Kate Chambers (any character)
( Details: )

The Master (TV) (any character)
( Details: )

Mrs. Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman (Grace)
( Details: )

Tomorrowland (2015) (Athena)
( Details: )

Young Wizards - Diane Duane (Carmela, Dairine)
( Details )

The Zeta Project (any character)
( Details: )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: prowling the yuletide tag set
Current Music: "The Greatest Adventure" (Glenn Yarbrough, for "The Hobbit")

Late last week two threads crossed on the Letters of Mary email list - a couple of posters noted the arrival of Ms. King's newest novel (not, actually, a Russell book, but rather the start of a sequel-series to her earlier Kate Martinelli novels), and several others found in the change of seasons an excuse for an informal exchange of drabbles (that subset of fic that is 100 words exactly, or occasionally a multiple thereof).

And in the midst of that list traffic, the following dropped unexpectedly into my email, by what appears to be the same back-channel that supplied me with a certain Holmestice entry some rounds back. I tell you, it feels very odd getting these messages, but I'm certainly not going to complain; after all, look where that got (their) Professors Moriarty.

A Family Conference
Fandom: Mary Russell - Laurie R. King
Rating: General Audiences
Words: 300
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Russell
Additional Tags: Meta, Raquel Laing, Laurie R. King, Edited By, Triple Drabble
Series: Part 2 of Holmes & Russell in the 21st Century

Laurie King's newest novel, Back to the Garden, isn't part of the Mary Russell series...or is it? Sherlock Holmes appears to have thoughts on the matter.

Current Mood: weird
Current Location: under a magnifying glass, evidently
Current Music: a contemplative violin in the background

Reveals for Crossworks are up; owing to a summer chock-full of complicated life events, this was my first exchange this year - but as the crossover junkie that I am, I wasn't going to let it go by. And I'm glad I persisted, both because my gift this year featured one of my more obscure fandom requests (executed thoughtfully and to very good effect) and because my author said some really nice things in their notes on the fic.

So here's the gift:

The First Rule of Supervillainy
Written by: Sealgirl
Fandom: Columbo, Defenders of the Earth (Cartoon)
Rating: General Audiences
Words: ~2600
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lieutenant Columbo (Columbo), Ming the Merciless (Defenders of the Earth)
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Crossover

Even a supervillain, who’s skipped worlds and retired to a universe that your enemies can't reach, should be careful not to underestimate people. Especially policeman.

And here's my own contribution, in which I spun a three-and-a-half-way caper yarn featuring some of my favorite action heroines (and a villain I've always found entertaining).

The (Retroactively Classified) Triple Burglar Job
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Leverage, Stargate SG-1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~2300
Characters: Parker (Leverage), Alec Hardison, Vala Mal Doran, Ethan Rayne
Additional Tags: Crossover, Heist, Bechdel Test Pass, Stealth Crossover, Xanatos Gambits

The Orb of Qin-Jao is in a safe in a Manhattan condominium. But is it actually safe from an alien, a rogue warlock, and the world's greatest cat burglar?

Probably not....

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: second floor, menswear & coffee bar
Current Music: "My Dragon Pal & Me" (Galavant)

Long letter is long; it's kind of a feature for this exchange, and also of the way I build requests for it. I am contemplating ways around the issue, but in the interests of posting while the iron is hot, for this year the Epic remains an Epic.

First, of all, thank you. This is, I think, up at the advanced-mastery level of fic exchanges, and I am grateful to anyone who braves its challenges. And of course it's also one of my favorite exchanges - crossovers are a big part of my fanfictional universe as both a reader and writer, and I'm always delighted to have an excuse to jump into this briar patch.

So: let the Epic begin.

Why I'm Here

Three words: flexibility, challenge, and surprise.

As a writer, I come for the challenge. While I’m careful to offer for fandoms I know I can write, I tend to offer them in combinations that I also know will stretch my internal idea generator and my storytelling muscles. And I’ve offered – and will continue to offer – fandoms in clusters of four to six so that I absolutely won’t know ahead of time what my matches will look like. Much of the fun for me is in the range of what I might be asked to do. I want to be surprised by my recipient’s requests, and by the nature of the specific challenge facing me in any given year. Up to now, specific matching protocols notwithstanding, there’ve usually been several options open to me from among my recipients’ requests, and I hope that remains true this time around.

As a requester, I come bearing flexibility. As with offers, I tend to cluster my requests in groups of four to six, because – again, notwithstanding the specific match AO3’s Sorting Hat may generate – I want you to have choices too. In a way, I think of this as the thematic opposite of Yuletide, where we often do request specific heart-fandoms and hope for particular elements in the stories arising from them. Here, I am looking not for the story I’d write, or even the story I’d most like to read – rather, I’m looking for the story a given pair of crossed fandoms makes you write, because that’s most likely to be one I would never have thought of.

Thus, as both a writer and reader, I come to Crossworks for the surprise. I enjoy being surprised by the stories my muse draws from the match(es) I’m handed, and I very much enjoy being surprised by the stories your muse draws from the one(s) I’ve supplied for you. This is why I tend to give broad, general prompts rather than specific ones for this exchange. Having said that: if you would like more specific prompts than what I’ve supplied, please contact the mods, and I will cheerfully amplify on any of my individual request-clusters – which won’t spoil any surprises on either end, since only you will know the specific combo on which the original match was made.

Likes & Dislikes ( )

Fandom-Specific Notes ( )

Requests

#1: Modern Mischief ( )

#2: Doing It Old-School ( )

#3: They FIght Crime! ( )

#4: There's No Business Like Show Business... ( )

#5: Retro R Us ( )

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: dog-paddling like a mad thing away from the approaching waterfall
Current Music: piano score from a silent-era film during the big chase scene

So - clearly I need to post more often in order to encourage more of the gallery to chime in. Still, we have questions that deserve answers:

The list this round was as follows:

1     Agatha Harkness • MCU / WandaVision
2      Richard Swift/The Shade • Stargirl
3      Elisa Maza • Gargoyles
4      Adrien Agreste • Miraculous Ladybug
5      Carmen Sandiego • Carmen Sandiego / Netflix
6      Nicky Shen • Kung Fu
7      Jessica Fletcher • Murder She Wrote
8      Ron Stoppable • Kim Possible
9      Loki • MCU / Loki
10    May Parker • MCU / Spider-Man (Holland)
11    Dairine Callahan • Young Wizards (Duane)
12    Alfred Pennyworth • DCU / Batman
13    Daniel Jackson • Stargate SG-1
14    Sarah Jane Smith • Doctor Who
15    Kermit the Frog • Muppets

Questions from

thisbluespirit :
( Read more... )

A question from

senmut :

( Read more... )

Questions from

shewhostaples :

( Read more... )

###

Whoof. End round, with compliments to all the questioners. (I've occasionally had rounds where one or two of the questions conveniently connected with one another, but this one very nearly turned out to be a whole story more or less in itself, and that never happens.)

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: a theater in the space between universes
Current Music: "My Friend the Doctor"

All of a sudden there are three or four iterations of the venerable 15 Characters Meme on my reading page. How can I possibly resist adding to the mayhem?

ETA: The list of meme-ists, so far (because it's only fair to give everyone credit, and to encourage cross-reading)

astrogirl

calliopes_pen

shewhostaples

senmut

thisbluespirit

trobadora

Being me, I have long since tweaked the exact verbiage of the meme to my own specification, so the following is not actually copied from any of the other current meme-artists, but the process is identical.

Rules:
I've made a list of fifteen (15) characters from a variety of fandoms. Your job is to ask questions about various combinations of these characters (examples: What secret past do #8 and #14 share? What if #2, #6, and #9 went on a road trip? If #5 and #10 were having dinner, who invited who?), which I'll do my best to answer.

Once we've accumulated sufficient questions, I'll compile the results and make a new post or posts incorporating all the Qs and As. My original reason for this was to accommodate both the Dreamwidth and LJ versions of this journal; nowadays, it's because I tend to write sufficiently detailed answers that the threading would get complicated if I didn't.

Notes:
Different practitioners of this meme make different sorts of lists. My approach tends to involve recruiting from as many different sources as I can possibly manage (in this instance, either 13 or 15 unique fandoms are represented depending on how you count/label). Thus, queries are extremely likely to produce Improbable Crossover Theater for various -- and sometimes really weird -- values of "improbable". Management will do its best to respond to all queries posed, but reserves the right to designate some results Just Too Bizarre To Contemplate.

Let the game begin!

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: home again home again
Current Music: "James James Morrison Morrison" (Chad Mitchell Trio)

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Gray Cardinal @ AO3

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Page generated Jun. 15th, 2026 05:53 am

Charter

This is a fanfic journal. I'm interested in a wide variety of fandoms as well as in meta- and theoretical discussions; see my interests list for specific fandom categories. Comments, critiques, recs, reviews, and the like are always welcome.

March 2026

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As the Cardinal Flies

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