As the Cardinal Flies

Fly! All is known....

2025-06-09T15:58:54Z

I will have extremely limited access to a full-sized keyboard this week (phone, yes; proper keyboard, no), but don't want to disappear without acknowledging two wonderful recently-written gifts:

From Unsent Letters 2025:
A Series of Notes Attached to A UNIT Requisition Form by astrogirl

Three and the Brigadier navigate the halls of bureaucracy (and the vastness of time and space) in pursuit of an electron microscope. A perfect replication of the reality of bureacuratic procurement channels...

From Holmestice, Summer 2024:
a study in violin by unrevealed

A full-fledged and dead-flat-brilliant novella (!) following Elementary's Sherlock Holmes through a lifetime spent with a Stradivarius (and a great many complicated relationships).

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Holmestice Winter 2024: Written & Received

2025-04-01T19:48:16Z

Per immediately prior post, this is disastrously late - all the more embarrassing given that my gift for the prior round is genuinely exceptional. It's very much what it says on the tin - a post-ACD letter from Watson to Holmes, describing in eloquently researched detail (complete with a generous set of bibliographic links) the former's activities as a military medic during WW I:

A Letter From France
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Author rabidsamfan
Rating: General Audiences
Category: gen Warnings: none
Words: ~4600
Relationship: Holmes & Watson
Character: John Watson
Additional Tags: Ambulance Trains, Battle of the Somme, Correspondence, Watson knows Holmes can read between the lines, World War I

Watson writes to Holmes after becoming the commander of an Ambulance Train just before the Battle of the Somme.

For my part, I committed a more-than-usually ambitious fusion, merging elements of Laurie King's Mary Russell universe with those of Elementary....

The Really Final Problem
Fandoms: Mary Russell - Laurie R. King; Elementary
Rating: General Audiences
Category: gen, f/m
Warnings: none
Words: ~7600
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & Joan Watson, Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell, Sherlock Holmes & Sherlock Holmes
Characters: Sherlock Holmes (x2), Mary Russell, Joan Watson, Estelle Holmes
Additional Tags: crossover, fusion

Joan Watson's Sherlock Holmes has just come back to life.

Mary Russell's Sherlock Holmes has just come home with a copy of Joan Watson's book.

One Holmes is looking for an inheritance; the other has already bestowed it.

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Gifts: Holmestice 2023

2023-07-01T05:06:48Z

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

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Gifts: Yuletide 2022

2023-05-06T08:30:50Z

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....

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Gift: From Childhood to Beyond (Unsent Letters 2023)

2023-05-03T05:40:49Z

[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.

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Gift: Building Blocks (Holmestice, Winter 2022)

2023-04-28T23:08:07Z

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.

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Crossworks 2022: Written & Received

2022-09-06T04:19:16Z

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....

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