As the Cardinal Flies

Crossworks 2025: Lost (and Found)

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 23:56:24 GMT

[Aside to sanguinity: you clearly need to see this.]

Now, then.

The collection for crossworks is live, and for once I'm going to get the thank-you post up in ridiculously good time. There is a great deal of excellent work in this exchange - I may in fact do a recs post here in a bit - but in the meantime: someone's written me a genuinely delightful tale that takes full advantage of the "mix any two things I've mentioned" element of the exchange, and that would be this:

Lost (and Found)
Fandoms: Young Wizards - Duane; Valdemar - Lackey
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2200
Characters: Dairine Callahan, original Valdemaran Companion
Additional Tags: crossover, interspecies friendship, portal fantasy, worldgates

"I'll have you know I'm not a horse girl."
"Then it's a good thing I'm not a horse."

Suffice to say that the author knows both these canons well, and that the blending is beautifully done. If you're familiar with both of them, it should be clear just from the summary that they've got the character voices down perfectly, and it keeps right on going from there.

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[Fic (Amnesty: Into a Bar)] All in the Subtext (Miraculous Ladybug/Batman)

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 20:52:59 GMT

One more step toward catching up with all my outstanding prompts for the FIcathon That Goes Into A Bar....

Title: All in the Subtext
Author: graycardinal /gray_cardinal
Prompt: Gabriel Agreste ~~goes into a bar~~ visits a Gotham City bookstore…and meets Barbara Gordon!
Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug / Batman: TAS
Word count: ~1700
Rating: Suitable for all ages.
Warnings: None.

Ninety-five percent of the volumes on Codex Antiquaria's shelves were simply old, and little more than that, each waiting for one of the half-dozen people on Earth with a unique interest in the particular topic whose subject that work concerned.

Not surprisingly, the remaining five percent – the grimoires, the spell-books, the alchemical field guides, the encyclopediae of magical artifacts – drew most of the paying customers.

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[Fic} Two down, /mumble/ to go (Into A Bar, Jacqueline Kirby / Nancy Drew)

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 04:25:02 GMT

And we continue the "Into a Bar" catch-up process. This one sat idle as long as it did because while I had a premise in mind almost at once, the execution stalled almost as soon as I'd had the idea. And then this past week, once I'd looked at it again, I realized where it really needed to go.

I probably owe a little bit to Chelsea Cain for this one, because what I've done with Ned here is at least partially inspired by what she did with him in Confessions of a Teen Sleuth.

Title: Why Me?
Fandoms: Jacqueline Kirby series (Elizabeth Peters) / Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Word count: ~1500
Characters: Jacqueline Kirby, Ned Nickerson
Relationship: Nancy Drew & Ned Nickerson
Rating: Suitable for all ages.
Warnings: None.

Jacqueline Kirby ~~goes into a bar~~ visits a jail … and meets Ned Nickerson.

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[Fic] He writes, and having writ....

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 06:24:37 GMT

I am disastrously late, as usual, in catching myself up on fic postings. That being the case, you're about to get three things at once: my unsent_letters_exchange fic, my holmestice fic, and a just-posted amnesty story for intoabar (the story is up on AO3, but the corresponding entry is in the mod queue on the DW comm).

First, for Unsent Letters, a series of journal entries that turned out to be rather more of a comedy than I expected going in.

Written By The Winners
Fandoms: Power Rangers Time Force
Rating: all ages
Category: F/M
Warnings: none
Words: ~3200
Relationship: Lucas Kendall/Nadira
Characters: Lucas Kendall, Nadira, Ransik Additional Tags: epistolary, poetry, haiku, limericks

If the poem had really been written to Lucas' car, then none of what had happened made any sense. Unless....

Piece by piece, Nadira unravels the tangle of mixed signals and unintended consequences.

Next, the Holmestice story, which, while not precisely comical, allowed me to indulge my fondness for (seriously obscure) Gilbert & Sullivan....

The Affair of the Statutory Duel
Fandoms: Sherlock Holmes (ACD); The Grand Duke (Gilbert & Sullivan)
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2600
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, Rudolph (Grand Duke)
Additional Tags: secret history, royal intrigue, Great Hiatus

Either the following material is an out-and-out forgery...or just possibly, Gilbert and Sullivan owe the central plot device of their last operetta to none other than Sherlock Holmes.

(Which is to say, the story to which this summary is attached raises a hell of a lot more questions than it answers.)

And just tonight, a stupendously late (we won't even mention the year I put in the original request) intoabar tale, in which I attempt to explain how legendary Power Ranger Tommy Oliver survived the volcanic explosion and complete destruction of a remote tropical island.

Where You Need to Be
Fandoms: Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Gargoyles
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2800
Characters: Tommy Oliver, Katharine (Gargoyles), Ophelia (Gargoyles)
Additional Tags: crossover, interstitial

Death by drowning, Tommy Oliver reflected, was totally unfair.

I'd always wondered how Tommy survived the aftermath of Dino Island blowing up (as we see in an early episode of Dino Thunder). And then the dice-rollers at the Ficathon That Goes Into A Bar handed me the answer....

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Fly! All is known....

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:58:54 GMT

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 (Summer '24) "The Affair of the Command Performance"

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 04:48:38 GMT

My recipient this round was mundungus42, for whom I also wrote "The Possibility of the Improbable" quite a few rounds back. Initially, I thought this gave me a chance to write a tale I'd had in the back of my head for years...but that idea declined to supply a plot to go with it, and so I reread the signup post, noticed an improbable-looking possibility (why yes, you should be picking up a theme here), asked myself a couple of key "what if" questions...

...and the rest pretty much rolled out like a magic carpet from there, including two complete musical numbers, a sheep (or SHEEP), and a theater that may just be bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

The Affair of the Command Performance
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD); Muppet Show
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none Words: ~6900
Relationship: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Kermit the Frog, Statler (Muppets), Waldorf (Muppets), Sweetums (Muppets), Scooter (Muppets), Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker (Muppets), Rowlf the Dog, Baskerville (Muppets), Rizzo the Rat
Additional Tags: musical, songs, stealth crossover

Holmes and Watson are invited to an evening at the theater - only to find themselves guests at an unexpected celebration with an even more unexpected mystery behind it, and an even more unlikely performance as its featured climax.

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Yuletide: Ladies Who Lunch (Jackie Chan Adventures)

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:41:44 GMT

My contribution to Yuletide this past year is based on the animated Jackie Chan Adventures series dating from the turn of the century (yeesh! How time flies...), as follows:

Ladies Who Lunch
Fandom: Jackie Chan Adventures
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1800
Characters: Jade Chan, Mama Tohru, original female character
Additional Tags: Bechdel Test pass, Misses Clause challenge, yakuza, aikido

Seattle's Pike Place Market is notable for a great many things, not least of them a certain giant bronze piggy bank named Rachel. So why is there a yakuza following the small girl who's admiring Rachel...and what are two of the most dangerous women on the West Coast going to do about it?

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Holmestice (Winter 2023) - Written & Received

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 19:33:20 GMT

A new experience this round (and a round with a great many new and capable players besides): I got a genuinely nifty vid!

Elementary!
Creator: beakeaper
Rating: G
Fandoms/Sources: Elementary, Murder By Decree, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987), Sherlock: The Musical, Star Trek: TNG*, Young Sherlock Holmes
Relationships: Holmes & Watson(s) (John, Joan, Jane)
Warnings: none

Holmes and Watson's friendship in different versions, the greatest duo, represented by the song "Elementary" from "Sherlock: The Musical".

////

For my part, I wrote a pre-Reichenbach story - this one from Holmes' POV - for tadhana_writess.

A Problem of Trust
Rating: G/all ages
Fandom: ACD
Relationship: Holmes & Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Mycroft Holmes
Words: ~1900
Warnings: none

The astute reader may wonder why neither Watson nor his literary agent were ever brought to court by Professor Moriarty or his relations. The truly serious reader is likely to ask the more intriguing question: given the sterling public reputation ascribed to the professor, and the care which Moriarty took to protect it, why would he, his heirs, or his business associates not take legal action against Watson and Conan Doyle?

Some few of those devoted to the close study of Watson’s writings have deduced the answer. Insofar as I am aware, however, no one has ever satisfactorily explained who – or why – someone might have chosen to invent Moriarty in the first place.

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Meme: 1st & Last x5

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 04:40:21 GMT

By way of chestnut_pod:

Go through your five most recent fics & post the first and last lines. Do not provide context.

[A note: I'm defining "most recent" for values of "most recently written" as opposed to "most recently posted", because a couple of the five in the latter category are very old commentfic.]

So, herewith the results from my latest five works, listed from earliest posted to most recent:

Studies in (Relatively) Contemporary Egyptology

1st: Dr. Jackson: I’ve got an ancient (Earth) history class coming up in school this fall, and they want us to do a major research project as part of it.

last: Let’s hope it stays there.

The Mice and the Mastermind

1st: This account is a difficult one to write.

last: I cannot but blush at his words – but I have found it best, in the end, not to disagree.

Under the Hill and Far Away

1st: “’Tis a special occasion,” said the spare, silver-haired gentleman as he stepped up to the bar in a particular pub off Cavendish Square.

last: “Indeed,” said Russell, smiling, “on both counts. So, how soon are we invited for dinner?”

New Plan

1st: “Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Mup- er, Q-36 Scientific, where the future is being made today. How can I help you?”

last: He tapped the Send button on his mobile phone, then picked up the suite’s desk phone, tapped a button, and said, “Room service? I’d like to place an order for 3200….”

As Lucky Can Be

1st: Emma MacGill stood ready, outwardly calm and collected, awaiting her cue.

last: “Oh, that’s a spare. Hold onto it as a souvenir; you never know when it might come in handy.”

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Crossworks 2023 (2 of 2): As Lucky Can Be

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 02:03:29 GMT

I noted in the prior post that both the story I wrote and the gifts I received involved Mary Poppins, but it was more interesting than that: in fact, sinkauli and I were each other's recipients.

In this case, my own story is a bit of an outlier. I chose to blend the Poppins canon with Murder She Wrote - but rather than focusing on Jessica Fletcher, I decided to spotlight her identical cousin Emma MacGill (also played by Angela Lansbury), and to connect the tale with Mary Poppins Returns by way of ~~Lansbury's~~ Emma's appearance therein. Which leads us to:

As Lucky Can Be
Fandoms: Murder She Wrote, Mary Poppins
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~2900
Characters: Emma MacGill, Jessica Fletcher, Lin-Manuel Miranda, a chimney sweep, a lamplighter, Frankie Fletcher
Additional Tags: theater, movies

Some career decisions are more life-changing than others....

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Crossworks 2023 (1 of 2): Practically perfect gifts

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 01:39:05 GMT

The arrival of Yuletide admin posts on my reading page reminds me that I haven't yet posted about Crossworks, in which I received two excellent gifts and wrote one...

...all of which managed to involve Mary Poppins.

Written for me:

Well Met on the Common Journey
Fandoms: Mary Poppins, Young Wizards
Author sinkauli
Rating: G
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1700
Relationship: Mary Poppins & Daryl McAllister
Characters: Mary Poppins, Daryl McAllister
Additional Tags: canon autistic character, nannies

Darryl isn't a little kid any more. But this nanny isn't an ordinary nanny.

A really excellent, perceptive story that does justice to both its principal characters - not an easy thing, given that one is neurodivergent and one is notoriously prickly. The writing here is exceptionally sensitive and wonderfully respectful, and fits the two canons together wisely and well.

////

Clark, I Don't Think We're In Smallville Anymore
Fandom: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Mary Poppins
Author Missy
Rating: G
Category: multi
Warnings: none
Words: ~1800
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Dorothy Gale & Ozma
Characters: Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Mary Poppins, Tip|Ozma, Dorothy Gale, original characters
Additional Tags: Humor, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Crossover, World Hopping, Friendship, Mild Injuries, With A Twist, Magic, Canon-Typical Magic, ambiguous ending, Crack Treated Seriously

Lois Lane and Clark Kent find themselves stuck in Oz when they're unexpectedly attacked by a cyclone-powered supervillain. While following the yellow brick road in an attempt at getting some help, they find a very proper nanny stuck in an apple tree. Together, they travel to the city of Oz, looking for a way home. Only Princess Ozma and her closest companion can solve the problem. Or can she?

The "crack treated seriously" tag fits this piece really well; what we have here is a brisk, neatly characterized tale that drops Lois & Clark into an early-ish Oz that blends elements of the books and the classic movie, then adds Mary Poppins for good measure. The fusion is cleverly done, taking L&C as its baseline tone, and the entire cast is portrayed with an even hand. For sheer fun value, this is a story that's hard to beat.

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Fic: New Plan (L'Engle/Muppets)

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 09:57:40 GMT

Amazingly, I have now actually made a bit of progress on completing old projects - in this case, the first of a whole slew of "Into A Bar" prompts that I asked for and then didn't get done during their initial windows. This one dates from 2018, and turned out to be a sequel - if rather an odd one - to a prior story of mine. So now I have yet another series in my bibliography, and one that is both very strange and evidently a long way from being fully resolved. (It's possible, I think, to read this one without having to look at the first, but I won't mind at all if you start with the earlier entry...)

Anyway....

Title: New Plan
Author: graycardinal / graycardinal
Prompt: Kali Cutter ~~goes into a bar~~ visits a high-tech research laboratory and meets…Dr. Bunsen Honeydew!
Fandoms: Austin/Murry/O’Keefe stories (Madeleine L’Engle); Muppets
Words: ~2500
Rating: Suitable for all ages
Warnings: none

In plain language, he was a Muppet. Except, of course, where there are Muppets one usually expects Muppeteers, and the Dr. Honeydew who’d just hopped off a stool behind a cluttered laboratory table to greet us landed on two perfectly ordinary feet (if you can use “ordinary” to describe plush feet wearing black rubber-soled sneakers) with no sticks, strings, or other Muppet manipulators in sight.

“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…”

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Fic: Into A Bar 2023

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:53:23 GMT

For once, I actually got an entry into intoabar on deadline! Go me!

Alfred Pennyworth walks into a bar and meets...Mary Russell!

Under the Hill and Far Away
Fandom: Batman - All Media Types, Mary Russell - Laurie R. King
Rating: all ages
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1100
Relationship: Alfred Pennyworth & Mary Russell
Characters: Alfred Pennyworth, Mary Russell
Additional Tags: crack, magic

It's been almost half a century since Alfred Pennyworth, long-retired from British intelligence, has seen one of his oldest colleagues in spycraft. Now he's about to find out what she's been up to...and where.

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Fic: Written for Holmestice, Summer 2023

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:40:29 GMT

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.

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Gifts: Holmestice 2023

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:06:48 GMT

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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Fic: Written for Unsent Letters (2023)

Thu, 11 May 2023 08:26:03 GMT

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.

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Fic: Odds and ends

Mon, 08 May 2023 23:32:42 GMT

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.
--

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Gifts: Yuletide 2022

Sat, 06 May 2023 08:30:50 GMT

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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Fic: Written for Yuletide (2022)

Tue, 02 May 2023 04:03:18 GMT

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.

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Fic: Written for Holmestice, Winter 2022 (x2)

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 22:12:23 GMT

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.

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Fic(?): A Family Conference

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 07:19:48 GMT

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.

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Crossworks 2022: Written & Received

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 04:19:16 GMT

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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Yuletide 2021: "Principles of"

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 22:47:16 GMT

A quiet Yuletide for me this year - one gift rather than last year's extraordinary three, but a very worthy gift it is, being a thoughtful and warm look at a couple of the canon's adult characters as they circle into each other's orbits.

Principles of
Fandom: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~1500
Characters: Harry Callahan (Young Wizards), Irina Mladen, Nita Callahan, Dairine Callahan
Additional Tags: Fluffy little genfic, Discussion of partner loss, Mentions of Cancer, fuck cancer

In which a nonWizarding parent and the Planetary for Earth get to know each other; or, the beginning of Harry Callahan and Irina Mladen’s friendship.

Meanwhile, my contribution - admittedly a short piece in a pretty thinly populated fandom - is slowly accumulating kudos (which appears to be in large part the new normal for Yuletide these days; the recs-and-comments bandwagon is not what it used to be). It is, however, early in the cycle as yet.

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Remix Revival: Iron Man & the Avengers, (Alt) JIm Kirk & Narnia

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 23:29:09 GMT

Busy writer is busy: I picked up a pinch hit for Remix Revival, and also filled a Remix Revival Madness prompt. (And I have my Yuletide assignment, but that's a different post....)

The pinch hit remixes an MCU/Iron Man episode wherein Tony has - perhaps unwisely - made a bet with Captain America that he can go for 24 hours without making use of any of his personally customized techie-toys (including, obviously, JARVIS). Unlike most of my prior remixes, this one is not primarily a POV shift, and it keeps most of the original work's plot. The difference is in the detail - more JARVIS, some shifting of emphasis on the way through, and a very different climax.

A Day in the Life (aka the "Rules to Live By" Remix)
Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies)
Inspired by: Switching Off by red_b_rackham
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~7700
Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Darcy Lewis, Thor (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Remix, Bets & Wagers, Addiction

Tony is drawn into a bet wherein he must abstain from high-tech gadgetry for 24 hours. Can he survive? Are his friends conspiring against him? And exactly what counts as "high-tech gadgetry" in the 21st century, anyway?

The Madness item is a short ficlet concerning pre-canon (Abrams movieverse) Jim Kirk's reaction to having four eccentric English youngsters move in next door to his small-town Iowa home - said youngsters being the four Pevensie protagonists of the Narnia adventures, which the work being remixed postulates as having taken place on a distant planet rather than a world beyond a wardrobe. This one was more typical for me, being a straight viewpoint reversal, and represents my first foray into both these fandoms (I've done Star Trek before, but not Abramsverse).

A Dangerous Neighborhood (the Alternate-Cubed Remix)
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Inspired By: Bad Influence by edenfalling
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~500
Characters: James T. Kirk, Peter Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, Lucy Pevensie
Additional Tags: Remix, remix madness

Jim Kirk is clearly dangerous.

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Crossworks 2021: Miraculous Batman, Two Doctors (but not those Doctors), and an Alien

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 13:31:28 GMT

Now it can be told: I wrote not one but two stories for Crossworks this round! Two very different stories, in fact:

Miraculous Batman
Written For: silveradept
Fandoms: Batman (1966), Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Words: ~4500
Characters: Batman, Robin, Alfred Pennyworth, Penguin (Character), Original Miraculous Ladybug Character(s)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Stealth Crossover, Bad Puns

The title says it all: imagine Adam West's Batman time-shifted 45 years ahead - and overlaid with Miraculous Ladybug's kwamis, powers, and talismans.

Written in the Stars
Written For: skieswideopen
Fandoms: Elementary (TV), Stargate SG-1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Words: ~2200
Characters: Joan Watson (Elementary), Cassandra Fraiser, George Hammond, Janet Fraiser (Stargate)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Canonical Character Death

Two women meet at Columbia University's medical school, bonding over a cadaver, a trombone, and three watermelons. Years later, one of them needs a favor....

One of these was technically a pinch hit, but as it happens I'd seen the potential match-up go by during the signup phase and was instantly struck by its potential implications - and then the opportunity arose, I'd already turned in my official assignment, and it was thereby an offer that I couldn't possibly refuse.

And now I have a week off work, which includes travel plans and (barring smoke issues) live theater. And maybe a bit of further writing in one of these settings....

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As the Cardinal Flies

Crossworks 2025: *Lost (and Found)*

[Fic (Amnesty: Into a Bar)] All in the Subtext (Miraculous Ladybug/Batman)

[Fic} Two down, /mumble/ to go (Into A Bar, Jacqueline Kirby / Nancy Drew)

[Fic] He writes, and having writ....

Fly! All is known....

Holmestice (Summer '24) "The Affair of the Command Performance"

Yuletide: Ladies Who Lunch (Jackie Chan Adventures)

Holmestice (Winter 2023) - Written & Received

Meme: 1st & Last x5

Crossworks 2023 (2 of 2): As Lucky Can Be

Crossworks 2023 (1 of 2): Practically perfect gifts

Fic: New Plan (L'Engle/Muppets)

Fic: Into A Bar 2023

Fic: Written for Holmestice, Summer 2023

Gifts: Holmestice 2023

Fic: Written for Unsent Letters (2023)

Fic: Odds and ends

Gifts: Yuletide 2022

Fic: Written for Yuletide (2022)

Fic: Written for Holmestice, Winter 2022 (x2)

Fic(?): A Family Conference

Crossworks 2022: Written & Received

Yuletide 2021: "Principles of"

Remix Revival: Iron Man & the Avengers, (Alt) JIm Kirk & Narnia

Crossworks 2021: Miraculous Batman, Two Doctors (but not those Doctors), and an Alien

Crossworks 2025: Lost (and Found)