As the Cardinal Flies

Aaaaand here we go again!

I signed up at the tail end of the window for this, but I am as enthusiastic as I've ever been, and will be as grateful for New Stuff To Read as these exchanges invariably make me.  So much wonderful material comes out of all of these, and having a bit of it be particularly for me is an ongoing source of delight.  So thank you for taking part, and let's get to the good stuff....

General Notes

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; see also "exchange: not prime time" if you like. To summarize, though: 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 AUs -- the plot-driven kind, not the baristas/highschoolers/alt-species kind). 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.

I am also a sucker for the well-executed crossover, whether via oblique allusion or head-on fandom collision. Optional Details Being Optional, I have absolutely no expectations along this line -- and the openings for such this year aren't what they might be, given the focus on requesting relationships vs. individual characters in this year's exchange. But if your muse's musings wander into crossover territory on their own initiative, feel free to encourage them.

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. That said, if your muse takes you into explicit territory as you're plotting, I'm willing to follow along for the ride. I have few outright personal squicks save for noncon, incest, or adult/child kinks so long as a given relationship is age- and canon-appropriate. [See the requests for canon-specific notes.]

As regards characters not mentioned in the requests -- relationship request structure notwithstanding, I am always and happily open to inclusion of additional canon characters relevant to a given story.  I'm also not opposed to original characters, so long as they fit into the story in context and don't unduly take it over.

Batman Beyond • Ra's & Talia; Talia & Bruce (**optional**: Barbara & Terry)

The family al-Ghul turned up in just one episode of Batman Beyond (see, I'm making the canon review simple!), but oh what an episode it was.  I have been hoping for years that someone will eventually write the story of what *really* happened between Ra's and Talia when Ra's did what he says he did in "Out of the Past".  As you can perhaps tell, I tend to suspect that things did not go quite the way Ra's says they did onscreen, at least not without one unholy hell of a fight.  I am also being deliberately oblique -- if you've seen the episode, you know what I'm talking about, but if you haven't, the twist in question is one I don't want to spoil for you.

If that particular episode doesn't interest your muse, here's a wholly optional alternative (because the relationship tag in question was unfortunately left out of the tag set).  We saw a lot of the evolving relationship between Terry and Bruce in the three seasons of BB's run; by contrast, we didn't -- to my mind -- see nearly enough of the evolving relationship between Terry and police commissioner Barbara Gordon (who seems not to have been Oracle at all in this iteration of the DCU).  I would be fascinated and intrigued by a story exploring the Barbara/Terry dynamic as it develops (or doesn't) during Terry's tenure as Batman.

Gargoyles (TV) • Macbeth & Elisa; Macbeth & Demona; Macbeth & Xanatos; Demona & Xanatos; Puck | Owen Burnett & Xanatos

While none of the listed relationships are romantic as such, I don't deny that Demona in particular occasionally uses romantic overtures for her own purposes, particularly where Macbeth is concerned (although that particular episode struck me as very odd in some respects).  As this set of relationship tags suggests, I am very much a fan of Macbeth at pretty much all stages of his extremely long life, and convinced that there's a lot of dimension to him that we just didn't get a chance to see onscreen.  Of the relationships listed, clearly the Macbeth-&-Elisa dynamic is the one with almost no canon to look toward (which is one of the things that fascinates me about it, because their relationships to law and justice strike me as grounds for developing a bond).  I'm also curious about the ways in which Macbeth and Xanatos may have crossed paths in the modern business world, both before and after the Awakening,  In the case of the two relationships involving Demona, feel very free to introduce and make use of the Weird Sisters as catalysts or manipulators of events.  And where Owen and Xanatos are concerned...it's never boring when both your players are the smartest person in the room, even if one of them is deliberately playing the straight man.  It's kind of scary to contemplate what they might try were they to truly collaborate on some particular project....

Kim Possible (Cartoon) • Kim & Ron; Ron & Yori; Kim & Yori; Kim/Ron/Yori

If you think you see a pattern here-- why yes, I am intrigued by Yori and her relationships with Kim and Ron, and yes, I *did* suggest the prospect of a stable triad up there  -- although as far as I could tell when I looked, even though that tag is AO3-canonical, I don't think anyone's actually written fic that uses that tag in that way.  If that idea intrigues you, too, I absolutely encourage you to show me how Our Heroes get there.  As the non-romantic version of that triad isn't AO3-canonical, I couldn't formally request it, but *if* you'd prefer to look at the trio that way, I'm equally happy with that iteration.  I should make it clear here that I *like* Yori, even and especially when she's calling Kim out, and I hope that any story featuring the two will treat both characters with appropriate respect. (Which is to say: no bashing either Kim or Yori here, if you please.)  Do not hesitate to bring in additional characters where they fit; in particular, I have said before that I think putting Shego and Yori together (whether as adversaries or temporary allies) might be a recipe for comedy gold, high-powered kung fu, or possibly both at once.

An aside here: as much as I like Yori, I am not wholly fond of the Monkey Fist/Hana story arcs in Season 4 -- and indeed, there are still bits of Season 4 I haven't properly seen, having fallen into KP fandom while mostly cable-deprived.  If you prefer to head in AU directions that don't include Season 4, I am right there with you (and of course, that stable-triad thing is almost certainly AU in itself).  Note that the preceding isn't an objection to Monkey Fist in general, just to the way the writers took things in Season 4.

Iron Man (Movies) • JARVIS & Tony

I have a long-standing interest in AI characters inside and outside of fanfic, and JARVIS is no exception.  Also, having been a longtime DC fan, I am highly amused at the way the Iron Man franchise took pages of the JARVIS-and-Tony relationship straight from the Alfred-and-Bruce Bat-playbook.  (The meta geek in me is convinced that JARVIS has read/seen a lot of Batman material; I would dearly love to see this confirmed and flipped inside out in fic.)

As far as other prompts are concerned, the most obvious one may be slightly outside official source (since the relevant continuity point happens in Age of Ultron): I am deeply annoyed with the MCU movie franchise for writing JARVIS out in the process of bringing in Vision.  It's not that I dislike having Vision around; it's just that between backups and AI-level strategic thinking, I don't see why we can't have *both* JARVIS and the Vision around.  So feel free to write me the story in which Tony and JARVIS find their way back to each other after the whole Ultron thing has blown over.

Not Prime Time is open, and I have been officially wowed.  My gift story is a truly excellent, canon-wise deconstruction of a character who may never actually have been a supervillain after all.  There is much other good work in the collection as well, some of which I hope to rec later, but here's what was written for me:

Wreck My Mind While the Planet Turns
Fandom: Sky High
Character: Gwen Grayson
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Words: ~ 1600
Summary:
She’s still not exactly sure what she’s actually going to make of her life, but she knows that whatever she does, she won’t be wasting her potential.

What I wrote for Not Prime Time this year:

The Virtue of Redundancy
Doctor Who (1963)
(Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, the Master (Ainley))
G • No Archive Warnings Apply
~ 4000 words

For sirvalkyrie (aka VampirePaladin).

The Master smiled silkily. “That’s the virtue of redundancy, my dear. Even if you had, the watch and the Kalisutra parasites would have been enough to carry the day."

In which there are watches, cheese, chocolate, and a twist or two.

And what I received:

Rebuilding, by kalisgirl / kalisgirl
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Pepper Potts, Maria Hill, Grant Ward)
G • No Archive Warnings Apply
~ 3000 words

Four Times Melinda Didn't Mean to Hurt Phil Coulson (and One Time She Sort of Did)

A delightful backward/forward look at the Coulson/May character bond. Just what I hoped for, and a pleasure to have had written for me.