As the Cardinal Flies

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....

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

Batman (1966)
Crossover Fandom(s) - see below
Doctor Who
Gargoyles
Kim Possible
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Power Rangers Time Force
Stargate (SG-1)

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

Things I like:

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

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

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

DNWs:

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

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

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

Requests:

( Read more... )

Herewith the highlights of a day wandering through Yuletide:

ETA: I've given up trying to figure out why everything goes bold beyond the Gargoyles cut tag in this entry (*except* when you view it on a page by itself, when everything looks normal). Whatever's going on there, it's not an HTML thing, I promise.

( Aladdin (1992) )

( The Cremation of Sam McGee - Robert Service )

( Enola Holmes - Nancy Springer )

Note: A good deal of this text has been largely ported from prior letters, including a couple of recurring requests – although I have done a bit of editing, polishing, and reorganizing in some places, and there are new and expanded prompts throughout.

Greetings, O YuleScrivener, and welcome!  And also, thank you!  Where Yuletide is concerned, I am nothing if not a Requester Of The Seriously Obscure.  Thus I am always amazed when the technomancy of the matching process succeeds in finding a writer who shares my appreciation for said obscurity, and delighted on Christmas morning when a wonderful and wondrous story from that writer's (metaphorical) pen lands in my AO3 gift-folder.  We may just be setting out on this year's journey, but I know there's a happy ending to come, and I am grateful for it already.  Your work is (and will be) appreciated and valued, and I look forward to seeing its fruits.

These letters aren't getting any shorter, so while I've got detailed material farther down, I think it's only fair to give you the list of fandom requests up front.  So, those would be:

* Diana Winthrop series – “Kate Chambers”
* Gargoyles (TV) (Demona, Elisa, Macbeth, Titania | Anastasia)
* The Ice Ghosts Mystery - Jane Louise Curry (any)
* Young Wizards - Diane Duane (Carmela, Dairine)

General likes and dislikes

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 Yuletide letters (and those for other exchanges) are tagged "dear santa" herein; see the "Yuletide" tag too, 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. Yuletide being Yuletide and Optional Details Being Optional, I have absolutely no expectations along this line...but I have included an EXTREMELY OPTIONAL BONUS POINTS section in each of my requests, because I live in hope, and because I can’t resist this sort of opportunity.  Take these in the spirit in which they’re given, or set them aside as you prefer.

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 happens to take you into explicit territory in the context of one of these requests, I'm generally 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.  

Where I request single characters is not because I'm opposed to relationship-fic or multi-character stories – far from it. My goal is to give you greater flexibility in introducing additional characters, whether from those nominated or from wider canon. Even where I supply relatively specific prompts in a request, I want you to be able to shape the story; my suggestions are meant as springboards, not outlines.

I have typically requested single characters most often in past years; this year is an exception (two “any” requests, one list of four, one list of two).  Where I've requested specific characters, I've given a note in each request indicating what I’m looking for in terms of meeting the prompt.  Either way, you're absolutely encouraged to bring in any additional canon characters (or OCs) you feel should be involved given the demands of your plot.