Fest Roundup - Gifts Received

This has been an interesting exchange season, in part because of Real Life drama that has been going on a lot longer than it should, and because, for some reason, my requests keep going to pinch hit at the last minute. My crossovering request went to ph three days after assignments were due and my yuletide_admin request went to ph the day before assignments were due. (I feel I must have gotten a reputation somewhere as a difficult assignee. How do I fix this?) I also did hlh_shortcuts and didn't go to ph, which is good because I wasn't available this year to pick up any pinch hits. ;)

The consequence, oddly enough, has been some really enjoyable gifts.

Crossovering

I Left My Heart in 1990 by flukeoftheuniverse - Highlander/DC's Legends of Tomorrow - 3390 words - The Waverider crew picks up a guest after an unsuccessful trip to the 90s to find Vandal Savage. Vandal Savage does not appear in this story.

Yuletide

Beyond Metropolis by setcheti - Beyond Metropolis (Song) - Shriekback - 2223 words - The world outside the walls of Metropolis had blue skies, just like in my mother's stories.

Metropolis, My Love by foxtwin - Beyond Metropolis (Song) - Shriekback - 1234 words - A canonically conceptual view of Metropolis from the outside.

In This Darkest Closet, Tryin' to Figure It Out by htbthomas - My Secret Identity - 1544 words - Andrew, Kirk and Cassie are trapped in a closet, and Kirk only has one question: why won't Andrew use his powers?

and I got an NYR

Pack is Home, Home is Pack by mercybuckets - Wolfblood - 2771 words - Maddy juggles exams, applications, diplomacy and plans for the future. On top of everything, Rhydian is acting weird and her powers are acting up. One thing’s for sure, life in Canada for a teenaged wolfblood is no picnic.

HLH Shortcuts

Introspective Christmas or how to turn your life upside down in the course of an hour by banbury - Highlander - 1595 words - Open your eyes and you might find something unexpected.

Fest Roundup - Gifts Given

All the stories I wrote this season were tough nuts to crack, in one way or another.

crossovering sign-ups finished with me being unmatchable on people I could write for, which gave me first dibs at the list of people who were unmatchable on writers. Fortunately, there was no shortage of fandoms I was familiar with; the only issue was that I hadn't written in any of them before, so trying to do a crossover with two new fandoms was a challenge. saturnofthemoon was requesting several fandoms that I am currently familiar with, one of which I was in the middle of my second consecutive binge-watch on, so I chose her to match with. After tossing around several ideas and combinations, I wrote:

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. - Leverage/DC's Legends of Tomorrow - 2000 words - Hardison finds an incriminating photograph of Eliot that reveals surprises in Eliot's past and future.

yuletide_admin was a deliberate risk. As big and permanent of a fan as I am of any of The Tomorrow People shows, I did one or more stories in them the last several years, so this year I threw in with Houdini & Doyle, a show I really enjoyed over the summer and had requesters I'm not already friends with. I matched to seren_ccd and, after several false starts and a great deal of research that kept blowing holes in my plans, wrote:

Find a Penny - Houdini & Doyle - 1761 words - Adelaide hasn't always been Adelaide, and she doesn't know if she always will be.

Finally, there was Shortcuts. I really appreciate how the mod for that works to shuffle assignments around so it's not the same people matching with the same people every year. Considering what a small group we are, that must be difficult. This year I was assigned to morgynleri. Among her character requests was Richie Ryan, who was probably the reason for the match, only my head's in a really specific place with him right now because of the SFC universe that I've now been writing for over a year. So I went with a different character selection and decided to do a story about the spin-off girl Katherine and her mortal husband Nick. I ended up with:

Where the Love Light Gleams - Highlander - 2400 words - Nick only wants his family together for the holidays.

Though I started several, I didn't manage any treats this year. Here's to hoping I can pull something together for fandom_stocking