EXCHANGE INTERFACE

I received one fic, and wrote three:

My gift was:
accustom the eye to calmness by syllic: It's Pacific Rim: Stacker, Mako, and their first meeting from Stacker's POV rather than Mako's.

Go read it, it's sweet, simple, and uncomplicated. Sometimes you just want that.

My assignment was for crossing_hades | Persephones_Keeper (we seem to be meeting a lot in ficathons; can't imagine why...)

I ended up writing two stories, because I started writing one and posted it, but decided I didn't like it, so I wrote another one. Then I ended up rewriting the original one to be better, and now I'm pretty happy with both.

title: The Older Brother
summary: A parent should never have favourites.
relationships: Nick Fury & Maria Hill, Nick Fury & Natasha Romanoff, Nick FUry & Peggy Carter
characters: Nick Fury, Peggy Carter, Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff
warnings: None
ratings: PG-13
notes: A retelling of The Prodigal Son, from a different angle. Or: most people don't care about the ones who do the duty; but good parents don't have favourites - just children they love in different ways, for different reasons. I'm not sure fandom actually gets this.

title: Fall In, Fallout
summary: "Sometimes it’s not being the only brother that makes the difference. Sometimes it's the company you fall in with. Caterpillars and all."
relationships: Nick Fury & Gabe Jones, Gabe Jones & Dum Dum Dugan
characters: Nick Fury, Gabe Jones, Dum Dum Dugan
warnings: Use of a time-period accurate slur.
ratings: PG-13
notes: I don't generally read Nick-focused fic, so I don't know how most people look at his background/upbringing. However, given SLJ's age, Nick would have been among the first generation post-Civil Rights, which I thought was worth addressing - and glimpsing, as a sideline, how Gabe Jones got through the 40s and 50s as a black American hero, and member of the Howling Commandos.

And a pinch-hit.

title: Frayed Edges
summary: It’s one thing to know that Steve would go to the wall for Bucky Barnes – hell, isn't that what Sam’s been doing hanging around with Steve for the last two years? It’s another to believe he’d do the same for Sam.
relationships: Sam Wilson & Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson & Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson & Maria Hill
characters: Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, Maria Hill, Bucky Barnes, various other Avengers
warnings: None
ratings: PG-13
notes: Like the rest of fandom, I tend to write Sam in as the helper and counsellor character, and I wanted to avoid that in this fic - particularly in light of several Tumblr posts pointing out how damaging it is to write 'perfect' black people, there to help the 'damaged' white people (where the stories naturally focus on the damaged whites and how they reach resolution).

I don't think it's quite what the recipient wanted - she actually requested Steve/Bucky/Sam and c/p'd her Steve/Bucky prompts from Smut Swap, just asking to insert Sam at the top. *shrug* This was what I had in me, and I'm kind of glad to have written it.

Now, I'm frantically trying to finish marvel_bang: 7241/8000 (the minimum), to be handed in by tonight... And then I have to hope I get someone to do art who actually likes Maria, which I suspect is going to be an exercise in futility...

I'm loving the Maria-centric fic that's coming out of the woodwork after CA2:TWS! And I'm hoping there'll be more of it in future with her presence in AoS and A2:Age of Ultron...

laughter is the best medicine – sweetwatersong
Five times Sam Wilson has a good laugh, and one time Maria Hill has the last one.
Male-Female friendship. Maria Hill and Sam being excellent and solid not-friends, with no sex. How can this be anything but awesome? (Clue: it is totally awesome.)

Safe House by alphaflyer
After Washington, trust is in short supply; Maria Hill does not open her doors for just anyone.
Again, male-female friendship, this time with Maria and Clint post-Cap2, and with a touch of Clint/Natasha.

Inauguration by zelos
Someone has to keep the pieces together, and it sure as hell wasn't Stark.
There's a lot of compartmentalisation, the general inclusion of the Avengers, and practicality in this one. And apparently sequels to come! It's all good.

toppling the card tower (that was S.H.I.E.L.D) by littlesnake
Everything goes to pieces, but no one picks them up. They just learn to live with the shards, jagged edges and all that.
A fic that addresses what was most probably at least a friendship between Maria Hill and Jasper Sitwell, and does really well at characterisation of Maria.

Unfortunately (for me), there was no new Steve/Maria last I checked (Saturday night), but that's not entirely surprising. It's never going to be popular, although it seems that CA2 has generated a little more interest in it.