The Tyranny of Socks

Title: like love we seldom keep
Author: Vanzetti
Characters: John Winchester, Marita Covarrubias, Alex Krycek (Marita/John, Marita/Alex)
Rated: Adult
A/N: Post-series for X-Files, pre-series for SPN. Title from W. H. Auden. Many thanks to zarahemla and se_parsons for beta-reading; they did their best to make the story better, and all the problems left are mine.
Summary: A hunter wanders through the pages of someone else's story.
c. 4000 words

( John knocks on the door to unit 16 a little after two in the afternoon. It's just one more anonymous brick townhouse in a whole row of them, white paint and green lawns in a suburb so neat it makes his teeth ache. Just like all the others, but this one has a vicious spirit haunting it: a few months of pranks, but now the cop in unit 14 is in the hospital and this townhouse is at the top of John's list. )

A little bird told me... no, OK, I saw it on my friends list. Apparently today is an unfinished fic amnesty day, and I've decided to sacrifice this one to the gods of perhaps someday finishing something I start.

Here's how it goes. Once upon a time, while I was preparing for my dissertation defense, not long after the Unfortunate Incident, I wrote an X-Files/Highlander crossover entitled Joy, Watchfulness, Wishing. It's not a perfect story, but I'm still fond of it. Anyway, one of the things about that story is that the main characters of both shows were MIA, and as I thought about it, a sequel with Duncan in it seemed like a reasonable idea. Also, I was reading a certain number of stories with Matthew McCormick in them, largely through the influence of gryphonrhi, and it seemed like a good idea to include him as well. And Skinner. And that was the genesis of "Revenge of the Plastic Hand, or, How Matthew McCormick Spent His Summer Vacation." I will never finish it, but there are a couple scenes I'm fond of, so I'm taking the opportunity to post it now.

( the story opens not long after the scene in the garage )

So McCormick and Skinner head for Eretria, but instead of finding Cory (or Krycek!) they find Duncan, who's doing something humanitarian and trying to avoid all other immortals. He tells them to get lost, but McCormick tries to get him interested in their problem.

( a brief scene )

Anyway, the three of them go to Bahrain to find Amanda and Cory. They track them down on the street, or in a courtyard, or something -- I hadn't quite set the scene in my head -- and and Skinner is the front man, coming up behind Cory in the courtyard of the house he and Amanda were using. OK, so maybe I had set the scene, if not worked out the blocking.

( Cory is not quite what Skinner was expecting. )

Anyway, they go inside to talk to Amanda.

( I am extremely fond of this scene, because it has Amanda being kind of a drama queen, but in a good way )

And this is where the story starts to run into trouble, because actually I had no idea why Matthew was sent that damn tape in the first place, and I also didn't know what to do with anyone once I got Skinner, Duncan and Matthew to Polynesia. I have about a paragraph of their arrival, but it's a complete change of tone, what with the worry that Krycek will start killing people, especially Skinner. So rather than work out a plot, I've left the story abandoned for about three years. And that's crazy. And what would I do about Duncan and Adam? I mean, I didn't want Jeffrey to end up heartbroken.

For kristen_k2, spican and muridae_x, Krycek in New Haven. I couldn't bring myself to send him to Yale, and I'd like spican to attest that I really can write Krycek stories that are not grim as death.

( untitled x-files snippet, 925 words, PG-13 )

I wanted to put Dee in, just for Kristen, but this was a good end-point.

I'll figure out a title later on; this is (pretty obviously) without beta, and so please do point out errors or inconsistencies. And Krycek doesn't always know the name of things.

I feel like I've been working on this story since the dawn of time.

Title: Advice for the Lovelorn Double-Agent
Author: Vanzetti
Feedback to: vanzetti @ populli.net
Archive: with headers intact
Category: XF/24 crossover
Rating: R (NC-17 if you're sensitive)
Disclaimer: The XF and 24 universes belong to their creators, not to me: I make no profit from my use of copyrighted materials. Also, I've never been to Kosovo, so forgive the inevitable inaccuracies. The geopolitics of both shows differ from our own.
Spoilers for 24 S1, X-Files Krycek eps through Tunguska/Terma.
Set: 1997
Thanks to Spica and Bardsmaid for beta-reading.

( Nina (Seduce and Destroy) Myers meets Alex (Do you want a mindfuck with that?) Krycek. Alternate summary: Alex Krycek has sex in one of my fics! Twice! Third alternate: Not everything is what it seems when Alex Krycek and Nina Myers meet in Kosovo. )

OK. kristenk2 issued the challenge, and it is still Deslea's birthday here in the land of Pacific time. Sorry to be so self-indulgent, but it's another Parallel Catastrophes fragment. K/Ma, for the birthday girl (what, you were expecting Knowle/Shannon?).

No beta, so all the mistakes are mine. I aimed for shmoop, but got a dollop of angst alongside.

( Years or Mileage )

I picked one to get rid of.

This is a post-Existence HL/XF crossover, not resfic, looking to be a Marita/Duncan romance. I was planning on something kind of like a HL ep--Duncan helps Marita get over her (already wishy-washy) feeling that she really ought to go back to Washington and kill Walter Skinner. But I'm not going to write it.

( Marita and Duncan )

Further crossover madness. This one's for eilanhp. We're obviously channeling each other.

In which Marita tries to cover her tracks, and Snape is not flattered.

( Meeting in Hogsmeade )
I can't shake the feeling that I'm quoting Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles here, but that might just be Snape's tone. Also and more worryingly Patrick O'Brian. Because this is not going to turn into a Stephen and Diana roadshow. Oh no. I have an OTP to protect.