dear AU exchange writer

[tielan]

Dear AU Exchange Author,

Thanks for writing for me!

I love AUs. I love the "coffee shop" style AUs where people have existed in the fusion universe from the beginning, but the characters carry so much of who they are over (with corresponding 'key incidents' appropriately tailored to the universe in question). And I love the canon divergence style AUs where a little thing changes the course of events - particularly when my favourite is involved in the divergence, or the divergence gives them a bigger role to play.

I'm just going my 'standard options' this year - simple, no muss, no fuss.

If I haven't mentioned the AU that we matched on, I absolutely still want it, and would love to read your take on it. I'm just throwing ideas around, trying to see if something sticks.


Do Not Want:
- rape/non-con
- PWP (I don't mind a scene of smut in a longer story, but I don't want the entire story to be about sex)
- cheating partners
- pairings not listed in the tags
- humiliation as humour

All Good:
- Jaeger fusion AUs
- Black Jewel fusion AUs
- mundane AUs

A note about soulmates/soulmarks AUs: I'm okay with the soulmates thing not being sexual, just people who are matched - kind of like the 'found family' trope, only with capital-D Destiny. I also like when the soulmates trope is inverted or subverted - where the sexual pairing aren't necessarily soulmates. (If you need a reference for what this looks like in my own writing, try my MCU fic 'Between Destiny And Love'.) Or you can write soulmates straight - whatever works.


Pacific Rim
Group: Mako Mori & Stacker Pentecost
Group: Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket
Angela Hansen
Mako Mori

All: Fairy Tale
ALL: Black Jewels AU
ALL: Daemons
ALL: Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies
ALL: Soulmate AU (no mark)
ALL: Soulmate-identifying marks
All: Soulmates Decided by the Angry Goose AU

Mako is my favourite in this canon. I love her relationship with Stacker - a little adversarial yet also loving - and the relationship she develops with Raleigh - tender and in tune. If you decide to go with the fusion AUs (fairy tale, black jewels, daemons) then please keep those relationships.

'Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies' is probably best paired with Angela Hansen. I am a-okay with you throwing out refrigerated wife Angela Hanson and bringing her back as a force to be reckoned with in the PPDC. (Is she Drift-compatible with Herc? With Chuck?) However it could also be Mako in the sequel movie (so angry about that) and how she survived (her daemon got her out?) and lived to fight another day. You can certainly include characters from Uprising if you like, but I prefer the characters/events/relationships from the original movie.

Oh, and Mako/Raleigh and the Angry Goose Of Destiny would be amazing. Work this out however you like, because: hilarious.


Stargate Atlantis
Teyla Emmagan
Group: Teyla Emmagan/John Sheppard
Group: Teyla Emmagan & John Sheppard
Group: Sam Carter & Teyla Emmagan & Jennifer Keller
Group: Ronon Dex & Teyla Emmagan & Rodney McKay & John Sheppard
Group: Ronon Dex & Teyla Emmagan
Group: Ronon Dex & Teyla Emmagan & Aiden Ford & Rodney McKay & John Sheppard

SGA: Aiden Ford Lives
SGA: The Atlantis expedition declares independence from Earth
SGA: Pegasus cultures are already in Atlantis when Earth expedition arrives
SGA: They don’t reconnect with Earth as early
SGA: Wraith Queen Teyla

SGA is my canon-divergent AU option. I loved the show, but I became frustrated with the choices TPTB made about how to depict Pegasus, the Atlantis expedition, and the characters and their Earth-centricity. I'd love to see something that gives Pegasus (particularly Teyla and Ronon) its due as a collection of cultures that have survived.

Change up the power balance with 'Pegasus cultures already in Atlantis', or take it down the road where Atlantis doesn't basically become an outpost of colonialist Earth. Focus on Teyla's diplomatic skills and the culture of Ronon's people before he had to go Runner.

I like the Fandemonium books SGA: Legacy series, too - if you've read them, then Wraith Queen Teyla (or Steelflower, as she's known) is utterly wonderful, amazing, and perfect. Or take Teyla the Wraith Queen in your own direction!

Include any of the other characters from SGA, just use them judiciously; I love the SGA team, particularly Teyla, and I have a carry-over fondness for Sam from SG1.


Marvel Cinematic Universe - action/drama edition
Maria Hill (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Group: Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Group: Maria Hill & Okoye (MCU)
Group: Maria Hill & Bucky Barnes (MCU)
Hope Van Dyne (MCU)
Group: Bucky Barnes & Shuri (MCU)
Group: Maria Hill & Steve Rogers (MCU)
Shuri (MCU)

MCU: All female Avengers AU (not gender-swapped)
ALL: Pacific Rim fusion
ALL: Space Opera AU
All: Fairy Tale
MCU: Pepper keeps Extremis
MCU: dusted Avengers and non-dusted Avengers are swapped at the end of Infinity War
ALL: Black Jewels AU
ALL: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fusion AU

This request is pretty much all the women doing all the action with all the drama!

You can definitely mix and match the AUs as necessary. All-female Avengers with Extremis Pepper Potts, the Wasp, Shuri-the-Black-Panther, and commander Maria Hill! Or maybe Shuri is the Chosen One? (Wakandan watchers, OMG!) What about the original-team Avengers get dusted in IW and the 'second string' has to deal with Thanos? (If you'd include Maria in the undusteds, I'll be over the moon.)

Black Jewels AUs are fascinating - one of the things that's particularly unique about the Black Jewels universe is that the pass of power from one Queen to another can be peaceful, too. A more powerful younger Queen is handed a Territory or Province or District by the older Queen (whose power is in her court). So what about Shuri as the young and powerful Queen upcoming to be passed power from older Queen Maria, with consultation between Shuri's mentor Okoye and Maria's friend and confidantes Pepper and Steve?

Or perhaps the continuing adventures of the Good Spaceship AVENGER and her trusty (and mixed-bag) crew. How will they deal with the politics of the planet Wakanda when one of their number is accused of killing the Wakandan king? Can the Wakandan princess (young but fierce) help them prove his innocence?


Marvel Cinematic Universe - soulmates edition
Group: Maria Hill/Steve Rogers (MCU)
Group: Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson (MCU)
Group: James "Bucky" Barnes/Shuri (MCU)
Group: Jane Foster/Thor (MCU)

All: Soulmates Decided by the Angry Goose AU
All: Soul Bonds AU
ALL: Soulmate AU (no mark)
ALL: Soulmate-identifying marks
ALL: Telepathic Soulbond AU
ALL: Soulmate or 1000 Roaches AU

MCU Soulmates option! Any and/or all of the above pairings as soulmates, together, thwarted, chosen by the angry goose, or 1000 roaches (or both). Totally go for the crazy and ridiculous with a happy ending.

The idea of the more serious character of these pairings being all "Oh No ANGRY GOOSE/1000 ROACHES WHAT?!" fills me with delight and glee. Maria and Bucky in particularly would be "What? Oh, shit, no..." while I feel Jane would be more pissed off that the goose wasn't letting her get work done ("and how does this whole thing work anyway? Why a goose? Why not...a seagull?") But go with what works for you!

One of the things that draws me to the soulmate trope is also the idea of how Destiny actually works out in reality. Fine, so these pairings are Destined To Be Together. What does it look like in a relationship; is everything instantaneously perfect, or is it just the best match possible and they have to work at it to develop it into full soulmates. This is kind of what I like about inverting/subverting the trope, it means the relationship is hard yards and we get to see the details along the way. (This is also relevant to the soulmate AUs in other fandoms.)


Merlin
Gwen (Merlin)
group: Gwen & Merlin (Merlin)
Group: Arthur Pendragon & Gwen & Merlin & Morgana (Merlin)
Group: Arthur Pendragon/Gwen (Merlin)
Group: Gwaine & Gwen (Merlin)
Group: Gwen & Morgana (Merlin)

ALL: Black Jewels AU
ALL: Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies
All: SGA fusion
ALL: Pacific Rim fusion

I didn't watch past S3, although I spoiled myself for the ending of the series. It didn't look good. Give me happy-ever-after stories where the quartet work it out (with appearances from the Knights Of Camelot) and rule Camelot in a Golden Age.

A Black Jewels AU with Gwen as Queen, Morgana as Black Widow, Merlin as Prince, and Arthur as Warlord Prince? YES PLEASE! Also, Gwaine is adorable; if we matched on the Gwen & Gwaine option, then Gwaine being his charming-and-serious self teasing Gwen is always very welcome: that lightly flirtatious dynamic where he likes her but totally takes rejection well.

The SGA fusion option is the crackfic idea - I like the idea of Gwen as the diplomat/negotiator, while Merlin is the technological 'wizard', and Arthur and Morgana run around shooting things and blowing them up and snarking at each other.

Basically, fusions, fate, and/or HAPPY ENDINGS, please!


Buffy
Faith Lehane
group: Buffy Summers & Faith Lehane
Wishverse Buffy Summers
Group: Buffy Summers/Angel
group: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers
group: Buffy Summers & Kendra Young
Group: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers & Joyce Summers

BTVS: Buffy and Faith switch roles
BtVS: Wish!verse
BtVS: Buffy accepts Wesley's authority as her Watcher in S3
ALL: Black Jewels AU

Slayers and Watchers and Alternate universes, oh my! Small changes and large differences! Lots of interaction between Buffy and the women around her (also Willow, Tara, Jenny Calendar, and the other female characters).

Faith and Buffy, Buffy and Faith - mirrors of each other. The role switch can mean either Faith is the Vampire Slayer who arrives in Sunnydale (with family? without family?) and Buffy comes along after, or at some point after Buffy leaves/dies, Faith has to take up Buffy's place in Sunnydale and deal with all the stuff. (Include Buffy S3 and S4 stuff as you like, or not.) I think this also kind of encompasses the Wish!verse where Buffy is more like Faith - does that mean that somewhere in that universe, Faith (not yet called) is more like Buffy?

In whatever AU you choose, I really love Buffy's relationships with the women in her life - her mom, her sister, her fellow Slayers - friendly or adversarial, love or hate - and sometimes all of the above at once?


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Please remember: these are all just suggestions - a place for you to start. If you have an idea that doesn't match these but which has the characters and AU that I've requested, then just go for it. I'm always up for other people's ideas.

And thank you for writing for me!