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Dear AU Exchange writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me!
(I'm sorry about the copied line that ended up in all my sign-ups. Obviously, I don't want PR fic for every fandom.)
I love AUs of all types and kinds, both the 'different ending' and the 'fusion' type of AU, and I love seeing them applied to my favourite characters to create new and different stories.
If these options look familiar to previous years, that's because "one cake good, two cakes better". Your ideas will be different to any previous takes that have been around, and I look forward to reading how you envision the characters/situation that they're in.
If I have forgotten/missed the AU that we matched on, I absolutely still want it, and apologise for missing it.
Really, in this letter, I'm just throwing ideas around and trying to see if something sticks!
things I like
Fusion AUs (characters from one canon written in another canon as though they've always been there)
Women at the centre of the story and female friendships and dynamics. Women who have agency and determination and make their own decisions (and the men who respect those decisions).
In most fandoms, one thing that I really enjoy is the mingling of professional and personal: a lot of these fandoms have people who work together, but they don't exactly compartmentalise and go home to their own family at the end of the day. Their work relationships are also the big personal relationships in their lives.
I've put a list of pairings I enjoy next to the fandoms. If you want to include any of them, that would be mighty fine! If you don't, then just friendships and interaction is great.
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.
do not wants:
- 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 I haven't requested
- humiliation as humour
There are a couple of 'AU options' that I picked for all fandoms. (Or if I didn't, then just imagine I did.)
Crossover: Thanos doesn't just snap the MCU but all the multiverses everywhere: this one is the 'yank whatever characters we've matched on into the same space as other characters from fandoms we share, and have them all work out together how to unSnap the multiverses' option, and so long as you use at least the characters we matched on, it's good.
ALL: Black Jewels AU: I really enjoy taking characters from other universes and putting them into courts of Queens, or writing stories about them as though they're Blood. Go for your life with any of the characters we matched on. Doesn't have to be about Queens and courts, even just the characters dealing with each other in the Black Jewels 'verse would be great!
Pacific Rim
Mako Mori
Mako Mori & Tamsin Sevier (Pacific Rim)
Angela Hansen
Angela Hansen & Mako Mori
Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori (Pacific Rim)
Pacific Rim: Tamsin Sevier doesn't die before the movie
Pacific Rim: Angela Hansen survives the kaiju attack
Pacific Rim: Mako lives
Pacific Rim: Mako survives in Pacific Rim Uprising
Crossover: Character from another fandom finds out she's the Slayer
ALL: Black Jewels AU
The specific prompts with Angela Hansen and Tamsin Sevier and Mako are AUs that I'd love to see. How are things changed for the Hansen men now that Angela is still alive? Where do the Hansens now get involved in the Jaeger program? Is Angela Hansen a pilot herself, or has she become a Marshal? How does Stacker behave when his former co-pilot stands beside him in Hong Kong to face the Kaiju together? What about the dynamics between the women and the men of the movie?
Tamsin Sevier is one of the secondary characters in the Pacific Rim: Year Zero comic - Pentecost's co-pilot who died of cancer a little while before the movie. I love the backstory for her - that she was a friend of Stacker from before the war, that she and his sister were besties (maybe lovers), that she was a sister-aunt-friend to tiny Mako Mori when Mako was adopted by Stacker. I'd love to see an elaboration on the character - her survival, how it changes the closing of the Breach.
Finally, what if Mako had lived in Pacific Rim Uprising? Or if the story of Pacific Rim continues focused on the pilot-characters who survived the closing of the Breach: Mako, Raleigh, Herc?
The Crossover AU, I'm thinking more of a Fusion AU: Mako as the Chosen One, Stacker and much of the PPDC as the Watcher's Council... You can fit anyone else in wherever you like, but you don't NEED have to have a Good Vampire 'on her side'. In fact, I'd really prefer there not to be a 'bad boy temptation' or the traditional symbolism of "what the goodgirl/hero shouldn't want but does, and it's constantly used as a warning against her downfall". That's not the kind of story Pacific Rim is, so it would be lovely if you could take the worldbuilding concepts from Buffy without adopting Joss Whedon's particular attitude to heroic women, feminism, and young heroines.
Oh, and the Black Jewels AU? I've always had a yen for Mako as a Queen growing up with Stacker as her overprotective Warlord Prince father and Raleigh Becket, Warlord Prince who's on the edge of going rogue until he meets Mako and realises she's the Queen he was meant to serve...
For this one, I'm all about the relationships between the characters - friendships, mentorships, siblings, found family - and, of course, Mako and Raleigh: Drift Compatible. The people who become our own in dire situations and who stay ours even after the situation has passed.
Angel
Angel & Faith Lehane (AtS)
Faith Lehane/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (AtS)
Faith Lehane (AtS)
AtS: The Fang Gang takes on Wolfram And Hart
AtS: Faith gets parole and works with the Fang Gang
ALL: Black Jewels AU
I kind of stopped watching Angel at the end of S4; just couldn't quite get into S5. As a result, S5 doesn't really exist for me. So make up your own Season Five that doesn't go along with canon.
Or maybe Faith comes back to LA and works with the Fang Gang (or gets out earlier and works with them from the Hyperion), or never goes into prison at all. Angel gets his Shanshu, or even just have them resolve to fight W&H to the bitter end.
Alternatively, how do the characters all fit into a Black Jewels AU? Is Cordy a Queen? Or are the Slayers Queens and the courts form around them?
Pairings I like: Faith/Wes, Angel/Buffy, Fred/Gunn.
One note: I don't like Illyria and what happened to Fred. Please ignore that bit of canon entirely.
MCU
Maria Hill (Marvel CU)
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Helen Cho & Jane Foster & Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Maria Hill & Tony Stark
MCU: Pepper Potts and Maria Hill are active and involved in Captain America Civil War
MCU: Tony and Steve Agree on the Accords
MCU: Maria Hill survives the snap
MCU: Different characters survive the snap
ALL: Pern AU
ALL: Pacific Rim AU
ALL: The female characters are the main characters
All: Stargate Atlantis crossover
ALL: Black Jewels AU
I guess this could be called the 'Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves' option. I didn't like where they took Endgame or Infinity War, and well, I wasn't so fond of where they took Civil War either. This option is more or less rewriting the story – and refocusing the story onto characters who are otherwise considered 'throwaway'.
I want more female friendships, more of the 'unpowered women' doing things together, planning things together, taking over what remains of the world together... Include any other female characters, I love 'em all! But I do want the story to be focused on the characters we matched on.
Change the story, focus on the female characters we've matched on, take it pretty much anywhere you like and blow my mind – I'll be happy!
The Maria Hill & Tony Stark option I picked because I want to see more of their dynamic. Something where Maria's free to be droll and snarky, and Tony's free to be flamboyant and familiar. But not lovers, since I don't see them that way. Also, not 'Maria as Tony's PA' the way Pepper started out. I can't see them getting along so well unless there was a reasonable sense of respect about each others' status.
Blended option: Civil War with sedoretu. This is 100% a 'toss it in on the off-chance' request. I am not expecting this, but if you like this idea, feel free to run with it.
The fusion AU options are whatever you'd like to play with. Give me the characters we matched on in the alternate universe, being their recognisable selves and doing their thing in the context of the universe they're now in. I can't wait to see what you'll do!
I've asked for no pairings to be included that I haven't requested. These are ones that I don't mind in reference: Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, Thor/Jane Foster, Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes/Shuri, Bucky Barnes/Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff/Clint Barton, Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner/Betty Ross.
Captain America Movies
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
Maria Hill
Maria Hill & Steve Rogers )
Maria Hill & Sam Wilson
James "Bucky" Barnes & Maria Hill
James "Bucky" Barnes/Maria Hill/Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
MCU: Another character is the Winter Soldier
MCU: Steve is the Winter Soldier instead of Bucky
MCU: Bucky Escapes Hydra Earlier
ALL: Pacific Rim AU
ALL: Black Jewels AU
ALL: Sedoretu
This is mostly The Winter Soldier AU option. Nat as the Winter Soldier (maybe she was one of the test Winter Soldiers that Bucky talks about in CACW), or Steve falling from the train instead and being picked up by HYDRA. Bucky getting out from under HYDRA earlier and being found by Maria - perhaps even before the Avengers form?
Yes, Maria Hill is named in almost all the character/relationship listings. Basically, I want a story about Maria Hill, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier. Who plays which? That's up to you!
Give me all the broken, traumatised people trying to be whole with the support of the practical and pragmatic characters, and the inadvisability of getting too close to the asset that you're trying to rehabilitate into the world.
The Pacific Rim and Black Jewels options are more about putting these characters into AU worlds and seeing them interact. And the sedoretu option is just for funsies. Steve/Maria/Bucky/Natasha? Or Steve/Maria/Bucky/Sam? Dynamics, dynamics, dynamics.
I am okay with Bucky/Natasha and Bucky/Sam, and with Steve/Bucky in the context of a sedoretu quartet, but Iwould like the focus to be on the relationships we matched on.
Captain America Movies
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers (CA Movies)
Maria Hill & Sam Wilson (CA Movies)
Maria Hill & Steve Rogers (CA Movies)
James "Bucky" Barnes & Maria Hill (CA Movies)
MCU: Soulmates Decided by Goose the Angry Flerken
ALL: Soulmates - Soulmate Mark Appears At First Touch
ALL: Soulmate AU - Soulmate-Identifying Marks
All: Soulmates Decided by the Angry Goose AU
Soulmates and/or Angry Goose (whether feathered geese or furry flerken) are always hilarious and delightful, and I would adore seeing your take on this. Note: for the "&" groups, soulmates doesn't have to be a romantic option – I don't at all mind if the soulmates are platonic, just as long as the connection is meaningful.
If you need more direction on anything, feel free to contact the mods.
--
Finally, these are all ideas that I'm putting out there for you to think about and possibly be inspired by. If they don't speak to you, that's okay - just write what we matched on and it'll be fine.
Thank you so much for writing for me!
(I'm sorry about the copied line that ended up in all my sign-ups. Obviously, I don't want PR fic for every fandom.)
I love AUs of all types and kinds, both the 'different ending' and the 'fusion' type of AU, and I love seeing them applied to my favourite characters to create new and different stories.
If these options look familiar to previous years, that's because "one cake good, two cakes better". Your ideas will be different to any previous takes that have been around, and I look forward to reading how you envision the characters/situation that they're in.
If I have forgotten/missed the AU that we matched on, I absolutely still want it, and apologise for missing it.
Really, in this letter, I'm just throwing ideas around and trying to see if something sticks!
things I like
Fusion AUs (characters from one canon written in another canon as though they've always been there)
Women at the centre of the story and female friendships and dynamics. Women who have agency and determination and make their own decisions (and the men who respect those decisions).
In most fandoms, one thing that I really enjoy is the mingling of professional and personal: a lot of these fandoms have people who work together, but they don't exactly compartmentalise and go home to their own family at the end of the day. Their work relationships are also the big personal relationships in their lives.
I've put a list of pairings I enjoy next to the fandoms. If you want to include any of them, that would be mighty fine! If you don't, then just friendships and interaction is great.
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.
do not wants:
- 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 I haven't requested
- humiliation as humour
There are a couple of 'AU options' that I picked for all fandoms. (Or if I didn't, then just imagine I did.)
Crossover: Thanos doesn't just snap the MCU but all the multiverses everywhere: this one is the 'yank whatever characters we've matched on into the same space as other characters from fandoms we share, and have them all work out together how to unSnap the multiverses' option, and so long as you use at least the characters we matched on, it's good.
ALL: Black Jewels AU: I really enjoy taking characters from other universes and putting them into courts of Queens, or writing stories about them as though they're Blood. Go for your life with any of the characters we matched on. Doesn't have to be about Queens and courts, even just the characters dealing with each other in the Black Jewels 'verse would be great!
Pacific Rim
Mako Mori
Mako Mori & Tamsin Sevier (Pacific Rim)
Angela Hansen
Angela Hansen & Mako Mori
Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori (Pacific Rim)
Pacific Rim: Tamsin Sevier doesn't die before the movie
Pacific Rim: Angela Hansen survives the kaiju attack
Pacific Rim: Mako lives
Pacific Rim: Mako survives in Pacific Rim Uprising
Crossover: Character from another fandom finds out she's the Slayer
ALL: Black Jewels AU
The specific prompts with Angela Hansen and Tamsin Sevier and Mako are AUs that I'd love to see. How are things changed for the Hansen men now that Angela is still alive? Where do the Hansens now get involved in the Jaeger program? Is Angela Hansen a pilot herself, or has she become a Marshal? How does Stacker behave when his former co-pilot stands beside him in Hong Kong to face the Kaiju together? What about the dynamics between the women and the men of the movie?
Tamsin Sevier is one of the secondary characters in the Pacific Rim: Year Zero comic - Pentecost's co-pilot who died of cancer a little while before the movie. I love the backstory for her - that she was a friend of Stacker from before the war, that she and his sister were besties (maybe lovers), that she was a sister-aunt-friend to tiny Mako Mori when Mako was adopted by Stacker. I'd love to see an elaboration on the character - her survival, how it changes the closing of the Breach.
Finally, what if Mako had lived in Pacific Rim Uprising? Or if the story of Pacific Rim continues focused on the pilot-characters who survived the closing of the Breach: Mako, Raleigh, Herc?
The Crossover AU, I'm thinking more of a Fusion AU: Mako as the Chosen One, Stacker and much of the PPDC as the Watcher's Council... You can fit anyone else in wherever you like, but you don't NEED have to have a Good Vampire 'on her side'. In fact, I'd really prefer there not to be a 'bad boy temptation' or the traditional symbolism of "what the goodgirl/hero shouldn't want but does, and it's constantly used as a warning against her downfall". That's not the kind of story Pacific Rim is, so it would be lovely if you could take the worldbuilding concepts from Buffy without adopting Joss Whedon's particular attitude to heroic women, feminism, and young heroines.
Oh, and the Black Jewels AU? I've always had a yen for Mako as a Queen growing up with Stacker as her overprotective Warlord Prince father and Raleigh Becket, Warlord Prince who's on the edge of going rogue until he meets Mako and realises she's the Queen he was meant to serve...
For this one, I'm all about the relationships between the characters - friendships, mentorships, siblings, found family - and, of course, Mako and Raleigh: Drift Compatible. The people who become our own in dire situations and who stay ours even after the situation has passed.
Angel
Angel & Faith Lehane (AtS)
Faith Lehane/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (AtS)
Faith Lehane (AtS)
AtS: The Fang Gang takes on Wolfram And Hart
AtS: Faith gets parole and works with the Fang Gang
ALL: Black Jewels AU
I kind of stopped watching Angel at the end of S4; just couldn't quite get into S5. As a result, S5 doesn't really exist for me. So make up your own Season Five that doesn't go along with canon.
Or maybe Faith comes back to LA and works with the Fang Gang (or gets out earlier and works with them from the Hyperion), or never goes into prison at all. Angel gets his Shanshu, or even just have them resolve to fight W&H to the bitter end.
Alternatively, how do the characters all fit into a Black Jewels AU? Is Cordy a Queen? Or are the Slayers Queens and the courts form around them?
Pairings I like: Faith/Wes, Angel/Buffy, Fred/Gunn.
One note: I don't like Illyria and what happened to Fred. Please ignore that bit of canon entirely.
MCU
Maria Hill (Marvel CU)
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Helen Cho & Jane Foster & Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts (MCU)
Maria Hill & Tony Stark
MCU: Pepper Potts and Maria Hill are active and involved in Captain America Civil War
MCU: Tony and Steve Agree on the Accords
MCU: Maria Hill survives the snap
MCU: Different characters survive the snap
ALL: Pern AU
ALL: Pacific Rim AU
ALL: The female characters are the main characters
All: Stargate Atlantis crossover
ALL: Black Jewels AU
I guess this could be called the 'Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves' option. I didn't like where they took Endgame or Infinity War, and well, I wasn't so fond of where they took Civil War either. This option is more or less rewriting the story – and refocusing the story onto characters who are otherwise considered 'throwaway'.
I want more female friendships, more of the 'unpowered women' doing things together, planning things together, taking over what remains of the world together... Include any other female characters, I love 'em all! But I do want the story to be focused on the characters we matched on.
Change the story, focus on the female characters we've matched on, take it pretty much anywhere you like and blow my mind – I'll be happy!
The Maria Hill & Tony Stark option I picked because I want to see more of their dynamic. Something where Maria's free to be droll and snarky, and Tony's free to be flamboyant and familiar. But not lovers, since I don't see them that way. Also, not 'Maria as Tony's PA' the way Pepper started out. I can't see them getting along so well unless there was a reasonable sense of respect about each others' status.
Blended option: Civil War with sedoretu. This is 100% a 'toss it in on the off-chance' request. I am not expecting this, but if you like this idea, feel free to run with it.
Tony Stark/Pepper Potts/Maria Hill/Steve Rogers sedoretu AU in Captain America: Civil War. It's not possible to set it up from the options since Tony/Pepper and Steve/Maria are in two separate fandoms, but if you somehow have a yen to write Pepper and Maria involved in CACW with Tony and Steve still at loggerheads with each other, and the four of them having formed a sedoretu marriage on the quiet sometime between CA:TWS and CA:CW and then having to deal with the fallout, then that would be absolutely and utterly spectacular!
The fusion AU options are whatever you'd like to play with. Give me the characters we matched on in the alternate universe, being their recognisable selves and doing their thing in the context of the universe they're now in. I can't wait to see what you'll do!
I've asked for no pairings to be included that I haven't requested. These are ones that I don't mind in reference: Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, Thor/Jane Foster, Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanoff, Bucky Barnes/Shuri, Bucky Barnes/Maria Hill, Natasha Romanoff/Clint Barton, Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner/Betty Ross.
Captain America Movies
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
Maria Hill
Maria Hill & Steve Rogers )
Maria Hill & Sam Wilson
James "Bucky" Barnes & Maria Hill
James "Bucky" Barnes/Maria Hill/Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
MCU: Another character is the Winter Soldier
MCU: Steve is the Winter Soldier instead of Bucky
MCU: Bucky Escapes Hydra Earlier
ALL: Pacific Rim AU
ALL: Black Jewels AU
ALL: Sedoretu
This is mostly The Winter Soldier AU option. Nat as the Winter Soldier (maybe she was one of the test Winter Soldiers that Bucky talks about in CACW), or Steve falling from the train instead and being picked up by HYDRA. Bucky getting out from under HYDRA earlier and being found by Maria - perhaps even before the Avengers form?
Yes, Maria Hill is named in almost all the character/relationship listings. Basically, I want a story about Maria Hill, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier. Who plays which? That's up to you!
Give me all the broken, traumatised people trying to be whole with the support of the practical and pragmatic characters, and the inadvisability of getting too close to the asset that you're trying to rehabilitate into the world.
The Pacific Rim and Black Jewels options are more about putting these characters into AU worlds and seeing them interact. And the sedoretu option is just for funsies. Steve/Maria/Bucky/Natasha? Or Steve/Maria/Bucky/Sam? Dynamics, dynamics, dynamics.
I am okay with Bucky/Natasha and Bucky/Sam, and with Steve/Bucky in the context of a sedoretu quartet, but Iwould like the focus to be on the relationships we matched on.
Captain America Movies
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers (CA Movies)
Maria Hill & Sam Wilson (CA Movies)
Maria Hill & Steve Rogers (CA Movies)
James "Bucky" Barnes & Maria Hill (CA Movies)
MCU: Soulmates Decided by Goose the Angry Flerken
ALL: Soulmates - Soulmate Mark Appears At First Touch
ALL: Soulmate AU - Soulmate-Identifying Marks
All: Soulmates Decided by the Angry Goose AU
Soulmates and/or Angry Goose (whether feathered geese or furry flerken) are always hilarious and delightful, and I would adore seeing your take on this. Note: for the "&" groups, soulmates doesn't have to be a romantic option – I don't at all mind if the soulmates are platonic, just as long as the connection is meaningful.
If you need more direction on anything, feel free to contact the mods.
--
Finally, these are all ideas that I'm putting out there for you to think about and possibly be inspired by. If they don't speak to you, that's okay - just write what we matched on and it'll be fine.
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