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How on earth did we miss out nominating AU - Pern in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
mcu_aufest?
Not that there aren't plenty of others to choose from...
--
ETA: My last author defaulted - probably due to this letter. Look, the two important things are 1. I want the female characters to shine in whatever AU we've matched on, 2. I want you to have fun with the AU.
That's all - optional letter is optional.
--
Hello author!
So glad you're writing for me because we love this pairing and we love these AUs and I'm going to enjoy whaever version of these characters you come up with, I'm sure!
what I like in fic
Female characters at the centre of it. They make the choices, they push the narrative along. I love 'genderswapped hero stories' where the woman is the hero and the guy is the helpmate (and kind of the prize at the end). So I want this story to be primarily about Maria, Pepper, and/or Skye. Bring in any other (unlisted) characters you'd like - I love them all so long as they don't take over the story, set them up, but I need particularly Maria or Skye to have a major part in whatever happens - to have agency, make choices, influence, and affect the outcome of the story.
Female friendships. In the MCU I really like the idea of the women being connected to each other, even if they don't necessarily like each other. But they respect what they can do, and they don't tear each other down because they've been there and they've watched the guys do that, and they're not going to be like that. In short, women being awesome, and women being awesome to each other.
I like respectful guys, who know their limits and acknowledge them, who recognise that the women around them are good at what they do, and don't have so much ego they can't let them do what they need to do.
I prefer subtle worldbuilding, so don't infodump me, don't tell me what's been happening in this world. Slip little pieces in there - enough to frame a story without overwhelming me. Let my imagination do some of the filling in!
things I would prefer you avoid
AUs are generally a tricksy thing - trying to work out how to fit characters that were born and developed in setting A into setting B that may/may not carry any correlation to their original settings.
The things I like about Maria, Steve, Pepper, Skye, and Bucky are their personalities and how those personalities have held up in the face of the events which have forged them. So please try to keep their personalities intact, rather than just pushing them into the role that fits a suitable dynamic. The MCU AU doesn't need to follow the fusion canon's storyline perfectly - the framework of the fusion world should provide plenty of opportunities for fitting the characters in and adjusting the storyline accordingly.
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
Canon: I like the way Steve accepts and acknowledges Maria's competence and her drive to duty - both in the way that he doesn't ask who she is when she steps up to the table in The Avengers, and in the way he asks her to initate the program to take out Insight even though it will cost him his life. I like the way Maria doesn't fawn over Steve - gives him the once over, yes, will follow his lead, but he's a tool to be used, not the hero of her story.
If you've seen A:AoU, I like the interaction in that, too - comfortable and functional and easy.
AU - Psy-Changelings fusion: Maria as Psy, Steve as an alpha Changeling.
AU - Black Jewels Fusion: Maria's definitely a Queen and Steve's a Warlord Prince.
AU - BDSM: My prefs lean towards Steve as D and Maria as s, but I'm cool with that reversed. However, I would like this to be a story about them in a BDSM world switching for whatever reason you care to give, and the negotiations that take place so everyone has fun.
AU - Buffy the Vampire Slayer fusion: surprise me! (Actually, I wouldn't mind if Natasha was the Slayer and Maria a scooby, so long as the story was still about Maria and Maria/Steve.)
AU - Superhero High School: surprise me!
Canon AU - Winter Soldier Has Different Identity: I like either Steve as TWS dealing with Maria post-return to sanity, or Natasha/Melinda as TWS and Maria as the former bestie dealing with the emotional fallout from that. (You can shorten the timeline if you don't want to go with supersoldier serum, 70 years Rip Van Winkle, etc.)
AU - Leverage Crew: Maria as the Mastermind. Otherwise, surprise me!
Out of all the female characters in the MCU, Maria is the one who's had the most canonical interaction with Steve after Peggy and Natasha. Use that.
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts
Canon: I love that Maria is comfortable enough with Pepper to bitch about Congress on the phone. I love the idea of these two very competent women being friends and allies and frigging dangerous when they have an idea in their head.
Work with that. :)
AU - Jaeger: DRIFT COMPATIBLE
AU - Harry Potter fusion: Maria in Slytherin, Pepper in Ravencalw
AU - Neighbors: surprise me!
AU - Young Wizards fusion: wizarding partners
Canon AU - Project Insight Successfully Launched: okay, so, yes, Maria was targeted, and so was Tony Stark, which would probably mean that Pepper wasn't far behind. But I want to see these two ladies basically organise the resistance to HYDRA.
AU - Sherlock Holmes fusion: I want these two to be Sherlock and Watson a la "Elementary". Whichever way around you can work it!
Skye | Daisy Johnson/Bucky Barnes
Canon: No, they've never interacted in MCU canon. But I like the idea of two 'monsters' coming together, their dark and their bright, and learning to deal with each other and the dangers of each other.
AU - Jaeger: Co-pilots! How they met, how they matched minds, Skye's shocking realisation that she can predict Bucky's moves on the Kwoon when he's said to be one of the most fearsome Kwoonmasters.
AU - Daemons: surprise me!
AU - Black Jewels Fusion: I think Bucky would be a Warlord Prince, but I'm not sure that Skye's a Queen, exactly. I'm happy with her as just a Blood female who has the potential to be extremely dangerous.
AU - Leverage Crew: surprise me!
AU - Home Exchanges: Learning about each other in absentia, and liking what they see.
AU - Soulmate-Identifying Marks/AU - Soulmates: What if the soulmark appears on the left arm: what does that mean for Bucky?
Canon AU - Super Soldier Program Failed/Worked Differently: surprise me!
Canon AU – Prisoner(s)/Test Subject(s) of SHIELD: surprise me!
BONUS ROUND Maria Hill & Wanda Maximoff
This is kind of a bonus round since this wouldn't be one of the pairings on the list. If you've seen A:AoU, I'd love any of the above AUs featuring Maria & Wanda friendship.
a note about side pairings
If you can't do these pairings or you don't see these pairings, just leave them out and make the background gen.
Movies: Apart from Maria/Steve (my OTP of OTPs), I generally like Tony/Pepper, Tony/Pepper/Bruce, Jane/Thor. I don't mind Bruce/Betty, Bruce/Natasha, Clint/Natasha, or Natasha/Bucky if that's your preferred thing.
Agents of SHIELD: I'm more or less ship-neutral on this one. I like Skye/Ward as a broken/dysfunctional ship, and don't mind hints of Phil/Melinda. I'm good with Jemma/Leo, Jemma/Trip, and Jemma/Leo/Trip.
Again, you don't have to put these pairings into the fic, they're just to help you if you have an idea for background pairings/couples. However, what I want is the pairing that I've requested - these should be background at most, if at all.
If you'd like to see the types of AU that I've written, they're over at AO3: here although they're not just the MCU AUs.
--
If all this is a little terrifying in detail, then just write the AU you had in mind for the pairings I've listed and it'll work out. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever you've done with the characters in the AU!
mcu_aufest?Not that there aren't plenty of others to choose from...
--
ETA: My last author defaulted - probably due to this letter. Look, the two important things are 1. I want the female characters to shine in whatever AU we've matched on, 2. I want you to have fun with the AU.
That's all - optional letter is optional.
--
Hello author!
So glad you're writing for me because we love this pairing and we love these AUs and I'm going to enjoy whaever version of these characters you come up with, I'm sure!
what I like in fic
Female characters at the centre of it. They make the choices, they push the narrative along. I love 'genderswapped hero stories' where the woman is the hero and the guy is the helpmate (and kind of the prize at the end). So I want this story to be primarily about Maria, Pepper, and/or Skye. Bring in any other (unlisted) characters you'd like - I love them all so long as they don't take over the story, set them up, but I need particularly Maria or Skye to have a major part in whatever happens - to have agency, make choices, influence, and affect the outcome of the story.
Female friendships. In the MCU I really like the idea of the women being connected to each other, even if they don't necessarily like each other. But they respect what they can do, and they don't tear each other down because they've been there and they've watched the guys do that, and they're not going to be like that. In short, women being awesome, and women being awesome to each other.
I like respectful guys, who know their limits and acknowledge them, who recognise that the women around them are good at what they do, and don't have so much ego they can't let them do what they need to do.
I prefer subtle worldbuilding, so don't infodump me, don't tell me what's been happening in this world. Slip little pieces in there - enough to frame a story without overwhelming me. Let my imagination do some of the filling in!
things I would prefer you avoid
AUs are generally a tricksy thing - trying to work out how to fit characters that were born and developed in setting A into setting B that may/may not carry any correlation to their original settings.
The things I like about Maria, Steve, Pepper, Skye, and Bucky are their personalities and how those personalities have held up in the face of the events which have forged them. So please try to keep their personalities intact, rather than just pushing them into the role that fits a suitable dynamic. The MCU AU doesn't need to follow the fusion canon's storyline perfectly - the framework of the fusion world should provide plenty of opportunities for fitting the characters in and adjusting the storyline accordingly.
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers
Canon: I like the way Steve accepts and acknowledges Maria's competence and her drive to duty - both in the way that he doesn't ask who she is when she steps up to the table in The Avengers, and in the way he asks her to initate the program to take out Insight even though it will cost him his life. I like the way Maria doesn't fawn over Steve - gives him the once over, yes, will follow his lead, but he's a tool to be used, not the hero of her story.
If you've seen A:AoU, I like the interaction in that, too - comfortable and functional and easy.
AU - Psy-Changelings fusion: Maria as Psy, Steve as an alpha Changeling.
AU - Black Jewels Fusion: Maria's definitely a Queen and Steve's a Warlord Prince.
AU - BDSM: My prefs lean towards Steve as D and Maria as s, but I'm cool with that reversed. However, I would like this to be a story about them in a BDSM world switching for whatever reason you care to give, and the negotiations that take place so everyone has fun.
AU - Buffy the Vampire Slayer fusion: surprise me! (Actually, I wouldn't mind if Natasha was the Slayer and Maria a scooby, so long as the story was still about Maria and Maria/Steve.)
AU - Superhero High School: surprise me!
Canon AU - Winter Soldier Has Different Identity: I like either Steve as TWS dealing with Maria post-return to sanity, or Natasha/Melinda as TWS and Maria as the former bestie dealing with the emotional fallout from that. (You can shorten the timeline if you don't want to go with supersoldier serum, 70 years Rip Van Winkle, etc.)
AU - Leverage Crew: Maria as the Mastermind. Otherwise, surprise me!
Out of all the female characters in the MCU, Maria is the one who's had the most canonical interaction with Steve after Peggy and Natasha. Use that.
Maria Hill & Pepper Potts
Canon: I love that Maria is comfortable enough with Pepper to bitch about Congress on the phone. I love the idea of these two very competent women being friends and allies and frigging dangerous when they have an idea in their head.
Work with that. :)
AU - Jaeger: DRIFT COMPATIBLE
AU - Harry Potter fusion: Maria in Slytherin, Pepper in Ravencalw
AU - Neighbors: surprise me!
AU - Young Wizards fusion: wizarding partners
Canon AU - Project Insight Successfully Launched: okay, so, yes, Maria was targeted, and so was Tony Stark, which would probably mean that Pepper wasn't far behind. But I want to see these two ladies basically organise the resistance to HYDRA.
AU - Sherlock Holmes fusion: I want these two to be Sherlock and Watson a la "Elementary". Whichever way around you can work it!
Skye | Daisy Johnson/Bucky Barnes
Canon: No, they've never interacted in MCU canon. But I like the idea of two 'monsters' coming together, their dark and their bright, and learning to deal with each other and the dangers of each other.
AU - Jaeger: Co-pilots! How they met, how they matched minds, Skye's shocking realisation that she can predict Bucky's moves on the Kwoon when he's said to be one of the most fearsome Kwoonmasters.
AU - Daemons: surprise me!
AU - Black Jewels Fusion: I think Bucky would be a Warlord Prince, but I'm not sure that Skye's a Queen, exactly. I'm happy with her as just a Blood female who has the potential to be extremely dangerous.
AU - Leverage Crew: surprise me!
AU - Home Exchanges: Learning about each other in absentia, and liking what they see.
AU - Soulmate-Identifying Marks/AU - Soulmates: What if the soulmark appears on the left arm: what does that mean for Bucky?
Canon AU - Super Soldier Program Failed/Worked Differently: surprise me!
Canon AU – Prisoner(s)/Test Subject(s) of SHIELD: surprise me!
BONUS ROUND Maria Hill & Wanda Maximoff
This is kind of a bonus round since this wouldn't be one of the pairings on the list. If you've seen A:AoU, I'd love any of the above AUs featuring Maria & Wanda friendship.
a note about side pairings
If you can't do these pairings or you don't see these pairings, just leave them out and make the background gen.
Movies: Apart from Maria/Steve (my OTP of OTPs), I generally like Tony/Pepper, Tony/Pepper/Bruce, Jane/Thor. I don't mind Bruce/Betty, Bruce/Natasha, Clint/Natasha, or Natasha/Bucky if that's your preferred thing.
Agents of SHIELD: I'm more or less ship-neutral on this one. I like Skye/Ward as a broken/dysfunctional ship, and don't mind hints of Phil/Melinda. I'm good with Jemma/Leo, Jemma/Trip, and Jemma/Leo/Trip.
Again, you don't have to put these pairings into the fic, they're just to help you if you have an idea for background pairings/couples. However, what I want is the pairing that I've requested - these should be background at most, if at all.
If you'd like to see the types of AU that I've written, they're over at AO3: here although they're not just the MCU AUs.
--
If all this is a little terrifying in detail, then just write the AU you had in mind for the pairings I've listed and it'll work out. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever you've done with the characters in the AU!
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