All the Things Friday: AU day!

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! We made it to the end of another week. Today we're going to discuss all things AU (alternate universe fics/fanwork), so please share with us:

1.  Your favorite AU fic/fanart, etc.
2.  Ideas for new AU's or comment fic (what would you love to see written? what inspires you?)
3.  Discussion topics: Why think outside the box when it comes to fanwork? What are the benefits of AU's? If you love them, why?

As always, polite anarchy reigns supreme. And above all, this bar is for fun, so make sure you have some. :)

A note on definitions: When I speak of AU, I'm really thinking of a pure AU, as in, a story that exists completely outside the established canon structure (ie, Clint and Natasha as veterinarians, Clint and Natasha hunt vampires, Clint and Natasha in the 18th century, etc.) If a story could plausibly exist within the canon world (is, Clint and Natasha are SHIELD agents or backstory thereto) I don't really think of it so much as AU. I also don't think of butterfly effect stories (ie, "what if we changed one thing in canon and then retold the whole story?") as pure AU's, and I distinguish AU's from crossovers with existing characters in other fandoms. We can discuss both of these categories at a later date; for now, let's try and stick with pure AU's.

Happy Friday, y'all. :)

Comments

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

I think it's because I had to strictly divorce MCUPeggy from comicsverse-resistance-fighting-in-FrancePeggy when I saw the movie (which is not a problem; I love them both -- and hey, we're already in an AU with the movies, :D) so the more I read about Bletchley and the women who worked there, their passion and dedication, the more I kept thinking about Peggy there. And Phillips stole her because they needed someone to work on Schmidt's codes (because you know he had his own, that he had no faith in Enigma.)

And the book I'm reading is The Secret Lives of Codebreakers : the men and women who cracked the Enigma code at Bletchley Park, which is a dreadful name for what seems to be a very well-researched book.

[ashen_key]

Oh, I strictly have them separate as well, and I had read the Debs at War book before watching the movie, so to me Peggy fit in with the debs who went to the ATS, the ones who prided themselves on being rough and tough, and did everything from being drivers to spies, which to me fit in with how active Peggy is. But fair enough, re: your reasoning for Bletchley.

:DDD *writes down title* And history books can have some dreadful titles, it's true.

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I can see that, too -- Peggy is very physical and very comfortable being physical which fits the ATS side of things. Of course, I also want to write a very short AU where Sophie and Veronica FitzOsborne from the Montmaray books end up being called upon for a bit of assistance from the SSR and Agent Carter, so clearly, I just want to toss Peggy in everywhere.

And look! I found a Peggy icon I forgot I had.

(I'll throw in another whee!fun for #6, just to circle back to the Clint/Natasha topic, *g*)

[ashen_key]

Peggy should be in ALL OF THE THINGS, being completely fabulous. It's also my headcanon that she was the director of SHIELD before Fury, and nothing will change my opinion on this, ever. And :D! My Peggy icon is, sadly, on DW.

:D It's a very, very fun little AU. Here, have a snippet of what I've written (I put bits up before in the ficathon, this is a repeat):

---

The only tiara Princess Natalia Alianovna Romanova ever had was a fetching little plastic number her mom bought her when she was six. The diamonds had been glued on, and the fairies (because her mom had bought it at a fairy store, so obviously it had been hand-crafted by genuine fairies) had been overly generous with the glitter, but it was, by god, a tiara, and she loved it.

Mostly, being a princess wasn't about having a tiara. It was about catching up with her batshit extended family who were squabbling over Byzantine lines of succession and a non-existent throne, and critiquing various proclamations of legitimacy from the Romanov Family Association (and/or from the Pretender Marie, or whoever it was now, declaring that everyone else was no longer a prince or princess, but merely a Mr or a Mrs, and that one day there would be a Romanov on the imperial throne of all the Russias). It was then going back to her calculus homework as her dad retired, laughing, to his violin and mom went back to her lab; it was growing up with 'princess' being a thing that one trotted out with one's pearls and family letters, and put away again as the earrings came off.

Natasha grew up learning three things from all of this:

The first was that nothing was sacred, and everything was surreal if looked through the right angle.

The second was that while being a princess didn't exactly get you a future (or a tiara), it certainly gave you an appreciation of just how fictional real people could behave.

The third was that she really wouldn't be surprised if, one day, one Romanov murdered another over a throne that hadn't existed for nearly a hundred years.

– –

In the absence of her family being entertaining enough to kill each other, Natasha ended up writing the murder herself.

– –

[hufflepuffsneak.livejournal.com]

Gah! You need to write more fic in any of your AU universes. I'm willing to beg here :P

[ashen_key]

Ahahha, nooo begging! I'm slowly poking at them - currently reading a history of ballet, which'll help with steampunk.

But,

:D!

[hufflepuffsneak.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I love how your fics have so much depth. I should probs do more than wiki research :D

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

I love this--it's got a great voice. I'd be very happy to read more but I know how the ups & downs of WiPs so I'll just keep it at that & cheer madly when new words arrive.