The AU Meme

[browngirl]

I saw this meme and loved it immediately. My version is a mashup of the ones I saw in penknife and miakun's journals:

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc.) or a time period (Ancient Rome, Renaissance England, etc). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would write for that AU.

While I will very much not mind being asked for a Minoan AU, I like other time periods and settings too!

Comments

[penknife.livejournal.com]

LotR, superhero AU!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I must apologize for taking so long to write this. My week got away from me.

Bilbo Baggins always seemed to wear a secretive smile, seemed to be able to be anywhere he wanted at any time, to leave a room before anyone could notice. Frodo put his uncle's abilities down to tricks he'd learned during his journeys, until he inherited his uncle's Ring, which allowed him to walk unseen and silently if he chose. But his cousin Merry had deduced old Bilbo's secret and demands that Frodo share with him; when Merry puts on the Ring he vanishes --- because he can run faster than the fastest horse. And when their young cousin Pippin finds out, one touch lightens his heels until he's swooping around the ceiling.

The fun they have with these new powers is soon ended when the wizard Gandalf informs Frodo that the Ring is an artifact of evil that will bring destruction to the Shire if it's not destroyed. Can even these abilities help small hobbits journeying through the wide world? And will Frodo's servant Samwise, who refused to even go near Frodo's ring and thus has no powers, prove the strongest of all?

*laughs at myself*

[ilyena_sylph]

Babylon 5 in the Renaissance?

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry I took so long to write this. I've been thinking about it, because while my first inclination was to write about the unification of Italy (after all, one of the most important characters in both is named Garibaldi) but that unification was long after the Renaissance.

Italy still seemed like the best setting, though, with its fragmented, warring city-states. I never managed to do more than to envision a castle called Babylon, neutral ground for people from all these mutually hostile states, the fifth castle built on its hill after the first three fell and the fourth vanished one night in a wild storm. A station headed by a gallant young English captain named Sheridan, and whose ambassadors include a mysterious princess, rumored to be a faery or a witch, named Delenn.

It's a setting, at least.

[ilyena_sylph]

Ooooooooh!

It's a setting I like, certainly! *grins* I like your explanation for it being 5, too.

and hey, you're a busy woman, and I think this was a pretty quick turn-around on this meme...

*coughs*there'sareasonIhaven'tpostedit*coughs*

[gingicat]

Birds of Prey, NYC 1930s.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham's most honest cop, was an adventuress once, who righted wrongs and kicked evildoers' teeth in by the light of the moon. That was before a killer her father had put away broke out of prison and shot her through the spine, before she was told she'd never walk again.

Now she sits behind a broad hardwood desk, its surface immaculately polished and its drawers full of ledgers, and directs a team of people officially termed 'assistants'. Helena, tall and beautiful with black hair and a ready scowl, an angry orphan of Sicilian transplants with an abiding hatred for the gangsters; pretty blonde Dinah, lounge singer by night and flower-shop manager by day, whose bright smile disguises her ability to thrash any three or four men who try to lay a finger on her; and blue-eyed Dickie Grayson, as skilled at shimmying through windows as he is at charming people into spilling far more secrets than they realize. With these three doing her legwork, Miss Gordon smiles across her desk at desperate people with insoluble mysteries and asks them, "how can I help you?"

*grin*

[dreamflower]

LotR

The Wild Wild West. (Brought to mind from something the DH said the other day about cowboy hobbits...)

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, my word, I am a useless creature. *laugh at myself* I've spent a week contemplating this, and all I can picture is The Fellowship of the Ring being a cattle drive scattered and sundered by a large-scale raid directed by Mr. Blacktower, a rich and evil landowner who gained all his land and wealth by deception and force. I guess after that everyone would be trying to find each other again, through a landscape of rugged and unforgiving terrain, multiple American Indian tribes and Western settlements of widely varying allegiances, and the threat of attacks by Mr. Blacktower's toughs. One member of their party, Mr. Baggins, carries a secret that can bring down Mr. Blacktower if exposed, but can he survive to tell it?

*laughs at myself again* OK, that's *ridiculous*, but I hope it pleases.

[miakun.livejournal.com]

DCU, Roaring Twenties!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Man. What a kaleidoscope of images. I never managed to get them to condense into a story, so here are a few of them:

Babs and Dinah dancing in fringed flapper dresses!
Batman foiling rum-runners and gangsters!
Ollie Queen getting mixed up in a Central American country's fight for independence!
Clark Kent --aw, man, he won't be any damn different.

[miakun.livejournal.com]

Aww but they're all lovely images.

Clark Kent --aw, man, he won't be any damn different.

Honestly, I don't think Lois would either. :D

[aprilkat.livejournal.com]

LOTR and pirates!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

hyel wrote that, once. I can't find a link at the moment, but I'll tell you what she wrote:

On his trip across the Sea, Frodo fell in with pirates, who gave him a job; the life of the sea suited him. Decades later, Sam was at the nearest Westfarthing town with his family when a sun-burnished, wiry hobbit with a gold hoop in one ear came up to him. He saw and gasped and said, "you've come back" and Frodo smiled.

It was a wonderful story. I'll see if I can find it for you.

[aprilkat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sounds great! Thanks.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I found it!
http://hyel.thedanamark.net/lotr/fics/apirateslife.htm

[aprilkat.livejournal.com]

Oh, now, that's an amazing take on the concept. How wonderful - especially that ending. Thank you!

[papervolcano]

Titans, high fantasy!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Do you remember "Beneath the Banner of the Bat"?

After some years, Dic the Fair had gathered around himself a group of adventurous young followers. A passionate warrior princess, exiled by her evil sister; a champion archer with fire-colored hair; a strong dusky-skinned warrior cursed to never be able to remove his armor, and his best friend in all the world, a quick-tongued little acrobat with fanged teeth; and a mysterious and haunted young sorceress with darkness in her past. Eventually, however, the Bruce forced Dic to choose between him and this team of young titans, and most reluctantly the Dic sent his friends to help his bright-eyed princess regain her throne.

*grins at you* I am sorry this took so long. This week got away from me.

[papervolcano]

I'm so incredibly subtle, aren't I? And you're just so incredibly awesome - that sounds like a universe I could *wallow* in.

And apologies for not responding before - my email has decided be be crap.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

*laugh* And then I found this in my inbox and realized I'd never replied. (I did feel bad that I didn't manage to work in Wonder Girl, but I couldn't do better than Generic Amazon Girl, which she already is.) I'm really glad this delighted you, especially that week, when it sounded like you could really use some delighting.

*huggles*

[sophinisba]

Torchwood as film noir, set in 1940s (or so) California.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Torchwood in the milieu of L.A. Confidential! A tall man with a bright smile who can charm anyone of any sex out of their secrets and their pants; his sharp-tongued, sharp-dressed right hand man, as good with a gun as an address-book; their brilliant young Japanese doctor, who fled her homeland rather than participate in the military's imperialism, and who struggles now against the anger and prejudice of post-war America; an unethical but equally brilliant, and utterly smarmy, horndog doctor; and a curly-haired dame with a big grin and a hard right hook, who joined up after the police offered her a job as a meter maid. Whenever there's trouble in the City of Angels of a more-than-ordinary kind, these five are there to investigate, contain, and give out kisses and oblivion pills.

I'm sorry this took me so long, but I do hope you like it.

[sophinisba]

Yes, that's wonderful. Pretty close to what I was imagining (and I do think TW would work really well in that setting) but I love the bit about handing out oblivion pills, adds just a touch of fantasy to it that wouldn't have occurred to me.

[brownbetty]

Tell me about the DC comics space-pirate AU!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Former Princess and slave, now Captain Koriand'r, makes her living by piracy across the galactic spaceways. A team of young heroes from Earth come to try and take her down, and in the ensuing battle she captures two black-haired, blue-eyed beauties, a young man called Robin and a young woman called Wonder Girl. They both cry defiance, but they both have longing in their eyes, and as for Captain Kory, she couldn't pick between them, but fortunately as a Tamaranian she doesn't have to.

And then they had sex. *grin*

[brownbetty]

In time, both Robin and Wonder Girl rise within the ranks, but Robin is always happiest in the Captains quarters, on his knees. Wonder Girl shows herself well adapted to command, however.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Visiting outsider question: What's "AU"? (Besides astronomical unit. And "Au" is gold.)

[gingicat]

Alternate Universe.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

DCU heroes in a LotR AU!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Specifically LOTR? Hrmn.

The Justice League as the Nine Walkers. Superman is Aragorn, Batman Boromir, Wonder Wooman is Legolas and Hawkgirl is Gimli! The four Robins as the four hobbits, Tim being Frodo, Dick Samwise, Jason Merry and Steph Pippin? And Zatanna is Gandalf. :D

I need to get drunk before I can write that story. Drunk on MEAD.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

*pours you mead*

Superman is Aragorn

My first response was "What, Pa Kent was King of Gondor?"... *facepalm* At least, I'm sure Lois would make a very entertaining Arwen and the pointy ears will suit her.

Batman Boromir

Hands off the Robins hobbits! ";-]

Wonder Wooman is Legolas and Hawkgirl is Gimli

*cackles madly*

Zatanna is Gandalf

Talking about bad taste in hat fashion...

And would Lex Luthor be Sauron? Would that make Ra's al Ghul Saruman? How about Balrog!Joker?
I can't decide on a proper Gollum...
*is thinking about this too much*

[danae_b]

I don't know why, but I really agree with the Jason Merry and the Steph Pippin thing. I just do.

[danae_b]

Minoan hobbits, or hobbits on a Firefly, please. (If I am not too late, that is.)

♥

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, sweetie, you are never too late. :)

So, someone once told me about the Fair Isle of Numenor and its brave tradition of bull-leaping. That always did make me wonder about Pippin, lithe young son of a noble house, and how he used to watch his cousin Frodo run and leap the bulls, cheering his heart out from the stands, until he worked and wheedled his way into the Bull-Court despite everyone's misgivings, where he dances with a shining grin on his face. And I found myself contemplating Samwise and Rose, the caretaker of the sacred dancing-maze and his wife, and their golden-haired eldest daughter, already called the brightest star the Bull-Court's ever seen.

So I found myself wondering about these bright and lovely bull-dancing hobbits indeed. *grin*