Alternate Universe Exchange 2019 LETTER

[vagabonddawn]

Alternate Universe Exchange 2019 LETTER

General

Big fan of all the time travel tropes – peggy sue, groundhog day, accidental time travel, purposeful time travel – which I’ve included in some places but just another thumbsup if that’s something you feel like writing for the other prompts too.

I like characters showing positive and supportive friendships to each other (rather than being antagonistic or undermining each other) though if you decide to write things where these characters are on Actual Opposing Sides I’m not going to protest!

 

Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen

1. Group: Nara Shikako & Uchiha Shisui (DoS)
   • DOS: gardensverse
   • DoS: No Uchiha Massacre
   • DOS: Shikako is born in Shisui's generation
   • DoS: Watch!verse

Any dimension hopping or canon alterations that get these two characters to interact would be great! I’d prefer something where they wind up on somewhat equal ground – roughly the same age due to dimension hopping, or earlier birth dates. Or – if you want to just write a No Massacre AU – have them both be adults!

Watch-verse would be fantastic – buddy cop stuff, or case fic. Or slice of life around those things.

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con, underage,

1. Group: Senju Tobirama & Nara Shikako (DoS)
   • DOS: gardensverse
   • All: Character deals with a canonical difficult situation better than in canon
   • All: Character gets another character’s help that they didn’t get in canon
   • ALL: Dimension travel
   • ALL: Dimension travel to a significantly diverged timeline
   • ALL: Time Loop
   • All: Time Travel Fix-It
   • ALL: Time-travel to fix an apocalyptic future

Time Travel! Dimension Travel! Future knowledge used to knock things off course (or back onto it). Shikako being around for the formation of Konoha? Or arriving just in time for the Kinkaku ambush?

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con,

1. Nara Shikako (DoS), Tenten (DoS), Uchiha Sasuke (DoS), Namikaze Minato (DoS), Senju Tobirama (DoS),

• ALL: Pokemon fusion
• ALL: Pokemon Ryme City AU
• ALL: Pokemon Trainer AU

These tags were too tempting to resist. I actually love Pokemon fusions, and the Detective Pikachu movie was too cute. Slotting DoS characters into Ryme City would be incredible. (Focus on non-tagged characters is okay.)

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con,

 

Naruto

1. Group: Terumi Mei/Momochi Zabuza
   • Naruto: Zabuza and Haku survive Land of Waves
   • All: canon character death didn't happen AU
   • Naruto: Zabuza's assassination of Yagura succeeds
   • ALL: Finding Peace/An End to the War
   • All: Forced marriage to resolve enmity/rivalry actually works leading to understanding/feelings
   • ALL: Marriage Interrupted by Failed Assassination Attempt and Continues After
   • ALL: Marriage of Convenience AU

Mei and Zabuza don’t interact in canon to my knowledge but that’s a shame. They’re both similarly ranked characters from the same Hidden Village who have the same goals and oppose Yagura. Were they on the same side?

They’re both very different types of people, though, so I can see them attracting very different rebellion groups – is that an issue? Did they distrust each other? Did they fight each other and Yagura?

If Zabuza succeeds in his assassination of Yagura, how does that all shake out? Or if he survives Wave and Mei becomes Mizukage how does he react to that? Do they ally together, combining their respective groups to get Hidden Mist back together?

(I’m more than happy to see DoS based fic, of course, but this pairing seems like it has a lot of potential).

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con,

 

Log Horizon

1. Group: Akatsuki & Shiroe (Log Horizon), Group: Akatsuki/Shiroe (Log Horizon), Akatsuki (Log Horizon), Shiroe (Log Horizon)

• LH: Adventurers can log on/off at will post-catastrophe

Adventurers being able to just log on and off at will takes away a bit of the tension of the isekai, but there are definitely reasons that a lot of the cast would still want to be in Theldesia a lot of the time!

Assuming that their bodies get beamed up and there are no physical downsides – or maybe even if there are – some people are going to jump on the chance to go from earth to Theldesia. And there’s still a lot to explore with the idea of a society forming where people are only there part time. The way the cost of living is very low and easy to meet – do more people sign up to Elder Tale? How do the Landers react to that?

Consider the time dilation. Is there more information flow and creativity with access to the internet? Or less? Do people who didn’t like their avatar roll new ones and start as level 1 again? Are Adventurers still treating it as a game, and are better at taking quests and keep on top of the Goblin King?

• LH: Always A Lander AU

What if some of these characters weren’t Adventurers? Is Shiroe the Archmage in truth? Investigating this sudden World Fraction spell? Is Akatsuki a Lander ninja, loyal to a particular lord and grows attached to this Adventurer? Is it someone else from the wider cast? Or many of them?

• LH: Someone reborn as a Lander in Theldesia's past instead of suddenly inhabiting their MMO avatar

Being isekai’d into a videogame is one thing, when everyone around you is facing the same – being reincarnated into one is a slightly different matter! How do characters cope with that? Is Theldesia really ‘real’ before the Catastrophe? How do they react when the Adventurers arrive?

DNW: permanent character death, noncon,

 

はたらく細胞 | Hataraku Saibou | Cells at Work! (Anime) 

1. Group: AE3803/U-1146

Any level of shippiness is fine, even just canonical levels of subtext!

• ALL: Everyone wakes up amnesiac
• ALL: Time Agnosia/Time related amnesia

outerealm wrote an amazing fic (The First Day Forever) where the denucleation of red blood cells prevents them from forming new memories once they graduate. Something in this vein would be amazing – AE3803 managing the events of canon without the benefits of experience. U-1146 dealing with a friend who fails to recognise him but who he grows attached to anyway.

Or maybe it’s something that affects everyone, all the time? They meet anew each day and still manage to make things work.

Or maybe there’s a temporary conditions of the body that renders them amnesiac? A mystery to solve to fix it, or a scare to wait out while the other cells sort it out.

• ALL: Role reversal
• ALL: Role Swap AU

Role swaps are great! White Blood Cell AE3803 who tries her very best to hunt down bacteria despite being terrified and lost 90% of the time. Efficient, hardworking Red Blood Cell U-1146, who may creep his co workers out just a little.

Or maybe they swap into other roles? Killer T cells, Dendritic cells… anyone is fair game!

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con,

 

Mulan (1998)

1. Group: Fa Mulan/Li Shang
   • ALL: Canon Divergence AU
   • ALL: Alternate First Meetings
   • ALL: Alternate Getting Together for Canon Couple
   • All: Arranged Marriage AU
   • All: Arranged marriage to prevent extradition or incarceration
   • ALL: Characters Meet at a Different Point in Their Canon
   • ALL: characters meet earlier than in canon
   • ALL: Characters meet while in captivity
   • ALL: Characters met as children
   • ALL: Different first meeting
   • ALL: Different First Meeting - Met Via Matchmaking Service
   • ALL: Secret Identity Is Not Revealed
   • ALL: Secret Identity Is Revealed

I’d love any kind of Canon Divergence AU. Does Mulan manage to keep her secret? Is it revealed at a different point in time? Would anyone try and help her hide it and lie? Do the Huns invade later? Earlier? Did the matchmaker go better? Worse? Are there other men from Mulan’s village at the training camp who definitely know Fa Zhou doesn’t have a son? Where/how else could Shang and Mulan have met?

• ALL: One character is a dragon
• ALL: One Character is a Reincarnated Deity

I adore the theory that Mulan is the Great Stone Dragon protecting the Fa Family – and wouldn’t mind if that were a lot more literal!

DNW: Permanent character death, non-con, tragic endings,