Alternate Universe Check-In! \o/

[sage]

*wave wave wave* Hello AU-makers!! How's it going? We hope your AU-creation process is going swimmingly, whatever media you're working in! The posting weekends are now 5, 15, and 25 weeks away, and if you have any questions, please ask! We're happy to help if we can. :)

THIS SUNDAY March 10th will be our first DS-C6D AU Challenge chat! It's set for 2pm Chicago time, so if you can come, add "luzulae" to your Skype contacts & PM her for an invite into the chatroom. Come join us to talk about alternate universes!

US fen, please notice that Daylight Savings Time starts THIS WEEKEND. Remember to set your clocks forward Saturday night!

As always, everyone is welcome to use the comments below to talk about how things are going with your AUs, ask for & offer assistance, and so forth. Chime in at any point!

Optional Questions:
+ Have you made any progress? Setbacks, successes, or unexpected developments?
+ Do you have a bulletproof/go-to AU, like a bulletproof trope or kink, except for AUs?

We're wishing you all much good progress! The next check-in will be two weeks from now, and after that we'll countdown weekly (3-2-1-LIFTOFF!) until our first posting weekend is due and the others are ten and twenty weeks out, respectively.

YAY ALTERNATE UNIVERSES! \o/

Comments

[ardyforshort]

No progress, because I read a fantasy AU so now I can't write one. *shakes fist*
Really looking forward to the chat though :)
As long as the characters are in character, I'll read it. There's a couple AU tropes I'm not too fond of (*cough*vampires*cough) but give me good voices and believable interactions and there's a fair chance I'll give it a shot.

[sage]

Oh, I hate when that happens. Maybe you can figure something out that will still be fun for you to write. :)

Oh vampires... I'm so glad I didn't go down that rabbit hole. I remember enjoying a few SGA vampire AUs very much, largely because the world-building was so detailed and inclusive of every aspect of society. But that was far more about world-building awesomeness than the actual vampire characters for me. *g*

[sage]

+ Have you made any progress? Setbacks, successes, or unexpected developments?
I finally have all the yarn I need, knock wood. And I either have patterns or reference photos that will let me create patterns for the various animals...although I keep changing my mind about what sort of turtle Turtle should be. Going to have to make up a pattern for the awesome scary-ass iguana I want to make, which is fine. This is all educational & a lot of the fun is figuring out how to make it work.

Still also pondering making a NWMP!Meg Thatcher doll, but I'm going to need help designing a woman's Mountie uniform appropriate to the 1890s. Possibly I should be looking at Steampunk patterns...

+ Do you have a bulletproof/go-to AU, like a bulletproof trope or kink, except for AUs?
Well, I love space, as everyone knows, but I also really enjoy whimsical/magical/supernatural tropes (although I'm so completely over werewolves, sorry) and time travel and superheroes and zoos/safaris/animal sanctuaries. And I've enjoyed some fairytale & harlequin AUs with heroic female characters and subverted patriarchies. And espionage. God, I would LOVE to read a Due South espionage AU. Like, not just Fraser being all James Bond -- Fraser's not nearly enough of an asshole to be a convincing Bond, although he is kind of a dick at the end of Odds, actually -- but more of a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy kind of thing. I wonder if that exists. It should exist.

[brigantine]

LOL! Oh, nooooo! I am totally writing werewolves. Well, not totally, and they're certainly not of the teenage variety. They're just one important factor in the world. Fraser isn't one. :)

Heee, so I'm not the only one who thinks James Bond is an asshole! :D

No actual writing progress, which would bum me out, except that I have at last had a long overdue epiphany. For aaaaaages this darn story couldn't decide whether it wanted to be all dark and angsty, or weird and fun and maybe just a little bit darkish sometimes. Finally, we have a decision, OMGYAY!!! *dance of joy*

[sage]

YAY EPIPHANY!! That is awesome! \o/

I'm actually pretty okay with werewolves when they're only one component of a more widely supernatural 'verse...but it does depend on power dynamics and absence of teenagers. *g*

And omg, James Bond, frequent asshole! I mean, I get it. On one hand, he's a government spy and killer; he's NOT a nice guy. OTOH, male power fantasy novels...of COURSE he's an ass and gets away with it. Every man wants to behave badly and be rewarded for it. *eyeroll* But Fraser, generally, is so not that guy. *ponders spy!Fraser moar*

[ardyforshort]

Whoo for breakthroughs!

[ardyforshort]

I'm really excited for your crocheted AU things, it sounds like so much fun.

Oh, espionage. Not my skillset but if someone handled that right that could be really cool.

[sage]

Thanks! It's kind of awesome to be working in a different medium just to see what happens.

A spy AU could be so much fun. Especially if I didn't have to write it myself. *g*

[luzula]

So glad you're having fun with the yarn! I'd still love to see the NWMP!Meg Thatcher.

I'd love to read a spy!AU, but I am so not the person to write it--I watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and missed like 75% of the plot.

It's funny about werewolves, because I love werewolves, but about 95% of the time, werewolf AU:s do not hit my buttons because I want different things from them than the rest of fandom seems to want. Specifically, I don't want dom/sub type dynamics, or horror-style werewolves, either. I want stuff about the connection and differences between humans/animals and nature/civilization. Also worldbuilding.

[luzula]

+ Have you made any progress? Setbacks, successes, or unexpected developments?

I have had unexpected developments! I've been a bit stuck on the Temeraire AU (it's currently at about 5000 words), but I unexpectedly wrote 1700 words of sedoretu AU, with Fraser/Kowalski/Maggie/Frannie (with Fraser/Frannie and Kowalski/Maggie as the het sub-pairings and Fraser/Kowalski and Maggie/Frannie as the slash pairings). It's a lot of fun! So far there's a gen kidfic bit with Frannie and Ray K, and then there's a bit of Fraser/Frannie sex and a bit of worldbuilding about how romance novels would read in a sedoretu universe.

And ha, I wrote Fraser/Frannie, which I wouldn't have expected. It was fun, actually. Possibly I take the prize for having written the most Fraser het pairings? I think this is my sixth (counting a brief Fraser/OFC).

I'm thinking this fic might be the one I post for the first deadline? It's shorter and will consist of slice-of-life sections exploring the various relationships, rather than have an actual plot. And I think the Temeraire fic will turn out to be longer.

ETA: also, podfic_lover and I have settled on a podfic we want to do together for the challenge!

[ardyforshort]

Ok, this is the first I've ever heard of sedoretu as a concept and now I am wildly intrigued.

[luzula]

It's pretty fascinating, actually! Le Guin has a few short stories exploring it, and they're really good. Also, I did some brainstorming about it a while ago in the context of due South. : )