Check-in + chat plans

[luzula]

Hello AU-makers! I hope you've all had a chance to check out the works from the first round (which reminds me, there's still one I haven't read).

There are now 8 weeks left to the second posting weekend and 18 to the third one! So, do you know what you're making? I know some of you are working on longer works that you posted a teaser for in the first round. How's the progress with those? If you're making something new, do you know what, and have you started work on it? Feel free to use this space to brainstorm. : )

I thought we'd have a brainstorming and support chat on Saturday May 4th, at 19.00 UTC (what time is this for me?). If you want to chat, please comment and tell me if the time works!

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Or hey, maybe I should write a bit of that Caroline-survives-and-becomes-a-Mountie idea from the brainstorming post.

This needs to be written! :)

[luzula]

Well, I think it would be pretty easy for me to write, at least a bit of it? I think it'd start out with her not being murdered in the pilot, because she'd be sensible enough to not go out there alone, and to get help from Benton and Buck with the dam case.

[desireearmfeldt]

An intriguing question is: what's become of Bob in this universe? Is he hanging around on the other side waiting for resolution with Caroline (as she is in canon)? Is he a ghost (and if so, who does he haunt and when)? Is he peacefully dead and now mostly irrelevant?

(From the bit you describe, I could imagine a short one-shot: the three of them solve the case together, no one gets murdered, there are no dead-family loose ends to be tied off and no reason for Benton to be exiled to Chicago, and everyone lives happily ever after in Canada.

But I could also imagine more long and involved versions... And certainly a version with Caroline, Benton and Buck working together could easily still involve Benton and/or Caroline investigating in Chicago -- the hired killers came from there, after all -- and one or both of them ending up getting exiled for exposing Gerard...In fact, there might be an interesting debate about who will take the brunt of the RCMP's displeasure and/or the advantages of "exile" in Chicago...)

[luzula]

Well, in my head Caroline and Buck get married some time after Bob dies. And hmm, I haven't decided what would become of Muldoon--I mean, he's much of the reason Bob is around haunting people. If Muldoon is not caught way back when, I suppose Bob could still be around, haunting people. I am almost tempted to have Muldoon work together with Gerard, thus melding the pilot plot with CotW? And yeah, they could still end up in Chicago, although mixing in any Rays with this would kind of muddy the family issues that it would mostly be about.

Damn you, making my plot grow! :P

[desireearmfeldt]

(Oops...I realize, of course, that I have out-of-control-plot-length disease; I didn't realize it was contagious. :) )

Remember that the reason canon!Bob never does anything about Muldoon is he thinks he (Bob) has already killed him. Maybe that happens to Caroline, leaving Muldoon free to reappear years later -- or she actually kills him -- or she successfully arrests him...

I think it kind of depends on whether your take is that you want Bob to be an Unresolved Issue for those who survive him (and perhaps for himself), like Caroline is in canon, or whether you're going for the idea that unlike canon!Bob, AU!Caroline has dealt with Bob's murder and her subsequent raising of Benton in such a way as to not leave Unresolved Issues splattered all over the scenery. :)

Maybe they visit Chicago only peripherally, and going back to Chicago -- or not doing so -- is part of the ending of the story, one way to illustrate how things are similar & different from canon as a consequence of the AU's what-if premise.

[luzula]

Good points, yes. Maybe I'll have to move this one from "short one-shot" to "longer story" in my head...we'll see. : )

[ride_4ever]

It does indeed!

*waves to des*

[desireearmfeldt]

*waves from the depths of the Giant Monster Project That Ate My Brain And Will Go On Forever (Of Which We Do Not Speak)*

[ride_4ever]

OWWDNS...at least at this juncture....