bakerstreet | ( the au meme. )

( the au meme. )

the alternate universe meme

how to play
1. post with your character, name and canon in the subject line.
2. feel free to mention which aus you’re willing or not willing to play in the body of the comment.
3. tag by rolling for an alternate universe setting using rng.
4. or tag by picking whatever au you’d like to play in most.
5. have fun!

alternate universes
i - all human: in an all human au, characters who are canonically vampires, werewolves or superheroes, are now humans, with corresponding changes to their backstories.

ii - apocalypse: a portmanteau of "apocalypse fic", apocafic is fiction set during or after some sort of apocalypse, or end of the world. some canons carry a built-in apocalypse against which the protagonists are fighting: in apocafic, they lose. for example, apocafic in stargate and x-files is usually set after the alien occupation; supernatural apocafic is set on a demon-controlled earth.

iii - band: an alternate universe in which the characters are members in, or form a band. often, the instruments they plan and their roles in the band are analogous to their canon identities. for example, tony stark might be cast as the fame-hungry lead singer who is also a musical genius, or river tam might be a classically trained pianist who, after a terrible experience at julliard, writes songs for mal reynold's grunge rock band, serenity.

iv - circus: circus aus are a popular trope in fanfic and sometimes fanart. using a circus as a setting means introducing the characters to each other in a close-knit community. that can help break down barriers between them and make them bond together against the outside world which may not understand them as well as the other characters do. it also brings a sense of adventure and the idea that this world may have different rules and everything is possible. a circus can also be a good place for characters to go undercover and meet the love of their lives.

v - coffee shop: the barista au (or coffeeshop au, or the closely related bakery au) is a popular fanfiction trope in livejournal fandoms. in most cases, one half of the main pairing is the barista and the other is or becomes their favorite customer; in some stories the whole cast works at a coffee shop. this trope is especially popular in fandoms where one character is very attached to coffee, either in canon or in fanon, or is frequently stressed.

vi - college/high school: college fic is a popular genre of fanfic (less often a genre of fanart) that places characters together in college or another secondary institution such as the starfleet academy in star trek fic (then called "academy fic"). this can be canon stories, for example backstory if characters have or could have met during college, or college aus, similar to high school aus. in science fiction, historical or fantasy fandoms the present day college au is a popular subgenre of the modern au that puts fantastic or historical characters in more mundane everyday settings.

vii - cop/detective: an alternate universe in which the characters are cast as cops or investigators of some kind. often, the canon villain is also cast as the villain in the story. this might be set in modern times, or in a noir-like environment, complete with gangsters and femme fatales.

viii - daemons: his dark materials is a fantasy trilogy by philip pullman. the trilogy consists of the golden compass (1995; published in the uk as northern lights), the subtle knife (1997), and the amber spyglass (2000). there are currently two companion novellas: lyra's oxford (2003) and once upon a time in the north (2008). a movie adaptation of the first book was released in theatres in late 2007. humans have their souls living outside their body in the form of an animal companion. males have female souls and females have male souls. the animals often correspond to the character’s personality.

ix - fantasy: an alternate universe populated with fantastical characters like elves, dwarves, unicorns, sorcerers, and dragons. canon characters might be cast as analogous races (e.g. clint barton or katniss everdeen as elf archers) or they might be humans in a fantastical setting. characters also might be able to secretly shape-shift into another form, like a dragon, and therefore is related closely to were/vampire/supernatural aus.

x - historical: a historical au is a fanwork which moves characters into a different historical period than their canon setting. typically this involves taking "contemporary" characters (from the late 20th century or 21st century) and putting them in an earlier historical period (such as the 19th century or before). popular settings for historical aus include: pirates, america's old west, britain's regency period, ancient rome, a vague facsimile of medieval england such as robin hood, and many others.

xi - hooker/porn/stripper: hookerfic is a type of fanfic where one or more of the characters is a sex worker. there are many different types of hookerfic, ranging from more realistic depictions to the more common pretty woman-type fantasy of a hooker with a heart of gold, rescued from life on the streets by a client. sex work of all kinds is portrayed—brothels, escorts, street prostitution, "call-girls" as well as strippers and go-go boys.

xii - magic: magic aus are alternate universe fanworks that incorporate magic in fandoms where there is no magic present in canon. (or in some cases, fanworks that make a canon with magic more magical.) they differ from elf aus in that there may be magic without any elves showing up, and are opposites of all human and mundane aus.

xiii - neighbors/roomates: an alternate universe where the canon characters live next-door to one another, or in the same apartment building or complex, or in the same apartment. often, this is also an all-human au, if the canon characters are powered in some way. the forced proximity is usually used to create romantic tension between characters.

xiv - space/sci-fi: a space au is an alternate universe where a source set on earth is transported into space; works are often referred to as "[fandom] in spaaaaaaaaace!" the trope can be a form of crackfic, but often includes surprisingly serious reinterpretations of the most earthbound of sources, particularly historical fiction written or set before space exploration. cyberpunk trappings such as robots, cyborgs and ais are often included.

xv - steampunk: steampunk was originally a term for a sub-genre of speculative fiction that imitated 19th century "scientific romances" like the work of jules verne and h.g. wells. later, the term was applied to a general aesthetic involving styles that would be "futuristic" from the perspective of the 19th century. steampunk appears in fanworks as both a genre and an aesthetic. there are some fandoms for which the canon is steampunk(-ish), e.g. the secret adventures of jules verne, but more often it is found as steampunk alternate universe.

xvi - western: the western is a genre of fiction set in the later half of the 19th century in the western part of north america, especially the united states, but also canada and mexico. sometimes also included in the genre are stories about western-type characters and plots in other settings, e.g. "space westerns" (in science fiction settings) and contemporary westerns (set in the western part of contemporary north america).

xvii - were/vamp/supernatural: a reversal of the all-human, in these fics characters who are normally human are now supernatural creatures of some kind the most common being werewolves or vampires.

xviii - choose your own: self-explanatory! choose your own option.

( taken from here. )

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Rapunzel loved the stars. She saw them each and every day but she still loved them with all her heart. She'd charted them all and could find any star within seconds. It was a game she often played when things got boring, which seemed to be happening more and more lately. She knew Mother kept her up in her satellite for protection, but there was just so much out there and so little inside.

She sat on her bed, which had a perfect window to look out just beside it. On her lap with a small mechanical chameleon, one she had built after reading countless tutorials.

"Look, Pascal!" she told him, her voice filled with excitement. We're coming into perfect view of Chamaeleon."

Pascal perked his robotic head upward and scanned the star cluster Rapunzel had pointed out.

"That's the one I based you on, you know." Rapunzel tapped the top of Pascal's head playfully and her chirped in response. Giggling at his reaction, Rapunzel looked out at the stars again, as if she was seeing an old friend. "I wonder if we'll see anything new today."

It was something she wondered, and hoped for, every day.

Today, Rapunzel was in luck as there was an unusual trail of disturbed ion matter like something had skated through it... like a wake. And there, moving against the backdrop of stars was a very small ship with elegant long vertical nacelles that trailed behind like sails, giving the whole thing vaguely the shape of an angelfish. But where there should have been a cool pulse of blue light for the engines, instead there were only flickers tainted with a reddish orange light and the ship was limping along rather than gliding smoothly through the backdrop of stars.

As though the ship seemed to spot the satellite at the same time as Rapunzel identified it, its nose turned in her direction and it began heading straight for them.

Rapunzel's first thought upon seeing the ship was that maybe mother was making her visit early. She had only left a few days ago and was not due back so soon. But she quickly realized that the ship did not resemble her mother's. Not only that but it was not hurtling towards her satellite.

She gasped and jumped up off her bed. Pascal scrambled after her as she dashed towards the doors of the pod bay, dodging her hair as he did so. Rapunzel didn't know what to do or really what was happening, but if there was something...she had to reach out and try.

From the bay windows, it didn't look like the ship would even make it to the docking port... but with a final flicker of light from the engines, it coasted up to the edge and had just enough power to establish an airlock seal before dying out completely.

And then it sat there, with no apparent movement inside or out.

First, Rapunzel only peeked through the glass window that separated the main body of the satellite to the docking port. She didn't dare open the door. Who knew who or what could have been inside the strange ship? They could be dangerous! Space mutants or marauding pirates...

With a metal ting Pascal tugged at the hem of her skirt. She looked down at him just to see him motion toward the closed door.

"But I shouldn't!" Rapunzel gasped. "What would mother say?"

Pascal's metallic eyes narrowed, giving her an aggravated look. This time he pressed his hand against the door. It was locked shut, but the meaning was clear.

Rapunzel gulped, screwing up her courage. "Alright," she said. "But you need to come with me."

After a nod of agreement from Pascal she pressed in the code that unlocked the door. She took one hesitant step inside, with the robot chameleon following her. "Hello...? Is someone there?"

There was no reply, the interior of the ship dark with only emergency lights along the floor to show where the narrow passage deeper led with the gentle keen of alarms the only sound. The air that whooshed into the corridor from behind Rapunzel made her ears pop, equalizing out the stale air inside and the normally omnipresent sound of air generators was conspicuously missing... the ship had not been getting any oxygen.

The ship was small by most standards, only designed to transport a couple of people at most. Rather like the equivalent of space-faring sailboat or catamaran, probably never intended for deep space trips or being significantly away from planetside... a pleasure craft, basically. Whoever traveled in something like this obviously liked to live dangerously or had little regard for considering all the things that could go wrong so far from help.

As it seems may have happened here.

The emergency lights lit the way to the tiny bridge, where a slim figure was slumped in the pilot's seat, one hand trailing almost to the metal grating of the floor. He wasn't wearing a uniform of the usual interplanetary organizations (and hardly looked old enough to be part of them anyway). By the blue tinge to his lips and cheeks, he also wasn't breathing.

Rapunzel crept cautiously down the way to the bridge. Pascal skittered ahead of her now at a fast pace, and let out an urgent chirp when he spotted the person in the captain's seat. Rapunzel hurried her last few steps into the bridge to see what was the matter. She saw his limp hand first, and gasped. Someone was really there! Another person!

That person wasn't moving, though. It was only when she stepped around the seat to see him head on that she realized he wasn't breathing, either. "Oh my gosh!"
Any instinct to panic or flee were pushed away by concern for the stranger.

Quickly, Rapunzel pulled him from the seat. Hooking her arms under his, she began to drag him backwards, towards the satellite. Hopefully the oxygen running there would help kick start his breathing. She settled him down on the cool floor and placed her hands squarely on his chest. She'd seen the diagrams, read the instructions...she could do this. With enough pressure she began to pump her hands against his chest repeatedly.

"Come on...please work!"

The young man remained lifeless for almost a full moment before her ministrations worked and air flooded back into his lungs, causing him to arch off the floor a little, starting to cough.

"Who... who are you?" he gasped while trying to catch his breath.

As soon as life seemed to magically seep back into him, Rapunzel scrambled away from him. She didn't stop until her back came into contact with the smooth metal wall of the satellite. Pascal held his position between her and the stranger.

"I...I'm Rapunzel," she spoke, her voice cracking slightly. "Who are you?"

"Jack," he coughed, trying to sit up which proved to be a bad idea and he raised a hand to his head, suddenly feeling dizzy. "What... happened?"

Rapunzel thought that was an excellent question. She didn't have an idea about what had just happened in her own satellite, let alone in this stranger's ship.

"I don't know," she replied. "Your ship...it didn't look like it was doing well and you docked on to my satellite. You weren't breathing..."

Jack searched his memory, which was fuzzy at the moment because of the lack of oxygen in addition to giving him a wicked headache. "Something knocked out my primary power core," he said slowly. "These craft... their backups aren't equipped for long range. I didn't even know there was a satellite here, it wasn't on any star charts-- I thought I was hallucinating it. Then I figured, what'd I have to lose?"

He waited another moment before leveraging himself into a sitting position successfully this time, getting his first real look at her. "... you are real, right? I hear people start imagining things on the edge of space."

Rapunzel listened intently, bundling up her hair around her now that she was sure that that Jack was recovering. She'd never been on a space craft of any kind but she had read plenty about them, studied schematics, and had even played a few flight simulators. She could figure where the problem had begun with Jack's ship.

"Yes. I'm real," she insisted. She wasn't surprised that he hadn't been able to see her satellite on any charts. That was the way mother kept it.

"But what were you even doing this far out with a ship like that?" she asked. "You should have known it would never make it!"

"Hey, she's a great ship. I guess like a little advent-- wow, you have a lot of hair," he switched tracks mid-sentence, looking at her as if seeing for the first time.

Placing his hands flat on the metal floor panels, he got unsteadily to his feet, bracing himself on the nearest bulkhead. "Besides, I don't let people tell me what I can and can't do."

She tensed for a moment, one hand still wrapped up in a stretch of hair. It was as if in a single second Jack had struck at two of her biggest concerns; her hair and her mother who always told her what to do. She really did love her mother, but the urge to break out and see the universe had been growing stronger with every passing year. Mother couldn't see how important it was to her.

"Umm..." she said, biting her lip. "That's a brave thought, I guess. But if you really want to go out and do what you want, shouldn't you make sure you've got all the right things to do it with?"

"Maybe," Jack laughed, as though he hadn't just suffocated in his ship not ten minutes prior. He took a few steps and shook off the last of the nausea, taking a few deep breaths to settle the whirling in his head before turning back to the entrance to his ship.

"You don't have an emyne spanner kicking around, by chance?" he asked. He suspected he knew what the problem was but to get his ship back online, Jack would have to trace many of the circuit lines individually and that would take some time.

Rapunzel stood up and Pascal quickly crawled up the length of her dress so that he could take his spot on her shoulder. He kept his robotic eyes on Jack at all times, just to be sure.

"I'm not sure," Rapunzel replied. "We might, but I'd have to look." Mother had all sorts of spare parts and equipment stored in the satellite just in case anything there or on her shuttle needed repairing.

Jack seemed surprised, given that it was a fairly standard tool. While it was possible to fix what he needed without it, that would make things very difficult.

"You don't use one on your ship?"

Shaking her head, Rapunzel looks away and begins to lead him to the small storage room that her mother kept.

"I don't have a ship," she explained.

Jack's expression showed surprise, then confusion. "You don't?" he echoed. "But this satellite is hexes away from... well, anything. How do you get supplies?"

Rapunzel shrugged. "My mother brings them for me," she explained. "She's the one with a ship."

She was glad she was ahead of Jack, so she wouldn't have to see how strange he thought that was.

Jack gave a soft "ahh" and nodded, thinking he understood the situation, where in fact what he pictured as Rapunzel's mother merely being out on a supply run was much less the actual story.

He found a cover panel and popped it off with a practiced movement, setting it on the floor. Then he hoisted his upper body into the narrow space behind it, reaching up for one of the junction boxes inside that he would need to reset; he obviously knew this ship extensively.

"Well, sorry about the whole dropping by unannounced. I'll be on my way as soon as I can."

Rapunzel watched carefully as he went to work. She knew enough about ships to figure out how theoretically they should work, but seeing it all actually done in person was something else. Her mother never worked on her ship while she was there. She kept hers in pristine shape at all times.

"It's alright," Rapunzel replied. "I mean, it was an accident after all. Right?"

Part of her was quietly dreading that this was all an elaborate plan to hurt her, just like mother talked about.

Jack seemed oblivious to her uncertainty, with occasional thumps and clangs from inside the bulkhead. "Sure. Like I said, this place isn't on any star chart. But hey, now that I know you're here... maybe I can swing by from time to time. You know, with actual advance notice."

"No!"

The exclamation came out louder than Rapunzel had meant, but the impulse had been too strong. She'd been lucky that mother hadn't been here this time. If he came back any other time they might not be so lucky. She didn't really know what her mother would do if she found someone at the satellite, but she wasn't sure she wanted to find out either.

"Um. I mean. It's not that I wouldn't like that," she said, attempting to recover. "It's just...it could be dangerous?"

( the au meme. )

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