AU Exchange 2019

[plutonianshores]

Hello, AU Exchange writer or artist! I’m also plutonianshores on AO3, and I have previous letters on my Dreamwidth if you want to see my previous requests. I’ve requested fic and art for all canons.

I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this up! If you've already started on a gift based on my general likes and DNWs, that is totally fine, I'll enjoy anything based on one of my requested AUs.

I’ve mostly requested solo characters because of space concerns, but feel free to include any ships I haven’t explicitly DNWed in gifts – I ship pretty much every combination of characters! You are also free to include any of the Archive warnings (rape/noncon, character death [canonical or not], underage, or graphic violence). I love everything from the softest fluff to the darkest angst, and any rating from gen to explicit.

I have more prompts for some AUs than others, but I want them all equally! Similarly, don’t take differences in number of AUs per fandom as a sign of which fandoms I want more. Also, feel welcome to combine several AUs.

DNWs

• Pregnancy


• Oviposition

Fic Likes

• Whump, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort


• Casefic and/or monster-of-the-week in applicable fandoms


• Trauma and/or recovery


• Truth serum or other magical/technologically influenced confessions (especially love confessions)

Art Likes

• I love all art styles and mediums!


• Clothing porn, especially in the setting-change Aus


• Injuries, especially bruises or bleeding from the nose and/or mouth


• Casual physical contact between characters (romantic or platonic)


• Visual depictions of using magic or superpowers

Porn Likes

• Any sex acts (vaginal, anal, oral, frottage, handjobs, intercrural, fisting…) are good!


• Include your favorite kinks, I love pretty much everything!


• Strip poker or truth or dare as a setup


• Gunplay, knifeplay, weaponsplay


• Sexy uses of magic or superpowers


• Het and f/f anal sex


• Lingerie


• BDSM, especially undernegotiated

Hadestown

For art, I have no preferences on the appearance of the characters – I’ve seen the current Broadway run, but don’t feel bound to those actors if you’d rather depict the characters differently.

Medium: fic, art

Characters

• Persephone


• Hades


• Orpheus


• Eurydice

AUs

• All: Canonically male character(s) is/are always a girl, ALL: Genderswap to all female cast – I don’t have any real plot ideas, I would just love to see either of the canonical relationships as femslash, or see a female Orpheus storming the Underworld or a female Hades running the Underworld.


• ALL: Character Is Resurrected But Came Back Wrong – Orpheus gets Eurydice out of the Underworld, but there’s something wrong with her. Maybe it was intentional on Hades’ part (in lieu of or in addition to his canonical scheme), or maybe people just aren’t meant to come back from Hadestown.


• ALL: Historical AU – Feel free to pick any era you’d like. I don’t have any particular favorites, I’d just love to see the show transposed to a different time period.


• Hadestown: Hermes and the Fates aren't the only characters aware they're trapped in a loop – I love the sense of inevitability and circularity the musical has, and I’d love a fic (or art, although this seems like more of a narrative trope to me) that plays with this. I’d especially love to see something that breaks the fourth wall a bit, with any of my requested characters realizing that they’re part of a scripted narrative or that their story has an audience (and maybe trying to break the script, although whether or not they do this successfully is entirely up to you).

Critical Role

Fandom-specific DNWs: -Monogamous Caleb/Jester or Grog/Keyleth (these ships as part of larger polyships are great though!); Polynein shipping that includes every M9 member except Nott

I’m requesting both fic and art for this fandom.

I had 2 entries for this canon on my sign-up, but that was entirely for space reasons, there’s no difference in which AUs I requested for which characters.

If you’re filling this fandom with Vox Machina or the Mighty Nein, I’m totally fine with a fic that focuses more on one or two characters, and I don’t need you to show everyone in art. I just like the general feel of the ensemble, and I love everyone too much to choose only 10 of the player characters.

Gen is great! Shipfic or art is also great, and aside from the ships in my DNWs, I will enjoy any ship you’d like to throw in. If you’re as much of a multishipper as me and need something to narrow things down, a few of my favorite ships are: Polynein, Caleb/Nott/Yeza, any Beau femslash, Polymachina, Vex/Cassandra, Tary/Percy(/Vex).

You are welcome to leave in canonical character deaths, or erase them from your work. For Campaign 2, I am fine with works that include just Molly, just Caduceus, or both of them.

For setting-change AUs in fic, I’m especially into seeing all the ways that characters’ backstories can be translated into different settings. You are welcome to either keep the different D&D species or turn everyone into humans.

Characters/Groups

• Group: The Mighty Nein


• Group: Vox Machina


• Cassandra de Rolo

AUs

• ALL: Alternate Universe - Bluebeard Fusion – My immediate thought was the Briarwoods as a Campaign 1 Bluebeard or Ikithon as a Campaign 2 Bluebeard, but you can pick any antagonist or an OC (I’d prefer it wasn’t one of my requested characters, though). I just love the vibe of the original fairy tale and I’d love to see it translated to the Critical Role characters. For this particular request, I’m fine with any one of Vox Machina or the Mighty Nein featured solo, as it seems like a hard plot to translate to a large group (although you’re free to do so if you have a good idea!) I’m cool with either a traditional romantic take or a platonic take where it’s something other than marriage that draws the protagonist to live with the Bluebeard analog.


• All: Amateur theatre group AU – I just want to see Cassandra and/or Vox Machina and/or the Mighty Nein involved in a (likely Incredibly Chaotic) theater group. Are they doing Shakespeare? More modern works? Musicals? Something very shitty that one of the characters wrote themselves? I’d especially love to see some of the characters in non-acting roles in the group—I could see Cassandra stage managing, and have no strong feelings for the other characters but would love to see what you come up with.


• ALL: Band AU – I’d love to see VM or the M9 as a band (or the headlining band and their opening act) on a very wild and raucous tour together, or the characters finding each other as some of them look to fill open spots in their band. Maybe Cassandra is a teen idol with the Briarwoods as her strict and cruel managers?


• ALL: Boarding School AU – I’d love to see any or all of the characters ending up at a boarding school together. You could do a fluffier high-school-AU-style boarding school or something more sinister incorporating antagonists from the campaigns, and set it in Exandria or our world.


• ALL: Character Is Resurrected But Came Back Wrong – the resurrection mechanics in D&D have so much potential for angst >:) I am here for as loose or as traditional of an interpretation of "came back wrong" as you’d like: still the same person but with physical and/or mental side effects of resurrection? Probably still the same person but missing their emotions or their conscience or what have you? An entirely new person or entity inhabiting the body of one of my requested characters? Up to you! For art I would love to see the resurrected character looking subtly or not-so-subtly off (feel free to go wild with injuries or gore if you are into that!)


• ALL: Characters are Foster Kids – For the groups, you can have all of the characters as foster kids, or some of them as adults fostering the others. Maybe some of the marginally more functional characters (Kima and Allura? Nott and Yeza? Marion Lavorre?) end up fostering the whole group. I’d also love to see Vox Machina fostering the Mighty Nein (in a canon setting or with timelines slightly altered, maybe Tary comes across a whole boatload of kinda traumatized children and ends up entrusting them to the rest of Vox Machina?). For Cassandra, I would love to see something where the Briarwoods are her abusive foster or adoptive parents, until possibly she ends up getting away from them (through official or unofficial means) and ending up back with her brother and the rest of Vox Machina.


• ALL: Characters Met While Fighting In WWI – I’d love to see either of the groups in historical fic/art. With regards to the mixed-gender cast in a WWI AU, you are welcome to just include the female characters as soldiers with no explanation, have them as nurses/etc, have them in disguise as men to enlist, or anything else


• ALL: classical musicians AU, ALL: Jazz Band AU, ALL: Orchestra – I’m especially interested in what instruments you think my requested character/s would play, and seeing them play in art.


• ALL: Community College AU – I’d especially love an AU that keeps the characters’ ages and general backstories, with all of these kinda fucked-up characters meeting and ending up friends when they share a gen-ed class or something. Or, for Cassandra, going to college after a long time out of commission after whatever rendition of her backstory you want to include in the AU. Maybe she missed high school thanks to her parents’ deaths and her time with the Briarwoods, and all she wants is to get things back to some semblance of normal.


• ALL: Con Artists


• ALL: Daemon AU – for art, I just really love seeing what animals you think any of my requested characters have as daemons. For fic, anything goes but I have a few specific ideas if you want to run with them. Does pledging yourself to a god change the shape your daemon takes? (It would be delightfully angsty to see Vax’s daemon change to a raven after his bargain with the Raven Queen). Do all of the races have daemons, or only some of them? (Did Nott’s daemon disappear when she was transfigured?) I would also love to see Ikithon’s experimentation somehow removing/eliminating Caleb’s daemon, and him using Frumpkin as a pseudodaemon to avoid standing out.


• ALL: Genderswap to all female cast


• ALL: Gothic Horror – I don’t have a specific plot in mind, I just love the atmosphere and think it would suit the canon and characters well. Maybe Whitestone as a haunted manor, or the Mighty Nein finding themselves in a very eerie town during their travels


• ALL: Historical AU – I don’t have a preference on which historical era, I would just love to see or read the characters in an AU based on your favorite historical period


• ALL: Noir AU – I don’t have any preferences for a plot, I’d just love to see alllll the hallmarks of noir, with the characters as hardboiled detectives, femmes or hommes fatales, etc


• ALL: Regency AU – pretty dresses/fancy suits, balls, maybe some drama based around inheritance


• ALL: Sense8 psychic connections – this is probably more suited to my two groups than Cassandra, although you’re welcome to make it work with her as well. I don’t need you to keep the born-on-the-same-day part of Sense8, I’m just in it for the psychic bonds and sharing abilities/skills.


• ALL: Snowed in at a Haunted Hotel


• ALL: Soulmates share a pain bond, ALL: Soulmates Share Scars – I’m especially into platonic or poly soulmates, but am down for traditional monogamous soulmates as well. There are so many injuries and dramatic incidents in canon and in the backstories of the characters that I’d love to see what would come of these soulmate setups, especially for injuries, torture, etc that happen before the characters meet.


• ALL: Spies & Secret Agents


• All: Steampunk


• ALL: Thieves


• ALL: Weird West AU


• CR: Cassandra Escapes the Briarwoods Instead of Percy – I would especially love to see Cassandra joining Vox Machina in a similar manner as Percy did in canon. You could give her the full guns-and-Orthax backstory (I am very weak for women with guns) or give her a different class. (You can kill Percy off or have Cassandra and Vox Machina rescue him like they did Cassandra in canon.) I just want to see Cassandra having adventures and slaying dragons!

The Terror

You are welcome to keep all canonical character deaths, keep everyone alive, or keep just some of the characters alive.

In addition to the ships I’ve requested, you’re welcome to include any other ships you’d like if you’re inclined towards shipfic or art; I ship pretty much every combination of characters in this fandom!

Characters/Groups

• Lady Silence | Silna (The Terror)


• Harry D. S. Goodsir (The Terror)


• Cornelius Hickey (The Terror)


• Commander James Fitzjames (The Terror)


• Captain Francis Crozier (The Terror)


• Group: John Bridgens/Harry Peglar


• Thomas Blanky (The Terror)


• Group: Captain Francis Crozier/Commander James Fitzjames

AUs

• All: Amateur theatre group AU – I just want to see these characters in an absolute trainwreck of a theatrical production. (I mean, possibly the production would go off well, but given the fate of the expedition in the show/history, I would enjoy seeing a good disaster.) Maybe Sir John gets injured (maybe even killed) by a falling set piece, and Fitzjames and Crozier have to take over directing. Maybe Hickey is trying to get in good with director Crozier, and eventually progresses to poaching some of the actors and starting his own group. Maybe Silna is the long-suffering venue owner who is just trying to keep these jackasses from tearing up her stage too badly.


• ALL: Band AU – I know there’s one or two of these out there already, which I love, but I never get tired of seeing characters in a band/bands. Maybe they go on tour and end up breaking down somewhere very cold? Or just a general band AU without an analog to the search for the Passage!


• ALL: Character Is Resurrected But Came Back Wrong – there are so many deaths and so many horror elements, this would be such a fun trope for The Terror. Any or no justification for the resurrection is good, I just want the creeping horror of the others realizing that there’s something not right about the resurrected character. For art, I’d love to see something creepy and/or gory with the resurrected party.


• ALL: Characters Met While Fighting In WWI


• All: Clue Fusion – I am only familiar with the board game, not the movie, but I"d love to see any of the characters trying to solve a murder complete with oddly specific murder weapons and locations. My immediate thought was Sir John as the murder victim and Goodsir (possibly with Silna) as the long-suffering detective, but I’ll take anything you want to throw at me!


• ALL: Daemon AU – I’m down for anything and I really love just seeing what types of animals people pick as characters’ daemon forms, but my immediate thought was daemon cannibalism. Maybe Tuunbaq eats people’s daemons before it kills them, or maybe the men turn to eating daemons as well as eating people.


• ALL: Ghost Whisperers AU – With so many deaths in canon, anyone being able to talk to ghosts would be great fun. A serious take is welcome, but I also have this cracky idea where Hickey can see ghosts and ends up pestered by everyone he kills (you could also take this in a non-cracky direction, of course, but I can’t stop laughing at the idea of him angrily ignoring Irving’s and Gibson’s ghosts).


• ALL: Multiple canonical men are actually women in disguise for Reasons – feel free to throw historical plausibility to the wind and make as many characters women as you’d like. I’d love some f/f shipping! I’d love several characters trying to avoid others discovering them, not realizing that those other characters are also women in disguise. It would be especially funny if Hickey was one of the only actual men, and he keeps trying to seduce people only to find that they’re all women.


• ALL: The Magnus Archives Fusion – I know we’ve already seen Franklin’s expedition in TMA canon and it doesn’t gel with Terror canon, but I would love to see one of the characters surviving and ending up giving a statement to the historical Magnus Institute.


• ALL: Time Travel to the Present – I love wo/man out of time stories, and would love to see some or all of the characters making their way through some sort of time rift and ending up in the present. I’d love to see what whoever comes across them makes of them, if their presence gets announced to the world or covered up, and/or how they adapt to the 21st century.


• ALL: Urban Fantasy AU – especially urban fantasy still set in the 19th century


• ALL: Weird West AU

The Umbrella Academy (TV)

Fandom-specific DNW: Character-bashing, any fic that would need to be tagged "Not X-Friendly" (exception: feel free to bash Reginald and The Handler to your heart's content!)

Gen is great, and shipfic or art is also great! I ship any combination of the Hargreeves siblings, as well as Klaus/Dave.

Characters/Groups

• Luther Hargreeves (UA TV) Allison Hargreeves (UA TV) Vanya Hargreeves (UA TV) Number Five | The Boy (UA TV) Klaus Hargreeves (UA TV) Ben Hargreeves (UA TV) Group: Allison & Luther & Klaus & Ben & Five & Diego & Vanya
  

AUs

• ALL: Character Is Resurrected But Came Back Wrong – the obvious choice is Ben, but I’ll take any character you want to kill off, and any or no justification for the resurrection (maybe some time-space shenanigans on Five’s part that go wrong?) I just want to see the slow creeping horror as the rest of the Hargreeves realize there’s something wrong with their sibling (or art of a subtly or not-so-subtly off character)


• All: Clue Fusion – I’m picturing Reginald as the murder victim, and Patch as a detective trying to figure out which Hargreeves sibling did it, in which room, and with what weapon. (Maybe in a twist ending, it’s actually Grace who’s the killer!)


• ALL: Genderswap to all female cast


• ALL: Gothic Horror – perhaps the Hargreeves all come home to an ominous manor for the reading of their father’s will and find more than they bargained for?


• ALL: Historical AU – any time period is good, I just want to see or read the characters in your favorite historical period


• ALL: Noir AU


• ALL: Power Swap AU, ALL: Role Swap AU – I am down for any of the siblings’ powers or roles swapped with each other. Would another sibling with Five’s powers have ended up time travelling into the apocalypse? What would Klaus look like as a celebrity, or Allison as the golden child who sticks with Reginald, or Five as the one whose powers were suppressed?


• ALL: Sense8 psychic connections – they were all born on the same day, this seems like such a perfect AU. I’d love to see how the psychic connection would impact the siblings’ relationships—would they still end up drifting apart? Would they work to suppress their connection as they left their father one by one? How would Five’s travel impact the bond? How much more awful would Ben’s death have been?


• ALL: Weird West AU


• UA TV: Ben lives, UA TV: Ben lives but another sibling dies and haunts Klaus – I would love to see what Ben would be like if he’d lived, and how he would fit into the plot of the show. And, potentially, what any other sibling would be like as a ghost, and what their relationship with Klaus would be like.


• UA TV: Luther leaves the Academy as a teenager, UA TV: Luther leaves the Academy with Klaus, UA TV: Luther leaves the Academy with Vanya – I love Luther so much, and I’d love to see how he might be different if he’d gotten out from under his father’s thumb earlier. His relationship with either Klaus or Vanya would be really fun to explore in the respective AUs