AU Writing Meme

[thisbluespirit]

Summer's over, so is my BNA subscription, so let's try a meme!

As ever with these things, anything goes from anything I know - character(s)/pairings all fine. (Not any of the characters from last time, though: Dw - Liz Shaw, Nine & Rose, Leela, Six & Evelyn, Jamie & Zoe, River Song & Romana II, The Master; Other - Justin Alastair, Harry Pearce/Ruth Evershed, Adam & Georgie, Miss Annersley & Miss Wilson, Roderick Alleyn.)

Give me a character/pairing and I will write snippets of ten different alternate universes for it. One line, ten lines, a ficlet if you're lucky.

Wild West
Coffee Shop
Shapeshifters
Fantasy/Fairy Tale
. . . In SPACE!!
Apocalypse
Schoolfic
Police/Firefighters/Medical*
Supernatural
Regency

(I tried to mix it up with some slightly different AUs from last time. Whether or not I will regret this soon, only time will tell, but I was getting rather fed up with Born Another Gender last time round.)


* Why should only one of the emergency services be left out?

Comments

[john_amend_all]

Five &/ Tegan &/ Nyssa?

(oh, and re emergency services: No coastguards?)

[thisbluespirit]

You don't get them on 999, or at least you didn't the one time I called, and I live by the sea! ;-p

You can add coastguards and mountain rescue if you like, if you do it, however.

I shall attempt some mix of the above, anyway, with or without coastguards. (I don't think I've seen many coastguard AUs...)

[john_amend_all]

Googling '999 coastguard' suggests that you do.

And if Adam and Georgie hadn't been ruled out, I think they'd have done very well in a Baywatch AU (though that's lifeguards rather than coastguards). With Adam in an Edwardian bathing costume and wincing at all the girls in bikinis...

[jhall1]

Maybe all we Johns think alike, as I too was wondering about the omission of the coastguards, and the first character I thought of was Nyssa. :)

10x Five & Tegan & Nyssa AUs

[thisbluespirit]

Wild West
“Wait, I’m in America? What the hell just happened? I was in Brisbane! I thought when you told me I’d wound up a very long way from home you meant we were in Perth or something. Not Arizona!”

“Well,” said Sheriff Smith, clearing his throat, “ah, you see, you had the misfortune to run into the outlaw Masters, who apparently abducted you and kept you in this box via his mesmeric powers until we unpacked you just now.”

“But why?”

The sheriff stopped and looked at Tegan. “Why what?”

“Why the hell would anyone mesmerise me, stick me in a box and send me to this godforsaken place? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Oh, but it’s quite a nice town really, when you get used to it,” said Nyssa, the sheriff’s deputy. “Not godforsaken at all. Well, aside from the shooting and brawling and lynching and mistreatment of the native population, but Sheriff Smith and I are doing our best to change things.”

“Yes, but what about Masters?”

The Sheriff shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, it’s probably because he likes annoying me. Sorry about that. We’ll see about booking you passage home as soon as we can.”


Coffee Shop
“I don’t know why I signed up for this!” said Tegan. “Yeah, I know, because you made me miss my first day at Heathrow.” She glared at John as she cleaned the counter. “The roof’s leaking, the customers are obnoxious, the cappuccino machine is permanently busted, the wages are crap –”

“I’m working on the roof and the cappuccino machine,” said John. “I don’t think anyone can do anything about the wages. It is a charitable organisation, you know. We’re not here to make a profit.”

“And,” said Nyssa, with a small, wicked smile in Tegan’s direction, as she wiped down the tables, “there are some compensations, aren’t there?”

“Yeah, I suppose,” said Tegan. “The free coffee’s all right.”

Nyssa threw the dish cloth at her.


Shapeshifters
“So, now you’re telling me that we’re going to be stuck like this every full moon, no matter what planet we’re on?”

“It does seem to be the case, yes. I’m not quite sure what they gave us in that laboratory, but the after-effects seem to be permanent.”

“You know, I find it quite fascinating,” said Nyssa, who was already mentally drafting out a thesis on their unexpected transformations, and contemplating further experiments.

“Were-rabbits!” said Tegan, in deepest disgust.


Fantasy/Fairy Tale
“What do you mean, your spell has gone wrong again?” asked the Magician’s apprentice in as stern a tone as she could manage. “You said you had it exactly right this time.”

The Magician looked around the room for inspiration and then said, “I fear it was the Master interfering once more. The results were, er, well, entirely unexpected.”

“I’ll say,” said an unfamiliar and indignant voice from behind him. “I was just about to start work as one of the crew on the Queen’s pleasure ship and bam! Next thing I know I’ve been kidnapped by an incompetent sorcerer! Take me back!”


. . . In SPACE!!
The three of them, now they were out of the life-capsule, watched the fireworks in the purple sky that was their ship breaking up.

“Well, I said the navigation was up the spout again, didn’t I?” said Tegan. “And I said that creepy frog-guy was up to no good. I might be a mere civilian, but I’ve got some sense.”

Science Officer Nyssa directed a look at the Captain, who shuffled about for a while, before eventually he made himself say it.

“Yes, Tegan. It appears… you were right.”


Apocalypse
“It could be anywhere,” said Tegan, finding it hard to believe she was walking among the ruins of the Earth. “I suppose everywhere comes to this at some point, if you’ve got a time machine.”

“True,” the Doctor agreed, with a surprised lift to his voice. “You’re, ah, taking this very well.”

She shot him a glare. “It’s still a terrible idea for a holiday, though. That was what you said, wasn’t it? Somewhere peaceful and quiet. Well, I’ll give you that, but I’m not sure the ashes of the Earth were what Nyssa and I had in mind.”

“No, well, the TARDIS has been a little temperamental of late.”

“And,” added Tegan, with a glance over at her friend, “Nyssa isn’t very fond of dead planets. Can’t say I blame her.”


Schoolfic
“Tegan,” said John, giving her his trademark Disappointed Look. “A head’s report? Again? You’re going to miss all the fun. And you really shouldn’t have punched Adric.”

“I thought he was bullying Nyssa!”

Nyssa patted her arm. “I would have explained if you’d given me a chance.”

“Even so,” said John, “don’t you think breaking his nose is going a bit far?”


Police/Firefighters/Medical
“I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” said Nyssa as Tegan emptied out her locker. “If you call the Chief Superintendent Borusa a superannuated sexist pig, you have to expect to get demoted back to uniform.”

“Yeah, I know. Me and my big mouth! But I know that Dr Smith is innocent and he wouldn’t listen to a word I said. I bet it was the other one who did it – Masters! It’s a frame-up, and the Super’s an idiot.”

“Don’t worry, Tegan,” said DS Traken, giving her a hug. “We shall sort it out somehow, I promise.”


Supernatural
“Now this will spin round at the first sign of spectral activity,” said Professor Smith, demonstrating his peculiar and precarious looking device with some enthusiasm. “And this bit will –”

“Fall off if you touch it?” said Tegan, folding her arms. “It’s funny, because that gadget of yours looks exactly like a lot of cutlery attached to the lamp with string to me. And I still say there’s got to be a rational explanation for all this.”

They both looked across at Nyssa, who was standing there, pale as death, and unseeing; as if one sleepwalking.

“Yes,” said Professor Smith, “completely natural, Miss Jovanka, I’m sure. Nothing to do with possession or evil spirits at all. Now, if you could just help instead of blocking the positive emanations with your scepticism, we might get somewhere in curing your friend!”


Regency
Miss Jovanka’s role as companion to an elderly gentlewoman on her tour of Switzerland had not gone according to plan: the elderly lady had been murdered, and she had been abducted by accident by a physician who claimed to be an expert in matters of the uncanny. She had then helped him rescue a princess from a tiny (and now entirely non-existent) kingdom. She was going to write and complain to that hiring agency – at least, as soon as she and the other two had stopped running for their lives from the horrid and sinister lake monsters that were currently after them.